Chaos Marines Update

Well, obviously, this blog is pretty highly dedicated to Chaos Space Marines (And Harald Deathwolf's clearly Khornate space wolves), and with the release of the book, a new chapter is starting for my army.

I feel that two quintessential units will become part of any chaos marine army I play, and those are heldrakes and maulerfiends. Well, three if you count cultists. So, with the addition of two maulerfiends and one more heldrake, I'll feel satisfied with my thousand sons.

On the other hand, I am on a very deep quest to discover what is competitive within the chaos marine forces, and what makes them work well on a regular basis. With that quest in mind, I will be starting to collect and paint a brand-new force of traitor marines, with weekly updates, battle reports, and paint guides to go along with it. Stay tuned and enjoy.

BATTLE REPORT - CHAOS SPACE MARINES VS BLOOD ANGELS 2000

Enemies. We need them. If there's anything we need, it's enemies. Thank God for enemies.

Luckily for me, I have plenty of those, and they're lining up to face me.

On a serious note, General Chris, the man in red, is my opponent for today. He was playing his Flesh Tearers, quite a nice army and well commanded, I must say.

His list was something along the lines of two jump assault squads with dual melta, and SS/LC/MB on the sergeants, two small de-packed assault squads in A.C. Razorbacks, one dakka baal predator, one burny baal predator, one dev squad with lascannons, one with missile launchers, a furioso dreadnought with blood talons in a drop pod, a sanguinary priest with a jump pack, and a captain with pair of lightning claws, meltabombs, and a jump pack. Oh, and a vindicator.

My list was something fairly new for me, besides the dual heldrakes. A tzeentch sorcerer, M.L. 2 with doombolt and smite, Kharn the Betrayer, a squad of 9 bezerkers in a dirge caster rhino with meltabombs, gift of mutation, and an icon of wrath, a squad of 9 thousand sons with meltabombs, gift of mutation, and an icon of flame in a rhino, and two 10-man squads of slaanesh marked marines with meltagun, plasmagun, gift of mutation, icon of excess, and veterans of the long war in rhinos, and two maulerfiends.

Terrain density came out pretty high, and I deployed to have cover and block LoS to my maulerfiends on turn one.Purge the Alien and Dawn of War, rough stuff for a late game army vs. an elite late game army.

His deployment after winning the roll-off.

My counter-deployment, followed by a failed attempt to seize.

On with turn 1. He jumped up very aggressively and shot a lot of shots, dropping the dreadnought next to Kharn and his boys, and taking as many shots as he could on the maulerfiends. In the end, his first blood came from rhino kills, and the maulerfiends survived unscathed in any way.

My response was to terminate threats and push right back at him, perhaps too aggressive of a move for this early in the game, but I felt pressured but all of his dakka and speed. The Maulerfiends shattered the ruins that had protected them and moved into assault range of the vindicator and baal predator, while Kharn and the bezerkers disembarked to brazenly take a charge or launch one on turn 2. The slaanesh marines on the left moved to within 6" of the flame baal predator, while the ones on the right closed in on the thirsty furioso. Both of them failed to do anything other than stun each vehicle, however, and I gleefully initiated charges with the maulerfiends. The vindicator blew up, and the predator wrecked, both crumbling beneath the power of my daemon engines.

His turn 2 saw his assault marines come out to play as he throws everything he has to shoot into the maulerfiends, and he actually accomplishes very little, as he eventually had to charge them both and destroy them with meltabombs.

My turn 2 saw no heldrakes arrive, and both of my maulerfiends destroyed. Worse stille, a furioso blood talon dreadnought was in my deployment zone, and I had deadly choices I was forced to make, several of which came out fairly wrong. Kharn and the bezerkers squeezed between the dreadnought and drop pod to set up a charge against the assault marines, whilst the sorcerer and his cabal disembark to unleash hell on nearby armour. The slaanesh marines on the right get within an inch of the captain and his squad, preparing for a charge. Kharn succesfully charges, and the bezerker sergeant declares a challenge, which is accepted, and the two characters kill each other. The marines flee and Kharn consolidates, unscathed. The Slaaneshi marines charge the captain and his squad, declaring a challenge and hoping for the combination of hatred and I5 to pull them through. Not enough, unfortunately, but the icon survives and keeps them alive. The other Slaaneshi marines charge the furioso, hoping to lock him up and prevent a charge, but lose 5 of their squad and run, feel no pain doing very little to help them survive the blood talons.

His turn 3 was filled with blood maneuvers and more harmless shooting. His dreadnought launcher a charge on Kharn's squad, and Kharn responded by annihilating the dreadnought before he could swing. Thank the Gods for armourbane.

