Mono-Khorne…again

So, I sat down and crunched the numbers after thinking about Khorne in the new book. So…
Khorne bloodletters went down 6 points, but lost an attack and toughness. Throw in a herald for 55 points on juggernaut with a loci of rage which costs 65 and you have a 120 point herald. The new unit is now 320 points with 20 bloodletters with 3 attacks on the charge. This is the same attacks, WS, and S as old daemons for the exact same cost. Only now, they are T3 and lose two attacks after the first round of combat instead of one. So with a straight herald, they just simply aren’t as good as they used to be.

But wait, what is this Chariot. At first glance it struck me as an absolutely terrible unit throwing a herald all by his lonesome. But what the chariot allows is a broader decision base and, should it be needed, cheap massed loci. Instead of a single unit that must he forced into the assault it allows a bubble that can be flexed in any direction to essentially threaten most of the table.

So, here was the results of the list I picked.

http://cmdctr.net/lists/1500-new-mono-khorne-list-copy/

Well, I played against Deathwing. Other than the brutal anti-infantry lists that Tau can produce, especially now, Terminator lists are about the bane of Khorne in general. Hard to kill, lots of S8 stuff, a pretty good amount of shooting, and lots units with higher base attacks than even Khorne units. Many other shooting armies kill a lot upon approach and then crumble. Deathwing…yeah, not so much so. So, he had 20 terminators, 5 tac marines, a Storm Eagle, a librarian, and a deathwing master.

So, here is the table we played on with 3 objectives. Two objectives were near the train and the third was at the railroad junction. It was the book mission Crusade with the vanguard deployment.

So, we both deployed, I went first.

I opted for a broad line with my hounds anchoring my flanks for a reaction force while the thirster and the crushers are in the middle along with the bloodletters and chariot. My plaguebearers and soulgrinder hold the rear.

He opts to drop in on turn one with his Deathwing assault. This is where he gives up the game by making a gregious tactical error… and drops his 10 man terminator with the librarian and Deathwing master. His combined shooting at the thirster puts 2 wounds on him.

During my turn the deathwing assault is struck by both squads of hounds (1 with rage), the red squad of bloodletters, and the bloodthirstere.

Prior to the assault, he lost 2 terminators to the baleful torrent and one of the lance shots. Of the remaining 8, 7 die in the resulting combat while he inflicts only 3 or 4 wounds. Combined with the banner, I handily win combat. The next two assault phases sees him losing the librarian, terminator SGT, and Deathwing master.

After this, he is really in trouble. The crushers and one squad of hounds destroy one of the remaining five man terminator squads.

The last terminator squad advances while the storm eagle lands to dump out its tactical marines before being wrecked by the baleful torrent. The remaining terminators face a brutal assault from the crushers, thirster, and hounds.

While the blue bloodletters assault and eat the tatical squad, removing the last threat of deathwing on the table.

Overall, I did not lose any full units. The win was so complete solely for the poor deepstrike placemennt of my opponent which, upon discussion he very fully realized. The open area to my rear or left flank would have offered a much more destructive location to deepstrike IMO. However, the Chariot allowed a very broad decision making platform and performed exactly how I wanted it. It allowed me to threaten most of the table from the fast units surrounding it and through stringing it out. Also, the importance of banners of blood has become more and more evident to ensure that critical assault is made.

Overall, a fun game. Looking forward to developing my mono-khorne force more with the new codex.

Thanks for reading,
KI

Dark Eldar versus Daemons and CSM: Final Decision

So last Wednesday I played a game against a DE player with my daemons and CSM list.  I ended up winning by a large margin but it more importantly it led me to realizations (as well as a conversation with a fellow player while I was outside smoking).

So,  for the battle report.  Played the mission “Vendetta” which is basically a kill point mission with a special mission that is rolled randomly.  It is a CSM altar of war mission.  On that note, I strongly suggest the altar of war books as they are pretty cheap for 6 missions for your army specifically and they offer a lot of new cool ideas.  That said, the special mission was a selected unit was worth 3 battle points, each other destroyed unit was worth 1 battle point.

