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Post by tiberius on Nov 3, 2017 18:06:35 GMT
Asphyxious the Hellbringer - Scourge of the Broken Coast
A CID for a lot of new Satyxis solos, and a warcaster attachment, and some changes to the existing models is happening now. As these are in flux I am going to list build and discuss the list as they are now, not as the CID is recommending them, but to be clear, here are some of the changes coming down the line.
Satyxis raider captain - gains tough. Not sure why she needed tough, as I thought she was great as she was, but with no sleeping on the job making her immune to knockdown and now tough, it will greatly improve her ability to survive a solid hit...by 33% per hit.
Satyxis Blood Witches and hag - are losing entropic force off the witch and losing their attack that makes clouds. They are gaining grievous wounds as a selectable attack for each person. This is a bit of a nerf as the entropic force affected things like Colossals, and they are immune to grievous wounds. The hag also gains an ability that grants sidestep to the blood witches. That will definitely improve manueverabilty on an already fast and ambushing unit.
Sea Witch got a bit more expensive but who cares since she is free in theme.
Satyxis gunslingers picked up a point of RAT and two new shots replacing the cloud generation shot and the feedback shot. They did pick up a Signs and Portents shot and a ghost shot shot. Personally, I liked the old shots better. Being able to turn dudes into a cloud wall or in my case, debuff a heavy warjack and ping it six times for points of damage on the controlling caster. They also picked up dodge, which is fine, but its not an ability I particularly care about. The signs and portents shot makes them a lot more dangerous to high defense targets, though the POW 10 is still not tearing up the universe with damage or anything. So they maintain a solid infantry removal option and lose the annoyance they once where to warcasters with warjacks.
Satyxis Blood Priestess is a warcaster attachment so Asphyxious cannot use her but she gives a free upkeep and Sucker! as abilities to the warcaster. She is also a MAT 7, P+S 13 melee attack with three attack types, one of which is pretty much blood boon. Where if you kill something in melee, you can cast a spell, only this is limited to a spell slave effect. She also has dispel on her sword and can heal the caster if she kills something for d3+3 damage. Not bad.
Axiara Wraithblade gives us some unit tactics options. Though the ability that has me most excited with her is Tactics (living models). If only we could use her with the blighted trolls or the black ogrun, having medium bases move through each other would be a lot more useful than small bases, but with a swarm of satyxis, it will be useful to as you don't have to really worry about getting in your own way. She also has three battleplans she can hand out to a friendly faction model or unit. They are all useful but nothing game breaking. Dodge, prowl or reposition 3. She is a P+S 13 weapon master that can turn herself incorporeal as well.
Severa Blacktide is our character satyxis gunslinger. Gives gunslingers run and gun which allows them to make a full advance after killing something in its activiation. She also has three useful shots: black penny, heart seeker (signs and portents) and shadow bind. She has a chain attack as well called vortex shot. Its basically a smaller weaker hellmouth.
I will write up my comments below as if the CID is not in effect yet, because the rules and units are not finalized yet. But heads up, your list building and way they play may change.
So Scourge of the broken coast with Asphyxious the Hellbringer go very well together. He can increase the defense of your already high defense satyxis raiders for jamming and high resistance to ranged attacks. He can make jacks go faster and ignore terrain so you literally have an entire army with pathfinder and moving at speed 6+ (mostly 7+) or have other abilities like ambush where speed doesn't matter as much.
Asphyxious the Hellbringer - Vociferon - Kraken - Cankerworm - Ripjaw x 2 Satyxis Raider Captain Satyxis Blood witches + hag satyxis gun slingers Satyxis raiders + sea witch
So a pretty common build for me, each flavor of satyxis brings something a little different to the table. The Raiders are for charging up the field and jamming. With Ashen Veil on them, will be DEF 18 vs ranged attacks and immune to blast damage with whipping winds on them from the sea witch. They will be hard to remove in melee as well as long as you are fighting a living opponent. I recommend this as a troop swarm drop. Non-boosted attacks are going to have a tough time hitting them.
The satyxis blood witches are ambushing into the back lines of your opponents force and either taking the front line from behind or clearing out support. The hag should be directed toward anything with a protective buff spell on it.
The kraken is there to benefit both from mobility (spd 7 colossal with a RNG 16 gun) and the field marshall unyielding, making it ARM 21 when it is engaging something. The cankerworm also benefits from this, but if played right, should not be in melee for retaliation while making hit and run armor piercing attacks.
Overall, scourge of the broken coast doesn't bring much in the way of caster support, but asphyxious can bring his own support with Vociferon and makes the army faster and harder to hit and hurt. The synergies are too good not to use.
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Post by tiberius on Nov 6, 2017 13:17:50 GMT
Asphyxious the Hellbringer - Slaughter Fleet Raiders
This is the other theme we have that is currently hitting CID with a lot of new units and some of the existing units/models getting tweaks.
The black Ogrun boarding party are potentially gaining a point of DEF and the gang ability. The point of DEF puts them into that annoying category where people have to decide if they want to boost to hit them or not. Gang will greatly increase their damage output after a drag, or just in melee in general. Typically while dragging, you CRA and the drag typically will bring the target into melee range of 2-3 ogrun. Gang will trigger with the drag in that case for your free swing. Though you are probably better off just charging with MAT 9 P+S 15 weapons.
General Gerlak Slaughterborn gains veteran leader - Blighted Trollkin. Its the change that makes the most sense, giving a global +1 to hit for any blighted ogrun attacks near him. MAT 7 on blood gorgers pretty much fixes their problems in my opinion.
Blighted Trollkin Marauders. The ranged version of bloodgorgers with fire bombs. They have ashen veil naturally and their bombs are RNG 8, POW 12, 3" AOE continuous fire.
Black Ogrun Smog Belchers are a 5 man multiwound unit with tough. They have RNG 12, POW 14, AOE 3 guns with arcing fire and choking ash (prevents their targets from running or charging) and put clouds on themselves when they make a ranged attack. Interesting unit.
Black Ogrun Iron mongers are a repair support unit with Curse - Warjack, *action - repair D3+1, and dismantle, making them weapon masters against constructs. They cost 7 for three of them, so weighing them against a necrotech, they are faster and probably are better in melee in a pinch, but the necrotech is a lot cheaper and repairs more per point. Also, not sure why curse is on this unit. Doesn't seem to fit.
Jussicka Bloodtounge is the blighted trollkin unit command attachment that has Granted - vengeance, no sleeping on the job, and tactics - relentless charge. I am excited about this guy. It really plugs up any holes the bloodgorgers had.
Shard Pirates are the cheap living pirate unit with shot guns (spray 6, crit fire) with tough and gang. Their command attachment gives assault, feign death, and a No Quarter mini-feat.
Shard Pirate Dirdge Seers are a three man magic support unit with battlewizard, dodge and riposte (not sure why they need both of those). They have three spells: guidance (which grants eyeless sight and magic weapon), hex bolt that is a RNG 10 POW 13 attack that prevents special attacks and power attacks, and summon vortex which makes clouds with a debuff.
