AoS 2 - Slaves to Darkness 2 Discussion

[Lord Krungharr]

Untamed Beasts, eh?  I've seen some other people touting the Corvus Cabal.  The cultist units sure seem useful....I'm just struggling with how do I make a Chaos Dwarf version of these units?!  Gotta stick with my theme.

[RocketPropelledGrenade]

17 hours ago, Lord Krungharr said:

Untamed Beasts, eh?  I've seen some other people touting the Corvus Cabal.  The cultist units sure seem useful....I'm just struggling with how do I make a Chaos Dwarf version of these units?!  Gotta stick with my theme.

Untamed Beasts are what I had already, and I like their pre-game move as a screen for Knights. They also feel like a good generic "these are the gullible dupes following my elite warriors around for a chance at joining them" aesthetic.

Could definitely see taking other cultist options, but those are the reasons for my choice.

[Lord Krungharr]

Yeah they do seem like that.  I'd be an Iron Golem, cuz I like to make stuff out of metal.  And I'm slow.

Maybe some of the old Dwarf slayers would work for the Untamed look.  I'd have to figure out all the different base sizes and get dog in there.  Easier with that unit than the Splintered Fang or Corvus Cabal for sure.

Speaking of, anyone tried out masses of Splintered Fangs or have a battle report they can link to for them?  Really want to know if that's even a usable viable army at all.

[Salyx]

I know of a guy who played Ravagers with 2x30 Splintered Fang in Ravagers, he even won the event.

I do not know the exact list anymore, but I have found something alike, only with less Splintered Fangs and Belakor:

 

https://www.belloflostsouls.net/2023/03/aos-list-of-the-week-shadow-kingdom.html

 

In Ravagers this seems really good as you get  20 Guys back when you summon one of your 30 man units back. So that`s a total of 100 Splintered Fang for 600 points. Nice.

[RocketPropelledGrenade]

Pretty sure you'd get 15 Splintered Fang back, now 20. You round the number of models up, not the number of list-building elements. That being said, it's still really good value and Splintered Fang are kind of busted from everything I hear. I have no play experience with or against them, though.

[Lord Krungharr]

I think because the models aren't cheap or highly available not too many people play them.  Definitely a cool looking warband though.  And bits to make Chaos Snakemen, or the old metal Snakemen, aren't any cheaper or more plentiful.  Definitely a modeling challenge to get variety and a deal.  Seems like Marauders with some scaly Seraphon bits would help, and snakes from that Ark of Sotek or whatever it is.  

Guess if I sell my Gitz, and don't buy more Skaven, or Stormcast, or Chaos Dwarves, or Horus Heresy stuff, and sell some jewelry, I could do this.  

[Lord Krungharr]

I should be running this tomorrow.  Eager to try out the big tarpit of Knights and see if I can lock down the Ironjawz and grind them down.  Though from what I hear, they'll probably bum rush me turn 1 and lock me down.  

[RocketPropelledGrenade]

Looks like an interesting list, @Lord Krungharr! I haven't tried Chariots at all this time around, hope they do well for you.

 

I just finished painting up my big Chosen block, which puts my army at a little over half done, model wise. Not sure if I'm going to keep going with it as my main painting project or return to Soulblight with their new battletome. Depends on what I want to take to NOVA, I think. I've got ~10-20 models to go either way, just need to decide which ones are higher priority.

[Sinfullyvannila]

On 4/4/2023 at 11:34 PM, Lord Krungharr said:

I just fought my friend's Gitz army with my all Undivided Cabalists StD, first tryout for each of us.  I was going for the Grand Strat of doing 4 StD Tactics...I had:

Manticore Lord (general, Favored, Conq. crown, Flaming Weapon, Daemon Blade)

Sorc on Manticore (D. Conduit, Vigour)

2 foot Sorc (Conduit, Speed, Leadership of the Alpha...Damnation, Speed, Tunnel Master)

Lord on D. Mount (Flaming Weapon)

4x1 Chariots

1x5 Knights w the Undivided Banner

mercenary One Eyed Grunnock

He had: Loonboss on big squig, Mangler Boss, 2 Fungoids, Squigboss, 24 Squigherd, 10 and 5 Bounderz, 5 Rockguts, 10 Spiders.  

Position over power, he went first, failed a 5" charge on the squigherd.  So I charged them with my MantiLord, Gargant, MountLord w Knights and wiped them after Binding Damnation so I struck first there....got an objective w a chariot, and charged spiders and the tiny Bounderz unit, ended up wiping the Bounderz but not much to the Spiders.  Failed to get my MantiLord rolling on the table with Chaotic Conduit after my MantiSorc rolled 2 1s on the Draw Power for that.  So that sucked.

I got the double turn and got into the Troggs w a chariot and the MantiLord, killed a Fungoid w another chariot, brought my gargant up over the center ruins and charged the Loonboss, charged the knights w Speed over into the Spiders (but the Lord couldn't make it with them).  He then brought the Bounderz straight into the Gargant and killed it in one round.  Then it fell onto the Loonboss and finished him off.  Spiders and Knights/Chariot were a tarpit, so was the Trogg battle.  