The battle went well for me.  A few key factors sharply turned the tides of battle in my favor.

- Sorcerer of Tzeentch- Pairing this guy with thousand sons at ML 3 makes this a tough group to bring down.  With telepathy it gives me 2 shots at getting invisibility.  With the 3+/4++ on the squad and the cover bonuses giving me a 2+ cover most of the time it made them an ominously advancing fire sink.

- Screamers and herald of tzeentch- This unit served very well as a fast moving threat to get up into the enemies face and, with the grimoire of true names, ran around with a 3++ with rerolls of 1.

-The Nurgle soul grinder acts as an attractive fire sink.  It’s effectiveness however is very limited.  The time to adopt a unit such as a forgefiend may have arrived for something that can bring the pain at a distance with either the hades autocannons or ectoplasma cannons.

- Plaguebearers should be held in reserve to ensure their ability to participate where needed.

At the end of the battle, I had planned other combinations-

- Warp Talons of Tzeentch with grimoire for 2++

- Skyshield landing pad with a poraglyph

- A tally list supported by an aegis defense line.

Ultimately, all of the combinations are hardly broken or OP.  In fact, they are very gimmicky.  Some have tried to say that the list is balanced or that the book is strong.  I have decided frankly that is has found itself lacking.  The troops and named greater daemons went down in price…and that is it.  Everything else went up or stayed the same in price, received a general hit to ability, and the book lost nearly all of it’s actual shooting attacks.  Combine this with the fact that GW seems to have abandoned the book results in a straight-up weak codex.  I am also hardly the only player that feels this way.  Now that the initial hurrah and intrigue at shiny new toys has worn off the reality of the book has sunk in.  With the lack of shooting and the lack of grenades, daemons face the harsh reality against emerging armies such as Tau and new armies such as Dark Angels that we simply lack the punch to dominate the field.  But that really doesn’t bother me too much.  Prior to the release of the book my single biggest fear was a super powered codex that EVERYONE played.  I enjoy being the minority army.  It makes my projects that much more interesting.  It is one reason I am happy that so many abandoned CSMs quickly as they realized that they were hardly the one-click chaos win that some had hoped for.  With only three players at my local shop that play daemons, all three of us have had mixed success with the book.  One, a heavy Tzeentch player is a strong player and already owned many of the now very fast units that can get up and in your face quickly such as fiends and seekers as well as screamers, flamers, and chariots.  The other player is a heavy, almost exclusively, Nurgle player.  My issue with Nurgle is that a) it will not hold up against strong assaults (seen it happen… it’s true) and b) it’s even more flavorless now than before.  Lastly there is myself who previously played a list that would dump a metric ton of units in close and assault under the premise of “You can’t kill them all”.Problem is this: I have to abide by the 50% reserve rule now which means that yes…I can dump half my army next to you, but it will be on turn 2, it will likely not all be at the same time, and lastly is this: they are on their own and will not have the other half following on their heels.

My counter to this I suspect will be to take small cheap CSM units to pad the other 50% and allow me to deepstrike more daemon units.

Well, thanks for reading,

KI

Trying out daemons still…

Trying out Daemons Still

So I am still trying out the new daemons and I ran against a Tau player I have played against previously. Previously, I had won most of our games by virtue of the Tau codex being a fairly “meh” book. Long story short, even with amazing luck on the Warpstorm table, I got trounced pretty damn hard. I am trying to like the new book as some other players who play daemons have had great success with it…I just refuse to purchase a ton of new models for my army.

