[lthalle]

The goal of this army list is to provide a rather minimal and simple base list to grow the army out of, as well as offering enough versatility to handle any comers one might expect to see at 500 point skirmishes. Now, I'm coming back to this game from having last played mid-5th edition. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the armies I haven't looked at can throw curve balls at me that will screw this list up and require revisions (I've only popped down to my local GW to peruse the IG codex and the actual 7e rulebook). Of course, I intend to actually buy the books once I have some idea of the army I'm going to build.

Without further ado, the list!

Leman Russ Punisher 210
1x Knight Commander Pask

Veteran Squad 135
1x Chimera Dedicated Transport (Bolter), 1x Autocannon

Veteran Squad 135
1x Chimera Dedicated Transport (Bolter), 1x Autocannon

TOTAL 480

The remaining 20 points I'm undecided on. The two main candidates are Heavy Bolter sponsons on the tank (I'm afraid that might be putting too many eggs in one basket), or Meltaguns on the vet squads (I'm hesitant, because they could often be out of range or lack a meaningful target to hit with it). Of course, I'm open to other suggestions too.

Admittedly it's a short list, and I don't have the means to playtest it. However, the generous firepower of the Pasknisher should be more than enough to chew up light armor and chump infantry that would be fielded at this value. The Veterans with their autocannons should additionally be beneficial in pumping lead into whatever big nasties anyone could have in store, or of course just bursting squads down with las-fire if worst comes to worst. Really, the big selling point of the list to me is that a Leman Russ should be rather hard to deal with effectively in a 500 point game.

If expanded to 1000 points, which I plan on doing later, I'd probably fill the points with additional veteran squads, carapace armor, better veteran weapons, and upgrading the Pasknisher to have a squadron of some other Leman Russ archetypes behind him. (maybe the autocannon variant?).

 

[ntaw]

Pask has to be taken with at least one Leman Russ squadron mate, otherwise you'd have the beginnings of a beautiful list. Pask + mate is likely going to be ~400 points depending on selections and upgrades.

 

[lthalle]

Ohhhh I see. I missed the squadron rule when I was browsing originally. I suppose taking a pimped out tank as an HQ unit in low-point games WAS too good to be true, huh? (Although, technically punisher+exterminator+pask is legal and is only 340 points, which you could augment with some very basic footslogging veterans if you wanted to be cheeky about it).

Since Pask frees up like 70 points if he goes away, how does replacing him with a Lord Commissar sound? And slapping the guy onto one of the Vet squads. The Chimeras can hold him, and i still have enough points to at least field the basic tank. The list would then look something like this:

Lord Commissar 90
Carapace Armor, Emperor's Benediction, Power Sword

Leman Russ Punisher 140

Veteran Squad 135
1x Chimera Dedicated Transport (Bolter), 1x Autocannon

Veteran Squad 135
1x Chimera Dedicated Transport (Bolter), 1x Autocannon

TOTAL 500

On the dot. I could drop the Wargear upgrades from the LC sans Carapace if I wanted to instead slap some Bolter sponsons on the Punisher. Alternatively, I could also consider fielding an Exterminator russ instead (since I'll be working with less BS and no rend), in which case I'd drop the power sword and definitely give the tank Bolter sponsons. The extra 5 points could be spend uh... somewhere.

 

[lthalle]

Bonus round:

Just for fun and perhaps in deciding what archetype I want to go with, I threw together a 500 pt blob list as well. This would be much more expensive to construct, however.



Company Command Squad 130
Chimera Dedicated Transport (Bolter)
Carapace Armor (Commander only)

Infantry Platoon 235
Platoon Command Squad
Infantry Squad
Infantry Squad
Heavy Weapons Squad
-Lascannon x3

Infantry Platoon 130
Platoon Command Squad
Infantry Squad
Infantry Squad

TOTAL 495

Strategy: Heavy weapons squad sits in cover and snipes anything particularly spooky with lascannon shots. If there's something I absolutely need to take down, the platoon can chill for a round or two to give me time to use Bring it Down! on the weapons team. If all its doing is taking pot shots at the commander or something, it can just sit in a building somewhere and try not to die.

