R'hyas, Sigil of Everblight
Well... thank you R'hyas for that less than inspiration introduction quote for Lylyth3. Let's hope the rest of what makes up Legion's next caster is better than this emo pseudo-poetry. Spoiler Alert: It is.
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| Think Santa's sleigh, but more spiky |
In this episode of Analysis, we're going to look at the third iteration of Lylyth and what makes her so unique compared to her past versions.
Usually I would start by looking at the stats of a unit but, in this case, we need to look at the most important that's going to be present on her card: Battle Engine. While we don't know what her model is going to look like at the time of this writing, we've been told that Lylyth is on a 120-mm base with her being on a sled/sleigh being pulled by the same reindeer the Blighted Nyss Raptors ride around on.
Since she'll be a on huge base, there's pretty much no hiding her. She has Wind Wall (which we'll talk about later) but other than that, not much defense against ranged attacks other than her high DEF. She can't get bonuses from concealment, cover, or elevation. Cloud effects and forest terrain don't block line of sight to her. She doesn't benefit from shooting into melee penalties if she's engaged with the enemy. She has to be deployed before everyone else (except other huge-based models).
That's a lot of disadvantages. She does get pathfinder as a Battle Engine (which she would have had anyway), she can't be slammed, pushed, thrown, knocked down, or made stationary and that's about it. She also can't be targeted by spells that say "warrior model(s)", as she's not one. Battle Engines can be repaired but name a single Legion model with the Repair rule.
Statistics
How does SPD 9 sound to you? That's some fast stuff right there. Off the top of my head, I can't think of another caster that even comes close to that. Kraye is an 8. Kreoss3 and Vlad3 are 8s. Epic Morvahna will probably be a 9 when she comes out, but that's it.She's been working out in the off-season too, as her STR jumps from a 4 to an 8. She got better at melee as well and goes up to a 6. Her RAT remains the same as her epic version at 8. She's DEF 14 and ARM 16 which flip-flops what she had on foot.
She has +5 Warbeast points (same as her epic version) and 18 damage boxes.
She kept FURY 5, which is rough. I am not great with low FURY casters anyway, and both her feat and best spell (Escort) look at her control area. If she has to cast Wind Wall to protect herself against ranged opponents and upkeeps Escort, she's only got 1 point left to save for transfers. As you'll see below, however, her weapon gives her some flexibility here and she may not be as FURY-starved as you would initially assume.
The nice thing about being on the huge base though is that her control area is actually a lot bigger than you might think.
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| Wargame Theorycraft: The only thing geometry is good for. |
So to see exactly how much bigger, we can do some math. Math is always fun and interesting, right? We find the control area (subtracting out the size of the model) by using the following:
Control Area = pi * r^2 (where r = FURY*2 + 1/2 base size) - pi * R^2 (where R = 1/2 base size)
30 mm = 1.1811 inches. 120 mm = 4.72441 inches.
Lylyth1's and Lylyth2's Control Areas = approximately 351 square inches
That's about a 30% increase in size, which is significant. It makes her third version have a control area almost the size of the FURY 6 caster on a 30-mm base.
She's obviously got Eyeless Sight. It's not like she became less blind just because she jumped in a vehicle.
Lylyth3 also has Power Attack: Trample. Makes perfect sense that she'd have something that allows her to run over small-based models. With a SPD of 9, she can really run things over.
Lastly, she has Weapon Platform. She can make melee and ranged attacks in the same activation. She can also make ranged attacks while in melee. Pretty good.
Oh, and she has "cavalry" on her card so I'm assuming she gets Ride-By Attack, Impact Attacks. and +2 to charge attack rolls.
Weapons
Now that we know how she attacks, let's look at her tools she uses when doing so.Whisper is her RNG 12 bow. It has a ROF of 1, but there's a caveat to that. It has a POW of 12 and is magical. Whisper has the following special rules:
Blood Boon - Once per activation, immediately after resolving an atack in which it destroyed a living enemy model with this weapon, this model can cast a spell with COST 3 or less without spending FURY.
Auto Fire [3] - Make 3 ranged attacks targeting a primary target and any number of secondary targets within 2" of the first target. Ignore intervening models when declaring secondary targets. A secondary target cannot be target by more attacks than the primary target. Auto Fire counts as one attack for ROF.
Rear Attack - When declaring and resolving attacks with this weapon, this model's front arc extends to 360 degrees.
If Lylyth3 is careful about picking her targets (living models that she can kill) she can essentially fire off her volley and cast Wind Wall for free, giving her some protection from return fire. Any one of the three shots she gets from Auto Fire should be able to trigger the Blood Boon. And keep in mind that's 3 shots without having to spend any FURY to buy the additional attacks.
As her "Tactical Tips" section states, the Auto Fire attacks are simultaneous. The tips also bring up the point that just because Whisper has Rear Attack, she still can't charge things in her rear arc (because Whisper isn't a melee weapon).
Her sleigh is also set up with two Scything Blades, one on each side. They are POW 4 and you can add this weapon's POW to trample power attack rolls.
