Chaos Space Marines
I've been using this army list quite a bit with, predictably, limited success. The thing is I've thrown this army together with models I just like using, and I generally refuse to touch two of the Ruinous Powers, that is, Slaanesh (because I don't like the daemonette models) and Nurgle (because they're disgustin'). The last 3 games I've had with them can be summarised as follows:
Vs Tau - Capture and Control, Pitched Battle. My Chaos army's first proper (if partially painted) outing. Vindicator and Defiler got blatted in the 2nd turn, but amazingly enough, the bikers picked up the slack, tearing across the board and smashing every Crisis and Broadside suit within reach. Daemon Prince turned up in turn 4, but was shredded my massed pulse rifle fire before he could do anything. The game ended as a draw.
Vs Mechanized Imperial Guard - Capture and Control, Dawn of War. Vindicator made itself useful, blowing up a Leman Russ Executioner with it's first shot. The bikers, however, were wiped out by the obscene firepower of Knight Commander Pask leading a squadron of 2 heavily kitted-out Leman Russ Exterminators. That squadron proceed to shred anything Pask laid his eyes on with near impunity, including the Daemon Prince, who failed EVERY reserve roll by 1 pip, then turned up on turn 5 to get obliterated by Pask. The game ended on Turn 5 as a draw, though I could quite easily have been wiped off the table during turn 6. I had one squad of Chaos Marines left on the board and nothing else, he had more than half his army.
Vs Blood Angels - Capture and Control, Dawn of War. Played against a list with 2 death star units each riding in a Stormraven, Assault Terminators in one, Death Company and a Furioso Dreadnought in the other. The Furioso Dread stomped around with Blood Talons, wiping out both my units of Chaos Space Marines, the Sanguinor killed all my Khorne Berzerkers. Oh, and for the first time in 4 games, the Chaos Biker Lord stabbed himself with his daemon weapon. He was obviously making up for lost time, because he did so twice. Game ended with the total annihilation of my army on Turn 6.
What have I learnt from this? Not much that I wasn't previously aware of, truth be told. I know my unit of Bikers is the same as throwing 500pts into, at best, a liability, or at worst, a hole. I'd like to keep them, but man, at 33pts each, they are horrifically overcosted. I'll be putting the Chaos aside for a while to work on the Angels, but I'm well aware that if I want to win games, the bikers simply have to go. On the upside, I've now got a perfectly reasonable 1250pt list. Maybe the next time the Chaos Marine codex is updated, eh?
Blood Angels
I tried using a Descent of Angels list for the first time today, albeit a teeny tiny one, at 750pts:
750pts of DoA army really doesn't look like much...HQ
Librarian with Jump pack, meltabombs, Shield of Sanguinius and Unleash Rage, 130 pts
Elites
2 Sanguinary Priests with jump packs, 150pts
Troops
2 10-man squads of Assault Marines, each with 2 meltaguns and a powerfist for the Sgt, 470pts
750pts on the nose, 100% WYSIWYG and mostly painted. :-)
I played them against Tau, Capture and Control, Dawn of War. Just played today, so I remember taking on a Shas'O with 2 shield drones, a squad of 3 Crisis Suits with twin-linked Missile Pods, 2 squads of 10 Firewarriors and 8 Pathfinders with their Devilfish.
I kept things simple, this being a small engagement on a small (3' x 4') board, with one priest attached to each 10-man squad and the Librarian attached to one of these identical squads. The whole army was in reserve, and I intended to drop in, maul anything on his objective then, if necessary, hop away back to my objective. What actually happened was:
Turn 1 - The Tau started first and shuffled onto the board and that was it.
Turn 2 - The Tau Crisis suits scooched closer to my objective, the Pathfinders, 1 squad of Firewarriors and the Shas'O camped around theirs. The Angels did not arrive.
Turn 3 - More Tau shufflin' about, the Tau not parked on their objective plod closer to mine. The Assault Marines without the Librarian arrive, shoot the Devilfish in the rear and immobilize it.
Turn 4 - The Pathfinders put 5 markerlights on the Assault Marines and the rest of the Tau army proceed to maul it with everything they have. The thing is, without any Railguns, Fusion Blasters or Plasmarifles, 750pts worth of Tau firepower inflicted only 4 casualties on the marines. The Librarian's squad arrived, then the first squad multi-charged the pathfinders and a squad of Firewarriors, wiping out the Pathfinders and grinding away some Firewarriors.
Turn 5 - The Tau shoot the Librarian's squad, killing 1. After my assault phase, in which the Librarian's squad multicharged the Shas'O and the remaining Firewarrior squad, we decided to call it a day, as the only Tau units left were a wounded Shas'O and 2 Firewarriors, both locked in combat, 3 Crisis Suits and the Devilfish.
This was quite an education as to the sheer staying power granted by Feel No Pain. That having been said, the Tau army didn't have a single weapon to negate FNP, so that can't have been fun for my opponent...
Anyway, no really deep thoughts for now. No time, there's work that needs doing. Maybe later...
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