Editing Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Kill Team(8E) Chaos (section)

===SotA Strategies===
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
'''SotA Strategies:'''
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
The Servants of the Abyss are one of the unorthodox teams in Kill Team, alongside the Gellerpox Infected, the Elucidian Starstriders and the Kroot. This means they will have access to way less units than the rest of the teams, considering they can drink from a massive pool of models and you have only exclusive boxed ones (and few kroot boxes). This will be especially bad in Commanders and Elite battles, where you will be outmanouvered to hell and back with little to no efford. That and they will have more stratagems and faction atributes, whereas you are still waiting for an update. So we're going to focus on vanilla first, and then a quick view of the commander.

First off, we have the Black Legionnaire, a fancier way to say Chaos Space Marine. It's the basic marine in everything, with the exact same stats the vanilla marines get, Death to the False Emperor, and that's it. The Black Legionnaire has an ummovable weapon loadout, boltgun, boltpistol and grenades. This immediately makes it the worst marines in the whole game, considering we don't have Legionnaire Gunners or access to dark relics. No invuilnerable saves, no extra wounds, no alternatives for weaponry... The bare bones is what you get. Their strenghts come from the bonuses they offer and gain from the grunts they have around them. All non-astartes units in this team gets the Servants of the Abyss ability, re-rolling morale if they are at 6" from a marine. You also have the Expendable Minions stratagem, making you use a meatshield at 1" of the marine to take a wound for him, perfect for that plasma that would cripple and/or kill the marine. With that said, SotA units are not gretchins, they are considerably more expensive. The best units to do this are the regular traitor guardsmen at 5p each, but with negavolt cultists and especially the psykers it won't be worth it. To be fair, this is pretty there to save the leader from an early death, and from avoiding massive panics and morale fails during the latter parts of the game. 

Negavolt Cultist are traitor electropriests. Melee only, this is the best melee unit in your team, and pretty much the best in the whole list (Chaos Lord notwithstanding). A constant 5++ will cover a decent amount of damage, and acces to 3A with the electrogoads (S+2, each 6+ hit roll gets two extra attacks) could hurt even heavily armoured units due to sheer amount of attacks, especially with the zealot/combat especiality, and with the possibility of a mortal wound after charging with the Voltageist Field, you want this guys to charge as much as possible. With that said, you have to keep them alive before that. 5++ aside, they are not particularly tough, T3 W1 is not particularly impressive. Using the Fully Charged stratagem will improve their invuilnerable saves in one, so moving them in groups is a good idea. Spam attacks are dangerous for them, so try to choose wisely their objectives and movement patterns. Also, try to not throw them at units that can tank a lot of wounds, because they will pretty much be able to hit back hard (unless you get really lucky and manage to make 4-5 wounds in one attack. As of the KT Annual 2019, [[fail|there is a limit of four negavolts per team]]. 

Rogue Psykers are the more expensive units of the bunch. A strong unit overall, a SotA list should have one and no more, considering a single Rogue Psyker will take 20/100 points on a vanilla list. Once again, one single loadout, the chaos stave and a laspistol. The laspistol is an afterthought, so let's focus on the stave. Two base attacks of S3 AP-1 D3 damage, if it hits, it will be rather strong. Even considering how squishy it is, W4 means it could actually do an emergency charge if it needs to, and have a decent chance of killing something big. But where you want this guy is at a distance, throwing psybolts to units with high armour saves. Now, this psyker works differently than regular psykers. This suffers perils of the warp at doubles, so instead of risking head explosion at 2D6 rolls of 2 or 12, it has much bigger chances of hurting itself, around 6/21 times (2/7 times). You can always re-roll ones, so at least you'll have a decent chance of always reaching the 5+ needed for the psybolt. A specialist rogue psyker should be veteran, so it never gets affected by either wounds or leadership tests (because really, what else? Zealot is too risky for it, considering the enemy will shoot at it frequently, and there are no really poweful shooting weapons at all that needs the Communications speciality). Keep Jimmy Neutron protected and in a cover position that allows it to see one or two big priority targers, but hidden from most spam units. 

