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Hi guys,

So I have fallen in love with chaos models, and have started to collect an army. I have seen some KDK in bat-reps and I like the army play style and the blood tithe summoning seems cool. I dont want a super competitive army, I have my cron's for that, but I also want to have an understand of how to build my army as money is tighter these days then it was when I got me robots.

I was wondering for a quick summation of whats good and whats not so good in general.

Additionally:

Is the gorepack or gorepack's an auto-include? How should you kit out the bikes?

I love the warp talons, so I plan on bringing them in a bloodstorm. Is this unit effective even with a turkey attached?

Is the plan to hoard points until you have enough for some skull cannons and summon them in the backline? or do you try and give buffs to everything beforehand

I have ample beserkers and marines w/ rhino's atm. What is the best way to equip both?

I have a forgefiend, want maulerfiends too, and pretty much every single machine they make (including the forgeworld ones). Are some really bad to the point of not taking?

Is a Chaos knight better than a kytan?

Do you give the lord any upgrades besides the big ol summoning axe? It seems everything in this army is expensive points wise (compared to my crons) and since he has a summoning axe should he be a kamikaze unit or should you invest points in him to keep him alive so he can turn into a DP?

If bringing and not summoning a BT, which weapon do you give him? (D axe looks so tempting) I saw something that said he can have like a bajillion attacks (on the charge with MoK) at I7 that cause ID. Seems to good to be true?

Thanks for reading this, I realise it is quite a lot of information I'm asking for.

Competitively the Gorepack is an auto-include. For casual games, you don't need it by any means.

Warp Talons are slightly better in KDK due to getting Daemon of Khorne allowing them to benefit from banners. I've had a lot of fun with the Bloodstorm; putting two meltaguns on each squad and meltabombs on the Champ is cheap and effective. Talons still aren't great, but I've had some success in using them as drop pod defense.

Probably not worth it; keep in mind you need 6 BT points to summon one.

Zerkers are decidedly mediocre, give the Champ a powerfist/power axe and attach a Herald with the Hatred locus. Marines can take two specials in a 10 man squad; I give mine plasma and the Champs combi-plasma.

Forgefiends are okay, just overpriced by about 15-20 points. Maulerfiends are pretty good, actually, due to the speed Siege Crawler gives them.

Not overly familiar with either.

D-thirsters and Unfettered Fury 'thirsters are both good, but lack any upgrade options. Keep in mind D-thirsters are massive fire magnets so plan accordingly.

I don't know where you saw that. First off, Bloodthirsters don't have Mark of Khorne. Next, they have I9. The Axe of Khorne that the Unfettered Fury has inflicts Instant Death on 6's to wound, though.

Gorepack is NOT auto include..

Yeesh.

So IMO the current state of 40k is min squad size. Additionally kdk rewards this greatly.

Three things to build on with kdk.
1. Khorne dogs are good, but do not kill anything except t3 infantry. They tarpit thats it. Use them to tie up deathstars and for board control.

2. Have at least one "big" unit, thirster or brass scorpian or knight. You need a threat to take focus off your other units.

3. Do not overspend. Most of the upgrades are not worth it, blood tithe is your only focus. By turn three you should be swimming in them with the hqvoc you are causing.

Gore back has bikers, bikers suck.

When KDK was first played against me, I asked in seriousness why he didn't use a chaos Lord on bike with the axe that summons a thirster when it dies.
I got a funny look and was asked how it was supposed to kill anything, and I informed him that it was a delivery vehicle for the bloodthirster, and any additional wounds caused were incidental.

Does anyone who plays KDK use this, and how does it work for you?

The Axe of Ruin was a bit of a janky item until the change in the recent FAQ that allowed FMCs to come in swooping or gliding. Until now, it wasn't really worth it.

Lord dies turn 2, say. Kor'lath gets a turn 4 charge (or more likely, none at all due to his d3 wounds per player turn plus enemy fire. Now, you can charge after the turn you come in, which if your lord dies in the enemy turn should allow your 'thirster to charge in yours.

Thanks for the input guys!

