Best Kabals, Cults & Covens for Transports

Assuming you intend to make the best use of their firepower (or even their melee prowess, given the new rules), which do you think are the optimum Kabals, Cults and/or Covens to take Raiders and Venoms from?

Raiders: Black Heart, in my opinion. Re-rolling that Dark Lance shot? 33% firepower increase right there. Easy money.
Probable silver medal goes to Dark Creed, if you wanna put in the points to get both Grisly Trophies and a Phantasm Grenade Launcher on it. Against an LD8 target, that averages about one Mortal Wound per turn - actually a slightly larger increase in total expected damage output than going Black Heart! Though it does, of course, require you to be far closer to the enemy. It is worth noting that this option also synergizes with infantry PGLs, with Incubi, and with the "Ooga Booga" Haemonculus with the Dark Creed WL Trait.

Venom: Probably coming as no surprise, Merciless Razorkin+Torturous Efficiency is the go-to option for double splinter cannon Venoms, though of course Poisoned tongue does give you that -1 to Attrition tests for the few times you face an army that isn't flat immune to it.
For melee venoms, technically Coven of Twelve - I mean it is kinda novel to have six S6 AP-2 attacks on your troop transport, but I sincerely doubt it's actually good enough to pick an Obsession over.

I agree with all said above. Just a silly add: Cursed Blade Raiders with Chains strike 6 attacks at S8, which can be helpfull against T4

Cerve wrote:

I agree with all said above. Just a silly add: Cursed Blade Raiders with Chains strike 6 attacks at S8, which can be helpfull against T4

Wow, didn't even realize that yet. It'll hit 3 out of those 6 attacks, but will wound on 2+ with Armour Penetration.

How do you increase to S8? S7 I understand with the Cult Obsession.

There is also Red Grief for the "fall back into a transport" strat. Doubt it's better than BH and DC, but worth considering if your running RG anyway.

I'm running them as BH for now. Reroll 3s to hit is more powerful than rerolling 4s to wound as Obsidian Rose (vs T8 tanks)

fisheyes wrote:

How do you increase to S8? S7 I understand with the Cult Obsession.

There is also Red Grief for the "fall back into a transport" strat. Doubt it's better than BH and DC, but worth considering if your running RG anyway.

I'm running them as BH for now. Reroll 3s to hit is more powerful than rerolling 4s to wound as Obsidian Rose (vs T8 tanks)

Raider is S6+1 for weapon+1 for obsession

Ah, right, raider is S6. Never noticed that before, since I only really ran Venoms in 8th

fisheyes wrote:

I'm running them as BH for now. Reroll 3s to hit is more powerful than rerolling 4s to wound as Obsidian Rose (vs T8 tanks)

It's actually the other way round:

Standard Raider Lance vs T8 Tank: To hit 2/3 * to wound 1/2 = 0.33 wounds to be saved
BH Raider Lance vs T8 Tank: To hit 8/9 * to wound 1/2 = 0.44 wounds to be saved
OR Raider Lance vs T8 Tank: To hit 2/3* to wound 3/4 = 0.50 wounds to be saved

Obsidian Rose is the superior Obsession in terms of raw fire power in this scenario

@Pippolele, you are absolutely correct. My napkin math needs some work. Guess I should lay off the Hypex while trying to Math XD

TY for correcting me.

Cult of Strife vehicles get fight first and +1 to charge. Not too bad.

I still think Dark Technomancer Raiders with dissies are worth taking. The risk of mortal wounds is present, but it's also a very efficient solution to heavy infantry and anything with -1 damage rules. It breaks down to about 2 self-inflicted mortal wounds every other turn.

That's an acceptable risk on something that is likely throwing itself into danger range on turn 2. It will probably die anyway and it's unlikely that the possible mortal wounds will make the difference.

For me it's Black Heart, but really for the +1 on the PfP Table. I might be fixating on something that won't be that impressive, but the T1 advance and charge on raiders, venoms, mandrakes, scourges, and incubi (less so scourges and incubi, admittedly) - coupled with the speed cults and 18" reavers and a large squad of up to 18" hellions (hypex with x2 strat), you should be able to create a really obnoxious blockade across the board to pin the opponent while your damage dealers move into position.

Remember that your Blades for Hire only get +1PfP in a Black Heart REALSPACE RAID detachment (aka a Battalion/Brigade). If your running Patrols (Raiding Force) they are just like everyone else.

Rerolling hits on your single lance Raiders with BH is very nice. I dont see myself changing that up anytime soon.

Lawrence from Tabletop Tactics seems to be all about Obsidian Rose for this transports.

Dalamar wrote:

Lawrence from Tabletop Tactics seems to be all about Obsidian Rose for this transports.

He said he was using it as Chef had previously showcased Black Heart...

That said, Obsidian Rose would seem to be particularly good for Trueborn, as they are already hitting on a 2+, so a re-roll to wound is nice synergy.