Platoons move up with combined 20 man infantry squads to engage whatever seems like it need to get flashlight'd. Main focus will be platoon commanders using FRFSRF, with the chimera-bound command squad either backing up the attempt if an order fails, or adding in fun stuff like ignore cover/pinning if they have spare orders left over.

I'd like to get commissars in the list but it seems like a luxury at this point. If I wanted to be cheeky I could always do something like 5x meltagun on the command squad and drop the heavy weapons squad entirely, for a net gain of something like 50 points that lets me put two commissars in the infantry squads and stops me from losing half my army to a failed morale check.

I might as well also ask while I'm here: Is there any reliable place to get servitor models/guardsmen with meltaguns? I can't find any servitors anywhere and if I run mech I'd like to run techpriests. I know you can buy meltaguns on GW website, but it's ridiculously expensive (since it's a bundle, it'd be something like $80 for 5 meltas and 5 plasma guns). The only thing I can think of is some kind of conversion of space marine meltaguns, since those come 2 to a tac squad if I remember right and clever converting could make it viable.

 

[ntaw]

Lord Commissar 90
Carapace Armor, Emperor's Benediction, Power Sword

Leman Russ Punisher 140

Veteran Squad 135
1x Chimera Dedicated Transport (Bolter), 1x Autocannon

Veteran Squad 135
1x Chimera Dedicated Transport (Bolter), 1x Autocannon

TOTAL 500

The only thing I don't like is snap shots for the Autocannon whenever the Chimera moves. Would you be interested in dropping the Chimeras for points? You could give them Forward Sentries for extra staying power out of their metal boxes.

Company Command Squad 130
Chimera Dedicated Transport (Bolter)
Carapace Armor (Commander only)

Infantry Platoon 235
Platoon Command Squad
Infantry Squad
Infantry Squad
Heavy Weapons Squad
-Lascannon x3

Infantry Platoon 130
Platoon Command Squad
Infantry Squad
Infantry Squad

TOTAL 495

One note on this list, those Lascannons are going to be useless if there's no armour (which is a total crap-shoot for predictability with small Detachments/Formations at this points level) or easily picked off being a separate squad if there is. Are you aware of any of the things you might be facing as you get back into the game?

As a side note, I've noticed in my playings of Guard recently that mixed infantry and tank armies are less effective than all infantry or all mech armies. The only exception to this was when I took a 1500 point all-mech army and allied with a buddy's 1500 point all infantry army and we mashed up 3k in Eldar like boiled potatoes.

 

[lthalle]

Given my overarching scheme for higher point values, I decided to take Meltavets instead of Autocannons. That means I have to pull 40 points out of somewhere on the list (most obvious choice is to free up 20 on the Commissar).

I could have one squad footslog and have one in the chimera with the Commissar, which would give me all the points I need for Melta Vets with Carapace so long as I also ditch the wargear on the Commissar and take HB Sponsons on the Russ to replace it. after some mental math, that comes out to be back to 500 points. Only problem is that I don't exactly know how useful footslogging meltavets are, but that's what I'm going to be building since they're the core of a 1000 pt list.

How about a compromise that's something more or less entirely different:

Lord Commissar 65

Basilisk 125

Veteran Squad 155
1x Chimera Dedicated Transport (Bolter), 3x Meltagun

Veteran Squad 155
1x Chimera Dedicated Transport (Bolter), 3x Meltagun

TOTAL 500

This list incorporates a lovely amount of anti-infantry power with the Basilisk and heavy bolters on the Chimera. combined with (of course) a whallop for any monstrous creatures, vehicles, or scary HQ choices they may come across from the Meltavets. The Commissar is there as... well, the mandatory HQ choice. About as expensive as a Command Squad but at least he can make sure whichever unit he's in doesn't get popped by morale.

 

[iJakov]

I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but I've been wanting to run this list at 500pts.

CCS 60

2x Vets 120

LR Executioner 185
HB
Plasma Sponsons

2x Wyvern 130

leaves you 5 points for wargear, i'd go Carapace for the commander probably.
Edit: hit enter early