AoS 2 - Blades of Khorne Discussion

[ledha]

14 hours ago, jazman84 said:

Yep, Blender potential is very high, however, the lack of rend can really blunt them against anything with a half-decent save. They have great weapon profiles other than this lack of rend. Because of this I reckon they are best at deleting low armored hordes and high wound targets that have low armor. And keep them away from more resilient targets, because you'll be throwing a lot of dice with little result.

 

Oh, and back them up with some Warmongers and a Bloodsecrator for +2 attacks.

I use them a lot and high armor isn't a problem if the ennemy unit have 5 models or more. You just fish for sixes ( reroll everything that isn't a 6 because they reroll isn't limited to failed hit and you don't have to reroll EVERYTHING ) and your unit suddenly casually throw around 10 mw every time. If they attack in the hero phase ( before sequitors or morteks rerol their saves) it's a carnage.

They tear trough everything that isn't a well armored monster, basically 95% of the game . Mine roll over mortreks and sequitor with hilarious ease

I play 3x5 in slaughterborn and they are one of the most consistent blender of the game. Evocators wish they were as good. The only time they doesn't pay back twice or thrice their cost is when they are shot from afar.

If they had rend it would be really insane

Edited March 1, 2020 by ledha

[ogarrah]

1 hour ago, Balloon Dwarf said:

Just getting into Khorne and was looking at the warscrolls and the like.. Is there a reason that nobody seems to take skullreapers? They seem like a pretty punchy unit and part of a lot of battalions... Sorry if this has been answered already but with 247 pages its a lot to get through. 

Skullreapers, even without any buffs, will blend almost anything you can set them on. Unfortunately, they're SUPER slow.  With just 5" of base movement, getting these guys into combat quick is hard, and after getting shredded by them once or twice, your opponent will probably focus on casting/shooting them off the board. At 3 wounds apiece and a 4+ save, they're not too squishy, but how slow they are can be really annoying.  They play best in the Skulltake battalion, which allows them to do double damage on a wound roll of 6.  Also, they don't have any rend, but with amount of MW's they put out, they still can deal with tankier units, just not as well as they can deal with hordes (these guys will melt any horde off the face of the earth , especially with their Trial of Skulls ability).  In my lists, I usually take only one 5-man unit of Skullreapers, either as a potent second wave, or a distraction. I've found my opponents usually focus on casting/shooting off Skullreapers after seeing what they can do once or twice, instead of shooting off my Slaughterpriests or Bloodsecrator, like they should be. Even if you don't take them in your lists often, Skullreapers have really cool looking models.

[fwlr]

Hey guys

Been a while since I posted here.

I've not been playing as much recently, but regardless still really enjoy wreaking havoc with my triple thirster list. Now I love destroying everything, but I also love winning. And I don't have much objective holding power in my list atm. Which is a major problem, especially if I want to take my list to tournaments and the like.

So my list is:

Reapers of vengeance

Tyrants of blood; skarbrand, insensate w amberglaive + fury (general w cmd trait + relic from reapers) 1070

2 slaughterpriests ( bronzed flesh + killing frenzy) 200

bloodsecrator 120

10 blood warriors 200

2x5 flesh hounds 200

5 wrathmongers 140

Axe 60

1990

My main strategy involves bunching everything up in a brick in the middle, warriors in the front and fleshies flanking these with all characters and thirsters and wrathmongers behind that screen. Then slowly advancing and moving onto middle objectives + waiting for a charge from them/ I get close enough to charge everything safely. Then popping all thirster abilities and killing everything they have.

Now this works, and is fun, most of the time. But when I've got objectives in my territory, or I need to control lots at once, it breaks down. I need more objective power, and less of a focus on a brick in the centre because of the nature of how easy it is to outmaneuvre me. 

I've thought of a few things I could do- 

Dropping blood warriors + second priest for 3x5 more flesh hounds

Possibly including some chaos warriors

Bloodletters? Reavers?

 

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Cheers.

[Agent of Chaos]

I would keep both priests for sure.

If all the warriors do is screen then I would drop them for 2 x 5 hounds.

One unit of hounds provides the same screening footprint leaving you with a spare unit to screen or objective camp.

The extra daemons will benefit from the bloodthirster locus and cant run from battleshock.

