Tropical Ghost General

Yeah, but all heroes have 4-5 wounds, so she would need to have that at least. The extra sickle weapon she has I was thinking of an 1-2 (probably just 1) attacks, 3+, 3+, -2, D3 damage, as well as the normal tomb blade attacks. The battleshock I'm thinking is too OP, but having a generic aura ability that only buffs other bladegheists for 140pts I don't think is OP at all.

As I mentioned, I'm going to work on some home brew rules, nothing OP and stupid, but standard blade stats, 5 wounds for being a hero, a special attack with the sickle (maybe same as the torment's attack) and a single special buff rule, such as blades ignore battleshock if wholly within 9" of model, so only 1 big unit or two tiny units can ever benefit. Make it around 120pts-140pts.

I haven't had a chance to look in the box yet, but a reliable source has confirmed that neither the SM or the spook has special rules. I am still buying 3 though, 1 to keep in the box and 2 to run as leader of my 20 blade units, units which don't actually have a leader model anyway ?

Sad news about Gorkarr special bladegheist model. No special rules. Based on the fact that they don't want to make it unavailable to those who can't get the model. Sad times. I'm planning on making some homebrew rules for the model, will post it on here when it's done.

Yeah, they were meant to, but I think there are definitely a few spread across the many factions that got left out ?

No. Abilities that have similar effects can stack, but you can't stack the same ability if it gives modifiers to rolls. But for some reason, some abilities that effect range, such as Arkhan's CA can be stacked.

@Espy85 there just never enough points for everything that we need to take ?

@Espy85 that Ulgu combo is gross. I might give it a spin myself in my next game. Does it say unmodified though on the relic wording? I don't have the book to hand. I personally think that the beacon is sort of wasted as you only have 1 big unit that it can benefit from and it puts a lot of pressure on getting that spell off. If you give on of your other heroes midnight tome, you'll have 2 chances to deny and two lots of spells to cast. Against Tzeentch you'll really struggle against their magic, so giving yourself an extra chance to deny and cast is going to be vital. I know the myrmourn are there to help with the deny, but Tzeentch cares not for a 4 unit of myrmourns ?. It's looking pretty decent though. If you might take the regular KoS, have you thought about taking the shroudguard battalion to get the blades protected a bit better and another relic?

Posting this onto the multiple spook groups I'm on. To everyone who plays their ghosts in tournaments, big or small, can you put your results in the comments. I'm going to attempt to make a constantly updated spreadsheet with how we are doing. Please be accurate with this as it is meant to be a tool to help us in the future. And if it turns out that it's not too much of a ballache, I might adapt and make a more general one, which will log results against factions in both friendly and comp games. The overall aim will be to make a reference database to see how we are progressing as an army on the competitive scene, to see which lists are having success and which factions we seriously struggling against. If you want to contribute please include the following information: - Your Name - Name, Date & Location of tournament (stating Country as well) - Size of tournament (eg. 52 players, 1 Day, 2k - Amount of ghost players present (including yourself obviously) - Your tournament results (eg. 22nd, 2-2) - Can you please state if realm rules (such as spells and realmscapes) were being used for the tournament. - Your list if you placed well. If the tournament was less than 15 people, only submit if you placed in top 3. If the tournament was less than 30 people, only submit if you placed in the top 5. And only submit your list if you placed in the top 10 in a tournament of 30+ people. Please include any artefacts and spells used. I already have the data from the following major tournaments, so no need to submit that if you took part in any of the following: - Blackout (UK) - EGGS (UK) - NOVA (US) - Facehammer (UK) - Sydney GT (AUS) - Angelcore (UK) - GW GT Final (UK) I'm looking to collect data from all tournaments since 2.0 and the new battletome was released. So if you had a tournament that took place from 1st August 2018 onwards, please feel free to include it. Thanking all contributors in advance. Let's see what see can do as a community to improve on where we currently are. (Attached is a very roughly put together breakdown from the 7 major tournaments that I have info on so far. I will refine the presentation, but thought I'd get this info up for the time being.) Major results 01.pdf

So for those interested. The recent GW GT had 73 players of which only 2 were bedsheets ?. Getting 2nd and 63rd. A very mixed result. But feeling pretty shocked at 2.7% meta attendance.

