Drukhari centred CRUSADE army

Hi fellow Drukhari lovers!

I come to you because I'm picking up the hobby again due to the fact that my two favorite things are made possible in 9th edition: story telling and playing in the 41st Millennium of mankind.

Of course my head is filled with questions following the rather bizarre and arbitrary point changes to the Drukhari Codex.
Luckily in Crusade we only have to care about Power Levels.

So before I start building my list I wanted to poke your mind on what type of units fit the bill well and which units are I to stay away from?

I'm going to put only painted miniatures into my 50PL Crusade list and I really would like it to be a mashup of all different kind of cool units.

I already have some old 3rd edition painted Warriors, Archon and two squads of Wyches. I'm working on an old squad of Grotesques who will now be played as Wracks. I also have a painted new Talos pain engine.
I also have some old Reaver Bikes.

My initial idea is to have a low level Archon from the Kabal of the Black Heart set out to create his conquering Raiding Force.
I would like it to be like a roaming circus of Drukhari Freaks, joined by speed freak Reaver Bikers, Beasts, Pain Engines, Space Clowns could join in and I even have some Craftworld Eldar lying around in the basement.

So my main problem is picking on what units to finish first. And I would like them to be quite effective as I am quite competitive minded, I want to have at least a fighting chance but I know that my 40k skills are quite rusty.

So naturally I end up in Heamonculus Coven, because of the durability of their units. My first thought is to create two 10 men Wracks Squads, combine it with Prophets of Flesh, so I can redeploy and replenish them with the 2CP STRAT.
Next would be to create a unit of Grotesques from 6 Rat Ogre models, which I have picked up.

I'm also fond of creating a beast unit, maybe the best would be the Razorwing Flocks?

I'm looking for whatever your experiences are with Crusade or any crazy ideas which would fit in this Circus of Pain CRUSADE.

Crusade normally starts with pl25 matches and 3 cp. Your coven idea with a Haemonculus would be already pl29. I personally would reduce the unit size to 5 for all three units, with the necessary Haemonculus you would have 4 power levels free, either 5 mandrakes, 5 incubi or a cronos would fit, or reduce the grotesques to 4 and add a talos.
Basically how I build my crusade list is this way. I decided on a pl 25 core for the first missions and the thought about how I want to expand. Do you want to spread as soon as possible into all subfaction? Then build a second pl25 of another subfaction, and be prepared that on the incursion scale, you may have lesser cp. But black hearth and also your idea for coven can become quite cp hungry, so instead you could use the additional pl 25 to build a battalion. Also try to take some choices for different tasks but with the same pl, so you can replace for example haywire when playing against tyranids or demons.
For detailed suggestions about units it would be nice to know the other factions in the campaign. For example against a demon player with nurglings I would even suggest Hellions, which I would never suggest for any other matchup.

Koldan wrote:

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For detailed suggestions about units it would be nice to know the other factions in the campaign. For example against a demon player with nurglings I would even suggest Hellions, which I would never suggest for any other matchup.

Well my mates play the following factions: Astra Militarum, Imperial Fists, Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Custodes, Night Lords, Thousands Sons, Death Guard and Chaos (if that even is a faction.)

We are typically more into the fluffy style of play rather than WAAC. Yet my mates didn't have an hiatus so I expect them to be more effective at what they are doing.

I can see that sticking to one faction or using a Raiding Force is more interesting because you really want to have enough CP to play around with. Like you said, Vect's Strat does cost significantly.
On the other hand I would like the Labyrinth Relic for CP generation and the Warlord Trait of Prophets to gain another d3.

Many thanks for your reply.
I think it would make sense to build off the Coven side and have the Heamonculus manipulate the other sub-factions to come along in his Circus of Pain by them owing him favors or they are seeking his reviving skills.

Beside the typical marines, so dissies would be nice, I really hate Wulfen, especially if you have not enough firepower to get them at range. With Stormshield and Thunderhammer, they are hard to kill and can remove almost anything in melee. Especially as every wulfen killed in melee can attack before he is removed, even if he already attacked that phase. A space wolf player can wrack a PoF coven list with them.

A few things about it, i've been playing it and I love it! Here are a few tips for fun.

