The Necrotechs Workshop XXV – Terminating

This day, which has come for many before I, Has finally come. Today, I was finally able to get my inflictors. I have now joined the ranks of those many Cryxian Warlords who can be protected from the slings, arrows and bullets of outrageous fortune. It is a day I have looked forward to for a very, very long time. I’ve got two lists I’ve been eyeing for a long time, and I finally get to take a chance on both of them. I’ve talked a few times about them here, but I’ve been working on one of them continuously. Even today I’ve changed it. Lets take a look at my current, probably stupid, Lich Lord Terminus list.

Lich Lord Terminus is one of my favorite casters, and has been since his MKI days. Though he isn’t as bone crushingly awesome as he used to be, I think he has a lot of potential as a caster to try and break some of our gun line woes. He isn’t going to be perfect, but I think he has some game.

Lets get to the list.

Lich Lord Terminus
-Inflictor
-Inflictor
Bane Thralls x10
Bane Thralls x10
Carrion Thralls x10
Carrion Thralls x10
Mechanithralls x6
Necrosurgeon
Steelhead Halberdiers x10

This list, even as I write it, feels strange as hell. Its a completely MKII List, in a world that no longer respects MKII strategies. Its a flood of infantry in a game that feels like it can take a throng of infantry off the field every turn.

And the assessment isn’t wrong, but it has its purpose. It is likely one of the hardest skews you can find for infantry, with 56 combat troopers on the board on turn one, and the possibility of creating a few more. It has Anti-Armor, a mediocre anti Infantry, and an extremely solid scenario presence. It will flood the board, until people start building lists for anti-infantry again, with so many targets that it will be really difficult to make a good decision.

Cadre

Lets start with  the easy part – The battlegroup. Its a simple, redundant affair, but one that has a few tricks up is sleeve. Two Inflictors gives big poppa T a pair of shield guards to eat some of those lower value shots with bad side effects or templates. With Shield guard being 3″ now, its also easy to try and move successive shots away from your clumps of models. There are a couple formations I’m looking at with them. If you put them to one side, and the Sac Pawn Targets to the other, its easy to, in specific instances, to move shots from models like Dynamo, Caine 2, or other models with added effects out of the range of squishier models. It’ll only save one or two, but as you’ll see later, the effect is solidly additive as the turn goes on. AOE’s are the same, with having the option to shunt Big, single shots over to the infantry and AOEs to the Inflictors. Additionally, they do have reach and Crit poison with MAT 7 and P+S 16. While its not the best, I can easily see, on feat or turn after feat, the inflictors removing swaths of infantry, Berserk and MAT 7 aren’t bad. Its not for every instance, but there are strong reasons for it. Conveniently, two Inflictors are exactly his Battlegroup Points

Shield guard is an amazing ability. I’ve mentioned it right above, but it bears noting that you have to be prepared to know when to use it, especially with a pile of sacrificial pawns around. You don’t really want to take a shot that is going to do a whole lot of damage to the inflictor, if you don’t have to. The option to sac it off to a Mechanithrall, especially one of the first three in a turn that will almost always return due to the Necrosurgeon, is often one worth taking. There is no overkill in the game. Have the Inflictors take pop gun shots after you’ve run out of focus, or, if you see spells coming in, take the first gun or two that comes his way so terminus can save his focus for spells. Take the shots that Drag, Disrupt, Elecroleap, etc. Another interesting thing to do is to pawn off a shot from Terminus to the Necrosurgeon, then have the inflictor Shield Guard off the Necrosurgeon.

Additionally, Its key to point out that it is well worth, against elecroleaping armies, to keep the three heavy hitters as the closest to each other, so that smacking them doesn’t end up doing random damage to nearby important models. Its not always feasible, but it will be crucial the times it comes into play.

Units

I have three different units, but the army can be played a plethora of ways.

