Warp Talons, tips & tricks?

[battle captain corpus]

Hey folks,

 

So I’m no spring chicken to Chaos Marines, having been playing Black Legion since before they became cool (well in my mind they’ve always been cool!). But I’ve never used Warp Talons.

 

But sitting before me on my hobby desk are 10 of them in progress...

...so what’s everyone’s gaming tips and tricks with them? I have a Lord with jump pack and lightning claws to join them in the fray also...

 

BCC

Edited April 19, 2020 by battle captain corpus

[Cheex]

I've been taking a squad of 5 in my World Eaters army for the past few games and they've generally done work. Had them in a Host Raptorial detachment (for the warlord trait that gives them +2" to charge rolls), accompanied by a Smash Lord.

 

I think 2x5 in a Host Raptorial works well, that helps to increase your chances of getting a successful charge on the drop. Don't expect them to slice up whole squads by themselves; they should be used to tie things up and pick off small targets.

 

Don't forget their DAEMON keyword, that allows them to synergise pretty well with Chaos Daemon auras. 

[techsoldaten]

Hey folks,

 

So I’m no spring chicken to Chaos Marines, having been playing Black Legion since before they became cool (well in my mind they’ve always been cool!). But I’ve never used Warp Talons.

 

But sitting before me on my hobby desk are 10 of them in progress...

...so what’s everyone’s gaming tips and tricks with them? I have a Lord with jump pack and lightning claws to join them in the fray also...

 

BCC

Alright, if the goal is to run them as Black Legion, they're a great disruption unit with decent melee and abilities.

 

The most important thing to know is that they need to get into combat the turn they arrive. To maximize your chances, you want to run them as part of a Host Raptorial detachment. Use the Field Commander Stratagem to get Tip of the Claw on your Chaos Lord, giving the unit +2 to charge rolls. Then you probably want to give them the Mark of Khorne and you probably want to give them the Icon of Wrath to improve the odds.

 

Always charge first with Warp Talons because they are immune to overwatch. As long as they get in, anything else can get in without risk.

 

In combat, they are going to have 3 attacks the turn they charge and they will reroll all failed wound rolls with S4 weapons. This kind of tells you how to buff them, Prescience and VotLW go a long way to making them useful.

 

But where they shine is with the Black Legion specific Stratagems. World Killers lets them take objectives even when they are outnumbered. Merciless Fighters gives you +1 attack and is so important fighting Primaris. Legacy of Horus can be important when you're running 10 man squads and don't want to lose anybody to morale.

 

In most games, Warp Talons are going to die after a turn or two. The times I use them is for objective grabbing, they keep jumping around until there's nothing left. I don't want to make it seem like they're an optimal choice, but they're a sneaky choice - people are usually surprised by what they can get done.

[Kain Mor]

 

 

Hey folks,

 

So I’m no spring chicken to Chaos Marines, having been playing Black Legion since before they became cool (well in my mind they’ve always been cool!). But I’ve never used Warp Talons.

 

But sitting before me on my hobby desk are 10 of them in progress...

...so what’s everyone’s gaming tips and tricks with them? I have a Lord with jump pack and lightning claws to join them in the fray also...

 

BCC

Alright, if the goal is to run them as Black Legion, they're a great disruption unit with decent melee and abilities.

 

The most important thing to know is that they need to get into combat the turn they arrive. To maximize your chances, you want to run them as part of a Host Raptorial detachment. Use the Field Commander Stratagem to get Tip of the Claw on your Chaos Lord, giving the unit +2 to charge rolls. Then you probably want to give them the Mark of Khorne and you probably want to give them the Icon of Wrath to improve the odds.

 

Always charge first with Warp Talons because they are immune to overwatch. As long as they get in, anything else can get in without risk.

 

In combat, they are going to have 3 attacks the turn they charge and they will reroll all failed wound rolls with S4 weapons. This kind of tells you how to buff them, Prescience and VotLW go a long way to making them useful.

 

But where they shine is with the Black Legion specific Stratagems. World Killers lets them take objectives even when they are outnumbered. Merciless Fighters gives you +1 attack and is so important fighting Primaris. Legacy of Horus can be important when you're running 10 man squads and don't want to lose anybody to morale.

 

In most games, Warp Talons are going to die after a turn or two. The times I use them is for objective grabbing, they keep jumping around until there's nothing left. I don't want to make it seem like they're an optimal choice, but they're a sneaky choice - people are usually surprised by what they can get done.

It’s worth noting that Warp Talons aren’t allowed to take icons of chaos, so you can’t access the re-roll charges. The rest of this checks out. I tend to run 2x5 shooty raptors and 1x10 warp talons with a jump lord and jump sorcerer in my night lords. Sorcerer drops prescience on the talons and diabolic strength on the lord and has the +2 charge trait.

[Cheex]

Night Lords is one of the few situations where a larger squad makes sense, because of your 3D6" charge stratagem (Emperor's Children and, to a lesser extent, World Eaters can also get away with it). In other cases, I would use multiple smaller units to increase the chances of at least one of them reaching combat.

