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

Pack Mentality

Before I delved into my Space Wolves Army list I wanted to give a rundown of the different wolf packs and how I think they are best used. The following are the organization of the packs that most space wolves will spend their entire lives in.

Blood Claws

For those unfamiliar with the fluff, as soon as a group of initiates can wear power armor they are sent out with the main army as assault troops. The blood claw pack represents the marines they will be with until they die or individuals are selected for special assignments. Blood claws can have pack sizes up to 15 marines to represent the large size of initiate units before they start to take casualties.

I like to take one unit of blood claws as my main assault force. I figure no matter what I do with the rest of my army their is always going to be one unit who hits a line, even on defense. Yes they are easier to hit, yes they shoot like crap, but I am getting an extra 10 hits if I charge. I want to front load as much damage as possible.

I always put mine in a land raider so you can pretty much guarantee the charge. I like the power fist over the power weapon, I figure 3 str 8 hits on the charge are better than 4 str 4 hits. I also give one a flamer, mostly because its free, but its a good way to thin out infantry if I am against a horde army.

Grey Hunters

After a good amount of campaigns under their belt, and some character building casualties, the blood claws pack will graduate to be grey hunters. They are blessed with the holy bolter, and are the main maneuver force for the Wolf Lord. Usually they number 5-10 marines at this point

For my army they are my objective takers, fire support, and decent assault support. Without combat squads I rely on they to be the versatile part of my army. As such they are all essentially armed the same and any one squad can fulfill any number of roles.

I think a good commander needs at least 3 grey hunter squads. I like mine at 5 marines in a razorback, so I can add a wolf guard veteran. My standard load out is power weapon, melta gun, and mark of the wolfen. I do switch out the melta for a flamer every other grey hunter squad. I figure if I am holding objectives they are cheaper, but it can be invaluable against horde armies. I also usually upgrade to the twin-linked lascannon...its so expensive, but its usually the only long range firepower I have.

Long Fangs

As the pack grows older and more experienced, they are eventually entrusted with the company's heavy weapons. They understand the ebb and flow of battle and are expected to be resolute under all battle conditions. At this time the pack is usually down to 2-5 members.

I don't usually use long fangs, I think they are to static and my Space Wolves are based on mobility. If I did I would either go for the cheap 2-3 man tank killing squad (ML or LC), or the bulky 5 man split fire squad. Then I would probably mix lascannons and plasma cannons.

Lone Wolves

This is a new edition in the Space Wolf codex. The lone wolf represents the last man of a pack that was either whittled down by attrition or decimated by casualties. Since a pack never gets new recruits it is on the lone wolf to find a glorious end.

Most of the net traffic has lone wolves in terminator armour with thunder hammer and storm shields. From a fluff perspective I don't like the idea of a non-wolf guard taking terminator armor. I equip mine with nothing but a melta bomb, because it makes them cheap as hell. The idea is simple, he is going to wade into battle and force your opponent to direct some attention to them.

Rix

Game Changers

Game changers are something you bring to a battle that fundamentally changes the way your opponent planned on playing. A game changer may be an offensive unit that your opponent has no way to deal with, or a way to move across the battlefield that a normal opponent could never react to. Either way they somehow make your army list more effective and your opponent less effective giving you an advantage (see the tie in to last post). Here are some advantages that I have seen various armies use:

Space Marines

Storm Shields - 3+ invulnerable saves pretty much invalidate anything your opponent can throw at it, storm shield units are great at tying up your opponents unit he thought was going to win with. Add some CC punch back and you have a nasty survivable unit.

Land Raiders - There is so little out their that can deal with armor 14. I am toying with an army that uses multiple land raiders. Basically the thought is no matter what your opponent brings you can comfortably turn it into a long range shooting match if you don't get out of your transports.

Chaos

Lash Princes - I know everyone hates them, but it changes a fundamental rule of gaming: moving your opponents army. Most people use them to group squads for blast markers or getting into assault quickly.

Inferno Bolts - I found out the hard way inferno bolts suck. "I'm sorry you thought you came to the table with an army of armored supermen.....instead they have the armor save of a gaunt...oh wait worse than a gaunt. I rapid fire for 18 shots."

Demons

The entire army changes the way you play, messes with your deployment tactics, hits you with AP 3 templates, strength 8 super gods. I think they made the army specifically to through opponents off their game.

