The List
BATTALION 01
Sorcer w/ Jump Pack
-Mark of Nurgle
-Bolt Pistol/Force Staff
-Warp Time, Miasma of Pestilence
Demon Prince w/ Wings
-Pair of Claws, Warp Bolter
-Mark of Nurgle
-Smite, Diabolic Strength
18 Possessed w/ Mark of Nurgle
Greater Possessed - Mark of Nurgle
10 Cultists
10 Cultists
10 Cultists
BATTALION 02 - Pay CP for Devastation Battery detachment trait
Dark Apostle
-Prayer of -1 to Hit, Relic - Hydra's Wail
Warlord - Master of Diversion
Chaos Lord in Terminator Armor
-Viper's Bite
-Chainfist
We Are Alpharius - Headhunter
8 Chaos Terminators
-Combi-plasma, Chainfist
16 Noise Marines w/ Sonic Blasters
2 Dark Disciples
10 Cultists
10 Cultists
10 Cultists
3 Obliterators - Mark of Slaanesh
The Big Idea
The possessed module is pretty much there - Warptime is there to get upfield, the Dark Apostle and Miasma are there for buffs, and Diabolic strength + the Greater possessed gets you to S8, which is nice.
The Noise Marines are there to help with screen-clearing. Odds are good they'll be close to someone that's giving them a re-roll on 1's, and in a pinch you can go Veterans of the Long War + Endless Cacophony for hilarious carnage.
The Obliterators are the reason I took Devastation Battery - a buddy of mine clued me into it - if I don't go first, then I make the enemy think about eating 18 shots from Oblits at the end of the movement phase.
If you haven't looked at it again - it's at the end of the movement phase. If someone deep-strikes on turn one, you get to potentially hose down someone that walked out of a pod and pointed a gun at you. Odds are good that something walked into range that you want to shoot. Frankly, I think it's probably worth 2 CP.
The terminator blob is there because sometimes things need to die behind the lines, and sometimes you want to keep the other army honest. Frankly, I think this is about as good as it gets for chaos terminators. Combi-plasma kills things, and has the range to abuse Endless Cacophony even if the second volley isn't a double-tap.
With respect to melee, the chainfist is about as good as it gets. You lose a little accuracy, but gain the ability to engage whatever you want. I'll take reliable damage for a couple more points. Your other melee options are there for killing infantry, and that's pretty much it.
Cultists....are screens. Occasionally they contribute.
The Test
I went up against a buddy's Black Templar brigade, which basically deploys mid-field and plays a nasty objective game with a lot of guns and melee punch. And with drop pods. The short version is this -
THE OPPOSITION
Helbrecht
Chaplain w/ Jump Pack, Crusader's Helm
Lieutenant w/ Powerfist, Mastercraft Bolter, Witchseeker Bolts, WL Trait to Deny the Witch
Vanguard Vet Squad (Bunch of stormshields, several thunderhammers, lots of pain)
Relic-bearing Servitors (the three BT-specific elite guys)
Sternguard Vets
4 squads of Incursors
2 Squads of Scouts
Multi-melta bike
2 Squads of Suppressors
Grav-cannon Devastators
3 Squads of Eliminators (2 las-fusil, sniper rifle on sarge)
2 Drop Pods (Sternguard in 1, Devs, Servitors, Helbrecht, Lieutenant in the other)
As you can see, there were a LOT of guns out there. The only thing of his that HAD to deploy in his DZ was the Bike. If you don't push them off objectives early, you have a hell of an uphill fight on objectives, and PS - dislodging Primaris marines from objectives is ANNOYING.
We played the scenario with 3 objectives across the middle. Mercifully, I went first. We called it at the end of round five, as I was ahead on objectives and while I was down to cultists and HQs, he was basically off the board.
HIGHLIGHTS -
Possessed Warp-timed it up the field and got a charge into the Vanguard Vets. I don't need a bunch of 3++ jerks with thunder hammers running around my lines. I multi-charged into an Incursor squad just to make sure that I could get into some kind of fight. Ultimately this fight drug on through round three, ending with the Possessed dead, the Incursors dead, and most of the Vanguard dead. The Demon Prince accounted for the rest.
The Greater Possessed ate a squad, then tried to stop a multi-melta with its face. Its face was not multi-melta proof. At all.
The Noise Marines used Conceal on turn one to mess up his target priority, and the cultists in front them ate a reasonable number of bullets. Which is fair enough, considering what VotLW and Endless Cacophony does to...um, anything you point it at in cover. These guys accounted for significant numbers of enemy snipers and Incursors, which is probably why they died.
The Obliterators had terrible luck with saves, and 2/3 of them died in the first round of shooting to Suppressors, because clearly the dice gods hate painted models. The last one managed to do reasonably well.
The Terminators accounted for his drop pods - the grav devs and Sternguard had to die ASAP, and the Terminators got that job. Then they managed to land a bunch of wounds on Helbrecht in assault - which he promptly saved. And then they returned the favor. They absorbed a LOT of shooting before ultimately dying.
The Terminator Lord got the honor of capping Helbrecht at short range. Viper's Kiss is 100% worth taking on that config. The Lord then also found out the Lieutenant doesn't come with an invuln save, which was a lot funnier to me than the Lieutenant. AP-4 on a 3+ means "red mist," apparently.
The Demon Prince buffed the Possessed, then cleaned up a few squads of Incursors, and made more saves than it had any right to do so.
Cultists - well, half of them died terribly, and the other half helped hold objectives. Most importantly, they managed to help push his drop pods
The Lessions, and Further Brainstorming
Possessed Buffs - Honestly, Possessed are a volume-of-attacks unit. First impression on buffs is this - You reliably want to get Demonic Strength and Miasma of Pestilence off on them. While it's tempting to put both on one psyker, snipers are real and that's a big target. (Plus seriously, sorcerers aren't THAT durable.).
A note on Marks - while Miasma of Pestilence is great for an additional -1 to hit, rumors about 9th edition currently suggest that we might see modifiers capped at -1. On a more firm/practical note, switching to the Mark of Slaanesh would allow us to get Slaaneshi heralds in for an advance-and-run aura, another +1S, and we'd switch to Delightful Agonies for 5+ to ignore wounds. The perk is we can use that on all our shooters in the army.
Food for thought.
Noise Marines are hilarious. I think anyone who's run them knows that. The only safe way to kill them is "shoot them when you have no infantry within 24 inches" otherwise you're gonna lose something.
Obliterators are a bit random, but getting them into cover makes it just that more annoying to shift them. That being said, in this list the only other thing that MIGHT soak anti-tank fire is the terminators - so these guys are competing with Noise Marines for Conceal, and it's going to be a matter of "who do I need alive more?" That being said, I like the versatility of them in this list.
The terminators stay. The only real question I've got is - do I think about going for an Emperor's Children Battalion? The main reason to do so is to get access to the 'Honor the Prince' stratagem, which means for 1CP one of my charge dice is a '6.' Considering 9th is around the corner and is going to change detachments, I'm not 100% onboard with this approach.
Next Steps
I'm definitely going to paint up a Possessed squad - a full 20 - and finish up a Demon Prince conversion. The Terminators have kind of been on the to-do list for a while, but can wait for a minute.
I have painted soooo many cultists. So very many. But frankly, they're going to be relevant for some time.
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