readercolin

Everyone is going to have a different definition of "casual". For example, here is my "casual" stormcast list: Lord-Arcanum on Dracoline Knight-Heraldor Knight-Incantor Lord-Ordinator 3x 5 Sequitors 6 Evocators on Dracolines 4x Ballista's Command point Now, you might look at that and go "Hey, that's actually rather competitive looking". And it is. However, when I was playing this list, casual games were people playing with their tournament lists and just futzing around for giggles. And this army held its own against those tournament lists when people weren't going all out (also, made people respect my kitties). However, this isn't really a list that you can take to a tournament and go 5-0. But if your opponent pulls out some bonereapers with petrifex elite, even if they leave their harvesters at home and are playing with their stalkers or whatever, you have to have some power in your list to be able to put up any sort of threat. But, if your opponent's idea of "casual" is running around with min sized squads of random stuff because they look cool, or is playing an underpowered army... that casual list will run them over like a freight train. The best way to figure out someone's idea of a casual list would be to talk to them some before putting your list together, to get an idea of what they expect. However, if you are playing with complete strangers... this gets much more difficult to do. If you were playing in person, I would recommend bringing more models than you need for your list so you can tailor it some to meet what type of game that both you and they want. Playing online, I'm not sure how that ends up working out. What I would recommend instead is to just bring something that looks cool, or that you want to try out, and see how much complaining about your list you get. Eventually you will get an idea based on their responses about what most people think casual is.

The standard build for host is the following: Archaon Chaos Lord on Foot or Sorcerer 3 Varanguard (blades + 6th circle) 3 Varanguard (blades + 6th circle) 40 Marauders Warshrine (or sorcerer + command point) I would go read back a few pages and you will find more detail about this build and how it plays out.

What do you want out of playing Slaves to Darkness? Do you want a cool army of Chaos Warriors and Knights, lead by a demon prince or a big, beefy mounted leader, walking in and going toe to toe with your opponent? You are in for a world of disappointment when you put that army on the battlefield. Do you want an army that includes a bunch of the warcry warbands making an impact on the battlefield? Once again, you are in for a world of disappointment when you put that army on the battlefield. Do you want an army that consists of big blocks of chaos marauders, teleporting around the board and then charging in to slaughter whatever they run into? Ok, here we have something that can work, can keep your opponents on their toes, and can actually win games. Do you like Archaon, and want to see him lead his Varanguard to victory? As long as you give your varanguard ensorcelled blades, and the 6th circle, you have a workable force. Want any other cool loadouts for them? Too bad. (Note, if you want to look back a few pages, you can see where I did the math for that... and the 6th circle buffs nearly doubles their damage output and puts them from "meh" to "usable"). Basically, StD gets such negative press because the average StD unit ranges from meh to unplayable, but the Marauders are strong enough that they are basically holding the entire faction up on their own. Additionally, they are VERY reliant on their hero's being nearby, and 12" bubbles around the hero's of your chosen keyword gets surprisingly small surprisingly fast (note, for the average unit, having the Khorne General nearby with them having the Khorne keyword is a nearly 50% boost to their damage output... that is how impactful these aura's are). Additionally, the flavor of the faction being a coalition of units that follow different gods... doesn't play out well in practice, as the only time you will ever really run units with different keywords is if your main keyword is Khorne and you want to run a wizard (or multiple) as well. On top of the above, the army is pointed like they are always running with their buffs on. In practice, this isn't the case. Sorcerers needing to get a 6 to get off their re-roll spell, and not having any bonuses means that when it does go off, it is frequently unbound makes them rather unreliable as a source of buffs. Warshrines needing a 3+ prayer to get their bonuses off just means that they will always fail that one turn you really need those buffs. The 12" bubble from hero's often means you can't charge an opponent otherwise you will be outside of range of the "wholly within" effect of that bubble. So when a unit is appropriately costed assuming all these buffs are in play... it isn't when it doesn't have those buffs. All this combines to bring about some people who are ok with the marauder spam, Gaunt Summoner cheese, and ok building towards the (few) competitive builds not having all that much problem with Slaves to Darkness. However, the people who like the faction more for its flavor, or because they like the models in the new start collecting, or because they played with chaos back in the day, or because they just like the aesthetic of warriors and knights are all upset because this book does absolutely nothing for them other than get their hopes up. Personally, I bought in to slaves to darkness because I like the aesthetic of the heavily armored warriors and cavalry charging towards my opponents and fighting them Mano e Mano. After 3 months of playing the army, I'm going to finish painting them and then set them aside, because their performance is so poor on the battlefield. The army looks amazing, and will be great for home games that I set up for a more cinematic appearance. And I might come back to it after GHB 2020, if it lowers the points costs of warriors and knights. Until then, my models can stay at home because they just don't carry their weight on the battlefield.