1) Incubi and Mandrakes can go into any list b.c no Keywords, always take 1 of each and mayve a 2nd one. The Sargent Upgrades for the Incubi are amazing as well.
2) Vehicles are not giving up points for a lost in secondaries and get all upgrades, so might as well take as many as you want. Just remember they have to have a Keyword so they are limited where they can go.
3) HQ's can be made to be amazing Beat sticks, makes sure to take a couple HQ's
4) Court are really fun as well, I have a Sslyth with -2CP 2D melee weapon now, near and Archon with rr to hits, he can kill 2-3 Primaris marines now lol.
5) Pick only 2 to play for now, Either Kabal and Wych, Wych and Coven, or Coven and Kabal, focus on having a Incubi and mandrake as filler for both, that leaves you with more PL to take some of the other 2. This gives you 42 PL between the 2.
6) B.c you have to double up on Transports if you are playing low level games, its good to have a few units that doesn need a transport and put all your Transports into the detachment you want for now. If you want BH then take a BH kabal and all your transport in that, same for DT. Some units that doesn't need vehicles for 25-49 PL games, Reavers, Wrack, Grots, Talos, Mandrakes, Incubi (3+ armor, 2+ in cover, 2+ with a +1 additional save stratagem, and able to get -1 to hit) HQ's.

If you have any more questions let me know. I am highly enjoying Crusade and going to be playing it a lot more in the future, most likely my next 15 games or so.

I've been away from 40k for a while now but, as long as we don't get another lockdown, I will be playing my first game of 9e this weekend with a 25PL combat patrol Crusade game. Where would I find the most recent PL costs for units?

Its in the new CA but also they released it for free.

https://www.warhammer-community.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/A643OEwxln6ZS8H4.pdf

Now that is probably my favorite download in a while. I wondered why battlescribe wasn't jiving with the dex. With the amount of bucks we spend on armies and books, it's about time they did something for free. Now let's get back to the list building.

First off I build with the idea of what I want to bring. It's no fun trying to list build to be op. I can't say how things are yet in 9th, just played my first 2 games last weekend, 1st with necrons against tempestus, 2nd my sisters against admech. My biggest take on the games was the utilizing of terrain, with that in mind, we can use that to our advantage. If you haven't read over the terrain types and their rules, please do. I didn't bring my wych cult for fear of being slaughtered but after my Necrons got tabled by deadly flash lights I realized that toughness is not as important as saves and save buffs, my sisters faired way better but the dice Gods must still be mad at me for the long social distancing thing. But now we're back to it.

Let us know how your test runs go.

I'm currently 3 games in to a crusade campaign.

I was really overwhelmed trying to make Drukhari work in a campaign since we are at our best when we can run a rqiding force of 3 Patrols. So I was looking at mono-subfaction for my Order of Battle but I wasn't impressed with my options there either. Blades for hire help a bit, but it's hard to avoid the gaping holes in your capabilities if going with only a single obsession.

I briefly flirted with harlequins on account of their characters being fun and very good, and they do the whole "small codex" thing much better than one of kabal/coven/cult do. But I felt dirty using my still-unpainted harlies when I have more 40k experience than our other campaigners.

So I decided I'm doing Drukhari afterall, but the problem of mixing obsessions still remained.

But I realized if I mixed kabal/Prophets of Flesh and used a requisition point on Alliance of Agony, I could have the combat character Archon that I wanted, and bring a 2nd patrol (which would normally take 66% of my starting CPs) of Prophets of Flesh, the Diabolical Soothsayer warlord trait would offset the CP penalty.

Then I had to figure out what obsessions to run for the Kabal. My go-to is usually Flayed Skull, Black Heart if playing in a tournament. But neither of those are very good at low points levels. Ignoring cover is good, but at 25PL, there just isn't enough quality shooting to benefit. Agents of Vect is good, but I won't often have enough CP to use it.

Poisoned Tongue doesn't offer much--a relic i don't need, a lack of poison, and the Archon and his court already have re-rolls. The relic is okay, but not impressive.

So I decided on Obsidian Rose. Since I'm unlikely to spend much on actual kabal units--probably just an Archon, Court, 5 warriors, Ravager, and a venom/raider, it doesn't matter a ton which I take. But the Armor of Misery is a pretty nice relic to keep an Archon alive, and extra range never hurts.

