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Post by tiberius on Oct 25, 2017 17:41:41 GMT
Pirate Queen Skarre - Dark Host
So yeah...Dark Host. Because the banes needed to hit harder and now they are accurate too. This list brings spell casting support and elite melee troops that will annihilate your opponents models. It even has access to cheap ritual sacrifice targets with scrap thralls. The only decision really in list making is how much pain do you want your opponent to be in...just kidding its not really that bad, though my opponents would really disagree. So I may spend some time discussing how to fight against this list rather than how to run it as it should be quite simple.
Pirate Queen Skarre - Skarlock thrall (free) - Stalker x 2 - Inflictor Wraith Engine Bane Lord Tartarus (free) Machine Wraith Scrap Thralls Gorman Di Wulf Bane Knights (max) Bane Warriors Max) + CA (free) Bane Riders (max)
So right away you have a lot of good quality melee oriented troops that gain prowl from the theme and have whatever terrain is on the table + two 4" dense fog clouds to hide their approach from any gun lines. Most of your army is ghostly so ignore terrain and all free strikes. All of these troops are followed up by your incorporeal wraith engine giving +2 ARM to all the banes vs ranged and magic attacks and helping them resist any ranged shots that can hit them. That means the Bane knights are ARM 20 vs ranged and magic most likely with stealth from prowl, and the bane warriors are ARM 17 with tough. And there are at least 10 of each of them. The bane riders will also be ARM 20 vs ranged and magic and most likely stealthed. Chances are good you will make it to your opponent. Banes do tend to be on the slower side, so getting alpha strike will be matchup dependent, but its almost guaranteed that anything hitting your lines will be feeding you something they hope will slow you down.
Any thing you do end up losing on the approach for from an alpha strike (which you should be able to get using the bane riders at least), you can replentish through Bane Lord Tartarus's death toll ability. He gets two attacks now at MAT 8 and reach with a P+S 12 weapon master attack and dark shroud. Any living warrior model (enemy) he kills, he can add a grunt to a target small based bane unit in his command range and in formation of the unit. He also provides +1 to hit to all banes in his command range from veteran leader on all their attacks (including impact if he is near the riders).
In addition, the bane warrior CA has a mini-feat that can return D3+1 grunts back to the unit. They also grant tough and rise to the bane warriors, so getting knocked down from a successful tough roll will not slow down the unit. T
The skarlock thrall will be casting ritual sacrifice every round using the scrap thralls for targets. I am told that they do not explode on removal because they do not take damage and do not go through the various steps of death. Under dark guidance and her feat, the bane warriors and even the bane knights are going to crush whatever they charge at. With +3D6 to hit on MAT 6 and +5 STR for choice banes already giving anything in their melee -2 ARM, its a bad day to be anything in charge range. Even without the feat, Skarre pretty much solves any problems the banes have with accuracy, which in my opinion, was one of their two weaknesses. The other was dying on the approach as they no longer have innate stealth, the theme fixes this.
Gorman Di Wulfe is tagging along in this list to provide some infantry removal with his corrosion bomb (POW 12 to everything in the 3" AOE and auto-corrosion), further warjack arm reduction from the rust bomb, or set up the assassination with the blind bomb (it is shakable...but not until their turn and man is it debilitating until then). Gorman is also immune to acid and fire, has stealth and can put out a cloud for himself. That cloud will be too small to help activate stealth from prowl on banes because they do have to be completely within the cloud to benefit. You can still use the cloud by just keep skarre behind the cloud.
The wraith engine is pretty good under skarre's feat, with +5 ARM is unlikely to be one rounded by anything short of a really good warjack or two heavies. It will seed the field with machine wraiths as your banes nearby kill living models. This is limited to 2" away so the wraith engine may be doing it itself. The machine wraiths can activate the turn they are put into play. This thing also has dark shroud with P+S 15 2" reach claws and rapid strike. So it gets 3 attacks while giving its targets -2 ARM.
So how does one fight this mess? Heck if I know. I hope you brought some remove from play tech, fast troops with good infantry removal that can hit fairly hard to get through moderate armor. Guns will be mostly ineffective if the bane player is smart and the table has amble terrain. Skarre is probably the weak link of the list and will be mostly camping 4-5 focus every round. Good luck!
