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General
Tips
Fighting with a chaos army is like fighting with normal marines but better.
Ok, so you don't get the 'Shaken rule' but you instead get greater daemons,
normal daemons and a host of other cool stuff. You may have to take Mk1
plasma weapons, but they can fire every turn, and the heavy plasma has
sustained fire!. You may not get jump-packs, but berserkers are better
than any assault troop that does. You may not get assault cannon, but
you do have the reaper autocannon which is longer ranged and allows you
to reroll a sustained fire dice and cannot blow you up! The only thing
which chaos have no substitute for is the landspeeder, but what the hell,
it isn't that great anyway.
If you really miss these things and want them in you
chaos army, then take a post heresy chapter and get the best of both worlds,
but as nothing is ever free remember that you must pay and extra 50% on
top of the normal cost of the weapon.
When fighting just try to concentrate your fire onto
small areas of the opposition and when that is destroyed, target something
else. If you dilute your fire between more targets you will be beaten
as every army will outnumber you, even Eldar can buy two shuriken catapult
armed guardians for the same as your basic marine with boltgun. When they
advance and get close, sit tight and rapid fire, this should devastate
their front ranks and then hit 'em with berserkers and daemons.
Chaos Lord
Your chaos lord is going to be the most powerful character in your army
without taking a special character. The fact he can have all the marks
of chaos and be a psyker gives him an edge over any champion or sorcerer.
My own personal chaos lord costs over 400 points (Draken).
Additionally if you are not using the Black Legion, why not make up a
chapter master for the legion you are using, or devise your own legion.
Draken is the Chapter Master of the Iron Warriors and thus has had a stat
increase (WD 209) as such. Using these rules and nasty combinations of
wargear cards / chaos rewards you can make a very evil character. How
about a L4 psyker with a 2+ terminator save, weapon skill 10, who frenzies,
has strength 8 and toughness 7? Just give you chaos lord daemon weapon,
+1 BS and WS, combat drugs, marks of khorne, tzeentch and nurgle and terminator
armour and there you go, he only costs 378 points and can still have 2
more wargear cards/chaos rewards (a chapter master is allowed 4) and the
mark of slannesh.
Icon Bearer
A very useful character as like the chaos lord he can have any marks he
wants (except tzeentch). Even better is the range of standards you can
have, ok, some may not seem good on the face due to short range and stuff,
but try giving him the plague banner and marks of khorne and nurgle and
a jump-pack, then use him to support a couple of champions with jump-packs
when they enter combat unleash the spell and watch your opponent wither
away, or use it to kill that pesky character that still has 1 wound and
lots of armour and fields (no saving throw allowed for the plague banner).
How about the the blasted standard or the flesh banner for lots of short
ranged hits to support a normal unit? Try the warp banner if you are worried
about entering combat without daemons (a lucky roll will allow you to
summon a greater daemon :)
Chaos Sorcerers
Excellent! What else is there to say about Chaos Sorcerers (well, Lords)
they are every bit as good as Librarians and then some. Fancy getting
first turn in the psychic phase? no problem, watch the enemy die by plague
wind or some other power and see their amazement as you bring in daemons!
as far as I am concerned they are second only to Farseers in psychic ability
and certainly better than any other psyker in the game. The fact they
can choose from 20 psychic powers (8 adeptus, 8 librarian and 4 chaos)
ensures they are the best. Give them a force weapon and a couple of wargear
cards and rewards (plague sword/cloud of flies etc) and watch the enemy
die in droves. Unless you are silly and take a level 1 or 2 sorcerer in
which case die and may slaanesh consume your soul.
P.S. Ahriman, what else needs to be said?
Greater Daemons
All greater daemons kick ass, what the Bloodthirster lacks in a daemonic
aura and psychic powers he makes up for in pure killing power, and the
others may not be the best fighters in h-t-h, but they are psykers, even
so WS of 9 or 7 is nothing to sniff at (especially not with T8 and 10
wounds!). With daemons take whichever fits your army best and ensure you
have the models to support, as they can be banished if you have no more
models with that mark left in the army.
Champions
Exalted champions and Mighty champions are brilliant, give them jump-packs,
plague swords, bionic arms, axes of Khorne, aura of slaanesh etc and again
watch the enemy die in droves. If you don't want all your eggs together
give one a daemon weapon instead of your Lord. These are excellent at
killing anything. Remember also they can lead squads, and in the case
of Noise Marines they can take Noise Marine weapons... BS7 and a blastmaster?
of if that isn't good enough take a mighty champion and give him seeking
ammo and armour piercing ammo, hit on a 2+ with a penetration of D20+3D6+8
(46!!!) watch the enemies prize tank bite the dust and then mop up the
lighter vehicles on the next turn!
