Terminus as a Front Line Caster: Army Lists

I've already posted one 35 point list in my previous posts. I'm hanging out with a friend tonight and we are going to play some lower points games so I thought I would tackle the list building portion of my homework. I'm supposed to be building lists keeping the following in mind:

1. List will include troop options to block avenues of attack to the warcaster.
2. List will include models with abilities that deny enemy models their ability to move or act.
   
3. List will include models with abilities that promote focus efficiency. (See my article on Cryx and focus efficiency).

We'll start with a 15 point list:

• Terminus - Of course
• Deathjack - This guy is the king of focus efficiency and deadliness. His only downside is that he tends to steal souls that could otherwise go to Terminus. If I owned a Seether model I would switch Deathjack out for that and add a Pistol Wraith to increase my ability to freeze models.
  
• 6 Bane Thralls - I love these guys, and they do a good job serving as Terminus' escort.
  
• Warwitch Siren - Not super effective at this points level since she won't be putting focus on deathjack, but her venom attack can come in handy and her shadow bind ability has a good chance to root an opposing warjack/beast for a turn.

For 25 points I would add to the above:

• Slayer - Open hands let the slayer lock the weapon systems of opposing jacks. The Warwitch will give this guy the single point of focus he needs in a turn.
• Pistol Wraith - Chain Attack: Death Chill roots opposing models and POW:12 shots are a big threat to opposing infantry and solos.

The 25 point list is actually one point under, so you could swap the Bane Thralls for Bane Knights. The knights are more maneuverable thanks to ghostly, but you give up the debuff aura that the thralls provide.

Hordes Wishlisting: Goats!

My regular gaming group has been playing a bunch of Warmachine, and a couple people are starting to dip their toes into Hordes. Two people are starting up Circle of Orboros armies. One is going straight Wolves with eKaya leading the charge. The other has made a completely different army using Baldur and Woldwardens.

It's intriguing to me that two armies drawn from the same list can play and look so different. 40K suffers a bit in this respect. The endless procession of power armor armies and mechanized guard gets a little boring after a while. True, there are exceptions.

I actually own some Legion of Everblight models that I've never put together. But the focus by my group on Orboros got me looking at what they had to offer. That's when I discovered this grumpy looking fellow. I love that sculpt.

Turns out there are quite a few goat looking models in the Orboros line. I thought I'd try to put together a goat-themed army. The idea is to have a shepherd(ess) and her flock of goats. No wolves, no rocks tied to stones, just a simple shepherd tending his flock. I figured I'd see what a 15 point force would look like. I pointed it up trying to make an army that's tactically flexible (has more than just three units in it), cheap (won't break the bank to purchase) and easy to paint (the fewer models to paint the better).

• Kaya, the Wildborne - My warlock. A simple shepherdess character. She's an unassuming model, but her spells, powers and feats support a force with lots of warbeasts, which will make expanding the army fun. An all goat army could have been led by Kromac, but he's harder to use, doesn't offer as many warbeast points, and his spells don't synergize as well with the Satyr's abilities. Also his models are expensive and I would have to paint two models for one unit in my force.
• Gnarlhorn Satyr - Heavy warbeast. That's my boy! Great looking model. Heavy hitter. As long as he's in Kaya's control group her Pack Hunter ability gives him a bonus to attack rolls, making his slams and fists hit more often, leaving more fury for buying extra attacks.
• Argus - Light warbeast. Every shepherdess needs a dog to help guide the herd. He's got a nice debuff, a medium sized base to block charge and trample lanes and most importantly he has a good fury stat to help keep Kaya's spellcasting and other abilities constantly running. I could have added another Gnarlhorn Satyr here, but that would leave me with few leftover points and a very low model count. In small point games its important to have some extra models on the table to grab objectives and tie up the enemie's heavy hitters.
• Tharn Ravagers - 4 man unit. Goat men! Medium bases mean they can't be trampled. Reach, Pathfinder and Treewalker mean they have a great threat range. Standard warrior defense and eight damage boxes mean most things will have to boost attack rolls to guarantee a hit, and everything but a heavy will have to boost damage rolls to guarantee a kill. This is a unit to support tactical play.
• Tharn Ravager White Mane - Solo Goat - All the benefits of the Tharn Ravagers and then some. He can tear through any infantry your opponent throws at you and he boosts the Tharn Ravagers. This guy and the regular Ravagers can be used to choke up charge lanes or they can operate independently to wrap come in on a flank.

So that would be 8 models to paint. From The War Store you would spend about $115 for the models if you bought the epic version of Kaya. This would give you some flexibility to change your play style by switching out your warlock. Alternatively you could get the warpack with the non-epic version of Kaya for just ten dollars more. This has the benefit of giving you an extra Argus and Warpwolf for when you want to make the jump to the next points level. I'd probably try to sell or trade the wolf to get another goat.

Kill Teams and Battle Missions

A buddy and I played a few scenarios from the Battle Missions book recently. I know that battle missions is pretty much old news at this point, but I wanted to give my impression after actually having played.

We both brought our chaos armies for the evening. Starting off with Kill Teams we plunked our minis down and went at it. I brought a handful of chaos marines with a rhino and an icon, and threw in another handful of summoned lesser demons. On the opposing side was a squad of plague marines with a plasma gun and melta gun.

