Warhammer 40,000/6th Edition Tactics/Renegades and Heretics

Originally printed across Imperial Armour 5-7 to represent the forces of Chaos on Vraks. Forge World gave these guys a bit of a nod by updating their rules for the 5th Edition, while a far cry from being competitive in 6th edition, the way that Forge World are going and revising old rules means it might get a revamp sometime soon... but for the moment here you go.

Why Play Renegades & Heretics

• You've got leftover units from the old Eye of Terror campaign that introduced Lost and the Damned.
• You want to play chaos without superhumans or daemons
• The 5th Edition army list is freely available from Forge World
• 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).

The "list" itself is actually three seperate but similar lists which represent a world's chronological descent into chaos worship:

• The first list is simply Defenders of Vraks or whatever other world you want it to represent. This version represents a world, organisation, or Imperial Guard Regiment that has just recently turned renegade against the Imperium, therefore the influences of Chaos are barely felt. Chaos Space Marines also have very little influence here too; the Alpha Legion are represented here as infiltrators who might have joined the "cause" under the guise of loyalist marines to convince the poor suckers to turn their backs on the corrupt Imperium.
• The second list is Servants of Slaughter; where Chaos is beginning to make itself felt. An incensed rebel military organisation often finds that Khorne is the easiest god to be introduced to and so the forces of the warp start making itself apparent, Mutants are starting to become prominent and Chaos Space Marine warbands start taking an interest, usually to the point of attempting to take over.
• The third list is Servants of Decay, which represented the forces of Vraks after they had been at war for decades. The original passion for rebellion has largely been snuffed out and replaced with resignation and despair, therefore gravitating towards Nurgle and being perhaps the most chaotically influenced of the three lists.
• As it stands there are no lists for the other gods. Presumably because an entire rebellion dedicated to Tzeentch would never come into frutation because the ringleaders of the rebellion would have back-stabbed everyone to the last man or Tzeentch having some fun and turning everyone into those creatures which shall not be named. Or having a rebellion dedicated to Slaanesh would result in a mass orgy and nothing getting done. The Purging of Contqual ring any bells?

Special Rules

• Renegades - Renegades & Heretics got one of the most stupid rules in 40k ever: Randomly generated leadership values... That means the first time a heretic unit takes a morale test, you have to pre-roll to figure out what the unit's leadership value actually was... somewhere between 5 and 10, potentially crippling a unit for the rest of the game.
  • Alternate Opinion- While it is quite possible to cripple a unit due to this rule, it is also unlikley to have a big effect. If your Guardsmen are taking a leadership test, chances are somthing has gone horribly, horribly wrong and the unit is as good as dead anyway. So even if you role crappy, well, they were fucked to begin with. But if you role good, your guardsmen have just become a FUCKING ANNOYING throwaway unit. 4 men left in the unit? charge the fuckers who gunned you down, forcing them to waste a turn tearing you apart before they can shoot again. In melee? Yeah, that 30-man ork blob now has to wait another turn before charging the next squishy meat pinata.

Wargear

• Voxcasters - While Renegades get vox casters like in the Imperial Guard, the 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 that doesn't have a decent character/advisor attached whose leadership you can rely on.
• Banners - 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 to all friendly combats within 6". The fact it also lets models in 12" re-roll failed morale checks.

Unit Analysis

HQ

• Company Command Platoon - Old-school Imperial Guard command squad and 0-6 three team heavy weapon squads. You don't get orders like Imperial Guard do, but you do get a 12" leadership bubble allowing other squads to use the commanders leadership BUT you suffer from the same leadership issues as the rest of the army, so you could potentially have a commander who's more cowardly than the everyday troops!
  • The Heavy Weapon support squads get an amazing weapon in Servants of Decay only: They have mortars that launch poisoned (2+) shells with AP3, FUCKING AWESOME! If you're playing against space marine armies, take all of these and watch your opponent weep as you fling poisoned / pinning templates of death over hills and buildings.
• Champion of Nurgle (Servants of Decay): A 2 wound character with built in mark of Nurgle, nothing particularly special, you get WS/BS/I 5 and access to the same wargear as regular sergeants/champions. They are fearless though, which is a good thing so you can attach them to militia and get them to hold objectives til the last man.
• Champion of Khorne (Servants of Slaughter): Another 2 wound character, but not with the new Mark of Khorne, instead just an extra attack. Can essentially do the same as above, but a bit more killy and less tanky. Just don't expect him to hold his own against special characters or hammernators.

