This is an army based on my favorite unique in Omens; Judge Blacklock. I like that he (like Marz, although not to the same extent) is both good at range and melee (a little later in the dial).

Judge Blacklock-80
Inferno-35
MSB-10

***Scalesworn Honorguard-38
EF Stag-47

***Dwarven Forgemage-32
**Solonavi Shade-29
**Solonavi Shade-29

Domains:

Darkness
Clear Skies
Rain and Mud

The Judge is nigh untouchable at range, sporting an effective 22 defense against wand figs (+2 to his defense, -3 to their attack), or 23 if he's soaring. The Honorguard and Stag is a great combo, also being hard to hit at range, and being able to dish it out with a 12 attack (highest in the army). The Trample and Ram is also very potent. The Forgemage is an excellent healer, and can hold his own in melee. The Shade is the ultimare harasser, and can Tap healing against BoL if need be. The Domains either limit movement to even the odds against Sky Dragons, or limit range, making Blacklock the dominant ranged force on the field.

What do you think? Thanks! :)

I like the design, but if you really want to make Blacklock untouchable take out the Honorgaurd and Stag and put in Rector Valkut (b) with Staff of the Silent Citadel and keep him within 8" of Blacklock.

Just another thought.

Nice concept, but I think the last part of your army coudl use a little rework...

The *** Dwarven Forgemage is neat, but his dial is quite shallow, which means after 2 turns chances are you won't have healing anymore against BoL... Personally, I'd spend 4 extra pts and get a * Leech Troll in... same attack, a little less damage, but a heck of a lot more durability...

As for your harassers, I'm not sure of why exactly you like so much the ** Solonavi Shades... Personally, I'd rather have something like a * Centaur Shaman which can do the job just so much better for the same cost... as for your secondary harassers, I'd probably go for soemthing like a * Zombie Centaur given that you only have 25 pts left to play with. The biggest advantage being that he's much fasters the the * Solonavi shade thanks to his ability to Double-time without taking extra damage...

Here's what your army would look like after all changes :

Judge Blacklock
Inferno
MSB
*** Scalesworn Honorguard
EF Stag
* Leech Troll
* Centaur shaman
* Zombie Centaur.

I think he's using the Shade because of the Mind Tap ability which I find to be very helpful myself.

It's hard to beat the Solonavi Shades when it comes to back-up/harrasment peices. The ** have a decent attack as far as harrasers go, they automatically mean that SA's in your army are at least doubled up upon. Using Olan's army, you have one healer, but using the original one posted means you could have up to 3 healers using mindtap. As long as the healer has at least 4 clicks of healing on it's dial, you are pretty much safe from BoL, or at least you can neutralize it. I'm not sure about the Forgemage's dial, but if after 1 hit from BoL, he still has healing then the Shades could mintap the healing and heal the Forgemage. And the best part is that the Shades have a 3 damage value so with regular Healing you can opt not to roll the d6 and heal the 3 damage from the Bol. If they hit the Shade, then the Forgemage OR the other Shade can use healing on it.

I think point for point the Solonavi Shades are the best figures you can have in your army. Just give them a try and I think you'll see what I mean.

The problme is that unless you NEVER push your *** Dwarven Forgemage, you will end up with no healing at all against BoL...

At the very worse, I'd upgrade the Forgemage to a Leech Troll, and downgrade the second ** Shade to a Zombie Centaur...

Okay, I've just looked at the *Leech Troll. I agree that, for 4 pts more, it would be a better choice over the * Forgemage 9 out of 10 times. The two clicks of regen does indeed give you more freedom to push the troll and still have the ability to get back into it's healing clicks. In this case, however, I'm not sure. It all depends on how much you would want the Shades in the army. The damage from DT isn't too big of a deal with the Shades since they gain Vampirism on thier second click anyways. And the Vampirism also gives them better staying power. Also dropping one of the Shades means dropping one of the potential healers. That's something I'd have to think twice about if I were facing a BoL engine. With 3 healers, it would require 2 failed healing attempts for your healing engine to fail. With only 1 shade it would require 1 failed attempt.

