Making Noise Marines Scream

[Galron]

I finally got a chance to get the book and am thinking of doing a NM list since I have all the sonic weapons available to me. Here is what I have come up with so far. Note I do not play competitively but play against modern armies pretty often(normally I play 30k almost exclusively).

Rapture Battalion

Lord with stuff(don't remember off hand but I know he had at least the sigil of corruption, mark of slaanesh, and the daemon weapon)

5 x NM with 5 guys, sonic blasters, blast master

NM x9 doom siren, power fist, rhino(lord rides here)

 

Chosen of slaneesh(whatever the possessed formation is)

DP with the combat drug relic, power armor

3 possessed slaanesh squads x8 guys each one gift of mutation for each squad leader

 

Comes out to 2k(smallest list I have made in years)

I know possessed aren't the most optimal unit but all my terms are spoken for by my IW, jet packs by my NL, and general troops by my AL. I think they will work well in this formation with the fire support from the noise marines.  What do you think?

[Panzer]

I finally got a chance to get the book and am thinking of doing a NM list since I have all the sonic weapons available to me. Here is what I have come up with so far. Note I do not play competitively but play against modern armies pretty often(normally I play 30k almost exclusively).

Rapture Battalion

Lord with stuff(don't remember off hand but I know he had at least the sigil of corruption, mark of slaanesh, and the daemon weapon)

5 x NM with 5 guys, sonic blasters, blast master

NM x9 doom siren, power fist, rhino(lord rides here)

 

Chosen of slaneesh(whatever the possessed formation is)

DP with the combat drug relic, power armor

3 possessed slaanesh squads x8 guys each one gift of mutation for each squad leader

 

Comes out to 2k(smallest list I have made in years)

I know possessed aren't the most optimal unit but all my terms are spoken for by my IW, jet packs by my NL, and general troops by my AL. I think they will work well in this formation with the fire support from the noise marines.  What do you think?

Some things I noticed straight away. You don't really have anything against vehicle or 2+ armor guys plus you only have 2 NM squads (Kakophoni has a minimum of 3 NM squads + Lord).

Also I'd try to get an Icon of Excess in your big NM squad for that sweet 4+ FnP!

[Elazar The Glorified]

I think that's 5 units of 5 plus the big squad to max out the Kakophoni from my reading of it

[Panzer]

Oh right. Totally didn't expect someone using the full 6 units. My bad. :D

[Elazar The Glorified]

I'm thinking of trying the below list out next week (funnily enough using the 6 units of Kakophoni) at 1850pts. Probably facing Space Wolves but not 100% sure.

 

Rapture Batallion

Kakophoni

3x 5 Noise Marines - Blastmaster, Sonic Blasters and Champ with Siren

2x 5 Noise Marines - Sonic Blasters and Champ with Siren

1x 7 Noise Marines - CCWs, Icon of Excess and Champ with Siren and Melta Bombs in a Rhino

Lucius The Eternal

 

1x Chaos Spawn - MoS

 

Grand Cavalcade

1x Herald on Seeker Chariot

1x Seeker Chariot

1x Seeker Chariot

1x Seeker Chariot

1x Seeker Chariot

2x 5 Seekers

 

Renegade Forsworn Knight Detachment

1x Renegade Knight - Avenger Gatling Cannon and Reaper Chainsword

 

Lucius goes in the Rhino to add an extra Doom Siren to proceedings. Could be more efficient with the HQ there I suppose...

[Galron]

Yeah I figured why not since I have had the parts sitting in a box for years and I get a bonus for using them all. Wish we had the old rules that let us sub out autocannons for blast masters in havoc squads and on vehicles but oh well.

[Panzer]

Hm I think a full Kakophoni with Sonic Blaster spam wouldn't even do too bad against Space Wolves if he concentrates too much on TWC. 4 stationary guys with Sonic Blaster take 2 wounds off of a TWC on average (with S5 and shred). Of course they are most likely dead the next turn unless you manage to have all your guys stationary at like 22"-24" away so he still has a moderate chance to fail his charge but that's pretty unlikely. :D

However that's only from one unit of 4 Sonic Blaster and there are more waiting....sounds like worth a try. :P

[Teetengee]

I'm thinking of trying the below list out next week (funnily enough using the 6 units of Kakophoni) at 1850pts. Probably facing Space Wolves but not 100% sure.