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Post by tiberius on Oct 25, 2017 18:21:30 GMT
Pirate Queen Skarre - Black Industries
I would build this list very similarly to the infernal machines list. You can take the withershadow combine or the deathjack as assistance with casting spells, though the deathjack is also a main damage dealing murder machine. You have access to scrap thralls for cheap ritual sacrifice targets and lots of warjack support. The biggest difference in the list is not having a skarlock or a necrosurgeon and you get light warjacks for free for every 30 pts of jacks you take. Oh, and your unit of melee dudes is not as fast or cheap as mechanithralls.
Pirate Queen Skarre - Deathjack - Inflictor - Stalker - Scavenger x 2 (free) Aiakos, Scourge of Meredius - Harrower Iron Lich Overseer - Seether Scrap Thralls Ogrun Bokur Machine Wraith Cehphalyx Mind Slaver and Drudges
I could probably move some stuff around and get the withershadow in there, but 9 points just to cast ritual sacrifice seems like a lot. Though a free upkeep of backlash may be fun. Rerolls are always good. But Skarre can probably cast ritual sacrifice herself, or just not worry about it with this list as most of the stuff is pretty self sufficient. Or she can cast it and just not worry about dark guidance every round, just save it for the assassination run.
Deathjack can cast half of her spell list. Blood rain, hellfire or ritual sacrifice. All solid castings if it has nothing else to do with its 3 focus (2 from skulls of hate, 1 from power up). Under her feat turn, its MAT 8, P+S 23 for two attacks and P+S 20 for the horns, and is ARM 24 with the best armor diagram in Cryx next to the cankerworm who has a fraction of the stats and boxes. It will be hard to remove during the feat round and should kill a few things if you get its placement right.
Seether is hitting almost as hard, though under the Iron Lich Overseer, will not have as many attacks or boosts. However, it will be swinging at +4 damage and possibly +9 under the feat turn. That is P+S 24 with darkshroud folks.
I picked a pair of scavengers as my free warjacks though shrikes would be just as good, maybe even better since the +5 STR on feat turn applies to trample damage. Pick a 10" line in any direction and do P+S 16 damage to everything in your path, then buy additional attacks at the end of the line...seems good. The scavengers on the other hand will be P+S 16 and finisher on a single target so will potentially hit a lot harder against something. Both are Speed 7 with flight so can go most anywhere you want.
Not a bad fit for her, but she definitely likes Dark Host or Infernal Machines better.
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juckto
Junior Strategist
Posts: 124
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Post by juckto on Oct 26, 2017 7:45:03 GMT
Scrap thralls don't explode from Ritual Sacrifice. The spell does no damage, so they never reach the disabled stage.
Banes can't fit in the cloud with Gorman.
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Post by Gamingdevil on Oct 26, 2017 9:07:27 GMT
The skarlock thrall will be casting ritual sacrifice every round using the scrap thralls for targets. I am fairly certain they explode when you remove them so be careful of placement. They don't, because you immediately remove them from play for Ritual Sacrifice, so they don't reach the Disabled step where the actual explosion happens. Gorman Di Wulfe is tagging along in this list to provide some infantry removal with his corrosion bomb (POW 12 to everything in the 3" AOE and auto-corrosion), further warjack arm reduction from the rust bomb, or set up the assassination with the blind bomb (it is shakable...but not until their turn and man is it debilitating until then). Gorman is also immune to acid and fire, has stealth and can put out a cloud for himself. That cloud will also help activate stealth from prowl on a bane or two, but they do have to be completely within the cloud to benefit. Gorman can't mathematically give the Banes Prowl, unless you move him out of the cloud, or kill him I guess. You have to center the cloud on him, his base (30 mm) is larger than 1", meaning on every side you have less than 1" left and so can't possibly fit another 30 mm base in. EDIT: ninja'd by juckto
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Post by tiberius on Oct 26, 2017 10:17:14 GMT
Thanks for the corrections guys. I appreciate the input.
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Post by tiberius on Oct 26, 2017 17:51:35 GMT
Pirate Queen Skarre - Scourge of the Broken Coast
The satyxis theme for our premier satyxis warcaster. The theme gives the typical free solo or command attachment after so many points of satyxis units are drafted. It also provides all satyxis in the list with pathfinder. This includes Skarre, meaning you can be a lot more liberal with the use of terrain to keep her alive in the middle of the table. This makes the theme force and the caster both very fast that they can ignore any terrain as they move forward with their naturally fast speed of 7. In addition to the above, the satyxis blood witch unit gains ambush, which is even more board control.
