Pirate Queen Mortenebra; Part 2

I got my game in, against a Farrow army led by Arkadius. I know I read the card, and I even noticed the Crippling Grasp, but somehow that information leaked out of my brain, before I ran in the Satyxis Raiders to tie down a pile of ranged units. The result was the near annihilation of my squad, and one lesson learned. I can't really draw any sort of conclusions from this game, so I guess I'll have to try again next Monday.

In the end it didn't matter much, as he left an opening for a Scavenger, and Arkadius without Fury. I know he read the card, but he missed what flight actually does, and so Arkadius got beaked to death around thirty seconds after my turn two began. I know this game is supposed to be about knowing more than your opponent, and blocking his every angle of attack, but it still feels cheap, and I've been hit by Molik Karn enough times to know how wasted a game feels when you get taken down like that.

To make matters worse the Scavenger is even harder to stop, and most opponents have never even seen the model before, much less discovered the potential of the thing. Unfortunately I have to practice, so I can't just avoid playing with them. I promised my opponent that I'd go up against a Gunnbjorn list on Monday if possible, so he could rip me a new one. More diversity in matches means more experience, so I'll receive my lead enema and like it, if it means learning more about the game.

As always the Stalkers just never pull their weight, so I'll try cutting back to one of them. That means I free up some more points, and now I'll have to find out what I can bring. Maybe some Mercenaries could be fun, to add even more weirdness to the list.
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Pirate Queen Mortenebra?

As you might have noticed, I've fallen in love with Bonejacks. This also means that our infamous Infernal Machines list, is less attractive, since I'll be bringing two Harrowers as my only heavies. After putting in two Helldivers, Scavengers, Stalkers, and Harrowers, I find myself with 12 points left over. I could add another 3-4 Bonejacks, but I got to thinking about units I could bring instead.

The Privateer Press forums had a few articles about this, but the ones I found all discussed Bane Thralls or The Withershadow Combine. I can see that Bane Thralls with recalibration would be devastating, and the WSC is always worth bringing, but neither of those choices really gave me synergy in a light jack assassination list. Suddenly I remembered I had quite a few Satyxis Raiders in my pile of random stuff, and sure enough I found a full raiders squad, with Sea Witch and Captain. Now why would I bring them?

• Gaining ground; Mortenebra lists are actually rather slow when it comes to a general advance. Sure we can slingshot individual jacks across the table, but the rest of the army is doing a lot of walking. Satyxis Raiders may advance deploy, engage from ridiculous distances, and are Pathfinders. In a normal game this means, that if your opponent advances more than ten inches in the first round, he's within Raider range. This could prove valuable in zone control games, or simply to push back an enemy army to deny them control of the table.
• Models.Actions.Focus; is the resource I work with on this blog, and a Mortenebra list is low on everything. It has low model count, low actions/round, and is strapped for Focus. This means that introducing a unit with a high amount of models (something like double the number of a tier list), a high number of actions (again due to numbers), that operates without spending Focus, is a great boon.

 There are also a host of minor benefits that Satyxis Raiders bring to a Mortenebra army.

• Feedback; A point of damage on the Warcaster means Finisher on the Scavenger.
• Knockdown; This will really mess up an opponent if triggered on a free strike.
• Defense; Even more defense sixteen models, that care little about blast damage.
• Damage; Power swell and Recalibration, makes for a lot of damage that round.

Satyxis Raiders engaging his lines, also require huge amounts of M.A.F to remove. He can't really shoot them when they're engaged, since they're at defense twenty, and with good placement he will mess up his own lines and activation sequences, in order to get rid of them. I'll be trying it out tonight if I can get a game, and I'll let you know if this actually works in real games, as well as the ones in my head. In any case it was a nice excuse to get my Satyxis Raiders stripped and based.

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Spotlight: The Scavenger.

The Scavenger received a lot of hate when it arrived. It's expensive, fragile, and requires a lot of resources to be effective, but a few casters can really make it shine.

The Scavenger is based on the Stalker chassis, so it's almost impossible to hit, but that also means we're dealing with another jack that dies to blast damage.

The Scavenger: Abilities

As always the Battlecollege will take you through the abilities. Wait, no it won't, because no one loves the Scavenger enough to actually write anything about him, so I guess I'm doing this myself.

