Tactica: Agonizer

[Haugfather]

Ah, the oh so controversial PETA offending tortured baby elephant. A creature of pure mind numbing pain it can sap the will of man, beast and machine. Even the soulless blighted denizens of Cryx loathe this little monstrosity.

As one of the very few small based models in the game with medium model wounds and a surprisingly high ARM and decent DEF he is very difficult to remove the table. It has no melee or ranged capabilities yet it will draw more fire than a pistol wraith if you put it into the open. It has a relatively slow speed but since it is not hampered by having to use an attack or star action to use its abilities it can perform any Agony and then run.

Fearless – Of course. What could be worse than what it is already going through? In fact I would venture to guess he is looking for the sweet release of death.

Fury Bank – Really only useful for enabling his own abilities. In an end game scenario where pulling Fury from him would be handy he would already likely be dead. It is important to remember to bank as much as you can early in the game. Since he is not a Warbeast you cannot use Paingivers to charge him up. All of his Agonies work on a set range plus whatever amount of Fury he has on him.

Agonies – The true power of the little monster. He uses one of the Fury points banked on him to activate any one of these abilities. There are three very important things to remember about using any of these abilities.

1. They are NOT Star Actions. Use them at the beginning of your activation and then move (Run) into position.
2. They are all 'While Within' meaning Beasts and 'Jacks are affected as soon as they move into range.
3. Try and activate before your Warlock. Since the range of his aura depends on how much fury you have on him the only way to get max range is to have your Warlock top him off after he uses an Agony.

Gnawing Pain – One of the best reasons to take him versus another Hordes player. The debuff to damage rolls applies to ALL damage. Melee, ranged and whatever. If it originated from a Warbeast within the range of the Agony it is lessened. Can be absolutely invaluable in keeping your front line beasts on the front line for a little longer.

Maddening – The debuff to THR is seldom ever seen. With all the mitigating factors involved in Frenzying this is always a gamble. In some rare situations you can make your opponents life extremely difficult by using Paingivers and/or Saxon Orrick to force a Fenzy-Fest but it is difficult to pull off and of questionable tactical advantage (other than watching your opponent tear his hair out).

Spiritual Affliction – Against Hordes stripping a beasts animus can be game changer. Since the beast loses the animus that means it also becomes unavailable to the Warlock who might wish to cast it himself. This does not remove the effects of animi cast outside of the agony, though.

This is also the only Agony that works against Warmachine, and boy does it ever work against Warmachine! Arc Nodes moving into range of this ability lose their ability to channel spells. Against Cryx this is extremely frustrating. However, any Warjack that is within range of this Agony during your opponent's Control Phase cannot be allocated focus. Defensively, this practically guarantees the survival of any of your models who may be engaged with them. Offensively, you can knockdown Warjacks and they cannot be allocated the focus they would need to shake it off. They have to get up the old fashioned way.

Synergies -
With all Warlocks he is handy with some notable exceptions (Where he is more than handy).
Rasheth - Being able to take multiples in a tier list can cause quite a bit of headache for your Hordes opponents. Against a WM force he can be a cheaper alternative to casting Castigate to stop Arc Nodes and is as good as ever against 'Jacks.
Mordikaar - A good late game Essence Blast target.
Warbeasts;
Krea/Brute - Very handy for keeping the little guy alive as he gets into position.
Cannoneer - Against a Hordes opponent their combined damage debuffs can allow you get your beasts/Warlock out front and have a very high probability of surviving an attack from nearly any heavy beast (Thank God Molik Karn is on our side)

In closing, this pathetic looking monster is one of the best denial models in the game. He will almost always be of some value against any Hordes opponent but if you are playing against a Warmachine faction he is worth far more than his point value.

[Gargamel]

Some reasons why you might consider Agonizers with Rasheth:
- Castigate is not an upkeep, costing 2 every casting.
- Preventing Warjacks from being allocated Focus is always good, especially against Khador.
- Can provide an effective ARM bonus against Beast-borne assassinations.
- He can spare the early Fury to fill the bank.