If you want even more bodies then maybe drop the wrathmongers for 2 x 10 reavers, or even just swap the wraith axe and your spare 10pts for 10 reavers.

How do you use bloodtithe in this list? Are you summoning alot to make up for your lack of bodies or do you just use the abilities on the bloodthirsters?

[ogarrah]

1. I would take the axe out. It's INSANE when it goes off, but on a 5+ it's not going to happen that often

2. Mobility equals objective power. There's not many ways to do this in a Khorne army, but there is a few things you can do to greatly increase the zoom of your army. 

-Switch to Goretide Slaughterhost and use run and charge on Blood Warriors and Bloodreavers (This would change the whole strategy of your list, so I wouldn't do it in your case but I just thought I'd put it out there)

-Take a Bloodstoker. With his whip he can give +3 to run and charge to Khorne Mortal units. Helps your Blood Warriors and Wrathmongers get up the table a little quicker 

-Take some Marauder horsemen. Like 1-3 units that you can just run around capping objectives. They've got a 12" base movement and +1" to run and charge, and they can also retreat and charge, so you can get them in and out of combat pretty easily.

-Consider putting Thermalriders Cloak on one of your thirsters, it'll give him +4' base movement, making him *that* much faster, but they're faster than your whole army anyway plus you use them as a second wave so...

-I would either halve or drop your Bloodwarrior unit to either take more doggos or make space for some marauders. Without the axe and the 200 points of Warriors, you've got 270 points to fill with a Bloodstoker and some dogs and/or Marauder horsemen

3.  As for taking Bloodletters or Bloodreavers, just summon some Bloodletters if you need to. I don't think taking reavers in this list is worth it, unless you're finding you need the bodies

4. Also, on Chaos Warriors, they're the same amount of points as Bloodreavers and they're statistically better, and you don't need them for your battalions or anything so I would definitely take them

By no means do you have to do everything I listed above,  these are just suggestions. I hope this helps and I would love to hear how this list does in the future.

Edited March 2, 2020 by ogarrah
Typo

[Beer & Pretzels Gamer]

On 2/28/2020 at 4:04 PM, Beer & Pretzels Gamer said:

Kicking off a Khorne based narrative cycle this weekend.  Basic concept is that Bel’akor has stirred up trouble between the Daemon and Mortal sides of the Blades of Khorne.  It is an argument that can only be settled by a contest to see which group can claim more blood for the blood god.

So the first round is finished and the Mortals have taken a decisive lead having taken 118 Wounds worth of Blood for the Blood God to the Daemons more paltry 30.  

Some bad luck for the Daemons for sure as they got caught out early losing their key Bloodthirster early to the Frostlord on Stonehorn and severely degrading but NOT killing (on the Wounds of killed models count to our score) all of the BCR behemoths.  Don’t worry, we’ll be tweaking the list to bring in Mazarall the Butcher next round so let’s see if the Daemons can turn it around in Round 2.

Can speak in more detail to the other battle between the Mortals and the Bloodgullet Mawtribe.  Khorne won the initiative and had Ogors go first, smartly letting them largely waste their first round of spell casting but conceding the center objective to them.  The Bloodreaver Deathstar did a lot of damage to the Ironguts in the middle, complimented by Blood Bind going off for a 6 and at the end of R1 things were looking good for Khorne, despite losing a lot of Reavers when they didn’t have the CP to avoid Battleshock.  

But in R2 Bloodgullet finally got their spells off and tied up the Skullcrushers with their 2nd unit of Ironguts while the few remaining Ironguts of the 1st unit held on.  When the Ogors got their Tyrant, 2nd Butcher and 4x Unit if Leadbelchers into the Wrathmongers who had shifted to protect the flank they went down, dealing a lot of damage but opening up the flank.

The biggest mistake for a Khorne was not getting the Bloodwarriors and Mighty Lord of Khorne into the action R3, which allowed the Mawtribe to hang on in what was becoming a battle of attrition in the center and on the opposite flank.  But Blood Tithe rewards save the days shutting down Voracious Maw in Rs 3-5.  Add in some cold rolling for Bloodgullet in R4&5 and slowly the tide turned back to Khorne.

