Duke 1500

Here's the list I'm thinking of running in the third week of a local tournament. To be honest, I shouldn't change what I've been using because my last list has won 8 straight tournament games, but based on the comments from some of my opponents I think they've given up on trying to beat it and I don't want to feel like a bully. Thought I'd try to do something different to mix it up for them.

Duke Sliscus

2x blasterborn squad in dual cannon venom (4 trueborn in each)

1x blasterborn squad in dual cannon venom (3 trueborn)

1x warrior squad in raider with lance and night shields (9 warriors to allow space for duke)

1x warrior squad in raider with lance (10 warriors)

2x reaver squad with cluster caltrops (3 jetbikes in each)

1x Razorwing Jetfighter with dark lances and splinter cannon upgrade

2x ravager with lances

I'm used to running several haywire wych squads, and in their absence I went heavier with lances on my other units (usually i run dissies on the razorwing and at least 1 ravager) to make sure I can cover armor values.

The only opponent that's still close to me in standing at the tournament is a daemon player that usually runs a couple nurgle princes and a couple soulgrinders. I'd plan on deploying everything on the table against him because he lacks many ranged threats. Most other players I'd probably only deploy the reavers and ravagers and let the rest deepstrike. This is my first attempt at using the Duke though and I'm wary of reserving a lot without an autarch or something to improve reliability. Any players with a lot of Duke experience that can comment?

What list are you replacing with this? And are you allowed allies?

I am allowed allies, and here's my old list:

1x haemonculus with venom blade

1x autarch on a jetbike with fusion gun, laser lance, and banshee mask

3x haywire wych squads in raiders with enhanced aethersails

3x wrack squads in dual cannon venoms

1x windrider jetbike squad

1x reaver jetbike squad with cluster caltrops

1x crimson hunter exarch

1x razorwing jetfighter with disintegrators

1x triple dis ravager

1x triple lance ravager

The wracks would start on whichever objectives were in my deployment zone and usually be ignored all game since they weren't threats to anyone which let me focus on just the enemy objectives. I'd boost the 3 raiders straight into the enemies face in turn one if they had any vehicle threats I needed to knock out like wave serpents (a couple turns of boosting around to objectives and shooting down targets otherwise). The rest would hop around and blast since I usually had a strong advantage on range and positioning.

These are all maelstrom games in the tournament, so having 13 objective secured units was huge and I could frequently accumulate a lot of points by sacrificing the occasional raider or bike squad to steal objectives or deny opponents from even getting to draw tactical objectives cards. I am allowed to run allies, but I was having a hard time getting the duke and eldar into a list until it goes up to 1850. I'm nervous about losing the reserve manipulation for the heavy deepstrike force and not having enough anti-air now though.

I wouldn't change your army too much if it's working. If you'd like to get the duke in your list, which I think might be a worthy endeavor, you could do so just by swapping out the haemonculus and 1 unit of wracks(perfect point swap).

That would give your wyches upgraded combat drugs, and give your army the ability to deep strike should you choose to do so.

Now, obviously, you'd need to swap out the other 2 wrack units for kabalites, which you could easily do.

2x 3 wracks in a dual cannon venom = 190
2x 5 warriors in a raider = 210

So you'd just need to free up 20 points. I might consider dropping the reaver jetbikes for it. This would allow you to get 1 of the warrior squads up to 9 guys(duke goes here), with splinter racks in their raider, and either flickerfields or night shields on both the raiders.