Codices

Hey everyone. Another pictureless post but that's ok!

Today I want to rant about codices.. No not complaining about any of them but on how to use then past there literal intentions. What do I mean? Well ill tell you.

A codex is designed to let you play that specific army and of course we all know that and they do a good job. But not everything in the 40k universe is represented. For example DIY Space Marine Chapters often utilize either the generic codex or one of the chapter specific codex (Dark Angel, Black Templar etc.) regardless of whether or not they are a successor chapter. Why does this matter? Well because this is what I am talking about and think is great. Essentially using a codex "Counts As" Army.

For example. By Blood Reavers Space Marine Chapter of which I have that 1 test model is going to be a counts as army using the Blood Angels codex or Black Templars codex depending on army list. That chapter has nothing to do with Blood Angels or Black Templars but is using the rules for those armies.

it doesn't have to be as straight forward as that. From the Warp has a great example of this type of army with his Lustwing. Using the Dark Angels codex for the Deathwing and Grey Knight terminator allies to represent his Lustwing a chaos terminator army. That is a good example of using a codex for its special rules to represent an army of your own design.

There are other examples. One being Using the Tyranid Codex to represent the Xenos on the planet murder from the Horus Heresy Novel series.

Another example is using the witch hunter codex to represent an Admech army. Using the faith points to represent special tech or faith in the omnissiah. Or utilizing the Daemonhunters codex Grey Knight forces to represent Adeptus Custodes along with Space marine allies painted like adeptus custodes.

The new Guard Codex can represent a variety of things aside from the regiments. You can represent traitor guard using many psykers or whatever you want. You can represent Arbites using the guard codex. A penal legion is obvious as well. you can also represent a remnant or hive ganger militia army. You can also play a Admech army with this codex. All these ideas can utilize special characters or specific squads utilizing the counts as rule and of course your own model modification abilities.

So in short if you have an idea for an army from the 40k fluff that does not have its own codex sit down and look at the codices and think. Think about what has the best unit choices and rules set to best represent the army and go with that codex. Just make it clear via wargear options as well as telling your opponent what represents what if its not clear. For Example my counts as Tigiruis model for my pre-heresy Thousand Sons stands out from the rest of the army but I still will let my opponent know what he is.

I find that most players are fine with armies like this as long as you obeying the rules of the codex your using and of 40k and of course that your nice and sporting about telling your opponent what is what. Feel free to post your own army ideas that you have or are using for an army that does not necessarily have its own codex in the comments. Until next time..

Vehicle and Unit upgrades

Hey everyone. Sorry for lack of pictures. I will have pictures of stuff in the future.

Thought I would bring up a little tactica on upgrades. Now in my opinion upgrades are an important part of any army. be it biomorphs for Tyranids or vehicle upgrades or whatever these are the choices that can make an army more effective if used properly.

How do you use upgrades properly? Well you spend points on them of course but it is more then that. In the case of a rhino for example do you take extra armor and a hunter killer missile? Well it all depends on what your going for but what I am getting at is points. Dumping points into upgrades means that your army is going to be smaller. Now its unavoidable for example a devastator squad is meant to take heavy weapons but should the sergeant of that squad have a power weapon of powerfist? Again there is no definite answer as it depends on the army as a whole.

So lets looks at some point costs. Power weapons and powerfist vary between +15 to +25 points depending on codices and which weapon your getting... in general. Now imagine every squad that can take such an upgrade does in your army and well the points add up. Now that is fine but you have to keep that in mind as it can mean the difference between getting that 4th squad or not.

With vehicles it is a little easier to look at. aside from extra armor (in my opinion) everything else is non essential. My only exception is sponsons as i am a huge fan of sponson weapons. However you need not take the expensive sponsons unless your plan calls for it. Dozerblades and hunter killer missiles can be nice and depending on tactic can be great but if you step back and look at it you may not need all those hunter killer missiles which would allow you to take another vehicle perhaps or more effective wargear upgrades.

This idea is especially true with tyranids and there biomorphs. You can really tool out squads with access to a lot of biomorphs but that in turn lowers your squad size and overall amount of squads in general. Taking 1 or 2 essential upgrades can mean the difference between being able to field more squads which can mean the difference more so then how strong one unit is.

Well that is pretty much all there is to say in general about that. It is a simple concept but upgrades can be really tempting. If it does not fit into your armies plan it may not be necessary.

Until next time.

Target Priority: Shooting

Hey everyone. The second installment of Target Priority is here! This is focusing on the shooting phase.

Again this is not about the old special rule. This is about getting the most out of your shooting phase and this is done by picking optimal targets for your units to shoot at. Now aside from some special rules for specific weapons (Like Gauss Weaponry for Necrons) not every weapon is effective against everything. And even weapons that can hurt potentially anything have there specific uses in which they are best. This is all obvious but when people are into the game sometimes the best decisions are not made.

So firstly you have to decide what weapon upgrades you will be taking for your squads. Once your have your army list you need to effectively deploy your army. Deployment is key with shooting because not everyone can move and shoot heavy weapons. If you deply your heavy weapons too close they can be shot up or forced to move back denying you a shot with them that turn. if they weapons are too far away you may not have great targets to shoot at. Terrain factors in. You wont your heavy weapons safe but also with a good vantage point. One thing to keep in mind is that your opponent does not want you to shoot him (Duh!) so if you have a lot of heavy fire on a certain flank you can deny it for the most part to your enemy. Flank Denial is something ill go over in the future.

So the game is in progress what do you shoot where? Well your high strength weaponry will usually be best for tank hunting or Monstrous creature hunting. That Lascannon team or Devastator squad etc will primarily be hunting for things of that nature. On the flip side your heavy bolter or scatter lasers will be chewing into infantry squads. Weapons like Plasma are usually used against heavily armored infantry like Terminators or Meganobz. But Plasma is also good against regular infantry and can destroy light vehicles and potentially wound any Monstrous creature. The true all comers weapon is the Missile Launcher with ammunition for either anti infantry or anti tank.

So in general weapons like those mentioned should be used against there best targets. The trend with 5th edition is for more weapons like Heavy bolters and Melta weaponry and a general less use of things like Lascannons. Why? Cover saves are everywhere making weapons with big punch but low shots less favorable. I personally still like them because they can drop vehicles which have a harder time effectively getting cover saves and the enemy will maneuver differently when my Dark Angel Devestators with 2 Lascannons and 2 Plasma Cannons are in a good positions of fire. This is good because your making your opponent either deal with them right away or move in a way they may not want to originally. But anyway because cover saves are everywhere more people are opting for the "torrent of fire" tactic. Essentially they want to flood infantry (and this only really works with infantry) with so many wounds that they cannot pass them all. This is a good tactic and one that has been in play for a while. So you will see more things like Heavy Bolters concentrating fire into that squad in cover.

Speaking of cover template weapons have increased in popularity. Denying the cover save to a squad can mean the difference between getting a save at all or not. Template weapons ignore cover but the drawback is short range. This means you have to think about how your going to move them and support them. Blast weaponry I feel is also a good choice against units in cover. The reason is because while it generally does not ignore cover its one shot can wound multiple models. With units going to cover they will be in general more bunched together where frag missiles, plasma cannons etc can bring the blast templates strength to good use.

Other armies have way of dealing with cover. Tau Markerlights for example can make the cover save worse and potentially remove it all together if you have enough markerlight counters available. The Key to dealing with cover is knowing what your army has up its sleeve.

