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Last weekend our gaming group had a few games at Warhammer World and this is the result of my only battle, CSM vs Eldar.

Chaos List Summary
Lord w/ Mark of Khorne, Terminator Armour, Gift of Mutation

10 CSM w/2xFlamers and 2xCC weapons Vets of the Long War
15 Berzerkers, Champion with Gift of Mutation and Power Axe
10 Plague Marines w/ 2x Melta Guns in a Rhino
7 Chosen w/ 4x Plasma Guns, Champion with Combi-Plasma and Vets of the long war in a Rhino
8 Havocs w/ 2x Heavy Bolter and 2xAutocannon
1 Hellbrute w/ Reaper Autocannon and Power Scourge

This faced an Eldar list that had

Farseer
Harlequins (9 fully tooled up with Harlequin's kisses)
Wrathlord
Wrathseer
3 Wraithguard
Dire Avengers
Storm Guardians
Guardian Bikes
Rangers
War Walkers x2

Both armies were 1496 points.

The scenario was The Relic and deployment was Vanguard Strike.

As we positioned the Relic in the middle of the battlefield and each deployed the strength of our force opposite it was going to be bloody and it was.

To cut a long story short the dice gods did not favour the Chaos Marines on this day and most certainly did favour the Eldar. The Berzerkers failed their dice roll to charge the Harlequins, losing 4 to overwatch in the process, and got charged back (not getting a single overwatch hit) and were ripped to pieces. The Plague Marines engaged the Wraitseer with their poisoned blades to watch the Eldar player make 9 consecutive 3+ saves and were wiped out to a man. The Hellbrute did well, it ripped the Wraithguard to pieces and damaged the Wraithlord before being destroyed itself. The Chaos Lord got isolated by the death of the Berzerkers and got Bladestormed by the Dire Avengers. The close combat Chaos Marines destroyed the Storm Guardians and the Rangers in short order before the Wraithseer took them apart. The Farseer managed to save the plasma hits the Chosen put on them but the chosen then got charged by the Harlequins and managed to do well, the Champion taking out the Shadowseer in a challenge. There were 6 Havocs left at the end and two wrecked Rhinos around the relic!

The final result was a resounding victory to the Eldar, who admitted afterwards he had picked an anti Marine army to face my experimental CSM one.

Lessons Learnt
Know your special rules. I forgot the Gifts of Mutation, Counter Attack and also the Plague Marine Grenades.
On a battlefield with a lot of dense cover flamers are needed in quantity. Of the two taken only one fired (the other one was sniped) and was devastating.
Use dirge casters on the Rhinos, would have helped a lot. Or don't use Rhinos at all as they ended up slowing the attack down.
Harlequins are really hard if they engage on their terms. 260 points took out 345 points of Berzerkers and also caused the loss of the 160 point Chaos Lord.
Get some dice that don't keep rolling 1's!!!!!!

Overall as my first battle with the new Chaos Codex i really enjoyed it. I prefer playing fluff based armies, rather than tournament standard ones, and i am sure there will be plenty of criticism of what i took. However it was really really good fun and i learnt a lot about the new list. Infantry based armies are definitely viable as it would have been very close if the dice rolls had evened out. As funds are restricted i am not going to be getting all the new Chaos goodies so i have to use a more traditional type list but i think next time it will either be the turn of the tanks to have a go or i will go all out infantry. Must find a way to get the obliterators into the list as well.

Very concise and fun read of the battle.

Tell us more about how the Hell Brute did.

I've thought about fielding 2, 1 kitted w/ 2 ccw 1 w/ 2 ranged weapons. I wondered f specializing was overdoing it and make them more veratile as you did.

How did it do in the shooting, ranged etc...

Thanks.

I love fluffy armies to, only that doesnt mean you have to take underpowered lists...

Change the chosen for bikers an put the lord on a jugg with the axe/
Drop the plagues for another bezerker or spacemarine unit
change the brute to a maulerfiend

will work much better...

I don't mind these short battle reports at all, nice straight and forward. Agreed about the Rhinos, I'll use them only for the first turn as it still gives the unit inside the extra 6" when they've disembarked. Besides with Dirge Caster and some weapons the Rhino is a cheap annoying factor in your army which may drag some enemy shooting its way.

Looking forward to read more of your battle reports!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Skerr wrote:
Very concise and fun read of the battle.

Tell us more about how the Hell Brute did.

I've thought about fielding 2, 1 kitted w/ 2 ccw 1 w/ 2 ranged weapons. I wondered f specializing was overdoing it and make them more veratile as you did.

How did it do in the shooting, ranged etc...

Thanks.

Be careful about the Helbrute with 2 close combat weapons. If you roll Fire Frenzy when Crazed, it will be annoying so just see it standing idle when it could have shot twice with one of the Heavy weapons. You can of course upgrade the Power Fists with built-in weapons but it's still not much extra. Same goes for the Helbrute with 2 ranged weapons if you're forced to charge into combat.

 Skerr wrote:
Very concise and fun read of the battle.

Tell us more about how the Hell Brute did.

I've thought about fielding 2, 1 kitted w/ 2 ccw 1 w/ 2 ranged weapons. I wondered f specializing was overdoing it and make them more veratile as you did.

How did it do in the shooting, ranged etc...

Thanks.

The Hellbrute shot and destroyed a War Walker in the first turn (it had already lost a hull point to the havocs but the hellbrute took it down).

On the second turn it charged into the Wraithguard killing the remaining two. It was then charged by the Wraithlord and managed to take a hull point off it before being destroyed itself.

I very much agree with making them multifunctional, use a Maulerfiend if you want a close combat beast.

Hmm if I wa going or a fluffy list I would go more nurgle, but whatever, survivability is just worth the look on your opponents face when you somehow survive. Much the reason that destroyer lords are awesome for necrons.

Nice and concise Battle Report