Beware the Skinks

First 8th Edition Fantasy game

2010-09-02T07:57:00.003+02:00

Well I got to play my first 8th Edition game of fantasy last night. We rolled up a battle line scenario, dumped a ton of terrain on the table (we got max number,10 pieces) and started deploying the troops. We where playing at 2500 Points. My opponent - Orks. My list looked somewhat like this ( I don't have it with me at the moment):

Slann with Becalming Cognition, Focus of Mystery, Focus of Rumination, Battle Standard Bearer, Standard of Discipline, Feedback scroll and bane head, Lore of Life.

Level 1 Skinks priest on engine of the gods with dispel scroll

Saurus Scar veteran on a cold one with Initiative 10 sword and Dragon helm.

20 Temple guard with full command
7 Cold one Cavalry with Musician and Standard Bearer
4 Terradons

20 Saurus with full command
20 Saurus with full command
10 Skink Skirmishers
10 Skink Skirmishers
10 Skinks + 1 Kroxigor

My opponent had 2 ork wizards - one level 4 and one level 2. The Level 2 had a staff that stole 1 power dice and added it to his dispel pool. He used a large unit of Black orks (30?) with a Big black ork hero and 2 Blocks of 40 Orks, 2 blocks of 40 Goblins, some spider riders, Boar riders, Spear Chukka's and Goblin Doom Drivers and Rock Lobba's.

Things I noticed that have changed dramatically from 7th Ed:

Infantry are now very useful, and can be more difficult to shift due to the steadfast rule. Supporting attacks make them deadlier than ever.

Magic either sweeps away your opponent or does nothing. I had 3 magic phases where I did virtually nothing, but the ones where I got casting I totally dominated in combat due to all the unit buffs I could apply.

Cavalry isn't as powerful anymore BUT can still help destroy a enemy unit if you can flank or rear charge them. Heavy Armor and the ability to roll more dice when charging (to make sure you get there) are great.

Charge distances have increased ALOT - I averaged around 11"-12" last night with my infantry, that's fantastic.

The Magic lore's from the main rulebook are now worth it. Incidentally - frying your opponent's level 4 wizard on the first turn of the game with a feedback scroll is a great feeling.

I like the changes they have made, the mysterious terrain keeps you on your toes, the scenarios favor balanced army lists and the sheer quantity of terrain means the old unbroken line of troops smashing against each other is a thing of the past. Careful maneuvering and exploiting all your different movement methods can grant you excellent benefits. Things like lodestone or shrine of khaine terrain features can make sub-par units perform very well. In all I think it's a big improvement.

I think for my next game I might post a proper battle report, for now that's me.

Swooping hawks - do I actually use them ?

2010-08-25T21:38:00.004+02:00

Hello everyone, I've been painting like a demon for the last couple of weeks. That combined with work and my shiny 8th edition fantasy rulebook have conspired to keep me from the blog. Today I wanna take a look at 2 army lists I have thrown together in between running around. I'm not entirely satisfied with either of them at present as I feel they lack focus. The first list:

HQ:

Farseer with Guide, Fortune, Spirit Stones and Runes of Warding - 140

Troops:

10x Dire Avengers with Exarch, Shimmer shield & Power weapon and Blade storm. They are mounted in a Wave serpent with spirit stones and a Shuriken Cannon. - 272

10x Dire Avengers with Exarch, Shimmer shield & Power weapon and Blade storm. They are mounted in a Wave serpent with spirit stones and a Shuriken Cannon. - 272

5x Rangers - 95

Elites:

6x Fire Dragons - 96

Heavy Support:

1x Falcon with Missile Launcher, Holo Fields and Spirit Stones - 180

1x Fire Prism with Spirit Stones and Holo Field - 160

1x Fire Prism with Spirit Stones and Holo Field - 160

Fast Attack:

1x Vyper with Scatter laser - 60

1x Vyper with Scatter laser - 60

5x Swooping Hawks with Exarch, Sunrifle - 153

1648 Points

Well the upsides to this list are that I get to use a bunch of units that never see the light of day. Rangers, Vypers, Swooping Hawks, fire prisms all units that I never use. It's fairly mobile and has a decent amount of models in it. It puts down a whole bunch of vehicle hulls and almost everything is fast. It's got decent anti tank and anti hoard options but I feel in general it will suffer. However I'm willing to make a go of it and see what happens.

The Second list I threw together:

HQ:

1x Eldrad (refluffed to suit my Iyanden) - 210

Troops:

10x Dire Avengers with Shimmer shield and Power Weapon and Blade storm. Mounted in a Wave Serpent with spirit stones and Shuriken Cannon. - 272

10x Dire Avengers with Shimmer shield and Power Weapon and Blade storm. Mounted in a Wave Serpent with spirit stones and Shuriken Cannon. - 272

10x Guardians with Spirit Seer and Embolden using a Scatter laser - 131

Elites:

6x Fire Dragons with Exarch, Tanks Hunters - 123

Heavy Support:

1x Falcon with Missile Launcher, Holo Shields and Spirit Stones - 180

1x Wraithlord with Brighlance and Missile launcher - 155

1x Wraithlord with Brighlance and Missile launcher - 155

Fast Attack:

5x Warp Spiders with Exarch, Withdraw, Twin Death Spinners and Power Blades - 152

1650 Points.

The Second list is pretty decent but it got torn a new one by a shooty marine list before severely denting my confidence in it. I'm considering swapping the Guardians for rangers and the wraithlords for Fire prisms. Any feedback would be welcome. Anyhow that's my bit for today, let me know what you guys think.

Fireprisms, Seers and a update.

2010-07-06T11:42:00.003+02:00

Hey all, Still alive. Updates have been sporadic partially because of real life, partially because of my not playing any wargames and partially because of the crushing defeat I was handed the last time I played. It happens to us all sometimes, you play a game where just everything possible goes wrong, the dice hate you, your units go on strike you just have no fun. So you leave for a while untill the bug bites you again.

So I resolved to wait untill I could build my new armylist, finally last night my fireprisms arrived and I'm all fired up to start building and painting them. With the fireprism's arrival I realized I need to get some more waveserpernts too as I really lack tanks, so I'm building a adhoc armylist to try and tide me over untill I have the cash to get some more plastic crack. Behold the semi-mech abortion I plan on playing as soon as possible:

HQ:
Iyanna arienal, the angel of Iyanden (210 Points, Eldrad rules)
Farseer Zoe Dedweth, Fortune - 85

Elites:
6x Firedragons - 96

Troops:
10x Dire Avengers with Exarch, Bladestorm, Powerweapon & shimmershield
1x Wave serpent with Shuriken Cannons and Spirit Stones – 272

10x Dire Avengers with Exarch, Bladestorm, Powerweapon & shimmershield
1x Wave serpent with Shuriken Cannons and Spirit Stones – 272

5x Rangers - 95

Fast Attack:
1x Vyper with Scatter laser - 60
1x Vyper with Scatter laser - 60

Heavy Support:
1x Fireprism with Holofield and Spirit Stones - 160
1x Fireprism with Holofield and Spirit Stones - 160

1x Falcon with Holofield, Spirit Stones and Eldar missile launcher - 180

1650 Points.

Well on to the reasoning for the strange list, I've been keen to try out Double seer configuration for some time. Normally I would use Eldrad for all the psychic might I could ever need, but with the scaling amount of anti-psyker gear I've recently been seeing getting off that crucial "Fortune" seems pretty awesome. The second reason is that I can spread out my wave serpents a bit as I don't have to keep them so close together just so they are in the 6" range for castings of fortune from a single seer.

On a sunny day we can fortune 3 Tanks up, on a not so sunny day we can Fortune up the serpents and then open a can of whoop-ass with Doom + Guide. I know it's a ton of points in characters but It's something I wanna try out. If anybody has tried it let me know.

Moving on I'm gonna try out the little Vypers. I'm torn between making them a single squadron and splitting them. At the moment I'm leaning on two different slots but if anyone has any advice I'd be willing to listen. Hopefull the Vypers will be able to pop some rear armor with their S6 shots.

Last but not least I'm keen on trying some prisms, I don't know if Holofields will really be worth it for them but I'll test em and see. In all a really strange list, and I think I need 2 more Serpents to really make it effective but I'll see where this goes. As always if you have any feedback I'd love to hear it.

Woodies vs Lizzies - Stegadon hunting.

2010-05-20T10:05:00.004+02:00

Or how do you kill the darn Skink on a Engine of the gods. High Toughness + decent armor is often a pain for woodies to deal with. The combination of Scaly skin, Howdah save and ward makes it incredibly difficult to inflict wounds. On top of this the shots are randomized between the Priest, Crew and Steg. So how do you kill the illusive skink ?

Option 1 - Archer Lord

Wood Elf Highborn
Alter Kindred
Bow of Loren
Arcane Bodkins
Great Weapon
Annoyance of netlings

Total Points: 271

Basic strategy is to avoid the engine while taking pot shots at it from long range. With 5 shots a turn normally hitting on 2's, you ignore armor with bodkins. This helps bypass scaly skin on the steg and wounding(unlikely), but more importantly helps you wound the Priest/crew as you will bypass the Howdah. If you fire from close enough you can completely bypass the ward save generated by the engine, but then you are probably in range for a engine activation. I wouldn't recommend it. The second part of this noble is the fact that you can fire pot shots at long range, while moving to engage the steg. Once you actually charge, you can challenge the skink. Since both Skink + Steg fight together in a challenge they will only hit on 6's due to netlings. Your GW wielding noble will have attacks at the exteremely squishy priest. With a -3 to armor saves you would normally be able to kill the priest easily (Hit on 3's, wound on 2's, 5+ armor to save).

Ofcourse this works best when supported by other archers like waywatchers as a lucky killing blow shot on the skink can solve your problems easily. Since the steg is such a huge problem for woodies it's best to focus on it almost exclusively for a turn or two to kill it, then move on to the rest of the army.

Option 2 - The Cheap Noble

Wood Elf noble
Alter Kindred
Great weapon
Annoyance of netlings

129 Points

Unit of 10 Dryads

120 Points

Total Points: 249

Basic Idea is that you charge the Steg with a unit to pin it down (so it can't move around to draw LOS for casting spells), then the Alter noble charges in to take the skink down in the same way as the Lord in the above example.

Slightly more difficult to pull off, but the ward save helps against the High S of the steg hits in Close combat, and the points cost is a little lower. On the upside It's slightly less "all eggs in one basket".

I think either approach can work, although I'm not a Woodie player myself. If anyone here plays wood elves or has some more feedback I'd love to hear it.

First 5th Edition Eldar Outing.

2010-05-13T08:17:00.003+02:00

Hey all, I know that blog updates have been sporadic. Mostly this was because I was Painting and getting very little in the way of gaming done. Last night however I got to play non Iyanden-wraith eldar for the first time. Lets just say that my mind was blown. I took out the army I had mentioned a bit earlier for a spin and boy, Oh boy was it cool.

My 1650 Eldarish pointy eared space elves.

HQ:
1x Eldrad (Using him as a Iyanden Seer Stand in)

Elites:

6x Firedragons with Exarch and Tank hunters

Troops:

1x 10 Guardians, Spirit seer, Embolden and Scatter Laser

1x 10 Dire Avengers, Shimmershield + Power Weapon, Blade Storm.
Wave Serpent, Shurican cannon and Spirit Stones.

1x 10 Dire Avengers, Shimmershield + Power Weapon, Blade Storm.
Wave Serpent, Shurican cannon and Spirit Stones.

Fast Attack:

5x Warp spider, Exarch, Powerblade, Twin Death Spinners and Withdraw

Heavy Support:

1x Wraithlord, Brightlance and Missile Launcher

1x Wraithlord, Brightlance and Missile Launcher

1x Falcon, Missile Launcher, Spirit Stones and Holo field.

1650 Points

Having never used such a squishy force it was learning curve. I played a sort of nidzilla list (3 Trigons (primes?), 2 flyrants, 2 tervigons and some gaunts). The game started with rolling Dawn of war and Annhilation (sigh). My opponent elected to Reserve all his forces depriving me of a turn of shooting.

Starting from the top here's what performed well:

Runes of Warding - HOLY CRAP these things are awesome. My opponent had 2 Tyrants that could cast a ability that made my troops WS/BS 1 (paroxysm ?). It only got through once during the entire game. Having never needed runes of warding (last time I really played eldar was 4th ed) I was surprised at how useful they are. Definately a must have from now on. With all the Space marine psykers, Blood angels, Space Wolves, Chaos and Nids I think they will be worth double their points.