Now with the regular humans. Traitor guardsmen are pretty much what you expect from regular GEQ, minus loadout variety. Much better at melee and close range than long distances, they have little to no answer to weapons like the AdMech's Galvanic Rifle or something with more than 30" range. The best gun with +20" they have is the '''[[lasgun]]''', and everyone knows that shooting them at the longest possible setting is inviting trouble. Seriously, at Rapid Fire 1, BS4+ of the guardsmen, and -1 penalties for distance and another posssible -1 for cover, and you pretty much fail every time. And considering it's a single S3 AP0 shot, there will be times when all the lasguns in the world do nothing. So put them to run, preferibly close to the Black Legionnaires in case of them needing a quick meatshield. The Traitor Sargent gets extra leadership and a chainsword, but what you really want in melee are the goats. Chaos Beastman are frightening against GEQ in melee due to their sheer amount of attacks. On charge, they make 3 attacks of S5, though no AP due to them having just a regular chainsword. Still, in terms of melee potential, this takes backstage to the negavolt guys, considering they have by default 3 Attacks, plus the other effects (5/4++, extra attacks with hit roll of 6+, 1/6 mortal wound after charging...). Only there if you can't fit anything else in your team. Lastly, the guardsmen gunners are there for the flamers. That's it. The other option is lasgun + grenades, and if you're close enough for the grenades, you are close enough to use the flamer. Regular flamer, D6 attacks, 4S AP0, you know what it does. Only there to support melee units in case they are charged first or they charge at the flamers as the tiniest distraction carnifex ever. 

The last update for the SotA list is the Cultist of the Abyss. And they are terrible. Almost 100% redundant, they have almost the exact same stats as the traitor guardsmen and cost the same, but with 6+ save instead of 5+. They have access to krak grenades, <s>sure, but with such low saves and mediocre BS, you will be better off with regular frag grenades</s> <span style='color:red>Krak grenades are still better unless you're splitting shots</span>. And if you want meatshields, the traitor guardsmen might survive the odd 0-1 AP shot. At least the CotA Gunner has access to the grenade launcher, which gives the team some needed long range firepower, so that's the one you might pick up. The Cultist Champion has access to krak grenades over the traitor sergeant, but with its slightly higher cost and a worse save, why bother? If you want cultist melee power, why not choose the beastmen instead, or even better, the negavolts? <span style='color:red> Why take him over a Guard Sarge or Beastman? Because he carries 12" heavy stubber equivalent and you shouldn't be charging any of those models, into combat if they're your leader as its a sure way to quickly lose your CP generation. </span>  

Finally, we reach the commander: Obsidius Mallex, the Chaos Lord. By far the tankiest, strongest unit in the whole army, this won't be able to be played outside of Elites/Commanders games, costing around 125p. This is a monster in both short range combat and CQC, with BS2+ and WS2+. The plasma pistol alone will do a lot of damage without overcharging (be ABSOLUTELY CAREFUL with the overcharge, you don't want a 125p unit to kill itself!!) but the real beauty is the thunder hammer. 4 attacks plus the extra ones from Death to the False Emperor of BS3+ (BS2-1) Sx2 AP-3 and 3D per hit, this fucker was made to kill other commanders, especially considering it can reroll failed hits when targetting a commander. Combine that with 3+/4++ and hardy constitutions (if it gets a wound, rolla D6, and ignores the wound when 6+), and ignoring the first flesh wound thanks to it being an astartes. Seriously, this guy could give CUSTODES a run for their money. In fact, let's do a quick comparison: Obsidius Mallex vs Shield Captain with Melee-focused Storm Shield and Guardian Spear!

*If Mallex attacks first:
**Using the hammer, 4 attacks of BS3+, rerolling the failures. Only 2/6 chances of missing, and out of them, you repeat them, so pretty much you have 3 attacks guaranteed. Also, Death to the false emperor offers extra attacks at 6+, so chances of getting at least one 6+ are 4/6. 
**The attacks that enter are S8 (S4x2), so the attacks will enter at 3+ (2+ if you use the veterans of the long war stratagem). Wounding at 2+ to a Custodes is really freaking good.
**After that, the Custodes will always ignore AP-3 due to its own invuilnerable of 3+ with the shield. So with a bit of luck, at least one attack enters.
**With two that enter, automatic 3 wounds per hit is amazing, killing it instantly (if it doesn't get a lucky flesh wound roll).
*** A Shield Captain with Fortitude will save successful wounds with 6+, so that might make it extra chuncky. Still, Leaving the Captain with 1-2 wounds after a single attack is amazing. 

*If the melee Custodes attacks first:
**6 attacks of WS2+ means that there is 5/6 chances of all dice getting in. 
**S5 vs T4 means that the attacks will wound at 3/6. 
**The AP-3 will be ignoured in favour of the 4++ of Mallex, giving each attack 1/2 chances of wounding. Considering all that, an attack will have a 10/36 chances of getting in, so a bit less than 1/3. So let's say 2/3 will surely get in.
**After that, each wound will do a D3 damage. If you're lucky, you won't have to deal with more than 4 wounds.
**After that, the toughness specialism means that it will ignore a wound on a 6+, giving it plenty of chances of actually surviving a fighting round with a Custodes. 

