2000pt competitive LOS list

[Jaxler]

Leader

320: Akhan the black 

110: Necromancer 

110: Necromancer 

440: Vampire lord on zombie dragon with ethereal cheese amulet 

 

Battle line

60: Dire wolves

60: Dire wolves 

160: 20 Chainghasts

 

Behemoth

180: Mortis Engine 

 

Batallion

130: lords of the sacrament

 

Other

360: 30 Grimghast Reapers

1930/2000

 

So, I need some advice. Giving the zombie dragon the ghost amulet of undead cheese is a no brainer, but I do not know what else to use my second artefact slot on. I also feel like my list lacks enough horde. I do feel like arkhan will be a swift dispenser of cheese with his 4+ to casting, and that my reapers and zombie dragon will be killy enough, I just don't know if I am missing anything. I also want to start with two CP so I can bring back my reapers in the event they get nuked, and also because I want to spam my leader abilities. Is this a good trade off, or should I try to nab another unit or something?

[CaptainSoup]

You are definitely missing some horde in your list. The dogs are a pretty easy choice for objective holding or denial, but that's about all the mileage you can get from them. If you are willing to take down the battalion and mortis engine you can always add some skeletons or some chain horde to help give you more bodies on the table. This will also make your necromancers more useful since they'll have more units to standby and heal as well as survive on the table. I have a hard time seeing the necromancers hang out with the chainghasts or dogs. 

[Jaxler]

9 minutes ago, CaptainSoup said:

You are definitely missing some horde in your list. The dogs are a pretty easy choice for objective holding or denial, but that's about all the mileage you can get from them. If you are willing to take down the battalion and mortis engine you can always add some skeletons or some chain horde to help give you more bodies on the table. This will also make your necromancers more useful since they'll have more units to standby and heal as well as survive on the table. I have a hard time seeing the necromancers hang out with the chainghasts or dogs. 

If I'm dropping the batallion, I'd feel like arkhan may be best staying at home. 

 

I figured the lack of blobs wouldn't be too bad. I mostly would be throwing danse macabre onto the reapers, with the chainrasps mostly operating annoyance, speed bump and necromancer babysitting duties. I know some people seem to be having success with the lords of the sacrament batallion. Is there some background as to why it works? How exactly do you make it shine in a list? Is it past it's prime by current standards? 

[CaptainSoup]

7 minutes ago, Jaxler said:

If I'm dropping the batallion, I'd feel like arkhan may be best staying at home. 

 

I figured it wouldn't be too bad. I mostly would be throwing danse macabre onto the reapers, with the ghasts mostly operating annoyance, speed bump and necromancer babysitting duties. I know some people seem to be having success with the lords of the sacrament batallion. Is there some background as to why it works? How exactly do you make it shine in a list? Is it past it's prime by current standards? 

I haven't experimented too much with that battalion to say one way or another. On paper it seems to be a bit lack luster when you have to lug around a Mortis Engine to make it work. Dont get me wrong, the units and LoS are all fine to use and are pretty decent in their own right, my main concern would be where the bulk of your damage will be coming from. The VLoZD is very strong but it isn't invincible. Once he dies your damage will fall off fairly quick and I'm probably the one person who thinks the reapers aren't the strongest units in the game right now. That's why I put a lot of stock into Skeletons. In my biased experience they have never ceased to amaze me in how versatile and strong they are when I need them to most for the price. 

[Jaxler]

6 minutes ago, CaptainSoup said:

I haven't experimented too much with that battalion to say one way or another. On paper it seems to be a bit lack luster when you have to lug around a Mortis Engine to make it work. Dont get me wrong, the units and LoS are all fine to use and are pretty decent in their own right, my main concern would be where the bulk of your damage will be coming from. The VLoZD is very strong but it isn't invincible. Once he dies your damage will fall off fairly quick and I'm probably the one person who thinks the reapers aren't the strongest units in the game right now. That's why I put a lot of stock into Skeletons. In my biased experience they have never ceased to amaze me in how versatile and strong they are when I need them to most for the price. 

The bit about the mortis engine is a good point. That being said, I've found skeletons to not be too insane, but this is mostly because I've ran into a lot of lists with things like chaos dwarf centaurs and Blight kings who just utterly delete a unit of skeletons a turn. It's gotten so bad that vs the local nurgle player I just accept that if his blight kings get close to boneboi unit it's good as gone unless I CP it back.

[CaptainSoup]

2 minutes ago, Jaxler said:

The bit about the mortis engine is a good point. That being said, I've found skeletons to not be to insane, but this is mostly because I've ran into a lot of lists with things like chaos dwarf centaurs and Blight kings who just utterly delete a unit of skeletons a turn. It's gotten so bad that vs the local nurgle player I just accept that if his blight kings get close to boneboi unit it's good as gone unless I CP it back.

