Chaos Space Marine.. the RPG...

Talk about awesome News!!! Fantasy Flight games just released details on their next 40K RPG. Called Black Crusade we can finally play as chaos space marines!! Since the release of deathwatch last year I have been hoping that they would finally release a Chaos game. Based on the description, players can play as either humans or CSMS who follow the lure of chaos.. Just think about that, getting the chance to play a Rogue psycher, a Raptor, or even a chosen terminator. I can't wait to see the book as their other products have been nothing short of phenomenal!! I currently own Dark Hersey and the book itself is gorgeous. Even if your not an RPG fan, as a 40K fan you owe it to yourself to pick up these books just to read the fluff and check out the pics.

I actually got into "gaming" playing RPG's. From Dungeons and Dragons 2nd edition, to Paranoia, Marvel Super heros, to Vampire the Masquerade, RPG's have always been part of me and luckily for me my wife's life. The really cool thing about playing these 40K RPG's is using one's model collection as a representation of yourself in the game. This just brings the game to "life" just as playing a normal game of 40K does as you can visualize the "action" My friend plans on starting a deathwatch game and I plan to use one of my models as my character. All I know is that I got dibs on Black Crusade. Thank you Fantasy Flight, you made my day today....

Playing the so-called Net list....

Ok, Ok, Ok, so the past few months I have been going on about playing with my pre-hersey Thousand Sons army but lately I got the bug to play my Chaos Space Wolves again, though this army is not completely painted, its about 75% done with only about 20 models left to paint. I am like Bill from the Gamerslounge, I hate playing with an unpainted army. When last I played the army, it had virtually no mech; though its argued I'm playing a so-called net list because of my 3 wolf lords, I have yet to see one played with no mech or drop pods. The 3 wolf list I started playing back before it became all of the rage and due to that rage I found myself not wanting to play it as I hate to be called a power gamer.

The group of friends I play games with are not what you call "power gamers", they are pretty much the beer and pretzel gamer with limited time (only 1 day a week) to indulge in a hobby that they love. I love the atmosphere for this reason as it allows me to take crazy unbalanced lists and still have a good time even though I lose with them. I wanted to try the wolves with drop pods as the times I played with my army, my opponents would concentrate all fire on my wolf lords and by the time they got into combat, they had lost their dog bodyguard and already lost some of their wounds. I figured that by dropping say 2-3 drop pods in turn 1 my opponent would have to concentrate on them thus allowing my wolf lords and my long fangs time to either start taking out vehicles or assaulting squads. In 1750, I could only get about 4 drop pods full of grey hunters so I might try either running cheaper long fangs or cheaper Lords as I want to drop 5 drop pods. We usually play 1750 so that is what I build my lists for.

Last week I played against an Eldar player, playing 1850 points; football (auto tie mission), with spearhead deployment. The eldar player has been using his army for almost 2 years now and has become one of our better players. He runs combination footdar/mech list but for this game he wanted to try something different so he opted for a complete Footdar army complete with 10 Wraithguard.

The game was extremely close and ended in a predicable tie however by all regards, my opponent should have beat me. Was it the power of my codex or my opponent just having bad luck. You want to know what the deal was? I had 2 long fangs squads left, he had practically tabled me and I caused his last scoring unit to run off the table due to the fact my long fangs were able to split fire. No other army has this ability, to be able to do it and for so cheap. I am still trying to learn the army (this being my 5 game with them) but having so close games where I would have lost if I was using any older codex really makes me want GW to finally update all of the codexes to 5th edition. Its no small wonder why Space wolves are so popular. I will probably finish painting the army before I play them again.

Right now as I mentioned in my last post, my local GW is running a month long campaign. I wanted to play chaos as I think my friend will be running his wolves and so I wanted to run something different. I thought about running my Thousand Sons but with a 1250 point limit, I would be really limiting myself in choices. I decided to pull out my old army, my first Chaos army and first army that I had actually finished painting.

I decided to bring out the Nightlords. I will post the list I am running in my next post along with results of my first games with them. It's been about a year since I pulled them out, as this is a fun campaign, it just sounded like fun to use these guys again. Who knows maybe they will surprise everybody like they did when I ran an all raptor kill team during the Kill team tournament we had and actually took 3rd place. Pics are of my Chaos Space wolves, 2 of my Thunder Lords, some dogs, and a grey hunter squad.

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...