So Slaughter Fleet Raiders is probably not a very good fit for Asphyxious until some of the other units come out. The Black Ogrun and Bloodgorgers really don't benefit from ashen veil to any great degree like carrion thralls or satyxis raiders can. The Devils Shadow Mutineers can make good use of it, but they are just a three man unit. You are probably still better off putting it on the bloodgorgers just to spread around the debuff effect of the ashen veil. The theme does appreciate the antimagic of hex blast that asphyxious can bring and appreciates the warjack support of mobility and unyielding field marshall.
Asphyxious the Hellbringer - Vociferon - Kraken - Cankerworm - Ripjaw x 2 - Shrike General Gerlak Slaughterborn Black Ogrun Boarding Party Bloodgorgers The Devils Shadow Mutineers
So like I said above, I would probably make the bloodgorgers my ashen veil target because they will spread around the debuff more than the mutineers, who admittedly will make better use of it with their natural DEF of 14. It would make them difficult to remove, especially with their recursion ability.
Mobility on a shrike makes me pretty excited as a 12" trample over everysized base sounds like a lot of fun. It is P+S 11 with boosted attack rolls and immune to free strikes while trampling and can do this without focus.
The kraken brings a nice long range support and armor cracking to the list. With mobility is SPD 7 and its guns have a very long reach. Field Marshall Unyeilding makes it hard to remove and a swarm of blood gorgers in front of it make it hard to get to.
Overall, Asphyxious would rather be hanging with the ladies in scourge of the broken coast or dominating with Dark Host and the banes. Or even bringing the ultra cheap thralls in infernal machines. This is not a theme that brings much for him, other than gang fighter on his kraken.
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Post by tiberius on Nov 6, 2017 18:53:50 GMT
Witch Coven of Gharlghast and Egregore – Ghost Fleet
So I don’t have a lot of experience with the Witch Coven in MKIII but we can go through their unique properties and others can chime in if I miss anything or any awesome ways of using them. The Witch Coven is one of the most unique spell casters in the game because they are 4 individual models, 3 that count as a war caster and each counts as a warcaster and one is a companion to the other three. We will get into later how that really gets entertaining with respect to scenario play as an individual warcaster can score in multiple zones if they are base to base with each other or their base can toe into multiple areas. More on that later.
Stats of the witch coven are nothing to really write home about. The witches themselves, Helleana, Morgaen and Selene, are average cryx speed of 6, low MAT of 5, High defense of 16 and abysmal ARM of 13. Their focus stat is where the money is for these girls which is 3 x the number of witches in play, so it starts as a focus of 9, until a witch gets themselves killed. That is a control area of 18”. The control area is always measured from the Egregore. They each have a melee weapon with no special properties (other than magical) at P+S 7. If you are relying on their melee prowess to win for you, something has gone very wrong.
Their special rules and how the group interacts is the bread and butter of this warcaster and what makes it unique. The Egregore is their arcane nexus. When any witch casts a spell, the egregore is the point of origin. The witch casting the spell (or an arc node within 18” of the egregore) must have line of sight to the target, the egregore does not need line of sight.
The witch coven is made up of the three witches. The coven shares a single focus pool and the witches do not receive focus individually. The FOCUS stat is 3x the number of surviving witches. When they replenish focus, the egregore receives the focus. The control area is measured from the egregore and any witch in the control area of the egregore can spend focus from the egregore. Effects that reduce or remove focus do not affect the egregore. They can only use their feat once and can only have one warcaster attachment. They count as a single warcaster for field allowance.
The witch coven is not a unit, they all activate separately as individual models.
The egregore has its own set of stats with speed 6 pathfinder, stealth, steady, circular vision, DEF 13 and ARM 17. Any damage dealt to the egregore may be split up any way you choose among the three witches. Each witch can spend focus per attack to reduce up to 5 damage against itself. You cannot assign more damage to a witch than what they have, and each one has 8 wounds. Anything base to base with the egregore gains stealth (assuming it’s a friendly faction model).
Their spell list is very good and has a lot of cryx tricks and shenanigans associated with it. Basically their schtick is to get units and models into places your units and models should not be able to get to.
They have one attack spell in Stygian Abyss. It’s a RNG 10 POW 12 critical blind. And you have a good chance of getting that crit off thanks to their special ability called perfect conjunction. A perfect conjunction is established any time the Egregore is completely within the triangular area between all three witches. No Range limit, they don’t need line of sight, it just needs to be completely within that triangular area. Magic attack rolls made by one of the witches are automatically boosted.
Curse of Shadows is a good debuff upkeep spell giving an enemy unit or model -2 ARM and they cannot make free strikes. It also allows your models to pass through the debuffed model(s) if you can move completely through them.
Ghost Walk is a nice buff that grants ghostly to a target model or unit, making them immune to free strikes, can move through obtacles and ignores terrain. Seeing a theme yet?
Infernal machine is a good warjack upkeep giving +2 SPD and additional die on melee attack rolls against warrior models. I usually recommend taking a nice reach or thresher warjack as a target for this. My favorite is the harrower or one of the colossals.
Occultation grants a model or unit stealth as an upkeep spell.
And finally Veil of Mists, is a 4” AOE cloud effect that you may place anywhere completely within the control area of the caster. It does not block friendly faction model line of sight, and within the AOE, friendly faction models gain pathfinder and can move through obstructions and other models if they can move completely past them. So we basically have 3 spells allowing you to ignore free strikes, terrain, obstacles and other models. Seems like overkill, but its so you can really get your army where you need it to go and occultation, good use of terrain and their feat protect your army on the approach.
Their feat is really powerful and is one of the few things in the game that can block line of sight to a colossal. It gives all enemy models in their control range -2 MAT and -2 RAT, and reduces their line of sight to 5”. That applies while the model is in their control area. So if they have a really long range gun, they could stand outside the area effect and shoot in, or trample closer and buy attacks after they are close as you don’t need line of sight to trample. Aside from that, unless they are already close, the enemy models wont be doing much that turn. Typically, the Egregore will be run forward as far as it will go. Then one of the witches will move up and trigger the feat on its activation. The Area of effect for the feat is measured from the Egregore.
Okay, so a lot of neat tricks to get your army through your enemy and basically ignore anything you don’t want to deal with. What does the witch coven want in a theme? They have lots of focus, but they have a lot of stuff they want to do with that focus and it is highly recommended to leave them a nice stack to camp if you think they are at all in danger of being attacked. Sure, each witch can spend a focus and ignore 5 damage to itself, that is like ignoring 15 damage for 3 focus coming through the egregore to the witches, damage that you would assign. But you don’t want to have them anywhere near your enemy models. They have a nice big control area, and you should have at least two arc nodes in any witch coven list. Distance is the best way to protect them. They would love some free upkeeps, arc nodes, something to put infernal machine on, and some good units/solos/jacks to take advantage of moving through your enemy’s models and killing anything behind them. Just make sure if you do that, you are not opening up the witches to retaliation. Moving through a jamming unit and killing them from behind is a good tactic.
