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Excellent point. That is what I do with my dreads in my Wolf list, they hang out near the LFs to keep any would be assaulters at bay.

Personally i run a pred, defi, vindie in my all mech list.

Preds are good for anti tank. Being able to move 6" and still fire is great if thats what you need.

Defi's are great all around, more or less. i don't run the Hugs-not-drugs loadout. i make sure to take the RAC, just in case i get immobilized or the BC gets destroyed. I just believe that its always good to have a backup/second option. just my opinion.

Vinies are good for anti-tank/anti-infantry. More so of the later. but when it comes to deepstriking termies 9/10 of the time opponents will steer away from being infront of this guy.

Those are just my points, take from them what you will, hopefully they helped.

p.s. we all know that vindies and defis are good with lash, incase you forgot.

I am a really big fan of Defilers with as many DCCW as possible.

The Battle Cannon wrecks infantry and medium tanks, and the S10 assaults can handle pretty much anything else. Keep them away from Monstrous Creatures and the few Characters that don't care about AV12 (I'm looking at you, Lysander) and they're giant, brutal fire magnets that really can kick some ass if given half a chance.

Reecius wrote:
One more thing, stick those chosen in a Rhino, outflank them and watch gak blow up. Brilliant unit. Take 5, give them 4 meltas and you have an awesome anti-tank unit.

D: I wanted to do that but i just dont have the points anywhere to give my 2 chosen squads rhinos. Granted i could get rid of one unit and give the other a rhino but this would still leave me with 120pnts left over....or 125 if i took the only non-melta off one of my chosen that would leave me with just enough points for either a vindicator or a 3 man termicide unit with 2 chainfists and a heavy flamer/or combi-melta

never been a fan of the defiler the only fleet unit in the choas codex is usually visible by everyone on the map.and therefore every unit on the opposing side ends up shooting at it and ends with my deflier getting plugged first second turn.... what could i do to avoid this fate? everyone seems to love walkers lol

idk you got me. I run mine as far back as i can. If i ran it up front its gonna get killed.

@billie-joe
Exactly, I am bringing the pie slingers to combo with lash. I will also have 3 Oblits for the same reason as plasma cannons are awesome for that, too.

If I was going to run the pred it would be all las or a.cannon/las. My list is good on anti infantry, what chaos really lacks is long range AT.

Thanks for the input.

@Monster Rain
Yeah, walkers are not meant to be HtH monstrosities, there are units that will walk right through them with ease. You have to be selective with them as when you get them into a favorable combat they dominate, but at In3/WS3 the Deilfer can get into trouble quick, especially against another dread or a WL.

@Zhangbob
Give it a go. That unit is fantastic. Off the flank it has a 21" threat range for melta bonus and a 27" range for non-melta. It means that no matter which flank they come in on they have good odds of reaching something and putting 4 melta shots on side armor. That is a dead tank. Running them with 4 plas works great, too. I am taking two of those units (meltas) in my list as they are just so useful. The ability to outflank means that they are essentially a long range tank killer. Baring bad reserve rolls (which have two of them really mitigates) they can be counted on to eliminate at least one piece of armor each.

@Goreyevisceration
Yeah, the size on the Defiler sucks, that is for certain. Especially on tournament boards which often don't have a lot of terrain. You just to have to get creative with modeling and placement to make sure you minimize their profile as much as possible.

now how does it have 21" range with melta effect when outflanking? also sadly no pred for me if i take them :/

12" off the board edge.
2" out of the tank
Base is 1" wide
6" melta rule range
12" total melta gun range

12+2+1+6=21" +6=27"

You have a surprisingly long reach with these guys. I love them and contemplated taking 3.

Reecius wrote:@Monster Rain
Yeah, walkers are not meant to be HtH monstrosities, there are units that will walk right through them with ease. You have to be selective with them as when you get them into a favorable combat they dominate, but at In3/WS3 the Deilfer can get into trouble quick, especially against another dread or a WL.

Surely the rest of your army, like the Obliterators, would be able to take out those types of units at range?

When a Walker does get into CC with something that can't penetrate its armor reliably, particularly when it has 5 base attacks, things get ugly pretty quickly for your opponent.

Exactly.

That is the name of the game, maximizing your strengths while minimizing your weaknesses.

Shoot the choppy ones and chop the shooty ones! Haha.

Reecius wrote:Shoot the choppy ones and chop the shooty ones! Haha.

Reecius's 40k Tactica: It brooks no argument.

