AoS 2 - Slaves to Darkness 2 Discussion

[begleysm]

1 hour ago, Charleston said:

My only issue around this is, that it looks like GW simply failed to write the Keywords in the right way and that Gaunt Summoners will be FAQ´d to be "Host of the Everchosen". Otherwise I would get one and start some Cabalists-Sheningans. But I won´t buy models when I have to be afraid that a key-unit like the Gaunt Summoner may loose the Legion-Ability.

It won't get changed.  It's not supposed to be Host of the Everchosen.

It's the old army from before StD.  Archaon and Varanguard are also Everchosen.  It's a keyword for some of those battalions, rules, etc.

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Age_of_Sigmar/Tactics/Chaos/Everchosen

Edited February 8, 2020 by begleysm

[Kurrilino]

On 2/6/2020 at 3:08 PM, Jaskier said:

Mr Slaves to Darkness himself went 5-1 at Cancon with a Slaves to Darkness allegiance Plaguetouched list in Despoilers, and his only loss came to the nastiest Fyreslayers list at the event which took 3rd place. This is all my based off my recollection from chatting to him so I apologize if I get anything wrong, but he's incredibly pleased with the book and definitely proved how strong they can be. Plenty of others were also impressed with the book in general and believe it's being under-estimated because it requires a lot of planning just in the list development stage alone (the Mark system and all the various synergies they unlock.)

Off the top of my head his list included Be'lakor (not in the battalion), a Nurgle Daemon Prince with the Sword of Judgement, 1x40 Marauders and 1x20 Marauders (possibly 2x20), a Sorcerer Lord, a Warshrine and plenty of other goodies. He was using his super low drops to usually take first turn, then buffing up his big Marauder blob with Daemonic Power/Oracular Visions/Bloated Blessings/etc, teleporting them and then getting them stuck in immediately thanks to their near guaranteed 9" charge. Despite the nerf to it which was in play at Cancon, the combination of Bloated Blessings and Plaguetouched meant that his deathball would not only mince you with their attacks, you'd get minced for attacking them too (those mortal wounds add up). Be'lakor would use his Dark master ability on the scariest or most important enemy unit and, thanks to it lasting until his next hero phase, it forced the opponent to have to pick between taking a double turn and having a high chance of their best unit being rendered useless for two turns straight, or giving up the double turn completely to a list that could absolutely punish you for it. His Daemon Prince with the built in +1 to-hit absolutely tore things up with the Sword of Judgement, and in general I'm sure being Despoilers helped a lot with being able to make sight-blocking terrain on the fly.

Based on my own reading of the book - disregarding results - is that Be'lakor, Daemon Princes, Sorcerer Lords (of either flavour), Chaos Lords (of the foot and Karkadrak variety), Warshrines, Marauders and Sphiranxes at minimum are all incredibly strong units that complement each other. The thing about Slaves to Darkness compared to other books is that it's hugely synergy-based, which is why it might seem like nothing stands out on their own - it's because you're supposed to build your list around the idea of each unit complementing each other and having a specific role. The above list did that in spades, and the results speak for themselves.

Great, we have a one trick pony here.

And as the Fireslayer have shown, easy to counter if we don't get the first turn or the necessary spells off.

Nothing to see here. Call me when he end top tier in some more tournaments

[rosa]

I really dislike your passive aggressive tone all the time.

[Zplash]

5 hours ago, Kurrilino said:

Great, we have a one trick pony here.

And as the Fireslayer have shown, easy to counter if we don't get the first turn or the necessary spells off.

Nothing to see here. Call me when he end top tier in some more tournaments

Right I forgot, 

Fyreslayers isn't a one trick pony too and the game isn't about counter each others tactics and army compositions. 

Sorry that you don't have a book like tzeentch at the moment and facerolling everyone 5:0...

Yeah you have to do a little bit more to win games but this goes for all the other armies too, maybe beside the current top 5 or something. That's life. 

If you feel that way, why you don't switch always to S tier Armee like some other power gamers? 

By the way I think looking in the future there is great potential for std because the tools are there. Just some point reduction could push std pretty hard. 

[The World Tree]

18 minutes ago, Zplash said:

 

By the way I think looking in the future there is great potential for std because the tools are there. Just some point reduction could push std pretty hard. 

I agree with this. With one glaring, infuriating exception. Chaos Warriors. These have to have rend. They should be rend 1 (halberd = 2" range). Bump up the points a fraction if necessary. They just do nothing. They are the best looking unit in the range and the iconic unit, alongside knights (who are good enough). 

Either that or the army needs a command ability that improves rend on warriors/knights.

[Kurrilino]

7 hours ago, Zplash said:

Right I forgot, 

Fyreslayers isn't a one trick pony too and the game isn't about counter each others tactics and army compositions. 

Sorry that you don't have a book like tzeentch at the moment and facerolling everyone 5:0...

Yeah you have to do a little bit more to win games but this goes for all the other armies too, maybe beside the current top 5 or something. That's life. 

If you feel that way, why you don't switch always to S tier Armee like some other power gamers? 

By the way I think looking in the future there is great potential for std because the tools are there. Just some point reduction could push std pretty hard. 