The Slaanesh marines stuck in combat for a very long time, surviving round after round, if only barely, and the assault squad and sanguinary priest manage to charge Kharn again and fail and run, again.

The heldrakes showed up on turn 3 and nearly wiped out both dev squads and vector striking armour to no avail. My turn 3 saw Kharn charge into combat with the captain, winning a challenge, and gaining I6, though I finally lost my bezerkers and slaaneshi marines all at once.

His turns became uneventful, as his 4 saw nothing but combat, and my 4 saw his devs removed.

Kharn challenged the captain and managed to wound him 5 times over an entire game turn, and the captain consistantly made his rerolled invulnerables, while Kharn failed all of his. At this moment I knew I had lost the game, as losing Kharn and giving away slay the warlord was too much to sacrifice without having achieved it myself yet.

For the rest of the game, heldrakes hovered and devastated his assault squads, though both immobilized in my turns 4 and 5, and were assaulted by meltabomb wielding characters. They each managed to pick off a few marines, but one eventually crashed, just before the game ended on 5. I had 10 victory points, he had 12.

This game was very tough, and I had a great time. I think the high points I've learned from this battle are:

-Don't underestimate cultists. They are a cheap and tactically useful unit for troops, giving you more points to spread out.

-Maulerfiends are also wonderful, provided you can keep them safe until they make their charge.

-CSM does assault much better than the previous book, imo, and my list tweaking will see cultists introduced to this list, as well as a land raider for Kharn(Or a chaos lord of my own) and his bezerkers.

Still having a hard time making CSM by themselves a competitive army, but I definitely feel closer with every game. I'm going to be looking into more chaos undivided army builds, and see what comes up next time. Stay tuned and thanks for reading.

BATTLE REPORT - SPACE MARINES VS. CHAOS SPACE MARINES 1750

At last, back to war, er... something like that.

I was jonesing very badly to apply some of my tournament lessons this weekend, so I conveniently scheduled a game with a buddy of mine, General Travis.

 This is his battle face.

The points value was 1750 and my army was the one posted earlier.

The Prodigal Sons, led by Khaldun, assembled.

Travis is famous(in my mind) for playing an awesome raptors space marine army.

Four tactical squads, a devastator squad, two thunderfire cannons, two level 2 librarians, a bastion, and a stormtalon... pretty tough, pretty scary.

The game type was crusade(5 objectives) and hammer and anvil deployment. Ouch for the Sons.

We place terrain, making sure I only gave him one ruin to bolster, and generate warlord traits and psychic powers. Boon of Mutation and Doombolt for the two rubricae squad sorcerers, and Tzeentch's Firestorm and Psychic Shriek for my lord. Warlord trait was the soul blaze one. Gift of Mutation on my sorcerer awarded him a 2+ armour save with a 3+ invulnerable, while the warpsmith gave an unworthy offering. I won the roll and let him deploy first so that I might get a chance at vector striking his stormtalon before it can shoot down my dragons.

I placed 2 objectives near my deployment zone and one in the center, while he placed 2 on either side of the ruins. I placed the warlord with the boon sorcerer and start them outside of the rhino. Night fight was in effect and I had counterdeployed to be outside of 36" of his thunderfire cannons, while also allowing myself boon table roll at the start of the game. The cultists deployed near objectives lodged in area terrain, and the warpsmith was inside a rhino with a thousand sons squad. The obliterators deployed at the front of the line, next to the vindicator, which was poised for a turn 2 template on the quad gun, and a turn 1 drop on an enemy tactical squad. After deployment, I made no attempt to sieze and the game began.

Travis didn't move much. He cast his psychic shenanigans which mostly involved biomancy powers giving out feel no pain and relentless, as well as iron arm for his librarians. One deployed with a tactical squad, the other with the dev squad atop the bastion. His turn one saw nothing but a glance on the warpsmith's rhino - a glance which he heartily laughed at.

My turn one saw a 12" push to center with both rhinos, cultists moving into cover and seizing objectives, and heavy guns moving up. The obliterators fired harmless lascannon shots at the quad gun, and the vindicator's template failed to kill more than 2 marines due to night fight. The warlord moved flat out, while the warpsmith repaired his hull point to keep his rhino trucking. The boon of mutation successfully wounded the warlord, though it granted him 6 rolls - multiple boons first, followed by poisoned attacks, adamantium will, another multiple boon, wounding enemy psykers, and +1 BS. Amazing rolls, giving me an amazing, albeit fragile and wounded sorcerer.

Travis' turn 2 was exactly what I was anticipating. The stormtalon arrived, and now that the sun was up, things got nasty. The sorcerer's rhino was destroyed by tactical marine lascannons, and his squad was pelted heavily by thunderfire cannons. The vindicator took a ton of fire and ended being immobilized with one hull point remaining. Painful, the warpsmith was too far away to do anything.

