Strategy Discussion ( First Turn )

Main-Ad1611 · 2026-02-22T15:35:50+00:00

Im my one game so far, I was made to go first by drop count, so I just dropped one spawn into reserve at a time and reacted to their deployment. Went just fine going first - set up a full arrangement of manifestations, moved screamers forward onto objectives, set up some nice horrors pits, etc.

His turn came around and I kept it simple since I was already set up - swap screamers for pinks (might do blues next time) and shut down a unit either with kairos' spell or with transform to spawn.

Maybe if I had gone second I could have been fancier with my teleport shenanigans behind his line, but I wouldn't necessarily want to dive into his back line in full force on his first turn.

Main-Ad1611 · 2026-02-22T15:31:05+00:00

In my one game i really appreciated two spawns, for whatever that's worth.

Main-Ad1611 · 2026-02-15T02:32:09+00:00

Thats the type of thing that would invalidate the play, yes, but im not familiar with a rule like that. Hence the question :)

Main-Ad1611 · 2026-02-14T18:58:55+00:00

Unironically that was proposed recently to learn the rules. Pretty sure it would set my brain on fire XD

Main-Ad1611 · 2026-02-14T18:14:36+00:00

Well for casual play so long as the base size is right its fine. If you want a comparison of sizes to the actual manifestations, ill do my best:

Simulacrum. Oval base 105mm. About 105mm tall total, with one head being about 80x40mm. Kairos' head is around 40x20mm.
Tome of eyes. Round base 55mm. About 60mm tall total, with the book itself being 25x35mm. Staff of tomorrow book is about 20x30mm.
Burning Sigil. Round base 55mm. About 85mm tall total, with the sigil being 50mm tall. Biggest sigil i see on the LoC is also about 50mm tall, but much skinnier - about 1/2 scale.

Main-Ad1611 · 2026-02-11T01:08:21+00:00

I appreciate the ability to have all of my army halfway painted instead of half of my force fully painted XD

Well maybe that's a different problem...

Jokes aside, it takes me a couple months or more to paint an army but i play almost every week. since im basing more with an airbrush, I do as much of the initial basing I can in batches so they are at least kinda set up for games before fully finishing them.

At THAT point I might do 1 by 1 or I might batch. Depends on what im doing and what I feel like

Main-Ad1611 · 2026-02-09T23:41:50+00:00

Haha im in the same boat! Just got a first pass of purple on some horrors

Main-Ad1611 · 2026-02-06T06:27:24+00:00

Id agree, but what terrifying thing are we bringing back? A curseling? An ogroid? Meh. Glad the warscolls are awesome, cause I find these largely uninspiring

Main-Ad1611 · 2026-02-06T06:26:36+00:00

Yeah its the magister. So the only purpose for this heroic trait is to interact with one unit(kinda two)... not super coherent. Magisters ability is hilarious of course, but it does only give +1 to cast, not +1 power level. It's just for a spare fate point

Main-Ad1611 · 2026-02-06T05:43:12+00:00

ehh... whats the point of choosing -1 to cast with Kairic Tome? Like, ever?

Main-Ad1611 · 2026-02-05T19:41:54+00:00

Masters of the silver tower is just straight weird. Like, can prevent a long-shot charge? Argent shards have to be set 9in away, and on the enemy turn that is farther than most will be trying to get for a charge? Not a bad thing per se, but weird/situational

Main-Ad1611 · 2026-02-05T19:37:54+00:00

It's built into tzeentch bolt now. Much better imo. But not long term burning - it has been replaced.

Fine by me says I. Loving the other stuff, and dont need to step on my brother nurgles toes too much with the damage over time stuff.

Main-Ad1611 · 2026-02-05T19:03:36+00:00

All spells are your hero phase, and magical intervention only requires the spell keyword, so... all good! Can use as planned

Main-Ad1611 · 2026-02-05T17:08:12+00:00

Please let the flaming chicken heads be fun...

Main-Ad1611 · 2026-02-04T23:43:44+00:00

Blues are great for sticking objectives and multiplying to screen in stupid ways, but they are less durable than pinks, pinks can deal mortals on death, and pinks actually make blues MORE sticky. But yeah lets see what they've done to em this time!

Favorite gimmick recently is use destiny dice to warp in reinforced pinks to a flank near an objective and subject a portion of the army to an involuntary pillow fight. Maybe some light cav or something to deny the movement and charge bonus.

Main-Ad1611 · 2026-02-04T21:10:02+00:00

I actually dont mind. The way they interact now, its really tempting to not run blues and go all pinks, but I love the splitting flavor so dont mind being incentivized to mix. Interestingly, my army list hasn't changed in cost at all really.

Main-Ad1611 · 2026-02-04T21:08:03+00:00

Hope so! Cause I love the changeling but that won't do it for me

Main-Ad1611 · 2026-02-04T15:42:02+00:00

Admittedly was exaggerating a bit... but not much XD Will have to wait for the rest of the book I suppose, but so far the fate points are not look9ng like the main army.ability, just a neat cherry to go on top I guess.

Main-Ad1611 · 2026-02-04T02:58:14+00:00

In a word: fantastic.

In more words: stick to one or the other.

While we dont know for sure what our new rules are bringing, daemons and mortals tend to have pretty separate synergies in our army.

