Thursday 19 November 2015

Renegades Of Vraks


I started putting together and playing a Renegade army a couple of years after Forge World introduced them.  The models are amazing and the ability to combine certain Imperial Guard and Chaos factions was just to good to pass up.  Good in a painting, modeling and fluff sense but when it came to the table they were never the be all end all of armies.

My first thoughts of how this army should be fielded from a story sense was lots of bodies being herded into the fight by master puppeteers, the Chaos Space Marines.  That is originally how I started building them and playing them.  Lots of bodies with as many heavy weapons as I could field.  We also can't forget the much feared Chemical Mortars.  These things were amazing.  My opponent would see me pull them out of my army case and always wonder as to why I could possibly have wanted to put mortars into my list.  Mortars weren't that great back then.  Little did they know that for a small points increase I could turn these terrible "hoard" killing guns into AP 3 marine killing nightmares.  Once I fired (and hit) with these babies it was game on and they were the biggest target for my opponent.  To all Renegade players dismay though the chemical mortars have been left out of the new army lists.

With the release of the Imperial Armour 13 book and subsequent re-release of Imperial Armour 5 Siege of Vraks I started re-thinking how I wanted to run my army. Horde armies are harder to play with now a days, especially in the tournament scene, and can be a bit unwieldy to play with because they take some time to move around the table.  Tank armies are fun but we all know that a tank can be taken apart with one lucky shot.  With these two things being considered, oh and I can't forget my love of Zombies, I decided to build an artillery heavy army with cheap bodies for cannon fodder.  Imperial Armour 13 kind of let me build this list and it was fun to try out for a couple of months but the introduction of "Ordnance Tyrant" in IA 5 sealed the deal.  The Demagogue Devotion "Ordnance Tyrant" allows me to field multiple Heavy Weapon choices as either Troop or Elite choices.  Couple that with The Purge Formation in IA5 I can have 8 Elite and 4 Heavy Weapon choices in one army chosen from Renegades and Chaos Space Marines.  Beautiful!  This gives me everything I've ever wanted from a renegade list.  But wait!  That's not all.  Ordnance Tyrant also allows me to target my own models when firing certain weapons!  Say it aint so!  Finally we have an army that can target it's own people and it makes bloody sense!

However, the Purge detachment isn't perfect.  There are no Fast slots and we all know that's where a lot of the CSM power tends to come from.  That means it's going to be a bit harder to get some air power in the list unless we take allies and some tournaments wont allow you to ally with yourself.

So with all of this in mind and to keep the list set to be played in any tournament that allows Forge World this is what I have come up with.  I'll look at some Pro's and Con's after.

HQ:
1. Mamon Incarnate
2. Renegade Command Squad
    - Banner of Hate
    - Command Net Vox
    - Arch-Demagogue (Warlord) Ordnance Tyrant with the Covenant of Nurgle
    - Chimera with front mounted Heavy Flamer

Elite:
1. Renegade Blight Drone
2. Renegade Heavy Ordnance Battery
    - 2 Medusa Seige Guns with 4 crew a piece
3. Renegade Artillery Battery
    - 2 Basilisks with front mounted Heavy Flamers
4. Ferrum Infernus Chaos Dreadnought with Multi-Melta, CCW, mark of Nurgle and Lord of the             Long War upgrade.
    - He's riding in a Dreadclaw Drop Pod

Troops:
1. Renegade Field Artillery
    - 3 Quad Launchers with 3 crew a piece
2. Plague Zombie Mob x 25
3. Plague Zombie Mob x 25

Heavy:
1. Renegade Leman Russ Battle Tank with Heavy Bolter side sponsons and front mounted Heavy           Flamer.
2. Renegade Leman Russ Battle Tank with front mounted Heavy Flamer.
3. 3 Renegade Rapier Laser Destroyer with 2 crew a piece and Militia Training.