Aspiring
Champions
As above try 1 with armour piercing ammo and one with seeking ammo, or
targeters or whatever. Or give them a collar of khorne to guard your unit
from lightning arc and the like. Even better they can be possessed by
daemons, so give them a mark and no wargear and you can possess them and
give away no VP's the only downside is that they have to lead a squad
and are not independent. Even use standard ones to lead normal squads.
Terminators
Again, the noise marine option, give them blastmasters and sonic blasters
and mow down the enemy. Standard chaos terminators are just as scary with
the reaper and heavy flamer. Make them plague marines and then they are
even harder to kill. Khorne terminators really deserve that little bit
extra spent on them to allow them post heresy wargear (lightning claws!!!!!!!)
WS 5, 2+ save on 2D6, 3 attacks and 2 parries! even wolf guard require
an underwear change vs these monsters.
Veterans
The best infiltrators for any army. Lictors are harder but only come in
1's. Give them 2 equal ranged heavy weapons use them to harry the enemy
before the main army gets there. I like a squad of 3 with 2 flamers, soon
clear out pesky weapons teams in hard cover. Try h-t-h weapons and immediately
bog down the enemy. Personally I have 38 of these excellent troops and
bloody hell are they worth it!
Marines
The core of any army and absolutely brilliant and only 25 points a piece,
with options for heavy, special and h-t-h weapons you can have a squad
of 3 with purely heavy weapons, led by a champion and bingo no more marines
hanging around (like in a devastator squad) and the champion gives them
decent leadership and a tough fight in h-t-h. Tool them up with 2 swords
and support your Berserkers and infiltrators. I like squads of 5 with boltguns
and 1 plasma gun, sit back and rapid fire and fire your plasma gun every
turn! Nice!
Plague Marines
Tough tactical marines, with high T they are great against Eldar as their
f**king shuriken catapults won't do so much damage. Not much else to say.
Berserkers
These guys are constantly fighting with genestealers and howling banshees
for the prize of best close combat troop. With the ability to frenzy and
parry they would be bad enough, but with a 12" charge, up to 3 attacks
and a 2+ save they are lethal. Give them swords and stuff for troops so
they win, and against vehicles and characters takes power axes and power
fists
Thousand Sons
Don't rate them at all, I have no Tzeentch daemons and Energy drain is
just too dangerous to field any of these. When I finally do they will
be in bulk and form strong tactical squads.
Noise Marines
Cool weapons and being immune to break tests allows you to field them
in very small squads. The blastmaster may be short ranged but it is very
powerful, (same armour pen as a battlecannon!) and the sonic blaster is
expensive but the best basic weapon you can buy, with 2 sus fire dice
and a long range and a decent save mod. Excellent troops, I have 6 but
want at least 15.
Bikers
Good for hit and run with powerfists or approaching vehicles, but not
really very good other than that. Against eldar you need big units or
they will soon be decimated.
Dreadnoughts
Very good with the havoc racks, but to unstable due to fire frenzy, try
possessing it and then have fun (I have a Tzeentch possessed one with
twin lascannon, multiple missile launcher and a cyclone upgrade from the
havoc, it costs 600 points but has yet to be destroyed.) For close combat
avoid possession (it leaves it with WS 5) but give it power scourges against
troops and thunder hammers against single targets.
ONE WORD OF WARNING ABOUT DAEMONS; PROTECT YOUR MARKED
MODELS OR LOSE YOUR DAEMONS!!!!
Flesh hounds
Flesh hounds make excellent assassins, they can charge up to 20", charge
anything within range and are immune to all psychics. Send them after
Warlocks, Wierdboyz and other lesser psykers and watch them run. If you
can get enough, (at least 5) try and take on some of the bigger psykers,
but remember they only strength 5.
Bloodletters
Bloodletters are excellent for slicing through ranks of troops. They are
good fighters with 2 attacks and a parry that do D3 damage. Even better,
they can regenerate damage on a 4+, I have seen 22 bloodletters knocked
down and 17 of them stand right back up. Things like that are amazing
for your opponents morale
Juggernaut
These monsters are very good at destroying tough characters and creatures,
and can even make a good dent in vehicles. Just make sure you charge!
The rider should be a good, tooled up champion. See earlier for suggestions.
Beasts of Nurgle
I have never found a good use for these, the only reason I can see to
take them is to cause a bit more fear. I don't recommend them though.
Plague bearers
As with Bloodletters these are very good at massacring troops, but they
are also very good against tough characters with weak armour such as orks.
Try to field them in as large a group as possible, as unlike other Nurgle
things they have a low toughness.
Nurglings
Good for scaring people early on in the battle as they can be deployed
with the army instead of being summoned. They are best used to tie up
certain units in hand to hand combat while the rest of the army advances.
They have enough wounds to draw the fire of an entire squad before they
go down, and as with Rippers for tyranids, they are cheap.
