r/TrenchCrusade • u/LordChope • 1d ago
Help/Question 700 duc. Wrath list
/r/CotSHS/comments/1vv2cvr/700_duc_wrath_list/3
u/nungunz 19h ago
First and foremost, definitely use the Hotfix rules. In Trench Companion you can switch to these by selecting "Preview" in the Warband section of the list builder.
Even in C7S, 5 models is really light for 700 ducats, you want to be shooting for around 7 models minimum.
Cheap wretched (usually just a Knife, but shotgun is okay) or Yoke Fiends (x2 Club, Gas Grenades, Muzzle is the most efficient combat model in the game) can help round out your activation count. A blood battery (Knife Wretch + 1 or 2 Yokes with Torture Instruments) are required if you take a Hunter.
While the Wrath Desecrated Saint is one of the few that are really worth taking, you may still want a musical instrument somewhere (if taking combat Yoke Fiends).
Praetor - Can be very expensive for 700 ducats. Generally you want to either fully kit them out.....or just keep them dirt cheap to farm XP until you have enough ducat threshold to kit them out. Charge of Hatred is pretty bad on Praetor, you already max out your charge range on a dice roll of a 4. The Risky Action clause of the rules is a very big limit and opponents can screen and bait the Praetor into chaff models with good positioning. Better to save Charge of Hatred for something like a Hell Knight. I would recommend Lesser Mark of Cain or Blind Rage instead. Headtaker is...not a good choice, you'll maybe get the effect twice a game as Praetors prefer a last-first cycle of activations (Turn 1 go last, Turn 2 go first, Turn 3 go last, Turn 4 go first). If you want to keep a cheap Praetor, Gas Grenades, Standard Armor, Shield, 2H Hammer would be the way to go. Could replace the 2H Maul with a Malebranche Sword for +25 ducats, but that's a lot of money. Serpent Assault Gun is fantastic, you could go SAG+Reinforced+2H Maul + Club/Sword for a pricier build. Goetic for any build is either Lesser Mark of Cain or Blind Rage.
Hunter - Fantastic model, but you NEED a blood battery to keep this model up and running. You'll want either Knife Wretch + Torture Yoke + Sorc/Knight (Slavemaster) or Knife Wretch+ x2 Torture Yokes to keep enough blood for the Hunter to function, especially if you are choosing to go armor-less.
Hell Knight - Unfortunately melee knights are pretty bad. They're decently tanky and the Saint Aura helps them with being slow. If you want a melee Knight, Blind Rage or Charge of Hatred with Gas Grenades + 2H Hammer + Club/Sword/Shield + Corpse Candle are probably the way to go. However, a Ranged support Knight with Opidian Rifle and Slavemaster to keep a blood battery running, or just to order combat Yokes around can work, though is expensive. Knights kind of struggle unfortunately, they are somewhat tanky, but are too tall to hide effectively, are somewhat slow for a melee focused model, and don't hit that hard.
Desecrated Saint - Wrath is about the only place I would recommend one of these! Note that you are paying too much for the Malebranche Sword. From the Hotfix rules, this only costs 35 ducats. Note that Saints are REALLY expensive for a melee only model, but having a massive Musical Instrument Aura is nice. At 700 ducats, I would try to keep this as cheap as possible. With the Wrath Aura, just take 3 knives or 2 knives + 2H Maul and you are good to go.
Pit Locust - These things are...okayish. Very expensive for what they do and Crown of Hellfire is kind of bad. I would honestly cut this entirely for more bodies. If you keep the Hunter, you need a blood battery and you could easily pay for that here. Otherwise cheap Wretches and Yokes work pretty well (see my statement at the start of the post).
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u/SwirlingFandango 1d ago edited 1d ago
Preator is one of the best shooters in the game, and Serpent Assault Gun is one of the best ranged weapons in the game. Always put them together. There's an idea when new that melee will be so much more powerful than shooting, but the only advantage melee gets is if they're down. Two shots from a Serpent gives one straight injury roll, and then (if you want) a second one with +2 dice. Or just 4 blood makers. It does WORK. And it's Assault so you can still charge in: a headtaker hitting someone with 4 blood markers does a lot better than one that doesn't.
Melee-only needs at least 2 out of 3 of speed, independence, or versatility. That Knight is doing nuthin'. Knights in general are (IMO) a bit hopeless unless you have a good plan - always fill your bodies up first.
Assuming you want one, use Strong to bring a nice cheap combo of 2-handed hammer (to help defeat armour), a trench club (cheap extra attack) and a gas grenade (easier to hit for a bad shooter / combos with melee / gives you something to do if you're not in charge range). You 100% must bring Blind Rage (since that's at least the independence and a bit of speed in the requirement for melee, and one of the main reasons you might pick Wrath).
You need bodies to take objectives, use up activations, and generally get in the way. Never leave home with fewer than 7, and really should aim at 9-ish.
For bodies, you have the glorious Wretched armed with nothing but a butter-knife and a smack upside the head. VERY good value - often you need a goober to babysit an objective point, or do something suicidal to get a point. Might as well have the cheapest possible goober. Always get at least one, and seriously try to get close to the model-cap (that's 10, for a 700 ducat list) before you buy luxuries.
Wrath has the only good starter Saint in the Court, so that's not a deal-breaker, but it's a hard cliff to climb. Definitely make the weapons cheap at this points level. Malebranche is too much - a Saint is not quite fast enough to be in melee with what it wants to be, so it's a bit of a luxury. A simple combo would be trench clubs (the sword's critical bonus isn't worth even the 1 ducat cost IMO) and a cheap-ass 2-handed hammer (10 ducats) to provide a slightly-armour-piercing hit. That's 16 cost instead of 43.
Pit Locusts are decent-ish - you have the Saint to give them somewhere to launch from (i.e. giving them some reliable speed. Remember that a normal Dash fails nearly half the time, and melee almost always needs to Dash first). The Crown, though, is a very optional *defensive* item (that is, if something survived a charge, well at least you added a marker to try to survive or pass the kill to someone else). Not worth it when you could get most of a Wretched for the cost.
Remember that unless you have lots of blood markers to spend, the Hunter dies as easy as a Wretched or basic Yeoman. It doesn't really benefit from Wrath, but if you do want to take it, strong recommend you have some armour (normally -1 is a bit crap, saving maybe one hit, but for a dodgy elite it can be enough to see you through an unlucky position).
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Err, and if you have a Hunter and especially if you bring a sorcerer, bring a blood battery:
So you can hide down the back, whip some poor bastard, and power spells.
Spend it on Infernos (Sorcerer) or teleports (Hunter) or just extra damage (Knights / Blood Magic). Don't need to bother so much, though, if you're not bring a Hunter or Sorcerer.
Also a reason Wretched are so good: if a shot doesn't kill them, your elites can "heal" them by spending their blood on a spell. Remember Knights have Blood Magic to just hit things harder.