Agent of Chaos

@Salyx all valid points. The flip side is that a big unit can receive buffs easier (hello skullfiend tribe) and if you have a hero nearby with a CP then battle shock wont be an issue. But the healing, damage spillover and bloodtithe are all considerations for sure.

@Archion89 thats looking really solid now. Nothing wrong with marauders as undivided for the battleshock immunity however you dont have any heros with the undivided mark so it wouldnt have any effect. Units have to be wholly within 12" of a hero with the same mark to benefit from the abilities, otherwise a mark does nothing. In Ravagers, each hero can only spend a CP to summon once per game (and must be the general for that turn to do it). So if you only had 2 heroes thats only 2 summons. You dont have a lot of bodies on the table for holding objectives so this is where summoned units really help you out. 3 heroes/summoned units is probably about right for a 1K game. I see you only have 2 units to summon but hopefully one comes in and dies so you can summon those models again. You will get 5 CP per game plus the 1 you bought. 3 of those go to summoning leaving you with 3 to spend on command abilities, which will all likely be used by the chaos lord making units fight twice. If one of your knight units took glaives then the lord on karkadrak should use his command ability on them but as you've gone ensorcelled weapons its probably unnecessary. Only thing to do now is play a few games and work out if you're happy with the balance or want to mix it up.

@Archion89 I think its a solid 1K list for dipping your toe into slaves. Ravagers legion is a solid choice in 1K games because of the summoned units so I wouldn't drop any heroes. 10 x marauders are probably the best choice for summoning given the almost guaranteed charge. Marauder horsemen are useful too. You might consider swapping the 20 marauders for 5 x knights if you dont have spare marauders to summon; otherwise your unit choices are good. Although I would point out that the Marauders should take mark of Khorne as they get nothing from being Undivided in your list and the khorne hero has an 18" aura. Another potential swap to consider is a sorcerer lord for a chaos lord on foot. Letting a strong unit fight twice in melee can be clutch in 1K games however beware that it costs CP when Ravagers are already CP hungry. If you keep him then your second sorcerer needs to choose a lore spell, although if you think he'll be spamming Daemonic Power every turn then I'd recommend Spite Tongue Curse. Against some armies with weak unbinds, having the option to do a near guaranteed 3 mortal wounds could be crucial.

Cheers! How does that differ from overgrown terrain? I went looking in the core rules but couldnt find where it talks about flying units not being subject to line of sight blocking terrain.

Thats the beauty of Belakor though; drop it on their best unit at the bottom of a turn and it carries over into the double turn, hence Im not worried about drops or who goes first.

Only problem is that everything in the list has a purpose. I already feel I'm at the low end of units so wouldnt want to drop a unit for the battalion and dont know which hero(s) I would drop to fit it in, noting that I cant take the daemon prince in the battalion. Also keep in mind its an anti meta list for the likes of Tzeentch, KO, shooty Cities/Stormcast armies and those are opponents I am confident of winning in melee against without the extra mortals from plagetouched.

Was listening to Vince Venturella's Warhammer Weekly podcast about the anti-meta and the first army they suggested was Slaves, with particular attention to Nurgle! Seems I'm on the right track with my anti-shooting, mortal wound resistant list and after the recent win against KO I have tweaked it slightly, dropping the palisade endless spell and 5 warriors for a chaos lord and swapping 5 knights with glaives for 20 marauders. In the last game the 15 warriors babysat an objective and nothing else so I figured dropping to 10 wouldnt hurt, the palisade was never cast while it would have been useful to have the lord on karkadrak or knights fighting twice so hopefully the chaos lord is a good choice. I also felt marauders were a better choice then glaive knights in this list, I can mask of darkness them somewhere and bank on the charge or hold em back for a second wave charge as I did with the knights in the first game. Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness- Damned Legion: DespoilersLeadersSlaves to Darkness Daemon Prince (210)- General - Sword- Command Trait: Lightning Reflexes- Mark of Chaos: NurgleBe'Lakor (240)- Spell: Call to GloryChaos Lord on Karkadrak (230)- Artefact: Armour of Tortured Souls- Mark of Chaos: NurgleChaos Sorcerer Lord on Manticore (260)- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle- Spell: Spite-tongue CurseChaos Sorcerer Lord (110)- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle- Spell: Mask of DarknessChaos Lord (110)- Daemonbound War-flail- Mark of Chaos: NurgleBattleline5 x Chaos Knights (160)- Ensorcelled Weapons- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle5 x Chaos Knights (160)- Ensorcelled Weapons- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle10 x Chaos Warriors (180)- Hand Weapon & Shield- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle20 x Chaos Marauders (160)- Axes & Shields- Mark of Chaos: NurgleBehemothsChaos Warshrine (170)- Mark of Chaos: NurgleTotal: 1990 / 2000Extra Command Points: 0Allies: 0 / 400Wounds: 131

