Chaos Space Marine Units and Tactics: Chaos Predator

Wrapping up the Heavy Support section of Chaos Units and Tactics is the Chaos Predator!

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Built to suit your needs: The Chaos Predator can be designed for whichever role you want it to have. Anti-tank? All Las Cannons. Anti-troop? Autocannon and Heavy Bolters, in fact the autocannon will also net you some good shots on transports as well.

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This gives you the ability to place multiple peices of AV13 on the board and have each designed for a specialized role. You may also make it cheap and run it with only the top weapons, though this is not an optimal load out for the vehicle.

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Movement: While the predator is good for creating firing lanes and denying enemy movement with the threat of shooting power, it also suffers from a mobility problem. An opponent can either deploy or manuever in such a way that you would need to move for the best shot, forcing you to lose 2/3 of your weapons options.

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Value versus cost: The Predator suffers from being one of the low men on a high totem pole of great heavy support options in our codex and its value really depends on how you kit it out.

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The Predator Destructor (Auto cannon/ heavy bolter side sponsons) is a pretty decent value for its points cost. You get two good shots at S7 for popping light armour from across the table. If it is running single, that really doesn't seem like much, but multiple preds can lay down an impressive first turn volley against raiders and rhinos, while the heavy bolters can mow down troops that are forced to approach on foot. The problem becomes, running a single predator like this is not much of a threat, but running multiple preds takes away your ability to run the more heavily armed heavy support options available to Chaos. I recommend this if you are looking for a lot of dakka and don't need a ton of heavy anti-tank support, but otherwise, I would put my faith in our better lang-range anti-tank/ anti-horde units like oblits and havocs.

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If you want to field a Predator with las sponsons and top, then you are going to pay 160. For ten points less, you can get two obliterators, given they are only two las cannons, but they have wounds, can get into cover easily, switch weapons and most importantly will not be rendered useless from being shaken or stunned. The same can be said for havocs, who can take a mix of heavy weapons, though they cannot move and shoot like the oblitz and may run off the board.

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Single Weapon preds: The good thing about single weapon preds is that they will generally stay on the board a little longer due to the fact that they will most likely not be the biggest threat you present to the enemy. The bad thing is that there are better options for the points spent than running preds this way. A single autocannon predator can be replaced by a single Oblit for 5 more points and he can use a wider array of weapons. People will also likely try to kill that obliterator with the same kind of weapon at range that they would have used to kill the predator and even with extra armour, a successful hit will likely yield a result on the damage table forcing you to not fire the next turn.

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What to give the predator: As a rule, I generally avoid Daenomic possession as it knocks down your BS, is expensive and still will not allow you to move AND shoot your weapons. Extra armour is also not a great choice as it just will help you move, but not shoot if it comes to any use at all. I do, however, recommend the havoc launcher for a Destructor predator as it will give you one more anti-troop weapon to fire from your sitting predator.

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Overall, I stopped using predators a while ago due to the value versus points approach and if I ran them again it would be in the destructor variant, but I really prefer all of our other long-range fire-support options to the predator. You may find that it works well in your list and I am by no means saying it is worthless. I suggest playtesting or proxying it to really make the best decision for you.