The Court - How to play it?

Fellow Darklings!

With the new miniatures for the court approaching, i asked myself what would be the best combination.

Building armies, I am following on rule. I give a unit a single task. Either Shooting or CC.

So i was thinking about either :

maxed out Sslyth with 2 medusae and the obigatory others.
Question is what to do with the archon?

or

All on CC. 2 Poisen-Girls, 1 Medusae, 5 Ghuls, 1 Sslyth and the Archon.


Both choices should be riding in a raider.

So, what do you think?

Hydra wrote:

maxed out Sslyth with 2 medusae and the obigatory others.
Question is what to do with the archon?

Or two medusae, 1 each of rest, in venom to drop those really nasty templates.

The archon goes with incubi (if unnamed and can take the PGL) or with wyches (if Vect). Not sure what to do with Malys, myself.

Let's revitalise this discussion!

Basic break down:
- either close-range fire support (small) or straight-up assault unit (large)
- no AT options, mass S5 attacks are your best bet (max AV11)
- NO grenade options, so the assault unit would need a PGL carrier
- different Wound types
- do not Score, so can't be fairly compared to Troops
- all Fleet, like regular DE
- few actual DE, so give that Pain token to some other unit

Medusae
Scary template action. As Nepenthe described above, dual Medusae are the core of the Court's close-range fire support version. Could add more Sslyth but they're expensive for Shardcarbines and would disallow the Venom transport option.

Ur-Ghul
The core of the Court's assault version. 4 S5 attacks at I6 when assaulting with FnP @ 15pts is quite a steal. Nevertheless, one could easily argue them being inferior to Khymerae... just remember those don't come with a transport option.

Lhamean
No real value except proving to your enemies that your Archon is a real pimp. The second one would prove... he's compensating for something. She's Ld9 but so are Medusae. Meh.

Sslyth
Terribad Grots at first glance, their real value is of course to negate instakill for the entire squad. That said, a unit won't benefit much from maxing out on these. -Every- other Court model is a better pts-for-pts buy, even the Lhamean!

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Now I got that out of the way, here are the Court's 'best' builds (as I perceive them), compared to the unit they are most directly competing with. As stated before, I won't consider Troops for these comparisons, and so far they're just theorycraft.

First up, the close-range fire support version.

Quote :

Lhameans x1
Medusae x2
Sslyth x1
Ur-Ghuls x1
...2SC Venom

155

I'll start off by noting that no other squad (or combo) available to us can shower the foe with 2 Flamer templates from atop a Venom. Functionally the Eyebursts are much like Liq guns except a bit more random. Chances are you'll get the bang for your buck though; average Strength rolled is 4.5, beating the Liq gun. It's a shame the squad is pretty miserable once out in the open. Despite the Sslyth the squad will melt pretty fast to enemy fire and they're no champs in assault either.

Despite being restricted to 1 Flamer template, I feel Wracks are the fairest comparison to these guys, closely followed by Dakkaborn.

Quote :

5 Wracks - Acothyst, liq gun
...2 SC Venom

135

Cheaper, more resilient, better in assault. Just the first things that sprang to mind. After all that AP roll is random... then again if the opponent -is- in cover the Wracks' assault would end just as disastrously.

Quote :

5 Trueborn - splinter cannon x2, shardcarbine x3
...2 SC Venom

160

Okay, these guys'll get wrecked when cover is involved. But whenever it isn't, this volume of poison shots will likely ruin a horde's day a bit more than the flamers could. Having most of it at 36" is a definite benefit, too.

Are the Court worth it? I say, arguably, if you're into turtle hunting. If you could deal with 4 random rolls, you're probably the kind of guy (or girl) who likes to take a chance anyway!

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I would go with Raider as transport. With mandatory members You can't fit more than minimal squad. Also, Lance + AI inside...

I agree, I think if you take the Court for any reason besides 'I own and painted one of each of these guys, you're taking a Raider.

Post edited. The assault squad would of course need a Raider. Hope I'll get to that soon.