Saeryn: Tier Thoughts

I've been toying around with Everblight tier lists for Lock 'n' Load's Blood, Sweat, and Tiers. (I am, alas, on the waiting list...).

I've had great fun with eVayl's, but on a whim I gave Saeryn's tier a go.  I've found it...interesting.

The Tier
T1: Advance Deploy your Spell Martyrs (if any), following restrictions:
Only flying beasts/Nephilim, no characters
Only units with flight
Shepherds/Sorceress on hellion/Spell Martyers

T2: Bring a Sorceress on a Hellion, gain +1 to starting roll

T3: Bring 2+ heavies with Flight, gain +2" DZ

T4: Bring 3+ Nephilim Warbeasts, gain a free Nephilim

How Deep?
This is the big question.  Honestly, T2 and T3 work together nicely; as the Hellion grants you some fury efficiency with flying heavies (read: Angeliusss...however the hell you spell it for plural) and your heavies are naturally swift.

Once you get to T4, well...then it gets interesting.  You CAN do T4 at 35pts, but it's pretty limited.  At 35, I have:

FALLEN ANGELS!
Saeryn [-5]
-Angelius [9]
-Angelius [9]
-Nephilim Soldier [5]
-Nephilim Protector [5]
-Nephilim Bolt Thrower [6]
-Nephilim Bolt Thrower [0]
Nyss Sorceress on Hellion [4]
Shepherd [1]
Shepherd [1]

Cons
This list has a glaring weakness - the shepherds.  If you can't hide them or shield guard them, you're in for a world of hurt.  Comically, 2/3 of your beasts CAN frenzy on your caster, an oddity for a Legion list.

In all seriousness, fury management IS an issue; you have 7 FURY on Saeryn and can generate a whopping 20 fury in a turn, and can cool off one Angel and change with a safety Fury or two on Saeryn.

Early on, this isn't a huge issue, as you're running everyone turn one (after getting out upkeeps and dumping fury).  When shooting, you've got Shepherds to cool off troopers, and maybe you can keep an Angel or two in melee.  Lose a Shepherd, or need to push?  You're going to take threshold checks.  On the bright side, at least Nephilim have a high threshold, and you'll want to learn about frenzy rules and getting things like the Soldier and/or Protector close to enemies.

You also are a bit low on melee power, outside of Armor Piercing strikes.  Armor-heavy enemy lists may make you consider scenario/assassination plans.  Similarly, higher-DEF heavies can give the Angels issues with their Legion-standard MAT6.

As a minor note, I like having a Harrier or other lesser to throw out as a Blight Bringer target, but at least you've got a Soldier for that, right? 

Pros
This list has a decent ranged game with Bolt Throwers (one of the best ranged attacks in Legion, between the POW, RNG, thunderbolt, and lack of damage type) and the boostable hand-cannons on the Angels.  You also have a SPD8 spray-bot that can go hunt support in a pinch.  Just note that spells don't really match up with a ride-by attack, alas.

While you ARE rocking a ton of Fury, note that Saeryn's feat favors a hefty battlegroup.  Your army will basically be untouchable in melee for a turn.  Which is nice.

You also have access to some wonderful movement shenanigans, between Repulsion and Thunderbolt, and you can always get slams off with the Protector and Soldiers.  Given the extended deployment zone and widespread flight, you also have an excellent mobility advantage.  You might even find a use for Massacre, as it IS extra movement and can give your melee beasties a free charge after the Sorceress bites it. 

Playing The Army
Early on, you'll throw up Respawn and possibly Banishing Ward.  Saeryn may grab Flight on turn one and charge up, or just meander up.  The Bolt Throwers and Angels grab good shooting lanes, the Soldier looks for slam targets or clumped-up infantry.  The Protector wanders around with Shepherds nearby, and generally waits to eat a transfer from Saeryn.

You actually have a decent selection of animi, as Saeryn enjoys Flight (hey, no innate pathfinder...) and Safeguard (keep that high DEF; not like ARM14 keeps you alive).  Repulsion is solid utility, and even Massacre can be fun for the extra inch of movement, especially if an Angel is going to go on some kind of Overtake stab-fest, or if you just need more fury for attacks/boosts on the beastie.

Some Tests
I've had several games with the list, and managed a few wins.  I managed a win against an eFeora list, as support solos  that rely on stealth/clouds to survive don't last against Bolt Throwers and Angelius shooting.  Add in 1-2 combat heavies, and a Protector to eat transfers and you're fine.

A pSorscha list didn't have enough time to fully activate, and again the shooting managed to KO a few important models (like sharpshooting manhunters, etc) and pull a flight/feat assassination run by dumping two Angels onto Sorscha's doorstep while tying up Beast 09.

A Circle pKaya 3x Warpwolf list thrashed me pretty soundly.  I misjudged threat ranges (half an inch difference is way too close for comfort...) and with their accuracy, yeah.  I managed to take a chunk out of his army, but losing the Angels and not focusing on scenario cost me.

Overall
I do like this list.  It's not what I'd normally take with Saeryn, but between this list and the eVayl triple-angelius list I have, I've learned to love the Angelius.  Bolt Throwers are solid, and playing with a free light is a hell of a tier benefit.

If I weren't going to go with a full-up T4 list, I'd probably rock something like:

Saeryn [5]
-Angelius [9]
-Angelius [9]
-Angelius [9]
-Nephilim Bolt Thower [6]
Nyss Sorceress on Hellion [4]
Shepherd [1]
Shepherd [1]
Spell Martyr [1]

You lose three Nephilim for another Angel and a Spell Martyr.  You get some hitting power, but I wonder if losing three friggin' lights is worth that.

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...