It is not necessarily an underpowered army. Is is a drop strike army. The use of self planetfall has been tested against Titans, Gargants, Chaos Marines, Black Templars and Imperial Guard. In all cases the self planetfalling forces were shot up and either destroyed or broken.
They did not last long enough to get to cover in some cases, and in some, they were blown out of the cover my BP6 MW attack. The list does not have Deathstrikes, because they are not thematic to the list. The ist allows for a large amount of MW artillery from either the spotter characters, or the mortar company. They have the vultures for anti-tank and the ablity to increase the company sizes to make them a little more durable. They unfortunately have only range 30cm plasma cannons in every second squad rather than autocannons.
That is the thing. Each list has a few weaknesses, and you have to get a few bonuses to counter these. The changes introduced by myself are the spotters, the Grey Ghosts to help hold objectives and get a bit more from the cover for the dedicated Garrisons. The Storm troopers are now cheaper and you can teleport them in to assist defendig home objectives, force enemy off their own Blitz, or dent it to them at the last minute. I find the odd blast marker from teleporters does not always make them useless.
The list ignores the -1 for having enemy within 30cm, so better chance of them rallying. Their Initiative is 2+, not 3+, however their strategy ratring is 3+ like most Guard armies.
The Elysians share a lack of heavy long ranged hard hitting powerful weapons such as Volcano cannons, Quake cannons, Death Strike Missile Launchers, and soon. They share this with lists like Ork Speedfreaks, Dark Eldar (until recently where they got their own titan), Sian-Hann Eldar, and many more fast assault armies.
These armies all seem to be classified as glass hammers. They need a special way of deploying them, and they also need a small force of reserves that can be mobile enough to come up from the rear to support. Hence the support forces like the taurus, the Vultures, the array of sentinels, and the companies that are given vlakyries to alter them to cavalry suport role.
I do not have the list or want to deliberately bui;d weaknesses into it. It has be a struggle to get the small concessions into the list like support sentinels, Spotters, Sabres, dedicated close combat troops like the hardened veterans. I have been slowly reducing the cost of the infantry and the transport, and so on to make the list more balanced, however many are also commenting that the costs are starting to get a little too low.
A list developer can make all those who want to play the list upset, either the list is too weak, or the list is getting too powerful. I have to find the best balance where I know it will perforn reasonably well against the bulk of the armies it faces. Most times it is Rock/Paper/Scissors, and even then the dice gods will play jokes on you.
I will look at the wording in the list and try to make it easier to understand, for those involved that the list is a drop list which uses planetfall. That the drop companies can be set up on the table or dropped in, and can even take valkyrie transports to alter them to air cav if desired.
Recently I dropped the cost of the Grey Ghosts as I felt that 50 points each was a bit too much, so I added 2 more to their company. Their cost may even drop a little more in a future list. The infantry are now a little under 22 points each, yes it is more than in some other lists. But they do not drop in right on the enemy, and then attack them enmasse.
The Death Korp of Kreig had their Gorgons Crit damaged altered to kill off D6 transported troopers to make them less OP. This list will develop, and change as I try to find the sweet spot where the prices are ideal. Remember I am trying to also stop the list from being able to field more than 16 formations, as this is considered a popcorn list and they are considered unpopular by those who decide if the list is approved.
It might make no sense to remove self planetfall to you, however getting my butt kicked in every test battle I played while testing self planetfall. altering my tactics even allowing for biast dice rolls, and enemy with more BP6 MW attacks to bring down a pair of reaver titans. My army list was altered time and again to make it more durable, however the problem remained because the self planetfall was the problem. The feedback from my opponents was that I should change to planetfall. and have more troops on the ground so atleast some of them will be able to put some hurt on the enmy defenders. The more recent test games have shown some promise after changing over to planetfall. Yes many still get shot up, however a lot still were able to get in there and do their jobs.
I will also check the cost of the transports. although I will not make them too cheap. I have already dropped their cost considerably already.
On the last point - not petty comments. I am being realistic. This is a glass hammer list, designed to drop right on top of the enemy, and try to overwhelm them. (thing the 82nd and 101st airborne divisions on D-Day) . A lot of casualties, however they did achieve their task and help slow down enemy reinforcements.
I have to use the basic original elysian list made by GW back long ago, which had been slowly changed and improved upon bit by bit, with out losing the original theme and idea for the list.
The 3.x list was fairly decent, however it had way too much teleport. This list now has a decent way to deploy the troops, and they are not shot up as soon as each pair of formations is dropped down.
Planetfall allows me to get between 3 and 4 formations down close enough to a commander to order a combined assault from 3 companies, (this is following the artillery strike and pin point attack that replaces death strikes, so the enemy should have some blast markers on them, and might even be broken. I have found that that is far more decisive than sending in 2 formations which normally have to face enemy overwatch fire. Once they take the objective, thy need cover and mutual support. 1 or 2 weak and possibly broken formations can not do this.
Give the list a chance. Remember this is a list being play tested to balance it out and make it durable but not OP.
I really think the list is starting to blossom.
_________________ 6mm wargaming is just like 25mm wargaming with more units fitting on the same size table. Thus bigger games to get lost in and avoid the hassles of everyday living, and offerings for the dice gods.
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