My Nurgle Despoilers anti shooting list proved effective 🙂 Managed a tight win over KO, 17-15 in battle for the pass. KO got the double turn from 1 into 2, focus firing the warshrine off the table and slaying Belakor, but my knights rerolling saves held the middle objectives for a 10-2 lead at top of 3. My highlight was 3 knights with ensorcelled weapons & daemonic power absolutely snotting a Gunhauler. KO won priority and finally took the centre objectives back through weight of numbers. I activated Belakor's dark master ability on his 400 point squad of balloon boys and they passed both 5+ rolls to move behind a screen of arkanauts and shoot my knights I only scored my home objective but still led 11-7 at top of 4. I finally won a priority roll and took back the right side objective, the Karkadrak finally taking down the Frigate before being smashed by the Endrinmaster while the Sorcerer on Manticore shredded a squad of arkanauts. KO held the left side objective but couldn't retake the right by a model or 2. Slaves led 14-10 at the top of 5. KO won its second double turn of the game, taking both centre objectives and reducing the slaves force down to the 2 sorcerers and 15 warriors, taking the lead for the first time 15-14 going into the final slaves turn, but not before the sorcerer lord on foot finally rolled hot and finished off the 2nd gunhauler. The warriors were out of the game so it was down to the 2 sorcerers to assault the remaining arkanauts on the right side objective and the manticore did not let me down, --wiping out the squad and earning the extra points for the 17-15 win! Will definitely run this list again. The Karkadrak with the reduce rend by 1 artifact and rerolling saves is a tank, -3 to hit with shooting general putting out 18" -1 to hit shooting aura was super annoying, the warshrine soaked up a heap of shots, knights with ensorcelled weapons and mark of nurgle are no joke!

Does anyone know if Pitch Black terrain and/or the Prismatic Palisade blocks line of sight to flying units?

KO just dont get into melee enough to justify the battalion, plus they die to a stiff breeze so the extra mortal wounds would be overkill. At 10 drops I am expecting to deploy first but then its a tough decision. Do I go first to set up my Pitch Black scenery and risk the double turn, or give him first turn and back my -1 to hit aura to protect me? Might come down to the table set up and battle plan. Belakor helps insure against the double turn by nutrilising the biggest threat (probably the Iron Clad or Frigate) so even if its not my decision I think I'm in a good place.

@Khendall nice looking list but I dont own Archaon or any Varanguard @Eldarain Im open to Plague Touched but dont see how it aids me in anti-shooting or how it works within Despoilers given Daemon Princes cant be part of the battalion???

Fighting against Kharadron this wknd and looking for an anti-shooting list so have gone down the Despoilers/Mark of Nurgle mark for -1 to hit with shooting aura and line of site blocking terrain with a Prismatic Palisade thrown. I've gone for warriors and knights for rerolling saves/tanking damage, knowing that if anything gets into melee with KO its going to win the fight. With Look Out Sir my General will be -3 to hit in shooting! Anyone got any suggestions to tighten up my shooting defence??? Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness- Damned Legion: DespoilersLeadersSlaves to Darkness Daemon Prince (210)- General- Sword- Command Trait: Lightning Reflexes- Mark of Chaos: NurgleChaos Sorcerer Lord on Manticore (260)- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle- Spell: Binding DamnationChaos Sorcerer Lord (110)- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle- Spell: Mask of DarknessBe'Lakor (240)- Spell: Ruinous VigourChaos Lord on Karkadrak (230)- Artefact: Armour of Tortured Souls- Mark of Chaos: NurgleBattleline15 x Chaos Warriors (270)- Hand Weapon & Shield- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle5 x Chaos Knights (160)- Ensorcelled Weapons- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle5 x Chaos Knights (160)- Ensorcelled Weapons- Mark of Chaos: Nurgle5 x Chaos Knights (160)- Cursed Lance- Mark of Chaos: NurgleBehemothsChaos Warshrine (170)- Mark of Chaos: NurgleEndless Spells / Terrain / CPsPrismatic Palisade (30)Total: 2000 / 2000Extra Command Points: 0Allies: 0 / 400Wounds: 129

they're supposed to be the strongest of the bloodletters, able to tame and ride the mighty juggernauts... yet have the same profile as regular bloodletters... A little rend on the Jugger's attacks wouldnt go astray either...

@Roark because the big cat's ability is used in the hero phase it is super tricky to pull off (same as Karanak's free dogs). Have you had any success with it already? If not I wouldnt recommend it.

