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Cult of Strife extra stuff from Book of Rust:

Warlord traits:

gain one additional attack for every attack that didnt get to the inflicted damage stage

reroll wound rolls

-1 to hit and wound rolls

Relics:

relic agoniser: ap-3, d1, poisoned (4+), select one enemy unit within engagement range, that unit can’t fall back (no vehicles/monsters)

garland of spite: select one enemy model, halve the attacks characteristic of that model until end of fight phase. Additionally autohits that model.

relic glaive: s+2, ap-5, d2 - gain +1 to wound against units with a leadership of 8 or more. Suffer 1 mortal wound if you didnt target any models with leadership 8+

dark lotus toxin: +1 to S and D characteristics of all weapons of this model

Stratagems:

2/3cp reroll wounds for cult of strife unit (3cp if 11+ models)

dance of death 1cp - use in movement/charge phase. models can move horizontally through terrain or other models for movement, advance, fall back and charging until end of turn

invigorated by evisceration 1cp - use this when a cult of strife unit destroys an enemy unit. That unit gains a 4+ invuln until start of your next turn.

Blade well placed 2cp - additional -1AP until end of fight phase

Deadly Exemplar 1cp - when succubus unit destroys character/monster unit, brides of death ability becomes board wide reroll 1’s to hit

Flawless approach 1cp - enemy units cannot fire overwatch or set to defend against this unit

Pick them apart 2cp - fall back shoot and charge.

hekatrix of the crucible 1cp - basically give a hekatrix one of several relics!

Great stuff, thanks mate.

 Brutus_Apex wrote:
There are ways around it.

My point is that I think that we shouldn't have to have ways to make them base line. They should be lethal on their own, and go to extreme lethality when given WLT and Relics.

Absolutely this.

The fact that Archons - with any loadout - can barely kill a single Tactical Marine is just pathetic.

But that's okay because if you upgrade them to a Master Archon then once per battle they can kill two Tactical Marines!

Oh but at least they make up for it with their amazing support abilities like... er... an aura that can affect all of 7 models in the entire codex and doesn't work inside, into, or out of transports.

 Red Corsair wrote:

 Brutus_Apex wrote:
Again, GW just gives a bunch of stuff and takes a bunch of stuff away. I really don't get it.

Why can't they just make Archons good? Were they so game breaking?

It's because they were aiming to make all the archon options similar in value, you can tell by the point costs.

In other words, because the codex was designed by a haddock. As usual.

why dont we make an Infinity Gauntlet relic for the archon and for 1cp the opponent loses 50% of his force (but can only use this once per phase). Would that make Archons competitive ?

 Elfric wrote:
why dont we make an Infinity Gauntlet relic for the archon and for 1cp the opponent loses 50% of his force (but can only use this once per phase). Would that make Archons competitive ?

I see you've already used your 0CP Strawman relic.

Have fun with that.

Early days, but I don't think I'm taking more than one Archon, and he'll probably be rocking a Djinn Blade (as he did in 8th for me).

The upgraded Succubi look really good.

My beloved Archon bodyguard snakes went from T5 to T3...

Sotahullu wrote:
My beloved Archon bodyguard snakes went from T5 to T3...

That's a shame, I love my Sslyth....

The Lhamaean looks a great pick now though - Toxin Crafter (Archon and Truebron Poison attack of 6s in 3' of this unit automatically wound)

 harlokin wrote:

Sotahullu wrote:
My beloved Archon bodyguard snakes went from T5 to T3...

That's a shame, I love my Sslyth....

The Lhamaean looks a great pick now though - Toxin Crafter (Archon and Truebron Poison attack of 6s in 3' of this unit automatically wound)

It would be cool if auras weren't still completely broken in transports.

Cult of Strife having a bunch more strats and such is good because theyre still looking like the weakest of the three...ill probably still run mostly cursed blade.

Super succubus became way better in my eyes when I realized you can attack, and then immediately bounce back away fron your target sp you cany attack

the_scotsman wrote:
Super succubus became way better in my eyes when I realized you can attack, and then immediately bounce back away fron your target sp you cany attack

Is there even a point to the non-Master HQs?

Is there even a point to the non-Master HQs?

Yes, to fill up the countless number of Patrol attachments you will need to field a proper army.

New Succubus builds look promising. I'm looking now to swap out my Archon with one and take a unit of wyches. Suicide Succubus looks deadly AF lol.

Again, the problem with a lot of the unique auras and special rules is that they ONLY work within aura range. I don't feel like units should be functionally useless on their own and require another unit, or special relic/warlord trait to become borderline useful in their own right. Space Marines aren't designed that way, why are we?

Looks like Mortal Wound spam might be a thing with the number of Phantasm Grenade Launchers in the army. My current army can do a maximum of 28 mortal wounds per turn with all of the Phantasm Grenade launchers on each Raider/Ravager/Kabalite and Archon.

