40K Tactica: The Bloodletter - The Best Khorne Daemonkin Troop Choice?

I recently noticed that when I put together my Khorne Daemonkin lists I tend to gravitate towards the Bloodletters as Troop choices - this I find odd as I would normally never touch them if playing from the Chaos Daemons codex. So I decided to do some comparisons with the other Troop choices from the new Khrone codex and attempt to find a logical reason for my Bloodletter madness.

I'm going to start by jumping right into the comparisons and focus on the most important characteristics like cost effectiveness, special rules and usefulness for utilizing the Blood Tithe game mechanic.

40K TACTICA REVIEW: Chaos Space Marines - Maulerfiend

40K TACTICA REVIEW

Chaos Space Marines

MAULERFIEND

Version: 7th edition WH40K. 2012 CSM codex.

Forward

After playing a game against Chaos Pat he asked a question that neither of us could immediately put a finger onto an answer. I was intrigued. The question was, "Everyone seems to be using the Maulerfiend again, why are they good now?" The Maulerfiend is one of my favorite models so I was determined to figure out the answer. I knew they were better in 7th and it had to do with an improved ability to survive. Then it hit me, the new vehicle damage table was more favorable to the Maulerfiend because it cuts the chances of being made useless by a penetrating hit in half.

40K TACTICA: Space Wolves - Wolf Scouts

40K TACTICA:

SPACE WOLVES CODEX

WOLF SCOUTS

Version: 7th Edition. 2014 Space Wolf Codex

Forward

Yeah, those guys. The ones that fell out of favor when 6th hit because they lost the ability to assault on the turn they outflanked. Wolf Scouts may not be considered competitive anymore but they have their uses and are a fun unit to play. Nothing quite keeps your opponent on his toes like when Wolf Scouts are prowling around his flanks searching for the kill!

40K ARMIES: Thunderwolf Spam and Analysis

40K ARMIES & TACTICA

THUNDERWOLF SPAM

A Thought Experiment & Analysis

The purpose of this list.
In my quest to build a competitive Thunderwolf army I have decided to start with the basics: to come up with a list that spams as much Thunderwolf cavalry as possible into a tournament style list. From there I am hoping to get an idea of where the weaknesses and strengths of such an army is and start to put together a stronger, more competitive list afterwards. As a side note I promise not to use any of those annoying images of Spam cans in this article.

Think of this list as a thought experiment and not as a netlist to copy and paste. I am attempting to find a solid place to begin for my competitive Thunderwolf list construction, so why not begin with the the extreme example? I have made one Thunderwolf list before, right after the new codex dropped, and you can see it here. While I like that list and I want to play that list, I'm not quite so sure that it is competitive enough for tournament play. I would love to be proved wrong though.

Let's begin.
All of my lists will be made with the Bay Area Open format in mind. That is the format our club uses, local tournaments use and it seems to be a popular format in this region. So to get the maximum amount of Thunderwolf Cavalry for my chosen format I will need to have both a Combined Arms Detachment and an Allied Detachment. That's not good enough however, I'm using freak'n Thunderwolves, so I am going to replace my Combined Arms Detachment with the Company of the Great Wolf Detachment. I won't need Troops and the +1 WS for my cavalry and Wolf Guard is just too good to pass up.

Filling out the ranks.
Might as well start with the meat and potatoes, I have four Fast Attack slots to fill up in my army. Six Thunderwolf Cavalry go into each of those slots. While naked Thunderwolf cavalry is a force to be reckoned with they need some more tools to excel. I kit out each pack with two Storm Shields and one Thunder Hammer. Ideally I'd like one more Shield for defense and a Wolf's Claw to help mow down power armor chumps but I have to cut back to save points. Besides, this load-out comes in at a cool and easy to work with 300 points. So that's four Cav packs @ 1200 on the button. That leaves 650 left to play with, not too bad.

