51'st Crusade report

Another Crusade is behind me, for the second time my Legionaires mostly got killed instead of killing. Probably that's mostly my fault, but general weakness od CSM Codex doesn't make things easy for me.

I ended up 18'th out of 20. Lame, isn't it? Next Crusade will be a tiny bit bigger, 1500pts points armies. I'll field two Hell Blades, that small fighter were pain in the butt of my oponents in all three battles.

Apart from that, I have to increase the size of Bikers unit, three is way to small for anything (although they did their job in two out of three battles).

Currently I think about fielding the following army:

Be'Lakor

Chaos Lord
- Axe of Blind Fury
- Bike
- Mark of Khorne
- Sigil of Corruption

10 Cultists
- Champion with Pistol & CCW
- Cultists with Pistols

10 Cultists
- Champion with Pistol & CCW
- Cultists with Pistols

Hell Blade
- Two Helstorm Autocannons

Hell Blade
- Two Helstorm Autocannons

6 Chaos Bikers
- Champion with Bolt Pistol & CCW
- 2 Meltaguns

2 Rapier Weapons Batteries
- 2 Hades Autocannons

Chaos Predator
- TL Lascannon
- Lascannon Sponsons
- Dozer Blade

3 Obliterators
- Mark of Nurgle

That means I have to build 18 models. Woah! Back to the paint station then!

Final preparations before the 51'st Crusade

For the second time my Lost Legion will stand and fight to death in Adeptus Mechanicus Wargaming Club. 51'st Crusade will be 1250, 2 detachments tournament.

I've decided to field just one detachment, plain CSM Codex.

It took me quite some time to figure out who will be the leader of this army. All in all, I chose Chaos Sorcerer, who will either join Chosen (in most cases) or Obliterators.

On the left side of the picture there's cannon fooder (Cultists) and firebase (Obliterators). Center is ocuppied by main units, 9 Chosen with 5 Meltaguns in Land Raider, and 5 Marines with Flamer. On the right you can see my fast attack units, Hell Blade and Bikers.

Short post, I must admit, but I have to catch some sleep before tomorrow. I'll let you know how that went!

Let them Melt once more, and next Crusade approaching

My Chosen I wrote about before are almost finished. Five (yes, five!) Chosen armed with Meltaguns, two regular ones, and Chosen Champion with Power Axe and Bolt Pistol.

Whole unit rides to battle aboard Rhino APC, which allows them to fire at the enemy during my first turn. I have to paint them pretty fast, cause 51'st Crusade is behind the corner.

This time I'll try to score a bit higher than 15'th place :). My army will look like this:

Sorcerer
     - 3'rd Mastery Level
     - Force Weapon
     - Bolt Pistol
     - Sigil of Corruption
     - Spell Familiar

10 Cultists
     - Champion with Pistol & CCW
     - 8 Autoguns
     - 1 Flamer

8 Chosen
     - Champion with Power Axe & Bolt Pistol
     - 5 Meltaguns
     - 2 Bolters
     - Rhino with Dozer Blade

Hell Blade
     - 2 Helstorm Autocannons

3 Rapiers
     - 3 Hades Autocannons

3 Obliterators
     - Mark of Nurgle

Herald of Tzeentch
     - Locus of Conjuration
     - 3'rd Mastery Level

11 Pink Horrors

Much different than my previous army list, this time I want my army to be much more mobile and shooty. Rapiers and Obliterators form very nice firebase, capable of holding two objectives in my deployment zone, Sorcerer riding with Chosen and hopefully making them invisible will be the centerpiece of the army, Hell Blade may hunt those pesky flyers or shoot some light tanks and infantry, Horrors with Herald will produce some Warpcharges each turn, and (hopefully) shoot something in the psychic phase. Cultists, as usuall, will stay in reserves and appear during the game to grab an objective close to the table's edge.

Will that work? I'll find out in just a few days.

New models to the army

Today I had an unusually big amount of free time, and I'd spent it on building new models for my army. Here they are:

First model of the second Chosen squad, this one will be armed with five flamers! Marine lacks one shoulder pad, cause I'm going to use one made by Kromlech.

Second is the Champion of my new Biker squad, for now - three models with two Meltaguns. Cheap, fast unit for tank-hunting missions.

