Cyberactivity's Twilight Kin: The Shadow Blades

[Boss_Salvage]

Oof! Commiserations on the tough match-ups and rough dice on top of them. I like your list, super balanced - I don’t really love Butchers (when I mess with NS I usually include one horde with sharpness and that’s it), it feels like their real upside these days is being one of the tankiest LI hordes, not actual damage dealers. Which means there’s a lot of pressure on your Soulflayers and Void Lurker to do the lifting. Does the Void do work for you? I almost never see it these days (nor the IMO much better TK legendary version), while it’s clearly taking up a lot of your points. Points that could go toward a third Soulflayer reg and maybe Tormentor troop or so.

You a Ravager fan? Two hordes is my preferred NS core, and you’ve got the pull-n-push spells to unlock shenanigans. Sure, they aren’t quite as tough as Butchers but help push your list towards Combined Arms rather than Fastish Melee.

[Nero]

Absolutely stunning . What an envy to the person playing against that gorgeous looking army.

[Cyberactivity]

I’ve never run Ravengers before. The ones I’ve painted have never seen a game.

I’ve written a Ravenger heavy list. I think my issue is that you end up having to build the list round them. Not saying it doesn’t look like a fun list to play, just I’m a bit stumped at how to combat an alpha strike list with something like that.

Void lerkers haven’t always made it in to my lists. They are a good choice, if only for the fact that they are flying sp10 which is lacking in the list.

Previously with butchers I’ve gone down to just running 1 horde with sharpness. That is a decent unit.

Need to settle on a list really and just start playing.

[Cyberactivity]

So our Christmas tournament Shroud of the Reaper: Slay Bells 3 was yesterday (Sunday).

1 day, 3 game event. 2345pts.

Special character:

Now this was I believe the last Rankings event of the season. This is important for 2 reasons.

Firstly my friend Rob has been running a side league as it were, called the “King of London”. Essentially points from any London based (Rankings qualifying) events counted (from February onwards as this is when it was announced).

There were 2 trophies. The “King of London” and the “Most KoW Points in London”:

Max Dell has the most London points for the season at this point (as it included January Shroud that he won, and I missed due to recovering from surgery). I couldn’t catch him for that award.

Even without that event, Max was still ahead by nearly 36pts for the King of London award going into the weekend. As he wasn’t attending the event it meant I had to finish about mid table (10th out of 20) to catch him and win the award.

Secondly I had managed to hang onto the Best in Faction for Nightstalkers up until this event. Only 1 other Nightstalker player was in attendance at the event. They could improve their score, but I don’t think they could improve it enough to take the top spot from me.

So I was playing for the crown as it were…

So, onto the list:

I asked my fellow London players for some list building advice. I wanted a simple to use army list. The above list was inspired by UK number 1 player Chris Lynch, who wrote a 4 horde butcher list for me. His had more variety than this, but I wanted to keep it extra simple for me so I took out all the variety and went triple terror.

Only bit I’m still not sold on was the hex on the Void Lerker. It was kinda helpful in game 2, but in think 15 pts could have been better spent. None of the opponents had a massively key spell caster for it to target each turn, and the Void Lerker should really be in combat to make back it’s costs.

So the stage is set. Coming up next the run down of the games and results. Stay tuned!

[Cyberactivity]

So Game 1 Vs Mick M (Salamanders)

Mick won best army. Looked fantastic.

Protect Santa/Krampus
The objective is to get your Krampus over the half way line and keep it alive, while hunting down the opponents Krampus.

Victory Points are awarded at the end of the game as follows:

2 Victory Points for killing opponents Krampus unit in Melee phase or 1 Victory Point for killing opponents Krampus unit in Shooting phase

1 Victory Point if your Krampus unit is still alive on your half of the board or 2 Victory Points if your Krampus unit is still alive on your opponents half of the board

Add up the points cost of the routed enemy units.

740pts-1475pts = 1 Victory Points,

1480pts-2215pts = 2 Victory Points,

2220pts or more = 3 Victory Points

This was going to come down to a massive rumble in the middle/my right flank of the board. Mick got a bit eager and moved slightly too far forward and as a result ended up giving me a flank that helped me take out a horde in short order.

