Goatboy’s Grimdark Armylist: Rocking With the CSM Lord of Skulls
The Lord of Skulls is a beast in 40K 10th Edition. I think three of them still have game for the CSMs.
You might remember from older lists I have 3 Lord of Skulls painted. You could call me a bit of an addict, and while it isn’t unheard of for long time players to have a ton of dumb stuff – having 3 Lord of Skulls is not the norm for Chaos players.
It is a big dumb model that I just think is dumb enough to be lovable. It is the Thomas the Tank Engine of Spite, and when I played it at an LVO a few years ago it was one of the most fun things I got to mess with. It just felt like it encompassed all the things I like about playing 40K.
- It had big dumb models
- It had a bunch of cool characters
- It was fast to play
Lord of Skulls – World Eaters or CSM?
Which, of course, brings me to today and trying to figure out how to use these three big chunks of plastic nonsense. I have two options to play with them – I could go CSM route or the World Eaters route. Both are kind of the same in their load out but one has access to all the Blessing of Khorne rules, and the other has Warpsmiths plus Dark Pacts to have much more offensive shooting.
On the World Eater side of things, the big tanks are pretty much unsupported beyond what Angron gives them. If you are playing 3 of these guys you should be throwing in Angron as you will be trying to kill stuff with shooting and allowing you to summon Angron back from the many deaths he will suffer just due to the nature of the game and his own nature of not knowing how to duck and cover.
Is that any good? It is pretty straightforward, and while you are relying on basically having FNP up for the 3 Lord of Skulls and Angron doing the work he was borne to do, it is very one-sided. You also don’t have a ton of “support” to hold objectives and other things. My initial build had three units of two Spawn as your “do stuff” guys and while that can be good with the push for FNP (they get a 4+ then) it isn’t super exciting. I might still try it as I’ve painted Angron, and he needs to show up at some point on the table.
Playtesting Notes
I/be been tweaking the list based on the points updates we just got. This shifts a lot of the army and after a play test where I got wrecked by my buddy Brandon running all Thermal Cannon Despoilers, it made me re-tune the list I initially wrote. Thus here is my latest and greatest with new points, new thoughts, and an MSU style of thinking.
Goatboy’s CSM Lords of Skulls – Red Jerks of the Warp!
-HQ-
Abaddon – 280pts
-Elites-
Chaos Terminators X 5 – Chaos Undivided – 195pts
Possessed X 5 – Icon, Mark of Slaanesh – 145pts
Possessed X 5 – Icon, Mark of Slaanesh – 145pts
Warp Talons X 5 – Chaos Undivided – 130pts
-LoW-
Khorne Lord of Skulls – Gorestorm Cannon, Hades Gatling Cannon – 480pts
Khorne Lord of Skulls – Gorestorm Cannon, Hades Gatling Cannon – 480pts
PTS: 2000
Running Em Down for Khorne
This is a much more Balanced Option for the Lord of Skulls utilizing two of them to try and bully things. I think the real desire is to utilize their range to not always get close and move in as needed. The Warp Talons allow me to go get an objective far away, be a pain in the butt, and hopefully get some work done. Abaddon and Friends is pretty amazing. When you can’t shoot them, they start exploding on all kinds of hits and get me CP when I do a Dark Pact with the grand Goat Gawd.
Will it work? Who knows, as right now, 10th Edition is a bit nutty and if you are not willing to paint a ton of GSC (Which I have done… for a client… never for me) or play Aeldari you are kinda left hoping the best when those matchups hit you in the face.
Blood For the Blood God – and good luck out there!
