Finetuning LoE I: Saeryn 35P

[Karnstein]

Once (or sometimes twice) a month I'm helping a friend honing his WM/H skills. Since he is a fellow cryx collector, I'm sticking with legion for those games to prevent mirrormatches.

For me those games are a nice chance to play around with new casters and after playing both Vayl incarnations for the last few games, I'm having my eyes on Saeryn.

I'm pretty sure one the core of the list, but I can't wrap my head around the last 6 points.

Core:

Saeryn herself (gasp!)
- Angel
- Scythean
- Scythean
- Shredder
Deathstalker
Deathstalker
Forsaken
Spell Martyr

I've got the tenacity shredder, the angel for feat flying shenanigans and 2 solid melee beatsticks. Stalkers for infantry&solo hunting. The Forsaken is for fury management and as a back-up against high-def targets. Spell martyr for an early Breath stealer or to increase blight bringer range.

But what about the last points? Here are my two ideas:

a) add another shredder and forsaken. That gives me a suicide shredder for blight field and another fury management solos. Two forsaken means I can max out fury on all 3 heavies and keep 3 on Saeryn herself w/o suffering any threshold checks.

b) add a raek. That gives me a far more threatening blight bringer target, that can also leap over enemy models and is less vulnerable thanks to high def and stealth. On the other hand I now only have one Forsaken, which means I must either gamble on my threshold checks or build up less fury.

[Celowin]

My opinion, for what it is worth (I'm not a big Saeryn player), would be a mix of your two idea. I'd drop a deathstalker, then go with a raek and a forsaken.

You lose a bit of ranged infantry clearing without the extra deathstalker, but I think the versatility of the raek over another shredder makes up for it.

[Neutralyze]

Once (or sometimes twice) a month I'm helping a friend honing his WM/H skills. Since he is a fellow cryx collector, I'm sticking with legion for those games to prevent mirrormatches.

For me those games are a nice chance to play around with new casters and after playing both Vayl incarnations for the last few games, I'm having my eyes on Saeryn.

I'm pretty sure one the core of the list, but I can't wrap my head around the last 6 points.

Core:

Saeryn herself (gasp!)
- Angel
- Scythean
- Scythean
- Shredder
Deathstalker
Deathstalker
Forsaken
Spell Martyr

I've got the tenacity shredder, the angel for feat flying shenanigans and 2 solid melee beatsticks. Stalkers for infantry&solo hunting. The Forsaken is for fury management and as a back-up against high-def targets. Spell martyr for an early Breath stealer or to increase blight bringer range.

But what about the last points? Here are my two ideas:

a) add another shredder and forsaken. That gives me a suicide shredder for blight field and another fury management solos. Two forsaken means I can max out fury on all 3 heavies and keep 3 on Saeryn herself w/o suffering any threshold checks.

b) add a raek. That gives me a far more threatening blight bringer target, that can also leap over enemy models and is less vulnerable thanks to high def and stealth. On the other hand I now only have one Forsaken, which means I must either gamble on my threshold checks or build up less fury.

raek or anyssa.

[zor]

I find Annyssa is a safer bet for 35 points, but Raek has more utility...Add raek and drop down to 2 shepherds?

[Roadhouse]

I'd go with the Shredder and Forsaken.

[Karnstein]

So managed to play a match and decided to run the raek version.

My opponent fielded the following:

pDenny
-Nightwretch
-Cankerworm
-Reaper
-Skarlock
max Banes +UA
max McThralls
Necrosurgeon
Tartarus
Siren
3 Scrap Thralls
Tech+Scrap Thrall

I won the roll-off and deployed first (no scenario, just caster kill). After he placed the McThralls on the right and the banes center/center-left I run everything (except Saeryn) up to the right. He ran his stuff right into my face, but didn't popped his feat.

On my second turn the Raek jumped right into the middle of the McThralls and after a nice Blight Bringer, some shots from the Stalkers and little help from one of the Scytheans the whole unit disappeared. I popped my feat and the second Scythean scrapped the cankerworm, while the angel flew over his banes to put some pressure on pDenny.

On his second turn he feated too and poured some ranged shots into the Scythean that scrapped the worm. He also moved his Banes into melee range with him and the angel.

I didn't killed much on my third turn (MAT4 sucks against cryx), but I did manage to get rid of the UA and some other banes. On his third turn he killed the angel (which respawned) and one of my Scytheans. Raek survived with 1/3 of his health.

On my fourth turn I cleared some banes off the board with the Stalkers, killed Tartarus and put some damage on pDenny with a Blight Bringer (he moved her up pretty close). The raek moved up a bit, headbutted pDenny and then my surviving Scythean charged her and killed her with his initial attacks.

Having the raek was nice. His jump allowed me to maximize the Blight Bringer damage and his headbutt netted me the caster kill.

[Neutralyze]

when playing against denail feats its important to pressure them to feat first if possible.

[Snarkie]

Do people generally find that 2 Scytheans work better than 2 Angels at 35 points? Why/why not?

[Karnstein]

Do people generally find that 2 Scytheans work better than 2 Angels at 35 points? Why/why not?

Well, I do run dual angel with eVayl, but she can cycle refuge. And while flying two angels over your opponents lines during feat turn sounds nasty, the one AP attack per angel is a hit or miss gamble. Esp. as a counter against cryx, where stuff like pDenny feat shuts down armor piercing anyway for a turn.

But that's just my personal opinion and I don't have that many Saeryn games under my belt anyway. Dual Scythean on the other hand comes quite handy against tough targets like Bane Thralls, esp. since most Saeryn list doesn't have enough firepower to get rid of the standard early (unless you catch it with a blight bringer).