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

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

Forge World has recently re-done the Siege Of Vraks in a single book, which was essentially a variant army list for the generic "Renegades & Heretics" which focused exclusively on Khorne and Nurgle but included a couple of unique characters and Demagogue options.

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.
• Modelling opportunities are simply amazing with this army. Even though the army is widely based on hordes, you can pick units basically from any model site, since renegades are very diverse. You can also use a load of your old Warhammer Fantasy bits.
• 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

A single Renegade Command Squad may pick a specialization for your Renegade Demagogue which has a sweeping effect on the options the rest of the army gets, but if you select one then it forces the character to become the army Warlord (hence why only one can take it). It is not compulsory for you to take one so you can have allied detachments without Devotions if you just want to use the generic army list.

• 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). Also becomes Fearless.
• 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 grants his Command Squad Curse of Mutation (handy if you roll a lot of 1's for your cannon-fodder, er, Mutant Rabble squads), and 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.

Alternative opinion: Or you could ignore the random spawn hate and enjoy a super discounted unit of chaos spawn. Oh shiiiiiiigibblegrubleshdgcydvaaaaaaargh!

• Master of the Horde - basically, Send In The Next Wave from Imperial Guard. Whenever a Renegade Infantry Squad numbering at least 15 models gets destroyed, roll. On a 5+, identical one is placed in Reserves (would be so much better if they had written it as being put into Ongoing Reserves, but Forgeworld... Forgeworld indicated with their FAQ that it is ongoing reserves, so yay!). It has all of the upgrades of the previous unit, but no Dedicated transport (unclear as to whether or not attached Enforcers return too, but we would lean toward not, as they strictly weren't bought as part of the "unit"). 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. WAIT! forge world has confirmed via email that destroyed squads do indeed enter ONGOING RESERVES so drown your enemies in as many corpses as your wallet can muster!
• 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 pseudo fearless so long as the bearer is alive. Can be a practical primary detachment upgrade, since it allows your Warlord to have two Covenants of Chaos (one is granted from this specialization, without actually giving the "Chaos Covenant" special rule.) and thereby double up on Master of Renegade exclusives.
• 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 Imperial Guard 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? (if you do this use converted krone bloodbound, Blood Warriors) 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, even better with the Unending Host detachment.
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. This is really stupid if you took a Min-Size unit for your HQ, since you could execute one of your important dudes. Solution, max out the squads and show them cowards who's boss! Note that the Demagogue is an IC, so he's perfectly capable of being shoved into a 50 strong unit of mutants to make full use of this trait. Attach to Plague Zombies for extra hilarity.
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. Each one has a downside, but some are better than others.
  • 1-2 Horrific Disfiguration - unit gets Fear and Friendly units without the Curse of Mutation special rule in 6" have -1 Ld. only really bad if you aren't running a Mutant Overlord Arch-demagogue, or aren't using Chimeras or other transports to move your more squeamish troops. And you can always use a WoM as insurance.
  • 3-4 Unnatural Senses - Acute Senses & Scout for outflanking goodness, but they treat all blast, barrage and heavy weapons as having the Blind special rule. Yes, blinding can reduce them to WS/BS1 if they get hit by heavy weapons every turn, that's only down from two, so not a big deal.
  • 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 an enemy unit in 12", only really a downside if they were at extreme range and suffered needless overwatch.

• 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 Unit of 1-3 Blight Drones as one Elites Choice.
  • 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 for Uncertain Worth.

• 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 (and WS if applicable) 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, it does the normal banner thing of adding +1 to combat resolution for the squad.
• 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.

Unit Analysis

HQ

• 1+ Renegade Command Squad: Compulsory guard-style command squad consisting of your commander; the Arch-Demagogue, and four to fourteen of his disciples. One guy can take a banner and another can take the Command-Vox, both are almost compulsory selections that will mitigate much of the army's morale problems. Only one guy can take a special weapon and two disciples can be turned into a Heavy Weapons Team (and are the only unit in the army that can take Flak Missiles) regardless of squad size, so larger squads don't necessarily become more effective. Chaos Covenants and Demagogue Devotions give additional army options, as described above.
  • Since Archdemagogues are basically a buffmander that doesnt really have any hard hitting ability of their own you should either camp them in a chimaera/fortification/artillery unit or run them at max squad size. Don't give your opponent an easy warlord kill.

• 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 must be deployed as individual units, so be careful in any mission where your opponent can get any objectives involving wiping out squads with shooting or assault since all their powers are short ranged. They can not be attached to the other squads due to the Aura of The Witch rule - this is likely done to prevent squads from using the psyker's flat Ld 8. Unable to join units for wound allocation meat-shields, these guys are going to go down fast and hard if they are caught out of cover, with a 5+ invuln save being the one thing between them and a Commissar's boot... the fact that their powers all have such short range certainly won't help matters, either. Renegade Pyskers do not draw from the disciplines in the rule book and therefore do not have access to psychic focus. Instead, they have their own table, and if they suffer 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. While this is unfortunate, you don't have to worry about having a completely wasted unit if you roll perils on your first turn. They also get both of their wounds back, regardless of how many they had before they started to RIP AND TEAR. Having a Primaris Rogue-Psyker as your warlord lets you take another Coven, allowing for a full-on Tzeentch cult. You can also abuse this to generate an unseemly amount of warp dice.
  • 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. Not particularly effective on marine-based (see: most of the hobby) armies. Hilariously trollworthy against Astra Militarum and Tau.
  • 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. They're bought as one choice, but must be deployed as separate units and can't join any other units under any circumstances... so Kill Points ahoy! The jury's still out on whether you can attach other guys to these one man squads, but why would you? I guess you could give your CSM Sorcerer some kind of fluffy lick-spittle apprentice. Perhaps consider instead an allied CSM Sorcerer, Daemon Prince, Greater Daemon or Herald if you think you need beefier psyker representation. You could theoretically take ten of these guys (five in HQ, five in Elites) for less than 400 points if you had a Primaris Psyker Witch Arch-Demagogue and were of an insane mindset.

Special Characters

Special characters have been re-introduced in the Imperial Armour: Siege of Vraks book, though the originals Renegades characters (Arkos, Necrosius & Zhufor) have all been shuffled off to the core Chaos Space Marines list, leaving the core Renegades & Heretics list without any special characters at all. If you want them you have to take the Renegades of Vraks Variant army list (for Mamon or Uraka) or take Chaos Space Marine allies.

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 5 points (have to buy a Champion) not really it only allows you to upgrade your Renegade Champion to a Demagogue for free nothing else. All soldiers have no armour, BS 2 and random leadership, but a lot of options. Command Squad automatically replaces its 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. Also, special weapon for every 5 men.

• Mutants Rabble: Simply, THE tar-pit 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 (or just to you! Double check that rule!)