Onto the nuts and bolts…

I ran-
herald of tzeentch with ML2, Grimoire, and disc
Herald of Nurgle with FNP
Herald of Khorne with Greater Ether Blade and Warp Breath
Masque of Slaanesh
Sorcerer of Tzeentch with Force Axe, LC, ML3, MoT, Sigil of Darkness, Spell Familiar

16 Bloodletters
13 Plaguebearers
10 Plaguebearers
10 CSM w/ 2 Meltas in Rhino

3 Screamers

Soulgrinder of Nurgle with Phlegm and MoN
Predator w/ AC, HB, Havoc Launcher

He ran Some Tau commander with Cyclic Ion Rifle

2×12 Firewarriors
6 Firewarriors
6 Pathfinders
2 Barracudas
2 Hammerheads

2×3 Crisis suits w/ Melta/Plasma (whatever the Tau call it)

So….here is some issues with MY list.

Rhino= Capacity of 10. 10 CSM. 1 Sorcerer. Yeah, didn’t think of this when I built the list. Footslogging 10 man CSM unit with rolling cover. D’OH!

Dakka preds are great in my CSM force with a plethora of anti-tank (havocs, oblits, melta and plasma out the wazoo). The Dakka Preds work well against the infantry blobs but the tri las would have been better and the dakka pred was fundamentally a bad a idea for this list.

Masque=Great. Masque without icon support= Masque that scatters 11 inches behind the enemy and has no cover to hide behind. Masque with an ADL to hunker down behind would be much handier.

List was 1500

So, long story short the T3 bloodletter never made it there. Hell, the FIRST T3 squad died, then I rolled 12 on the warpstorm table, got 11 more, deepstruck FORWARD of where the original squad was, then THEY got gunned down. So bloodletters are an interesting choice. Find it odd that they are more expensive than the other troops with the T3, 5++, 1 attack base, and lack of anyway to get into combat quickly. They are about on par with the other troops. The plaguebearers suffered an immeasurable amount of fire and just hunkered down. In cover as objective squatters the FNP herald was not really necessary and the 70 points could have been saved or used elsewhere. The Screamers with a herald was great. I have tried pink horrors and I found them terrible. Thus I traded my horrors for some flamers a friend had as a surplus. I hope to build an anti-tank jet-bike squad to zip around with and misfortune the bejesus out of things. Woohoo. They are a keeper. They tore through a Hammerhead then took out 3 of the 6 tau firewarriors in the small squad, then killed 10 of the 12 firewarriors from another squad. They ARE a keeper. The Herald of Khorne is nice, but getting there is again an issue. The soul grinder is nice, but pricey with the current loadout. I attempted to assault with him but he got whacked with a meltashot to the face on overwatch.

So, I liked the CSM compliment. The power armor and dedicated transports, even with me having to footslog them 6″ at a time. The predator earned back it’s paltry 107 points, however a tri-las predator would have served better to simply punch through the hammerheads. Oblits would also be an impressive addition, especially in conjunction with the grimoire for a 2++. After playing the daemons I feel I will gradually allow my CSMs to emerge as more and more of a dominant force in my armies as they become more painted.

Well, thanks for reading,
KI

Iceletter complete

Horns, eyes, nails, claws, basing, and hilts.  These are all things that trouble me when painting.  I spend 90% of my time on 10% of the model.  But, I finally got this guy done.  Tutorial pending-

 

As always, would love comments.  This was my first attempt at OSL around the eyes. 

 

Thanks for reading,

KI

Hiatus over and back with new Chaos Daemons…

So as many may or may not know, I am also a full time college student, parent, husband, and soldier in addition to gamer.  Sometimes, this leaves little time for blogging when I also want to paint, model, and play.  However, I normally balance it all…until now.  This past month has brought about variables that have left me strapped for time and thus not blogging at all.  But, much of that seems to have stabilized and I get the chance to get back into blogging.

So, I come back to the blogging scene shortly after the emergence of the highly anticipated Chaos Daemons codex.  Long story short: I am underwhelmed.

But alas, the new book is here whether I like it or not.  My Khornate host took a beating, as did the tally list and even mono-nurgle as a whole.  Daemons have become quasi-hoard with with some very marginal troops (at best) and some really impressive characters.  As someone I know said, troops shouldn’t do the heavy lifting but they are the only units in the book that got a price reduction while every other unit in the book went up 1-20 points per model while generally losing the ability to sustain survive ranged fire in an edition that supports gunline armies.  This strikes me as a kneejerk reaction to the flamer/screamer spam which seems to have tainted people’s opinion of the daemon army making many think that they were overpowered…which is frankly laughable.

