Using Obsidian Rose

What do you think is the best way to capitalise on the Obsidian Rose Obsession when building an army?

20 man warrior squad in a wwp portal with 4x shredders and possibly splinter cannons seems like a great choice for obsidian rose. The extra 6" range means you can very comfortably get those shredders in range and keep everything in rapid fire range. Then you also have their stratagem which I actually think is a nice little hidden gem for obsidian rose. If you lose say 4 warriors to moral, you just pick all 4 shredders to flee and you only need to kill one enemy model to not lose your shredders, plus benefit from a whole bunch of free shredder shots! If you want to run multiple 20 man warrior units you just have to keep in mind you can only use the stratagem once per turn.

As far as a general list goes, I think obsidian rose can do footslogging better than any other kabal, since the extra range is very handy to let you get into optimal fire range faster. Doesn't mean you have to footslogg, but if you want to obsidian rose probably does it best.

Webway Portal 2 blobs of 20 Kabs with the desired loadout.

Splinter Cannons and Shredders if they’re your anti-infantry.
Dark Lances and Blasters if you want to pop tanks or monsters.

Or mix and match as desired.

Kit the Archon with a Huskblade and use him to countercharge, but have him sprint for the Deepstriking unit’s once they’ve hit the board.  Advance + Blaster shot +Fire and fade can move you 15+D6” if you feel he NEEDS to be with his troops for the re-rolls.

Otherwise use different obsessions to kit out your other needs.

Interesting. I'll admit that I hadn't really considered the footslogging (WWP notwithstanding) aspect of Obsidian Rose. Or, at least, I hadn't considered it so central.


What about Flayed Skull - how would you tailor around their Obsession?

I'm meddling with something that isn't Black Heart/Alliance of Agony and want to try an Obsidian Rose Patrol with footslogging Kabalites and a pair of Ravagers, a Flayed Skull Patrol with a Raider and a pair of Venoms (all loaded with splinters), Flayed Skull Air Wing, Cult of Grief Patrol with 10 Wyches in a Raider (with a couple of Shardnets and Hydra Gauntlets), Succubus on foot, and a Fast Attack Red Grief Detachment with Reavers, Haywire Scourges and Shredder Scourges.

If I had more Raiders I'd use them but so it goes, I think Splinter Rack Flayed Skull Kabalites is one solid way to maximize the Obsession.

for flayed skull you really want venoms with abs for the sweet 19" move, and the ignore cover and reroll 1's on all guns except the blaster.

I use it all the time with my black heart!

wormfromhell wrote:

for flayed skull you really want venoms with abs for the sweet 19" move, and the ignore cover and reroll 1's on all guns except the blaster.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'venoms with abs' ?

I see them working best as a Patrol that works as supplement to a Cult or Coven Batallion.
Make big blobs of Kabalites on foot, with Shredders and maybe Lances.

For moderate points cost you get a serious amounts of long range splinter fire. Especially the 15" RF will pair well with 18" Shredders. And with the Stratagem, morale isn't a problem either.

lcfr wrote:

wormfromhell wrote:

for flayed skull you really want venoms with abs for the sweet 19" move, and the ignore cover and reroll 1's on all guns except the blaster.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'venoms with abs' ?

A venom with a 6-pack

Obsidian Rose is my kabal of choice for my main battalion but only because I see it as a better choice than Flayed Skull when you're fielding more Raiders than Venoms which is what I do mostly. The 24 inch blaster range/15 inch splinter rifle rapid fire range is something I could see myself missing terribly if I ever changed to Flayed Skull.

Yeah I'm running Flayed Skull this weekend but will try Obsidian Rose eventually, I like playing at a distance and the +6" range does that better for me than +3" movement/reroll 1s for Rapid Fire.

dumpeal wrote:

lcfr wrote:

wormfromhell wrote:

for flayed skull you really want venoms with abs for the sweet 19" move, and the ignore cover and reroll 1's on all guns except the blaster.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'venoms with abs' ?

A venom with a 6-pack

That's....that's where I'm at too. And like....yeah, sure, let's do that!

lcfr wrote:

dumpeal wrote:

lcfr wrote:

wormfromhell wrote:

for flayed skull you really want venoms with abs for the sweet 19" move, and the ignore cover and reroll 1's on all guns except the blaster.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'venoms with abs' ?

A venom with a 6-pack

That's....that's where I'm at too. And like....yeah, sure, let's do that!

It's a coven venom with +1 T

Toffeehammer wrote:

Obsidian Rose is my kabal of choice for my main battalion but only because I see it as a better choice than Flayed Skull when you're fielding more Raiders than Venoms which is what I do mostly. The 24 inch blaster range/15 inch splinter rifle rapid fire range is something I could see myself missing terribly if I ever changed to Flayed Skull.

Out of interest, do you get any use out of the other aspects of Obsidian Rose (Armour of Misery, Warlord Trait, Stratagem)?

Soulless Samurai wrote:

Toffeehammer wrote:

Obsidian Rose is my kabal of choice for my main battalion but only because I see it as a better choice than Flayed Skull when you're fielding more Raiders than Venoms which is what I do mostly. The 24 inch blaster range/15 inch splinter rifle rapid fire range is something I could see myself missing terribly if I ever changed to Flayed Skull.

Out of interest, do you get any use out of the other aspects of Obsidian Rose (Armour of Misery, Warlord Trait, Stratagem)?

The pure-kabal list I use for most games tends to field a Black Heart warlord but my kabal-covens list has an Obsidian Rose warlord and honestly? Huskblade/Agoniser + Armour of Misery + Blast Pistol with the Deathly Perfectionist warlord trait is a hell of a thing to watch in melee. I just like how simple the trait is. Like "hey we heard you like damage, here have some more".

The stratagem is what really shines for me though. It's allowed my warriors to stay on the board waaaaay longer than they had any right to and gave them essentially an extra partial shooting phase on the house. Sometimes I actually find myself hoping for morale losses just so I can have my blaster guys fire again because they always kill something. There are much worse uses for your CP at least.

HERO wrote:

I use it all the time with my black heart!

I used the kabal of the black rose the other day. A slightly modified version of one of your lists to include some redgrief units, for stopping their shooting and distracting them away from the real damage.
And Man!

The extra range on a blaster in a raider makes them deadly beasts! 24" blaster shots, plus the dark lance on the raider is the equivalent of a ravager with 3dl and you get some splinter shots too for horse control. So much pain they spit out.

It is also surprising how handy the fnp save is on a raider/ravager. That added durability really means something and in a way I miss every time I'm not running it.

The obsidian rose stratagem, if the unit is in close combat, you must make close combat attacks right?

obsidian rose are very good, had a game against necrons i out ranged him easy, i felt bad for the player as there was an 18" -1 to hit in play too for the mission. i was able to use my speed and range to piece meal his army, crons are so slow.

i have been running 4 blaster and 2 SC, or 4 shredders and 2 SC, don't think the lances are worth it tbh and then half that for 10 man boat squads. i have been having great success with them. i'm very tempted to run a horde army for them too.

Here's food for though, 20 warriors are 120pts, give them obsidian rose, thats 40 shots at 15 inches. my idea was to run maybe 2-3 of these, then you can load out warriors or your army as normal, but the basic idea of this is to move them forward fast and make your opponent have to deal with them, great dakka from them, quite delicious cannon fodder on the cheap and will put the hurt on other infantry.