Math Hammer

I got Traitor's Legions today.

I'm trying to do the math of how to run formations and anything else with a normal army, but outside of that there's some really disgusting things that I've been looking at. The thing that I wanted to point out was some of the minimum cost points for these and what it will take on the low end to do some of them. The stupid part about that low end ballpark figure is that some of them the low end is REALLY high, and the high end is even more stupid than that. Let's dive in and see some basic point cost.

Chaos Warband-
Minimum requirement-
1 lord (65), 1 unit of chosen (90), 2 units of Chaos Space Marines (75x2 = 150), 1 unit bikes (70), 1 helbrute (105).
Grand total for minimum = 480 points.

On the maximum end of that, I don't even want to imagine. Max size, without artifacts, you're going to get 1 lord, 1 sorcerer, 3 full units of terminators, 6 full units of chaos space marines, 3 full units of warp talons, and then 3 full units of havocs. That's massive.

Down side to this is that there's not much for alternate options, but what it does give is a constant level of something to play with. No matter who you are, you pick up your starter kit box set and you can throw this thing out. The crazy part is that in theory this thing could even get thrown around in a 3000+ point game. You can potentially apocalypse this formation and ONLY this formation.

Maelstrom of Gore -
Minimum requirement-
1 lord (65), 4 minimum units of berzerkers (105x4).
Grand total for minimum = 485 points.

Maximum size, Kharn, plus 8 full sized units of berzerkers and with a few extra points for upgrades for champions or artifacts on the zerkers, and you're easily running over 2k points.

Not really my flavor of chaos, as I'm not a huge fan of the blood and gore of chaos, but still an impressive spread for points.

The Lost and The Damned
Minimum requirement-
1 dark apostle (105) and 4 units of cultists (50x4 = 200)
Grand total for minimum = 305 points

Maximum size - dark apostle, and then 9 full units of cultists (that's a unit of 35 cultists by the way, if you max out like this, you're fielding 315 cultists) for 1,350 points, plus your apostle for a grand total of 1,455. In THEORY, and only theory, you could max out this beast, and still be under the 1500 point range. The only down side is 315 cultists. I have 100 zombies, and that's a ton, I can't even start to comprehend 315 cultists. The annoying part about it is that if anyone actually managed to ever kill any full unit of that mob (35 wounds of cultists) there's a 50/50 chance (a 4+ on a d6) to have those same 35 wounds back on the table.

That's scary. You can't kill anything, but sooner or later with 315 cultists you're bound to bog up something with blood. Anything in a transport is practically immune to the group of cultists, but anything on foot will sooner or later have to face the wrath of potentially rolling a one against the mob. And don't forget, that's still under 1500 points. The only difficult part of this mob is getting the figures to field it.

Helforged Warpack
Minimum requirement-
1 warpsmith (110), 3 helbrute (105x3 = 315)

Grand total for minimum = 425

Maximum size, things get weird. You've still got the warpsmith, then five defilers (195 points each) for something in the ball park of 1,085 points, which you can still throw upgrades at. Infinite daemonforge for FIVE defilers, and it's scary. Not too big of a swing, but still interesting to consider for what it can do.

Heldrake Terror Pack
Minimum requirement
2 Heldrake (170x2) = 340 points

Maximum double that, 680 points.

FOUR HELDRAKES! And it's legal! Remember once upon a time you thought that it was impossible to not have a heldrake? The scary part about this is that in THEORY, because that's what we're playing with at this point, you could still run a combined arms detachment and have THREE MORE!

That means, you could have a battle forged army of SEVEN heldrakes, for only 1190 points (which is still enough points that you could still throw around a bit of ground units in hopes of keeping everything in the sky flying. SEVEN! Can we just stop for a moment and appreciate the stupidity of SEVEN HELDRAKES in one army. This is such a crazy concept, that I can't even find a picture of more than two of them next to each other.

SEVEN

HELDRAKES!

If I was a power gamer, and masochistic with painting and spending money, this would be a fun one to try and field. This is so trolly that I'm in love with it. People, please, make this happen. Send pictures. Send pictures of the flock, and send pictures of the tears of frustration. Seriously, this is so awesome, that it's on the line of figures that I want to buy or get in my next set of buying things, but only once I paint everything that I currently own (which will be at least in three years with the pace that I'm going, but rules are rules and I'm not buying anything new until what I have is painted).

Cult of Destruction-
Minimum Requirement-
1 Warpsmith (110), 3 units of Mutilators (55x3 = 165)
Minimum total = 275

Maximum requirement
3 warpsmiths, and then 5 units of obliterators

This one clocks in around 1,380 points (but again you could do some damage with upgrades and marks and what not).

If you like mutilators or obliterators (which I own ZERO of, so not really my deal) then this is a good idea for you to have. A chance for the already deadly unit to shoot/attack twice? That's a good thing, and all you really have to do is buy a warpsmith. Small end on this is looking nice, I'm not so sure on the massively large scale end of it.

Fist of the Gods
Minimum Requirement
1 warpsmith (110) and 3 predator (75x3 = 225) for a total of 335 points.

Max size, you're rolling 5 land raiders and hitting around 1,200 points.

Moving on, because tanks are something that I'm still learning and I've got a grand total of none of these so I can't even comprehend what this would take.

