Spotlight: Satyxis Raiders

It took me a while to warm up to these girls, but when I did I found something truly unique. The Satyxis Raiders offer a nearly limitless supply of tools, while being cheap(ish) and incredibly powerful when used right.

I'll begin by extending a couple of warnings, because this unit requires a lot of finesse, so don't worry if they underperform for a while. In addition the Battlecollege articles are severely lacking (as of December, 2011), and features information that is either useless, outdated, or simply wrong. I'll try and suggest some changes to the author when I get the time, but for now you should simply pretend it doesn't exist.

Satyxis Raiders, Sea Witch, and Captain

The Satyxis Raiders have plethora of abilities, and remembering them all can be a challenge. Actually writing about them is a challenge as well, because every ability hinges on another ability, making it very hard to pick a place to begin.

The Sea Witch (SW) is a part of the unit, since you should never field them without her, and I'd very strongly recommend including a Satyxis Raider Captain (SRC) as well, so I've decided to handle them all in a single Spotlight, and hope I can manage to cover everything at once.

Satyxis Raiders: Sea Witch

The Sea Witch defines a lot of what the Satyxis Raiders do, so let's take a look at the core abilities she brings to the unit, and talk a bit about keeping her safe.

• Granted: Force Barrier

This is a disgusting ability, that makes the Satyxis Raiders defense sixteen against shooting, and grants them immunity to blast damage. The Satyxis are faster than almost everyone else, so making them ridiculously hard to hit, and immune to blast damage seems a bit over the top, but I'll take it. The ability is granted, so don't let her die.

• Mini-Feat: Power Swell

It's a round of weapon master, on all their attacks. That means they suddenly threaten everything but the Devastator type models, and we're a faction with easy access to debuffs to boot. With the optimal setup and full available debuffs, you can have two Satyxis Raiders kill a mint condition Khador heavy on a single charge, and just to add a bit of insult, inflict two damage on their controller with Feedback (this will be explained later).

• Tactics: Pathfinder

Sure they can charge fourteen inches, and now they can do it while ignoring terrain. The Sea Witch takes every single problem the Satyxis Raiders have, and nullifies it. Vulnerability to shooting (gone), vulnerability to blast damage (gone), low damage output (gone), and problems with terrain (gone).

• Summary

There's no reason to leave the Sea Witch at home, and keeping her safe is a priority. The obvious thing to do is to keep her back, and if you have access to any sort of cover or concealment you should use it. Since the Satyxis Raiders are immune to blast damage, you can cover LoS to her with a few Raiders without getting yourself blown to pieces, but be careful if your opponent has access to AoE spells that aren't blast damage (pAsphyxious with Breath of Corruption is a good example).

Satyxis Raiders: Satyxis Raider Captain

I did warn you that the unit was complicated, and the Captain brings another set of core abilities to the table. She's a lot harder to keep safe than the Sea Witch, and her abilities are not as vital, but she's an incredible solo for two points, that I consider an auto-include for several reasons.

• Commander

Satyxis Raiders are often taking two or three morale test per round, when they impact terror causing units, get torn apart in melee, or hit by spells, so the added command is more valuable than you might think.

• No Sleeping on the Job (Satyxis)

I rarely ever use this ability, since anything that knocks down Satyxis usually kills them as well, but remembering it exists can really mess up an opponent who forgets it. There are several knockdown feats in the game, and an opponent usually plans around your screen being down, so remember to point and laugh.

• Desperate Pace (*Action)

This is the real power behind the SRC, because +2 movement on a speed seven unit with reach is just crazy. This means fourteen inch charges, or engaging from eighteen inches away. This speed increase allows for some really crazy moves, but I'll get back to that later.

• Summary

The Satyxis Raider Captain supports the main unit, but she also performs well as a backup sweeper. She has better MAT than almost anything else in our faction, and her sprint ability allows her to charge and kill a model twelve inches away, and then move an addition seven inches, allowing her to engage and lock models from more than twenty inches away.

Keeping her alive can be difficult though, since she has no access to Force Barrier, so keeping her in terrain can be useful. She comes with nearly all the abilities of the main unit, which means she can Advance Deploy, has Pathfinder, and she's even a Weapon Master to make up for the lack of Power Swell.

