Hello everyone White925 (Frankie) here again. Today I will be talking to you about probably the worst unit in the Chaos Space Marine Book.
Coming in at 170 points and taking a much needed fast attack slot is the Heldrake “Weak Sauce.” I am not sure why anyone would waste the points on this unit especially since it takes up a slot that is needed for the mighty Warp Talons! Well let’s try to figure this out together.
So first off the Heldrake, aka Hell Turkey, comes in at a hefty 170 points with not a lot of upgradable options: one to be exact. Next the darn thing is only armor 12 with a 5++ invulnerable save and three hull points, easy as all hell to kill in my opinion. Wait a minute it is a FLYER…wow forget everything I said about this unit, it’s amazing!!!
This just in: Hell Turkeys are rumored to be taking over the tournament scene with no real solution in sight.
So as many know I am the creator of the Mighty Morphin Harliestar, haha which has lost plenty of games and was rumored by Reecius to be the cheesiest army in the game. Let’s see if we can prove him wrong by making an even cheesier army! My new list might just do it, and it is what I am planning on taking to Adepticon. I am sure I’m not the only one bringing a list like this:
Two Khorne lords on Juggernaughts
60 cultists
9 Obliterators
and the backbone of the army 3 Heldrakes
Doesn’t sound like a lot but let’s go over what makes it a strong list.
First off 3 Hell Drakes at only 510points in a 1850 point tournament. That is less than a third of the list. Now these little Turkeys start in reserve since they are flyers which means you will not be seeing them till turn two. But on average you will be getting two on turn two, and when they come on the game really starts. The flyers come on up to 36” hitting one unit they fly over with d3+1 strength 7 ap 3 hits no cover saves allowed. That attack or vector strike is probably the most devastating thing about this unit, oh but wait they are dragons not Turkey’s at all which means FIRE!!!
The Dragons don’t only fly over your unit and hit them with their robot claws, they are special dragons and can shoot fire out of there A** I mean engines. Strength 6 ap 3 fire with Torrent and Soul Blase to be exact. This is a devastating attack against most units. Now imagine three of these guys flying around the board doing these kind of attacks every turn. Do you have anything to answer these units in your codex with no Forge World AA options?
Didn’t think so. Actually very few codex’s without the use of Forge World have a real answer to an armor 12 flyer with three hull points and a 5++ invulnerable save, ignores Shaken and Stunned on a 2+ and It Will Not Die. Forget the rest of the list this is all you need to tear apart 75% of your opponents at a tournament. I believe this list is going to do very well and be a strong contender for winning tournaments that are not going to allow Forge World. Next week I will write about my tactics with this list, so why don’t you guys send in some lists that you think will be a contender to destroy this list in an 1850 point tournament and I will write my tactics against said lists.
Thanks for reading guys.
Let us know if you all can think of something to counter this, guys! We’ve been play testing it and it is absolutely brutal! -ed
Are those Nurgle Obliterators? And what’s the grouping of cultists? Three 20’s?
I run 6 units of ten right now but Im thinking about combining one unit into 20 to run the two juggernaughts in.
Dark Angels
3x Land Raider Crusader with Power Field Generator and Banner of Devastation
Lascannon Predator
Imperial Guard
Squadron of 1-2 vendettas
Leman Russ Executioner
Basically, how do you plan to deal with a really resilient wall of armor that the heldrakes can’t hurt?
Oh, and 3 Dark Angels Tactical Squads
1 Veteran Squad
1 Company Command Squad
(all inside above transports)
I’m sorry, the list above is illegal. It’s early.
I just fired up army builder, try this:
Dark Angels
Librarian with bolter and power field generator 95
Command Squad with bolters and banner of devastation 165
Land Raider Crusader with multi-melta 260
Land Raider Crusader with multi-melta 260
Land Raider Crusader with multi-melta 260
10 man tactical squad 140
10 man tactical squad 140
Imperial Guard
Company Command Squad with 3 meltaguns 80
Veteran Squad with 3 meltaguns 100
Squadron of 2 vendettas 260
There are still 90 points left, but how would you beat that list?
Um….9 nurgle obis against land raiders? 9 bs 4 lascannon/ deep striking twin linked melts tuna cans real quick while the hell turds **** fire on your helpless marines?
Yeah the oblitz, would kill the landraiders and I would have to burn the marines inside with the helldrakes. Then I would have to vector strike and hope to get lucky against the vendettas. Plus the vendettas wouldn’t be to devastating to my troops which will win me games.
Non forge world wise honestly replace all land raiders with shooting death wing with cyclone launchers and take an aegis quad gun with camo scouts and 3 vindicators. The vindicators kill obliterates, cyclone launchers and awgis have a chance to kill hell turkeys and the 2+ save troops shrug off the flamers while focusing on killing chaos. Terminators as troops is better than hiding troops in tanks Anyday. When the Death wing deep strike in all their guns are twin linked iirc. If you’re using dark angels exploit all advantages, oh and their scout missiles can have sky fire.
What’s hilarious to me is that single-handedly the Heldrake has negated almost every MEQ build (as if MEQs weren’t already running for their lives) and have now basically forced them to resort to Land raider lists, which do fine against Heldrakes.
