Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics/Renegades and Heretics

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Forge World announced the Imperial Armour 13: War Machines of The Lost And Damned, and it included the full updated Renegades and Heretics army list.

This is a complete revamp of the three old 3rd Edition army lists that were printed across Imperial Armour 5-7 If you're looking for the old tactica then check here instead

Why Play Renegades & Heretics

  • You've got leftover units from the old Eye of Terror campaign that introduced Lost and the Damned, as well as some stuff from old CSM and IG codices (mostly good stuff)
  • You want to play chaos without superhumans or daemons
  • You love the great diversity provided with many options for your units.
  • You love to modelling opportunities that are simply amazing with this army. Even though army is widely based on hordes, you can pick units basically from any model site, since renegades are very diverse.
  • Ridiculous amount of Lord of War options if you're using Escalation. They get almost everything from super heavy tanks to Chaos Titans to world-destroying demons that herald the apocalypse end of times (all of which actually happened in the fluff. You don't know hell until you have lived through Vraks).

7th Edition changes to the Renegades & Heretics list also made it incredibly customisable and also negated almost all of the issues with the older version of the rules:

  • The random leadership issue is still a thing, but there are so many methods of improving or re-rolling it that it essentially means that its not really a problem, other than tracking what units have what score.
  • Renegade Ogryns got WAY better and don't die from exhaustion any more.
  • Chaos Covenants on pretty much anything, giving you the ability to customise squads to your god.
  • HQ choices actually doing things other than taking up HQ slots.
  • Cheaper EVERYTHING including tanks and flyers of a saving between 10%-25% in points. Though you suffer WS/BS2 across most of the army but that can easily be bought to bring them up to Guard standards.

Special Rules

Demagogue Devotions

The Siege of Vraks army lists disappeared, replaced with variety, provided with the following Special Rule: Renegade Demagogue Devotions. When you pick a Renegade Command Squad, you get to pick a specialisation for your Renegade Demagogue. Only one specialisation may be taken per army.

  • Primaris-rogue Witch - the Demagogue becomes Psyker Lvl 1 (+25 pts upgrade to get to lvl 2), and can take powers from Malefic Daemonology, Biomancy, Pyromancy, Telekinesis and can take Rogue Psykers Covenants as Elites as well as HQ. However, Demagogue with this devotion can not take the Covenant of Khorne (Special Rules Section for details).
  • Mutant Overlord - Demagogue's army must contain at least two of the Mutants Worker Rabble units and can take a single unit of Renegade Chaos Sp-... Since I'm the only reader of 1d4chan with this wicked book, willing to re-write this article, I won't finish the sentence. Ahem, a single unit of those things as a non-compulsory troops choice. In addition, player can upgrade Ogryn Brute squads with Curse of Mutation for 15 pts. Demagogue with this devotion also rolls three times on the following table (Only one characteristic is amplified per roll):
    • 1 - Reduce Demagogue's I or A by -1. If rolled again, re-roll.
    • 2-3 - Add +1 to Demagogue's WS or BS.
    • 4-5 - Add +1 to Demagogue's S or T.
    • 6 - +1 to W, and model becomes Slow and Purposeful and Bulky. If rolled again, re-roll.
  • Master of the Horde - basically, Send In The Next Wave from Astra Militarum. Whenever a Renegade Infantry Squad numbering at least 15 models gets destroyed, roll. On a 5+, identical one arrives. It has all of the upgrades of the previous unit, but no Dedicated transport. If you pick this devotion, you must have at least two Renegade Infantry Platoons, but the max capacity of each Renegade Infantry Squads increases to 30.
  • Arch-heretic Revolutionary - Demagogue gains Zealot, and can take Covenant of Chaos at no additional cost. Any unit of Renegade Infantry or Veterans can be upgraded with Fanatic special rule for 20 pts. Renegade Enforcer cadre can take up to 10 Enforcers. While the Zealot rule and an army of "fanatics" is cool, this falls rather flat, instead of taking this 20 point upgrade most squads can take a Chaos Sigil for 5-10 which gives them psudo fearless so long as the bearer is alive.
  • Heretek Magus - Old school IG mechanicum discipline-- gives bionics to almost the entire army. Much easier to think of it as the Nurgle Value Meal: Demagogue gains +1 T, 3+ armour save and gains FnP(6+). His army can take Defilers as HS and Decimators as Elites. Most of infantry units (humans, no ogryn or mutant) can get FnP(6+) for the whole squad for 10 pts, halving the cost of taking a Nurgle Covenant for most and ensuring the squad will have it to the last man. Works especially well if you want a "Nurgle" cult leader as well as Marauders.
  • Bloody-handed Reaver - Renegade Astra Militarum option. Demagogue gains Refractors Field and krak greandes for free, and can replace his guns with hot-shot equivalents. All army is forced to get Militia Training. Infantry Veterans can be upgraded to Grenadiers, gaining increased BS and replacing their guns with hot-shots. Tempestus much? Any infantry unit in the army, except for ogryns and Spa... you know them, can get flak armour for 10 pts flat per unit. 50 heads of Mutant Rabbles with 5+ armour for 10 pts? Why not?

Warlord Traits

  1. Fanatical Convert - if any friendly unit with Uncertain Worth is destroyed in 12 inches, controlling player rolls die. On 5+, he gains a VP, like a sacrifice. Fluffy! Hilarious potential with Master of the Horde.
  2. Iron-Fisted Tyrant - at the start of any turn, player can choose to remove D3 models from warlord's unit from play. In response, any fleeing unit with Uncertain Worth rule on the map may regroup without Ld check.
  3. Prophet Of Doom - at the beginning of any game turn, even opposing player's, warlord can choose to influence a single reserve roll, forcing it either to succeed on 2+, regardless of modifiers, or succeed only on 6+, regardless of modifiers. Funny way to scramble your enemy's reserve or boost your own. Works well with Daemons, as you can summon them when you want, and others will Deep Strike at the Icon.
  4. Artisan of Death - if the warlord is engaged in CQC, but not in base-to-base contact with the enemy, he can forfeit all of his attack to make a single S3 AP2 Poisoned 4+ attack against any enemy in 3" in the same combat (even challenges).
  5. Blasphemious Iconoclast - once per turn, one squad in 12" can roll additional D6 and choose the best one when rolling on the building damage table. Dark Gods cackle at this one.
  6. Soul-scarred Terror - on initative step 1, roll a D6 for each model that is in the base contact with the warlord. On 6, that model suffers a wound. Warlord also gains Fear USR.

