Mortenebra musings...

Every time I look at those Blood Witches in my list, I doubt my decision to include them. Then I think a little bit about it, and decide they'll stay. The thing is, that bringing them dilutes what the army does, and I really should just bring my secondary army to handle a bad case of "the Tough". In order to convince myself, I began thinking about ways of using the Blood Witches, to support the way Mortenebra plays.

I've not exactly thought this through yet, so I really doubt this will be any kind of comprehensive list. The first thing that came to mind, was to go through the special abilities/weapons, and think up at least one way of using them for each.

Blood Razor: It's a magical weapon, and Mortenebra could really use a few of those. In addition they get some very useful attack options, though they only function during their activation. This will free up the Warwitch Sirens to power boost, and remove that hard decision between boosting and clearing out models.

• Blood Mist; Detonating victims to create 3" clouds, seems like a useful option. This ability is enhanced, by not being limited to enemy living models, which means that the witches can stab each other. Stabbing each other creates clouds, and gives Mortenebra a place to hide. If things aren't going well, this might very well save her.
• Death Strike; Very useful ability, though quite weak. This allows Blood Witches to detonate living models, and cause damage rolls on nearby enemies. During Recalibration, this ability will devastate light infantry, and take it's toll on medium infantry as well. In addition it has synergy with "Blood Shadow".
• Dispel [Hag only]; Dispelling upkeep spells is fun. Don't be afraid to hit your own models, as getting rid of a debuff is often worth a bit of damage/loss. No need to think up a way of using it here, as it's a great tool to have available.

Blood Shadow [Hag]; So we go incorporeal for a round, and everyone knows that makes them harder to get rid of. It also makes it possible to charge through them... Assuming we're having a hard time getting through a layered defense, we can use Blood Shadow, charge in, clear the first layer, and poke a bit at the second layer with death strikes. Then our Harrower can charge through the opening, straight through the incorporeal witches, and do it's Thresher/Overrun on the diminished second line.

Entropic Force [Hag]; No real reason to invent new ways of using this. It's why I'm bringing them in the first place. Do make sure, that you get her in range before Threshering a unit of Kriels.

So what can they do...

• Defend Mortenebra
• Remove Upkeep spells
• Remove Tough
• Open lanes
• Tie down shooting units
• Remove key models from play

 I feel better about them already.
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Epic Madrak

Today I faced a Gunnbjorn list, and he was beaked to a bloody pulp during round two. This was less than satisfying for my opponent, who also happened to get himself beaked last Monday with Dr. Arkadius. To make up for it, I agreed to let him test out an Epic Madrak list, with a full compliment of take-backs, and a rules advisor on the side.

The sad fact is, that Epic Madrak seems to be immune to Scavengers. The Scavenger can put four incredibly potent attacks on a caster, but it takes closer to fifteen of those attacks to clear out the screens and take down Epic Madrak. It didn't help much that I brought a list of things I needed to test, since even though the Pistol Wraiths did surprisingly well, I was fighting an up-hill battle. (Edit: Turns out my opponent was playing it wrong, so it should have been just 4-5 extra hits, instead of 15... might have made a difference)

Finally the game helped me realize, that I need some way to remove Tough from the equation. It's a poor players last refuge to blame the dice, but it's annoying to account for it when planning a round (not to mention that it can really screw you over on assassination runs). So while I was cursing the avalanche of successful tough-rolls today (since they weren't mine), my mind wandered to my shelves at home.

Next time I'm facing a tough infantry horde I will be prepared. General Slaughterborn with Recalibrate & Puppet master, will be my backup plan when the Blood Hag removes their tough, and Admonia takes care of defensive upkeeps. I had to remove a Warwitch Siren to fit them in, but the free upkeep from Admonia should balance the focus issues quite nicely.

Master Necrotech Mortenebra

- Helldiver

- Helldiver

- Scavenger

- Scavenger

- Stalker

- Harrower

- Harrower

Satyxis Blood Witches (Leader and five Grunts)

- Satyxis Blood Hag

The Withershadow Combine

General Gerlak Slaughterborn

Warwitch Siren

At least it's different from all the other Mortenebra armies out there...

Spotlight: Blood Witches & Hag.

The crucial thing to remember, when running Blood Witches is, that Blood Witches allow you to purchase one of the most awesome "solos" in the game. When you can make that mental distinction you're well on you way to getting the most out of them. You should never ever field the Blood Witches without the Hag, since they're a piss poor unit without her.

