Mortenebra Vs. eHaley

So I took my Mortenebra list out for a spin, hoping to learn a few things. I knew it was a lacking list, but I wanted to test some synergies (or lack of them), and it wasn't to bad.

• How bad is it really to leave Tartarus at home?
• How bad are the Desecrators?
• Blackbane's Ghost Raiders with Mortenebra?
• Does Mortenebra actually work with infantry?

We sat around talking about SR 2012 for a while (more on that later), but I only get one game a week, so missing out really isn't something I like. I grabbed an opponent, and he put this on the table.

Major Victoria Haley

- Sentinel

- Thorn

- Thunderhead

Squire

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts)

- Arcane Tempest Gun Mage Officer

Precursor Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts)

- Officer & Standard

Stormblade Infantry (Leader and 5 Grunts)

- Officer & Standard

Stormsmith Stormcaller

Stormsmith Stormcaller

Stormsmith Stormcaller

I had a good laugh, as I once again faced something close to my worst possible match-up, but at least I got to face eHaley and see what all the commotion is about. 

Round 1

He ran up most of his army, and it was my turn. I ran up most of my army, and shot two Ghost Raiders with the Desecrators to prevent the Precursors from charging me. I knew I was going down hard, but I decided to make the most of a learning experience, so FULL ADVANCE!

Round 2

OPEN FIRE! And so they did. Half the Ghost Raiders vanished, a couple of Bane Thralls ate lead, but a few bad rolls and the protection of the scather templates actually saw me pretty much unharmed. Then he chose not to feat, which gave me and actual shot at doing something useful!

I popped Recalibration and camped six Focus, then I charged in the Ghost Raiders, swelling their ranks to eight, and I charged/ran in the Bane Thralls. I put a scather template on a pile of Precursors with no real effect, but the second one drifted and killed three gun mages. A couple of sprays, and some positioning, and I was doing well!

Round 3

Alright, next time I know I need to kill Thorn, like before he's put on the table, with a bat, in an alley. The result was, that my Desecrator sawed Mortenebra in the face for a handful of damage, a couple of Ghost Raiders died, my Scavengers both took heavy damage, the Thunderhead wiped a significant part of the table, but due to some poor rolls he mostly wiped his own models, but managed another handful of damage to Mortenebra, and while things were looking survivable it was feat time.

I get it now, it's horrible, but my round wasn't entirely wasted, and the Ghost Raiders we're getting closer to Haley (they were back up to seven due to some fine attack rolls). I spent my round setting up to avoid losing my entire army, but I could see where this was going. Still, I had made it to round four, which was two rounds more than I though I would.

Round 4

Hiyaaa! I survived round four as well! Mortenebra got the Thunderhead in the face, and all but a single Bane Thrall died. Both Scavengers died, but Mortenebra survived, and I actually though I had a chance. The Desecrators failed like you wouldn't believe it, and it took six ******* Focus to end the Thunderhead (Interface is fun though), despite Critical Shred and a Dark Shroud application.

Then the second Desecrator failed as well, and left Thorn alive without taking serious damage, but the Ghost Raiders managed to engage Haley down back, threatening free strikes, and I had most of his army locked down. I was really thinking I might pull this one out of my ass!

Round 5

With most of the armies gone, he took a free strike from a Desecrator with Thorn, and came out with his spear and cortex intact, four boxes left, and going for an injured Mortenebra. Funny thing though, he had to pass Saxon Orrik, and I don't think I've ever enjoyed a kill more!

Sadly Mortenebra died ten seconds later to a pile of assaulting Stormblades, but I made it to round five against eHaley with a pile of crap, and I learned a lot.

• How bad is it really to leave Tartarus at home? Very ******* bad!
• How bad are the Desecrators? Very ******* bad!
• Blackbane's Ghost Raiders with Mortenebra? Wee, fantastic!
• Does Mortenebra actually work with infantry? Well, it seems so.

So Blackbane's yet again proves an excellent choice, even against an army that should have destroyed them with a mere gesture. I had an enjoyable game, fighting tooth an nail to survive, and I managed a control point in a new SR 2012 scenario, which I'll try and write about tomorrow (but it was a lot of information to digest, since I'd seen only some of the proposed changes before).

