I mentioned in the last blog post that I was looking to recreate my original Dark Templar tournament list from back in October 2001. Well, I managed to find a dodgy photo or two of the army. As you can see it's made up of lots of old school models, before we had many extra bitz on sprues (or even twin-linked lascannons for razorbacks!), and is in my original Dark Templar scheme of (very) dark green and black (awful colour scheme with hindsight as there is no contrast).
The list itself (from what I can tell) uses the Black Templar listing from within the 3rd Ed Armageddon Codex, and looks something like this:
Chaplain with bolt pistol and crozius
Emperor's Champion with bolt pistol and black sword
Troop Squad 1
Initiate with bolt pistol and power sword
Initiates (x4) with bolt pistols and chainswords
Neophyte x1 with bolt pistol and combat blade
Razorback with twin-lascannons
Troop Squad 2
Initiate with bolt pistol and power sword
Initiates (x4) with bolt pistols and chainswords
Neophyte x1 with bolt pistol and combat blade
Razorback with twin-lascannons
Troop Squad 3
Initiate with bolt pistol and power sword
Initiates (x4) with bolt pistols and chainswords
Neophyte x1 with bolt pistol and combat blade
Razorback with twin-lascannons
Troop Squad 4
Initiate with bolt pistol and power fist
Initiate with meltagun
Marines (x3) with bolt pistols and chainswords
Neophytes x4 with bolt pistol and combat blade
Rhino
Troop Squad 5
Initiate with bolt pistol and power fist
Initiate with meltagun
Marines (x3) with bolt pistols and chainswords
Neophytes x4 with bolt pistol and combat blade
Rhino
Troop Squad 6
Initiate with bolt pistol and power fist
Initiate with meltagun
Initiates (x4) with bolt pistols and chainswords
Neophytes x4 with bolt pistol and combat blade
Rhino
Land Speeder with Heavy Bolter
Land Speeder with Heavy Bolter
As you can see there is lots of duplication, the idea being that no individual loss would be devastating and that there was a lot of mobility. Rhino rush with the three big squads, pop enemy transports with the melta and mop up what's left in combat – the three Razorback squads would roam around lending support where needed, whilst the Speeders played hit and run with lighter vehicles and T5 troops.
This would have been a 1500 point army back in 3rd Edition – that's 48 marines in total (if you include Neophytes) with over 100 attacks combined per combat round, 3 twin-linked lascannons, 3 melta guns and 2 heavy bolters. From what I remember it did ok, but never set the world alight (largely due to my poor tactics and inability to create a truly merciless army list).
Interestingly, in the new Imperial Index, this army would appear to come out at approximately 1586 points. Not a lot of difference, but I just don't think it's got the teeth to stand up to the new rules.
So, rather than recreate this army verbatim, maybe I'll do an 8th Edition interpretation of this list. Time to get my thinking cap on – any ideas?