AoS 2 - Slaves to Darkness 2 Discussion

[Graywater]

4 hours ago, Rors said:

I agree. While I'm pumped for the new model and rules, it's also a change to the best unit in the book and one of the best warscrolls in the game. Odds are the new version will be bigger and better, but less value.

100% agree. A new model is exciting. Gamewise though, I'm not even certain he's going to stay in slaves to darkness, at least not without some limiting conditions. My guess is that they're going to push the legions of chaos ascendant with him. Maybe even make him only usable in that faction by warscroll rule or points. Be'lakor is potentially the best unit in our book. Losing him would be a big blow.

[LordPrometheus]

2 hours ago, Graywater said:

. Be'lakor is potentially the best unit in our book. Losing him would be a big blow.

Agreed. Maybe he will be similar to Morathi and have two "forms" or versions we can use. Regardless, I hope he keeps his "shut up" ability. That is one of the best abilities in the entire game. 

 

 

[LordPrometheus]

Took the below list to a 16 man, 3 round tourney and came in first yesterday! My first win ever.

Factions I faced were Lumineth, Ironjawz, and KO. The KO game was one of the most intense, closest games of AoS I've ever played. Turns out -1 to hit in shooting phase and Pitch Black rules are really good.  Belakor was the MVP. Shut down Teclis, a Mawcrusha, and the big KO gunboat effectively. Outstanding support piece. Plaguetouched battalion was the runner up MVP. Did somewhere around 30-40 MWs over the course of the tourney. My opponents rolled a lot of 6s lol.

Also turns out a Daemon Prince General with the Nurgle Prayer buff, in cover, with the Oracular Visions ability is pretty stupid and basically unkillable.

Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness
- Damned Legion: Despoilers

Leaders
Be'Lakor (240)
- Spell: Binding Damnation
Slaves to Darkness Daemon Prince (210)
- General
- Sword
- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (110)
- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
- Spell: Whispers of Chaos
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (110)
- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
- Spell: Mask of Darkness
Chaos Lord (110)
- Reaperblade & Daemonbound Steel
- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle

Battleline
20 x Chaos Warriors (360)
- Hand Weapon & Shield
- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
5 x Chaos Warriors (90)
- Hand Weapon & Shield
- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
5 x Chaos Warriors (90)
- Hand Weapon & Shield
- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
40 x Chaos Marauders (320)
- Axes & Shields
- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle

Behemoths
Chaos Warshrine (170)
- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle

Battalions
Plaguetouched Warband (180)

Total: 1990 / 2000
Extra Command Points: 1
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 145
 

Edited March 15, 2021 by LordPrometheus

[Graywater]

5 minutes ago, LordPrometheus said:

Agreed. Maybe he will be similar to Morathi and have two "forms" or versions we can use. Regardless, I hope he keeps his "shut up" ability. That is one of the best abilities in the entire game. 

 

 

It's been a crutch for me. Planning on running some lists without him in the near future to see what the army composition will look like, just to be prepared.

[Graywater]

1 minute ago, LordPrometheus said:

Took the below list to a 16 man, 3 round tourney and came in first yesterday! My first win ever.

Factions I faced were Lumineth, Ironjawz, and KO. The KO game was one of the most intense, closest games of AoS I've ever played. Turns out -1 to hit in shooting phase and Pitch Black rules are really good.  Belakor was the MVP. Shut down Teclis, a Mawcrusha, and the big KO gunboat effectively. Outstanding support piece. Plaguetouched battalion was the runner up MVP. Did somewhere around 30-40 MWs over the course of the tourney. My opponents rolled a lot of 6s lol.

Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness
- Damned Legion: Despoilers

Leaders
Be'Lakor (240)
- Spell: Binding Damnation
Slaves to Darkness Daemon Prince (210)
- General
- Sword
- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (110)
- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
- Spell: Whispers of Chaos
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (110)
- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
- Spell: Mask of Darkness
Chaos Lord (110)
- Reaperblade & Daemonbound Steel
- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle

Battleline
20 x Chaos Warriors (360)
- Hand Weapon & Shield
- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
5 x Chaos Warriors (90)
- Hand Weapon & Shield
- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
5 x Chaos Warriors (90)
- Hand Weapon & Shield
- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
40 x Chaos Marauders (320)
- Axes & Shields
- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle

Behemoths
Chaos Warshrine (170)
- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle

Battalions
Plaguetouched Warband (180)

Total: 1990 / 2000
Extra Command Points: 1
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 145
 

Congrats. Both be'lakor and plaguetouched are indeed our standout components. What was the inspiration behind the 20 block of warriors, and how did they do for you? 