So since I last posted in here last thursday, I have completed assembly on: 10 Arkanaughts, assembled with skyhook, volley gun, and skypike2 Dracothian Guard, assembled as fulminators, finishing up a squad of 41 Ironclad, and holy ****** is this thing a monster. I say assembled - it is currently sitting in the box in sub-assemblies, cause thats the ONLY way that monster is getting a good paint job. Still need to figure out how to magnetize the main gun so I can switch between cannon and volley gun, and I also DEFINITELY need a better way to mount that, because that stupid little flight stand sure as heck ain't going to hold it.1 KO start collecting, with the gunhauler having the crew and balloon sticky tacked on so I can get a better paint job. Also once again need to figure out how to magnetize the gun so I can swap out the drill cannon with the other one. 1 High Elf Lord on Dragon, and I didn't glue the rider in so it can either be a dragonlord or a dragon mage. After assembly, I'm really regretting not getting a few more of this model, because it is by far my favorite WH dragon. Oh well, maybe one day they will do another short term print run of it and I can get another 2-3 of them. I still have yet to assemble: Sorceress/dreadlord on dragon Aether Wars box And I stuffed the Sylvaneth box into storage for when I have a better hobby space so I can get what I want to do with them done. Will require having an area that is both cat and baby free for entire days (I plan to do some resin/water effects with them), so that is going to have to wait for my house. Overall, I figure that the other dragon will be done being assembled tonight, and then I just have to figure out if I have enough room in my cabinet to store the Aether Wars models. I'm running out... And then, once all of this is done, all that is left is to paint. And paint. Oh god, I have a legion of grey!!!

From my own experience, I prefer to run with the ballista's. There are a lot of armies out there that get lots of buffs from individual models, and can be fairly resilient in melee. Having a strong shooting component gives you a way to pick off key support pieces that help their army hold together. For a few example opponents: Ossiarch Bonereapers are just a straight up pain to deal with in melee, and if they have their harvester's running its even worse. However, they can bubble wrap their units (ex. harvesters) and make it nearly impossible to engage them in melee without first going through their line of 3+ save RR everything, bring models back on a 4+ battleline unit. However, those same harvesters are easy to bring down at range, and then ballista's with their -2 rend AND attacking in the shooting phase manage to ignore many of the bonereapers strengths. Slaves to Darkness have all of their hero's with their own little aura bubbles. If they are running Khorne, Slannesh, or Nurgle, killing the hero providing the bubble can take away as much as 1/3 of nearby unit's damage output. And that isn't even counting their own abilities/command abilities. Fyreslayers (competitive ones at least) are all about the hearthguard berzerkers nowadays. However, if you take a glance at their warscroll, you will quickly see that they only have a 6+ FNP UNLESS there is a hero nearby. Kill the hero, and now that unit is a LOT easier to deal with. Literally anyone with fight first/fight last shenanagins going on. Sure, your terrorgeist may be a monster that can devour whole armies before they get a chance to act. But if he is full of holes, he is much less scary, and much easier to deal with. Those keepers of secrets your opponent is charging at you? Yeah, devestating, and dealing with them in melee when they can just make you fight last is painful. Of course, if they fail to make it to you, this isn't a problem. So who is the gav-bomb build better against? Idoneth Deepkin and their ability to force you to only shoot the nearest model are a PITA, and just dropping a block of sequitors on their skulls can make them go away fast. The battle plan Total Commitment is also worse for the ballista's, cause you can't just drop them in rapid fire range (though a block of sequitors is nearly as bad there). Gloomspite gits have a lot of ways to be harder to shoot (but at least if you are shooting them you don't have to worry about netters... soooo), and can be annoying for a ballista spam list. Anyone that spams a ton of weak units (gits, skeletons, etc) that are massive wound sponges but not too killy can probably be more easily taken out by the block of sequitors than the ballista's. Overall though, I find that most of the more competitive lists are weaker to the ballista spam shooting than they are the sequitors from the sky. However, swapping between the two lists isn't that difficult. If you go for the gav bomb, swapping to ballistas would require: 4 Ballista's Ordinator Incantor While swapping from ballista's to gav-bomb would require: Gav 5 Sequitors 5 Evocators 10 Liberators Castellent So I would say go for whichever you like the look of/playstyle of more to start with, and then look to build into the other build whenever you want to.

