Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

 andysonic1 wrote:

 koooaei wrote:
You need shooting. Purifiers are just expensive marines.

I had two units of havocs with 4 autocannons each. The people casting Cleansing Flame were in Razorbacks and a Land Raider, and it was Turn Two. I had focused my havoc fire on the dreadknights, which seemed like a good idea since the Razorbacks were out of range and the Land Raider was invis. I had all my units in the mid field at bottom of turn one, and top of turn two he just rolled the vehicles up and nova'd. The only defense I can imagine against this would be the Oblit formation, roll them up mid-field, and double tap them on one of the vehicles with the warpsmith. Other than that it's what, more havocs? Ignore the dreadknights and focus on the tanks and Purifiers?

 Matt.Kingsley wrote:
You could take a Allied Detachment of Daemons with Karanak to create a 12" bubble of Perils on Double for enemy psykers. You won't be able to get all their Psykers with it, but you can at least make it more risky for some of them.

That's the main defence that's still to the theme that I can think of, besides a small Word Bearers contingent with the Scrolls of Erebus to try and get that few extra Warp Charges to deny with using your Adamantium Will.


Or as koooaei said, take some big guns to kill them at range before they can hurt you.

Karanak would be a nice deterrent, leading one side of the board while Kharn is on the other. I have a ton of Flesh Hounds collecting dust since I stopped playing KDK anyways, could make a nice threat. The problem is fitting them in with a sizable Chaos Warband + Spawn Escorts + Juggerlords + Deamon Prince. There never seems like enough points in 1850 to work it all in.

That was your primary issue. The Havoc loadout was going to do nothing to the Dreadknight. With your dudes being Fearless, you could easily have tarpitted with different units for the course of several turns. The Havocs should've went after the Rhinos.

Sonic Keyboard wrote:
So we get possessed as troops, and if we bunch several squads together around footslogging HQ we get zealot. Carnifexes and haruspexes, beware of our mighty s5 ap3 re-rollable attacks!

3+ conjuration and some warlord traits and relics are nice, though they aren't free FnP reducing incoming damage by a third.

I wouldn't call it free though. Granted, being able to make a 5-man unit Fearless, T5, FNP and Relentless for 15 points is insane, but it adds up across the army when you have to take it on everyone and everything.

With Psychic powers, you're always getting a logarithmic increase in power for linear investment. You need roughly 2.5 WC for each WC of power you wish to cast, so once the initial D6 WC are burnt up, each additional point you spend in Psykers means a lower percentage of your Psykers are actually casting (while everyone else is a glorified battery). A Palanquin Summoner is quite useful alongside a Paradox Herald; if you can reliably summon 2 units a turn at 1850 while having an actual functional army behind it, you're doing well.

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:

 andysonic1 wrote:

 koooaei wrote:
You need shooting. Purifiers are just expensive marines.

I had two units of havocs with 4 autocannons each. The people casting Cleansing Flame were in Razorbacks and a Land Raider, and it was Turn Two. I had focused my havoc fire on the dreadknights, which seemed like a good idea since the Razorbacks were out of range and the Land Raider was invis. I had all my units in the mid field at bottom of turn one, and top of turn two he just rolled the vehicles up and nova'd. The only defense I can imagine against this would be the Oblit formation, roll them up mid-field, and double tap them on one of the vehicles with the warpsmith. Other than that it's what, more havocs? Ignore the dreadknights and focus on the tanks and Purifiers?

 Matt.Kingsley wrote:
You could take a Allied Detachment of Daemons with Karanak to create a 12" bubble of Perils on Double for enemy psykers. You won't be able to get all their Psykers with it, but you can at least make it more risky for some of them.

That's the main defence that's still to the theme that I can think of, besides a small Word Bearers contingent with the Scrolls of Erebus to try and get that few extra Warp Charges to deny with using your Adamantium Will.


