One of the most important questions I asked myself getting into Legion was one that I'm sure loads of people ask themselves too. Where do I start? Now, when I was getting ready to start with Legion one of my first steps was to buy the majority of the warlocks. At this point I have all of them except Bethayne, Kallus and Lylyth3. So. I have choices. My intention is to ease myself into the faction and playing Hordes in general. So I didn't really want to play either Vayl. I know they're both really good (eVayl being one of the most popular overall, competitively) but they both require finesse and I didn't want to jump in the deep end too much. Rhyas is out. She could be good but since she's not the best caster I think she requires more faction knowledge before playing so probably not the best place to start. Also.... Rhyas... Urgh...
This leaves the Abbys, the Thagroshes, the first two Lylyths and Saeryn. I love eLylyth. I think she's awesome and the first few lists I wrote up for Legion were all eLylyth. But. As much as I want to play her and am excited to put her on the board I decided not to start with her. The reason being kinda the opposite of Vayl. While Vayl requires too much finesse Lylyth's game is too narrow and wouldn't give me a decent exposure to the faction as a whole. Plus going from playing Harbinger and pSevvy to fury 5... *shudder*. Epic Thagrosh and Epic Absylonia have the same issue, they like to play one way without much range anywhere else. Saeryn is a really good, solid choice. She's got a strong feat, good spell list, high fury stats. But I decided not to go with her either. To a much lesser extent I think she also requires a bit more faction experience to master. However I do feel that she'll be one of the first 'locks I move to once I feel I've got a decent handle on my play.
So this cull left me with what I consider the two warlocks best suited to learning the faction: pThagrosh and pAbsylonia. So given that most tournaments use a two list format I think I have my two casters to begin with. So between the two of them I decided to start with pThagrosh. This won't be a surprise for most people since he's considered one of the best learner casters for the faction and the starting point for most new players. Abby is great but I feel she supports beasts almost exclusively, which is awesome and 90% of Legion's game on the table. But I felt to try the faction I wanted a more rounded caster, ending me with pThags.
So my starting list that I intend to have my first few games with is not very good. It's designed not to be especially competitive but instead to include a variety of Legion models:
Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight +5
-Succubus -2
-Ravagore - 10
-Angelius -9
-Scythean -9
-Seraph -8
Nyss Shepherd -1
Nyss Shepherd -1
Forsaken -2
Deathstalker -2
Deathstalker -2
Max Legionnaires -6
Spawning Vessel -3
Objective - Fuel Cashe
This list includes a kind of greatest hits of Legion's models, the beasts are the most used monsters by Legion so this will give me the best chance to test them out. The Legionnaires and Spawning Vessel are another Legion staple I want to experiment with. They'll likely commit some ritual suicide to spawn a shredder early game in order to get tenacity on the board. The Deathstalkers are also a personal favorite of mine having been on the receiving end of their spikey murder bows in a few games. I wasn't set on any of the objectives but with 4 heavy beasts having free run/charge could come in handy.
So that's the list that I'm planning to use to get a solid grip on the common faction models. But this was hardly the only list I've written for Legion. For starters I made up an Absylonia list to accompany Thagrosh in events. I decided (shockingly) to take her tier list:
Absylonia, Terror of Everblight +5
Tier 4 - Winds of Change
Naga Nightlurker -5
Typhon -11
Scythean -8
Angelius -8
Angelius -8
Shredder -2
Shredder -2
Harrier -2
Raek -4
Foresaken -2
Foresaken -2
Shepherd -1
Objective - Fuel Cashe
I think this is a pretty standard Absylonia tier 4. There's plenty of heavy hitters in the list who can take real advantage of her fantastic upkeep spells. A pair of Angelii are there to cause problems with Armour Pierce and Repulse. The Naga can help with its animus and cool abilities. This is a list that I'm not 100% on but seems pretty sturdy, of course it's subject to change after I've practiced with some more of the models and synergies. Again Fuel Cashe's free charges are a nice bonus to a mostly beast list.
I've also written up a prospective list for Thagrosh when I want to be a bit more competitive that may well change when I get more experience:
Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight +5
-Succubus -2
-Angelius -9
-Angelius -9
-Carnivean -11
-Naga Nightlurker -5
-Shredder -2
-Shredder -2
Foresaken -2
Foresaken -2
Max Warspears -8
-Warspear Chieftan -2
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew -1
Objective - Fuel Cashe
This list leverages Attuned Spirit and Spirit Tap along with the powerful animi of the Shredder and Carnivean to make the army very tough to shift off the board. The Ogrun with Draconic Blessing are a nightmare and can be MAT 9/RAT 7 POW 17 monsters with Prey and Assault, which can put a dent into most things they contact. The Naga is also in the list to help with problem causers, while the Gobbers, if I'm honest, are filling points, but can be really helpful to provide some cloud cover, especially to help the Naga use Prowl but stay in a useful position.
So those are (at the moment) my lists to get me started in Legion. In addition to these, though, I also wrote up a couple of lists to move on from these which are even more subject to change than the others. The first I wrote up is for eLylyth:
Lylyth, Shadow of Everblight +5
-Succubus -2
-Nephilim Bolt Thrower -6
-Ravagore -10
-Ravagore -10
-Naga Nightlurker -5
-Seraph -8
-Shredder -2
-Stinger -2
Deathstalker -2
Deathstalker -2
Foresaken -2
Foresaken -2
Shepherd -1
Shepherd -1
Objective - Bunker
This is a very shooty, if not very surprising, list that I'm really keen to play. The double Ravagore is powerful as it is but under Lylyth's feat they can be ridiculous. The Naga and Seraph both offer a combination of good animi and ranged attacks that the list can take advantage of. The Deathstalkers are in the list to be extra little mini-Lylyths. I put 4 of the support solos and the Succubus into the list to compensate for Lylyth's low Fury stat. One of the weird aspects that might surprise some people is the Stinger. He has a decent ranged attack if it comes to it but more importantly he's in there to allow Lylyth to take advantage of his animus to gain Bushwack for mega shenanigans. I chose the Bunker objective to avoid my side of the table being blasted away.
Finally I've knocked together a tentative Saeryn list that's quite speculative at this point but from a relatively ignorant stand point seems pretty good to me. It includes:
Saeryn, Omen of Everblight +5
-Angelius -9
-Angelius -9
-Scythean -9
-Scythean -9
-Naga Nightlurker -5
-Raek -4
-Shredder -2
Shepherd -1
Shepherd -1
Foresaken -2
Foresaken -2
Spell Martyr -1
Spell Martyr -1
This is my doubles list, the pairs of heavy beasts are good beatsticks and benefit from the feat well. The support staff take some of the pressure off Saeryn and have some built in redundancy if a couple of them die. The Naga is a useful tool for any list in my opinion since it offers some helpful tricks that can make up some of Legion's deficits. The Raek (and in a pinch the Shredder with rabid) is a great delivery method for Blight Bringer thanks to leap.
It should be pretty clear from all my theory crafting how excited I am for a shift into Legion and it's long overdue. I've already got my first game lined up and hopefully that'll just add to the momentum going forwards.
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-M
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