[LordPrometheus]

1 minute ago, Graywater said:

Congrats. Both be'lakor and plaguetouched are indeed our standout components. What was the inspiration behind the 20 block of warriors, and how did they do for you? 

 I really wanted a tanky objective holder, and holy ****** did they deliver, especially in the last game against KO. 20 Chaos Warriors in cover, possibly with Nurgle prayer buff from Warshrine, rerolling saves, is REALLY hard for people to shift. I did get lucky with the objective landing right in/near cover a couple times, so I basically sent the warriors there to camp. They scored me a ton of points over the tourney by just sitting there and tanking, dealing MWs back to attackers. 

 

Best part is, they're super cheap battleline and you don't care if they die. They're a fantastic tarpit in this list, which is exactly what I wanted them to be.

[Graywater]

1 minute ago, LordPrometheus said:

 I really wanted a tanky objective holder, and holy ****** did they deliver, especially in the last game against KO. 20 Chaos Warriors in cover, possibly with Nurgle prayer buff from Warshrine, rerolling saves, is REALLY hard for people to shift. I did get lucky with the objective landing right in/near cover a couple times, so I basically sent the warriors there to camp. They scored me a ton of points over the tourney by just sitting there and tanking, dealing MWs back to attackers. 

 

Best part is, they're super cheap battleline and you don't care if they die. They're a fantastic tarpit in this list, which is exactly what I wanted them to be.

Thanks for the input. I keep trying to fit any size unit of warriors over a min 5 for battleline into a list, but I always end up dropping them for marauders or Knights. Marauders double the bodies for cheaper and present a significantly more substantial offensive threat at the cost of 1 worse save, while Knights have the same defense but double speed and offense. 

[LordPrometheus]

1 minute ago, Graywater said:

Thanks for the input. I keep trying to fit any size unit of warriors over a min 5 for battleline into a list, but I always end up dropping them for marauders or Knights. Marauders double the bodies for cheaper and present a significantly more substantial offensive threat at the cost of 1 worse save, while Knights have the same defense but double speed and offense. 

That's perfectly valid, honestly. The best part of STD is how flexible they are. There's very few obviously wrong choices with them, I feel. You can adapt them to your playstyle. It really is a toolbox army.

[Graywater]

It was a good weekend for slaves. I too had a 3 game tournament this weekend with my (well, Dave Kerr's) Knights of the Empty Throne list. 

Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness
- Damned Legion: Knights of the Empty Throne
Mortal Realm: Chamon

Leaders
Knights of the Empty Throne Varanguard x 6 (560)
- General
- Command Trait: Inescapable Doom
- Artefact: Grasping Plate
- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
Chaos Lord (110)
- Reaperblade & Daemonbound Steel
- Artefact: Plate of Perfect Protection
- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (110)
- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
- Spell: Mask of Darkness
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (110)
- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
- Spell: Mask of Darkness
Be'Lakor (240)
- Spell: Whispers of Chaos

Battleline
20 x Chaos Marauders (160)
- Axes & Shields
- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
5 x Chaos Warriors (90)
- Hand Weapon & Shield
- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
5 x Chaos Warriors (90)
- Hand Weapon & Shield
- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle

Units
9 x Untamed Beasts (70)
9 x Untamed Beasts (70)

Behemoths
Chaos Warshrine (170)
- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle

Battalions
Plaguetouched Warband (180)

Endless Spells / Terrain / CPs
Eightfold Doom-sigil (40)

Total: 2000 / 2000
Extra Command Points: 1
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 125

Game 1 was against nighthaunt on total conquest. Not much to say on this one. The output from the varanguard and marauder unit were able to push through most of the ghosts that smacked into my line Untamed beasts.

game 2 was against a 9 vanguard raptor shootcast list on 3 places of arcane power. Again, not much to say on this one. He was playing a double stormkeep patrol and so only had 2 heroes. Be'lakor shut off his raptors and his whole first turn only got be'lakor and 1 sorceror, while I wiped out one of his 2 castles with double activating varanguard. There was a small panic when my teleported marauders rolled the dreaded double 1 and failed the charge into his raptors, but I won the double and it was game over.

game 3 was against a scary daughters list on forcing the hand. Morathi, 15 bow snakes, medusa, ironscale, 10/5/5 melee snakes, shadowstalkers. He took turn 1 and killed a unit of beasts and 5 warriors with the unit of 10 melee snakes, and shot be'lakor off the board with the bow snakes. Morathi moved to the middle of the board. He was too aggressive. My marauders were able to take out the 10 snakes, and the varanguard were able to take out all of the bow snakes and deal 3 wounds to morathi by attacking her little form. He won the turn roll, but I revealed big morathi as the be'lakor target, and with her shut off, it was just a case of cleaning up. Kind of a rough gametype for him because he relies on the bow snakes to push early damage, and we were our of range on turn 1. He also had to be in varanguard range for them to have an effect.

