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Having played as Khador for the greater part of the decade, I have decided that it is time to start up a second force seeing as 40k and WHFB are rather limited in my area. I mostly use Butcher, because I love his little cotten socks.

I want to start up Hordes, and after having spent a lot of pipe and slippers time deciding, I want to go with eThags as my warlock.

Im pretty good with WM/H, so I know how to play the game. But information on eThags is quite limited I find, does anyone have any good information on how to start out with Thaggy?

Manifest destiny is the bread and butter spell with him. You get a huge turn from the feat with MD up. He plays very well with rabid shredders as well since rabid stays up for the full turn. The challenge is positioning Thagrosh forward enough that his beasts stay in his control area with the feat. He's a rather simple attrition/assassination caster but he can also jam beasts in a zone if scenario is the only win on the table.

He's primarily a beast caster and a pretty good one at that. If you like a bit of fun, you can run all shredders and eThangs and watch your opponent get torn apart by piranhas. He can do well running big beasties too. Taking 3-4 heavies and pelting them into your enemy with the intention of moving into prime targets behind the models you've just destroyed can wreck other beast heavy or jack heavy armies. I almost wiped 5 khador jacks off the table in a turn with his feat in an epic game with 4 beasts. The stopping point was a slightly misjudged angle on the charge that prevented proper engagement.. Not an expectation for a real game, but demonstrative for the potential power of the feat + manifest destiny. Overall he suffers from being a large based caster with middling defensive stats. He's easy to take down if you mess up. It's likely you'll be perpetually down at least 3 fury every turn to keep MD going and you'll probably be upkeeping your armor buff as well as casting spiny growth on yourself to stay healthy. You're hard to hide, not hard to hit and a touch soft on armor.

Tip for eThags:

Run Raeks
Don't pigeon hole his feat for offense
There is not just one way to build his list

Camp a healthy amount of fury.

I've used his feat to jam with Raeks and get a few extra attacks and then back up with the rest of my army in order to mimic pVayls feat and it can work VERY well. It can also be used to extend threat range to engage gunlines and other softer targets who want to keep a gap between you and them. He's a very aggressive caster and can definitely handle business himself, but he suffers mediocre defensive stats, sits on a fat large base, and has a pretty MEH natural threat range. To help with this I'd recommend running a Seraph for Slipstream and even though he's an abomination, I'd run the Succubus to upkeep for free and spread out animi so he can camp more fury.

His ability to create clouds from destroyed models he attacks is also a very strong ability and can be utilized to help block LOS. Its good times.

Here is how you run eThags.

50 pts
eThagrosh
-26 Shredders
Shepherd

*mic drop






Ok, in all seriousness, run a bunch of Shredders. Like 8-10. They get so much from his feat, especially since they keep Rabid during the feat movement and attacks. Its also the most attacks per point on his feat, heavies don't get as much mileage. And Manifest Destiny still applies as well.

Most lists with him that I see are something like,

eThags
-8-10 Shredders
-Scythean
-Angelius

max Legionaries
Pot
and of course Forsaken and Shepherds

He also often has some Spell Martyrs.

Thags loves shredders but taking more than 3-4 opens you up to some of the heavy infantry counters that are being developed. Shredders are much more frail than troll warders and get caught in the crossfire. The spawning vessel is great in many lists but with eThagrosh you can not only get a shredder delivered midfield but you can also get a harrier or stinger, which both have animii Thagrosh loves. also, in the name of diversity, taking some infantry to anchor a zone or screen a heavy can be very useful -even if they do not get MD or the feat.

Woo that's a lot of good answers.

I know a lot of people love pulling the shredder spam at least once, I'll probably try it if I ever buy 30 of them. Although I'm sure it will work exactly once, much like Karchevs tow kill.


I was thinking of grabbing of unit of Nyss for him to hide behind and smack in the back with Rapture, I'm not much of an elf fan to be honest, so killing my own elves is appealing to me.