Time to fill the required slots and make this a legal army. According to the Company of the Great Wolf Detachment I need one HQ and two Elites. For my Allied Detachment I need one more HQ and one Troop. Two Iron Priests on Thunderwolves are a no-brainer choice for this army's Elite choice. As for HQ choices I need to stay thrifty so a couple of Wolf Guard Battle Leaders will fit the bill. As a bonus they also benefit from the detachment's +1 WS boost. I like to load my Lords and Leaders out in a particular way; Thunderwolf, Storm Shield, Runic Armor and Thunderhammer. Boom. Very survivable and with a massive S 10 punch. With any leftover points I might be able to purchase them some re-roll Relics and Fenrisian Wolf buddies. Lastly, we need Troops for the Allied Detachment so I'm going minimal with a 5 man Blood Claw pack.

OK, we have all our required slots filled as well as all our Fast Attack slots like we wanted. After adding everything up I find that I only have 40 points left to spend. I'll throw the Fellclaw's Teeth relic on the Warlord to make him more killy and then buy 3 Fenrisian Wolves for the Leaders to use for Instant Death or last wound soaks.

THUNDERSPAM
(For lack of a better title)

 Company of the Great Wolf Detachment
 and Allied Detachment.

HQ
WOLF GUARD BATTLE LEADER (Warlord)
Thunderwolf mount, Storm Shield, Thunderhammer, Runic Armor,
Fenrisian Wolf x2, Fellclaw's Teeth
WOLF GUARD BATTLE LEADER ( Ally)
Thunderwolf mount, Storm Shield, Thunderhammer, Runic Armor, Fenrisian Wolf

TROOPS
Blood Claws x5 (Ally)

ELITES
Iron Priest - Thunderwolf mount
Iron Priest - Thunderwolf mount

FAST ATTACK
Thunderwolf Cavalry x6 - Storm Shield x2, Thunderhammer
Thunderwolf Cavalry x6 - Storm Shield x2, Thunderhammer
Thunderwolf Cavalry x6 - Storm Shield x2, Thunderhammer
Thunderwolf Cavalry x6 (Ally) - Storm Shield x2, Thunderhammer

= 1849

Strengths of the list.
So whats to like besides seeing 28 mother-beautiful Thunderwolf models on the table? How about 28 S 5 Hammer of Wrath hits? Or how about a total of 136 Rending attacks on the charge? Nearly the entire army is T 5 with decent 3++ protection and some 2+ armor for soaking up AP 3+ hits. The list is lighting fast and should only have to weather one turn of shooting before slamming into the enemy chumps for the win. I think the list might have enough target saturation to deliver a potent blow even if charging into a lot of firepower. With a list like this it is crucial to master using the 2+ saves, 3++ and Look Out Sir in an efficient manner.

Alright, let's talk assault strength because that is what this list does to win. The one thing that pops out immediately about this army is it's ability to slam enemy chumps on the charge with a total of 40 WS 5+, S 10, AP 2. Those attacks are Rending as well which could make a difference if you are attacking a superheavy. The Iron Priest attacks are only WS 4 but they hit at a whooping AP 1 making them ideal slayers of anything that rolls on the vehicle penetration damage chart.

Don't be like me and forget about your Hammer of Wrath attacks - with so many you are probably going to get some Wounds put on the enemy before they even have a chance to swing back. Out of your Cav's normal attacks you get a grand total of 96 on the charge @ WS 5, S 5 and Rending. Impressive. In the end I think this list can handle just about any threat, the problem is getting enough models into assault and keeping the pressure on.

Weakness of Thunderspam.
This year I have pretty much switched my play style over to assault oriented armies. In that time I've had the hardest time playing against Tau and Eldar (serpent spam). Even hiding in or behind cover won't help you that much against either of those races shooting. Plus they are both very mobile so it is hard to keep them hemmed in. I'm not quite sure how this list would perform against them, however, I'm guessing it might be able to weather a decent amount of shooting with the 2+ and 3++; every model you lose hurts when you only have a total of 33 models in your entire army.

