1850 Royalty List and new to DE

This is meant to be a Kabal of the Flayed Skull Royalty List (Flyers, Reavers, the Duke, and the Baron).

HQ: 255
Duke Sliscus
Baron Sathonyx

Troops: 630
x14 Hellions (with the Baron)
x9 Kabalite Warriors (with the Duke)
- Raider: Splinter Racks, Shock Prow
x5 Wyches: Haywire Grenades
- Venom: Splinter Cannon
x5 Wyches: Haywire Grenades
- Venom: Splinter Cannon

Fast Attack: 530
x4 Beastmasters: x5 Khymera, x6 Razorwing Flocks
x6 Reavers: Arena Champion, x2 Heat Lances
x6 Reavers: Arena Champion, x2 Heat Lances

Heavy Support: 435
Razorwing Jetfighter: x4 Monoscythe Missiles, x2 Dark Lances
Razorwing Jetfighter: x4 Monoscythe Missiles, x2 Dark Lances
Voidraven Bomber

I would prefer more troops, but the list doesn't need to be perfect. I was also thinking about switching the Baron to the Beastmaster pack, and reducing the Hellion squad by 5. This would allow me to buy 2 Implosion Missiles for the Voidraven, give the Arena Champions Venom Blades, and add a Helliarch with a Venom Blade. I'm also tempted to switch the Shock Prow on the Duke's Raider to a Grisly Trophy, but that is a separate matter. Your thoughts and comments are, as always, greatly appreciated I.E. dissect away.

Edit: Capitalization

I have been playtesting Hellions and will be bringing them to a local tournament next week (details forthcoming), and just mathematically speaking 15 (counting Baron) is either too few or too many. 13 or 17 are the magic numbers, as these are the defining numbers that determine how many need to be killed for them to run. 16 = 4 kills, 17 = 5.

What do you plan on doing with the Duke? He blesses the Warriors with the poison boost, but once he's done that, what benefit will he provide to the squad?

Is the Baron going to go with the Hellions or the Beastmasters? 10 Hellions without the Baron aren't going to be very effective, especially at this point level. I feel like you should choose one or the other. Neither is really viable withough the Baron. I, personally, would swap one or the other for a strong CC unit (in this list) for the Duke to accompany once he's upgraded the Warriors' poison, in which case you should probably upgrade that unit to 10 with a SC.

Ravagers are more viable than Razorwings most of the time. DE flying circus is too fragile and not hard hitting enough to be worth it, in my opinion.

I also don't care for shock prows, as tank shocking with Raiders has been well nerfed this edition.


I feel like I've come across as overly negative. Sorry about that. I just feel like this list works against itself, emphasizing our weaknesses and eliminating our strengths. Take it with a grain of salt.

No worries about being negative, I'm new to this and need to be shown the ropes.

With regards to the maximizing the Duke's potential; he upgrades the Warriors and gives the Wyches, Hellions, and Reavers drug rerolls. His Raider will probably be destroyed. Hopefully this will occur near an enemy squad or an objective, where the Duke might be able to help out in CC. Ultimately, however, I took him more for his buffs than for his CC potential.

The Baron, on the other hand, seems to provide better buffs for the Beastmasters. That's why I'm considering pruning back the Hellions. The large squad was meant to provide more redundancy for the Beastmasters (another flying blob), but reducing their squad by 5 and moving the Baron upgrades the Beastmasters significantly, and provides a small scoring unit that is meant to stay out of the way and target small squads or late game objectives. 9 is another "magic number" like 13 and 17, and while they can die easily, I feel if my opponent is shooting at those Hellions they're either wasting those shots or I'm already dead.

Your thoughts are greatly appreciated, as I'm conflicted about the number of Hellions. There's my reasoning, and it hopefully makes some amount of sense.

I used to run a Royalty list.

I never got on with the Hellions, that was probably my fault in that I didn't persevere with them or use them aggressively enough. I'd be really tempted to drop the Hellions as Baron works so well with Beasts now, it makes Duke slightly worse in that he's giving out less fancy drugs but hey ho. I also run Duke in the same exact unit but mine have night shields and are thankful for it.

What you have is three nice units for denying objectives but I don't think you can have enough troops in sixth. Using the Hellion points I'd grab more Wyches in Venoms.

My only worry in this list is your first and maybe second turn anti tank. How do you deal with a million rhinos and chimeras? Everyone says mech is dead but I know full well that by every store, club and tournament I've gone to its still in full swing.

To follow Sky same concern. I still say "If mech is dead someone needs to tell all the players that bought expensive plastic boxes to stop fielding them."

Who ever said mech is dead need their head checking almost every player i play against has vehicles, they are alot harder to blow up in the 5th.

That is an issue. I have anti-heavy Mech with the Wyches and Reavers, but the anti-light mech comes from the Razorwings that won't arrive for a few turns. Most people would use Ravagers, but this list is somewhat themed towards flyers. I've heard Razorwing flocks can take out light armor, but I haven't play tested them to see how effective they would be in this regard. Off the top of my head 6 flocks that hit on 2+ vs. vehicles is 25 hits with ~4 rends. Still, 1 squad isn't much.

I was also very tempted to give the Duke's raider Night Shields, which I hoped would give a large advantage in rapid fire duels. Ultimately, however, I felt my opponent could just move 6' closer and still rapid fire. I 'd like to hear more about how you use him.

If I took your advice whole hog, I would probably drop the Hellions completely, switch the Razorwings to Ravagers with Night Shields, and add 2 more Wych squads in Venoms. That leave me another 34 points to work with. The list would lose some of it's flavor and AA, but it's a starting point.

An alternative compromise would be trading the Voidraven for a Ravager, reducing the Hellions by 5, and removing the Duke's Shock Prow to add more 1 Wych Venom squad. Either way I have some thinking to do.

Thanks again.

I always run with 2 ravagers and a razoring with SC and flickerfield. Gives you decent AT turn 1 from long range and then your not relying on all 3 jets coming in turn 2.