 

Takeaways- super fun list. Varanguard are a lot of fun to push around, and the 6" activation makes them so versatile. Huge guaranteed threat range. They're a constant threat because you can't lock them up, and they're incredibly tough outside mortal wounds. 

be'lakor is still a crutch. He's too good not to take, though I think I'll run a few lists without him to prepare in case he's changed too much in his upcoming book.

Edited March 15, 2021 by Graywater

[Dankboss]

1 hour ago, LordPrometheus said:

Agreed. Maybe he will be similar to Morathi and have two "forms" or versions we can use. Regardless, I hope he keeps his "shut up" ability. That is one of the best abilities in the entire game. 

 

 

There are ways of keeping his ability without keeping it a negative play experience (which it is, massively). If it were changed to say, once per turn you can pick a unit and half its move, I'd say that'd be both more powerful and less of a negative experience.

[Eldarain]

3 hours ago, LordPrometheus said:

Also turns out a Daemon Prince General with the Nurgle Prayer buff, in cover, with the Oracular Visions ability is pretty stupid and basically unkillable.
 

Both of those require the Mortal keyword unfortunately.

[LordPrometheus]

3 minutes ago, Eldarain said:

Both of those require the Mortal keyword unfortunately.

Just went back to check and you are correct. Oops. Nobody caught that yesterday, but it honestly wouldn't have changed much I don't think. My Marauders and Warriors took almost all the opponent's attacks , since they were the ones holding objectives and dealing big damage.

[kahadin]

Hey everybody,

How are you guys using cultists? I had written them off for a long time, but I was looking for a cheap unit to leave on an objective and saw that iron golems were a cheap 10 W 4+ re-rollable save unit. They are comparable to chaos warriors without shields and a little cheaper. They also statistically out damage Blightkings if you take them at equal points (kinda embarrassing for BKs).

I've seen untamed beasts used as screens also.

The unmade have a no retreat ability, but I don't know how it could be used. Maybe mask them to a backline and try to hold up a wizard or shooting unit? I don't know.

I'm just not sure if there is untapped potential here of if in practice they really are just cheap bodies.

[Graywater]

27 minutes ago, kahadin said:

Hey everybody,

How are you guys using cultists? I had written them off for a long time, but I was looking for a cheap unit to leave on an objective and saw that iron golems were a cheap 10 W 4+ re-rollable save unit. They are comparable to chaos warriors without shields and a little cheaper. They also statistically out damage Blightkings if you take them at equal points (kinda embarrassing for BKs).

I've seen untamed beasts used as screens also.

The unmade have a no retreat ability, but I don't know how it could be used. Maybe mask them to a backline and try to hold up a wizard or shooting unit? I don't know.

I'm just not sure if there is untapped potential here of if in practice they really are just cheap bodies.

I think you've pretty much nailed it. Theyre all 70 points, so its just down to their one ability they get. Honestly most suck. For cheap objective sitters, iron golems are your best bet for that armor reroll. Untamed beasts for a screen that gives you a little breathing room. Any of the cultists can be in this role, those units just do it a little better. I haven't found a use for the rest.

[Charleston]

I never got myself to use cultists, althrough I see some perks they bring. Thoose are all ultra-light units that have certain perks which make them quite usefull for several tasks (well, despite spire tyrants which are the worst and most useless ones). The snake ones for example seem reasonable for a cabalist list, beeing able to replenish some models over time. Also their mortal wounds come in handy. The ulgu corax guys are fast and are great as summoned unit to take some objectives in later turns. Untamed beasts are great to charge and contest some objectives in situations your opponent only had few models to tap on the objective. I don´t know much about the hysh and fire guys and what purpose they could serve.

[kahadin]

I'm going to try and see what I can do to make use of them. I don't really know if they have more potential, but I'm going to try messing around with them .

I have to say though, I think its weird how heavily armored the spire tyrants are for a 5+ save.

Scions' flameburst pots do close to the same damage as warriors with hand weapons and shields, but that's nothing special.

I wish these guys earned a chaos undivided mark, that would make them pop

[Eldarain]

I'm building enough Golems to try them as a 32 strong anvil in an Idolators Plaguetouched build. Figure between their scroll the battalion and the Shrine they'd be a very effective unit at just 280 for 40 rerolling save wounds.

I don't have the Broken Realms book. Would that work?

[Graywater]

4 minutes ago, Eldarain said:

I'm building enough Golems to try them as a 32 strong anvil in an Idolators Plaguetouched build. Figure between their scroll the battalion and the Shrine they'd be a very effective unit at just 280 for 40 rerolling save wounds.

I don't have the Broken Realms book. Would that work?

