Trying to work out if Possessed combo's are CSM's next best combat threat at the Woking Wargames Tournament

So, after getting hooked on 40k tournaments in 9th it took much longer than expected to go to my first in 10th. Typically, GW saw my leave of absence and decided this was the time to finally make CSM top tier whilst I was off before presuming battering them down into the dregs now, I've returned (not paranoid I promise.) Still when the tournament popping up at my old local shop and I've slowly changed my mind after a lukewarm start to 10th - I still don't like some of the lack of interactivity strats (lone op strats and moving units away when you try and get close I really hoped was an index thing that would go away when Codex's started coming out) but it's certainly in a much healthier place than it was.  

CSM bring to the fight to Mortarion as DG prepare a counter attack.

I wasn't even sure I was going to take CSM - since returning to 40k (mostly in a series of low key casual games against my newly initiated into the hobby brother) I'd mostly settled on Guard of all things as the army I'd enjoyed playing most - probably because if their entirely opposite game plan to what I'd used in 9th so I didn't get annoyed at the new pile in rules. I'd started to consider how to teach my fun guard list (fun for me at least, several people had complained about how heavy mechanised guard wasn't fun to play against despite my attempts to make it as close range and aggressive as possible) for a Necron Meta - Bullgryn having a great profile into Wraiths and possibly a Doomhammer with its Melta 6 to deal with C'Tan. Whilst I probably was going to change to CSM anyway (why work out how to counter Wraith's exact profile when you could re-roll everything and chuck a billion damage at them) real life sadly came calling way with the incredibly sad passing of the founder of the competitive team I was part of and great friend Sid. Given his passion for competitive 40k and love of Spikey Knights I wanted to try and have a way to honour Sid, so the list started with 2 Chaos Knights Brigands as a little tribute to his memory. 

From there the list was a mix of things that were clearly good, and things that might be good if a data slate affected the others (this data slate concern is also why Chosen don't feature despite loving using them in 9th). After Brigands the unit I next wanted to try was Possessed, given they have a damage ceiling that's nutty if you go full combo and was a unit that might just be able to detonate Wraith and threaten C'tan with sheer weight of dice (C'Tan have pretty much perfect defensive profile for tanking Possessed but Lethal Hits/Devastating + Full rerolls still means they were taking a hefty chunk of damage.) It's also led to my next pick to try with both Possessed and the Knights, the Terminator Sorcery to pop down and give extra AP to in case of 2+ saves/AoC to potentially bring the Brigands Chaincannons up to AP3 combined with their datasheet rule.  

The rest of the list was mostly Chaos good stuff and utility - Dark Commune/Accursed Cultists need no introduction (I'd fallen in love with using these guys at tail end of 9th running 6 squads in Word Bearers to excellent effect in local games, even if 4 squads were proxied) neither does the Forgefiend. Having really enjoyed the Leman Russ Demolisher and with an eye on Forgefiend being potentially on the nerf table I added Nurgle Vindicator to try. Talons gave me some reach/deep Strike threat, Nurglings some action monkeys, Changeling brought all the jank that I'd hate to play against as its indicative of the problems with 10th but is clearly totally different when I run it for reasons that are clearly obvious. Bikers rounded out the list - I'd wanted something cheap/fast/semi durable for trading and these felt like the best fit over Cultists - I'd initially wanted Cultists for sticky objective with an extra Nurgling squad but given I tended to keep the Cultists sat on objective to protect against DS threats the Bikers extra durability/damage filled the role instead. Tournament was a standard 3 game RTT held at Woking Wargames shop with a nice mix of tournament regulars and new faces.

Game 1 - Mission A (Take and Hold, Chilling Rain, Search and Destroy) v Jamie Preece's Ultramarines Vanguard Spearhead. 

Secondaries for both players - Tactical. 

