Idoneth Deepkin battletome review (part2 rules) WIP

Hello everyone !!

(WIP had to save because of power loss that already happened twice :( )

Part 2 of the battletome review : The rules.

The Idoneth Battletome is interesting because after my first read, i wasn't that impressed or stimulated like i was with the DOK or Maggotkin. Off course there are a few cute interaction like the threat range booster or the Bravery manipulation but it felt a bit lacking. Then i remembered why i felt that.

it's because their allegiance abilities are totally BUSTED and grant the army a very solid base outside of any combo or Battalion. After that i looked again with the 2 allegiance power as a base and everything made sense !

As a reminder :

1) Forgotten Nightmares

Allow you to shield your army from most shooting attack. During the 2 you can easily get a good alpha and still protect good units and support from shooting. This is amazing !

I see 4 methods to capitalise on this (i am sure there are more.)

1) Akhelian Ishlaen guard :

The defensive eels, up to 12 models, 140 for 3 riders with a 4+ save and IGNORE REND. Go to 3+ when charging (last a turn). With cover from the first turn and the Mystic shield you have an unit with 2+ armor save, ignore rend. With the basic Battalion "Akhelian corps" you get to reroll 1 per phase to mitigate even more a bad luck streak ^^

Bonus : The unit stay super solid in the second battle round as you can charge with an Infinity sanded mystic shield for 2+ ignore rend for turn 2 and 3 (3+ in turn 3 if you can't charge)

Infinity sand : Once per battle, grant an extra turn duration to spell lasting until the next hero phase. it's very very good because you can cast a spell outside of unbound and can have 2 mystic shielded unit at the same time for one turn !

The crazy part is that they are a double shield, you can't really kill them without spamming mortal wounds and if you use your mortal wounds source on them that mean you can't snipe support heroes because you must still shoot the closest enemy unit if you shoot at an Idoneth Deepkin.

2) Recursion thrall spam !

An alternative is playing the thrall recursion. You can get a unit of 30 (360 pt and Battleline), choose the Mor Phann Enclave and recruit 1 to 3 soulrender(100pt each)

Each one give back 1d3+3 thrall that cost 14 pt each(12 with the discount). So if you can protect them from spell for 2 round they are basically free.

And you cant ignore the dmg potential of the namarti thrall.
The only weakness is the morale so make sure you take care of it (see below).

3) The soup !

If you read closely the Nightmare Ability, you notice the second condition of the rule say enemy unit, and not Idoneth unit ^^

So with this enclave :

Allied units get tide bonus and you can use them as a meat shield ^^.

Any Stormcast unit can go to 2+ against shooting during first turn with mystic shield, protector even get a -1 to hit.
Prosecutor with javelin can shield first turn and charge turn 2 with 12+4d6 with fly ^

I am not saying it's the most optimized plan but it's quite fluffy to see the elves using Stormcast as meat shield !!.
Bonus : you can get to 2k points faster if you have a stormcast unit painted already ^^.

4) The turtle !

380 pt, 16 wounds, 3+ grant cover to everyone within 12", fly , move fast.
You place one in front of the army with mystic shield, 2+ save ^^, that's do the job (but it's less fun than the other options.)

The Tide

The tide is other big power from the Battletome.
It's timed by battle round so initiative roll doesn't affect it.

Turn1
Everyone get cover, nothing special to say about it. Just that you can be more agressive in your placement.

Turn 2 :
Time to alpha ! there is an important initiative consideration in the turn 2 that you have to prepare in the turn 1.

If you play second during the turn 2 it's a no brainer just engage everything you want because in the next turn it's the high tide and you fight first on all the fight even if you are charged ! (lol)

If you play first, it's trickier, if the adversary offer is neck, take it ! but if he's positioned safely don't over commit ! This is why i love the Akhelian Ishlaen guard. Even you are first to play T2 you can just charge with a mystic shielded unit dealing respectable dmg with a 2+ ignore rend followed by a 3+ ignore rend on the opponent T2.

Option : If you are playing Nautilar enclave you could even be tempted to play the waiting game with your main force, using a line of eels as a defense.