Mick managed to sneak Krampus towards my left flank whilst covering me charging him. After fireball hit and luckily wavered my void lerker, I had no option but to sacrifice the Wailing Shadow to ground his Firedrake and run my own Krampus as fast as possible into Mick’s deployment zone.

So we both ended with Krampus on other side of the board (both worth 2VP).

However, I managed to kill 1995pts of Mick’s army. I lost the Wailing Shadow, both phantoms, and a terror so 610pts. That gave me an additional 2VP.

Result: Win 4VP - 2VP. 1995 kills.

Kills being the first decider I’m fairly certain I’d got one of the highest scores. JR who was playing on the table next to me got 4VP and 1945pts of kills so was fairly sure I’d be having a rematch against his Ogres…

Game 2 Vs Ian S (Trident Realms)

Suicidal Races
Each Player places a Loot token along the centre line.

Objective is to grab the token and return it fully within a deployment zone.

At the end of your turn:

if the token is on one of your units within a deployment zone, then it will return to an unoccupied space along the centre line.

if the token is not on any unit but within a deployment zone, then it will return to an unoccupied space along the centre line.

Victory Points are awarded each turn as follows:

1 Victory Point for each Loot token moved to your opponents deployment zone

2 Victory Point for each Loot token moved back to your own deployment zone

So Ian had played Tony first round and pretty much got max points in everything.

Ian had also written his list with this specific scenario in mind. His list was a pretty good counter to mine. Lots of crushing strength = wasted against TR, a lot of stuff hitting on 4s to start going on 5s, and not huge volumes of attacks. Also, he had very little shooting outside the swarms so stealth was on the most part of no value.

Also Ian is one of the most competent players about.

I messed up by not trying to turn the terror around and come back to my deployment. If I had done it might have been a bit closer than it was. This and me missing a chariot the arc of sight were two problems that really compounded the beat down. The list was great at the scenario and Vs my lists strengths. Perfect storm. I’ve not beaten Ian in a game before. He is a master at the TR list. I only had a Mindscreech left at the end.

Result: Loss 0VP - 4VP. 920 kills.

Game 3: Justin GC (Dwarfs)

Wrack & Ruin

Same as in new Clash book.

The table was set up a bit strange with the left hand flank being very awkward for infantry to move through. As a result we both mainly went for the right hand side bubble. I did however put enough US on the left flank to claim the points if Justin didn’t want to bother. Justin did put some stuff there, but only 1US against by 6US, so I was confident I’d be winning those 3VPs.

Unlike my last game my list was a great counter to Justin’s. About half the list had CS2 or better. Small amount of shooting outside the mastiffs was dampened by stealth. That with 3 infantry munching terrors was going to be tough for Justin.

A lot of the mastiff damage was healed or RoL. Damage was regenerated all over the place.

Turns 3,4,5 although turned into a bit of a grind, the stuff over on the left flank held on for the 3VPs. I managed to dominate the 12" bubble too on the right side for the 3 turns so was 6-0 going into the last turn. I moved my mindscreech into the center bubble to tie US with Justin. My terror needed to eat the character and overrun to get my to break the tie. The character held strong and no Turn 7 came which meant that the US was tied in the middle.

Result: Win 6VP - 0VP. 1425 kills.

So ended the event 2-0-1. I’d come in 6th place that secured me the “King of London” crown.

Me accepting the King of London trophy from Rob.

Funnily enough the other NS player curb stomped JR’s Ogres last round and finished 4th! Not enough to take my Best in Faction away luckily.

So I finish the season in 45th place in the Rankings, Best in Faction with Nightstalkers (therefore qualifying for Masters), and the King of London champion. Although I’d not podiumed an event or won a hobby award this season, I’m still proud of the achievements.

I’m not sure direction to go next season. I’ll have a think over the next couple of weeks and see what I come up with.

[Boss_Salvage]

King of London is quite the award! Well done throughout the season. Dig the Krampus rules here, nice blunt instrument of a list you brought

[Cyberactivity]

Thanks. The list worked okay. I think it worked better than expected because I intended to use the Krampus like a second slightly temperamental RoL source.

Whilst 3 terrors was fun, I think that 2 terrors is probably the sweet spot.

