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Author Topic: Devoted of Sigmar  (Read 1412 times)

Offline SoonerSox

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Devoted of Sigmar
« on: November 02, 2016, 03:54:26 PM »
I've played multitudes of Old Empire/Stormcast combinations since AoS started. One of the greatest things, albeit frustrating, is that each strategy can so easily be foiled by the right list. Seems like every time I start to do well the guys I play with come up with something to make me change my list. Just a recent example, one of my friends and I have been playing the Ritual battle plan on Friday afternoons with relatively small lists (usually 1k). I started with:

30 Handgunners (1 unit) battleline
5 Liberators battleline
3 Demigryph Knights
1 Battlemage (Life)
1 Gunmaster
1 Helblaster Volley Gun

This list was only 900 points because I was the ritualist and we thought the defender had an advantage. I allowed the opponent to take 1200. That was a big mistake. Partially because my list wasn't very good. In my mind I envisioned a fluffy gun line holding the objective. My opponent played Slaanesh and pretty much overwhelmed me at lightning speed due to his units having such great movement. We decided to play even points from then on.

I decided to switch up my list for the next week's Ritual and went with:
5 Liberators battleline
5 Liberators battleline
40 Flagellants
2 Warrior Priests
1 War Altar of Sigmar

I played the same guy and he ended up bringing Beastclaw Raiders instead of his Chaos army. I was feeling like I was about to get slaughtered again. He had 1 Thundertusk, 1 Stonehorn, 2 sabercats, 2 units of savage orcs for battleline.

Without getting too detailed he made a mistake charging his general on the Stonehorn into my block of Flagellants. If you have played the Ritual as the disruptor you know that you don't want your general bogged down and need to get them to the objective. The Flagellants took it hard but held the line and put 6 wounds on the Stonehorn (that's pretty good considering it halves wounds dealt). I ended up getting a double turn and took out the Stonehorn with some shooting from the Altar and a very successful charge from the Liberators. I was also rolling great on the objective since I had 3 priests near it (war altar has priest keyword). So even though the Flagellants were down to around 15 from their original 40 I really enjoyed the list. My opponent effectively gave up at that point. He admitted that he underestimated the number of attacks the Flagellants can put out with their martyrdom and was pretty cocky with his general as he was used to just obliterating units with the Stonehorn.

I've played Devoted before and didn't have as much success. I believe for two reasons. First I only have 40 Flagellants and I was attempting to run the Pilgrimage battalion formation. Two groups of 20 Flagellants might as well be nothing. You really need 40 in the group. So deciding to put them in one group meant I needed a substitute battleline which leads me to the second reason, the Liberators. I was really surprised how well the army performs with the Liberators on the flanks and just charging my mob up the middle. Liberators get a bad rap generally but they are stalwart tanks with mystic shield and I've grown to appreciate them greatly especially with their 100 point cost.

I'm going to keep building on that idea and if I do the Pilgrimage again I'll have another block of 40 Flagellants for it. I might be better off with Judicators as battleline in that army so it would be a high point list which could also let me incorporate my Hurricanum and maybe a Luminark.

I'm using the same 1k list this Friday and I'm sure my opponent will bring a completely different surprise.

Offline StealthKnightSteg

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Re: Devoted of Sigmar
« Reply #1 on: November 02, 2016, 10:50:44 PM »
Yeah love that ability on the Flags really suits them.

It's also what I love about the lists you never know what will com up against you (if you play openish with points), I think in the tournament setting there will be optimized lists soon enough.
Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.

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Offline Artobans Ghost

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Re: Devoted of Sigmar
« Reply #2 on: November 02, 2016, 11:31:15 PM »
I love the idea of the Devoted and a Stormcast army. I'm making plans......
Mathi Alfblut Feb 4,2017 Simple, You gut the bastard with your sword, the viking way.
Questions?


GP Jan 4, 2020
Yes, even W:AoS.

Offline SoonerSox

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Re: Devoted of Sigmar
« Reply #3 on: November 05, 2016, 03:33:47 PM »
Played another Ritual match with my buddy at the local GW store yesterday. I played the same 1000 point Devoted army with Liberators for Battleline. The Ritual battle plan is probably the best possible scenario for the Devoted. The command ability for the Ritualist imparts +1 attack while also taking -1 on the save roll. This is the perfect command ability for Flagellants since they don't have a save to begin with.

I was the defender/ritualist again this game and my opponent brought Skaven. I admit I don't know all the names of the Skaven heroes but I'll try to list it all.

10x Storm Vermin (I think)
10x Clan Rats
10x Clan Rats
2x Plague Claw Catapult
1x Skaven Chieftan with Battle Standard
1x Warp Grinder I think. It was a tunneler that could take another Skaven with it.
1x Hero that I don't remember the name of. The only thing that stands out was that he could throw knives with a 12' range.

The Skaven went first. He deployed his General in hiding with the Warp Grinder. He ran his 3 rat infantry forwarad and shot both Plague Claws at the block of Flagellants. He killed 17 Flagellants combined with both Plague Claws since they were each doing 2D6 damage when shooting at a unit with more than 10 models. I managed to save 3 of them with the War Altar's Sigmar's Shield. So I was down 14 Flagellants before I even started. I chose to employ the Power of Faith ability of the War Altar in the Battle Shock phase so I didn't lose any more Flagellants.

That was pretty much the end of the good news for my opponent. On my turn I got every prayer off and including the command ability from the battle plan, my Flagellants were buffed +1 to run and charge, +2 to hit and rerolling failed wounds. I was able to get the War Altar into shooting range on the Plague Claws. The Plague Claws have 6 wounds and I rolled 2 shots. Since Light of Banishment does double damage on Chaos models I split the shots one for each and destroyed them both with the buffed 6 dmg shots. I moved the Liberators back to guard the objective against his Tunneling team which couldn't appear within 9 inches of an enemy. I was able to charge the Flagellants into the Storm Vermin and even though they hadn't taken damage so they only had 3 attacks each, they wiped the Vermin.

I won the roll off so got a double turn which was pretty fruitless as I rolled 1's on both wounds from my War Altar's shooting. The Flagellants failed their charge. The only good note was that due to a high roll on the objective in the first and second rounds I was already at 16 points of the needed 20. That fact pretty much won the day as I made a critical error earlier in the game thinking my Liberators were arranged so that the Skaven couldn't tunnel up next to the objective but I was wrong.

Luckily the tunneling happens in the movement phase so when my opponent began his turn he couldn't immediately try to destroy the objective. He tied up my War Altar with his Clan Rats so I couldn't get in range to shoot his General so my only hope was to roll enough on the objective to reach 20 or kill his General with my Liberators.

Since my War Altar was more than 12 inches away I only got a +2 bonus on the roll from my 2 Warrior Priests. Only a 1 would fail to win the game and I scraped by with a roll of 2. Victory for Sigmar!

Next week I'm sure he will bring something else but we are switching sides and I will be the disruptor while he defends. I won't get the sweet command ability for the Flagellants but I'll probably have to change up my army quite a bit in order to get a General that can get to the objective quickly. I'm thinking Amber Wizard on Griffon.
« Last Edit: November 05, 2016, 03:37:55 PM by SoonerSox »