Skorne

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Skorne art1.jpg

The Skorne are a brutal warrior people from beyond the massive Bloodstone Desert located east of the Iron Kingdoms. Skorne begun 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 Skorne race is unique among the major races of Immoren in that they have no gods. The Skorne know that the only thing waiting for them after death is eternal torment in the void. The only salvation from this fate is to become an Exalted, which is a state of immortality reserved only for the most worthy of the warrior caste. Thus their entire culture is built around martial discipline, conquest, suffering and pain. If the afterlife is nothing but torment, why should this life be any different? Torture is an art form for the Skorne and compassion is non-existent.

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.

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.

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.)

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 at the expense of eschewing most of the Skorne warlocks and units.

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.

Imperial Warhost

This is Skorne's warbeast-centric theme force.

Template:IW models

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

Unreleased Models

Last Updated: 2018.10

  • None at the moment

Warlocks

Alexia -1 Alexia, Betrayer of Corvis (No Tournaments)
Hexeris1 Lord Tyrant Hexeris
Hexeris2 Lord Arbiter Hexeris
Jalaam1 Primus Jalaam
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

Other

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.

Deep Lore

Far to the east, beyond the great canyon known as the Abyss dwells the warrior people of the Skorne Empire. The most important thing to realize about the Skorne is this; they know exactly what awaits them after death. Ever since the legendary Voksune discovered the secrets of looking beyond death, the Skorne have known that the realm beyond contains nothing but madness and pain. Their worldview is fundamentally based on the idea that death is ultimately a form of failure. The Skorne are determined to cheat death by whatever means they can -- either metaphorically, by having their exploits enter Skorne legend, or literally, by earning the right to have their spiritual essence locked into one of the Sacral Stones in which the Skorne keep the souls of their ancestors. It has also given them a fascination with pain and anatomy, and numerous castes have arisen in Skorne society dedicated to the study of these things. From these studies arose the arts of Mortitheurgy, a necromantic form of blood magic which draws of the energy of the Void beyond death, and Beast Handling, the skills of breeding beasts fit for use as weapons of war. The Skorne civilisation arose under the dominance of the empire of a race called the Lyoss. Skorne history tells us little about the Lyoss, other than the fact that they were a religious people, something the Skorne see as predicting their downfall. When a great cataclysm stretched across western Immoren, the Skorne easily outlasted the Lyoss, and changed from a nomadic lifestyle to a race with an empire of their own. The loosely-affiliated archdominars of the great houses of the Skorne empire happily made war amongst themselves for nearly 250 generations, until the coming of Vinter Raelthorne, the ousted King of Cygnar. Vinter was the first human the Skorne had ever seen. He had crossed the desert and found his way past the Abyss. As they had a fierce respect for his martial prowess, he gained a place among them, and conquered a continuously larger army of Skorne warriors. As such he was able to slaughter his way through the Skorne ranks and establish himself as their Conqueror after his army besieged and secured the great city of Halaak. This ended what the Skorne now refers to as the First Unification War. Vinter was hailed as a Skorne reborn in human flesh, creates the new title the of Supreme Archdominar and told the Skorne that he would lead them back into human lands, granting them a vast new territory for their new empire.

With the aid of Saxon Orrik, the Skorne built bridges across the Abyss dividing Eastern and Western Immoren, and Vinter led an army across them. His campaign failed to return, and the Skorne elders assumed that he had died and so fell back on their old ways. However, Vinter returned once again and assisted by the archdomina Makeda of house Balaash he killed those who had usurped in his abscence. He had realised that his previous campaign was too small and ill-equipped to make a serious dent in the Iron Kingdoms, and so he supervised the militarisation of the entire Skorne nation. They built even mighter engines of war and marched across the Abyss once again, slaying their way through human and trollkin armies alike. However, it was not long after the second invasion that Vinter revealed his betrayal; he had never intended the Skorne to overtake the human lands. Rather, his consolidation of their armies was in the hope that he could retake the throne of Cygnar, and drive the Skorne out of the human nations to consolidate his rule. Fearing the power of the army he had created, Vinter ordered a futile attack on Fort Falk, which ended in a massive rout of his skorne soldiers. Archdomina Makeda learned of Vinter's treachery, and took control of the army, becoming the new Supreme Archdomina. Vinter has fled, and the Skorne are ready to subjugate all of humanity under their rule.

References

  • Skorne description on Privateer Press' website.
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