1750 Balance (coven-ish)

Hi friends, I've been doing lots of research on this forum to learn more about the arts of the dark kin and have put together a list that i'm excited about with models i like and i feel is balanced enough for a TAC.

It's a Coven-ish list with decent splinter fire and ok darklight. I don't have any experience with DE and would like to consult you guys before i commit on buying an army worth of models.

HQ:
Haemonculus, Liquifer, Venom Blade (With grots)

Elites:
3 Grots, Liquifer, one as Aberration + venom blade
+ Raider + DL

3 trueborn, 2x Splinter Cannon
+ Venom + SC

3 trueborn, 2x Splinter Cannon
+ Venom + SC

Fast Attack:
6x Reavers +2 Blasters

6x Reavers +2 Blasters

Troops:
10 wracks x2 liquifiers
+ Raider + DL

10 wracks x2 liquifiers
+ Raider + DL

5 Wyches, Haywire
+ Venom + SC

5 Wyches, Haywire
+ Venom + SC

Heavy:
Ravager 3x DL

Talos + Liquifier + SC

Talos + Liquifier + SC

1746pts


I feel like this would be a fun list to play with lots of variety and utility troops (reavers, talos) and an interesting amount of early pressure. (grot raider, 2 wrack raiders, 2 wych venoms and perhaps 2 units of blaster reavers in your face on turn one). With all that in threat range the splinterborn and ravager may take less heat and just pour shots in.

Only problems are the talos may be a little slow to keep up. hopefully the rest of the army will put enough pressure help buy time. for some early game runs (for talos)

Another potential problem is that the talos and reavers are both fighting for that early FNP token. They both benefit tremendously from them however it's unlikely that i'm gonna get enough for all 4 units.

Also this list will be in trouble going second. if opponent pops a few of my raiders my wracks/grots will have to walk up the board. (perhaps i'd need to play defensive and camp objectives for these games)

What do you guys think? I'm going for a balanced list, not extremely competitive but would like to hold my own and not get rocked and at least have options to deal with different lists/threats.

Thanks in advance for any comments!

with 4 venoms + trueborn fire, you should be able to pick at squads and then let the taloi finish em off for that juicy PT

otherwise i would not change anything except maybe try to squeeze in a champ with venom blade in the wracks units

I think it is a decently solid list, and rather similar to how I play mine nowadays. I love the wracks and trust you will too, between them & the grot boat you've got plenty of early in-face while the Taloi slog up earning pain tokens behind 'em.
Read the 2nd post here (Mushkilla's):
http://www.thedarkcity.net/t8168-talos-fitout
for a decent explanation of Talos tips & strats regarding what they are and how best to use 'em. Seriously good advice that has earned me a couple victories.
Also I would check out the many illustrated batreps linked in Mushkilla's signature, on the Realspace Raids section of the forum. Lots of great examples of how to field the units you're looking at.

I wish you all the best in your new endeavours as one of the dark kin!

doriii wrote:

with 4 venoms + trueborn fire, you should be able to pick at squads and then let the taloi finish em off for that juicy PT

otherwise i would not change anything except maybe try to squeeze in a champ with venom blade in the wracks units

Thanks for the comment! Yes, that's why i went splinterborn rather than blasterborn so i can hopefully soften units up before the wracks/grots/taloi/reavers go in for some dirty work =)

Good idea with the champ/venom blade in the wracks. I've been nickeling and diming to try and squeeze out a few more points for another grot in the haemo unit. But i'll keep this in mind after a few games if i need to adjust the wracks. (Although i feel I should keep the wrack units as cheap as possible)

Laughingcarp wrote:

I think it is a decently solid list, and rather similar to how I play mine nowadays. I love the wracks and trust you will too, between them & the grot boat you've got plenty of early in-face while the Taloi slog up earning pain tokens behind 'em.
Read the 2nd post here (Mushkilla's):
http://www.thedarkcity.net/t8168-talos-fitout
for a decent explanation of Talos tips & strats regarding what they are and how best to use 'em. Seriously good advice that has earned me a couple victories.
Also I would check out the many illustrated batreps linked in Mushkilla's signature, on the Realspace Raids section of the forum. Lots of great examples of how to field the units you're looking at.

I wish you all the best in your new endeavours as one of the dark kin!

Thanks Laughingcarp, Yes. i love the whole coven range and I like to play armies that are a little bit different than the mainstream.

Also thanks for the link, I have checked that thread out and also all/most of mushkillas and skari's coven batreps. All these have helped me put this list together and also given me confidence in the coven  

I'm somewhat worried about the hardiness of the Haemonculus as HQ, seems like an easy warlord point since they are kinda weak. At least they have to get through the grot bodyguards to get to him though. I guess you can't have it all =)

Just need to finish up some painting on my current army then i'll be ready to dive into this list. Looking forward to start a project log and share with everyone.

Good to hear you're doing your research! I've been getting tips & advice from doomseer11b, some specifically about fielding grots. He sees them as a giant fire magnet, & plays them accordingly. They're scary, they're ridiculously tough, and they pack a wallop. So he uses them to draw fire whilst the rest of his army sets up. IF they make it to the enemy lines, even better. And yes, the haemy is kinda squishy. Less so if you keep him in a grot-mosh-pit. Just remember while he may be a high priority target with less wounds than you'd like, our armies are also almost guaranteed of getting linebreaker and this helps to compensate.

Back to the grots; they get shot at. A lot. I've played games where they haven't made it through more than one CC, and others where they didn't make it into CC at all. But the occasions when they DO get in where they want to be, they win. For example, a team game of my DE, my friend's Imperial Fists, vs two Guard armies. By turn 3 all I had left were my reaver jet bikes and my grot squad w/succubus. The grots managed to take out 3 more tanks, two special weapons squads, both warlords, earn linebreaker, and take an absurd amount of fire.
It was the best day ever.