Skorne: Road to War

Lead my army to war!

This might come as a shock for some people, but a few years ago I owned 4 armies for Warmahordes.  My first army was Cygnar, followed by Retribution, Circle and Skorne.  I didn't really write all that much about Circle or Skorne because that was towards the tail days of my WH career.  Just recently, I decided to buy back the majority of my Skorne army.

So why did I choose to buy back Skorne and not Circle?  I think the biggest reason for me is the aesthetics and look of the army.  If you think about it, Skorne are basically Vampiric Dark Elves in Samurai armor.  They love to torture and extend their lives with cruel and sadistic practices, and they're highly disciplined and powerful.  I mainly look at armies for aesthetics and how much synergy they have in their units.  Thankfully, Skorne has a lot of interesting synergies in their army to a point where people refer to it as "Skornery".

For my SR2014 dual list, I'm currently thinking of running both Makedas.  pMakeda will be my attrition caster while eMakeda will be my aggressive caster.  I originally wanted to run with Xerxis, but I think his playstyle might be a little too linear for my tastes.  After looking at my other options like eHexeris, I actually think I like what pMakeda brings to the table more.

Points: 50/50
Supreme Archdomina Makeda (*5pts)
* Basilisk Krea (4pts)
* Bronzeback Titan (10pts)
* Molik Karn (11pts)
* Titan Gladiator (8pts)
Nihilators (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Praetorian Swordsmen (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Praetorian Swordsmen Officer & Standard (2pts)
Agonizer (2pts)
Mortitheurge Willbreaker (2pts)

Let's break this army down piece by piece:

• eMakeda gives me two really useful spells and an extremely powerful Feat.  Road to War gives the entire army extra movement and Leash allows me to add 3" to a warbeast of my choice.  The feat allows my entire army to hit accurately and ignore Free Strikes.  When combined with Road to War, this allows me to move past enemy models and get in striking range of the models that I want.
• The Krea in this list gives me two things:  Paralytic Aura and Paralyzing Gaze.  Eyeless Sight when combined with the Willbreaker's re-rolls gives me a solid ranged solution to reduce a target's defense down.  Paralytic Aura is also pretty huge because having a 2" aura of +2 DEF/+2 ARM is super useful vs. ranged attacks.
• Both the Bronzeback and Gladiator are great beasts to have in any Skorne army.  Rush is a fantastic animus and a staple for any list that wants additional movement and Pathfinder.  One of the biggest flaws of Skorne is the lack of Pathfinder and thus, the Gladiator becomes a staple the majority of the time.  Not only that, but this allows you to combine Road to War and Rush to extend a beast's charge by 4".  As for the Bronzeback, he's nothing more than a solid beatstick that's capable of one-rounding any opposing beast/jack in the game.
• Last but certainly not least, we have Molik Karn.  When you add on Leash, Road to War, and Rush, you extend Karn's natural 11" threat range to 18".  Add in two additional Side-Steps and you're threatening 22" of unconventional movement before you start tapping into Karn's 5 Fury with Makeda.  Enrage gives you POW15 on the attack and Feat turn gives you 3 attack dice per swing.  On average, you'll be hitting DEF17 with POW15 Weapon Master.  MK is your key assassination tool in this list.
• The rest of this list is made out of infantry and key support solos:  Nihilators threaten an additional 2" under Road to War and Praetorian Swordsman are great at destroying single-wound infantry with their mini-feat.  This allows you to chew through Black Dragons, Boomhowlers, or other armor-stacking units that are meant to hold the line.  Vengeance move with Makeda gives you 3" of additional threat, which puts their threat range to 14" with RoW before Side-Step.  Even against enemy beasts/jacks, you're capable of putting out tremendous damage if your opponent isn't aware.
• Beast Handlers are in every Skorne list ever made, Willbreaker gives beasts an extra attack and Puppet Master, and the Agonizer is there to shutdown enemy Colossals/Warjacks.

I'm not ready to reveal what my other list pairing will be just yet, but this has to be my favorite list to play in all of Hordes.  It's fast, aggressive, capable of assassination and has all the right tools for the job.