Goatboy’s 40k: CSM Possessed May Be Good Now
Goatboy here. The new Chapter Approved points mixed with the updates from the Faith and Fury book has me thinking – can a blob of 20 Possessed actually do some work?
That’s right – Goatboy is thinking of bringing 20 of these turkeys to the LVO and I want to discuss a bit on why I think they might do work. No disrespect – let’s chat about Possessed.
For those wondering what the Possessed are you have to go back a few editions when the plastic kit was first released. I don’t think they were good when they were first released and I used them exclusively for conversions to my normal Chaos Space Marines. I thought they were cool as heck looking – but terrible on the battlefield. Heck it always confused me as they sounded so awesome in the fluff – but when you played them their random nature just betrayed any hope to make them interesting.
The original models were…distinctive
Flash forward to 8th edition and the shift of making them less random – if a bit boring. Now I am all for an efficient unit – but these guys really lost a lot of their random nature in the new edition. Mix that with an extra wound and an inflated points cost meant these guys were rarely if ever hitting the table top. Now lets flash forward to a few Chapter Approved and some extra gifts from the Stratagem Fairy. These few small tweaks have turned these guys from a forgotten piece of plastic – to most likely a weird board control choice for the current meta game. Now why would I even be looking at these guys? Well its most likely due to the fact I just don’t want to play Marines for LVO.
Getting better!
I know we all want our Pet army to be good – but having your army be too good means you lose a little bit of luster for being a strong player. Instead of being the bad ass – you are just riding the meta game gravy train into the grand castle of being the best dice slinger of them all. I would rather just win with an army I made up then try to just figure out what chapter I want to pretend to be for the weekend. This has me thinking outside the box and thus back to the idea of using Alpha Legion, cheaper Dark Apostles, and Daemon of X stacks to get something insane on the table top.
Marks of Chaos
To start this off – the only way I think we can get Possessed working is to first figure out what Chaos Mark we want on them. You would think I would say Legion – but we all know the Alpha Legion are the only way to currently get these 2 wound monsters to work. Thus let’s banter on about which Chaos God works the best for these Possessed Marines.
Khorne
Pros – Double Attack Stratagem, Access to Chaos Space Marine Psychic Powers (Warptime etc), Reroll Charge rolls with Daemon of Khorne Detachment, Icon of Wrath lets you reroll Charges too so don’t need Khorne Chaos Daemons
Cons – No other real Khorne Specific Stratagems to look at, No Khorne Specific Psychic Spells to help, Only way to get extra move stuff is double attack for double activation
Slaanesh
Pros – Advance and Charge with Daemon Aura, CSM Psychic powers plus 5+ FNP, Double attack if still in combat from Chaos Space Marines, Cheap Daemon Characters for Auras, Good Special Characters for Auras from daemons (Diff heralds etc)
Cons – Hard to get double attack, relies on spells for a lot of extra power meaning not getting first turn, lost herald on Steed so speed can be an issue
Nurgle
Pros – CSM power gives another -1 to hit, Nurgle Daemon Aura gives extra damage potential, Slower Daemon Characters beyond flying Daemon Prince, Healing powers on both sides from Psychis and Stratagems, Cheap Daemon Troops for hiding in battlefield.
Cons – Slow characters, no extra protection benefits besides negatives to hit – ie missing Feel No Pain, Slow movement in general
Tzeentch
Pros – CSM powers give an additional +1 Inv save, mixed with master of Possession you can have a 3+ inv save unit, Access to Thousand Sons for some spells if needed
Cons – Thousand Sons specific Change spells can’t target, missing some pieces to allow for full integration, Aura power for Daemons not as interesting as others.
This leads me to think Slaanesh or Nurgle might be the way to go. I would love for Khorne to be the best – but we need to build these monsters up and having powerful spells and auras are going to be important. Thus it looks like the creeper and the stinker are the way to go. Besides those two – we need to then think of how we would support these guys.
Assisted Possessed
Currently the two must haves in this type of list would be the Master of Possession, Sorcerer, and the Dark Apostle. I know what you are saying – that seems like a lot of HQ’s to put into one Basket but having all 3 of these will ensure we get the most of this unit. Especially since we are looking at doing a 20 man strong batch of monsters so investing in protection will be important. The two Characters that need to be part of the same Legion would be the Dark Apostle and Master of Possession. Thankfully the Sorcerer doesn’t care so we know we can throw in these 2 Characters and either spend points on a Chaos Lord or something else if we wanted too.
Right now I am working on getting all 20 up and ready to rumble as I think there is some play there. I need to figure out if I go Nurgle or Slaanesh and then build off of that. I went with Nurgle at first as Nurglings can give me some protection as using some of the new Alpha Legion strats can keep my blob of idiots safe. Slaanesh though sounds cool as advance and charge Possessed might actually get some where quickly if I wanted too.
What do you think I should test with? Which god would be your favorite? Or should I just say screw it and find 2 more Lord of Skulls to do a 3 Tonka Truck of Doom list (List coming end of week).