One things to be mindful of is assaulting. Do you want to risk getting close enough to rapid fire into a hardened squad only to be charged because of it? Or your assaulters are in position to launch an assault this turn. Do you have them shoot there pistols or have another squad of your shoot the squad you want to assault to weaken it only to leave your assaulters high and dry to get shot up next turn? There is no clear answer. There is always risk involved in a war game but in scenarios like these both yes and no are correct. It all depends on what your squads have and are and what your targets are. i wouldn't necessarily risk rapid firing into a nob squad or a terminator squad. Alternatively if my assault unit was really close to the unit i want to assault i may try to soften it up with shooting.

Alright so that's the basics of selecting targets. Obviously there is more to it with shooting. Like how Fire Dragon squads are really good at dealing with small elite squads in shooting and not just armor. The general thing is to maximize your effectiveness with your guns. Assaulting may be brutal in 5th edition but shooting happens more often statistically in the game. Proper shooting can turn the tide easily for more armies then assaulting can.

I am going to try and get at least 1 post up here a week from now on. More tactica via my opinion, tutorials and progress stuff. This post will get a video supplement soon. until next time..

Target Priority: Assault

Hey everyone. Its been a bit since Ive posted here but I'm still around. So this post is part of a two part series that will be covering what I call Target priority. I'm not refering to the 4th ed. rule. What I'm talking about is effectively picking targets to maximize your units effect on the battlefield.

This first part is about Assaulting. The assault phase is a very brutal phase in 40k. Games Workshop describes the assault phase as a swirling melee with weapons flying blood and gore everywhere as the units fight a desperate battle against each other and the 5th ed. assault phase does a good job of that. So what does target priority have to do with this? Well not every unit is an assaulting specialist and those that are do not all work the same way.

Firstly not all units are created equal.. especially for the assault phase. We all know the basics of this. Tau firewarriors are weak in the assault,Tyranid Genestealers are strong in assault, etc etc. But there are units that can assault that are not specifically geared for it. A good example are Tactical Marines for Space Marines. They are not geared for assault but they can do it and often do. However they have to be used effectively or they will be withered down. Firstly with assaulting with tactical marines is that they should shoot first and often. With Tactical Marines there shooting is a strength they have and even though they have a great stat line for general assaulting they should utilize there bolters and special weapons widdle down the enemy and then finish them off in melee if necessary. Now this is just a general guideline.. against Tau you may want to rush into assault with there fire warriors and against tyranids you may want to maximize your shooting. It all depends on what you face but a general guide line is they should shoot first and utilize assault as the last measure to finish off a unit if necessary.

Now with dedicated assault units like Assault Marines, Striking Scorpions, Genestealers etc. the thought process is different. With units like these you want to get them into assault quickly and as unmolested as potentially possible. These either means fast moving, outflanking or infiltrating to get into a nice position or utilizing transports. However you get your assaulters across the board you have to do it effectively. To demonstrate what I mean I will talk about Striking Scorpions and Howling Banshees.

Those two units are assault specialists but they work differently and are meant to be utilized for different roles. Howling Banshee squads are full of power weapons and go at a high initiative on the charge. Down side? average strength and toughness a weaker save and not many more attacks then standard assault oriented units. So what are they good for then? Well they can assault imperial guardsmen, Ork boyz, tactical marines and stuff like that and do well against them but that is not utilizing them to full effect. Because they deny armour saves they are good to throw against terminators to force them using a lesser save. Even against the new stormshield it will force that lesser save. Now on the other hand Striking Scorpions have a better save then banshees a higher modified strength and more attacks. Down side? Well like with most assaulters they don't have power weapons except for the upgrade weapon for the exarch which strikes at initiative 1. So how does his unit differ? Well It can dish out a lot of attacks which could overwhelm a squad of 5 terminators but that is not the way to maximize there effectiveness. Chances are some terminators will live and proceed to cripple your scorpions. This unit is good at dealing with hordes. With the amount of attacks at a strength of 4 the scorpions can deal with units over double its size. They have a decent initiative and the armor save to live through the attack backs in general.

The two examples above basically are anti elite assaulters and anti horde assaulting. In general if you assault smart you will have a higher success rate in your assaulting. This is a basic concept but in the heat of the game Ive seen assault units just chomping into the nearest thing they can which is not always the greatest thing.

Well that was long enough I'm guessing. heh. Take care everyone and thanks for sticking with me. I will try to add more here quicker then this. Also this Target Priority series will have a video supplement at some point on the Fortress Monastery youtube channel which has a link in the astronomicon section of this site.

Horus Heresy Novel series

Hey all just a quick post on the Horus Heresy novels.

Now I'm not going to rate them or review them just list the ones out currently as of the date of this posting.

So there are 10 total books so far as of the day of this posting:
Horus Rising
False Gods
Galaxy in Flames
The Flight of the Eisenstein
Fulgrim
Descent of Angels
Legion
Battle For the Abyss
Mechanicum
Tales of Heresy

Those are the 10 the Tales of Heresy is a short story book with 7 stories in it. The rest are novels.

Alright so there novels based in the 40k universe obviously. They are based around the Heresy time period which I am a huge fan of so it is no surprise that I love these book. There not works of gold or anything but just really enjoyable if your into the heresy. They are focused on the Imperium and primarily the Space Marine Legions with a few exceptions. So if your not into the Imperium really then the series may not be for you.

Other then that there is not much to say as a at a glimpse type of thing. More are coming out and there is no limit supposedly to how many books they will release for the Horus Heresy.

I listed the novels in order of release in case you are interested in jumping into the series (if you haven't already).
Until next time.

Tactica Outnumbered!... Deathwing

Keeper of the Fortress

Alright everyone this is the last in the segment for Tactica Outnumbered!.. If you think I missed an army feel free to post a comment on this post with the army and type (Space marine Bikes for example although that was talked about). This will help me more then just the army. I will try to cover it if possible either here or on my youtube page (link in my Astronomicon section).

Anyway this time it is the Deathwing (Cue angelic reaper music). One of the more unique armies a deathwing army is made up entirely of well the Deathwing. A terminator army. Some things to keep in mind: To keep it fluffly it should include only terminator infantry supported by Landraiders, Dreadnoughts and maybe vindicators. Secondly this is a small army both in squad size and in army size.

Alright so Deathwing armies need to be led by Belial to work. He can be be equipped either with storm bolter and sword of silence, twin lightning claw or Thunderhammer Storm shield so he has some options. He also allows you to have a pseudo command squad with one squad being able to take an apothecary and a deathwing standard bearer. Same rules for this standard as the ravenwing one as well as the apothecary.

Now onto Deathwing squads. As Belial lets you take them as troops that is just what your going to do. They are only able to be a 5 man squad. They cannot be made bigger. They start out at 215 points per squad. They can take one range weapon per squad (cyclone, assault cannon, heavy flamer) and all can replace power fist or power sword for chain fist. The nice thing is that you can mix assault terminators with ranged ones so you can put a heavy flamer with an assault squad. Also the cyclone missile launcher can be put on any terminator which means assault terminators can have the missile launcher on them. Remember though that this one works like the old missile launcher so only 1 shot not 2. This ability to mix your squads means you can have your squads tooled out to whatever role you need. As for deathwing assault that really is dependent on the board, your opponent, your list and what you plan to do. Its is worth remembering it is there in case you need it.

So how mechanized do you go? That depends. The more you go the less squads you will have. You also can go pure infantry which is a harder list but gives you the max number of squads. That is a pure water type list that will can taken apart if you falter. I usually suggest at least one Landraider chassis either crusader or standard. I prefer the standard landraider as it adds some much need long range anti tank punch to the army but if you want to assault with at initiative weapons going at initiative the crusader is the way to go as it will allow Belial to go wit ha squad (remember these landraiders transport 10 not 12).