Yeah the amount of CS was decent. It’s not a subtle list my any means. I’ve run 3 hordes of butchers and a horde of fiends before…there wasn’t much different except that I did miss outranging stuff although I think it worked better than 3, but maybe not as well as 2…

Funnily the speed of the army was actually another advantage I had over Justin in some respects as he only had his characters that were faster than my standard army movement. He really did have a bit of an uphill battle. Although I don’t think I made any silly mistakes in that game and my plan actually worked which was a nice change .

[DarkBlack]

My nightstalkers have a hard time against Trident Realm too.

[Cyberactivity]

There is a few issues with NS Vs TR depending on build.

Firstly, you don’t see them much which means less practice playing against them. Didn’t know half of what the TR army did.

Secondly, the TR army doesn’t care about CS. It is low defence but good defensively in combat due to ensnare. A lot of the NS lists I see have a decent chunk of points with CS2. This is wasted Vs TR. Also a lot of lists are combat centric. This suits the TR too as it plays to their strengths.

Lastly, TR isn’t a very shooty army. By going combat focused the NS inherit stealth is worth very little if nothing at all.

[Cyberactivity]

So the end of the season was made official.

I won best in faction for Nightstalkers:

As a result I got my invite to UK Masters:

So all in all a good season I’d say.

Plans for next year…need to work out what army I’m going to be using. I’m tempted to go back to Twilight Kin since they’ve been hit with the nerf bat they have fallen out of favour and I think they will be far less popular next season. I think I can possibly build a stronger Nightstalker focussed army with them than actual Nightstalker list itself. I’ve got some extra models that I’d need to add possibly…it’s a tricky choice.

[Boss_Salvage]

Congrats! Preemptive good luck for Masters!

[Cyberactivity]

Sadly I won’t actually be attending Masters this time round. But it’s great to have qualified again (second time now, attended the first time I qualified).

Just looking forward to the next season and trying to work out what I should be taking.

What do you think?

[Cyberactivity]

I’ve amended the current certificate and finally took the chance to fix the old best in faction one from a few years ago. When I printed it originally, the writing got a bit cut off when in the frame so it’s been bothering me for months.

Now they look much better:

Been thinking. Next year I’m thinking possibly Ogres or even going back to Varangur. I’ve not won best in faction with either. Ogres would be a much bigger challenge as they are by far the stronger faction so naturally get a lot more players using them.

I’ve not played Varangur for a long old time. I’m not sure if my old build style would still be competitive. Need to look into the faction as haven’t even looked at them for the longest time.

It would be a shame to not be using the NS models, but think there will be too much competition in that space that I wouldn’t have a good chance.

Looking forward to the next season.

[Sceleris]

Good stuff mate.

Think there are some decent NS heavy TK builds that are worth trying, it’s just finding the right balance.

Straight NS will remain popular and will see plenty of players.

Interesting to see how the CoK25 changes impact ogre builds, as you can’t just spam siege breakers and warlocks!

Pretty sure it’s mainly just Dan and Stephanie playing varangur at the moment - NA with frostclaws and better frozen synergy trump cavalry & fallen???

[Cyberactivity]

My Ogre build was seigebreakers and chariots. Only Nomnom really for the casters. But still that list took a major nerf bat hit.

Varangur only had 2 people with full scores as you say. They just don’t stand up to NA which as a faction are just so much better.

Yeah, I think NS will be popular. Problem is that I know a couple of really great players are taking them next season so that rules them out really. NS heavy TK was an option but I think it going to be tough competition in that faction (and I’ve already done TK before).

I’d like to take a list that I’ve got a decent amount painted for; but maybe encourage me to paint up some extra bits if I think of a good list idea? I don’t know.

I did have thoughts about possibly going back to elves, as I’ve not run them since 2nd edition. However I’ve not thought of a speed painting method that fits the army, and I lose enthusiasm thinking about painting in a traditional manner. Lol.

[Cyberactivity]

3 units of Reavers done. First units of the year completed. With Mask of the Reaper upgrades (for the wound recovery) that would be 660pts.

I’ve been meaning to get these sorted for a while. Glad they are now done.

Really still unsure about faction selection but I’m leaning towards Varangur. Would have to be a list that used decent units unique to the faction I think, otherwise I might as well go in a different direction.