You can do first turn Raider Charges too by the looks of it. We have a disembarkation strat that allows us to disembark outside 9" of an enemy unit. After turn 3 you can advance and then charge too. Great for Incubi.

 Brutus_Apex wrote:
Again, the problem with a lot of the unique auras and special rules is that they ONLY work within aura range. I don't feel like units should be functionally useless on their own and require another unit, or special relic/warlord trait to become borderline useful in their own right. Space Marines aren't designed that way, why are we?

I mean, this is my entire issue with our HQs and the Archon especially.

Vanguard Tactics had a really good batrep. I don't normally watch their channel but the Drukhari put on a pretty good show by beating the Ultramarines 71-60.

I don't know enough about Ultra's to know how good the list was but it did include the always taken, always spammed aggressors, Bobby G himself, some eradicators, tigerius, apothecary, etc.

The drukhari list, at least according to the sooths on dakka who can see the future, was suboptimal and yet it still did well. Guess theorycrafting only goes so far. <eyeroll>.

Does anyone know if Obsidian Rose changed in any way? They're my guys...

-Guardsman- wrote:
Does anyone know if Obsidian Rose changed in any way? They're my guys...

Basic trait is the same, except that each unit also gets to reroll a single wound roll each time it shoots or attacks.

Warlord trait improves the strength characteristic of non-relic weapons by 1.

Artefact and Stratagem look unchanged.

Hi! As a new player considering to start a Wych Cult army, is it remotely viable now?

jotace wrote:
Hi! As a new player considering to start a Wych Cult army, is it remotely viable now?

Wych Cult looks great, Reavers, Hellions, and Wyches themselves all very good, as are the Succubi.

 harlokin wrote:

jotace wrote:
Hi! As a new player considering to start a Wych Cult army, is it remotely viable now?

Wych Cult looks great, Reavers, Hellions, and Wyches themselves all very good, as are the Succubi.

Why are they good now?

 Niiai wrote:

 harlokin wrote:

jotace wrote:
Hi! As a new player considering to start a Wych Cult army, is it remotely viable now?

Wych Cult looks great, Reavers, Hellions, and Wyches themselves all very good, as are the Succubi.

Why are they good now?

Eviscerating Flyby is MUCH better now, Hellions got a stat bump, and Wyches got some very nice Obsessions and Strats, and Combat DRugs are a lot better.

 Niiai wrote:

 harlokin wrote:

jotace wrote:
Hi! As a new player considering to start a Wych Cult army, is it remotely viable now?

Wych Cult looks great, Reavers, Hellions, and Wyches themselves all very good, as are the Succubi.

Why are they good now?

I'd highly suggest looking at the goonhammer review, since it gives a much more in depth run down on each unit.

https://www.goonhammer.com/codex-drukhari-9th-edition-the-goonhammer-review/

TL;DR, you get to choose combat drugs without having to pick one of each before doubling down like you used to have to, meaning the crucial +1S drug is now available for everyone. Furthermore, everyone got +1A, blade artist giving additional AP on 6's to wound (AP-3 for bloodbrides), I'm pretty sure all Wych Cult units at least have AP-1 base for all their weapons and Hellions in particular got REALLY beefy. +1W, +1A, +1T, and their weapon is D2 base. Being able to both fall back and charge, and they have the infantry keyword so they can breach through buildings? Pretty tasty.

Even in terms of shooting, the Reavers got a nice boost with the weapons stats changes to Heat Lances being stronger and harder hitting, and thanks to being bikes don't care that they became heavy. It might be worth giving them the +1BS combat drug to make sure you hit your 2 heat lances, especially if you're in a Realspace Raider detachment where you get the reroll aura from the Archon.

 harlokin wrote:

jotace wrote:
Hi! As a new player considering to start a Wych Cult army, is it remotely viable now?

Wych Cult looks great, Reavers, Hellions, and Wyches themselves all very good, as are the Succubi.

Reavers are actually worse than Hellions, tried them today and unless you want to keep them within 12" for the Stratagem to happen, Hellions are way superior

KurtAngle2 wrote:

 harlokin wrote:

jotace wrote:
Hi! As a new player considering to start a Wych Cult army, is it remotely viable now?

Wych Cult looks great, Reavers, Hellions, and Wyches themselves all very good, as are the Succubi.

Reavers are actually worse than Hellions, tried them today and unless you want to keep them within 12" for the Stratagem to happen, Hellions are way superior

Might Reavers not be good at offering ranged fire support?

4 BS2+ Heat Lances don't seem like anything to sneeze at.

Perhaps not as good, but they’re also 10 points per model which is insanely good.

