ORKS, THE SECOND

So, here we are again, talking about orks.  Today we begin with the Elites section.

Burna boyz are not terrible.  Flamer and power weapons, and you can turn 3 of them into Meks, which makes fixing the Gork/Morkanaught that they are inside much easier.  Then they pop out and flame the shit out of something before dying a spectacular death, unless the 'Naught can somehow save them.

Tank bustas are even better.  All equipped with rokkits and tank hunter, with a little luck these guys will bring down a flier a turn.  Get them a truck and there is a good chance they get you an extra point when they blow up that rhino turn one.  I've seen that handsome fellow Reece from Frontline Gaming run 3 units all in trukks to great effect.  And Tankhammers...  Tankhammers.

Nobs have lost a lot of clout in the world of warhammer.  They used to be the be-all and end-all of the ultimate deathstar at one point.  Nowadays I don't see them.  I still think they got some potential, if you throw in the same HQs that you need to make boys better, a KFF Big Mek and a Pain Boy.  I think they can be pretty good as a counter attack unit if kept in small numbers.  A unit of 5 of them with big Choppas and a Waagh banner will put a hurting on anything.  Then a 4+ save and FNP and 2 wounds makes them pretty durable, throw in a power klaw and smile as your opponent desperately tries to shoot them out of cover before closing in on the rest of your army.
Alternately, you can take a massive unit all tooled up with all the characters and put them in a battlewagon and slam that beast right down you enemies throat.  And as long as they don't have something that can stomp or D-blast weapons you're gonna give you opponent a bad day.

Meganobs are like Nobs, but...mega.  They are good.  2+ save, power klaw, 3 attacks, 2 wounds. all good things.  Add Grotsnik and make them fearless and give them Rampage and FNP.  Their biggest downfall is T4 and no Invul save.  Otherwise they are monsters.

Kommandos are pretty good for a cheap infiltrator.  They can also take 2 special weapons and go to ground for a 2+ cover save(in ruins).  Then if you take Snikrot they can outflank on from ANY table edge.

So, that was strange, so far, for a lower tiered codex, is seems to have far more good units than bad ones.  Lets move onto Fast Attack and see if we can't fix that...

First up, the Trukk.  Well, it's pretty good with a big downside.  It's fast, open-topped, carries 12 bodies and it's cheap, but it when it explodes it kills almost half the guys riding it (unless they have armour).  It probably comes out on top because it's more likely to get wrecked than explode, and if it does explode there is a slim chance that Ramshackle can downgrade that to wrecked.  It's also a dedicated transport, so all in all, it's a winner

The Storm boys have had their ups and downs over the years, this year being not as good as others, but I see potential, especially in the Fast attack slot which isn't in high demand.  For a measly 60 points you get 4 boys and a Nob with a big choppa.  That's S7 on the charge, which can be used as a pretty reliable suicide squad to open up some transports, yet it's not a big enough threat to draw a lot of attention.
On the flip side of the toof, you could take Da Vulchas Skwad and take 3 units of them plus Zagstruk and then mob them all together.  That's 3 Nobs and Zag in a unit of 12-87 boys with rokkit packs and they are only 3 points more than a regular boy.  Realistically, having 90 storm boys is a little extreme, but 20-30 fast moving dudes with 3 power fists and Zaggy in it is a force to fear, plus their Hammer of Wrath hits have Shred.  Now, there is an issue, they HAVE to deep strike, but they will only scatter 1D6, but with a 2D6 run move, you can at least move them far enough to avoid getting blasted to death.  Be warned though, that 2D6 run causes dangerous terrain checks.

Deffkoptas, are good.  NEXT!!

Dakka jet, it's not what it once was, but still good as one of the cheapest fliers in the game.

The Burnabomma and the Blitzabomma are not as good as their Fighter jet brother, and are significantly less useful since orks never really had a problem with taking out ground targets.  However, having a flier or 2 can give you a boost in the game whether it's putting pressure on your enemies fliers or dominating the sky if he doesn't have any.

The Burnabomma comes with 2 burna bombs, which are S5 AP4 large blast bombs, and can take up to 6 skorcha rokkits that are the same but small blast.  The rokkits are 10 points each, so not worth it for a small blast, but the 2 bombs are promising easily capable of taking out tons of light armoured infantry models, and it ignores cover.

