AoS 2 - Slaves to Darkness 2 Discussion

[sfe667]

6 hours ago, Deadkitten said:

Looking for a casual funzies list.  Only looking to go 3-2 playing in the backyard during the Rona.

Allegiance: Chaos
Archaon the Everchosen (800)
Slaves to Darkness Daemon Prince (210)
5 x Chaos Warriors (90)
5 x Chaos Warriors (90)
5 x Chaos Warriors (90)
3 x Varanguard (280)
3 x Varanguard (280)
1 x Mindstealer Sphiranx (100)
Extra Command Point (50)

Total: 1990 / 2000
Extra Command Points: 1
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 98
 

Utter garbage?  I could combine all the Warriors into a block of 15 I figured a list like this needs some coverage?  15 Warriors at least give me a shot at an objective though.  But I didn't go for that 3rd Varanguard unit bc I didn't want to leave a 280 pt unit babysitting a back objective.....   270 isn't exactly an improvement on that front.  Anyway open to criticism.

I'm looking at 3x VG along with something like a Sorc Lord on foot, 2x Untamed Beasts, and a set of Furies. I had the same view as you - I tried the three VG with a DP and whilst it was useful board control, I was so exposed against summoning. I also tried a similar list with the Sorc Lord on Manticore but it's even less bodies. 

I intended to try swapping the third VG for 15 Warriors. Sure, their output is poor, but they take some shifting. If doing that however it does push you more towards the DP/Manticore option to get that extra threat on the board, and then it's back to a numbers game for holding objectives.

Very tough choices! I am leaning towards 3x VG however, then trying to optimise whatever else is left - and to me, the Sorc Lord on foot, whilst slow, offers so much it's hard to leave him out a list.

[SorryLizard]

Hello!

I'm looking for some advice for starting a second AoS army (first: Stormcast, they came in the starter box being the main reason) and I have whittled down the options to Slaves to Darkness, Fyreslayers and Phoenix Temple Cities of Sigmar.

Of those three I listed Slaves is one where I am most on the fence. I'm not super into the different god markings but was enticed by the tidbits of narrative for the groups of mortals who were left behind when Sigmar closed the gates to Azyr and had to hold out and assimilate on their own in a new world overrun by chaos.

Where they grew and changed and evolved their cultural traditions to survive and give them hope when they watched their old gods literally bar their gates in their faces as the apocalypse came for them.

For me narratively that has a strong hook. But I don't think the game itself supports playing that way much. The vision in my head has none of the daemons, none of the mutants, none of the body warping and blessings of the gods.

Just warriors, mortal tribes, knights, sorcerors/shaman and champions. And the marauder models are too awful for me to buy and I don't want a horde army anyway. The Darkoath though look nice, give the marauders a refresh to a similar quality and I might bite.

So uhh...wise masters of forbidden knowledge, how does one collect a Slaves to Darkness army that rejects the chaos gods and rejects these colonizers from Azyr!

Aka: make a chaos army...sans the chaos.

[Eldarain]

@SorryLizard the Ravagers subfaction leans into that area of the lore allowing your mortal heroes to all have a command trait and each can summon a small band of Marauders or Warcry gang to the table each turn.

If you are open to non GW minis there are some nice alternatives out there:

[SorryLizard]

34 minutes ago, Eldarain said:

@SorryLizard the Ravagers subfaction leans into that area of the lore allowing your mortal heroes to all have a command trait and each can summon a small band of Marauders or Warcry gang to the table each turn.

If you are open to non GW minis there are some nice alternatives out there:

Isn't Ravagers a horde build mostly?

Though I suppose I could just run a handful of Marauder/equivalents for the summoning to avoid a huge painting queue.

[Eldarain]

My thoughts were to run them based around a Ruinbringer Battalion with a large Iron Golem Anvil. Using Small Marauder summons to pressure enemy backfield/isolated units objectives.

[SorryLizard]

1 hour ago, Eldarain said:

My thoughts were to run them based around a Ruinbringer Battalion with a large Iron Golem Anvil. Using Small Marauder summons to pressure enemy backfield/isolated units objectives.