I too have been struggling to do stuff. Being cooped up with a toddler means that I can't do any hobbying during the day, and I am somehow supposed to continue doing a full time job while looking after him, which means that the only hobby time I have is in the evenings after he goes to bed. And then sometimes I have to dedicate that time to getting some more work in so I can hit my hour requirements. I have a ton of unpainted mini's, and the thought of having to pull all my painting stuff out, prepping my desk, getting a mini and painting it for a little bit, then having to put that all away is... overwhelming. What I can say is that if you don't want to do it, don't do it. But if all you are doing is sitting, staring at the wall and feeling overwhelmed, then choose something off your list (if you have trouble choosing, throw a dart at it, or make a list and use a random number generator to choose it) and then just do that one thing. Ignore everything else that is sitting there, and do just that 1 thing. Once that one thing is done, cross it off your list. Take a moment of satisfaction in doing so. Then choose a second thing from that list. Don't ever look at the size of the list, or anything else that is making you feel overwhelmed. Just do 1 thing at a time and cross it off. Then, after you have accomplished a number of things from your list, take a brief look, and let yourself feel some accomplishment. And then just keep repeating. It will still feel overwhelming for a while. But give it a week or so of crossing things off your list and it will feel like you are making progress, and you will feel less stressed and overwhelmed. This trick works. It got me through engineering school. It gets me through big work projects. It gets me through moving houses. So give it a try, and stick with it for a bit. An hour or a day isn't going to be enough to feel the results, so just keep at it and you will start to see some results. And if you find something else works for you while trying it, go for that instead. But just get out of that slump of doing nothing, and then do whatever you need to keep going.

I have a small "pile of shame" that has been sitting on my desk. Sadly for me though, this pile is now in range of my toddler... so the pile has to go. Yesterday, I assembled the Blood Warriors and Blood Reavers from the Khorne Mortal's start collecting (I had already assembled the other models prior). Then, I assembled 10 skeletons that I picked up years ago (2 of the 5 skeleton packs from who knows when), originally to play with for D&D but hey, maybe I'll get more skele-bro's later. Still sitting on my desk are: 10 Arkanaughts, which I bought for my next planned army ~6 months ago. 2 Dracothian Guard, which have been sitting in the box on my desk for a year, year and a half. 1 Ironclad, which I picked up last week 1 KO start collecting, which I've been sitting on for 9 months 1 Sylvaneth start collecting, which I've been sitting on for over a year (and the only one I'm considering keeping in the box for a little bit longer) 1 High Elf Lord on Dragon (dreadlord on black dragon), which I bought to make my Ordo Draconis list a little under a year ago (and then failed to buy enough Dragon Blades to finish the army before it went out of production...) 1 Sorceress on Dragon (alternatively, dreadlord on dragon) which was bought at the same time as the lord on dragon, and was originally going to be a kitbash for a Dragonlord 1 Aether Wars box If I can keep up the work I did previously, I think I can finish assembling (or at least getting sub-assemblies for) everything by next week. Then comes the hard part... painting them. Aside from the new models, I have 40 chaos warriors sketched, but needing finishing paint and basing. Then another 9 Chaos Knights that need finishing paint, and 15 that need basing (including those 9). I also need to finish painting/basing my Manticore, my Warshrine, 2 Chariots, 1 Daemon Prince, and the models from the Khorne Start Collecting. Then, moving past my Chaos army, I still have to finish painting/basing 3 Ballista's, a Lord-Ordinator, a Knight-Heraldor, 2 Fulminators, 30 Phoenix Guard, 1 Annointed, 1 Frostheart Phoenix, 30 "shadow Warriors" (converted glade guard and waywatchers), a Nomad Prince, 16 Handgunners, and 16 freeguild spearmen. Yeah... assembling models is SOOO much easier and faster than painting them.