Here's my codex analysis so far (i'll go thru the rest of the units tomorrow)

Drukhari Codex Notes:

-Detachment Styles

Drukhari have 3 general ways to construct an army (assuming you want all-drukhari). You can go for the traditional route of simply a battlion or brigade, particularly if you want only one detachment. Second, you can go for all-patrols, a good setup for if you want a setup other than the Realspace raid required 6 units. In competitive, unless someone is looking to take advantage of the bonuses to realspace raids, all patrols will be the preferred army setup - particularly now that spamming minimum-sized units is greatly lessened in power (more on that later). All patrols let you skip out on one required HQ in favor of Drazar, and do not require the fixed setup of 1 kabal, 1 coven, 1 cult, instead allowing for a more focused list.

Subfaction Choice:

As usual for non-marine armies, taking custom subfactions revokes your ability to take the unique relic and warlord trait associated with a core subfaction. however, thanks to some powerful generic traits and relics (particularly those now available to the upgraded Master versions of HQs) and some improved custom traits, custom traits are now worth much more of a look particularly in the Kabals.

Kabals: With the extreme power of Agents of Vect curbed, Black heart is no longer nearly as mandatory as it once was. Bear in mind that the rules for Kabals now specify that an entire DETACHMENT must be relegated to Black Heart in order to gain access to the stratagem - including just one unit is no longer enough. However, the BH trait has been improved significantly.

My general Kabal tier list would be:

-Worst Tier: Mobile Raiders, Webway Raiders, Disdain for Lesser Beings, Soul Bound

In my opinion, these custom traits do not add up to anything that is better than any core kabal trait. At the end of the day, the custom Kabals have the means to provide a detachment with additional deadliness in several different avenues - but none of the other capabilities are particularly exciting.

-D tier: Kabal of the Flayed Skull

The removal of the reroll 1 to hit makes FS quite a bit weaker than it used to be. The FS warlord trait is one of several traits that is just worse than Eternal Hatred, and the Relic is nothing particularly special. Masters of the Shadowed Sky is solid, but there are many many ways to improve hit rolls to a 2+ - power from pain, Trueborn, etc.

-C Tier: Poisoned Tongue

This kabal is only this low because in my opinion you can get better offense out of various combinations of custom kabal traits, and there's nothing in the trait/relic/strat that's absolutely vital. Remember that Combat Attrition is only ever useful against non-Marine/Tyranid armies. Statistically, Toxin Crafters offers a slightly better boost for a poison-spam detachment.

-B Tier: Dark Mirth, Toxin Crafters, Twisted Hunters, Torturous Efficiency, Merciless Razorkin, Deadly Deceivers

These combinations of custom kabal offer either straightforward offense or some interesting new options. Personally, I feel if you're running a shooting-focussed army it makes sense to split your army based on what types of weapons you're armed with. Dark Lances work best in Black Heart, Splinter spam wants to be toxin Crafters or maybe Poisoned Tongue. A detachment based around flyers may find Dark Mirth/Twisted Hunters particularly interesting, as Voidravens and Razorwings will be able to snipe out characters and drop Dark Mirth on the entire opposing army with next to no risk.

-A Tier: Obsidian Rose, Kabal of the Black Heart

Obrose: Oh how the meek have inherited the earth! The key to this trait's power lies with the new rule for Splinter Racks: rapid fire out to full range, and oh by the way full range is now 30" - oh, and splinter cannons fire at full effectiveness out to 42"...damn that's good! Obrose provides a ridiculously safe bread and butter unit of 10 kabalites in a dark lance splinter rack raider - probably with either a pair of blasters and a splitner cannon or a single dark lance and just all splinter rifles - one big weapon to take advantage of that single reroll to wound they get. Given how aggressive so many drukhari units are, these super-safe kabalite units to hold the backfield are excellent support to make sure you keep holding your home objectives and scoring engage on all fronts.

Kabal of the Black Heart: If you're taking a realspace raid detachment, it is REAAAALLY tough to argue with black heart as your kabal. You get a trait, an aura on your archon, and a relic that all work on Blades for Hire units as well as kabalites - nice to have an Archon that's actually worthwhile for buffing things. Writ is as good as ever (still works on Ravagers, too!), the trait is improved, labyrinthine cunning is still decent, lots to like here.

Wych Cults:

-Not Great Tier: Art of Pain (really all this does is allow you to get the turn 3 benefit on turn 2, since a 5++ early in combat is redundant with Dodge, and there's no point in advance and charge if you're already in combat), Acrobatic Display, Test of Skill (rip), precise killers

-Honestly seem pretty balanced tier: Um...everything else.

Let's look at customs first. Agile Hunters is the only one that significantly boosts shooting units, if you want to use a lot of reavers with guns and flyers. Berserk Fugue would be decent into a high mortal wound meta, Trophy Takers works in tandem with a 'freakshow' army setup alongside dark creed and poisoned tongue, and Stimulant Innovators+Slashing makes for a solid turn 2 tempo damage trait combo. Hyperstimm Backlash can get pretty goofy with Stimulant Innovators in particular.

The three core cults are no longer quite as distinct structurally in what they want to do and how they want to put their lists together, what with Red Grief no longer allowing you to use Reavers as a turn 1 tempo unit and Cursed Blade no longer making max unit blocks so much more viable than the other two.

