Greetings! Bring the GUNS!

Greetings Chaotic allies, I am one of three chaos gamers - and good mates - who have decided to bring our knowledge (or my lack of knowledge) to the internet. My name is John and I have been playing 40K for around 10 years playing Chaos Space Marines from Codex 3.5 through to 6. Throughout that time I have grown as a player entering a few tournaments and joining gaming clubs, where I met my fellow bloggers over the battle field. For my first ever Blog for chaos I have decided upon a shooty subject. Chaos guns.


It would seem a bit odd that I am talking about guns in Chaos Marines, why not talk about the Axe of 'Kill absolutely everything being completely mental'? Well, we all should know that that weapon is absolutely fantastic, and it should be held quiet high in regards to thing to choose for a chaos lord. However, Chaos marines have never really been a 'gun line' army, having a massive variety of close combat weapons, characters, units and combos. Chaos Marines seem to itch to run across the board, and in the current meta, gunning down your opponents seems to chop them up very quickly.
So what happens if we sit back?

Well, what I am going to do is go through our shooty weapon options - highest strength going down -  through the significant guns and options that you would want to stick into a army to plink away at your opponents, taking into consideration what you want enemy units you want to delete from the board. With high toughness MC's, armour 13 Necron walls, and Land Raiders rolling around everywhere, we need to do something about it! Here we go!

Strength 10

Demolisher Cannon

Ok, only one weapon for our first slot, and the only strength 10 weapon we have access to that has range. This weapon sits on a standard Vindicator at 120 points. Seems good yes? Wrong. Being only 24" range, you are matching boltguns with how far you can shoot, also with a front armour of 13, you are still vulnerable to being destroyed or denied your shooting, and every time you place one on the table, your enemy is going to be eying it up to destroy early game. Also if your opponent does a 2" spread on all his troops, you have a max hit of 5 models under a template (that is with an awesome scatter) it is a nice tank and a good weapon, but unfortunately it fails to make the cut.

Strength 9

Lascannon

Again, only one ranged weapon in this slot, being also the only S9 weapon in the book. This weapon is one of my own favorite heavy weapons. Firstly it's strength is high enough to take out Land Raiders and give Armour 13 walls a bad time, also it forced the Wraith Knight and the Rip Tide to think twice about how tough they are. Secondly, the AP of the weapon +1 to all your penetrating hit roles, making 1 in 3 pens deadly to your enemies tanks, it also takes out all infantry ignoring every armour save on the board. Being 48" range, this weapon can claim a lot of board control, in a third of your games (Dawn of War set up) you can deploy directly across your board edge and shoot anything on the board across from you. Brilliant! Finally, the range of units which can buy this gun is quiet large. It can be taken on: Chosen, Havocs, Marines, Helbrute, Oblitorators, Predators, Land Raiders, and Defiler. Spamming this weapon is easy, getting around 10 of these in a 1850 list should be no problem, and it gives your opponent a hard time. so why not do it?

Strength 8

Blastermaster
Krak Missile
Battle Cannon
Hades Autocannon
Ectoplasma Cannon
Multi-Melta
Melta-gun

Oh my! A lot of guns in strength 8, rolling from AP2 to AP4 and ranges from 72" to 12" so lets start with the 'No' guns. Multi-Melta, Melta gun, Ectoplasma Cannon, Hades Autocannon, Battle Cannon. OK thats almost all of them, but there is a good reason to each. Both melta guns and the Ectoplasma both lack range, also the Cannon and Multi-melta both sit on an average AV12 tank, and cannot be taken by troops, or a harder vehicle, also the range of these guns is 12" or 24" so again, we are not in range of much. Yes, we can move and shoot these weapons giving us a 30" shot instead, but your a weak vehicle, easy to pick off early and give away first blood so bye bye to you. Ok i shall give melta guns here and there to troop squads for if the gritty warfare happens up close, but not too many. Hades Autocannons, well where to begin? 4 Shots, 48" S8, why the heck did i say no? well the gun should be a yes, in fact in my book it is. The reason it is a resounding no is because of the only two units that can heft the gun. Heldrakes and Forge Fiends. First you will always have baleflames on drakes (I shall get to them in S6) and Forge Fiends are only BS3, so half your shots are missing! going along with the fact it's around the size of a Raider, 175 points and only Armour 12. you are not going to last. Sorry, but if you could be equiped to terminators, or stuck on a dreadnaught that can play 'hide' a bit, then I'd smatter them everywhere, but for now it is an unfortunate upset.
Battle Cannon, again this should be a yes, and I want it to be. Who doesn't want a S8 AP3 large Blast smashing marines off the table 72" away? unfortunately the same problem as above, you are equipped to a tank that is too expensive, and doesn't know what it is for. Also 195 points for AV12 BS3? no thank you, I am not going to mention the 2" spread, but yeah, you get my drift.

