TheChirurgeon’s Road Through 2022, Part 3: Learning Nachmund

Welcome back, Dear Reader, to my ongoing journal of competitive and hobby progress in Warhammer 40k through another year. Last time I talked about attending the January Asgard RTT and coming back to Death Guard. That ended up being my last competitive event of the 2022 season, and I was pretty happy with where I ended up overall, having logged seven events total, even if there were two fewer GTs than I had initially planned.

With LVO in the rearview that means it’s time for the 2022 season to begin in earnest. The big hurdle I need to clear next is learning to play the new missions from the War Zone Nachmund GT pack. There’s a lot to get used to in these, and new point values to build around. I think I’m going to take a break from my Death Guard for a bit and work on what I can do with Chaos Space Marines. That has some particular challenges at the moment, but I’ll cross those bridges when I get to them.

In this article I’m going to talk about building a list: The process that goes into it on my end, and what testing and refinement looks like.

Building a List with the new CSM point values

I’m in a weird place right now. My Thousand Sons are coming along, but slowly, and aren’t painted yet, I’m sick of my Death Guard, and the new points adjustments have made Chaos Space Marines even more attractive. I also have a lot of CSM already painted, which makes it easy to get them onto the table in time for the Asgard RTT in February, which I’m planning to attend.

The first question, especially in the Nachmund season, is: Which Legion am I going to play? Realistically I have four options here, based on what I’ve already got painted:

• Black Legion
• Night Lords
• World Eaters
• Iron Warriors

Emperor’s Children are probably the best option right now but I’ve painted a total of six noise marines so far for them and just don’t have time to paint a dozen EC Terminators. That means I need to explore some other options. Let’s look at some pros and cons:

The Black Legion

The Black Legion have gotten the most love from me most recently, and are probably my “primary” chaos army these days. I’ve got some good stuff for them, and everything is on its proper base size. The downside here is that they aren’t the strongest legion option and I don’t really have the units I need to take full advantage of Abaddon, though I could fix that as I have a Leviathan and a Contemptor sitting around here ready to be painted.
Pros: Abaddon, can take multiple WL traits, will win best painted
Cons: Bad legion trait, so-so stratagems

Night Lords

My first army, and where I have a ton of painted older models still on 25mm bases. I do have the ring extenders to fix that issue though, if I need to change things up and update them. The Night Lords give me a lot of nasty melee punch, since they have two ways to charge out of deep strike and several ways to get +1 to hit, making Death to the False Emperor even better. Also I have a pair of painted NL Heldrakes that look great.
Pros: Warp Talons, Deep Strike charges, to hit bonuses, great melee
Cons: So-so legion trait, no extra WL traits, CP thirsty

Iron Warriors

My third army, the Iron Warriors are one of the more competitive CSM options thanks to vehicle stratagems but I don’t really have the vehicles I need to make them work – I don’t have a Lord of Skulls to run here and my only painted daemon engines for Iron Warriors right now are a Defiler and a Heldrake.
Pros: Good Daemon Engines, vehicle support
Cons: I don’t own the good daemon engines

World Eaters

One of my more recent armies, built to be a Khorne Daemonkin force. This also tragically means I have a lot of Berserkers on 25s in there. The World Eaters can do some silly stuff, especially when you’re using Kharn’s full re-rolls aura on something like a Lord of Skulls. Which, again, I don’t own at the moment. The closest I’ve got is a Kytan Ravager who doesn’t quite pack the firepower of the Lord of Skulls.
Pros: Berserker Troops, lots of melee
Cons: Needs a lord of skulls, probably 3 vindicators, fragile, no psykers

I previously took my Black Legion to an RTT back in December, a list helmed by Abaddon and featuring a drop pod full of Obliterators and a 10-model block of Terminators. It was… a bit underwhelming. The Terminators weren’t as tough as I needed them to be, the Obliterators not as deadly, and generally speaking I didn’t love the results. On the other hand I like the cheap deadliness of Night Lords with the new point drops, so I want to get in a couple of games there and see how things shake out. So Night Lords it is.