Nids

Carnifexes - The nid version of a tank, but with 4-5 structure points. And you better have brought AP 2 weapons or its like they have void shields too. Most people handle these with meltas or small arms fire, but if they get to close the fex can lock you in close combat unlike a tank.

Well that's enough for now. Rem member you can't account for these but they may highlight overall weaknesses in your army. Try and come up with alternative strategies on how your army would deal with game changers. How would it be different if you went for the tie instead of the win?

Rix

Fighting Your Fight

Every battle ends up with one side having had the advantage in the fight. That does not mean that the winner is predetermined, it just means that a series of inputs allowed one player to have the upper hand. How they exploited that advantage or how they maintained it is another mater entirely. Today I want to go over a number of reasons that a player can gain an advantage.

So lets get some simple ones out of the way. The following advantages you have no control over (or at least shouldn't):

• Mission/deployment selection
• Terrain
• Luck
• Opponents army list
• Opponents tactics

Next are pretty obvious ones:

• Your tactics - I'm sure that the netz are ablaze with info on the best tactics. Obviously more than I can fit into a bullet point. Me I just try not to fuck myself with stoopid tactics cause me not so smart sometimez.
  
• Your army list - This is what I love most about the game. You have to have a good army list if you plan on winning. This means you have to follow the fundamentals: lots of troops, use units that compliment your weaknesses, have a solution to compete in every type of mission, etc. This is an area that is very personal to the army, but again is more detail than I can go into in a bullet point.

So the final two are what I would like to discuss most and what I think are the most important in a battle:

• Your tactics vs. your opponents tactics
• Your army list vs. your opponents army list

These are really the fundamentals of the actual game play, and goes beyond just the simple planning. Its not just how you plan on winning the game, its how you plan on winning the game after you see what your opponent is gonna do. Its not just how good of a list it is but how well it stacks up to your opponents list. A good example is no matter how great your list is, if it is fundamentally weak against marines every time you fight marines you are gonna be at a disadvantage (and you may see more than one marine army in a tournament....)

The good news is the way to get an advantage in these match ups is to always, always "fight your fight." What this means is that your army list and your tactics are always designed to play a game the way you want to play it and that is how it wins. So following along that track here is some advice for achieving that.

Be balanced, or be REALLY good at something - A balanced list is key if you want to take all comers. A more flexible and balanced list will enable you to modify your tactics after you see what your opponent is going to do. The flip side to this is be the best at what you are gonna do. Usually this means a very shooty or a very assaulty army, but it may be a huge hoard army that is gonna swallow an opponent. What ever it is make sure you are the best, or intrinsically have a good fallback plan (OK maybe my Space Wolf assault force is not gonna beat 100 genestealers..... OK boys its back to bolters). This is really how you define "your fight" and sets you up for the advantage you expect to see.

Balance your list by bringing everyone to your level - Minimize your weaknesses using your army list. If you are a very shooty army, take units that murder transports that give you more time to shoot at them. If you are assaulty, take lots of strong transports that make sure your not legging it. If you are a balanced force, maximize your unit count so you have a lot left over after an attrition war. This is when you start to see your advantage take place during game play (e.g. you just unloaded your assaulty army in front of your opponent, your opponent is on the other side of the table and you have superior firepower, you have the numerical advantage after an attrition fight).

Bring a game changer - This is one of the more overlooked aspects of the game. Bring something that is gonna fundamentally change the way your opponent has to play. Put it out front and make sure he has to deal with it. What you are doing is putting you opponent on the back foot as they try to deal with this unstoppable Juggernaut, and all the while you are letting the rest of your army do what it does best (whatever that may be). This is where you are gonna maximise your advantages, either you break your opponents back with these or they have spent so much time dealing with these (or running away from them) that you are in a position to win the game. I will go into some ideas for these in a later post.

Find your tactical groove and stick to it (Unless you are gonna lose) - I played an assaulty space wolf force for a long time that deployed, moved, and assaulted the same way every game. It was a very feared, and was a great example of being REALLY good at something. It took awhile to get the list and the tactics in line but once they were, I wasn't afraid to use it over and over again. Remember that if you don't have a plan that has a good probability of winning when you show up than you are doing something wrong (even if your plan is to formulate your plan after you see your opponents, i.e. a balanced list). The only time you should change is when you see you are obviously outmatched (see 100 genestealers above), but if you find yourself doing that to much than you need to rethink your army list. This is how you make your advantages repeatable.

