Thyra, Flame of Sorrow
Thyra, Flame of Sorrow |
A fanatic assassin able to move between the bounds of life and death, Thyra, Flame of Sorrow is the peerless commander of the Daughters of the Flame. Her twin swords, Grief and Lament, weave a path of razor-edged destruction through the enemy ranks as she leads her sisters into battle. Thyra has become a living weapon of the Menite cause, her body and soul devoted to avenging the injustices carried out by those who oppose the Creator.
Basic Info
Thyra1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
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.
- Acrobatics - This model can advance through other models if it has enough movement to move completely past their bases. This model ignores intervening models when declaring its charge target.
- Parry
- Stealth
- Elite Cadre [ Daughters of the Flame ] - Friendly Daughters of the Flame models gain Vengeance. (Vengeance - During your Maintenance Phase, if one or more models in this unit were damaged by enemy attacks during the last round, each model in the unit can advance 3" and make one basic melee attack.)
- Overtake - When this model destroys one or more enemy models with a basic melee attack during its Combat Action, after the attack is resolved it can immediately advance up to 1".
Weapons
- Grief - 0.5" reach, P+S 11 melee weapon..
- Lament - 0.5" reach, P+S 11 melee weapon.
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| Carnage ! style="border-top: 1px solid #A8A8A8;"| 2
! SELF
! Control
! -
! 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;"|Friendly Faction models gain +2 to melee attack rolls against enemy models in the spellcaster's control range. Carnage lasts for one turn.
- Gates of Death - At the end of your turn, place this model anywhere completely within 5" of its current location.
- |-
|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| Occultation ! style="border-top: 1px solid #A8A8A8;"| 2
! 6
! -
! -
! 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;"|Target friendly Faction model/unit gains Stealth. Models are not affected while out of formation.
- |-
|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| Silence of Death ! style="border-top: 1px solid #A8A8A8;"| 2
! 6
! -
! -
! 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;"|Target friendly Faction model/unit gains +2 STR and Take Down.
- Take Down - Models disabled by a melee attack made by a model with Take Down cannot make a Tough roll. Models boxed by a melee attack made by a model with Take Down 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| Stranglehold ! style="border-top: 1px solid #A8A8A8;"| 2
! 10
! -
! 11
! (★)
! 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;"|A model damaged by Stranglehold forfeits either its Normal Movement or its Combat Action during its next activation, as its controller chooses.
Feat - Shadows of Urcaen
Immediately place Thyra anywhere completely within 2" of her current location. When a friendly Protectorate model activates in her CTRL range, it also can be placed 2".
Thoughts on Thyra1
Thyra1 in a nutshell
Speed and Mobility. That's Thyra. She is fast, stealthy and hard to hit. She plays very differently to other Protectorate warcasters, and can be a surprise to opponents used to the more slower attrition heavy warjack game that Protectorate often brings. Thyra and her army is very good at assassination, but this isn't the sole way to win with her. The deep threat, unusual attack vectors and her fast speed (if taken with Daughters of the Flame et al, means the fight is taking place in the opponents half of the board, and she can place the enemy on the back foot in terms of scenario.
Understanding all the possible angles and movement vectors can take some time to master.
Feat thoughts
It's either a threat range and threat extender or when already engaged with the enemy you can teleport your troops past enemies for some surprising assassinations.
Spell thoughts
- Carnage - A key spell for Thyra. A great MAT fixer - that is helping her army hit more accurately. Note the wording that it gives a bonus against targets in her CTRL, not a bonus to her warriors. This is important to remember as the enemy targets are likely to be an inch or so farther away than models in her army making the attacks.
- Gates of Death - Another key spell. Not only can Thyra get up and do some damage, but she can escape again after. The wording on this spell is also crucial to how it is to be used: it says that she is placed at the end of your turn (not at the end of her activation). This means she can move up, cast Carnage, maybe kill a model or two herself (and move possibly further via Overtake). Then her army can activate and benefit from the spell too. Then when done she can be placed safely half a dozen inches away. The most important thing is don't forget!. As it is the last thing you do before handing the turn over to your opponent, they will be very gleeful to have Thyra more exposed and vulnerable.
