Difference between revisions of "Lich Lord Terminus"
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− | ===Weapons | + | ===Weapons === |
* '''Dragon Fire''' - 10" spray, POW 14 gun | * '''Dragon Fire''' - 10" spray, POW 14 gun | ||
** {{Continuous Corrosion}} | ** {{Continuous Corrosion}} | ||
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** {{Critical Pitch}} | ** {{Critical Pitch}} | ||
− | === | + | ===Abilities=== |
* {{Warcaster}} | * {{Warcaster}} | ||
* {{Undead}} | * {{Undead}} | ||
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Terminus is a big badass flying cyborg dragon mutant. He is as subtle as a flaming truck loaded with grenades driving into a firework factory. Basic strategy is that he is a infantry commander with top tier personal close combat power and durability, lead your troops into the fight. As a downside, his abilities as a caster are limited and his simple play style can be very predictable. | Terminus is a big badass flying cyborg dragon mutant. He is as subtle as a flaming truck loaded with grenades driving into a firework factory. Basic strategy is that he is a infantry commander with top tier personal close combat power and durability, lead your troops into the fight. As a downside, his abilities as a caster are limited and his simple play style can be very predictable. | ||
− | === | + | ===Maximising his feat and spell list=== |
− | + | ====Feat thoughts==== | |
Terminus' feat Dragon's Call is a powerful tool. Every kill in Terminus' control area gathers him a soul further more, this gives him armor for each soul on him. On turn three or four, just as the lines close and the forces engage each other in melee, have Terminus charge forward and use this ability. Based on how many souls you can put on Terminus, he can range from being hard to kill to being practically invincible. Then next turn, he will ideally be loaded up with a ton of focus which given his aggressive positioning, you can use to slaughter important targets to finish off your opponent. | Terminus' feat Dragon's Call is a powerful tool. Every kill in Terminus' control area gathers him a soul further more, this gives him armor for each soul on him. On turn three or four, just as the lines close and the forces engage each other in melee, have Terminus charge forward and use this ability. Based on how many souls you can put on Terminus, he can range from being hard to kill to being practically invincible. Then next turn, he will ideally be loaded up with a ton of focus which given his aggressive positioning, you can use to slaughter important targets to finish off your opponent. | ||
This feat comes with some natural pitfalls. First off it requires your opponent to have souls that you can ''reliably'' harvest; if your opponent has a high number of beasts and few infantry you might struggle to gain a significant volume of souls in a single turn, or there may be no souls at all available if your opponent is using undead/warjacks/constructs. If the enemy is warbeast heavy, you . Secondly, Terminus doesn't auto-collect but instead needs to be the closest eligible model so there is competition with other Soul Takers, or even hard counters such as [[The High Reclaimer]] and [[Zaal2]]. If you fail to connect with your attacks, there is a chance that you might leave Terminus out in front of your enemy with little to no protection. | This feat comes with some natural pitfalls. First off it requires your opponent to have souls that you can ''reliably'' harvest; if your opponent has a high number of beasts and few infantry you might struggle to gain a significant volume of souls in a single turn, or there may be no souls at all available if your opponent is using undead/warjacks/constructs. If the enemy is warbeast heavy, you . Secondly, Terminus doesn't auto-collect but instead needs to be the closest eligible model so there is competition with other Soul Takers, or even hard counters such as [[The High Reclaimer]] and [[Zaal2]]. If you fail to connect with your attacks, there is a chance that you might leave Terminus out in front of your enemy with little to no protection. | ||
− | + | ====Spell thoughts==== | |
* '''Annihilation''' is a decent spell for gathering souls but extremely expensive to cast given his low FOC. Casting this spell will pretty much only be done out of a 'throw away' arcnode to gain some souls early on. After Terminus gets closer to the frontline, he will be needing the focus to kill/survive. | * '''Annihilation''' is a decent spell for gathering souls but extremely expensive to cast given his low FOC. Casting this spell will pretty much only be done out of a 'throw away' arcnode to gain some souls early on. After Terminus gets closer to the frontline, he will be needing the focus to kill/survive. | ||
* '''Malediction''' should be cast on his first turn and upkept every round, preferably by Admonia from the [[Withershadow Combine]]. | * '''Malediction''' should be cast on his first turn and upkept every round, preferably by Admonia from the [[Withershadow Combine]]. | ||