It's one of the bedsheet special artefact/relic. Equip it to a hero and everything in 12" (I think) gets an extra 3" to their move. Obviously you move the bearer of the relic last, so that everyone in the 12" bubble can benefit.

@Wartoy you'll find that @dmorley21's advise is the best route to go for getting a themed army. All of our battalions fit a really nice aesthetic but not all are very good in a competitive sense. So pick the ones that appeal the most and ask some questions beforehand, to make sure it's the direction you want to go it and then go nuts and make your thematic army.

lol. I really do hope that FW do another model for Death, we have one and it's currently floating somewhere between meh and garbage. FW models for Grand Alliances: Chaos - 35 (soon to be 36 with new mega dragon), Destruction - 13, Order - 7, Death - 1. ?

As stand alone heroes, No success, don't hit hard enough and too squishy. But as a novelty general and using the teleport ability to summon units, Yes, they are great, only trouble is is that is relies on having a mediocre model as a general. Before the BC came out I had a game with stuff proxied, and using the general to teleport over in front of a unit, then using a CP to teleport a BC, who needs a 9+ to get a double attack was awesome. I am working on a pure riding army at the moment, but it's going to be a long project, will have maybe 2 x BCs in the list, running two death riders battalions.

That's true. I might try and find me a new local meta as I've mentioned in other posts, unless I run them away for the whole battle, none of my named heroes make it past turn 3, and the plain heroes are usually dead by the end of the game. It would be nice if FW did a new ghost hero model, that was like 14 wounds and could survive a single hero phase of magic shenanigans

@Neck-Romantic I've also found that our 'big' heroes don't tend to have much impact on the game, I've been leaning more and more to not bothering with the named characters and spending the points on lesser heroes and more 'foot' soldiers. I've also been trying to work on a 'no battalion' super variety mix and it's proving lots of fun but I'm not sure on how viable it will be. ?

@dmorley21 might have asked this already but where are you based? I might be able to pick up an extra one and ship it out. It is great that we did well in the GT. I was shocked at the list tbh. In my local meta it's pretty competitive. I found always going second left me with a much smaller force, as lots of my opponents can easily close that 24" no man's land (and some extra if need be). Not having the first hero phase for us as an army isn't too bad, as we can't really buff or debuffs anything, yet denying your opponent the chance to plant their standards/banners, denying them a chance to get prayers off is a huge advantage. Personally I don't think that our battalions are great, none of them let us get all our battleline units down in a single drop except the execution horde (which is not good battalion as it only benefits a mediocre hero ?) but a few are worth it to help to negate a unit's natural weakness, such as death stalkers for grims or glaives as they can death mark a large creature and get the +1 to hit and wound against a unit where they aren't getting their natural re-rolls. Chainguard works well for rasps as it can make them almost indestructible (as long as the GoS doesn't become a priority target ?). The only other one that is worth it is the death riders one, getting a 9+ charge bonus instead of 10+ is huge for hexwraiths who aren't a great unit, but in that battalions the hexwraiths become gross. All of the others are a bit of a trap or give benefits that don't suit the current meta (sorry to say it but shrieker host falls into the latter category). When the new book came out I experimented with running what I wanted and using a high drop count, but not having access to extra relics hurts when your opponent is running a big monster with doppelganger cloak or ethereal save. Granted none of our heroes are big enough to properly benefit from relics but running a single relic in an army makes it really difficult to choose how to best benefit your army. The other issue I had was keeping too much stuff off the board without a guaranteed 2nd turn lead to me losing a few games by turn 2, as so many armies can cross the gap easily that attacking completely unbuffed units with their super buffed units meant a lot died. And if the opponent wins priority as well on the second turn, it made the game very short as there wouldn't be any heroes left on the board or that many units left on the board, as a unit of 40 rasps can't be given inspiring presence if you aren't taking any battalions until your hero phase has happened and you've got your first command point. Seeing a 40 unit of rasps or 30 unit of grims get wiped out in a turn due to wounds and then auto failing a battleshock test is hard to bear. I think that GT List went under on points to bank a CP for that reason. In summary I think it's very positive and hopeful that such a varied list did so well at the GT, but there are a few things that are worth bearing in mind, such as what special rules were in place for the GT as they can negativity or positively effect all factions, making factions that normally smash face into little kittens. Also the list he took (and same for Ben's list at Blackout) are not easy list to play well. It works for really good, high skilled players, but how does the common ghost fair running these sorts of lists and do they achieve the same or similar results. (This is true of all factions and the lists that do well at tournaments) *Edit: Having just read through the GW GT rules pack and it seems that realms and realmscape features were in effect. No 'non GW sanctioned conversions' were allowed with armies. There was also something about summoned units not counting towards kill points but looking at the score sheets it looks like that might be true, which is quite a big thing, as you could summon units and not worry about giving away points for doing so. * I'd like to see some of the battle reports if any exist to see how he played the army, as it's not how I personally would run a ghost horde yet it did so well and the more I can learn from those better than me the less I'll have to rely on spamming grims to stand a chance in my local meta.

