For Minions newbies (such as myself) I think it would be nice with a short introduction to each of the faction's Warlocks and their play style, just to give a brief feel for what they can do and how they want things done.
Warlock
– General play style (attrition? assassination? fast? slow? hard hitting? defensive?)
– Main shtick (that thing up their sleeve)
– Preferred beasts (and their synergies)
– Preferred units (and their synergies)
– Preferred solos (and their synergies)
– The big no-no (where they really don't shine)
Feel free to chime in!
Thornfall:Dr. Arkadius
Helga the Conquerer
Lord Carver, BMMD, Esq. III
Midas
Sturm & Drang
Blindwater:
Bloody Barnabas
Calaban, The Grave Walker
Jaga-Jaga, The Death Charmer
Maelok the Dreadbound
Rask
I'm surprised no one has touched on this. Still it is a very very very big question with no one specific answer. I'll touch on the few casters I can, dont own any Gators to speak of so I cant help you there.
Dr.Arkadius: Battlegroup caster / Alpha strike junkie
Ah the good doctor. A true battlegroup warlock through and through. Other than a min unit of Bonegrinders I have never seen the good doctor run a single unit of anything, nope. Horrible slobbering beasts all the way.
Old Arkie's shtick is his feat
MONSTER MAYHEM which allows him to catapult his entire army and additional 8 inches up the board. This combined with the ancient art of
PER-MEASURING almost guarantees him the fast majority of Alpha strikes.
Synergies
Roadhog - The trusty roadhog. Pretty simple setup here. The
RAW ADRENALINE ability on the doctor's needle gives the Roadhog boosted sprays. Thats each attack made under the template and damage too, very fury efficient. Due to
MONSTER MAYHEM the Roadhog could in theory threat 28 inches, this would involve Arkadius being to far up the field for comfort though.
Splatterboar - One of my favorites that many caster dont see coming, though I dont tend to run Splatterboars under Ark often. So enemy caster is within 18[14] inches of Splatter and with Ark's control area of 14 inches. Arkadius feats moving the Splatter 8 inches towards the caster, this puts them in range of the Splatter's gun. Splatter aims and pops animus effective RAT 5, not great but our chances improve if Ark uses
RAW ADRENALINE on the splatter first. On average dice should hit def 14 caster very easily, casters with def14 usually dont like being set on fire.
Gunboar - See the Roadhog entry. Boosted Attack and all blast damage rolls are also fully boosted.
Feralgeist - This one is interesting. Notice the wording on
MONSTER MAYHEM doesnt specify enemy models, this meas we can target our own Feral as long as he is within Ark's control area of 14 inches, little guy is fast and best of all Incorporeal, meaning our Warhogs, Roadhogs and HogHogs dont harm it if they make it into melee with it. Our beasts can then activate and target/move through the Feral to a better target.
Dahlia & Skarath - A personal favorite of the people champion Gaston.
FORCED EVOLUTION turns Skarath into a def16 nightmare with POW 18 bites, these melee attacks are boosted if the target is in Dahlia's control area. His infantry clearing 10 inch sprays plus gunfighter totals him up to be the cool-kid abomination that the Roadhog aspires to be.
Targ - Faithful Targ is the Morty to Arkadius's Rick. Although herding can be useful for keeping Arkadius out of trouble Targ's main tool is his ability to give a beast within 9 inches another attack; that cygnar hunter survive on 1 hp? Let Targ push your beasts around to have another wack at it.
Battleboar/Gorax - Both are used for handing out primal, the difference between the two however is vast. Battleboars are best used for their adrenalize ability allowing them to mow down basic units. The Gorax on the other hand is a surprisingly painful heavy smasher, using Ark's needle or maltreatment means the Gorax can charge for free.
In closing Arkadius wants nothing to do with units but can enjoy the occasional solo. Battlegroup composition is largely up to you, though I prefer to run Arkadius as an armor cracker myself.
ARK / TARG / GOARAX RAGER / 2x GUNBOAR / 2x ROADHOG / 3x WARHOG
HELGA: Defensive/Assassination Mixed Unit support caster
One of my favorite casters to drop in Farrow. Helga is a unit support caster with a toolbox and stats that make her hard to kill outright. Her biggest weakness is being knocked down which takes away all her defensive tech and leaves her to be a pig on a spit. Some have suggested including Brun Cragback & Lug for their Antiknock down tech, however that is a 16 point investment that could be better spent elsewhere.