The First List

Whenever I sit down to do something like this my first attempts usually go way Too Hard. That is, they tend to look a bit too much like skew lists as I try and take as much advantage of some particular mechanic or aspect as possible. In doing this I often do too much going after that one thing, when a little will go a long way. That’s how I ended up with my first list here:

+++ Night Lords Outrider Detachment (8 CP, 1,990 Points) +++

Legion: Night Lords
Extra Relic (-1 CP)

HQ: Daemon Prince with Wings, Talons, Mark of Slaanesh, Relic: Rapacious Talons, Warlord: Murderous Reputation, Powers: Delightful Agonies (185)
HQ: Sorcerer with Jump Pack, Force Stave, Mark of Slaanesh, Powers: Prescience, Warptime, Relic: Vox Daemonicus (115)

Troops: Chaos Space Marines x10 with Bolt Pistol + Chainsword, Mark of Slaanesh, Icon of Excess, Champion: Lightning Claws (140)
Troops: Chaos Space Marines x10 with Bolt Pistol + Chainsword, Mark of Slaanesh, Icon of Excess, Champion: Lightning Claws (140)
Troops: Chaos Space Marines x5 with Bolt Pistol + Chainsword, Mark of Slaanesh, Champion: Lightning Claw (65)

FA: Warp Talons x5 with Mark of Slaanesh (100)
FA: Warp Talons x5 with Mark of Slaanesh (100)
FA: Bikers x9 with Chainsword, Mark of Slaanesh, 2x Meltagun, Icon of Excess, Champion: Lightning Claw (315)
FA: Raptors x15 with Bolt Pistol + Chainsword, Mark of Slaanesh, Icon of Excess, Champion: Lightning Claws (245)

HS: Obliterators x3 (285)

FLY: Heldrake w/Baleflamer (150)
FLY: Heldrake w/Baleflamer (150)

+++

This isn’t the best possible list but my goal right now is to feel out how these units will perform. My general strategy with Heldrakes is to be as obnoxious as possible – they’re flyers but not AIRCRAFT in Codex: Chaos Space Marines, and that means you can’t just walk over their bases. This makes them wonderful move blockers since they can move 30″ on turn 1 and charge pretty much anything in my opponent’s army on the smaller 9th edition table. I’ll be supporting them with Raptors, who can double-move with Warptime and get a similar charge off, plus additional support from Warptalons on Turns 2 and 3. If things go well, I’ll box an opponent in, trapping them in their deployment zone dealing with threats while my units rack up primary points and I go up so high they can’t catch up.

Game 1: vs. Erik’s Black Templars

With the list completed, it was time to test it out, and I was once again up against my friend Erik’s Black Templars.

Erik's Black Templars - Click to Expand

Erik: This list is my second attempt at playing Black Templars in order to figure out how people were having success with them. This list felt a lot better than the last one. The Terminators with -1 dmg felt very durable and having a block of 10 meant putting buffs on them feels great. Where-as the primaris blob version I played didn’t feel like it could stick its chin out. I felt pretty comfortable charging forward with this block. The Icon of Heinemann on the blade guard was just great their bane is attacks that just get to their invuln and this relic really protects them from that. The emphasis on multi melta shooting also felt good as no other options in the marine book seems at all appealing especially with the price hike on redemptors. Last but not least I brought back out the ole whirlwind for fights last and it did basically nothing as it traditionally has but I really could not think of a use for those 125 points that felt less like throwing them away, maybe I should have make one of the troops choices a big primaris blob but… shrug

The Mission: Tide of Conviction

text

My Secondaries

• The Long War
• Raise the Banners High
• Engage on All Fronts

Erik’s Secondaries

• Oaths of Moment
• Stranglehold
• Investigate Signal

I’m trying the new secondary. That’s probably a mistake since if I go first my plan is to not let Erik take objectives by trapping him in his deployment zone but it’ll pay off if I go second. Tide of Conviction is interesting in that there isn’t necessarily a compelling reason to deploy on one half of the table given how far away the next objective is. Banners and Engage seem like OK picks for me here. Erik’s on Oaths because of course he is, and Stranglehold makes sense but Investigate Signal is making the most of some lackluster options.

The biggest issue I’m going to have are those Bladeguard Veterans – I just don’t have anything in the army with AP-3 except for the Daemon Prince’s sword and a couple of meltaguns so I’m going to need some ludicrous volumes of attacks/firepower to dent them. They’re probably just invincible to me.

I’m Going First.

That’s fine by me, it means early deep strikers and I can box Erik in. I send both Heldrakes up immediately, then Vox Scream away Helbrecht’s aura. The Sorcerer Warptimes the Raptors along, and they crash into the Eradicators along with one Heldrake, while the other charges some Infiltrators and consolidates into other units. I’m able to trap Erik a bit, but his Bladeguard break out the next turn and tag my bikes, wiping them all out – a very stupid, risky move on my part to take the forward objective, not realizing that I only needed to hold one and not two of them for the mission bonus points. Live and learn.

