Renegades of Funk

Welcome to the first article from the expanding 40k Dirtbags team. I am Doug, an avid CSM player and the Walter White to Dirtbag Mike’s Jesse, in that he is trying to balance his plastic crack addiction while having a happy fulfilling life and I just want to cook up lists furiously to the detriment of my own life and those around me. Today I want to give you a starting point for competitive Raiders and Reavers (RnR) in the new CSM codex.  The list: https://pastebin.com/RuGRUyLd

There is a lot to unpack and we will get to it all but first I want to start by introducing a way of building an army list that many will be aware of but it is worth going over; what is the best thing my army can do? How can I make the most of it?

So what is the best thing in RnR? Is it the extra AP on objectives? Nope! Is it the gratuitous inclusion of free Assault which by itself is an amazing detachment rule? Nope! Is it access to Advance and Charge, Armor of Contempt for 1 CP, whole squad precision, Out of Phase Movement, and Auto 6” Advance for Bikes, Rhinos, and Land Raiders? Nope but seriously what in the name Eldar is that list of 4 banger and 1 fine strats. If the last strat was 1 CP wave at your mom, I’d still take this detachment if I want to win a GT.

But the last strat is, for some inexplicable reason, is prenerf Profane Zeal (Ruinous Raid). The best strat you can ask for. Okay I know it reads “Hop out of a transport” but the next part says “full hit and wound rerolls” and the top says BATTLE TACTIC. So you already know why the list starts 3 Chaos Lords, because Rhinos are OP, Assault Rhinos are double OP, and we were always going cruising regardless. The Talisman upgrade is a stand in for Mark of the Hound. The enhancement on our friend the Winged Khorne DP is standing in for Dread Reaver.

Let me introduce you to this gentleman. He starts in Reserves most games and then you Rapid Ingress him on 2. He plops down somewhere reasonable so he can Fly 12”, basically guaranteeing you are within 12” of the enemy DZ and maybe he battleshocks some idiots, but he definitely charges and dumps out 5 Impact Mortals before swinging 6 times on 2s, Sustained 1, full wound rerolls with his S10 AP2 or 3 D3 Axe, which nicely picks up 3 TEQs or 5 MEQs on it’s own.

Whew. 4 characters, all beatsticks. Great way to start any list. So let’s talk about who you need to pair these guys with: Chosen at 130 or Legionaries (Legos) at 80. The former gives you free Adv and Charge, the latter has an extra heavy weapon, free wound rerolls, and double the OC. You definitely want one chosen squad, but what about the other 2. We have access to Adv and Charge for 1 CP, so how much is 50 pts worth to you? That is basically the question. I value a CP about 30-40 pts and in my experience, I will want to adv and charge each squad exactly once, so I’d rather pay 2 CP than 100 points in list building.

5 man versus 10 man? There aren’t too many things that you need to commonly hit harder than full reroll Lord and 5 morons will do and we have plenty of damage. Lean units.

10 Cultists to sit on our home objective and then screen out the backfield thereafter.

Warp Talon interlude – So there guys move 12”, bring 20 or 40 S5 AP3 D1 Sustained 1, twin linked attacked, can adv and charge, and then I get to just use that 9th Edition Tyranid strat that got removed from the game for being too broken? How many CP is that?  IT’S FREE!!??!? Take a 10 man in every CSM army because you will always get to use them to eat some piece of chaff for free and then RI them later and eat something else. You could argue to take 30 in any detachment. Oh and in this one, if they flub and you need them to fly off just pay 1 CP for free fall back and then they can still fly off.

To explain the Rubrics and Havocs you have to go back and think about our Scouting Rhino deployment. In 95% of games, you will start 1 Lord with 5 Chosen in a Rhino, conferring Scout because all models in the unit have it and it gets conferred to the Rhino. You scout 6” forward. On your turn 1, if you have a good target for the Lord and Chosen, you disembark them 3”, advance 6+D6, and then charge 2d6, with a free CP reroll in the bank courtesy of the Lord. Now, before you move the rhino, you have the opportunity to advance up to 12 models to this Rhino and Embark. You definitely want at least 1 Lord and 5 Legos/chosen in each Rhino because our game plan is to get the most possible mileage out of Ruinous Raid. Do you want a 2nd Lord missile in a Rhink? I would argue no. You want to spread out your melee threats in general (not always). So what else wants to be in a rhino and hop out and generate value?

What other CSM infantry models play well with full rerolls? Why Havocs by god might have actual use now! This is a bit speculative but with Green Tide looming and a big surge in MEQs as CSM rises like the Kraken from its slumbering depths, I want to have at least one source of gratuitous shot volume, thus 4 Reaper chain cannons. 11 Boyz dead with Ruinous Raid through a Paim Boy, 15 without one. I think you could make an argument for any 4x loadout depending on your meta and army list and it be reasonable.

We want a 2nd Rhino for Lord missile 3 and I thought to fill this spot, 5 Rubrics makes a lot of sense. 4 AP2 flamers with full rerolls and a Soul reaper cannon does a lot of damage for 105 points and it is nice to have something that covers a different spread than Chaincannon Havocs, is a little tankier, and isn’t CP reliant for output in case I need to spend it elsewhere.

You can mix whether the Rubrics or Havocs go into each Rhino based on where you think you need them. Also, our rhinos go 18” and still Firing Deck 2 out of the top for 1 CP for some reason. Is this what Eldar players feel like every edition?

Okay, most of the way done. We still stoked? Let’s finish strong.

2×3 Nurglings is for mission play and protecting your own scout movement.

I want to try out 1×3 bikes with a power fist, 2 flamers or plasma, and chainswords. Now they can barely kill anything on their own, but if you can have them tag along with big brother Warp Talons it gives you a possible way of scoring Behind Enemy Lines and doing some other cheeky plays. You charge both of them in, and you sequence them to try to get the most possible movement with your Bikes. Sometimes that means they activate first to pile in and consolidate, sometimes it’s the Warp Talons to kill everything and let you consolidate onto an objective or even pile into someone else. Then, after fight phase, Talons fly away and then you can 1 CP your bikes to move 12” or Fallback. You can score secondary’s or primary with this trick, you can move block. It’s so cute. Probably a fine use of 75 pts but maybe Raptors at 85 are the better trash unit.

For the remaining points, I went with Triple Predator. You could go double Vindicator, you could argue for a lot in this space. I think the situation where you lose is if someone can force you to trade with cheap chaff while they get long range shooting on anything that gets exposed (Sisters, Guard). 6 Assault Lascannons on 3s, sustained 6s, is a credible threat and people can’t cheat armor out because the threat of you high rolling some advances and get good angles is real. The Autocannons go up to AP 3 versus Meganobz on an objective, so you should be able to comfortably deplete a brick each turn enough for your Lord Missiles to clean up.

I will leave you with one other corner case tech to be aware of. Let’s say some dirty Elf player wants to bring some striking scorpions and you suspect he is going to place them aggressively to threaten you turn 1. In that chase you start the Scouting Lord on foot and your rhinos with the other idiots (1 Lord in each Rhino). Scout lord runs up to take his pound of flesh. One rhino shadows him and hides behind adjacent terrain is possible and maybe drops off the Rubrics, so you have transport capacity. Your Lord slaps the Elves to death, and then you 1 CP move them back and embark them into a Rhino. You won’t have access to Ruinous Raid since they didn’t disembark, but you don’t need it to work over most infiltrating nerds.

Thanks for reading. Profane Zeal is dead, long love Ruinous Raid.

Doug