Fritz 40K: Honoring Khorne on the Tabletop!
12 Minute Read
Dec 13 2014
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Fritz here, offering up my devotion to the eternal lord of battle Khorne. I offer you a primer regarding thoughts and experiences on how to run an assault themed narrative army in Warhammmer 40,000, in the hopes that other narrative players who enjoy an aggressive assault based army might be inspired…or converted…
So many decisions to make when stating a new army…
If you have followed my YouTube channel or blog for any time then you know my number one rule when starting a new army that I impose on myself is this: pick an army that you can fall in love with based on the models, the visuals, and the story you put behind it.
As a gamer you are going to be spending a ton of time pushing around those models, both winning games, and losing games, so that love is more important than anything else.
Now, that also doesn’t mean we don’t care about winning, but rather, don’t make that your only focus and criteria- let that come after.
The problem with picking an army based on codex tier, or current power level, is that as a game, 40K and the books, rules, and stuff that powers them is always changing.
Don’t plan to win based on a current codex, but rather based on a fundamental understanding on how the game and the army you want to play works…
From a narrative perspective I have always loved the assault phase in 40K. For me, the assault is where the true test of a warrior is found. Advanced weaponry, targeting systems, battle tanks, and titans are unmatched, but when it is one vs. one, or one vs. many all the warrior has is their faith and the belief in the power of their sword arm.
But where does that belief side?
It’s one thing to fight for the Immortal Emperor of Mankind, but what about serving the dark gods?
What about embracing the power they have to offer?
Can you hear the sound of Khorne stirring your blood?
I didn’t currently have a Chaos Space Marine army so using them as a vehicle for an assault based army seemed like the place to start. I had a good idea on how the units would come together and work within the current 40K ruleset, learning from my experiences playing my Black Templars, and Eldar Harlequins, but what about the physical reality of the army
How to best manifest it on the table?
How to best manifest it on the table?
So how do we make an assault based army work in the current game? Can a person take their passion for a particular style of plan and not get smashed into the ground game after game
Perhaps you are interested in this since so much of the internet has dismissed the assault phase as not being viable in the current meta.
Perhaps you are interested in this since so much of the internet has dismissed the assault phase as not being viable in the current meta.
Tau and Eldar- two very shooty armies dominate the game, and there are so many barriers to even getting into the assault in the first place.
Khorne cares not for weaklings and if you wish to sit at the foot of his brass throne these are minor details to be swept aside…
Here are the challenges in running an assault based army- notice “challenges” and not problems, since Khrone doesn’t want to hear your excuses!
1) It is going to take you X number of turns to traverse the table and get into assault range- during which you will be taking shooting and losses from your opponent. How to account for this so when you make assault contact (if you make it), you will have enough hitting power to win the assault- IF that is important.
2) With the focus on assault, what about scoring units that are assault based- how are they going to function in the assault, AND be around at the end of the game to win the mission?
3) How are you going to leverage the assault rules in a game that favors shooting, against armies that can literally blast through your power armor, deny you cover saves, and blast most of your army off the table in a single turn?
Have an answer to these questions and then a plan to act them out on the table is what is KEY.
Keep in mind we are not talking about point levels or specific units here, (which means the assault ideas can carry over to any codex based on the units and models in your collection to make it work)but rather an army build template for you to apply.
Let’s talk about unit selection first and how it relates to the shooting aspects of the game.
Tactically the units are going to be quite small in number for each slot in the force org chart- a single model if possible, or small group if possible to minimize the losses in shooting.(If playing bound armies, unbound and then all bets are off.)
Consider this well.
If I am moving my army forward and my opponent has a unit that can kill ten berserkers just as easily as five why would I want to bring ten?
If you can kill four spawn from a single units shooting, then why not bring one?
I’m not talking about a small army, but rather filling out ALL the slots in both the primary and allies detachment.
So If we are taking six spawn, don’t put them in one slot pack of six, but rather three slots of two.
Any excess wounds generated will be lost for your opponent in shooting.
Now, those six can operate as one assault “group” by moving and sticking together.
Further illustrations…
Imagine a big pack of Dire Avengers space elves in all their smugness as a single slot of six spawn bound forward to assault them.
