On Saturday at WSS:Summer my final round opponent had a Varangur army with two Devourers in it. What surprised me most about these were that they were Monsters that had Nimble that could not be stripped. There are a few Monsters with Nimble courtesy of Fly but that can be stripped in combat by Disordering them.
Being mounted on a square base allows the Monster to move away from an unattractive combat very easily. The Nimble allows a Pivot and the Height the LoS to undertake a lot of charge corkscrews etc.
Monster Gyrating Atop A Pin
As this offered tactical possibilities, I decided that I would look through the various lists and see how many of these non-Fly Nimble Monsters there are.
The answer is three and they are all in Uncharted Empires.
1. Devourer (Varangur)
Sp 7 - Me 4 - De 4 - A 10 - Ne 14/16 (175 points)
He comes with Pathfinder, CS1, Stealthy, Strider, TC1 and can be given a Vicious Breath Weapon for 15 points.
2. Knucker (Trident Realms)
Sp 9 - Me 4 - De 4 - A 6 - Ne 13/15 (145 points)
Here you Pathfinder and TC3
3. Planar Apparition (Night Stalkers)
Sp 7 - Me 4 - De 4 - A 4 - Ne 13/15 (165 points)
Added abilities are Ensnare, Heal (7), Pathfinder, Regen 4+
So three quite different units, but all sitting in the mid-priced Monster niche. I think it is fair to discount the Apparition as it is clearly a support unit that should never be in combat (Heal 7 and only 4 attacks). But the other two have potential.
The Devourers I saw had Breath Weapon upgrade and I can see the value of that - however it can be neutralised via combat. I am undecided but expect I would take the upgrade in an all comers list as it appears charitably priced.
The speed of the Knucker is its greatest asset (when coupled with Nimble and Pathfinder and its TC3). It suffers from a low Attack count though and is probably best used for clearing chaff rather than confronting heavy hitters.
Interested to hear what success people have had with these Pin-dancing behemoths.
Posted with Blogsy
Planar apparition is an amazing roadblock if that is needed more than heal, ensnare and regen make it able to hold up a supeising amount of things, can be really good putting it to block a key horde or something in a forest
ReplyDeleteI didn't realise there were so few of them.
ReplyDeleteI've always taken devourers in my Varungur lists. They nearly always have the breath upgrade. This gives them a dual role - of shooty and fighty. The special rules also mean that they can close down on shooters quickly and disorder them. As you say if they do get into trouble and survive, they can pivot and run away. Love 'em.
By coincidence my WIP Trident Realms army will have 1 to 3 Knuckers in it. Here they provide some speed to an otherwise fairly static army. They can get on the flanks, disorder archers quickly and negate thunderous charges. The also have ensnare so that improves their survivability.