Runes of Witnessing - Not as "holy crap awesome" as I thought, but the ability to cancel out the effects of Shadow in the warp was very useful. Not runes of warding awesome, but pretty awesome none the less. If I have points I will definately equip my seers with it in the future.

Ghosthelm - Awesome sauce. 'nough said.

Fortune - The ability to cast this on your vehicles to get the rerollable 4+ obscured save is pretty sweet. Combines with Spirit stones it means you can almost always move even though you take horrendous firepower. Excellent on wave serpents.

Guide - Turns your guns into wtf pwn lasers. I found the ability to toss this on Falcon pretty decent. Being able to fire 3 S8 BS3 rerollable weapons isn't half bad. Can kill a monstrous creature in 2 turns of fire. I know normally there are much better targets to guide (Dire avengers etc), but I found the falcon performed far above what I expected (I've heard many cries of how useless they are compared to wave serpents).

Doom - What can I really say here ? Helps prevent those annoying ones from popping up too often.

Powers I have yet to try are Mind war and Eldricht storm. Unfortunately I didn't have any targets to use them on last night. However I didn't know what the LD is on a Trigon or Tervigon - once' Ive read up on this I might try it out and see.

Firedragons - They where rather useful, but due to some stupid disembarking on my part they where not really as useful as they could have been. I know better for future games and look forward to toasting many Monstrous creatures. If I was crafting my list to fight specific enemies I would invest in Crackshot. The ability to ignore cover as well as re-roll wounds would be invaluable.

Guardians - They didn't kill much (Put 2 wounds on a monstrous creature, that's it) - but they did hold out in close combat vs 2 Tervigons for 3 turns. Embolden really helped with their poor leadership and I can't really complain. I took them purely to babysit my wraithlords and I can't really complain about their performance at all. Poor buggers hate deepstriking monstrous bugs (who doesn't ?).

Dire Avengers - If I had been playing a normal list (you know, one with actual infantry) then these guys would have been the units of the match. As it stood the sheer volume of firepower they put out (guide + Doom ftw) managed to push wounds through on the big bugs. Awesome stuff. Using the Shimmershield for the first time proved enlightening. At first I thought a 5+ invulnerable save would be nothing to write home about. HOWEVER with fortune these guys just wouldn't go down, and with Eldrad's help they bludgeoned a Hive tyrant to death. Man that's surprising. Won't leave home without it. I think If I had the point I' would definately take defend as well. Oh well.

Wave serpents - Despite one getting downed by a lucky nid (6's to hit). These guys just ran circles all over the place. 24" move is pure sex on legs (well thrusters). The wide models also aided me nicely in Blocking off routes to my squishy infantry. Great stuff.

Warp Spiders - Despite only getting 1 turn of shooting before getting nom nommed by the nids they did manage to put 3 wounds on the enemy bug. Doom ftw once more. Unfortunately I rolled a measily 5" to get away in the assault phase and they ended up getting eaten. I think If I fail less at maneuvering them next time they will definately do better.

In all it was a fun game. I learnt alot of new rules. Afterwards I also realized we had used runes of warding wrong - every roll of 12 or higher for psychic tests my opponent needed to take POTW attack. Atleast now I know for next time. Well that's my little bit of "wisdom" for today (ha!) and I look forward to how this force is going to evolve.

Eldar Priming, Wraithlords and Fireprisms

2010-04-26T08:43:00.003+02:00

Well yesterday I managed to prime the last of my new eldar (except for one autarch hiding under a box), and am now officially ready to start base coating. I'm rather looking forward to finishing off the current batch.

On the army front I've decided to replace the Wraithlords with Fireprisms to see how they perform. It seems that I'm in luck with new fireprism kits coming out. I didn't really like the old kit particularly due to the massive metal bits on top misbalancing it. Who knows, I might start going heavily mech from now on to see how the army performs.

Aside from that I've decided to use 2 Wraithlord with Missile Launcher/Bright lance combo untill I get the new prisms. I'm worried about wraithsight, but I'm willing to give them a go to see what they perform like. In the past they have always done well and with T8 even missile launchers only wound 50 percent of the time. However this time round I don't have a seer to babysit them.

On the army building side I'm strongly inclined to run 3 Wraithlords just for the lulz, although I'm fairly sure it's a bad idea. On the other hand perhaps T8 will be enough to save the day. We shall see.

On the tank busting side I'm considering the awesomness of 10 Firedragons. Pretty much garunteed to blow anything to kingdom-come and capable of taking on things like hive Tyrants and Mawlocs. In the mean while I'm going to work some more on my mech elements and see where that leads.

Small update today - but I'll be posting more thoughts on strategy once I've played again.

Lizzies 1 Wood Elves 0 Plan A - Kill it with fire, success.

2010-04-15T10:51:00.003+02:00

Well last night I had one of my first ever games against Wood Elves. I was actually fairly worried about the sheer amount of Shooting they could put out. As things turned out I made out my armylist 15 minutes before the game and ended up taking ALOT of heavy infantry + slann.

I was very surprised to find that in the first magic phase I sucked up 3 Dispel Scrolls + 6 Dispel dice all with the Lore of Fire slann and support of one Priest (lore of heavens). This was very surprising as I havn't played lord level games in months. All I can say is wow - Woodies really don't have great options for magic defence. No +1 Dispel items, no ways to generate extra dispel dice cheaply.

It was a slaughter with the game a 1000+ point firmly in my favour. The lack of armor really hurts vs auto hitting magic spells. I have to thank Jeremy for being such a good sport. I honestly don't know if I could have lost so graciously - props to him for his sportsmanship.

I'm looking forward to the next game where I will be playing a bit more balanced (SKINKS!) lizzy army with all the funky units my blog is named after. If any wood elf players have any suggestions on recommended ways to cut down on Lizzy magic or ways to get more Magic defence I will be very interested to hear from you.

Autarch's, Swooping Hawks and Vypers

2010-04-12T09:52:00.002+02:00

It's been a while since I updated the blog - rest assured the time was not spend idle and I've been building/fixing and converting eldar at a hell of a rate. Today I wanna talk about some units that I need to put together and I'm wondering how I am going to use them.

Since I have a veritable ton of Swooping hawk and Spiders I thought the best place to start with my Autarch would be with a unit of them. Accordingly here's my idea for the two Exarchs to lead my Spiders and Hawks Respectively. Now the first thing we realize when looking at the Autarch is that he has lots of attacks, high WS and I. Since his shooting options arn't fantastic the best bet would be to stick him in for melee power. Between Swooping hawks and Spiders, the Warp Spiders have a much better Bet in CC with 3+ armor saves and a exarch that can pack power blades right out the box. In addition to this warp spiders often find themselves in assault so that they can avoid getting shot at by enemy force. (It's better to assault a enemy unit that's already been weakened rather than take a entire force's shooting). So augmenting melee power is definately a option.

Option one - the Jumping spider of DOOOOM!
This one is easy, Power Weapon, Warp jump generator, mandiblaster. Since you are a piddly little elf with girly wrists you are only S3, hence you need all the attacks you can get. With this build you get 6 attacks on the charge 3+ 1 for mandiblaster + 1 CCW/pistol + 1 charging. Even with your massive amounts of attacks you will still only inflicts 1-2 wounds on average against most targets of the T4 variety.

Pretty basic really - Keep them with your Warpspiders to benefit from the Exarch's withdraw power and to augment their Melee prowess. This setup will also allow you to use them a bit more aggressively as you are not to afraid of getting hit by small enemy units trying to bog you down.

The downside of course is that you can't really keep him seperately for fear of rolling double's and him going off to have a extended stay with slaanesh. On the upside you do get the benefits of the Master Strategist +1 reserves if you are inclined to deepstriking.

Option two - The Swoopy Exarch of Swoopiness.
Pretty basic again - Swooping Hawk Wings, Reaper launcher. In this case he's purely there to provide bonuses to reserve rolls and to take pot shots at the enemy with the reaper launcher. If you have 2 Autarchs in your force you can deepstrike back on a 2+ so that you can drop another pie on the enemy. While not fantastic this option while atleast help you to bring gaunts and the like down in number, especially if the squad Exarch is armed with a sunrifle. The can do all this from a cool 24" away.

So which do you guys prefer and why ?

As for the Vypers, I'm torn on how to equip these little guys. They are fragile and expensive, so tacking on a even more expensive weapon doesn't appeal to me. In addition to this they have low BS (3) so singleshot weapons arn't a great idea either. Vehicle upgrades are probably also a no-no since a 10/10/10 vehicle ins't going to rock house no matter how many survivability upgrades you tack on.

It's between 2 weapons - the Shuriken cannon and the Multilaser.

The Shuriken cannon is nice, it's cheap at 5 points, fires 3 Shots and is AP5. Not bad at all. The main problem is the 24" range. This means that your AV10 little vehicle will regularly be in range of every squad weapon in the game. Put it this way. A Space marine combat squad spots your little vyper. They are packing a plasma gun. 2 S7 shots and 4 S4 shots doesn't end well for it.

The Second option is the Scatter laser. Triple the cost with a Extra shot thrown in. The main advantage here is that we go up too 36". Now mister Vyper can happily stay out of range of squad weapons (Tau included) and annoy the crap out of your opponent. He now has to dedicate his longer range Antitank firepower to kill it since he's likely not in range to hit it with anything else.

I'd Like Any opinions on these units you guys have to give.

The Eldar March To war Again.

2010-03-25T09:25:00.004+02:00

So as per my previous post I've got a ton of eldar - I just finished stripping the last of the models and now we are on to the assembling stage. I've stripped the following this week:

Falcon
2x Vyper jetbike
about 10 Swooping hawks (need to find 3 sets of wings)
10 harlequins
7 banshees (I need arms for the lot of them - conversion ?)
2 Autarchs
5 pathfinders
6 Firedragons

With this in mind I was thinking of fielding the following list:
HQ:

Iyanna Arienal – 210 Points (Eldrad rules)

Elites:

6x Fire dragons with Firepike, Tank Hunters, Exarch - 131

Troops:

10x Dire Avengers, Exarch, Shimmer shield and power sword, Bladestorm, Wave Serpent, Spirit Stones, Shuriken cannon – 272
10x Dire Avengers, Exarch, Shimmer shield and power sword, Bladestorm, Wave Serpent, Spirit Stones, Shuriken cannon – 272
5x Pathfinder – 120

Fast Attack:

5x Warpspiders, Exarch, Withdraw, Power Blades, Twin Death spinners - 152

Heavy Support:

Falcon with Spirit Stones, Holo-field, Missile Launcher, – 180
Wraithlord, Brightlance, Missile Launcher - 155
Wraithlord, Brightlance, Missile Launcher - 155

1647

I'm still not sure how the fast and slow elements will interact but I'm hoping have some fun with it. The list looks well rounded at present with 3 Troop Choices, Some Psychic defence, A reasonable amount of targets that are reasonably difficult to damage and of course units in every force organization slot. Lets look at some of the tricks and interactions we are packing.

The first and most obvious thing is the HQ: Since we are using the rules for Eldrad we score several advantages, the first and most important in my eye's is the toughness boost.

Second benefit is from the Divination special rule - we can redeploy D3 + 1 unit before the game starts. This allows us to place our units with confidence knowing we can redeploy atleast 2 units after we have seen what are opponents are doing - this will allow us to pull reversed flank maneuvers or do hammer unit easily (3 skimmers with troops all hitting one side of the table).

The Third benefit is the fact that enemy psykers need to roll 3d6 for their tests which will make our opponent more cautious when using them, as well as the fact that we know all the psychic powers. Going with all the powers we can use up to 3 powers a turn of which 2 can be the same. This allows for some truely horrible things to be done.

Since we can cast non LOS powers from within transports this allows us to do some pretty funky things. The first is to deploy our HQ with the 2 Dire Avenger squads in the transport. We can cast fortune on both of the wave serpents, move flat out and gain a re-rollable 4+ cover save. Combined with the energy bow and AV this should allow us to deliver our troops virtually anywhere on the table unmolested by enemy fire.

The next thing that's very nice is the fact that with 3 powers a turn we can disembark near a enemy unit with the Dire avengers, cast guide on both, doom on the enemy unit then pump out 60 twin linked BS4 shots with reroll's to wound. It's prety much guaranteed to wipe out a unit of virtually any type of infantry.

