Max Air - ChaosCrons ETC Lists

Todays list is not as exciting as this picture... But it's not my fault... Boring European fucktards...

Next up in my little series examining the most popular builds at this years ETC ... Maxed out fliers.
This is not necessarily a new thing, nor a trend which no one saw coming...especially in this context - the ETC does not allow Forge World and therefore the ability to spam Sabre Defence Platforms means that fliers have a real chance to dominate.

Lets look at the tournaments in the UK - when FW is allowed at a tournament, fliers are not as much of a worry...when there is no FW allowed at an event - fliers abound.

The ETC follows this trend it seems, at Europe and in the States at least.

Germany, USA, Italy, Greece, France.. the list goes on and on...they are all rocking an extreme flier list.

What are the armies?
Really...
You need to ask?
Necrons and Chaos Space Marines.

Night Scythes and Heldrakes. That's pretty much the army list too haha!

Combat Card Thursdays - Chaos Tower of Skulls

Today we have something truly bizarre. The Chaos Tower of Skulls is a Khornate daemon engine, roughly equivalent in wheelbase size to a Baneblade or Macharius super heavy, but is obviously considerably taller.  Back in the early days of Epic there was a fascination with building towers on wheels.  Everyone had them.  There was the Plague Tower of Nurgle, the Floating Tower of Tzeentzch, the Ork Weirdboy Tower and undoubtedly a few others as well.  This is the Khornate version. 

The concept is simple, and actually quite poorly represented in the model.  The Tower of Skulls should be just that, a wheeled base with piles and piles of skulls studded with battle cannons and bolters, protected by blades, all held together by chaotic energy or something.  You can just imagine a Bloodthirster sitting upon a brass throne on the top of the pile, lording it over the battlefield like a mini version of Khorne himself.  Instead, we get some kind of skull-studded mosque on wheels, with an unnaturally large skull stuck to the front and some blades that look like they'd have trouble cutting through a cotton thread. 

Once again, a couple of these have been scratch built on a 28mm scale using the plastic Baneblade as a base, but I never felt that they did the concept justice.  This thing needs to look completely insane, and the Baneblade hull is far too sensible.  Additionally, far too few of them have the requisite blades. 

Conclusion, great concept, poorly executed all round!

Chaos Suckz - Grey Knights Rulz!! New Army List Ideas

After a fairly successful run with the Wolves + Guard over the last 3-4 tournaments, I am looking to try out a new army. Now I was all about Chaos, but the codex, simply put, does not fulfil any of my high expectations.

Abbadon feeling much like many CSM players right now..

Chaos Sucks...Right?

Now don’t get me wrong, there is some strong options and potential combinations within the book, however I am one of those players who does not like taking extreme lists without a measure of balance to take on all comers. Chaos is, unfortunately, not balanced. Their weakness? Shit troops..

I have tried time & time again to build a list with a strong push, solid fire support & still retain a strong scoring presence, but I am struggling. There is always a lack of mobility if I take too many troops, or a lack of scoring if I take too many hard hitters (which there are plenty of).

The Troops in 6^th are the forefront of most codex’s, and to be honest, I hate the troops for Chaos.

The Marines are completely overcosted (two points less than a marine and loses ATSKNF & Combat Tactics, and two points less than a Grey Hunter who..well …I won’t go there).

Cultists? LD8 thanks to the champion, and do fuck all except hide. Seriously, they are dog shit. Guardsman are 1 point more but have the same LD, more weapon options, better armour & statline, potential to split or blob up, and can be joined by allied characters.

What is the point of this unit? Well like I said, they hide…that’s fucking it…

You can make them into zombies, and they gain Fearless, but now they are even more useless cause they can’t even hide…what..the..fuck! No going to ground makes them as good as dead. FNP? Who gives a shit, they suck.

I wont even bother going into the mark specific units, overcosted and do nothing which the rest of your army can do better. Noise marines comes close, but to get the most out of them your looking at spending a shit load of points.