Unlike a Wolfstar pack you don't have nearly as many Independent Characters to rely on to split off and take objectives and kill important targets. What you do have is four Thunderwolf packs and I suppose you could view them as Characters themselves because they are big, bad and hard to kill. And just like all Thunderwolf armies you have to manage your limited number of models well; don't fall for traps, be sure to target prioritize and don't move any pack to far out of position to make it useless next turn.

Controlling objectives is going to be a problem. My Redstone Rumble list had this same exact problem, especially since the normal mission objectives were mixed with Maelstrom objectives. My list went 3-2 but out of five games I never won the Maelstorm mission but I did tie it twice. From this I gather that most all-out assault armies have the same problem: a weak backfield. The Thunderspam list has only a single Blood Claw pack for such duties. In an objective heavy game a Thunderwolf pack (or two) and maybe some ICs will have to be redirected for objective grabs/guard duty.

Flyers will, of course, be a nuisance. The meta right now seems to be light on flyers so this list has a chance to flourish. About all you can do with this list against flyers is to linger about cover and objectives and wait for the flyers to come down to skimmer mode (if they can), because they can't score while flying. You will just have to concentrate on cleaning up everything on the ground and hope you can get those flyers later in the game if they come down.

Conclusion and looking forward.
Actually, for a thought experiment, I like this list. I don't know if I will ever have enough Cav models to pull it off but I just might play this list one day. I love the speed and power output of the list but I feel it needs more 2+ and 3++ saves. Looking forward to my competitive list I will, sadly, have to drop some numbers from the Cav packs so I can add a Wolf Lord and at least one or two more Independent Characters. I do not want to go the Wolfstar route, I want to instead have multiple big packs with multiple ICs so to spread the love and destruction around.

I'm going to need more objective takers/sitters because once the Thuderwolf tide has washed over the middle of the board I'd like for them to concentrate on keeping the pressure on. I have thoughts about some Wolf Scouts with camo cloaks sitting on a backfield objective. Sprinkle in maybe another Blood Claw pack or something fast like a minimal Wolf Guard Jump or Bike pack. I don't think Drop Pods will work very well with what I have in mind. I'd love to put some distraction/screening units in the list but I know I won't have the points. I will just have to hope that my plan of having multiple strong packs will be target saturation enough to see me through and into assault.

Anybody have any thoughts on the list or how I can change it for the better?

40K TACTICA: Space Wolves Thunderwolf Hammer and Anvil 1850 Army List

Unleash Your Inner Beast:

THUNDERWOLF HAMMER & ANVIL

1850 ARMY LIST & TACTICA

By Uktena
South Mississippi Gamers

Forward

Welcome to my first Thunderwolf list, it was a long time coming and the new codex has made it well worth the wait. Thunderwolf armies have come into their own with a points cost drop, cheap Storm Shields and an HQ choice that improves their effectiveness. I have already discussed in detail a Review and Tactica for Thunderwolf Cavalry if you would like to take a look at that.

So why Thunderwolf Cavalry?

Since their introduction the Thunderwolf Cavalry (TWC) have come to symbolize the ideals of the Space Wolves themselves; aggressiveness, individuality, anti-authoritarian and glory in battle. The models themselves look great and touch a sense of nostalgia that harks back to a time when warfare was heavily romanticized. A time when no solider was more revered or more idolized than the stoic cavalryman, proudly sitting up high on his expertly trained mount as he bravely galloped off to war.

Maybe that wasn't the best of comparisons, Thunderwolf Cavalry are a snarling rage of fur, fang and steel - but it works for me. As for play styles I enjoy assault armies, shooting armies just annoy me. If one wishes for a Space Wolves assault list then one should look no further than the Thunderwolf Cavalry.

Enough already, now on to the glory of battle!

THE LIST

THUNDERWOLF HAMMER & ANVIL 1850

Detachment Type: Company of the Great Wolf
(From the Champions of Fenris Supplement)

40K REVIEW: Space Wolves Codex Thunderwolf Cavalry Review & Tactica (updated)

SPACE WOLVES CODEX FAST ATTACK REVIEW

THUNDERWOLF CAVALRY 

Fenris has risen, Wolf Brothers!

