The Terminus Challenge: eThagrosh

Come Monday I'll be going up against an eThagrosh list. I must admit I'm not seeing the danger, but in the spirit of being prepared, and my general lack of experience against Legion, I'll break the list down and see what it has to offer.

Thagrosh the Messiah
- Angelius
- Nephilim soldier
- Raek
- Seraph
- Typhon
6 Blighted Legionnaires
Blighted Sorceress & Hellion
2x Shepherds
Spell martyr
2x Forsakens

Reinforcements: Ravagore

• Angelius

I see the Angelius has the ability to reliably put 10 damage on Terminus with a charge, and with flight and the Seraph he'll be coming from 14" away. That means I might need to play Darragh Wrathe a bit more defensively that normal, so I can keep Beyond Death up to reduce the impact. With manifest destiny that will increase to 12-13 damage reliably, so I can't allow Terminus to take damage while that thing is alive.

• The Nephilim Soldier

The Nephilim Soldier also has flight, and with Manifest Destiny he hits hard. He's not the fastest warbeast in the game, but his Animus is pretty nifty. His MAT is pretty poor though, and if he makes it to the back of my brick he'll be outside Manifest Destiny range, so I'm not all that bothered by him.

• The Raek

The Raek has no flight, but he can jump around my army instead, and he brings the Animus eThagrosh needs to do the job himself. With the Seraph to Slipstream him, and the Raeks animus to ignore free strikes, he can rival Terminus as an offensive flying assassin. I learned last time that Rorsh has to be very careful around the Raek, since 14" jumping range means a lot of attacks landing on him.

• Seraph

The Seraph brings some shooting I don't care about, and the annoying Animus. It's also another flying beast. Those 2-4 RNG 10 shots won't bother me much, unless he sacrifices it to take down Admonia, which would really suck. Still 16-18" effective threat will rarely be enough to take a shot at Admonia, and Rorsh has cover and transfers to keep him safe.

• Typhon

He's a very good beast, but he's also a very expensive beast, costing more than my entire unit of Bane Thralls, and if I can get to him he's going down. Defense 13 and Armor 17 isn't enough to survive a dedicated effort to take him down, and his sprays have only slightly more range than Brines charge (unless he has Slipstream help), and a Pig Farmed Brine with Puppet Master up is going to destroy him.

• Legionnaires

The standard Dragon's Blood target, making them an armor 18 tarpit with vengeance and the reverse tough ability (making my boys go down on 5+). This unit is nothing but Bile Thrall bait, assuming I can remove the Sorceress.

• Sorceress

The ability to block purges within 8", means that unless I can take her down I'll be stuck without that ability. With her large base she can cover his entire army, and with defense 14, armor 16, and ten health she's hard to take down. I'm not sure how much of a problem this will be, but I guess Monday will tell.

• Shepherd

Standard legion Fury management and forcing outside control area. Nothing much to say about that.

• Spell Martyr

Not sure what he's doing in the list, but maybe he's planning on arcing a Scourge or something.

• Forsaken

Like always these guys are dangerous, and with Slipstream they can hit Terminus from 13" away. It's always a question of taking them down fast and hard, which my list has a bit of trouble doing. These will be the prime targets of my Gun Boar, but I must admit that I often find myself missing a ranged element in my list.

• Reinforcements: Ravagore

Finally there's the Ravagore, brought as reinforcements. Though it's annoying, I don't think it will cause me to much trouble, as I'll just send my Machine Wraiths to whatever zone he's trying to take. If Thagrosh is going over there to clean me out, my own Reinforcements should be able to clean out the other zone.