Morvahna - her strenghts, weaknesses, and how to play her competitively.

[Gobos]

There has been quite some talk about Morvahna lately. I have been playing her as one of my main warlocks for SR events in past months, and I’d like to tell you why she’s a good choice for competitive play. Some say she’s not a viable option, as there is a lot of upkeep-hate which messes up with her main trick – Regrowth. While she has some tricks besides it, this spell is what makes her shine. There are three ways enemies will try to deal with it: 1. Upkeep removal; 2. Remove from Play (RfP) effects; 3. killing entire unit in one turn.
I have compiled a list of what tools each faction has to accomplish this. They are divided into Primary threats – models that will make you choose your second list, and Secondary threats – models that will cause trouble, but can be played against, just require more careful positioning of Regrowth unit. I am sure I have missed some, I will keep updating this if anything more comes up.

1. Cryx
Primary:
Terminus. Morvahna brings a lot of living infantry, which means a lot of souls for Terminus. This can be mitigated to some extent by taking a Witch Doctor, but will still be a tough game.
Secondary:
eDeneghra. She has Hellmouth, which may cause some problems. Still, she can only cast it once a turn and it takes most of her focus to do so.
Withershadow Combine. Just make sure you keep your regrowth unit 11” from Admonia. A bit farther if Darragh or Scaverous are on the board as well. Kill Admonia at first opportunity, WSC are decent prey targets.
Satyxis Blood Witch. Again, keep out of threat range and make this model one of your priorities.
2. Cygnar
Primary: none
Secondary:
eEiryss – see Mercs section
3. Khador
Primary: none
Secondary:
I think eSorsha has a spell (Shatter Storm) that gives a unit RfP on attacks. Not a game breaker, but something to look out for.
eEiryss – see Mercs section
4. Protectorate
Primary:
Harbringer. With Purification and anti-infantry feat, this is definitely one of Morvahna’s toughest matchups. To be avoided at all costs.
pKreoss. We all know Purification screws up Morvahna’s game.
Secondary:
eEiryss – see Mercs section
5. Retribution
Primary: none
Secondary:
eEiryss – see Mercs section
They might have a caster with Shatter Storm (Ossyan? Rahn?)
When Hyperion is released, his Crit Consume gun will be something you want to avoid with Regrowth unit.
6. Mercenaries
Primary: none
Secondary:
eEiryss. Regrowth needs to go on Bloodtrackers, which should be kept at least 12” away from her. Watch out for anything that can increase her threat range (Corbeau, Telekinesis, Snipe). Also watch out for any effects that let her ignore Stealth (Mage Sight, Spriggan's flare). Obviously, make Eiryss a priority target.
7. Circle
Primary:
pKrueger. He is one of the few capable to take out entire Regrowth unit in one turn. Avoid him if you can.
Mohsar. Can cast enough Crevasses to deal with Regrowth pretty fast.
Secondary:
Cassius. Two Hellmouths will mean a lot of dead infatry you can’t bring back.
Bloodweavers. As with similar models, try to keep out of threat range.
eBaldur has Crevasse as well, but he’s not likely to spam it as Mohsar can. His high-ARM army can be a problem for POW 9 infantry though.
Thrullg – see Minions section.
8. Legion
Primary:
eVayl. Purification, enough said.
Secondary:
eLylyth. Can wipe out entire unit on feat turn, although I will be rather happy if she wastes feat on unit and leaves my beasts intact. Anyway, I don't think a Legion player would choose eLylyth against Sac Pawn warlock, but she is somethink to watch out for.
Scythean does RfP on his chain attack. Don’t let him get too many of your models.
Thrullg – see Minions section.
Absylonia’s spell Carnivore gives RfP attacks IIRC.
9. Skorne
Primary: none
Secondary:
Zaal – has Hex Blast. In my experience, he often takes an Extoller and Cyclops Shaman, which gives him 12” range ignoring Stealth. Zaal definitely likes to stay in the back, but be careful not to get your Regrowth unit too close to him.
Thrullg – see Minions section.
Rasheth – Carnivore again.
10. Trollbloods
Primary:
pDoomshaper – Purification again.
Secondary:
All Dire Trolls have Snacking, which does RfP. Still, it requires the troll to heal to RfP, so a full health one is less of a threat, you can also keep a Gallows Grove close to stop Snacking from triggering.
11. Minions
Primary: none
Secondary:
Thrullg – as usual with this sort of model, keep out of threat range and kill it if possible.

