Hello dear readers, and welcome to another segment of our Army List Spotlight! Every other Sunday we’ll highlight a tournament list that caught our eye and get some expert – or at least relatively informed! – commentary from three Dash28 writers.
Check out the first three articles in this series:
- Bryan Tucker’s Gargoyles, Forces of the Abyss
- Jon Quayle’s Speed Freaks, Basilea
- Tom King’s The Mines of Mantic, Goblins
We’ve got a fun and timely list this week – the world’s first tournament list for the new Twilight Kin! This list is from Mantic’s Kyle Przelenski’s recent foray up to Michigan GT. We’ve all been armchair-general list-building TK lists on the Mantic Companion since release, so we couldn’t resist the opportunity to discuss Kyle’s list!
Kyle’s list was a little restricted in that he fielded what he was able to get his hands on early from Mantic, and he wanted to show off as much of the new range as possible. By his own admission, it’s hardly refined, BUT he said every game was a coin-toss thriller to the end.
Mike’s Thoughts
What Stands Out about This List?
So new, so shiny, so intriguing! My gaming group has yet to put the Twilight Kin on the table, so a lot of my comments will be conjecture. That being said, Kyle has gone for a nice balanced list that highlight some of the new nifty toys that the TKin get to play with. Is this the best (or most abusive) TKin list that could be made? Nope! Does it have some cool tools around a solid line? Yep. Would I play this list? Damn right.
What are the Core Units?
Kyle has built his army around a solid core with a horde of Corsair Voidwalkers, with all the trimmings, two hordes of Impalers, a regiment of Voidtouched Mutants, and two Mindscreeches for some range threat. The ability to take multiple upgrades on some of the TKin units is fantastic and will lead to some new builds with different synergies.
Speaking of synergy, Kyle has opted to take two individuals in his list, the Summoner Crone with Bane Chant, Weakness, and the Amulet of the Fireheart, letting him cast both in the same turn, and the Navigator for some “choose your own adventure” aura action. Importantly, he’s taken a mix of units that will allow the Navigator to have various targets from turn to turn to get the most versatility out of the piece.
He’s got a Bound Terror for a nice centerpiece model and some speedy and berserker-like troops to put the pressure on. And lastly he’s got Mikayel with his Sword of Umbra, who is totally not Elric and Stormbringer (if you know, you know). That dude is the aptly named Lord of Nightmares because of the havoc he can wreck on the table. He hits hard and has some great staying power.
Army Strengths
Balance is the key here. Kyle has gone with a solid line with Speed 5 and 6 supported by pieces that move with Speed 8 and 10. Now you may think this isn’t a big deal, but my clubmates made the observation that you could very easily end up building a list with half the army moving quickly (Void Skiffs and such), leaving your Speed 5 Impalers behind. I think Impalers are going to be in everyone’s TKin list. They’re solid, defensive, and strong.
The list has a nice array of tools that can play most scenarios very well. Kyle has even given different spell packages (Singing Aberration and Phantom Aberration) to each of his Mindscreeches to widen his options on the table. Nicely done.
Army Weaknesses
Is Lightning Bolt 6 enough long-range shooting these days? Probably not? Is 21 Unit Strength enough in some matchups? Probably not? Are the troops sticky enough to not just get shot off in one turn by one or two shooting units? Probably not? Will Mikayel murder a bunch of stuff anyway? Probably so…
What Would You Change?
In my previous army list reviews, I’ve always looked to take someone’s fine-tuned list and make some substitutions that would make it easier for a newbie to play. Add more Phoenixes, Unit Strength, or redundancy so the pieces stay on the table longer. In this case I would make a few changes to make the list stickier, but also more efficient, while keeping the ethos of what Kyle was trying to do with a balanced approach.
I would drop the Bound Reapers as they’re too squishy to keep alive without a lot of babysitting, and drop the Voidtouched Mutants. That last suggestion is a personal preference because I don’t like units with the wide waver nerve range. Kyle took the Dwarven Ale to compensate, but still, a third of the time it fails, every time. So I would drop those two units and pick up two regiments of Void Skiffs with the shooting upgrade. This would give some needed mid-range shooting and some more board control. Besides that, I’m super excited about the new TKin list. It shows a shift in design philosophy for Mantic that I hope the RC continues to pursue with future army releases.
Chris’ Thoughts
What Stands Out about This List?
I know Kyle was deliberately trying out different units to showcase the variety, but how cool is it that this list has 13 units, and they’re nearly all different? (The Planar Apparition – Mindscreech merger is new enough still in my mind to be two separate units!) I tend to build lists in pairs of units, so it’s uncommon for me to see such variety.
That said, they work together! As Mike says above, it’d be easy to leave the Impalers behind, but this list has a range of speeds to support itself with keeping the Impalers a key part of the line, and the variety of unit keywords maximizes the Navigator’s utility.
What are the Core Units?
The Impalers and Corsair Voidwalkers feel like the backbone of this army. They take up a considerable amount of real estate and are tough enough to make it into position, with numerous smaller troops and characters supporting flanks, daring you to charge first.
The key support elements of the Crone, Navigator, and Planar Apparition Mindscreech are perfect for this line. There’s Bane Chant, Weakness, Inspiring, Radiance of Life, choose-your-own auras, AND Heal 7, all available to support these tough fighty hordes.
The Voidwalkers are a really interesting unit; at first they look relatively squishy at 21/23 Nerve and Defense 4, but then you remember Blood Hex for a one-turn Defense 5, Ensnare, Radiance + Heal from the Apparition, and Weakness from the Crone! Imagine that marching 12″ up in front of your lines, flanks secured by terrain, popping Blood Hex and casting Weakness. Eww.
