Re-Tweaking Chaos

Breakfast of Aspiring Champions.

As is the nature of the immaterium, my army is constantly in flux. I've been pondering and pondering my Chaos Space Marines, and I just think it's silly for my Chosen Champion to have a weapon as stupid and useless as a Power Maul. Sure, it's concussive, but it has a shoddy AP of 4. Not exactly a great weapon for the compulsory challenges the mini is forced into due to his "Champion of Chaos" rule.

I have considered his proper armament for a while, and after determining which weapons I want in my (massively expensive) Chosen squad. I considered killing ability for the Chosen. I considered challenge effectiveness. I considered model coolness. The clear winner was the mini with Lightning Claws. I have tweaked my army list yet again in order to accommodate these changes.

Why the Lightning Claws? Challenges. The mini (when fighting any flavor of Imperial Space Marine, and let's face it- that's really what's mostly out there) gets re-rolls to hit, to wound, and has AP 3- enough to shred most enemy squad leaders. Sure, he's in over his head when fighting enemies in 2+ armor, but he's in over his head when fighting these sorts of enemies to begin with, so no real sense in tweaking him toward fighting in challenges he's sure to lose.

I've also reconsidered my Chaos Cultists. They're really there to grab objectives, be cheap, and die horribly, so why mob them up too much? They're Ld 8 provided they're still with their Cultist Champion (who's dumb enough to wander off and challenge any enemy character in melee) which is a mini who's not likely to be there and provide his already mediocre Leadership stat. Once that idiot dies the Cultists have to lean on their well less than stellar Leadership of 7. Of course, if they're in Close Combat they're in a whole heap of trouble in the first place.

As much as I could complain about the price, the book is just slick.

So, with that in mind, I turned to my handy-dandy Codex and Army Construction Software in order to come up with a new army list. It still sits at 1,500 points, as I've finally figured out my Chaos Daemon allies (which is a subject for another post) assuming that you're allowed one Herald per HQ when using them as allies, which is the most likely logical solution to the FOC conundrum I discussed in an earlier post.

Here's what I'm working with now:

HQ

Chaos Lord (Warlord) w/ Plasma Pistol, Sigil of Corruption, the Murder Sword, Veterans of the Long War- 145 pts.

Daemon Prince of Khorne w/ Power Armor, Wings, Axe of Blind Fury- 255 pts.

ELITE

8 Chosen w/ 2x Power Axe, 2x Power Fist, Veterans of the Long War; Chosen Champion w/ 2x Lightning Claws- 290 pts.

Hellbrute- 100 pts.

Hellbrute- 100 pts

TROOPS

16x Cultists w/ Flamer; Cultist Champion- 83 pts.

9x Cultists w/ 8x Autogun, Heavy Stubber; Cultist Champion w/ Shotgun- 65 pts.

9x Cultists w/ 8x Autogun, Heavy Stubber; Cultist Champion w/ Shotgun- 65 pts.

9x Chaos Space Marines w/ 2x Plasma Guns, Veterans of the Long War; Aspiring Champion w/ Plasma Pistol, Power Fist- 220 pts.

9x Chaos Space Marines w/ 2x Flamer, 7x Close Combat Weapons, Veterans of the Long War; Aspiring Champion w/ Power Axe- 175 pts.

TOTALS

Points: 1,498
HQ: 2 (26.7%)
Elite: 3 (32.7%)
Troops: 5 (40.6%)
Fast Attack: 0 (0%)
Heavy Support: 0 (0%)
Model Count: 70

Apparently she's a Chaos Cultist...

It's a decently sized army considering it's made from a base of two Dark Vengance starters. Those Chosen really eat into my points.

I'm wondering how taking a theoretically balanced force against Demitra's "storm of plasma-ey death" Dark Angels will go. He apparently has Preferred Enemy (Chaos Space Marines), which will make his shooting really accurate and really quite scary (as only a wall of Strength 7, AP 2 can be) so I'll have to close the gap quickly and focus on denial of objectives while keeping the big guns in close combat. At 1,999 +1 points, I'm really quite worried. I guess that's what my wall of 41 Chaos Daemons is for.

If anything gets dropped, it'll either be the Hellbrutes or the Chosen in favor of a Heldrake or two. Those things are just brutal, and if Demitra does in fact take all that plasma (in particular Plasma Cannons) it will just plain rule the battlefield.

Ultimately this list is 100% theoretical any way, and until minis hit the table in a week or two all I'm doing is looking at numbers on paper and dreaming about what they'll do in a real game.

In actual hobby news, I've run out of Vallejo Dwarf Skin paint. This sort of slams my painting progress to an abrupt halt, as without that I can't paint the vast, fleshy areas of things like my Hellbrute, or the bare arms of my Chaos Cultists. Luckily it ran out after basecoating my Daemon Prince, so I'll try to have him up here ASAP. Also, I've finished my first squad of Chaos Marines, and I'll try to have them up by tonight.

Well, back to pretending to work. All that surfing the web can be exhausting.