Anacharis Scoria

A Remembrancer portrait of the Vodian Magister, and the only picture we have of him.

"But if we fail, then the whole world...will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age, made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science."

– Winston Churchill

Anacharis Scoria, AKA The Xanophane Tyrant，the Fallen Master, Lord of the Nine Cohorts, and The Apostate Magister, was a Dark Mechanicum Archmagos during and after the Heresy. Introduced in Horus Heresy book 6, Retribution, he has an annoyingly dark and mysterious past, but was originally a Magos Dominus of the Vodian Consistory, the chief enforcers of the Machine Cult on the Forge World of Xana II. Later, he was apparently cast down from his position and imprisoned, probably for tech-heresy (Which is impressive, since Xana was a pretty damn shady place already).

However, after the Loyalist forces — composed of a Dark Angel and Blackshield strike force — launched an attack on the planet, Scoria escaped and kitted himself out with every cool gadget he could find. Shortly after he became the ruler of the Forge World, eventually warping it into the Eye of Terror at the close of the Heresy where it became the first Hell-Forge.

In 40k?

Currently his whereabouts are completely unknown, but if the glorious bastard happens to still be alive, he's in all probability still chilling in his forge, building daemonbots and attempting to convince his subordinates to have a little class and stick less spikes on everything (it is suspected by many of /tg/ that the spikes exist to increase the surface area to feel more of the warp overtaking them).

On the Tabletop

His model.

Anacharis Scoria

Points	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Sv	Type	Composition
275	5	5	5	6*	4 (5 with Abeyant)	5	3 (4 with Abeyant)	10	2+/3++	Infantry (Character)	1 (Unique)
Wargear
Machinator Array +1T Night Vision 1 Flamer and 1 Inferno Pistol May shoot both of these, or one and another ranged weapon. Make 2 additional S+1 AP2 Melee, Unwieldy, Shred, Armourbane attacks. +2 to Repair rolls. 2 Archaeotech Pistols 12" S6 AP3 Pistol, Master-crafted Vodian Sceptre Two-Handed AP2 Melee weapon. No Strength value; instead, on a hit, inflicts D3 Wounds on the target unit which do not allow FNP or IWND.
Options
Xanathite Abeyant 40 pts +1 W +1 A It Will Not Die Hardened Armour Re-roll armour saves against blasts and templates. Move Through Cover Very Bulky Photon Thruster 48" S6 AP2 Heavy 2, Gets Hot!, Blind, Lance May be fired in addition to other normal shooting attacks.

*Includes the +1T from his Machinator Array.

Anacharis has slightly improved stats over a regular kitted out ArchMagos Dominus, picking up Weapon Skill and Initiative 5, but that's not anywhere near all. He has all the regular ArchMagos Dominus special rules, along with Eternal Warrior, Relentless, Feel No Pain, and Adamantium Will. He has his own Cybertheurgy power, which requires a LD8 check to use, affects an entire unit of battle automata and grants them +1I as well as rerolling To Hit and failed charges. However, when it wears off, each bot rolls a D6, and loses a wound on a 1. Armed with two Archaotech Pistols and the flamer and Inferno pistol mounted on his Machinator, he's fairly shooty, especially with his special wargear below. He can be mounted on his personal pimp throne, the Xanathite Abeyant, which grants him +1 Wound and Attack, It Will Not Die, Hardened Armour (Reroll armour saves vs blasts and templates) and Move Through Cover, but makes him Very Bulky. Also gives him a Photon Thruster which he can fire in addition to his normal shooting attacks. (A total of 4 guns, most of which are AP3/2, and a Wall of Death overwatch. Shiny.) For only 40 pts, always take it.

He also unlocks a nice package deal, The Homonculex - his own customized Arlatax Battle-automata which basically gets Paragon of Metal for free, but if Anacharis dies it is removed from play alongside him (and since Scoria can be a T6 5W 2+/3++ FnP(5+) IWND Eternal Warrior - if you managed to get this guy killed things have gone tits up anyway).

