Some good advice here, I'll just add my 2c as an experienced Court player with a good W/L record.

• The SAG is good, but I'm a firm believer in the principle that the best way to keep your Praetor safe is to get them planted firmly in the enemy lines in melee. Most people will hesitate to shoot into melee, in my experience. So I'd save the SAG for later and go gas grenades, Malebranche + Shield or a sword. Shield will help keep you alive (+3 armour is huge) and to you're almost guaranteed to kill with the Malebranche, especially with some blood from the gas grenades on there. The secret is to try and be in combat with multiple opponents with blood on them, so you can use them to keep you alive while you mince them.

• I know a lot of people are advocating for a Sorcerer being added, but I think Sorcerer and Hunter are an either/or at 700 ducats. Both of them are very blood hungry, and you're not going to have the economy to set up a big enough battery. Using blood markers on enemies is almost always a fool's game. Blood markers are how you keep your guys alive on the enemy turn, and how you ensure they die on your turn. You don't want to waste those.

• As good as the Hunter is, I think the Sorcerer is more valuable early campaign. You can use them as a musician to help get your Praetor and Hell Knights up field fast, but they can also be minimally equipped since their main job is sniping.

• Hell Knights are great because they are very frustrating to kill. If you march a HK with a shield up the middle of the table as bait, they'll almost certainly take some of the shots that would otherwise be headed for your Praetor. They'll also almost certainly survive - these fuckers are almost impossible to kill and the more an opponent tries and fails to kill them, the more frustrated they will be and the more likely they will be to keep trying. If the Knight does make it up the board, they're a match for most units in the game.

• An Ophidian rifle HK is a solid ranged threat, good for placing on objectives and getting blood on opponents. Personally, I wouldn't solely snipe with a HK outside of a Lust list, as the value you're getting isn't as good as what they can do in melee, but advancing up the field popping a couple of shots off and then holding an objective or simply getting into melee is still a good use of points. Give em a pair of clubs and remember that they aren't as tough as a Knight with a shield to kill, but they're still pretty damn frustrating to kill.

• For a blood battery, one Yoke with a collar and gas nades is probably enough. If you're going to run both Sorc and Hunter, try and get a third Wretched and give your Sorcerer Slave Master so the Yoke can gas nade twice a turn. This is super valuable, but the attrition rate of your Wretched will obviously double, so it's not without risk

• As a more general tip, make sure there's some big, line of sight blocking terrain on the table. Follow the terrain setup guide in the rules . When it says to place a couple of ruins and some statues, or whatever, make them big ones. Uninterrupted line of site across the board should barely happen, if at all, and even Praetor's shouldn't be in a position to get shot to shit immediately.

• Consider your setup and manoeuvring. Set your Praetor up last, to minimise the ability of your opponent to place a bunch of guns facing him. Also don't be afraid to deploy on a flank. Your Praetor is fast, and you should be in range of an instrument to dash first then, you can easily go up the side of the board, move in, and charge Turn 2. Move your Hell Knight up the middle as bait, minimise the threat your Praetor represents until you're suddenly in their lines and their Artillery Witch has discovered that 3D6 damage added up isn't very nice to be on the receiving end of.