Goatboy’s 40k: Knights & Hounds of Chaos!
Goatboy here again with my latest Chaos creation and lessons learned on the grimdark tabletop against some of the best.
Goatboy here again and today I want to go into a little bit of play testing/list breaking I sometimes get to do. Normally life is very busy with the real job, my side painting/art business, my awesome wife, and my crazy kiddo (2 year old toddler = lovable sociopath). Luckily I got a chance to hang out with some friends this weekend and actually get a ton of game practice with the list I want to take to some upcoming events. Plus I get a weekend to hang out, shoot the s$$t, and be around friends I do not get to see that often.
For a quick look – the list I planned on playing is this – a tweaked version of my Alamo 40k GT list that I took to a 2nd place finish.
The Latest Goatlist
Daemonic Incursion
Murder Horde
Herald of Khorne, Juggernaut, Lesser Gift X 2, The Crimson Crown, Locus of Wrath – Warlord
Flesh Hounds of Khorne X 7
Flesh Hounds X 5 – 7 Units
Aux: Hunter of KhorneForesworn Renegade Knight Detachment
Renegade Knight, Avenger Gatling Cannon X 2
Renegade Knight, Avenger Gatling Cannon X 2
El Captain Mo’ Dakka!
This is a MSU list at its core with 2 extremely rough shooting units mixed in. It has a pretty mean central assault unit that can be a pain to psykers with the added ability of Karnak. Plus It comes in with so many Hatred Rolling attacks you got to love it. I’ve always loved rolling fistfuls of dice and while it isn’t like the days of my Ork armies it still feels great. Plus there is no pesky psychic table to roll with just one roll on a Warlord Trait (Most like the initial Daemon one but maybe the Khorne one). I just have an evil Chaos knight to finish to get it ready to go.
I ended up playing 3 games this weekend. Missions I have somewhat forgotten but most involved a bit of Kill Points, a center holding objective (relic or control the middle), and some crusade options. As these were test games a lot of the time I was wanting to see how the army played. I ended up trying out 3 lists and only won one game. I don’t expect to win much when testing as I end up trying things the math doesn’t always approve.
Game 1 – Vs Ben “Bad Touch” Mohile – the host who can boast to kick the crap out of me a lot. He was playing his sneaky marines which is a crazy alpha/beta striking Raven Guard list. Of course as he is the master of the Salamanders I called his army the Sneaky Geckos. Well I should have bought some insurance from him as he ravaged my dog army. I couldn’t make a save and made some deployment mistakes. He had a drop in Devastator unit with attached Cataphract Terminator Captain that caused me to be more timid with my Knights. Normally that unit has Grav and I suspect to see them a lot more in Demi Companies as they come down, can have a front guy that rerolls inv saves of 1 with a Storm Shield and can throw out 20 Grav Cannon shots. Either way – I lost a ton of dogs to just wounds as I couldn’t make a save and just ended up having 2 Knights left by turn 3. I misplayed some shooting and lost a knight that blew up and scatter away from the captain as well as anything important. Bad loss to me but a good idea on how to set up and play the dog list. I still think the list is good and normally any kind of marine army is a great match up but when you can’t make saves and this pesky Vanguard Vets come in hot there isn’t much you can do.
Things learned – Do a better job of controlling the center and using your knights to the fullest. Make sure you plan to use your shooting to remove threats properly on your knights and remember to pick every “target” when you start to shoot. Make better saves on dogs and if you can’t just play the mission then as you know you have an uphill battle.
Game 2 – Vs Chris G with his Dark Angels/SW death star psychic nonsense. I changed out the list to a Khorne Hunting Pack with Brass Scorpion, 6 basic grinders, and 2 Heldrakes. This game we didn’t care about the mission as the idea was to see if the Brass Scorpion could punk out the star. Chris got the charge, barely got in and after round 1 of fighting didn’t do a single Hull Point to the Scorpion. I didn’t do much with the stomps as well so all my Grinders counter assault in. Veil of Time is no joke and Chris didn’t loss much after the charge. But the Stomps finally rolled a 6 and I removed a crap ton of Iron Priests and puppies. We call it from there as my Helldrakes were going to burn all the side units and my disco dancing Brass Scorpion was going to win me the game. Massed Armor 13 and a Scorpion is no joke for a specifically set up metagame that is the ATC.
List: Khorne Hunting Party Formation
Brass Scorpion
Soul Grinder X 6
Heldrakes, baleflamer – X 2
Things learned – 2 Full assault phases with a Brass Scorpion should generate you a 6 roll on the stomp table. Massed armor 13 is no joke right now in the environment and having a big fat evil Armor 14 scorpion is a pain in the butt. Remember to count up your blood tithe as the army is a KDK army so you could summon some dogs or a unit of Blood Letters so you could get a Blood Thirster.
Game 3 – I pulled out another list and ended up taking a Tetrad plus Daemon CAD. It had a fully powered Tetrad (Scorn, Robes, Grim) with the CAD having Fateweaver, Masque, and 4 Nurglings. Chris G brought out another list that was the Iron Hands Battlehost thingie. This had a rough command squad with Gorgon’s chain guy, another Shield Eternal Cataphract armor man, and another Cataphract attached to a Grav Cannon Devastator squad. I had some bad luck with 2+ save Nurglings but I seriously misplayed them as this mission had a hold the center component. I also should have dropped down turn 3 with the super Tetrad and braced some shooting/attacks to effectively counter attack and removing some enemy units. I think the list does ok but any form of massed Objective secured army hurts it. It ended up turn 5 with a bigger win to Chris while Turn 6 would have had me threaten one of the other primary missions. It had to go to Turn 7 to have any hope of tying the game as he had controlled the center for two turns and was up points. I would have to control it for 2 to even tie.
Armylist
Daemon CAD:
Fateweaver
The Masque
Nurglings X 3 – 4 Units
Tetrad
Khorne DP, Wings, Armor of Scorn, Greater Gift X 2
Tzeentch DP, Wings, Impossible Robe, Lvl 3, Greater Gift X 2
Nurgle DP, Wings, Lvl 3, Exalted Gift, Greater Gift
Slaanesh DP, Wings, Armor, Lvl 3, Greater Gift X 2
Things I learned – Remember to plan your drops down to go deal with units. If you get ahold of Shrouding you don’t have to fly high a lot of the time as you have a ton of 2+ saves. Rolling a +1 to ML on your Tzeentch DP warlord is hilarious as you Khorne guy actually sorta hates himself. This army, while having a lot of casters, does not nearly cast as much as you would think. You can only hope for a few spells at most so things like Cursed Earth, Iron Arm, and other WC powers helps. I really hate having to take Fateweaver but with the Grim and the Robes you need to have that one reroll dice to ensure you don’t lose a Warlord or other strong MC. I would probably drop a Nurgling squad to get lesser gifts on some of the DPs and maybe look at one of the Artifacts for the Slaanesh DP.
Overall I should have gotten another game in with the Dog list but hopefully I can get a practice game or two in the next few weeks. I had a ton of fun and play testing like this is great as you can usually quickly talk out a turn, figure out strategy and hopefully learn something in the end. This is how you go from being a good player to a great player. Plus having your butt kicked a few times let you see how to make correct decisions and help you figure out match ups where you have to kill your enemy or just play the actual mission.
Big thanks to everyone that was there and the wonderful Mohile clan for letting some jerks crash their pad, drink some beers, and throw down in some dice on dice combat.
Until next time – lets hope we get another great FAQ that shakes up the game a bit.