Red Grief: Re-roll charge and +2 to advance makes for an obvious turn 2 tempo setup with the new turn 2 power from pain table result. You can set your units up midboard in fairly safe positions and make very easy charges with them turn 2. Obviously, blood glaive is blood glaive, we know it we love it. Precision Blows makes the blood glaive pretty nasty even against high-invuln characters. I don't think master succubus is necessary with a glaive+precision succubus - most characters are just going to get exploded by that combo, the ability to skip out after fighting isn't quite as important. Acrobatic Display remains a great strat as well.

Cult of Strife: the weakest of the bunch when just looking at the codex, the new suppplement makes this one a real option - particularly if you're running a very wych-heavy army. No Method of Death is still great, combos with Hyperstimm and any other offense boosting strat like Blade Well Placed. If you have CP to burn, strife wyches can become absolute monsters. Phial bouquet is still bad, Blood Dancer on Lelith is still obvious. Basically, if you're willing to pour your resources into them and give them center stage, Cult of Strife seems to perform well.

Cursed Blade: I'd consider this the "best returns for low investments" cult. A shardnet+impaler succubus in CB with Treacherous Deceiver and the Traitor's Embrace can absolutely destroy characters worth many more points, and a small unit of, say, 5 hellions dive bombing into a unit with a ton of attacks and a single weapon type - say, Ork Boyz with choppas, assault intercessors, etc - can deal more damage with the Strong will Thrive than they do with their normal attacks.

Covens:

Worst Tier: Ehanced Sensory Organs, Splinterblades, Dark Harvest, Master Torturers.

B Tier: Prophets of Flesh, Dark Creed, Artists of Flesh, Hungry for Flesh, Masters of Mutagens, Dark Technomancers, Experimental Creations

Just like with wych cults, the selection this time around feels fairly balanced, rather than the old "one obviously way better than the others." I feel like coven of twelve is slightly on top, just due to being a solid all-rounder that you can never really go wrong with, but all the other options here besides the bad custom traits seem like there's some army setup or reason to take them.

Dark Creed: I do really think a spooky army setup is a viable choice, with Poisoned Tongue, Dark Creed and Trophy Takers wyches togheter in an army. The biggest thing in the way is space marines with their dang Knowing No Fear. Phantasm Grenade Launchers, Grisly Trophies, the Dark Creed trait, and the bonuses to Combat Attrition (easily stacking up to -3 with Poisoned Tongue, Dark Creed and Pray they Dont Take You Alive) make a freakshow army truly viable into any meta without tons of marines. There's even a fun secondary for it!

Prophets of Flesh: Basically the one you take if you want Urien. Urien's fine still, great for boosting up a big ol' unit of grotesques, which also make great use of the PoF stratagem and arguably the best use of their trait, which is much much MUCH MUCH weaker than it used to be.

Dark Technomancers: Say, do you like double liquifier wrack squads in venoms? Because that's what dark technomancers is good for now. Well, I guess theoretically cronos pain engines and double liquifier talos as well. Point is: weapons that make hit rolls are now much more risky with dark tech, but hey! Weapons that hit automatically don't care at all! woohoo!

Artists of Flesh: If you just want your covens to act as a brick to break your enemies against, this one is just superior to Prophets of Flesh. with the new free healing from haemonculi, the Haemoxites Upgrade in addition to Twisted Animator (HAEMOXYTE keyword doesn't replace WRACK keyword!), Alchemical Maestro....yeah, coven units with this trait can be going nowhere fast.

Obsessive Collectors+either Experimental Creations or Masters of Mutagens: A fun meme trait for 20-man wrack squads with the new squad cap. Gray Spiky Tide, anyone? Just make sure you also have the upgraded master haemonculus to regenerate even more dead wracks. Bonus points if you eat necrons to resurrect wracks to establish dominance!

A tier: Coven of 12

This is the one I look at and think "You basically can't go wrong picking this one." it doens't do any one thing the best, but it has a solid offense buff, a solid boost for simple little objective holding Ossefactor+Hexrifle Wrack squads, and good boosts to turn your haemie into a legitimate character killing threat. Nothing really dislikes being Coven of 12 in the covens list.

Unit Analysis (primarily focusing on changes from 8th to 9th)

All units: Gained Blade Artists, new Power from Pain replaces old PFP

All coven units: Insensible now 5+FNP instead of 5++

All Wych Cult units: Drugs now freely stackable or roll for 2, +LD drug now also adds +1BS, +1A drug now only works on the charge.

Archon

Changes: Sv 5+ to 4+, Overlord now affects INCUBI but only affects <kabal> CORE, Huskblade now only S: User, damage 2 instead of damage D3. Venom Blade now -1AP, power sword now +1S.

