FROM VIGILUS WITH LOVE: CHAOTIC COMBOS

Well, there it is.  That's the planet that gave us Chaos players our new set of updates.  Last post I went through all of the new stuff, but in this post I'm going to pick out a couple of awesome combos and go into a little more detail.  Some of these are going to be a little convoluted and pretty difficult to pull off, involving a bunch of parts, but are undeniably powerful.  It's time to rule the world, just like Chaos is meant to.

My first combo is a "Smash Captain" the likes of which the Imperium has never seen.  Now to be fair, there are more version of this guy than you can shake a stick at so I'll talk about a couple.  A think to mention before hand though, Chaos lacks in the region of weapons that deal multiple damage with no penalty to hit.  We can get some relics that do that, but they typically don't offer the same AP or S values.

First on my list if a Flawless Host Chaos Lord with dual-lightning claws and Intoxicating elixir and Ultimate Confidence warlord trait.  Now the first thing you will notice is that he only does single damage attacks, but if you cast Prescience and Diabolic Strength on him he is getting 7 attacks that explode on 5+ resulting in 13 attacks.  Now, if you have an ability that lets you re-roll all hit rolls, like the Flawless Host stratagem you can fish for those 5's and 6's reliably racking up 16 attacks plus another 4 against Imperium units because Death to the False Emperor stacks.  You're looking at 10 dead MEQ's (12 if they are actually marines).  Now, instead of Intoxicating Elixir we could give him the mark of Khorne so he could attack twice with 1 less attack.

The next one-man wrecking crew is a Black Legion Lord with the new relic chainsword, Ghorisvex's Teeth and the Flames of Spite Warlord trait.  Now, you may have heard of this guy already, a couple other podcasters and youtubers have been talking about him, but with the potential he can put out, I can't not talk about him.  First off, you get 2 extra attacks, if you include Diabolic Strength, that's 7 attacks, and any wound rolls of 6+ inflict a mortal wound in addition.  Since he already has a relic we might as well give him the mark of Khorne so he can attack twice.  I've seen some guys talk about giving him a second chainsword, but that attack will only benefit from Flames of Spite and have the base stats, not any of the stats from the Teeth, but lets do it anyway.  So, we have 7 attacks, hitting on 2's, at S6, AP-3, 2D and 6+ is 2 mortal wounds (one from the relic and one from the warlord trait).  If you have a nearby Dark Apostle you can give him +1 to wound, and if you can use VotLW to give him another +1 to wound meaning that those mortal wounds are now scored on 4+.  That means those 7 attacks will likely score 7 hits, then half of them will score mortal wounds in addition to the normal damage for a total of 10 dead MEQ or 11 wounds off of a Knight (not counting Death to the False Emperor).

Next up we got a combo that will help deal with armies that love to get right in your face ASAP.  Now, while this is not a difficult combo to actually pull off, it could be really tricky to know when to use it and when it's just a gimmick that's going to lose you a Havoc squad.  So the first thing we need is a Havoc squad, and I recommend the new chain cannons.  This unit of Havocs needs to be in a Scourge detachment and that detachment needs to be a Devastation Battery.  Now the Scourge have a stratagem that lets you shoot at a unit that has arrived as reinforcements if it lands within 12" and the Devastation Battery has a stratagem that lets you shoot at the end of enemies first movement phase if they have the first turn.  That means if someone uses one of those fancy re-deployment abilities like Da Jump or Dark Matter Crystal on their first turn, you could potentially shoot them twice.  Once at then end of the Movement phase and once when the unit is re-deployed (which may also be the end of the movement phase).  One round of 4 of those chain cannons can take out 7 MEQs, so 2 rounds does double that.  Here is the kicker though, since it's the first turn, and it's not your turn, and its not the shooting phase, it's tricky to get any kind of buffs off on the unit.  The best you can hope for is a Dark Apostle since their abilities activate at the start of the battle round, and a Lord nearby for re-rolls.  Even still, those 2 buffs will score you 3 more MEQ kills.
However, as I said, not every army will charge forward and it's likely that they will be able to stay back 24" and shoot that forward unit of Havocs off the table, but it still creates a zone of "don't go there" which you could use to deny objectives or board control.

