WHFB: Beginnings of a 'Ard Boyz List

Hey all.  I know it's 8 or 9 months away, but I have been brain storming 3,000 point lists lately.  This year at 'Ard Boyz I played a scaled up version of my 3 Blackguard list, and while it was good, I wouldn't call it broken.  And at 3,000 points you have to be broken.  I want a list that is capable of multiple nutty things, and capable of producing massacres, not just close wins.

So where does the nuttiness in 3k armies come in?  The ability to break the FOC and take 6 specials and 4 rares.  The obvious choice is 4 Hydra.  2 Hydra is tough to deal with, but manageable.  4 Hydra is really tough to deal with.  Not many shooty or magicky lists have the firepower to kill 4 Hydra early in the game before they do what they do.  So those are in.

Now how do you break the ability to take 6 Specials in 3k?  6 units of Blackguard make no sense, nor do we have the points even if it did.  None of the elite DE infantry units make sense to take.  But chariots do.  6 Cold One Chariots are nasty.  While they are slower than other races' chariots, they hit very hard.  They are scythed so they get an extra Str 5 Impact Hit.  The crew have spears and base strength 4, so they get 2 attacks at Str 5 with Hatred.  The cold ones get 2 attacks at Str 4.  That's a lot of damages.  Toughness 5 3+ save, multiple wounds.  Oh, and the crew has Repeater Crossbows, so they get 4 Str 3 AP shots a turn.  All in all, pretty good.  Drawback is, as I said before, they are an inch slower than most other chariots and they have stupidity.  I will be taking a BSB so Stupidity is negligible.  The slowness is fine because I don't expect to face many other chariot spam armies.  So six of those are in.

That's a lot of really fast, really hitty, really tough close combat stuff.  We need a BSB.  So a Master on a COC with defensive kit.  Characters on chariots with defensive kit are very survivable.  Hits are randomized like a monster.  They get +1 to their armor save.  If the chariot dies they continue on on foot.  Chariot #7.  Just for extra fightiness, add another master on chariot with a mundane kit.  Makes a nice 8 chariots and two fighty characters, plus the BSB bubble will save your fleet from Stupidity.  I'd say 8 Cold One Chariots and 4 Hydras count as 'ridiculous.'

Now what ridiculous tricks can we pull out for the magic phase?  This is a fast army so I want to inflict serious pain on the first turn.  A magic bunker with Sac Dagger doesn't make sense for this list.  The beaters will be charging on turn 2, so we need to be in range for our spells turn 1 ideally.  And I want that first turn magic phase to be ridiculous.  At 3k points a level 4 is obligatory.  Since no magic bunker, let's put her on a Dark Steed.  That allows her to move 9" and march 18".  That's fast enough to get where she needs to be to use Death spells turn one.  For magic items, I'm going Pendant and Focus Familiar.  She will undoubtedly draw a lot of fire, so the Pendant is a must.  The Focus Familiar will not only give her +6" to all her spells, but will allow her to hide behind any LOS blocking terrain and still cast with LOS which is huge for her safety.  Her main job will be to cast the -1 Str -1 Toughness spell on buff each turn.  This will make the Hydra and Chariots hit significantly harder, and also make them more survivable.  Plus any shots from my repeater crossbows will be more deadly.  It's just a really nasty spell, which we all know.  Her second job will be to snipe characters like Teclis or BSBs and the like.

I will also add a Level 1 mage with Tome of Furion and Power Scroll.  I know everyone on the internet claims that Power Scroll power Purple Sun is stupid and not effective and they can beat it so easily.  Sure.  Right.  I expect first turn to launch a Purple Sun, fill back up my pool with power dice and let the level 4 do her thing.  After that turn, she will at least have one other spell with the Tome, and hopefully still be alive.  If I was playing a defensive list, I probably wouldn't do this, but this is a hyper aggressive list and the potential to inflict massive first turn casualties needs to be taken.

So that leaves us with Core.  This is where I scratch my head.  I want three units of Dark Riders to flank crossbow shots into the side of units and maybe get to war machines.  That leaves like 375 points I need to fill in Core.  Warriors and Corsairs are out.  So it's crossbowmen.  They need standards, which I'm loathe to do, because I don't want to auto-lose that one scenario.  3 units of 10 is decent.  My only complaint is that they won't ever do anything.  By the time they are in range to shoot, the enemy should be dead from Hydras, magic, and chariots.  Their only role that makes sense is to make sure my chariots and Hydras don't get charged by enemy scouts or fast stuff on the flanks.  I'm not entirely happy with the Core selections, but I have 8 months to put thought into it.  So here is my list as of what I have been brain storming.

Supreme Sorceress

-Level 4

-Dark Steed

-Focus Familiar

-Pendent of Kaeleth

=350 points

Sorceress

-Tome of Furion

-Power Scroll

=150

Master

-Battle Standard Bearer

-Cold One Chariot

-Armor of Eternal Servatude

-Dragonbane Gem

-Shield

-Sea Dragon Cloak

-Halberd

=245

Master

-Cold One Chariot

-Heavy Armor

-Shield

-Sea Dragon Cloak

-Halberd

=184

Cold One Chariot

=100

Cold One Chariot

=100

Cold One Chariot

=100

Cold One Chariot

=100

Cold One Chariot

=100

Cold One Chariot

=100

War Hydra

=175

War Hydra

=175

War Hydra

=175

War Hydra

=175

Total: 2229

So that leaves 770 for Core.  I could put the minimum 750 into Core and it leaves me 21 points to play with.  Likely something killy to put on the mundane kit master, like a Crimson Death.  

I know this was really long, if you're still with me, what do you think?