[Soylent]

A big thing you glossed over on Spiritual Affliction and probably the most significant ability of the Agonizer is the prevention of focus allocation. It's something they can't prevent and takes a bit of the fight out of warjacks, especially when facing off with your beasts. The arc node thing can help but it can come down to taking out the Agonizer or positioning of the arc node to circumvent that ability.

Lastly, when you can't find a use for his abilities, he makes a great little chargelane blocker.

[JacobKlitte]

I am soooo looking forward to fielding 3 or 4 of these, already partially fueled for free, and just putting up the agony and launching them right out in from of my opponent for him to kill, one each turn.

If he doesn't kill it, it'll just cry again next turn. If he does kill it, I have reserves waiting.

No focus for his jack AT ALL, with the possibel exception of turn 1.

Good times...

[Pariah]

Some reasons why you might consider Agonizers with Rasheth:
- Castigate is not an upkeep, costing 2 every casting.
- Preventing Warjacks from being allocated Focus is always good, especially against Khador.
- Can provide an effective ARM bonus against Beast-borne assassinations.
- He can spare the early Fury to fill the bank.

Plus he works as a multi-wound Warrior model for Dark Rituals and is required for his Tier lists :P

[whats82]

Plus he works as a multi-wound Warrior model for Dark Rituals and is required for his Tier lists :P

Yup, that is quite convenient, as Agonizer is a model that will operate fairly close to the front line on crucial turns anyway.

[PG_strangedane]

The tier list makes Rasheeth quite good I think (on paper) vs warmachine, since it - as mentioned above - can make almost sure that the enemy jacks have no focus and therefore no real chance to kill our beasts in one turn. Combined with his other abilities this means that only infantry heavy armies can take him and we have quite a few beasts to deal with that, a beat backing bronce for instance.

[EpicAstinos]

I am soooo looking forward to fielding 3 or 4 of these, already partially fueled for free, and just putting up the agony and launching them right out in from of my opponent for him to kill, one each turn.

If he doesn't kill it, it'll just cry again next turn. If he does kill it, I have reserves waiting.

No focus for his jack AT ALL, with the possibel exception of turn 1.

Good times...

I haven't yet taken a look at Rasheth's Tier, does he expand the Agonizer's field allowance?

[PiousVanDorn]

I know this is tactics but... my lord what a concept & model???!!! No other faction has enough of a pair to take their bad a$$ heavy warbeast and mutilate it's young to use as a weapon... 57 flavours of awesome.

On a tactical note he's actually a tough little blighter to get rid of. Last night I ran him up behind a Glad ready to use any effect he needed which worked quite well. The minus to threshold is nice if you can run a single warrior model into contact with said beast to when they frenzy you might lose just a Swordsman or Beast Handler which is... well... Nice

[JacobKlitte]

I haven't yet taken a look at Rasheth's Tier, does he expand the Agonizer's field allowance?

Without being too specific: In Rashet's tier you can have more Agonizers. The exact number is based on the number of "parent beasts" you include. Also you won't have to work so hard to charge up their batteries, since Rasheth will have done some pre-battle preparation in regards to that...

[droffset]

He doesn't need LOS for the agonies to work, so you can hide him behind a terrain obstruction with his back to the wall and use his ability.

Spiritual Affliction usually results in the opponent's 'caster having to move up the field out of their deployment zone. However they are also more likely to camp focus.

Make sure you use the ability BEFORE running.

In a pinch run him into the open and turn on the ability, the opponent will have to dedicate more resources to getting rid of him than they'll be comfortable with.

[Baffler]

Thanks for posting this. I've moved up to bigger games and I was considering taking this little guy. Seems like a good spot to unleash an image I made in paint when I started Skorne. I told my friends that the Agonizer reminded me of a Pokemon (specifically Psyduck), kinda like a Garbage Pail Kid is like a Cabbage Patch Kid.

[Pantheon]

Agonizers work great in fatties tier list for all the reasons mentioned.....but to recap and expand on it


1) he struggles vs jacks since carnivore...influence and the feat don't work on them....agonizers make jacks useless so it helps shore up a weakness.

