Murder Crows

Murder Crows Grymkin Unit

Prime This model is available in one Prime Army, Grymkin. 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.

"Cruel beaks, unblinking eyes, slashing talons... all hope dies."

Hideously transformed for their transgressions against others, murder crows creep into the battles of the Wicked Harvest to reap a deadly toll. Appearing seemingly from nowhere, these unnatural assassins are adept at singling out and eliminating vital targets to aid the armies of the grymkin.

Basic Info

Murder Crows
Missing Info
	COST {{{cacost}}} UNIT SIZE {{{casize}}} FA {{{cafa}}} Warcaster 0 BASE Small SPD 7 STR MAT 6 RAT N/A M.A. N/A DEF 13 ARM 12 CMD 7 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 COST 9 1.5 each N/A N/A Warcaster 1 COST N/A N/A Understanding the Statblock

Abilities

• Advance Deployment
• Pathfinder
• Stealth
• Ambush - You can choose not to deploy this unit at the start of the game. If it is not deployed normally, you can put it into play at the end of any of your Control Phases after your first turn. When you do, choose any table edge except the back of your opponent's deployment zone. Place all models in the unit in formation completely within 3" of the chosen table edge.
• Gang - When making a melee attack targeting an enemy model in the melee range of another model in this unit, this model gains +2 to melee attack and melee damage rolls.
• Prey - After deployment but before the first player's turn, choose an enemy model/unit to be this model/unit's prey. This model gains +2 to attack and damage rolls against its prey. When the prey is destroyed or removed from play, choose another model/unit to be the prey.

Weapons

• Claws - 0.5" reach, P+S 9 melee weapon
  • Damage Type: Magical

Theme Forces

• Bump in the Night. They gain Rise in this theme.
• Dark Menagerie

Thoughts on Murder Crows

Murder Crows in a nutshell

Murder Crows are the faction's light skirmishers/ambushers. They're fast, surprisingly accurate, and can strike from ambush. Don't expect them to live long once they reach combat, however!

It’s never a good idea to compare factions (due to all the layered faction buffs and caster differences) but everything that can be said of Paingiver Bloodrunners is true of Murder Crows. They ambush and use gang to hit accurately (even if not fighting the prey target) but beyond this they will never damage (more than a tickle) anything other than infantry.

Why should I include Murder Crows in my army?

Murder Crows are an accurate, cheap pathfinder infantry who gain a very handy rule of Ambush from the Bump in the Night benefits. They are also not limited to one unit gaining, both gain it. This means they are absolutely excellent at providing scenario pressure from ambush, as well as funneling your opponent towards the middle of the board.

Essentially, take murder crows when you want an aggressive, fast melee unit that can hit your opponent in the sides or get into their backline. They will die very very quickly but at 1.5pts a model, they are cheap. They are also a pathfinder unit in grymkin which makes them very valuable, overcoming one big faction weakness

Combos & Synergies

• Hollowmen & Frightmare's can use their guns to kill off the Murder Crows prey target, allowing them to swap it to the most relevant model they want to charge
• The Heretic allows them to get some truly absurd damage numbers. With the whole hog (Prey, Fury, Gang, Trump Arcana, Backstrike) the murder crows gain +8 MAT, and +9 to damage rolls. MAT 14 and P+S 18 is a hell of a hit. Don't expect to get the whole combo off very often but when you do...
• The Wanderer gives them better threat range through use of his gun. Anything that can boost their threat off the ambush is super valuable.
• The King of Nothing has some really great synergies with the unit
  • They enable his assassination - running 14" and then being the sands of fate target to be in the back arc of target caster, and within 5" for Master of Ruin is how the King Assassination usually begins
  • He can give them Burning Ash cover after they come in, when they are usually clumped and going to be massacred
  • They like Scything Touch for a damage bump
• Rattlers and Mad Caps love if the enemy clumps up more to try to avoid the ambush

Drawbacks & Downsides

• They have absolute victim stats, like most Bump infantry.
• The Gang/Ambush combo they have means they usually die in great numbers when they come in because they end up clumping around targets they want dead
• If your opponent remembers they exist, it's not incredibly difficult to premeasure their threat from the side of the board
• They are quite lackluster when not ambushing
• Their attacks are quite weak individually. It takes Gang to take them to a good POW (POW 9 won't even ding a heavy reliably).

