The Friendliest List Ever!

I'm trying something new; not all of my friends enjoy playing at competitive levels and recently I've been toning my lists down more and more to try and accommodate that but have found Coven units are simply too powerful for them. Similarly they find kabal units to be super efficient as flayed skull so I've tried to come up with the "nicest" list possible to try and give them a fighting chance as I've not been beaten since our codex dropped.

Cult of Strife Batallion
Lelith
Succubus; Tryptich Whip, +1A drugs, Blood Dancer

3×5 Wyches; Agoniser, Hydra Gauntlet, Roll for drugs

15 Hellions; +1S drugs
9 Reavers; 3 Blasters, +1T drugs

3 Venoms; Splinter cannons

Black Heart Spearhead
Archon; Djinn Blade, Blaster, PGL, Labrynthine Cunning
Drazhar (I know)

10 Incubi

2× Ravager; Dark Lance's
1 Tantalus

Like I said this is the nicest possible list I could come up without being a complete pushover, what do you think?

What are their armies? It look more like either they are bad at making decision on the battlefield or they use bad lists.

They play all sorts;
Nids, GSC, Tau, Primaris Ultramarines, DA, BA with leviathan dreads, Pure Custodes, Flesh Tearers, IG, Knights, Ironhands Tank heavy marines, death guard, Thousand Sons World Eater soup, Ad Mech, Orks...

They seem to struggle with Prophets of Flesh in general and Venom Spam I find, dont particularly like Ravagers or Razorwings and God forbid I use my Ulthwe allies! I'm hoping GW fix flip belts in the FAQ so I can go back to playing hard mode Midnight Sorrow clowns against them for a while.

You may try to fight with a point handicap. That way, they will train themselve against unit they will face when they'll fight against someone else.

How many points is this? Guessing 1500?

If you're including Drazhar, you're also asking a knife wielding stranger to scratch your tummy. I don't have a diverse knowledge of every army in 40k but he's got to be in the top 3 of worst special characters in the game.

If your opponents require you to play with a croquette mallet to beat you at golf, it's fair to ask what they like about golf.

Please do report back on how the game goes, perhaps also what your friends end up playing, it should be interesting.

@dumpeal wrote:

You may try to fight with a point handicap. That way, they will train themselve against unit they will face when they'll fight against someone else.

Yeah I might try that too, I often dont feel the need to bring my two scourge squads into the table by the time they're ready to so maybe I'll just omit them from the list or "forget" to bring them.

@Sekac it's actually 2000pts, they definitely enjoy playing the game I think they just find 4++ wracks and talos a chew on to deal with in particular. I know drazhar is bad, he should be 90pts at most but I've just kit bashed a model for him so it feels a shame not to use him once! The last time I used him He and Lelith charged a squad of tyranids who exploded in acid blood killing them both...

@Sarcron sure I'll report back! I'll most likely face the flesh tearers player so it'll be a bloodbath most likely!

@Gizamaluke wrote:

@Sekac it's actually 2000pts, they definitely enjoy playing the game I think they just find 4++ wracks and talos a chew on to deal with in particular. I know drazhar is bad, he should be 90pts at most but I've just kit bashed a model for him so it feels a shame not to use him once! The last time I used him He and Lelith charged a squad of tyranids who exploded in acid blood killing them both...

I actually have the old Drazhar model. Haven't been able to bring myself to use him though Haha! If you're trying to soften your list, I'd recommend taking sub-optimal obsessions. You're right, PoF wouldn't fit in a super friendly list, nor Flayed Skull, Black Heart, and Red Grief.

Sub-optimal units, obsessions, and a lack of redundancy is the trick. Beyond that, you're not doing your friends any favors by taking an outright bad list. Despite that, have fun!

@dumpeal wrote:

You may try to fight with a point handicap. That way, they will train themselve against unit they will face when they'll fight against someone else.

This is probably the best solution, for the reasons dumpeal gave. Alternatively, you can have a normal 2000 point list, but shepherd the newbies together and have them play you 2 to 1, or even 3 to 1. As long as you make a point of spreading out your damage between each players evenly everyone should have fun. The downside of course is such games will be longer.

Oh they're not newbies, we've all been playing together for nearly a decade and back In 7th they trashed my DE with grav and scatpacks and triple riptides, just seems like this edition being more balanced they cant beat some of my stronger lists

I got a similar problem and started playing narrative play missions. I think they are much more fun and the outcome is more random if you want to call it that way.

I also tried playing dark creed freak show as this makes Talos and grots much less tanky with "only" a 5++. It's still a viable way to play but not as good as prophets.

Against newbies you need them to learn positioning and target priority, take the strong stuff but just take less of them, still have a ravager, a rwjf, a unit of talos, grots, etc..

Just dont use Stratagems, and dont try to kill off anything that will kill you for the first couple turns, show them what we can do and let them learn how to deal with it.