Thursday 12 January 2012

Blob guard list on the cheap...ish

Wanting to make a Blob guard list can really be daunting, even for a painting sicko like myself. the number of bodies, weapons and such compared to most other armies can really pile up... and I know this first hand after having 152 models in a 1750 point list, an that includes heavy weapon teams as 1 model! and with Ireland's point levels going up to 1850 to work alongside the ETC it could get even bigger...

So I'm going to put up an article to hopefully help people wanting to begin a Blob list and keep the prices down at the start. This list can be added to as needed and should give the beginning player a solid base to build any type of guard army on.




We'll stick to 1000 points since its a small enough level and limit ourselves to just 3 Battle forces with minor additions. The contents of which for those who don't remember off hand are 5 man command squad, 20 infantry men, 3 heavy weapon teams and a sentinel.

so 3 boxes gives us:

15 command guys
60 troopers
3 sentinels
9 HWT


So, we begin with the HQ: A company command squad, 3 grenade launchers, give the unit camo cloaks upgrade and regimental standard. The idea for this squad is hiding behind just in range of the blobs giving orders if needs be to either the men or more so the heavy weapon squads for some BID reliance and using grenade launchers for 24 inch support.

Troop 1: Platoon command squad, 3 meltaguns. these guys just follow behind the blob for cover and give them orders for move move move to get them forward more, or FRFSRF if enemy is in range.

The infantry squads all have meltaguns to stop tank shocking, Sgts have meltabombs for anti walker defence, as well as the usual power weapons for HTH, one squad has a Commissar with power weapon to keep them around.

The platoon is topped off with a autocannon heavy weapon team.

Troop 2:  Platoon command squad, 3 meltaguns. these guys just follow behind the blob for cover and give them orders for move move move to get them forward more, or FRFSRF if enemy is in range.

The infantry squads all have meltaguns to stop tank shocking, Sgts have meltabombs for anti walker defence, as well as the usual power weapons for HTH, one squad has a Commissar with power weapon to keep them around.

The platoon is topped off with a autocannon heavy weapon team as well as a missile launcher heavy weapons team.

And that's a 1000 point blob guard list. you deploy the command squad to give orders to the heavy weapon teams who also should be in cover with good fire lanes, move the blobs forward with the platoon command quads trailing them for orders, pop light vehicles with the missile launchers and autocannons and keep heavy stuff away using meltguns.



(These are made using the Grenade launcher with the drum cut off and smoothed and the barrel taken off and the flamer end slightly rounded off at the bottom and attached, they look damn good if I do say so for a few moments work each time and give you meltas for the army)..

If you want to bump this lit up closer to 1250 its cheap to do as you can include the Sentinels which aren't available for use in the 1k list, they can be kitted out with autocannons and hunter killers and used to outflank and come on behind enemy vehicles, add an astropath to get them on quicker, and Straken + some body guards if want them and you are up around the 1300 mark.

The push to 1750 odd points is another platoon (So 1 more battle force plus two 5 man click in guard packs to save you some ££).

There you have it, a Blob army taken from 1000 points up to about 1750 points for as little a cost as I can think of right now.

1000 point army cost (From Games workshop)
3x Battle force - £65 each, Total £195
2x Commissars - £8.20 each, Total 16.40 (Or you can get the Lord Commissar if prefer pose for slightly more)
Codex imperial guard - £20

TOTAL £211.40


The additions to 1250 roughly:
3 scout sentinels - Free, included as part of the Battle forces we hadn't used before.
1 Astropath - £8.20 (Using Primius psyker model).
Straken - £8.70 (you then take your platoon commander if equipped with pistol and CCW and make him into a bodyguard / minder)
Bodyguards - 2 Random guardsmen just, could be free or a few quid if you get them from Ebay.

TOTAL: £16.90


The additions to 1750 up to 2k roughly:
1 Battleforce - £65 (The command squad and two infantry squads become the third platoon along with the click guys, the sentinel can be put into a squad with one of the other 3 and make 2x two squads with autocannon and hunter killer, and the heavy weapon team can be added in to a platoon)
2x 5 man guard squads - £5.50 each Total £11 (click together ones, £11 for ten is a nice saving if you do it enough)
1 commissar - £8.20 for third blob
TOTAL: £84.2

If you don't add them they will shoot you.

So the Grand Total to make a list to roughly 2k for blob guard is £312.50. Not as bad as I'd thought especially since that's for 2k points and not 1750. Even more so if you don't glue in the heavy weapon to the tripod so you can swap the autocannons for lascannons (Which is my preference) and bump up the totals even more.

This is a perfect infantry base for branching out into armour and chimeras as you should never need more infantry than you have here bar maybe 1-2 more specialised guys.

On the list itself its not the most competitive build possible but its a trade off between playability and cost, meaning you can get a blob army on the table for a decent enough price, and this army can as already mentioned be built on quite nicely to convert it to your own personal taste.

Any personal opinions or advice on how to do it better are apreciated.

2 comments:

  1. I know exactly how you feeling James.

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  2. Orks wish they could horde like guard Tom :P

    Though it just shows how big some armies can be even at 1k points. I think that list comes out to about 74 models for 1k alone.

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