The Blitzabomma is the most expensive of the 3, and by far the most random but also the most dangerous.  This bad boy carries around 2 S7 AP2 large blast armour bane bombs.  Awesome right?  Well they come with a caveat, which is a 2D6 roll on a chart.  A 2 means you crash and don't drop a bomb, a 3 means you don't drop a bomb, but both you and the target suffer a S9 AP2 hit, 4-9 everything is AOK, and on a 10-12 you get to shoot your guns at the target before dropping the bomb.  This does not stop you from shooting your guns again in the shooting phase at a completely different target.  Sure, there is a chance that you might be targeting a unit that is essentially invincible against your rather weak shooting weapons, or it might be that they are just strong enough to wreck the transport so the bomb hits the unit that gets out.  The roll happens after the template is placed, so you won't be able to target the disembarking unit specifically, but it could scatter, or clip some guys anyway.

Bikes are good.  A boost to T, a 4+ save, a boost to jink if you go flat out, and there's a Forge World dude that makes them troops which is a popular build that I have seen many times.

Did I mention conversions?  Cause Orks IS da best at that.

Last on the fast attack list, and the last entry for this post, is the Warbuggies.  When this codex first released I heard many people rave about this unit and how taking at least 2 full squads was going to be a common sight.  Well, I have not seen a unit of these guys on a table, and only a very few lists with them even in it.  Which boggles my mind really as I think they are fantastic.  Listen to what I have to say.
First, they are 25 points.  For that you get a AV10 vehicle with 2HP and a T-L big shoota that can outflank and come in units up to 5.  Their upgrades are cheap, swapping to a T-L rokkit for free and getting re-rolls on difficult terrain for 5 pts.
The biggest deterrent from taking these guys is that they aren't Deffkoptas, but I think these guys might be better.  They don't have a save, but they are immune to S3 attacks, and poison, and anything that causes Ld checks like Psychic scream.  Not to mention they never take morale checks for losing a model or 2.  And since they are vehicles their foot print can be huge.  Finally, if one of them happens to get immobilised you can just leave him behind and let him shoot at something else.
They are 5 points cheaper and have the option to get a heavy flamer and re-roll failed dangerous terrain checks for 10 points.  I don't know about you, but 5 outflanking heavy flamers mounted on fast vehicles is scary as shit to my cultists.

That concludes this episode of The 40K Misfit.  Next time I will complete the triforce and finish off with the Heavy support and wargear.

Until next time, keep them dice rollin.

ORKS IS DA BEST...right?

No, they are not...

The Chaos posts practically wrote themselves so I think I'll stick with that same formula, up first, special rules, but I won't bother with 'Ere We Go, cause that's one of those good rules.  Mob Rule on the other hand, that one is a pisser
So the idea behind the mob rule is that it gives you a chance to pass a failed morale check as long as you meet the specific criteria and take a couple hits from it.  The 3 criteria are, be in combat, have a character, and have lotsa boys.  The thematic idea is that there are situation where orks won't care about morale because they are fighting, da boss sez so, and ders more boyz dan dem.  The trick is to have all 3, or at least the second 2, as often as possible or be prepared to fail morale checks.  For some of the specialised units that is particularly difficult because they are limited to smaller numbers.  To top it off, if you meet the criteria, you take additional wounds.  Now that might seem like it's a good rule, except the way they formulated the chart is weird in that it's not cumulative.  For example, if you have a squad of 30 boys, and they get shot up a bit and loose 25%, and through some means, they loose their nob, they will have to pass a Ld on 7, if they fail, there is a 50% chance that one of the result on the table will meet their criteria.  That means that it doesn't matter that there are still 23 boys left, they are gonna run.  I think they should have made the 3 criteria a standard, if you meet any one of the 3, you take a couple hits to restore order and then pass the check, but I'm not writing rules so...
Even still, at least it gives you a chance to not run when other wise you would.

And, that's it for special rules.  On to the HQ units...

Ok, so after having a look at them, aside from some of the named characters, which I won't get into, Orks don't have a bad one.  The Warboss is probably the biggest, toughest and killyest HQ around for the points he costs being pretty damn effective at 100 pts.  The big Mek can take the Kustom Forcefield while the Painboy gives the whole unit FNP.  Even the little Mek boys add characters to a unit to help keep up the Mob Rule.  The least used character is probably the Wierdboy, and even he is pretty good with a decent array of psychic powers.

So I guess it's on to Troops?

