Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So I was helping my buddy make a Chaos list the other day, and we were batting around some ideas and I thought of something I have not seen played before.

Most Chaos players (myself included) go for the larger sized troops squads because they are really good. However, what if you went MSU?

Troops: Noise Marines x 5 +s.blaster, Rhino=175 points.

That is a fearless, mobile unit that can sit and shoot a nice gun out of the back. Not quite a Lazorback but not too far form it.

You could take a few of these as troops, 5 man chosen or termicide squads as elites, your choice of heavy slots and then the min/max squads of fast attack like 5 man Raptor squads with 2 meltas or 3 man biker squads with 2 meltas which are actually quite good.

You would wrack up KPs but so what. My best tournament list has 19 KPs in it and it doesn't cause me many problems.

But going this route, you can pack in a higher number of heavy/special weapons on mobile platforms and overwhelm your opponent with targets.

For example (all min sized units):

1 x Noise Marines + s.blaster in rhino: 175
2 x Noise marines + d.siren in rhino: 330
3 x Chosen + 4 x melta: 495
3 x Havoks + 4 x plasma: 510
Lash Sorcerer, M.Bomb: 130
Raptors + M.Gun x 2: 120
Raptors + M.Gun x 2: 120
Bikers + M.Gun x 2: 119

1999 Points, 12 plasma, 2 doom siren, 3 fearless, mobile scoring units, 1 blast master, 18 melta guns, 12 of which can outflank or infiltrate. 22 KP.

That is a LOT of mobile death. You could mix in some flamer units or some other units in there like Oblits, Dreads, termicide, etc. but that gives you a pretty savage core of units. Very little HtH, though. With the army's speed and deployment options, it could really pose a big threat to a lot of armies. The sheer number of units advancing means that a lot of armies simply lack the ability to shoot them all before they arrive to deliver a metric gak tone of special weapons.

Has anyone tried this out? I am curious to hear if anyone has had success with it.

I've considered several similar lists but just dont like the feel of them. It's probably personal bias and I think it could work it's just so damn boring for me

Oh and it's a b.master nor a s.blaster. Blastmaster is the heavy and Sonic Blaster is the 2-3 shot assault/heavy standard bolter.

ah, yeah, sorry about the mix up. Blastmasters it is!

I have a friend who runs a list a bit like this, and I thought it had potential.

I know what you mean though, it doesn't FEEL like chaos.

My marines are all MSU (as that is what works best for them) and I did sort of want to run the beefy, and excellent chaos troops choices just as a change of pace.

Just on a numbers basis though, this army puts out huge damage at mid to close range. And it has the numbers and speed to get there. If you play on a board with good LoS blocking terrain, a list like this could really do some work.

I run a MSU-heavy Chaos list that has been doing very well lately. Basically a bunch of min-maxed Plague Marine squads.

It reads @ 1,850:

2x Winged Lash Princes (or sorcerors as soon as it hits 2,000 pts)
3x 5-man Plague Marine squads with 2x Meltaguns in Rhinos w/ Combimelta
1x 5-man Plague Marine squad with 2x Meltaguns in Rhino w/ Combimelta
1x 10-man Berzerker squad, Skull Champ w/ Fist in Rhino
3x Oblits
2x Defilers

The min-maxed Plague Marine squads are pretty disgusting. You get enough shots out of them to punk Terminators, and of course each one is ready to toasty-roast a tank. The double-plasma squad adds volume of fire.

By min-maxing your Plague Marines, you ensure that they're tough enough to sustain a round of rapid firing or whatever, but weak enough that they'll get steamrolled by any quality assault unit. This is huge as it leaves the deathstar open for slugging next turn.



IMO, Noise Marines are the only cult unit that actually benefits from footslogging and objective camping, and doesn't benefit much from min-maxing. 7 Noise Marines with Sonic Blasters and one Blast Master sitting on an objective brings the pain at 24". It's 18 S4 shots and one Blast Master shot out to 48.

I like that list, Nuggz. You can get the PMs which are much more resilient than NMs for about the same price min maxed.

The main reason for the NMs is for the special weapons. The Blastmaster shoots well and the doom siren is a street sweeper. I think both have a use, but PMs are undeniably awesome.

I agree that NMs can be good at objective camping, but giving them all sonic blasters makes them so damn expensive. They still die like marines, I have trouble justifying the cost.

Shawn Kemp did well at The Conflict GT this past weekend with a semi-MSU list.

At 1750 it was roughly:
Winged Prince (no powers or mark) x2
Greater D
3 Termies w/3x combi plasma x3
10 CSM w/IoCG, 2 melta in Rhino x2
5 CSM w/IoCG, melta in Rhino x3
Single Oblit x3

With a disposable aspiring champ in one of the CSM squads; cant remember which.

Hmm, that is a pretty lean and mean list. A lot of KPs but also a lot of mobile scoring units. I would think he would have trouble with MSU shooty units like Missile Wolves, but no more so than the list I proposed, plus this has a lot more assault power while it lacks the special weapons.

Not bad. I would drop the Icons on the 5 man squads but hey, sounds like they served him well.