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So I've started playing chaos a few weeks ago, and today the obliterators that I ordered arrived. For now I don't have too much stuff CSM wise. Nothing other than my 3 obliterators for the heavy support slot.

My question, should I run them as:
1 unit of 3,
3 units of 1
1 unit of 2 and 1 unit of 1?

I fear that the unit of 1 will always be an easy first blood. But having 3 different possible targets and being able to fire 3 different weapons, thats nice aswell.

Opinions?

PS: I will be running them Mark of Nurgle.

3 of 1 means all your Heavy Support slots are taken. This is probably fine on smaller lists but can become constraining at higher points levels.

Personally, I always ran Oblits in the smallest possible unit size so they can target as many things as possible. It's hard to kill Oblits, they have the extra wound and the great saves, so don't be too worried about first blood.

If you are not using your HS slots and plan to mostly DS them or plan a reserves strategy where you usually give 1st blood and want to stay on the board turn 1. Then 3 units of 1 can be pretty good. Either MoN or unmarked they work well.

Alternatively a unit of 3 with MoN can be an excellent bodyguard for a sorcerer (or DSing termi sorcerer). I often use such a unit to deliver a last memory sorcerer into my opponent's lines.

Just remember that Oblits lack immediate damage output. Their biggest advantage is flexibility and durability.

1 of 3. A single Obliterator will rarely do anything, but 3 can do some damage.

 hordrak wrote:
1 of 3. A single Obliterator will rarely do anything, but 3 can do some damage.

But if I have 3 of 1 couldnt they just all fire at the same target? (in some cases, in others maybe 2 could shoot at something different with different weapons etc)

Also if I run 3 of 1 I would keep 2 around my deployment zone to hold objectives and shoot LC and PC shots. And one would move up for maybe some AC and flamer shots?

3 of 1, you just move them around fairly close in case you need to focus firepower. And they work quite well individually anyway. You can alter you deployment if you need to, you have a greater range, they can't all be shot at... The list goes on.

I tend to clump them into one unit, but that's because I utilise the other HS slots for other things. If you have the slots free the only drawback to spreading them out is they may not all come in from DS at the same time.

In any list if you have slots left over it can be smart to split up other choices when possible.

It's the foundation of MSU.

You make your opponent waste excessive firepower on single targets while maximizing said targets, thus allowing for appropriate and more efficient return fire.

I run mine in a squad of 4, with MoN

Johnnytorrance wrote:
I run mine in a squad of 4, with MoN

Max squad size for obliterators is 3

3 individual oblits can also be placed on 3 different objectives.

If your list can somehow gain infiltrate (Huron or a tactical warlord trait roll) it's useful to have them as a single squad.

 Nivoglibina wrote:
If your list can somehow gain infiltrate (Huron or a tactical warlord trait roll) it's useful to have them as a single squad.

I thought obliterators were more of a camp back and fire long ranged weapons thing?

Personally, I prefer multiple units of obliterators instead of a large groups of them, for a few reasons:

Positioning: I like to place them in different positions, with overlapping fields of fire, makes it harder for my opponent to seek cover.

Deployment options: I can place some in reserve to deep strike, cook some cover camping units or pop a tank with the meltagun for the other obliterators to plasma cannon the tightly packed occupants.

Enemy target priority:
If my opponent wants all my obliterators dead in one shooting phase, he's going to have to commit at least one unit for each obliterator, but if he's this committed to killing them they probably won't last too long.

If you happen to draw big guns never tire then you'll have to worry about giving away VPs, but for the most part I find it advantageous to deploy them separately, but YMMV of course.

 M0ff3l wrote:

 Nivoglibina wrote:
If your list can somehow gain infiltrate (Huron or a tactical warlord trait roll) it's useful to have them as a single squad.

I thought obliterators were more of a camp back and fire long ranged weapons thing?

Sure. But they have power fists and heavy flamers, so if your army is advancing both can be a useful tool. Not many units would like to assault them for instance, so they could possibly hold a board area.
And you can't fire lascannons every round.

