Hordes: Skorne Salt
Skorne chat groups on Facebook and the PP forums have been negative lately. Is the problem the rules or the players?
Is skorne really the red headed step child of hordes right now or is it just leftover salt from MKII to MKIII changes.
Where Did This All Come From?
No doubt skorne’s playstyle radically changed across the board. The Basalisk Krea animus is a shell of what it use to be. Losing the armor bubble from shooting makes models obviously more supscetible to shooting.
Elephants can’t defend themselves. All the titans took a defensive hit in the MKIII transition. This means even with the Krea defensive bubble most ranged attacks will not need to boost to hit.
Paingivers no longer give free charges. This was a big deal, now skorne models having to pay for charges can be the difference in a Heavy/Colossal dying or not.
Molik, Archidon, and more!
Beasts across the board lost some abilities. Molik is now a mere Fury 4 even with Maekada and only has sidestep when fielded in her battlegroup. The Archidon lost some melee power and is no longer the cheap flying murder beast it once was. Far Strike is now a self animus so beasts can now be elite ranges across the board.
Casters:
Maekada 1 and 2 both were revamped. No longer is Molik being bulleted across the field with spells like Savagery or Road to War and Leash.
Why Privateer – WHY!!!
Is It That Bad?
Skorne is not really bad, but it is different. Our local players have already adapted to new edition really well. One shining beacon in MKIII is definitely Rasheth. Rasheth’s spell card is monstrous and his feat makes even a light warbeast like the Cyclops a pain to deal with. The fat guy can use his feat to clean your clock or defensively to make his heavies armor incredibly hard to crack with an Agonizer backup.
The Mammoth is no longer the gargantuan turd. It guaranteed 2 shots and with ARM20 it can take punishment.
The Agonizer -2 strength aura is now on all models not just warbeasts. All of sudden these ARM20 beasts are getting real hard to crack.
The Farrow Brigands are now great unit and Skorne can take them. With a Taskmaster behind them they are immune to knockdown making the tough rolls twice as annoying. Throw in a strength buff when need and these guys can get scary.
Take a look at some of the casters that weren’t as popular in MKII. Naresh now has blur and can hit with good POW when he gets whipped up. Maekada 2 can now stay death MULTIPLE models. Skorne now has a Harbringer like life saver.
Some Old Favorites Are Still Around:
Xerxis brick is still nasty!
Xerxis with Centratii is still a nightmare to deal with. Vorkesh makes them hard to debuff, defenders ward is still on Xerixs card, and the Agonizer is easy to hide behind them. How do you deal with a shield wall unit that is armor 24+ that you can’t cast spells on? Not easy!
A Bronzeback is still a Bronzeback. Yes he lost the free charge but he still is a freaking monster. When my Bronzeback got to most heavies in MKII he never really needed all that fury. His 1 rounding colossal days definitely took a hit, but Colossals are less popular now at least here in the south.
At the end of the day every faction has it’s nasty stuff. Is everything great ? Nope, but it ain’t that bad either.
Don’t be so salty!
What do you think BoLS? Is the Skorne salt real – or do the players just need to adapt?
