Hi!
I just had an ad-hoc 3k battle, and tried out Elysian Drop Troops for first time!
Opponent went with SL.
I got this
HQ Drop Inf + valks 375
Drop inf + vendetta 350
Drop inf 225
Drop inf 225
Drop mortar inf 225
Vultures 300
Orbital Support 150
Drop sentinel 150
Drop sentinel 150
Drop sentinel 150
Lightning strike fighters 200
Lightning strike fighters 200
Marauder bomber 150
Marauder bomber 150
Opponent had this
HQ 500
Leman Russ + Russ 825
Inf + Sniper 275
Inf + Hydra 300
Vultures 300
Hydra 150
Sentinel 100
Arty (Manticore) 250
Marauders 250
I deployed everything in reserve, the mortar formation as garrison in the middle, valkyre variants in deployment zone. (No teleports first turn)
Totally missed with lunar cruiser, since there was no WE to target, and instead of snatching deployment zone / garrison possibilites, I tried to catch vehicles... missed.
Their vultures killed vendettas with infantry (break), and manticore targeted my HQ (killed one skimmer and its two inf).
My vulture tried to crack russes. 7 hits, all saved.
Rest of my guys tried to regroup, my aircraft did almost no dmg the opponent tried to press on, with almost everything however failed to activate the russes. (At least managed that with 1 blast marker... heheh)
Hydras doubled under my aircraft and pretty much halved it, with 6x6+ AA... it was my failure to let them live first turn.
Second turn came down 2 sentinel formation and 1 infantry, all well placed and blast markered.
Albeit I didn't start the turn, the well hidden placement disallowed the opponent to flush out everyone. When initative came to my hand, some nasty engagement break both formations of the assault.
This time, enemy AA was destroyed and my aircraft did moderately (also intercepted and finished bombers), his small units failing and breaking, his russ fails to activate again, and stucks on objective defend (Bltiz + 1)
Third turn, the rest of folks come down, and finally took initiatve! However, this turn I underrolled each and every shooting, but blast markers pretty much weakened or break all their small stuff, only 1 infantry and russ remained non-broken.
Tie
Continued to turn fourth, which was similar to turn three. The opponent didn't have enough to fight back, and I underrolled to finish off contesting formations!
Tie again, and battle ended.
So yeah it was pretty different of my usual massive ranks of infantry and armour, also first time playing Elysians. List seems quite balanced actually, I think the battle was more decided by tactical decisions (success and failure alike) instead of dices, since both side suffered some degree from it (small formations on my side, the russes on their side)
Impression:
Drop infantry dies. It dies if it wins, so dies anyway. Unless you camp on objective, it needs an upgrade either drop infantry++, demo truck or sentinels. [I could go inf++ since I possess that much models actually.]
Valkyrie is good here too.
Vendetta ditto.
Vulture ditto. (Especially if you choose reasonable target for them
)
Mortar. Well this isn't that bad, though not the best garrison, but something is needed to hold back enemy, until drops come in. (I guess) I think its not that powerful to have any restriction. And also they die quickly aswell.
Drop sentinels are quite good, although I haven't tried to kill the russes after losing vendettas and doing no dmg with vultures, so they ended up objectve grabbing and hunting infantry with macro...
The lost of scout ability with sentinel was a pain for me (beacuse first time trying drop troops) but I clearly see it balancing the macro weapon which is always good have.
Lightning Strike fighters good antitank. At the end game, I punched out all their armor, so they become useless, since all their target was infantry (without AP) or russes (without any chance). It wasn't their fault, so yeah, they are pretty much good tankhunters.
Single marauder vs dual marauder I always thought the single one was better or perhaps closer to some sort of fluff or something, but they really become useless with 3 BP as aircraft.
The dual with 6 BP is very useful clearing up infantry or placing much BM even when underrolling, which the single marauder wasn't really capable of. (I managed to attack the manticore battery, with 3 BP attacking 2x 5+ AT and the twin lasca 4+... ended up placing a blast marker on them, rallying, reloading, and kicking my face next turn...)
In my theoryhammer, the dual marauder with 4+ armor 1 DC (250 p) is better, and wouldn't take a single with 5+ armor and 2 DC (150 p), same weapons, but the dual gains the bonus from 6 BP.
After all this, in the end game, it happened me first time, that I was really lacking AP firepower, which wasn't the case with Steel legion or Baran Siegemasters... strange.
EDIT: But it was definietly a good, thinkering, game. I really want to go a second battle trying it out again, basing my countings on the experiences of this battle.