Nightfall: Better Know Your Enemy

[Sevwall]

This is a completely theorymachined article analyzing our opponents models for the league, and the implications of said models.If you have your own theory machine, it is fully welcome. If you have actual experience, even better.

Everblight – Nephelim Warder
Gains – 10" Lamentation Animus, Magic Weapon, Blessed Weapon, Force Barrier
Loses – 1 POW, Massacre animus, 1 DEF
Replacement effect: Minimal. It can fulfill an almost identical role if necessary. The main difference is the loss of Massacre.
Likelyhood of use: Very high. Who doesn’t want lamentation? Additionally, its more resilient to ranged attacks and is nearly as potent in combat, more so against defensively buffed models.
Fighting it: Almost exactly the same. Luckily we rely much more on melee than most, so Force Barrier means nothing. That said, Lamentation crushes some of out better casters, so expect to have to kill this sooner rather than later. The 10” range should mean that you can get to it rather easily. If its on a caster, like, say, eThagrosh, it will be a much greater problem, and you will have to just deal. Mulg to strip the animus away might be a good option, and other than that Grim or either Madrak don’t usually cast all that much.

Circle – Shark Tharn
Gains – Fearless, 1 MAT, Finisher, Amphibious, Submerge, Blood Thirst, 1 POW
Loses – Gang, Stealth, Blood letting
Replacement effect: Unknown. Bloodweavers are very unpopular in my area, so I have little experience with any possible archetypes. They fulfill the hitting role better, but are much less well rounded.
Likelyhood of use: Pretty good vs us. We have little shooting to take advantage of the lack of stealth, finisher is good against us, and Blood Thirst is great vs Hordes. That said, they really aren’t that different from Bloodweavers in any way we care about, and they lack Dispel and the cloud o’ STR damage.
Fighting it: Pretend the Bloodweavers could charge further, but lost gang and all their cool abilities. As a whole, they are easier to deal with.

Skorne – Deathgaze Basilisk
Gains – POW 6, +STR to damage roll, RFP on destroyed, +1 RAT, Repulsion Animus.
Loses – POW 14, SP6 instead of SP 8, does virtually nothing to nonliving models, Bushwhack animus.
Replacement effect: They fulfill a different role, but the lack of normal basilisks doesn’t affect any current Skorne Archetypes.
Likelyhood of use: The extremely short spray range is not in its favor, and unless you are STR 8 or higher its actually less damaging. That said, its probably the most threatening to Trolls out of all the factions, so they might take it just because it’s the only real opportunity to do so without feeling like a fool..
Fighting it: SP 6 is extremely short. It still out threats most of what we can field though, and it’s a real threat to heavies. That said, its also really treatened by heavies, as with DEF 13, ARM 16 and a mere 19 boxes its toast if combat happens to it.

Cygnar – Gravedigger Grenadier
Gains – Arcane Precision, ROF 2, Steam Pressure
Loses – AD, Manual Reload
Replacement effect: Provides a truly independent AOE jack where once there was none. Seems ideal for Sloan lists.
Likelyhood of use: Hard to say. Most people who own one own trenchers and like them, so the loss of Manual Reload hurts more than one might think. But most people who didn’t like the fact that it was tied to trenchers might really want to use it now. Who knows what will be the deciding factor?
Fighting it: Its way less effective. We have no stealth, and the range it gains on Arcing fire doesn’t really matter with how we play the game.

Menoth – Obsolete Castigator
Gains – It Burns!, Disintegrate
Take from them – Everything (Combustion)
Replacement effect: Well, I never see the castigator taken, so its hard to say.
Likelyhood of use: Ummmm, unless they really want to play with it, its pretty bad. I know of no real casters who loved it other than maybe, maybe eFeora.
Fighting it: Use a beast or champs, just like before. How you combat it barely changes.

