Chaos Space Marines and the Meta
Let's talk Chaos Space Marines. Thousand Sons got best CSM's at BAO, and that army was a gorgeous purple, lemme tell you. Honestly, besides Thousand Sons, I don't know what was in the army. I went in expecting Wave Serpents galore, but there weren't many Eldar period as the popular thing seemed to be to take Space Marines/Knights, Necrons and Nids. I don't know if that will be the norm going forward, or if it was just people optimizing for the BAO format, but since I heard Knights were big at ATC as well, let's assume those will be a fixture for the forseeable future.
I truly hope Chaos gets its own Knights before the year is out as that solves a lot of problems, but until then, we need to work with the tools we have, and I think the tools are there. Here is what I propose as a first hack that would have done pretty well at BAO:
Chaos Lord, Mark of Nurgle, sigil, bike, power fist, lightning claw, Daemonheart, Slaughterer's Horns
Sorcerer, ML3, Balestar of Mannon, bike
10 Cultists
10 Cultists
5 Chaos Spawn, MoN
3 Obliterators, MoN
3 Obliterators, MoN
3 Obliterators, MoT
Lord of Change, ML3, 2x greater, lesser
10 Daemonettes, icon, instrument
10 Daemonettes, instrument
1850
This list works on Divination. The Sorcerer is the key. How you use him depends on the powers he rolls. He starts with the Lord and the Spawn regardless. If he gets Perfect Timing, he will join a unit of Oblits once they drop in and cast Prescience and Perfect Timing on that unit. If he (or the LOC) gets Forewarning, he will cast it on the Nurgle Spawn or the Tzeentch Oblits as necessary. If either he or the LOC gets Misfortune, they cast it on whatever the Spawn are going to charge (like a Knight or something). If he gets Scrier's Gaze, the reserves come in reliably. Precognition is good on the LOC, and not terrible on the Sorcerer since he'll have a force axe.
The Daemonettes provide a pseudo comms relay for the Oblits and provide extra threat since we don't need very many warp charge to get off the powers we want to cast. The icon allows them to deep strike with greater precision. I'd like to get a second icon in there, so maybe you drop the Staff of Change off the LOC or remove MoN from one of the Oblit Squads. I picked Daemonettes over Horrors because I don't need more warp charge. I need more threats. I could always take Summoning on the LOC and drop some Horrors on the board to do the job if I felt the matchup needed that sort of thing.
We take a unit of Tzeentch Oblits because they can tank things like Knights and Heirodules as long as they don't get stomped out, which I can tell you will happen sometimes. Nevertheless, the list is quite capable of bringing down Knights, blasting bikers and Wave Serpents off the table, and getting a lot of threats in the enemy's face all at once.
Push comes to shove, you can send the Nurgle Spawn in to tank the super heavies and hope you don't get stomped out too fast. Forewarning on Nurgle Spawn makes them an even better tarpit, and super dangerous if the Lord is with them.
I'm not super-jazzed about the LOC, but it does provide some skyfire (though I am barely concerned about flyers for the most part, and I can TL the Oblits), and if you don't expose it too early, it can get some work done later in the game, especially if he rolls good rewards and powers. You could run a Tzerald with Screamers instead, but you'd have to drop something. I can't come up with a better pick to get me three more Div rolls. You could do a second detachment of CSM, but then you lose the Daemonettes with the instruments to pull in your Oblits.
The Sorcerer is vulnerable to mindstrike missiles, so if you play Grey Knights, you should probably try for Invis instead of Divination, and just rely on the Oblits to blast the Grey Knights off the board, which they can do.
Finally, you have the Lord, who is your anchor in the center with the Spawn. It's an exceedingly tough unit to remove.
This, I think, is a solid starting point if you are in a spot where Knights are a common sight, and LOW are legal as they are in our liberal west coast crazy town. What say you all?
I truly hope Chaos gets its own Knights before the year is out as that solves a lot of problems, but until then, we need to work with the tools we have, and I think the tools are there. Here is what I propose as a first hack that would have done pretty well at BAO:
Chaos Lord, Mark of Nurgle, sigil, bike, power fist, lightning claw, Daemonheart, Slaughterer's Horns
Sorcerer, ML3, Balestar of Mannon, bike
10 Cultists
10 Cultists
5 Chaos Spawn, MoN
3 Obliterators, MoN
3 Obliterators, MoN
3 Obliterators, MoT
Lord of Change, ML3, 2x greater, lesser
10 Daemonettes, icon, instrument
10 Daemonettes, instrument
1850
This list works on Divination. The Sorcerer is the key. How you use him depends on the powers he rolls. He starts with the Lord and the Spawn regardless. If he gets Perfect Timing, he will join a unit of Oblits once they drop in and cast Prescience and Perfect Timing on that unit. If he (or the LOC) gets Forewarning, he will cast it on the Nurgle Spawn or the Tzeentch Oblits as necessary. If either he or the LOC gets Misfortune, they cast it on whatever the Spawn are going to charge (like a Knight or something). If he gets Scrier's Gaze, the reserves come in reliably. Precognition is good on the LOC, and not terrible on the Sorcerer since he'll have a force axe.
The Daemonettes provide a pseudo comms relay for the Oblits and provide extra threat since we don't need very many warp charge to get off the powers we want to cast. The icon allows them to deep strike with greater precision. I'd like to get a second icon in there, so maybe you drop the Staff of Change off the LOC or remove MoN from one of the Oblit Squads. I picked Daemonettes over Horrors because I don't need more warp charge. I need more threats. I could always take Summoning on the LOC and drop some Horrors on the board to do the job if I felt the matchup needed that sort of thing.
We take a unit of Tzeentch Oblits because they can tank things like Knights and Heirodules as long as they don't get stomped out, which I can tell you will happen sometimes. Nevertheless, the list is quite capable of bringing down Knights, blasting bikers and Wave Serpents off the table, and getting a lot of threats in the enemy's face all at once.
Push comes to shove, you can send the Nurgle Spawn in to tank the super heavies and hope you don't get stomped out too fast. Forewarning on Nurgle Spawn makes them an even better tarpit, and super dangerous if the Lord is with them.
I'm not super-jazzed about the LOC, but it does provide some skyfire (though I am barely concerned about flyers for the most part, and I can TL the Oblits), and if you don't expose it too early, it can get some work done later in the game, especially if he rolls good rewards and powers. You could run a Tzerald with Screamers instead, but you'd have to drop something. I can't come up with a better pick to get me three more Div rolls. You could do a second detachment of CSM, but then you lose the Daemonettes with the instruments to pull in your Oblits.
The Sorcerer is vulnerable to mindstrike missiles, so if you play Grey Knights, you should probably try for Invis instead of Divination, and just rely on the Oblits to blast the Grey Knights off the board, which they can do.
Finally, you have the Lord, who is your anchor in the center with the Spawn. It's an exceedingly tough unit to remove.
This, I think, is a solid starting point if you are in a spot where Knights are a common sight, and LOW are legal as they are in our liberal west coast crazy town. What say you all?
