So, they are somehwat stuffed as far as I can see. The artillary is inferior to other races (what would you rather have - a void spinner or 3 manticores? Or 3 skyrays instead of 3 armour 6+ hydra etc etc), things like warhounds and aircraft cost the same as marines, yet have strategy rating 2, you will always have to plan for fighting corners and all the changes bar 1 were to make the army worse (no more omniscient deathstrikes, no more warhounds with leader) and the boost was quite a small tweak to baneblades that still I think leaves them somewhat undergunned. Stuff like Leman Russ are just silly to take - very susceptable to blast markers, very slow and due to doubling everywhere a lot of dice but not much firepower, not to mention the cost of a big formation failing an activation test. The random commissars means in practice you have either enough or too few, rolling very high is pretty irrelevant due to the effect of commissars on deathstrikes and the like.

The mechanised route seems best, but I just don't think they are that good if you fail to roll enough commissars. You clearly have to plan on playing corners, getting bombarded, going second and not having enough leader so being fairly static. So how to overcome all that?

If you go for 2 mech companies (SC+Hydra 550 and mech+fire support+hydra 600 BTS supported by 2 planes 150) as the attack core as the artillary and tank companies are clearly out, what to support it with for the other 1700? You need scouts to try and fend off the all to common terminators, hydra to try and break up air attacks and then another infantry company for more support picks. I'd always want a deathstrike formation as they are too much of a threat to ignore and the army otherwise has pretty poor firepower.

600 Mech+FS+Chimera+Hydra
550 SC+Hydra
350 Inf+FS
250 Inf
150 Hydra
150 Hydra
150 Roughriders
100 Sentinels
100 Sentinels
200 Deathstrikes
250 Manticores
150 Thunderbolts

The above uses all the points but looks a bit flaky. But all the formations I could think of to put in aren't that tough, for instance replacing the manticores and fire support with a stormtrooper formation.
Or simply bulk out a bit with more sentinels in the hope they do something battle winning.
Could replace the inf+FS and deathstrikes with a shadowsword company, but now starting to lose activations (or a warhound pair ).

Anybody else have any ideas?

it might be they are simply better suited to a one day tournament where there is less chance of rolling to few commissars.

I agree with all the above.

I was quite disappointed with what EUK did with the Steel Legion list.



My typical lists in the past have used two mech inf formations of some kind plus a valkyrie-bourne storm trooper formation.

Plus a Russ Company. :-/

Some games it'd do pretty good, other games I'd roll 2-4 Commissars, or come up against the Black Legion (with all their ignores cover templates to strip away my mech inf's feeble cover protection), and find the going very tough.

I used to take 1 Warhound, but now I have to take 2 or none, or "waste" points that, for the Steel Legion, are really needed.

On average, what with Marines getting better in their EUK rules review (Points drops have made some armour formaions feasible), but IG getting a little worse, I've found it tougher going latterly.

I'd quite like to see EUK (& NetEA) do a second revision on the Steel Legion list that follows the changes in the current NetEA list, and even goes further:

- up-gunning the Baneblade so it's properly useful
- dropping points on the Russ company
- fixing comissars to 1 per 500pts
- dropping the points on Griffons (Nobody ever takes them)
- dropping the points on Hellhounds (I think I'm the only person to take any in the last 3 years, and that was just because I had some nicely converted ones)
- returning the cost of single Warhounds to 250pts
- probably dropping dual Warhounds to 475pts
- probably dropping the Reaver and Warlord by 25pts each too
- probably dropping the points on Arty Companies a tad
- fixing the Marauder bombers (Either by using the NetEA stats, or the War Engine stats we playtested for Siege).

...well, you get the idea, I think a lot needs to be done. :-)

Right now, the Steel Legion simply strugle to be a top-tier army, I think.


I've never had good performance out of these formations.
Blink harshly at them and they're dead.

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Although I haven't been playing recently, my primary IG opponent loves Fire Support upgrades. Infantry company + fire fire support, 350 points, 17 infantry, 15 shots, great suppression profile. 2 of those in cover makes for a hard line.

