Poison Tongue Battalion 1500pts

Messing around with a pure Kabal list using a lot of troops and transports.

Poison Tongue Kabal Battalion (3CP)
Archon (Huskblade, Splinter Pistol, Soul Seeker) – 76 (Warlord: Soul Thirst)
Archon (Huskblade, Splinter Pistol, Djin Blade) – 76
4 Lhamaeans – 60
- Venom (Twin Splinter Rifle) – 65
5 Kabalite Warriors (Blaster, Agoniser) – 51
- Venom (Twin Splinter Rifle) – 65
5 Kabalite Warriors (Blaster, Agoniser) – 51
- Venom (Twin Splinter Rifle) – 65
5 Kabalite Warriors (Blaster, Agoniser) – 51
- Venom (Twin Splinter Rifle) – 65
5 Kabalite Warriors (Blaster, Agoniser) – 51
- Venom (Twin Splinter Rifle) – 65
10 Kabalite Warriors (2x Blaster, Agoniser) – 98
- Raider (Dark Lance) – 85
10 Kabalite Warriors (2x Blaster, Agoniser) – 98
- Raider (Dark Lance) – 85
5 Mandrakes – 80
- Raider (Disintegrator, Shock Prow) - 81
5 Scourges (4x Haywire Blaster) – 92
Ravager (3x Dark Lance) – 140
1500pts (8CP)

The Djin Blade Archon will start in the Venom with the Lhamaeans.
The Soul Seeker Archon will start in the Disintegrator Raider with the Mandrakes.

The idea is that each Archon will have 2 Venoms and a Raider of troops near him, which will aim to disembark near the enemy, shoot (making use of both the Archon's aura and the PT bonus), and then assault. The vehicles (in addition to also benefiting from the Archon's aura), can be used to protect the Warriors, to charge in and absorb overwatch or else to charge and tie down other units or vehicles.

The Scourges and Ravager will act more independently, though the latter will try to remain near enough to one of the Archons to get the benefit of his aura.

The Warlord Archon and his Mandrake buddies will tend towards caution, probably attacking mostly from range or assaulting weaker targets (with the Mandrake's assisting him).

The Djin Blade Archon (and his Lhamaean cohorts) will take more risks, simply aiming to cause as much damage as possible.

(If my group ends up using the 0-3 rule, I'll swap out a Lhamaean for an extra Mandrake).

I don't know if having Mandrakes accompany my Archon is a good idea or not. However, I wanted a unit that was decent at both shooting and range, and Mandrakes seemed like the obvious choice. The only other possibility would have been Sslyth, but I wanted a Lhamaean court for the more aggressive Archon (and I didn't want to bunch up my Archons in the same transport). Still, I'm open to thoughts or criticism on this tactic.


Any thoughts regarding this list?

This list looks like a lot of fun to me. I like your idea of bubble wrapping the warlord in mandrakes--I didn't realize how nicely baleblast might complement pistol fire for a hanger-back HQ.

I'm curious about your choice to keep the splinter rifles on the venoms and use your 10-man kabalite heavy slot for splinter cannons. Was this mainly to free up points? I'd imagine I would have tried upgrading two venoms and givng the kabalites lances, although thag wouldn't complement the PT theme as nicely. Anyway just curious. Looks like a fun list to go up against.

zelatar wrote:

This list looks like a lot of fun to me. I like your idea of bubble wrapping the warlord in mandrakes--I didn't realize how nicely baleblast might complement pistol fire for a hanger-back HQ.

Yeah, it'll be interesting to see how that goes.

I did consider deep striking the Mandrakes and using a WWP to deep strike my HQ with them, but I thought using a transport would give me more options (since this way I can instead deep strike my Ravager if I need to).

zelatar wrote:

I'm curious about your choice to keep the splinter rifles on the venoms and use your 10-man kabalite heavy slot for splinter cannons. Was this mainly to free up points? I'd imagine I would have tried upgrading two venoms and givng the kabalites lances, although thag wouldn't complement the PT theme as nicely.

Ah, that was actually a mistake on my part. Those Warrior squads aren't supposed to have Splinter Cannons (I had them initially but then removed them because I wanted the points elsewhere). Sorry about that.

Regardless, I'll bear that in mind for future lists in terms of using Dark Lances over Splinter Cannons on Warrior squads.

In terms of Venoms, I'm still unsure that Splinter cannons are worth it, so I'll probably only upgrade them if all the embarked models have 18" range weapons (e.g. if it's transporting a Blaster Archon and some Sslyth).

zelatar wrote:

Anyway just curious. Looks like a fun list to go up against.

Awsome. Thanks for your input.