I have a game this weekend against a buddy's beast-heavy Legion army. I haven't played with Venethrax before, but having recently finished painting him I want him to hit the table. How do you think this list will do?
Venethrax +6
Seether -9
Deathripper -4
Skarlock -2
Min Bane Thralls -5
Bane Thrall
UA -3
Bane Lord Tartarus -4
Max Mechanithralls -5
Necrosurgeon -2
Withershadow Combine -5
Warwitch Siren -2
I am torn between Seether and Malice, but since Legion doesn't hand out souls with the vast majority of things it seems the Seether with its free charge + throw wins out for this match. I figure he can charge a beast, tear it up a little bit, and then toss it back at Venethrax to eat and consume Fury.
I find more use out of Deathrippers than I do Nightwretches. If something is knocked down or easily hit, a couple boosted POW13 hits do a number on a slightly out of each target. Obviously he typically won't be in combat as he'll be doing arc node business, but it's not like a Nightwretch particularly likes staying within 6" of people either.
The Bane Thralls are Bane Thralls. I honestly think I'd prefer Bane Knights since Legion doesn't care about Stealth and a Scythean tears through Tough saves all day long. I could drop the Banes as well as two more points somewhere in the list to pick up a full retinue of Knights, or I can go with Minimum Knights and pick up something like Gorman. I'm not sure which would do me better overall...
Mechanithralls with Surgeon seem like they would be a good tarpit against some of his units. I just need to watch out for those Breath attacks taking down a wad of them at a time. I'm a little unsure about these guys, but at 7 points for a regenerating tarpit with POW15 combo strikes, they seem pretty handy. If I drop the Surgeon I can swap the Thralls for Knights. This might be worthwhile since Legion's healthy amount of Sprays can pick her out anyway.
The Combine has more fun with Malice and against Warjacks, but Dark Fire still looks pretty solid and Admonia's combination of free upkeeps on my side and punishing people for having upkeeps from their side looks plain mean. Hello Absylonia!
So those are my thoughts about the army. I'm not particularly sold on the Mechanithralls, but for 5-7 points they seem pretty solid. I'm also torn between Bane Thralls and Bane Knights. Legion doesn't have especially high armor so Dark Shroud doesn't appear absolutely necessary, and when it is Mr. Tartarus can apply it.
Speaking of Mr. Tartarus, he gets to enjoy killing Legion and making new Banes thanks to the ability not requiring souls, only requiring living models. Legion aren't dead, they're just soulless.