The Witch Coven of Gharlgast - Egregore - Harrower - Ripjaw x 2 - Slayer Wraith Engine Captain Rengrave Pistol Wraith x2 Machine Wraith Blackbanes Ghost Raiders Revenant Crew (min) + 2 riflemen Revenant Crew (min)
The harrower will be the infernal machine target and almost guaranteed to wreck any infantry within 2” of it when it threshers. 3 dice to hit at POW 16 and the speed bump makes it have a really good threat range. Curse of shadows can help it with damage output, as can dark shroud from the wraith engine.
The slayer is a good cheap beater and the witch coven can protect it on the way in. They are renowed for having the worst armor diagram with respect to arm systems in the game. Any 8 points of damage on column 1 or 5 can cause you to lose an arm. Occultation or the feat can help immensely with this.
The coven has enough focus to cast three stygian abysses at a target in hopes of getting a crit off, critically blinding the target, such as a warcaster. A -4 defense warcaster can then be shot apart by your army that can move through the enemy and get line of sight to the target. Pirates have a lot of guns and Rengrave and pistol wraiths are down right dangerous to most casters.
The coven can run the ghost fleet theme just fine, but they would prefer some harder hitting units like banes in all honesty. But with the right placement of pressure, there isn’t much your opponent can do to stop you from going where you want with your incorporeal troops going for the assassination. Jamming you out of scenario will never happen with the witch coven.
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Post by tiberius on Nov 7, 2017 13:40:57 GMT
Witch Coven of Garlghast and Egregore - Infernal Machines
So as I discussed in the last entry, the witch coven are a very unique warcaster in that it is a group of 4 solos that each get a separate activation. This allows you to cycle upkeeps, pop a feat when you need it, avoid order of activation issues with your warcaster, etc. They require a lot of practice an skill to really master because they are not a forward powerhouse like Skarre 1 or Asphyxious. They require your army to do the heavy lifting and they facilitate that army into getting where they need to go and protecting them on their way.
With infernal machines, you have access to a lot of support in the form of a jack marshall, Aiakos, warcaster attachments, warwitch sirens, etc. The witch coven doesn't need as much support as some of the more focus starved casters, but they also don't have a requirement to keep any warjack in their battlegroup apart from the infernal machine spell which does require battlegroup.
The Witch Coven of Garlghast - Egregore - Sepulcher - Ripjaw - Deathripper Iron Lich Overseer - Seether Necrotech x 2 Mechanithralls + 2 Brutes Necrosurgeon Soul Hunters
So Infernal machines has access to both armor cracking, recursion, and infantry removal options. So making a list is all dependent on what you want it to do. I went more recursion and armor cracking with this specific list. The sepulcher and the seether under the iron lich overseer can both hit very hard.
The Iron lich overseer has a drive that gives the seether dark shroud, making it hit with P+S 17 claws and debuffing -2 ARM to any enemy model within 1" of it. The crush jack marshall command adds another +2 damage and an extra attack. Combined with berserk, you can expect the seether to clear out a lot of what is around it. In fact, I would charge in on some heavy target, then hit with its tusks on any single wound infantry around it, berserking a claw again into the any others, and then finally the heavy target again, and finally follow up with the last two claw attacks into the heavy that is left. If it is still alive, you can choose to do the chain attack smash and grab to either knock it down or throw it. The seether also has counter charge with the potential to disrupt your opponents advance with a dark shrouded heavy warjack. You cannot countercharge if you are already engaged.
The Sepulcher makes a good target for infernal machine. The +2 SPD makes the otherwise slow colossal as fast as a bone jack and the extra dice on melee attacks vs warrior models makes it very accurate and helps it collect corpses to return as mechanithralls or brute thralls. Though typically you will use it as a ranged support piece with a lot of guns. The extra speed will help it get into place faster. The Coven's feat is one of the few things in the game that can block line of sight to a colossal. Its almost some form of super stealth where enemy line of sight is reduced to 5". The -2 MAT and -2 RAT probably wont help the colossal any, but it will help the rest of your army significantly.
The soul hunters are SPD 9 cavalry models with a reach attack and a short range melee attack (so 3 melee attacks if you count the mount). They are good infantry blenders and like all cavalry are very accurate on the charge. They are also fast and hard to hit for mulitwound models. Reposition 5" goes a long way to either jamming further into the lines or backing out and letting something else in there. They have the speed to take advantage of the witch coven's spells that allow movement through the enemy models and they appreciate the immunity to free strikes.
I would love the live the dream of charging through the front enemy lines to the warcaster behind with my soul hunters and chopping him down. The witch coven does not help with line of sight and I do miss tall in the saddle rule from MKII. But if you are left with a line of sight, curse of shadows or a veil of mists should allow you to move through the enemy and get to whatever is behind and kill it.
This a versatile theme and the coven really like it.
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Post by tiberius on Nov 7, 2017 15:26:04 GMT
Witch Coven of Garlghast and Egregore - Dark Host
The dark host theme gives access to a lot of units with ghostly, which makes a lot of the benefits of the witch covens spells redundant. You wont be casting ghost walk on banes. However, they do appreciate being able to move through enemy models so veil of mists and curse of shadows have very powerful benefits for the banes, allowing them to walk through a unit and turn around to hit them in the back for an additional +2 to hit. This puts their 6-7 MAT to dangerously accurate levels. With the errata change months ago to the melee range definition, you cannot charge through a model, turn around and smack it in its back arc anymore. If you charge, you do have to stop in your targets front arc. Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that is how it now works. Protectorate daughters with acrobatics were very sad that day.
Witch Coven of Garlghast - Egregore - Harrower - Stalker x 2 - Ripjaw x 2 Bane Lord Tartarus Gorman Di Wulf Bane Knights Bane Warriors + CA Bane Riders
My battle group was picked to do what the banes are not going to do, which is not much...haha. The banes can handle infantry, expecially the riders as they are super accurate on the charge and have a nice naturally high armor to resist anti-infantry attacks and tech. The bane knights can kill either infantry or ding up armor on the charge, while not as hard hitting as the warriors, they can do some work and they have reach. With the witch coven's help with curse of shadows, they can charge at P+S 16 or move through something and give P+S 14 to the back arc.
Damage output can go up with Gorman Di Wulf who brings both a MAT/RAT fixer with his blind bomb or helps against heavy armor warjacks with his rust bomb. He is also respectable infantry removal with his corrosion bomb. He is naturally stealthy and is immune to corrosion and fire. This makes some armies have a really tough time removing him.
The bane warriors are your work horses with dark shroud and the ability to replenish their numbers with a mini-feat, void bringer. They are weapon masters and with curse of shadows will hit very hard on a charge. With tartarus and the ability to move through models and hit their back arcs, they are very accurate too with the witch coven.
