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I’m just theorycrafting, I’ve no intention to build this.

How would one kit out Fallen Angels and play with them in a 750-1000 point list?
What sort of strategy would you use. I imagine Cypher is in the list because he is cool. In addition, taking their specialist detachment might make it better for such a small army.

And before you start, don’t say “I wouldn’t, just use Dark Angels.” That’s not why I’m here. If I wanted advice about Dark Angels, I’d go to the respective thread.

Probably the best part of a Fallen force is the access to Codex: Imperium. Save some points for an Assassin and some Daemons and you'd have an interesting toolbox.

 Eldarain wrote:
Probably the best part of a Fallen force is the access to Codex: Imperium. Save some points for an Assassin and some Daemons and you'd have an interesting toolbox.

How about not for this scenario.

It's entirely in character for them to show up and help Imperium forces. There's not really all that much to discuss given how limited they are. It would just be Cypher, a Infernal Gaze/Death Hex Sorceror and as many Plasma Fallen and Rhinos as the points allow.

There really needs to be a way to make a Fallen Daemon Prince.

But as it stands right now, Cypher, a Sorcerer, plus 3 units of fallen with a mixed loadout with preference for plasma and power swords. Add rhinos to suit.

Run them as Death Watch. Best Astartes codex in 8e, with the most varied gearing for your models.

SJ

 jeffersonian000 wrote:
Run them as Death Watch. Best Astartes codex in 8e, with the most varied gearing for your models.

SJ

I guess I should have said Deathwatch too, but this goes for the same thing as Dark Angels counts-as. I don’t give a hoot about the Deathwatch, this is a thread about the Fallen.

You're being pretty ridiculous here, if you just want to take Fallen with no other allied detachments then there isn't anything to discuss.

There are only 4 Fallen unit choices, and of those you can only take Cypher once and the Sorcerers quickly lose their effectiveness with the limited number of useful powers they can cast, so what do you expect to hear?

"Take Cypher, 1-2 Sorcerers and as many Fallen and Rhinos as fit" and the thread is done.

Lanlaorn wrote:
You're being pretty ridiculous here, if you just want to take Fallen with no other allied detachments then there isn't anything to discuss.

There are only 4 Fallen unit choices, and of those you can only take Cypher once and the Sorcerers quickly lose their effectiveness with the limited number of useful powers they can cast, so what do you expect to hear?

"Take Cypher, 1-2 Sorcerers and as many Fallen and Rhinos as fit" and the thread is done.

I’m curious about loadouts on the Fallen units as well as what to take on the Rhinos. No need to be rude. I say things like no other support, as I don’t want soup. Most people should understand that. I say I don’t want to run counts as Dark Angels, because I don’t want counts as. I never did say anything about Deathwatch, shame on me, sorry, but I think that should be implied, so I find it a bit ridiculous when people comment things like that anyway.

I figure Combi-Plasma is good on fallen, giving plasma, of course, but in the case of hordes, firing both plasma and Bolter doubles my firepower.
How might I kit out my Rhinos? More chaff chew power or something more powerful?

Perhaps this is a place where someone else may offer up his or her experience with proper Fallen armies. I know that bloody Fallen only have four unit choices. That should implicate that I might like to hear how people have kitted out their units of Fallen, considering the wide range of weapons they have available. It’s a scale thing.
“Take Cypher, 1-2 Sorcerers and as many Fallen and Rhinos as fit" Well no duh, I want to hear people’s opinions on how to kit these things.

I don't hink a lot of people have actually run them, but even in the specific, the theory is pretty straightforward: Fallen are basically chosen, so load up on the best weapon (plasma) which also has the best synergy with their special rule. Add power weapon to the champ, but you don't really want these guys in combat.

As for combi-plasma, you're probably better off running one squad with max combi-bolters, and let the plasma do plasma things.

I"m not sure there's really a trick to these guys. Even the detachment doens't help them all that much, unless you love trolling Guillliman!

Sorry for the bump, but since no one really put out a detailed answer to the original question and I myself am building a Fallen army, I thought I'd respond. I currently have 558 pts of Fallen that I use as allies but am working on upping it to as many points and as much plasma as I can get. Here's my general plan:

First and most obviously, if you're running Fallen you're running Cypher. 80 pts and one of your HQ slots filled.
Secondly, you're running Fallen. If you treat them as a special weapons platform, you can have your Champion take a Combi-plasma (and even a plasma pistol if you're feeling excessive or forsake pistols to take a melee weapon, but generally these guys aren't designed for melee), then have 4 guys take either combi-plasma or normal plasma guns (they're the same points-wise and I guess combi gives you a bit more flexibility, but I went with simple plasma since I don't have enough combi-guns to go around), and then you have one more guy who can take either a plasma gun or a heavy weapon. Sticking on theme, take the plasma. At this point your squad has 6 guys in it, and you can fill out the last 4 slots with vanilla bolter-Fallen to soak up some wounds and provide some extra fire support. A unit of 10 Fallen taken in this way is 206 points. 3 such units and Cypher is 698. That's still basic Fallen without the specialist detachment. To hit a higher threshold you could swap out that 6th plasma with something like a lascannon, OR we could delve into the specialist detachment and make something resembling a functional army.
The specialist detachment lets you fill out the ranks with 1 sorceror of your choice and up to 5 rhinos, although really you only need 3. Give the sorc a plasma pistol, the Caliban Steel Blade relic, and make him your warlord--I haven't quite figured out which warlord trait to run with him yet. Of the 9 psychic powers in Codex Chaos Space Marines, you can't take the Mark powers and 3 powers specifically mention Heretic Astartes, which you aren't, so your choices are Infernal Gaze, Death Hex, and Gift of Chaos. Death Hex is useful utility, if hard to cast, and then you can choose based off of preference which other power you want. I've been running Infernal Gaze but am considering experimenting with Gift of Chaos. For a 1000 pt list, it's probably best to take a simple sorceror rather than a terminator or jump pack version. Cypher can't summon daemons, but this guy can--while summoning is definitely not in a great place right now, it's one way to use up leftover points in your list (such as if you don't go for 10-man squads of Fallen) and I don't consider summoning to be taking allies or soup. At any rate, this guy is 103 pts, bringing our total so far to 801.
Then the Rhinos. I'm magnetizing the havoc launchers for flexibility and taking combi-plasma on these guys for the extra thematic plasma. 3 with only the Combi-plasma (243 pts) will put us over 1000, so at that point to limit to a strict 1000pt cap it's just a matter of trimming some of the bolter-Fallen (about 5, if I remember my math correctly). This has the added bonus of letting you put Cypher and your Sorceror into your Rhinos, since you'll have the space.

So now we have a list of 1000 pts of pure Fallen with approximately all of the plasma on Caliban. The Rhinos let us move up the board quickly and protect our deadly plasma-toting entirely loyal marines, or we can sit back and shoot at anything that dares come within 24 inches. I haven't had a lot of chances to play games with this (mostly just skirmishing against myself, using allies to fill up to 1k pts), but Plasma is pretty good at melting stuff. I don't know how it faces up against hordes, but against more elite armies you should have plenty of plasma-y dakka. The trouble is that pure Fallen will only ever have 3 command points (4 if you don't use the specialist detachment). While there isn't a single stratagem in the CSM codex that you can actually use (or a single relic), the Fallen Angels detachment lets you hide better in cover and having the ability to interrupt in combat is always nice--not to mention the simple convenience of Command Re-rolls. To actually get CPs, you need allies.

However, to continue the exercise, we've made it to 1k points. How much farther can we get with pure Fallen? Obviously, the bolter Fallen we cut for space are now back in. We can put Havoc Launchers on our Rhinos. The Sorceror can take a jump pack to travel at speed with the Rhinos since they're full of Fallen now and don't have room--Cypher can pretty easily just run to keep up. Even so, we're just at ~1100. Two more Rhinos can be brought in, even though they'll be empty or mostly empty, and we're now at 1250 pts. From there, we're simply out of models to put in, and the only way to increase the points of a pure Fallen army would be to swap out plasma for more expensive weaponry or to give our Fallen Champions something other than a bolt pistol. Alternatively, the last 250 pts to the mythical 1500 pt list can be devoted to summoning. Is it subpar? Yes. Is it all we have left? Also yes. Do we still only have 3 command points while even the most cp starved pure army list will have at least 8? yes.

You mentioned that you're theory-crafting, rather than building this yourself. As I am in the process of building the list and don't have any particular qualm about soup/allies, that becomes the next item on the theoretical agenda. Personally, I would bring in some Renegade Guard. I was doing some research last night and without even getting into the heavy artillery, the simplest of battalions (a disloyal 32, if you will) can go as low as 190 pts. That fits into our gap towards 1500 and lets us cut some of the extra Rhinos to still have room for summoning if we want. I picked Renegades because I like the idea of my questionably aligned Space Marines having questionably aligned allies to go with them and I don't like the models for cultists (plus renegade militia are 4 pts to cultists 5). Renegades have serious issues and I haven't got them yet, but running Fallen isn't exactly an exercise in optimal list-building anyways. After getting yourself some nice CP, adding in a Renegade Knight detachment of some size will give you suitable dakka and stomping while once again providing a unit which could be both Imperial or Chaos, and it helps you get a list up to 1750 or 2k, whatever your preferred army size is. Another potential idea is to take a Noctilith Crown, but I think that's a subpar choice compared with everything else. Taking more mainstream CSM allies like Thousand Sons for Psychic or Death Guard for durability would probably also be good, but distracts from my personal theme.

A note on the earlier comment from Eldarain about Codex: Imperium. The FAQ killed this, preventing Fallen units from calling in assassins and cutting the Imperium keyword from the army if you use the specialist detachment. It's still possible to run them as imperial allies using just Cypher and Fallen, but for the full Fallen Army experience you're forced into Chaos. I'm mildly peeved about this, but that's life.

In summary, pure Fallen can with dedication reach 1000 pts of serious plasma firepower. If you're willing to stretch them to the limit you can hit 1250pts or 1500 with daemon summoning to pad the total (probably take Bloodletters or Plaguebearers to shore up some of your melee/durability issues). However, you'll be CP starved and for anything larger than that will absolutely need to bring in allies of some sort--and, to be fair, the Fallen are probably better suited to be taken as allies to some other force instead of as your main centerpiece.