[Malaconia]

This is my first attempt to modify my 6th edition army to 7th edition standards. I haven’t even had a chance to read through the entire 7th edition rulebook yet, but various blogs have given me an idea of what’s changed. Unbound is out of the question, no one I know wants to play that way, but other than that I have no limitations on what I can or can’t use. This army is very similar to the one that I played in 6th, namely plenty of infiltration and shrouded. Only notable difference is that I’ve decided to give my Thousand Sons (who have been gathering dust for nearly a decade) a chance. As always any critique is welcome.


Primary detachment 1: Crimson Slaughter supplement.

HQ
Ahriman [Warlord]
230pts

Chaos Sorcerer
Balestar (Divination) & Mastery lvl 3
135pts

TROOPS
5 Thousand Sons
1 Rhino
Dirge Caster
190pts

5 Thousand Sons
1 Rhino
Dirge Caster
190pts

Primary detachment 2: Black Legion supplement

HQ

Be’Lakor
350pts

TROOPS
10 Chosen
5xPlasma gun, 5xBolter, VotLW
275pts

20 Cultists
18xAutopistols, 2xFlamers
100pts


Cypher Formation


Cypher
190pts

5 Chosen
5xPlasma gun, Infiltrate
165pts

5 Chosen
5xPlasma gun, Infiltrate
165pts

5 Chosen
5xPlasma gun, Infiltrate
165pts

Helbrute Mayhem Pack Formation

1 Helbrute
1xMulti-melta, 1xHeavy Flamer, 1xPower fist, It will not die & Deep strike
115pts

1 Helbrute
1xMulti-melta, 1xHeavy Flamer, 1xPower fist, It will not die & Deep strike
115pts

1 Helbrute
1xMulti-melta, 1xHeavy Flamer, 1xPower fist, It will not die & Deep strike
115pts

Ahriman gives himself the 1st. infiltrate and joins the cultists. They infiltrate to the midfield, where Ahriman’s psychic shrieks can cause the most havoc. Other than that, I’ll probably focus on biomancy as well, plenty of good powers there.

Cypher joins the troop chosen and infiltrates as well. Shrouded and Hit&Run should help them stay alive and shooting.

2nd.infiltrate (if I get one) is given to Chaos Sorcerer, he most likely joins Cypher & chosen and focuses solely on divination powers in order to support all the infiltrating plasma chosen.

Army has 13-18 warp charges and access to biomancy, divination and telepathy + guaranteed invisibility. Plenty of shrouded and almost everyone infiltrates or deep strikes. 20 plasma guns can begin the game close to enemy & Ahriman alone can wipe out whole squads, if he doesn’t kill himself first, that is. Be’lakor & Ahriman can both be CC threats as well, thanks to improved Iron Arm, Endurance & Invisibility. Army includes four squads with objective secured rule, which is better than nothing I suppose. So could this army work in 7th edition environment and have I missed some rules changes that could affect the playability of this army?

 

[Partybear]

Hey,
Sounds like a really fun army to play! I like the theme and play style. Regarding the list I would think you will demolish marines lists but might struggle vs Hordes or Tank lists.
Assuming you will deep strike your hell brutes, they contain your only reliable anti armour weapons and your only reliable anti horde weapons.
I would maybe consider swapping a few plasma for melta or flamer on the chosen squads to give you more variety. Also considering AA you have none, only snapshots, not end of the world but could cost you dearly.

 

[Malaconia]

You have a point. Lack of anti-tank and anti-horde is one of my main concerns. How to kit my chosen though, that I don’t know. If I make one squad of three meltas and a couple of flamers I fear it still isn’t enough and it’s an easy target to prioritise if opponents are afraid of their tanks. If I take two such squads, it could work, but then I have significantly less plasma and there are a few reasons why I favour plasma over melta and flamer, three reasons to be precise.

First I feel plasma is kind of a jack of all trades. It can handle 2+ saves, MC’s and Light vehicles/transports, all of which I face frequently. Melta & flamers are more specialized and five of either in a squad is overkill and the mixture of the two, while no doubt works, is something I am not a fan of. I dislike mixing weapons in squads. But I’ll definitely consider that.

Secondly and more importantly I prefer the range of plasma guns. With infiltrate they are a threat right away. Melta and flamer squads may need to footslog towards enemies and it’s a trek not many marines will survive. Of course plasma chosen die just as easily if not more so, considering they tend to kill themselves.