Then he got the double turn and brought the Mangler Boss way over to my backfield and engaged my foot and MantiSorcerrers.  That was hopeless.  Bounderz went into my MantiLord took swift care of him and the chariot.  Knights eventually killed the Spiders, tried to run back to the center to maybe do a tactic of some sort, but then got Bounderzed themselves.  

Unbelievable how fast and deadly the Gitz are, especially the boingy ones on the charge.  Chaos Knights on the other hand, really kinda suck!  Hitting on 4+?!?  How do grots hit on 3s, and Chaos Knights on 4s?  Sure I forgot about Daemonic Power but even so, they should be hitting like Stormcast guys.  Also Chariots need multiple impacts to do their work, no single piecemeal garbage except for weakling heroes.  Next time I'll use them like that, but otherwise they are pretty terrible, and I think I'll switch to flails instead of the Greatblade for at least some amount of possible hitting.  One-Eyed Grunnock is awful but I didn't have anything else put together yet and mine looks awesome.  Oh well, learning game.  

Should I make 10 Chosen from my Chaos Dwarf Bloodbowl guys....or some Azgorh themed Varanguard with them?  Really can't decide which would be better.  They're gonna be some serious conversion work either way so I want to make the meanest unit(s) possible with them.  I have a Karkadrak in the works though, the Mount Lord is pretty meh.  Karkadrak seems certainly worth the extra 50 points.

Boingrots and Hoppers also hit only hit on 4s. I think the only non-hero grots that hit on less are the Sporesplatta Fanatics.

Edited April 25, 2023 by Sinfullyvannila

[Sinfullyvannila]

I'm gonna magnetize him anyway but any advice on the load out for Exalted Hero of Chaos? My guess is the axes are too low damage to justify losing the MW ward.

I don't care about making it competitive. I just want to pretend I'm playing Tactics Ogre while I'm playing AOS.

[RocketPropelledGrenade]

1 hour ago, Sinfullyvannila said:

I'm gonna magnetize him anyway but any advice on the load out for Exalted Hero of Chaos? My guess is the axes are too low damage to justify losing the MW ward.

I don't care about making it competitive. I just want to pretend I'm playing Tactics Ogre while I'm playing AOS.

The axes don't really do more damage than the sword, sadly. I don't mean that in a competitive optimization way, I mean that in a "the math barely differs offensively" way. 4+/4+ vs 3+/3+ is a world of difference, and the extra attacks do not make up for it. So basically you hose yourself defensively to no benefit.

[Adammck66]

Hey guys,

Does Bel'akor's ability stop abilities like Strike and fade on a 3+ ?

I saw the faq regarding fly high but not sure if strike and fade is worded differently. 

 

Edit* Oh also the spirit path teleport thing

Edited May 2, 2023 by Adammck66

[Sinfullyvannila]

Am I the only one thinking that people are sleeping on the Tzeentch Daemon prince? He can cast 2, one of which is any Lore spell, on a 3+ save; if he had one less wound that would be an insane deal at 170. If you put him in a Cabalist list and have him follow around your Chaos Sorcerer Lord who can use Draw on Dark Power for him to mooch off. Then maybe put in and MSU Tzeentch Chaos Knights with a massive threat range and charge every turn you get the teleport spell off.

I know that the Warscroll gets memed on and super underwhelming because they should be capable of being the pillar of your army; but I think this one has some genuine play.

 

EDIT: NM, misunderstood some rules and of course you can't get the 2nd cast if you use Draw on Dark Power 

Edited May 6, 2023 by Sinfullyvannila

[Wraith]

On 3/15/2023 at 5:36 AM, Grimrock said:

Question for anyone that has bought the new Exalted Hero of Chaos model, how does it compare size wise to the standard chaos warriors? I've been thinking of picking up the Khagra's Ravagers box and using it for a chaos lord, two exalted heroes, and a chaos sorcerer, but I'm not sure if they'll be a suitable standins once they're on 40mm bases. 

The new Exalted Hero is huge compared to standard warriors. Definitely scale creep going on here. Also, the new Chaos Lord on Demonic Mount is huge. Like Varanguard size. He is a dual kit with Eternus.

 

I am not that pleased with either as they look like a different scale compared to the older models. I will probably sell them. I think I will rebase the limited edition Chaos figure, Holga Clovenhorn, to a 40mm base and use her for an Exalted Hero. She is only a little bit bigger than a normal warrior.

[JackStreicher]

9 hours ago, Wraith said:

I am not that pleased with either as they look like a different scale compared to the older models. I will probably sell them. I think I will rebase the limited edition Chaos figure, Holga Clovenhorn, to a 40mm base and use her for an Exalted Hero. She is only a little bit bigger than a normal warrior.

I am not worried. It’s rather weird that all chaos warriors have the same body height

If heroes are slightly bigger it simply shows that chaos pumped them up more.

[Wraith]

12 hours ago, JackStreicher said:

I am not worried. It’s rather weird that all chaos warriors have the same body height

If heroes are slightly bigger it simply shows that chaos pumped them up more.

