Post by Atreju on Jul 3, 2015 21:02:07 GMT
This is from the en-forum, written by Math Mathonwy.
This AotW was a joint effort between me and Capt_Krill himself and, with the C3.5's new emphasis on magic, rather useful stuff for pretty much every faction.
Elementals
With the coming of the new rules of C3.5, Elementals will be seen on the battle fields of Aarklash far more often. Before they were amongst the most expensive spells costing a hefty 50 AP, but now that they are free their average Intensity of three really begs for people to take the spells.
When summoned, the Elemental requires constant feeding in order for it to stay obedient and therefore a Familiar is a good idea for Elemental Summoners. The last thing you want, is your big beatstick coming after your Mage, after all!
Elementals can also be bought with points, but the high 75-point price tag is almost always better served by taking some other troops or the cheaper Mage to summon the creature. The best thing about summoned troops is the fact that they are wholly expendable. Sure, the opponent will get GA for killing them, but hampering his quest for the real scenario objectives is usually worth the points lost. And when the Elemental bites the dust, another should can be summoned.
The type of Elemental that can be used by a faction is dictated by the Elements that they master. No Elementals of prohibited elements allowed! Orcs are special in that they can recruit all elementals and with the help of Son of Thunder or a Theme they can summon any of them as well.
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The Air Elemental is the fastest of the elementals, having Flight and a MOV of 20 in both, on the ground and in the air.
The Elemental Projection of Air also has a long range of 20-40-60 and Air Elemental's AIM is a respectable four making it one of the shootiest of Elementals. Its incredible maneuverability allows it to pick the juiciest of targets and this is the main attraction, really. In order to take full advantage of this one should try to win the Tactical roll for the round and activate the Air Elemental last preferably charging a vulnerable enemy caster or other such prime target.
In combat, Air Elemental isn't very good. The stats of 5-7 4-7 would be suitable for a low level elite, not a 75-point creature. One area where the Air elemental excels, though, is its INI, which is one of the highest in the entire game rivaling even Living Legends.
When performing a diving charge things change a bit, though. INI jumps up to nine, which should win you INI almost every time barring the dreaded one time in six when you roll an automatic failure. ATT rises to a respectable seven, which is very hard to block, and STR becomes nine, which, while not phenomenal, is quite good. Combined with Assault Fire, the Air Elemental packs a healthy punch on the charge. The trouble is the fact that it still has only two dice for combat, but since it is resummonable both should be put into attack most of the time. With only two attacks it needs a bit of luck in order to dispatch of a squishy target like an opposing Mage, but it's certainly possible.
Air elemental has two special capacities, both of which are defensive in nature. It can forfeit movement and confer a Target/+1 bonus to every friendly fighter within 20 cm, which is useful in shielding a tightly knit group for a turn or so. Taking this elemental over others for just this purpose is a waste, but when suddenly finding oneself staring down the barrels of half a dozen muskets, for example, it certainly can come in handy.
The other special power is turning Ethereal, but while in this state it can't place dice in attack or shoot the elemental projection. This is useful in the case that you want to tie up a dangerous enemy model.
What armies benefit the most from the Air Elemental then? Obviously the strengths of the Air Elemental being INI and MOV, the most obviously helped out armies are Dwarves of Tir-Na-Bor and Orcs, but the INI boost can come in handy for all sorts of big creatures that have low INI like the various Trolls and Ogres.
When using the Air Elemental, the chief thing to rememeber is to utilize the amazing maneuverability of thing. Disengage to your heart's content relying on the high INI or even Etherealness and tie up the most dangerous enemy beatsticks or threaten the vulnerable opposing Mages and Faithfuls.
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The Darkness Elemental is the scariest of Elementals. Though it doesn't quite match the incredible destructive potential of the Fire Elemental, it can wreck a lot of havoc in an opposing force that isn't prepared for it by bringing a competent Warstaff. The high Fear of 9 coupled with Dreadful makes it quite possible to scare off even very courageous opponents. This is an especially useful ability in the days of C3.5, when Mages take up most of the Character slots and some forces go into battle without a proper leader.
