MkIII is here for real, so I'll spend the next couple of weeks talking about what I'm excited for, and how I'm thinking of playing Skorne now that so much has changed.
I'll start with one of our 'casters who received a complete overhaul from her MkII incarnation: Supreme Archdomina Makeda, a.k.a Makeda 2 or eMakeda. In MkII, I wasn't thrilled about eMakeda. She was certainly powerful, and people did quite well with her, but she seemed pretty one dimensional, and never really sparked my imagination.
Now, she has a whole different playstyle, with a lot more defensive tools than she had before. First up, Stay Death became a lot more interesting, since it can now be used any number of times per turn, as long as Makeda can pay for it. Since her other spells are fairly situational, you can easily plan to have Makeda spend between 3 and 4 Fury keeping key models alive, and you can further improve on that with other defensive abilities. This ability, as far as I can tell, is the core of Makeda's new playstyle, and using it well is what will make or break games with her.
She lost all of her old spells, but gained Deflection, Dash, Storm Rager, and a new spell called Prostration. Deflection stacks with the new Krea, and is a good way to keep your infantry safe on the approach, and Dash gives her troops a little more speed and, more importantly, the ability to ignore free strikes. Storm Rager can make one warrior model super dangerous, and Prostration is a decent nuke spell - it will be cast, but not every game.
Her Feat is pretty much the same, and is both a good way to get a turn of extra accuracy, and a good way to keep Makeda on her feet if she needs to get close to the enemy. It no longer prevents free strikes - you'll need to cast Dash for that.
What I'm most excited about is Makeda's ability to play attrition. Stay Death combined with other defensive tools is going to let her keep infantry alive in critical places, or force the enemy to expend huge resources killing a couple of models, and she can do this every turn. Storm Rager is a good piece of tech for improving the damage and accuracy of a couple of infantry models, which is where a lot of our infantry needs help. I'm really excited to try it on Hakaar, Ancestral Guardians, and the Legends of Halaak.
I've played a couple of MkIII games so far, and I'll have reports up pretty soon. I'll also post things I'm excited about until I run out of things. So that's what's coming up in the next couple weeks.
I've been playing a ton of Mak2 since the official release, and I'm loving her. Like you, i never cared for her in mark 2. It felt like Molik Missile or bust.
ReplyDeleteI've been playing her full brick. Cetrati, Vorkesh, an agonizer and a Willbreaker. Camp everything for stay death every turn and challenge your opponent to kill arm 20 tough steady models 6 times a turn before one dies for good.
I played one game with the full Cetrati brick, and it was very durable. I'll have to try it again. I also proxied Ferox with her, and they are amazing. The do a lot of damage, and have good stats anyway. I'm definitely looking forward to picking some up.
DeleteMy basic plan with her has been Deflection turn 1, with 3 Fury open for Stay Death. After that, just camp for Stay Death, and/or put Storm Rager where it's needed.
So excited to see you posting again! I too have been building mak2 with hakaar and full cetrati boat, but I'm still so torn on beasts. I've been looking at two sentries just as a really hard counterpunch once the cetrati are engaged (as well as shield guard Makeda on the approach) but it makes points tight, and then I'm choosing between the agonizer and krea.
ReplyDeleteWhat beast loadout are you looking at?
Thanks!
DeleteSo far my thoughts on beasts with Makeda 2 are that the Krea is definitely worth it combined with Deflection. You should probably also have a high damage heavy like Tiberion, a Bronzeback, or an Aradus Soldier, since Makeda doesn't have a damage buff. The lists I've tried so far are below.
The first list I tried was:
eMakeda (*24)
*Cannoneer (17)
*Sentry (15)
*Gladiator (14)
*Krea(7)
*Agonizer (7)
Max Cetrati + Vorkesh (26)
Max PGBH (7)
Tyrant Commander (6)
The Cetrati are incredibly hard to take out backed by Stay Death, but they have a really small footprint, and are pretty slow. I think this list needs fewer beasts, and another infantry unit to move fast and take up space while the Cetrati march forward.
The other list I've tried was:
eMakeda (*24)
*Bronzeback (18)
*Gladiator (14)
*Krea (4)
Max Ferox (21)
Max Swordsmen + UA (17)
Legends of Halaak (8)
Max PGBH (7)
Tyrant Commander (6)
Hakaar (7)
The Ferox are just like real cats in this list - they get everywhere and destroy everything. They don't take punches quite as well as Cetrati, but their speed and Pounce more than make up for it. You could definitely run both. I like this list, but I'm still a bit nervous about it vs Colossals and 'jack spam. It's possible that Stay Death and speed will let me take on those kinds of lists just by controlling how I engage with my heavies.
Whoops, in that second list, there's no Tyrant Commander.
DeleteMy beast loadout has been Tibbers, a sentry, and a brute. No krea. I feel like deflection is too expensive to cast (I'd rather just stay death more) and the Cetrati defense too low to merit the krea. The list is slow and has difficulty contesting distant objectives, so I use a feralgeist and bloodrunner master tormentor (storm rager target) to contest and slow down opponents. The list takes practice. You have to defend Tibbers with Cetrati, which feels backwards, but it is a scenario and attrition monster once it arrives.
DeleteI like this list a lot better than the one I was running with Cetrati. I suspect you're right about Deflection not being worth it on Cetrati - they're just too low Def, and the Krea is wasted points with them too.
ReplyDeleteBased on my games with the lighter-infantry list, Deflection is worth it on turns 1-2 in conjunction with the Krea, but not really worth it if you don't have the Krea, and definitely not worth it after the top of turn 2. Def 17 vs ranged and immune to blast damage winds up pushing the game to melee very quickly, which is a good thing for Skorne in general. The alternative is that a lot of shooting goes into the Krea at Def 16 to bring her down. That hasn't happened to me yet, though it still feels like an acceptable trade as long as the infantry gets through mostly intact.
Gonna try Tiberion + Sentry + Brute with Cetrati now. What else is in that list (unless it's secret tech?)
Shoot, ate my comment. The list goes:
ReplyDeleteMak2
-agonizer
-brute
-tibbers
-sentry
Cetrati max
-Vorkesh
Paingivers min
Bloodrunner Master tormentor
Feralgeist
Willbreaker that you stole from me you theif
Oh snips! I checked my bag, and he is totally in there (sorry).
DeleteThe soonest I could get to your area to return it would probably be around August 8th.
As for the list, I'm really looking forward to the BRMT with eMakeda. I've tried it with Mordikaar, and it's really solid. It sounds hilarious with Storm Rager.
Mat 10 anatomical is pretty fun. It's often not worth upkeeping after about turn 2 though.
ReplyDeleteDon't worry about the willbreaker. I actually had a spare. If you're around I'll take it back, otherwise it's all fine.
I've only had the one game (in MkIII, period, being that I'm in a different country and mostly playing GB) but Despoiler was pretty fun with her. Black Arts means she can leave Storm Rager out and have fury for Stay Death, and he now has Dark Shroud all the time which both buffs other damage and lets him hit like a Bronzeback.
ReplyDeleteWant to try Marketh because Prostration seems good with him. Have heard great things about 1x or 2x Max Ferox, and have confirmed that Storm Rager Rhadeim is hilarious.
I haven't tried Marketh yet, although Despoiler is in my next trial list. The infantry appreciate the help cracking armor, and it makes me feel a little better about running ranged beasts. My last few games, I've wanted some quality ranged attacks. Now, I can take Cannoneers, and still have them hit reasonably hard backed up by Despoiler. Actually, I'm liking Despoiler with a lot of 'casters in MkIII.
Delete