Typhus Ideas.

With the favoured disciples of the other three Chaos Gods dealt with (here, here and here) its finally time to move onto the most popular of all the characters in the new dex: Typhus. Why is he the most popular?

One reason. Well, there are a few but one reason stands out moreso than any other.

He gives you access to Zombies. Hordes of the mindless dead. 40k Grimdark Zombies. Resident Evil with Space Marines. The Walking Dead. 

I could go on and on making cultural references but I'll stop before I get completely sidetracked. What I will do is commend myself on the timing of this by having this blog post coincide with Hallowe'en.

Lucius Ideas

If only Lucius' rules were as awesome as this guy...

When the rumours of a new CSM dex started to surface I was hopeful that Lucius would get a handy boost to enable him to tackle all-comers and be a bit more survivable. I knew that getting a Celestine-style back from the dead effect would be out (because its maddeningly powerful) but I was hoping for something that would reflect the background that he takes over the body of the guy that killed him, rather than having his armour reflexively kick out after he gets a slap in the mouth.

What we did get was one of the items that wasn't improved massively from the previous 'dex. He is the only character to get a Doom Siren and he tends to get extra attacks in challenges, which you are doubly encouraged to partake in with the Boons table but there is one major drawback: Lucius is average in combat. In fact there's a song that reminds me of him (Emerge by Fischerspooner) for the repeated use of a single world: Hypermediocrity.

Kharn the Betrayer Ideas

Kharn. He's some man for the skulls.

I was in two minds about my next article but I reckoned that I'd run with more thoughts on Special Characters before moving onto units and army builds. Next up is another of my favourite feens and arguably most iconic of all Chaos Marines: Kharn the Betrayer. Or Betrayer the Betrayer if you are able to read Arabic, according to some.

I've been a fan since his short story by Bill King featured in Inferno Magazine #1 was included in White Dwarf (the one with the kill-count ticking away in his helmet's visor) although there's a resident gamer in my group that is an uber-fanboy of Kharn, but his blushes will be saved and he'll not be named, but you know who you Daire.

So how best do you help Kharn collect skulls for his perpetually angry patron?

Ahriman Ideas

I'll bet you he's really poring through a skin mag.

So like many of you reading this I've been digesting the Chaos Codex for the past week and seeing what silly combos are available and what units have been grossly undercosted/overpowered with the book. So far there's nothing that I've found that's quite that ridiculous as its been very balanced: if you want something then you have to pay for it or you have to mess around with your very limited HQ slots to get what you want (usually Fearless units as Troops) and things start to add up very quickly. I note that one of the playtesters over on the B&C forum (the jeske, iirc) reckoned that the army operates best at 2k points levels.

I'm going to go with 1850 though as that it what is usually played in tournaments over here. Aside from the general overview above I wanted to throw out some thoughts about Ahriman as he is one of the characters I've always liked and I've wanted to include him in a list for quite a while and now thankfully he might be worth including as he's got a few things going for him.