The mistake I see most people make with her, is to apply Desperate Pace in the first round, when it's not actually needed. Most games she would be better of moving to a safe position, so she's available when you really need those extra inches. 

Satyxis Raiders: Abilities

The Satyxis Raiders need bodies on the ground, so I recommend a full unit. The more stiletto heels you have on the ground, the more powerful power swell becomes, and the less morale checks they'll need to make.

• Advanced Deployment

This getting downright stupid, but continuing the speed theme, the Satyxis Raiders have Advanced Deployment. I'll get back to that later, when I get around to talking about tactics, but to the best of my knowledge this makes the Satyxis Raiders the fastest infantry unit in the game.

• Combined Melee Attack

If you charge, you can combine the Lacerator from one Satyxis with the Horns from another, and while that means losing a lot of attacks and the charge bonus on every other Raider, it can be worth it. The ruling is here, and the discussion is here.

I rarely find myself doing this, because it requires a lot of setup and it takes forever to explain to an opponent (they never believe it's allowed), so I just take my chances with two attacks instead, and it usually works out alright in the end.

• Lacerator: Reach, Critical Knockdown, Feedback, and Chain Weapon

Internet lingo defines most peoples reaction to the Lacerator as: LOLWHUT. Their main weapon has three active abilities you need to remember, but when you do it's an incredible weapon (the Sea Witch has a non-chain version though). Reach allows them a twelve inch charge range, and the SRC increases this to an incredible fourteen inches, making them one of the fastest units in the game.

Chain Weapons allow them to dismantle shield walls with ease, and it reduces the armor of a few heavies as well, making it easier to abuse Feedback. Critical Knockdown rarely comes into play, but when it does happen it's a nice little bonus, and it makes them deadly screens (this will also be explained later).

Feedback allows the Raiders to damage a caster by hitting his jacks, and while you rarely get a kill with Feedback damage (I've never managed one), it can put your opponent in a really poor position. A worn down caster won't be taking chances, won't be able to risk free strikes, and if he's low enough he will have to pull his jacks out of the fight to avoid dying to Feedback damage, meaning you've got a lot less of his army to worry about.

The Feedback ability also has great synergy with unbinding from the Withershadow Combine, since unbinding also inflicts damage that circumvents a casters defense and armor, while inflicting low enough damage to make transferring a useless defense. Assuming you can unbind two upkeep spells, and get seven Raiders swinging, you've got 2d3+7 damage going straight to a caster, and that's going to hurt.

• Horns

A non reach melee attack, with low PS and no special abilities might not seem like much, but it's a huge advantage when combined with their other abilities. With Desperate Pace from the SRC the Raiders can charge 12.5" with their horns, and with Power Swell from the SW they can kill a model with their horns, and swing at the second line with their Lacerators, allowing the unit a stupid amount of kills if your opponent allows it.

Satyxis Raiders: Tactics

The Raiders have so many applications in a game, that explaining them all in detail is nigh impossible, but I'll do my best. I'm going to cut some corners here, but I'll try and flesh out the most relevant tactics.

• Pushers

A pusher is a model/unit, that forces an opponent to advance less than he would like to. This gives you a major boost in board control, and allows you to seize the initiative. I used the Satyxis Raiders as an example in my Pusher article, so instead of repeating everything I said, I'll make you go read it: Pushers

• Screens

Satyxis Raiders are excellent screens, even if they're a bit expensive. I've talked about this before, so I'll make you go read that as well: Screens

• Locks

A lock is something you put on a model/unit to prevent it from performing it's main function. Satyxis Raiders can run, and with Desperate Pace they can engage a unit from eighteen inches away. They have reach, and high defense, so putting a couple of Raiders in melee with a ranged unit can mess it up.

Even with aim bonus, another unit will be unable to clear out the Raiders with ranged attacks (defense twenty, due to Force Barrier and being engaged), which means that he needs melee sweepers to free them, and I see a lot of tournament armies without viable melee sweepers these days.

