Female Steel Legion Astra Miliatrum Regiment, 650 Point Starter List
After a few games of sheer joy where my strategy and army composition worked perfectly, I'm going to upset my students and gaming buddies by making it even better! Well, hopefully. What follows is an update from this starter list, now I've managed to get some more units.
The Tempestus Scions work phenomenally well in each game. They manage to find the softest targets in each match up, despite not having their full complement of squads... so far only the command squad and Tempestor Prime have been constructed. The dent they make in a battle line is incredible, an they're surprisingly hard to kill. The Tempestor is now named Sabrina Gale.
These girls are waiting for some new heads, but I'll talk about them in a later blog post.
The Tank Commander performs tremendously well too, not only acting as the world's greatest bullet magnet, but putting out supreme fire power in each game. So far it's managed to claim every single vehicle kill the army has got, and somehow manages to survive through each game. I'm so proud of this model, I've named the commander inside; Becca Martin. She'll be getting a model just as soon as I can afford the next gang box.
As for the rest of the army... they're doing okay.
First up is Maggie. Poor Maggie. Every single game she's the first target for snipers. The logic of it is simple... as the only character on the field that isn't in a tank or dropping from the sky, she's the only character the snipers can get to. Being but a human, this usuaully means she's buried under mortal wounds and multi-damage shots, and rarely makes it to turn 2.
As a consequence of losing their orders, the Infantry squad is fairly neutered. They still do their job of advancing on the enemy and taking objectives, but tend to get fairly hammered on the way there without impacting much of the game. They also take forever to get anywhere.
And finally the Taurox Prime. As back field campers go, it does fine, but rarely gets the good angles to make the most of the long range weaponry. It manages to kill a few models, and force a few morale checks but rarely gets to shine.
So, here's the proposed improvements:
[227 pts]
[41 pts]
[21 pts]
'The Boys' Ratling sniper squad: 5x ratlings
[45 pts]
[103 pts]
[40 pts]
[78 pts]
[88 pts]
Total: 648 points
It's very similar to the set up before, but doesn't fold so neatly into 500 points. To get it down, and to still keep the general aim of the army, drop the bolter sponsons on the tank commander, the Ratlings and the Tempestus Scions troop squad. That fits into a 500 point patrol detachment, making for a fairly tough if not as hard hitting army.
Tempestor Prime Sabrina still Deep Strikes in with her Storm Troopers, and makes use of the Take Aim! order (twice!) to get those plasma guns overcharging (Re-rolling 1s to Hit). That's a significant bit of face melting. However, a new feature will be her relic, allowing her to order a squad a second time on a 4+. This allows her to get then order either "Bring it down" to re-roll To Wound 1s against general targets, or "Elimination Protocols" to re-roll To wound rolls against tanks and monsters.
It's a small tweak, but makes that alpha strike slightly more potent.
Maggie sticks with her Infantry squad, ordering First Rank Fire, Second Rank Fire! With the Chimera now around, she'll also be able to use the Armageddon specific order of Mount up!, which let's the girls shoot before jumping back into the Chimera and running away. There's a bit more detail on that, so head down to the Infantry squad for their extra bit of tactical cleverness.
The Warlord is now Becca in her tank, and she takes the Grand Strategist trait, to recycle some Command Points.
If they have Turn 1, the Chimera drives up to an objective, the girls inside using the lasgun array to not completely waste their shots. In the second turn, they drop out and unleash their procedure:
Then, in their next turn, this happens:
If the army doesn't get first turn, they can quite comfortably disembark 3-inches and move 6-inches after that, putting their lasguns in range of the enemy deployment zone. Then follow the above pattern.
The Tempestus troops choice occupy a dual role as skirmisher and forward objective holder. The two plasma guns there will make them quite the thorn in the enemy side, and can literally land on whatever needs to be taken in the first turn. An annoying, objective securing unit, that can sting and still take a little punishment. The sergeant has a plasma pistol now, meaning 5 plasma shots on Deep Strike.
For these guys, I strongly recommend different colour dice. The reason they're in a separate detachment is to allow them the use of the Storm Troopers regimental tactic, getting extra shots off at half-range if they roll a 6+ To Hit. Since every gun in that squad has a different range, it's worth having 3 colours of dice, and just rolling everything at the same time.
Finally, don't forget to use the Take Cover! stratagem. That briefly gives your Scions power armour, and carapace armour to your regular infantry. It can make a great deal of difference, and you're unlikely to need to Command points for anything else apart from Steel Legion.
