Lists and Tactics

The New Blood Bowl Vampires

Posted by johnnya10 on 23/09/2023

Posted in: Lists and Tactics. Tagged: blood bowl, vampires. 1 Comment

Hello sports fans! GW were kind enough to send me a box of the new Blood Bowl Vampire team to review (Fangs for that!) and while life as a new dad has left me with little time to work on the miniatures, I am writing this epistle to assure fellow veterans of the game that Blood Bowl Vampires just got a lot more interesting. Tempting even!

Now I’m a sucker for new Blood Bowl team, and this one in particular has my veins pumping with excitement. You see, I had a Blood Bowl Vampire team about 4 years ago and do you know what? I hated them. Oh I had fun converting them, using Cawdor gangers for my thralls and Namartii for my Vamps (see below), that side of the project was great. But playing with them, I certainly got a lesson in why Vampires have always been seen as a team meant more for the game’s better players.

They were always an unforgiving bunch, so much so that most tacticas would suggest playing no more than 2 actual Vampires and taking as great a throng of Thralls as possible and that kind of sucks when it’s the Vampires that are your real stars and the minis you want to play with. Thralls, in comparison were then (and remain now) pretty much the worst players in the game. No skills, the stat line of a hobgoblin, but for 40,000 a piece, you get what you pay for. They are only really there for one reason – they are walking blood bags for when your Vampires roll a 1 when checking for Blood Lust.

That was another problem of the old team. Your Vampires are your stars and yet they have this flaw that they may have to end their turn injuring their own team-mates. And their stats, while decent, were not too much to shout about. You had to suffer through the first couple of games of a league season, carefully accruing star player points, in order to get Block and Dodge on them before you became confident in them being able to do what you needed to do. A Blood Bowl veteran would see this team as a cryptic challenge, but to a newer (or in my case “worse”) player, they just, well, sucked.

Then you got the Season 2 Update a couple of years back that, I’ll confess, very much passed me by but it certainly didn’t seem to improve things. Animal Savagery replacing Blood Lust just seemed cruel and unnecessary so I was even less enthused to try and get some game time out of them.

But oh what a difference this update has made! The rules for the team were the most interesting thing here for me and so, given that I’ve not had time to paint my Vamps, I can talk to you about why I think you have some really excellent options with this new box in terms of rules.

However, I will briefly say, before getting into the rules, that the new miniatures are fantastic. I get real 1990s Warhammer Vampire vibes from the befanged in the box, and the new thralls are just really fun. Great sculpting all round, and I will definitely be painting up this team at some point in the future. Now, back to those rules…

First off, having Vampire Positionals is huge. You used to just get Vampires, and in the Season 2 Update, Vampire “Blitzers” (which had no particular Blitzing Skills) but it was all very one dimensional. Now you have Throwers, Runners and Blitzers (who have Juggernaut, which, while not as good as just having “Block” does help a little more both on field and thematically). This means that you can tailor your team to suit how you want to play. Want to play an elf-like passing/running game? Take a couple of Runners and at least one Thrower, and you’re golden. If you want to take a bashing team, a couple of Blitzers and a Vargheist (sold seperately) and you can do just that.

Personally, I’d favour running the former option over a fighting style Vampire line. Your Vampires are too valuable to risk them in the scrum, and while having access to a Big Guy for the first time ever is great, I think they all suffer from having Blood Lust 3+ instead of 2+ (Throwers and Runners are still 2+, Vlad be thanked) and that suffering makes them too much of a liability.

Also, a cheeky 10,000 knocked off the rerolls is a great boon to the team.

So here’s the team I’d take:

10x Thralls – 400,000

2x Vampire Runners – 200,000

2x Vampire Throwers – 220,000

3x Re-rolls – 180,000

Now, this is still early days, but I think this team has some balance, and while I still wouldn’t recommend the Vampires to brand new players, this is a great deal more forgiving than in the olden days. Ok, so you’re going to be a mainly S3 team, but the runners have an excellent burst of speed, and being able to use Hypnotic Gaze to neautralise threats negates their lack of S4 somewhat. 3 rerolls should also help you to keep some of the Vampire’s negative quirks at bay, and the Throwers look excellent with Pass and a PA of 2+. This also means that you’ve got plenty of Thralls to chew through, and 4 Vampires from the get go – not too shabby.

For Tactics, I’d probably have a single Thrower starting, both Runners and a big mess of Thralls to act as a screen/shield. Without the ball, I think things could get a little tough, and Hypnotic Gaze will do a lot of Heavy Lifting, but while carrying, you could tear through a defense with relative ease. Movement 8 on those Runners is immense, and a Thrower with pass of course means you could set up some really fun plays.

But is an all (bar the throwers who are S4) S3 team a bit risky? Let me know you think if I’m howling at the wrong moon on this one by leaving a comment below!

So to summarize, I’d say I’m cautiously optimistic for this team. Things have massively improved for the Vamps, and I think they still provide a stiff challenge for any coach willing to give them a try, though they will still provide a level of difficulty due to the unique way in which they play. But the new options really help to make them interesting again, and over longer leagues, I think they could have real potential to challenge the better teams.

But if you’re playing for high stakes, the classic Vampire issues can still bite you in the… neck, I suppose. Onvards!

Lazy Painter’s Army List: T’au

Posted by johnnya10 on 29/01/2022

Posted in: Lists and Tactics. Tagged: tau. Leave a comment

Hello, hobby pals! It’s time for another Lazy Painter’s Army List and this time we’re taking a look at those blue fish folk that are the T’au and their frankly mental guns. GW were good enough to send me the new book for this review and I would also like to thank them for making the T’au’s arsenal ungodly and amazing. I think it’s only right that Rail Guns and Missile Pods do a huge amount of damage – that’s the T’au’s whole schtick – but, well, wow. These guns are extra spicy now.

Overall, it’s an excellent book, and having spoken to some T’au players over the last couple of years who have been lamenting their lot in the game of late, I’m pretty certain they’ll be grinning with some of the options they get in this book. I also like that the book designers at GW really seem to have fun when it comes to the T’au and they get to use all these cool fonts, textures and graphics. You can really sense the enjoyment when you read this one. But that’s enough of all that – let’s make a lazy painter’s list (minimum models, fun to play with, and with a bit of tactical fun in there too).

Leaders

We’re starting out with Shadowsun because she’s points pricy, she’s super spicy and she’s one of the coolest looking miniatures in the T’au ranks and that’s saying something. She’s also got some fun rules we’ll get back to later, though she also has the ‘Commander’ keyword, and so we’re only allowed one of those in this single detachment list. Thankfully, Longstrike does not have that keyword and so we’re taking him in his Ion Cannon-equipped Hammerhead Gunship. He’s particularly good at taking on enemy monsters and vehicles too, getting +1 to his wound rolls when targeting these big’uns, but that Ion Cannon will help deal with anyone foolish enough to stand in his way.

