How to run Emperors Children

[Aothaine]

I love the idea of Emperor's Children. But space marines in general are overcosted right now. If they rumors are true they are getting a 10-15% drop in points which will help out a lot. Not what I was looking for, but it will help. 

 

Currently, if I wanted to build a EC army with the rules as they are, I would build a core of 3x10 noise marines with sonic weaponry. Get 1x9 and 1x8 chosen in rhinos with power swords and combi-bolters, a Chaos Lord, a librarian and a dark apostle. Then focus the rest of the list on anti-tank. Either 10 man Havoc squads with four lascannons or whatever your flavor of anti-tank is. 

 

Still not a top tier list but nothing Space Marines is top tier right now. If you want top tier you want overwhelming firepower with massive mobility or horde. Something Space Marines of every faction cannot do right now.

[Stofficus]

This is a subject near and dear to my heart, so allow me to pontificate on the glories of the IIIrd legion. 

Or at least how to franken-list something together which makes marginal sense. 

So, initial disclaimer; my EC army was conceived as a loyalist 30k force, mixed with Death Guard and World Eaters - the loyal band of Isstvan III if you will. Converting that to something usable in 8th was....a drawn out process, and ended up ditching the other non-purple forces for sake of my own sanity for the time being. What this means is I have nothing daemonic, and had a collection that was mostly infantry. 

 

After many a battle against the most perfidious Alaitoc Eldar (-1 to hit as a faction trait can go die in a fire), Death Guard, all manner of Tyranid and other foes I came up with an EC army which is aesthetically pleasing and consistently effective. Not a guaranteed winner by any stretch, but able to do well even in somewhat competitive settings, and only minimal rules shenanagins. 

 

The core of the army is, like others have mentioned, 3x 10 man Noise Marine squads, all sonic weapons with 2x Blastmasters a piece (in my case, all Mk. III marines with the magazine-fed missile launchers standing is as blastmasters). They are supported by a mostly naked chaos lord (power sword for the looks), and a sorcerer usually rocking prescience and delightful agonies. 

 

This core can unleash the holy trifecta of the EC: Prescience, VotLW & Endless Cacophony 10 man noise marine squads. Pretty much anything dies to that kind of firepower, with the BM hitting vehicles or heavy infantry, and the ludicrous amount of bolter shots clearing infantry, and then usually a Havoc squad of heavy bolters, as I find they get excellent mileage out of VotLW & Prescience if there is nothing in range for the Noise Marines early & late in the game. 

 

So, with the above you have a firebase that can make Orks shed a single tear of joy for the Dakka on display, but you need a hammer to match the anvil. 

 

The answer? Dreadnoughts. Specifically Contemptor Dreadnoughts. Most people swear by dakka-noughts, but as CSM Contemptors get a 4++ in close combat, and can heal from killing models, I run a trio; two with multi-meltas, 1 Kheres and all with 1x DCCW (or chainfist, points depending) using Hellflamers (because who doesn't love D2 heavy flamers?, well, aside from bikes and terminators....) with a decked out jump lord hanging out with them, usually with the Murder Sword for some HQ hunting. Recently, I've taken to running these fellows as a World Eaters detachment for the extra attack, but as big thing vs big thing melee tends to run multiple rounds, contemptors actually get some value out of the EC legion trait more often than most units. Regardless, that force can smash through pretty well anything given the chance, especially with the noise marines clearing chaff off any valuable targets. 

Lastly, because it's a giant crutch and everyone knows it, I usually bring a Leviathan with 2x butcher cannon arrays for maximum hate, but any flavour of anti-vehicle is welcome at that point. 

Usually, though, the noise marines end up my MVPs, as their ability to gun down damned near anything, and the fact that they get to shoot again when dying makes them a fairly prickly target for the enemy to go after, especially with a trio of Contemptors barreling down on them, and a Leviathan taking no prisoners from wherever the best vantage point is. 