Pregame thoughts: Have fun? Changes to secondaries from 9th still something I'm adjusting too as best time to attack/defend/push the tempo (I still haven't tried fixed secondaries yet.) So, failing a secondary plan time to look at key threats - Aggressors were the obvious one able to infiltrate. I was able to deploy first to keep them out the centre LoS blocking terrain to force them to either go super aggressive in open or hide away on flank. With most of the firepower on the infantry in reserve Lancer was only real scary threat to worry about. Plan came together during deployment - get aggressive moving Cultists/Possessed wherever Aggressors weren't, keep my heavy armour safe via Nurgle and screen out Eradicators from getting into melta of tanks.  

CSM deployment - keeping the vehicles back apart from Vindicator which can protect itself via Nurgle strat. Without much anti-infantry shooting that can threaten turn one outside of aggressors to worry about rest of army can deploy on line aggressively. 

Nurglings near objective 4 are key - Aggressors either have to deploy in a (aptly) super aggressive spot and hope for first or hide away to avoid getting destroyed if they go second. 

UM deployment - lots of plasma and melta in reserve.

UM win first turn and immediately the Aggressors take out the annoying Nurglings.

Some cautious advances into the middle as UM mostly hang back.

Chaos charge up in response - Possessed make short work of infiltrators - on the left of shot the Accursed Cultists burn advance and charge to try to get to the others who run away 6 causing the Cultists to fail the charge.

Cultists in shot hang away from objective 4 (photo after Aggressors move), whilst Knights hide behind them to ensure Eradictors can't get within melta range when they come on. 

Chaos have several tough units on objective to UM go all in to dislodge them. 

At the North side Hellblasters unleash a volley into the Cultists who take the hit exceedingly well. 

Talons take advantage of a gap to Rapid Ingress into UM backfield and threaten their home objective.

Aggressors unleash a barrage into the Cultists who sacrifice the ones closest to ensure Aggressors can't charge in whilst the Eradicators combined shooting into the Knights results in 2 damage. 

Inceptors deepstrike close to Possessed and kill 3, so Ventris charges in with a Infiltrator squad. They lose 2, but die horribly in return to give Chaos a early lead on primary. 

Warp Talons come in to support Possessed and repulse UM from the centre

Forgefiend lines up the Aggressors, unleashes its full combo and kills all 6 of them. Knights take out the Apothecary and only a CP re-roll saves Calgar from a melta cannon. Warp Talons descend upon the Chapter master

UM take an absolute battering on middle/bottom right. Calgar wins his fight against the Talons but only one Eradicator and Inceptor survive the carnage. 

Its slightly better, but equally dire up on the North left flank as Cultists surround the Hellblasters and butcher most of them.

UM try to recover some tempo, points is still close but they've suffered a body blow on attrition.

Callidus teleports across the table to attack the Changling, presumably performing its favourite trick of turning into the Changling who in turn, turns into the Callidus. Callidus makes the charge, but the Changelings tricky stops it from attacking the trickster. 

My Terminator sorcerer came down last turn to try and put -1 AP on Calgars unit. It failed to use its ability and Calgar smashed him to pieces in response but its pretty much the only bright spot for UM

Knight moves into the middle as Possessed prepare to go upfield.

Cultists clear the left flank, regenerating about as many as they lose.

Last bastion of UM's hold out/hide at the back as CSM take control of the field. 

Final Score - CSM win 98 - Ultramarines 57 

Postgame thoughts - lovely way to return to 40k tournaments, Jamie and I had played a couple of times before (more in AoS than in 40k) and had been on the same 40k team when I ran the local league. The Marines went in hard turn 2 and it was rather scary when they did but when they mostly bounced due to Accursed Cultists defences and a mix of high/low rolling in my favour I could counterattack with impunity. Not great tactical nuance from me, but brutality from dice is a great substitute. 