So what are the pro's of this army? Well Terminator troop choices for one. having a 2+/5+ standard for troops is strong also 2 attacks base. Deathwing are fearless so they will never run meangin it will be hard to move them from an objective in cover. Every terminator close combat attack is a form of power weapon meaning that even shooty terminators are dangerous in close combat if they are given the chance to strike back. The ability to move shoot and assault all in the same turn is another strong point. Move to get in range and shoot then keep them at your range by moving back or at an angle and shoot. Whittling the enemy down is a huge Deathwing Strategy.

The Con's are standard for all outnumbered armies. They are outnumbered and with squad only able to be 5 man strong you have to be careful. Also the high amount of potential I 1 weapons means that you have to be careful who you assault. Rending attacks will hurt if you go after them. Also lack of supporting fire means that the deathwing squads will have to support each other carefully.

That is about it really for Deathwing. It is a really cool and strong army with good staying power. No opponent really likes to deal with terminators. Despite what some may say Deathwing is a tournament capable list.

Tactica Outnumbered!... Ravenwing

Keeper of the Fortress

Hey everyone. I am back and still working on those crusade era Thousand sons! But that's alright. Now its time for my next installment of Tactica Outnumbered! its been a while but I have not forgotten.

Alright the Ravenwing is the second company of the Dark Angels and is a all bike company. I wont go into there fluff because that is not what this is about. They are unique to the standard biker army from the generic codex due to there special rules.

Ravenwing members are all fearless which is great. Why? Because as with the other biker army they are not meant for assault. They can do it but being outnumbered and expensive you want to maximize your shooting. Normally with a small squad size you would have to start taking shooting morale tests quicker then other squads. Even with Space Marine leadership you will eventually fail and you do not want to ever fall back. Also all ravenwing bikes have the scout rule. So they can outflank just like Khan armies or make a free move (unlike khan armies). This is great for getting into better positions or closing the distance on easy assault targets (like Tau).

Aside from special rules there wargear is slightly different. All bikes have a built in Teleport Homer meaning all bikes are mobile teleport homers for deathwing if you were to play a mixed list. This tactica is for pure ravenwing but it is worth mentioning. Also the typhoon missile launcher works like the old rules (heavy 1 blast thing). Ravenwing cannot take scout bikers (as its what is only in the Dark Angels Codex). ravenwing sergeants have a bolt pistol (or chainsword) so if given a powerweapon they get the +1 for two cc weapons. This is nice to think about aside from the standard powerfists everywhere with some sergeants. Also the Ravenwing cannot take a true command squad but can upgrade one squad to have a company standard and/or a apothecary which is really all you need. Also our Apothecary does not grant feel no pain but still works the old way (which I like). Also Sammael has rites of battle (which again is for a mixed army)

Alright one other key difference is that you have to Take Sammael to take a ravenwing army which is fine. He can be a Landspeeder with better front and side armor for shooting attacks only and twin linked heavy bolter and assault cannon or a Jetbike with a plasma cannon, twinlinked stormbolter, bolt pistol, Master crafted powersword, and mantle (to be immune to instant death) and iron halo. Both are BS of 5 and both are good options. It depends on your style and tactic. I like his jetbike as it is a jetbike and can just go over terrain and enemy models and has a plasma cannon which at BS 5 can be very accurate for a blast weapon and it helps deal with higher toughness or units with a good armor save.

Also the ravenwing land speeder support squadron can be a total of 5 strong as opposed to the 3 strong of the generic codex but can only have one weapon upgrade each unlike the generic codex. The troop choice is the attack squadron which total size is 6 bikes one attack bike and a landspeeder. These are the only options you have for a true ravenwing army so you need to make the most of them. And yes there is no attack bike squadron but that is alright you can deal fine as every troop choice can have 1 that deploys on its own.

Alright as with all outnumbered armies your going to have fewer models on the board which means fewer scoring units. The key to the ravenwing is mobility and knowing how and where to go. Being fast is good but you do not want to stretch yourself thin or get somewhere too early. What I mean is that you do not want to be sitting on an objective 3rd turn but move and turbo if necessary on turn 5. This is great because you can safely not hold any objective until the end and just pick apart an enemy that may have to start sitting on objectives early. Even mechanized lists have to get to objectives earlier then biker armies.

So what do you do? Well I suggest making use of both outflanking and scouting depending on mission and enemy of course. But I suggest at least having one unit in reserve to outflank or one unit on the board to scout (remember Sammael cannot scout and land speeder cannot scout). Also use the terrain to your advantage by speeding behind cover to get into position then next turn pushing out into an exposed area. It is important not to split your forces as you will not have the numbers but you can go for that feint as you have the speed to regroup behind the enemy.

I suggest always taking the apothecary upgrade and putting it with a squad that has to plasmaguns thus making them a little safer. As the banner has to go in the same squad I would only take it if you want to run the squad into assault. It is a nice banner but I prefer to keep that squad back shooting with the plasma (Remember bikes have the relentless rule) and moving closer to double tap exposed units to wipe them out. I also suggest that every attack bike that you have should take a multi melta as it costs no additional points for them and for 50 points you can take out land raiders.

Also the landspeeder squadrons should either be taken as one landspeeder with assaultcannon multi melta for take hunting or as a squad keeping the heavy bolter and taking the typhoon missile launcher as well to deal with hordes or as close to full size as possible with multi meltas to take out tanks.

So basically there tactics are similar to generic bikers. They have different strengths and weaknesses but are a very good biker army. Ravenwing armies are a bit smaller then generic biker armies to movement and maximizing your firepower is critical here (as with most outnumbered armies.. seeing a pattern here?).

That is it. eventually this will get a video supplement to help it out. Until then I will do the final installment focusing around the Deathwing. Take care.

Army at at glance.. Necrons

Hey everyone. Just thought I would do a little installment on Armies called Armies at a glance.

Basically giving a little fluff overview and gameplay overview. I am not going to go into detail on the entries or wargear really. I also will only touch upon the special rules hence at a glance. This installment is really about armies that get flak.

Alright so first on the block are the Necrons:

The faceless unfeeling undead machines. Once alive the Necrontyr made a pact with the C'tan (Star Gods) and become the Necrons. That's the in a nutshell blurb on there background. They are an ancient race with very advanced technology and the ability to travel great distances fast without the warp. There Gauss weaponry is the most efficient weaponry out there. The Necrons and the Eldar are bitter enemies although the Necrons will reap any and all life. If you want more on there fluff the codex and wiki sites will no doubt have more detailed information.

Gameplay wise the Necrons are an Earth style army. Very resiliant with the ability to get back up makes them hard to kill. Ther are a shooty army mostly because of the Gauss special rule. It lets any Gauss weaponry always glancing hit a vehicle on a 6. But what it also does that people forget is allow those weapons to wound any non vehicle unit on a roll of a 6 (normals saves allowed). This makes the weapons very efficient allowing any Gauss weapon to always be effective against any army.

Now being they are a legion of robotic zombies essentially they are static model wise. Meaning that in general they all have similar poses with not much to really make the army individualist (in general) aside from paint scheme. But this also lends to its charm as they are a legion of death so a very cookie cutter-esque look lends to that imposing inevitability.

