AoS army list casual game, Lord Sangfroid v the Goretide

[Sangfroid]

So had to happen eventually and so Lord Sangfroid is saddling up his Blackdragon Redclaw and stepping forward into the breach opened by the stormcast and taking the fight to the heathen Goretide.

We have set a lose "comp" of 100 wounds (max 25 heroes) and here's my list.

Heroes (3 scroll, 25 wounds, circa 1100 Pt in "old money")
Dread-lord on a black dragon (Lord sangfroid)
Supreme Sorceress on a Pegasus (the Lady Feu) NB: a substitute scroll of Morathi
Assassin (Hanza the unseen)

Troops ( 10 scroll, 75 wounds, circa 1060 pts in "old money")
25 Black guard
10 corsairs with handbows
10 corsairs with handbows
5 dark riders
5 dark riders
5 warlocks

The units above are not that far removed my my usual armies. He is playing the Goretide so is going to be coming at me hard with little to no shooting and magic and so I've built a list I think will give me the following.

HERO PHASE
With two options to give a unit battleshock immunity and also a chance to reroll attacks is all I need, my main unit is the blackguard and for the most part will be the bulwark his tide will be breaking against. The advantage of the dragon lords CA is it gives reroll so as long as I'm in close range I'll use that other wise then generic inspiring presence will suffice.

The warlocks give me speed and a great killer spell in doombolt their role is to get up the board fast and target his characters (in particular the reality blade toting general whom I do not want getting anywhere near my characters)

The peg sorc, has a great damage spell in arnzipals black horror and can then also cast more damage with arcane bolt, or if my blackguard are engaged give them +1 save (3+ is not to shabby!)

MOVEMENT
The speed of the cavalry matches the flight of the characters well and the corsairs will flank the blackguard to provide shooting and flank charges as well as diverters if needed.

I am also thinking of hiding the assassin in the warlocks or sorceress so when they invariably get charged (by getting in range to cast efficiently) can pop him out and put some hurt down on the enemy before they get to strike.

SHOOTING
dark riders and corsairs provide good shooting and combat options and while the corsairs are short ranged that won't matter once I've got the unit speared on my black guards halberds making easy targets for them.

COMBAT
If you haven't seen one in action the dragonlord is fearsome in combat, but keeping it high on wound remaining is important so I need to use him as a counter charge or against smaller things I think I can kill or severely hamstring on the charge.

The blackguard will be in a tight square formation and will dish out a fair amount of attacks forward (31) while still in at least 3 ranks, hitting on 3s wounding on 3s & -1 rend is tasty and because of the mechanics of combat even if he does multi charge me he will attack with one unit then I get to hammer back against everything all in one go. I think a disciplined square formation with these guys is the key to success.

The dark riders and corsairs can shoot and fight okay so will use them as skirmishes and flankers and will try to keep locks and as SS as safe as possible fleeing if engaged and in danger.

So basic plan, kill characters from a far hopefully before the tide smashes into my lines, I like the synergy of the list.

only thing I'm really not sure about is the assassin, I'm not really too overwhelmed with the bsb in the warscrolls he doesn't seem vastly survivable and the murderous prowess buff isnt game changing (compared to other armies bubbles like the VC ward save )

I could drop for a unit of shades, another foot sorceress, a foot dread-lord or hellebron (but she would need to be general then)

Thoughts and comments welcome!

[Cailil]

Looks good to me, but as a player about to field a Dreadlord on a dragon I'd make use of the Exiled Warhost battalion rules/bonus. To do that you'd have to drop the corsairs for 2 units of RxBs, and 1 of Spears, and drop one of the D. Riders for CoKs. The 25 BG should complement this set-up quiet well. But that's just my 2c

Otherwise it looks good but I think you're compromising on shooting with D.Riders and Corsairs - I'd go for RxBs for the shooting and Spearmen for the combat.

Also maybe I'm stupid but aren't you using 6 warscrolls not 10 for the troops?

[Sangfroid]

No your not crazy it's just I am counting a warscroll as a number of models

So 25 blackguard = 5 warscrolls as 1 scroll = 5 blackguard.

It's just how we are trying to get some form of balance.

The battle host would be useful but I only have 29 spears and 14 shards (and none are painted) so need some more models for it. But like the synergy and unit choices of the battle host for sure!

As for shooting I need to see if my crutch of corsairs have survived the changes intact before I ditch them :-)

[Cailil]

BTW I was wrong about compromising with D.Riders for shooting - they're good. Let me know how you get on with those corsairs I have 40, 20 with 2 hand weapons and 20 left to assemble, so if the handbows are useful I'd be very interested

[Sangfroid]

I put my report up in the AoS. Section the corsairs were okay but I made a mistake with them which could have made them more effective (even though I set it up right DoH!)

Will still keep,using them though for now

[Icon hack]

Another option would have been to replace the Assassin and a unit of Corsairs with a Death Hag and unit of Witch Elves. Once 10 WE pile in, they get 31 attacks in the presence of a Death Hag.