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Hey Dakka, peering over the new Khorne book i have decided I want to pick up my Chaos army again. I have always liked the idea of Zeerkers but was wondering how to best use them. I was originally thinking of running a squad of ten in a LR but for the additional 55 points is it better to toss them in a Spartan Assault Tank and increase my squad size to 15 or 20? The area i Play usually sets the points limit at 2k so I have some room to spend more points then usual.

Any advice is helpful. Another thing to mention, I am an ork player so I am totally ok with not winning every game as long as it is a "fun" match that I get to kill many things

Taaanks!

If you're fixed on zerkers, i'd run 8 in a rhino. Depending on the enemy - either move 6, disembark 6, run d6 or simply go flat-out. In the first case, can stick a havok launcher on your rhino. Not mandatory but quite handy within the context of this book.

Don't bother with landraiders. Daemonkin are all about msu mellee spam. Even zerkers are a bit too expensive for it.

Also, don't play against eldar, they'll turn you off the hobby once again

But wont the Rhino just get popped on the first turn? (that usually happens when I see a rhino)

That's why you have Smoke Launchers and Cruising Speed/Flat Out.

I really like Berzerkers and have success with them but you have to be willing to make an investment so they'll work. A rhino is not going to get it done... Easy to pop and not an assault vehicle. I like using the Dreadclaw or a Landraider if you've got the points.

 Valkyrie wrote:
That's why you have Smoke Launchers and Cruising Speed/Flat Out.

Thats all well and good but If I am going 2nd there is a good chance the rhino will get killed for the easy 1st blood point.


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 Dozer Blades wrote:
I really like Berzerkers and have success with them but you have to be willing to make an investment so they'll work. A rhino is not going to get it done... Easy to pop and not an assault vehicle. I like using the Dreadclaw or a Landraider if you've got the points.

Lets talk about the Dreadklaw, I saw that the other day and it looked really fun! How do you normally use it?

And yes, at 2k as my limit i am ready to shell out a good hunk of points for a scary killy unit.

Well, I use it with black legion so it's not quite the same. But I use it as an objective grabber. It works wonders for that. Loaded with flamers or melta depending on the list. I still get to assult some times.

If I wanted to assault only I'd drop it somewhere in the general vicinity and flat out to a safe hiding place or wherever I think I need to be in order to move 6+6 the next turn and assault. And then pray for good jink rolls.

But if you have no problem dropping a ridonkulous amount of points, you could go with the kharybdis and load it up with as many berzerkers as you want + a dark apostle or whatever you have that gives hit rerolls. You could even drop right in their face thanks to no mishap scatter and burn some guys. The blast range is pretty darn big. I don't see that ever making it's points back but some 20ish berzerkers rerolling to hit coming out of nowhere are pretty darn scary lol

The problem with Kyhbardis imo izzit can be one shotted - I'd rather just have two dreadclaws and call it a day.

It really depends on what you're up against how you use them. It's going to be really tough versus an army like skyfire Tau or Hydra AM. Fortunately there's not much AA right now. It deep strikes the first turn so it can come in non hover mode so the Zerkers dont all die to C&B.

I think it's just way to expensive for what it does. Not to mention that the large squads you can put in are rarely a good idea either. But I'll take any excuse I can get to field it. I love the model, but so far I haven't been able to convince myself to get one lol. I did manage to pin like three squads once though...cept they were orcs and all rerolled that save and passed >_<


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Also took out an entire pathfinder squad with the flamer blast once. But other than being hilarious I always felt like it was wasted points.

So say I can devote 600ish points on zeerkers, I could put them in a claw (sounds awesome) or do I toss them in a SAT (on paper it looks awesome. What’s not to love about 2 quad las cannons, av14 all around, 5HP and a troop limit of 25?) or do I say screw it with the zerkers and use something else. The goal of the list would be to get into the enemy’s face FAST and wreak havoc in CC

I would pick the Spartan above the Kharybdis in all circumstances. Yes it's slightly more expensive but compared to the Kharybdis' pretty mediocre S6 missiles, you have 4x TL S9 Lascannons, meaning that it can still put out a great deal of firepower once its cargo has been deployed.

Kharybdis might be intersting in apocalypse games or so where the table is larger, but in normal games the spartan is leagues ahead of it.


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But what kind of target do you have in mind to assault? Even 20 zerkers aren't going to take out a WK for example. But I've been taking out the average stormhammer termies quite reliably with kharn (for hatred mostly) and 9 zerkers.

Target would be really anything, mostly squads of troops and hq choices. In my area there are Nids, CSM, Daemons, Crons, tau and IG. (shouldnt have to worry about WK too much.

Then yea, if you can afford it, I would take the spartan over a claw or normal land raider. Even on it's own it's still a threat. And unlike the claw, you can give the spartan dirge casters.

