Tactica Khorne, part I, army selection and general tactics
When the Worldeaters needed to take Axius Prime from the Iron Warriors, to teach them fear, their leaders knew it would be a brutal fight through the defenses and gathered with Angron to hear his tactical plan. Angron looked out at the assembled Berzerkers and their Champions, then looked across the fire-ravaged plain at the Adamantium-walled fortress bristling with cannon. He said, "All right men, on three." Angron cleared his throat and shouted, "Three!!!" And the Berzerkers ran screaming to the fight, racing to see who could take the most skulls for their lord, Khorne.
About a month ago, my friend Adrienne asked me to write up a Tactica for Chaos armies devoted to Khorne. My first thought was, "Tactics for Khorne, that won't take long. Uh, charge?" Of course, there is a lot more to winning with a Khornate army than simply charging forward with your slobbering psychos, but it tends to get buried underneath the sheer brutality of their assault and the cries of Blood for the Blood God, Skulls for the Skull Throne!
Khornate armies have some very good options available to them. Berzerkers are incredible Troops. They are tough to kill and powerful in close combat. Bloodletters, too are great. They can walk through units of the Emperor's Finest like a hot knife through butter. The BloodThirster is one of the Biggest, Meanest, Baddest Greater Daemons out there, with more power on tap than can be imagined, coupled with great armor and invulnerable saves and lots of wounds.
There are some drawbacks to an army devoted to Khorne, however. Expensive Troops mean you'll always be outnumbered, Berzerkers will jump out of Rhinos because they think they can get there faster on foot, and the Trial Vehicle Rules have just changed mechanized assaults. Mobility can be an issue with this army, as can keeping it together instead of charging at the nearest target, regardless of consequences. Even worse is the need to take out enemy vehicles. Sure, you may have a Daemonic Stature Prince or a Bloodthirster to shred vehicles in close combat. You might also have various characters with Chainfists and meltabombs to also take out vehicles. Then your opponent brings skimmers or keeps his tanks moving fast so that you can only hit on a 6! Now What? Well, shoot them!
Okay, so we'll do some shooting, how can we accomplish that and still remain true to Khorne? Bikes? Nope. Khornate bikes cannot take the gun upgrades that you'd need. Predators are certainly an option. With various options (that also make them more expensive) they can be made more survivable, and with the major assault nastiness you'll have, they will probably be less of a target in your army than they would be in another army. Dreadnoughts are also an option, though they have more limited survivability and are a little less reliable. If you wish to take standard Chaos Space Marine squads, get Lascannons and Plasmaguns, then give them the Tank Hunter veteran skill, which will make them more effective. If you don't want to include standard Chaos Space Marine squads (preferring Berzerkers and Bloodletters, for example) then you might need to break out some Chosen Terminators. The Reaper Autocannon is a great weapon. 2 S7 shots, rerolling misses will take out vehicles very effectively. With the Tank Hunter skill, those shots are effectively S8! This, too is an expensive option, but it could be seen as more fluffy than a Predator or a Tank Hunter squad. (Khorne is most happy when his followers directly make blood flow, rather than cowering at a distance, and these Terminators can be quite effective in close combat as well!)
Okay, so now we have some idea what we are up against, let's move on to specific options for our list. I will discuss some of the best options for Khornate armies. I will leave out some units that I've already mentioned, if there isn't much to add.
Most Khorne players I have seen tend to go for the fully loaded Daemon Prince. I can understand this, I have similar thoughts about my Hive Tyrant. If you get a fast moving, heavy hitting character that can take on vehicles and troops with ease, and you make it hard to kill, it can be very effective. (Of course, your opponent may focus his entire army on it, or have some nasty things to take it out. Railguns and Genestealers come to mind.) One note: it has been clarified that Daemonic Flight does not allow the extra movement from Blood Frenzy. If you want to use that, get Daemonic Speed instead. On the other hand, it'll be rare that your Daemon Prince will get into combat on the first turn, so Flight may be more useful. I use these tactics with my Hive Tyrant: Stay behind cover (not in it, be totally hidden) for deployment, in case the enemy goes first. First turn fly straight out from the cover as far as you can, hopefully limiting the enemy line of sight to you in some way. Second turn, fly 12 more inches, then assault 6 inches. Boom, 30 inches from your deployment with only 1 turn of vulnerability. (Daemonic Speed plus Blood Frenzy gives similar distances, but must move around terrain instead of flying over it, limiting the straight line distance of the move.) The advantage of the Daemon Prince or the Bloodthirster is that it concentrates a lot of nastiness in one very tough spot, letting it charge through much of the enemy army unless great care is taken.
