In a rare moment of rest in my house this weekend (I have two small children) I was flicking through the CSM codex. I was reading the army list, planning on what I was going to add into my Nurgle list when I get a) time and b) cash. Specifically looking at the Elites section, I started looking at the entry for Chosen. Now, I've been looking at my list in light of an excellent post a while ago on Warpstone Flux which goes through maximizing firepower in a Death Guard army by using templates.
Looking at the entry for Chosen, it turns out they can take 5 special weapons in a single squad. That's potentially 5 flamer templates per turn! 5 Chosen each with a flamer would cost you 115 points. They can also infiltrate, though this isn't much use in a Dawn of War setup as they can't deploy on the table (I think not got the rulebook in front of me here).
Now, being a Nurgle man myself, I'd want them to have the Mark of Nurgle, but the cost on the Icon is ridiculous. An Icon of Chaos Glory would be better. The main reason I'd want an Icon at all is that these guys are going to be deploying well forward (assuming they infiltrate) and so are in a good position to call down deep strikers, lesser daemons etc.
I'd maybe look at something like this (mainly for flavour of course, not optimized):
7 Chosen of Chaos, Icon of Nurgle, 5 flamers: 201 points
Let's say each template hits 4 models in a turn, a S4. That's 20 hits. The flamer is S4, so against a T4 model (like an Ork boy or Space Marines), you're wounding 10 of them on average. For Ork boyz on a 6+ save, that's 10 dead, not counting the bolter shots. For Space Marines, we're talking 3.33 dead but there's alot less of them in the first place. Either way, potentially it's a 1/3 of a squad. For the basic 5 Chosen/5 Flamer setup, that's pretty brutal. Two of these squads in tamden would be pretty harsh. I guess in the following turn they'd get charged but with two CC weapons and T5 they'd take some killing, potentially holding up that unit for a couple of turns.
As alternative, they can also take 5 plasma guns or 5 melta guns. With plasma guns, that's up to 10 shots, hitting on 3+, wounding on 2+ with no save. For 5 Chosen, this would set you back 165 points.
Chosen also get the option of a Rhino for getting close, jump out, flame, back in the Rhino, drive off.
The downside of Chosen is that, apart from their weapon options, they are inferior to Plague Marines. PM's get Feel No Pain, Mark of Nurgle, Blight Grenades and are Fearless for only 5 points more than Chosen. But, if you're looking to maximize your templates, this might be an option.
This is pure Theoryhammer of course, so as always, I'd like to hear opinions of others.
Edit: Having checked the BRB (and a helpful comment), Infiltrate also gives the ability to Outflank, which is great. Probably steers you towards putting them in a Rhino even more.
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3 comments:
As a SoB player, I can tell you that throwing down lots of templates on a squad is a bunch of fun. But it's very hard to do with a footslogging squad. It's much much easier to jump out of a transport, especially one that just tank-shocked the enemy into single-file for you!
I am a big fan of chosen. Currently I use the squad you described, 5-10 Chosen with 5 Plamsaguns. I have recently build a second one with 3 Twin-Lightning claws (which are only 20pts each), a Power Fist, and a meltagun but I have not used it yet.
I tend to give my chosen squad the Icon of Nurgle which helps keep them alive as I tend to use them to outflank. I have recently painted a Rhino for them though so may start using them in a fire support role.
Hi Chris,
Thanks for the link :)
From experience, I think that Chosen can be built in a wide number of arrays. I find myself veering toward something like rhino + 2 melta + 3 (ish) flamer when I don't know what opponent I'll be facing. That's so that when they're in the rhino, they can shoot with *either* a pair of flamers or a pair of meltas -- it gives a great tactical bonus! (Havocs can do this as well, but equally, they don't infiltrate).
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