Hey everyone I'm a member of a Uni society and I haven't won a game under my own merit in far too long a time, mainly due to the fact that there are two death players there who I cannot touch, They have every death faction except tomb kings. I need help assembling some lists to help me beat death. We usually play from 1000 points to 2000 points. Any help that can be provided would be greatly appreciated.
You're gonna want to isolate and murder their support. The death units rely heavily on their command abilities and battalions. So take @Bowser's advice and grab some rippers in a shadowstrike.
They have a selection of stuff, death rattle seems big at the moment but flesh eaters and death lords come up a lot. The biggest problems are Mornguls, Arkhan the Black, Morghasts Goul Kings on and off Terrorgeists and the stupid number of death saves that end up meaning next to nothing dies and the few that do get up again next turn. Got 16 wounds through on a unit of crypt horrors in a game today, death saves removed all but 4 and the one that did die came back next turn thanks to a Varghulf nearby (Rant over) How does the Shadowstrike Starhost work and what does it consist of? (Apologies, still kind of new to this)
Shadowstrike: One Starpriest 2 units of skinks or chameleon skinks 1 unit of Ripperdactyls or terradons Recommended use the chameleons and rippers. They can all set up off the table. But you can choose skinks and they can move uo 2d6 at start up. The rippers get to hide in the clouds, come down in your move phase 3" from an enemy unit. I would probably say bloodclaw and shadowstrike, as with some skinks and a couple of carnos you shouldbe able to take down most anything. Something like: Leaders Saurus Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur (260) - Warblade - Artefact: Phoenix Stone Saurus Oldblood on Carnosaur (320) Saurus Scar-Veteran on Cold One (100) - Artefact: Quicksilver Potion Skink Starpriest (100) Saurus Scar-Veteran on Cold One (100) Skink Chief (60) - General - Golden Sickle - Trait: Master of Defense Battleline 10 x Saurus Warriors (100) - Clubs 10 x Saurus Warriors (100) - Clubs 10 x Saurus Warriors (100) - Clubs 10 x Skinks (80) - Boltspitters & Star Bucklers 10 x Skinks (80) - Boltspitters & Star Bucklers Units 5 x Chameleon Skinks (120) 5 x Chameleon Skinks (120) 3 x Ripperdactyl Riders (140) Battalions Bloodclaw Starhost (100) Shadowstrike Starhost (120) Total: 2000/2000 Dual carnos will shred their monsters, the chameleons and rippers should take down hei wizards or catapult if any. And you have a skink chief as general to help your skinks out, they will either rin blocking or shoot into combat. And you still get to use all 4 saurus hero command abilities. You can replace the second scar-vet on cold one with an oldblood on foot, but the scar-vet is a bit more killy.
Target their wizards as a priority like @Bowser said, try not to get bogged down fighting anything else as anything you kill will likely just come back if you do. I'd definitely use Shadowstrike and then pull out all of our big hitters.
I also think a Shadowstrike could be good. Snipe away those heroes. The rest of the army... perhaps a thunderquake Starhost? I haven't tried it myself but I imagine Skeletons will have a hard time against Dual Bastiladons or Dual Stegadons with Starfire Throwers.The latter ones could do enough damage to beat the regeneration. EDIT: So I'd perhaps try this list for 2000 against Deathrattle: Allegiance: Order Leaders Skink Chief (60) - General - Golden Sickle & Blowpipe Skink Starpriest (100) Battleline 10 x Skinks (80) - Boltspitters & Star Bucklers 10 x Skinks (80) - Boltspitters & Star Bucklers 30 x Skinks (240) - Boltspitters & Star Bucklers Units 5 x Chameleon Skinks (120) 3 x Kroxigor (180) - 1x Moonhammer 3 x Ripperdactyl Riders (140) Behemoths Troglodon (200) Bastiladon (300) Stegadon (260) Battalions Shadowstrike Starhost (120) Thunderquake Starhost (120) Total: 2000/2000 Tactics: Skeletons aren't that fast, are they? The Skinks will run away and shoot, the Kroxigor will block the Skellies and probably do a good amount of damage, especially the Moon Hammer Krox. The Bastiladon has a ranged attack with rend so it will probably hit them hard. The Skink Chief will make the big Skink group hit skellies with 15 wounds a round on average, that hurts. Thunderquake makes the monsters heal and both the Basti and the Stega should do damage if the Skellies attack them. If you are confident that melee isn't a big problem you could also use the Stegadon with the Skystreak Bow to shoot at heroes. The Troglodon isn't ideal, but we need it here for the cheap Thunderquake. At least it has 12 wounds, a decent save, and in my experience it can do quite some damage on weak horde units. Thunderquake will give us the "Savage" option, so re-roll wounds and saves for the Krox and Monsters, making them more durable (plus they'll regenerate 1 wound per round). You can either use Ripperdactyls or Terradons as flyers, I think I'd actually prefer Terradons with their bombs and bolas, but that's personal preference I guess. The benefit is: Should they survive the attack on the heroes, they can then continue to harass the rest with their ranged attacks. The Chameleon Skinks help the flyers to assassinate the heroes. Remember to place the Starpriest in a way so it can't be easily attacked (for example behind the Krox so it can see the enemy heroes but cannot be charged).
Hey everybody Sorry for the late response, been on the road and visit in relatives. I really like some of the ideas on here, I particularly like the idea of a Thunderquake Starhost with two stegadons and a shadowstrike Starhost for larger games. Especially like the idea of including kroxigors, partly just because I really like the models. Thanks for all the help. Will try out some of this stuff when Im back at Uni. Would you guys be able to help me with smaller lists, like 1000 and 1500 point lists? Again, much obliged for all the help.
I recently played a game vs a competitive death army. Small number of units but very powerful. I managed to win and it was my first 2k game. He was unbeaten with his list until that point. His army: Neferata, 2x Mourngul, Vampire on Zombie Dragon and 4x skeletons with spears. He calls it the Nef 'hit' list. (Probably due to the stackable -1 to hit his units have. Very hard to counter if your not expecting it. Renders weak units useless in a rather disgusting range) Long and short of it was that Lord Kroak was a god send. But he went right for it as he knew it was bad news. He all but killed him the first chance he got, luckily I saved him with a miracle roll of 1 after he was dealt 9 wounds by Neferata. After a few good turns Kroak killed her. ( I must remember to keep him out of combat for as long as possible) Problem I had was that his units were able to stack -1 to hit but I spread his army out which helped with that. I also made use of an oldblood on carno, backed up with a couple of scar vets on cold ones to take out the mornguls. For the tarpits I used kroxigor and also the carno once he was done with a morngul. (I had to get model count down on objectives) I tied other models down away from objectives with plenty of skinks and Knights but they were garbage and in the end he just flew over them. he had to pause and deal with them to remove them from Objectives, all the while allowing Kroak to throw some pain onto his general. Last but not least I made good use of a starseer. Those rerolls were very difficult to remember until I found counters for them. But used well I was able to land some great attacks with my important units, make sure he failed his initiative rolls and also prevent some important death Saves. All in all I learnt a lot. but sadly Kroak lists do not work well at <2k. hell he barley fit into a 2k list, had to lose out on battalions for him. If I had to lose him, I would probably go for dual carnos and plenty of scar vet on cold ones for the stackable attacks. other than that, anything that can dish out decent mortal wounds alongside a starseer to block his saves etc. I'm tired and this may make no sense, I'll re read tomorrow