Pros of the Necrons:
- Gets back up (same rules as feel no pain only during the beginning of your movement phase), Gauss weaponry always glance or wound on a 6. Disrupter fields allow CC attacks to always glance vehicles on a 6, A nearly indestructible vehicle the Monolith. A fast building and painting army. C'tan are tough as nails.

Cons:
-The phase out rule which makes the necron army vanish from the board if they get reduced to 25% or less models with the necron rule. This results in an auto loss, Low initiative for most units. If you get tied in CC with your warriors your going last but before powerfist weaponry, Kinda high priced units. No real reason to include some of the specialist units as they are either too points heavy or do not have the necron rule.

So that's a quick glance at the necrons. They are a strong army and forgiving. The wargear options for the Lord lend to lots of customization and combos. Until next time.

Picking an Army.. Space Marines

Hey there. This is just a follow up on Picking an army. This has to deal with Space Marines because A) I know about them as I play them and B) Space marines are so diverse that they pretty much cover all aspects of the game (all 4 elements, many play styles etc). This can still be of some help for picking an army in general but this may be of more help for those who are new to Space Marines.

So lets say you want to be space marines well what now? Ok well first you have to take a step back and look at all the space marines out there. For purposes of ease I mean the codices. So we have: Codex Space Marines, Black Templars, Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Dark Angels and Daemonhunters. I include Daemonhunters because of the grey knights.

Firstly unless your really set on space wolves/ are able to find a codex or are able to get your hands on the codex I would suggest avoiding them for now. I only say this because yea you could use another codex and if you do i would suggest the Black Templar codex to run them with for now if you want to build a force of them. But a new codex for them is somewhere in the release schedule.

Also Greyknights are different in that here highly specialized with unique war gear. They play like a water army with great fire ability. I wont touch on them here really but in a future post I will.

So aside from that we are left with the other codicies. So if your not driven to any one codex due to looks or fluff then it falls to there play styles. So do you want to shoot or assault more? Now the nice thing is the Codex Space Marines can do both so that codex is always an option.

If you want to assault more then shoot I would suggest looking at the Blood Angels, Black Templars or Space Wolves (if you can get the codex). Yes they have shooting units but there strengths are in the assault. They all play differently too so this further breaks down assaulting into how you like to assault. I wont go into detail but I will give a blurb on each. If you like the idea of space vikings with hot headed units as well as grizzled veteran then you may like Space Wolves. If you like the idea of an eternal crusade of super knights that have a champion as well as who move forward when they take casualties then you may want to look at Black Templars. If you like the idea of a noble chapter that goes into a berserk fury with a super assault squad and assault marines as troops then you may want to go Blood Angels.

Alright so if assault isn't your style then you may want to look at Dark Angels (ill talk about codex space marines later). Dark Angels can do the assault and do it well but they are more about the shooting in my opinion. Dark Angel armies are really 3 separate armies that can be fused together. You have Battle company, Ravenwing and Deathwing. All 3 really need to make use of shooting to be effective. You can still have an assault driven list but the difference here is that assault with them is usually the last step to victory.

Ok so remember that codex space marines can do both as it is the codex for all other chapters. So that means this codex is essentially good for everyone interested in space marines that do not have there heart set on a specific chapter. Now special characters aside you can tool out your army to be good at assaulting or shooting by selecting specific units. Note however that while they can do assaulting this codex is a little hard pressed to do it as well as the assault oriented codices.

So that's pretty much the codices in a nutshell. Notice how I didn't touch on war gear. I did that on purpose because while war gear is important when you build your lists it should not factor into choosing an army. Yes storm shields work differently for codex space marines but that should not decide the codex for you. Every codex is viable so you need to pick ultimately what you feel you'll like the most. Having a strong list will come in time.

Welp hope that helps. Until next time.

The 4 Elements of Battle

Hey all. I figured I should write about the 4 elements of battle. This has been around for a while now and has some variations so what I'm about to write is my view on it.

Alright so the 4 elements are Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water. Also while I will give examples of armies that fit these types that doesn't mean they may not also qualify for other elements. These are just what comes to mind the quickest.

Earth armies are generally armies that are hard to kill or generally are strong on the defensive (ie: gunline). They can sometimes be slow to reposition and tend to favor shooting. Tau, and Chaos Nurgle marines are good examples of an earth army. This does not mean that they are static armies but rather that they are adept at surviving or defending.

Air armies are armies that are fast and/or maneuverable. Able to move fast usually goes hand in hand with maneuverability but it is not necessary (Drop pod Marines for example are not very fast moving but can position well). Dark Eldar, Eldar jetbikes, and ravenwing are examples of this type of army. These armies tend to either be fragile or small in number and so they rely on there ability to move and good positioning to win the battle. These armies can be harder initially to start playing because they usually are more unforgiving then others armies.

Fire armies are armies that are all about raw aggression. Getting in there and getting it done. They tend to be straightforward armies with a clear fighting style. Now while fire armies are typically assault heavy armies they can also be shooting armies as well (ie an aggressive moving tau shooty list could be considered fire). Orks, Khorne beserker marines, Blood Angels, Salamanders (due to there preference for close range firefights) are all good examples of fire armies.

Water armies are those that for one reason or another are more about the battlefield and the enemy your fighting then about there own talents. What I mean by this is a water army is about preemptive planning and having the ability to react to the changes in the game. Water is hard to define really because by the nature of this type of army almost any army can and does play this way. Good examples of water heavy armies are: Grey Knights, Necrons and Dark Angels. Good solid armies but either for lack of numbers or a drastic drawback they cannot just be aggressive like fire or defensive like earth. Also Air armies can tend to play similarly to water but the distinction is air is about the speed and maneuvers while water uses the terrain and its own special abilities to deal with an overwhelming or fast threat.

Well there you have it. My play style tend to be heavy on the waterside with fire tendencies. Feel free to comment with your style of play. While some elements may be harder to initially learn no one element is the strongest amongst them in my opinion. Sometimes you just gotta slam into the enemy to get the job done while others you gotta fall back to win.

Well until next time.

Picking an Army

Hey there all. This post I am going to talk about choosing an army in 40k. This is intended as something for those new to the game as well as those who maybe there army is not working for them or simply still do not have there own army.

There is not much that is more important then picking an army that you will really enjoy playing. Even for those people who want to branch out into multiple armies it is still important. If your not going to enjoy the army as a whole then why bother investing in it and building it up? So how do you choose?

Well firstly the army will probably catch your eye and chances are more then 1 army will catch your eye which is good. Then you can learn more about them Which will let you know there fluff and what not and if you like that you can move on. Now I am all for liking an armies history and fluff and what not. I do that with my armies. But there comes a time in choosing when you have to make your choice based on the armies rules. What do I mean?

Well its broken up into 3 categories: A assaulting heavy force, A shooting heavy force or a mixed force. Generally the mixed force isn't really a category as those forces tend to lean towards either shooting or melee. Now some people have no problem playing either style. But for those that do have preference this is a big factor. Now luckily practically all races can be fielded as either assault or shooting heavy. Even Tau with there Xenos auxilia can beef up there assault ability (though I wouldn't with Tau). Now with that being said most armies have a preference. Blood Angels for example are geared for assault while Necrons are geared for shooting. Both can do the opposite but there lists are set up for what they prefer.

Ok so you may love the fluff but not like there play style what do you do? Well there is a good chance that you will like multiple armies. So in that aspect you can look at the others. I suppose it is possible to like the play style but not the fluff but in this case it is less severe because you can make your own color scheme and have your own chapter or regiment or splinter fleet etc. and not worry really.

