First, lets look at what the Greedy Fist is all about...
Q: If a Wizard is hit by a ranged attack from the bearer of the
Greedy Fist, does it lose a Wizard Level? (p62)
A: Yes.
So, for a good chunk of pts, you get a weak Wardsave, extra strenght, and the ability to stripe off wizard lvl with any spells or ability that does ranged dmg...
What does this means? It means all you have to do is cash bonecrusher on a lone caster (like, a gigantic daemon in the open, or a DE Sorceress on pegasus), and any hits (yes, just hits, not wound) you cause is a lvl and a spell lost. It is HUGE in some situation. Obviously, with cannon now stronger than ever, lone caster are pretty rare, but if that ever happens, you know you can count on that to get ride of a caster quickly. It will obviously not work twice tho. If taken in a small tournament, or against friend, as soon as their know you have the fist, they'll never let a Direct Damage Through.
How to build your caster around Greedy Fist
Obviously, fitting such an expensive item in a 2500 pts list is quite a challenge (at least, to me). To figure out how to fit him, you have to consider what item you absolutely want in your list and how many carrier you have. If you decide to go character heavy, it wont be much of an issue, but if, like me, you decide to go for a 2 caster + BSB character setup, you quickly run out of place.
Items that are imho a requirement ;
Dispel Scroll. Obviously, with magic being what it is, you do not want to risk to lose your army failing to dispel a Purple Sun casted at 20+.
Hell Heart. Once the Dispel Scroll is used, i always find the Hell Heart really useful to try to get ride of a big magic phase. it's very random, and could be left home, but i think its ability to really turn the tide of the game is worth the 50 pts.
Crown of Command. If you run a bunker with most of your character in it, you simply cannot afford to risk loosing most of your army on a bad roll. Ld9 can be failed, but Ld9-4 is much easier to fail. Considering i personally run a semi-deathstar with 10 IG and all my character, i cannot afford to lose 55% of my pts.
Ironcurse Icon. Again, following the idea of the bunker, its always a good idea to have a 6+ Wardsave vs Cannon, or stone thrower, or just about anything that can easily kill 3-4 ogres/turn. He's cheap, but he's also in the same category as the Crown of Command, which become an issue...
Then, you have to consider what you want to equip each character with.
I personally think that our Slaughter Master do not require a Wardsave. Since he can heal himself from time to time, and since he has a good chance of getting and casting trollgut, leaving him wardless is not a bad option. Fencer's Blade, on another hand, is a no brainer, to reduce to a minimum the amount of lucky shot he takes. WS10 T5 is brutal against troop, and can survive a few rounds vs non-multiple-wound-dealer characters. With just fencer's blade, he can be thrown in the front, and take most of ennemy troops attack and survive to talk about it, without even a buff. Then, you have to give him either the Hell Heart, or the Dispel Scroll...
A BSB, imho, is another character that is well suited to go in front, with as much defense as possible. Heavy Armor, Ironfist, and 4+ Wardsave is all he needs to survive to most attacks as well. Then with the remaining pts, you can get Ironcurse Icon.
Firebelly, or butcher, or whatever else you want, should be the hellheart carrier, because of its pts, allowing you to free up as much room as possible on the Slaughtermaster for some other item, like, for example, the greedy fist.
My usual setup is this (for 745 pts);
SM
lvl4 of Maw
Fencers Blade
Crown of Command
Dispel Scroll
Dragon bane Gem (such an amazing item for the price, especially coupled with Trollguts)
BSB
Heavy Armor + Ironfist
Talisman of Preservation
Ironcurse Icon
Firebelly
Additional Hand Weapon
Hell Heart
If you want to go for the Greedy fist, you got to make choice. One of the option is to get ride of BSB's defense, and make him a 2nd rank type of character. SM could also be considered as a 2nd rank character, but i think that for his price, he's better used in front, dealing as much dmg as possible ;
SM
lvl4 of Maw
Fencers Blade
Dispel Scroll
Greedy Fist
BSB
HA + IF
Sword of Strikings (because even at 2nd rank, he only lose an attack from his regular profile, so better make those attacks counts)
Crown of Command
Firebelly
Additional Hand Weapon
Hell Heart
On my standard list, i usually go 3 wide, 4 deep, with SM, BSB, and Champion in front, greatly reducing your opponent chance to deal much wounds at least on the first round of cc. Going with a defenseless BSB means you have to commit one spot as either the firebelly, or a troop model. In both case, you're very likely to lose a few more wounds, and it can get very ugly from there. The tradeoff is that instead of 5 WS10 S4 and 4 WS5 S5 attacks, you get 5 WS10 S5 and 3 WS5(+1 to hit) S5 attacks, giving you more chance to wounds with your characters.
