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DE Spearmen are some of my favorite models. I just like seeing masses of them ranked up. This isn't meant to be a tournament list, but IS expected to be at least viable on table top. I tried to compensate for sinking so many points into making the spearblocks not-quite-useless by taking a bit of CC-geared cheese characters. Hopefully it all balances out....


Dreadlord on Black Dragon
Pendant of Khaleth, Armor of Eternal Servitude, Sea Dragon Cloak, Crimson Death

Supreme Sorceress
Lvl 4, Black Amulet, Darkstar Cloak

Sorceress
Lvl 2, 2xDispel Scrolls

Sorceress
Lvl 2, Tome of Furion, Seal of Ghrond

Master
BSB, Banner of Nagarythe

2x Assassin
each with Manbane, Rune of Khaine, xtra hw

2x 6 Dark Riders with RXBs, champions, musicians

1 Bolt Thrower

2x 20 Spearmen
shields, full command, War Banner (common item so I can take two, right?)

1x 20 Spearmen
shields, full command

14 Black Guard
Champion w/Ring of Hotek, Standard of Hag Graef

2998pts.

Deployment as follows (from left to right)


Dark Riders---Dragon---Spears1---Spears2---Spears3---BlackGuard---DarkRiders

Spears 2 (the one without a War Banner) gets the BSB & Supreme Sorceress. Unbreakable unit holding the center with the Lvl4 blasting whatever charges.
Spears 1 & 3 each get a Sorceress and an Assassin. With their own War Banner, plus the 12" range of the Banner of Nagarythe, they should each be +6CR (3 ranks, standard, war banner, nagarythe).
The Dreadlord/Dragon and Black Guard each engage targets of opportunity with the Dark Riders protecting their flanks and shooting stuff. Bolt thrower does the same.

Only 11 PD and 7 DD so I'm concerned that my Magic Phase is too weak to do significant damage before I eat charges from some monsters/mounts/chariots/etc.

Thoughts?

I don't beleive you can take multiples of even the common magic items. Magic items need a special rule stating you can have more than one, like Null Stones or Scrolls. I don't have my BRB handy but I think it specifies that in the magic item rules.

Noble713 wrote:Dreadlord on Black Dragon
Pendant of Khaleth, Armor of Eternal Servitude, Sea Dragon Cloak, Crimson Death

I would give this guy Caledor's Bane. Crimson Death is better placed on your Black Guard Champion so he can swing at S6, and Caledor's Bane is better on this guy so you can hunt down Dragons, Stegadons, Hydra, etc. without as many issues due to S7 hits and negating their armor saves. This also lets you put a shield on him for extra armor since it's one-handed.

Noble713 wrote:Supreme Sorceress
Lvl 4, Black Amulet, Darkstar Cloak

Darkstar Cloak makes a much bigger difference on Lv.2 sorcs than on a Lv.4. I would give her either the Black Staff (preferably, but costs 25pts more), or a Sacrificial Dagger (same cost). Then put the Cloak on the lv.2 scroll carrier and give one of the scrolls to this Lv.4.

Noble713 wrote:Master
BSB, Banner of Nagarythe

I don't think I've actually seen this banner used. I don't have my book with me so don't really remember, but most people typically stick the BSB with a normal standard and magical armor. Armor of Darkness and a Great Weapon would do just fine with putting him in the Black Guard unit.

Noble713 wrote:
2x Assassin
each with Manbane, Rune of Khaine, xtra hw

Effective enough and nasty surprises for people charging Warrior blocks.

Noble713 wrote:2x 6 Dark Riders with RXBs, champions, musicians

5-man units with just the RXBs and Musicians are fine. The champions are needless for these harassment/baiting units.

Noble713 wrote:1 Bolt Thrower

Two or None. Preferably more than two in a 3k list due to the amount of big scary things other armies can bring that typically don't like eating bolts to the face.

Noble713 wrote:2x 20 Spearmen
shields, full command, War Banner (common item so I can take two, right?)

Only one. Common item just means they do the same thing in every army, only Scrolls and Stones are multi-items.

Noble713 wrote:
14 Black Guard
Champion w/Ring of Hotek, Standard of Hag Graef

Bringing a RoH and three sorcs can really, really mess up your own magic phase, especially in a unit that goes where the fight takes them (quite possibly right next to your own sorcs). I'd probably drop the Ring here and go with Crimson Death (as noted above). That's just me, though, you might be able to keep your sorcs always further than 12" away from your Black Guard.

Keep in mind also that it limits not only where you can stand but where you can target. If you wanted to say- cast word of pain onto the unit the BG are engaged with for or hit them with bladewind you'd also be affectd by the ring. Magic have and a ring don't go well together unless the ring is on something that flies and is going to go say hi to enemy backline mages anyway. Even then you restrict your sorc's targeting options.

I do love the spearmen blocks. But yes Sacrificial Dagger would probably be a a very good choice of equipment for one of the sorceresses. (Probably the Lv 4 one).

Hope that works out well for ya.

Forgot that I started this thread, until I started working on my Dread Lord & Black Dragon. Anyways, thanks for the comments, and I've made some revisions:

Dreadlord on Black Dragon
Pendant of Khaleth, Heavy Armor, Shield, Sea Dragon Cloak, Caledor's Bane
Not sure how I feel about removing the Armor of Eternal Servitude (Regen) to add Caledor's Bane.

Supreme Sorceress
Lvl 4, Black Amulet, Dispel Scroll

Sorceress
Lvl 2, Darkstar Cloak, Dispel Scroll

Sorceress
Lvl 2, Tome of Furion, Seal of Ghrond

Master
BSB, Banner of Nagarythe

2x Assassin
each with Manbane, Rune of Khaine, xtra hw

2x 5 Dark Riders with RXBs, musicians

2 Bolt Throwers

1x 20 Spearmen
shields, full command, War Banner

2x 20 Spearmen
shields, full command

14 Black Guard
Champion, Standard of Hag Graef
Not enough pts. to shift the Crimson Death to here.

2995pts.

Re: Banner of Nagarythe. It makes the unit Unbreakable and adds +1 CR within 12", so I think its a pretty big boost for making the Spearblocks survive a charge.

Re: Sac Dagger. I've just never liked this thing for fluff reasons. It seems odd that a Sorceress would be cutting the hearts out of always-too-scarce Druchii warriors in the middle of a battle. It would make sense if you could buy slaves for x pts. each and sacrifice them instead. Somewhat like really cheap Power Stones. That's essentially how Blood Magic works in Dominions 3 if anyone plays that PC game.

Unfortunately I still need 40 Warriors, 2 Assassins, and a Supreme Sorceress (probably a Reaper model), but I'm working on it!

I don't love the Black Amulet on the SS. Part of its costs represents the ability to hurt things back that fail to hurt you. Your SS is going to take Miscast hits, save the hit and then not have anyone to take the magical face punch form the Black Amulet. The PoK is what I like on the SS, especially because it's still just as good at soaking up the str 4 hits but it gets better if you take a big old hit form some of the nasty miscast results.

That frees up some points and would let you put the AoES back on your dreadlord making him still pretty resilient.