AoS 2 - Slaves to Darkness 2 Discussion

[Ravinsild]

10 minutes ago, Hannibal said:

Hi,

some questions to you:

1) What about Chariots? They seem to fit all your requirements. And I think they aren´t the worst selection out there.

2) What about Marauders. Though being old sculpts, they definetely look like "old chaos".

3) Marauder Horsemen are newer sculpts and should fit your theme. Why no mention here?

 

That being asked, I have to say that your theme will suffer from being a theme. Themed armies always lack the highest possible rate of synergies due to restricting the model selection. IMO if you like to run a theme, you can always get a workable army but seldom the most competetive one.

Therefore: go for it!

 

Chosen buff other Slaves to Darkness units, don´t overlook this. They offer a special kind of synergy you have to use to get the most out of them. IMO they are  strong, though slightly overcosted if compared to elite units from different armies.

As written by other members here, StD offer some wierd synergies. For example, why does Chaos Lord on Manticore buff warriors but no chosen?

Well 1) Chariots are hard to use in the Total War: Warhammer 2 because you have to micro them and like run loops while also managing everything else! So I kind of just...dismissed them on the table top due to some cognitive bias of "hard to use" although I guess on the table that's not true
 

2) Basically I don't like marauders of any variety because I just love armored up knights. To me it's space marines vs guard and I pick space marines every time. Marauders feel like the guard of fantasy and chaos warriors feel like chaos space marines. 

Even if they're worse...their aesthetic is just so...awesome! I don't get the same reaction from marauders for some reason. 

Also I guess I'm fine with being worse as long as it looks cool and is at least functional.

[Hannibal]

6 minutes ago, Ravinsild said:

Well 1) Chariots are hard to use in the Total War: Warhammer 2 because you have to micro them and like run loops while also managing everything else! So I kind of just...dismissed them on the table top due to some cognitive bias of "hard to use" although I guess on the table that's not true
 

2) Basically I don't like marauders of any variety because I just love armored up knights. To me it's space marines vs guard and I pick space marines every time. Marauders feel like the guard of fantasy and chaos warriors feel like chaos space marines. 

Even if they're worse...their aesthetic is just so...awesome! I don't get the same reaction from marauders for some reason. 

Also I guess I'm fine with being worse as long as it looks cool and is at least functional.

Actually I´m thinking about some Nurgle Chariots / Varanguard supported by Chosen, Chaos Sorcerer Lord and Glottkin, though this means I have to use it under Nurgle Allegiance because Glootkin are to expensive to be used as allies.

Though something similar can be done in StD with Chariots being Khorne marked and the use of some Bloodsecrator and Ruinbringer Warband.

[PiotrW]

6 hours ago, PainfullyMediocre said:

I've got the same, they scale well next to Chaos Warriors and Knights. They'll get replaced with a heavily converted mix of Bloodreavers, Kairic Acolytes and Witch Aelves eventually.

One idea I have for Marauders replacement: the shield-bearing fighters from Spire Tyrants. They have the right look! Two problems, though:

1. If you use them as Marauders, it makes it hard to include Spire Tyrants in the same army.

2. Considering you'd need at least 20 of those and there 3 or 4 of them in one Spire Tyrants box, this doesn't look terribly cost-effective...

[W1tchhunter]

15 minutes ago, PiotrW said:

One idea I have for Marauders replacement: the shield-bearing fighters from Spire Tyrants. They have the right look! Two problems, though:

1. If you use them as Marauders, it makes it hard to include Spire Tyrants in the same army.

2. Considering you'd need at least 20 of those and there 3 or 4 of them in one Spire Tyrants box, this doesn't look terribly cost-effective...

Spire tyrants suck ass in AOS so that won't be an issue, the cost on the other hand...

[The World Tree]

If I use Archaon in a Ravagers army he can use the marauder-summoning command ability right?

[JackStreicher]

7 minutes ago, The World Tree said:

If I use Archaon in a Ravagers army he can use the marauder-summoning command ability right?

Yes.

[The World Tree]

Thanks - I was worried I'd just cheated my opponent. Ravagers is such a dynamic playstyle compared to HOTE. Although I did miss the Dark Prophecy.

