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BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! I want to make the Khorne Lord of Skulls "work". I don't want to win a tournament, I just want to hold my own against the local scene (which, unfortunately, is all tourny players). I don't like mixing my chaos gods and I know my list will suffer for it. I want to keep financials relatively low.

That all in mind, I have 2 options pointed out and would love suggestions on which one/good changes to make for great success.

List 1: Stupid random warp tables and lots of skulls

HQ
Be'lakor, who is working for Khorne today.

Elite
Nope.

Troops
15x Bloodletters with Instrument of Chaos
15x Bloodletters with Bloodreaper

Fast
Nah.

Heavy Support
Soul Grinder: Khorne mark, warp gaze
Soul Grinder: Khorne mark, warp gaze
Skull Cannon of Khorne

Lahd of Wah
Khorne Lord of Skulls
Hades gatling cannon, gorestorm cannon

The 3 fatties roll up the middle, the skull kannon covers a flank, and the bloodletters deep strike on top of each other. Be'lakor makes big boy invisible and then beats someone's face in. This is 1998 points.

List 2: No random tables, just giant enemy crabs

HQ
Be'lakor, big surprise, right?

Elites
Nup.

Troops
10x naked, dumb cultists
10x naked, dumb cultists

Fast
Nuh-uh

Heavy
Defiler with power scourge, reaper autocannon, dirge caster, dozer blade
Defiler with power scourge, reaper autocannon, dirge caster, dozer blade
Defiler with heavy flamer, reaper autocannon, dirge caster

Lahd of Wah
Khorne Lord of Skulls
Hades gatling cannon, gorestorm cannon

Giant enemy crabs do crab battle around the gigantic pillar of death in the middle. Cultists piss their pants near objectives. Be'lakor makes the death tower invisible and helps crabs punch faces. This is also 1998 points.

Which list kicks more butt? Will the list get murdered by anything/everything? How can I make either better while staying mono-god? I am not opposed to swapping Be'lakor for Skarbrand or a Bloodthirster if it's a better option. Fire away!

My vote's for #1, Defilers are made too expensive by their identity crises. Soul Grinders are more modular.

Other than than, your 30 bloodletters are more survivable, dangerous, and mobile than the cultists, although more expensive ofc. I like them better.

I'm not really sure what the Lord of Skulls does specifically, (OF COURSE HE SPILLS BLOOD) but if you were to change anything around it would be the soul grinders loadout to fill in whatever the lord of skulls doesn't do or needs help doing.

I agree that demons are much more intimidating than a bunch of flunky cultists...the big thing was I could get 3 giant enemy crabs for 2 soul grinders, but it does seem like getting more armor and a skyfire weapon offset the anti-horde ability of the crab, especially since I have Be'lakor and that's about it to deal with flyers, and the Space Puppies are getting a bunch of flying dog snacks in a few weeks.

Bearing your advice in mind here's an amended list:

HQ
Be'lakor from his early Khorne worshipping days

Troops
16 Bloodletters (FLUFF FOR THE FLUFF GOD)
16 Bloodletters with Bloodreaper

Heavy
Skull Cannon of Tzeentch (LOL JK KHORNE)
Khorne Soul Grinder with Baleful torrent
Khorne Soul Grinder with Baleful torrent

Lord of War
Khorne Lord of Skulls with Hades Gatling Cannon and Gorestorm Cannon

Thoughts? Is losing the icon/instruments a huge blow in my fluff-crazy pursuit of the sacred numbers?

I don't have my Codex with me at the moment, but I didn't think Defilers could take Dozer blades since they aren't 'tanks'.

With regards to your new list, my concern is the small number of units you have available. Is the Skull Cannon more viable than taking a large Fleshhounds unit for tarpitting?

You know, I looked at satan puppies and would like to run them, but they're just expensive models that I'd probably be more keen on acquiring at a later date (or counts as vampire count dogs or something, I dunno).

The skull cannon is just a really nice BS5 str 8 blast that allows my bloodthirsters to charge through terrain with no initiative penalty at whatever got blasted and worst case scenario, it has D6 Str7 HoW hits if something gets too close to it.

If I were to go unleash the hounds! I'd probably be looking at:

Be'lakor
16x bloodletters with instrument deep striking
16x bloodletters with instrument deep striking
7x flesh hounds
Khorne Soul Grinder w/ Baleful torrent
Khorne Soul Grinder w/ Baleful torrent
Khorne Lord of Skulls
2k exactly

I don't play mono-Khorne with my daemons, but my Skull Cannon is consistently one of the best performing units for me. The blast is nice, the high BS makes is reliably accurate, and since it ignores cover it will disintegrate light infantry.

Flesh Hounds are too good to pass up, especially if you have them led by a herald on juggernaut. For cheap, effective alternate Hounds, buy the WFB Chaos Warhounds, paint them red and black (or whatever you'd like) and stick them on a 40mm round base. That's what I've done, and it gave me 20 hounds for the price of 5 finecast ones. I get nothing but compliments on them.