Play-testing Coven; A Review

Had a 2000pt match with my buddy today. He played his new Tyranid army for the first time vs my first try at our Dark Eldar, Coven Supplement style.
Speculation, theory, and math hammer are good and all, but what this thread will be reporting on is effectiveness of models and units as shown by use in-game with context.

I'll be doing a unit-by-unit review, with each unit selection in the lost it was chosen for.
Please feel welcome to add your own findings! The more information the better idea we'll have as to how our units really perform.

HQ - Haemonculus, Helm of Spite, Flesh Gauntlet.
The idea was to close down his psykers. But he was canny enough to avoid the 12" bubble since I deployed it poorly. Still worked great as area denial, kept his Flyrant away from my Raiders.

Troops - 2x 5 Wyches, Raider, Disintegrator Cannon.
I deployed them separately, the wyches working backfield objectives while the Raiders were gun platforms.
The 10 wyches survived until turn 4 and managed to handily kill 5 genestealers, a few termagants, and put some wounds on a ripper base. I was impressed.
Raiders helped me put wounds on a Tervigon and finish off the Flyrant. Worth every penny and I'm happy with Dissies > Dark Lances as long as you have other sources of AT.

Fast - Razorwing, Night Shields.
Missiles wiped a huge blob of termagants threatening my Talos, and on later turns the dissies put wounds on a unit of biovores and on a Hive Crone, forcing a grounding test.

Venom, Splinter Cannon.
You know what it does, and what it does is deliver.

Heavy - Talos, Chain-flails.
Tore apart a pack of gargoyles in a bloody frenzy, then dived into a Tervigon and came out the other side grinning. Still one of my favourite units, it delivered hard before finally succumbing to an Exocrine plasma volley. Totally worth the points.

Dark Artisan Formation - Haemonculus, Doll, Panacea, Agoniser, WWP
Cronos, Spirit Probe
Talos, Chain-flails, Ichor Injector
5/5*, wow. Super awesome. With the Haemy as my warlord the unit feels near invincible. A CC monster that can get where it needs to to do the most damage and can survive a turn of shooting to make it into assault. Took out a key zoanthrope synapse unit holding his forces together, as well as a few units of infantry, and earned me several VP all while not suffering any lasting damage. Plus it helped with Board control. He moved everything important away from it and into the loving arms of my Grotesques.
Will take again.

Grotesquerie Formation - 3 Grots, Aberration, Agoniser, Raider, Night Shields
3 Grots, 3 Liquifier guns, Aberration, Agoniser, Raider, Night Shields
Haemonculus, Flesh Gauntlet
The "latest experiments" table is full of entirely good things for Grotesques. I rolled +1T and it helped immensely with survivability. The agonisers seriously helps with damage output and I heartily recommend after stealing the idea from elsewhere on the forums. The Liquifiers erased something in the realm of 26 termagants.
Grots killed everything they touched; the two units accounted for 40 termagants, 30 hormagants (who charged them! Yay rampage!), an Exocrine, a Carnifex, and a Genestealer. Both units survived at least partially intact end of game turn 6.
Haemonculus with flesh gauntlet helped add wounds with his poisoned attacks but probably worth swapping for a scissorhand instead. Extra AP is good for this unit.
Night Shields ensured the Raiders made it to where they needed to.
This is another ridiculously awesome formation. Will take again.

Scalpel Squadron - 2x 5 Wracks, Ossefactor, Venom, Splinter Cannon, Night Shields
So... pretty sure this is supposed to be useful. Right? But I'm not too impressed. Both units scattered but stayed within LoS and range of my intended target, a Venomthrope. 2 Wounds, 3+ cover save.
Both venoms and both ossefactors fired into the Venomthrops and did a total of ONE WOUND. Then one of the Venoms got eaten for first blood by the enemy.
Not cool.
Going to have to try again and hope my dice don't suck, 'cause by mathhammer that should have inflicted something in the realm of 5 unsaved wounds.

Freakish Spectacle - Not too useful at first, but once I'd killed the majority of his synapse it legitimately made the pass/fail difference between three of his leadership tests vs instinctive behaviour. Epic win.

Power From Pain - The tables from both the DE codex and the Coven supplement worked well together and separately to keep my units alive and kicking.
I'm already of the impression that the new version is way better than the old pain tokens, and don't miss them at all!

Questions? Comments?
Hope you glean some useful information from these play tested results and thoughts!
Add more knowledge as you please, and have a good one!

