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So over Thanksgiving I was having a conversation with RC about Lysander. RC raved about how powerful he was and how he was really at the pinnacle of his power. His assertions were: Eternal Warrior and four wounds is unheard of, thunder hammer and storm shield are undercosted in SM codex and they tear shit up, and he works awesome with one of the strongest units around: assault terminator squads. I decided to give him some more thought for my Fist army.
My first concern was that I didn't want to break my fluff goals with the army. The army was made to be a half-company, and would not include any attachments. So I was not going to be adding a terminator squad. The only model I could see having some terminator armor was the Captain. Well the good news is that Lysander counts as a captain, so I can even keep my command squad.
So, I started to weigh the benefits of Lysander compared to the added cost. First off we know he is a bad ass stat wise, but being in a squad it gets watered down a lot. Compared to another commander the biggest difference is the strength 10 thunder hammer. Bolter Drill will be useful since my command squad all have bolt pistols. Bolster Defenses is another surprising good one with this army as I always have one squad in cover in the backfield (devastators or at least a combat squad). Lastly I was very interested in using Chapter Tactics, since I was relatively underwhelmed with Combat Tactics (at least for my style of play).
He seemed like a winner so I wrote up my list. I had to change out my command squad razorback because of Lysanders terminator armor, so I went with a drop pod. I also had to lose the devastators rhino to make up some points. No real bother as they are usually stationary anyway.
So after one game I was floored with how much of an improvement it was. The first thing that was apparent was how much better the drop pod was than the razorback. My command squad is meant to be very survivable (storm shields and an apothecary) but they weren't as big of an impact after my razorback got immobilized at half field. Now, turn one they are a factor. As survivable as they are I was not scared to unload in front of some pretty heavy firepower. The enemy was forced to deal with them. My rhinos zipped across the field at record speed. There was a lot of synergy going on there (yes I work a desk job). I will venture to say that I like the drop podding command squad more than I would like a deep striking assault terminator squad. The drop pod comes in first turn and doesn't have to worry so much about mishaps. So I don't need so much stand off distance.
The other big takeaway from the battle is how much more I like Stubborn than Combat Tactics. I know Combat Tactics can be very useful. Woe be the player who shoots at a combat squad before assaulting. I am just not the kind of player who dances around a board like that. I find that I am much more likely to go where I want to go and plant my squads. Seems like it falls in line with a certain chapter I know about. Every time I got into combat and had to roll leadership I was reminded how much more I like Stubborn. My army definitely feels more like Sons of Dorn.
And with that one game, I shelved my space wolves and started getting back to painting my Fists. I am actually in pretty good shape with my to-do list:
- Since I am not tweaking my space wolves anymore, I don't have anything on them to do (I'll chalk that one up as a painting win, since the codex came out a month ago)
- I only need to paint a drop pod, Lysander, and finish my assault marines to finish the 1500 points
- I only need to paint up one more tactical squad, their rhino, and five bolter wielding devastators to finish off the half-company
Rix
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