I'll try to add some photo comparisons on the weekend. It is a matter of taste and I might be too fussy.

[Adammck66]

How do chaos allies work?

 

If I bring plaguebearers into my legion of the first prince, do they lose their ward?

[Grimrock]

2 hours ago, Adammck66 said:

How do chaos allies work?

 

If I bring plaguebearers into my legion of the first prince, do they lose their ward?

Yes. Allies lose any allegiance abilities they would get from their normal army because they're not being taken in that army (so for Nurgle they won't get their ward, built in healing, or disease points) and also normally don't get access to any allegiance abilities in the army they're allying into. Legion of the First Prince is an exception to that for the marks of chaos rule, but they still won't get things like artefacts or command traits.

In my opinion it's almost never worth it to use allies unless there's something particularly amazing that doesn't need allegiance abilities to work or the unit fills a particular role in an army that you absolutely can't fill with native units. In your example the plaguebearer gains access to the mark of Nurgle rule, but they're extremely squishy if they don't have access to their ward and will do almost 0 damage without their disease points. It's tough to justify paying their pretty steep points cost for what you'll be getting when you could grab chaos warriors instead. 

[Adammck66]

Ah okay thanks for the reply.

I have Be'lakor but I am considering not using him sometimes if I try path to glory or just dont want a named guy, so was debating what to replace him with (using stuff I own).

Lord of Change is an option, I have some slaaneshi stuff too.

[Wraith]

On 5/18/2023 at 4:20 PM, Wraith said:

I'll try to add some photo comparisons on the weekend. It is a matter of taste and I might be too fussy.

I had better do this before I forget. I hope the photos show how big the new Chaos Lord on Demonic Mount and Exalted Champion are. (they are the grey ones, BTW)

 

[Aphotic]

Been working plenty on my old school paint inspired slaves, and tinkering with lists. Does anyone have any advice with archaon? It feels like he's an anvil and a distraction carnifex more than anything else.

[Adammck66]

Hey, got a game tonight with my finally fully painted army.

 

Quick question, if I roll on the eye lf the gods and get the 6+ ward one, then get that again later, do I re-roll or is it wasted?

 

Also Illt try get some pics later

[Grimrock]

4 hours ago, Adammck66 said:

Hey, got a game tonight with my finally fully painted army.

 

Quick question, if I roll on the eye lf the gods and get the 6+ ward one, then get that again later, do I re-roll or is it wasted?

 

Also Illt try get some pics later

It's essentially wasted, there are no rules for re-rolling anymore if you get duplicates. It's nice for stuff like Slaughterer's Strength, but yeah kinda lame for the wards. Does make the undivided mark more interesting at least. 

[Agent of Chaos]

Long time no post, fellow slaves to darkness!

I have been running a Cabalists list with moderate success since the new tome came out. Most notably taking my list to CanCon in Australia back in January (a 200 player, 5 game GT) and going 3-2, losing my final game by a single VP due to one bad mistake on my part. 

I'm running them again in a couple of weeks at a 120 player 5 game GT in Sydney although the latest release of new tomes makes me less confident about going close to 4-1. 

The core of my list is an undivided sorcerer on manticore, 2 x slaanesh sorcerer lords, a nurgle chaos lord, chronomatic cogs and spell portal (for turn 1 damage from Grinding Teeth of Gallet or Winds of Chaos). Troops wise I have experimented with a block of 20 nurgle warriors and 10 slaanesh knights, supported by some lighter units but found that the 20 warriors were killable if the opponent really focused them without doing any damage in return, and the knights get tarpitted after the charge. 

I'm now looking at 10 nurgle knights as an alpha pin (now they are meant to tar pit!). The chaos lord and 10 warriors hold an objective while 5 khorne nights pick at soft spots and 5 slaanesh chosen hang back as wave 2. 

I'm really enjoying the reliability of the spell buffs which I find cant be relied on in any other subfaction, and those spells are really needed to get the most out of our units. However cogs are essential as twice now the first cast of the game resulted in a dead sorcerer lord (these days my first cast is cogs from the chaos lord as he can push any mortals to the warrior retinue). 

The other fun part is effectively playing an RPG with my sorcerer on manticore. Last game he finished as a level 5 wizard with a 5+ ward, +1 rend and Morathi's skull in his trophy collection. I give him flaming weapon for the manticore's claws and find he can be a nice little scalpel when required, although admittedly he has failed the "this ones mine" battle tactic more often than not due to my overconfidence in his abilities!

Just remember, always follow the path to glory!!! 

[Big Kim Woof-Woof]

Greetings, spiky-armour-type people!

I'm a deep-rooted Hedonites player who has recently realised he's invested in a veritable shipload of coalition models... so much so that he could be running a whole Slaves to Darkness army too! I've got loads of Chaos Warriors, Marauders, Knights, a Warshrine, Chosen, and a plethora of suitable hero models. Almost enough for a 2000 point force. 

My question is this; what allied Slaaneshi unit/s would fill out my Slaves army nicely? I've got the models of pretty much everything in the book. Thoughts?