Chaos: The Riddle of Troops Continued

our conversation from last week about Chaos builds and the troops section.

Chaos list and the conundrum I was in as to what units to take. And also, I

agree that you cannot take a Blastmaster until you have a full 10 Noise Marines

in a unit. Thanks for pointing that out, I misread the rule initially.

to any comments last week, it was too busy in the shop) I think that I either

didn’t communicate the point well enough or some folks were missing it.

have talked to are also experiencing—is that Chaos troops are either too

expensive for what you get, or too unreliable for a competitive build. What do

I mean by that?

it! I think Phil Kelly did a great job establishing internal balance within the

book, captured a lot of flavor of Chaos and in general gave us a really good

product. From a competitive standpoint though, the troops give me trouble. I am

not at all saying they’re bad, just not optimal. I would like to hear your

feedback as well, though as it always makes me happy to hear folks finding a

way to win with a unit I had thought was not good.

competitive in 6^th ed, you need to be able to do the following

things in a true take all comers list:

of points to do. Chaos troops are pricey and suck away your points from accomplishing

the above tasks.

chaos troops. I have 2 strategies with troops in general in 6^th ed.

I either want them cheap and numerous or very durable and/or reliable if they

are pricey.

can reserve them, hide them, or just flood the field with them and survive

through safety in numbers. If they have some decent offensive punch, great!

That is just icing on the cake, really.

with a Shredder and Splinter Cannon. 105 points, mobile, shooty, and with

enough bodies to soak some casualties, but not a big enough threat to rank high

on your opponent’s target priority list. In a vacuum the unit doesn’t look like

much, but when you have 2-4 of those units you have a TON of points left over

to pour into pure offensive punch. Another good example is 10 IG Vets with 3

Plasma Guns. Mobile, great firepower and only 115pts. You can take a lot of

them for a low points investment. Lastly, for my Orks, a unit of 20 Shoota Boys

with no upgrades weighs in at 120pts. Excellent objective holding unit that

also serves quite well for attacking other infantry if you need them to. Plus,

until they take a lot of damage, they’re fearless. Often, my opponent’s won’t

even bother shooting them as they sit on an objective quietly and have too many

bodies to really warrant anything other than serious attention. We’ve been

having great success with these style units in 6^th ed book missions,

or missions that are very similar to them.

durable and/or very reliable. A perfect example is a squad of Tactical Marines

with a Multi Melta and a Plasma Gun. 180pts, and such a flexible unit. They can

shoot quite well on the move, have an answer for light and heavy infantry and

mech, are scoring, can split into two squads with Combat Squads, are very

slippery and reliable with ATSKNF and Combat Tactics and in general, are a

great scoring unit.

with 2 Plasma Guns runs you 170pts. Roughly equivalent in price and firepower

to the Tactical Marines. However, they are not even close to comparable in

application. For that extra 10 points, Tactical Marines get ATSKNF, Combat

Tactics and Combat Squads. They are infinitely more survivable and reliable

than the CSMs. Why? They will always recover from broken morale where CSMs will

not. One bad combat and your CSMs are run down where your Tac marines fall back

on purpose, auto-rally and then blast their attackers, even counter charging if

needs be. That means the points invested in the Tac Marines are safe, that unit

is reliable to the last man. CSMs on the other hand, can be gone and dead with

one flubbed morale check, and in a close game, that is game.

troops need to go upfield and take an objective, you need to rely on them to

not lose you the game on a single morale check. With Vets of the Long War, CSMs

get better for sure, and it mitigates the problem, but it sure doesn’t fix it.

The problem is exacerbated when you start pouring points into the unit. They

become more and more of a risk the more you give them. And, if you gear them

for assault, you will often find yourself in combat with a superior assault

army that just guts you. MEQ stat lines really aren’t geared for being good in

assault unless they’re getting stat boosts somehow, or rocking a Storm Shield

and Thunder Hammer or something similar. Too many dedicated assault units in

the game will shred MEQs to justify building an army around them.

scoring units. However, they are so expensive! Again, remember all of the

things your list needs to do to be a true take all comers list in 6^th.

