I present to you my interview with Dan Saye, the man with more passion for beards than anyone I've ever met! Naturally, he's playing the beardiest army of them all; Dispossessed.
Allegiance: Dispossessed
Warden King (General, Grudgebearer)
Warden King
Runelord (Ancestral Pickaxe)
Celestant-Prime (Ally)
10 Longbeards (Great Axes and Shields)
10 Longbeards (Great Axes and Shields)
40 Warriors (Runic Icon, Double-handed Axes and Shields)
30 Ironbreakers
20 Irondrakes
Dan: So, what's in my list? I wasn't able to confirm that I was going the night before I had to send lists in, and I'd mucked around with a list. And then I was like, "This seems like an OK thing", because I'd been working on a Gutbuster army for Cancon next year, and then I was just gonna take the same list I took to MOAB. But I thought I'd change it up.
Gabe: Ok, let's kick this off. Was Dispossessed what got you to Masters?
D: I literally only played Dispossessed. I mean, I played them from Cancon until now, and took them to pretty much every event I went to.
G: You weren't ever tempted to go… I mean, I know you love beards. You weren't ever tempted to go Fyreslayers or Overlords?
D: I have a small Fyreslayers army and a gigantic Overlords army. But, but I dunno, I really like the Dispossessed. The other two are fun to play but I just love the Dispossessed.
G: So, it's a very "Dwarf" problem to somehow control the board in movement. Is that a big issue for you?
D: Yes. So, that's why "pre-GHB17", I always took Bugman and Rangers. Or Miners. Or both. Because having something that can pop up is really important. GHB17 was really good in a number of ways for Dwarves, especially the Ancestral Pickaxe, which is pretty much the best artefact ever. Being able to drop a Hero and a unit means that I don't have to take rangers or miners. I can take maybe a stronger unit, which usually ends up being the Irondrakes because it pops up and blasts something into oblivion. Or a big unit of Warriors. People usually expect the Irondrakes, so when a unit of forty dwarfs pops up on an objective, it's like, "Come and have a go!".
G: Do you think the introduction of things like the Pickaxe, offset the loss of all the compendium units that have dissolved into the void?
D: Yes. Umm, I used to play with Grudge Throwers and Bolt Throwers, because I thought they were awesome and I loved the models. So, I was disappointed to lose those into the compendium. But at the same time, as much as I disliked losing it, I was excited for everything that I gain. Kinda like, "Ah yeah, that sucks", but I came at it with the attitude that I was lucky to have used that stuff for as long as I did. I had a good run. GHB17 came out in time for MOAB, so I got to get in a good spin with the dwarfs. The only problem is I will always be out-dropped now, because Dispossessed used to have an amazing Warscroll Battalion that is now redundant.
G: The unit of Ironbreakers. Is there a reason…
D: They're cheaper. I used to run two units of ten and they were a pain for my opponents to shift. Then, I ran one unit of twenty, and they were awful for my opponents to shift. Then I ran a unit of thirty at MOAB, and no one killed it. They're brutal. They ignore rend -1, re-roll armour saves, passing battleshock on 1-3, and then the Runic Icon on their banner is just annoying for opponent's magic. At MOAB, I played against a Tzeentch list, and it was an awesome game. But across my game, I stopped five spells out of six, to the point where he just stopped casting at them, because there was no point. My little banner wavers were exhausted by the end of it, just screaming "No magic for you!". But yeah, that blob gets an 80 point discount for running full strength, where a lot are only giving 40 to 60 points off.
G: And twenty Irondrakes? You didn't want to go two units of ten?
D: No, only because if I choose to use them with the Pickaxe, I can take all twenty with me. As well as that, I think people expect the twenty Irondrakes to be tunnelling, and of the seven games I've played post-GHB17, they've only gone tunnelling three times. A lot of opponents set up in preparation for Irondrakes to be the pop-up element, and sometimes deploy very conservatively. So, when a close combat unit like the Warriors or Breakers pops up instead, it catches them on the back foot. Irondrakes pop up and kill something, but they inevitably die. I can sack that unit and maybe a few others with it, but if a unit of Ironbreakers pops up, they spend the rest of the game, just not going anywhere. In scenarios such as Duality of Death, it means I can pop up a hero on an objective surrounded by a shield wall of near-impenetrable armour.
G: So, at no point did you write up a list for one of the other Dwarf armies you own and consider dropping it in?
D: What other army is.. Well, no, I would have considered taking another bearded army, but Dispossessed got me there, so it's the Year of the Beard. And there's this big joke that I only play bearded armies.
G: Yeah, I know a lot of the guys I've interviewed so far are kind of taking the armies that got them to Masters, as a bit of a poetic end to the year, I guess. There's a couple that are mixing it up, but a lot are sticking to what they owe Masters to.
D: And I actually think that's how Masters should be. Take the list that got you there. That's my plan at least.
G: Good stuff. And how about your decision to ally in the Prime? Was that an easy decision?