Heavy Support

Yes, you guessed it, we’re making this a Spearhead detachment as we want as many of this army’s massive guns as possible. Let’s start with a couple of Rail Gun wielding Hammerheads. I don’t think I need to say any more about this weapon as Warhammer Community have already done this, but combined with the 12″ move, you have a monster of a weapon that is very manoeuvrable. And speaking of Manoeuvrable, we’re going to be taking a pair of Riptides too. Rocking a pair of Smart Missile Systems, Heavy Burst Cannon and a pair of Shielded Missile Drones, this is a huge amount of firepower to deal with almost anything really. Our last pick in the Heavy Support section are a couple more Broadsides with loads of extras, and, of course, two more Rail Guns.

Elites

To help distract our enemies and capture some objectives, we’re going to take a pair of 3 person Stealth Suit Teams, who are going to bring some Marker Light drones to the party. Their Infiltrators rule can help them deploy on objectives or in cover where they can frustrate your enemy, while their Camo Fields rule will keep them alive a little longer.

Fast Attack

Don’t laugh at this – there is a reason. We are taking 5 Vespid Stingwings. I know this may seem like a weird choice but, well, they cost 60 points, their guns aren’t bad, and once your big guns have cleared an objective, you can just drop these guys down on it to keep it for a turn or two. If they’re in cover, they might even last long enough to take some enemies with them.

Lord of War

Ok, so I lied. As well as our Spearhead, we are taking a Super-Heavy Auxiliary Detachment, because once you see what sort of Damage a Stormsurge can do, well, if you’re anything like me, your jaw will drop. It is the shootiest monster ever in 40k and while it’s very, very pricy, its 2+/4++ saves, its huge number of wounds, and the sheer number of shots it can put out, it’s almost a must have for me, and anyone who likes to cackle maniacally as this thing just deletes multiple enemies from the table every turn.

The List:

Spearhead Detachment –

HQ – Commander Shadowson

HQ – Longstrike (Ion Cannon, 2x Seeker Missiles, 2x Gun Drones)

Heavy Support – Hammerhead Gunship

Heavy Support – Riptide (2x Shielded Missile Drones, 2x Smart Missile Systems)

Heavy Support – 2x Broadside Battlesuits (2x Shield Drones, 2x Marker Drones, 2x Smart Missile Systems)

Elites – 3x Stealth Battlesuits (Target Lock, Marker Drone)

Fast Attack – 5x Vespid Stingwings

Super-Heavy Auxiliary Detachment –

Lord of War – Stormsurge (Pulse Blastcannon)

Points: 1989

Models: 20 (plus 18 drones but they don’t count towards our total)

Name: The Greater Good of Massive Guns

Additional Stuff:

This is one of those “If everything goes well, I’ll have won by the end of turn 2” sort of lists. With these guns, you can deploy wherever you want because your opponent would have to be nuts to put anything decent from their army out in the open – you can just delete it if you get 1st turn. But if you are worried, you can use Shadowsun’s Exemplar of Kauyon warlord Trait, in conjunction with the Kauyon Tactical Philosophy to redeploy 3 units before the first turn.

You’re also going to be playing as the T’au Sept because you brought Shadowsun along, and that comes with some fun rules too.

And yeah, just shoot stuff. If you hit, you’ll probably delete it, if you miss, you have lots of other options. Use those Stealth Suits to capture objectives and drop the Stingwings down later in the game to capture another one. Also, if you beat someone while taking Stingwings in your army, that will be especially funny.

With that being said, T’au have almost certainly just leapt into tier 1, so maybe this is one of those lists you don’t take against new players. I’m no master tactician – far, far from it – but even I can see the amount of hurt you can unleash with this one. Veterans can laugh off demoralising experiences when among friends, but remember that new players won’t be able to have as much fun. I don’t try to make these lists like this, but with the T’au book, it’s honestly hard to do anything else. It’s fun, but this book is almost certainly going to get a wee tap from the nerf-hammer in a couple of weeks. If not, T’au players could be nearly impossible to take off the table.

Onwards (for the Greater Good)!

Lazy Painter’s Army List: Genestealer Cults

Posted by johnnya10 on 08/01/2022

Posted in: Lists and Tactics. Tagged: genestealer cult. 1 Comment

Hello again friends and happy new year to you all. Today I bring you a brand new lazy painters army list after Games Workshop were kind enough to send me the brand new Genestealer Cults codex.

And what a codex it is. Let’s start with the cover – that might just be the best looking Codex cover art I’ve seen in years. It has such a striking look to it that really captures the grimdarkness of the game, and the strange cultish behaviour of the faction. I love it – great work by the artist for bringing this faction to life even before opening the book.

What’s more, I’m reminded that, by and large, the Genestealer Cults range is the finest range of miniatures in any system over all, in my opinion. So many characterful pieces and when the old genestealer models are perhaps bottom of that tree in terms of looks, almost entirely due to their age, and they still look pretty decent, that’s a pretty fine range. From the sneaky Sanctus to the Jackal Alphus, there are a lot of wins here.

I have to remind myself of all of this because, well, this list threw up a couple of issues, chief amongst them being, that I have failed in my usual quest. Every time I put together one of these lists, the objective is to take the codex, and make an army that can be fun to use but doesn’t contain too many models and tries to avoid repetition too much in the units you take. And I couldn’t do that with this book. At all. Let me explain.

When I did this with the Ork book, I was worried that I’d have problems with a horde army, but in the ork book you have big HQs like Ghazghkull, elite units like Mega Nobz, and huge things like Bonebreakers, Morkanauts, Gorkanauts and even Stompas to eat up those points. The most expensive thing in this book that I got into my list? A unit of 2 ridgerunners – light vehicles that come to only just over 150 points for the pair. That’s it. Without leaning too hard on repetition, there was no way to make a low model count army that was still fun to play with. So while I don’t think you’ll find too many GSC lists with fewer models than this, I’ve instead opted to focus more on having a fun, thematic list this time. Because the model count is… well, it ain’t low (not by my own standards anyway). But I reckon this could be a fun force to build and play with, so let’s take a look at its make up.

HQs

I’m taking two detachments in this army, one that is brutal and footslogging, and the other that is fast and full of firepower. Leading the footsloggers, I will be taking a Patriarch and a Magus, along with their little familiar buddies. This gives me one brutal melee specialist (who’s also psychic), and a psyker to buff and support the rest of the units, while also blighting my enemies. Leading the faster detachment, I have two Jackal Alphus models – while this breaks the repetition rule a little, this is one of the best looking minis in the range and it does fit with what we’re doing here to have two of them. Also, the chance to do a little converting/kitbashing with the second one is very enticing.

Elites

Skipping troop choices entirely (because they involve a lot of minis for very few points in this army), we’re packing out the Elite slots to make our Footsloggers as deadly as possible. Two units of 10 purestrain genestealers gives us a lot of AP-3 claws and talons for not much money, and with movement 8, they’ve got a good chance of getting into the thick of it in early turns. Then we’re going to pack a unit of 5 Aberrants into a Goliath Truck to bring some more muscle to the party, and they’ll have back up from a Biophagus and there’ll be an Abominant skulking around too because he is hard as nails with his 5+ FNP and his Strength x2 Power Sledgehammer. Lastly in the Elites spot, we’re taking a Sanctus who’ll probably be armed with a sniper rifle to really capitalise on his Soulsight rules.

