Version 2.0 Beta is upon us! And with that there are a host of new spoilers to talk about. However, it’s only fitting that the
Court of the Damned blog provide a summary review and basic tactica for recently spoiled
Court of the Damned entry in the
VC 2.0 Book.
The basics of what you need to know (copy and pasted straight from the thread which you should visit for further detail):
1)Gains
War Platform and base change from 50x100mm to 60x100mm
2)
Unholy Dominion: All models in enemy units within 6" of one or more models with this Global Rule suffers -2 Agility and -2 Defensive Skill
3)Ghostly horde attacks changed from 2d6 to 8
4)
Court of the Damned gains
Mounts Protection (6+) (mounted version only) but loses innate defense (5+)
The biggest, most meaningful change for the court is its switch to a
war platform. This role allows it to provide a big boost to
VC core units or create a
death star type build in a
unit of
barrow guard. With that said, let’s look at the main candidates:
Ghouls:
Ghouls are our naturally most agile
infantry unit so seem like a good synergy fit for the CotD’s
unholy dominion. This
unit will put out a high volume of S3 wounds at a high agility step due to their having 2 attacks a piece and poison as well as a new boon (
hatred that kicks in after the first round of combat). With these abilities, I see this
unit as an anti-elf
unit. They will often strike simultaneously with elves and the output of S3 with poison makes them a fantastic
unit to deal with lightly armored troops. Furthermore, this
unit does not especially need character support. The best counters to this
unit will be still be the units that can normally counter
ghouls. I expect
ghouls to do very well against 5+ and 6+ armor, average against 3+ and 4+ armor and be countered hard by units that possess 1+ and 2+ saves. Like all
VC core,
ghouls will experience losses in droves but provided the right match up and having great enough numbers by the time the second round of combat arises, this
unit has potential to be effective.
Skeleton spears: Similarly to the ghoul
unit, the CotD should synergize well in providing attacks at a high agility step in combination with the new agility buff for spears. Whether or not this
unit charges or takes the charge it should put out a high volume of attacks (due to
fier and horde) at a high agility step in the first round of combat (this will diminish somewhat when first round agility bonuses subside). The defensive skill debuff will also help the
skeletons to hit whilst it won’t reduce incoming damage. Compared the
ghouls this
unit will benefit more from character support, most notably Lamian vampires will be able to reduce enemy agility by a further -1 or make the skeleton
unit offensive skill 6 with
commandment. This can also be done in a more expensive
unit of barrows. All things considered, this
unit is very solid and will counter the units that spears counter well e.g.
cavalry. As there is no getting away from t3, light armor dying in droves (especially when striking at lower agility) this
unit would benefit most from additional character support. With a lord level character in the
unit, this
unit becomes something just a level below a
death star and many units might choose to simply counter by ignoring this
unit. Imo, this plays in to the
VC players hands by denying the opponent
core points which are usually the easiest points to get when playing
VC.
Barrow Guard with halberds: I have specified halberds in this entry as this is the weapon that will make the most use of
unholy dominion’s initiative debuff. The already “elite”
skeletons can be stacked with further synergies, including
commandment (in a
Lamia list), a
cadaver wagon and the new banner of the barrows. This
unit with a character is likely to cost around 40-45% of 4500 point army and what you get is a
unit with the potential to hit on 2’s with a high volume of S5,
lethal strike. Pretty deadly! Unlike the previously reviewed core units which might tempt a few charges, there is no way an opponent will willingly charge this
unit if it is fully tooled out with the requisite synergies. Whilst not much is touching this
unit in combat, you can’t get around the fact you are movement 4 and have put the vast majority of points in this
unit. In this build, armies that can excel at the
chaff game will cause problems as will armies with other means of out maneuvering. The surefire way to defeat this list is to avoid the
deathstar, pick up points for the unbuffed
VC core units and everything else that is not in this
unit. Other tactics include looking to take out some of the
unit synergy – war machines will likely be perfect for this role. However, other ways to mess with this
unit include use of dangerous
terrain, whether on the battle field or
spells that force DT’s. Pinning the
unit with rear and flank charges should also be possible in lists that rely on a variety of
MSU-medium sized combat units that work in tandem.
As a mount:…
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