SW/IG - Punishers and Prescience

[Chexmix282]

After playing with my guard for a few games I have decided to minimize the amount of points invested in large blasts. What's better than a large blast? Rolling 87 dice with Prescience.


Primary Detachment - Space Wolves

HQ
Rune Priest 120
-Terminator Armor, Divination

Troops
10 Grey Hunters 170
-2 Plasmaguns, Wolf Banner

10 Grey Hunters 170
-2 Plasmaguns, Wolf Banner

Heavy Support
5 Long Fangs 175
-4 Lascannons

5 Long Fangs 115
-4 Missile Launchers

5 Long Fangs 115
-4 Missile Launchers

865

Allied Detachment - Imperial Guard

HQ
Company command Squad 110 (in the vendetta)
-4 Plasmaguns

Elites
5 Storm Troopers 105
-2 Meltaguns

Troops
Infantry Platoon 250
Platoon Command Squad
-Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher
2x Infantry Squad
-Missile Launcher, Grenade Launcher

Fast Attack
Vendetta 130

Heavy Support
3x Leman Russ Punisher 600
-Heavy Bolter Sponsons

1,135

Total: 2,000


The Rune Priest joins a Grey Hunter squad and advances behind the Punishers, casting Prescience each turn. When the IG book was released I liked the idea of a tanks with 29 S5 AP4 shots, but was turned away due to the poor BS of 3. Now, thanks to Prescience, I can re-roll those 87 dice and cackle maniacally!

600 points is a LOT for a single shooty unit, but I think the unit will either do enough damage or draw enough fire to make it worthwhile. I am also considering Techpriest Eginseers or an Iron Priest to make repairs in-game. Thoughts? Is this list as terrible and unbalanced as I hope it to be?

[Blenderovski]

Haha! It is terribly unbalanced, but it sounds like a lot of fun :) From a practical point of view though, there are a few issues... a) It'll be a reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeal pain in the proverbial to roll all of those dice. b) It'll be as annoying, if not moreso for the person you're rolling against... which may create a bit of a bad vibe, games-wise and c) there's the whole eggs-in-baskets issue. If somebody has a melta-heavy assault unit (like Wolf-Guard with combi meltas, for instance), then you could easily lose your blue chip unit at the drop of a hat. That's a third of your units wiped out in one go... Risky! Could be fun to try with a friend who isn't bothered about somebody rolling 87 dice each turn though...

[mathhammer]

the dice issue is mehhh, every time my tyranids hit combat I easily roll 100 plus dice.
Issues:
1) The tanks can only shoot one target per turn.
2) some early strikes could eliminate them.

Two many points to just kill a single unit.

[Chris*ta]

a) It'll be a reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeal pain in the proverbial to roll all of those dice. b) It'll be as annoying, if not moreso for the person you're rolling against... which may create a bit of a bad vibe, games-wise

I would think it a problem best solved by rolling the dice in a game box top, a really big box top.

And preferably really small dice! :D

[Chexmix282]

It really is too many points for a single unit, I agree with that. I will test the list to see if it is even playable before commiting to Punisher conversions.

I may reduce the squad to 2 Punishers for more efficiency. Thoughts on this?

[Dorsai]

As a guard player, I can tell you that the Punishers can dish out the hurt. But even Guard find 600 points to be a little questionable sometimes. And given how fast they can be glanced to death, I tend to play mine a little more defensively than I perhaps should. As an allied detachment, I would think that your Wolves have solutions to dishing out large volumes of fire so you won't need the Punishers. I think of taking at most two of them and double up on the Vendettas. Two of them is extremely deadly.

The other thing to think of with the Punisher cannon is the short range. By the time that cannon gets to fire, things are getting close enough to threaten it.

[Chexmix282]

Well I played a game with the above list last night, and the Punishers performed as well as expected. I played against a Daemon army with Tau allies. The Punishers were able to shoot down Fatweaver, two Tzeentch Daemon Princes, and a unit of Pink Horrors. I normally never think of units as "earning their points back" but in this case they did kill a bit more than they cost. A unit of three really is overkill, though.

I am considering taking IG as the primary detachment, and using 2 units of 2 Punishers with sponsons. I can then take 2 Rune Priests as a single HQ for my allied Space Wolf Detachment, giving both units prescience. This is a terrible idea, as I would be spending 1000 points on 4 tanks and 2 psykers casting blessings on them... But it would be fun to play, lol.

[Shas'O Alohcry]

Spend an extra 100pts make both Rune Priest level 2 and hope to roll forewarning (4+ invul on those tanks now) or ignores cover (bye bye hordes)

If your going to invest 1000pts in two units, might aswell go the whole hog.