Game 2 - Mission G (Sites of Power, Chilling Rain, Hammer and Anvil) v Jason Evan's World Eaters 

Secondaries for both players - Tactical 

Pregame thoughts: So, I had great tools to stop WE with Nurglings able to infiltrate up and stop WE are scouting up field and both sides had equally brutal combat. Given I had much better shooting there were two factors to consider - how could I stop/disrupt WE charges and how did I deal with Angron. The plan was mostly to ignore Angron, let him murder and unit and focus on the other WE stuff but my opponent who was at his first 40k tournament put him in deep strike and deployed his WE in a super defensive position at the back of the table. The scouting units were also on one side so instead of a defensive posture I could put one Nurgling unit in front of them and deploy aggressively on the line. My opponent was at his first 40k tournament and perhaps were overly worried about my early threats. 

WE deployment with lots of units hiding at the back well behind the deployment line.

Nurglings stop the Eightbound from moving upfield as they slightly awkwardly shuffle to the side.

CSM win first turn roll - outside of a few Knight Havoc launcher potshots and a bit of chip damage into a rhino its just a case of moving up onto objectives

Screening with Nurglings still to ensure any long bomb WE charges can't connect with a juicy target.

WE start to move upfield, the Rhino is carrying Jackals. Eightbound charge into Nurglings on objective 2 - no prizes for guessing who wins the fight.

Possessed counter attack into their Khornate bretheren and prepare to show them what re-rolls and devastating wounds can do.

Eightbound don't even get a chance to roll a save. Khorne is the real winner here. 

CSM shooting takes out most of the second wave, taking out with only the Maulerfiend in a realistic position to take the fight to CSM. 

For the stuff off the table - from Left of shot to Angron is both sides reserves. Right of Angron is all dead WE stuff. Outside of 3 Nurglings CSM haven't taken any damage in return. 

Changling leaves the objective in my backfield and a Knight takes its place (meaning it has no targets) but it ensures no space for WE reserves to DS behind me.  

Maulerfiend hurls itself into the Possessed and a Bezerker squad at top of shot shouts its praises to Khorne to turbo boost up the table. 

Angron needs to launch an incredible counter attack to turn the tide. He makes his charge from DS and kills around 5 Cultists, 3 of whom regenerate in my turn and they deal around 6 wounds back. 

In CSM turn Angron meets with a Meltagun to the face - half the guns lined up at Angron don't even get the chance to shoot him as WE collapse. 

Possessed go upfield hunting prey as Warp Talons launch into Bezerkers after they have been softened up (WE terminators deep struck near them and suffered a Forgefiend to the face in CSM shooting phase.)

By end of CSM turn WE are left with a single Bezerker and the Lord on Juggernaut (plus potential for Angron respawning.)

Overview of battlefield as CSM reign supreme over their Khorne brethren. 

Final Result CSM Win 100-18 

Postgame thoughts - No real enjoyment from this one, it was brutal in a way that wasn't fun. My opponent and I had a chat after the game about what could have been done better (more aggression, using terrain better, deployment mistakes, Angron starting on table to push me back as key points) and thankfully took the game in good spirts. Otherwise, what felt like what was probably a naturally decent match up given in my favour given the Nurglings anyway became just a slaughter.  

Couple of pics below of the other games going on - Nicolas's Blood Angels went on to win the tournament

If I was playing Necrons, this would probably be the profile picture with C'Tan surrounding UM.

Game 3 - Mission O (Vital Ground, Chilling Rain, Crucible of Battle) v Anthony Donaldson's Death Guard.  

Warhammer 40k app is great for many things, but uploads from Battlescribe into BCP are much cleaner to upload when short.

My secondaries Tactical (Considered Fixed for first time with Bring it Down and either Cleanse/Teleport Homers/Storm Hostile but decided to be lazy and go for Tactical again.) 

DG Secondaries - Deploy Teleport Homer, Storm Hostile Objective. 

Pregame thoughts - Mostly happy I wasn't playing Tau having just dodged them in the previous round as well, much prefer a game with more combat (nothing against the player to confirm.) Whilst not a thought as such should note at this stage, we played the mission wrong as the centre objective should have gone - we (as well as several others initially) missed this and by the time we realised we felt it was easier to continue playing with the extra objective (TO was aware and had no objection.) That aside I felt this was going to be decent match up - I probably hit harder than DG with my rerolls/pact even if they had the durability edge and probably Speed with the Drones and Blight Haulers. Plan was to hide, let DG make the first move (with Storm Hostile and Deploy Teleport they were going to have to commit first) and try and counterattack. 