[NJohansson]

1 hour ago, PiotrW said:

One idea I have for Marauders replacement: the shield-bearing fighters from Spire Tyrants. They have the right look! Two problems, though:

1. If you use them as Marauders, it makes it hard to include Spire Tyrants in the same army.

2. Considering you'd need at least 20 of those and there 3 or 4 of them in one Spire Tyrants box, this doesn't look terribly cost-effective...

There are a lot of possible replacements - pending on your preference, willingness to spend money and hobby skills. 
For Khorne marauders - lot of choices in the Khorne alliance book. For Nurgle you have Poxwalkers (40k). They really fit the bill but you need extra spruce for weapons/shields and some minor modeling will be required. Mixing them with Cadoor bits from Necromunda really make them stand out. Tzeentch - acolytes are really fitting, once again you need extra bits to be fully WYSIWYG  but the models really fit the theme. Slaanesh - I like the models from DoK line (combined with Daemonette parts) - more conversions needed to make them look good with the right weapons but really fitting.

Just a couple suggestions.

 

[Spears]

4 hours ago, PiotrW said:

One idea I have for Marauders replacement: the shield-bearing fighters from Spire Tyrants. They have the right look! Two problems, though:

1. If you use them as Marauders, it makes it hard to include Spire Tyrants in the same army.

2. Considering you'd need at least 20 of those and there 3 or 4 of them in one Spire Tyrants box, this doesn't look terribly cost-effective...

Just buy some shields to add to the others, the only three that dont easily take a shield are the bestigor, the two handed chap and the one pointing his sword in the air who should make a decent banner bearer. The two handed dude also doesn't fit on a 25mm without looking daft but the others are okay.

[Nasnad]

Any Allies, beside the khorne ones, or any good mercenary companies worth taking with slaves to darkness. Any units that being something worthwhile? .. 

Any sense in allying in a greater daemon?

[JackStreicher]

2 hours ago, Nasnad said:

Any Allies, beside the khorne ones, or any good mercenary companies worth taking with slaves to darkness. Any units that being something worthwhile? .. 

Any sense in allying in a greater daemon?

Blackstone battery maybe 🤷🏼‍♂️ Greater daemons don‘t give anything to the army but their Warscroll-Power

[Kazimer]

How viable is a heavy calavry army with the new battalion to give them all MW splashes off of charging? Ive been thinking about making a list using a load of knights and chariots.

[W1tchhunter]

15 minutes ago, Kazimer said:

How viable is a heavy calavry army with the new battalion to give them all MW splashes off of charging? Ive been thinking about making a list using a load of knights and chariots.

I thought this was the bee's knees when I first got the army, I wrecked everyone I went against. HOWEVER I was massively cheating 😛 I though it was per model within an inch does D3 which was really good. But it's per UNIT so a big 10 stack of knights is only doing D3.

It was very reliant on getting the charges obviously and knights are pretty slow and if you get them in combat without charging they just die without doing anything. 

The way I was playing them actually felt balanced all the games I played where super close. If it's just per unit I don't think it's worth building an army around

 

[Nasnad]

26 minutes ago, Kazimer said:

How viable is a heavy calavry army with the new battalion to give them all MW splashes off of charging? Ive been thinking about making a list using a load of knights and chariots.

Think it might be okay with chariots and marauder horsemen, if you manage to retreat, shoot and then charge again before they die

Edited February 20, 2020 by Nasnad

[Grimrock]

7 hours ago, Nasnad said:

Any Allies, beside the khorne ones, or any good mercenary companies worth taking with slaves to darkness. Any units that being something worthwhile? .. 

Any sense in allying in a greater daemon?

We'll each of the mortal chaos armies have some worthwhile allies but it's usually dependent on your mark. Harbinger of decay is great for nurgle. Blue scribes are fantastic if you have a couple tzeentch wizards. A contorted epitome would probably be good in most armies if you have a generic endless spell or two. 

Greater daemons are tricky since they typically only support only daemons or their specific faction. I have been tinkering with a great unclean one with blade and bell. He speeds up all nurgle nearby and 2 casts/unbinds with a potential +1 is solid. Seems viable but finding room for 340 points is pretty difficult, and you lose access to the harbinger. Oh and I guess a bloodthirster of insensate rage could be... Kinda ok. 

