Monday, January 6, 2014

"Night Lords...ATTACK!"



This is a Battle Report you can enjoy.  As some have asked for a very long time for me to do these in a more  visual way, I did this because there's a lot of hoopla on the interwebz as to whether you can really play a melee oriented army.  As you know I have long posited that you can indeed do so.  I know that one battle report won't convince everyone, and it was a friendly game between friends, the battle report an after thought.  But it at least illustrates some potential strategies.

Be warned, I am not a veteran video battle reporter and there are a couple things that I messed up on during the course of filming it.  Nonetheless it WAS fun and instructional.

Below is the list I used.  For Boons, I rolled and got nothing for one of the Raptor Champions and Instant Death for the other at the start of the game.  For Warlord Traits, I was allowed to re-roll Boons.  I ended up, after re-roll, with +1 Initiative for the Sorcerer which turned out quite nicely.  For his Powers he got Doom Bolt, Psychic Shriek and Breathe of Chaos.

Hammer and Anvil was the Mission with three objectives, appropriately Night Fighting.  He got first turn.

2000 Pts - Night Lords

Total Roster Cost: 1998

Heavy Support: Havocs (5#, 165 pts)
   4 Havocs, + Missile Launcher x2 + Flakk Missiles (for Missile Launcher) x2  + Lascannon x2
      1 Aspiring Champion,

Troops: Chaos Space Marines (6#, 150 pts)
   4 Chaos Space Marines,
      1 Aspiring Champion, (Melta Bombs 5 + Power Sword x1)
      1 Chaos Rhino, (Destroyer Blades + Dirge Caster)

Troops: Chaos Space Marines (6#, 150 pts)
   4 Chaos Space Marines,
      1 Aspiring Champion, (Melta Bombs 5 + Power Sword x1)
      1 Chaos Rhino, (Destroyer Blades + Dirge Caster)

Troops: Chaos Space Marines (6#, 150 pts)
   4 Chaos Space Marines,
      1 Aspiring Champion, (Melta Bombs 5 + Power Sword x1)
      1 Chaos Rhino, (Destroyer Blades + Dirge Caster)

Troops: Chaos Space Marines (5#, 95 pts)
   4 Chaos Space Marines
      1 Aspiring Champion(Melta Bombs 5 + Power Sword x1)

Elite: Mutilator (1#, 61 pts)
   1 Mutilator (Mark of Nurgle)

Elite: Mutilator (1#, 61 pts)
   1 Mutilator (Mark of Nurgle)

Elite: Mutilator (1#, 61 pts)
   1 Mutilator (Mark of Nurgle)

Fast Attack: Raptors (15#, 360 pts)
   14 Raptors(Mark of Khorne + Icon of Wrath + Meltagun x2
      1 Raptor Champion, (Gift of Mutation + Melta Bombs + Mark of Khorne + Power Weapon x1)

Fast Attack: Raptors (15#, 360 pts)
   14 Raptors(Mark of Khorne + Icon of Wrath + Meltagun x2
      1 Raptor Champion, (Gift of Mutation + Melta Bombs + Mark of Khorne + Power Weapon x1)

HQ: Sorcerer (1#, 150 pts)
   1 Sorcerer (Mark of Tzeentch + Mastery Level 3 + Boon+ Jump Pack)

Heavy Support: Chaos Land Raider (1#, 235 pts)
   1 Chaos Land Raider (Dirge Caster)

My opponent played Imperial Fists with a pretty good counter considering my own list and a LOT od deployment options.  His list was almost as free to deploy as mine was with infiltrator/outflankers, Deep Strikers and harder hitting Assault troops.  His had super heavy hitters in melee like Lysander and his ironclad.  LOTS of shooting and indirect fire as well.  Very balanced.