I manage to mostly block Erik in to score a 15-point turn 1 and do OK on turn 2, but Erik’s Terminators and BGVs get involved and start making short work of some of my key units, and manage to take down one of the Heldrakes pretty easy. From there I don’t have a lot of options – the Warptalons can’t do much to the BGVs when they ignore AP-2, so I try for a hail mary with the Obliterators. As always, they let me down, rolling a 1 for damage and a 1 for AP. Thanks, assholes. The BGVs run roughshod over a big chunk of my army.

We call it after two battle rounds when it’s pretty clear I’m not going to recover from being counterpunched. Plus, we’re doing dinner at our house and I’m cooking tacos so I had to start on dinner. Good stuff.

Erik: Overall this list felt much better to me, but it was still not going to set the world on fire. The Iron Hands stuff I had played felt more like a list that has uniquely powerful things it can do and more likely to win hard games. I know better players than me like Thomas Ogden are out there making me look wrong but BTs feel like slow unremarkable foot sloggers to me right now.

Result: Loss (Final Score Undetermined)

Making Adjustments

Well, that was terrible, but informative. Once again, as they always have, Obliterators let me down. The Raptors also weren’t particularly helpful, as their attack volume was mitigated by a kind of anemic number of attacks and only being S4 Ap-1. I also wasn’t super-impressed with the new secondary, and I needed more CP and long-range firepower. Time to go back to the well-trod path I laid out last month: Souping in Death Guard for PBCs.

The difference is that this time I’ve got a better, more mobile force on the CSM side, and I’m packing a Tallyman with some of the points I’ve saved from point drops. That’ll help me get the extra CP I need. Most of their points comes from removing the Obliterators, though I also downgrade from a Daemon Prince to a Chaos Lord and kill the squad of Raptors.

Rob's list, attempt 2 - click to expand

Yeah I’m back on my PBC bullshit. But ultimately they’re just a good unit at at 160 they’re even more aggressively costed, plus I can To the Last with two of them and my bike squad in a pinch. The Death Guard Detachment also lets me add a Tallyman, who can get me 4-5 extra CP per game and help me get around the challenges of being so CP thirsty with the army. His +1 to hit is a bit wasted, but he can also raise banners or do actions in the backfield as needed.

The bikers are my big mid-table presence right now, and I’m still more than capable of using the Heldrakes to block in opponents, and the bikes can be a part of that or I can use Warp Talons in that plan, while the PBCs shell the crap out of it all from out of line of sight and use Entropy Cannons against tougher targets. At the very least, I have better ways of dealing with stuff that ignores AP-1/-2.

Game 2: vs. Dan’s Adeptus Mechanicus

OK, I’ve got a new list; it’s time to test it out. This time around I’m up against my buddy Dan, AKA “Swiftblade,” who’s bringing a Skitarii Veteran Cohort.

Dan's List - Click to expand

Dan: Hello again everyone! I’m happy to be back here on Goonhammer and really excited to play Rob again. Between organizing and running the RTT’s at Asgard games here in town and some personal matters, I haven’t gotten to play much Warhammer lately. In fact, the last time I got to play Rob was way back in November. Win or lose, I’m very much looking forward to drinking some beers and rolling some dice with my friend.

Which brings me to the list and some background for context. At the Austin Roadshow, I ran a Dark Technomancer Cronos list to a cozy 4-4 record in the 2-2 bracket. I played two of my best games ever that weekend, and even with my losses I think I piloted my lists well, except for one bad loss against Death Guard. I play Rob enough where I should’ve known better than to try and scrum it out in the middle against DG, but it goes to show you can’t teach an old Dan new tricks.

Nevertheless, I left Austin extremely happy with my Drukhari, and I wanted to step away from them a bit to focus one of my other armies: Adeptus Mechanicus.

After the balance dataslate nerfed the AdMech into levels where I wouldn’t feel bad playing them, I started focusing on rounding up models and preparing a Mars Skitarii Veteran list. The list I’ve settled on after some games this week uses two big Skitarii Ranger blobs and Balistarii to act as a hard-to-shift and extremely deadly gunline, while Pteraxii and Ruststalkers can either grab outer objectives or be boosted up to push enemies off central objectives. I’m also including three squads of five man Raiders, as I think with the changes to Nachmund’s secondary objectives and introduction of progressive primaries they will do really well. With the Veteran Cohort, I can also boost these squads to boost competent melee threats to steal lightly defended objectives.

