Blowing the dust off: Blighted Nyss Swordsmen

[PG_BloodRath]

Hello every one. I want to open a discussion about those cuddly wuddly murderlators the Blighted Nyss Swordsmen.
on paper I love these guys. The UA adds a nice flavor to them. I just over look infantry because of our beast centric nature. so I want to put the ball in your court and find out your opinion of the BNS. how do you use them? With what casters? What is your favriot synergy? Do you bring a melting pot along?

Thanks in advance guys for all the awesome discussions lately

[vegron]

I've heard they are good with Rhyas. i still need to pick up a unit of them myself someday.

[Omnus]

If I have a 10 man unit...I want to bring a spawning vessel. I go back and forth with Kallus though.

I like to have an accuracy boost for them so they can threaten high def models. Chiller, DG or Carnivore. I love the look of the UA but generally not including them opens up a larger window for another unit or beast.

I have probably liked swordsmen with eVayl more than anyone else because of occulation and icy grip. But i still prefer her tiered.

[TheLat]

The swordsmen are great, but you have to play them spread out and make them attack in waves.

[SageofLodoss]

Hello every one. I want to open a discussion about those cuddly wuddly murderlators the Blighted Nyss Swordsmen.
on paper I love these guys. The UA adds a nice flavor to them. I just over look infantry because of our beast centric nature. so I want to put the ball in your court and find out your opinion of the BNS. how do you use them? With what casters? What is your favriot synergy? Do you bring a melting pot along?

Thanks in advance guys for all the awesome discussions lately

I like Swordsmen well enough actually. I only take them with certain casters.

I've yet to field them with eVayl, but I have plans to experiment with escorting them into battle with Stealth and then having them charge enemies effected by her DEF debuff. So far my experiments have been limited to using her with Raptors.

I field Swordsmen usually with Rhyas, Kallus, and pThagrosh.

pThags escorts them up with Fog of War, cycles Draconic Blessing for powerful weaponmaster hits.

Kallus gives them critical fire and powerful weaponmaster hits with his spell, makes them super accurate with DG, and turns them into Incubi on his feat turn if they die.

Rhyas escorts them with Stealth, gives them extra threat range if needed, and they can be useful on feat turn.

You pretty much need the UA. The UA is what makes the unit.

pVayl, Bethayne, Absylonia, Saeryn, and the Lylyths have little reason to ever use them. If they want clogs they'll take Legionnaires. If pVayl wants Chiller on a unit for mass DEF debuff, she'll take Hex Hunters.

Still waiting for someone to give them an Elite Cadre or something.

[Starweaver]

Personally i like the swordsmen a lot, i would however say 'if you take them, get the ua to, it makes it that much better'. Adding cleave and overtake can really help clear out infantry fast.
When I use them it is usually with Kallus (3d6 to hit, weapon master, cleave, overtake oh yes please) but they perform well under p.thagrosh as well (concealment will bump them up to def16 vs shooting which makes them a lot more survivable untill the khadoran carpet bombardment starts).
One thing i think is a pity though is that they have no synergy with carnivore (probably one of the most wide spread and would-be-usefull-if-only buffs in legion) as kills under carnivore make it so you cant cleave/overtake

[Penguin616]

I like the swordsmen too.

Played them with eThagrosh last night, without the UA. I felt them lacking a bit without the UA, you really want that cleave and overtake. I had Dragons Blood on them so that worked as a bit of a deterrent, though the got charged anyway with his fennblades (made the opponent think it over again first). But they did survive a more than at least 1 turn.
Though, I like them better under pThag. as said, Draconic blessing is a nice buff on them. And as said, fog of war is nice protection.

With the UA, they can hack through a pretty much a whole unit if you roll good, even with the min unit.

[Neutralyze]

Cleave does not make the unit of swordsman. They are fine at full without UA, similar to Bayal.

[ThatWhichLurks]

I really like the champion. Combo striking weapon master FTW!

[Omnus]

If you put swordsmen in the list, wait until the end to deicde if you want the UA. If you have a wierd 3 point gap to fill they are not a bad choice for those points. But if you have 8-9 points you are probably better fitting in another full unit or beast.

[Obeisance]

Pfft, I play Swordsmen all the time. In fact, I played them with pThags 3 rounds of a tourney yesterday.

Kallus is also a fan, but he hasn't seen my tabletop since I discovered eVayl.

[PG_BloodRath]

I have seriously been considering them with Thagrosh 1 how did they do for you at the tournament obei?

What list did you run?

[PG_alphastealer]

I actually use swordsmen a lot with plylith. They are insanely goodm on her feat turn with a ua.
Plylith too me, makes taking more units better as they do not generally get the option for 3 attack dice, whereas beasts can always boost.

[Fernslayer]

I have ran them with all of my casters. ( the only casters i dont have are Kallus and Pthags and PVayle) especially when i run Forsaken! Sometimes i take the pot of doom... Sometimes i take the Incubi. depends on my mood for the day. I have a full unit plus the UA. Sometimes i use them for a first wave... others a second. I have never not been successful in getting a charge off on something big ( i usually play against Trolls, for that's the main faction my Fiance' plays) and if i dont take it all the way down, its more than half way gone and a beast of some verity can come in and finish the job!

[Ordrek]

I find myself wanting to like them, but ultimately never finding a spot for them. If they had Reach, I'd be in, but as it is I use infantry mostly for sacrifice and foiling position (a task that often calls for Reach). That makes Legos the obvious choice since they have the added bonus of being cheap as hell.

I will also consider infantry that are mostly autonomous and can remain on the board without being torn up by gunlines. That usually means Stealth, which means Striders or Hex Hunters. I've never been disappointed with Striders, but I've been let down by Hex Hunters. Swordsman don't quite fit the autonomous bill, which makes it difficult to want to reach for them.

However, like others I am considering them for eVayl. Since eVayl can grant Stealth and I LOVE eVayl, they could end up fitting together well... IF I'm not running eVayl's awesome tier=/

So overall the Swordsman feel like a very narrow niche unit for my preferences. I suppose I should just try them sometime and see how it goes. However, I will almost certainly NOT use the UA. There is a lot I could be doing with 3pts; certainly better things than Swordsman UA. The extra attack would be beastly with Reach, but without it, "meh" (and overtake without Reach isn't enough for me to care).

[MeniteTom]

Always run them with pThagrosh and Kallus. The UA, however, only goes in if I have points to spare. Cleave and Overtake aren't really worth 3 points as there are so rarely more targets within 1" that aren't already getting charged by another member of the unit.

[PG_Stevo]

Like them with Kallus and Rhyas a lot. Rhyas' feat+Dash+ Cleave+ Overtake seems pretty good.