Spotlight: Blackbane's Ghost Raiders

The Ghost Raiders are an acquired taste. They're soft, weak, and expensive, so it's not a unit you will be seeing in many lists. I've had a lot of curious people asking me about them, so I'll do a spotlight, BUT I'm not sure I can accurately convey my thoughts on the matter.

Most people will shudder, at the thought of bringing a nine point unit, with the intention of getting them killed in new and fascinating ways, every game, but this is what the Ghost Raiders do best. The Ghost Raiders are experts at causing mayhem, and not very good at surviving it, so the key to using them is to maximize the mayhem, while minimizing the consequences. This is very important, and the key to using them successfully is, to know exactly when to get them killed.

• Incorporeal: They're ghosts, they walk through walls and bodies, float above pits, and cannot be harmed by puny weapons until they allow it.

The Ghost Raiders are fast, and I mean mindbogglingly ridiculously fast. They ignore models, terrain, obstructions, and will move straight through an opposing army if needed. This makes them a lot faster than other models with an equal speed, and few people are prepared, when the Ghost Raiders suddenly move through their army, flooding their support in a horde of angry ghosts. When doing this you should pay attention to units with magical weapons, or just hand them a Ghost Walk spell, to completely ignore everything on the table for a round.

• Reanimation: Blackbane's Ghost Raiders can recruit new members, by killing living enemy warriors. This is fun, and while it rarely means an unstoppable army of the undead, it's what allows them to create total confusion in your enemies lines. This only works while Blackbane is on the table, so keeping him safe is always a priority.
• Cutlass: They light things on fire, which we all know is not only hilarious, but also extremely dangerous against a lot of models. Things that will survive a free strike, might not live to brag, when they catch on fire. This ability allows them to threaten free strikes on several casters in the game, since few casters like burning to death.

An opponent might choose to dare a few free strikes, against a MAT 6 enemy, with PS 10, tying him down, but not when each death means another angry ghost, ready to inflict additional free strikes, block lanes, or position themselves for a charge the following round (not to mention catching on fire if he survives the free strike). Incorporeal means, that you can position yourself in the best possible place for free strikes, and being engaged makes them a right nightmare to remove.

This is where it get's tricky to explain, so feel free to ask questions: The objective of the unit is, to absorb as many resources as possible, while suffering as little consequence as possible. This means, that a unit can get themselves annihilated, without inflicting a single casualty, and still be the unit that won you the game. The following is what you should be aiming to do, when fielding Blackbane's Ghost Raiders.

• Engaging as many support models as possible: Support models rarely have the equipment and capacity to fight of the raiders, which means they will need to be saved. 

This forces your opponent to activate his offensive units first, turn them around, and often attack without the buffs they often rely on. If he doesn't turn to fight, you can massacre his support the following round, and spawn a host of ghosts in his back arc, and that's pretty much "game" right there. In addition to causing havoc in the activation sequence, making him fight without buffs, and messing up his carefully planned lines, you also stop a substantial part of his army from advancing, which is excellent in scenario play.

• Engaging as many models/units as possible: Magical weapons are a threat, and Aiyana & Holt are regulars in many lists, but that's not a problem, as long as you engage multiple models and units, and do it from the right positions.

If you engage an unit of Winterguard, with your whole unit of ghosts, you will be annihilated. Aiyanna will magic them up, Joe will whip them into shape, and your entire unit will be wiped by sprays and melee. If you split up the unit, and send the ghosts to engage all kinds of vital pieces instead, you will force him into some really annoying decisions. If we send in a few ghosts to engage as many Winterguard as possible, a couple to tie down A&H, one on Joe, and distribute the rest to engage as many different models/units as possible, we create a nightmare sequence.

With the right placement, you ghosts can tie up twice their number of points, make a mess of his advance, take out a couple of models indirectly (friendly fire from sprays or spells), and light a few things on fire. His army is now in disarray, on fire, blocking his own lanes, and either didn't advance at all, or sent up half his army fight most of yours.

I've won several games doing this, since the sheer amount of rules and details, will overwhelm almost anyone. They will make mistakes, they will forget to activate in the right order, and they will use up a lot of time doing so (in tournaments where it matters). This is what they do, and they do it well. If you expect them to charge in, build an army of ghosts, and stampede across the battlefield, you'll be disappointed.

