1850 Hobby Challenge list - Coven of the Helfather

Building this list for a hobby challenge on TheIndependentCharacters forum. I'm interested to see what you guys think. Any comments/critiques will be appreciated.

Quote :

1850 List: Coven of the Helfather

HQ:
Baron Sathonyx: 105

Haemonculus (Power Weapon, Stinger Pistol, Webway Portal, Liquifier Gun)
+ Haemonculus (Power Weapon, Stinger Pistol, Webway Portal, Shattershard) : 225



Troops:
8x Wyches (Haywire Grenades)
+ Hekatrix (Blast Pistol, Agoniser)
+ Raider (Dark Lance, Chain-snares, Night Shields, Flickerfield) : 238
(one Haemonculus goes here)

8x Wyches (Haywire Grenades)
+ Hekatrix (Blast Pistol, Agoniser)
+ Raider (Dark Lance, Chain-snares, Night Shields, Flickerfield) : 238
(other Haemonculus goes here)

9x Wyches (Haywire Grenades)
+ Hekatrix (Blast Pistol, Agoniser)
+ Raider (Dark Lance, Chain-snares, Night Shields, Flickerfield) : 250

9x Hellion
+ Helliarch (Splinter Pistol, Stunclaw) : 175
(Sathonyx goes here)

9x Hellion
+ Helliarch (Splinter Pistol, Agoniser) : 185

9x Hellion
+ Helliarch (Splinter Pistol, Agoniser) : 185

Fast Attack:
2x Reavers (Blaster, Grav-talon)
+ Arena Champion (Agoniser) : 121

Heavy Support:

Ravager (3x Dark Lance, Night Shields, Flickerfield) : 125


Total: 1847

General strategy: 2 Raiders rush forward turn 1, Haemonculi get out/drop WWPs, approx 18" from short edge of board, 24-26" from table edge. Hope for good reserve rolls on the hellions.

you need PGL on the hellions if you want them to do well and not die first round of combat for not striking first cut down on ether Night shields or FF for the raider you do not need both. or you can cut out the Champion on the reavers. there not great in CC and just tossing them an agoniser does nothing the squad will die once they get into CC. grav talon is ok better to just use the caltrops and do as much dmg as possible.

Well the baron will give one squad offensive and defensive grenades, so he only has to be careful of who he charges with the other 2 hellion squads

With only 2 Haemonculi I would hesitate to call it a Coven especially since everything else is all Cult units.

I have found that 8 wyches perform the same as 9 or 10 wyches - you are not going to miss them if you cut them down.

Not a big chain snare guy and wouldn't hesitate saving points there, if you have luck with them then go for it but with both wych units sitting there in a raider like a big pinata waiting to get smacked I do not think you will get close enough to use them. You gotta think to yourself, if you were the enemy on turn 1 with all 1850 points sitting on the table and have a choice between shooting a Haemonculus that already dropped its portal or a shooting a raider with wyches in it - which would you choose to shoot?

What are you doing with the 3rd raider of wyches? Reserves?

I ran a Hellion squad with a stun claw & the Baron I failed to win combat, broke morale and fled - you have to win combat first in order to use the claw so I would choose an agoniser first.

I have ran Hellions at a squad of 10 and now I think they would do better if they were larger - perhaps taking that 3rd Hellion squad and splitting them amongst the other 2 squads to beef them up. Otherwise, take the points saved from above and beef up the Helllions squads you really will not know how fragile they are until they get into combat.

I am not a fan of a champion in a reaver squad but I do see them in other lists so maybe there is some merit with them. I personally only use them with caltrops or heat lances so I do avoid close combat as much as possible. I do not like the grav-talon but I have never used them so who knows.

I like the ravager. You could replace it with a Talos in order to utilize the WWP but a Talos is not for everyone since the internetz is in love with ravagers. Heck, if you decide to keep the stun claw perhaps steal an IC and fly them near a Talos for feeding. Its a crazy idea but sure sounds fun.

Grumpy Kwi wrote:

With only 2 Haemonculi I would hesitate to call it a Coven especially since everything else is all Cult units.

Would Cult of the Helfather be more appropriate?

Grumpy Kwi wrote:

Not a big chain snare guy and wouldn't hesitate saving points there, if you have luck with them then go for it but with both wych units sitting there in a raider like a big pinata waiting to get smacked I do not think you will get close enough to use them. You gotta think to yourself, if you were the enemy on turn 1 with all 1850 points sitting on the table and have a choice between shooting a Haemonculus that already dropped its portal or a shooting a raider with wyches in it - which would you choose to shoot?

I had planned to try using the wyches and their haywire grenades to "clear a path" for the impending hellions, including the 3rd raider of wyches. The 3rd raider could theoretically be replaced with warriors...