On to the Yes's! First the Blastermaster, ok the Single Frequency shot to be precise, is brutal. S8 AP3 48" range, sounds great! Blast, ignores cover, pinning! Oh my, Marry Me! These little babies churn out more kills than any battle cannon can, why? because who expects them to be a blast weapon? They sit the same distance as your lascannons, with -1S and AP doesn't make them the best for nailing tanks, but MC's, hordes and multi wound T4's its a gold mine! With the strength value and AP you can kill Necron Wraiths, Un-named characters, crisis suits in one shot, and lots and lots of marines. The ignore cover makes a grand show of messing up enemy fortifications, agus walls become useless, so does sitting atop a bastion, not much can survive these, and it doesn't stop there. Pinning, of course someone you hit with one of these is going to die, now take a pinning check. Good you have to stay where you are whilst I shoot you again with this next turn! Muhahaha. These guns can be only purchased with Noise Marines or Emperors Children if you want to do this properly, which is unfortunately only 1 unit. However, fearless, scoring (when a lord has MoS, which is a must if using these) and can carry a Blastermaster for every 5 men in a squad for 125 points. Not bad at all!

It's now seemingly little brother the krak missile seems quiet redundant. However, where the BM can only be hefted by a single squad, the krak missile has a few units they can be displaced into, havocs and helbrutes being the main title holders, also available in chosen and marine squads, this gun is easy to displace around your army.

Strength 7

Reaper Autocannon
Autocannon
Plasma Cannon
Plasma Gun
Plasma Pistol

Not many guns in this segment, and we are dropping into the territory of not hurting MC's, Landraiders or AV 13 walls as much or at all. So the No's for this list is a quick one. Plasma Pistol, Reaper Autocannon. Ok, the pistol is just easy, you shoot once, then your champion gets unkindness done to him in a challenge, 15 points well spent? 12" range says no. The Reaper Autocannon is a odd weapon as it can only go on terminators or Brutes, it's going to be a rare weapon you see anyway. Being 25 points for a terminator, it doesn't seem worth it S7 AP4 36" with 2 shots twin linked is a bit of a waste, how about 5 combi plasma's deep striking? its the same points cost...
However, there is a mid yes to stick this gun on a helbrute, they don't ever want to get close to anything and access to lots of high strength guns, its right down the brutes ally. But are you going to take a Brute?
To the Yes brigade, Autocannons. Like the reaper but 48" range and no twin linked, sounds ok. This weapon can however be given to literally everything, Marines, Chosen, Predators, Havoc's. meaning spam spam spam... no haha! it's easy to get it into your army, and only 10 points a pop on a marine.
Plasma Cannons. These used to be the glory in 5th, with lash prince and pop! everything dead. Now it's a little harder, being only allowed on Oblits and Brutes, it's a very elitist weapon. S7 AP2 Blast 36" is all good, but the guys hefting the weapon can be sniped quiet easy, but it makes the cut.
Finally the plasma gun, now I know what you are thinking. "Wait 24", you said it's not good enough!" yes yes yes, I did, but lets change it to Combi-plasma, now it's totally worth it! deep striking terminators with these babies are going to put a lot of pain into your opponent, landing with 5 of them within 12" gives you 10 S7 AP2 shots, so around 5-8 dead TEQ's upon arrival. Lets not forget we can have up to 10 of these, and you have them on Terminators, so they arn't going to die anytime soon. Good for late game sweeping the back board and clearing off objectives! good!

Strength 6

Bale Flame
Assault Cannon

Bale Flamer. Do I need to say anything but YES!

Assault Cannon, ok a confusing one. But again I would say yes. Why? they are only allowed on Oblits, and they have all the other good weapons we can use long range that we want. Also a group of 3 churns out 12 S6 AP4 Rending Shots in a turn, ouchy! This gun buffs all your baby bolters, and is good for taking down hordes, or removing that last wound off the MC thats got a little close for cumfort, also a sneaky bottom shot on a flier can always be appreciated!

Strength 5

Doom Siren
Heavy Bolter
Heavy Flamer
Havoc Missiles

Ok now we have dropped out of the big guns and these are just a few honorable mentions in this Strength category. The No goes out to the Havoc Missile, waste of ink. The honorable mentions go to all the rest. Doom Sirens are good for the last sacrificial play, if needed. S5 AP3 template, your killing lots of things that want to get close, and wall of death always allows its use (if champy is still alive) also ignoring cover, it hurts anyone who decides to turbo boost into you, bye bye biker armies.
Heavy Bolter. S5 AP3 3 shots 36" ok, these are more or less your 'kill the horde' guns, with lots of bullets between them and lots of units ready to take them, they make nice supporting options with high enough strength to pick on MC's if you want.
Heavy flamer. Ok this only goes for the Oblits and Brutes, and again sacrificial game play, if you are trying to remove someone close by, or have done an Oblit drop on enemy objectives, burning out small low armour save units cannot be easier, Oblits come with this weapon as standard, so happy burning.
The Brute on the other hand, will be trying to keep a troops unit alive, preferably near an objective, whilst sacrificing itself to guns and combat, so you can win. I know, the Brute has a place in the game! so a heavy flamer will go nicely if something gets through your gun line, if they do you can always hold them by charging it's sorry arse into them holding them till the game ends. But hey, why not burn them first?

Hope my first blog goes down well! Might put up an example army list next blog, as I need to be somewhere soon! Happy murdering and plundering!