Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

After enjoying looking of ALEXisAWESOME's totally cool Dark Olympiad rules, I felt inspired to give various kabals a little love. I had flavorful, non-competitive games in mind when I made these, so I may have screwed up the balance somewhat. I tried to focus on boosting unconventional playstyles and bringing out the flavor of each kabal, but of course, anything that jumps out as broken should be reigned in for the sake of keeping games fun. Your thoughts?

I was tempted to simply make "kabal tactics" to keep things simple, but this seemed simpler.

OBSIDIAN ROSE DETACHMENT


POISONED TONGUE DETACHMENT

LAST HATRED DETACHMENT


BLACK HEART DETACHMENT


DYING SUN DETACHMENT



THE SEVERED DETACHMENT


LORDS OF THE IRON THORN


BROKEN SIGIL DETACHMENT

So I'm not sure why this hasn't drawn more attention, but I like it overall! I'll need to take a more detailed look and maybe playtest one or two - some of the benefits seemed really strong, but not too far from the mark still.

I'd say your zombie are overpriced, IA13 gets the same thing for 3ppm I believe

The star-killer talisman seems a bit OP to me, but everything else is flipping awesome! Truly great work! First of these I've seen that isn't ridiculous wishlisting for broken nonsense.

If this were made real, I would totally convert all my guys over to a Broken Sigil.

Oh wow. Thanks for all the kind words, guys. I thought this thread was going to go totally ignored!

@jade_angel: Are there any specific benefits that look like they might be too good? I'd like to identify generally accepted "problem areas."

@Melcavuk: You're talking about the zombies available to the traitor guard, right? Guard (and guard-like) armies are already good at putting out blobs of bodies. I was worried that giving a relatively elite army like dark eldar too many cheap ablative wounds might allow them to make lists that are too good. I also know that huge blobs of chaos marine cultists are a thing. My hope was to let people field zombies that were cheap enough to be objective deniers and numerous enough to distract from the "real" threats, but pricey enough to discourage people from bringing unkillable tides of fearless bodies that shut down any enemy that can't deal with hordes. If my brain math is correct, you could potentially throw 1,080 points (per detachment) into having 120 fearless wounds on the table. That's probably more fearless bodies than you need, but you'll still have points left over for more elite dark eldar units.

I'm sure it's not the most efficient spam out there or even the hardest to deal with, but I thought it would be wise to err on the side of caution. As is, you can field torture zombies alongside your dark eldar for points pennies. I'm open to changing it if those of you with more experience playing hordes armies than I say so, however.

@Jimsolo: Thank you kindly, good sir! The star-killer talisman did have me nervous as I designed it, and I ended up scrapping more complex (and more severely limiting) ideas before putting this version together. It is a very nasty single shot. That said, it does have a few limiting factors. For one thing, it basically replaces your entire army's shooting phase. All your venom cannons, scourge weapons, dark lances, etc. are going to have to hold off for a turn to instead put down a single enormous blast template at mid-range. Strength D is nothing to laugh at, but the "average" D shot won't kill a rhino or even most MCs. At the same time, it will hurt them badly enough that they'll feel it for the rest of the game, so even a non-lethal star-killer attack is unlikely to feel like a waste. Spreading out only helps so much against a blast of that size, but it does help, and a bad scatter potentially means that you sacrificed your entire army's shooting for a whole lot of nothing. Also, this is less of a limiter because you can work around it, but the delivery system for the talisman is rather fragile. Holding onto the talisman and trying to use it later in the game is pretty risky as talismans are likely to be your opponent's first target. The range is also long enough to not be a huge discouragement, but short enough to limit it slightly. Of course, these last two points are mitigated by deepstriking transports or suicide true born that move up, disembark, and use their star-killers turn 1.

Wyldhunt wrote:
Oh wow. Thanks for all the kind words, guys. I thought this thread was going to go totally ignored!

@jade_angel: Are there any specific benefits that look like they might be too good? I'd like to identify generally accepted "problem areas."

@Melcavuk: You're talking about the zombies available to the traitor guard, right? Guard (and guard-like) armies are already good at putting out blobs of bodies. I was worried that giving a relatively elite army like dark eldar too many cheap ablative wounds might allow them to make lists that are too good. I also know that huge blobs of chaos marine cultists are a thing. My hope was to let people field zombies that were cheap enough to be objective deniers and numerous enough to distract from the "real" threats, but pricey enough to discourage people from bringing unkillable tides of fearless bodies that shut down any enemy that can't deal with hordes. If my brain math is correct, you could potentially throw 1,080 points (per detachment) into having 120 fearless wounds on the table. That's probably more fearless bodies than you need, but you'll still have points left over for more elite dark eldar units.

I'm sure it's not the most efficient spam out there or even the hardest to deal with, but I thought it would be wise to err on the side of caution. As is, you can field torture zombies alongside your dark eldar for points pennies. I'm open to changing it if those of you with more experience playing hordes armies than I say so, however.

@Jimsolo: Thank you kindly, good sir! The star-killer talisman did have me nervous as I designed it, and I ended up scrapping more complex (and more severely limiting) ideas before putting this version together. It is a very nasty single shot. That said, it does have a few limiting factors. For one thing, it basically replaces your entire army's shooting phase. All your venom cannons, scourge weapons, dark lances, etc. are going to have to hold off for a turn to instead put down a single enormous blast template at mid-range. Strength D is nothing to laugh at, but the "average" D shot won't kill a rhino or even most MCs. At the same time, it will hurt them badly enough that they'll feel it for the rest of the game, so even a non-lethal star-killer attack is unlikely to feel like a waste. Spreading out only helps so much against a blast of that size, but it does help, and a bad scatter potentially means that you sacrificed your entire army's shooting for a whole lot of nothing. Also, this is less of a limiter because you can work around it, but the delivery system for the talisman is rather fragile. Holding onto the talisman and trying to use it later in the game is pretty risky as talismans are likely to be your opponent's first target. The range is also long enough to not be a huge discouragement, but short enough to limit it slightly. Of course, these last two points are mitigated by deepstriking transports or suicide true born that move up, disembark, and use their star-killers turn 1.

6 points still seems a bit much. Either make them 4 points each, or give them a small advantage to represent the excellence of Dark Eldar craftsmanship. Say, +1 WS, Rage, or give them Eternal Warrior!

Hmm. Six points probably is too much for what you get, but on the other hand, 4 points per fearless body seems like it makes it too easy to gunk up objectives. What would you think of them allowing units within 6" to treat the turn as 1 higher for Power From Pain purposes? Fluff-wise, it's the eternal suffering of the undead echoing as a tasty wave of pain. Mechanically, it doesn't make the zombies any better, but it might help wyches furious charge a little earlier or help some stuff in your deployment zone die a bit more slowly to enemy alpha strikes.

Cool!!!!!

The dark eldar are by far my favorite army in 40K. The fluff is really cool and flavorful.

I personally think the custom rules are a nice addition, but somethinG I would forget about.