I have played with the details of the list a few times; aggressive jump sorcerer casting death hex and diabolic strength to go smack critical targets, a pair of predators in place of the Leviathan, etc, but the core concept remains the same; powerful firebase of Noise Marines, and something big and scary to run right into the nastiest thing the enemy can throw at you. And the nice thing is, I have a very classic Great Crusade looking legion force on the table, with nary a cultist or unspeakable horror in sight - just good old honest transhuman hatred. 

[40kChrista]

This is a subject near and dear to my heart, so allow me to pontificate on the glories of the IIIrd legion. 

 

Or at least how to franken-list something together which makes marginal sense. 

 

So, initial disclaimer; my EC army was conceived as a loyalist 30k force, mixed with Death Guard and World Eaters - the loyal band of Isstvan III if you will. Converting that to something usable in 8th was....a drawn out process, and ended up ditching the other non-purple forces for sake of my own sanity for the time being. What this means is I have nothing daemonic, and had a collection that was mostly infantry. 

 

After many a battle against the most perfidious Alaitoc Eldar (-1 to hit as a faction trait can go die in a fire), Death Guard, all manner of Tyranid and other foes I came up with an EC army which is aesthetically pleasing and consistently effective. Not a guaranteed winner by any stretch, but able to do well even in somewhat competitive settings, and only minimal rules shenanagins. 

 

The core of the army is, like others have mentioned, 3x 10 man Noise Marine squads, all sonic weapons with 2x Blastmasters a piece (in my case, all Mk. III marines with the magazine-fed missile launchers standing is as blastmasters). They are supported by a mostly naked chaos lord (power sword for the looks), and a sorcerer usually rocking prescience and delightful agonies. 

 

This core can unleash the holy trifecta of the EC: Prescience, VotLW & Endless Cacophony 10 man noise marine squads. Pretty much anything dies to that kind of firepower, with the BM hitting vehicles or heavy infantry, and the ludicrous amount of bolter shots clearing infantry, and then usually a Havoc squad of heavy bolters, as I find they get excellent mileage out of VotLW & Prescience if there is nothing in range for the Noise Marines early & late in the game. 

 

So, with the above you have a firebase that can make Orks shed a single tear of joy for the Dakka on display, but you need a hammer to match the anvil. 

 

The answer? Dreadnoughts. Specifically Contemptor Dreadnoughts. Most people swear by dakka-noughts, but as CSM Contemptors get a 4++ in close combat, and can heal from killing models, I run a trio; two with multi-meltas, 1 Kheres and all with 1x DCCW (or chainfist, points depending) using Hellflamers (because who doesn't love D2 heavy flamers?, well, aside from bikes and terminators....) with a decked out jump lord hanging out with them, usually with the Murder Sword for some HQ hunting. Recently, I've taken to running these fellows as a World Eaters detachment for the extra attack, but as big thing vs big thing melee tends to run multiple rounds, contemptors actually get some value out of the EC legion trait more often than most units. Regardless, that force can smash through pretty well anything given the chance, especially with the noise marines clearing chaff off any valuable targets. 

 

Lastly, because it's a giant crutch and everyone knows it, I usually bring a Leviathan with 2x butcher cannon arrays for maximum hate, but any flavour of anti-vehicle is welcome at that point. 

 

Usually, though, the noise marines end up my MVPs, as their ability to gun down damned near anything, and the fact that they get to shoot again when dying makes them a fairly prickly target for the enemy to go after, especially with a trio of Contemptors barreling down on them, and a Leviathan taking no prisoners from wherever the best vantage point is. 

 

I have played with the details of the list a few times; aggressive jump sorcerer casting death hex and diabolic strength to go smack critical targets, a pair of predators in place of the Leviathan, etc, but the core concept remains the same; powerful firebase of Noise Marines, and something big and scary to run right into the nastiest thing the enemy can throw at you. And the nice thing is, I have a very classic Great Crusade looking legion force on the table, with nary a cultist or unspeakable horror in sight - just good old honest transhuman hatred. 

 

I think the eloquence of this description embodies the spirit of the 3rd well. 