Turn 3 :
You want the have the most models alive and in melee or on objective for this turn, because no matter what happen you get to fight first TWICE ! with all your army !
If you are Nautilar enclave it's even more dangerous to engage your units (if you are charged you get to reroll hit against the charger)

Cute Combo

There are not as much as in DOK but 2 jump to your face when reading the book !

Bravery/hit manipulation

I think it's going to be a very effective way to play the ID, you have multiple source of bravery/hit debuff that you can stack easily.
There is at least 3 easy way to debuff enemy bravery.
3 spell for hit malus and 1 relic (one use only)
An Ironrach Eidolon of the sea can pull it off quite easily (with the +1 to spell and reroll)

1-Tsunami of terror from the Eidolon. -1 bravery -1 hit 1d6 target (crazy spell)
2- Nightmare legacy (command trait) -1 bravery 12" aura
3- Tide of fear. spell -1 Bravery, -1 hit 1 target.
4- Riptide (Tidecaster) -1 hit + 1d3 mortal (18").

There is even a 1 time usage item granting an extra -1 to hit to 1 enemy unit.

The plan here is to stack the -1 to hit malus on the most dangerous unit and reduce the bravery of multiple unit to cause extra loss. Off course the Eidolon Tsunami is pivotal to this plan (better protect him). Ironrach is important here too for the +1 cast/dispel, the Eidolon can reroll casting too. the tide caster have an 18" range so you can be outside of dispel range.

The Ultra long range mortal wound bomb not making friend edition ^^

First you pick 1 Isharan Soulscryer
can give +3 extra range on CHARGE, usable during the charge phase, it's a perfect combo with the other power to ambush from any side 6" from the table edge 9" from enemy. But even if you didn't used the deep-strike power it's still super useful.

Then you use this battalion the Royal Council : giving +3" extra move to 3 friendly unit as a command power.

Finally you pick 1 unit of Morrsarr guard ! (160 per 3 eels.)

Eels move 14" with fly.
add +3 +1d6 from running to a 18"-23" move.
Followed by a 2d6+3 charge ! (with reroll)
For a total threat range of : 23" to 38"

Super long range threat with good bonus on charge, but that's not all !

Look at their Biovoltaik Blast ! :) For each model in the unit, roll 1 dice, 3+ = 1 mw, 6+ = 1d3. The target have to be 3" from the eels unit !! (Not from the model). In practice you have to use it have the start of the combat phase (before pile in) and only one Eels need to get to the target for all the unit to be able to unleash the pain. You choose target after rolling so no over kill too.

A full eels unit is 12 model (160*4), deal 10 mortal wounds on average + the multiple attacks after you piled in. To get 100% value of this, you need to train a little for good placement. Engaging a main target and enough secondary value target to offload the Voltaic Bomb.

If you do this turn2 as a second player that feel like a super strong option ^^

Weakness

Off course the deep elves have one weakness !

Morale

All the units are Bravery 6, with expensive and frail units ^^
Perfect target for Bravery Manipulation strategy !.
There is quite a number of way to mitigate this problem. Off course it cost point, but don't prevent much of the good combo the faction can do.

Volturnos grant +3 Bravery 18"
Eidolon of the sea, grant +3 Bravery 9"
Command trait grant +2 Bravery to wholly within ID
Lotann add 1 bravery ! 12"
Standard Bearer grant reroll to battleshock test.
Liandra Last Lament (relic) : 18" bubble don't make battleshock test.

Yea an Eidolon of the sea with the Command trait grant +5 Bravery ^^.

Conclusion

No doubt about it, the codex is going to be very strong, i am not sure how it will fare at the top end of the meta but you should be fine against nearly anything. The rules are really well made with minimal filler units. Ok maybe the archer and the shark are not that "wow" at first sight but i bet you can do something funny with them !

Ok that it for the review of the Battletome let's get to the sprue now ! (yay)

ps : Sorry the post is in WIP stage i still need to correct a lot of thing, but i have computer problems and i had to publish to save it :(
ps : will add more pics at the bottom.

/cheers.
bob.

Ask question in comment i'll answer asap :D