Squad/Unit Rules

  • Uncertain Worth - every unit except Marauders, Ogryns and psykers have D6+4 for their leadership value, determined on the first time they have to roll for morale. Enforcers are now a source of reliable Ld only theoretically.
  • Curse of Mutation - units with mutations roll once before deployment for the effects.
    • 1-2 Horrific Disfiguration - unit gets Fear and units in 6" (friend and foe) have -1 Ld.
    • 3-4 Unnatural Senses - Acute senses & Scout, but treat all templates, blast and heavy weapons as having the Blind special rule. This one is really random.
    • 5-6 Horns, Claws and Fangs - unit gains HoW USR and has +1 S for HoW attacks. However, they must declare assault when there's enemy unit in 12".
  • Chaos Covenant - All units with a squad leader (Except Marauders) may pick a Covenant. It spreads to the whole squad if at least one model has it, so it's extremely cheap in horde armies, but they lose the Covenant if the character dies. Unfortunately it's not available to Enforcers but squads will likely have one anyway (and that could confer more than one Covenant). If your army's warlord is an Arch-Demagogue, you can also unlock additional units for purchase.
    • Covenant of Khorne - may re-roll To Wound in the first round of any combat. Allows to include a single squad of Blood Slaughterers as Elites.
    • Covenant of Nurgle - Gains FnP (6+). Doesn't work well without armour. Can take a single unit of Plague Zombies as Troops and/or a single Blight Drone as Elites.
    • Covenant of Slaanesh - Fleet. Unlocks a single squad of Noise Marines and/or a single Sonic Dreadnought as Elites. TURN UP THE VOLUME!
    • Covenant of Tzeentch - Snap shots are made at BS 2 instead of 1. Allows to unlock 0-3 Renegade Spawns as troops, but they can not be taken as compulsory two Troops choices in FoC.
    • No covenant - unlocks 0-3 Renegade Marauders as Elite slot.
  • Fanatic - units with this roll additional Ld die and pick the highest.
  • Aura of the Witch - this unit has 5++ and fear, but can not join a squad or become a Warlord.

Wargear

  • Militia Training - available to nearly all units in the army list, including vehicles. For 10 pts, BS is increased to 3. Starting BS of most of the army is 2, but that is a great thing - you won't have to pay for unused BS on pieplates! And literally everything is cheaper, compared to Astra Militarum.
  • Banner of the Apostate - only available to the HQ command squad, but is also probably an essential 15 point purchase. While it does the normal banner thing of adding +1 to combat resolution of the squad, carrying it.
  • Banner of Hate - units in 12" roll 3D6 for Morale and pick the best two.
  • Carapace Armour - Most characters and some veteran-type squads (Veterans, Command) can take this option at 5 points for champions, 20 for units. It may be worth it if you want to keep your Covenant going that much longer or you have a unit in the open survive a hail of bolt-shells.
  • Sub-flak armour - units start with no armour, and can buy 6+ armour for flat costs of 5-10 points for whole squads. Not strictly an essential purchase since most common weapons would ignore this straight up, just another way to keep your units cheaper.
  • Chaos Sigil - unit may ignore first morale or pinning test it fails in each game turn. Note that it says "game turn". for only 5 pts it's definitely worth taking.
  • Refractor Field - 5++ for your Disciple/Command Squad champ.
  • Vox-casters - While Renegades get vox casters like in the Imperial Guard, they definitely do not work the same way, but are no less important as they grant you a re-roll to generate your random leadership. For 5 points you probably want one in every discrete unit. There is also Command Net Vox that is the same thing + allows units in 12" use carrying unit's Ld.
  • Combat Drug Injectors - may be turned on before charging to get Rage, but must pass a majority Toughness test at the end of Assault Phase. If failed, remove D3 random models. It should be noted, that it states "majority", so enforcer with CDI gives Rage to the whole squad he is in.

Legacies of Ruin

IMPORTANT NOTE: These upgrades are for your chaos space marine and super-heavy vehicles ONLY, (so NO renegade vehicles and also NO Daemon Engines either since they all also fail to qualify as per the rules) that leaves you with your Sonic Dreadnought, Noise Marine Transport and your non-daemonic Super-heavy Tanks since no other unit in the army can take a legacy.

Basically one vehicle per 1000pts can take one of a list of upgrades, representing it taking part in different war zones. note you can only choose a legacy once per army.

  • Veteran of scouring:45 pts for IWND and PE(SM) on any tank (or 90 pts for super heavies). for walkers its slightly cheaper at 40/80, and grants hatred instead of PE. Not worth it on anything smaller than a titan, where you use it so you don't have to take the nurgle titan upgrade.
  • War within the Eye:20/40 pts, for Adamantium Will and PE(CSM). For walkers its 20/40, but with hatred instead of PE. Guard can buy it for 5 pts. garbage.
  • Maelstrom raider: 25/50 for all vehicles. Fear and outflank. slap on super heavies so you can pretend to be evil Creed.
  • Death of Kasyr Lutien: 15/25 pts. Fear, which is nice, but then: EVERY psyker rolling on malefic daemonology within 12" may re-roll a failed psychic test dice for every hull point the vehicle has remaining. Just let the sink in. If you fail the test after that the vehicle take a penetrating hit. stick on a super heavy AND NEVER FAIL TO SUMMON EVER AGAIN!
  • Blood of Mackan: Tanks only, 30/40 points PE(Blood angels), and doesn't treat defense lines as dangerous. also has a funny little extra: if equipped with destroyer blades, the attack gains an AP equal to remaining hull points. can you say ap 3 rhinos?
  • Siege of Vraks:15/20 points, 4+ to ignore difficult terrain, and can re-roll vs target behind a defense line. Good for ignore cover weapons, like the sonic dread.
  • Fourth quadrant rebellion: 15 or 30 points, all cultists within 12 are fear less, and you gain a 4++ when it only has 1 HP left. Needs to be built around, since you can only take Cultists in a CSM allies detachment.
  • Badab Uprising:20/30 for fear and PE(space marines). interestingly walkers (but not super heavies) pay 20 pts for rage and hatred (Chaos Space Marines)
  • Scourge of green-skins:tanks only, 25pts for +D6 to tank shock, and PE(orks)
  • Last of the Forge: as much as this sounds like some sort of artificer tank, its the anti-nid one. vehicles with transports only. 25pts for PE('nids) and 4+ to ignore stunned/shaken. also grants hatred ('nids) to any transported unit. Seems to be for ever, so pack your assault unit in here, and have FUN!
  • Screams of Lugganath: 25/30 for fear against Eldar, which is meh, BUT, also increase the range of dirge casters to 12" very solid, take this fucker for good assault support.
  • Perdus Rift-Anomaly:20/40 for PE(tau) and re-roll Seize the Initiative. Shite unless you have some other StI shit.
  • First War for Armageddon:25/35, all daemons of khorne within 6" get +1 invun, only good for allies really.

all the following legacies also give demonic possession and fear, which is nice

  • Vessel of Shyak the seeker: 15/20, Fear, enemy units within 12" of an Icon of Excess roll an additional D6 and discard the lowest on any Leadership based test.'
  • Vessel of Tzenahk the Occluder:10/20. roll a d6 at the start of the game, on a 1 the enemy gain +1 VP if its destroyed, 2+ grants +d3 VP to you if it survives.

Unit Analysis

HQ

  • 1+ Renegade Command Squad: A typical command squad consisting of your commander, Arch-Demagogue, and a bunch of his disciples. They can take pretty much any item from the Equipment section, and two disciples can be turned into a Heavy Weapons Team. Chaos Covenant gives additional army options, as described above.
  • 0-1 Enforcer Cadre: Think evil commissars and you wont be far off, slightly better too since they have 2 wounds as standard. They are now much cheaper, but lost their reliable Ld and they can only be attached to Renegade Infantry / Mutant Rabbles / Renegade Veterans and they don't have the option of Chaos Covenants. However, they give the squad they are attached to +1 Ld and must kill one chosen model in the unit if they fail a morale check. This execution allows for a single re-roll.
    • They may also take Combat Drug Injectors and give 50 Pistol/CCW Mutant squaddies four attacks on the charge!
  • 0-1 Renegade Psykers Coven: You can get 1-5 Lv1 psykers that can be split up. However, the can not be attached to the other squads due to the Aura of The Witch rule, this is done to prevent squads from using psyker's flat Ld 8. They do not draw from the disciplines in the rulebook and therefore do not have access to psychic focus, they have their own table, and instead of suffering perils of the warp, they turn into daemonhosts and become WS5 S5 T3 W2 A3 Rending, FnP 4+ melee units for the rest of the game. Which while unfortunate, considering the new Perils table is FAR better than most other armies get!
    • Random Powers Roll D6 :
    • 1-2: Malediction that reduces the target units Initiative down to 1, and causes them to only snapfire. ATSKNF & Stubborn units can ignore with a Leadership save, whilst Fearless units are immune.
    • 3-4: Witchfire that has 12" range, S7, Blast and Haywire. Good for knocking a solitary hull point off of a vehicle, or wounding a few GEQ but not much else. Adding Haywire was actually a nerf against light vehicles since Haywire takes place instead of of rolling to penetrate normally, actually dropping your chances of causing a penetrating hit against AV10-11 but increasing your chances of glancing... oh well.
    • 5-6: Blessing that confers Fleet & Crusader, so it makes your units run a little further.
So yeah - Renegade Psyker covens suck. You pretty much need to take them in a full-up squad bound together, plus a transport plus an enforcer just to make sure they don't roll over in combat before they turn into daemonhosts. Unless you're willing to throw down for that kind of commitment, consider instead an allied CSM Sorcerer, Daemon Prince, Greater Daemon or Herald.

Special Characters

Special characters were never in the original army list to start with, but were added in from other sources. However as written Arkos is the only one still available since his rules insert him into the generic "Renegades & Heretics" army list. The other characters (Zhufor & Necrosius) might need FAQs since they can only be added so "Servants of..." variant armies.

  • Arkos the Faithless (Forge World) - Finally an Alpha Legion Character. This guy wields the Dark Blade from 3rd Ed modernized 6th/7th Ed (+2S, Rending, Power Sword), gets T5 without a MoN and he also gives Counter Attack to his squad, but Arkos seems to have the benefits of a few various things plus the rending rule can mean he may get lucky while fighting 2+ save opponents. He's probably the best individual character this list gets, but Demagogues do far more for the army (and are a 1+ requirement anyway) but you may take him for fluff, as he's from the times when Alphas were little more then space Taliban with lots of trained cultists, rather then modern closet loyalist anonymouses with mind-blowingly over-complicated schemes and tons of just as planned.