Fortifications:
1. Aegis Defense Line

With this list I am dropping 12 small templates and 7 large templates with varying strengths and AP's a turn.  The Zombies are there to protect and to basically hold things in place while I shell them.  Because this list is so static I wanted to add something with a little more maneauverability so I added the Dreadnought in Drop Pod and Mamon.  Mamon because he is in the Vraks story as an integral character and his stat line is pretty great.  He's also a daemon so I can drop him in anywhere.  The Dreadnought in Drop Pod will give me a late game attack piece that I can use where needed and if he explodes I have a chance at a free Daemon Prince.  I was pretty torn between using a Dreadnought or Chosen.  I was thinking of either Melta totting Chosen or Flamers with shred.  The other thing I'm lacking is objective scoring units.  That will be an interesting one to overcome.

So what do you guys think?  Am I totally off base here or does this look as gross and fun to play as I think it is?  Is it worth taking this in a Purge Detachment?  Also, anything glaring that you can see that I should consider dropping or adding?

3 comments:

  1. I really like this list. It's super "fluffy" and has got some serious teeth. You are going to run into some problems though.

    As you mentioned, you have issues with objective taking. You have no highly mobile units with the exception of the dread claw and the blight drone, and they will not be able to hold objectives if they are flying and will most likely get shot down once they hover simply because.
    Once the Infernus and Mamon land they are relegated to 6" per move and Mamon can't run.

    Ironically enough, your strength will become a liability if you face Dark Eldar, one of the weakest armies in the game. All their poison will eat right through you high T artillery. Good thing they suck and no one plays them. Their sleek looking twins on the other hand will do a number on you. Their jet bikes move way too fast for your zombies to get them and they will be able to spread out to minimize the damage of your blasts. Warp spiders are also a nightmare for you being able to jump away when you target them. Thankfully your reach is long and will usually still be able to hit them.

    Battle company on the other hand... I'm pretty sure you will be able to smash that one. Marines typically load up on grav weapons, which are all but useless against your low armour army. You have the high S to take out all the rhinos and enough AP3 to take out all the marine bodies.

    And if you can smash a Battle company i'm pretty sure you could smash about half the armies you come up against. I'm not sure how many points this army is, or how many points each unit is, but you may want to consider a couple changes to get in some special weapons and a little more direct damage and mobility.

    As bad ass as Mamon looks, I think he's a point sink for this list. He is quite a few points that could buy a whole unit in a chimera. I'm not sure if you had any greater plans with him other than "He's a tough beatstick".
    The Blight drone is in a similar situation. With all the template's your throwing around you may not miss his 1. However, in my last tournament I played with 2 and they were my MVP's in every game not because they could kill infantry but because they can kill flying tyrants and their flamer template ignores cover. It sucks at taking out other flyers however and if someone comes with a couple of those, you could also be in trouble.

    I really want to know how this list does in a couple games and who you played against.

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    Replies
    1. Yeah DE and poison will be a bit of an issue but at least the arty comes with a somewhat decent save. Im sure Eldar will also be a problem but when havent they lately.

      Battle Company is a no brainer. I've played against something similar before and as long as a decent amount of my templates hit i'll do ok. With only having a BS of 2 it can be a real problem hitting things with this army.

      Mamon isn't just there for his stats, although they are good. At 220 he is a bit pricey but I wanted something I could deep strike into my enemies deployment zone or my own if im in trouble that's hard to kill and will divert some a decent amount of attention away from my main lines. I could easily get a Chimera in there with a few guys but is the Chimera with 5 guys totting one special weapon or possibly 10 totting 2 at BS 2 worth it? I'm not sold. Because its cheap I could possibly add a Chimera with a few guys to hold objectives and a deep striking melta squad. My issue is im looking for big threats to make my opponents have to change their game plan. I don't know if a single chimera with some guard in it will do that. A guy with GUO stats and an AP 3 poison 2+ flamer just might.

      As for the Blight Drone I love that guy. I would actually drop Mamon and add another if I had a second. Its not great to combat other flyers but at least it could and I am definitely lacking in that respect and whether flying or hovering that 2+ jink is great. As for the blast, I would miss it because picking up that large template a fifth time is better than just picking it up 4 times.

      At this point I think I'd like to play test this list a bit but you have some solid points and I may have to consider dropping Mamon for anti-air and objective grabbing units.

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    2. Oh and the list comes in at 1850pts.

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