Of course psychic support isn't needed for the units to function as most of them are BS4/WS4 at minimum, but efficiency just goes way up when you have proper support. This brings me to my next point - Try and kill enemy models that make your life difficult early on. If the guy is packing psychic hoods, Shadow in warp etc - try and kill him and his unit as early as possible, the more freely you can cast the better.

As far as unit configurations go the Falcon has the missile launcher for 2 reasons - when travelling at low speeds (6") you can use it as a anti vehicle gunboat - 3 S8 shots, especially when directed at side and rear armor has a pretty good chance of penetrating. Again this can be augmented by the Guide power so you can twin link the shots. On the up side, when moving at high speed you can fire the Missile Launcher as a defensive weapon at S4. The Falcon itself will be carrying the firedragons cementing it's job as a anti Monstrous creature/anti vehicle unit.

The Dire avenger units have assault weapons so in a pinch they can charge a weakened enemy squad, normally I wouldn't advise this but it's better than sitting around in the open for a turn scratching their arses after using blade storm. Always try and re-embark and take out another enemy unit with bladestorm. Ideally you can get of 3 bladestorms per game, but this is rarely the case - usually you will only have 2. In this case make it count - try and wipe out full strength Tac squads or other high value targets (things that score etc).

The Firedragons are geared towards being the ultimate anti tank unit getting +2d6 penetration for the melta rules and getting +2 to penetration rolls. Means that even glances count as regular hits (-2 for glancing and +2 for AP1 and tank hunters). Try using them against high value targets like land raiders and the like. Remember to position them so you can use vehicles to limit LOS to them incase you fail to destroy it for which ever reason.

The Wraithlords are there for 2 reasons - to draw fire and to hopefully stun/destoy enemy transports so that the Dire avengers and other units can destroy the contents. Also bear in mind that the enemy cannot use crack grenades against them in close combat AND that S4 infantry cannot wound a wraithlord. Same goes for Bolter fire - it does absolutely nothing.

The pathfinders are there to hold home objectives, put the odd wound on monstrous creatures and hopefully be a pain in the rear to my opponent. If you happen to have the seer nearby (unlikely since your hitching a ride the avengers) you can use doom to reroll your wound rolls trying for that magical 5 or 6 to get AP1 hits.

The Warpspiders are there to harass infantry as they can force enough wounds through with their S6 guns so that even marines can fail on sheer volume of saves (2+ to wound marines). They also move as jump infantry and can deepstrike - due to their inherint mobility they should be supporting your vehicles up front.

In all it seems like a fairly balanced list with some tasty tricks and units from a wide variety of force organization slots. Let me know what you guys think.

Eldar, Lizzardmen and random thoughts.

2010-03-22T13:36:00.003+02:00

Phew - what a absolutely exhausting week. Lots of good stuff happened this week, I got a really good deal on some Eldar, attended a Fantasy Tournament and got to travel some. Lets' start with the good stuff and move our way through shall we ?

I played 4 rounds in the fantasy tourney at 1999 Points. I took the following list with me:

Level 2 Skink Priest on Engine of the gods with Diadem of power
Saurus Scar-veteran on cold one with Sword of Battle and maiming shield.
Saurus Scar-veteran on cold one with Sword of might and Enchanted shield.

20 Saurus with handweapon and shield + full command
20 Saurus with handweapon and shield + full command
11 skink skirmishers
12 skink skirmishers
10 skinks with 1 Kroxigor.

5 Coldone cavalry with Banner
5 Coldone cavalry with Banner

1996 Points
5 power dice
6 Dispel dice if I store 2 power dice.

It was a blast the all stars of the list being my Scar-veterans and the Cold one cavalry. You could tell where I was at the tournament from the cries of anguish about the scar veteran. Highlights included:

Holding up a High Elf flank byhimself for 4 turns after getting hit by a Lion Chariot in the rear, Dragon Prince cavalry in the front and the enemy general + lance on horse from the flank. 7 Combat phases later the chariot was nothing but a splintered wreck, The Princes where almost all dead and I had put a wound on the enemy general.

In another game, he was in a unit of Cold one Cavalry. They get double charged by 2 units of Bretonian knights. I pass every single armor save, break both units in combat and run both of them down. Simply fantastic.

The skinks lived up their name running around, annoying people, assassinating enemy mages and in one fantastic turn Putting out 11 poison hits to cripple a enemy unit. Beware the skinks indeed.

Overall I only won 1 game, but I had such a blast I really didn't mind. The Guys (and Gals) from East London where very friendly and accomodating and I look forward to many games with them in the future. As for my list In the future I'd like to add a BSB and perhaps some Salamanders, providing the next tourney is at this points level, otherwise it's back to my slann again.

On the Warhammer 40K Front I bought a ton of Eldar from somebody so I'm going to be stripping eldar for the next several months and respraying and painting vehicles. So it looks like my Imperial Guard will be on hold indefinately. I'm planning on playing a very odd semi mechanized list with my eldar once finished, so be prepared for plenty of theory hammer in coming weeks.

Chaos Space Marine Bikes

2010-03-10T08:58:00.004+02:00

I just finished reading the Bell of lost Souls article on Chaos Space Marine bikes and I was a little sad that the author decided against using them. So today I'm going to chat about chaos bikes, some of their uses and of course nifty ideas for armies.

Lets clear out the Con's first:
1 Wound a piece
Double the price of a regular Marine
Expensive Icon Options

Pro's
Very high movement speed
Turbo boost save
Small minimum squad size
Variety of options

Right - so lets look at possible squad configurations with these options in mind. The first option is to keep your bikes in reserve, turbo boost onto the field and grab objectives by dropping off out lovely daemon friends with the aid of Icon. For that we would run the following config:

3 Bikes with Icon of Chaos Glory - that comes to 109 Points. Now this is cheap but hardly versatile - It's a much better bet to add a 2 Melta guns. Now your sitting on a total of 129 points, but atleast you got a chance of popping the occasional tank after you have dropped off your Daemon friends.

The next option is simply a upscaled version of the previous. You have upgraded one of the bikers to a champ, and given him a powerfist. Now you can move up, fire the two melta's and if the vehicle is still standing you can hit it with 3 S8 Attacks against it's pitiful AV10 rear (most cases). This squad can still deploy daemons and terminators and comes in at 169 Points.

On the other end of the spectrum there's the assault bikes - A unit of Six, Champ upgrade, powerfist, 2 plasma guns and Icon of Khorne. That comes to 298 Points - Deep into landraider territory. What do we get for this price - 4 attacks on the charge each, meaning 24 Attacks total. 4 of these are S8 attacks. The unit is T5 which helps it survive retaliation. You still have the benefits and downsides of icons. The nice thing is that since you are relentless you can fire your plasmaguns before getting stuck into the enemy. So at the end of the day you will have: 4 Plasma gun shots, 8 Bolter shots followed by 24 attacks of which 4 are S8. Sure to put the hurt on enemy units. With the bikes 12" move you can really reach out and touch someone.

Here' you will find a theme list using Bikes, daemons and some good old fashioned choppy.

The HQ Consists of the following:
Chaos lord with Blood feeder, Mark of Khorne, Personal Icon and Bike - 175

Elites:

Troops:
8 Khorne Berserkers with Powerfist Champion in a Rhino - 243 Points
8 Khorne Berserkers with Powerfist Champion in a Rhino - 243 Points
10 Lesser Daemons - 130
10 Lesser Daemons - 130

Fast Attack:
3x Chaos Bikes with 2x Melta and Icon of Chaos Glory - 129 Points
3x Chaos Bikes with 2x Melta and Icon of Chaos Glory - 129 Points

Heavy Support:
2x Obliterators - 150 Points
5x Havoc Marine with 4 Melta Guns and Rhino - 150
5x Havoc Marine with 4 Plasma guns and Rhino - 170

Total Points come to 1649. Now as you can see this is a very unconventional list. It's got the following odd Units:

Lesser Daemons
Havocs in Rhino's
Khorne Daemon Weapon
Bikes

The list is nice in the following Ways: It's fast - everything moves 12" when embarked and deepstrikes onto the field. It has 4 scoring units, It puts a large number of T4/5 wounds on the table which helps against small arms fire. It's versatile in it's deployment and lastly it's got a monster in Close combat since most of the units here are pretty decent at it (yay Bersekers!).

Things to look out for -

The Khorne lord will normally pack 2d6 attacks, however if either of the dice roll a 1 then you don't get any chance to attack and take 1 wound. Most people worry that the chaos lord will kill himself without making his points back. And yes he will often kill himself (at least once every other game), but he is a monster in close combat. Consider this, a chaos lord has 3 Attacks + 1 from mark of Khorne + 2d6 = 8 to 16 attacks. Even with only mediocre rolling it's possible to get an average of 8 attacks. So send him after massively expensive targets, let him rip them apart. The sheer devastation will cause your opponent so much worry, that he will dedicate way too much of his attention to who ever carries this. If you want a safer option feel free to swap him for a twin lightning claw lord or other alternative. Basically he rides either alone or with your bikes and has some fun with the enemy.

Daemons - Although not slouches in close combat these guys really won't be able to take dedicated assault units, use them to clear things like Tau, IG, Small combat squads etc off of objectives and of course to contest and grab objectives.

Rhino's - since you are only packing 4 Rhino's your not exactly saturating the table with targets, be prepared to have some disabled along the way.

Bikes are the linchpin of this army, they deploy daemons, take side/rear shots to harass vehicles contest objectives and provide a unit for your lord to hide in. Try and keep them safe by not leaving them out in the open, and going from cover to cover if possible (the LOS blocking type preferably)

Comments and feedback welcome

Tactica Eldar - The Forces of Iyanden

2010-03-08T10:44:00.007+02:00

Hey all, today I'm gonna take a look at the Eldar Army I run. The initial concept I had in mind while building it was to split it into two parts. The Rockhard part that can hold objectives and a fluid part that moves around destroying opponents. I ended up with a rather strange force that's composition resembles a fried egg. Here's the list:

HQ:

Farseer – Runes of Witnessing, Runes of Warding, Guide, Doom, Spirit Stones – 145 Points
Farseer – Runes of Witnessing, Fortune, Singing Spear - 98

Elites:
6x Fire dragons with Exarch, Firepike, Crackshot, Wave Serpent, Star Engines, Spirit Stones, Twin Linked Shuriken cannon, Shuriken cannon – 266 Points

Troops:
10x Dire Avenger with Exarch, Dual Shuriken Catapults, Blade storm, Wave Serpent, Star Engines, Spirit Stones, Twin Linked Shuriken cannon, Shuriken cannon – 287 Points

10x Wraith Guard with Spiritseer and conceal – 396 Points

Fast Attack:
5x Warp spiders with Exarch, Power blades, Twin Death Spinners and Withdraw - 152

Heavy Support:
1x Wraith lord with Missile Launcher and Bright lance - 155
1x Wraith lord with Missile Launcher and Bright lance - 155

1651 Points - If my opponent is anal about points limits I drop the singing spear.

The reason I say this force resembles a egg is because of how it functions - The Wraithguard, the Fortune seer and Wraithlords form the Yelllow. They move slowly up the board absorbing firepower and ideally disabling enemy tanks and taking wounds off of monstrous creatures.

The White is formed of the Warpspiders, The guide/doom seer, Dire Avengers and Fire dragons. They zoom across the board to disable enemy squads quickly. The Avengers go after enemy devastator squads, tac squads with missles etc. The Firedragons go after land raiders, Preds, Exorcists etc. The Warpspiders make a nuisance of themselves and often charge enemy squads that are weak in assault or have low numbers. This also prevents them from getting shot.

The Main stars of the show in this army are the Wraithguard - The unit sports T6 to ensure that bolter and even heavy bolter fire patters reasonably harmlessly off of them. They have a 3+ save, and more often that not a 4+ cover save. Should they move out of cover they take a 5+ cover save vs shooting with them.

Unsupported they are tough, but hardly impossible to deal with - however when joined by a friendly farseer with Fortune they become a whole different kettle of fish. Rerollable Armor AND cover saves means that this squad will walk through a wall of plasma and Melta fire to obliterate their target with nary a scratch. They can hold objectives, Destroy enemy armor and pretty much kill anything with their Wraithcannons.

