1500 pt List for Throne of Skulls

Greetings fellow Archons and Succubi.

First time poster long time lurker here at the Dark City. Some friends and I have committed to entering the world of tournament 40k and have decided to ease ourselves in via the Throne of Skulls tournament at Warhammer World in November.

I hope in due course that this post may develop into a record of how preparation for the tournament goes and ultimately I'l ensure tht I report back to you as to just humiliating my ultimate defeat will be.

The list that I am currently working on and for which I would appreciate your views is as follows:

HQ - 50 pts
Haemonculous
This guy gets no toys and is here really to fulfil the mandatory HQ requirement. He usually rides with one of the raider squads and hangs on for dear life to avoid giving away his warlord victory point.

Elites 302
2x 3 Trueborn with 2 dark lances in a venom (extra splinter cannon)
These guys try to set up somewhere that enables them to point dark light at enemy armour from the get go. The venoms float about at circa 33" away making enemy infantry take saving throws.

Troops - 760
4 x 5 kabalite warriors (1 with a blaster) riding in a Venom with extra splinter cannon
2 x 5 kabalite warriors (1 with a blaster) riding in a Raider with Night Shields
These guys stick with the general p;an of staying back at the 33" range and causing the enemy trouble. Later in the game they rush forward to objectives and hope that they have done enough to prevent the enemy from taking them out.

Heavy Support - 385
2x Ravager (with three dark lances) with Night Shields
Razorwing Jet Fighter (2 dark lances and four monoscythe missiles)
The Ravagers stick to the "keep your distance and shoot stuff"plan. The Razorwing is there as a swiss army knife; capable of acting as token AA, help clear hordes with monoscythe missile or help out with the anti armour duty.

Initial testing (almost exclusively against shooty Necrons with many immortals and Warriors backed up by three Annihilation Barges and a Night Scythe delivering Deathmarks to the face) has proved positive and the sheer number of shots that the list can throw out has been impressive.

In all it has 14 dark lances backed up by 6 blaster for anti armour and 12 venom cannons backed up by 24 splinter rifles if things get scary close.

My concern has been that it can really struggle with taking and, more importantly, holding objectives. I have yet to be subjected to the "Purge the Alien" mission in sixth edition. I do however remember that mission effectively requiring me to table the opponent or auto lose. I have yet to table my opponent!

Your thoughts, suggestions and comments will be gratefully recieved. I'm due to give the list another spin on Thursday so hope to be able to feedback results soon.

Critique away!

DireTribe wrote:

HQ - 50 pts
Haemonculous
This guy gets no toys and is here really to fulfil the mandatory HQ requirement. He usually rides with one of the raider squads and hangs on for dear life to avoid giving away his warlord victory point.

This guy is OK if you can I would add a Liquifier or shattershard for back field defence.

Elites 302
2x 3 Trueborn with 2 dark lances in a venom (extra splinter cannon)
These guys try to set up somewhere that enables them to point dark light at enemy armour from the get go. The venoms float about at circa 33" away making enemy infantry take saving throws.

Keep the venoms at the full 36 You have no need to be closer with the ability to premeasure. Only get closer for purposes such as 4+c from ruins.

Troops - 760
4 x 5 kabalite warriors (1 with a blaster) riding in a Venom with extra splinter cannon

I don't like these squads, they cost the same as a wrack squad are less durable objective holders and their secondary role (anti tank) you already have plenty covered 5x Wracks with a Liquifier gun will do you better as in pairs these squads are solid counter assault units and the Liquifier is gorgeous.

2 x 5 kabalite warriors (1 with a blaster) riding in a Raider with Night Shields
These guys stick with the general p;an of staying back at the 33" range and causing the enemy trouble. Later in the game they rush forward to objectives and hope that they have done enough to prevent the enemy from taking them out.

Consider dropping one of your small squads, giving these Splinter Racks and Splinter Cannons with 10 men. They will serve better. This many points for what amounts to 1 lance and an unusable blaster is a waste. Either make them a threat or drop/switch them.