The harrower is my target for infernal machine. The additional dice against enemy warrior models makes its thresher attack very accurate and it typically doesn't need help hitting other heavies. If it does, Gorman di wulf can help with a blind bomb.
Overall, dark host is a theme that most casters like because they don't have to do much to make the theme do anything. The witch coven delivers the banes and improves their damage output and accuracy. Great fit.
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Post by tiberius on Nov 8, 2017 13:30:59 GMT
Witch Coven of Garlghast and Egregore - Black Industries
Nothing makes the witch coven happier than free arc nodes. Its like Black Friday shopping with Black Industries theme. On top of that, the theme grants carapace to heavy warjacks, but the witch coven has never had a problem delivering things so it is a bit redundant to their package; however, sometimes redundancy is good. It will really mean that your jacks get to where they are going. Black Industries has access to all the warjack support and good focus efficiency including warwitch sirens, withershadow combine and deathjack. The Iron Lich overseer and Aiakos are also available in this theme.
The Witch Coven of Garlghast - Egregore - The Withershadow Combine - Harrower - Ripjaw x 2 (free) - Deathjack - Reaper Iron Lich Overseer - Seether Warwitch Siren x 2 Machine Wraith Cephalyx Mind Slaver & Drudges
The goal of this list would be to get either the harrower or the deathjack into the face of the opposing warcaster. There are backup ways to get the job done, but assassination is probably the focus of a black industries - Coven list. The harrower makes a great infernal machine target with this reach and thresher. In addition, most warcasters/warlocks are living warrior models so the additional dice to hit will trigger and the +2 speed will really help with getting through a front line. With access to pathfinder naturally, and ghost walk, curse of shadows, and or veil of mists, it will be very hard to keep the harrower or Deathjack from their destination short of filling up the landing space with bodies.
The deathjack will be SPD 8, with MAT 8 + 3D6 P+S 18 claws and a P+S 15 horns against living warrior models. Again, most warcasters and warlocks are warrior models so either one of these jacks can get there and get it done. Necromancy allows the deathjack to cast ghost walk or stygian abyss from the coven spell list. Everything else is an upkeep.
Speaking of upkeeps, the withershadow combine brings a lot of focus efficiency with a free casting of ghost walk, a free upkeep, rerolls and access to magical weapons. They also collect and use souls from enemies they shoot with their dark fire attack spells.
The drudges are there as a screen for your jacks and the coven. With so many points tied up in jacks, it is hard to keep the coven safe, even with distance and you need a screen of some sort. The drudges have moderately high armor and are tough. They can even get some work done with a charge. Eyeless sight no longer ignores forests so there really isn't any special synergy anymore with the coven or any ghost walk caster and the drudges, as eyeless sight will now only ignore clouds. That is still good against a cloud wall caster.
In my opinion, Black Industries is a very good fit for the coven, free arc nodes, survivable warjacks, access to a good screening unit, lots of focus efficiency. However, I think that the specific builds lend toward assassination where a lot of other themes would go for scenario or control.
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Post by tiberius on Nov 8, 2017 18:13:31 GMT
The Witch Coven of Garlghast and Egregore - Scourge of the Broken Coast
This is a theme I would try to do a scenario build with. Lots of fast satyxis that ignore terrain and can jam like nobody's business. The witch coven themselves are great at scenario with their feat pretty much giving you a free turn free from retaliation, or making so that the enemy has a really hard time hitting or removing your jamming unit, allowing you to basically get up on attrition or jam longer. Each witch can dominate and score in separate zones or flags. That is with the ruling that you don't have to be completely within a zone to score and you can score multiple zones at once with a caster. The witch coven can just do it a lot easier. Egregore counts as a solo and can only score in solo zones (flags?) if he controls it.
The Witch Coven of Garlghast - Egregore - Kraken - Ripjaw x 2 - Nightwretch Satyxis Raider Captain Gorman Di Wulf Satyxis Bloodwitches + hag Satyxis gun slingers Satyxis Raiders + sea witch
The kraken brings your armor cracking and can give you an assassination threat with its long range gun and all the knock down tech you have in the list...or if you get lucky with a critical blind from stygian abyss. The kraken is powerful, it just needs a little help hitting. Gorman Di Wulf can help here as well with his blind bomb. Gorman can take care of infantry with his acid bomb, or help the raiders hurt warjacks with his rust bomb. Very versatile solo.
All the satyxis gain pathfinder in theme so getting concealment on the approach should not be hard. In addition, the satyxis raiders are already hard to hit and hurt via ranged attacks and are immune to blast damage thanks to whipping winds, which you should be using every turn until you close lines and then, maybe, red tide might be a better choice if you are fighting infantry. If not, keep up the force barrier.
The satyxis blood witches have ambush from the theme and can really get behind and remove support, jamming portions of the enemy force, or just be an annoyance. They can also make a bee-line for the behind enemy lines zones to contest or score.
This theme doesn't have any support for the witches, but the witches are here to keep the satyxis alive as the satyxis keep things out of zones and let the witches score.
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Post by tiberius on Nov 8, 2017 19:17:44 GMT
The Witch Coven of Garlghast and Egregore - Slaughter Fleet Raiders
The most compelling part of this theme is that warjacks get a really good boost in the form of gang fighter and the theme allows you to take guys like Aiakos that can really get around and trigger the benefit, as a warjack only gets it if they are attacking in melee a target that is in melee with a friendly faction warrior model. The witch coven is probably the easiest warcaster to trigger gang fighter charges and melees with their suite of support spells such as veil of mists, curse of shadows and ghost walk. Together, those three spells can allow a unit to walk through a jamming unit (most likely your slow blood gorgers will not be getting the alpha strike), and allow a warjack to charge into the fray and trigger the ability. And with perfect conjunction and 9 focus, it is not much of a challenge to hit something engaged.
The Witch Coven of Garlghast - Egregore - Harrower - Ripjaw x 2 - Stalker x 2 General Gerlak Slaughterborn Aiakos Scourge of Meredius - Reaper Ragman The Devil's Shadow Mutineers Bloodgorgers Black Ogrun Boarding Party
The harrower makes a great infernal machines target, but so does a stalker for that matter. They treat the witch coven 18" control area like 36". There is literally no where on the board that they would be out of range. That seems really impressive to me.
Now why did I not put the stalkers on Aiakos? Like I just said, the extended control area and infernal machine target is just too tempting. Turn one of them into a SPD 9, MAT 7 + 3D6 POW 12 for two attacks, grievous wounds, and can leap into position and get gang fighter pretty easily. So now MAT 9, P+S 14...that will probably kill some warcasters. And they are really hard to get away from and stay safe. They have natural stealth and advance deploy and can flank really well.
I gave a reaper to Aiakos for drag shenanigans. You can drag something (small based) in with Aiakos, or position him in front of the reaper and drag something else in with the reaper and trigger gang fighter as you drag it into aiakos. I just hope you kill whatever it is with your auto-hitting P+S 18 helldriver (gangfighter and sustained attack) or you will most likely lost Aiakos.