However, it will be easier to heal the Leech Troll then the Dwarven Fogremage with your Solonavi Shade... See, after 4 clicks, the *** Forgemage still has a 16 defense while after the same ammount of damage, the Leech Troll will only have a defense of 14 after BoL this means you will only need a 5 to Heal your Troll while you need a 7 to heal your Dwarf... Besides, if you really want to be safe with your Leech Troll, all you need to do is to deal him 1 damage with double-time... This way, if the Troll is hit by BoL, he ends up on his first regen click and then, you still have 2 shots at healing your Troll. Meanwhile, as soon as your *** Forgemage ends up taking 4 damages, forget about Healing, it's gone.

As for the DT damage, it might not be relevant when you're already in base contact, but whne you try to surge after using DT, you end up with an attack of 8 rather then an attack of 9 for the Zombie Centaur, which makes quite a difference.

I just got Blacklock today, and I tried the army Olan suggested out. I was totally massacred by 2 soaring ***Dragon Priests on Sky Dragons (EF). They would soar the hole game, taking pot shots at everybody. Whenever the Judge would deal damage, the Dragon or Priest would just be healed by the other. The Stag would loose its GF when it got hit by a Revenanted Centaur when it chased the Pain Wraith, and eventually everything I had was shot to pieces. Does anyone have any advice on the matter? I was thinking of the inclusion of Blackwings, but they wouldn't las long at all (that, and I only have *Black Wings...). Another option was an army that was all/mostly GF, but that's nigh impossible.

well, I have one idea that might just work well

Judge Blacklock-80
Inferno-35
MSB-10

***Scalesworn Honorguard-38
EF Stag-47

Fys'okra-B - 49
* Blackwing - 16
** Blackwing - 24
total: 299

Fys'okra is a magic immune summoner with magic healing so she can summon back the harrasers as well as heal Blacklock and the calvary unit. She also packs a 10 attack with Dark March so you can get a nasty 10 attack on the blackwings. This might work better.

- Saber

The main thing to remember about Blackwings is that no matter which rank you use, they are still fodder. Their main purpose is to harrass and deal whatever they can in the process. At their point cost losing a couple of them for a couple rounds of relative safety is well worth it. Having summon or call familiar makes the blackwings even more deadly.

I've considered and tried Black Wings, and without a Summoner they were killed in one turn, and the Sky Dragons got out untouched. I don't have Fys'okra, so my Summoner would be wide open to attack.

An army I did use with a bit more success (although I didn't win, I managed to bring one Dragon down, and had I rolled a little better I wouldn't have sacrificed the Judge to do it):

Judge Blacklock-80
MSB-10

Nepherea Pike-41
**EF Stag-47

**Delphana Master-38
Apprentice Folio-12
Implant Channel-4
Centaur's Gait-3
Gaurdian's Eye-2 (I don't have Archer's Aim, and I needed a filler spell to take Erase or Spell Stasis)

*Leech Troll-36
*Golem Familiar-18
*Golem Familiar-18

My plan was to get one of the 2 ***Dragon Priests with both Implant Channel and the Judge's Bound, killing it. This never happened, so I had to send the Judge soaring to kill one Priest, and lost him doing it. The Golems were amazing, with their subfaction. Nepheara's Stag got hit out of GF midway through the game, and was promptly shot up. The Troll kept Pike and the Master healthy, and stayed intact a good long while. I was either Counter Spelled or missed most of my Implant Channels, but with better luck I think I may have been able to win... How do you think this army would stand against the other archetypes? Thanks! :)

I played that game again (against 2 ***Dragon Priests on EF Sky Dragons, 2 *Zombie Centaurs, and a *Pain Wraith). This time, the army worked well enough for me to win against the Sky Dragons. Between Impant Channel and the Judge's Bound, I was able to drop a ***Dragon Priest. The Judge eventually fell to some MBing by the other Priest. I Channeled the remaining Priest once before I lost both Familiars. Eventually, all that was left was the Delphana, the Troll, and Pike and her Stag against the Pain Wraith and 1 Sky Dragon (w/out a rider). Through some fancy Revenanting, he managed to take the Stag down. In the process I demoed the Wraith. I eventually shot the Dragon and surged relentlessly, finally killing it with a dismounted Pike. A very tough yet satisfying game.