Scalpel Squadron: Played in 3 games, and 2 out of 3 got me 1st blood, both with Ossefactors. I picked 1 target that I KNEW could/would kill and went for it.

Grotesquerie Formation: I like and will take IF I dont take the 5 Talos formation, I feel you should only take one or the Other (Unless you doing a Coven only army then I'd take both).

Over all I love the Coven book, it has many extra options to bring to the table

I love articles like this! Keep adding to this thread please

Somebody tried out the 5x Talos formation yet? I'm especially interested in how they're doing vs. eldar.

Septimus wrote:

I love articles like this! Keep adding to this thread please

Somebody tried out the 5x Talos formation yet? I'm especially interested in how they're doing vs. eldar.

Yes, I played it against Orc's (A more mech orc army) and it was AMAZING. 3+/4+FnP with scout HWB's, it killed a Battle wagan, then chagred, killed a unit in Melee and another on turn 4 with a IC for giving 3 WP's total.

While the Supplement is indeed very powerful, none of the resons I wanted to play DE included "moving 6" across the table with high Toughness models that are hard to kill"

Yeah, somewhat true. But you still can go for WWPs, scalpel squadrons and wracks in raiders, cant you?

Klaivex Charondyr wrote:

While the Supplement is indeed very powerful, none of the resons I wanted to play DE included "moving 6" across the table with high Toughness models that are hard to kill"

To me I got into DE for the Fluff, the release of a Deamon slippting them apart, living in Darkness tourturing people for years, fighting gladiator arenas and basically "Frankenstein Syndrome" (Aka the Coven)

So the Idea of a Frankenstein army is awesome and I have a 2k list just for it (Fluffly list) I have play for fun.... and IT WAS FUN XD

A question: Dark Artisan Formation give your Haem to choice his trait if he is the General? Ora that was simply a rumor? I haven'tthe supplement

He automatically has the "Master Artisan" WL Trait.

I used the Dark Artisan formation today, also 5/5 for me. I want to try the Scalpel Squadron next too.

I'm also a big fan of Dark Artisan.
Do you really need WWP on them? I guess it helps massively if you don't bodge the reserve roll.

I wasn't aware that the Diabolic Playthings changed the rule of only one artefact per IC. As the rule only switches the two lists of artefacts.

Nusquam wrote:

I used the Dark Artisan formation today, also 5/5 for me. I want to try the Scalpel Squadron next too.

Ran it my self today in a friendly game with a Dark Angels player. Used the WWP, Haemi with Agonizer/Liquifier; Talos with TLHL/TLLiquifier, Cronos with a Spirit Probe. Showed up turn 2 and pretty much distracted half of his army, killed his Warlord(Librarian with Force axe). The three template weapons against an army of basically tactical marines with two dula-Kheres/Cyclone Launcher Contemptors was almost better in defense when charged, but they did some serious work while only taking two wounds themselves. Admittedly, his army was not set up for dealing with this. We were both trying lists that were well out of familiar territory (he usually plays Deathwing, I had 0 Raiders or Venoms!) The formation performed well, if hogging a pretty substantial number of points in a 1500pt list.

I am looking forward to trying a full Coven list later this week. Still haven't gotten that game in yet!

El_Jairo; it says you choose from a different list, and the Coven list has no restriction on how many artefacts you can have. That stipulation sticks with the regular DE artefact list, as it is specifically under the "Artefacts of Cruelty" list heading.
Still not a 100% confirmed interpretation, but HERE is the thread.
As for needing WWP with Dark Artisan, I'd say yes. They can be used for pinpoint assassination with that template or a heat lance or something, plus it negates their only real weak point, which is it takes the unit forever to actually get to the enemy with a 6" move.

Evil Space Elves; Good to hear another Dark Artisan performed well! They're hilariously hard to kill, which to me makes them an awesome distraction and scare for people expecting our regular glass cannon. Figure the Liquifier gun was worth it on the Talos? And on the Haemy?

Second try with the Scalpel Squadron.
Second time they failed to get first blood. One Venom scattered off the table and was re-placed in the back corner of my DZ facing the wrong way. I killed 5/6 firewarriors with the second venom/wrack(ossefactor) unit, but they held.
Gah.

This is why I bring two scalpel squadrons.

Never fails to wipe something out.

But... so many points!
What do you play at if you're bringing 2?

Laughingcarp wrote:

But... so many points!
What do you play at if you're bringing 2?

I played with 2 twice now and can say its a bad idea. Once should be enough, thats 2 Venoms and 2 LG or Ossefactors If you cant kill it then your targeting wrong thing (Or use LG to ignore Cover).

