Headhunter Prime

A little bit of conversion work today -- a headhunter prime to add to my collection for the 30k Alpha Legion.

Although the headhunters are an odd choice in some ways, they are actually really fluffy, and can be very effective in certain Alpha Legion builds. For this model though, I wanted something this might communicate the arrogance (or martial hubris) of the Alpha Legion. Hence, the combi-bolter has been angled at the wrist to give a different orientation to the weapon. Meanwhile the power weapon is trailing behind him in a suggestion of charging in to combat and about to unleash on an unsuspecting target.

Clearly, there are a variety of bits used here, including not least one of the newer plastic bases from Games Workshop. The head of the miniature is from the chaos space marine raptors set which I think fits in very nicely with the Alpha Legion (their armour marks and use is always confusing). The backpack is a grey knights teleportation device (the power weapon is also grey knights). The idea being that I might use these in conjunction with Dynat's deep strike granting ability -- this ties in with an army theme of using stolen, advanced, or reverse engineered tech. Meanwhile the legs are from Khorne Berserkers! What can I say? I just liked the pose. The resin (lighter bits) are from the head hunters upgrade release from Forge World. What do you think - does it communicate the martial hubris and sneakiness of the Alphas well enough?

Red Rain

Kharn the Betrayer has been getting a bit of lime light of late thanks to the imminent release of his new rules and the formations from Traitor's Hate. I can't wait!

But today, I wanted to make a quick note of one of my favourite aspects of the new rules that have been making the rounds on the internet: namely the Red Rain that the Maelstrom of Gore formation is able to invoke once per game.

The Red Rain can truly be a game changer in my opinion, and it takes Khorne Berzerkers from being a bit "okay" to being potentially amazing. Potentially.

Take transports with all of the Berzerker units (with Kharn being inside one of these said units) and get them in to position. Unload (preferably from a land raider assault ramp) and get stuck in. The next turn, activate the Red Rain to gain an additional round of combat in the movement phase where the enemy cannot strike back and take advantage of it!

I would probably want land raiders all around. And arguably the best way of doing this would be to utilise another of the formations in the Traitor's Hate book -- Fist of the Gods!

As for the other formations, I really like the look of the core Chaos Warband. Sure, it doesn't give a lot, but its very thematic and would fit right in with my lust for 30k right at the moment. The helforged war pack is also very nice. I could well imagine having half a dozen dreadnoughts (ahem: helbrutes) in there just to test out an enemy.

I also really like the cult of destruction. Getting twice the number of shots from obliterators could just about break the game in some respects. This is amazing and not to be under-rated. I would willingly take a warp smith per obliterator unit to make this happen.

Overall, I'm excited about Traitor's Hate! Its the first time in a while I've felt positive about chaos space marine developments (ignoring the Khorne Daemonkin which was just too mono-god for my tastes).

Heresy-Era Assault Squad

Behold: a fully assembled, kit-bashed, converted and undercoated Heresy-era assault squad!

This has been a project long in the making, with a gathering of components from a large variety of sources including (but by no means limited to):

Mk II, III, IV, V and VI space marines (both forge world and plastics, including command sets and other veteran sets);

Grey Knights;

Dark Angels;

Space Wolves;

Chaos Space Marines;

Chaos Raptors;

Khorne Berzerkers;

Eldar (mostly the bladed weapons);

Maxmini (the "iron pattern" jump packs).

The goal here was to create a 10-man strong squad where the leader has a plasma pistol and thunder hammer and is accompanied by 9 others, two of whom also sport plasma pistols. Each of them has been extensively kit-bashed and some have minor to strong conversion work applied to make everything fit together and pose well. 

They have each been individually based with a variety of urban-style rubble and mechanised junk. And they've all been undercoated in black spray paint (citadel) for preparation for the next layer. I'm torn on whether to paint them up as Alpha Legion or whether to go for some Black Shields now! The original idea was to go for just a plain assault squad. This idea then morphed in to having a unit of Ultramarine Locutarus Storm Squad stolen by the Alpha Legion under the Coils of the Hydra rite of war. Although the sergeant cannot take a thunder hammer there, I could use it as a counts-as standard weapon perhaps. And now I'm thinking of using them as Black Shields or similar. So many choices. I better get painting them up!

Given that I invested so much time in to them, I thought it appropriate to also take individual pictures of each of them (see below). This way, its easier to gain an appreciation of the level of kit bashing and posing each of them has undergone. 

