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I'm looking into building an Emperor's Children force, and I was wondering what you all thought of this list. I've never played Chaos before, so I'm not sure if I'm missing obvious things, etc.


++ Spearhead Detachment +1CP (Chaos - Chaos Space Marines) [33 PL, 645pts] ++

+ No Force Org Slot +

Legion: Emperor's Children

+ HQ +

Daemon Prince with Wings [9 PL, 180pts]: Hellforged sword, Intoxicating Elixir
. Slaanesh: Diabolic Strength

+ Heavy Support +

Havocs [7 PL, 105pts]: Mark of Slaanesh
. Aspiring Champion: Boltgun, Chainsword
. Havoc w/ heavy weapon: Heavy bolter
. Havoc w/ heavy weapon: Heavy bolter
. Havoc w/ heavy weapon: Heavy bolter
. Havoc w/ heavy weapon: Heavy bolter

Havocs [7 PL, 165pts]: Mark of Slaanesh
. Aspiring Champion: Boltgun, Chainsword
. Havoc w/ heavy weapon: Lascannon
. Havoc w/ heavy weapon: Lascannon
. Havoc w/ heavy weapon: Lascannon
. Havoc w/ heavy weapon: Missile launcher

Obliterators [10 PL, 195pts]: Mark of Slaanesh, 3x Obliterator

++ Battalion Detachment +3CP (Chaos - Chaos Space Marines) [70 PL, 1355pts] ++

+ No Force Org Slot +

Legion: Emperor's Children

+ HQ +

Lucius the Eternal [6 PL, 115pts]

Sorcerer in Terminator Armour [8 PL, 156pts]: Combi-bolter, Delightful Agonies, Force stave, Mark of Slaanesh, Warptime

+ Troops +

Noise Marines [6 PL, 111pts]
. Marine w/ Blastmaster: Blastmaster
. 3x Marine w/ Sonic blaster: 3x Sonic Blaster
. Noise Champion: Chainsword, Sonic blaster

Noise Marines [6 PL, 101pts]: 4x Marine w/ chainsword
. Noise Champion: Bolt pistol, Doom siren, Power sword

Noise Marines [6 PL, 101pts]: 4x Marine w/ chainsword
. Noise Champion: Bolt pistol, Doom siren, Power sword

+ Elites +

Chaos Terminators [14 PL, 279pts]: Mark of Slaanesh
. Chaos Terminator Champion: Chainfist, Combi-plasma
. Terminator: Combi-plasma, Power axe
. Terminator: Combi-plasma, Power fist
. Terminator: Combi-plasma, Power axe
. Terminator: Combi-plasma, Power axe

Chosen [11 PL, 200pts]: Mark of Slaanesh
. Chosen Champion: Bolt pistol, Combi-flamer
. 3x Chosen w/ chainsword
. Chosen w/ special weapon: Flamer
. Chosen w/ weapon option: Bolt pistol, Flamer
. Chosen w/ weapon option: Bolt pistol, Flamer
. Chosen w/ weapon option: Bolt pistol, Flamer
. Chosen w/ weapon option: Bolt pistol, Flamer

+ Fast Attack +

Chaos Bikers [5 PL, 122pts]: Mark of Slaanesh
. Chaos Biker: Chainsword, Combi-bolter, Plasma gun
. Chaos Biker: Chainsword, Combi-bolter, Plasma gun
. Chaos Biker Champion: Combi-bolter, Combi-plasma

+ Dedicated Transport +

Chaos Rhino [4 PL, 85pts]: Combi-bolter, Combi-bolter, Havoc launcher, Mark of Slaanesh

Chaos Rhino [4 PL, 85pts]: Combi-bolter, Combi-bolter, Havoc launcher, Mark of Slaanesh

++ Total: [103 PL, 2000pts] ++

Basic strategy is to deploy the Chosen and Lucius in a Rhino, with the two bp/chainsword squads of Noise Marines in the other. The Havocs and shooty Noise Marines form a gunline, while the bikers kite around the enemy and let loose some plasma. Daemon Prince follows the Rhinos, and Obliterators and Terminators (including Sorceror) will deep strike. The Rhinos and Prince will rush toward objectives, while the Havocs and remaining Noise Marines act as a gunline. Deep strikers shoot the enemy to bits, potentially with Endless Cacophony, and depending on the target the sorceror casts warp time to get the termies into combat the turn they arrive. The chosen will either be a nightmare if the enemy is foolish enough to charge into them (6d6 flamer shots, plus bolt pistols, followed by 22 melee attacks that go before the enemy), or else they should hopefully draw the bulk of the enemy's firepower to get rid of them, letting the terms/oblits/bikers/havocs shoot the enemy to bits unhindered. If they survive long enough, Endless Cacophony on them could be pretty ridiculous too (12d6 auto hits!). The Daemon Prince either stays near the Rhino troops after they disembark, or (more likely) joins up with the deep strikers to provide buffs.