You need a lot of points free to take units to counter the popular builds out

there, or go into a tournament trusting to just get lucky match-ups and not draw

a hard counter.

to blow 1,000pts, easy…..for 30- 40 MEQ bodies? They die just like Marines

despite weighing in at such a heftier price point. Compare that to 4 units of

Tactical Marines at 720pts. You get as many or more bodies, plus all the extra

points to put into firepower. There really isn’t much of a comparison. Plague

Marines are the obvious exception to this though, and can be quite good in

small units which we’ll get to.

that the cost vs. damage output ratio is usually not worth it, IMO. Berzerkers

for example, cost a boatload, and do have some good abilities, but they will

get obliterated by Harlequins, Daemons, Incubi, etc. Anything that ignores

armor and swings first will make them a total waste of points. Noise Marines

are the best value of the lot, IMO, but again, they cost a ton and die like

Marines. Thousand Sons, the poor guys, have a nifty 4++, but who is ever going

to shoot anything but volume of fire weapons into these guys unless they have

no choice? Bolters kill them just as well as normal Marines with the added

benefit of taking more points away with every kill.

taking a unit of 5 with 2 Plasma Guns is a really solid troops choice. 150pts,

Fearless, good firepower and not at all bad assault with their poison weapons. These

to me, are the best choice as you can take 2-4 of them and have a nice, solid

base of scoring units. A larger unit with a support character(s) would also

make a great aggressive troop to go upfield and take objectives. Still pricey,

but the increased durability helps mitigate that a lot.

leadership control that CSMs do. Again, Vets of the Long War Helps, but doesn’t

solve it. As with CSMs, character support mitigates this, but it is really

reducing your ability to build a well rounded list as these units, if you put

any points into them, need character support to babysit them and ensure they

don’t fail you at a critical moment and see all the points invested gone.

Cheap as chips. 50pts gets you 10. Take 4 units of them and for only 200pts,

you have 4 scoring options that will be totally sufficient in most games to

satisfy mission criteria. You can reserve them, hide them, or toss them in the

way of oncoming Deathstars if needs be. Taking a large blob of them with a

choppy character is not at all bad either, and as their leader has the Champion

of Chaos rule, he can jump on the grenade and make or accept a challenge to

allow your support characters to do their thing.

killed, right? They can’t stay off the board all game, and they’re easy targets

once they are so what do you do? In order to mitigate this weakness you need to

focus on presenting your opponent with so many, and such deadly threats that

they MUST focus on them or be destroyed. You are dictating his target priority

choices. That is the value of Cultists, they free up the rest of your points

for pure offense.

Nurgle Oblits, Nurgle Spawn, Daemon Princes, Raptors, Bikers, Lords and

Maulerfiends are all good at chopping or shooting things into bits. If you are

coming down on your opponent with the fury of the Warp, your Cultists should be

free to do their thing relatively unmolested.

allies. Daemons and CSMs go together like PB&J, and really complement each

other well. Plague Bearers are absolutely great scoring units. For 75pts, you

get 5, Fearless, 5++, FnP scoring beasties that can be dropped anywhere on the

table. That is a great tool. 1-2 units of these, and 2-4 units of Cultists and

you have an excellent base of scoring units to build an army around for a very

low points investment. Plus, the addition of Daemon units who are still

premiere assaulters, combined with the firepower of CSMs and their Choppy

Characters equates to a very good all around army. Plop Blood Thirster or a

Great Unclean One in the enemy backfield along with a unit of Flamers or

Fiends, etc. and you create a really potent combination of units and axis of

attack that will often overwhelm many opponents.

of you to make good choices when building your next Chaos tournament list! I

think this book will be tons of fun to play.

and am building it to resemble Talos and Co. from the Night Lords books, which

are excellent if you ever want to read them. My World Eaters I am stubbornly

trying to make work, but it’s slow going!