Mech GSC

[dandc]

Mentioned this on a different thread but thought it deserved its own space. What would be the components of a good mech GSC list, and how would it play? I tend to play at 1500 points both casually and at local RTTs, and I'm finding it hard to fit any mech elements into a list without forgoing all my melee. Is that the way to go?

[killercroc]

It's called playing Guard with bumpy foreheads

Really GSC is so limited with the vehicles and even more so the ones you can buff I wouldn't even recommend trying a Mech GSC list unless it was just transports and Acolytes and the Brotherhood special detachment.

[Edit] Basically you can have 3 Russ and 3 Rockgrinders and 9 Ridgerunners if memory serves which gives you 3 battle tanks, 3 combat vehicles and 9 light vehicles with light guns. It's not the best making for a Mech army just because it lacks the variety that Guard does, plus no benefit for the vehicles you do have so just straight guard is the better call unless you want to have horrible games and spending a lot of money to lose.

[No One]

Ridgerunners and alphus. I don't think there's anything else to bother with except maybe russes/allying in guard. Gives you a solid shooty firebase, while leaving plenty of points for melee to pressure the opponent off them/do other stuff etc.

[dandc]

Dec 31, 2019 1:35:01 GMT No One said:

Ridgerunners and alphus. I don't think there's anything else to bother with except maybe russes/allying in guard. Gives you a solid shooty firebase, while leaving plenty of points for melee to pressure the opponent off them/do other stuff etc.

So a quick 1500 might look like 2 Battalions of neophytes with mining lasers and an outrider of Alphus and 3 mining laser ridgerunners, with a Primus/Iconward/Abo+aberrants bomb for some melee threat in deepstrike or as counter charge? Not exactly mech until I start stuffing those neos in trucks, but no points to do so!

[mattblowers]

Dec 31, 2019 1:35:01 GMT No One said:

Ridgerunners and alphus. I don't think there's anything else to bother with except maybe russes/allying in guard. Gives you a solid shooty firebase, while leaving plenty of points for melee to pressure the opponent off them/do other stuff etc.

What about Ridgerunners are good? I bought/built painted 3x in March and stopped playing them after 2 games because they gave up points without really contributing. I made them all mortars with ignore cover because it seemed like the best option at the time. Didn't the mortar go up in points?

[No One]

HWT mortars went up: ridgerunner's everything went down. But the mortar's bad (it's a slightly better mortar for 50+ pts, it's not doing much of anything, especially with alphus anti-synergy). Heavy mining laser though is basically 60 pts as of CA for D3 lascannons.

[killercroc]

Yeah, ridgerunner for stubbers and HML is really the only thing you wanna do. Why take missiles when you can do that in teams and brothers, and the heavy mortar is not a unique enough powerful enough or good enough gun to take it for. HML or bust.

[dandc]

Hive Cult for the strat and the trait, or Bladed Cog for the survivability?

[Hive Bahamut]

I think Bladed Cog is still the way to go with Neophytes in a bus.

A list concept I would like to try is:

6x Goliaths with Laser/Launcher Neophytes

3x Grinder with Clearance with 5x Aberrants? (3 pick 2 Hammer)

3x HML Ridgerunners

Unfortunately this requires basically building the army all over again (which is what GW wants when they do "balances" like this.)

I had 1 game with 3 trucks (used 2 ork trukks as proxy) and they did good enough against Primaris Deathwatch for the 1 game, but that is negligible.

I really like this idea much more since its conception with 7th formations, but have found infantry lists were more high risk high reward.

I think Hive Cult is good if you go just Ridgerunners

[kazetanade]

What I would have loved was to sit BC Neos in HC Trukks with an HC Alphus in tow telling them to shoot better.

Since that's a nonstarter, I'd say Mechanised GSC has to be mixed with Guard, as pure GSC mech is weak.

You go with 3 - 4 Riderunners (1/1/1 or 2/1/1) with an Alphus as the basic setup. You can do 2 or 3 Goliath Trukks/Grinders together with this, and pair with a Patty with like 50 or 60 infantry guys.

From IG side you take a wyvern or a basilisk for further support damage, maybe a Manticore as well if you like, then 2 Fliers.

You can fill what remains with BC MLs or Acolyte Drops.

I think the Tamiya Cars will do better in a more mixed list though. They're a decent replacement for RC Bikers who went up in points and don't have the huge Cp sink, can fill up a Brigade (if that's a consideration), and also help for early recon with their scout move and big movement. If you've only got 3, they don't give away enough for BGH or GB for people to always pick it, so don't leak anymore VP than potential kill more / butchers bill (which leak anyway due to guardsmen and NLOS shooters).

It could also do really well in a Nids/ GSC list since its basically 2 Rupture Fexes for half the points (but a 3rd of its tankability... But based on everyone's impressions, a TFex isn't tanking anything anyway). If you group it up you could give away BGH and GB, which eats into scoring from the Nids side (scoring off HG and other MCs).

There's some Synergy there, is what I'd wager to say. It's definitely something I want to test, once I'm done with my pure Nids list testing.