Pirate Queen Skarre - Harrower - Inflictor - Stalker x 2 Satyxis Raider Captain Wrong Eye and Snapjaw Satyxis Blood witches + hag Satyxis Gun Slingers Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch
Because this theme does not include any of the support that Skarre likes, I went for a minimal battlegroup so the focus demand for the warjacks would only happen when necessary. In addition, there is no good target for ritual sacrifice as the raiders are pretty valuable at both troop clearing, jamming and feedbacking heavy warjacks, the gun slingers are good with pathfinder and sniping low armor targets, and the blood witches will be out of range with ambush.
As an extra measure of protection because I will most likely not be casting ritual sacrifice for more than 1-2 turns, if that, I included Wrong Eye and Snapjaw. Keep in mind they do not benefit from Skarre's feat nor do they benefit from Dark Guidance. However, they do bring star crossed and are a self sufficient duo that can cross the board without being shot thanks to submerge. Starcrossed makes enemy models in the caster's control range (8" from wrong eye) gain an additional dice on attack rolls and discard the highest dice rolled. For an army of DEF 14-16 satyxis, this is really good and really annoying to deal with, especially when lines are crossed and wrong eye is close enough to really catch a good portion of your force for protection. Skarre would have additional protection in melee with that ability in play each round as DEF 16 is pretty good when they have to drop their highest dice, even if they boost.
Feat targets will most likely be your battlegroup, the satyxis raider captain and any raiders that you can get a good charge in with to hurt a warjack. If you are not going to go for feedback damage with the raiders, then using them as a feat target is not really recommended as they are accurate on their own and can take on most single wound infantry with their own prowess on a charge. The stalkers especially can benefit from the feat and dark guidance at double the distance, are maneuverable and with leap can get to where you need them fairly easily at the cost of a boost or extra attack (focus expenditure). But when they are cranked up to two initial attacks at POW 17, MAT 7, they will do just fine.
To do even better try and connect with the satyxis raider captain first as all of her initial melee attacks cause automatic knockdown. She also has No Sleeping on the Job, which can prevent Skarre from being knocked down as it affects all satyxis in the command range of the captain. A little extra insurance against assassination.
Overall, despite fitting thematically, the theme lacks the support that Skarre wants. She can really make it work, but there are better themes for her.
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Post by tiberius on Oct 26, 2017 18:59:05 GMT
Pirate Queen Skarre - Slaughter Fleet Raiders
So when I cover this theme with other casters I typically go on and on about the gang fighter bonus that this theme provides to warjacks. Well guess what, I am going to do it again because it is really the single redeeming thing about this theme and with all the bonuses that Skarre can give to any key models like warjacks, an additional +2 to hit and damage makes things really good. The 2" deployment zone increase is also very good when you have slower troops like bloodgorgers. But gang fighter!
Pirate Queen Skarre - Madelyn Corbeau, Ordic Cortesian - Stalker x 2 - Inflictor - Harrower Aiakos, Scourge of Meredius - Leviathan General Gerlak Slaughterborn Black Ogrun Boarding Party Bloodgorgers The Devil's Shadow Mutineers
So my goal with this list would be to eat my opponent's entire list, or at least a good chunk of a unit with Gerlak on feat turn under dark guidance. The danger would be to have Gerlak run into someone smart enough to space their unit out properly (I miss his 2" reach) or range outside of Skarre's control area. Gerlak is a MAT 8 P+S 13 with finisher and berserk and overtake. Overtake allows you to move 1" in between swings and berserk allows you to keep swinging as long as you have targets...friendly or enemy. With the overtake, it should be easy to avoid eating your own guys, but if you need to kill one to get to more enemy targets...well I think its worth it. We are playing Cryx after all and you should have learned a long time ago that everything in your list is expendable with the exception of your caster.
Bloodgorgers also gain berserk from Gerlak in his command range and they had overtake already. With two initial attacks, they can do some good infantry clearing on their own under the power of dark guidance. That MAT 6 is often unreliable but with an extra dice on attack rolls, you are now hitting DEF 15-16 on average rolls, moving an inch and repeating. If you miss, you do have another weapon to take a second shot. Redundancy!