No, the Chaos Codex for me is not shit, it’s just imbalanced. I hate not having reliable scoring, and since I am used to my scoring having to push for midfield, well good luck pushing squads of Chaos Marines near anything. Seriously, how are you going to stop those 18 wraiths,  or those gargoyles with FNP after your T and STR has been reduced to two? Well Spawn and Havos surely? Oh wait, not I don’t have any fucking troops…

Basically, this rant is pure and utter hatred for the codex, but I do hope someone has fun with it!

Ok So What About The New Lists?

Now this post is getting on and I haven’t even gone into what I want to use next . Well after some consideration I am leaning towards Grey Knights, unless someone convinces me Blood Angels can work. But then again Dark Angels are just around the corner, so maybe I should just wait?

I’ve fiddled around with mysel...I mean...some list ideas, and this is what I am up with at the moment, thoughts & criticisms are taken into account, even if you’re horribly wrong.

New Chaos Fiend Kit... Amazing WIP shots

Been putting the new Mauler/Forge Fiend kit together today, as well as finishing the painting on my Kirai/Von Schill Malifaux crew.

The new Chaos kits go together really well. Great design and style. I didn't like the fact that the Mauler's were so hunched over, so short essentially. I like a towering behemoth rather than a squat bitch. So I put the kit together in a more upright position/stance.

I really think it looks quite good this tall. I know that this is not how this particular model is meant to be, but if any of you remember the old Khorne Lord of Battle demon engine, I liked the idea of having a towering slaughterer.. What I really liked about the old Epic model was the mix of a massive cannon and the massive axe! Unfortunately, the new rules don't support this kind of mix.. but it did get me thinking about a Khornate Paladin army..

If I ran the Fiend with a claw from the mauler and an ectoplasma cannon, then we could call it a sword and heavy incinerator.. then we could run some crazy ass Khornate Termies and Zhufor as Draigo.. Plus, if it is true that Forgeworld are going to release Death Shroud Termies ... I think I just pee'd a little...Anyway..

The kit is nice to put together and is easy to keep interchangeable and looks wicked, I can recommend getting one..if not 3! I know I am going to grab another couple next month and a couple of Helldrakes... I am genuinely looking into running some sort of Chaos army...especially with Zombies everywhere...

I am really digging these kits.. Now just need to figure out how the hell the army works!

I am also very much all over the Typhus zombie horde, plus with extra toys to distract people, slow them down in their attempt to kill the zombie horde! Having put this giant rhino/dino together.. I really want 3 to be honest! So it looks like it'll be the Maulerfiend that gets run, or perhaps 2 Maulers and Forgefiend with Ectoplasma...like The Voice was talking about yesterday.. Chaos 'Dread' bash: 
Could save points and not use Typhus..just use a Techmarine dude for half the points.. 

Warpsmith - 110 

Hellbrute, MM, Fist - 100 

Hellbrute, MM, Fist - 100

30 Cultists

30 Cultists

Aegis Defence Line - Quad Gun

9 Marines, meltagun 

9 Marines, meltagun

Dragon - Baleflamer 

Dragon - Baleflamer

Dragon - Baleflamer 

Maulerfiend 

Maulerfiend 

Maulerfiend

1850 

Could be fun... and by fun I mean...mean 

Backwards 40k: Blood Hunters as Chaos Marines? WTF?

Do it backwards? Have my Blood Hunters throw down on the table as Chaos Marines? Pretty sure most people have their Chaos armies run as Space Wolves these days..what about the old girl though? Life in her yet?

For those that can't remember or be arsed to look, the Blood Hunters are my generic whatever-they-like Marines, running as BA, BT and GK currently.. they lack the bolters really to be Vanilla Marines, but I see a two fold opportunity here..

I am tempted by new Chaos, whenever it hits, of course I am...who isn't?

I also love me some forgeworld and Vanilla Marines are still a cool book.. what about picking up some Forgeworld Iron Armour Marines and using the Blood Hunter colour scheme I can then run them as either Vanilla or as Chaos Space Marines..

Thing is the current chaos book is somewhat one dimensional and boring.. overcosted to a degree too, definately feels a bit stale..

But what can I do with both the existing toys that I have and what the book can offer..

So I churned out this 1750 idea for CSM...well, actually I think Stelek at YTTH did this at 2k a while back, it certainly seems familiar - I've read it somewhere else before I am sure...