Evaluating Rhys, the crazy sword of Everblight

Rhyas is the kind of warlock that gets some flak on the forums. Realistically, not everything is created equally. This means some things are better than others, and Rhyas ends up on the lower end of the spectrum for Legion warlocks.

Being on the percieved 'lower end' doesn't mean Rhyas is bad. It means more that Rhyas is a bit more limited: she's got a handful of spells and nasty assassination potential, so she's kind of limited in what she can do.

Round 1 of Questions

1) How Vulnerable am I to Assassination?

Rhyas has the typical DEF16 and ARM14 you see in the smaller Legion warlocks. She's sitting on 16 health, which is about average. She's harder to hit, but not very hard to damage. This is kind of par for the course for warlocks.

Bottom line? Rhyas is hard to hit, but not hard to damage. You're likely better off buffing her defense, as DEF16 means that even boosted shots are probably rolling at 50/50. With Perfect Balance, the enemy can't try to use combined attacks to get around her DEF16, at least. However, she's still vulnerable to knockdown, which lets the enemy do fun stuff like slam things over her.

2) Can the warlock kill things?

MAT8 and a PS12 weaponmaster sword say that yes, Rhyas can kill things. Critical decapitation (double damage that exceeds ARM, cannot take Tough rolls) is icing on the cake.

Rhyas has SPD 7, and can get +1 from a spell. As such, she's got a threat range of 11.5 inches, and chances are that if an enemy caster gets within that threat range, you can kill them.

Note, though, that if you do plan on using Rhyas' offensive ability, make sure she kills the target. She has Sprint, so if you can hack at targets and kill them, you can promptly run out of combat and back to safety (kind of, anyway) and ignore free strikes thanks to Perfect Balance.

Better yet, thanks to Acrobatic, she can get through anything and make full use of her 10.5" base threat range. Screening models? She doesn't care, as long as she can put her base there.

Bottom line? If you're going to use Rhyas' melee potential, be careful about it. Note that she can only buy a limited number of attacks, given her FURY 5 and having a couple of upkeeps.

3) Spells/Utility

Rhyas does NOT have a lot of spells. She's got a whopping three spells, but part of that comes from having a whoppin' FURY of 5.

Rapport is a solid warbeast buff; it's a 2-fury upkeep buff that gives a warbeast in her battlegroup MAT8, RAT6 and the ability to transfer once without paying fury. Honestly, you kind of want a beast of a warbeast to take this spell, because it's her new best friend. You can also transfer to it even if you're outside of her whoppin' 10" control area.

Occultation is a situational buff that gives a friendly unit/model stealth. It's a nice 'screw you' to spells.

Dash is the one spell she has that's not an upkeep. Warrior models are immune to free strikes in her control area, and warrior models & Rhyas gain +1 SPD. This does two things: 1) increase the threat range on Legion infantry, and 2) pull your infantry out of a fight without risking death from free strikes.

Basically, Rhyas can make one infantry unit immune to direct fire, buff the accuracy of one beast, and increase the threat range of all of your infantry.

4) Feat

Her feat has the lovely title 'Tide of Blood.' Basically, Legion models get a free extra melee attack (YAY!) and the first time they damage an enemy model, you can place 'em in base contact with that model. You can use this for the obvious extra attacks, and you may be able to get a little extra threat range and positioning out of the feat, depending on what targets you go after.

I think you're more likely to use the feat to rip up the enemy army than anything else, but that's me. All else fails, you can use it to increase Rhyas' ability to get to the target.

Round 2 of Questioning

5) What kind of game does the warlock play?

Rhyas is light on fury and carries a small control range (all of 10 inches, as small as it gets for the game). As such, she's going to take the lead, and you may be wanting to take advantage of her personal melee capabilities. Make no mistake, if you CAN get to the enemy, then you can probably do some damage. However, you don't have the fury and durability to absorb much abuse, so you don't want to lean too much on Rhyas herself to kill things.

Any way you cut it, Rhyas WILL be close to the front just because she's FURY5. She's likely to throw out her upkeeps on turn one, and advance from there, looking for a good time to kill something herself.

The problem is that Rhyas has a fairly narrowly-defined list of stuff she can do: get infantry into the fight and make a beast accurate. She's very focused, and in that regard it's like taking a sniper rifle into an FPS game: you can do one thing REALLY WELL, but anyone that can get around that can give you some trouble. She's just not that versatile, as about the only thing she's good at is trying to kill things.

6) Win Condition

Ideally you'll use her feat to knock a chunk out of the enemy army. Otherwise, you're probably hoping to deliver the beast with Rapport on it to the enemy caster, as MAT8 will probably get through their defense without absolutely requiring the boost.

Really, Rhyas is about offense. Get the infantry in there, kill the enemy, and get something accurate to the enemy warlock. There's just not a lot of subtlty to her, or necessarily options. You can play the scenario, or go for the throat. She just seems a little more inclined to go for the throat.

7) Army Composition

Look to Rhyas' buffs to understand what kind of army she wants to run.

Rapport: bring a warbeast that's got both melee and ranged capabilities. Frankly, the Cariviean comes to mind; Rapport brings it to MAT8 for some punishing melee attacks and RAT6 on the spray is terrifying as well. I suppose you could put that on an Angelius, but it doesn't have the raw hitting power. The Ravagore has similar melee power, but I don't think it necessarily gets the same mileage out of the RAT6. Still, it's worth considering. The Scythean would lvoe the MAT8, but the RAT6 is wasted on it.