Legion Assault Squad Marine Conversion

Another day, another conversion. This time, its an assault squad member. Unlike most of my other space marines, the assault squad will not be featuring true scale legs. I feel this is unnecessary for this squad given its dynamic nature and huge range of poses that I'm going to undertake for it.

The parts are as follows:

Forge World: Torso, right arm
Khorne Berserkers: Legs
Grey Knights: Helmet
Maxmini: Jump pack
Space marines: left arm, bolt pistol, shoulder pads
Eldar: right hand, sword
Base: 32mm

Despite such a wide array of bits being used, the overall aesthetic is certainly one of a legionary, and will make a good complement for the growing 30k forces that I'm assembling. The 32mm base is something that I can whole heartedly recommend to other space marine fans. With miniatures of this scale and with such a large, dominant jump pack, the large bases allow a range of positions and poses to be readily modelled and offset with a quality scenic base.

CSM in 6th Review: Khorne Berzerkers

And now the review of the new Chaos Space Marine codex progresses to the cult units, kicking off with Khorne Berzerkers.  When I first saw the stats for these guys, I was worried: where was their fabled extra attack?  Why had it been reduced to to A=1?

Then, I read the rules a little closer.  They get furious charge, and the Mark of Khorne, which yields rage and counter-assault.  This means +1S and +2A on the turn they charge.  And if assaulted, they get +1A for the counter charge on a successful Ld check (which should happen most of the time ... but their Ld is now 8 though).  Considering they come with a bolt pistol and close combat weapon, this means they get 4 S=5 attacks on the charge at WS=5.  This is pretty decent.  Until turn 2 in the melee when they revert to 2 S=4 attacks each (and 3 if they get assaulted in the interim).  So they're strictly worse in the second round that they were in the previous codex, but on the charge, they're better and more brutal (not withstanding the loss of increased initiative to the furious charge rule).  Does this balance out? Well, no: if you get the charge in, they're better full stop!  So: get the charge in and do what these chaps are supposed to do: take skulls for the skull throne!

Points-wise, they're cheaper than they have been in the previous codex as well (effectively a free champion, and 2 points cheaper per marine), which makes them more appealing overall. 

Let's have a look at their upgrades:
The chainaxe is appealing if we know we're not up against space marines (and other power armour Sv=3+ models).  Otherwise, they're not worth it.  Since the meta-game is so saturated with space marines and we're getting plenty of attacks, I suspect that we would forget about this upgrade most of the time (unless we've already modelled the chainaxes / fluffy reasons).

Swapping the bolt pistol for a plasma pistol is entertaining, but pricey.  Ultimately, if the berzerkers are going to be charging high toughness targets, they're probably worthwhile (just).  But try not to evaporate oneself in the process.  (but wait: all blood is welcome, right?).

The Icon of Wrath grants furious charge (which is pointless, since the Khorne Berzerkers already get it), as well as the ability to re-roll charge distances.  This latter ability is very useful, but probably not quite worth the points of the Icon. 

Veterans of the Long War should be worthwhile if the local meta-game is indeed space marine saturated. And its price is very cheap!

The champion can take melta bombs (could be useful? at least situationally), the gift of mutation (if there's a spare few points around, but otherwise probably not needed), ranged weapons (a different way to get a third plasma pistol -- and therefore gunslinger by the letter of the rules; or perhaps a combi-weapon), and melee weapons (power weapons will be worthwhile, but I think a power fist might also be tempting -- but there's a real peril in the Champion of Chaos rule there).

Here's a couple of set-ups that might be worth exploring.

8 Khorne Berzerkers, 2 plasma pistols, Veterans of the Long War, Champion with Power Sword, plasma pistol and melta bombs, Rhino transport with combi-melta (280 points).

A compact unit taken in Khorne's sacred number with 3 plasma pistol toting marines transported in a rhino that is set-up to be a nuisance even without the berzerkers on board.  Roll up the board and select the target.  Get out and plasma pistol them.  Next turn, get assaulted by (overwatch them!) or assault the targets.  Should be case closed with a little planning.

10 Khorne Berzerkers, Veterans of the Long War, Champion with 2 Power Lances, Land Raider transport with dirge caster (475 points).

Use the land raider to get close, then assault.  The double power lances on the champion are interesting: on the charge he will get 5 S=6 attacks with AP=3.  That should be enough to take care of opposing characters.  But feel free to swap out for more traditional lightning claws instead -- the lower strength is probably more than made up for by the re-rolls available -- I simply wanted to point out an innovation in double power lancing!  And don't forget to apply the Dirge Caster's effects.

 

CSM in 6th Review: Kharn the Betrayer

Kharn was once a voice of reason and restraint on Angron.  I guess that shows just how vexed Angron was with the Universe at large.  In the new 6th edition codex, Kharn feels pretty similar to what he has been all along: a vicious killer who lives only to kill, maim and burn.  Cheaper than Abaddon by over 100 points, Kharn is an excellent choice for close combat armies at lower points values, whilst he can be buffed up with accessories (e.g. land raider with terminator units!) at higher points values.

So, what can Kharn do for the chaos general?  Obviously he can unlock Khorne Berzerkers as troops choices -- hence players going down the Khorne route will probably almost automatically include Kharn over a regular chaos lord with the mark of Khorne.

He gets Gorechild, which means he always hits on 2+ (and hits his own unit, if he's in one) on 1's.  Combined with a high strength and low AP, Kharn should be able to take out most opposing challengers, units and light vehicles (due to armourbane).  

He automatically gets the hatred incarnate rule ... but this might be pointless if your opponent is playing some variety of space marines (remember, we get veterans of the long war now). 

But like other characters, he isn't an eternal warrior and can therefore die just like any other space marine, if his invulnerable save doesn't work.  Along with Lucius and generic lords, he is one character that I wouldn't actually mind being turned in to a daemon prince.  Heck, even a chaos spawn (late in the game) might not be a bad result to get the wounds tally back up!  

In terms of how to run him, I think we're going to be taking with either berzerkers in a big blob (plus or minus a rhino), with terminators in a land raider, or perhaps even regular marines with the mark of khorne and an icon to taste as well.  On the charge, Kharn and his unit will hit, and hit hard.  Seven S7 AP2 attacks (with armourbane) hitting on 2+ is going to hurt most units in the game afterall!

To some players, it might be tempting to detach Kharn from his unit on the turn of his charge to avoid self-inflicted injuries.  But I think that's only a good option if there are multiple targets to be charged at and tangled up in combat.  Due to his standard toughness and regular saves, he should try to stay with his unit for the main part, at least until he's snugly in close combat situations that he can win quickly. 

How Many Khorne Berzerkers does it take to Down a Necron?

Berzerkers of Khorne are (were?) noted for their close combat prowess.  So, today I wanted to look at how many berzerkers it will take to kill a necron warrior in close combat.  I am assuming that the berzerkers managed to charge and also got off a bolt pistol shot prior to charging.

The simplifying assumption here is how to deal with the necron's natural save of 4+ followed by the 5+ reanimation save.  Combining them together grants the necron an effective save of 3+ (i.e. it saves half of all regular wounds, followed by ignoring one third of those that get through).

Let's resolve the bolt pistol shot first.  It hits on 3+ and wounds on 4+.  In other words a 0.33 chance of wounding.  Using the effective save of 3+ (as above), the necron will suffer 0.11 wounds per shooting, charging Khorne berzerker.

When the berzerker makes close combat, he will have furious charge (assuming that this hasn't been denied to him thanks to the adaptive tactical genius that is Nemesor Zahndrekh).  The berzerker attacks first and is hitting on 3+ and wounding on 3+.  That means 0.44 wounds per attack.  The berzerker has 4 attacks on the charge, which will lead to 1.76 wounds landing.  Of these, the necron will fail to save 0.59.

Combining this melee result with the above shooting means that a singular, regular Khorne berzerker will cause 0.7 unsaved (and non-reanimated) wound when charging.  Phew!  I was worried that that would work out a lot worse!

Mindshackle Scarabs and Kharn the Betrayer

Here's a question for you.  I'm running Kharn the Betrayer as one of my HQ choices.  He's a nasty Khorne guy who really doesn't mind from where the blood flows -- just so long as it flows.  In close combat there's a chance he'll hit his own allies.

Mindshackle scarabs in the new necron rules are an interesting entry.  Fail a Ld test on 3d6 and the enemy strikes their own allies.  How does this interact with "the Betrayer" rule?  It is stated that the scarabs can use all the "bonuses" the model already has -- is "the Betrayer" rule a bonus?  

The rules as written and common sense say that all of Kharn's attacks go against his allies if he's affected by the scarabs.  But ... could "the Betrayer" rule simply get inverted?

Painted Horsemen of Apocalpse: Khorne

What feels like a long time ago, I assembled a collection of chaos marines riding on horseback with the intent to field them as Chaos Lords or in games of Apocalypse.  This is the first painted horseman: the Khorne Lord.