That's fair. I have the same issue with IDK if I'm not careful. I guess that just depends on the kind of local meta we are dealing with. As long as you have enough damage to take on the opposing army effectively that it should be fine. I would just hate to see your army get overwhelmed by a waves of units and not enough bodies to take care of them properly. 

[Jaxler]

Mayhaps I should make a few lists and see which one works the best. 

 

Also, what are the actual odds on arkhan the black'spell reaching infinite mortal wounds?

[CaptainSoup]

I don't have the mathhammer on hand to do an exact calculation, but with some quick hammering you'd be lucky to get three 6es in the first roll as the percentage chance of success fall off hard after 3 dice, then 5+ and so on. It is technically possible but its just a matter of dice rolls and how lucky you are. Just don't plan on it fully killing a unit off in one cast. 

[Jaxler]

6 minutes ago, CaptainSoup said:

I don't have the mathhammer on hand to do an exact calculation, but with some quick hammering you'd be lucky to get three 6es in the first roll as the percentage chance of success fall off hard after 3 dice, then 5+ and so on. It is technically possible but its just a matter of dice rolls and how lucky you are. Just don't plan on it fully killing a unit off in one cast. 

Trust me, I am not, I'm just trying to judge if its effectively a hail marry 1/50, or some something you can keep spamming on a problem unit over 3-4 turns and hopefully delete them with. 

[CaptainSoup]

I would say if you have nothing else better to cast with Arkhan then its worth putting on a single troublesome unit throughout the game. It's an easy cast so all you'll really need to worry about is your first roll and how many 6es you can get. 

[Jaxler]

1 minute ago, CaptainSoup said:

I would say if you have nothing else better to cast with Arkhan then its worth putting on a single troublesome unit throughout the game. It's an easy cast so all you'll really need to worry about is your first roll and how many 6es you can get. 

I also suspect the mere threat of deleting a unit might at least bait a deny.

[CaptainSoup]

1 minute ago, Jaxler said:

I also suspect the mere threat of deleting a unit might at least bait a deny.

Depends on how green your opponent is. I would imagine the VLoZD would be more of a distraction than Arkhan will. You could also deploy a bit of psychological trickery and boast how strong your mounted caster can be and how he can erase units off the table with his Magic lol. 

[Jaxler]

1 minute ago, CaptainSoup said:

Depends on how green your opponent is. I would imagine the VLoZD would be more of a distraction than Arkhan will. You could also deploy a bit of psychological trickery and boast how strong your mounted caster can be and how he can erase units off the table with his Magic lol. 

I did the math, turns out he deletes a unit about 1/7th the time assuming no mortal wound saves. That might still be worth stopping, regardless. 

[Sneedlewoods]

Well, in my gaming group Arkhan is one of the most feared opponents. :-D But I may just be too lucky sometimes... since I deleted Durthu in my last two games against my Sylvaneth mate... :-D

[Honk]

I think Arkhan is pretty good for his points... 320 for 2 spells and in LoS at +3, that’s decent. And 11hp with pretty high speed also lets him run away quite effectively XD

The battalion is imo not really that useful, the 320 points (engine+battalion) could be well spend elsewhere. Although depending on the opponent a little suicide engine might be quite nice, and spew out some healing on the dragonlord. The battalion needs youth stand around the engine and what spells do you want to dish out so badly?! Double necro and arkhan should bring enough options (dread, vigor, harvest) maybe bring the portal for a harvest-bomb...

[Stevie754]

Allegiance: Legion of Sacrament
Mortal Realm: Shyish

Arkhan The Black Mortarch of Sacrament(320)
- General
- Lore of the Dead: Soul Harvest (Deathmages)
Vampire Lord On Zombie Dragon (440)
- Deathlance & Shield & Chalice
- Artefact: Ethereal Amulet
- Lore of the Vampires: Amethystine Pinions
Vampire Lord (140)
- Mount: Flying Horror
- Lore of the Vampires: Vile Transference
Necromancer (110)
- Lore of the Deathmages: Overwhelming Dread
Necromancer (110)
- Lore of the Deathmages: Fading Vigour

5 x Dire Wolves (60)
5 x Dire Wolves (60)
40 x Chainrasp Horde (280)

30 x Grimghast Reapers (360)

Umbral Spellportal (60)

Total: 1940 / 2000
Extra Command Points: 1
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 130

 

I've had success with this list, the 5 heroes and graves can give you 9d3 regen a turn into your units to tarpit the enemy once they get locked into a fight with all your debuffs up. 

The reapers and vombie dragon are the big hit and like you've said curse of years from Arkhan is a scary enough thing that it can make your opponent play differently that they would like. Seen somewhere it was mathhammered out and odds of curse going through to wipe a unit with no extra saves is 17%