Fast Attack

Accompanying those Jackal Alphus dudes into battle will be plenty of speedy stuff. We have a unit of six Atalan Jackals that includes one quad and a lot of demolition charges that tear around the enemy’s flanks. Then we have three units of the aforementioned 2x Ridgerunners to provide a very mobile fire support team. While 6 Ridgerunners feels like too many to me, they will at least be a lot of fun on the battlefield, and they have a range of fun weapon options too.

Heavy Support

We’re rounding out our speedy detachment with two Goliath Rockgrinders because they do look pretty cool, they’re pretty hardcore, and they eat up plenty of points too.

The List:

Vanguard Detachment –

HQ – Patriarch with Familiar

HQ – Magus with Familiar

Elites – 10x Purestrain Genestealers

Elites – 5x Aberrants

Elites – Abominant

Elites – Biophagus with Familliar

Elites – Sanctus

Dedicated Transport – Goliath Truck

=][=

Outrider Detachment –

HQ – Jackal Alphus

Fast Attack – 6x Atalan Jackals

Fast Attack – 2x Achilles Ridgerunners

Heavy Support – Goliath Rockgrinder

Points: 1977 (but you can spend 20 points on the “Excavate” Proficient Planning upgrade for one unit)

Model Count: 50. Yep, 50. Best I could do to keep this interesting and fun.

Army Name: Too Many Extra Arms

Additional Stuff:

In terms of how this plays, you certainly have speed on your side. You have a lot of fast moving heavy guns, a few sniper rifles and plenty of demolition charges to offer fire support, and you have a big core of claws that will tear even power armour to shreds in close combat. To boost said core of claws, I would take the Twisted Helix as your Cult alignment because everything will get +1 to move, +1 strength, and your Abominant and Aberrants become even more of a threat.

Now, I know what some of you will be thinking of my failure – why didn’t I take advantage of the Brood Brothers rules and pack in some Leman Russ tanks? Well, I could have done that in theory because those rules do of course still exist:

But the rules and points for the available units aren’t in this book, I don’t have an Astra Militarum book to hand, and in my mind, I’m highlighting the fun things to do with this book, and this book alone. I could have added allies to any armies I’ve done for this if I’d really wanted to, but that’s not the point. Nor would it have been the point to give Proficient Planning abilities to every possible unit – where’s the fun in that (well, there are a lot of fun rules in there actually)? I stuck to this book, and the models included therein, because that’s what we as players, typically, want to enjoy.

And that brings me on to the real pain of this book – I will never be able to take a Genestealer Cults 2000 army. Not because I couldn’t write a list with a low enough model count to accommodate my inability to paint hordes, because as mentioned, I think this is one of the best looking ranges in the game and painting six Ridgerunners actually sounds quite fun. When the 40k survey came out recently, my major bit of feedback was that the game has a problem with having too many rules, especially when compared to AoS which feels quick and streamlined by comparison. Well, the GSC are among the worst offenders and while all the rules are thematic and in keeping with the army’s values, there are simply too many of them. What other army comes with a token sheet (albeit a very useful token sheet) attached to the codex?

And take the Biophagus – a unit that has pretty much an entire A4 page of rules, and costs just 50 points. That just feels a bit too much to me. So is the basic troop choice in the book having access to 16 different wargear options. That’s right, if you’re running Neophite Hybrids (another unit with a full A4 of rules) you can take everything from a an Autopistol to a Webber and almost anything else in between. Options and versatility are great, but I almost gave myself a headache trying to work this list out. Add onto this the Brood Brothers rules, warlord traits, relics, 4 pages of stratagems, psychic powers, a page of cult-specific rules, Proficient Planning abilities, Army-wide rules like Crossfire and… it’s too much (and I’m sure I’m forgetting some things there). It’s far far too much to make running this army fun for someone like me. Happily though, not everyone is like me, and I will say that the rules are certainly thematic.

But I love the miniatures – they’re fantastic. If I use them though, they’ll be in games of Kill Team or Necromunda. This codex has some wonderful art, fascinating lore, lavish model photography, but if you’re a lazy painter like me, it’s probably not the army for you. But if you do love rules, and lots of them, maybe this army will be ideal for you. I didn’t want to rant about all this but as someone who likes casual-competitive games, this is a bit of a barrier to me enjoying this army. I’ll still be enjoying the miniatures though – this faction is full of winners where miniatures are concerned.

Until next time, have a wonderful time painting and playing. Onwards!

Lazy Painter’s Army List: Adeptus Custodes

Posted by johnnya10 on 05/01/2022

Posted in: Lists and Tactics. Tagged: adeptus custodes. Leave a comment

It’s time for our second LPAL of the day and this time we’re looking at the Emperor’s true Golden Boys (sit down Ultramarines), the Adeptus Custodes. Thank you to GW for sending me the book to work with and look through.

It’s also worth noting that if you’re a fan of Imperial lore in the 41st Millennium, this book is a must have. There are some truly delightful touches in the lore sections, with the ‘Deeds of Legend’ sections in particular being a real treat. And on a purely aesthetic note, I love the ‘old gold’ palette that this book uses throughout – perfect for the faction it deals with.

Now, after the abject failure that was my attempt to do a small 2000 point army for the Genestealer Cults, it’s nice to be sat working with a faction that I know I can produce a very small army list for in terms of model count. So let’s go with a bit of a challenge – let’s aim for less than 20 models. Should be fun. And for those not familiar with these lists, I aim for limited repetition, fun to play with on the tabletop, and a very low model count for us painters who don’t have time to work on more expansive armies. Let’s see what I can do with the Adeptus Custodes…

HQ Choices

We’re going to build our entire force inside a single Vanguard Detachment for this, allowing me to take advantage of the cool and costly Elites choices available, but before we get onto them, let’s see who’ll be leading the army. For a start, we’ll take a Shield Captain on Dawneagle Jetbike with a Salvo Launcher and a Misericordia because all of that looks and sounds very cool. The Custodes jetbikes are one of my favourite things in this range so expect to see more of these ‘Movement 14”’ monsters later on. And because I like to get the new stuff into these lists when I can, we’re going to add a Blade Champion into the mix. His Vaultswords have plenty of different profiles making him very handy whatever the enemy throws at this army.

Elites

Let’s start with the two Contemptor Dreadnoughts I’m adding in here as these remain some of my favourite units in the game, and I’ll probably be giving them each multi-meltas because why the hell wouldn’t I? Then we’re taking two units of 3x Allarus Custodians, all armed with an additional Misericordia (don’t want to get too bogged down with hordes and these will help). I also just happen to think the Allarus are a little cooler-looking than your standard Custodes. Then we’re going to give those dudes a bit of support with a Vexilus Praetor in Allarus armour because those Vexilla options are too sweet not to employ in a force like this.

Fast Attack

This is easy for me – two units of 3x Vertus Praetors on their jetbikes, with each unit packing a Salvo Launcher and a bunch more Misericordias to ensure they can take on any enemy.

Heavy Support

A Land Raider. Because it’s big, packs plenty of firepower and despite its age, these rolling boxes still have a habit of scaring your opponents. If they focus on trying to bring this down, the rest of your army has a chance of getting into the fight unscathed.

