Chaos Space Marines Tactica - Blood Feeder

This is definately an oxy-moronic post. Trying to write a tactica for one of the most random things in 40k seems kind of counter-intuitive but I am gonna give it a shot anyway.

I like the Blood Feeder. For those of you that don't know the Blood Feeder is the special daemon weapon for Khorne marked Chaos Space Marine Lords. A normal daemon weapon gives the wielder an extra d6 attacks. If they roll a one they take a wound and stand there making no attacks. The Blood Feeder, however, gives you 2d6 extra attacks. Pretty awesome right? Yeah. But if you roll a one on either of the dice you take a wound and just stand there.

I know, I know - that is a 1 in 3 chance to just stand there and not do anything during the assault phase. Not really something you can bank on.

Here is something you can (almost) count on though - the psychological effect this will have on your opponent.

The last time I fielded this guy I put him in a Rhino with 5 Khorne Berzerkers. I had a Skull Champion with a Powerfiist in there too. There isn't much in the game that this unit couldn't deal with.

By keeping the unit count small it works to my advantage - it doesn't cost as many points and there are only six guys there. Even though the Rhino is full of hurt it is easy for your opponent to look past this and try targeting your vehicles or units that seem to be much more scarier.

What really messes with your opponents head is when you get these guys out. There aren't that many of them. They may thing - oh, theres only a few guys there. My full squad will be just fine if they assault it/get assaulted. This is not the case. The lord with an extra 2d6 attacks works out on average to being like having an extra two berzerkers armed with power weapons.

Even if your opponent realizes how bad this unit is and concentrates fire on it it will be fairly survivable. The 3+ and fearless will make sure you have to kill it to a man before they don't have to worry about it. And since you kept the cost low if they are shooting at it that is just that many shots that aren't hitting other units that will live to get their job done.

Mostly the choice to use a Blood Feeder comes down to personal taste. I don't think you are going to see any super competitive players fielding one. But as far as a fun game or even a small tournament I definately think that if you find room to fit one in you will end up having a blast with it. Just the suspense of charging in and not knowing what your lord is doing can make for some very memorable games.