So, earlier this spring I did a short trip down to Toronto. Like I usually do any time I’m visiting another city, I went looking for some local game stores!
I found a fairly significant one called Meeplemart that was located in a sprawling basement under Chinatown (and if you’re ever in the city, I highly recommend it – very well stocked).
While browsing their AoS section, I came across something unexpected.
I hadn’t send these early boxes on sale for quite a while (gonna say about 2 years at this point), and had pretty much figured they had gone extinct (though I can see a few people are still hawking them on Amazon at elevated prices).
In any event, the real surprise wasn’t that there was still a box like this sitting on the shelf under the original pricing, but there were 3 others there too!
As appealing as it was to buy them all and start some sort of reseller shop on eBay, I played nice and only picked up the one.
To be honest, Lumineth wasn’t really a faction that had caught my attention previously.
I’ve always been a big fan of the various Chaos cults, both when it comes to painting them and seeing what mischief they can get up to on the table.
The closest I ever came to Lumineth would have been a Dark Elf army I had in a now ancient edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battles (and even then, I was secretly wishing I had my friend’s Chaos army).
In any event, I was on vacation and determined to treat myself. I picked up the box, figuring it would at the very least give me some additional plastic to paint and maybe get a funny casual list out of it.
I was honestly expecting to end up with just another Khainite Shadowstalkers team, but I was pleasantly surprised by the stats of a lot of the Lumineth pieces – particularly after the last update (which nerfed a few pieces, but buffed far more).
So, today’s post isn’t by any means a comprehensive guide to listbuilding with this faction, but largely my first impressions. After I’ve played a few rounds with them, I’ll hopefully have some updates.
The Good: Lumineth fighters are generally low-costed and decently kitted
As far as factions go, these folks are some of the most reasonably priced out there.
While they don’t have any of the S-tier chaff, or even chaff that would necessarily be on the same page as them, what they have instead is better than what a lot of lists can access.
Vanari Auralan Wardens
I’ve written about these guys in a post looking at some good crit hunting chaff units, so I won’t dive too deep into them here. Instead, it’s just to point out that at 65 points you can certainly do much, much worse!
True, they suffer from the Elf curse of 5″ move and 8HP that folks like Off Meta Musing has discussed previously, but their 4 toughness could theoretically help them live longer against enemy chaff. They also have a curious ability that gives them strength in numbers if they bunch up on the board called Shining Company.
For a double, they reduce the attacks of enemies by 1 against every model in their little unit. It necessarily means you’ll want to bring a few if you plan on using it, but fortunately these guys are so cheap it won’t be difficult.
In any event, their real beauty is in their 3″ range and 4 crit damage, meaning these guys can poke away from a distance and hopefully avoid being engaged in the process.
Alarith Stoneguards
Not quite chaff, not quite mid-tier-priced, these guys really hit the sweet spot of being able to pump up your numbers while also fulfilling a combat role (albeit, as glass cannons).
At 85 points, they fit in that good space somewhere between cheapo chaff and the mid-tier units in the low 100 and change point range.
Stats-wise, the Stoneguard come with a pretty favourable weapon profiles. With 2″ range, 3 attacks, at either 4 strength and 2/5 damage or 5 strength and 2/4 damage, their hammers align pretty closely with some other spear profiles out there.
Because they cost so little, yhey can certainly fill in a warband the way chaff do, but they also bring a much heavier punch than units in the 65 and under range (with some exceptions like everyone’s favourite Grave Guard variant, who have a very similar weapon profile).
Of the two four our Stoneguards, as much as I like the 3 attacks, 4 strength, and 2/5 damage which mirrors that from the Vindictors (who always seem to do way more damage than they should), I think the 5 strength might be the way to go, considering how many models have 4 or 5 toughness. Rolling on 3-4 in more engagements will likely deal more damage overall than that higher crit (unless you’re feeling lucky).
One of the surprising things about them is that they don’t have the usual “Elf profile” of 8 HP and 3 toughness. They’re a bit more likely to survive an encounter with 12 HP and 4 toughness (especially against similarly priced units) but they lose out on the movement having only 3″.
Fortunately, with 2″ range, that 3″ movement is less of an issue, as their 5″ threat range puts them on par with a 4″ move with 1″ range attack. You get to poke people while being out of range, but it does suck when you’re trying to get on points.
It’s worth noting that they have an ability to help keep them alive, but I’m not entirely sure how often it will be used.
Mountain Stance reduces the damage dealt to the model, which can certainly help keep them alive while holding objectives and the like. However, because they’re so squishy, and have better utility at dishing it out, I would probably save my doubles for Onslaught.
The Bad: Underwhelming hero options for the most part
There arguably isn’t a single hero model with an overly favourable weapon profile.
The top contenders would be the 235 point Vanari Lord Regent, but he only comes with a 4-4-2/5 and a blast weapon, or the 2″ range 4-4-2/5 of the Bladelord Seneschal.
While not terrible, and I would probably bring a Bladelord Seneschal to an alley fight, those are still the kind of attack profiles you would expect on every day mid-tier units, not the champions leading your forces (and especially not over 200 and change points for the Lord Regent…).