Army List:

Vanguard Detachement –

HQ – Shield Captain on Dawneagle Jetbike

HQ – Blade Champion

Elites – Contemptor Dreadnought

Elites – 3x Allarus Custodians

Elites – Vexilus Praetor in Allarus Terminator Armour

Fast Attack – 3x Vertus Praetors

Heavy Support – Land Raider

Points: 1956 (with 44 points to spend on one of the Captain-Commander traits)

Model Count: 18 (now that’s a nice number for any army!)

Army Name: Old, Gold and Bold

Additional Stuff:

Pretty simple tactics for this one. Big tank sits at the back and uses its long range to force the enemy to hide. Your small core of footsloggers move up to the centre to hold and fight, with the Dreads dealing with anything armoured that gets too close. Finally, you have seven jetbikes to zoom around, take back-field objectives and take on anything they want to. I’m not saying it’ll be great, but I think this list could be a lot of fun for the right person.

Looking through the Shield Hosts, I’d take this army as Emperor’s Chosen due to the access it has to a 4+ FNP and a “Salamander” reroll. That’ll help things survive a little longer for sure, and who doesn’t enjoy a cheeky reroll?

And that’s it really. A very fun, simple and low model count army – we shall call that a success! It’s always nice to put together a successful list, and it’s a fun codex to play around with for sure. Frankly, I’m just happy I managed to get through the whole post without calling them “Custards”… dammit! So close! Anyway, until next time, happy hobbying. Onwards!

Lazy Painter’s Army List: Maggotkin of Nurgle

Posted by johnnya10 on 11/12/2021

Posted in: Lists and Tactics. Tagged: age of sigmar, Nurgle. Leave a comment

It’s time to get gross and gribbly, folks. Games Workshop were kind enough to send me a copy of the brand-spanking-new Maggotkin of Nurgle Battletome and I’ve now had the time to get my head around this disgusting book and I’ve come up with a stomach-churning army list for all of you nauseating lazy painters out there.

Before we crack on with the post and the list, a quick word about this book, and that word would be, in the very best way; yuk. It’s a well put together battletome and a book packed with all the grossness you’d expect from a Nurgle product. The list of units is tight, the rules are very fun, and I’ve had a lot of fun reading this book, even if I have to put it down every now and again because it makes me feel queasy. Now, let’s make a list.

If you’ve not read one of these posts before, here’s the deal; I take a brand new battletome and try to create an army that is low on model count, packed full of interesting things to paint and with little duplication. I do this so that all of you lazy painters out there (don’t worry – I’m a lazy painter too) can put together an army that you can paint quickly to enjoy games with it on the tabletop. That’s why I’ll also talk tactics a little bit here and I always try to find some synergy with the units. I doubt I’ll help you win tournaments, but if I can help you pick out a low model count army that will be fun to play with, then I’m doing my job.

Now, you may be thinking that I’ll be going down the “3 Great Unclean Ones and a bunch of plaguebearers” route but I won’t be. For a start, I wouldn’t have the patience to paint 3 Great Unclean Ones, and the 30 Plaguebearers you need to bring for matched play is far too many of the same mini for my liking. Also, if you were running that list at 2000 points (that’s what we aim for here), you could also squeeze in an endless spell and if you take the Befouling Host Plague Legion rules (which you would), you’ll have two Feculent Gnarlmaws to work on too. That’s 36 models! Those are rookie numbers! Also, it’s a bit beardy for me, though it does allow you to use the Thricefold Befoulment Core Battalion (which is pretty decent):

So instead, I’ve put together a list that puts that to shame and gives you a lot of fun painting challenges, variety, and far fewer models too. What’s more, I reckon it will do ok on the tabletop. Let’s take a look…

Leaders

Go big or go home, I say. That’s why the Glotkin is my first pick. They use up a ton of points, but given that this is a Nurgle list, the fact that they clock in at 700 is very pleasing. Also pleasing are the 20 wounds, the sheer damage it can do, and the Abundance of Flesh spell is a particular favourite of mine – on a 6+, one friendly unit within 14” gets to add 1 to their wounds characteristic until the start of the next hero phase. Very tasty (in a vomit-inducing kind of way). I’m also throwing Horticulous Slimux into the mix for the painters to enjoy. His Beast Handler rule is wasted a bit here (as I’m not taking any beasts) but we’re taking him for his ability to help us plant another Gnarlmaw and, well, because he looks cool.

Battleline

We will be taking two units of 5 Putrid Blightkings. These chonky chappies are just nasty (in a good way) and at 4 wounds each, with their 4+ save and of course Disgustingly Resilient, they should be hanging around for a while. And for a bit of variation, we’re going to bring 10 Plaguebearers – they’re literally here so that you don’t have to paint a third unit of Blightkings, you get a third battleline unit, and they look kind of nice too (the models may be old, but I think they’re more ‘classic’ these days).

Other Units

We’re going to take a pair of Pusgoyle Blightlords because anything that moves more than 4” base in this army is a boon, and they can deal out some mortal wounds if you buzz them into the opponent’s chaff units. And because we can take one for free, we’ll have a Feculent Gnarlmaw too – it’ll be handy with how this army plays once we rack up some disease points to bring it forth.

Army List

The Glottkin (Leader, Behemoth)

Horticulous Slimux (Leader)

5x Putrid Blightkings (Battleline)

10x Plaguebearers (Battleline)

2x Pusgoyle Blightlords

Feculent Gnarlmaw

Points: 1995

Model Count: 26 (25 above and a second Feculent Gnarlmaw that Horti plants)

Army Name: Slow & Spready

Additional Stuff:

This army is really all about sitting back and letting the enemy come to you. Spread out and get the objectives you can, but you will not be racing up the battlefield with this damn slow army. What you have are a lot of wounds, decent saves, ways to improve your units’ durability and an army that your opponent won’t want to get anywhere near. And with Disgustingly Resilient on your side too, you should be able to take a lot of punishment, and once your opponent reaches you, they are in for a really hard time. You’ll be healing your own wounds while inflicting a lot of damage on them. You will need to bring some tracking tools with you to keep an eye on disease points and contagion points, so there’s some maths to be done here, but anything getting too close to you will very much regret it.

I should also say that if you wanted to make it slightly more competitive, I’d probably swap Horti out for a Lord of Afflictions who will give you a bit more movement and buff your Pusgoyles too. But I think that snail riding gardener is one of the most characterful models in the army (maybe even the game) and I’d be loathe to leave him out. Or, if you want to make him play a bit more of a roll, drop the Pusgoyles for a pair of beasts. You’ll lose a lot of manoeuvrability though if you do that, but it might not be a bad call if you’re happy to sit back. Either way, you still won’t need to paint more than 26 models for the army (even if one of those is the monstrous Glottkin).

I’d also give this army the Blessed Sons Plague Legion rules as it will help to infect all of your enemies and when combined with the Spread Rampant Disease Grand Stategy, this could be a real winner in matched play games.