On the other hand, every point you spend on a Daemon Prince is one less point on Berzerkers or Bloodletters, and you are already outnumbered anyway. There are a few people that go for more toned down Chaos Lords. These would be used as a regular Space Marine Character would, possibly tearing up squads on their own, but most likely adding themselves to a regular squad or a retinue to beef up the power in a more low key way. My Dracon goes this route for my Dark Eldar. He is a formidable force, but he's really not good at taking on large squads by himself. When he's with a squad, he is much more effective and much more likely to survive. On the other hand, if I lose him, it's only 106pts, so it's not a shattering loss.
Berzerkers. Whether you give them upgrades or not, these bad boys have a lot of attacks and will slash through even large squads with ease. They are particularly effective against lightly armored targets, though Chainaxes help against more heavily armored targets (reducing the maximum armor save to a 4+ like an Ork Choppa.) These will tend to be your bread and butter units, I'd recommend getting lots, unless you are going the Daemon route, which I'll cover below.
Bloodletters. These nasties are what you really want against armored opponents. 3 S5 power weapon attacks on the charge means they average a dead Space Marine each on the charge! That's better than Genestealers! Their attacks are mostly wasted on lightly armored enemies, however, so make sure the Berzerkers get to those. Bloodletters are even more expensive than Berzerkers, but they can be very effective if you use them on the right targets.
Flesh Hounds (Khornedogs?) These Daemons are extremely fast. These are not as effective in close combat as either Berzerkers or Bloodletters, but they are fast, meaning that they will almost certainly get to charge on the first turn they are summoned, thus being able to fix enemy units in place so that your follow on assault troops can finish them the next turn. I wouldn't use many packs of these, but a couple of them will stand you in good stead.
The Defiler can be a very effective unit for a Khorne army. Not only does it provide some needed firepower and have some interesting options (more below,) but it also can throw down in close combat, which keeps Lord Khorne happy.
Okay, so now you know what your choices are, how do you use them in the most pleasing way for the Blood god?
First off, remember these tactics as you look at the list options below. Charge up one side or the other, not up the middle! If you go straight up the middle, every gun in the enemy army will likely have line of sight and range to you. If you go up one side, you've got one flank covered by the board edge and you are entirely across the board from a good chunk of the enemy army, leaving many units out of range, if they can even see you. Additionally, use cover in your advance to keep those that are in range from getting good targets. Finally, remember to screen your more important or vulnerable units with less important or vulnerable units.
Option one: Charge! This is the de facto standard Khornate army choice. Load up with Berzerkers and Bloodletters and either a Daemon Prince or a Bloodthirster (or both) and smash the enemy right in the mouth. Add in some anti-vehicle stuff and maybe some Flesh Hounds, then call it good. Simple. Direct. One variation on this is to have no rhinos. With Talisman of Burning Blood, your Berzerkers have a 1/3 chance of raging anyway, and they can cover the distance almost as quickly (more quickly with the Trial Vehicle Rules!)
Option two: Airborne! Bring either fast or tough initial forces, with Daemons and a Bloodthirster as the real assault punch. I've seen an army that used this to good effect under the old Chaos Codex rules with several units of Terminators as the initial forces on the board (giving them some anti-vehicle ability and lots of staying power.) I've also heard of people using fast models, such as bikes and Possessed Marines or Daemon Princes with Daemonic Flight. The idea is to maneuver to a good position, under cover of terrain, then unleash the Daemons when close.
Option three: Duck and Cover! Fairly standard setup like option one, but it must include a Defiler with indirect fire. The Defiler fires at the enemies who are holed up in their deployment zone. Typically, they will move out to avoid the bombardment and get inside the minimum range. At that point, the Berzerkers jump them. From there, it can play as a standard charge, but there is one more tricky bit to consider. If you can get flying and summoned units BEHIND the enemy, you can box them in, worsening their tactical situation. As this occurs, move the Defiler out to get a direct line of sight, so it can shell any survivors.
Well, before you run off to collect skulls for your lord Khorne, I'll leave you with this final bit of wisdom:
Give a Berzerker a skull and he can feed Khorne for a day. Give him a chainaxe and he can feed Khorne for a lifetime!
For more skulls, check out Khorne Tactica, Part II!
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