Rix

Trickonometry

Well, my Thousand Sons list is underway and I thought I'd take a moment to go over the army list and concept. Based heavily on an infantry gun-line, this is my second one-dimensional army and a major reason I started it was to really contrast with my mechanized-assault Nurgle army.

First, as a fluff purist I always try to adhere to the background first and optimize the killyness of an army second. Now the reason I chose the Thousand Sons for the army was that the two most interesting aspects of the 40k universe to me are the spirituality and the psychic themes. With my Dark Angel army satisfying the spirituality theme, I was left with trying to find an army that embodied the psychic theme. I was originally leaning towards creating a craftworld Ulthwe army, but after much consideration I decided that I really couldn't get behind an army of girly men (don't read into that). The exclusion of the eldar plus the fact that I just love Space Marines led me to humanity's greatest psykers, the Thousand Sons.

With that in mind, I wanted an all-Thousands Sons list that I based on Ahriman's exiled sorceror cabal. Based on the background the Thousand Sons are composed of only two types of marines, sorcerers and rubric marines. So with a whole two options open to me for army creation, I had to start getting creative or risk a creating a force that would be dead on arrival for competitive games. So I started browsing the intrawebz for some inspiration and found what everyone does on the internet, lots and lots of bad ideas and paint jobs. But there existed a gem among them, the usage of Terminator Sorcerer Lord models in a counts-as Obliterators fashion. This idea was the spark that chained into allowing me a a good chunk of the Chaos codex while still adhering to the fluff.

The magic counts-as weapons angle would allow me to take pretty much any infantry unit I wanted in the codex. So with that I started to build my army in earnest and ended up with the following list:

1500 point Chaos List
1 - Ahriman
1 - Pyromancer Coven (Chosen x5 w/ 3 Meltagun/3 Meltabomb)
2 - Rubric Squads x9 (Sorcerors w/ Gift of Chaos)
1 - Sorcerer Lord Coven (Obliterator x3)
2 - Warmage Coven (Havocs x5 w/ 4 Autocannons)

Now the modeling of this army was gonna be fun with making a lot of sorcerer conversions. Instead of painting up a lot of weaponry, I'd have to get creative in making dynamic poses for sorcerers mid-cast. Seeing as how I'm not yet half-way through the army I'll wait until I'm finished to go into further detail on the modeling and painting aspect (with plenty of pictures). However, the ability to easily change army composition by simply switching the counts-as components makes this a very fluid army design.

Having played only one game against Rix, I can't really speak a whole lot about the effectiveness of the army. But I can say that based on it's composition alone, I foresee this army being really good in some circumstances and sucking bad in others. For instance, I loaded up on autocannons to pop rhinos so I could in turn give the AP3 bolters plenty of marines to kill. The inclusion of up to 7 Gift of Chaos attempts per turn also provides a lot assault countering ability. However, I imagine the army will fall victim easily to Walker Assaults (DS-ing Dreads) and Mass Firepower (hello IG!). I've tried to mitigate these factors as best I can but due to the expensive point costs of the units I really can't counter all army types. So I'm just embracing the inherent strength this army provides (coincidentally against all Rix's armies) and ignoring its weaknesses (I mean really, who plays IG? :P).

Hopefully, I will finish this army up in the next two months in time for the blood feud wars I will surely have with Rix's Space Wolves on their codex release. Until then, I guess the only thing to post is the many victories I will claim over Rix's Imperial Fists. :P

Diversity In Your Gaming Space

Results from the tournament are in…..I didn’t win. Not a big surprise, but I would have liked to have seen a little more details on how I placed overall. Biggest comment: I need to get out more. I defiantly felt the pain of playing against the same army over and over again in my casual games.

Game 1 – Dark Eldar
Results: Loss
This guy was really nice and fun to play against. He had an unpainted and not completely modeled army, but it didn’t bother me because he was so casual. We played a table corner kill point game. I chock this loss up to my own ignorance more than his tactical brilliance. The first thing is my setup was flawed….I completely didn’t account for dark shields. He was able to take out a lot of my anti-armor threats before he moved into range. Next was my lack of focus fire. I probably shot on 3-5 different squads in the early game, when I should have been shooting till completion. Last thing is we spent a lot of time looking up rules, and we ended up hitting the round time at turn 3. This really hurts my army, I run a shooting army so I am never going to win in one turn, I always need time to let my shooting work.
Game MVPs:

• Chosen – I caveat this by saying they never shot, and died trying to bury their noses in the ground. But regardless of their output they always sit on the board as 150 points of “Gotta Deal with Me” on a flank somewhere. They accounted for diverting half of the assaulting force just so I didn’t get around the back of my enemies transports.
• Demon Prince – He countercharged 10 Wyches and killed over half of them in two turns. Warptime >>> Lash of Submission, nuff said.
  

