So the coven supplement...

From a gameplay perspective looks decent, but from an artwork/fluff perspective it's actually kind of... marvelous really.

I mean the part where the wrack sticks the imperial aquilla fletchette shards into his chest like medals or when the haemonculus casually peels the skin off his hand because he touched a lesser life form... that macabre sense of humor is great.

Not to mention that the artwork, even the re colors, ooze creepy, terrifying awesomeness.

Thoughts?

I love the supplement, fluff and all the buffs the units got. I used to run 2 boats of grots but now i will definitely be running 4 now once ive converted them.
i could totally see the haemonculi experimenting on them to boost them before a raid, love the fact they now get their own version of drugs.

I think this is he best supplement they've produced so far. The formations look interesting, the missions are fun and the fluff is great.

I played the first mission, where the objectives start appearing for each enemy unit destroyed earlier today. It was a fun game that my opponent also enjoyed.

Overall: I'm happy.

Yeah the fluff and the stories are excellent. The two you mentioned are amongst my favorites. I also love how they stole a planet full of tyranids because they were basically bored and wanted them to experiment on in large amounts.

The artwork is some of the best released by gw as we'll.

I must admit, for the xenos treatment we made out like bandits here.

Oh I also used double scalpel squadrons today, 5 wracks with one ossefactor in a venom. 2 mishapped into ongoing reserves but the other two came down on target and 24 poison shots plus 2 ossefactors (one causing it's D6 hits) easily netted me first blood for a nice 3 point lead.

Two survived the whole game while the other two killed half a squad of grey Hunters after absorbing a ton of shooting and even a charge from a dread.

Pleased as punching babies in the parlance of the coven lol

clively wrote:

I think this is he best supplement they've produced so far. 

This is exactly the thing that I've said in my local 40k community


When it comes to the gameplay, I'm seeing Dark Artisan and Grotesqurie (and arguably Scalpel Squadron) as competitive formations, but still need more games with this supplement.

Yeah this supplement is really good, as happy as I am to have it I wish that this codex wasn't SO Coven-centric.

That aside however, the coven lists almost feel like Tyranid lists, between the cheap wracks combined with Talos/Cronos MCs it's pretty sweet, if only the Poison rules worked the way they used to (I have a feeling that they were changed because of this supplement in mind) with re-rolls. Still a great list. I was lucky enough to have 40 wracks and Talos/Cronos from the last edition so I was able to jump right into this supplement and get 2 games in on saturday. The Haem/Talos/Cronos is awesome, I mean all the others are, but that one's awesome with a webway portal.

I need to get a chronos to run that formation but yeah it looks like fun. I can't figure out. If you use their force org chart you have to take 2 hqs and what have you but is that only if you wanted to take an army that built a cad from the supplement?

Like if I bring a scalpel squadron do I have to bring two hqs as well or is each little formation self contained?

I've never used formation before. I'm under the impression I have to build a coven CAD and make the formation out of the Units in my CAD

The Red King wrote:

I need to get a chronos to run that formation but yeah it looks like fun. I can't figure out. If you use their force org chart you have to take 2 hqs and what have you but is that only if you wanted to take an army that built a cad from the supplement?

Like if I bring a scalpel squadron do I have to bring two hqs as well or is each little formation self contained?

I've never used formation before. I'm under the impression I have to build a coven CAD and make the formation out of the Units in my CAD

A Formation is a Detachment in and of itself. A Formation will dictate what units must be contained within and how many, and excludes anything else.
The Covenite Coterie Detachment lists 2 HQ's and 2 Elites as minimum. How exactly you reach those quota is up to you.

So yes, a Scalpel Squadron is JUST two units of Wracks in Venoms. Those two units, however, do not count towards the 2 Elites for your Covenite Coterie, as a unit can never be a part of two detachments at the same time.

But is a covenite coterie required in order to bring the formation? Like if I'm running a regular dark Eldar CAD and I bring a scalpel squadron do I now have to bring 2 hqs and what have you as well or no?

