Working with Australia's Community Comp System

There is a big tournament here in late January. I was planning on playing but then in the last 6 weeks or so I've dramatically lost interest in Warhammer. The game is just a bit too much of a headache to figure out these days. This tournament uses Australia's community comp system, which is basically a panel-determined comping system where certain units and combinations of units and/or equipment cost a certain number of credits. Each player gets to spend up to 20 credits, and the more you spend the more it hurts your comp score, which is typically 50% of your overall score (the other 50% is battle points). Most people I've seen on the local Forums are running lists in the 8-12 points range. The cookie-cutter Necron harvest list is a minimum 12 points. Ravenwing struggles to get in under 15. The system moves in 5 point increments, so that up to 5 points doesn't hurt you much, but 6-10 is a bit of a burn, and anything above 10 points really starts to sting your comp score. On the one hand this stops people taking bullshit cheese. On the other hand this is a really laborious way to manage comp, which bugs me a bit, and it can break in places. So I wasn't going to play. But then I built a list that I think breaks the system (you can break any system with marines because there are so many options), so now I might, I just need to borrow some models because I don't want to give GW anymore money at the moment. Alternatively I might try to sell some of the stuff I am definitely never going to use, like my poor Orks, to finance the completion of my Marine collection. Anywayz, here is my list:

COMBINED ARMS DETACHMENT - Ultramarines

Chapter Master on bike with artificer armour, storm shield, combi-melta, power fist, auspex
Scouts (5) with boltguns, combi-grav
Scouts (5) with boltguns, combi-grav
Scouts (5) with boltguns, combi-grav
Scouts (5) with boltguns, combi-grav
Scouts (5) with boltguns, combi-grav
Scouts (5) with boltguns
Bike squad (4) with meltagun x2, combi-melta, attack bike with multi-melta
Command Squad in drop pod with 4 meltaguns, apothecary
Sternguard (10) in drop pod with 4 combi-meltas
Drop pod
Devastator Squad with Rhino, 2 grav cannons and armorium cherub
Devastator Squad with Rhino, 2 grav cannons and armorium cherub
Devastator Squad with Rhino, 2 grav-cannons and armorium cherub

Note that the Captain entry says that the model 'may take a storm shield' - it does not replace a weapon, unlike the shield eternal, which means that you can also take the combi-melta and power fist. The bike grants a weak kind of eternal warrior. It is much cheaper than the shield eternal, and the eternal costs 1 on the comp system.

Remember scout shame? Shortly after that list the same player used something similar with the new Space Marine dex to place top 4 at a big West Coast tournament. His list was 2 ironclads, 2 librarians (incl. Tigurius), 2 squads of devastator centurions in pods and 40 scouts. I wanted to copy that because I knew it worked and I knew it wouldn't be comped. Devastator Centurions and Tigurius are comped to the high heavens in community comp. So they had to go. So are bikes, so they aren't a replacement option. The only good stuff that I could find that wasn't comped was Ironclads in pods, which are awesome nowadays, scouts and grav-cannons on non-relentless bodies. My first thought was lets get a bunch of them in Rhinos with Khan. But Khan is crushingly expensive, and even Rhinos can be pricey if you have a lot because you pay comp for your total armour points score and Rhinos contribute 4 each. Then I realised that pods are actually comped at 1 per pod, not 1 for the first three and then 1 thereafter like I had originally thought, so I mash-up list option was rejected.

At this point I was stuck.

After a while I realised I needed to do a few things. I needed to try to stay under armour 14, under 8 objective secured bikes, under 11 relentless grav shots, never put more than 4 melta guns into a pod, not use more than 3 pods and not use Khan. I also realised that the only hammer I could get without getting burned on comp was Rhinos for full of grav, so I doubled down on that with devastator squads packing 2 cannons each. I could also take a tonne of scouts to give me a bit of an alpha strike and plenty of irritating ob-sec. What I needed then was some way to pry open transports and other things that would be resistant to my grav. I thought about taking imperial fist devastators, which are great at opening transports. But this would require a second CAD to allow Lysander to be the Warlord, which was too much hassle because of the mixed chapter tactics and 1 comp cost. So I brought the drop pods back in. They're the only thing that really costs. The other item is the chapter master on bike. He's cheaper than the terminator version because he doesn't need to buy eternal warrior thanks to T5, and he is great at sweeping. He's also the best warlord going round. Very much worth a single comp point.

So that's the list. Turn 1 you have 2 pods coming down with the melta squads bolstered by devastator doctrine. You will get first blood if you go first. I will focus on transports that are safe for first blood and a waste of grav-cannon shots. The scouts will go for a high value monstrous creature or heavy infantry squad, like battle suits or a Wraithknight. The chapter master will sometimes go with the bike squad but will often just drop in with the command squad to leech off the apothecary, tank wounds and start the game where the action is (who needs scout!).

Turn 2 you have devastator doctrine for your Rhinos, which turbo boost to midfield on turn 1. On turn three they can use the Cherub to give one of the cannons re-rolls to keep the re-rolls to hit rolling (lol, see what I did there). The signum also makes one of them BS2. That should be pretty solid firepower that's quickly in position, and the cannons can survive an alpha strike inside their Rhinos. The Chapter master and his bros hopefully distract your opponent long enough for you to be victorious by scoring all the objectives with your scouts.

Alternatively, you can basically null deploy by placing only the Rhinos on the table. The scouts then outflank and the pods come down later. In this approach you look to put units on all the objectives and prevent your opponent from ever scoring using ob-sec saturation.

Couple of weaknesses. The list lacks ignores cover, though the auspex can help out in a pinch against the giant Tau Stealthsuits on turn 1, and Ravenwing are comped to the point where you can't play them (you can also beat Ravenwing with Ob-sec to an extent because black knights are especially comped and will thus be very rare), so there aren't actually going to be that many things abusing cover saves. Dark Eldar are scary. Venomthropes not so much because there won't be enough of them to survive your Sternguard on the drop. Once they are dead the monstrous creatures will cave to your grav weapons.

Hordes will be a problem. Indeed, grav dominates so hard these days that I think hordes are a really obvious option. If I had an Ork collection I'd probably be rocking green tide. Hopefully the scouts and their bolters will do the job.

The list also lacks a bit of mobility after the drop, like most pods lists. The CM can get about, and so can the Rhinos, though the latter would rather remain stationary firing platforms. The one bike squad is likely to be helpful here. It's in their mostly to help open transports, but it can also do late game objective grabbing. I will consider putting flamethrowers on it if I have a lot of trouble against hordes.

Finally, a Helldrake with ruin your day, but that's true of just about any CM list that isn't entirely bunkered down in Rhinos, and those are tough to make work in community comp without going to 10 points.

FYI, this list comps a 3!