Poorest Performers:

• Vindicator – Taken out first turn....and it only took one shot

Game 2 – Eldar
Results: Win
He walked in thinking he was gonna lose….self-fulfilling prophesy. This was an objective based game, one in his deployment zone one in mine. I surprised myself by realizing that as an elder he could run the entire table to my objective but I would never get to his if it was far away. I set my objective as close to his as possible. I set around my objective and waited for his initial push. My game plan (for most of the tournament actually) was to wait for the first push, let it break over my shooting, then counter-push late game. He ran at me haphazardly, and I tore him up with my shooting. His striking scorpion infiltrators were murdered by noise marines, obliterators and a CSM bolter line. He then unloaded his transports with fire dragons, howling banshees, and his independent characters. Again they got murdered by shooting, mostly plasma cannons rocking on tightly packed troops. At the end, with his back broke, I secured my objective and ran a suicide run of a vindicator and a rhino to contest his.
Game MVPs:

• Obliterators – Plasma cannons rock

Poorest Performers:

• Vindicator – Scattered off with the first shot, got killed after. He seems to be underperforming.

Game 3 – Marines
Results: Win
This guy was cool, but was on the wrong end of a 20 hour gaming marathon. He played with a lot of troops, a lot of assault marines, predators and dreadnaughts. It was a dawn of war setup for kill points. I set up in a defensive position and let him come at me. By the end of the second turn I had almost my entire army was in position, he had very little on the table. As his army came on piece meal, I was able to hit his transports and force him to run. Then I was able to break him down with templates, even if the opponent is spread out, these rock. Especially when they are at least AP 3 like mine are. I broke him down till he capitulated, probably because he would have rather been sleeping, but I had him pretty much beat.
Game MVPs:

• Noise Marines – They killed transports, chopped out holes in marine squads, and then even pinned them. And that was just one weapon….when they get in close the sonic blasters are like supper bolters.
  
• Chosen – came in from the side killed fools with meltas and then locked up another squad.

Poorest Performers:

• CSM squads – Didn’t really do anything, that’s tough at 600 points total. I guess they would have done a lot more if he got closer, but you always like to see 255 of your force actually contribute.

I’m not sure if I will update this list because I doubt I will be playing a lot of 2250 lists. The only thing I am iffy about is my vindicator. He was always meant to be a close gun support on the defense or a column head on the offense. With my new wait out an attack and push later strategy I doubt that I will be using him as a column head. He seemed a little to fragile to really pump out fire support. It’s surprising because I have seen them used to great effect by other people.

Rix

Wolves on a Leash

I hate my camera...the pictures look like crap. To make maters worse I can't even get the SD card to read in my computer so I don't have any pictures to accompany this post....will work on it for next time.

My wolves are on a leash right now, at least till I get a new codex. I have a lot of changes to the force to make them viable in 5th edition, but just can't justify changing weapon and vehicle load outs till I am sure they will match the new codex. I do have some fleeting hope it will be out soon.

I went through a lot to finally get around to painting the army. I started it around 1996 and finished around 2001. But to be honest, I had a lot of drinking to do back then so its understandable. In my mind they were the quintessential 4th edition rush army. They picked a spot on the board and made everything there its bitch. They also had a smattering of other units to handle everything not in the "making-or-bitches" zone.

The army generally consisted of:

• Terminators in a Land Raider Crusader - They were mostly CC but did have an assault cannon and cyclone missile launcher
• Blood Claws in a Rhino - Three power fists and used the rhino rush, they were monsters on the charge
• Rune Priest - Interpretations vary but no-one ever convinced me that using storm caller on the charge did not let me assault first. It was game changing.
• Wolf Guard Battle Leader - Needed an extra HQ so he got termie armor and lightning claws and ran with the terminators. He has a lot of extra punch for them though.
• Grey Hunters in a Razorback - These guys were uber useful, typically they were kitted out to be a shooting force. I would run them at something outside the area of destruction (typically the enemies counter charge force) and would unload with a melta gun, 2 plasma pistols and a multi-melta from the razorback. I would then proceed to charge in. This would inevitably take that unit out for the rest of the game
• Wolf Scouts - Ah these boys were great, the enemy always forgot about them. They handled the guys that were on the opposite side of the board where I was rushing. They averaged one long range vehicle a game, well worth the 82 points
• Predator/Leman Russ Exterminator - Mildly useful as a column head or as a supporting fire base.