Lastly, she also has one mount attack at POW 12. Maybe the model will just be a one horse open sleigh, or maybe the mounts just coordinate their attacks.
Spell List
She's only got three spells on her spell list.Escort - Cost 2 - RNG Self - AOE Control - Upkeep - Warbeasts in this model's battlegroup beginning their activation in its control area gain +2" movement. This model gains +2 ARM while one or more warbeasts in its battlegroup are within 3" of it.
Well, we found out how the Archangel is going to get a movement buff. +2" movement helps a great number of our warbeasts. SPD 8 Carniveans and Scytheans? SPD 9 Angelius and Harriers?
Suddenly the Archangel can make Ride-By Attacks while walking 8" instead of 6". You can combine this additional movement with off-turn movement from the Seraph's Slipstream and suddenly your warbeasts have a lot more threat range than before.
This is a great spell and she'll want to cast it early and upkeep it. It only applies to a warbeast's normal movement so it won't help with any out-of-turn movement shenanigans you might have. If she keeps a warbeast next to her at all times, she becomes DEF 14, ARM 18. If that warbeast is a little 2-point Shredder casting Tenacity, she's now DEF 15, ARM 19.
Frost Hammer - Cost 2 - SP 8 - POW 12 - Frost Hammer causes cold damage. On a critical hit, a model becomes stationary for one round unless it has Immunity: Cold.
This is an okay spray attack. It is relatively cheap and can be triggered using Blood Boon if Lylyth doesn't need the protective embrace of Wind Wall. With FURY 5, she's not going to hit much with this anyway without boosting and she doesn't have spare FURY for that.
Wind Wall - COST 3 - RNG Self - This model cannot make ranged attacks, and non-magical ranged attacks targeting it automatically miss. While completely within 3" of this model, models cannot make ranged attacks and non-magical ranged attacks targeting them automatically miss.
This makes Lylyth3 immune to non-magical ranged attacks. Obviously she needs to cast it after she fires off her own shots first and you can't upkeep it. Be very careful though. There's a lot of magical ranged attacks out there and there's always Lady Aiyanna and Master Holt to create more.
Feat
Now let's look at her feat.The Reaping - When an enemy model is directly hit by a ranged attack made by a friendly Faction model while the friendly Faction model is in Lylyth's control area, the enemy model suffers Death Chill. The Reaping lasts for one turn. A model suffering Death Chill must forfeit either its movement or action on its next activation.
I personally think this feat might be a little bit of a trap. It's obviously really good stuff that encourages ranged units/beasts, but there are only going to be so many targets out there. You just have to hit (not damage) so bring units with high accuracy to capitalize on this, but don't flood the field with nothing but ranged and neglect your awesome melee options. This feat is a denial feat, allowing you to stop critical enemy pieces and giving you that extra turn to do your stuff before your opponent can. Use this to set up an alpha strike from your big hitters.
Remember that your opponent's smaller stuff isn't going to be bothered by this feat as they'll probably be dead from getting hit in the first place. You need just enough ranged to hit vital enemy pieces. You can use solos like Death Stalkers or fast units like Raptors to hit things behind the enemy's front lines while Lylyth plus one or two units+warbeasts hits everything else.
Combine this feat with Typhon's ability to spray three times in one round or the Seraph's ability to Strafe with Blight Strike.
Combos and Overall Thoughts
Well, she is fast. She has a lot of threat range too with a 12" charge or trample move followed up with 3 POW 12 shots at RAT 8. Because she's a battle engine, she can actually benefit from Slipstream and get additional movement that way too.She can also benefit from the Teraph's animus:
Counterblast - When an enemy model advances and ends its movement in this model's command range, this model can make one normal melee or ranged attack target that model, then Counterblast expires.
Auto Fire isn't a special attack. It's just part of Whisper. Seems to me that if Counterblast triggered, she would get all three shots.
Striders are good with her because of the feat and their ability to use Granted: Reform to move back into the safety of Wind Wall. You can use them plus Lylyth3 to lock down most of your opponent's front-lines during the feat turn.
You should be able to take advantage of Spell Martyrs and Blood Boon as well. Run a Spell Martyr someplace good, kill something with Whisper and then use Frost Hammer through the Spell Martyr to get a SP 8 out there someplace. It's not super accurate because of her low FURY, but it's a way to really push a spray template up the board onto squishy stuff.
I think she's going to prove to be very fragile and hard to protect, but a blast to play. She is going to be a great assassination caster and her feat greatly enhances your ability to pick your battles. You can use a model like the Nephilim Protector to Shield Guard her, but it really depends on match-ups. Always keep at least one warbeast close by, whether it's the Protector or Shredder. Make sure she goes after targets with the bow that she can kill to keep Wind Wall up for free.
Get Lylyth3 a succubus. Everyone likes a free upkeep and she can do that (with Escort) and cast an animus using Spirit Tap. If you don't have to use Lylyth's 5 FURY, don't. Likewise you'll probably need a Shepherd or Forsaken to help with beast management. You're going to need to camp FURY which means you've got to get rid of it someplace.
Overall, I love the caster and I definitely look forward to playing her.
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