Just learned that the Madicon 40K tournament is going to be 1,500 points.

Now, there are a few things I could probably say, but I think I’ll leave it at: “1,500?  Really?”

Of course I haven’t thought through a 1,500 point list.  I’ve thought through a 1,750 list that I can sort of ham-fistedly bloat up to 1,850 and 2,000… but nothing a 1,500 points.

On the one hand, this is vexing.  On the other hand, this is an opportunity to run a list that’s somewhat tuned instead of a tuned list (as I consider my 1,750 list to be) plus points wasters.  I’m going to choose to be positive about this.

So, give me your opinions!

The first cut is my 1,750 list – 250 points.  Fundamentally, that’s going to describe all of these 1,500 lists, but this is the most direct path.

I drop the Bloodcrushers entirely, as well as Karanak and an Icon.  I pick up a Fury of Khorne on the larger Bloodletter squad to hit 1,500.

MAXIMUM KHORNAGE
Chaos Daemons – 1,500 points

HQ
Bloodthirster
Bloodthirster

Troops
Bloodletters x16 – Icon of Khorne, Fury of Khorne
Bloodletters x8

Fast Attack
Flesh Hounds x8 – Fury of Khorne
Flesh Hounds x8 – Fury of Khorne

Heavy Support
Soul Grinder – Phlegm
Soul Grinder – Phlegm

Pros: I can run this right now.
Cons: Bloodletters suck, and having fewer units does me no favors.

This next list is very similar to the previous list: it just splits the big Bloodletter squad in half.

MAXIMUM KHORNAGE
Chaos Daemons – 1,500 points

HQ
Bloodthirster
Bloodthirster

Troops
Bloodletters x8 – Icon of Khorne
Bloodletters x8 – Fury of Khorne
Bloodletters x8

Fast Attack
Flesh Hounds x8 – Fury of Khorne
Flesh Hounds x8 – Fury of Khorne

Heavy Support
Soul Grinder – Phlegm
Soul Grinder – Phlegm

Pros: I can run this right now.  More targets than the list above.
Cons: Bloodletters remain the weakest unit in the army.  8 is really fragile, too.

I can’t tell if this final list is The Way to Go or Silly.

Instead of paying for more Bloodletters than the bare minimum, I can buy Bloodcrushers.  They’re the cheapest thing I can put on the table (while sticking with the powers-of-two number scheme of 0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 that Khorne likes), and feel like they’re more resilient than Bloodletters (I’ll do the math, later, to see if that’s true or not).  They’re also More Units, which means More Targets, which makes the overall army that much more resilient.

I could shift the Bloodletter upgrades onto the Bloodcrushers. Not sure if I want to do that or not.  If I do that, I’ll have to model up and paint another Bloodletter.  (Only have one octet without an Icon.)  Without doing that, I think I can fudge the Fury, unequipped, and Instrument Bloodcrushers as just regular ‘ol Crushers.

MAXIMUM KHORNAGE
Chaos Daemons – 1,500 points

HQ
Bloodthirster
Bloodthirster

Elites
Bloodcrusher x1
Bloodcrusher x1
Bloodcrusher x1

Troops
Bloodletters x8 – Icon of Khorne
Bloodletters x8 – Fury of Khorne

Fast Attack
Flesh Hounds x8 – Fury of Khorne
Flesh Hounds x8 – Fury of Khorne

Heavy Support
Soul Grinder – Phlegm
Soul Grinder – Phlegm

Pros: More targets!  More resilient targets!
Cons: Bloodcrushers have A Reputation for being really ‘Ard and Killy, so this could look bad.  I don’t think that’s they’re going to be too hard and killy run on their own, however.

What do people think?