D: Not at all. That Prime used to be thirty Quarrellers, which is sixty shots a turn. You can buff them up and kick out a horrific amount of damage. But I went with the Prime, because not only does he give me another movement option when dropping in, but it keeps my opponent guessing about when and where he's gonna enter the game. Say you've got that big unit of Breakers or Drakes popping up, you can bring the Prime in to support them, or split threats and drop on the other side of the board. I used to have a Knight Heraldor in the list, but I think the Prime offers a lot more flexibility and Mortal Wound output. I did have to rejig the list a lot to fit him in without losing too many bodies.
G: And leading into Masters, is there an Achilles Heel, that you don't want to face?
D: Realistically, my army struggles with armies that are fast. One of my big losses has been against Seraphon, and on Turn One, they had pinned me on my deployment line, and I couldn't move forward. So yeah, fast armies, only because they don't really need to pin me down for very long to stop me from having the turns to get where I need to be. The thing is, I have the Rend and the damage to break it, but if an army has speed and enough disposable units to block my movement, then I can't move fast enough to get onto objectives. That's kind of the reason the Prime is in there, just in case someone is able to beat off the unit of dwarfs. Then a big ol' Prime is dropping in on them. So, I'm converting a White-Dwarf-crewed Mech Warrior to be my Prime, because I refuse to field beardless models.
G: Is that going to be fully painted by Masters?
D: It'll have to be! I got three weeks. I was planning on using all eleven weeks leading into CanCon for my Gutbusters, but it wasn't to be. I'm very keen for CanCon as well! Masters will be fun. The one drawback for Masters for me is that its going to be the majority of people who have been playing the tournament circuit for the last year, so there's not really going to be any surprises. In the same way that I'm not going to be surprising anyone with Dwarfs. And like, Liam has played Sylvaneth the whole time, so he'll be playing Sylvaneth. Its very predictable. The Masters that I'm looking forward to is wrapping up the year, and having some fun with the boys. It's been a pretty crazy year for competitive gaming, and I'm kind of looking forward to getting through Masters, and then mucking around with silly, little Gutbuster lists.
G: Leading into Master's, do you have a personal goal?
D: I'd love to win three. I'm expecting to get two. I play a second tier army very well, because they're all I've played, but I keep needing to create surprises for people. When I play Sylvaneth once, and they watch me delete a Spirit of Durthu, they don't make that mistake again. Going up against the best players in the country, I think two, but I'd love three. But I also know that everyone there has either played me or seen me play, and as soon as people figure out the army, it's very easy to counter all of those little abilities. So, umm, so that'll be a trick. The other problem is that my army has a lot of tricks up its sleeve, but I usually need to use all of them to win.
G: So, you kind of have to scrape all those one percents.
D: Yeah, like, I never win games before turn five. I think I've won a single game before turn five. I don't win early, I win late. It's not like I use one or two of my tricks and it works, I have to use every trick I have and then cross my fingers and hope it's enough. I know it's like 50% Order, but I'd love to play something other than Order.
G: If you had five bucks on it, but who are you betting on to win?
D: If I had to put five bucks on it, I'd vote for me. If you don't have a good tip, go for good odds, and I'm like 100:1 to win this thing. But if I had to pick someone else; Dan Brewer has been a Bridesmaid, never a bride. I'd love to see him up there, because he's very good at what he plays. I think a lot of people will just take a net list, which is fair enough because it's obviously super-competitive, but I'd love to see an unconventional, unoptimised list thats played incredibly well. But then it all comes down to the draw as well. Players #1 and #2 could play each other in the first round and knock each other out of contention with a bad result, you know? It's hard to call, but ultimately I'll go me. Only because no one else is playing Dwarfs and for that reason, they're garbage. If you don't have a beard, you're naturally inferior to people who do have beards. People message me to tell me that half of their army have beards, and I'm like "That's like telling me that half of your army brought weapons to the battle. Good for you, haha." Then, as of next season, if you're not horribly overweight, you're not doing it right.
G: Pot bellies or go home.
D: Yeah, but my favourite thing about the scene, is seeing all of these left-field lists starting to emerge and do well. Ones you don't hear about on Podcasts and stuff, just cool home-brew lists that people have put tons of thought into constructing and playing. Seeing Liam's FEC, Dan's Skaven, there's so many people I'm not giving credit to. Ash making Gordrakk work in his Ironjaws army. I love to see non-standard, non-"competitive" lists do well. I don't mind who wins, I just want to see a non-standard, non-netlist one do well.
G: Cos I know that was part of my inspiration for doing Pestilens is that no one else was playing them. They had a Battletome and they had enough support at the time to at least die fighting, but they just weren't even on the radar. I was talking to Brewer a bit, and it sounds like he might be trying out Pestilens next year, but my goal next year, I was like "I want to be the best Pestilens Player in Australia." How hard, could that be, right? I'm like the only one playing them. I could come in at 80th next year and still probably nab Best in Allegiance. Then I get a message from Brewer, and he says "Hey man, I'm playing Pestilens next year." and I'm like "Dammit", haha.
D: See, I'm the top Dispossessed play, but I think I'm also the only Dispossessed player.