The ork boy is the staple of every ork army, in the fiction at least.  It's not too often that you see large mobs of boys anymore, at least not winning.  There are just far too many things out there that can pump out dozens of shots and kill Orks by the bucket full.  And the Ork boy really depends on making the charge into combat to be effective, and if that first round of combat does not go his way, he is in trouble cause it's gonna get worse.  To throw out some numbers, assuming the Nob kills 2, it will take 96 attacks from Boyz to kill 8 MEQ's.  That means that the unit of Orks will have to make it into contact with 24 Boyz and the Nob to inflict that damage, which is almost unheard of considering 10 marines with only bolters will kill 7, already dropping you below the required number, and then kill another 1-2 during overwatch, AND THEN kill another 3 before the Orks can even swing.  And those 19 Orks left will only kill 8 marines, 6 if they multi-charged.  That's including the power klawed Nob.
That brings up another problem, Orks need to make sure they hurt their target hard enough so it's crippled, but not hard enough to wipe it out so they don't get wiped the next enemy shooting phase.  This means that in some cases they will need to make multi charges, which as previously noted, reduces their effectiveness.
Now, they aren't without use.  I can see the usefulness of taking a large mob with a Big Mek with a Kustom Force Field and a Mad Dok giving the majority of the unit a 5++ and FNP.  You can even get a 4++ KFF in the Gaz supplement.  This gives them some staying power, add in a Warboss for some punch and maybe you got something worth taking. For around 500 points.

Next on the list are Grots.  Now these guys are cheap, dirt cheap, and they are about as effective as dirt too.  They are weak, they are cowards, and they are effectively useless as they can't take any weapons upgrades and their pistols are shit.
Their best use is as the mandatory 2 troops choices of a CAD so you can fit in more points of things that can actually do something, because as we talked about before, da Boyz aint just quite doing it.

So, this one is gonna be a bit short since Orks happen to have some pretty consistently good HQ's.  Who knew?  Next post we will start off with Elites.

Until next time, keep them dice rollin.

Misfit Tactics: Tank Shock

Tank shock is an often under utilised, and often incorrectly used, mechanic that is far more devastating than people may think.

There are several steps that need to happen before the real shock takes effect, but we will get there, I promise.  I'm going to lay it all out is as simple as I can using diagrams that I drew in MS PAINT!  That's right mother fuckers, Picasso is in the Hizzouse!!

Pivot your tank to face the direction you want it to go.  You can't turn it afterwards, so be mindful of this.

Declare the number of inches you wish to move.

Tank facing off against some infantry.  The fact they are blue means nothing...

Move your tank until you make contact with the enemy unit, the enemy unit makes a morale check and falls back if it fails.  Death or Glory attacks may also be made.

If any enemy models would end up under the tank once it has finished it's movement, move these models out from under the tank BY THE SHORTEST DISTANCE.  That line is important.

A good idea is to lay out markers to determine where the tank will end up, with dice, or a template or string.  This gives you a good idea of where the models have to move to and where the shortest distance actually is.

I know it doesn't line up perfectly, it's the idea that really counts.

After the models have been moved, they must be more than 1" away from the tank.

Solid - Where the models were.
Hollow - Where the models will move to.

Here comes the rub.  If any of the models that were forced to move are no longer in unit coherency, they are removed from play.  That's it, good bye.

Here is another rub, if there are enemy models blocking the victims from moving out of the way of the tank, they are removed from play.

OH MY GOD, NOT TWO OF THEM!!

Tank 2 moves up, and because the SHORTEST distance for the models to move to get out from under the tank is directly toward the other tank, they can't meet the stay 1" away from enemy models, they can't meet the stay 1" away from the shocking tank, and so, they are removed.

HOWEVER, only models that are forced to move can be removed in this way, and as long as the moved models can maintain coherency with "the unit", ie, at least one other model from the unit, they will survive.  But you don't really have a choice in where the models are moved to, that's all up to the guy with the tank and how he moves it.  Remember, it's not the size of the tank, it's how you use it.

Now that this shenanigans is out there, your best bet is to stay just out of 12" range from a tank, and carry melta bombs (or your filthy xenos equivalent) on all your squad leaders and Death or Glory, you have nothing to lose.

If you have any comments please leave them below, I'm sure you have questions.  Hell, even I have questions on some things.

Until next time, keep them dice rollin.

CHAOS SPACE MARINES PART C

So far we have looked over the army rules, the HQ's, Troops, and Elites sections of the codex.  This leaves us with Fast, Heavy, and wargear, which I will finish off on this post so sit tight, it might be a long one.

So lets have a look at Bikes, they are good.  Ok sweet, what's next?
Spawn, wow, they are even better, and then?
The HELDRAKE? Woop-dee-fucking-doo, seems like everything is alright here...
Oh...right...Warp Talons and Raptors.