Occultation: this makes an infantry unit immune to direct fire, but doesn't do anything for its ability to survive blasts. If you were up for running two infantry units (which would maximize the utility of Dash) then you could go for Swordsmen (and give them occultation) and Hex Hunters. The Hunters go for infantry and the swordsmen go for harder targets. On the other hand, I kind of want to run Warmongers with them (or even Gatormen) as those guys are already resistant to blasts via 8 wounds + ARM16, and Stealth helps get around their lowish DEF12.

Dash: bring at least one infantry unit, and consider more. this makes you want to lean towards Faction models (sorry, Gatorman Posse...). If you want to roll something like Striders, this lets you throw Striders at lower-MAT enemies to try to slow them down, THEN extract them from combat and shoot the enemy in the face.

Past that, keep an eye on melee beasts for her feat, and potentially a Seraph for ranged support and Slipstream.

And, also, consider fury-management solos. You're FURY5. Never forget that. One full-out heavy beast rush can but you up to four fury. You're likely to have Occultation and Rapport out, which means you've got enough fury left to cast Dash and then transfer.

Conclusion

Rhyas is kind of limited, compared to other warlocks. If you want to run melee infantry, though, Rhyas is your wayt o do it for Legion. Like Lylyth, she's simple and elegant (and thus limited), but unlike pLylyth, I think she's a little more limited (Hey, Typhon triple-sprays and Seraphs can reach out and TOUCH someone...infantry may have trouble).

Evaluation of Animi available to the Legion of Everblight

As I have started talking about evaluating warlocks and the need to be familiar with all the various animi at your disposal, I figured I'd do a rundown/evaluation of those available to the Legion, my home Hordes faction.

That being said, I intend to provide a generalized list of the animus and their potential utility.

Lesser Warbeasts

Harrier: True Strike

This animus is situational, as it's range is SELF. It lets the next attack this model makes hit automatically. It turns the Harrier into a homing missile, but...the utility of that is debatable. If you think you might be taking your warlock into melee (and, frankly, there are some that might do that, like eThagrosh, Absylonia, and Rhyas) and you can spare some points for a free hit-buff, then grab a harrier. Otherwise, the animus alone is not worth bringing the beast.

Shredder: Tenacity

Ah, tenacity. It's cheap (both to bring the Shredder and to cast) and it's a general utility spell. The low cost of 1 fury gives you a little more leeway in spending your fury. +1 DEF and +1ARM with a 6" range let you give models that little extra push they might need. You can use it to get a little extra armor on a bigger, easier-to-hit target (IE: Carnivean-chassis models) or help push your defense up a little higher (most of our warlocks go to DEF17 with this up).

Honestly, Shredders are versatile and useful, and this is one of the reasons to bring one.

Stinger: Lurker

1 Fury and a 6" range to hand out bushwhack? This is potentially useful, but doesn't quite have the utility of, say, tenacity. Bushwhack lets you switch up the order of activation: act, then move, but you must make a full advance for that move. This allows a ranged model to fire and back away from a threat, or it can let a melee model beat up what's close to it, and then reposition.

All in all, it's versatile, but not necessarily something you'll field in every list as the Stinger isn't quite on the level of the Shredder for damage output.

Light Warbeasts

Nephilim Bolt Thrower: Glider

Yay, flight for one fury! Downside? Two things: 1) RNG SELF, and 2) this is a faction with a lot of built-in pathfinder and flight. It lets the Neph bolt thrower ignore terrain, and if you have one of our warlocks that doesn't have pathfinder (...ok, we have a few, to be honest) then they might be able to make use of this.

On the other hand, you tend to bring a Bolt Thrower for its other abilities; Glider is really just a supplimental thing for it (and often, it alone). 

Nephilim Protector: Safeguard

Two fury and RNG 6. What's this get you? Immunity to knockdown, and a flat 3-inch reduction on slam distance. Given that knockdown negates the normally-solid DEF values of Everblight casters, there may be some merit in the animus.

However, this animus is attached to a purely-defensive beast (...whoppin' MAT5, PS12 attack, aw yeah...right). The animus is at best situational, but it can totally save your hide in those situations.

Nephilim Solder: Massacre

Massacre is interesting, as it's both efficient and inefficient at the same time. It's 2 fury and RNG 6. The target can charge without being forced, and if it kills an enemy model with the charge attack it can advance an inch and make another melee attack.

Now, charging and buying another attack cost two fury. If you botch the first attack, then you're out a fury. So, you're gambling, right? Why would we want to gamble?

Look back to the range: Your warlock (or the Nephilim Warrior itself) can cast this spell on a beast, which can now use all its fury for extra attacks. Take something like a Carnivean with its 3 melee attacks; it's now looking at a potential EIGHT melee attacks (plus the spray for assault) as it runs up, crushes something, moves up, swings again, then buys four more attacks in an orgy of destruction, blood, and maniacal laughter on your part.

The downside is that if you want to maximize Massacre, your boosted charge attack of death is going to be against something you're certain you'll finish off.

Altogether, it's a potentially useful animus, but again the chassis may hold it back as the Warrior is not BAD, but not necessarily GREAT.

UPDATE: this is about the only way the Throne of Everblight is going to make extra attacks.  That thing can ALWAYS love some extra attacks, and the 4" melee range means you can engage a crap-ton of targets.

Raek: Shadow Shift

Two fury to become immune to free strikes; RNG: SELF. This is a situational animus. You are going to use this when you want your warlock to get into melee and they'll have to eat free strikes (IE: maybe they're flying? Thagrosh can do it...) on the way. Now, one school of thought is that you'd simply hand off those potential hits via transfers.

Really, this one ends up being situatioal: 1) did you bring a warlock that wants to get into melee? 2) Will they HAVE to eat free strikes? 3) How many free strikes are they likely to take? 4) Couldn't you just camp fury and gamble on getting there? 5) Do you have enough beasts to transfer the free strikes to?