Now of course monetary issues may make it difficult to play a certain army. Inquisition is heavy in pewter and expensive or orks are too numerous for your wallet. Those circumstances happen and it is up to the person on what they should do. But for any army building I feel that aside from how the army looks and what not whats really important is if how they play will fit your style.

Tactica Outnumbered to come soon.. as well as other stuff. Until then..

Outnumbered! Codex Space Marine Bike Armies.

Keeper of the Fortress

Welcome to the next installment of Outnumbered! This time we are looking at the Space Marine Codex Bike armies. Its a different enough army compared to Ravenwing to get its own entry.

This is your White Scar and equivalent armies. What I mean by a biker army is of course biker troops and commander. And the rest of the army is other bikes and landspeeders. That's about it. I will get into a bit more detail about some tactica with these armies.

Alright so firstly you need to know your wargear. I am not going to give out much detail on stats or what not. Buy the codex and learn it if you want to run this army. This is true for any army you may play. Know your wargear. Some pointers for bikers. twin linked bolters on the bikes. Bikes confer the relentless rule so plasmagunners or attack bikers can still shoot at full range.

Alright so Firstly with these armies is HQ. Any HQ can go on a bike but the mandatory one you need for this army is a Captain on a bike. He of course makes Space Marine Bikers a troop choice. Now with this codex the bikers have to be atleast 5 man strong to be a troop choice. For the rest of the HQ choices can also go on bikes. But if you want a nice support biker I would suggest either a Master of the Forge on a bike or a Librarian on a bike. A biker with conversion beamer can help this army out with long range anti-tank. Also a Biking Librarian is relentless so Vortex of doom can be cast after moving and the other abilities are nice. Also command squads can be put on bikes should you wish.

Ok so after HQ is troops. Bikers squads are your troops of atleast 5 or larger. I would always give the sergeant a powerfist as he replaces his bolt pistol for a melee weapon. These units however are not meant for the assault really. There space marines yes and with a higher toughness but anytime you charge into cover you need to roll dangerous terrain. Also there strengths are in the shooting. The ability to shoot your twinlinked bolters full range or plasmagun full range makes it a fast mid range shooting squad. If you move then shoot that give you range on things 36 inches away before you moved.

Alright after troops you should supplement your army with fast attack choices. You have Land Speeders, Attack Bikers or Scout bikers. The scout biker squad is an interesting option should they fit into your play style. Most people go with attack bike squads equipped with multi meltas. This is a good option to deal with vehicles and monstrous creatures. Others go with land speeders which are also good. The assault cannon configuration is still good but the changes to defensive weapons and rending made this configuration less popular lately. My favorite from this codex is the missile launcher land speeder. It shoots twice with a missile launchers stats. This is good for longer range anti vehicle but it really shines in dealing with hordes. Fire 3 frag missiles with the heavy bolter into a ork horde or gaunt brood and just thin them out.

So that is what the army contains. But now its time to talk about the one special character that matters for this army for a moment. Korsarro Khan. He can be put on his special bike and lead a biker army. He is from the White Scars but you could easily counts as him with your own army. He has a special ruling for his power sword and for his bikes. His other rule gives him furious charge and hit and run that is conferred to a squad he joins. His Chapter Tactic give the army outflank. This makes the army highly mobile coming in from the sides. He is a good hq option but do not be afraid to make your own HQ captain. You can make a captain with better saves and a str 6 weapon for 5 to 10 points more. So it depends on what you want your army to do. Naturally if you want to outflank you should use the Khan.

Now these biker armies are difficult to play. You are a very fast mobile army that your speed can work against you if you get to split up. What you do depends on what your fighting but generally you should maximize your shooting and assault things that out shoot you like Tau or things that shoot high str weapons like Lootas. Remember your going to be outnumbered more so then normal marines. The good thing though is that units like attack bikes can quickly make there points back by killing vehicles.

To review. Do not let your speed fragment your battle line. Since you are a fast small army you can spearhead into specific spots of the enemy so that your enter army can hit parts of the enemy.

So that is about it. I will go into more detail on biker armies with the Ravenwing so we don't have to read the same thing twice. I touched the parts that are different here. When I discuss Ravenwing and how they differ the tactics for both will be flushed out some more.

Until then the key thing to know for any army is to have your codex for that army and have it with you when you play a game. Also know your wargear or rather at least know the key wargear (example: bolt gun, missile launcher, heavy bolter for marines). The more you know about your army the better you can think about how to play them. Until next time.

Gotta love fearless

Hey all. This will be a minor update on whats is going on on my end followed by my views on Fearless.

Firstly the updates. Still working on my Pre heresy Thousand Sons I am trying to fill out the tactical squads and will post progress as I make them. I have plans for my Angels of Fury but they are taking a second seat as of now because the local game store is doing a Heresy era type thing in the summer and I want to make sure I get my Thousand Sons done. I got two other home made chapters on the drawing board; The Iron Ravens and Bone Scorpions. Once i get model done for them I will post more on them. I also have plans for other official space marine chapters and to expand my Dark Angels. My Goal for the Dark Angels is a full 5th battle company, full Deathwing company and full Ravenwing company. Anyways I also got some other stuff that I wont spoil including a huge side project. More on that later.

The Legends of War Event (aka the random army thing my friends and I are doing.) We started part 2 which is to build just one troop choice squad. Rules are that no transports are allowed yet and they must be fully based and painted. So if you remember I was doing Orks. I used a counts as Ghazkull for Grax Dakka Goldteef. He needs some big mean Orks and since he is a warboss I can do that. So for my first troop choice im going with 5 meganobz with kombi-scorchas. They will be called the goldtoof guard. I haven't started them yet but I have the models so they will take priority after I finish up some painting I started. I will post progress of them as well.


Alright that was a bit long now onto the heart of the matter. The Special Rule Fearless. Now I know the new kid on the block is Stubborn because it has changed from the prior edition and is really good. I will talk on Stubborn another time.

We all know fearless. Automatically pass morale and pinning checks and you never fall back. Also if the unit somehow becomes fearless they autoregroup regardless of size. Sounds great!.. and it is great. However the downside comes to close combat. If a fearless unit loses close combat they don't roll morale they stay in but take a number of armor saves equal to the number of unsaved wounds they lost by. Now this itself is also a blessing. If you can survive losing the combat and the extra saves you keep a unit tied up in close combat which has many advantages like blocking line of sight keeping that unit tied down etc.

Now while that sounds like a harsh drawback it really isnt. Here is why the vast majority of fearless units have a small squad size. Greyknights are kept small due to point cost, Deathwing and Ravenwing are small squads. Deathcompany is small. Why does this matter? Well lets look at deathwing. They are 5 man terminator squads that are fearless. If they lose close combat chances are they are either wiped already or took a small amount of casualties. Even if you lost the other 4 chances are you will make those saves. This is relying on good rolls but you get the point. a 5 man squad cannot lose close combat by a large amount of unsaved wounds.

Now I know there are Ork players wondering how this helps there horde. Well yes it does stink for those large Ork squads and I am sure ill feel its effects with my Orks once I get the army built. But I Will not worry about it. Firstly the ork boyz be they shoot or slugga go up to 30 models and its not impractical to field a few squads that size. Also they are both fine in close combat especially if they charge. Lastly its fluffy for orks to die in large numbers. Now the latter only applies to people who actually care about fluff. I happen to care about it so I like that fact. In the case of Ork hordes it comes down to the player being smart. For example you may be a 30 sluga boy strong unit with many attacks but do not let them steal the charge. Also do not go after the opposing armies specialist assault forces with your troop choice. That is what nobz and the hq are for. What should you not assault or let assault your large fearless troop choice? Here is a rough list: berserkers, assault marines, vanguard marines, assault terminators (maybe), grey knight terminators, Striking scorpions, Death company, Genestealers and arco flags to name some off the top of my head. Now does this list mean never? No of course not just be careful because they are assault oriented and can mess up your ork boy mob without counting the possible hq attached to it. You cannot complain if you let the assault oriented elite or fast attack choice with many attacks get your squad and proceed to wipe them out because that is the nature of the game anyway.

