Blindsided by Awesomeness

Alrighty then. I'm now pretty committed to painting and completing this Imperial Fists army. And I'm not sure it will just be Ebay fodder anymore. I think I'll actually keep it for my own personal army and do the Imperial Guard after I do this one. I WILL still do the Imperial Guard Cadian army... just not right now. I've been sucked into Space Marines again.... because they're too awesome for me to ignore. Damn it.

So I've got this army list that I think is pretty awesome. Its kind of themed around minimal squads in transports with a bit of character backup. One thing about armies that I design - I don't like to paint or collect a large number of models. I've always been a fan of low model count, high points cost armies and this one is no different. I find working on more than a few of any certain type of model tedious and I get bored. When I get bored, I'm way less likely to finish a project. With that in mind, I've decided to create an army that's constitutent units are as diverse as possible, while still being effective.

Here's the list. What do you think?

HQ
Space Marine Captain - Power Sword, Storm Shield - 130pts
Librarian - Epistolary with Avenger and Vortex of Doom, Terminator Armor with Storm Shield - 190pts

These guys are in the army partially for the cool factor, and partially to take advantage of their wargear to help their squadmates. The Captain will be very resilient with his storm shield, and will ignore armor saves with his power sword, so I'm thinking he'll act as a little bit of backup to the Tactical Squad and ride with them in the Razorback in case they get stuck in against some close combat foes. The Librarian will ride shotgun in the Land Raider Crusader with the Terminators. Not only will his Storm Shield allow him to take any plasma or lascannon shots than may injure the squad (a 5+ save just doesn't cut it when you only have 5 terminators), but his psychic powers, Avenger and Vortex of Doom, make him a character that nobody in their right mind will want to be even remotely near (for the most part).

Troops
Tactical Squad - Sergeant with Combi-Plasma, Razorback with T.L. Assault Cannon and Storm Bolter - 185pts
Scout Squad - Sergeant Draggo (counts as Telion), 4 sniper rifles - 125pts
Scout Squad - Sergeant with Power Fist, 3 Shotguns, Heavy Bolter - 110pts

The Tactical Squad's job is to rush toward any objective being held by enemy troops, gun them down with the Razorback, then get out and gun them down more with their Boltguns! I think people really under estimate how effective 5 Boltguns can be inside 12 inches on just about any unit that's not in power armor... but I digress. The first Scout Squad will be there to simply camp on a home objective and shoot at infantry that looks important. Telion gives the whole squad Stealth, which is awesome, and his ability to choose which model in an enemy squad is hit by his ranged attacks is very useful but seldom used. Warlock? Goodnight! Nob? Tough, but killable. I lookforward to using this unit. The second Scout Squad is going to be hanging out inside the Land Speeder Storm! Their job is to outflank! Why, you might ask? Well, wouldn't it be REALLY annoying if you were an Imperial Guard or Tau player and an outflanking Land Speeder suddenly showed up, deployed Scouts with a *power fist!* that go about destroying your artillery, whilst the Land Speeder shoots up an Infantry or Fire Warriors Squad. The Power Fist is something I've never seen anyone else take in a Scout Squad, but I'm interested in how it will work out at surprising vehicles that are sitting on the outskirts of a battle. They'll also be useful in zooming over to an objective to claim in quickly in the end game!

Elites
Terminator Squad - Heavy Flamer, Land Raider Crusader with Multi-Melta - 465pts

These guys are pretty badass. Their job will be to lay waste to enemy heavy infantry or vehicles, plain and simple. The Land Raider will get them there whilst dealing out its own punishment, and the Termies will get out of their ride, shooting and burning even MORE, and then they'll assault, doing even more damage! Not a lot of foes can stand against a charge of Terminators. Especially when the Librarian will be hanging with them too!

Fast Attack
Land Speeder Storm - 50pts
Scout Biker Squad - Sergeant with Astartes Grenade Launcher, Cluster Mines

One of the must under utilized units in the entire Space Marine army. Its job will be to zip the Scouts around the table so they don't get overwhelmed by enemies! It can be used as a mobile firebase for the scouts inside as well. They'll be safe and secure inside, firing heavy bolter rounds at Tyranid Warriors, while eating tea and crumpets, secure in the knowledge that the enemy has to destroy the Land Speeder first before thinking about damaging they themselves. The Scout Bikers are just pretty funny to use because of their Cluster Mines. They pretty much allow you to booby trap a piece of terrain on the battlefield so that when the enemy moves into the area they get themselves exploded. The Astartes Grenade Launcher is also pretty decent at threatening light vehicles, as well as shreddifying weak infantry like Kroot or Guardsmen.

Heavy Support
Devastator Squad - Sergeant with Combi-Melta, Lascannon, Missile Launcher - 150pts

Now, a lot of you just looked at that Dev squad and said "hmm... why take a basic 5-man squad? Why not a 10-man squad? And why not give them the maximum 4 heavy weapons to the squad? Ablative wounds, that's why. Since I really want to use minimal squads, it doesn't make sense to me to take 4 heavy weapons, because if the squad takes hits on the first turn, I end up losing something important before I can even fire a shot. This way the squad can absorb a couple of wounds without the loss of any of those important big guns! It's the same reasoning that people use when they max out the heavy weapons and then max out the number of marines in the squad to protect those big guns.... just on a smaller scale. Also, obviously, this squad is here to hunt vehicles of all kinds. The options for the Missile Launcher to fire Frag Missiles also makes them somewhat effective against infantry is they end up killing all the tanks they see! :)

And that's the list. All told, it rings in at exactly 1,500 points, which happens to be my personal favorite points level to play. I can do 2,000 once in a while, but I rarely have the patience to play more than one. Maybe I'm getting old or something.

Anyway, let me know what you think of the list.

~Mr. Bad Guy~