Regardless, with the new daemons of course comes renewed desire to paint.  Thus my iceletters are making slow and steady progress.  It’s always that last 10% of a model that is very hard to figure out how to paint.  Alas, I have finished my first few models, along with a herald, the ice hounds, progress on the chariot, and I got a Khorne Chariot which I am working on magnetizing.

I have had actually gotten a fair amount of comments on my iceletter color scheme thus I have planned out a tutorial on the scheme as well as a magnetization tutorial for the Khorne Chariot and Cannon which was interesting.

The Word Bearers I have been working on have made slow and steady progress.  For them, I established what the models will look like when complete but in my dislike of bare models I have begun painting them with their basic schemes and have managed to complete most of the infantry, most of the HQ units, three rhinos, and a predator.  They are hardly finished but they look better than grey or black.

 

Well, thanks for reading and glad to be back!

KI

Win against Necron flying circus

So this week I was hoping to avoid a game against necrons. Well…that failed. Again I square up against the mechanical monstrosities and I look at the list and groan internally. We ran a single objective mission with a few other objectives, but mainly objectives and table quarters. I ran-

Warp smith of Nurgle
Masque

10 CSM in rhino with dual melta
10 CSM in rhino with dual melta
5 CSM in rhino with flamer
5 plague bearers

5 Havocs with 4 auto cannons
Predator with auto cannon, heavy bolter sponsons, havoc launcher
2 x 3 Oblits of Nurgle

He ran
Overlord with court (5 lords with staff of light, cryptek with reroll power and cryptek with veil)
4×5 warriors in night scythes
6 or 7 tomb blades
3 annihilation barges

Fun stuff. Regardless I won the first round, we didn’t et night fight turn one. I rolled the infiltrate warlord trait and infiltrated a rhino with ten CSM on the central objective and both squads of Oblits 18″ away from either of his flanks to create a pincer appearance to my battle line. I ended up with he plague bearers turn one as I got my nn-proffered half. Turn one was my most productive turn as I wiped his tomb blades, destroyed a barge, and stripped another of a hull point with a glance from the auto cannons. His turn he killed a single havoc auto cannon seeing me dropping another barge and two warriors on my turn two. Then his turn two all the flyers came in. From there it became just a grind to shoot, get shot at. Only a single assault occurred the entire game (my warp smith with Oblits tried assaulting three times as well as my plague bearers, rolling below 4″ each time…). That assault lasted until he called it turn 6 with the loss of his last troop. He played his list poorly, frankly speaking, and dumped all of his troops early but ultimately it save his flyers as if he had not I would have focus fired the flyers into oblivion. Instead, I hammered the troops on ground. At the end of the game he had lost the court sans a single lord and the veil cryptek, a barge with no guns on it anymore, and all four of his flyers (two had one hull point of damage).

So it was a win, but I still didn’t have that much fun. Again, I got blindsided by a necron though this time more blatant (prior to assault “these guys are T 4, correct? Yes.” In assault “those guys are T5 by the way”… WTF). Just playing against Necrons, even with a win, doesn’t have the same nature of the game that other games have. It boils down to just rolling well, and he still had a disgusting number of things such as tesla guns with twin linked weapons, rolling lots of 6′s at S7. Luckily he didn’t roll super well to wound. The fact my opponent did not know his list did not make the game more enjoyable against what is pretty clearly a net list, but rather the opposite. Nice to play against a non storm lord list, but I still found myself flat footed the entire game and on edge. Not sure why as I had a clear lead from turn two on, but I did.

Regardless, I saw some cities of death games and I certainly want to try that out. Looks super fun and has stratagems, so I am gonna do some research, print out the pertinent pages, and run with it next week. Also going to try using the dread claw drop pods and more of an assault force (though I am gonna stick with my warp smith as he worked well on the cheap). Next up to try is either Abaddon, Huron, or Lucius for special characters and I would like to try out either possessed, chosen, hellbrutes, or raptors.