G: Exactly, it's fool-proof!
D: My goal next year will be to be the best Gutbusters player next year, but we'll see how that goes. I'm running lots of Maneaters! The models are amazing. Will you be at CanCon?
G: Not sure yet. I'm currently... negotiating terms. I would love to, but we'll see. I'm sure it'll sell out, because a lot of people haven't signed up yet. Did you have anything else you wanted to add?
D: BEARDS!!
G: Ha, I guess that wraps it up, then.
D: Grow a beard!
Showing posts with label Australian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Australian. Show all posts
Sunday, 3 December 2017
Saturday, 2 December 2017
#111: Masters Class 17 - Chris Tot (Slaves to Darkness) Interview
Today, I present my interview with Chris Tot, a very well-respected Seraphon player who has shifted his focus to Slaves to Darkness for Masters. Enjoy.
Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness
Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount (General, Lord of Terror, Mark of Tzeentch, Ilodatrous Plackart)
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (Chaos Steed, Banner of the Demagogue, Mark of Tzeentch)
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (Chaos Steed, Mark of Tzeentch)
20 Chaos Knights (Mark of Tzeentch, Glaives)
10 Chaos Marauder Horsemen (Mark of Tzeentch, Javelins)
10 Chaos Marauder Horsemen (Mark of Tzeentch, Javelins)
20 Chaos Marauders (Mark of Tzeentch, Axes & Shields)
10 Chaos Marauders (Mark of Tzeentch, Axes & Shields)
10 Chaos Marauders (Mark of Tzeentch, Axes & Shields)
Chaos Warshrine (Mark of Tzeentch)
Warscroll Battalion: Fatesworn Warband
Gabe: Ok, we'll just jump straight into it. Landing in third place on the overall rankings for the tournament season, is there one army that you can credit with you final position or did you jump between a few different armies?
Chris: Umm, so two of my ranked games were Seraphon, and one was with Slaves to Darkness, but all three were really different armies. Redland City GT was Slaves to Darkness; that was my most recent big tournament. One Seraphon event was using the Dread Saurian, which was a real game changer for my army. The other event, I was actually using a triple Carnosaur list.
G: Right, that's a bit different! Usually when you hear Seraphon, you think of all the wizards and big blocks of infantry. You don't see that many Carnosaurs in Brisbane. Certainly not three, but obviously it's performed well for you.
C: No, I think I'm one of the only people I know that runs Carnosaurs.
G: You rate them pretty highly, then?
C: I do but not for damage, which is a weird sentence to say, but do you know the rule "Blood Roar"?
G: Can't say I'm too familiar, no.
C: So, every time an unit within 8" of a Carnosaur takes a Battleshock test, I roll a dice, and if I beat you, you lose D3 models from the unit. So, I love fighting Ironjawz or Varanguard, or things of that sort, because my Skinks shoot, and my Carnosaur doesn't even have to be in combat to make them run away.
G: Oh gosh, that doesn't stack does it? If a unit is within 8" of all three Carnosaurs, do they all Roar?
C: Ha, no unfortunately. That was the first thing I checked when I first read the rule. I bought a Start Collecting Box and built it as a Carnosaur, and my first game was against Ironjaws. He killed one pig and the other two ran away, and I was like "Oh my gosh, this is amazing!".
G: Definitely. So, can I ask, was it a tough decision going into Masters whether you went with Seraphon or Slaves to Darkness?
C: I think it was. But what made the decision for me was transport. So, the only reason I'm not bringing Seraphon with me is because I did not want to risk a Dread Saurian on an aeroplane. Umm, eventually, I'm going to get around to pins and magnets and stuff so that I can take him apart and put him together, but thats a 'Future Chris" sort of problem. So, when it came down to practicality, it was pretty one sided, but in regards to what army I'd prefer to be playing with, it's definitely Seraphon.
G: You could say Slaves are a bit of a back up option in this case?
C: Yeah, I think so.
G: Alright, well, let's talk about your Slaves to Darkness list. Probably the biggest thing that jumps out is the massive unit of knights. Was there ever a question in your mind about sinking such a huge number of points into the one big unit?
C: Umm, yes and no. Initially, this list was a bit of a joke. I originally wrote the list with a big block of thirty knights in a 2500 point list, and was like "Oh, guys, how cool would it be if I ran this!" to my mates. I had Archaon on his horse back when that existed, two Chaos Lords on Daemonic Mounts, and a whole bunch of other stuff to buff them, but that list kind of died in the last Handbook. I played a list with twenty knights at RCGT, which was 2.5k, and I just really enjoyed playing with them. And it was really weird and fun to play with, because it has such a big table presence for a low model count army.
G: And it's quite an uncommon unit as well. I haven't seen Knights do really well in the times that I've seen them on the table. Usually, they're only units of five or ten, and if they can't smash off what they're fighting quickly, they just get bogged down in a battle of attrition. I'm fascinated to see a unit of twenty go at it with support, because it's a cool unit!
