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Hi all, im brand new to the world of 40k having finally found a friend who is interested in joining me in learning the game. After learning the rules using the units in the DV boxset we will be building our own 500 point armies, with him going with Tyranids and myself choosing the path of chaos.

Was hoping for a little bit of feedback on my first stab at a list, both for taking on the Nids and as a foundation for building my army :

Chaos Lord

2 x 10 Chaos cultists with MoN and 1 flamer per unit

5 x Havocs with MoN, 2 Missle Launchers, 1 flamer and 1 autocannon

1 x Predator, twin linked Lascannon and 2 heavy bolter sponsoons.

Any spare points (if any) could be spent on the lord

All comments and critisism more than welcome :-)

Welcome Brother.
Your Havocs are quite weird. Either take x4 Launchers or x4 autocannons. or 2 AC 2 ML if you want to mix. Predator is generally better with AC and LC sponsons but if you want to make it anti-horde go for AC and HB sponsons. And get some Marines as cultists won't win you a game and 10 of them will run in first turn of game.

Many thanks for your help there. The reason for the predator weapon choice was anti horde sponsoons with the LC for whatever his HQ is. The havoc choices probably show my lack of any game experience I was trying to go for a mixed bag there.

On another note if he goes for a Flyrant do I have anything that is effective against it?

Many thanks

Helldrake and massed shots. You have to force flyrant to fall and then he's practically dead. If you take LC and HB lascannon will be waisted ad infantry and HB at his HQ. So take AC+HB and ML/AC/LC havocs for MCs.

Thanks for your help Broly, I'll run some numbers and let you know what I come up with :-)

So how about this setup?

HQ (123) - Lord,MoN,SoC, Lightning claw, Combi bolter

Troops (97) - 5 CSM, MoN, 1 flamer, + extra cc weapon
(97) - 5 CSM, MoN, 1 flamer + extra cc weapon

Heavy (107) - Predator, autocannon + heavy bolter sponsoons, havoc launcher

Heavy (76) - Obliterator MoN

The new list looks better and more focussed.
However, it will be hard pressed to do any damage to whatever Monstrous creatures he might bring.
The only really effective guns you have is on the oblit, and for cc there is his powerfist which he will probably never get to use as he'll be dead before he can swing.

I realize that your only playing at 500 points, and at tha gamesize you'll probably only be facing one MC, but that one will have pretty much free reign. See if you in any way can squeeze in some plasmaguns to have something to punish monsters with.

Thanks for the guidance Blakman - it truly is appreciated :-)

Would you sacrifice the flamers for plasmas in the 2 csm units? I guess this is the problem running myself up to the full 500 is that I dont have any wiggle room now. How about the predator - I was orignally going to take lascannon for his potwntial MC?!

Cheers


Automatically Appended Next Post:
So ive included some plasma in the CSM units but had to sacrifice the obliterator in order to do so. This now gives me 60 points left to spend but I'm really not sure which way to go. Can anyone provide any suggestions please? Im clinging on to the predator as I think against the Nids at 500 points it will be almowt unstoppable - but am I just fooling myself here?

HQ (123) - Lord,MoN,SoC, Lightning claw, Combi bolter

Troops (105) - 5 CSM, MoN, 1 plasma
(105) - 5 CSM, MoN, 1 plasma

Heavy (107) - Predator, autocannon + heavy bolter sponsoons, havoc launcher

Couple of things to consider at this points level...you need to barest bones HQ you can afford to free up pts for your army. Maybe consider a sorcerer in terminator armor with no mark, biomancy 1 and some termicide buddies to DS? Termicide are 3 terminators with combi-plasma/melta to suicide deep strike a key target.

As for troops, at this level keep em lean and mean. 10 man cultist gangs will do stuff-all to any credible threat but for 50 points, they are holding a home objective. Consider sticking one 10 or 15 man gang in at the back for home objective scoring. As for heavy support, obliterators are going to be needed to be taken as 2 separate units of 1 each or you'll need predators. Both bring more bang for buck.

If you really want to ruin your opponents day, bring a chaos sorcerer, two 10-man cultist gangs and two heldrakes

Cheers my friend - some sound advice there. Was looking to get a Heldrake in there as at this points level I dont think he will have anything to counter it.

