In my most recent match, I realized that along with my capacity as a player I need to change the models that I use to make pMorghoul shine. So today, I'll be doing some List Crafting to try to figure out what I need to update and what fellow Skorne players that like how pMorghoul operates could run him. Over the next couple of days, I'll be examining what pMorghoul can do, what he wants to use, and what he should use in a list.
To do this, we obviously need to take Morghoul apart piece by piece and figure him out. We'll be pretty orderly about this and break down his card front to back, to give an order to it.
Stat-wise, the first thing that jumps out at me is the SPD 7 and MAT 8. More than anything SPD 7 just because I spend half my day trying to figure out how to get SPD 4 to reach it's target. the MAT 8 Speaks of his capacity as a melee caster. DEF 17 and ARM 13 give an illusion of survivability, by giving him the capacity to survive by the skin of his teeth, since any hit that he receives will probably leave him down half his boxes. This also means that I need to be worried about AOE's and Blast Damage, since you can Boost Blast Damage, making even POW 7's of Blast Damage work at 3d6 - 6; giving him about 4 pints of damage PER AOE. Hell, he will be at serious risk if anyone ever gets him stuck with Continuous Fire. POW 12's WILL kill Morghoul with enough application. Especially
He has 2 pretty weak looking initial attacks at P+S 9, so given him being structured as something of what looks like an Assassin style caster, he will have a special trick probably later on to make these useful.
His 5 FURY really holds him back from doing a lot on the field, and means we really have to work hard to make sure that Fury is well maintained on the board. So, for any Spells that he has, we'll need to do everything in our power to not have him use his Fury too much in any given round. He'll probably bounce 1 or 2 spells in a round, to keep one Transfer on himself.
Now, no Caster is complete without Special Rules, and his is a fun wall of text.
Anatomical Precision allows him to always get some use out of his Attacks, and he is able to both control fury on the board in the traditional Skornish way by harming his beasts with Maltreatment. It also lets him always have some form of transfer fury at the end of his turn. Overtake lets him move one inch when he destroys a warrior model, and Sprint lets him take a Full Advance when his activation. Perfect Balance keeps him safe from Free Strikes, Backstrike Bonuses and CM/CRA's. Further, if he's Knocked down, if he survives the turn, he can stand up without missing out on Move or action.
Finally, his weapon gives him 2 attacks whenever he buys one, and he can hit beasts to add or remove fury, giving him a capacity to mess with your opponents Fury management, but if he does make contact with your opponents beasts, there is an honest problem there that should be remedied immediately.
His Spell list is interesting, short, and to the point. Torment, is a RNG 10 POW 12 that stops your opponent from Transferring Damage and stops Tough checks on an individual model. This solidly cements him as an assassin caster. Interesting note: His Charge range is exactly 10", as is his Control area. So, if this spell is able to connect with it's target and your battlegroup is in 10", then you have at a basic level gotten things well positioned. Screening and such is more of a context oriented matter, but all this means you have the decent chance of having a very successful charge available.
Abuse is simple, and spammable. It gives +2 STR and SPD. It makes our threat ranges stronger, our beasts bigger, and combined with Enrage can turn our most pillow fisted beasts (Any of the X-idons we have) and makes them able to wreck properly, while still keeping niche utility.
Admonition is one of my favorites in his list just because it gives a lot of slow pieces interesting ways of getting into position, and surprising your opponent. When an opponent's model ends it's movement within 6" of the target model, you get a Free Strike free 3" advance.
This is spell makes me really like Morghoul. It lets us be tricky like an assassination caster has to be. It let's me surprise my opponent and give a chance to react to what he does.
His feat, Pain and Suffering, stops your opponent from Spending Fury/Focus or Forcing his beasts.
That is huge. It is a beautiful piece of one turn board control. It is one turn that you can play to completely negate your opponent's plans and give all his pieces a hard reset since he can't cast Animi, and has to drop his Upkeeps. It's a good way to make sure your opponent's pieces are vulnerable. Further, the question of whether you are going against Hordes or Warmachine Armies is whether the feat can be used offensively or not. Warcasters would have to camp their focus, making them harder to kill with Morghoul, even if he automatically gets one point of damage in. However, against Hordes, it leaves Warlocks unable to transfer on feat turn, allowing you to buy multiple attacks and rip them apart one point of damage at a time with a theoretical 14 attacks.
It can be used defensively, but given pMorghoul's aggressive play style, he wants to use it to keep an opponent from responding to a harrowing assault. It will keep him from buying attacks, from casting spells, and lets you take a lot of risks, though you have to be careful of your opponent's charge ranges, as they can still charge if outside of that 10" bubble.
So, he's an Assassin caster that wants to keep everything he uses nearby, while having to decide on when and how to boost threat ranges on his beasts with no real spells to help warrior units. Seems pretty simple.
Next time I'll be posting about what pMorghoul wants to use in a list, and build a 35 point list in the next article. Here's a sneak preview: He wants to use a lot of beasts.
Thanks for reading, and may Pain, Misery, and Agony befall your foes in a manner too horrifying to consider.
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