As you can see in my video here, I've been working on some pretty cool and fun Plague Marine conversions. The idea was to build up a small to medium-sized force that I could use alongside my 30 Plaguebearers that I had collected and painted. To that end I created an army list. First I'll present the army list, then explain the outline of the general strategy of how I imagine I'd use it.
Combined Arms Detachment: Chaos Space Marines (755)
H.Q.: 95
- Chaos Lord + Power weapon + Mark of Nurgle
Troops: 380
- 5x Plague Marines + 2x Meltaguns + Combi-melta + Chaos Rhino
- 5x Plague Marines + 2x Plasma guns + Combi-plasma + Chaos Rhino
Heavy Support: 280
- Chaos Vindicator + Combi-bolter + Daemonic possession
- Chaos Vindicator + Combi-bolter + Daemonic possession
Allied Detachment: Chaos Daemons (725)
H.Q.: 230
- Herald of Nurgle: Lesser Reward: Etherblade + Psyker mastery level 1 + Greater Locus of Fecundity
- Herald of Nurgle: Exalted Reward: the Grimoire of True Names + Psyker mastery level 1+ Greater Locus of Fecundity
Troops: 495
- 20x Plaguebearers
- 20x Plaguebearers
- 3x Nurgling Swarms
- 3x Nurgling Swarms
- 3x Nurgling Swarms
Total: 1480/1500
The idea of how it works is fairly interesting, if I do say so myself (and I do say so!). You've got three groups:
Group-1: the two Vindicators move up the midfield surrounded by two units of twenty Plaguebearers. To avoid giving my opponent a cover save, the Daemons cover all sides of the Vindicators except for the front armour unless the risk to the tanks is too dire.
The Plaguebearers themselves are supported by two Heralds of Nurgle. The first Herald has an Etherblade, basic psychic powers and grants Feel No Pain to its unit. The second Plaguebearer has the Grimoire of True Names, basic psychic powers and also grants Feel No Pain to his unit.
The idea here is that the first twenty Plaguebearers form the outer ring of the horde surrounding the Vindicators, while the second group of twenty forms the inner ring, this way the opponent has to chew through 20 Plaguebearers with a 3+ invulnerable save (thanks to the Grimoire of True Names) and Feel No Pain before they can then move on to destroying the second unit. Of course any opponent could target the Vindicators with ranged weapons, but they'll be granted a 5+ cover save and if they send in a specialized unit via Deep Strike then they won't be able to reach melta range as easily (although Centurions with grav weapons would probably have better luck).
Group-2: the second group is made up of the two units of Plague Marines in Rhinos. Their job is to seize opportunities, grab objectives, kill units of opposing troops or/and vehicles. Fairly simple and generally what you'd expect of almost any troop unit in power armour, even if they are more specialized than your usual Tactical or Chaos Marine troops.
Group-3: the final group is the Nurgling Swarms. Their job is to grab objectives and to get in my opponents way. Basically: cause trouble, get linebreaker, take objectives and so on.
That's the list! I know that I have twenty points to spare. I do that. My philosophy is that until a list is 100% complete, I want to put some points aside in case I feel the need to add or remove something. So far I'm thinking that the Burning Brand of Skalathrax would be a cool addition for the Chaos Lord instead of a boring old power weapon..
In any case comments and reviews would be both welcome and appreciated!
