Black Templars: Unique Competitive Units

Recently I have breathed new life into my Crimson Fists by running them with the Black Templars codex. I'm really enjoying the army, its both competitive and unique. My opponents are usually suprised by the nifty tricks that it packs. For those who might complain about this form of counts-as, did you know that the Crimson Fists are known to occasionally field Emperor's Champions? Both armies are founded off Imperial Fists geneseed :)

I'll take you through my Black Templars list in a subsequent post, but first I want to introduce you to the individual units that I have been playing with. The post-FAQ Templars codex is chock full of unique and powerful units that cannot be fielded from other marine codices.

Draigo-Wing Analysis Part 3: Support

We come to the third and final installment of this series. What additional units are we going to take to support our handful of uber-troops? We must ensure that our choices shore up the weaknesses of our existing units, without providing new weaknesses for the enemy to exploit. The biggest weakness is a lack of melta and ranged anti-tank. Close to that is a weakness to Strength 8 and above - especially in large volleys.

Let's start by discounting strike squads, interceptor squads and purgation squads. Firstly because they don't fit the theme as I see it, but mainly because I don't want to add softer targets for enemy anti-infantry weapons. I have held back on skipping Purifiers simply because they are so awesome. Squads of 5 in rhinos with 2 psycannons will make a useful contribution against mech and hordes, and the Rhino chasis provide valuable cover for your Dreadnoughts as they advance. Add halberds to taste.

Draigo-Wing Analysis Part 2: Paladins

Running Paladins as troops is the whole point of your Draigo-Wing army, and the only way to justify Draigo's points cost. A Paladin is basically a 2 Wound Terminator that cost an extra 15 points, but gets a few bonuses thrown in. WS 5 is very tasty as they are now hitting most enemies on 3s, and free weapons upgrades mean that you can rock halberds and hammers to your heart's content. Like Purifiers, they can take two special weapons per five models - yay! Finally they can master-craft any weapon for 5 points - worth it for psycannons as you will nearly always miss with one of those four dice, probably not for melee weapons.

So what size squad are you going to take? Well you need psycannons, so 2 5 man squads are a must. Take 2 psycannons, then make sure that you mix and match weapons, so that every model is differently equipped, to get the most out of wound allocation shenanigans. There is one reason why you might want to master-craft a melee weapon - it lets you take 4 halberds. Halberds are awesome (but useless with The Quickening) and that you should always take one hammer in case of Dreadnoughts - don't forget that it is S10 with Hammerhand. It could be worthwhile to master-craft that hammer too if you have the points spare.

Draigo-Wing Analysis Part 1: Characters

Now that I have had a couple of games with Draigo and his Paladin pals I've been thinking quite a bit about the options available within the list.

Let's start by looking at Draigo and what he can bring to the party. He's good in close combat but not exactly the monster his points cost would suggest, with 4 S6 (with Hammerhand) Init 5 attacks. He's a Level 2 Psyker but without the awesome powers of the Librarian, he'll be casting Hammerhand for his squad, letting them activate force weapons or drop a Holocaust before assault. He also has a S5 AP- flamer attack for some horde cleansing. His most useful power is Psychic Communion, letting you add +/-1 to reserve rolls. More on that later...

The most obvious benefit is his defensive capabilities: Toughness 5, 3++, Eternal Warrior and 4 Wounds makes him slightly better than Lysander in this regard. Missiles, lances, lascannons and meltas all get allocated to this guy first, until he reaches 1 Wound of course. Don't forget that with only one Paladin left the unit goes up to Toughness 5. Paladin squads without a wound soak like Draigo are begging to be purged with Strength 8.

Space Marine Scouts

Today I'll be giving Space Marine Scouts the unit analysis treatment. It has turned into a bit of an essay so prepare yourself...

Scouts are pseudo-marines that have yet to complete the cornucopia of operations involved in the transformation of a man into ubermench. Basically they are going through a second puberty. The marines employ these "boys" in a scouting capacity.On the battlefield scouts provide a cheap scoring unit or distraction. While their grown up brethren charge around the battlefield in boxes of steel, spare a thought for the token scout squad siting in the backlines nursing an objective.

This review is for the scouts in Codex: Space Marines, but most of it will apply to scouts from the Dark Angels and Blood Angels codices - just remember that other scouts are Elites so take up a valuable Force Organisation slot and don't score. The Dark Angel scouts have BS and WS 4.