A concern with attempting this is that each time you attempt this you will have to spend a command point. Sadly for the Phoenicium, it doesn't really have any way to generate a bunch of those. You get 1 per turn. Then on a 4+ you can get one from an adjutant. Then you can get 1 from bringing 2 phoenix's in the battalion (which is 750 points right there). And that's it. So turn 1, you have a 50/50 shot of starting with 2 or 3 command points, and then each turn after that you gain an average of 1.5 command points. I'm not sure that is enough to be spamming a bunch of MSU units. Considering that they die to a stiff breeze, I would actually look to take advantage of the slightly larger units, and try to run units of 20 instead. 3 units of 20 cost as much as 6 units of 10, but carry buffs and command point usage significantly better. If you have a battlemage as your general, they also still count as your battleline, leaving 1430 points remaining in your list for assorted other stuff. Additionally, since they are on 25mm bases, you should still be able to get 15-20 of them into combat on the pile in.

I've been playing Slaves to Darkness for the past 3 months. My store was doing a league where we started at 1000 points, then went up to 1500 points, though I got a few 2k games in as well. From playing in this league, I would say that Ravagers are fun, but not worth playing at a competitive level. You are basically locking yourself into having to take the artifact that gives you an 18" bubble for your aura's, or your aura's aren't going to be covering enough units. Otherwise you end up with things like "I can make this charge, but then I'm not wholly within 12" waaaaaay too often. And lets be completely honest here - without either the slannesh, nurgle, or khorne buffs, most StD units just aren't really worth their points. Battalions are unplayable at 1000 points or 1500 points, and only really become worth playing with at 2k points. Chaos warriors are barely playable, and only really useful either as a MSU unit because you ran out of marauder horsemen for battleline requirements, or as a single big unit to act as a tough screen and prevent your opponent from charging into your jucier units behind. Of course, even though they are tough (ish), they still fold to most competitive(ish) forces because everyone is running around with rend or just an extraordinary number of high damage attacks. Chaos Knights are... fine, but only really playable with ensorcelled weapons because they are slow enough that you can't reliably charge with them in most matchups. Plenty of people will say "Just give it some re-roll buffs". Sure, we'll use our 1 spell that gives re-rolls (on a 7, so... 50% of the time we can get it), or use the warshrine buffs, which are on a 3+, meaning 1/3 of the time they won't go off. These are too unreliable in practice to actually be effective at buffing our units, simply because outside of marauders teleporting Slaves are too slow to actually dictate engagements. And when you can't dictate engagements, your opponent will be able to ignore the unit that you threw buffs onto and take out the rest of your army, or just engage that buffed unit at range and neuter its power. So what actually works? Archaon + varanguard + marauders lists. People have been able to make these work competitively and have some results to show for it. Of course, you can't run Varanguard outside of the 6th circle just because that circle + aura + buffs is enough to triple their damage output, which means that they can actually do respectable damage. Of course, without those buffs, they are far too pillowfisted to be worth 300 points a pop. Marauder Heavy lists work, because marauders are basically the one unit that is actually worth their points in the book. To the point that they are almost twice as efficient as the next best unit in the book. This means that they are actually near the same level competitively as some of the other top books. Gamey lists utilizing multiple Gaunt Summoner's work, though generally more because Pink Horrors are so pushed at the moment than because the gaunt summoner's themselves are that great. Finally, the Nurgle Battalion works when paired with tanky units. Notably here, some armies will kill themselves faster to the mortal wounds from this than from your own units hitting them... which says more bad things about how abysmal the damage output of slaves are than about how good the battalion is to be honest. Are people right to be upset with this book? Yeah, I would say so. Especially if you are wanting to play a "traditional" StD army utilizing warriors and knights. Or if you are wanting to play with your warcry warbands and have them be remotely useful. Are others right to say that you can play StD competitively? Yes, they are. Are both sides of the argument talking past each other because of their different expectations? Absolutely. Can the problems be fixed with points adjustments? To an extent, yes. Some of the problems are integral to how the book was written, namely the aura bubbles around the hero's, and issues relating to that. If someone's biggest issue is this, then StD is probably not the book for them. Other issues like Chaos Knights not being worth their points though is a much different issue, as dropping them from 180 points to 150 points suddenly makes them much more appealing. Chaos Warriors dropping to 80 points for 5 makes them an interesting option over marauders if you are looking for something tankier. And FAQ giving the warcry warbands the ability to take marks (or even just giving them the undivided keyword) can give them options that they don't currently have. These are all things that could be changed with GHB2020, and providing that feedback is important to some of us here.