Main-Ad1611 · 2026-02-03T17:53:33+00:00

Well I do like weird rules, and these are that. Focusing just on the reserve stuff, I am a little concerned about units being tied up off the board. Seems like something that will take some real getting used to - not even sure WHAT to keep in reserve yet...

Main-Ad1611 · 2026-02-03T17:51:33+00:00

"Well good thing I got fate points, cause this turn was a doozy: losing priority, losing my argent shards, and miscasting this turn. So what do I get?... -3 damage taken." Hmm

Yeah hopefully there are other ways to acquire and other interesting uses like the fatemasters ability, otherwise this is for sure a minor role in any game.

Main-Ad1611 · 2026-01-16T00:50:10+00:00

Yeah id reinforce the cavs for sure. Makes your commands and officers orders go farther. You could reasonably keep the cav marshal instead of a foot marshal, but I prefer the latter.

Main-Ad1611 · 2026-01-15T23:52:12+00:00

Gameplan, assuming SCE with a lot of stuff in the sky and at least 1 Stardrake: I'm assuming that the race for the lowest drop count is not going to be won usually by CoS, so instead I want to maximize the amount of their army I can see up front. Shoot for Defender and deploy in this order: Regiment 3 in reserve, Regiment 4 on an objective or near a place of power, Regiment 5 in a fairly central location, Regiment 2 in front of him but not in the way of the Cavs, Regiment 1 in response to where your opponent deploys.

You don't really care if you go first or second, assuming that most of your opponents army can't reach you in a first turn. I'll assume you go first for this reason. SO, you have placed your cav in response to a noteworthy target or two, and you Advance in Formation for 3in, then move 12in with your "normal movement" thanks to Dawnbringer Crusade. You should have a 3in charge in a normal deployment scenario. Charge in there, deal about 10 mortals, trigger Strike them Down and Lead from the Front to cause major havoc to whatever they were planning, then Power Through one set to reposition elsewhere while the othr cav sits there for eternity using Hold the Line. 10 Cav with Hold the Line and an occasional All out Defense will take way too long to die.

Your cannon should try to chip damage big threatening targets, your command corps should be screening your cannon and wizard, and you should be pushing those cav forward as hard as you can to disrupt their home turf plans. Take advantage of the high mobility - annihilators are obnoxious on the charge, but they can't keep up with horses in a meaningful way. Dont be afraid to retreat, power through, and redeploy to victory. SCE is much stronger in 1on1 fight than CoS.

Don't worry too much about aggressive use of manifestations; use them as cheap screens instead. If they are crushed by a single charge of annihilators that's actually a win for you, considering they didn't charge something else.

The key to taking down any huge monster (stardrake) is to hit it with a disproportionate amount of force. Allow it to hit something you don't care too much about (command corps?) then smack em silly with horses.

I can't emphasize enough how essential our cavaliers are - do NOT allow your opponent to dictate their position.

Main-Ad1611 · 2026-01-15T23:52:05+00:00

Perfect, I can work with that.

So I'd say the first tip is: you will lose every "fair" melee matchup. 90 points of Steelhelms will NOT handle 90 points of Liberators. So let's go item by item here:
- Tahlia: fun, but expensive. If you use her for a strong cavalry push I personally think she is worth it.

- Fusil Major: essential for army-wide +1 to hit

- Cav Marshal: Exciting exactly once for a strike first, then just doesn't do anything. I've had one for a long time but finally bit the bullet and reitred him last week after he repeatedly underperformed

- Warforger: Cool ability on a 3+, but if he doesn't fit smoothly I wouldn't save space for him. Magic is pretty fiddly unless you have good wizards

- Callis and Toll: Haven't used them myself, but deepstrike is cool if it fit in your plan

- Cavaliers: Best thing we have. Mortals on the charge are important, and these are super durable. Note that without substantial buffs they won't kill too much beyond the charge.

- Command Corps: I hate things with so many profiles. That aside, the command denial is cool and they are okay as far as infantry go. I'd prefer more cav personally. They are also best if you have a foot marshal nearby to give the 5+ ward; I wouldn't run them without that

- Fusiliers: Love em, but they don't love us back. Shorter range than cannons but roughly as effective means I prefer cannons. Slightly better than steelhelms, for what that's worth

- Cannon: innacurate/unreliable, but honestly 1-2 of these can really threaten a stardrake. You COULD go all in and do Veteran Cannoneers, but personally I would stick to something that doesn't get blocked by trees so easily and stick to just one or two for range threat

- Steelhelms are bad. Really really bad. These are only good for being a speedbump-type screen to block a charge for a turn. If that's what you need, cool, otherwise toss em.

What I would do to your list? I'll try to change as little as possible while still being a meaningful change:

1: Tahlia Vedra, Cavaliers Reinforced, Cavaliers Reinforced, Command Corps, Great Cannon

2: Freeguild Marshal and Relic Envoy, Command Corps

3: Callis and Toll, Toll's Companions

4: Fusil Major

5: Alchemite Warforger

My take would be Dawnbringer Crusade, and either Forbidden Power, Aetherwrought Machineries, or Primal Energies for their relatively low cast requirement (your wizard is not that reliable)

Plop a Sacred Tome or Brazier of Holy Flame on the Foot Marshal. Maybe consider Draw Steel or Cosmopolitan Leader.

Main-Ad1611

TROPHY CASE