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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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