Reap the Whirlwind

This is Stelek's latest Chaos Space Marine list using the failtastic 4th Edition Codex. His comments are below along with my own thoughts in the usual purple italics...

Howdy,

Here we go, first up--Chaos Space Marines.

Outdated, outmoded, and sad panda faces all around.

Right? Wrong. Wrong?

Chaos has a few gems within it's dessicated husk still, you just have to discover them. ;)

Now does it need to be revolutionary? No, it need only be evolutionary.

What are some of the main issues Chaos has?

Well, they lack fire support.

Troops that fail for various reasons.

Having to sacrifice troops to destroy Rhinos. The joys of not enough mid- and long-range fire power. Even Orks have better mid- and long-range fire power...

Lack of anti-infantry or anti-tank at range. I r smrt... I typed the above without reading that.

Decent CC units they can throw away but hide until it's time to send them out.

So, good armies have lots of heavy fire support, sufficient melta (or something similar), enough anti-infantry in shooting and assault phases...and often as not, lots of vehicles.

So let's talk turkey. Let's talk about the title of the army. After the list.

2000 Pts - Chaos Marines Roster - Reap the Whirlwind

Notes: Here we go. ;)

There are also two Cavalry, while more expensive than I'd like and vulnerable to heavy weapons fire despite how Chaos SHOULD be--their entire role is to draw fire, just like Demon Princes do. Unlike Demon Princes, they can hide when needed. For the curious I plan on collecting this army with the focus on a Slaanesh cult with the Black Legion and Iron Warriors as support. So the two 'Lords' would use these for 'legs' with the appropriate torso. An alternative to the boobies would be use the lower portion of Raveners which would work out cheaper.

With the numerous other targets to deal with, your low number of troops is backed up by 3 melta units, 3 preds that can pop tanks or fire at infantry, and you have a lot of blast templates. The Chosen and Predators would be Iron Warriors and Black Legion...

Thirteen blast templates of them. 4 are dedicated to killing infantry, the Rhino Havocs for the NM. Think of them as mini-whirlwinds.

The Predators are primarily anti-tank, but when you face infantry...at least they can put down a S5 blast too. Since I plan on having Iron Warriors I will also convert some Obliterators from Terminators for those days I wanna be SUPER CHEESY and run the Dual Lash and Obliterators combo.

The Sorcerors should sit with the Noise Marines, and then advance to join the single Chosen unit without a Rhino, which should be infiltrated forward. That single squad would be the Black Legion portion.

Why? To distract people. And give them a springboard forward for your 2nd turn, anyone sitting in midfield won't like dual Warptime Sorceror Cavalry waiting to pounce. Don't forget to use Warptime every single turn you are even remotely in CC range. Nobody likes 6 WS5 S4 I6 attacks with re-rolls to hit and to wound. 5 when not charging.

The infiltrated Chosen unit is designed to give you a melta attack wherever you tank shock it.

The others are designed to either infiltrate forward, or outflank. Personally I'd just infiltrate them unless someone has deployed really poorly and is vulnerable to an outflank. Assuming you infiltrate them, park their empty Rhinos in the back. You can always mount them up if you want and drive them forward instead, but once the Sorcerors arrive only dedicated CC units are going to step forward to say hello to your Chosen. Vehicles and infantry aren't safe around them, and with good CC units backing them up you can push non-troops into midfield and use your range to your advantage. If you face a infantry horde, you should probably mount the 2 Chosen units so you can run up and flame the shit out of somebody. ;)

Again, mini-whirlwinds is the key here. Having 6 of them, which also gives you tank shock, movement blocking, and Predator/Sorceror screening capability, is a good thing.

The Noise Marines will probably start the game disembarked and firing at enemy transports, but they can start in their Rhinos if you want.

What this army has is plenty of melta, plenty of anti-tank and anti-infantry fire, lots of vehicles, and a much stronger mid-to-late game than Chaos normally has.

Deny area with the Chosen. Bombard the enemy with templates and direct fire.

It's not a huge amount of firepower on the face of it, but what you do have is very survivable--those Predators should always have cover, generally 3+. The Noise Marines too, giving you 4 hits on 4+ cover or 5 bodies to torrent before the Blastmaster falls.

And last, with all the blasts--especially the Blastmaster ones, which can hit a vehicle and people standing next to it and pierce Marine armor, you can really shock people with how many wounds you put out on disembarked troops.

Having a range of 48" on everything in the army really helps you stand off, as well, you really need to lol.

This army 'feels' like my Black Templars in many ways with the mini/max squads and the 6+ Rhino chassis... it just plays very differently due to the long-range fire power.

Well, that's that. Enjoy.

- Stelek in Chaos Space Marines: Rebuilt [Reap The Whirlwind] from 13th of September, 2010