The Night Lords are the masters of terror and specialize in surgical hit and run raids. A flexible army, they have the ability to concentrate their skills into a particular area or to create a diverse mixture of units, effective against a wide range of threats. This "tactica" will attempt to examine the available units and provide some insight into which ones that I personally recommend and to what use I recommend you make of them. It is based upon my own experiences playing as the "Legio Nocturnus".

Chaos Lords are the most customizable units in your army. The Chaos Lord model from GW is a completely adequate model but doesn’t have a lot of really easy customization options to it. If you really want to go wild, you will need a little bit of conversion skill to really make the Lord what you want. My own Lord Nocturnus has been completely customized from the older Chaos Lord model and is geared out with the following options.

Chaos Lord w/Twin Lightning Claws

Daemonic Flight

Daemonic Strength

Daemonic Aura (an absolute MUST against any army with power weapons)

Daemonic Mutation

Furious Charge

Spiky Bits

Frag Grenades

This particular combination is an absolute MONSTER in close combat and despite all the upgrades it is relatively cost efficient. Charging into combat, his stat line is as follows : WS5 S6 T4 I6 W3 A6 That’s SIX attacks at Strength 6 with re-rolls for hitting and wounding and all striking at an Initiative of 6. A character killer to be sure and a combination that works for me and one that I feel is in keeping with the fluff of the Night Lords.

Aspiring Champions really make the difference in Close Combat. I shave points off in other areas in order to really make my AC’s deadly. I generally like to have one or two AC’s with Power Fists in the army and the rest with Power Weapons. What really makes them deadly though is the combination of Furious Charge and Daemonic Mutation. Even the toughest Independent Characters will worry about tackling a charging AC with Initiative 5, Strength 5 and 5 attacks!

Chosen can be taken as individual units or as retinue for your Lord or Lt. They are also the only units capable of taking Terminator Armor Upgrades. I see very little use in taking Chosen in power armor since they are basically expensive CSM’s. The Terminators with their Deep Strike ability are very much in keeping with the theme of Night Lords and if properly utilized, can be quite a shake up for an opposing force. With Terminators, I recommend a unit of 6 to give you a second Autocannon. This walking arsenal can put a serious hurt on most units and are tough as nails to root out of an objective if they are properly deployed. Combi-meltas are great weapons. Sure, they can only fire as a meltgun one time, but how many times will you have your terminators running around taking out multiple armored vehicles. Give them the combi meltas and their predators and landraiders won’t even come near you.

Possessed are another unit requiring some finesse to use. With a base S5, they make GREAT assault troops and the invulnerable save makes them perfect for hitting an enemy commander with his power weapon laden retinue. These troops need to get into HtH fast, so put em in a rhino (daemonic flight is just too costly) with a dirge caster (makes them fearless) and watch em run in.

Chaos Space Marines are formidable opponents in their own right. For a fairly decent price, they bulk up your numbers and provide a solid "gun line" to hold objectives. I consider any unit larger than 10 to be too bulk to use effectively. My recommendation…keep em moving, keep em shooting and keep them out of close combat. That means, save some points by not giving them an Aspiring Champion or heavy weapons and add some Plasma Guns (my weapon of choice) and Meltas. This will keep them mobile and they can shoot and move at the same time.

My second option for CSM’s is the HtH variety. If you are not taking Possessed, I recommend at least one ten man strong unit led by an aspiring champion. The unit should have the standard Bolt Pistol/CCW and give them Furious Charge, Frags and Move Thru Cover (for assaulting those dug-in troops). Just like the Possessed, I recommend putting them in a rhino for mobility.

Don’t "min" your troop choices. I firmly believe in large numbers of troops and for the cost CSM’s are some of the toughest grunts around.

The heart and soul of a Night Lords army is the fast attack choices. There are basically three available options here. Two are good, but the third (and last) is my personal favorite and a MUST for any aspiring Night Lords Champion.

Chaos Bikers. Good mobility. Great firepower. Their +1 Toughness makes them very resilient. Good all around hitters but a bit costly. Since they count as stationary when firing, they have the uncommon ability to use their considerable firepower to shoot up a unit and then immediately charge into HtH.

Chaos Furies. The only daemons available to the Night Lords, Furies are great when you consider the cost to effect ratio. Combine their 12" move (Daemonic Flight) with their Deep Striking ability and they can quickly turn the tide of battle in your favor. The only drawback is their unpredictability. A few unlucky dice rolls and your "cavalry" could end up not coming in time.

Chaos Raptors. I have always used Raptors as the centerpiece for my army. They fit the fluff quite well and when used effectively they are quick and lethal. The Night Lords have the unique ability to take multiple units of Raptors. I believe you should use that ability to its fullest. Raptors work best in units of 7-8 and I always recommend taking at least TWO units (more depending on the point limits). Now there are two schools of thought on Raptors. One idea is that a unit of Raptors with 3 melta-guns (yes Margaret, they can carry that many) makes for a fine anti-armor unit. No doubt about it they do, but I prefer Havocs for that (see later entry). I prefer using Raptors for HtH and I gear them up to do just that. Again, Aspiring Champions are your best asset here (see the previous mention). A unit of raptors led by an AC with Daemonic Mutation (+1 attack), Furious Charge (+1 S/+1 I when charging) and wielding a power weapon will make quick work of all but the toughest of units. Hit and Run. Most people will "Hit and Run" so that they can charge back into HtH and the bonuses you get for charging make this appealing. But don’t forget that you can Hit and Run in ANY direction…3d6"…consider that it’s the end of your opponents CC Phase and you Hit and Run up to 18" deeper into his territory…then you move 12" on your turn and can still charge another 6". That’s a lot of movement and is sure to leave your opponent rocking back on his heels a bit…now do it with TWO units of Raptors.

I have a standard unit for my Heavy Support selection.

Havocs. A five man unit with Stealth Adept (+1 Cover Save). I place them in cover with a good field of fire and they never move. I don’t even bother with an Aspiring Champion. It has worked pretty good so far so I have never seen a need to change.

Dreadnoughts, Predators and Defilers. Each of them have their place in any Chaos army but I’m not convinced of their "fluffiness" for the Night Lords. They definitely don’t fit MY personal playstyle so I can’t say much about them.

Night Lords are a scalpel not a hammer. When used effectively, they can strike so rapidly that it will leave their opponents off balance and struggling to regain the upper hand. But like any scalpel, one slip can lead to tragedy. That is the challenge of being a Night Lord. No one said Chaos was easy.