Starting with Hedonites, how do I start?

[Ulfast]

Hello fellow Hedonites. I´m thinking to perhaps start with hedonites but I´m wondering what is a good start? Number one is of course to get armybook but I´m wondering what is next step? I want to focus on mortals and summon daemons. How important is is to get the endless spells and the fane? I´m thinking to start with a unit of blissbarb archers and shardspeaker. Is that good. 

 

Anyone that also got some tactic, advice or something else to keep in mind? 

[Enoby]

9 hours ago, Ulfast said:

Hello fellow Hedonites. I´m thinking to perhaps start with hedonites but I´m wondering what is a good start? Number one is of course to get armybook but I´m wondering what is next step? I want to focus on mortals and summon daemons. How important is is to get the endless spells and the fane? I´m thinking to start with a unit of blissbarb archers and shardspeaker. Is that good. 

 

Anyone that also got some tactic, advice or something else to keep in mind? 

Hey, and welcome!

To answer your question on endless spells and the fane first, I'd recommend the fane as it's a free scenery piece that acts as an anchor point to summon from. It can also give a really nice +1 to hit buff for the general. No reason not to take it!

I usually play with pure mortals, so I quite like using lots of different ones. The shardspeaker is a really nice little caster who can offer a nice buff, though her buff doesn't work on shooting (though this is fine, most of your army will be melee anyway). Blissbarbs are nice for depravity generation as they can split shots and get about 2dp a turn, all while holding an objective at the back. 

There are tonnes of ways to play Hedonites. A list I've recently seen that focusses on mortals and looks really interesting (without having to use any Slaves to Darkness models) is as follows. There are two daemons in there - if you don't like them, swap them for Glutos and a shardspeaker

Host: Invaders

Heroes:

Keeper of Secrets, Icon of Infinite Excess (340 pts), Progeny of Damnation

Lord of Pain (general number 1), Glory Hog command trait, Rod of Misrule artefact (150 pts) 

Syll'Esske (general number 2) (200 pts), Born of Damnation spell

Units:

10x Twinsouls (340 pts)

10x Twinsouls (340 pts) 

5x Painbringer (150 pts) 

5x Painbringer (150 pts)

11x Blissbarb archers (160 pts)

Nobles of Excess battalion (140 pts) 

To give a quick breakdown on this list, it focusses on command point generation which invaders is really good at. The Glory Hog command trait should generate about one a round, as should the rod (on average), and one from the normal turn. The command abilities to use are mostly going to be the KoS's on a unit of twinsouls (they do crazy damage) and the big battleshock immunity on Syll'Esske.

As a breakdown on the tactics of each unit:

The KoS is a support piece, with Locus of Diversion helping protect your units from hordes and the command ability helping whatever unit you choose. It can also do some decent damage itself. 

Syll'Esske is here for battleshock immunity - your units are elite and you can't afford to let them die to battleshock. They are also a second source of locus. 

If you don't want daemons, then Glutos's roll is to be a massive tank - he is the tankiest single character in the game per point. His -1 to hit bubble is a nice defence, and he eventually grants battleshock immunity (and he can take a spell that gives a lot of immunity too). The shardspeaker is more of a buff piece to support a unit of Twinsouls, and debuff a particularly scary unit. 

Twinsouls do some ridiculous damage against anything with a 4+ save or worse. When they're rerolling hits and wounds, they will kill pretty much anything they touch. I would say use their 5++ on turn 1, and then the rerolling hits turn 2, and the 5++ turn 3 and so on. Be warned that they can die easily if they don't go first. 

Painbringers are objective cappers, but can also put out surprising damage in a pinch. Don't be afraid to charge with them against an easy target. 

Blissbarb archers give great depravity coverage, allowing you to cap a back objective with a unit that's still doing something. 

Overall, there are tonnes of lists you can make, and I hope this example one helps If you'd like any more, just ask! 

[Ulfast]

Thanks for your answer and advice. I like you list very much as it has lot of mortals in it. But I don´t mind daemons (I know a hedonites army will summon some) it´s just that I really really like the new mortal units! They looks so good. So a couple of daemons is allright. Seems like a intersting list with lots of cool minatures.

 

Any more advice or good thing to know?

[Enoby]

6 hours ago, Ulfast said:

Thanks for your answer and advice. I like you list very much as it has lot of mortals in it. But I don´t mind daemons (I know a hedonites army will summon some) it´s just that I really really like the new mortal units! They looks so good. So a couple of daemons is allright. Seems like a intersting list with lots of cool minatures.

 

Any more advice or good thing to know?

There are loads of ways you can build the army, so thankfully a lot of the time you can take what you want While not in the above list, Slickblade Seekers in the Seeker Cavalcade are fantastic as they gain a 6" pile in, and Glutos is often an MVP. 

The only model you won't find much use in is Slaangors currently; they got the shaft, to say the least. But other than them, I'd recommend buying what you want and making sure to make mental notes after each game to see if and where you went wrong. It's a tricky army to play but very rewarding - speed is your friend!

[JackOfBlades]

5 hours ago, Enoby said:

The only model you won't find much use in is Slaangors currently; they got the shaft, to say the least. But other than them, I'd recommend buying what you want

Tinfoil hatting 101 would have one assume the new models would be buffed up so they sell, but them instead being overpriced goes right against that reasoning. I wonder what made it this way internally at GW, as again, it goes right against the "conspiracy theories" you might otherwise have seen with any kind of gaming release.