Besides scaring the enemies, the Darkness Elemental is no pushover in close combat, either. A healthy STR of 10 delivered with ATT 5 is enough to worry almost anyone and RES 9 should keep the Elemental alive for a while.
Like the Air Elemental, The Darkness Elemental has very good shooting capabilities with its elemental projection of STR 10. AIM 3 is nothing to write home about and the ranges aren't exactly spectacular, but still nice enough. By using its special capacity, the Darkness Elemental can also lower its AIM by one but change the projection into light zone artillery. This is at its most useful as a deterrent forcing the opponent to think twice before bunching his models too tightly and can therefore disrupt formations quite nicely.
The other special capacity of the Darkness Elemental is the Grasp of the Void. It can surrender one attack die to get a one in three chance of doing a light wound to each of the enemies in base to base contact with it. This is nice, as it can't be defended against (and therefore doesn't let the enemy use Ambidexterity or Counter-attack) and is useful when the Elemental is ganged up upon.
What armies get the most out of the Darkness Elemental, then? It gives nice ranged support and the fear-causing abilities are useful for all armies so I would rate the Darkness Elemental as one of the most useful ones for everyone. A couple of factions can make extra use from the C3.5 Rallying rules, which prohibit rallying when in contact with an enemy Fear-causing model. A particularly evil trick is to therefore engage the models that are in rout with cheap and maneuverable Fear-causers, like Mid-Nor Reapers or Acheron Morbid Angels. This can completely ruin the day of an opposing beatstick that had bad luck with their courage test.
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Earth Elemental is the toughest of the Elementals and one of the toughest models in the game. With an incredible RES of 13, Hard-Boiled and DEF 5, this guy is here to stay. Couple all of this with the Force of the Earth, the ability of going underground for a round to heal all of its wounds and the only things aside from Living Legends that could be seen as more resistant to injury are the Mountain Warrior and the Dragon.
Sadly, on the offense this powerhouse really doesn't deliver. Its elemental projection is the weakest of the bunch with lousy ranges and AIM of only two. In close combat ATT 5 and STR 8 really doesn't hold a candle when compared to the Fire Elemental or even the Darkness Elemental (which at least has close combat oriented special capacity). OTOH with the Earth Elemental you can go all out attack most of the time letting the huge RES soak up any enemy retaliation.
Also of note is the fact that when resurfacing from the underground, the Earth Elemental gains Regeneration/5 and +1d6 to STR and RES, which is certainly nothing to sneeze at.
When it comes to tactics, the Earth Elemental is all about the tar pit game. If the enemy manages to engage it with some fodder, the big rock will probably spend a few turns doing nothing especially productive. OTOH if you manage to get a charge against an enemy beatstick, they will probably be stuck for a while. Even an Aberration or a Predator of Blood needs a few combat rounds of uninterrupted work to mine through this stop gap and getting through unscathed is full day's work for them despite the low(ish, for the price range) combat stats of the Earth Elemental.
---
The king of Elementals, Fire Elemental is by far the most powerful one. This guy is just head and shoulders above the rest, really. Fire is the element associated with destruction and this fellow certainly delivers!
A powerful, STR 8 elemental projection with Aim 3 (but rather short ranges) is nothing to sneeze at, but the real power of this guy comes shining through in close combat. With ATT 6 and STR 14 the Fire Elemental has the best combat stats by far. Let me point that out again, in case someone missed it the first time: STR 14! That's incredible. War Fury gives it the ability to get an extra dice (so sorely needed by other elementals) and a nice INI of four means that there is a good chance of hitting first with this powder keg.
This beast should be War Furying pretty much all the time, so its DEF of four probably won't be coming to play often, but RES 9 gives some protection, especially considering that after the enemy has been softened by those STR 14 blows, they won't be on their best.
As if all of this wasn't enough, with the Flaming Eruption the Fire Elemental can explode violently inflicting itself with a Light Wound but attacking everything in a short radius with its elemental projection. Its AIM drops to zero but the STR of the projection rises to 10. One should be careful about this as it hits friends just as easily as foes and STR 10 hurts.