Ultimately, it's situational. Nice when you need it, but it's not the reason you bring a Raek. No, you bring a Raek for its crazy mobility, and you may or may not remember it has an animus.

Teraph: Counterblast

See also: situational. The Teraph's not the most popular beast, and the animus doesn't necessarily help: it's 2 fury and RNG: SELF. If someone wanders into the command range of this model, they can make one normal melee or ranged attack and then the animus drops.

So, which warlocks have a ranged attack that's worth spending two fury on as a keep-away? The Thagroshes have sprays, but so-so RAT and the ability to potentially hit friendlies with sprays. The Lylyths have bows and one supposes that they COULD use it, but 2 fury is kinda steep for a 5-fury 'lock.

Overall, this one is very limited in its utility by its RNG: SELF.

Naga Nightstalker: Wraithbane
At 2 fury, it ain't cheap, but.  But.  Blessed and Magic Weapon are NICE traits to get.  Consider factions with buffs like Defender's Ward or Arcane Shield, and this is 2 Fury for something like +2MAT/+2 damage, or just +3 damage.  Also, you can shoot folks immune to non-magic weapons, and mess up incorporeal on anything (though as to the latter, the NIghtstalker itself has a magic gun for a face, so yeah).

This thing is not an auto-include; we have our own buffs that can power through enemy defensive buffs.  On the other hand, eLylyth LOVES this thing (What? Passage, choir, menoth, what?  Whatevs.), and in general our beasts love it.  The downside?  2 fury, single target.  Not an auto-include, but it's on a workable package and you have a hellaciously versatile/useful animus against some folks.

Heavy Warbeasts

Angelius: Repulsion

Ok, it does have the somewhat-limiting 'RNG: SELF' and it costs two fury. On the other hand, it's free movement of enemy models: push everyone that's within 2" of you back three inches in the order of your choosing.

Yep. Two fury to free you from melee. Combine this with a warbeast that's actually reasonably solid rolling this animus and maxing out its fury (as it can then do a charge and boost the hit for a sick, sick armor piercing shot, or fully boost its ranged attack) and you have a reasonably useful animus.

It's not something you go out of the way to include in your list, but it will certainly be useful.

Carnivean: Spiny Growth

Two fury and a 6" range for +2 ARM and d3 damage to beasts/'jacks that hit you but don't kill you? This is a bloody solid animus. Legion's not exactly brimming with high ARM, but this can jump most heavies up from 'so-so durability' to 'groan-inducing.'

If you bring a carnivean as a can-opener, you WILL get great mileage out of Spiny Growth. It's an excellent piece of a solid package.

Ravagore: Dragon Fire

The Ravagore is a carnivean that trades a little bit of MAT for its bite and spray, and brings siege weapon in its place. Dragon Fire goes nicely with that, and since you're bringing the Ravagore in a ranged-themed list, then yeah, you'll get good use out of the animus.

So, what's that animus do? 1 fury, range 6, and all your warbeast's ranged weapons gain Continuous Fire. Considering this comes on a beast with a RNG 14 AoE3 shot, that's a nice little suppliment for troop-killing and generally inconveniencing stuff. Other ranged warbeasts can make plenty of use of this, as it's a nice counter to Tough (ok, you made it this time? Whatever. Do it again next turn.) and makes lighter targets very worried about stray shots.

This one's a solid compliment to the kind of list that would favor a Ravagore by nature.

Scythean: Slaughterhouse

1 Fury: target Trollblood or eAsphyxious player cries. This animus is a limited-use compliment to the Scythean,as it's a 1 Fury RNG: Self animus. Simply put, the target ignores Tough and removes the dead stuff from play.

Is it situational? Absolutely. Is it golden in those situations? Oh, yeah.

However, the Scythean's a popular choice for its threat range and sheer damage output; SPD6 heavies with a pair of PS17 reach weapons are capable of reaching out and touching something; add Chain Attack: Thresher to that and, well, yeah.

Slaughterhouse is highly situational, and mainly serves to make a select few opponents weep in public when the Scythean goes chop-happy on them.

Seraph: Slipstream

This is a 1-fury, RNG: self animus that has an insane amount of utility. Why? The model using this animus moves. Then, if it moved within 2" of a friendly faction model, you can place that friendly faction model 2" completely within its current position. Limit: once per turn.

Yep. 1 fury for a free two-inch move. This is in the category of stupid-good. There are a variety of uses for this, and I'll list a few of them below:

1) Another two inches to your threat range

2) pull a model out of melee without eating free strikes

3) another 2" of movement on something

4) get a shooter in range AND keep the aiming bonus

5) non-linear movement: get around an obstacle

Frankly, it's on a workhorse beast (the Seraph is workable at melee and ranged without being spectacular) but you end up with a package that can melee, shoot, AND provide you with out-of-phase movement with very generous conditions.

Honestly, I think Slipstream takes the cake for the most versatile animus in the book at this point.

Typhon: Excessive Healing

2 fury for a 'SELF' animus. Man, there's a lot of 'SELF' stuff in here, isn't there? Well, this one lets you heal d3 from an attack that doesn't kill you, instantly.

Yep. Any time the enemy damages you, you get to heal d3. Maybe there's a reason it's RNG: SELF.

That aside, it basically makes Typhon (and potentially your warcaster) laugh off snipers and low-POW attacks. It helps soften the blow against harder hits, but frankly the enemy can work around this by just hitting you. It really does force the enemy to go for fewer, harder hits to deny you more healing rolls.

This animus is bloody important for harder-to-hide warlocks like, oh, Epic Thagrosh and his DEF13 large-based self. Combine this with the affinity, and suddenly eThags becomes a little more survivable.