It’s also worth stating that while this book definitely rewards you for taking either mortal or daemon armies through the buffs and boons characters confer on other units, you don’t get the sense that you lose out by taking a blend of mortal and daemon. There are plenty of buffs in this short but flexible roster. It’s really nicely balanced in that sense, and it gives you lots of options depending on how you want to build things. A very well done to the writers on that score.

One last note from me – I am going to be building myself a Maggotkin army in the new year. My Stormcast are nearly done and I like the idea of not really having to worry about a movement phase. Plus, I have so much fun painting gribbly things, I know I’ll have a blast. When work get under way in the new year, you’ll hear about it all here first. Onwards!

Randomly Generated Army Lists – Can You Break The Meta With Chance? (part 1)

Posted by johnnya10 on 04/10/2021

Posted in: Lists and Tactics. Tagged: orruks, soulblight gravelords, stormcast eternals. Leave a comment

I heard a funny story from a friend of mine the other day. He’s a Tyranid player but is accepting of his lot in the game at the moment. Ask any Nids player and they’ll tell you that, on the tabletop, the faction sucks. I personally can’t speak to that, having not played against a Tyranid army since I think 6th edition, but I can believe it. I never hear anyone talking about how hot Tyranids are in the meta, so I’m happy to go along with their lack of winning options. But my friend told me a tale of the one list that has performed well in the last few years, making it to the heady heights of 3rd (please be aware that there’s some grape-vining going on here so I may not get details like that exactly right, and there might be some scuttlebutt in here but if it’s not exactly true, it’s a pleasant and believable fiction so we can ride with it) in a tournament. This list was, apparently, completely randomly generated. And I can believe that.

Around the time of 5th or 6th, I remember hearing tales of an Eldar list that won a tournament. Now, this isn’t the eldar of today, which consistently performs well in games, but the Eldar pre-serpent-shield when they, well, they sucked. They were at that point the worst army in the game pretty much, so how did they win in an era governed by Draigo-wings, Screamer-stars, the Old School Lash of Slaanesh and whatever vileness the Necrons had going on? Well, they won because no one imagined a good player would bring this list. Everyone was set up to deal with those top tier tricks and combos, but they didn’t have an answer for a load of Fire Dragons melting everything, or Dire Avengers shredding their stuff.

The point of recanting this tale is that it’s another example of an army doing well because in any system where there is “a meta” it is not unusual for said meta to become blind to anything outside of itself. Armies are selected to deal with the big problems that everyone’s going to bring, so when someone brings something unusual, the unusual list can take advantage of the fact that no-one was expecting to ever see that on the table. Ok, so 95% of the time, the most meta-centric lists will win, but, personally, I’d live for the one time in 20 that I brought something no-one was expecting and got a good result with it. Now that’s a thrill.

So, where are we going with this? Well, this idea has been swirling around in my head for a little while now and so I got a bunch of the new Battletomes and Codexes, and my big set of strangely shaped dice, and I set out to create six completely random army lists. And when I say completely random, I mean completely random. I won’t go into every dice roll, but if there was a choice to be made, I made that choice with dice alone.

In today’s post, we’re going to be looking just at Age Of Sigmar armies, and in the next one, we’ll look at 40k Armies. I’ll walk you through a bit of the dice rolling here and there, and I’ll give you my opinions as to their tactical play (like I’m someone you should take seriously on that front). I want to see if my dice can create an army capable of upsetting the meta in any way. Let’s start with:

Stormcast Eternals:

List Name: Draco-Blobs

Leader: Lord Celestant on Dracoth

Leader: Lord Commander Bastian Carthalos

Battleline: 5x Judicators with Skybolt Bows

Battleline: 5x Sequitors

Battleline: 5x Liberators

5x Vanguard Hunters

2x Dracothian Guard Desolators

3x Vanguard Paladors

3x Annihilators

Points: 1950

The Army: So, this one was a bit strange. For a start, I didn’t roll for anything big – something I was slightly concerned about for future armies but it turned out I needn’t have been. We got a few Dracoths though, which are pretty handy, and the weirdest thing was I rolled the first two Lord Celestants as my first two picks. I then realised, as I was doing matched play, I’d need at least three Battleline units so I rolled for them and got an interesting mix. Then I asked myself “should I add another leader?” and the dice said yes, so Carthalos got added to the mix after another roll. I also rolled for a unit of Aetherwings, but when I added things up, they took the total over 2000 points, and as they were the last thing rolled for, they had to go, so we’re coming in exactly 50 points light here.

There is a little synergy here. With any Stormcast army, the troops choices can be hard to shift from objectives but obviously, you lose the numbers game typically if things get contested. There’s a nice speedy contingent with the Dracoths and Paladors, and a little fire-support too. I think ol’ Bastian and the Annihilators will look very scary and can slowly trudge to do whatever they want.

Personally, I think this would just look like a bit of a fish out of water list and I doubt anyone but the most mastermindedly (not a word) of generals could get much out of this one. Nope, I don’t think this is really it. It will have the all the strengths of the faction, but no-one’s mind is goign to be blown (in a good way) by this list.

Soulblight Gravelords:

List Name: A Little Doing A Lot

Leader/Behemoth: Nagash, Supreme Lord of the Undead

Leader: Kritza, The Rat Prince

Leader/Behemoth: Prince Vhordrai

Battleline: 10x Deathrattle Skeletons

5x Blood Knights

Points: 1955

The Army: Oh boy. When the first thing you roll for is Nagash, you know there aren’t going to be many more rolls. When Vhordrai comes out two rolls later, you start worrying if you’re going to get a legal army into 2000 points. In fact, originally, I rolled for a couple of 30 man units of Skeletons and that killed the list, so after consulting the dice, they were reduced to 10 man units and thank Nagash that a unit of Blood Knights came out to fill the last points out quite nicely. And with 45 points left over, you should have enough to add in an Endless Spell for Nagash to play around with too.

I don’t think many people would expect to see this. You’ve got a couple of big beasts in there (two of the biggest in the game really) and they can do a lot of damage, but the Skeletons are likely to get blown to pieces, and I don’t really know what the Rat Prince is doing int there to be honest, but I don’t think all is lost. Vhordrai and the Blood Knights can do some serious damage when paired together – not much is going to be able to handle that charge. And Nagash is, well, Nagash – a terrifying thing to play against on any occasion. But you’re asking Nagash and the chargers to do all of the heavy lifting here and that could prove too much. If those skeleton blobs could have been a little bigger, or if we could have squeezed one other threat into this army, but alas, the dice said no.

Not a lost cause by any means, and you will have some sort of element of surprise, but I remain skeptical.

Orruk Warclans

List Name: A Great Green Tide

Leader: Orruk Warchanter

Leader/Behemoth: Killaboss on Corpse-rippa Vulcha

Leader/Behemoth: Gobsprakk, The Mouth of Mork

Leader/Behemoth: Swampboss Skumdrekk

Battleline: 5x Orruk Ardboyz

Battleline: 10x Gutrippaz

Artillery: Beast-skewer Killbow

10x Hobgrot Slittaz

3x Goregruntas

Ironskull’s Boyz

Marshcrawla Sloggoth

Points: 1995

The Army: Ok, this is more like it. You’ve got a very solid core with plenty of bodies, some fast movers and big monsters, some buffers, and even a bit of artillery support. I rolled for a Big Waaagh, and then I rolled to include Ironjawz and Kruleboyz but none of the Bonesplittaz, so I was worried this would look like the “Fist Mouth” list I did for the Lazy Painter’s guide a little while back. Happily though, it’s nice and different – and actually quite well balanced.