Perhaps surprisingly, the most useful effect of this eruption is the Light Wound that is inflicted on the Elemental in the process giving the player a chance to finish it off in order to resummon it good as new.
Last, but not least, Fire Elemental has a respectable Fear 8 and MOV 15, which ensures that this creature really doesn't have much in the way of weaknesses.
Who should take this elemental, then? Everyone who can, that's who. An extra beatstick of this caliber, with this speed is, sadly, a no-brainer. Remembering that it is resummonable, I'm hard-pressed to come up with a better spell than Fire Elemental Summoning.
---
The weakest of the bunch, the Light Elemental is closest to the Air Elemental in style, but is quite simply weaker. With AIM of three, Elemental Projection STR 6 and average ranges, the Light Elemental is the second worst shooter of the bunch. It has Flight, but only at MOV 15, which makes this also one of the slowest Elementals, as changing altitude levels reduces MOV. And when it comes to combat stats, the Light Elemental is the weakest being close to Air Elemental but without the extremely high INI.
The only redeeming quality with the Light Elemental is its special capacity, which it can use to provide friendly Mages with mana gems of Light. Depending on dice roll between zero and four gems will be provided, two gems on average. This means that the upkeep for the Light Elemental is only one gem a turn on average, which makes this the cheapest Elemental by far. Unfortunately it loses the shooting attack for the turn, which hampers its combat potential even further.
The best thing about this Elemental, aside from the awesome miniature, is the low upkeep, which makes it the ideal choice for low POW mages who wish to summon elementals. Also worth considering if the Mage wants to summon an elemental and still cast high-cost magic, but this rather an unreliable tactic that can backfire nastily.
Familiars
Familiars provide the Mage with mana gems. This is their primary role and the primary reason for taking them. Familiars can fulfill this mission in their life by two means: Devotion and Familiar Subjugation. The first one might very well kill the Familiar, but will reliably provide a nice amount of gems. This dying can also be exploited if you kill the Familiar that was about the be whacked by an enemy thus denying pursuit movement.
The less painful method of getting gems from a Familiar is through the Subjugation table. The Mage must roll a POW test and consult the following table.
Roll Result Effect
0 or less POW/-1
1 to 5 +1 Gem of Familiar’s Type
6 to 10 +2 Mana Recovery Roll
11 to 15 INI/+1
16 to 20 +2 All Counter Magic Roll
21 or more +1 All Incantation Roll
The Mage can voluntarily go up one level on the table and as the +1 Gem is usually the best result this is rather common for high POW mages. In all my games I have never seen the last two results on the table and all in all it can actually be a hindrance to have a very high POW as then you can easily roll 11 to 15 result and can only go up one level on the chart.
Familiars can also be used in combat, but they have very low combat stats. Some Familiars have high INI-values, though, which can be very useful in some situations, but beware! A Familiar dying sucks gems from the Mage it was bought for, or if there's no three gems to drain, inflicts a Light Wound.
The Air Familiar has the best combat stats of the Familiars, which still isn't much. The redeeming quality of very high INI (5) is certainly useful and can be used in combat (if you're slightly desperate), especially as with their DEF of four they can actually take care of themselves somewhat. ATT 3/STR 3 is nothing to write home about, though.
The Darkness Familiar Familiar causes Fear (a meagre four), which can sometimes save the day. Very, very rarely though. Other than that, the combat Stats of 3/4 and 3/4 are actually rather nice when it comes to Familiars.
The weakest of the Familiars, INI 1 and ATT and DEF of only 2, the Earth Familiarshouldn't go into combat. If that happens, the RES of five, high for a Familiar, low for pretty much anything else is it's only real hope.
The Fire Familiar has a nice INI of four, but its pitiful DEF of one makes taking this guy into actual combat extremely risky. ATT 3/STR 4 can hurt someone, but don't rely on it.
The Light Familiar is like a weaker, no-Fear version of Darkness Familiar with just one lower RES.
I feel that the Water Familiar is the second best of the Familiars after Air. With the same INI of five and DEF of four, you can use it the same way as the Air Familiar. Actually the only differences between the two are the one lower STR of Water Familiar and its DIS of five. Since this can't be used for Tactical Rolls, it is useful pretty much only as a defensive measure against some spells and for Rallying rolls.