This squad is slow though, and with a 12" range you can't always count on them fighting their preferred opponents - To this end it's useful using them as a area denial unit. If you are going to just leg it across the field be sure to keep your wraithlords with them. Your Wraithlords won't suffer from wraith sight because of the Spiritseer and they have Close combat weapons that ignore armor.

This army suffers in two ways:

A: Since it's split between hard and soft units your enemy can just focus on your T3 guys if your not careful - to stop this from happening always beware of positioning so that you can interpose vehicles or wrecks (yours or the enemy's) between yourself and their shooting.

B: With only two scoring units you will normally end up taking one objective, If you are lucky taking/contesting another and then being forced to clear enemy objectives off of 1-2 others to grab a win. In Kill point missions you should be fine though as you have some tough killpoints to take.

On the upside, Tyranids used to give us fits with their synapse - now that immunity to instant death is gone, those wraithcannons can easily remove Tervigons/Hive tyrants etc on a 6. In all it's a fun army to field, Compact to carry around and a blast to play. You do have to be ontop of your game constantly though or you will die horribly.

Comments and Questions welcome.

Herohammer - Abaddon the Despoiler.

2010-03-01T09:38:00.004+02:00

Normally I'm not a big fan of fielding 200 Point HQ's unless they provide support for the rest of my army in the form of Leadership/Combat/Stat boosts. However Recently I have started fielding Abaddon in my 1650 Chaos Space Marine list. I've fielded the following list for the past 3 Games:

HQ:
Abaddon the Despoiler

Elites:
4x Chaos Terminators with 4x Combi Plasma's, Chainfist, Powerfist

Troops:

10x Chaos Space Marines with Icon of Chaos Glory, 2x Flamer, Aspring Champ + power sword

10x Chaos Space Marines with Icon of Chaos Glory, 2x Plasma, Aspring Champ + power sword, Combi Plasma

8x Khorne berserker with Skull Champ + Powerfist

Heavy Support:

1x Chaos Landraider

1x Predator with Heavy Bolter Sponsons, Pintle Combi Bolter and Twin Linked Lascannon turret

10x Chaos havocs with 4x Heavy Bolters

1648 Points

As you can see I'm very deficient when it comes to High Str Shots and I'm not packing all that many High str power weapons either. However I've found this list to be very flexible so far. I've played 1 game vs Marines and 2 games vs nids.

Game 1 vs Marines Abaddon Accounted for the following:

10 man tactical squad
8 man Devestator Squad
Space Marine HQ (Chapter Master ?)
2 Terminators

Game 2 vs Nids

I get flanked by 20 genestealers led by a Broodlord - They charge abaddon + 4 Termi's. I lose the Termi's and in return he kills 10. The following round he obliterates the remaining stealers before dying to Tyranid shooting - this was the worst he performed however he did stop me from losing the Left flank completely. Due to this I won the game.

Game 3 vs Nids
2 Tervigons
3 lictors
1 Carnifex
9 Warriors
1 Warrior Alpha
Some gaunts

That's alot of stuff - again I Lost the flank untill his unit deepstruck into battle. The following turn they unleashed hell on the enemy flank forcing him to divert the majority of his force to stop him from clearing out the objectives.

As you can see in 2 out of 3 games he's killed nearly double his points and in the last he killed almost 4 times his worth in points. I've found him a neat option other than going Daemon Princes with wings or 4x Havocs in a rhino with Melta/Plasma guns.

Due to the nature of my list I can Deploy my units in a number of ways. I can deepstrike the Terminators if I know my opponent's list is lacking AP2 weapons or if I can neutralize them quickly. I then drive the Khorne berserkers forward to charge out of the raiders to support the terminators. Alternately - I can use the berserkers to run behind the Raider + Pred using them as a shield with the Terminators inside the land raider. This obviously changes from army to army depending on what I'm facing.

Sometimes you just have to hang back with the land raider and use it's twin linked lascannons to blast tanks and use it as a last turn bunker to make sure you can't get swept off of objectives. This list is still evolving at the moment, and I' will still drop some of the cheap little upgrades I have scattered around to perhaps grab deamonic possession for the raider. But I'll play another 3 or so games before I make any changes.

Feedback and questions are welcome.

Heavy Bolter Havoc squads and holding objectives

2010-02-24T08:29:00.007+02:00

With the rise of the 5th edition nids and the increase in power that ork hoards received, lists have evolved in 3 ways.

A: They have become mobile to take objectives
B: They need solutions to Tough critters and heavy vehicles
C: They need to be able to thin hoards quickly and efficiently.

Today's bit of writing is largely concerned with the last point. As more than half the missions in the 5th ed ruledbook are down to objectives, taking and holding them has become more important. Although we have seen a increased reliance on troop choice for these jobs there is a alternative.

Taking multiple large squads is very expensive points wise and can leave you with few points to spare for the multple other niches that need filling in your army. Most marine players run 3 scoring units, either 3 10 man squads, 2 10 man squads + 5 man squad or another alternative scoring unit. Bearing this in mind I've recently started fielding the following squad.

10 Chaos Space Marines
Icon Of Chaos Glory
4x Heavy Bolter

The squad is reasonably cheap and pumps out 12 S5 Shots, and 6 S4 shots all at 24". Once the enemy closes to rapidfire range this increases to 12 S4 shots and 12 S5 shots. With the prevalance of cover saves in 5th edition I have definately found the increased volume of fire superior to my previous plasmagun setup. At this point I often upgrade the squad to a Aspiring champion + powerfist. This prevents 2 things, First I can't be tank shocked out of cover as easily and secondly dreadnaughts and other powerful walkers arn't AS much a threat anymore. The above squad is great for taking out light infantry (ork masses) or trying to keep down the never ending waves that Tervigons spawn. Bearing in mind not all places on the table have cover, so if you catch a unit of light infantry in the open you can badly maul or destroy them. Due to the number of shots not even marine units can stay in their line of sight for too long, especially when combat squaded.

The squad above still can't hold objectives though, so to reinforce them there are two methods. Method one involves using a small troop squad (5 men no upgrades) and literally just hunkering down in cover. This isn't ideal but for 75 points isn't all that bad. Concentrated fire from the enemy can leave you without anything scoring though, especially against a canny player. The second option is to use a mobile squad of some sort, either a deepstriking troop squad or a vehicle mounted squad that comes in on the 4th turn or so.

My Tagteam partner of choice for the Havoc squad is the lesser daemon entry. They Deepstrike (well get summoned anyways), they can use the Icon the Havocs are carrying and they won't be around to get shot on the opening turns of the game ensuring that they will be intact to hold the objective when they arrive. Add to this the fact that they are fearless and reasonably cheap (by CSM codex standards) and they make a great support unit for this squad. They also come in squads as small as 5, meaning you can easily fit 2 units of 5 into your list. 130 Points for two scoring units is not bad at all.

Now to top all this off, many CSM players field rhino borne squads of one description or another. Plague Marines, Khorne Berserkers or even just regular old CSM squads all regularly streak across the table to get to grips with the enemy. But occasionally the fickle finger of fate will finger you, leaving one or multiple Rhino squads stranded on your side of the table. You have to march across the table absorbing casualties, often only able to take close and midfield objectives. In this case the Lesser daemons provide a safety net as they can deepstrike on to enemy objectives either contesting them (if held by the enemy) or to flat out take the objective. Posts and opinions welcome.

Converting Meltaguns from Flamers

2010-02-20T09:08:00.003+02:00

Melta guns - The one weapon that nearly every imperial guard force is saturated with are rather scarce when it comes to battleforces/boxsets etc. I decided I was going to set out to remedy this situation with some converting as the little blister packs are on the rediculous side pricing wise. Digging through my bits box I noticed there was one thing I had tons of. CSM Heavy Flamers and Combi Melta's.

Solution - Imperial guard flamer + CSM Flamer + Vox caster backpack = Meltagun.

The first step was to cut the nozzles from the CSM Heavy Flamers. I rather like the way they flair out. The second step was the to cut/file down the antenna etc on the Vox caster turning it into a semi-smooth pack. I glued some flamer bottles onto the small recess of the Pack at the bottom.

The third step was Cutting the front of the flamer off, this included the two pipes, the nozzle and pilot light. Next I glued the CSM Flamer nozzle into it's place. I then attached another of the Small fuel bottles to the bottom of it.

The last bit of this conversion was connecting up the flamer pipe with the vox caster backpack, I used a little bit of piano wire of this part.

The result ? A pretty neat looking melta conversion that really does look like it means business. Pictures will be forth coming as soon a camera is found.

The First Draft of my 1650 Imperial Guard list.

2010-02-18T15:22:00.003+02:00

Hey Guys and Gals, Grifthin here. Today I'm gonna be tossing up my First draft of a Imperial Guard list. I'm currently building towards this list (Why did I decide to start guard again ?), and will hopefully have the army fully assembled by the middle of the year. I know I've made some really odd equipment choices, but I wanna play with some of the toyz in the dex before writing them off. Comments welcome.

HQ:
Regimental Command squad with:
Regimental Standard
Camo Cloaks
3x Sniper Rifles for the Vets
1x Officer of the fleet
1x Master of Ordinance ( I like pie)
160 Points

Troops:
Platoon Command Squad Alpha
4x Melta guns
Chimera
125 Points

Infantry Squad Alpha 1
1x Auto Cannon
1x Grenade launcher
65 Points

Infantry Squad Alpha 2
1x Auto Cannon
1x Grenade launcher
65 Points

Infantry Squad Alpha 3
1x Auto Cannon
1x Grenade launcher
65 Points

Platoon Command squad Beta
3x Grenade launchers
45 Points

Infantry Squad Beta 1
1x Auto Cannon
1x Grenade launcher
65 Points

Infantry Squad Beta 2
1x Auto Cannon
1x Grenade launcher
65 Points

Veteran Squad Charlie
3x Melta Gun
Chimera
155 Points

Veteran Squad Delta
3x Melta Gun
Chimera
155 Points

Fast Attack:
1x Hellhound
130 Points

3x Sentinels ( I might split the squadron)
120 Points

Heavy Support:
1x Leman Russ Tank
Hull Lascannon
Heavy Bolter Sponsons
185 Points

1x Leman Russ Tank
Hull Lascannon
Heavy Bolter Sponsons
185 Points

Special Characters:
Sly Marbo
65 Points

TOTAL 1650 Points

What do you guys think, Workable or doomed to failure ?

The Disclaimer, the legal stuff and For first time reading.

2010-02-18T13:39:00.001+02:00

Warhammer 40,000
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The Chaos devices, the Chaos logo, Citadel, Citadel Device, the Double-Headed/Imperial Eagle device, 'Eavy Metal, Forge World, Games Workshop, Games Workshop logo, Golden Demon, Great Unclean One, the Hammer of Sigmar logo, Horned Rat logo, Keeper of Secrets, Khemri, Khorne, Lord of Change, Nurgle, Skaven, the Skaven symbol devices, Slaanesh, Tomb Kings, Trio of Warriors, Twin Tailed Comet Logo, Tzeentch, Warhammer, Warhammer Online, Warhammer World logo, White Dwarf, the White Dwarf logo, and all associated marks, names, races, race insignia, characters, vehicles, locations, units, illustrations and images from the Warhammer world are either ®, TM and/or © Copyright Games Workshop Ltd 2000-2008, variably registered in the UK and other countries around the world. Used without permission. No challenge to their status intended. All Rights Reserved to their respective owners.

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This web site is completely unofficial and in no way endorsed by Games Workshop Limited.

Games Workshop, the Games Workshop logo, Epic, Inquisitor, the Inquisitor logo, Inquisitor:Conspiracies, Battlefleet Gothic, the Battlefleet Gothic logo, Necromunda, the Necromunda Plate logo, the Necromuinda Stencil logo, Mordheim, the Mordheim logo, City of the Damned, Blood Bowl, the Blood Bowl logo, the Blood Bowl Spike device, Fanatic, the Fanatic logo, the Fanatic II logo, Warmaster and all associated marks, names, races, race insignia, characters, vehicles, locations, units, illustrations and images from the Blood Bowl game, Warhammer 40,000 universe and the Warhammer World are either ®, TM and/or © Copyright Games Workshop Ltd 2000-2008, variably registered in the UK and other countries around the world. Used without permission. No challenge to their status intended. All Rights Reserved to their respective owners.

