It has been about three weeks since my last game of 40k in which I squeaked out a win over Ian’s Eldar with a Noise Marine/Obliterator/Heldrake/Bike/Summoning Prince army. I need to get back in the swing of things here, but most of my time is spent trying to figure out Warmachine. At this point, I only know what my army does. I don’t know all the dirty tricks of the other factions, which are myriad. Even within a faction you can see a variety of play styles depending on the warcaster you pick. My strategy has been to play a list that shuts the other guy down for a turn so I can figure out the dirty tricks while the game is in progress and not get my ass kicked. It works most of the time. If I weren’t such a n00b, I would have made it to the finals of last night’s tournament instead of getting my caster killed at the top table in round 2 by a dumb mistake. Great game for making you want to punch yourself in the face!
Onto the Monstrous Creatures! Will I like any of them? Who cares!
Spined Chaos Beast
You know what? I would dismiss these out of hand as useless but for the fact that they are Elites choices, so they don’t deprive you of anything good. If I pay 165 points for Nurgle and drop one to three of these into some ruins for 2+ cover, my opponent has some problems; even if he does have Wave Serpents. Or I can pay the same for Slaanesh ones and have them rush alongside the rest of the army. On their own, they aren’t very good with only 4 wounds, IWND, a 6” move and 3 WS5 S7 attacks. They are also unstable on LD5.
I’m talking myself out of them here.
What I’m sayin’ is, alongside three Slaanesh Grinders, 20 Flesh Hounds with a Khorne Herald, 9 Screamers, three Slaanesh Spined Beasts wouldn’t be the worst decision in a world since the other guy probably only has one or two CC baddies. Let’s give them a C+ as an almost above average unit just for being an Elites choice that isn’t completely worthless.
Giant Chaos Spawn
Well, they’re Chaos Daemons only, but they aren’t Daemons and can’t deep strike so they footslog it 6” at a clip. One third of the time in combat they get FNP 2+ because it says to roll on their random chart at the start of every fight subphase. That’s nice. It’s very cheap and has a lot of S6 AP2 attacks, and even 4+ armor. The only thing wrong with it is it’s slow and fairly easy to kill later on in the game when the more immediate threats have been dealt with. And frankly, that’s the deal killer because Daemons need everything advancing together to weather the storm of shooting before crashing into the enemy lines, and this won’t be there in time for the party.
Uraka the Warfiend
He competes poorly in a very crowded HQ slot. He’s a weaker daemon prince with no wings, but has a lot of attacks on the charge he’ll never get because he’s too slow and too flimsy to survive the turn he hits the board. You’re basically paying 200 points to drop this guy on the table and go “BLOO BLOO BLOO BLOO!” at the other guy so he becomes very scared and runs away while shooting at him, which he would do anyway. Khorne Herald with axe, locus of wrath and 15+ Hounds is all the Khorne you’ll ever need.
Mamon, Daemon Prince of Nurgle
He has a unique statline bolstered by T7, W5 and FNP to go with shrouding. Other than that, he’s packing an AP3 poisoned 2+ flamer that will probably just make his charge longer. If he were a heavy support choice, he’d be better because he’s not bad, but there are better things to do with your HQ slots. Mostly, he’s a CC beatstick who’s a bit on the slow side, but if you can drop him off an icon on turn 2 both with a toe in ruins and in flamer distance to a suitable unit, he’ll do well.
Well, that concludes the CSM portion of the review. I consider the Fire Raptor almost a must-have for CSM, and yet I have no plans to get one. Between those, bale Drakes and Dreadclaws, Chaos can easily rule the skies, taking out the AA threats early and dropping off OS troops in the late game. There’s a list there somewhere.
Lemmee see...
Sorcerer, combi-melta
5 CSM, meltagun, combi-melta, dreadclaw
5 CSM, meltagun, combi-melta, dreadclaw
5 CSM, meltagun, combi-melta, dreadclaw
Heldrake, baleflamer
Heldrake, baleflamer
Hell Blade, hellstorm autocannon
Fire Raptor, balefire missiles, reaper autocannons, Vessel of Tzenahk the Occluder
Fire Raptor, balefire missiles, reaper autocannons, warpflame gargoyles
Fire Raptor, balefire missiles, reaper autocannons, warpflame gargoyles
Wall of Martyrs Bunker, comms relay
1850
Nobody has enough AA to deal with that. Okay, so set up the bunker somewhere in a safe corner, preferable behind other terrain. First turn the melta-free Claw comes in by the comms relay and one other comes in and scoots somewhere safe. Then it’s game on. You have 6 OS units, 9 flyers that can threaten just about anything. Drop pod armies are a concern, but you can manage them with smart deployment. If my Fire Raptor with Vessel lives, I get D3 VP! That list scares the hell out of me, but it costs so much money to build I wouldn’t worry about ever facing it. But Christmas is coming, so maybe I will ask my mommy to buy me it.
