Warmachine: Blighted Trollkin Marauders Might Just Set the Meta Ablaze
With their torches blazing the Blighted Trollkin Marauders have been released onto the tabletop! Our review of the Slaughter Fleet continues, let’s check out this new Cryx unit!
Weaponry
The Marauders are a new 10 trooper medium based unit that have both a melee and ranged weapon. Their Fire Brazier ranged attack is a thrown weapon, meaning any strength buff also work on their ranged attacks. In addition on a direct hit all models in a 3 inch AOE are set on fire!
At RAT 5 you’re going to want some sort of hit fixer to make use of their ranged attacks consistently. This is where Combined Ranged Attack(CRA) becomes very relevant and gives this unit some nice versatility. A 2 man CRA effectively becomes a RAT 7, POW 14 attack, not bad! On the extreme end all 10 attacks combine to become a RAT 15, POW 22 attack! I doubt that combining all 10 attacks is going to come up much, but in the rare case you need one giant attack to finish something off the potential is there.
The melee weapons of the Marauders is a pretty average POW 12, but being a Chain Weapon is very useful in the incoming meta of Shield Wall troops. Against something like Shocktroopers in Shield Wall formation, the Marauders can charge in and still do some serious damage. Add an STR buff or a caster with an ARM debuff and Shocktroopers need to beware.
What do you mean I’m only ARM 17?
Skarre Synergy
Marauders would love to pair with any caster that can provide a Strength buff, in fact, all 3 versions of Skarre bring some nice synergies. Under Skarre1’s feat you could choose one or two Marauders to gain +5 STR, then use those as the origin for a combined ranged attack. A 3 man CRA would result in a RAT 8 POW 20!
Skarre3 brings Draconic Blessing, Dash and Deceleration to the table which all combo nicely with the Marauders. The +2 STR from Draconic Blessing means that melee or ranged combat starts at POW 14. Dash extends threat range and is great for disengaging the enemy if you would rather shoot at something instead.
It makes sense that the Admiral herself runs these pirates pretty well.
While Skarre2 doesn’t bring a Strength buff, she does have Black Spot. Not only does Black Spot help the Marauders hit by lowering the enemies Defense, it can potentially generate a lot of extra attacks. The downside here is that Marauders are only range 8, so unless your opponent bunches up all their models you may run out of good targets to shoot.
The Rest of the Crew
The Marauders are decent on their own, but getting some of the other crew members involved can really make them shine.
Jussika is a new Command Attachment for Blighted Trollkin. While I like her best attached to Bloodgorgers she has a bubble of tough no knockdown that affects all Trollkin, not just her unit. Combine this with Ashen Veil and you have DEF 14, Tough no knockdown troops. That’s entering the range of pretty annoying.
I feel like Axiara keeps coming up in every review, but she’s just that good and is very likely to be one of your free solos when playing in theme. Want your fire wielding Trollkin to be stealth? No problem, with Ashen Veil and Prowl these Marauders super sneaky!
So Stealthy!
Marauders also really like the Tactician benefit from Axaria which they can use to spread Ashen Veil to everyone without messing up your order of activations the following turn. You can take the following module with any caster and have a sea of DEF 14, Tough no knockdown Blighted Trollkin everywhere!
– Bloodgorgers with Jussika Bloodtoungue – 20pts
– Blighted Trollkin Marauders – 15pts
– General Gerlak Slaughterborn – 6pts (free)
– Axiara Wraithblade – 6pts
I’ve said it before, don’t set sail without her
Wrap Up
The Blighted Trollkin Marauders are a nice 10 man unit for 15pts. Their combined arms approach will let them be useful in a variety of situations and they’ll combo nicely with the rest of the Slaughter Fleet crew.
What do you think of the Marauders, will they be in your Slaughter Fleet list?
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