• 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 Grenadier upgrade to this squad for a flat 15 points, giving them +1 BS and hot-shot lasguns. 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. Yeah, they only have toughness 3 so scatter lasers will remove yout FnP, but most armies won't waste any firepower besides their bolters on these guys.

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. Points wise, two Disciple squads equate to one Imperial Veteran squad, with two heavy and two special weapons instead of three special and one heavy. Upgrades that affect entire units like armor or covenants are slightly less point efficient on Disciples since your paying 10 pts a model to grow the squad, but with how cheap your other units can come this may not be that big of a deal.

• 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 compatible now though - one Renegade Ogryn can take a Lascutter / Power Drill (S9 AP2 unwieldy), and 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 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.
    • Never thought I'd say this but seriously, take the unnamable beasts instead
• 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.

These guys are of limited availability, but for a good reason. They are your premium special weapons teams that pretty much leave the renegade vets in the dust. They cost the same ppm with the same statline down to WS 4 (except they can actually make use of it) and flat Ld 8 on top. They can take the same amount of toys at min squad size, including the only sniper rifles you can get. And they pick the doctrines for free! The downsides of this fine unit are fairly negligible. They have their funny "no regrouping" rule and no upgrades to mitigate it, except it doesn't matter since your melta strike team has no reason to leave their dedicated metal box, and even if they are persuaded to, there's free carapace armour to go through as well. That is, unless you went on a plasma safari on foot, in which case just Stealth down in your cover. They miss out on the Tank Hunter doctrine, but did you really need that on weapons with an average pen roll of 14? They get no Covenants, but it can't be all fine and dandy. They do take up an Elites slot, but those are mostly reserved for Devotion stuff anyway, which you can easily get as allies with Spiky Marines.

• • 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 chargers. 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. Or drive in your surprise meltas from behind.
    • Hereteks gives them carapace armour and krak grenades, and is the balanced option; take whatever you like.

They are one of the few things in the army list that surpass their closest Imperial Equivalency, Scion squads, by being a malleable unit with good assault potential rather than just a dedicated anti-MEQ unit. They still comparatively expensive to your other units, requiring an additional investment of 10 points per wound after start-up cost. One way to negate the biggest downside to this unit is by sticking a baneblade in the proximity of them giving the unit zealot!

A Second Take: Actually, Marauders are a HUGE boon if you know how to bend the rules of the Codex properly. Because your demagogue counts as an independent character, and the covenant rules apply to "any unit which contains at least one model" with the covenant, you can have a second command squad with their Arch-Demagogue inside of a Marauder unit. If you stick both of your demagogues with dual power swords inside of a murder-cultist unit, giving the second demagogue a covenant of Khorne., with 2 power swords on the marauders and 1 on the Chieftain, you can get off 20 power sword attacks on the charge, (3 from each from 2 marauders, 4 from the Chieftain, 5 from each demagogue) at Str 4, which combined with the number of close combat attacks a full squad of 10 can take, amounts to 11.275 average wounds on a space marine Tactical squad the first round of combat. Did i mention these guys strike at initiative 4, so that space marine units strike simultaneously with them? They can easily take down a carnifex before it even gets to strike back, and will decimate anything toughness 5 or lower that they get to strike before, which includes Ogryns, Tyranid warriors, and other squishy targets. Get these guys charging in from a good position, and they will annihilate most monstrous creatures. Give them some power axes, and send them in against tougher targets, so long as you are willing to lose a few of the worse equipped sods.

• The Unnameable Beasts (only Arch-demagogue, become noncompulsory Troops 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 (vs 90 pts in CSM) (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.
  • In a Vraks Renegades army, there is no Tzeentch requirement to take these as elites. Furthermore, the Master of Renegades rule itself should have been deleted (as per Forge World e-mail response), so they are simply an Elites choice in a Vraks Renegades army. Ignoring the e-mail response as "unofficial," they are still an Elites choice if your Arch-demagogue is your army's warlord.

• 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. 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.]
    • You "could" instead take them as allies, and free up that Elite slot. But it's not like Renegades & Heretics have an over abundance of options since the only universal ones are Disciples & Ogryns. Plus taking them as allies forces the HQ+Troops tax on you, and that could mount up since a secondary detachment can't make Noise Marine units into Troops.

• 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.
  • Keep in mind that Forgeworld buffs these tanks by making them torrent 18" instead of the standard 12". They list these things in the Weapon Summary page, for no discernible reason. It also comes cheaper than an IG hellhound for the same battlefield efficiency, templates aren't affected by the difference of BS 3 and BS 2.

In addition you also have the two variants available. The Bane Wolf sacrifices most of your range for the potential to wipe out MEQ units in one shot, but if anything survives the chemical spray you will feel some pain. The Devil Dog on the other his a tank squadron destroyer, with its melta cannon able to threaten bunched up armor and does a decent job against TEQ. Being blast instead of template, the Devil Dog is also the only Hellhound variant to lack ignores cover on its main gun, and while that 1 inch of reduced scatter you'll get from militia training isn't much, it's more than the absolutely nothing your template weapons get.

• 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). Sadly renegade Sentinels never get plasma cannons, but they would probably just 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
  • Alternative alternative take: Go hard or go home. Take at least two squads of five with no upgrades other than heavy flamers then watch your opponent struggle with target priority. They absorb decent amounts of bolter fire away from your squishies, and if your opponent is silly enough to lascannon them then its one less shot hitting your useful tanks. Not bad for 200 points. You'll likely make a good chunk of those points back if a couple actually make it into flamer range too.
• 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. You won't go far wrong spamming these with your mechanized gribblies, either.

HEAVY

• Renegade Support Squad: 3 renegade Weapons Teams, typical Heavy Weapons Teams. Use as you would the Astra Militarum Equivalents, but upgrade the BS. They can be bought Covenants. Take 6 Autocannons or 6 Lascannons with a Covenant of Tzeentch as an improv AA unit. Better yet, throw them into a Fortification with an Ammo Dump for some extra rerolls and survivability. Don't forget that Renegades can take Heavy Stubber teams as well as the usual options, which are cheap as chips, especially if you decide not to upgrade their BS to 3. If you're considering taking lascannons though take a good look down at the Rapier batteries, for less points you get twin-linked and ordnance at the cost of only slightly shorter range.