I quite frankly have to admit that even if it looks nice on paper, i think the attacks allocation is too much of a strenght for out big base to let it slide and open up our troops to our opponent attacks early on. For some it could work, for me, i do not think it would.
Also, you lose your Ironcurse Icon. Depending on where you play, it may or may not matter, depending on the amount of warmachines people usually carry. I personally lost too much Ogres to Cannonballs and Skaven cannon of doom not to invest that few pts in Ironcurse Icon.
Another option, is to go without Crown of Command, allowing you to bring a very defensive BSB. I'd note right now that i would never leave home without a defensive BSB AND without crown of commands. Leaving one of the two home is ok, but the two is too much of a risk.
Another build, this one i'm not a big fan of, but should be considered, is to go with a lvl4 of Death, allowing you to have even greater chance of reducing your ennemy caster by a few level, no matter if he's in a unit or not. This obviously force you to get ride of the Firebelly and replace him with a Butcher (for the Lore of Maw user required before taking Death).
If you go that route, you have to first accept the fact you will most likely never cast +1T, +1S or Regen on your unit, that your Slaughtermaster cannot heal himself anymore and that Death, even if it is very powerful under certain circunstance, is not the best lore ever.
First, lets look at the lore.
Spirit leech, will have to be boosted to get within range of just about anything (that your hell heart couldnt get), so it's still an easy spell to cast, but with Ld8, he's not likely to do any hits.
Aspect of the DreadKnight, is worthless, unless you think causing terror could help you against your opponent.
Caress of Laniph, again, would have to be boosted to be of any use. 2D6 minus strenght could deal a few hits (3-4 against standard T3/4 Caster), reducing greatly your opponent mage.
Soulblight is nice, even if greedy fist doesn't matter there. It can turn the game around as much as a well placed Trollgut or Beast's signature spell.
Doom and Darkness works well with Dreadknight or spirit leech, but i doubt anyone would be stupid enough to let both pass.
Fate of Bjuna is the last spell that Greedy fist have any chance to be useful. Just like Caress of Laniph, it could quickly turn your opponent caster into a very crappy fighter.
But once you manage that, what happens? Death is very limited in its ability once it dealt with character. Sure, you could go for other Lords or Heroes, but it leaves you pretty empty handed against everything else.
Death's SM list could look like this ; (758 pts)
SM
lvl4 of Death
Crown of Command
Dispel Scroll
Greedy Fist
BSB
Heavy Armor + Ironfist
Talisman of Preservation
Ironcurse Icon
Butcher
lvl2 of Maw
HellHeart
With this setup, you're left with a lone character that can go in front, but all the tool to survive most of anything. The strategy about that kind of setup would be a bit different though, as you'd need to play a bit more defensive, and stay a bit further back, to allow your death caster to do any kind of dmg before the cc starts, since most spells are Direct Damage.
The big advantage with this is that you could end up facing no caster by turn 2 or 3, and your opponent be left to finish the fight with shooting and close combat alone, which could work in our favor. But its a whole lot of points invested in trying to snipe opponent character, and points that could quickly be useless if something goes wrong early in the game, like low power dice magic phase, or your opponent being very lucky at dispelling, or just rolling poorly to hit. If those happens in the first 2-3 turns, you end up with a close to 400 pts caster doing nothing for the rest of the game. Its a gamble, and a pretty big gamble that you do not have to face when using a buffing lore like Maw.
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