<![CDATA[Latest posts for the thread "2000pt Night Lords"]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/14.page JForum - http://www.jforum.net 2000pt Night Lords
Here is a battle Report, for those who like visual aids, of the original form it took, though below the link will be the updated and much changed list:
Night Lords...Attack!

It was a challenge to see if the Chaos Codex can be made into an Assault based army in 6E and win consistently. For someone like me, who loves a good challenge, this has been great fun to try and develop. I;ve kind of done it slowly by starting off with everything that would help such an army, and then stripping off the underperforming stuff as I got to see it in action. Certain battlefield realities just can't be seen on paper alone. Here's where the list is at.


14 Khornate Raptors (Icon of Wrath, 2 Meltaguns, Gift of Mutation+Sword+Meltabomb on Champion)

14 Nurgle Raptors (2 Meltaguns, Gift of Mutation+Sword+Meltabomb on Champion)

Heldrake (BaleFlamer)

3 Rhinos (Dirge Casters)

Chaos LandRaider (Dozer, Dirge Caster)

Defiler (Dirge Caster, BattleCannon, TL Heavy Flamer, TL Havoc Launcher, TL AutoCannon)

1 Nurgle Obliterator

1 Nurgle Mutilator

1 Nurgle Mutilator

Sorcerer (Psychic Shriek most of the time, Gift of Mutation)

3 units of 5 Chaos Marines

1 unit of 5 Chaos Marines (Flamer)

Takes about 200 shots from Bolters to kill a Nurgle Raptor unit...in theory.
]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/574125/6449565.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/574125/6449565.page GMT Re:2000pt Night Lords My other chaos marines who are not berzerkers I am painting up as Night Lords as well as I like the fluff on them so much. The battle reports and draft picks and cuts from the army are a great way to evolve and learn with the army, big fan! I like ur big units of raptors especially as I want to use units like this just dont want to dish the money and them not work so well! What about warp talons of Khorne instead or do the meltaguns make a significant difference? Just wondering before i start assembling any myself and they be a waste compared to well used raptors... ]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/574125/6449659.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/574125/6449659.page GMT 2000pt Night Lords
So here is my answer on the Warp Talons:
Warp Talon coolness

As for the Meltas, you need them since the Raptors can do little when the Raptors land from Deep Strike; and of course you may note that the two lascannons on the Land Raider and the Defiler are really the only anti-tank I have at any range. Most of the tanks of the enemy will still be around when my Raptors arrive. best to assume there will be enough armor that needs cracking and we all know what Raptors can do once they pop the hard shell and get to the gooey insides.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/574125/6450717.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/574125/6450717.page GMT 2000pt Night Lords http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/574125/6464057.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/574125/6464057.page GMT 2000pt Night Lords HQ's as the only actual nightlords in the army I honestly dont see the threat in this list and would hate to play with it in a kill point game with our single model units and metal boxes]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/574125/6464093.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/574125/6464093.page GMT 2000pt Night Lords
The Chief difficulty of that matchup is the obvious fusilade those tanks throw off which is in its totality quite impressive. The Holofields and Jenk Save combination is of course very difficult to overcome IN THE TIME YOU HAVE TO DO SO. Ironically melee is the best tool to use against them. thus the pincer approach,

The bonus to the matchup is that the tanks on their own aren't enough to handle me and so normal units must disembark and participate, exposing them. The units generally get used as expendable shields for me to blunt my attack on. When enough of my forces get there, its a speed bump if they roll average. no amount of Generalship will allow you to overcome above average Rends and that is a risk you must run.

I have learned that it is better to charge the tanks instead of the troops whenever thats possible. Even though you know you can beat them up... You know that after you kill the tanks too. Better to silence them with weapons that CAN (kill tanks), sicne the rest of the army is equipped to kill peoples just fine. But the army doesn't posess enough long range anti-tank to level those Wave Serpents. Maybe given time, they could. But time is a luxury you dont have as an assault army so you have to hit fast, often and hard at the core strength of Mechdar: tanks. Everything else falls into place.

The list is morphing. I am exploring an option from Black Legion to strengthen my forces against Mechdar and also the silliness of things like Fortress's of Redemption. So the list isn't totally finalized.

As you'd expect, making a melee army work in REALITY is not as simple as it is on paper. It needs testing against nasty armies and i am definitely feeding it to good armies right now to make sure its solid.

]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/574125/6496789.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/574125/6496789.page GMT 2000pt Night Lords http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/574125/6497187.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/574125/6497187.page GMT 2000pt Night Lords
By making the switch, you get a tiny bit more firepower from the added Black Legion Obliterator, because a 12" MOVING Land Raider does less damage than a moving obliterator. The change also gives you the devastating Eye of Night with a Chaos lord to carry it (He's BS 5). This is also not nothing.

The loss of a 4th forward foraging Dirge Caster on an AV 14 Chaos Land Raider is going to hurt a little as is the radius of one on a Chaos Land Raider. However the tank and fortification killing power that the Eye of Night represents can likely make up for a lot of the Land Raiders firepower when it successfully lands.