Bottom line: you generally take Typhon for his damage output, but he goes very well with eThagrosh because of this and would generally help you with any hard-to-hide 'lock.

Proteus: Snacking
Heal whenever you mulch the living, and RFP 'em to boot.  This is a bit situational, and Proteus himself is far from an auto-include, but the animus is a situational way to RFP stuff and repair minor dings/dents to your beasts.  Bottom line: situational at best; it completes Proteus as a beastie with a lotta random tricks, some of which you'll use.

Closing Thoughts

Legion has access to some pretty solid animi. Tenacity is a wonderful little piece of kit; most of the time you don't see folks leave home without a Shredder because the animus is cheap and useful.

The light beasts don't necessarily have stand-out animi. When you get down to it, they're either situational, or don't come on beasts that lots of folks take (if not both).

The heavies have some great workhorse and general utility animi. I'm a fan of Spiny Growth (ARM18 to ARM20 is a nice jump in durability, methinks) and Slipstream as general utility animi. The others tend to be just plain compliments to the army, but that's not a bad thing. It's just that when you're picking heavy beasts, well, you're dropping 8-12 points on a model that should be crucial to your plan. I mean, it's a chunk of resources, and the animus is only part of that. Bring the beast because it can work for your plan, and integrate the animus accordingly. I mean, frankly, ignoring tough and removing models from play is highly situational.

At any rate, I hope this has served as a useful resource for both Legion players and those that might play Legion.

Ok, someone might have noticed that Belphagor is missing from this list. It's deliberate; I can see Belphagor where his green stuff is drying. However, he only comes with Bethayne; I'd rather keep him in with an evaluation of her because of this.

Everblight: Thoughts on Units, Part 1

Admittedly, the Legion of Everblight is not exactly long on support for infantry. Most casters have about, oh, one spell that can target models/units as opposed to just warbeasts. Most animi in the legion are single-model, and it's not exactly efficient to hand those out to a unit...

However, I still find myself looking for an infantry unit in most builds. Mostly, they're meant as a distraction from the beasts, though some of them (like Striders and Raptors) can do some fine damage in their own right.

I've run several of them and own a handful of them, and feel that they're at least worth a look.

Striders

Striders are the sniper infantry. They're angry Nyss with bows, pathfinder, and a hankering for putting arrows into enemy infantry. A half-dozen puts you out 6 points, and with the Officer/Musician attachment, you're looking at a 9pt outlay.

Pros

A full 9pt investment gets you 8 guys that have a 12" command range (thanks to the musician). SPD6, Pathfinder, and Advance Deploy (combined with a 3" regroup move from the UA) makes them very mobile and very able to get there. RAT6 is average, but you can pair up with Combined Ranged Attack for RAT8 POW12s. The UA also lets them ignore forests/concealement/cover, and in a pinch the Musician has Take Up.

Cons

DEF 15 is nice; Stealth is more fun, but ARM11 means you still die to blast damage like whoa. They're also crap in melee, with a mighty sword and crap MAT. You CAN use them in melee as a tarpit with DEF15, but there are counters for high DEF.

Overall

9 points get you a mobile half-dozen Nyss with bows. If you want your unit to help KO ranged targets, this is what you want. They die to AoEs, but can spread out with the UA. Even without the UA, it's still a solid unit. I find they work well with the Lylyths; Parasite helps them take down infantry units and eLylyth's feat + Pin Cushion make 'em nasty. They also have the Stealth to synergize with eLylyth's Shadow Pack. I suppose eThagrosh's +2ARM spell helps against AoEs, but ARM13 is still AoE bait.

Ogrun Warmongers

Do you like big, crazy guys with pointy sticks and a penchant for bloodshed? Then, yeah, these guys are for you. 8 points get you 5 of these 8-wound maniacs.

Pros

For medium-based 8-wound infantry, they're reasonably spry. SPD5 and Reach give them a decent threat range; DEF 12 isn't much but ARM16 is reasonably solid. They have a MAT 7, PS14 death-stick and berserk, so the enemy has room to worry about what happens if they get into infantry. In a pinch, you can probably do some damage on a charge to light beasts/jacks. Finally, as medium bases, they'll block Tramples, which is never a bad thing.

Cons

Berserk is probably the first drawback people think of; if they run out of things to poke they'll probably poke each other, what with Reach and all. If you want to get around this, you can run a Chieftain solo for another 3; this makes the package 8/11 depending on unit size. On the other hand, the Chieftain can buff their attacks and let them stop berserking to heal d3 and RFP living stuff. Hey, everyone gets hungry... Also, SPD5 is not THAT fast.

Overall

Anyone that can buff either the accuracy or durability of these guys is what you want. So far, I've run them with eThagrosh for his +2ARM spell; 8 wounds on ARM18 is rough for infantry. They're reasonably costly, but they require a concerted effort to remove and provide a solid screen. Other downside? The cost; those medium-based metal units can be a bit to acquire.

Blighted Swordsmen

It's a MAT7 maniacal weaponmaster with a good defense and so-so armor. Mostly, it's a weaponmaster; anyone that's ever been charged by Weaponmasters has seen a stupidly damaging roll come up at least once and remembers it vividly.

Pros

Mostly, it's the fact they're MAT7 weaponmasters. SPD 6 is ok, but without reach you have a so-so threat range. DEF 14 is just above average, and with the UA you can up your lethality (as he grants you a 1" move and the ability to make another attack if you kill something) while the Champion can scare people with the prospect of a PS15 Weaponmaster Combo-Strike of Death.

Cons

No reach. ARM13 is only so-so against blasts. While there's a lot of damage-dealing potential, they don't necessarily have the damage stats and strike range to do the damage you really want to see them do.

