Legion of Everblight Battle Box

(image used without permission. Copyright Privateer Press)

The Legion of Everblight Battle Box presents some fun challenges for a Hordes Player. You get a lot of beasts but have a warlock with a low fury. I'm going to talk about my experience with the battle box and some of its strengths, weaknesses and strategies.

Let's talk about the contents, taking all the pieces in turn.

Lylyth - Her primal version has a number of abilities that make up for her low fury stat. Blood Lure on her bow means that you can get your beasts to charge for free, Witch Mark means that you should always be shooting enemies with your bow if you want to cast a spell on them and her feat makes everything in your army more accurate. Her last ability, Bushwack, is mainly used to get her out of trouble in the middle or late game. Just remember that you can't get the aiming bonus for giving up your movement and then use Bushwack.
She's got three spells and most of the time she's only going to have enough fury to cast one of them.

• Bad Blood - Punishes a player for leaching fury and prevents quite a few of the more useful parts about warbeasts. Since it only affects warbeasts it won't do you any good against an opponent using a warmachine army. The damage from leaching isn't as big a deal in battlebox games since most of the time your opponent will be glad to take the four or five damage for leaching in exchange for turn in which he can cripple or kill you. Still, it makes the game more difficult for your opponent, and every little bit can help, so if you have the extra fury you might as well throw it on something you hit with your bow that turn.
• Parasite - Absolutely the best spell in her list. Dramatically lowers an opponents ARM and slightly buffs Lylyth's. Put this on anything that you want to ensure your Carnivean kills. Best is if you can put it on the enemy caster and then upkeep it for the rest of the (probably short) game. You can also use it on one of your shredders the first turn of the game to help keep Lylyth safe from any stray hits.
  
• Eruption of Spines - This is the sneakiest spell in her list. In larger games you'll generally use this to kill off infantry, but in battle box games you can often use it to get some damage on enemy casters hiding behind their warbeasts. Just shoot the low def warbeast, cast Eruption of Spines on it and boost the damage roll when it arcs into the squishy caster behind.

Carnivean - There's not a lot of subtlety to this guy. He has a lot of attacks and hits very hard. His animus is good, and should be used every turn there's even a remote chance that something might hit it. The two extra points of armor will mean it takes your opponent one or two more hits before they can take down the beast down. The only real trick up this guy's sleeve is his ranged spray attack. In combination with his Assault ability, you have a nineteen inch threat radius when you declare a charge and use assault to take your breath attack before your activation ends. The spray hits hard enough that most enemy casters will be in serious trouble from a boosted hit. Remember, too that the spray can hit things that are hiding, so charge assaulting a front line unit to spray something behind it is a possibility.

Shredders - You've get four of these guys. The best way to think about these guys is not as warbeasts, but as a unit of elite solos. Their job is to tie up enemy forces, provide speed bumps and act as bait. They'll have a hard time hurting heavies, but if they gang up they can bring down a light in one turn. Their ideal turn looks like this:

1. Lylyth shoots something, marking it with Blood Lure.
2. Shredder activates, forced for one to go rabid.
3. Charges up to eleven inches to their target. Free charge because of blood lure.
4. Gets forced for an extra fully boosted attack against its target.

Shredders are fast and beasts generally need to boost to guarantee hits on them. It's usually a good idea to keep one of the four back as a transfer target in case Lylyth takes a hit or two.

The battlebox has two other general rules going for it shared by all models. Everyone has Pathfinder (shredders get it from going rabid) which means terrain isn't going to bother you, and everyone also has eyeless sight, which means that you're going to be able have line of sight on everything unless there's an intervening model or non-forest piece of terrain.

Journeyman League

The journeyman league is going strong in these parts. I'm a part of it at my local game store and I'm using it as the impetus to get the few legion models I own assembled and painted. I've created a bar at the right to track my progress and to help me visualize my goal.

Week three of the league starts on Thursday. So far I've played 3 games, of which I won two, and painted four little beasts. According to the rules that's only 12 points total, so I don't think I'm in the running for taking home any prizes, but it's all about the journey.

I realize I've been slacking when it comes to updates here at Stone Corridors, so at least for the duration of the league I'll be doing regular posts. Next update will be about my thoughts regarding tactics and strategy for the Legion of Everblight Battle Box.

