an Update... Plus the Nightlords first loss

Hey guys, time for an update. So far I have been having a lot of fun running my Nightlords army again. Though the army against certain lists is very outclassed, it still puts out a lot of hurt. My first loss came about 2 weeks ago against a very cool all terminator Space Wolves Logan wing with over 30 terminators in 2000 pts. Its funny to think, but I was outgunned from turn one with all of my termie stopping power having a 12 inch range (melta guns)which of course would lead to my squads being mauled by 10 man terminator squads. We rolled up kill points and pitched battle and I played the game as befit a True Nightlord, by running away and being sneaky. My army actually excelled at this as all of my non stationary units are able to move 12 inches. I played the refused flank (I think thats what its called) and deployed all of my army to the right of the board.

He deployed his army to the right as well; with me getting first turn I basically took all my units that could move 12 inches and re-deployed it to the other side!! This took him by surprise as he spent most of the game re-deploying trying to get with in assault range or at least shooting range. I was holding my own until about turn 4 where the brutality of his list reared its ugly head. His 2 assault cannon termie squads along with awesome rolling started taking its toll on my army. I did have a few highlights though with my Termie hammer unit taking out his thunderwolf cavalry unit and a chosen squad holding off 2 termie squads shooting for 2 turns. Final tally, 6-3, was a great game and I really liked his list something that I might try with the Grey Knights.

Pics on this post are of my completed Nightlords Termie Lord. Like I stated in my last post, I wanted to paint up another leader for my list to either add to my assault potential or to run a "cheaper" lord. Believe it or not, the termie lord is cheaper as I dont have to run a retinue bike squad for him. I used some parts from the Grey Knights Terminator box like the helmet and the weapon blade and painted him in the pattern of my other terminators such as the terror markings on his helmet and the lightning bolt symbols on his one open shoulder. Let me know what you think...

Ave Dominus Nox...

During this past weekend, the Nightlords came out to play once again. This time I drew a salmanders player who asked for a 2000pts game. I added 2 small chosen squads for this fight armed with a lascannon and a plasma gun to give my opponent some reason to fear for his vehicles. My opponent list consisted of Vulkan (of course), squad of Thunderhammer stormshield terminators in a landraider, 1 venerable dreadknought, 1 regular dreadnought in a droppod, 3 tactical squads with melta guns plasma cannons in 2 Rhinos and 1 Razorback, 2 Landspeeders wtih heavy flamers and multimeltas, Dakka Predator, vindicator, and a thunderfire cannon. We rolled Annihilation and dawn of war (that's twice now) and I won first turn. Again, I gave first turn to my opponent and deployed nothing, after he had deployed I infiltrated my two chosen squads one in a high building toward the center of the table and the other in a building in the middle of my deployment zone. My opponent wasn't expecting this and my chosen paid off in spades by taking out a Rhino and immobilizing his landraider first turn!! This first move set him off as he wasn't expecting this, its funny how losing a key unit early on really alters how one plays after. I have had my Key unit taken out early on and believe me it really alters how you play after. I guess the good player continues on as normal; unfortunately like my opponent I would have started panicking or would have been extremely upset. This set the tone for the rest of the game as my Nightlords took the salamanders apart. By turn 2, I had neutralized all of his long range fire. By turn 3 he had no vehicles left but a venerable dread, and a razorback. By Turn 5 it was pretty much over but we continued to turn 6 and I ended up winning the game 8 - 3. I like the fact that I am still running a none competitive list and still doing pretty good with them. Again my MVP's of this game are the chosen squads. I am thinking that I might make them a part of my lists, in any lists that I run.

These guys are my wild card, due to their infiltrate ability, it gives me the ability to place these guys in the most advantageous places after my opponent has deployed his prize vehicles. So the Nightlords are 2-0 since I started using them, in no small part to the chosen squads. Pics are of 4 new squad members that I just finished. I plan on painting some more Raptors and finishing a new termi lord that will be joining my lightning claw termies in the landraider just to give them more punch and allow me to field a different HQ if I don't want to run a biker lord. Let me know what you guys think...

the return of the Nightlords

This weekend was the return of me using my Nightlords at the local FLGS and I must say that even though they are seriously underpowered in today's metagame, they are still a blast to play with. As mentioned in my last post,I will be running a hammer unit of slaanishi iconed lightning clawed termies. Though these guys are not the ultimate in hammer units, for 465 points they are not that expensive considering they also are coming with a landraider. The mobility of the landraider will help in getting these guys into the best possible position, also providing me with a bullet magnet that is highly resistant to damage save for meltas. But that is only the beginning, in addition my entire army moves 12 inches so my opponent will have to deal with multiple units that will be hitting his lines by turn 2. In addition to the termies im also running a bike squad with a power fist and the icon of khorne. I know bikes are considered to be one of worst units in the codex but in my last games if anything they have been extremely fun to use. With 3 attacks base they are not slouches either and can assist the termies in taking out extremely tough units. Running my bikerlord in the squad makes it able to at least handle other IC's running around. Adding to them are the Raptors, again another unit that the internet hates and in fairness yes they definitively lost a lot of power in the 4th edition dex. In this army i run them in an 8 man strong unit with 2 meltas and the champ with lightning claws. I plan on running these guys as a counterattack unit as well as an anti tank unit. Will this list get past a tournament, hell no, it would probably get trounced but that's not the point, the point is to have fun and in my limited time of playing 40K each week, my number one goal is to have a good time. Now this is not to say that I don't like being competitive, I will still be as competitive as ever using my "fluffy" army. I drew an ork player this week, we played a 1750pts game and drew annihilation and dawn of war. He was running Gazi, squad of mega-nobs in a battle-wagon, 3 30 boyz squads, another warboss with PowerKlaw, and 15 lootas. The Nightlords took them apart, piece by bloody piece.