Not enough to fully close the VP gap which had opened when the Wrathmongers flank fell but enough so that Mawtribes only had 1 model left on the table at the end of R5.  Given the individual games are less important to the narrative than the Blood Toll think the Mortals were very happy with their debut.  Will Tweak a few things on this list too but looks pretty decent.

Next time - the Mortals will enter the forest at the edge of this battlefield to face off against the Sylvaneth.  Meanwhile the Duardin who were inside the Dispossessed stronghold the Daemons fought in front of will call in the KO to reopen the pass and clear out their Daemon Infestation (after the BCR continue their migration).

 

[Malfean]

Going to an RTT this weekend, I know we've had a fair amount of people jump on board with Tzeentch, Bonereapers and Cities of Sigmar. Its normally a Destruction, Slaanesh, Khorne and non-Bonereapers Death army dominated meta. Trying out Murderhost and Skulltake, unfortunately i'm short on Khorne Hounds so i'm substituting in some other units I've got painted.

How do these two lists look? Not sure if I want to stick with Murderhost or try Skulltake. Also thinking about a Khorne DP in case all my match-ups are Ogors, Warclanz and Slaanesh.

 

Quote

Allegiance: Khorne
- Mortal Realm: Ghur
- Slaughterhost: Reapers of Vengeance
LEADERS
Wrath of Khorne Bloodthirster (300)
- General
- Command Trait : Mage Eater
- Artefact : Skullshard Mantle
Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (270)
- Artefact : The Crimson Crown
Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage (270)
- Artefact : Amberglaive
Bloodsecrator (120)
Skulltaker (120)
Slaughterpriest (100)
- Blood Blessing : Killing Frenzy
UNITS
5 x Flesh Hounds (100)
5 x Flesh Hounds (100)
5 x Flesh Hounds (100)
3 x Bloodcrushers (120)
BATTALIONS
Tyrants of Blood (140)
Murderhost (160)
ENDLESS SPELLS / TERRAIN / COMMAND POINTS
Hexgorger Skulls (40)
Wrath-Axe (60)
TOTAL: 2000/2000

and the other list

 

Quote

Allegiance: Khorne
- Mortal Realm: Ghur
- Slaughterhost: Reapers of Vengeance
LEADERS
Wrath of Khorne Bloodthirster (300)
- General
- Command Trait : Mage Eater
- Artefact : Skullshard Mantle
Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (270)
- Artefact : The Crimson Crown
Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage (270)
- Artefact : Amberglaive
Bloodstoker (80)
Bloodsecrator (120)
UNITS
10 x Bloodreavers (70)
- Reaver Blades
10 x Bloodreavers (70)
- Reaver Blades
10 x Bloodreavers (70)
- Reaver Blades
5 x Skullreapers (180)
- Daemonblades
5 x Skullreapers (180)
- Daemonblades
1 x Khorgoraths (100)
BATTALIONS
Skulltake (140)
Tyrants of Blood (140)
TOTAL: 1990/2000

 

Edited March 2, 2020 by Malfean

[Roark]

On 3/1/2020 at 7:59 AM, Balloon Dwarf said:

Just getting into Khorne and was looking at the warscrolls and the like.. Is there a reason that nobody seems to take skullreapers? 

Skullreapers are awesome, and many people take them. I often take 10, and they've pretty much destroyed entire armies for me in the past.

EDIT: sorry, just realised heaps of people already replied with much more detail. Good job lads. Khorne thread is best thread.

Edited March 2, 2020 by Roark

[Smooth criminal]

On 2/29/2020 at 11:59 PM, Balloon Dwarf said:

Just getting into Khorne and was looking at the warscrolls and the like.. Is there a reason that nobody seems to take skullreapers? They seem like a pretty punchy unit and part of a lot of battalions... Sorry if this has been answered already but with 247 pages its a lot to get through. 

I personally prefer wrathmongers. For price of 10 skullreapers you get 10 wrathmongers with a Skarr and that is a very strong module.

Skullreapers have missed a few waves of point drops, they need their own point drop to compete.

[Smooth criminal]

12 hours ago, Malfean said:

How do these two lists look? Not sure if I want to stick with Murderhost or try Skulltake. Also thinking about a Khorne DP in case all my match-ups are Ogors, Warclanz and Slaanesh.

I like the demon one more because it gets more mileage out of Fury's ability. Even though I consider that skulltake is stronger by itself than murderhost because of reavers battleline.

