Footslogging Duke; Sky Serpents 1750

All this talk of Duke and a footslogging unit in the tactics section has really made me think about giving it a go.

Duke Sliscus The Serpent, 150pts


3 Kabalite Trueborn, 3 Blasters
Venom, additional Splinter cannon, 146pts

3 Kabalite Trueborn, 3 Blasters
Venom, additional Splinter cannon, 146pts

3 Kabalite Trueborn, 2 Dark Lances, 86pts


20 Kabalite Warriors, 2 Splinter cannons
Sybarite, 210pts

10 Kabalite Warriors
Raider, Splinter racks, 160pts

5 Kabalite Warriors
Venom, additional Splinter cannon, 110pts

5 Wyches, Haywire grenades
Raider, 120pts

5 Wyches, Haywire grenades
Raider, 120pts


Ravager, 105pts

Razorwing Jetfighter, 145pts

Razorwing Jetfighter, 145pts



Aegis Defence Line, Quad-gun, 100pts


What do you think? Adds an interesting twist on to my normal army. I'd use Duke's unit quite aggressively, they'd be placed very far forward, hopefully surrounding an objective too. Even if they're out of range of most things, standing still they'd put out 16 shots at a long range. Also after being on the recieving end, I know how good the quad gun is for taking down flyers.

Also what would you add in to bump this up to 1850?

I have used a similar army, and it works. I would add some form of fast scorer/denier to bump up to 1850, either Reavers or an Eldar ally package with Guardian Jetbikes.

I assume in the list the lance trueborn will be behind the aegis manning (elfing? eldaring?) the gun?

One thing i would maybe do is change the wyches to venoms not raiders, and use the saved 10 points to give the warriors raider a nightshield? Also just noticed your nightwings dont have flickerfields, should probably consider them too. Hmm actualyl i noticed a lot of your stuff is pretty naked looking.

Ok, maybe either: drop the 5 man warrior squad, or change the 10 man to a 5 man and put them in a venom and use all the points to get some much needed upgrades such as flickerfield on the razors, night shield on the ravager, also try get a hekatrix on the wyches, if nothing else having the assault and defensive nades is very important.

As for upping by 100 points im not sure to be honest, craftworld allies to get jetbikes you need a minimum of 136 points to get the HQ and 3 jetbikes, to get anything good you would need 181 for a jetbike mounted guideseer and jetbikes with a shuriken cannon. Saying that a doomseer would turn your poisoned weapons into deathmachines against a doomed enemy. Food for thought.

Mud

Edit: Just realised i should probably add i havent actually played DE yet so take with a pinch of salt , but from pure theoryhammer im confident in some of the suggestions, especially the flickerfields on the razors.

The 20 Warriors would use the Aegis with Duke on the quad gun; I usually put the Lanceborn up high in cover with the best field of vision.

Wyches are in Raiders as they're the models I have as a hangover from 5th, I'd also have to spend 10 more points to put them into Venoms, I also feel that I have enough AI elsewhere in the list.

If I dropped the 5 man warrior squad I'd be left with only 4 troops choice, 2 of which are fragile as anything and the other a bullet magnet, I've found in 6th that Troops are a must have. I also don't want to drop the gunboat as I've found them to be fantastic so far in playtesting.

My choices are all very naked, I'm well aware of that which is annoying but I'd rather have more things on the board and/or higher damage output. My Razorwings have always had flickers and I played a game the other day and desperately missed them so will be trying to find a way of putting them back in.

My usual 1750 would be Dukes squad in a Raider plus a Haemonculus and Wracks in a Venom, would that be a more effective list?

All fair points my friend, all fair, yeah i messed up my venoms point costing with the extra cannons involved.

Ok, now im really confused, it says in your writup that your going to play the dukes unit really aggresively, i assumed that was the 20 men? if not then the ten in the raider? if it is the ten in the raider then they really should have a splinter cannon in them for the exrta force multiplier.

Mud

Duke would go with the 20 warriors, deployed far up my deployment zone so as to be threat straight away.

I felt two warriors rerolling to hit with splinter rifles would be better than 1 with 4 shots.

Sky Serpent wrote:

I felt two warriors rerolling to hit with splinter rifles would be better than 1 with 4 shots.

Yeah its an interesting debate, I'm constantly going back and forth with it. Assuming we are moving and the opponent is stationary (Havocs/Long Fangs etc):

@ 36" - Cannon
@ 30" - Cannon
@ 24" - Cannon + 2 rerollable shots
@ 18" - Cannon + 2 rerollable shots
@ 12" - Cannon + 4 rerollable shots

of course this is in a vaccum and haven't factored in deployment distances or opponent shooting back but you get where I'm going with this