Hordes/Tactics/Skorne

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Why Play Skorne?

You don't care about subtlety and want to run up and pound people in the face. You may also like elephants.

The Skorne are a sadomasochistic empire of crazy people from beyond the eastern deserts invading the Iron Kingdoms for their own mysterious reasons. In addition to all sorts of soldiers the Skorne make use of six-limbed bipedal elephants called Titans, Cyclopses with a limited power to see the future, and animated statues.

Skorne aren't very fast but they can be very durable and they hit like a freight train. The list is an army of contradictions; you want to deliver your Titans, but they have speed four. You have some terrifying beasts, but your best beast warlocks don't have the fury to run a lot of them. Other armies have synergy, you have Skornergy, where two effects that do the same thing don't stack.

General Strategy

Build a brick, then throw it at your enemy. Keep your heavy-hitters alive long enough to tear into your foe.

Unit Analysis

Warlocks

• Lord Tyrant Hexeris: A Mortitheurge who sold his House to Morghul in exchange for a pardon when his Dominar betrayed Raelthorne. He doesn't have a lot of tricks for getting his army in close or cracking big models but when he gets there he can tear through infantry like a chainsaw.
• Lord Arbiter Hexeris: The gossipiest wizard in the Army of the Western Reaches. He has some more defensive tricks than his first incarnation but he still wants to be up close to the front debuffing and stabbing enemies.
• Archdomina Makeda: The big cheese of the Skorne army in the West. Every Makeda is a beatstick; this one comes with spells that can turn large Cataphractii or Immortal units into fast unshiftable walls to screen everyone else while she and her beasts march up to thump people. She also makes all Skorne in her control area Fearless.
• Supreme Archdomina Makeda: Makeda after overthowing Raelthorne and taking the throne herself. She can get a combined-arms force up the field quickly and beat folks to death with lots of POW 16 melee attacks. Archidons really like her feat; they can fly over things without taking free strikes to tear the face off the enemy caster.
• Makeda and the Exalted Court: Queen of the Skorne after being formally crowned. The beatstickiest version of Makeda, she doesn't support her army much, but if her army supports her she can walk through the enemy into their caster. The Bronzeback's Animus makes her feat tremendously powerful.
• Void Seer Mordikaar: A dead Skorne wizard who walked his way back from the Void and made his body start working again. He's a squishy support caster; leave him away from the fighting and he can do interesting things but if he gets up close he will die quickly. Pay attention to his sidekick warbeast, the Despoiler; it's not worth taking with anyone else but with Mordikaar it's significantly more effective.
• Master Tormentor Morghul: Raelthorne's top enforcer. He likes beasts a lot; Abuse is one of the best beast-support spells around, but he doesn't have a lot of Fury to work with so effective Fury management is essential to his force. He's made of tissue paper but he's also pretty hard to hit; beware of knockdown/stationary effects.
• Lord Assassin Morghul: After Makeda's coup Morghul got her the allegiance of the Paingiver caste and she got him a new sword. The new Morghul hits like a ton of bricks with his POW 12 Weapon Master sword; from full Fury he can kill a heavy 'Beast/'Jack from full health on his own, avoid melee retaliation by Blinding his foes, and chew up infantry with Flashing Blade to attack everyone in his melee range. He can't take a hit any more than his first incarnation so keep him backed up and don't get into a fight with dedicated caster assassins.
• Master Ascetic Naresh: The crazy sadomasochistic warlock; he's a crazy two-hundred-year-old monk. He gets stronger when he takes damage and heals when he kills things, keep him with his army in a front-line run.
• Dominar Rasheth: Jabba the Hutt is a fatass amidst an anorexic nation who reclines on a couch carried by Agonizers whilst zapping folks. He's on a large base so he's hard to screen; he can channel spells through friendly Warriors but they take damage from the ability so he likes having multi-wound heavy infantry on the board. His feat and spell list runs lots of general buffs and debuffs that beasts and infantry can both take advantage of; he's a fairly versatile caster.
• Tyrant Xerxis: Makeda's tactician-in-chief. He's a Tyrant, which means high Armour, a medium base, and Battle Plan; he's probably the best warlock to run a ranged list with, since he lets your infantry move and shoot through each other and has the defensive buffs to make an Immortal screen or Karax shieldwall pretty hard to get through.
• Supreme Aptimus Zaal and Kovaas: An old mad scientist who does crazy things with the Ancestral Guardians. If an AG dies, the Kovaas (an incorporeal AG that gets souls from enemies instead of friendlies) pops out. Zaal's feat is better the more infantry he has; he likes large swarm armies with just enough beasts to keep his Fury up and Ancestral Guardians in support.