Helga can get a lot of work done with almost any troop and is very versatile in how she can be run. In personal experience however she is best run as an assassination caster, biding her time till her opponent give her an opening. Outside of Assassination she is not to be under estimated, her field marshal ability
GANG FIGHTER means that she and her battlegroup gain +2 hit and damage when an enemy model is engaged with another friendly faction warrior model, thats any friendly faction warrior model they need not have
GANG FIGHTER.
Helga's threat is further then most people think and is non-linear.
For those unaware of the 17” Helga assassination of doom:
Cast Dash
Charge 9” (11” threat)
Cyclone 6” (17” thread)
Feat
Take Cyclone Swing on Target (boost)
Redirect Charge Swing on Target (boost)
Brigands + Warlord - Oh boi here I go killing again. One of the best units [one of few anyway] choices available to farrow; built in pathfinder, dig-in & tough with the addition of being able to add re-position and prey to that list, the brigands are a versatile unit that is not to be underestimated. They benefit from the occasional
DASH spell from Helga, the extra movement can help them get to shots they could not otherwise take. The main benefit however is
PARRY this allows the Brigands to disengage and help Helga with her Assassination.
Brigands could be talked about at length in their own right, though the major focus would be on their prey ability which allows them to bring low obstacles though impossible. On average dice Ive seen them level four ARM16 light jacks in a single turn thanks to their signature action
HOGWILD, think of it as a reverse assault order.
Feralgeist - The return of Casper the contesting ghost. Feralgeists play a different role in Helga lists. Due to Helga's Field Marshal
GANG FIGHTER ability the Feral can be used to give Helga and her beasts that sweet +2 to hit and damage.
Saxon Orrik - Helpful for giving Helga or her army pathfinder for a turn, and almost invaluable to the assassination game.
Totem Hunter - When taking Helga out of theme one cant really look past the totem hunter as an effective second vector of assassination. With
DASH and jump the totem hunter has a non-linear threat of 15 inches.
Viktor Pendrake - Although I have never tested this myself I find the idea of a DEF 20 model harassing a menagerie of lesser warbeasts. Pendrake is Def 14 flat, his ability
DUCK means he gains +4 def against warbeast attacks and
DEFENDERS WARD from Helga puts him up by another +2Def.
Regular Troop Melee/Range DEF 16
Regular Troop Engaged Range DEF 20
WarBeast Melee/Range DEF 20
WarBeast Engaged Range DEF 24
One can dream.
Swamp Gobber River Raiders - Also a sub optimal choice if not a hilarious one. Not the wording on Helga's feat
GRAND FINALE no matter the size, strength or type of model all melee attacks can become slams. This means these little rascals under feat can move up and fire their Harpoons at enemy jacks/beasts [12 inch threat] if they hit they can place themselves in the back arc as their
REEL IN ability states they are
PLACED b2b with the model, they then SLAM! that poor sucker towards your hungry army.
Farrow Commandos - No love here outside a minimum unit in theme. Can be helpful for smoking out the enemy caster or finishing off a Brigand prey target so they can select another one.
Battleboar - Primal bot. Nothing more to be said.
Roadhog - Good threat for Helga and gives lightning strike as an option
Warhog - Situational but gives Helga Bulldoze for when she needs to reach her target
Currently 5/0 with my Helga list. I prefer Warhogs for bulldoze myself
. Though Gaston's list will have Roadhogs and Targ take their place.
HELGA/Battleboar/Roadhog/2xWarhog
Saxon Orrik
2x Efaarit Scout [Free]
2x MAX Brigands + Warlord
MIN Farrow Commandos
As Gaston writes in his Helga battle report the use of this list is similar, Helga waits till she has a shot at slamming something into the enemy warcaster or she can slam the warcaster into something, either way the aim is to knock them down, then have the Brigands or other available shooters ect disengage and end their miserable lives. I have had success using the feat for plays other then assassination, under Helga's feat the collateral damage of the slam is equal to the weapon used, therefore its important to let your warbeast out to play baseball every now and again.
Thats all that casters I have time for tonight, if that helped you I will tackle Carver and Midas another time.
Be sure to check out Battle College for some basic write ups on the minions casters.
) are great solos with him though, although sadly Maximus has fallen out of favour with me since Lanyssa's point increase.