Goofing Around With Hellblasters

 

Image from Reddit r/Warhammer40K

Hello battle brothers! I've had this goofy idea for a list rattling around in my head for a while, so I thought I'd flesh it out and share it with you. The concept of the list is to really lean into Hellblasters to the point of absurdity. Full disclaimer: I'm not trying to promote this as a practical or effective list. However, I do think it has the potential to be funny. 

The inciting moment where the idea for this list first popped into my head was at one of the points where I was reading the strats for the Unforgiven Task Force. In particular, Grim Retribution, which is a reactive shoot-back strat. It can only be targeted on a unit that lost models as a result of enemy shooting, so that rules out vehicles. My first thought when I saw that strat was that it would only be useful used on units with particularly powerful shooting that are big enough to still have models left after an enemy unit has shot. That rules out a lot of possibilities, but Hellblasters are an obvious squad to target it on.

Then it occurred to me that, on any occasion where you target Hellblasters with Grim Retribution, not only are the surviving members of the squad going to shoot, it's very likely most if not all of the dying members of the squad will shoot as well. And then, comically, any of the Hellblasters that shot through Grim Retribution that die to Hazardous tests would likely then get to shoot again. What's more is that the Hellblasters that are shooting on death would get to shoot at whatever target you want, rather than the unit that triggered Grim Retribution. 

So, I came up with this list in order to try and maximize the possibility of this particular interaction occurring, and hopefully to get the most out of it when it does. 

Goofy Hellblasters
Azrael
Captain: Stubborn Tenacity
Captain: Shroud of Heroes
Ancient
Ancient
Ancient
Hellblaster Squad: 10 plasma boys
Hellblaster Squad: 10 plasma boys
Hellblaster Squad: 10 plasma boys
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Scout Squad: 5 sneaky lads
Deathwing Knights Squad: 5 awesome chonky macey boys
Infiltrator Squad: 5 sneaky boys
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike

Pretty much all of the elements of the list are intended to oblige an opponent to shoot at the Hellblasters. The Scouts' job is to act as speedbumps to keep opponents from being able to get assault units into them. The Thunderstrikes are to threaten an opponent with boosting the Hellblasters' shooting into them if they let them shoot in their own shooting phase. The Ancients are to keep opponents from thinking they can out-OC the Hellblasters on the objectives without thinning them out. The Captains and Azrael are there to give the squads some melee punch, and to keep opponents from thinking they can tie up or pick up the Hellblasters with fast units. The Captains also allow discounted strats to be played on them, and the one with Stubborn Tenacity also boosts their shooting, as does Azrael. The DWKs are there as a counter-assault threat, to further dis-incentivize charging into them. The Infiltrators are just there to sit on the backfield objective and screen out as much area from entry from reserves as possible. 

Even the choice of the Unforgiven Task Force was made to maximize the Hellblasteriness of Hellblasters. Shoot-back strats are not universally available among Space Marine detachments. The Ironstorm has Power of the Machine Spirit, but it can only be targeted on vehicles. Then there's the Anvil Siege Force, which has Hail of Vengeance, but it costs 2 CP.  Grim Retribution functions exactly the same as Hail of Vengeance, but only costs 1 CP. And that's it. None of the other generic or bespoke-DA detachments have a shoot-back strat.

I'd considered going with Librarians and Apothecaries as supporting characters in order to keep the pain going longer, but I decided against those options. The thinking is that we want to oblige shooting into them, and incur losses that would allow Grim Retribution to be triggered, and trigger shooting on death. Also, Librarians and Apothecaries would be an either-or prospect. We can attach an Apothecary to a unit that has a Captain attached to it, but not to a unit with a Librarian attached. 

This list has the potential for some funny moments, but what would really be hilarious would be two of these lists playing against each other. It's not likely, but it's within the realm of possibility that all 60 Hellblasters could gun each other off the table in one Shooting phase. Even if they don't, I'm sure the carnage that could be generated in one Shooting phase would be impressive.

Am I going to play this list? No, not at all. I could see using 20 Hellblasters in one list, but 30 is too much of a skew for me. Do I wish someone would play this list and tell us how it went? Yes, absolutely. If any of you mad folk out there happen to have 30 Hellblasters, I invite you to give this list a try. 

Thank you for indulging my flight of whimsy. While this was never intended to be a serious competitive list, sometimes it's interesting to explore how different mechanics interact with each other.  It's a good way to entertain ourselves on a hot summer day. I hope you're staying cool, and writing more practical lists than this!