Army Strengths
This army has a tough backbone as mentioned above, and it’ll catch opponents out when they see the base stats of minimal Crushing Strength and weaker Defense. It’ll be tough to take out a horde of Big Shield Impalers or the Ensnare Corsairs, with Weakness support, in one go, and then those units hit back respectably — with multiple Bane Chant support, and auras — while there are a number of fast, nimble troops and characters who are likely eyeing up flanks. I bet this army plays scenarios well with aggressive moves early on.
Army Weaknesses
The army is relatively slow — the Corsairs are the typical Elf Speed 6, but the Impalers are only Speed 5 (with Wild Charge, but still outreached by cavalry). There’s also not much shooting to encourage an opponent to close with you quickly. A fast army with enough shooting to pick off things like the Reapers, Phantoms or Soulbane could take its time outmaneuvering the key hordes, aiming for a late-game all-in charge on its own terms.
What Would You Change?
Skiffs! I’d add Skiffs.
That’s primarily as I love the idea of them. The only evil army I’ve ever played as my own was Dark Eldar in Warhammer 40k. That was a couple decades ago now, but I really enjoyed fielding a force of sinister boats swooping out of the skies, and seeing the new Twilight Kin Skiffs is rekindling that!
It feels like two regiments of shooting Skiffs would be a nice addition to this list, as they could provide some Piercing shooting to encourage opponents to close while threatening charges at a bit more range than the current main hitters.
I also really like the Skiff Navigator. It’s faster and has a bigger footprint than the foot Navigator, which is beneficial for its Auras, but I also like its 4 18″ Piercing 1 shots over the foot Navigator’s Icy Breath. At 110 points, if you have the unlocks for more characters, I think it’s a more intriguing thicc chaff / support piece than Phantom troops, as it’s contributing in multiple ways each turn, and from turn 1.
Alex’s Thoughts
What Stands Out about This List?
It’s new! Obviously being brand new with a ton of options it was particularly interesting to me to see what direction Kyle would go with his list and it seems he has ended up with a very respectable mixed-arms list.
It’s a little light on the shooting, especially compared to the full potential of Lightning Bolts that Twilight Kin can really bring to the table, but it seems to have a lot of different units to compensate.
What are the Core Units?
To me the core of the army are the Impalers. They form a very imposing battle line with Defense 6, and assuming the Navigator doesn’t wander off too much, they will have a combination of defense and offense that forces an answer from the opponent. The Voidwalkers play a similar role in the list but their offensive profile just doesn’t scare me enough yet. They might be missing an item like Hammer of Measured Force, turning them from an anvil to a nightmare of wounds.
Army Strengths
The biggest strength I see is that the list seems to have a Swiss army knife approach for every situation it might find itself in. Issues with walls and terrain on part of the board? Team up the Terror and Voidtouched Mutants. The terror plays anvil and the Mutants love being the hammer with strider and TC2.
Dealing with opposing shooting? No problem, bundle up your Voidtouched units around the Navigator for a Stealthy and Spellward Aura and let the Planar Apparition take care of what wounds sneak through.
Need to stall your opponent on a flank while you play the objectives? Use any combination of Terror / Mikayel / Soulbane for very cheap and tough units.
Don’t forget the army has some counter shooting of its own. Not enough to actually threaten picking up units, but it definitely has enough to clear out annoying chaff or keep any opposing wizards honest.
Army Weaknesses
Interestingly enough the biggest weakness of this army and many Twilight Kin lists seems to be the overall speed of the army. I look at this list and think that it’s only slightly faster than Ogres, rather than the typical “elf” speed we see. With very fast armies like Order of the Green Lady, Basilea, and Forces of Nature being so prevalent, I worry that those armies will get to pick their matchups too much. It’s weird to call elves sort of slow, but I think the list suffers from some of the Speed 8 options. The Phantoms are on the right track; being able to at least chaff up opponents’ flyers if they get too excited is a good thing. They are just going to be stretched very thin when playing one of the above-mentioned armies.
What Would You Change?
Being such a new army it’s hard to recommend any serious “changes.” I will comment that some things in the list seem to be scarier than others, and so I’d consider finding ways to take more of them.
Summoner Crones with Weakness, for example — you’re telling me you get Lightning Bolt 4, but it doesn’t take cover penalties and can be cast into combat AND it lowers the target’s Crushing? AND the Crones are Inspiring? I see two of these being a staple in every list. They’re just so versatile, especially in an army that is probably getting charged more often than charging.
I’d also try to fit in just a little bit more Lightning Bolt. The Crones help take care of that a bit, but I feel like once you get into the LB 12 to 15 range, you get to the level where it can be a serious threat to units. As mentioned above, I would tweak items a bit as well. Make the Voidwalkers more than just a tarpit and maybe look to give the Impalers a little bit of help. I’d argue Jesse’s Boots on one unit and maybe something cheap like Healing Brew on the other would be good.
With so many options, it’s hard not to just say things like “add a Voidlurker,” add “Void Skiffs,” “try a Goredrake,” but I think it’s still very early in the TK journey to see what lists will look like even a few months from now.
Wrap Up
Kyle went 2-3 at the event, but he hadn’t played in a competitive event in over a year, so take that performance with some salt!
Here’s what he had to say:
Mikayel was an MVP for me. Just an absolute workhorse. Can’t wait to get the official mini. I prepped this army with as many of the plastics as I could get my hand on and had to proxy some others with older models I had to get to a full list. I’ve got some ideas on where to take the TK from here. The synergies are amazing and incredibly fun. My opponents all saw the potential of the list and gave some wonderful compliments to the design. TK players have a lot to look forward to as they discover what’s going to work for their playstyle.
– Kyle Przelenski on Facebook