A Twist of the Fireknife

The Tau crisis suit "Fireknife" configuration consists of a missile pod, plasma gun and multi-tracker. For those of you who don't know your Tau (shame on you!) this translates in Imperial to a 36" range autocannon, and a S6 plasma gun that doesn't get hot - which can both be fired in the same shooting phase. It's a flexible configuration that delivers effective firepower against light armour, heavy infantry and monstrous creatures. Most competitive lists I see these days take 3 x 2 or 3 x 3 Fireknife suits (depending on points level) to fill up the Elite slots.

Predator (Space Marine Codex)

Weighing in at a cool 60 points before upgrades, the Space Marine Predator is by far the cheapest AV 13 tank in the game. But of course the points can start to pile on once you reach for the weapon upgrades. So how can you equip your Predator efficiently, and the use it effectively on the battlefield? Read on...

Rules

The Predator is a Tank with AV 13/11/10 on front/side/rear armour. This means it is a tough nut to crack with a frontal bombardment - auto-cannons require 6s to glance, and krak missiles will need 6s to penetrate. Its the AV 11 side armour that is your biggest weakness, allowing light anti-tank guns to rip you apart if they can deploy or maneuver into the right firing position. You must protect those flanks and force your opponent to face either AV 13 or a 3+ cover save on the side armour.

Rear armour 10, shared by most other vehicles in the game, means that you are vulnerable to assault. Unfortunately for the Predator, it is most effectively utilised when stationary - and this means that units in assault are hitting you automatically! Deciding when to move and reduce your rate of fire is the key to effective Generalship with this tank. Or you can take the easy way out - Blood Angels pay a handful more points to make their Predators Fast, which is an absolute bargain and totally unfair for us vanilla players ;-) But that is for another article...

Make sure that you understand the rules for sponson line of sight before you field them on the battlefield. As far as I can make out from the rule book diagrams, line of sight is calculated from the base of the weapon where it attaches to the sponson, not the tip. Its important to understand the angles that you need in order to bring all your weapons to bear on a target.

Don't forget the option to Tank Shock if  your Predator is shaken, or in the rare circumstance that it has had all it's weapons destroyed without being immobilised. AV 13 and a 9"+ move gives you a Strength 7 attack that could do something useful!

Predators come standard with smoke launchers and a searchlight. Smoke launchers are useful when the Predator can't shoot - either because it is out of position (your bad!) or has been shaken by enemy fire. In these cases don't forget to pop smoke and love that cover save! Searchlights aren't much use, as a Predator can't start on the table in a Dawn of War scenario.

Weapon Options

The Predator comes with a single turret auto-cannon by default; an effective light tank destroyer and monstrous creature wounder. It's hard to pass up adding the optional heavy bolter sponsons - for a good price you gain a strong anti-infantry ability with 8 high Strength shots at AP4. This is enough firepower to force a moral check, or wipe out the dregs of a unit.

Of course the upgrade options do not stop there. All the above guns can be swapped with lascannons - or a twin-linked lascannon in the case of the turret autocannon. But these upgrades come at a price, and so should only be chosen if they cover a weakness in the rest of your list. Because of the vulnerability of the turret twin-linked lascannon to weapon-destroyed results, the usual choice is to upgrade the heavy bolter sponsons. Also the lascannons and auto-cannons are complementary weapons against most targets.

Other Options

Yes there are other options that can be added to the Predator - but the prices are generally not worth the extra value provided. To be honest I have never taken any of these.

You can add a pintle-mounted storm bolter, giving additional anti-infantry fire that complements heavy bolter sponsons. But it does not complement the auto-cannon, so in scenarios when you are moving and firing at tanks those points are wasted. And in any case spending so many points on a couple of Strength 4 shots is generally not worth it.

Extra armour is even less useful - its actually pretty rare for a vehicle to be stunned, and for a shooty tank like the Predator retaining the ability to move is far less important than for a transport. Give it a miss and save valuable points. You might find the occasional use for a dozer blade but once again this is a far more useful upgrade for a transport vehicle, that actually needs to get somewhere to drop off its passengers. Just avoid difficult terrain!

Finally is the hunter-killer missile option. This is a weapon that complements both auto-cannons and lascannons, and can either be used to maximise an opening salvo or saved for an efficient shot at side-armour. Not really an optimal selection, but I can see the potential in the right list. Probably something I should investigate further on the battlefield.

Example Units

Dakka (85)

Predator with auto-cannon, 2 heavy bolter sponsons

The most commonly fielded Predator configuration. Cheap and effective against a variety of targets - and three of these are cheaper than a single Land Raider! Suffers from an inability to threaten AV 13-14, but is cheap enough that this rarely becomes an issue.

