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.

Hi all. I'm quite late to change from 7th to 8th ed, and my first few games against my regular opponent (a tyranid player) were pretty brutal and over by turn two. I figured I might as well accept the inevitable: that in most games I'll only manage about one turn of mediocre shooting, and that if the game is going to become a bloodbath, the blood should flow on both sides!

Plan is for the zerkers to sit tight in the rhinos and land raider for the first turn. He'll deploy his trygon and about 30 devourer gaunts, probably destroying one rhino, while rushing up with genestealers and accompanying broodlord. Zerkers disembark, with dark apostle and exalted champion buffing them, and assault the nearest gribblies. Termies and mutilators deep strike behind his lines, and I crush the foe between the hammer and the anvil.
The Defiler and Contemptor are there to tackle the big monsters, in particular the Swarmlord, after I've softened it up with a few lascannon shots from the land raider. Plus points if the Contemptor explodes and gives all his zoanthropes an aneurysm.

Any constructive criticism on my list and/or strategy would be welcome (including anyone who wants to check my maths - the list actually comes in at 2495 but I can't really find anything to fill in the last 5 points.)

HQ

Daemon Prince 'Borghaster' - Wings, 2 malefic talons, Collar of Borghaster - 180
Dark Apostle 'Zobek the Frenzied' - power maul - 76
Exalted Champion 'Svarl Wulfbad' - power axe, chainsword - 75

Elites

5 Chaos Terminators - Icon of Wrath, 5 power axes, 4 combi-flamers, hvy flamer - 251
3 Mutilators - 126
3 Mutilators - 126
Hellforged Contemptor 'Skalathrax' - 2 hellforged deathclaws with hellflamers - 230

Troops

9 Khorne Berzerkers - icon of wrath, 9 chainaxes & chainswords - 163
9 Khorne Berzerkers - icon of wrath, 9 chainaxes & chainswords - 163
10 Khorne Berzerkers - icon of wrath, 10 chainaxes & chainswords - 180
10 Khorne Berzerkers - icon of wrath, 10 chainaxes & chainswords - 180

Dedicated Transport

Rhino - 2 combi-bolters - 72
Rhino - 2 combi-bolters - 72
Rhino - 2 combi-bolters - 72

Heavy Support

Chaos Land Raider - two lascannons, twin heavy bolter - 356
Defiler 'Scorpio' - defiler scourge, reaper autocannon - 167

Be careful sitting still against nids, specifically Genestealers as even if they manage to kill a tank (and if they have the numbers), if they surround it before it dies the unit inside dies as well. My suggestions would be look into more guaranteed alpha strikes. For example, I have had decent luck with possessed in a drop pod backed by a Dark Apostle. I understand mutilators are cheap for what they are, but they lack any chance to re-roll charges which hurts them in my opinion (9 inch charge seems deceptively too easy until you need it). Possessed have the ability to take an Icon of Wrath which helps mitigate this a little bit (plus they have two wounds each!). The Dreadclaw may also charge as it is not immobilized after coming in from reserves so it may eat overwatch shots if it needs to and isn't too bad in melee either for being a vehicle.Another unit I'd suggest trying might be Warp Talons. Now, this contradicts my previous statement a little bit, but they have the ability to not be fired at through overwatch when they attempt to charge. Thus, this could tie up important shots they might have. If not, it's an annoying combat unit to deal with in the back ranks. Just my two cents on the matter!

Cheers Tyno2025 - I'll bear that in mind, but I haven't got a lot of flexibility owing to the fact that the models in my list are the only khornate stuff I've got - I'd normally go Emperor's Children but I can't really see how they'd last more than a couple of turns against his list.
Warptalons I can do though, and they might be particularly useful for tying up his devourer gaunts.

How did this roster perform? What changes would you make?

I read the list over and I had some concerns about the Mutilators and Terminators, especially in regards to the flamer choices...

This is pretty good, you need cultists to protect your land raider and rhinos though for turn one.

So the list did not perform as well as expected, largely because the game wasn't that well organised - it was a three-way fight, primarily between tyranids and my khornate hordes, but we had a third player playing a severely understrength admech force (he's getting back into 40k after a long hiatus), so to counterbalance this we let his force outflank using the old 7th rules.
And he ended up in my backlines. Coupled with the fact that the nid player chose deployment to be short table edges, and the way in which I had to split my forces, things did not favour Khorne at all.

Also the mutilators badly underperformed, and I failed all my charges with two units and a squad of terminators, who were all smited to death by various nasties, but the berzerkers did very well in stripping back his screens. The main problem was the deployment, and I couldn't get to him fast enough, especially because the nid player was running a shooty list and wasn't as aggressive as I had anticipated, so in the end it was a loss for the forces of chaos.

I think next time I will field a Brazen Host army with two battalions: one of Khorne and one of Slaanesh, and I may drop the mutilators in favour of more slaaneshi shooty stuff. Definitely leaving the terminators at home as well, and the land raider was not all that effectual. I think I would keep the berzerkers and the apostle and champion combo, and probably the DP, but I'd drop pretty much everything else and include a large squad of noise marines with sonic blasters, a ten-man havoc squad with 4 lascannons (Endless Cacophony for 8 lascannon shot lols), and some obliterators. It was an interesting list, but the set up screwed me over a bit, and I didn't play as well as I could've done - should have reserved the mutilators and termies for longer.

If I were you, I'd drop the mutilators, defiler and contemptor in exchange for a Brass Scorpion (if you want to be popping 1-2 monsters per turn) or a LoS (if you want to be hosing down hordes). Brass Scorpion is my personal favourite though because it looks so damn good.

As it happens, my defiler is kinda converted to resemble a brass scorpion, so I'm sure if I had a word with my opponent he wouldn't be too opposed to it in the future, as we've done proxying before with no grumbles. I didn't have much of a problem chewing through the hordes with berzerkers, but I just couldn't really reach the big things.