-snip-

Lucius goes in the Rhino to add an extra Doom Siren to proceedings. Could be more efficient with the HQ there I suppose...

Why not a brand lord instead?

[Elazar The Glorified]

Partly because the difference in points (not that great if I want him to have decent CC potential too) between the two felt justified by the jump from S4 Ap3 to S6 Ap3 Shred

 

Felt right to make the most of the Kakophoni bonus if I'm going full strength

[heptus]

 

Some things I noticed straight away. You don't really have anything against vehicle or 2+ armor guys

 

Bit off the topic, but I often felt the same thing: the lack of AP2 shooting. I may hire some plasma chosens, though of their expensive salary.

[Panzer]

 

 

Some things I noticed straight away. You don't really have anything against vehicle or 2+ armor guys

 

Bit off the topic, but I often felt the same thing: the lack of AP2 shooting. I may hire some plasma chosens, though of their expensive salary.

 

I usually try to add a Helforged Warpack. An Warpsmith with 2+ armor, 5++ and 4+ FnP in Noise Marines makes some opponents think twice about charging them thanks to the AP2 Poweraxe. Maulerfiends, Plasmafiends or Helbrutes with Plasmacannon (with a 4++ then even) aren't bad against 2+ armor and vehicle either. Quite expensive formation tho (as with any CSM formation i guess).

[The Fey Mallory]

Hello Everyone,

I'm putting together an EC army which is hopefully balanced between fluffy and competitive. What I have in mind is:

1) a Kakophoni formation (split between units with extra CC weapons and doom sirens, and units setup for shooting).

2) A Lost and Damned Formation (I'm making some very perverse looking Slaaneshi cultists, and I like the idea of casting 4+FNP on them - hopefully making them better than zombies).

3) Daemon princesses (I have an ancient GW Daemon from the Inquisitor game, supposed to be 54mm scale, but works perfectly as a daemon princess, complete with alluring pose and gimp mask), and other such things.

4) Sorcerers. Lots of sorcerers (actually Sorceresses).

5) 1 Forgeworld Cycletrope Rapier, when it's not seen as over powered - the long range effectiveness, I'm hoping, should mix nicely with my closer shooting, forcing my opponent to either sit back and get whacked by Ap1 Str10 large blasts, or move towards my sound blasters for a different joyous suffering. I see this in part as a solution to my lack of fast attack (as I'll just shoot them from afar instead).

I largely play against the Imperium, particularly Dark Angels (who thankfully, at present, are not upgraded with that grav nonsense), but there'll be some xeno games coming along soon too.

Anyway, my question is, has any one made heavy use of sorcerers? The Slaaneshi spells look excellent, and I once won a game just by casting Endurance on a CSM unit repeatedly whilst they held out against spawn, Noise Marines, a sonic dreadnought and a predator gunning at them. Then my Daemon Prince turned up and helped them to victory.

I digress - point is, the Slaaneshi discipline looks worthy of rolling all out on (unlike Tzeentch , even after improvements) - has anyone tried it to any large degree?

Also, there's no AP2 counter in my army (apart from Daemons) so I'm looking to Heretek to fix that - and I noticed mention of Sorcerer's being popular in the EC in the blurb in Traitor Legions, which I cannot help wonder if it's a hint, because I've read a lot about the EC, and I cannot think of any sorcerers in the stories - indeed, Apothecaries seem to be the largest feature in that kind of role (It'd be wonderful if there was an Apothecary HQ choice, maybe allowing *chosen* stat boosts, and extra organs, such as Lear Scream mouths etc.)

What's people's thoughts on the equivalence between Heretek and melta effectiveness? Haywire, and the ability to 'heal' rhinos and increase armour by 1, or a unit's toughness by 1 seem useful to me - what do you think? And would Daemon Princesses work as fast attack replacements? I'm thinking they can smash, fly, and when i have the point,s do a little magic.

Apologies for my rambling

Mallory.