Advisors

Another throw-back to the way things used to be done all the time with IG. You get to buy dudes that HAVE to be permanently attached to your renegade squads.

• Enforcers - Think evil commissars and you wont be far off, slightly better too since they have 2 wounds as standard but unfortunately cost 40 points a pop for the same gear as a guardsman, but they can get beefed up at further cost. They are kind of essential in your important units though since they are your consistent source of Ld 10.
  • Uniquely, you can take a demolition charge, giving the unit a scary surprise at close range.
• Apostate Preachers - Very similar to ministorum priests with 2-wounds, but disgustingly overcosted and if you want a rosarius you have to pay through the nose for it. You do get re-rolls on fails to-hit on the charge, but the unit also suffers an old rule where they count as moving even if they stayed still, so never ever think that having these attached to units with heavy weapons in them is a good idea. Not the best of choices anyway since the the army isn't particularly melee focused and cannot be attached to the space marine or ogryn units which might have benefited from getting melee re-rolls. Add to Worker/Mutant Rabbles or Beastmen squads for best effect.
  • Don't bother taking the unholy relic item either, as for 75% of the model you get a one-use plus one attack bonus to all friendly units within 2D6", which is PANTS as it's not going to affect that many units and is just too costly.
• Renegade Psykers (Defenders of Vraks) : For once a good unit! They were actually given a 6th edition update separately from the army list too. For starters they are dirt cheap; you can get five Lv1 psykers at 15pts each. While they do not draw from the disciplines in the rulebook, Forge World changed it up a bit so you can always get a power where before there was a possibility that your psyker did absolutely nothing, and you can buy a second roll, guaranteeing two powers. Just remember that instead of suffering perils of the warp, they turn into daemonhosts and become WS4 S4 A3 Rending, 5++ melee units for the rest of the game. Which while unfortunate, is better than most other armies get!
  • Random Powers Roll D6 :
  • 1: Lose 1 Ld but pick a power between 2-5.
  • 2: a unit in 12" gets 6++.
  • 3: The psyker gets a powerfist.
  • 4: the psyker gets D3 extra melee attacks at AP3.
  • 5: A unit within 12" gets +1 WS.
  • 6: Witchfire 24" S3 AP6 Heavy D6.
• Renegade Psykers of Nurgle (Servants of Decay): Behaves almost exactly like the unaligned renegade psyker, with the same standard profile and weapon options, even turns into a daemonhost instead of perils. The only difference is the choice of powers, making this one more of an area of effect hazard rather than a melee or ranged killer.
  • 1: Lose 1 Ld but pick a power between 2-5.
  • 2: a unit in 12" gets 6++.
  • 3: An enemy unit in 24" is in difficult terrain next turn (not Jump or Jet units though).
  • 4: auto-hit one selected model in 24" with AP2 Fleshbane!! (fuck yeah).
  • 5: A unit within 12" gets +1 WS.
  • 6: Nova 12" Assault D6 Poisoned (6+).

Special Characters

All three have been reprinted in 2013 Imperial Armour Apocalypse, cus you know Forgeworld just love spreading rules everywhere in unexpected places.