Edited February 20, 2020 by Grimrock

[Rod]

39 minutes ago, Kazimer said:

How viable is a heavy calavry army with the new battalion to give them all MW splashes off of charging? Ive been thinking about making a list using a load of knights and chariots.

i did that in a small tourny,   4 units of 5 knights,  3 charriots and some heroes 

versus mid tiers and lower armies is very powerful,   i even won vs daughters of khaine,

versus top tier,  like fyreslayers,  is auto loss,  no way of taking objectives , your unit will bounce.

against heartguard for example the only way is varaguanrd or somehow snipe the heroes giving the buffs 

 

[TheVenerableBede]

On 2/19/2020 at 1:29 PM, JackStreicher said:

I am still hoping GW will introduce a subfaction that allows S2D to include other mortal Chaos units into our allegiance abilities (blightkings, Ssyl’esske, drones, bloodwarriors etc.). I‘d really love a „mortal Grand Alliance Chaos“ vibe ^^ (I really dig those models but I am not fond at all of starting those armies)

I'd love something like Cities or KO have, something like: 1/4th of army can be Nurgle; these units gain the Slaves to Darkness keyword and do not count towards Ally points.

[PiotrW]

Question: is a non-Disk-mounted Gaunt Summoner allowed in a StD army? I thought so, but I checked the Warscroll Builder and it only lists the Disk-mounted Gaunt among the StD leaders...

[Grimrock]

45 minutes ago, TheVenerableBede said:

I'd love something like Cities or KO have, something like: 1/4th of army can be Nurgle; these units gain the Slaves to Darkness keyword and do not count towards Ally points.

I doubt that'll happen unfortunately. Putting the sorcerer lord buffs and/or shrine buffs on non-s2d units would be all kinds of broken. A unit of 20 blight kings with a 3+ rerollable save and full rerolls to hit and wound is something that doesn't need to exist haha. 

11 minutes ago, PiotrW said:

Question: is a non-Disk-mounted Gaunt Summoner allowed in a StD army? I thought so, but I checked the Warscroll Builder and it only lists the Disk-mounted Gaunt among the StD leaders...

Yes, the foot summoner has the slaves keyword so it's valid. 

[PiotrW]

3 hours ago, Grimrock said:

Yes, the foot summoner has the slaves keyword so it's valid. 

I see. Is he in the StD battletome, I'm wondering?

Anyway - here's a quick StD army list I made, including Chaos units I find appealing for various reasons. Please tell me if it's a playable list, though?

Leaders
Chaos Lord on Karkadrak (250)
Darkoath Warqueen (90)
Darkoath Chieftain (90)
Theddra Skull-Scryer (70)
Ogroid Myrmidon (140)
Gaunt Summoner of Tzeentch (240)

Battleline
5 x Chaos Warriors (100)
- Hand Weapon & Shield
5 x Chaos Warriors (100)
- Hand Weapon & Shield
5 x Chaos Warriors (100)
- Hand Weapon & Shield

Units
5 x Godsworn Hunt (60)
8 x Iron Golems (70)
8 x Cypher Lords (70)
9 x Corvus Cabal (70)
1 x Fomoroid Crusher (100)
1 x Mindstealer Sphiranx (100)
3 x Varanguard (300)

Total: 1950 / 2000

[Kirjava13]

Does anyone remember how long it took for GW to release the double boxes of Cultists after their main Warcry release?

[Ravinsild]

Someone told me old chaos warriors are here to stay and they'll never release full custom sprues of the new start collecting box and they will always just be push fit single pose.  

[JackStreicher]

1 hour ago, Ravinsild said:

Someone told me old chaos warriors are here to stay and they'll never release full custom sprues of the new start collecting box and they will always just be push fit single pose.  

GW said that when they released the new start collecting. At least they said that the old Chaos Warriors are here to stay

[MitGas]

2 hours ago, Ravinsild said:

Someone told me old chaos warriors are here to stay and they'll never release full custom sprues of the new start collecting box and they will always just be push fit single pose.  

You might need to be patient but judging from similar releases, GW always released some kind of similar kit so far. The longest it took them was to follow up the Chosen for 40k with new Chaos Space Marines but even that happened. So yeah, could take a year or two but something will come. I could imagine them to mix and match Varanguard with the Warriors to create new Chosen one day. 

[Death1942]

I was sure they would have pumped out the kits for this everchosen book but I still have no doubt that somewhere they are boxing up the new warriors into pose able kits and to sell individually.  They just released all those old limited to a box characters so I would hold out hope for the warriors just don't expect it in the short term.