True, meeting engagements operate very differently from normal 1k games. However, evocator heavy lists aren't shootcast, which is why I didn't recommend one of them, as that wasn't what @Heaven_Lord was requesting. For myself, this is the list that I pull out for meeting engagements: Spearhead: 3x Evocators of Dracolines Main Body: Lord-Arcanum on Dracoline 10x Sequitors Rearguard: 3x Evocators on Dracolines Generally, a 3 man unit of kitties is enough to run over any other min sized squad out there, and I usually run them as Celestial Vindicators, so I get re-roll 1's to hit on the charge. This has been very successful for me when I have played meeting engagements, and also demonstrates one of the quirks of the format as compared to a 1k game - you only need 1 unit of battleline. However, the unit size requirements really make it hard to play a shootcast style list. Because you really want to have that block of 9 longstrikes, and that is completely impossible in meeting engagements. The only way that you can get a large(ish) shooting block is a unit of 10 judicators. Of course, said shooting block does less damage than a 6 man block of longstrikes, but because they are battleline you can put it in your main body and get an extra round of shooting off. The best "Shootcast" list that I can come up with for meeting engagements would be the following: Spearhead: 5x Liberators Main Body: Lord-Aquilor 10x Judicators 3x Aetherwings Rearguard: 6x Longstrikes

Here's a fun game - how low can we drop the sorceress on black dragon before she becomes playable? Also note, the dreadlord on black dragon is definitely overcosted... and I say that having "3" of them (Prince Imirik, how far you have fallen...). At 300 points she is clearly overpriced. A 5+ save leaves her too weak to try to get her mount attacks into melee, at 6" range you are basically in melee already to try to use the breath attack, and even if you threw her into combat she would do 9.5 damage per round on average (until she starts taking damage and getting bracketed - also amusingly enough, she brackets slower and takes less of a blow from being bracketed than the dreadlord does...). Also, to play into the comparison and show just how terrible it is, the dreadlord is also rocking only about 10.5 damage before buffs too... First things first, there is literally no way that she is better than bringing a hurricanum. Heck, she isn't better than bringing the 2nd hurricanum. So clearly she needs to cost less than that, which is putting 280 points as her absolute maximum. Is she better than a Luminark? Ehh... sure, she's better in melee than one. But I still think a 6+ shrug aura (and rocking a 4+ save) is going to make the luminark more durable, and a wizard should be brought for their spells, not their mount. So I would say that a luminark should be more expensive than her, which brings us down to 270 points. Would you bring her on her own for 250 points? What is she giving us over 2 sorceress's on foot? Well, she does give us a model that can take a bit more damage and move a bit further. Whether that is worth losing a 2nd spellcast is definitely debatable (I would argue not). But I would say that 250 points is a good point to start her at, and then consider dropping it more later. While we are talking about casters on monsters though, we should probably mention the Battlemage on Griffon. You know, that unit that is so terrible that everyone forgot it even existed? Seriously, it also costs 300 points. Like, when would you EVER take it? It is a 1 cast mage, with a 5+ save, and can only really do damage either with its 1 spell or by diving into melee. Now, amusingly enough, it actually does MORE damage in melee than either the sorceress OR the dreadlord on black dragon (which I think just says really bad things about the dreadlord), but there is still no way you are EVER taking this thing before you take a hurricanum or a luminark. Also, as a mage, I think the most important thing you can do is cast better, and the sorceress's at least can sacrifice models for a +2 to cast, which the battlemage on griffon... can fight in Ghur? Also, at least the sorceress's have command abilities they can use too, unlike the battlemage. This is DEFINITELY a unit that could afford to drop like, 60 points, and still probably be unplayable then. Lastly, weighing into this argument, for a mere 320 points you can grab a Lord-Arcanum on Taurelion. What do those 20 points more give you? Well, it gives you a unit that doesn't get bracketed as it takes damage. It gives you a unit that is flying around with a 3+ save. And most importantly, it gives you a unit that can cast 2 spells a turn. You know, that last one there alone is so big, it really points out just how bad it is to be rocking 300 point wizards with 1 spell a turn. Oh, and he is widely considered to be such a terrible warscroll, that once again, I'm pretty sure that most people forgot he even existed (also, I have NEVER seen ANYONE ever use this model... ever. Not in person, not on battle reports, this model might as well not exist, and it is from one of the most "popular" factions out there too...).