• Flankers

Flanking in Warmachine/Hordes is a bit of a joke, but these girls can actually do it. If you run at full speed with Desperate Pace up, you'll be eight inches from his deployment zone in the first round, which takes everyone by surprise. 

In ninety percent of your games that will be a really efficient way to lose a lot of points, but occasionally your opponent forgets to take the sheer speed and Advanced Deployment into consideration, and opportunity arises. This move is often combined with "Locking", when a ranged unit is left to fend for itself on a flank.

• Magnets

There's something very unsettling about seeing your own objective, and an enemy unit in front of it, before you've had your first turn. It's a sure way of losing your own Satyxis Raiders, unless he really failed deployment, but it's also one of the best magnets in the game.

Magnets are models/units that draw your opponent into position, and I guarantee you one thing: If you take his objective before he's had a chance to move, he'll come for it. You need a plan that involves more than just trying to hold it, because Satyxis Raiders don't hold objectives well, and their deaths will mean nothing unless you have a plan.

Magnets work best if layered, so resist the urge to put twelve models between him and the objective, because anything you place there will die. Satyxis Raiders are very hard to remove with shooting, so three or four models will do the job, and force him to take you out with melee models, and clogging up his own lanes badly. This also gives you a perfect second round, with power swell and 7-8 dual attack weapon masters charging in.

Satyxis Raiders: Warcaster

There are a lot of casters that will enjoy the Satyxis Raiders, but a few of them stand out and deserve special attention.

• pDeneghra: I shudder at the sheer destructive potential.

Ghost Walk takes care of the free strikes and allows the raiders to exploit every bit of speed they can manage. Parasite and The Withering means three Satyxis Raiders taking down a Khador heavy, and if anything actually survives it's hard to take on defense 14/16 models when you have -2 or -4 to hit.

• eDeneghra: Can't touch this!

Web of Shadows, then charge the raiders in and slaughter everything. The following round, cast Curse of Shadows or Ghost Walk, and destroy whatever is left without caring what's parked between them.

• Mortenebra: Recalibration, I love you.

I love being able to activate Finisher on my Scavengers, and Feedback allows me to do that. With Recalibration up, and a warjack within reach, the Scavenger assassination run becomes even deadlier. Not only does the Scavenger have Finisher up for it's first attack, but the target is down a couple of boxes already, and that equals a horribly beaky death.

• pSkarre: Dark Guidance and Blood Magic.

PS fourteen/thirteen Satyxis Raiders, with increased accuracy, is simply not fair (not to mention that the chance of a critical knockdown skyrockets). The Satyxis Raider Captain also makes Skarre immune to knockdown, which is nothing short of awesome. Then we have the infamous Feeback/Backlash combination, that allows you to kill a caster without ever touching him, and the package is just about perfect.

• eSkarre: Black Spot and Backlash.

Immunity to knockdown on eSkarre, immunity to leadership issues on the Satyxis Raiders, the same Feedback/Backlash ability as her prime version, and Black Spot. They won't hurt heavies much, but point them at an infantry unit, and watch it vanish in a red mist of barbed-whip-killer-bikini-babes.

Satyxis Raiders: Summary

The Satyxis Raiders are faster than the speed of light, able to adapt to just about anything, and able to surgically remove just about anything in the game. They're dead if they're caught in melee with anything that knows how to fight, but will always hold the initiative, unless you as a player fail them. It's a unit that every caster can appreciate, and with the coming character restrictions I expect to see a lot of them on the tournament tables, so getting to know them can't be a bad idea.

Updates.

With the wedding out of the way, honeymoon done, apartment refurbished (the kitchen is from the early thirties, so while it's not actually antique, it's damn close), and me back at work, I can get some regular updates done again. Updates also require some actual games, and since I've had very few of those during the last two months, I've had very little to write about.

Look ma! I caught me one of them good ones!

In last nights game I had some time to think about the fate of my Satyxis Raiders, and how my entire squad was wiped out by Gudrun (assumption is the mother of all fuckups, and I assumed he was an inch slower). That little mistake left me with just the Captain and UA alive, and the captain promptly took some boosted blast damage and died.