Version: 7th Edition, 2014 Space Wolf Codex

Updated: 10/28/2014

First Impressions of a new Codex.

Some things stayed the same, some things changed a little and some things got better. I will give you a no BS impression in one paragraph.

It breaks down to these two things: Shooting has gotten a little better with Hellfrost weapons, some cheaper Long Fang weapons and of course, two great new gunships. Assault has gotten much better. Across the board the fast and aggressive units have gotten cheaper and more killy. Where to begin? Cheaper Battle Leaders, cheaper Blood Claws, better Lone Wolves, Venerable Dreads with Blizzard shields, Murderfang, deep striking Terminators, cheaper Storm Shields, cheaper Thunderwolves, cheaper Sky Claws and more. And lets not forget the new Unleashed Detachment - also good for assault armies.

So, if you like your Wolves shooty with only a dash of assault then you might be disappointed. However, if you like your Wolves charging into glorious combat, like the author does, then this is the Space Wolf codex you have been waiting for Wolf Brothers!

Presenting the new old Rock Stars of the Space Wolf Codex!

40K Rules Review: MURDERFANG

SPACE WOLF DREADNAUGHT KIT

MURDERFANG

Wolf Brothers, Feast yo' Eyes Upon This....

Click Image for bigger Picture.

What? What? Did that read 135 points for a death train o' destruction!?
Yep. That is exactly what it said. A cheap aggressive model with so many special rules on it that it reminds me of the Chaos Space Marines Maluerfiend. Only this one has freak'n Relics of Murder on it. Makes me wonder if they put them on the wrong model in the wrong codex?

 OK, the comparison isn't perfect, because the Maulerfiend has Move Through Cover, a 12" move, ignores terrain and has Fleet. Murderfang is, unfortunately, much less maneuverable. I would have been happy if he had just gotten Fleet, but he didn't. What this means is that when taking Murderfang to battle a Drop Pod is an automatic buy for him; it is the only way you should ever try to deploy him unless you can find a way to give him Outflank.

OK, lets break it all down.

Aiming for That Sweet Spot with Chaos: Part II

Tapping that Chaos Sweet Spot, Part II

The Angry Red Tide

A 7th Edition Chaos Assault Army & Tactics

The Second Act.

Greetings again, last week I discussed what I thought was the Sweet Spot for my new Chaos tournament army. You can read about it here: Aiming for that Chaos Sweet Spot, Part I.

As promised, this week I am presenting my tournament list to illustrate all the sweet spots that I like to touch upon. And without further ado, I present to thee:

The Angry Red Tide

PRIMARY CAD: Crimson Slaughter Chaos Space Marines

HQ

CHAOS LORD of KHORNE

Mark of Khorne, Juggernaut of Khorne, Sigil of Corruption, Melta bombs, Power Fist, Lightning Claw, Daemonheart

CHAOS LORD of KHORNE

Mark of Khorne, Juggernaut of Khorne, Sigil of Corruption, Melta bombs, Power Fist, Lightning Claw

TROOPS

Chaos Cultists x10
Chaos Cultists x10

FAST ATTACK
Chaos Spawn x5
Chaos Spawn x5

HEAVY SUPPORT
Maulerfiend w/ Lasher tendrils
Maulerfiend
Maulerfiend

ALLIED CAD: Chaos Daemons

HQ
SKARBRAND

TROOPS
Plague Bearers x10 - Instrument of Chaos
Bloodletters x10 - Icon of Chaos

FAST ATTACK
Flesh Hounds of Khorne x15

Total Points = 1850

Tactica Overview
This list, if anything, is all in for the assault phase: it's hard, it's fast, it steals candy from babies and hits like a wrecking ball to the face.

It's the bomb stoopid.
OK, so this list isn't so single minded, you see there is a Skarbrand bomb in there to act as a force multiplier. The bomb hits when your tide charges into the enemy chumps on turn 2. That is the secret to the list's hopeful chances in a competitive environment.