• 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 reasonably useful. With its S8 AP3 72" gun and thick armor, it is good against anything for decent points, very much a multi-tool. Other variants do specialist roles better.
  • 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. Also don't forget the co-axial heavy stubber for greater dedicated anti tank reliability.
  • Leman Russ Eradicator: Kind of a Hellhound that hits worse, is slower but better armored. 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/Guard. Equiped with Plasma Cannon Sponsons it can tackle anything short of heavy armor and fliers, very versatile.
  • 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 - (a heavy stubber or heavy flamer sponsons to taste is nice to help protect against weapon destroyed) - 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 anything to dust. Take 3 and find a way to get Divination into your army for added hilarity.
  • Leman Russ Conqueror: It's kinda light version of Leman Russ Battle Tank - Conqueror turret cannon comes with less range and less blast radius , 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,but is fast, meaning it is not slow as hell. Overall not a too 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.
    • alternate view, to little more than 100 points, you have a fast vehicle capable of carrying heavy bolters,multi melta and plansma cannon on the sides of enemy lines and out of coverage, depending on the sponson may act as a fast "punisher" or "executioner" , in both cases remains less effective than the original versions.
    • tips:it remains one of the few fast things in this army, can be usefull to accopany chaos spawn as support and cut enemy LOS, he can also contest enemy objective the lastest rouds....if still alive(not easy for a vehicle theese days)
    • note: many people make mistakes, but in agreement with IA: SOW conqueror cannon is F8 VP3 small blast 48 ", many people use/belive in old or wrong profile (often represented by vp 4 or F7 small blast)

• • 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.
  • Leman Russ Executioner: Basically has 3 plasma cannons, give it another 2 plasma cannons for 30 points and DESTROY anything that moves. This tank is the bane of terminators, but if you just want to kill marines, the standard Russ is a better option. Also watch out for gets hot rolls-it can kill itself.
• 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. Now according to new draft FAQ Ordnance can Snap Shoot, so some nice AA from this unit.
• 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

Beyond those available to all R&H Primary Detachments, the Lords of War you have access to are dependent on your Demagogue Devotions.

• All Renegades and Heretics Primary Detachments: Baneblade, Malcador Heavy Tank, Malcador Defender, Minotaur Artillery Tank
• Primaris Rogue-Witch: Any of the Apocalypse-level Daemon Lords - An'ggrath the Unbound (yep, you need a psyker to take a khorne daemon), Scabiethrax, Zaraknyei, or Aetaos'rau'keres (can't be more than 25% of the cost of your army because Forgeworld).
• Mutant Overlord: 1-3 Giant Chaos Spaw... or 1-3 Spined Chaos Beasts, either of which is taken as a single Lords of War choice.
• Master of the Horde: Nothing, besides the default choices.
• Bloody-Handed Reaver: Lord of Skulls or Greater Brass Scorpion.
• Arch-heretic Revolutionary: Any of the Macharius variants.
• Heretek Magos: A Valdor Tank Hunter, Greater Brass Scorpion, Chaos Warhound Titan, or Chaos Reaver Titan.
• Renegade Baneblade: Standard Baneblade but with BS2 and Blasphemous Icon, which gives all renegades within 12" fanatic and zealot. Pretty freakin' awesome. For only 500pts with militia training it is pretty much an auto include.
• Renegade Malcador: This tank is a rip off. It has worse armour than a Russ, and no extra weapons save the 'mighty' heavy stubber. Only good thing is it has 6 hull points, and can move faster. At 225 points, don't even consider using it.
  • HOLD UP A SECOND
    • The guy above me is full of it. First off, you can give this baby a hunter-killer missile an an extra pintle mounted heavy bolter. Along with a hull mounted HB and sponson HBs, you're putting out a decent amount of anti-infantry. Personally, I give mine sponson lascannons and a hull mounted HB, but I like swiss army knife units so it comes down to preference. Hugely underrated tank, I see them earn their points back in most games. Also as a superheavy tank this thing can fire an ordnance battle cannon and still open up with its other weapons at full BS.
• Renegade Minotaur: This tank has a very good gun, but for less points you could have 2 basilisks, which do exactly the same job. It thankfully has the best armour on the rear, since it's weapons are fixed, facing the back.
• Renegade Malcador Defender:This tank is made for one thing: wrecking hordes. It has 7(7!!!) heavy bolters and a demolisher. Enough said. However, if you just want the demolisher, a Russ is a better option.
• Greater Brass Scorpion:Hilarious amounts of super-heavy walker rape in a segmented can. For 700 points, you get a Baneblade-level armored big metal arachnid with a Demolisher Cannon for a face, Inferno Cannon-equivalents in both arms, a S6 AP3 Heavy 10 splattergun on its tail, and close combat capability that will pretty much make anything that survives its ranged weaponry bombardment shit itself (though it's only WS3). Oh, and it makes enemy psykers explode and goes supernova when it finally gets taken down by the massive ordnance your enemy will inevitably deploy to kill the hell out of it before it does a berserk charge and tears his shiny Titan seven new assholes.
• Spined Chaos Beast: You get up to 3 of these in 1 LoW slot, for 140 pts each. With WS5, S7, T6, and 4 wounds these can do and take a lot of damage, but with only 3 attacks it will take a while. Dedicate it t Khorne(which is free) to give it strength 8 on the charge and it can instant death marines as well as take out light vehicles. Use 2-3 as a sacrificial attack force to kill as much as possible, but bear in mind it is not the toughest so can be killed by medium weaponry. Once in combat though, this wall of muscle will wreck entire squads, striking marines at the same time, hitting them on 3's and killing on 2's with instant death. And can deep strike, has it will not die and daemonic instability. Yep, that means you can regain dead beasts entirely if you roll well, although you can lose your whole unit. Is actually an MC despite the name, meaning it is AP2!
• Giant Chaos Spawn: NOOOOAAARGH! Again you get up to 3 gribblies for 1 LoW slot, and at 80 pts each they are probably the cheapest LoW ever. WS4, S&T6, 4 wounds and D6+2 attacks make this a powerful unit when all 3 are present. If you roll decently you can get a shedload of attacks. Has a better mutation table to standard spawn, on a 5 or 6 you get feel no pain 2+ as well as your 4+ armour save. WTF. On a 3 or 4 enemies get -2 I, making you strike before marines. Awesome. Is also a MC not a beast, so moves a bit slower but who cares.
• Chaos Warhound Titan:The desecrated Scout Titan is a force to be reckoned with. Costs 730 pts. AV 14/13/12, 9 HPs and 2 Void Shields mean it's quite tough. The Agile special rule allows it to shoot all weapons, fire a single weapon after a Run move or Run twice instead. Has the Dirge Caster by default. The Chaos Warhound possesses two weapon slots and may pick any combination from the list of: Double-barreled turbo-laser destructor, Plasma blastgun, Inferno gun or Vulcan Megabolter. All weapons are powerful but the turbo-laser erases entire chunks of the enemy army with its delicious Strength D Large Blasts (2 from one weapon!). On the other hand the Megabolter is one of the rare Titan-grade weapons that might actually fire at a Flyer or Swooping FMC, and with S6 AP3 Heavy 15 it has a reasonable chance of downing one with a single salvo. What sets it apart from the loyalist version is the ability to dedicate it to a Chaos God. This is advisable for the Daemon 5++ save, the rest are mostly bonuses:
  • Khorne: The cheapest (along with Slaanesh) at 50 pts., gives Hatred (Slaanesh), lets you re-roll the number of Stomps you get, and gives +D3 attacks on the charge. Because you were going to charge instead of just shooting it with your guns anyways right? Meh upgrade really.
  • Nurgle: The most expensive at 100 pts., it gives Hatred (Tzeentch) and It Will Not Die. Despite the high cost this seems to be the best option, granting increased survivability to something that is already a huge fire magnet.
  • Tzeentch: 75 pts. granting Hatred (Nurgle), re-rolls for 1's To Hit, and gives the Inferno Cannon Soul Blaze. Despite Soul Blaze being kind of overkill and not really effective the re-rolls make up for it. Another good option.
  • Slaanesh: the other 50 pts. option, this one grants Hatred (Khorne) and in CC forces the enemy to take a LD test at a -2 or reduces their initiative to 1. If it wasn't for the fact that most CC threats are I1 anyways (other Walkers maybe?) this would be good.
• Chaos Reaver Titan: The largest unit a Chaos army may field. In fact, at 1,460 pts. this Battle Titan costs almost as much as a regular army. Anyway, the Chaos Reaver is extremely tough with AV 14/14/13 and 18 fucking Hull Points protected by 4 fucking Void Shields. It is further equipped with a Dirge Caster and must select one carapace weapon and two arm weapons. The carapace weapons are Warhound-grade whilst the arm slots have even stronger BFGs. The Laser blaster in particular is an enhanced version of the turbo-laser with Strength D AP2 Primary Weapon 3 shots per gun. You can totally equip the Reaver with two of those and a carapace turbo-laser to fire 8 Strength D Large Blasts each turn. Why? Because MAIM! KILL! BURN!, that's why. Like the Chaos Warhound it may be dedicated to a Chaos God for the Daemon USR and certain other bonuses:
  • Khorne: The cheapest (along with Slaanesh) at 100 pts., gives Hatred (Slaanesh), lets you re-roll the number of Stomps you get, and gives +D3 attacks on the charge. Because you were going to charge instead of just shooting it with your guns anyways right? Meh upgrade really.
  • Nurgle: The most expensive at 200 pts., it gives Hatred (Tzeentch) and It Will Not Die. Seriously, a Daemon Reaver Titan of Nurgle will not die. Despite the high cost this seems to be the best option, granting increased survivability to something that is already a huge fire magnet.
  • Tzeentch: 150 pts. granting Hatred (Nurgle), re-rolls for 1's To Hit, and gives the Inferno Cannon Soul Blaze. Despite Soul Blaze being kind of overkill and not really effective the re-rolls make up for it. Another good option.
  • Slaanesh: the other 100 pts. option, this one grants Hatred (Khorne) and in CC forces the enemy to take a LD test at a -2 or reduces their initiative to 1. If it wasn't for the fact that most CC threats are I1 anyways (other Walkers maybe?) this would be good.
    • Note: This will make your opponent cry and most likely strangle you until you die...then revive you just to kill you again; Prepare the tear cup Loyalists! Prepare for the uttermost mature cheddar. As you all know the Reaver Titan is an utter beast of a machine. Are you now prepared for an Invisible 2++ Invul Reaver? Yeh. Didn't think so. It takes A LOT to do but is hilarious. Reaver Titan. Daemon Titan of Nurgle (IWND and a 5++) with give a 4++ from Divination, and add the Grimoire for 2++ ! Throw Invisibility on it and bring in the tear cup! Your opponent will hate you for this. Chaos is fickle.
    • Luckily for Loyalists Daemon Titan of Tzeentch doesn't give Daemon of Tzeentch or else you would have a Re-Rollable 2++ Reaver that can only be hit on 6s, and that is immune to most ordnance (as they are mostly blasts).(Daemon-Titans of Tzeentch 'count as' daemons of Tzeentch, so would that mean this can be done?) Or just go the whole distance and put it in the center of a (apocalypse) tetrahedron of darkness, re-rolling daemon saves. You can hate me in advance
• Khorne Lord Of Skulls:Khorne's big badass close combat death machine. It starts with only 4 attacks, but gets more (up to ten) for each hull point it loses - even if it recovers those lost hull points later! This is made better by it having It Will Not Die and a 5+ Invulnerable save and the fact that his CC weapon is Strength D! This thing also has two ranged weapons. His arm weapon is a 48" Heavy 12 gatling gun with Pinning but can be replaced with a 60" S9 AP3 Apocalyptic blast that forces successful saves to be re-rolled. His belly gun is an MEQ killing Hellstorm Template that can be replaced with either a 48" S7 AP2 Large blast gun or an even deadlier Hellstorm Template that has Gets Hot but also has Instant Death. Well worth considering.

