So after much deliberation I’ve decided that The Sanguinor is just too expensive for 1500 points. He offers a lot to the army rather than just being a killing machine (which he is) such as the +1 attack and making a sergeant a mini HQ choice but without vehicles I feel the need for bodies. If I was to up the list to 1750, I’d find a way to sneak him in.
So the current ‘footsloggin’ BA list (heh) looks like this (spam at it’s finest):
125 Librarian – Jump Pack, Fear of the Darkness, Sanguine Sword
245 5 Vanguard Veterans – 1 Power Fist, 2 Storm Shield, 2 Power Weapons
225 3 Sanguine Priests – 3 Jump Packs
250 10 Assault Marines – Power Fist, Infernus Pistol, 2 Meltaguns
250 10 Assault Marines – Power Fist, Infernus Pistol, 2 Meltaguns
250 10 Assault Marines – Power Fist, Infernus Pistol, 2 Meltaguns
150 5 Assault Marines – Power Fist, Infernus Pistol, 1 Meltagun
1495/1500 which leaves me 5 points to probably put a meltabomb somewhere.
Stats:
49 marines, 35 of which are scoring.
Librarian: Cheap and provides a psykic hood for all that psykic nonsense out there. I like fear of the dark but I’m not sold on the str 10 attacks yet. I’ll need to try out some of the other powers, like the preferred enemy one.
Vanguard Veterans: These guys seem to take a lot of flack. I think people expect too much from them, they’re just basic marines with access to special wargear. That being said, there are things in the game that you just NEED to tie up/take out. For me, this is the perfect counter for Devastator type squads, lootas, insert heavy firepower here or even to risk landing next to a vehicle banking on wrecking it with melta-cide and charging! Sure they may not make their points back but its going to stop you from losing an ass-load elsewhere.
Sanguine Priests: Pretty obvious that FNP and Furious Charge are pretty important for a footslogging assault army. I’d like to get them power weapons but at 75 points a pop, they’re already juice targets and I plan on detaching them from the squad the turn they plan to charge if I figure they might get killed in CC… Maybe at 2000 points to up killing power a bit.
Assault Marines: There’s a lot of em’ and that’s something to be said. 35 pissed off red dudes moving 12” a turn in power armour and FNP plus Furious Charge is going to push most peoples firepower/CC ability to the limit. The infernus pistols are not necessarily to pop vehicles (although even with only 6”/3” melta range its not unreasonable to expect jump infantry to get to use them) but to put an extra wound on an MC (which this list will already have problems with) or to kill that extra terminator before charging. I’ll need to playtest them but they seem pretty good on paper. The plan against the standard mech army is to combat squad everything. 2 squads of melta-cide (2 meltas) to DS in with 1 of the priests and the vanguard vets and then I’ll probably jump everything else up the field, hopefully allowing me to score some assaults after the suicide meltas do their job. Against vaaast firepower I’ll probably reserve everything and rely on some lucky melta shots and good reserve rolls and against hordes/MC heavy armours I’d probably deploy everything.
I think my toughest matchups will be heavy mech armies as they’ll most likely deny me FC unless I get lucky with Meltaguns and Daemon armies as most of them are better than I in CC (ignoring FNP) and I have very little shooting.
Thoughts?
ALL OUTTA BUBBLEGUM 
You’re totalling forgetting the Blood Lance! Librarians are so cheap I’d take two loaded with lances just to ravage the vehicle lines. For the other power I’d probably take Unleash Fury or Wings of Sanguinius (if its a Furioso).
I put some thought into the lance but I’m not sure it’s worth it. Currently I am in love with Fear of the Dark… Causing LD checks at -2 wherever you want is pretty powerful, especially when up against mediocre leadership. Making Broadsides, heavy weapon teams, meltavets, etc etc have a decent chance to run (sometimes even off the table) is almost too good to pass up. Generally, when I have an opportunity I would fire this over the lance.
The lance COULD be good if it wasn’t for a few nagging problems.
1) The random range, sure you could roll 24″ (unlikely and still not THAT far) but realistically your looking at 14″ which if I’m honest is 1-2 vehicles, 3 if your lucky and they’ve set you up nicely (however if you’re tagging 3 vehicles the fact that your in his lines is probably already foreboding for him). Unfortunately, its not unreasonable to expect under 12″ in range meaning your probably going to hit 1 vehicle in which I would have rather used a melta.
2) So assuming you’ve hit multiple vehicles you’re in a decent spot, for the front one. All the vehicles behind it get a cover save which kinda blows. I’d rather drive my rhino up and melta it. I guess the opportunity is there to get an “OMGWTFBBQ” and cripple 3+ vehicles all with one shot but it seems unlikely that you’ll get more than 1 at best.
Just my 2 cents, I’ll give it another go but I wasn’t really impressed the few times I used blood lance (And generally my second power is CC oriented or at least something I can use during their turn).
Valid point with the random range thing. I usually get 12 to 18 inches, but that’s usually all you need. When I’m fighting Thor’s IG I usually end up hitting 2-4 vehicles and blowing up at least one and disabling the others.
Your thoughts on the cover are interesting considering it is a Line Attack, not a Line of Sight Attack. In any case, I always find it convenient how GW nevers clears up the important issues in the FAQs/Errata.
I still love the Blood Lance as you can suicidally Deep Strike into the heart of battle and rip out the core threat (ie: Leman Russ’ with SM killer BCs). But then again, I haven’t won many games doing the pure DS thing. Perhaps I’ll give the Fear of the Dark a shot in one of my more balanced lists.
Also, a side note, I think those Hand Flamers are pretty handy for the jump squads. Especially for taking care of the infantry when your lances take care of the vehicles.
Yeah, if you suicide him in ‘balls to the wall’ style it could potentially cause some damage. Depends what you kill though, destroying a chimera isn’t going to pay for the 125+ point librarian. If you can nab a leman russ though, it could very well be worth it.
I see your argument with cover, I assumed since the vibro cannon (Eldar) is a line weapon as well and they declared it gave cover this would as well.
Yeah, I might try a few out instead of the infernus pistols. The pistols are nice to put another wound on an MC or something though when your entire army is jump oriented.
With the decent amount of meltas currently in the army I would stick to Fear of the Dark as it can quickly turn the table on you enemies plans. Everyone expects to lose a their armor but to have a full unit to run of the board is moral crushing and makes players make bad tactical decisions.
I agree. Blowing up vehicles isn’t my problem, it’s standing there in front of them after (unable to charge due to DS) eating a bunch of plasma, melta, ap3 blasts, etc on the next turn. Fear of the dark actually saw a missile team and 2 autocannon teams run off the table, which is pretty powerful.
I think I’m better off DS roughly 12″ away near terrain, running to spread myself out into terrain, and eating a turn of firepower (at least I’m in cover now and not prone to blast plates) relying in power armour and FNP. Next turn, jump up 12″ and hope that the meltas blow the vehicles up allowing me to charge the gooey insides.
Although, with the new BA FAQ restricting combat squad-ing during reserve, I’ll need to change up the list. No more 10 man squads, now I need to pay for the sergeant in each unit which probably means more power fists but no infernus pistols.