So here's the 25PL list I played for my first 3 games:

Obsidian Rose Patrol:
4PL: Archon, Huskblade, Blast pistol, Warlord (Hatred Eternal)

3PL: 5 Warriors, Shredder; Sybarite: Blast Pistol, PGL, Power sword

4PL: 5 Mandrakes

Prophets of Flesh Patrol:
5PL: Haemonculus, Electro-corrosive whip, Liquifier gun, Vexator Mask, Alliance of Agony (Diabolical Soothsayer)

3PL: 5 Wracks, 1 Liquifier gun; Acothyst: Electro-corrosive whip, Liquifier gun

6PL: 3 Grotesques

Total: 25PL
Requisition Points spent: 3

Game 1 was against Orks and I lost pretty hard. He has 30 'Ard Boyz, a Warboss, a Weirdboy, and the teleporting buggy. Those boyz are damn near unstoppable. The plan was to try to charge both ends of the ork blob to restrict their pile in and reduce attacks--hopefully forcing him to use the Green Tide stratagem early. Instead, he rolled a lucky 11" charge with the blob, killed my warriors and surrounded my Archon. I tried the Desperate Escape stratagem, but rolled a 1 and died. My warriors advanced and liquified the weirdboy for an Assassin Agenda, Marked for Greatness, and survived to get the Blooded level.

Game 2 was against Necrons with disappearing objectives. I got caught in the open early and my wracks died to mass gauss. But my grotesques got hot on yheir defense and I onky lost 3 wounds from some pretty hot tesla rolls. But my warriors shot his scarabs, my archon charged his annihilation barge and killed it (after mandrakes plinked a mortal wound off), my haemonculus liquified his warriors and charged into his immortals, and the grots charged the necron warriors and finished them off. He had 2 immortals, a wounded scarab, and his Overlord left at the end of round 2.

Game 3 was against Space Wolves. He had a Wolf Lord with jump pack, 5 Wolf Guard with jump packs, 3 Thunderwolves, and 5 intercessors. I deployed hard on my right flank, with only the 5 warriors on the left. His jumpers couldn't risk a long charge into my coven stuff, nor could they get close enough to set up an easy charge for fear of 3 liquifiers spraying down the 1 wound marines (for another week). So they froze while his T-wolves moved towards my warriors--onto a midfield objective.

So I moved and advanced my wracks and haemonculus laterally and managed to get range on the wolves. My mandrakes dropped in and warriors moved into rapid fire range. After all the shooting and charges from mandrakes and Archon, there was one thunderwolf still standing. But in his next turn, he failed his charges from the wolf lord and wolf guard. They were quickly dispatched by liquifiers, grotesques, wracks and my haemonculus.

So 2-1 after 3 games. I've added the Armor of Misery for my Archon, and my grotesques re-roll 1s to hit now which is insane, so I'll be spending a RP to increase their size after my next game.

I'm happy I switched back to my painted and loved army! List writing is still a pain, but there are still creative options.

Mercs work great, I started with Incubi, Mandrakes, and Scourges. They together are 15PL and can work is all 3 factions.

I'm doing Kabal only for now with our test run (re are resetting after Marine book comes out, we already been playing Crusade for a little bit).

I can not tell you how much fun my Archons and Sslyths has been in Flawed Skull, between FS WL trait and relic, and the Djin blade, combine with some Crusade relics I have 2 Archons with a 4++ after the SF goes away, +1 attacks and Str. I am rushing with 7-8 attack Archons with str 5. My Sslyths are -2/2D now in melee lol. Scourges can RR1's finally and I love it! Kabalites with all gear in Raiders with all gear is really super fun too.

I think Coven and Wych will be more fun to play so that why for our small league i did Kabals, but now I'm thinking they can be just as fun lol.

Played 2 Crusade games yesterday, both at 25PL and using the same list (Haem, 5 Wracks, Venom, 4 Grots, Raider). Lost the first game against Death Guard but, to be brutally honest, that was almost entirely down to horrendous dice on my part and stupendous dice on my opponent's. Had a plague crawler and chaos lord survive on 1W each for 3 turns making god knows how many saves and disgustingly resilient rolls.

Second game was against CWE (Wave Serpent, 5 DA, Warlock on bike, 3 scatbikes, Hornet). This game went better for me and 2 dice rolls in particular swung the game my way. The mission was one with 3 objectives but on turns 4 and 5 one of the objectives is randomly removed. On both turns, it was the objective that my opponent held!

In both games, my grots were the stars of the show. Didn't lose a single Grot in either game and they destroyed anything they got in touch with.

Really liking the Crusade system, especially with smaller games.