Hello everyone Frankie here to talk a little more about the Battle Company. In this week’s discussion we will be going over unit options and roles the various units will play.
The HQs are important depending on what kind of battle company you’re running like we talked about last week. You have to take a captain which can be named such as Khan which is who I use. But that all depends on what chapter tactics you’re going with, of course. Next is a Chaplain, not a ton of options here but always fun to have a chaplain on the table. I use my Chaplain as a force multiplier, giving him the Hunter’s Eye (ignores cover relic) and an Auspex. He also rolls around with Khan allowing him to re-roll his attacks in close combat. Make sure you kit you Chaplain out for the task you wish him to preform. I run mine on a bike and he always performs quite well.
The troops are probably the easiest decision when making a Battle Company because, there are no choices! You have to take six units of Tactical Marines. In my list they do all the heavy lifting which is why I take four units of ten strong. Again this will vary depending on what type of Battle Company you’re running. Drop Pods will probably want ten man as will Rhinos, where as Razorbacks will want only five. In my list I spend a majority of my points on my Marines, giving the units a Heavy Grav-cannon as well as a Melta gun. I’ve found with taking bit weapons in the units you have enough coverage to deal with any army. But all comes down to preference as I’ve seen all Melta and all Grav do very well. The reason I would recommend spending more points on these units is that they gain the most from the doctrines.
A lot of thought actually goes into the fast attack since it has so many options. You can take more marines and get more vehicles or take some bikes for some damage output. In my list I spent the minimum on this slot and took two Attackbikes with Multi-Meltas. The Attackbikes give me two more Meltas for those pesky Imperial Knights as well as two objective secured units that can zip around. I used to run a bike unit with Grav but switched them out for a command squad. The bikes are great choices because they are resilient and hit hard with White Scars chapter tactics and weapon upgrades. But if you choose Assault Marines you can fit in a lot more objective secured units.
My favorite slot is the Heavy Support. You only have two options when it comes to this choice so pretty simple. I chose Devastators since they can go inside of a Rhino and use it as a gun platform. But you can also go with Centurions which everyone knows are good. Hardest part with this slot is deciding what weapons to take. I take two Heavy Grav-Cannons for some serious firepower. But you can load them out with any weapons really and do quite well. I use the Devastators as mid field board control after my 12″ scout move.
Last Required is one of the auxiliary formations. This is probably one of the hardest decisions since there are a lot of choices. I personally went with the 10th company since it’s the cheapest. But wow have I been impressed with how useful 3 units of scouts can be. I use them to tarpit Knights, kill pesky backfield units, and get line breaker more times than not. I wouldnt trade them for any of the other choices but I’ve seen a lot of people use the air defense force which isn’t bad either. Pick one that you will have fun with and that will fill gaps in your list.
Now there are some options in the list for elites such as dreadnaughts and command squads. I ended up taking a command squad and have decided it is the right choice in my list. I give them Meltas and an Apothecary to run around and kill vehicles with Khan and the Chaplain. I’ve seen he Dreadnaughts but have not been impressed by there damage output. The Dropped the come with is useful though. Again these are optional and you can do well without taking them.
so I believe that is it when making the Battlecompany. Let me know if I missed anything and let me know which Battlecompany you prefer playing. Next week I will go over tactics with your newly build Battlecompany.
Great review! Looking forward to more parts in the series. One question i have is, why not take a second command squad with meltas and reduce 2 of the tac squads from 10 to 5? Since they are good melta platforms and also obsec. That gives you an extra free transports as well i think.
That isnt a bad idea and something ive been batting around.
Why is this a two part series? Don’t you just put your models on the table, tell your opponent how many points of free vehicles you get and then watch him sink away from the table emasculated?
😉
I thought something arround those lines. Yup, that formation with all the free stuff. Yup, with the by far best chapter tactics ever. It ain’t rocket science.
You know- I meant this comment as a joke, not an insult! With all the people who just say “Derp, free vehicles, easy win”, it’s good to see a discussion of how to actually play.
Obviously not as complex as Ad Mech or Dark Eldar, but a solid overview of a popular list. I would think this should be required reading for anyone going to LVO who hasn’t played much recently. (As should every article about the new Tau and Eldar!)
Haha thank you Jural im glad you are appreciating the articles.
If I got jokes I would be laughing not angry ;). Don’t get me wrong. I really appreciate the tactics articles here especialy since so many sites seem to have just given up at the mess that is the current meta. It doesnt mean that I dont think the existance of the battle company or even more an absolutely out of proportion chapter tactic like army wide Hit&Run do not deserve to be mocked though.
Battle Company definitely deserves a good mocking 😉 So do Wraith knights, Many Eldar builds, some Tau builds, Superfriends, Hive Tyrant spam…
Competitive lists are almost all now worthy of mockery! How have the Necrons become the “reasonable”, “cinematic”, and “balanced” codex? 😉
Well the Superfriends at least seem to be very self-aware from their naming. 😉
Most of these things to me feel like cases in which GW didn’t even realise what they were making. I’m not sure why but to me it feels like an entirely different sort of insanity to think “hey let’s give these guys free keys to the car park for the price of haivng obsec on everything”. That just seems so out there. Hit and Run I admit just feels like them once again not knowing how good which special rule actualy is.
I really want to here you talk about some alternative Chapter Tactics for this, Yes white scars are the best(Go Team Khan WOOT) but some other ones look fun. I would especially love to see you actually play a minotaurs Battle Company lol
My fast Attack is an assault squad in droppod with 2 flamers I use to kill Chaff and as something to eat Interceptor. and a bikt squad with 2 grav-combi-grav with a chaplain with the hunters eye.
Yeah the assault squads a really good I just prefer the attackbikes. As for other chapter tactics thats a good idea and maybe I will write a part 2.5 discussing other options.
I really love Frontline but these How-to’s have been kind of weak. Instead of saying why to do stuff its more like saying “play my army”. I know white scars battle company is really awesome but WHY. Kind of “show don’t tell” this is telling me to play it a certain way not showing me how to play it.
This is part two on a series. The next few articles will be about how to play the army and against the army. The first two were about list building and some of the options.
I think ObSec Land Speeders are a great option with this list. Give them Missile Launchers to snipe most of the game and then last turn 30-36″ (depending on how many you have in the squadron) movement to snag objectives. Its almost like being Eldar!
I think Imperial Fists (especially Sentinels of Terra) do really well with this list. Their Devestators and Centurion Devestators get Tank Hunters and with the Doctrines they’re landing a lot more hits with Las Cannons to really start popping vehicles. 3 TL Las Cannons and 3 Doctrined Missile Launchers with Tank Hunters, or 4 Doctrined Las Cannons can really start breaking open enemy vehicles. Tactical Doctrine allows Sentinels to re-roll their long range hits at the start of the game, then when the enemy gets close in mid to end game they still have their Close Range Bolter drill to continue re-rolling all their bolter shots!
So yeah Sentinels of Terra playing a strong gunline with land speeders to “Snipe and Snag” and either Scouts to skirmish forward (twinlinked Precision Shot Heavy Bolter at 18″ Infiltrated forward with cloaks for a 5+ Cover save in the open 2+ in Ruins…) or the Suppression Force to bombard the enemy while your Doctrined Las Cannons hammer them with direct fire.
I wish you could take a Techmarine instead of a Chaplian. Iron Hands don’t have chaplains so it is fluff death to field one…