Skorne

From LOS Warmachine University
Jump to: navigation, search
Skorne art1.jpg

The Skorne are a brutal warrior people from beyond the massive Bloodstone Desert located east of the Iron Kingdoms. Skorne began their invasion of the Iron Kingdoms only a few decades ago, and the longer the war is protracted the more of their military is being mobilised from the great city of Halaak, a large desert city built on the blood and lives of slaves.

The goal of the Skorne empire is to conquer and enslave all other nations in Immoren. After a failed attempt to conquer Cygnar, they turned their attention to Ios with mixed success and have since set their sights on the Protectorate.

For more backstory, refer to Lore - Skorne

Skorne for Beginners

Aesthetic & Playstyle

On the table, Skorne is a somewhat slow, durable and hard-hitting melee force with debilitating spells and necromancy. They are designed to take a punch and hit back harder. Martial prowess, pain and torment encapsulate the Skorne theme. Although they heavily skew toward melee they have several strong ranged choices available.

Thematically, Skorne are a mix of Shogunate Japan, Sparta, Persia, and the Klingon Empire. (with maybe just a teenie tiny impression of Hellrasier)

Starter Sets

Other good early purchases

A good place to start Skorne would be a Battle Box and possibly Makeda1, Makeda3, or Morghoul2 as all three are effective and flexible warlocks that work well with almost any army, and all three are very different from each other.

Expanding from there, most Skorne lists are built around a core of Paingiver Beast Handlers, as these can really increase the beasts' efficiency and survivability. Another excellent support piece is the Basilisk Krea, who sports an outstanding Animus. Most skorne casters get on with Aptimus Marketh and Beast Master Xekaar needs a couple of Immortal Vessels

Skorne offers superb support in general, but new players should be advised to avoid bloating their support choices. The internal balance of the Skorne is excellent and if a model looks as if it is supposed to do something it almost certainly does. About the only lack in the Skorne collection right now is a control caster (other than by getting ARM values up into the mid 20s) and that is almost certainly deliberate; no one fighting against the Skorne finds them tooth-grindingly annoying in the way they do certain casters in other factions. On the other hand Skorne have tools to deal with most opposition including gunlines and solid armour. If tooled correctly, the Skorne can be extremely resilient. It may be configured many ways, but many armies will tend to be somewhat slow and attrition oriented. Most Skorne warlocks fall into the categories of Tyrants (warrior caste) like Xerxis1, or mortitheurges (blood magic users) like Rasheth1 or Mordikaar1. They CAN also play as a limited artillery force (see Winds of Death theme force). Finally, Skorne is fairly minion-friendly in a lot of ways (debuffs, etc.)

LOS logo.jpg

Line of Sight article : Brawlmachine List Building - Skorne
In 2020.09 Phillip Melvin, one of the LOS authors, wrote an excellent article for how to start Skorne. It is based on the newbie-friendly Brawlmachine format (25 point limit).
The article contains a different list for each Skorne theme, and advice on how to expand those lists beyond 25 points.

Starting a Theme Force

Players can use the Theme Force rules to construct their army list once the game size reaches 25 points. Themes restrict which models from your Faction you have access to, with different models being "locked" into different themes. In return, playing a theme force gives you multiple benefits in return. Also, models in a theme force normally have natural synergies with each other - synergies they can't use if they're paired with models from outside the theme.

Themes are considered the default way to play Warmachine and Hordes (although technically they're optional).

Regardless of whether you're starting at 25 points or lower, as a new player you have two options:

  1. Ignore themes to begin with, buy a couple of things you like the look of, and later on figure out if they work together in the same theme.
    With this approach you run the risk of buying models from a hodge podge of different themes. At some point you'll end up choosing one theme to use and expand, and shelving your models that don't fit the theme.
  2. Figure out which theme contains models you like the look of, and limit yourself to just buying models from that theme.
    This approach has the benefit of not shelving any of your purchases and you're more likely to have models that have natural synergies with each other (even if you buy things completely at random).

Theme Forces

Disciples of Agony

This is the "Minions, but Skorne!" theme. It's all about the Paingivers who have successfully subjugated Minions. It allows the use of minion warbeasts and units as as such has the widest choice of warbeasts in the game (especially as it ignores the limited battle groups that normally tie up the minion casters) and has a wide selection of effective units as it isn't limited by the "Up to one minion unit and up to one minion solo" that most themes have.