Hybrid (120)

Predator with auto-cannon, 2 lascannon sponsons

The perfect compromise between the price of the Dakka and the anti-tank power of the Annihilator - but sacrifices the anti-infantry ability of the Dakka configuration. Able to move and fire a lascannon, or sit still and blast vehicles off the table, its a good choice when you need to up your armies anti-tank firepower.

Annihilator (165)

Predator with twin-linked lascannon, 2 lascannon sponsons
This is the most vicious long-ranged anti-tank configuration in the Space Marine arsenal. If it gets a chance to fire it should be able to comfortably cripple an opposing vehicle each turn. However it has giant SHOOT ME signs painted on the armour, especially that AV 11 side armour. And all it takes is one shaken result in order to stop all that shooting for a turn. Field it at your own risk!

Imperial (inc. Chaos) Heavy Weapons

The Imperium produces a number of bulkier weapons that require the might of a Space Marine, the teamwork of Guardsmen or mounting on a vehicle to be wielded effectively. Sit tight while I walk you through the stats for each of these weapons and their effectiveness in the current edition.

Heavy Bolter 
36" S5 AP4 Assault 3

Let's start with the humble heavy bolter. Its stats favour inflicting casualties on light/medium infantry. It has little effect on its own, but when several are combined you will consistently force saves on the enemy. The range is decent but does mean that you won't be in range some times, which can really hurt when in an infantry unit. Suffers from the low utility of AP4 when everyone and his dog is getting a 4+ cover save, and its inability to threaten most transports - although could be nice against a Dark Eldar's Armour 10.

These days you will commonly only spot heavy bolters as sponsons on Predators or Leman Russes, or mounted on a Chimera chasis. Its rare to see them carrried around on foot as they are not effective when unsupported.

Assault cannon 
24" S6 AP4 Heavy 4 Rending

The assault cannon is only available to Loyalist Marine armies, and even then it can only be taken on vehicles or by Terminators. This is necessary anyway because it's short range means that it must move forward and fire to be effective - so you shouldn't include it in a gunline. Good rate of fire and ability to rend means that the assault cannon can be a very effective weapon against vehicles - in fact it has a better chance of damaging AV 14 than a lascannon (when it's within range). It is also effective against any infantry, a good all-rounder. The king of heavy weapons in 4th edition, the assault cannon was brought into line with the Rending nerf of this edition and is now well balanced.

Assault cannons are commonly seen on drop pod Dreads as an alternative to the multi-melta (if Vulkan isn't around of course) and twin linked on the front of Land Raider Crusaders and Redeemers. The modern Terminator is more likely to be seen with a cyclone missile launcher, but Dark Angel and Black Templar Termis still prefer the assault cannon to their inferior cyclones.

Auto-cannon
48" S7 AP4 Heavy 2

The auto-cannon is like a baby lascannon, but trades in AP for a higher rate of fire. It is the ultimate imperial suppression fire weapon, with an excellent chance of damaging AV 11 and 12. With S7 it doubles as an excellent Monstrous Creature hunter. But with AP 4 it is still an ineffective marine killer.

These days the auto-cannon is a common sight on the battlefield due to it's effectiveness. Imperial guard squads will shoot them from the safety of their Chimera pillbox. Hydras and loyalist marine Dreads can rock two twin-linked 'cannons which can cause a lot of destruction! The Predator Destructor is a common choice too. Chaos marines can take auto-cannons as a heavy weapon choice unlike the loyalists, and it is a good weapon choice for their Crazy dreads too - just pop off a couple of frag missiles into the side of a nearby vehicle if you roll a 1 on the Crazed table.

Heavy Flamer
- S5 AP4 Template

When light/medium infantry are sitting smugly in cover, the heavy flamer provides the means to shift them. Ignoring both cover saves and 4+ armour saves is a deadly combination - especially against scouts that have gone to ground for a 2+ cover save! As all you have to do is wound, twin linking this weapon gives a very good chance of wiping an entire unit! Heavy flamers are usually mounted on vehicles. When that vehicle is fast you can quickly deliver that template-of- death to achieve optimal placement. Don't forget that with Strength 5 you also have a chance of damaging any light vehicles you can cover with your template.

Heavy flamers are a common site mounted on vehicles. They are especially effective on fast vehicles such as land speeders, Blood Angel razorbacks and even the Witchhunter Immolator (not actually fast), all of which can fire after moving 12". This greatly increases your ability to manoever the flamer to cause maximum casualties. Chimeras can take them instead of the heavy bolter option - the choice really depends on the rest of your army. Heavy flamers are also effective when deep struck in, which can be done by Dreadnoughts and Terminators. Finally they can be taken by Sternguard on foot, and a squad of 5 in a transport can make an effective BBQ.

Plasma cannon
36" S7 AP2 Heavy Blast Gets Hot!