[WarriorFish]

Welcome to the B&C Fey :) I'm also interested in Slaaneshi psykers so would like to hear more but I'm a way from fielding them myself yet. The Heretek powers are good for playing with tanks, both yours and your opponents and I've seen them put to good use. Being able to regenerate Hull Points and increase durability is nice as you'd expect. Psykers benefit from the more you take (and the more Mastery Levels particularly) so taking some DPs with psychic powers would be good to help out, as well as provide some fast moving hitting power.

[heptus]

Although Cabal is better than Slaanesh psykers for a competitive game, Excess powers are not that bad IMO; FNP(4+) and S8 AP2 beam always earned back its investment in my case. So I'll say give it a try!

If I choose psychic powers from the new four disciplines, I'll roll for Sinistrum and/or Ectomancy rather than Heretek (though I usually roll for Excess, Biomancy, or Telepathy).

For anti-mech, these days I try to give at least one melta gun per squad. This assists in distracting my opponents cause they cannot ignore even a small 5-man unit due to its potential of blowing up expensive tanks as well as being fearless OS. Besides, the melta-based MSU is effective to remove OS drop pods (prevalent in my meta).

EDIT: Oh, and I agree with the apothecary fluff you mentioned. That's why I bought a couple of forge world apothecary models to express IoE wielder

[Galron]

Mallory- When you say Dark Angels not upgraded to grav, are you referring to your particular opponent? My primary opponent mostly plays DA and he has 3 grav weapons in every tactical squad. I still usually win though.

 

I like the list. Its a shame we(chaos) turned in all our gear after the heresy and found wholesale cheap equipment to give our guys. As to your list, not sure, not a fan of cultists and many of the chaos dino-bot oddball stuff and stick to pure marines. Your list sounds thematic and should look cool on the field.

 

Has anyone tried the Raptor Talon formation teamed up with a kakophoni? I decided against the possessed route after a game with my IW and decided I needed more in your face troops to rapidly work enemy troops and vehicles safely hidden in the backfield along with the longer ranged firepower of my full kakaphoni. With the points availablein a 2k list I ended up with a lit claw lord with 2 raptors with melta and two 8 man warp talon squads. Thinking it will look cool and be fun at the same time.

[The Fey Mallory]

Mallory- When you say Dark Angels not upgraded to grav, are you referring to your particular opponent? My primary opponent mostly plays DA and he has 3 grav weapons in every tactical squad. I still usually win though.

 

I like the list. Its a shame we(chaos) turned in all our gear after the heresy and found wholesale cheap equipment to give our guys. As to your list, not sure, not a fan of cultists and many of the chaos dino-bot oddball stuff and stick to pure marines. Your list sounds thematic and should look cool on the field.

 

Has anyone tried the Raptor Talon formation teamed up with a kakophoni? I decided against the possessed route after a game with my IW and decided I needed more in your face troops to rapidly work enemy troops and vehicles safely hidden in the backfield along with the longer ranged firepower of my full kakaphoni. With the points availablein a 2k list I ended up with a lit claw lord with 2 raptors with melta and two 8 man warp talon squads. Thinking it will look cool and be fun at the same time.

Yes, he built his army prior to grav being an option. He doesn't have much in the way of librarians either, so I get to own the psychic phase :)

For now...

[The Fey Mallory]

Although Cabal is better than Slaanesh psykers for a competitive game, Excess powers are not that bad IMO; FNP(4+) and S8 AP2 beam always earned back its investment in my case. So I'll say give it a try!

If I choose psychic powers from the new four disciplines, I'll roll for Sinistrum and/or Ectomancy rather than Heretek (though I usually roll for Excess, Biomancy, or Telepathy).

For anti-mech, these days I try to give at least one melta gun per squad. This assists in distracting my opponents cause they cannot ignore even a small 5-man unit due to its potential of blowing up expensive tanks as well as being fearless OS. Besides, the melta-based MSU is effective to remove OS drop pods (prevalent in my meta).

EDIT: Oh, and I agree with the apothecary fluff you mentioned. That's why I bought a couple of forge world apothecary models to express IoE wielder

Thanks. I love your idea for the apothecaries - I might pinch that if you don't mind :) I do find the icons to be a bit oversized and comical... I'm wondering if I can give my sergeants a combi melta and bomb, but then that'll make them weaker in CC (I normally go for claw and powerfist). Hmm...