You may ask, why are the stalkers not on Aiakos? Well I was thinking about it and while they are very good with him and can do 16" from him, they have to be within 12" of skarre to get the good benefits. I like them with Skarre better in this case as they can range 24" from her and still get the benefits. In this case, I put the leviathan on him so he can be a focus battery for its gun, or let it go crazy with its P+S 17 melee attack under dark guidance and Skarre's feat. Aikos can make the leviathan faster and allow it to get into a good sniping position faster. The stalkers don't really care who they are on, as they are already super fast and mobile with leap. But it comes down to preference and this is a setup I would at least try.
I still don't understand why Madeline Corbeau is available for some themes and not for others. But using her is Skarre is a very good defensive measure as it takes any warrior model attacks (ranged, magic or otherwise) off the table in targeting either Skarre or herself. Parlay is super powerful and I am not sure why it exists, but I love it. Basically that leaves warjacks, battle engines and cavalry as threats to Skarre, and its pretty easy to screen her from large and huge based models with your army of medium bases. Unfortunately, Madeline cannot be used as a ritual sacrifice because she is not faction friendly. But bloodgorgers can...I mean how many of them do you really need?
So while not her favorite theme, this theme does allow some things that she likes in terms of support. But no skarlock, withershadow combine or Deathjack. No super cheap disposable ritual sacrifice targets. But it can bring a solid ranged assassination attempt in addition to the normal melee assassination from Skarre's feat + darkguidance + stalkers gang fighting some dude.
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Post by Cryptix on Oct 27, 2017 2:41:11 GMT
Sidenote: dogganmit tibs you're making me look bad. I'm in the crunch-zone right now, so I can only write an article over the course of 2-3 days.
Scaverous - SotBC This is one of the best themes to run Scaverous in because it has everything he wants - Satyxis have natural Pathfinder so no worries about terrain, Raiders have multiple attacks for Soul Harvester and in return Scaverous takes their jamming potential to new levels with the ability to reroll attacks that manage to hit them.
Cryx Army - 75 / 75 points [Theme] Scourge of the Broken Coast
(Scaverous 1) Lord Exhumator Scaverous [+27] - Deathripper [6] - Deathripper [6] - Erebus [16] - Inflictor [13] Wrong Eye [17] Cephalyx Mind Slaver & Drudges (max) [12] Satyxis Blood Witches (max) [13] - Satyxis Blood Hag [0(4)] Satyxis Raiders (max) [16] - Satyxis Raider Sea Witch [3]
I was actually having trouble building a lit that worked because after all was said and done, I had 25 points left over apart form the core of the list, which is wrong eye, the blood witches, the raiders, erebus, and the deathrippers. This is how I've figured it out for now - I'm going for scenario jamming primary, with assassination by a thousand cuts as a secondary objective. Plan is just keep up the attrition game by helping Satyxis survive by sheer weight of rerolls, and Soul harvester is best on raiders anyway. The Cephalyx are there because with Deathward they're pretty tanky and as a second wave in case I need to keep up attrition in the zones. My only regret is that WE&SJ take up a lot of points and I'm really missing a source of dark shroud in here - this list is screwed against Khador armor.
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Post by tiberius on Oct 27, 2017 10:57:07 GMT
I guess I have too much free time. Let me know when you have written all you want to write Cryptix and I will get around to any themes you dont want to do. Also, did you want to do a detailed tactica discussion, like I typically do on my first post for each caster? I really dont have alot of experience with Scaverous in MKIII. Same goes with the witch coven if someone wanted to do them. Or I can wing it. But they have alot of tricks that a more experienced person can explain better.
Also, can someone explain to me the infinite shots black spot and a reaper can do? That never made sense to me. I am moving on to Skarre Queen of the Broken Coast.
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Post by tiberius on Oct 27, 2017 11:47:43 GMT
Skarre, Queen of the Broken Coast - Ghost Fleet
So our pirate queen went epic, with an epic base standing on a boat in an epic pirate pose. I really like the model personally. This version of skarre plays completely different than the prime version, as in she is alot more Cryxy Trixy than Skarre 1, where Skarre 1 just beefs things up and shoves them down your opponents throat. This Skarre has alot of movement shenanigans, focus efficiency and scalpels.
