Venator Reivers

Venators have mastered the unique firearm called the reiver. These horrific weapons fire bursts of iron needles that shred their targets. With a lethal swarm of concentrated fire, Venators tear into the most imposing targets, making them among the most valued specialists in the Army of the Western Reaches.

Having risen to prominence in the lowest of warrior castes, the venator reiver officer yearns to prove his caste as fanatically devoted to the Skorne cause as any other. When leading units of their brethren into battle, the venator reiver officer and standard bearer keep their venators in tight formation, increasing the range and lethality of their gas-driven weapons. Such units can shred an enemy warbeast with as little as a single volley.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Leader, Grunts, & Officer
  • Template:CRA
  • Template:Combined Arms

• Officer only
  • He has +1 MAT, RAT, and 5 hitpoints
  • Template:Officer
  • Template:Extended Fire
  • Template:Tactics (Template:Reposition 3-alt)

• Standard only
  • Template:Standard Bearer
  • Template:Take Up

Weapons

• Leader, Grunts, & Officer
  • Reiver - 12" range, POW 10 ranged weapon
    • Template:Burst Fire
  • Sword - 0.5" reach, POW 3, P+S 8 melee weapon

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

Theme Forces

• Template:Winds of Death

Thoughts on Venator Reivers

File:VenatorReiverUA.png

Command Attachment

Venator Reivers in a nutshell

Venator Reivers are a no-nonsense shooting unit. They have guns with a decent range and surprising amount of stopping power and shoot things dead. Without the UA they are POW 12 vs heavies and, given a reroll is worth effectively +2 to hit then a pair of them are a single RAT 9 attack. It's excellent and versatile.

As with all infantry in winds of death they will really struggle if engaged in melee, savvy opponents are likely to run to engage you simply because their chances of hitting and hurting are so low. You need to be keeping the enemy at arms length wherever possible.

The Officer and Standard Bearer in a nutshell

The officer provides two extra abilities, both good. The first is Extended Fire - which either provides an extra turn of shooting or an extra turn of aiming. For a shooting unit an extra turn of usefulness is awesome. Reposition allows them to shoot then hide behind things to drive off return fire. And you get this for the bargain price of little more than replacing one normal venator with the stanard.

Combos & Synergies

The Reivers are just on the cusp of being able to hurt heavies or mangle infantry. Just a small buff or debuff is all it takes to really polish this. Caster Combos

• Lord Arbiter Hexeris Black Spot can allow an amazing amount of work - kill an infantry model in the target unit then take a pot-shot. Or kill and "waterfall" with a CRA with a second model.
• Dominar Rasheth - a 2 point ARM debuff can make all the difference for two person CRAs - and the feat turns things into a shooting gallery.
• Lord Tyrant Hexeris - a 3 point one is better.
• Lord Assassin Morghoul - and here comes Mortality and Blind.
• Beast Master Xekaar - more Mortality and a feat.
• Tyrant Xerxis - Can let them shoot through your screening troops. Very handy. Can also increase their threat range with his battle plan when he's not making a unit lethal in melee with his other battle plan.

Other Combos

• Venator Dakar - the Dakar's Veteran leader gives them a higher chance of hitting. As Reivers like to CRA, this really only helps if they want to kill infantry. Usually they like combining their shots on enemy heavy's though.
• Mortitheurge Willbreaker - offers the unit tough and even more rerolls for a bargain cost.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Bottom drawer RAT for shooting things by a ranged unit unless using CRA.
• Terrible in melee

Tricks & Tips

• The Unit Attachment gives them a 22" threat range. Either useful for drawing first blood or (rarely) for an assassination on a careless enemy. It's basically an extra turn of shooting.
• A two person CRA is effectively RAT 9 against anything DEF 15 or less. Very nice for solo hunting.
• A two person CRA aimed at a heavy with any sort of ARM debuff (or just aimed at a Warpwolf or flyer) does significant damage.
• The Unit Attachment lets them move, shoot, then hide behind something solid.
• Remember Burst Fire. But it still doesn't give them a POW in the teens - they need to CRA to scratch heavies.

Other

Trivia

• Venator means "hunter" in latin.
• Released way back in Primal Mk1 (2006)