How good are ogrun war spears with him? I'm quite a fan of the unit.

 Dais wrote:
Thags loves shredders but taking more than 3-4 opens you up to some of the heavy infantry counters that are being developed. Shredders are much more frail than troll warders and get caught in the crossfire. The spawning vessel is great in many lists but with eThagrosh you can not only get a shredder delivered midfield but you can also get a harrier or stinger, which both have animii Thagrosh loves. also, in the name of diversity, taking some infantry to anchor a zone or screen a heavy can be very useful -even if they do not get MD or the feat.

True, but that's why you have a Scythean as well. Scythean's love heavy infantry.

 Grey Templar wrote:

 Dais wrote:
Thags loves shredders but taking more than 3-4 opens you up to some of the heavy infantry counters that are being developed. Shredders are much more frail than troll warders and get caught in the crossfire. The spawning vessel is great in many lists but with eThagrosh you can not only get a shredder delivered midfield but you can also get a harrier or stinger, which both have animii Thagrosh loves. also, in the name of diversity, taking some infantry to anchor a zone or screen a heavy can be very useful -even if they do not get MD or the feat.

True, but that's why you have a Scythean as well. Scythean's love heavy infantry.

Speaking of the Scythean, what is the best one to run with thags. MD must allow of lot of fun on those sweep attacks, but I like the look of the ravagore and Cthulhu too.

Proteus sucks unfortunately. He's just... bad.

Ravegores are amazing shooty platforms. The Carnivean is a basic beatstick. I'd use magnets.

With eThagrosh, the Scythean is the best. He can help it connect with both its initials to trigger Bloodbath. Just make sure what its attacking doesn't die on the first hit, otherwise you won't get it.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Proteus sucks unfortunately. He's just... bad.

Ravegores are amazing shooty platforms. The Carnivean is a basic beatstick. I'd use magnets.

With eThagrosh, the Scythean is the best. He can help it connect with both its initials to trigger Bloodbath. Just make sure what its attacking doesn't die on the first hit, otherwise you won't get it.

Well that's a shame, I was hoping Proteus had more use. I suppose a warlock with limited fury could make better use of his herding rule, but thags is already fury 7.

How does this list look.

eThags +3
Scythean 9
Scythean 9
Shredder 2
Shredder 2
Shredder 2
Shepard 1
Warmonger war chief 3
Full unit of Ogrun Warspears with unit attachment 10

We play at 35 points in my area.

Thats pretty decent.

The only problem I would have with that list is high count armies are going to be annoying and weapon masters will cut your stuff up very nicely. I think menoth and crux have a potential to be bad match ups as they can put several bodies with weapon master in play quite easily. Tournaments won't be so bad with dual lists but casual could lead to headaches.

Thats a problem Legion in general can have, especially at 50 points. But Ravagores help with their scather templates, hate those things.

Yeah I love that Ravagore blast. Eyeless sight makes it a beasty weapon.

The Warspears can also take out quite a few models themselves since they have assault.

They can charge a model, making sure they have a second enemy in their melee range, kill their charge target with the assault shot, and then redirect their melee attack onto the second enemy. They lose the charge boost, but they can kill 2 models a turn that way. And if its against their Prey target even more so.

What would be the best way to organise the unit in order to have the Ogrun War Chief in their line of sight. Would it be better to run him ahead, or run him behind and force the Ogruns to turn their facing so he is in it?

Charge him in first and charge him in deep, this also avoids having to berserk on friendly models. Remember you don't have to charge directly towards charge targets, any vector which will get them into your melee range is fine, and reach helps a lot.

Then when you charge the Warspears in, just do so that he is in their front arc. If fighting small based enemies they won't block LoS and even medium bases shouldn't be an issue.

Fun fact: Thagrosh is a Blighted Ogrun, so he gains Blood Drinker. But not Veteran Leader as he isn't a Trooper.

Fun PP slide pics demonstrating this

That's a pretty good diagram. Can't wait to test it out.