You’re going to have a good advantage on objective holding thanks to your numbers, and the Sloggoth and Warchanter can help out the footslogging units. Meanwhile, as your Killbow chips away at anything you want it to, the three behemoths and the Goregruntas can charge head-first into the enemy. I’m not sure if this list is breaking any new ground, but I think the dice have been rather kind to us with this one.

I’ve got to give it a high score really. I could see this winning, though movement trays are probably a must just to ensure you don’t get timed out. You’ve got a lot of model moving to do, but I can’t see any real downsides to this list!

=][=

So, what have we learned with this experiment thus far? Well, it’s a bit of a mixed bag really. I don’t think the Stormcast list will rock anyone’s world but I don’t think anyone would be expecting it. The Soulblight List looks like it’ll be fun but a few bad rolls and you’re going to be in a lot of trouble. The Orruks list though looks decent enough, and there’s some good synergy in there. So I’d say we have a 1.5 out of 3 successes really, and all of that is entirely down to the dice. I haven’t added in any faction rules, warlord traits or relics here, but if you spot something in that vein that could work with any of these, pop it into the comments.

In our next post, we’ll give the 40k side of things a go and determine whether or not, once and for all, if random armies can be trusted. Onwards!

Lazy Painter’s Army List: Stormcast Eternals

Posted by johnnya10 on 11/09/2021

Posted in: Lists and Tactics. Tagged: stormcast eternals. Leave a comment

Ok, this may well have been the easiest Lazy Painter’s list I’ve ever put together, due mainly to the amount of choice you have in the new Stormcast Eternals Battletome (that GW were good enough to send me) and the points cost of the models. I actually made some decent lists at very low model counts but then I worked this one out and I couldn’t not put it up here because it does kind of fit in with all of the Lazy Painter rules for creating an army. There are very (VERY) few miniatures, the vast majority of them are new, there’s not too much repetition here (there literally couldn’t be due to the low number of models) and while I can’t promise you it will win games, I can promise you that it’ll be fun finding out.

I also feel like I should add another rule – If you can take dragons in your list, you should do, because dragons are cool. You can probably now guess where I’m going with this one, so without further ado, let’s take a look.

Leaders

Karazai the Scarred looks like a boss. This gnarly old dragon likes to scrap and boy does he have some tools to help him with that. How about the fact that all melee weapons that target him have their attacks characteristic reduced by 1 (to a minimum of 1)? Or the fact that his “Annihilating Jaws” have a to hit roll of 1+ when he’s not lost more that 8 of his 18 wounds (and they cause some real damage too). He is a powerhouse of a miniature and absolutely the general for this army. And if that’s not enough, we’re also going to be taking along a Lord Celestant on Stardrake which is still as brutal as it always has been. That Rain of Stars attack – love it, man.

Battleline

Whether we choose to take Karazai or the Stardrake as our General, it doesn’t matter because either one of them will make Stormdrake Guard battleline. So we’re taking three units of two Stormdrake Guard as our Battleline. These guys are also monsters in melee, and they too carry a ranged attack in the form of their mortal wound dealing Draconic Flamestorm. And to top that all off (literally), they’ve got a Stormcast with either a Warblade that does 6 attacks, or a lance that does 3 but also gets improved stats on the charge, riding them into battle. What’s not to love!?

Other Units

There aren’t any. That’s it. It’s literally eight (8) models.

Army List:

Karazai The Scarred (Leader, Behemoth)

Lord-Celestant on Stardrake (Leader, Behemoth)

2x Stormdrake Guard (Battleline)

Points: 1965 (so you’re giving up 35 points, but… dragons, yo)

Model Count: 8. Just 8. A Lazy Painter’s record so far. And they’re dragons, yo!

Army Name: Dragons, Yo

Additional Stuff: Like i said, I don’t know if this will win you games but you will have fun with this list. From a painting point of view, imagine how colourful and cool eight dragons could be, and with only seven Stormcast Eternals riding them, this should be quick and very enjoyable to paint.

On the playing side of things, at least your games won’t drag on (get it?) as you’ll either have immolated or smashed up everything in like 3 rounds tops, or you’ll be dead yourself. More time to get a pint in post game and talk about how cool it is fielding an army of eight dragons, right? Set up will be quick, you won’t have many rules to remember, and the look on your opponent’s face will be priceless. An army built for laughs which might just have something.

Does it have something? Or is this just too nuts to work? Let me know in the comments, and until next time, Onwards, yo!

Lazy Painter’s Army List: Orruk Warclans

Posted by johnnya10 on 09/09/2021

Posted in: Lists and Tactics. Tagged: orruks. 2 Comments

Having only just worked on a Greenskins list for 40k, it’s time to take the brand new Orruk Warclans battletome for a spin after Games Workshop very kindly sent me a copy. I’m not going to do any crazy challenges with this one, so we’re going for the old school rules here. We’re going to create a 2000 point list of fun things to paint, full of new models and it should be fun and even maybe effective to play with. If you’re like me and you’re not a fan of huge armies that take too long to paint, hopefully you can have some fun with this.

Now, when it comes to the Orruk Warclans armies, you have a choice to make before you start. There are four types of armies to choose from; Kruleboyz, Ironjawz, Bonesplitterz and The Big Waaagh! and the latter allows you to take units from all three of the other options. So I have a choice to make, but it’s pretty easy for me – it’s Big Waaagh! time, baby. Let’s run down the list, that I like to call ‘Fist Mouth’.

Leaders

The reason I am calling this army ‘Fist Mouth’ is due entirely to the two behemoth-borne leaders that will make this army particularly scary. First up, we have what I still regard to be one to the coolest models in the range, Gordrakk, The Fist of Gork. He remains an absolute combat monster with the destructive bulk of his Maw-krusha and all the attacks he comes with mean you can pretty much throw Gordrakk at whatever you don’t like and he will, at the very least, cause mayhem. But he won’t be alone because we’re also taking Gobsprakk, the Mouth of Mork. While not as fighty as Gordrakk, this swamp-dwelling, vulcha-riding wizard is a great backup. What’s more, with his nasty ability when it comes to unbinding spells (with the caster suffering D3 mortal wounds, or D6 on a 10+, he can be a real pain when it comes to magic-users) and all of the other gifts he comes with, your opponent won’t be able to focus on just one of these two top bosses.

We’re also going to throw in a couple of sub-leaders into this list as well, with an Orruk Warchanter who will have some Ironjawz units to inspire when he drops those beatz, and a Swampcalla Shamen with Pot-grot to conjure up some magic for your Kruleboyz. Also any list that includes a Pot-grot is a winner in my books.