DG deployment, selfishly deploying Mortarion out of range of my guns.

DG don't have much long range anti-infantry shooting (outside of the excellent Mortars who don't care were I am) so vehicles hide whilst infantry deploys on the line.

DG win turn one and start to move upfield

Drones start to take position

Warp Talons lose a couple to Mortar fire and in CSM turn Cultists move up and take out both Drones.

Possessed hide behind wall ready to pounce as most of my vehicles hide, waiting for DG Knights to arrive from reserve before they show themself. 

Mortarion leads the DG charge into the middle. 

DG start to swam the middle needing to pump a hefty amount of damage into the middle Cultist squad. By the end of the turn only the Cult Demagogue remains from the squad. 

DG have commited hard and CSM are in a great position to counter attack. I go hard into Morty and it..yeah it goes badly wrong. Despite shooting every gun of note into him a pretty awful set of rolls results in him only taking 3 damage and the Possessed equally bounce off him in combat. The only upside is the Accursed Cultist blob up top taking out a Knight and tagging the other which ends up stopping it shooting.

My Nurglings arrive in DG backfield as they prepare to counter my counter attack with my army now exposed. 

Possessed can deal out plenty of damage but can't take it to near the same level as DG armour swarms around them.

Both sides are fully committed but DG shooting is about to inflict a heavy toll.

I'm aware a huge amount of damage is coming my way to my Warp Talons rapid ingress to present another target and threaten DG home objective.

DG screen out the south right objective with their Nurglings.

DG decimate CSM's midfield - Morty, Typhus and a Drone take out all bar one of the Possessed who clings on with a single wound, only 2 members of the Dark Commune remains from the Accursed Cultist squad up top and a Knight melts from the firepower from theBlight-Haulers. 

Its CSM's turn to take a battering. Score is close so focus switches from damage to trying to deny every point. I can't retake the middle so aim is to try and hold my top left objective and throw what I can at the solo knight on the bottom right and pray for a miracle. 

CSM still have some hefty firepower up top to be fair as I try and slow DG advance. I severely damage both tanks but when Forgefiend fails for second turn in a row to do any damage (other than to itself) they both survived and I'm in real trouble.

Possessed falls back to try and threaten Right at least a bit - I consider allowing him to fall back and charge and going for full-rerolls into the knight but a longish charge and threat of overwatch persuades me not to (CP was used on Forgefiend instead trying to pick up Bring it Down points.) The Bikers and my Terminator Sorcerer (just out of shot near my phone) try long bomb charges but can't get in. 

Talons took a battering from Mortars last turn but survive long enough to take DG's objective and Nurglings look on cheering and putting down a teleport homer. 

I'm desperate to kill a PBC at this stage as its worth 4 Bring it down points, and with 3 wounds left on it I tank shock it with my Vindicator but only manage a wound. Talons manage another as it clings to life. 

Overview of Battlefield going into DG turn.

With the middle secure Mortarion prepares to take CSM left flank

See that 2? Technically a dark Commune member is there that we both forgot about until we were clearing the table. That aside DG have control of the middle. 

Its not great for my home objective security either as a Blight Hauler moves up to place a beacon.

CSM turn - my terminator Sorcerer channels his secret inner Khorne Daemon and unleashes everything he has into the Knight taking it down to 3 wounds.

Mortarion after killing my Vindicator had parked himself on my objective and consolidated into my Knight that had clung to life on 2/3 wounds. I auto pass the bravery check on him to allow him to fall back without risk and deny Moration the point for a turn. The Forgefiend goes full combo again to take out the Blight Hauler threatening my objective to the South of Shot.

DG turn 5 - they clear everything threatening on the left side of the table with only Nurglings at top of shot and Changling hiding in South ruin alive for CSM.

