The Psychic Phase in 7th edition.

This post should maybe be called: I wanna like psykers but don't.

Everyone knows that I play chaos space marines. A lot of my brothers and sisters in chaos like to take gift of mutation on champions. Not this gal! Not only am I am cheap with points (minimal upgrades) but I do not like spending points on something that is not a sure thing. Sure your champion might become a daemon prince, but he also might get absolute garbage.

So how does this relate to psykers? Well I see psykers the same way. I'm paying for mastery levels that MIGHT be useful? Nope. I'm going to use those 75 points from 3 mastery levels to get myself a vindicator instead. I will always choose more dakka.

There is just too much left to chance for me to get behind psykers. If it was just the dice rolling to get your powers off I could understand, but then the chance of just completely losing my 260 point daemon prince through perils? I would flip the game table in a hissy fit of volcanic proportion.

So take a cheaper psyker you say. Yeah okay, but every point matters to me and my cheapo tendencies don't want an HQ model that is so specialized for one phase. Maybe I'm being closed minded, but hey at least you know that if you ever play me I don't have many dice to deny the witch.

Army List Option #2: Dark Apostle

So having another game under my belt made me tweak my list a bit. Here it is, 1750 points.

Dark Apostle
    -Burning Brand of Skalathrax
    -Veterans of the Long War

20 cultists

5 Chaos Space Marines
    -1 plasma gun
    -rhino with havoc launcher

5 Chaos Space Marines
    -1 plasma gun
    -rhino with havoc launcher

5 Chaos Space Marines
    -1 plasma gun
    -rhino

Daemon Prince of Slaanesh
    -wings
    -power armour
    -black mace

Defiler

Heldrake with Baleflamer

Heldrake with Baleflamer

3 Chaos Spawn
    -Mark of Nurgle

Aegis Defense Line
    -Icarus Lascannon

Chaos Predator
    -Twin Linked Lascannon
    -2 Heavy Bolsters
    -Havoc Launchers
    -Warpflame Gargoyles

The Dark Apostle is going in the Aegis Defence Line with the cultists and the Predator will be behind them.

What do you guys think of this setup?

Army List Option 1 - Chaos Marines in Rhinos

So here it is: the 1750 point list to see how my marines fare in Rhinos.

HQ-Warpsmith
      -Burning Brand of Skalathrax
      -Aura of Dark Glory

HQ-Daemon Prince of Nurgle
     -Wings
     -Power Armour
     -Black Mace

TROOPS-3 units of 5 Chaos Marines each
              -Close Combat Weapons
              -in Rhinos
              -with Dirge Casters

TROOPS-2 units of 10 Chaos Cultists each

HEAVY-5 Havocs
           -3 Auto cannons
           -1 Lascannon
           -Combi-bolter(asp. Champ)

HEAVY-Defiler

FAST-2 Heldrakes
        -Baleflamers

FAST-3 Chaos Spawn
        -mark of Nurgle

FORTIFICATION-Aegis Defence Line
                           -Icarus Lascannon

Now let me explain a bit here, this list plays "MSU" style (multiple small units). I have purposely kept my troops in small numbers. The theory is this, in the current Meta where shooting is so heavy, that by splitting them into multiple targets you get a few more rounds out of the suckers. By placing them in rhinos I'm hoping to get them at least into round two. If I get them into round two I will be happy. If they get to round three I will be laughing maniacally.

The Warpsmith will be in a rhino, and able to fire dual flamey overwatch if the rhino doesn't make it.

The Havocs will be in the Aegis Defence Line, the Icarus Lascannon being manned by the champion.

So out of the people I have showed this list to, 50% think its great and the other 50% don't. I have played a similar list before to good results, but what do you guys think? Feel free to comment below.

My Most Feared Unit to Play Against

So, I'm listening to my favourite youtube content creator the other day, Fritz40K. I was watching this video in particular:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW45ouQ9bWE

and while he raises a good point about the small blast templates being way less effect then their larger counterparts, it did made me think about the Thunderfire Cannon.

As of late I have been playing against a lot of marine lists. In every single list there is at least one Thunderfire Cannon (sometimes two). This particular unit just devastates my front lines. I usually play 1000 points which I laden with tonnes of cheapies (yay! cultists!). But the Thunderfire cannon is tailor made to kill my poor zealots. I don't cry about it though because that's what my cultists are there for, right? Soak up all that barrage for hopefully two rounds to keep that thing from destroying my more expensive and powerful units before they get a chance to do anything.

So here is the thing, as I go up into the higher points in preparation for the tournament do I get rid of some of my cultists in order to take more chaos space marines in rhinos? Or should I just keep my cultist blobs? I'm going to write two lists in the next couple of days to test out each scenario, and then hopefully play them out against some Imperial Fists or Iron Hands. Do you think the Thunderfire Cannon is overrated? Do you think I'm completely off the mark? Feel free to comment and tell me your thoughts, I would love to hear what you have to say.

Attack-X Warhammer Tournament and Thoughts on List Building

So here is the link for the tournament I am working so hard to prepare for:

http://www.attack-x.com/

Guaranteed, I will be the greenest player there. But that's okay, because I'm not really going just to win. I'm not a WAAC player. I'm not a narrative player either. I'm somewhere in the middle.  So why go to this tournament in the first place? Well, to prove to myself that I can do it and hopefully to make some new friends. My small town doesn't have a lot of players, and in fact, I play the same person over and over. It will be nice to see some different playing styles, and also to experience a WAAC player with an OP army.

So then, I was thinking: should I play the flying circus (For those of you who are new to this whole 40k thing, that's daemon prince and helldrake list spam)? My ultimate decision was No. That wouldn't be fun for me at all. Making my own lists is half the fun. I don't want to play someone else's idea. I want to find the synergy within my army.

Also, screw the Meta: assault isn't dead. It is my favourite part of the game so I want a list that focuses on that.