Then he generally backs them with a pair of Stormtrooper formations in Valks for reaction and hitting targets of opportunity. They can strike off the line or they can move with each other for mutual support. Add Russ Company for a hammer and TBolts for AA/close support and that's the core of his force nearly every time.

That's 7 formations at 2400 points, 5 ground (all of which are tough) and 2 air. Even in the high-activation UK tourney scene, you should be able to hit 9-10 "real" activations (i.e. not transports or spacecraft).

Tim won at Open war with steel legion. Not that many players have used them yet this year.

I know I abandoned bringing Steel Legion to EUK events after the last open war I came to.
Mind you I've only been to one tournament since then. :-)
Rolling up 2, 3 and 5 for Commissars during the day was not happymaking.

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I think your trying to get too many activations for an IG army, Marine Air Assault lists (Eldar and Orks too when going that way) have 11-13 activations but 2-3 of them come in with landers so usually only have 9-11 effective activations.
For my IG (using the Epic-UK list) I go for 9 (minimum) to 11 (max).

Just use your skill as a player instead of trying to use your skill at picking a nasty list.

I thought that was because you came 17th out of 18 .





sorry Ben couldn't resist .

Regimental HQ + Hydra + Ogryns/Chimeras - 650
Mech Infantry + Hydra - 450
Mech Infantry + Hydra - 450
Shadowsword - 200
Shadowsword - 200
Warhound - 275
Warhound - 275
Thunderbolts - 150
Thunderbolts - 150
Sentinels - 100
Sentinels - 100

Grind them down, only the sentinels are easy activations to remove, the core of the list is 9 activations that are hard to get rid of, stop trying to cram the toys in and go with the lists strength, the steel legions. Added bonus you dont need to roll more than 5 for commisars, anything over this is just bonus annoying sentinels running around.

I don't recall actually coming that low, I remember falling below the top half somewhere.
Perhaps a mistake in the stats?
But maybe it really was lower and I blanked it from my memory!

Either way, in all previous tournaments I'd brought my IG to I'd done well... but that dispiriting day of absent Commissars combined with hard draws soured me to taking the Steel Legion to another EUK event. :-/


So for my next tournament, I'll be bringing an army I've never even played before, ho ho ho.

...but I'm planning on taking home "best painted appearance", not placing well. :-)




But that is Chris's best skill! ;-)

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I've never had anything but failure out of them myself, but if you can make them work, I'll stop calling for them to be dropped in points.


Does it always die really fast? :-)


Nah, the full-stat Baneblades are great short-range killers. Catch something in a crossfire (that short range might actually help there!) and they're brutal. Plus you can always Engage with them or use them to support Engagements etc. I love my NetEA-stats Baneblades.


If they're "rubbish" (And I'm hearing this more and more) then why aren't we looking to drop their cost just a tad?

Sentiment?!


TRC thinks that Guard are poor now that the EUK meta has put more emphasis on corners.

Is this emphasis on corners more recent?
I only recall playing one or two EUK tournament games on corners in the events I took my Steel Legion to.

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I think that supposed change in emphasis in the EUK meta game is a myth. At britcon I'd say a maximum of 1 game per round was corners and at BotC+OW it was even less than that. Though TRC was talking about this before britcon so I assume its based on whether he had to play corners at FSA (as he hadn't attended any 2009 events) - but if he did have to play several corners that day then that is certainlyl exceptional and not the norm.

Tim won OW this year with steel legion
http://www.epic-uk.co.uk/ukepicachampio ... d=7&tid=31

Rug, Richard L, Dptdexys and Mark Hargrave have also finished top 5 with IG in the last 18 months - all comparable results with what they have done with other races.

Mark hargrave won the CC and finished top 3 in 2 other events with a tank co
http://www.epic-uk.co.uk/ukepicachampio ... =60&tid=24

If you look here -http://www.epic-uk.co.uk/ukepicachampionship/ytopp.php at win % by player/by race than IG are performing fine.

Jsut because the list isn't particularily abusable doesn't make it underpowered.

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NetEA Chaos + Black Legion Champion

Hmmm, I seam to have you down for 0 painting points at Open War 11. Unfortunately the 1st Cmpy Vets have updated their website and the results of previous years open wars haven't been put back up as yet so I can't check this.