Or as koooaei said, take some big guns to kill them at range before they can hurt you.

Karanak would be a nice deterrent, leading one side of the board while Kharn is on the other. I have a ton of Flesh Hounds collecting dust since I stopped playing KDK anyways, could make a nice threat. The problem is fitting them in with a sizable Chaos Warband + Spawn Escorts + Juggerlords + Deamon Prince. There never seems like enough points in 1850 to work it all in.

That was your primary issue. The Havoc loadout was going to do nothing to the Dreadknight. With your dudes being Fearless, you could easily have tarpitted with different units for the course of several turns. The Havocs should've went after the Rhinos.

I had one round of shooting before the game was over, the dreadknight was the only thing in range of the havocs, and my opponent used nova powers inside vehicles. I also charged the dreadknight with bikes to hold it down for my deamon prince to get there. I think I had several primary issues.

 MagicJuggler wrote:

Sonic Keyboard wrote:
So we get possessed as troops, and if we bunch several squads together around footslogging HQ we get zealot. Carnifexes and haruspexes, beware of our mighty s5 ap3 re-rollable attacks!

3+ conjuration and some warlord traits and relics are nice, though they aren't free FnP reducing incoming damage by a third.

I wouldn't call it free though. Granted, being able to make a 5-man unit Fearless, T5, FNP and Relentless for 15 points is insane, but it adds up across the army when you have to take it on everyone and everything.

With Psychic powers, you're always getting a logarithmic increase in power for linear investment. You need roughly 2.5 WC for each WC of power you wish to cast, so once the initial D6 WC are burnt up, each additional point you spend in Psykers means a lower percentage of your Psykers are actually casting (while everyone else is a glorified battery). A Palanquin Summoner is quite useful alongside a Paradox Herald; if you can reliably summon 2 units a turn at 1850 while having an actual functional army behind it, you're doing well.

I like the summoning buff and was really excited when I first saw the rule, but those apostle and possessed buffs are almost useless in grand host, and don't do much in a cad either.
Funny, after TS leaks I've thought what WB'll get and only thing I got wrong was crusader being decurion bonus and not legion tactic.

Played my Night Lords under TL for the first time Monday. 1850 vs Orks, so I wasn't playing against a hard army by any stretch.

The fear stacks worked extremely well, since obviously Orks aren't fearless. The Murder talon wrecked a mob of ork bikers with warboss. I didn't really have issues with deep strike, running units of 5 helps prevent mishaps a lot

The stealth rules negated virtually all incoming fire. Not that Orks are crack shots, but 4 units of lootas and two big units of deathkoptas kicked out quite a bit of Dakka. His whole list only managed to put a single wound on an oblit in the first turn.

Forced nightlight automatically gives the dreadclaw a 3+ jink on the first turn, greatly enhancing survivability. I'm now thinking a Kharbydis might actually be worth it.

Night Lords are gonna have a hard time with fearless armies (Damn SMs), but the stealth really helps boost their survivability through the shooting phase which was previously one of my big problems.

Are WE CSM units better in units of 5 or units or 10? As units of 5 they seem fine to take mid-field objectives and stick to them, but as units of 10 you get an extra special weapon and are a much larger threat but at that size you could spend points beefing up the champ without feeling too bad about it.

Also a question to all legions: how many Chaos Spawn do you bubble wrap your Lords in? I have been using 5 but the points are killing me so I thought I'd start using 3 instead, but I'm nervous about reducing them so much.

 andysonic1 wrote:
Are WE CSM units better in units of 5 or units or 10? As units of 5 they seem fine to take mid-field objectives and stick to them, but as units of 10 you get an extra special weapon and are a much larger threat but at that size you could spend points beefing up the champ without feeling too bad about it.

Also a question to all legions: how many Chaos Spawn do you bubble wrap your Lords in? I have been using 5 but the points are killing me so I thought I'd start using 3 instead, but I'm nervous about reducing them so much.