Heavy Support - 385
2x Ravager (with three dark lances) with Night Shields
Razorwing Jet Fighter (2 dark lances and four monoscythe missiles)
The Ravagers stick to the "keep your distance and shoot stuff"plan. The Razorwing is there as a swiss army knife; capable of acting as token AA, help clear hordes with monoscythe missile or help out with the anti armour duty.

This is fine I prefer 2 planes one boat, but that is just a preference.

My advice in summary, more splinter, leas darklight. Wrqcks>Warriors.

Don't worry about tourney viability, I've been playing DE at tourneys for a goodly while and never lose more than 1 game. Keeping a clean sheet is also common. DE do well competetively.

I'll be at the same tourney, and am also list building here so feel free to take a look at/comment on my lists too.

There's nothing wrong with you're list, and you should have no problem winning a few.

A couple of things from my experience...

Lanceborn vs Blasterborn is a big thing. You can fit more blasters for cheaper going that route, but you do sacrafice some range, just something to keep in mind.

Wyches are great at glancing vehicles to death. It might behoove you to take one or two squads of those girls with haywire grenades, but isn't totally necessary with the amount of darklight you have.

Make sure you know what you're going to be doing with your RJF this turn AND next turn, so you can position accordingly, also, flickerfields on the RJF are AWESOME since you basically get to evade for free, and are definately worth taking.

If you go with the wyches, consider putting dissies on your RJF, as its primary purpose is in an anti-infantry role, and disses just do that better.

Good luck at your tourney

Thank you both for taking the time to offer your thoughts - it is appreciated.

Drager, I have been following your posts with interest and would be pleased to comment on your lists.

I'm interested to hear that you favour the 5 man Wrack squad with liquifier gun. I can certainly see the benefits; these guys can take a bit more punishment, are less concerned when their ride inevitably explodes and with poisoned melee attacks and sufficient numbers can offer a fair counter attack. The liquifier gun is most certainly handy as well.

I have yet to play with Wracks at any great length (I have a thing against Finecast) but I may proxy them for a few games to see how they fair.

Regarding the 5 man raider squads; I should have been more clear in the OP; these guys generally borrow the Trueborn's ride and hang out with all the other cool kids in Venoms. The Raiders tend to float about (usually empty) taking oppurtunistic lance shots.

I have found that their splinter rifles and blaster have come in handy when a Necorn Overlord on Command Barge comes calling. The 30 warriors can usually do enough to make him take a dirt nap without having to divert the venoms from their main duty of plinkning away at infantry at a distance. Although I take your point that Wracks could just as easily hop out of their ride, squirt him with liquifier death before hitting him with poisoned attacks. They have the added advantage of not dying to a stiff breeze (or exploding venom) afterwards.

Ruke, thanks for your comments; I ran with blasterborn in 5th and found them adequate if not ideal. I have found that the extra range of the lanceborn assists with ehtier survivability. So while in any given turn I get fewer dark light shots, from my experience the lanceborn get more turns of shooting. I agree though it really is a "horses for courses" issue.

I can see the potetnial of wyches as anti tank. I'm reluctant to go down that road. This list like to keep the foe at arms length; rushing forward with wyches toting bombs runs counter to that strategy. Although I accept they would also offer a similar counter punch as that provided by Wracks/Warriors. Only problem is they do not take so kindly to their ride exploding!

On the RJF; I lament every time I shoot the dark lances at infantry and promise myself to use dissies which are far superior in an anti-infantry role. However, the dark lances offer some hope of Anti Air which I suspect the dissies would be woefully inadequate at. Having said this, despite having the oppurtunity to shoot an opposing Night Scythe/(the thing with a frickin' DEATH RAY) it has nearly always been the better option to unload on the infantry. I suppose this plays quite nicely into Dragers commetns about taking two planes. Hmm, planes...

I agree that you should take 2 planes. My heavy support recently has been a Voidraven, Razorwing and one Ravager, and, it may just be my metagame but I find that i am still really struggling to take out other fliers/flying MC's.

So on that note I would not swap the Razorwing's Darklances for dissies. Yes, the Razor rules at putting the hurt on an exposed infantry squad, but when the missiles are gone its time for it to go tank/flyer hunting