Against the right opponent a plasma cannon can threaten enormous harm. Deep-striking Terminators, Marines just disembarked from a vehicle, and Blood Angels/Death Guard/Incubi with Feel No Pain are prime targets - there is the potential to remove several of these tough models from the table. There are obvious steps an opponent can take to mitigate this threat - staying in cover and spreading models out being the two most obvious - but you can use this to control their movement on the table. Don't forget that it can also be used effectively against transports if there are no better targets available. The 36" range prevents you from threatening the entire board with a plasma cannon from the deployment zone, so initial position is important. Finally, when carried by infantry there is a huge drawback - you have a 1/6 chance of not even getting to fire the cannon each round, with a chance of losing the model too.

The only infantry with access to plasma cannons are loyalist marines, but they are rarely chosen due to the problem of Gets Hot! Plasma cannons are best mounted on vehicles such as Dreadnoughts and Leman Russ or Sentinels. The Leman Russ Exterminator can launch 5 plasma cannon shots per turn - annihilating a target even if it is in cover!

Missile Launcher
krak 48" S8 AP3
frag 48" S4 AP6 Blast

Cheap and versatile, this is a commonly seen and very effective weapon with a table-spanning range. The krak missiles are great at damaging vehicles up to AV 12, and offer better value for money than the lascannon equivalent. Not so effective against higher AP though. They are also brilliant for doubling out T4 infantry with multiple wounds - Tyranid Warriors do not like them at all. Finally they are great to take wounds off monstrous creatures with good armour saves. The frag missiles are far more situational and should only be used against densely packed troops in cover. But it's a nice option to have. Don't forget the AP is only 6, not the 5 of bolter weaponry.

Missile launchers are very common in modern loyalist marine armies. They are the preferred weapon of choice for Devastator/Long Fang squads due to their value for money. Cyclone missile launchers and Typhoon missile launchers (whilst technically different weapons, they have the same stats except for an increased rate of fire) are a good choice for Terminator and Land Speeders respectively. Imperial Guard can pack missile launcher teams into their squads and on Sentinels, but in general they are less commonly seen. It's worth pointing out here the value of a missile launcher on a Chaos Dreadnought with the Crazed rule - you can shoot frags at a nearby tank with no risk of damage.

Multi-melta
24" S8 AP1 melta

If melta is king in 5th edition, then this must be the emperor of weapons! The same ability to kill transports but with twice the range means that the multi-melta can threaten a larger area of the board. But even with the extended range this is still an up-close-and-personal weapon - you will need to think hard about how you are going to get your multi-meltas into a position where they can get that double dice penetration roll. This is made a lot easier when mounted on a vehicle - infantry with a multi-melta fill a defensive roll, protecting an area (usually the midfield) with the threat of blowing stuff up. A single shot may easily miss though - they are far more effective when twin-linked or travelling in pairs.

Multi-meltas are common in the typical Space Marine army. They are most effective on land speeders, which can even deep strike and slag a tank without having to risk being shot down before. Droppod Dreadnoughts have a similar opportunity, but cost a lot more than a single land speeder. Dreads on foot can also use multi-meltas effectively, although they may have trouble getting into range for the first turn and might be better off running. Finally, Space Marines tactical squads can take one for free, jump in a Rhino which moves forward and pops smoke, thus threatening any enemy vehicle which wants to move forward into the middle of the table. Multi-meltas are less common in Imperial Guard armies, but may be taken as sponsons on a Leman Russ. Effective indeed, but getting close enough to use them exposes the tank to the enemy's own melta weaponry and assaulters, which are its weaknesses.

Lascannon
48" S9 AP2

The lascannon is an iconic imperial weapon, rightly feared by xenos everywhere. It features great range, Strength and AP; none are the best possible (ie the Tau railgun), but all are close. Although it can threaten Land Raiders and other AV14 tanks, this is usually not your best option - a marine's chance of causing damage at all is 1 in 6 per shot. Enough shots might get a result, but you are better off pointing these things at light and medium vehicles. The lascannon also shares the strengths of krak missiles, and in addition is also effective against Terminators. But you often pay a hefty price for that extra Strength, so think carefully before you splurge.

From a marine perspective, expect to see twin-linked lascannons on Land Raiders, Dreadnoughts, Razorbacks, and the single version in tactical squads. Devastators/Havoks won't touch them because of the excessive price. Imperial guard get a better price for lascannons in heavy weapon squads. Leman Russes carry a front mounted one, and Vendettas have three twin-linked 'cannons at a ridiculously cheap price.