I am not a power gamer at all and i love my Slaves. This is why i won't change

The point i try to make is that if you take a similar unit to ours from another army our unit always loses just by statistics but all of our units cost way more than those other units.

It has always been like that but we had marks to make up for that, which they removed.

Khorne was +1 attack, Nurgle was -1 to hit, Tzeench was +1 to ward.

This way you could outfit an overpriced unit and made it a fair priced unit.

 

 

[JackStreicher]

14 hours ago, Kurrilino said:

Nothing to see here. Call me when he end top tier in some more tournaments

I don‘t think being top tier should be the goal. The goal should be not to feel like playing with a handicap against most factions (or being forced to use Nurgle/Khorne)

 

@The World Tree

imo S2D should always get their mark buff (the first level of it) and benefit from the second level of it if there‘s a hero nearby. That way you could almost leave the pts costs unchanged.

currently your mark counts for nothing if there‘s no hero nearby which restricts lists and forces you to pick one primary mark.

this would make units more self reliant, point efficient and it would enable S2D armies to be played with a more varied mix of Marks.

—-

currently you pay double: you pay an increased price per units due to having access to a mark and then you have to buy a hero so you can use the mark, yet you have to stay wholly within 12“ to do so.

Edited February 9, 2020 by JackStreicher

[Gaz Taylor]

On 2/9/2020 at 2:39 AM, Kurrilino said:

Great, we have a one trick pony here.

And as the Fireslayer have shown, easy to counter if we don't get the first turn or the necessary spells off.

Nothing to see here. Call me when he end top tier in some more tournaments

+++ Mod Hat On +++
Just a note but we want everybody to be nice to each other on this forum. After reviewing your previous posts in topics, you’ve been passive aggressive and it’s not what we want on this forum. I’ve issued a weeks ban.

For anybody else, please note this. This forum is for enjoying toy soldiers not for snide remarks to each other. Just be respectful to each other.

[annarborhawk]

Knights of the Empty Throne - 

Really disappointed in how this was written. I like the idea of making Varanguard heros. But they made it it's own allegiance, so you lose StD, including the Chaos Auras AND the Varanguard Circles. I mean, you're already required to lose Archaon to run it, so I'm not sure whey they felt the need for the additional handicaps.  

Then I thought, maybe that's the purpose of the Overlords of Chaos Battalion to get the circles back, but no, that entry requires "Hosts of the Everchosen Varanguard."

Maybe they'll FAQ it, but I doubt an allegiance meant for narrative games gets much attention. 

 

[Lightbox]

2 hours ago, annarborhawk said:

Knights of the Empty Throne - 

Really disappointed in how this was written. I like the idea of making Varanguard heros. But they made it it's own allegiance, so you lose StD, including the Chaos Auras AND the Varanguard Circles. I mean, you're already required to lose Archaon to run it, so I'm not sure whey they felt the need for the additional handicaps.  

Then I thought, maybe that's the purpose of the Overlords of Chaos Battalion to get the circles back, but no, that entry requires "Hosts of the Everchosen Varanguard."

Maybe they'll FAQ it, but I doubt an allegiance meant for narrative games gets much attention. 

 

So does that mean that hero varanguard is literally the only thing the knight of the empty throne gives? Or does it have some other abilities too since it's a full allegiance as opposed to a sub-alliegance?

[PainfullyMediocre]

2 hours ago, annarborhawk said:

Really disappointed in how this was written. I like the idea of making Varanguard heros. But they made it it's own allegiance, so you lose StD,

I was really surprised it isn't a sub army like Cabalists etc. I did send the FAQ team an email on the off chance it was wrong

[annarborhawk]

23 minutes ago, Lightbox said:

So does that mean that hero varanguard is literally the only thing the knight of the empty throne gives? Or does it have some other abilities too since it's a full allegiance as opposed to a sub-alliegance?

It has a few other things: a command ability mechanic to reduce the number of enemy models that count towards holding objectives,  3x command traits and 3x artifacts, and also a once-per-game mechanic to bring back a dead varanguard unit on a 5+. 

It would make a nice Legion choice under StD instead of its own separate allegiance.  

IMO, we are way better off running Varanguard in the Host of the Everchosen to get the Circle and Auras. 

[annarborhawk]

29 minutes ago, PainfullyMediocre said:

I was really surprised it isn't a sub army like Cabalists etc. I did send the FAQ team an email on the off chance it was wrong

Great idea. Maybe it's an oversight....

 

What's the email address for that? Maybe the more people that ask, the better the chances....

And, it is a bit oddly worded. They do mention that you are choosing a "Slaves to Darkness" army, but then say you have a different allegiance.  Does that mean you can take any StD units? If so, what counts as battle line? etc, etc. They left quite a few questions. 

Edited February 10, 2020 by annarborhawk

[ColsBols]

1 hour ago, annarborhawk said:

Great idea. Maybe it's an oversight....

 

What's the email address for that? Maybe the more people that ask, the better the chances....

And, it is a bit oddly worded. They do mention that you are choosing a "Slaves to Darkness" army, but then say you have a different allegiance.  Does that mean you can take any StD units? If so, what counts as battle line? etc, etc. They left quite a few questions. 