• Flight: The Scavenger ignores terrain, though not when it comes to Line of Sight issues. It also ignores intervening models when declaring a charge, but not when declaring a slam. I'll dedicate an entire section to the things you can do with flight later, but for now this will do.
• Finisher: An additional die of damage against wounded models. This is what makes the Scavenger an effective assassin, and with a bit of support it will take down most casters you manage to catch.
• Sprint: It rarely comes into play, but the ability to leave your nest (I'll explain that one later) to take down a solo, and then return to safety can be pretty neat.

That's it, it has no more abilities. It has a single attack that barely clears double digit PS, is about as survivable as a tough solo, and will set you back four points. It's not exactly appealing, so why do I love them so much?

The Scavenger: Assassinations

The Scavenger needs two things in order to work: Immunity to free strikes, and more speed. These abilities are found on several of our casters, but two of them stand out.

• The Witch Coven of Garlghast: Ghost Walk will clear up the free strikes, and Infernal Machine will handle the speed issues (and remove the need to boost attack rolls). 

This allows you to send in a Scavenger from more than twelve inches away, and several casters will go down to three attacks with Finisher. If you upkeep Infernal Machine on a Scavenger with Admonia, and apply Ghost Walk with your Skarlock, you can actually send in two fully loaded Scavengers, and just about anything will die.

Casting Infernal Machine on a Scavenger, this time not for the +2 MAT, but for the +2 SPD and Terror. Running the Scavenger 18" causing Terror checks to EVERYTHING that got within 1/2 inch of the Scavenger (found here).
-Corpazious

I've never thought about this way of using them, but with sufficient non-fearless models on the other side of the table, this could win you a game. Eighteen inches is a LOT of movement, and many units have average command scores, and a single unit failing could win you the game.

• Master Necrotech Mortenebra: Spectral Steel will handle the free strikes, and Terminal Velocity will turn the Scavenger into a GOD KILLING MACHINE OF UNHOLY TERROR. 

With three Focus, Recalibration, and Terminal Velocity, the Scavenger will put four attacks on that enemy caster (with re-rolls on everything), and with Overrun it will do it from more than nineteen inches away.

The Scavenger: Free kills for everyone 

Usually when an assassination attempt fails, you'll be in a horrible position, and probably lose an important model (or simply lose outright), but with the Scavenger missile you only really lose that one model. This is like getting a free assassination attempt, and even if his caster survives, he or she will be low on health, and in horrible danger.

The Scavenger: Nesting

When I field Scavengers, I like to find them a nest. Their nest should be located centrally on the table, and grant them cover, since defense twenty Scavengers are almost impossible to hit. With sprint you can leave the nest to feed, and then return to safety, and await the opening you need to take down your opponent.

The Scavenger: Slams

The Scavenger can perform some interesting slams.  I don't think there are any other flying slammers in Warmachine, and there aren't exactly a lot of them in Hordes either. While the Scavenger will need Line of Sight to slam, it has impressive range, and enough MAT to do it reliably. It can slam across enemy models, as long as it can ignore/survive the free strikes (and draw Line of Sight), and with Mortenebra it can do it for free (with additional range and boosted attack rolls against living models).

The Scavenger: Alternate casters

While the Scavenger really appreciates the previously mentioned casters, there are others that could have some fun with the Scavengers:

• Warwitch Deneghra: Though limited in range, the debuff queen can send in a Scavenger with The Withering and Crippling Grasp up. This allows the Scavenger three attacks with MAT 11 and PS 15, which should kill several casters.
• Goreshade the Bastard: Shadowmancer allows Goreshade to apply stealth and Dark Shroud to his Battlegroup, which turns Scavengers into light jack versions of Bane Thralls. While he lacks the ability to grant them immunity to free strikes, he has the ability to run them as attrition models.
• Pirate Queen Skarre: Defense sixteen and armor eighteen can survive a free strike or two, and a PS 16 Scavenger with Dark Guidance up, can take down squishy casters. I would probably leave them at home with her, but several others have claimed success with this setup.
• Lord Exhumator Scaverous: Telekinesis allows for fourteen inch threat, and Ghost Walk solves the free strike issues. I've placed Scaverous in alternate casters, because he doesn't have the available Focus to turn the Scavenger into an effective assassination piece.

As you can see the Scavenger is far from the useless piece of junk it's made out to be, but I wouldn't recommend it with anyone but Mortenebra or The Coven.

The Scavenger: Summary

The Scavengers are loathed in my meta, and I'm currently taking down two casters for every Scavenger I lose. They strike from miles away, and leave nothing but broken corpses in their wake, while remaining universally underestimated and ignored.