Lets Get Freaky: "The Freak Show" pt 2

We have covered the HQ , Troops and Elite slots for the Freak show List. The Heavy slots are the last slots to talk about. We have two different units to add to this menagerie of freaks. The Chronos Parasite Engine and the Talos Pain Engine.

The Talos is familiar to Dark Eldar players. Its basically a floating Wraithlord. The Talos has grown up though in the new codex. You have many more options when outfitting your Talos. Twin linked Liquifier guns, Ichor Injector, which causes instant death with a failed toughness test, and Chain flails, which is what I prefer to give the Talos. This lets you roll two dice to determine the number of attacks it gets in close combat. You can also upgrade the twin linked Splinter cannon to either a Stinger pod, twin linked haywire blaster and a twin linked heat lance. This gives you some flexibility. The Stinger pod is a strength 5 assault 2 blast weapon. Nice for dealing with groups. The Haywire blaster is a Haywire Grenade launcher. It is strength 4 and AP 4 and has the Haywire effect on vehicles. The heat lance, well its Lance and Melta. Granted only strength 6, but at 9 inches its very deadly. I like to mix it up. I like to use the Haywire Blaster and the Stinger pods it gives you a mix. For the purposes of this list it gives you some more anti tank ability and anti infantry. The Talos can shoot and tear apart tanks with its claws and then tear apart the contents. This guy also has the Power From Pain rule. This makes him very tough to kill. It does lack an invulnerable save , but only AP 1 and 2 weapons will cancel out the FNP. Power weapons will too, but unless they swarm the Talos and use members of a squad as ablative wounds for a power fist you should not have to worry a whole bunch about close combat. Having a toughness of 7 deters many from getting into close combat, especially when it has an initiative of 4 base.

The second Heavy choice is a Chronos Parasite Engine. This is basically a pain token generating baby Talos. It has two weapons choices in addition to its Spirit Syphon. The Spirit Syphon is a template weapon. If you inflict any casualties with it the Chronos generates a pain token it can give to any unit within 12 inches. The Spirit Vortex does the same but at longer range and with a large blast. The Spirit Probe dies this in close combat. So if you keep key units close to this guy you can really get your army juiced up quick if you are killing models. Thats the key only a single model has to die not a whole unit. The Chronos is just as tough as the Talos but only has a strength of 5. Its Weapon Skill is also 3 instead of 5 like the Talos. I prefer to keep the Chronos out of close combat. I arm him with a Spirit Vortex and keep him close to the Talos. This allows you to generate tokens quick for your Monstrous Heavy Support choices.

So I present “The Freak Show” One of the Few lists I will actually post . They key to the list is the fact Each unit has a Haemonculis in it. Thus each unit has at least 2 pain tokens to start. Also the Heavy Hitters start in reserve and come on the board Via Webway portal.

HQ: Ancient Haemonculis armed with a Huskblade, Soul Trap, Stinger pistol and Crucible of Malediction.

HQ: Ancient Haemonculis armed with Flesh Gauntlet, Stinger Pistol, Archangel of Pain and Webway Portal

There are also 3 Haemonculi with Agonizers, Stinger Pistols, Liquifier Guns. Two have Hex Rifles and one has a shatter shard. You can take up to 3 Haemonculi as a single HQ choice.

Troops: 3x units of 9 Wracks. One wrack in each unit has a Liquifier Gun. All are mounted on Raiders with Night Shields and Flicker Fields. They also have Torment Grenade Launchers and Grisly Trophy’s.

Elites: 1x Unit of 8 Grotesques. One is armed with a Liquifier gun. ( The Ancient Haemonculis Without the Webway Portal and One Haemonculis Accompanies this unit.

Heavy: Chronos Parasite Engine armed with Spirit Probe and Spirit Vortex.

Heavy: Talos Pain Engine armed with Stinger pod, Chain Flails and additional close combat weapon

Heavy: Talos Pain Engine armed with Haywire Blaster, Chain Flails and additional close combat weapon

So that is the list. It is a very nice Themed list that is very unique to run on the table. I will be trying out this version this coming week if there are any takers. It is weak against armor. It is also doomed if you loose your transports.