 

Regarding rerolls, remember that they have the DAEMON keyword, so if you give them the Mark of Khorne then an allied Khorne Daemon character can give them rerolls to charge (if taken in at least a Patrol detachment). But that's a fairly significant points outlay, and if you want to make sure the Daemon character is in range then you need to spend even more CPs to get it to deep strike as well.

[ChazSexington]

Personally, I run 10 as Red Corsairs with a Host Raptorial, with a Chaos Sorcerer with Jump Pack as their Field Commander. He has Prescience/Death Hex/Delightful Agonies/Warptime, dependent on the opponent. Warptime is very good with Red Corsairs Warp Talons, as they can Deep Strike, somewhat reliably make a charge and hopefully hide in combat, then I can Move/Advance, Warptime, and then Charge due to their trait (though they will suffer Overwatch on the second charge.

 

I've previously given them MoS for Delightful Agonies to give them a little more durability, but I've recently opted for MoK for the fight again Stratagem (as others mentioned, they can't take Icons). Prescience will do work (especially if you have a Chaos Lord nearby). Once they're getting Death to the False Emperor on 5s and re-rolling 1s from a Chaos Lord, they can generate a lot of hits against Imperials. If they're Black Legionnaires, they also get VotLW, so they can do some damage.

 

They can be good to tri point/wrap vehicles as well, but I wouldn't recommend the same for infantry. They generally will kill too many for that and get gunned down in return. There's probably some balance between them and Raptors for this task. 

I would rate them casual plus, mainly because they're not reliable enough and unless they're targetting GEQs, don't seem to do too much. With the Khornate fight again Stratagem, you should also be able to get close enough to assassinate enemy Characters with them. A charge with +2 and two Pile In and a Consolidate should bring you close enough to kill at least lightly armoured Characters behind screens. 

 

Against Tau, they can be a game changer, especially with MoK and a Sorcerer removing Invulnerable saves with Death Hex. 

Edited April 21, 2020 by ChazSexington

[Doom Herald]

I've only used them in Night Lords, personally. I wasn't totally happy with them (I took them out) but they weren't worthless. They are a good tie-up unit and did especially well holding vehicles in place. In Night Lords, you can buff their hit roll to the point that you get DttFE on a 3+ (2 NL strats and prescience) which is nice but only against Imperium.

 

If you're willing to use a different legion for them, I might try EC Host Raptorial. With the Host Raptorial warlord trait and one of the EC strats, you can actually GUARANTEE a deepstrike charge. The Excess of Violence strat also turns them into a nastier infantry killer. If you take a larger unit, you might even want to use Combat Elixirs to make them a little tougher (the biggest problem with Warp Talons in my opinion is they die fast). One large unit, guaranteed charge on priority target, once their numbers start dwindling use them as infantry blenders. I would definitely keep a Sorcerer with them to add the 5+ FNP too. Possibly consider a smaller unit as a tie-up unit and a larger unit to do the work. Drop the larger unit first, then use the second to hold back major ranged threats.

Edited April 21, 2020 by Doom Herald

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

I'm thinking of running a squad of 5 in my EC alongside a strikebreaking chaos terminator lord, though was thinking of using the Palatine Blade models with jump packs, any bolt pistols having been swapped out for a second sword/Phoenix spears, do people think that would be okay?

[40kChrista]

Host Raptorial is pretty much the way to go, anything to get them in a successful charge. 

 

That said I drop 10 World Eater Warp Talons down next to my Raptorial Lord, and a Termi Lord with Violent Urgency... they'll get +3 to charge, so just a combined 6 is needed to close the gap.  Those are backed up with either another Warp Talon unit or a larger Raptor unit with plasma pistols

[Bulwyf]

I'm thinking of running a squad of 5 in my EC alongside a strikebreaking chaos terminator lord, though was thinking of using the Palatine Blade models with jump packs, any bolt pistols having been swapped out for a second sword/Phoenix spears, do people think that would be okay?

 

I use Palatine Blades to "count as" Chosen so...

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

 

I'm thinking of running a squad of 5 in my EC alongside a strikebreaking chaos terminator lord, though was thinking of using the Palatine Blade models with jump packs, any bolt pistols having been swapped out for a second sword/Phoenix spears, do people think that would be okay?

 

I use Palatine Blades to "count as" Chosen so...

 

Have you had much luck with them as Chosen? I always though shooting chosen would be better/less transport reliant and that close combat chosen were outshone by terminators?

[Bulwyf]

 

 

I'm thinking of running a squad of 5 in my EC alongside a strikebreaking chaos terminator lord, though was thinking of using the Palatine Blade models with jump packs, any bolt pistols having been swapped out for a second sword/Phoenix spears, do people think that would be okay?

 

I use Palatine Blades to "count as" Chosen so...

 

Have you had much luck with them as Chosen? I always though shooting chosen would be better/less transport reliant and that close combat chosen were outshone by terminators?

 

 

I wish Chosen would count as a troop option. You can make them work as either shooty or close combat. The problem is other units usually do that job better with a better delivery option. For instance Raptors with combi plasma can drop in and really shoot something up. Termies are better but cost more. 

 

I've had some success running Chosen in a LR to protect them in my EC list with Lucius and some support characters. The only knock on that is Possessed can do the same thing but better with the rules and spells you can use.