Blood Witches: Are normally used to run up and tie down units without magical assistance or weapons, and they do this very well. Turn one you run up in range and try not to get to many models killed by shooting, and turn two you feat and charge/run in. This means that your opponent has a lot of Incorporeal models blocking lanes and/or swinging at him, and even if you don't get your gang bonus with free strikes later, you can easily kill most shooting units on free strikes.

On occasion the Blood Witches will be able to charge, and at MAT8 and with two attacks each at PS12/10 they will kill most medium infantry, and with the special abilities you could easily create havoc. (Cloud walls, or extra casualties against very low ARM units like Assassins). Don't ever count on your witches killing anything though: if they stop a unit from a round of shooting they were worth it! If they do kill things, all the better.

Blood Hag: The real power behind the unit, she features Stealth, a mini-feat, Entropic Force, and even a backup dispel if needed. The Blood Hag is slower, but you still need her to get the unit swinging, so she should be within nine inches of the witches, but make damn sure you're no further up the field than absolutely needed, and if you have something to protect her with that would be great as well. She's rather hard to get rid of with Incorporeal and Stealth, but she needs help.

Now the Hag is really a defensive model, so after her witches die horribly she should probably retreat to safety. Against some armies she never leaves it at all, and I keep the Witches as defense for my caster as well, but make very sure your opponent doesn't have anything that gets increased power from killing living models, because eMadrak or the likes will laugh and kill you, if you protect your caster with living models.

The Hag is there to shut down Tough, and oh dear god this makes some units and casters cry. Originally I purchased the unit after running into pIrusk and his 4+ Tough, Immune to Knockdown, Fearless band of merry men, but there are many models that will mess up your game by rolling those Tough checks, so here's what the Blood Hag does.

a) One shot, move up and negate Tough: This will most likely get her killed, but the expressions when Trolls just die is worth it. Having a caster roll a Tough check usually spells disaster, so getting her in there to prevent it can save you games. Remember she also prevents healing, so Harbinger will loose her paladins, and several defensive feats will be negated.

b) Dispel. Withershadow Combine dead or busy?, then go stab your Warcaster/Unit/Warjack. It's a POW10 and you don't need to damage anything to remove the effect, so 1-2 damage on a Warcaster or Light Jack, probably nothing on a Heavy Jack, and one model missing from a unit could easily be worth it, when it means getting rid of Crippling Grasp or the likes.

c) Mini-feat. Now I've already talked about the uses for this ability, but pay special attention to the fact that you can do this while running, and that it takes effect when the activation ENDS. This means you can charge with the Witches, feat and then default to run with the Hag so she can keep up, hit with the witches, and when it's all over they fade to incorporeal. This is really really no holds barred annoying for an opponent to deal with, since Incorporeal usually works the other way around, so you get to hit them when they hit you.

You should note, that the Hag's ability has been hit by an errata, so it does NOT block transfers on Horde Warlocks, but it does prevent healing so Harbinger will be crying, and so will a lot of the units that sacrifice themselves for each other. If you play competitively, you should pay notice to the units that sacrifice themselves in order to "heal" a comrade, because he WILL sacrifice himself, and the heal will be prevented, getting you two kills for the price of one.

Update: 21.07.2011
Since I wrote this I've discovered a few more tricks I'd like to share. The one bad thing to say about Blood Witches is, that a lot of their better tricks rely on the mini-feat, so timing that is crucial.

• Sweepers: Blood Witches are pretty good at saving other units. If you have a unit bogged down by enemies, and you need them free, Blood Witches can do it. If you walk/charge in to kill them, you would normally just end up blocking your own unit just as well. Since Blood Witches can go Incorporeal after they attack, you can simply engage to free up the unit, and then go Incorporeal to allow the unit to pass unhindered.
• Assault: Sometimes a juicy target will be protected by a line of skirmishers, with the intent of blocking access to them. Blood Witches can feat, then clear that line, and go Incorporeal to allow other units access to the second line behind it. This will often be worth the sacrifice.
• Cover: Amongst the Blood Witches we find a time tested tradition, of stabbing each other in the back. This happens, because the special attacks on their melee weapons do not specify "enemy" models. If you have something living you don't really need, do feel free to get yourself a nice cloud cover instead.

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