Spirit in the Sky - Star Phantoms

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Warhammer 40,000 – I really love the Badab War books. 

Oh I suppose that's not much of an article now is it? The amount of cool stuff included in those books is just amazing. Taking the characters or chapter tactics included in the update make them even better because you get such a wide variety of cool themes to build lists that give you a benefit for doing so. 

The idea of a rapid response orbital task force is appealing to me. The concept behind the Star Phantoms chapter tactics is pretty cool. More accurate deepstriking reserve rolls paired with a turn of twin-linking almost all your weapons is pretty cool. This totally comes off as something that should be an all drop pod/teleporting army that dishes out the pain when they land. 

Of course when I look at their special character, Captain Zhurukhal Androcles, who is captain of the devastator company I see something very different. A ground based force rolling in heavy armor maneuvering to set up that perfect turn of shooting to make bes use of the twin-linking.

I've come up with two pretty fun 2,000 point lists using this character that might be really fun to play. I'm not sure how fun they'll be to play against but hopefully they'll hold their own in my current meta.

Here's the first list that I think really captures what the master of the Devastator Company should be leading to war:

  • HQ - Captain Androcles
  • TROOP - (5) Scouts Sniper Rifles
  • TROOP - (5) Scouts Shotguns in a Landspeeder Storm
  • ELITE - (5) Devastators w/4 Lascannon in Razorback w/twin linked lascannon
  • ELITE - (5) Devastators w/4 Heavy Bolter in Razorback w/twin linked lascannon
  • ELITE - (5) Devastators w/4 Plasma Cannon in Razorback w/twin linked lascannon 
  • HEAVY - Land Raider Achillies
  • HEAVY - (3) Centurions w/ grav-cannon in landraider
  • HEAVY - (3) Centurions w/ grav-cannon

 

I ran this list against a Grey Knight army and decimated my opponent as they dropped in all around me. The grav-weapons make a huge impact against terminators to start with and twin-linking them for a turn made many little grey men disappear.

My second idea with these is to use them with a Imperial Knight detachment to really bring the pain, 2000 points gives a good starting point for what I like to call the Iron Storm. (insert maniacal laugh here)

 

Primary Combined Arms Detachment: Star Phantoms

  • HQ - Captain Zhruhkal Androcles
  • TROOP - (5) Tactical Marines in Razorback with heavy flamer and hunter killer
  • TROOP - (5) Tactical Marines in Razorback with twin linked lascannon
  • ELITE - (5) Devastator Marines (2) lascannon
  • ELITE - (5) Devastator Marines (3) multimelta in drop pod
  • HEAVY - Landraider Achilles
  • HEAVY - Thunderfire Cannon
  • HEAVY - Whirlwind

 

Oathsworn Imperial Knight Detachment

  • LoW - Knight Crusader, Avenger Cannon, Rapid Fire Battle Cannon, Stormspear Rocket Pod
  • LoW - Knight Paladin, Rapid Fire Battle Cannon, Reaper Chainsword

 If I can get time to put my second knight together I think this will be really fun to play. It's also going to look pretty amazing on the table. I should be able to deal with hordes with the amount of templates I can drop and the droppod should get me close to eliminate any threat early on. I should be able to crack most armor with three multimelta shots. I like them better than their little brother because when you drop in 12" is better than 6".