So are large ork mobs useless? Not at all. Lets face it there saves in general are terrible and objectives are important. IF you can get a 20 or larger ork boy squad with shootas on a objective in cover that is one tough squad to remove from the objective.

Oh and do not forget the last part about if the unit becomes fearless it auto regroups. The only army I can think of that can do this regularly are witch hunter sisters of battle with faith. if your faithful model in your squad is still alive you can regroup your retreating small unit to contest or even take an objective.

Bottom line in my opinion is Fearless is very powerful and as such has a drawback that hurts. Do not forget that independent characters lose this rule if they join a non fearless unit (Chaplains are an exception of this. There may be others I just cannot think of any). If you keep in mind the pro's and cons of this or any rule you can use it better. It also comes down to of course knowing your army. Also there are some special abilities in the some armies that force a moral check regardless of fearless or not. I did not touch on that because that is army specific I just wanted to talk about fearless in general.

That was longer then expected. Again I am stating things that many people know already but I feel it is good to get it out into the open. Coming soon is the next installment of Outnumbered! plus other progress reports and some tutorials in the future. Until then.

Outnumbered! Grey Knights

Keeper of the Fortress

Alright everyone. This next installment of Outnumbered! is about The Daemonhunters codex specifically a Grey Knights army. Now I'm not talking about a radical army with daemonhosts and I'm not talking about inquisitorial armies with some grey knights in it. I mean pure Grey Knights (including dreadnoughts and Landraiders). I wont go into any fluff detail really but these guys are the elite of the elite. They fight Daemons and even though they are in desperate need of an update they are still rather good at it.

If you haven't seen many or any armies of these guys do not be surprised. They are like the Witchhunters in that the kits made for these armies are entirely metal. Pricey, heavy and in my opinion annoying to work with. I am not going to talk about the rumors of a new codex for the inquisition or anything in this either.

The Grey Knights are great I am a huge fan of them and if they get plastic models in the future I will make an army of them in a heart beat. I will do a little post about my views on metal models later on.

So onto the heart of the matter. Grey Knights have special rules including fearless, true grit for there storm bolters, and essentially a psychic hood type rule. They have other rules some of which do not matter anymore and regardless I wont be going into detail about the special rules but I will mention the ones I said.

Fearless: Being they are a small army with squad sizes that on average will be small (even though they can have average squad size) the fearless rule is great. The last thing you want to do is fail a leadership check due to shooting or something at range nor do you want to be pinned.

True Grit: its only special here because its for storm bolters and not bolters. All Grey Knights have the Storm bolter as there standard weapon which is great. True grit lets them be dangerous after the charge by giving them an extra attack each. This is handy because the Grey Knights are good assaulters.

The Aegis: This is the psychic hood like rule. Basically works the same. can resist a psychic power by rolling a d6 and adding leadership. You can also have a psychic hood in your army so you have to choose which you will use. You cannot use both. A nice little rule here.

Oh and one more important rule. The Shrouding: Its essentially a weaker version of night fight for Grey Knights. You roll 3d6 time 3 to see if you can see them squad for purposes of targeting them to shoot at. If your in a night fight scenario the night fight rules overrule this. This rule is great. As you are a small force this can be of help. It is 3d6 but still that hurts weapons with long ranges. Granted your troops effective range as a whole is 24 but this can let you close range unmolested on foot for a bit or lets you sit on an objective and force them to get close to be able to shoot you.

Alright so what are the strengths of these units then? Well aside from the special rules these units are strong in the assault. True Grit, Fearless (Which is a good special rule especially for smaller units) are part of their assault specialty. There troops are weapon skill 5 and there Close combat weapon (The Nemesis Force weapon) adds 2 to there space marine strength. So strength 6 for everyone with the weapon. This is what allows them to eek it out against larger units. They are super Space Marines essentially. They are also good at range which I will get to momentarily.

Nemesis Force Weapons: Firstly they are not Force Weapons. Only the Grandmasters counts as a force weapon. These weapons tap into the fluff of the grey knights. basically the weapon gets better in higher ranking hands. basic troops just add 2 to strength. Justicars (Vet sergeants) Terminators and Brother Captains add 2 to there strength and its a power weapon. Grand Masters have a +2 to strength force weapon.

Range combat. Grey Knights are no slouches at this either. With a Stormbolter as standard weaponry they can chew into lightly armored infantry. They can do what Deathwing shooting armies do which is to goad the enemy closer. Basically you move to get your storm bolters in range and fire. Either they stand still and fire once or try and get closer to rapid fire or get into assault. Then your next turn you move away and keep 24 inches and fire again. You basically lead assault armies where you want and this can frustrate the shooty opponents to reposition themselves. It takes some practice but this style of shooting is key. Now there troop squad can have 2 models exchange there weapons for a psycannon or incinerator. Now these are good weapons but you have to think about how you are going to play. Remember these models no longer have a nemesis weapon. The incinerator is a heavy flamer that also ignores invulnerability saves. This is a nice weapon against daemons. It also is great in 5th where cover became so much more important and easy to get. With strength 5 it means youll be wounding more often. The psycannon is an auto cannon can be fired while moving up to 18" or if you do not move it can fire 36". Now it fires 3 time either way but its strength is 6 as opposed to 7 for normal auto cannons. its ap is the same. This weapon also ignore invulnerability saves. I would suggest one squad have incinerators and that squad to be put in a land raider. Ill explain more later on.

So how outnumbered are these guys? Well the basic Grey Knight costs 25 points per model. And the Grey Knight Squad must have a Justicar which is 50 points and at least 4 Grey Knights. So 150 points for 5 guys at least. Keep in mind if you want grenades they cost extra. Also Justicars have access to war gear which could increase the point cost. (I wont go into there wargear. They have a decent amount and what you pick is up to you and your armies style). I will say this it appears Justicars can take targeters. I haven't found anything to refute this so that can be a big help to make sure you'll always be in range.

So for troops how large a squad? Well 5 is too small really. I think 8 man squads are a safe size. You can put 1 or two weapon upgrades per squad and be alright. These squads will cost about as much as Deathwing squads (around 250 points with upgrades). Now these troop choices can be fielded as a fast attack choice. If you do they are kept in reserve and teleport in just like terminators via deep strike. This could be an interesting tactic to think about if you had the points.

