Topic: 1850 pt Tank Heavy Biel Tan

[Culeagh]

Farseer with Jetbike, mind war, spear [103]

10 Dire Avengers with Exarch, powersword, distract
Serpent with Starcannons and spirit stones. [287]

2x 5 Dire Avengers
2x Serpents with starcannons and spirit stones [390]

2x 5 Fire Dragons with Exarch, Firepike
2x Serpents with lances and spirit stones. [498]

3 Dark Reapers [111]

3 Rangers [57]

2 Falcons with EML, stones/holo, vect. [400]

Low model count (37), but lots of tanks (7). The Aspect Squads might or might not begin embarked, depending on wether or not I can move forward and shoot with them first turn or not. If not they'll fleet of foot behind the tanks and shoot something when it comes in range so they don't get downed with the tanks. Tank shock is also a big option for when I lose weapons and/or get shaken.

I have had suggestions to drop all Aspect Warriors and replace them with minimum sized Guardian Squads not sure what I'd spend the saved points on if I actually did that...
Happy Hunting

[Draza]

*Place the two dire avenger squads together, and give the other wave serpent to the dark reapers.

This force is unusual. Definetly weird. I doubt your ability to kill a lot of models with this army. SM maybe, DE or IG, definetly not. This army cannot kill a lot a turn, so be wary. It's not balanced, it reminds me of armoured company. Just pray you don't have to faith a monolith. Also be wary of people getting mad at you, assault squads won't achieve much against you.

[PureShenanigans]

You should combine the 2 5 man dire avenger squads into one WS and free up points for a squad of scorpions.  You need a way to take on mass models and scorpions are a great way.  Put a farseer with fortune in the squad and you can hold whole armies off indefinetly. 
I don't really think you need the dark reaper or the rangers in this army.
Drop those and flesh out some squads
You need some scorpions in there somewhere.

[Culeagh]

Drop those and flesh out some squads

To be perfectly frank, I have the small squads just to get at the Serpents. I actually considered using five man guardian squads just to save lots of points and still get at the tanks but felt that was pushing it too far.

The Avengers are split so that they are two seperate targets capable of engaging two seperate enemies. I don't have a lot of assets so I need flexibility. Besides, in a cleanse these guys can hide out and hold two table quarters.

If the reapers or rangers need a ride during the battle there are the two falcon gunships. The Avengers get serpents because they have short range guns and will need fast transport more than a 48" range heavy weapons team.

I've got enough guns to knock out most infantry units very quickly and the mobility to capitalize on the cleared areas. That's the plan anyway, it'll probably change as soon as I encounter the enemy. Anything I can't reasonably waste in a good shooting phase get's tank shocked a couple of times before I begin shooting.

Armored company isn't exactly what I'm going for but its close enough. I was going for a rapid response tank division with infantry more than anything. I've got lots of tanks and I like to use them. I'm bored with hand-to-hand combat. Twenty Scorpions and a handful of Banshees plus lots Avengers and Dragons have been a staple of my armies for quite a while. I want something that will be different for me and a challenge to general. Not really sure if it will actually be a challenge, but we will see.

As to making people mad, I am sorry about that. It's all perfectly legal and can even be considered fluffy for a Biel Tan army, depending on how you look at it. Most people I play will have fun against it given that we usually play scenarios rather than just try to kill the other guy. Assault squads can kiss my armor 12 ass.

Happy Hunting

[Paraplegic_Avatar]

I respect that you're not doing this primarily to win, and that you actually consider this list as a tactical challenge, as most newbs will make a list like this assuming it to be undefeatable. As for fluff, at least you have the dire avengers in there. But, with those squad sizes, they will not have enough impact. I know; 'they're just there so I can get the serpent'. But, if you're gonna claim fluff, stick with it. Do you really think the exarchs in the court at beil tan are sitting there discussing how they need to recruit just a few more dire avengers so they can justify another wave serpent on the field? No; they'd likely be thinking how they can cram a few more dire avengers into the wave serpents. Stick with that line of thinking.

I'd suggest 4 or 5 FULL groups of dire avengers, only one of which has an exarch. Consider all of the dire avenger squads to be under his tutilage. Have you ever seen two or three full squads of DA's drop off and start spraying the same enemy squad with shurikens? Holy CRAP, man. It's beautiful. Give them the happy serpents with nice guns, as you will want your fire dragons in serpents without gun upgrades. Why the hell would you want that to be the case? I'll tell you: fire dragons should be moving very, very fast to get to the goodies. You won't miss the shuricannon shots as much as you will the BL's or starcannons when you move 24". Besides, you could fly by a rhino and pop it just as well with a shuricannon as you could a starcannon. Having the serpents toting the dragons armed with lesser weapons will make them seem less threatening, so more fire will be consentrated at the avengers, most likely, which is acceptable. And if I didn't say so, 2 FULL squads of dragons. So, you're sacrificing the 3 twinlinked S6 AP1 shots for 9 BS4 shots of same calibur on your opponent's flank. I wouldn't bother with a firepike or tank hunter. If anything, give an exarch burning fist, so that if they get into CC, at least a marine or two will die before the group is undeniably screwed. But with 2 groups of dragons on a flank, not many marines will survive long enough to get into CC with your dragons, so whatever does make it to them will have their genetically enhanced balls torn off by two burning fists 

As for the little squads, like the reapers and the rangers... just dump 'em. They won't accomplish anything. Really. With the above setup, you will still have 7 tanks, and what is more, you will have effective squads inside of them.