Bloodreavers vs Khorne Marauders

[Double Misfire]

...or which variety of snarling, shirtless men in leather chaps do you prefer?

Hi all,

I don't play Bloodbound, and am unlikely to in the foreseeable future, but after watching the Warlords coverage and having skimmed through a few Bloodbound lists/threads on this forum have got to ask if I'm the only one to notice that basic Chaos Marauders with the mark of Khorne are better Bloodreavers in almost every conceivable way, or if I've somehow ignored a crucial advantage of running Bloodreavers?

Both units are battleline and cost 60 points a go, both coming with the mortal and Khorne keywords for the purpose of synergy with other Bloodbound units (it's also worth noting that if Bloodbound get their own allegiance abilities down the line there's no Bloodbound faction keyword, meaning that the allegiance will be mortal Khorne, opening it up to a whole host of mark of Khorne Slaves to Darkness stuff as well as the Bloodbound specific units).

Both units have the same movement, bravery and abilities granted by a standard and musician. Chaos Marauders with axes are 4+/4+, and when combined with a Damned Icon, their second standard option (nothing stops you from taking more than one standard) reroll 1s to hit, immediately putting them on par with Bloodreavers with reaver blades. They have an ability called Barbarian Hordes that gives them +1 to hit on a 4+ and +1 to wound on a 6 (3+ and 5+ in units of 20+), meaning than under common circumstances they are slightly worse than Bloodreavers with meatripper axes without the +1 to hit and slightly better with it.

The immediate advantage of Marauders is their 5+ save (darkwood shields why would you ever not take them!) vs the Bloodreavers save of absolutely nothing (seriously, unless you have a regular opponent who rocks Balthasar Gelt, there's no reason not to have an armour save). This not only makes them way more survivable off the bat, but also opens them up to the advantages of cover and mystic shield (ally in a Lord of Change, all he cool kids are doing it!). Bloodreavers seem to fill two roles in a Bloodbound army, the first being cheap battleline tax/objective covers and the second being a humongous overflowing murderblob, swolen with various buffs, and giving both these options a 5+ save only makes them better.

Now on paper Bloodreavers look like they win on the amount of attacks they can put out, getting an extra attack if they're near one or more Chaos totems (so Bloodsecrators then), and gaining another extra attack as part of the (rather expensive) Dark Feast battalion. Chaos Marauders have another ace hidden up their sleeves though (they don't wear sleeves, ace wedged between their biceps): they're on 25mm bases compared to the Bloodreavers 32mms, meaning that they can 'fight in ranks', attacking through each other with 1" weapons. This means that if you've got the bodies for it you can choose between one Bloodreaver stood between a pair of Bloodsecrators with four attacks (five with Dark Feast), or two Chaos Marauders stood between a pair of Bloodsecrators with six attacks.

 

In conclusion I can't see why anyone in their right mind would take Bloodreavers over Marauders as chaff (Marauders stay alive longer) or a murderblob (Marauders stay alive longer and kill more in big numbers). Even if you don't like the somewhat dated Chaos Marauder kit there's nothing stopping you from replacing the additional hand weapons on Bloodreavers with shields and sticking them on 25mm bases.

Thoughts? 

[Tibo16ia]

Nice post.

I favor bloodreavers for the following reasons in no specific orders:

- Models appeal more to me and they fit more with Aos style

- More affordable

- -1 Rend option

- Synergies with the rest of the army, including Dark Feast formation.

- Super nice to paint, which matters if you want to have 60 painted.

Cheers

-

Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk

[Warchief Varard]

43 minutes ago, Tibo16ia said:

Nice post.

I favor bloodreavers for the following reasons in no specific orders:

- Models appeal more to me and they fit more with Aos style

- More affordable

- -1 Rend option

- Synergies with the rest of the army, including Dark Feast formation.

- Super nice to paint, which matters if you want to have 60 painted.

Covered all points on the matter.

7th and 8th all i wanted was a barbarian horde and the marauders were so dated i went the troll core.

Aos on the other hand gave me sexy new sculpts and nice rules to play them.

Theres also a 3rd way to play reavers its option a + b, so small units that are buffed to the brim thrown at the enemy at your leisure.

[Ollie Grimwood]

They're just so nice to paint. In fact an absolute pleasure which isn't something you hear a lot when people have to paint a lot of the same thing. 

They also bit harder than Marauders as it's easier to get more attacks and meatripper axes are better weapons. 

I think someone did a piece in one of the other threads showing that with careful placement you can attack in ranks with 32mm rounds against bases up a certain size (40mm I think). Which would have been useful information last week. 

[Aspirant Snaeper]

I do plan on getting some Marauders at some point (or converting Blood Reavers), as their tankiness is nice, but Blood Reavers with Meatripper Axes, buffed to 6 attacks are brutal. 

Just don't use them as chaff and make sure to run a Warshrine to give them some kind of save. 

[RuneBrush]

For me, the biggest downside of Bloodreavers is their lack of save - they die in droves whenever I've run them and although they can pump out a lot of damage I just prefer different units and run a decent contingent of Blood Warriors.

[wanderingrogue1]

personally id say....either  

 

reavers work better when part of a cohesive list with buffs etc.

 

marauders work better if your army just needs 3 battleline that can hide in cover for a 4+ save OR you want a mark other than khorne for certain synergies.. Ie mortal nurgle units.. .

[Wundlesprut]

As a conspiracy theory of the day: maybe they made marauders better because once they bring in a barbarian unit for each God they will phase them out as an old line and want people to buy as much as possible before that happens.

Of course that conspiracy is undermined by the presence of slaves to darkness. Although I would like to see new marauders.

[Wolden Spoons]

I believe Bloodbound have access to 3 Khorne Icons. Bloodsecrator, Warshrine and Chaos Hero with banner.

[Aspirant Snaeper]

Sadly, their "Totem" bonus doesn't stack, but having at least two ensures that they will more than likely have the bonus. 

Boosted Blood Reavers really are fantastic. Just the other night I ran them rather light (forgot Bloodsecrator at home, Wrathmongers not built yet and waiting on Gorechosen for Aspiring Deathbringer) with just the Bloodstoker and Warshrine to buff them and even when there were only four left, they were still reliably putting out considerable damage. 

Marauders are not terrible though, 40 attacks (Bloodsecrator, Wrathmongers, Asp. Deathbringer) from ten guys with a 5+ save, 6+ "FNP" from the Warshrine and re-rolling missed hits and 1's to wound with a Bloodstoker is still pretty beastly. 

[Beltrajor]

And if you add some chosen, they get rerolls to wound, wich is massive. Only downside is that current models are so ugly, but just adding shields to bloodreavers works for me.

[Khornes_Berzerker]

I prefer blood reavers over marauders. The big reason being the mass amount of rend they get with meat ripper axes. Rend is huge in this game even -1. Considering the "best" save most infantry will get before buffs is 4+ taking them down to 5+ is crucial. It also makes them great at killing bigger monsters. You're always going to have a blood secrator if you're playing bloodbound so you have a boatload of attacks being pumped out.

Yes having no save sucks but they have the benefit of being immune to battlshock because of the secrator so they will die in droves(which is good because it means that more important things aren't being shot down) but now they won't lose extra models. The marauders just can't dish out enough damage to be worth it imo and there are better units in the alliance that can be used for objectives.

tl;dr blood reavers > marauders