• Note: The following Lords of War can only be 25% of your army cost. Rage if you must.
  • An'ggrath, the Unbound - "Ill kill you so hard that you will die to death" Costs thrice as much as a normal Bloodthirster pointswise at a whopping 888 (sacred numbers are fun) points but is an unholy monster in close combat - anything within range of his axe is pretty much dead but is just too stupid to realize it. And when I say "anything", I really mean anything - not even an Imperator titan or Hierophant would survive close combat with this thing. His melee capability is pretty much unmatched; if it's in base contact with him, it's going to be dead within the turn. He costs A LOT and is a massive firemagnet, but as a flying gargantuan creature he is now insanely durable (as in T8 2+/3++ save with FnP that you can only hit on 6's durable), and can rip apart enemy fliers. On the plus side, he eats titans and superheavies like Abaddon eats people; hell he could eat Abaddon for breakfast. He gets +D6 attacks on the charge and has a lovely 2+ Deny the Witch. Thanks to the new Gargantuan Creature rules he can now be locked in close combat, so be wary of tarpits should anything survive your charge. On the brighter side you now no longer have to trade all of your attacks to Stomp attack, so once you have launched all of your strength 10 AP 2 Instant Death on 6's hits, throw down some Stomp attacks on anyone that managed to survive. He's still overpriced though - Zarakynel does it almost as well for 222 points less, regenerates wounds and Dat Ass.... On the other hand, because superheavy vehicle rules regarding D-strength hits are much better than gargantuan creature rules, he can get ganked with horrible ease by D-Strength weapons , keep him flying and away from anything that can smack him with an SD hit like your life depends on it (this is now only a secondary priority now strength D only ignores invun on a 6, although it will still ignore your armour and FNP no matter what). Because going down to two turbo-laser shots is not fun. If you see a Tau Manta or Tigersharks; prepare to cry because they're going to sodomize you and there's nothing you can do about it.
  • Scabeiathrax, the Bloated - Will never, ever, ever, ever die. He is to Great Unclean Ones as An'ggrath is to Bloodthirsters. Though he costs 777 points, with 6 wounds, Feel no Pain (4+), Invulnerable saves (3++), Daemon of Nurgle (Shrouded), and toughness 9 (which means that heavy bolters and down can't hurt him and he has a pretty good chance of just laughing off lascannons on toughness alone) there is practically nothing in the game that will kill him. He has a bunch of Nurgling attacks, though not that many of his own - but any wounds he inflicts become 2 wounds to the model he strikes should they fail a toughness test. Additionally should anything that doesn't have Mark of Nurgle or is not a Daemon be within 6" of him they must take a toughness test or suffer a wound with no armor or cover saves allowed. This helps considerably should something try to keep him locked in close combat thanks to the new Gargantuan Creature rules. He's kind of like Typhus if Typhus were mutated by nuclear waste that had Papa Nurgle had spilled his latest concoction on. He's a big firemagnet, but given the amount of effort it takes to kill him; that won't do anything to him and in fact will be very good for the rest of your army. All the same, watch out for Strength D shooting weapons FAQ is out on destroyer weapons and they no longer ignore invulnerable saves, making them a minimal threat to Ol' Scabies. Unless they roll a 6. Then he's just dead.
  • Zarakynel, the Bringer of Torments - Essentially the An'ggrath of Keeper of Secrets. While she is the weakest of the Uber Greater Daemons at 666 points, she is no slouch and will bring massive levels of oh so literal assrape to everything in her long reach. She has both Init and WS 10, gains D3 attacks on the charge, counts as armed with assault grenades when charging and re-rolls all failed to-hit and to-wound rolls - pretty much guaranteeing that she will go first and hit rather regularly with her AP1 instant death sword that replenishes her wounds on a 2+. For extra lulz, non-fearless units have to pass a leadership test before they can try and hit her back. The latest edition gives her a 36" S6 AP3 shooting attack with D6 shots and pinning albeit at BS3. So essentially, like Lucius the eternal turned up to eleven. Plus DISTRACTION BOOBS!
  • Aetaos'Rau'Keres - 999 points of titleless pain. He's been changed up recently but still grows your army at the expense of your opponents' with Riftbringer or heals himself with Soul Eater. For the shooting phase, he comes with Wind of Chaos, a shooting attack which summons horrors with 48" of him AND his staff can exchange his shooting attacks to drop an INFINITE RANGE (AP3) poisoned, haywire, apocalyptic barrage that can hit up to 9 times. In addition to his high toughness, large number of wounds, 3++ invulnerable save, and flyer rules, this Daemon Lord is a Mastery Level 4 psyker that can rebound psychic powers back onto their caster with after a successful DtW and a 4+ on a D6. The only catch is that he MUST roll at least 2 powers on the Tzeentch table and can only generate from one additional table (Divination is recommended). If you see this guy leading a tetragon of darkness you're getting screwed. The only winning move is to find the tournament organizer and punch them in the throat. Aetaos'Rau'Keres does have a set of drawbacks however: if he gets within 18" of a Greater Daemon, Daemon Prince, or another Daemon lord, he'll direct all his shooting attacks upon the poor sod. Second, he has to pass a leadership test to call down his apocalyptic barrage and if he fails, your opponent gets to place the blasts.