Becca has proven her usefulness in every match, and is just full of guns. Tough and chocked full of wounds, the higher BS 3+ along with double tapping battle canon will add a goodly amount of firepower. The lascannon and heavy bolters are icing on a delicious cordite cake. Don't forget the stormbolter, especially if firing Overwatch.
The Taurox Prime has dropped out, replaced with the Chimera and Ratlings. It wasn't necessarily bad, but didn't gel well with the rest of the army.
The Ratlings are a new addition, and have one job: assassination. 8th Edition has seen snipers become much more valuable, taking out Ethereals, Standard Bearers and Company Commanders (poor Maggie...) before they can buff their troops. I fully expect them to die by the end of the second turn, but they'll draw some fire from the rest of the army, who are no less dangerous. And if they're left alone they can have a field day taking out all kinds of things!
The Ratlings can also be deployed to prevent deep striking units from getting easy range of Becca. With the Chimera to one side, the table edge to the other and rear, the Ratlings sit out in no-man's land preventing anything from dropping within 12-inches of Becca's tank. Being fair, the Chimera and Leman Russ chassis' being both Toughness doesn't make 1-st turn alpha strikers that much of a worry, but you should never let the enemy have their own way.
Finally the Tempestus Command squad falls into the gap between Fire Support and Skirmisher unit, just like the Ratlings. Popping off 8 overcharged plasma shots on a Deep Strike, they present a problem that simply must be dealt with... and are an absolute bargain at 88 points. They won't stand up to much fire, but they can easily earn their points back in a single round of shooting, so you won't feel too much of a sting when the enemy hits them back hard.
And of course, any shots wasted on 4 regular humans is fire not going towards your objective grabbers or hard hitting tanks. Nothing would please me more than to have a Chaos Space Marine Legion terrified of 4 regular humans!
Don't forget the Storm Troopers Regimental Doctrine, which can give them a few extra shots. I've seen these girls evaporate dreadnoughts and cripple elites, and then carry on to claim line breaker.
Tempestor Prime Sabrina now has the Laurel's of Command, meaning that she can issue a further order to the Scions on a 4+ after giving her standard Take Aim! This will usually be Bring it Down! or Elimination Protocols, but remember this can trigger after using the classic Fall Back and Get back in the Fight! combo. Falling back from combat and then safely unloading supercharged plasma into the enemy's face can be a stinging slap for daring to charge your girls!
The obvious weakness will always be the loss of Officers, but that simply puts your units on even footing, as opposed to being surprisingly strong.
For that reason, I might stop work on this force until next School League season. It's about as cheesy as I can make it, whilst still being fluffy and generalist. Astra Militarum are strong in this edition, so it's perhaps not a shock that they have been doing so well.
But we'll see. If the T'au codex comes out dropping the points cost for Crisis Suits (and makes a Farsight Enclave army viable again), I'll be going back to my beloved robots. But in the mean time, I am very proud of my girls.
Until next time!
Thanks for reading.
If you liked what you saw, and you want to help out, please leave a comment. Sharing this with your friends, and following me on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ would also be hugely appreciated.
If you have anything you want me to look at, let me know in the comments below. I'll probably be able to write an article about that topic within a day!
If you want to support me directly, use the affiliate links below. I get a small percentage of purchases you make her, and you get cheaper miniatures! If you really love what I do here, you can make a one off donation at my PayPal, or become a true hero to table top education and make a regular donation to my Patreon. Every Little helps!
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| Close up of Maggie and her Laser Lasses |
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| The full constructed army so far... |
The Tempestus Scions work phenomenally well in each game. They manage to find the softest targets in each match up, despite not having their full complement of squads... so far only the command squad and Tempestor Prime have been constructed. The dent they make in a battle line is incredible, an they're surprisingly hard to kill. The Tempestor is now named Sabrina Gale.
These girls are waiting for some new heads, but I'll talk about them in a later blog post.
The Tank Commander performs tremendously well too, not only acting as the world's greatest bullet magnet, but putting out supreme fire power in each game. So far it's managed to claim every single vehicle kill the army has got, and somehow manages to survive through each game. I'm so proud of this model, I've named the commander inside; Becca Martin. She'll be getting a model just as soon as I can afford the next gang box.
As for the rest of the army... they're doing okay.
First up is Maggie. Poor Maggie. Every single game she's the first target for snipers. The logic of it is simple... as the only character on the field that isn't in a tank or dropping from the sky, she's the only character the snipers can get to. Being but a human, this usuaully means she's buried under mortal wounds and multi-damage shots, and rarely makes it to turn 2.