The stat lines are very similar with one big exception...Focus 7! Thats right, you lose ritual sacrifice as a spell but gain an extra permanent focus for a bigger control area and a better base for spell casting. She has a Speed of 7, MAT 7, RAT 5, DEF 16 and ARM 15. She retains her 3 initial melee attacks and gained a ranged attack. Apparently she sold or lost her life gaining dagger so she bought a pistol bayonet...sorry final fantasy VIII fans, a gun blade. She still has Takkaryx with its life trader ability to pay a life for an additional damage on damage rolls with that weapon, and the great rack with auto knockdown. Skarre 2 used to have some sort of push ability with it, where she could knock you down, push the target an inch, and follow up. That was lost coming into MKIII.
Other abilities she has are blood trade: can pay life instead of focus to upkeep spells, and she has a few nice ones.
Future sight: She can boost attack or damage rolls after she makes the initial roll. That way you never have to spend focus unnecessarily. Just miss? boost and hit. Get a super nice damage roll? Camp onto it. She also gains a field marshall of this ability, giving it to all of the warjacks in your battlegroup. That is one of her defining abilities for me, allowing warjacks to boost after they roll.
Her spell list is really good in my opinion. This first spell, admonition has alot of applications. For the unimaginative like myself, I mostly use it as a get out of jail free card when I am charged. Admonition allows you to make a 3" advance when an enemy model advances and ends its movement within 6" of target model in your battlegroup. That could be any warjack or skarre herself. You could also use it to move up past the charger and behind the enemy lines, it is only 3" but it could really disrupt your opponent's plans to lose a key charge on a heavy warjack only to have it move around the charging piece into prime charging position for itself next turn. You are immune to free strikes during this movement too. This is an upkeep, once you use it, the spell expires.
Backlash, carried over from Skarre 1, this is the death of 1000 cuts spell, where any time target enemy warjack is damaged, its battlegroup controller takes 1 damage. This does stack with feedback on the satyxis raider whips, so for them, it would be 2 damage per.
Black Spot is a really interesting debuff spell. It gives target enemy warrior model/unit -2 defense and when a friendly faction warrior model destroys one or more affected models with a basic melee or ranged attack during its activation, immediately after teh attack is resolved, it can make one additional melee or ranged attack. Attacks gained from black spot cannot generate additional attacks from black spot. So a pistol wraith moves up to a unit, shoots one, kills it, gets its soul, gets a free shot to whereever it wants to shoot. Then takes its second shot into the unit, kills it, gets a soul, takes its second free shot anywhere it wants to shoot. There is also something with the Reaper's drag ability that allows for some sort of infinite shoot and drag, but I never understood it, if someone could explain that, it would be appreciated.
Skarre has two attack spells and both are oriented for infantry removal. Blood rain is carried over from Skarre 1 as the POW 12, 3" AOE auto-corrosion spell. And taking the place of the Skarre bomb ability, is soul strike, a Range 10, POW 12 single target attack spell. If you manage to kill a target living model with this, you can choose one model within 4" of the destroyed model and deal a damage roll equal to POW equal to the ARM of the destroyed model. Note that it does not say base ARM, just ARM. Though if it was that beefy to begin with, you are probably not killing it with a POW 12.
Deathward, Skarre's pretty awesome buff. It gives any friendly faction model/unit +2 ARM. If it is a warjack, you choose what column gets damaged when it takes damage. This is an upkeep. Its pretty awesome when you can pick and choose a column to make sure your systems remain intact for as long as possible. Its not failsafe from Mortenebra 2, but its the next best thing and it can target units like Bane Knights or drudges.
Skarres feat is been nerfed and changed throughout the ages. It used to be taking up to 5 damage and making up to 5 friendly faction models untargetable by enemy attacks and/or choosing up to 5 enemy models in her control area and designating them as being unable to declare attacks. When Colossals came out, this got a nerf. Now into MKIII, the feat gives +5 DEF to target friendly model or -5 to attack rolls to target enemy model for up to 5 targets, and you still have to take a damage for each target. So have you every wanted a DEF 15 Kraken? DEF 17 wraith engine? Make your opponent's inaccurate protectorate colossal cry for a turn? DEF 18 Deathjack? Or Skarre herself at DEF 21. Those are Sorcha levels there. You get the idea, it can really DEF skew things in your favor for a round.