• Arkos The Faithless (Defenders of Vraks) - Finally an Alpha Legion Character. This guy wield the Dark Blade (+2S, Rending Power Sword), and bestow counter-attack to his squad, both of which is not near impressive as Zhufor also gets it from having the mark of Khorne- you need AP2 for challenges, - he's from the times when Alpha's was 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. He also has built-in mark of nurgle, without the AIDS and smallpox
• Zhufor The Impaler (Servants of Slaughter) - 2+ armor save and Eternal Warrior making him the tank version of Kharn. He has two different close combat weapons, the Skulltaker Chainaxe (like regular chainaxe, but two handed and with a +2A bonus) and the Claw of Demnos (power fist with another stolen Dorn's Arrow). Therefore, with Furious Charge he either gets 6 S10 AP2 I1 attacks or 8 S6 AP4 I5 Attacks on the charge! Still not as choppy as Kharn, but a decent alternative for a Khornate Lord.
  • One often overlooked point in Zhufor's favour is that he also lets you take a bodyguard unit of Khorne-marked Terminators without taking up a slot and granting the Renegades list one of its only sources of 2+ saves!
• Necrosius (Servants of Decay) - A fearless Nurgle Sorcerer with Feel No Pain, a poisoned bolt pistol and arguably one of the most powerful shooting powers: Wasting Disease. It hits automatically, wounds on a 2+ with Fleshbane at AP2, and if you roll 5 or less on psychic test you can snipe with it. He also has +1I compared to a normal sorcerer. Also, run him in a Zombie Horde List to give your zombies furious charge for S5.

TROOPS

• Renegade Militia Platoon - similar in form to an Imperial Guard platoon: 1 command squad and 2-5 militia squads. The basic soldier has the same stats & equipment as a standard guardsman but with the stupid leadership rule. Nothing particularly impressive here weapons or rules wise.
  • Perhaps the best thing to do would be to use the combined squad rule and bunch your separate units into one big super-unit. That gives all your heavy and special weapons an excellent measure of protection via wound-allocation by model positioning and also has added effect of delaying the effect of the random leadership after taking shooting casualties. If you go this route, there's also less need for having as many voxcasters in the unit, where if you had the platoon as separate units you'd need voxcasters everywhere! You also need less Enforcer/Priest as having one would apply its effects to the entire combined unit, this could save you a LOT of points in the long run as a tooled up Enforcer can cost the same as a militia squad.
• Renegade Armoured Fist Squad - a single militia squad with all the same options, but must purchase a Chimera, you know how this works.
• Worker Rabble (Defenders of Vraks) - 20-40 sub-conscripts with sub-flak armour, Init 2 and Ld 6. For every 10 models you can take a grenade launcher or flamer (forget heavy stubbers) which you should because those weapons don't rely entirely on BS to shoot thing and flamers work well for overwatch.
  • Use a the unit as a suicide tarpit and no other purpose. While you might be tempted to use workers for other tasks like objective holding, they don't have the Ld or Sv values to stick around unless you attach an advisor. 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, since 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,
  • Add an advisor mainly to help them pass the leadership test when they lose combat (they will). If you go for an overcosted priest, this is the unit to add him to since 60 re-rollable attacks on the charge for a minimum sized unit is handy, even at WS2.
  • The unit is marginally overcosted though, when we compare it to auxilia units in the Tyrant's Legion it's 30% more expensive per man (ie: one point) but the workers have Init 2, so are actually worse off overall.
• Mutant Rabble (Servants of Slaughter) - this is more like it! you get 20-50 of the above dudes with 5 Ld but 3 Init. This makes them a lot better than workers at the same job, because they strike at the same initiative as guardsmen and before Orks, Tau & Necrons so have a greater chance of doing some damage before you lose the unit to a sweeping advance. Because they were intended for suicide the loss of leadership isn't really issue since you can still mooch leadership off of an advisor. this unit is also cool for modelling opportunities.
• Bloodgor Beastman Attack Squad (Servants of Slaughter) - Remember when beastmen were actually part of 40k so many years ago? Well they're back and are actually not a terrible unit either. 10-20 strong at 6 pts each for a Toughness 4 model with two close combat weapons, Furious Assault and the ability to rally below half strength. They are more reliable tarpits and with a packmaster leader they get a more reliable Ld7, rather than the goofy random leadership.
  • You have to pay 1pt extra to replace a CCW with a laspistol or lasgun but it's probably not worth unless you're really desperate for lasfire it since they are BS2, but they can take Frag Grenades at 1pt per model which depends where you might want to assault them.
  • Makes for easy modelling too, since GW produce fantasy beastmen that you can kitbash with guard stuff
• Plague Zombies (Servants of Decay): Almost the zombies from codex: Chaos Space Marines, but not quite. These ones lose a point of WS to gain a point of strength, which means they can be S5 on the charge if you have Necrosius in the army. (Which can be hilarious when they start tearing apart tanks in melee through sheer weight of numbers) They also have a unique form of shambling gait which forces them to roll random movement all the time.

