Chainfist

I'm sharing a fun army list I played with last night at Battleforge Games. We're starting to pull out some old models that haven't gotten a lot of use in 5th Edition (partially for fun, but also as a part of our Road to Adepticon preparation).

The goal of the army is fairly basic; a 2000pt all-comers list that can deal with mechanized forces at long range. But the real goal of the list was to road test my four Imperial Armor Centaurs.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Centaur, it's a transport vehicle for Imperial Guard Command Squads and Imperial Guard Storm Troopers. It's 10pts less than a Chimera and has FA11 and S/RA10. It's a fast, open-topped vehicle that can hold 5 models and it's armed with a Heavy Stubber. The real strength of the model (besides being really tiny) is that is has a rule called "hull mounted special weapon". This rule basically allows the unit inside to hull-mount a single weapon to the Centaur -- and that weapon becomes a hull-mounted weapon on a fast vehicle.

That suddenly turns a very cost ineffective transport into a very, very fun tank!

Here's the list:

HQ
Company Command Squad (2x Meltaguns, Lascannon)
-- Transport: Centaur


ELITE
5-man Storm Trooper Squad (2x Plasma Guns)
-- Transport: Centaur



Note: I took this expensive unit because I wanted to use all four of my Centaurs. There are a lot of better options for this army than a Storm Trooper squad.

TROOPS

Infantry Platoon #1
-- Platoon Command Squad (2x Meltaguns, Lascannon) in a Centaur
-- Infantry Squad (Grenade Launcher, Autocannon, Vox Caster, Commissar with Power Weapon)
-- Infantry Squad (Grenade Launcher, Autocannon)
-- Infantry Squad (Grenade Launcher, Autocannon)

Note: I plan on combining this squad, giving me 3 Grenade Launchers and 3 Autocannons. The Commissar keeps the unit intact.

Infantry Platoon #2
-- Platoon Command Squad (2x Meltaguns, Lascannon) in a Centaur
-- Infantry Squad (Grenade Launcher, Lascannon, Vox Caster, Commissar with Power Weapon)
-- Infantry Squad (Grenade Launcher, Lascannon)-- Infantry Squad (Grenade Launcher, Lascannon)
-- Heavy Weapons Squad (3x Autocannon)

Note: I have the option of combining this squad, depending on what my opponent throws at me. It's an easy way for me to minimize the number of kill points this army gives up in Annihilation games.


Veteran Squad (3x Meltaguns)
-- Transport: Chimera

Veteran Squad (3x Meltaguns)
-- Transport: Chimera

Veteran Squad (3x Meltaguns)
-- Transport: Chimera

HEAVY
Medusa w/Bastion Breacher Shells

Medusa w/Bastion Breacher Shells

Note: I used a Medusa and Colossus last night because I wanted to see how the Colossus worked (they are interchangeable as far as points go). Depending on your gaming group, two Colossus Siege Mortars might work better than two Medusas. I really enjoyed the long-range indirect shooting. It ended up doing a lot more damage than the Medusa because of my extreme scatter results).


ARMY NOTES: The army has 4 Centaurs (three with heavy weapons and one with Storm Troopers), 3 Chimeras (full of meltagun Veterans), a couple of hard Infantry Platoons (that can be combined, if necessary) and two Medusas. A decent amount of high Strength shooting (6 Lascannon, 2 Medusas, 6 Autocannons, and 15 mobile Meltaguns).


TRICKS: I decided to keep this army really simple so that I could focus on the Centaurs -- you'll see why that's important next.

Trick #1 - Fast Shooting: The Centaur is good at two things -- putting high-Strength shots where you need them and hiding. The Centaur is a fast, open-topped vehicle, which means that it can move up to 6" and fire all weapons (in my case a Lascannon, 2 Meltaguns, 2 Lasguns, and a Heavy Stubber), or it can move up to 12" and fire 1 weapon and all defensive weapons (in my case one Lascannon or Meltagun, plus a Heavy Stubber), or it can move up to 18" (and fire nothing).

The Centaur is also tiny and it can completely hide in the shadow a Chimera (or behind low terrain features). The small size of the tank makes it surprisingly survivable, even though it's open-topped.

Trick #2 - Fast Ramming: The ramming rules give you another option for the fast-moving Centaur. If you can go the full 18" distance, you can do some serious damage with your Centaur. It's base Strength is 2 (i.e., Tank + FA11), plus up to 6 for movement. That gives you a realistic range of S6 to S8 for the Centaur, which makes ramming a decent option if you really need it.

Overall, I had a great time and the army performed really well -- most importantly it was a lot of fun!

>> Comments are welcome and I'd love your thoughts on the army and feedback on how it would perform in your neck of the woods. You can leave comments here or email me at mkerr@ChainFist.com. And, as always, your mileage may vary.