For those of you not in the know, and I will forgive you if not because Skarbrand is often the red-headed stepchild of Chaos, Skarbrand has a special rule called Rage Embodied. What this rule does is give Skarbrand a 12" bubble of pure, unadulterated ANGER. Any unit, friend or foe, within that 12" bubble gains the universal special rules of Rage and Hatred. Imagine landing that force multiplier into the middle of your assaulting front lines and you will start to see the obvious rewards; an extra attack per charging model and you are re-rolling misses to hit.

To give myself a little bit of insurance I have my Plague Bearer unit sitting in deep strike reserve with an Instrument of Chaos. This will double my chances of getting Skarbrand in turn 2. Perfect! Then to make sure I can put Skarbrand exactly where I want him I have a unit of Bloodletters, with an Icon of Chaos, following just behind my charging front lines. With all that other scary junk charging the enemy I'm thinking that the Bloodletters will avoid being targeted, thus being able to deliver Skarbrand exactly where I want him to be.

When he does comes in, try to place Skarbrand in a spot to benifit as many of your units as possible without giving the enemy the same benefit. Remember you can still Run after deep striking - just in case you need to move a little more.

So there is a bomb but what else? Kill, Murder, Maim.
Pair your Chaos Lords with the Spawn units and hurl them towards the enemy. The Lord with the Daemonheart should seek out the toughest to kill units. The Lords must watch out for S 10 and Force Weapons and be sure to drop wounds on the spawn escorts because they have 15 to spare.

Khorne dawgs are useful for distraction and running down infantry. On the charge they can bring down vehicles with their Furious Charge and can operate outside of the Skarbrand bubble just fine. Use them to flank so to help your other assaulting units or get back behind the enemy lines and wreck havoc. Because you have so many other assaulting things in your army the Hounds will have the luxury of being the utility unit that they always wanted to be.

The Maulerfiends are your anti-vehicle weapons. Use the magma cutter Fiends to slice up anything from Rhinos to Land Raiders and everything in between. Don't forget to use your Daemonforge ability because it is easy to forget just like your It Will Not Die roll at the end of your turn. If facing Knights gang up on them with your Maulerfiends and tear them apart. Don't fear Monstrous Creatures either, they can only Smash you once this edition. If no good targets present themselves for the Fiends then think about running one up each side of the board to flank.

The single Lasher Tendril Maulerfiend is best used when helping other units assault as the tendrils will cut down the attacks against you. Don't assault the Lasher Maulerfiend by himself, he usually needs help because of his paltry few attacks and WS 3.

And lets not forget Skarbrand! He can't move fast so try and move him towards the biggest and baddest unit in range and DESTROY them. It's Skarbrand after all - things die easily to him. The only thing Skarbrand fears is lots of shooting. Doh! Try not to make him a target, that is his weakness along with his slow movement.

Lastly are the troops. The Bloodletters can be used to mop up behind the main assault. All other troops are  pretty much for objective taking once the tide has washed over the board.

Weakness of The Angry Red Tide
This list will live and die on match ups. Either the opposing army will fold up and perish or they will have an army that can out maneuver you or spit out so much torrent of fire that it destroys your big push. Going first helps and going second sucks, it gives them more time to shoot you off the table.

If you fail to get the Skarbrand bomb in on turn 2 then that is not according to plan. This will happen on average about once every five games. Suck it up and rethink your plan for when he arrives next turn (hopefully).

Flyers are another weakness, you have no way to deal with them. This is a consequence of going all out on the assault phase. Hopefully you can ignore them, which you can up to a point. Extreme flyer armies like the Necron air force will spell almost certain doom for The Angry Red Tide.

Have Fun.
Win or lose I believe that I'll always enjoy playing this list. It is the kind of list I've always wanted to play and 7th Edition is the time for it to step forward. Sweet spot found.