Cryx - Longnameginous
Gains – +5” spell range, Dark Fire, Influence, Blight Storm, Black Mantle, Stealth
Loses – Attached, Soul Slave
Replacement effect: Every Cryx caster now has easy access to stealth, as does every model in the Cryx army. It’s a big, big deal. That said, they also lose their usual access to a free spell. Its really hard to tell whats going to happen. I’m sure you will see one with the Coven (stealth ball!), Terminus, Goreshades and Gaspies. Well, if the points allow. Its also pretty awesome at allowing stealthy arc nodes.
Likelyhood of use: Kinda went into this already. Though, to be honest, we care almost nothing for stealth, and one of its biggest draws (Blight Storm + Satyxis for easy plinking) is worthless vs us. That said, its so horribly cool that you’ll probably see it anyway.
Fighting it: Just deal. It shoots from too far away to really shoot it back. If you are super worried about him, take Grim. He’s pretty good vs Cryx anyway.

Retribution – Arcanist Precursor
Gains – AD, 5 health, Sac-Pawn (Myrmidons), being expensive (2)
Loses – being cheap (1)
Replacement effect: Their jack support bill just doubled. Its also got harder to kill with attacks that we never use.
Likelyhood of use: Well, they kinda have to use it to get the jacks up to par. So I’d expect to see it.
Fighting it: Try not to shoot it (tee hee!).

Mercs – Blighted Pressgangers
Gains – +1 POW, Blight Kiss, ?Fearless? (or did they have that?)
Loses – AD, Shanghia
Replacement effect: Who takes pressgangers?
Likelyhood of use: Who takes ADless, Shanghialess pressgangers?
Fighting it: Stab them in their stupid faces. If you even see any. Which you won't.

[Thunder_God]

Don't forget Nephilim Warder with Saeryn, which makes her even ruder. It also got Flight to benefit from her feat when going places.

[PG_kakita]

I guess we don't need to talk about the Khador and Troll ones, since they're super awesome and everyone's gonna take them as a given?

[Sevwall]

WHoops, Khador should be there (and will be tonight). Trolls are unlikely to be fought, since map-control is a factor and it would be kinda cheap to just play your own faction to boost your control.

[The Happy Anarchist]

Cryx - Longnameginous
Gains – +5” spell range, Dark Fire, Influence, Blight Storm, Black Mantle, Stealth
Loses – Attached, Soul Slave
Replacement effect: Every Cryx caster now has easy access to stealth, as does every model in the Cryx army. It’s a big, big deal. That said, they also lose their usual access to a free spell. Its really hard to tell whats going to happen. I’m sure you will see one with the Coven (stealth ball!), Terminus, Goreshades and Gaspies. Well, if the points allow. Its also pretty awesome at allowing stealthy arc nodes.
Likelyhood of use: Kinda went into this already. Though, to be honest, we care almost nothing for stealth, and one of its biggest draws (Blight Storm + Satyxis for easy plinking) is worthless vs us. That said, its so horribly cool that you’ll probably see it anyway.
Fighting it: Just deal. It shoots from too far away to really shoot it back. If you are super worried about him, take Grim. He’s pretty good vs Cryx anyway.

Mercs – Blighted Pressgangers
Gains – +1 POW, Blight Kiss, ?Fearless? (or did they have that?)
Loses – AD, Shanghia
Replacement effect: Who takes pressgangers?
Likelyhood of use: Who takes ADless, Shanghialess pressgangers?
Fighting it: Stab them in their stupid faces. If you even see any. Which you won't.

Going to have to disagree with these two assessments. We actually rely on armor heavily, so blight storm is very good against us. Dark Fire less so because of tough, but blight storm helping Satyxis plink through our armor or even Revenant Crew or Venom sprays or other shenanigans. Even against champs it lets them do much larger amounts of damage than they should. Watch out for Blight Storm zaniness.

As for Pressgangers, they are the cheapest easiest to insert Pirates. Their main advantage is the built in tough and cheap price tag. With a higher power and an autokill special action from the leader, you may see more of these than you think. Considering that a simple Hawk, Doc, Bosun (or Gorten) module turns them into Pow 10 weaponmasters against our warrior models and 4+ no knockdown tough rolls to boot. Not to mention a lady murder machine that can charge through our lines to kill KSB, Fell Callers or Chroniclers, a decent AOE and healing option. You may see more of these than you expect.