Acid_Nine

artifact for the storm could be the ignax's scales, giving him a 4+ ward, making him more durable to attacks? or you could give him something like the etheral amulet, which lets him ignore rend? spells could be steed of tides to throw him into combat, or maybe vorpal malestrom in order to throw out easyish mortal wounds?

Good idea, the lore master can give out some pretty good buffs in general, but having him keep up with an aspect of the sea might be a bit of a pain... the stormcast idea is awesome though. Can't you dispel one of those endless spells and recast it? Make it keep dropping down again and again? Sorceress could be fun, but it's just another -1 to hit debuff, which we already have covered... has as anyone tried a drakeseer just for fun? Have him set units on fire the entire game with his unique spell and dragon's attack?

So apart from the archmage, which mage would be most useful for us? I think having some more magic allies could be fun, and may open more modeling opportunities for us in the longrun. heck, to add to this, which monsters / creatures could be fun to add to our armies?

So played another game against a big tourney player's blight king batallion and hoo boy it went as badly as I thought. didn't take my own advice to screen my morrsarr because I completely forgot that he could run and charge, so they were out for a turn when I needed them, and I lost my king turn 2 when I charged his general and got swarmed by blight kings. so, more fish food for thought: beware of gnarlmaws, blight king battallions hurt a lot, and always charge in with your opponent's next turn in mind when he could do something.

well, As other people said of the shark, it's because other units are either a lot tougher against rend and can put out more high quality attacks, or because you can get the chaff for the same amount of points and have a wider footprint / more attacks. that said, I played two games with the allopex and so far I have been surprised. It's nice to have some shooting in a list, and though I only use the three shot profile it did come in handy a few times. It's great for taking a last wound off a bloodcrusher or potshotting that pesky little fanatic your king is about to charge next to. and, in the first game I played with it it managed to survive a khorne lord on a juggernaught long enough for me to bite his head off, which surprised the heck out of me. next game it failed to eat a bunch of grots, but it really did help me win the game when I took out the last fanatic that was definatly going to crush my morrsarrs. so, my thoughts on the allopex is that they are okay. Set them on a backfield objective, take pot shots at units, and don't expect them to match the morrsarr any time soon unless it's high tide and you are super lucky.

just remember to keep on swimming and try again! Nighthaunt is a tough army... May I suggest a bit more bubble wrapping? since it looks like you have shieelds rather than spear eels the y could have gone up front? don't really need the charge when you ignore rend and got cover?

Fair enough. as for now my list is a mostly eel 1000 point list. 1 king as general w/ ghrynstrike and born from agony (have to have, as I got no thralls) 1 tidecaster x6 morrsarr guard x3 ishleann guard x1 alopex (which isn't as bad as I first thought, though I think I would prefer more ishleann endless spell: umbral spell portals, but may replace it with a vortex. What I would like to do is to replace the tidecaster for an archmage if possible, and use the endless spell for either an extra command point or maybe some cheap allies (such as birbs) to keep the list fast and punchy. So far, the tide caster didnt do too much during both games, but that may be just because of my spell usage. I may have to find better targets, such as fanatics that already had popped out, or a warboss that has yet to swing. the umbrall spell portals would have been good, but it takes too long to set up in my oppinion...

So I played my third game with my deepkin army and I really gotta say that I am loving these fishy boys so far. they are limited enough to not feel super overpowered, but still strong enough to win games. Played against a pre-battletome moonclan army and holy poop those guys are fairly brutal even without the new rules about to hit. Getting through the nets are going to be tough when there is three nets per 20, each with a 2 inch range... It can really mess up your planned charge. the mortal wounds a boss can give out is annoying but didnt come out too much. The fanatics are absolutely scary, and I am happy I only really had to face one squad, as my king wiped out a squad of 3 out on the charge out of pure luck with his deepmare horn. bad dice saw my planned turn 2 morrsarr charge was stunted (seriously, I got 10 hits even with a -1, and I failed 6 wounds. pain in the dorsal fin.) and my electroshock surprise failed when I missed the enemy boss with a serious zapping. my king was the star though, and I think I'm happy I chose to play him compared to volturnous if only because of a relic. taking ghrynstrike on his lance is just amazing, and can rip and tear so much! Just a thought I had, though. Do you guys think that an archmage on horse would be better for us compared to a tidecaster?