C: Yeah, I dunno, I don't particularly build lists to do a huge amount of damage. I've built this one to survive long enough to win on objectives. Do you know what the Fatesworn Warband does?
G: I'm vaguely familiar with it.
C: Yeah, so I have to bring nine Mortal Tzeentch units and a Mortal Tzeentch hero. So, that why I have the ten units in my army to make it a nice old "One Drop". So what it lets me do, is every weapon in the army becomes Rend -1. So, if it has no rend, it gets a point of rend on it. That's on horse attacks, marauder steed attacks, everything. It's a pretty handy thing to be in the army.
G: Does that benefit weapons that already have Rend?
C: No, so it only affects weapons with Rend -. The other thing it does is, every unit that comes in a multiple of nine, which is all of my Battleline with models dropping to make eighteen knights, nine marauders, so on, gets a 6+ Ward Save. Just, all the time. Every time I take a wound, I get a save. As long as I deploy a unit of nine or eighteen, I get that save for the whole battle. So, those two things, the big unit of knights and the formation, is what I built the whole list around, basically just to survive long enough to get me the win.
G: I noticed you've also got a Warshrine in there. Is that doubling down on those mortal wound saves?
C: Yeah, so when I built this list, all the Marauders were Warriors of Chaos. Three units of nine of them, because in the old handbook, everything was slightly more expensive for STD. And that was almost 2.5k. And the idea behind it was anything that could sit on an objective had at least two saves all the time. So, thats what I built the entire list around.
G: Do you feel like there's anything that you would have loved to have in this list that just wouldn't fit? A unit or hero that would have just made that combo pop to another level?
C: A War Mammoth. I would have loved to fit a Chaos War Mammoth in the list as well. If i took out all my Marauders and dropped the formation, I could have fit him in, but I couldn't get my hands on a model in time. Because a Mammoth and twenty knights would have been terrifying to run at people. Like, "pick which one you want to be annihilated by!". Because, one of them is going to reach you.
G: I was curious, is there a reason that you left out Sayl the Faithless, even outside of the Fatesworn?
C: No, so he's not Tzeentch, so he can't be part of the Fatesworn. And he doesn't actually speed the Knights up that much. I don't think I need him in this list at all, because of how I've built the list is to not be doing much in the first turn. My goal is for my opponent to go first, not do a lot, maybe move up toward the centre of the board. Then I'd like to line my knights up 3" away and charge as many units as I can with them. And they survive until turn three. In most scenarios, if I've held objectives until turn three, I've won the game anyway.
G: You talk about armies not doing much in turn one. Are you concerned about Alpha Strike armies? Lists that can get across the table in one turn and hit you?
C: No. Yes and no. I think I've got enough chaff that if I come up against another one drop army with a good alpha strike, I'll simply deploy really defensively. I don't particularly care if twenty seven marauders die, you know? But again, if I know that someone has a decent alpha strike army, I'll always take turn one, to get all my buffs off and get so spread out that most of the time, they can't really fit anywhere except their front face anyway.
G: Would you say there's a worst and best scenario for your army? Any scenarios where you go into it, knowing that it's going to be an uphill battle?
C: Ah, yep. Three Places of Power and Duality of Death. I've learnt the hard way that a Sorcerer Lord with five wounds and a 5+ save against nine Jezzails only goes one way. It was game two at RCGT against one of my best friends. Turn one, he put five shots into my Sorcerer Lord, four into the other. Killed both of them. Round two, nine shots into Lord on Daemonic mount. Killed him on the dot. And then he won the game in Three Places of Power 1-0, after I tabled him after that. Yeah so, those scenarios are a real struggle. The advantage is that my Warshrine is big enough to block line of sight, so not only is it hard to see him, but the shrine is also giving him another save! Startstrike is another really tough one for me, purely because twenty knights can't be everywhere at once. And if I get two objectives dropping on one side of the board and the third on the other, I just can't get to that third one, ever.
G: Is there a scenario in particular that suits your army perfectly? Where if it gets called out, you'll just be thinking, "Yes, this is my moment."?
C:Yeah, I'd love to go into Knife to the Heart, because I'm all Battleline. 18" away from each other with a 10" move, let's go!
G: Wow, that's interesting to hear! Usually, that's the scenario that make or break people's run at the podium, because armies either have the capability to get the major win or they don't. So, yeah, I'm surprised to hear that, but I guess it's a testament to the list and to Slaves at the moment!
C: Yeah, well, also I have thirty six Chaos Marauders that sit on one objective, all with at least a mortal wound save, across three units that sit on my home objective. Then thirty six horses running at you with all the heroes. Like, I'm gonna be hitting you quite hard. And because all Battleline deploys 18" away, all of my Battleline is gonna be hitting you straight away, and with a one drop army, theres nothing you can really do other than hope that your chaff survives long enough. So that's definitely my best ones. Probably the other one is Battle for the Pass. Because my knights take up the entire board.
G: Is there an answer in your list for something like a Star Drake or one of those "big bad" units?
