Charlo

A little bit of a thought exercise for you guys... What are some good combos of: Hero + Unit + Mark For example, it could be something as simple as: Chaos Lord + Marauders + Khorne = combat buffs and fight twice! Essentially I'm going Multi-God based around little pockets of combos like that so looking for inspiration

What is a nice alternative big beasty to use for a War Mammoth - GW kits only. And not the LotR Mumak!

A touch random but is there any Chaos S2D units cause Mortal Wounds in the Movement Phase (either their own or their opponents).

That is excellent, thank you! It's a shame they don't deal major damage but like you say buffs are what change that. In truth it feels like a bit of a disconnect that Marauders are probably the best killers in the book but it's a dice game and numbers win out! How about Halberds? Are they worth it if you're going for a large unit to ensure maximum combatants? Or are you better off keeping the 3+/3+ of a single hand weapon and having the second ranks not hit and just be there to take casualties. I suppose they become better when you start getting re-rolls. For reference I'll 90% be going with Undivided Marks across the army, I'm just not too into the other marks from a modelling perspective.

What would people say is the best default load-out for Chaos Warriors? I'm thinking shields and hand weapon, as you can get rerolls fairly easily in the list, but anyone have experience with other options? Are great blades worth it for example?

Thoughts on the Be'lakor allegiance? It looks fun with the core max sized of each basic daemon but does it have legs?

Haha why thank you! Big compliments! Basically I just like Vampires and the drop from 250 to 200 on the BK's and subsequent drops on Nef/ Mannf have inspired me to experiment. While no means top tier, Soulblight can certainly run some *unique* lists and with a couple combos 5 Blood Knights are terrifying on the charge, while a mist form VLoZD is maybe the most flexible aggro piece on the game IMO. I also think the Soulblight Allegiance abilities are *so* close to being great, I think it's just a matter of a 2.0 esque update to make them solid. Oh and Vargheists change to battleline means you can also run a minimum choice of 450pts... Which leaves you a *lot* of Hero Budget 🦇 Vargheists aren't incredible, but theyre basically flying Ogors with rend that can handily blend hordes, so some lovely synergy with Heroes... Blood for thought 🧛

Vhordrai is nasty, but I like Mistform on the generic dragon lord too much, also it gives me a big hero to get the command trait, as named characters cannot take them.

Tournament doesn't allow Realm artefacts or I would!

Thinking of a dumb list to take to a tournamentsl in late Feb. The plan is to play something unique as opposed to something game winning. Note: Realm artefacts are not allowed! I'll run Necromantic for casting bonuses. VLoZD - General: Mist Form Neferata Mannfred 3x5 Blood Knights This puts me at 1720 currently and a few options to fill the rest of the points: Option 1) Coven Throne (Saccharine Goblet) + Suffocating Gravetide Another big piece, excellent buff CA and great unique spell Option 2) 2x Vampire Lord (one has Goblet) 6+++ Escorts for the BKs/ Objective Claimers, Goblet Lord is a total assassin for the backline Option 3) Vampire Lord (Goblet), extra CP, Geminids, Quicksilver Swords Assassin piece, CP for Neferata and more debuffs to take advantage of casting bonuses Option 4) Mortis Engine, CP, Purple Sun/ Pendulum Big heal/ damage bomb useful for the hero-hammer, casting bonuses to help get the Sun off. Plays into silly nature of list. So quite a few! Each one brings different benefits but I can't decide... I'm also looking at fitting Bat Sawms in as they've proven useful in previous games. Alternatively some allied chaff for deathly invo would be nice but ultimately doesn't feel like it fits... Alternatively there's a Court of Nulhamia build in LoB but I prefer full vampire for the uniqueness...

Grave Guard are indeed Summonable! I get the thinking in Black Knights being the hammer but in my experiences 10 cavalry models just don't all make it in to fight and would be awful to resummon; too large a footprint. I can't really fit the dire wolves in due to battalion restrictions and not many points to play with. I'm wondering if the VLoZD is a bit of a big piece for the theme though, I could up a lot of numbers by changing him out but then my general options are all a lot squishier and the Mastery of Undeath aura a lot smaller (base size!)

Having a look at this... VLoZD - Mastery of Death, Spiritcage, Vile Transferance Wight King - Steed, Shroud of Darkness Necro - Overwhelming Dread 40 Skellies - Spears 10 Skellies - Swords 10 Skellies - Swords 30 Grave Guard - Greatblades 5 Black Knights Corpse Cart - Brazier Death March Geminids Extra CP Death March moves 7" in the move phase then moves again in hero phase. Then it's just an endurance game with debuffs, regen and numbers to make it work with reliable +2 casting. Artefacts are to keep Wight King alive and buff the bone boys when the VLoZD kills stuff. Black Knights are at 5 to make them a disposable, maneuverable harrasment that can be bought back often. Thoughts?

So the first point of contention is that RAW, Crimson Keep may *not* be technically legal in Soulblight, but its debated and I think its fine. In terms of usage its a top heavy list, you're putting your eggs in the basket of just over half the army coming on from a board egde, but do remember this can be your opponents edge, which may force him to spread out his forces. For Artefacts, always take the Sacchirine Goblet, its brokenly powerful. Makes Vampire Lords mini murderers. Natural speed means you usually won't need to reroll charges. I wouldn't take transferrrance twice either, give the generic dragon pinions. When this double casts from the Locus (9+ natural roll) and you get to move 24" in one turn its really good pressure with Vhordrai and Co.

