Best way to run masses of Spawn

[Lord Krungharr]

I like spawn. I like making spawn as it empties out my random bits when it gets full.  What might the best army be with or without allies to run a tide of spawn ?  And maybe toss in a giant spawn or two too.  

Almost feels like Nurgle or Slaanesh might be best.  I’ve not delved into either of those gods yet.  

[Choombatta]

Tzeentch, as you can produce even more spawn during the course of the game via spells, abilities, and battalions.

[Moonlightwolf]

Beasts of Chaos - Gavespawn subfaction, their spawn get a command ability and when heroes in their armies die they devolve into an brand new chaos spawn on a 2+

 

[Hannibal]

I have to disagree with the above 2 comments. Tzeentch does nothing for Spawns besides producing some more during the course of a game. And Beasts of Chaos, well, here the Spawns are support pieces. Although they can buff themselves by the command ability, it costs cp and the buff isn´t that great for a low model count unit.

IMO there are far better bonuses you can give them:

THey are mortal, Slaves to Darkness, therefore can be included in each in every StD Battalion available, giving them some nice options. I think that either Plaguetouched or Ruinbringers is the way to go here. Ruinbringers boosts offense, while Plaguetouched somewhat boosts defense, though the Spawns won´t live longer but the opponent will get wounds when attacking your Spawns.

I also think that Mark of Khorne or Mark of Nurgle are the best Marks you can give them, because both offer nice support abilities. (see below). On the other hand, there are some cool synergies inside StD warscrolls: attack twice (Chaos Lord on foot), rerollable save rolls (Chaos Sorcerer Lord of any kind), rerollable to hit and to wound rolls via Chaos Sorcerer Lord on foot spell, rerollable to wound rolls (Chaos Chosen). WArshrine gives you bonuses depending on the chosen Mark of Chaos.

A special mention: Daemonprince of Nurgle´s comand ability causes D3 mortal wounds on every unmodified to hit roll of 6 on the attacking unit which is just awesome.

Other than the Marks of Chaos, their mortal, Slaves to Darkness keywords offer a lot of possible synergies that can only be used in either StD Allegiance or any of the god specific Allegiances like Maggotkin of Nurgle or Blades of Khorne. I do not know the Slaanesh book, therefore can´t say anything about it, but ...

Disciples of Tzeentch: no synergies with Spawns whatsoever. Everything is bound to either Daemon or Arcanites keywords. The one advantage (producing more Spawns) can be achieved by just use the Magister as an ally.

Blades of Khorne: Spawns can get rerollable charge rolls (Lord of Khorne), +1 attack (Bloodsecrator, Aspiring Deathbringer, Wrathmongers), reroll ones to wound ( Lord of Khorne on Juggy), no battleshock (Exalted Deathbringer), +3 to run and charges as well as rerollable to wound rolls (Bloodstoker). MSU (multiple small units) Spawns enhance your Blood Tithe gains. Spawns can be targetet by Khorne Prayers.

Maggotkin of Nurgle: Spawns can get a 5++ save after save (Harbinger of Decay), -1 to hit by enemy´s shooting (Lord of Blights), run and charge (Feculent Gnarlmaw), rerollable to wound rolls (Orgoth Daemonspew), +1 attack (Glottkin). Can be affected by various spells (+1 to wounds characteristics (Glottkin) or mortal wounds on to hit rolls of 6+, just to name a few). Can also be affected by the cycle of corruption (allegiance ability), ie healing, higher movement, +1 to to-wound rolls.

Though there are also some anti-synergies if run as Nurgle Allegiance. There is an artifact that forces the enemy to reroll to hit rolls of 6. Cycle of corruption has an affect that forces the enemy to reroll to wound rolls of 6. Both of them do not work well if you´re also going to get the most out of StD synergies (Nurgle Daemonprince´s command ability, Plaguetouched Warband gains).

 

Conclusion: If you´re heading towards Blades of Khorne or Maggotkin of Nurgle you can get 2 layers of support abilities / buffs: one layer by the Allegiance abilities, one by the synergies that can be found on the StD warscrolls. You can also head towards running StD Allegiance, that way you can get additional bonuses by adding some allies (Harbinger of Decay or Bloodstoker just to name a few).

Does this make Chaos Spawns any good? NO! All the named buffs can also target MArauders, which are just faster (on average rolls), more lethal (more attacks per points, rend), more durable (more wounds per points).

Edited February 8, 2020 by Hannibal

[Kramer]

Why not use the short story entry: ‘ heft of mutation’ on page 21 as your source of inspiration!?

in game I’d say tzeentch as there is nothing as much fun as creating spawn from your opponent. And it fits the mytalith beast from the stories as wel. 

[Oldshrimpeyes]

The Daemon Prince of Nurgle does not have that command ability anymore. Its been changed a single d3 MW regardless of how many 6's are rolled. 

[Choombatta]

For Tzeentch, it is just the sheer number of Spawns you could be producing......per turn.

[NJohansson]

On 2/10/2020 at 4:46 AM, Choombatta said:

For Tzeentch, it is just the sheer number of Spawns you could be producing......per turn.

Point for point the spawn is sort of underwhelming (yes I know every model can have a use etc. - but generally you could spend the points better). Therefore Tzeentch would be my main suggestion. Kairos, the Icon and a Magister could potentially create 3 spawns per turn. Going for a Host Duplicitous army (where your opponent can’t disengage) could even make the spawn actually useful. It’s probably not the most competitive build but definitely not bad and you will have a lot of spawns.

[Alan Mandelson]

If you want to use a single big unit of Spawn I recommend BoC. Herdstone gives (essentially) a Rend, Grashrak's spell can give +1 to hit rolls, Tendrils of Atrophy spell for a further -1 to enemy saves and the Shaggoth spell Sundering Blades to give an actual Rend. This can sum up to hitting on 2s (when you roll a double for random attacks) with -3 to the enemy saves. Then you could also do the whole Gavespawn thing for extra attacks.

[Lord Krungharr]

I really wish a Gigantic Spawn could be part of a BoC army.  They can't even be allies; but they could be in any of the god factions.  Those are fun when they grow in size

 

I've been meaning to try a pure BoC army again, haven't done so in a while.  Spawn will be a good reason to go back to the wilds.  Gotta make my new herdstone though, a skull-rock magewrath throne base with a statue of Morghur on top.