Tau Fire Warriors and Devilfish

The Fire Warrior squad lies at the heart of every Tau army. Not because they are an amazing unit however - its just that you are forced to take at least one squad in every force! There are only a few units in 40K that are completely compulsory for an army - Tau Commanders, The Emperor's Champion and Necron Warriors is all else that springs to mind. This compulsory choice means that no Tau general can become competent without mastering the way of Fire.

Rules

A squad of Fire Warriors consists of 6 to 12 Shas'la - the ubiquitous troops of the Tau Empire. If you ante up the points you can upgrade one Fire Warrior to a Shas'ui, and he gets a bonus +1 Leadership... oh yeah and an extra Attack (at Initiative and Weapon Skill 2!). The additional Leadership of the 'el is most valuable in a larger unit.

Let's compare the stats of the Tau with the humble imperial guardsman. Firstly the Tau have a measly Weapon Skill 2, and Initiative 2, which leads to them getting consistently slaughtered in close combat, even by a humble guard squad. Their only defence is their 4+ armor save. In contrast to a troops like the veteran guardsman in carapace armour, who has a better Ballistic Skill, the Fire Warrior has among the weakest stats of any basic troop in the game.

Thats it. Fire Warriors don't get any special abilities or fluffy rules. Presumably because they don't need them?

Weapon Options

So what do Fire Warriors have that guardsmen don't? A very nasty Rapid Fire gun called a Plasma Rifle. This weapon is Strength and AP 5, and has an amazing 30" range. Make sure you understand how the Rapid Fire rules work - the distance to the target required to activate the move and shoot twice ability is always 12", even when the weapons total range is more. Pulse rifles can cause a lot of casualties with a bit of luck; but they are hampered in effectiveness by the squads low Ballistic Skill, and the preponderance of cover in 5th edition.

A couple of markerlight hits utilised to cause 24 S5 shots to hit on 2s can be a devastating combo - but never forget that those same 'lights could also be used to drop your opponents cover save or Leadership. With 2 markerlight hits against an enemy in cover, you are statistically better off to use one 'light to get +1 BS and the other for -1 cover save.

Sometimes it might be easy for you to do enough wounds to force a Leadership test on an enemy unit that you urgently need to remove from the battle (and is not Fearless). In thise case, it could possibly be a better use of those markerlight hits to modify the ensuing Leadership test.

The Pulse Carbine is the humble cousin of the Pule Rifle. It shares the same Strength 5 but trades in 30" Rapid Fire for 18" Assault 1 Pinning.  Once less shot when within 12" of the target, but you can still assault - like that matters!

Pinning has so much promise - the chance of basically stunning an infantry unit for a round, like it was a vehicle.  This could easily cause a failed charge, or leave any unit that dared stray out of cover as a sitting duck to any counterattack. Unfortunately pinning in my experience is one of those abilities that you can take or leave. First you have to find a unit that is not Fearless - and Leadership tests are rarely failed anyway. It does combine extremely well with Marklight hits used to reduce Leadership.

The true strength of the Pulse Carbine is that it allows the Fire Warrior to move out of assault range of its target unit and still shoot effectively. The ability to pin the assaulting unit synergises brilliantly with the overwhelming fire power of the rest of the Tau army. Any unit pinned in the Tau firing lanes is in big trouble.

Tragically Fire Warriors are given no options for heavy or special weapons - it appears that they are forced to shoot down approaching Rhinos with their pulse rifles - they do glance on 6s after all! This is a big issue as it makes the unit ineffective against a large chunk of some armies.

Other Equipment

Being a pushover in close combat is not necessarily a bad thing in 40k. If they are attacked by a close combat unit, their big fear will be wiping the Fire Warriors out in one round of combat, leaving them stranded in the open ready to get blasted off the table by the Tau players firebase. This is why you should never take photon grenades, they help your opponent by minimizing their attacks, giving them a better chance of staying in combat that extra turn. Any points spent improving the Fire Warrior's melée ability are points wasted.

EMP grenades however are a more interesting option. They are actually not a bad weapon, glancing on a 4 or 5 and pinning on a 6 - once they hit of course.  Awesome against Land Raiders that haven't moved - but how are you going to get close enough to a Land Raider to use them? So they are situational only and don't synergise well with the unit's other activities.

The Shas'ui is the only squad member to access to the following upgrades. The bonding knife lets you rally when under half strength. useful when a fleeing unit rallies to return to an objective or not give away a kill point - but only with larger squads. The Shas'ui can take a markerlight for a good price - and then the hard-wired target lock becomes an option, allowing the valuable markerlight to be fired at the optimal target. Don't forget though that the markerlight is a heavy weapon - so you cant move the unit and fire effectively. At least he still has his pulse weapon for these situations.