Goreyevisceration wrote:never been a fan of the defiler the only fleet unit in the choas codex is usually visible by everyone on the map.and therefore every unit on the opposing side ends up shooting at it and ends with my deflier getting plugged first second turn.... what could i do to avoid this fate? everyone seems to love walkers lol

This works in 2 ways. First off, if your opponent shoots all their guns at it (which keep in mind it ignores all crew shaken and crew stunned results) then all of your rhinos and etc get a free pass. Second, if they don't, well you know the results. Either 5" pie plates or in CC w/ a very deadly object.

to the OP: defi's are great. Long range, Fleet, CC capability, you name it. use your tools wisely. The thing about Defilers is that no matter how you use them (like the first and second point i made above) you will usually win, that is unless your opponent rolls 6's and you roll 1's the entire game, then nothing will help you.

I am really loving the TL-Heavy Flamer and Heavy Bolter load-out because I'm deathly afraid of my MCs and Dreads getting tarpitted. The problem with the DCCW Defiler is it really only kills 2-3 enemies a turn. This is great if you're up against Thunderwolves or Nobs, but crippling if you're staring down Boyz or Gaunts. Far more frequently you'll be facing the latter. 3 kills a turn isn't good enough against even Marines, who's grenades will wear you down before you kill them all. The TL-HF/B beats the extra DCCWs against Marines (DCCW's .83 wounds compared to .99 with only 2 MEQs under the template), but vastly outstrips them against anything Ork or worse.

The Battlecannon is nice, but the TL-HF/B is more effective against nearly all infantry once you get close in.

I'm content with the Defilier's natural CCW ability, as it was fairly niche anway. I3 damns it against other Walkers, and fighting MCs is out of the question. Really, 1-2 kills a turn is all you need against the high value enemies and vehicles. Everything else, the guns just handle better.

@Darkhound
I think that is a common misconception people have. You don't send a single Walker or most MCs into a blob of infantry, they won't do anything but die to hidden fists. Their assault power is for small elite squads (as you mentioned) vehicles and to tie up units. I don't expect my walkers/MCs to actually take down squads unless they are a trygon or something similar.

And as you said, it would be foolish to run them into something that can kill them in HtH that also swings before them. But outflanking stealers, termicide, wolf scouts, snikrot, vehicles of any kind, etc. will be realistic targets.

With lash though, the Cannon will be great for infantry. Lash them into a blob and then drop pie on them. Depending on their armor save, the twin flamer may be a better bet though as that can cover as many models.

I personally Love the Deffy just because of the fire magnet. i typically run two and deploy them if possible behind cover just in case i dont get first turn. they get first turn they usually go after my 2 DP or the deffys because they are big and scary giving my rhinos a chance to move in for the kill.

Given that especially at higher point games you are going to see plentiful high strength weaponry a single Defiler just isn't going to last long, bringing doubles would seem to be the way to go.

Their size means they won't get cover hardly at all, but their speed means they can keep up with your rhinos, why not use them as mobile cover then? Anything your opponent fires at non-troops and their carriers is only to your advantage in 2/3 standard missions after all.

I also like the "hugs not guns" loadout. You brought it for the big gun so focus on that, and if it is mobile cover it will (hopefully) end up close to some of those MSU that were being discussed, or even a transport or 2.

The gun on a defiler is at a higher elevation than a dev/havoc squad in the 2nd floor of a building. LOS is measured from the gun. That means a defiler is even more likely to ignore cover from interviening squads than a dev/havoc/long fang squad on the 2nd floor of a building.

You know, if you only have a single Defiler, why not run it as a Plague Hulk? AV13/13/11, always obscured and daemonically possessed for 205 points is pretty damn durable.

There is no Plague Hulk you can use in the codex...you willl not be allowed in tournaments

Yeah, FW is typically not allowed in Tournaments due to FWs tendency to cost things inaccurately.

I bought two Defilers and will be testing them out. Thanks for all the input guys, I appreciate your insights.

Reecius wrote:Yeah, FW is typically not allowed in Tournaments due to FWs tendency to cost things inaccurately.

I bought two Defilers and will be testing them out. Thanks for all the input guys, I appreciate your insights.

For what it's worth, one more vote for double Defilers.

A lot of the hard hitting elite units out there really specialize at anti-infantry. Anything without a fist can be tied up by a Defiler. Having two will also soak some fire that would otherwise be directed at other units.

I just wanted to say I agree with your choice on 2 defilers. I think that even outside a lash list defilers have a purpose. Run it for the threat it represents, the damage potential of a battle cannon with or without lash, run it for the hard-as-nails elite units, run it to tie up things without fists, run it to throw people off balance and force deployment errors. Even TWC dont really want to mess with str 10..while you can take a PF/TH TWC squad vs the defiler from experience its 50/50 on a 4 man TWC vs a 4x dccw defiler.