Every unit in the game is better off MSU, period. You can make an argument about a large deathstar, but ironically enough the best way to beat any deathstar is to run MSU and ignore it.

 Red Corsair wrote:

 andysonic1 wrote:
Are WE CSM units better in units of 5 or units or 10? As units of 5 they seem fine to take mid-field objectives and stick to them, but as units of 10 you get an extra special weapon and are a much larger threat but at that size you could spend points beefing up the champ without feeling too bad about it.

Also a question to all legions: how many Chaos Spawn do you bubble wrap your Lords in? I have been using 5 but the points are killing me so I thought I'd start using 3 instead, but I'm nervous about reducing them so much.

Every unit in the game is better off MSU, period. You can make an argument about a large deathstar, but ironically enough the best way to beat any deathstar is to run MSU and ignore it.

Not in this specific case. In order to get the same amount of special weapons it ends up costing more to do MSU simply because of the mandatory champion tax. Add in the free move and you can get away with 10 dudes.

Anything over is terrible though.

So, I'm thinking about a Chaoscron alphastrike.

Black Legion gets turn 1 Deepstrike.
Deathmarks get pseudo-Interceptor, and you can Deep Strike a unit whenever an enemy unit arrives from DS.
Black Legion and Necrons are Allies of Convenience.

I've drafted up a base for about 1226 points, leaving 624 points left to round it out. Can this work, or how would you make it more efficient?

++Black Legion Speartip++
Turn 1 DS, Crusader & Fear
+Hounds of Abaddon+
Free Marks of Khorne, may run & charge once per game (combine with Crusader!), bonus strength on charge rolls of 8+.
Juggerlord with Sigil and Axe of Blind Fury - 160
5 Berzerkers - 105
5 CSM - 75
5 Raptors w/ 2 Melta - 115
+Terminator Annihilation Force+
"Shoot on DS arrival. HQ gets free Terminator Armor"
Sorcerer with Brand and Spell Familiar - 100
3 Combi-Plasma Terminators - 112
3 Combi-Plasma Terminators - 112
3 Combi-Plasma Terminators - 112

++Necron CAD++
Lord - 50
5 Immortals - 85
5 Immortals - 85
5 Deathmarks - 90
5 Deathmarks - 90
5 Deathmarks - 90

Total: 1226/1850

What to do with the remaining 624 points? I imagine if I put points in replacing the CAD with a Decurion, this also means more Deathmarks and a backbone to the alphastrike. But then I also lose some extra flexibility. Maybe I can consolidate the Deathmarks into two larger units, add a Flayed One bodyguard, replace the Immortals with Warriors and replace the Lord with Szeras? Or maybe a Cabal. Decisions decisions.

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:

 Red Corsair wrote:

 andysonic1 wrote:
Are WE CSM units better in units of 5 or units or 10? As units of 5 they seem fine to take mid-field objectives and stick to them, but as units of 10 you get an extra special weapon and are a much larger threat but at that size you could spend points beefing up the champ without feeling too bad about it.

Also a question to all legions: how many Chaos Spawn do you bubble wrap your Lords in? I have been using 5 but the points are killing me so I thought I'd start using 3 instead, but I'm nervous about reducing them so much.

Every unit in the game is better off MSU, period. You can make an argument about a large deathstar, but ironically enough the best way to beat any deathstar is to run MSU and ignore it.

Not in this specific case. In order to get the same amount of special weapons it ends up costing more to do MSU simply because of the mandatory champion tax. Add in the free move and you can get away with 10 dudes.

Anything over is terrible though.

Both very good points. I was on the fence about adding more bikes to my bike units since adding three more bikes is cheaper than adding another unit,, but I realized my WE bikes are not tough they're just face-punchy. Had the same issue with CSM which is why I brought it up. The extra movement does put them in prime position as a second wave to your faster lords and princes, so 10 dudes could be pretty nasty with meltas and a beefed champ.