Horrors
Very useful creatures to have as they double when killed. Unfortunately
blue horrors are not very good. If you want to use them gather a large
unit before summoning them or they probably will not pay for themselves,
if you get a large enough group you also gain the better Tzeentch powers
and can have a lot of fun with them.
Flamers
I don't rate flamers, they are too short ranged. D3 wounds is good in
close combat, but Bloodletters get that and a parry etc. On the plus side
they are the only daemon with a ranged attack and can be sued to surprise
your opponent if he doesn't know about them
Disc of Tzeentch
They may be very small but discs are great. Mount a sorcerer on one, and
you can make a very nasty close combat combination that causes fear and
has a 24" charge range. As they are hovering they can also fly over obstacles
and smaller troops.
Daemonettes
Daemonettes are very good in close combat, and in some ways better than
Plaguebearers and Bloodletters as they have higher weapon skill, strength
and more attacks. However they have no parry and no special ability. Generally
very good, but more use supporting other troops who can do more damage
to harder characters. They are excellent against Eldar, as most Eldar
will be wounded on a 2+.
Fiends
The Fiends ability to count fumbles as doubles is very useful as it only
has S4 and needs as many hits as possible to do damage. The extra attack
is also useful as it adds +1 if you win the combat. Generally a good daemon,
but the attack power is too low to make best use of its extra speed.
Steeds of Slaanesh
As with the Disc of Tzeentch, a champion on one of these causes fear and
has a 24" charge range. Additionally the opponent can potentially lose
D3 points from their combat score. Other than being a very useful and
fast mount, Slaaneshi Steeds don't have a great amount going for them.
Vehicles
Really there isn't much to be said here that hasn't already been
said in the Space Marine section on vehicles.
Vehicle cards for Chaos however are another matter. Use Possession and
Nurgle Infestation on Predators and Dreadnoughts to increase survivability
and remove the nasty Ld check for dreads. Destroyer hasn't much use as
you should be using landraiders and such for transport or they should
have additional armour. Warp Amp is very good on Rhinos and such as it
lowers Ld value for break tests etc and so you should get Slaanesh summoning
points faster. Combi bolters aren't really worth anything. Use Warp Flame
on vehicles for effect, but remember that all these vehicles are possessed
by daemons so if you lose your last marked model, any machines of that
god become inactive due to lack of daemon.
Abbadon
A very good character, take a bodyguard of really nasty terminators
and then teleport in for free. The daemon sword will tear through just
about anything, and the lightning claw will help. Use him purely for destroying
super hard vehicles and characters and generally really beating the shit
out of your opponent.
Ahriman
A not bad psyker that seems cursed to be daemonic attacked (or
merely summoned for a board meeting with the Boss). The Black Staff means
that you can really kick ass with a minimum amount of warp cards. Move
him up with the normal marines and use them to protect him and him to
enhance them and really get in the thick of it where his powers can be
best used.
Kharn
Right up there with a souped up Mephiston as possibly the hardest
Space Marine character. An S7 weapon that cannot be parried and that never
fumbles is amazing. Combined with a 2+ rerollable save and 6 wounds he
is near unstoppable. Use him to tear the middle out of anything. Characters,
troops and vehicles alike will fall before Gorechild. Protect him with
a unit of berserkers and watch out for lascannon, krak missiles etc while
you charge up the battlefield.
Cypher
Don't like him at all. Very cheesy, evil to fight against if
you are Dark Angels (he can force your Deathwing and characters to move
away from the main battle to where the enemy wants you). They should have
stuck with a footnote about him and no more. The model is crap too.
Fabius Bile
Another character that is let down by a major flaw. He has to
be the leader, rather than an independent character. This means it is
Abaddon or Fabius, and personally I choose Abbadon every time. He has
potentially for being rather fitting with an entirely nurgle or slaanesh
army, but Abaddon is better for actually using in battle.
Huron Blackheart
Again a character that will fight Abbadon to be leader and again
I prefer Abbadon. Blackheart seems to be a short cut to fighting as Imperial
Marines with chaos and imperial wargear all being cheap. If you want post
heresy wargear be a man and pay the extra damn 50% don't wuss out and
take Blackheart, he is a pale imitation of the true Warlord.
Chaos
Cult
Use them as cannon fodder, buy lots of cultists and stick them at the
front of the army and use the psykers in try and draw out Daemonic Attack
etc from your opponent, or to risk getting too close to nasty things for
using short ranged powers.
Daemon
World
I like these because you can get knights and I like knights.
Personally I have a unit of 5 knights lead by a champion with a psyker
supporting them. Things like this are very unusual and actually very good.
The horse gives the carapace +1 save, making it comparable to power armour.
A 16" charge range is always very good. Generally use the daemon
world units as slightly better cannon fodder for the Marines.
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