Well, thanks for reading,

KI

Oblit WIP

So I decided to do something different than the standard black reach conversion for my Oblits. I opted for a terminators version of a defiler. I used GS to make the legs and claw, going for a crab look. This is what I got my first attempt, with a basic paint job on it,

Well…I liked him, but the legs lacked the level of detail that I wanted and seeing that the legs were a huge part of the model, they had to be detailed. He also had the major issue of not fitting onto a 40mm base, his stance was way to wide. So I had to in part abandon the defiler look alike concept as it would take a 60mm base and frankly deep striking squads of 60mm bases I s often tough. So I was gonna have to go with a taller, narrower approach.

So my plan was to use tyranid warrior scything talons. After looking at them, they looked a little too small. Thus I opted to buy both them and mawloc scything talons. I know, I know. MC scything talons are gonna be friggin huuuge. Well, they were but I only used part of them. I used GS to help attach the talons. I used four mawloc scything talons for the back four legs and the warrior scything talons for his front two legs. I used the cartilaginous material between leg parts to build up his gun arm below the pad. I used an ork custom power klaw for his power fist to make it look more similar to the defiler or soul grinder claw. so I got my bitz and went to town. This is what I cam up with. I added two back and two front, and disliked it so I added two middle legs. I like this option more after it finished, and I really like the look of the power klaw with the terminator armor.

His gun arm is not glued, and he needs some more banners, green stuff detailing, spikes parts, and chaos-ish symbols and skulls. Overall, his torso looks more like a defiler than I figured he was gonna, his legs ended up looking really good in my opinion as well. The next one will have a different stance to vary it up. I am going to magnetize a spot on his back to put god symbol icons.

Overall, I like the progress thus far. Would love to hear comments concerning the work thus far.

Thanks for reading,

KI

Crusade of fire week one and WIP stuff

So my FLGS started the crusade of fire campaign. We started at 1250 and the first week ran whatever mission we wanted. I got challenged by a necron player. We ran a book mission (diagonal deployment, big guns never tire mission).

My list was-

Dark apostle
10 CSM w/ melta and plasma guns in rhino with havoc launcher(2 squads)
5 CSM w/ melta gun in rhino with havoc launcher (2 squads)
5 Havocs with 4 plasma guns in rhino
Predator with lascannon sponsons and twin linked lascannon turret
Predator with heavy bolter sponsons, auto cannon turret, havoc launcher

He ran
Storm lord with reroll crypteck
5 warriors
10 or 12 immortals
3 C’Tan shards

Well, suffice to say I don’t like playing necrons. This game did nothing to change that. Because of the storm lord it was night fight turns 1-5. Upon deployment I didn’t realize spot lights got rid of the cover save bonus but my range was still limited. He hung outside of range of the tri las predator. The storm lord lightning destroyed the lascannon pred turn one, the dakka pred turn two, one of 10 man rhinos turn 3, and killed several of the dismounted CSM turn four. The storm lord lightning was by far the most effective force in the game. The CTans ran one of the CSM squads off the table via morale check from shooting and killed the dark apostle and havoc squads. The immortals destroyed one of the rhinos. Thus, of the 7 kill points lost on my part, three and some of the fourth were caused by the lightning. The effect that requires no planning, no targeting, and nothing but just lucky rolling. It’s one of the factors that irritates me about necrons. Characters such as the storm lord can single handedly defeat a mechanized force. The lightning from the storm lord in my last two games against necrons has done more than any other single unit and is completely unavoidable.

Regardless,

I made progress on my slaanesh jump sorcerer as well as my defiler styled obliterator squad. I also Made significant progress on standardizing and getting my force looking uniform across the force. Pics pending for the works in progress, but the sorcerer is nearly ready for paint. I also assembled and primed my warp smith. After it was repaired (bubbles from casting we’re a problem) it was really an impressive model).

