2nd Squad of Possessed

My second possessed squad for Hans Kho'ren's Skull Takers. I had so much fun building the 1st squad, that I wanted more! Also, this enables me to take 2 Blood Hosts, which seems an amazing idea for maximising Blood Tithe points.

These guys have the Roman-style shoulder pads from the Marauders kit. Mostly because I'd run out of the ones with the spikes... I think that they still look gladiatorial though, so still fit with the theme. I think that this champion is possibly my favourite non-HQ model I've made so far. The Wrathmonger legs, horn-swapped head, his mini-daemon-prince pose... I even like his trophy rack more than the ones on other champions!

Kagh Bo'orchu completed!

Hans Kho'ren has always preached that the aim of a Space Marine is to emulate their Primarch. His loyal apothecary, Kagh Bo'orchu, is essential for this. It is Kagh who implants new members of the Skull Takers with the gene-seed and blood of their Primarch to turn them into true World Eaters; Kagh who was one of the first apothecaries to experiment with the Butchers' Nails; and Kagh who, after Angron's apotheosis, studied with Lorgar's Word Bearers to discover the secrets of the Possessed. Kagh's drive to become more like Angron has taken him far from humanity, but his journey is not yet over.

Kagh Bo'orchu's right arm still bears the twisted Chaotic remains of his Narthecium, constantly in flux and emitting new spikes as required. His armour is brass, forged to mimic the Armour of Mars worn by Angron, showing he is an important figure in the Skull Takers. On his left shoulder he bears a gladiatorial shoulder pad, in memory of Angron's past; his right shoulder pad is a snarling skull, symbol of Hans Kho'ren's Skull Takers. His helmet is pale and horned, like all in the Skull Takers, in honour of their daemonic patron.

Possessed Chaos Space Marines

Here's the first squad that I've built for Hans Kho'ren's Skull Takers, a squad of Possessed. These guys seem pretty essential for Daemonkin, as adding them will enable me to have a Slaughtercult at the core of a Blood Host. Free Blood Tithe points is always good!

Their shoulder pads display their allegiance, matching the ones used by the rest of the Skull Takers. All of Hans Khoren's men wear one gladiatorial shoulder pad, reflecting their father Angron's past. The Skull Takers believe that they should emulate their primarch as much as possible, continually remaking themselves in his image, and this is part of that. Their other shoulder pad is always a skull, proudly displaying their loyalty to Hans Kho'ren, the Skull Taker, commander of the 19th Company of the World Eaters.

The torso, heads, and arms are all from the standard Possessed kit; the backpacks are from Chaos Space Marines; the legs are a mish-mash of random Space Marine bits that have been clogging up my bits box for too long; the shoulder pads are from Berserkers and Marauders. The Champion's legs are from the new WFB Khorne Wrathmongers, lovely pieces.

My 1st Chaos Space Marine: Kagh Bo'orchu

There's still lots to be done to this guy: his base, lots of smaller armour plates and details, and so on. But here's the basic structure of Kagh Bo'orchu, one-time apothecary and loyal lieutenant of Hans Kho'ren. In game he can be a Possessed Champion, Herald, or Lord, as I go through my current period of rapidly adjusting army lists all the time.

My first 1000pt Khorne Daemonkin game!

So, last night I fielded 2 Bloodthirsters, 2 Soul Grinders with Phlegm, and 2 squads of Bloodletters (each with a Bloodreaper). I went up against an Eldar army: an Avatar, a Farseer, a Wraithlord, a squad of Dire Avengers, a squad of Jetbikes with a Warlock, a squad of Swooping Hawks, and a Wave Serpent.

The centre of the table was dominated by a ruined church on my right flank, with a few towers on the left. There were ruins in our deployment zones as well.

The Eldar deployed first, mostly opposite the left/centre but with the Hawks and Jetbikes on my right. I put my Soulgrinders, the Warlord Thirster, and 1 squad of Letters on the left/centre, the other Thirster off on the right. This was a mistake, I should have kept them together. But it was hard, with all the ruins in my deployment zone.

Basically I ploughed forward, shooting off Phlegm (which scattered wildly and did nothing). The pointy ears blasted away, knocking off some wounds & hull points from Thirsters and Grinders. The Thirster on the right was whittled away by the hawks and jetbikes, never reaching them before falling. The second Letters squad appeared over on the right by the Jetbikes, but was blown away by them.

On the left a Soulgrinder charged the Avatar, and got smashed out of existence in return. The Avatar then charged the other Soulgrinder. My Thirster piled into his Avatar to save the Grinder, whilst the Letters moshed into the Dire Avengers, both with the Blood Tithe giving them Rage. The Letters did well, leaving only 1 Avenger standing; and the Avatar & Thirster began knocking each other about. Because the Thirster had to challenge the Avatar, the Grinder did nothing (whoops).

Then the Avatar turned invisible, the Wraithlord charged the Letters, and the Farseer & Swooping Hawks charged the Grinder. My Thirster suddenly found it very hard to hit the Avatar, my Soul Grinder was going down, and my Letters were fighting someone that they couldn't hurt and couldn't run away from...

