40K Starter Tournament Tactica Part Four(a)

For part one
http://hiveoffunandsilliny.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/40k-starter-tournament-tactica-part-one.html?zx=85903b73151aaf60
For part two
http://hiveoffunandsilliny.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/40k-starter-tournament-tactica-part-twoa.html?zx=2ec544f5f9fe1cb5
http://hiveoffunandsilliny.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/40k-starter-tournament-tactica-part-twob.html?zx=dcbf2c663ed10deb
http://hiveoffunandsilliny.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/40k-starter-tournament-tactica-part-twoc.html?zx=35bf1e2fbd18adab
For part three
http://hiveoffunandsilliny.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/40k-starter-tournament-tactica-part.html
http://hiveoffunandsilliny.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/40k-starter-tournament-tactica-part_5.html
http://hiveoffunandsilliny.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/40k-starter-tournament-tactica-part_72.html

That should catch you up. Only one more recap-link posting needed during the final part of this...

So, Part Four. The Triumvirate of the Imperium 

Building the Army

The Triumvirate is a Formation that contains Saint Celestine, Belisarius Cawl and Inquisitor Greyfax. They are 3 amazing new models with a bunch of special rules. Anyone getting hold of these models will probably want to use one or more of them as soon as possible. So, we've got a couple of choices. We can either pick one to use and build an army around them, with them as the HQ. Or we can go the route I'm taking and build an army containing their Formation.
The question then becomes what to pair them with? Their parent factions each have their own pros and cons. I'm not familiar with Ad Mech and Inquisition lends itself best to being an addition to a main force rather than being one itself. This would seem to leave Sisters of Battle, but I want to look at them on their own at some point, they work best with their Acts of Faith if you don't have non-Sisters join their units. Meanwhile I have already built 2 sample Astra Militarum armies for this event.
Therefore I'm going to build a Space Marines army. Because we are going to be so short on points, I'm going to use the Allied Detachment.

Triumvirate of the Imperium

This will be our main Detachment, and so our Warlord will come from it. It's special rules give friendly Armies of the Imperium units Stubborn if they are within 12" of two of the three members and Fearless if they are within 12" of all three.
The other special rule is if one of them is the Warlord, then they can all use their Warlord traits. I'm going to choose Cawl for this job, He and Celestine are both pretty difficult to kill, but I expect the Saint to be surging forward looking for trouble. So he should keep this rule active as long as possible.

Allied Detachment

This Detachment has several restrictions that don't actually matter to use and one special rule. It also has 2 mandatory unit choices and 4 optional ones.
It cannot be our Primary Detachment. This is fine as we have the Triumvirate for that.
It cannot contain our Warlord. Again, the Triumvirate not only supplies better candidates for Warlord, but has a rule that benefits containing one.
It gives the Troops units in the Detachment Objective Secured. This isn't useful, but we are taking this to support the Triumvirate, not for it's own sake.

The best way to build this will be to make choices that support each individual character.

Mandatory Choices

HQ

Our HQ will also determine our choice of Chapter Tactics. Belisarius Cawl works best alongside a Tank, and there is the perfect commander to accompany him. Sergeant Chronus fulfills our mandatory HQ, and brings his own tank. I'd put him in a Predator and give it sponson-mounted Heavy Bolters. He can get bonuses from Cawl, and sets our Chapter Tactics to Ultramarines. This gives us three turns of choice re-rolls for the army.

Troops

The second mandatory choice is a Troops unit. Here I'm picking something to support Inquisitor Greyfax. 5 Tactical Marines give her a suitable bodyguard. To keep the points low, we are taking them at bare bones, but adding a Flamer to help clear out hordes/defend on Overwatch. I will also replace one of them with the Imperial Space Marine to add extra firepower at zero cost. This is a little cheesy, but we need every advantage we can get with an army this small.

Optional Choices

Fast Attack

Our first optional choice is something to join Celestine in hunting units for combat, and add some mobility to the force. 5 Assault Marines with Jump Packs and no other upgrades should make a decent choice. Not only can they keep pace with her, but between the Saint and her Geminae they don't need much more help.

Elites

Our final optional choice is kinda special. We are going to take 5 Sternguard Veterans in a Drop Pod. The Drop Pod brings them in via Deep Strike automatically on Turn One. We can either drop them on the Relic or in our opponents back lines to threaten some of their units. This is achieved via their Special Issue Ammunition which allows them to select the right gun for the right target. They will either take out a threat to our army or claim the Relic as the Saint and her squad leapfrog them to fend off the enemy.

That brings us to exactly 1000 points and 20 models. Not the most imposing presence on the Battlefield, but with precision application of the units we have a chance. That said, the Triumvirate might be quite a sledgehammer. In our Part Four(b) we will look at how this could work on the tabletop and how it lines up with our goals.