If your unlucky and go against any type of Mech army then you wont get First Blood with them at all (Unless you get lucky kill nothing turn 1, he kills nothing turn 1 you charge a vehicle and kill it lol).

Laughingcarp wrote:

Evil Space Elves; Good to hear another Dark Artisan performed well! They're hilariously hard to kill, which to me makes them an awesome distraction and scare for people expecting our regular glass cannon. Figure the Liquifier gun was worth it on the Talos? And on the Haemy?

Not really. Losing a CC attack for the TLL on the Talos really was costly when it took 4 rounds of CC just to kill a stupid Contemptor My dice man....yikes.

Laughingcarp wrote:

But... so many points!
What do you play at if you're bringing 2?

At 1850 I played with 2 Scalpel Squadrons and they definitely worked well to ensure first blood (though 1 formation would have been enough for that). The strength of having the 2nd squadron for me was the Freakish Spectacle bubbles. Splitting the venoms into opposite pairs while running just Ossefactors, I was able to sweep up a number of units and give them at least -1 if not -2 LD on their morale tests.

The other thing I like about the formation is that it doesn't limit me from running Trueborn to help pop transports, tanks, and crisis suits.

No one finds that the Scalpel Squadrons are just too risky against most 7E army lists? In my meta you are usually facing down either mechanized lists, Astra Militarum blobs, battlesuits, or bikes/jetbikes. I imagine I'd reserve the bikes/jetbikes if I saw I was staring down a Scalpel Squadron (or two) and there's nothing else to potentially kill with those units.

Izathel wrote:

No one finds that the Scalpel Squadrons are just too risky against most 7E army lists?  In my meta you are usually facing down either mechanized lists, Astra Militarum blobs, battlesuits, or bikes/jetbikes.  I imagine I'd reserve the bikes/jetbikes if I saw I was staring down a Scalpel Squadron (or two) and there's nothing else to potentially kill with those units.

It is definitely a risk but if that happens, then they come down in safer, hopefully out of the way/behind cover, and wait for a target to become available. This pretty much defeats the first-blood bonus that accompanies the formation but, for me, I would be taking wracks and ossefactors anyways. The formation, for me, allows me to take more than 3 Elites without requiring a secondary CAD/etc.

Have to say that I don't think I'd risk a Scalpel Squadron in my meta as the chances of scoring first blood with them are very slim. Lots of mechanised units and those that aren't are generally of the 2+ or 3++ save variety, often with multiple wounds.

Count Adhemar wrote:

Have to say that I don't think I'd risk a Scalpel Squadron in my meta as the chances of scoring first blood with them are very slim. Lots of mechanised units and those that aren't are generally of the 2+ or 3++ save variety, often with multiple wounds.

In a mech meta I wouldnt use them either.

I play at 1850 and if i wasn't running double scalpel then I would probably be using those points to field wracks in venoms. Running them as scalpel squadrons just gives me the bonus of freakish spectacle, possible bonus first blood and the psychological weapon of units deepstriking turn 1.

I am currently building up a coven list since I never used them last ed. Got myself a chronos to go with my talos haemocules for dark artisan obviously! 10 Wracks for £20 off ebay! And I am currently converting up some grots from everblight warspears (I like them and I like the price!). Thus has been useful for me though, I'm 90% certain I want to run the Grotesque formation. How effective are say squads of 3 Grots? Also, question with that, if the haemocules with that formation is the warlord you get the d6 roll or do you get it anyway? I was thinking about which one between dark artisans or grotesquely has the better warlord trait?

Scalpel squads definitely seem to be getting mixed reviews though!

Dark Artisan gets Master Artisan -> All friendly Talos and Cronos models within 12" of the Warlord re-roll failed Feel No Pain rolls of a 1.

Grotesquerie gets no specific WL Trait so I would recommend some from the BRB as the Coven ones are pretty much hit or miss (Master of Apotheosis or Master Artisan wont help you in a unit of Grots)
I prefer 4 Grots, fits easy on a raider. 3 could be ok too, did not see a reason why I should cut one (they get focussed a lot, I love every additional W they get)

Scalpel squads are good for 2 things. Null deployment (as you need a total of ZERO units on the table during enemys turn 1) with very little risk of getting tabled and easy earned first blood if you try to get after small units (that 10 compulsory cultists for example).
Still ok in a mech heavy environment for the rather low points and the advantage of null deployment.

But you have to adjust your list to them. Otherwise you negate the advantage of null deployment and then they are a little too much points for the effect.