TROOPS

  • Renegade Infantry Platoon: similar in form to an Imperial Guard platoon: 3-5 infantry squads, one of which is designated a Command Squad for free. All soldiers have no armour, BS 2 and random leadership, but a lot of options. Command Squad automatically replaces it's Champion with a Demagogue, gaining a re-roll on the random Leadership. They also don't have the option to combine squads together, unlike Imperial Guard, but, since you can be running 5 30 man blobs, that isn't a huge sacrifice.
    • With Bloody-handed Reaver, you can buy a 5+ armour upgrade to the whole platoon for 10 pts.
  • Mutants Rabble: Simply, THE tarpit squad. Also, a lot of modelling opportunities! No armour, no special weapons - only 10-50 models with pistol + CCW or flashlights While you might be tempted to use rabble for other tasks like objective holding, they don't have the BS, Ld or Sv values to stick around unless you attach an advisor or full squads, even Imperial Fists supplement marines would have trouble boltering 50 bodies off the table with any speed with other threats running around. Their job is to tie elite units down and let your other squads do their jobs. So, ironically they are best suited for fighting Fist or TH/SS terminators, where they can't be sweeping advanced over and they still strike before them where you might kill a model or two in your opponent's units by sheer weight of numbers. Bash them into the ground with even cheaper Cultists.
    • Add an Enforcer mainly to help them pass the leadership test when they lose combat and also to provide Combat Drugs, even if you fail the toughness test, you'll have the numbers to absorb D3 losses.
    • Always buy the Champion if only to get a Chaos Covenant: Pick a Covenant of Khorne if you're aiming to cause damage with an attached Drugs-Enforcer. Go Nurgle if you want to give them staying power since FnP 6+ is much better than a 6+ save.
    • They also get Curse of Mutation as standard, so you can end up outflanking 50 models or charging in with shedloads of S4 HoW. Fear can be an equaliser against non-MEQ but the -1Ld can apply to everyone.
  • Renegade Infantry Veterans: we get ourselves the Veterans, too! Interestingly, they have a BS 3 and WS 4, which is quite useless, since you're gonna use them as a precision strike squad. Comparatively, they are very expensive when considered next to your other Troops choices, despite having a low start-up cost for the unit, they come in at 10 points per model after that (expensive compared to 3 point models). Plus they may take a single squad upgrade from the list of: Deep Strike, Scout, Tank Hunters, Furious Assault or 4+ saves. They might combo well with certain covenants but these squads really need to be designed with a specific purpose in mind, otherwise just buy more regular Infantry with Militia training.
    • Bloody-handed Reaver can buy the upgrade to this squad, giving them +1 BS and hot-shot lasguns stuff. Take with Carapace armour and make them Chaos Tempestus (if your brain didn't boil from the Tempestus conversion possibilities, then you have no taste).
  • Plague Zombies (Arch-Demagogue with Covenant of Nurgle only): Super tarpits. Crappy WS2 / I2, Slow & Purposeful and NO customisation or options in exchange for FnP(4+) and Fearless. They get a funny rule: Warp Plague. If the zombies defeat a squad in CQC and force it to flee or destroy it outright, they can spawn D3 additional plague zombies and can go beyond their starting number.

DEDICATED TRANSPORTS

  • Chimera: This is the gem of the MEHTAL BAWKS world. Heavy Bolter Snap firing with Multi Laser? This has become the hate machine it was supposed to be. But nothing stops you from Snap Firing Multi Laser with Flamethrower. Or slap an Autocannon on this thing to turn it into a micro-tank! Or use Hunter-Killers to demolish enemy vehicles. Other points of this fine vehicle:
    • Cheap (point-wise), even cheaper that the loyalists. You can spam them, get lots and lots of multilasers (it will please you), and a solid wall of AV12 metal in front.
    • Save points by taking two heavy flamers and skipping on Militia Training.
    • You can fire all your important shit (special weapons, which is, Melta and Plasma) out the top hatch. Letting you fry while staying safe from retaliation.
    • They also count as tanks, meaning that once your troops are in position, you can tank shock the enemies off the point and even crush some Ork vehicles and scare off the mobs.

ELITES

The most expensive, diverse and useful section of our army list. You will spend a lot of time thinking how to kit out your elites.