Edited May 18, 2021 by JackOfBlades

[Ulfast]

T bad to hear about the Slaangors. I really like the models and the bakcground behind them. But as I´m starting up I will chose other units but later I think I will buy some anyway, just because of the models. And who know, perhaps they will get better in time? I feel its strange that they dont have one more wound and lower points.

[Enoby]

16 hours ago, JackOfBlades said:

Tinfoil hatting 101 would have one assume the new models would be buffed up so they sell, but them instead being overpriced goes right against that reasoning. I wonder what made it this way internally at GW, as again, it goes right against the "conspiracy theories" you might otherwise have seen with any kind of gaming release.

You'd have thought so, but I think there was some internal difficulties with our book - not 100% sure what, but I think they went a bit too hard on the push to ensure we're not OP considering our last book. I think they pointed everything at the upper end to gauge reactions, and then they'll take it from there.

5 hours ago, Ulfast said:

T bad to hear about the Slaangors. I really like the models and the bakcground behind them. But as I´m starting up I will chose other units but later I think I will buy some anyway, just because of the models. And who know, perhaps they will get better in time? I feel its strange that they dont have one more wound and lower points.

I bought some - they're lovely models, but will likely stay on the shelf until later I did hear a very unreliable rumour that they're getting a rewrite in BR Kragnos  

[Ulfast]

I actually like that we didn´t stay as a superpower. The fact that it now take some skill to win is much more intersting, both for me and my opponents. Of course you always want to win but not because the writer has written a bad book (or in the this case, a too good book). That we can win against almost every army and lose to them is a good selling point for me. But of course it looks that soem fixing could be done but I think that will happend in AoS3.0

[Ulfast]

So good new. Yesterday I bought the armybook, the fane (I was not planing to but as it seems every store, and GW, has it as outsold at this moment, I could not miss a chance to pick it up from my local gamestore), a unit of blissbarb archers and a shardspeaker. All for starting my new army of hedonites! So far I have only starting to read the book (which I love) and I hope to fix under the weekend some of the minatures. For a long time I´m actually looking forward to put some paint on some minatures!

[Enoby]

2 hours ago, Ulfast said:

So good new. Yesterday I bought the armybook, the fane (I was not planing to but as it seems every store, and GW, has it as outsold at this moment, I could not miss a chance to pick it up from my local gamestore), a unit of blissbarb archers and a shardspeaker. All for starting my new army of hedonites! So far I have only starting to read the book (which I love) and I hope to fix under the weekend some of the minatures. For a long time I´m actually looking forward to put some paint on some minatures!

Glad to hear you've started They're tricky models to paint but look fantastic. Please share your end results, and any battle reports you may end up writing

[Ulfast]

I absolutly will. I´m not the best painter but i hope to make them ok. also, battlrerports coming up. But it will propably take some time as I need more models. My plan is to buy some more models in june. Thinking about 4 pack of twinsouls and painbringer. Make them into three units of 1x10 painbringers, and 2x5 twinsoul. What do you think about that? Then will my next step be some more hero and daemonettes so summon.

[Enoby]

2 hours ago, Ulfast said:

I absolutly will. I´m not the best painter but i hope to make them ok. also, battlrerports coming up. But it will propably take some time as I need more models. My plan is to buy some more models in june. Thinking about 4 pack of twinsouls and painbringer. Make them into three units of 1x10 painbringers, and 2x5 twinsoul. What do you think about that? Then will my next step be some more hero and daemonettes so summon.

I'm sure they'll look great

That's a good plan, and by then (finger's crossed), we'll know what the Twins do and how to use them (and if they change our army up).

I think you'd have a good base of a mortal army then, and those models are a tonne of fun to build. 

On 5/20/2021 at 10:09 AM, Ulfast said:

I actually like that we didn´t stay as a superpower. The fact that it now take some skill to win is much more intersting, both for me and my opponents. Of course you always want to win but not because the writer has written a bad book (or in the this case, a too good book). That we can win against almost every army and lose to them is a good selling point for me. But of course it looks that soem fixing could be done but I think that will happend in AoS3.0

I agree. I played the 2019 book and while it was considerably stronger, it was so boring because it had the problems of this book (which tbh I don't mind too much), and was incredibly unfun to play against and had one 'winning' list that revolved around the same hero 3 or 4 times over. There was no creativity in the last book and it felt like you weren't playing correctly if you used anything but 3 KoS and max heroes. To add to that, no one enjoyed playing against you and it wasn't very fun to win by throat stomping your opponent.

While I understand the complaints of this book and agree with some of them (esp the points), I can't agree with someone saying the 2019 book was better written. It had no more synergy, no more creativity, and punished you for taking anything but max heroes. 

This new book isn't perfect but it's a lot of fun in my opinion. Moreso it's fun to play and it does have synergy in its own way (e.g. you can buff painbringers and twinsouls into rerolling all hits and wounds).  

[Ulfast]

A challenge is always mor fun and intersting and it seems right now that our army is that.

 

I have started to glue together my blissbarb archers and I love the models. But more complicated to glue then I thought. Tooks some extra time but worth it. Next challenge is to paint them!