I don't like 2 judgements when you have only 1 priest.

Khorne DP is an amazing control tool against melee armies. He doesn't do much damage though, nowhere near a thirster, but it's a free damage since he goes before everyone else. Since you're low drop you can go first, capture objective, pop his ability and the opponent is just screwed because he wouldn't be able to reach you unless he plays fast cavalry.

Edited March 2, 2020 by Smooth criminal

[Grimrock]

39 minutes ago, Smooth criminal said:

I personally prefer wrathmongers. For price of 10 skullreapers you get 10 wrathmongers with a Skarr and that is a very strong module.

I'm in a similar boat. Wrathmongers miss out on a few of the nice tools that skullreapers get, but rend and the ability to attack 2 or 3 times (if you take the battalion and skarr) in a combat phase usually more than make up for it. Plus the 2 inch reach lets them sit behind blood reaver screens and still be fully effective. They can even tackle single model monsters that skullreapers can struggle against as with akarr they can attack, die, attack again, and still throw an average of 5 mortal wounds on the way out the door. Don't get me wrong, I still like skullreapers, but I find myself reaching for wrathmongers first in most lists. 

[ogarrah]

Does anybody have any thoughts on taking just 3 Skullcrushers at a time? They're supposed to be taken in units of 6+, but my list right now is kind of squishy, and I was wondering if it would be worth it to take only 3 for their sheer tankiness. If it isn't worth it, what should I take instead? I run a mortal Goretide list that relies on buffing the ****** out of Bloodreavers using Dark Feast and Gore Pilgrims and running souped up reavers all over the table, but with 160 points, I'm not really sure what I would take otherwise, I've used all 6 of my heroes. Are Wrathmongers a good idea? Maybe something STD? Any advice is appreciated.

Edited March 4, 2020 by ogarrah
Typo

[kahadin]

Skullcrushers are very tanky. I used to use them when they were 140 and a 4+ save. They block off a huge area of the board and hold strong well. I didn't charge with them either. Just sat them in the way of the opponent. I think they are probably worth it still. +20 points fora 3+ save is a good trade if you want tanking.

[drkrash]

Hey, everyone.  I'm looking for some advice.  I apologize in advance that this will probably run long.  I also want to say that I'm not new to AoS; I've been playing for 4 years, competing in tournaments for almost 3, and played Khorne exclusively until only a few months ago.  Yet I'm clearly no good at this game at the competitive level.

I'm playing a daemon army.  In my local scene, I generally do pretty well; I'm in the top 3 of our club of about 10 - though I rarely beat the other 2 in the top 3! However, when I go out to tournaments (about 3 per year), I do poorly.

The list I've been using has 4 Thirsters: Skar, WoK, and 2 Rage.  The rest is 2 priests, 5 puppies, 5 wrathmongers, 2x10 reavers, and Wrath Axe.  I'm running Bloodlords.  My general strategy is to usually let my opponent go first, move up slowly in Round 1, and try to arrange it so all 4 Thirsters are engaged in Round 2 so they can attack first and all at once.  Sometimes it works beautifully, but sometimes I get in my own way or get clogged by scenery or get distracted by what I should be killing.  If an opponent knows the Bloodlords, my general gets targeted and the cool trick of attacking first is gone and then squishy Thirsters die.

After running this list for about 8 months and in 3 tournaments, I grew frustrated and thought I should do what every other daemon player seems to do: run Reapers.

So I re-tooled the list: switched one Rage for a Fury Thirster, ditched a priest, gained a Bloodsecrator, and switched out the Axe for the Skulls.  I've only used the list twice in casual games (against my best local opponents).  I lost both times because it seems the "rhythm" of Reapers is totally different than Bloodlords...AND I think I'm missing something critical in the precision use of Khorne in general. 

My more specific questions:

1) How do you best manage the interplay between the Reapers CA, the Fury CA, and Tyrants' battalion ability? If a Thirster is going to attack twice, he has to attack last in the Tyrant chain.  Or if 2 Thirsters are going to attack twice, they can't be in the Tyrant chain.  If one or more are going to pile in 6, they can't use the Tyrant chain, which is restricted to 3".  I can't figure out the ideal way to synergize these abilities...to the point that I wonder if Tyrants is worth the 120 points.  Is it really just, "these are your tools; there's no perfect way to talk tactics in the abstract"? Is there a "best practice" here? Or is Tyrants not necessary and I should those points on more screens? Which leads me to...

