Thursday, March 24, 2011

Lash anyone?

Hey guys,


sitting in a train, I've got lots of spare time and decided to use this by writing a short article for my blog. Last time I gave a quick look into the ideas of a Nobbiker list and spoke a few words about how to play such a list on a tournament. This time I'll show you the CSM list I am currently working at. Once again it's a list that is mostly designed to be played at tournaments and bears huge frustration for your opponent, depending on the list he is playing. I am talking about the classic 2/9 list (well, in my case it is more a 2/8 list, because my list only features 8 Obliterators).

After taking a look at the ETC 2010 lists, I decided to go with the list, which was played by the German team. The list looks as follows:



*************** 2 HQ ***************


Daemon Prince

- Wings

- Mark of Slaanesh

- Lash of Submission

- - - > 155 Points


Daemon Prince

- Wings

- Mark of Slaanesh

- Lash of Submission

- - - > 155 Points



*************** 2 Elites ***************


3 Chaos Terminators

- 1 x Chainfist

- 3 x Combi-Meltagun

+ Chaos Land Raider

- Dozer Blade

- - - > 345 Points


3 Chaos Terminators

- 1 x Chainfist

- 3 x Combi-Meltagun

+ Chaos Land Raider

- Dozer Blade

- - - > 345 Points



*************** 2 Troops ***************


5 Chaos Space Marines

- - - > 75 Points


5 Chaos Space Marines

- - - > 75 Points



*************** 3 Heavy Support ***************


3 Obliterator Cult

- - - > 225 Points


3 Obliterator Cult

- - - > 225 Points


2 Obliterator Cult

- - - > 150 Points



Summed up: 1750 Points


Opposite to many other 2/9 lists, this list only goes with 8 Obliterators and does not include any Plaguemarines as Troop choices. Instead there are two units of Terminators that can be sacrificed and each of those units comes with a LR. Those LRs, of course, given to the normal CSM in the Troop section, giving these units a really good shield on the one hand and on the other hand making them mobile and able to tankshok enemies away from objectives, if this has to be done.

The list clearly has a problem with lots of objectives, because there are only two Troop choices and these are not able to hold more than one objective at a time (compare this to the Nobbikers). Taking only a quick look, this could be seen as a major problem, but the list can deal with those kinds of problems really well. First of all the Obliterators in combination with the LRs pack lots of long range firepower, be it vehicles or more or less armoured enemies, those guys can take out everything you throw at them. If the enemy is able to reach your lines, you can still counter them in CC with your Demon Princes, these beasts can easily stop small enemy units all on their own. Slaneesh even boosts their initiative further, so that they normally strike first and can therefore deal lots of damage. Being equipped with wings (working as jumpinfantry) they normally are wherever you want them to be. But they have a weapon that makes them much more lethal than they are already. Both of the Demon Princes have the Lash of Submission psychic power. This allows them to move a single enemy unit 2D6” in any direction. With this psychic power you can ball up enemies to shoot them with plasma cannons, move them away from your units or from objectives or do other funny things with them. In addition to this the moved unit has to take a pinning test and can therefore maybe do nothing at all for a whole turn.

The Terminators are equipped with combi-meltaguns in order to deepstrike and shoot at everything you want to have killed (e.g. LR especially filled with TH/SS Termis, or anything you like).


As you can see this list can clearly win games that are based on objectives quite good. But not only games with objectives can be won with this, in killpoint missions this list only has 11 KPs that can be taken and besides the Terminators none of these are really easy kills. On the other hand the list itself can fire up to twelve lascannons per turn.


Of course also this list, as every list out there, has problems with certain lists. First of all there are Eldar , SMs or especially SpaceWolves. All of these armies can counter the use of our Lash and make the game for us much harder, because we normally rely on it. Armies that are fast at moving and can deals lots of damage in CC, like Nobbikers, TW-cavalry or stuff like that can not always be moved far enough by the Lash, before they crush into our units. And last bot not least there is of course the IG. Every shooty list will have to fight it further or later in a shootout. This fight is normally decided with the duel between our Obliterators and their Vendettas, whoever goes down first, normally looses the battle.


Of course, this is not the “perfect” 2/9 list, I would never claim that. There are lots of different alternatives to play this list, as long as the main concept stays unchanged. You will always need to Demon Princes or Chaos Sorcerers equipped with the Lash and as many Obliterators as possible, to make good use of the Lash. Some tournaments do not allow to take three times the same Heavy Support choice, for this case I would normally change one unit of Obliterators for a single Vindicator. This may not be the best change, but at least I get another unit that likes to shoot at balled up enemies ;)

Other builds of this list often feature Plaguemarines in Rhinos, those units are often accompanied by Sorcerers, who lash out of the Rhino. Sometimes the Sorcerers are also equipped with wings, but personally I wouldn't do this, because in my opinion it makes my Lash to vulnerable.

The equipment of my Terminators could, of course, also be debated. Most of the time I make good use of the meltaguns, but if I know that there will be less LRs on a tournament, but lots of Terminator-walls or monstrous creatures, it could be a good idea to exchange the meltaguns for plasmaguns, in order to deal more damage to those units. If you like you can of course also add a Reaper Autocannon, if you can find the points somewhere, but somehow I can never find the points to do that.


To complete the list I only need a second LR (which I can at the moment borrow from a friend, thanks for that) so that I could actually play the list, if I painted all of the models. At the moment I already finished the first squad of Terminators and Obliterators, picture of these models will follow in my next post. Over the weekend I'll try to finish the second squad of Obliterators as well, let's see, if I really do this ;)


So, nearly reached my destination and so this has to be enough for today, as already mentioned, the next post will be a pure picture post with the beginning of my 2/8 list.


Cheers Cleutin

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