The models allowed in Disciples of Agony are:   [Show/Hide]

This list was last updated: 2021.10   (Edit)

Warlocks

  • All Skorne warlocks

Warbeasts

  • All non-character Skorne warbeasts
  • All non-character Minion warbeasts (★)
  • Chiron
  • The Terrorizer
  • Other character warbeasts can be taken, but only if they have a bond and they're in their bonded model's battlegroup.

Battle Engines

Units

Solos

Minions

  • Any number of Minion solos
  • Any number of minion units
(★) Minion warbeasts can be put in a Skorne warlock's battlegroup, and become Skorne warbeasts when you do so. Note that they cannot be placed in a Skorne Lesser Warlock's battlegroup, though.

Masters of War

Praetorians and Cataphracts. This theme represents the the elite Skorne infantry.

The models allowed in Masters of War are:   [Show/Hide]

This list was last updated: 2021.11   (Edit)

Warlocks

  • All Skorne warlocks

Warbeasts

  • All non-character Skorne warbeasts,
  • Molik Karn
  • Tiberion
  • Other character warbeasts can be taken, but only if they're in their bonded model's battlegroup.

Units

Solos

Battle Engines

Minions

  • Up to one solo
  • Up to one unit

The Exalted

The Exalted are those Skorne warriors found worthy to be preserved in a soulstone through which they animate stone warrior statues. It is a slowish and durable melee force.

The models allowed in The Exalted are:   [Show/Hide]

This list was last updated: 2019.09   (Edit)

Warlocks

  • All Skorne warlocks

Warbeasts

  • All non-character Skorne warbeasts
  • Despoiler
  • Other character warbeasts can be taken, but only if they have a bond and they're in their bonded model's battlegroup.

Battle Engines

Units

Solos

Minions

  • Up to one minion solo
  • Up to one minion unit
(★) Void Archons don't count against your "Up to one Minion" slot

Winds of Death

Venators are bottom-tier warrior caste Skorne who fight with ranged weapons, which is considered less honorable than the Cataphracts and Praetorians, but essential to taking on the armies of western Immoren.

The models allowed in Winds of Death are:   [Show/Hide]

This list was last updated: 2019.07   (Edit)

Warlocks

  • All Skorne warlocks

Warbeasts

  • Non-character Skorne warbeasts
  • Character warbeasts can be taken, but only if they're in their bonded model's battlegroup.

Units

Solos

Battle Engines

Minions

  • Up to one minion solo
  • Up to one minion unit

Models

Warlocks

Alexia -1 Alexia, Betrayer of Corvis (No Tournaments)
Hexeris1 Lord Tyrant Hexeris
Hexeris2 Lord Arbiter Hexeris
Jalaam1 Primus Jalaam
Makeda0 Refer to Skorne solos, below
Makeda1 Archdomina Makeda
Makeda2 Supreme Archdomina Makeda
Makeda3 Makeda & the Exalted Court
Mordikaar1 Void Seer Mordikaar
Morghoul1 Master Tormentor Morghoul
Morghoul2 Lord Assassin Morghoul
Morghoul3 Dominar Morghoul & Escorts
Naaresh1 Master Ascetic Naaresh
Rasheth1 Dominar Rasheth
Xekaar1 Beast Master Xekaar
Xerxis1 Tyrant Xerxis
Xerxis2 Xerxis Fury of Halaak
Zaadesh1 Refer to Skorne solos, below
Zaadesh2 Lord Tyrant Zaadesh
Zaal1 Supreme Aptimus Zaal & Kovaas
Zaal2 Zaal, the Ancestral Advocate
Skorne army1.png

Warbeasts

Battle Engines

Units

Solos

Minions that work for Skorne

Refer to Who works for Whom and/or Category: Skorne Minion

What is "Skornergy"?

Synergy - the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects.
Skornergy - the opposite.

In Mk1 and Mk2 Skorne was plagued with small rules interaction 'traps' that made building an effective list tricky. For instance, Ancestral Guardians supported Immortals very well but required souls to do so ... and Immortals didn't produce souls. Or Hexeris1 who had a feat that allowed him to take control of enemy models that were destroyed, coupled with a spell that would Remove them From Play before they reached the 'destroyed' state. Or Makeda2, who had an Elite Cadre ability for Swordsmen that did almost the exact same thing the Swordsmen Officer did.

In Mk3 most skornergy has been ironed out (in Skorne, at least), but the term is still used by players to describe anti-synergetic interactions in any Faction.

Retrieved from "https://warmachineuniversity.com/mw/index.php?title=Skorne&oldid=109561"