However, the only real reason to take this guy is his unique close combat weapon, the Vodian Sceptre. This two-handed CCW has no Strength value, but instead inflicts D3 Automatic AP2 Wounds (that don't allow FnP and IWND rolls) when he lands a hit. Note that this CAN spill over to other models, unlike Destroyer weapons, due to specifying Unit not Model. This means they all have to be saved separately, which helps for things like the Gorgon's Chain Space Marine relic and Dark Eldar Shadowfields. He can and will kill Primarchs with this, and will destroy pretty much anything else as well. His Machinator Array also gives two S6 AP2 Shred Armourbane attacks at I1, which can be handy sometimes but aren't really a big deal.

Until recently, Anacharis had the distinction of being the most dangerous man in the entire game equipped with this, though Magnus and Russ can take him, Magnus due to insane levels of psychic fuckery, Russ due to his bullshit wargear ( though can we really complain about bullshit wargear a paragraph after talking about the cheese that is the Vodian Sceptre). Most Primarchs will be dealt with in three or four rounds of combat, and even Horus can find himself struggling. He has now lost his title of " most OP as fuck character" with the arrival of the Legio Custodes Tribune and his assraping Praesidium shield/Cyber-familiar combo.

He does have some weaknesses, however. The most obvious one is that he is NOT fearless, so he can be swept after a bad round. Join him to some battle-automata who are, and make sure to cast Rite of the Beast. He is slow as all hell, only a basic infantry model, and will have difficulty closing with the targets he actually wants to fight. This is really annoying, since the Mechanicum has no assault transport, but you can join him to some Vorax and Outflank him into the enemy backfield if it's that important. Also, this is one of the main factors that stops him being OP as all hell, so suck it up. Watch out for Strength D weaponry and Stomp attacks, too. Both can one-shot him on a lucky 6, so the bane of his existence is Imperial Knights. He stands a chance against the ones with no D-chopper, but even then better use something else, since the explosion can still easily kill your 315 pt HQ and his Arlatax pet along with him.

Anacharis VS the Primarchs:

Primarch fighting, while fun to see, isn't a very competitive thing to do as it'll usually tie up both for the entire game without either of them dying (Although slightly less so with Scoria, due to the amount of damage he puts out). With that in mind this section is how Anacharis fares against the Primarchs Mathhammer wise. Please note that all the various abilities are taken into accounts when possible and the match-ups assume the Primarch and Scoria are the only ones involved in the fighting, so various abilities like Angron's "The Butcher's Nails" and Rampage do not provide any bonuses. In essence, the fights are supposed to be in a "Vacuum" for simplicity, but notes are added to make things clearer in particular instances. Also all of the combatants use their most powerful weapons (because why have a contest if you don't do your best?) so naturally Scoria is equipped with the Xanathite Abeyant. Also, don't ever forget that he comes with a Machinator for that ever useful +2 attacks at S6 Ap 2 Shred, even if Unwieldy. I've left the Machinator out of every fight but the close ones, though, for simplicty. Also, since he is LD10, he won't fail Fear, barring with Curze.

• Scoria VS Angron
  • Angron Round 1: hits 5.333 times, wounds wounds 0.888 times with ID and 3.555 without, 1.09 times after saves and FnP and IWND will take that down to 0.923 wounds.
  • Angron Round 2+: hits 4 times, wounds 0.666 times with ID and 2.666 without, 0.81 wounds after saves and IWND will take that down to 0.643 at the start of the next turn.
  • Scoria hits 2 times, wounds 4 times, 2 times after saves.
  • Angron gets totally wrecked in three rounds, even if his dramatic damage output can put some hurt on the Magos.

• Scoria vs Mortarion
  • They attack at the same time.
  • Mortarion hits 3.333 times. Wounds 2.2222 times. Which is downed to 0.7333 (3++ invuln save) wounds and to 0.484 wounds after IWND rolls.
  • Scoria hits 2 times. Wounds 2d3 times (so 4 times on average). that's translated to 2 wounds. His machinator array hits once, wounds 0.55 times and causes. 0.25 wounds, downed to 0.12 after the re-rollable IWND.
  • After 4 rounds of combat the mighty reaper is downed by one of the founding fathers of the dark mechanicum, who will have lost 1.32 wounds out of 5. Note that there is some argument over whether Mortarion's Prenatural Resilience rule works on Scoria's scepter, and if so the Magos would lose on Round 9, needing 11 to kill the Reaper. Hopefully this is answered in an FAQ or something, but discuss it with your opponent for now.

• More coming, Scoria is fiddly to Mathhammer due to his FNP, which means the Murderous Strike on many weapons requires two save resolutions.