More 6th edition thoughts..

Well its been a couple of weeks now with the new edition of 40K, I am still in the process of digesting the rules, making changes to my army lists, and best of all just having fun playing it. Part of the fun of a new edition is creating new lists with your existing armies as the rules might have made something better or something worse. In the case of my Chaos Space Marines, I have to say I just love how some of these rules actually improved the army. This last weekend, I was finally able to play a larger point game, 2000 pts in a large team game. As this was my first large game of 6th, I decided to go with my Thousand Sons with some allied Chaos Daemons (Fateweaver and a squad of Pink Horrors with the changling). As I really love some of the new psychic powers, and lets face it, the Chaos powers are really not any good anymore I decided to go with Ahriman so that I could generate 3 powers with him. Upon multiple readings of both the rule book and the chaos marine faq and the codex, I discovered that my aspiring sorcerers are all mastery level 2 (mark of tzenntch allows you to cast 2 powers) however since I could only "buy" one power for them in the codex, I could only generate 1 power for them (which sucks). Not to bad as I could cast level 2 spells and if I roll a level 1 spell, could still use my force weapon in close combat. Not to mention that on average, I would be getting a 5+ deny the witch roll unless the enemy psycher is level 1 which would make it a 4+; about time my expensive aspiring sorcerers count for something. I had Ahriman roll on the Telepathy chart as I really loved the invisibility ability I got during my last game and rolled a 6 for Hallaucation.

This power is unbelievable, it effectively shuts down an enemy unit with in 24 inches (basically they cant move, run, shoot, assault or hit in CC)if you roll between a 2-4 and since its a malediction, it auto-hits. Even though you need to roll for this, I have to say, this does seem a little OP for me. I casted this several times to the annoyance of one of my opponents as it allowed Ahriman and his squad of thousand sons to punch through a huge squad of scrabs and munch on a big squad of immortals and the Stormlord. I love the power but I feel that GW might need to nerf it a little bit like maybe allowing you to shut down a single phase or maybe having to roll to hit it or limiting it to just the player turn and not the entire game turn. It is a level 2 power so you would need a level 2 character to cast it so it does limit it in a way but most armies can get level 2 psykers. If I was lucky and generated this power along all of my squads, I could see this starting fights in a competitve atmosphere like a tournament or with WAAC opponents. Then again, maybe its a blessing against WAAC players... lol. I also ran a Daemon prince in order to have 2 flying monstrous creatures and the new vector strikes ability. As a whole, I love the idea of running flying monstrous creatures that are hard to shoot at and can hit units with their strikes and still shoot any weapons. What I dont like is how the rule reads in regards to being hit and taking grounded tests.

The rule specifically says that Flying MC's take the test if they are "hit", so I can have say a las pistol ground my MC just by hitting it. This in fact happened to me and so my Daemon prince was then lit up by 2 squads of plasma and melta toting Vet squads in Chimeras and he promptly died before doing anything. We had a discussion on this and we might house rule to say that the shot needs to wound the MC before a grounded test needs to be taken. I really hope that GW Faqs this as huge blob squads or units with a high rate of fire can knock MC's out of the sky with a single 6 rolled. I know the entry also mentions a Jink move so maybe if you are hit you are to roll your jink save and then if you fail your roll your grounded test but the rule doesnt say that. Fateweaver is fine, if I fail the grounded test he just takes his 3 up invul save but what about MC's with no invul save or a 5+ one? That just kills Nids as they dont even have an invul save to start with. Also, whats the deal of making it a strength 9 with no armor saves allowed?

The next army I would like to try is my Tau as I feel 6th really gave them a boost compared to the other older armies out there. With the differences in rapid fire, assault moves for jetpack toting troopers, the Tau are finally a highly movable force capable of laying down tons of fire while redeploying if an enemy gets too close. I will just need to finish painting the army.

Back to the Thousand Sons..

I finally got my 3rd squad of Thousand Sons painted, my army now will be completely made of fearless units except for the sorcerer but as long as I keep him/her in a squad, they are fearless as well. I might trade out my possessed for termies but like I stated in an earlier post, I just love these guys. When GW released these models, I knew that I wanted to have at least a squad of them. Once the chaos codex dropped however and with it sub par rules to go along with the possessed, most people I know decided against them. I don't care, I keep using them as I just love the look of the models; besides, roll a 6 on the daemonkin chart and you might have a unit that could potentially take on any unit in the game. Combine them with an icon of slaannesh or Khorne and even if you roll something other then the dreaded 1, they can still put out a lot of damage.

If I drop the possessed, I could do a termie squad and replace an oblit for a vindicator which would provide me with another threat, a threat that just causes opponents to just concentrate on the vindi; it makes a pretty cheap bullet magnet, well cheap for the Chaos dex anyways. This last Saturday I tried my new army and it performed pretty good.

My thousand sons even though one squad was charged by a squad of killer kans held them for 3 turns of the game until the game ended. Yes I couldn't do anything to them but the fact that they held the squad and didn't allow them to run amok on my team-mates imperial guard squads helped us last until the end of the game. Artimus's squad helped him slaughter a squad of 4 thunderwolves after getting charged by them. No matter how many power weapons or rending hits my opponent put on the squad, their 4 + invul made it so that I would get a save no matter what. That and having Artimus (count as Kharn)in the squad made charging the squad pretty dangerous.

I plan on building a Rhino for them as well in order to keep all of my troops mobile. My local FLGS plans on running another campaign for April but this time the points limit will be 1500pts instead of 1250 like the one in March. For this one, my Thousand Sons might make an appearance...

The Fun of Gaming...

Well its been about 3 weeks since starting up with my Thousand Sons army again. So far its been pretty good.. I have played about 5 games with me winning 3 games and losing 2. One of the games that I lost was very close which could have gone either way. It was a kill points game and losing Artimus (count as Kharn) in the early parts of the game due to splitting him off from a squad and having him overkill a squad of Grey Hunters leaving him open for a melta gun shot to the face I think cost me the game. If I would have kept him in his squad, I could have killed the grey hunter squad, and then the other one. The game ended 7-6; was a terrific game and not once did I feel that I was getting slaughtered by a newer codex. Of course the player I played is top notch, and loves running lists with his space wolves differently then everybody else, I'm sure if he was running a missile spam list I would have been tabled.

In the next weeks or so, I am hoping to face off against the newer power builds to see how my list really stacks up. This might force me to go to bigger Tournaments to face them which I do plan on doing more of this year.
Our local GW will be running a campaign starting at 1250 where non-named characters will actually accrue experience and be able to "buy" abilities; again I might go with the Thousand Sons but due to the 1250pt limit, I would be seriously limited. I read the rules that the organizer put out and it looks to be top notch. With every game comes points that players can spend to "unlock" other Force Orgs; you begin with the required 1 HQ, 2 troops and just 1 of everything else but can unlock more choices by spending points.

You can also spend points on getting more points for you army up to 1500pts. Its 5 bucks to get in and all of the money goes toward prize support. I'm about 70% done on painting my third squad of Thousand Sons to add to my army in order to replace the Nightlords squad I have been using; these guys I might start running as Chosen and have them outflank in their rhino for some melta gun love which always helps. Pics are of the 3rd squad about 70% done.

My Thousand Sons List...

Sup everybody, I wanted to expand on my Thousand Sons army topic to give you an idea of what units I have in the army at 1750pts, why I take them and the the purpose that they serve in the list. To start with I want to talk about the HQ's that I take. In all of my 40K armies, if the points are 1500 points or more, I love to take 2 HQ's. I like having 2 IC's who when used properly can tip the scales in everything from an assault to adding to the ability of a squad to last longer. In all of my chaos armies, this definitely rings true and in this particular army I run the following HQ's -

HQ #1 - Chaos Sorcerer
Mark of Tzeentch, Warptime, Doombolt.
This HQ serves as my "all-rounder" IC, able to soak up the wounds and live with his 4+ inv save and being able to re-roll all hits and misses and use his force weapon due to him having the capability to cast 2 psychic powers makes him a threat to any IC who isn't eternal warrior. I have had this guy go up against a lot of IC's and win. His Doombolt also being able to re-roll all hits and wounds helps him contribute anti infantry firepower to any Thousand sons squad I join him too. I usually deploy him in a squad in a Rhino

HQ #2 - Artimus the Twisted
This guy is a recent addition to my army as after seeing this vampire counts fantasy model, I had to have it. Artimus is my conversion that I use as a count as Kharn, here we got a guy who for 165 points will give you 7 attacks on the charge, is immune to all psychic powers himself, gets an extra D6 against vehicles and with furious charge will wound all infantry on 2 up. Did I mention that he hits any opponent in CC on a +2? I deploy "Artimus" in another Thousand Son squad in a Rhino to deter any assaults on the squad. Even if I roll the dreaded "1" in CC, my whole army has a +4 up inv save so at least they get a chance of surviving the hit. In my last game this guy chewed through almost 2 squads of Grey Knight Terminators on his own!!! He is definitely worth the points and the flaw