C: Against a Stardrake, I think my only option if to win on objectives. I think that's the only way I beat a list like that. Because I can't reach. Like, I just can't do it. I just get picked apart and pinned down by the creatures. And if I try and fight it, I think I'll kill myself before I kill it. Yeah, and so what I found is the best option is to not attack at all. Just sit there, take the damage, accept it as what's happened and then retreat out of combat. And either that monster follows me, in which case my 680 points has become obsolete to a Stardrake's 500+ points, and I consider that, all things considered, a relatively even trade. Considering my knights can be fighting multiple things at once, whereas a Star Drake is just one model. And when my Knights have a board presence of 48" when I line them up, they have a far bigger impact on the board than a single model does.
G: Is there an Allegiance or a list that you really don't want to face? Say, you're at Master's and you can veto having to fight one list, what would it be? Would that be Stormcast?
C: It would actually be Tim Macdivitt's list, yeah. Because I've built this army to combat shooting armies; things like a double Kunnin' Rukk list, Kharadron Overlords, those sort of "I'll table you" types of armies, and I've built it to counter that. I've built it to deal with a Mortal-wound-heavy Tzeentch style list as well, because both of those tend to have either a lot of shots that don't do any rend, in which case my 3+, 3+, 5+, 6+, 6+ should handle it, or its mortal wounds wounds where I still get multiple saves. And something like twenty mortal wounds is not that significant to my army. Because, the Knights have 54 wounds with three saves against it.
G: Which is more than what a lot of people can say.
C: Yeah, so a Skryre pop up army, the double Gautfyre build; I theory crafted, and if 15 Stormfiends do all 6's for their warp fire projectors, I still have four knights alive. And then, considering averages for rolls and averages for all the saves, I'll theoretically lose 7 knights to that first onslaught. Yeah, then eleven Knights get to hammer back into units that are actually very squishy.
G: Yeah, because once you actually start punching on with Stormfiends, they can go down pretty hard against certain units.
C: Yep. What I was finding was that twenty Skinks will get into three storm fiends in combat, and actually come out on top. It feels like it shouldn't be happening, because they're skinks!
G: I'll ask, going into Masters, do you have a personal goal? Are you looking for the top spot, are you looking to win more than you lose, is there an ideal spot you'd like to finish?
C: Look, I think everyone attending would love to say that their ideal finish would be 1st place, that goes without saying. A realistic finish? I'd love to say top five. I'd be really happy with top five, considering the quality of players going. The other thing, probably, and it goes without saying is, to have five good games. Like, I know all the guys going up and almost all of them are just absolute legends, and I've played most of them before, and they've been fun games. So, I'd love to just relive those really fun memories. Yeah.
G: And if you can't pick yourself, who do you think will win Masters? If you had to put five bucks on it...
C: Five whole dollars! Haha, I can afford that. Ah, thats a really tough question. Look, there's definitely someone I'd like to see win, and that's Dan Brewer with his Skaven. He plays a non-Skryre, rare army, and I'd love to see an off-radar army like that win. Or, whoever comes in and just makes a clean sweep of the event. I'd love to see Clint playing for the win! I can just imagine Jesse's face. Those are the two people that I'd love to see win. In all seriousness, I'd vote Dan. But I think it would be hilarious to see Clint win.
G: Wouldn't that be a fairytale finish. Well, mate. That pretty much wraps up everything I had to ask you. I've got to say, it's definitely a list I wasn't expecting to see. It's been not a bizarre mix, but definitely a very eclectic mix of lists attending the event this year.
C: Yeah, I think looking at my list, obviously I can see very clearly what I've designed it to do, where often people look at it and see the opposite. They see twenty knights and think "Oh, that's a lot of damage". But I see twenty knights, and think "That'll last four turns". They're Bravery 11, when they have the Sorcerer Lord around. Both sorcerers are on horseback, so they pretty much stalk my unit of knights, because they have the same movement as them.
G: Here's the hardest question of all. Will you have everything painted by the event?
C: So, I've painted everything except my Marauders. And my Marauders… I'm so unmotivated to do them.
G: Are they the actual Marauder models or are you using acolytes?
C: No, they're the actual Marauder sculpts.
G: Oh, no!
C: Yeah, what I want to do eventually when I get them painted, is to use them as Acolytes just to annoy everyone.
G: Yes! Because you see it a lot done the other way round, where people use Acolytes as Marauders, because the models are just so far superior in quality. I remember when I first got into the hobby, and I thought the Marauder models were amazing, but they are reeeaaally starting to show their age! A whole unit of tanked-up, roided, He-Man-looking bros!
C: Yeah. I have the Marauders about 70% painted. I haven't done any proper highlighting on them yet. Haven't done any freehand on them either, which is something that I've done with a lot of my stuff. A lot of converting and free hand; I've gone to a lot of effort with this army. Like, my Chaos Warshrine was converted using the Great Beast of Gorgoroth, which is a Lord of the Rings model. And so, it's very different to what people are used to. I've gone all out to make the army look really nice. And so, in my mind, I would love the get all of the Marauders up to that standard as well. I mean, they're already at six or seven colours, and are table-top ready, but I would feel like I'm cheating myself if I did!