Analysis: The Archon definitely needs investment to be any kind of worthwhile. Black Heart can run a decent buffer archon in a Realspace raid, allowing him to buff units like Mandrakes and Scourges with his aura and giving him the Writ to make his aura more worthwhile, but I feel like any other Kabal that doesn't duck the Archon in favor of Drazar needs to give him a few bonuses to make him not suck. The Eternal Hatred warlord trait, Djinn Blade and Master Archon upgrade turn him into a real threat. stick him, Drazar (hey, he makes him reroll 1s to hit!) and a min size Court into a venom for a scary anti-elite unit. Or just run him with 5 incubi if you don't want to invest that many points.

Succubus

Changes: +2A, Brides of Death now only affects CORE (doesn't matter at all, since Reavers and Hellions are CORE), Archite Glaive now not -1 to hit. Shardnet and Impaler now -1 to No Escape instead of D3 and now AP-2, Razorflails now Ax2 instead of A+D3 and no longer reroll hits, Hydra Gaunts now S+2 and AP-2, no longer reroll wounds.

Analysis: Wych Weapons are still 100% what you want to go for if you don't want to relic her up, with Razorflails the succubus throws a hilarious 18 attacks with Hypex and Quicksilver fighter, and the Shardnet+Impaler offers a respectable AP-2 D2 melee weapon with plenty of attacks to threaten a character. If you've got the model with the glaive, do yourself a favor and just pay the 15 points for a master succubus with the relic, it's quite a good weapon.

Haemonculus: -1A, +1W, Master of Pain no longer affects vehicles, Lost weapon options. Haemie tools now poison 2+, ichor injector now no longer feths around and just does 1MW on a hit, scissorhand now gives 2 bonus attacks. Fleshcraft now a datasheet ability instead of a strat.

Analysis: the loss of the electrocorrosive whip makes the default haemie more of a support unit than a killer. Using certain relics, traits, combos etc you can make him a threat, but by default he's much less potent. Luckily, his support powers (particularly with being able to also resurrect wracks as a master haemie) have been improved. Other than coven-specific traits and relics, there's not really much worth giving this guy - I'd guess that most often you'd just go for the +1 to wound trait and no relic, and then have him attack with his scissorhands exclusively rather than using the tools. Or just Master Regenist for more heals. If you're going to use the stratagem to give everyone a warlord trait, it's probably worthwhile to upgrade the Haemie to master so that you can use him to resurrect Haemoxytes.

Lelith Hesperax: +3A, Blades now +1S, -3AP, and score extra hits on 6 to hit. Brides of Death no longer works on transports. Quicksilver Dodge now 4++ -1 to hit. Gained Deadly Dance (6" consolidate in any direction). Natural Perfection now either charge after advance/fall back or fight twice if you kill any models.

Analysis: Despite fears that she would not be able to kill characters, Brides of Death makes lelith plenty murderous (4 hits on a 6 to hit XD). She deals 4 unsaved wounds on average vs a T4 4++ target with her warlord trait on, and kills her points back in most infantry units she manages to get into. Basically Lelith is worth bringing in any kind of cult of strife detachment, even without a D2 weapon.

Drazar: (comparing him to codex drazar for the lulz) +1W, +1A, +1 to invuln save, +2 damage and +1S to single blade, +1S +1D on dual klaive, Master of Blades now adds +1 to wound (still affects himself!), Tormenters now causes enemy unit to fight last if you roll 2d6>ld, now has -1 to damage, now fights twice (immediately, not end of phase).

Analysis: Holy. F'ing. gak does this guy shred. Space marine captain profile? dual klaive profile does TEN unsaved wounds. Gravis profile? 6.5 dead. A fething tank? 10.5 wounds on average. Drazar is basically instant death to anything that doesn't have crazy special rule shenanigans and he only costs 130 points. If you're going for Patrol army building setup, basically whichever HQ type is the most of a tax for you, you should swap out for Drazar. Also, he's quite considerate: He doesn't need warlord traits or relics to do his thang!

Urien Rakarth: +1W, +1A, Casket now autohits, Haemie tools now Poison 2+, Ichor injector now 1MW on hit, gained Sustained by Dark Science, gained Fleshcraft, auras now only affect core (no more +1S raiders :( )

Analysis: Was kind of a bland buffbot, now at least a decent combatant and even more obnoxious to kill. If you're in PoF and you were gonna take a master haemonculus, you might as well take Urien, and you might as well give him a big ol' unit of double cleaver Talos and/or Grotesques to boost the strength of. The new Diabolical Soothsayer makes him just hilariously durable - T6, W7, half damage, 4++ 5+FNP, resurrects when he dies.

Kabalite Warriors: A+1, SV5+ to 4+. can now take 2 specials and 1 heavy at 10 models. Sybarite can now have splinter rifle and melee weapon. Phantasm grenade now rolls 2d6 vs ld to deal 1mw for each hit, shredder now 18" range but no longer rerolls wounds, darklance now D3+3, splinter cannon now bad heavy bolter. can now be upgraded to 2+bs trueborn for +2PPM.

