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This is an incredibly specific tactical question: I usually deploy a full squad of Possessed Marines, with an Icon of Despair, using the Alpha Legion "Forward Operatives" stratagem. This 20-model sledgehammer is meant to target both infantry and vehicles and distract my opponent long enough so that the rest of my army can make it up the board. 60% of the time, it works 100% of the time. However, I've found that sometimes they are lacking just a little bit of a push so I've decided to send in some deep-striking HQ support ...

With my current army list, I can spare about 130 points for this and to me it's a toss-up between a Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour and a Chaos Sorcerer in Terminator Amour. My thoughts below ...

Chaos Sorcerer in Terminator Armour Pros:
- Able to cast Prescience to support Possessed in Combat
- Able to cast Smite to knock off wounds off vehicles
- Able to cast Infernal Gaze (?) to knock off additional mortal wounds off vehicles

Chaos Sorcerer in Terminator Armour Cons:
- Not much support in close combat
- Wouldn't be able to take any toys beyond a combi-bolter and force stave
- Less durable than a Chaos Lord

Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour Pros:
- Permanently re-roll any 1's for Possessed Squad
- BS of 2+ means my combi-melta has a chance of doing something
- Extra CC support for Possessed
- More durable than a Chaos Sorcerer

Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour Cons:
- No ability to deal mortal wounds
- Deep-striking negates a little of the combi-melta's usefulness first turn

Those are my initial thoughts though I'd be curious to know what I've missed!

What mark?

Captyn_Bob wrote:
What mark?

Nurgle! It matched the only flesh tone I had at the time.

Ah wait Nurgle.

Nurgle Herald would go well. Deepstrike in.

I want to say the blight tree, but you would have to start on the board to get the armour bonus, which is tricky. But the advance and charge could be ok. Creative placement you could get the best of both worlds .
Deploy the tree at your front line, place the possessed within 7.
If you go first, advance and charge. If you go second, soak with 1+ saves then advance and charge.

Herald would give +1S
DG sorcerer could give Blades of putrefaction
Aspiring champion
Daemon prince

I'm not really sold on termi chars, as they're rather slow compared to the 8" possessed. I'd rather take jump packs.

The cool thing about possessed is that they're infantry, daemon and Heretic astartes. So you can basically load the boni of 3 codizes on them

Yeah they can get stacked. Can't benefit from blades and be alpha legion at the same time sadly.

BUT VOTLW plus aura of virulence plus virulent blessing, means you are at +2 to wound, with every roll of a 4 to wound doing 2 damage and 5 to wound doing 3 damage.

Possessed are very fragile for their points to be just a distraction... I find rhinoes much more trustworthy to get them in close combat, and you just happen to have almost enough pts for two of them

Captyn_Bob wrote:Yeah they can get stacked. Can't benefit from blades and be alpha legion at the same time sadly.

BUT VOTLW plus aura of virulence plus virulent blessing, means you are at +2 to wound, with every roll of a 4 to wound doing 2 damage and 5 to wound doing 3 damage.

elk@work wrote:Possessed are very fragile for their points to be just a distraction... I find rhinoes much more trustworthy to get them in close combat, and you just happen to have almost enough pts for two of them

Thanks for the advice guys! Unfortunately, I do play pure Alpha Legion so I wouldn't be able to use Death Guard HQ units in this detachment. That being said, I have yet to win a single game against Death Guard in 8th Edition, so maybe it's time to beat what I can't join ...

Also, I would love to protect my Possessed in Rhinos, but I need to use the 130 points towards a second HQ, otherwise I don't get my Battalion Detachment.

Whatever babysitter you end up using, make sure they have the right training and certification. Those possessed can be pretty rambunctious and like to play pranks on their 'sitter.

-

 Galef wrote:
Whatever babysitter you end up using, make sure they have the right training and certification. Those possessed can be pretty rambunctious and like to play pranks on their 'sitter. -

I cannot tell you the amount of times I've had to tell my Possessed to keep it down or else I'm turning the board around, driving home, and no one gets to go to Disneyland.

That being said, I think I've settled on having a Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour with a Combi-Melta and Power Axe as a deep-striking baby-sitter. If my math is correct, I think his ability to let units re-roll 1's to hit is only marginally worse than a Sorcerer casting Prescience (and even then the Sorcerer has to actually pass the psychic test).

Take a Nurgle Sorcerer with Miasma of Pestilence to give them -1 to hit and they will never die. Overcharged plasma is one of the best ways to deal with Possessed and MoP hard counters it (because they explode on 1s and 2s). You can give the Sorcerer Prescience as well to help them out in combat.

saint_red wrote:
Take a Nurgle Sorcerer with Miasma of Pestilence to give them -1 to hit and they will never die. Overcharged plasma is one of the best ways to deal with Possessed and MoP hard counters it (because they explode on 1s and 2s). You can give the Sorcerer Prescience as well to help them out in combat.

That is a really good point about Miasma of Pestilence. I think I'm convinced to switch my HQ over to a Sorcerer in Terminator Armour, though I'm a little worried about how fragile he would be in combat should my opponent ever get a charge off on him.

I would be worried running possessed as a 20 man unit. The morale phase is going to be brutal.

Herald of <Chaos God> is a good choice. The hit rerolls of 1 aren't as strong as +1 STR would be.

ntin wrote:
I would be worried running possessed as a 20 man unit. The morale phase is going to be brutal.

Herald of <Chaos God> is a good choice. The hit rerolls of 1 aren't as strong as +1 STR would be.

Oddly enough, the morale phase hasn't really affected me as much. After the Possessed get their initial charge off, a number usually get killed by literally every gun my opponent has. I then use a few Command Points to auto-pass morale and continue from there. By mid-game, my Possessed have been whittled down so much that morale doesn't usually factor in beyond the odd Marine or two running off occasionally.

ntin wrote:
I would be worried running possessed as a 20 man unit. The morale phase is going to be brutal.

Herald of <Chaos God> is a good choice. The hit rerolls of 1 aren't as strong as +1 STR would be.

You can save a couple of command points for it and then it's not an issue. A friendly Herald is actually a really bad choice because you are already hitting at strength 5 and there's very limited utility in boosting that to strength 6, as it only helps you against T5, 6 and 10 units.