The only good shooting at 1k points is Longstrikes (arguments can be made at 2k for ballista's + ordinator). The core of a shootcast list is 9 raptors + a way to manuever them. Here is one build: Lord-Aquilor 9 Vanguard-Raptor's with Longstrike Crossbows 5 Liberators 5 Liberators This comes out to 890 points, leaving 100 points for either 2 units of aetherwings, or 1 unit of aetherwings and 1 extra command point. The Lord-Aquilor gives you a way to re-locate your vanguard raptors, and he can ride the winds aetheric to catch up wherever he moves them to (which is the downside with some of the other options - they can move the longstrikes, but then you no longer are in range to shoot in the hero phase). However, while this is great for 1000 point games or doubles games, it is not a legal meeting engagement list. To do that, you would have to split the longstrikes up into 2 units, with 1 unit of 6 and 1 unit of 3. Another thing to be aware of - you can expect your unit of longstrikes to do ~11 damage to a 5+ save each time they get to shoot, assuming that they are a full unit. Most of the time, I find 1000 point lists have somewhere between 50-70 wounds. So you will need to make sure that your longstrikes are unharmed through your turn 2, preferably turn 3. So screen carefully, and don't worry about losing your liberators or aetherwings as long as it means that your longstrikes are unharmed.

No. The problem? You are trying to use steam tanks. They are a fun model, but not a competitive one. If you want to toss a steam tank or two in, then go for it. If you don't really care about winning, then grab a steam tank commander, a hurricanum, 2 more steam tanks, and you have 70 points for a command point, or endless spell, or a gyrocopter. As a quick reference, a steam tank will put out an average of 1.5 damage at max range, and 4.5 damage at 8" before rend. If you give it +1 from the hurricanum and +1 from the steam tank commander, you can buff that up to 2.5 damage at range and 7.3 at 8". A block of 20 hangunners cost the same number of points and will put out 9.3 damage at 16", without any buffs beyond standing still. The handgunners also get to stand and shoot if they get charged, and can be buffed up to 14.5 damage with a freeguild general giving them 1/3 of its buff. Yes, the tanks are more durable. But their damage output is so low, their movement so unreliable, and their damage table tanks their stats at incredible speed. Lastly, they only count as a single unit on objectives, which means running them is going to lose you the objective game unless you can clear off your opponents entire army - which would require that they can deal damage more along the lines of the buffed handgunners than their own stat block to accomplish. So again, if you want a steam tank army for the giggles, go for it. But if you want a competitive list, leave your steam tanks at home.

The Cleansing Phalanx is rather expensive for reducing drops and giving a CP and artefact. If you were going to run that battalion, I would only recommend doing so if you planned to take advantage of the ability the battalion gave you and had at least 1 large block of sequitors to empower with full re-rolls to everything. A block of 10 sequitors would be the minimum that I would look to take if you were planning to run that battalion, though I would probably take a closer look at running 1 block of 20. Additionally, for threats in your list you have a large unit of dracolines, and then a bunch of minimum sized units. Nothing else is really going to be dealing the damage. This means that if your opponent can manage to take your kitties out, then you don't have any other threats that they really have to respect. For this reason, I would look to consolidate your firepower into one of your other units. Options for consolidating your firepower include: Drop the Ballista's, CP, and gravetide (290 points), and then downgrade the incantor to an exorcist (20 points), which would be enough to upgrade 1 of those blocks of sequitors into a 20 man unit. Drop the Phalanx, gravetide and foot evocators, and you can afford 4 ballista's + ordinator for a massive ranged threat. Drop the Phalanx, Gravetide, Foot Evocators, and Ballista's, and you can afford 9 longstrikes + Lord-Relictor/Knight-Vexilor.

