Starting an escalation league

I'm putting together an escalation league in my local gaming club, starting at 500 points and adding 500 after each round robin. The idea is to carry each list forward and adding to it after each round.

My current thoughts on a list are:


++ Patrol Detachment (Aeldari - Drukhari) [13 PL, 270pts] ++

+ No Force Org Slot +

Detachment Attribute: Kabal of the Flayed Skull

+ HQ +

Archon [4 PL, 86pts]: Blast Pistol, Famed Savagery, Huskblade, The Djin Blade, Warlord (Archon)

+ Troops +

Kabalite Warriors [2 PL, 50pts]
. 3x Kabalite Warrior
. Kabalite Warrior with special weapon: Blaster
. Sybarite: Phantasm Grenade Launcher, Splinter pistol

Kabalite Warriors [2 PL, 54pts]
. 3x Kabalite Warrior
. Kabalite Warrior with special weapon: Blaster
. Sybarite: Agoniser, Phantasm Grenade Launcher, Splinter pistol

+ Dedicated Transport +

Raider [5 PL, 80pts]: Disintegrator cannon

++ Patrol Detachment (Aeldari - Drukhari) [13 PL, 230pts] ++

+ No Force Org Slot +

Detachment Attribute: Cult of the Red Grief

+ HQ +

Succubus [4 PL, 50pts]: Archite Glaive, Splinter pistol

+ Troops +

Wyches [4 PL, 100pts]
. Hekatrix: Agoniser, Phantasm Grenade Launcher, Splinter pistol
. 6x Wych
. Wych with Wych Weapon: Shardnet and impaler
. Wych with Wych Weapon: Razorflails
. Wych with Wych Weapon: Razorflails

+ Dedicated Transport +

Raider [5 PL, 80pts]: Disintegrator cannon

++ Total: [26 PL, 500pts] ++

Created with BattleScribe

Does this seem like a good place to start? Alternatively I could go pure kabal

Yea, it's a decent start. You could fair well with it, especially if it's not too serious. If you have to carry over the wyches to higher point levels then they might not be so great, though. I'm 50-50 about doing Kabal/Cult when you're not just taking Reavers. Kabal/Coven blends a lot better, imo.

If you were to go full Kabal a pretty strong list would be something like:

Battalion Detachment - 5 CP
Kabal of the Poisoned Tongue

Archon, Blast Pistol - 86 pts
- Soul Thirst Hatred Eternal, Djinn Blade
Archon, Husk Blade, Splinter Pistol - 76 pts

Troops

5x Warriors, Blaster - 47 pts
5x Warriors, Blaster - 47 pts
5x Warriors, Blaster - 47 pts

Dedicated Transport

Venom, 1x Splinter Cannon - 65 pts
Venom, 1x Splinter Cannon - 65 pts
Venom, 1x Splinter Cannon - 65 pts

Total: 500 pts, 8 CP

If you keep your main Archon wrapped in the three Venoms as you move forward the Venoms re-roll 1's to hit and to wound on their poison. The Archon is also really scary in CC and will murder Characters. Don't forget he can re-roll 1's to wound on his Djinn Blade as well.(Edited: This is not true)

Second Archon just goes capping objectives and camping where needed. Also any Dark Eldar player in the world can scale off 3 MSU Venoms without breaking a sweat.

I like that poisoned tongue list, thanks. I'm now thinking pure kabal might be pretty strong, or add in a red grief outrider detachment later on.

@Crixalis That's an absolutely brutal list. I've been considering for a while what the best low cost build we have is and this is genuinely up there, especially with the changes to batallions.

Was doing the math on it and at 12 Inches on average you kill 7.5 Marines before blasters and before the Archon gets to charge if you have the rerolls. That's mental. If you're going to go down the poisoned tongue route, I'd change the second Archons Huskblade to an Agoniser because it benefits from the Poisoned tongue reroll. I get that the huskblade is good especially vs models with multiple wounds or characters, but you already have a character hunting Archon. Just use the spare 2 points and throw some grisly trophies on one of the Venoms. Speaking of Character hunters...

I'd also consider paying the 1 CP and giving one of the Archons the soul-seeker relic. 18" 2 shots rerolling hits and wounding on 2s with the ability to snipe characters shouldn't be scoffed at, especially considering 7CPs should be more than enough for a small game. Seems like a great list!

Trueborn44 wrote:

@Crixalis That's an absolutely brutal list. I've been considering for a while what the best low cost build we have is and this is genuinely up there, especially with the changes to batallions.

If you're going to go down the poisoned tongue route, I'd change the second Archons Huskblade to an Agoniser because it benefits from the Poisoned tongue reroll.

Yea, it's pretty rock solid and the best part is it's easy to build off of.

As to the Poisoned Tongue re-roll. The Rule says "melee weapons AND poison weapons". That's two separate things, I'd say. That means Husk Blades get the re-roll to 1's to wound as well, and also things like Sslyth, which is nice.

However it also does specify that it doesn't work with Artefacts so I was wrong to say you can re-roll 1's on the Djinn Blade. With that in mind I think Hatred Eternal is better than Soul Thirster. I was mainly concerned with overlapping buffs when I picked Soul Thirster.