Tactica Imperial Guard - courtesy of Warseer

2010-02-17T17:14:00.005+02:00

Hey lads and lasses. If you love the imperial guard then you will want to have a read through the Tactica Imperium.

You can find this Magnificent document here, on Megaupload:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZR8A3JOD

or here on Rapid share:

http://rapidshare.com/files/261828467/Tactica_Imperium.pdf

It's got all sorts of goodness from ratlings, chimera's, Infantry and mechanized fighting to Air cavalry and tank battalions. So don't miss out and download it as soon as possible. A update version will be forth coming in the coming months with even more info as tactics get refined and updated.

Tactica Chaos Space Marines - Part 6 Units that don't use a FO Slot.

2010-02-17T13:22:00.000+02:00

Chaos Rhino: Keep em cheap, less than 40 Points is good. Don’t field them in ones or two’s. They have low AV so they can get destroyed easily But if you field enough of them in conjunction with other heavy vehicles then A: your opponent wants to shoot the more dangerous stuff – or you just have some damn many he can’t get them all. If keeping your rhino’s moving is essential to your plans I’d grab the extra armor upgrade – otherwise points are better spent on more troops. If your playing a Rhino rush army I’d grab some havoc launchers for the Extra S5 Templates at low price – that should help even things a bit numbers wise between you and your opponents.

Lesser Daemons: an interesting unit – needs to be summoned off of Icons, so no need for it to be on table. It’s got 2 attacks, and a invulnerable save as well as fearless. Against assault marines and the like they are likely to get their warp based arses handed to them, but they have other uses. They are cheapish for a chaos unit, you can summon them anywhere and they count as troops. You can use them to reinforce a unit already in combat or my personal Favourite – just drop them into cover near a objective, afterall the cover save is likely better than your invulnerable save and can still you invulnerable vs flamers. S4 T4 is still better than guardsmen. You can start trying for a summons on turn 2 requiring a 4+ and it gets easier from there. You can summon them from within a vehicle as long as you have a icon. In all not a stellar unit – but can definitely work in armies built around them. Doesn’t take any force org slots. Arachnid notes you can use these to tie up enemy monstrous creatures and the like - They wouldn't get a armor save against these targets anyway, but are free to use their invulnerable save.

Greater Daemon: WS8 T6 S6 4 wounds – nice, 4+ invulnerable also nice. Fearless… tasty. BUT we need a unit to sacrifice to him so you will lose a champion – on the other hand his high toughness and good save should keep him in combat easily, he has 5 attacks – ample to kill most units with. He ignore saves due to his monstrous creature status but it’s mobility is limited to 6+D6 a turn. If you have a delivery system for this guy and the troops to back him up he can make a seriously good final blow in your opponents army. Counts as a HQ choice in most respects but does not take a force org slot. Arachnid notes that a Chosen squad is a excellent delivery for a greater daemon - you can infiltrate these boys close to enemy lines and them give them a excellent present in the form of greater daemon. Just make sure you keep the champ who bites it cheap.

OK - If you've had the decency to read this wall of text, I'd love to hear what people would like added. Any ideas will be added with full credit, if your a new player or anyone that loves reading guides, please give me some feedback - what did you like what did you not like and why. Please provide a suggestion if you have improvement - as long as 1 person got some worth from it, it was worth writing. Enjoy people.

Tactica Chaos Space Marines - Part 5 Heavy Support

2010-02-17T13:21:00.001+02:00

Chaos Havocs: I always use at least 1 squad in my list. I recommend 10 strong squads for staying power and fire power. You can kit them to a variety of roles be it anti infantry, anti tank, anti horde whatever. You can make a sit back and shoot squad or a in your base killing your dudez squad. If you want versatility the Missile Launcher is a awesome option giving you 4x templates a turn or 4x Krak missiles if you keep all the weapons the same. On the other hand you could go 4x Lascannon – pretty much fries Terminators, Vehicles and most monstrous creatures on sight – 2 turns at most. Nothing shows you dominance of a table quarter more than that 48” no-mans land they create. If you want cheap firepower that can decimate hordes nothing beats 4x Heavy Bolters, tossing out 12 S5 shots a turn is a hoot, and can give even MEQ’s a run for their money based on the amount of saves they must take. The Auto cannon is a bit of a strange one – I’d recommend against 4x Auto Cannons unless your environment is swimming in Tyranids or skimmers and other light vehicles. It’s just a bit to low strength against anything without AV10/AV11 and 4+ saves is what it excels in killing, although it can help against T6 Creatures that rely on their T to stay alive. Rarely will a sit and shoot style squad require the champ upgrades for fists and the like, but there is another way of using havocs. Get a rhino, put 10x havoc’s in it, add 4 Plasma Guns + Power fist, add icon’s to taste. Drive up, jump out – rapid fire the target of your choice to death, be prepared for immediate reprisals. You can do the same with Melta guns for anti tank, or even flamers for some REAL anti horde duty at close quarters. In all – how you use them is up to you. My preferred setup is icon of Chaos glory with 2x Auto Cannon and 2x heavy Bolter OR 2x Missile and 2x Lascannon. I know it seems counter intuitive – but it really works for me, so I stick with it.

Obliterators: These come with a complimentary “oh crap” sticker for your opponent. For just under 80 Points a piece you get 2W, 2+ save, 5+ invulnerable, Fearless unit that can fire either Lascannons, Multi Melta, Plasma cannon, Twin-linked plasma gun, Twin-linked melta or Twin-linked flamers, slow and purposeful means moving and firing these tasty weapons. Stick 3 of these into a opponents battle lines and start taking out targets of your choice. You have to be careful where you deepstrike though, one plasma suicide squad of death can kill your very expensive troops quickly. So to that end – never include them to fill a specific purpose in your list – there are other units that can do specialized jobs better and cheaper. Your paying for versatility so USE it.

Chaos predator: Tasty AV13 on the front and a Turret auto canon for default killing, toss on sponson heavy bolters for a tasty hundred point odd infantry killer. A popular choice for many people, especially for horde killing power. The other end of the spectrum is the All Lascannon special – 3x lascannons is really good at frying tough targets, but it’s a massive target for enemy shooting as well. Some stunned results could well result In you not firing for 3 turns or more. To this end the choice of Daemonic possession could be a good one, but is the drop in BS to 3 from 4 worth it ? I leave it up to you the reader to decide. Myself use the Lascannon Turret + heavy bolter Sponsons. This means I can move 6” a turn and fire my Lascannon at hard targets, and once I get there I can sit and unleash hell with my 2x heavy bolters as well. I find after 2-3 turns I’ve annihilated most of the enemy hard targets so I value the Heavy bolters for their number thining power at that point in the game.

Chaos Vindicator: S10 AP2 – Big Blast. Literally – a joy to use, this thing absorbs a unhealthy amount of attention and firepower. People always shoot at it – you can’t risk having that cannon shot at you – so they normally settle for stunning it and then ignoring it till their next turn. So what’s a person who loves massive firepower to do ? The answer ? Daemonic possession – you ignore annoying stunned/shaken results and force them to destroy it or be destroyed. Even then the amount of fire it soaked up compared to what the rest of your army would have taken is well worth it. It comes with smoke and dozerblade as default – so you can drive it into cover and then leave it there hull down blasting things. Also part of the Dread lash to Bunch then blast combo.

Defiler: Much hated and loved, like most things chaos opinions vary. On the one hand you have a spanking awesome looking daemon engine, on the other virtually everything can see and shoot it. It does come with a battle cannon – which is awesome, and Daemonic possession. Good stuff – ordinance that can keep shooting no matter what. What else do we get ? Reaper auto cannon, twin linked heavy flamer. This thing is built to destroy infantry at a ferocious rate. You can customise them for more Close combat ability, or more shooty goodness or a mix of the two. Generally I leave mine as is and use to stopgap my assault in which ever phase it seems to be having difficulty. The large blast and Flamer is truly a boon in the world of 5th ed.

Chaos Landraider: My favourite vehicle hands down. Ever. That probably says a lot about me, but it’s just so damn awesome. Twin linked heavy Bolter, Twin linked las cannons, AV14 all around, smoke launchers, assault ramp. The ultimate in versatility – S10 Railguns need 5’s to penetrate – how awesome is that ? Get hit in assault ? no puny AV10 for you, AV14! Stick 10 bezerkers in it – drive it up 12” a turn, disembark and assault in 1 turn from it. You can pop anti tank threats with it after it’s done it’s job. You can hide a low strength squad in it, drive it on a objective and sit there in your AV14 bunker firing the weapons at your enemies and they have to destroy the raider if they want that objective back. Take a highly mobile/ high firepower force – use multiple raiders, destroy your opponents high S weaponry then retreat back into them – there’s absolutely nothing they can do about it. Stick Terminators in it for assault delivery – use it as a battlefield taxi to pick up squads if the weapons get destroyed. Pretty much anything you want really. It’s damn expensive at more than 200 Points but it’s versatility is it’s strength. You can spend turn 1-2 being a rhino and turn 3-7 destroying 100 Point odd tanks. AV14 + Ramming = carnage. The best advice for raider use is be creative, ride that versatility to the hilt – remember nothing else can transport termies, can assault out of a AV14 transport and have lascannon’s strapped to it. I love mine and routinely field it – but never field your raider alone, take other armor to help create more targets or it will be giant fire magnet if it’s alone and more likely to get destroyed. Admittedly it takes crap loads of shooting – but can be destroyed – especially if it is alone.

Tactica Chaos Space Marines - Part 4 Fast Attack

2010-02-17T13:20:00.002+02:00

Chaos Bikers: Lets See, what do we get twin linked Bolters, T5 hmmmm, more than double the points – doesn’t seem worth it does it ? Aaah but my friend consider this – Icons (T6 Bikes), turbo boosting, dual Melta’s on a small 3 man squad is less than 120 Points. Turbo Boost – Rock up at a tank – blow it to chaos come. If you make it a bit more pricy add a champ with a Power fist. Rock up – shoot it THEN assault it with a S8 weapon that hits rear armor. Even with the second config they still are cheaper than most tanks they blow up. Give em a icon – drive along the board taking pot shots and scattering daemons and termies like daisies at a wedding. Give em Mark of Nurgle, throw em into a unit of Devastators to tie them up for a few turns (as often they lack power weapons and the Like) – their uses are truly limitless. Give em mark of Khorne – take a moderate sized squad or 2 and CHEW through enemy light infantry (or chase those damn Tau suits). In all a expensive but really versatile and neat option. I never leave home without them.

Chaos Raptors: The Equivalent to our loyalist brethren’s jump troops. Jump Packs, Close combat weapons and some options for Icons. Think on this for a moment if you will – you can make them tank hunters if you take a small squad with Melta Weapons, horde killers with dual flamers, go crazy give the champion dual lightning claws and icon of Khorne. The option is truly yours – you can use them as a counter assault unit, tank hunter, objective clearers – it’s all up to you. Like most chaos units the versatility is the key – with some care you can change them into whatever role your army needs.

Chaos Spawn: hmmm – well they are more than 30 points, so not that great for throw away points – on the other hand lets look at what we get. Gift of chaos can give us a free spawn so that’s something to keep in mind, get 1 or 2 for that reason if nothing else. They get D6 attacks so usually about 2 or so. S5 is good but not great. They do have T5 too and 3 Wounds. Hmmm – almost as good as 3 possessed but lacking the saves. They always try to attack the closest enemy unit so don’t plan a battle around them. Ideally I’d say they work best vs gunline armies – either your enemy shoots it and spares other troops you need more or leaves it and gets stuff tied up. Sorcerer with some form of movement like wings/ jump pack with gift of chaos is probably best. Swoop in – create some spawn and Cause havoc right in the enemy lines. Creating 2 – 3 spawns could seriously cause some havoc against tau fire warriors, guardsmen – pretty much any light infantry that relies on cover to protect it. I reckon with some creativity you can make spawn work – but they really are a difficult unit to make work.

