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After six months without games and several back-to-back losses with my craftworlders, I'm hoping to finally break my losing streak. It seems everyone in the local crowd is using their fancy 9th edition books, so I'm giving in and doing the same. This will be my first time using the newkhari 'dex, so I might be blind to a few of my own bad ideas. This is for casual games, but I've lost enough games in a row to feel justified fielding something with a few teeth. Here's what I'm looking at:
POISONED TONGUE PATROL (1000 points exactly)
HQ
Archon (Warlord) - Splintered Genius, Hatred Eternal, Djinn Blade, Blast Pistol
TROOPS
10 Trueborn - blast pistol, power sword, 2 blasters, dark lance
5 Warriors - blaster
ELITES
8 Mandrakes
5 Incubi - Demiklaives
HEAVY SUPPORT
Ravager - 3 dark lances
Ravager - 3 dissintegrators
TRANSPORTS
Raider - Dark lance, chain-snares, phantasm launcher, shock prow
Raider - Dark lance, chain-snares, phantasm launcher, shock prow
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BATTLEPLAN AND EXCUSES:
The general idea is to spend the first turn focusing down my opponent's biggest monster/vehicle threat while keeping my distance, and then to pounce en masse on one flank turn 2. Turn 3 is expected to be the big clash between my more exposed units (most likely the incubi and mandrakes). Turn 4 and 5 are probably either going to be cleanup (if things are going well), or my scattering my remaining units to the winds. If things went badly on turn 3, it probably required my opponent to put most of his biggest threats on one flank to come at me; so hopefully his army is clumped up in one spot and will be slow to chase me down if I have to scatter on turns 4 and 5.
The mandrakes will be starting the game near an objective, hopefully out of sight. If I get first turn, they'll probably dive onto an objective to score some early points. If I get second turn, they can either punish the objective grabbers coming their way or else jump into the shadows to help with the turn 2 flank push if they can't handle whatever is approaching them.
I really wanted to give the chain snares and shock prows a shot. Our vehicles seem surprisingly good in melee now, and being comfortable plowing a raider into a unit to tie it up or finish it off seems really useful. I'd love to put snares on the ravagers to spread around that melee threat, but I'm having trouble convincing myself to drop anything. The phantasm launchers were a favorite in 8th, and I want to see how I like them in 9th. I don't expect them to do a ton, but sprinkling around a few cheap mortal wounds over the course of the battle doesn't seem like a bad idea. I know dizzies are less popular these days than lances, but I felt like 6 lances, 2 blasters, and 2 blast pistols (plus several mortal wound-dealing weapons and, in a pinch, the incubi) was probably enough anti-tank at 1,000 points. The dizzy ravager is still half-decent against vehicles but can also help a bunch against infantry (especially marines).
The power sword and blast pistol on the sybarite are probably just a bad idea, but my converted model looks cool, so I'd prefer to keep them for now. Besides; hidden BS2+ blast pistols can really throw unwary opponents for a loop.
Any thoughts? What secondaries should I be looking at?
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