Current Lists and Updates.

[Bestaltan]

I figure I'll just make a single thread, and update with new lists as I go along. What I'm going to try this coming Friday for my game night:

Legion of Blood
Grand Strategy: Lust for Domination

Battle Regiment:
Neferata--Spells: Waste Away, Fading Vigor--390

Skeletons--Double reinforced--255
Dire wolves--130
Dire wolves--130
Blood knights--reinforced--460
Grave guard with great weapons--reinforced--280

Command Entourage: Extra spell
Vampire lord--General, tunnel master, Spells: Vile transference, soulpike
Necromancer--Spells: Waste away, prison of grief
Wight king--amulet of screams

Comes out to 2000 points on the dot. I'd love comments.

 

[The Sun King]

Cool list! Can you tell a bit about your plans?

I really like Spirit Gale over Vile Transference (range 9" is just so limited).

I am also curious why you chose extra spell instead of artefact? It seems that you don’t need the extra spells?

 

[Bestaltan]

The ultimate plan is to get some punchiness into the list. A 30 block of skellies can tank most things with Blood, but I’ve been finding that my damage output was low, even with a VLOZD. That hurts against Destruction armies.

Now, as for damage output……..Here’s a Vyrkos list I might try this weekend. The tankiness isn’t there like it would be with Blood, but this list should hit like a truck with the right placement and charges. Radukar triggers the vampire lord when he fights, vampire lord triggers his bodyguard when he fights. Grace guard get extra attacks from Radukar and the vampire lord. Making sure I have the right unit placement is the key.

Vyrkos
Grand Strat—Lust for Domination

Battle regiment:
Radukar the Beast—General, Driven by Deathstench
Belladamma—Spirit Gale
Death rattle skeletons—Reinforced
Death rattle skeletons—Reinforced
Dire wolves
Dire wolves
Blood knights—Reinforced

Galletian Command:
Vampire lord—Vile transference, phylactery, furled by ghurish rage
Grave guard—Reinforced

corpse cart

comes out to 2000 on the dot.

 

[The Sun King]

Nice use of Galletian Command! Let us know how it goes!

 

[Bestaltan]

My big question with this list is......Do I split the reinforced unit of knights? That gives me some more flexibility. Also, by dropping a unit of wolves I could get a necromancer. The plan with this list is to really control combat, and dropping prison of grief onto an opponent's unit means I control combat even more.

 

[The Sun King]

I would not cut wolves, but that is because I prefer bodies on the board. However I would consider switching the Vampire Lord for a Wight King that can go into the grave with the Grave Guards. If you make him make him the general and give him Driven By Deathstench you also get GG as battleline, not that it is super important in this list.

 

[Bestaltan]

Replacing the vamp lord with the wight king would put me 5 points over. The one thing I like better about 40K than AoS.........5 points is an easy fix in 40K.

 

[The Sun King]

Ahhh true, that is annoying. Hopefully they will remove all the 5 points in the next battlescroll.

 

[Bestaltan]

Now that I've spoken it into existence, I'm wondering if a galletian command detachment might be a nice play into Legion of Blood. Vamp lord gets an extra attack, give him flaming weapon for 6 3D attacks, then activate a big unit of grave guard.

 

[Bestaltan]

Update to my first list. I really like the vibe of this. The plan is to both use Blood's defensive abilities to hold units down and control combat a decent amount. Losing out on vampire spell lore isn't great, though.

Legion of Blood
Grand strategy--Lust for Domination

Battle Regiment:
Neferata--Prison of Grief--390
Necromancer--Waste Away--90
Skeletons--double reinforced--255
Dire wolves--130
Dire wolves--130
Dire wolves--130
Blood knights-Reinforced--460

Galletian Command:
Vampire Lord--General, Tailored Downfall, Flaming Weapon, Cloak of Mist and Shadows, Fuelled by Ghurish Rage--130
Grave Guard--Reinforced, Great blades--280

1995/2000

 

[Macarian]

Looks nice, I'm curious how the list plays. Do let us know after some games!

 

[Bestaltan]

Finally got to play a game with that last list I posted against Stormcast. It was a pretty lopsided win for the undead against a very veteran player. Here are my thoughts:

1. I had changed out flaming weapon on my vamp lord for spirit gale. With luck, it is a BRUTAL spell. Granted I rolled very hot with it (four straight 9+ rolls), but that one spell forced him into having to use heroic recovery a ton just to keep his characters alive. It was a legit game changing spell.
2. Prison of grief is an incredibly strong spell if you have two hammer units who are about to do work.
3. Even a 10 model squad of grave guard can still put out big damage with the camp lord buff.
4. Our ability to bring back dead units just outside 3” of enemy units is something I’m certain will get nerfed. It’s too good.
5. 30 skeletons getting hit by four fulminators = 6 skeletons left (thank you Neferata for the debuffs). After my next turn, I had 22 skeletons. After my turn after that, I was back up to a full 30 again. Something tells me skellies are going to get hit with either a point increase or nerf.
6. My blood knights weren’t that great with damage output (Go figure, one thing SCE do well is tank). What they did do is soak up four rounds worth of damage while keeping a large portion of his army tied up with them.

 

[The Sun King]

Congrats on the win!
1. I agree that it is a good spell. It is brutal when you get your 9+. Just don't count on it.
2. Yeah it is powerful effect, what two hammer units did you use it with?
3. That’s the beauty of bringing them back from 20 to 10, they are still a threat and they will be where they need to be.
4. I really hope you are wrong, if they nerf that the army will not be able to compete at the highest level IMO.
5. Im not sure I get the hype about skeletons, surely it is Neffys Red Mist that is the powerful effect here?
6. Yeah they really do tank, but did you remember their mortal wounds on movement? Seems to be a good way to deal with SCR saves.

 

[Bestaltan]

Oh, I really hope I’m wrong about bringing back units just outside 3” too. As for the two hammer units, it was a reinforced unit of knights and a reinforced unit of grave guard. And the grave guard did some work!

From my games, Neferata’s combo with skellies really stems from twilight’s allure. The -1 to hit typically gives just enough of a debuff to keep a few skellies alive, before any other buffs even come into play. As long as a few are left alive, whatever was attacking them is now officially tarpitted. I even had a block of skellies tank King Grodd and a mancrusher for a turn. Course, then I got double turned……We won’t talk about that game.

 

[Bestaltan]

Played against a Disciples of Tzeentch army last night. Decided to try a Vyrkos list with:

Radukar the Beast
Belladamma
Necromancer
Vamp lord

2x10 dire wolves
30 skellies
2x20 Grave guard
Mortis engine

We called it after turn 3 because it was such a SLOW game, but it looked very likely that I would pulled out the win. My thoughts:

1. I want to like the mortis engine. I really do. But it’s just not good.
2. Radukar is good, but I don’t think necessary. Grave guard still buzz saw through anything even without his +1 attack on the charge. And while his attack profile looks good on paper, he just doesn’t punch enough for his point cost.
3. Best. Heroic actions. In. The. Game. I was begging my opponent to kill more wolves so that I could keep adding to the one unit that wasn’t taking damage. I think I got it up to 16-17 wolves from a start of 10.
4. The phylactery is a nice relic. Not much else to say about it.
5. Against any army that can do decent counter magic, Belladamma has the potential to be a paperweight the whole game.
6. Vyrkos feels strong. Just not as strong as Blood.

 

[The Sun King]

Nice! Really good insights! Love it.