- Occultation - More stealth. What can be added to that simple fact? With Thyra and her Daughters of the Flame already stealthed, why not protect something else. The Blood of Martyrs for example. Although if you are taking the Choir of Menoth their Hymn of Passage helps protect them from non-magical shooting. Flamebringers make a good target for having stealth. A hard to shoot unit of them flying up a flank can give your opponent serious headaches. You can even cast Occultation on a battle engine, a stealthed Vessel of Judgment is worth it even just once just to see your opponent's expression.
- Silence of Death - Not only does Thyra have a way to increase accuracy, but this spell helps boost damage output. For example, this spell on even just four Flamebringers can wreck a Retribution heavy. Also placed on a warjack makes them hit just harder too, giving her warjacks, along with the choir, very serious damage output.
- Stranglehold - A utility spell, useful for limiting an enemy model, such as a warjack or warbeast. But likely won't be cast every game. It might help against an enemy caster, but if you are spending the focus to cast it and boost the attack roll, then that focus may have been better spent elsewhere. However, saying that it is her only offensive spell, but its POW is low, barely into double figures.
Drawbacks & Downsides
Anti-stealth tech makes Thyra sad. Casters such as Kara Sloan, and the Protectorate's own Sovereign Tristan Durant as well as the Revelator can ignore/remove stealth. This also goes for anything with Eyeless Sight, which means a lot of Legion models can shoot her from afar. This isn't necessarily a killer to her gameplay, as the high mobility of her army and the general high DEF is still hard to deal with. But it does mean Thyra herself has to be a little more circumspect and get behind cover or to safety, and maybe not play as far forward in such match ups (see the paragraph on the Vigilant above).
While her DEF is amazing, and even outrageous while standing on a hill or behind cover, her ARM is low and if knocked down could be easily assassinated herself.
Finally, while Thyra does have the tools to kill armour skewed lists, her armies tend not to be as good at it as other Protectorate casters/armies. She can still have a good game but if her army gets bogged down, it can be a bit of a glass cannon.
Tricks & Tips
- Use Gates of Death to jump back behind your main forces or terrain after going forward. Remember that since it occurs at the end of your turn, you can still score with her on a flag or zone by moving her back.
List Building Advice
Strategy
- Move fast, flank the enemy, and (usually) give an alpha, and then dance through or around the enemy troops to attack what you want when you want.
- Thyra wants a predominately melee based army that can make the most of her abilities and spells, ranged options may help her deliver her army, but a shooting game doesn't really suit her.
- Threaten assassination. If an enemy caster gets within 12" (sometimes more) of Thyra or the Blood of Martyrs they are risking getting mulched.
- Score on Scenario. The enemy will often be defending from multiple threats from the front and flanks, playing carefully to avoid trivial assassination, and probably in their half of the board which gives Thyra and her solos good chances to score. Gates of Death is great at getting to a position to dominate a zone or flag.
- Kill what you can. Avoid what you can't (yet). Units like the Daughters of the Flame excel at removing enemy infantry. Use them to kill everything they can, and then move deeper into enemy lines. Use mobility to keep away from enemy heavies where you can, and pick them off later, they will usually be slower and if they can't get into the fight, they can't kill much.
Theme Thoughts
The Creator's Might
As Thyra is mostly infantry-centric, you're unlikely to take her in this theme; Focus 6 and having three upkeeps limits the number of warjacks she can run. If you do take her in Creator's Might, it's best to take a Mercenary infantry unit along with warjacks on both Durant1 and Severius0.
Faithful Masses
Thyra offers quite a bit to this theme in the form of her upkeeps. Occultation is excellent on any unit, but especially Idrians - although Go to Ground is useful, it only lasts for one round, so having one unit with Stealth can help them survive longer. Additionally, her feat can let them disengage from enemies unless they're base to base or have greater than 2" melee reach. Her feat greatly adds to the non-linear movements of Paladin models with Righteous Vengeance, and Carnage makes them hyper-accurate. Finally, she appreciates the wall granted by the theme bonus, allowing her to stay even safer from melee and the shooting that can get through her Stealth.