10 Kabalites in a Raider are now improved by the addition of the extra special, and with several kabals synergizing with the new splinter racks that setup will most likely be more common than it used to be. That unit is particularly devious as Trueborn, who can do stuff like shoot flyers on a 2+ ignoring modifiers, and can move and shoot with the dark lance in the squad. Sadly, the splinter cannon is looking much worse than it used to be - dedicated anti-infantry kabal squads are likely to stick to 5 man in a venom with a shredder.

Wyches: +1A, -1AP on hekatarii blade. Various wych weapon changes detailed in Succubus section, Dodge is the same (LOL thanks Power from Pain you're super helpful...) and wyches can now only take 1 of each special wych weapon for each 10 models in the unit...no wych weapons for min squads. Can now be upgraded to Bloodbrides for +2PPM with improved Blade Artists.

Analysis: Min wych squads are way less useful than they used to be, adding to what I would say is going to be a common trend of 10-squads of wyches and kabs in raiders becoming much more common than they used to be. Luckily, basic knife wyches with -1AP blades and Blade Artists. Bloodbrides are definitely the least useful of the upgraded squad types. With no more reroll charges turn 2 ad no more morale immunity, deep striking 20 wyches is also a lot less viable. In general, I feel like wyches are better than they used to be, but more one-note: the number of times I would choose to bring anything besides 10-strong squad, blast pistol+1 of each special and +1A drugs is very small.

Wracks: Wrack blades now -1AP, Ossefactor now 2D, no longer does the bonesplosion thing, Hexrifle now S6 AP-2 D2, electrocorrosive now D1 but 2x attacks, Mindphase now D2, liquifier now 12"r S4 AP-2 d1. Normal unit cap now 20. can now be upgraded to extra tough haemoxytes.

Analysis: Double liquifier 5-man wrack squads are now better, Hexrifle+Ossefactor squads now perform for everyone like they used to perform for Dark Techno, and they gained several ways to be resurrected. Also, 8ppm down from 12 is a really welcome boost, and it turns out durability is only slightly lost (6++ 5+FNP vs 5++ 6+FNP). Basically, you liked wracks before? Like em more now! Electrocorrosive seems to still be the best weapon option, incidentally. It's a tradition now!

Court of the Archon: now a unit again rather than 4 different units. Sslyth now T3 down from T5, Sslyth blade now AP-2 from AP-1, if the unit contains Sslyth Archons within 3" cant be targeted. urghul talons now AP-1, now 5+FNP instead of 5++ (with PFP as well). Lhamean now gives an aura of 6 to hit with poison weapons automatically wound to archons and Trueborn. Medusa eyeburst now 12" range, pistol, and hits automatically. now also Core! Also, you can take a hilarious number of these suckers. Do you want 16 W3 snakeboiz? Maybe 10 in a raider with an archon so your opponent gets sick of these god damn snakes in this god damn plane?

Analysis: At 18ppm, Sslyths do seem to have a reason to be compared to Incubi, but the urghul definitely seems to be pretty much redundant with those around. Sslyths though...a Shardcarbine, 3 S5 Ap-2 D1 attacks, 3 wounds with 6++ 5+FNP, and the special bodyguard thing, that's pretty fun especially in poisoned tongue. Sadly a lhamean can't buff her own unit. A venom full of Medusae does also seem to have potential - 12" range autohitting AP-2 flamers for 22pts isn't bad. Lhameans and Urghuls seem pretty bad though.

Incubi: +1A, +1S, +1D on both klaive types, Tormentors now 2d6 vs LD to fight last, still has Lethal precision, yay!

Analysis: What's to say? these dudes are just fantastic. Now with upgraded transport capacity, a venom with incubi and an archon in it is just, *chefs kiss*. You can also run them alongside Drazar to turn them into a true murder blender. 2x5 man squads are always better than 1x10 though - double demiklaives, more wounds, just, better.

Mandrakes: Now have Space Marine style scout deployment instead of deep strike, and can fade away at the start of your movmeent phase to go into strategic reserves. No statline changes.

Analysis: with the loss of red grief turn 1 tempo units, Mandrakes getting space marine infiltrate is great. If you wnat to deep strike them normally, you can just plop them down on the battlefield behind something and then fade them away turn 1 - also helpfully having them on the board if your opponent wins first turn and pulls an aggressive move. Losing old PFP FNP does ding their defenses, but they're still fairly irritating to get rid of with -1 to hit and 5++.

Grotesques: Monstrous Cleaver now D2, Liquifier now 12" range, S4 Ap-2 D1 autohitting. Flesh gauntlet now +1S.

Analysis: The gauntlet is now even more pointless, so a mix of liquifiers and maybe very slightly cheaper designated die-er Groteques is the way to set the unit up. Otherwise, not much to say about them: they've always been a bit of a brick unit, now with D2 melee they're killier than before.

Beastmaster: Now required to bring any beasts - 3 beast units for each master. Now T4. can optionally not take up a slot if you include any beasts.

