Competitive Sliscus...

After musing on that souless army list I was looking at, I now want to find a way to fit the Duke into the competitive setting. I think by trying to force my list into the netlist mold I was losing the essence of my army - for me it's all about Sliscus, I want to field the Sky Serpents, I want to be THAT Sliscus player.

With that in mind I hand the floor to you guys, what is the most competitive list to include the Duke while keeping his flavour...? Here's my current take on things...

Duke Sliscus The Serpent, 150

3 Kabalite Trueborn, 3 Blasters, Venom, additional Splinter Cannon, 146
3 Kabalite Trueborn, 3 Blasters, Venom, additional Splinter Cannon, 146
3 Kabalite Trueborn, 3 Blasters, Venom, additional Splinter Cannon, 146

9 Kabalite Warriors, Raider, Dark Lance, Flickerfield, Enhanced Aethersail, Splinter Racks, 166
8 Wyches, Hekatrix, Agoniser, Raider, Dark Lance, Flickerfield, 180
8 Wyches, Hekatrix, Agoniser, Raider, Dark Lance, Flickerfield, 180
5 Kabalite Warriors, Blaster, Raider, Dark Lance, Flickerfield, Shock Prow, 135
5 Kabalite Warriors, Blaster, Venom, additional Splinter Cannon, 125

Ravager, 3 Dark Lances, Flickerfield, 115
Ravager, 3 Dark Lances, Flickerfield, 115
Razorwing Jetfighter, 2 Dark Lances, 145

Comes out at 1736. There's a few things I'm not happy with, I wanted to fit some Haemonculi in there but that doesn't quite work. I think I'll miss my Razorwing but I'll find that out as time goes on, also playing with the idea of Sniperborn or giving some of the Trueborn a Raider... With the remaining points I may drop a Kabalite Warrior to turn one into a Sybarite. The Duke's bodyguard is quite uncovential but I prefer the idea of these rather than the Venom gunboat I and others use.


EDIT: Now comes out at 1735. I've dropped one unit of Wyches Haywire Grenades, one unit of 5 Kabalites now have a Raider with a Shock Prow. Duke's Raider now has Enhanced Aethersails. I now have 15 points which could be lots of different things, I could Night Shield the Ravagers or put upgrades on other vehicles, I could add a Sybarite with Venom Blade to Duke's squad or a Blaster...

EDIT: And now finally at 1749 by dropping the remaining grenades and turning a Ravager into a Razorwing. I think I have a reasonable amount of anti tank and like having the security of the Razorwing's 4 pie plates, plus the model is cool. If anyone thinks I'm making a mistake by doing this then please point it out

Anyway, let me know what you think.

25 Darklight shots
48 Splinter shots from Venoms
36 Scoring bodies
20 Kill Points

Lalala void lala

Thanks for the ideas Azs but I was more looking at squeezing the most and best I could in at 1750 while still having a small bit of flavour. Anyone else have thoughts they would like to add to my list?

As a fellow Sliscus player, I don't see anything WRONG with the list. It's solid, and competitive. It's not something I tend to run, but I usually go against the grain and NOT take things like blaster trueborn. But hey, I'm kind of crazy like that.
A unit I've had pretty good luck with as the Duke's personal bodyguard is 4 trueborn with two blasters and two splinter cannons in a venom with night shields and grisly trophies (because I have the venom modeled with all sorts of trophies and the like.) It mixes good A.I. and good A.T.
With it having flavour, I think it all depends on how you use the Duke. As all of his special rules aren't reliant on him being safe and secure in the backfield somewhere away from anything that could even remotely hurt him, I've always used him extremely aggressively. I can't count the times the Duke has hopped out of his venom to go hunt any type of infantry squad he can find. He's carved through three grey hunter squads, all on his own (to the dismay of my opponent.) He's survived multiple rounds of combat against a Deathwing command squad, bringing down Belial and a Chaplin. He's been turned to paste by power fists, wraiths, and infantry squads.
My advice, I don't think it matters what type of list you run with the Duke, so long as you have the Duke, and play him how you think he would act on the field of battle.

Heres my 2k Duke list. It plays very fast and aggressively and I absolutely love it. I try to go 2nd every time so I can let my opponent move his guys around before I deep strike in and start popping his transports.

Duke
2x4 trueborn , blasters, raider w/ FF and DL
3 trueborn, blasters, raider w/ Ff and DL

9 warriors, 1 w/ blaster, raider w/ FF and DL
5x5 warriors, 1 w/ blaster, venom w/ extra SC

ravager w/ 3 DL and FF
2x Razorwing, TL splinter rifle, 4 monoscythes, 2 disintegrators, FF

5 scourges, 2 HWB.

The razorwings and ravager start in normal reserve, everything else starts in deep strike reserve. I keep the razorwings in normal reserve because the weapons are long enough range anyway and I use them very surgically so a mishap or too much deviation would be bad for my gameplan. Might switch out the FF's on the ravager and razorwings for NS's. Theres tons and tons of 24" fire in my meta so they might help more.

thetyrant: I found that out myself with Sliscus, when I started using him he used to end up spending the game in a gunboat where as now I throw him across the battlefield unless it is KPs. He's not done too many notable things, best is probably taking down 10 slugga boyz and nob in a round of combat, but there's plenty more time for that. Thanks for your other advice.

jb7090: I've been reading a lot about good use of deep striking tactics with the Duke but these seem to rely on Razorwings, I'll bide my time on that one but it can't hurt to experiment. Thanks for the insight into your army.

So, I have edited my original post to show my changes, is my balance between Venoms and Raiders ok? Will I struggle for AI once my Blasterborn Venoms go pop or will the Wyches and other splinter shots suffice in that respect?

And, I believe, one final edit to the list. Am I correct in putting the Razorwing back in?

Its a good list. I think the Razorwing would be great. You still get some AT from it but you also get some horde killing aswell. The one think I am not sure about is the Enchanced Aethersail on the Raider. What are they for?

Just an observation (not sure if this is right) but your squad of 9 warriors shouldn't be allowed to take a darklance because I believe the codex says youve gotta have 10 models to do so...don't sodomize me over this though =)

Other than that, looks like an epic list.
Happy hunting,
-Jack

Sky Serpent wrote:

He's not done too many notable things, best is probably taking down 10 slugga boyz and nob in a round of combat, but there's plenty more time for that.

how'd he manage that?

Cailos wrote:

Its a good list. I think the Razorwing would be great. You still get some AT from it but you also get some horde killing aswell. The one think I am not sure about is the Enchanced Aethersail on the Raider. What are they for?

Yeah, I do really like the security of the pie plates and it's a fun model, time will tell if I need that extra Dark Lance.... Enhanced Aethersails are there purely because of a planned conversion, doubt I ever plan on using them but it's always an option, they'd be quite good for LOS blocking I guess.

Jack_The_Ripper wrote:

Just an observation (not sure if this is right) but your squad of 9 warriors shouldn't be allowed to take a darklance because I believe the codex says youve gotta have 10 models to do so...don't sodomize me over this though =)

The Warriors don't have a Dark Lance, just 9 Splinter Rifles.

falcon98 wrote:

how'd he manage that?

Assaulted them, 5 attacks, 5 hits, 5 wounds, 5 kills. Shadowfield saved all retaliations. Orks fled, Sliscus ran them down. Like a boss.