Thanks all! Can't wait to unleash him in my next game 🙂

Thanks guys, looks like Im on the right track! The Undivided warshrine prayer is redundant if I use the bloodstoker, hence the khorne prayer for reroll hits and charges seems better. Or I could go Nurgle prayer on top of his bronzed flesh for 3+ rerollable save. Wrathmonger, Aspiring Deathbringer and chaos lord are all great shouts but I think keeping in range of any of those will be tricky.

Thinking of ways to get the most out of the Lord on Manticore so that I might actually use the model. So far I came up with following; General in Goretide for +1DMG to his sword and lance Make the lance Gorecleaver so its rend -1 base and -3 on the charge, 4 DMG (6's to wound = 8DMG!) Killing Frenzy and Whipped to Fury so the lance hits on 2+, wounds 3+ rerolling, not to mention benefits to the sword and manticore Warshrine khorne prayer for reroll hits and charges, if that fails use a CP to reroll 1's Bronzed Flesh because its annoying; and Ideally he will be in range of the bloodsecrator (gore pilgrims helps) Anything I'm missing?

Pretty solid list. I like the double Karkadrak. Whats your game plan? The Darkfire Daemonrift is a cool endless spell however it really shines when there are other endless spells and wizards around and will be competing against your other spells given both your wizards are single casters. Given you are running Ravagers maybe you would be better off with another CP instead? Surely the large unit of Marauders wants to be mark of khorne for the aura buffs? Meanwhile the marauder horsemen dont get much from Khorne aura and would probably benefit more from battleshock immunity under the Undivided Aura.

So true. I don't like to complain but its hard not to when you're on the end of a pasting and they seem to be able to do so much more than you. Seraphon can use a CP to shoot twice, at the end of the shooting phase, after seeing if its needed once everything else has shot. And they have multiple ways of generating extra CP. FEC can spend a CP to fight twice immediately, if its needed (and has easy access to doing that once per turn without a CP). Slaves can spend a CP to fight twice, but have to be wholly within 12" of a guy with movement 5", have to commit to spending the CP at the start of the combat phase and the opponent gets to activate before we can fight a second time, potentially killing you before your second swing (which happened to the Lord on karkadrak in our game). And Slaves have no way of generating extra CP, outside of a 700 point special character or a single artifact in a specific legion that generates 1-3 CP per game. Next time I might try my chariot bomb in a ravagers list with Ruinbringer Battalion. At least there should be more mortal wounds around.

Thanks for the suggestions but the chariots already get a reroll charge from the lord on mount's command ability in addition to +1 to hit so the khorne prayer really is a bit redundant for them. I know what you mean about overextending the general however running the daemon prince general up and into some terrain which I turned pitch black was great for getting his aura into position and his command ability meant no one could charge him so I was comfortable throwing him forward. I ended up sticking with paragon of ruin just to try it out and to be honest it was actually useful. Mostly because the only bit of open ground where I could fit all 3 chariots was on a hill that was entangling so the extra movement just helped me mitigate the -2" to movement. It also meant I could get a first turn charge off with my knights although it didnt turn out well for them because... well, knights. As for the game, my partner also brought a Despoilers Slaves list with a Daemon Prince, Sorcerer on Manticore, Lord on karkadrak and Lord on foot, plus the mindstealer cat, rock throwing Ogroid and some warriors and knights. Our opponents turned up with Kharadron (Frigate, 2 x gun haulers, 6 x balloon boys, 2 x 10 Arkonaughts + Engineer & Admiral), and Thunder Lizards Seraphon with a Bastiladon, Carnosaur and Stegadon plus 3 x Salamanders, 3 x Kroxigor , 10 x Cold One knights, Skink Priest and Skink Starseer. If you know anything about Seraphon you might have guessed how the game ended up. I am pleased to say that my alpha striking chariots actually went pretty well. They gave us first turn and I buffed them up with everything except the shrine prayer (because it was my first time using it so of course I failed the prayer roll), and got them across the table easily. I wasn't able to keep them in range of the bloodsecrator or the warshrine but I made a big charge roll and a lucky 7 mortal wounds on the Carnosaur before taking him off with the attacks from 2 chariots in range while the 3rd took out some chaff. Although the chariots didnt have reroll saves or 6+ FNP they still survived the return attacks and so kept our opponents pinned in their turn before being removed so overall I would call the experiment a success. After that however the firepower of the KO and Seraphon took us apart. Salamanders are absolutely brutal and the Bastiladon can be nasty, especially since he was spending a CP every turn for it to shoot twice. We also managed to kill all the Cold One knights and Starseer (as well as the KO frigate and balloon boys). The Seraphon ability of reducing damage by 1 meant our heavy hitters were next to useless against their monsters and we didnt have enough sources of mortal wounds to bring them down. The mindstealer cat was pretty much useless as you have to be in range in your hero phase to make someone fight last which is super hard to pull off. Unless that is changed to the end of movement/start of combat I wouldnt recommend using him. The rock throwing Ogroid was also useless. Our plan was to use his sorcerer to teleport my marauders but he failed to cast mask of darkness for the first 2 turns and by the time it was cast in turn 3 the game was pretty much over. They surrounded the Bastiladon on the objective and over 2 rounds of combat I threw 82 dice against it for 2 wounds... safe to say the Seraphon player had a good day out with his dice. The mission was starstrike and although we were technically in it on points, they tabled us top of turn 5 for a fairly dominant major win. Still a fun game and after all this time not playing I'll take what I can get!