Onto the Monstrous Creatures! Will I like any of them? Who cares!
Spined Chaos Beast
You know what? I would dismiss these out of hand as useless but for the fact that they are Elites choices, so they don’t deprive you of anything good. If I pay 165 points for Nurgle and drop one to three of these into some ruins for 2+ cover, my opponent has some problems; even if he does have Wave Serpents. Or I can pay the same for Slaanesh ones and have them rush alongside the rest of the army. On their own, they aren’t very good with only 4 wounds, IWND, a 6” move and 3 WS5 S7 attacks. They are also unstable on LD5.
I’m talking myself out of them here.
What I’m sayin’ is, alongside three Slaanesh Grinders, 20 Flesh Hounds with a Khorne Herald, 9 Screamers, three Slaanesh Spined Beasts wouldn’t be the worst decision in a world since the other guy probably only has one or two CC baddies. Let’s give them a C+ as an almost above average unit just for being an Elites choice that isn’t completely worthless.
Giant Chaos Spawn
Well, they’re Chaos Daemons only, but they aren’t Daemons and can’t deep strike so they footslog it 6” at a clip. One third of the time in combat they get FNP 2+ because it says to roll on their random chart at the start of every fight subphase. That’s nice. It’s very cheap and has a lot of S6 AP2 attacks, and even 4+ armor. The only thing wrong with it is it’s slow and fairly easy to kill later on in the game when the more immediate threats have been dealt with. And frankly, that’s the deal killer because Daemons need everything advancing together to weather the storm of shooting before crashing into the enemy lines, and this won’t be there in time for the party.
Uraka the Warfiend
He competes poorly in a very crowded HQ slot. He’s a weaker daemon prince with no wings, but has a lot of attacks on the charge he’ll never get because he’s too slow and too flimsy to survive the turn he hits the board. You’re basically paying 200 points to drop this guy on the table and go “BLOO BLOO BLOO BLOO!” at the other guy so he becomes very scared and runs away while shooting at him, which he would do anyway. Khorne Herald with axe, locus of wrath and 15+ Hounds is all the Khorne you’ll ever need.
Mamon, Daemon Prince of Nurgle
He has a unique statline bolstered by T7, W5 and FNP to go with shrouding. Other than that, he’s packing an AP3 poisoned 2+ flamer that will probably just make his charge longer. If he were a heavy support choice, he’d be better because he’s not bad, but there are better things to do with your HQ slots. Mostly, he’s a CC beatstick who’s a bit on the slow side, but if you can drop him off an icon on turn 2 both with a toe in ruins and in flamer distance to a suitable unit, he’ll do well.
Well, that concludes the CSM portion of the review. I consider the Fire Raptor almost a must-have for CSM, and yet I have no plans to get one. Between those, bale Drakes and Dreadclaws, Chaos can easily rule the skies, taking out the AA threats early and dropping off OS troops in the late game. There’s a list there somewhere.
Lemmee see...
Sorcerer, combi-melta
5 CSM, meltagun, combi-melta, dreadclaw
5 CSM, meltagun, combi-melta, dreadclaw
5 CSM, meltagun, combi-melta, dreadclaw
Heldrake, baleflamer
Heldrake, baleflamer
Hell Blade, hellstorm autocannon
Fire Raptor, balefire missiles, reaper autocannons, Vessel of Tzenahk the Occluder
Fire Raptor, balefire missiles, reaper autocannons, warpflame gargoyles
Fire Raptor, balefire missiles, reaper autocannons, warpflame gargoyles
Wall of Martyrs Bunker, comms relay
1850
Nobody has enough AA to deal with that. Okay, so set up the bunker somewhere in a safe corner, preferable behind other terrain. First turn the melta-free Claw comes in by the comms relay and one other comes in and scoots somewhere safe. Then it’s game on. You have 6 OS units, 9 flyers that can threaten just about anything. Drop pod armies are a concern, but you can manage them with smart deployment. If my Fire Raptor with Vessel lives, I get D3 VP! That list scares the hell out of me, but it costs so much money to build I wouldn’t worry about ever facing it. But Christmas is coming, so maybe I will ask my mommy to buy me it.