The Disciples of the Four Ride Back Bedraggled!

The following is a Warhammer 40K battle report, so for folks reading who don't play that tabletop game, there's a lot of specific lingo - I'd like to think I wrote things up so they're easy to follow, though.

 So it's been a few weeks since I posted my army list and wrote up about intended plans to conquer and humiliate a friend's Warhammer 40K army in the name of the gods of Chaos using a small no-fuss starter list. I haven't had much time to sit down with a clear mind and write up a battle report, but today's that day, friends!

 Well, the overall result was that the Disciples lost. I don't consider it a sound beating, though, and I'm not going to say that the dice weren't completely unfavorable - it was more a combination of things. (You can see my army list here: The Disciples of the Four Ride Forth Again!) I managed to keep things going (on less and less of a roll as time went on) and my army ended up getting whittled down completely by the end of turn 4.

 My friend fielded a pretty solid list of Space Wolves - a Wolf Guard Battle Leader fronting a small squad of Blood Claws, two small squads of Grey Hunters, and a Dreadnought - not being so familiar with the Space Wolves of 6th Edition 40K, I didn't exactly know what I was up against. We rolled off to see who went first, it ended up being him and me not able to steal initiative. By way of explanation, all I've ever played the few times I've played 40K, it's just been generic "annihilation" missions where I straightforwardly try to cut down the opponent - this time we had decided on claiming table objectives, 4 of them with random properties once discovered. I went with a strategy of "charge in and cut them down" while trying to dispute his objective claiming - it worked (at least initially)!

 In hindsight, I made some bad decisions in planning for a game other than "Annihilation" - I likely could've gone without transports, I could've went with cheaper troops, I should've picked better targets to start with; who knew? My plan was to rush the Rhino troop transports forward, pop smoke grenades for cover, disembark using the Rhinos as cover for my troops, and then charge a good target with my Lord and Berzerkers. The rest of the troops in the other Rhino would do similar so far as using the Rhino for cover, except hold in cover and act as a gunline.

 The first turn, my non-'Zerker Rhino lost a hull point and was immobilized between autocannon shots from the Space Wolf Dreadnought and a Plasma Gun in each group of Grey Hunters. I moved my Rhino full of "choppiness" up and deployed the Lord and Berzerkers with the Rhino for cover. Since I couldn't move right away, we exchanged pot shots and I killed off a Blood Claw or two. I kept the gunline CSM's in the other Rhino within the deployment zone.

 Second turn, I was able to charge with my Lord and 'Zerkers - in hindsight I should've went after the Dread and took that out right away between the Melta-bombs and increased Strength on the charge. No, instead I waded into close combat with the Blood Claws and got about 20 hits on them taking out only a few Claws - armor saves were coming out well for his guys in droves... Under the 6th Ed. CSM rules, my Lord has to make Challenges... so then I ran into his Wolf Guard Battle Leader: a guy with a Frost Axe (now an AP2 power axe), a magic necklace so he always hit on a 3+ in CC, magic power armor so he had a 2+ save against all conventional damage, and at least 3 attacks per turn. Needless to say my Lord didn't last so long, but at least his Ichor Blood splattering everywhere when he died killed off a few more Blood Claws. Oh, and my other Rhino was able to move forward and drop a smoke screen - because I moved so far, all I could get was a Meltagun snap shot and a Krak grenade at the Dread, but at least I knocked it down a hull point.

 The third turn, his Dreadnought blew up my assault troops' Rhino in a volley of gunfire and I lost one Berzerker in the blast. Did I mention each of his Grey Hunter squads had a Plasma Gun? Yeah? Well, they blew up the 2nd Rhino with rapid firing before my troops could deploy and I lost a few of them due to failed armor saves. I lost a few more of them from firing from his other Hunter squad and their Plasma Gun overheated - but his Hunter made the armor save. His Wolf Guard Battle Leader moved on from the remains of my Chaos Lord and started chopping down all my remaining Berzerkers with help from the few remaining Blood Claws, starting with the Berzerker Champion who was obligated to make a challenge. I managed to knock his Dread down another hull point with another Meltagun shot as I figgered that it was the most significant threat to my remaining troops, but that was about it.

