Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: The Alpha Legion Love Possessed
Goatboy here with my newest… possession, courtesy of the Alpha Legion.
While I have a painted army I can play for the New Orleans Open I don’t know if I want to play it. It is the Grey Knights army I completed before the GW NOLA event and while it is ready to go, I have practiced it a bit, and mostly know it – I don’t know if I want to bring it. It is one thing to be a competitive player but it is another thing to just play one of the best armies.
I am one of those tinkers that always loves to try something new on the tabletop. I think it is always my desire to generate a new interaction with an army and try to win with something unique. It doesn’t work most of the time but when it does it ends up being really satisfying. Heck I am really just looking for it to do what I planned for and if it includes winning more games than losing it basically super charges my enjoyment. Thus you see my big question right now is: do I play the good stuff or do I play something weird?
On top of all of that – I don’t know how much time I have to repaint stuff if needed. Again I also suffer from the problem of only liking to play things I painted. I can borrow stuff if I wanted too but if it wasn’t labored over by myself it just does not feel right in my long suffering Goatboy brain. It feels like I am cheating on my other painted armies when I don’t bring the pain with the fruits of my labor. Also – if I don’t play a Chaos army for awhile it starts to get to me.
Now I talked about Chaos Knights and I am getting all the parts ready but it is an undertaking. I want to make a really cool centerpiece big knight and I don’t know if I have the time to do it. In fact I am sure I don’t have enough time to do it just based on what I want to do. Sure I can make the time but I need to do client work, real work, and pay attention to my family. So with that and the desire to play something Chaos like I go and look at all the random things I have painted and I go back to those 40 dang Possessed I painted up for some reason. I think I was originally planning to play them before 9th edition and that all sorta fell apart. So those poor evil little jerks have been sitting there for a long time. Longer than the Space Goats that need to come out to another event before long as well.
Enter the Alpha Legion Possessed
With that you know I want to somehow use 40 Possessed and then whatever else is needed to support it. I also need to figure out what Legion I want to play as well as that is pretty important. I can go fully assault with Flawless Host or go more tricksy with the Alpha Legion. I am leaning towards Alpha Legion because it gives some interesting answers to other armies that could be very helpful. Plus I like the tricky bad guys who have access to a lot of fun Stratagems.
Let’s start with an Alpha Legion Patrol. I need two good HQ characters and I think a Master of Possession as he gives us some protection, some reroll abilities, and just a decent HQ choice. From there I think will either look at an Aspiring Champion or Daemon Prince to give some redundancy to reroll 1’s to hit. I like the Aspiring Champion more just as he brings his own rerolls with him etc and it gives me an interesting character to juice up for combat.
Alpha Legion Patrol
-HQ-
Master of Possession – Mark of Tzeentch – 95pts
Aspiring Champion – Astartes Chainsword X 2, Mark of Khorne – 75pts
-Elites-
Possessed X 20 – Mark of Slaanesh, Icon of Excess – 410pts
Possessed X 20 – Mark of Slaanesh, Icon of Excess – 410pts
-Troops-
Chaos Space Marines X 5 – Astartes Chainsword/Bolt Pistol X 5, Mark of Khorne – 70pts
-Heavy Support-
Obliterators X 3 – Mark of Slaanesh – 315pts
PTS: 1375
From there I need to figure out how to activate those Possessed to be better which has me looking at Daemons as the obvious option. As I showed I will make the Possessed Mark of Slaanesh so looking at Slaanesh bomb to generate some Advance and Charge Abilities as well as some troop options that can help throw down banners, do some other actions, and just board control. I can also generate some interesting HQ options with 2 Heralds or a Herald plus Daemon Prince depending on the points I have available.
Chaos Daemons Patrol – Slaanesh
-HQ-
Herald of Slaanesh – 55pts
Herald of Slaanesh – 55pts
-Troops-
Daemonettes X 30 – Icon, Instrument – 235pts
Daemonettes X 10 – 70pts
Daemonettes X 10 – 70pts
-FA-
Furies of Slaanesh X 5 – 40pts
Furies of Slaanesh X 5 – 40pts
PTS: 565
This leaves me with 60 points which is an annoying amount to figure out. I could put in 2 Chaos Spawn or 1 Fiend. I would have to paint the fiend and wouldn’t have to paint the Spawn so just a unit of 2 to help hold back objectives and just be a small pain in the butt. With this set up I can start to figure out how to build this with Warlord traits and what not. The Alpha Legion can be very aggressive and I think we can easily create these first turn beat downs utilizing the Redeploy Warlord trait plus Scout move could be very brutal. So with that – let’s build this out with Relics, Warlord Traits, and Psychic spells.
Chaos Space Marines Patrol – 0CP
Legion – The Alpha Legion
-HQ-
Master of Possession – Mark of Tzeentch, Infernal Power, Cursed Earth – 95pts
Aspiring Champion – Astartes Chainsword X 2, Mark of Khorne, Relic – Hydra’s Teeth, Warlord – Master of Diversion – 75pts
-Elites-
Possessed X 20 – Mark of Slaanesh, Icon of Excess – 410pts
Possessed X 20 – Mark of Slaanesh, Icon of Excess – 410pts
-Troops-
Chaos Space Marines X 5 – Astartes Chainsword/Bolt Pistol X 5, Mark of Khorne – 70pts
-FA-
Chaos Spawn X 2 – Mark of Slaanesh – 46pts
-Heavy Support-
Obliterators X 3 – Mark of Slaanesh – 315pts
Chaos Daemons Patrol – -2CP
Daemonic Allegiance – Slaanesh
-HQ-
Herald of Slaanesh – Psychic – Delightful Agonies – 55pts
Herald of Slaanesh – Psychic – Hysterical Frenzy – 55pts
-Troops-
Daemonettes X 30 – Icon, Instrument – 235pts
Daemonettes X 10 – 70pts
Daemonettes X 10 – 70pts
-FA-
Furies of Slaanesh X 5 – 40pts
Furies of Slaanesh X 5 – 40pts
PTS: 1986 CP: 10
Sneaking Alpha Legion Style
This is a pretty simple list where you will throw the 2 Furies into reserves to either get you an engage, Retrieve Octavius Data, a Banner, or just hold an objective as needed. You could also throw in the Obliterators into reserve as well if you want to keep them from an alpha strike too. The Possessed can get redeployed or set up for a super fast Alpha strike too. You also have a mixture of other fun options like double assaulting Aspiring Champion, Double Assaulting Slaanesh daemons, and double-shooting Obliterators. Plus I have this painted right now which is always a bonus.
Would it give me cool points to win with this hot mess? Would I be frustrated by how janky this whole thing is? Would Russell approve as it is back to Chaos and not those pesky Grey Knights?
