Griever Swarm

Griever Swarm Infernal Unit

Prime This model is available in one Prime Army, Infernals. It can also be used in the Unlimited game mode. You can view the other Mk3 models that made it into a Legacy Army at this page. Note that the rest of this page is about the model's Mark III rules.

Griever swarms drift swiftly through the air and travel in small packs, disgorging void fire at their chosen prey. Though considered infernals, as they are native to the same realm, they are closer to animals or beasts. Their behavior suggests a strangely uncanny understanding of their environment and their prey as they silently coordinate to attack. They are surprisingly durable, and their mode of movement is erratic, making them hard for mortals to anticipate. Inky darkness follows them, pulled from beyond Caen, and the sight of their approach presages certain doom.

Basic Info

Griever Swarm
Missing Info
	COST {{{cacost}}} UNIT SIZE {{{casize}}} FA {{{cafa}}} Warcaster 0 BASE Small SPD 7 STR 6 MAT {{{mat}}} RAT 5 M.A. N/A DEF 13 ARM 12 CMD 8 ESSENCE {{{essence}}} FOCUS N/A FURY N/A THRS N/A HP 1 F. Field N/A WJP {{{wjp}}} WBP {{{wbp}}} IHP {{{ihp}}} FA 2 UNIT SIZE 6 / 10 COST 7 / 12 1.2 pts each N/A N/A Warcaster 1 COST N/A N/A Understanding the Statblock

Abilities

• Combined Ranged Attack
• Eyeless Sight
• Flight
• Gunfighter
• Soulless

Weapons

Void Fire
		RNG			ROF			AOE			POW
		10			1			-			12
Damage Type: Magical Critical Continuous Fire

Theme Forces

• Dark Legacy
• Hearts of Darkness

Thoughts on the Griever Swarm

Griever Swarm in a Nutshell

Griever Swarms act as the core ranged unit for Infernal armies. They have a wide selection of useful abilities to help them fulfill this role, such as Flight, giving them useful mobility over all types of terrain. Additionally, they have Eyeless Sight, which allows them to ignore much of the standard defensive tech available to most models, and Combined Ranged Attack, so they can group together to deliver especially powerful shots.

The Griever Swarm is a unit of Infernals with potent ranged weapons. They don't have Marked Souls, just like their Howler brethren instead Griever's provide some potent ranged attacks to the Infernal forces.

Combos & Synergies

• Malakov2 (Hearts of Darkness) - Malakov can offer Griever Swarms Tactical Supremacy, granting them the ability to retreat to a safer position after taking shots.
• Zaateroth, The Weaver of Shadows - Zaateroth's Black shot plus the high base power of this unit's guns means that they will be able to get in additional shots as they destroy models.
• Infernal Gate - The Infernal gate offers recursion for your Griever Swarms, making the unit harder to remove.
• Feora3 - Incite on Grievers is pretty good and they fuel her jacks.
• Malakov2 - Discombobulate and Throat Cutter are pretty potent on ranged units. They can also hide behind a Veil of Mists and shoot with impunity.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• At DEF 13/ARM 12, they're pretty easy to kill.
• without screening and range 10 they will be in danger after they fire
• if your opponent can shut down shooting they are going to have a bad time.

Tricks & Tips

• These starfish can hunt ethereal/stealth solos, scratch lights, and have pathfinder and high speed. They lack support, but don't need it much.
• They are the cheapest way to give your 'jacks Accumulator in a Hearts of Darkness theme list.

Other

Trivia

• Released with the Faction launch (2019.06)

Other Infernal models

Infernal Index       (Edit)
Unique Rules : Masters, Horrors, Essence, & Summoning
Battlegroup
Infernal Masters	Agathon - Omodamos - Zaateroth
Attachment (1)	Lord Roget d'Vyaros
Master Infernalist	Princess Regna
Lesser	Foreboder	Heavy	Desolator - Soul Stalker - Tormentor
Light	Lamenter - Shrieker	Colossal	Guardian of Souls - Harvester of Souls
Units, Solos, & Structures
Structures	Infernal Gate
Solos	Eilish1 - Eilish2 - Great Princess Regna Gravnoy (Master Infernalist) - Hermit of Henge Hold - Lord Roget d'Vyaros (Attachment) - Lynda the Forgotten - Nicia2 - Orin1 - Saxon Orrik - Runewood2 - The Wretch - Umbral Guardian - Valin Hauke, The Fallen Knight
Units	Croe's Cutthroats - Cultist Band - Griever Swarm - Howlers
Theme Forces			Mercenaries
Dark Legacy - Hearts of Darkness			J.A.I.M.s
This index was last updated: 2021.07 (1) - Note that an Infernal Master Attachment is not part of the battlegroup, they are merely listed there for convenience.