First, we have the two beefy units, the Bane Thralls. I put these in here because I want to have tough, brutal infantry to give a little bit of a pause to armies that are going to try and send me a package of armor down my throat. Honestly, I don’t expect many to get there, but simply being in the way will be a massive benefit. Additionally, they have Dark Shroud, allowing, in the correct circumstances, which are much easier to manufacture now, Terminus to Hit P+S 20 against a nice, juicy target, often after they have been hit by a number of P+S 13 weaponmasters prior.  Ghostly means that I don’t have to worry about most terrain, and little more about a unit trying to jam my army up. Their MAT is a little bit of a Bummer, but I’ll make do with that at the damage output they are supposed to get. I’m not really thrilled with their prospects of living, but I think they are still worth the investment.

What is great about this package, and what is imminently frustrating, is that the unit is 17 points, which seems a bit much for what they can put out. Their attachment is almost never worth it, costing nearly 30% of the unit and 60% of even a slayer. The slight upside is that they are able to be swapped out for your favorite infantry. Bloodwitches +UA, Bane Knights, Blackbanes Ghost Raiders, Revenent Crew. Individually, they each have a reason to include them in the list. I am going for a list that is likely to cause Kara Sloan and Caine 2 problems, or even simple thought experiment or clock consumption. Kara being covered in Warjacks means that it is often very helpful to have those weaponmasters stacked around. Each of the others have benefits too, but I’d love to hear from other people what their favorite nodule is.

Secondly, we have the Carrion Thralls. These are amazing speed 7 blighters at a fairly decent defense 13, all for the low points cost of nearly nothing. With a good Combined Attack, they can shred a solo, and with pairs they can get in there and take out infantry of up to def 14. Though I don’t have many other ways than spiking dice, a good charge against a jack could cause problems, with the first two pairing up to get damage and the rest coming in at 7+4d6. It is not going to come in and do a ton of damage, but add in another CMA or even a bane thrall and there could be some plinking going on. These guys are my all purpose screen, and I expect that most of them will be dead by the end of turn 2.

Third, we have a min unit of Mechanithralls + UA. I mean, + Necrosurgeon. These are not the flashiest models, or even partuclarly good models anymore, but for a simple 10 points, they should perform admirably. Each turn, I can take 3 shots into the mechanithralls and return to them into combat. The 6th will set back and behind the necrosurgeon in order to create the bodyguards for Terminus. Loosing that unit would be very, very sad. Additionally, it can create a late game problem if the unit continues to grow via corpses, pushing more bodies into more zones to make more work for the opponent. Which, in turn, brings us to the final set of models.

The Steelhead Halberdiers. I had a 74 point list prior to putting these gentlemen in, but I had two units of Mechanithralls. What I noticed, though, is that the steelheads are all potential mechanithralls! if set up as the nearest model to existing mechanithralls by weaving the two units together, elecroleaps can be forced, via sacpawn, to create more Mechanithralls. Additionally, for a single point you get +1 Speed, +1.5 rng on melee, +2 Def, +1 armor, CMA, Powerful Charge and Set defense. If it wasn’t for Sacpawn being undead, I’d likely have no Mechanithralls in the list. Halberdiers are a pretty sweet, extremely cheap package that I intend to abuse.

Uses

As I’ve said above, I really am just looking to slam this into some rough matchups involving overwhelming guns. Its why, even though there are some good solos and units out there that could be shoehorned into the list at the expense of others, I am pourposely making it so there are few high value targets to shoot at over the course of the turn. It is hard enough to stop 30 infantry, let alone doubling it. With this list I can safely run everything at the opponent as fast as possible and expect something to get there. Carrion thralls are hopefully the first wave that keeps the Thralls alive to deliver their brand of smash directly to the opponent, and weaponmaster P+S13 freestrikes are nothing to shake a stick at.

I really look forward to getting this baby on the table, though it may be a while yet, as I’ve been having a drought of people to play against at the times I can play. We will see!

Whats your favorite Inflictor list? let me know!