I still think I'd want the core of the army to be warriors (the models are pretty free of tentacles and such) but you're right the Warcry warbands would be a good option to mix in the 'local flavour' of the mortals living in the realms.

[Cambot1231]

Finally broke down and am converting up 20 marauders from the bloodreavers kit.  Gonna take some work getting the shields to look right but hopefully will be worth it in the end.  A little sad that they stand taller than the ol' chaos warriors though    

[Frowny]

So endlessly disappointing that the chaos warriors and their awesome sculpts are so much worse than the ancient terrible looking Marauders.

[Eldarain]

It's a bizarre scenario where you wish the conspiracy theory of GW making new kits OP was true.

It's a damn shame that beautiful new Start Collecting is almost universally underwhelming.

[Xasz]

GW is really bad at making non-horde infantry competitive or at least somewhat reasonable.

This has been a problem in AoS since forever with no change in sight.

(another one would be non-monster cav, which is almost always sidelined as well)

A general rework for those types is in order, just updating some warscroll is sadly not gonna cut it anymore.

Edited August 29, 2020 by Xasz

[Khendall]

Apply the Ogor Mawtribe rule to all behemoths, Archaon will count as 10 or 20 units on a objective. The end of this ******  aos horde V2 meta.

[Xasz]

It's not a 'fix one thing' problem, but it might help.

Hordes tend to outclass medium and probably even heavy infantry in terms of durability and offense more often than not, especially in an era where unit/model wide buffs are the norm. They are often just better and more reliable from a mathematical standpoint.

Not sure how I would approach the problem or if there is even an elegant fix possible within this edition (they already tried to make it harder with the whole "be wholly within" jazz). I'd probably try to implement some unit type special rules, e.g. non-monster cav gets +1A on charge, infantry could get an armour bonus or something, please don't quote me on those or argue about balance these where off the top of my head...

Either way, as mentioned it will probably require a new edition and the paradigm shifting away from buffhammer to finally see some shock cav or non-horde infantry.

[RedMax]

15 hours ago, Eldarain said:

It's a bizarre scenario where you wish the conspiracy theory of GW making new kits OP was true.

It's a damn shame that beautiful new Start Collecting is almost universally underwhelming.

Or see it a different way... There is working 2 way to sell miniatures:

1) They look awersome and sell well thanks to look (for hobby only or just becaus they look cool in army)

2) They look terribly bad so only way to sell them is to give them "must have" rules for the faction

I'm not saying this is what happening, but if I was in a video gamre about managing sells of a company like that, I may consider such strategy

[Weazel]

I have been eyeballing (and admittedly drooling at) the SC! Slaves to Darkness box for a while now. Now I could just buy the box for my painting pleasures, but I wonder if StD have any viability on the tabletop? I don't play any grand tournaments or anything, so just looking for something fun with a reasonable chance at winning some games as well. I currently play Gitz and their performance isn't exactly stellar, but are StD better? And do they have a "meta"? I'm inclined toward Khorne if that makes a difference.

[MitGas]

15 hours ago, Weazel said:

I have been eyeballing (and admittedly drooling at) the SC! Slaves to Darkness box for a while now. Now I could just buy the box for my painting pleasures, but I wonder if StD have any viability on the tabletop? I don't play any grand tournaments or anything, so just looking for something fun with a reasonable chance at winning some games as well. I currently play Gitz and their performance isn't exactly stellar, but are StD better? And do they have a "meta"? I'm inclined toward Khorne if that makes a difference.

Going Khorne is a pretty smart choice but I fear the SC! Box is mostly suboptimal if you want them to be more competitive - Warriors are pretty lacking (and these don't even have a standard bearer and musician but that can be fixed) and the Knights with lances underperform compared to ones equipped with hand weapons. The Lord on Karkadrak used to be a great choice with the -3 rend weapon but I think that's no longer an option. They do look great though but I think it's fair to say that StD could use a few buffs.

What you want are lots of (ugly looking) marauders in a unit and a Bloodsecrator as Khorne. That's a scary unit.