Finally you have the option to buy drones, but I do not think they are worth it in a cheap unit like Fire Warriors. Drones are fragile because they are killed instantly if their controller dies. I'll go into more detail about drone options when I post my review of the Crisis Suits.

Devilfish

Fire Warriors on the table seem to have a target painted on their armour. Against shooting they have Toughness 3 and a 4+ save that everyone gets from cover anyway, and a low Leadership of 7 or 8. In CC they just die. Putting them in a Devilfish is the answer. It immediately provides them the protection of armour 12, and 11 on the side. Cough up for the 5 point disruption pod upgrade and suddenly you have a troop carrier that takes its cover save where ever it goes - at least until the opponent gets in to melta range. This is awesome, and makes the price of the Devilfish actually worthwhile.

There are two levels of upgrade for the basic Devilfish descriped above. The first is to buy a multi-tracker, so that you can shoot one weapon when moving at cruising speed. As the gun drones can fire if any of your weapons can, this means you can fire 5 S5 shots (with 2 pinning) whilst moving 12" - actually quite good! The second level of upgrade is, in addition to the multi-tracker, trade the gun drones in for a smart missile system and targetting array. The main advantage of this configuration is that you no longer give up an additional point for the gun drones - but at a considerable points cost. I am not convinced I must admit. With 7 S5 shots the targetting array definately becomes worth the points, but now you are paying alot

Example Units

Score from Reserve (145)
6 Fire Warriors with pulse carbines
Devilfish with disruption pod
A cheap unit in a Devilfish, this is the most efficient way to run a Fire Warrior squad. Avoiding upgrades keeps the unit cheap.  The purpose of this squad varies depending on the mission type. In objective missions, they start in reserve and come on from your table edge, then move forward to hold objectives as required. In Annihilation, they start in reserve, then come on the board as far away as possible from anything dangerous - and stay there! Six plasma rifles won't do much, but the the slight chance to pin from the carbine could be enough to save the game. I have avoided the multi-tracker because they should be in reserves or away from the action most of the time.

Rapid Response (240)
12 Fire Warriors
Devilfish with disruption pod, multi-tracker
The idea is to take a bunch of rapid firing S5 and drop them off where ever there are infantry models. Combines with a couple of marker light hits, they can cripple a unit of light infantry and even kill a few Space Marines. The Devilfish can add noticeably to to this weight of fire, even after moving 12" to drop them off.

Solid Gunline (150)
12 Fire Warriors with Shas'ui with bonding knife, markerlight, target lock
This is what you get when you invest some points into a Fire Warrior unit. This unit is designed to sit in the safety of your back field and lob pulse rifle shots at enemy foot troops or low armour vehicles. The Shas'ui is a good purchase here as his Leadership 8 makes a big difference to the squad's morale. The bonding knife might stop this expensive unit from running off the board late game, allowing them to attempt to hold an objective or save a kill point. Now that we have spent so much, adding another 15 points to give the Shas'ui a markerlight that he can shoot at whichever unit needs it most is not a bad deal - its just a pity that markerlights are heavy weapons.

Kroot Alternative (100)
10 Fire Warriors
A bit more pricey than Kroot, but perfect for a Fire Warrior themed army. At least they have little chance of surviving their opponents charge, leaving the victorious unit desperately consolidating towards the nearest cover. The purpose of this unit is to provide a screen in front of the firebase of your army - and shoot at anything that makes itself a target. I have gone for 10 models so they can form a considerable road block to any advance, and its a good number for moral checks (need 3 casualties to force a check, need 6 dead to flee off the board).

Plague Marines

When I got back into 40k in 2007, it was the Sons of Nurgle that had drawn me back in. I love these guys - they are oh so tough and can bring the pain too if you use them correctly. You can build an army around them that will frustrate your opponents as they shrug off shot after shot - assuming you are good at rolling high and hugging cover!

Rules

Let's start with comparing their statline with that of the standard Marine. Firstly of course they have +1 Toughness. This makes a huge difference to survivability against small arms fire, halving the wounds taken from S3 weapons. Even Fire Warriors only have a 50/50 chance of wounding when they hit. Note that this bonus is ignored for the purpose of determining instant death - which matters because of the Feel No Pain rule (see below).

To compensate, they take a penalty of -1 Initiative. This is significant, as it means that other Marines hit you first and that lesser soldiers usually get a chance to hit you simultaneously. They will take more hits in close combat than is usual for a marine - but this is mitigated by their amazing survivability (and blight grenades - see below).

