Ok so I've taken the plunge buying an army.
Now my first query concerns formations and transports:
A ThunderHawk GunShip carries 8 stands or 4 stands of Termies/Dreadnoughts
As I understand it Dreaddies only figure in the lists as upgrades to tac/terms etc...but not as a detachment on their own?
So say I want to buy a Termie detach transported in Landspeeders I buy that and bob's your uncle. 4 stands, 2 landraiders.
Further to this can I attach a command stand to the termies in a Rhino and move these as a formation of 2 LR and 1 Rh til they deploy? Can I also attach a Vindicator to these as part of the formation?

Onto the thunderhawks...say I want to upgrade to max out the dreadnoughts, these cannot be carried in LR, right (EA Compendium p46)
However the Thunderhawk does carry dreadnoughts (p47) so can I have 2 termie stands and one dread in one THGS and two termies and a dread in another THGS? Or if I take the commander can I put four termies in one THGS and two dreads and the commander in another?

That'd mean I deploy two THGS in one activation dropping four termies, two dreads and one commander as a formation. Or is this illegal?

Thank you!
A rather confused Steven

thats pretty illegal in a few areas:

firstly, adding a commander does not add a new stand, or a rhino, it simply adds the 'commander' template to an already existant stand in the unit

secondly, you cannot have a formation inside different war-engine transports. the entire formation needs to be able to fit inside the one
so you cannot attach dreads to a terminator formation and then expect them to ride in thunderhawks (or teleport, or infact, do much of anything at all)

you can do more things with landers though, which have a much bigger capacity

Depends which list. I haven't been keeping up to date but there's probably a list that is experimenting with Dread formations by now. But in the base list, no, no dread formations.


Yeah sure. except you need 4 raiders for 4 termie stands

You don't attach command Stands in E:A, you upgrade stands to have commanders. So say you want a formation of terminators in land raiders with a chaplain. That will be 3 stands of terminators, 1 stand of terminators with a chaplain and 4 land raiders.

The vindicator depends on if it's an upgrade available to that formation or not. I think it probably isn't available to terminator formations.

No they can't.


Nope. The whole formation has to be inside a single warmachine transport.


A few more general tips on list design. Terminators are best used as a teleport squad. I've tried all the others, none of them are even close to worth the points. Just buy a Terminator formation, add a chaplain if you can afford it and call it a day.

There's a few good thunderhawk loads, but if you want to play with dreads I suggest you start off with devestators with an attached dread and a librarian in a thunderhawk.

Further to what the others have said, Marines are most effective when they are used as scalpels, so something like these in your list is quite effective:

THUNDERHAWK - 200
ASSAULT DETACHMENT - 225
4 Assault Units
+Chaplain
DEVASTATOR DETACHMENT - 300
4 Devastators, Transport
+Librarian

THUNDERHAWK - 200
DEVASTATOR DETACHMENT - 400
4 Devastators, Transport
+2x Dreadnought
+Chaplain

THUNDERHAWK - 200
TERMINATOR DETACHMENT - 400
4 Terminators
+Chaplain

And if you wanna be really mean, you can drop this in front of their Blitz:

LANDING CRAFT - 350
ASSAULT DETACHMENT - 225
4 Assault Units
+Chaplain
DEVASTATOR DETACHMENT - 300
4 Devastators, Transport
+Librarian
DEVASTATOR DETACHMENT - 300
4 Devastators, Transport
+Librarian
LAND RAIDERS - 400
4 Land Raiders
+Captain

Good times.

By the way, you'll find this link handy:

traitor-legion.appspot.com/

GR00V3R speaks the truth

Yep this is a nasty combination, but be aware, this means more than half your army points is tied up in one aircraft activation that can be shot down with a single critical hit.

Eldar Nightwings can also ruin your day (fighter intercept with Lance which removes your Reinforced Armour saves.)

Just some food for thought anyway....

