Your Guide to Chucking Spears!
by GreenJello
Pitching enormous spears with bone-crushing force, impalers are the living ballistae of the trolls. Each carries a quiver of massive wood-and-iron projectiles bearing only the most basic resemblance to the puny twigs smaller races call spears. These savage implements obliterate men and knock even the greatest beasts off their feet.
Battlefield Role
The Impaler is one of our more popular lights, which it's low points cost, decent light abilities, and support for our ranged game
. This is in addition to it's abilities as a light warbeast to provide fury, transfers, and beat stuff up.Buffer
He can buff your Bomber/Slag/Pyre/Blitzer with no fury investment from your caster at the cost of 4" on his range. Obviously, this is a tempo investment for your Impaler - he'll get less work done or put himself at significantly more risk to do his job
Solo Hunter
His cheap cost, and ability to boost both damage and to-hit make him an excellent option for dealing with something that just has to die.
Flanker
With his boosts, and Reach, an Impaler to either side can be excellent for dealing with opponents that like to run pincer maneuvers, or bring things in from ambush. Troll bricks can be particularly vulnerible to ambushers, like the Bog Trogs, that run cheap units in from the side, preventing forward movement. The Impaler's a cheap and effective answer to these issues.
Card
Fairly average stat-line for a light. His stats are almost exactly the same as the Axer but with one lower MAT and lower ARM. His RAT is one below average. He's pretty cheap and comes with the average light warbeast Fury value.
Thrown Spear
Normal Troll range, damage is decent for a ranged attack, and increases with increases to STR. It's critical effect is to slam the model away, which can be nice for moving things out of the way. It can also knock down models, leading to assassination, or easier removal of a heavy piece. Please note that with RAT5, the odds are around 30-35% depending on the target with a boost, and ~10% without.
Battle Spear
Slightly higher than light beast average, with Reach. In a pitch he can switch to melee, utilizing fury to boost his otherwise unimpressive stats, and potentially picking off a key solo or infantry model.
Far Strike
This is where the money
is. The Impaler's animus allows one model to gain Snipe for +4" of range, something that takes our faction's ranges from bad to good. Please note that this differs from Snipe as a spell, the spell effects an entire unit, the animus a single model.Warlocks!
Virtually all of our warlocks can get some use out of the Impaler, it's a very versatile model, even if it's included by itself. I'm just going to list the warcasters that have a special synergy with it.
Grim1
Grim does a lot to help the Impaler overcome RAT5. First, he has his Snare Gun, which can knock down targets. Second, his feat reduces enemy DEF by 3, and makes it unlikely survivors will be charging the Impaler. Marked for Death can also reduce def, and stacks with the feat. Third, Grim's Cross-Country can provide Hunter, which allows the Impaler to ignore Forests, Concealment, and cover.
Grim2
Once again Grim does a lot to help the Impaler. His feat grants Snipe, and +2 to ranged attack rolls. Krump has the Snare Gun for knock down, with is a bit tricky with his RAT6. Grim himself has Mage Sight, allowing the Impaler to ignore Stealth. Very nice for dealing with Nightmare, or Occulation. Mirage and Pursuit can allow the Impaler out of activation movement, allowing him to reposition without losing the Aiming bonus
. (Mirage is often better on a unit) You can Rage the Impaler during feat turn and boost to hit AND damage on the Impaler. Which is likely RAT7 +3d6 to hit (from Mark the Target) and P+S17+3d6 to damage at range (SSE, Rage). Finally Mortality can provide a nice boost, since the Impaler hits at effective MAT7 P+S 19. At 5 points, he's also a very efficient beatstick in eGrim if you can buff-layer on him.
Gunnbjorn
Adding an Impaler to a Gunnbjorn beast gun line is virtually a must, since his Far Strike is a huge boon to ranged attacks. Further Guided Fire allows a "free" boost to Critical Smite.
Calandra
She can help the Impaler hit via her feat, Fate Blessed, and Befuddle. Befuddle allows you to turn enemy models around for a back strike bonus
. Fate Blessed can also boost damage rolls. Finally Force Blow can knock down models, making his shots more likely to hit.Grissel2
Her ranged attack fell calls (except the spray) can all have their range boosted by Far Strike, making him a nice addition.
Jarl
Jarl loves the +4" of range the Far Strike animus gives his guns, increasing the potential range of Magic Bullet
to 20".Madrak1/2
Both Madrak's like the additional range when throwing Rathrok, and he can serve as another beneficiary of Madrak1 or Madrak2's feat in a pinch.
Synergies
Warbeasts/Battle Wagon/Ranged Solos
Virtually any of our warbeasts, or models with a decent ranged attack like getting +4" range. Please note that Snipe is friendly model, so it's also useful for mercenary solos such as Alten Ashley.
Imapler/Slag/Bomber/Whelps
Access to range and damage buffing animi, 2 ROF2 beasts capable of significant output (especially against non-living models), and Whelps to overcome the significant fury expenditure the module generates. Works especially well with the Warlocks highlight.
Mauler
The Mauler's Rage animus boosts Strength, allowing the Impaler's ranged attack to gain an addition +3 damage to ranged attacks.
Chronicler
The Impaler is an excellent source of a Reach troll for Charge of the Trolls tale.
Kriel Stone Bearer with Stone Scribe Elder
The Stone Scribe Elder's Stone Strength ability also grant
+1 Strength, which adds to the P+S of the thrown spear.
No comments:
Post a Comment