Batteline

We’re going to keep this simple and take just the three mandatory units we’d need for a matched play game. We’ve got two units of five Brutes as our Ironjawz contingent who are just as tough and fighty as they ever were, and a unit of 10 Kruleboyz Gutrippaz who we probably want to have Wicked Hackas for that 3+ to wound (rather than the 4+ on the Wicked Sticka which does have an extra inch of range. All three of these units are slow moving, but they’ll also be pretty hard to get off objectives, especially with those support leaders that we have.

Other Units

The rest of this army is made up of some really fun units that all have different jobs to do. A unit of three Man-skewer boltboyz give you some handy ranged attacks to use to protect those slow moving troops. With 24” of range on their “aimed shot”, that’s really descent range to have. Then we’re taking three Gore-gruntas to help support Goredrakk a little bit. They’ve got a wicked charge and hit like a brick so they should worry your opponents for a little while at least. Lastly we’re taking the Marshkrawla Sloggoth which is a miniature I just adore – it’s truly horrible and that’s great for the Kruleboyz. What’s more, it has abilities that will work well with the entire army, from using it’s drummer to add 1 to the hit rolls of ALL allies (so Ironjawz too), it’s ability to heal wounds every turn, and it’s got some decent attacking options as well.

The List:

Gordrakk, Fist of Gork (Leader/Behemoth)

Gobsprakk, Mouth of Mork (Leader/Behemoth)

Orruk Warchanter (Leader)

Swampcalla Shaman and Pot-grot (Leader)

5x Orruk Brutes (Battleline)

10x Gutrippaz (Battleline)

3x Man-skewer Boltboyz

3x Orruk Gore-gruntas

Marshcrawla Sloggoth

Points: Bang on 2000

Model Count: A very lazy-painter-friendly 32 miniatures and one of those is a Pot-grot. Granted, two of them are absolutely massive but it still counts because they’re a lot of fun.

Army Name: Fist Mouth

Additional Stuff: I genuinely like the look of this army, and I’m very tempted by going down this route myself as I think it would play to my strengths. You’ve got a big blob of hard to shift, constantly buffed battleline units that, while slow, will be very hard to kill, and a fast moving, hard hitting contingent to get the krumpin’ going early doors. What’s more, you can make both an Ironjawz Fist and a Kruleboyz Finga core battalion out of this army which does give you plenty of boons.

Having Gordrakk and Gobsprakk on the field is going to make your opponent very worried and I guarantee that even if those two aren’t around at the end of the battle, they’ll have taken a huge chunk of your enemies with them. We got in plenty of new awesomeness in the form of all the Kruleboyz stuff, and the Ironjawz are a faction I’ve been a big fan of since they first appeared so this is a real win for me.

Ok, so there are no Bonesplitterz in this list but I really have no problem with that. They’re a natural horde army that doesn’t really fit into the “Lazy Painter” way of thinking and if we’re being honest, the models just don’t look great compared to the big guys and the swamp guys.

You’ve got fast moving things, flying things, plenty of magic, monsters, troops and all compacted into 32 miniatures costing 2000 points. That’s not bad, right?!

Do you think we’re onto a winner with this list? Or do you think we’re stuck in the swamp? Let me know in the comments below, and until next time, Onwards!

Lazy Painter’s Army List: Thousand Sons

Posted by johnnya10 on 07/08/2021

Posted in: Lists and Tactics. Tagged: thousand sons. 5 Comments

Well this is a curious one. I’ve played a lot of Chaos armies in my time, but I’ve never looked into Tzeentch and the Rubric Marines of the Thousand Sons. I’ve played against them maybe once or twice, but I really don’t know anything about how they really operate, and especially not in 9th Edition 40k. But, GW sent me the new Thousand Sons codex so I suppose I better have a go at making one of our Lazy Painter’s lists. But I’m giving myself some caveats with this one. First off, I’m not taking Magnus. Yes, he’s a big chunk of points but, I dunno, I don’t like how he pulls the army apart a bit. Does that make sense? Probably not. Either way though – no Magnus.

Also, I actually want to try and do a Battalion for once. I usually go for Vanguard or Spearhead detachment but here, I want to see what I can do to take the full 12 command points into the game. We’ll still try and keep the model count to an absolute minimum, but we want some objective secured troops in here and a good blend of tactical options. Let’s see what we can do.

HQs

First up, we have to take Ahriman on his disc. The disc makes him faster and fightier which is nice and honestly I just love the model. He’s full of character and a natural leader for this army – definitely the warlord here. And those 3 psychic powers he can cast per turn will help a lot as well.

Then we’re taking a pair of daemon princes with wings and swords*. They’re a classic chaos HQ, and two of them are enough to scare anyone. And that sword giving each of them 5 base attacks at S8 is just tasty. Proper tasty. This also starts a theme that runs through this army. Let’s just say I’m thinking of these princes as twins…

Troops

Three squads of five Rubric Marines. They’re all running identical loadouts with each squad taking an Icon of Flame, the Sorcerer is packing a Warpflame Pistol, and one of the marines is toting a Soulreaper Cannon. The Icon will help with the magic stuff (not something I’m up with yet but this appears to be very useful to have three of these in the list), and the Warpflame Pistol and Soulreaper are in there to look cool. I mean, they should kill a lot of things too, but really they’re in there because I like the look of them.

Flyers

Two Heldrakes with each one breathing fire with a baleflamer. No, they’re not as devastating as they used to be, but alongside the daemon princes and Ahriman on his disc, I’ve got five things in this army that can fly fast and rain down a lot of pain on my enemies. And again, I may be biased by my heretical roots, but I just think they’re still the coolest looking flyers in the game.

Heavy Support

Two Maulerfiends with Lasher Tendrils. I’ve played lists with two Maulerfiends before and they always earn their points back and usually do more damage besides. Those fists crack armour like nothing else, and those lasher tendrils are great at preventing them from getting bogged down in tarpits. And with 10″ movement and an ability to ignore charge modifiers, it’s another fast one. Well, another fast two in this instance.

Elites

Two squads of five Scarab Occult terminators each with a Heavy Warpflamer and a Hellfyre Missile Rack. 3 Wound monsters with a lot of firepower and a 2+/5++ and the ability to cast more psychic powers, plus the fact they are awesome looking miniatures, these chaps may be dusty, but I reckon it’s gold dust. Imagine trying to clear that lot out of the centre of the battlefield.

The List:

HQ: Ahriman on his disc

HQ: Daemon Prince with wings and sword

Troops: 5x Rubric Marines with an Icon, a Soulreaper and a fiery pistol

Elites: 5x Scarab Occult Termies with a missile rack and a heavy flamer

Heavy Support: Maulerfiend with Lasher Tendrils

Flyer: Heldrake with Baleflamer

Points: bang on 2000

Model Count: 32 – not too shabby.

Army Name: The Flaming Twins of Tzeentch

Additional stuff: You can pick one of the Cults of the Legion profiles for yourself – I like the Cult of Scheming but there are lots of options. Same goes for relics and Infernal Pacts but with Ahriman as the warlord, he’ll have the Otherworldly Prescience rule which gives him a once per game 3+ invuln save which could certainly be helpful.

How it plays: Well, I can tell you how I’d play it, which may not be the best guide but it should be fun. Everything fast runs up the field beating things up and setting things on fire (I do love the amount of flamers we have in this list) with psychic powers pinging off all over the shop, while the core of Rubrics and Terminators slowly advance and take objectives and offer a solid second wave of attacks.