2). Castigate is great...but fatty normally plays very far back. Castigate and advanced agonizers can make the no arch bubble massive.

Ts3). Stacking his feat str debuff with the minus 2 damage agony makes beas neutered with minus 4 damage.......at that point his army can easily take the hits from the beasts.

4) as they run every turn and have a lot of wounds....they are very effective archnodes. This also makes them a more offensive model....and saves u having to run a model that could be fighting into position.

5) his high fury stat let's him fill them up quickly and for little cost. Especially since early game he often is just arching one spell anyway and has excess fury.

6) he can field multiples in his tier list......making using them as expendable nodes possible and fluffy

7). His tier list let's them start at 3 fury......which means he can fill them up on the first turn every game for very low cost.

8). Raseth struggles late game as when his beasts die...he can't easily finish the opposing caster. Having and extra turns worth of fury to soak up if they are still alive is very nice.

[Haugfather]

A big thing you glossed over on Spiritual Affliction and probably the most significant ability of the Agonizer is the prevention of focus allocation. It's something they can't prevent and takes a bit of the fight out of warjacks, especially when facing off with your beasts. The arc node thing can help but it can come down to taking out the Agonizer or positioning of the arc node to circumvent that ability.

Lastly, when you can't find a use for his abilities, he makes a great little chargelane blocker.

I thought I covered it pretty well on Spiritual Affliction. Gave a whole paragraph. I play against a lot of Cryx and in MK I he was the only way I could even be competitive.

I'll add some more in when I get a chance to sit down with Rasheth and actually play the SoB I just didn't see enough in him that was readily apparent.

The replies are all good feedback, thanks!

[Kenton]

Nice article. I can only add further support to using them with Rasheth.

Layering multiple agonies is nice as with the -2 damage your opponent is going to be boosting, reducing their THR in combination with this can create a lot of angst (especially if you then have fun with your Beast Handlers).

If you're lucky you can buy a whole turn where your opponent can't do what they want with their army.

I love the little guys, need to buy some more

[Couchmonster]

My favorite use for him has been using to generate a POW 13 spray with essence blast from Mordikaar

[Mnkylord]

I thought I covered it pretty well on Spiritual Affliction. Gave a whole paragraph. I play against a lot of Cryx and in MK I he was the only way I could even be competitive.

I'll add some more in when I get a chance to sit down with Rasheth and actually play the SoB I just didn't see enough in him that was readily apparent.

The replies are all good feedback, thanks!

Yeah, I find the "except Rasheth" bit a little puzzling... For one, he actually has enough to Fury to actually keep the little guy fully fueled (a problem I sometimes have with our other casters). And ALL of his agonies are useful. With Spiritual Affliction, I use him to prevent the allocation of focus far more than I do to prevent the use of arc nodes, anyway. And the fact that his themed lists can take more than one? That is gold, right there... Titans cost one less, AND you can buy an Agonizer to go with it. That will ruin some armies' day.

Another interesting point I like about Spiritual Affliction is that, to deny Warjacks their focus, you can throw caution to the wind and send the little guy out there willy deny their focus. Even if he's killed that turn, unlike the other agonies, he's done his job... The jacks have been denied their focus, and there isn't anything they can do about. And chances are, you will roll in behind to take advantage of the them during their moment of weakness. He's like a little EMP going off in the middle of their lines.

[Mifsuud]

While Rasheth himself still needs some testing, having him table multiple Agonizers and having them partially charged in his tier lists is amazing. Found two in the used case at LGS, I now have three at home. The fact that they are useful v both Warmachine and Hordes cannot be overlooked too. So many solos tend to only be effective against one or the other.

[EpicAstinos]

While Rasheth himself still needs some testing, having him table multiple Agonizers and having them partially charged in his tier lists is amazing. Found two in the used case at LGS, I now have three at home. The fact that they are useful v both Warmachine and Hordes cannot be overlooked too. So many solos tend to only be effective against one or the other.

You don't game at Gamer's Inn, do you? Having a "used case" is something you don't see at every FLGS, much as I love it.