Why I prefer pMakeda over eMakeda.

Versus

Here are the reasons why.

eMakeda is a "burst" caster, while pMakeda is an attrition caster.

eMakeda is really about that one turn of hitting and hitting hard. I would admit that eMakeda's feat is decisively better, it is both offensive and defensive. But, it is only one turn and dice dependent. When you really need that hitting power from your army, you pop feat and light it up.

However, in competitive play, a good opponent will make it hard for you to bring your full army to bear, which makes it hard to fully take advantage of the feat. Outside of her feat, eMakeda offers nothing to improve the hitting power of your army. She has no Mat bonus outside of her feat, so you have to consider that against an army with high DEF. you have one turn to handle them, and if you can't bring your army to bear, or end by assassination, you lose.

Hence why I call her a "burst" caster. Whether by wrecking the army or Molik bulleting she throws out a massive burst of damage. But it is rare I see an eMakeda army go past that one really good turn and still pull out a win if the opponent was able to survive relatively unscathed. Not impossible, mind you, but not often either. I find when I play her, after my feat turn (assuming the feat is popped at an optimal time), unless I wrecked the army or the caster, I struggle fairly hard to maintain control of the game.

Now let us compare to pMakeda. Her feat is a little weak, but is very rewarding for competitive play. Proper spacing of models, and popping early can really set you up into a nice position. Because of chaining returned models it is very hard for your opponent to see where your models are going to come from. Her feat puts your opponent in an interesting place. They know any one they kill will come back unless they kill the whole unit. If you placed them correctly, you can make that very hard for your opponent to do, at least not without exposing his/her positioning. So unlike eMakeda, pMakeda allows you to be aggressively (but not stupidly) placed, and for a turn not fear reprisal. Both Makeda's want to get the jump on their opponent, but pMakeda allows you to be a little more flexible in how you do so. pMakeda's feat isn't that good once you take loses, but the same can be said about eMakeda's feat. However, pMakeda will always have her army buffs, where eMakeda will really only give her army Road to War.

pMakeda's spell list is decisively better. Defender's Ward is fantastic, especially considering the already relatively above average DEF of Skorne infantry. It is also a great tool to cycle onto Makeda in the late game to boost her DEF and ARM. With the Brutes Animus, you can force most opponents to have to deal with that higher DEF. Carnage is a great army buff, it is in her relatively average control area, but can be cast every turn, and boost our average MAT to very impressive levels. And let us not forget Savagry. In my opinion, it is the best movement buff in the faction, if not the game. Thanks to Marketh and the fact that it is an upkeep spell, you could have it on three model/units in a turn (upkeep it, cast it with Marketh, cast it with Makeda), it makes her army crazy fast. Don't be afraid to cast it on beasts. There is a little bit of Skornergy, in that an enraged beast can't benefit from the movement, however, a lot of times enraging isn't absolutely necessary. Since you are just advancing, you don't have to force to charge anyways, and the only other benefit is +2 str, which is wasted against certain targets, especially infantry. It still stacks with Rush, so you can walk a Titan 11". The Archidon makes Karn stupid good with pMakeda, not as an assasination tool, but a Savagery Karn can advance 11" side step twice, kill a bunch of infantry, and sprint 11" back to safety, and you can do this every turn. The biggest benefit to Savagery is that you don't have to "see" a target. It is just and advance. Clouds? Forrests? Who cares, you can place things right where you need them to.

Compare that to eMakeda. She has Engine of Destruction which is a solid boast, but she will rarely see combat. She has a better nuke, but to be honest, who is using that. She has Leash, which is a movement buff to a single warbeast only. And she has Road to War which is an amazing spell, is that better then Savagry? I think you could have made that argument before Marketh, but now, I am doubtful. +2 SPD as just a straight buff is awesome, don't get me wrong, but her army is dependent still on charging. How often does a massive amount of clouds or forests shut her down by making it hard to come to bear with the enemy? Like I said, Savagry needs no LOS for the unit affected by it, and against most infantry, a nonboasted attack from any of our melee infantry usually kills. Nihilators are POW 12, Swordsmen can autodamage, we don't usually need the charge advantage.

My point is that pMakeda is better at being flexible over time, where eMakeda will be better at ending the game quickly. I prefer to have that flexibility, as I feel eMakeda's ability to end the game can be a liability against a good opponent that can stop it and her inability to really offer much past her feat outside of a speed buff.