So, I look at Warptalons kind of how I look at Mutilators.  The MoK will boost their killing power while the other 3 marks work well with them, but ultimately work towards their survival as well as their cost which sits at 30 pts each without any upgrades.  Unlike the Mutilators, you can't get a Dark Apostle to go with them as he can't get a jump pack, and they are not nearly as good at multitasking as they are limited to only a pair of lightning claws for wargear.  They don't even have frag grenades.  So they are screwed if they charge into cover, they are screwed if they get charged by a walker or anything with a 2+ save, what are they good at?  Well, they have a fucking PAIR of LIGHTNING CLAWS.  A PAIR of them, and jump packs!  You thought battle companies were a problem?  If you get a charge off with 5 of these guys with VotLW they will destroy a 10 man Tac squad.  And if they're combat squadded you can still kill 8 in a multi-charge, and with MoS there is a better chance of catching them so you won't get shot to shit, not to mention you probably went first limiting retun attacks.  You will have to look out for those white scars fuckers and their Hit-And-Run bullshit so you may want to try and charge 3 units and leave only a couple from each unit alive, that way at least one of them should fail their HnR and yet still not have enough guys alive to do much damage to you after you tear their faces off.
There is another thing, but it's kind of a trap.  They have this rule called Warpflame strike which forces enemy models who were within 6" of them when they deep struck count as being hit by a weapon with Blind, which sounds really cool...until you realise you will have to Deep Strike right in the centre of enemy lines to make effect of this and unless their are Tau, Necrons, or Orks, they will pass the majority of their checks and now you're sitting in the middle of their army with your dick swinging in the breeze.
These guys are best used in a target overload situation, or a counter attack role.
Oh, and they are a Daemon so the Grimoire of True Names and Cursed Earth will work on them...enjoy that tasty treat right there.

The Raptors, I think are totally overlooked and are significantly better than their Imperial equivalent, for a change.  They are only 17 pts each and have access to all of the typical special weapons.  So for 115 pts you have a deep striking, jump packing, tank melting, close combat wielding 5 man squad of suicide run.  I don't really think they need a mark of chaos, but if you decide to pop a transport and don't want to get shot to shit after that, you could choose to assault the guys that get out.  If you do that, you may want the MoN.  This will keep them alive a while longer so the rest of your army can bail them out and let them go burn a hole in another tank.  Don't forget, taking a melta-gun does not replace one of your weapons, so you will still get the extra attack for 2 close combat weapons.

Moving onto the Heavy section, I'll politely, but smugly ignore the fantastic Obliterators, the swift moving Maulerfiend, the death dealing Vindicator, and the multi-gun toting Predator and move right into the not so havoc causing Havocs, the not a Soul Grinder Defiler, the "you can make a shooting version of the Maulerfiend?" Forge fiend, and the dust collecting "What machine spirit" Land Raider.

Havocs shoot guns, in an army primarily designed around assault, so you would think they would be helpful in giving fire support, but their lack of inspiring weapons is disheartening.  One of their best uses is as discount Chosen and given a load of meltaguns or plasma guns and a Rhino and then suiciding them to take something out.  They were the first units in the game to get surface to air sky fire with their outrageously expensive flak missiles and the only unit in the Chaos army, aside from a Heldrake with a Hades Autocannon...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...yeah right, so if you are having troubles with lighter armoured fliers, try them out and see how the do.

God, what do I say about the Defiler?  Well, no one used them in the previous 5th edition codex and they were 50 points cheaper, so what makes them worth 200 points now?  He has 4 hull points, which is more than the typical walker, he also has a 5++, IWND, and the Daemonforge rule.  So what's the problem?
First, he is still just a AV 12 walker and costs as much as 2 Helbrutes.  Second, with he new rules for ordinance weapons, he has to snap fire his other guns, which includes a twin-linked heavy flamer, if he shoots the battle cannon.
Now you might think that he is a well rounded unit with both shooting and assaulting capabilities, but while he is using one, the other is wasted yet you have still paid points for those other abilities.
I believe that your best option is to swap the Reaper auto cannon for another fist, giving him 5 attacks base(I think) and then just walk him straight up the middle blasting away with the battle cannon until you can get into assault.  I would keep the heavy flamer over trading it for the power scourge only because the power scourge is 25 points, and using the flamer to overwatch could pay off.