Finally, they have the Leadership 9 and Fearless that is shared by all the cult Chaos Space Marine troops. With the fearless rule you will almost never need to take a Leadership test anyway. The great thing about Fearless is that it means you can rely on Plague Marines to always hold an objective - they will never run off it from shooting in the final turn of the game. Your opponent has to kill them all - and with Plague Marines that is a lot of shooting. In close combat they take extra wounds if they lose combat - but like Terminators they only have a 1/6 chance of not saving against it.

As if Toughness 5 wasn't good enough, they come with the Feel No Pain rule, giving them an additional 4+ save against most wounds. This combination makes Plague Marines three times more difficult to kill with bolter fire than a standard marine. Make sure that you understand the details of this rule: you can't take the save against any attack that would cause instant death (such as S8 krak missiles), or any attack that no model is allowed a save against (AP1 or 2, rending attacks, power weapons etc.).  Plague Marines are the toughest thing to kill in your Chaos Space Marine army. The combination of Toughness 5, 3+ save and Feel No Pain is awesome.

Now is an appropriate time to talk about Plague Marines and cover. Cover is as important if not more important to these guys than other units in the Chaso Space Marine army. Why? Because their specialisation is in not dying, but AP1 and 2 weapons, and krak missiles, ignore all the extra abilities you have paid so much for. You must keep them in cover so that they can do their job (frustrating the enemy while you thank the blessings of Nurgle) throughout the entire game. Unless you want your opponent to be shooting his anti-tank at them instead of your Rhinos of course!

Like the standard Chaos Space Marine, Plague Marines come equipt with power armour, a bolter, a bolt pistol and a close combat weapon, and frag and krak grenades. In addition they have blight grenades, which count as defensive grenades. Defensive grenades remove the bonus attacks that an enemy gets from assaulting you. There are three rules complications with defensive grenades that should be addressed at this point:

1. Certain units get multiple bonus attacks when assaulting (eg Blood Claws). They do not get any of these bonus attacks when assaulting Plague Marines.
2. Defensive grenades have no effect on other bonuses that a unit gets for assaulting, such as the +1S +1I from the Furious Charge rules.
3. If a Plague Marine assaults a unit with the Counter Attack rule, then the assaulted unit does not get the bonus attack from the Counter Attack rule. This is controversial, but the Counter Attack rule says the model gets +1 A "exactly as if they too had assaulted that turn". My point being that if they had assaulted that turn, they wouldn't have got +1A. When you're playing a Space Wolf or Straken Guard opponent, make sure that you clear this up at the beginning of the game.

Weapon Options

Plague Marines are the only power armoured troop squad in the game that can take two special weapons in a five man squad. This is especially powerful when you consider the 2 fire points of a Rhino - extra weapons and extra bodies are a waste when you are snug inside that protective box. So what can they take? The standard imperial fare: melta, plasma or flamer. This option is so good that I have never taken a Plague Marine squad without two special weapons.

Firstly, always choose the same special weapons for both marines. There is really no exception to this, and its a rule that applies to most units in 40k. Each turn you want to maximise the impact your squad has on the game. That second weapon makes a big difference in reliability. Trust me! I often see people take 1 melta and 1 flamer. 1 flamer can be effective against basic troops in cover. However 1 melta is not enough to be considered serious anti-tank - I'd rather take the second flamer so that the squad can potentially put a serious dent in a cheap and nasty horde unit. Don't water down the unit's effectiveness in its primary role.

Plasma and Feel No Pain are a marriage made in the warp. Plasma is generally considered overpriced in 5th edition, but the extra chance to save against the Gets Hot rule makes the plasma gun worth its points in the hands of the Plague Marine. Plasma suffers from the number and strength of cover saves available, but is still a very effective weapon, able to threaten marines on foot and light vehicles like the Rhino. It is an especially strong choice in low point games, where there are less vehicles and those that exist will usually have lower armour. As it has the longest range of the weapons available to you, it is the obvious choice for a unit on foot.

Melta is the of course the special weapon of choice in 5th edition, and Plague Marines are a great way to deliver it. Vehicles are hard to kill and a couple of melta guns have the potential to cut through the toughest armour like butter. Unlike other units that deliver melta guns into enemy lines, Plague Marines have a good chance of standing up to the contents of whatever transport you just blew up. Two meltas have approximately a 50% chance of destroying a Rhino when 6" or less away.

Flamers are the final special weapon available. It's a more specialised weapon, great for digging troops out of cover and for thinning out larger units of horde troops before they overwhelm you. They can be a useful tool to have in your toolbox, but you won't need more than one flamer equipped unit in your army. Use them if you are concerned about your ability to handle horde armies with lots of foot troops (eg Tyranids).