What about HQ? Well as we are talking about pure Greyknights that limits you to a Brother Captain or Grand Master. The Grand Master is more then double the brother captains points but he has 3 wounds where the brother captain only has 1. The Grand master has 4 attacks as well as opposed to 3. So who to go for? Well I like having my HQ with more then 1 wound so I personally would bite the bullet and go with a Grand Master. However I have seen viable lists with Brother Captain as an HQ just have to be careful especially if you dump upgrades on him. Now they are only in Terminator Armor and nothing else so I would always take a Land Raider Crusader to put them in. There weapons strike at initiative and are strength 6 that ignore armor saves. You want that striking at there initiative. Now both HQ units can have a retinue of Grey Knight Terminators. Here is where I suggest you get your terminator squad. Just add 4 terminators to the HQ and you have your terminator squad without taking an elite choice up. One thing to point out with Terminator squads in general with Grey Knights is that they can take a psychic power called Holocaust. These uses the ordnance template ( which should be the large template) which can be placed anywhere in contact with the Brother captain or Grand Master as they are focal point. Anyone friend or foe touched takes a str 5 hit normal saves allowed at I 1. This is done in assault phase. It doesn't say anywhere that it takes up his attacks so he can do this in addition to attacking normally. I suggest taking this upgrade as this can really help your squad out. with 2+ saves you will be pretty safe and this can help trim down large horde units. This ability can allow you to assault very large units and come out on top. It does require a psychic test. Also 1 terminator can upgrade there stormbolter to a incinerator or psycannon I would suggest the psycannon because they can always fire the heavy 3 option 36" range one because they have relentless due to the armor.

Now there are two other units for pure Grey Knights. There Dreadnought (Which is a heavy support choice for them) and The Purgation squad which is like a devastator squad. If you go with a dreadnought I would field it with a Lascannon and its CCW. The psycannon is a nice option for it but the army lacks long range anti tank punch so the twin linked Lascannon is in my opinion better.

The purgation squad is an interesting squad. it can be as small as 3 models. They are like devastators in that they can exchange there weapons for others. up to 4 grey knights can exchange there weapons for Psycannons or Incinerators. This unit I like but I do not know if I would field one. Its points heavy but can be really effective. With 4 psycannons you can lay down good covering fire and still move and shoot it if necessary. With 4 incinerators you can potentially wipe even space marine squads if they are bunched up. If you try them out Do not mix the weapons. I mean you could and that could work on a highly mobile unit but keeping it purely one or the other will maximize the weapons.

So what do you do? Well I suggest regardless of what HQ you take a 4 terminator retinue. Now take 2 squads of 8 Grey Knights for troop choices. Now take 2 Land Raiders one of which is a Crusader and give them smoke. This small force will run you just about 1500 points. Now this is a viable force its just much harder to use. You could drop a land Raider for another troop choice but if you do I would suggest dropping the crusader because you need those Lascannons to deal with armor. I personally would field both Land Raiders.

You would play this force conservatively with your HQ squad in or near the crusader and the incinerator squad in or near the land raider. Always move your forces. Depending on the mission keep the psycannon equipped unit on an objective or in cover near one and give cover fire. But dont be afraid to move them back if need be. Keep the Land Raiders near the Grey Knights so in a pinch you can mount up and drive away or towards an objective. In this style of play the Land Raiders also need to shoot as much as possible especially the regular land raider. That is your only source of long range anti vehicle. The key here is really to maximize your shooting and to wipe whole squads out. The assault phase is where the Knights excel but you should not rush there. This is of course not set in stone. For example against Tau you should still shoot a lot but while trying to get into assault as they out range and can quickly outgun your small force due to less targets for marker lights.

Now 1750 is becoming very popular so in this case i would add a 3rd troop squad. If you did this in 1500 then i would add the second land raider now.

This is my view on a pure Grey Knights force. Its small but if you maximize shooting and make full use of all there gear you will be able to overcome your very small size. I would say that the Grey Knights are probably one of the smallest forces you can field aside from deathwing. And I would say these two armies are essentially tied for smallest army as depending on how you build them one would be slightly smaller then the other.

Up next in this series will probably be Codex Space Marines Bike armies as they are different enough from Ravenwing to warrant some attention.

Outnumbered! Cult Chaos Marines

Hey all. I could not make it to a local gaming shop for a tournament so thought id do Outnumbered! Chaos cult marines now. NOTE im not going to actually go into the fluff of each legion talked about here. There fluff explains why they have certai nstats and certain limitations.

What do I mea nbut Cult armies? Well what i mean when i say that is an army devoted solely to one god and to me in order to be a "true" cult army you need to use there specific special troop choice and not just a chaos marine squad with an icon. So basically: Noise Marines, Plague Marines, Beserkers or Thousand Sons Rubric Marines. Essentially an army devoted to one of the cult legions. The army is as much a fluff army as it is specialized. So no Sorcerer with lash in a Khorne Army. Also other infantry units tend to be given the icon of that god as well. Basically the army is built to fit the fluff of that legion.

So the legions are for those of you that may not know are: Emperor's Children (devoted to Slaanesh). Deaht Guard (Devoted to Nurgle), World Eaters, Devoted to Khorne and Thousand Sons (Devoted to Tzeentch). So a cult army would pick a legion and the appropriate troop choice for that army. The question to ask now before you make your list is to go with Favored number or not.

Favored Number you say? Each God has a sacred number and they are: 6 for Slaanesh, 7 for Nurgle, 8 for Khorne and 9 for Thousand Sons. Now there is no benefit for going favored number anymore aside from being fluffy. So do you do it or not? I say it depends obviously 6 man squads are a bit on the small side. However you can also do multiples ( ie. 6 or 12 for Slaanesh) this can keep the theme of favored numbers alive for slaanesh and keep your units alive. This can become expensive however.

Ok so what do you do for an HQ? Well that is up to you. You could make it really cult like and field the appropriate special character or a generic HQ option with appropriate mark. This is up to the player. Id go wit ha special character just because I think it helps give the feel of a cult legion.

Ok a few overall pointers. These armies are specialized and with all the icons and potential upgrades being bought it can quickly become a small army. Be careful. Noise Marines do not al needsonic weapons for example (although it is cool). The troops are expensive but are general superior in one way to normal chaos marines (T5 on plague marines for example). Also all your troops are fearless remember that. This is a good thing as it keeps your dice rolling down a bit. As we all know even with Ld 10 after enoug hdie rolls we fail them eventually. Alright now it is time to get to the heart of the matter. NOTE all cult troops except for Thousand Sons can upgrade to have a champion for +15. Thousand Sons are different and ill explain in there section.

Emperor's Children: These guys are devoted to Slaanesh and as such there troops are Noise Marines. Favore number is 6. These troops are the cheapest starting out of the cult troop choices. They can quickly become one of the most expensive. Every unit can upgrade there weapon to a sonic weapon of some kind. at 20 point base with the basic sonic weapon upgrade being 5 point that means 25 points a model minimum. The other sonic wepaon cost 40 points and is for one marine only. So what are these guys good at? Well two things. One is they have initiative 5 which means they strike first against most other troops and even elites of most armies. This means that while not assault specialists they can recieve charges better then regular chaos marines and are better at charging. With there sonic weapons they are the ebst foot sloggers in this codex as the weapons are all assault weapons. Essentially a squad of storm bolters plus the basic one can be assault 2 or heavy 3. The other one has two profiles one that is an assault weapon the other is heavy. So you can Rhino push and still have decent small arms fire which is really good. You can also walk them foward and back keepign the enemy in range all the while. If you dont move you can really put the hurt on light infantry with heavy 3 shots per basic sonic weapon depending o nsquad size you can potentially wope out decent size units. So do you favored number them? My opinion is have one or two units of 12 with full sonic weapon upgrades and kit out your champion for assault and give them rhinos. Any other squads upgrade as your discretion. With two units of 12 with full sonic weapons you can whittle down horde armies rather well. This army while having high initiative is more shooty so supplement your noise marines with some anti tank punch. Shoot a lot and then steal the assault with your I5 guys. This armies weakness is all the upgrades. each marine troop choice that falls is 25 points a model if with sonci weapons. All the basic anti marine weakenss apply here as well (massed small arms fire etc etc).