Overall

Swordsmen promise a lot of damage potential, that's for sure. On the downside, everyone knows this, and unlike other notable weaponmasters (IE: Bane Thralls) they're not as easy to deliver into the fray. pThagrosh can up their defense with Fog of War, but that leaves them open to blasts. eThagrosh can put them up to ARM15, which helps against AoEs. Absylonia's one of those that can buff their MAT situationally. Basically, Swordsmen want help to get there, or to at least make sure they draw plenty of attention. They're not quite my favorite infantry unit.

End, Part One

In the name of not throwing up a critical-hit wall o' text, I'm going to end with the ones I've run. I've got a unit of Legionnaries on the way as a cheaper tarpit, and I also own some Raptors. Given their point cost, though, I've not yet run 'em, and I've kinda not painted them...but I do want to, just because they're stupidly dangerous.

Everblight New Stuff: Chain Attack Bloodbath For Great Justice

The local gaming group, HAAWGS, is getting a map-based league underway. It's a nice change-up and access to a broader variety of opponents. The change-up comes in the form of force composition: you start with a base of 30 points, and the various map tiles you control might add something. My current setup involves one free faction solo and two minion/merc solos (no more than 3 points each*).

As such, a buddy and I decided to mix it up and test out new league-friendly armies, which were of course using our territories to build the forces.

The Test

My army was thus:

Saeryn

-Scythean

-Angelius

-Nephilim Soldier

-Harrier

-Shredder

10 Blighted Swordsmen

Forsaken (free faction solo)

Gudrun the Wanderer (free merc/minion solo)

Totem Hunter (free merc/minion solo)

My buddy brought:

Strakhov

-Spriggan

-Juggernaut

War Dog

5 Man'o'war Shock Troopers

6 Assault Kommandos, 2 Flamethrowers attached

Minimum Battle Mechaniks

Alten Ashley

Gorman di Wulf

Scenario: Two objectives; one on either side of the middle line

Highlights

Blight field is SO COOL...when the enemy isn't immune to corrosion. I moved the Harrier up to drop a blight field...then realized his Kommandos laugh off corrosion damage, so a POW12 corrosion is nothing to them. Oops.

Totem Hunter

The Totem Hunter's Prey ability is SWEET...when used well. He racked up Alten Ashley, a few Kommandos, and Gorman di Wulf before he kind of was on fire and then bit by the War Dog. Still, SPD 7, Pathfinder, Hunter, and Sprint (let alone Leap) make for some fun times when you're basically MAT10 with a PS13 and PS16.

Gudrun the Wanderer

Gudrun gets a cookie for being stupidly annoying to kill. Of course, he promptly lost it, as he had some of the worst dice of the game. MAT7 vs Gorman's DEF 14, we miss the normal swing. Ok, I get it, a 7 is average and we can miss that. Well, Gorman is like "...I have a stiletto, or grenades." Gorman takes a step back. Can I get a 5 to kill the Gorman? Nope. Gudrun gets black-oiled, hit twice by the war dog, and then hit again by Strakhov to make sure he goes down TWICE. He's 3 points that drew a lot of fire advancing on the objective, and with Advance Deploy I can react to the other guy.

Neph Warrior

The Nephilim Warrior gets a slap for getting a whopping two infantry kills before the dice refused to roll higher than a six to hit assault kommandos. Oops. On the bright side, he set up the MVP. That aside, Massacre is a nice animus for when I want to put a beast into assault and keep the fury off it, and the beast itself is a reasonable work-horse. With Saeryn's feat up, flight + immunity to free strikes = mobile weapon.

The Scythean

Well, the Nephilim Warrior kinda drew the charge from the Man'o'war squad, and while he had Tenacity (going up to DEF 14, ARM17, not too bad...) it turns out those bloody assault commandos have some -2DEF grenade they can chuck. This leaves the Men'o'war and the Juggernaut in close quarters.

Saeryn feats (so her battlegroup cannot be targeted by melee attacks) and drops Breath Stealer on the Men'o'war, setting them down to DEF9. The Scythean then advances into the middle of this, putting the Juggernaut and full squad of man'o'war into melee range. Swings twice, pegs the Juggernaut with both attacks...then proceeds to tag every last man'o'war and beat them all within an inch of their life without spending any fury. After forcing him full for attacks, it turns out that the Scythean managed to crank out a total of 12 PS17 hits in a turn. (2 initial, 6 from Chain Attack Stupid Good, 4 purchased). One man'o'war is left standing with a few hit boxes, and the Juggernaut is mostly dead.

The Angelius then charges, armor-pierces the juggy down to 3 boxes (Cortex, Axe, and hull...so had the feat NOT been up, things still could've gotten nasty) and kills the last man'o'war. This redeems the angelius for missing Ashley with a boosted fiery hand-cannon shot.

Blighted Swordsmen

I'm not 100% sold on them. They have a reasonable defense of 14, but ARM13 means that really the only thing they've got going for them is that DEF14. They did draw the Spriggan's attacks and a volley of hideously accurate Kommando carbine fire, and I suppose that when you get down to it, you really don't want MAT7 PS11 weaponmasters cavorting about. The survivors did manage to knock a chunk out of the Spriggan and draw it off.

Assault Kommandos

Ok, I know they're not my guys, but I gotta laugh when someone pulls off a neat little trick like this: My opponent knows he can't draw LOS on something on the other side of the forest. What's he do? Put a Kommando in front of the flamethrower so that when the flamethrower fires, the important stuff is under the spray template. As they are fireproof...you see where this goes. Even when you might lose some guys, it's worth mentioning that other folks can always use their own models to set up spray attacks on you.

