Post by ElaraIsBae on Mar 14, 2017 1:05:45 GMT
Overview: Elara specializes at landing the alpha strike and getting our hard hitters where the need to be. Elara can maintain pressure throughout the game with effective use of Scything Touch and Boundless Charge.
Stats: Elara has slightly better than average def at 16 and average armor at 15. Her MAT sits at a solid 7 and she is a 7 FOCUS caster. The 7 stack can vanish very quickly if you are tossing out Boundless Charge or cycling Scything Touch. Having reach models for Scything Touch is a huge plus.
Apparition: Elara has apparition; this lets you place her completely within 2" of her current location during your Control Phase. While she lacks pathfinder this 2" place can make her deceptively mobile.
Blood Boon: This is attached to Elara's reach POW 13 magic weapon. Once per activation, immediately after killing an enemy model with Elara's melee weapon Elara may cast a COST 3 or less spell for free. This ability helps Elara get into melee and then escape as the game progresses. This is important due to the short ranges on Scything Touch and Marked for Death.
Retaliatory Strike and Field Marshal [Retaliatory Strike]: If Elara or her battlegroup gets hit on your opponents turn you *may* make one basic melee attack against the model that hit you. Each model can only make a single Retaliatory Strike per turn. More then likely if Elara is using retaliatory strike you are dead or dying; her 16/15 stat line isn't anemic but, a heavy hitter will still paste you. On our jacks this is way more useful; keep in mind that Concerted Power only lasts the turn as does Manticore's Force Generator so our jacks will be base POW with a potential +2 from Scything Touch.
Weapons: When Elara grew up she decided to stick her two scythes together and her melee weapon gained reach and is magical. At POW 13 the weapon is ok, if you have Scything Touch on her you are an effective POW 15 which is much more respectable for that assassination run. At MAT 7 you should expect to be boosting your to-hit rolls unless you have Marked for Death on the target.
Spells
Boundless Charge: During activation, target friendly faction model can charge for free and gains +2" movement and pathfinder on the charge.
Cost - 2
Rng - 6
Boundless Charge lets you extend the threat range of a single model and give it pathfinder. On your feat turn you won't be casting this but it helps you deliver your jacks or hard hitting solos.
Convection: When this spell destroys a living enemy model, you can give 1 focus point to a warjack in the spellcaster's battlegroup in control range.
Cost - 2
Rng - 10
Pow - 12
If you are casting this spell something has most likely gone horribly awry.
Marked for Death: Target model/unit suffers -2 DEF, loses incorporeal and stealth. Target model/unit can't gain incorporeal or stealth while affected by Marked for Death.
Cost - 2
Rng - 8
Upkeep
This is a situationaly useful spell; being able to remove DEF from high def models is helpful and the opportunity to remove incorporeal means that they can't sit there and wait until they can back strike you. The stealth removal is a nice option as well but, you really need an arcnode if you plan on using it for that.
Scything Touch: Target friendly faction model gains Dark Shroud. While an enemy model is in melee range of a model with Dark Shroud the enemy model suffers -2 ARM.
Cost - 2
Rng - 6
Upkeep
Elara's bread and butter. Scything Touch should always be on something. This spell allows you to make anything in our faction hit harder and if it is on a reach model you can apply the -2 ARM to multiple enemy models. Banshee's hit POW 22 on their reach sword with concerted power and scything touch, as do Manticores if you spend the FOCUS for Force Generator.
Teleport: Place the spellcaster completely within 6" of her current location and spellcaster's activation ends.
Cost - 2
Rng - Self
This spell will help get you out of dodge. Elara does have blood boon so if you kill an enemy model you can use this to place yourself in a convenient position completely within 6". It also allows you to charge up the table late game to throw out Scything Touch or Marked for Death and then use an enemy model to place back within relative safety.
Feat
Closing Darkness - Friendly models/units currently in Elara's control range gain Ghostly and are affected by Boundless Charge. Closing Darkness lasts one turn.
