Devout w/o Soul Flayer

[deurbroucq]

Hello!

Can anyone please suggest a good army without the Soul Flayer?  I do well with one (or two in large games).  However, I can't seem to get it going without him.  I don't swarm as well as the Elves, and casting spells with my Warped Lord or Necromancer is way too unrealiable.  The Firstborn cut me up ... bad.

Any help would be appreciated.  I'd like to try out something different. 

deurbroucq

[joshuaslater]

Do you have the Forgotten?   With those Vorpal blades, and maybe a Dark One's Fury spell, it may give you some punch as a unit.

[Southpaw]

Risen...lots and lots of Risen...

The Cursed are without a doubt one of my favorite Devout units. Being Undead, they are immune to Morale, and Panic. Add the Unholy Champion to the army, with the Avatar of War Standard, and they're just plain nasty. A Warped Lord with Dark One's Fury is also wicked, and makes their Battle Axes that much meaner.

Any of the other big fuglies of the Devout are also great centerpieces for an army, besides the Soul Flayer. An Abyss Crawler is slightly fewer points, and with 6 Wounds, Tunnel, and Trample, his large base can trample entire Warbands at a time, with space left over....yum yum....

[joshuaslater]

Sometimes the biggest models don't deliver the bang for your point cost.  Southpaw's got it with his recommendations.  That Abyss Crawler can tunnel and avoid gettin' shot with arrows before even engaging.  I've found playing Dwarves that having the big totem out there sometimes isn't worth it for that, and for the idea that large models can get charged by LOTS of smaller models.  Go with more units or try the crawler.  You'll soon be harvesting plenty'o'souls for the Dark Lord.  Cheers.

[Alxbates]

I'm a big fan of the Tormented, myself.  One average round of combat with one will kill three or four models against most troop units - I don't think I've ever NOT gotten my points worth for one, and two working in concert can be devastating. 

I also like lots and lots of small units - if you have more activations than your opponent, you can outmaneuver him.  I use one great big unit of Greatswords, backed up ty two four-man units of Cursed and then all the risen I can afford.  Put a Necromancer in the back and a Tormented or two on the far edge of one of your deployment zones and your opponent will have some serious concerns.

The one and only time I've ever used two Soulflayers in the same game, they BOTH got shot out of the air by Vulture clan xbowmen.

-Alex

[dagorauk]

For individuals, I highly reccommend the Dusk Realm Demon. That Cursed Blade can devestate many multi-wound models.
I've had fair success with the Dark Eyes. They are pretty costly, but great slicers and dicers. I prefer to field ordinary Swordsmen, back them up with a few Cursed.

[T Prime]

In my Devout Force (under 100 points), I make sure to take Swordsmen, Great Swordsmen, Cursed, and Dark Eyes. The nice aspect most people forget about the Cursed is that they are undead and as such are immune to missile fire. Dark Eyes are multi-wound toughs well worth their points. A flight of Demon Wings is also a great boon.

Only at  1000 points do I think about a spell-caster and then I customize based on which one. The basic force I use has no big guys except for a Dusk Realm Demon.

[Anomander_Rake]

...The nice aspect most people forget about the Cursed is that they are undead and as such are immune to missile fire.....

Wow! Perhaps I have it wrong, but why should the Cursed be immune to missile fire? The Risen Warriors and archers ok, it is stated in their stats / special rules. But the Cursed and the Necormancer for example have not this special ability. I don't have my rulebook at hand, but I believe that in the declaration of model types undeads are described as immune to fear and panic...please correct me if I'm wrong...but with all undeads automatically immune to missile fire there will be no need to spend points on archers or slingers in my future games against the devout.

One player of my group fielded, the last time we played, an all risen army and I had 40% of archers with me...great!

just my two cents...

greets,

Anomander Rake

[T Prime]

This should be added to Undead in general and to the SA line of the Cursed. As for taking Risen, that is a matter of choice.

[dagorauk]

It only makes sense that Cursed aren't subject to Wounds from missle fire. The Unliving from the SoK have flesh on them (like the Cursed) and they're immune to all missle fire, while Risen I believe are only immune to hand-held. (Yeah, only a couple non hand-held, but regardles...) I shoud probably double check my book on this, but I'll just do it later.

And I find it amusing that so many Devout players pass over the Infernal troops. Some of the Infernals are really badass, besides the beasts.

[Nikodemus]

The nice aspect most people forget about the Cursed is that they are undead and as such are immune to missile fire.

Could this be added to the FAQ please?

This changes a lot in my army constroction... 

[Anubis31]

Added to FAQ. Enjoy

[Morfdoggs]

With any good Devout army with any undead troop an Avatar is very helpfull. Giving the cursed an extra action that ius lethal. Like Dag said the infrenal are awesome, Like the Damned he makes for a Baddass Lt, as well as the stalker or Nameless. The forgotten are superb unit. I only take risen when I can take alot of them other than that without an avatar they are jsut to slow to try and move an army up behind them.

[Mark Theurer]

I know this isn't what you're looking for, but I never let my Devout hit the table without the big lovable S&M queen known as the Soul Flayer.   

Mark

[Firstborn]

I know this isn't what you're looking for, but I never let my Devout hit the table without the big lovable S&M queen known as the Soul Flayer.   

Mark

I second this Mark. She is two devastating and powerfull not to take.