Kian’s Army Log Update #2: The army evolves!

Hey there gamers! Its Kian Alden the (now former) intern here to talk to you about my renegades and heretics army, and my experiences with the army as a whole.

 As I said in my first article, this army has gone through several major stages of evolution: The Purge Detachment with mass artillery spam was the first, next was the unending tide with supporting Daemonkin and The Purge artillery, and now finally a more balanced list with more emphasis on the Daemonkin. The list that I’ve been playing for the last week is in many ways the same as the list I brought to the Hammer of Wrath GT two weeks ago (which played well, and won me 3 out of 5 games):

The Unending Tide:

HQ

Command Squad, Master of the Horde, Warlord, Command Net Vox.

Troops

2x Infantry Platoon

Command squad, 2 flamers, sigil Krak Grenades

2x infantry squads, 2 flamers, sigil krak grenades

 2x veterans, msu

 Heavy Support

 Battery of two Earthshakers, 7 crew each

Renegades CAD

 HQ

Command Squad, command net box

 Troops

2x veterans, msu

 Heavy support

Battery of two Earthshakers, 7 crew each

 2 batteries of two Rapier Laser Destroyers, 2 crew each

Daemonkin CAD

 HQ

Chaos Lord, juggernaut, sigil of corruption, axe of Khorne, goredrinker, melta bomb

 Herald of Khorne

 Troops

2x 8 blood letters, champion

 Fast Attack

Heldrake

10 flesh hounds

 Fortification

Aegis Line, Comms Relay

 

I have really enjoyed this list because it gives me two things that I desperately needed at the GT: Ranged heavy anti-tank (ap2 it better), and a Shock Assault unit. With this list, I feel extremely confident in my ability to handle most threats, because in the ten or so games I’ve played against people running strong lists I’ve consistently felt the need for just those four extra shots, and the ability to hammer an enemy in assault. One small change I made that will help tremendously is including a Sigil in each squad. This makes me stubborn in assault and allows me to re-roll my first failed morale test outside of assault. Although I lose one flamer template, I gain a considerable amount of control over my notoriously easy to scare off troopers.

 

At face value the most competitive form of this list would almost have to include blobs of zombies. They lose the ability to grind the enemy down over the course of the game, but they become an extremely durable and reliable objective grabbing unit. Zombies solve the biggest problem with the renegades army, morale control. I’ve found that my biggest fear is being tank shocked, and while Krak Grenades really help with this (mostly by allowing me to assault vehicles and monsters) having my units become fearless is a more reliable solution.

By switching the Tide out for a Purge and adding zombies I would save only 120 points just from the upgrades to the platoons, and also don’t need to take a second detachment to field the guns that support the Tide. The savings from the detachment amount to around 120 more points. All told 240 extra points, while very useful to be sure, when weighed against what the Tide actually brings to the table (outflanking units with crusader, flamers, light anti-tank, board control etc…) doesn’t seem like it buys me anything I need badly, but would let me take an extra heldrake and even more guns.

There is one more thing in the Daemonkin codex that I cannot get out of my head: The Blood Host. It feels like just what my army needs to tip over the edge and become too hot to handle. I would run the Blood Host thusly:

Blood Host detachment:

Slaughtercult

Herald

2x 8 bloodletters

Possessed (they run up with some squads of troopers to provide counter assault, much like Cuddles once did)

Gorepack:

3×3 bikers with 2 melta guns

2x 8 flesh hounds

The general game plan with this force is laid out by this fabulous infographic I made in paint! The general game plan is to use the Gorepack as an aggressive, and generally suicidal attack force. The bikers are one shot missiles to take out targets of opportunity, and hard units that the rapiers and other big guns cannot reach (Ob Sec Rhinos lurking under the cover of ruins, for example). The Unending Tide advances at full speed, forcing the enemy to target them or give up board control.

 This rendition lacks the glamorous power of a Chaos Lord, but shifts the army into an even heavier MSU direction. I can take full advantage of the Blood Host and Slaughtercult’s special rules using more small, fast units. The small units of bikers, running with the hounds, (as they are now move through cover!) can race ahead and rip open transports so the artillery and hounds can lay waste to them. When the bikers die, they contribute cheap blood tithe especially if they’ve been able to score a kill first.

 And now, for some progress photos!

Renegade Infantry Platoons!

Characters!

Daemon Engines!

Artillery!

Bonus! Some Chaos Spawn (Forgeworld Ogryn Berserkers) and Alpha Legion Chosen (counts as Noise Marines)!

That’s all for this week folks! I’ll be posting once again in a week to keep you updated on the evolution of my army!

Projects on the Horizon: Kharybdis Assault Claw and 20 Khorne Berserkers! The Fist of Khorne Cometh!