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 - 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 (unless you have a lot of templates, aren't playing against Imperial, or really want all the cover you can get).
  • 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 each turn on a 5+. (just remember that the shields do not impede movement or deployment in any way, so make sure you either ally in a Mortis Dread, or Tau, or keep some serious bubble wrap so no one is able to Deep Strike Anti-Armor into the bubble. Also, enemy Flying Circus will render these useless.)
• 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.

"Supplements"/Variants

Renegades of Vraks

Renegades of Vraks came back in the updated Siege of Vraks Imperial Armour book. The army list is fundamentally the same, as are the warlord traits, with a couple of exceptions:

• First: you make not take the Covenant/Dedication of Tzeentch or Slaanesh anywhere in the army.
• Second: Heretek Magus, Mutant Overlord and Bloody-Handed Reaver demagogue devotions are replaced by Ordnance Tyrant and Shock Legion Taskmaster.
• Third: Special Characters which are Vraks-only.
• Fourth: Chaos Sigil grant stubborn and a re-roll per game turn rather than the ability to completely ignore a failed check.
• Fifth: No Valkyries or Arvus lighter. Like you were gonna take a fuckin' Arvus anyway.

Beyond that, due to book keeping changes and wording differences:

• SPAM PLAGUE ZOMBIE MOBS! yes, no more 0-1 squad limit, fill the table with cheap tarpit fearless bodies and watch your opponent rage-quit the match, with less than a thousand points you can deploy something like 300 FEARLESS wounds and laugh off unfearless troops with Master of the Horde or while in combination with the Ordnance Tyrant and artillery make STEEHL REIHN over enemy heads while you're safe behind a ZOMBIE WALL
• Chaos Sp.... Ahem are now Elite choices for any detachment (regardless of) the Master of Renegades rule, rather than being Tzeentch specific (see here) as there would be no way to get them in your army despite them being listed.

Special Characters

• Warbound Uraka: Daemon Prince of Khorne - One of two named Daemon Princes from Forgeworld. Different from the Warfeind version, but his stat line remains unchanged and he still costs 200 points, but no longer has Daemonic Instability whilst his "daemonic gifts" of Rage & Rampage and a 3+ armour save are now built in and he still has his Collar of Khorne for +2 to DtW attempts. His axe still has Fleshbane and Decapicating Blow (ID on a to-wound of a 6).. This is cool and all but he is still likely to get shot to death before he does anything productive. Still not enough of a badass to make us believe he beat a Bloodthirster before gaining daemonhood. Basically all that changed is that he is no longer unstable, but take IMPORTANT NOTE: he is not Fearless to make up for the loss, and with Ld9 he can suffer badly.
• Mamon Incarnate: Daemon Prince of Nurgle -Like Uraka, Mamon suffered the copy-paste fate without the writers actually thinking about what they took away. No longer unstable, but also not fearless and Ld9, and with a lower initiative is likely to get overrun by a sweeping advance if he does not win combat. His stats are similar to a Great Unclean One, putting him at WS7, S6, T7, 5 wounds, I4, 4 attacks and Ld 9. Throw in Feel no Pain, Poisoned 2+ AP2 melee attacks (with Smash), Daemon of Nurgle and a Poisoned 2+ AP3 template weapon.