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===Typical Strategy & Army=== | ===Typical Strategy & Army=== | ||
− | + | ====Strategy==== | |
Basic strategy with Terminus is relatively simple. March a horde of undead down the field weathering fire better than usual thanks to Shadow of Death. On the turn you are going to hit the enemy hard, feat then charge in aggressively everywhere you can taking important objectives and destroying strategic enemy models. Terminus should survive because of his natural tankiness and armor bonus from souls. From that point forward, you should be able to leverage a win through the sheer killing power Terminus represents. | Basic strategy with Terminus is relatively simple. March a horde of undead down the field weathering fire better than usual thanks to Shadow of Death. On the turn you are going to hit the enemy hard, feat then charge in aggressively everywhere you can taking important objectives and destroying strategic enemy models. Terminus should survive because of his natural tankiness and armor bonus from souls. From that point forward, you should be able to leverage a win through the sheer killing power Terminus represents. | ||
− | + | ====Army==== | |
A huge amount of the power of Terminus is located in his personal combat power. If he is not killing things with his own attacks, you are probably playing with you hand behind your back. The army is going to have to be built to support this idea. The make up of this army is going to be molded by the few support abilities that Terminus does have, which are actually very good. | A huge amount of the power of Terminus is located in his personal combat power. If he is not killing things with his own attacks, you are probably playing with you hand behind your back. The army is going to have to be built to support this idea. The make up of this army is going to be molded by the few support abilities that Terminus does have, which are actually very good. | ||
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* [[The Withershadow Combine]] is a good pick for Terminus. While Maelovus can only cast Hellfire because of restriction, Admonia gives him a free upkeep on Malediction. Given how important focus is to your offensive and defensive power, the value of that singe point of focus is actually pretty significant. Tremumlus works great too if you are relying on inaccurate combo strikes for charging Mechanithralls. | * [[The Withershadow Combine]] is a good pick for Terminus. While Maelovus can only cast Hellfire because of restriction, Admonia gives him a free upkeep on Malediction. Given how important focus is to your offensive and defensive power, the value of that singe point of focus is actually pretty significant. Tremumlus works great too if you are relying on inaccurate combo strikes for charging Mechanithralls. | ||
− | ===Drawbacks & | + | ===Drawbacks, Downsides, & Bad Match-Ups=== |
* An important point to consider when fielding a Terminus army in a timed turn/deathclock tournament: Make sure that you can complete activations with all your units before time is up. 30+ infantry are a great shield for Terminus, but not so great if they run down your deathclock on turn two. | * An important point to consider when fielding a Terminus army in a timed turn/deathclock tournament: Make sure that you can complete activations with all your units before time is up. 30+ infantry are a great shield for Terminus, but not so great if they run down your deathclock on turn two. | ||
* His main defensive tech, Sacrificial Pawn, doesn't work against magic attacks or melee attacks. Melee attacks shouldn't be a problem - you should be so surrounded by friendly undead troops that the enemy will struggle to get into melee. | * His main defensive tech, Sacrificial Pawn, doesn't work against magic attacks or melee attacks. Melee attacks shouldn't be a problem - you should be so surrounded by friendly undead troops that the enemy will struggle to get into melee. | ||
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===Theme Forces === | ===Theme Forces === | ||
− | + | {{Cryx caster themes}} | |
===Other Cryx models=== | ===Other Cryx models=== |
Revision as of 00:08, 25 March 2017
Long ago, he who would come to be known as Terminus commanded the Dragonfather's legions at the fortress called Dragon's Roost, Cryx's northernmost fortress and bastion for the fleet. It was there Terminus began to internalize his master's transfiguring blight. His body slowly swelled to immense size, and wings erupted from his back, tearing and distending skin and bone. Necrosurgeons replaced the cankerous portions of his body with necrotech and iron as his flesh failed him; no semblance of his previous form remained by the time Cryx launched its assault against the remnants of the Orgoth invasion at Garlghast Island. He joined the attack as an iron lich of already fearsome reputation.