Hey now, Archaon is actually one of the best models in the entire Slaves to Darkness lineup. As a matter of fact, I think that he is only behind Marauder's as the best beatsticks in the army. Now, this may say great things about Archaon... or it may say terrible things about the rest of the lineup. Feel free to take that whatever way you want.

Easy answer for me is the Drakespawn Knights. Even with the points drop, at 150 points they are drastically overcosted. Yes, they are a fast moving 3+ save, but you have now listed literally their only redeeming feature. Point for point, they are outdamaged by liberators, unless they manage to get their charge off. Of course, once they do get their charge off, they will inevitably fail to kill whatever they ran into because their damage is so pitiful, at which point the liberators will catch up in damage in a single combat round. They are rocking a 3+ save, which at least means that they will stick around for a while against low rend opponents and clog up the board. However, they are only 5 models for 150 points, so it isn't exactly like them clogging up the board will keep you in control of any objectives. To further belabor the point, there are also Demigryph Knights for 180 points. This unit has the same movement, the same speed, 2 more wounds per unit (3 4 wound models vs 5 2 wound models), and before we start throwing buffs on deals more than double the damage output. And they can be part of a battalion, unlike the drakespawn knights. However, if I had to build around them, this is what I would run: Tempest Eye: Dreadlord on Black Dragon (300 pts) general Hurricanum (280 pts) Aura of Glory Sorceress Celestial Visions 15x Drakespawn Knights 20x Darkshards 20x Darkshards 30x Executioners Extra Command Point or Emerald Lifeswarm The idea would be to have the dreadlord and hurricanum backing up the drakespawn knights, and hope that between +1 to hit, +1 to wound, and +1 attacks they might actually accomplish something. The darkshards and executioners would then be there to provide some backup for when they inevitably fail and actually attempt to carry the game...

Options to consider: Allies. Run Khorne and add in a Bloodsecrator for the +1 attack aura, and then maybe also a unit of wrathmongers for another +1 attack aura. I will say, a block of warriors actually feel slightly worth their points when they get +1 attack (also, re-roll wounds from a bloodstoker is nice). Alternatively, just grab a big beatstick from one of your available allies even if they don't synergize with what the rest of your army is doing. Archaon. The beatstick to end all beatsticks, Archaon is a solid hammer to the mostly anvil of the rest of the slaves to darkness lineup. Is he worth 800 points? That is a bit more questionable. But at least he can hit stuff hard. Varanguard. However, lets be more specific. Varanguard of the 6th circle, rocking some buffs. Outside of the 6th circle a unit of varanguard does kind of mediocre damage. But if you give them the 6th circle buffs, they become actual decent beatsticks. And by decent, I mean that if you can give them re-roll hits and wounds, with the nurgle buff and the 6th circle buff you can triple their damage output vs not having those buffs. Something to think about. Marauders. Quite simply, even if they are a bit glass cannony, marauders are the highest damage output option of any of the available options in the book. Even better if you can get some buffs on them. Basically every other option that you can go with is... kinda lacking on the damage front. To be frank, too much of the models value is priced into "what can this do when fully buffed up", without taking into account that being fully buffed up is kinda unreliable. Full re-rolls is great, but it either comes from a 3+ roll from a 170 point model (aka, it always fails on the turns you need it the most), or it comes from a 6+ cast on a wizard who doesn't get any casting buffs outside of one specific subfaction (aka, it always fails/is unbound on the turns you need it the most). Additionally, that full re-roll buff is going to affect 1, maybe 2 units per turn, but your units are priced as if they are expecting those buffs to be on all of them every turn, which just isn't the case.

No, a hero is required to lead the army. The closest you can come to going without one is the new Varanguard chapter, which can make Varanguard into hero's and allow them to lead the army. But that is promoting a regular unit to become a hero, and therefore a leader, not going without one.

