Artefact + Hero Megathread

[Rekmeister]

So, I've been playing with an army that has garbage artefacts, Flesh Eater Courts, which encouraged me to find better artefacts from Malign Sorcery. After some experimenting I settled on a very tasty interaction that has been sweeping enemy units for a while now. It occurred to me that some players might not have the luxury or patience to test different artefacts, so I thought I ought to make a thread where everyone can share the pairings of heroes and artefacts that have proven their worth. It also occurred to me that a lot of people might have written off most of the artefacts in their books, choosing the tried and tested artefacts every game instead of taking a risk on a new one (looking at you Ethereal Amulet). This thread is for everyone to discuss specific interactions between warscrolls and artefacts that others may have overlooked. I feel as though my army has been significantly improved by this interaction, and that it has given me a whole new sub-strategy to explore every game.

Here is my contribution:

Crypt Haunter Courtier + Rune Blade (Chamon)

• A Crypt Haunter Courtier has a club that deals 3 damage, but has no rend.
• A Crypt Haunter Courtier can re-roll failed hits while within 15" of any Abhorrent Ghoul King, a hero which is an auto-include in any FEC army.
• A Rune Blade changes the rend characteristic of a given weapon to -3.
• With the warscroll having an in-built way to re-roll hits, this makes for a very powerful combination. A rend of -3 reduces a 4+ to absolutely nothing, making it entirely possible to kill heroes in one round of combat, something that the vanilla warscroll cannot do with any consistency.
• The army also has ways to allow the Courtier to re-roll wound rolls if playing alongside an Abhorrent Ghoul King on Zombie Dragon, which makes this artefact + hero even nastier.

I hope this thread proves to be useful, and I am excited to see what other interactions the good people of this sub have discovered.

[Naflem]

Of course there's always Verminlord Corruptor + Sword of Judgment

• Verminlord Corruptor has 10 attacks with its single melee weapon which are pretty meek unbuffed (1 damage, no rend) (and as a result he's pretty reasonably pointed)
• Corruptor Rerolls misses to hit
• Lots of chances for 6+ to hit exploding for 1d6 mortal wounds from the Sword of Judgment
• Availability of plus 1 to hit in the Chaos Grand Allegiance make it even better.
• (and really he'd be a good option for any artifact that triggers on a hit)   

[calcysimon]

Chaos lord on manticore :

Nurgle alliance and trait (3+ save) 

 

General trait " Nurgle mortal" 

Add -1 rend to all weapons 

 

Artifact : ethereal amulet 

 

Machine-gun ?

[AdamR]

• Lord Celestant + Sword of Judgement
• +1 Attack command trait
• 4 command points.
• 6 attacks on the charge doing d6 mortals on a 2+
• Best utilised with Skyborne Slayers to start him 5" from the enemy.
• And a triumph to reroll those pesky 1's!

[Ravinsild]

Mighty Lord of Khorne with Ghyrstrike from Ghyran. 

Disciple of Khorne command trait. 

Stand within a Bloodsecrator’s aura. 

Enjoy the buff from an Aspiring Deathbringer. 

Now with a beautiful 6 attacks with his Axe of Khorne hitting on 2’s and wounding on 2’s, whipped by a Bloodstoker grants re-rollable 1’s for wounds, there’s a large probability for his axe of -1 rend D3 damage to get through. 

That’s not all. For every attack that lands and is not saved there’s a chance on a 5 or more for the model to be instantly deleted anyway even if you only rolled 1’s on your damage table  

 

[Sheriff]

I've not found anything that game-changing for grots but have had success with these 2.

Gitmob shaman on wolf with the Crown of Treachery. He legs it really far and then vaporizes hordes, or can wait behind a line of grot-bait and activate it in the enemy turn to squish a hordey unit. Great when attacking alongside wolf riders too, makes a nasty battleshock. His movement is the key thing, he can get to a fairly safe position to activate this thing, and move far enough to make it feasible in the first place. 

Fungoid with Alchemical chain. You can re-roll unbinds with this guy once per game until your next hero phase, and given that we always have to take first turn (GW won't let us have a say in this) you can activate it turn 1 and then unbind 2 spells with re-rolls, including through enemy double turn. He's always near the front of the army anyway for his command, so perfect for unbinds. 