I know in the past I’ve tried not to do too many duplicates of units, so it was weird copying/pasting all those entries into that list but I reckon you could have a lot of fun painting each pair as the opposite of each other. One heldrake is blue with yellow trim, while the other is yellow with blue trim. Same with the daemon princes, maulerfiends, and scarab occults. Then do a big blue classic blob of rubrics led by Ahriman. I can feel a theme coming through easily there and that always makes an army a treat to paint. I’ll just have to hope it’s a treat to play as well.

Do you think I’d do well with this? How does it stack up against the Grey Knights list from earlier today? Let me know in the comments. Have a great day, and be good to yourself and others. Onwards.

(*) Gah! I did not take into account the Jealous Tyrant rule which someone on twitter pointed out. So I can only take one Daemon Prince in a detachment. I’ve looked, and I like the idea of the army looking like this so much, I’m just going to take him as an auxiliary detachment and take the CP hit. I’m having me two daemon princes, gosh darn it!

Lazy Painter’s Army List: Grey Knights

Posted by johnnya10 on 07/08/2021

Posted in: Lists and Tactics. Tagged: Grey Knights. Leave a comment

Ok, I’ll admit that I’ve been looking forward to this one. You see, not too long ago (well, 5th or 6th edition – one of those… maybe it was a long time ago) Grey Knights had one of the all time lazy painter army lists ever. It was called Draigo Wing and consisted of Kaldor Draigo, a couple of units of Paladins (which he made troop choices) and typically a Nemesis Dreadknight or two. A 2000 point army would consist of around 20-25 models and at one point it was also one of the best playing armies ever. People were terrified of facing this thing. So this should be a really fun challenge today – can we put together a 2000pt Draigo Wing army in 9th edition? Well, GW were nice enough to send me the new Codex, so let’s see what we can put together.

HQs

Of course, if we’re doing Draigo Wing, we need Kaldor Draigo – everyone’s favourite warp-bound screaming lunatic who will smash face with the best of them. He’s still ridiculously tanky in combat and in the hand-to-hand encouraging 9th edition, he’s a proper beast. That Titansword is looking very tasty, and the buffs he can give out are pretty nice too.

Alongside him, we’re taking a fully decked out Grand Master in Nemesis Dreadknight. The baby carrier warsuit is coming equipped with a Heavy Psycannon, Gatling Psilencer and a Nemesis Greatsword, along with a teleport homer for mobility. Yes, he clocks in at a lot of points but you get a fast, 13 wound, 6 attacks base monster with a 2+/4++. Not many people are going to want to get too close to him! Oh, and I’m giving him the Presaged Paralysis ability from the “Visions of Augurium” powers. This means that once per battle, I can stop my opponents using overwatch against him. Lol.

Elites

We’re taking 5 units of 5x Paladins here and while two squads will be decked out with a pair of incinerators and a lot of falchions, the third squad will be rocking 4x Nemesis Daemon Hammers and a Psycannon. I love that these guys now have 3 wounds each and add that to their similarly impressive statline and saves, these really are the elite of the elite. Oh and they of course get to pop psychic powers like almost everything else in the list. Two squads are decked out to churn through hordes with flame and sword, and the 3rd could go toe-to-toe with some of the biggest baddies in the game.

I’m also taking along an Ancient who can back up one of these units with his buffs in combat. Yes, it does mean buying a 4th box of Grey Knight Terminators but I think it’s worth it for the abilities here. Teleport this guy in with a squad you want to do extra extra damage in combat and you’ll be able to herd most opponents like cattle around the tabletop.

And last in the elites slot, but certainly not least, a Grey Knights Venerable Dreadnought with a heavy flamer on one fist and a tank killing twin-linked lascannon on the other arm. It’s always nice to find a way to squeeze a boxy dread into any list and this guy is definitely not just making up the numbers. Aside from the weapons, that’s yet another psychic power to pop off in that phase.

Heavy Support

Stick with the classics. A Nemesis Dreadknight with teleporter, Greatsword, Heavy Incinerator and Heavy Psycannon. It can go hard in hand-to-hand but boy can it also shoot good. Well worth the points. There’s not really much else to say about it – it will do what you need it to do.

Flyer

Because while almost everything here can teleport, having something zoomy and bulky in the skies above the battlefield always helps. And a Stormraven, it of the flying brick legend, is still a good buy even if you’re dropping a lot of points on it. But it does have twin lascannons and twin multi-meltas. Oh, and it can even drop our Venerable Dreadnought off somewhere if you want that chonky boi to have a bit of extra speed.

The List:

HQ – Kaldor Draigo

HQ – Grand Master in Nemesis Dreadknight with sword, heavy cannon, gatling psi and a teleporter + PP

Elites – 5x Paladins with 2x Incinerators and a lot of falchions

Elites – 5x Paladins with 4x daemon hammers and a psycannon

Elites – Paladin Ancient with psycannon

Elites – Venerable Dreadnought with twin las and a flamer fist

Heavy Support – Nemesis Dreadknight with sword, heavy cannon, incinerator and a teleporter

Flyer – Stormraven Gunship with multi-meltas and twin las

Points: 2000 (well, it might be 1990 – my maths for this list did go a bit all over the shop – either way it’s good)

Model Count: 21. …21! I think I’m in love! That’s proper Draigo Wing numbers!

List Name: Draigo Wing 2021

I’ll let you work out what relics to take, and there’s also the “Brotherhoods” system which gives you access to specific strategems, warlord traits and psychic powers. I like the “Prescient Brethren” for this list but you might have other ideas. I was hoping the above would fit into one Vanguard detachment but alas it doesn’t – you can only have one Grand Master per detachment and that’s Draigo, so you have to sacrifice 2cp to take the other Grand Master as an auxiliary choice. If you don’t want to pay the CP, You could just slot in another underarmed suit and slip a Brotherhood Champion in there, so you’d keep the firepower, but you’d be up to 22 models then and that just feels like too many!

How Does It Play?

To be honest, I reckon this will do very well. You’ve got enough hammers and swords to tear up anything else in combat, and with all the lascannons and psycannons, you could put down an army of superheavy tanks without too much issue. You can teleport a great chunk of it straight into you enemy lines, and if you’d rather sit back, let’s see how the enemy likes all those flamers and stormbolters. Ok, you have no objective secured, but do you think your opponent will have an army left after turn 3? I wouldn’t be so sure. And let’s not forget you’ll be popping off up to 8 psychic powers in that phase! And thanks to the Aegis, Mortal Wounds aren’t even as scary as they would be to other armies this small.

Honestly, at just 21 models, I am mega tempted by this. It’s a rules heavy army, so I’d need to remember a lot (which I’m not great at these days) but 21 models and that much hurt to dish out? Tempted. Genuinely tempted.

That’s your lot for this one. I hope you like the list. I love the fact that you can run a Draigo Wing type list in 2021 and 9th edition. Wonderful news indeed. Have a lovely rest of your day, and I’ll be back with more very soon. Onwards!

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