this was more articulate than what I wanted to say, so thank you! The army has good models but not too many good synergies. just looking at morrsarr, the buffs we have for them all require either perfect placement or good timing. We have a King to buff their hit rolls, but the buffs only last one turn and his bubble of re-rolling 1's can be hard to keep as everyone has to be within it, which means you're always one charge roll away for it to not affect you, and you can be out of place fairly easily (which is why Dhom-Hain is good in my opinion. No need to be so strict with bubbles on the charge) We have a mage, but she's on foot and her spells are short ranged debuffs that don't actually target you, meaning that you will struggle to use them half the time in an eel list as they engage the enemy up the field. We have a turtle that gives out cover saves, but cover doesn't help on the charge for morsarrs AND has the wholly within 12" rule so you can really be out of place again. plus, what we bring on the board is the only things we have through the entire game. looking at things like Bloodbound, Beasts of chaos and the new goblin stuff everyone can either refill a unit or bring new ones on the board. We cannot, and we are stuck with what we have. if eels become more expensive, we will have less on the board, and then we are at a huge disadvantage when facing armies that can just summon new dudes on the board for the hell of it.

I don't know about the too cheap part. there are plenty of things that are better all the time rather than just on the charge. I feel they are in a good spot right now, just pricy enough for how many turns they are able to potentially work.

Hey, sorry to double post but I really wanna show the half squad of eels I've painted since New Years. Going for dhom-hain so the armor should be sufficiently green, and as these are my first idoneth models painted I feel quite happy about them! Some spots I could touch up, but outside of that I feel they are table top ready! (these photos are a lot crappier than I first thought...)

Fair enough. In my game my single tidecaster failed to do even a single spell due to bad dice, and all our spells have such a short range. I may shell out for a vortex endless spell just to give a little extra range to the debuffs, but I am also seeing why a soul scryer is just better for eels. i kinda wish that we had some longer range magic debuffs or buffs for our guys too, but that may be asking too much. Maybe being able to cast a second spell would fix them?

I don't know, I have seen them do some work on battle reports. I may be biased towards the akhelians though, as I just like everything about them. I agree on the love for the speels though, and they are definatly the focus of the book for now. I wish we had some more really good units to compete, as I fear a bit of a nerf when the general's handbook drops in half a year... though I may be paranoid.

That's a lot of speels! I get your point on the chaff unit being necessary. would you think that the shieelds would be a good chaff unit just to absorb some fire? or maybe replacing the eidolon with a turtle to give some cover for the turn after the charge? also, when did you deploy the shocking stuff?

Finally played a 1,000 point game with these guys, and I gotta say I am quite happy how they played. I did have some coaching as it was my first game of AOS 2, but most of the plan went as I intended barring some horrible dice rolls. _______________________________ Allegiance: Idoneth Deepkin - Mortal Realm: Ghyran - Enclave: Dhom-Hain LEADERS Akhelian King (240) - General - Command Trait : Born From Agony - Artefact : Ghyrstrike Isharann Tidecaster (100) - Lore of the Deeps : Abyssal Darkness UNITS 6 x Akhelian Morrsarr Guard (320) 3 x Akhelian Ishlaen Guard (140) 1 x Akhelian Allopexes (140) ENDLESS SPELLS Umbral Spellportal (60) ________________________________ Opponent was (blood bound of mainly 5 new!blood crushers squads, jugger lord with demonCrown and some blood priests) and we were playing knife to the heart. Turn 1 :I gave the opponent turn 1 so he would come closer and he did! I tried to cast the umbral spell portals but it completely flubbed (along with the rest of my magic so I will not mention it for this). the akhelian king, morrsar and the ishlaen guard all charged into the front lines to tie up and hold down 4 blood crusher squads so they wouldn't charge me and deal mortal wounds . Ishlean guard tied down into two units of crushers to tie them up, King charged to support them and the morrsarr guard charged into two more crusher squads. the allopex sat with the tidecaster in back to hold the objective. Morsarr widely wiffed with three riders going into each thirster squad only killing two from one squad and one from the other with some wounds thrown in here and there. The king completely wiped one squad with his unicorn horn and relic glaive (+1 to hit and wound) and my opponent killed one morrsarr guard with his lord. Turn 2: my opponent got the turn and proceeded to blood boil my king down to one wound for another crusher squad to finish off, leaving my ishlaen squad to fend for themselves, and his lord ran away to threaten my objective. when the combat phase rolled around I zapped my morrsarr guard's charge and finished off the two crusher squads through both it and combat while the ishlaen guard where whittled down by crusher squad to two guys. my turn my shark charged the threatening lord and my morrsarr charged his two slaughter priests (in hind sight I should have went for the objective to win outright, but I wanted some more fun) and destroyed them with the spears thanks to some good dice. my shark managed to take a massive bite from the lord, doing quite a bit of damage! Ishlaen held out but lost another guy, leaving only the prince, one very wounded crusher and one full strength squad of crushers. Turn 3: facing high tide, my opponent used his blood tithe to attack in the hero phase rather than summon some hounds, and nearly killed the shark! He retreated to his objective with his higher strength squad of crushers. Combat phase happened next and my shark somehow managed to kill his jugger lord, which was a complete surprise to me! he had some good rolls for his bites and fins. My ishlaen got the crusher he was fighting down to one wound but died pathetically. My turn came and My shark still held back at my objective and took a potshot at the remaining crusher and managed to kill it with a lucky shot! My morrsarr guard barely managed to kill the crusher squad that was holding the objective, and I tabled my opponent as well as score the objective! _______________ so with this one game I have not mastered deep kin, but I think I made a start. It was very fun, and barring some dissapointing dice rolls I feel I did well. The eels are just so darn fast, tough(ish) and can put out so many attacks. much better compared to my death army's blood knights in my oppinion. The tidecaster was mostly useless due to me not getting any magic off this enter game, and really just sat around doing nothing because of bad dice. the allopex completely surprised me with how much damage it put out and how it singlehandedly killed the juggerlord, and the morrsarr wrecked face as they were supposed to do. I probably could have positioned my king further on the flank so he wouldn't be charged as hard, as he was dead center and in front of the crusher squad held in reserve. on the turn he charged though, he put out so much damage that I think I will make my model into a generic king rather than voltunous, and since I'm going dhom-hain I get re-roll ones on the turn I charge anyways so the larger bubble isn't needed. overall I am excited to play more games!

