The Skorne Ranged Game

The Skorne Ranged Game:

Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Cannoneer



"Balls"

I spent the weekend testing these concepts that have been rattling in my head, and I feel comfortable enough to talk about them. A lot of games were lost coming to grips with this, but once I started hitting a stride I started to love these handy combos.

I think an optimum ranged component of a lot of casters' game are the following items:

1. The Cyclops Raider
2. The Cyclops Shaman
3. An Extoller Soulward
4. The Titan Cannoneer
5. A minimum unit of Venator Reivers with UA (optional)

I will go over each if these options and then tie it altogether.

1. The Cyclops Raider

I love this little guy, almost enough to make him an auto include in a lot of lists. His animus giving our models Snipe is one of the things that really helps out range game. Burst fire puts him in position to threaten a heavy, and with his ability to aim and ignore stealth, the possibilities with this guy are varied and endless.

If you can get the animus on him from either the Shaman or your caster, he has a boost to hit and damage that will threaten a lot of things. eEiryss, Warwitch Sirens, UAs, you name it, a troublesome support model can just die. The extoller can also give it Eyeless Sight and magic weapon, which combined with it's animus, can give it an effective 20" threat range on it's gun. Very hard to avoid.

More often then not, to get the best mileage out of this guy, you need to get his animus on him from an outside source, which isn't a problem for us. Most often, once engagement has been made, he generally won't need it, but for those early turn sniping, getting his animus on him is key. Watch the board and see what will hurt your opponent the most, and take it out.

2. The Cyclops Shaman

Ghost Shot with a solid POW gun is fairly good. He shares the same threat ranges as the Raider does, but exchanges Burst Fire for Ghost Shot. With Eyeless Sight from an Extoller, there is literally nothing that can hide from him. The only problem is that the strength of his shot isn't enough to put a tough dragoon or high arm solo down, and getting Farstrike on him and still having Fury to spend requires your caster's activation and fury commitment.

However, his ability to cast Farstrike is golden in our ranged game. Most often when I am picking my targets, I am finding the shaman just casting Farstrike and advancing and shooting at something in range. You don't get much from his activation, but the fact that you are not pulling fury from your warlock or other beasts to get that Animus where it needs to be more then makes up for his cost.

Don't forget his animus, which though situationally useful, is golden against certain casters.

3. An Extoller Soulward

This is the support piece that really ties the room together. For a measly 2 points, you get the ability to hand out Eyeless Sight and Magic Weapon to a model in the army.

To be fair, that is not as impressive as Legion beasts who just have Eyeless sight anyways, and this is a fairly easy to kill support solo but Eyeless sight opens up a lot of possibilities for us. Being able to put down a stealth support solo with any one of our guns is awesome. The Magic weapon is a bonus. We can easily put down Incorporeal solos with one of our guns.

Don't forget it's soul collection ability and it's own gun. Unfortunately, it is kinda crappy against Warmachine, but a beast doesn't want to see a straight dice boosted to hit and damage shot coming their way. You can cast Farstrike on this to give it an actual impressive range.

On a side note, another great use is giving either (p or e)Hexeris or Rasheth Eyeless sight. It allows him to cast his fantastic spells at stealth models without over exposing his channeling.

4. The Titan Cannoneer

Let me now tell you about a beast that I actually became a huge fan of over the weekend. The Cannoneer gets a lot of flak and it is understandable. People compare her Melee ability to the 1 point cheaper Gladiator and the 1 point more expensive Bronzeback. Admittedly her Animus isn't crazy impressive compared to Rush and Train Wreck. All of this is true.

What she does have is a gun, which is unique to any of our Titans. And what a gun it is, POW 15 with a RNG of 12". She is the ultimate solo killer in my book. With Farstrike she has an aiming range of 16" or a moving threat of 20". You can also pass Eyeless Sight to her which allows her to hit a great deal of things.

Having her a little behind the front lines softening up targets with a boosted POW 15 can set up a lot of interesting combos.

The tactics of a ranged heavy army and enrage, she still can smack down a heavy that wondered too close and already took some damage. The majority of heavies, she has a possibility of wrecking even if they haven't taken damage.

Her Animus isn't terrible either. Since she doesn't have to play aggressively, and you can still boost to hit and damage with her gun and cast her animus near your caster. Since nothing needed enrage as she was firing, you can use your paingivers to pull fury off so you can transfer to her. Your caster can get an effective ARM buff for anything getting close, and she becomes an effective ARM 20 against melee which can be even boosted more by certain spells and feats. For example, under Naaresh, she becomes a crazy ARM 23 to melee attacks. Remember that it is an aura, the model only has to be within 2" of her to be affected.

Overall, she is a solid beast that doesn't get enough credit.

5. A minimum unit of Venator Reivers with UA (optional)

Finally, I found a way to make these guys work. Granted nothing helps against stealthed heavies or Menoth with their choir, but a minimum unit CRAing through the UA can put an effective RAT 13 POW 19 shot on an enemy heavy. Or can do multiple tiny CRAs into medium infantry from a fairly good threat range with the minifeat. With reform, you can be hitting and fading with ease.

