NI24 guard list options

 I had decided to take guard to the tournament again, I was thinking about taking my blood angels but there are a couple of units that I want before I do that, mostly the brutalis dreads. So guard it was but with the release of the Imperial Agents codex, there was going to be a definite Inquisitorial element to the army. 

There were several units that were locked in, namely the DKoK, Knights and Deathwatch, the rest was still unknown. So the base list, which came to just over 1800 points in the end consisted of;

Characters

- Death Korps Marshal: Power Weapon, Plasma Pistol

- Death Korps Marshal: Power Weapon, Plasma Pistol

- Primaris Psyker: Force Weapon, Laspistol, Psychic Maelstrom

- Primaris Psyker: Force Weapon, Laspistol, Psychic Maelstrom

- Regimental Enginseer: Archeotech Pistol, Enginseer Axe, Servo-arm

The Marshalls and Psykers go with the DKoK squads and the Enginseer goes with the LRBT, simple.

- 20x Death Korps of Krieg: medi-pack, 2x Grenade Launcher, 2x Sniper Rifle, 2x Plasma Gun, 2x Watchmaster: Chainsword, Plasma Pistol

- 20x Death Korps of Krieg: Medi-pack, 2x Vox-caster, 2x Flamer, 2x Meltagun, 2x Watchmaster: Chainsword, Plasma Pistol

- 5x Tempestus Scions: Hot-shot Volley Gun, Plasma Gun, Tempestor: Power Weapon, Plasma Pistol

- 5x Tempestus Scions: Hot-shot Volley Gun, Plasma Gun, Tempestor: Power Weapon, Plasma Pistol

The guard battle line units are simple. The DKoK units will form the main units, pushing up on to the objectives in no man's land to score the primary points. While one squad is more focused on long range shooting and the other short range shooting, both will be used in similar fashion. The Scions will stay in reserve, dropping in to score objectives or secondary points as they are drawn. They are armed for some offensive work, but this is secondary to Thier primary points scoring purpose.

- 3x Heavy Weapons Squad: Mortar

- 1x Leman Russ Vanquisher: HK Missile, Lascannon, Heavy Stubber, 2x Heavy Flamer

The obligatory mortar squad for sitting at the back, holding the home objective and dropping random shots on people. The LRBT is there for the anti-armour and anti-monster firepower. It's only 1 shot so it's a bit hit or miss but when it hits, it really does hit.

Next up are the allied units;

- 1x Armiger Warglaive: Reaper chain-cleaver, Thermal spear, Questoris heavy stubber

- 1x Armiger Warglaive: Reaper chain-cleaver, Thermal spear, Questoris heavy stubber

These are here for their anti-armour capacity, the thermal spears should be able to deal with vehicles, especially with the LRBT and following up with the chain-cleaver.

- 10x Deathwatch Kill Team: 2x Astartes shield + Power weapon, Black Shield blades, 2x Boltgun + Power weapon, 2x Thunder hammer 2x Infernus heavy bolter, Sgt: Combi-weapon, Xenophase blade

- 10x Deathwatch Kill Team: 6x Boltgun + Power weapon, 1x Frag cannon, 1x Infernus heavy bolter, 1x Stalker-pattern boltgun, Sgt: Combi-weapon + Xenophase blade

- 1x Imperial Rhino: HK missile, Storm bolter

- 1x Imperial Rhino: HK missile, Storm bolter

- Inquisitor: Blessed wardings, Inquisitorial melee weapon, Combi-weapon

- Watch Captain Artemis

The Deathwatch form the real punch of this army, being power armoured warriors and also battle line. There is a combat squad, tooled up for smashing things in combat and a shooting squad for backing them up or taking down other threats at range. They will be driven around in their rhinos for the extra mobility and the squads will be joined by the characters, the combat squad by Artemis and the shooting one by the inquisitor.

This gives, in my opinion, a solid core to the army, that should be able to take on a range of opponents apart from maybe very vehicle heavy lists such as knights. It comes to 1810 points, giving me 190 points to play with and this is where I have some options. These options fall in to three categories, more guard, more Inquisitorial or more power armour.

The more guard option consists of;

- Militarum Tempestus Command Squad: Regimental Standard, Plasma Gun, Hot-shot Volley Gun, Grenade Launcher, Tempestor Prime: Command Rod, Tempestus Dagger, Warlord, Enhancement: Grand Strategist (+15 pts)

- 5x Tempestus Scions: Hot-shot Volley Gun, Plasma Gun, Tempestor: Power Fist, Plasma Pistol

- 5x Tempestus Scions: Hot-shot Volley Gun, Plasma Gun, Tempestor: Power Fist, Plasma Pistol

The prime has to be the warlord, to turn the scions in to battle line, enabling me to take the 4 squads. The command rod and enhancement enables me to buff the unit nicely each turn.

The next option is adding more Inquisitorial units;

- 12x Inquisitorial Agents: 2x Tome-skull, 2x Eviscerator, 2x Mystic stave, 2x Plasma pistol, 2x Servitor: 1x Multimelta, 1x Plasma cannon

- 1x Inquisitorial Chimera: HK missile, Heavy flamer, Heavy flamer

This adds a very multirole unit to the army with some decent combat punch. The addition of the double flamer chimera could also be very useful for taking some wounds pre-charge.

Lastly we have the extra power armour;

- 10x Sisters of Battle Squad: Ministorum heavy flamer Artificer-crafted storm bolter, 1x Sister Superior: Power weapon, Boltgun

- 1x Imperial Rhino: HK missile, Storm bolter

This option adds some extra 3+ saves to the army and also another rhino. This option possibly adds the least to the force, as it adds nothing different, nor gives me options I didn't have before.

So that's the list options, as it was I managed to play a few games before we had to submit lists and got a good idea of what would work and what wouldn't, as we'll see over the next couple of posts.