Soldaan's Splinter Raid (1000pt Duke List)

I thought I'd post this to get a bit of feedback. I have yet to get a game in with the new rules (long story, I think the Laughing God is having waaaay too much fun at my expense), so this list is really just a template for me to build the first section of my new army to. I'm on a fairly tight budget so some bits have been "reused" and others are new (pretty much all raiders are old ones), so feel free to make changes but I may not be able to include them.

Only two other points to say before we start, two things wont change for this list. The Duke is staying (I know he's pricy at this level but it's the character I'm using). The Venom blades stay as well, even back in 3rd Ed all my sybarites had Poisoned Blades, it's a theme thing.

And here we go...

HQ
Soldaan Darkclaw (Duke Sliscus) - 150pts

Troops

Kabalite Squad 1 - 196pts
9 x Warriors
1 x Blaster
1 x Syberite Upgrade
- Blast Pistol
- Venom Blade
Raider
-Flickerfield

Kabalite Squad 2 - 190pts
10 x Warriors
1 x Blaster
1 x Splinter Cannon
1 x Syberite Upgrade
- Venom Blade
Raider

Wyche Squad 1- 165pts
7 x Wyches
1 x Hydra Gauntlets
1 x Hekatrix Upgrade
- Venom Blade
Raider
-Flickerfield

Elites

Incubi - 180pts
5 x Incubi
Venom
- SplinterCannon
- Chainsnares

Heavy Support
Ravager - 115pts
- Flickerfield

Total - 996pts

Only real suggestions I can think of is to get rid of the blast pistol from the first Kabalite Warrior squad and remove the Chainsnares from the Incubi's Venom. This leaves you with enough points to purchase a 2nd SplinterCannon for the Incubi's ride and also lets you arm all of your wych's with Haywire grenades.

/edit Besides the first Kabalite Warrior squad is going to be the Duke's escort anyways and he comes with a Blast Pistol.

This is my personal opinion, but I play nothing but Sliscus lists, so please keep in mind that I speak from experience:

#1: The splinter cannon in the warrior squad is optional. You're not going to see a ton of benefit from it.

#2: The Venom Blades are a cool way to spend 5 points -- they won't win any fights, but they're nice to trade a few blows with an enemy Archon, for instance, in the hopes of knocking out his Shadowfield before he sweeps your poor Kabalites.

#3: At 1,000 points, Wyches can be pretty nasty.

#4: 5 Incubi aren't really the best use of points in a Duke army. You would be WAY better served with 4 Trueborn with Blasters in a Raider.

#5: In 1,000 points, you don't have enough vehicles to make flickerfields worthwhile. They come into their own when you have 80-100 points left over in 2000+, and 10-12+ vehicles, all with them. When you only have 4-5, you'll stop a meltagun or bolter round here or there, but not much else. Drop them.

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My revision would look like this:

HQ

Soldaan Darkclaw (Duke Sliscus) - 150pts

Troops

Kabalite Squad 1 - 126 (186) pts
9 x Warriors
1 x Blaster
1 x Sybarite Upgrade
-Blast Pistol
-Venom Blade
Raider: 60

Kabalite Squad 2 - 135 (195) pts
10 x Warriors
1 x Blaster
1 x Sybarite Upgrade
-Blast Pistol
-Venom Blade
Raider: 60

Wyches Squad 1- 136 (196) pts
8 x Wyches
8 x Haywire Grenades
1 x Hydra Gauntlet
1 x Hekatrix Upgrade
- Venom Blade
- Blast Pistol
Raider: 60

Elites

Trueborn - 108 (168) pts
4 x Blaster
Raider: 60

Heavy Support
Ravager - 105

1000 on the nose.

This army would also work fairly well as a deepstrike army. Low-Orbit Raid is very nasty when paired up with Blast Pistols, because you can easily deepstrike 6-8'' away from an enemy target, scatter (or land on target), pivot your Raider's prow in the direction of the enemy, deploy the pistol 2.999'' out, and fire. The reach isn't as bad as you'd think, when you deepstrike in, and your odds of scattering onto the enemy is actually quite slim (86% chance of scattering 8'' or less, and only a 66% chance of scattering)

Also provides you with plenty of splinter weapons, a good melee squad (better with drugs) who can also handle enemy vehicles with ease, considering their blast pistol AND haywires, and a combined total of 16 darklight weapons, and 5 vehicles.

Looks fairly solid.

Veldrith is very wise in the play style of Duke lists. I just finished reading his battle reports and it left an evil grin on my face.

Cheers for the great advice guys. I'd been looking at your list and batreps Veldrith and considering if there was a way to scale them down so you're advice is very helpful.

Now if only I hadn't just bought a Venom...

Ain't nothin' wrong with a Venom. I just prefer Raiders.

I can understand why a Raider may be a better choice for the trueborn, if only for that extra DL shot. But I suppose I can justify the Venom shredding any infantry that's too close to them.

Once again cheers for the advice, now to try and make it work model wise. (And actually get a game in)

I personally eschew Venoms for a simple reason: My Duke army essentially has a peculiar approach to killing infantry.

If I see a horde, I bomb the 3 largest horde squads off the board with Razorwings, and mow down the manageable remainder with my squads.

If I see MEQ, I bomb 3 MEQ squads off the board, and darklight the remaining squads away.

Horde counters Darklight spam because the idea is that a darklight spam army will have 0 effective responses to an enemy who spams cheap, expendable troops in large numbers. If you have the capacity to remove 50-70% of those numbers in one shooting phase, the remaining 30% can effectively be mopped up with the "quality" firepower you pack in large numbers.