Tactics Corner: Frankie’s List Analysis

1850 List

So first of all I really enjoy the Renegade lists. This one has some speed with the Gorepack and a little bit of punch from the Forgehost. This list works by having the the Khorne Hounds tying units up with their fast movements and then the Wyverns bring the pain by barraging all the enemies that are locked in combat with the hounds. The Ordnance Tyrnat allows you to shoot your own units without scattering! The Zombies bubble wrap the artillery and charge units that are surviving the bombardments to keep them from going anywhere. The Forgehost will charge into the combats and start killing enemies with the strength 10 ap 2 attacks, plus the Wyverns cannot hurt the high armor of the Soul Grinders.

If you made no changes to this list I believe it would do very well at tournaments. That said, some lists such as hard to kill deathstars and Tau will be a tough fight for this list. The Deathstars will be able to take the hits from the Wyverns and kill the Soul Grinders/ Khorne Hounds quite easily. Tau would be able to weather the storm with there 2+ saves and should have enough firepower to keep the Hounds away. So some changes I would make: I would drop the Forgehost and take a Daemon CAD with a Heald of Tzeentch, two units of Nurglings, and a Choas Knight.  I would also recommend switching one of the Wyvern units to an Earth Shaker Battery as they pack a little more punch and really scare Battle Company. The Choas Knight is more scary than the Soul Grinders especially if you can fit the Grimore into the list and he isn’t susceptible to stupid Grav weapons.

Like I said you do not need to make any changes and I believe your list will do very well, but take a look at the Chaos Knight, I think you will be impressed.

Electric-slide (Cult Mechanicus)		1,645 points
HQ		(8%)
Tech-Priest Dominus	WS4·BS5·S4·T4·W3·I3·A2·Ld9·Sv2+ The Scryerskull Perspicatus; artificer armour; volkite blaster; macrostubber; power axe; mechadendrite harness; scryerskull; conversion field Infantry (Character); Canticles of the Omnissiah; Feel No Pain; Independent Character; Relentless; Master of Machines
Troops		(18%)
3 Kataphron Breachers	WS3·BS3·S5·T5·W2·I3·A1·Ld8·Sv3+ Kataphron breacherplate; 3× heavy arc rifle; 3× arc claw Advertisement Infantry; Canticles of the Omnissiah; Very Bulky; Heavy Battle Servitors
3 Kataphron Breachers	WS3·BS3·S5·T5·W2·I3·A1·Ld8·Sv3+ Kataphron breacherplate; 3× heavy arc rifle; 3× arc claw Infantry; Canticles of the Omnissiah; Very Bulky; Heavy Battle Servitors
Elites		270 points (16%)
15 Corpuscarii Electro-Priests	WS4·BS3·S3·T3·W1·I3·A2·Ld9·Sv– electrostatic gauntlets; voltagheist fields Infantry; Canticles of the Omnissiah; Feel No Pain; Zealot; Shock

Detachment: Astra Militarum
HQ		(40%) (
Commissar Yarrick	WS5·BS5·S3·T4·W3·I3·A3·Ld10·Sv4+ Advertisement carapace armour; bolt pistol; storm bolter; close combat weapon; power klaw; frag grenades; krak grenades; Bale Eye; Power Field Infantry (Character); Aura of Discipline; Chain of Command; Eternal Warrior; Independent Character; Iron Will; Preferred Enemy (Orks); Senior Officer; Summary Execution; Voice of Command; Warlord Trait: Draconian Disciplinarian
3 Ministorum Priest	WS3·BS3·S3·T3·W1·I3·A2·Ld7·Sv5+ flak armour; laspistol; close combat weapon; frag grenades; rosarius Infantry (Character); Independent Character; War Hymns, Zealot
Troops		)
Infantry Platoon
Platoon Command Squad	WS3·BS3·S3·T3·W1·I3·A1·Ld7·Sv5+ Subscribe to our newsletter! Get Tabletop, RPG & Pop Culture news delivered directly to your inbox. By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. flak armour; vox-caster Infantry
+ 1 Platoon Commander	WS4·BS4·S3·T3·W1·I3·A2·Ld8·Sv5+ flak armour; laspistol; close combat weapon; frag grenades Advertisement Infantry (Character); Voice of Command
Infantry Squad	WS3·BS3·S3·T3·W1·I3·A1·Ld7·Sv5+ flak armour; lasguns; vox-caster; frag grenades Infantry; Combined Squad
+ 1 Sergeant	WS3·BS3·S3·T3·W1·I3·A2·Ld8·Sv5+ flak armour; laspistol; close combat weapon; frag grenades
Infantry Squad	WS3·BS3·S3·T3·W1·I3·A1·Ld7·Sv5+ flak armour; lasguns; vox-caster; frag grenades Infantry; Combined Squad
+ 1 Sergeant	WS3·BS3·S3·T3·W1·I3·A2·Ld8·Sv5+ flak armour; laspistol; close combat weapon; frag grenades