Raptor Talon
Minimum Requirements
1 Lord - (65) 3 raptors (95x3 = 285) for a total of 350

Maximum size, you're getting something around 1,600 points of Warp Talons. Impressive point wise, but it didn't really stand out to me. The rules are nice, and they're some pretty solid rules, but we're talking the point spread and how stupid things can get, and this doesn't get stupid enough.

I was going to go through the list and keep going, but I've got things to do other than these low end boring ones that I'm not worried about. The better ones that are actually impressive that I'm stunned by the massiveness of, those are the ones I want to get to.

Side note before I get to the actual stupid ones, there's the Trinity of Blood formation.

THREE Khorne Lords of Skulls - 2,664 points. This goes on the list of 'never will I ever'. Never will I ever make this formation, see this formation, or even think that this formation is a possibility. If you're playing a game where this formation is viable, wow. Just wow.

Now, we're moving onto the Thousand Sons stuff. This is where the point value of things and the spread of it goes a bit stupid. Let's dive into it all -

War Cabal
Minimum requirement
1 sorcerer (60), 1 sorcerer (60), 1 rubric marine (150), 1 unit scarab occult terminators (250)
Minimum total = (520)

Now this is when it goes crazy. Maximum size to this is down right stupid.
Ahriman (230), 3 exalted sorcerer (160x3 = 480), 3 rubrics (495 x3 = 1485), 3 Scarab Occult Terminators (450x 3 = 1350).

Now, there's still points that we can upgrade with and everything like that, but that's ballparking in around 3,545 points. To put reference on this whole deal, we're already running more than the trinity of blood formation above. Given, there's about 19 or 20 psychic levels that are getting used in that massive army, but it's crazy.

The depressing part, is that's only the start.

War Coven
Sorcerer (60), x3 sorcerer (60x3) = 240 points.

Low end, lovely. Bring in four more psychic levels!

High end - you can get 10 exalted sorcerers, and with upgrades, that's 30 dice in the psychic phase. Not to mention you could always run a daemon prince instead of one of those exalted sorcerers. I always thought that it was going to be impossible to throw all of the sorcerer models and daemons on the field at once, but all of these lists have nothing but HQ choices on them. Think about it, before back in combined arms detachment land I was stuck in only playing with two HQ choices. Now I can literally field a DOZEN (yes, a dozen) HQ options, and just call them a formation.

Tzaangor Warherd - yeah, whatever, moving on.

Sekhmet Conclave
Minimum points
sorcerer (60) + 3 units of 1k sons terminators (250 x3) = 810 points

This is where the maximum starts to grow at a stupid rate.

Maximum -
Magnus the Red (650 points) + 9 units of terminators (450*9 = 4050) = 4,700 points, and that's without upgrades.

I warned you that the high end to some of these got really high and into the stupid range of things. That's a lot of points. Compared to some of those lower level deals where you could field the entire thing at maximum point value and still walk away with points to spend in a 1850 point game, this is one of those that is never going to happen.

Ahriman's Exiles
Again we're just throwing HQ sorcerers around. Ahriman + exalted sorcerers, and they're crazy. If you have points to spare, I have places to put them.

Now onto the fun one. The one that inspired this entire deal, because the math behind it is stupid enough that my brain loves just how stupid it can go.

Rehati War Sect
You start out with Magnus (which already is a crazy investment at 650 points)

Then you add in 3-9 exalted sorcerers or daemon princes.

Low end, you add in 3 exalted sorcerers.

High end you can add in up to 9 of a mix of sorcerers and/or daemon princes.

The thing that got me is the very simple math, you can field nine daemon princes. NINE TOTAL DAEMON PRINCES! And let us not forget that with that mob of NINE daemon princes you  also have a friendly Magnus just hanging out ready to do whatever he does. A tzeentch daemon, with wings, and three mastery levels is clocking in at 275 points, adding in Magnus, and you've got yourself something stupid in the ball park of 3,125 points.
 
That's still more than the three lord of skulls running around together. You've got 32 psychic dice in that group alone, who (by the way) would harness warp points on a 3+, have a line of sight to everything on the field, and by the way, if you get all nine of them on the field, all of them get to re-roll 1's when they save. Not to mention all 3,125 points of that would be flying, with at least a 4+ daemon of tzeentch save (5+ daemon, plus the improvement of the mark of Tzeentch), or more likely a 3+ of armor just to watch the chaos.

Let's not forget that there's still the option for even more daemon princes, so you could (in theory) do a combined arms detachment and get your two HQ choices of daemon princes, plus an allied detachment of chaos daemons to get a few more daemon princes on the field. It'd cost a million points, but it'd actually be battle forged.

Whew, for those that were not paying attention, and for those that want the short version of it - outside of the thousand sons formations, the other ones are cheap and really helpful when trying to create a balanced army. However, for those that are in the Thousand Sons formations - they're glorified excuses to get as many psychic levels on the field as you possibly can. If you ever wanted to run 50 warp charges in a psychic phase - Thousand Sons formations just made that possible. All of their formations are just excuses to get the HQ choices you know and love (sorcerers, exalted sorcerers, and daemon princes) on the field.

The man, the myth, the legend

Today we gather together to commemorate the life of a legend. One bottle of paint has passed away today. It is the paint that I have used on every single chaos model I own. Today it based the last model (a rhino) and gave up the ghost. My entire army is based and blue, and this little guy managed to do all of it.

4,000 points of an army, and this bottle did it all. You're going to be missed.