(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:
- Lylyth shoots something, marking it with Blood Lure.
- Shredder activates, forced for one to go rabid.
- Charges up to eleven inches to their target. Free charge because of blood lure.
- 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.
