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I am building an army themed around raptors. which is the best chaos mark to give them?

Slaanesh gives them a higher initiative, in which case i will be using lightning claws on my champion. this makes them strike simultaneously with most eldar, before standard chaos and imperial marines, daemons, ig IC's...likely 2 thirds of the armies i fight against ill benefit from slaanesh.

Khorne gives them an extra attack in which case i will take a powerfist. theoretically i would benefit from khorne all the time, except when i lose raptors to initiative 5 models. or the models that get to attack me back because i didn't kill them with my initiatve 5. in 5th i lose an attack with pfists

In 5th edition more models will be getting in on the action with counter charge so killing them at initiative 5 and weathering less of a storm the first round so i can kill them outright in combat the next turn is ideal

however more attacks...lets hear it.

P.S. tzeentch raptors do not appeal to me as a 5+ invulnerable save doesn't impress me and i just don't really like nurgle.

I prefer Slaanesh. In a head-to-head fight, the +1 initiative will win out over the +1 attack, especially with the Lightning Claw champ.

You lose a little flexibility, and can end up tied-up against a dread or something without the powerklaw possiblity, but there should be plenty of things that you can kill without it.

I like the LC + I5 idea. Especially if you tuck a character in there too.

Chaos Glory is good too.

yup, higher Initiative sounds fluffier and more effective

yeah i was leaning towards slaanesh. i played 1 game with a similar list to the one im concocting now and lucius plus 6 slaanesh raptors killed enough dire avengers to force eldrad and yriel to run off the table

not that i base an army on a situation like that but khorne would have done nothing against that and i generally play against eldar or marines.

actually i find khorne to be better. against most thing raptors will strike first/ at the same time anyway and so wont loose many attacks. most things that strike first wont be able to kill raptors that easily and anything that can shouldnt be in combat with your raptors anyway.

slaanesh is only good at killing marines because against everything else it either doesnt help you kill them or they strike first anyway.

powerfists, dispite the nerf are still better. they kill more stuff and they kill it easier. if you (unfortunately) get charged by a wraithlord only a power fist will help you, and MoK will help the powerfist. a fist also gives you a little more versatility. it means you can kill MCs, vehicles and infantry, rather than just infantry.

MEQ are the most common enemy at nearly every venue I've seen. This makes the improved initiative of the MoS very attractive. Additionally, in 5th edition your initiative advantage can't be countered by terrain (frags)!

In the last tournament I attended there was a player with Tzeench Raptors who made an inordinate number of invulnerable saves, much to my chagrin. But I would never rely on such a thing.

MEQs are a most common enemy you will face, but not the only enemy you will face. armies geared to kill MEQs will get run over by every other army.

MoK is actually better at killing MEQs as well.

a squad of 10 raptors with MoS charges a suqad of 10 marines and kill 2.5 before they loose 0.6 in return

a squad of 10 raptors with MoK charges a squad of marines and kills 3.3 and looses 0.8 in return.

that of course doesnt include any other wargear but is a good example. a fist will still help you against MCs (very common sight). MoK will also help you against genersteals and harlequins (also a very common sight) where as MoS wont.

If you are going to go heavy on raptors does it make sense to go 2:1 Slaanesh to Khorne, with LCs on the 2 and a PF on the 1? It might be pretty expensive, but on the plus side you have a little more flexibility in terms of who you can face.

i have settled on slaanesh, thanks for the advice everyone.