Ld-shenanigans for upcoming tourney

[und_ed]

Righty, a funky 2500-point tournament incoming this weekend, and I'm looking to mess about with a Ld-shenanigan army. Here's my list and thoughts behind it, looking for bets and predictions more than critiques, although all feedback is always welcome.

Lord:
Keeper of Secrets, Siren Song, Allure, Level 4

Level 4 is because I want to push Slaaneshi magic in conjunction with the greater icon of despair plus the masque. Particularly pavane and slicing shards can be ruthless once a unit's Ld is dropped, especially in the unlikely event (more like a perfect storm) that you can get phantasmagoria through as well. I can't remember if the Kipper can take daemonic robes, but it might be worthwhile handing him them instead of allure if he can.

Heroes:
The Masque
Slaaneshi Herald, etherblade, Chariot.
Slaaneshi Herald, Siren Song
Khornate Herald, BSB, Icon of despair

I really wanted to include the charioteer here, since the Ld-shenanigans make hard-hitters much more viable as the Ld-cheating deals with steadfast. (it's also an awesome conversion that I don't get to use very often...)

I have two worries here:

1) I have no spell breaker. This is a huge sacrifice, as I usually get excellent use out of my one scroll.
2) My Khornate Herald is naked, making my icon of despair far easier to kill than I would prefer.

I could fix many problems by dropping the standing slaaneshi herald, but that leaves a lot of core as pointless.

Core:
29x daemonettes, banner + muso
29x bloodletters, full command

I was considering upping the 'letters to 40, and not using a sizeable daemonette unit, but not having a real slaaneshi infantry presence in a slaanesh-centred army seems very wrong to me. I'd like to try fit in the Siren Standard, although precisely how is still eluding me.

Special:
6 x flesh hounds

again, normally only useful for harrassment and supporting charges, their hard-hittiness is suddenly a real threat when playing with Ld-bollocks.

Rare:
4 x Bloodcrushers, Banner

As with flesh hounds, but with cooler models. Again, a nice opportunity to make good use of models that do not work in a more traditional army.

I can't remember if I found points for Nurglings, but I have a feeling I could not.

The army has the following strength / weakness breakdown:

strengths:-

- 2 dangerous infantry hordes
- 4 very fast, hard-hitting elements that can break both stubborn and steadfast units thanks to the Ld-shenanigans
- Moderate magic that becomes very powerful when combined with Ld-modifiers.

Weaknesses:-

- lack of cheap interference units
- vulnerable to war-machines
- high exposure to magic
- Undead armies completely ignore my strongest advantage
- Masque very vulnerable to magic missiles.

Alrighty, that's all she wrote.

Descend, beasts, and feed!

-und_ed

[zhambah]

The one thing I would point out is that slaaneshy magic is incredibly cheap... with a level 4 you can 1 dice every spell... ok so you would be hard pressed to cast phantasmagoria on 1 dice. as long as you don't roll a 1 or 2 your sorted for most of the spells.

coupled this with your worry about a lack of spell breaker, i would try to fit in a HoTz.

This allows you to play a more tactical game, does your enemy dispel the spells that can be cast on a single dice... eating his dice up... will leave the hotz free to cast what he wants, if he lets them through, you've got the spells you want through. I'd be tempted to take death, nobody wants a purple sun cast against them... the threat alone could be enough to get your spells through.

[und_ed]

Yeah, I know the HoTz would be a great buy... he'd solve so many of my problems. The hassle is I would have to drop the charioteer to fit him in legally, and that kinda defeats the purpose of the list (finding a cool way to bring in the much-neglected units, keeping their effectiveness)

-und_ed

[brother_maynard]

i predict that your chariot herald dies ingloriously to a cannonball or terrorgheist scream in your 1st game, and then spectacularly outperforms all of your expectations in the other 2 games.

your MVP will easily be the keeper, she will survive all of your games but on 1 wound.

the flesh hound unit will prove disappointing and you will be looking at them every game wishing they were a fiend-hammer.

thats what brother maynardamus sees in his crystal ball

[zhambah]

I know what you mean, I have several models that I would love to use... they are ok in friendly games... but you've got 215 points tied up in one character.

Thats a little excessive for me, unless they we're a bsb i can't see the justification.

for the same points you can get HoTz with MoS and Spell Breaker, and the much needed armour for your bsb... and a Flesh hound of khorne.

Also, because you're not using fiends, I'm would be tempted to split the bloodcrushers up to give yourself more flanking units. I don't think they would do too well against a horde straight up, but as flanking units they are devestating

[zhambah]

alternatively drop the hounds and take the fiend hammer like brother maynard suggests, this fiend hammer will only be 4 strong... does free up some points though

[und_ed]

After a bit of fiddling, I've decided to make it truly reflect my desire to bring out something completely different.

Changes are:

Daemonettes dropped (!).
Siren-song Herald dropped (!)
Khornate Herald mounted on a chariot, added AoK and Firestorm Blade.
20 plaguebearers added, banner muso.
2 x single fiends added

So now the list is even more of the individual threats, with the khornate herald acting on his own.

Not too sure about this one, with the vulnerability to cannons even greater than before, but I've been wanting for ages to find a way to get both of my (scratch-built) chariots into a single list, and this seems like the best opportunity I'm likely to have for a while...

-und_ed

[zhambah]

nevermind, changed list means this post was pointless

[zhambah]

Yeah, they will be fun to play, as long as they dont get shot off first turn. make sure you keep those fiends infront of the chariots blocking los from cannons, it will be hard... but i have faith in you!

[und_ed]

Heh, the fiends will have to protect the Kipper.

It's gonna be rough, but should be doable. I might just say "tohellwithit" against empire / dwarves and send the fiends screaming down at him, daring him to kill my Kipper. One turn or bust.

I'm not too concerned if my kipper dies - mostly I just want to keep the Masque and the Khornate Herald alive... really makes the second list a gamble if he targets my Khornate BSB.

The more I look at it, the more I think it's insanely risky, and yet the more I like it.

-und_ed

[zhambah]

The only way i can think of protecting your investments (kipper, charriots) is to have 1 bloodcrusher on his own to protect the khornate chariot, and the two fiends protecting keeper and slaanesh chariot... still risky.

but 3 bloodcrushers are still going to pack a punch, and it gives you another unit to deploy... you're call... like you say it's very risky, can just hope it will pay off

[Noisy Assassin]

The revised list seems risky, wonky, unique, and fun as hell! I say do it!

[und_ed]

I reckon I'm going to do just that.

Last revision I'm toying with is trading in the 20 plaguebearers for two small units of daemonettes, to be used as interference units since they're so fast (maybe even one with the banner of ecstasy). It leaves me with one less actual threat unit, but then again how threatening are 20 plaguebearers, really? (It's always possible I'm just pandering to my borderline fetishistic obsession with all things slaanesh...)

Food for thought, anyway.

-und_ed

[FeeZ]

20 plaguebearers aren't really threatening, they aren't huge enough and they're slow enough to be easily avoided. And the smell. Like positive reek awful.

The Daemonettes may be fast enough to add CR where it counts though, and have an above average WS.

[und_ed]

Yeah.

'nettes also benefit substantially from the Slaaneshi spell that gives ASF, although since it gives rerolls to hit I suppose it works for any of them...

Speed I think is the issue, so I'm going to go with them.

This will easily be the most vulnerable, exposed army I've played in ages. I'm really looking forward to it

-und_ed