2) With my Bloodlords, I used no screening on the Thirsters.  As I said above, I moderated when to make my move and then went straight to smashmouth play (and hoped for the best with the dice).  The Reapers' tricks, which seem to require a lot more finesse, also seem to *need* screens to work.  I could use the reavers and puppies for that...but then I have nothing to guard back objectives against mobile or teleporting armies.  Is it better to leave the back alone and hope to kill enough to worry about that problem later? Does the need for screening trump back guards?

I don't seem to have an issue with list construction or knowing and using the capabilities of my units.  My problem seems to be in setup and movement.  Any advice or insight you could offer would be warmly appreciated.

[Smooth criminal]

With Reapers I see a lot of people either dropping Tyrants in favor of other battalions like Blood host/Murderhost or dropping thirster count to 2 in favor of other stuff.

[Sir Mercury]

Well Im not gonna decide who's going first with this list but I'll try it out soon in a local tournament. 

My friendly testgames so far has been succesful and every time the opponent gets a WTF moment and can't decide where to focus.

I like it!

Allegiance: Khorne
- Slaughterhost: The Skullfiend Tribe

Leaders
Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut (160)
- General
- Command Trait: Master Decapitator 
Mighty Lord of Khorne (140)
- Artefact: Crowncleaver 
Bloodsecrator (120)
Slaughterpriest (100)
- Blood Blessing: Bronzed Flesh
Slaughterpriest (100)
- Blood Blessing: Bronzed Flesh
Slaughterpriest (100)
- Blood Blessing: Killing Frenzy

Battleline
5 x Blood Warriors (100)
- Goreaxes
10 x Bloodreavers (70)
- Reaver Blades
10 x Bloodreavers (70)
- Reaver Blades
5 x Flesh Hounds (100)

Units
1 x Khorgoraths (100)
1 x Khorgoraths (100)
1 x Khorgoraths (100)
1 x Khorgoraths (100)
1 x Khorgoraths (100)
1 x Khorgoraths (100)
1 x Khorgoraths (100)
1 x Khorgoraths (100)

Endless Spells / Terrain / CPs
Bleeding Icon (40)
Hexgorger Skulls (40)
Wrath-Axe (60)

Total: 2000 / 2000
Extra Command Points: 0
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 141
 

[Patriarch]

Another question about skarbrand.  Can i boost the numbers of attack of carnage axe?  The description say roll a dice.  Does it mean i can't boost the number of attack with bloodsecrator?

Thanks.

[AresX8]

@Patriarch Yes, as Carnage has an attack value.

[SleeperAgent]

So I'm picking up a Khorne army. Question about the Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage. Is the "Rage Unbound" ability just worthless? Since as a greater demon he already re-rolls hits of 1 from Locus of Fury.

[itgnightraven]

1 hour ago, SleeperAgent said:

So I'm picking up a Khorne army. Question about the Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage. Is the "Rage Unbound" ability just worthless? Since as a greater demon he already re-rolls hits of 1 from Locus of Fury.

yes, it is something he should have even when he is an ally and do not have access to the locus ability. It says so in the faq

[Hannibal]

On 3/8/2020 at 1:07 PM, Sir Mercury said:

Well Im not gonna decide who's going first with this list but I'll try it out soon in a local tournament. 

My friendly testgames so far has been succesful and every time the opponent gets a WTF moment and can't decide where to focus.

I like it!

Allegiance: Khorne
- Slaughterhost: The Skullfiend Tribe

Leaders
Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut (160)
- General
- Command Trait: Master Decapitator 
Mighty Lord of Khorne (140)
- Artefact: Crowncleaver 
Bloodsecrator (120)
Slaughterpriest (100)
- Blood Blessing: Bronzed Flesh
Slaughterpriest (100)
- Blood Blessing: Bronzed Flesh
Slaughterpriest (100)
- Blood Blessing: Killing Frenzy

Battleline
5 x Blood Warriors (100)
- Goreaxes
10 x Bloodreavers (70)
- Reaver Blades
10 x Bloodreavers (70)
- Reaver Blades
5 x Flesh Hounds (100)

Units
1 x Khorgoraths (100)
1 x Khorgoraths (100)
1 x Khorgoraths (100)
1 x Khorgoraths (100)
1 x Khorgoraths (100)
1 x Khorgoraths (100)
1 x Khorgoraths (100)
1 x Khorgoraths (100)

Endless Spells / Terrain / CPs
Bleeding Icon (40)
Hexgorger Skulls (40)
Wrath-Axe (60)

Total: 2000 / 2000
Extra Command Points: 0
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 141
 

I love this list. Any advice on how to play it?