Rules Clarifications

Rules Clarification : Combined Ranged Attack      (Edit) CRA cannot target models in melee ... unless the target is a huge-based model or the attacker has War-Tempered. If you give the attack-leader a buff to their attack (such as Guidance) then that buff applies to the combined attack (even though the other participants don't have the buff). (Locked thread) Assault & CRA (Edit) You cannot mix Combined Range Attacks with Assault shots, as CRA works during your combat action and Assault shots occur before it. (Infernal Ruling)

Rules Clarification : Eyeless Sight      (Edit) A model that ignores Stealth must ignore both aspects: both (1) the auto-missing, and (2) the 'not counting as an intervening model' parts. This can have some strange interactions with casters & channelers, if one has Eyeless Sight and one does not. There are examples on the Category:Channeler page. Blind vs Eyeless Sight (Edit) If a model is Blinded, and then given Eyeless Sight, then that model ignores Blind ... but it is technically still Blinded. So if you somehow later lose Eyeless Sight (for instance walking out of the range of Menoth's Sight), it will immediately go back to suffering the effects of Blind. (Infernal Ruling) Also this means stuff that only works vs Blind models (ie Hidden Blade) will still trigger vs a "Was Blinded but then got Eyeless" model. Anti-Cloud abilities vs Burning Earth (Edit) If you make a piece of terrain "Burning Earth" it counts as a cloud effect in addition to it's original type. This has 2 odd rulings: If any part of the terrain piece is "hit" by an ability that makes clouds expire (such as Gale Winds) then the entire terrain piece is taken off the table. (Infernal Ruling) If a model can ignore clouds but not the original terrain type, they don't ignore the terrain. For instance if you have a burning forest, then Eyeless Sight can't see through the forest. (Infernal Ruling)

Rules Clarification:  : Flight      (Edit) (Click Expand to read)

Flight doesn't ignore: Impassable terrain. Most hazards. The exception is they do ignore Acid Bath and Burning Earth as long as they don't land in them. Templates that stay in play and do damage to models moving through them (such as a Scather). Free strikes. Trampling with a flying model (Edit) Flight allows you to trample "over" medium- and larger-bases. Although you trample "over" them, you don't get to make a trample attack vs them and you don't ignore their free strikes. Refer the core rulebook. Unless, of course, you have an exception like Blade Rush. Flight on a Cavalry model (Edit) Although flyers can move over obstacles/models, and horses can pause to do impacts while charging, flying horses cannot make impact attacks while overlapping models/obstacles. You need to pause in a legal position. Charging through models (Edit) You can't charge all the way through your charge target, with the intention to turn around and face them once you're on the other side. Because you aren't able to satisfy the "must keep the charge target in melee range" clause at the point after you are through the model but before you turn to directly face. At that point the target is behind you, not in your front arc, and thus not in your melee range. Your melee range only extends to your front arc. Refer to the latest errata. You can still "skim" through the edge of their base, if you're careful and smart with your positioning.

Rules Clarification:  : Gunfighter      (Edit) (Click Expand to read)

