Unit of the Week series: Possessed

[Wolf Lord Loki]

The unit of the week seems to have gone a bit quiet so I thought I would pop up an entry for one of the units that intregue me the most.

 

We don't have dedicated models for them but I won't feel my Deathguard are complete until I have a set.

 

So for when I have some, I will need to know how best to use them

 

On paper what have they got for and against

Pro-5+ invunerable save

Pro- 4 attacks, S5, ap-2

Pro- Fast can move 7" plus a turn

Pro- as durable as a plague marine

 

Cons- no ranged weapons

Cons - against marine equivalents their melee weapons are not massively effective.

Cons- likely to out pase support and have relatively little Strategem support

Cons - only as durable as a plague marine

 

 

What psychic powers or strats work well with them in isolation

 

What tactics and support can we use as part of a whole army?

 

What targets are they best/ worst against?

[Jorgend Lupus]

...I would really like to love this unit but I find them a little overcosted for what they give up (the cons you mentionned)...

 

I think one of their strong point is their synergy with the Biologus Putrifier.

Of course some Deathshroud Terminators can also benefit greatly from his help, but a 7 squad of Possessed is 28 attacks for 168pts, so a lot of potential Mortal Wounds on 6s to wound !

 

They are pretty good targets for our Putrescent Vitality spell, granting them an excellent Strength 6 and Toughness 6, wich will probably would any MEQ on 2+ in close combat.

 

But maybe their main advantage is movement.

...Does that make them better than spawns for the same cost ? I don't think so, unfortunately...

[Plague _Lord]

Yeah sorry about the unit of the week thing, but work is hellish now and just didn't have the time. Will probably take it back up next week.

 

I might try them out soon. I used to love the S5 T5 profile but it isn't so special nowadays.

 

While they don't have the same damage output as melee plague marines they are a bit more durable and are pretty fast compared to the rest of our force, so they might have a niche.

[McElMcNinja]

Pro - Plague Weapons.

Pro - only 2 CP to Cloud them.

Pro - we can (for now) put them in a Drill or Claw.

Pro - they are Core.

 

Semi-Pro - Inexorable Advance, if there is good terrain.

 

Con - we have no way to buff their charge outside a CP re-roll, although that’s an army wide issue we have.

 

They are a solid unit, but we have to protect them which can be tricky. We do have options and depending on which company we run opens up some nice choices. Outside super competitive I believe they are always a good choice, still trying to fit them into a strong tournament list (along with PM’s).

[Plague _Lord]

I have a new Idea how to play possessed. It's probably not competitive but the list looks like this:

 

Plague comapany - the wretched

 

Winged DP with sword, supparating plate and disgustingly resilient, curse of the leper

Plaguecaster with svenfold blessing and daemons favour, plague wind, miasma, putrescent vitality

 

2x20 poxwalkers

5 plague marines with flail

 

2x10 possessed

 

tallyman, grenade man, bell man

 

2x drone with fleshmower

2x PBC with entropy

 

Reinforcements - epidemius

 

So the whole premise is to buff up 1 squad of possessed with miasma and vitality, while the other squads gets clouded. That's that for defense. I summon Epidemius turn 1 and hope to kill 2 squads with shooting from the PBC (maybe a backfield objective holder with the mortars and a vechicle with the cannons?). If I manage to kill 3 units somehow (for example the drones might get a charge off if  going second) then I have movement 9'' possessed that have rerolls without the DP and can do their own thing. The drones and PBC also will have rerolls by turn 2. I should be able to kill 4-5 units by the end of turn 2 which should make the endgame a lot easier with the buffs to toughness.

.

I doesn't sound competitve but it should be fun if I can somehow manage to not get shot off the board. I think the wretched is a good company just because you need to ensure those psychic powers go off turn 1, but I guesss inexorable for the extra ap might be also great.

[McElMcNinja]

Just a thought on your list, to help with getting the bonus quicker. Drop the DP for a plain Chaos Lord. Drop the PM’s for 10 Poxwalkers, split 1 of you 10 Possessed to 2x5 units. Drop the Putrifier and Blightbringer for a Contemptor with twin Volkite

 

My thinking is your 2 support characters are going to have a tough time keeping up with the Possessed and may get picked off easy. And like you said, once the bonuses start kicking in, do you really need them? Put the lord and tallyman (w/tollkeeper) next to the Contemptor and it’s hitting on 2’s re-rolling 1’s with exploding 6’s. With that and the 2 PBCs you should start racking up kills pretty quickly.

 

Just some thoughts.

[Plague _Lord]

Just a thought on your list, to help with getting the bonus quicker. Drop the DP for a plain Chaos Lord. Drop the PM’s for 10 Poxwalkers, split 1 of you 10 Possessed to 2x5 units. Drop the Putrifier and Blightbringer for a Contemptor with twin Volkite

 

My thinking is your 2 support characters are going to have a tough time keeping up with the Possessed and may get picked off easy. And like you said, once the bonuses start kicking in, do you really need them? Put the lord and tallyman (w/tollkeeper) next to the Contemptor and it’s hitting on 2’s re-rolling 1’s with exploding 6’s. With that and the 2 PBCs you should start racking up kills pretty quickly.

 

Just some thoughts.

 

Contemptor isn't a deamon is it? It won't add to the tally. I think that possessed actually need a putrifier to hit hard. While ap -2 is nice, it's still only 1 dmg and they can't really kill elite units on their own. Let's say a full squad with reroll 1s attacks a unit of blightlord - on their own they take down 3 terminators, with the addition of the putrifier that goes to 5 dead terminators. If said putrifier has arch-contaminator that will bump it up to 6 dead blightlords and another wounded. So the simple addition of the putrifier doubles the unit's melee output which imho is great.

 

 

Another Idea would be to split 1 squad into 2 small ones and keep a big squad in reserves just to let them out when they are solidly buffed but I'm not sure that would be a winning strategy.

[Special Officer Doofy]

I'd be surprised if Epidemius's ability works on DG Nurgle Daemons after they get their new 9th codex. GW always finds a way... Love to be wrong though.

[Azekai]

I'd be surprised if Epidemius's ability works on DG Nurgle Daemons after they get their new 9th codex. GW always finds a way... Love to be wrong though.

Epidemius has worked across factions for years... but yes, I would not be surprised if GW killed another of our sacred cows (RIP 5+++ FnP disgustingly resilient). How dare we have a fun interaction that makes for fun, if not cutthroat, combos. 

[Jorgend Lupus]

If the Contemptor is not a daemon, a Decimator is ! It may be a good fire support for an Epidemus List (and they kept the original butcher cannon, which is an upgraded autocannon compared to Forgeworld other Dreadnoughts).

 

Coming back to Possessed, Epidemius would definitly be a great force multiplier. Since Epidemius lists are often full daemon engines, a couple Possessed squads would not be too much, and they are good targets for our defense spells and strats (CoF). What company could they be ? I think Inexorable or Mortarion's Anvil are the best for them :

-Inexorable for the +1AP in Contagion range, and for the Stratagem to protect the squad from ennemy charges (+2inches)

-Morty's Anvil for the nasty gloaming bloat (no reroll for the opponent, no overwatch or prepared position) and for the heroic intervention Strat.

 

They both give a defensive and an offensive buff, depending on the strat/Contagion, but I think Mortarion's Anvil Heroic Intervention potential is superior, but I guess it's just a personnal preference.

 

 

Last thing, Possessed dont have a Champion, so they can't have acces to Relic or Pathogen, which makes me sad ! They don't have blight grenades and could not care less about inexorable advance... In the end they cruelly lack any synergy with the rest of our army, except the basic ones with our Virions and HQs...

Their offensive power is their only advantage, but I'm not sure we need this when you see how powerful a regular Plague Marine squad can be in close combat...

 

In the end, how would I play them ? Maybe with Epidemius and a Biologus ; that's the best I can see to make them somehow competitive.

[KingYertle]

For me, I struggle to find the right role for Possessed.  While it was great that they finally received DR, the loss of unit size from 20 to 10 was significant.  In a meta of spamming highly reliable D3+3 shooting, being able to go full horde with possessed, and deepstrike them with Terminus Est would have been interesting.  At a unit size of 10 I don't see the benefit of 4 STR5 attacks with no shooting outweighing 10 PMs with 2 flails or 5 deathshroud.  

 

 

Not to get too far off topic, but with Ad Mech and Sisters gaining 20 unit squad size, the fact that DG Lost their ability to field 20 man units is really frustrating.  