Guardians of the Temple
Besides granting Vengeance to Daughters, she helps the entire army hit more accurately in melee, something it might have problems with otherwise. She loves turning cheap, durable Temple Flameguard into (relatively) accurate and hard hitting troops, and you can easily cycle Silence of Death onto another unit after sending one in. Flamebringers love Occultation to get up the field and also appreciate Strength of Death.
As a side note, Daughters brought back by the Shrine of the Lawgiver get to make Vengeance attacks. It adds another layer of utility to the structure besides providing a powerful gun.
Exemplar Interdiction
Thyra is one of the more likely candidates to run a combined arms approach to Exemplar Interdiction due to two of her upkeeps (Occultation and Strength of Death) only affecting one model/unit at a time. However, she runs Exemplars well no matter what your army composition. MAT 9 makes them unlikely to miss even the highest DEF, and putting your prize unit (such as Exemplar Bastions) under Occultation makes them more difficult and costly to dig out. The Exemplar Warder is a good solo in its own right and can make her nearly untouchable in melee at an impressive DEF 19. She also provides RFP in the form of Strength of Death, but keep in mind that if you put it on Knights Exemplar, they won't be able to make Cleave attacks due to the order of removing the enemy model.
All warjacks appreciate Blessed weapons, and Blood of Martyrs is no exception. Taking it and Fire of Salvation gives Thyra a powerful, flexible battlegroup with innate non-linear out-of-activation movement that gets enhanced by Thyra's feat.
Mercenaries
- Madelyn Corbeau She can help make Thyra very survivable via Parlay - warriors (and that includes non battle-engine casters) will not be able to target her or Thyra with attacks. That is huge, meaning only constructs and beasts are really the only things that can attack the pair. It is possible to land Thyra in the middle of a unit of enemy warriors (or even the enemy caster!) and be safe from their attacks, and even get a model in combat bonus to DEF if something can actually target her with a ranged non-spray attack. Thyra in return can help keep Madelyn safe with Occultation to help protect her from ranged attacks from 'jacks and the like, and even then with Madelyn's Sucker! ability she can mitigate the hit if a friendly warrior is nearby. It isn't infallible, an enemy that can attack either from outside Madelyn's command, and ignore Stealth can still shoot them off the table, but it is a combo worth considering.
- Anastasia Di Bray Well, a cheap solo with Ambush and Stealth. Her Espionage ability is very effective with Thyra and her army who move fast and will take the fight deep into the enemy's territory. Daughters of the Flame with their Acrobatics, and Flamebringers with their long movement distance will threaten the enemy caster even more. Even if she doesn't get to use her ability, the threat of it will keep the enemy caster constrained to the central 18" of the battefield.
- Saxon Orrik If you need some Pathfinder (for example the Daughters of the Flame are fast but difficult terrain cramps their style), Saxon may be a better option than the more usual Rhupert Carvolo as he also has Stealth.
- Eiryss1 or Eiryss2 Included to round out the list of models available to the Protectorate that move fast and have Stealth. They are harder to single out in an army that is as fast and hard to hit as they are. They can be included to add to Thyra's already significant assassination threats or to help disrupt enemy warjacks and control the flow of battle.