The bloodgorgers appreciate curse of shadows the most. It raises their otherwise weaker attacks into something a little more substantial, up to P+S 13, and with berserk and the ability to walk into something's back arc, and overtake, they can pretty easily wipe out an opposing unit. The witch coven's feat will protect them on the approach, but probably wont do much for their already low DEF against melee opponents. But every little bit helps.
Overall, it would be a fun list to try, but not sure about competitiveness. It depends if you can get the stalkers and a friend onto their warcaster for a quick assassination.
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Post by tiberius on Nov 9, 2017 15:53:47 GMT
Bane Witch Agathia - Ghost Fleet
Bane Witch Agathia is our battlebox caster, and in my opinion, a great caster to learn the game with. Like Iron Lich Asphyxious, she is pretty good at most things, debuffing, buffing, melee, spells. She isn't as powerful as asphyxious when it comes to sheer offensive power, but she bring different utility through her feat and some of her spells. Lets break her down.
She is a 7 focus caster with a SPD 6, MAT 7, DEF 15 and ARM 15. She has a single melee weapon with 2" reach and POW 12. She has innate dark shroud, which is fluffy as she is a bane model. She can also collect souls and convert them to focus during her control phase.
Her spell list is a good solid all round list with a little bit of everything. Ghostwalk is a non-upkeep spell that gives ghostly to a target unit or model. Great for ignoring terrain, gaining immunity to free strikes or moving through obstructions.
She has one attack spell in the form of hellfire. Probably her biggest difference to most casters is she has no AOE spell. Hellfire is a 3 cost single target, RNG 10, POW 14, ignores tough and removes from play if you manage to kill your target. Its one of the hardest hitting single target spells.
Her unique spell is Hellwrought. Its a +2 ARM warjack buff that gives the warjack retaliation (basically vengeance). If the warjack is damaged by an enemy attack, it gets a 3" advance and a basic melee attack during your maintenance phase. This is an upkeep spell.
Parasite is her debuff, and makes her capable of a 5 pt armor swing to something in her personal melee range thanks to dark shroud. Parasite gives -3 ARM to target model or unit and gives +1 ARM to the caster. This is an upkeep.
And her most fun spell, Vanish. For 1 Cost, place the spellcaster anywhere completely within 3" of its current location. You can only cast it once per turn. You could charge something, cast vanish into its back arc and proceed to beat it down with your dark shrouded weapon. She is very capable of melee assassination.
Her feat does three things, each with different timing triggers. Friendly faction models/units currently in her control range gain ghost walk. While in her control range, friendly faction models gain stealth. Additionally when a warjack in her battlegroup ends its activation in her control area, it can immediately be placed completely within 3" of its current location.
What does Agathia like to see in a theme? All Cryx casters do a lot of their own heavy lifting and have a lot to do with their focus stack. Agathia is a capable melee assassin, but also likes to buff and debuff models. Any spell efficiency and self sustaining warjacks are welcome. She doesn't have much in the way of infantry hate in her own package, so bringing some in your list would be recommended unless you know you are facing Khador jack spam or something.
Ghost Fleet is currently being touched by CID in that they are taking away gunfighter and reducing the speed of the revenant crew by 1 down to a SPD of 5. Aside from that, they are largely untouched. Agathia will help them hit harder and protect them on the approach.
Bane Witch Agathia - Seether - Leviathan - Ripjaw x 2 Wraith Engine Captain Rengrave Pistol Wraith x 2 Machine Wraith Black Banes Ghost Raiders Revenant Crew (min) + 2 riflemen Revenant Crew (min)
The wraith engine adds to Agathia's own survivability and the pair of arc nodes will allow her to play further back and support if she chooses. The wraith engine also brings an incorporeal source of dark shroud to help the pirates hit harder. In combination with parasite, they can hit way above their weight class even with the recent proposed nerfs. Gang helps their accuracy and damage even further.
The seether brings a lot of armor cracking, especially against a parasited heavy target and Agathia's feat can protect it on the approach. It also makes a decent target for hellwrought giving it +2 ARM and vengence. The seether adds some board control with counter charge as well, making you opponent think twice before ending their movement within 6" of the seether or risk getting a POW 17 + 3D6 to the face. At MAT 8, it doesn't miss very much.
The leviathan was added as a ranged presence but could easily be swapped out for a harrower or any combination of warjacks or support. The leviathan brings a nice long range gun at RNG 13 and POW 13 (+1 dmg for med base size, +2 dmg vs large and huge bases), so against a parasited colossal, your shots are POW 18. Not bad. If you manage to knock down a target of priority, the leviathan makes a solid ranged assassin.
In combination with the pistol wraiths, the leviathan has better game. If you can get a chain shot off from one of the pistol wraiths, you stationary a target, which reduces its ranged defense to 5 and allows the leviathan or the other pistol wraith to really light them up.
In all, Agathia would rather have some support and self sufficient jacks aside from the Seether, but Ghost Fleet loves what she brings to the table. Agathia can help any group hit harder.
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Post by tiberius on Nov 10, 2017 12:48:00 GMT
Bane Witch Agathia - Infernal Machines
As I have mentioned previously, infernal machines brings a lot of good focus efficiency, caster support, anti-infantry options and armor cracking options. Its all how you want to focus your build. Agathia's toolbox allows her to crack armor better than most with parasite and innate dark shroud, what she wants is some focus efficiency and some anti-infantry options to back her up and cover any weak spots.
Bane Witch Agathia - The withershadow combine - Deathjack - Deathripper x 2 - Shrike Warwitch Siren x 2 Hellslinger phantom Bile thralls (min) + skarlock commander Mechanithralls (max) + 2 brute thralls Necrosurgeon Soul Hunters
So armor cracking comes in the form of Deathjack and the brute thralls and a lesser extent the mechanithralls can do a lot of work against low defense targets especially if they are under parasite or some other armor debuff. The Deathjack can cast ghost walk on itself or another target and can also cast hellfire.
The withershadow combine gives a free upkeep for either parasite or hellwrought. The Deathjack makes a great target for hellwrought, giving it ARM 21 and retribution. Out of activation movement and attacks are always a benefit, and if you are smart about it, he can use snacking to heal the damage he took to trigger retribution. The combine also provides rerolls for your assassination run or a free casting of ghost walk. Ghost walk is not an upkeep so you can spam it around on what needs it. Though Agathia's feat, if well timed, can make it so you don't need to cast that and just focus on offense.
The shrike is a great anti-infantry warjack. It takes no focus to do its job, is accurate and hits just hard enough to kill most single wound infantry and damage some multiwound infantry. No size base can stop it and it can pretty much go where it pleases with no support as it can trample over every size base and is immune to free strikes while trampling.