Now, I don't see very many Forgefiends and it's because of the same reason that all dreadnought type walkers are shunned.  They are AV 12 and can too easily get punked by a single lascannon from across the table and the price is too high.  Costing almost as much as the Defiler, this guy is basically a gun platform that doesn't shoot very well but unlike the Defiler, he can't do anything else.  He could be used to shoot down fliers, with his already poor BS the hit to snap firing doesn't drop his effectiveness as much as other things, and the S8 of the Hades auto cannon is great for taking out the average armour of fliers.  Or he could do what the defiler does and go walking right up the middle blasting away with 3 S8 plasma cannons until he gets taken out, drawing a ton of fire power after he decimates a unit or 2 and makes his presence noticed.

Or he gets blasted straight away when your opponent steals the initiative because they know the damage he could do.

I literally could not find a single piece of art work like all the other entries.

Land Raiders, what to do with Land Raiders.  It's not just the Chaos one that is terrible as it's a 230 point investment can can be blown up by anyone that gives a fuck.  Typically these beasts are loaded to the tits with some kind of face smashing death ball of murder, and it's usually slow as shit, otherwise it wouldn't need the ride.  I've seen too many times people try to keep this thing alive by being all cagey and shit.  This dude is meant to barrel down the throat of the enemy and unleashing that hot load all over the enemies front lines.  After that you can back it off and use it to take some pot-shots.

So now that we are done looking over the shitty units in the book, lets have a look at some of the "brilliant" pieces of warmer they put in here.
Ichor blood is kind of like acid blood from the Nid's book, but worse.  It's only a S3 AP4 hit.  It is only 5 points, and if you have a character with lots of wounds, and a way of getting them back to make this thing go on and on and on, it could work.  Also, if you fail a save, but pass a FNP and not take the wound, it counts as an unsaved wound.

The combat familiar is 15 points and it gives you 2 extra attacks.  That sounds awesome right?  Except they are at S4 AP-, no matter what weapons you have equipped.  And it seems that they go at the same I as you so they also get penalised if you take a power fist, all the advantages of going last with none of the penalties of have Sx2 AP2.  Or did I say that wrong?
I do suppose that this thing could help you out with some crowd control, taking out some extra dudes if you are stuck in a blob of guardsmen.

The problem with the Palanquin of Nurgle is that it's 40 points and it gives you +2W and +1A.  This would actually work well with the Ichor Blood and FNP.  He gains the Very Bulky rule, so he can only be joined by SEVEN dudes in a vehicle.  See what they did, a little nod to the sacred number of Nurgle.  They probably didn't even notice it.

Of all the Chaos Artifacts, there are 2 clear winners, and 2 clear losers.  The 2 losers, I have NEVER seen, or used in a game.

I guess this is what happens when the Dimensional Key's power is unleashed.

The Dimensional Key has the stench of potench, but only works if the character kills something in close combat.  Which, if your opponent is trying to avoid that, it might take a couple turns.  Once the power is unleashed its a pretty powerful piece of wargear.  This could be extremely helpful if you can get a first turn charge off, and keep the forward moving character alive long enough to use the rest of the abilities.  I could see this being used to great effect by a D-prince who catches some forward moving scouts on turn 1, then flies around the table creating a dangerous terrain bubble everywhere he goes, blasting psychic powers.

Magnus and his scrolls, on his belt, you see them?

Which brings me to the Scrolls of Magnus.  These things are just way too expensive, way to random, and could hurt you to boot.  Sure, if you play enough game with them you will undoubtedly roll the exact power you need at the exact time you need it to turn the tide of the game and win, but those odds are astronomical.
As I see it, your best bet is to take this on a Prince who has taken the primaris power on every tree available to him, or maxed his powers on his patron god table so that there is no chance of getting double and having to roll again, then just spam the crap out of it til you get a power you will use repeatedly.  Unfortunately this will not boost your Mastery Level, which I think would have done a great job counteracting the S3 AP1 hit it does back.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, there you have it.  A rundown of how to use all the shittiest items and units in the Chaos Codex.  Personally, I will be giving the outflanking Helfist Murderpack a try, along with the Mutilator with character unit in a Land Raider.

Please leave comments below and let me know what you think.  Am I wrong?  Am I right?  Did I miss something?
Or if you have an idea for a future topic.

The next Codex up for review will be the Orks.

Until next time, keep them dice rollin.

CHAOS SPACE MARINES PART DEUX!!

Last time I showed you how to make the best of some bad rules and gave some of the less than savoury HQ choices some potential.

Now lets move onto the Troops choices.

