Lylyth1 ADR

First things - there is officially a Thrullg in my Lylyth2 list. Body & Soul is becoming common enough that dodge, dip, duck, dive & dodge is becoming less of a real option but also I realised that I play Vayl1. I'm only ever going to drop Lylyth2 once, maybe twice if I come up against multiple EARTHBREAKERs (it has happened), I can afford to have 3 dead points in the list.

on to Lylyth

Lylyth, Herald of Everblight (*6pts)
* Naga Nightlurker (5pts)
* Shredder (2pts)
* Seraph (8pts)
* Typhon (12pts)
Blighted Nyss Hex Hunters (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Bayal, Hound of Everblight (3pts)
Strider Blightblades (Leader and 5 Grunts) (6pts)
Spawning Vessel (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew (Leader and 1 Grunt) (1pts)
Blighted Nyss Shepherd (1pts)
Incubus (5pts)
The Forsaken (2pts)

Specialists
* Scythean (9pts)
* Scythean (9pts)
The Forsaken (2pts)

I have been playing a fair amount of this list in less competitive settings for the last couple of weeks. The list is legit, you could take it to a tournament. The question is always going to be though - does the specialists give you something that you couldn't get just playing Vayl1. I don't think it does.

Let's go through what it does do:

Hex hunters are bonkers with Lylyth1. The unit is already incredible for 8 points, boosting both attack rolls and adding parasite into the mix means that they will obliterate whatever they hit and with Ad and Spd 7 they are often in position to get an alpha strike. The Blight blades help a lot with this plan. When you are out-threatened you can bring the blight blades in from the side and in addition to killing things they are able to pin things in place and force your opponent to dedicated resources to them which then aren't going forwards.

The blight blades are absolute stars in this list. I heard some talk about them on muse on minis, about getting them in Lylyth's feat or Kallus' feat and dark guidance - it's not going to happen, especially with Lylyth. If the stars align you may be able to get a couple of them in your feat, take advantage of the critical grievous wounds on their weapons but more often you are better off putting the Hex hunters at the edge of your control area which will give you a few extra inches of distance for your caster. Def 15 is a problem, stealth can be a problem and even when you kill the blight blades you just create incubii. Not only that but it is difficult to avoid giving them targets. Much like in my Vayl1 list you are punished by clumping your models with Typhon and Bayal sprays, Seraph strafe etc. I believe the right choice is to spread your models but just to avoid giving them anything juicy. That said every game I have used them I have picked something up. UAs, solos, Holt... They are incredibly easy to forget. It's also easy to misjudge the 15ish inches they com in from the side. Then you have to take into account scenarios like incursion. Combining these guy with the Ad Hex hunters and the follow up of Typhon gives you a really strong scenario game.

Incubus - In theory they replace the blight blades but the Def 15/stealth/back field combination actually makes it so that the blight blades don't die that quickly. Often I end up replacing a mix of Hex hunters and blight blades. For some reason the hex hunters tend to die in droves although that might be because they do so much damage that your opponent just can't afford to keep them alive.

The Seraph and Naga are in theory support beasts but they actually do a whole lot of work in this list. With parasite they can kill a heavy at range, when you add in Typhon the ranged ability of this battlegroup is incredible if restricted in its range. Typhon should be self exlanatory. Free charges, parasite, additional dice sprays. You can boost on top of Lylyth's feat and he is just otherwise incredible.

Assassination - Typhon is the main assassination threat but there are a lot of other angles. Incubi pop out in odd positions, the Seraph is a legitimate threat, the Naga will reliably critical giving you 4 dice damage on living casters under Lylyth's feat. You can also get a lot of Hex Hunter shots if they are still alive. one thing people tend to not take into account well are the threat ranges you get from being able to battle wizard and/or cast spells at deeper targets while engaged. While the Spawning Vessel is on the table it is always a threat. One of the other things to remember is that you can hold her feat. If your opponent puts some Nyss Hunters or Blood Trackers in threat of your Hex hunters go for it but if you aren't facing high Def infantry you can hold the feat until you are ready to assassinate.

Scenario - It's a combination of the pressure from AD Hex hunters, the presence of the blight blades and incubi in the back field and the exceptional short rage damage output of the list. You don't really want to be coming into the threat ranges of this list and it's threat ranges are really good with slipstream and Spd 7 troops.

Keeping Lylyth alive - the most obvious piece for that are the swamp Gobbers and while they are alive they should be dropping a cloud in front of Lylyth. There are other pieces though most turns you will not "need" slipstream for your threat ranges, go forwards, feat and/or shoot and spell something and then once the Hex hunters have activated slipstream her back. The Seraph and Naga are also excellent pieces for blocking LOS and charge lanes since they are going to be making ranged attacks anyway. She should always have tenacity on her and you need to look for defensive terrain. Walls are ideal but it's incredibly rare to find them where you need them. A forest in the middle of the table is ideal but a hill will help, trenches are making comeback with the new terrain placement rules and are really good.

Modules:
Naga + Blightblades (11)
Hex Hunters (11)
Hex hunters + incubus + pot _ shepherd (20)
Blight Blades + Incubus (11)
Bayal + blight blades (9)