G: Well, mate. I hope that Master's is a great event, hope you do well, and can't wait to see the results!
C: Yeah, thank you heaps for this, mate.
G: Thank you for taking time out of your evening for me mate, I know it's a busy time of year, so I appreciate that. Appreciate you setting aside time and giving me half an hour of your life. But we'll wrap it up there, mate. Thanks again and have a good one.
C: Cheers, bye.
Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness
Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount (General, Lord of Terror, Mark of Tzeentch, Ilodatrous Plackart)
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (Chaos Steed, Banner of the Demagogue, Mark of Tzeentch)
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (Chaos Steed, Mark of Tzeentch)
20 Chaos Knights (Mark of Tzeentch, Glaives)
10 Chaos Marauder Horsemen (Mark of Tzeentch, Javelins)
10 Chaos Marauder Horsemen (Mark of Tzeentch, Javelins)
20 Chaos Marauders (Mark of Tzeentch, Axes & Shields)
10 Chaos Marauders (Mark of Tzeentch, Axes & Shields)
10 Chaos Marauders (Mark of Tzeentch, Axes & Shields)
Chaos Warshrine (Mark of Tzeentch)
Warscroll Battalion: Fatesworn Warband
Gabe: Ok, we'll just jump straight into it. Landing in third place on the overall rankings for the tournament season, is there one army that you can credit with you final position or did you jump between a few different armies?
Chris: Umm, so two of my ranked games were Seraphon, and one was with Slaves to Darkness, but all three were really different armies. Redland City GT was Slaves to Darkness; that was my most recent big tournament. One Seraphon event was using the Dread Saurian, which was a real game changer for my army. The other event, I was actually using a triple Carnosaur list.
G: Right, that's a bit different! Usually when you hear Seraphon, you think of all the wizards and big blocks of infantry. You don't see that many Carnosaurs in Brisbane. Certainly not three, but obviously it's performed well for you.
C: No, I think I'm one of the only people I know that runs Carnosaurs.
G: You rate them pretty highly, then?
C: I do but not for damage, which is a weird sentence to say, but do you know the rule "Blood Roar"?
G: Can't say I'm too familiar, no.
C: So, every time an unit within 8" of a Carnosaur takes a Battleshock test, I roll a dice, and if I beat you, you lose D3 models from the unit. So, I love fighting Ironjawz or Varanguard, or things of that sort, because my Skinks shoot, and my Carnosaur doesn't even have to be in combat to make them run away.
G: Oh gosh, that doesn't stack does it? If a unit is within 8" of all three Carnosaurs, do they all Roar?
C: Ha, no unfortunately. That was the first thing I checked when I first read the rule. I bought a Start Collecting Box and built it as a Carnosaur, and my first game was against Ironjaws. He killed one pig and the other two ran away, and I was like "Oh my gosh, this is amazing!".
G: Definitely. So, can I ask, was it a tough decision going into Masters whether you went with Seraphon or Slaves to Darkness?
C: I think it was. But what made the decision for me was transport. So, the only reason I'm not bringing Seraphon with me is because I did not want to risk a Dread Saurian on an aeroplane. Umm, eventually, I'm going to get around to pins and magnets and stuff so that I can take him apart and put him together, but thats a 'Future Chris" sort of problem. So, when it came down to practicality, it was pretty one sided, but in regards to what army I'd prefer to be playing with, it's definitely Seraphon.
G: You could say Slaves are a bit of a back up option in this case?
C: Yeah, I think so.
G: Alright, well, let's talk about your Slaves to Darkness list. Probably the biggest thing that jumps out is the massive unit of knights. Was there ever a question in your mind about sinking such a huge number of points into the one big unit?
C: Umm, yes and no. Initially, this list was a bit of a joke. I originally wrote the list with a big block of thirty knights in a 2500 point list, and was like "Oh, guys, how cool would it be if I ran this!" to my mates. I had Archaon on his horse back when that existed, two Chaos Lords on Daemonic Mounts, and a whole bunch of other stuff to buff them, but that list kind of died in the last Handbook. I played a list with twenty knights at RCGT, which was 2.5k, and I just really enjoyed playing with them. And it was really weird and fun to play with, because it has such a big table presence for a low model count army.
G: And it's quite an uncommon unit as well. I haven't seen Knights do really well in the times that I've seen them on the table. Usually, they're only units of five or ten, and if they can't smash off what they're fighting quickly, they just get bogged down in a battle of attrition. I'm fascinated to see a unit of twenty go at it with support, because it's a cool unit!
C: Yeah, I dunno, I don't particularly build lists to do a huge amount of damage. I've built this one to survive long enough to win on objectives. Do you know what the Fatesworn Warband does?
G: I'm vaguely familiar with it.
C: Yeah, so I have to bring nine Mortal Tzeentch units and a Mortal Tzeentch hero. So, that why I have the ten units in my army to make it a nice old "One Drop". So what it lets me do, is every weapon in the army becomes Rend -1. So, if it has no rend, it gets a point of rend on it. That's on horse attacks, marauder steed attacks, everything. It's a pretty handy thing to be in the army.
