2500 Points - Cauldron/Witches + Shrine/Executioners

[Languste]

Hey guys,

me and some friends are about to start a little league-thing with rulebook rules and rolling for scenario... so there is no limitation list-wise but the randomness of ending up in a scenario you are not prepared for. I like the idea a lot, as we are no GT-players and rather like the fun and randomness of warhammer rather than trying to make warhammer chess with equal chances all of the time. None the less we agreed to play hard. My opponents play Dwarfs, Demons, VC, Ogres, Skaven and Empire.
Anyway, according to our selfmade-league-rules one is allowed to take a completely different list each game. Points limit is 2500pts. I decided to build a core list I can go from and change when I feel like one opponent is better treated with something else etc. I ended up with something that is quite a standard list I guess, with the exception that i field the Bloodwrack Shrine in addition to the Cauldron of Blood. But let me show you the list first and then explain the details.

2499 Points Dark Elves
Lords (315pts)
SupSoc – LVL4, Ring of Hotek, Dispel Scroll – Lore of Shadows (315pts)

Heroes (488 pts)
Death Hag – BSB, Cauldron of Blood (300pts)
Master – Pegasus, 1+ Armor, Lance, Cloak of Twilight (188pts)

Core (625pts)
5 Dark Riders – Crossbows, Shields, Musician (110pts)
5 Dark Riders – Crossbows, Shields, Musician (110pts)
30 Witches – FC, Razor Standard (405pts)

Special (646pts)
28 Executioners – FC (366pts)
Reaper Bolt Thrower (70pts)
Reaper Bolt Thrower (70pts)
Reaper Bolt Thrower (70pts)
Reaper Bolt Thrower (70pts)

Rare (425pts)
Bloodwrack Shrine (175pts)
5 Doomfire Warlocks (125pts)
5 Doomfire Warlocks (125pts)

Let's start with Lords: The mounted Lvl4 will pretty much stay the way she is, except for the lore. In most games I intend to go with Shadow, especially vs Ogres and Dwarfs. Dark Magic and Death are my two back up lores. Against VC i might even consider Life... but not completely sure yet. Against Dwarfs the Magic Items are changed in for the good old Talisman of Preservation.

Heroes are cool, should work against anybody. Of course the Witch Hag on the Cauldron is target number one for cannons, but the cannons are there and and they will shoot at something... at least they shoot at something with a 4++ ward. Would like to have more peg masters but yeah... the points are missing.

Core should be self-explanatory. Witches of course go with the cauldron.

Special + Rare.
Okay i got 4 RBTs. As many as I can have! They solve my problems with redirectors and may take some wounds from big thing like mournfangs, doomwheels and all that nasty stuff.
2x5 Warlocks... Warlocks. One unit goes straight ahead, causing trouble the other teams up with the sorceress and stays a little behind.

28 Executioners don't seem much but here comes the thing in this list: They join up with the Bloodwrack Shrine ;-) Okay maybe not so new after all, but I'm pretty excited about it as I have never tried the Shrine. But now It's painted up and somehow I like the rules and it's not too expensive. 175pts and you get the effects of the Standard of Discipline, the Wailing Banner and the Lichbone Pennant included! Plus Impact Hits. Plus all that weird stuff the Medusa does to low initiative armies. Especially those who are afraid of killing blow (super expensive dwarf infantry I'm looking at you). Additionally it allows me to run 28 Executioners in horde-formation as the Shrine takes the place of 15 normal guys which makes a unit of 43, and i would totally run a 43-man Executioner Unit in horde-formation. One other cool psychological effect is that none of my opponents knows what the Shrine actually does and may think it's as devastating as the cauldron and split their shooting.

I just wanted to share the list and get some ideas and inputs as I ended up with this list after a lot of trying around. I may have developed a blind spot as I'm so excited about testing it so maybe you want to show me the weaknesses of this concept (one clear weakness is that I'm not able to man the tower in the first turn in case we roll for that scenario). Or maybe you have tried the Cauldron and Shrine-combination already and can tell me how it works and how your opponents respond to that.

Anyways thank you for input!

[Thraundil]

I like the concept of the list. The two towers is tried and trusted by many on this forum. However, I do believe you may be handicapping yourself by investing points in "free cannon targets". Looking over your opponents' races, only the vampires wont be bringing cannons to the table. Or at least have the option to... Tbh if you agreed to play hard, I'd expect all of them to max out on available cannons. You of course have pit to maybe kill one per turn, but it is far from a guarantee, and meanwhile your shrine and cauldron are both very juicy targets. As is the CoT master, of course, but seeing as how he is your only flier, he might not be enough to deter your opponent from shooting your towers down.

My suggestion: skip the towers. Your opponents are not mobile, so getting to them should not be the issue. And only the empire is likely to field armour, so you must trust in mindrazor there. Use the freed up points from the towers to add some more flak (unit of harpies or two), and honestly just get more witches and executioners into those units. I think this will serve you a great deal better.

If you need math to be convinced: a single empire cannon has an almost 30% chance of causing wounds to the cauldron. This is upped to nearly 60% for the shrine. And we all know what happens when cannon players roll for d6 wounds... Its always the 5 or 6. Always.

[Languste]

Thank you Thraundil for your reply. Well of course you a right with the free cannon targets, but the way it is when you are fielding a cauldron. There is nothing as juicy as this for cannons. But I'm hoping my opponents mistake the shrine for just as dangerous and give some shots at that. plus potentially there could be a lot of cannons but must of these players rarely bring more than one as they are all really combat oriented. And let's be honest: with my flyer and all that light cav they barely have more than one or two rounds of shooting, and round 2 or 3 i'm engaged in combat anyway. Well i think i'll just give it a try and change the shrine for another peg or both the cauldron and the shrine for a peg and a unit of cold ones if it doesn't work out. I#ll post my experiences for those who are interested as I have a bunch of games vs different armies in front of me.