Otherwise I plan to try this next: arachnarok with defensive-cogs and ethereal. Triple caster anvil-missile that the enemy can't ignore if realm spells are in play, that saves 75% of normal attacks. (or you can give him the feather and plonk him behind a wall of netters for a tasty -2 to be hit). 

[Mayple]

Off the top of my head..

 

Ironjawz Warchanter with blade of judgement. Capable of giving himself +1 to hit, and increasing that bonus further if accompanied by more warchanters, this guy will trigger the d6 mortal wounds on the same roll that generates a new attack, enabling him to drop a lot of damage in the right situation. 

Grot Warboss (moonclan) with miasmic blade (ulgu), this is one of the exceptions to the game in regards to "6s always succeed", because in his case, rolling 6s to hit are treated as 1s. Thus, if you can stack up enough minus modifiers to hit, so that the opponent can only hit on a 6, he can't be hit at all!

Ethereal amulet on Mawcrusha is worth noting too, but I have no experience with it, so I'll let someone who does cover the details  super strong though.

[chord]

11 hours ago, Ravinsild said:

 

That’s not all. For every attack that lands and is not saved there’s a chance on a 5 or more for the model to be instantly deleted anyway even if you only rolled 1’s on your damage table  

 

I think you roll once at the end of the phase for every model that took damage.  So if you hit and wounded multiple times its still just one roll per model.

 

[Veillotron]

Great thread idea!

My 2 cents: for my Stormcast Eternals, I love the Realm of Aqshy, using the following items:

Ignax's Scales on my Lord-Arcanum - that 4+ save against MWs (the bane of Stormcasts) is great to keep him alive longer,especially combined with his Steel Pinion Mount Trait (another 6 save fro MWs and Ws)

...

But my favorite combo is the following:

Smouldering Helm on a Stardrake with Staunch Defender and buffed with a Lord-Castellant:

- for every 6+ save, the ennemy receives 1 MW. 

- A Stardrake with Staunch and/or buffed with a Castellant will get a 2+ save, re-rolling 1s. So he's sdave nearly 98% of all hits with no rend

-Fully buffed, he'll do a MW back on a 4+.

So basically, send him into a large unit, and that unit will probably kill itself by doing a MW on half of their attack, and then let the battleshock wipe out the rest. It is a great anti-horde weapon!

 

[Ravinsild]

1 hour ago, chord said:

I think you roll once at the end of the phase for every model that took damage.  So if you hit and wounded multiple times its still just one roll per model.

 

Oh. I read it as roll a dice for each wound suffered but was not slain.

[XReN]

On 10/23/2018 at 7:29 PM, Naflem said:

Of course there's always Verminlord Corruptor + Sword of Judgment

• Verminlord Corruptor has 10 attacks with its single melee weapon which are pretty meek unbuffed (1 damage, no rend) (and as a result he's pretty reasonably pointed)
• Corruptor Rerolls misses to hit
• Lots of chances for 6+ to hit exploding for 1d6 mortal wounds from the Sword of Judgment
• Availability of plus 1 to hit in the Chaos Grand Allegiance make it even better.
• (and really he'd be a good option for any artifact that triggers on a hit)   

Aqshy blade inflicting MW on 6+ to wound is also good and more versatile choice in pure Pestilence army thanks to all those wound buffs

 

[tolstedt]

Tenebral Shard with Sword of Judgement

[Ranga]

My personal favourite is High Warden + Ghyropian Gauntlets.

High Warden has a 6" pile in which does not need to be towards the closest enemy model and can move over models. Ghyropian Gauntlets are a pretty poor relic that adds 3" to pile in. Together you have a great assassin of 5-6 wound heroes and can very easily move out of combat with elite units or greatly reduce the number of enemy models that will be in weapon range after pile in.

[sloane_paints_stuff]

Grimwrath berzerker with Ghyrstrike - hordes

Hitting and wounding on 2s - -1 rend - d3 damage
Against low save hordes a high chance of doing average 7-8+ wounds meaning you auto attack again

So an average of 16+ wounds from an 80 point model

A similar effect can be made with a runeblade to target higher save heroes

[syph0n]

Order Serpentis:

Dimensional Blade (-3 rend) on  Black Dragon Dreadlord, with Do Not Disappoint me rerolls, Legendary Fighter = 7 attacks. If I remember right, hits on 3s.

