Magic-Heavy Competitive but Balanced List, 2500 points

[Sistine_shrapnel]

So after many, many revisions this is the list I've come up with. What do you think?

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Level 4 Sorceress with Black Staff, Power Stone and Dispel Scroll on Dark Pegasus - 390
Level 2 Sorceress with Seal of Ghrond and Tome of Furion on Dark Pegasus – 230
Death Hag BSB with Cauldron of Blood - 225
Assassin with Additional Hand Weapon, Handbow, Manbane, Rending Stars and Cloak of Twilight - 181

5 Dark Riders with Repeater Crossbows and Musician – 117
5 Dark Riders with Repeater Crossbows and Musician – 117
5 Dark Riders with Repeater Crossbows and Musician – 117
10 Corsairs with Handbows - 100
5 Harpies – 55
5 Harpies - 55
5 Harpies - 55
5 Harpies - 55

7 Witch Elves - 70
5 Cold One Knights with Dread Knight and Caledor's Bane - 186
14 Black Guard, Tower Master with Crimson Death, Standard Bearer and Banner of Murder – 260
5 Shades with Great Weapons - 91
Royal War Hydra – 175

Total: 2499

[Seralkith]

Hi there, I'd say your list is certainly is interesting!

First thing would be some illegal builds.

Your Lv. 4 can't have three arcane items, only one is allowed sadly, and your dread knight can't have over 25 pts of items. Caledor's bane is too expensive for him.

I wouldn't really bother with the Dread Knight myself, though some people do. If your going to have him bump up the unit to 6 so he get's "Look out Sir"

With so many fast elements what are your BG and witches going to be doing? And your cauldron?

I like the speed here, it's different from what we're used to seeing now, but i think alot of people would say to merge 2 of the DR units into one and give them shields to act as medium cav.

I love the number of harpies you've got. It's just going to be hilarious for you to see your opponents face with that flock headed his way.

Also shades are best with the additional hand weapon choice now. A unit of 5 will die beofre they get to strike in combat.

To Add to this list I might say swap the BG and witches for another hydra, and add a 2nd unit of coldone knights.

That's just a start. hopefully some other people will add to this for ya. Good luck!

[Sistine_shrapnel]

I thought Power Stones and Dispell scrolls didn't count toward that limit, since they are Common Items?

Damn. I missed that. I could give him a Deathpiercer, but is the Killing Blow worth it?

I imagined I would deploy the Cauldron, Black Guard, Witches and Corsairs in a block, with the cauldron at the back, the line of witches, then the guard, then the Corsairs to screen them. I could also stick the witches behind a unit of harpies.

There will be a time delay between the arrival of the Cauldron and the attacks of the fast stuff, but I'm relying on my disruption units to stop them responding effectively, and once it gets there, shiz will hit the proverbial fan.

I'm not sure that I'd really need another flanking unit: I already have the Cold One Knights, the Witches, the Shades, and the Hydra.

Thanks =] I'm planning to take Daemonette torsoes and legs, Ghoul arms, and feathered wings, paint them mostly in whites, then spatter them with blood and filth.

Why will a unit of five die? Don't they strike first on the charge? What's the new benefit for hand weapons?

I'd rather not add a second Hydra because although I want to play competitively, I'm trying to create a list that doesn't use the standard power builds.

[Babnik]

@ Sistine. It looks like I was not the last druchii player to read the 8th ed rules...
Close combat is ruled by I now. Regardless who charged. Means our shades/great weapons lost a lot of interest. AHW is the only viable option to hunt warmachines and other light units.

[Meteor]

GW is still viable for hunting war machines. It enables us to actually wound what we hit. I've experienced far too often ten attacks that fail to wound or they don't break then we're bogged down for endless rounds of combats.

Although I've had lucky days where 4 Harpies rear Big 'Uns and kill five of them xD

[Sistine_shrapnel]

Ahh... yeah. I haven't read them yet I confess. I may just scrap the shades then. Where do you think the points might be better spent? More witches? A Chariot?

What about the other questions?

[Masamune]

All of the items in the rule book are the "common" items. An item is either a magic weapon, magic armour, magic talisman, arcane item, or enchanted item. You can only have one from each category per character. This means just one arcane item. So if you take dispel scroll you can not take black staff, focus familiar, power stone, or any other arcane item whether it is from the DE book or the rule book.

With shades the issue is that your armour probably won't hold up to get your GW attacks off in many cases. DE have a higher I like all elves and so taking advantage of that with AHW is really the best way to go. If you kill off your target then you can live to go after something else. If you lose half or more of your unit before you get to strike then it is far less effective. GW are situational, though for general use AHW perform better.

