World Eaters: Two list extremes

Hey all, Danny from TFG Radio here, and today, let’s look at two different extremes of list building for my beloved World Eaters, heavy armor or threat overload. Khorne cares not from whence the blood flows, only that it flows, but different lists have different matchups. Of course, you can’t go wrong keeping up to date on all the fine writing on Frontline’s Tactics Corner.

List 1: I Like Big Bots and I Cannot Lie

Super-Heavy Detachment:

Khorne Lord of Skulls x3 (Gorestorm Cannon)

World Eater Patrol:

Chaos Lord with Jump Pack, Power Sword, Z’aall the Wrathful, Violent Urgency Warlord Trait

9 Chaos Space Marines with Chainswords/Pistols

2×5 Chaos Space Marines with Chainswords/Pistols

2×3 Mutilators

So this list is pretty straightforward with an emphasis on bringing some big guns to bear with a little bit of tricks to help play the mission. 

The obvious core is the three Lord of Skulls.  Each one pumps out 12 S8 AP-2 D2 shots at 48” and d6 S10 (when healthy) AP-2 D2 flamer hits at 18” that will also scale to 2d6 against a unit of 10 or more.  That’s some decent firepower on the table, especially since your WS and BS never degrade, and in melee, you can either throw out 15 attacks in the first round or 5 big, big hits.  This is all built on a body that is T8, 3+/5++ with 28 wounds.   If your opponent doesn’t have heavy, heavy armor cracking, it can be hard to take all 3 down over the course of 5 turns.

The rest of the army is about helping score secondaries.  You have 2 5 man squads to help camp objectives and stay out of trouble who can also fight decently well in the first round of combat if needed.  You have one larger squad to use Apopletic Fury to get them into the center of the board and start pushing on those objectives, and you have 2 sets of Mutilators to drop down, perform an action, and help get those secondaries, and hey, if your opponent ignores them, they can actually do a fair bit of work in melee.    Lastly, you have a jump Lord that has a +1 to advance/charge aura, perfect for getting just a bit more speed out of the bigger squad, and with Z’aall, on average, he puts out 6 attacks at WS 2+ that are S7 AP-5 D2.  Plus, he can escort up a Lord of Skulls or two for that sweet reroll 1s to hit aura. 

So really, this is a skew list, so it has bad matchups.  Anything that can put out the ranged threat necessary to kill the Lord of Skulls quickly is going to just massacre this list, but plenty of other lists just aren’t built to deal with 3 super-heavies, especially those that are durable and dual-threat. Melee armies have to eat a lot of fire power, and shooting armies have to deal with the firepower back and also the melee threat that barrels down on them. It also plays pretty fast, so you never have to worry about a clock or missing out time with your friends because your game took the total round time.

List 2: Cry Havoc (just not Havocs)!

World Eater Battalion:

Terminator Lord. Violent Urgency Warlord Trait.  Berserker Glaive.

Dark Apostle with Benediction of Darkness

3x 8 Khorne Berserkers w/ Chainaxe and Sword

2×15 Possessed with Icon

10 Red Butchers with Double Lightning Claws/Icon

2×5 Raptors

1 Spawn

3x Chaos Rhino with Combi-Bolter

So this list is about threat overload with 5 fast, hard-hitting threats on the board with one very large threat coming down on Turn 2 or 3.  You have 3 squads of 8 (always 8 for Khorne) Berserkers in Rhinos, so they are a bit protected from fire, and you can throw them up the board on Turn 1 to get into position to kill on Turn 2. They have Chainaxes and Swords, so you can either maximize their higher Strength with the Chainaxes or when S5 is enough, just get some extra love from the Chainsword. You also then have 3 disposable rhinos to throw into combat first to absorb any nasty overwatches.   You also have 30 Possessed that are walking, but for 2 CP, they get to move 9” in the pre-game, so they are already starting to threaten the center, and with a 3+/5++ and 2W, they can be annoying to put down, especially if you can get them in range of Benediction of Darkness for the -1 to hit.  World Eater Possessed can absolutely do work, especially with all our strats to boost their AP or have them trigger Death to the False Emperor easier (or a target that they normally couldn’t), and with +2 attacks on the charge, even if you roll poorly for their random attacks, they are still putting out respectable numbers.  

The Red Butchers will drop with the Terminator Lord for a rerollable 8” charge out of reserve, so better than even odds that they make the charge, and if they do, they will murder just about anything.  The Terminator Lord isn’t easy to shift either with a 2+/4++/5+++, so he can survive beyond the drop to help boost whatever other threats are still around that you can throw at your opponent. 

You have a lone Spawn to camp your own objective as chances are, you are going to be running forward, and then you also have 2 Raptor squads to drop down and get some secondaries as needed.  This list gives you a decent amount of bodies with a lot of threat, so while it can certainly kill plenty, it also has the numbers to be able to play the mission.

It’s biggest downside is that it lacks ranged threat, so other armies that use a lot of transports like DE will be problematic as there is no way to pop the ride to get to the gooey center.  You can easily kill the transports, but it is much harder in 9^th to trap units out of transports, so you’re going to eat some fire.  Still, you have the bodies to (shock) not try to engage immediately and play the mission, but then, that’s not really what Khorne wants. 

Of course, you can always split the difference between the two extremes, taking just 1 Lord of Skulls to help you open those cans or even some Obliterators to drop down turn 2 and open up some targets.  Either way, Blood for the Blood God. 

Thanks as always for reading, and let’s keep our hopes alive for some fun Khorne centric rules and toys as 9^th wears on.  And for my fellow Americans, Happy 4th, and for everyone else, have a great day. Play games, be nice to each other.

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