Whirlwind
Manticore
Vindetta
Veterans with Camo cloaks.
Primaris Psyker (Telepathy Primaris Power)
10 Tactical marines in a Pod
Ironclad Dreadnought in a pod
10 Assault marines in a pod (I dont think they actually had jump packs even though thats the models he used)
Captain Lysander
Pedro Kantor
Sternguard with Grav Gun shenanigans.  etc...  those hurt and are troops choices)
Scouts

Enjoy and comment freely.For other articles I wrote on Chaos check here:
Other Chaos Goodness

6 comments:

  1. The Mutilators are a pretty rare find in any Chaos List. What was theior purpose and also, how did they do at it?

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  2. The Mutilators purpose was to threaten three units simultaneously with the Raptors. In other words, disperse the enemy fire between five targets, all of them very hard to kill. The chances of killing any one of them was marginal at best without dedicating several things to it, so it stands top reason that you're banking on either their success in which case you atill have a very sizable number of units jumping into the enemy OR the enemy fails to stop any, in which case its going to be a bloody massacre.

    The Mutilators are Nurgle, so they are pretty hard to drop anyways with 2+/5+ armor. The problem in this game is a MIshap'd them a few times and so I didn't QUITe get the diffusion I wanted from enemy fire (as evidenced by how badly the SternGuard and artillery mauled the Raptors). However, I can tell you that had I been less bold in where I dropped those Mutilators, they would have worked beautifully. And perhaps i will next time. My main goal was to stop the artillery fire ASAP. It really was being very effective as were the Sternguard. So I knew I had little choice but to get rid of it quick as possible. In the end I did indeed kill the Manticore that had just one shot left, but by then my flubbed Deep Strikes had cost me too much and their eventual success on the Manticore was somewhat less than excting. The tactic itself, however, worked in an unexpectedly different way, drawing Lysanders attention to them and thusly not towards the decidedly more important Raptors. stuck in terrain as he was, his best bet was to try and drop the Mutilators before they did the same to his fire base. So it drew melee attention, but i really wanted them to draw shooting attention. So it worked, just in an unexpected way.

    The LandRaider was gold. Dirge Caster stopped a lot of Raptors from dying and perhaps whjat I do in the future is put the Mutilators in front of it and use it to smooth their approach more to the center... food for thought anyways.

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  3. After another test game, I am going to make a change to the list. Night lords in the old codex and in the fluff, had a LOT of Fast Attack and little or no Heavy Support. Havocs are for anti-air duty as much as killing tanks, I am going to switch out the Havocs for a Heldrake which brings it more in line with the general gist of the fluff (now just a singular Heavy Support and also maxed Fast Attack). It has anti-air capability. Of more strategic importance, against armies that have no tanks or air, the Heldrake is of far more use and will command far more attention from the enemy, which is completely fine with me! The mere appearance of the thing bring immediate fear into the hearts of its enemies, and is this not the very essence of Night Lords?
    I will test the revised list and get back to you.

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  4. Are you using a baleflamer on the Heldrake?

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    Replies
    1. Yes sir. The vector strike does nice damage to vehicles and people alike and the Daemonforge flamer will make sure I don't suffer when there aren't a lot of vehicles.

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  5. Update: I have suffered another defeat and am starting to see the issues. For this list to work, it sadly will have to strip its leader down. The leader is soaking valuable points away for uncertain gaiin. I want the same damage output from him, only from a more durable and reliable source. I am going to look at trying a Defiler in the list. Now that is a big departure from Night Lord Mantra without violating it. What it does for the list is it gives us a legitimate way to force infantry assault teams forward. In this latest game I played, I failed TWO re-rollable 8" charges in a row with the Raptor units which left me vulnerable. It wasn't the end of the world, but it certainly hurt enough to cost me the game in the long run (although through clever timing, I did keep the game within sight until a lucky Lascannon potshot ganked the Heldrake.

    With a Defiler I have something that can protect the troops as they come forward and dish out legit damage. It will draw fire away from the Durge casters and is one itself, convenient for when IT charges. Right now when Rhinos pop, the enemy is there and ready to pounce on the lightly protected troops, but if theres a Defiler there, they might not be so froggy. Taking fire off of the Rhinos is important for the endgame and right now the enemy is definitely and wisely trying to pop open the can opener to get at the vulnerable troops inside. A Defiler would get their attention. Food for thought.

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