The other funny trick is forcing the choice of "Do you free-strike me and blow me up on the spot and catch fire, OR do you let me get away and spray fire again?" The Neph Warrior kinda whacked him in the face with a PS14 sword, and then caught fire (and then DIED HORRIBLY to Juggernaut + Man'o'war attacks, so yeah...).

Overall

I'm beginning to see why folks like the Scythean and Saeryn. I'll admit that I got lucky with the Scythean's setup; numerous low-DEF targets along with something that can be hit by/survive two MAT6 PS17s is about as good as it gets. When a 9pt beast pretty much takes 16 points out of the game by himself, things aren't looking good for the other guy. When the 9pt beast does that WITHOUT TAKING DAMAGE, then the other guy's screwed. I got lucky that time around; it's not a mistake he'll make again.

Also, every time I say 'Saeryn' I can't help but hear the game over music from Mass Effect 1. I have the urge to model a Geth arm onto her somehow...

*Why the 3pt limit on merc/faction solos? Someone pointed out that really nasty ones like cavalry solos/Bane Lord Tartarus cost 4-5, and then there are the minion warlocks that are 9, so you probably want to limit that cost...

Epic Lylyth: First Impressions

I have to admit, after a few games with pLylyth, I looked at epic Lylyth and wondered just what in the world she had to offer. I mean, come on, I just have to shoot someone to put a spell on them; I've got Parasite for hard-target cracking, I've got Eruption of Spines for clustered light targets, and I've got a feat for making sure I hit you and you die.

As it turns out, both of the Lylyths are kind of like Everblight's break-action shotguns: clean, elegant, easy to operate, and capable of doing some damage when pointed in the right direction.

The Look at eLylyth, the Shadow of Everblight

Stats

SPD 7 and Pathfinder makes her pretty bloody swift. STR 4 means you're getting thrown by anyone that can touch you, but is otherwise irrelevant as she has no melee weapons. Similarly, her MAT is irrlevant. Her RAT went up to 8, making her about as accurate as it gets. DEF 16 and ARM 14 make her tough to hit, but easy to damage, and CMD 8 is so-so. Chances are that anything that NEEDS to make a command check (read: striders) probably has a better command value.

You should of course by now be used to her FURY of 5. Not great, but this is the Legion! We've got ways around it.

Skills/abilities

She kept Eyeless Sight (...I'd be hard-pressed to find a fluff reason for losing it). She picked up Evasive, so she can't be tagged by free strikes and she also gets a free 2" advance if the enemy shoots at her and misses. Range Amplifier is something of a replacement for Witch Mark, and it gives you the good ol' +5" RNG if you don't channel the spell. Snap Fire and Swift Hunter combine with her RNG 12 POW12 ROF 2 bow to let her cut through infantry with light/medium armor.

Spells

She's got three spells, all different from her prime incarnation.

Pin Cushion: RNG 10, cost 2, offensive upkeep. Friendly faction models get an extra dice to ranged attack/damage rolls, and drop the lowest. It's Manifest Destiny, but for guns! Between this and her feat, you should seriously be looking into a shooty army.

Pursuit has a couple inches less range than pin cushion, and the same cost. If an enemy model/unit advances, you get to make an advance with one of your battlegroup. Good for keeping someone out of harm's way, or making sure the enemy doesn't run away. Honestly, I see it used more for getting out of harm's way.

Shadow pack is the middle finger for ranged armies. 3 fury and then one to upkeep it afterwards means everyone in your battlegroup gains Stealth while in Lylyth's control area.

Feat: Decimation

The feat is aptly named. Everyone in your control area gains Snipe, and all your beasts get to make an additional free ranged attack. This means you should pretty much consider beasts with ranged attacks, as this feat is either your assassination or (I feel, more likely) your alpha strike to soften up the enemy.

The Utilization of Lylyth, Shadow of Everblight

I'll offer up the 35pt army I ran with her, and an explanation of why each piece made it in there.

Lylyth

-Ravagore

-Carnivean

-Nephilim Bolt Thrower

-Shredder

Striders + UA

2 Shepherds

The Battlegroup

The Ravagore has a stupid-long threat range with a 6" move and 14" shot. It gives us the ranged attack we want for the feat/pin cushion, and it can provide backup against lower-DEF targets in melee with a pair of PS16 open fists and MAT5. The MAT5 is the weak point, though, as it kind of starts falling through against anything with a DEF better than 11/12. So, don't match it up against heavy infantry and you'll do fine. The other major selling point for the Ravagore is the Animus; Continuous Fire on ranged attacks is stupidly useful. Don't uderestimate the potential value of the Scather templates left behind after the attack, and if you're shooting infantry aim for the front ranks to screw up the movement of the rear guys.

The Carnivean also boasts a nasty ranged attack with the SP10, though the RAT 4 means you'll be boosting it. The ability to double-tap with this on Feat turn sort of mitigates that crap RAT, though you'll want to have Lylyth use Spiny Growth on the Carnivean if anything survives the spray as it will (almost) invariably be in charge range. The MAT6 on top of the three initial melee attacks also makes the Carnivean suitable for point-defense duty.

The Nephilim Bolt Thrower is in there for the Thunderbolt ability, on top of the part where it's got a gun (which is more or less the prerequisite for being in Lylyth's battlegroup). The ability to reach out and push someone d3 inches is big; peg the enemy's heavy hitters from as far away as you can to buy more time to shoot them. The only thing to watch out for is the fact that you might shove them out of everyone else's shooting range. Past that, the Animus is only so-so, as Lylyth has pathfinder and 90% of the time it's as good as Flight.