How does this look? My big concern is that I have some high value units and no bubblewrap, how much of a problem do you think this is for my list? I'm not looking to be competitive, just a fun TAC list. I do have some daemonettes I could add if you think they'd be useful, though I'm not sure what to take out to make room for them. Depending on their codex, I wouldn't mind turning this into a joint EC and Daemon force.

Any thoughts and opinions are welcome!

You have made a solid list, true to Emperor's Children. An army I do play aswell very often. I had surprised many opponent with it on various torunaments.
Even slaying all 3 of the (Daemon) primarch with pretty ease

Personally I would load the Noise marines all of them with Sonic Blasters just for the huge count of shots making charges in these groups even harder.

I'm not sure if you are aware of it, but "fighting first" doesn't count when you're being charged. Here the rulef of the Charger fight first is in place.
But that souldn't be a really big problem to you since you have plenty to shoot in overwatch.
Like your list, EC should be a "horde-like" Army specialized in Shooting, the rule of fighting first shouldn't be your main priority.

But my experience learned that EC is more a fun list to play then it will be competive, you may and up in the midsections of a tournament.

Oh thanks for the clarification on the Flawless Perfection rule, I had been misunderstanding it!

I've thought about using more sonic blasters, but I'm not sure where to find the points. What would you recommend? Lose the doom sirens for blasters? Reduce the number of ablative wounds on the Chosen? Something else entirely?

I'm not really interested in tournaments. I obviously don't want to just get curbstomped over and over again, but being hyper-competitive isn't really my goal here.

Looking at your list,

Replacing the Doomsirens is the best option, but since your not running large groups of Noise marines I would not consider that. There the doomsiren is the best defense against charging enemies.

My latest list was running 3 groups of 10 Noise marines with 8 Sonic blasters 1 Blastmaster 1 Doomsiren. There I trusted fully on the Power of sound ignoring cover all over the board.

Your list is solid as I said, as how the EC should be played. The real strenght comes from the deepstriking termies and obliterators. Solid havocs covering the long range.

The longer I think about this the more I think this just might actually work pretty well. I couldn't find much to change in the list.
Just test play it and see how it can be tweaked?

Have you thought of doing a 40 man cultist unit, and casting Agonies on them? Just an idea.

The idea of the chosen firing your Chosen's flamers twice at a blob unit in one turn sounds like so much fun.

I also feel like you could get more out of this if you got some more Command Points in it. I feel like doing so would open you up to having more opportunities to use stratagems. Just by having regular CSM units instead, you'd loose 1 attach, but you'd be able to add more bodies. Just a thought as then you'd get more CP to use as you see fit.

Otherwise the list looks really good as it creates tough decisions for your opponent to try and pick which unit they want to try to take out. There are multiple units that can hurt them at the same time, in different ways, that they are bound to make mistakes. It's my favorite tactic to use, just make them overthink and watch them slowly start to question everything they do.

Thanks for the input Billie_Joe! I've considered using cultists, that's definitely something I was hoping for some input on. One thing that is (potentially) stopping me is the cost of the models along with the fact that I don't currently have ANY. I enjoy conversions and kitbashing so I'm open to the idea, but I don't have any particularly great concepts for the unit at the moment. If anyone has some recommendations for conversion/kitbash ideas, I'd love to hear them!

I definitely would prefer more CP, but it's hard to see where I should get it. Your idea of using regular marines rather than Noise Boys occurred to me, but I'm not sure how worth it it would be. The extra attacks in combat are great, but I'm also drawn to the Music of the Apocalypse rule, since it would let me throw a grenade/shoot a pistol every time a man dies in combat. I'm also not sure how I would leverage those freed-up points into more CP; I'd need both another elite and HQ (or 2 fast attack and an HQ) for an additional detachment. Changing 2/3 of the units to regular marines (and losing the doom sirens) would only get me 64 points, which isn't really much to play with. If I changed all 3 I'd save 110 (118 if I also lose power swords), which still isn't really enough for another detachment, and I'd be losing out on all that sweet sonic weaponry. I could absolutely be missing something though; any ideas?