As you can see, out of 11 factions, 6 have no primary threat to Morvahna.

Why is it worth playing Morvahna competitively. As a player, my first priority is not losing. Morvahna can be kept far backfield, safe from assassination threats. I usually use my two infantry units as a first wave of attack (a wave that goes on, and on, and on…) and to block lanes to warbeasts. My beasts wait in the second line waiting for an opportunity to deliver a crushing blow, from which my opponent should not recover. This is why one of the beasts is a Stalker, Sprint helps a lot in this game – infantry bears the brunt of the fight, while beasts do typical Circle hit-and-run attacks. This strategy has two main advantages – first, it involves few risks to your key models, reducing luck factor is always something I like in my armies. Secondly, it is very time-efficient, especially in a Deathclock event. It takes much more time to kill those models than spend 5 or so Fury and place them back on the board.

So, for details, this is how my list looks like:
Morvahna
Ghetorix
Warpwolf Stalker
Gorax
10 Bloodtrackers + Nuala
10 Wolves of Orboros + UA
Shifting Stones + UA
Wolflord Morraig
Druid Wilder
2x Gallows Grove
Swamp Gobbers

I usually cast Regrowth and Harvest turn 1. If Stealth gives me no benefit to protect against upkeep removal (as it does against eEiryss, for example), I usually cast Regrowth on Wolves, although this also depends on the details of the list I’m facing. This is because I always want to get Wolves straight into the enemy force, while Bloodtrackers do well as a flanking unit as well. My battlegroup has two heavies with reach, both hit hard, both can sprint if necessary. Ghetorix is my main Restoration target. Morraig is a great Sprint target, and works as a third heavy-hitter. Since there are a lot of models with Prowl in the list, Gobbers are a must. I’d like to add Witch Doctor to the list, but I don’t know if I can justify dropping anything that the current list has. It has worked very well so far, but I will keep thinking on it.

Finally, let’s think which warlock should be chosen as a pair for Morvahna. I’m looking for one that does not rely on upkeeps, and does not need a lot of infantry. Also keeping in mind character restrictions, that warlock should play fine without Ghetorix, Nuala, or Morraig:
pKaya – let’s just move on…
eKaya – a good choice. Very different playstyle, is troubled only a little against anti-upkeep, and does not play with lots of infantry. Since I won’t be able to take Ghetorix or Nuala (which I probably would otherwise), that is an incentive to go for T1 at least.
pKrueger – another good choice. Since Morvahna’s infantry swarm works well against armies with multiple heavies, Krueger does not need to worry about these – but I’d still take 3 heavies at least. He’s good all-around, so I would not worry facing any list if opponent has one Morvahna cannot play against.
eKrueger – also good one. No upkeeps to worry about, does OK against most casters that cause Morvahna trouble.
pBaldur – He likes his upkeeps, and he likes to have Bloodtrackers as well. Not a choice I would consider.
eBaldur – no upkeeps to worry about. I have very little experience with him, so can’t say for sure.
Kromac – rather upkeep-reliant caster, not a good pair for Morvahna.
Mohsar – not a terrible choice, but he does not like his Mirage or CoS taken away. Also, I think there is too much overlap in playstyle for them to work well as a pair.
Cassius – a good warlock, but has some tough matchups which does not make him a good backup caster.
Grayle – he has been my choice as Morvahna’s pair lately. Plays a very different game, and somehow he just works very well for me – he has the best win-loss ratio of all my warlocks (80% wins currently).

Awaiting comments.

[PG_LEJKaya]

eLylyth can remove an entire unit of BTs in one turn and theres no real way to stop that beyond having one or two kept behind the lines. After feat turn they can only do 4-5 at best usually so thats fine.

The Witchdoctor should be an amazing addition but similarly I can't decide what to drop. Tough, undead BTs with regrowth will be among the best units in the game for survivability.

eEiryss: Along with movement increases and threat increases but also things that remove stealth (Mage sight, fire beacon, flare) as these effectively increase her range from 5" to 12".