  • Renegade Disciples - Evil Veterans, slightly better than your troops Infantry Veterans with the same cost: BS4, 5+ armour save and lots of wargear options, which are more freely assignable than your Infantry Vet squads, just without the extra special rules options (except for Carapace armour). Also due to Fanatic, they hold the line better than most of the units do, but that depends on you initial Ld rolls.
  • Renegade Ogryn Brutes: Ogryns that have gone bat shit mental and work for chaos. Toughness 5, 3-wounds & fearless gives them some staying power. The new army list has made them much more worthy: They still have D6 random attacks but now at Strength 5, but have made up for it with Hammer of Wrath and Rampage. They are FAR more customisable now though, one dude can take a Lascutter / Power Drill, the whole unit may take Flak/Carapace armour at a flat cost. One may be freely upgraded to a packmaster and then include up to six Chaos Hound models which are still S/T5 but are I4 and have 3 attacks and they also roll 2D6 and pick the best in sweeping advance rolls. The real icing on the cake is that they can be dedicated to the god of your choice for a flat cost giving them far more applications.
    • Khorne - reroll the random attack number if you don't like it.
    • Nurgle - They have FnP (5+), this is where Plague Ogryns went.
    • Slaanesh - Fleet
    • Tzeentch - they become Tentacled / Clawed / Firebreathing Mutant freaks, they count as having an additional close combat weapon (for +1 attack) and and their attacks also get Soul Blaze.
      • The downside to the whole unit is that they cost more than most units in the ENTIRE game. They start at 60(!) points per model, thus A FULL unit of them, completely upgraded, with a Master of Mutants (granting Curse of Mutation too) in the army can cost up to 870 points, which is far too much for most reasonable games.
  • Renegade Marauders (only Arch-Demagogue with NO Covenant): Just like the Tyrants Legion. You're unlikely to ever see this unit on the tabletop though, not that they're terrible but since it requires your warlord to NOT have a Covenant, which limits your ability to take so many other cool choices. They are very similar to your Renegade Veterans in troops, but with fixed Ld values and better options. They even get doctrines for FREE! What's better is they can add in pseudo-feral ogryns with no weapon other than rending fists. [or big mutants or combat servitors, depending on whatever you decide the unit looks like]. One of the MAJOR downers of this squad is that it's only in it for the money i.e: once they break, they're broken for good.
    • The unit can take a Chimera as a transport OR an Arvus Lighter, which in 7th edition is less of an insulting option, especially in this list where having to snapshot is not such a hindrance.
    • The doctrine you take also will likely dictate what loadout you give to the squad as it will change how you use them.
      • Murder Cultists turns them into crusading, furious assaulters. Take power weapons or flamers since they'll be up close.
      • Stalkers turns them into sneaky bastards who outflank then hide in cover; take sniper rifles or heavy stubbers.
      • Hereteks gives them carapace armour and krak grenades, and is the balanced option; take whatever you like.
  • The Unnameable Beasts (only Arch-demagogue with Covenant of Tzeentch) : According to legend, during a dark, terrifying time not so long ago, these were but a sick joke; no one took that which must never be named, not even in funny lists, not even for flavor nor fluff. No sane person took them; they were easily the worst unit in all of 40k, which is a hell of an accomplishment, considering Pyrovores existed back then too.. Not anymore! Chaos Spawn are now the workhorse of any assault based Chaos Space Marine army- OH MY GODS NO PL- BJADKJFOASIHDOLADMFNCAOSJ. In the Renegades and Heretics army list, these foul creatures became even better! They now cost 55 pts for 3 models (who needs ogryns anyway!?), and can be taken as Troops, too. They lost the ability to take marks, but not like we really used those.
  • Blood Slaughterer (Arch-Demagogue with Covenant of Khorne only): Don't be fooled by the name, these motherfuckers are a goddamn rape-blender! Rage, Rampage, Daemon (of Khorne, granting furious charge should you lose your DCW), Daemonic Resilience, Deepstrike, Fleet, WS5, FA13, comes with a DCW and can be taken in squads of 3: good god, things are gonna die! Each also gets the option to take a ranged weapon called an impaler which always hits on 4+ regardless of BS, CANNOT ever be snap fired and acts exactly as a Blood Angels magna-graple (albeit AP 3 instead of AP 2 and now the range got truncated to 12"), except it allows you to drag monstrous creatures as well. They can be taken in vehicle squadrons of 3, cost a scant 130 points. The "downside" is that it has shitty 5E Rage ( it must charge at/move towards the closest thing it sees); chances are you were probably going to do that anyway, and with the combination of fleet, an impaler and a fuck of a lot of S10 AP2 attacks there is damn near NOTHING that can survive a pack of 'Slaughterers.
  • Blight Drone (Arch-Demagogue with Covenant of Nurgle only): Possessed hovering flyer with a BS2, 5+ invulnerable save, reaper autocannon and a mawcannon (without tongue).At 150 pts, its the same price as a soul grinder of nurgle, with no guns. Pretty decent armour for a cheap flyer, but it will also explode when wrecked so be sure you get this thing as close to the enemy as possible! They can be taken in squads of 1-3 too.
  • Noise Marines (Arch-Demagogue with Covenant of Slaanesh only) - Renegades only source of Space Marines (other than Arkos). These guys are 17 pts. and ideally taken as squads of 8-12. Take some fucking sonic blasters - they're 2/3 salvo bolters that ignore cover, and they're only 3 pts! Throw in some Blastmasters, which still fire at either S5 AP4 Assault 2/Pinning or S8 AP3 Heavy 1/Blast/Pinning... but now ignore cover, too! Besides gun choices, they also have I5 to a regular Marine's I4. Their higher Initiative means they can be used for assault quite well, but blasters are now salvo, so you cannot charge after volley of sonic death, and you're taking these guys to chase camping units out of cover. Still their CCW costs only 1 pt per model (if you don't take blasters). The champ has access to Slaaneshi goodies in the armoury, too! Go the extra mile, spend 30 points and give these guys Feel No Pain, because drugs. With the new FAQ, you can take a Blastmaster at under 10 men and a second AT 10 men, making them even more awesome! The Noise Champ even gets a CCW for free!