Thanks again for the suggestions - looks like I will be using all those cultists I got with DV afterfall :-)

If I was you guys, I would consider running some combat patrol games at 400/500 pt levels just to get a feel for the game then build up to 750 and 1000 from there. Its how I ended up at 1500 pt level games over the past year and its pretty great If you're interested, go check out the Adepticon rules for combat patrols.

Thanks for your help Klepht - learning thw rules before getting into all the rest of the rules and building our armies sounds like a top plan :-)

So my final list used in my firat ever game was :

HQ (123) - Lord,MoN,SoC, pair of Lightning claws

Troops (97) - 5 CSM 1 flamer
(97) - 5 CSM, 1 flamer

Heavy (107) - Predator, autocannon + lascannon sponsoons, havoc launcher

Heavy (76) - Obliterator MoN


He used a Flyrant a Tervigon and a unit of Termigants. We didnt play any objectives this time round as it was both of our first games and we were using it to get our heads round the combat rules. The game took about 5 hours but most of that was spent reading up rules and tables.

The main problem I had was his flyrant. Due to going first and having line of sight to him with both my tank and obliterator my lascannons took him down to 1 wound but no lucky hits once he started swooping and he quickly assaulted my tank. After that assault my dice rolls went to hell and I couldn't take that last wound. The tank blew up so my lord stepped up to the plate and clawed that last wound right off him - and subsequently turned himself into a spawn. His gaunts and tervigon went for my other csm unit which gave the oblit plenty of chance to move away and pop off lascannon and plasma cannon shots.

So in summary the stand out performer was the Obliterator, possible change will be to take the 2 flamers from the troops as they never got a shot off other than overwatch. Will look to replace them with maybe 1 melta to get an extra low ap shot at hos hq.

And in further summary - we both thoroughly enjoyed the game so you guys have gained 2 more brothers :-)

Cool! Reminds me of my first game. For smaller games I always bring 35 cultists with 3 flamers a lord like yours only with the burning brand as weapons.

Welcome brothers!

What I would suggest is look around for a Gaming club.

You'll soon find what works and playing someone who knows the rules helps speed things up. I've recently come back after 2 years out or the game, played 3 games and Im pretty solid on normal rules now.

Personally Id avoid going to GW but a FLGS or a private club are great ways to go.

List wise,

Id strip that lord down for 500pts games. 1000-1500 pts then yeah its fine, but 500pts your spending a large chunk of points on one model. Strip it back and take a power fist/sword/axe in your CSM squads. Though your really should shoot a Nid MC.

Start looking at the Heldrake, it's the best unit in the game

For a moment I thought you was going to suggest spending 340 pts on drakes in a 500pt game.

At this point lvl, I recommend a adl with quad gun manned by a csm squad to shoot that flyrant down.

If he is playing at 1k then I think a drake is more appropriate. I think he needs to learn how to win without a drake so he does not rely on it to carry him thru. Also I think he should include his 2 squads of 10 cultists & put them in reserves.

Cheers for all the advice fellas - I was looking at the Heldrake but thought 170 for one guy might be too much at this low points level.

Could anyone advise on how I could strip the lord back? Take away the LCs or the sigil maybe?

flyers are usually not allowed at 500 pt. lists.

He uses a flyrant :-)

Plasmas and Power fists.

Oblits are awesome!!

Totally agree James - would be tempted to take another oblit and a Heldrake when we move up to 750 point armies :-)

Ok our next game is next week and ive been trying to change my army around to test out various units by proxy before buying. The following list comes to 506 but im pretty sure at this early stage I'll be let off those 6 points :-) :

HQ (130) - Lord,SoC, pair of LC

Troops (50) - 10 cultists
(50) - 10 cultists

Heavy (152) - 2 x Obliterator MoN

Heavy (115) - Havocs, 4 x ac

At this point its about seeing how those Havocs get on with grounding his flyrant and what the cultists are like. Of course being able to squeeze an additional oblit in there was the icing on the cake :-)
Any advice on how to use the cultists and/or havocs to best effect would be most welcome

Looks like a fun list! Good luck trying it out^^

Try that list out, you're new, see what does and doesn't work!
How'd your normal CSM squads perform in your first game? Normal CSM do much better than cultists, so my advice for your next list is strip down the lord, maybe use a sorceror, drop an obliterator, and try to get some normal CSM in there.