The Necrotechs Workshop LIX – The Evolution of a List
Well. I’ve been playing a Scaverous list for a while now, and there were some problems with the list. Now, though, after a couple changes, I think I’ve settled on a list I am very, very happy with, especially into this new medium based meta.
For the first time in a long, long time, I’ve committed to a singular caster that I’m likely to play for an extremely long time. It feels great, actually, to have this sort of stability and continuity in my Warmachine life. Its something I am not used to, as I’ve been shifting casters every couple games since just before MKIII was announced. Deciding to stick with, learn, and focus on a single caster and how they exist in the faction, in the Meta, and overall is going to be fun.
Last time I talked about Scaverous, I mentioned that he has some pretty obvious problems into armor. Taking that to heart, and seeing that I’ve not had a lot of success with the Marauders in the list, I decided I needed to change the list up.
First up, the Marauders. This unit excels at killing infantry, both by lighting things on fire with ranged weapons and by utilizing their chain weapon melee attacks to set others on fire. However, in the Scaverous list, they seemed to be performing the exact same function as the Bloodgorgers. Normally, having redundant unit objectives is good in a list. When one unit gets eliminated or out of position, you can execute the same plan with the other. However, in the Scaverous list, I would often put Soul Harvester on the Bloodgorgers, which would create a feeling of waste whenever I killed an infantry model with a Marauder, and it would create conflicts of interests when I have an order of activation issue. I was also trying to get them to pull extra weight with either the addition of Ragman, or some other model/effect to get them to hit just a bit harder. While P+S 12 is solid, and P+S 14 is very good for exploding infantry, it doesn’t really help with the armor I was having a problem with.
Conditional and attached to that was Ragman, who was a support model who was simply trying to get models to hit above their weight class. It’s not a bad ambition, but the list lacks 2″ reach as well as having a problem with speed and board space, so he gets caught behind a lot of models who use tactician to move through each other, though he cannot. He’s not contributing to free points, which isn’t a big deal, and he just got in the way of making the list functional in the way I would like it.
Finally, The Satyxis blood priest felt like wasted points. Though she was instrumental in a win or two with surprise utility and cleaning up random solos with her brute mat 7 and P+S 13, with Scaverous, she felt more like a dead weight than anything else. a 4pt model used for eventualities that I will likely still avoid due to my pairing and my lists defenses anyway.
These models cost after all is said and done, 24 points.
I knew I wanted to put models that could do the heavy lifting, no pun intended, in the list if I was going to change it at all. Someone, a long time ago, told me that they felt that Black Ogrun Boarding Party were essential in Slaughter Fleet because of the damage they can deal. P+S 13, with Gang and an Arm Debuff, has them hitting at P+S 17’s, which is nothing to be disappointed in. They were also fairly cheap, at 6/11 points, so I could fit 2 full 5 man units into the list, with an extra 2 points to spare, and the Black Ogrun compare very favorably to the Marauders: +1 Speed, +1 Def (They do lose ashen Veil, but that’s a conditional bonus, so I’m ok with that), -1 Arm, +4 Boxes, and +1 P+S. They have Gang, which is an amazing rule, and Drag on their gun. They lose access to Vet Leader, of course, but again, I’m ok with that for what I gain. Additionally, they also get to work independently of Gerlak, Jussika, and each other, making my gameplay less bunched and deployment less of a problem. Keeping them standing and under the Vet leader is a non-issue. Drag, which I mentioned earlier, is a big thing in the Black Ogruns favor, as it is especially useful with a TK caster. Often, A single TK would be all I would use on a turn to steal a model with Croe’s, back striking the target until its gone. With two units of Black Ogrun, I can often nab three targets on a non-feat turn fairly easily. The Boarding Party’s shooting threat range is 14″, which is only 2″ shorter than the Cutthroats, and then their target is drug into my lines where I am able to finish it off with a scavenger or two if it’s left with a reasonable amount of boxes. Additionally, they make great targets for Axiara’s Reposition 3″, so that once they are done harpooning vital targets of my opponents out of their lines, they get to step back a bit and be up to 13″ from their targets original position, which goes hand in hand with Scaverous plan of disruption and distraction. Adding on Icy Grip or Feast of worms makes all of these even more possible.
With the Remaining two points, I decided to go with a Misery Cage. This model does the same thing, functionally, as the Blood Priestess, giving me access to a free upkeep by giving me a focus late in the turn, but it also is more flexible than her focus efficiency because on key turns I can simply have 8 focus, which can be a pair of feast of worms into an infantry horde to gobble up souls and debuff the last position.
Now, I know its not a perfect list, but I’ve had a great time when using it. It has enough tools to provide problems to the enemy, enough ways around the problem the opponents bring, and a strong assassination against the unwary, the uninitiated, and the sloppy.
This is the list I’m using now, and have been succeeding pretty well with:
Cryx Army – 75 / 75 points
Slaughter Fleet Raiders
Lord Exhumator Scaverous [+27]
– Deathripper [6]
– Nightwretch [7]
– Scavenger [7]
– Scavenger [7]
Axiara Wraithblade [0(6)]
General Gerlak Slaughterborn [0(6)]
Misery Cage [2]
Black Ogrun Boarding Party (max) [11]
Black Ogrun Boarding Party (max) [11]
Black Ogrun Smog Belchers (min) [9]
Bloodgorgers (max) [15]
– Jussika Bloodtongue [5]
Croe’s Cutthroats (max) [16]
Scharde Dirge Seers [6]
What do you think? Have you used a similar list? does this have an obvious and clear upgrade somewhere I am missing?
As always – if you’re looking for more Seething Ginger, I’m on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, though they all aren’t equally active The Seething Ginger Facebook Page is easily the busiest.
If you want to hear more of my opinions, listen to the Battle Driven Podcast!