The Sea Witch power swelled and took out Gudrun in return (and that got her killed as well due to being parked in front of an entire army), but that one model cost me nine points worth of army, and my entire first line of assault/pressure. That's when I realized how much my army relies on that unit, and that's something I'll have to keep in mind in a week.

I actually feel rather good about the list, though I would have liked another Arc Node in there. It's got a fair amount of short/medium range firepower (potentially six 8" sprays, two Pistol Wraiths, Withershadow Combine, and a Captain/Witch in theory), great flow with Pathfinder, Incorporeal, and Ghost Walk available, and it hit's very hard with weapon masters and power swell (combined with pDenny the debuff queen).

One of the things I've learned from my two games is, that this army actually likes going second. With Advance Deploy Satyxis Raiders threatening 30" from my table edge in turn one, I can staunch the flow of fast or AD units before my turn even begins. My stealth and incorporeal units need to deploy across from their prime targets anyway, and depending on the amount of terrain on the board, I can spread out more when I know where the threats are located.

When going second, my Arc Nodes can reach his units on turn one, and throw Crippling Grasp on a prime target. This allows my Satyxis Raiders to severely damage almost anything in the game. When I go first, I can't reach anything in turn one, which means my Satyxis will probably be engaging before that CG ever lands (and it's a lot harder to find an unengaged model to target, when a melee of reach models clog everything up).

Warwitch Deneghra
- Deathripper
- Deathripper
- Skarlock
Bane Thralls (Leader & 5 Grunts)
- Officer & Standard
Bane Lord Tartarus
Satyxis Raiders (Leader & 5 Grunts)
- Sea Witch
Satyxis Raider Captain
Blackbane's Ghost Raiders (Blackbane & 9 Grunts)
The Withershadow Combine
Pistol Wraith
Pistol Wraith
Warwitch Siren
Warwitch Siren
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Facing Legion...

Tonight I had my first game against Legion. When I read his cards I got more than a little nervous, and as it turns out I was right to be. I brought my Satyxis Raiders Mortenebra list, and had to acknowledge that I had zero chance at going attrition.

Absylonia, Terror of Everblight
- Harrier
- Nephilim Bolt Trower
- Shredder
- Shredder
- Carnivean
- Scythean
- Seraph
- Typhon
Blighted Nyss Shepherd
The Forsaken
The Forsaken
The Forsaken

Woo boy this was a close game. I messed up badly on my assassination run, and triggered Overrun by killing a Shredder, which of course gave Absylonia two more Fury to transfer (DOH!). Stupid stupid stupid, and she survived my feat + Scavenger missile. I piled as many models as I could in to defend Mortenebra, and then he messed up as well, and activated in the wrong sequence, so his Scythean came at Mortenebra damaged.

It had to take a free strike from a Scavenger, and a free strike with finisher saw to it, that a very impotent Scythean arrived at Mortenebra. After swinging a couple of times to no avail, the Scythean also kindly agreed to plug up the one way he could get at Mortenebra with any other model.

My turn came around, and some heavy thinking had to be done. He had made sure neither the Harrowers, my Stalker, or my Scavenger could be assigned Focus, but Terminal Velocity and a couple of power boosts from the two Sirens allowed me some breathing room.

Mortenebra activates, casts Terminal Velocity and Overrun on a Harrower. Deryliss activates and puts Spectral Steel on the Stalker. Then my remaining Scavenger flies over a couple of models and slams the Carnivean out of the way, allowing the Harrower to charge and trigger Overrun on a forsaken. The slam also opened up a lane for my Stalker, and Overrun got him in a position to charge. One of the Sirens comes up and power boosts the Stalker, and Absylonia is taken down.

Had he not made an activation sequence error, I would have lost. Had the Scavenger only slammed the Carnivean a single inch I would have lost. Had the Stalker not survived a few swings from the Carnivean the previous round I would have lost, but a win is a win, and now I'm not totally lost if I face Legion in a tournament.

I'm having my doubts about the Satyxis Raiders, but they cause so much ruckus that I'll be keeping them in the list for now. This time they swamped his objective in one of the radial deployment scenarios, and kept quite a bit of his army busy for a couple of rounds.
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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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