This is a little out of topic for me but has gotten me
quite excited with regards to another hobby of mine outside of watching
wrestling and that being Warhammer 40k (one of many hobbies btw).
It started when I decided to glance through the Chaos Daemons
codex, a few of my friends have decided to sell their Daemons off since this
codex was released since they no longer like the way they play, their rambling
got me interested so I took a look myself. The new Chaos Daemons codex is
certainly not for anyone who has a shortage of dice or paper to write down a
shed load of random powers that you end up giving your forces during the game,
with everything depending on dice rolls and very little certainty on what
powers you may end up with I can understand their scepticism over playing them
as a primary force in the 6th edition environment.
However, as an allied detachment I can see some use for
them, this slightly (very) lowers the amount of dice rolling you have to do as
you no longer have to roll for a warlord for them, you probably won’t be taking
so many units you need to roll powers for and you do not have to activate the
warp storm table every turn like you do when the Daemons are your primary
army. I hate how much dice rolling is
involved with Chaos marines themselves due to the boon table, so I aim to not add much more to my army list
when determining which Daemons will be summoned to aid in my onslaught. Anyone
who has played against me knows I like my guns, the bigger the better, lots of
shots and plenty of damage that comes with it is my style of play, however I
think Daemons offer some very unique close combat units, with this in mind I
turned to the only god I could and that was Khorne for his blessings, this lead
me to the Blood letters troop choice. Now before we go any further Daemons of
Khorne are Daemons with furious charge and hatred (Daemons of Slaanesh).
Bloodletters are a simple Khorne troop selection from the
Daemons codex, some general stats that can make for some good close combat with
WS 5 and a AP3 power sword as standard you simply cannot fault them and 100
points for 10 is a bargain. You can also upgrade them with some useful little
bits including a “instrument of chaos” which will be useful when deep striking
in units of Daemons or units with the Daemon special rule (please note this
down) and then there is the “Icon of chaos” that allows your deep striking to
be a little more precise (keep that noted too). This icon can be upgraded to a
“Banner of blood” for Bloodletters and this gives them a guaranteed 6 inches on
their charges plus that 2nd D6, which you can’t complain at really.
Now they need something major to lead them into the fray,
something monstrous and something with wings!! Yeah I’m gonna go with the
Bloodthirster, this flying monstrous creature is going to be a pain the arse
for the opposition WS10, BS10, S6, T6, I9, A6 and a 3+ armour save with a 5+
invulnerable save isn’t anything to moan about and that’s before we get to the
weaponry this guy carries. He carries the Axe of Khorne with is a user strength
AP2 melee weapon with the decapitating blow special rule, this means that all
to wound rolls of a 6 have the instant death special rule, not bad when facing
down some of the harder charcters from 40k in close combat. Its other weapon is
a cheeky little bit of firepower in the form of the Lash of Khorne, this is a
12 inch ranged assault 1, strength 6 AP1 gun that isn’t too bad considering the
speed of a flying creature and its haste to get into 12 inch range, also at AP1
it could knock off a single man or knock a wound off a bigger character before
you trounce them in close combat. Also the option to add up to 50 points of
daemonic gifts, I have yet to decide how I will go here but the options are
pretty cool for greater and exhaulted gifts.
There it is, a highly aggressive close combat allied
detachment to go with your Chaos space marine warband, however to provide some
synergy you will probably go quite heavy close combat with your primary
detachment of traitors. I personally chose a Chaos lord with the Khorne mark
allowing me to take Khorne Bezerkers as a troop choice instead of an elite
choice, the lord is cheap and cheerful, then with his trusty power sword
provides a reasonable foe in close combat. His squad of 13 Khorne Bezerkers on
the other hand provide some real close combat power thanks to their increased
WS of 5 teaming with the Khorne mark and Furious charge they can go to town on
a poor unsuspecting squad of men. You can chose to upgrade them with chain axes
to gain an AP4 melee weapon but I haven’t bothered at 3 points per model it’s a
little steep when most of my competition will be space marines with a 3+ save the
axe won’t bother. The Bezerker champ will also simply be used to sacrifice for
the challenges that he will stupidly put himself into, in order to protect my
lord from going into too many challenges, thanks to the new rules for
“Champions of Chaos”.
Just to aid in swamping smaller squads or helping mop up
harder to move squads we have the back up of 20 chaos cultists, the champion in
the squad being used in sacrificial challenges, I love cultists as they are
cheap and not too bad when in big groups at just swamping smaller squads,
especially 5 man terminator squads which I proved recently in a game when a ten
man cultist squad managed to take down a 5 man terminator squad in CC. Hey Stu
;-). We keep them as they are with a pistol of close combat weapon to gain
extra attacks for having 2 close combat weapons and do not bother with the
larger guns.
Onto my favourite topic, the heavy support! We start with
a Predator, an unusual choice for me but I do own one so I may as well use it
at some point, it’s a cheap tank that comes with an auto cannon as standard and
I am also adding some lascannon side sponsons just for some heavy duty
firepower, not as many shots as I would usually like but the strength and AP of
the weapons make up for that, use it from far away to help whittle down numbers
before my close combat forces pile in.
My other choice is a standard pick for me and that is a 3
man Obliterator cult, this for me is the best heavy support choice in the game,
it’s sickening how good these can be with a little tactical thinking, choosing
the right gun to fire with and where you DEEP STRIKE them, your starting to get
a picture building now, they have the DAEMON special rule (you getting it yet).
So when you roll a successful reserve roll for your B squad of Khorne
Bloodletters you can select 1 unit with the Daemon special rule in reserve also
and deep strike them in with your bloodletters and within 6 inches of an Icon
of Chaos. This means that squad in front of you’re a squad Bloodletters is
going to get one hell of a shock if this happens to them, how would you feel if
the bad guys in front of you doubled in number and then threw some pretty
sickening array of firepower in your general direction. Sadly they will be
brandishing the mark of Nurgle, this giving them toughness 5 halting 90% of
instant kill weapons and sadly meaning they still scatter when deep striking
even next to the icon holder, however it is only 1 D6 so the heat isn’t off for
the opposition.
Im Big Boss and I'm out, peace!
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