This AotW was a joint effort between me and Capt_Krill himself and, with the C3.5's new emphasis on magic, rather useful stuff for pretty much every faction.
Elementals
With the coming of the new rules of C3.5, Elementals will be seen on the battle fields of Aarklash far more often. Before they were amongst the most expensive spells costing a hefty 50 AP, but now that they are free their average Intensity of three really begs for people to take the spells.
When summoned, the Elemental requires constant feeding in order for it to stay obedient and therefore a Familiar is a good idea for Elemental Summoners. The last thing you want, is your big beatstick coming after your Mage, after all!
Elementals can also be bought with points, but the high 75-point price tag is almost always better served by taking some other troops or the cheaper Mage to summon the creature. The best thing about summoned troops is the fact that they are wholly expendable. Sure, the opponent will get GA for killing them, but hampering his quest for the real scenario objectives is usually worth the points lost. And when the Elemental bites the dust, another should can be summoned.
The type of Elemental that can be used by a faction is dictated by the Elements that they master. No Elementals of prohibited elements allowed! Orcs are special in that they can recruit all elementals and with the help of Son of Thunder or a Theme they can summon any of them as well.
---
The Air Elemental is the fastest of the elementals, having Flight and a MOV of 20 in both, on the ground and in the air.
The Elemental Projection of Air also has a long range of 20-40-60 and Air Elemental's AIM is a respectable four making it one of the shootiest of Elementals. Its incredible maneuverability allows it to pick the juiciest of targets and this is the main attraction, really. In order to take full advantage of this one should try to win the Tactical roll for the round and activate the Air Elemental last preferably charging a vulnerable enemy caster or other such prime target.
In combat, Air Elemental isn't very good. The stats of 5-7 4-7 would be suitable for a low level elite, not a 75-point creature. One area where the Air elemental excels, though, is its INI, which is one of the highest in the entire game rivaling even Living Legends.
When performing a diving charge things change a bit, though. INI jumps up to nine, which should win you INI almost every time barring the dreaded one time in six when you roll an automatic failure. ATT rises to a respectable seven, which is very hard to block, and STR becomes nine, which, while not phenomenal, is quite good. Combined with Assault Fire, the Air Elemental packs a healthy punch on the charge. The trouble is the fact that it still has only two dice for combat, but since it is resummonable both should be put into attack most of the time. With only two attacks it needs a bit of luck in order to dispatch of a squishy target like an opposing Mage, but it's certainly possible.
Air elemental has two special capacities, both of which are defensive in nature. It can forfeit movement and confer a Target/+1 bonus to every friendly fighter within 20 cm, which is useful in shielding a tightly knit group for a turn or so. Taking this elemental over others for just this purpose is a waste, but when suddenly finding oneself staring down the barrels of half a dozen muskets, for example, it certainly can come in handy.
The other special power is turning Ethereal, but while in this state it can't place dice in attack or shoot the elemental projection. This is useful in the case that you want to tie up a dangerous enemy model.
What armies benefit the most from the Air Elemental then? Obviously the strengths of the Air Elemental being INI and MOV, the most obviously helped out armies are Dwarves of Tir-Na-Bor and Orcs, but the INI boost can come in handy for all sorts of big creatures that have low INI like the various Trolls and Ogres.
When using the Air Elemental, the chief thing to rememeber is to utilize the amazing maneuverability of thing. Disengage to your heart's content relying on the high INI or even Etherealness and tie up the most dangerous enemy beatsticks or threaten the vulnerable opposing Mages and Faithfuls.
---
The Darkness Elemental is the scariest of Elementals. Though it doesn't quite match the incredible destructive potential of the Fire Elemental, it can wreck a lot of havoc in an opposing force that isn't prepared for it by bringing a competent Warstaff. The high Fear of 9 coupled with Dreadful makes it quite possible to scare off even very courageous opponents. This is an especially useful ability in the days of C3.5, when Mages take up most of the Character slots and some forces go into battle without a proper leader.
