With the new season, I will start a new faction : Vanilla CA I have started doing some listbuilding with a goal to test generic list with each of the "big heavy" of vanilla CA (anathematic, charontid, Avatar, sphinx, overdron + a second tag) I have little experience with vanilla CA (not seen much in my meta) so I would like some list feedback from more experience player. First test will be charontid : Anathematic 2 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── 10 ANATHEMATIC Lieutenant Hacker (EI Hacking Device) Plasma Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0.5 | 88) Q-DRONE HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 26) CALIBAN Spitfire, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife, CC Weapon. (1.5 | 36) NOCTIFER Missile Launcher / Assault Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 32) SHROUDED (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25) SHROUDED Hacker (EI Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27) Bit Hacker (UPGRADE: Expel) Submachine Gun + Pitcher, Deployable Repeater + KISS! / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19) KISS! Adhesive Launcher / Electric Pulse. (- | 4) M-DRONE Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 17) KURGAT Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 17) SLAVE DRONE Electric Pulse. (0 | 3) R-DRONE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) 5 SWC | 298 Points Open in Infinity Army Defense is provided by a classic Noctifer/Q drone working together, bit and 2 shrouded bring in some nice button pushing. main firepower is provided by the caliban (to rambo my opponent order or his midfield). The Anathematic can act as a jack of all trade : ramboing the cheerleader if there is an opening, button pushing/midfield control if not. What's your feedback on this ? Second list goal is to test the charontid. Charontid ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 10 1 CHARONTID Lieutenant (Multispectral Visor L3) HMG, Nanopulser / Heavy Pistol, Knife. (2 | 79) SPECULO KILLER Boarding Shotgun, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, Monofilament CCW, Knife. (1 | 34) CALIBAN Engineer Submachine Gun, Pulzar, D-Charges / Pistol, Knife, CC Weapon. (0 | 28) SHROUDED Hacker (EI Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27) Bit Hacker (UPGRADE: Expel) Submachine Gun + Pitcher, Deployable Repeater + KISS! / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19) KISS! Adhesive Launcher / Electric Pulse. (- | 4) KRAKOT RENEGADE 2 Chain Rifles, Grenades / Pistol, DA CC Weapon. (0 | 14) R-DRONE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) R-DRONE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9) IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9) GROUP 2 2 4 5 NOCTIFER Missile Launcher / Assault Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 32) DĀTURAZI Chain Rifle, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 14) TAIGHA Chain-colt / AP + Shock CCW. (0 | 5) TAIGHA Chain-colt / AP + Shock CCW. (0 | 5) TAIGHA Chain-colt / AP + Shock CCW. (0 | 5) GAKI AP CCW. (0 | 4) 5 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army The charontid provide firepower with the speculo to remove MSV2 that could ARO through smoke. Caliban/shrouded/bit provide button pushing and warband + krakot are here to force my opponent to waste order and to remove midfield specialist/mine/koala. What's your feedback on this one ? PS : most of the list I try to build end up not spending all SWC (a problem I didn't have with my previous armies), this is very frustrating
I wouldn't worry about this - it's something that's not uncommon in combined army lists thanks to the nil SWC cost of plasma weapons and the generally concentrated high quality pieces that do cost SWC. If you compare a Charontid to a Hsien for example, both cost two SWC, but the Charontid is a much more concentrated unit. I virtually never run to full SWC in my combined lists outside of Onyx and in the occasional Avatar list. As for you lists: I like the both but I'd like to contrast the warband package you have in your second list, with the absence of one in the first. In my experience, finding ~25-50pts for a package of one to two daturazi and two to four taighas pays significant dividends both offensively and defensively. The chain rifles/chain colts are great defensive tools to hold back enemy aggression into your DZ, and 6-6 taighas (or gakis or pretas) with smoke cover from the daturazi are fantastic and getting up the board and rooting out enemy skirmishers or perimeter weapons and deployables that might mess with your more expensive forward elements.
I used similar tactics in Nomads with a group of 3/4 morlocks (and sometime a bike) with some orders so I love the tactic of using cheap warband to throw chaos in the midfield (and sometime rush an opening) But on the Anamethic list, I fail to find something I'm Ok to remove to make 24/38 points space for a second group. What would you sacrifice ?
The Caliban, I think. Something like this for example: Anathematic 2 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── GROUP 1 10 ANATHEMATIC Lieutenant Hacker (EI Hacking Device) Plasma Rifle, Nanopulser / Pistol, Shock CCW. (0.5 | 88) Q-DRONE HMG / Electric Pulse. (1 | 26) SHROUDED (Forward Observer) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25) SHROUDED Hacker (EI Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27) Bit Hacker (UPGRADE: Expel) Submachine Gun + Pitcher, Deployable Repeater + KISS! / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 19) KISS! Adhesive Launcher / Electric Pulse. (- | 4) M-DRONE Combi Rifle, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 17) R-DRONE Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8) IKADRON (Baggage, Repeater) 2 Light Flamethrowers, Flash Pulse / Pistol, Electric Pulse. (0 | 9) ÍMETRON . (0 | 4) ÍMETRON . (0 | 4) GROUP 2 3 2 3 NOCTIFER Missile Launcher / Assault Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 32) KURGAT Boarding Shotgun, D-Charges, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 17) DĀTURAZI Chain Rifle, Grenades, Smoke Grenades / Pistol, AP CCW. (0 | 14) TAIGHA Chain-colt / AP + Shock CCW. (0 | 5) TAIGHA Chain-colt / AP + Shock CCW. (0 | 5) 3.5 SWC | 300 Points Open in Infinity Army