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A month after launch - what have we learned?


Jonah

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It's been a little over a month since the launch of the Codex and I'd love to hear more from people about their experiences and which units have worked for them in actual battles (not math hammer!).

 

The Daemon Prince with Black Mace, PA & Wings has been outstanding for me. He totally wrecks anything he gets close to and has decent survivabilty (so long as he doesn't exit combat during your opponent's turn in the middle of his army). Nurgle gives him a 3+ cover save while he's Swooping. I prefer the latter because I haven't had a problem getting him into combat, it's surviving the turn afterwards that's a problem.

 

Lord with Axe is also a total beast. I've only tried him in Termie Armour in a Landraider (don't have a Bike or Juggernaut model yet) but he's decimated full squads on his own. I bundle him with Berzerkers but they will sometimes exit the Landraider and assault separate targets.

 

Warpsmith bundled with 20+ cultists is a formidable backfield holder. Give him a couple of Hades Fiends & a Deflier to look after and he's in his element. 2+ with 20 ablative wounds is pretty hard to chip away at.

 

Sorcerer with Slaanesh steed is great fun as he can outflank a unit. He can bring some bikers with him or even a big blob squad of cultists/marines/zombies so long as you don't mark them with a different god.

 

Pimped out Marines have got the job done reliably over several games; CCW, VotLW & a couple of Plasma guns, bundled into a Dirge Rhino, can wreck many units just with shooting and then hold their own in combat. The CCW is a really big boost and I wouldn't consider taking marines without it.

 

Forgefiends with Hades Cannons have been highly destructive, nearly destroying Landraiders & Monoliths with their Daemon Forge ability. I have found them to be extremely fragile but I think that's mostly bad luck.

 

The Heldrake always pays for his points, he's a real 'get out of jail free' card and can be very handy for drawing enemy fire. He's surprizingly survivable with his 5++ and hull point regeneration.

 

So what units have worked for you guys?

 

*Edited because I was cheating on a couple of occasions :s*

Juggerlord with bikes makes me happy.

 

Forge fiends have been amazing. Killing vehicles, instant pasting characters(just make them take enough saves, only 1 needs to get through(except for eternal of course)). I usually take 2 for armor saturation.

 

Autocannon havoks have been very good for their points cost.

 

I have been running some cheap khorne marked csm with melta (trade bolter for cc to keep them cheap) 1 PW on sergeant. A very effective unit for running forward to take objectives. Usually screen with cheap cultist blob.

 

Terminators are still very nice for their points. You can make a very efficient squad for 229 points. VotLW, 1 chainfist, MoT, 4 combi weapons. I find the reaper rarely worth the 25 because im usually running or charging and they have more effective weapons clsoe range. 2 str 7 that i get to use maybe once before each charge rarely seems worth it.

 

Warpsmith doesnt really need any upgrades as he is usually in cover with fiend or defiler. I only take aura when I make him a khornesmith with axe (hilarious as his mechandrites give him 2 more attacks with the axe, so he has 5 base, 7 on charge and thats before DW roll. He can also pop vehicles with his melta while roaming around and has built in 2+ and can still sweeping advance. Dont get me wrong a lord is better most of the time, has access to more mobility has aditional wound and I and better WS. But sometimes its fun to take the smith and worsen some cover and run around and kill things.

Oops, good thing I only used him in 1 game, thanks for pointing that out! Yeah the invul was never actually used, I'll try him plain and see how I get on.

 

Bikers do seem to be the unit of choice atm. Are you guys rocking the new fantasy Khorne Lord on Juggernaut? It looks boss.

Nurgle gives him a 3+ cover save while he's Swooping or you can Tzeentch him for a 4++.
Daemon princes can't take the Sigil for a 4+ invul. Tzeentch doesn't improve his 5+ either.

 

What's been working for me? A flying, armored, black mace prince of course, cultists, and pretty much the entire heavy support section.

The Daemon Prince [...] you can Tzeentch him for a 4++.

Pimped out Marines [...] CCW, VotLW & a couple of Plasma guns, bundled into a Dirge Rhino

Forgefiends with Hades Cannons [...] extremely fragile

Heldrake

 

daemon of tzeentch is reroll saves of 1, not +1. (ninja'd)

marine setup is standart, but overprized/underperforming compared to loyalists.

forgefiends: rule should be named "it will die to focus fire", thus overprized.

heldrake is the new thing to sell obviously. Let's see how it fares when there is more anti-air around.

 

bikes...yes, for the first time, they are not overpriced (like raptors). wait for DA and compare again.

My squad of 12 raptors has been doing well - blowing up vehicles and taking tons of damage (thanks to Icon of Excess), as well as delivering my Lord/Sorcerer where he needs to be. I actually am just finishing up building all of my models tonight, so I should have a real game with all the units that I actually want to take tomorrow.

 

I also like Invisibility. What a rad power.

ATSKNF, Combat Squads, Combat Tactics, all upgrades the designers apparently think aren't worth anything because they're free - unlike our vets upgrade. Also, access to razorbacks to up their MSU shootiness or drop pods for guaranteed deployment right where you want them without getting shot up on the way or having to rely on rhinos, and in general more shooty focused & less assault focused, making them better in this shooty-leaning edition (though the drop pods mean that units that want to get into assault, they can at least have a reasonable chance of getting there without having to buy a land raider).

I'm loving the Heldrake with Baleflamer.

 

Also Daemon Prince of Nurgle with Power Armour, Wings, Black Mace and Gift of Mutation. He's expensive, but easily able to take out a similarly priced squad all by himself. Doing Smash attacks (or whatever the half-base-attacks-double-strength is called) takes out Paladins and other hard units for fun.

 

 

I am also really enjoying Cultists. 60 points for 10 scoring models that you can hide in terrain and go to ground for a 3++ all game.

I'm pretty excited to try out my unit of possessed tomorrow. We'll see are as terrible as they're made out to be.

 

How did it go?

 

I just finnished painting 10 Slaaneshi Possessed. I realize that they will underperform most of the time, but I've always liked Possessed, so I intend to use them.

I don't play to win anyway, at least not with this codex. I have my Orks for that.

I'll let you know tomorrow. LOL, still 3:45pm Thursday here in Alaska.

 

That's the unit I'm taking! 10 Possessed, MoS and Icon of Excess.

 

Bah, the forum-clock tricked me! :P

 

I wish you luck with that unit, it's identical to my own. (Althought I do have 10 Khorne-Possessed with Icon of Wrath as well, but I will probably field Slaanesh-Possessed more often than Khorne-Possessed.)

 

Edit: Typo.

I play a lot alongside and against a friend who runs 5 possessed either as tzeentch or khorne. They always seem to do well. I think their main upsides are being able to move quickly between combats with fleet, and being just killy enough to make combat last 2 rounds and thus avoid being shot.
how does he win with 5 possessed doing melee and no frags ?

 

Hardly everything sits in cover, at least not at my gameclub.

Why not? Am I missing something? My plague marines love cover- keeps those silly tyranids and orks at bay and gives me some protection from artillery.

how does he win with 5 possessed doing melee and no frags ?

 

Hardly everything sits in cover, at least not at my gameclub.

Why not? Am I missing something? My plague marines love cover- keeps those silly tyranids and orks at bay and gives me some protection from artillery.

Because not all tables have cover included and not all players bother to bring it. Like one table at my LGS which is modeled into a flat, volcanic plateau. Unless you bring it, there will be no cover.

Local place has buildings and stuff to put out so it's no problem there. But at a tournament recently there were not much terrain to put your guys in. I was out of cover most of the time, and definitely didn't get cover saves or reduced I anywhere...

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