[WarriorFish]

It's a great idea, here's some more on it :tu:

[FallenSoldiers]

I agree with the previous statements about including some melta.  Relying on psychic can be iffy, especially once your opponents catch on that you'll be running psykers consistently...I've found that the Kakaphoni has been extremely durable, the doom sirens are NASTY, but the regular sonic blasters have been very "eh" for me.  Even with shred, if they have to move they get pretty hampered.  The Blastmaster is amazing though.  How many units are you thinking of taking?

 

Are you planning to run CAD and the Rapture Battalion?  

 

I like the fluff of the cultists, it's a nice touch.  What's your plan for them? Objective campers?  Tarpits?

[The Fey Mallory]

I agree with the previous statements about including some melta.  Relying on psychic can be iffy, especially once your opponents catch on that you'll be running psykers consistently...I've found that the Kakaphoni has been extremely durable, the doom sirens are NASTY, but the regular sonic blasters have been very "eh" for me.  Even with shred, if they have to move they get pretty hampered.  The Blastmaster is amazing though.  How many units are you thinking of taking?

 

Are you planning to run CAD and the Rapture Battalion?  

 

I like the fluff of the cultists, it's a nice touch.  What's your plan for them? Objective campers?  Tarpits?

 

My thinking (when enough points)  a Kakophoni of 3 units with cc extra cc weapons and a doom siren champ in a rhino with dirge caster, and 3 units of sonic blasters with blastmaster, also hopefully in rhinos. Icons will go to the the melee units first, but hopefully all of them.

 

The idea would be to move the cultists up first and the rhinos. The shooty units take up the midfield, using their rhino as defensive cover, and camping whilst the cultists spread out around them. This should mean the enemy has to either shoot through the cultists, giving me a +2 cover save, and if I happen to camp in cover, that could accumulate nicely, whilst my ignore cover weapons should pass nicely through the cultists. Also, if I cast 4+FNP on the cultists, they'll clog the board up or tarpit enemies making their progress slow. I've done this with zombies prior to my EC army, and it seems to work.

 

The melee units go into the enemy's backfield, and start assaulting units, likewise for the daemons, although I might have one daemon shooting that beam spell about, so they'll be flying. My opponent loves his terminators, so I'll be watching for them with that spell. Any distant objectives can be grabbed quickly by them too.

 

Prior to all the above, the Conversion Beamer will be attempting to take out any early game threats from a distance, or popping enemy rhinos to slow them down.

 

Sorceresses will hang out with kakophoni units according to their spells to offer support. I might also keep some cultists back to bubblewrap the conversion beamer too.

 

Against drop pods (which I've never been up against) I'd position the cultists more defensively to tarpit them whilst my sorcerers wear them down with haywire spells and the odd melta-bomb. Being initiative 5, I assume I'll be able to cope with what comes out of them? In such a game I might take the offensive to them by deep striking daemons on top of their defenses, and see how they like it! I'd predict the Conversion Beamer would be their prime target, so I'd arrange to have that well protected, or use it as bait in some way.

 

I can vary the mix of sorcerers and daemons based on opponent.

 

That's my plan... no idea if it'll work though.

 

Also, can daemon princesses assault flyers? or vector them? How well does that work?

[The Fey Mallory]

I agree with the previous statements about including some melta.  Relying on psychic can be iffy, especially once your opponents catch on that you'll be running psykers consistently...I've found that the Kakaphoni has been extremely durable, the doom sirens are NASTY, but the regular sonic blasters have been very "eh" for me.  Even with shred, if they have to move they get pretty hampered.  The Blastmaster is amazing though.  How many units are you thinking of taking?

 

Are you planning to run CAD and the Rapture Battalion?  

 

I like the fluff of the cultists, it's a nice touch.  What's your plan for them? Objective campers?  Tarpits?

Oh, and to get the conversion beamer in , when I do, it'll have to be a CAD i suppose, with spawn to make up the auxiliary in the Rapture battalion. Mind you, thinking about it, sorcerer doing FNP 4+ on spawn would be quite lethal methinks...