Compounding this, none of the heroes, with the exception of going crit hunting, are well suited to fight anything but chaff. Not a single one of them has strength above 4 (with the only unit in the warband at 5 being a variant of the Stoneguard we discussed above).
As for damage output, we’re looking at 2 base damage across the board unless you land a lucky blast attack from one of the spellcasters.
Having gone back to look at some of the stats from previous editions, its clear that a couple of the more promising heroes back then got nerfed. The most notable is the High Warden, who while handsomely priced at under 100 points, has only 12 hit points and a 3-3-2/4 damage profile.
Not exactly someone who can dish it out or take it, even if the model is gorgeous.
The Good: Some heroes are quite good for their points, and would make decent allies too.
Having low power heroes fortunately isn’t the end of the world in a lot of lists.
It opens up your list for bringing in allies and monsters (more on them below), as well as more space for your own unit. Plus, there’s nothing worse than an over-costed hero that you have to bring just to make your list viable (such as the case from some of the Chaos bespoke warbands, like The Unmade).
I would argue, somewhat to my surprise, that the cheapest hero in the faction is also the most essential of the bunch.
High Sentinel
While the regular Sentinels are pretty much your standard crappy 90 point archer (with a tiny ranged weapon damage profile that annoys more than removes models), their leader version is a whole other story.
While this guy, like the High Warden and Truestone Seneschal, comes with a different weapon profile than their chaff version (no ranged weapon for an archer champion? interesting), he’s arguably better for it.
His blade is nothing to write home about at 1″ 3 attacks, 3 strength and 2/4 damage, but he comes in at a cool 90 points for a leader with a unique ability called Sharp-Eyed Scryhawk.
What this ability does is lets your High Sentinel act like something of a spotter, calling out a single target for a triple that the rest of your gang can then beat up with bonus attacks.
Best of all – you can pick any enemy fighter within 20″ of this guy, without requiring line of sight, which makes hiding almost impossible.
While this was certainly meant to pair with the regular archers, allowing them to allow them to gain 50% more attacks and make use of their range, their damage is just so meh that it’s probably not worth it unless you want to go all in.
As a side not, there are some archers who would probably love to be paired with this guy, such as the Knight-Judicator, or even bringing this little guy into a Kharadron list as an ally where he can buff the Aethercannons there.
If you have enough people in range of a target, which shouldn’t be hard with this warband, you’ll basically be giving anyone that attacks them an Onslaught. If you want to go a little nuts, you can then Onslaught as you normally would, giving your units +2 attacks per activation, which can be really effective for crit hunting.
The Good: Low cost means plenty of room for big allies and monsters
I’m personally not a fan of going up against monsters. Yes, it’s one more thing to prepare for when listbuilding, but it’s also one more thing to prepare against.
Already, we have to consider not only the strengths and weaknesses of our own pieces, but the mix of maps and objectives, how we fare against other types of lists and factions, and even the general meta. Worrying about how to face a monster is just one more thing to drive up our listbuilding anxiety.
In any event, if I had to pick an order faction and monsters were tossed into the mix, the Lumineth could be a pretty strong choice for bringing in a friend like that.
While arguably all monsters pale in comparison to the terror that is the Chimera, if you wanted to bring in a Hydra you certainly could – with enough space left to get your list up to 8-9 models without breaking a sweat.
Though, in all honesty, I don’t feel that a lot of the monsters are necessarily worth their weight in gold. At 400+ points, couldn’t this big guy at least have 6 strength, or have a fighting chance of smashing some Stormcast?
If you don’t want to break the bank with your allies, you’ve at least got other options too.
The Kurnoth Huntmaster with Kurnoth Scythe would be a top pick as he brings in the heavy hitting weapon profile that the Lumineth are so sorely lacking. He’s also many times tankier than anything available among the elves.
Other good options would be the usual suspects from either SCE Thunderstrike or the Questor Soulsworn.
Annihilator Primes are very efficient (maybe too efficient) at killing pretty much everything, so their only real drawback is their low speed.
For this reason, I usually bring in a Questor for my SCE allies. Their faster and their abilities are all around great – particularly their doubles that can allow them to move another ally or get free attacks when they engage 2 or more enemy units.
Hell, why not just bring both?
Listbuilding Ideas for Lumineth Realm-Lords
So I haven’t played around with the faction enough to have a comprehensive scope of their listbuilding potential, here are some ideas that came to mind after fooling around in Warcrier for a morning.
There Be a Monster Here
If you want to go with a monster, you can build out a list with a Questor ally for a smooth 1,000 points.
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Warband Roster
1,000pts | 8 fighters
- Errant-Questor with Grandhammer (165pts, Hero)
- High Sentinel (90pts, Hero)
- War Hydra (420pts, Monster)
- Vanari Auralan Warden (65pts)
- Vanari Auralan Warden (65pts)
- Vanari Auralan Warden (65pts)
- Vanari Auralan Warden (65pts)
- Vanari Auralan Warden (65pts)
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Generated on Warcrier.netYou get 8 bodies on the table, including the Hydra and the Questor, along with some chaff and a leader who has an always useful ability.