So if the gorepack isnt doing the killing, what is relied upon to do the heavy lifting? The big scary things? Out of zerkers and CSM, which is better overall? The beserkers get expensive giving them all chainswords, but then again so do the marines giving them weapons.

What is the most spent item in blood tithe? Is there something I should be aiming for each turn/game?

Also what is a "juggerlord"?

Klowny wrote:

Also what is a "juggerlord"?

A chaos lord on a juggernaut of Khorne

Klowny wrote:
Thanks for the input guys!

So if the gorepack isnt doing the killing, what is relied upon to do the heavy lifting? The big scary things? Out of zerkers and CSM, which is better overall? The beserkers get expensive giving them all chainswords, but then again so do the marines giving them weapons.

What is the most spent item in blood tithe? Is there something I should be aiming for each turn/game?

Also what is a "juggerlord"?

Gorepack is plenty killy and it is FAST. With Daemonkin you want to be in your opponent's face by turn 2 if possible, 3 at the latest, so having fast units like Flesh Hounds and bikes really helps. The heavy lifting will be provided by things like a tooled-up Chaos Lord, a Bloodthirster (of any variety), or even a Kytan. Soul Grinders and Maulerfiends do good work as well.

As for Berzerkers/CSM, I would take CSM over 'zerkers every time. The extra points you spend on 'zerkers just aren't worth it. At least CSM can take meltaguns for some tank popping. Take the Pistol/CCW loadout on your CSM rather than bolters, as you want to be assaulting, not shooting rapid fire weapons. For this reason, stay away from plasma except possibly on bikes.

For Blood Tithe, it really depends on the situation and your army list. If you are running a Blood Host detachment, you should be aiming to summon every time you can, as you can take a smaller tithe reward (such as FnP) for the Slaughtercult. Army-wide FnP is a pretty nice thing, though, so there's that. I would say avoid doing #7, as Daemon Princes are just not that great. Either save up for one more point to get a Bloodthirster, or just lose one point and bring in a Skull Cannon. Cannons are pretty nice as they can give your assault troops without grenades a boost when attacking enemies in cover. Plus S8 will double out MEQ that fail their saves.

And as corpuschain already said, a Juggerlord is a Chaos Lord on a Juggernaut. Probably the best HQ in the codex, as there are some very mean builds for one of these.

If you tool up the lord, you forgo the khorlath axe? Seems a waste as it would only see a turn maybe two of BT? What's the best load out for the lord?

I've never used the Korlath axe. I don't have a second Bloodthirster model so I couldn't summon one unless the one I usually run was dead.

My preferred loadout for a Chaos Lord is Juggernaut, Sigil, Axe of Khorne, Power Fist, Blood-forged Armor. Comes out to 250 points, but he's got Eternal Warrior, FnP, T5, 4 wounds, a 3+/4++ save, AP2 at initiative (with option to use Fist for S8 at initiative 1, good for taking on walkers/MC's), plus he can move 12 inches a turn, more if he runs. He also gets 7 attacks on the charge, 8 if he gets the Arch-slaughterer warlord trait, 9 if you have the +1 attack tithe reward active also. He is a very nasty beatstick.

I've also seen people have success taking Goredrinker and a Lightning claw on their Juggerlords, although you give up the special armor if you take Goredrinker.

If you run korlath/goredrinker do you give him termi armour? or is the ability to make sweeping advances too much to give up?

I don't think I would ever take Terminator armor on a Chaos Lord. It just isn't worth the points, especially with how bad Terminators are in general these days (Grav is way too prevalent). You can't take Terminator armor and a Juggernaut on the same character in any case.

Ah ok I see. Thanks so much for your insight mate

Shame really, as the Chaos Terminator Lord is a very solid kit, one of the best in the Chaos line.

Yea it does look very good. TBH Chaos in general have very good looking mini's. I've personally never liked space marines as they all are fairly characterless in their looks but adding spikes enhances the situation so much

Another question - Brass Scorpion, worth the financial investment? Im going to get one anyway because they look amazing, but are they good on the tabletop?