The phantom hellslinger is another anti-infantry beast. It is very accurate at RAT 8, range 10, POW 12 with 2 initial shots and it can buy a reload for each pistol with soul tokens it collects. It can also move 2" in between shots if it kills what it hits. It has three different shots you can choose from each time it makes a ranged attack. Critical grievous wounds, ghost shot and incendiary. If you are sure you are going to kill your target if you hit, incendiary is probably not necessary. Ghost shot is useful as it lets you ignore cover and concealment and LOS, critical grievous wounds is probably what I would use against a tough target in hopes of hitting the crit. While this can do some work against bigger targets, he is definitely a solo or infantry hunter.
Bile thralls are arguably the best anti-infantry unit in the game. Auto-hitting 8" spray that Agathia can deliver with her feat, and can gain advance deployment from the skarlock commander. They are slow, but the advance deploy really helps, and with ambushing mechanithralls to distract your opponent, they will most likely make it to where you need them to go. 2-3 of them can wipe out a unit or opposing solos and corrode a bunch of stuff. They can even do some damage to heavier targets if they are parasited.
Soul Hunters are a super fast, mobile cavalry unit. While they really cannot take a hit, Agathia can protect them on the way in and give them ghostly with her feat. SPD 9 with reposition 5 is going to get places, and maybe even be able to protect themselves as they can spend souls for a couple of different effects. They can boost either attack or damage with souls, but more importantly they can spend a soul to go incorporeal for a turn. If they are already setting on a soul, they can spend it to go incorporeal, move through a bunch of stuff and hit whatever is behind. Just beware of magical weapons as a free strike from anything, if it hits, will most likely kill the soul hunter.
Warwitch sirens bring more focus efficiency because Agathia has better things to do with her focus stack than feed warjacks. Run two of them with deathjack and it has 5 focus every turn with its skulls of hate and power up from Agathia. They also bring some Magic Ability 6 sprays that auto-corrode and can do seduction is a *Action. It requires a base to base interaction but allows you to move and attack with a non-warcaster/warlock living enemy warrior model.
Overall, Agathia really likes this theme as it brings everything she wants and really helps them up their game in the damage dealing department.
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Post by tiberius on Nov 10, 2017 13:31:01 GMT
Bane Witch Agathia - Dark Host
Usually Dark Host is the go-to theme for every warcaster as they are just a self sufficient bunch of hard hitting dudes with a poor man's stealth and ghostly on every unit. The theme grants prowl to banes and provides you with 2 4" clouds to place anywhere within 20" of your side of the table. Agathia is a bane model so she gains prowl in this theme as well. However, her took kit is largely unnecessary with the banes as they already have all those things as innate abilities. You will find that the only ghost walk targets you have are warjacks or agathia herself. Her feat will only really apply for banes who cant find concealment somewhere and warjacks wanting their 3" teleport. That isn't to say its a bad matchup, there are just other themes that really want Agathia more, and Dark Host doesn't really care, as they can use someone that fixes their MAT or the enemies DEF more.
Bane Witch Agathia - Desecrator - Ripjaw - Seether - Reaper Bane Lord Tartarus Eilish Garrity, the Occultist Soul Trapper Bane Knights (max) Bane Warriors (max) + CA Bane Riders (max)
The desecrator or seether will make good Hellwrought targets and Agathia's job in this matchup will be mostly solo killing with a hellfire or throwing out parasite. I had considered a Skarlock for this list but decided against it as nothing really needed ghostwalk. And if it did, Agathia's feat can cover that turn.
The Desecrator deserves special mention with its accumulator (bane) rule, as it will trigger when near Agathia because she is a bane model. So a free focus regardless of if you are playing in this theme or not. You don't need the bane units to trigger it, just the bane witch.
Eilish Garrity brings a lot of anti-magic to the list. Nothing makes the banes more sad than some spell that prevents them from charging or slows them down. Garrity can remove upkeeps and punish spell casters from casting in his area all while doing a little bit of damage back to the caster. A real investment for 5 points.
This entire list cracks armor fairly well between the prevalent sources of dark shroud on 1" melee range weapon masters and decently hard hitting warjacks between the Seether and the Desecrator. For higher defense targets, the reaper has sustained attack, simply boost with your charge attack and no longer have to roll to hit for any subsequent attacks.
Anti-infantry comes in the form of the bane riders. Accurate and decently hard hitting, resilient to ranged and low power attacks, the bane riders will most likely get the alpha strike into someone and between impact attacks and the boosted cavalry charge, they should be able to wipe out a significant amount of troops. Reposition without worrying about free strikes is also very good.
So overall, Agathia gets benefits from the theme like any bane, so it is a good theme for her, but the banes don't really need her as her took kit is mostly redundant to what they already have.
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Post by tiberius on Nov 11, 2017 11:52:20 GMT
Bane Witch Agathia - Black Industries
Free arc nodes, carapace on heavy warjacks, whats not to like? Bane Witch Agathia, I feel, would rather have a balanced list of troops and jacks instead of spam either way as her tool kit helps both equally. Black Industries really encourages you to have a large battle group and without some support, Agathia can struggle to run a large contingent. Luckily we have access to a lot of focus efficient jacks and some support.
Bane Witch Agathia - The withershadow Combine - Deathjack - Desecrator - Inflictor - Seether - Ripjaw x 2 (free) - Shrike x 2 Warwitch Siren x 2 Cephalyx Mind Slaver and Drudges
Almost every warjack I picked is focus efficient or meant to stay back and be a body guard. The Deathjack gives itself 2 focus every turn from skulls of hate, can cast ghost walk or hellfire for agathia, can heal itself, advance deploys and brings a lot of very accurate armor cracking. It makes a great target for Hellwrought, making it ARM 21 and retaliation (basically vengeance if it gets damaged - a 3" advance followed by a melee attack at the beginning of your turn).
The Seether can run and charge for free (and has to unless it is already engaged), has berserk for additional attacks and has a naturally high MAT of 8 so it doesn't have to boost to hit very often. The seether is also very hard hitting at P+S 17 for its claw attacks and has chain attack smash and grab to knock down or throw an enemy model it hasn't killed yet. It does have to hit with both its initial claw attacks on the same target for that to trigger.
Shrikes trample for free, get free boosted attack rolls while trampling and are immune to free strikes while trampling. They are SPD 7 flying, high defense bonejacks that take the anti-infantry role for the list.
The Desecrator has accumulator: Bane, which as long as it is within 3" of Agathia , it gets a free focus in addition to the focus it gets from power up. Its scather is also a great anti-infantry tool and its vivsector (melee weapon) hits pretty hard in melee at P+S 17, grievous wounds and critical shred. If you manage to get the critical, it gets a free attack at the same target. If you kill the original target, you lose the free attack.
The inflictor is a shield guard and another good target for hellwrought as it is already a resilient warjack for the chassis. It doesn't have any special focus efficiency but in a list with few models, a shield guard is not a bad thing.
You have access to warwitch sirens which can spread around some focus through empower. They can also corrode targets with their venom spray spell.