You don't need 2 hydra. They are obviously great value and against most armies will destroy things but it's not required.

[Sistine_shrapnel]

Alright, how about this?

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Level 4 Sorceress with Black Staff on Dark Pegasus - 345
Level 2 Sorceress with Seal of Ghrond and Tome of Furion on Dark Pegasus – 230
Death Hag BSB with Cauldron of Blood - 225
Assassin with Additional Hand Weapon, Handbow, Manbane, Rending Stars and Cloak of Twilight - 181

5 Dark Riders with Repeater Crossbows and Musician – 117
5 Dark Riders with Repeater Crossbows and Musician – 117
5 Dark Riders with Repeater Crossbows and Musician – 117
10 Corsairs with Handbows - 100
5 Harpies – 55
5 Harpies - 55
5 Harpies - 55
5 Harpies - 55

14 Witch Elves with Death Hag and Rune of Khaine - 175
5 Cold One Knights - 135
14 Black Guard, Tower Master with Crimson Death, Standard Bearer and Banner of Murder – 260
Cold One Chariot -100

Royal War Hydra – 175

Total: 2497

[Meteor]

You don't like spearmen or crossbows or something? You'll have a hard time breaking people from combat when you only have a max of two ranks. (front and second for steadfast denial). You'll have no trouble at all with baiting enemies so they fail charge constantly with that many DR and harpy units, I might add in a second Lv2 sorceress with Lore of Fire or something to add in more ranged damage before combat, instead of that Assassin. Someone definitely needs a Sac Dagger because you're relying quite heavily on magic and have minimal shooting and a deadly combat phase but lack the numbers to break units from combat.

[Valkyre]

well,

ye dont have the 25% core required, harpies and assassins dont count towards that, so its really back to the drawingboard i am afraid (finding almost 200 pts for the needed core troops will upset the list quite a bit).

[Masamune]

Beyond the issues of not being legal in composition there are a few things that are really not the way to go.

Drop the black staff on the sorc, it's not worth it. I don't think you really need two flying sorcs, especially since neither has adequate protection (ie. a ward save). If you want two flying sorcs I might do tome of furion and pendant of khaeleth on the level 2, and then on the level 4 darkstar cloak and talisman of preservation.

I don't understand where the assassin is going to go, or why he has cloak of twilight. You can't use the cloak until you reveal him, and it still uses your power dice from your pool. I would drop it. Normally people put the star sin in a unit of shades since they can get in position on the enemy right away.

You don't need that many harpies and DR. They won't win you the game and 7 units is a bit too many in my opinion.

[Meteor]

Black Staff could be useful because it doesn't stop you from casting if you fail to cast with it. And protects you from an accidental IF miscast which I experience on PoD far too often.

[Red...]

Black Staff could be useful because it doesn't stop you from casting if you fail to cast with it. And protects you from an accidental IF miscast which I experience on PoD far too often.

If it cost 20 points I might agree with you, but at a whopping 55 points it just doesn't cut it. Drop it and take something else:

@Sistine_Shrapnel: Could you maybe elaborate a bit about your proposed tactics with the army? Currently I see a couple of expensive but very fragile units (the BG and the WEs), surrounded by a host of little units that are quite easily ignorable in 8th edition (dark riders have lost a lot in 8th ed, as they only disrupt enemy units if they have two or more ranks, and both they and harpies have lost a lot due to the changes to bait and flee and screening rules). Personally, it seems way underpowered for a 2.5k army: you would benefit from an increase in stronger, harder hitting units, and a decrease in small, harrassing units.

I assume you mean "Hag" rather than "Death Hag" in the unit of WEs btw, and "War Hydra" rather than "Royal War Hydra" (I think Royal Hydras were dropped after 5th ed...)

[Vaari]

Your lists are wacky, but they can be turned into something flavorful and (possibly effective) with a few changes.

I'd get those ladies of the flying ponies, girls are better in mage bunkers as to utilize the "look out, ma'am" rule.

Maybe something like..

L4 Sorc in 20 RxB w/ Shields
L2 Sorc in 10 Corsairs w/hxb
DH w/ CoB

16 DR - ( they need 10 to break ranks ) RxB - Shields (Med Cav w/ guns!)
10 CoK

7 WElves (speed bumps)
7 WElves

6 Harpies (up to 6 when they line up for combat against WM)
6 Harpies
6 Harpies

War Hydra

This retains some of your flavor while granting the utility you'll need to be competitive.

And as we always say here at druchii, play it out and come back to us with results!

[Meteor]

If you're going to design those DRs as CC units, then give them a muso and a standard too, you might as well go the extra mile if you're going to be that bizarre!