Email In: 'Ard Boyz Chaos Marines

Hey Kirby and Co,

Would you please take a look at this melee heavy Ard Boyz list for me (CSM 2500 pts)? I started playing not long ago, but I've got just enough units for this list (minus the fourth rhino which I'll have to buy) to play in Ard Boyz this month. I can do minor alterations (plus or minus a few units here and there), but I can't do anything major (or add new stuff) without going out and buying/assembling before the tournament (might be able to do if you super suggest it). I'm pretty much going to drive everything (minus one unit of plagues and the obliterators) at the enemy and hope for the best. Thanks!

2500 Pts - Chaos Space Marines Army

1 Daemon Prince (HQ) @ 135 Pts
Eternal Warrior; Mark of Slaanesh; CC Weapon (x1)
Lash of Submission [20]

1 Daemon Prince (HQ) @ 135 Pts
Eternal Warrior; Mark of Slaanesh; CC Weapon (x1)
Lash of Submission [20]

9 Khorne Bezerkers (Troops) @ 310 Pts
Mark of Khorne; ; Bolt Pistol (x9); CC Weapon (x9); Frag Grenades; Krak
Grenades

1 Skull Champion @ [66] Pts
Mark of Khorne; Bolt Pistol (x1); Power Fist (x1); Frag Grenades;
Krak Grenades; Meltabombs

1 Chaos Rhino @ [55] Pts
#Searchlight; #Smoke Launcher; Daemonic Possession; TL Bolter

9 Khorne Bezerkers (Troops) @ 310 Pts
Mark of Khorne; ; Bolt Pistol (x9); CC Weapon (x9); Frag Grenades; Krak
Grenades

1 Skull Champion @ [66] Pts
Mark of Khorne; Bolt Pistol (x1); Power Fist (x1); Frag Grenades;
Krak Grenades; Meltabombs

1 Chaos Rhino @ [55] Pts
Smoke Launcher; Daemonic Possession

8 Plague Marines (Troops) @ 309 Pts
Mark of Nurgle; ; Blight Grenades; Feel No Pain; Bolt Pistol (x8); CC
Weapon (x8); Bolter (x6); Flamer (x1); Meltagun (x1); Frag Grenades; Krak
Grenades

1 Aspiring Champion @ [55] Pts
Mark of Nurgle; Bolt Pistol (x1); Power Fist (x1); Bolter

1 Chaos Rhino @ [55] Pts
Smoke Launcher; Daemonic Possession

8 Plague Marines (Troops) @ 309 Pts
Mark of Nurgle; ; Blight Grenades; Feel No Pain; Bolt Pistol (x8); CC
Weapon (x8); Bolter (x6); Flamer (x1); Meltagun (x1); Frag Grenades; Krak
Grenades

1 Aspiring Champion @ [55] Pts
Mark of Nurgle; Bolt Pistol (x1); Power Fist (x1); Bolter

1 Chaos Rhino @ [55] Pts
Smoke Launcher; Daemonic Possession

1 Chaos Defiler (Heavy Support) @ 150 Pts
Front Armour: 12; Side Armour: 12; Rear Armour: 10; #Daemonic Possession;
#Searchlight; #Smoke Launcher; Battle Cannon; Switch to Dreadnought CCW;
Switch to Dreadnought CCW

4 Chaos Terminators (Elites) @ 390 Pts
#Terminator Armour; Mark of Khorne; Icon Bearer; Power Weapon (x4); TL
Bolter (x4)

1 Chaos Land Raider @ [240] Pts
#Searchlight; #Smoke Launcher; Daemonic Possession; TL Heavy Bolter;
TL Lascannons

2 Obliterator Cult (Heavy Support) @ 150 Pts
Power Fist; Lascannon; Multi-Melta; Plasma Cannon; TL Flamer; TL Meltagun;
TL Plasma Gun

2 Obliterator Cult (Heavy Support) @ 150 Pts
Power Fist; Lascannon; Multi-Melta; Plasma Cannon; TL Flamer; TL Meltagun;
TL Plasma Gun

2 Obliterator Cult (Heavy Support) @ 150 Pts
Power Fist; Lascannon; Multi-Melta; Plasma Cannon; TL Flamer; TL Meltagun;
TL Plasma Gun

Models in Army: 56


Total Army Cost: 2498

Well, one thing jumps to mind: Oblits and Defiler are both HS units, so doesn't that mean you have four slots filled there? I assume you are running 2x3 on the Oblits instead to make the list legal.

Speaking honestly, this isn't an awful list, but it's not great, either- you'll do pretty okay against foot lists, but mech'ed-up armies are going to give you fits as your Princes become useless and you realize you don't have the firepower to dismount 10+ squads from transports. However, bar some bad luck you'll do fine in the prelims, where most folks are going to be like you, just fielding what they can. However, I think we can make some tweaks to do better with this.

First of all, drop Possession from the Rhinos- it's very expensive and doesn't really add much. That gives us 80pts to play with right away. The weapon setups on the Plague Marines are also somewhat awkward; mixed guns like that never really work out quite right because you're always wasting one of them and when you really need it, you'll probably miss with the single Meltagun. (Flamers are kinda sub-par for them in general, but we're gonna try and work with what you have. If you have more Meltaguns or Plasmaguns, put those in place of the Flamers instead.) So swap them so you have two pairs of identical weapons- two Melta in one, two Flamers in the other. We also would like to take advantage of the Chaos ability to take guns on our transports- strap a Havoc Launcher onto each of the Rhinos (which hopefully you have the parts for, since the kit comes with them) to add some long-range shooting to go with your Lash and Oblits. If you have the spare parts for Combi-Meltas those might be nice as well, but we're going to need those, as we'll see in a moment here.

The Land Raider is the first thing we'll want to soup up- add a Combi-Melta to the top of it for good measure. Now all those Terminators- nothing wrong with them, they're actually pretty good units and nice and cheap, but we'd like to give them a little more shooting "oomph," so we're going to give all four members of each squad a Combi-Weapon. "I can't do that, I don't have enough!" I hear you cry- sure you do, all those kits come with TL Bolters, right? Nothing is easier than making a Combi-Melta from that; you cut off one barrel of the gun and take a small length of plastic rod/tube, and drill a "barrel" into it and some "slits" along the side. Glue it on where the Bolter barrel you cut off was and voila- Combi-Melta for about $0.10 each. (If you have to buy the hobby drill it'll be $10, but it's something you'll want to have anyways.)

This leaves us a little under on points, so we'll have to make some cuts somewhere. One option would be to drop the Defiler, which leaves us some more points to play around with for other upgrades- Combi-Weapons for Rhinos, a Chainfist in each Terminator squad (for killing Dreads and such), and maybe some Reaper Autocannons (not as bad as folks say) in the Terminators as well. If that doesn't appeal, we can drop two Troop models to put us pretty dead on and more or less maintain the army's composition.

Looking at the scenarios, you don't have any huge advantages or disadvantages in most of the missions. Hiding the Traitor with the Plague Marines is a pretty obvious choice, but note that your own traitor comes out of your models, so you're going to lose a somewhat expensive guy there. Other than that this is a pretty "standard" army in terms of what GW thinks of when they imagine people bringing armies to 'Ard Boyz, so you will be very baseline- this can be a problem when everyone brings stuff to kill Marines and you get caught by it, but that's the cost of playing MEQ armies.