G: Does that benefit weapons that already have Rend?
C: No, so it only affects weapons with Rend -. The other thing it does is, every unit that comes in a multiple of nine, which is all of my Battleline with models dropping to make eighteen knights, nine marauders, so on, gets a 6+ Ward Save. Just, all the time. Every time I take a wound, I get a save. As long as I deploy a unit of nine or eighteen, I get that save for the whole battle. So, those two things, the big unit of knights and the formation, is what I built the whole list around, basically just to survive long enough to get me the win.
G: I noticed you've also got a Warshrine in there. Is that doubling down on those mortal wound saves?
C: Yeah, so when I built this list, all the Marauders were Warriors of Chaos. Three units of nine of them, because in the old handbook, everything was slightly more expensive for STD. And that was almost 2.5k. And the idea behind it was anything that could sit on an objective had at least two saves all the time. So, thats what I built the entire list around.
G: Do you feel like there's anything that you would have loved to have in this list that just wouldn't fit? A unit or hero that would have just made that combo pop to another level?
C: A War Mammoth. I would have loved to fit a Chaos War Mammoth in the list as well. If i took out all my Marauders and dropped the formation, I could have fit him in, but I couldn't get my hands on a model in time. Because a Mammoth and twenty knights would have been terrifying to run at people. Like, "pick which one you want to be annihilated by!". Because, one of them is going to reach you.
G: I was curious, is there a reason that you left out Sayl the Faithless, even outside of the Fatesworn?
C: No, so he's not Tzeentch, so he can't be part of the Fatesworn. And he doesn't actually speed the Knights up that much. I don't think I need him in this list at all, because of how I've built the list is to not be doing much in the first turn. My goal is for my opponent to go first, not do a lot, maybe move up toward the centre of the board. Then I'd like to line my knights up 3" away and charge as many units as I can with them. And they survive until turn three. In most scenarios, if I've held objectives until turn three, I've won the game anyway.
G: You talk about armies not doing much in turn one. Are you concerned about Alpha Strike armies? Lists that can get across the table in one turn and hit you?
C: No. Yes and no. I think I've got enough chaff that if I come up against another one drop army with a good alpha strike, I'll simply deploy really defensively. I don't particularly care if twenty seven marauders die, you know? But again, if I know that someone has a decent alpha strike army, I'll always take turn one, to get all my buffs off and get so spread out that most of the time, they can't really fit anywhere except their front face anyway.
G: Would you say there's a worst and best scenario for your army? Any scenarios where you go into it, knowing that it's going to be an uphill battle?
C: Ah, yep. Three Places of Power and Duality of Death. I've learnt the hard way that a Sorcerer Lord with five wounds and a 5+ save against nine Jezzails only goes one way. It was game two at RCGT against one of my best friends. Turn one, he put five shots into my Sorcerer Lord, four into the other. Killed both of them. Round two, nine shots into Lord on Daemonic mount. Killed him on the dot. And then he won the game in Three Places of Power 1-0, after I tabled him after that. Yeah so, those scenarios are a real struggle. The advantage is that my Warshrine is big enough to block line of sight, so not only is it hard to see him, but the shrine is also giving him another save! Startstrike is another really tough one for me, purely because twenty knights can't be everywhere at once. And if I get two objectives dropping on one side of the board and the third on the other, I just can't get to that third one, ever.
G: Is there a scenario in particular that suits your army perfectly? Where if it gets called out, you'll just be thinking, "Yes, this is my moment."?
C:Yeah, I'd love to go into Knife to the Heart, because I'm all Battleline. 18" away from each other with a 10" move, let's go!
G: Wow, that's interesting to hear! Usually, that's the scenario that make or break people's run at the podium, because armies either have the capability to get the major win or they don't. So, yeah, I'm surprised to hear that, but I guess it's a testament to the list and to Slaves at the moment!
C: Yeah, well, also I have thirty six Chaos Marauders that sit on one objective, all with at least a mortal wound save, across three units that sit on my home objective. Then thirty six horses running at you with all the heroes. Like, I'm gonna be hitting you quite hard. And because all Battleline deploys 18" away, all of my Battleline is gonna be hitting you straight away, and with a one drop army, theres nothing you can really do other than hope that your chaff survives long enough. So that's definitely my best ones. Probably the other one is Battle for the Pass. Because my knights take up the entire board.
G: Is there an answer in your list for something like a Star Drake or one of those "big bad" units?
C: Against a Stardrake, I think my only option if to win on objectives. I think that's the only way I beat a list like that. Because I can't reach. Like, I just can't do it. I just get picked apart and pinned down by the creatures. And if I try and fight it, I think I'll kill myself before I kill it. Yeah, and so what I found is the best option is to not attack at all. Just sit there, take the damage, accept it as what's happened and then retreat out of combat. And either that monster follows me, in which case my 680 points has become obsolete to a Stardrake's 500+ points, and I consider that, all things considered, a relatively even trade. Considering my knights can be fighting multiple things at once, whereas a Star Drake is just one model. And when my Knights have a board presence of 48" when I line them up, they have a far bigger impact on the board than a single model does.