Devotions

• Primaris Rogue Witch - Same as the core list, except taking a points decrease to 25 (from 35)
• Master of the Horde - Same as the core list
• Arch-Heretic Revolutionary - Same as the core list
• Ordnance Tyrant - A new one that allows the army to select Artillery (Basilisk/Medusa tanks), Strike (Wyverns/Griffons), Heavy Ordnance (immobile Basilisk/Medusa) and Bombard batteries as Elite choices as well as Heavy Support, in addition, Field Artillery (Quad guns / Heavy Mortars) may be taken as non-compulsory Troops. Furthermore, when a model within 12" of the Demagogue fires a barrage weapon, they may place the template over Friendly models without the usual restrictions.
  • Becomes Rage-inducing-ly potent in a Purge FOC
• Shock Legion Taskmaster (AKA Shock Legion Get shit done master) - Renegade Ogryns become Compulsory Troops, however when taken in Troops slots they may never count as Scoring units (your Elite units are fine... but you're unlikely to have that many squads). Also your Demagogue gets +1 WS, and may cause D3 unsave-able wounds on any Ogryn squad within 12" to give them Fleet & Furious Charge for the turn. Can allow you to make possibly the most elite (not the best though) battleforged army in 40k, that said, the fact that they can never be scoring means you may as well have gone unbound. Also as the wounds are not randomly allocated we must assume the normal rules for wounds apply which means if you get unlucky you will kill an Ogryn outright using the Neural Goad which as hilarious as it might sound is 60 points down the drain for a pretty mediocre bonus.

Detachments

Renegades & Heretics now have two unique FOCs for them to choose from, in addition to the Combined Arms detachment, both are Renegades of Vraks only (drawn from the Renegades of Vraks list... not the core Renegades & Heretics list) Alternative take: Both formations only list "Chaos Renegades" as their faction requirement, surely that means both the Renegades of Vraks and the core Renegades & Heretics lists can use them as they are both Chaos Renegades army lists?

The Purge

No fast attack slots whatsoever, but you get 8 Troops slots, six Elites, and 4 Heavy. The only compulsory slots are 1 HQ and 2 Elites. The other restriction is that no unit may have a Mark/Covenant with any god other than Nurgle. The bonus for using this detachment is that any barrage weapons you fire leave the markers in place, and count as dangerous terrain until your next turn. Also any flamer weapons or frag missiles in the army may get the Shred & Gets Hot rules for free.

• Combo with an Ordnance Tyrant to make your Artillery units into Elites & Troops choices (as well as staying in Heavy) and "literally" carpet the entire board with templates, you're better off using circular paper cut-outs considering the large quantity of templates you can throw out and can lay them carefully over the top of opponents models without damaging them or be flat on the tabletop for them to walk over.
• Despite it saying that the Purge detachment can include units from Chaos Renegades or Chaos Space Marines, you don't get both in the same detachment, and have to choose one or the other. (see here), otherwise that could open the ENTIRE selection of unaligned & nurgle units (except Fast) to each other.
• Running it with CSM is harder, but you can spam Decimators, Hellbrutes, and Achilles, and not go far wrong. Wedging in a bare-bones Cyclopia Cabal can help in this regard, netting you more Infernal Relic unlocks.
• Also, a Fortress of Redemption goes well with this Detachment, adding cover and armor suppression to your anti-infantry game.
• If not using this detachment as your primary, you can basically view this as allied detachment plus as it lets you take elites and heavy support with no troops and stay battleforged - need some anti-horde? 2 Squads of Chosen w/ shredding chemical flamers! Need some Psykers? Take a Rogue Psyker demagogue along with extra psykers who are now elites instead of HQs!

Vraks Renegade Unending Host

Holy shit. This is awesome. Drown your opponent in a tide of bodies, laugh as he/she gives you the finger, rage quits the match and refuses to play you ever again. You will then become a daemon prince dedicated to awesomness. Troops, Troops and more Troops... You get 12 Troops slots, and four of them are compulsory, furthermore, your Demagogue must have the Master of Hordes devotion. You also only get one Fast attack and Heavy slot each, and two Elite slots. As mentioned it's all about the troops. What you get though, is that your renegade infantry units may return to the table on a 2+ rather than 5+ and may outflank when they return, as well as gaining another dice on run moves (and choosing the best) for the turn that they arrive on the board. In addition cover saves derived from the enemy firing through your Infantry squads are increased to 3+ for your units only. Combine with camo netting to get 2+ save russes.

This might easily be the most broken thing in the game at the moment. At 1850 point, you can fit a Baneblade (for that nice 12" zealot bubble) and at least 180 well-equipped models (or almost double that if you skip krak grenades and militia training). Having your 15 man squads (with 3 melta/plasmaguns) not only come back to play on a 2+, but also outflank, meaning you often end up closer to the enemy than you were before dying, is just too much awesomeness for any opponent to handle. Opponent dropping pie-plates and flamers like there's no tomorrow? Fuck that shit, just die and get in a better position to blow his face up! He starts targeting specific special weapon squads? Just put your other dudes in front and enjoy the 3+ cover save!

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.
  • Unfortunately, this combination has a few glaring problems: namely, both detachments requiring themselves to be your PRIMARY detachment in order to gain the best goodies. So if you take Chaos Space Marines as allies, you lose out on being able to take Cult units as Troops choices, but if you take Renegades as the "allied" detachment you lose out on multiple units being unlocked through your Master of Renegades rule and you can only take a Demagogue Devotion if the model is your Warlord.
    • NOT ANYMORE! Thanks to Traitor Legions, any allied CSM detachment which is described as one of the cult legions (Thousand Sons, Emperor's Children, Death Guard, or World Eaters) can take their respective Cult units as troops, circumventing the need for the primary detachment. So ally Plague and Noise Marines to your heart's content, little heretic. You may still not need a Lord over a Dark Apostle, but it really doesn't matter.
• 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!
• Khorne Daemonkin: Permitted since Renegades are counted as "identical" to Chaos Space Marines with who they can ally with. This immediately solves many of the problems faced by taking Chaos Space Marine allies as the "Cult" units are already unlocked as Troops, but not that it mattered since you could take allied "Formations" instead of using the FOC. Also, the Blood for the Blood God rule means you can gain free daemon units quite reliably. Just be aware that only friendly units with the BftBG rule can actually contribute towards the Blood Tithe with their death, but since you can mix it up with melee & powerful ranged units you should have no problem accumulating those Tithe points from the blood of your enemies. It basically just means you have to be sparing with what allied units you can sacrifice.
  • Ordnance Tyrant and lots of cultists. The enemy not giving you enough blood tithe points? Add Wyverns, then SACRIFICE YOUR OWN CULTISTS! BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!
  • Since no one has mentioned this yet: Heralds. Of. Freaking. Khorne. Did you want a 55pt tax to make an unstoppable tarpit? Then you're in luck. 30 mutants + a Herald of Khorne is an insanely cheap blob of fearless fun. That big unit your opponent has without Hit and Run? Yeah... it's not going anywhere this game.
• Renegade Knight Household: Wassat? The renegades just jacked an Imperial Knight? Hell yes! The Renegade Knight adds an insane amount of dakka to an already heavy-firepower force. You can go either way between anti-infantry or anti-armor, just like your Renegades! Avenger Gatling Cannons tear through anything short of Terminators, while Land Raiders and Monoliths have a hard time against Thermal Cannons. Or just go fucking bonkers on walkers and monstrous creatures with a Reaper Chainsword. While a Renegade Knight adds a lot to any Chaos force, it seems Renegades and Heretics possibly have the most flexibility with it.