Unfortunately, casting Far Strike on the lead CRA model doesn't help them much, neither does giving him Eyeless sight. So there will be some tough match-ups for them, which makes them an optional choice for a ranged heavy army.

I would field them as your second infantry unit and still use Nihilators and Swordsmen as front line grunts.

How it all comes together:

Basically, how it comes together is in the potential you have for hurting an enemy heavy in the early stages of the game. A boosted POW 15 from a Cannoneer, a boosted POW 14 from the Raider, and a POW 19 from the Reivers will put a dent in most heavies. If it is a Bone Jack, you may even kill it outright. But taking that much damage off a heavy in the early stages of the game, even if they heal, puts you in an awesome spot in subsequent turns. A Deathjack with less than half damage left can be taken out by a few charging Nihilators of all things, and you don't have to expose a beast to do so.

The other aspect as I have been talking about is solo sniping. A Farstrike, Eyeless Sight Cannoneer takes out Tartarus almost every time from 20" away. She can dismount a Dragoon. She can put down a member of a character unit, and maybe blast damage another model. Add that to the Raider, and you start the attrition game early.

Once battle lines have been met, you still have decent melee capabilities. You have whatever infantry and other beasts you may have taken, and like I mentioned, an enraged Cannoneer kills things, lots of things.

We don't play a ranged army, but we can bring a combined arms approach. I will never advocate a fully ranged Skorne army. However, you can add this combo with a lot of casters, and fill out the rest with all the standard melee fare and still do well with it. It doesn't work with a lot of casters, but the casters it does work with it does wonders.

Use shooting to ware down and/or cripple certain aspects of an army, and follow that up with crazy melee to put things down. A combined arms approach does wonders in a lot of situations.

Casters to Consider:

Lord Tyrant Hexeris - One of the top casters to use this in my book. He wants range to be able to trigger a chain for his feat, and several shots only help further. Plus he has his own ranged element in obliteration and soul slave. Combine this range element with typical Skorne support, a heavy hitter or two, and a front line infantry unit and you have a strong army. Do me a favor, play against eLich with Hexy's feat up and range assassinate Tartarus. No resurrection for you.

Epic: Lord Arbiter Hexeris - Another Great caster for this. Though the Reivers go, and you replace it with more beasts. eHexy likes to run beast heavy for his feat, and fun times like a train wreck Titan Sentry that you then arc off of feels so good. Black Spot makes every gun (and everything) better. A fantastic trick is to Shoot at the black spot unit first, and then bounce the extra shot at the support solos you where going to gun for anyways.

Void Seer Mordikaar - He really likes Farstrike for his gun, so he can actually fire it. Reivers make a fantastic hollow target, while you can Witch Doctor your front line unit and present an annoying tough army to your opponent with one turn of fantastic DEF. Ghost Walk also lets your ranged elements walk away if your opponent tries to run and engage them. Plus you have board control from the void spirits when they box models.

Dominar Rasheth - Out of tier he can run this fairly effectively. He has Breath of Corruption for board control, and he is the only caster that can spam Farstrike and get away with it. As mentioned, the Soulward gives him some interesting casting abilities. With Marketh, you can spam Breath of Corruption to prevent a Melee army from getting to you after your ranged element have softened them up. It can be very frustrating for a lot of armies, especially Cryx, who will struggle to get to you and watch their crutches start being picked off.

Tyrant Xerxis - Insert this into is typical brick, and he becomes a much more interesting caster. Putting damage out there before his slow army comes to bear is fantastic, and when you strike with his feat up, you have no problem wrecking heavies. He also makes a strong case for the Catapult. With Far Strike and Arcing Fire, you can hit a lot of things with an impressive AOE, buried behind a Cetrati wall. Reivers become POW 12 with Fury up, making them an actual impressive versatile unit.

Supreme Aptimus Zaal & Kovaas - Zaal generally has no problem with melee damage between Last Stand and his feat. He generally only needs a single beast to transfer to anyways, why not a Canonneer? You can soften things up with your shooting, and 2 or 3 Immortals under last stand can easily finish it off.

Special Mention: The Basilisk Drake

Don't think I forgot our one spray. I only didn't include him because he doesn't provide fantastic symmetry with the other ranged elements I listed. The fact that he is so self sufficient makes him a solid beast in our faction. Can he be added to the ranged element? Absolutely. Can he run around with almost any caster and still be good, regardless of other choices, again, yes. Including him in your list will be purely up to you. Still a good beast for a good price. Just make sure you don't get too front loaded with range and suddenly find yourself without good damage. Certain casters can make that a null issue, but it is something to consider.

Or other, more situational options:

Future posts, I will go into other ranged units in more detail, probably as a "lesser used units" spotlight. They all have their place and can all mess well with the optimum Skorne range build.

Conclusion:

Skorne has a very interesting ranged game. Not crazy good like a lot of factions but very useful as support for what we may already have on the table.

As always, thank you for reading.