[StormBringer328]

Not sure if this is the right place for this, but I'm going to share anyway. After a long hiatus from gaming I started playing 40k again, focusing on CSM. Most of my games were Nurgle centeric and I lost repeatedly against my main gaming buddy. I think I've played about 8 games now, the last 2 with the new Khorne Daemonkin. The first game was just to feel the new book out, but today's game I put all I had into it and WON! Lol. I don't mind losing if it's fun, but to finally win - and to win in such a landslide - is an amazing feeling!

I took a Juggerlord with 5 spawn, squad of possessed in rhino, 8 zerkers in rhino, 10 csm with ccw + bp + 2 meltaguns, 8 cultists 2 aquads of 3 bikers w/ 2 melta each, and 5 fleshhounds. About 1500 pts.

Buddy had a platoon of 40+ guadsmen w/ priest, 2 command squads, and more (not sure of everything).

Bikes, hounds, and cultists died quickly, but blood points are nice so no worries. Split the platoon in half with juggerlord and spawn, csm squad on the left hand side, and zerkers on the right. CSM champ became a thirster, but he took so many hits so soon he didn't do much but keep fire off everyone else for few turns - and it was perfect. Hilarious when he died to a few guardsmen bayonets on his last wound.

Anyway, it was fantastic! Got slay the warlord, linebreaker, and a few objective grabbing vp's. Used most BT points for summoning 2 squad of bloodletters throughout to tie things up. Most blood points went to army wide FNP. So yeah, super happy over my awesome win - my first against his guard! Wooohoo! Many skulls for the skull throne tonight!

 

[Kreuger]

Interesting.

I haven't really been thinking about what a balance tool the blood points represent. Or I should say, I was under valuing them.

I think it's fascinating that in a shooting focused edition, there is now a mechanic to add additional units to the battle. Also interesting is that there can be diminishing returns, as more things die there are fewer potential blood points to earn. But if you summon units they can also earn more blood points by dying or killing.

 

[Mossy Toes]

I haven't really been thinking about what a balance tool the blood points represent. Or I should say, I was under valuing them.

I think it's fascinating that in a shooting focused edition, there is now a mechanic to add additional units to the battle. Also interesting is that there can be diminishing returns, as more things die there are fewer potential blood points to earn. But if you summon units they can also earn more blood points by dying or killing.

It really is an interesting dynamic: you're actively throwing scraps of squads into combat in an effort to kill them off. Oh, just the biker champion left in that squad? Well, he can soak up Overwatch from that big enemy blob so that your Flesh Hounds get in untouched, and if he survives, he can issue a challenge for the shot at yet another Blood Tithe point--two if he gets killed in that challenge!

It's really a different dynamic, where rather than attempting to tarpit with scraps and the like, or running and hiding on an objective, you are actively dashing your units on enemy rocks that can crush them... while your new summoned unit goes and gets that Maelstrom objective card you needed instead. And your Slaughter Cult gets free FNP after you summon that squad, to boot.

The ability to redeploy your army at a whim, bringing in fresh units to threaten backfield objectives or contest/claim important objectives, and getting these semi-regular summonings off, it A+. It's a really clean execution of a very Khornate mechanic that gets players thinking in a very, very bloodthirsty way: it actively affirms the truth that Khorne cares not whence the blood flows, only that it does. You don't replace all of your losses, but you do have a constant influx of fresh, cheap units, and all of your units have great charge bonuses. If you have a very MSU list, then enemies often have assaulted one of your small units (perhaps wiping it out), then you pile in with three-odd small units whose assault bonuses really stack up: say, a squad of 3 bikers with Hammer of Wrath with Shred then also Rage, and a squad of 5 Flesh Hounds with Hammer of Wrath and Furious Charge, and a squad of Possessed with Furious Charge and Rage. That is a serious amount of pain just from raw additive stacking of what boils down to the occasional +1A and +1S here and there. It makes me appreciate the value, too, of the 2 Blood Tithe reward bonus: +2A at S5 per model assaulting, no matter if Daemon/marked? That will chop right through anybody you need it to!

Speaking of assaulting with lots of mobile small units: I am a firm proponent of Daemonkin as a highly mobile MSUspam army build--always at least one Gorepack, basically--which means I only want to play it on Maelstrom missions, since 1/3 of the time, I would lose Eternal War missions in the "roll to select mission" step: when The Scouring or Purge the Alien mission is rolled, given how many Fast Attack choices and kill points I'm bringing. Fortunately, having a deck of Daemonkin datacards means that I can hand off my old standard-rulebook set of datacards to anyone who lacks such a set, which is usually the stumbling block that sets me playing Eternal War in my games.

Fearless Daemons not having to worry about Instability and making even MSU squad sizes pretty hard to shift, locking up enemy units, is also stellar.

I'm actually impressed as to how well it all works together, from my limited playtesting and observations thus far. It's pretty gratifying, honestly: I haven't had a positive opinion about Khorne, apart from Kharn, for going on two editions since Berzerkers lost their bonus attack in favor of Rage. But now we can Blood Tithe them that +1A, along with free Furious Charge on top of their Rage since they're part of the Slaughter Cult, so each Berzerker gets 5 S5 WS5 attacks. Not bad, not at all bad for a Slaughter Cult tax core unit.

Disposability, interchangeable solid melee threats. Meltas wherever able to take out tanks. High mobility, reinforcements every turn or two wherever they're most needed. The Blood Cult (and its nested Slaughter Cult, and its optional formations) are great fun. Free Bloodreapers on your summoned Bloodletters means more Blood Tithe points from challenges, or enemy characters sitting out kicking dirt.

My real concern is that the mechanic of Blood Tithe points is scoped pretty solidly for a certain size of game that won't scale above 2000 points or below 1000 too well. More playtesting to do!

 

[StormBringer328]

Wow, dude - that was a great write up and I couldn't disagree with your assessment. My first game was at 1000 pts and I had a little trouble with it (also my first game for feeling them out), but the second battle was at 1850 and went much more smoothly - also the first game I won ever playing with CSM since back in the day.

I will be facing the same buddy again soon but he'll be bring many tanks this time and I'm not sure what I'll do to counter yet. I don't have any Maulerfiends yet, but I did finish a soulgrinder and will be using my old brass scorpion as one as well. Thinking of trying a Helbrute Mayhem Pack out with it as well, though no Blood Tithe points there.

Also want to try Raptors out soon.

 

[Mossy Toes]

I will be facing the same buddy again soon but he'll be bring many tanks this time and I'm not sure what I'll do to counter yet. I don't have any Maulerfiends yet, but I did finish a soulgrinder and will be using my old brass scorpion as one as well.

Well, you could pack in some meltagunner bikers in a Gorepack and 4 more melta on CSM squads of 10 in rhinos, or some such, if you have the minis. If they're non-walker vehicles, the Gorepack would also be helpful for getting Flesh Hounds in for early assaults in for lots of S5 hits against rear armor 10 or so.