Allies of Convenience

• Necrons: The use of night scythes and/ or monoliths can be used with large squads of warriors/ immortals with an attached overlord with resurrection orb to have a rapid deployment of a tough objective holder, with enough power in one turn of shooting to wipe a smaller, unsupported objective holder. Spyders with fabricator claws are good for fixing up your tanks. Scarabs can eat through your opponents tanks with ease.
• 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: 3 words: Early, Warning, Override. Have some stripped down, volume-firing units with this system hugging your flanks, then watch your enemy fail to alpha strike anything, especially with HBC Riptides and Plasma Crises/Broadsides.

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: Faster objective snatchers: good. Stronger Psychic Phase: good. Mobile, accurate shooting: excellent. Drawbacks: only marginally more durable infantry (Wraith units excepted), can't share Blessings, and not enough slots to counteract all of this army's major weaknesses at the same time.
• Imperial Knights: - Work better with AM blob infantry. Allied here, they're vulnerable to alpha strike, but provide a good firebase/Distraction Carnifex.
• Loyalist Space Marines: - As your first strike, amazing; use the Renegades to anchor your Drop Pod Assault. Just avoid taking Renegades that will go where your Marines want to be. Only do this for stuff CSMs just don't have (Grav weaponry, Storm Talons, Assault Bikes, TFCs, etc).
• Tyranids: - Serviceable way to make a Genestealer Cult. With Tyrranocytes, you avoid much of your setup hassles. Just remember to keep your Spore Pods between your assault bugs and unengaged enemy models. Ideally, you can use your tarpit units to set up assaults your Stealers stand a chance of surviving. You definitely need screening units on the board to make this alliance work. Alternately, you can go for a Line-breaking approach, basically bringing in a miniature Godzilla army to suppress the hard counters to your Militia-Trained shooting game. The key thing is to start with as few bugs as possible in your deployment zone, and only checking for OEO when you can't avoid it. Trygons are helpful in this regard, especially the Sword-wielding/Poison-spewing kind, if you want an Objective Secured Tervigon.

TACTICS

IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER

Astra Militarum, They Ain't

It is important to disabuse yourself of the notion that Renegades are just Guardsmen that switched sides. Your army lacks the uniformity of discipline, the tactics, and the history (in the form of a large stable of named characters and a small bank of formations) of the the Imperial Guard, and just can’t tackle the same roles in quite the same way. It’s better to think of the Renegades as combining the best (and worst) qualities of the two other mass infantry factions in the game: Space Orks, and Tyranids. In most regards, this army functions similarly to the Skaven, in that it relies heavily on large numbers of cost-effective (if of dubious quality) infantry, supported by potentially deadly ranged weapons, specialists, and vehicles. While neither as random-as-code-for-crazy as Orks, or as situationally fragile as ‘Nids, this army functions best when you leverage your FUN* units against your more predictable ones.

...Except When They Are

While the above statements are generally true, there is an exception to much of that, which presents itself when list building. Three of your six Demagogue Devotions (Master of the Horde, Arch-heretic Revolutionary, And Bloody-handed Reaver) make your army behave in a manner similar to IG, the first making your massed infantry units bigger and harder to permanently neutralize, the second vastly improving your army’s overall discipline (and mitigating some uncomfortable randomness), and the last, making your army the most Guard-like, by getting basic armor saves where they’re needed, and giving a good chunk of your army a boost in reliability. Additionally, much of your shooting game can be greatly improved by taking Militia-Training, for a modest cost, wherever you need small quantities of accurate, high-strength, direct fire shooting.

Nor Are They Chaos Marines

An important point about Guard is that they are not Space Marines, thus they are not as useful in certain situations, namely close combat. Similarly, Renegades, Master of Renegades options notwithstanding, are not Chaos Space Marines. Your assault units are just not of the same caliber, quality armor saves are at a premium, and your specialist assault kit is better suited for taking on vehicles than other infantry. But it’s not all bad news.

First off, you can run away, when CSMs, and their squishier compatriots can’t. Unlike CSMs, your characters never have to accept challenges they don’t wish to fight. More to the point, although not as uneventful as it is with Skaven, if done right, the penalties for refusal are of no consequence. For best results, lead from the rear, and always aim to put at least 3 ranks of infantry between your Champion and the point of contact. Also, Fearless is at a premium, so a judicious use of Our Weapons are Useless can keep pointless slugfests to a minimum (keyword here is Pointless; sometimes, standing your ground is exactly what you want). Lastly, as you aren’t beholden to the whims of the Dark Gods in quite the same way CSMs are, you can focus on roles they aren’t optimized for.

• While not as talented offensively or defensively as their CSM/CD brethren, units with the covenant of Khorne are a bit better at abating assaults, especially against slower MCs.

• Nurgle covenanters are marginally more durable than their fellow Renegades, but the goal in taking that covenant is to get Plague Zombies (or Blight Drones), not making tougher troops.

• Slaaneshi mortals are going to be either your mountain of attacks that get stuck in reliably, or your last turn Hail-Mary objective grab, but all things being equal, a metal box is more efficient at doing the latter, especially flying boxes.

• Tzeentch always has a plan, and in this case, the plan involves making your infantry blobs give Tau a run for their money in the shooting department. Even without Militia-Training, you out-shoot most armies when getting charged, using Skyfire weapons to shoot at infantry, or trying to pot-shoot down flyers. (Remember: Interceptor no longer lets Skyfire shoot ground targets at full BS anymore, so Renegades are one of only threefour armies that can fire Interceptor attacks at more or less full BS). You're snapfiring at BS2 - introduce some Valkyries to your autocannons.

Go Big or Go Home

The key thing to remember when fielding Renegades is numbers, pure, simple numbers. Most of your squad upgrades are flat-costed, meaning that the more models you field, the less of an impact choosing to upgrade that unit has on your point total. Conversely, some squad upgrades are highly situational and should only be taken when you need them. Militia-Training is best used on small units carrying guns that need to roll to hit. Sub Flak Armor is generally a waste of time. And unit Champion wargear, beyond Covenants, is generally not worth it, unless the unit is small, and meant to get into combat (although Gunslinging Champions do add a bit of ranged AP to the mix). Additionally, even with Militia-Training, your vehicles will be cheaper than Guard analogues, and can be taken in bigger squadrons, so it’s always worth it to run multiples.