At this point the Blood Tithe began to be useful. I managed to get enough points to bring in a new Bloodletter pack, who promptly Mishapped and were placed by my opponent into a shooting alley. And were blown apart. Killing them and the Wraithlord finishing my other squad got me enough Tithes to bring in a new new Bloodletter pack, who again mishapped into the shooting alley.

And then my Warlord Thirster finally fell, with enough wounds on him to carry over into the Grinder. I was deaded.

Khorne was pleased! Lots of blood!

I made mistakes. I shouldn't have left a Thirster all on his own on the right flank. I should have sent the Thirster against the Wraithlord, not the Avatar as that left my Grinder useless. But hey, it's one of my first games since 5th ed, I'm still getting back into the swing of things.

In the future, I want to have more people with 3+ saves. My daemons disappeared scarily fast when he started shooting, especially with the Warlock using Sanctic powers to reduce my invulnerable save. The Slaughtercult formation giving me more Blood Tithe points would be very good as well, that's one to look into. And some small sacrificial squads, there to win Blood Tithe by dying.

Possible 1,500pts:
Slaughtercult
Bloodthirster: 250pts
Possessed: 150pts
Chaos Marines: 130pts
Chaos Marines: 130pts
Cultists: 58pts
Spawn: 38pts
Lord of Slaughter
Bloodthirster: 250pts
War Engines
Soul Grinder, Phelgm: 165pts
Soul Grinder, Phelgm: 165pts
Soul Grinder, Phelgm: 165pts

Khorne Daemonkin thoughts & sample lists

So, Codex: Khorne Daemonkin? I love it! Basically, it contains every unit that I wanted to use from Codex: Chaos Daemons. Plus lots of other units from Chaos Space Marines. What's not to like? When you look at it from the perspective of a Khorne Daemon player, these are the key changes:

• Daemonic Instability is replaced by Fearless.
• There's no Warp Storm table. This is a bit of a pity, I did like the fun randomness, even if it bit me as often as it helped me.
• You can't buy Daemonic Rewards any more. Again, this codex is about making a more predictable and less random army.
• No Daemonic Rewards means no Grimoire, no Portaglyph! I didn't use them, but I know people who did will be sad.
• If a character is in close combat, they must challenge. This is nice and fluffy.
• Now a big addition... Blood Tithes. For every unit you kill, for every unit you loose, for every character you kill in challenges, and for every character of yours who dies (possibly just in challenges), you get a Blood Tithe point. And points mean prizes - this system is about giving you the ability to get some nasty special rules, and to summon!
• As with regular summoning, note that it's stupid summoning Bloodthirsters or winged Daemon Princes late in the game. They arrive from Deep Strike, so are flying high. In the turn after they arrive they can come down low, but can't charge until 2 turns after they arrive. So if you're summoning, summon infantry. Non-flying Daemon Princes are good, but I think that Bloodcrushers will be my favourites (especially as they come with a champ, instrument, and the banner of more reliable charge range).
• And the other big addition: we now have access to loads of CSM options in our army. Cultists for lower cost troops, lots of 3+ saves, daemon engines like Maulerfiends, and transport vehicles. Heralds with loci can join these guys, so a massive mob of Cultists with a locus is a possibility, as are Berserkers or Possessed with a locus.
• Bloodletter minimum squad size is down to 8, so they're 80 pts base not 100. It's not a massive change, but I like it.
• Instead of going CAD or Unbound there are formations, including the Formation of Formations which if you follow that gives you a free Blood Tithe point each turn. Nice. This also gives you the option of taking 8 war engines in a bound army. 8 Soulgrinders!
• We have 2 new types of Bloodthirster! Obviously Chaos Daemons get these now too, thanks to the White Dwarf, but thought I'd mention them.
• We have 6 new mission objectives. They mostly revolve around killing stuff, so play to our strengths!

So, that's the key things. The best way to make an army, particularly at higher points costs, will definitely be to use the uberformation. Sadly that requires Possessed, and I haven't build any of them yet. So today's 1000pts list is instead using the CAD:
HQ: Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury - 250pts
HQ: Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury - 250pts
Troops: 8 Bloodletters, champ - 85pts
Troops: 8 Bloodletters, champ - 85pts
Heavy: Soulgrinder, big gun - 165pts
Heavy: Soulgrinder, big gun - 165pts

The Soulgrinders will blow stuff up to gain Blood Tithes and hopefully draw some fire. The Bloodthirsters will hurry forward to reap some skulls. The Bloodletters will run around picking up objectives.

Note that this list wouldn't work with Chaos Daemons, I'm utilising the smaller cheaper Bloodletter squads of this new codex.

Quite frankly, even if I'd made my Possessed I'm not sure that I'd want to swap a Soulgrinder for Possessed and 1 more Blood Tithe point a turn. But to expand to 1,500pts I'll definitely do that, maybe something like:
The above list - 1000pts
Possessed - 150pts
Soulgrinder, big gun - 165pts
Soulgrinder, big gun - 165pts
A few upgrades to Possessed or Bloodletters - 20pts

Or maybe switch a Soulgrinder for some Cultists and/or Spawn, cheap units that will give me Blood Tithe points when they die?