I noticed that Khorgoraths are not very easy to buff due to lacking DAEMON and MORTAL keywords.

[Zamik]

On 3/8/2020 at 7:07 AM, Sir Mercury said:

Well Im not gonna decide who's going first with this list but I'll try it out soon in a local tournament. 

My friendly testgames so far has been succesful and every time the opponent gets a WTF moment and can't decide where to focus.

I like it!

Allegiance: Khorne
- Slaughterhost: The Skullfiend Tribe

Leaders
Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut (160)
- General
- Command Trait: Master Decapitator 
Mighty Lord of Khorne (140)
- Artefact: Crowncleaver 
Bloodsecrator (120)
Slaughterpriest (100)
- Blood Blessing: Bronzed Flesh
Slaughterpriest (100)
- Blood Blessing: Bronzed Flesh
Slaughterpriest (100)
- Blood Blessing: Killing Frenzy

Battleline
5 x Blood Warriors (100)
- Goreaxes
10 x Bloodreavers (70)
- Reaver Blades
10 x Bloodreavers (70)
- Reaver Blades
5 x Flesh Hounds (100)

Units
1 x Khorgoraths (100)
1 x Khorgoraths (100)
1 x Khorgoraths (100)
1 x Khorgoraths (100)
1 x Khorgoraths (100)
1 x Khorgoraths (100)
1 x Khorgoraths (100)
1 x Khorgoraths (100)

Endless Spells / Terrain / CPs
Bleeding Icon (40)
Hexgorger Skulls (40)
Wrath-Axe (60)

Total: 2000 / 2000
Extra Command Points: 0
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 141
 

This looks like fun! If you do some Hero, judgement, and battleline shifting, you could squeeze in the units you need for the Skulltake Battalion, to make those Khorgoraths just that much worse!

[Roark]

On 3/8/2020 at 11:07 PM, Sir Mercury said:

Well Im not gonna decide who's going first with this list but I'll try it out soon in a local tournament. 

Haha, very cool. The Skullfiend Tribe command really helps to mitigate the Khorgies' vulnerability to debuffs (as a single unit), and you actually have some potentially nasty short range shooting! Mindbending. 

I would change one of those Bronzed Flesh to a Brazen Fury perhaps. You can only use one of each prayer per turn, and it would be terrible to lose Khorgies to battleshock...

[Sir Mercury]

16 hours ago, Hannibal said:

I love this list. Any advice on how to play it?

I noticed that Khorgoraths are not very easy to buff due to lacking DAEMON and MORTAL keywords.

Well the thing about this list is to buff the Khorgoraths with the CA from Skullfiend Tribe Heroes. Letting every Khorgorath wholly w 10" re-roll hit AND wound rolls in the combat phase. 

The 2 Lords let me have two flanks with buffs and often 4 Khorgoraths each.  Supported by the priest throwing all sort of nastyness.

Sometimes I need to spread out thin and dont get the buffs but it often slowes down the enemy and let me score VP atleast 😊. 

[Sir Mercury]

2 hours ago, Roark said:

Haha, very cool. The Skullfiend Tribe command really helps to mitigate the Khorgies' vulnerability to debuffs (as a single unit), and you actually have some potentially nasty short range shooting! Mindbending. 

I would change one of those Bronzed Flesh to a Brazen Fury perhaps. You can only use one of each prayer per turn, and it would be terrible to lose Khorgies to battleshock...

Well thats the reason I only got 1 Khorgie per unit so the Brazen Fury feels unecessary. 

But yeah you could field bigger units and use Brazen/Killing /Bronzed to buff them.

I use the prayers to keep the Lords alive a bit longer.