Warbeasts

Lesser Warbeasts

• Reptile Hound: A mediocre Animus and a bad melee attack tied to a body tougher than most two-point solos. Treat it like a suicide distraction missile to tie people up while the important things get close and it can contribute.

Light Warbeasts

• Basilisk Drake: A weird model; it's got a magical spray in a melee-oriented army, an Animus that grants Bushwhack in an army where nobody really uses it, and generally uninspired melee. It takes some work to fit into a force.
• Basilisk Krea: One of the best Animi around; if you can cover your shieldwall with it the enemy pretty much has to get into melee with you, and melee with Skorne is a bad place to be. She's a utility beast that fits in most anywhere.
• Cyclops Brute: The tanky Cyclops. You can force it to make the other guy reroll hits on you, which helps if you have defense buffs but less otherwise; everything else makes it a bodyguard beast to babysit your warlock and ensure nobody gets to him.
• Cyclops Raider: The shooty Cyclops. POW 12 and Burst Fire is okay, his Animus is good to have if you want to build a ranged army.
• Cyclops Savage: The choppy Cyclops. He can pick whether to boost attacks or damage after seeing the roll, which makes him very Fury-efficient; he can grant that to other beasts. A decent beatstick for his price and fair synergy with a variety of melee beasts; seldom a bad choice.
• Cyclops Shaman: The support Cyclops. He can use other beasts' Animi himself and extend your Warlock's spells' range; he doesn't hit very hard, but in larger games extra options for using good Animi can be pretty useful.
• Razor Worm: A baby sandworm. It's hard to shoot and easy to shoot over when concealed; it's cheap and can screen your units from charges.

Heavy Warbeasts

• Archidon: Weird and situational, but if you have a way of granting it immunity to free strikes it's a fair assassination vector for a reasonable price. Its Animus is workable, though not a lot synergizes with it, and Critical Pitch lets you get the most out of charging the enemy caster by throwing him back towards your army.
• Rhinodon: Cheap for a heavy; it's an infantry thresher, nothing more. Its animus does almost nothing for any other beast but it's helpful on the Rhinodon.
• Titan Cannoneer: It's got the statline of a Titan but fewer damage boxes and it trades one high-POW melee attack for a (wait for it) cannon. Decent at range, its animus isn't impressive on it since you don't want to stick your artillery beast in melee but Xerxis or Makeda running around applying a Strength penalty to anyone who wants to hit them can be useful.
• Titan Gladiator: The king of slamming, plus one of the best Animi in Skorne. He comes in the battle box because he makes a slow army faster, which is enough to give him a place in almost every list.
• Titan Sentry: Tougher than the other Titans but doesn't hit quite so hard and has no open fists for power attacks. Tiberion does almost everything it does better, its Animus is the only exception. The ability to lock people into your melee range shuts down a lot of caster assassination vectors, so a Sentry is nice to have on some of your squishier casters.
• Bronzeback Titan: Yes. Durable, surprisingly fast on its own with Counter Charge and the Animus to grant Beat Back, makes a bunch of other models and beasts flat-out better by granting them Beat Back, higher Strength than other Titans, makes other Titans not Frenzy, and has a Chain Attack to boot. Hands-down the best non-character warbeast in faction for all-round offensive power.

Character Warbeasts

• Despoiler: Situationally powerful. Without Mordikaar all it really has going for it is Arcane Suppression, not really worth a ten-point beast with no offensive potential; with Mordikaar, you reduce the ARM of nearby enemies so he can kill stuff and the Void Spirits you put into play actually pull their weight. Crit Brutal Damage on the tail is pretty nice.
• Molik Karn: King of the Cyclopses. He's a heavy warbest with two Weapon Master (!) falchions with Reach; combine with Bronzeback Animus and Makeda3 feat and you can walk through enemy infantry like they weren't there. He has both Future Sight and Intuition on the same model, Fury 5 if near Makeda, Side Step for starting the rape chain and Fate Walker to finish it. Note that Fate Walker doesn't grant Sprint so if you have an Archidon you can make Molik Karn move twice after he attacks in melee.
• Tiberion: A Sentry on all the steroids. Unlike the Sentry he has Shield Guard, his Animus means most people are only getting one attack in on him. His giant mace has POW 18 and slams the target on a critical.

TO BE CONTINUED

• Tiberion: