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A few months ago, I posted my Alpha Legion army for some C&C. Since then, I've updated it to include a Renegade Knight, but I'm a little stymied as to what to get next to bring this thing up to 2,000 points. Looking for any advice from more experienced Chaos players out there!

*****BATTALION DETACHMENT - 1270 Points*****

HQ
1) Daemon Prince: Two Sets of Talons and Wings (180)
- Psychic Powers: Diabolic Strength and Smite

2) Sorcerer in Terminator Armour: Combi-Bolter and Force Stave (130)
- Psychic Powers: Miasma of Pestilence, Smite, and Warptime

3) Chaos Lord: Plasma Pistol and Power Fist (93)

ELITES
1) 20x Possessed: Icon of Despair (450)

TROOPS
1) 40x Chaos Cultists: Autoguns (160)
2) 25x Chaos Cultists: Autopistols and Brutal Assault Weapons (100)
3) 5x Chaos Space Marines: Plasma Pistol and Plasma Gun (85)

TRANSPORT
1) 1x Chaos Rhino: Combi-Bolter (72)


*****SUPER HEAVY AUXILIARY DETACHMENT - 480 Points*****
1) 1x Renegade Knight (480)
- Thermal Cannon, Thunderstrike Gauntlet, Stormspear Rocket Pod

Strategy includes Forward Operatives Stratagem for the Possessed and advancing up the field in a menacing manner.

Ideas I currently have for expansion include:
- Cultists, Exalted Champion, and Dark Apostle for a cheap Battalion Detachment (I actually have all of these models in their boxes on my shelf)
- More long range firepower (Lascannon Predator?)
- Cheap Outrider Detachment

Any thoughts welcome!

If you are going big on Possessed one option you have is to bring in a detachment of Nurgle daemons. Virulent Blessing is a great spell for +1 wound and it's synergy with VotLW and the Locus of Virulence. It takes the damage of your Possessed to ~1.833 and lets them wound tough units like Knights on a 3+!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Nurglings are also fantastic units for securing your deep strike or infiltration zones.

one word, berserkers. Get a ton of them, alpha legion berserkers are nasty, let me just put the strongest melee unit in the game in deepstrike and it rerolls charges for 10 points, seems good.

saint_red wrote:If you are going big on Possessed one option you have is to bring in a detachment of Nurgle daemons. Virulent Blessing is a great spell for +1 wound and it's synergy with VotLW and the Locus of Virulence. It takes the damage of your Possessed to ~1.833 and lets them wound tough units like Knights on a 3+!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Nurglings are also fantastic units for securing your deep strike or infiltration zones.

Wow, that pretty much sold me on getting started with a small Daemon detachment! Would Plaguebearers be a must have for a Nurgle detachment or should I be investing in Nurglings on top of Nurglings to fill out the troop requirements?

ragetastic wrote:one word, berserkers. Get a ton of them, alpha legion berserkers are nasty, let me just put the strongest melee unit in the game in deepstrike and it rerolls charges for 10 points, seems good.

I know! I've thought about Berzerkers for a while, but I've decided against them for two reasons ... one is kinda silly, but the fluff of my army is mostly Nurgle so I just don't see a Khorne squad making their way into my list. The other is that Berzerkers are only one wound. They pack a wallop, but I'm expecting them to wither and die in the ensuing turn. What convinced me about the Possessed was that they are 2 wounds a piece and have that 5++. They're an amazing tar pit unit and take a lot of dakka to bring down, which is why I use them.

Though the Berzerker stratagem is pretty amazing ...

This seems to be a largely fluff based army - but you probably want some diversity. With the possessed and cultists you have a lot of anti chaff - consider oblits and/or forgefiend maybe - depending on how you like the models

orkswubwub wrote:
This seems to be a largely fluff based army - but you probably want some diversity. With the possessed and cultists you have a lot of anti chaff - consider oblits and/or forgefiend maybe - depending on how you like the models

I've definitely considered Obliterators before! However, the GW Webstore still hasn't stocked them yet, so I've had to make due with other models, hence the massive points investment on the Renegade Knight.

I love the look of the Forgefiend model, but the BS of only 4+ makes me wary. Would I have to rely on the Daemon Vehicle stratagem/baby-sitting it with a Chaos Lord, or does the BS average out when the volume of shots is considered?

 orchewer wrote:
I know! I've thought about Berzerkers for a while, but I've decided against them for two reasons ... one is kinda silly, but the fluff of my army is mostly Nurgle so I just don't see a Khorne squad making their way into my list. The other is that Berzerkers are only one wound. They pack a wallop, but I'm expecting them to wither and die in the ensuing turn. What convinced me about the Possessed was that they are 2 wounds a piece and have that 5++. They're an amazing tar pit unit and take a lot of dakka to bring down, which is why I use them.

Though the Berzerker stratagem is pretty amazing ...

Ah yes I understand the fluff reasons not to get them, but from someone who plays a ton of berserkers in his list, let me tell you they don't die as easily as you think, they are in melee turn one so they can't be shot except by pistols, and they still have a 3+ power armor save which is still pretty good. The idea is that you do so much damage in that one turn that it doesn't even matter if they die lol. Also have to say that oblits are also disgusting, definitely would recommend taking them as slaanesh for endless cacophony and blowing anything you want up in one turn ha.

 ragetastic wrote:


Ah yes I understand the fluff reasons not to get them, but from someone who plays a ton of berserkers in his list, let me tell you they don't die as easily as you think, they are in melee turn one so they can't be shot except by pistols, and they still have a 3+ power armor save which is still pretty good. The idea is that you do so much damage in that one turn that it doesn't even matter if they die lol. Also have to say that oblits are also disgusting, definitely would recommend taking them as slaanesh for endless cacophony and blowing anything you want up in one turn ha.

Hmm ... in this list, I'd either have room for one decked-out squad of Khorne Bezerkers or one squad of Obliterators. Between those two ... I think I'm leaning more towards the Obliterators. I've got enough melee options in my list, but the Obliterators would give me more dakka, which I'm very short on.

To reiterate, yes Berzerkers are good. They are the best CC unit in the game, not just in the CSM codex; I have taken out entire hordes of Ork Boyz with a couple of units of Zerkers; I had a single Zerker Champion and his mate cut through enough Genestealers to cause a 20 man unit to be whiped out in morale; I've destroyed troop transports, tanks and even FW Knights with units of Berzerkers; in my most recent game (a doubles game), 3 units of Berzerkers managed to whipe an entire Admech deepstrike force on their own (there was well over 1000pts in the deepstriking force).

And if you aren't happy about using them because you want to keep the army Nurgle orientated, why not take this as an opertunity to make some beautiful Nurgle Berzerker conversions; thematically, you could make up some fluff reasons for a Nurgle CC unit that rivals the combat ability of Berzerkers.

So I played this list as is (1,750 points) against Death Guard today and got beaten pretty badly. Granted, Mortarion was on the board and made a few pretty lucky invulnerable saves.

One of my mistakes was how I deployed my Possessed, but I also sorely missed any long-range firepower in this list. At this point, should I be investing in something that can shoot stuff down range, like a lascannon Predator, or should I double-down on my close-combat theme and get more units I can infiltrate and throw at my opponent from the get go?

Appreciate all advice!

Well Morty isnt the most competitive option but point for point against the knight he is going to do more so you are somewhat on the back foot.

I think it depends on your attitude - if you prefer the coin flip of zerkers getting in and wrecking face - it can feel pretty good - go zerkers

The general all comers option would be oblits.

You could really go either way - the zerkers and or oblits will only make you better and woudln't be the weakest part of your list.

orkswubwub wrote:
Well Morty isnt the most competitive option but point for point against the knight he is going to do more so you are somewhat on the back foot.

I think it depends on your attitude - if you prefer the coin flip of zerkers getting in and wrecking face - it can feel pretty good - go zerkers

The general all comers option would be oblits.

You could really go either way - the zerkers and or oblits will only make you better and woudln't be the weakest part of your list.

I just had a crazy thought. Would two Chaos Lords with Jump Packs, Combi-Meltas, and Power Fists be a suitable compromise between the Zerkers and the Obliterators? I still get some short-range firepower for those tough to bring down targets, but I'd also get a little more melee support for my Possessed. Plus, deep-striking Chaos Lords would provide that re-rolling 1 bubble I so desperately need ...

I'm liking this idea more and more ...

 orchewer wrote:
I just had a crazy thought. Would two Chaos Lords with Jump Packs, Combi-Meltas, and Power Fists be a suitable compromise between the Zerkers and the Obliterators? I still get some short-range firepower for those tough to bring down targets, but I'd also get a little more melee support for my Possessed. Plus, deep-striking Chaos Lords would provide that re-rolling 1 bubble I so desperately need ...

I'm liking this idea more and more ...

It's the worst kind of compromise though, you have neither the ranged nor the combat killing power that you'd get from the oblits/zerkers and instead get two models with weak shooting and weak combat ability.

 mrhappyface wrote:

It's the worst kind of compromise though, you have neither the ranged nor the combat killing power that you'd get from the oblits/zerkers and instead get two models with weak shooting and weak combat ability.

True. It's not ideal, but I'm also looking to add either two HQ choices to unlock a a Supreme Command Detachment or two Elite choices to unlock a Vanguard Detachment. I realized that if I pick up a squad of Obliterators, then that doesn't help me towards adding more Command Points ... plus I'm also left with an awkward amount of points (what does one do with 55 points leftover?). I could do two squads of Khorne Bezerkers, but then I'd have to min/max them which means more Command Points to Forward Operatives deploy them and they'd be even more fragile due to their low model count.

I'm also really liking the fact that deep striking a Chaos Lord gets my Possessed that re-roll 1's to hit.