[Mattho2k3]

I feel a pBaldur theme force is a good second list. It's gets far up the board turn 1 and is good for scenerio, which is something Morvahna isn't the greatest at. It's not that worried about upkeep removal because the Geomancer's can easily recast Stone Skin, my experience he rarely upkeeps Rapid Growth choosing to recast for a better New position, and recasting Solid Ground isn't the worst thing in the world.

[Gobos]

LEJ - you're right about Mage Sight. I haven't played against a Mage Sight caster in a very long time, that's why I forgot about this. Spriggan's flares come into mind at this point.

I think Morvahna is a good scenario caster, just not in the obvious way. She needs couple of turns to bleed opponent out, and after that it is usually easier to push for scenario than for assassination.

[Mattho2k3]

I didn't say she was a bad scenario lock just not the greatest. In my experience with her she has more of a jam a lot of bodies in the zone style. Anyways my point was I feel pBaldur is not a bad pick as a second warlock for SR events.

[SillySod]

Morvahna has alot of options.

One option I can't decide about is the viability of a pureblood and/or the winter argus. At first glance a pureblood is a no brainer. Wraithbane is genuinely great when combined with eruption of life and harvest and the purebloods spray is the easiest way to snipe out Eiryss before she becomes a problem. However, the problem is that you are left with a pureblood - not a great attrition piece and Morvahna does nothing to enhance its damage output. A winter argus is less obviously useful because its a poor beast and offers no combos but its possible that all this could be forgiven - double sprays give it a great chance to snipe out important solos (admonia, eiryss, etc) and it has a respectable def/arm along with a much smaller price tag. A more sensible attribution piece?

[PG_LEJKaya]

I have to say I wouldn't play either of those. The purebloods spray is pretty poor for taking out eiryss as is the argus. The argus animus isn't helpful and though the Wraithbane is, nothing else on the PB synergises.

Totem hunter is only 3 points and easily is our best option for killing solos (Except against Legion) and is an easy fit to the list as once he's done with important things hes basically 2 almost guaranteed fury from harvest each turn.

[SillySod]

Fair call. I just couldn't decide what to think of them because, as you say, no synergies.

Totem hunter is good. I havent found space for him recently but I've been very impressed when I tried him out in the past. As well as threatening solos he provides a neat way to grease the wheels of the engine - a couple of out of sequence MAT 8 attacks is really useful and with leap/sprint he gets where you want him to be.

LotF is a neat little piece of tech I've been testing recently. Morvahna would have a decent feat if she could link up the forest AOEs with any kind of reliability. Unfortunately what tends to happen is a successful melee attack will create a forest that kills 1-3 additional models... which now cant be killed to create additional forests. The problem is that you end up with a forest here, a forest there, but nothing resembling the big wall of trees that you really want to abuse. This is where the LotF turns up an ace. The big thresher attack generated by blood reaper is capable of killing multiple models simultaneously. Hence the LotF can rip his way into a small cluster and only has to kill a couple to create a decent block of trees (killing everything nearby). The trick is tospot the opportunity, feat, throw lightning strike on him, and bag yourself a big bundle of trees The best bit is that the LotF tends to end up in a very threatening position and gets charged up with corpse tokens.

(I play Morvahna with druids so the LotF isnt overkill when it comes to infantry clearence)

[Bladestorm]

Umm, Mage Sight is a battlegroup spell, it doesn't help eEiryss in the slightest.

[Bakemono]

The LOTF isn't bad with Morvahna at all. I tend to put the ARM buff on him early because (let's face it) he isn't going to last long. You want to get him into combat as early as possible by the 2nd turn at the latest and have him do his damage. Morvahna won't need the healing aspect of her ARM buff spell that early anyway. Let the LOTF use it and perhaps live a turn longer (depending on who you mesh him up with) and just recast it on something closer when he does or you need it for healing.

I think all those other options (which bet on hit and run tactics with him) are somewhat optimistic. I always try to keep him alive, but very few good opponents give you beyond that first solid hit. They will dedicate something more than capable of killing him simply to keep you out of the infantry. The benefit of this is it is inconvenient to have to break something off for that.

[SillySod]

I think all those other options (which bet on hit and run tactics with him) are somewhat optimistic. I always try to keep him alive, but very few good opponents give you beyond that first solid hit.

The question is... does the LotF get that initial contact?