Tactica Chaos Space Marines - Part 3 Troops

2010-02-17T13:19:00.000+02:00

Chaos Space Marines: Our bread and butter troops (unless you are playing a cult army) – 5-20 man strong, LD10 with a champion and the ability to take a heavy and Special or a second special choice instead. They come standard with Frags, Kraks, Bolters and Pistols. They get all the usual Power weapons, combi’s and the like for their Champ as well as a selection of Icon’s. They can take a rhino for transport for less than 40 Points and be geared for Rapid assault or Defensive objective grabbing. My Preferred load out is either with 10 man, icon of Chaos Glory + 2x Plasma gun. If’ I’m holding ground I’d swap a plasma for a heavy bolter, and possibly add a powerfist to ensure nothing shifts me out of cover without a hell of a fight. Take lots of these in any all comers list – I recommend at least 30, ensuring you have 3 scoring units at least. 2 or more of these squads working in concert can deal out a horrendous amount of punishment, and the sheer look of 20 well equipped marines are more than enough to keep all than the most determined enemies off of a objective.

Plague Marines: Disgusting blokes with a T5 and Fearless. Can grab some special weapons as well as a Rhino. They come with “feel no pain” so if you wanna walk at the enemy, watch your bits get blown off before shooting him to warp you might wanna pick these guys. If you need a objective that won’t shift no matter what – these are your guys – with cover they can absorb a ludicrous amount of firepower. Small arms does virtually nothing vs them as they are designed to suck it up like a sponge. Even tau pulse rifles need a 4+ to even wound these guys. You do take a slight hit in I, (I3) – but if you are hiding in cover that’s rarely a problem. Excellent candidates for a Rhino rush orientated strategy. Drive up – offload 30 of these guys and just rapid fire the enemy to death, next turn take the punishment before handing it out again. In all one of my favourite cult troops stats wise, but least favourite looks wise.

Noise Marines: The reason to get these guys is their weaponry – read through the profiles and you will see – Excellent AP and rate of fire combined with good range. They have I5, combined with a power weapon they aren’t slouches in Close combat either. You need a delicate hand playing these guys – they die as easily as normal marines, but fare slightly better in assault as well as having a significantly better shooting phase. They are fearless, and will carry on gunning down the enemy to the last man – With the advent of cover in 5th ed they have got a little better at surviving, but so has the enemy – now more than ever good assaults and Supporting strategies are needed. For their points cost not too shabby at all.

Khorne Bezerkers: If you need close combat power in your troops section – look no further, Furious Charge, Fearless 2 Attacks each + 1 for CC Weapons (4 on the charge), high I and W. What’s not to like ? Cheaper Rhino’s Combined with these guys and you will have a squad to be feared – remember to add a powerfist to help deal with vehicles as nothing feels stupider than having a whole squad torn apart by a wraithlord because you can’t hurt it back. If you can get 10 or 12 of these in charge range you can rip even 30 strong ork units a new one. Use em wisely and you won’t be disappointed.

Thousand Sons: Anti Infantry bar none – move and fire 24” on your Bolters, they are AP 3. Think about this – you can move forward steadily keeping up a stream of fire on the enemy forcing him to use cover (most likely worse than his armor save) and you get a 4+ invulnerable save to keep you save. They are fearless and slow and Purposeful. It’s both a benefit and a drawback. You have to take a sorcerer – so you do get some powers as well – although the squad is expensive as well. You could go with Bolt of change to fry vehicles for Flexibility or with Wind of chaos to help clear out hordes in addition to your Rapid fire weapons. I like the sons myself – a few big squads just walking up the field can be awesome against lists traditionally good against Chaos marines as you can shrug off half the usual shots that kill you, the down side is you might be to slow to get to distant objectives. The Answer ? Rhinofy baby ! Stick those suckers in Rhino’s and Drive where you need to go in style! Rapidfire + AP3 = the Kings of rhino rush against MEQ Targets. Nobody want’s that much AP3 fire coming his way. Plus Egypt + Chaos = made of win model wise. I like squads of 9 myself, fluffy and Chunky to hold objectives with. Prevents wounds from “wrapping” around the sorcerer with the new wound allocation system.

Tactica Chaos Space Marines - Part 2 Elites

2010-02-17T13:14:00.001+02:00

Chosen Chaos Space Marines: Coming with the infiltrate ability as standard, these are going to be our glory boys. They can be up to 10 men strong and can take a Rhino transport. They may have 1 heavy weapon or up to 4 power weapons or special weapons. They are extremely customizable for either close combat or ranged damage. They may select an icon to help them get the job done. I favour the Chaos glory one, because moral checks are the bane of my existence, and their likely to come under heavy fire. While Alpha legion players may have lost their cultists they have gained the ability to field 30 Infiltrating troops carrying 4 special weapons each. If you are going to use chosen, pick a job for them and outfit them appropriately.

Chaos Terminators: Hmmm – a unit I just love to hate, on the on side they have power weapons and are only slightly more expensive than possessed, on the other hand they have a tendency to die like flies to plasma (depending what icon they have). If you crank em up on powerfists the squad’s price also goes up rather steeply. If deep struck often they will sit around for a turn before getting shot back to the warp, a cheap squad with just a Reaper cannon is a good throw away unit for popping tanks from behind though. I find their best use is for Sticking em in a land Raider + Lord then driving up to the enemy and assaulting them. You wreak unimaginable damage like that, especially if using icon of Tzeentch (to weather plasma in between consolidation moves) or Nurgle (for small arms fire). Combi weapons are a god send, as they all cost the same you can just note down Combi weapon on your army list and use whatever is needed (or modelled on your troops) for extra flamey or Melta goodness. I like using Reaper + Combi Melta’s myself, although many people swear by rapid firing Plasma’s for 1 round. I like the safe bet more myself ( and I prefer them go after vehicles). Like most things chaos – it’s up to the individual player.

Possessed: The Red Headed step child, most people hate these with a passion. I myself love them, many think that they aren’t worth their points – However consider this – Icon of Tzeentch cost more than 35 Points – so lets say you possessed are worth another 4 points than a regular marine for their invulnerable save. What more? Fearless – that’s easily another 2 Points per troop in value. What more? S5 – Means you wound MEQ’s on a 3+. Another 2 Points I’d say. Now on top of this you get another free ability that has a 5 in 6 chance of improving your troops – I’d say that’s just gravy. I like Possessed – stick em in a Land Raider (or rhino if you’re strapped for points), run em into an enemy squad and rip em a new one. These guys really make a mess of gaunts and the like – with the new rules and modifiers for assault you can kill huge numbers of enemy infantry off if you win an assault purely by virtue of your killyness. Try em out – if nothing else they are an opportunity to try your modelling skills, and they look awesome.

Chaos Dreadnought: Another hated unit – random is bad it seems these days – on the other hand it’s also hilarious sometimes. Less than a hundred points gets you the following: A dread with smoke/search light plus a twin linked bolter + CC Weapon. To this you can strap either a big gun or CC Weapon. Now you have some nifty choices here – The Plasma cannon is a rare commodity in a Chaos marines list – but your going to have to keep a eye on your deployment. I prefer the missile option myself – if it goes mad I can either fire the frag round at my own vehicle doing nothing to it, or at a marine squad likely to shrug off the hit. The dread is a nice close assault walker – but if you want something absolutely safe you might want to look elsewhere as they have a tendency to shoot the best laid plans to hell. I still like them, as many of the disadvantages can be negated with good deployment or weapon options giving me a cheap heavy weapons bearer that can tie up units like “without number” gaunts indefinitely.

Tactica Chaos Space marines - Part 1 HQ's

2010-02-17T13:13:00.000+02:00

Abaddon the despoiler: Costing more than a land raider, this bloke is terrifying. Terminator armour, Linked Bolter, Icon, All the marks of chaos means he can sit and take punishment with the best of them. Like all Lords he is fearless. He comes with the Daemon weapon Drach’nyen – He counts as Strength 8 and can re-roll ANY failed to wound rolls. Finally he is immune to the instant death attack, thank the warp. What this means is that he will rarely make his points back – but he makes a damn impressive splash whenever he jumps into a unit. Not much will walk away from him, and he can walk away from virtually everything himself. A 2+ save combined with toughness 5 and a 4+ invulnerable save means he is disgustingly effective at what he does, and he will stick around to do it. A potential 10 strength 8 attacks that ignore armour and strike at iniative 6 means anything caught in assault is almost guaranteed dead.

Kharn the Betrayer: Clocking in at a relatively cheap points price, Kharn is what they had in mind when they coined the term “killing machine”. With a Mighty weapons skill of 7 and a weapon that hits on a 2+ ignoring armour saves, and you know you have a winner. Kharn wears power armour and can hitch a ride with his bezerkers buddies in a rhino. If any stray dreadnoughts or small children cross his path, Kharn gets an additional d6 to his armour penetration. Not too shabby for a Looney eh? On the downside, should Kharn roll a 1 to hit, he hits 1 of your own troops instead. People with Abyssal dice luck beware! Kharn also ignores force weapons and Psychic powers. Show those Grey Knight pansies where they can stick it.

Ahriman of the Thousand Sons: He’s Expensive – but the art is damn cool. That aside he’s got staff that allows him up too 3 Psychic tests a turn. It’s also a force weapon – meaning he can pop, off Gift of chaos, switch on warp time, and then go to town on some poor sod all in the same turn. He has all the undivided powers in addition to the Tzeentch ones, due to his master of sorcery rule. His bolt Pistol uses Inferno Bolts and is thus AP3. He comes with a cushy 4+ invulnerable save to keep him safe from all those nasty plasma guns.

Fabius Bile: A very versatile character. He’s got good Close combat weapons as well as a decent range weapon. The rod of torment instantly kills any model it wounds regardless of toughness. Bad news for enemies, it's NOT a power weapon though. His xyclos needler, while having a pathetic range of 18” and no Strength does wound on a 2+ and has 3 shots. He comes with Feel no Pain to keep him from getting killed, +1 to strength and 2 extra attacks from his chirurgeon. He can choose to enhance a squad of Chaos space marines at modest cost. You role on a table to determine the results. You’re likely to get marines that are stronger and completely fearless. Having a squad hold an objective down to the last man is awesome. if you want to play a Safe list probably not your best bet - but if a little bit of randomness doesn't scare you, he can be a lot of fun.

Lucius the Eternal: A weapon skill 7, Initiative 6 Monster. He comes with a 5+ invulnerable save as well as the Armour of screaming souls. For each save Lucius passes in close combat his foes take a Strength 4 hit with no armour save allowed in return. His lash of torment removes 1 attack from an enemy facing him, allowing Lucius to dice his opponent with his power sword. Lucius also carries a Doom Siren for Longer range work. One of the coolest character killers in regards too MEQ’s and the like.

Typhus, Host of the Destroyer hive: a Sorcerer in Terminator armour that will give nearly anything pain in close combat. He boasts the feel no pain attribute in addition to having termie armour. He can use 2 Psychic abilities a turn and comes with Wind of chaos and Nurgle’s rot. This means he can use a Power and then follow it up with force weapon that same turn. When using these powers he automatically passes his test, as well as ignoring perils of the warp. He carries the Man reaper, which is a Daemon weapon AND force weapon. He is host to the destroyer hive and thus gains the Bonus of Blight Grenades and frag grenades. Toughness 5 and feel no pain means he should stick around a while in close combat.

Huron Blackheart: He’s chaos lord that comes with the Warptime power courtesy of his little Monster that follows him around. He’s also got a Powerfist with a built in heavy flamer. Not my favourite character in the world, but if you are building a red corsairs force then it’s very fluffy. Stick him with a squad of chosen with 4 flamers for maximum flamey fun!

Daemon Prince: Hands up those who like Monstrous creatures. Now who likes one that can take Marks as well as Psychic powers? Immunity to instant death? A daemon prince with only flying sets you back just under 150 points. In return you get a T5 monster whose attack ignore armour saves and strike at Weapon skill 7. Note – avoid anti tank weaponry or die. Hills are your friend. If all else fails find a nice safe close combat to live in – the new consolidation rules WILL kill you if you hit targets to soft. Brother Sanctjud notes that the Daemon Prince can also be used as a bullet magnet (unfitting a role as that is for a lord of chaos ) - If your enemy is firing his las cannons at your daemon Prince he isn't killing your vehicles/obliterators.

Chaos Lord: Probably one of the most customizable entries in the codex. With a wide selection of weapons to choose from he can be outfitted in any role. He’s fearless and comes with a 5+ invulnerable save. He can be marked as well being able to choose from a variety of transport methods. I favour Terminator armour myself, however many a player swears by a Jump pack and Lightning claws. Others prefer Bikes. I try and keep mine as cheap as possible points wise – but there’s something to be said for a Marked, Bike riding, daemon weapon wielding bad arse!