Even if your opponent can screen you with the bridge, just having it does 2 things for you. First, it forces your opponent to spread out with their screening, as a 24" range bridge can easily allow you to divert your forces to one side or another. Also, while the bridge is generally best on turn 1 for an alpha strike, it can still be useful in later turns as well as sudden mobility. Second, the threat range of a unit of hammerers on turn 1 is 16". If they run turn 1, then can go 9"+d6 (4" + 3" + 1" from musician + 1" from tempest eye ability). This means that your turn 2 threat range is 26-31". Heck, if we run turn 1 and turn 2, we move a grand total of 15 + 2d6", which finally gives us a turn 3 threat range of 19+4d6" (23-43"). Something to point out here - the maximum threat range with the bridge is 36 + 2d6", so 38-48", though a more realistic threat range is more like 30+2d6. So just having the bridge is enough to get a unit as far as it would go in 3 turns, even if that does mean running over a screen when doing so. I'm not saying that your opponent can't screen you when you have the bridge. However, I am saying that it adds enough to your list that just the threat of bridging is enough to force your opponent to react, and give you an advantage.

Nothing about that list stated the stormhost, so you can easily get the 1+ save (staunch + light). Keep the 3 drakes together and you can have 1 with a 1+ and 2 with 2+ saves. The only advantage tank wise that the Celestant has is the "Sigmarite Thundershield" - aka, re-roll saves of 1. This however can be replicated by Mystic Shield from Kroak, as well as by spending a command point for "All out Defense". Yes, the Celestant can send mortal wounds back at nearby opponents when it re-rolls a failed save, and that is great when facing off against hordes of no-rend attacks. However, looking at it from a pure tankiness aspect, each of the drakes can be just as tanky as the Celestant can. As for Kroak's endless spells, he can only cast 1 endless spell a turn, and since he can't cast the comet, there aren't really any others that are good enough that won't really come back to bite you. As it is, he can cast Comet's Call, mystic shield, and then still has space for Arcane Bolt and Celestial Deliverance. Or for Celestial Deliverance, Celestial Deliverance, Celestial Deliverance and Comet's Call. Your choice really... That being said, if you really want an endless spell, you can downgrade Kroak to a Slaan Starmaster. This loses you 1 spell/unbind, and loses you Celestial Deliverance. But it does free up 60 points for an endless spell (or two if you go for cheap ones). Is it worth it? Ehhh. You also lose 1 more 4+ to get a command point, and you lose the 4+ FNP as well. If we could get 20 more points from somewhere else to be able to bring in the Celestant, I would probably say yes. But trying to do that right now gets us to 2020 points, and you really don't want to cut the Castellent if you can avoid it, but he is the last point of "flex" space if you are running 3 drakes.

I think that these accusations that double drake + kroak is going to be the new meta to be both baseless and foolish. After all, its the triple stardrake + kroak you have to worry about: Ex: Drakesworn Templar Drakesworn Templar Drakesworn Templar Lord-Castellent Lord Kroak ally 5x Liberators 5x Liberators 5x Liberators Comes out to 2k points exactly Quick, buy your stardrakes now before they go out of stock

If I can make a recommendation - Drop some points somewhere to get a soulscream bridge. Even with tempest eye +3" movement, your dudes may have trouble getting on target. However, the soulscream bridge will allow you to dump 2/3 of your army 9" away from your opponent (remember, cities empowers this so the two sides of the bridge only have to be wholly within 24" of each other, not 12" - additionally you can put the bridge in front of your army, and can move any unit wholly within 6", effectively allowing you to move a maximum of 36" with it). Swap your artefact to the Zephyrite Banner, and between the musician's and the Aetherguard Captain command trait you will have a 7" re-rollable charge coming off of the bridge. Want to make things even funnier? Grab 1 more mage (or swap one of yours out) for a battlemage from Ghur and you get access to Wildform, which gives you +2" to your run and charge rolls, bringing one unit down to a 5" re-rollable charge. Alternatively (or in addition), Chronomatic Cogs can give you another 2" to run and charge rolls (cogs is better if you are looking at getting multiple groups into combat at once, but be aware it will affect your opponents as well). Not saying that you have to do these things. However, please consider them for delivering your hammers to your target.

Yes. Because stormcast specifically gain the Cities of Sigmar keyword as well as the city keyword, they are a part of the city and can join the battalion.

Ahh, I see, I was misreading the Goring Tusk rule as a charge phase and not a combat phase rule. So it does deal MW when it dies (whatever phase that is) and it does deal MW in the combat phase, but not any other time.

No. You can get mortals in the charge phase with Gorebeast Chariots, Chaos Chariots, Karkadrak, and units in the Ruinbringer Warband (And the Chaos War Mammoth too...). But those are the only mortal wounds that you can get that aren't hero phase or combat phase.