They did this same thing to Legion of Grief and never answered any questions, like whether or not you could take NH battalions in it.

[Lou_Cypher]

Random thought. Is there no way of gaining the benefits of the Overlords of Chaos Varanguard in anything other than a Host of the Everchosen army?

 

Like say, marking them all Tzeentch for use in a Disciples of Tzeentch army?

[willange]

2 hours ago, PainfullyMediocre said:

I was really surprised it isn't a sub army like Cabalists etc. I did send the FAQ team an email on the off chance it was wrong

Is it not?  I thought it was a 5th type of "Damned Legion" alongside Ravagers/Cabalists/Despoilers/HoE.

EDIT: Yup, you're right.  I read it wrong.  That's super disappointing!

Edited February 10, 2020 by willange

[The World Tree]

Knights of the Empty Throne surely must be a sub allegiance. That must be an oversight!

Really they should at least have access to circles and battle varanguard. Also how does it work with command traits? I thought only leaders could get them?

[Andelion]

Played my first game of AOS this weekend at 1k using slaves to darkness and I loved it. Had Belakor, a Daemon prince, chaos lord on karkadrak, ten chaos warriors and five chaos knights. Classic start collecting box force. Ran despoilers and had a great time. Although it really felt like the Lance knights had to make their charge to be useful and even then were not amazing. The warriors feel like they should be a unit of 15 but are quite points heavy.

Faced an ogors list and found it really difficult to shift that stonehorn dude. Lost every priority roll and although the game was close for a long time I was eventually tabled.

 

Now for the stupid question. Apologies in advance. I'd love to add some tzeentch stuff to my army (shooting and magic) as I expand it. Is the only way to do that through allies? I see a lot of stuff about tzeentch casually adding slaves to darkness stuff into forces but I'm honestly not sure how it works.

 

[GeneralZero]

What do you think about our upcoming  2 new entries: the Fomoroid Crusher and Mindstealer Sphiranx? (ouside the fact that the miniatures are amazing of course 😉 )

[Roark]

33 minutes ago, Andelion said:

Is the only way to do that through allies? I see a lot of stuff about tzeentch casually adding slaves to darkness stuff into forces but I'm honestly not sure how it works.

If you go with a god-specific allegiance (Tzeentch, Khorne etc), anything with that mark/keyword can be in your army. If you go with Slaves to Darkness allegiance, anything that doesn't have the Slaves to Darkness keyword can only be added to your list as an ally. And you should check the allies list in your battletome (near where the points are listed I believe) to see which factions you can ally in.

[Naem]

Hey guys, I promised to paint up a unit of Warriors for a friend who is only getting started and now I am looking for a nice Slaanesh theme but without the typical pink or purple armor. Was thinking maybe bone colored armor with just a few purple elements or maybe black with purple highlights or something completely different. If you happen to have some good looking minis I would really love to see them (of course I looked threw Instagram, Pinterest and such, but didn't find quite what I was looking for =/ ) 

[Hamartia]

2 hours ago, Naem said:

Hey guys, I promised to paint up a unit of Warriors for a friend who is only getting started and now I am looking for a nice Slaanesh theme but without the typical pink or purple armor. Was thinking maybe bone colored armor with just a few purple elements or maybe black with purple highlights or something completely different. If you happen to have some good looking minis I would really love to see them (of course I looked threw Instagram, Pinterest and such, but didn't find quite what I was looking for =/ ) 

A bright brass colour (Like Sigvald) with purple cloaks and shields (Brass/gold chaos star on shield) is a good look, while it is not the colour i decided on it definitly looked the part when i was experimenting for a slaanesh scheme. As a random shoutout, Phoenician Purple is a gorgeous purple.

Edited February 11, 2020 by Hamartia

[JackStreicher]

10 hours ago, The World Tree said:

Knights of the Empty Throne surely must be a sub allegiance. That must be an oversight!

Really they should at least have access to circles and battle varanguard. Also how does it work with command traits? I thought only leaders could get them?

Every allegiance should have access to varanguard of the circles. I mean are there any varanguard without a circle in the lore!?

Edited February 11, 2020 by JackStreicher

[Kirjava13]

10 hours ago, GeneralZero said:

What do you think about our upcoming  2 new entries: the Fomoroid Crusher and Mindstealer Sphiranx? (ouside the fact that the miniatures are amazing of course 😉 )

I am going to get L O N G   B O I one way or another and I'm no StD expert but his abilities make him quite useful, I think. Making someone fight last plus a Bravery debuff seems really handy to me.

[PainfullyMediocre]

17 hours ago, annarborhawk said:

Great idea. Maybe it's an oversight....

 

What's the email address for that? Maybe the more people that ask, the better the chances....

And, it is a bit oddly worded. They do mention that you are choosing a "Slaves to Darkness" army, but then say you have a different allegiance.  Does that mean you can take any StD units? If so, what counts as battle line? etc, etc. They left quite a few questions. 

aosfaq@gwplc.com

 

Its a longshot, but maybe it was a mistake.