Cultists are great, 50 points for 10 wounds with objective secured is fantastic.  So fuck them, I wanna talk about the Marines.  The so called 10,000 year old bad asses that reside in the fucking eye of terror, or possibly even the recently fallen stalwart Astartes.  Although not too recent because they don't have any of the fancy weapons they somehow managed to find in their tickle trunk of the 6th and 7th edition codex.

And this is what the average dude looks like

So, at first glance these guys look like they should be the equal of their "goody two shoes" counter part.  They have the same stats across the board and, with a few exceptions, have access to many of the same weapons and wargear.  Chaos Marines can even be boosted through VotLW and marks of chaos to exceed the Imperial marines.  So why are they so much worse?  Well, there are a handful of reasons.  ATSKNF is one, Chapter Tactics is another, and Doctrines are another.  Basically these are the equivalent of all the upgrades that Chaos Marines can take except Imperial Marines get them for free.
So what can we do about it?  Well, if you are taking your normal marines, I suggest keeping them cheap.  Loading them up on upgrades is just wasted points if those upgrades aren't keeping them alive.  VotLW is an option, the boost to their Ld will keep them from running away after they get shot up, the MoN is another choice, preventing them from getting shot up so bad.  The MoK and MoS are only useful in the assault phase, and the MoT is nearly useless especially since you will be hugging cover with your marines if you expect to get shot with AP 3 or lower.
Having big units is also another option.  You need 10 in order to get a second special weapon, or a first heavy weapon, but having a larger unit walk up the board is potentially scary, especially if you have a way of keeping them alive like Forewarning or Endurance.  Unfortunately, if you take 10 to get the extra weapon, you loose out on being able to put a character in the unit and still put them in a Rhino.
Also, getting them a transport is important if you want them to actually go anywhere or do anything.

Noise marines are good, as are Plague marines, so I'll leave them out.  Khorne Bezerkers on the other hand...

Now, lets get something straight here, Khorne Bezerkers are not bad, they just lack a reliable and cheap method of getting into assault quickly.  Land Raiders are too expensive and only have room for 10 models.  However, Imperial armour book have helped with this somewhat by giving us multiple Land Raider variants with lots of room in them and a Storm Eagle Assault Gunship.

Thousand sons on the other hand, suck balls.  Mainly because they are way too expensive, being the most expensive cult unit in the codex.  Sure a 4++ save and AP 3 bolters sounds great, but slow and purposeful, no special weapons, or grenades really makes these guys vulnerable to anything assaulting them, or anything that's tough enough to resist bolters and they die just like normal marines to small arms fire.  Their only "saving grace", and I use the quotations for a reason" is the sorcerer.  Unfortunately he is a victim of the MoT and as I explained in the previous post he is only able to select powers from the Tzeentch discipline and none of them will help you in the assault phase or make them more durable.

So, that wraps up the troops, onto elites.

Chosen are good, Terminators are Terminators, so next on the list are Possessed and I honestly believe that they have the same problem as the Khorne Bezerkers so I'll even skip them.

AAAAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHH, why must I destroy everything I love??

Mutilators on the other hand need some help.  Not only do their models look like a sack of shit with downs syndrome their rules suck too.  You can only take them in a squad of 1-3, and since their stats are not any better than a terminator, asides from having 2 wounds, they are not nearly durable enough or killy enough to make them worth wile.  They really are kind of meh considering they are supposed to be close combat enthusiasts warped and mutated over thousands of years into a demonically possessed daemon engine of death.  I have had minor, and I mean minor, success taking a couple units of 1 and using them as a distraction or speed bump much like Lone Wolves.  They are easy kill points though.
So lets try and maximise our potential from these poor bastards and boost their damage output by giving them the mark of Khorne.  This will give them 5 attacks on the turn they charge, and 4 attacks if they get charged.  Now, since they are Bulky, you should be able to fit 3 of them, along with a Dark Apostle in one of the aforementioned assault vehicles, this will give them re-rolls to hit, and if you take a Chaos Lord From Crimson Slaughter, give him the fancy Armour he can tank hits all day baby and regen some of them back with IWND!!  You are looking at a nearly 700 point investment, higher depending on your choice of transport, but for those 3 guys you are getting 15 attacks on the charge with whatever close combat weapon is going to get the job done, then you get re-rolls.  Realistically, that whole unit should be able to put 10 wounds on just about anything, before saves, the turn it charges.
On another note, you could give them the MoN which will boost their durability and lasting power against other thunderhammer/powerfist wielding maniacs, or the MoT to turn their invul to a 4++, or even the MoS works so you start killing stuff before it can hit you, which in turn increases your survivability.

