Throne of Skulls Adeptus Arbites List

[charliemachina]

The list is as follows: Codex Imperial Guard

Fortress of Redemption (Precinct House)
Krak Storm, Icarus Lascannon and 4 emplaced Heavy Bolters

3 x Valkyries, missiles, heavy bolters and 1 Las cannon each.

1 10 man Arbites Squad (Vets, Shotguns, Carapace)
Plasma Pistol, 3 Grenade Launchers,
In Precinct House

2 x 10 man Arbites Squad (Vets, Shotguns, Carapace)
Plasma Pistol, 3 Flamers
In Valkyires

1 x Judge (Lord Commisar)
Plasma Pistol, Power Fist, Carapace armour
In Valkyrie with Heavy flamer squad.

1 x 10 man Arbites Squad (Vets, Shotguns, Carapace)
Plasma Pistol, Heavy Flamer, 2 Melta Guns
In Valkyrie

1 x Platoon Command Squad
In Precinct House

1 x 10 Man Guard Squad
In Precinct House

1 x 10 Man Guard Squad
In Precinct House

1 x Auto Cannon Heavy Weapon Team
In Precinct House

THE PLAN

The Fortress of redemption takes a hell of a lot of punishment and puts out some reasonable fire acting as the immovable object.

Flyers come in and clean up with las/missiles and flamers.

Objective rush in the later turns of the game.

1500pts

I WOULD LIKE HELP WITH:

Thoughts on how to use the list.

Strengths and weaknesses of the list

Who can fire what on the fortress of redemption (Do you have to be in the building to fire the Icarus???) and what can go where?

All other thoughts welcome.

[Firecrest]

Firstly, swap a couple of the valks if not all of them for vendettas, 3 tl lascannons are great for tank busting, which your army lacks. The vets squad with the heavy flamer and meltas, either swap the meltas for flamers or h.flamer for another melta, either way one is wasted. Drop the plasma pistol from the grenade launcher vets, no need for it back there, save the points to invest in some weapons for your normal inf squads.

Strengths of your list, lots of shots, so probably good against horde, but a lack of ap2 weaponry means you may struggle against TEQ style armies, though weight of fire will help, if you can break their av14 which unless at the moment you get lucky with your fortress weapons are relying on 50% shot from a valk, hence the vendettas are better here.

Weakness - lots of av 14 style armies, flying monster spam may be an issue due to your lack of ap2 weapons to reliably get through armour.

[charliemachina]

New thoughts then:

Loose the HB on the Valkyries.

10 Arbites: 3 Plasma Guns

10 Arbites: 2 Flamers, 1 Heavy Flamer

10 Arbites: 3 Melta Guns

Plasma Pistol off the Arbites Proctor in the fortress.

Otherwise as before.

Keeps my anti horde in pretty good order, the threats remain hard to identify, I get more AP 2, yep AV 14 would be a problem but Las-cannons and Meltas give some response to that.

I have seen your point about about the Vendettas however they are 30pts more and I feel the list can benefit from boosts elsewhere.

[rtmaitreya]

The list is as follows: Codex Imperial Guard

I WOULD LIKE HELP WITH:

Thoughts on how to use the list.

Strengths and weaknesses of the list

Who can fire what on the fortress of redemption (Do you have to be in the building to fire the Icarus???) and what can go where?

OK, first off, I want to thank you for being an incredibly awesome human being. You are a gentleman and a scholar for picking up the Tome of the Emperor's Law. That said, you have a hard road ahead in the competitive scene. Expect to score outstanding sportsmanship.

You will struggle against true hordes, and you will struggle against ultra elite terminator based forces. You will struggle against Necrons and Grey Knights, which are the present meta-stars. Recognize these weaknesses and play very very VERY carefully towards objectives when facing extreme types of tournament quality lists.