So what does Skarre want in a theme or list? Well she is alot more casty with upkeeps and targeted spells than her predecessor so I highly recommend 1-2 arc nodes, I typically like 2. She has alot of self damaging abilities, and while this is typically not a big problem, as most assassination attempts come in with enough ooomph to get the job done regardless of your health, a way to heal her would not be out of the question, and currently, the only way to do that would be the corruptor. She also only brings DEF debuffs. She helps your army hit, but not break armor. So anything you can bring to dish out damage or provide a source of dark shroud would be beneficial. She also has protection from melee charges, but no defense against ranged or magic attacks so a shield guard would be useful.
Skarre, Queen of the Broken Coast - Ripjaw - Nightwretch - Corruptor - Inflictor - Shrike Captain Rengrave Pistol Wraiths x 2 (free) Ragman Blackbane's Ghost Raiders Revenant Cannon Crew Revenent Crew (min) + 2 riflemen Revenant crew (min)
I took two arc nodes, a ripjaw and a night wretch. I actually like the ranged arc nodes better with Skarre 2 because it may allow me to abuse black spot a bit better. Though I felt like I needed a pit more punch in this list so a critical armor piercing ripjaw was something I thought would work well. While the field marshall is kind of pointless with the ripjaw, as it has powerful attack and are probably boosting both with a single focus anyhow, the threat of the armor piercing attack is still good.
I brought a corruptor along. I actually like this warjack alot as it has alot of utility options. First it has a decent gun at RNG 12 and POW 14 on a slayer chassis with the stats and boxes of a slayer (SPD 6, MAT 7, RAT 5, DEF 13, ARM 17). It has a single open fist with P+S 16 for a melee attack. Any attack it makes, either melee or ranged can choose one of these abilities. Burster, your anti-infantry option. If the attack boxes a living or undead model, center a 5" AOE on the model and remove it from play. Models in the AOE suffer an unboostable POW 10 corrosion damage roll. Next is the distillation power that when it kills a living enemy model, heals Skarre for d3+3 points. Finally is Psycho Venom, where you turn a living or undead boxed model into an arc node for a turn and the rule allows you to turn them around. All the rules for arc nodes apply, cannot channel while engaged, needs line of sight to the target, etc.
I brought an inflictor as a shield guard for Skarre. She does not need to play anywhere near as far up as Pirate Queen Skarre does, but a sheild guard and a decently resilient heavy warjack, especially with deathward on it (ARM 21, choose the colume that gets damaged) will be pretty hard to remove at range.
As mentioned above, pistol wraiths and most of the crew have good synergy with black spot and should have no trouble cleaning up units or low ARM targets. Glut the pistol wraiths on soul tokens for a good assassination run.
Ragman is my source of dark shroud with his death field ability. That will allow the pirates to hit a bit harder, or a warjack to hit a bit harder. Or anything else in that 3" bubble.
I also brought the cannon crew. With Black spot, they could actually be fairly accurate and get a free shot, and can add grunts to a revenant crew unit within its command range. Keep in mind, if you do Death Toll ability, it removes from play and does not get the free shot from Black Spot as you never get to that step where it activates. The same goes for Rengrave.
So overall, Skarre 2 lacks punch but has alot of neat tricks to stay alive and grind out attrition and scenario. She even has tools to do assassination as she has alot of ranged elements in her list and some knockdown tech. If Skarre can charge the target and knock it down, pistol wraiths full on souls should have little trouble killing the target. Or the corruptor with its boostable gun can provide backup.