[Plague _Lord]

For me, I struggle to find the right role for Possessed.  While it was great that they finally received DR, the loss of unit size from 20 to 10 was significant.  In a meta of spamming highly reliable D3+3 shooting, being able to go full horde with possessed, and deepstrike them with Terminus Est would have been interesting.  At a unit size of 10 I don't see the benefit of 4 STR5 attacks with no shooting outweighing 10 PMs with 2 flails or 5 deathshroud.  

 

 

Not to get too far off topic, but with Ad Mech and Sisters gaining 20 unit squad size, the fact that DG Lost their ability to field 20 man units is really frustrating.  

 

I've done the maths, might put a spreadsheet up when I finish all the calculations but 10 unbuffed possessed do actually more damage than 10 plague marines (2x flail, 2x axe, 2x double knife, 3x bolter and champ with powerfist) for more or less the same cost. This goes for vs MEQ and GEQ. I also checked how they square against deathshroud. 5 Deathshroud will do a bit more damage vs meq than the possessed but cost 10 points more. All in all damagewise possessed are superior to melee plague marines (poor plague marines :( ) but are a bit worse than deathshroud. What they do bring is 20 wounds vs the deathshroud's 15, though deathshroud ofc have a 4++. After looking at the stats I'm starting to think that possessed aren't actually that bad - they are fast and pack a punch and are more durable than plague marines.

 

Damn this codex is well balanced, internally at least.

[Wolf Lord Loki]

So a possible role for Possessed is to range ahead and clear objectives for their scoring brethren following up behind.

 

Or a distraction carnifex. Your opponent HAS to do something about them OR your defiler OR contemptor BUT the Possessed are almost in their lines....

 

I like it

 

In an army that needs so much synergy between units, Possessed are a squad that are simple - you point at a target and wait for the screaming to stop. Then you point again and repeat....

Edited June 23, 2021 by Wolf Lord Loki

[Plague _Lord]

So a possible role for Possessed is to range ahead and clear objectives for their scoring brethren following up behind.

 

Or a distraction carnifex. Your opponent HAS to do something about them OR your defiler OR contemptor BUT the Possessed are almost in their lines....

 

I like it

 

In an army that needs so much synergy between units, Possessed are a squad that are simple - you point at a target and wait for the screaming to stop. Then you point again and repeat....

 

Edit PS- I would like to see the spreadsheet cos I'm wierd!!

 

 

Here is the spreadsheet (the formatting is whack, sorry for that but I don't have too much spare time on my hands :) ) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1EBfXSD0HMdcUSjIGxpRup_nAGCkMrIGcVZf-KqoMdvQ/edit?usp=sharing

 

Because there are a lot of combinations I didn't bother to put them all in, just a chosen few which I deemed were most common to come up so - reroll auras, +1 to hit from tallyman, nade dude mortals and archcontaminator. Just for fun I also included the effects of Epi and how they stand up to other buffs.

 

We have 3 tables - Damage after saves, Points cost per damage dealt and Points cost per point killed. 

 

Damage after saves - pretty hand to know if you will wipe an enemy or not. The table encompasses mortals from nade dude.

Points cost per damage dealt - basically how much points you are paying for the damage you can deal to a unit.

Points cost per points killed ratio - an efficiancy rating, showing if possessed will deal with a unit efficientyl. The unifing factor being points cost.

 

I also picked a few popular units (so intercessors, knights and so on) to show how possessed fare against different unit types.  The ratio is a bit flawed thanks to unit size caps - a possessed squad won't make it's points back by killing a max squad of intercessor for example, but If they were to attack 2 squads at the same time then they would even it out.

 

Result - It seems possessed efficiently make their points back by killing necron warriors and knights and when buffed by a Biologus Putrifier and arch-contaminator they become efficient at taking everything except chaff like guardsmen. I did not include reanimation on warriors since a 10 man possessed unit with minimal buffs will on average wipe a maxed warrior squad in one go.

 

It also looks like their most efficient use is to buff them up and send them into a knight. On average they should take it down in one assault phase.

 

Of course this is all in vacuum and reality can change this all, but it does give us some insight and for me presonally, it tells me that they aren't a bad unit. They can delete almost anything in the game in 1 round with the right buffs and with great speed and cloud of flies, they actually have the means to reach their target. We have to think of them as our guided missile. I might add deathshroud to the spreadsheet for comparison's sake and they will probably be more efficient, they are much slower (over your first 2 turns they lose 4'' of movement) which could be crucial for actually reaching the target :)