Age of Sigmar: Ivya Volga – Ultimate Monster Hunter
Ivya Volga is the new Soulblight Gravelords hero who can stop Archaon’s Slayer of Kings from working. Now that’s some Monster Hunting!
Games Workshop revealed the new vampire coming to Age of Sigmar during the Adepticon Previews. Ivya Volga doesn’t just have a fun name to say, she’s also one heck of a monster hunter in her own right. Known as “The Outcast” by her vampire family she prefers to roam the wilds and hunt the largest prey. And that has led her to develop some interesting abilities.
“Immortality leaves you with a lot of free time. Since receiving the blood kiss, Ivya Volga has spent centuries hunting the fiercest predators of the Mortal Realms – a prescient pastime to have honed ahead of the Era of the Beast. In the course of her hunts, her loyal bats – the closest thing this lone wanderer has to friends – have drunk the blood of many arcane creatures, granting them the uncanny ability to perceive ley lines of geomantic power.”
Ivya Volga now functions as a bit of a scout for her conclave. She uses her bats to spy on the realms in search of a new place to build a city on top of those mystical ley lines. That’s all well and good but what about her monster hunting skills, you ask?
Ultimate Monster Hunter
“Her exploits have earned Ivya the title of Behemoth’s Bane – so it’s fitting that she can dominate the most abominable creatures in the Mortal Realms. While fighting MONSTERS, Ivya reduces the Attacks characteristic of their melee weapons to 1, and even outdoes them in objective-grabbing prowess.”
Yep. You’re reading that right. if an enemy unit has the Monster keyword and they are within 3″ of Ivya Volga all of their melee weapon attacks are reduced to 1. That’s…actually a really powerful ability! Provided you can keep her alive, you can force some of those massive melee monster powerhouses to their knees as they try to fight their way out a tough situation. So what does that have to do with Archaon?
Well, as you probably know, Archaon has a weapon called “The Slayer of Kings” — it’s kind of his iconic sword. It’s got a special rule:
“Slayer of Kings: Each time this unit fights, if the unmodified wound roll for 2 or more attacks that target the same enemy Hero with the Slayer of Kings is 6, that Hero is slain.”
Unfortunately for Archaon, he’s also got the Monster keyword. Which means his melee attacks are going to be reduced to 1. Which means he can only ever score 1 hit against Ivya Volga with the Slayer of Kings…which means he can’t get two 6s to wound against her with that weapon. Shut. It. Down.
Now, as a Slaves to Darkness player, I find that hilarious. I don’t know if this particular interaction is intentional but I’d have to let that one roll. There’s nothing in the Behemoth’s Bane rule that indicates that it wouldn’t work on Archaon…so yeah, let’s do it!
If you’re a Sons of Behemat player you’re in even more trouble if Inya is on the board!
That said, she’s probably not going to have a crazy number of wounds. I’d bet that if all of Archaon’s attacks connected she’d probably bite the dust — especially if one of those claws rolled hot. But either way, she could probably tank the attacks of some of the biggest monsters in the game for at least a round! That’s something. And if she survives she’s actually got some damage potential thanks to her bat swarm:
You know between the -1 to be hit from the Shrieking Swarm, the debuff to enemy Monster’s melee attacks, and all those bat attacks, she’s actually sounding like a really good tool to add to a Soulblight army. Also, Ivya’s got an axe, too — so you know that’s going to pack a punch.
Ivya Volga is the Ultimate Monster Hunter for the Soulblight Gravelords. I’m betting she’s going to make her presence felt on the tabletop when she hits arrives very soon!
Monsters beware! Ivya Volga is coming to hunt you!