[KoganStyle]

19 hours ago, Weazel said:

I have been eyeballing (and admittedly drooling at) the SC! Slaves to Darkness box for a while now. Now I could just buy the box for my painting pleasures, but I wonder if StD have any viability on the tabletop? I don't play any grand tournaments or anything, so just looking for something fun with a reasonable chance at winning some games as well. I currently play Gitz and their performance isn't exactly stellar, but are StD better? And do they have a "meta"? I'm inclined toward Khorne if that makes a difference.

Buy the box and get the Blades of Khorne battletome, then you get the best of both worlds!

StD units can be given any mark and if you happen to mark them Khorne then they won't be counted as Allies in an army that uses the Blades of Khorne allegiance.

[El Antiguo Guardián]

On 8/28/2020 at 7:57 PM, Eldarain said:

@SorryLizard the Ravagers subfaction leans into that area of the lore allowing your mortal heroes to all have a command trait and each can summon a small band of Marauders or Warcry gang to the table each turn.

If you are open to non GW minis there are some nice alternatives out there:

Good job!

[Kurrilino]

On 8/31/2020 at 11:06 AM, Weazel said:

I have been eyeballing (and admittedly drooling at) the SC! Slaves to Darkness box for a while now. Now I could just buy the box for my painting pleasures, but I wonder if StD have any viability on the tabletop? I don't play any grand tournaments or anything, so just looking for something fun with a reasonable chance at winning some games as well. I currently play Gitz and their performance isn't exactly stellar, but are StD better? And do they have a "meta"? I'm inclined toward Khorne if that makes a difference.

Get the box and every other book to your taste except StD.

And even then you will have trouble to win games. You know something is wrong when Archeon the overlord of StD gets worse when played as StD.

[Titus]

Hello guys, i am preparing this list for a tournament.

The goal is trying to maximise the positive effects of the DPs and monster within despoiler. (3 DP's and one monster).
The lists is made to counter the maximum the shooting meta with the DP of nurgle, the reroll saves and the nightmare chasm. (also Belakor in case of a massive death star of shooting). The goal is to score fast and trying to negate the objectives to my opponent via movements (DP's, teleportation, horsemen), abilities (DP of Khorne, Belakor) or resilience (reroll saves, Nurgle batalion, DP nurgle)

The list is lacking of impact.
I am aware i am not going to win th e tourney but the goal is to get a 3/2 win ratio with a list  challenging for myself (high potential of being wiped in case of wrong movements or bubbles)

The battles will be as follow:

Total conquest 

Battle for the pass

Focal points

Blade s edge

Forcing the hands

What do you guys think about the artefact (Do i need the extra D3 CP?), command trait, batalion (usefull or not? Better choice?), Endless spell (not sure usefull but can be so deadly on some armies), units (knights?)

DespoilerGTC.pdf

[Khendall]

Don’t you need more mortals for the plaguetouched warbrand ? I only see 5 out of 7

2 hours ago, Titus said:

Hello guys, i am preparing this list for a tournament.

The goal is trying to maximise the positive effects of the DPs and monster within despoiler. (3 DP's and one monster).
The lists is made to counter the maximum the shooting meta with the DP of nurgle, the reroll saves and the nightmare chasm. (also Belakor in case of a massive death star of shooting). The goal is to score fast and trying to negate the objectives to my opponent via movements (DP's, teleportation, horsemen), abilities (DP of Khorne, Belakor) or resilience (reroll saves, Nurgle batalion, DP nurgle)

The list is lacking of impact.
I am aware i am not going to win th e tourney but the goal is to get a 3/2 win ratio with a list  challenging for myself (high potential of being wiped in case of wrong movements or bubbles)

The battles will be as follow:

Total conquest 

Battle for the pass

Focal points

Blade s edge

Forcing the hands

What do you guys think about the artefact (Do i need the extra D3 CP?), command trait, batalion (usefull or not? Better choice?), Endless spell (not sure usefull but can be so deadly on some armies), units (knights?)

DespoilerGTC.pdf 5.73 MB · 7 downloads

 

[Salyx]

That's true, Demon Princes do not fit into any Bataillon, that's the drawback of playing multiple Demon Prince. 