As a consequence of losing their orders, the Infantry squad is fairly neutered. They still do their job of advancing on the enemy and taking objectives, but tend to get fairly hammered on the way there without impacting much of the game. They also take forever to get anywhere.
And finally the Taurox Prime. As back field campers go, it does fine, but rarely gets the good angles to make the most of the long range weaponry. It manages to kill a few models, and force a few morale checks but rarely gets to shine.
So, here's the proposed improvements:
Armageddon Hive Gang Regiment (Actual name still to be decided)
Patrol Detachment (Astra Militarum)
HQ
Tank Commander Becca 'Tank Girl' Martin: Leman Russ, Battle Canon, Lascannon, Heavy Bolter Sponsons, Pintle Storm bolter[227 pts]
Troops
Infantry Squad: Sergeant with Bolter and chainsword, 9 Lasgun Ladies[41 pts]
Elites
Platoon Commander Maggie 'The Iron Lady': Bolter and Chainsword[21 pts]
'The Boys' Ratling sniper squad: 5x ratlings
[45 pts]
Transport
Chimera: Heavy Bolter, Turret Heavy Bolter, Storm Bolter, Track Guards[103 pts]
Patrol Detachment (Militarum Tempestus, Steel Legion Storm Troopers)
HQ
Tempestor Prime Sabrina 'Glory Gal' Gale: Chainsword, Command Rod Relic:[40 pts]
Troops
Miltarum Tempesus Scions: Tempestor with Plasma pistol, 2 Plasma Guns, 2 Hot shot lasguns.[78 pts]
Elites
Militarum Tempestus Command Squad: 4 Plasma Guns[88 pts]
Total: 648 points
It's very similar to the set up before, but doesn't fold so neatly into 500 points. To get it down, and to still keep the general aim of the army, drop the bolter sponsons on the tank commander, the Ratlings and the Tempestus Scions troop squad. That fits into a 500 point patrol detachment, making for a fairly tough if not as hard hitting army.
Leaders
The main difference in leadership is the drop of Maggie from being a Company Commander to a Platoon Commander. Becca becomes the de facto Regiment commander. Maggie only ever needs to command one squad, and that's 10 points that can be rolled somewhere else. She also gains about 12 Toughness 8 wounds of Turn 1 protection by sitting in the Chimera with her girls.
Tempestor Prime Sabrina still Deep Strikes in with her Storm Troopers, and makes use of the Take Aim! order (twice!) to get those plasma guns overcharging (Re-rolling 1s to Hit). That's a significant bit of face melting. However, a new feature will be her relic, allowing her to order a squad a second time on a 4+. This allows her to get then order either "Bring it down" to re-roll To Wound 1s against general targets, or "Elimination Protocols" to re-roll To wound rolls against tanks and monsters.
It's a small tweak, but makes that alpha strike slightly more potent.
Maggie sticks with her Infantry squad, ordering First Rank Fire, Second Rank Fire! With the Chimera now around, she'll also be able to use the Armageddon specific order of Mount up!, which let's the girls shoot before jumping back into the Chimera and running away. There's a bit more detail on that, so head down to the Infantry squad for their extra bit of tactical cleverness.
The Warlord is now Becca in her tank, and she takes the Grand Strategist trait, to recycle some Command Points.
Troops
The Infantry squad finally gets their Chimera, making them true Steel Legionaires. They start off inside their metal box, and have a number of options available to them.If they have Turn 1, the Chimera drives up to an objective, the girls inside using the lasgun array to not completely waste their shots. In the second turn, they drop out and unleash their procedure:
- Disembark at 18-inches away from enemy.
- Maggie orders FRF,SRF!
- They get 36 lasgun shots.
- Pop the Steel Legion stratagem, allowing them to re-roll 1's To Hit.
- Watch enemy panic in terror as they realise the regular troops are actually quite scary.
They will then need to weather a round of shooting, but hopefully that will be severely reduced by the first volley.
Then, in their next turn, this happens:
- Chimera and Infantry squad retreat from enemy.
- Maggie orders Mount Up!
- Girls shoot, and hop back into the Chimera, and then shoot the Chimera lasgun array for good measure
If the army doesn't get first turn, they can quite comfortably disembark 3-inches and move 6-inches after that, putting their lasguns in range of the enemy deployment zone. Then follow the above pattern.
The Tempestus troops choice occupy a dual role as skirmisher and forward objective holder. The two plasma guns there will make them quite the thorn in the enemy side, and can literally land on whatever needs to be taken in the first turn. An annoying, objective securing unit, that can sting and still take a little punishment. The sergeant has a plasma pistol now, meaning 5 plasma shots on Deep Strike.