The precinct house is a stroke of genius. It is a very good fit for your army list. It is better than the aegis and bastion because you DO NOT NEED TO BE ON THE BASTIONS. Ever. Stay inside the fort. All of your weapons are emplaced weapons in your little fort, unlike the bastion and aegis. Yes, it's ridiculous that the lascannon on a bastion and a lascannon on the fortress have totally different rules, but that's the way GW has written in the rulebook and clarified in the FAQ, as the fortress of redemption lascannon and krak storm are designated as emplaced weapons, not as weapon emplacements. It is the way, and you shall live with it. Stay inside each of the different sections, and you will be able to fire each of the emplaced weapons available to you. You have weapon slits for each section as well, so don't feel bad about intercept firing the lascannon and using regular weapons for the firing slits.

On a related note, if you ever get a chance to hose-whip any of the V6 writers, editors, playtesters, designers, or support staff, go ahead and give them twelve lashes across the double-cheeks for me because they suck at writing rules.

A huge weakness in this list is actually the focused armies of the Dark Angels, who have good synergy in their armies to provide additional benefits when attacking castled opponents. Plus, anyone with huge swaths of forces having krak grenades will be a serious undoing for your army and Fortress defense. Kill these units quickly if you can. . . fortunately in the tournament scene huge quantities of krak grenades are comparatively rare as compared to your typical game store or garage army.

In play, you will find yourself being on the defensive pretty much all the time. It's fine, just understand it and be ready to lash out with firepower to solve your problems. Because of your strong center, you will have enemies outflanking, coming on all sides, etc. and attempting to hit all objectives other than the one or two that you castled on. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT that you use your reserves to focus on the weak portions of the enemy's full-scale coverage of these other objectives. Hit one with the intent to claim, and push on another with the intent to contest. You will end with two objectives, the enemy will have one, and have all others contested at the end of the game. That's basically your goal. You have a relatively weak list with a limited ability to project force, and you have to aim for this type of win in every game you play.

Don't get me wrong, you can win a LOT with this. But all of your wins will be "skin of teeth". You will be challenged both tactically and strategically in damned near every game. Back in V5, this was my army, and I've gone Genestealer Cult in V6 (until I'm done painting), but the basics of V5 and V6 are still there. You need to play conservatively and aloof each turn. Rely on short range firepower and focused firepower to eliminate enemy scoring units, and you will do well.

Joining the Adeptus Arbites was the first step towards challenging yourself for the rest of your career. Welcome, cadet!

RTM

[charliemachina]

WOW

What a helpful and excellent reply.

My list building hasn't been helped by Arbite Enforcers becomming out of production but in truth I am now only 1 Arbite and 5 shot guns away from the full list.

I think you are right in all you say rtmaitreya.

My intention is to make this list for the tornament and just do all I can to give a dam hard fight to anyone I come up against.....I am aware any list that can slag AV14 or knock down flyers super easy is going to hurt......TAU may be a horror to fight.

BUT!

THE EMPERORS LAW WILL NOT BE DENIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers

Charlie

P.S. Does the KRAK STORM get line of sight or not rules read like as it is in the building it indirect fires at everything!!!

[charliemachina]

The Final tornament list was as follows:

The list is as follows: Codex Imperial Guard

Fortress of Redemption (Precinct House)
Krak Storm, Icarus Lascannon and 4 emplaced Heavy Bolters

3 x Valkyries, missiles, heavy bolters and Multi-laser each.

1 10 man Arbites Squad (Vets, Shotguns, Carapace)
Plasma Pistol, 3 Grenade Launchers,
In Precinct House

1 x 10 man Arbites Squad (Vets, Shotguns, Carapace)
Plasma Pistol, 2 Flamers, 1 Heavy Flamer
In Valkyires

1 x Judge (Lord Commisar)
Plasma Pistol, Power Fist, Carapace armour
In Valkyrie with Plasma Squad.