Terminus as a Front Line Caster: Army Lists

I've already posted one 35 point list in my previous posts. I'm hanging out with a friend tonight and we are going to play some lower points games so I thought I would tackle the list building portion of my homework. I'm supposed to be building lists keeping the following in mind:

1. List will include troop options to block avenues of attack to the warcaster.
2. List will include models with abilities that deny enemy models their ability to move or act.
   
3. List will include models with abilities that promote focus efficiency. (See my article on Cryx and focus efficiency).

We'll start with a 15 point list:

• Terminus - Of course
• Deathjack - This guy is the king of focus efficiency and deadliness. His only downside is that he tends to steal souls that could otherwise go to Terminus. If I owned a Seether model I would switch Deathjack out for that and add a Pistol Wraith to increase my ability to freeze models.
  
• 6 Bane Thralls - I love these guys, and they do a good job serving as Terminus' escort.
  
• Warwitch Siren - Not super effective at this points level since she won't be putting focus on deathjack, but her venom attack can come in handy and her shadow bind ability has a good chance to root an opposing warjack/beast for a turn.

For 25 points I would add to the above:

• Slayer - Open hands let the slayer lock the weapon systems of opposing jacks. The Warwitch will give this guy the single point of focus he needs in a turn.
• Pistol Wraith - Chain Attack: Death Chill roots opposing models and POW:12 shots are a big threat to opposing infantry and solos.

The 25 point list is actually one point under, so you could swap the Bane Thralls for Bane Knights. The knights are more maneuverable thanks to ghostly, but you give up the debuff aura that the thralls provide.

Terminus as a Front Line Caster. Report Card

Yesterday I talked about modifying my playstyle to put Terminus up on the front lines. I also had a chance to play a game. Learning without feedback rarely works, so I figured to give myself a grade on my first test.

The game was against an infantry heavy Trollblood list. A big unit of champions, some runeshapers and krielstone bearers, backed up by Madrak, one mauler and a host of solos and unit attachments. It was an interesting list. Lots of activations, lots of medium sized tough models with high armor values.

As a reminder, here is the list I brought:

• Lich Lord Terminus
• Deathjack
• Slayer
• Bane Lord Tartarus
• 6 Bane Thralls
• Gorman Di Wulfe
• Pistol Wraith
• Warwitch Siren
• Withershadow Combine.

In yesterday's post I had six things I was supposed to be practicing. Here they are along with how I think I did.

1. The student will keep their warcaster on the front lines. I did well on this one. Terminus was out front and attacked something every round he could. Once the battle lines met he gathered a soul token every round. However, I still played him a bit timidly, keeping him off the very front line and only engaging with one opposing model at a time. GRADE: B
   
2. As much focus as possible should be left on the warcaster. I didn't boost or buy any extra attacks. The warjacks were left to their own devices. Terminus took a bit of damage over the course of the game, but the boosted power field frustrated my opponents attacks. GRADE: A
   
3. The warcaster should be activated and moved before troops. Good job here, too. Knowing Terminus' final position informed the movement and attacks of the rest of my army. GRADE: A
   
4. The warcaster should take advantage of reach. Terminus kept what he was killing at the edge of his reach. Even had he failed to kill what he attacked the trolls would have had a hard time attacking back. GRADE: A
   
5. The student should use the abilities of other models to neutralize the movement and abilities of the opponent's forces. Whoops. I didn't lock any weapons (there was only one opposing beast), but more importantly my warwitch and pistol wraith, who should have been slowing down the opposing force didn't even attack the whole game. No excuses. Just fail. GRADE: F
   
6. The player should strive for a feat turn that generates three or more souls. Whoops again. I didn't even use Terminus' feat. There were at least two turns where I could have turned some dead trolls into souls. Those trolls are tough to bring down so maybe not three, but not feating at all is a total failure on my part. GRADE: F

So if we average out our first test I come up with a D+. Those two Fs really hurt my overall grade. Despite winning the match by having Deathjack pounce on Madrak I still almost flunked. I need to keep doing what I'm doing but I have to pay attention to potential feat turns and not be so timid with my toolbox solos.

As a final thought, playing Terminus more aggressively feels really rewarding. Much less like he's a weight my army is hauling around and more like he's the center and the rest is there to support him. Which is how I think it should be.