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.