[Panzer]

The cold and sad truth is that there are only really two reasons to play your Slaanesh army as EC. Noise Marines as Troops and the Sonic Dread. Always hitting first is pretty weak and pretty much every other Legion offers more for other units. Especially Alpha Legion for obvious reasons.

Oh and simply liking EC is a valid reason as well of course.

 

So unless you want to utilize Troop Noise Marines and Sonic Dreadnoughts you're better off using another Legion for a Slaanesh themed army. Sad but true.

[Stofficus]

The cold and sad truth is that there are only really two reasons to play your Slaanesh army as EC. Noise Marines as Troops and the Sonic Dread. Always hitting first is pretty weak and pretty much every other Legion offers more for other units. Especially Alpha Legion for obvious reasons.

Oh and simply liking EC is a valid reason as well of course.

 

So unless you want to utilize Troop Noise Marines and Sonic Dreadnoughts you're better off using another Legion for a Slaanesh themed army. Sad but true.

 

And this is entirely true. As far as I'm concerned, the actual legion trait is Noise Marines as troops - and as as they're one of maybe 3 not-garbage oldMarine units, that's worth something. 

 

It is true, though, that always striking first is probably the least useful legion trait available - hence I've taken to using my dreadnought bomb as something else to help with the crunch. However, when fighting against, say, a 'Nidzilla kind of army, generally speaking carnifexes and trygons and whatnot are going to stay in combat over multiple turns, and having the 'naughts getting to strike first every round, assuming you charged first, is a nice benefit. Between the invuln and always hitting first, I had a chainfist contemptor kill 3 'fexes in a drawn out combat, though he died to a trio of termagants afterwards...

 

I would suspect that when the IIIrd get their proper 'dex, we will see some changes to their traits - the Deathguard got three faction traits for the price of one, after all. (18'' rapid fire, ignore penalties for moving heavy weapons and disgusting resilience)

[Bulwyf]

If you poke around the lists on the chaos list forum you'll see my basic EC list. I like Noise marines but love Lucius and some Possessed or Chosen coming at you out of a LR to get that legion trait working. The amount of dakka you can get from noise marines in shooting is fun to play around with.

[Slan Drakkos]

If you poke around the lists on the chaos list forum you'll see my basic EC list. I like Noise marines but love Lucius and some Possessed or Chosen coming at you out of a LR to get that legion trait working. The amount of dakka you can get from noise marines in shooting is fun to play around with.

yeah, EC have the capacity to be amazing in close combat while still being an incredibly mobile ranged army.

[Excessus]

I don't play EC, but I've been throwing a few glances towards the noise marines for a while now. Even though they don't have a saving modifier they doesn't give cover bonus to the saves and in many cases that is quite nice (especially with that new tactic) and three shots per person is also quite nice (six if you throw some cp at them), I am currently missing an effective anti-horde weapon in my list against guard, nids and such...maybe I should use an elite slot for something other than dreads... :)

[techsoldaten]

I don't play EC, but I've been throwing a few glances towards the noise marines for a while now. Even though they don't have a saving modifier they doesn't give cover bonus to the saves and in many cases that is quite nice (especially with that new tactic) and three shots per person is also quite nice (six if you throw some cp at them), I am currently missing an effective anti-horde weapon in my list against guard, nids and such...maybe I should use an elite slot for something other than dreads...

 

I don't mean to sound rude, but Sonic Blasters are 4 shots a piece. At least in the English version of the Codex. Also, they have a bolt pistol. At 12 inches, each model actually has 5 shots (4 that ignore cover.)

 

Noise Marines were one of my mainstays in early 8th edition, now not so much. I am looking to ramp up an Emperor's Children army and have been giving a lot of thought to how to make them work. Moving from Black Legion means giving up Abaddon and his auras, ECs need to do a lot more to actually compete.

 

I like shooty Noise Marines, but I've been looking closely at the choppy ones. They always strike first and have 3 attacks base with a chainsword, 5+ FNP with Delightful Agonies, 5+ DttFE with Icon of Excess, they can take a Doomsiren and a Plasma Pistol on the Champ, plus they can DOUBLE all attacks with the Excess of Violence Stratagem.