Possessed have gotten a TON of love in the last couple sets of rules we got, but the biggest one just might be the Black Legion stratagem Chosen of the Pantheon which gives you ALL of the daemon gods key words.  Think about that for a second...ok, now take a look at the Chaos Daemon book and have a look at all the abilities and psychic powers that affect them.  They get +1S for being near a Herald, and that would be +1S for each god specific Herald.  If you have a specific god detachment they also get that Locus, so extra damage for Nurgle, re-roll charges for Khorne, Advance and charge for Slaanesh, and a weird "you can't hit me" thing for Tzeentch.  Boon of Change (+1A, S, OR T), Fleshy Abundance(regenerate D3 wounds), Virulent Blessing(+1 to wound and 7+ is double damage), Miasma of Pestilence(-1 to hit the unit), and Historical Frenzy(fight in the psychic phase) are all possible powers that can be used on them.  Add on effects from artifacts like the Crimson Crown and extra attacks on wound rolls of 6+.  There is also the Daemonkin Ritualists detachment with the warlord trait that makes all wound rolls of 6(unmodified) add a mortal wound and the stratagem that gives +1S and A.  We can't forget the Hereticus and Malefic powers either as Prescience and Warptime are powerful additions as well as Mutated Invigoration (re-roll number of attacks), Cursed Earth(+1 to invulnerable save), and Infernal Power(re-roll 1's to hit and wound).  PLUS we can add the every familiar Stratagems of VotLW and Fury of Khorne.   Our final addition to the stack of buffs is the Dark Apostle and he has a +1 to wound buff.
So lets look at some math here, you can get +3 to wound(VotLW, Virulent Blessing, and Soultearer Portent), each 6 doing a mortal wound(Shepard of the True Faith), and each 7+(so a roll of 4+ on the die) doing 2 damage(Virulent Blessing) and each 6+(so 3+ on the die) gets you another attack(Crimson Crown). You can get +6S (1 for each Herald, Vessels for the Neverborn strat, and a Greater Possessed) for S11, +1 to hit(Prescience), and re-roll all hit and wound rolls of 1(Infernal Power) and +2A (Vessels of the Neverborn, Boon of Change - not guaranteed).
Lets say you have a MoP, Sorcerer, Dark Apostle, Greater Possessed, and a Herald of Nurgle and Khorne with the Crimson Crown all getting their buffs on the unit of Possessed.  That means each Possessed will get 2-4 attacks hitting on 2+ at S9.  Wound rolls of 3+ will get you another attack, 4+ will deal 2D, 6 will do a mortal wound, and you can re-roll wound rolls of 1.  Assuming you roll a 2 and get a total of 3 attacks each Possessed, this will result in...

Now, I don't normally do this but I'm going to break down the numbers because this just seems fucking crazy to me and I'm going to do this against a knight, just for shits and giggles.
So, with the assumption that there are 20 Possessed all getting to attack, rolling 2 attacks, getting Prescience, Putrescent Vitality, and Infernal Power off and being within 6" of a Nurgle Herald and a Khorne Herald who has the Crimson Crown(neither of them are in pure detachments), a Greater Possessed, and a Dark Apostle with Soultearer Portent.

Of those 60 attacks, 58 will hit, 56 will wound - 38 generating extra attacks, 28 dealing 2 damage, and 9 dealing mortal wounds.  Of the 1D wounds, 18 get through dealing 18 damage while the dual wounds deal 36 damage for 54 damage.  Add on the 9 mortal wounds for 63 damage.
Then the 38 extra attacks will hit with 37, wound with 36, 18 of those dealing 2D and 6 of them dealing mortal wounds for a secondary total of 42 wounds.

FOR A GRAND TOTAL OF 105 WOUNDS!!!  AGAINST A KNIGHT!!!  109 dead GEQ, 78 dead MEQ, 105 damage to pretty much any vehicle without an invulnerable save.  I went over my numbers a couple of times, and used an online app, and even with all the multipliers and potential errors and fractions, I came up with the same thing.  If I fucked up somewhere, please, please, please let me know and point it out to me cause this seems to crazy to be real.
Anyway, that is quite a few things that have to happen in order to make this work, but there is room for error.  No one thing will cause this to fail.  If you remove the Khorne herald and all his bonus attacks, you are still S8 with +3 to wound and still dealing 63 damage.  If you also remove the Nurgle Herald you are S7, with +2 to wound, still dealing 9 mortal wounds, but your normal damage drops to just under 30.  Boo hoo, your still killing a knight.  REMEMBER, this is all possible because of one stratagem called Chosen of the Pantheon.

I think I'm actually going to stop there.  There are a couple other more obvious combos like a Lord Discordant with Maulerfiends or Defilers in a Soulforged Pack detachment, stacking buffs on an Alpha Legion unit to get -3 to hit it, and using a bunch of the above buffs to make Obliterators way more dangerous, but they all seem rather superfluous compared to what I just showed us.  Thanks for reading and I am really curious to see all of your comments and remarks.

Until next time, keep them dice rollin.

This post has been sponsored by...

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