Ghostly models can advance through terrain and obstacles without penalties. Models can advance through obstructions if they have enough movement to move completely past them; models cannot be targeted by free strikes.
This feat is what allows you to reliably land the alpha strike. Not only do you get to ignore all movement penalties associated with terrain but, you can walk around enemy models without taking free strikes. Your Dawnguard Sentinels can now reach out 12" on the charge; more if your opponent was kind enough to trigger Vengeance. The 2" of extra movement to all friendly faction models pushes our normally already fast units and jacks just that much more. You should be landing the big alpha strike with this feat.
Strategy
Smack them first. No, that is really the goal. Your feat lets you deliver the near entirety of the melee portions of your army before many other lists. On top of the additional movement your feat lets your jacks charge for free. Elara's feat helps you ramp the pressure up in a kill box scenario and without a kill box it lets you reach out that little bit further and reach a large amount of ranged units/models after a single round of shooting. With Dawnguard Sentinels you can walk forward and use their mini-feat to make them ARM 21 in preparation for a vicious feat turn. As none of Elara's abilities are limited to Hordes or Warmachine she doesn't care whether she is slapping Warjacks or Warbeasts around.
Elara's Likes
Caster Attachment:
Sylys Wyshnalyrr - The free upkeep and +2 inches to a spells range if Elara casts it helps remove the need for an arc node. Sylys definitely isn't a requirement.
Myrmidons:
Elara really prefers jacks with higher native POW to take advantage of Retaliatory Strike. On your feat turn you have the capacity to deliver 3 fully powered jacks all with concerted power. You don't have to go that route but it is certainly something to keep in mind. Due to this Banshee is a great pick with a POW 18 reach sword and a RNG 12 knockdown gun. Honorable mentions to Imperatus, Discordia, Manticore, Sphinx, and Phoenix. Discordia will allow you to escort your already ARM silly Dawnguard Sentinels up the table. Phoenix with Scything Touch has a POW 14 instead of a POW 12 combust and the POW 17 sword is a high native POW.
Units:
Due to her feat and how Scything Touch Elara doesn't support ranged well. We do have some nice self sufficient ranged packages with Stormfall Archers or Electromancers. I keep mentioning them everywhere but, Dawnguard Sentinels are arguably one of the strongest Weapon Master units in the game currently and Elara helping get them there makes them that much better. Halberdier's can out threat nearly any melee unit in the game if you really want them to with a possible 15" threat under feat + Houseguard Thane.
Solos:
3 Arcanists is your starting point here. Elara lets you land an alpha strike with 3 heavy jacks the difference between POW 18 and POW 20 is huge. On non feat turns these little guys can lessen the focus load on Elara allowing you to throw out a Boundless Charge or cycle Scything Touch a bit easier. Dawnguard Scyir is helpful as he gives tactician Dawguard in his CMD 9. He is also no slouch at a MAT 8 POW 12 WM with Iron Sentinel to help walk up the table. One of the worst feelings is when you have Sentinels gummed up on each other. If you do take Invictors this allows them to worry less about LOS while maintaining the Wall of Steel bonus.
Battle Engines:
Meh. AFG doesn't really shine with anything Elara does. At 16 points you have a bunch of different jack choices.
Themes:
Nope. Please don't do this, you remove your preferred infantry choices and can no long take character jacks or Vyre jacks.