My turn 2 saw one heldrake arrived, which i nervously placed near the center, knowing interceptor fire was coming. In general I pushed up even further with the rubricae and the obliterators, managing to kill half a squad of tacticals outside the ruins, and quite a few in front of the vindicator. With his interceptor quad gun firing on the heldrake, it took one pen, which only amounted to a shaken. Of course, my dumb ass forgot daemonic possession, which would've ignored the result on a 2+ and resulted in a fully dead tac squad. Instead, I forgot, and moved flat out to prepare to sweep the back of his line. 

His turn 3 saw pain brought to me. Staggering amounts of damage resulted in the sorcer being by himself with his one remaining wound, and the warpsmith losing 4 rubricae and hte aspiring sorcerer lost to thunderfires.

My turn 3 saw the next heldrake arrive. Knowing due to the long table edges I would need time to position, I brought it up on the left side to prepare to ignite the ruins holding both thunderfires, two tactical squads, and a librarian. The other heldrake zoomed over the bastion and performed a vector strike on the quad gun, causing 1 wound to it. The sorcerer was unable to reach enemies but managed to use his torrent flamer to kill all but two of a tactical squad which then fell back. The obliterators fire TL-meltaguns at the stormtalon to no avail.The warpsmith fire and did very little, failing a charge.

Travis rallied his two tactical marines and embarked them into the bastion for more shots - a decision he would later regret. He snap fired two tactical squads into the heldrake in his lines, getting a lucky melta hit, pen, and explosion with the second squad, and furthermore the wreckage did not scatter and hit nothing. The thunderfires turned to my cultists and decimated them with ignores cover shots, though they held their ground and ducked out of LoS.

I immediately pushed the warpsmith within 6" of the bastion, as well as the obliterators and the warlord. My heldrake that yet lived flew next to the ruins and managed to wound the librarian and kill 4 tactical marines, his pesky biomancy feel no pain preventing me from totally annihilating the unit. The obliterators fired multimeltas, got a single pen, and rolled a 7 for the building damage - detonation. The building collapsed and killed the two marines inside, and the librarian and devastator sergeant were forced to jump off - right next to the warpsmith and his escort. Because of Iron arm, the unit was considered T5, so I fired at and killed the librarian before the warpsmith assaulted. 

This is it. My moment of glory. "My warpsmith will challenge." "I have to accept." No wounds from the sergeant. I felled him easily. "Boon, first digit is... 6. Second digit is... 6!!!!! DARK APOTHEOSIS!!"

I gleefully retrieved one of my daemon princes and placed him where the warpsmith was.

Travis proceeded to shoot everything at him and kill him before he did anything(Oh well, it still soaked fire and still happened), then assaulted the 4 rubricae left over, their hatred doing little for their one attack each. 

The heldrake went into hover and flew circles around the ruins, dodging shots and making invulnerable saves like you wouldn't believe, all while killing off all of his troops. At the end of 7, I slaughtered all of his tactical marines, had lost my warlord, and took a very close victory - 4-1. I held one objective and had first blood, he had slay the warlord.

Great game, definitely brought up new list adjustment ideas which you will see posted shortly.

The new Thousand Sons list

So, with my return having been noted, here's my new list for my Thousand Sons.


Lord Khaldun(Chaos Sorcerer) - 170
Veteran of the Long War, Mark of Tzeentch, Sigil of Corruption, Gift of Mutation, Burning Brand of Skalathrax, Mastery Level 2, Warlord

Ahtep Fireblade(Warpsmith) - 155
Veteran of the Long War, Mark of Tzeentch, Aura of Dark Glory, Gift of Mutation

Photep's Cabal(Thousands Sons) x9 - 282
Meltabomb, Rhino


Kahsis' Cabal(Thousands Sons) x9 - 282
Meltabomb, Rhino

Khatep's Spireguard(Chaos Cultists) x20 - 120

Autoguns, Flamer x2

Sobek's Spireguard(Chaos Cultists) x20 - 120

Autoguns, Flamer x2

Trogdor, Burninator of the Countryside(Heldrake) - 170

Baleflamer

Phosis, Eater of Fenris(Heldrake) - 170

Baleflamer

The Scarab Occult(Obliterators) x2 - 156

Mark of Tzeentch

Fire of Tizca(Vindicator) - 125

Dozer Blade

This list comes out to 1750 exactly altogether. Some of the notes for it:

First of all, this list is frightningly shooty, with alot of stable units and two not so stable units. Cultists are still under review for me, but a block of twenty with autoguns have put out enough shots that they've made up their points for me more than once already. The amount of AP3 saturating this list could be a record, that could even be increased. The Warpsmith serves to shatter defenses on those large buildings that could be the bane of my AP3, at least until the heldrakes arrive to sweep up. The obliterators should theoretically be capable of crossing the battlefield and either soaking up fire or laying down the important shots when I need them, while the vindicator serves as an excellent tough distraction. All in all, the list is a lot of firepower, a lot of misdirection, and a lot of survivability. This weekend I'll be testing it out against raptors space marines, much to my chagrin. Time will tell!