Beer & pretzels game tomorrow; 2 v 2 with 1500 points each Decided to find a way to have fun with my otherwise unused chariots and turn a unit of 3 into an alpha strike missile; Lord on Steeds Command Ability: +1 to hit and reroll charge Bloodstoker: reroll wounds and +3" to run & charge (combines nicely with their once per game ability to run and charge- min threat range is 21" if I roll all 1's to run and charge but I get a charge reroll and can spend a CP to make the run a 6 so not likely- max threat range = 36"!!!) Bloodsecrator: +1 Attack to melee weapons which means +9 attacks across the unit (although might be tricky to keep them in range on the first turn but I will try) Aura of Khorne from Daemon Prince General: reroll 1's to hit and +1 to wound Warshrine: with them rerolling everything already I'm actually thinking tzeentch prayer for reroll saves is the way to go as all the buffs last until my next hero phase and keeping them alive longer will make them super annoying. With all the Buffs in place the great blades would be 9A / 2+ rr1's / 2+ rr all / -1 / 2 with another 24 attacks from whips/steeds- surely that will do some damage and thats without the mortal wounds on the charge. The final trick is Paragon of Ruin: pregame 5" move to increase the threat range even further (although I'm in two minds about this as it could move them out of range of the bloodstoker so might be better off with a different command trait) The full list is below- any comments welcome 🙂 Note*** I realise splitting them up would mean more mortal wounds on the charge however then the above buffs could only go on one chariot so I'm committed to trying it this way. Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness- Damned Legion: DespoilersLeadersSlaves to Darkness Daemon Prince (210)- General- Axe- Command Trait: Paragon of Ruin- Mark of Chaos: KhorneChaos Lord on Daemonic Mount (170)- Artefact: Diabolic Mantle- Mark of Chaos: KhorneBloodsecrator (120)- AlliesBloodstoker (80)- AlliesBattleline3 x Chaos Chariots (360)- Greatblades- Mark of Chaos: Khorne5 x Chaos Knights (180)- Cursed Lance- Mark of Chaos: Khorne20 x Chaos Marauders (150)- Axes & Shields- Mark of Chaos: KhorneBehemothsChaos Warshrine (170)- Mark of Chaos: KhorneEndless Spells / Terrain / CPsExtra Command Point (50)Total: 1490 / 1500Extra Command Points: 1Allies: 200 / 200

Ahh... wasn't clear he was the general from your original post. Still, with a decent run he may still be in range and you can go for a better artifact but a few playtests will sort out the best option

I'm not sure I see the need for the extra movement on the Skullmaster. He has the same movement as the Bloodcrushers to proc their locus. Why does he need to keep up with the Bloodthirsters? they dont buff each other in any way... 4+ rerolling 1's is OK but 3+ rerolling 1's is better and you want as many chances to rolls 6's to wound as you can get. You are right about summoning the horrors. No reason to summon anything else other than fluff (although I wouldnt rely on their shooting to do much).

@TimeToWaste85 Yeah the wizard is gross but makes sense in your list and he summons a free unit to hold an objective while the rest of the army surges forward. Biggest weakness is its very light for bodies and after the initial charge Bloodcrushers do next to nothing. You will want to generate bloodtithe fast so you can summon some support. Insensate Rage Thirsters need help with their 4+ hit rolls so any artifact that boosts that is probably the best choice. Amberglaive (from Gur) for +1 hit and +1" reach is my go to but there are other options out there depending on which realm you choose. @AR605 Your new list is solid but pretty close to what a lot of khorne players run. I actually like the originality of your first list. The 3 Wraith thirsters give a credible shooting threat and Skullgrinder will slip way under the radar. I would suggest flesh hounds instead of the blood warriors but otherwise looks like fun. You didnt nominate a slaughterhost for your 1K list but I assume Goretide would be the way to go.

Yes you can and they are used at the "start" of the hero phase, so before they use command abilities, cast any spells, etc (apart from the 2 point auto-unbind which is obviously used when needed). However if they have any "start" of the hero phase actions then they get to choose if they use their actions before you spend your blood tithe.