Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Undivided sux...

I've settled on my army list for Adepticon and it's not good.  I've been playing a bunch of games in my game group and it hasn't gone well.  I've tried to stick to a theme, but that theme is wholly undivided.  I don't have Plague Marines (always a win), nor do I use Tzeentch-marked Terminators or Nurgle-marked Spawn.  Every time I talk army lists with one of my 'cheezier' gamer buddies, he tells me the same thing-

Undivided Chaos is terrible!

I've tried to argue his point, citing such things as lower points-cost and background-laden precedent.  But my experience on the battlefield has shown my arguments to be wrong and this basic truth to be, well, a basic truth.

Everyone who knows me will tell you that I love my Word Bearers.  I don't like Khorne, I hate Slaanesh and Tzeentch, and I wholly ignore Nurgle.  I think that Iron Warriors and Night Lords are too limited, the Black Legion is too basic, and the Alpha Legion are a bunch of morons.  So that leaves me with Word Bearers.  And that leaves me with 'undivided' troops.  I can have Marines, Marines with jump packs, Marines with heavy weapons, and Marines with daemonic bitz coming out of them.  I can even add some Cultists and ally the ever-present Daemons.  But there's no such thing as non-Tzeentch Thousand Sons or Word Bearer Berserkers.  So what do I do?

Well, that's a great question.  I have come at this from two angles so far:

On the one hand- I can simply play the 'book-version' of the Word Bearers, including little more than Marines and Possessed with no marks, and just take the losses like a man.  I don't mind losing (I have been known to be a poor sport, buuuut...), but I have to feel like my army isn't what's failing me to have a good time.  The dice have always hated me and my luck has never worked to my favour, but my tactics and list design aren't supposed to be that bad.  With my Chaos armies right now, it feels that bad.  

On the other hand- I can take marks and play 'counts-as' units to take advantage of some of the fun stuff in the book.  I've recently built a unit of robed Chaos Marines and attached them to an old metal Sorcerer to count them as 'Thousand Sons'.  I even have a unit of Berserkers built and plan on, someday, converting a plague-ridden squad to count as 'Plague Marines'.  I have entertained the idea of tossing Marks on my regular troopers to indicate a special 'blessing' that the gods have given my extra-faithful warband.  But I feel dirty every time I do.  I feel like I'm spitting in the fluff-bible's eye.

Oh how I would love to have some T5 Marines and Spawn running around.  Oh how I would enjoy Terminators with a 4+ invulnerable save or a Lord rocking the Axe of Blind Fury.  A unit of Raptors sporting the mark of Slaanesh and some lightning claws wouldn't be horrible.  But I'm too much of a fluff-bunny.


And for that, I lose.  Hmmm...

Let me hear y'all's thoughts!  And, as always, Happy Gaming!