It was a really fun army to play.

Rix

Heavy Weapons

Over the years GW has slowly guided the imperial heavy weapons so that they each have a very specific role. This wasn't always the case but the change to melta weapons and the blast template rules have really leveled the playing field. The following are the weapons and their specific uses:

Multi-Melta - The best vehicle killer period. This will tear through vehicles even at max range but get to within 12" and you can pretty much kill any vehicle goodbye. The +1 to the damage roll allows even glancing hits to be scary. Usually they have a pretty minimal cost. It is hampered by its limited range.

Lascannon - Prioir to 5th it was the king of the battlefield. Long range and a Str 9 hit. They are pretty expensive in most codices. The Melta edged them out for pure killing power in 5th but I for one would rather be facing a tank at range and not while its barreling up on me (but of course I am not a superhuman killing machine in power armor)

Missile Launcher - Easily the most tactically flexible weapon, it can at least glance every vehicle on the battlefield. Rips through transports. And if you need some street sweeping switch over to frag and start using it to make light armored troops disappear. One of my favorites.

Plasma Cannon - Wow this got vicious in 5th edition. I remember being pissed after I modeled a devastator squad with two of them and then realized how much they sucked. Now that the blast templates hit everything they touch, it is just a monster. Emperor help a terminator squad that deepstrikes in line of site of one of these. IMO they are the best infantry killers in the game right now cause they are great for hoard but also murder space marine equivalents which is pretty hard to do.

Autocannons - Often overlooked, while not fan favorites they do have their uses. They really shine against very light armor and skimmers. Often are good when rolling hits are harder than rolling penetration (i.e. Imperial Guard). I wouldn't be racing to use them, but opening up with a couple of these on a skimmer and you are very likely to be bringing it down. Doubles as decent infantry killers in a pinch but I certainly wouldn't buy them for that.

Heavy Bolters - Ah my black sheep. Without a doubt the worst heavy weapon in the Imperium right now. You are much more likely to get three hits with a frag missile than with three shots. If your squads have them, pack them up or rip them off, cause there is absolutely no point to having them on.

The problem is that I really like the heavy bolter as a concept. Modern armies all use a squad automatic weapon (in fact in the army that's the exact name of the one we use). As an army team leader my M249 SAW was great, it put rounds downrange off the shoulder and set into a position it had a higher rate of fire than my heavy machine gun. You can bet I didn't ever let my SAW gunner get to far away from me.

So I propose a change to the Heavy Bolter. Make it the only move and shoot heavy weapon in the imperial force, but give it some punch if dug in. it would have two modes:
Shoulder Fire - 12" Str 4 Ap 5 Assault 2
Sustained Fire - 24" Str 4 Ap 5 Heavy 5

To counterbalance the obvious increase in usefulness I have reduced the range and gone back to a standard power bolt (I never believed that they were really stronger than regular bolt guns). I can be honest I would have a tough time passing this new bolt gun up. It would allow tac squads the flexibility to run and gun, and also allow for some serious kick in a gun line.

Well that's my two cents.

Rix

On Squad Composition

So I guess this is a continuation of my rants and raves about Codex Astartes. This time I mainly want to focus on squads and how they are utilized. In a typical military scenario a squad is broken into two or three elements, in the united states these are Fire Teams. Fire teams do not separate and during combat are assigned to do one thing at a time (e.g. suppressing fire, maneuver, recon, etc.). Each of these units are typically armed the same so no matter which unit is engaged you always have the right weapon.

So how would this transfer into 40k. I like how the Space Marine Codex has combat squads. I would like to see that they have some incentive to staying closer to each other. Maybe make them only count as scoring units if they are within 12" of each other. Otherwise I would like to see more consistency in the weapon loadouts, either two special weapons or two heavy weapons. I defiantly realize two heavy weapons would be OP, I do advocate a new more mobile heavy weapon (I will discuss in another post).