I hope I can end the year with a nice Battle Report with this list. We will see. This week I will also give my current analysis of the list. I am loosing faith in doing a themed tournament list after 3 loses. Including a heart breaker to Old Schools semi 5 dimensional nids. I will also have my Year in review new years day. Once I wake up and get over my hangover that is.

Until then.......

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lets Get Freaky: The "Freak Show" list pt 1

I decided I needed to tweak and experiment with “The Freak show” list a little more. I have gotten two games in with this themed list at the 1500 point level and it has some major faults and weaknesses that I need to address. This of course will be easier at the 1850 point level to deal with. The list is, for those of you who have not read the first posting about this, a list themed around Haemonculi and Wracks. I was inspired after watching the movie “Hellraiser “ while perusing the new codex.

The core of the list centers around Wracks. Normally and elites choice, they become a troops choice when a Haemonculi is included in the army list. This follows the 5^th edition theme of special characters , miscellaneous independent characters and squad upgrades making a unit count as a troops choice. This is the second unit in the codex that can be counted as troops, the other being Hellions when you take Baron Sathonyx as an HQ choice.

Wracks are a curious unit and must be used very carefully. If the standard Dark Eldar army can be considered very difficult to play even for an experienced player, as Phil Kelly the writer of the codex suggest, a Wrack based army is even harder. They are almost purely a close combat unit. You can upgrade one in five in the squad to have a liqufier gun, which is dubious at best, but other than that they have no shooting. This also means a lack of anti tank weaponry. You basically have the Dark lances on the raiders and that’s it. They also only have a 6+ armor save. This kind of makes people, except former or current Ork players, shy away from them. They do have their advantages though. Being a close combat unit they are armed with two close combat weapons. This gives them 3 attacks on the charge. To top it off they are a 4+ poisoned weapon. This opens up a lot of possibilities especially if you upgrade one to an Acothyst as you can arm this leader variety with an Agoniser or several other pieces arcane close combat goodness. With a Weapon Skill of 4 Wracks can hit and wound just about everything on a 4+. Given they have a base initiative of 4 you are hitting at the same time or before most units. This is not to bad. If you pick your battles well you can come out with minimal casualties. With the Altered Physique rule Wracks also start with a pain token. This gives you FNP right off the bat. Stick in a haemonculi with the unit and the have furious charge. Granted the boost to strength may seem wasted, but remember you get to re roll wounds if the strength of the model is equal to or greater than the toughness of the model its hitting with a poisoned weapon. Having an initiative of 5 makes it so you usually hit first as well.

SO we have our Haemonculi filling up the HQ slots and Wracks in the troops. Our Elites slot is occupied by Grotesques. These ogryn sized monstrosities are larger versions of the Wracks. This is an upgrade form the last codex as Grotesques filled the spot Wracks not fills. These hulking brutes also start the game with a pain token. They must be led by an Independent character though or they run the possibility of going on a rampage and being removed form the board after having their way with every unit within 2D6 inches be it friend or foe. Since they occupy 2 slots in a transport I have taken a different approach to delivering this unit to the board. I can only fit 4 in a raider with at least one Haemonculis leading the unit. I want to run a bigger unit that that. Despite the FNP and being toughness 5 with 3 wounds only running 4 will see these expensive abominations wiped rather quickly. To counter this I deliver this unit via Webway Portal. This also allows me to bring in any units I hold in reserve, as long as its not a vehicle, in from the portal. These guys are pretty tough in close combat and will have furious charge and FNP right off the bat. Not to shabby. Old School Terminator spotted this nice resin model that I am pretty sure is supposed to be a grotesque. Check it out over at Paulson Games.

Well I have gone on enough so far. Looks like this will be a two part post. I will cover the heavy slots and post the actual list this weekend. I have not been able to play the list at the 1850 level yet and I plan on doing so soon. I think it has potential and is a great theme list. I am hoping to play a Tau army for a nice Fluff filled battle report mimicking Urien Rakarths pillaging of the Tau planet of Vigos.

I hope I have some takers.

Until then....

Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!