The Red King wrote:

But is a covenite coterie required in order to bring the formation?  Like if I'm running a regular dark Eldar CAD and I bring a scalpel squadron do I now have to bring 2 hqs and what have you as well or no?

Like I said, a Formation is a separate detachment. It can be taken by itself, no external requirements.

Yep. You can have a normal DE CAD as your primary detachment, and then take formations from the supplement if you like. You don't need to have a Coven primary detachment.

+1 for beautiful and looking like awesome gameplay-wise Coven supplement.

Excellent writing, hands down my favourite yet for imagery and character. And they even bothered to use the formations in the fluff as well!

The artefacts, other than the Orbs of Despair of course, are all fantastic and things I could and likely will expect to see used often.

Power From Pain table looks perfectly suited to the models available for use in the formations/detachments.

All of the Warlord traits are suited perfectly to the fluff, and even seem mostly like things you'd want to roll.
How awesome is that for a change?

Oh that's awesome. So I can keep my two scalpel squads without bringing two haemonculus of dubious worth lol

I'll probably still bring one for the dark artisan, or perhaps one and a grotesquerie. Really an ace product.

Thanks for the clarifications.

Fluff, Artwork, rules... I think this supplement was fantastic, Especially since Haemonculi are my favorite. I won't lie, GW is a money fiend, but this was the best release by far. It's fluffy, it's fun and satisfying. I feel like they actually gave a crap about us.

I've been a Coven junky ever since their models were updated for 5th edition. Couldn't be happier with the supplement, can't see taking Coven units with the regular DE list given the awesomeness of the Coven Detachment/formations. Thor and I cover this a bit in Splintermind Episode 3.

Omg ESE commented on my post, I'm fan boying pretty hard right now

And I'm not a coven player deep down but I love them all the same. My current army is almost.... wych cult?

Succubus, wyches, reavers, incubi and scourge.... hmm idk wych army? Lol

The Red King wrote:

Omg ESE commented on my post,  I'm fan boying pretty hard right now

And I'm not a coven player deep down but I love them all the same.  My current army is almost.... wych cult?

Succubus,  wyches,  reavers,  incubi and scourge.... hmm idk wych army?  Lol

Ha! Don't be impressed-I'm a hack like everyone here, just a hack with a microphone

I tend to lean Coven, but my armies almost always end up being tossed Coven/Cult/Kabalite salads.

Can I expand the topic to the actual gameplay with this supplement?

When running a pure CCD/Formation army, the only disappointing thing is the lack of The Animus Vitae. Though I can get the artifact by hiring a haemy and two units of wracks from CAD or RRD, it'd be better if GW allowed this one for CCD too.

Oh and it'd be fun if The Dark City holds the 3rd list-building tourney with CCD/Formation, just my opinion

Lelith, im curious to hear if you've had much luck with the Animus Vitae. Seemed too unreliable to try it so far, but I'm always open to new things!

Yeah I'd love to talk tactics but will we need to move the topic lol?

Personally I can't see spending 40 points to say, hits and... doesn't wound or hits and.... made their 5+ cover...

I generally just take the armor as it's not so expensive that ATSKNF makes it not worth it. Otherwise I'd take the helm all the time but no psykers and "thanks for the 25 points buddy".

I love syndriq's sump, let's me stick the haemy with incubi without losing fleet lol.

merse24 wrote:

Lelith, im curious to hear if you've had much luck with the Animus Vitae. Seemed too unreliable to try it so far, but I'm always open to new things!

Just my opinion, but I think it deserves 20 pts. It's the chance around 45-55% to increase PfP level when I set a target carefully (low T, uncovered, etc...). Especially for CAD and RRD, this results in S6 grots in charge in Turn 2. Good bonus for a fan of grots like me

But, on second thoughts, this would give Fearless, Fear, and IWND for grots in case of CCD. Turn-2 IWND may not be as good as Turn-2 FC.