So a Huskard on TT gets two "prayers" a turn? Niiiice!

Massed LB feel like a real winner. Glad to know it's working for people. My gun Ogors will be upped in the queue 😎

Following on from something Rob on THW said recently (StD review I think...?) he reconds the "end game" for the drops meta is to just say ****** it and go for as many as possible and counter deploy. I quite like this idea and wonder if Ogors are pretty great to do it. Also means a nice mix of Gutbusters, Beastclaw and perhaps even a cheeky Firebelly?! You could even include something like the Skal for the cheap CP/ Artefact, or load up on little sabre units to bait enemy deployment and run a junkmob! Thoughts?

Hunter looks ace! Totally agree two sabres would've been better than some random Gnobs though!

Really dumb but potentially fun objective based list to play? Basically you sit on points and spam mortal wounds and buff yourself with your multitude of command points. Snipe heroes with the Blood Vultures and a big ambus is easy to set up with the larger sabre unit and hunter in the late game. Slaughtermaster is there to stand by the pot and maybe get entrails off to do some damage. Between Vulture, Torrbad, Everwinter and Frost Blasts and the Prayer I think there is some hilarious potential... STAY FROSTY! Allegiance: Ogor Mawtribes LEADERS Icebrow Hunter (120) - General - Command Trait : Winter Ranger Huskard on Thundertusk (340) - Blood Vulture - Artefact : Elixir of Frostwyrm - Prayer : Pulverising Hailstorm - Mount Trait : Alvagr Ancient Slaughtermaster (140) - Lore of Gutmagic : Molten Entrails UNITS 12 x Frost Sabres (240) 2 x Frost Sabres (40) BEHEMOTHS Thundertusk Beastriders (300) - Ogor Mawtribes Battleline (Beastclaw Raiders General) Thundertusk Beastriders (300) - Ogor Mawtribes Battleline (Beastclaw Raiders General) Thundertusk Beastriders (300) - Ogor Mawtribes Battleline (Beastclaw Raiders General) BATTALIONS Skal (100) Torrbad (120)

Mortis Enginges are really sweet allies to Necromantic SB. +2 to cast on turn one ensures the buffs and other spells you need go off fairly unimpeded. It also helps lay down things like Shackles or Pallisade to control the board and force your opponent to try and unbind them. The Banshee scream combos excellently with the - 2Br that BKs lay down and the healing /mortals AoE can be really useful to snipe smaller heroes. As for Vampire Lords, yeah, they're a bit ******. Very much a high tier AoS 1 wars roll that needs attention. Sadly in SB you pay for invocation that will most likely be ignored. However... A single extra cast means a cheeky arcane bolt or mystic shield or endless. As for Artefacts, the Saccharine Goblet is genuinely OPAF. 2+/2+/-1/D3 is a scary profile and the downside is basically nonexistent. A single Vampire lord can be used to just sit on an objective too, or fly around harassing war machines very effectively.

I can also attest to BKs in 5s as opposed to 10s. They're just too unwieldy. While it's nice to get a big Vampire CA on a unit of ten I find 5 is more than enough for most jobs.

Not used but much like anything, they basically need to be in numbers to do anything. They also help fill out a relatively cheap Battalion which is nice if you want Gnobs and some extra shooting. There is probably some nice synergy with them removing screens for the Fat Lads to clobber the juicy stuff.

Soulblight BT is the absolute dream. However they certainly need an AoS "hook" to make them relevant. Even if it's just that they are now the main force of traditional, corpse based Necromancy in the Mortal Realms ala the old Vampire Counts days. I mean there's already a fantastic base for large differing allegiance abilities with the Bloodlines. FEC is just an example of taking a Vampire Bloodline and tieing it into an entire range (Strigoi!) All you'd need is a new characters for Necrarchs and Blood Dragons with Nef and Manny being Lahmian and Von Carsties. I do almost wonder if at this point a Soulblight tome, based around Necromancy, would be the next incarnation of LoN. Vampires already make up a large selection of the units and Nagash/ Arkhan/ Morghasts are firmly Bonereapers at this point.

I suppose both Mortarchs being an alternative to a VLoZD at 100pts cheaper is quite interesting. Manf especially kicks out a lot of damage for his cost now. Not to mention both a two cast wizards. Sadly we are ten points over from fitting Manf, Nef, 2 VLoZD and 3x3 Vargheists into a list 😂 HOWEVER You can now fit a Court of Nulahmia and 3x5 BKs into 2000pts with 30 to spare for some control endless spells (one Vampire being a dragon the other a horse). So Jaws, Pallisade or Swords. Pallisade probably the best. You also get to use the VLoZD as general. Some contention on if you can use that battalion in SB but the Warscroll builder says so....

Are the new battalions in WD any good? Is there info on them anywhere?

I think the book is solid. The allegiance abilities are very wide as really the main one is hero auras then you choose which path you go down out of the others.