With our next Warhammer 40k Blitz coming up on April 12, we take a look at indecision, test lists, and a rather chaotic road to preparing for the event.
It all started in Denver, Colorado, in October of 2024. I’d decided to get back in Warhammer 40k, and I’d gone back to Necrons, my first faction. But Chaos always calls. While I liked the Nemesis Claw Kill Team box, I wasn’t playing Kill Team. I hadn’t bothered to preorder or try to chase a box down right after release. But I was in Denver for a work conference, and Denver has an official Warhammer store. Of course, I had to stop and check it out.
Then it happened.
I had to get both boxes that I could find in Denver. I was still only planning on running them in Kill Team, eventually. Building them wasn’t a priority, except that I think these are some of the coolest minis, ever.
But Chaos always calls.
While I was struggling to figure out what I wanted to do with my Necrons, the Night Lords kept sticking in my mind.
I took a break from trying to sort out Necrons and I built a few test lists based on taking the Nemesis Claw as my core in 40k. Then I took a break to build a lot of Deathwatch. I liked the way Space Marines played, but even with my love of Deathwatch, I couldn’t find something that clicked with me.
But Chaos Always Calls
When I built the Nemesis Claw boxes over the holiday break, it clicked. I loved the models. The flayed skin hung from the armor, the barely-living half of an Astartes warrior hung from a Chaos icon, the talons, chainglaives, and winged helmets. The Midnight Clad.
While I dove into the lore of the Eighth Legion for inspiration on painting and modelling, I started working on what I might want to play. A Land Raider with a Nemesis Claw inside? The Dread Talon detachment with Raptors and Chaos Lords with Jump Packs? A big Daemon Prince with wings?
Well, I did start there, just for the cool factor of the thing.
From a creative standpoint, this was the perfect model to start painting. I could get the iconic Night Lords symbol into physical form by painting the wings dark red. Then, using the face that had the skull, I could work in the skull. So the Daemon Prince became a living, corrupted visage of the Night Lords own iconography.
The armor plates were big enough to get a really good feel for the colors. Since the Daemon Prince is corrupted, I was able to work in the pale skin that the Night Lords are known for.
Painting the skin ash grey also gave me a reference point for my future corrupted minis, like Chaos Spawn, Possessed, and Chosen. This grey is the color of corrupted flesh in my warband then, and I can lean on it to tell that story.
But, painting up a cool mini isn’t a playable list. While it was helpful in defining the visual language of my warband, I still needed to figure out what to play. I don’t approach list building in the more conventional sense of playing what just did well at an event. I focus on what I want my list to do, and how I want to play, and then work on finding combinations that support my style.
We Are Coming For You
Night Lords fight in a way that uses terror and brutality as a weapon. Their signature weapons are melee-focused, like lightning claws and chainglaives. I do find melee armies to be fun to play. I also really like some flexibility, and the ability to respond to mid-game events. Night Lord signature units like Raptors and Warp Talons provide just that, with their ability to Deep Strike and contest objectives or distract enemies.
Of course, I also really love huge blobs of chaff infantry. And, well, there’s Cultists for that. And, if I want to level them up a bit, there’s characters that can lead the Cultists. There are also Accursed Cultists, who are the punchier, mutated version of the generic cultists.
There are plenty of Chaos units that I really like, and not all of them are good. So, I did what any sane person would do, and I bought a bunch of stuff that I thought looked cool. Defiler? Yes, please. Obliterators? You bet. Heldrake? Hell yeah. Chosen? I chose them.
Of course, that isn’t a list. Or at least, not a coherent one. But, it is a cool collection of stuff to try out for fun. But what sort of list makes sense? Do I want to lean into one specific strategy? I tried that with Necrons and I didn’t like it. Do I try something that can handle lots of issues and has some flexibility? I like the thought of that.
Night Lords sneak wins by any means, and building a list that has that potential is very attractive.
Testing Options
With Chosen, Legionnaires, Nemesis Claw, and Raptors, I had a pretty good handle on killing infantry and holding objectives. The biggest weakness of my list was killing vehicles and monsters. There are some interesting options to take down something with high toughness.
While I have a Forgefiend, I primered it in pieces, and off its base, so that painting will be easier. Even if I believed it was the best choice, there’s no way I’d have it ready in time. Then there’s Obliterators. They have Deep Strike capability, a 4″ Move, Toughness 7, with 5 Wounds and a 2+ Save. Their best anti-vehicle weapon is a Melta 2, Strength 12, AP -3, 4 Damage weapon. It’s impressive, and while the Deep Strike means that the Obliterators can survive until their first round of shooting, they’re not likely to live too long once they get onto the table.
So, what about something bigger, tougher, and nastier? What about something with an 8″ Move, Toughness 10, with 14 Wounds and a 3+ Save? What if it had a Strength 12 Twin Lascannon, that hits at Strength 12, AP -3, for D6+1 Damage? And, what if it had Strength 16, AP -3, D6+1 Damage melee claws? Well, then I’d be running a Defiler.
The Defiler is awesome. When it hits, it kills things. But, it’s also massive, and difficult to hide. And, even with the 8″ move, getting it into charge range isn’t easy. For such a big target, it’s not as tough as I’d like, but it does have the cool factor. I like it, and I think I need to try it out much more before I make a final decision about where it might fit.
For now, I don’t have a great plan for anti-vehicle, and as I write this, we’re a week away from the 1k.
What I do have is a deadly pack of Chosen. Chosen are standard Chaos Legionaries, with better weapons and an extra wound. In melee, they can hit with 21 attacks, all AP -2, hitting on 3s. They have a pair of anti-infantry combi-weapons and standard bolt guns for softening up targets at range.
On top of their already impressive profile, I added a Master of Executions and a Dark Apostle. The Master of Executions hits like a truck, with a 5 attack, Strength 7, AP -2 axe, with Devastating Wounds. And, when he’s attacking a unit that’s below starting strength, he can reroll Hit rolls. The Dark Apostle can do a bit of melee himself, but his real strength is adding 1 to the Wound roll for melee attacks, and his 4+ Invulnerable save.
It’s a mighty brick of death, that in my test games was simply deleting units from the table. Ultimately, I found it fell to sustained damage from multiple Armigers targeting the unit, but it took multiple turns and drew their entire focus to wipe the unit off the board. In the future I might look at dropping the Dark Apostle for something else to cram this unit into a Rhino so they can get to where they do a bit more work.
While I don’t yet have a clear idea for what I’ll play, I do have a decent core of units with Chosen, Nemesis Claw, Legionaries, Cultists, and Raptors. It’s a big shift to embrace Chaos, especially so late in the run to the 1k, but I’d rather have fun losing than struggle with a playstyle that just isn’t clicking for me. The only thing left to decide is what I’m going to do for anti-vehicle. Good thing I have a week.
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