Make me an offer I can't refuse

@UndeadPrivateer Tempting. I'll see what Crowe is doing, since he's so fucking pure 🙄

@SW-User He managed to match Skulltaker in single combat, a pretty damn impressive feat. 🤷‍♀️

@UndeadPrivateer When did this happen?!

@SW-User Grey Knights codex fluff, from 5th edition.

@UndeadPrivateer I'm going to look that up. I want to see it for myself. But it doesn't surprise me because of the Jollana Incident.

@SW-User To be clear he didn't [i]beat[/i] Skulltaker, was only able to get to a tense stalemate. Still, pretty impressive against a Bloodletter that personally slew a quarter of the Grey Knights' Brother-Captains during the First War for Armageddon. Wiki references to it have it on page 15 of the 5th edition Grey Knights codex.

@UndeadPrivateer OK, I've found it now. It was in 888.M41, under the heading "A Black Day on Birmingham"

@SW-User There you are.

@UndeadPrivateer He only managed it through the use of a vial of the Emperor's tears consecrating the ground where they fought. I actually like that story, because it shows just how powerful the more powerful daemons really are, and how weak a Grey Knight is, even the most elite of them. It adds an air of heroism of standing and fighting to defend against an enemy far more powerful just to defend humanity.

@SW-User Indeed. Skulltaker is a pretty scary fucker too and it does a good job of keeping that persona while still showing the Grey Knights triumphant against him. He's one of the few that can live up to it on the tabletop too, at least in AoS (have not used him in 40k), where going one-on-one against him in melee without a clear upper hand is basically a death sentence. Pours out just as many wounds as a Bloodthirster and is actually a bit harder to kill because of his rerolling saves.

@SW-User Recently had an AoS game against Ironjawz where I took Skulltaker as my General, gave him Immense Power(so he does 4 damage a hit instead of 3, which was [i]already[/i] scary) and he ended up pretty much singlehandedly killing the Ironjawz' entire leadership, including their Megaboss on Maw Krusha, as well as taking down a handful of elite infantry that tried to stop him. Took 3 of his 5 wounds, before the game was over I did a Crimson Rain and brought him back up to full, lol.

@UndeadPrivateer Honestly, I think that's how he should be. He is literally the most powerful herald, and probably the third most powerful after Skarbrand and Khorne himself. With your description, he may well be the only character (except maybe Skarbrand, but I don't know much about him) who is really accurately represented in the tabletop as he is in the fluff.

@UndeadPrivateer Fucking hell, that's insane. And how many points is he?

@SW-User 100, he earns it back [i]easy[/i] so long as he doesn't get shot off the board or alpha striked. He can pour out 20+ wounds a turn easy with buffing, 16+ without, which is more than sufficient to take down any on-foot heroes and will even cut down a lot of monstrous heroes. And those re-rolling 4+ saves makes that alpha striking not necessarily easy to accomplish, especially if you back him up with a Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage with a Crimson Crown that your enemy is [i]also[/i] gonna want to take down ASAP to stop those skullsplosions and so has to split fire between them. The 'Thirster can easily pop out 30+ [i]mortals[/i] a turn if they don't stop him. Give your enemies a Sophie's Choice, basically.

@UndeadPrivateer WTF! My Griffon Lord is 220 and he can't do nearly that much! >:(

@SW-User The thing you do have to remember with Khorne is that it's pretty much [i]all[/i] melee, so you can shoot quite a lot of threats off the board before they even get into combat if you're a more ranged-heavy army. In a straight up melee battle though you're likely gonna be fucked, especially with the new Blood Tithe summoning so you can call in a late-game Bloodthirster or Bloodletter swarm to make up for the lack of staying power.

@SW-User My brother actually has an Empire army that's made up of a bunch of historical Samurai minis proxied out. He has a whole bunch of handgunners and a decent amount of artillery with swords, spears and cavalry for main battleline. And a kitbashed Samurai Lord on Griffon for his general. I've taken a serious beating from them before, those handguns are really scary for Khorne armies. (Though I've also [i]annihilated[/i] them with a successful 'Thirster charge before, it's all in the dice there. )

@UndeadPrivateer High Elves have lots of 4+/4+ bows, but a squad of 10 Sea Guard is still 120 points. They have some decent melee, and I suppose you could just take all Reavers and kite the bastards forever, which is pretty funny until you run out of room to move XD

@SW-User The kiting struggle is real for Khorne, but you can at least make up for that with a Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut with Violent Urgency(reroll failed charges for him and nearby Khorne) backed up by some Flesh Hounds and Bloodcrushers.

@UndeadPrivateer It must be nice to have warlord traits and magic items.

@SW-User Haha, at least Malign Sorcery gave lots of options for everyone. Though considerably less for me, since I have no casters to make use of all those nasty spells. (Though I [i]adore[/i] it for when I play Tzeentch.)

@UndeadPrivateer Fair enough. But I like Elves and that's about it, so none really appeal to me.

@SW-User Realm of Life is the best friend for most elite oriented armies. Mirror Pool works wonders, man. So many shenanigans with that spell. (It's an 18" line of sight teleport which you can still move after using.) Sicklewind ain't bad either. (d3 Mortal Wounds to all units touched by a 12" line radiating from the caster.) Also from the Realm of Life's relic options, the Greenglade Flask(heal d6 wounds once a battle) and Ghyrropian Gauntlets(+3" pile in) can be pretty incredible. Realm of Life also has some damn fine weapon options, what with the Entangling Blade(-1 to hit on enemies you deal wound to), Jadewound Thorn(+1 mortal wound on 6+ hit rolls) and Ghyrstrike(+1 to wound).

Realm of Beasts has one of the best weapons with Anraheir's Claw(+2 damage on wound rolls of 6+). And the Gryph-feather Charm is not a bad choice for any killy heroes. (Gives -1 to hit against the wearer and grants the wearer +1" move.) And you can use the Primal Hunter(re-roll failed charges and hits) and Impenetrable Hide(re-roll failed saves) spells. Pretty good utility spells.

Realm of Death has a ton of support options. Making stuff ethereal, making things harder to hit, buffing hit chances, dealing mortal wounds, etc. Bit gimmicky, might not be of a ton of interest.

Realm of Light is also support oriented, gives you a lot of battlefield control options(Banishment![Sends an enemy model to the edge of the board!!]) and gives you the Vengeful Illumination(+1 to hit for missile attacks on a target) and Aetheric Net(cut move in half for all enemies within 3" of a point on 4+ respectively.) spells as well. Good artefacts are a little more limited for Realm of Light, but you at least have the Lens of Refraction(reduce damage from spells against units within 6" of the bearer by d3) and Aetherquartz Brooch(recover command points on 5+). Mirrored Cuirass is okay too. (negate wounds on 5+, reflect on 6+)

The rest are all pretty gimmicky for an Elf army, I think. Since you wouldn't have [i]tons[/i] of casters or multiple battalions. Still, not bad options. Command traits, at least to me, seem to be a clear choice between either Strategic Genius or Legendary Fighter depending on your build. Though I suppose Master of Defence and Inspiring could be a good idea for some builds too. I'm not an Order player so I haven't spent a whole lot of time thinking about it.

@UndeadPrivateer It's alright. I'll figure something out, I think.