If you cant score a good initial hit then I can see that the tactic is worthless. Getting that solid hit in can be really really tough so I think its fair to worry about that, especially against good opponents. However, once you score the hit you are pretty much sorted and safe next turn - even the best of opponents is going to have one hell of a time breaking through LOS blocking forest to reach and kill a LotF thats anywhere up to 9" away.

You can do a similar thing with eKrueger on his feat turn but sadly thats a little more situational, partly because eKruegers feat is far too important to waste keeping the LotF alive.

[Bakemono]

The question is... does the LotF get that initial contact?

Usually, yes. He has the right tools to do so unless the opponent really hobbles him/herself to avoid it. Starting advance deployed (often in a set of Shifting Stones) means a another jump forward followed by another 10" from giving them da'bird. If I go second I usually make contact on my first turn. If I go first, I generally make it on the second turn.

If you cant score a good initial hit then I can see that the tactic is worthless. Getting that solid hit in can be really really tough so I think its fair to worry about that, especially against good opponents. However, once you score the hit you are pretty much sorted and safe next turn - even the best of opponents is going to have one hell of a time breaking through LOS blocking forest to reach and kill a LotF thats anywhere up to 9" away.

Agreed. I only take the LOTF these days in my dedicated anti-infantry lists, i.e. that second list I take to Steamroller where everything is tuned to killing as many infantry as possible. I love him, both look and abilities, but I just don't find him generalist enough to put him in every list. Against infantrymachine he always earns his points back, usually 2x or more. Against a Warbeast/Warjack heavy list he is nothing more than a blip on the radar.

You can do a similar thing with eKrueger on his feat turn but sadly thats a little more situational, partly because eKruegers feat is far too important to waste keeping the LotF alive.

I just don't have the time to spend that much energy on keeping him alive. Most solos, to me anyway, are guided missiles that I launch. I do what I can within reason, i.e. nothing that detracts from my keeping my foot on the throat of my opponent, to keep them alive. The issue is that most of my spells, animus, and feats are generally directed at other goals. My preferred method of keeping the LOTF alive is having that ARM buff on him, charging into one unit of infantry and killing everything engaged with him, followed by a da'bird into another infantry unit somewhere within 10" further to the rear. That unit often can't put him down and the turnaround of dedicated units that can is often too expensive for my opponent. For the most part, the LOTF is on his own once I sent him forward.

[PG_cheddercaveman]

If anyone is curious, I have some of my thoughts on this written up on my blog: http://hordesofmanrus.blogspot.com/2...tumnblade.html

[Ghost Rider]

I would like to make some suggestions for more Secondary models that can cause Morvahna grief.
Cygnar / Mercs: Harlan Versh - with both Blessed and Purgation he can not only ignore the armor increase from Restoration but he gets very accurate and hits fairly hard (for a 2pt solo) against anything with an upkeep spell on it. Plus he has up to 4 shots from his Quad Iron

Circle: Ghetorix - this model can warp Snacking which RFPs living models.
Woldwyrd - has up to 3 range attacks and purgation, making it dangerous vs models with upkeeps. Can also use animus to make upkeeps more expensive and / or harder to cast.

[zlygobbo]

Goreshade have Hex Blast wich removes upkeeps...

Terminus have RFP Annihilation spell...

Gashpy and Scaverous have Excarnate wich also removes model from play bud main issue is that they can kill plenty of infantry at once with Bile thralls combinated with Excarnate...

[Snowmelter]

The scythean has RFP not on his chain attack, but on his animus (not sure, but I think this is rang 6 and can be on any warbeast, so any list with a scythean is bad).
Shredder have snacking. A single shredder only eats two BT´s, but there are shredder spam lists or the blood vessel.
Legion BE (should you ever see it) has 3 RFP attacks with reach 4" (I admitt to have seen it only once in a tournament and do not expect to see it again)

eCain removes models in his feat, depending on lists size, he maybe does not need his feat for your heavies. eCain feating for bane units against aAssi is not uncommon.

The magic bullet caster are also not bad at getting that last model of a unit.

Minions got also some RFP:
Slaughterhousers have take down (RFP)
Snapjaw has his warbeast bond (RFP on any kill)

Until the witch doctor is there, you should also think about models with terror. Morv has CMD 9, which is not bad, but models like LotF can let your BT´s test up to four times a turn (charge, raven, sprint, having kill half of the unit), you will miss some test.

[PG_battlemechanik]

Scythean's takedown animus is range self, like most animi in Legion.