Besides scaring the enemies, the Darkness Elemental is no pushover in close combat, either. A healthy STR of 10 delivered with ATT 5 is enough to worry almost anyone and RES 9 should keep the Elemental alive for a while.
Like the Air Elemental, The Darkness Elemental has very good shooting capabilities with its elemental projection of STR 10. AIM 3 is nothing to write home about and the ranges aren't exactly spectacular, but still nice enough. By using its special capacity, the Darkness Elemental can also lower its AIM by one but change the projection into light zone artillery. This is at its most useful as a deterrent forcing the opponent to think twice before bunching his models too tightly and can therefore disrupt formations quite nicely.
The other special capacity of the Darkness Elemental is the Grasp of the Void. It can surrender one attack die to get a one in three chance of doing a light wound to each of the enemies in base to base contact with it. This is nice, as it can't be defended against (and therefore doesn't let the enemy use Ambidexterity or Counter-attack) and is useful when the Elemental is ganged up upon.
What armies get the most out of the Darkness Elemental, then? It gives nice ranged support and the fear-causing abilities are useful for all armies so I would rate the Darkness Elemental as one of the most useful ones for everyone. A couple of factions can make extra use from the C3.5 Rallying rules, which prohibit rallying when in contact with an enemy Fear-causing model. A particularly evil trick is to therefore engage the models that are in rout with cheap and maneuverable Fear-causers, like Mid-Nor Reapers or Acheron Morbid Angels. This can completely ruin the day of an opposing beatstick that had bad luck with their courage test.
---
Earth Elemental is the toughest of the Elementals and one of the toughest models in the game. With an incredible RES of 13, Hard-Boiled and DEF 5, this guy is here to stay. Couple all of this with the Force of the Earth, the ability of going underground for a round to heal all of its wounds and the only things aside from Living Legends that could be seen as more resistant to injury are the Mountain Warrior and the Dragon.
Sadly, on the offense this powerhouse really doesn't deliver. Its elemental projection is the weakest of the bunch with lousy ranges and AIM of only two. In close combat ATT 5 and STR 8 really doesn't hold a candle when compared to the Fire Elemental or even the Darkness Elemental (which at least has close combat oriented special capacity). OTOH with the Earth Elemental you can go all out attack most of the time letting the huge RES soak up any enemy retaliation.
Also of note is the fact that when resurfacing from the underground, the Earth Elemental gains Regeneration/5 and +1d6 to STR and RES, which is certainly nothing to sneeze at.
When it comes to tactics, the Earth Elemental is all about the tar pit game. If the enemy manages to engage it with some fodder, the big rock will probably spend a few turns doing nothing especially productive. OTOH if you manage to get a charge against an enemy beatstick, they will probably be stuck for a while. Even an Aberration or a Predator of Blood needs a few combat rounds of uninterrupted work to mine through this stop gap and getting through unscathed is full day's work for them despite the low(ish, for the price range) combat stats of the Earth Elemental.
---
The king of Elementals, Fire Elemental is by far the most powerful one. This guy is just head and shoulders above the rest, really. Fire is the element associated with destruction and this fellow certainly delivers!
A powerful, STR 8 elemental projection with Aim 3 (but rather short ranges) is nothing to sneeze at, but the real power of this guy comes shining through in close combat. With ATT 6 and STR 14 the Fire Elemental has the best combat stats by far. Let me point that out again, in case someone missed it the first time: STR 14! That's incredible. War Fury gives it the ability to get an extra dice (so sorely needed by other elementals) and a nice INI of four means that there is a good chance of hitting first with this powder keg.
This beast should be War Furying pretty much all the time, so its DEF of four probably won't be coming to play often, but RES 9 gives some protection, especially considering that after the enemy has been softened by those STR 14 blows, they won't be on their best.
As if all of this wasn't enough, with the Flaming Eruption the Fire Elemental can explode violently inflicting itself with a Light Wound but attacking everything in a short radius with its elemental projection. Its AIM drops to zero but the STR of the projection rises to 10. One should be careful about this as it hits friends just as easily as foes and STR 10 hurts.
Perhaps surprisingly, the most useful effect of this eruption is the Light Wound that is inflicted on the Elemental in the process giving the player a chance to finish it off in order to resummon it good as new.