DEDICATED TRANSPORTS

• Rhinos - Very cheap and good transport since space marines are KNOWN TO HIDE IN MEHTAL BAWKSES, DA KOWARDZ! TEH FEWLZ! There's not much to say about it beyond "use it!" Seriously, don't footslog your Marines. A walking Marine is a dead Marine, and dead men hold no objectives. The only upgrades recommended are the Dozer Blade and maybe Hunter-Killer Missiles (if you have a lot of HK's in your army already). Once the guys are out of it, you can basically throw it away in petty dick moves like preventing charges, blocking line of sight, and tank shocking people into tight formation to be hit with flamers, more useful for shielding your own guys as it's side armour is 11, as opposed to the 10 most transports have (*cough* Chimera *cough*) so str 4 weapons (standard infantry power) can't glance it. You can also use its speed to dick around with Necrons if you feel like trolling them and don't really care about winning.
  • NOTE: look on the entry for the rhino in your codex and you will notice a rule that no-one ever uses, which is a shame because it totally rocks: opt out of shooting for a 1/6 chance of repairing an immobilized result.
  • In this list, it doesnt have all the cool toys of the latest 6th edition chaos codex.
• 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 use Hunter-Killers to demolish enemy vehicles. Other points of this fine vehicle:
  • Cheap (point-wise). You can spam them, get lots and lots of multilasers (it will please you), and a solid wall of AV12 metal in front.
  • 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.
• Dreadclaw Assault Pod - only available to your marine units, even with the latest update to their rules making them assault vehicle flyers, they don't turn up until turn 2 at the earliest, meaning units can't assault from them until turn three or later, since no unit that arrives from deep strike can assault the turn they arrive from reserve as per BRB. Handy if you were looking for a mid-game deployment of Khorne berserkers anywhere on the table though.
  • Watch this space though, because the earth-burning Anvillus pattern pod is coming and is poised to replace the traditional dreadclaw.

• FAQ'd: The dreadclaw uses regular drop pod rules. In subsequent turns it may use flyer/hover rules. It could be used for objective holding and nothing else.