Playing Admech with the Veteran Cohort well right now means putting a lot of thought into when to use your army wide buffs and stratagems and playing them in a more cagey fashion than I’m typically used to. I’m determined to learn though, and the only way to do that is play more games!

The Mission: Death and Zeal

The shorter distances between deployment zones is a help here and I think I can use my Heldrakes to funnel Dan’s forces around the board early on and dictate when and how we engage.

My Secondaries:

• No Prisoners
• Stranglehold
• Raise the Banners High

Dan’s Secondaries:

• Stranglehold
• To the Last (20-model Skitarii Unit | Ironstriders | Ironstriders)
• Retrieve Nachmund Data

I’ve given up The Long War by taking a Death Guard detachment, but I’m not sure I need it. I can go for Engage or Stranglehold well enough and I have the troops to do actions. The new No Prisoners is a big help here, since it’s worth up to 13 against Dan’s army, and I think I can pick up 10+ on it easy. Stranglehold also works OK for me here since I can lock in control of the two no man’s land objectives with my ObSec units and throw banners up on them.

On Dan’s side Stranglehold seems aggressive, but To the Last Makes sense – those are the three units I’ll have the most trouble bringing down. RND is also a peculiar pick here, but he can use the Pteraxii to score it twice.

I’m Going First.

That’s bad news for Dan. I think I have a decent counter-punch play here going second, but I’ve built a list that can reliably first-turn charge by moving the Heldrakes 30″ and in this case, I’ve got a scant 18″ of distance between me and the enemy, which means that bikes moving 14″ can also make that charge reliably. And that’s what happens. The two Heldrakes shoot forward and one Vox Screams the rear Skitarii Marshal, who gives re-rolls to hit and wound with his auras, while the Chaos Lord Warptimes up and charges with them. The two 10-model units of CSM both get good advance rolls to reach the other two objectives. I only get 1 banner up, but I secure control of four objectives and score Stranglehold.

The Serberys are a big concern for me since they can break out and harrass my weaker infantry so I use some shooting to whittle then down before charging. The Chaos Lord and Heldrake wipe out all but 2 Rangers in the front unit, while the other Heldrake does nothing to the Ruststalkers but manages to survive their attacks with 3 wounds remaining. Then The Serberys Raiders, who are in range of the Chaos Lord’s legion trait take a -1 penalthy to their Ld, fail the test, and the remaining two models flee. Hell yeah!

On Dan’s turn he falls back with the Ruststalkers, which kind of blocks him in, while the Ironstriders try to peek out and shoot some things. The Chaos Lord uses We Have Come for You on the remaining Rangers to trap them in combat with him and the Heldrake to protect them, while the other Heldrake spikes some saves and lives on 1W. The Chaos Lord also survives with his 4++ and lives on 1 wound. That’s a backbreaker for Dan.

The first unit of Warptalons arrive on the next turn while the Bikes charge in to take care of one unit of Ruststalkers and the Warp Talons kill another. The Heldrake baleflames and the PBCs take out a pair of Ironstriders. Dan doesn’t have much left at this point and while on his turn he’s able to finally kill a Heldrake and my Chaos Lord he’s been thoroughly decimated.

Result: 98-28, Victory

This was a fun test, and ran much better than my initial test, though the army was also a better target. Still, having the PBCs back there was a comfort, and gave me a lot of additional ranged firepower while also giving me tougher backfield holders. The extra CP from the Tallyman was also helpful. I might tweak the number of regular Chaos Marines I’m bringing, but I’m thinking of testing this next at an RTT.

Dan: I think I hate Heldrakes now guys.

Despite this absolute dumpstering, I had a blast. It was really nice to hang out with Rob again, and our post-game talk was very insightful on how I can improve my play going forward. Like a cartoon villain, I’m off to shake my fist at the sky and shout that I’ll beat Rob next time. Heldrakes can go kick rocks, though.

Next Time: Asgard’s February RTT

That wraps up another episode. I’ll be back in two weeks, probably, following the Asgard February RTT. I’m still not sure what I’ll be taking to that yet, but the Night Lords/PBC list is definitely an option – I just need to add base extenders to a lot of models. We’ll see how that goes. I also want to test Abaddon and the Black Legion again at some point, and try something similar to Tassin’s lists. Until then, if you have any questions or feedback, drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com.