Doppelganger Cloak on the same model, if you have a 2nd and a battalion, which means you use it to smash stuff up last in combat and it will never die unless melee attacks have been made first by it. 

By no means as filthy as some of the above combos, but best we have I think! 

[Enoby]

I'm quite the fan of the exalted keeper of secrets with the dimensional blade on claws. With it's command ability to pile in and attack twice immediately, it has 14 attacks at 3/3/-3/2, and if you combine it with the chaos sorcerer lord then it rerolls 1s to hit and wound. It also has 8 more attacks at 3/2/-2/3. It's an absolute monster. 

[Tropical Ghost General]

Lord Executioner for spooky bedsheets. Give him the Chamon relic Gildanbane. As spooks struggle against doppelganger cloak monsters and other similar big artefact wielding hero/behemoth. 

The Gildanbane negates all artefacts within 3". The Lord Executioner also makes a single enemy hero within 3" have a -1 to hit roll. He also has an additional 5+ save against mortal wounds, as well as ethereal save and death save, so although he's only 5 wounds, he's the most tankiest ghost hero. He's garbage in combat, but an 80pt debuff hero who allows your big units to get their 10+ charge free attack against a doppelganger behemoth is incredibly handy. 

The rest of our heroes have rubbish synergy with relics ?. 

[Ranga]

4 hours ago, syph0n said:

Order Serpentis:

Dimensional Blade (-3 rend) on  Black Dragon Dreadlord, with Do Not Disappoint me rerolls, Legendary Fighter = 7 attacks. If I remember right, hits on 3s.

Doppelganger Cloak on the same model, if you have a 2nd and a battalion, which means you use it to smash stuff up last in combat and it will never die unless melee attacks have been made first by it. 

By no means as filthy as some of the above combos, but best we have I think! 

You can only take one artifact on each hero.

[Aelfric]

2 minutes ago, Ranga said:

You can only take one artifact on each hero.

I think he meant if you have two Dreadlords on Black Dragon each with one artifact, hence the "if you have a 2nd".

[Aelfric]

On 11/8/2018 at 11:20 AM, Ranga said:

My personal favourite is High Warden + Ghyropian Gauntlets.

High Warden has a 6" pile in which does not need to be towards the closest enemy model and can move over models. Ghyropian Gauntlets are a pretty poor relic that adds 3" to pile in. Together you have a great assassin of 5-6 wound heroes and can very easily move out of combat with elite units or greatly reduce the number of enemy models that will be in weapon range after pile in.

Now that's a reason to paint up my High Warden and use it in a mixed order army - thanks for the tip.

[S133arcanite]

I love the gryph-feather charm on a frostlord on thundertusk: -1 to hit shooting, -2 to hit in combat.

[syph0n]

4 hours ago, Aelfric said:

I think he meant if you have two Dreadlords on Black Dragon each with one artifact, hence the "if you have a 2nd".

Indeed I did. 

/edit and I also butchered the English language too I guess! 

[SolomonHelsing]

Sunblood with Ghyrstrike has been a favourite since realising I could save my meh ash basing by making it look like a rocky area of ghyran. 

Hitting and Wounding on 2's with the 5's and 6's normally counting for the D3 Wounds/Damage. 

Took out a Terrorgheist single handedly at blood and glory vanguard thanks to the shield nullifying the rend also. 

Haven't found any others I almost always auto take just yet. 

[Aelfric]

2 hours ago, syph0n said:

Indeed I did. 

/edit and I also butchered the English language too I guess! 

As far as I'm concerned, your English was perfectly fine.  No need to worry on that front.  Also pleased to hear that Order Serpentis is still getting some love.  Dark Elves was one of 2 armies for me in the old days (O&G being the other), but I didn't have enough of any one thing to make the various factions work when they were broken up.  

[James S]

Gutbusters - Tyrant

Great Gutgouger, Wild Fury, Ghyrestrike 

4a/2+ hit/2+ wound/-2 rend/3" range/3 damage 

5-6's are doing double damage

Takes 3 wounds, adds another attack.

Also potential to get +1 wound on charge or +1 damage against monsters from Big Name. 

This is my hero.