Chaos Sorcerer: Our source of magical goodness. Also the second carrier for the dreaded lash. Once again there’s a wide selection of abilities to pick from, try and avoid picking equipment for “just in case”. Once again I prefer terminator armour, but there’s something to be said for a Nurgle Sorcerer on a bike with Nurgle’s Rot. Imperial guard and Tau beware! Use your own discretion when building your sorcerer.

Tactica Chaos Space Marines - Intro.

2010-02-17T13:03:00.004+02:00

Tactica Chaos - A guide to the latest Chaos Space Marines Codex.
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Preface
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I'd like to start this guide with a bit of a Disclaimer/Prologue. I don't play 40K as often as I would like, nor do I play many of the main armies. I have a tendency to gravitate towards fringe armies (Pure Iyanden) and under-dog lists. This has taught me never to undervalue a unit, or to look at it's stats on paper. Sometimes there's more that meets the eye - and this can often be exploited for minor gain or devastating damage. So I'd like you to keep an open mind on many of the concepts written here in. Some may be new, other may be old - but hopefully everyone can come away from this having learnt something new. This is part Tactica, part overview and many parts insanity. I’ve written this for players new and old, and all in-between. Feel free to disagree – after all that’s what makes life interesting.

Concepts discussed:
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Target saturation: Simply put, this is providing so many viable/Dangerous targets to your opponent that he splits his force's firepower, thus targeting all or most of them. This leaves his force not accomplishing much of anything in terms of actual damage caused. An Example of this would be a list that only fields armour. If he focuses his fire and kills 1 or 2 tanks, the other 4-5 can advance steadily and disgorge their payload. If tries to spread his fire around he might end up not destroying a single tank. In this way you can force an opponent’s hand.

Army Specialization: Emphasizing a large character of your force, thus rendering some of the enemy’s weapons useless. Examples include all infantry forces where anti tank weapons can cause little damage to them, and all armour forces - drastically reducing enemy anti infantry fire. It also involves leaning heavily on one of the phases, be it movement, assault or Shooting and trying to gain superiority in that phase. Often it is possible to concentrate on 2 phase to dominate as many units have 2 characteristics they excel at.

Focus: Keeping your eye on the end game so to speak - Don't worry about losing a squad if it will help you win the battle. Sometimes sacrifices have to be made. In this vein - don't forget your objectives, games are won and lost on objectives.

KISS: Keep it simple stupid. Easy tactics are easy to execute, and harder to foul up. If you pin all your hopes on a convoluted tactic the enemy may well destroy one tiny key unit that renders all your fancy manoeuvring moot. In the same vein, try to keep upgrades sensible and minimal – if you have too many nit picky details you may well forget a rule or piece of equipment you paid points for while playing.

Quantity is its own quality: 1 Marine isn't much of a threat, 10 is a problem to be overcome, and 60 is an almost unstoppable wave of power armour come to convert the enemies of the gods by the sword. Remember quantity is important where attrition takes centre stage.

Troops, troops, troops: That's right - you have 6 slots for troops - use them, fill them. Troops win you games. Guys with funny gloves or fancy guns help - but your footsloggers will be the ones taking objectives, holding them and mostly doing the dying so that your giant gibbering warp entity can eat some Tau for Dinner.

Set achievable goals: Your termies will probably be munched armour and all by a hive tyrant in close combat. If you knock off a few wounds with your havocs then beat the living warp out of it, things will go much better. Make your army work in concert - let it support and work together like a well oiled machine.

Adaptability/Flexibility: If your army can do virtually everything, your opponent can't ever do anything to surprise you. You can adapt to his army like water seeping into sand. Most of your units can handle armour - means he can't destroy dedicated tank hunters to keep his armour safe. Everything can kill hordes? Same thing - you don't have any real weakness other than the lack of specialization which has downsides of its own. (Lack of a quantity of a weapon/unit to get a job done)

MEQ: Not so much a concept as a description - It generally means T4 3+ Save infantry or armies.

Enough of this Theoretical nonsense - on to the good stuff.

Weapons of Chaos:
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Auto cannon: A much disliked weapon in the new chaos codex - for many people the loss of the "Tank hunters" veteran skill has all but rendered this weapon useless. I hear many a chaos player bemoan their sad squads of 4 Auto cannon havocs. I for one have not lost faith in these units, as I'm a firm believer in Quantity over quality in my weapons. I prefer the Extra shot and loss of AP and Strength over the missile launcher. Half your Auto Cannon shots hitting are still the same as 2 Krak missiles hitting - the trick is to maximize the strength of the Auto cannon. It's not Strong enough to be a head on Anti tank weapon and not enough shots to be an anti infantry weapon. So what is it good at? Popping light armour and medium to high toughness enemies. Toughness 5 and Toughness 6 enemies do not like mister Auto cannon. Toughness 3 enemies even less so. Tau, Tyranid warriors – anything short of 2+ save or T8 enemies is a good target, make the enemy take quantity of saves. AV10 Isn't impressed at the 4+ to penetrate it. The quantity of shots makes even AV11 a possibility. The Auto cannon is the master of side and rear shots, since they come with termies too (twin Linked) pump a bunch into that soft AV10 rear.

UPDATE: I've been having an awesome time slaughtering squadroned skimmers with them. penetrating on a 4+, Long range, multiple shots and the squadron rules have just made my marine opponents give up using them.

Blastmaster: As much as I’d like to call the missile launcher the Master of adaptability - the Blastmaster really trumps it. Smart opponents will spread out to avoid missile templates, and the Strength 4 doesn't exactly put the fear of the Chaos gods into them. The blastmaster's varied frequency on the other hand will make even MEQ opponents think twice about getting in that S5 AP4 range. You have 2 shots and the ability to pin (not to be relied upon). With a marine's BS this means on average you will hit more targets this way, than you would have with a blast template. Combined with the range of a heavy bolter and you have a disgustingly powerful assault weapon. It gets better - the suckers got a high toughness? Well switch Blastmaster to Single Frequency and show your opponent the meaning of the word pain in the form of a Strength 8 AP3 Blast that pins. Essentially everything short of Heavy vehicles is your prey.

Boltgun, Bolt Pistol: Hmmm you'd think that there's not much to say about the humble bolter - but you'd be wrong. Most marine players take for granted the awesomeness that is a Strength 4 squad weapon with rapid fire. Having played low T and Low armour save armies I can assure you that being on the receiving end of 16+ bolter shots is not fun. Make your opponents roll enough dice and he will fail some of his saves. I have seen Bolters accomplish feats that my heavy weapons failed at - don't neglect to include it in your battle plans, and it won't disappoint you. Every marine has a Bolter or Bolt Pistol in your army – 30 Marines with Bolters = 60 shots with rapid fire. 50 Marines = 100 shots. Let’s say 60 hits, half wound – about 30 Saves. There’s bound to be some 1’s in there.

Doom Siren: The doom siren is the nastier cousin of that girl you dated in college. An AP of 3 and Strength of 5 means that not even Marines feel comfy when a feller toting one of these gets in range. Treat it like a glorified heavy flamer and you won't be disappointed. Flanking heavy infantry with these things is to die for, as the Auto hit makes mince of most MEQS.

Flamer: An incredibly difficult weapon to use, the Template is both a blessing and a curse - it means you don't have to roll to hit, but it also means you’re virtually on top of the enemy. Backed by the Okay Strength 4 and an unimpressive AP of 5 most people will not fear the flamer. On the upside it ignores cover. There's method to these one's madness though. Quantity as always is the key here. A Key weapon in 5th Ed – Rhino’s with 2 of these, chosen packing 4 and infiltrating are all a good way to clear a lot of enemies quickly (or die horribly, depending on the dice gods).

Heavy Bolter: In many ways one of my favourite weapons, it has a good strength, and decent AP (4), but the defining ability for me is its 3 Shots. That's right - 3. With a marine's BS that means that you usually hit with at least 1, and with a good bunch of rolls - all 3. A squad of these can quickly decimate hordes and even give marines trouble due to the amount of saves they have to take. Strength 5 is almost as good against MEQ's as Guard. It has a decent range of 36" meaning it will have a decent amount of shooting time before the enemy is close enough to start adding your bolter shots to the mix. An auto include in almost all my lists. If building a mobile army you’ll have to get your heavy bolter goodness from Predators and Land Raiders. Still a nice and versatile weapon.

Heavy Flamer: A flamer with reversed stats S5 and AP4 - this thing is used for burning tough enemies out of cover and destroying anything that relies on cover saves. Everything about the flamer applies to it. The AP of 4 is decent - use it against Tau in Buildings, Path finders, Rangers, Lictors gone to ground, and anything that will smell like chicken.

Lascannon: Aaah - the big boy, with a mighty Strength of 9, and one of the few AP 2 guns in the Chaos armoury. This thing is brutal against vehicles and monstrous creatures. It has excellent Range, so you can really reach out and touch someone with it. Every list should have at least a few of these to deal with monoliths, Land raiders, small children and pretty much anything else nasty and dangerous. If your enemy lacks an invulnerable save it's most likely a smoking hole after firing this thing. Don't go overboard though - they are expensive and virtually useless versus line infantry.

Meltagun: I confess - I like these more than Lascannon. The extra 2d6 penetration at close range is almost irresistible for me. Anything mobile or capable of deep striking usually carries some of these for the same reasons as stated in the Lascannon above. Bikes, Terminators, Marines in a Rhino, Chosen – all good choices.

Missile Launcher: A weapon I always bring at least a few of - you never know what your opponent is bringing, so you can't go wrong with a gun that can Kill hordes and still has a chance at blowing a tank to Chaos come. The Range of 48" means you don't have to move once you have picked an excellent firing lane, and adaptability means you’re a threat to virtually everything. Everything that applies to the Blastmaster applies to the Missile Launcher. All it lacks is the mobility of its more destructive cousin. In all a good weapon choice.

Multi Melta: Angrier version of the Melta gun, Longer range - available only on our dreads and Obliterators. I like the idea behind these but the platform they are mounted on limits their use a little bit. Your Dread if given these is more than likely to vapourise something of yours, and obliterators can deepstrike close enough to targets to use their Twinlinked melta's. Their only use on oblits as far as I can tell is if you scatter out of melta range and need a tank to die NOW. Feel free - to add to this section if anybody has more uses for them.

Plasma Cannon: Seen on our Dreadnoughts. The Strength is the same as an Auto cannon's with the template of a missile and the AP of a plasma gun. Bad thing? It's mounted on a platform likely to go bezerk and shoot your own troops. Not a bad weapon - Just over shadowed by many other choices in our lists. Personally I like them – stick your dread on a flank with a unit it can’t hurt (land raider) and got to town. They can also be utilized by our Obliterators - tastyness to be had all round. Deepstrike + Ap2 template makes a mess of many enemies, especially when combined with the dreaded lash.

Plasma Gun, Plasma Pistol: A staple work horse in many lists - I use one in almost all my infantry squads. Barring any misfires they will net you a kill a round from enemies in range. They are useful for adding some punch to marine squads with the same profile as their basic bolters. In all not a bad weapon at all, high strength and Low AP in a decently priced package with a good range. Reduced value if your playing a dense terraine board – either pack flamers or more multi shot weapons.

Reaper Auto cannon: Essentially a blinged up version of the Infamous auto cannon. Mostly seen on termies, they give you the ability to re-roll misses, substantially boosting damage output. Everything about the auto cannon applies to this one as well.

Sonic Blaster: In a nutshell this is a bolter with an assault profile. Move and fire is the order of the day here. The bonus of course is that you can take up cover to blast your opponents with the lovely heavy 3 profile. The second bonus is being able to move 6" then fire 24" giving you a 30" threat range.

Battle Cannon: Seen on the Defiler, this thing kills marine’s dead. A giant AP3 template scares the armoured pants off of most marine armies. After you get hit with 3 of these from a guard army in 1 turn you will realize why. Thank goodness we get to stick ours on a stylish demon engine instead of some boring tank. 72" range and large blast is your friend against hordes, and if you hit a tank it probably won't have a good day either. If you plan on bringing some ordinance you can't go wrong with a defiler.

Demolisher cannon: Strength 10 AP 2. Read that Profile. Read it again. Savour it. If you can get this sucker to stick around (which we can do), you can really make your enemies sweat. It’s Ordinance, it kills most infantry instantly. It fries vehicles. The only downside is the short range of 24" and the weaker side and rear armour.