Even against an army where everyone features magical weapons, they can be a pest if you have access to Ghost Walk. It doesn't matter that they all die, if they gave you a round to get in position, hog the prime pieces of defensive terrain, and get a control point to force your opponent on the offense. What they bring is confusion, hard choices, and once in a blue moon, an rampaging army of ghosts.

Favorite moment:

• Lighting eCaine on fire, with the last remaining raider. It forced eCaine back, taking a part of his army with him, when he suddenly reached "one lucky hit" territory in health. He had to divert resources to shielding him, and I won on scenario. Had the game gone another round, eCaine would have burned to death (we rolled the dice to see).

pDenny Vs. Damiano

Like a boss...

I took the list out for a spin, and since I've faced Skorne the last three games, I had a crisis of faith when I saw nothing but Skorne at the tables. In the end a Merc player found me, and we had us a game of infantry-machine. Damiano Vs. pDenny, with a combined total of one heavy jack, and two light jacks on the table.

I felt pretty confident about the game, and lined up my hordes of infantry, only to realize that I was outnumbered. I won the roll to go first, and advanced everything up the field. the Ghost Raiders and Pistol Wraiths had a nice building to hide behind, across from Nyss Hunters and Steelhead Riflemen, and the Satyxis Raiders found another building further up the field on the other flank. The Bane Thralls took the center, facing up against a unit of Halberdiers. Gorman & Eyriss took out a few of the Satyxis (I forgot his grenade wasn't blast damage and ran to close), but then my turn two came around and the slaughter began.

Gorman was slain by the Raider Captain, and while Eyriss did survive she was locked down by Satyxis, Captain, and a Warwitch. The Pistol Wraiths began gunning down Nyss Hunters, and after the first hit, the boosted shots took care of any Nyss Hunter in the open. Ghost Raiders ran through the buildings and engaged the Nyss Hunters, Riflemen, and Halberdiers, and then my Bane Thralls charged. This is where I should have been paying attention, because due to Hawk with Sure Foot, Set defense (I was close enough to walk in, but noooooo I had to charge), and a couple of other effects, my Bane Thralls were rolling against DEF 18 and failed miserably.

In order to survive I charged a Bane Thrall in the back with Deneghra, and locked his army down with The Withering (also, that's the only Tough check I made in that game). Since Admonia then took care of his Vengeance upkeep, the center was more or less intact after his retaliation (lost about half the Bane Thralls though), and while the Nyss Hunters was magicked up by A&H, the Ghost Raiders scraped by with around half their numbers intact.

Yeah that's right... we're nine points biaaaatch!

From there it was all down hill for him, and while it took me forever to grind through those Halberdiers, his flanks vanished to the Incorporeal horde on the left, and the Satyxis on the right. The Ghost Raiders were back up to eight members by turn four, but the Withershadow Combine sealed the deal. Disbinding from Admonia, Puppet Master on Maelovus, and since Damiano was within walking range (he came up to nuke Tartarus, to keep me from turning more Halberdiers), it was time to say goodbye.

I can reroll that "1", and keep the "5" you know...

Deneghra cast just one spell during the entire game, and it missed, so mostly she just hid behind as much terrain, and as many models as she could find, and allowed her army to demolish him. With the amount of stealth and Incorporeal on the table, A&H just couldn't keep up, and the Ghost Raiders had three units engaged the whole game. The Pistol Wraiths absolutely raped his Nyss Hunters, taking down all but two of them in three rounds of shooting. In the end they both died, when they had no more Nyss Hunters to hide behind, and Holt killed them both in one round, but engaging to make Nyss Hunters roll MAT 6 against DEF 14, and then leaving and gunning them down in the next round, was fun.

So, maybe some minor tweaks are in order, but in general I was happy with the way the army performed. I had more questions about the Ghost Raiders from my opponent, but the mobility they offer, and the chaos they cause, is just to good a thing to pass up. A&H gave the Nyss Hunters magical weapons, but since they were only engaged by three Ghost Raiders, the rest of them were annoying as hell, and safely hidden behind Riflemen and Halberdiers.
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