in the Heavy Support Slots for Chaos.
making efficient list building choices that help you to win games of 40K. If playing
to win offends you, or you think any BoLS article that isn’t a How To on
LARPing the Horus Heresy is horrifying, you may want to pass on this one! That
said, I know some of the commenters here at BoLS love having an article to poo
poo on over their morning cup of hatorade as a part of their daily routine, so we
now both play our parts.
feel spoiled for choice as I do with the book in general. I really feel that
this is a great book that will provide a TON of lists and permutations of lists
that will reveal themselves to us over the entire edition, which is awesome. I
don’t think this will be a “one list to rule them all” book as we saw with the
previous Chaos Dex. I was fortunate enough to learn one of Phil’s processes
when writing a Codex (as related to me by a friend that spoke to him about it),
and he said that he comes up with a number of lists he thought would be fun to
play (and it is a lot of different types of lists), and then building a Codex
around that. I think that is a quite clever idea, and it is fun to try and
figure out the lists he had envisioned.
that CSM’s aren’t better, but that is my only real complaint of the dex, to be
honest) but with more and more practice games, we’re getting it worked out. All
praise the Kelly for fixing the issue with Zombies only coming in 10 man units.
Brains!! Besides being flat out cool, Zombie Hordes make great, cheap scoring
units.
immediately in Heavy Support was Havocs. Why? Dirt cheap firepower. Long Fangs
are still one of the most efficient units on the table top and Havocs give a
lot of the same at a comparably cheap price point, but without the bells and whistles
of the venerated Fangs. However, for 115pts, you get a 5 man unit with 4 Auto
Cannons. Win.
they really aren’t that hot, in my opinion. At 25pts per weapon, and not having
interceptor, they are expensive and any Flyer coming on the board is going to
target them first before they can fire. Auto Cannons are actually very close in
AA capability on a point for point comparison, and as good or better against
everything else. They also have the benefit of being able to hide when facing
Flyer nation, and then move out of cover and shoot as they will be snap firing
anyway.
seeing quite a few of these units I imagine. The other nice benefit of Havocs
is that they go with an Aegis Line and Quad Gun like steak and fries! Sarge
mans the Gun, the boys line up behind that Aegis Line and unleash hell, or the
warp as the case may be.
Frontline (thanks Nick Wenker) the Veterans of the Long War is a really solid
upgrade. For 5pts, you halve the odds of failing a break test (from 1/6 to
1/12). Considering these guys will attract a lot of attention and that they are
often close to the table edge, you really don’t want to have these guys run for
the hills on a crappy roll.
my attention immediately. Oblits are the business, and now that they have
Assault Cannons, they’re even better. Mark of Nurgle is the clear winner in my
eyes, as it makes them proof against Instant Death from most weapons, and gives
you a big boost against small arms fire. They have leadership issues (which is
very interesting, I think we will see Daemons in the new Daemon codex losing
Fearless and Eternal Warrior based off of the new rules, which somewhat explains
the dramatic points drops in Flamers) but they are very flexible, being able to
deep-strike and fight reasonably well in HtH. While not as points efficient on
a per shot basis as the Havocs, their mobility, flexibility and increased
durability makes them a really solid choice, in my opinion. Too Oblit to quit!
Yeah, I went there. Cheesy jokes all over the place, today!
treatment this edition. If you play against loads of strength 6, you’ll love
them. Las Cannons, not so much. So far in our test games the Defiler has been a
massive points sink You pay a lot of points for durability against mid
strength, AP 3+ weapons when any player with a brain in his head will shoot it only
with weapons that will one shot the Defiler. I don’t think it is awful by any
means, just as I don’t think the Carnifex is awful, it just struggles in
comparison to other choices in Heavy Support. It straddles the line between
Maulerfiend and Forgefiend, but doesn’t do either job as well and costs a lot. At
least it can take a Dirge Caster!
chicken dinner for me: fast, cheap, hits hard and a cool model. Imitative 3 is
a bummer as with the Defiler, but unlike his Crabby Cousin, the Maulerfiend can
take lasher tendrils which really up its odds of surviving to swing against
swifter foes, particularly other Dreads or Monstrous Creatures. For the speed
and cost, this is a solid unit that I think will see a lot of play time. Too
bad he can’t take a Dirge Caster, but oh well.
which do the same thing cheaper, at longer range and without the odds of being
one-shotted like the Fiend. Ectoplasma cannons only being 24” is another
drawback in my eyes, plus the model is ugly as sin to me, so I won’t be using
it. However, I can see the Hades Autocannon version getting playtime for its
volume of strength 8 attacks.
Crusader style Land Raider chassis, it would make a HUGE difference with a lot
of the assault units available to Chaos. But, we get the old school Raider. As
a straight gun ship, it really isn’t bad. Set it in a good firing position
(behind an Aegis works very well) and let rip with the 2 twin las cannons. AV14
is in a renaissance these days and the fact that a glance doesn’t stop you from
shooting really helps these bad boys to give you resilient firepower. Again,
compared to Havocs they aren’t as efficient, but they are tough nuts to crack.
failed to deliver my assault units where I want them in our test games so far.
It then almost always dies to a melta weapon or Monstrous Creature/Dreadnaught.
For the points, I’d rather have a big unit of Assaulters running up the board
on foot. Hopefully we’ll get a White Dwarf update with a new Chaos Land Raider variant
in the future!
far into it. A Vindie is a solid choice for the Strength 10, AP2 blast,
particularly now that blasts are so much better. And the Pred is a solid
offensive tank, but suffers the same drawbacks as any vehicle: one shot, on
kill. Again though, park it behind an Aegis and let er rip. While it can be one
shotted, it is also immune to small arms (at least from the front) so it does
have a place in a list, plus it’s cheap as chips.
heavy support slots in your list! What I am using? Most likely 2 units of 5 Havocs
with 4 Auto Cannons, and a unit of 3 MoN Oblits with an Aegis and Quad Gun. I
may drop one unit of Havocs for a Maulerfiend, but time will tell. I like the
Vindie, but I have 3 in my Marine army and I like using the Chaos specific
units for variety. I like having a large variety of units because I like the flexibility
and I think it is more fun to play, but those cheap Havocs are just tough to
resist.