Looking to start skorne as a hordes faction

[jkendle88]

I play cygnar for warmachine and I am looking for a complete change of pace, im still relatively new to warmachine, but understand the rules and what not.

My main questions are Is pHexeris a decent Lock? (he is by far my favorite of the bunch)

Also are the skorne hard to paint? Just looking at the models they look like they could get a bit frustrating to paint.

Also what would some good first purchases be?

Thanks for any help you can give.

[PG_dungeongod]

Hexeris1 is a fantastic 'loc. I really like him a lot myself. And he will play very differently than your Cygnar do

Nihilators or Praetorian Swordsmen + UA would be my recommendation for a unit. I would also get beasthandlers, and the standard beasts (gladiator, bronzeback)

How many points are you looking at? What style are you looking at?

As to a pain to paint - my other army is Protectorate, but I find these guys much easier. I also don't do a lot of red on them, because I hate painting red. Mine look more ... Egyptian almost.

[jkendle88]

Im looking at around 25-35 pts for starters, im new with the fury mechanic ive never even played against a hordes army. So I am a little confused about how many beasts a lock could run and w I am more looking for a melee type army and im told skorne or trollbloods are better than any warmachine faction for pure melee beat down. But i don't really care for the trolls.

[PG_dungeongod]

Well, if you want melee beat down, then Hexeris 1 is a good choice.

Hexeris wants at least one unit, preferably two. At 7 fury, he can probably support 2 heavies and a light or two, or even 3 heavies. With our paingiver beast handlers, we can manage fury really well, so you can go beast heavy if you want. You want a unit that can get a chain kill started on his feat turn, which is why I recommend Praetorians with their UA. The UA has a mini-feat that makes it so they do a point of damage guaranteed. With that plus side-step and a second attack, you can do a lot of damage on his feat turn.

If you have a lot of shooting in your meta (cygnar, retribution, some protectorate) I would recommend taking a Krea. Otherwise, I would take a drake, his spray is gross on the feat turn as well.

Something like this for 35 points:

Lord Tyrant Hexeris (+6)
* Basilisk Drake (4)
* Razor Worm (4) OR Basilisk Krea (4) <-- use this to arc spells through
* Bronzeback Titan (10)
* Titan Gladiator (8)
* Aptimus Marketh (3) <-- He can help you with your upkeeps, and help to move more spells around as necessary
Agonizer (2)
4 Paingiver Beast Handlers (2)
10 Praetorian Swordsmen (6)
* UA (2)

This is also technically a tier 1 list, which means you can start him out with all of his upkeeps out. You would want Death March on the swordsmen, Psychic Vampire on himself, and Soul Slave on the razorworm or the krea. Use the krea or razorworm to get weird arcs with soul slave, and use the swordsmen as fodder/feat attack generators. On his feat turn, you will want to try and focus on killing the right things - focus on high-mat, high-str guys, or guys who can kill each other. For instance, against Cryx, Bane Thralls work really well, especially if you can get rid of the standard early on (to get rid of tough). Blood witches incorporeal? Just use the Drake's spray on them, and use their own weapons against them.

His feat requires a LOT of knowledge of what your opponent can do, so you have to be very aware of that. Also note that his feat allows you to take control of beasts you kill, and they are removed from play, which means that your opponent cannot reave. And, if you are closer to the beast than your opponent is, you can reave from enemy beasts when they are destroyed at any time. That can be fun!

Welcome to the fold, and enjoy subjecting Immoren!

Edit: Subjecting = Subjugating. sigh.

[jkendle88]

Thanks a lot that was a very helpful and informative post, and looks like a good place to start to me, so I will certainly look at picking those models up, are they things that can be used to good effect with other locks too? I might eventually want to pick up xerxis as well.

[PG_dungeongod]

The Razorworm is the only one that I might be hesitant about saying could be used with other 'locks. I use the Krea with Rasheth as well, and sometimes other 'locks depending on how my meta is moving. The rest of them are pretty much standards. Agonizers are awesome, and beast handlers are sweet as well.

You might look at nihilators as well, which you could swap out the two basilisks for.

[Jaradakar]

Personally I don't like Hexeris 1 very much at all. I highly HIGHLY recommend PLAYTESTING/PROXY using him prior to purchasing an army around him. I love the model and when I first started playing Skorne had dreams of using him as one of my primary warlocks -- sadly that is not the case.

I really dislike his feat as it's very inconsistent and in many battles will be worthless. Razorworms + Extroler = some great eyeless sight spell slinging and first turn attacks, but I really feel like that gets boring fast (and is not that effective).

Hexeris 2 on the other hand is pretty amazing and is much more versatile in the lists that he can run.

[PG_dungeongod]

Honestly, the models I have in that list, sans the razorworm, make it into at least half of my lists. And depending on your meta, Hexeris1 is either amazing or not so good. That said, his spell Death March is amazing, and one of the few ways to increase MAT in Skorne. I think that is why I like him most - since I end up playing against a LOT of Khador in my local meta, and now that it is growing, a lot of Legion and Cryx too. :P

I should try pMakeda again with carnage...