This leaves us with the poor poor Helbrute.  This thing is a muppet, too bad the new kit looks so damn awesome.  At least the new Astartes Codex made a move to make their Dreadnoughts better and doubled their attacks, unfortunately the Chaos version remains neutered.  To add insult to injury, they give us a random chart to roll on that will change his usefulness if he takes a hull point, and killing one outright is not much of a challenge.
They have a wide variety of weapon options, including a power scourge and thunder hammer, however I remain with the opinion that you keep these guys on the cheaper side and make sure they have both shooting abilities and close combat abilities.  usually I will only look at upgrading the gun, and possibly giving him a heavy flamer.
However, there are a couple formations out there that make them totally worth while.  First off, the Helcult gives you a Helbrute and 2 units of cultists.  The Helbrute gets Rage, and while he is alive the cultists have Fearless, and if he dies the cultists get better and get Zealot!  The cultists also give the Helbrute a 3+ cover save, which will kill a cultists for each save that is made in this way.  So with this one formation you have already made the Helbrute more survivable, and deadlier in close combat.
Next up is the Mayhem Pack, this formation is 3 Helbrutes that Deep Strike.  And to top it off you roll once for all of them, but they don't have to come in at the same location as they are not a unit.  They also all get IWND, but are forced to roll on the Crazed chart every turn (rolling once and applying that result to all of them).  I would suggest keeping them all pretty much stock standard.  Multimelta's are pretty damn good, and a power fist is...well...a power fist.  You could also give him a heavy flamer for some crowd control.
Last up is the Helfist Murderpack, possibly the worst named one, but possibly the best in game terms.  This formation is a vehicle squadron of 5 Helbrutes, and one of them becomes a character with a 5++.  If one of the Helbrutes is required to roll on the Crazed chart, it effects the ENTIRE unit, which sounds horrible, but if the character Helbrute is still alive you get to choose the result of the roll.  Since this takes the randomness out of the roll, you can tool your squad up as you wish and choose the result that most benefits you, and if he dies the unit gets Rage.
Now that sounds pretty good, but it actually gets better.  Thanks to IA13, you can give one of those Helbrutes the Legacy of Ruin called Maelstrom Raider and it ALLOWS THE UNIT TO OUTFLANK!!!!
Yeah, that is what I said, a unit of 5 outflanking Helbrutes.  The only downside of this formation is that you can't take any of the Dreadnought variants from the IA13 such as the Contemptor or Ferrum Infernus.  Just because it would be cool if you had a bigger and bad-assier dude to be the character.

Ok, so that was quite a lot of writing for just 4 units, so i'm gonna take a break and cut this one here and pick up with Fast Attack.

Until next time, keep them dice rollin.

CHAOS SPACE MARINES!!

Ok, so for the last couple editions these 10,000 year old badasses have kind of been the whipping boy of the 41 Millennium.  Not since their fabled "3.5" edition codex have the Chaos Space Marines been one of the top dogs.

So what happened?  Who the fuck cares.  All that's history.  Lets talk about the here and now!

First off, I wanted to get these guys out of the way because there have been some rumblings as to a new Chaos Codex coming out, so just to make sure that this site is even more useless to you, I decided to do them first.

Lets get into it by starting with the army special rules:

Champion of Chaos is one of those thematic rules that GW used to really push a new facet of the game that they brought over from Fantasy, ironically only to kill off with the birth of Age of Sigmar, but I digress.
This rule basically states that if there is a character in close combat, you must issue, and accept, a challenge.  If there are multiple characters you are at liberty to decide who must challenge and accept the challenge.
This is a problem with this though, because any good opponent will just pit your beast of a Chaos Lord vs some weeny sarge, or vice versa, their hardcore beat stick vs your champ which essentially nullifies any and all upgrades you gave him.
There is an up side, sort of, to this.  If your character kills another character then you get to roll on a D66 chart and get a Boon of Chaos.  Most of these boons are good, some are nearly useless, 2 results turn you into a spawn, but 2 other results turn you into a Daemon Prince, with Armour.
Now, thanks to the way the rule is written, you get to roll on that chart no matter how you kill an enemy character.
Now there are a couple ways to game this and maximize you rolls on the chart.  First off, separate you characters shooting attacks from the rest of the squad.  Second, put a Dark Apostle in the unit and it allows you to re-roll the result on the chart.  Sure, a 105 pt character is a lot for that, but if it saves your 200 pt ass kicking Lord from turning into a spawn, you will thank your lucky stars.