Grumpy Kwi wrote:

I have ran Hellions at a squad of 10 and now I think they would do better if they were larger - perhaps taking that 3rd Hellion squad and splitting them amongst the other 2 squads to beef them up. Otherwise, take the points saved from above and beef up the Helllions squads you really will not know how fragile they are until they get into combat.

The original plan was to have more hellions, but I ran out of points. Perhaps I should swap the 3rd raider of wyches for more hellions? I'll probably drop the NS and chain-snares and see how many points I have left over.

Grumpy Kwi wrote:

I like the ravager. You could replace it with a Talos in order to utilize the WWP but a Talos is not for everyone since the internetz is in love with ravagers. Heck, if you decide to keep the stun claw perhaps steal an IC and fly them near a Talos for feeding. Its a crazy idea but sure sounds fun.

I like this idea, and I like the new Talos model, Let me play with the list a bit and see what I can do...

Baron Tordeck wrote:

Lose the Grav talon, and Arena Champ and turn the blasters into heat lances, to get an agoinser into hellion squad one. and PGLs into squads 2 +3. I dont have the book in front of me so if you need more points start by taking the useless NS off the ravs.

LoneZealot wrote:

you need PGL on the hellions if you want them to do well and not die first round of combat for not striking first cut down on ether Night shields or FF for the raider you do not need both. or you can cut out the Champion on the reavers. there not great in CC and just tossing them an agoniser does nothing the squad will die once they get into CC. grav talon is ok better to just use the caltrops and do as much dmg as possible.

I'm noticing a theme here


Thanks for the input guys, I'll play around with the list a bit, and repost what I come up with.

Ok, i can drop all of the NS and chain-snares, drop the arena champion, swap grav-talon for calthrops, blaster for heat-lance, drop the blast-pistols off the wyches, add PGL to 2 hellion squads, drop 1 wych from the 10 squad, add another Haemonculus w/powerweapon, liquifier gun (all three wych squads now have feel-no-pain at deployment), drop the stinger pistols off the other haemonculi (not really needed with liquifier guns), swap the stunclaw for another agoniser

I now have an extra 28 points, with which I can either give agonisers to two of the Haemonculi, or some other upgrade

or I can do everything listed above, but drop the extra haemonculus, leave the extra wych, and add 5 hellions (either to 1 squad, or split up)

or I can do the above, drop the extra raider full-o-wyches, add 10 hellions and have enough points left over to add talos w/TL Liquifier gun, +1 CCW, TL Heat lance and swap one of the helliarchs' agonisers to stunclaw (i really liked that idea) and have an extra 26pts (give both haemonculi agonisers or go with chain-snares on the raiders/ravagers? )

Ok, so after some deliberation, here is my revised 1850 list:

Quote :

1850 List: Cult of the Helfather

HQ:
Baron Sathonyx: 105

2x Haemonculus (Webway Portal, Liquifier Gun) : 190

Troops:
8x Wyches (Haywire Grenades)
+ Hekatrix (Agoniser)
+ Raider (Chain-snares, Flickerfield) : 213

8x Wyches (Haywire Grenades)
+ Hekatrix (Agoniser)
+ Raider (Chain-snares, Flickerfield) : 213

14x Hellion
+ Helliarch (Splinter Pistol, Agoniser) : 265

14x Hellion
+ Helliarch (Splinter Pistol, Agoniser, Phantasm Grenade Launcher) : 285

12x Hellion
+ Helliarch (Splinter Pistol, Stunclaw, Phantasm Grenade Launcher) : 243

Fast Attack:
3x Reavers (Heat-lance, Cluster caltrops) : 98

Heavy Support:

Ravager (Chain-snares, Shock Prow, Flickerfield) : 125

Talos Pain Engine (Ichor injector, TL Haywire Blaster) : 110


Total: 1847

I personally have had some success with chain snares, and it allows the Raiders to be more than glorified dark lances after dropping their payload (if they live that long), and may help in preventing the enemy from surrounding my WWPs. I also tend to play against Ork and IG players during my weekly trip to the game store, and chain-snares seem to do better agains horde armies with low toughness...

The Haywire Grenades, Haywire Blaster, and Dark Lances will hopefully take care of the armor before the Hellions are in assault range, but everything is banking on getting the Hellions out of reserve...

Tell me what you think.

Baron Tordeck wrote:

I think that losing the 3rd unit of hellions and the caltrops from the reavers, gives you enough pts for another rav and leaves 141pts to play with for beasts, scourges, more reavers, etc

I havn't played with beasts or scourges yet, how are they?

Beasts are very good units. When playing WWP lists they especially excel with khymerae making them hard to hit and razorwingflocks chewing through enemy tanks.

^ agree with above. The Flocks are point-for-point the cheapest Wounds and Attacks we can field; the Khymerae are just there to soak S6+ hits. And in such volumes Rending is effin' terrifying!

and nades!