Then you roll a 1-2 for their skill and the plan falls apart .

In all seriousness an IG melee unit is typically a rather dodgy affair no matter how well kitted they are. You simply lack the stats for it no matter how many attacks you muster. Even if you get some decent damage, your opponents can usually farm wounds pretty easily on your weaker stats to pad their morale check or in win combat.

Against other IG lists this could be effective, but I'm not seeing it go all that well against SM, CSM and Orks. Even against other IG lists, you'll wipe out a unit and face a hefty volley of fire.

 

That sounds like a fun and intersting army, let me contact GW so that thy can put a stop to this.

My one problem with it is that there are no heavy and special weapons in the PL squads, now since you're arriving via valk/vandett you're wastng the points you payed for infiltrate. So you're paying over 25 points per squad to get the desperados roll thing and to stop your units from having weapon options.

If that doesn't stop you though I sure as hell won't.

 

Sounds like a fun concept, but ultimately not very viable. Penal Legionnaires aren't great in combat, Priests are expensive and easy to snipe out, and all those points can go into something better.

I do like Penal Troops in an infantry based army though. They're fairly cheap, have scouts and stubborn, and their abilities can be interesting. Assault 2 lasguns means you can stay out of assault range and annoy peopler, FC and counter-attack can surprise weaker units like other guardsmen, Tau, or Grots, and rending can be a nasty trick to play on a Carnifex (don't try it against marines, you only have I3).

It's a fun little unit. Not the most competitive, but cheap enough that you can still fit in the good stuff.

 

Although an PL heavy list would be fun, it would be completely trashed by most armies.

However, throwing in one or two squads of PL is not a horrible idea, they're scoring, outflanking and not *too* expensive (they're by no means cheap).


I often run a 240pt platoon w/ Al'Rahem (25men), that would be 3 PL squads right there... the Platoon has better anti tank ability and more guns, but might have to experiment w/ PLs hehe.

 

In my opinion Penal Legion is nerfed version of Schaefer's Last Chancers.


Only really viable option to use them imo is as flanking units in armies that run "send in the next wave conscripts"

I am think about running an entire "Penal Legion" with Schaefer counting as Chekov.


I think GW is a collective bastard organization for killing off Schaefer.

 

Well Last Chancers in the old codex simply did not work in 5ed, KPs killed them.

 

PL are not very shooty or assaulty. They may do well against other non-assaulty infantry, but against MEQ's and any infantry with better saves than them, they'll most likely lose.

The only redeeming quality about them, and this is the reason why I use them, is that they are scoring and can outflank. In objectives games, that makes a big difference since enemies will most likely try to rush & assault the guards. This leaves most of the objectives open for them to swoop in and claim.

 

I like it. Not that they need the Valkyries/vendettas. Although, you might have trouble with the rules eitherway, regarding priests not possessing outflank. Not that I'd stop you - it's just a grey area.

As others have said, not neccessarily the strongest army out there, but hey - just take 5 instead of 6, and spend your last troops choice on a platoon!

I'm toying with penal legionairres at the moment myself. That whole stubborn and outflank thing is really getting me going - they aren't going to easily break via shooting or hth, so your opponent is going to have to try and wipe them out to a man. And they're a cheap unit, so who cares if they do get wiped out!

That's a whole lotta distraction right there!

The only redeeming quality about them, and this is the reason why I use them, is that they are scoring and can outflank. In objectives games, that makes a big difference since enemies will most likely try to rush & assault the guards. This leaves most of the objectives open for them to swoop in and claim.

Good point!

 

Just wanted to share my experiences with Penal Legionnaries. So far I've used the PL's twice. The first time was in a KP game and the second in an apocalypse game. Both times I outflanked them.

In the first game, they outflanked, got fleet+furious charge, and managed to assault a squad of chaos havocs. I lost 1 legionnaire while wiping out the entire havoc squad. That's 80pts taking out about 160pts. They survived as my opponent was too busy with the rest of my army.

In the apocalypse game, I used 2 units of PL's and outflanked both. I rolled CCW+rending for both. I assaulted some noise marines with a PF on 1 objective, killed only 1, lost combat by 5-6, and then got swept. The 2nd unit assaulted a squad of 7 Chosens. However, because of some Apocalypse special formation (Thousand Sons Warcoven), each chosen was actually an aspiring sorcerer and cost 60pts! I believe I lost 2-3 but I did manage to wipe them out. That's 80pts taking out 420pts!

Overall, for the costs, I like what the PL's can do.

 

I don't think the last chancers are well remembered in this PL idea. I used to play the LC's but I am yet to even consider a PL in a list. I hate having to roll for powers that completely change my plan.