Tactics: Lylyth, Herald of Everblight

Lylyth, Herald of Everblight

Now for the final of the four Hordes battle box casters!  Renowned hunter and tracker, Lylyth relies on the perfect vision that Everblight grants her, and not on the imperfect vision of her mortal eyes.  As the Herald of Everblight, Lylyth spreads the influence of Everblight by killing all that oppose.

First off, as usual, the statline.  She has a fast SPD, with the RAT suitable to a ranged caster.  She has the second highest base DEF of a caster, with less than impressive ARM.  She has Eyeless Sight, which is extremely rare for a warlock/warcaster, especially because she can use it at range.  Bushwhack is great for letting you do your little elfy dance.  There are also two abilities on her bow, Hellsinger, which are great in terms of support.  Blood Lure lets your battlegroup charge the target for free.  Witch Mark lets you automatically hit and ignore range of your spells, which is great, because the range on her bow is longer than the range on all of her spells.  Speaking of which:

Spells
Being a FURY 5 warlock, she only has three.  Sadly, one of those three only works against Hordes.
Bad Blood - Stick this spell on your opponents heavy beasts.  Warpwolves and Dire trolls also lose regeneration, which can be helpful at times.  Don't forget to take advantage of Witch Mark when you cast this.
Parasite - I can imagine that Lylyth likes to cycle this through several targets throughout the game, especially because it's easy to cast with Witch Mark.  Blood Lure, Witch Mark, and Parasite lets any Legion heavy charge for free and hitting essentially with +3 POW.
Eruption of Spines - The obligatory magic missile.  This is occasionally good.  If you see that your opponent has a nice clump of light infantry, by all means cast this spell.  However, you will most likely need to boost, because chances are you will kill any light infantry you shoot, so no Witch Mark.  That means it's gonna cost you 4 Fury to cast.  Only do this if you don't need to upkeep/cast Parasite or Bad Blood.

Feat
Boosted attack to everyone in the control area.  That's pretty broad spectrum, because it's ANY attack roll.  Ranged, Melee, Magic, whatever you like.  This is why (on top of the spell Parasite) Lylyth with work with a lot of things in the Legion arsenal.  The drawback is a 10" control area.

Beasts
You'd be hard-pressed to find a bad beast in the Legion armory.  Each warbeast has it's place.  They are all very fast, so they can keep up with Lylyth.  I'll just highlight some of my favorites for Lylyth.  They just so happen to be in the battle box as well.

Carnivean - I think that this guy is the perfect match for Lylyth, because he can wreck any heavy with Parasite and Blood Lure.  If he charges, he gets 8 attacks, which (at -3 ARM) will kill anything in the game, barring bad dice rolls.

Shredder - These guys are perfect little missiles, but that's not the only reason to take them with Lylyth.  Being DEF 16, she can benefit greatly from the +1 DEF +1 ARM that Tenacity gives.  Along with Parasite, she could be sitting at DEF 17, ARM 16.


Anything beyond these two would just be personal preference.

Units
Lylyth doesn't really scale well at 35 points, and while Parasite and her feat help her whole army, there's only so much that she can do.  I suggest units that are pretty self-sufficient that can occasionally benefit from what she has to offer.

Striders - Striders with their full complement of unit attachment and Deathstalker solo are not only extremely independent, they are very mobile.  With the UA giving Hunter and Reform, and the Deathstalker giving Swift Hunter, the Striders are the perfect skirmish unit.  They also have the option to combine ranged attack, so they can take down heavier targets if needed.

Raptors - These guys are the cream of the crop when it comes to cavalry.  When taken with Annyssa Ryvaal and her Veteran Leadership, the Raptors become MAT 8 RAT 9.  With SPD 9 and the light cavalry move, these guys will be even more mobile than the Striders.

There are other good units that would work with Lylyth, but these are my favorites.

Solos
Forsaken and Shepherds are almost auto-include, especially with Lylyth, because she's FURY 5.  Of course, if you take Striders, Raptors, Ogruns, etc., their applicable solos are strongly suggested.

Example List
Lylyth, Herald of Everblight
-Carnivean
-Shredder
-Shredder
Raptors (max)
Annyssa Ryvaal
Striders
-UA
Deathstalker
Shepherd

This list is designed to be very skirmish, hit and run, style.  Carnivean should be reserved to deal with heavy targets.


Well, there you have it.  The four Hordes battle box warlocks!