Coven anti tank

So I'm trying to write a coven list, and I noticed that they basically have a dearth of anti tank options, being limited to:

Talos - either combat or tail weapon
Grotesques - Combat through massed S5 hits on rear armour
Scissorhand - if you're lucky and roll high for rending.
Raider Dark Lances

Am i missing anything obvious here?
I'm hoping to do the list as a pure coven so don't want to ally in other factions or ravagers etc, can anyone help with any other ideas?

Thats all of em unless you ally in the main codex

That looks right. But with the coven need to be used with formations. The grot formation can help. Same with the 5 talos one. They all could have anti armor weapons. At least my thoughts

Yeah its difficult, being trying to do it myself. Can't seem to make a decent list without having to back it up with a Kabal. Dark Artisans & Grotesquery seems to be a solid Coven start. That comes to something like 750 min? Scalpel Squad perhaps, I would be more tempted to run them normally. After that you have anti-infantry and wound absorbers covered. I then might try a blaster Archon w/wwp with 5 trueborn with 4 blasters, maybe even in a raider with Dark lance to make a Battle-barge. Then warriors in Venoms with blasters and perhaps heatlance reavers. But then you are getting into the realms of 1750 point lists.

If you really wanted to go full Coven with some potential anti-tank, I would say Dark Artisans with WWP, 2x 3xGrots in Raider one with Haemocules for the Grotesque formation, Scalpel Squadron or two and the 5 Scouting Talos with Haywire perhaps. Would come to something like 1750 with upgrades. But even then, I think that although you would be incredibly tough, you would still struggle. Seems like a full Coven list would be fun rather than practical. Depends on your meta!

That was my conclusion too. My meta tends to play 1500 as a normal game level, so i came up with the following as an initial idea. (750 points is way too much to drop into the corpsethief formation in my opinion at that level)

Composition: Dark Artisan, Scarlet Epicureans, Covenite Fleshcorps.

Dark Artisan:
Cronos with spirit probe
talos with twin heat lance
Haemy with WWP, Syndriq's sump, stinger pistol and scissorhand

Scarlet Epicureans:
Cronos with spirit probe
Haemy with stinger pistol, agoniser and scissorhand, Panacea perverted

10 wracks in dark lance aethersail raider including 1 ossefactor
9 wracks in dark lance aethersail raider including 1 ossefactor

Covenite Fleshcorps:
Haemonculus with nightmare doll, flesh gauntlet

3x 5 wracks in dark lance aethersail raider including 1 ossefactor

So basically 5 dark lances from raiders and 1 heat lance on Talos, plus obviously the combat attacks from Cronos and Talos, and occasional help from scissorhands.


I'm probably not going to run pure coven very often on this basis, but I do like the idea of using some of their formations to boost a combined coven/kabal themed army.

Yeah now that looks fun. I would be tempted to swap out the Chronos in Scarlet Epicureans for a Talos just for another source of AT potential perhaps? Then you can also threaten walkers as well?

Sadly the Epicureans formation requires it to be a Cronos. Still, it'll tank a few wounds nicely and if it can keep relatively close to the raiders it'll boost anyone that comes out of them.

Ah don't have my supplement to hand! I would be very interested to know how that goes though. I think if you were to come across any serious mech list or fliers it could be like shooting rats, albeit extremely tough rats, in a barrel!

Regarding the talos loadout, how would you guys kit them out?
I was thinking ichor injector and anti tank tail gun - but I'm unsure which gun to use, haywire blaster or heatlance.

I spend only 5 pts for my talos: chain-flails for AI or TL heat lance of AT

If I'm taking Talos from heavy support section, they get Ichor Injectors and Haywire blasters so that they can support tank hunters early in the game and either protect my deployment zone from tough deep striking or outflanking units or go aggressive and threaten other units. I bascially think if I'm taking them what's another 20pts or so.

If it comes from the dark artisan or corpsethief formations, I'd definitely think about heat lances, as they can get much closer to vehicles much more quickly (especially dark artisan with a WWP - a haywire blaster unlikely to kill a vehicle on its own, whereas 1 heatlance can do the business)

Why can't you take ravagers? Wracks can fly those as well.

The Red King wrote:

Why can't you take ravagers?  Wracks can fly those as well.

Can't take them in the covenite detachment

Oh poop I'm dumb.

I think given that they need to be up close anyway, Heat Lances are the way to go on Talos Pain Engines. As noted I think the coven book is designed to work with allies, but if you are dead set on supplement only, I'd certainly include a Corpsethief Claw and a Dark Artisan formation which is a fair chunk of anti-tank. Add Scalpel Squadrons to taste.