This theme gives you access to a decent cheap screening unit in the drudges. They are tough and a moderately high armor so are not trivial to remove. They will hold their ground for a round or two while you figure out how to get your warjacks onto the opposing warcaster, which isn't too hard with all the access to ghost walk and trampling you have.
Agathia loves this theme and it really likes her toolset.
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Post by tiberius on Nov 11, 2017 18:49:46 GMT
Bane Witch Agathia - Scourge of the Broken Coast
This theme gives satyxis models pathfinder and gives a unit of blood witches ambush. I think this is a good match for Agathia because all the satyxis units are great at infantry removal and she helps the raiders or anyone else hit a lot harder. She can also bring a couple of hard hitting warjacks as back up. This theme can play an assassination game or a scenario game well. Just don't count on attrition. The speed of the satyxis almost guarantee you getting the alpha strike especially with the protective feat, if you don't wait to use it for the ghost walk - immunity to free strikes portion of the feat. That would give the satyxis a lot of freedom to move through opposing units by slipping between any open paths and ignoring free strikes. Of course Agathia has the ghost walk spell regardless, so it hardly matters.
Bane Witch Agathia - Desecrator - Seether - Leviathan - Ripjaw x2 - Scavenger Satyxis Raider Captain Satyxis Blood Witches + hag Satyxis Gun Slingers Satyxis Raiders + Sea Witch
With the proposed point increase with the gun slingers, they list may have to change up a bit by downgrading a ripjaw to a deathripper or the scavenger to a shrike. I went with the scavenger because they hit harder at a single target than the shrike does and they are a little bit more maneuverable with sprint if you manage to kill your target. They are MAT 7 with a P+S 11 attack + finisher. They are also SPD 7 with flight. With ghost walk, they can move almost anywhere and do a power attack head butt to knock down an important target or just charge over anything to get to whatever they have line of sight to and hit pretty hard, assuming its already damaged.
As mentioned before, the desecrator is great with Bane Witch Agathia because it has synergies with bane models and gets a free focus (in addition to power up) from its accumulator: Bane rule if it activates within 3" of Agathia. Probably will play the part of a body guard warjack in this theme as it can do both hard hitting melee and a good ranged weapon with a scather, but ultimately, the satyxis will be the work horses and the jacks are the second wave.
With all the knock down tech you have in this theme from the satyxis raider captain, to critical knock down with the raiders, to power attacks from a flying jack, the leviathan can finish off most targets that get knocked down, as it can reliably hit a knocked down and in melee target (DEF 9) with its RAT 5, especially if it can aim. It has RNG 13, POW 13 (14 vs medium, 15 vs large and huge bases) and rate of fire 1D3. It can be unreliable but if you hit an average to high roll with the rate of fire, you can really lay on some damage at range. The sea witch and raider captain both have guns as well, at POW 12 and RNG 12 I believe. The gun slingers can lay on damage to a knocked down target as well, though they have a proposed RAT of 7 so shouldn't have too much trouble hitting things that are standing.
Agathia can help anything in the list hit harder under parasite, and if she is feeling frisky, her own dark shroud aura. With vanish, she can charge something, vanish behind it for 1 gaining a +2 to hit in its back arc and proceed to smack away at the target. In addition, vanish puts her out of the way of anything else you want to move in to the target.
Overall, this list doesn't bring any support for Agathia but in a list like this, she is probably playing parasite caster and ghost walk spammer. If things go badly, she will start feeding warjacks for a second wave.
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Post by tiberius on Nov 11, 2017 20:13:34 GMT
Bane Witch Agathia - Slaughter Fleet Raiders
With access to ghost walk, it shouldn't be hard to move your infantry in such a way that you can move your reach warjacks in to trigger gang fighter, which the theme gives to the warjacks in the list. In addition, the 2" deployment zone increase that the theme provides, gives extra speed to the theme's otherwise slower infantry choices. The Infantry in this theme are almost exclusively medium based, with the exception of merc options and the Devils Shadow Mutineers. But a three man unit isn't what I will base my thoughts around. I don't have any play experience with the unreleased options either.
Bane Witch Agathia - Desecrator - Seether - Harrower - Ripjaw x 2 - Reaper General Gerlak Slaughterborn Black Ogrun Boarding Party Bloodgorgers The Devils Shadow Mutineers
The blood gorgers and Gerlak are both really good at infantry killing with the bloodgorgers having two base attacks and gain berserk from slaughterborn. The also is proposed to have veteran leader which will increase their accuracy without having gang. They already have overtake so they can pretty much move through a unit and keep killing. If you are careful, you wont even kill your own guys. They all have unyielding as a rule for +2 ARM and the most recent proposal in CID is to make it while in melee, not just while engaging and enemy model. Its a simpler take on the rule in my opinion and you don't have to remember who has to engage who.
The devils shadow mutineers is a character pirate three man unit. You have Mar, who is a weapon master with a sabre and has berserk with a 0.5 inch range weapon. Agathia can really up his damage output with parasite, making him a legitimate threat to non-single wound infantry. Morland has two cutlasses and can hit with a combo strike or take two separate melee attacks at P+S 11. The combo strike hits at P+S 15 and he has a pistol with RNG 8, POW 10 if you need it. Zira is the dangerous one in my opinion. She is only RNG 8 and POW 10 with her two pistols as well but she is a ranged weapon master with black penny, meaning she ignores in melee penalties. Against a parasited or dark shrouded target (or both), she can really snipe out or kill things above her weight class. The group also has a good recursion ability where if any one of the group kills a living model, you can return any one of the group that was previously destroyed. The model cannot activate the turn it is returned to play, probably because the unit is currently activating and they don't want to have that kind of threat extension for the unit.
The harrower is a decent heavy warjack with a 2" reach melee weapon and thresher. It also has quick work if it kills everything it is in melee with (as it cannot shoot its gun while it is in melee). It can also collect souls and spend one of those souls to activate its wraith shot on the mortifier, where it will ignore LOS, concealment and cover, and boost all attack and damage rolls - including blast damage. It makes the RNG 11, POW 12 weapon a threat. Its reach and easy access to ghost walk also make it a mobile assassin or a good way to trigger gang fighter.
The reaper shares this job too. With the black ogrun, you can do a lot of drag shenanigans and with the right setup, trigger gang fighter on the reaper very easily.
This theme doesn't really have any support that agathia wants, but she can help the otherwise infantry killing groups hit harder and with gang fighter on the warjacks, apart from getting the guys in there to trigger it, Agathia shouldn't have to do much. The list should run itself. Especially when some of the new releases hit the table.
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Post by tiberius on Nov 11, 2017 20:53:20 GMT
Deneghra The Soul Weaver - Ghost Fleet
Deneghra's third incarnation and now with CID currently going on changing up the other two previous versions of Dirty D, is the only one left with the simple game plan of pop and drop. Though the 1st incarnation, warwitch deneghra can still debuff something into oblivion with a -4 DEF swing (or more if you hit that new critical shadow bind spell she has) and cap it with a lot of ranged forces, knocking something down with Scourge is just a lot more reliable. This version of Deneghra has her riding a giant bone dragon...which is awesome, so I will ignore the fact that there is really no story reason for her to have this...because its awesome. If only they gave her or it some rules aside from being super fast and flight that had anything to do with a bone dragon mount.
