Totally Fluffy World Eater List Two (Point Five)

Well, here we are again sportsfans, this time to create a simple variant that doesn't want to use Astorath and his Death Company, rather than to fix a mistake or two as last time.  ;)

Shockingly, the World Eaters are a Legion I've always quite liked...though I wouldn't really call myself much of a fan of Khorne.  I mean, I like the whole 'Throne of Skulls', 'Blood for the Blood God' stuff, but still not truly a fan.  Tzeentch has long been my favourite God in their pantheon - and the Thousand Sons for the longest time my favourite Traitor Legion.  Sadly, their steep decline in power, coupled with my 4e Death Guard army overtook them...then of course we have a rather magnificent piece of Graham McNeill writing about the Emperor's Children, and it rekindles my long-forgot emotions for the turmoil of the proudest, reduced to the debased scum they are now...

All in all, I would rather have a Pre-Heresy World Eaters force than Berzerkers to the rafter, but I don't really fancy painting white tanks.  The extreme irritation of painting yellow is a large reason why my Imperial Fists have never truly gotten off the ground, and white would be even worse.  Enough babble, on with the list!



Right, well, we are going to be in a swarm of Rhinos advancing at the foe for this list, so we need cheap Rhinos, CC power, Meltaguns a plenty, and Shield of Sanguinius...er...Khorne.

Since Rhinos merely have a capacity of 10 (boo!) we are going to struggle to get trips Melta inside our rides.  That's a bit of an issue, tbh.  Given the inferiority of an Infernus Pistol compared to a Meltagun, especially for drive-by shooting, we are probably going to have to settle for not using Sanguinary Priests, which means any Chalices we desire are going to have to be attained through Honour Guard use.  Not a bad thing, but perhaps it will eat up too many points.  In addition, it also removes the fun of using Sternguard in this kind of list, due to cost.  For now, let's run with the theory that HG will be afforded at some stage, and begin like before, with 3 of these:

Assault Squad -
Meltagun, Meltagun, Infernus Pistol, Rhino - 240

With that basis of 30 Power Armour bodies, we can move on to the double Libby we will require...

Librarian:
Shield, Sword, - 100

From there, we see an issue straight away.  No rides for the Libbies.  If we put them in with the Honour Guard, they're MUCH too obvious a target for their survivability.  Maybe we can get creative?

Librarian:
Shield, Sword, Jump Pack - 125

Much better.  Now they can hide behind the advancing rhino wall, a la Mephiston, only this time they actually benefit the units they hide behind, instead of the rest of the army almost being an expensive delivery system.

With those out of the way, we need something to advance behind...while a 5++ is all very well and fine, it only makes AV11 a bit more survivable, not a ton.  We need screening, and for that we require higher AV.  We have 5 options in Codex:BA;
Land Raider variants;
Predators;
Baal Predators;
Stormravens;
Vindicators.

Neither Raiders nor Ravens are of much use in this army, nor indeed in this role, nowadays.  Preponderance of Autocannon and Las deals very easily with AV12, and Raiders are so vulnerable to Melta it stops being funny, and then starts being funny all over again.  Vindicators suffer from a host of issues that I hopefully don't even need to spell out, so that leaves us with the Predator variants.

Essentially, they provide radically different things to the list (or, indeed, ANY list) so it is worth a brief overview of each.

Predators offer the opportunity for some ranged support,m some medium or heavy anti-tank, and a modicum of anti-infantry on a largely infantry-proof platform.  They operate best at range, which allows them to maximise their only good facing, and to avoid the threat of Melta fire.  Where survival of the predator is less of a concern than it's charges, ramming them down the throat of the enemy is rather effective too.

Baal Predators offer a player a veritable all-you-can-eat barbeque of enemy infantry, and offer a (very) small dessert of potential anti-tank.  That said, the duality that is avialable from this unit is MUCH less than it's generic counterpart.  They operate best at close range, with short-ranged weaponry that often allows more mobile enemy firepower easy opportunities to destroy the Baal before it has a chance to shine.  The Baal benefits from it's Fast engine much more than it's Heavy Support doppelganger, to the point where I would suggest without fast engines the Baal would be worse than useless.  Having the Scout rule allows for a variety of Deployment 'Tricks' and helps you to shut down/counter the enemy's. Operating at short ranges also makes this vehicle vulnerable to its targets, both from Melta and from assaults.

Well, there's our overview.  Overall, the duality and utility of the regular Predator is hard to get away from, while the Scout moves could prove very useful indeed as a horribly expensive distraction.  I think I will settle, for now, for two of the lovely regular Predator.  I should point out at this stage the Opportunity Cost, too.  For Predators, the main 'loss' is Riflemen.  For Baals, Land Speeders and, for BA only, Attack Bikes. [Of course, only BA get Baals, my point being how much superior they are in this Dex to Vanilla.]

Predator:
Autocannon, Lascannons - 135

With those, we have now spent 1240, by my reckoning.  We don't really have much in the way of range, or supporting fire, but we have a solid-ish core.  Assuming we will manage to get the FnP from somewhere, let's take 3 solo Attack Bikes, for now.

Attack Bike:
Multi-melta. - 50

Those add a decent bit of anti-tank, albeit not exactly long ranged.  Dark Eldar would rip us a new one.  :( Well, they always could.  Moving on.

Honour Guard:
Chalice, 3 Meltaguns, Rhino - 195

Obviously, we need two of those.  So far, this gives us 5 Rhino chassis, and 2 Predators to screen, with 3 solo ABs running interference, and 2 Libbies flying around behind occasionally smoking wrecks.  With all that, we don't really have a 'beater' unit.  We have no real linchpin, but in a bad way.  While the disparate elements of the list have a great deal of synergy, they don't necessarily get the job done...so it's time to turn to a tactic the World Eaters would gleefully have employed many times - a Raptor Swoop.  In order to effect this, we require some Vanguard Veterans.  We have, to get them, a remaining 220 points, so we should actually be able to effect this...

Vanguard Veterans:
Jump Packs, Thunder Hammer, 2 Power Weapons, 2 Meltabombs - 220

That makes the full list:

Librarian:

Shield, Sword, Jump Pack - 125

Librarian:

Shield, Sword, Jump Pack - 125

Honour Guard:

Chalice, 3 Meltaguns, Rhino - 195

Honour Guard:

Chalice, 3 Meltaguns, Rhino - 195

Assault Squad - 

Meltagun, Meltagun, Infernus Pistol, Rhino - 240

Assault Squad - 

Meltagun, Meltagun, Infernus Pistol, Rhino - 240

Assault Squad - 

Meltagun, Meltagun, Infernus Pistol, Rhino - 240

Attack Bike:

Multi-melta. - 50

Attack Bike:

Multi-melta. - 50

Attack Bike:

Multi-melta. - 50

Predator:

Autocannon, Lascannons - 135

Predator:

Autocannon, Lascannons - 135

Vanguard Veterans:

Jump Packs, Thunder Hammer, 2 Power Weapons, 2 Meltabombs - 220

Oh...damn.  That's 4 Fast Attacks.  Curses!  Well, best way around that is to trade the 3 Attack Bikes for 2 HF/MM Speeders, save ten points, and use that to put a Hand Flamer in the VVets...though I'm honestly not 100% happy with this list, it's pretty solid, no?