ELITES

• Disciples of Xaphan - Guardsmen with BS4, Ld9 (so no stupid random leadership) and the ability to Infiltrate, though if you do you can't take a Chimera. Also pretty cheap at 8pts each. The squad is multi role fire support unit with a decent (but not excellent) range of wargear options. Three dudes can take special weapons and two dudes can turn into a heavy weapons team. The champion can also take a demo charge and/or sniper rifle. Customise to taste:
  • Chimera with 3 meltas/plasmaguns & demo charge, zip the unit up close to something you want dead, drop them out and hope you can do enough damage in one turn with big guns.
  • Infltrate them into cover and leave them there with a sniper rifle and longer range weapons for that job.
• Alpha Legion Squad (Defenders of Vraks) - Chaos space marine squads that are more like Tactical squads than Chaos squads, though they do get the additional close combat weapon as standard. They can also infiltrate. However, they have no heavy weapon option nor do they get access to any marks of chaos. While relatively shit you take them only because you're using a Defenders of Vraks list and this is still your only other "real" Elites choice. How sad.
• Khorne Berzerkers (Servants of Slaughter): - Old school Berserkers with 2 attacks as standard, so depending on how cheesy you want to be you could have this AND the new Mark of Khorne for Rage & Counter-Attack to make super berserkers. To be fair to you you are paying extra for these boys so go ahead and do it! You won't get access to Chain Axes, the new Champion of Chaos rule, Veterans of the Long War or an Icon either, so it remains largely a bare bones unit that's easy to use: Point and assault.
  • an email query from Forge World says that Zhufor DOES gets the new mark of khorne but changes his profile to represent this, so by association this logically applies to the Khorne Berserkers in the list too... shitty since they cost more. You might as well just replace this whole list entry with the equivalent from the Chaos Codex.
• Plague Marines (Servants of Decay): Unlike the 'Zerkers above, these guys didn't change too much between editions. So they function exactly as before and while they cannot be scoring troops in renegades armies, they are one of your hardest available units aside from Ogryns.
• Renegade Ogryn Berserkers (Defenders of Vraks & Servants of Slaughter): Ogryns that have gone bat shit mental and work for chaos. Toughness 5, 3-wounds & fearless gives them some staying power. With D6, Strength 6 attacks they've also got a bit of punch. Unfortunately suffer from a BAD rule meaning that you might even take Alpha Legionnaires over these guys. Shame cus the models are awesome and you're not playing competitively anyway!
  • One dude (non-character) can take a power weapon, such as an axe or a maul, meaning you might get lucky and throw out seven of strength 7, AP2 or strength 8, AP4 Concussive attacks on a charge.
  • They've got some stupid & convoluted rule (evidenced by the fact it's an entire fucking paragraph) where you've got to roll again after combat, roll higher than the number of attacks they made or take the difference in wounds... meaning they are penalised for doing well in combat and start granting your opponent kill points.
• Plague Ogryns (Servants of Decay): Renegade Ogryns infected with plague. Pretty fun overall, A lot better than standard renegade ogryns since they don't randomly drop down dead any more, Feel No Pain makes them comparable to Plague Marines for immovability, though they don't have power armour. They also have D6 poisoned (2+) so they can harm practically anything more reliably than standard renegade ogryns too.
  • the 6th Edition changes to universal special rules guaranteed their FnP rolls against nearly everything except S10 or Force Weapons despite nerfing the roll means they do better in melee combat against things with power weapons/fists than they did before. Slow & Purposeful also made them a bit quicker, since they don't always count as being in difficult terrain all the time.

FAST ATTACK

• Hellhound - (one only, no 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 6th edition, Fast vehicles can now fire 2 weapons at full BS at cruising speed, so enjoy the possibilities of hull weaponry combinations.
• Scout Sentinel Squadron: With such weak armor, most likely they are going to die on a second turn. Fun choice of weapons. Key part here is that they have Scout - so three Sentinels outflanking from the side or scouting into cover blasting away, causing havoc in the enemy ranks, is a good idea. 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. If you want to be insane, having Heavy Flamers all around can result in hilarious infantry murder. Otherwise, most of the time you'll take them as a 40 point autocannon on legs since they are cheap and effective against most things.
• Armored Sentinel Squadron: Armored Heavy Weapons Team, practically. 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 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. Take in threes so they can be generally more efficient in anything you want them to do.
  • Forge World allow both scout and armored 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.
• Blight Drone (Servants of Decay): Possessed hovering flyer with a BS2, 5+ invulnerable save, reaper autocannon and a mawcannon (without tongue). At 120 pts., it's a vehicle so long as your army has a squad of Plague Marines. 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.
• Chaos Spawn (Servants of Slaughter & Decay) Going back to the crappy unit of ye olden times in 5th edition. Though the 6th edition improved them slightly by removing some of the flaws with slow & purposeful, they still aren't as good as their 6th ed Codex counterparts. No marks, more expensive and still no control over them. You can get better choices in a renegades list, so use them instead.
• Salamander Scout Squadron: The chaos version of the fast scout tank, they comes with AV12/10/10, 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 Scout and Fast they as well as AV12 they can do Sentinel job - but unlike sentinels they are better riding in the open rather then wandering through terrain.