 Nivoglibina wrote:

 M0ff3l wrote:

 Nivoglibina wrote:
If your list can somehow gain infiltrate (Huron or a tactical warlord trait roll) it's useful to have them as a single squad.

I thought obliterators were more of a camp back and fire long ranged weapons thing?

Sure. But they have power fists and heavy flamers, so if your army is advancing both can be a useful tool. Not many units would like to assault them for instance, so they could possibly hold a board area.
And you can't fire lascannons every round.

Why wouldn't you want to assault them? Obliterators are Slow & Purposeful and if I am not mistaken, that prevents them from firing overwatch.

GrafWattenburg wrote:

 Nivoglibina wrote:

 M0ff3l wrote:

 Nivoglibina wrote:
If your list can somehow gain infiltrate (Huron or a tactical warlord trait roll) it's useful to have them as a single squad.

I thought obliterators were more of a camp back and fire long ranged weapons thing?

Sure. But they have power fists and heavy flamers, so if your army is advancing both can be a useful tool. Not many units would like to assault them for instance, so they could possibly hold a board area.
And you can't fire lascannons every round.

Why wouldn't you want to assault them? Obliterators are Slow & Purposeful and if I am not mistaken, that prevents them from firing overwatch.

Correct. Also you can fire Lascannon > plasma cannon > las cannon etc. Or if someone gets in range the assault cannons.

3 of 1 or 2 of 2. They do best combined, Gets more hits and do more damage.

GrafWattenburg wrote:

 Nivoglibina wrote:

 M0ff3l wrote:

 Nivoglibina wrote:
If your list can somehow gain infiltrate (Huron or a tactical warlord trait roll) it's useful to have them as a single squad.

I thought obliterators were more of a camp back and fire long ranged weapons thing?

Sure. But they have power fists and heavy flamers, so if your army is advancing both can be a useful tool. Not many units would like to assault them for instance, so they could possibly hold a board area.
And you can't fire lascannons every round.

Why wouldn't you want to assault them? Obliterators are Slow & Purposeful and if I am not mistaken, that prevents them from firing overwatch.

They have awesome stats and wargear, which you pay points for.
My point is If you plan on using them like havocs, why not take havocs instead.

In smaller games?

3 of 1 and Deepstrike them. Avoids the FB issue somewhat, and dropping them in behind some juicy tanks and hitting them with multi meltas (or twin linked melta guns if you're lucky with scatter)

Remember that for a squad of three, taking VOTLW is a must since they are not fearless. This adds to the cost. Obviously taking three squads of one each uses up all your HS slots so that is not an option either. Whenever I use oblits, I usually run them in squads of two without VOTLW but with the MoN.

Edit: correction

 M0ff3l wrote:

 Nivoglibina wrote:
If your list can somehow gain infiltrate (Huron or a tactical warlord trait roll) it's useful to have them as a single squad.

I thought obliterators were more of a camp back and fire long ranged weapons thing?

No, Obliterators are a do everything you need them to do unit. They have every shooting attack you could want and with deep strike can easily get where you want to use your shorter ranged weapons to full effect and they aren't even afraid of combat.

If you're just going to sit back and shoot only 2 different long ranged guns, take havocs.

 CrownAxe wrote:

 M0ff3l wrote:

 Nivoglibina wrote:
If your list can somehow gain infiltrate (Huron or a tactical warlord trait roll) it's useful to have them as a single squad.

I thought obliterators were more of a camp back and fire long ranged weapons thing?

No, Obliterators are a do everything you need them to do unit. They have every shooting attack you could want and with deep strike can easily get where you want to use your shorter ranged weapons to full effect and they aren't even afraid of combat.

If you're just going to sit back and shoot only 2 different long ranged guns, take havocs.

CSM's swiss army knife of awesome.

I would go 3 of 1, that way you can cover more area with your guns.

Personally I used to go 4 of 1 (Crimson Slaughter allied with CSM) and would have two focus on long range/high AV targets with lascannons while the other two focused one weaker fleshy targets with whatever cruelty seemed fitting. Then I'd swap their roles the next turn.