1850 Astra Militarum Army Review – Rolling Thunder

Phat J here to talk about a fast moving and hard hitting Astra Militarum list that will kick your dick off!

I am a long time Astra Militarum player (or Imperial Guard if you are over 3 years old) and am always looking for ways to make the poor humans work on the 40k tabletop.  One of the biggest issues the Astra Militarum face is how slow they are on the battlefield. Recently, I saw a picture of a gorgeous Astra Militarum list from a tournament featuring a gang of Death Riders of Krieg and a couple of tanks and it got my imagination going. Other than being an obscenely expensive way to make an army, it seemed like a great way to combine the speed of the Death Riders with the durability and firepower of the Astra Militarum tanks into an army of fire and charging steel.   While perhaps not the most competitive army in the world there are aspects of the list that will catch many seasoned players unawares and has a lot of the tools necessary to help you get to the top tables. As for the actual cost of the army itself, yes the Death Rider models are expensive, around $80 for 5.  Just the Death Riders alone will set you back close to $600.  There are some alternatives out there that you can look into and you can try and be creative with the models as well (or use Space Marine bikes with human riders).  Well, let’s get onto the list!

Let’s look at some of the special rules. The Death Riders themselves are cavalry that come with 2 wounds, a 4+ save, and a 6+ Feel No Pain.  They come with Death Rider Hunting Lances which has an attack profile of S5 AP3 the first turn they charge and let’s them go at I5.  This means a unit of 10 will have 30 S5 attacks at WS 4 the first time they charge which will completely devastate anything they hit. While not super fantastic against high armor targets they do have melta bombs and one of the detachment bonuses is they all have objective secured, which for a fast moving cavalry unit is huge.

The Emperor’s Wrath Armoured Company essentially moves forward with the Punishers taking out any hard armored targets with their BS4 Multi-Meltas and annihilate light infantry and vehicles with their Punisher Cannons. The two Leman Russ Vanquishers sit back with the Emperor’s Wrath Artillery Company and hit heavy targets like Knights with their armor piercing shells and Lascannons. Speaking of the Artillery Company, the Wyverns and the Manticore sit back and fire into the enemy while the tanks and horsemen push forward into their lines.

So what do you think? Other than being obscenely expensive do you think this has a place on the 40k battlefield?   Any changes you would make to the list? Let me know in the comments section!