Thanks for reading

KI

January and a Tourny wrap-up

So this past Saturday I put my CSM list to the test.  I ran-

HQ

Dark Apostle (Warlord)

Sorcerer of Tzeentch w/ Terminator Armor, ML3, Spell Familiar

The Masque

Elite

5 Terminators

6 Flamers

Troops

7 Thousand Sons in Rhino

10 CSM in Rhino w/ Meltagun and Plasma Gun

7 Plague Bearers

Fast Attack

3 Screamers

Heavy Support

5 Havocs w/ 4 Plasma Guns in Rhino

3 Obliterators of Nurgle

 

My first game was against an ultramarine list played by The Rhino and we played Special Ops .  Turn two I scattered my Terminators and Sorcerer off the table and knew I was going to have an uphill fight.  All in all, I ground down his forces fairly well in the center while ignoring one of his combat squads in a rhino which allowed him to claim his primary, which I also claimed as well which led to a tie.  We ended up tying on all of the objectives, both getting 16 points, and while the game was truly just a bloody mess it was fun.  I don’t think either of us had over half our army left.  Overall MVP- The oblits.  Overall unit that made me groan- Deepstriking terminators

My second game was against Thor  and we played Search And Destroy.  He was running two Flying Nurgle Princes and a helldrake, a pack of 6 spawn of Nurgle, a maulerfiend, and a defiler.  This was backed up by 20 CSM and 20 cultists.  (4 squads, 10 each).  I opted to deploy defensively, him going first.  I stuck my rhinos out of LOS.  Turn one he drove through difficult with a rhino and broke down, followed by his second rhino breaking down either turn one or two.  His maulerfiend came bearing down on my right flank, the two DPoN down the center, and the Defiler held the center/left flank via fire support.  Turn one I plopped down the masque and spun his maulerfiend around and lit it up in the rear with the oblits Assault Cannons causing it to explode.  The DPoN (both) assaulted the masque and the oblits, eventually killing both.  One got away, but the second I decided I would go all in to destroy.  The screamers had wrecked the defiler, the terminators, thousand sons, havocs, and CSM all got out of their rhinos to handle him.  The Havocs’ Rhino had been shredded by the spawn the turn prior so they really had no choice.  The terminators failed miserably to do anything, then the havocs took a step up and gunned him down with volleyfire plasma guns and the daemonprince evaporated under a torrent of plasma-fire.  Alas…I didn’t realize the helldrake’s baleflamer was torrent and it cost me 9 of 10 CSM the following turn.  The Spawn assaulted the thousand sons which they were gradually winning but very very very slowly, only by a wound or two per combat.  The havocs unloaded and dropped the helldrake as well.  In the end, I won with 31 points to 1 point.  MVP was the plasma havocs from them killing the daemon prince and shooting down the helldrake.

So I find myself on table two.  Let me break and say this is one reason I dislike playing tournaments.  I rarely like those people on tables one and two at tournaments, or at least I rarely enjoy those games.  I find them way to charged and people vying to win at any costs and frankly this is where shenanigans happen.

I go up against Necrons on Safeguard.  Ugh, I dislike Necrons.  Not because they are an overpowered list, but because I feel rushed and I feel like I am flatfooted the whole game.  They have so many special rules that to ask about every single one takes up a ton of time and makes it seem like I am slow playing from the giddy-up but at the same time, if I don’t it always bites me in the ass.  I ended up losing, 26-6 (at least I got SOME battle points  out of it) and largely because I made some egregious errors.

First, I left one troop for 2 objectives.  Yeah, dumb idea there.

Next, I didn’t realize he could make it nightfight for the entire damned game.

Lastly, I was WAAAY too timid with the screamers.  Yes, there is only three, but I held them back too long.

 

He ends up bringing up a transport to dump out troops and with his 6″ disembark movement moves to within 3″ of the objective and within 3″ of the unlock point and takes the primary and tertiary, we tie on the secondary.