G: Is there an Allegiance or a list that you really don't want to face? Say, you're at Master's and you can veto having to fight one list, what would it be? Would that be Stormcast?
C: It would actually be Tim Macdivitt's list, yeah. Because I've built this army to combat shooting armies; things like a double Kunnin' Rukk list, Kharadron Overlords, those sort of "I'll table you" types of armies, and I've built it to counter that. I've built it to deal with a Mortal-wound-heavy Tzeentch style list as well, because both of those tend to have either a lot of shots that don't do any rend, in which case my 3+, 3+, 5+, 6+, 6+ should handle it, or its mortal wounds wounds where I still get multiple saves. And something like twenty mortal wounds is not that significant to my army. Because, the Knights have 54 wounds with three saves against it.
G: Which is more than what a lot of people can say.
C: Yeah, so a Skryre pop up army, the double Gautfyre build; I theory crafted, and if 15 Stormfiends do all 6's for their warp fire projectors, I still have four knights alive. And then, considering averages for rolls and averages for all the saves, I'll theoretically lose 7 knights to that first onslaught. Yeah, then eleven Knights get to hammer back into units that are actually very squishy.
G: Yeah, because once you actually start punching on with Stormfiends, they can go down pretty hard against certain units.
C: Yep. What I was finding was that twenty Skinks will get into three storm fiends in combat, and actually come out on top. It feels like it shouldn't be happening, because they're skinks!
G: I'll ask, going into Masters, do you have a personal goal? Are you looking for the top spot, are you looking to win more than you lose, is there an ideal spot you'd like to finish?
C: Look, I think everyone attending would love to say that their ideal finish would be 1st place, that goes without saying. A realistic finish? I'd love to say top five. I'd be really happy with top five, considering the quality of players going. The other thing, probably, and it goes without saying is, to have five good games. Like, I know all the guys going up and almost all of them are just absolute legends, and I've played most of them before, and they've been fun games. So, I'd love to just relive those really fun memories. Yeah.
G: And if you can't pick yourself, who do you think will win Masters? If you had to put five bucks on it...
C: Five whole dollars! Haha, I can afford that. Ah, thats a really tough question. Look, there's definitely someone I'd like to see win, and that's Dan Brewer with his Skaven. He plays a non-Skryre, rare army, and I'd love to see an off-radar army like that win. Or, whoever comes in and just makes a clean sweep of the event. I'd love to see Clint playing for the win! I can just imagine Jesse's face. Those are the two people that I'd love to see win. In all seriousness, I'd vote Dan. But I think it would be hilarious to see Clint win.
G: Wouldn't that be a fairytale finish. Well, mate. That pretty much wraps up everything I had to ask you. I've got to say, it's definitely a list I wasn't expecting to see. It's been not a bizarre mix, but definitely a very eclectic mix of lists attending the event this year.
C: Yeah, I think looking at my list, obviously I can see very clearly what I've designed it to do, where often people look at it and see the opposite. They see twenty knights and think "Oh, that's a lot of damage". But I see twenty knights, and think "That'll last four turns". They're Bravery 11, when they have the Sorcerer Lord around. Both sorcerers are on horseback, so they pretty much stalk my unit of knights, because they have the same movement as them.
G: Here's the hardest question of all. Will you have everything painted by the event?
C: So, I've painted everything except my Marauders. And my Marauders… I'm so unmotivated to do them.
G: Are they the actual Marauder models or are you using acolytes?
C: No, they're the actual Marauder sculpts.
G: Oh, no!
C: Yeah, what I want to do eventually when I get them painted, is to use them as Acolytes just to annoy everyone.
G: Yes! Because you see it a lot done the other way round, where people use Acolytes as Marauders, because the models are just so far superior in quality. I remember when I first got into the hobby, and I thought the Marauder models were amazing, but they are reeeaaally starting to show their age! A whole unit of tanked-up, roided, He-Man-looking bros!
C: Yeah. I have the Marauders about 70% painted. I haven't done any proper highlighting on them yet. Haven't done any freehand on them either, which is something that I've done with a lot of my stuff. A lot of converting and free hand; I've gone to a lot of effort with this army. Like, my Chaos Warshrine was converted using the Great Beast of Gorgoroth, which is a Lord of the Rings model. And so, it's very different to what people are used to. I've gone all out to make the army look really nice. And so, in my mind, I would love the get all of the Marauders up to that standard as well. I mean, they're already at six or seven colours, and are table-top ready, but I would feel like I'm cheating myself if I did!
G: Well, mate. I hope that Master's is a great event, hope you do well, and can't wait to see the results!
C: Yeah, thank you heaps for this, mate.
G: Thank you for taking time out of your evening for me mate, I know it's a busy time of year, so I appreciate that. Appreciate you setting aside time and giving me half an hour of your life. But we'll wrap it up there, mate. Thanks again and have a good one.
C: Cheers, bye.
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