Clawed Fiends: Claws now AP-2

Khymerae: Claws and Talons now S+1 AP-1

Razorwings: Now unit size 3-8

Analysis: Clawed Fiends seem to be the best option overall for beasts if you're gonna bring them, but they now hoover up fast attack slots in a subfaction that reeeeeeeeally wants them. I don't see Beasts being super popular in many army build setups, considering you're gonna want Hellions, Scourges, and Reavers - maybe if you're running with a Realspace raid brigade you'll have the slots to throw in a few scorer fiends and a master.

Reavers: +1A, Bladevanes now S+1 instead of fixed 4, Cluster Caltrops now key off enemy units falling back, Grav Talon now deals D3mw on a 6. heat lance now heavy 1 18" S8 AP-4 D6+2.

Analysis: Heat lances are now ridiculously spicy at 10pts, and reavers are great at carrying them. Bladevanes being S+1 is a nice little add, particularly with the extra attack and all the various ways to give them S+1. There's also a new +1 Ballistic Skill combat drug that's just fantastic on them, and with drugs not being limited anymore you can freely field as many BS2+ heat lances in 3 man squads as you want...well, slots allowing. At 70pts for a min squad with a heat lance, they seem like a viable alternative to blaster scourges at 100pts.

Hellions: T+1 to 4, W+1 to 2, A+1, Hellglaive now AP-1.

Analysis: Damn, what an improvement! They're basically choppy flavored Reavers now, a good little anti-MEQ unit for Wych Cults. The -1AP, Blade Artists, +1A on the charge drug, and +1S from Cursed Blade makes these a real threat to marine units.

Scourges: Ghostplate Armor now a 5+ invuln. now Core.

Analysis: Another edition, another time to figure out which weapon is best on scourges!

Anti-GEQ weaponry:

Shardcarbines: 60pts, 3.32 dead GEQ, 0.055pts per GEQ wound
4 shredders: 80pts, 7.13 dead GEQ, 0.089pts per GEQ wound

Shredders>shards. Shards do have various bonuses available.

Anti-Tank weaponry:

4 blasters: 100pts, 6.2 unsaved wounds, .062 wounds per point
4 Haywire: 100pts, 5.05 unsaved wounds, .05 wounds per point (vast majority of damage is MWs, avoiding Invuln saves)
4 Dark Lance: 120pts, 6.66 unsaved wounds, .055 wounds per point (much longer range)
4 heat lance: 100pts, 7.33 unsaved wounds, .073 wounds per point

Heat lances are best for raw damage, Haywire offers less efficiency but does damage in the form of mortal wounds, and dark lances offer the flexibiliyt of range. I think an argument can be made for all 3. Also, worth noting one thing: with a Realspace Raid a Scourge squad can benefit from the Archon's aura and potentially the Writ of the Living Muse.

Talos: All guns improved, core rule changes, Ichor Injector now does D3 mortals on hit, otherwise unchanged.

With the points for the melee weapon list greatly altered, the arm weaponry is now much more of a choice. heat lances for the guns seem like super no-brainers, though of course the capability to ignore invulns with MWs on the haywire blasters as with the Scourges should be considered. The best builds armwise, to me, seem to be:

-Basic Talos, double cleaver
-Flex to kill 1w models talos, flail+injector
-Expensive good at killing everything talos, Gauntlet+Twin Liq (group with 2 other cheaper talos to add teeth to the unit)

Cronos: Attacks +1 to 4, strength of both ranged weapons +2 to 5, damage characteristic on 6 to 2 from D3 on all weapons. Gained the ability Reservoir of Pain, for each model destroyed in melee 1 CORE unit within 6 can heal by 1 or regain a lost model with 1 wound remaining. Explosion reduced in range to 3". Spirit Probe now limited to CORE and CHARACTER, which does allow him to buff/heal himself since he is CORE.

Analysis: IMO the cronos goes from contender for the worst unit in the game to the heady heights of mediocrity. Not sure what Scari sees in it as an auto-include, it seems like a fine addition to any army that includes some kind of large turn 2 tempo brick unit that's going to aim to soak turn 1 fire instead of avoid turn 1 fire (i.e., not hiding in transports or trying to use extreme mobility to hide midboard behind Obscuring turn 1, so something like a 20-block of Wracks, a max squad of grots on foot, a couple units of Talos, 20 wyches is that a thing anyone's gonna try, maybe, I dunno, probably not. Spirit Probe/No Vortex seems like the obvious loadout for him, and you gotta note the obvious synergy with the new Dark Technomancers, he's yet another coven unit that doesn't really care about the new downside for that rule as his Syphon autohits so he can just overcharge it every turn for zero risk. Another fun function is his use within what I'm waffling between calling "Wrackcrons" and "Pointy Tide" - he provides yet another means to resurrect Wrack models which now have a max unit cap of 20, take them in the 'Heal when you destroy/+1S" custom coven and use them with a master haemonculus with the warlord trait and you just have a ton of dudes that will. not. die.

