Store Tournament 500 pots to 750 to 1000

At my current store, a tournament is going down for the next six weeks. Two weeks of 500 pt games, two weeks of 750, and the last two weeks of 1000pt games.

The rules are, the first 500 pts. THey are PERMENANT, as in, the initial force, of 500, MUST be in the following games, those same units must be in the 750 pts games, and those that are added in the 750, must be in the 1000pt games.

Personally I have a thought of already some units I have currently, I played a 500pt battle today at my store, the entire player base did, to prepare.

quick batrep:
Me: Archon-Agonizer, Shadowfield, splinter pistol
4 incubi retinue, in a Venom with 2 splinter cannon

5 kabalite warrior in a venom with two splinter cannon
7 Kabalite warrior
5 scourge, 3 splinter cannon
1 Ravager 3 Dark lance

Vs

Tyranid: Hive tyrant with upgrades
Special limited edition genestealer with unique genestealer units
a grip of termagaunts
(I'm not positive on how many units of each she had, the genestealer and the unique broodlord, but they were from a special box edition that had space marines too.)

Very straight forward and simple game, both venoms make it in second turn, firing from them and scourges killed hive tyrant before it was even in range with its psyker abilities, ravager mishaps, and then is placed near genestealers, who then charge it and destroy it, my archon and incubi charge genestealer and lord, archon kills 5 genestealer in the charge, incubi wounds the broodlord, after it killed 3 incubi, and game ended too easy.


I figure most my games won't wind up like this but my army consists of this so far. Bear in mind this is ALL i have, give me some thoughts on what units you think i should take for each point, remember that each higher point army, MUST include those in the previous lower point armies.

My list consists of:
HQ
Archon with Huskblade splinter pistol
Archon with Huskblade and Soul Trap
Archon with agonizer and blast pistol
Drazhar Master of Blades

Elites
x18 Incubi
x1 Klaivex with Klaive
x3 Dark Lance Trueborn
x3 Blaster Trueborn
x1 Dracon with Blast pistol and Agonizer

Troops
x12 Kabalite Warrior
x1 Syarbite with Splinter pistol
(bear in mind, Trueborn can still be just regular warriors.)

Fast Attack
x1 Scourge with Shardcarbine
x3 Scourge with Splinter Cannon
x1 Solarite with Shardcarbine
x3 Venom all with 2 Splinter Cannon
x1 Razorwing Jetfighter with Disintegrator Cannons OR Dark Lance

Heavy Support
x3 Ravager all with 3 Dark Lance
x1 Voidraven Bomber with Dark Scythe OR Void Lance

(RWJ and VRB can both have either interchangeable missiles.)

The list is basically non negotiable, I will not have time or money to buy units much less paint for game ready. ( I refuse to play units that aren't completely painted or assembled, its a pet peeve of mine.) But I would ask for some thoughts on what units to play in my 500 pt game, and those to add to the 500 pt to the 750 transition, and also to the 1000pt transition


Warlord and abilities may be interchanged, even abilities, but units in general are NOT (example-If I use an Archon, with a Huskblade in the 500 pt with a flickerfield, then in the 750 pt game, use an Archon with an agonizer and a shadowfield, thats OKAY, the general BASIC units must stay though.) I don't expect to be #1 in the tournament, but I do want to at least be a reckoning person to play. Any thoughts or critiques are appreciated.

I'll bite. Its the first 500 thats always a pain so first, a few questions:

-Do you expect much mech?
-How do you feel about a court as your HQ selection, or are you dead set on running a cc archon?
-Would you be willing to remove the dark lances on one of your ravagers for this tournament to make it a raider?
-Can you counts as any weaponry, or would anyone even know the difference on say haywire blasters?

Lastly your list from above totals out to 681 fyi..

If its 681 I feel bad. :s I had a list i made on Battlescribe that was 1500, I deducted all the points at the store when it was said we are all doing 500pt games. I must of made Mistake. :c and to your questions. I don't have a court of the archon, I plan on buying some Lhaemeaen since they have a 2+ damage and instakill, but I won't have for the tournament, I don't have a Raider, I had initially, but I bought Ravager bits and made it a ravager, and there's no going back on them, as the dark lances are glued. I should of Magnetized but too late now. For the most part I prefer to say that if the unit has the gun, then its gun is its gun, If I were to change my mind and say the splinter cannons are actually Haywire blasters I wouldn't feel right, I basically expect some sort of vehicle, considering that the units I did use in that game don't really have any tank busting capabilities, excluding the Ravager, I feel like I need some type of Dark lance support that is durable, and a Ravager is pretty reliable.

