Warhammer 40k Tabletop XXI: Preferred Enemy (Dice)

[Cheesegear]

Mech is king again, and I'm packing accordingly.

Armour is King. You don't see Space Marines carting around six Rhinos/Razorbacks anymore. But you do see two or three Land Raiders. The difference is huge.

I'm not sure what I could cut to put those in without leaving a hole in the list or making my Warlord more vulnerable.

The Veterans and the Chimeras? Each one of those is another Infantry Platoon.

Also, do you know if tournaments are allowing the 3++ Phase Shifter save to confer to the Command Barge?

Absolutely not. Is that a real question?
"A Chariot is always treated as a single model." seems to be BS, because you wouldn't need two pages worth of rules if it was one model. I mean, sure, if you stopped at that sentence, you might think a 3++ confers to the Chariot...Except, you have another two pages to read.

But, RAW; The Rider has a profile, the Chariot has a profile. They're two separate things right there. Second, the Rider has wargear, the Chariot does not. The fact that you have to allocate hits indicates that you're specifically not hitting the Rider. You are allocating hits to separate things. The Terminator with Lightning Claws doesn't get a 3++ because the guy next to him has a Storm Shield. If you want that, you should allocate the hit to the guy with the Storm Shield.

I could build them out as "normal", but how bad are the squads that are in the book?

The WGTs have Frost Sword, TH/SS, Heavy Flamer/Power Fist, Power Fist, Chainfist.
It seems dumb. But WGTs currently are one of the units that don't make sense and are one of the units most likely to change in the next Codex... So... Wait and see. Although I'm sure it's sub optimal anyway. But I can't tell you what would be a better loadout without potentially lying.

The Grey Hunters have a Power Axe, Plasma Gun and Plasma Pistol. That's pretty bad. Especially because the Orks in Storm Claw don't even have 2+ Armour. I know for a fact that the Space Wolves box comes with a Power Sword. Why not use that?
The Blood Claws have a Power Fist and a different model with a Plasma Pistol. The Power Fist is decent because of Rage, but Blood Claws are still BS3 and a Plasma Pistol is 10-15 Points of nothing.

I understand the limitations. The units in Storm Claw are limited by the sprues. Still, it's pretty bad.