I accomplished this by not deploying anything and allowing him to put 2 of his 30 boyz squads and normal warboss way up front and giving him first turn. Though he deployed his whole army turn one, his 60 boyz were way ahead of the rest of the army and thus without support. I focused my whole army on each squad one at a time killing each one of them and by turn 2 he was down 60 boyz. I then took out Gazi's ride so he and and his friends needed to foot slog it across and focused on his last big squad. I killed this last 30 boyz and just shot at Gazi and his cronies and when he finally got close just ran away from him. I did lose my bikes, my Raptors, my Havocs and 1 Rhino but the rest of my army survived. MVP's were my Biker lord who was instrumental in killing all 3 squads and surviving and my Havocs who killed scores of orks with their autocannons and even managed to kill 3 of the 5 meganobs before they died. I'm hoping that next week will bring even more carnage for them...

Nightlords List...

As promised, listed below is the list I am currently working on. First a little History on the army. The Nightlords was my first army when getting into the hobby many years ago. Its the first army I painted completely and cut my teeth on the tail end of 3rd edition and 4th edition. As such the Nightlords have a special place in my heart and will always be my favorite army. With the release of the 4th ed Chaos Codex, my Nightlords army definitely lost a lot of its teeth. They lost their "elite" feel such as being able to grant veteran skills to any CSM unit, gone were my infiltrating Raptors with Furious Charge. Gone was my entire army gaining a +1 to cover saves due to the Stealth Adept special rule. No use crying over something that was though, the army is still fun to use and that's what counts anyway.

Nightlords - 1750pts
HQ: Chaos Lord (1#)
1 Chaos Lord, 160 pts ((C:CSM, pp. 30 & 92); Unit Type: Bikes; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Bike; Mark of Khorne; Bolt Pistol x1; Lightning Claws (pair); Fearless; Independent Character)

Elite: Chaos Terminators (6#)
1 Chaos Terminators, 465 pts ((C:CSM, pp. 28 & 94); Unit Type: Infantry; Terminator Armour; Icon of Slaanesh; Mark of Slaanesh; Deep Strike)
2 Terminator ((C:CSM, pp. 28 & 94); Terminator Armour; Mark of Slaanesh; Twin Linked Bolter x2; Power Fist x2)
3 Terminator Champion ((C:CSM, pp. 28 & 94); Terminator Armour; Mark of Slaanesh; Lightning Claws (pair) x3)
1 Land Raider ((C:CSM, pp. 44 & 101); Unit Type: Vehicle (Tank); Access Points: 3; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; 2x Twin-linked Lascannons; Twin Linked Heavy Bolter; Assault Vehicle)

Troops: Chaos Space Marines (11#)
9 Chaos Space Marines, 250 pts ((C:CSM, pp. 26 & 96); Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol x9; Bolter x7; Close Combat Weapon x9; Meltagun x1; Plasmagun x1)
1 Aspiring Champion ((C:CSM, pg. 96); Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol; Bolter; Power Fist)
1 Rhino ((C:CSM, pp. 42 & 96); Unit Type: Vehicle (Tank); Transport Capacity: 10 models; Access Points: 3; Fire Points: 1; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Twin Linked Bolter; Repair)

Troops: Chaos Space Marines (11#)
9 Chaos Space Marines, 250 pts ((C:CSM, pp. 26 & 96); Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol x9; Bolter x7; Close Combat Weapon x9; Meltagun x1; Plasmagun x1)
1 Aspiring Champion ((C:CSM, pg. 96); Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol; Bolter; Power Fist)
1 Rhino ((C:CSM, pp. 42 & 96); Unit Type: Vehicle (Tank); Transport Capacity: 10 models; Access Points: 3; Fire Points: 1; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Twin Linked Bolter; Repair)

Fast Attack: Bikers (5#)
4 Bikers, 235 pts ((C:CSM, pg. 27 & 99); Unit Type: Bikes; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Bike; Power Armour; Icon of Khorne; Mark of Khorne; Bolt Pistol x4; Close Combat Weapon x4; Twin Linked Bolter)
1 Biker Champion ((C:CSM, pg. 27 & 99); Unit Type: Bikes; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Bike; Power Armour; Mark of Khorne; Bolt Pistol; Power Fist)

Fast Attack: Raptors (8#)
7 Raptors, 220 pts ((C:CSM, pp. 34 & 99); Unit Type: Jump Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol x7; Close Combat Weapon x7; Meltagun x2; Deep Strike)
1 Aspiring Champion ((C:CSM, pg. 96); Unit Type: Jump Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Lightning Claws (pair))

Heavy Support: Havocs (6#)
6 Havocs, 170 pts ((C:CSM, pg. 96); Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol x6; Bolter x2; Close Combat Weapon x6; Autocannon x4)

Will there you have it, let me know you guys think. Pics are of my newly re-vamped Raptors and some more shots of my hammer unit, the termies with their ride. Here's hoping that the next Chaos codex is written by Phil Kelly...thats what I'm wishing for anyways