1 x 10 man Arbites Squad (Vets, Shotguns, Carapace)
Plasma Pistol, 3 x Plasma Guns
In Valkyrie

1 x 10 man Arbites Squad (Vets, Shotguns, Carapace)
Plasma Pistol, 3 x Plasma Guns
In Valkyrie

1 x Platoon Command Squad + Krak Grenades
In Precinct House

1 x 10 Man Guard Squad
In Precinct House

1 x 10 Man Guard Squad
In Precinct House

1 x Heavy Bolter Heavy Weapon Team
In Precinct House

The games wents as follows (to the best of my memory):

Game: 1
Opponent: Ultra Marines Drop Pods Tacticals, Storm Raven with Sicarius and assault terminators, Legion of the dammed.
Mission: Objectives, Spear head

Report:
He came down, his Legion of the Dammed shot up my Arbites on the battlements of the Precinct House, My Valkyries got in behind his Storm Raven and took the last hull point off it. It crashed off table....I let my opponent put his assault Terminators back on the table as if they had been in a crashed transports but Sicarius and two terminators died. After that I deployed my Arbites to fight for the objectives around the Precinct House and took the remaining Marines and terminators apart with weight of fire and plasma.

Result:
A solid victory

Game: 2
Opponent: Mech Imperial Guard with a blobs squad, 2 Vendettas and a Manticore
Mission: Objectives and battle line

Report: The Manticore turned the Precinct House into a smoking pile of rubble within two turns and the units inside had little left to offer after crawling out of the debris. My flyers came in I took out a Leman Russ and murdered the Blob Squad. The Valkyries were set upon by Vendetta's and blown out of the sky. I fought hard but it was futile as he had plenty of Troops in Chimeras and punished me for any damage I did to him.

Result: Defeat, Tabled.

Game: 3
Opponent: Foot based Crimson Fists with Pedro and lots of Devastators with Flak Missiles
Mission: Spear Head, Objectives

Report: My opponent became very frustrated with not knowing how to deal with the Precinct House. We had to stop the game and I explained all the different ways he could hurt the precinct house or hurt the units inside. He then followed my instructions precisely and gutted the precinct house and all in it. By the time my flyers came on they had too much work to do and the Arbites could not shift the Marines from the objectives anywhere on the board despite causing some casualties.

Result: Crushing defeat, nearly tabled.

Game: 4
Opponent: Themed Fortress of Redemption / Mad Doc Hospital list with feel no pain everywhere, Lootas and a Nobstar in battle wagon
Mission: End to End, The Relic

Report: He threw his Nob star down my throat towards the Precinct House and placed a large squad of boys on the Relic. I brought on my Valkyries blew up the battle wagon, cut down the boys on the Relic over several turns, killed all the Nobs over several turns, dumped flamer templates all over the Orkspital and cleared the Lootas and Gretchin off the battlements and moved to mid board with my arbites leaving his war boss to crew through the precinct house and all inside on his own over several turns. A hard fought advance left 3 drastically depleted Arbite Squads Mid Board with one lone Arbite holding the Relic (He was pinned but we couldn't find anything to say that mean't he couldn't claim the Relic).

Result: Victory One lone Arbite clutching the Relic on turn 7

Game: 5
Opponent: Imperial Guard, Combined arms, Flyers, Defense Line, Demolisher, Veterans and a Manticore (Urgh)
Mission: End to End again (I think), One objective each

Report: The Precinct House took another beating from the Manticore and Demonlisher. I shot down at least one of his flyers and I believe he did the same, I dropped one Arbite Squad Mid field and blew his Demolisher to peices. I took the other two squads down to his home objective and murdered all the vehicles and troops behind the defense line with flamers, plasma and assault. He infiltrated vets and secured my home objective. We killed each others warlords and both got line breaker but I had first blooded a Chimera. A brilliant game and bizzarely we had both essentially swapped board ends by the end of the game,

Result: Close Victory


Conclusion:

A good tornament....it always is.

I had 1 game I did not enjoy and 2 awesome games.

My list was such hard work to play. Even solid victories could be easily lost by a few bad rolls.

The list has little in the way of hitting power and the some units can just turn the Precinct House to rubble in two turns.

I will rebuild this Arbite list into a pure Arbite Mech force new Guard Codex permitting.

Next year 9 Drop Pods. 6 Dreds, Iron Hands!