Saturday 18 February 2012

EMAIL IN: Chaos List?



EMAIL IN:

hey dude thinking of doing chaos have a wee look at my list let me know what u think its 

HQ lucius the eternal 160 

HQ lord slaanesh power weapon 110 

Troops plague marines x 5 meltagun x 2 rhino and bolter 175 4 of these 

raptors x 5 meltaguns x 2 120 2 of these 

chosen x 5 meltaguns x 3 flamers x 2 

predator with lascannon sides 130 2 of these 

obliterators x 2 150 


what do u think?



REPLY:
Well, first thing's first - the Troops are solid, obviously. Nothing wrong with Plague Marines, except the awful metal models thankfully replaced by Finecast ones that are merely 'mediocre' rather than 'ugly'. Well, and the points cost isn't too nice either, but it's still passable for what they do.

Heavy Support...well, obviously Oblits have their issues nowadays, with the insancw amount of anti-infantry put out by Dark Eldar, Grey Knights, Necrons - and even Nids! - being such that infantry that starts as the only viable target for so much weaponry (or the most important target, perhaps) stands to get felled in fairly short order, irrespective of Save and Wounds.

That said, it's hard to argue with Oblits, being as they are one of the very few sources of ranged Melta fire, e.g. Multi-Meltas, in the Chaos Codex (the other, of course, is the Chaos Dreadnought)... Your Predators are a little overpriced, but the fact is that they can do a job, and do it decently well.... plus of course, I know that you have the models built, which is obviously a boon. Not of Tzeentch, but a Boon nevertheless.

Chosen are decent, and certainly versatile - the issue with them is the lack of Transport forces them up close and personal as a speed bump and Scout Block - this is a role I enjoy using units for, and they are basically Chaos Space Marines' only option in this regard, but the sad fact is that they ARE relatively weak - as a result, I'd skim the points off that you invested in the Flamers, if facing a horde army of some kind, you'll probably get killed before employing the Flamers anyway, and they aren't going to be enough to swing the game... plus you'll probably opt to deploy slightly further back than the 18" line, in the hopes of slowing the foe for multiple turns, not just one. Given the assault range from an open-topped Transport is usually 12+2+1+6 = 21", you should probably aim to be 23" away from the foe where you can't use intervening terrain to slow them, and they don't have Fleet. If they do, aim to be 17" away, as this will be far enough that the vehicle is forced to move towards you - when this is the case, you should have deployed your troops pretty much exclusively on the other flank, in order to disrupt their line and cause it to advance unevenly - if you can be closer while using this tactic, do so - forcing them to cover a greater area of table in order to reach you gives your (limited) shooting more turns to take effect, and the Plague marines more chance to survive and make their time.

Raptors can also effect this, after a fashion, though they will sometimes be better employed Deep Striking into the heart (not literally) of the foe, and delivering a crushing blow on one flank to their fire support elements, or disrupting their advance by simply getting in their road.

Dropping a unit of Raptors on something like a unit of Broadsides, or a Squadron of Russes, can be a crippling move considering the low points investment you've made for what CAN turn out to be a surgically precise elimination of a major threat.

Bear in mind of course that there will be plenty of games when starting the Raptors is more advantageous, as fire directed at them is fire not directed at your Troops choices, and 2 Marines with Meltas that can reach my rear armour with relative ease is pretty difficult to ignore. If you don't use the ugly-ass Raptor models, you can easily conceal the unit entirely behind a Rhino chassis, and protect them as the advance, at least temporarily.

HQ is really the weakest section of the list.

Lucius the Eternal is a decent Character, but there really isn't anything he can do better than Kharn the Betrayer, Butcher of Skalathrax, Chosen of the Blood God, etc etc. Kharn has the ability to make Dreadnoughts eat their own face too, which can prove handy when people try to tie your Plague Marines up all game knowing that they won't be likely to effect any damage with Krak Grenades.

The Chaos Lord is okay, but the fact that he can take a Combi-Weapon without reducing his A characteristic is too good to overlook in my view - that said, if you can't take two of these guys, I figure better to just have a single Sorceror (probably Lash I suppose) or even to take a Chosen Rhino - even if you never plan to use it for the Chosen, by sticking Kharn on his own in the Metal Bawks, you force your opponent to try and destroy an additional Rhino - not the hardest thing in the world, and it loses him the ablative shielding of a unit to absorb Krak Missiles and the like (Boo! no Eternal Warrior for Kharn!) but useful against foes for whom this is a less important concern against, such as those that primarily rely on Autocannons or such weapons.

TL;DR?

Change the HQ, by finding points from Flamers in Chosen, which are largely useless without a Transport anyway. Get Kharn, and maybe a Sorceror, maybe two Rhinos for the Chosen, which can be used to screen full Rhinos anyway [Turn sideways after T1 move, deploy Smoke, everybody gets Cover] - Maybe you'll even get the points to put the Flamers back in, in which case Outflanking becomes a more viable alternative, even if not exactly good.

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