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Hey guys. I'm getting back into warhammer after 8+ years and 4th edition. I'm slowly building a 1500 army, and this is what I got so far:

20 man csm troop blob with Mark of slaneesh for Feel No pain. Sorcerer with them, throwing biomancy and a burning brand.

10 man plague marines in a rhino for objective holding.

10 man Nurgle bikers with a chaos nurgle lord with murder sword.

Predator with autocannon and heavy bolters.

My logic was throwing the 20 man glob downrange, letting them be a fire magnet as the bikers flank around, hitting what weak points there are. Predator mops anything that poses the most threat in terms of problem units.

Thoughts?

You need lascannons on that Predator for sure.

I think you'll end the game a lot happier with a Nurgle blob.

I also think Fabius Ble with a Nrgle Blob is absolutely sick and wrong and you should do it immediately.

Any player worth anything knows to avoid a 20 man blob. Better to just let them wander around in a slow mass being useless than trying to whittle them down. Especially when you add FNP. So, you need to force your opponent's hand with them. You can get a 20+ capacity transport, I think it's call a Karbydis or something like that. UberDreadclaw. Or, have a way to get that blob up front and center immediately. Huron Blackheart and Ahriman have the Warlord Trait conferring Infiltrate to D3 units. Ditch the Sorcerer for one of them and Infiltrate that blob 18" away from your opponent. It forces your opponent to actually shoot them, not shift over to the left slightly and ignore them completely.

You're making the same mistake that my friend makes constantly though, trying to anticipate how an opponent reacts to a horde coming forward and then trying to swing wide to counter their counter. Have you considered that if you play Guard or Tyranids what you're going to do when 30+ models meet your 20 and just lock each other in combat right there in the middle? That's 120pts of my Gaunts meeting a whole lot more of your CSM for six turns of face slapping. If you don't have a way to force the issue, you haven't made an issue. Tarpits are so common now that most players can avoid the basic ones or have anti-tarpit options.

Also worth noting that Cultists turned into Zombies by Typhus have FNP and Fearless but S6+ means they wouldn't get the FNP. Still, cheaper and popular for a reason. Could also benefit from the D3 Infantry Infiltrate option.

I've started to come around to Noise Marines all tooled up for Objecting HOLDING, using Sonic Bolters and Blastmasters to maximum effect by staying put. Plus the higher Initiative and the FNP option makes them high damage, high durability units. Plague Marines I'm starting to shift over to Objective TAKING units. Throwing them in a Rhino and charging forward to deploy on an Objective, steal it, contest it, whatever and then get Assaulted next turn. They can weather being shot and charged but don't have access to the long range or high volume shots that Noise Marines have. Noise Marines have a huge amount of Offensive power that can be used passively while Plagues are more of an active defense. Still working on the idea though and need to do some play testing.

If you want to make that 20-strong slaanesh blob scary, you got to infiltrate or outflank them. My favorite combination is Huron/Ahriman + Cypher. The first two have an infiltrate warlord trait and Cypher grants them Shrowded, ATSKNF, LD10 and H&R. That's a brutal combination. H&R at Cypher's ini means they're impossible to get locked in combat and will just bounce off till they get to backline in the next turn. Shrowded + FNP makes the blob very durable - more durable than simple mark of nurgle. 20 plague marines can be more choppy but they cost an insane ammount of points and still require cypher to get H&R.

I'd recommend to take 2 meltas and combi-melta, melta bombs and gift of mutation for sarge. Gift of mutation is a gamble but you can possibly get something useful like crusader, +1 wound or something like this.

If you got 10 plague marines, i'd rather go for 2*5 in rhinos.

Hit and Run fails on a 6 every time.

 Spellbound wrote:
Hit and Run fails on a 6 every time.

Yep but you can live with that. They're still impossible to get locked in combat as there's always 5/6 chance to bounce off and get free 2d6 movement.

So, what I'm hearing is to avoid the 20 man blob, break up plague marines into 2 5man squads with rhinos, and bring noise marines with all the goodies in rhinos?

If so, what would be the best HQ choices then?

Why avoid? 20-man blobz work wonders if you support them properly. Especially slaaneshits with fnp or khornates with furious charge and reroll to-charge distance.

Another thing you can do without infiltrate is utilise an escape hatch - this way you basically start with them in the middle of the map. Like a more limited infiltrate - however, it doesn't have a counter-tactics of enemy's own infiltrators and servo sculls, so, it's somewhat more reliable. Though, deploying this way is a bit limited and you run into a risk of loosing a bunker turn one before you deploy. Way cheaper, however and allows you to effectively run footslogging Kharn and even Abaddon. Though, Abaddon costs like another blob.

Not at all. A 20 man blob is remarkably useful when used right. But you have to force them to be used. That's what Infiltrate is for. So in that vein, your Warlord should be Ahriman or Huron Blackheart. Guaranteed Infiltrate Trait. Ahriman is more expensive but is also a Psyker, and Huron is... not really good to be honest but can go in with any Mark unit that needs a Flamer. I honestly haven't figured out a good place to Ahriman yet. His friggin MoT is very restrictive.

But your Nurgle Lord on a Bike is a no brainer. He should absolutely be there but add Blight Grenades to him just in case they get charged. Shouldn't happen but best to be prepared.

Ahriman is semi-fine with a squad of regular marines or even 1000 sons in a rhino. Don't forget, he can get tzeenchian bolt of change, or how's it called (s8 ap1 beam), psy-shreik at bs5 and invisibility / shrowding. He costs 80 pt more than Huron but he's not bad as is. ML4 over ML1 is well worth it. Even with a restrictive MoT. If you feel fancy, he can summon daemons, but it's quite risky. Might be worth it in some situations. For example, to summon a squad of horrors, take this 1 wound 2/3 of the time but keep the summoning wheel going. CSM + summoning daemons is very potent.

I would probably just stick him with a 5-man squad or CSM or cultists and have him shoot witch-fires out of a rhino all game. If he gets invisibility, he can hop out and cast it.

So, with the suggestions I heard, I redid my list.

Still got the 20 man MoS mob, but Cypher is with them now. Had to drop bikes and Nurgle Lord for Ahriman and some TSons in a Rhino for mobile doombolts and witchfire mobileness, as well as a 5 man plague marine squad with rhino. To top it off, 2 preds. Both with autocannons, one with las sides. The other with heavy bolters. With the infiltrate warlord tactic, ill push the blob up, forcing the shooting, while I doombolt and shoot anything else.

That could work. I think the Bikers are more useful than the Bolter Predator though but you can find what doesn't work from that list and make further tweaks. I'm just not a fan of Predators in general outside of Blood Angels. But, the only way to figure it out is to play it. Good luck.

oblis are generally better than preds. More durable, more versatile. Less shooty but can wreck faces in mellee. Can have both for good results.

Post the new version of the list so we can see