This one is the fifth member of the Chosen squad I wrote about before. Just three meltagun-armed marines to go :)

Havocs. Yeah, IMO the best HS choice in CSM Codex, excluding Obliterators, of course. Wile working on my new army list, I realised I have no good units to stay in my deployment zone, hold the objective placed there, and, in the meantime, do something usefull without moving. Here they are, Havocs with Autocannons. Eight S7 AP4 shots, that's something that may even ground lighter flyers. I like it :). The problem is, the only option to get Autocannon Havoc is to buy the box in which are five models, and only one Autocannon. Not the best deal. Therefore, I've decided to use Heavy Bolters with barrels cut off, and Autocannon barrels glued on. Quite simple and fast, but looks ok to me.

Another Helbrute. I have one (almost finished), and need three to be able to field Mayhem Pack formation. Three Helbrutes ariving via deep strike may work quite well, maybe not as good as their loyalist brothers, but still not bad for the CSM.

Last (but not least), Disc of Tzeentch for the Herald. Unit of 4-8 Screamers with Psyker who casts withfires like crazy works quite nice, and will get me another scoring unit which can move fast enough to get to the objective fast enough to claim it in one turn. That's very important in tournament games, where usually Objective Cards are used.

That's it for today, tomorrow I'll try to paint something, cause for now I own only two fully painted models for this army.

50'th Crusade

Yesterday my Chaos Army fought various oponents during 50'th Crusade, ran by Adeptus Mechanicus Wargaming Club.

Here you can see me leading Chaos Forces against Predator's Ultramarines:

I ended up at 15'th place (out of 18), which is not so good :). I must admit, my army needs some serious improvements, the most important two are: more bodies, and much more movability.

Bearing that in mind, I've decided to expand my Allied Detachment of Daemons, and include Chosen in Dreadclaw. We'll see how that works :).

Preparing for the 50'th Crusade

Hi there!

My Chaos forces are almost ready for tomorrow's tournament, the 50'th Crusade, ran by Adeptus Mechanicus Wargames Club. The rules are pretty simple, 1650 points, up to three detachments. I've decided to field my Chaos Space Marines with some Daemonic Allies. Last time, when I'd played against Adam's Tyranids, that tactic proved to be quite usefull.

Therefore, my army looks as follows:

+ Be'Lakor, The Dark Master

+ Daemon Prince
     - Burning Brand of Skalanthrax
     - 3'rd Level Psyker
     - Mark of Nurgle
     - Power Armour
     - Spell Familiar
     - Wings

+ Cultists
     - Champion with CCW & Pistol
     - 8 Autoguns
     - 1 Flamer

+ Chaos Space Marines
     - Champion with Power Axe, Bolt Pistol & Boltgun
     - 4 Marines with Boltguns
     - Marine with Meltagun
     - Veterans of the Long War
     - Rhino with Havoc Launcher, Dozer Blade & Dirge Caster

+ Vindicator
     - Daemonic Possession
     - Dozer Blade

+ 2 Obliterators

+ 2 Obliterators

+ Herald of Tzeentch
     - Greater Reward
     - Lesser Reward
     - Exalted Locus of Conjuration
     - Psyker Level 3

+ Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch

+ 11 Pink Horrors

The idea is to start the game with half of my forces on the table, ie. Marines, Vindicator and both Daemon Princes. Cultists stay in reserve, and emerge in the middle of the game, to hold one objective in my deployment zone. Obliterators deep strike wherever I need them, to bring some havoc to the enemy, and Horrors with Herald and Flamer appear right behind the biggest enemy unit, to blast them in following psychic and shooting phase.

This time I've decided to use my Daemon Princes as more of supporting units, rather than hard hitting close combat monsters. They'll fly above the battlefield, casting psychic powers, firing Burning Brand, and, if nececcary, vector striking some flyers.

We'll see how that works :).

In the meantime, I work on my models, to field a bit more painted ones than I did on the previous tournament. Moments ago I'd finished one of my Obliterators:

There are two more like him (not exactly like him, but of simillar design), and one more of Daemonic type. In few days I want to be able to field two units of three. That might be an overkill, after all, such unit, without upgrades, costs 210 points, but nothing hurts as much as three Obliterators deep-striking behind your firebase :).

Stay tuned, tomorrow I'll write something about the Crusade!

Blood for the Blood God! (part II)

Few days ago I wrote about my new combat unit, Berzerkers with Khorne Lord, riding in Land Raider. Yesterday I finally had a chance to battletest the unit against Adam's Tyranids.