 Fourth turn? My opponent's Dreadnought turned its full attention to my regular CSM's, who despite moving into cover and getting a better bonus cover save from the claimed objective, basically started dying en masse. Following a hail of fire from both the Grey Hunter squads, the Disciples of the Four ended up as nothing but a mass of corpses on a battlefield.

 Was the game a complete embarrassment? No, I don't think so - we both had fun and since we're both pretty rusty on the rules, we learned a lot about the new 6th Edition's gameplay. Are there some things I should've done differently? Oh, most certainly... targeting the Dreadnought first with a charge instead of the unit with the attached Battle Leader might've been good. Dropping the Chainaxes for some extra points and more troops? Sure. Forgoing vehicles entirely? Quite possibly, as I would've had more guns to fire. Not even using Berzerkers? I like them, but they do cost a fair amount of points and in this small game I probably would've had similar (if not better) results with a lot more regular Chaos Marines and extra close combat weapons.

 Let me know what you readers think! This was my first game in 6th Edition 40K, I have a minimum of models (because, well, I'm more of a display figure painter than an army builder), and I'd say my tactics definitely need work. I did have fun and my friend was a good opponent, so ideally we'd be getting in another game soonish, schedules permitting.

The Disciples of the Four Ride Forth Again!

 I'm planning on playing my first official game of 40K today in about 2 years under the newest 6th Ed. ruleset. A friend and I are only playing a 500pt starter game (as my "finished" model selection is somewhat lacking), but I'm so geeked about tonight!

 It will be my CSM's versus (presumably) vanilla SM's (or possibly Space Wolves) - any play suggestions or gaming tips for a relative newbie would be greatly appreciated!

Here's my army list:

=HQ=
Chaos Lord
- Power flail (power mace, essentially, but my finished Chaos Lord fig has a flail modeled, so...)
- Melta Bombs
- Ichor Blood
- Veteran of the Long War
- Mark of Khorne
105 pts.

=Troops=
8 Chaos Space Marines
- Meltagun
- Veterans of the Long War
Chaos Rhino transport
- extra Combi-bolter
172 pts.

6 Khorne Berzerkers
Skull Champ (couldn't resist, prefer it to Berzerker Champ)
- Power Weapon
- Melta Bombs
- 5 Chainaxes
- Veterans of the Long War
- Icon of Wrath
Chaos Rhino transport
- extra Combi-bolter
220 pts.

Total: 497 pts.

 My thinking is to have the Lord grouped with the Berzerkers, roll them all up in the Rhinos from as far forward as I can field them, and pop smoke grenades for cover.

The next turn, I'll have the Berzerkers and Lord charge into CC against something dangerous. If it ends up being Bjorn the Fell-Handed or something, between the added weapon strength on the charge from the Lord and/or the combination of Melta Bombs, then they ought to crack it open given enough time. Meanwhile, the CSM's deploy out from within 24" using the Rhino or terrain for cover and lay down as much fire as they can (ideally Rapid Fire range) with a Melta for support if anything heavy shows up via Deep Strike or what have you.

 This is a variation of a list I fielded in 5th Edition at a gaming shop again some random guy, where I had a Slaaneshi Lord with a generic Daemon Weapon paired up with my Berzerkers - first charge against my opponent's troops, I had something like 19-20 attacks and chopped up most of his Space Wolves into tiny pieces. He had also fielded Bjorn the Fell-Handed and I ended up immobilizing him before engaging in close combat, but it turned out my opponent was a bit of a poor sport and insisted that despite being immobilized, his Dread was still able to turn to face my troops from any side where they couldn't dent his armor and so I eventually moved off opposite a hill out of LoS of Bjorn with my remaining troops, so the game was pretty much a and he complained about how I should've stayed and fought. (I afterwards read the 5th Ed. rulebook more specifically and realized he actually was playing unfair with Bjorn so far as immobilization and facing, and this same immobilized Dread rule carries forward into 6th Ed.)

 In any case, I added extra Melta Bombs on the Lord and a +Strength weapon to make sure that doesn't happen again, and I'm hoping that anything the Berzerker crew can't take care of, the remaining CSM gunline can with support from the double-bolstered Rhinos (if they survive).

