Night Lords Project Log

I think lightning along the neck would look cool and maybe a very small amount on the main body but its good as is.

The hades is pretty good AA and with vector strike as well most flyers will die easily (the 360 line of sight helps a lot as well).

More lighting would probably make it look busy. I like it as is. (My word, I hope I never have to paint one of those things!)

Dragontree wrote:

I picked it because I don't like the look of the baleflamer piece but practically speaking as massaen has said, its actually killer at destroying any heavily armoured things and ensuring that when you hit a flyer or anything else you do take a big chunk out of it.

I will hold back on more lightening then

With it on a turret mount as well its brutal as rear AV on things is an easy option

Yeah I think it looks great as it is. I don't think more lighting will really add anything to an already great paint job

Thanks for the feedback guys! Its much appreciated. Ive got a lot of plans for this force, hoping to start on those next month after a little break, the heldrake really took it out of me!

Thanks again

That Heldrake rules.

Wow.. its been a while!

Have finished my masters, moved house and started a phd in the time since my last update but I have been sledging on with my night lords (more then my dark eldar to my shame...) so something of an update here!

First off is my jump pack chaos lord:





My chaos dreadnought (helbrute.. pah!):







And a second squad of raptors:







Over the next couple of months I'm hoping to get the last few bits of this army finished, the local tournaments run at 1750 points here and reward variety with penalisation for duplicate units outside of basic troop choices.

So I have left to paint:

2 chaos space marines with plasma guns (so I can run 4 five man squads with plasma)

A chaos rhino (so 2 in total)

A lascannon decked predator

Squad of havocs with 3 x lascannon and 1 x flakk missile launcher

And 3 Obliterators.


So my final army will be

Chaos lord with jump pack

12 raptors

4 x 5 man chaos space marines with plasma
2 x rhinos

1 x heldrake

1 x predator

1 x chaos dreadnought

3 x obliterator

5 x havocs with 3 lascannon and flakk missile launcher

Which with various upgrades pops in at 1748 points!


Thoughts and comments always appreciated

pretty generalist tool bag type army. Should be able to compete, doesnt have an enormous achilles heel anywhere. Pretty susceptible to psyker armies, pretty susceptible to Dark Eldar but yet capable of using Null Deployment to counter that to really decent effect. So there are tactics that can compensate there.

But man that painting looks really good.

I love Night Lords! Really nice army, glad you shared! Chaos lord and raptors look particularly terrifying!

Lascannon decked Predator brought a smile to my eye.

@ Unorthodoxy - always nice to hear your opinions, the motivation for me to actually start my long planned night lords army was your own blog which also heavily influenced my list design.

So very pleased you enjoy my army taking form! Hopefully I'll be able to put them into practice in a few months when they are complete. Not managed a game of 7th yet mind you...

@Amornar and Alino - glad you guys are also enjoying the PLOG, hopefully get the rest done soon and get a nice big army shot together!

Watch this space!

So here are my plasma gunners, predator tank and havocs!














I've got a rhino and 3 obliterators to go,,,, though the decimator engine has also piqued my interest,,, anyone got any advice on it abilities in the field? If its really pants I'll steer clear but if its ok to good I'll definitely have to grab one!

Looking forward to getting a group shot of these boys when I'm done, but need to up my photography skills and maybe put a board together first!!

Comments and criticisms always welcome ladies and gents

Yeah that is just a beautiful job there

I'm not sure if I've missed any mention of it in previous posts, but have you read the Night Lords Omnibus? It's very, very good, really puts those traitor legions fighting for an ideology to the forefront as they're the driving force - they're not just cardboard villains there to butcher innocent imperial citizens (though they do that too. In spades ) If you haven't read it, I'd recommend it, great source of inspiration. It put me totally at ease with using multiple different marks of armour too, as it details how much the surviving traitor legions loot and cannibalise whatever they can find, so you can go totally conversion and kit bash crazy!

I'm loving the look of this army so far, nice work! That jump pack lord is, for me, one of those examples of their sculptors absolutely nailing the aesthetic of what I see in my head when I think of Chaos Marines, and I'm always glad to see people fielding him. I will add one to my own army at some point, if only to keep up with the ridiculous Wolverine theme I seem to have accidentally implemented...

I'm wondering a bit about your marks, undivided gives you so many options with those as well as with their relevant icons, so how far are you going down that route? Does every unit have a mark, and if so, what and why? And what's your take on Veterans of the Long War? I put it in every list, even when I know I'm not facing marines, because I'm laughably trying to play TAC with fairly fluffy World Eaters, but don't really know what the general consensus is here.

Also, no cult troops? Noise Marines could tie in quite nicely with the terror theme Though having faced a ton of plasma wielding, pus filled, putrefied Plague Marines, they're also pretty terrifying! I know none of the cult options are terribly competitive, and I wouldn't suggest for a moment that you go down the Berzerker heavy route that I have bulldozed down so recklessly (I basically have my fingers in my ears going lalala whenever anyone tries to talk about the tactical applications of my beloved berserk brigade at this point), but a little squad of something dedicated to a god could be a lot of fun. Go on, you know you want to...

I personally prefer the Nurgle Raptors.

With the new forge world chaos book coming out soon the decimator might get a boost but in the current rules its worse than bad.

Your night lords are looking really good, making me feel like I should paint the last of my word bearers army but they're going to take a back seat with the new codex and all.

Thanks all! Glad you are enjoying seeing the army evolve!

