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.
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