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Monday, April 28, 2014

Et tu Brute?

It might be the change in weather, or it might be that I started running/hitting the gym again but Spring has somehow resulted in more motivation to paint, build army lists and generally be more productive.  The past two weeks, I took the time to work on one of the 3 Helbrutes that I need completed as part of the list I plan to bring with me to the next Millennium tournament.


I have a few new elements in this list - and I have found these incremental changes really help a lot when it comes to pushing me to complete painting projects.

My motivation for this list come from a few observations.  I have seen a big rise in the amount of infantry being fielded - as if to taunt all those Heldrakes into burning something away.  The new Astra Militarium codex is has a ton of guard bodies that do not come default with Kraks and tend toward carrying Flamers/Autocannons.  Furthermore, the new dataslate for Helbrutes provides a really interesting delivery mechanism through Deep Strike and some bonus durability with It Will Not Die.  Finally - I have always had a thing for Dreadnoughts.

Where my previous lists brought with them an overwhelming number of T4 multiwound models - this list brings that durability and a few unit immune to small arms fire that can close ground quickly.  Without further adieu the list according to the following rules:  2000 points, Dual Force Org, 3 Forgeworld Allowed, No D, No Structure, No Superheavy/Gargantuan

HQ
Herald of Khorne on Juggurnaut w/ Lesser Gift, Locus of Wrath
Herald of Khorne on Juggurnaut w/ Lesser Gift
Herald of Khorne on Juggurnaut w/ Exalted Gift (Warlord)

Elites
Helbrute Murderpack: 3x Helbrutes - 2 w/ Heavy Flamer

Troops
12x Daemonettes
10x Horrors
10x Horrors
10x Plaguebearers

Fast Attack
16x Flesh Hounds
16x Flesh Hounds

Heavy Support
Soul Grinder of Slaanesh w/ Baleful Torrent
Soul Grinder of Slaanesh w/ Baleful Torrent

Fortification
Aegis Defense Line w/ Comms Relay

The Murder Pack has to Deep Strike, which means both Grinders will join it to come down into the field.  The Aegis reroll provides a good shot at getting all 3 at once (1 roll for the whole murderpack) and provides protection to Hounds if they Scout up into no man's land on a sparse board.  The Heralds are self explanatory in a world of Wraithknights, Riptides and other mutli wound obnoxious models.  What I am lacking in this army is Psychic support units - specifically I would love to have a Telepathy psyker - but I am already right at the limit on points.

I also make almost no real effort to take out flyers - other than some skyfire autocannons and the Horrors.  The truth is, unless you run FMC Daemons are aweful at that anyway and most cannot do enough damage to make it matter.

There is a lot of Strength 10 in this list for Melee - and the Grinders can really eat into blob squads.  With a decent roll for the Helbrute - who must roll Crazed each turn - they can also burn away squads with 2x Heavy Flamer shots or use their multi-meltas to good effect.  With that, here is my progress so far on the 1st Helbrute - the second is an old CSM Dreadnought that I received painted already.  I followed my CSM scheme for this guy.



4 comments:

  1. What a life it is, responded to some comments on the list from 2 weeks ago. The real meat of this post is in the painting progress so far! Stay tuned, might go to a Tzeentch Herald with Divination level 2 instead of the Aegis. That leaves a few points leftover - make it level 3?

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  2. Interesting list.

    Don't musicians act kind of like homing beacons? if thats the case that would be my first investment
    (tossing those on to some daemonette units sounds like a good idea. that extra run boost will help them keep pace with your khorne hounds somewhat.).

    Having 5 dreadnought-like walkers DSing sounds really scary. I think this may be a really strong beta strike if you can get your reserves all in one shot and have some proper scatters. If you can guarantee those two variables I think your matches will pull in your favor pretty quickly. I really dont see flyers giving you much trouble. You do have two units of horrors. They do have pretty good chance if you invest in a herald with the lesser locus that bumps strength. Not only that but he can prescience those units to make them more effective.

    The only problem is that your points are already hung up in important units. Maybe you could do without one of those khorne heralds? I see why the comms relay is so important though ( unless you replace the aegis with a higher lvl. tzentch herald and roll scryers gaze, but that's risky)

    The reserve game is fickle, but daemons have a lot of tools to keep it pretty reliable.

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    Replies
    1. Icons provide precision Deep Strikes for Daemons aligned to the same god and d6" scatter otherwise. The only issue is you really need to DS the icon (or outflank it) to prevent the unit from being blown away Turn 1. The Instrument provides rerolls on the Warpstorm and for the unit to pull another in with it from reserve. It is really strong when you have two units you REALLY want to come in together.

      I think the real punch for this list - and when the list tries to win - is on Turn 3. Turn 2 might be some Flaming and Melta shots but on Turn 3 if the walkers can start wading into units - like a SG into an AM blob that cannot hurt it - they can really muddy things up.

      I included the heralds because I had a lot of problems with 2+ saves for the Hounds in the past - and also there were some cases when I wanted AP2 hits, but I did not want to be in a challenge. I think swapping one of them for a Tzeentch Herald might be a good idea - if I had 9x Screamers painted I would actually bring the herald on a disc there. If I switch out the non-locus herald I can do a Mastery 3 Psyker embedded with a Horrors unit. I think the thing to do there is to combine both Horror units though.

      I am pretty nervous about those new stormshard mortars, they are going to crush Flesh Hound units.

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  3. lucky for you no one will have a decent amount of wyverns for another month or two. Imperial knights however...

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