40K CSM Monsters – Fun, but still Fierce!

Hey BoLS fans, Reecius here from Frontline Gaming to discuss a list that is both fun, great for modeling opportunities and effective on the table top.

We here at Frontline Gaming are known for being competitively minded gamers. And it is true that we are tournament junkies, but we do love the background of the game and modeling as well. We also enjoy playing just for laughs, and a lot of my armies reflect that fact: I’m looking at you, Pure Khorne CSM! However, it’s not fun to get your butt handed to you all the time I always want to put a list on the table that has at least a fighting chance. Themed lists often fall into this spectrum, and the sweet spot is finding a mix between fun and power.

A list we’ve found to fall within this range is the Chaoszilla list. Is it a GT winning army? Probably not. But is it good enough to fight through most opponents and lists with a little luck and skill? Yes. 

And, more importantly, is it fun to play? Absolutely!

The list, essentially, is very simple. How many MCs/Walkers can you pack into a CSM list?

The answer? A lot!

The classic Chaoszilla list is the Khornezilla flavor.

9 big nasties running up the field to get in and tear things up. Fun times! Now, if you really want to make it more competitive, you have to sacrifice the theme a bit. You can sub out the Khorne Princes for the much more versatile Lash Princes (Nurgle Warp Time Princes were a top choice, but alas, GW nerfed Warp Time). Drop some or all of the Berzerkers for Plague Marines and now you’ve got a reasonably competitive army that is a ton of fun to play. You ram your force down the other guy’s throat and they can either stop you or be ripped to shreds by your crazy Robots of Doom and Daemon monstrosities. I dream of one day making a GWAR themed force to these specs!

Picture of Lemmingspawn’s Excellent Defiler conversion!

And the modeling aspect of it is just a blast. Think of all the cool kit bashes and conversions you could make to create an army of unique units? With counts as armies, you could open the door to all kinds of cool forces. The possibilities are really endless. Even just using the existing GW and Forgeworld kits provides a wide range of themes and styles. You could take one of each type of unit from a different god if you wanted, taking advantage of some of the amazing FW Dreadnoughts.

So what makes the army playable? Target saturation, overwhelming assault power and reasonable speed.

You have 6 av12 vehicles, 3 AV:11 vehicles full of powerful infantry and 3 MCs hurtling forward towards your opponent. That is a lot of high priority threats to stop in only a few turns of shooting. The Daemon Princes have wings, the Defilers fleet and the Greater Daemon can assault the turn he arrives, and pops out of a Rhino, which themselves are going 12” a turn. The Dreads have a 1/6 chance of fleeting and now with the most recent FAQ, when they fire frenzy, aren’t nearly so bad as they were. If you implement the Lash Princes, you have first turn charge capability and definitely second turn.

Against most opponents, that much power in assault is more than they can handle. It is a rare army that has the tools to fight back. I use Dreads for counter assault in my very successful Bjorn Wolf tournament list and know that in most match-ups, they will suffice to keep my army out of trouble. There are some threats to be wary of though. Primarily anything with high strength and either high initiative or high resilience in HtH such as Ork Power Klaw Nobs, Thunder Wolves with Hammers, Grey Knights with multiple Hammer Hands, etc. For those bad match-ups, there isn’t a ton you can do in a straight up fight, but you can try and mitigate the problem with combined fire power from the Defilers to soften them up, and assaulting with multiple units into a single target simultaneously.

The real threat is from a very powerful shooting army that can blast your boys out of their boots before you make it across the table. Typically against armies like IG, or MSU Marines, all you need is a few of your units to make it into combat and you will be OK. So even if you take heavy casualties on the way in, you should be able to fight your way back into the game. Highly mobile shooty armies like Dark Eldar or Mechdar…well, those match-ups just stink! Your Defilers and Princes had better be on their A game, or you’re not going to be a happy camper. Again though, this isn’t meant to be the ultimate tournament army of doom, but a fun characterful army that fights well enough to be fun to play.

If in your area you play with the Imperial Apocalypse units, 40K approved or otherwise, you can really spice this list up with some of those units. Contemptor Dreads, Blight Drones, Blood Slaughterers add a lot to this style list and even Giant Spawn and Spined Beasts can be quite good when taken en masse.