Ravager: Dark Lances now D3+3, Wounds+1 to 11, disintegrators and Dark Lances now heavy, Chain Snares Shock Prow Grisly Trophies and PGL all reworked.

Analysis: straightforward shooty unit remains straightforward shooty unit. Got a small bump in durability, a small bit more offense in the previously anemic triple lance build (and some nice synergy with a few more Kabals, particularly the two that come with little rerolls) but overall, does the same thing he's always done.

Raider: +1 toughness to tough 6, Chain Snares now +3 to A, Grisly Trophies now -2LD, Bladevanes now +1S, PGL now reworked to cause mortal wounds on each hit, Shock Prow now a strat, Splinter Racks now rapid fire at full range, Transport Capacity up +1 to 11. Now has access to Power from Pain.

Analysis: While the raider lost access to all the auras, overall it's got some huge improvements. Wych cults can use the new chain snares and grisly trophies to amusing effect and the new bladevanes offer some extra fun synergy with a few cults (particularly Cursed Blade making its melee attacks Strength 8), kabals love the new splinter racks and several kabals now feature a single reroll making the improved dark lance on the raider even more effective, and covens can make use of its ability to carry a five-man grotesque squad and an attendant Haemonculus or Urien Rakarth. And with all of them, the slight bump in durability with the +1T is particularly nice in light of the new Heavy Bolter profile. I predict we'll see a whole lot more of these being run now as opposed to Venoms in many different lists.

Venom: Bladevanes now +1S, transport capacity now 6, Splinter Cannons now Heavy 3 36" range Poison 4+ AP-1 D2, Grisly trophies now -2LD, chain snares now +3A, now has power from pain.

Analysis: I think venoms are now slightly more niche than they used to be as 'the default transport'. There are a few combos where they're quite good still - Dark Techno or Dark Creed 5x wracks with 2x liquifiers and the venom rocking Grisly Trophies, Poisoned Tongue shredder kabal squad with 2x splinter cannons on the venom, but generally a bit more limited than before IMO.

Razorwing Jetfighter: Dark Lance now 3+d3, Shatterfield now AP-2 but no reroll to wounds, Splinter cannons now D2, now has PFP.

Analysis: Basically didn't change. We may see a few more flyers due to people running Realspace raid detachments and being able to bring a few more of them, or we may see less now that Test of Skill no longer benefits them. Definitely Wych Cults want flyers less now.

Voidraven bomber: Dark Scythe now 2 damage, Void Lance now D3+3, Implosion Missile now D2, Shatterfield now AP-2 with no rroll to wound. Void mine now targets a spot on the battlefield and rolls a D6 for each unit within 6" of that point, subtracting 1 for a character, and dealing D6 MWs on a 4+.

Analysis: The voidraven is now one spicy little meatball, and definitely something to consider instead of a triple disintegrator Ravager if you were fielding one of those. Particularly on the Kabal side, this thing offers a ridiculously potent counter to any kind of "reroll aura ball MSU" army setup and you can load him up with exclusively damage flat 2 weaponry between the missiles and dark scythes. Basically this thing is like the current ork tactic with Burna Bombers to counter standard marine builds, but slightly less potent and it doesn't explodinate itself when you use it, which I would consider an absolute win.

Great suff, Scottsman, thanks.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I'm currently leaning towards an Alliance of Agony...with a BH Archon (Writ and Venom Blade), CoS Succubus (Triptych whip)......something something Coven.... so much to take in....


....I bought a Reaper, should that be a painting priority?

I don't know what to paint anymore.

I don't know what to try first, everything seems way more fun to play than before.

Oh wow, that's a fantastic rundown, Scotsman.


One very minor thing - I thought Kabalites had always been able to take 2 special weapons per 10?

Yeah I'm struggling to identify how much is too much.

Ideas wise.

1. RSR Batallion.
Buff Archon - Black Heart, Labyrinthine Cunning, Writ of the Living Muse.
Not sure on Cursed Blade Suicide or Choppy Succubus but I think either works.
Haemi probably the weakest point - but I think Fear Incarnate (Dark Creed Warlord Trait) is potentially massive in certain matchups. Would need some testing.

Min unit of Kabalite Warriors
10 Wyches in Raider
Min unit of Wracks
30 (?) Incubi in 3 Raiders
15 Scourge, 12 Heat Lances.

2. Obsidian Rose Patrol.
Drazhar
Choppy Archon - Master Upgrade, Djin Blade, Ancient Evil.
5 Kabalites in Raider or Venom to taste.

Pointswise that's about 1950 or something, with some points left over to scatter around on special weapons.

I think it might be too all in on Incubi though - swapping one unit and a raider out for a big blob of Hellions might add more utility and open up first turn charges. If you were going this way a choppy Red Grief Succubus might be preferable and while its not that fluffy, the wyches might be able to ditch their raider for another squad or something.