I was pretty brutally mauled in this game. I managed to keep my guys shooting, and got some two vs. one assaults but in the end the survivability of the plague marines was my downfall. Because Kill Teams is lost by having half your army destroyed, I was banking on having a healthy number of models. Turns out eleven is still not a healthy number. I would have been better off bringing a few special weapons so I could capitalize on the instances where I had a clear shot on one of his guys. In a scenario that revolves around whittling your opponent away, I just wasn't survivable or killy enough.

Fun game though. It played a bit like War Machine without the casters. Very few units moving around and everyone counts.

Next game we played 500 points and since we were both Chaos, we diced off to see who would be the attacker and then rolled a d3 to pick a chaos mission from the book. I came up as defender on the Pillage Mission.

Our army lists started off similarly. We both had flying daemon princes with the mark of Khorne. Demon princes fulfill a lot of roles in a low point game and the khorne prince is one of the cheapest. Following his prince, my opponent had a squad of plague marines and a unit of berserkers in a rhino. My prince brought along two small squads of chaos marines, one on foot and one with a plasma gun in a rhino. Also a defiler.

The game started slow with his berserkers moving up and his plague marines camping the objective closest to his deployment zone in order to rack up some early VPs. His prince moved towards the center where he'd be able to support his flanks. For my part I moved my rhino up a bit and a hail of bolter fire and a couple of well placed plasma shots took out a good chunk of the plague marine squad. The other space marine squad assaulted the berserker's rhino, planting krak grenades and stunning it.

Continuing on the plague marines stood steady on their objective, ensuring more points. The opposing khorne prince bopped over to tear the tracks off my rhino, while his berserkers piled out and attacked my demon prince, putting two wounds on him but losing most of their number in return. On my turn the defiler showed up and tried to fleet close enough to the berserker rhino that it would be able to use it to get some extra movement on the charge but fell just short. The chaos marines piled out of their soon to be destroyed rhino and put some rounds into the demon prince causing a couple of wounds.

The rest of the battle was simply a series of moves and counter moves. The defiler moved onto my objective with the chaos marines surrounding it for protection. His demon prince killed the chaos marines with the plasma gun. My demon prince killed his plague marines. The culmination of the battle was his demon prince bellowing to khorne and assaulting mine. They pummeled each other across two rounds of combat until they simultaneously sent each other back to the warp.

With his entire army gone the final result was a victory for me.

Road To Glory: Army Lists for Battles 3 and 4

Tonight we get down and dirty with Missions 3 of the Road to Glory campaign. If we have time we're going to attempt to do mission 4 as well.

Here are the army lists I'll be using.

• Abaddon (275)
• 5 Chaos Marines in a rhino champion with power fist (150)
• 5 Thousand Sons & Sorceror with doombolt (185)
• Defiler (150)
  
• Land Raider possessed (240)

Both missions are objective based, and I'm going a little bit light on scoring units. Compared to last week I'm a bit more mobile and everything has an armored shell around it. This could be good or bad since I'm sure the ork mechaniks have been hard at work fitting deffrollas to everything. Abaddon and the thousand sons are tasked with bringing the pain and securing a remote objective. The chaos marines will secure their own objective and act as a delaying force/bait. The Defiler is in charge of objective denial and artillery.

If we have time we're going to go on and play the fourth mission. Here's the list I'll be using for that.

• Same as above (1000)
  
• 3 Bikes champion with power fist and two meltas (159)
• 5 more chaos marines and plasma gun (90)

Same objectives as the first list. The addition of the bikes will give me some fast anti vehicle, allow me to contest late in the game or finish off a unit in assault.

Campaign: Road to Glory

Tonight marks the beginning of the Road to Glory campaign with Orks taking on Chaos. The two armies have been staring at each other across no man's land for some time now and soon one side will be making a push to bring this confrontation to an end. I've started a campaign map to chronicle events. We plan on playing the first two battles tonight so those are already on the map (I realized today that I mislabeled the second battle). Depending on the outcome I'll add in ork and chaos symbols, and maybe switch the arrow colors depending on who ends up the attacker.

We're playing the campaign escalation style starting at 500 points and increasing by 250 each game. Here's the chaos army list for the first battle:

• Demon Prince wings, khorne (140)
  
• 5 Chaos Space Marines plasma gun (90)
• 5 Chaos Space Marines flamer, rhino w/extra bolter (120)
• Defiler (150)

Everything in the list has a job. The khorne prince's aim is to move fast and take out any troops or fast units, preventing the orks from grabbing objectives or contesting late in the game. The chaos marines in the rhino will move and take a mid-field objective while the other marine squad will hold an objective in my deployment zone (preferably in cover) and provide fire support. The Defiler will move up and guard an objective mid-field while shelling large groups of orks.

The list for the second game is 250 points bigger but identical in purpose. The chaos marines have been combined into one squad and given some heavy hitting plasma weapons. Deployment zone objective duties go to the slow and purposeful thousand sons whose armor piercing fire will provide valuable support. The second game is capture and control so the khorne prince will follow the marines in the rhino to the ork objective and wipe up any opposition.

• Demon Prince wings, khorne (140)
• 10 Chaos Space Marines 2 plasma guns, champ w/power fist & combi-weapon, icon of chaos glory, rhino (275)
• 5 Thousand Sons & Sorceror w/doombolt (185)
• Defiler (150)