Breaking the Space Marine Codex: Part 2
So Pedro Kantor is a pretty nasty piece of work. He has probably the best “area of effect” power in the new codex (all friendly units within 12” get +1 Attack) and he’s the only IC that gives a Space Marine army more scoring units (adding the very-shooty Sternguard Veterans to the list). If it stacked with the Honor Guard’s Chapter Banner power, it would just be sick.
I’ve been thinking that there’s got to be some room for abuse in there…
Here’s my first 2000 point Pedro list:
HQ
Pedro Kantor
Space Marine Librarian (probably taking Gate of Infinity and The Avenger)
TROOPS
10-man Tactical Squad (Power Fist, Flamer, Multimelta, Drop Pod)
10-man Tactical Squad (Power Fist, Flamer, Multimelta, Drop Pod)
10-man Tactical Squad (Power Fist, Flamer, Multimelta, Drop Pod)
ELITE
8-man Sternguard Veteran Squad (Power Weapon, Combi-flamer, Combi-melta, Drop Pod, Locator Beacon)
8-man Sternguard Veteran Squad (Power Weapon, Combi-flamer, Combi-melta, Drop Pod, Locator Beacon)
Ironclad Dreadnought (Heavy Flamer, Drop Pod, Locator Beacon)
FAST ATTACK
8-man Vanguard Veteran Squad (5 Power Weapons, 1 Meltabombs, Jump Packs)
NOTES:
At first glance this seems to be a light list (only 56 Space Marines and a single Dreadnought), but it’s actually got some teeth. In an Annihilation game it has 16 kill points (counting the Drop Pods - only 9 if you can convince anyone to exclude them) and in objective games it has 8 scoring units.
TACTICS:
My intial deployment will be the two Sternguard Veteran Squads (with Pedro and the Librarian each leading a squad) and the Ironclad Dreadnought on the first turn. Once those Drop Pods blossum, they cover a large area with their Locator Beacons. The goal will be to do claim a strong position and do some serious damage with the Sternguard Veterans, Pedro’s gun. The Dreadnought and the Librarian can also dish out some serious wounds.
The rest of the army comes in normally using the Reserves rule, but benefits from the Locator Beacons. When the Vanguard Veterans arrive, they will land without scattering and should guarantee me a charge — if I can place them near Pedro, they get a total of 26 power weapon attacks on the charge.
Normally a squad of Space Marines arriving via Drop Pod is a hassle (point blank shots and precisely placed flamer and all that jazz), but if you can survive the shooting you can hit them hard with an assault unit. But any units with a model within 12” of Pedro have 2 Attacks — they will still be a pain to assault. The Sternguard Veterans have a base of 3 attacks (4 for the Veteran) — just sitting there. An the Vanguards have a base of 4. Wow, that’s nasty.
I’ll also have the ability to use Gate of Infinity on a Sternguard Veteran squad to position them anywhere along my Locator Beacon line. This will allow me to put that special issue ammo to some good use.
This gives me a chance to play lots of neat new stuff in a fairly competitive army. I’m not sure if all Drop Pods is as effective in 5th, but it should be fun to find out! I’d love to hear your thoughts!
