Controlled By Chaos (and Miniatures) Part 2: High Elves

And now for something completely different...

When it comes to getting my gaming kicks, 40k has always been my main squeeze. I was always more into the desolate vision of a war torn future than the traditional fantasy world of Elves and Dwarves. At times I dipped into Epic, Space Hulk, Dark Future and Blood Bowl but always came back to the familiar arms of 40k... until a couple of months ago.

Myself, Gotrek and Praetor chat regularly about 40k and gaming, one day the conversation turned to Warhammer Fantasy. Both Praetor and Gotrek have played WFB and were familiar with the rule system and armies. I on the other hand, was not. So I started reading, and Praetor very kindly passed on a small collection of High Elves (many thanks again fella) and I'm now keen to try and put together a decent HE list. 

Now I probably wouldn't have gone with HE if I'd set out to choose an army but the models I have are a great starting point, I've been getting some great advice from Gotrek on how HE work and what units work best and I'm really looking forward to playing them. I've decided to go with a fairly traditional (I think) HE army. Lots of archers and lots of spearman. Fast cavalry for precision strikes and for dissuading charges and heavy cavalry to @?#* things up. Support will come in the form of bolt throwers and HE wouldn't be HE without som good old fashioned sorcery! I haven't decided on much more than that. I want to start out with the bare minimum I need to build a balanced powerful army.

So all I need to now is fill out my army with key units, repaint them (the paint job was done by the previous owner and is awesome but I want to put my own stamp on them) and play some games

 

Lots of Elves, lots of bits, lots of painting to do! And most of all... lots of fun! Oh and if anyone can help me identify any of the bits I've got it would makes very happy :)

Controlled By Chaos (and Miniatures) Part 1: Chaos Space Marines

Controlled By Chaos (and Miniatures) Part 1: Chaos Space Marines

As I mentioned in my first post, my current 40k poison of choice is the codex that it seems everyone loves to hate! Chaos Space Marines.

CSM wouldnt necessarily have been my first choice but i bought Dark Vengeance to play with my lads and space marines was bagsied. As i haven't played for 20 years and have no experience of any of the previous versions of the CSM codex, I won't be spending my time moaning about how they were better in the x edition when they could do that thing that used to win 99% if my battles. Instead I'll be trying to create a (with a lot of advice and trial and error) balanced, versatile list that can hold it's own against the majority of armies I'll face... but will (first and foremost) be fun to play with. Some units will be "optimized", others will be OP just for shits and giggles. 

One of my other obsessions is audio and sound theory so when i read about noise marines I was just a little (ok, a lot) excited!! I'd seen stuff about noise marines in the past, but having never played CSM I'd never read any fluff.

So 1 x audio obsession + 1 x chaos marines codex = 1 x noisy slaanesh list.

My current collection is based on the Dark Vengeance and I'm slowly adding units that float my boat and fill a specific role within my army. So with that said my current collection consists of:

Abaddon The Despoiler: 

Warmaster of chaos, chaos undivided, nuff said... he may not get much table time at the moment as he's not very cost effective but I really like the model and I've played a couple of fun games with him and he rocks in CC, because he rocks a daemon sword and horus's lightning claw... oh and did I mention he's warmaster of chaos? In know right?

Chaos Lord (from Dark Vengeance): 

I usually at this guy as my warlord. No bells and whistles, just Mark of Slaanesh and Sigil of Corruption for the 4++. MoS unlocks noise marines as troops (which is nice) and the minimal confit keeps the points down.

Choas Sorceror: 

I play him with BP/force staff, MoS, Sigil of Corruption, and at least  Psylsr Lvl 2 (usually 3). Yes, I run him OP; yes he'll be a bullet magnet. But he's great synergy for noise marines and is really fun to play.

Chaos Terminators: 

I've not played them much, but when I did they took out a necron barge and survived to the final turn. I like termies.

Noise Marines:

The main reason I'm sticking with CSM. I'm not messing around with these guys. Two squads (so far) with 5 marines and a champion in each squad which means 4 sonic blasters, 1 blastmaster and a doom siren for each squad. I stick Icon of Excess on each squad and put one squad in a rhino (dirge casters, combi bolted, warp gargoyles). The point cost is high but slaanesh is all about excess right?

Cultists: 

I've seen people raving about how cultists are amazing an how every CSM player should be taking them as troops... No. @&?! that! My experience is they die or run to easily even with a mark. Certainly no good for holding an objective, no good at shooting and no good in CC. Or maybe I'm doing it wrong. Having said that, I have the 2 DV cultist squads and have played them (or at least had them in the table til they died), and will prbably play them again if i can't afford anything else.

Chaos Marines: 

in my quest to put together 2 noise marine squads, I inadvertently found myself with 8 spare chaos marine models lying around. So I have 1 squad of CSM with 7 marines (one with melta) and Champion with power fist (although I'm considering swapping it for a lower weapon). I've not really played this config yet but my son played it against me (playing orks) and it was quite effective.

Raptors: 

I've only just decided how I'm going to play these guys so they not yet seen much game time. They're going to be a "tank buster" unit. 2 meltas and champion with lightning claw and melta bombs (if I can give him a melta as a ranged weapon instead of the claw I will but I'm unclear on whether he's able). 

I also have a squad of Chosen (also from DV) but I'm not impressed with the config they have (also, I did a really bad job of painting them so they're waiting to be stripped). 

As you can see I've got a little bit of work to do before I've got a fully painted army. And i will share my progress here on D4PLOYMENT!