Basic Info
Terminus1 | ||
---|---|---|
SPD | 6 | |
STR | 9 | |
MAT | 7 | |
RAT | 5 | |
DEF | 14 | |
ARM | 18 | |
CMD | 10 | |
FOCUS | 6 | |
HP | 20 | |
WJP | +26 |
Weapons
- Dragon Fire - 10" spray, POW 14 gun
- Doomsayer - 2" reach, P+S 16 melee weapon
- Scything Claw - 0.5" reach, P+S 14 melee weapon
- Critical Pitch - On a critical hit against a model with an equal or smaller base, the model hit can be thrown d6" directly away from this model. The model thrown does not deviate. The POW of collateral damage is equal to the STR of this model.
Abilities
- Warcaster - All warcasters come with a stack of standard special rules - most notably being awesome. Click here for a newbie-friendly recap, or click here for the full rules.
- Undead
- Soul Taker: Cull Soul - This model can gain soul tokens. When a living enemy model is destroyed within 2" of this model, this model gains the destroyed model's soul token. After this model {{{1}}} during your next Control Phase, replace each soul token with 1 {{{2}}} point.
- Flight
- Assault
- Sacrificial Pawn [ Undead ] - When this model is directly hit by an enemy ranged attack, you can have one friendly, non-incorporeal {{{2}}} within 3" of it directly hit instead. That model is automatically hit and suffers all damage and effects. The Sacrificial Pawn special rule can only trigger once per attack roll.
- Shadow of Death - While in this model's command range, friendly undead Faction models gain Tough.
- Tough Although not shown on Terminus's card, he grants it to himself via Shadow of Death
Spells
- |-
|colspan=7 style="text-align:left; font-size:110%; border-right: 1px solid #fff; border-left: 1px solid #fff;"| |colspan=1 style="text-align:left; font-size:110%; border-right: 1px solid #fff; border-left: 1px solid #fff; border-bottom: 1px solid #fff;"| |- |style="text-align:left; font-size:110%; border-bottom: 1px solid #fff; border-left: 1px solid #fff;" rowspan=1| Hellfire ! style="border-top: 1px solid #A8A8A8;"| 3
! 10
! -
! 14
! -
! Yes
|style="border-bottom: 1px solid #fff; border-right: 1px solid #fff; border-left: 1px solid #fff; border-top: 1px solid #fff;"| |- |colspan=8 style="text-align:left; border-bottom: 1px solid #fff; border-right: 1px solid #fff; border-left: 1px solid #fff; border-top: 1px solid #fff;"|Models disabled by Hellfire cannot make a Tough roll. Models boxed by Hellfire are removed from play.
- |-
|colspan=7 style="text-align:left; font-size:110%; border-right: 1px solid #fff; border-left: 1px solid #fff;"| |colspan=1 style="text-align:left; font-size:110%; border-right: 1px solid #fff; border-left: 1px solid #fff; border-bottom: 1px solid #fff;"| |- |style="text-align:left; font-size:110%; border-bottom: 1px solid #fff; border-left: 1px solid #fff;" rowspan=1| Annihilation ! style="border-top: 1px solid #A8A8A8;"| 4
! 10
! 3
! 10
! -
! Yes
|style="border-bottom: 1px solid #fff; border-right: 1px solid #fff; border-left: 1px solid #fff; border-top: 1px solid #fff;"| |- |colspan=8 style="text-align:left; border-bottom: 1px solid #fff; border-right: 1px solid #fff; border-left: 1px solid #fff; border-top: 1px solid #fff;"|Models hit suffer a POW 10 damage roll. Models destroyed by Annihilation are RFP'd and do not generate corpse tokens. When a living enemy model is destroyed by Annihilation, the spellcaster gains the destroyed model's soul token regardless of the proximity of other models.