I'd be wary about giving much to the champion. Hell I hate paying the regular price for Power Weapons.

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:
I'd be wary about giving much to the champion. Hell I hate paying the regular price for Power Weapons.

Eh, I'm cool with giving a Slaaneshi Bike Champ a Power Lance, especially if you have access to other buffs (free Boons, Drugs, Blessings/etc). You go before Marines, hate them, and ignore their armor, and many such armies don't tool up their squads for melee anyway.

 MagicJuggler wrote:

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:
I'd be wary about giving much to the champion. Hell I hate paying the regular price for Power Weapons.

Eh, I'm cool with giving a Slaaneshi Bike Champ a Power Lance, especially if you have access to other buffs (free Boons, Drugs, Blessings/etc). You go before Marines, hate them, and ignore their armor, and many such armies don't tool up their squads for melee anyway.

For a Biker it makes more sense but I was talking about the regular Champions.

For a Khorne Biker you actually have several good options, as none of the weapons are really bad choices on the charge.

Agreed totally. Foot champs get a Combi-Melta and that's that.

On another note, I'm somewhat amused by the prospects of a WE Cult of Destruction. It's less durable than the DG one, and doesn't get Tank Hunters like the Iron Warrior one, but it gets better deployment options, (Add a Strategic CAD, so Infiltrate and Blood Mad together=point-blank shots) and pseudo-Fleet. A Warpsmith can even suicide himself against a target as 7 S6 attacks can do far more than 6 S5 ones (or 5 S5 if you wanted to do the melta/Combi-Melta double-tap). Plus the Warband Havocs get what is potentially a better form of Scout for getting their autocannons to the right firing position.

 MagicJuggler wrote:
Agreed totally. Foot champs get a Combi-Melta and that's that.

On another note, I'm somewhat amused by the prospects of a WE Cult of Destruction. It's less durable than the DG one, and doesn't get Tank Hunters like the Iron Warrior one, but it gets better deployment options, (Add a Strategic CAD, so Infiltrate and Blood Mad together=point-blank shots) and pseudo-Fleet. A Warpsmith can even suicide himself against a target as 7 S6 attacks can do far more than 6 S5 ones (or 5 S5 if you wanted to do the melta/Combi-Melta double-tap). Plus the Warband Havocs get what is potentially a better form of Scout for getting their autocannons to the right firing position.

The Obliterators would have Fearless so that helps with their main problem, and it isn't like MoK is a bad choice on them.

Leave the Mutilators at home though.

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:

 MagicJuggler wrote:
Agreed totally. Foot champs get a Combi-Melta and that's that.

On another note, I'm somewhat amused by the prospects of a WE Cult of Destruction. It's less durable than the DG one, and doesn't get Tank Hunters like the Iron Warrior one, but it gets better deployment options, (Add a Strategic CAD, so Infiltrate and Blood Mad together=point-blank shots) and pseudo-Fleet. A Warpsmith can even suicide himself against a target as 7 S6 attacks can do far more than 6 S5 ones (or 5 S5 if you wanted to do the melta/Combi-Melta double-tap). Plus the Warband Havocs get what is potentially a better form of Scout for getting their autocannons to the right firing position.

The Obliterators would have Fearless so that helps with their main problem, and it isn't like MoK is a bad choice on them.

Leave the Mutilators at home though.

If Berserkers can turn 1 charge, so can mutilators. I'm more a fan of them now. That being said, bikes and raptors have a much better shot, especially if the 2d6 move is crappy. But they're still suddenly more playable, which is more than I thought I'd be able to say.

mutilators get at initiative chainfists with the formation, something to consider.

 Intercessor wrote:
mutilators get at initiative chainfists with the formation, something to consider.