@Neck-Romantic sounds awesome. Look at custom gravesite markers that LoN players have made for inspiration. Some have done awesome work.

@Neck-Romantic I am with you on that. I'm still getting 3 ?. As for objectives I'm planning on using the nightvault pyramids as @Vasshpit suggested. Got 2 sets ordered, going to try and turn them upside down, so models can stand on them, so it doesn't effect getting in close to objectives during games. @Gwendar nice report. I had a similar conclusion with mourngul, I've tried to get it to work in so many games but it's just too many points for not enough damage. Unfortunately in my local meta everyone is clued up to the mortal wound carnage of Lady O. In fact most players in my meta know to target our heroes first before targeting the unit, as without hero support our army tends to crumble pretty quickly. If you run blades take a torment over chainghasts, gives you a death save on the unit and re-rolls and brings models back. @Espy85 I think if they get nerfed most will move onto blades and harridans. But I feel a bit optimistic after the 2nd place ghosts got in the GW GT, as the list was nice and varied, not spamming units and including a good mix of heroes as well.

I've tried to like the comment but I've been trigger happy with the likes and hit my daily limit, ?

So with the Deathstalkers list..... The CP farming is all used on charge re-rolls and inspiring units from battleshock, the grims don't need extra attacks. Occasionally it will be used to draw units back towards the general as well in the late game. Having Kurdoss stealing CP is a gamble, but when it pays off it really hampers your opponent's plans, especially if they don't have a decent reserve of them before the game starts. So splitting the glaives on opposire ends of the baord is just for board control. Your opponent normally needs to be 9" away. So in most games they can screen against units dropping in behind, whilst sitting on objectives. All of our heroes are weak, so having them either side forces your opponent to split his army, which can create openings for deepstriking in the grims. Normally when you have 60 grims on the board, your opponent isn't too fussed by some measly glaivewraiths with minor hero support. Normally in one corner of the board the GoS that has cast cogs, so it's out of range of most dispels, so when stuff gets scary, he can slow it down and get extra spells and re-rolling saves, and having one GoS sit back allows for a more guaranteed chance at healing with the Spectral Lure spell. I tend to stick the 20 rasps in the middle, so they are a central tarpit and /or bait unit, though this will vary depending on what threats my opponent decides to put down during their deployment. Having Kurdoss can really hurt in combat, yes he's squishy, but the main reason for him is the CP farming, it's the only reason to take him really. I don't feel to bad about him diving in with the grims, as the opponent is normally more focused on whittling down the 30 or 60 grims rather than Kurdoss, so he gives the grims the hero support needed for death saves and stuff, and he can finish off the target that the grims don't quite manage. But he and Lady O are a bit over priced for what they do IMO, he never brings back his points in terms of killing units, but if you think that a single CP costs 50pts, if he brings back on average 2 CP a game, add that onto whatever units he kills and he's sort of worth his points. The battalion target will always vary depending on the mission type, but normally it will be the large single model, as grims don't get re-rolls against units under 5 models, so having the +1 to hit and wound helps to neutralise that bigger non-horde threat. The main reason for taking the battalion is running grims and needing to get fewer drops. At 6 drops it's still too many really, but I can't find a way to whittle it any further