Seraph

Considered Everblight’s messengers of death, the seraphim and neraphim are winged spawn of sublime but horrific elegance. Seraphim possess deceptively slender frames that slice through the air on multiple powerful wings, their blighted energy leaving a distorted contrail in their wake. Other dragonspawn following in this slipstream are accelerated forward, while the seraph delivers incinerating blasts of blighted ash. Meanwhile the neraph closes to seize its prey in its prehensile tail before finishing it with a lethal strike.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Template:Warbeast
• Template:Eyeless Sight
• Template:Flight
• Template:Soulless
• Template:Apparition
• Template:Serpentine

Weapons

• Blight Strike - 10" range, ROF d3, POW 12 ranged weapon.
  • Template:Fire Damage
  • Template:Flare
• Stinger - 1" reach, P+S 13 melee weapon.
  • Template:Critical Poison

Animus

{{Category: Template:Slipstream }}[[Category: Template:Slipstream ]]

Theme Forces

• Template:Children of the Dragon
• Template:Oracles of Annihilation
• Template:Primal Terrors
• Template:Ravens of War

Thoughts on Seraph

Seraph in a nutshell

The Seraph is a support warbeast, with one of the Legion's best animus and a ranged weapon with good support ability. It's on the same "flyer" chassis as the Neraph and the Angelius, giving it excellent mobility which is further boosted by its native Apparition rule. All that is hampered by its awful combat stats, low FURY, and fragile frame for its cost, making frontline commitment a last-ditch effort.

In the beginning of Mk3 this beast was among the first purchases to be advised for new players. The Seraph could have been slotted into basically any list that was bringing even one other warbeast due to Slipstream, and 2" placement of said warbeast could often make or break battles. Now the tables turned quite a bit; whereas 3-4 years ago 13 pts had been seen as a hefty but justifiable investment for Slipstream, now this point value is being measured to super solos like Archons (our Blight Archon with the Impending Doom spell among them), Riot Quest models like the Mekanoshredder, and units/beast in general who became cheaper throughout the various CID circles both in our faction and outside.

It is not to say that Slipstream lost its value, but the price you must pay for it to be on the table is high enough that you'll have to build a plan around it rather than just having it in your list "just in case".

Its gun is the second source of support for your army. Dropping the target's DEF can eliminate the need to boost attack rolls, and can clear off Stealth for the rest of your army without Eyeless Sight (ie. your non-Lylyth warlocks and units). If MAT or RAT isn't a problem in your list, his gun is equally useful for picking off important solos or sniping down a few pesky infantry blocking your way. Unfortunately, the gun also has all the cards stacked against it:

• the Seraph has terrible RAT, making it necessary to boost against all but the clumsiest targets
• the gun has a random ROF, making it really unreliable for a 13 pts beast
• 10" range with no access to reposition will likely leave it exposed to counter-attacks

In short, this beast had been inflated from a must-have to a niche support piece (though due to its animus, quite a good one).

Combos & Synergies

The Seraph is basically universally useful when taken with literally any other non-gargantuan warbeast, and supports most infantry well too. Slipstream increases the threat range of your preferred alpha strike piece (that isn't on a huge base), a piece of tech that's especially important on SPD5 melee warbeasts like the Carnivean and Scythean. Think of a Seraph as +2SPD/+2DEF almost anywhere you need it each turn on demand.

• Any warlock with a medium-sized battlegroup will want to consider a Seraph. Doubly so for those who have late-game personal threats (Thagrosh2 being Slipstreamed by his own Seraph can then charging in on the enemy caster can be a very rewarding way to end the game.
• Warlocks who lack a MAT or RAT fixer will also think highly of Seraphs, as they can be added to any list to bump up your hit rate. That's not to say you can't and shouldn't double down on accuracy buffs for warlocks who do have such tools available, especially since Slipstream will always be valuable.
• Certain Legion models/warlocks can hit absolutely absurd melee threat ranges with the help of Slipstream:
  • SPD7 beasts like Angelius in Absylonia2's battlegroup can threaten models from up to 16" away with their Armor Piercing attack. That's longer than a lot of guns can shoot without the help of Snipe. Abby2 herself can reach that number on her own with her feat rolling, and against camping warlocks/warcasters, she can easily end the game thanks to Energy Siphon.
  • Similarly, Lylyth3's battlegroup can achieve threats this long with battle host rolling. Lylyth herself cannot be placed, but she has no problem making absurd threat ranges on her own anyway.
  • Kryssa is capable of a personal assassination threat in melee of 18" (nonlinear). Though she'll probably want her target softened and debuffed since she'll only make it there with 3 fury to finish the job and will want to boost to hit.
  • The Twins on their feat, assuming one of them has already perished, can reach a 17" assassination threat with Slipstream. If Rhyas is resurrected, this is bad news for the enemy caster, especially if she lands the Critical Decapitate.
  • The Seraph is a mandatory choice in any Rhyas1 list too. Her personal threat bubble grows to 14" (15" with Dash), not counting the additional inches from the placement during her feat.
  • With Vayl2, an Angelius under Boundless Charge threats 16", and Carniveans and Scythians push out on models 13"/14" away(not bad for base SPD5). Vayl herself has some impressive personal ranges when you factor in channeling with her Oraculus.
  • Proper positioning and use of Leash on Vayl1 gets that model hitting something 17" away if it's SPD7. Also gives a layer of security after you caught something important in your Incite bubble and be 14" away from said target.
  • Proteus gets special mention as a target for Slipstream, as his threat range matches an Angelius, but he can stay 2" further back thanks to Chain Strike.
• Never forget that your warlock has Slipstream when they bring a Seraph as well. This can be crucial in securing a proper alpha strike. Also, consider the Nephilim Bloodseer for a cheap, third source for this spell.
• The Mekanoshredder's non-self animus can be combined further with Slipstream, giving a staggering +4" charge range against constructs.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Fragile, yet high-priority target - hug cover and concealment to stay alive.
• Variable ROF makes its ranged presence unreliable, especially with its low RAT
• Prone to run hot on FURY, when you need to use Slipstream and land important shots in the same turn.
• It has the hitting power of a wet noodle and RNG 10" on its gun leaves it exposed to retaliation. You basically pay 13 pts for Flare and Slipsteam on a frail frame and that's quite a hard ask.
• Slipstream doesn't work on huge-based models.

Tips and Tricks

• Apparition happens at the end of your Control phase, after leech and threshold checks. Thus, you can't use Apparition to bring back your beast into the warlock's CTRL range for leeching, if the beast left it in the previous turn. On that note, you can place your beast even of it frenzied during its Control phase.
• If you start your turn in B2B with an enemy, who has a 2" reach melee weapon, you're still engaged, as Apparition places you exactly 2" away.
• If the enemy used Telekinesis to turn your important melee model around and render it unable to charge, place it with Slipstream - you can choose its facing afterward.
• A few things (notably Garryth's feat or the Lock the Target spell forbids placing. Take them into consideration.

Other

Trivia

• Released in Primal Mk1 (2006) ... as a light warbeast. It was reclassified as a heavy in Mk2, and everyone who had one (or several, back in those days) had to rebase it.
• The Seraph got a new sculpt in a dual kit with the Neraph (2014).
  • It's a bit annoying for its overhang issues, but not nearly as much as the ugly old Mark 1 sculpt.
• In Christian Angelic Mythology, a Seraph is the highest-ranking class of Angel.
  • In the Jewish tradition, Seraph are the 5th of 10 ranks of Angels.
  • They are featured in the Book of Revelations, as well as the apocryphal Book of Enoch.
  • Seraph means "the burning one", which is reflected in this models ability to flare up enemy models.