Topic: 400pt Chaos Marines

[Lord of Winter and War]

Going to be playing a 400pt tournament in a few days. Not sure what to bring. The restrictions are

0-1 Hq
0-1 Elites
1-6 Troops
0-1 Fast
0-1 heavy

Armour 13 and above becomes armour 12

Any models with more than 2 wounds (besides troops and swarms) only have two wounds

no mastery level above 1.

Thinking of the following and not sure which to take.

1

Sorcerer
Mark of Slaanesh

Noise Marines
x5, x2 sonic blasters, x1 blast master

Chaos Marines
x5, x1 meltagun
champion with meltabomb

Obliterator

I like this list, due to the obliterator and librarian helping with random psychic stuff and bring me long ranged fire support

2

Chaos Marines
x5, x1 meltagun, champ with Melta bomb
Rhino

Chaos Marines
x5, x1 meltagun, champ with Melta bomb
Rhino

Raptors
x5, x2 meltaguns

Speed, and a lot of meltaguns. Not much in the way of ranged fire support.

3

Chaos Lord
Power Sword, Mark of Slaanesh

Noise Marines
x5, x2 sonic blasters, x1 blast master
Rhino

Helbrute
lascannon and combi-bolter

Lots of fire support and good mobility too. Lord will be only at two wounds, but he could do some work.

What do you guys think? Which list looks like the most interesting, or do you have other ideas?

[Wyddr]

I like the first one, though I'm not crazy about the Sorcerer. A 1-die psychic phase is super random and he's too expensive to be a waste of points in such a small game.

Given the AV cap, I'm not sure why you're focused on so many meltaguns. Is the board likely to be very small? Can you guarantee you'll be starting close? If not, I'd recommend plasma over melta just for its versatility.

I'd avoid an HQ. Take some variation of List 3, but put the points you'd put into an HQ into more models and more guns. Weight of dice can carry the day in such small games.

[Spectral Arbor]

Is it a, what-cha-me-callit, Kill Team? Or is this going to be standard missions? Could you be facing a Knight?

For standard, I'd say that a couple of smallish squads, one in a Rhino [Plasma, personally] with a Hellturkey would be bat-amphetamine parrot crazy.

[Lord of Winter and War]

Standard missions. No unique models, formations or lords of war.

Helldrake would be cool. However, that is a model I don't have lol.

I'm leaning towards the third list as well. Noise Marines with an Ap3 ignores cover blast could be very useful, and a dread could be T5 insurance with his powerfist.

The only thing I was looking at the sorcerer for, was for biomancy (I would need to drop the mark). Smite is a fairly good power for anti-terminator shooting and if I get enfeeble, or Iron Arm, it could be a game changer for winning combats. Getting off a warp-charge 1 power I don't think should be too unreasonable.



I cannot take both noise marines and a helbrute though, as I'm at 0-1 for elites. The lord is just too expensive to be used to unlock the noise marines.

As crazy as it is, I am sort of thinking of the following.

Sorcerer - 65

Chaos Marines - 130
x5, meltagun
rhino

Helbrute lascannon, bolter -130

Obliterator-73

Sorcerer will roll on biomancy. Probably just to cast smite, but if he gets iron arm or enfeeble that's nice too. He can ride around in the rhino, shooting out of the hatch. Obliterator can deep-strike if needed, or just fire plasmacannons or assault cannons from the back line. Helbrute can advance with the rhino, adding some close combat support for the marine squad.

I feel that'll give me the tools to deal with most situations. I am hesitant to take just marines, as I don't know if I'll need heavier weapons or something like that to deal with something.

The noise marine squad is a direct replacement for the helbrute in points. I do love blastmasters, as it could be nice to have in case I run up against ravenwing, or something, but they are very static.

The only special weapons I have modeled on my marines are meltaguns, or else I'd swap them out. :/

If I drop the sorcerer, there is not a lot I can do with those points. I could add in a model or two and a spawn, but the spawn will only have two wounds.

[Wyddr]

Good point about unlocking the Noise Marines. I always forget about that rule.

Biomancy is a good call conventionally, but Smite is only so-so. I find that 1 warp charge doesn't work when needed most, myself. If you're set on taking an HQ, though, the sorcerer is the best bet.

[dog_of_war]

I really like your last list. A note on the possibility of adding your noise marines, I believe you need a full squad of at least ten before you can take a blastmaster. I may be incorrect, as I've had this dispute before, but I interpret the "per ten" to mean you need ten to unlock it.

True, your sorcerer won't do much, but he will be a more durable warlord than your chaos champion and having two characters in that unit will help with your challenge priority, which, as a chaos player, you can't ignore.

[Spectral Arbor]

This may not be points-practical, I'm not that well versed in Chaos Marines, but could you take a Cheap HQ with the Burning Brand of Skalathrax, or whatever it's called?

If so, and if your Tech-Priest-Like-Character could take one, it would be a reasonably cheap way to get a Power Fist / TEQ save out there... with a bad-ass gun.

At low points, an MEQ munching AP with Ignores Cover HQ would be a [possibly] viable alternative to a Helldrake. Just spit-balling here.

[Wyddr]

This may not be points-practical, I'm not that well versed in Chaos Marines, but could you take a Cheap HQ with the Burning Brand of Skalathrax, or whatever it's called?

The Burning Brand pretty much automatically knocks an HQ out of the "cheap" category, especially for a game like this.

If so, and if your Tech-Priest-Like-Character could take one, it would be a reasonably cheap way to get a Power Fist / TEQ save out there... with a bad-ass gun.

The Warpsmith doesn't have a powerfist or its equivalent. Mechadendrites =/= Servo Arms.

The Warpsmith *does* have more attacks and better shooting weapons, in my estimation. He's more expensive than either a bare-bones Lord or Sorcerer, though (if memory serves).

[Spectral Arbor]

Oh, bummer. 

I think the lists are solid. You can be fairly confident of 1-2 infantry squads + 1x Transport + 1x "Other" unit, so covering those bases would be good, which it looks like you're doing. Possible exception being Scatterbike Spam, because that would pretty much be aces given the force restrictions.

I think having something with Ignore Cover / MEQ AP would be important to help counter what I would think of as an "Ideal Army" of bike-like-things as an opposing force. To that end, if Slaaneshi things can do that, I think I'd look down that road for your army. Do Slaaneshi Champions still have a low AP template weapon, or am I just snorting more warp-dust here?