I would try to get hatred or so if you can on the zerkers though. I'd say start with 10 and see where you go from there.


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The chain axes make a huge difference too if you expect to face units that would not be able to save. Ofc no difference if your going against MEQs and TEQ.

I play against orcs pretty often and it helps.

Good call, I will have to slap together some proxies and hit the table

If you're feeling really spendy you can try and slap the feel no pain legacy on the spartan since, chances are, you're going to run with the wrath banner.

Tried it once, with mixed results. They lasted 5 turns but, it was so darn exepensive that I had little else and just couldn't cap objectives well enough.

 zammerak wrote:
But wont the Rhino just get popped on the first turn? (that usually happens when I see a rhino)

The thing with Daemonkin is that you WANT that rhino to get popped It's gona give you bloodtithe points. So, it might be a good idea to make it at least a bit intimidating with a combi-melta or havok launcher. But not overinvest at the same time. Besides, something must stay back and secure points, right?

Rhinos getting popped is a great idea honestly.... Run them forward as much as possible and hope the the enemy destroys them. So no need to pop smoke.

Even if the guys inside cant assault, There will too many in his face , and some of those units will be able to get a charge off.

Or simply use the "Power slide" tactic.

Deploy the rhino sideways with the Zerkers behind, then move and flat out the Rhino and make a run with the Zerkers behind, if you have 3 rhinos try to make them tight to give lots of LoS.

Advantage is that if they get destroyed your Zerkers can still assault, if you face an army fast enouhg to be under your nose Turn 1, your guys can assault them.

The disavantage is Vs blast weapons, if the opponent has the tiniest of LoS on one model, it will hurt, even thouhg you get a cover save.

But thats also why you need Hounds and the like, to go engage those pesky units.

And for those who wants to field a Dreadclaw, but don't want to buy one from FW without at least first testing it, you can always proxy with a regular Pod, or there is sites with alternatives to Pods





Those can be found for half the price of a GW Pod.

or you can simply convert one.



This one is simple and a classic, even though its a bit lacking imo.

What i did personnaly is this.



Buy a pod, get the fines and the bottom either from a second pod you have or on bitz sites and here you go.

Seen some pretty good dreadckaw conversions from the plastic drop pod

Dreadclaw's never steered me wrong and it's a great alternative to the point-sink of landraiders/spartans (don't take the destroyers on those... they're ordinance)

For 100 points, they'll get whatever theyre carrying into the enemy's face on turn one, wither they live or die. 12+ with a 4+ jink (and daemonic possession) is pretty damn resilient for what its worth. I've also always found my claw to be useful after it's dropped off it's cargo (usually melee chosen nowadays), either ferrying around other units, burning things, or generally getting in the way and grabbing objectives.
Here's my lil'fella. One of the easiest conversions I've done.

To make the Dreadclaw effective you need multiple attacks to force the opponent to focus on other more immediate threats.

Those Claws look Fantastic!

Don't forget the first dreadclaw model. it's a lot of work though.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/249658.page

With chain axes, they'll beat Flayed Ones. Which is pretty shocking.

 koooaei wrote:

 zammerak wrote:
But wont the Rhino just get popped on the first turn? (that usually happens when I see a rhino)

The thing with Daemonkin is that you WANT that rhino to get popped It's gona give you bloodtithe points. So, it might be a good idea to make it at least a bit intimidating with a combi-melta or havok launcher. But not overinvest at the same time. Besides, something must stay back and secure points, right?

I'm pretty sure the rhino's do not have the blood for the blood god rule.

It does.

Everything does !

I agree with the go with rhinos, 3 8-man zerk units on rhinos, with power weapon on the champ, melta bombs and dozer blades on the rhino are 222 pts.

If you field 3 of those you'll have 666 pts on zerks, and 3 blood tithe points once they blow up to buff them. If you are going for rhinos you'll need target saturation and as I read somewhere make waves of assaults. Your fast units (bikes, hounds, spawns, raptors) should be assaulting on 2nd turn, and your zerks on a rhino on 3rd turn.

The real downside I see on the use of zerks/possessed/talons, is that it makes the 2nd result on the Blood Tithe table useless, since they already got both bonus

 Green is Best! wrote:

 koooaei wrote:

 zammerak wrote:
But wont the Rhino just get popped on the first turn? (that usually happens when I see a rhino)

The thing with Daemonkin is that you WANT that rhino to get popped It's gona give you bloodtithe points. So, it might be a good idea to make it at least a bit intimidating with a combi-melta or havok launcher. But not overinvest at the same time. Besides, something must stay back and secure points, right?

I'm pretty sure the rhino's do not have the blood for the blood god rule.

Oil for the Oil god!