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Playing CSM, and was wondering which walker to take:

-Plague Hulk
-Defiler (with Power Fist, Power Scourge, and Dirge Caster)
-or Maulerfiend

I'm needing some heavy melee for this escalation league I am in, and also needing tanks. There will be for sure a Chaos Knight in the mix, too.

So which walker is better for what?

Maulerfiend's are pretty decent, but you need to saturate Armour Values to get the most of them - that means multiple Maulerfiends and Rhinos to overwhelm the enemies anti-tank weapons. A single Maulerfiend is not going to cut it.

Plague Hulk's are decent I think, basically being a Nurgle Soul Grinder.

Defilers are trash unfortunately.

Even if the Defiler is shooty? (Warpflame, Auto/Heavy Bolter, 2 Havocs)

Plague Hulk would be my vote, or a Forgefiend if you have one.

Defilers: so much potential, so much frrrt. See the Soul Grinder, what the Defiler should have been.

Maulerfiend: Potential, much potential. Scary, but you need saturation or they'll just unceremoniously die.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
The Defiler, unfortunately, is crippled by Ordnance rules and doesn't get to ignore them for being a Daemon Engine. So, at its shootiest, it's not very shooty.

If you have the option of taking an allied Soulgrinder, though, it's good.

 FunkBiscuit wrote:
Even if the Defiler is shooty? (Warpflame, Auto/Heavy Bolter, 2 Havocs)

It's over 200pts for a Battle Cannon that makes you snap-shoot every other weapon because of Ordinance. Plus its only AV12. A Soul Grinder (from Chaos Demon or Khorne Demonkin codex) gives you basically the same thing but on an AV13 body and for like 40pts cheaper.

Deffy's showing his age in the codex. The other Chaos Walkers, even the helbrute, are usually better buys.

If you're looking for an Assaulty Walker, I would look and the Ferrum Infernus with Destroyer of Cities. It's not fast, but it's got av13 and can hit guys in a transport if he pens.

Believe it or not, i've had success with a murderpack of 5 helbrutes.
Melta+Fist
Melta+Fist
Melta+Flail
Fist+Fist+HF
Fist+Fist+HF Champ

It's probably not an ideal setup. Anywayz, you also need a sorc to buff their durability. Shrowding, invisibility, 4++ from divination - anything will do.

The record is:
Win vs Smashfether+shield eternal CM in a squad of scout bikers. They were too confident as i didn't roll invis. Scouted forward at me and positioned 2 tanking characters out front. Than i shot down a couple bikers with psy fire from another angle, shot a bit with dreads but did squat to CM and charged in. Challenged him out - he accepted with smashfether. He managed to put just 2 HP on a champ dread thanks to av12 vs s8 with not too many attacks and 5++. Another CM and krak nades did some damage to dreads over the course of a fight but thanks to HP allocation, he just wrecked one and left others glanced down. Dreads slowly grinded CMs and eventually won combat! First shield eternal CM fell under the weight of attacks, than scouts and than smashfether as he was not allowed FNP against s10. The rest of my list pushed forward and scored but i had a pt advantage thanks to 2 CM's stuck with Brutes, so it still turned out well.

Win vs Nidzilla. It was an interesting list with 2 flyrants and a lot of big bugs in pods. I got shrowding and it helped a lot. Brutes did great against big stuff cause they couldn't reliably pierce armor without smashing. They killed above their point cost, however, i lost 3 and got one immobilized eventually. Still, they did great.

Haven't tried them since as csm is not my main. The meta has escalated since than but i think you can still use them and expect to be fine.

They sure do lack attacks compared to SM dreads. Can't wait to run them when they get 4 base. Rage helps a bit, however. And optional immobilize can separate a squadron when needed.

Didn't have much success with deepstriking brutes, though. They're too random and easy to take apart one by one.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Plague hulk or Soul grinders are great.
Maulerfiends are fine as they're quick.
Defilers are extremely overcosted for av12 with a battlecannon.

Plague Hulk gets my vote 10/10. Don't model it on it's tippy toes and it wont be too hard to get 25% cover. In fact, if you model it reasonably, an ADL will give 25% cover, as will rhinos, then you can enjoy protection from shooting while you walk up to break heads while dropping some nice anti infantry bombs.

None of those, Chaos infurium dreadnought. Basically a venerable dreadnought that is a deamon. Plus if he dies you roll a d6 on a 1 he turns into a spawn, on a 6 he turns into a deamon prince. So Chaos infurium dreadnought mark of khorne with two chain fist will have 7 attacks on the charge and str 10 +2d6 for armor pin. He can go into a chaos dreadclaw. Basically a fly drop pod. Comes in flight mode one turn. Lands the next and the dreadnought can assault out of it.

or you take a chaos decimator. If he gets wreck, he becomes a marker and you roll for him each turn one a 1 he is dead. 5+ he gets back up with d3 hull points.

Or the dread gets eaten turn minus one.