FUN* Management

The biggest drawback of this army is how unreliable its soldiers can be, as a result of the Uncertain Worth rule. It is therefore advisable to take units and wargear that can mitigate the risks of rolling badly, or at all, when determining your units’ leadership. Enforcers are pretty much an automatic second HQ, no matter which Demagogue Devotion your Warlord takes. Also, unless you are relying on fieldcraft (through Mutants or Veterans) as part of your strategy, the Banner of Hate and a Command-Net Vox are also necessary purchases. If a unit can take both, a Vox-caster and a Chaos Sigil are well worth the points.

Mutant units are best kept in Reserve or used en-masse, to mitigate the impact of rolling a 1 on the Curse of Mutation table. Taking vehicles, and other Fearless units will also mitigate Horrific Disfiguration, and grant tougher shooting/assault units to screen your Rabble.

As an interesting note, most of the hard leadership bonuses will cost you ~30 points. A basic enforcer, banner of hate, or even just a trade in of two compulsory mutant units for an infantry platoon with access to leadership based items all run about the same, but are very different in their effect, scale, and most importantly use. Be mindful of what kind of enemy you will be fighting and the role you have in mind for your unit.

As mentioned above, Militia-Training is best when used on units that need accurate shooting to be successful. With most of your vehicles and support units, it all comes down to role versus cost. Most transports don’t need Militia-Training to fulfill their duties, especially since your two best Transports have Blast and Template weapons as options, but don’t lose anything by choosing to upgrade. Support squads, Artillery, and Tanks carrying Blast weapons, likewise don’t need Militia-Training, but need to be careful to avoid engaging targets too close to your other guns. Basically, don’t target anything within 6 inches of your units, or 12 of something you absolutely don’t want to lose (the bigger the Blast, the more distance you want). The only vehicles and units that must have Militia-Training are those with the direct-fire weapons essential to your success: Support Squads with Lascannons (or Missile Launchers, so Infantry doesn't slow you down) and Covenant of Tzeentch (arguably your best AA/AT multitasker), Direct-firing Russes with Multi-Meltas and Lascannons, and your Super-Heavy Tanks that can take it.

What to buy

Much of the advice on building Guard armies works well for Heretics and Renegades, with a few differences.

Always start out with what 1d4chan recommends, 1 HQ & 2 Troop Choices, that is, a Company Renegade Command Squad (this is non-negotiable) and 2 separate Squads kitted out as Veterans. However, bundles are your best friend, namely the battle force Defence Force. This gives you two squads of 10 and a leader pack, as well as heavy weapons and a Leman Russ which can be customized into any of its variations and a Chimera. This will be helpful if you are going blob or mech. You can make them vets for a quick 500ptt army. You can even save the heavy weapons for vehicle modifications later when you buy tanks if you go for mech.

Next thing would most likely be another Leman Russ and another chimera if going mech, and another defence force if you are going blob. If you truly want to go Mech though, the Steel Host set gives you 5 Leman Russ Battle Tanks, 1 Hydra Flak Tank and 2 Leman Russ Demolishers if you're willing to sell your arm, leg, kidney, and testicle. Also, the cheap 5-man Cultist packs are great for building a 50-man horde (Although, the 5 man Guardsmen boxes do help if you stick with Bloody-handed Reaver)! Also, if you weren't planning on running Marauders, and you took the most tactically prudent Covenant (Tzeentch), now would be a good time to start stocking up on ...them. Yeah, at least 2 boxes of them, if only for the bits.

The Armored Fist bundle gives you a discount price for a mechanized Squadron of Veterans too. Also, the Tempestus Scions box has most of your Carapace Armored Champion needs covered, so it’s worth buying a few.

Generally, Valkyrie are your best Transports, even if they cannot deny objectives, so consider getting a unit, especially if you have small units with no Dedicated Transports of their own.

If you decide to go full Mutant, get your hands on some Warhammer Forsaken, as their bitz are scaled for infantry, not MEQs, and you get a lot of selection. Also, slap some of the gribblier Fantasy models (Chaos Beasts, Glotkin minus riders, or the Hell Pit Abomination) onto some oval bases to fill out that Lord of War slot. Save the old Mutations sprue for Ogryns of Tzeentch, and consider bitz-ordering some Thunderwolves, as normal Warhounds just look too small for their statline. A decent sized list doesn’t really need more than a box of Ogryns to function, so don’t sweat having a small squad of them.

Also if you dip, or one of your friends dip, ask them for the metal lids to the tobacco containers. These are the exact size of the heavy weapons base. Making it extremely easy to take advantage of all the heavy weapons in the pack. Just use the bending knee for the dude shooting, and put the other dude as a standing man. Green stuff some sandbags or a wall to take place of the tripod stand. The key is to get creative as to how you build your weapon teams. Harker is a decent model to use, although he’s direct order, comes with a Heavy Bolter, and lacks a loader. Ogryn, or similarly scaled models, also work well in this regard, with the added advantage that they don’t look silly Ramboing most of your heavy weapons (Mortars and Missile Launchers excepted).

Bottom line: don't go Forgeworld until you have a clear idea of where you want your army to go.

Organizing Your Force

As far as organizing your army, you ought to know better that you don't have to pimp out every platoon FULL of men. Usually, two large Platoons decked out will do the job cheaper, BUT you can take smaller platoons in order to get more Demagogues, and thus, better Leadership. That all said, let's calculate the body count if you spammed every slot.

HQ: RCSx2 (14 models each; Flak Missiles, Command Network-Vox, Banner of Hate, Mandatory)

Elites: 3x FULL Ogryn Brute Squads, WITH Warhounds (48 models)

Troops: 6x FULL Infantry platoons (6x30-man RPCS, 24x30-man Renegade Infantry squads, carrying 3 Heavy Teams (it's two guys on one base, be glad I'm not counting the gun model) 810 models)

Fast: 3x Sentinel squads (18 models)

Heavy Support: 15x WYVERNS

Grand total: 527 models. Not so many as Guard, but just the same, OUR INFANTRY ARE (also) BLOBS. But unless you're a millionaire or you've been in the Guard since 2nd edition, you aren't pulling this off. ALSO IT COSTS ~10000 POINTS TO FIELD ALL THIS SHIT JESUS AAAND you're looking at $5,000+ USD for all this shit. Start buying lottery tickets if you want to even think about doing something like this.

Ideal generalized army list that you should start with:

HQ: 1x RCS

TROOPS: 2 Renegade Infantry platoons of three Infantry squads each

FAST ATTACK: Valkyries, and Hellhounds if you wish.

Once your army has reached this point, start looking at where you want to go with it. You'll have a decent base for starting a clone of the typical MechVet army that is shining right now. If you want to get Leman Russes, get three, split between two Battle Cannon and a Demolisher. Max out melta. It's the best thing in the game currently. Just do it. Take some of them and hide them in Reserves for late game Objective grabbing. You’ll be glad you did. And remember your Militia-Training.