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8-man Squads


Julgolax

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I've been doing searches for Khorne-themed army lists and I find that quite a few people actually do take 8-man squads of berserkers, chaos marines, raptors, bikes, and anything else that can carry a banner of Khorne aloft. My question is why. Basically, are Khorne's followers that much better than others that they can get away with 2 fewer squad mates and still be tactically feasible? Should I even bother trying this or is it just for fluffy lists?

 

Here's a list I found on Warseer basically showing what I mean, and another list of what I would say is a theme rather than fluffy.

 

HQ

Chaos lord

- Mark of Khorne

- terminator armor

- pair of lightning claws

 

ELITE

4 Chaos Terminators

- heavy flamer

- Chaos Land Raider

 

8 Chosen Chaos Space Marines

- 5 plasma guns

- mark of khorne

- rhino

 

TROOPS

8 khorne berzerker

- two plasma pistols

- skull champion

- power fist

- Rhino

 

8 khorne berzerker

- two plasma pistols

- skull champion

- power fist

- Rhino

 

8 khorne berzerker

- two plasma pistols

- skull champion

- power fist

- Rhino

 

HEAVY

8 Chaos Havocs

- 4 lascannons

 

HQ - Chaos Lord - Mark of Khorne, Axe of Blind Fury, Chaos Bike, Sigil of Corruption, VotLW - 160

Troops - 10 Chaos Marines - CCWs, VotLW, 2 x Meltaguns, Mark of Khorne, Champion - Power Sword - 223

Transport - Rhino - 35

Troops - 5 Chaos Marines - 1 x Plasma Gun, Mark of Khorne - 100

Transport - Rhino - 35

Troops - 5 Chaos Marines - 1 x Plasma Gun, Mark of Khorne - 100

Transport - Rhino - 35

Troops - 20 Chaos Cultists - 2 x Flamers - 100

Fast Attack - 5 Chaos Bikers - VotLW, 2 x Meltaguns, Mark of Khorne, Champion - Power Sword, Melta Bombs - 145

Heavy Support - Forgefiend - 175

Heavy Support - Forgefiend - 175

Heavy Support - 5 Havocs - 4 x Autocannons - 115

Fortification - Aegis w/ Quad gun - 100

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It's mostly for fluff: Khorne's sacred number is 8. As far back as Slaves to Darkness, the first Chaos book, Chaos followers had a tendency to group into squads equal to or in multiples of their god's sacred number, and there were even bonuses for such units in the 3rd edition codex (after the Index Astartes articles, and later in the 3.5 edition codex).

 

Tactically, 8 is a pretty comfortable number. It's not MSU (multiple small units), but it's not as expensive as a 10-man squad. It's a good size if you want to fit an IC in a transport. It's enough where an assault won't always wipe out a decent-sized Space Marine unit on the charge (you don't want to be left out in the open afterwards!). It's not the perfect number for every situation, but it's pretty handy. That said, don't feel any need to run 8-man squads for everything; just take whatever works best for you.

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In my attempt at a WE list I intend to field 24 berzerkers in three squads of eight marines each. Now years as an IG commander tell me that it is always better to rush forward several smaller squads than a big one, they cover each other, are more mobile and responsive and turn into many smaller targets which makes the adversary to struggle. Now my question rather is, are those 24 berzerkers enough to leg it over the entire board, eat gunfire and live to make that charge? Fearless and 3+ save say yes in my book but alas more information would be great, in my attempts it worked reasonably well but I have yet to play against a competitive army list and a proper gunline.
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7,8,9 are all good numbers. So is 10, so the only reason why you could field 8 now is because of old fluff.

 

Personally, I don't do it. I am very comfortable with 10 Bezerkers/Marines, more comfortable than 8 because I expect to lose 2-3 before they will be in the close combat.

Perhaps this thought is wrong or the expectations of losing models should be less.

 

Field what you feel comfortable with.

 

Your list looks okayish, I fiend the lack of flyers/AA a bit disturbing, but it might just be me.

 

Cheers,

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7,8,9 are all good numbers. So is 10, so the only reason why you could field 8 now is because of old fluff.

 

Personally, I don't do it. I am very comfortable with 10 Bezerkers/Marines, more comfortable than 8 because I expect to lose 2-3 before they will be in the close combat.

Perhaps this thought is wrong or the expectations of losing models should be less.

 

Field what you feel comfortable with.

 

Your list looks okayish, I fiend the lack of flyers/AA a bit disturbing, but it might just be me.

 

Cheers,

 

Wasn't my list at all, as I said I found them on Warseer.com.

 

Also, I don't want to buy into these flyers, it's just a sales play by GW to sell their ugly flyer models. Flyers belong in Apocalypse not 1500 point games.

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