Elites - Depending on what list I am taking I usually take a terminator suicide squad. Lately as I just adore the models, I have started taking Possessed once again

Elites #1 - Possessed Squad (9)
Okay, okay, before I get chewed out for taking these guys here me out. A pure Thousand Sons army lacks any real punch in CC. With the addition of 2 IC, this is certainly mitigated however I still need a unit to bring the pain if I need it. Being an avid gambler, I love playing the odds. With this unit I get a 1 in 6 chance for it to be game breaking, but as long as I roll over a 2 I'm good. Yes during my last game these guys rolled a 1 and did absolutely nothing but look evil and nasty but having the potential to get rending or power weapons (with strength 5 mind you) is nothing to scoff at. I also equip them with an icon of Khorne so that each possessed marine gets base 3 attacks. In one game I had these guys roll a 2 and with furious charge and almost 36 attacks wipe out a jetbike seer council and a wraithlord before dying to Dark Reapers.

Troops #1 and #2 - Thousand Sons Squad (9)
I started running Thousand Sons during the last year of the last Chaos codex. These guys definitely got a buff in the 4th ed codex though I do miss the old 2 wound models and not have to test for any psychic abilities. For 23 points a piece you get a guy that is fearless, a +4 invul save, Slow and purposeful, and an AP3 Bolter. Now at face value, these guys are not too bad, you get a lot for the price. Where the squad gets extremely expensive is in the Aspiring sorcerer. For every squad of Thousand Sons, you need to pay for a 60pts Sorcerer. Now if it was 60 points with a psychic power of your choice, I wouldn't have a problem but the fact that you need to pay for his psychic power as well means that you could be spending from 70 to 90 pts.

I usually run these guys as cheap as I can (9 man squad/Rhino/Doombolt) that runs around 289 pts. Lately in order to combat some of the newer "hard hitting" army, I have been equipping the Sorcerer's with Warptime making it a scary proposition for any IC who gets into combat with the squad as the force weapon could bring about the death of them. As mentioned above, I usually run each of my HQ's in each squad which makes the squad believe it or not quite formidable in Assault. In my last game against a Space Wolves player, one of my squads with my Sorcerer Lord actually took out a 3 man Thunderwolf squad in assault.

Troops #3 - Chaos Space Marine Squad
Until I finish with my third thousand sons squad, I am using one of my nightlords squads as my third troop choice. For the past 2 years since the chaos codex came out for their points cost, the basic CSM was seen as the best bang for your buck. Here you got a guy with a bolter, bolt pistol, CCW, and a high leadership all for the cost of 15 points. With the ability to take icons and 2 special weapons, here is a squad that can be tailored for just about any role. Of course when Grey hunters came out, this all changed as I think they are now the undisputed kings of the best overall for the points cost. The drawback of course is that they are not fearless and in my hands tend to always get run down in an assault. For this list I usually use them to hold objectives but equipping them with melta guns I really find that the best use of them is helping with tank hunting. The last couple of games, these guys really didnt perform for me which is why I am considering replacing them as they really dont fit the army. Maybe I will use these guys as chosen as having 4 melta guns outflanking in a rhino is nothing but win..

Heavy Supports #1 and #2 - Obliterators
These guys are nothing but win; her you got guys who can switch from any energy weapon from special to heavy each turn which makes these guys the "swiss army knife" of the chaos army. Lately however, they have been nothing but a disappointment for me. In the last 3 games I had, these guys when I deployed them in cover did nothing but miss with their lascannon shots, overheated their plasma cannons, and then just got doubled out via return fire. So as you can tell, my dice have been horrendous with these guys. I might go back to using them in a deep strike role where I could put their twin linked meltas to better use..

Heavy Support #3 - Vindicator
Wow has this guy been a surprise. This guy has not only survived my last 5 games, but has actually taken out 2 landraiders, multiple squads out in the open, to devastators in cover. This tank has been shot at and shot at by multiple weapons and the worst I have gotten on it is an immobilized due to me rolling 2 1's trying to go through cover. I am thinking of building 2 as everything I have read is that 2 of these guys in an army makes them a lot more effective.

Well there you have it guys, my 1750pt pre-hersey list. In my opinion, its pretty balanced with elements to deal with virtually any type of army. About the only thing that I might change is to drop an HQ, add in the other Vindicator and maybe go with terminators instead of the possessed.

In my last 5 games, I have won 3 and lost 2 so I will keep playing it in order to see if I will stay with it. Let me know what you guys think...

The Return of the Thousand Sons...

