Venator Flayer Cannon Crew

Spraying the battlefield with a constant hail of razor-sharp needles, the flayer cannon is an immense, high-powered version of the weapons carried by Venator reivers. Although devastatingly effective against enemy troop formations, the flayer cannon is deadliest against larger targets, such as war beasts, ripping into their massive bodies with bursts of its flesh-shredding needles.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Gunner
  • Template:Man-sized
  • Template:Mobile Artillery
  • Template:Take Up

• Grunt
  • None

Weapons

• Gunner
  • Flayer - 12" range, ROF d3, POW 13 ranged weapon.
    • Template:Fast Reload
    • Template:Volume Fire
  • Sword - 0.5" reach, POW 3, P+S 8 melee weapon.

• Grunt
  • Sword - 0.5" reach, POW 3, P+S 8 melee weapon.

Theme Forces

• Template:Winds of Death - this unit gains Reposition [3"] and may be taken as a requisition option in this theme.

Thoughts on Venator Flayer Cannon Crew

Venator Flayer Cannon Crew in a nutshell

Dakka dakka dakka. Its range isn't great - but an average of 2 pretty powerful shots a turn will surprise an unaware opponent. It is almost a literal glass cannon; as it technically shoots needles.

As with all weapon crews, its durability and speed are its key issues. Having Reposition(3) lessens the second point, but it isn’t likely to last long if your opponent can draw a bead on it.

The Venator Dakar is an almost mandatory inclusion in winds of deaths and like other Venators he improves the cannon immensely.

Combos & Synergies

You are almost always going to take it in Winds of Death where it is an option for a free model, and gains Reposition

Like almost all Venators on its own, the Flayer Cannon is pretty lackluster, missing relatively frequently - but if given a little love it is excellent value with an average of three POW 15 shots per turn.

• Venator Dakar - Veteran leaders to hit bonus goes a long way. And Desperate Pace on turn 1 (and occasionally turn 2) is an excellent thing for the Flayer Cannon.
• Venator Slingers - Flare targets you want to hit.
• Dominar Rasheth - ARM debuffs work extremely well with the Flayer Cannon.
• Lord Tyrant Hexeris - Parasite leaves few survivors.
• Lord Assassin Morghoul - both Mortality and Blind are amazing to help the Cannon wreck things.
• Beast Master Xekaar - Mortality and his feat do about the same job Morghoul2 does.
• Archdomina Makeda or Supreme Archdomina Makeda - incoming fire has right of way. You want to survive it.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• It's mobile artillery. And as such squishy and not terribly flexible.
• Short ranged by the standards of mobile artillery.
• Bad at infantry-clearing.
• Random ROF will let you down when you need it most.
• Expensive for what it is, especially versus the catapult crew. It's best to take this as a req option only.

Tricks & Tips

• In Winds of Death you move your gunner next to the Flayer Cannon to get the extra shot when shooting, and reposition so the gunner is 1" away and thus not caught in 3" AoEs but can take up the gun.
• You can aim then reposition.

Other

Trivia

• Venator means "hunter" in latin.
• Released in Forces of Hordes: Skorne (2010)