My Imperial Fist List: Aggressive Shooting

For the past year+ I have been focused mostly on painting my Imperial Fists. I play whenever I get a chance, but to be honest I have made more changes to my list than I have played games. Recently I think I have found a sweet spot. I have spent a lot of hours investigated how to improve on my current list, and right now I think it is pretty much pitch perfect. So I present to you my Aggressive Shooting Imperial Fist list:

Captain Marcus Decius Regulus (Lysander) 200

Command Squad w/ 210

4x Plasma Gun

Drop Pod

Ironclad Dreadnought 180

Seismic Hammer/Dread CC Weapon

Drop Pod w/Locator Beacon

Dreadnought 165

Multi-melta/Dread CC Weapon

Extra Armor

Drop Pod w/ Locator Beacon

Terminator Assault Squad 200

5xTH/SS

2nd Squad (Tactical) (10 Man) 250

Meltagun/Missle Launcher

Power Fist

Teleport Homer

Rhino
6th Squad (Tactical) (10 Man) 285

Lascannon/Plasmagun

Power Weapon/Meltabomb

Razorback w/ TL Las

Scout Squad (5 Man) 115

2xCombat Blade/1xSniper

Camo Cloaks
Combi-melta/Meltabomb

Land Speeder Typhoon 90

Land Speeder Typhoon 90

Land Speeder Storm 65

Total = 1850

[Interesting Note: Do you know how freaking hard it is to get text to line up after publishing a post.......damn you blogspot]

Generally the dreads get the aggro. They get in my opponents face with scary melta weapons and depending on the squad can engage and wreck some shop. Then I can focus on killing transports with the Typhoons, Tacticals, and the Razorback. The Terminators and Command Squad come in to lend their support in the middle of the field. The command squad can decimate an armored squad with the rapid firring plasma and the terminators wade into the battle to take out a squad or two. At this point I can focus on objective taking with the Tacticals and Scouts or if in a kill point game then focus on the easy kills (errant transports are a good one)

I'm still working on refining some of the ways I play the army. A good example was that I always deployed my Lysander with the terminators but I noticed my command squad was getting stalked and dying in CC. I now am experimenting with keeping my Lysander with the command squad to deter assaults or at the very least lock an assaulting unit for a while.

It is really hard to resist the urge to tweek and swap out units, but I think I need to really focusing on how to deploy, maneuver, and ultimately win battles.

Rix

Welcome to Stalingrad!

Today, I wanted to provide a sneak peak at one of my many works in progress that has until recently been woefully overlooked, scenery. Since I have taken on numerous different army projects in the recent past, I figured that it was time to make improvements to the window dressing that is my gaming table.

My primary (and currently only) gaming table features an urban sprawl where buildings form the landscape rather than trees and hills. This means that the board needs a lot more scenery to clutter everything up in order to give that sense of realistically being in those steel canyons.

In the past year or so, I've been getting more and more ashamed at the shabby state of affairs that is my gaming table. Too often Rix and I have played on boards with wide open fields of fire, where armor had free reign. But in our most recent game, Rix happened to clutter up a quarter of the board with a disproportionate amount of buildings. Admittedly, this left the rest of the board with sparse cover but the little mini-game that happened in that one quarter of the field really felt "right". In this quarter, lines of fire were limited and my armor felt awfully claustrophobic with an enemy squad of melta-armed scouts lurking in the area.

In the end, I realized that no matter how many armies I created or how well I modeled and painted them that my games would never feel "epic" without fantastic scenery. That is what I hope this project achieves, because you can only beat your friend to a pulp (not naming names, here) so many times before you start needing to dress up the ground on which so many atrocities are committed.

Terminator Squad

"Give me a hundred Space Marines. Or failing that give me a thousand other troops."

+++Rogal Dorn, Primarch of the Imperial Fists+++

The Scourge of The Vengeful Spirit

Led by Sergeant Volero Octavia Canus

Try as I might I couldn't escape the efficient killing power of the Thunder Hammer/Storm Shield Terminator Assault squad. There are few squads that can match its killing power and survivability and none at the super cheap 200 point cost. I'm still learning how to use them best. Generally they deep strike in, find something and kill it, but rarely move on to anything else. That is probably mostly because my sparring partner favors lots of cheap troop choices over deathstar units.

The are modeled with the Chapterhouse Studio's salamander shield that I have used before and the forge world shoulder pads. No big changes to the way that I painted them, but my one piece of advise is to keep the shield arm off till the last second. It masks the spray paint and forces some odd angles on the brushes.

I tried to individualize my model with a pseudo heraldry shield an crotch plate. Figured I would add some color.

Rix

Drop Pods and Objective Markers

Just a couple of quick pics. Here are my drop pods. I still have one more to paint up, but this is the basic scheme.

If I ever get around to adding weathering to my army these will be the first to get it. I guess regardless of how new the battle is if your drop pods are on the ground then they will be scorched.

Additionally, a pic of my objective markers. I always liked the marine casualties models. they were my first attempt to paint the white shoulder pads of the 1st company, good practice before my sternguard squad (which was painted later).

Rix

Sternguard Squad

"The deeds of one bold warrior can alter the course of a battle. I have four such men under my command, and our every deed changes the shape of the galaxy."

+++Sergeant Daegon Incursa, the Invaders 1st Company+++

Roma Irae (Rome's Wrath)

Led by Veteran Sergeant Minius Octavia Galeo

Simply stated: I fell in love with the MK III armor kit from forgeworld. What a great way to single out a squad as something special. I bought the kit almost immediately. At the time I was working with adding a sternguard squad to my list so it seemed like a natural fit. With such cheap combi-weapon options I figured I would use one of them, but I was not sure which. To keep my options open I went with Chapterhouse studios magnetizable combi-weapon kit.

It works pretty well, but be warned, the pieces are a tight fit. After painting they become even tougher to fit together. I also used the new Imperial Fists chapter shoulder bit, I had been using the older kit previously so this made them stand out even more. One thing that may be obvious to you is the chapter icon on the wrong shoulder. I had initially assembled them with the chapter icon on the left shoulder and the bulkier MK III shoulder on the right shoulder....it just didn't seem right. Just from the way they stand when aiming down their weapons the left shoulder needs to look bulkier or it just seems off. I swapped the shoulders with the thought that like the terminators the veteran squads would wear the chapter symbol on the other arm. OK not by the codex but whatever it still looks better.

I play them a couple of different ways. First as a sternguard squad I usually equip them with combi-meltas. They become a pretty typical firring line, able to lay down some effective fire with the special ammo. Usually Kraken for ranged and Vengance for some close in fighting. If placed correctly they become a threat to passing vehicles with a melta salvo. The Sgt has a bolter (so he can still use the special ammo) and a lightning claw. The claw is a little cheaper than a power fist, but for the point cost and the one-handed nature, better than a power weapon.

With my current list, though, I drop the Sgt and use them as a command squad. I had dropped my sternguard from my primary list for Terminators and was sad to not field the models. At the same time I started playing with a gunline style command squad. It seemed a natural fit. I equip them with plasma rifles, the combi-plasma becomes a counts-as but since they are not used anywhere else it works. The synergy with the apothecary is nice as he greatly increasing the survivability of rapid firring plasma rifles. They have a drop pod and they typically come in against high armor infantry. It works very well against recently deep struck terminators or a deathstar unit moving in to assault.

Getting close to being done with Imperial Fists!!!!

Rix