Veterans of the Long War is an upgrade for each model, usually 1 pt per model, and it give each model +1 Ld and Hatred Space Marines.  Which, as it turns out, is pretty good.  Since the new Astartes book was release with the Space Marine Battle Company are getting more and more popular.

Marks of Chaos are a long time standing upgrade for units and on the basic troops they are pretty straight forward.  Where they fall down is when a psyker has one of them.  They gain Chaos Focus, which is the primaris power for free, but they then must roll at least once on their patrons chart.  Which means an level 1 Psyker can ONLY get powers from their patron god list in the Codex, which isn't exactly good because the Chaos power are hit or miss.

There are a couple good ones though.  Both Doombolt and Breath of Chaos from the Tzeentch are good, being low ap and able to hit multiple models.  The Nurgle powers are pretty good, with Weapon Virus and Plague Wind leading the way.  Weapon Virus is great against big units that put out tons of shots and don't have the ability to re-roll.  The Slaanesh powers are meh, with Ecstatic Seisures being pretty good vs large units.

Alright, so lets move onto the actual units in the game starting, of course with the HQ section.

The Daemon Prince is good at combat, can be made a lvl 3 sorcerer, and is usually a flying monstrous creature.  You see him all over the place so I won't bother talking about him.

Same goes with the Chaos Lord and the Sorcerer.  You see these guys pretty regularly in dozens of different builds all pretty mush doing what they do best just as good as anyone else.
So, who does that leave us with?  Well, other than the named characters, who I won't talk about, it leaves us with the previously mentioned Dark Apostle and the Warpsmith.

As previously mentioned, the Dark Apostle can be used to keep your super killy dude from turning into a squiggly gribbly after pasting your opponent's chump characters that were thrown in his way to soak a wound or 2.  But he is more than that as well.  Since Chaos seems to have a bit of a morale issue, many of the units not having any special rules to help them not run away, this guy gives everyone within 6" of him his own Ld to use, which is 10 of course, and gives his unit Zealot, which is Hatred and Fearless.  To one up that ability, in the Crimson Slaughter book he can be bought a weapon that changes that Ld bubble to a Zealot bubble, which is HUGE.  Consider you couple this with Foreboding, a Divination power that a Crimson Slaughter Sorcerer can get.  You can over watch on full BS, you are fearless, you get to re-roll your attacks on the first round of combat, and you get counter attack.  Now put those 2 HQ's in a large, and expensive, unit of Draznicht's Chosen and that is a very dangerous unit to charge.  You could give them the MOT and pray to get Forewarning for a 3++!!  Throw them in a Dreadclaw drop pod and you can drop that ball of MEQ death anywhere on the table, all for the low low price of 650 points.

We finally come to the Warpsmith.  Usually taken as a "fluffy" choice for a themed Iron Warriors or Dark Mechanicum army, he actually has some up sides and I have used him to great effect on a number of occasions.  His first ability allows you to lower the cover save of a piece of terrain by 1.  Pretty useful vs "turtle" style armies like Tau and IG(or AM if you prefer).  Next, he can repair a vehicle on a 4+, or he can curse a vehicle on a 2+ which gives all of it's weapons Get's Hot.  YOu might not think that all that shit hot, but I've stopped Pask in a Punisher from shooting for 2 rounds, and then killing himself on the 3rd when times got desperate.  He has a 2+ save, a power axe, melta gun, flamer, and bolt pistol, and thanks to his mecha...mechaden...robot arm things, he gets to shoot 2 weapons at a time in the shooting phase and gets +2 attacks in close combat.  That's right, with the MoK he has 6 attacks on the charge with a power axe!  Too bad he's only WS 4, if only there was some way of giving him Hatred...

Alright, I've yammerd on long enough.  I'm gonna take a break and next post I will delve into the...Troops section!

This is gonna be harsh

Until next time, keep them dice rollin

Welcome to the 40K Misfit!

While there are dozens of blogs out there who talk about the best and most powerful unit and armies in the game, I am here to talk about those poor lone bastards stuck in the bottom tier of armies.  The one who, no matter how cool or badass they seem, they just don't stand up to Eldar Jetbike spam, 3 flying Hive Tyrants, or a Battle Company.

Armies like:

Orks

Chaos

Blood Angels

Etc etc...

I will take these poor schlubs and mould them like a dorky teen on the arm of the high school quarter back and make them a prom queen...

or simply put lipstick on a pig.

Either way we are going to have a good time and i'm going to swear a lot.

So sit back and relax and ride these bitches to mid-table obscurity.

First up, my personal favourites, CHAOS