It is a fantastic book, and I will be review it and its contents soon enough. But first, I want to discuss the new Renegades and Heretics list located within, and how this will affect my Vraks forces. This new army list will mean a few things will be changed to my small Vraks army, and here are a few things that will affect my lists and overall army appearance:
No armour saves (at first)
Pretty much all units now come with no armour, with options later on to take sub-flak (6+), or the well-known flak or carapace. This is a benefit, as it has made units very cheap. It also has the added bonus of matching my Vraksian models, which wear little in terms of combat armour. I'll still be adding flak to most though, should cover not be good enough.
Mutants!
What’s a chaos army without some disfigured purple-armed scaly freaks…erm, I mean, Chaos’ blessed, totally not the Gods trolling, honest guys! They’re cheap, simply armed, and since every mutant is different, I have free reign over their looks.
I am in the process of making a Tzeentch “blessed” squad using random bits, mainly Forsaken mutations, Pink Horrors and Bolt Action and Forge World arms and guns. I will soon have a small rag-tag bunch of Chaos’ leftovers, ready to be thrown into the battle in the vain hope of glory.
Preists are gone
Sure I only had one model, but it was a nice way of boosting Ogryn units. Guess I’ll need another use for this model…Heretek Magus anyone?
Ogryns are still mean (but expensive)
These muscle-bound oafs are still brutal as ever, and can now have a pack of angry chaos hounds join them. These mean doggies give you bonuses to chasing units down, and give you some faster attacks. Ogryns are really expensive though (60 points each before upgrades), so even though I love using them, I may downsize to a squad of three with five dogs (going up to five Ogryns at bigger games) for my first 1000 points. I can also choose to take a power drill (power weapon?) and a Lascutter, but I cannot find any reference to their stats (if anyone can help, thanks).
Chaos Scions (Sort of)
Whilst you cannot take Scions as a unit, you can make a unit that’s pretty much the same thing. If you give your HQ command Squad the Bloody-handed Reaver perk, you can upgrade Veteran units to Veteran grenadiers, giving them BS4 and Hot-shot lasguns/pistols (with the chance to buy one Hotshot Volleygun). Give them Carapace Armour and Deep Strike, and you have essentially the same unit, only spikier and with the chance to be blessed by one of the Big Four.
Bye Bye sniper Enforcer :(
The Enforcer has changed a bit since the older rules. They are cheaper, no longer have a leadership value (they add one to units, using that value) and their options have been streamlined. And the sniper rifle is not there (in fact, it’s hardly present). Sad days. What I may do is change this for a shotgun for a cheap and cheerful booster unit.
No Taurox (Super sad face)
This isn’t the be all and end all (as I shall explain) but it does suck. Everything else is there but the love/hate pig-truck. However, I plan to simply use my current and future Taroxes as Chimeras. I’ll be adding additional front armour, and a hull-mount, to make them as chose to WYSIWYG as possible.
Arvus lighter
This dinky, lightly armoured flying fridge might make for a fun addition to this army. It’s a cheap was of getting units to the battle fast, and can take a few weapons for added punch. They can be taken as squads, but each flyer can act separately. Due to the Improvised Weapon Mounts rule, I’m effectively BS1 with it at all times, so it’d only be given a load out with a high ROF (double twin stubbers). I might also give it Illum Flares, if they do what I think they do (light up the battlefield).
To end this post, here is a rough draft list for about 1000 points, based on what I currently have, and what I plan to get soon, based on the changes mentioned above. I’m still sticking to my theme, so there will be very few specialist energy weapons like plasma guns, mostly sticking to solid shot guns and las-weapons:
HQ-Renegade command squad (bloody handed reaver, Hotshot Lasgun, heavy bolter team, Chimera with two heavy bolters, militia training and a Dozer Blade)
HQ-two Enforcers (shotguns)
Elites-3 Ogryn Brutes (one power drill, one packmaster, five hounds, carapace armour)
Troop-10 Mutants (melta bomb for leader)
Troop-8 Veterans (grenadiers upgrade, hotshot volleygun, Carapace Armour, Helguns, power fist, Chimera with militia training, autocannon and heavy bolter)
Troops-Renegade platoon (30 models, command squad with covenant of Nurgle and sigil, platoon with one special weapon each, one Grenade launcher, one heavy bolter, one heavy stubber, all squads with flak armour and militia training)
Fast Attack-1 Arvus Lighter (two twin linked heavy stubbers)
Lord of War-Macador heavy tank (militia training, three autocannons)
The army is pretty much a shooting force, with some assault elements (the Ogryns/dogs and to an extent the Grenadiers). The Malcador is the backbone of the force, kitted out to engage medium armour and act as a bullet magnet (people are scared of super-heavy tanks, even the Malcador can instil fear). I am tempted to swap it for the Minotaur for some big-blast goodness, but we’ll see). Most of the platoon will hold objectives (with Enforcers to keep them in check), with the not-scions travelling around in the chimera, supported by a random squad in the Arvus from the air, to help take forward objectives. The Ogryns will do their usual thing and smash crap, doubling up as a second bullet sponge. A simple plan. The army does lack anti-AV14 so I may add a few Lascannons to units or the Malcador.
That’s all for now, but I plan to work on the Vraksians soon, likely after Christmas.