General You cannot Aim if you start your activation in melee. (Infernal Confirmation) A free strike with a ranged weapon still gets the +2 to hit and boosted damage (I'm pretty sure - I'd like to double check it though). If you have a Gunfighter stuck in melee and the Gunfighter wants to shoot a friendly model, then you can only do so if that friendly is within the Gunfighter's melee range. Also, if that friendly model is engaged by an enemy, that friendly model will always get the +4 DEF bonus (because the point of origin of the attack, the Gunfighter, is not "in melee" with the friendly model). Targeting Outside of melee If the Gunfighter isn't in melee, and didn't charge this turn, then it shoots just the same as a normal model. In melee, but didn't charge If it didn't charge, it can target anyone it's "in melee" with. This can be any model in the Gunfighter's melee range, plus any models that have the Gunfighter in their melee range. If a Gunfighter kills all the enemies it is in melee with, and still has the ability to make more ranged attacks, then those attacks just follow the normal Ranged Attack rules. (Infernal Ruling) Charged into melee If it did charge, its initial attacks can only target models that are in the Gunfighter's melee range. If all models in the Gunfighter's melee range are killed before it makes its initial attacks, it loses any unspent initial attacks. (Infernal Ruling) However if it can purchase additional attacks (via Reload for instance) and/or get free attacks (via Black Spot for instance), then those non-initial attacks can target anyone it's "in melee" with, as per #2 above. Other targeting notes Remember, you can never be "in melee" with a friendly model, so a Gunfighter can pretty much never choose to target a friend while it's in melee. If the gunfighter is unengaged, it can still shoot a friendly model, which would just be a normal ranged attack. Gunfighter doesn't change the RNG of your gun, it just provides you an ability to use it while in melee and imposes some targeting restrictions. If you're affected by a debuff that reduces your RNG to 1", that will further limit who you can target. If you're affected by a debuff that reduces your RNG to 0", you cannot make attacks (refer 'Weapon Statistics', page 19 of rulebook). Attack Roll You use the Gunfighter's RAT for the attack roll. Gunfighters do not ignore the Cover/Concealment bonus. (Infernal Ruling) How the +4 DEF bonus for "being in melee" works with Gunfighters is: they always ignore it vs enemies, because the "point of origin of the attack is in melee with the target". they never ignore it vs friendlies, because you cannot be in melee with a friendly target. Incorporeal Gunfighters Note that enemy models without magic weapons can't hurt you in melee, but they can engage you. If they engage you then you're in melee and your target selection is limited to just models in melee (as explained above). Gunfighter + an AOE weapon If you miss then the AOE will deviate as per the normal AOE rules. Not very far, though, considering the max distance you'll be apart is 2". If you use an AOE weapon to make a free strike, you get the +2 to hit and you get boosted damage against everything under the blast template. Gunfighter + a spray weapon Who you can target with the spray is limited as described above, but you get to put the whole spray template down and potentially hit models well outside the melee. If you use a spray weapon to make a free strike, you get the +2 to hit and you get boosted damage against everything under the spray template. Units of Gunfighters If a unit of Gunfighters successfully charge, but someone else in their unit kills their charge target before they get a turn to attack, then they may redirect their attack. Redirected attack: If they're still engaged, their initial attack (s) must be vs someone in their melee range. If they're still engaged, but no one is in their own melee range, they don't get any initial attacks. If they're unengaged, they are now free to shoot anyone within the gun's normal range. Other interactions Gunfighter vs Point Blank (Edit) If a model has both Gunfighter and Point Blank, then you should declare whether you're using it as a ranged attack or melee attack whenever you shoot the gun. Because that can limit what other initial/additional attacks you can make. (Infernal Ruling) These two abilities are subtly different, but it's an important difference. Gunfighter allows you to make ranged attacks while in melee. Point blank allows you to make melee attacks with your ranged weapon. Since you can't make both ranged and melee attacks in the same turn, a Gunfighter model has a choice of either initial melee attack(s) or initial ranged attack(s). (unless it has Virtuoso or something). Whereas a Point Blank model chooses to make initial melee attacks, and then gets to make attacks with both weapons. Furthermore, the types of bonuses, penalties, and special effects you (or your opponent) can trigger will change dramatically: Any buffs/triggers on ranged attacks (such as Evasive, Shield Guard, Deadeye, etc) will affect Gunfighter attacks, but not Point Blank attacks. Any buffs/triggers on melee attacks (such as Battle Lust, Riposte etc) will affect Point Blank attacks, but not Gunfighter attacks. Gunfighter & Cavalry ( Edit ) A cavalry model that charges then makes a Gunfighter attack will not gain a boosted charge attack roll, because a ranged attack is not a charge attack. (Infernal Ruling) You also won't gain a boosted charge damage roll, as per normal for a Gunfighter. Gunfighter vs RNG modifiers (Edit) Unlike what most people might tell you, Gunfighter doesn't have a "range", it just lets the model make ranged attacks while in melee. The gun's actual RNG is unaffected though, until you put something like Windstorm (-5 RNG) on it. Then what happens is: If the gun is RNG 7, Windstorm will reduce it to 2". Thus it won't affect any Gunfighter attacks. If the gun is RNG 6, Windstorm will reduce it to 1". Thus you can only make Gunfighter attacks vs models within 1" (if you can - charging Gunfighters may be more limited). If the gun is RNG 5, Windstorm will reduce it to 0". Thus you can't make any attacks as per 'Weapon Statistics' (page 19 of the core rulebook). (Infernal Ruling)

Rules Clarification : Soulless - None yet. (Edit)

Rules Clarification:  : Magical Damage      (Edit) (Click Expand to read)

* The "Damage Type: Magical" is not inherited by "secondary" damage from a weapon. That is, stuff like arcs (Electro Leap) or hazards (Scather). (Infernal Ruling) All spells have "Damage Type: Magical" (refer errata). This is inherited by "immediate" secondary damage (such as Eruption of Spines). (Infernal Ruling) and might be inherited by "lingering" secondary damage (see below). If a spell leaves a template in play that does damage to models that walk around in it, then: if it is not described as a hazard it will do magical damage to models that walk around in it. (Example: Razor Wall) if it is a hazard then it will not do magical damage to models that walk around in it. Instead, it does whatever damage type is specified by the spell description. (Example: Breath of Corruption). (Infernal Ruling) If a weapon/spell includes Magic Damage and another kind of elemental damage it will still damage Incorporeal models. Incorporeal models are not affected by the rule "if an attack does multiple types of damage and a model is immune to at least one it is immune to the entire attack." The phrase "immune to non-magical damage" should be interpreted as "immune to damage that doesn't include Damage Type: Magical" (not interpreted as "has immunity to Corrosion and Electricity and Cold and etc.")

Rules Clarification : Fire      (Edit) If you deploy in fire hazard terrain (Burning Earth), then you get set on fire before the game starts. Deploying a model in a hazard counts as being "put into play" in the hazard. Being put into play counts as "entering". When you enter a hazard, you trigger the hazard. Moving into "Shallow water" standard terrain does not cause continuous fire to expire. It's magic fire. You can always use non-standard terrain if you agree with your opponent before the game starts, however. A weapon can inflict continuous fire without itself being a fire damage weapon (for example, the Helios's fists). In this case, the attack can hurt models with Immunity:Fire it just won't apply the continuous effect. In terms of which player's clock is running down during the Maintenance Phase: The active player will roll for expiration of all the continuous effects. Then the inactive player will roll for all the damages of the continuous effects. (Judge Ruling)