In the end, I feel jaded as I would have played differently had I understood his rules better.  It’s really my own fault, and next time I guarantee we won’t be playing until I have personally reviewed every single special rule in his list and fully understand how they work.  Things like the lightning strikes, continued night fight, and ability to deny the powers of stealth (which I DID ask about and he explained it can take power from me, but left out the fact that it prevents me from getting them ie. Stealth from night fight).  Didn’t play a huge role in the game outcome which I didn’t play as well as I could have, but I felt that I should have been more persistent from the outset so I didn’t find myself asking “Hey, why are you re-rolling this, that, and the other thing” or “why are you doing that”.  Howeve,r the MVP of the game was the Plasma havocs, shooting down the nightscythe.

 

Overall, about middle of the pack with 53 points.  Not a great showing but I  am happy about what I learned.  Small units with four plasma guns rock.  I need a way to make them twin-linked, but beyond that I am happy with the outcome.

 

On other news I have developed more on the backstory and look of my CSM warband.  They will be Word Knights or Knights of the Word (like both, still torn really).  Their chapter symbol is still up in the air.  I am leaning towards doing something with a book, but also worried that it may resemble either grey knights or pre-heresy word-bearers too much.  I have also toyed with the idea of images of a skull with a crown on it (as the crown and skull could be much embellished on vehicles) or a planet or throne burning representing their goal of destroying terra and the emperor’s dominion.  I have also debated using the Chaos star with a daemon head or helmet in the middle as well.

The concept is that they are a branch chapter of the word bearers bent on converting their lost-brothers to the ways of the true gods.  While other CSM warbands seek to destroy, they seek to capture Loyalist legion astartes and bring them into the fold.  They are led by a Grand Apostle in Terminator armor (A lord, possibly Abaddon) who is supported by his personal bodyguard of those he has converted to the ways of chaos- the unbreakable grey knights, his acolyte (also a normal dark apostle), and a sorcerer of chaos for arcane support.  Their dogma and doctrine follow closely with the word bearers, and while the Grand Apostle holds loyalty to Kor-Phaeron, he considers the leadership of the Word Bearers to be too political and to have fallen too far from the teachings of the almight Lorgar and awaits his emergence from his 10,000 year meditation.

 

Well, Thanks for reading,
KI

 

Servants of the XVII legion face off against the Tau

So I have started to establish my fledgling word bearers force, which will be eventually definitively labeled either a host number under the direct command of my dark apostle or soldiers of the quillborne, a division of the word bearers chapter. That said, I put together a list that was the following…

http://cmdctr.net/lists/chaos-space-marine-w-daemon-allies/

He ran Tau with Eldar allies. From what I remember, his list looked like this

Farsight w/ 2 crisis suits with him all w/ melta/ plasma
The avatar of khaine

5 dark reapers
12 Eldar pathfinders
5 or 6 tau pathfinders
3 x 12 tau fire warriors (one with a devil fish transport)
broadside
3 crisis suits w/ melta/plasma

So we rolled up a mission and did the basic mission of crusader with 5 objectives. Our table was a ruined city with a few mysterious stuff. My warlord (the apostle) rolled up hatred….yep, about useless. Farsighted became a scoring unit for him. I won first turn and deployed, then he did, then I began. This is how we deployed. My sorcerer had iron arm and boon as well as psychic shriek. The thousand sons sorcerer had boom bolt.

Havocs were in the tall structure, the rhinos had the thousand sons with both ICs and the other was the CSM squad. The Oblits flanked my rhinos and cultists held the objective at the bottom of the tall building.

First turn I didn’t get my preferred half so I got the plague bearers and the screamers. Dropped in under the snipers with the plague bearers and near the broadsides with my screamers. Put thee wounds on the avatar with the Oblits and didn’t really do much else. through boon I got hammer of wraith.

He turned around and peppered my Havocs with his dark reapers. This resulted in only one death but also putting them on the ground. He also put a wound on an Oblit and blew up the rhino with the thousand sons in it, killing I believe one of them.