Last, but not least, Fire Elemental has a respectable Fear 8 and MOV 15, which ensures that this creature really doesn't have much in the way of weaknesses.
Who should take this elemental, then? Everyone who can, that's who. An extra beatstick of this caliber, with this speed is, sadly, a no-brainer. Remembering that it is resummonable, I'm hard-pressed to come up with a better spell than Fire Elemental Summoning.
---
The weakest of the bunch, the Light Elemental is closest to the Air Elemental in style, but is quite simply weaker. With AIM of three, Elemental Projection STR 6 and average ranges, the Light Elemental is the second worst shooter of the bunch. It has Flight, but only at MOV 15, which makes this also one of the slowest Elementals, as changing altitude levels reduces MOV. And when it comes to combat stats, the Light Elemental is the weakest being close to Air Elemental but without the extremely high INI.
The only redeeming quality with the Light Elemental is its special capacity, which it can use to provide friendly Mages with mana gems of Light. Depending on dice roll between zero and four gems will be provided, two gems on average. This means that the upkeep for the Light Elemental is only one gem a turn on average, which makes this the cheapest Elemental by far. Unfortunately it loses the shooting attack for the turn, which hampers its combat potential even further.
The best thing about this Elemental, aside from the awesome miniature, is the low upkeep, which makes it the ideal choice for low POW mages who wish to summon elementals. Also worth considering if the Mage wants to summon an elemental and still cast high-cost magic, but this rather an unreliable tactic that can backfire nastily.
Familiars
Familiars provide the Mage with mana gems. This is their primary role and the primary reason for taking them. Familiars can fulfill this mission in their life by two means: Devotion and Familiar Subjugation. The first one might very well kill the Familiar, but will reliably provide a nice amount of gems. This dying can also be exploited if you kill the Familiar that was about the be whacked by an enemy thus denying pursuit movement.
The less painful method of getting gems from a Familiar is through the Subjugation table. The Mage must roll a POW test and consult the following table.
Roll Result Effect
0 or less POW/-1
1 to 5 +1 Gem of Familiar’s Type
6 to 10 +2 Mana Recovery Roll
11 to 15 INI/+1
16 to 20 +2 All Counter Magic Roll
21 or more +1 All Incantation Roll
The Mage can voluntarily go up one level on the table and as the +1 Gem is usually the best result this is rather common for high POW mages. In all my games I have never seen the last two results on the table and all in all it can actually be a hindrance to have a very high POW as then you can easily roll 11 to 15 result and can only go up one level on the chart.
Familiars can also be used in combat, but they have very low combat stats. Some Familiars have high INI-values, though, which can be very useful in some situations, but beware! A Familiar dying sucks gems from the Mage it was bought for, or if there's no three gems to drain, inflicts a Light Wound.
The Air Familiar has the best combat stats of the Familiars, which still isn't much. The redeeming quality of very high INI (5) is certainly useful and can be used in combat (if you're slightly desperate), especially as with their DEF of four they can actually take care of themselves somewhat. ATT 3/STR 3 is nothing to write home about, though.
The Darkness Familiar Familiar causes Fear (a meagre four), which can sometimes save the day. Very, very rarely though. Other than that, the combat Stats of 3/4 and 3/4 are actually rather nice when it comes to Familiars.
The weakest of the Familiars, INI 1 and ATT and DEF of only 2, the Earth Familiarshouldn't go into combat. If that happens, the RES of five, high for a Familiar, low for pretty much anything else is it's only real hope.
The Fire Familiar has a nice INI of four, but its pitiful DEF of one makes taking this guy into actual combat extremely risky. ATT 3/STR 4 can hurt someone, but don't rely on it.
The Light Familiar is like a weaker, no-Fear version of Darkness Familiar with just one lower RES.
I feel that the Water Familiar is the second best of the Familiars after Air. With the same INI of five and DEF of four, you can use it the same way as the Air Familiar. Actually the only differences between the two are the one lower STR of Water Familiar and its DIS of five. Since this can't be used for Tactical Rolls, it is useful pretty much only as a defensive measure against some spells and for Rallying rolls.