8th Edition: The King in the Woods

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Spiney
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8th Edition: The King in the Woods

Post by Spiney »

I have a warhammer 8th edition campaign day coming up for which I am using wood elves, this will be three games over the course of a day, two one-on-ones (vs chaos warriors & Vampires) and a 2vs2 (against those two armies myself allied with high elves).

I know Orion isn't considered to be a very good option in the latest book (or come to think of it, the one before that) but I'd really like to build a list to get the best out of him, and as this event has a more friendly narrative feel to it, it seems like the perfect opportunity.

I just wondered if anyone on here could contribute anything useful, or maybe experiences of using him that can help me out, do I take the hounds or run him solo? I'm kind of thinking of using him similar to a dragon Lord although with a slightly more shooty dimension with that bolt thrower.

Any pointers?
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Phil Rossiter
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Re: 8th Edition: The King in the Woods

Post by Phil Rossiter »

Basically Orion is a Monster character who hits pretty hard in combat and has some nifty shooting attacks. His main problem is in staying alive. He is Toughness and Wounds 5, which means that even S4 hits in decent quantities can take him down. The normal defence to this in Monsters is to have two saves, say a 4+ AS and a 4+ Regen. But Orion has no armour, if it wasn't for the Cloak of Isha he'd be a dead duck. A 5+ Ward is very helpful and MR2 makes this 3+ vs spells, very important. Shooting is more of an issue, thankfully this is limited in your opponents Spiney. He can take Hounds as ablative wounds but that limits his maneoverability, he can no longer pivot. He also needs to watch out for template War Machines, in this case Hellcannon. Avoid Terrorgheist screams at all costs.

Normally, you'd want to get him into combat ASAP to escape being shot. Unbreakable is fantastic but he risks getting whittled down. He also needs to watch out for Frenzy, this means he has to Overrun and Pursue which could leave him vulnerable. The key I guess is to get him into the right target. Against VC's and WoC he might have some leeway to stand off and use his shooting, could be particularly helpful vs the tough armoured Chaos characters. These can be hard to take down with S3 archery. If charging, ideally I guess you'd want other fast units close to benefit from his Devastating Charge radius.

Many players have focused their magic phases on keeping him alive. Life for example, has been popular.
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Re: 8th Edition: The King in the Woods

Post by LadyLoec »

Agree with everything Phil has said. Keeping your opponent from immediately targeting him whilst maintaining line of sight for those shooting attacks, and also proximity to your line to benefit from that 6" devastating charge bubble is a really challenging thing to achieve. He's mostly fielded with wild riders for fluff reasons, but ironically they're the only unit that don't benefit from his devastating charge effect.

Perhaps one way to keep him upright whilst taking advantage of that ferocity is fielding him with dryad units accompanied by branchwraiths. That way, not all your eggs are in one basket RE: Healing magic, and with some wild rider backup they could do quite well.

Thoughts?
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Re: 8th Edition: The King in the Woods

Post by Spiney »

I've put together a list factoring in some of the ideas posted here, feel free to take a look and add your thoughts there too

http://www.asrai.org/viewtopic.php?f=44 ... 12#p355412
“The Time of the White Chill and the White Light is nigh, the Time of Madness and the Time of Contempt”
- Prophecy of Ithlinne
Phil Rossiter
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Re: 8th Edition: The King in the Woods

Post by Phil Rossiter »

LadyLoec wrote:He's mostly fielded with wild riders for fluff reasons, but ironically they're the only unit that don't benefit from his devastating charge effect.
Odd, isn't it?

:)

Hope you don't mind if I slip in a plug for 8th discussion on Ulthuan Spiney? HE-centric of course but we touch on all sorts:

http://www.ulthuan.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=80
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Re: 8th Edition: The King in the Woods

Post by Spiney »

I just had a though regarding Orion's hounds, if I take the hounds the rules say they form a unit even though Orion cannot usually join a unit. If I take the hounds can I join other characters to the unit, for example characters mounted on stags/steeds.
“The Time of the White Chill and the White Light is nigh, the Time of Madness and the Time of Contempt”
- Prophecy of Ithlinne
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Re: 8th Edition: The King in the Woods

Post by Phil Rossiter »

I'd say no, unfortunately. Orion/Hounds are Unbreakable and non-Unbreakable characters are not permitted to join units that are. Main rulebook pg78.

I quite like the Hounds though. A couple of extra wounds vs shooting or magic missiles doesn't go amiss and they have a 4+ Ward vs spells. Say the enemy lands five hits on the unit. You can allocate two to each Hound and one to Orion. Otherwise he'd be taking the full five hits.
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