2500 Tournament List-Fast and shooty

[Olderplayer]

I had not played DE since August last year. Our region plays with no comp, but soft scores matter a lot (some people grade hard on whether army is "fun" and painting). I submitted at the last minute and then played a list similar to the below in late June at a GT and went 3-2 (but two major wins and two minor losses, so battle points placed me higher and one loss was due to a combination of bad luck and a mistake of running the execs wide instead of narrow and deep for ranks). That list ran lore of shadow, the dreadlord was on foot with the execs, the lvl 4 had the RoH, and there were some additional minor differences. By round 5, I began to know better the army, remembered how to play, and ran over a WE army that had gone 3-1 at that point in the event.

1. The biggest concern is being too shooty and risking complaints about the amount of shooting in the army. (26 RXB warriors plus 12 RXBs on fast cav + 2 RXBs on characters on fast cav + 4 RBTs for 24 S4 AP shots per turn) The RBTs kind of tear apart WE cav units and give me hope against the Daemon Prince and high AS armies. One thought is to run a small to medium unit of witches and a corsair screen for the execs to "soften" the amount of shooting and give me more combat ability.
2. I have not tried Dark Magic before. The synergy with soulblight and combos look intriguing, especially if we are seeing a shift to more HE, WE,a dn Dwarf armies. I'm also intrigued with using a 5++ and Book of Ashur on the Lvl 4 instead of the current default set up (+1 to dispel is bascially almost as good as a dispel scroll in some battles and +6 on Dark Magic is pretty potent, allowing me to reduce miscast risks and put pressure on with power dice). Any thoughts on best lore to use are appreciated.

This is my currrent list I will be testing this weekend against a good mix of armies and a lot of experience GT players (about 2/3's of the field have placed at GTs in the past two years). Any feedback or suggestions would be appreicated.

Dreadlord (1#, 271 pts)
1 Dreadlord, = (Dark Steed + RXB + SDC + Shield)
1 Sword of Might
1 Armour of Destiny
1 Dawnstone,
(needed something with magic weapon, sacrificed stubborn crowm for resilience; will sometimes charge out of command unit light units and war machines)

Supreme Sorceress (1#, 310 pts)- Dark Magic
1 Supreme Sorceress, = (Dark Steed + Level 4 )
1 Dispel Scroll,
1 Talisman of Preservation,
basic choice, lots of armies with S3 and T3 in meta)

Master (1#, 178 pts)
1 Master (Battle Standard Bearer), = (Dark Steed+ Lance + RXB + Heavy Armour + SDC + Shield + BSB)
1 Ring of Hotek,
(found RoH detered casting at command unit, MR3 valuable for certain units)

Master (2#, 188 pts)
1 Master, = (Lance + Heavy Armour + SDC + Shield)
1 Dark Pegasus,
1 Cloak of Twilight,
(mixed results last tournament due to rubber lance not wounding or opponents saving, but still kills war machines and those chariot cannons and did not die)

Darkshards (12#, 166 pts)
12 Darkshards, Shield + Musician

Darkshards (14#, 192 pts)
14 Darkshards, Shield + Musician

Dark Riders (6#, 130 pts)
6 Dark Riders, RXB + Shield + Musician

Dark Riders (6#, 140 pts)
6 Dark Riders, RXB + Shield + Musician + Standard Bearer

Doomfire Warlocks (7#, 175 pts)

4 Reaper Bolt Throwers

Shades (5#, 90 pts) (counter to vanguard and allows me to deal with certain armies better)
5 Shades, Extra Hand Weapon

Har Ganeth Executioners (30#, 380 pts)
30 Har Ganeth Executioners, Musician + Standard Bearer

Composition Report:
Points of Lords: 581 (0 - 625)
Points of Heroes: 366 (0 - 625)
Points of Core: 628 (625 - Unlimited)
Points of Special: 750 (0 - 1250)
Points of Rare: 175 (0 - 625)

Meta for up coming event this weekend:
1. Skaven
2. Empire
3. Wood Elves
4. Dwarfs
5. High Elves
6. Ogre Kingdoms
7. Lizardmen
8. Warriors of Chaos
9. Daemons of Chaos
10. Skaven
11. Beastmen
12. Bretonnia
13. Orcs & Goblins
14. Warriors of Chaos
15. Dwarfs
16. The Legion of Azgororth (Chaos Dwarf)
17. (me) Dark Elves
18. Vampire Counts

Meta shift expected in August GT (90 entries)- WoC; HE; WE; Dwarves; Ogres; some top table VC; some Empire

[BruceATL]

Well if the number one worry is being looked at as too shooty, drop one RBT. 4 usually get the eyebrow, 3 mostly don't. Also, if you castle up in a corner and play like a dwarf, then again you might get the eyebrow, but with your executioners I don't expect you to just hang out in a corner.

Dark magic is kinda fun but can be useless in some match-ups. I'm liking Shadow lately. Pit of Shades works on big things we have trouble dealing with and the Mindrazor is just nuts! The warping of your Dreadlord in to take the place of your SS could be fun as well.

Might want to consider flaming banner on one of the Darkshard units for Regenerating giggles.

[Olderplayer]

Thanks. Much appreciated. I've thought about dropping two RBts but it leaves me too vulnerable to the DP and high AS armies. Putting flaming on one RXB unit is useful and I had not considered.

I'm curious about the comment on dark magic. My default lore has been shadow (which I played mostly in the prior army book in 8th edition) but I really like the +1 to cast and the lore attribute has some value (I ran the numbers in a post on the tactics forum.) for casting a hex and getting through a chance at a bit of damage (both the HBVG in Empire and Dwarf organ gun are the two biggest threats to this army build, along with HE and DE RBTs, and using Word of Pain to reduce BS and possibly putting a wound on a war machine is not a bad option and war machines autofail the S test of black horror such that a castled army risks losing its war machines if I can get off black horror within 11" and roll the vortex reliably through the units and war machines in the process 5/6's of the time). With two signature spells. every army I considered I felt like Dark Magic had useful spell options for most armies except that against an army with both high S and high WS (warriors of chaos) relies on getting off Word of Pain (boosted in some instances) or Soulblight for some of the spells to really be effective and worth casting. I could see ending up taking Doombolt a lot (although the boosted cost is too much to risk a mage for) and even power of darkness for those charges where the mage is either on the end and safe from combat or the ASF limits the risk to the mage.

[BruceATL]

Well, I tend to not use a Lvl 4 in my lists so take my comment with a grain of salt. My level 2 actually does take Dark for the Power of Darkness default (Black Guard) and another random spell. Glorified scroll caddy actually. The heavy lifting is done by my 2 units of warlocks. Bubble soulblights are awesome!

When I have played with a SS, Shadow gave me more bang for my buck. Maybe it was just what i was paired up against.