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My standard Emperor's Children list has been doing fairly well, and is as follows:

HQ
Chaos lord, Mark of Slaanesh, Bike, Power fist, sigil of corruption, burning brand, gift of mutation, meltabombs, Veteran of the Long War - 200

Troops
10 Noisemarines, 2 Blastmasters - 240

10 Noisemarines, 2 Blastmasters - 240

5 Noisemarines, Blastmaster - 125

5 Noisemarines, Blastmaster - 125

30 cultists, 3 flamers, 10 autoguns - 155

30 cultists, 3 heavy stubbers, 15 autoguns - 160

Fast Attack
Heldrake, Baleflamer - 170

5 Chaos Spawn, Mark of Slaanesh - 165

Heavy Support
Vindicator, Daemonic Possession - 135

Maulerfiend, Lasher Tendrils - 135

total: 1850





I've already considered removing the maulerfiend for a second vindicator - another large blast, more AP2, less likely to give up first blood. I like the utility and speed of the maulerfiend, but...well... it has its issues.

I've also considered swapping the Maulerfiend for a Helbrute with lascannon/missile launcher and take the Helcult formation, allowing my cultists to be fearless without the lord's assistance, and give them hatred (a nice cc buff) if he's killed.



However, I've also got a riptide, whose ignore-cover blast has been invaluable in a few playtests. Reroll misses, ignore cover, AP2, mobility, a denial unit.... all great things.

HQ: Same lord

Troops:
same 10 man noisemarine squad
same 10 man noisemarine squad
same 30 man cultists squad
same 30 man cultist squad

Helbrute, stock with a multi-melta or double power fist - 100 (to make the helcult formation, I had 100 points and no clue what to do with it)

same Heldrake
same vindicator

Allies:
Commander, C&C node, Puretide Engram chip, Multi-spectrum sensor suite - 135

Riptide, ion accelerator, velocity tracker, stim injector - 240

10 kroot, sniper rounds - 70

total: 1,845 (I could add 5 points to give the commander a flamer or get another cultist or a meltabomb for a noisemarine champion)



Which do you guys think will work better? It saddens me to lose the spawn, as at that point I go pretty much entirely shooty and I do enjoy close combat (though I do still have the cultists). My only issue so far has been with knights.

I know it seems like the vindicators price is a steal for what it gives you but in practice you need to support it with armor saturation. Take two. I have seen at least a dozen batreps where one vindicator is taken by a chaos player in a 1500+ point game and it never does anything.

You think that's better than the riptide, given that he also costs me two squads of noisemarines?

I take a vindicator in all my CSM lists that I can, but just to eat the enemies anti tank shots and give them a clear target that they can fire at first. I wouldn't take two.

Although, if you keep the pure chaos list, you can have the best of both worlds. Consider dropping the auto guns, the stubbers and flamers, the gift of mutation, the demonic possession and 5 cultists from each squad. That should give you 120 points, ie your Helbrute. I personally like a double power scourge or if the lord doesn't need melta bombs to go with his power fist, the a power scourge and a power first with built in heavy flamer

I always found you need to take 3 Vindicators or none. In this day and age though Vindicators are kinda crap. I would leave them at home.

And take what instead? I'll admit the prospect of taking 2 more blastmasters and 10 more bodies somewhat intrigues me, as does more kroot....hmmm.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Actually to include the riptide, I came up with this...

Lord (see above for kit)
10 noisemarines, 2 blastmasters
10 noisemarines, 2 blastmasters
10 noisemarines, 2 blastmasters
30 cultists, some guns
30 cultists, some guns
Heldrake
Commander (batman)
Riptide, velocity, stim
10 kroot with sniper rounds

1850 on the dot, no vehicles to give up first blood too easily. Thoughts?