Death Guard. These guys are devoted to Papa Nurgle. Favored number is 7. I think 7 is safe for these guys but if you dont want to be limited by favored number then nothing over 10 unless its an apocalypse game. These guys have toughness of 5 and feel no pain. This is huge making them have high staying power. They are tied in first for best staying power troop choice in the chaos codex. Tied with Rubric Marines (ill explain in there section). Now in 4th they were the king of staying in the chaos codex but with the changes to feel no pain they are a little bit weaker. These guys weigh in at 23 points a model. the champion can get the usual weapon upgrades. What is nice to note is they have in addiotn to frag and krak grenades the blight grenade. This is a defensive grenade and it helps them deal with ther weakness which ill explain later. Now the unit can have two marines upgrade there bolter to a special weapon (melta plasma etc) but not heavy weapons. This isgood because you can move and shoot everything albiet at a reduced range. But you can have two melta guns plus the combi melta power fist champion can make a mean anti tank squad. Combine that wiht a rhino with combi melta and you got an anti tank unit that can move. This can be done with plasma of a flamer as well. So you can have a anti terminator plasma squad and an anti horde flamer squad. Feel no pain works with gets hot so you have a bit more staying power with that. These guys are great at sitting on objectives. In cover these guys are hard to get rid of and being fearless they wont run. put in a rhino they can rush an enemy objective and with there higher toughness they can contest for longer. I would back up these troops with nurgle bikers. Toughness 6 bikes is nothing to laugh at. the Nurlge Icon is one of the better all purpose ones. T5 havocs to give some long range punch to the army for example. This is an army that can deal with massed small arms fire better then any other chaos army. This armies weakness is that plague marines are I3. Now there blight grenades help with this and of course T5 also helps with this but should a large asault army or unit hit you guys T5 and feel no pain can only help for so long. Also it is imporant to keep in mind feel no pain. Doublt strength power weapns and ap 2 or 1 (and str d in apoc), and rending will bypass your feel no pain. this means that rending wounds and plasma wound which used to not bypass I believe will now bypass. This is critical with armies that have the ability to get ap1 like Witch Hunters with that faith power. This isnt a critical weakness as its built into the rule that they have but it is important to remember. As you will be outnumbered by even regular chaos armies. However they can soak up str 4 and lower weapons better then other troops.

World Eaters. These guys are devoted to Khorne. There favored number is 8. While I would run a squad or two with the favored number I would suggest going 10 man for more attacks in close combat. THey are 21 points a model. These guys are close combat monsters. WS of 5 Furious Charge and base 2 attacks in there profile means many attacks and on the carge they hit harder and go before other marines and at the same time as noise marines. Keep in mind they have a pistol and close combat weapon so on the charge thats is 4 attacks a model (5 for the champion unless he has a powerfist then he has 4). So a squad of 10 wit ha champion with a powrfist has a total of 40 attacks on the charge at I5 str5. Thats huge especially againt horde armies. Remember that the powrfists are str 9 on the charge not 10. Back these guys up with some khorne raptors for fast hits or with defilers to give long range shooting with there cannon. What I would do is take Land Raiders. Armor 14 with lascannons and being an asault vehicle will get your beserkers into the fray fast. Every Beserker squad should have a transport either rhino or Land Raider. This armies Weakness is that they are devoted solely to assaulting. The troop choice only has pistols for shoting. You can give plasma pistols and I would give 1 per squad at most if at all. You have to be careful if you shoot your pistols and the unit runs at the end of the phase your unit is high and dry and will be shot to bits. Backing these troops up with transports and things that can shoot farther (Land Raiders, Defilers even predators) is critical. This style of army is harder then people think. You cannot just run foward without a plan. Being able to maximize your assaulting while utilizing shooting attacks is a delicate balancing act.

Thousand Sons. These guys are devoted to Tzeentch. There favored number is 9. I wouldnt field them in units larger then 9. Thats what you get in there box, 1 aspiring sorcere and 8 marines. By the way I dunno if this box will get an update but it needs one baaaad. Plastic tech has gotten better and im sure they could easily make these guys all plastic which would be much better then the hybrid plastic pewter they are now. Anways these guys weigh in at 23 points a model. While this is the same as plague marines these squads are probably the most expensive before upgrades. This is because unlike the rest of the troop choices they dont get a champion. They have an aspiring sorcerer that is required and costs 60 points. Also it must take 1 psychic power. These squad have a 4+ invulnerable save which is great as it makes them one of the best foot sloggers. They are Slow and purposeful which makes them relentless but slow when moving. This iswhy they arent the best foot sloggers hand down but are still really good. Keep in ind the aspiring sorcere is not slow and purposeful so if he is the last one left he can move normally. They also have inferno bolts. These make there bolters ap3 which is great against Marines and Marine like armies. This however doesnt do much againt horde armies that are used to not having asave against normal bolters. This being said we all know there are plenty of marine armies and other Marine like armies. They cannot take any upgrades and have no grenades. This is ok though because the aspiring sorcerer has a psychic power. I would suggest either doombolt or Bolt of Change. They are in my mind the best powers to give your aspiring sorcerers. Doombolt is good for increasing the number of shots and can help against horde armies. Bolt of Change is one attack at the same range as a bolter at str 8 and ap of 1 and it is an assault weapon. This is good because it allows the squad to be more versatile by allowing your sorcere to destroy vehicles. Gift of Chaos and Winds of Chaos are also good options if you wish. This is a shooting army that can walk itself across the board all the while firing there bolters at max range and denying armor save to all but 2+. With the amount of cover saves available now I would be careful and keep my distance while still shooting. They are equal to plague Marines in staying power because of there invulnerable save. Sure small arms fire hurts them just the same as normal marines but they can take a demolisher cannon and keep on coming. This is why i think they are equal because as troops are so important in fifth people will throw heavy weapons against them. The assault phase is there wekaness but they are not helpess. The sorcerer has a force weapon and the squad has a invulnerable save. This armies wekaness is that while they are good at footsloggin they are slow if you roll poorly for slow and purposeful. On average theyll move 4 inches a turn so they are slow. If you lock them in assault you can wither them down as only the sorcerer has a weapon that ignores armor. Do not count them out though as they do have a marine stat line so they can hold there own in the assault. Also another wekaness is there special rule of the sorcerer commands. This essentially means that if the aspiring sorcerer is killed the squad then only rolls 1d6 as opposed to 2d6.

Alright to wrap up ill talk briefly on the daemon weapons and steeds. The daemosn weapons vary for each god. Slaanesh causes instant death, khorne rolls 2d6 for extra attacks, nurgle always wounds on a 4+ and tzeentch rolls 1d6 for shooting and for assault. They all have there risks for if you roll a 1 you do nothing and take a wound. Khorne and Tzeetnch have the highest risks but also can do more damage. They count as power weapons. They are not essential for a lord and should only be considered if you plan to be able to use them. ALso only Chaos Lords can take them.

The Steeds are alright. I am not goign to go into them as the only one i really seen used was the disc of tzeentch which lets you move as jump infantry. They all have there uses but for this tacical read they do not change anything for being outnumbered. They can be used by Lords and Sorcerers.

Thats about it for a overview of cult armies and being outnumbered. Remember this is my opinion on the matter and the strengths and weaknesses are as I see them. In knowning these things you can develop lists and strategies for your armies.

I am not sure what I am going to talk on next. So ill keep it a secret. Until then I hope this helped.