ElaraIsBae's sample list:
Elara, Death's Shadow (WJ +28)
-Sylys Wyshnalyrr (4)
Bunker
Banshee (18)
Banshee (18)
Discordia (18)
Arcanist Mechanik (2)
Arcanist Mechanik (2)
Arcanist Mechanik (2)
Dawnguard Sentinels (18)
-Dawnguard Sentinel Officer (4)
Houseguard Halberdiers (13)
-Houseguard Halberdier Officer (4)
-Sylys Wyshnalyrr (4)
Bunker
Banshee (18)
Banshee (18)
Discordia (18)
Arcanist Mechanik (2)
Arcanist Mechanik (2)
Arcanist Mechanik (2)
Dawnguard Sentinels (18)
-Dawnguard Sentinel Officer (4)
Houseguard Halberdiers (13)
-Houseguard Halberdier Officer (4)
pluribus's sample list:
Elara, Death's Shadow (WJ +28)
Fuel Cache
Banshee (18)
Sphinx (13)
Sphinx (13)
Houseguard Halberdiers (13)
-Houseguard Halberdier Officer (4)
-Soulless Escourt (1)
Mage Hunter Strike Force (16)
-Eiryss, Mage Hunter Commander (6)
-Soulless Escort (1)
Houseguard Thane (4)
Heavy Rifle Team (4)
Heavy Rifle Team (4)
Arcanist Mechanik (2)
Arcanist Mechanik (2)
Arcanist Mechanik (2)
Fuel Cache
Banshee (18)
Sphinx (13)
Sphinx (13)
Houseguard Halberdiers (13)
-Houseguard Halberdier Officer (4)
-Soulless Escourt (1)
Mage Hunter Strike Force (16)
-Eiryss, Mage Hunter Commander (6)
-Soulless Escort (1)
Houseguard Thane (4)
Heavy Rifle Team (4)
Heavy Rifle Team (4)
Arcanist Mechanik (2)
Arcanist Mechanik (2)
Arcanist Mechanik (2)
milehightroll's sample list:
Elara, Death's Shadow (WJ +28)
Unspecified objective
Imperatus (22)
Sphinx (13)
Sphinx (13)
Griffon (8)
Arcanist Mechanik (2)
Arcanist Mechanik (2)
Arcanist Mechanik (2)
Houseguard Halberdiers (13)
-Houseguard Halberdier Officer (4)
-Soulless Escourt (1)
Dawnguard Sentinels (18)
-Dawnguard Sentinel Officer (4)
-Soulless Escort (1)
Unspecified objective
Imperatus (22)
Sphinx (13)
Sphinx (13)
Griffon (8)
Arcanist Mechanik (2)
Arcanist Mechanik (2)
Arcanist Mechanik (2)
Houseguard Halberdiers (13)
-Houseguard Halberdier Officer (4)
-Soulless Escourt (1)
Dawnguard Sentinels (18)
-Dawnguard Sentinel Officer (4)
-Soulless Escort (1)
Index
Concerted Power - Arcanist Mechanik ability, this gives a warjack +2 to melee damage rolls for a turn.
Dark Shroud - Enemy models within melee range of a model with Dark Shroud suffer -2 ARM.
Force Generator - Manticore specific ability that can only be triggered at the start of activation for +3 STR.
Ghostly - A model with Ghostly can advance through terrain and obstacles without penalty and can advance through obstructions if it has enough movement to move completely past them. It cannot be targeted by free strikes.
Iron Sentinel - While base-to-base with a friendly faction warjack the model gains +2 DEF and ARM
Pathfinder - Let's you ignore movement penalties associated with rough terrain. While charging, power attack slamming, or power attack trampling the model does not stop its movement when it contacts an obstacle.
Vengeance - During your maintenace phase, if one or more models in the unit were damaged by an enemy attacks during the last round, each model in the unit can advance 3" and make one basic melee attack.
Wall of Steel - While base-to-base with one or more models in this unit the model gasin +2 ARM
Weapon Master (WM) - Additional die on damage. Great for collecting round ears.
FAQ:
Does Elara's feat effect Dahlia Hallyr & Skarath (danger noodle and snek lady)?
Yes, the reason is that boundless charge as a spell can only target faction friendly models. The difference is the feat says they are affected by; due to the wording this by passes the targeting step and the faction friendly limitation is associated with the targeting not the actual effect. There was an infernal ruling on this as well but, linking back to official forums is a pain in the ear these days.