Hi Hannibal,
No the lists can change, just the allegiance has to stay the same.
Friday I played two casual games. First one with a 30 and 10 block of PB, 1 unit of drones, 2x beasts, Bilepiper, and a sorcerer. Here is what I noticed:
1. plague drones have to stick close to the heroes if they are going to be any good. Not having a hero with mobility hurt their potential. I like having a LoA follow them around but on a 1k list that wasn't going to work.
2. Really wanted to see how the Bilepiper performed. I was a little disappointed with the +1 attack, I know the math makes them strong, but with no rend it didn't do much. I was playing SCE. The ****** song is circumstantial and man did it work well. I was in rough spot where I needed to charge to get into the objective area but knew I was going draw in another unit on the pile in. Everyone knows that you should never trust a ******.......but that one was the best I ever had.
3. Beasts were ok. For some reason I didn't get the chance to play the charge/retreat/charge bit. I charged a few times but either killed the unit some other way or they retreated! Opponent avoided them. They were pretty tanky. the extra wound helped.
4. Sorcerer with Plague Squall was effective. He also helped me with the wheel.
2nd game was against KO. And a mean 1k KO. I ran the same list just this time with Spoilpox.
1. Beasts were worthless against KO.
2. the -2 to shoot freaked the opponent out. The -1 'helped too.
3. Again the drones had to stay close in order get any buffs.....they were the preferred target in both games.
4. Just as a heads up. The KO has an ability to bottle up any Endless Spell. My opponent grabbed the Skaven 'bug zapper' WLV. It inflicts MW depending on how close you are to them while preventing you to fly, and run. That changed the game. Otherwise it would have been pretty bad. 9 casting means my sorcerer had to roll a 10 to unbind. Nope.
5. Again, Sorcerer came in handy with the Plague Squall, I had to go first. Unfortunately he spent a 3 rounds trying to get rid of the endless spell on a 9 cast!
Overall, I think the beasts are still interesting but I didn't get much value out of them. I prefer the drones with a LoA. they drew a lot of fire since they were the biggest hammer I had.
Thoughts?
Grist