Now, this is one thing I haven’t thought of previously, but our Questor buddy comes with this beautiful ability:
I’ve never considered it before, and wasn’t able to find the answer from a quick Google search, but I wonder if Monsters count as “friendly fighters” or if their access to abilities is locked behind the Monster Abilities portion of rules.
If they count, well it looks like you just found a use for your doubles. Make sure you get your Questor close to the Hydra and bonus move that monster as often as you can!
Kurnoth Huntmaster and Questor Variant
An arguably better use of points would to be tag out the Hydra to bring in 3 more units, including our buddy from Sylvaneth.
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Warband Roster
995pts | 10 fighters
- Kurnoth Huntmaster with Kurnoth Scythe (245pts, Hero)
- Errant-Questor with Grandhammer (165pts, Hero)
- High Sentinel (90pts, Hero)
- Alarith Stoneguard with Stone Mallet (85pts)
- Alarith Stoneguard with Stone Mallet (85pts)
- Vanari Auralan Warden (65pts)
- Vanari Auralan Warden (65pts)
- Vanari Auralan Warden (65pts)
- Vanari Auralan Warden (65pts)
- Vanari Auralan Warden (65pts)
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Generated on Warcrier.netIt can follow a similar principle – only now, pair your Questor with the Huntmaster and have him go nuts with free moves while he tries to kill as much stuff as possible.
The rest of the warband does it’s thing, with the High Sentinel picking out targets and the Wardens going for the points and poking enemies.
This is one list I’m going to have to try out on Tabletop Simulator at some point soon to see how it fares against whatever list monstrosity my gaming buddies can put together.
One Box Wonder- Hail to the Swarm
If you’re on a budget, look no further.
If you manage to find the Lumineth Warcry box, you could put together a somewhat workable list using only what’s in there.
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Warband Roster
980pts | 12 fighters
- Truestone Seneschal (105pts, Hero)
- High Warden (95pts, Hero)
- High Sentinel (90pts, Hero)
- Vanari Auralan Sentinel (90pts)
- Alarith Stoneguard with Stone Mallet (85pts)
- Alarith Stoneguard with Stone Mallet (85pts)
- Alarith Stoneguard with Stone Mallet (85pts)
- Alarith Stoneguard with Stone Mallet (85pts)
- Vanari Auralan Warden (65pts)
- Vanari Auralan Warden (65pts)
- Vanari Auralan Warden (65pts)
- Vanari Auralan Warden (65pts)
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Generated on Warcrier.netAt 12 pieces, you get to use up most of your box (15 in total come with it).
It has plenty of disadvantages, such as low over HP and toughness and no top tier damage dealers. However, you also get pretty serious numbers on the table, with a fair mix of mid-tier damage and crit hunting. If the dice gods favour you, you could likely chop some opponents to pieces with these guys before they full get into engagement range.
Of course, if you go against a heavy ranged attack warband, like our friends from Kharadron, you can probably kiss your numerical superiority goodbye the moment they start shooting.
With the 20 points left over for Divine Blessings, I would be tempted to give the High Warden +4 HP or +1 Strength to the Truestone Senechal.
Crit Hunters, Only Crit Hunters
This list is a bit silly, but if you’ve got some hot dice and really want to lean all the way into hunting crits, you can certainly go the distance with Lumineth.
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Warband Roster
980pts | 11 fighters
- Slaughter Queen (160pts, Hero)
- Bladelord Seneschal with Sunmetal Greatblade (150pts, Hero)
- High Sentinel (90pts, Hero)
- Alarith Stoneguard with Diamondpick Hammer (85pts)
- Alarith Stoneguard with Diamondpick Hammer (85pts)
- Alarith Stoneguard with Diamondpick Hammer (85pts)
- Vanari Auralan Warden (65pts)
- Vanari Auralan Warden (65pts)
- Vanari Auralan Warden (65pts)
- Vanari Auralan Warden (65pts)
- Vanari Auralan Warden (65pts)
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Generated on Warcrier.netThe Slaughter Queen is here to use her somewhat ludicrous (but wide reaching) Quad Orgy of Slaughter to basically buff the critical damage of as many units as possible.
With 8″ range on it, you should be able to cover a good swath of the board, and with average range of 2″ or 3″ among your rank and file, you can poke people outside of the circle too if they are close enough. That means this list will be criting to deal 7 or 8 damage on average.
If there’s a specific target, you can also combo it if you get very lucky on your dice, by tagging them with your High Sentinel‘s triple to get even more attacks against them.
With 20 points left, you could further boost the crit damage on the Seneschal or consider giving him +1 toughness so he doesn’t die immediately.
Further Reading
While this is the first time we really dove into the Lumineth, we have mentioned their chaff previously in an article about listbuilding for crit-hunting and if you enjoy listbuilding in general, we did deep dives for SCE Thunderstrike and SCE Sacrosanct too.