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Post by Gamingdevil on Oct 27, 2017 12:01:01 GMT
Also, can someone explain to me the infinite shots black spot and a reaper can do? That never made sense to me. I am moving on to Skarre Queen of the Broken Coast. Normally you can only make the same type of additional attacks as your initials, because you choose between ranged or melee when you start your combat action. Some abilities, like Dual Attack, can get around this. Drag is also one that can get around it, because the free melee attack specifically allows you to make additional melee attacks. Now the next hurdle is that Black Spot states that a Black Spot attack can never trigger Black Spot again, so here you need to get creative, with Drag. - Start with a ranged attack, do not kill your target, but you do have to damage it to trigger drag (this is tricky against anything that's not a warnoun)
- get a free melee attack from Drag, this is where you want to kill your target
- Black Spot will now trigger and allow you to choose a ranged or a melee attack (because you started with ranged and Drag allowed you to make melee)
- Choose another ranged attack and repeat steps 1-4 until you run out of targets
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Post by tiberius on Oct 27, 2017 12:14:39 GMT
Ah, so the black spot attack, the ranged attack, did not generate another black spot attack, the free melee attack did, which gets around the wording of a free attack generated by black spot cannot generate another free attack generated by black spot. Got it. Thanks Gamingdevil.
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Post by Gamingdevil on Oct 27, 2017 12:37:48 GMT
Apparently she sold or lost her life gaining dagger so she bought a pistol bayonet...sorry final fantasy VIII fans, a gun blade. She actually broke it to save her own life by escaping an exploding Orgoth Temple (she was looking for Terminus, but Asphyxious banished him), this is also where she picked up the ability to see into the future. This first spell, admonition has alot of applications. For the unimaginative like myself, I mostly use it as a get out of jail free card when I am charged. Admonition allows you to make a 3" advance wehn an enmy model advances and ends its movement within 6" of target model in your battlegroup. That could be any warjack, attachment, or skarre herself. Attachments are not normally a part of the battle group, except when they have a special rule stating that they are, such as Companion.
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Post by tiberius on Oct 30, 2017 12:16:55 GMT
Skarre Queen of the Broken Coast - Infernal Machines
This theme brings a lot of the support that Skarre wants in the form of warwitch sirens, the withershadow combine for a free upkeep - because Skarre has 4 upkeep spells and most are worth casting, and the deathjack as a self feeding warjack. She has too much to do with her focus stack to be feeding warjacks, upkeeping spells and casting spells every turn, she needs things to alleviate that burden. This theme also has access to some synergistic infantry removal and armor cracking with a lot of options for either.
Skarre Queen of the Broken Coast - Withershadow Combine - Night Wretch - Deathjack - Leviathan - Reaper - Deathripper Bloat Thrall Overseer Mobius Bloat Thrall Warwitch Siren Mechanithralls (max) + 2 Brutes Necrosurgeon
The deathripper and nightwretch, the two classic Cryx arc node bone jacks that gave deathchickens or deathturkeys their nickname. There was an age old debate about which is better back in MKI and MKII when they costed pretty much the same. Now, they cost slightly different and it is still a matter of taste. The Deathripper is your budget arcnode with a single melee attack at MAT 5 and P+S 12. It does have sustained attack however, so it can get some work done if you can connect with that first attack, most likely boosting. But for only 6 points, its a disposable arc node and that is all people tend to use them for, just remember that any arc node can do something in a pinch other than set around and be a spell relay. You just cant use the arc node while they are engaged.
The nightwretch is one more point than the deathripper, but comes with a RNG 6, AOE 3, POW 14 gun. For someone like Skarre and access to a spell like black spot, that is quality infantry removal, turning the RAT 5 into potentially RAT 9 while aiming and then getting a free second attack with an AOE. Solid. And best of all, you do not have to engage to do your attack so you can do work and still be an arc node.
The deathjack is here for focus efficiency and a source of armor cracking. He makes a great target for deathward or admonition. Best of all he gives himself 2 free focus and gets another free one from power up, enough to cast any of skarre's two attack spells. Those are the only spells on her list he can cast as the others are all upkeeps. Same with the withershadow combine. They can only cast blood rain or soul strike, but the free upkeep and rerolls they bring are very solid and welcome.
The reaper in the list can easily be replaced with an inflictor if you would rather have a shield guard or a body guard jack. As we discussed in another entry, the reaper has a combo with black spot to potentially get unlimited free attacks because of how the wording of drag interacts with the wording of black spot and how free attacks are rewarded and restricted. But as long as you can drag something without killing it with the harpoon and kill it with your free melee attack without buying an additional melee attack, you can keep shooting and pulling as long as you have viable targets.
