Harrier

A horror from earlier eras, the harrier has been called from the depths of the dragon’s blood to serve the Legion of Everblight. Their speed and manoeuvrability are prized attributes, giving the harriers the ability to probe enemy defenses before tearing through their flanks.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Template:Warbeast
• Template:Eyeless Sight
• Template:Soulless
• Template:Flight
• Template:Annoyance

Weapons

Talons
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		0.5				4				9

Animus

{{Category: Template:Elusive }}[[Category: Template:Elusive ]]

Theme Forces

• Template:Children of the Dragon
• Template:Oracles of Annihilation
• Template:Primal Terrors
• Template:Ravens of War. Harriers gain Mark Target in this theme.

Thoughts on Harrier

Harrier in a nutshell

The Harrier is joint your cheapest lesser warbeast, along with the Blight Wasps. It is hardly a threat on its own, and its task is more to annoy the enemy that do the actual killing. SPD7 + Flight, the Annoyance rule, its animus and the theme bonus in Ravens of War designate it as an expendable utility beast. If you do plan to use the Harrier offensively consider it a homing missle, and spend it likewise - it won't be coming home in one piece.

Combos & Synergies

Warlocks

• Bethayne, Voice of Everblight can deliver them to melee easier due to Deceleration. Unfortunately when her feat changed in the Virtues 2020 update she lost her main synergy with them.
• Thagrosh2 prefers lessers around for Sac Pawn. Also, popping out a Harrier for Blood Spawn may help you to cause some accuracy headaches. It's not a lot, but as long as your would-be assassin is a living model, the -1 to hit may just be enough to save the game.
• The Dodge animus on Rhyas1 stacks nicely with Riposte, as it allows you to beat her aggressor soundly in the face before hopefully stepping out of melee. Also, if you're able to stack Annoyance with the Nephilim Protector's Guard Dog bonus your effective DEF will be 19 against living enemies.
• Warlocks who like to stay at range such as Lylyth1, Lylyth2, Saeryn1, Vayl1 and Vayl2, who all also have naturally higher DEF might appreciate Dodge to help ward off stray pot shots from enemy guns.

Non-warlocks

• You can get 2 of these little beasts for free in the Ravens of War theme force, which instantly give a handy source for the Mark Target theme bonus. Since you'd sacrifice them anyway, you won't mind sending them close to the enemy and guide your shots more capable beasts' and units' shots.
• The Harrier can be a cheap and mobile way to activate the Flank bonus for nearby Shredders (in case you didn't bring more Shredders or a more capable, heavier warbeast just for that).
• Both the Shepherd and the Sorceress on Hellion can offer support for the Harrier, but these will probably always be incremental to your main warbeasts and not direct supporting duties.
• The Beast Mistress was purposefully made to herd light warbeasts, but sniping her out can leave you with a couple of wild lessers running around the battlefield. Plus, she's not allowed in the Ravens of War theme force. Still, she's probably your cheapest choice if you want an autonomous battlegroup that can score in rectangular zones in the Steamroller scenarios.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Annoyance is worthless against non-living models. As an extension, it's trivial to one shot a Harrier off the board for most models, meaning all Annoyance offered you was a single redirected attack.
• Pitiful offensive capability, even against enemy solos.

Tricks & Tips

• Annoyance does not stack, so even with multiple Harriers the enemy is only going to suffer -1
• Your melee range is 0,5", while annoyance triggers within 1". Use this to your advantage if you want to confer the penalty without engaging the target.

Other

Trivia

Released way back in Primal Mk1 (2006)