I am doing this as well. Figure they can be a tough little bunker that should trade favorably for being so cheap. Give them the shrine prayer for +1 save, teleport them up the board, reliably make the 9 inch charge with the idolators charge bonus, and force your opponent to be stuck fighting them for a good while.

[kahadin]

You can't mark them. So they can't have their saves prayed up and they cannot actually be plague touched ;_;

They are trainee Chaos and have not been tenured to the level of marauders yet.

Graywater pointed this out:
Page 116 – Idolators Battle Traits, Panoply of Ruin, rules
Change to:
‘Idolators Cultists units have the Battleline
battlefield role. If you upgrade a Chaos Chariots or
Gorebeasts Chariots unit to be an Idolator Lord,
all Idolators Cultists units you include in your army
gain the Mark of Chaos keyword that was picked for that
Idolator Lord. In addition, when you make a charge
roll for an Idolators Cultists unit, change the lowest
dice to a 6. If the roll is a double, change one of the dice
to a 6.’

Edited March 16, 2021 by kahadin

[Eldarain]

Here's the list. Really wish we had a shortlist of any subfaction items as we got really screwed by the Malign Sorcery artifact purge.

Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness

- Damned Legion: Idolators

Mortal Realm: Chamon

 

Leaders

Chaos Sorcerer Lord on Manticore (260)

- Artefact: Plate of Perfect Protection

- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle

- Spell: Mask of Darkness

Idolator Lord on Chaos Chariot (120)

- General

- Command Trait: Bolstered by Hate

- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle

- Prayer: Blessings of Nurgle

 

Battleline

10 x Chaos Knights (320)

- Ensorcelled Weapons

- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle

32 x Iron Golems (280)

- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle

40 x Chaos Marauders (320)

- Axes & Shields

- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle

5 x Chaos Knights (160)

- Ensorcelled Weapons

- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle

5 x Chaos Knights (160)

- Ensorcelled Weapons

- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle

 

Behemoths

Chaos Warshrine (170)

- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle

 

Battalions

Plaguetouched Warband (180)

 

Endless Spells / Terrain / CPs

Prismatic Palisade (30)

 

Total: 2000 / 2000

Extra Command Points: 1

Allies: 0 / 400

Wounds: 173

Figure the units staying power combined with Plaguetouched and the Idolator reroll wounds Nurgle prayer seems solid. 

 

Edited March 16, 2021 by Eldarain

[Graywater]

29 minutes ago, kahadin said:

You can't mark them. So they can't have their saves prayed up and they cannot actually be plague touched ;_;

They are trainee Chaos and have not been tenured to the level of marauders yet.

They can be marked in idolators after the faq came out. They get the same mark as the lord on chariot. So they can be prayed on/in plaguetouched in that one instance.

[kahadin]

That's a game changer, thanks @Graywater, I did not see that.

Now that my precious cultists can receive buffs its time to see what they can do.

On first glance Khorne powers up the damage of the cultists quite a bit. Just keeping them near the general gives reroll 1 and +1 to wound. His prayer gives reroll hits. This makes splintered fang and unmade dangerous on paper. Give them a bloodsecrator for +1 a or maybe take wrathmongers to save leader slots.

I think knights probably still do more and the real strength is probably iron golems for holding points. Especially with the buffs they can get.

Edited March 16, 2021 by kahadin

[velocitydog]

Hi all.  It's been awhile since I've had a chance to play my S2D and I had a couple general questions.  First, aside from the Battletome, are there any other books I need to get myself up to speed with recent changes to the list?  Second, I could have sworn that at one point Chaos Sorcerer Lords could summon  pod of 10 lesser demons instead of casting a spell in the hero phase.  Was this ever a thing?  Was it a thing that got changed?  Am I completely out of my mind (would NOT surprise me in the slightest)? 

Thanks,

velocitydog

[Sesom]

10 minutes ago, velocitydog said:

Hi all.  It's been awhile since I've had a chance to play my S2D and I had a couple general questions.  First, aside from the Battletome, are there any other books I need to get myself up to speed with recent changes to the list?  Second, I could have sworn that at one point Chaos Sorcerer Lords could summon  pod of 10 lesser demons instead of casting a spell in the hero phase.  Was this ever a thing?  Was it a thing that got changed?  Am I completely out of my mind (would NOT surprise me in the slightest)? 

Thanks,

velocitydog

Gaunt summoner does it. It is also a roll on the Eyes of the Gods table.

[velocitydog]

Thanks Sesom.  Why in the world did I think a regular sorcerer could do this?  I have written down in some old notes "casting value 6, summon 10 bloodletters within 16" of caster, 9" away from enemy, summon 20 on a roll of 11+".   I am seriously confused as to where this came from.