But all this brings me to the third reason and the hardest one to pass; redundancy & distraction. To many armies plasma chosen are a threat right away and if they are shooting at them, they aren’t shooting at my psykers and vice versa. My army I feel is the type that needs to hit fast & hard if it’s to survive. It can’t handle attrition well, since every dead plasma chosen or psyker weakens it significantly.

Having said all this I still think the army needs more ways to deal with armor and hordes, so I’ll probably drop one of the Cypher’s chosen. That will free up 165pts, but what to buy with it?

Heldrake is not something I want, I greatly dislike the model and I survived through 6th edition without it, so I am not getting one now especially since it’s gotten weaker than before.

But I might get a triple-las predator and maybe replace the rhinos’ dirge casters with warpflame gargoyles and give them havoc launchers. That way they could hold objectives AND shoot at things. Or, perhaps a couple of Tzeentchian Obliterators are what this army needs. I’ll need to think about it. Anyways, thanks for the reply. I do try to make this army as close to “take all comers” as possible, it just isn’t that easy these days with all the army variations out there.

 

[neferhet]

I do agree that you lack anti tank. Dropping those cypher chosen can make you room for 2 tzeentch oblits. that would be good. Then, i think you do have enough anti horde. you have some flamers, some heavy flamers, lots of blter shots, lots of psy shrieks...mind you that a couple of enemy fliers can bash your butt!!

 

[Mossy Toes]

Want anti-tank, apart from your Mayhem Pack & Be'lakor? Throw on some meltabombs on champs then, I say, if you don't want to sacrifice plasma.

Thousand Sons... I can see you wanting to give them a chance, but I dunno, really. They don't do anything your plasma Chosen don't do markedly better. I'd rather have, say, Plague Marines (plague knives and blight grenades and FNP and T5!) or Noise Marines (Blastmaster in a naked squad for 125 points!) in those troops slots. Dropping the 1ksons would also let you drop Ahriman and fold Be'lakor into the CS detachment--no need for the BL one, and those Chosen get Draznicht's to reroll Gets Hot 1s.

...less Infiltrate and Warp Charge though, yeah.

A good way to fill gaps in special weapons choices cheaply, I find, is to nab a 3-man squad of Bikers with 2 special weapons. 80-100 points, only, and has the mobility to zip into place for a MSU suicide strike. Flamers into perfect position for anti-horde, melta-cide for AT, whatever. Grab a couple units of them and let rip. Still fragile, mind, but if your opponent is shooting at them, they're not shooting at your 5-man super-plasma Chosen Fallen squads.

 

[Malaconia]

Again, thanks for all the replies. So many options. I take it from your comments that the base of the army isn’t totally terrible though? If so, I guess I’ll just have to test it and tweak it with various options that were suggested. A while ago I decided that I wouldn’t use obliterators until they get better models. If the rumours are true that they are coming, I’ll add some to the army when that happens. Until then, I think I’ll just plug the holes in the army list with small biker squads, I have plenty of those.

Also I am not ready to give up with the Thousand Sons just yet, not until I’ve tested them. Still, to be honest, I have my reservations about them too, despite the fact that they have improved slightly. Sure the option to throw doombolts at different targets than the bolters is nice as is guaranteed primaris (if it’s worth counting), but then again it is still possible to end up having just the primaris and the boon of mutation, which would suck. Also, they are still overcosted. The thing is, though, I’ve used small blastmaster squads as the go-to troop choice for quite a while now. They are good, no doubt about that. But I want to try out new things. I’ll go back to worshipping Slaanesh once Tzeentch has failed me again.

Ahriman is the same as the rest of the Thousand Sons, meaning, I have reservations about him as well. He is better, but without a spell familiar I don’t know what he is going to do to himself once he starts casting. I love the model though and the fluff.

Then there is the Draznicht's ravagers. I actually had them as the Chosen squad that Cypher joins at one point. Until I remembered that Be’lakor takes a HQ slot (I tend to forget that for some reason) and had to change them to troop chosen from Black Legion, because I needed a second troop. I take it that Crimson Slaughter, Black Legion and regular CSM all count as the same faction, thus preventing me from taking an ally detachment from them (which would only require one mandatory troop choice). Anyways, Draznicht’s chosen are good and I may need to make room for them after all.

I guess that leaves me with the last weakness of anti-air. I think I’ll just ignore the problem and hope that it goes away... But seriously, at the moment I don’t expect to face flyer heavy armies. If it becomes a problem, I think I’ll look to allies. Since all allies can hold objectives now they’ve become more viable I think.