Ok so Lets throw out some filla and have a wee chat about my list for ToS. Firstly a disclaimer, this list was never written to be a turbo min maxed  competitive WAAC-off  spam fest, a can do that a win with it but I am making the conscious decision NOT to do that and to have fun TRYING to win with something a little different / more stimulating.

 My reasons for this are many and complex but the main two points are 1.) ToS scoring is funny  2.) I currently have no inclination whatsoever to run another mechspam list, my DE were supposed to give me a break from my mechdar  and if I have to paint the same nine tanks over and over there isn’t a hope in hell of me getting them finished in time (mechdar has stalled on third falcon/serpent for months), as I’ll just flat loose the will to live after the third, so the list is largely made up of units I like or are necessary to make the list at least workable.

With that out he way I would like to have a look at each unit and give my thoughts, this is partly an exercise for myself  too.

 Archon – Ok this is the unit I have probably struggled with the most to justify, sure he’s an effective character killer and can get pretty damn nasty once he has yummied down on a soul or two, however I must admit I don’t think he’s especially points efficient, the worst part is by having him with the Incubi it suddenly become 300 points in a transport made of wet  toilet paper and nitro glycerin, still I guess It’s cheaper than Termies in a raider … to add insult to injury I cannot seem to roll more than three saves with a shadow field before he dies , the fabled Immortal Archon is merely a wet dream for me. I should really ditch him and get that second unit of Reavers I really want in the army, ultimately I just felt wrong without a proper central character to lead the army. It just makes more sense to me with him in than out and in my test games he has being doing his best to justify his inclusion so he gets the benefit of the doubt and a shot centre stage.

 A parting thought,  I really wanted a phantasm launcher on him but its horribly expensive and I have not needed it so far in all my test games.

 The Heamo – Here he is , he had to be in at one point and If I was being sensible he would be my sole HQ choice, but he’s a support character and I could not really envisage him leading a raid , especially one with no wracks and grots etc , he’s blatantly my Archons lackey, he is also kinda useful, he joins the wyches and makes them good, having played a tonne of games now I would never start wyches without FNP, If I get lucky with the drugs and the wyches start with FNP I have the option of putting him with the Incubi , which with the archons drugs gives them FNP and FC right outta the gate . Im not really going to waffle on about him too much , other than to say the liquid gun has done me some good service softening up wych targets or flitting around in a transport playing poor-mans banewolf also his venom blade does help out in CC, with both the Hek and the hemo in the wyches with vblades they can really put down some wounds. A no brainer for this style of list tbh.

 Incubi- the moduls the MODELS !! , yup that’s why they are in, though they can be very effective in some match ups so not a complete loss, but they are in because they are awesome, the end  , I tricked out their raider as I leik tank shock and ramming and the tormentors kinda make up for the fact that the incubi seem to have forgotten theirs (thanks Phil) plus tank shocks with -1 ld is kinda good, if you get a unit running near the end of the board they are off, worth the 5 points as everything in 40k seems to be running on default LD10 these days….. also there were 5points ‘spare’

 Trueborn- yup I doubt these need much explanation, bringing the Tank-pop (or lance fail, you choose..) threes are popular and can work but for me I would have to be taking three units of three, as I have the Incubi I need to max what I can have , I have also found that the 4 blasters are handy when someone is using a character to soak hits for termy squads etc as they can force the opponent to allocate to the unit with more regularity, venoms are in because they rock, I built the army with the intention of having four, no more no less as this is the right number to kill or seriously cripple a long fang squad or anything else similar at long range, I have found this to be a valuable ability for the army to have. No surprises trueborn were in is there ?

 Moving into the troops, again from a competitive viewpoint I would like more scoring to be honest , ideally another  unit of wyches or two more warrior venom dakkaboats, though I think raiders are important in DE lists I wanted at least a third (it’s the sails), long range mobile lances are a bit crap but they are all we get for the opening turns so they are invaluable because there is nothing else.

 Wyches are just excellent, they tarpit and even tend to win most CC’s in my experience, the other main selling point is the haywire grenades, using wyches to jam up mech spam with multi charges or hold up and eventually kill dreadnoughts they are useful in multiple roles and due to this flexibility are pretty much an auto include in my books, I think they even work well in support of  dedicated shooting lists as roadblocks and vehicle suppression , buying time for the shooting to work it’s magic. These girls have done some serious lifting in the test games and invariably play a key role in the events leading to a victory, from the artistic viewpoint they are great models, will look good on the table and will allow me to use the army palette in a different way, which should help me stay interested.

 Dakkavenoms- again I doubt these need much explanation , staple unit for DE armies now, people must be almost as sick of seeing these as Psyflespamnoughts. Cheap, scoring, effective anti infantry that can still present a threat to armour, what’s not to like ? 

 Fast attack- this was hard for me , I firmly believe in the necessity of Reavers (aside from really digging the models) in DE lists, lances are shit , we NEED melta. I just could not find the points for the second unit and having one unit of nine was doable but too much of a stretch to get what I wanted elsewhere, plus, oddly I was not finding three meltas to be noticeably any better than two … So I’m pleased I have at least one unit, Really want another though. Champ is on for ld boost as panic is inevitable  and the vblade is in as it’s cheap and they often find themselves in CC, It seems to help. Seriously think I will regret not taking two units but can’t find the points without sacking the Archon, which is not an option, in my mind no Archon = no Kabal so not an option tbh.

 Heavy support- 2 Ravagers, yes and we know why, Lances, you can NEVER have enough in a DE army because they suck (prays for fix in 6^th) so taking two ravagers at least involved Zero soul searching, plus I really like that model too … it’s the sails.

 Razorwing- so yeah I could take a third Ravager ,but BORING, I get one less lance with the razor but pie plates for first strike decimation and horde control , I feel it is a more balanced list with the Razorwing and the model in my opinion is simply the greatest thing EvAR ,so It’s in  and will do well purely because it looks good. The extra splintercannon allows me to choose between anti infantry , with 8 shots total or anti tank with 2 DL’s after the missiles are gone.

 Pretty much Flicker fields across the whole army as they are damn useful, can’t always bank on cover and can’t be sure GW will put down enough decent terrain on the day, plus hydras flamers and cc attacks… on only one or two things they are not so great but if the whole army gets one they tend to make a difference over a whole game I have saved too many vehicles to many times not to take them.

 Overall a broad mix of units/threats and tools, the main weakness being that I feel it may lack a little focus and that the scoring is low, I still think It’s capable enough, and will at least be an interesting challenge to play with against a spectrum of opponents.

On holiday from work this coming week so expect multiple painting updates over the coming days.