Ossiarch Bonereapers – Stalliarch Lords Army Complete

Just completed my 2k OBR Stalliarch Lords Cavalry army.

I love playing Death armies. I knew at some point I would build an OBR force. I have also always wanted to build and paint a full cavalry army. “I do have 2k in Bloodcrusher built and primed.. story for another time.” I am under to delusions that this is the “best” build for OBR, but it was a project that I found interesting and wanted to try out.

 

When I sat down to formulate my army list I knew that I wanted to focus on Deathriders and Liege Kavalos as the core of my force. I also do love symmetry and redundancy.

The list

• Allegiance
  • Stallarch Lords
• Arch-Kavalos Zandtos
• Liege-Kavalos
  • General, Nadir-bound Mount, Twisted Challenge
• Liege-Kavalos
• Kavalos Deathriders x10
  • Blade and Shield
• Kavalos Deathriders x10
  • Blade and Shield
• Kavalos Deathriders x10
  • Blade and Shield
• Mortek Guard x10
  • Blade and Shield
• Mortek Guard x10
  • Blade and Shield

This list is super fast, hits reasonably hard, and has some survivability. The 3 Kavalos add great buffs and are better than an average hero at holding objectives. The Mortek Guard are used to either screen for the Deathriders or hold the back objectives.

***It should be noted that Zandtos does not benifit from the Stallarch Lords traits and he cannot use Till Their Breath Command Ability on the other units.***

Here is a link to the page that goes into detail about my army Doctrine and how I list build, Link.

This is the breakdown on how this list stacks up according to my Doctrine:

1. Damage output “does that army kill its worth every turn”
2. Staying power “how hard is this army to kill”
3. Objective holding “is there enough bodies to hold objects”
4. Board reach “how much of the board can be reached on a given turn”
5. Board Coverage/Control, “take up space” “inhibit deep strike, block charge lanes, hold bottlenecks”

Damage Output

Above average

The primary damage output comes from the Deathriders. They use volume of attacks to cause there damage. 31 Swords swings at -1 rend, 1 damage. Hitting on 3, 6s explode and wounding on 4. It will on average do 12.5 wounds at 6+ save.  The Mounts will also do 2 attacks each causing 5.56 wounds at a 6+ save. So you can look at about 18 wounds, not great, but you also have to factor in they can also expect to get 1.5 Mortals on the charge. But what really ups their damage output is when you can get them in range for Endless Duty Command Ability. That will raise the damage of the sword to 16.67 at 6+ and 8.33 for the mounts. They will also have the ability to retreat and charge because of “Rally Back”.

Staying Power

Average

4+ saves for the Deathriders and Guard. The Kavalos have a 3+. The Deathriders have 3 wounds and the Guard and Shield Wall ability. With this list there is not many ways to increase the Staying Power.

Objective Holding

Average

The army is not heavy on bodies so holding objectives can be an issue. However the Kavalos are great for missions like 3 Places of Power.

Board Reach

Great

This is a very fast army. The Deathriders can move: 12 + 3 from Unstoppable Advance + d6+1 for running = 17 to 21 inches. And they can still charge with a +1. The Dearthriders can consistently make 1st turn charges.

The Guard can move 9 to 13 inches and still charge +1.

Include the ability to retreat and charge or retreat and run and you have a very flexible maneuverable force.

Board Coverage/Control

Average

The Guard are mostly used as the screen and blocking force. Just looking at raw models that list has average board coverage and control. However the oval bases on the DR can be strung out to screen areas.

 

Tactics

Alpha strike is a viable option with this list. This list is 9 drops so you will not always have the option to go first. However your opponent will have to factor in your ability to move across the board and deploy accordingly.

You cannot depend on the Deathriders to fully take out hard targets, but you can overrun weak units easily. You can also send you DR in waves, making the opponent grind through several units before they can reach the objectives that your Kavalos and Guard are holding.

If you are playing against an army that can out drop you and can also make a first turn charge, you can use the Guard as a screen for your DR.

The key to being effective with this list to strike and move. Pick your battles and play for the long game.

All in all this list is very straight forward and that was exactly what I was looking for after playing a very complex change host list for a while.

List Variation

I consider this a good starting base for my OBR. I fully understand there are more competitive builds and I fully plan on adding to the collection.

Here are some variations on this list to slightly alter the play style:

The first option is running a Battalion. You have to drop one unit of DR and max the other 2 out at 15. This brings you down to 5 drops and you pick up the benefits of having a Battalion. I like the lower drops of this list, it gives you more opportunity to go first. However I am still undecided if I like 2×15 DR or 3×10 Better. Both have plus and minus.

You could also combine the Guard into one unit to lower it down to 4 drops.

• Allegiance
  • Stallarch Lords
• Arch-Kavalos Zandtos
• Liege-Kavalos
  • General, Nadir-bound Mount, Twisted Challenge
• Kavalos Lance
  • Kavalos Deathriders x15
    • Blade and Shield
  • Kavalos Deathriders x15
    • Blade and Shield
  • Liege-Kavalos
    • Helm of the ordained
• Mortek Guard x10
  • Blade and Shield
• Mortek Guard x10
  • Blade and Shield

 

Another 4 drop options adds in Arkhan for some magic punch.

This list give you magic offense and defense along with some healing..

The big issue is you are wrapping up all your hopes and dreams into 2 units of 15 models. They they get taken out/rendered useless the game is over.

• Allegiance
  • Stallarch Lords
• Arkhan the Black
• Liege-Kavalos
  • General, Nadir-bound Mount, Twisted Challenge
• Kavalos Lance
  • Kavalos Deathriders x15
    • Blade and Shield
  • Kavalos Deathriders x15
    • Blade and Shield
  • Liege-Kavalos
    • Helm of the ordained
• Mortek Guard x10
  • Blade and Shield
• Bone tithe shrieker

 

Another variation on this ideas has basically the same models but more drops and little bit more flexibility on the board.

• Allegiance
  • Stallarch Lords
• Arkhan the Black
• Liege-Kavalos
• Liege-Kavalos
  • General, Nadir-bound Mount, Twisted Challenge
• Kavalos Deathriders x10
  • Blade and Shield
• Kavalos Deathriders x10
  • Blade and Shield
• Kavalos Deathriders x10
  • Blade and Shield
• Mortek Guard x10
  • Blade and Shield

There are endless possibilities on how you could customize this list. I plan on playing around with many different styles on Tabletop Simulator as I continue to paint and build.

Painting

If you are interested in the colors I used check these link:

Zandtos

Deathriders

I used a mix of paint types and techniques to achieve the look. The level of painting is just a little above, “Battle Ready”. This army painted up relatively quickly 5 months part time painting while I also worked on other projects. I was in no real hurry to complete it quickly because of the lack of GTs over the last 6 months.

They are also based in my traditional, “Death” basing style to match the rest of my Death models and display board.

Whats Next for OBR

Arkhan is currently on the table and I think I will be painting up some more MGuard after that.

Eventually I would love to get Katakros and do high level paint job on him. But that will be a little bit down the road.

I will also make a new display board for the OBR that will connect thematically to my current death display board.

Next for TheJTJ

As we get further into the year and more restrictions are lifted I plan on attending more tournaments and hopefully some GTs later this year. Itching for the Texas Masters season to start back up. However right now I am going to continue to paint some OBR and possibly other Death models I have in the cabinet. There are a few Tzeentch models in the case that I would like to complete for my Changehost. I am also continue to work on my Marvel Crisis Protocol Color Guides.

Thanks for reading, y’all be good!