You raise fair points, and I didnt even notice most of our spells are short ranged and are hard to use if you wanna keep up with eels, but I think there may be some endless spells that help that out a little bit. maybe the spell portal and / or the vortex could help? or running along to try and keep up every turn would be needed. but I kinda disagree on the handiness of the spell from a theoryhammer side. I only used played idoneth once so this is theory, but I imagine that you could cast some -1 hit spells on units that are poised to charge your units? that way when their turn comes around it's harder to remove, and you are not casting spells on a unit you plan to wipe?

So how do people feel about two tide casters in an eel list? Don't wanna commit to an aspect, but I still want some magic thrown around. Plus, which magic spells are the best?

Thank you! That's the main reason I like dohm hain. No draw backs that messes with the tides, and the faction rules fits what an aggressive army should be like as long as they get the charge! That's a dilemma, but that is also a lot of points holding the backfield to not be doing much to be honest. Playing stormcasts is tricky and so far I only did a few times, but outside of that and experience I have from 40k I have no clue what to say. Also, it doesn't seem like he's keeping to the 'non strong alphastrike army' like you are trying to do?

That's interesting, but I have to ask... did you bubble wrap your units at all? If you know he's coming to you, you could make a huge no man's zone with the thralls or reavers in order to stop them from getting your speels with some room to spare I think? Heck it sounds like your thralls were largely unhurt, and if you want to try them out then maybe protect them a bit more or invest in a soulscryer for outflank?

I suggest watching some batreps on the idoneth to see if you like them and get a feel for some of their units, and how lists would look. I heard they are quite good, especially the eels, and the playstyle seems to be hard hitting but small units. honestly from what I have seen the only big loser of this army is the allopex. the shark boys don't seem to do much other than take a few potshots and hold objectives, but I have yet to play them to any affect so I wouldnt know personally. our boys are fast, but can be dragged down and overwhelmed quite quickly if you are not careful.

Well, thanks to my secret santa at Gw this year I managed to finally have more of idoneth after an entire year of pining for them. Managed to get two boxes of eels and an alopex, so all I need is a tide caster and one more eel box and I would have my ideal 1,000 point army. now beyond one game against storm casts where I proxied blood knights for speels I have no clue what I am doing with this army. I have a general idea, so here's my 1,000 points that is currently in the making... _______________________________ Allegiance: Order - Mortal Realm: Ghur - Enclave: Dohmn-Hain LEADERS Isharann Tidecaster (100) - Artefact : Sands of Infinity - Lore of the Deeps : Abyssal Darkness Vulturnos, High King of the Deep (280) - General UNITS 6 x Akhelian Morrsarr Guard (320) 3 x Akhelian Ishlaen Guard (140) 1 x Akhelian Allopexes (140) / ishlaen guard (140) ENDLESS SPELLS Quicksilver Swords (20) _______________________ so aside from the tide caster this list is all mobile and calvalry heavy, and the plan is to try and gain a first turn charge by letting the enemy go first to gain the field, retreat turn 2 with my morrsarr only to charge turn 3 with them at high tide in order to get as much as an advantage as I could. the tactics can be altered to fit the plan, and it isn't set in stone. I want to get one more box of shieelds some day to replace the alopex, but for now I think this would be a fun list to try out.