HEAVY

• Renegade Militia Heavy Weapons Platoon - 1 command squad, 1-3 heavy weapon squads & 0-1 Sabre Artillery Battery.. Now this is interesting, something that was in the old IG codex, then it wasn't. While you don't get the awesome poison mortars that the HQ command platoon gets and the actual command squad is still just "meh", you do get all the typical heavy weapon staples and you can blob them all together to make one massive unit of heavy weapons teams, using the elements of the command squad as a meat shield and the champion as a 1-turn character neuter if they somehow get into close combat. The most interesting part though is you can also take Sabre artillery in the unit AND blob it all together too, making a large, predominantly 2-wound-per-model artillery unit and therefore toughness 6 against shooting. Always add an enforcer to make sure the unit doesn't shit it and run.
  • Done this way the blob can have 10 Autocannon teams, 3 twin-linked/skyfire/interceptor autocannons and a couple of flamers for close range defense and a few spare dudes for ablative wounds.
• Blood Slaughterer (Servants of Slaughter)*: Blah, blah, blah goofy name blah, blah FUCK THAT NOISE! Blood Slaughterers are fucking dangerous and anyone that says otherwise is an idiot. WS5, FA13, Fleet, Rampage, Daemon of Khorne, Daemonic Resilience, Deepstrike and + D3 attacks on the charge - they are the icing on the cake to a Servants of Slaughter army. Be sure to take Impalers (S8 AP3 R12 assault 1 and always hits on a 4+) so you can drag things into auto-blend range.
• Leman Russ: Leman. Fucking. Russ. It's a big tank. You get the same version as the Imperial Guard, but you only get one per heavy slot (BOO) 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: A Melta (which always provides +1d6 armor penetration) with a devastating range. Thus a bit costly for 1 shot at BS3 (works well with Pask, but only useful against vehicles). 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 on average, you end up with 10 S5 hits 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.
• Destroyer Tank Hunter: IMMA CHARGIN MAH LAZOR! Ordnance 60" twin-linked lascannon seems tempting, but like LR Annihilator it's just too expensive. Just take Basilisk instead - its tank busting is almost the same, backed with indirect fire and ability to rape infantry blobs.
• Thunderer Siege Tank Squadron: It's Leman Russ chassis with hull-mounted demolisher cannon. Unlike LR Demolisher it has no front/side sponsons, but for some reason it's also NOT heavy - meaning you can move it 12" and even flat out another 6" to get round two shot. Obviously this is your Vindicator, and like all IG vehicles its all around better then his SM analog, due to the combination of superior armor and sufficient speed.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Hydra Flak Tank: 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.
• Manticore Launcher Tank: Mixed-bag. Good for the points, bigger blast range then hell, but can't deal with marines. Drop it back by your Basilisks or Heavy Weapons, since it's not gonna do much good at the front lines. Good points are simple: They're not open-top, compared to artillery. They have HUGE blast ranges and they can virtually ensure that you're going to be making people spread out their firepower - great for you to focus on one group at a time. Downsides are just as bad as the upsides, though. Limited ammo CAN be a problem (rarely, either because either Manticore or the enemy ends up demolished). If enemy is spreading their units out, it causes you to lose a lot of rocket's effectiveness. Seriously, it can only shoot 4 out of 5-6 turns (unless your opponent isn't retarded, in which case it'll be gone a great deal sooner). Overlooked a lot, but can be powerful on those first few crucial turns. On a high note, Manticores DEMOLISH Necron Warrior elements or Ork/Nid/Guard blobs.
• Minefield (Defenders of Vraks only) - for 50pts you can place six minefield markers on the battlefield, the trick is that during your first turn you have to check and see if they were deal or decoys or not with 50/50 odds. If you're successful you get an 8"x4" zone mines which themselves have a 50/50 chance of causing a S6 hit to EACH ENEMY model that moves over it. If you are lucky enough to get a few of these you can make the battlefield quite hazardous to your opponent, even works on skimmers & jump infantry as the mines leap up to meet them. Not bad for the points

FAQ'd: The 50 pts minefield is comprised of 6 40mm bases, each representing a cluster of mines or unexploded ordnnace. Place them anywhere on the board outside the enemy deployment zone. If an enemy or ally model moves within 2" of a 40mm base, roll a D6, on the roll of a 2+ place the 5" blast marker over the base centre. This area is now dangerous terrain for the rest of the game. Complete shit now, worth spending on it you have some points free to clog some choke points up. Looks like it could still be fun to use in city games.

TACTICS

ALLIES

The Renegades & Heretics function identically to Chaos Space Marines with respect to what they can or cannot ally with.

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 (like Plague Marines or Khorne Berserkers which Renegades get access to anyway) 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

• 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.
• 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).
• Tau:

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.