    • Special Note:Noise Marine could now be the best MEQ in the game. For only one point more than a standard tactical marine you get Fearless and I5 over ATSKNF and I4. The Blastmaster is downright good. FNP is a steal if you take 10+ in a single unit. Sonic weapons add dakka if you need it. For an extra point (now two more than a tactical marine) you an get a CCW (again, if you don't take blasters. Blastmaster and ccw is fine though, cause logic.) for an additional attack, essentially making them better than a vanilla marine veteran for two less points. The Champion is great in challenges.]
      • Take them as allies. They are still elites but it's like taking Kabalites as Elites in the Eldar Corsair list. It takes up a valuable elite slot.
  • Sonic Dreadnought (Arch-Demagogue with Covenant of Slaanesh only) Guess who's back Bitches! The Sonic Dreadnought is a really awesome addition. It starts naked with a TL Sonic Blaster, Doom-Siren and CHAINFIST w/ Storm bolter (no mistake... even references it later) as well as the WS/BS5 statline of a venerable. It also counts as having grenades. It doesn't have the same upgrade options, so there is no Scourge or Thunder Hammer, whilst the Sonic Blasters may be upgraded to the usual guns or second arm with TL bolter... not Storm Bolter. But you'll replace it with a Blastmaster because all of the other rules on the Dreadnought benefit your sonic weapons greatly. First you may choose to overcharge your sonic weapons and give them Rending / Gets-Hot. Also if you remain still in the movement phase you may double your rate of fire for the turn with all your sonic weapons. Meaning twice the pain.

FAST ATTACK

  • Renegade Hellhound Squadron - The standard Hellhound is a very handy infantry-killer. If they're not Marine-equivalents (and even they will be hurting once the wounds pile up and they start failing saves), and not in a transport, they will die. What's that? You opponent has Rangers/Heavy Weapons Teams/snipers holed up in a building somewhere giving your commanders and high-value units a hard time? The Inferno Cannon laughs at cover. The range of the IC means that you can expect them to hit enemy infantry starting on turn 1 (move 12", fire 12", cover another 8" with flame template). Ran in support of longer-ranged anti-tank weapons for popping enemy transports, Hellhounds can also serve to finish off units from disembarked vehicles. In 7th edition, Fast vehicles can now fire 2 weapons at full BS at cruising speed, so enjoy the possibilities of hull weaponry combinations.
  • Renegade Sentinel Squadron: With such weak armor, most likely they are going to die on a second turn. Fun choice of weapons. But still - they are going to die. They are open topped. They are going to die. They have 10 armor. They are going to die. But they may as well take a tank or two down with them and hey, they cost similar to a special weapon infantry, what do you expect of them, to be immortal? If you want to be insane, having Heavy Flamers all around can result in hilarious infantry murder and complete disregard of the low BS. Otherwise, most of the time you'll take them as a 25 point autocannon on legs since they are cheap and effective against most things.
    • Renegade Armoured Sentinel Squadron: Now an expensive upgrade for Sentinel Squads, they lose Move Through Cover and remain open topped. They're practically Armored Heavy Weapons Teams. They are always taken in groups of at least three, up to six. Can move around and fire, unlike Heavy Weapon Teams, but you only get one for the price of the whole squad. Can do decent in close combat, stomping on or bogging down the enemy. Now this works only with fearless units without krak grenades or other S6+ weapons (like, say Thousand Sons, gaunts, or Ork boys without klawnob). Even better choice of awesome weapons when compared to Scout Sentinels, such as plasma cannons - though, you can overheat and lose one of the two Hull Points you have, making you even more dangerously paper-thin. Use Lascannon against vehicle, Rocket Launcher or Autocannon (buy BS/WS upgrade first, flat cost per unit) if you can't decide what you want to do with them. Never hurts to take Hunter-Killers in case you end up fighting vehicles.
    • Forge World allow both regular and armoured Sentinels to take Multiple Rocket Pods. Big frak blasts does horrible things to infantry blobs, but with 24" range it's too risky even on armored.
    • Alternative take: take 5 of these fuckers with no upgrades. for 100 points you have 10 AV 10 HP that will tar pit the shit out of anything
  • Salamander Squadron: The chaos version of the fast scout tank, they comes with AV12/10/10, Heavy Flamer (which can be freely changed for a Heavy Bolter, or an Autocannon) and Heavy Bolter. Being Fast, they can fire both on cruising speed, so a squadron of them can threaten any light vehicle in great range. Being Fast as well as AV12 they can do Sentinel job - but unlike sentinels they are better riding in the open rather then wandering through terrain. The new codex has a typo saying that they have BS 3, but we are honest heretics... Right?
  • Renegade Valkyrie Squadron: Goddamnit, why don't you have one? Renegades start with a BS2 version since they are piloted by muppets, thats not so bad because they're cheaper and Multiple Rocket pods are not so reliant on BS to-hit rolls. It has BY DEFAULT Extra Armor in its profile, which means the bad bitch can never be stunlocked. If you keep your Valkyries zooming around the table, it's rare for them to die. Keep them alive to support your armor with a hard-hitting blast from its Multiple Rocket Pods. Valkyries eat infantry and shit brass and work best with Veteran Squads, deep-striking the squad in the most annoying place possible, and then flying off to rain hell on the enemy.