Khorne colours are straight forward to paint, if nothing else.  Basecoat in mechrite red, followed by a few dark washes and gradual lifting of the red tone using blood red and hints of oranges does the main regions very well.  The gold is pure shining gold with very subtle highlights across the washed tones.  The horse itself was picked out in shades of grey, bleached bone and silver (as appropriate) and makes for a moody complement to the red and gold of the rider. 

Horsemen of Apocalypse: I - Khorne

The intent with this series of articles is to construct four horsemen (with perhaps an icon holder) to represent four chaos lords (one of each of the major powers) mounted on horseback (representing chaos steeds or bikes even) for use within Apocalypse games (and standard games on their own, or with one other chum).

First out is the Khorne horseman -- Lord Ravager.  No real special work has been undertaken on the horse itself (beyond the selection of a chaos knight kit that looked suitable for the blood god's minions to ride -- note the skulls on the chains).  For the chaos lord, I've used a chaos marine torso with a world eater berzerker head on the top.  One of the arms is a standard chaos marine plasma pistol (because even their own blood is welcome, right?!) whilst the other wields a deadly looking axe.  The backpack is one that I had lying around and is very thinly coated, so shouldn't be too much trouble to paint over.  

In terms of load-out, this will be a chaos lord with the Mark of Khorne, riding a motorbike and armed with a plasma pistol and a daemon blade.  This guy has one function: shoot things with the plasma pistol and promptly get in to combat and cause mayhem.  

World Eater Conversion: II. Painting.

I think I'll just post these images taken of the painted World Eater conversion I showed yesterday and not write too much else about them.  Enjoy!

World Eater Conversion: I. The Build.

Inspired by a posting from Adam over at Space Wolves, I decided to put together a conversion for a World Eaters character to lead a squad of Khorne Berzerkers.  Although I've already got Kharn and a neat looking possessee who could step in to the roles, I really wanted something that looked intimidating, could fit in with the other berzerkers and, frankly, old school looking.

Following Adam's post, I've used a chaos warrior body from warhammer fantasy which I chopped at just below the belt.  To that, I glued a pair of standard space marine legs. The arms are from a bloodletter (the hellblade will count as a power weapon for this character!) and a bolt pistol.  The only issue are the elbows: all four of them.  This can be disguised by some careful posing of the miniature though.  The head is a standard berzerker, whilst the backpack is taken from an old (and broken) warp hornets marine.   To attach the backpack, the cloak needed a small file-down so that the pack could sit flush against the shoulders. 

In the next post, I'll show the final painted version of this fellow.

Battle Report: Chaos Space Marines vs. Tyranids (200 points / Kill Zone)

To help promote the Kill Zone rules, this post is a mini battle report on a small band of chaos space marines against a bunch of genestealers. My list cheated slightly: I had (unknowingly) one too many 2+ save models (doh). (Sorry Jim, I clearly didn't read the rules closely enough!).

My Chaos Space Marine team consisted of:
3 Chaos Terminators, 1 combi-melta (95 points) (team leader has the combi melta)
5 Khorne Berzerkers (105 points)

Meanwhile, the opposing tyranids were:
10 genestealers, with 1 broodlord (200 points) (team leader is the broodlord)

We stopped short of having any of the optional upgrades, but the genestealers could have done swift as the wind.

The set-up was a small area, littered with craters and small rubble piles (difficult terrain). I think the set-up will favour my marines since it'll leave the genestealers with precious little cover. The mission is 1.4 (extreme prejudice).

Turn 1.
I bunch my terminators up together and head toward the nearest crater. The shoot and kill two genestealers straight away, despite a cover save. Those twin linked bolters are good, even if they're not storm bolters. The khorne berzerkers, I keep a bit looser and allow them to prowl as lone wolves. They move up on the genestealers but fail to kill any. In return, the genestealers oblige by moving closer and then running even closer.

Turn 2.
Another dead genestealer to my terminators reduces their number to 7, plus the broodlord. One berzerker manages to get in combat with a genestealer but is promptly slain on their sharp claws. Three genestealers charge two more berzerkers. One berzerker dies, but two genestealers also perish.

Turn 3.
Two berzerkers charge the broodlord and kill it. One more berzerker dies in exchange though. The terminators take down a further genestealer, but can't manage a "kill zone" since the unengaged genestealers are spread too far apart. A further berzerker perishes to a genestealer.

