Email in: 1800pts Chaos for 40k Masters

"Hi Will, how's life? Hopefully your thesis and project has been completed without a hitch! I'm finished my Radiation Therapy degree in 16 days, and have a job lined up in Wagga, starting on Dec 6.

I was very pleased to recieve an invitation to the 2010 40K Masters, held in Canberra in December. This is an 1800pts tournament, and I want to take my Chaos Space Marines (partly because I really enjoy playing with them, they're painted well and they're fairly solid for the Aussie scene, but also because I think that it would be unfair to take a different army, as they did all the hard work to get me there!).

I'm taking the list that you fought round 1 at Lords of Terra in July, which you may remember is as follow:

HQ
Kharn the Betrayer - 165

Elites
Dreadnought, Additional Dreadnought Close Combat Weapon, Extra Armour - 115

Troops
9 Khorne Berzerkers, Skull Champion, Power Fist - 229
10 Chaos Space Marines, 2 Meltaguns, Icon of Chaos Glory, Rhino, Combimelta - 225
10 Chaos Space Marines, 2 Meltaguns, Icon of Chaos Glory, Rhino - 215
10 Chaos Space Marines, 2 Flamers, Icon of Chaos Glory, Aspiring Champion, Power Fist, Combiflamer, Rhino, Combiflamer - 265

Heavy Support
2 Oblitorators - 150
2 Oblitorators - 150
Land Raider, Extra Armour - 235

1749pts

Now, I have an extra 51pts (woot!) to spend because of the 1800pts limit. My options include such things as adding dozer blades to the vehicles and adding combiweapons to things, buying a Rhino with a combimelta for the Berzerkers (who wont ride in it), or just putting a 50pt Aspiring Champ (with Fist and Combimelta) in one of the dual melta squads. I could fiddle around with unit sizes and try to squeeze in a second Dreadnought but I feel that would probably just make the units too weak.

Or I could add a Spawn for lulz.

I'll probably end up just using the melta/fist champ, but I'm curious as to your thoughts on the subject.

Regards,
Ben Medbury"

Hey Ben, good to hear from you! Planning on going to Centurion :)? (look at that effort fester). No hitches were involved with thesis and just waiting for results atm and landed a research assistant job to essentially publish my work which is nice. Congrats on finishing yourself and getting a job! Moving to Wagga or staying where you are?

Anyway, to the list (and congrats on getting the invite) which I remember well (and so do my unpainted horde of Termagants lol). Without changing the core of your list (so ignore VT2's comments :P) I'd add things to the Rhinos like Havoc Launchers and combi-weapons. Gives your army a bit more punch but if you aren't adverse to dropping a squad (which still leaves you with ~30 scoring MEQ) I'd maybe go for two Dreads. Check on how they view the LoS issue (I personally believe it's a 45 degree arc otherwise my immobed dreads can swivel and see anything, etc.) and you can pack in some mobile MM with some easy point tweaking. Otherwise simply upgrading the Rhinos is highly feasible whilst keeping the core army the same. Might be an issue with your already painted army but a few magnets shouldn't make it too much of an issue I think.