I've seen that interpretation of that formation rule hotly debated. Regardless, if you did do something like that and you were able to get all the attacks off, pretty much whatever you're facing would die by the handfuls. But in order to make it super useful you'd need to guarantee a turn one assault, meaning your warp smith needs the talisman, meaning some other unit wouldn't be sped up. I mean if you are so dedicated to the idea that melee = khorne then it works great, but I prefer the double weaponing Oblits to pop transports so other units can charge in. Plus if you give your warp smith burning brand and pop a transport, you can cook everyone who spills out. Good times abound.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 MagicJuggler wrote:
Agreed totally. Foot champs get a Combi-Melta and that's that.

On another note, I'm somewhat amused by the prospects of a WE Cult of Destruction. It's less durable than the DG one, and doesn't get Tank Hunters like the Iron Warrior one, but it gets better deployment options, (Add a Strategic CAD, so Infiltrate and Blood Mad together=point-blank shots)

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Is something in the CAD giving Infiltrate to the Butcherhorde?

He is referring to rolling on the strategic table, for master of ambush. A CAD, gives you a re-roll on the table, of course that is no guarantee.

Played against my friend's Gray Knights with my World Eaters again tonight. 1850, he took the same exact list while I changed my list slightly so that Kharn was being escorted by Spawn, a five man termie squad escorting a termie lord with talisman, and Spawn escorting a juggerlord. Two units of bikes instead of three this time.

My 2D6 move was meh, the Deamon Prince shuffled forward two inches while everyone else moved the average. He put everything on the table and didn't deep strike anything which was a bad move. I seized and assaulted one of his Deadknights with my juggerlord, annihilating it. My Deamon Prince, in a display of my amazing general skills, stood out in the open unable to make a charge and got shot to ribbons, doing nothing that game except giving up Kingslayer. Turn One saw both his Deadknights die along with a unit of Purifiers, Turn Two saw the rest of my Chaos Lords die along with multiple Purifier units and one Razorback. Turn Three saw Kharn die to instant death from his assassin unit guy thing. We ended the game top of Turn Four as it was getting late, and it ended in a draw 9 to 9. Honestly if we had continued, his warlord termie unit would have systematically removed my units from the game turns four and five while his Land Raider and Razorback did the same. It was an absolute slaughterhouse.

If my DP had made it into first turn assault things might have turned out differently. I'm also considering some kind of second wave because after the initial headlong rush into the enemy there's not much else behind it to follow up. Maybe Possessed will appear in the battlefield once more, or maybe I need a harder hitting first turn that completely obliterates the enemy, mayhaps with Obliterators themselves. Maybe my DP needs to MAKE HIS FREAKIN CHARGES!

So, i had my fair share of Games with "Traitor Legion's" at this point and, since I'm not a competitive player, had the opportunity to test out
some units & formations i would've never touched because of.. well, reasons. (For disclosure, i used the IA:13 book as well for some matches.)

Right now i tested 3 Armies a lot (World Eaters, Emperors Children & Word Bearers) while only scratching the surface on others and not even
touching one ( because of a lack of Converted models & hating the play-style; Death Guard that is).

--- World Eaters ---

With the World Eaters i tried pretty much any Formation except Trinity of Blood (for obvious reasons) and Terminator Annihilation Force, because
i don't have enough Terminators & i don't really like Terminators. And some actually work quite well while others under-performed in my mind, at
least in comparison to other formations with the same unit type. Outstanding work in all games did my 3 Maulerfiend Helforged Warpack. While
not profiting immensely from being World-Eaters, having the chance to re-roll failed charges is quite neat. A let down was the Favoured of Chaos
Formation - 5 S6 AP3 Shred attacks on the Charge do sound cool, but in comparison to the Crimson Slaughter Possessed, these 'Favoured' feel
like wet tissue paper - i prefer the chance of getting 3++ & Rend more than S6 AP3 - also the Crimson Slaughter Possessed (i know, nobody likes
possessed ) do profit from World Eaters because of the Talisman of Burning Blood (The unit gets the +3" move, what type of unit is not
specified, and unless i'm missing some crucial information that BB's don't profit from Relic's of other BB's), +3" move & Charge range on either
Beasts or 3++ Rending Possessed (and possibly FnP because of one of the CS formations) is quite scary.