For a random Chaos Lord, the match is pretty good, and if it is that good against Custodes, imagine how it will be against lesser units. This also means that any other army will focus on it. Badly. Which turns him into an excellent distraction carnifex, that could strike fear into the enemy by stomping one terminator or two on the way. While most of them are shooting at the monster with the hammer, the rest can just run and reach melee in a turn or two. However, considering how squishy the rest are, they might just try to kill everyone else to leave the commander alone and win by occupying more space in the map.

Finally, there's the Cultist Firebrand, the Commander of the Cultists of the Abyss. For 70p, it's quite overcosted, considering it's just a somewhat tough flamethrower user. Its hellfire flamethrower is 8", Assault D6, S5 -1 AP 2D. That D6 attacks and 2D per hit might seem fine, but you have to get close to the enemy to use it. And considering the enemy will know exactly what you want to do and probably be able to counter it quite well, it's not going to last on the tabletop. No invul save and being basically harmless from more than 8", it is going to die sooner than later. And with only 3W... And to top it all, it has worse morale than the traitor guardsmen, so it is very susceptive to panic. The only good thing for this model is as a charge repellent, because of its ability of dealing mortal wounds on a 5+ after its death. That will certainly make enemy units not to charge it, but if its closer to your own dudes, its' you the one who'll be eating warp fire.
<span style='color:red>Counter point to the above - SotA have no shortage of bodies to use Look Out Sir! with, and the Hellfire Torch kills MEQs almost as well as a supercharged plasma gun at BS2+ and averages more damage per shot than a meltagun at 6" in a gamemode where you're guaranteed to run into multiwound models. Still overpriced compared to other factions, but at least its cheaper than Mallex which means you can fit more negavolts in missions with mandatory commanders.</span>

Overall, the list is not designed for competitive play. Outside of the monster that is the Chaos Lord, the units are simply too weak and inflexible to be reliable. They work better in tight and close spaces, which makes sense seeing that they are meant to be in a Blackstone Fortress. Still, as an alternative to the CSM team, I feel this should be better. I understand the list has to adapt to the Blackstone Fortress box, but now that most of those units are being released separately, GW should re-work this. Also, i haven't tried them on Arena, but they are probably slightly better there. 
Finally, Traitor commissars. 
The cheapest commander we can get at 26pts. A decent force multiplier for toyr traitor guard by giving a traitor guardsman +2 advance and charge rolls a d they get to use his leadership. Being so cheap means more beastmen and negavolts while he synergizes well with having a ogyrn to take the hits for him. This guy is made for front line work woth his fist and bolt pistol and is flexible with the command traits he can take. 
</div>
</div>
<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">
'''Counterplay:'''
<div class="mw-collapsible-content">
Honestly, the best way to deal with them is to just spam from a distance. Most armies have enough long range weaponry to deal with them, and considering the overal low toughness of the team, it's not difficult to wipe them out. Dark Legionnaires are just basic marines, so everyone will have had developed a way to deal with them, either in melee or at a distance. Teams like AdMech, Imperial Guard, Space Marines, DeathWatch, Grey Knights, Necrons... Pretty much all of them have enough firepower to deal with the marines first and just shoot at the rest until they fall back. Units like the negavolts and the psyker are priority targets. If you see a line of cultists charging at you, shoot as many spam as possible to break it before it reaches you. That is dangerous if it ever reaches melee. Everything that has at least 3-5 attacks should at least wound them. After that, take into account that their melee is mostly high attacks with low AP, so sturdier units can take the damage and fight back. Also, against a smart Tau player, they pretty much won't ever EVER win. Unless it gets really lucky with the invul saves. 

In Commanders/Elites, though, the strategy changes. Mortal wounds should focus on Malleux as soon as possible, so first send the snipers to deal with the psyker covering it, then full focus on malleux. maybe leave one or two heavies to distract the big guy, while everyone else deals with the rest of the mob. Don't fall for the carnifex in the room. Keep the commander away from melee against it, use to clean the rest of the team first and take it out through demoralizing everyone. Again, pretty much everyone can do this effectively now, but some teams will have harder times than others. Admech and IG will need to spam tons of plasma against it, whereas everyone else will have bigger and tougher units to keep Malleux distracted long enough. In an ironic twist, Tau can find themselves steamrolled by one of the weakest teams in the game if they forget to bring enough rail rifles. And if those fail...
</div>
</div>