HEAVY

  • Renegade Support Squad: 3 renegade Weapons Teams, typical Heavy Weapons Teams. Use as you would the Astra Militarum Equivalents, but upgrade the BS.
  • Leman Russ Tank Squadron: Leman. Fucking. Russ. It's a big tank. You get the BS2 version as the Imperial Guard but even cheaper! But still it holds the proud title of best tank in the galaxy for its size and cost. Side effects include: Templates, lots of dice, lots of AV, lots of choices. In 6th edition, Leman Russ lost "Lumbering Behemoth" rule, and became a Heavy vehicle, instead. This means that you are limited to only 6 inches of movement. However, you can fire all your non-ordnance weapons at the same turn, as if you haven't moved, meaning that non-ordnance Russes (Exterminator, Punisher, Eradicator, Vanquisher) are made even more rapetastic at slight disadvantage of Ordnance ones (Battle Tank, Demolisher). Remember this, and kit out your tanks accordingly.
    • Leman Russ Battle Tank: Though it comes in many flavors, the basic tank is the most useful. With its S8 AP3 72" gun and thick armor, it is good against anything for decent points. This is your runner-and-gunner, your go-to tank, and the majority of your Leman Russ pool at any time should be these. Kit em out with heavy bolters all around, since you are going to be forced to snap fire non-cannon weapons, so up the volume of fire.
    • Leman Russ Exterminator: Armed with a 4 shot twin-linked Autocannon means this thing is death incarnate for 4+ armour and light vehicles. Kit it with 3 extra Heavy Bolters for beautiful infantry shredding. While twice the points and not as long-ranged as a Hydra, it's got better front and side armor and isn't hindered by the lack of the Interceptor special rule (so it can shoot at things on the ground, where majority of enemy forces usually are). It doesn't have Skyfire or a Targeting Computer, so it may be lacking in roles usually occupied by Hydra, but you will still put a big dent on anything you do end up hitting.
    • Leman Russ Vanquisher: An "Armorbane" Cannon with a devastating range. Thus a bit costly for 1 shot at BS2. Not very useful really considering the amount of melta you should already have, if you use it primarily against vehicles. Give it a Lascannon as well as Plasma Sponson - and you get a unit perfectly fit to fight against Heavy Infantry.
    • Leman Russ Eradicator: Kind of a Hellhound that hits worse, is slower but better armored. And you can add a Lascannon for versatility. Strange tank that has a weaker version of Battle Cannon that eats your enemies' cover saves. Consider for Cities of Death games or when fighting cover-camping Tau/Eldar. Can be useful for gunline enemies hiding behind fortifications as well.
    • Leman Russ Demolisher: For +15 pts. to the basic Russ you get a cannon that lays waste of everything on the battlefield and immunity vs S4 melee units - though sometimes 24" is too close to the enemy. The Demolisher is tried and true, and should ALWAYS lead the armored charge into the enemy. Works great alone, works even better in threes. You don't really need to upgrade it, since fucking DEMOLISHER CANNON doesn't get much assistance from other weapons, but being able to finish off the scattered survivors by hail of ill-aimed gunfire can also be useful.
    • Leman Russ Punisher: Shares the cons but only few of the pros with the Demolisher (it does keep the additional back armor, which helps). Heavy 20 may sound cool, but with BS2 you end up with 7 S5 hits on average with no AP (making it difficult to even glance vehicles to death, but why would you target vehicles anyway?). Everything except Grots is butchered better with the cheaper and better ranged Battle Tank. However, unlike most Russes, it gets better if you sink the points in it: Kit one out with a full triple Heavy Bolter set and a Heavy Stubber, at which point the machine will reduce to dust anything, from Terminator
    • Leman Russ Conqueror: It's kinda light version of Leman Russ Battle Tank - Conqueror turret cannon comes with less range, less blast radius and less strength, but it is heavy and have in-built co-axial storm bolter to boost accuracy in the short range firefights. And unlike regular Lemans it's not heavy, meaning it is not slow as hell. Overall not a good choice, unless you have a lot of BLoS terrain pieces in the table. Though, due to its speed and non-ordnance nature of main gun it totally rick in Cities of Death missions, where regular Ruses tend to stuck in deployment zones doing nothing. Squads to full-size Ork Mobs every turn, and will stop 'Nidzilla in it's tracks through sheer dice output. Well, that or you'll be killed by the enemies anti-tank and waste 250 points on something the rest of your army should be doing anyway. Also, by far the coolest looking Russ. Can also be a fun choice against fliers, if much less cost-effective than the Hydra or Fortifications' Emplacements.
    • Leman Russ Annihilator: Another "non-heavy" Leman - this time with twin-lascannon turret. Just like his Predator namesake tend to be overpriced for what it do.
  • Renegade Rapier Laser Destroyer Battery - 1-3 Rapiers. Disgustingly good. 20 PPM (23 with an extra crew man) for a BS 2 TL str 9 ap 1 ordnance gun, at T7 with a 3+, and for a mere 10 points the whole unit can be upgraded to BS3. 3 of them can happily rip a land raider apart, no sweat.
  • Renegade Heavy Ordnance Battery: 1-3 emplacements, armed with an Earthshaker cannon this thing can become a great pain in the ass if well hidden. Can be upgraded to Medusa Siege Guns or Breacher Shells.
  • Renegade Artillery battery: take 1-3 of the following in any combination:
    • Basilisk: Jokingly called the penis-enlargement gun by veteran Guard Players, the Basilisk is noted for having a really big gun. This gun is also known for being long-ranged, having the option for direct or indirect fire, and having AP 3 (meaning it can kill Marines in the open, or pummel Crisis Suits). However, having the worst minimum-range requirements has the potential to often relegate the Basilisk to being a direct-fire weapon, a task the Medusa tends to do better in most cases for a marginal upgrade in cost; this said, the Basilisk's direct-fire does have a longer range than the Medusa. Unless it's apocalypse, you don't need more than 36" though, so get a Medusa, or a Leman Russ Battle Tank, which can do the same or even better job, considering that either way, you are dropping S8 AP3 Big Blast at the enemy within '72 at most.
    • Medusa: A pure direct-fire weapon, noted for having Strength 10 and AP 2, the Medusa is arguably the most popular form of Ordnance on account of its raw firepower. While having the same issues with accuracy most blast weapons have, whatever it hits will suffer on account of it. For those who wish to trade accuracy and flexibility for raw tank-busting firepower, the regular firing mode can be replaced with Siege Shells, turning the Medusa into a heavy tank hunter. With an AP 1 blast template, and the normal Ordnance bonus replaced by rolling 2d6 for armor penetration, the potential to kill enemy vehicles is incredible, and the threat of losing multiple vehicles to a well-placed shot does a lot to intimidating opponents into spreading their vehicles out. This said, like with the Devildog's Melta Cannon, the accuracy issues inherent with the Medusa mean it tends to work best in support of, rather than being the primary source, of ranged anti-tank.
  • Renegade Field Artillery Battery: 1-4 Heavy Quad Launchers or Heavy Mortars, but cheaper than their Imperial counterparts. The quad launchers are an amazing alternative to the Wyvern and far more difficult to kill (T7 3+ with up to 5 crew each). A whole squad of 4 quad launchers with max crew and BS3 is only 154 points.
  • Renegade Strike Battery: 1-5 of the following in any combination:
    • Griffon: The cheapest artillery-piece the Guard get, the Griffon is also the most accurate on most accounts; the ability to reroll Scatter Dice is a handy ability in most cases. Like the Colossus, the Griffon is unable to fire directly, yet its shorter minimum range makes it more usable against rapidly advancing armies. Should a player wish to take a Griffon (or a pair of them, which isn't as point-intensive as squadding other artillery), they work as part of a handy one-two combo for finishing off infantry from a destroyed transport, or in support of Hellhound-equivalents being used to Tank-shock enemy infantry into clustered formations.
    • Wyvern - the king of blob-templates in here for even more massacre, for it is even cheaper! Lower BS? Like it cares! A full squad of 5 of these is only 275 points, pumping out a lovely 20 twin-linked, barrage, shred, ignores cover, blasts.
  • Renegade Hydra Flak Tank Battery: 1-3 hydras. Since the coming of 6th edition, Hydra became both very useful and useless at the same time. Increase in staying power of the fliers, Hydras are recommended to scare off those who try to exploit their new capabilities, since targeting computer rules still apply, making them an effective counter. Skyfire makes you snap-fire ground-targets, but you can still use it for it's intended role - destroying Skimmers, Jetbikes, and fliers. Or you can take an Aegis Defense Line or Bastion with Quad Gun/Icarus Lascannon instead, and get more range and firepower. Also you should notice that without interceptor rule Hydras cannot, well, intercept fliers. When a Necron croissant Fleet blast all your Hydras on turn two, you would realize, that Interceptor rule is REALLY a must for Ground-to-Air tank. However for 75 points, you really can't complain too much (not that you shouldn't, lack of interceptor IS bullshit). Jink Saves are annoying, you get to counter them, or Intercept. This is implied to be relevant to a thing called "Balance". So pick one.
  • Renegade Bombard Battery : 1-3 Colossus. Games Workshop has a checkered history when it comes to Marine-Killer weapons. Their emphasis on certain units being designed for killing Marines in the open, has lead to horridly inflexible units like Vespids, Flash Gitz, Thousand Sons, and now the Colossus. At first glance, the Colossus looks like a fun gun. With the ability to ignore cover, and Marine Power Armor saves, it will utterly devastate Marines should it land properly. On the other hand, having a wide minimum range and the inability to fire directly means the Colossus falters against a lot of Marine Armies. With the exception of some foot-slogging Space Wolf armies, many Marine armies are very fast, and noted either for operating as a mechanized army, fighting by Drop Pods, speeding forth towards your lines on Bikes, deepstriking in by Jump Packs, or otherwise excelling at fighting at short range. While the Colossus can be used for indirect-combat if kept isolated from the rest of the battleline with an infantry unit or two to watch over it, it isn't too popular in tournament armies for this reason.

