Miafan
Junior Strategist
Eater of Brains
Posts: 130 
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Post by Miafan on Aug 22, 2019 6:44:52 GMT
I've been considering a full return to the game for some time instead of irregular home games with pals. Oblivion theme change and confirmation that WMH is not going anywhere gave it a nice additional jolt.
After serious mulling about my one and only faction, and it's current state, I realized that I am out of fire for Protectorate - just don't want to deal with it anymore, nothing exciting about it. That leaves me with a need of a new faction to choose.
I am thinking over Retribution (elves, best-lookung warjacks ever, have a friend who is a die-hard retributioner), Legion (something 180* opposite, some of the best-looking models in the game) and Skorne.
Skorne looks promising, because I have a stock of models (two titan kits, two savages, brute, MK, incinds, Vorkesh, PGBH, Zaal1, Hakaar, VS, Makeda2, Xerx1, Morg1, Tyrant, maybe something else). In MK2 it was, basically, "Hordes PoM", in MK3 it has been remade so much that I honestly do not know, what Skorne IS right now. I checked out cards - warlocks look average, both gargants look great, Exalted theme looks awesome, Supreme Guardians look so impossibly broken that I feel balance of the game has changed a lot if people do not demand PP to wham them with a nerf bat on a daily basis.
Apologies for the long introduction. My question is: how is Skorne these days and what does it actually do?
Thank you in advance.
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bacon
Junior Strategist
Posts: 134
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Post by bacon on Aug 22, 2019 12:55:59 GMT
Skorne overall is in a pretty good place. Our power casters like Mak 3 and Rasheth are well known but most of our caster selection is viable in a competitive pairing. Generally speaking the only ones you'll never see outside of for fun games are hex 1, Naaresh, and morg 1.
All of our themes are solid too right now, with exalted being the stand out best.
Most of our beasts and units fall into the list dependent category. Outside of immortals in exalted, who are your only choice of mainline infantry, most of our units and beasts see play.
As far as play styles go, skorne is generally either deceptively fast, has a hard armor skew, a high defense skew, or a combination of the prior. Between casters like mak 2 and the krea buff it's not uncommon to see +4 or higher defense against shooting. We also still have our reputation for being able to kill most everything in the game if it wanders into our armies threat ranges.
With the changes to DoA, and the (up)coming release of both the hermit and void archon skorne will also able to play a lot of lights that hit like heavies. I dont know how viable it is yet though. Just be prepared to but some minions. You don't need a lot but a mistspeaker, swamp horror and a battle boar can be useful in DoA and swamp gobber bellows crew and valkyries are also useful anywhere.
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Post by Charistoph on Aug 22, 2019 14:52:32 GMT
One of the biggest changes was to Disciples of Agony. It went from being the very limited Theme on Warlocks able to take exotic Warbeasts to being the most exotic Theme we have access to (and quite possibly anyone else). It basically added the Imperial Warhost options to the Theme and expanded Minion availability (not the only Theme to do so, but we get to use Minion 'Beasts as Skorne 'Beasts and the others don't). You can play expendable Infantry, Combined Arms, or even some exotic kaiju (3 Garg options with the formerly-derpy turtle, only missing the Thresher as an option now). So it makes it a very exciting Theme to explore all its ramifications.
I haven't really had a chance to play with any of the changes, though. Poor stable and no store time don't really help with that.
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Post by bennep on Sept 5, 2019 7:40:37 GMT
Skorne's in a great place right now though I feel like I'm crutching on battle engines a lot. Right now I only own 1 of each, but I'm looking to buy the second Supreme Guardian as I enjoy that build sooooooooo much. I do feel like 1 Siege Animantarax is enough though.
A bunch of options are very viable. The only things I don't consider a lot in listbuilding nowadays (though over the past year I'm been practicing for WTC, so I'm trying to stay in the most competitive options) are the Cataphract Incindiarii and Arcuarii. I'm pretty sure they're not wasted points/options, especially with the points drop but I find them extremely fragile with middling threat ranges.
Other than that, there's a spot for just about everything in a bunch of lists. Your enjoyment/choice will depend more on the answers to the following questions:
1) What do you want to play? What's your preferred playstyle?
2) Do you mind buying one (or more) battle engine(s)?
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bacon
Junior Strategist
Posts: 134
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Post by bacon on Sept 6, 2019 5:38:13 GMT
Skorne's in a great place right now though I feel like I'm crutching on battle engines a lot. Right now I only own 1 of each, but I'm looking to buy the second Supreme Guardian as I enjoy that build sooooooooo much. I do feel like 1 Siege Animantarax is enough though. A bunch of options are very viable. The only things I don't consider a lot in listbuilding nowadays (though over the past year I'm been practicing for WTC, so I'm trying to stay in the most competitive options) are the Cataphract Incindiarii and Arcuarii. I'm pretty sure they're not wasted points/options, especially with the points drop but I find them extremely fragile with middling threat ranges. Other than that, there's a spot for just about everything in a bunch of lists. Your enjoyment/choice will depend more on the answers to the following questions: 1) What do you want to play? What's your preferred playstyle? 2) Do you mind buying one (or more) battle engine(s)? I have not had the chance to play acuarii yet, but but I've found incindiarii pretty strong with xekaar in MoW. |
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Post by deathbymelancholy on Sept 18, 2019 12:48:06 GMT
The Meta podcast recently did an episode that might interest you on the Muse on Minis network. It is by design a short format podcast (under an hour). Might help you out a bit.
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Post by bloodhawk on Sept 27, 2019 20:46:54 GMT
Miafan I don't think the balance of the game has truly changed so much as to suggest the SG is balanced, I think most people would agree it is one of the best models in the game currently. That being said, it is interesting that the balance of some models seem to somehow "hide" the balance of other models. For example, IMO no one is talking about the SG because everyone is busy talking about Clockatrices (for Grymkin). Before that everyone was talking about Lord of the Feast (for Circle) and by extension Iona who had LOTF in all her lists. I imagine eventually both the Clock and SG will see some sort of adjustment. All that being said, all factions have seen an increase in power over the course of MkIII. Part of that increase was the effect of themes on the game and how that affected specific models. It also had to do with the fact that many models were over costed in the transition to MkIII. The game is certainly in an amazing spot right now though, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Essentially all armies can compete at a competitive level, and while balance isn't perfect it feels solid. ***Let's be fair though, balance will never be perfect so we can all stop looking for that to happen 
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