They shoot and kill three spawn and wound another which = 3.5 losses.
Well, what if you had them as three groups of two running together, then the Eldar shooting would have only killed = 2 models at most.
When the spawn assault, both packs of two can hit the Eldar.
Small units combining in the assault to make a larger unit as needed.
This is one way to minimize your losses in shooting while still maintaining the hitting power of large units.
Of course this hurts when it comes to kill point missions, no way around that- you can run and hid playing the old victory point denial strategy which is very unsatisfactory and not befitting of Khorne as a workaround.
The next issue is the role of dedicated scoring units in an assault based army.
All the units in your army, when assault based focused, must be leveraged to this in some way including your scoring units (almost all of them) since you need the raw number of models to make up for losses on the way in and in-between assaults.
But this is the paradox.
Dedicated scoring units like to hang out on objectives, maybe shoot some stuff, but generally stay out of harm’s way since they are needed to win the mission.
Our scoring units are going to be right on the front line taking skulls and putting themselves in danger to getting wiped out…or are they?
The elements of this list- think of them as waves if you will are what is going to make it work- an assault based army is more than just rushing all your units forward and hoping you win based on the press of bodies alone.
We are going to talk lists and points for a moment but only so you can see the elements in play- don’t be blinded by the units and points- look for the mechanics of the template.
The army is broken up into three waves:
Wave 1 – The Killers
The first wave is a juggernaut lord, spawn, and maulerfiends running forward to crash into the front lines.
The first wave is a juggernaut lord, spawn, and maulerfiends running forward to crash into the front lines.
Their job is to take the brunt of the opposing army and cause as much damage as possible before they are destroyed- and they will be destroyed- I’m not upset at losing them, and your “wave 1” is just that expandable.
If they can survive for three turns then they have done their job.
But just what are they attacking?
What is the target?
We don’t want to just run across the table, but rather try to influence the flow of the game based on the targets we hit, doing our best to keep our opponent busy burning game turns reacting to this first wave which is expandable.
Don’t make the mistake of throwing your best assault units- in this case my Lord on the juggy at your opponent’s best assault units.
“When two tigers fight, one dies, and the other is maimed and broken for life.”~Old Terran Proverb.
If my Lord crashed into that group of assault terminators it will be quite a show, but what have I achieved?
With powerful assault units we want to target the weakest units our opponent has- even if they are small and not crucial to the game.
Remember, this first wave is not only expandable, but also there to keep our opponent engaged. If you start making units go “POOF” every turn that is going to make that part of the table the focus for the game- allowing your other units- the second and third wave (We’ll get to that!) more room to act on the table.
We want to target the weaklings, cowards, and least able to resist an assault as much as possible- second to this is troops and other dedicated scoring units. If a unit is both scoring and weak then it is the top of the list.
Don’t go up against hard assault or powerful, units when you can- you may get counter attacked, but at least you will slaughter that first weak unit.
Wave 2 – the Takers
Send in the ‘ZERKERS!
Wave two is my (and yours) scoring units- in this case they are small groups of berserkers in rhinos with havoc launchers- KEY.
Wave 2 are scoring units that are assault based, and who are tasked with moving to the mid field and securing mission objectives.
Which means we should side step for a moment and talk about mission objectives on the table…
Mission objectives can be points on the table you need to control, terrain pieces, or even halves or quarters of the game board. Regardless of their location the gaming table can be broken up into three regions:
– Your Deployment Zone.
– Midfield.
– Your opponent’s Deployment Zone.
It is very difficult to take objective in your opponent’s deployment zone with an assault based army since you not only take losses moving across there, but will take losses by the very nature of assaulting from snap shots/overwatch and your opponent swinging in the assault also if they can.
So we are not even going to try and do this with mission objectives in their deployment zone- instead we are going to use our wave 1 non scoring units to try and take out their scoring units that would be holding there.
However, our scoring units are going to take objectives that are important in the mid field. There will be less resistance this way where their number can hopefully overwhelm our opponent, yet stay somewhat save from range.
That said, we are not going to move out turn one to take the mid field, and you are going to need two more things- a way to “protect” them and a way to add some supporting fire to wave 1 while it is still up.