Aiming For That Sweet Spot With Chaos

Tactics for a 7th Edition Chaos Assault Army

Tapping that Chaos Sweet Spot

Bow chicka wow wow.
IMHO this seems to be how it is for the current 40K meta: there is a plethora of shooting armies that shoot very well and then there is the rest. How do the rest compete? Well they have to aim for that special sweet spot where their army does very well. For Chaos that sweet spot use to be the Flying Circus and ScreamerStar. And I was well into the beginning stages of putting together my Flying Circus tournament list when low and behold 7th broke and turned my Chaos sweet spot upside down. ( <-- did that sound dirty? Eh, probably just me.)

It was a real shame too, I was enjoying playing the Flying Circus; all the flying and swooping; all the psychic powers; all the very fast models; all the assaulting monstrous creatures and it played fast too. I was having a ball until 7th took that proverbial ball away and poked big angry holes into it. Oh well! Looking on the bright side of the situation one thing can be said about 40K - it is always evolving. It might be a slow evolution at times but it constantly changes and that is a good thing.

My personal feeling.
After about a month of reevaluating Chaos I tossed out the Flying Circus and came to a personal conclusion: The only thing Chaos (especially Chaos Marines) still has going for it in 7th is either a Nurgle list or an all in rush assault. That's it. Neither Chaos army can shoot very well unless you want to argue a daemon Tzeentch list. And I'm not even so sure about the Nurgle list being able to hang against prolific shooting but I do feel much more confident about the rush assault being competitive.

So what do you mean 'rush assault'.
Here are three rules that I believe a successful assault oriented army has to abide by:

1. Be all in.
Pretty much what it says. Forget psychic phase, forget the shooting phase --> live for the assault phase. Basically you are focusing your army all on one phase to increase your potency in that one area. You either sink or you swim so do your best to make sure you swim. Now I'm not saying to completely avoid having psykers or support fire in your army I'm just saying those should be a side dressing at best. Just remember whatever you do you want to hit 'em hard and hit 'em often.

2. Fast, fast and faster.
This is a no brainer really. You want the majority of your army in the enemy's grill turn two, turn three at the latest. Wait any longer and you probably have been shot off the table by then. Your army must live in the Fast Attack section of your codex and I'm not talking about flyers. Then branch out and grab all those fast assault units not found in your Fast Attack section. Chaos players you know what your good fast units are already, for everyone else here is a quick list: chaos spawn, chaos bikers, raptors, maulerfiends, flesh hounds, screamers, daemon princes (winged), daemonettes.

So to elaborate on the mantra from Rule 1; hit 'em hard, hit'em often and hit 'em fast.

3. Have a knockout punch and don't hold back.
To deal with the enemy lynchpin/deathstar/super HQ you must have an answer. You are playing to be all in remember? If you don't have a unit powerful enough to defeat their most powerful unit then you have already lost the battle. At the very least you must be able to weaken, stall or tarpit the enemy super units while the rest of your army murders the rest of the bums.

The knockout unit must be fast so that it can keep up with the rest of the army. Don't let your best unit be left out in the open to be shot off the board - ram them into the enemy immediately. Not only will this put pressure on the your opponent but with so many dangerous units charging them in a hurry your big scary unit has a better chance to make it into the assault. That's what the smart peeps call target saturation. That's what I call bum rush tha' lot and murder 'em all!

The likely prospects for your knockout punch? Take a gander at some of these fast and mean guys: Chaos Lord on Juggernaut/Bike, Chaos Lord in Land Raider, Daemon Prince, Bal'akor, Blood Thirster, Thypus or  Abaddon in Raider, Skulltaker on Juggernaut, Karanak with flesh hound pack. Can you tell I like Khorne? Heh.

To elaborate even further on our mantra; hit 'em hard, hit 'em often, hit 'em fast and hit 'em in the jimmy!

Let's build a tournament list.
Alright, I found a sweet spot that I like and it sounds like a hell of a lot of fun to play with. And after many revisions I have come up with a new army that I'm happy with. Win or lose I know that it is the type of army that I enjoy playing. It is fast playing, all in for assault, steals candy from babies and hits like a bowling ball to the solar plexus.

To be continued.

Coming Soon: Part II
The Angry Red Tide.

Found the Sweet Spot!