- |-
|colspan=7 style="text-align:left; font-size:110%; border-right: 1px solid #fff; border-left: 1px solid #fff;"| |colspan=1 style="text-align:left; font-size:110%; border-right: 1px solid #fff; border-left: 1px solid #fff; border-bottom: 1px solid #fff;"| |- |style="text-align:left; font-size:110%; border-bottom: 1px solid #fff; border-left: 1px solid #fff;" rowspan=1| Malediction ! style="border-top: 1px solid #A8A8A8;"| 2
! SELF
! (★)
! -
! Upkeep
! No
|style="border-bottom: 1px solid #fff; border-right: 1px solid #fff; border-left: 1px solid #fff; border-top: 1px solid #fff;"| |- |colspan=8 style="text-align:left; border-bottom: 1px solid #fff; border-right: 1px solid #fff; border-left: 1px solid #fff; border-top: 1px solid #fff;"|While within 2" of the spellcaster, enemy models suffer -2 DEF & ARM.
- |-
|colspan=7 style="text-align:left; font-size:110%; border-right: 1px solid #fff; border-left: 1px solid #fff;"| |colspan=1 style="text-align:left; font-size:110%; border-right: 1px solid #fff; border-left: 1px solid #fff; border-bottom: 1px solid #fff;"| |- |style="text-align:left; font-size:110%; border-bottom: 1px solid #fff; border-left: 1px solid #fff;" rowspan=1| Ravager ! style="border-top: 1px solid #A8A8A8;"| 2
! 6
! -
! -
! Turn
! No
|style="border-bottom: 1px solid #fff; border-right: 1px solid #fff; border-left: 1px solid #fff; border-top: 1px solid #fff;"| |- |colspan=8 style="text-align:left; border-bottom: 1px solid #fff; border-right: 1px solid #fff; border-left: 1px solid #fff; border-top: 1px solid #fff;"|Target warjack in the spellcaster's battlegroup gains Berserk for one turn, but cannot make Chain Attacks.
- Berserk - When a model with Berserk destroys one or more models with a melee attack during its Combat Action, immediately after the attack is resolved it must make one additional melee attack against another model in its melee range.
Feat: Dragon's Call
When a living enemy model is destroyed in Terminus' control range, Terminus gains the destroyed model's soul token. Terminus gains +1 ARM for each soul token on him. Dragon's Call lasts for one round.
Thoughts on Lich Lord Terminus
Comparison to Mk2
Terminus has changed very little from his Mk2 incarnation. He has gained Assault allowing him to finally get good use out of his amazing spray attack. Ravager has also changed and can no longer be placed on Terminus himself. Besides that, most of the differences are due to altered universal rules. He is no longer an abomination, with focus being used to negate damage, he can no longer pass over enemy units and virtually ignore free-strikes.
Terminus in a nutshell
Terminus is a big badass flying cyborg dragon mutant. He is as subtle as a flaming truck loaded with grenades driving into a firework factory. Basic strategy is that he is a infantry commander with top tier personal close combat power and durability, lead your troops into the fight. As a downside, his abilities as a caster are limited and his simple play style can be very predictable.
Maximising his feat and spell list
Feat thoughts
Terminus' feat Dragon's Call is a powerful tool. Every kill in Terminus' control area gathers him a soul further more, this gives him armor for each soul on him. On turn three or four, just as the lines close and the forces engage each other in melee, have Terminus charge forward and use this ability. Based on how many souls you can put on Terminus, he can range from being hard to kill to being practically invincible. Then next turn, he will ideally be loaded up with a ton of focus which given his aggressive positioning, you can use to slaughter important targets to finish off your opponent.