Though for interaction with black spot and infantry removal options, I personally like Bloat thrall overseer Mobius and Bloat thralls. While an expensive package, the ability to lay out multiple accurate 4" POW 14 autocorrosion AOEs (one from each normally, and then another from black spot if you manage to kill something with the initial shot). But even a good scatter with a 4" AOE will most likely kill a swath of single wound infantry with the corrosion. This is great in a cryx mirror match. The guns are range 12 so you can get a shot or two off before they get on you.
Mobius also brings a number of abilities that are all pretty useful for bloat thralls, and he can target himself if you would rather just bring him and another warwitch instead of a bloat thrall. He has Rush Forward, that gives target bloat thrall within 5" assault for one round, allowing you an extra 3" of threat range. Scutter gives reposition 3", which is good for staying out of threat ranges after you fire, and Spotter increases your accuracy by +2RAT and you can re-roll direction and/or distance on scatters. That is probably my favorite.
Of special note, both Mobius and bloat thralls have a death blast. If they are killed (disabled) center a 5" template on it, everything in the AOE suffers the continuous corrosion effect. Not as good as it used to be where everything took a POW 14 and it was popular to go bowling with bloat thralls. Deathjack could two-handed throw one into some target or group of dudes and have it explode on them if it dies. If not, it is steady so it isn't knocked down and they have to deal with a guy with a P+S 10 weapon in their face and potential death if they kill it. Tons of fun!
The necrosurgeon is probably not necessary in this list and could be replaced by a warwitch or something. More support is always good.
Overall, a very good theme for Skarre, especially in a Cryx mirror match.
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Post by tiberius on Oct 30, 2017 13:49:22 GMT
Skarre Queen of the Broken Coast - Dark Host
This theme does not bring much in the way of support for Skarre, but she does a lot for its already self sufficient and hard hitting units. Her upkeep spell of death ward is great on a single big warjack like a Kraken or on a good defensive unit like bane knights that would put them at a massive ARM of 20 using their wall of steel ability. Or even on the bane riders, who would also be an ARM of 20 and 5 wounds. Those are values that take dedicated force to crack and deal with.
Skarre Queen of the Broken Coast - Kraken - Nightwretch x 2 Bane Lord Tartarus (free) Bane Knights (max) Bane WArriors (max) + CA (free) Bane Riders (max)
I like a single big warjack with Skarre 2 and a colossal will be very hard to remove short of 2-3 dedicated heavy warjacks or something similar to remove under deathward. That makes the kraken at ARM 21 and you pick what column takes the damage. In addition to that, it will most likely be hanging out behind your throng of banes taking shots at things with its nice long range cannon. RNG 16, AOE 5, POW 14 (+1 dmg for each corpse token on the kraken) is the longest range weapon in cryx if you are not counting something like arc noding a witch coven spell assassination or something. The kraken also brings D3+1 shots of its flayer gun, at RNG 12 and POW 12 single targets. Taking shots at a black spot unit will potentially double the shots you get, and you can always choose your extra shot as the cannon and it does not have to shoot the black spot unit. The kraken also brings 4" reach chain weapon melee attacks at P+S 19. Good armor cracking, especially against jacks that rely on shields.
Admonition will most likely be put on Skarre herself as she has no real defensive tech in this list. NO shield guards, though you could take an inflictor if you wanted, or an ogrun bokur. Admonition and hiding behind a kraken or one of the 4" clouds the theme provides will protect her well enough for the banes to get up and start slaughtering the opposition. Skarre does help the list hit which solves their biggest problem. Admonition would also be legitimate on Tartarus himself, but aside from that, Skarre is your best bet of a target.
As discussed above, either the Kraken, bane knights or bane riders make great deathward targets making them all very hardy for cryx units.
The bane riders are great anti-infantry in their own right. Having lost curse, but gained their 2" reach back, they can charge in, do impact attacks, and hit with a boosted charge attack at a target. Brutal charge increases the damage of the charge attack as well. The bane riders have gained vengeance out of the last CID for banes meaning their threat range has increased even more if one of them takes some damage. And deathward will help them take it and not die. They also have ghostly and reposition.
The theme grants all banes prowl and grants 2 4" dense cloud effects for you to place. As Skarre doesn't really help protect your group outside of deathward, use of terrain and concealment will help them close.
Overall, the theme brings skarre no support but she doesn't really need it in this list and the list runs itself pretty well outside of her feeding the kraken and allowing it to boost after rolling for all its attacks and damage rolls.
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