She is SPD 9!!! with flight and cavalry rules so she makes impact attacks at MAT 6 and POW 12 on a huge base, oh and reposition 5 so very maneuverable. The dragon does have a breath weapon of spray 8, POW 10 and continuous corrosion...which is great, just like her classic venom spell except now it is a lot more inaccurate with RAT 4. Aside from her mount she has a 2" reach melee weapon at P+S 13 with no special abilities other than magical. She sets at DEF 15 and ARM 16 and 18 boxes.
Her special ability soul mastery is her unique flavorful skill that allows her to spend a soul token to do one of two things. Either cast a spell that costs 3 or less without spending the focus, or have a warjack in her battlegroup in her command range (9 inches) gain up to 3 focus. Of course the warjack cannot have more than 3 focus and powerup gives them all a free focus so at most you will be giving them two focus. However, this second ability, called Vengeful Spirits, allows deneghra to run a much larger battlegroup than you would expect from the deneghras, especially since the warjacks she likes to take are very focus hungry.
She has another set of rules that helps her gain soul tokens reliably. The first is the typical, if something dies in 2" of her, she gets the soul token unless something that can gain it is closer. The other ability called Soul Weaver, allows her once per turn to remove soul tokens from a friendly faction model in her command range and place them on herself. Thanks for doing all that work pistol wraiths or harrower, mine!
So with the ability to spam 3 cost spells with soul tokens, of course she doesn't have any spammable attack spells. A few utility spells can be spammed, but that's okay. This makes sense from a balance standpoint, but also makes me sad from an awesome standpoint. She is a fun caster to take to spell draft tournaments though. Spam away!
Her spell list is really solid aside from that. Ghost walk is a cryx classic utility spell making the target model/unit ignore terrain and free strikes. This is not an upkeep so is spammable if you really want.
Grave wind is the only protection she gets on her huge base. It gives +2 DEF and poltergeist to target friendly faction model. The +2 DEF sets her at DEF 17 and poltergeist pushes an enemy model that misses her with an attack D3" directly away from her. Since it is a push, contacting any other model or obstruction stops the movement. But still, it makes it very risky to try and melee assassinate her unless you put a model behind your attacking models.
Mortality, another non-upkeep spell that is spammable. This is a poor man's crippling grasp but is better in some respects because while it doesn't affect the speed and strength of the target, it does remove tough and prevent them from having damage removed. So its a -2 DEF and -2 ARM debuff with those special extras.
Scourge is her 4-cost attack spell that automatically knocks down any models hit by the attack. Its a 3" AOE and POW 13. This used to be warwitch deneghra's signature finisher spell, but now it only belongs to the soul weaver. And half a dozen other casters scattered throughout the factions...thanks Malekus! She can arc it in with a bone jack 2.01 inches away from the target and its impossible to miss with a max deviation of 1", so its guaranteed knockdown without engagement, then shoot the sucker to death with pistol wraiths, revenant crew, rengrave, leviathan, or whatever. Of course there are a lot of anti-knockdown tech out there in trolls and the protectorate and who knows where else, but for the most part, this will work 4 out of 5 times.
Her feat is simple, immediately gain 7 soul tokens. So even in a bad matchup that has no souls, she isn't completely powerless. This used to be a much more powerful feat in MKII because of how camping focus worked. You could pop your feat a turn early, and then set on 14 focus the following turn. I don't know much that can pound through ARM 30. Now, it is still just -5 damage per focus spent, so anything damaging over ARM 21 will be hurting you. So go offense, jacks to feed, good guys to mortality, bad guys to ghost walk. You have up to 7 free spells, 7 filled up warjacks or any combination thereof. More if you can get a good soul train chugging.
So what does Deneghra want in a theme? She wants a good way to get her spells out there. She is super fast but you really don't want to play her forward until its time to go for the kill. A lot of her abilities are command range so you do have to play up a bit so you will probably be upkeeping grave wind on her every turn. A free upkeep would be handy. A fast army that can keep up with her is desirable. Mobile warjacks that can attack from a lot of threat ranges is desirable, and a strong ranged presence plays into her end game. She wants to keep warjacks in her battlegroup and she really doesn't need extra warjack support if she has the soul train running. Though it doesn't hurt. Other things that can collect souls helps her out too.
Deneghra the Soul Weaver - Nightmare - Stalker x 2 - Deathripper - Scavenger x 2 Captain Rengrave Pistol Wraith x 2 Blackbane's Ghost Raiders Revenant Crew (min) + 2 riflemen Revenant crew (min) Revenant cannon crew
Nightmare is Deneghra's character warjack on a slayer chassis. I would love to see someone mod out the model and put the little girl on its shoulder like she is directing it around. Anyhow, it has slayer stats with an extra point of armor and an extra point of damage on its claws. It gains stealth while in Deneghra's control area and has innate ghostly. It also has prey, so remember to pick a prey target (+2 to hit and damage against your prey target) after deployment but before the first turn. It also has chain attack smash and grab so it gets a free throw or head butt if you hit and down kill with your two claw attacks (P+S 17, MAT 8 normally, +2 to those with prey). Nightmare lost reach and the prey +2" movement ability in the transition to MKIII. It is an expensive warjack, but it has good defensive tech, ignores terrain and free strikes, hits accurately and hard. When used right, it is definitely worth its 18 points, but it is a focus leech and wants to be fed to do its job.
I included a fleet of light bone jacks in her battlegroup because I really like how they perform and she can support them with mortality, ghost walk and her soul: fill up the warjack ability. With 2 stalkers and 2 scavengers, that is alot of mobile threat that is hard to get away from and one of them should be able to get to the warcaster with a headbutt or just do the job themselves. Mortality helps improve accuracy and damage dealt and makes sure the warcaster, beast or whatever cannot heal. I beleive that mortality also affects gargantuans and colossals so Mountain King beware. Though its not Deneghra's style to deal with the king, she would more than likely ignore it, go through it or around it.
After the target is knocked down, you have a large group of solos and units with ranged attacks. The pistol wraiths will be very accurate and should not miss, getting chain attack stationary onto the target pretty easily. So they can shake stationary and knocked down, but thats two focus/fury. Probably a 1/3 of their stack. That is, they can shake it if they live with that much stuff shooting at them.
The revenant cannon is the only thing I dont like in this list as it is too slow and too short of range to really keep up and contribute in any meaningful way. Though I do like the gun and it gets boosted to hit rolls against living models. It can also add grunts to nearby revenant crew units when it kills something.
Overall, ghost fleet has enough guns and good screening units that Deneghra is pretty happy with it. There are probably better themes for her but its not bad.
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