The Shredder is there because I like Tenacity. Admittedly, it's not as necessary because the carnivean-chassis are a mighty DEF 11 and likely to use something like Spiny Growth instead. I would probably replace the Shredder with a Stinger in the future, though the cost and pathfinder mean it can be an objective-sitter in a pinch.

Striders are in there because they're nasty ranged troops, and because I need to keep Stealth in there, lest all the guns be directed at the troops because no one can see my friggin' battlegroup. They're fast, hard to hit, and have ranged attacks. They get serious mileage out of Pin Cushion, which may let you get past the need to double up for combined ranged attacks.

Shepherds are in there as fury control, obviously. With a mighty Fury of 5, Lylyth kind of NEEDS the help. The ability to heal is also excellent, as it lets me potentially bring up a crippled spiral or two. Lylyth COULD do this, but again five fury and an upkeep or two means her personal fury is at a premium. The only worry is that Shepherds do NOT have stealth, so they're the odd ones out.

Use of Lylyth

Lylyth's first turn is probably something like 'run everyone up', 'cast Shadow Pack' and 'hand out a Spiny Growth' or something. Get field position, try to at least get near objectives, and look for good lanes of fire. Turn 2 is likely to be feat turn; try to rip up as much of their army as you can. Cross your fingers that you either break their back, or stall their advance. From there, decide if you can win on scenario or by asssassination, but make it quick: you're Legion and you don't win by attrition.

As for anyone griping about FURY 5? Pin Cushion has a 15" range, and if you've got Shadow Pack up you can afford to boost the hit; 5+3d6 = usually hits, and you've got a fury left for a transfer. Keep in mind that the range amplifier also works on any animus she casts, since they're spells for her. You don't HAVE to play her forward, but if you do, you can at least use her to pop off infantry and Swift Hunter back.

Overall

If you like guns and like stealth, give eLylyth a try. She's not very subtle, but then again the Legion is not the most subtle of factions. In a sense, it's liberating: when someone hands you a mastercrafted long gun with a fine scope, you know exactly what it's meant to do.

First Thoughts: The Nephilim Warrior

I finally caved in and picked up a Nephilim Warrior. Now, I intend to try to get some use out of this, but I'm pretty sure this isn't the top-tier beasty. On the other hand, I do believe it's got a use, but it's more of a support beastie. I mean, it's a 5 point light; it's not that bad but not for everyone.

Base Stats

The Nephilim is reasonably spry, and can keep up with most Everblight stuff. It's good SPD 6 and Flight, so it laughs off terrain and the like. With the standard-issue Eyeless Sight, it's capable of going over forests and the like. Just remember the issue of eating Free Strikes when you fly over folks.

Offensively, the Neph Soldier is reasonable. It's got the typical MAT 6 for Legion, and a PS 14 Reach attack. There's not much special offensively past that.

Defensively, it's also about Legion standard. DEF 13 is on the higher end of average, and ARM 16 is...well, it's a Legion beast, and ARM 16 is pretty decent for Legion. That and 22 circles on the health spiral won't keep you alive forever, but you've got the speed and special rules to use terrain to your advantage and you're probably not the scariest thing across the field.

The Neph can throw down 3 Fury, and has a very solid Threshold of 10. It doesn't mean you should run the thing hot (since a 7's still about a 50/50 on 2d6) but if you've got to gamble with a hot beast, the Neph is statistically sound in that regard.

Animus: Massacre

Now, the Animus is...interesting. It's two Fury, and it lets a target friendly model charge without being forced. When that model kills an enemy model, it can advance an inch and make another attack.

On the one hand, your Neph Soldier is paying 2 fury to charge and hope it kills the charge target, then make another attack. Alternatively, you can force to charge, and then if you kill the target you can force to make another attack. With MAT 6, you might want to boost to make sure you get the kill in, as well, and that's your three fury.

So, you either gamble on the Massacre, or you can charge, boost to hit, and buy another attack. Close to the same result, but the difference is A) you can stop at any time, and B) you lose the 1" move.

But wait...the Animus has a range of 6. I think this is where you can start to get mileage out of it. Basically, it's 2 fury to let another beast charge for free. So, your heavy with 4 Fury now has all four of that fury to keep on boosting and buying attacks with. Most Everblight heavies just get a little nastier with more attacks/spare fury, though you ARE paying extra for it.

What Does the Neph Like To Work With?

The Neph can benefit from help in a few areas:

1) Defense

DEF 13 is on the high end of average. Tenacity can put it into DEF 14 territory; it's a Fury to make MAT/RAT 6 troops think long and hard about being able to hit you, since it's that magical 8 territory. Also, hiding in terrain against folks that don't ignore concealment/cover is fun, because DEF 15+ starts getting into 'stupid high' territory.

2) Accuracy

Frankly, MAT 6 is average. Anything you can do to help this can only improve its damage output. pLylyth's feat for the extra dice to hit, eThagrosh's Manifest Destiny, and so on and so forth help it out. Make those few attacks count.

3) Damage Output

PS 14 will almost always kill single-wound infantry and most 5-wound solos you can hit. It's so-so for beating up or finsihing off medium-armor stuff, but it's just not going to hit above its weight. Manifest Destiny from eThags can help to an extent, especially with a boost. Parasite from pLylyth makes you an effective PS 17 (...though in fairness, it helps EVERYONE). Absylonia's Forced Evolution puts you up to PS 16 with DEF 15, but that makes most of our beasts nasty and probably has a better target...

Actually, that's kind of the support thing in general. The problem with being a middleweight is that you're going to be stuck with the more middleweight buffs, so something like Tenacity or a side-benefit from attacking a target suffering from Parasite is probably as good as it gets, since most of the other buffs have BETTER targets.

Overall

I think as long as I'm asking the Warrior to KO lighter targets or using its animus for fury efficiency, it'll be fine. I think anything else is probably demanding a bit much from the lil' fella.

