Control Elements in Skorne Part 1: Listing Control Elements and Musing About Tactics

I mentioned this thread over on the Skorne forums, where a couple of players talk about control elements in Skorne, and how to use them.  There's a great list compiled by The Oddity from Battle College of different pieces and what sort of control they provide, and this first post in what is probably going to be a short series about how to play around with control in Skorne is mostly so I don't lose the list!

If we're going to play a control game, we've got to know what tools we have available.  The answer is: a lot.  We have a lot of tools, but the control they offer tends to be pretty situational and/or targeted at a specific kind of model.  We don't have 'casters with universal control abilities who can seriously lock down the table.  The Agonizer is a perfect example of the kind of control we have.  Its Agonies affect Warjacks and Warbeasts.  Spiritual Affliction can be great denial against either, but only 'jacks and beasts are affected, and even then, 'beasts can do anything but use their Animus, and 'jacks can do anything they don't need Focus for.

In addition to a lot of small scale targeted control, we're a beast heavy faction, and that means access to all the power attacks available with Open Fists, specifically Throws and Locks, as well as Slams for control.

So what to do with the control elements we have?  We need to build a list with multiple control elements, of course: preferably a 'caster with control abilities and multiple pieces with synergizing control abilities.

There's a really neat list mentioned on the thread that's Rasheth with Marketh and Double Void Spirits.  The idea is to cover a large area of the table in clouds that cause damage to anyone passing through them.  Marketh and Rasheth can spit out 3 Breaths of Corruption between them, and each Void Spirit can create an Eruption of Ash with its melee attack.  That's five 3" templates that kill any infantry trying to pass through.

I'm playing around with Makeda 3 right now, and she has Ground Zero for pushing.  Given her affinity for huge battlegroups and giving Beat Back to her beasts, maybe I can play a pushing game with her.

There are plenty of builds that work out, and I'll look into overlapping control elements and list building a little more in my next post.

Also, thanks to Luke89 from the PP Forums.  I don't think I would ever have gotten around to posting this if you hadn't started that thread.