In DG turn the Knight had fallen back to allow the PBC to shoot the Sorcerer only for Nurgle to deny PBCs the change to shoot the caster. In CSM turn after 3 separate chances to hurt himself (Hazard and pact rolls in combat and shooting) the Sorcerer manages to overcome the Knight.

A single CSM Nurgling clings to life - I had 6 models left in the 4 quaters with a combined 2 OC at the end but was at least able to score Engage on all Fronts with them.

DG win 74-71 

Postgame thoughts - A real classic game, and whilst I'm certainly a competitive person that enjoys winning but I loved the game with all its twists and turns - even with a bit of false hope when we thought me destroying the Knight at the end would result in a draw rather than loss it was still my favourite game of the edition so far and really got me buzzing as I tried and almost manged to find a way to come back from a pretty bleak position. The game had threatened to start so well but bouncing of Morty turn 2 was game ending from an attrition perspective. Whilst decision making wasn't perfect (possibly some over aggresive targets at times in particular) I was really happy with how I scrapped from behind and identified what I had to do to stop DG (throw every scrape at the Knight on the objective and hope) even if I fell just short in the end - some quick maths at the end had DG with about 900+ points v 200ish of CSM so was happy with how close the score was.

Really good end to a wonderful tournament as I finished third, Anthony finished second going undefeated with his DG and Nicolas's Blood Angels won the event.

Might have lost the last game but still managed to take home a trophy at least!

As for the list well the balance dataslate is due imminently. Despite the lists name Accursed Cultists are clearly too good and over shadow every other CSM combat unit that isn't called Chosen. I don't think either need a big nerf - its more the Undivided Strat that needs a change more than them I think (otherwise your just playing hot potato with what's the most effective CSM unit that abuses the strat.)

Moving on the big thing I wanted to learn was how effective were Possessed as the next best CSM combat unit in a post dataslate world and did the Terminator Sorcerer combo with them/Cultists/Knights to be a force in their own right. Possessed damage was awesome, but they felt expensive for their resilience. If Necrons in particular are a force in post dataslate I think they have a place as a point and delete unit of 10, otherwise might look at other options or consider a Master of Possession to at least give them a FNP which is incredibly valuable against the 3 damage weapons that chewed threw them in game 3 in particular (Typhus almost solo'd them when he charged.) Otherwise, it depends on what happens with AC/Chosen nerfs. What's slightly annoying is 5 feels too few and 10 to many, if you could take 7/8 of them I think they would fit nicely into a package that had enough damage and wasn't too expensive, whereas 5 feels like they are a nasty overwatch from not being useful and 10 feels like a over commitment but there's not a easy work around to that.

As for Terminator Sorcerer and Knights? Both good, but side grades at best. Knights were certainly really good in there own right, but I think CSM aren't lacking for damage and I'd rather have Vindicators/Oblits over them and the extra synergy with rest of list. If I did have Knights again as allies I'd look to the cheaper Karnivore as a trade piece - a nice fast durable high OC piece that can start trading wars better than the 250 point AC bricks that can then be used to counter attack whatever kills the Karnivore (Venomcrawlers probably have the same role but much less combat threat, I'd love to have the DG Drones for this role as well.) The Sorcerer was a bit of a hero in game 3, but that was just as a result of hitting things with a stick very hard rather than anything else - he felt unnecessary to making Possessed work but if CSM's damage came down (or possibly in a world were 3x5 Slaanesh Possessed were more valuable for speed than pure damage and needed a bit of extra punch) I'd consider him again.

I'd consider dropping a Warp Talon unit if the Meta stays this tank heavy as well - one unit Rapid Ingressing was great, the other never felt like it contributed much. They are a good unit though and maybe if I'd played Eldar/Sisters/Nid swarms the Talons would have left more of an impression - they've just felt a bit fragile in overwatch/indirect world.

Was a really fun time dipping toes back into competitive 40k after 9 months out, Woking Wargames shops was a lovely venue to play at as well and looking forward to their next event I can attend. Won't be so long until next tournament as I'm booked to go to Beachhead Brawl in a couple of weekends and really looking forward to trying that post-dataslate!