Oh yeah I nearly forgot - you could take 2 plasma pistols instead of special weapons. Never do this. Plasma pistols suck.

Other Options

The Rhino is ideally suited to the nature of the Plague Marine unit. As I have mentioned above, the 2 fire points matches the two special weapons they can carry (Note: the codex says that the Rhino has only 1 firepoint, but this is a misprint and corrected in the FAQ).  Secondly, the Rhino provides a great deal of protection to the unit inside it. When that unit is Plague Marines it becomes incredibly difficult to kill. Thirdly, all the weapon options for the unit work best up close within 12" of the enemy - and the Rhino can get you there. Finally, the Rhino can take a combi-weapon that can complement the weapons chosen for the unit - such as a third melta shot when you move up into the killing zone.

More than anything else, the purchase of a Rhino will define the role of your Plague Marine unit. Without it, the unit is really only able to sit in your deployment zone and hold an objective. Without long ranged weaponry, this might result in the unit taking little part in the battle only to have the objective contested in the last turn by a fast moving unit it couldn't reach. I won't go into detail about the Rhino's options here - it deserves an article of its own and this is getting long enough already!

A difficult decisions to make when building a Plague Marine unit is whether or not to take a Plague Champion. Purchasing a Champion gives you an additional attack in close combat and an additional (basically useless) point of Leadership. The only time a plain Champion makes any sense is if you have also purchased a Greater Daemon. It is also not worth it to buy the Champion just for the chance to get a combi-weapon. That is what the Rhino is for. For the points I would much rather take an additional body.

What the Plague Champion does provide is the chance to add a power fist to your squad. The power fist gives the chance a much better chance against walkers in close combat, otherwise any squad that gets in combat with a walker will be very lucky indeed to survive (krak grenades mean you are hitting on 6s, glancing on 6s, with one attack per model). They also given a good chance to lay some wounds down on a monstrous creature. This is what you buy them for. Power fists do also give a good chance of busting up other vehicles, but krak grenades allow your normal marines to do so anyway. So - only take a power fist on a squad or two, and only if you don't have enough other units that can handle walkers for you. He makes the unit a lot more expensive.

Note that if you shell out the points for a Plague Champion, he can also take a combi-weapon (either matching the squads load out, or perhaps a combi-flamer). A combi-melta pushes your chance of killing a Rhino up to around 65% - but you need to get out of the tank to use it. My motto in these situations is "never get out of the tank", so I'd usually suggest that there is somewhere else in the list your points could be better spent - or maybe take a combi-flamer for late game objective mop up duty.

There are other weapons that a Plague Champion can take (power weapon, plasma pistol, twin-linked bolter, melta-bombs) but none of these are very effective (especially the I3 power sword) and should be left at home.

Finally the personal icon is used to allow deep strikers and daemons to enter near your unit without scatter. You can use this to drop a screen of daemons down to protect your plague marines from assault. Whether or not you take it depends on the other selections in your list. Note that it doesn't need to be given to the Champion - any marine can be equipped with it.

Example Units
 
There is a variety of ways to build an effective Plague Marine unit - you could spend anywhere between 115 and 400 points on the squad! Here are some of my preferred combinations.

The Melta Squad (180)
5 Plague Marines with 2 meltas, Rhino with combi-melta
3 melta shots without getting out of the Rhino. Once the transport gets busted they can move towards objectives or control the movement of enemy vehicles in the vicinity. You should take at least 2 of these.

The Assault Squad (322)
9 Plague Marines with 2 meltas, Plague Champion with power fist, combi-melta, Rhino with combi-melta
Just enough room left in the Rhino so that they can be joined by a Chaos Lord or Sorcerer. This squad moves forward and can successfully assault enemy close combat specialists. Even on foot it can survive several rounds of intense shooting whilst delivering its payload if you use cover correctly. You could switch the Champions combi-melta for a combi-flamer if you are better than me at hitting with meltaguns!

The Horde Thinning Squad (216)
7 Plague Marines with 2 flamers, Rhino with combi-flamer
Ideally they tank shock one side of a horde unit to bunch them up, then jump out of the Rhino and toast them with the three flamers.

The Cheap Objective Holder (145)
5 Plague Marines with 2 plasma guns.
If you can't find the room in your list for that final Rhino, then this squad can do a good job of holding an objective in cover in your deployment zone. They can even provide fire support once the enemy gets into your lines.

Thanks for reading this far. There is plenty of army level strategy I have intentionally left out. I may publish an article on pure Nurgle Chaos Space Marine tactics in the future. I hope that my thoughts have perhaps led to you rethinking some of the strategies and load outs you have been using with your Chosen of Nurgle!