This feat comes with some natural pitfalls. First off it requires your opponent to have souls that you can reliably harvest; if your opponent has a high number of beasts and few infantry you might struggle to gain a significant volume of souls in a single turn, or there may be no souls at all available if your opponent is using undead/warjacks/constructs. If the enemy is warbeast heavy, you . Secondly, Terminus doesn't auto-collect but instead needs to be the closest eligible model so there is competition with other Soul Takers, or even hard counters such as The High Reclaimer and Zaal2. If you fail to connect with your attacks, there is a chance that you might leave Terminus out in front of your enemy with little to no protection.
Spell thoughts
- Annihilation is a decent spell for gathering souls but extremely expensive to cast given his low FOC. Casting this spell will pretty much only be done out of a 'throw away' arcnode to gain some souls early on. After Terminus gets closer to the frontline, he will be needing the focus to kill/survive.
- Malediction should be cast on his first turn and upkept every round, preferably by Admonia from the Withershadow Combine.
- Ravager is a good offensive for Warjacks that will be engaging multiple infantry. This spell works very well with Erebus.
- Hellfire is basic attack spell that with pretty good power. Given that Terminus has pretty low focus, he will rarely if eve cast this. Givven that he wants to take the Withershadow Combine, it is nice to have so Maelovus has something to cast beyond his basic attack spell.
Typical Strategy & Army
Strategy
Basic strategy with Terminus is relatively simple. March a horde of undead down the field weathering fire better than usual thanks to Shadow of Death. On the turn you are going to hit the enemy hard, feat then charge in aggressively everywhere you can taking important objectives and destroying strategic enemy models. Terminus should survive because of his natural tankiness and armor bonus from souls. From that point forward, you should be able to leverage a win through the sheer killing power Terminus represents.
Army
A huge amount of the power of Terminus is located in his personal combat power. If he is not killing things with his own attacks, you are probably playing with you hand behind your back. The army is going to have to be built to support this idea. The make up of this army is going to be molded by the few support abilities that Terminus does have, which are actually very good.
First of all, Terminus has Shadow of Death giving tough to every undead model within his good command range.
- Mechanithralls become very efficient once they are tough. The are reasonable fast and make excellent use of Shadow of Death. Once they are equipped with their supporting staff, they can be a forced to be reckoned with.
- Carrion Thralls are fast enough to keep up with your caster and benefit from not needing direct support from anything else to function properly.
- The Revenant Crew of the Atramentous offer an alternative to Mechanithralls. While they are more expensive, they do not require Necrossurgeons to stay alive and have stronger combat abilities.
- Satyxis Raider and Witches have little direct synergy with Terminus. This doesn't write them off however. The battle will not always happen entirely within the bubble of Terminus' tough aura. As such, it can be advantageous to have units capable of operating independently across the map.
Second of all, as a warcaster he supports his jacks by supplying focus and casting Ravager which gives a Battlegroup warjack berserk. This means for this spell to be worth it's cast, the jack in question should kill or at least engage 2 to 3 models. Compare to the other Cryx casters, Terminus has a small focus pool which he will greedily horde and a small control range.
- Leviathans are surprisingly decent on Terminus. Because Leviathans have good range and native pathfinder, they should remain function and useful throughout the game despite their stubby melee threat range.
- Despite the advantages of reach, Harrowers compete for souls with Terminus so they may prove to be an inferior choice for him.
- Because of his poor focus and spell list, it is difficult to justify the inclusion of arcnodes into his list. Beyond occasionally casting Annihilation on carelessly tight formations of infantry, Terminus won't be needing arcnodes very often.
- Erebus makes better use of Terminus' Ravager spell than anyone else in the game. If the enemy formation is setup right, Erebus alone can justify using your feat.
