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I just picked up my very own Be'lakor, and was interested in learning about how other people have been using him. Any excellent tactics?

Be'Lakor brings something very powerful to a CSM list and that is assured invisibility. So you want to take at least one unit that can take good advantage of that. There units are a big Spawn unit lead by a Biker Lord, a big Khorne Biker unit lead by a Biker Lord with AoBF or a Land Raider transporting something nasty. Other units can take advantage of it to, with honourable mentions going to the heldrake but I ask you, does it really need more survivability?

If you are going down the Land Raider route then it would be a good idea to have your other HQ to be Huron to give it infiltrate, fill it with a choppy unit of choice and have fun with a 2+ cover save Land Raider that turn two will disgorge some psychopaths! Other then assured invisibility he acts like a normal, more survivable daemon prince. You protect him and he will hand out buffs like a pedo with an ice cream truck.

He's pretty much point-and-click awesome.
Invisible Spawn? Check.
Invisible bikes? Check.
Terrified Broadsides? Check.
Puppetmastered Riptides? Check
Hallucinated deathstars? Check!
Need to kill anything in close combat short of a death-star? Check!

Careful though, he tends to get shot at a lot and without decent placement of cover that 4++ won't last forever.

Exactly, you need to be very careful with him, or else he will be the easiest 350 points your enemy kills.

Invis a smoked land raider with plague marines and typhus inside. Keep belakor behind it

Place dick on table.

First off he is the reverse of a daemon prince in terms of what he wants to get into combat with. Daemon princes are good in combat either against large units that cannot damage back or smaller units they can kill before they strike. A daemon prince should never charge another MC if it cannot kill it outright before it can attack back. On the other hand Be'Lakor has EW so he can take the 2 Str10 hits most of the other MC deal out, he has armour bane and flesh bane so the tougher the enemy the better. What he lacks though is the large number of attacks a daemon weapon daemon prince has and the warp speed/etc. or flickering fire/etc. that the daemon princes can use to help them soften up or overcome large units. A great example is Be'Lakor wants to charge; wraithknight, riptide, and tervigons and will have no fear. He doesn't mind charging a fearless unit as he can remove the fearless status with terrify. On the other hand a daemon prince should never do any of those unless it is very lucky with it's psychic power rolls. A black mace daemon prince however doesn't mind big IG blobbs as it can wholesale remove them and it doesn't mind 10 man TAC SM squads as it can kill it's way out in 2 turns. Be'Lakor cannot kill himself out of even a 10 man TAC squad and they are immune to terrify.

The biggest advantage Be'Lakor has is the size of the model. He is so small he can hide behind most any LoS blocking terrain. Remember that his wings don't count as they are "decoration". With his EW, 4++, stealth, and shrouded he is actually extremely survivable.

I call him my Chaos enabler. He opens up a bunch of strategies that don't normally work and he handles a major weak point in the CSM codex (MCs). Telepathy is also one of those disciplines that every power can be a game changer. He is a tool box who is occasionally good for killing a riptide, etc.

Psychic shriek is your big shooting attack and it is really good against things like riptides, etc. This is one of many reasons that Be'Lakor is just incredible against most of the MCs in the game.

Dominate is a truly brutal power on a riptide. A low Ld unit that is active in every phase. Yes please. It can be funny on eldar as they both run and shoot. Make them take 2 Ld tests every shooting phase.

Mental Fortitude is one of those powers that you forget you have and then one game it is clutch and you rally that broken scoring unit to score the winning objective or make that 10 man cultist fearless and make the opponent shoot them down to the last man or give you the objective.

Puppet Master is that power that makes your opponent's nasty baddie a liability for him to field. This is the power that makes you smile when you see a warhound titan set up across from you.

Terrify is a brutal power on those big fancy deathstars. Do you have a Typhus with 30 zombies you need to kill. Charge it with a chump champ and a DP. Challenge with the chump champ and let the DP go to town. If you have terrorize go off on the unit it will almost assuredly run. Often times this power can completely swing a game from a loss to a win.

Invisibility takes those big nasty units that would normally not work due to not having a decent invulnerable or cover save and gives them the save they need. It makes a land raider incredibly hard to kill even if there is only the one. Just make sure that if you play against Tau you have a lot of other pressing threats to distract the MLs or that you kill them. Also invisibility can turn a CC that you would loose into a combat you win as making opponent's WS 1 can be huge.

Hallucination is another power that really shines against most Tau builds. It can be really brutal against broadside units. Just try to get something not attached to a commander or in a Ld bubble.

Another piece of advise you should consider is that if you cannot stay out of LoS and you have a good chance of getting shot up 5 man TAC squads and riptides can be very useful units to charge and get locked up in combat with. With a 5 man TAC squad you are likely to kill yourself out in your opponent's assault phase and the riptide has a decent chance to stick around and let youi out in the opponent's assault phase. Often times a better chance than your chances at surviving a full fusillade of broadside. Also if you charge a wraithknight and there are a significant number of guns around to kill you you can wait until your opponent's turn to terrify or you can psychic shriek before you charge so the averages will break you out the opponent's assault phase (try to keep it at 4-5 wounds to have the best chances of this).

Sometimes you might want to smash with Be'Lakor so as to reduce his damage output and stay in melee one more turn. This is another little trick you can use to keep Be'Lakor alive and he can still contribute with most of his tool kit while in melee. Whatever you do though be careful to not land him and charge something only to breakout in your own assault phase. In late game this isn't so bad because your opponent will be weakened but early game you will probably loose Be'Lakor so the risk had better be worth it.

As a thousand sons player invis doesnt really help me, so I take him mostly for puppet master and hallucination.

Hallucination does amazing things. I was once playing a necron player and he had 5 of the destroyers I believe they're called, the T5 2+ save jump guys, led by a destroyer HQ. My black mace DP wanted to wipe them out, but if things went his way, my DP couldnt reach them until turn 2 because they're so fast, and meanwhile my army would take fire from the destroyers powerful weapons. Ahriman had other plans. He cast Hallucinate on them turn 1 and pinned them with the bugs result, and then the DP moved in and whipped them out turn 2 as he wanted. Other than that he just had 3 squads of troops in this 1000 point game, so that was his deathstar, and I killed them off losing nothing but one of my aspiring sorcerers due to perils of the warp.

Also puppet master is extremely effective. I was playing a crimson fists player and he was fielding a chapter master with orbital bombardment. After using Be'Lakor's smash attacks to kill his 3 devastator centurions in one round of melee combat, I used puppet master to use his OB on his own tactical squad, almost destroying the whole squad with the single attack. I then proceeded to kill his other tactical squad with my inferno bolters and wipe him off the table before his storm talon could come in.

Hes fun! Take him, but know he plays very differently from say a Tzeentch DP with the black mace. He is a scalpel where a black mace DP is a bundle of dynamite. He's the best deathstar hunter out there. Make sure to make use of cover, as the 4++ invuln save is not enough for his points cost. MAKE USE OF COVER, I cannot stress enough how annoying it is to see this 350 point behemoth get taken out by an 100 point tactical squad in one round of shooting from full wounds (this has happened multiple times) He really is fragile against small arms fire without that 2+ cover save.

jakl277 wrote:
Invis a smoked land raider with plague marines and typhus inside. Keep belakor behind it

Place dick on table.

I LOLed so hard at this^