Fantastic primer, thanks for that guys
Alas I also have definitive post-payment figures for my new battlegroup (an Epic version of these guys incidentally)

On the way from Europe are
3 vindicators (attempting to source a fourth)
3 predators (as above)
4 landspeeders (fifth being sourced)
2 thunderhawk gunships
5 bike stands
5 attack bikes
8 whirlwinds
8 land raiders
15 rhinos
2 command land raiders (one missing and don't really know if I can be bothered tracking one...)
6 dreadnoughts
5 command stands
4 terminator stands
4 scouts
6 assault (another two being sourced)
18 marines
8 devastator
3 warlord titans
5 knights paladin (can these still be used in E:A?)

So above there's a little to play with first off right? Also, these come painted but the weapons and shoulder pads will need doing up proper

I'm looking into building forces like those you detailed above and there's a geezer in the UK selling a ton of Epic stuff so negotiating with him if he'll part with his unpainted stands for 50c apiece and a dollar a tank so I can get replenishes for what's gone walkies and maybe expand a little here and there.

What would you suggest doing with the above then (counting the preds, vindicators and speeders/assault as complete detachments)?
Any advice on extras to buy for it, as well, will be most welcome!
Thanks again, lads
S.

That's a pretty heavy duty haul dude!

I can probably trade you a single vind if you're in melbs

You can't use knights paladins in the EA space marine list but they can be used in the adeptus mechanicum list.

Well when you're playing EA you can use allies? I'm in the process of painting these and it'll be a real shame for me not to get them on the table...hopefully my opponents won't mind much (as I'm hoping they'll get some stompas on there too!)
S.

RE: VINDICATORS AND PREDATORS
Given you only have three of each, try attaching them to your Land Raider or Tactical formations instead of using them as discrete formations. Has it's advantages...the best of which is that you won't have to source just one of them.

RE: YOUR KNIGHTS AND A TITAN LEGION
With three Warlords and those Knights, you have a 3,000pts Titan Legion army right there:

Legio Gryphonicus (NetEA v3.18 *UNDER DEVELOPMENT*)
==================================================
WARLORD TITAN - 950
4x Turbolaser Destructor
+Legate
+Veteran Princeps
+Sacred Icon

WARLORD TITAN - 900
4x Turbolaser Destructor
+Veteran Princeps
+Sacred Icon

WARLORD TITAN - 900
4x Turbolaser Destructor
+Veteran Princeps
+Sacred Icon

FORGE KNIGHTS - 200
3 Forge Knights

Not the most ideal army breakdown, but it brings plenty of boom-boom (and would therefore be fun).

RE: ALLIES IN EPIC
If you're playing a tournament or just using the tournament scenario, using forces from two army lists as a single army is generally not allowed as it would enable you to bring the best of both, effectively nullifying any negatives intentionally built into the lists.

If you're playing scenarios, though, go for your life.

True that. However c'mon brotha...you don't go out scouring for a single tank off some guy on ebay or a forum and then climb the purchase ladder to "justify the shipping"?

I'm already writing to a few people, of which zap123 concerning the Predator and now have an offer for the Vindicator, and will touch base with both if my US deal breaks down (guy's asking for more than I'm willing to spend, of course, so off I went to buy a LOT more than I needed hoping to entice him to lower the single figure price in exchange for a greater funds transfer....)
If that comes through however I'm looking at a further (accompanied by my reasoning...or lack thereof)

8x Whirlwind (they go boom. Artillery boom. I like boom. Boom is like bourbon without the hangover)
9x Land Raiders (two detachments and one to replace my missing command land raider)
8x Rhino (to transport the geezers below plus...I dunno, I'll find something to stick in them!)
6x Vindicator (see assault)
4x 40x10mm base Terminators (because their name starts with T which is the letter after mine in the codexabet)
6x NS Assault troops (2 to complete the detachment I have and another...well...just "because" really)
4x NS Devastators (for absolutely no reason than he has them)
Another SM detachment with Rhinos (in case space aliens from Andromeda Scary kidnaps one of the detachments I haev already painted)
6x Land Speeders (see assaults)
5x bike stands (because there's three on a stand. Is that a worthwhile reason?)

FYI Dude, my vindies are epic 40K edition. Won't fit in with the 4th ed ones.

Also, I field a command land raider as a normal land raider, all it has is a bloke hanging out top.