Turn 4.
This is the genestealers turn of glory. Taking the initiative and using the reactive assault rule, they wipe out the remaining berzerkers and move toward the terminators in their crater.

Turn 5.
My terminators reduce the genestealers down to four in number (pictured). The genestealers then charge. One dead terminator and two dead genestealers.

Turn 6.
The remaining pair of terminators finally manage to break the genestealers and they rout. As they run, they viciously gun them down. ++ Victory to the forces of chaos. But only just. It was a narrow match!

Finally.
Next time, we're going to look more closely at some of the flavour options! Swift as the wind and armoured might look cool. I'm also going to work toward having a sons of malice kill team that can double up as chaos chosen & terminators in a standard game.

How Many Khorne Berzerkers does it take to Tackle Loyalist Terminators?

A number of my loyalist-playing opponents seem to fear Khorne Berzerkers being anywhere near their terminators -- particularly a unit of thunder hammer and storm shield terminators. I have often wondered why this is. The most frequent reason given is that the berzerkers have bucket loads of attacks and go before the terminators in combat. So I decided to sit down and run a quick and dirty calculation.

Here's the question at hand: How many Khorne Berzerkers does it take to (statistically) kill 5 terminators on the charge?

The basic computation goes as follows:
When charging, the Khorne Berzerkers have 4 attacks each, at WS=5 and S=5.
They will therefore roll to hit on 3+ and roll to wound on 3+.
Each terminator will get a 2+ save.

Hence the probability of 1 attack killing a terminator is 4/6 * 4/6 * 1/6 = 0.074 (=2/27 as a fraction). Or to put it another way, 13.5 attacks will be needed (on average) to down a terminator.

Therefore to remove 5 terminators will require 5 * 13.5 attacks = 67.5 attacks.

If each Khorne Berzerker performs averagely and they get to charge, then the unit will need to be 67.5 / 4 = 16.875 members strong to pull off this feat on the charge.

That's a whole load of Khorne Berzerkers. I personally don't field Khorne Berzerkers in such large numbers. Eight is obviously a fluffy number to have, but I mostly stick with about ten. But I also add in to the mix a Skull Champion with a power fist or power weapon. And I've ignored subsequent rounds of combat. But those considerations are a story for another day.

Painted Bloodletter Possessed Chaos Marine

The painted up possessed chaos space marine. There is lots of detail here ranging from red and black washes, gold highlighting, and a wet blended power weapon in frost brand colours. Some images of this guy in action can be found in this battle report. I'll say little more and let the images do the talking.

Battle Summary: Daemons vs. Chaos Space Marines (200 points Kill Team)

A small, pictorial battle report today on a kill team game (200 points) between Slaanesh daemons and Chaos Space Marines with a Khorne berzerker orientation.

Slaanesh Daemons:
10 daemonettes of Slaanesh (140 points)
2 fiends of Slaanesh (60 points)

Chaos Space Marines / World Eaters Warband:
8 Khorne Berzerkers, including 1 skull champion with a power weapon (198 points)

All the miniatures in the pictures are my own in this friendly battle.

In order to tell you what happened in the battle, I'm going to try out one of Ron's ideas from a year or two ago: I'm only going to post the pictures and let you figure out what happened. The end result should be obvious!






The only question remaining is whether you can pick the miniatures that had special rules (e.g. feel no pain) associated with them :)

Bloodletter Possessed Chaos Marine

This dynamic miniature is a triple purpose miniature! The three roles that I have in mind for it are:

(a) Possessed Chaos Space Marine;
(b) Skull Champion (possibly armed with a power weapon?);
(c) Khorne Lord.

The miniature is mostly parts from a possessed chaos space marine. The right arm, however, is made from the old mutations sprue and features the spiked fist. On the top of the fist, I've attached a bolt pistol that I had sitting in my bits box. The left shoulder pad is the Khorne icon shoulder pad from the chaos marine set. The base is a resin one from back2basix and I have drilled and pinned the miniature to the base. The base should still be easy to paint given the pose of the miniature (I sometimes paint a resin base prior to pinning a miniature to it).

My original thinking for this chap was that this was a bloodletter possessed marine. This largely grew out of a consideration of the head which I think looks very much like a bloodletter's face -- the horns for me are very reminiscent of bloodletters. From therein it dawned on me that this guy could readily double up as a skull champion and it went from there. I'm looking forward to painting this one!