 

That's very good. It's not going to compete with Berzerkers in cc but it does outperform 30-man Cultist squads and Maulerfiends against everything except high toughness targets. Supported by shooty Noise Marines, you have a very versatile strike force.

 

The problem with Emperor's Children is Rule of 3. I would be tempted to take 3 squads of Noise Marines with Sonic Blasters and 2 with Chainswords but that's now against the rules. Have been looking at Daemon allies for cc but Daemonettes are nowhere near as effective. Possessed could *almost* fill this role, but there's still something missing.

 

So there's more to think about before I could start an EC army.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

You can't fire a pistol and another weapon in the same phase, so the "5 shots per model" line is incorrect.

[Slaanbull]

What Iron Father Ferrum said.
Also: In my (english worded) codex sonic blasters are assault 3, not 4. And noise marines in an Emperors Children detachment are not bound by the rule of 3, since they're troops for EC. (Look in the CSM errata for this).

[Panzer]

Sonic Blaster are definitely Assault 3. They are basically a middle ground between Combi-bolter in rapid fire range and out of rapid fire range. Plus the fact they ignore cover of course. ^^

Melee Noise Marines is just not worth it compared to the shooty variant. You get only one additional S4 AP0 D1 melee attack but trade in 3 S4 AP0 D1 ranged attacks that ignore cover.

[Mekhitar]

Noise marines definitely get more bang for the buck when kitted out to shoot. Don’t forget they can have teeth in cc (baby teeth but still teeth) if a model or two nearby is still alive.

 

Pity our CSM can’t stilk go bolter / chainsword or sonic blaster / chainsword, though - I’d drop the pistols in a heartbeat :)

[techsoldaten]

What Iron Father Ferrum said.

Also: In my (english worded) codex sonic blasters are assault 3, not 4. And noise marines in an Emperors Children detachment are not bound by the rule of 3, since they're troops for EC. (Look in the CSM errata for this).

 

Yeah, what kind of crack am I on. Way off on the number of shots and totally forgot about the RoT and troops.

 

I've been overthinking things a bit.

[El_Dicko]

I’m not actually playing but I had a bunch of assault armed chaos marines(mk3 and mk4 mix with various stuff and raptors)and it seems like cc noise marines are a decent thing to *potentially* use them as. So I’m painting them gold with pink and turquoise accents. If anything it’s an excuse to paint up and slightly convert some emperors children. With the fairly likely impending codex I don’t want to commit to anything too heavily, and I can always run them as Slaanesh marked renegades. Basically I’m waiting for new kits to do proper noise marines.

[techsoldaten]

Here's what I'm dealing with, a large backlog of 2nd edition Noise Marines.

Between the mat and the bags, there's 60 on the table. I have more sitting around in boxes, about 90 total. On the right, you will see a bag of 2nd edition Seekers, I also have a ton of older Daemonettes, Fiends, KoS, etc, along with the old metal CSM models.

Have been collecting them through trades for a long time, lost track of what I actually had. They've been piling up over several editions while I waited for GW to come out with some decent rules for Slaanesh armies.

It feels like now's the time to get started, before GW actually releases a Codex. If it does happen, we know it will feature Cult troops and I'd be surprised if it didn't come with new sculpts. I would *hate* to be buying more models while these sit around unpainted.

With this many Noise Marines, I don't think it makes sense to keep them all shooty. I would rather have an option for friendly games where I can pull out some cc-oriented troops, armed with Chainswords and Power Claws.

[Daemon Prince Marbas]

If you like melee, Possessed perform well for Emperor's Children especially with an Icon of Excess and Delightful Agonies cast on them.

[dark_elf]

That is an impressive collection!

[Mekhitar]

Wow, that’s impressive!

 

If you are looking for melee for friendly games, noise marines do just fine. Maybe toss in a doom siren and a power weapon for a little more punch.

[El_Dicko]

So much metal, so metal!