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So here is the story. There is me, a csm player, and I have three friends who all play eldar. Prior to the 7th edition, I lost every game I played against them primarily because of waveserpents and I refuse to purchase a heldrake. Now I have regrouped my moral and I am developing a new strategy to try and defeat them in 7th edition. Here is my list.

HQ

Ahriman 230 (Biomancy, try to get Iron Arm, Life Leech, and/or Warp Speed)
Typhus 230 (In Land Raider)

Troops

x31 Plague Zombies 134
x31 Plague Zombies 134

x7 Plague Marines x2 Meltaguns 188 rhino dedicated transport 35 (In Land Raider)

x5 Chaos Space Marines with Meltagun 85 rhino 35
x5 Chaos Space Marines with Meltagun 85 rhino 35

Fast Attack

x3 Chaos Spawn with nurgle 108

Heavy Support

x3 Obliterators with nurgle and votlw 237
x8 Havocs with x4 lascannons 194 rhino 35
Land Raider with dozer blade 235

So the list idea is this. Ahriman's warlord trait infiltrates D3 infantry units. On average, I will infiltrate both Plague Zombie squads as close to the enemy as possible, and spread out as much as possible. Their job is to move forward and trap as much stuff as possible. Now you will notice I have 4 rhinos but only putting two tiny squads of csm in them. The idea here is to give my Land Raider a 4+ cover save as it moves up the board. More rhinos means longer lasting cover save for my Land Raider. My strategy is to get Ahriman and Typhus close enough to the enemy for them to start killing... everything. Eventually Ahriman and Typhus will join a Plague Zombie squad for look out sirs and survivability, but first I need the tanks to get them there. Lastly, Chaos spawn hide behind rhinos and try to pop out and snag a combat when they get the opportunity, allowing Typhus and Ahriman to arrive and kill stuff. Ahriman with life leech can cast it three times in one turn allocating wounds to himself, or anyone within 6 inches, so perhaps he can make Typhus, Obliterators, and Chaos Spawn much more survivable/powerful.

Let me know what you think. Thanks for reading!

It's an interesting strategy that you have developed and I will be curious to know how well it plays. The Rhino shield may not be too effective unless you plan on placing one on each side of it. The speed and maneuverability of the Eldar vehicles will easily allow them to encircle you and shoot at an exposed flank. What exactly are you going to be fighting in combat once you get to where you want to go?

If they want to get those nice shots versus my Land Raider, they will have to get close enough to get snagged by my units. If I position things properly.

In combat, normally they send out wraithlords first, normally two per list. They can really be a pain in the *&^. But after that, everything else is a breeze in close combat. Warpspiders, however I rarely get to assault them. Jetbikes, guardians, dark reapers, snipers, dire avengers, wraithguard, and fire dragons.

I don't think Ahriman can cast the same witchfire power more than once, just if he has three different onces available he can cast them all.. or have I got that wrong?

 Opera wrote:
I don't think Ahriman can cast the same witchfire power more than once, just if he has three different onces available he can cast them all.. or have I got that wrong?

It's per the recent FAQ released yesterday, Ahriman can indeed cast the same Witchfire three times.

Wow, nice.

*edit*
I cant find this FAQ on the GW website... is it in the rulebook instead?

Black Library:

http://www.blacklibrary.com/games-workshop-digital-editions

FAQ & Errata

How can Ahriman join a squad of plague cultists as they are nurgle? How can he ride in the LAnd Raider as the plaguemarines have mark of nurgle?

Zombies don't actually have a mark I think. Is there a rule that different marks can't join each other? I never saw that anywhere.. could be wrong though. If so I'll be disappointed.

Plague Zombies don't have the Mark of Nurgle, but yes there is a restriction on different Marks being in the same unit- Only Yabbaddabbaddon can be in any Marked unit.

It's a solid CSM list. 4x Lascannons on havocs are certainly better than 4x Autocannons since 7th came around.

Kudos on using Ahriman. He is a great HQ.

Well guys I tried the list out versus my eldar friends and guess what, I won versus both of them!

Story goes like this. I moved forward slowly with a giant wall of zombies for two turns. Covered my Land Raider with rhinos, so it was safe. Eventually I got too close and we start assaulting. Ahriman with Iron Arm, Endurance, and Force killed a wraithknight in one round of combat! Chaos Spawns hid behind rhinos and caught a waveserpent and clobbered it to death! My opponent conceded by turn four. Here is what he ran:

Wraithknight
x2 wraithlord
x3 waveserpents
fire prism
x2 squads of wraithguard
snipers
guardians


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oh and warp spiders


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Oh and warp spiders.


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Oh and warp spiders.

Nice work... did you keep Ahriman seperate from the Plague Marines and/or Typhus?

He was AP2 with Iron Arm, right?



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Oh and congrats! I can't wait to play 2-3 games on Saturday with Ahriman.

Yep ahriman ap2 str 9 toughness 7 with iron arm. Plus force, instakill wraith knight! But my opponent did make the mistake of assaulting with the wraith knight.


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And I did keep ahriman separate from typhus and plague marines. I find its good to start ahriman on foot with zombies so he can cast smite if in range and/or endurance.

Good stuff! Triple casting smite worthwhile ?

Ya I think triple smite is good for low toughness infantry. And you get it for free if you pick all biomancy I believe.

Doesn't Ahriman have to pick at least one spell from Tzeentch (due to Mark, and thus also gets Tzeentch Primaris) and won't be eligible to receive the free Primaris from other tables?

I don't know if that makes him ineligible for smite and I don't know if the auto tzeentch primaris that he gets counts as having taken one tzeentch power. Does anyone know if you can roll all 4 warp charges for biomancy? Or do you have to roll one for tzeentch then three for biomancy which does not give you free smite?

Even with three rolls on the Biomancy table, the other powers are good, and considering the multi-wound units in the army (Chaos Spawn, Obliterators, etc) Life Leech would be beneficial to spam; if you're lucky to get Enfeeble and Haemorrhage to really hurt...

I think your strategy is overthought. The best way to be strategic, is to plan your strategy just before and during. Allowing room for unexpected casualties or mistakes.