Havoc Launcher: It's a cheap twin linked Strength 5 weapon with a blast templates. Use them to fill out points left over as well as to provide mobile units with some extra firepower. They will most likely need it. This weapon's tactics depend on which vehicle you attach them too. More later on this Weapon.

Chaos Sorcery

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Doombolt: First on the list is the cheap and Cheerful Doombolt. I often pick this power as it's the cheapest, has multiple shots, easily wounds low toughness enemies and still has a good chance to wound marines, and ignore their armour. It has a short range of 18", but most Psykers use alternative transport anyway so it's hardly a drawback.

Warptime: Essentially the Chaos version of guide, we have to re-roll ALL hits and wounds. Essentially you can save yourself from a dismal round of combat with this power. There are many schools of thought on exactly how it works. As far as I'm concerned you have to re-roll all your hit and wounds if you choose one as the description does not specify misses.

Gift of Chaos: This gives you a 1 in 6 chance of outright killing an enemy model. If it has toughness it can be killed. It gets better - if you roll over the toughness it works. Thus most marine characters get spawned on a 5+ or a 6+. Not bad odds at all. It gets even better - if you have spawn model available you can replace said model with the spawn for free. It even works in Close combat. The downside to this power is the fact that it only works in 6" of the sorcerer on a single model. It can however be used in close combat.

Wind of Chaos: Uses a Flamer template, always wounds on a 4+ regardless of toughness and does not allow armor saves. Good for taking out high toughness infantry in cover.

Lash of Submission: It's a 24" range power allowing you to move an enemy non vehicle unit 2d6". I'm not saying any more as there's whole armies dedicated to lash, as well as tactica's written on it. I'd rather steer clear of the debate and let players decide for themselves. Uses include bunching up enemy troops for template weapons, dragging off of objectives or into assault range.

Nurgle's Rot: It hits all enemy targets in 6" when used. It's Strength 3, so won't do much to most enemies. However if you get mobbed by gaunts/guardsman enc it can help you quickly clear the area around you to move on to fresh targets. A very fluffy and cool power for nurgley followers.

Bolt of change: Range of a Bolter and stopping power of a missile. This power is disgustingly powerful against high toughness enemies and enemy vehicles. A sorcerer can quickly make a lot of points disappear into thin air with this. The AP of 1 means it has none of the normal issues that a missile launcher struggles with. An Expensive power, but good if you have a plan for it. It's an assault weapon and thus can be moved and fired. Nasty on Aspiring Sorcerers.

Close combat Weapons

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Chainfist: It's essentially a more expensive powerfist when used against infantry. It doubles Strength and makes you strike last, so why would you pick it? One reason - 2d6+ Double Strength armour penetration. This bad boy is as good as a Melta against vehicles and you will at least get more attacks as well. If tanks absolutely have to die then accept no substitutes.

Force Weapon: A favourite weapon of mine. It's a power weapon with the added bonus that you can kill multi wound models instantly if you pass a psychic test. This is often all a sorcerer needs to even out the slightly weaker close combat ability in comparison with a Chaos lord. You will love this weapon dearly once you send a few enemies HQ's screaming into the warp.

Lightning claws: Besides the pure appeal of having a little wolverine wannabe running around - you get a weapon that ignore armour saves, as well as allowing you to re-roll any to wound rolls. If taken in a pair you also get an extra attack. Most people will tell you to always take a pair - but in my opinion that isn't always the case. I often prefer a single claw over a regular power weapon when decking out my chaos lord. Go with what you feel is cool. The Dual claws are definitely more effective – I just think the Combi-bolter + Claw looks bad arse (style over effectiveness sometimes  )

Powerfist: A weapon that sees a lot of use, these things can wound almost anything in the game as well as bypassing armour saves. Many people feel they are mandatory in troop squads to protect them from rampaging dreadnoughts and the like. I rarely use them myself, except on terminators.They make you strike last and double strength – It’s good If your troops get caught in a assault – but the price tag is pretty steep.

Power weapon: It can take virtually any form, it’s cheap, and it’s cheerful and allows your chaos lord to harvest enemy troops by the truck load. If your building a cheap (points wise) Chaos lord, you can't go wrong with at least a power weapon. I prefer them on my Aspiring champions as I don’t go last and get to make the best use of I4.

Daemon Weapons and Marks of Chaos:

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I felt this weapon type deserved its own section. There is always a lot of speculation and conjecture about daemon weapons. Many feel they are too dangerous, other that they are to expensive, and others that they just don't do enough for the points. I feel that if you’re going to be building a chaos lord of some prestige the least you can do is give him a daemon weapon. It's a bit more in character - as well as confirming his status as a total bad arse. I feel it's impossible to discuss the weapons without going into the marks as well. Many of the weapons become a better deal once you consider the benefits that the associated mark brings.

Mark of Khorne: The simplest of the 4 marks. It makes your chaos lord more killy by giving him an extra attack. That's it, nothing more. If you’re building the ultimate close combat machine, or a khornate war band you can't go wrong.

Mark of Tzeentch: This tasty little mark increases your invulnerable save by one. Thus chaos lord’s etc can end up with a tasty 4+ invulnerable save to ward off all those nasty power weapons and Lascannon. If you lack an invulnerable save then it confers a 5+ save. In all this mark is used to increase your resistance to power weapons as well as low AP weaponry. It won't really help you when weathering 40+ bolter shots.

Mark of Nurgle: It boosts your toughness by 1. You get wounded less often by lower strength weaponry, and have to take less saves. The net result is a better resilience against small arms fire, and hand to hand attacks. If combined with terminator armour you can get a disgustingly tough HQ. Father Nurgle approves.

Mark of Slaanesh: It gives you a +1 to initiative. Simple and sweet. When you consider that many enemies already strike after a marines regular I4, then an I6 daemon weapon wielding terror becomes a lot more appealing. You can rip even specialist enemy close combat units apart with this thing, negating a lot of the units striking power before it gets used, and allowing you to finish it off the rest next round. A very powerful mark when used to its full advantage, although not as simple as the other 3.

All Daemon weapons require 2 hands, meaning you can't ever get a bonus for an extra close combat weapon. It counts as a power weapon in addition to any other attributes. It adds d6 attacks except where specified differently. On a role of a 1 for your extra attacks, you get 1 wound and no attacks at ALL that round. You can ONLY take invulnerable saves against the daemon rebelling.

Weapons of Chaos undivided: If you have no mark, then you gain a weapon that adds d6 attacks as well as +1 to your strength. This means you will wound most MEQ's on a 3+ and slice and dice toughness 3 opponents on a 2+. A powerful option for chaos lords who want the possibility for a bucket of attacks.

Blood feeder: A much maligned weapon. You gain 2d6 attacks, however if either of the dice roll a 1 then you don't get any chance to attack and take 1 wound. Most people worry that the chaos lord will kill himself without making his points back. And yes he will often kill himself (at least once every other game), but he is a monster in close combat. Consider this, a chaos lord has 3 Attacks + 1 from mark of Khorne + 2d6 = 8 to 16 attacks. Even with only mediocre rolling it's possible to get an average of 8 attacks. So send him after massively expensive targets, let him rip them apart. The sheer devastation will cause your opponent so much worry, that he will dedicate way too much of his attention to who ever carries this.

Plague bringer: Essentially a power weapon that adds extra attacks, while always wounding on a 4+. Excellent for going after high toughness targets. Wraith lords, Wraith guard, Carnifexes anything that you can off with the 4+ is tasty. Make a mockery of the enemy’s toughness and take out targets they considered safe. An excellent weapon, but it changes the role of your lord significantly - you really don't want to get stuck killing Imperial guard on a 4+. If your strength is higher than your target's toughness you do get to reroll the "to wound" dice. Thanks to Nurglez for pointing this out.

Death screamer: It's Range and Close combat weapon. As well as functioning as the standard daemon weapon you also get the ability to fire multiple Strength 4 AP3 shots at 24". It's got an assault profile, so you can theoretically start the killing at 30" until you actually get stuck in close combat. Since it’s a daemon weapon you still get the d6 attacks in close combat as well as the bonus of a power weapon. A very powerful weapon really fitting the character of the lord of change.

Bliss giver: essentially it's a power weapon that strikes at initiative order and inflicts instant death. Meaning - you wound it, you kill it - barring eternal warrior or synapse. I don't have much experience with this weapon myself.

Army types:

There’s dozens of styles available to you when building an army, below I will attempt to give a few examples of armies I have used and encountered.

Gun line: Essentially you max out your heavy support units, and entire army with things that excel at sitting still and blasting the crap out of the enemies from the other side of the table. Not a very fluffy army (except for Iron warriors maybe), as Astartes are a rapid assault force. It is effective however as everything has a high BS, you don’t need to invest heavily in counter charge units as most CSM units come with a bolt pistol and close combat weapon already. Their high initiative, toughness and armour combined with this fact can make this army very hard to break. Lists like these are not good at taking objectives, and aren’t mobile enough to respond to fast armies. They usually include a ton of havocs, Predators and obliterators.

Mechanized: Load everything up in Rhino’s and land raiders, you either jump out in front of the enemy and rapid fire him to death, or charge into close combat with bezerkers and the like. Jump troops like raptors often feature in these armies as they can keep up with the transports.

Bike armies: Often called a poor man’s raven wing, we lack the combat squads, teleport homers and many of the other features that our loyal brethren get. However we can with the use of icons make our Bikes significantly better. Toughness 6 bikes? Sure take a mark of Nurgle. Invulnerable saves? More attacks? It’s all possible. It’s possible to build an awesome bike army, but it will be extremely difficult to play. Your troops are few and expensive. You can pick and choose battles though, slicing an enemy army apart like over ripe fruit, before hitting it like a sledge hammer. You will need either summoned daemons or marines in rhino’s to take objectives in the wake of your bikes. I favour Daemons myself.

Close combat armies: Hordes and hordes of bezerkers and the like. This army wants to get into close combat as soon as possible to take the enemy apart in a fountain of gore. On the upside very little will stand up to one of your charges. The downside is that mobile high firepower enemies can rip you a new one. Transports recommended, even though many people see them as rolling coffins – the addition of run has made the idea of a “sea” of bezerkers a bit better than it was, still not recommend against shooty forces.

Terminator armies: Taking a bucket load of terminators and once again using marks to boost their effectiveness. HQ’s in terminator armour, and all your elite slots filled up makes for a small extremely hard army to play. You’ll have power weapons on everything and Combi weapons galore. AP2 will give you fits, unless you take mark of Tzeentch. Your army will be dependant on good reserve rolls, and scatter dice. A tough army to play (much like death wing) but rewarding none the less. Almost your entire army will be terminators, either backed by Daemons to Keep objectives in your wake or small squads of marines that go to ground purely to hold objectives.

Infiltrating armies: Primarily Alpha legion players. Using all your elite slots to get Chosen who come with the infiltrate skill, allows you to get in some really favourable assault positions. You can sit tight and shoot the enemy to death, or engage in hand to hand, while more mobile troops move in to capture points behind you.

Daemon Bomb: Armies who drive bikes at max speed towards you, before infesting your deployment zone with daemons summoned off of the icons. Usually Nurgle marked bikers bringing A LOT of lesser daemons backed by a greater daemon. Usually only the bare minimum of chaos marine infantry in these lists. Some of the most diverse armies seen, as every player finds their own solution for enemy armour and elite units. I just love these armies – damn difficult to play as plasma hurts as much as a bolter – fun none the less.

Legion Army: Essentially an army that sticks as close to the fluff as possible for it’s units. Examples would be an army with thousand son’s infantry, led by a sorcerer with some spawn and Tzeentch icons Support units like termies or havocs. Another would be a Word bearer list utilizing a ton of lesser daemons for fodder so that hard hitters can shatter the enemy. Basically self imposed restrictions to get a fluffy, fun and challenging list. I play black legion, and thus try and use the spear tip tactic as often as possible.

As you can see there’s a large variety of armies available for play. This diversity is chaos’s strength – its great fun to start with a goal in mind then expand your army so that it can do any of the above mentioned tactics. As always a balanced list is probably best, however it’s the most difficult list to develop and learn to play. You’ll always have some of the tools you need, but never in the quantities to be reckless. You can do anything with a balanced army, but won’t be able to specialize in anything. A favourite army type of mine.

Part 1 Will look at the HQ units available to chaos.