Keep in mind, unless it is some funky mission, it only matters who HOLDS a mission objective at the end of the game, not on turn one, two, three, or four.
Don’t expose your wave 2 scoring units before it’s time!
Hang back till mid game, then when your opponent has taken some losses and has less to target your scoring units with- THEN move out!
Protection of sorts for a turn or two is also important- just as we are trying to target scoring units right away, we need to keep ours safe.
A rhino goes a long way to doing this- what do you have in your codex or army that can do the same?
If the rhino keeps the ‘zerkers inside safe for a turn, soaking up shooting, then it was worth the points. If it keeps them save till mid game when they have to take stuff then it has earned double its points.
Oh, and mobility is also never a bad thing…
We also need a little support to help out wave 1, and for the berserkers in the Rhino that support is with a havoc missile launcher rack.
It has the range and template punch to be annoying and can fire off shots while sitting in the back- the poor man’s chaos version of a whirlwind.
Again, don’t try to weaken strong units- ignore them! Target what you can kill the easiest with the missile rack- rack up the losses and keep your opponent focusing on the losses they are taking in volume and not points.
Which leads us to another quick, but very important side track when fielding an assault themed army.
40K is very much who blinks first- once you lose the momentum and go on the defensive it becomes very hard to win the game.
An assault army THRIVES on this- you need to be aggressive and advance no matter what- don’t let losses stop you, don’t suddenly hide mid field because you had a bad round of shooting at you.
Khorne doesn’t reward cowards!
All is expendable till the last turn of the game!
Take the initiative and get your opponent to “blink” first be seeing all your fury and rage running at them, encouraging them to hunker down, stand with that firing line and shoot- standing static and shooting means they are wasting game turns not moving.
Hit their lines and show them the assault hurts, with more on the way, make the focus of the entire game that one little spot.
Time for wave 3 in a moment- there is actually wave 2.5 to address.
Somewhere in your list you are going to need one, two, or three based on the points you play at a very fast moving unit that can somewhat be a threat.
Much depends on the toys available in your codex, and for the Chaos ‘dex the helturkey fills this role perfectly.
While we are aiming to keep our opponent off balance by throwing waves of assaults at them, and targeting their key scoring units and weak units as much as possible, they are going to try and counter us.
This fast moving unit(s) is our counter to the counter AND a unit to put more pressure on as needed.
You want to now tarpit my lord with some scarabs- zap the scarabs with the turkey.
Something broke out and is heading towards my wave 2 ‘zerkers and I don’t want to respond yet, since if I get them out they will then eat a basilisk round- zap them with the turkey.
You get the idea.
The fast moving breakout unit is there to react or even open up a new front as needed.
Wave 3 – The Cleanup Crew
The last wave in your list are a number of small scoring units with no upgrades- in your list- who are there to just sit on objectives in your deployment zone.
You want them numerous for the points and again small in size so they are not a threat to your opponent in any way. If they move to target them, then great- those are resources not trying to stop your wave 1 units or wave 2 units.
Again, small means that if they do get tagged I shooting, you will only loose a few, and they can come together and combine by all shooting or assaulting the same single target as needed.
If your codex has some long range support with them, even better- like a combat squad space marine squad with a missile launcher or las cannon- now you have some more long range support with for your wave 1 as it is on the way in.
We protect these units by putting them into reserves to burn a few game turns- hopefully two before they come in, walk to mission objectives in our deployment zone and then just camp out there.
Whatever is the smallest and cheapest scoring unit in your ‘dex.
Break your army into four groups- the first is assault expandable targeting scoring units and weak units.
The second is your scoring units that will push mid field later in the game when it is safe, but can still offer some support for the first wave and protect themselves from shooting.
The 2.5 wave is your reaction to the reaction unit.
And your fourth wave is small cheap your deployment zone scoring units…
Wave 1: Lord + Juggernaut. Spawn. Maulerfiends.
Wave 2: Berserkers W/ Havoc Rack Rhinos.
Wave 2.5: Heldrake.
Wave 3: Chaos Space Marine Squads (Cultists).
Prepare for glory!
How do you make lists that honor the fluff AND kick-butt on the tabletop?
Author: Fred Hansen
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