1850 Anti Astra Militarum

My brother is my main opponent and he plays guard. He has two basic kinds of lists: a leman russ list and a more infantry heavy list. The Russ list consists of knight commander Pask in a platoon with two other standard russes, two platoons of three russes each, and either one large or two small platoons of plasma veterans in 4 chimeras. The infantry heavy list consists of three independent russes, and two platoons of infantry in 6 chimeras.

The list that I am working with to try and counter both of his army setups is this:

Realspace Raider Detachment

HQ

Archon with clonefield, webway portal and blaster 130pts
Archon is embarked with Trueborn

Elites

Trueborn X 5 with 4 blasters 115pts
Raider with nightshields and dark lance 75pts

Troops

Kabalite warriors X 5 40pts in venom with splinter cannon 65pts
Kabalite warriors X 5 40pts in venom with splinter cannon 65pts
Kabalite warriors X 10 80pts in raider 55pts
Kabalite warriors X 10 80pts in raider with dark lance 60pts
Kabalite warriors X 10 80pts in raider with dark lance 60pts

Fast Attack

Razorwing jetfighter with dark lances and night shields 155pts
4 monoscythe missiles

Razorwing jetfighter with dark lances and night shields 155pts
2 monoscythe missiles 2 necrotoxin missiles

Scourges X 5 with 3 haywire blasters 110pts
Scourges X 5 with 3 haywire blasters 110pts

Heavy support

Ravager with 3 dark lances 125pts
Ravager with 3 dark lances 125pts
Ravager with 3 dark lances 125pts


We primarily play in a heavy urban setting. Usually 1-3 pieces of ruins per 1/6th of the board. I don't have much experience when i comes to playing with little cover or obstruction. I'm usually safe from casualties during my first turn no matter who goes first.

I usually get my warlord and both scourges on the board by turn 3 and maybe one of the razorwings. In my experience, everything that deep strikes is quite effective. I intend on getting another unit of scourges, and maybe even getting up to 3 more for a total of 5, 5 man squads with 4 haywire blasters in each. IMO the ravagers are almost worthless, besides being a jink machine to absorb enemy fire. The only success I've had with them is risking a dangerous terrain test and landing them in cover, so if I have to ditch them to free up points, I have no hesitation.

As far as anti-infantry goes, I feel like I'm overkilling his infantry. If and when I do pop a transport, which i usually wreck at least one a turn, the squad inside is sure to be wiped out, or falling back the following turn. I feel like I can free up some points by dropping a raider, or a venom, and use those points for some blasters on the kabalite squads in the raiders.

Any advice would be appreciated.

I'm a big fan of kymera beastmaster units in general but considering your criteria I think they'd do well for you.

For the price of a ravager or haywire scourges you could take 10 Kymera and 2 beastmasters.  That'd make for 12 wounds, 34 attacks (46 on the charge) at initiative 6, majority toughness 4, fear, and a 5+ invulnerable save.  With the 2nd beastmaster you'd also have a redundant source of leadership 8 as well as 4 poison shots and the ability to take 2 power weapons if you cared to.

Haywire scourges would compete for the same spot, and are the same point value so let's compare.

Beast pack threat range is pretty small for true-kin at 12" + 2d6 (with fleet rerolls and ignoring terrain).  Round 2 charges are possible however, and once you reach your target you're talking about up to 40 strength 4 attacks, hitting most vehicles on 3+, glancing on 6.  This works out to an average of 4.44 glances per charge against a chimera or russ.

Don't forget you only have to get within 2" of a model in base contact to make an attack.  With 40mm bases this gives you room for all kinds of terrain shenanigans and makes multi-charging easier, although you do lose your charge bonus if you charge more than one unit.

Scourges have a much greater threat bubble of 12" move + 24" haywire blaster.  At that range you'd get 4 attacks that hit on 3+ at strength 4 and haywire.  Even if you hit rear armor 10 those shots are only going to strip like 2.33 hull points per turn.

It could be argued that scourges could use their plasma grenades to score slightly more glances vs light vehicles.  Scourges do also have their own invulnerable save, which is always a nice surprise when it works.  The reality is that if you find yourself relying on either of those things, you're using scourges wrong.

TLDR;  Kymera chew through light infantry and light rear armor.  Guard = light infantry and light rear armor.

Keep the ravagers, you'll miss them once they are gone. Drop one of your warrior raiders and ad racks to you remaining 2 gunboats. With some of the remaining points, add blasters to all four warrior squads, and add the 4th haywire to both scourge unit. If you want to try something different, consider 9 reavers with 3 caltrops, or a coven detachment like the Dark artisan or grotesquire. The coven strength and duribility does well against tanks. Hope this helps

BTW, you don't need those 2 necrotoxin missiles on that one razorwing