[DarkBlack]

Those old school deamkns loom great!
Not sure that the foxes fit in though…

Varangur sounds like an interesting interpretation.
I would have assumed abyssals.

[Cyberactivity]

The foxes look more in place when I use the mounted son’s as they have a chaos warrior hero leading the unit. Basically anything non demon makes them fit in more.

I’ve run the army as Varangur and Forces of the Abyss prior. The other box has the more non demon stuff in.

[Cyberactivity]

Well I’ve made a couple extra magnetic storage boxes:

Should be enough to hold another 6k-7k pts. Considering I’m two months in to the year and only on track for about 3.6k pts painted this year, this should be enough for the next couple of years.

I asked my gaming group what I should paint next.

The result was to finish this guy:

I’ve got some work on the blades and the cloak to do (and some highlights on the gold).

Then I agreed to paint some heavy infantry which will probably be a couple units of the old chaos warriors which are stand-ins for Hurscals.

I’m still undecided which faction to play this season and running out of time to decide as I’ve got a tournament March 1st. I’ve written a decent Varangur list I think. Close to what I use to run in 2nd edition. I’m not sold on it though.

[Cyberactivity]

So since I last posted I’ve added a shelf to the storage area:

This gives some extra room so I don’t have to stack the boxes so high.

Also attended the King of Herts tournament on the Saturday just gone.

This was the army list I took:

This is what the army looked like:

I wasn’t sold on it. The issue being that whilst the stealthy knights are good, having the same speed as the Fallen means that their role is somewhat covered. Also the living legend seemed okay on paper but with such a fast moving army struggled to keep up.

I wanted to take an army that you couldn’t build with NA; as the NA list is pretty much superior in every way. The problem is that the stealth knights are unique to the Varangur army. Whereas the fangs aren’t, else I’d have probably used them instead.

So onto the event…they had kills as the first decider after win/draw/loss .

Game 1 Vs Matt Gorham (NA)
Ironically got NA first game. I’ve played Matt like 3 times before at events. I’ve won our 2 previous full KoW games (I was using the old Twilight Kin for the first game and Nightstalkers for the other), and Matt has won the Ambush game (first go with new Twilight Kin and first Ambush game).

Matt is exceptional at positioning in the game and has played at the UK Masters. It was a cagey game. I didn’t see that a unit of ravens could charge some foxes in the woods. That caused a major headache for me. Couldn’t kill the snow trolls prime so it would drop the token, and Matt killed the Fallen unit that was trying to go for a last turn move onto a token.

As suspected, NA just do everything better than Varangur.

Result: Loss 2-4
Kills: 1125pts (Matt killed like 10pts more, it was a really close game)

Game 2 Vs David Fletcher (OotGL) Hold the Line

2nd previous Masters player. David has also won best in faction with OotGL, and the list he took is similar to his Masters list that he came (I think) 2nd with. So he’s a great player.

He’s also great fun to play against. In a game that had some major swingy dice including amazing regen abilities, just couldn’t get ahead or get the luck at the right time. Did manage to kill a decent amount of his army, just the units he had left were enough to claim all 3 areas.

Result: Loss 0-7
Kills: 900pts

Game 3 Vs Will Fox (FoN) Plunder

Will is brand new to the game so we just had a really chilled game. Should have broken the ensnare horde with a triple charge, but rolled really low (think it was a 3). The unkillable pegasus and double 1 on the treeman who had 19 damage on was frustrating. 2 bad rolls basically cost me two hordes of fallen.

Did enough to claim both of the 2pt tokens and 2 normal ones. Couldn’t get the one on the Pegasus but ended up killing it last turn which was a relief.

Result: Win 6-0
Kills: 1740pts

Total Kills: 3765pts out of 5985pts
End Result: 16th out of 28

So not the best showing ever but not the worst.

So what next? Well I might try and redo the list. Not sure what to replace and what to keep. I like the units of fallen, but maybe take it down to 2 units instead of 3?

The knights didn’t exactly do great. If I replace them I don’t know if it will negatively impact the list as you lose the speed.

Quite liked the flying lord, but at Def 4 he can easily get tagged and will lose an extended fight against most fighting characters. It’s a difficult decision.