Turn two I got the masque and flamers in. I used the masque to yank his dark reapers down by forcing them to jump off the building (nne died from the fall ). However, it put them in a handy clump next to the Avatar…at which point the Oblits were only too happy to oblige them with a barrage of plasma cannon fire, wiping the squad and killing the avatar. The flamers dropped just enough to fire and destroy the fire warriors on the second floor leaving only carbine armed pathfinders on his right flank to contest my forces. On the left side I swung around and destroyed the lone broadside with my screamers. The boon gave my sorcerer another hammer of wraith roll.

His crisis suit squads arrived they dumped plasma and melta fire into my Oblits killing one and wounding another. Snipers fired and killed one or two thousand sons. He maneuvered his fire warriors away from the screamers. Another fire warrior squad fired and dropped one or two flamers.

Top of three saw my plague bearers assault his transport and put a hull point of damage on it. The screamers maneuvered to also attack the transport but I don’t believe they had the range to assault it. The Oblits dumped meltagun fire into the crisis suits killing the shield drone. The terminators came in and dropped next to Farsights unit. I pulled the units closer to my infantry and shoved the invuln saves in Farsights unit to the back. I smacked Farsights unit with boom bolt and then psychic shriek, followed by inferno bolters. Two survived which were then gunned down by the three combo-meltas from the terminators. The Oblits and the masque assaulted the remaining three crisi suits, killing one and the crisis suits killed one of the Oblits. My flamers jumped over and wiped out a second squad of fire warriors.

His turn he dumped out his fire warriors and fired into the plague bearers. He killed five of them. The snipers killed or wounded something that escapes me. His pathfinders fired their carbines and killed a flamer. The transport then booked it away from combat to the other side of the ruins the snipers were on. During the assault phase the remaining Oblit and masque killed off the last crisis suit.

My fourth turn the masque pulled the pathfinders out of cover and they were blasted by the older fire from the thousand sons and an assault cannon from the Oblit. The plague bearers and screamers assault the last fire warrior squad. One plague bearer dies from over watch but the screamers and plague bearers kill all but two. The last two break and are swept. The chaos space marines move about to fire on the transport. The auto cannons fail miserably to do anything.
He proceeded to fire without huge impact with his snipers.

My fifth turn the snipers are assaulted by the screamers and plague bearers. They stick in combat though his turn due to some meh rolling. A screamer does die to overwatch fire. The chaos space marines move up to the remaining transport, getting ready to disembark to destroy it. His fifth turn the close combat ends and his transport fires at the rhino putting a hull point of damage.

My sixth turn begins and his last two models remain…the transport and a gun drone. The gun drone has the flamers swoop down and attack it. The chaos space marines dump out of the rhino and finish off the pesky devil fish with melta fire to its flank, a krak grenade, and a snap fired auto cannon.

I attempt on turn seven (as we had a turn 7 as he had not started a turn without anything yet) running for the other objective with my CSM. They ran one inch…they must have been tired from sitting in a rhino all game…

Overall, awesome game against one of my favorite opponents.

Few things-
On paper, 4 Havocs with auto cannons are much better than 3 marked Oblits as they are dirt cheap. And half the cost. However, while I can get 8 for the same cost as 3 Oblits, the Oblits did 5-6 times the work. Few things- mobility allows moving and shooting which is huge! Also, the 2 wounds, 2+/5++ means that for the enemy to KNOW he is bringing them down he has to commit some serious resources. Because of the low number of models, forcing lots of saves with those large blast weapons is tough. They are also versatile because they can walk or deep strike.

Flamers and screamers- yep, just as gross as we have all heard.

Chaos space marines- good solid unit, but I under utilized them. He had little shooting by turn 3 and I should have disembarked them and started firing earlier. I need to remember, that while they don’t have terminator armor and are often vulnerable to many things, they don’t have my customary 5+ save and so are a bit more solid.

Psyker powers continue to impress me, however I need to focus my sorcerers intent more.

Overall, I like the list and will develop it more.

Thanks for reading,
KI