- Stalkers make a good choice for Terminus for their variety of advantages. Stealth protects them as they advance, and they have the speed, accuracy, and reach to make good use of Ravager. Extended control range also solves his small control area problem.
In terms of support staff, there a many working options available.
- Darragh Wrathe is an incredibly good choice here. Death Ride allows for the huge horde of undead you are probably using to move faster. While the ssmall bonus to speed may seem small, it will be amplified by the very large number of models who should benefit.
- With a limited focus pool and no way to extend threat, Terminus makes a decent caster to employ the use of Aiakos, Scourge of Meredius. If you are willing to forgo the use of Ravager which is not such a terrible loss, he can increase the viability of warjacks in your army.
- The Withershadow Combine is a good pick for Terminus. While Maelovus can only cast Hellfire because of restriction, Admonia gives him a free upkeep on Malediction. Given how important focus is to your offensive and defensive power, the value of that singe point of focus is actually pretty significant. Tremumlus works great too if you are relying on inaccurate combo strikes for charging Mechanithralls.
Drawbacks, Downsides, & Bad Match-Ups
- An important point to consider when fielding a Terminus army in a timed turn/deathclock tournament: Make sure that you can complete activations with all your units before time is up. 30+ infantry are a great shield for Terminus, but not so great if they run down your deathclock on turn two.
- His main defensive tech, Sacrificial Pawn, doesn't work against magic attacks or melee attacks. Melee attacks shouldn't be a problem - you should be so surrounded by friendly undead troops that the enemy will struggle to get into melee.
- Terminus has a worse time against non-soul-producing enemies (Cryx and beast-heavy Legion) and against armies where there are only a few souls that're locked away inside durable models (some Hordes builds).
- If you take other Soul Takers in your army, they will compete with Terminus during his feat turn to be the closest eligible model.
Tricks & Tips
- His Sacrificial Pawn doesn't protect vs magic attacks so watch out for arc nodes or units with magic ability.
- If you find yourself surrounded by squishy infantry, consider buying Scything Claw attacks instead of attacks with your Doomsayer. The Claw is frequently enough to kill most infantry and you have a chance to maybe get an extra kill with the throw.
- If you can rely on Sacrificial Pawn and good armor to avoid a ranged assassination very early in the game, and you brought a cheap arcnode with you consider the following. Race the arcnode ahead and drop an annihilation on a tight formation of infantry. In all likelihood, the arcnode will be dead before very long anyway.
Other
Trivia
- Originally released in Warmachine: Apotheosis (2005)
- Sculptor: Victor Martins
Theme Forces
Other Cryx models
Rules Clarifications
Rules Clarification : Feat: Dragon's Call
|
Rules Clarification: : Magical Damage (Edit) | |
* 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)
|
Rules Clarification : Corrosion (Edit)
|
Rules Clarification: : Magical Damage (Edit) | |
* 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)
|
Rules Clarification : Pitch (Edit)
|
Rules Clarification: : Warcaster (Edit) | |||||
|
Rules Clarification : Undead - None yet. (Edit)
Rules Clarification : Cull Soul - None yet. (Edit)
|
Rules Clarification: : Assault (Edit) | |
General Step 1: Declare the charge
Step 2: Move the charging model
Step 3: Make the ranged attack
Step 4: After finishing the Assault attack
Other
|
Rules Clarification: : Sacrificial Pawn and/or Sucker! and/or Grim Salvation (Edit) | |
Differences
From here down, the terms Sacrificial Pawn, Grim Salvation, and Sucker! are interchangeable
|
Rules Clarification : Shadow of Death (Edit)
|
Rules Clarification : Tough - None yet. (Edit)
Rules Clarification : Hellfire - None yet. (Edit)
Rules Clarification : Annihilation (Edit)
|
Rules Clarification : Malediction - None yet. (Edit)
Rules Clarification : Ravager (Edit)
|