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Ok I've got a combat patrol competition to play in next sunday. My problem is that I've never played with only 400 points so I'm not sure what to do. Is it better to spread the points across and have lots of minimally kitted out bodies or is it better to fully kit out fewer models. How do you cover every eventuality with only 400 points to spend?

It'd be useful to know what codex you're using.

Oops sorry Chaos Space marines

I personally think boys>toys in small games. Orks and guard tend to dominate them due to numbers and low cost AV:14.

If you can fit a Heldrake in there, you'll pretty much auto-win against MEQ armies though. It's also not terrible at dealing with hordes of boyz.

I'm not sure I can fit one in. At the moment I've got a level one sorceror in termie armour at 85, a squad of cultists at 50 points and 4 termies at 157 and a oblit at 70 points. That leaves me at 362, the question then becomes do I find something to fill the extra or start over?

Combat patrol games often have restrictions specifically to avoid overpowered and unkillable models - are there any restrictions on what you can take here?

The major restriction is that no vehicle can have an armour facing of more than 11. That and no named characters or anything with more than two wounds

kevhplus9 wrote:
The major restriction is that no vehicle can have an armour facing of more than 11. That and no named characters or anything with more than two wounds

lol this kind of info would have been useful in the initial post.

Terminators feel like a waste to me. You want to bring as many scoring units as you can, and terminators are a bit of a points sink at 400pts. If it was me (and I'm not familiar with the CSM codex), I'd bring lots and lots of bolters to handle the hordes. The sorcerer is a great idea, especially if you can nab invisibility.
I think spawn would be a great idea. They're tough, they're fast and IIRC they're not particularly expensive. If you could take them with a sorcerer on a bike, all with MoN plus a bunch of CSM and a blob of cultists, I think you'd be a force to be reckoned with.

However as I said, I'm not familiar with the codex so my suggestion may be way off in points...

Edit: I totally am, that would be a ridiculously high points cost.

Sorry I'm still new to messageboards and often forget that people don't have access to the same info . I'm a little worried about using standard CSM as they can get quite expensive when tooled up and since I've never played at such a low points level I'm not sure what I'm going to need. The spawn are a great idea!

Don't tool them up. Bolter and heavy/special weapon would suffice. 14pts for a 3+ save is fantastic. I don't like cultists, whenever I see a CSM player using them I just think how they could bring guard allies instead, which are far better.

Thanks, time to hit the codex and see what happens


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How does this sound. Sorceror in termie, 2 oblits and a ten man squad of csm with 2 plasma guns. The alternative is to drop the plasma guns and grab a spawn with the spare 30 points. That leaves me at 395.


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I could also do something completely different ie a necron list. I can get a standard lord, 5 immortals, 10 warriors and a triarch stalker for 395. That could be a fun amount of dakka to play with

Plague marines with flamers and you will be good. The plague knifes and feel no pain are great so if you can fit them in take them. With a chaos lord with mark of nurgle so there troops.

I play more games at 500 pts than any other pts level.

You'll find them less forgiving because losing even one unit can totally cripple you.

Theres also a knack to knowing how much gear to give a unit. For example, you rightly suggest that CSM get expensive quickly. So don't tool them up. Don't forget, your opponents are as restricted as you are, so things wont necessarily have to face the kind of things they would in a big game.

A current CSM list Im experimenting with a 500 is

Sorceror
MoT

5 Thousand Sons

5 CSM
Plasma gun

Autocannon Havocs

Obliterator

Gives me two scoring units, a solid firebase in the havocs, a HQ that comes with a force weapon for dealing with tervigons etc, the thousand sons are tough with 4+ invuls & deadly to small marine armies with ap3 bolters, the CSM are cheap & versatile, & the oblit is versatile enough to fill any gaps the list might have at low points.

You'll find trying to squeeze in a powerful unit like a heldrake at low points can be good because no one else will be able to deal with it (or not very effectively), but on the other hand it's very much a case of putting your eggs in one basket & if your opponent gets lucky or you have a bad match up, your entire game is down the pan. As such I try to stay away from it