New to the eye of terror, looking for navigation

[fist of the despoiler]

As description states, I'm new to CSM and 40K in general. I am acquiring a lage slate of models for cheap I already play a deep strike 'nid army (swarmlord, 20 termagaunts in pod, 20 hormagaunts inpod, CC fex in pod, outflanking genestealers and hive guard/zoanthropes, season to taste) and am looking for a complimentary army as my "loaner" when people come to visit. I want something that:

1. plays very differently to 'nids

2. has strengths against a 'nid list and deep striking in general, but will not make said lists list its female dog at every outing

3. has some fluff sense. (least important)

 

I am building this army with my brother in mind. He has a low tolerance for frustration, needing a fairly forgiving army as well as falling fairly neatly, as a gamer, into the mold of Khorne, lots of big smashy and crazy blade work, up close and personal. Ordnance wouldn't bother him either (In WM/H, I would give him a standard Butcher Khador list or a Broka troll list).

 

 

Here's what is incoming:

Abaddon

Defiler

11 terminators

Rhino

5 bikes

32 marines

Khorne icon bearer

18 berzerkers

5 possessed marines

2 havocs

1 sorcer w/force staff

Lord in Term. armor

2 chaos spawn

 

any and all help is appreciated. Thanks!

[fist of the despoiler]

No help, well codex should be here Monday...

[David the Despoiler]

Why don't you make a "Blackwing" list? Abaddon, as many Terminators as you can cram into the list and a tonne of Chaos Marines as troop. That list isn't competitive at all, but fun as hell to play with!

[fist of the despoiler]

interesting, big, smashy, plenty of armor, the hordes of guants will do little but bog them down, the 'nid shooting is not so affective against Teq, CC only warriors, fex, genestealers and swarmlord are real threats without massive numbers. Not to mention Abaddon vs. swarmlord in cc would be epic...

 

Working from what I have, and without a codex for points/options, is this somewhere in the realm of a decent blackwing?

 

Abaddon

10 terminators

2 autocannon havocs

10 berzerkers with icon

Lord in T. armor

Marines to season.

 

Basic strategy:

Marines are first wave, berzerkers follow-up hopefully taking down a swarm of gaunts

the first turns should work in favor of Abaddon's force as the tyranid force I have relies on reservesopportunity

havocs open fire on synapse creatures as presents, failing that, provide cover fire for advancing units

Terminators, abaddon and t lord are hammer and anvil, advancing in brick

 

Potential flaws I see:

spore mines

deepstrikes between marines and berzerkers

genestealers advancing from flank on termies

 

potential solutions:

add bikes for rapid response/distraction units

add defiler for heavy support

Rhino a squad of marines to get to the heart of his army faster.

[saintevil]

1st of all, Zerks don't have an icon, they automatically have the MoK. So you don't have to worry about that.

2nd, havocs have to be minimum of 5, but you can use some CSM to fill the squad.

When I play against nids, I like to field a defiler as it is just priceless to Instant Death a whole squad of warriors!!! Lol! When you field Zerks, field them in squads of 8 with a pf champ. 2 squads of these have always been able to deal with MC's for me. Then, you can use your CSM as fire squads, but don't be afraid to stick them into cc as they can more than deal with squads of gribblies. Just don't use them against warriors and MC's.

Keep the Defiler away from genestealers and MC's. Its role is more anti infantry as the battle canon is rng:72" str:8 AP:3 Large Blast! Vewy vewy nice against nids.

I've never fielded Abadon against nids so I can't give you any advice there, but termies are always difficult to deal with, just keep them away from things that ignore armour as the 5+ invul kinda sux!

 

Hope this helped, but feel free to ignore me as I'm not a competitive player or actually very good! Lol!

[fist of the despoiler]

First, sorry for the triple posting, I meant to edit it....

 

Second @saintevil. Thank you for the advice. I do not play tourney either, just for fun. I haven't enough time to be serious about this hobby.

 

I included the icon as I have a khorne icon bearer, nice to know he is redundant with the zerkers.

The deflier is a good option, I didn't realize it is anti-troop, that being the case, it seems almost a must against nids, orks, other swarms.

[Black Hand]

As an aside, the thing I would suggest is perhaps using the Berzerkers as your first wave of attack, as that's what they are designed to do - they are basically the best assault troop unit you have. The CSM would be better suited to mopping up any survivors. Of course, that's just my opinion.

Also, some heavy ordnance, such as a couple of Vindicators or Defilers would help you thin out hordes well. Personally, I prefer Vindicators, due to their heavier armament and the fact that they work great as a support tank, but Defilers have the advantage of being a walker and therefore units assaulting it are somewhat less likely to succeed in wrecking it.

[Chaos Lord Shamrockius]

My only concern is that your brother would prefer something "forgiving"... and Chaos ain't it. It's random and can be either totally self flagelating, totally awesome that will make you feel joy to your toes or it will be very tricky and leave you in some tricky spots that the proper tactics can be very, very rewarding.