Game 1 with Everblight: Focus vs Fury

Today was the first time I've tested out my growing Legion of Everblight collection, and the first time I've operated a Warlock and the Fury mechanic. I've only played about one game against Hordes as well.

My goal, then, is to give readers a first impression of the Fury mechanic coming from someone accustomed to Focus.

Context: The Army

35 Points of Everlight

Battlegroup

Lylyth, Herald of Everblight

Carnivean

Seraph

Seraph

Shredder

Infantry

Striders w/ Unit Attachment

Solos

Strider Deathstalker

Shepherd

What are the important parts?

1) Lylyth has a Fury of 5, so she can leach 5 and spend up to 5 herself

2) Carnivean capacity: 4 Fury; Animus costs 2

3) Seraph Capacity: 4 Fury; Animus costs 1

3) Shredder Capaicty: 2 Fury, Animus costs 1

What's the Context mean?

At the beginning of my turn, Lylth can leech fury from any beasts her her mighty 10" radius, and reave it from anything that gets killed during the turn (barring any of the effects that stop it).

Lylth can cast the animus of her beasts, and they can cast their own. So, if I'm aiming for a zero-sum turn (like my first) I can have Lylth spend 5 fury and make sure her beasts don't force for more than 5 fury.

OR, I can force my beasts to the max, and generate a total of 14 Fury. Ok, so I could clean off ONE beast, remove one fury from another, and use the Shepherd's ability to remove all the fury from a third beast. Then, I'd be taking threshold checks to avoid them berserking.

An in-game example

Here's what it looked like: since aggression is rewarded in this game, my buddy playing epic Stryker (along with Old Rowdy, a Storm-something heavy jack, jack-killing infantry and some gun mages) runs up in the mosh pit, and on his turn two he's feated, hit me with two heavy jacks, and has a decent grip on the middle. Note that in this game, turn three generally starts the check for objectives and a scenario win.

I have two choices: try to assassinate his caster, or try to put a full unit into the mosh pit to contest. Everblight specializes in speed, mobility, stupid LOS tricks and hitting power. I've already used this and my Striders ripped up his melee infantry, denying him use of them in the feat.

So, I pop my own feat (gaining an additional dice on attacks) and decided that I'm going to kill his caster. I spend some time thinking before I realize I can't position my Carnivean for the charge, and I was hoping to tear it up. Anyway, I've already de-buffed his caster. Now, I eventually realized I could put a Seraph into it on the charge, and boosted the hit, smacks it for a chunk, and after spending a total of 3 fury I'd turned his caster into a gooey paste.

I'd ALSO run my Carnivean through it's full 4 fury to reduce Ol' Rowdy to two damage boxes, and then the Shredder went rabid and beat it down with both ITS fury.

So, by the end of the turn, I've spent:

5 Fury from Lylyth (one to heal a beat-up Seraph to repair its Spirit, the rest to shoot Stryker and Parasite him)

4 on Carnivean

4 on Seraph

4 on Seraph

2 on Shredder

Total: 17 Fury expended

Compared to casters who MAX at 10 focus and usually have 6-7, that's a huge output. Now, the problem? Even with a Shepherd (who can remove all the Fury from one beast) I ended up:

Shepherd to the Carny

4 Fury from Seraph closest to me (rendering it safe)

1 Fury from the Shredder (I can deal with it punching the Carny; I'd rather not watch the carny one-shot the Shredder into oblivion...)

Seraph closest to the enemy sits on four fury.

That means the Shredder needs to roll 6 or less on 2d6, and the Teraph downrange needs to get a 5 or lower on 2d6.

Of course, you don't HAVE to make a check if you won the game.

Overall

Frankly, at first glance I'm impressed by the 'alpha strike' capabilities of warbeasts. I mean, the Carnivean has four base attacks (spray for assault, bite, two claws) and cranked a full compliment of them into Old Rowdy (...freaking durable heavy jack...) while another beast ripped into his caster with well-boosted melee attacks.

On the flip side, if you DON'T accomplish what you want, you will have to be careful about running beasts full of fury. Gone crazy, they'll tag the closest thing, which is asking your opponent to abuse the fact that you won't be able to control the beast.

Overall, I'd have to warn people that a list full of beasts can throw out a STUPID amount of abuse in a turn, but that gets close to make-or-break, because their next turn will be much, much less impressive.

Also, I dig Eyeless Sight and the ability to ignore a bunch of pesky LOS restrictions, and SPD 6 guys with reach rolling 3-4d6 to attack are friggin' sweet.

Obligatory Introductory Post

As I've recently become enamored with Warmachine and Hordes, I've decided to start up a Warmachine/Hordes blog instead of turning Spite for the Dice Gods into a confused morass of wargaming posts. Besides, it already has a heap of followers for 40k.

I'd rather save readers (ha! Right now there ARE no followers for this blog! Of course, I haven't really posted CONTENT, either, so yeah...) the trouble of picking through the articles on either system, so in my infinite generosity I've decided to start up a second blog.

So, What Factions?

Right now, I'm rounding out a collection of Cryx for Warmachine, and I've started picking up components for an Everblight army. I intend to pick up enough for a small Retribution force, just because A) the models are freakin' sweet, and B) it's not like I'll need that many of the Friggin' Sweet models to actually run a force. (Oh, Phoenix of Fiery Infantry-Clearing Flatulence...)

Current Cryx casters I'm using/working at:

epic Skarre

Terminus

Mortenebra/Deryliss

Venethrax

Planned Everblight Casters:

pLylyth

Absylonia

Eventually either Thagrosh

Perhaps Saeryn

And with that, I'm going to start generating content.