For these guys, I strongly recommend different colour dice. The reason they're in a separate detachment is to allow them the use of the Storm Troopers regimental tactic, getting extra shots off at half-range if they roll a 6+ To Hit. Since every gun in that squad has a different range, it's worth having 3 colours of dice, and just rolling everything at the same time.
Finally, don't forget to use the Take Cover! stratagem. That briefly gives your Scions power armour, and carapace armour to your regular infantry. It can make a great deal of difference, and you're unlikely to need to Command points for anything else apart from Steel Legion.
Fire Support
These are Becca the Tank Commander (waiting for the next Escher gang box), the Ratlings and the Tempestus Command Squad.Becca has proven her usefulness in every match, and is just full of guns. Tough and chocked full of wounds, the higher BS 3+ along with double tapping battle canon will add a goodly amount of firepower. The lascannon and heavy bolters are icing on a delicious cordite cake. Don't forget the stormbolter, especially if firing Overwatch.
The Taurox Prime has dropped out, replaced with the Chimera and Ratlings. It wasn't necessarily bad, but didn't gel well with the rest of the army.
The Ratlings are a new addition, and have one job: assassination. 8th Edition has seen snipers become much more valuable, taking out Ethereals, Standard Bearers and Company Commanders (poor Maggie...) before they can buff their troops. I fully expect them to die by the end of the second turn, but they'll draw some fire from the rest of the army, who are no less dangerous. And if they're left alone they can have a field day taking out all kinds of things!
The Ratlings can also be deployed to prevent deep striking units from getting easy range of Becca. With the Chimera to one side, the table edge to the other and rear, the Ratlings sit out in no-man's land preventing anything from dropping within 12-inches of Becca's tank. Being fair, the Chimera and Leman Russ chassis' being both Toughness doesn't make 1-st turn alpha strikers that much of a worry, but you should never let the enemy have their own way.
Finally the Tempestus Command squad falls into the gap between Fire Support and Skirmisher unit, just like the Ratlings. Popping off 8 overcharged plasma shots on a Deep Strike, they present a problem that simply must be dealt with... and are an absolute bargain at 88 points. They won't stand up to much fire, but they can easily earn their points back in a single round of shooting, so you won't feel too much of a sting when the enemy hits them back hard.
And of course, any shots wasted on 4 regular humans is fire not going towards your objective grabbers or hard hitting tanks. Nothing would please me more than to have a Chaos Space Marine Legion terrified of 4 regular humans!
Don't forget the Storm Troopers Regimental Doctrine, which can give them a few extra shots. I've seen these girls evaporate dreadnoughts and cripple elites, and then carry on to claim line breaker.
Tempestor Prime Sabrina now has the Laurel's of Command, meaning that she can issue a further order to the Scions on a 4+ after giving her standard Take Aim! This will usually be Bring it Down! or Elimination Protocols, but remember this can trigger after using the classic Fall Back and Get back in the Fight! combo. Falling back from combat and then safely unloading supercharged plasma into the enemy's face can be a stinging slap for daring to charge your girls!
Wrapping it up...
There aren't that many obvious weaknesses to this small force. The infantry are terribly weak, but compensate that through Deep Strike and riding in tanks, or in the case of Ratlings being sneaky buggers.The obvious weakness will always be the loss of Officers, but that simply puts your units on even footing, as opposed to being surprisingly strong.
For that reason, I might stop work on this force until next School League season. It's about as cheesy as I can make it, whilst still being fluffy and generalist. Astra Militarum are strong in this edition, so it's perhaps not a shock that they have been doing so well.
But we'll see. If the T'au codex comes out dropping the points cost for Crisis Suits (and makes a Farsight Enclave army viable again), I'll be going back to my beloved robots. But in the mean time, I am very proud of my girls.
Until next time!
Thanks for reading.
If you liked what you saw, and you want to help out, please leave a comment. Sharing this with your friends, and following me on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ would also be hugely appreciated.
If you have anything you want me to look at, let me know in the comments below. I'll probably be able to write an article about that topic within a day!
If you want to support me directly, use the affiliate links below. I get a small percentage of purchases you make her, and you get cheaper miniatures! If you really love what I do here, you can make a one off donation at my PayPal, or become a true hero to table top education and make a regular donation to my Patreon. Every Little helps!
Say, are you still using this army?
ReplyDeleteYes, but much less so now. A student was inspired by it, and now he's rocking the Tempestus plasma cheese. This force was steam rolling a lot of my club members armies, and that made it less fun to play against teacher.
DeleteStill, remains one of my best looking forces, even if the Taurox is still unpainted.