Goatboy’s 40k Thoughts – Can I make CSM work?
Goatboy here again, bringing the Four Loko craziness of 40k down onto your heads. Look I know we are all tired of reading about Grey Knights, Space Wolves, Grey Goats, and whatever other nonsense we come up with for naming our game destroying armies. So today I wanted to try and create a CSM army that might actually work. Or at least work alright.
Last week Mr. Black went through his decision making process for creating a (gasp) Grey Knight army. Now I know he loves Terminators so already from the beginning his army was going to be tweaked towards that style of build. Now don’t get me wrong, I love me some fat bases but if I wanted to do a full Termie army I would most likely look towards the bone white variety versus the scared and grey kind. So instead of doing another Grey Knight build (which you can read about all of mine on my personal blog – Goatboy 40k!) I have decided to try and create a CSM build that might work.
First of all when I create any kind of army I look at what I want to do with it. I decide to either build a balanced force or go towards one side or the other of the 40k butt kicking coin. Since most new tournaments are moving away from the kill em all style format (one winning objective) and instead have pushed towards a much more skill intensive format with multiple objectives. This means you really need to think of your army in all avenues of the game to truly create a good build. This lets a lot of armies still compete as they do have some build options are that are still decent.
So from that aspect I have decided to build a balanced build that hopefully covers all parts of the game and still has the pieces to win. So from there I know I am not going to be looking at any death star, pray my super HQ kills a lot, or other massed fire power builds and will instead go towards a good amount of boots on the table mixed with effective shooting and counter measures.
So lets start with the top and move our way down. CSM have some cheap HQ’s which can be very effective. We all know how annoying Lash can be and I still think it is one of the more powerful options in the game. Grabbing some expensive fat bases and putting them in the corner to get covered in hot plasma death is always a great option. With that in mind I am looking at the Slaanesh Sorcerer as the first HQ option that I feel is necessary to creating a decent CSM list. I am going to go with one for now as I don’t want to over bloat my HQ end and not leave me enough scoring options to hopefully do well enough in the game.
HQ: Chaos Sorcerer – Mark of Slaanesh, Lash of Submission
From there I going to look out the other choice that you have to create a valid army – the troops. Now we all know how annoying Plague Marines are. They are great as a basic hold and pray force and I know I will at least include one set to hide my Sorcerer in. They are fearless and thus they will grant their Leader that ability as the squad has it, not him. This is great as it means it will take awhile to get that annoyingly seductive lash out of the game. So let’s look at creating one Plague Marine bunker to help keep me constantly casting my spell.
Troops: Plague Marines X 5, Melta gun X 2, Rhino, Combi-Melta
From there we need to fill out some other Troop options. I like to think of my armies as backfield, midfield, and your opponents field. From there I know I need to create some engage units as well as mid field holder units. I want to make sure the majority of my army is also fearless as it lets me ignore a phase of the game I hate to lose by. So thus it is the Cult troops I plan on looking at to fill these rolls.
Engage Units
Troops: Khorne Bezerkers X 8, Skull Champion, Powerfist, Personal Icon, Rhino, combi-melta
Troops: Khorne Bezerkers X 8, Skull Champion, Powerfist, Personal Icon, Rhino, combi-melta
Midfield Units
Troops: Noise Marines X 6, Sonic Blaster X 5, Blastmaster X 1, Rhino, Havok Missile Launcher
Troops: Noise Marines X 6, Sonic Blaster X 5, Blastmaster X 1, Rhino, Havok Missile Launcher
This gives us 5 troop options in order to hold as many objectives as we can as well as ways to come at the enemy. The Noise Marines can put out the right amount of firepower as needed. You get massed options to cover with templates as well with those units and it lets you clear out some horde options you might see.
So we now have your troops and right now we need to figure out the best way to deal with Mech. We all know the boxes rule the battlefield so we need to find ways to hurt them. Lucky for us the boxes are usually not to high of an Armor value so we really need to look at rate of fire. Lucky for us CSM have access to one of the better guns for this type of job – the Autocannon.
Heavy: Havoks X 5, Autocannons X 4, Icon of Chaos Glory
Heavy: Havoks X 5, Autocannons X 4, Icon of Chaos Glory
Heavy: Havoks X 5, Autocannons X 4, Icon of Chaos Glory
I know 3 units is a little bit copy and paste but this will help keep us keep all those boxes fair on the battlefield. Plus each unit shoots 8 shots of pure unadulterated Rhino hate. The icon is there to make sure those guys stay a bit longer.
Alright that leaves us with some points left over so lets look at some specialized options. Now you noticed I put some Personal Icons on some of my units. I did this as a way to create little teleport points to utilized the Cheap Terminators CSM have. I have decided to go with two different sets that fit different roles.
Elites: Terminators X 3, Combi-Melta X 2, Heavy Flamer X 1
Elites: Terminators X 3, Combi-Melta X 2, Heavy Flamer X 1
The final list
HQ: Sorcerer Lord, Mark of Slaanesh, Lash of Submission
Elites: Chaos Terminators X 3, Combi-Melta X 2, Hvy Flamer X 1
Elites: Chaos Terminators X 3, Combi-Plasma X 2, Hvy Flamer X 1
Troops: Plague Marines X 5, Melta gun X 2, Rhino, Combi-Melta
Troops: Noise Marines X 6, Sonic Blaster X 5, Blastmaster X 1, Rhino, Havok Launcher
Troops: Noise Marines X 6, Sonic Blaster X 5, Blastmaster X 1, Rhino, Havok Launcher
Troops: Khorne Berzerkers X 8, Powerfist, Personal Icon, Rhino, Combi-Melta
Troops: Khorne Berzerkers X 8, Powerfist, Personal Icon, Rhino, Combi-Melta
Heavy: Havoks X 5, Autocannon X 4, Icon of Chaos Glory
Heavy: Havoks X 5, Autocannon X 4, Icon of Chaos Glory
Heavy: Havoks X 5, Autocannon X 4, Icon of Chaos Glory
This brings us to 1996pts and hopefully a decent list to play for CSM. Do you think it will work? It covers almost the entire board and it has a lot of basic options that will hopefully help you compete with an old codex in the new avenues of the 40k tournament scene. I also think this list will give most armies a real fight during any kind of game.
What kind of thoughts do you go through when you build a list? What kind of ideas do you start with? We want to hear HOW you build your lists and how your desicion making process works, more than the actual list itself. Have at it!
