Black Legion Test vs. SoB

[Prot]

I've bounced around a bit with the Forgefiends, and I've decided to keep things funner I'm going with a wonky Black Legion list.

I guess in part it's because we haven't been able to get a game in around here for a few months. (I'm used to playing 2 times a week!)

So instead of Thousand Sons I decided on my Black Legion... more options, and it feels like it will be a fun match up for my opponent.

In the Heretic Astartes thread I posted my freshly assembled/magnetized FF's.

So with the above guys having to be in the list, I've come up with a real mix of stuff:

Battalion:

Abe

DA (w/plebs)

Sorc w/Jump pack

20 cultists (2 flamers... new for me since the changes)

5 assault Marines

5 assault marines

9 Possessed

1 Greater Possesssed.

3 Oblits (old habits die hard, plus I LOVE the models. :tu:)

5 Havocs - Reaper Chaincannons

1 Baledrake (still love the annoyance factor of this guy)

Patrol:

MoP

10 Cultists

2 x Forgefiends with the ol' Hades.

Game is later today so not too many changes I can make, but hopefully I'll report back.

I will admit it's hard not using my good old Helbrutes. I do love them now but I found it very hard to get 2 Fiends into the list (I expect one to disappear very early).

Thoughts?

[Prot]

Well the game happened and it started out pretty rocky.

 

I went second and the first turn for the SoB was very potent. I almost lost a Forgefiend (actually I should have, a CP reroll saved it)  This came largely from their tanks... very potent 3D3 missiles. D6 damage.

 

I had to learn along the way as I had not played against them before. I was shocked the army had an army wide 'Ancient banner' effect. Essentially a 5+ shoot on death ability army wide. This is such a swingy, free ability. For example my Baledrake flew in on my turn, did very little damage, but flamed a single sister down with a multimelta, who in turn got a shot off in death, wounding the Baledrake and doing 6 damage to it! 

 

Yes this is rare, but it can happen and it forces you to be aware of that potential. I literally lost 6 wounds by killing a single model. So that was a rude awakening and it would happen in little sprinkles through out the game, and I found this also works for vehicles.

 

Killing one sister increases their to hit by 1, so you also really look at overkilling a unit. You don't want it shooting in death and hitting on a 2+.

 

Really the first turn was so aggressive, I thought I was toast. My thought was to say to heck with it, and go up the middle with my super buffed possessed. I was shocked to see them perform perhaps better for me than they have in all of 9th. I had Cursed earth, Invigorating Mutation (?) and FnP on the Possessed. I failed a warp time too, but wow did they hit hard. Finally getting to use Abaddon's WL trait was huge in this game.

 

I cleared the middle in two turns. In hindsight I did not know how the middle would go because he was super aggressive with Pentinent Engines and Repentia. I didn't know what to expect, but now I realize he was far too aggressive with those units.

 

Also I had the opportunity to wrap 2 Rhino's! Seriously though I failed a 4 up charge with a CP reroll on the possessed, but surprisingly I only needed a 4" for a 20 man Cultists squad, I rolled an 11" and ended up wrapping a Rhino for almost the whole game. I felt bad doing it, but I think it pretty much made me win the game because that quarter was dominated by my cultists!

 

Long story short, once the middle was cleared out I won the game quite handidly we called in T4. The Forgefiends were terrible though. Very ineffective. 

[WarriorFish]

It's always tough going up against an army you don't know, they certainly sound like a strong shooting army. This is where you made it count though as your Possessed could hit them in combat and T3 3+ only goes so far especially when you could stack buffs on them. It must have gone rather well to make up for a poor start but that is what makes the game interesting :) I expect Abaddon made his price count also?

 

As you considered your Sons for this game too, how do you think your Sons would have fared against them with your planned list? As an army with less combat potential (and no Abaddon) I'm guessing it wouldn't have been as good?

[Prot]

Thanks. I don't think it would have been near as good. Hindsight being 20/20 I strongly believe if Magnus would have survived those amazing tanks in T1, I would have had a strong chance. But with the list I made, I believe I would have lost.

 

The reason I say this is because the Possessed easily won me the game. They did all the work, and bullied the SoB back into their zone and that made the Primary points differential massive.

 

I don't have that unit in Thousand Sons. 

 

Abaddon was good, but not great. His Aura (which I anticipate the nerf coming) was amazing at times. My Abaddon only gets his hands wet when the main push of my army lists fails. So in this case he never got the chance. The Possessed probably had their best game in all of 9th.

 

But it's all situational. I think the list I used here (which is full of common choices for my type of BL list) would have failed horridly against DG. The good news is all we need is a codex!!

[WarriorFish]

Things must have gone quite well indeed if Abaddon could laze around :lol: Updated Chaos codices can't come soon enough!

[Prot]

It’s funny because my Abaddon based lists heavily rely on him yet I find if he’s at the center of the action then usually things have gone very wrong. (My last tournament proved that!).

 

I’m considering another test. I think the Forgefiends have to stay in this list because without Abe’s reroll they are really horrible. But I need another attractive firebase to draw fire. I’m thinking of a pair of Defilers as well or even a fire raptor flyer.

[battle captain corpus]

Defilers are great and would definitely make your opponents think twice about shooting a the forgefiends! That's a lot of "monsters" on the table though, keeping points down will probably be the hardest part. Maybe consider dropping Abaddon and look at some "basic" lords to bubble up in different areas?

 

.......I'm aware of the fact that it's also me (Abaddons biggest fanboy!) saying drop him. XD

 

BCC

[Prot]

Well actually the reason I ended up putting the experimental Forgefiends in the Black Legion (instead of my Thousand Sons) is because the WS is so horrible and quite often during the game they went down to WS6.

 

With Abaddon they retain some form of reliability. And in my lists (Pre-Covid) I had a lot of fun with Defilers. But I think in order to keep the army functional I can't mix too many of these WS 4 units that are supposed to shoot to some degree. I love Defiler's in the army though, but now that I see the DG codex variant, I can't wait for an update on those guys as well!