I cannot say I'm dissapointed, the unit won every single combat in the round they charged, wiping enemy out. Still, I don't think I'll field my 'zerkies that often.

There are four reasons:

1. In all 4 combats they were during the game, the unit couldn't do a think, cause the enemy was slaughtered by Khorne's Lord with Axe of Blind Fury. He simply struck with so many attacks (rage + daemon weapon), that Berzerkers just ran with him as a shield from incoming shots. Cultists would do the same job, with less armour compensated by much, much more bodies.

2. Lord must move even faster, than using the assault vehicle. I think that either Bike or Juggernaut will do in this case. This will, of course, require putting some retinue together, Bikers or Spawns.

3. Land Raider is't as good as it may seem. Huge, slow, and very, very expensive. I'd rather use another unit of Obliterators with MoN for 7 points less.

The problem is, I'll never make enough models (Mounted Lord + his retinue) till Saturday, when next tournament takes place. It means, I won't field this kind of hard-hitting CC unit at all :). I can't tell you what will I field right now, cause I'm still working on my army list.

In the meantime, I'm trying to finish my Daemon Prince and Obliterators. Quite a lot of painting awaits me!

Blood for the Blood God! (part I)

As I've mentioned before, my tournament rooster was subject to some significant changes. One of them was to replace main close combat unit.

During Wolftime my Land Raider was stuffed with 4 Slaaneshi Terminators with Feel No Pain, some Combi-Meltas, and led by Sorcerer in Terminator Armour.

In all three battles that unit did almost nothing. Too little wounds in total (just 6), not so many attacks, even wile charging, made them easy target for all close combat units, like Stormfangs or Be'lakor (even though Be'lakor isn't the best CC monster out there).

Therefore I've decided to use one of the best CC characters in Chaos Codex, Lord of Khorne with Axe of Blind Fury.

I thought of three options for the Lord. First was giving him bike, and the retinue of 6-7 bikers with 2 Meltaguns. Second, mounting him on Juggernaut, surrounded by the pack of Chaos Spawns. Third, Lord on foot, leading the unit of Khorne Berzerkers.

Bearing in mind that I already have my Land Raider, and it actually works quite well, I've decided to utilize the third option. I dug out some of my old Berzerkers, seven of them plus Aspiring Champion with Fist.

Of course I'll convert some new ones, but all in good time. For now, I need a new Lord model. Sadly, GW produces no such model, so I had to kitbash my own.

There he is, Karnash, Lord of Khorne. I've built him using mostly CSM box I've bought few days ago to build my Chosen. After adding some green stuff and Archaon's sword, the model was almost ready.

Almost, cause I had to make the model look a bit tougher and more interesting. I used a Genestealer I had in my bitsbox, and cut a hole through his chest. That allowed me to stick him on the sword :). Some cork pieces to act as concrete walls, and the model is pretty much done. Just need to put some paint on it ;).

So, I'll leave you with some more photos, and get back to my paint station.

Let them melt!

After playing few 40k battles using 7ed. rules (I broke from the hobby during 4-th ed.), I must say: you'll never have too many Meltaguns. Bearing that in mind, I've decided to field a squad of Chosen with five Meltaguns.

Five S:8 AP:1 shots is something that can mess my oponent's plans pretty nicely. One less tank, Centurions brought down from 4 to 2 squad members, Land Raider crack opened before she could unload her deadly cargo... Options are limitless.

Of course, unit with so many special weapons is not a cheap thing. 8 Chosen, 5 with Meltaguns, and Champion with Power Weapon (I don't want to spend too much points on his wargear, on the other hand - AP:3 weapon is quite usefull against Power Armoured units), riding to battle onboard Rhino APC, that's quite a lot of points. I'll have to use them with extreme caution, if they're about to do their job.

Tomorrow I'm going to play a small battle against Tyranids. 1200 pts doesn't allow me to field whole squad, so I've decidet to use 6-men squad with 2 Meltaguns, 1 Flamer, and Champion with Power Weapon. Of course, unit will have their Rhino for some extra protection and movability.

All in all, I've picked one CSM box from GW store, and started to work on the new unit. Currently, I have four models assembled and based.

On the far right and far left are basic Chosen armed with Bolters, CCW and Bolt Pistols. Middle left is first of many armed with Meltagun, and middle right is the unit's Champion, from Dark Vengance set.

I still have 4 more to assemble, but for tomorrow, just two more. I think I'll make it, but once more I'll have to play with mostly unpainted army. What a shame...