A couple of weeks ago our friend Daniel Patterson managed to finish 1st at the Tax Man Cometh III event in the US.
Daniel was kind enough to give us his thoughts on his list and run through his tournament.
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Slaves to Darkness
Godswrath Warband
General’s Handbook 2025-26
Drops: 2
Spell Lore – Lore of the Damned
Manifestation Lore – Forbidden Power (20 Points)
Battle Tactic Cards: Intercept and Recover, Restless Energy
General’s Regiment
Be’lakor, the Dark Master (450)
• General
Chaos Chosen (540)
• Reinforced
• The Dread Banner
Chaos Lord (120)
• Head of the Unworthy
• Radiance of Dark Glory – (20) Points
Varanguard (310)
Regiment 1
Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount (140)
Chaos Knights (250)
Darkoath Fellriders (140)
• 1x Marauder Javelin
Faction Terrain
Nexus Chaotica
Daniel: This is my iteration on the beloved Belakor 1-Drop with reinforced Chosen and reinforced Varanguard. By splitting the Varanguard and adding Chaos Knights and a Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount (CLODM), I get more bodies for spread maps and a trading piece that can convert my Chaos Lord (CL) on foot into a Daemon Prince (DP) via Head of the Unworthy for better grinding. The core gameplan stays familiar—castle mid, apply pressure asymmetrically with Fellriders on the weak side and Knights/CLODM on the strong side—though I still have the classic “yeet” threat with Chosen via Bridge + 3D6 charge + Khorne mark.
Round 1: Seraphon, Kroak Castle on Noxius Nexus
Generally a good map for STD, but rough against Serephon here because he can play on two objectives and remain in his territory for the (-1 Rend) buff. I Khorne marked the Chosen and full sent, as one often does, and tried to line up good opportunities to pull stuff in and get value out of Chosen strike last. My opponent was smart though and pulled to deny some of my activations and I didn’t get too much out of my fight twices. 4 total Varanguard fights got into Kroak but didn’t do enough to kill him. The big thing here was that I was able to Dark Master one of his reinforced Saurus Guard units and roll the (3+) to stop him from moving and limit his Top of 2 clap back by simply body blocking. He also couldn’t retreat Kroak out because he only moves 5in in his Frieza Chari, lol. This was my closest game because I was grinding against Kroak’s spell and mass of bodies in the center but he never could overcome my big lead from pinning him in.
Round 2: Helsmiths of Hashut, Subfaction Stuff Powers up Faster
Here I hid in obscuring from all the scary shooting, as one does, and waited for my opportunity to go in. I got off 3d6 charge on the Chosen but failed bridge and had to Tzeentch mark them to get them in position. I rolled a big enough charge on them to sneak in past the screens and engage a Dominator Engine, the side of the reinforced Infernal Cohort, and tag one of the Rocket Batteries. On the other flank my CLODM was able to get into another Dominator Engine with Knight support and almost kill it. The CLOD tagged the other Rocket Battery with his pile-in and survived with AOD to keep it pinned. I proceeded to get my only impactful double of the tournament and push everything in for the big win.
Round 3: Gloomspite Gitz, Troggherd, lot’s of fking Troggs
This is a really hard match for Slaves as they can bring the Troggs back as 3 and still be very effective. Bringing bodies back in general is big trouble for us. He was also 2-drops so prio roll actually mattered. I won prio, deployed first, and gave turn, but I deployed my stuff too close together and rolled a 1 in redeploy on my Chosen so he was able to use the Soggy Sporesplattas to pin everything I had with their end of turn 2D6 move and limit my options. The only thing I was really able to do was move my Varanguard over behind Belakor and the Chosen to support them. He got prio and pushed his Troggs in. Between Fangs of the Badmoon and the Troggs first activation, (5/10) Chosen died before they could activate. I did however, get to countercharge my Varanguard in. I used both fight twices here, but only killed (2/6) in one reinforced Trogg squad. I eventually fought out of the pin, utilizing the large area terrain pieces to get cover and Belakor’s (-1 Hit) spell to force him to have (5+) to hit. I was able to grind with his Troggs and eventually kill his Trogg heroes. All of which hit very hard and can’t come back. The Fellriders Javelins had a big moment where their shooting attack finished off the returned 3 man unit of Snarlfang Riders to take a side objective back.
Round 4: Lumineth Real-lords, One of the current big bads, can have four activations before you get one on their turn with their sub-faction and Lyrior the Strike-first hero
He sets up (-2) to charge, gets the (5+) ward bubble up, puts can’t be crit on The Light, and obscures the two reinforced units of Dawnriders. I get 3D6 charge off, Khorne Mark my Chosen, and set up outside of 12 with them for a 3D6 charge into one unit of Dawnriders. He has a cheeky redeploy to put his (-2) to charge Wardens in range of my Chosen to make their charge a 14 into them and tag the Dawnriders or a 15 to just go into the Dawnriders like I want to. I fail the charge but then re-roll into a fking 17 and get in there! He uses the teleport combat ability to bring The Light over with the can’t be crit buff to help the poor Dawnriders. I activate the Chosen but can only get 5 Khorne marked Chosen into The Light and deal (3/7) dmg to him and kill 5 Dawns. The Light claps back and only lifts three Chosen through AoD, while the remaining Dawnriders kill another. My remaining 6 Chosen fighting a second time are able to just barley lift The Light and we are cooking from there.
Round 5: Index Daughters of Khaine, Coven Zealots, lot’s of fking Witch Aelves that can be buffed to the moon
He goes first and keeps everything back building up prayer points. I consider yeeting Chosen but he unbinds 3D6 Charge so I Khorne Mark Knights and send them in on a flank with the CLODM. I kill (16/20) witches and half of his teleporting Shadowstalkers but he pulls me out of combat so the Knights can’t Power-Through back to be supported by the rest of my army. Top of 2 he overextends a unit of Witch Aelves to clean up my Knights and basically just kills them with shooting. Bot of 2 I am able to get my Chosen, CL, Belakor, and Varaguard into the three central Witch Aelves units. He counter-prays for the (-1 Wound) bubble prayer, instead of Krethusa’s no crit/no command prayer for just one unit, and I am cooking. My CL tandem fight gives (+1 Wound) to my Chosen for both activations and negates this. After all my fights and both activations all 60 Witch Aelves are dead. I am even able to use my Varanguard’s second activation to get them back to obscrring. He wins prio into Top of 3 to try and clap back. He buffs his melee cauldron to the moon, I am able to redeploy my Chosen into obscuring so they can’t be shot, and I Dark Master his buffed melee cauldron. I fail the (3+) to stop if from move, shooting, and charging, but finally get it to stop it from fighting (we roll it off to the side and it would have killed 5 Chosen through AOD, lol). I weather his clap back and push into finish the rest of his stuff, barring some objective grabbers, bot of 3 and that is that!