Tricks & Tips

• You can Waterfall Prey to boost its effectiveness
  • Example - The enemy has a solo that is Prey target, a damaged light jack, and a full health heavy warjack. you send in 3 murder crows onto the full health jack and 2 onto the damaged light, and one onto the Solo that is the prey target, preferably in his back arc. You then do your attacks to kill the solo, swap prey to the light, kill the light, swap prey to the heavy, damage the heavy.
  • Efficient use of Prey is an extremely good tactic to use
• Prey management - Maximising a powerful ability gets a lot of value for Murder Crows
  • One tactic you can use is to place Prey on an easier to kill model that wants to be in the fight. This lets Hollowmen and other ranged elements take it out and lets you shuffle prey to wherever you want it.
  • You can also place Prey onto your opponents most key models to make them play a bit more skittishly
• Use Murder Crows to gain a scenario advantage the turn they come in. They're good at both contesting zones and flags and helping clear zones on the sides.
• They can simply run to engage some gun using models to shut the guns down. Use this tactic sparingly because any kind of free strike immunity or nearby models who can unjam the gun models make it a bad tactic.
• They don't always need to gang up on targets, many infantry models will die to the Mat 6 + backstrike pow 9 charge. Gang is helpful vs high def or high arm.

Other

Trivia

• Released with the Faction launch (2017.06)
• A group of crows is called a murder of crows. Get it?

Other Grymkin models

Grymkin Index       (Edit)
Battlegroup
Warlocks	The Child - The Dreamer - The Heretic - The King of Nothing - The Wanderer - Old Witch 3 Arcana Warlock Attachment: Baron Tonguelick
Warbeasts	Lesser: Crabbit	Light: Frightmare - Gorehound - Rattler
	Heavy: Cage Rager - Clockatrice - Skin & Moans	Gargantuan: Slaughterhouse
Units, Solos, & Battle Engines
Units	Dread Rots - Hollowmen - Mad Caps - Malady Man - Murder Crows - Neigh Slayers - Piggybacks - Twilight Sisters
Solos	Baron Tonguelick, Lord of Warts - Cask Imp - Defiled Archon - The Four Horseymans - Glimmer Imp - Grave Ghoul - Gremlin Swarm - Isiah, Dread Harvester - Lady Karianna Rose - Lord Longfellow - Trapperkin - Weird Wendell - Witchwood
Battle Engines	Death Knell
Theme Forces		Minions
Dark Menagerie - Bump in the Night		Refer to Category: Grymkin Minion
This index was last updated: 2021.08

Rules Clarifications

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 : Advance Deployment      (Edit) Sometimes you can attach a WA or CA that doesn't have AD to a unit that does have AD. If you do, the attachment effectively gains AD and they can all advance deploy together. (Locked Thread)

Rules Clarification : Pathfinder      (Edit) Pathfinder (Edit) - Pathfinder does not apply to involuntary movement (pushes & slams). (Infernal Ruling)

Rules Clarification : Stealth      (Edit) Stealth models are not invisible and you can target them - you'll just auto-miss most of the time. You can target them with a charge. You can target them with an AOE, have it auto-miss and scatter, luckily land on top of them anyway, and that will hit them.

Rules Clarification : Ambush      (Edit) If you attach a WA or CA to this unit, and the attachment doesn't have Ambush, then they all get to Ambush anyway. (Locked Thread) Ambush and Apparition both occur at Step 5 of the Control Phase. However, Ambush specifies the "end" of the Control Phase so you cannot use Apparition on a model that Ambushes. (Infernal Ruling) Declaring Ambush: Choosing whether a unit deploys normally or ambushes needs to happen before deployment. So it goes: do the starting roll, Player 2 chooses sides, Player 1 declares Ambushes (if any), then Player 2 declares Ambushes (if any), then Player 1 starts deployment. (Infernal Ruling) If you have both Prey and Ambush, then you declare your Prey target at the normal time (even though the Prey-er isn't currently on the table). (Infernal Ruling)

Rules Clarification : Gang and/or Gang Fighter and/or Tag Team and/or Team Effort     (Edit) You can gain the Gang bonus on free strikes, but generally only the first "Ganger" will get it. For example, if a target is engaged by two models with Gang, when it leaves the melee range of the first Ganger it suffers a free strike with the Gang bonus. Then it leaves the melee range of the second and suffers a normal free strike.

Rules Clarification : Prey      (Edit) When you declare your Prey target, it has to be used on a model that is currently on the table. You can't use it on models that are in Ambush, Burrow, etc. (Infernal Ruling) If you have both Prey and Ambush, then you declare your Prey target at the normal time (even though the Prey-er isn't currently on the table). (Infernal Ruling) Prey bonuses apply to "non-attack" damage, such as Electro Leap. (Infernal Ruling) If you hit your Prey target, but your attack is "shifted" to a non-Prey model (via Shield Guard etc) then you don't get the damage bonus vs the new target. If a model with Prey can return to play, then: If the Prey target is still alive when the Prey-er returns, then it stays as your Prey target. If the Prey target died while the Prey-er was off the table, you get to pick a new Prey target when you return to play. This is based on a MK II ruling.