Prepping for Wargames Con 2018 - Part 2

Part 2 of my prep for Austin looks into the actual changes I’ll be making for the upcoming tournament.

Part 1

In Part 1 I looked back and how things went at Warzone Houston. In summary, I came away knowing there are some areas I need to improve on:

Board Control Shooting Flyers

Let’s get right to it, heres the updated list working toward our objectives above…

Battalion Detachment (Chaos - Daemons - Nurgle)

Poxbringer

Spoilpox Scrivener

3 Nurglings

25 Plaguebearers: Daemonic Icon

Daemonic Icon 25 Plaguebearers: Daemonic Icon

Daemonic Icon 25 Plaguebearers: Daemonic Icon

Battalion Detachment (Chaos - Thousand Sons)

Ahriman

Sorcerer: Force stave, Inferno Bolt Pistol

Force stave, Inferno Bolt Pistol Sorcerer (Warlord): High Magister, Force stave, Helm of the Third Eye, Inferno Bolt Pistol, Warlord

High Magister, Force stave, Helm of the Third Eye, Inferno Bolt Pistol, Warlord 5 Rubric Marines

5 Rubric Marines

10 Tzaangors: Brayhorn, Tzaangor Blades

Brayhorn, Tzaangor Blades 3x Chaos Predators: Predator autocannon, 2x Heavy Bolter

Predator autocannon, 2x Heavy Bolter 2x Chaos Rhinos: 2x Combi-Bolter

What Changed?

First, let’s get the obvious out of the way with what’s been added:

3x Predators Nurglings 2nd Rubric Squad with Rhino 2x Sorcerers

Second, what did we give up?

3x Tzaangor Shamans Squad of Tzaangors Daemon Prince Sorcerer in Terminator Armor Bilepiper 12 Plaguebearers

Predators

Let’s start with the biggest change her in the predators and why they are in. If you recall from my part 1, the main thing I was missing was shooting, and the Predators are here to give me a big of a fire base behind my Plaguebearers. Without a doubt, these guys are going to be targets early on but that also means they are not shooting at the Plaguebearers or Rhinos - this upgrades the list in a way because opponents are now having to make more choices, and more choices are good.

Second, the reason I’m going with Predators are for a couple: 150pts fully loaded and access to the Killshot stratagem. Other options I considered but decided against were:

Contemptors w/ Butcher Cannons : Primarily cost but also no benefit from stratagems. I may explore these in the future because for 163, you’re not far off our 150 Predator

: Primarily cost but also no benefit from stratagems. I may explore these in the future because for 163, you’re not far off our 150 Predator Helbrutes: Can’t produce enough dakka

Can’t produce enough dakka Sicaran w/ Heavy Bolters: Cost, but may be explored in the future

Cost, but may be explored in the future Terminators: Weak against heavy armor

Weak against heavy armor Decimators w/ Butcher Cannons: Similar to Contemptors, may get a look later but struggle from a lack of applicable stratagems

Nurglings

This one is pretty obvious, they’re cheap, they can deploy out of their deployment zone, and give us something to buy some time round one or help us take objectives easily.

More Rubric Marines?

I thought Rubric Marines are support to suck? In most conversations I’d probably agree with you on that but we have to go back to our original goals. A second squad here gets us closer to that objective than a squad of Tzaangors. For some added stratagem use and quicker deployments, I’ve thrown in a second Rhino. This effectively lets us drop from 7 drops to 2, which is huge because it brings our total drops down to 12 from 15 - another bonus to this.

Sorcerers

This one was primarily something I got backed into having to do strictly based on costs. When you look at what you’re paying to bring the Daemon Prince, and he doesn’t do much but stand behind a line of Plaguebearers and smite, we’re better off taking the sorcerers and saving ourselves some points. This is the same reason I dropped the Terminator Sorcerer, though I do wish I could keep him.

Also worth noting is that I’ve put Ahirman and the Sorcerers on foot. After thinking about the fact that they are standing behind the lines, those 12” don’t really get used, even in scenarios where I need to move a bit. They aren’t going to be shooting that much since they just have pistols so, if I need that extra movement we can advance them.

Not Making the Cut

Bilepiper: served us well at Houston but the 60 points was needed elsewhere and he fell into the category of “we can live without”

Tzaangor Shamans: again, served well in Houston but have been cut to make room for the Predators. Since we’re adding another Rubric Squad, in a way we’ve only lost 2 Smites to add in those 3 Predators.

Tzaangors: as I mentioned above with the Rubric Marines, having more than 1 squad means we’re spending 3CP to deep strike them. This might mean I shift towards a bigger mob of them in the future but for now, we’re going to continue to roll with 10 of them in a hit squad.

Given a Look

On top of the changes I made, there were a number of units I looked into that had a chance to make the team. I wanted to make sure I at least touched on those as they’re still in the back of my mind with regards to the list.

Less Plaguebearers & 20-man Squads: I toyed with using smaller squads here, primarily for deep striking and maintaining the -1 to hit. At 20, you still get that -1 and the squad fits nicely in at 8PL, meaning it’s just 1CP to deepstrike them. Unfortunately, in theory it sounds a lot better than how it plays out on the table. I scratched this idea.

Heldrake: I thought this would be a cool unit to revisit as they are a great anti-air component. But are they worth taking away a whole squad of Plaguebearers to fund? I think not, especially when they are typically dead turn 1 and once they are wounded are pretty slow/useless. Even in play testing this guy was just too weak to make the cut for the points he costs.

Plagueburst Crawlers: these guys got a really solid look, but not on the table. They are a common Nurgle/DG choice right now in most competitive lists but I didn’t like the lack of synergies I would get that I do with Predators. This meant to do it right I’d have to spearhead them with something like a Daemon Prince or Chaos Lord to get some re-rolls. They are okay against infantry but the I think the Predators do a bit better with the Heavy Bolter loadouts.

Summary

So, there we have it, the updated list. I get a chance to do some final testing/tweaking this weekend before heading up to Austin. Hopefully the results will improve along with it.

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