[FallenSoldiers]

Rolling +1 BS or +1 T for combat drugs in the Rapture Battalion is a huge boon as well!  T6 Spawn with FNP, who are we, Nurgle?!  I like the idea of cultists more as cover saves than wasting spells on them.  Would you keep a sorcerer in their unit to keep them from running away?  

 

If your DP is flying it can vector strike other flyers as well. What weapons would you give the DP?  BBoS is nice for added AP3, but the Black Mace at AP2 is always nice.  Blissgiver on a DP could be fun too.

 

I like the EC psyker selection, the S8 AP2 beam is a great way to delete terminators, Hysterical Frenzy can be a real plus to your CC marines (granting +1 I, S, or A).

 

Overall I think its a pretty solid idea while still being fairly fluffy.  As always, I'd love to hear how it fares on the table.  

[Panzer]

May I ask what point level you plan to play? Because a Kakophoni formation with 3 Squads+Doom Siren+IoE+Rhino, 3 Squads+Blaster,Blastmaster, IoE, Rhino, Lord with no real equip and then a Lost and the Damned formation without equip is already around 1600p. :D

[The Fey Mallory]

May I ask what point level you plan to play? Because a Kakophoni formation with 3 Squads+Doom Siren+IoE+Rhino, 3 Squads+Blaster,Blastmaster, IoE, Rhino, Lord with no real equip and then a Lost and the Damned formation without equip is already around 1600p.

We play various sized games depending on how much time is available, which is why I was keeping things vague and high level. usually though, we settle on either 1000 or 2000 point games - rarely more than that. It's shocking just how quick you can get to 2k points with this stuff! A lot of the things I've mentioned I'd not all take at the same time though, but mix and match depending on opponent (when I know what I'm playing against)...

But yes, you're right, I'd have about 400pts for probably no more than 1 Daemon Princess and 1 sorceress, or maybe 3 sorceresses at a real push. Not good. In some games I might just take a few spawn, and do a CAD of minimal cultists and free up a little space for Daemons and sorcery that way. I'm assuming allied detachments are not an option as they're considered the same faction?

Are allied detachments allowed for other Chaos factions? I assume I could take a Black Legion Cyclopea cabal if I wanted, for example, but not an allied. I get the philosophy of the formations (as in, I assume it's to allow post-hoc tweaks to the rules, and boost model sales, and maybe enforce a degree of fluff) but their size, pointwise can be really frustrating.

I'd probably be allowed some unbound on the side if I needed to, but I'd just feel dirty doing it. :(

When I get a moment, I'll post up some sample lists for clarity.

[Panzer]

May I ask what point level you plan to play? Because a Kakophoni formation with 3 Squads+Doom Siren+IoE+Rhino, 3 Squads+Blaster,Blastmaster, IoE, Rhino, Lord with no real equip and then a Lost and the Damned formation without equip is already around 1600p.

We play various sized games depending on how much time is available, which is why I was keeping things vague and high level. usually though, we settle on either 1000 or 2000 point games - rarely more than that. It's shocking just how quick you can get to 2k points with this stuff! A lot of the things I've mentioned I'd not all take at the same time though, but mix and match depending on opponent (when I know what I'm playing against)...

But yes, you're right, I'd have about 400pts for probably no more than 1 Daemon Princess and 1 sorceress, or maybe 3 sorceresses at a real push. Not good. In some games I might just take a few spawn, and do a CAD of minimal cultists and free up a little space for Daemons and sorcery that way. I'm assuming allied detachments are not an option as they're considered the same faction?

Are allied detachments allowed for other Chaos factions? I assume I could take a Black Legion Cyclopea cabal if I wanted, for example, but not an allied. I get the philosophy of the formations (as in, I assume it's to allow post-hoc tweaks to the rules, and boost model sales, and maybe enforce a degree of fluff) but their size, pointwise can be really frustrating.

I'd probably be allowed some unbound on the side if I needed to, but I'd just feel dirty doing it.

When I get a moment, I'll post up some sample lists for clarity.

Yeah 400p is not a lot. Especially when you consider that apart of the Noise Marines nothing I listed had any equip yet and a Daemon Prince with Wings+Armor+ML3 already comes in at ~300p.

CSM stuff is just very very expensive points-wise. So far every EC list i made was lacking in one way or another at 1850p (partially because of the expensive Daemon Prince tho I guess....).