Experimental Chaos Space Marine Kill Team List

Next weekend, I will be playing a small kill team game (but probably without any special universal rules). I've been trying to give some thought to what should go in to my list. Whilst I know that a decked-out squad of plain chaos space marines might be a good way to go, I wanted to try out something else. Here's a list that I came up with.

3 Chaos Terminators, including 1 combi-melta.
5 Khorne Berzerkers.

Total Points Value = 200 on the dot.

The model count is reasonable compared to many power armoured lists for kill team that I've seen. It lacks devastating high strength fire power such as plasma guns, yes. But what it has is a bucket load of attacks from the khorne berzerkers who should be able to weather a few incoming shots so that they can actually charge in to melee. And the terminators should cause problems with their high armour save, power weapons and (singular) melta gun! Moreover, the re-rolls on the twin-linked bolt guns should also give pause for thought -- they're going to be hitting their targets more often than not. My only concern is that my friend has been winding me up (or bluffing completely) about facing a squad of thunder hammer and storm shield terminators from the other side of the board (but I don't know that for sure!). So my plan is to team up my berzerkers with a terminator friend and attack in unison to ensure that enough wounds get caused before a thunder hammer lets rip.

GWpertinent Old School Minis Contest

Over at GWpertient, Tristan has issued a challenge to the community to see their oldest painted (40k) models. I was thinking about entering some old chaos renegades, or even chaos daemons. However, I managed to dig out an interesting pair of Eldar (gasp!) from the Rogue Trader era (1988 to be precise). Yes, I'm an old-school player! The picture below (my entry in the contest) shows these Eldar miniatures from 1988 alongside some of my older chaos renegades and chaos daemons.

From left to right, we have a Khorne Berzerker (Chaos Renegade number 02 in the 1988 citadel catalogue, designed by Michael Perry and Kevin Adams); a Bloodletter of Khorne from Realms of Chaos (number 022525, in the 1989 citadel catalogue but appearing in Slaves to Darkness, 1988); and the pair of Eldar crew (Left: Field Artillery Crew 01, designed by Jes Goodwin, 1988; Right: D-Cannon crew 17, designed by Jes Goodwin, 1988). A bit of a blast from the past!

Points Evaluation of Kharn the Betrayer

Is Kharn worth while taking? Can a chaos marine lord of Khorne do any better? How do they compare?

Kharn is one of those characters that doesn't seem to see too much tabletop play these days. Without the 4th edition "assault consolidation in to other units", and a lack of full-blooded Khorne bloodletters, the World Eaters and Kharn are not the army that they once were. But let's have a look at how Kharn stacks up against other chaos lord builds anyway, in a similar way that I did a while ago with Typhus.

Points Comparison to a Chaos Lord.
The basic Chaos Lord comes in at a low 90 points cost. Kharn has a few things in the statistics department beyond a normal Chaos Lord: +1WS, +1S, +2A.

Firstly, let's give the Lord the Mark of Khorne (+1A) for 10 points. And because this is just an exercise in comparisons, let's give it to him again - 2 marks of Khorne for 20 points, for +2A (yes - it's illegitimate, but that's not the point). From the old codex, +1S cost 10 points as well. The increase in WS is a little harder to articulate a points value for, but let's just say its also 10 points.
Hence, our imaginary chaos lord costs 130 points to get the same statistics as Kharn.

We also need to make the Lord have the Khorne berzerker special rules (furious charge and so forth). I'm going to assume that this might be rolled in to the double mark of Khorne (indeed, it cost less in the old codex where the mark of Khorne came with the bezerker rules). Otherwise, it might cost say ...5 extra points? Kharn also needs an invulnerable save. This is a little bit like getting a mark of Tzeentch, so we'll add on 15 points. That brings the total to 145 points.

Now let's have a look at some wargear. Our chaos lord will need a plasma pistol (15 points), gorechild (probably in the region of 20+ points) and the blessings of Khorne (about 5 points). That takes us up to about 185+ points.

The only remaining question is how does "the betrayer" special rule alter this? I suspect that it is considered a disadvantage that could lower the points cost. If we say it lowers it by about 15 or 20 points, then we get back to Kharn's actual cost.

Summary.
Hence, Kharn is probably about points-value / worth neutral versus a (illegitimately constructed) chaos lord equivalent. Compare that to Typhus who is a clear bargain!

However, Kharn still has a great place in a number of close combat orientated builds and World Eater armies. He can really dish out some hurt, but the player must be careful to separate him from his attached squad prior to combat to avoid the worst side of his betraying nature.