So either play no Bataillon and have some more points left or play a Bataillon that suits the Rest of your army. I would suggest that you either go heavy cavalry and ruinbringer warband or take out one Demon Prince and get some Mortals to get the Bataillon up and going. 

What strikes me with your list as well is the missing hammer units. Yes, you have the Demon Princes, but they will not be sufficient to Deal with string units like Witch Elves, Hearthguard Beserkers, Phoenix Guard and the lies. The best Hammer unit Slaves to Darkness has are Marauders, followed up by Chosen and properly buffed Knights. 

I would recommend to go with Ruinbringer Warband so that all your units can keep up with the Demon Princes. At least you can grind your enemy down with Mortal Wounds. 

[Fluxlord]

Hey all, I have a rules question considering Wrath of the everchosen, varanguard and slaves to darkness.

if I want to run the Knights of the empty throne faction from wrath of the everchosen, the varanguard get the hero keyword and i must choose CA and artefacts from that wrath of the everchosen empty throne, that is clear.

But since I’m slaves to darkness do i still have acces to the aura of chaos and eye of the gods from slaves to darkness books?

in other words can i make those varanguard hero’s Nurgle for example, be in my own aura and get +1 dmg and -1 to hit in shooting?

 

thx in advance

[Ironblaze]

2 hours ago, Fluxlord said:

Hey all, I have a rules question considering Wrath of the everchosen, varanguard and slaves to darkness.

if I want to run the Knights of the empty throne faction from wrath of the everchosen, the varanguard get the hero keyword and i must choose CA and artefacts from that wrath of the everchosen empty throne, that is clear.

But since I’m slaves to darkness do i still have acces to the aura of chaos and eye of the gods from slaves to darkness books?

in other words can i make those varanguard hero’s Nurgle for example, be in my own aura and get +1 dmg and -1 to hit in shooting?

 

thx in advance

You do get Aura of Chaos, since the Varanguard in Knights of the Empty Throne are heroes with a chaos mark. However, Eye of the Gods is a keyword specific to some of your hero units; the Varanguard do not gain this keyword so they can't use that ability.

[The World Tree]

26 minutes ago, Ironblaze said:

You do get Aura of Chaos, since the Varanguard in Knights of the Empty Throne are heroes with a chaos mark. However, Eye of the Gods is a keyword specific to some of your hero units; the Varanguard do not gain this keyword so they can't use that ability.

Yeah, they don't have the eye of the gods keyword (smart - it could be ridiculous!). Archaon and Daemon Princes similarly don't have that keyword. However, other characters in a KOET list would.

KOET varanguard giving out the aura of chaos is really strong as it gives them a lot of range due to their bases.

Edited September 5, 2020 by The World Tree

[Enwolved]

On 9/4/2020 at 11:34 AM, Titus said:

Hello guys, i am preparing this list for a tournament.

The goal is trying to maximise the positive effects of the DPs and monster within despoiler. (3 DP's and one monster).
The lists is made to counter the maximum the shooting meta with the DP of nurgle, the reroll saves and the nightmare chasm. (also Belakor in case of a massive death star of shooting). The goal is to score fast and trying to negate the objectives to my opponent via movements (DP's, teleportation, horsemen), abilities (DP of Khorne, Belakor) or resilience (reroll saves, Nurgle batalion, DP nurgle)

The list is lacking of impact.
I am aware i am not going to win th e tourney but the goal is to get a 3/2 win ratio with a list  challenging for myself (high potential of being wiped in case of wrong movements or bubbles)

The battles will be as follow:

Total conquest 

Battle for the pass

Focal points

Blade s edge

Forcing the hands

What do you guys think about the artefact (Do i need the extra D3 CP?), command trait, batalion (usefull or not? Better choice?), Endless spell (not sure usefull but can be so deadly on some armies), units (knights?)

I am not able to help you out here, because you might be my opponent in this tournament 🤣

I like your basic idea, but as already said: DP doesnt count towards the units in the battalion because he has no Mortal keyword unfortunately 

But Salyx already gave some good advice I think. Horsemen are 20 points higher now for whatever reason, for 90 points I really liked them.