Saturday, August 2, 2014

Getting the most out the new 40k Dark Vengeance box

Recently I made the jump back into 40k with 7th edition, and if you are like me, one of the major barriers was general cost of entry (or re-entry in my case) into the game.  However,  the latest Dark Vengeance box could alleviate a lot of the issue, with a little creative thinking in either the fluff or crafting department. (Or both). With that in mind, I'll be going over all the contents of box, along with my thinking, and my approach to using and building a list out of the Dark Vengeance box set.

My initial approach To start with, to get the most out of box, you want to do one of the following, either a.) have to come up with a way to use the entire box in a single army, or b.) trade a friend one side of your box for their matching side. (I.e. Trade your DA stuff for their chaos, or vise versa). For me, the easiest way was to go with first option and come up with a fluffy way to use the contents of the entire box in a single army.  There is a number of ways to do it, you could paint the whole army up as Fallen Angels, heavily convert all the models into something else, or go the route I did, and create a Red Corsairs army.  To further flesh out the army, I decided to have the librarian that came in the box be a true Fallen Angel Psyker, already working with/for Huron Blackheart, that used his psychic powers on the remnants of a contingent of loyal Dark Angels hunting him to show them the "truth" of Luther and the Lion, thus convincing/converting them to his cause.  So, now that I have my initial idea all fleshed out, let's take a look at the contents of the box, what all I have to work worth, and see how large of an army I can create...

The box contents
Here's what I had to work worth:
Chaos side:
20x cultists
6x chosen
1x Hellbrute
1x aspiring champion
1x chaos lord

Dark Angels side:
10x Tactical Marines
5x Terminators
3x Bikes
1x Librarian
1x Company master

Taking a closer look, here's what I noticed: first, that there is a plasma cannon in the tactical squad that I could not use, because codex CSM doesn't have the plasma cannon option.  Also, there are a few too many characters, so I planned to have the company master relegated to an aspiring champion with a power weapon to go with tactical squad, while the sergeant will be relegated to the squad's icon-bearer.  I'd also need to either do a "counts as" or convert one of the terminator's assault cannon into a reaper autocannon.  On the chaos side, I planned to have the aspiring champion join the unit of chosen.  I'd also need to be careful with how I kitted and converted the unit, as they come modeled with a lot special weapons and I want to make sure I stick to WYSIWYG as much as possible.

The list
Here's basis for the list.  Looking at all the contents I mentioned above, taking into account some of changes I felt I'd need, I sat down and just built each unit on paper, without a specific points target in mind.  Anyone can easily follow and do what I did, making changes as they see fit as well, so your total points costs may vary.  For me, the overall idea was that this would be a "base army", I had hoped to get a good, solid start on an army that I could grow and expand upon.  I should also note that a few extra bits, in the form of flamers, meltas, and an icon or two,  will be needed to duplicate my exact squad configuration if you choose to do so.  I'm a novice when it comes to conversions, so everything was actually rather simple.  Anyway, here's the base list I came up with:

HQ - 270 pts
Lord - Mark of Khorne, Sigil, Powerweapon, Burning brand of Skalathrax -145 pts
Sorcerer - level 3, Familiar - 125 pts


ELITE - 585 pts
7x Chosen - MoK, Icon of Wrath, 1x Powerfist, 1x Lightning Claws, 1x Powerweapon, 2x Meltas, Champion w/ Powerweapon and combi-melta - 260 pts
5x Terminators - Reaper Autocannon, Icon of Vengeance, 3x Powerfist, 1x chainfist, 2x combi-flamer, 2x combi-plasma - 210 pts
Hellbrute - heavy flamer - 115 pts


FAST - 141 pts
3x Bikers - MoK, Icon of Wrath, 2x meltas, champ w/ Powerfist - 141 pts

TROOPS - 310
20x Cultist - 2x Flamers - 100 pts
10x CSM - 2x Plasmaguns, Icon of Vengeance, Champ w/ Powerweapon - 210 pts

Total: 1306

So essentially, for less than $100 (I got a discount at my LGS) I've got a workable, starting 1300 pt 40k list!  Also, you'll notice I did not go too heavy with marks, which would raise the points cost, similarly, you could alter or drop some upgrades to lower the points total as well.
Where to go from here?
With the base army figure out, my next goal will be to expand further and flesh out the army as a whole.  I'll probably end up dropping or swapping the characters around.  Since it is a Red Corsairs army, I'd like to fit Huron Blackheart in.  He'll give me access to a bit of infiltration, and right now the idea is to give himself the infiltrate ability and attach him to the chosen.  I also plan to swap a few things around with the chosen, add another body or two, and put them all in a Landraider.  Next, I'd like to add a few more bikes to the biker unit, along with a lord with the axe of blind fury.  The idea being to pop transports and assault all the chewy stuff inside afterwards.  The Hellbrute may get dropped to make room for more stuff.  I'd also like to bulk up the cultists up to max, their only job is to try and hold/contest objectives.  The CSM squad will probably get a rhino to go after objectives, or may get swapped around, or dropped all together.  I also plan to convert a loyalist flyer into a Helldrake, and for at least one of them.  Not only do I not care for the current Helldrake model, but converting a loyalist flyer would also lend itself to the whole Red Corsair, loyalist-turned-traitor theme.  
So, just to sum things up on my expansion plans:

- Add in Huron
- Bulk up chosen, add Landraider
- Bulk up bikes, add lord
- Add Helldrakes
- Bulk up cultists
- Modify other things as needed

So, there you have it!  Taking a closer look, I think the Dark Vengeance box is an amazing deal for anyone looking to get into 40k or start a new army.  At a $110 MSRP, I think a 1200-1500 pt army is easily possible with some creative thinking and conversions.  Oh, and of course, I'll keep posting about my new 40k army's progress as it goes along...

What about you guys, what do you think of my idea?  What of the latest 40k box set as a whole?

2 comments:

  1. This is exactly what I was hoping to find! Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Glad you liked it, thanks for checking out my blog! =)

      Delete