The Pincer movement approach forces enemy tanks and units to the middle so that the Eye of night can be as effective as possible.
]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/574125/6499048.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/574125/6499048.page GMT 2000pt Night Lords http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/574125/6500622.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/574125/6500622.page GMT 2000pt Night Lords
 ManSandwich wrote:
Yeah I dunno. It doesn't look that threatening to me. About the only thing I could really see making me pause is the 28 man Raptor blob. The rest of the list looks like it would be really easy to break up piece by piece. The Land Raider might be more threatening if it had something scarier inside of it, but as is it's just a 250 point predator with a crappy weapon configuration. I'd swap that out for two Vindicators, personally. I'd also swap the Defiler out, 200 points for something with AV12 on the front is just asking to get popped turn 1 by a lascannon pot shot. Finally I'd get rid of the Mutilators and instead take a full squad of Obliterators, if for no other reason than to take SOME dedicated fire support.


I beat another Mechdar player last night AFTER Deep striking the Khorne Raptors completely off the table in a Big Guns Never Tire mission. D'oh. Hell of a fun battle. Played from behind the whole battle and won 10-6 in the end

The battle plan is something like this:

Round 1:
Deployed: 3 Rhinos, 1 LandRaider start at center. 5 Chaos marines with Flamer and the Sorcerer in the Chaos Land Raider. 7 units on the board for sure

Optionally deployed: Defiler, Obliterator, 2 Raptor units

Almost always Reserves: 3 Chaos Marine units, Heldrake, 2 Mutilators

If we have night Fight the army can advance WITH its Raptors into terrain and take cover mid board in preparation for the storm. If there is a definite objective the Raptors have to go get because its too far for the rest of the army, then they will of course Deep strike. My experience with the army THUS far is that overall, deep striking is not the preferred method, but it is a vital tool depending on terrain and objective placement. I have also found ti to be exceptionally dangerous and have lost Raptor squads many times so far (which has not stopped me from winning in all cases, and in fact most cases). Is the risk worth it? Make damn sure.

The Defiler is a judgement call. A lot of times it will start on the board just because I know it draws fire from the Land Raider and its precious, enormous, Dirge Caster radius. However, if the enemy is going to go drop heavy, I'd have the option of fielding the Mutilators to protect against it (in other words, have them ready to tie up or kill anything that tries this, successful or not and make them think twice about trying) or just take my chances and continue to press the enemy. After all, drop units still have to get close enough with meltas, still have to hit and penetrate; and then I still have to fail saves and so on. it isn't a given they will succeed. Sometimes you just accept a loss and move on. Plus if they fail to KILL that Defiler, they are in for a very bad day. the Defiler is no slouch. it can torrent and then cut apart almost any unit that tries and fails to kill it from close range. So the enemy is taking a risk there. A worthwhile risk? Maybe. Thats for him to decide.

Long range fire is a reality. I cant do anything about that any more than a Vindicator could. Vindicators dont have range and their side arcs get easily exposed. Im not sold that they would be more survivable and even just a shaken or stunned result is enough to defang those. They would not be able to do what the Defiler can do in combat. Vindicators are not a bad idea but I don't see the enemy feeling too threatened by a weapon they can just back away from and kill at leasure as it grows closer and side arcs become more exposed.

Part of the weakness of melee armies is the enemy freedom to simply move away. that is why I find the Mutilators (or as i call them my Nurgle Droppings) and Obliterators in conjunction with the Raptors and fast moving vehicles a very effective combination. They steal the enemy ability to just move away from me. They quickly learn that there's nowhere to run. Best that they entrench, take their shots and pray to whatever entity they think gives them the best chance of mercy, because that mercy will not be forthcoming from me. =)

The Black Legion inclusion actually does a couple things: One, it handles the one thing I struggle against (thus far) and two, it also gives me access to the Black Legion Codex missions. If you aren't aware, the Black Legion codex allows you to roll off and the winner gets to choose whether we play the Alter of War or the Eternal War missions. One of the missions for Alter of War is udeal for a Night Lords force like mine, called Speartip Attack. I had previously not considered the impact of having access to those missions but the more I read the more I liked my chances with the cool missions in that book.

I am looking forward to seeing how that pans out. Should be a fun experiment.

]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/574125/6501752.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/574125/6501752.page GMT 2000pt Night Lords
Night lords battle Report again!

This time we incorporated the Black Legion as allies.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/574125/6519290.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/574125/6519290.page GMT 2000pt Night Lords
I followed that up yesterday by tabling an Eldar player that used the WraithKnight. In this battle we used the Alter of War mission "Kill them All". I cover what that mission is in my blog, if you dont have the Black Legion book.

The Alter of War mission REQUIRES the Black legion to table the opponent or lose. The enemy can reserve half his army to make that real hard to do in the time you have, but I managed it.

I will warn you: my opponent, even though he almost won (his last 3 jetbikes tried to hide in the final round for the win but there just wasnt enough luck for him in the dice), exploded in fury and decried that he was "forced" to roll for an Alter of War mission "against his will" much in the same way people are forced to face Mephiston against their will (both are rulez mang). I suppose had he not been tabled, he might have been less bombastic.

So the list is really humming now. It really does take some time to adjust to a melee oriented force since that isn't what I've played a lot of in 9 years of playing the game. Ive been a Tau player since day 1, so it's a switch. But I am liking the fact that it can take on the Eldar. I am cursed not to have gotten as many games in against other forces. I've played against IG/Blood Angels, Space Wolves, Tau and Eldar or Mechdar QUITE a bit. I playerd against new Tyranids which was a nice changeup. Hoping to get more games in against the Tyranids. Good and fair matchup against them pretty much. Fist against claw]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/574125/6538378.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/574125/6538378.page GMT