Another capability that modern units have is some sort of indirect fire. In today's army we use a grenade launcher or even just a thrown grenade. This allows a unit to remain in cover and still engage the enemy. I would like to see a grenade launcher type weapon as one of the special weapon choices. In older versions of 40K it was alot harder to use indirect weapons, the new rules seem to be pretty good system. I think it would be cool if we brought them back.

Rix

On Codex Astartes

So lets start this post of right and say Roboute Guilliman was an idiot. But to be fair, it wasn't really him, just that the fine people of GW have never organized a combat force. But fear not good peoples, I have. I sit here as a veteran infantryman with combat experience, and I want to talk a little about my problems with Codex Astartes.

The Codex sounds interesting, and is an attempt to give order to the idea that a Chapter is an organization of 1000 marines. But, the flaw is that it doesn't disperse its support elements correctly. Before I go down this path lets have a short discussion on warfare.

Up to World War I it was an accepted fact that wars were won and lost by the intellect of a command structure. Therefore it was necessary to place all of the capabilities at a command level. Commanders looking on to a battle from a hilltop or other vantage point would pit their intellects against other commanders and the winner was decided based on attrition. All very grand, as long as you were the commander. The problem was that wars ground to a halt as no momentum could really be gained because all orders had to be routed through a singular man.

World War II changed all that (at least in America) because it was the first time the military ever embraced the chaos of war. The theory is simple but elegant, if uncertainty and chaos is a constant in battle (and it is) then distribute your available resources at the lowest level feasible and give those commanders the authority to exploit them.

By doing this the low level commander can bring more force to bear immediately because he is the most likely to make sense of the chaos, because he is staring right at it. By doing this the high level commanders allow momentum to be gained and can focus their time on directing more resources to maintain that momentum. The trick to it is to give the low level commanders enough support elements that he can utilize them efficiently while not straining the logistics train (i.e. giving a tank to infantry company who can't carry the tools needed to maintain it).

The next important thing to discuss is the common engagement level. This is really about how your commanders send you out to fight. Typically when you deploy to an area to conduct combat operations you have a unit in reserve, a unit in defense and a maneuver unit. In today's army this is realistically a company (although an argument could be made for a platoon). The three elements described above are platoons and the commander has heavy weapons in reserve, typically mortars and tank busters for light infantry. The important thing is that the commander of the common engagement level force has the capability to conduct operations for an extended period of time and deal with all likely enemies.

So how is the Codex Astartes organized? Well it is organized like the whole chapter is the common engagement level. All of its heavy support (predators, vindicators, whirlwinds, and land raiders) are in the armory, all of its siege specialists (veterans and terminators are in the first company), and all of its reserves (the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th companies) are organized into training companies. Well this is great, but the reality is that chapters rarely go to battle together. So more often than not, if a lower level commander can use a special weapon or unit....its all the way back with the chapter commander.

I submit to you that the proper way to organize your force is by the battle companies. Every battle company should deploy as a single unit and have all of the tools needed at their disposal. If it were up to me a company would be organized as such:

1 Commander
1 Librarian
1 Chaplain
1 HQ squad
1 Veteran Squad
1 Scout Squad
2 Devastator Squads
2 Assault Squads
4 Tactical Squads
2 Dreadnoughts
3 Predators
1 Vindicator
1 Whirlwind
1 Land Raider

There would be ten of them in a chapter and they would deploy as a single unit.

If you look at that the funny part is that it conforms much closer to what you expect to see if you go up against a sizable force. Lets be honest you would never expect to go up against a company and not see some of the heavier vehicles and some terminators. It is also a much more tactically flexible army, you can actually use scouts as scouts, and not some weird training company that never sees any action.

So some counters to some obvious questions you might have:

1. Yes, it might have made more sense when they were fighting as a legion, but when the Codex Astartes was written it was meant to be a guide on how to break up the legions into Chapters
2. Yes I do totally buy into the idea that marines are actually more badass in the fluff than in the game and therefore operate at the squad level instead of the company level (e.g. Legion and Brotherhood of the Snake). This is geared the game.
3. Is there anyone who actually does this right? In all their wisdom the only ones I have seen are the Space Wolves. Take that Ultramarines...trying to tell me what to do.

OK I think that's enough for now. For tomorrow, either I break out my camera and start showing you my armies or I talk about how I would organize a tactical squad.

Rix