Lords Of War

FORTIFICATIONS

  • Imperial Strongpoint: Not a bad buy by any stretch although some sections are more valuable than others (see below). Specifically, it gives you multiple Aegis Defense Lines and Imperial Bastions in one single Fortification slot; hubba hubba!
    • Aegis Defense Line - the gold standard in single fortifications. This little diddie is invaluable granting cover to your backfield troops AND anti-air options (primarily the quad gun). You should be taking one to free up your HS slots for tanks and such.
    • Imperial Bastion - everything you like about ADLs in an actual building with heavy bolter emplacements. 25 pts more than an ADL and worth it!
    • Skyshield Landing Pad - it's kinda meh really. You don't have many deepstrikers and you want them near your enemy not your own guys anyway. However, the 4++ save is perfect for turrets or field artillery so keep that in mind.
    • Honoured Imperium - no. You turned your back on the Imperium, remember?
  • Wall of Martyrs Defense Network: A pricier gambit than an Imperial Strongpoint but it does have a few options that make some of your selections redundant.
    • Imperial Defense Line - kinda an ADL except more expensive, you can't take any gun emplacements, but you do count as stubborn behind it. Your call.
    • Imperial Defense Emplacement - as above, but you can also re-roll overwatch to-hits using heavy weapons. Very nice and very inexpensive, too!
    • Imperial Bunker - if you were considering an imperial bastion, consider one of these. Instead of hanging out on battlements, you can hide 20 guys inside the bunker. Additionally, 4 guys can shoot out of its fire points and on top of it all, you can mount an anti-aircraft gun.
    • Firestorm Redoubt - if you were considering a Fortress of Redemption, try this one out instead. You're not missing out much by not being able to fire gun emplacements with your shitty BS, plus you can mount more anti-air and upgrade those quad-Icari into battle cannons.
    • Vengeance Weapon Batteries - this is pretty much why turret emplacements are now useless. If you want to mount Punishers, take two batteries. Otherwise, upgrade to either a quad-Icarus or a battle cannon - either still puts the unit cost under 100 pts. and gives you either excellent anti-air or a great piece of long-range power in a very durable platform.
  • Fortress of Redemption: comes with some nice goodies, but a Firestorm Redoubt might be a better bet for you.
  • Void Relay Network: These are better on their own, really. Except for the Honoured Imperium, which you shouldn't take.
    • Promethium Relay Pipes - not a good idea for cover even for your guys with flamers. Might be worth considering for hiding a sentinel squad with heavy flamers or a hellhound.
    • Void Shield Generator - super sweet! A random slab of AV 12 within a foot of the AV13 building that gets hit first; it's a serious pain in the ass to your opponent who has to waste anti-tank fire just to pop open something that can regenerate on your turn on a 5+.
  • Aquila Strongpoint: The crazy fortifications, either will set you back over 500 pts and bestows upon you an AV15 building with outrageously destructive firepower.
    • Macrocannon - standard show is a D-strength weapon while the other shell is an apocalyptic barrage that knock flyers and F/GMCs out of the sky. Basically, it's hilariously awesome.
    • Vortex Missiles - you get 7 vortex missiles. If you don't know what vortex missiles are or do, it's kinda like a combination of the above weapon profiles that hops around the board. Very risky and you should probably take the Macrocannon instead.

TACTICS

ALLIES

The Renegades & Heretics still function identically to Chaos Space Marines in 7E with respect to what they can or cannot ally with, the new chart just moved a few things around.

Battle Brothers

  • Chaos Space Marines - probably the most obvious one for both fluff and functionality. You get to combine the Helldrake AND Hydra flak tanks and DOMINATE the skies. As battle brothers your characters can join each others squads and/or benefit from each others abilities, so you can have an impressive number of psykers buffing each other up. Actually, any of the basic HQ units (but not Lords - see below) make good choices since Dark Apostles can make your massive renegade squads fearless & zealots and Warp Smiths can fix up your multitude of tanks that you'll probably have.
    • Weirdly this one probably works better in reverse, becoming allies for the marines instead of the other way around. Your big platoons/troops choices don't need to take up several FOC slots. Also, CSM Cult units cannot become troops in an allied detachment, so you really have to think about what to use your allies detachment FOC choices on. Since Renegades elite choices weren't particularly varied you never needed that many elites slots for renegades primary detachment anyway.
  • Chaos Daemons: A good source for psykers, good melee units and deep strike deployment, particularly of objective holding troops (such as ubiquitous Plaguebearers or the 2+ re-rollable cover save Pink Horrors). Soul grinders of Nurgle are now unspeakably awesome because they automatically have a 5+ cover save due to shrouded and have 4 HP with AV 13! Fantastic mobile cover, and they pack a punch, too! Troops are no longer obscene amounts of points in this codex, either, and heralds are fuckcheap HQ units; the mandatory units in an allied detachment can cost as little as 135 points, meaning you could take Soul Grinder support in lists as small as 1000 points and still be none the worse for wear. Meanwhile, bloodthirsters follow the flying monstrous creature rules and have WS 10 (10!). Lords of change are mastery level 2 psykers by default, level 3 with the upgrade (which you will always take) and can take either Tzeentchy witchfire powers or Divination powers.
    • Protip: Wanna make your Bloodletters or Daemonettes actually survive so they can reach combat? Run them straight towards the enemy every turn, then park a rhino/chimera in front of them and block all incoming fire! Then deliver your delicious, demonic payload right into those helpless loyalist corpse-fuckers' sphincter!

Allies of Convenience

  • Necrons:
  • Orks: The basic ork are like the Worker/Mutant rabbles, but made worthy. Can be used to screening, in the FieldMek/"biggest ork/grot blob avaliable", (sort of) vanguard in the Warboss/Nobz/Battlewagon or the Bike Warboss/bike Nobz. Also a XBAWSHUEG blob of Lootas can do a good anti-air unit (they go usually at 5+. Going 6 is no great loss).

Desperate Allies

  • Dark Eldar: This could be a good (or at least interesting) pairing, with massive renegade blobs holding down the objectives while the Dark Eldar range ahead and blow things to pieces. Don't worry too much about the whole Desperate Allies thing; Renegades don't have that many abilities that would benefit the Dark Eldar, and the Dark Eldar ARE so much faster than the rest of your army that you don't need to worry about the whole One Eye Open, "we won't work within 6" of you" thing.
  • Tau:

Come the Apocalypse

  • Imperial Guard: - If you ally with Imperial Guard you've probably missed the point of playing a Renegades & Heretics Army, you have a lot of overlap with your units, but since you're only convenient allies you cannot join each others squads or benefit from orders. Plus, if it's just loads of tanks you want, ally with Armoured Companies instead.
  • Eldar
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