Detachment: Space Marines
Command Formations
Librarius Conclave	Empyric Channelling
Chief Librarian Tigurius	WS5·BS4·S4·T4·W3·I4·A2·Ld10·Sv3+ Advertisement Psyker (Mastery Level 3); Hood of Hellfire; Rod of Tigurius; bolt pistol; frag grenades; krak grenades Infantry (Character); And They Shall Know No Fear; Chapter Tactics (Ultramarines); Independent Character; Psyker (Maatery Level 3); Master of Prescience
Librarian	WS5·BS4·S4·T4·W2·I4·A2·Ld10·Sv3+ Psyker (Mastery Level 2); force weapon; frag grenades; krak grenades; psychic hood Infantry (Character); And They Shall Know No Fear; Chapter Tactics; Independent Character
Librarian	WS5·BS4·S4·T4·W2·I4·A2·Ld10·Sv3+ Psyker (Mastery Level 2); force weapon; frag grenades; krak grenades; psychic hood Infantry (Character); And They Shall Know No Fear; Chapter Tactics; Independent Character
Librarian	WS5·BS4·S4·T4·W2·I4·A2·Ld10·Sv3+ Psyker (Mastery Level 1); force weapon; frag grenades; krak grenades; psychic hood Advertisement Infantry (Character); And They Shall Know No Fear; Chapter Tactics; Independent Character
Librarian	WS5·BS4·S4·T4·W2·I4·A2·Ld10·Sv3+ Psyker (Mastery Level 1); force weapon; frag grenades; krak grenades; psychic hood Infantry (Character); And They Shall Know No Fear; Chapter Tactics; Independent Character

Detachment: Fortifications
Void Shield Generator	battlements; 2× additional projected void shield Impassable Building (Armour Value 13); Projected Void Shields

Here is how the list is played:

The the Dominus, librarians and Ministorum Priests attach to the Electro-Priests.

The chump librarians roll for levitate to alloq the electro-priests to move 18″ (6″ in the movement phase + 12″ in the psychic phase), Forewarning for the 4++, PerfectTiming and Misfortune to make the Electro-Priests attacks more effective.  Tigurius rolls on Biomancy for Iron Arm and Endurance.

Any left over powers go towards other itility powers like shockwave (for pinning).

Tigurius acts as a tank with a re-rollable 4++ due to Ministorum Priests and 4+ FnP giving him an 87.5% chance of negating a wound. The Tech Priest acts as a “healer” restoring a wound to Tigurius on a 2+ using Master of Machines.

 I gave the Tech-Priest a conversion field in case I do not roll Forewarning, and to act as an off-tank against Str 7 and lower attacks.  He also has the Scryerskull relic for re-rolls against high priority vehicles.

I took breachers over destroyers because I need reliable anti-tank and 36 grav shota (18 from each unit of destroyers) without grav amps will only generate 6.7 glancing hits (assuming a 1.5 multipler for the first hit immobilizing and the second hit causing two glances) vs. 7.8 glances or pens from 12 haywire shots. Though there is something to be said for volume of dice so I could swap a mastery level and take Destroyers.

With a re-rollable 4++, the electro-priests have a 75% chance to against instant death attacks, and an 83.5% chance to save against str 5 or lower attacks.  These numbers drop to 56.44% and 71.25% respectively without Forewarning.

 They’ll have 30 str 4 shots, 15 str 4 HoW attacks, and 45 str 4 melee attacks on the charge all with rending assuming a successful cast of misfortune. There melee attacks can be boosted to str 6 assuming none of the Mechanicus units are lost.  They can multi-charge after using Canticles of the Neromancer to generate 30 str 4 attacks against each unit. 

Since I have to take an allied detachment of guard to get access to the Ministorum Priests, I took Yarrick for a durable HQ tjat can issue orders, join my IG troops and keep them from running off the board.

The void shield is to allow me to relatively safely go second.

I like where this list is going. Yarrick is a beast and I am happy to see Electro Priests on the table. My problem with this list is it is highly dependent on Psychic powers. One Culexus or an army that that can shut down one or two powers will make the wheels fall off the bus. Next thing I notice is that none of the Astra Militarum units have special weapons, but they all have Vox Casters. If they do not have special weapons don’t worry about getting orders off. They unfortunately will not benefit from the orders as much. Better off taking some additional Flamers and melta Guns, in my opinion. Even with those points I think this list would be a lot of fun and would catch some people off guard.

Counters to this list would be Imperial Knights, Stormsurges, and Eldar as you would never catch them with your slower forces.

Now things I would change about this list: I would drop the Astra Militarum, as much as I like them I do not think they do much for this list. Yeah re-roll saves in close combat is pretty good but will not go off half the time due to leadership 7 on the Priest (unless you stack multiple Priests in the same unit). Also, the troops from Astra Militarum are weak. I would switch them out for a Space Wolves CAD taking a Wolf Guard Battle Leader, Two Droppods, and a couple of cheap Blood Claw units. The Blood Claws will not do much but are tougher than Infantry Platoons. The Wolf Guard Battle Leader gives you some extra punch and gives you a fast scary unit that can catch pesky Jetbikes/ Warpspiders. Last change I would make would be to take Destroyers instead of Breachers. The Grav are useful against almost every army, and are a huge threat to a lot of others. They go into the Droppods and allow you to drop down and nuke a unit. Buying your Electo Priests some time to move up the field.

Like I said I really like the tricky things you are doing with this list and really hope to see it on the tabletop. It sounds like it will be good and I think with a few changes it could be a list seen at the top tables.

Thank you all for reading and let us know in the comments what changes you would make to these lists. Or if you think these lists are good the way they are. Look forward to reviewing some more lists next week! As always check our Tactics Corner for more great list analysis.