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Hey guys. Looking to start up 40k again after 10+ years, and I'm trying to get a competitive, but fun to play list going. After looking for something that would be fun to play, hasn't been done over and over as far as chapters, I decided on Black Thorns for my chapter (Found this: http://warhammer40kfanon.wikia.com/wiki/Black_Thorns ). Going for 1000pts to start. Any critiques would be awesome.

998 Total Points

Fist of Medusa Strike Force

- Battle Demi-Company

Captain on Bike - Artificer Armor, Lightning Claw, Thunder Hammer, Melta Bombs, Digital Weapons, Teleport Homer, Gorgon's Chain

5 man Tactical - Sergeant w/ Melta Bombs, all in Rhino
5 man Tactical - Missile Launcher, Sergeant w/ Melta Bombs, all in Rhino
5 man Tactical - Missile Launcher with Flakk, Sergeant w/ Melta Bombs, all in Rhino

3 man Bike Squad - 2x Grav-guns, Sergeant w/ Melta Bombs

5 man Devastator Squad - 2x Multi-melta, 2x Plasma Cannon, all in Drop Pod

Honored Ancients - Dreadnoughts

1x Dreadnought - Standard Multi-melta + Power Fist w/ Storm Bolter, in a Drop Pod

My strategy would be for the Tactical squads to go after objectives if any, 2nd objective of mech killing. Captain would run with bike squad and wreck havoc.

I know it's kinda geared heavily towards destroying mech, but that's the metagame in my local area - Table tanks and go to town.

I'd like to make it more well-rounded and versatile. I know at 1000+, I can start loading up with assault squads and add more Grav-guns and an Apothecary for the FNP rolls. Any help appreciated!

So the firs thing I notice was there was a lot of unnecessary wargear, like the Thunderhammer/Lightning Claw combo on the Captain. The next is that the Tactical Squads aren't properly utilised because they're not very well equipped. The the Bike Squad - They probably don't need Melta Bombs since they're primary goal isn't to get into Close Combat. They also might benefit more from having Meltaguns as opposed to Grav-guns, especially if you give the Tacticals Grav-Cannons. The Devastator Squad isn't going to do much since dropping them in via Drop Pod means that the Multi-Meltas are Snapfiring and the Plasma Cannons aren't firing at all since you can't Snapfire Blast Weapons. The Dreadnought in a Drop Pod isn't a bad choice, but It'd be a safer and more points-efficient purchase if the Dread was a Venerable Dread with a Heavy Flamer instead of the Storm Bolter.

^ I did have a more detailed analysis, but I had a momentary power outage and lost it all haha

As for the list itself, I have come up with an alternative which I beleive may be a bit better:


Battle Demi-Company [ Black Thorns ] ( 883 Points )

Captain [ 180 Points ]
-- Artificer Armour
-- Space Marine Bike
-- Gorgon's Chain
-- Melta Bombs

Tactical Squads [ 105 Points ]
-- Grav-Cannon w/ Grav-Amps

Rhino [ 35 Points ]

Tactical Squads [ 105 Points ]
-- Grav-Cannon w/ Grav-Amps

Rhino [ 35 Points ]

Tactical Squads [ 105 Points ]
-- Grav-Cannon w/ Grav-Amps

Rhino [ 35 Points ]

Bike Squad [ 133 Points ]
-- 2x Meltaguns
-- Attack Bike w/ Multi-Melta

Devastator Squad [ 150 Points ]
-- 4x Lascannons


Honoured Ancients [ Black Thorns ] ( 115 Points )

Dreadnought [ 115 Points ]
-- Twin-Linked Lascannon


With this list, you have long-range Anti-Tank, short-range (and mobile) Anti-Tank and Anti-Infantry. Then you have the Anti-Infantry capabilities of the Tactical Squads doubling up with their ability to secure objectives. The only thing that's missing from this list is Anti-Air capabilities, but I've yet to see someone take a unit that's a Flyer or has the ability to Fly in a 1,000-Point game.

First of all, nice to see another thorn player! I returned to the game with a salamanders army, didn't like them and swapped to thorns as the paint job required minimum work to change haha

Id say it makes sense to have the TH/LC on the captain if you are going for smashprime (which with the gorgons chain and a bike, id say you are..) as it allows him to deal with a variety of stuff.

If probably drop the grav cannons on tac squads to melta guns, drop the dreadnought and get a 5 man command squad on bikes with an Apothecary, and 3 grav guns.

T2X8 wrote:
First of all, nice to see another thorn player!

Another person using an oddly specific Fanon Chapter? I sense heresy! haha

T2X8 wrote:
Id say it makes sense to have the TH/LC on the captain if you are going for smashprime (which with the gorgons chain and a bike, id say you are..) as it allows him to deal with a variety of stuff.

A very expensive price to pay for the sake of versatility on one model.

T2X8 wrote:
If probably drop the grav cannons on tac squads to melta guns, drop the dreadnought and get a 5 man command squad on bikes with an Apothecary, and 3 grav guns.

I assume this is a change from my suggested list?

It was more for convenience than anything haha, I was Googling space marine chapters with green armour and came across them, saved me painting my entire Salamanders army plus Iron hands chapter tactics are badass.

He is very expensive, but worth every single point, the TH/LC combo lets him handle anything and he's incredibly hard to kill with the Chain, even more so with an Apothecary command squad.

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Chapter_Master_Smashfucker#Angels_of_Death_supplement

Yeah, change to the list you suggested, although I mainly stick with 1850, so take it with a pinch of salt.