The Real MVP's though are the normal CSM's & Bikes in the Warband. Fearless & Free Icon of Wrath (and Hatred when playing against SM) makes
them actually worth it. Quasi-Zerkers with flamers & Melters for less points? Hell yeah! And ObSec fearless Bikes with a 2d6 Bonus Movement to
basically redeploy (in worst cases just to shuffle behind cover, in best cases to get in the middle of the board). Also DP's with the Berzerkers Glaive
are beasts on their own right. Even though it only adds 2 5+ results (FnP & IWND results) it still gives them so much more chance to survive. Other
than that, i think the Relic's are mostly 'meh', aside from the Talisman & the Glaive on a DP that is.

When adding Dreadclaws to the mix though, things get ugly really fast (i.e. Turn 1 ugly). Since 2 Units from the Warband can use Dreadclaw Drop
pods as Dedicated Transports (Chosen & CSM). Footslogging Lord(s) (or Khârn) tagged alongside a retinue of CQC/Flamer/Melter Chosen make
quite a mean bunch. Personally, i didn't put the normal CSM squads in a Dreadclaw since footslogging them over the field with the 2d6 Movement
makes them fast enough, but the Chosen with Khârn & another Talisman Lord did quite well with a Dreadclaw.

--- Emperor's Children ---

When it comes to the Emperor's Children though, it actually gets quite funny when paired with some other stuff. I've tested the Kakophoni-Formation
twice, both times with MSU Noise Marines with Blastmaster & Sonic Blasters. Split fire is genius on these guys, having the ability to hold an objective
while the Blastmaster is shooting stuff on the other side of the board. But nonetheless, it's lackluster because of the gosh-darn Salvo weapons.
Other than that, i tried my luck with a Combination of, once again, Crimson Slaughter (because of love these guys) and Emperor's Children. Although
quite unfluffy, it has some - even though extremely niche - synergy. The Endless Grin gives a -1 Leadership penalty for units within 6", the Heldrake
Terrorpack a -2 Leadership penalty in a 12" bubble (for 3 Drakes) and the Maelstrom of Torment-Warlord Trait of the CS add another -1 Leadership
bubble to that. Probably funny against Eldar (and their Love for Slaanesh ) but funny nonetheless when paired with Terrify & Psychic Shriek. Having
a max of -5 Leadership makes Psychic Shriek devastating against everything - and if the CS-Lord is in CQC and the enemy is not fearless (which,
according to ancient legends can happen) they get a nice -6 Leadership bonus. Once again, its super niche. Personally i think Emperor's Children
are quite a weak bunch - although 4+ FnP on most Icon-bearing units sound fun - it is so damn expensive point-wise.

Personally, i would love to see a Death Guard Army with Dreadclaws since they have Relentless. Deep Striking T1 Havocs / CSM's with heavy's
behind enemy lines and fire everything you got.

Sorry for the Wall-o-Text tho ;(

I dunno, Gorefather is pretty damn brutal too.

The other axe is meh and pistols are always bad so...

.. maulerfiends can already 're roll charges with fleet.
The 4++ sounds good tho. And the fearless warpsmith can go look after some other non fearless unit ..


Automatically Appended Next Post:
DG havoks in dreadclaw is not a bad idea.. not dedicated which sucks...

I'm planning on trying out WE Warband Havocs with meltaguns. 10 Havocs with 4 special weapons look good on paper in the butcherhorde. They can't trade their bolters for cc weapons, but it is a pretty versatile unit, enough firepower to threaten stuff, decent on the charge or receiving one. Couple of squads of them instead of taking more then two regular CSM squads.

