Age of Strife

Here are two tournament lists. In your opinion, which one is the best ?
Basically the choice is between having two termies squads vs. one squad and a land raider.

List A : (differences with list B are in red bold font)
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HQ - Shrike (195pts)
HQ - Epistolary with Null Zone and Gate of Infinity (150pts)

Troops - 10 men tactical squad with lascannon and flamer, drop pod (215pts)
Troops - 10 men tactical squad with multi-melta, melta, power fist, drop pod with locator beacon (245pts)

Elite - 10 sternguard veterans with 3 combi-melta, 2 heavy flamers, power fist, drop pod with locator beacon (355pts)
Elite - 5 terminators with assault cannon (230pts)
Elite - 5 assault terminators (all with TH/SS) (200pts)

Fast attack - 5 men assault squad with power weapon and plasma pistol (130pts)
Fast attack - Land speeder with multi-melta (60pts)

Heavy Support - Predator with twin-linked lascannons (105pts)
Heavy Support - Vindicator (115pts)


List B : (differences with list A are in red bold font)
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HQ - Shrike (195pts)
HQ - Epistolary with Null Zone and Gate of Infinity (150pts)

Troops - 10 men tactical squad with plasma cannon and flamer, drop pod (215pts)
Troops - 10 men tactical squad with multi-melta, melta, power fist, drop pod with locator beacon (245pts)

Elite - 10 sternguard veterans with 3 combi-melta, 2 heavy flamers, power fist, drop pod with locator beacon (355pts)
Elite - 5 assault terminators (all with TH/SS) (200pts)

Fast attack - 5 men assault squad with power weapon and plasma pistol (130pts)

Heavy Support - Predator with twin-linked lascannons and extra armour (120pts)
Heavy Support - Vindicator with extra armour (130pts)
Heavy Support - Land Raider with extra armour (265pts)


Any advice really appreciated.

I like the plasma cannon over the lascannon. Gives a blast radius over one shot even losing 2 on strength, particularly if you hve a lascannon predator
I find that vindicators usually work better in pairs. They can give overlapping fields of fire, usually enough to annihilate an entire unit (or two).
I usually don't take any extra armor. It might be worth it for a rhino or the land raider to allow it to move, but it really only helps 1 particular damage result making it very costly (IMO). Otherwise I think those 30 to 45 points could be better spent elswhere. For example, you could use 30 of them to equip a terminator with cyclone missile launcher giving 2 extra ranged attacks.
Nice nasty list having Shrike in there. Your assault termies can go 12" in LR, disembark, run, then assault! Ouch!
To original question, I'm not too crazy about either one, think they are a good start but need to be tweaked a bit.

Hehe thanks for the comments timewizard. Actually the second list is all about striking fast, possibly at first turn - sternguard in drop pod arrive turn 1, termies could possibly assault turn one, and shrike can infiltrate with the assault squad, advance 12", run and assault as well

Yeah, I use Shrike like that myself! Having him and his unit infiltrate, run and assault turn 1 is great!
You could then lose the predator, take another vindicator (no extra armor) giving good support fire.
Then you could put the assault termies in the LR for possible 1st turn assault.
With the drop pod with locator, you could drop pod in the tac squad. Then you could change out the sternguard for 5 termies with cyclone ML and put the Librarian with them. Then you have 5 PF, a power weapon, 5 or 6 stormbolters, 2 missile shots and with GoI you can move them close to the pod and not scatter. Then you have a turn of shooting, and next turn thanks to Shrike they can move, run, assault!

2nd list, but drop the extra armour on the pred and vindie for a small shield for the vindie.. and combi weapons for your tactical seargents..each one drops and can fire 2 flamers.. or 2 meltas.. thats the pain and killy killy.Not being able to ram with a long range predator..(although ramming with a stunned vindie is fun..generally it should only be done after you lost the turret and no one can be bothered shooting at you any more to close up enemy mobility).

Thanks for the answers. Unfortunately I don't have two vindicators but I'm planning to buy and paint another one soon.

I made some changes to the B list, here it is :

HQ - Shrike (195pts)
HQ - Epistolary with Null Zone and Gate of Infinity (150pts)

Troops - 10 men tactical squad with plasma cannon, power fist and flamer, drop pod (235pts)
Troops - 10 men tactical squad with combi-melta, multi-melta, melta, drop pod with locator beacon (230pts)

Elite - 10 sternguard veterans with 3 combi-melta, 2 heavy flamers, power fist, drop pod with locator beacon (355pts)
Elite - 5 assault terminators (all with TH/SS) (200pts)

Fast attack - 5 men assault squad with power weapon and plasma pistol (130pts)

Heavy Support - Predator with twin-linked lascannons (105pts)
Heavy Support - Vindicator with siege shield (125pts)
Heavy Support - Land Raider with extra armour and multi-melta (275pts)

I removed the extra armour on the vindicator and the predator and I used the points to add a comb-melta to one of the tactical squads, the siege shield to the vindicator and I thought I should add a multi-melta to the land raider (to make a better use of POTMS).

I have not made up my mind yet about replacing the sternguard by termies ... I've had great times using sternguard - shooting 20 hellfire bolts at rapid-fire range is awesome I need to think about it a little more.