without making some of the units more redundant. You can easily run this same list but swap out the CP farming ability heroes with other stuff. Swap out Kurdoss, give the cairn wraith a different artefact and it will still function well. It's been designed to be as self sufficient and as flexible to a variety of opponents as possible, so the units can function without the heroes if need be. The glaivewraiths regularly run away from any opponent, as they can still charge in and reclaim the back objectives later on or they can become a useful screening unit if need be, but running 4 they die too easily, running more than 8 is a waste of points. If you do take out Kurdoss you have 240pts to spare, so you can swap in Lady O or bulk up the rasps and throw in another hero, or stick in 12 myrmourns. It has lots of flexibility to tweak it to what you prefer, but I tend to play a very risky game, so it's lots of gambling, lots of 5+s on single dice and 10+s on two dice, and the max units of grims help to give the staying power to try things again if it fails the first time. Having 91 bodies, most on 32mm bases or bigger, allows for a lot of board control. I'll use different units (including grims) as bait units to draw in my opponent as well. It basically lots of risky, spread out sacrificial killing going on.

So going on from another message thread. How does everyone feel if (when) grims get nerfed? Will we still be as viable in a competitive sense or will it be absolutely fine and even if they do get nerfed we will still have a decent hard hitting battleline units to use?

This version of my death stalkers list is currently undefeated. The Chainguard one has also performed really well, only losing in missions where it was impossible to win anyway. About 80% win rate.

@dmorley21 Here are my current deathstalkers and Chainguard lists. With the deathstalkers the torment takes the Spectral Tether spell from the spell lore. It's designed around CP farming, Kurdoss denies in 5+, the cairn wraith gains back on a 5+. The cairn and one GoS sit at the back with the two units of glaives, usually at opposite ends of the board. Then the grims, other GoS deepstrike in. Depending on opponent and mission Kurdoss either starts on the board or also deep strikes in. With the Chainguard it's all about board control, swamp with bodies and see who lasts longer. The GoS has the blade artefact to be permanently -1 to hit in shooting and combat, with look out sir he stays alive longer. The KoSos and torment go up with the blades. I give the KoSos the cloak again for extra longevity. I sometimes give him the blade to be permanently -1 to hit or give him a 5+ death save. The grims hold an objective. Both lists are pretty simple and work on 3 things, objective holders, objective takers and big kill units.

@dmorley21 in answer to the shrieker host question. It's a good battalion but it requires 2 things, one is an opponent with low bravery, the other is an opponent with a horde army. If you go against an opponent that fulfils those conditions it's great, otherwise the battalion benefits are neutered, especially if going against an army like SCE. If you local meta has low bravery horde armies go for it, otherwise it's quite a large point investment for very situational benefits. The other issue with the shrieker host is that none of the units are battleline. The myrmourns are expensive, good, but expensive and die quickly. The tomb banshee is utter garbage against 80% of current armies and units in the game. The harridans are great but equally function just as well outside of the battalion. So if you invest in the battalion, you still need to invest in battleline and HQ, so the fewer drops you get from having the battalion get lost by taking lots of other essential units such as battleline and HQ. I haven't been able to get a decent 2k shrieker host list to have less than 7-8 drops.