With my possessed Rhino all but done I am ready this weekend to take out my Pre-heresy Thousand Sons for a drive once again. My next step is to make my army completely thousand sons as I am still using a squad of Nightlords for my third troops selection. I bought a Thousand Sons army off of a friend of mine that use to be the local GW manager. Alas he was transferred over to another store but at one of the last days he was at my local store, he held a Bizarre Bazaar. The army contained 2 squads of Thousand Sons, 4 of the metal sorcerer models, a landraider, 2 rhinos, Ahriman, and a lascannon Pred, all for 40 bucks. Since this was his first try at painting models, he warned me about how rough the paint job was.

He was right on that but the models were complete, and 40 bucks is freaking cheap for all of that; nothing a little simple green cant fix and with these models helped round out my collection. In addition to the 3rd squad, I will be including a Rhino for them which means forgeworld doors for it to match my other rhinos. This is the expensive part but I love how my other ones look with these doors. My local Battle Bunker is really far however during my work week, I do work close to it 3 days a week. I could probably make my way out there during a lunch break again but we shall see, I might just order them or even place them on my Christmas list. At the least this will allow me to paint up the squad for it.

This past Saturday my Thousand Sons had the pleasure to putting the hurt on the Emperor's finest, the Grey Knights. I played a very good player who though was playing a less the competitive army, still gave me a good game. Gearing my Thousand Sons for CC, they actually did very well against Grey Knight Terminators.

Gearing up the Aspiring Sorcerers with Warp time and including an IC in the squad actually makes them pretty survivable in CC especially when one of the IC's is Kharn. The game did go to turn 6 with me contesting his objective with a Rhino but again if used right the Grey Knights could be a very potent force.

Maybe not against some of the newer 'dexes but definitely against some of the older ones. Pics are of the army, on my next post I will list the army list, go over each unit, and go over the paint scheme that I used. Until next time

continuing on the path of Chaos...

After reading the last White Dwarf (October 2010), I am inspired now to try to play my pure Thousand Sons list again. Yeah, yeah, my Chaos space wolves are fun to play and all but I really wanted to get them more painted before taking them out again. I am annoyed with taking a mostly black primer filled army, though I have my HQ's and 25 marines done, I still have the rest of the blood claws squad, my rune priest, my 2 long fangs squad, my 20 dogs, and my dread to do. In the last White Dwarf, one of the editors talked about building his Word Bearers army.

Here is this guy who read some black library books and decided to take what he considered a "fluffy" Word Bearers army for as he put it, he wanted to bring some of their villiany to the tabletop. As we all know, running a Chaos Army nowadays is more something about the hobby then wanting to be competitive. Yes there are still competitive builds out their, but usually they involve a lash and spamming of oblits. Among the units that he used was a Daemon Prince, Possessed, and summon daemons. Many of the units in his army are considered some of the worst in the game and not very competitive yet this guy wanted to build an army that appealed to him and it shows. Of course some people will say that this is GW's attempt at trying to sell more spawn models, or possessed, etc but truth be told, these latest chaos models are some of the best looking that GW has released for Chaos. Their rules might not be up to par but I am a victim of wanting to play with models that I like the look of. The paint job is very good, not heavy metal good but definitely on par with some of the armies I've seen in my area. I really loved the way he brought his possessed and daemon prince together by giving them the same color of skin and incorporating possessed bits on his aspiring champs in his CSM squads. His vehicles were very well done, so good that I copied the way he did his rhinos, I built and am starting to paint a rhino just like his. My possessed squad needed a rhino and with my spare parts I created a rhino "worthy" to ferry my possessed around.

My possessed "gunner" i created with some spare possessed bits and gave him a plasma gun/pistol that I plan on using as a count as combi-plasma. I really didnt want to cut up a chaos terminator combi-melta for this and I have plenty of plasma pistol arms laying around that I decided to use that instead. The tentacles i got from spare spawn bits which I will paint to match the skin of my possessed squad to follow their theme. I am also going to build a new daemon prince following the white dwarf example and will be painting his skin exactly like the possessed to tie the too units together. I will continue to paint my space wolves as well hoping to possibly getting the 15 man blood claws squad done in the next week and a half.

Lately our local space wolf player has begun to play his wolves similar to mine which will provide me with great practice on how to take out this type of build. As if I didn't want to try something else I am also playing my Tau again. I have played about 3 games with them so far since I shelved them almost a year ago.. I just wanted to see how bad it is to play this army. So far I can honestly say that yes they need an update but I am 2-1 with them and the change of game has been really fun. I will post more info on my Tau army in my next post. Pics are of my pre-heresy Thousand sons Rhinos and my Possessed about 80% done.