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.

So I've got 4 Chaos Space Marine Bikers and i'm reading the rules on them and if i understand correctly...

I can use my mounted weapons, like the twin linked bolters and plasma/meltaguns, etc. AND use the bolt pistols or whatever the drivers themselves are armed with in the same turn?

And on a side note, i'm told pretty much the top 3 military units in the game are the bloodthirster, avatar, and nightbringer. being a chaos player with a thirster myself... i'm kinda wondering if there's a single "top" unit among those, pretty much which one is best. im no expert, but i'd say the bloodthirster is better than avatar, but nightbringer and thirster... i dunno about those

No model may fire more than one weapon unless their rules specifically say they can, regardless of how many weapons they carry.

CSM bikers have no such exemption so they may only fire one of their weapons per shooting phase (note: a twin-linked weapon counts a a single weapon to fire).


The three units you describe excel in close combat. However, they have vastly different points costs that represent multiple different factors, including CC ability. Out of those 3 if you just put them against each other in CC, the Blood Thirster would win, but his points cost represents that (especially considering you have to pay extra points for a body to summon him into).

Tsk, yak, you're so seldom wrong, it's a shock to see it

Anyway, a Nightbringer will eat a Bloodthirster for breakfast -- of course, the Nightbringer runs 100 points more, even factoring in the Aspiring Champion that has to be sacrificed. It takes the Bloodthirster 8 rounds of combat (7 if he gets the charge) to kill a Nightbringer, while the Nightbringer will kill the thirster in two rounds either way.

Now, among Chaos HQ choices, the Bloodthirster isn't even the most choppy -- it's pretty easy to make a Chaos Lord that will kill more of pretty much any target for less points, but it will have a worse (or none at all) invulnerable save, a lower 'real' toughness, and not be summoned like a Bloodthirster. I'm not sure it's possible to make a Chaos Lord that can reliably kill a Nightbringer, but now I have to try...

If you want to kill the nightbringer, all you need is a dreadax, tons of attacks, and a good inititive.

Posted By cuda1179 on 06/24/2006 2:24 PM
If you want to kill the nightbringer, all you need is a dreadax, tons of attacks, and a good inititive.

Now, please explain how to get enough attacks with the Dreadaxe to kill it before it kills you...

saint celestine is better, no matter how much you kill her she just keeps  coming back LOL

Best unit to kill Nightbringer: Plague marines. 3 attacks on the charge, always wound on a 4+. Who cases that he kills them easily, they should do enough wounds that even with his 4+ save, he's falling to 14 of the buggers.

That or ratlings.

I've seen a khorne lord take down nightbringer in 1 turn. Mark, mutation, dread axe, extra weapon, rage of khorne and spiky bitz. Not easy, but satisfying.


As for the bikes, you get a stable firing platform so you can rapid-fire and charge with the bike weapons, can switch out bolters for a plasma or meltagun or two, and extra attacks. The bike is great.

Plaguebearers, you mean?

Both those and Daemonettes can hurt a Nightbringer pretty effectively.

As for the lord, technically anything with at least S5 and 6 attacks can kill a Nightbringer in one turn, but the odds of it happening get vanishingly small quite quickly

You can't really have a lord that will reliabily kill a Nightbringer before dying itself, but the best shots appear to be a Nurgle-marked lord with a Plage Sword hoping for the full kill (and has about a 29% chance of delivering it before the Nightbringer swings back, if fully loaded), or a Tzeentch-marked lord hoping to stunlock it with a Bedlam Staff.

Really, though, the best thing you can do with your lord is mangle a ton of other Necrons as to cause a Phase Out, as the Nightbringer is a nice chunk of points that isn't contributing to the army's Necron count and can be effectively avoided as it only moves 6".

Yep, plague bearers. Sorry.

I phased out a Necron army turn 3 thanks to a nightbringer and monolith watching the fun as 2 units of bloodletters, a bloodthirster and 2 units of berzerkers hit. 2 Necrons left after that round of combat. Poof. I was wondering why he had them in 1500pts and he was angry I had more power weapons than he had models...

saint celestine is better, no matter how much you kill her she just keeps coming back LOL

Unless she dies in b2b with a C'Tan; no coming back from that IIRC

As for the lord, technically anything with at least S5 and 6 attacks can kill a Nightbringer in one turn, but the odds of it happening get vanishingly small quite quickly

What he said is the truth, I once had 13 Termagaunts with strength 5 fleshborers take down the C'tan. Yay 13 shots with re rells to wound