The reality is, Heldrakes have 2 hard counters. Necron Air (which you will also see in spades at Adepticon) and any Imperial Guard (Vendettas and large blobs can weather the Heldrakes for a few turns while the Vendettas get rid of them)
Honestly, Frankie, I think Necron Air + Heldrakes (or the other way around) is a cheesier list. 🙂 How about Triple Heldrakes and Triple Night Scythes? Or how about Triple Heldrakes and some Vendettas? That’s probably better. IN fact, IG + CSM is just better all around beacuse IG Troops > Cultists.
Don’t give him any ideas, Neil! hahaha
Hate to tell you Neil but Necron air does not do well against a smart heldrake player. At av11 Necrons will die easily to s7 vector strikes. I played chaos/ig at BAO & tabled the cron air I played with no challenge, same result in all my cron air practice games. Of course this was with a strong IG contingent. I can post the list. BTW love the podcast. Wish I’d know you were at the BAO I’d have loved to meet you. Mebe next year.
Yeah imperial guard is probably my worst match up with the vendettas. As for the blob squad I wouldnt be worried since I have the three hell drakes and 2 khorne lords on juggernaughts plus 9 obliterators. Cron air would be a little rough but I think I could wether the storm as long as they rolled average. The reason I am going all out chaos is mainly because I love Chaos and want to win a major tournament with them without allies and the other reason is NINE TOUGHNESS 5 OBLITERATORS hahaha.
Technically it’s not a Dragon… it’s a Drake.
Ya, it’s quite the conundrum, it’s hard to not take it, but there is such a divide on the model, yes it looks like a fancy Iron Pigeon, but some people just hate it with such a passion that they will not use it.
Played against Frankie in the team part of the BAO was paired up against him and his teammate first game. Really upsetting list to play against Hell Turkeys rape and are quite the cheese. Even with an Icarus Lascannon my teammate and I didn’t do too much of nothing to the damn Drakes. Also 40 some odd cultists are a just to consuming to shoot up especially when they reserve. The fire support from the Oblits is rather fierce as well. The list really has all its bases covered.
I love everything about this model the rules, the look, EVERYTHING! I just my second and third and they are based and quasi painted on the sprue at the moment. I’ll continue to move through them. My question to you Frankie is why not Zombies? If your only goal is to keep bodies on the table (beacuse even with the Juggy Lord those cultists are just meat sheilds. Why not give yourself some FNP just for giggles? The hard counter to this army is getting those 71 bodies off the table. Completely ignore the drakes and just grind the 71 dudemens into the dirt. why not make it harder?
By the way, I know Hell Turkey is Prevalent around these parts but I’m sticking to my guns with Pimp Drake. The Pimp Drakes Pimp hand is way strong.
I think no zombies is good, to limit top table hiding in cc shenanigans. The double lords or abbaddon/lord lets you concentrate the fearlessness into one unit if necessary.
The reason I do not like the zombies is because they are slower since they cannot run. They dont have any shooting, and have less attacks if it comes down to a charge.
I don’t think the list would work. I am a chaos player, and have found that I never need more than two heldrakes, as the marginal utility of the third is extremely low (a unit of lascannon havocs is a much better use of the points). We have a good player out here in MN who runs three dragons and he has never won a tournament with it. I feel your list is even more RPS than his. What are you going to do against armies that are high enough in bodies to utilize table control and not care about your flame throwers? What will you do about three vendetta lists which are much more balanced and easily could rock your list?
Well so far in play testing the three helldrakes have been the perfect amount for winning games and in most cases over kill which is perfect in winning a tournament. Also I take the three units of obliterators which in my opinion are way better than havocs. As for board control I’ve been playing a lot of tyranid lists which have over 100 models on the table by turn two. When the drakes come on the table they just start to clear off space and by turn 4 they can go wherever they feel like.
This article was very well written.
Frankie,
You should consider Abaddon in 1 blob of 20+ cultists. He is all thee anti-assault you’d need.
One thing people fail to realize is that besides the 3 helturkeys, there are 9 obliterators to contend with as well! Land raider-spam? Meet 9 multi-meltas or twin-linked meltaguns. Hoard board control? Say hello to 9 plasma cannon shots or 36 assault cannon shots or even some heavy flamers. Other flyers? Twin-linked meltas and even twin-linked plasmas do a decent job against them.
It is a really good list. It isn’t perfect, but it’s got the balance to deal with most army builds.
Yeah most of the people are missing the 9 obliterators in the list. But as for abaddon I am really liking the khorne lords on juggernaughts since they are fast and are usually
The reality is that there is no easy answer to Helldrakes. A Vendetta or two and/or a Stormraven is a good bet for Marine lists. Everyone else is in a bad spot really.
2+ armor saves are a nice counter to Heldrakes. 2+ armor saves with some decent shooting is even better.
Quite right. My drakes were basically useless against the draigowing I played at the BAO. Luckily it was a scouring mission so they were still scoring.
Dark Eldar beasts or Ravenwing bikers should be able to get stuck into your army, grind it down, avoid the turkeys, maybe kill one or two, and score vs your tabled ground forces.
Mostly it comes down to killing a turkey or two and shaving down the ground forces faster than the turkeys can table your army.
Hit and Run, For The Win!
I like it Frankie! I bet you win or final with it. Only thing I would say is maybe add a Comm tower thingamagigy. I think reserve management is super hawt right now. Especially with sexy flier on flier action.