 Like I said, comments and any suggestions on the tentative army would be great, and I'm trying to get my painting mojo back so I can finish up the CoC figures I have pending (from previous posts) - the customer said there's no rush on them and I've been busy with work and family
(and "painter's block"), but despite that I want to be respectable and get his commission done as quickly and as well as I can.

The Disciples of the Four, Revised

I've kinda settled on a 1,000pt. tentative Chaos Space Marine army list making some revisions to my last army layout - I've gotten 2 games under my belt now under the new Edition and played polar opposite 500 pt. armies: an all-Warrior Tyranid list and a Space Wolves force fielding Bjorn, an Iron Priest, and squads of Long Fangs. My battle with the 'Nids was one-sided in their favor, but I ended up playing a draw against the Wolves and there were some stupid things I did (or didn't do, just as likely) in both games that I shouldn't repeat.

=HQ=
Undivided Chaos Lord
- Daemon Weapon
- Combi-melta
140 pts.

=Troops=
6 Khorne Berzerkers
- Skull Champion
-- Power Fist
Rhino w/ twin-linked bolter
201 pts.

10 Chaos Marines
- Icon of Chaos Glory
- Meltagun
- Meltagun
180 pts.

=Heavy Support=
5 Havocs
- 4 Missile Launchers
Rhino w/ twin-linked bolter
- Havoc Launcher
205 pts.

Defiler
- 2 Extra close combat arms
150 pts.

=Fast Attack=
3 Chaos Spawn
120 pts.

Total: 996 pts.

I'd really appreciate feedback on the list, especially if you could give some of the reasoning behind your suggestions. (I'm trying to pick up as much knowledge here about army list composition as I can, since I don't have a lot of actual playing experience - 5 games total so far.)

Relative Killy Virtues of CSM Power "Stuff"

 Apparently by trying to tweak my CSM Codex-standard 500 point army list a bit so far as the retinue of Khorne Berserkers accompanying my Undivided Chaos Lord into battle, I seem to have hit on a very polarizing topic in the community under 5th Edition Warhammer 40K rules: the relative killy virtues of Power Fists vs. Power Weapons.

 The scenario is that my Chaos Lord and a smallish number of Berzerkers (say, 5, one of whom is a Skull Champion) are piled into a Rhino APC to rush across the battlefield, pile out under cover of smoke grenades and supporting firepower and then run at a charge, howling for blood to be spilt and frothing at the mouth with maniacal anticipation.

 All things working out as planned, so the Berzerkers have Furious Charge with a bonus to Init. and Str. and an additional Attack for initiating the assault. The Chaos Lord does his bloodletting, but let's assume that there are more than enough warm bodies with pulses still standing for the Berzerkers to have their fun.

 Now if I'm understanding correctly, if the Skull Champion had a Power Weapon he would get all his attacks at a slightly higher Init. the first Assault turn, get a bonus Attack for the pistol in his off hand, an extra attack for the charge, and any hits would ignore enemy armor saves. A lot of potential hits at better-than-MEQ Initiative, in other words.

If I tooled out the Skull Champion with a Power Fist, however, he would attack with a 10 Str, get an extra attack for the charge, and cause
Instant Death to MEQ's. The down side is that in current 5th Ed. rules he wouldn't get an off-hand weapon attack unless he had another Power Fist, a Lightning Claw, or something similar. Oh, and he'd strike dead last in Initiative order with all his Power Fist attacks - there's not much point in saying he'd use his Bolt Pistol for all his carnage just for
the sake of running with a higher Init. since that kinda defeats the whole point of having him assigned a Power Fist, you can't split Assault attacks between weapons rules-wise, and the Fist is so much more intimidating.

 With only 5 Berzerkers and a worst-case scenario, the unit might all be dead before the Champion is even able to get medieval on the squad's intended victims with his Fist. Myself (being an absolute novice player), I think it would make more sense to have as many attacks at as high an Init. as possible and be able to cut through armor like butter. Judging from what I've read on various 40K-related forums, the majority opinion favors Power Fists versus Power Weapons.

 What do you folks think? I'm wondering what would be better for my small CSM force-in-progress. So far as modelling, I've got either extra-killy Power "stuff" option covered with a planned conversion for my Skull Champion.