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So, my wife is somewhat uncharacteristically interested in playing 40k, particularly, Night Lords, and I'd like some help...

I'm interested in doing a fairly characterful army that I'm hoping won't be hamstrung. If at all possible, I'd prefer to use codex: CSM rather than attempting a proxy army. The exception is, I don't know anything about the night lords legion (HH), and if it would be reasonable to field that (calling it CSM) against a regular 40k army. For reference, this'll be loosely based on the Night Lords series.

Things that I'm interested in:
HQ: Daemon Prince, Sorc, maybe lord, warpsmith
troops: either
elites: chosen, termies, hellbrute(s)
fast: raptors, warp talons, maybe one helldrake
heavy: havocs, predator, land raider, obliterators*

forgeworld: fire raptor, hell talon, hellblade, drop pods, others I may have forgotten that have an emphasis on light vehicles or flyers

avoiding marks/cult if viable; tzeentch or slaanesh seem most appropriate as sneaky. Avoiding many daemon-based things, too.

I'm hoping to make this a fairly small/elite army, emphasis on infantry, light vehicles, and flyers.

*One possibility I've considered is counting chosen as terminators and/or terminators as obliterators.



allies (actual or incorporated in): red corsairs, black legion, traitor/imperial guard (would need to be vehicle-light), death guard



Mostly, I'm looking for which characterful things make the most sense, and which should be avoided. Stuff beyond than that would of course be appreciated, though.

A couple particular interest points are cultists, raptors/talons, and demon princes': if they're worth taking and if so then in what configuration?

Thanks!

Well, as you probably know the night lords specialise in fear tactics and lightning quick strikes spreading as much terror as possible before quickly retreating and ready for another strike, so if your looking for fluffy then you should really base your list on that principle. They don't do long drawn out fights/sieges much as it's not their style. Raptors would be awesome fluff, and are great on the board too. Talons are fluffy but overpriced in game and are too expensive for what they bring. I don't think night lords are in cahoots with demons much so things like demon engines and princes aren't amazing fluffy although are required for most competitive lists.

SpankingApe wrote:
Well, as you probably know the night lords specialise in fear tactics and lightning quick strikes spreading as much terror as possible before quickly retreating and ready for another strike, so if your looking for fluffy then you should really base your list on that principle. They don't do long drawn out fights/sieges much as it's not their style. Raptors would be awesome fluff, and are great on the board too. Talons are fluffy but overpriced in game and are too expensive for what they bring. I don't think night lords are in cahoots with demons much so things like demon engines and princes aren't amazing fluffy although are required for most competitive lists.

Weirdly I was trying to help and googled "Night Lords"

http://www.swtorprogress.com/characters/?id=102

I think DoomBreed is a Night Lords

spanking, thanks for the tips

re: demon prince, at least in the fiction I've read, they don't take to demons much (so you don't see many possessed, and the old fluff had raptors enslaving furies rather than forming traditional pacts), but have instances of demon princes in their leadership.

the helldrake would probably be more of a modified fighter instead of a weird dragon thingy... probably replace the head and neck assembly with a cockpit and underslung turret.

 spiralingcadaver wrote:
spanking, thanks for the tips

re: demon prince, at least in the fiction I've read, they don't take to demons much (so you don't see many possessed, and the old fluff had raptors enslaving furies rather than forming traditional pacts), but have instances of demon princes in their leadership.

the helldrake would probably be more of a modified fighter instead of a weird dragon thingy... probably replace the head and neck assembly with a cockpit and underslung turret.

Sounds good

Night Lords like the quick slice 'n' dice method of war - CSM's kitted with special weapons, marks and rhinos are fluffy, and may go down well, depending on your meta.

Thanks, I assume you mean 10-man, 2 special, 1 combi or pistol, 1 upgraded rhino combi?


Also, the more I think about it, the more I think that a 5-ish man unit of terminators with a terminator sorc would make a good front wave- I haven't played a ton of 6th ed yet, though- will these guys just get shot to bits?

 spiralingcadaver wrote:
Thanks, I assume you mean 10-man, 2 special, 1 combi or pistol, 1 upgraded rhino combi?


Also, the more I think about it, the more I think that a 5-ish man unit of terminators with a terminator sorc would make a good front wave- I haven't played a ton of 6th ed yet, though- will these guys just get shot to bits?

If you give them MoT, and take an autocannon and a chain fist somewhere, it can be quite effective. Oh, and combi weapons
EDIT: Never make the termie Sorc one of Tzeentch, just go for Mastery 2 or 3, and roll on the BRB powers

Cool, tzeentch fits decently, and actually both of those weapons fit very well: one dude has an oversized chain axe, another is a HW specialist. Time to look for someone with a spare HH autocannon arm set


edit: and what's wrong with tzeentch sorcs? just lame powers?

It's just not worth the upgrade in points, your better served spending them on upgrades for other units like special weps etc

 spiralingcadaver wrote:
Cool, tzeentch fits decently, and actually both of those weapons fit very well: one dude has an oversized chain axe, another is a HW specialist. Time to look for someone with a spare HH autocannon arm set


edit: and what's wrong with tzeentch sorcs? just lame powers?

Yeah, despite Tzeentch being a god of magic etc, he has the worst psy powers in the game.

Part of the grand deception?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
So, this is a pretty loose sketch that gets me to 954/1000 points for a small game. I tried to do something relatively thematic, but I'm not really feeling it yet. It feels pretty easily outgunned, and I'd like to be able to include a helldrake but feel like I'll be loosing a lot of bodies to fit one in.

So... like I said, not really feeling it yet. Eventually I'll probably replace the cultists with a small IG detachment led by a primaris, but can't at this level... help would be appreciated.





Terminator sorc, force sword, telepathy domain - 85 points

Terminator squad (5) 219 points
-1x chainfist
-1x autocannon
-tzeentch


Chaos cultists (20) 100 points
-2 flamers

CSMs (10) 205 points
-2 plasmas
-Rhino

CSMs (10) 200
-2 flamers
-power weapon
-rhino

Raptors (5) 145
-2 meltas
-lightning claw pair

...Hoping for some advice, now that I've got something other than questions...

Also, this army will mostly be seeing action against IG and Marines.

Here is a tiny trick. Use votlw when fighting marines but figure out what you can swap in if you dont. If you take 75points of votlw then you can have a pred. At 50pts of votlw you can swap it out for a squad of 10 cultist that can hide in reserves.

Hello everyone,

There are some great ideas here. Note that as per the 2002 3rd edition chaos codex (the second chaos codex for 2nd edition), the Night Lords really don't like any of the demonic cults. To them, worshipping daemons sort of got in the way of plundering, pillaging, and spreading terror. In fact, the only demons they used were ones they could capture rather than summon. They were called furies and they sure were fun to use on the table.

Consequently, marks of tzeentch wouldn't be entirely fluffy (although they would be fun and effective). In my fluff, my Night Lords do worship their founder, Night Haunter.

Have fun with your Night Lords! I've been enjoying mine for 12 years!


Night Lords, "The Quick and the Dead."

Good idea, Filch.

Tallarn, from my reading, seems like their demonic pacts are opportunistic and rare, but definitely exist. I don't think I'll use cult troops because of the specificity of devotion there, but see no reason not to use regular old marks...

Even ADB's Night Lords had some chaos corruption, be it the Raptors having been exposed to the warp and turning sort of animalistic or the incredibly subtle corruption of a couple of Talos's squad by a couple chaos gods.

For the most part they simply laugh at the silly chaos worshippers and the rail roaded lives they lead.