Looking at it, is there any reason to use Word Bearers that doesn't involve allying in Daemons? It seems like if you want to take Marks, then just bringing Black Legion would be better, and if you don't care about using them, then Alpha Legion and Night Lords are both superior choices by far. It seems like the best use for Word Bearers is to ally in a small detachment of Psykers to spam summoning powers, and bring in a ton of Pink Horrors or greater daemons on turn 1.

I use a Grand Host and a small Ally Detachment of Daemons as my main army as I really like their Warlord Table. I'm using a Warband, as it gives me 2 Obsec Crusaders I can attach to two separate Helcult blobs to run up the field. Were I to shave points, I could add even more Cultists to both units and go full-on horde on my foes.

Waaaghpower wrote:
Looking at it, is there any reason to use Word Bearers that doesn't involve allying in Daemons? It seems like if you want to take Marks, then just bringing Black Legion would be better, and if you don't care about using them, then Alpha Legion and Night Lords are both superior choices by far. It seems like the best use for Word Bearers is to ally in a small detachment of Psykers to spam summoning powers, and bring in a ton of Pink Horrors or greater daemons on turn 1.

Correct me if i'm wrong but isn't exactly what people do to win tournaments? I.e. summoning on a +3 & maybe forcing the enemy to re-roll their charge & not profiting from Furious Charge & Rage sounds
quite nice. If you're able to control the board and what the enemy does, you win games.

 EverlastingNewb wrote:

Waaaghpower wrote:
Looking at it, is there any reason to use Word Bearers that doesn't involve allying in Daemons? It seems like if you want to take Marks, then just bringing Black Legion would be better, and if you don't care about using them, then Alpha Legion and Night Lords are both superior choices by far. It seems like the best use for Word Bearers is to ally in a small detachment of Psykers to spam summoning powers, and bring in a ton of Pink Horrors or greater daemons on turn 1.

Correct me if i'm wrong but isn't exactly what people do to win tournaments? I.e. summoning on a +3 & maybe forcing the enemy to re-roll their charge & not profiting from Furious Charge & Rage sounds
quite nice. If you're able to control the board and what the enemy does, you win games.

It is, but I'm asking because I want to use Word Bearers by themselves. I don't own any Daemons, and I don't really have much interest in owning them.
Besides, while summoning on a 3+ is nice, they still Perils normally, and if I really wanted to just spam a couple of Psykers for a powerful early-game summoning battery, I could just take two or three Librarius conclaves, and have four or six nearly-autopasses with my summoning. (Assuming I min-max, I could just take two ML1 psykers and a ML2 psyker for 220 points, and have two Summoning rolls that succeed on 2+, with four rolls on the table to get the right powers. If I take two of these and spend a few more points, I could add Tigurius to one and take that one Imperial Fists relic in the other, and have two ML3 psykers with re-rolls summoning on 2+.)

The point is, I don't want to take Word Bearers for summoning-spam, I want to take them because I like their fluff and I want to take just them, but there seems to be no good way to do it.

Yeah Word Bearers are hamstrung. Their bonuses are focused on their HQ choices and unless you're summoning or taking a Dark Apostle you get nothing except free VotLW* and some decent Warlord Traits, so ok Relics and Tactical Objectives that don't actually help you.

Even if you do take the Dark Apostle and run an assault style list benefiting from the Zealot bubble... you are still hamstrung by the fact that Apostles are overpriced and lack mobility options and is stuck footslogging. At that point you might as well run Black Legion, World Eaters or Emperor's Children and get better or on par combat troops, better combat relics and not be hamstrung by the Dark Apostle's speed and cost.

*ok you also get Possessed troops and the ability to roll all your powers on a God Discipline... but those again aren't bonuses you're really going to use.

Everyone keeps talking about Word Bearers like Sorcerers are the only Psyker. Daemon Princes could be used as a battery for summoning as it isn't a bad table for themselves anyway.