Battlegroup
- Blood of Martyrs - Her pet warjack that she can take in any theme. It just does more of what Thyra loves to do, incredible mobility and unexpected vectors of attack. Its bond with her - it having Apparition - means it can move quicker up the battlefield, and almost keep up with the fast moving units in her army. It can also use this placement to get out of melee partly to help avoid free strikes, as it doesn't have Parry, but also to get in a good position to move or get into charge range or just better LoS. Its sidestepping ability helps get it into new positions, possibly into back arcs, or fully loaded it can cleave through up to five infantry. Under Thyra's feat and the bond, it gets two placements, even before it actually moves. That is hard to counter. Then, as if the sheer mobility of the 'jack isn't enough, it can get to outrageous accurace and damage bonuses. Its own innate Hand of Vengeance gives it a bonus to hit, and to damage. Then Thyra's Carnage spell increases the accuracy again. Then with Hymn of Battle from the Choir of Menoth, and Thyra's Silence of Death it gets two more significant bonuses to damage output. An effective MAT in double figures, and a P+S on its weapons means that it would hit a Stormwall with Arcane Shield and damage them with straight dice. This accuracy, mobility and damage powerhouse means it probably will not need to boost to hit enemy casters, and hitting even the hardiest casters at straight dice even after they use focus to mitigate damage. Oh, and finally as if all that wasn't enough, it has Grievous Wounds, so models hit cannot be repaired or healed and cannot make Tough rolls. Overall on feat turn it has a theoretical maximum threat range of 17" (Apparition + Thyra's Feat + Charge + Sidestep1 + Sidestep2 + Usual Heavy melee range). Just the threat of that should keep the enemy far far back, or well screened.
- Sanctifier - A good choice with Thyra running Daughters and Flamebringers. Firstly, it relieves the pressure on Thyra's meagre Focus by being fuelled by the souls of the infantry. Secondly, if Thyra is running troop heavy, she does not want many warjacks in her battlegroup, and the combo of Blood of Martyrs and Sanctifier uses up her warjack points quite exactly. Thirdly the reach weapon and tech of the Sanctifier can be very helpful.
- Vigilant - Works very well with Thyra. Especially in situations where her innate Stealth is not enough. In short you move Thyra up closer to the enemy, and cast Carnage to help hit her army hit the enemy. Run up the Vigilant to a good position and then at the end of your turn place Thyra behind the Vigilant through Gates of Death and gain cover from any ranged attacks. This will push her DEF to ranged and magic attacks into the 20s, and almost impossible to hit. Well, sprays will always hurt as they ignore cover, concealment and stealth.
- Dervish - More along the sidestepping, high mobility theme. While nowhere near as good as the Blood of Martyrs, it is a reasonable addition to her force, both thematically, and in bringing more models with unexpected attack vectors. It does at least have [[Parry] which her character 'jack lacks.
- Other 'jacks. None are specifically good or bad with Thyra. But should cover some of her weaknesses. If you feel you really need ranged options, the ubiquitous Reckoner can help. Slow 'jacks will likely get left behind though, and she tends to play faster and has no way to speed them, besides her feat. And with her lowish focus, she probably won't want a large battlegroup, much beyond her warjack points. A Redeemer could be useful to hang back and provide carpet bombing. Taking an arc node like the Revenger or Guardian (which is also a good fighter) to swap buff spells or cast Stranglehold could be good, although she's usually mobile enough between her native SPD and Gates of Death to get the spells where she needs them while remaining safe.
Other
Trivia
Originally released in the Warmachine: Wrath expansion (2011)
Theme Forces
Other Protectorate models
Video Battle Reports
- Arcane Assist, 2018.03 75 points vs Jarl
- See also Category: Video Battle Reports for more casters with videos.
Rules Clarifications
Rules Clarification : Weapon Master - None yet. (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: : Warcaster (Edit) | |||||
|
Rules Clarification : Acrobatics (Edit)
|
Rules Clarification : Parry - None yet. (Edit)
Rules Clarification : Stealth (Edit)
|
Rules Clarification : Elite Cadre (Edit)
|
Rules Clarification : Vengeance and/or Righteous Vengeance and/or Retaliation and/or Swift Vengeance and/or Tantrum (Edit)
|
Rules Clarification : Swift Hunter and/or Overtake (Edit)
|
Rules Clarification : Carnage (Edit)
|
Rules Clarification : Gates of Death (Edit)
|
Rules Clarification : Occultation (Edit)
|
Rules Clarification : Silence of Death (Edit)
|
Rules Clarification : Stranglehold (Edit)
|