Well, I'm back.

And it sure has been awhile, hasn't it?

I've been through a pretty roller coaster-y year, and now lots of things are happening. Moving, turning 21, voting for the first time, work, college, and of course, getting ahriman to the black library.

The new chaos book has dropped, and I've been pretty ecstatic about it.

That's me on release day.

I wanted to go over the codex and what I've learned from it so far.

Thousand Sons:

Wow. What a buff. Not many changes really, but the psychic powers, gift of mutation, and hatred: space marines was a big deal. Not to mention how awesome sorcerers with chaos artefacts can become, and ahriman becoming the single most powerful psyker in the game. I was very happy with the rules, points changes, and overall feel of the army.

Death Guard:

My second favorite legion. Typhus is a boss, plague marines aren't SnP anymore, plague knives for poisoned 4+, all around they are better than before. The zombie units look fun. In the future i will be collecting this army, perhaps as a horus heresy army.

World Eaters:

Let me just say, I wasn't a big khorne fan before this book dropped. Now Kharne is an unstoppable monster of destruction, khorne bezerkers can eat 4+ armour necrons, and I love the fact that i can build a true early world eaters army.

Emperor's Children:

Not much to say, as I don't have much experience with Slaanesh armies. However, that icon of excess? Forget about it. I5 marines with hatred: space marines and feel no pain. Scary, but I'll leave it to an associate of mine to handle that.

Overall, the codex is not point and click, it's very strategic. Let's take a look at the big winners for me thus far:

#5:

Mutilators.

I played a tournament a week after release with a unit of nurgle mutilators combined with a level 2 nurgle sorcerer in terminator armour. My God. They rocked face. The combination of the sorcerer's gift of contagion bring down strength and toughness and the mutilator's ability to morph the appropriate weapon at all times was incredible. They cut down a unit of chosen running with huron blackheart AFTER getting charged by said chosen and chaos lord. Extremely versatile, extremely tough, extremely killy, but potentially fragile and easily tarpitted.

#4:

Obliterators.

I was extremely not interested in them at first. Havocs with flakk missiles? Of course those are superior. NOT.

With the ability to take marks and a 5 point cost decrease, obliterators are better than ever, along with assault cannons in their arsenal. A unit of tzeentch obliterators or nurgle obliterators can march across the table and take all those gnarly shots and still wipe out enemy after enemy. Very tactical, very awesome.

#3:

Forgefiends.

I was in love with these from the first leaked photos. I love them. Period. Ectoplasma cannon forgefiend, I will admit, are not so wonderful in my experience. Those shots miss and swing wide much more than I would like to admit. At a time when I theoretically should've watched a forgefiend eliminate an entire marine squad, I instead killed two.

However, the autocannons seem to do much better work than the plasma. Combined with daemonforge against AV13+, you really get the best out of your hits. Predators, vindicators, and necrons beware of the 8 shots this bad mother fucker puts out with re-rollable armour pens.

#2:

The Warpsmith.

I watched this asshole right here turn a castling army into a dying army, make exorcists glance themselves, and slaughter enemies in combat like nothing I've seen before, all while looking damn good. It took one game with this character for it to be a staple in all my chaos lists, regardless of opponent. Aura, mark of tzeentch, and a gift of mutation serves this character well as he deals out death to enemies and keeps your rhinos trucking.

-drumroll-

#1:

THE MOTHER FUCKING HELDRAKE BITCHES.

It's got AV 12/12/10. Not impressed yet? How about a 5+ invulnerable that makes evasion unnecessary? No? How about a torrent flamestorm cannon? No? HOW ABOUT A FUCKING VECTOR STRIKE AT STR 7? NO?!!!!

Then consider hover mode for after you've eliminated all the threats to them.

These have won me games already. I love heldrakes, and they are the necessary piece to my army. Nothing, nobody, no unit will ever top them in the book for me. It's a beautiful model, with great rules, a reasonable points cost, and a tough-ass daemon engine. Oh, it also has daemon forge, which means those crucial moments where you need a reroll? You got it.

That's all for now.

TL;DR:

FUCK YOU ALL, HELDRAKES ROCK YOUR WORLD FROM 8 DIFFERENT TABLE EDGES. THAT'S RIGHT. 8.