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Quite a few people at my FLGS told me that the Chronos was complete crap when I started my DE army. Like an idiot I listened to them, but now I am reconsidering that position. Using one in a ranged capacity, I think it could actually be pretty nasty. It's not as terrifying in CC as it's brother, the Talos, so it may even be ignored for a turn or two. It has a s3 Ap3 large blast with 18 inch range and an AP3 flamer. Best of all it gives out free pain tokens like they were candy. For 100 points I think it could be a good buff to my army, but what is the general consensus on the Chronos Parasite Engine?


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Also, I suppose I should specify which list I run. I have mostly kabalite warriors and wyches with venoms and raiders out the wazoo. For support I run ravagers and have a 10 man unit of scourges with haywire blasters running around. I've been using a razorwing as my 3rd heavy support choice, but have been underwhelmed as it usually comes in too late to help the flimsy troops.

It's too damn slow. By the time it has caught up with the rest of the force whoever needs pain tokens already has them.

Imot is correct on speed, it is very slow although I have heard of people filling up their HS slots with w chronos and a talos and running the chronos behing talos to absorb fire. I dont see it as competitive but definately interesting. I would say try it because I see what you mean whole heartedly about it's potentail, your warriors should already have a couple tokens at that point i could see it working better with a flesh circus list where it is just helping to make sure every unit has 3 tokens.

Exalbaru wrote:
Imot is correct on speed, it is very slow although I have heard of people filling up their HS slots with w chronos and a talos and running the chronos behing talos to absorb fire. I dont see it as competitive but definately interesting. I would say try it because I see what you mean whole heartedly about it's potentail, your warriors should already have a couple tokens at that point i could see it working better with a flesh circus list where it is just helping to make sure every unit has 3 tokens.

That's kind of the problem. I don't have any pain tokens for my troops by turn 2 or 3. I can never seem to kill anything, and if I do wipe out a unit it's one of my vehicles that takes it out.



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After playing with the Chronos for a game today I think it has some serious potential.
I generally have at least one or two units that hang back, either to capitalize on 36" range an night shields, because they're hiding behind an aegis line (typically in team games) or scourges that are sticking to cover backfield.
Also, it's a tough sucker that can't be one shotted by any random guardsman with a lascannon, which is what always happens to my ravagers. Yeah it's only got an 18" range, but it should be in range to nuke stuff turn one if I position it correctly, and it's super cheap at 110 points fully kitted out.

You could always reserve one or two and then pop a WWP in the middle of the field. I've considered that, but haven't tried it yet.

110 points on a Cronos? Personally, I'd only take the spirit vortex upgrade, it's unlikely that it will survive long enough to get into CC, or even be there when it mattered, so I rather not spend the points on that melee upgrade.

As for the Cronos itself, it's a funny unit, I found, despite being a coven unit, it doesn't have a place in a pure coven list, as anything you intend to have in assault, you'd have given them the more reliable PT dispenser in the form of haemy or even Urien's daddy pain USR, it does provide early PT for those Talos if you decide to go hardcore pure coven though! In a skimmer force list, it's PT dispense action can really help those fragile units, but at the same time, it's terrifyingly slow, often having to slow your entire force down just so it can provide those tokens when you need it... Though that largely depends on your meta and your style, if you usually have to sit back in your field as you've said, I could see its speed issue being a lesser concern for you, though really, I'd drop that other spirit upgrade and just rely on its vortex. Biggest problem with the unit though is that it competes with all the other great units in our heavy slot.

I think the unit does have its use, but you have to build your list around it rather than just throwing it in and it will prove useful on its own like a ravager would.

I've run Cronos in a skimmer list, and I have a few pros and cons:

Pros: Against Ork hordes w/o vehicles, the spirit vortex upgrade is cheap and can plate at least 6 bases (even with good spacing on the Ork player's part) and typically wounds half of the boyz it covers. I would imagine the same would go for most non-Marines caught under a plate. However, when the Orks got me into assault the next turn, he couldn't wound anything an was lucky to make it to the next round. I managed to get 2 good shots off because of terrain, but he was running a unit of 30 and I think I only got about 10 of them (not making up the cost of the Cronos one bit.). Maybe I could have run him better (I had only run him a couple of times before, both against DA, to very limited effect except as a distraction). On that note, he works quite well as a distraction, even if people know he's not worth his points. Maybe it's the floating monster with tentacles and a large blast that gets people aiming his way, maybe it's the fact that he's the only thing I run that gets anything beyond a cover save, but people want him dead faster than the boat shooting AP2 lances for the same cost.

Cons: He takes up a HS slot. Ouch. I sold mine because I would rather take a Talos as a distraction because at least I could tarpit with a D6 attacks and an actual armor save. I can't feasibly consider a Cronos when there are so many *great* HS options available to DE in comparison. I love when people try to shoot all of their Heavy Weapons at my Ravagers only to have me FF them or tell them they can't actually reach me with that shot because of NS. Dispersal of PT has never really affected my units because Cronos can't kill anything completely. If I send him after scouts, my opponent usually has something covering them before my giant shield-butt can get over there and the AP2 weapons are plentiful nowadays.

My verdict: I sold mine. Fun unit to goof around with, but not nearly worth his points for my lists. I haven't run any Covens, but even then I would probably rather have Talos running around with his TL liquifier and d6 attacks...