I have just built the 3 obliterators and converted a loyalist marine rhino because I got it super cheap... And thats the army done!! (Though I do still have a crap load of chosen and some second hand bikers lying around)

On the subject of second hand this army has set me back less than £150 as I bought it all second hand apart from one box of raptors, pretty pleased with that though it took a lot of time stripping and pulling apart and sticking back together...

@Nullus - thanks for the heads up on the decimator, damn shame as I love the model

@Unorthodoxy - as I've said before I've been following your night lords blog and it was the main inspiration to finally start this army so thanks a bunch for that

@Mr Believer - I haven't read the books but read everything online I can get my hands on, there is a Night Lord specific forum which is very cool. I have ordered them on audiobook so I can listen to them whilst at work which means it won't cut into my hobby (or girlfriend - disclaimer as she now reads this) time.

In terms of how I play them I very much have the idea in my head that Night lords are Traitor marines not CSM and they have a distaste for those who follow chaos as blindly as they followed the Emprah. Thats the reason I don't have cults in my list as my Idea of Night lords means they think they are pathetic. Obliterators and Heldrake are deemed useful tools of terror but not full brethern per se.

I have a "competitive" list where the havocs, raptors, obliterators and lord have the mark of nurgle, though I justify this in a fluffy sense with the idea that just because they don't consciously follow chaos doesn't mean chaos doesn't have plans for them and use them anyway.

I also have a fluffy list where there are no marks, they are force unto themselves and they have VOtLW, because as un competitive as it is, I think it is one of the single coolest rules and ideas out there. Traitor Night Lords thousands of years old eternally railing against the imperium? HELL YES!

If I have the cash spare the heresy era kacophonie emperors children unit might be purchased to be used as noise marines....


Anyway I hope to have this army done end of this month, I have a holiday due in a couple of weeks so army shot soon I hope!!!

Hope you guys stick around for the finale, thanks for making it this far!

Well I do look forward ot the finished product for sure. And I like the idea of them looking fdown their noses at the "sheep" of Chaos. Like lambs to the slaughter...

Wow. It has been 223 days since my first post of Night Lord Traitor Space Marines on here and I've finally finished my 1750 pt army!

Not only that but I have my first game with this army tomorrow which is also my first game of 7th edition (shame on me I know!).

So the final components were the last rhino, this was converted from a salamanders rhino/razorback I got cheap on ebay. The rusty/brown plate on the back is supposed to look like a crude re-purposing of the hole for an entrance as I was low on funds I also need to bloody the Aquila up some.





I'm silly proud of my tiny writing as well even if I got the Ave a bit lop sided:




And then the final parts to the puzzle were my 3 obliterators. I really thought these weren't going to pull together when I was painting so much white on for the skin which looked awful, but it came out in the wash (Oh the punnage) and I'm pretty happy with them.









And finally the whole army rather poorly photgraphed (which you know, why break a habit!):







So my fellow Sons of Nostromo; where to next?

This list makes up 1750 non-optimised points. The next two main increments are 1850 and 2000. the 2000 points is far more common in my local meta however.

I have a tonne of chosen to convert and 9 second hand banged up CSM bikes to strip down, but other than that, what do you recommend to fill either that 100 or 250 point gap?

If you need a guide on the sort of things I like (i.e. no big demon things) then glance a few post up where I set out my ideal of the Night Lords traitor marines.

I look forward to hearing suggestions! Oh and forgeworld is accepted locally so they are valid ideas also.

For now I will get back to a new and improved true kin army which can be found here if you'd like to give me your guiding hands on that also.

I'll try to get some better army pictures up but for now thank you for following me and encouraging me to keep going, I struggled with this army a lot but was definitely worth it!

3 Mutilators and always more raptors! Can't go wrong there.

Well I had my first game of 7th today! I played an imperial fist army with 3 dreadnoughts, plasma devestators, missile launcher devestators, couple of tactical squads and rhinos, some scouts, one ladspeeder and some HQ things.

Eternal war - crusade and I lost 7 - 5 I had first blood linebreaker and one objective and my opponent had 2 objectives and line breaker.

Winners were the havocs and the obliterators, they just wrecked face. The losers were my raptors, but that was because I played them awfully

Overall I wrecked his army and he had maybe 8 models left including an immobilised dreadought. I had one combat on an objective where his one marine held out on the final turn to loads of attacks which cost me the game.

Overall I think the army is pretty competent and let down only by his general!

I'd like to thank you Doxy for the general build idea and I think I will definitely be investing in mutilators even at this points level in expense of such a large raptor squad to make deep striking them easier!

Looks positively sharptastic

So I've ordered 3 mutilators to add to this army, after playing around with the composition, I think 2 mutilators will swap in nicely for 4-5 of my raptors.

I'm not especially deft at utilising such a large group and there is no chance of deepstriking so many as the boards we play on are very terrain heavy which is great for the most part.

I'm more comfortable deepstriking the mutilators with there small footprint and general badassery survivability so hoping to get them done some point.

I'm entering these guys into a 40 man tournament in december with a points limit of 1650 so I will just reduce the raptor squad size anyway and that sheds the excess 100 points.

In other news I am also starting a black templar army so what my sig for a link! I will also adda link to my very yellow dark eldar soon as well

Ho man. You are gonna love those Mutilators.

I myself largely advance the Raptors up and have Nurgle Droppings from the sky show up i nthe form of Mutilators and Obliterators and suddenly the enemy just doesnt have enough units to cope. Ruh roh! and then...we...smash...