Ok I see where your at, but consider this might be an excellent time to make at least 1 raider and convert or 'counts as' a lhamaean. Tournaments are usually my motivation lol, and 3 ravagers is usually excessive nowdays anyway.

Similarly with the lhamaean or even another court member if you can find a suitable model. Its just so much easier to scale these escalation lists when your not starting out with an IC.. plus a klaivex would make an excellent warlord at 500 and you could introduce the archon higher up if you feel like it.



Anyway working with whats on hand atm I think you need to come out the gate swingin' so lets maximize your anti infantry and still fit some anti tank plus a place for your archon to go:

-500-
HQ
Archon- blaster, agonizer 100

ELITES
5 trueborn- 2 dark lances 95

TROOPS
5 warriors, blaster, venom- 2 sc 120
5 warriors, blaster, venom- 2 sc 120

FA
venom- 2 sc 65
(total 500)

Reasoning: at low levels you want your anti tank spread out. Much more versatile and harder to silence. This list features 4 seperate dark light platforms, 3 mobile with one at bs7 and 1 static 2 shot. Archon rides alone in the FA venom at this level. This list scales best out of all my attempts while still including sufficient AT and all of your venoms. From here I will present a couple 'packages' which while open to change allow you to kinda forecast what you may want to include based on your opposition..


-750-
4 incubi, klaivex 90
archon 'swap'- clone field, agonizer, hwg 10
razorwing jetfighter- 2 dl, sc, 4 msm 150
(total 740)

Archon gains a retinue (thus the FA venom) and changes to combat loadout since the rwjf brings 2 more lances. Theres also room for even a shadow field or blaster depending on which weapons you want the razorwing/archon to have, thus the 740 total. Alternately if hes working out fine solo and you need more AT then take a different approach as below:

-1000-
ravager, dark lances 125
ravager, dark lances -OR- 5 scourges, 3 splinter cannons 125
(total 1000)

Lastly you could simply scale the list up by adding 1 ravager and 5 scourges and then 2 more ravagers. The intent really is just to scale your anti infantry and anti tank options based on what you see during the escalation.

Id really love to fit multiple hunting parties of min sized incubi but with an archon and no rides its not happening.

Anyway thats my take.

That actually sounds nice! Except I'm no fan of Incubbi and would invest in true born with Blaster or grotesques.

Granted, I haven't used mine in a long time. Hm. Maybe I should ask for experience.

The only problem is with escalation blasterborn are prohibitively expensive. Grots same since they need a babysitter. My personal experience is its better to spread around the special weapons.. with hwb scourges probably being the exception since they are so efficient at what they do.

My lists usually start with at least 2 but usually 3 units of reavers with arena champ warlord and then compulsory warriors in venoms, plus a court member. Heat lance/caltrop reaver spam is pure gold at 500 pts in RSR. From there start filling up on empty skimmers and add the odd 'answer' unit. I actually really enjoy incubi at these levels, its like their playground. They survive crashes and hunt pretty much anything you can expect to see at these levels very well. Plus they are just cool.

Hmmmm interesting, the 500 pt is great I love it. the 750 is great too, although I might want to swap the Razorwing for a Ravager, or keep it anti infantry, personally, I aimed that to be anti infantry, while the vrb would be the aircraft tank buster, but I'll have to see what comes. The 1000 pt is great too, that may be the last thing I fully figure out, as for me personally, Kabalites are paper, Venoms are too, paper, I feel they don't get much of a survival benefit from being in one, thats why I like a Ravager, just enough armor that most basic enemy units can't pierce it, after all, anti vehicle, is still anti infantry just as easy, just not near as effective, I have only used a Klaivex one time, although he did great, with the Archon, and Rampage, I'd love to see how it goes.. Anyways, thank you, I can basically guarantee I will use the 500 pt army, although I may want a Shadow Field Purely out of paranoia.

Glad you like it. Ya feel free to change as needed.