Grotesque Raiders
Swooping out of the darkness, the terrifying grotesques unleash misery on those who stand against Everblight. Grotesque raiders speed across the battlefield on powerful wings before descending en masse to tear apart their prey. Grotesque banshees let loose piercing cries that liquefy organs and drown out the thoughts of spellcasters, rendering their powers useless. Together these twisted creatures spread the horror of the dragon’s blight across the land.
Basic Info
Abilities
Weapons
| Claws | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| File:Sword icon.jpg | RNG | POW | P+S | |||||||||||
| 0.5 | 3 | 10 | ||||||||||||
Theme Forces
Thoughts on Grotesque Raiders
Grotesque Raiders in a nutshell
Grotesque Raiders are a melee skirmish unit. Their threat range is shorter than their ranged variant, the Grotesque Banshees, but they have built-in MAT + STR fix in the form of Gang. Their role is the one of the expendable first-wave jammers, and their defensive stats reflect that. With their DEF and ARM, they won't stand up to any amount of even mediocre guns, and their lower CMD means it's easy to wipe a large swathes of Grotesques off the board with scattered AOEs, as even weaker blasts threaten their survival. They can leverage their high SPD and Flight to take advantage of intervening models and terrain, but don't expect the full unit to make it to your intended target intact.
This unit is currently available only in the Ravens of War theme force, but they can really shine there. You can also include the Grotesque Assassin as a means to deliver them.
Combos & Synergies
Non-Warlocks
- Use Raiders in conjunction with Hellmouths, some of the best board controlling pieces in the game, to mount pressure on the enemy lines.
- Grotesque Assassin - When not striking from the flanks, Raiders will almost always want at least one Assassin to back them up. He offers the unit stealth within his CMD, which helps deliver the unit to the front lines much more reliably. Blast damage is still something to think about though, as opponents can intentionally miss and scatter AOEs all over their heads.
Warlocks
- Kallus1 - Cheap units that when combined with gang and ignite can hit surprisingly above their weightclass. Also being very cost efficient for kallus1 feat, you can get lots of incubi or force your opponent to leave your units alone for a turn.
- Vayl1 can turn any model into a powerhouse with Incite, so Raiders are no different in this case. They're also superb targets for spreading Frost Field as their melee range is small (in case you're trying to leverage the DEF debuff for shooting) and their SPD is high. Flight also helps them to jam deep into the enemy lines during her feat. Instead of backing off, you can leave a few on the front line and send more into the back lines to threaten free strikes and make clearing charge lanes much more annoying for the enemy.
- Rhyas1 can do a few fun things with Raiders, although she may prefer harder hitting infantry. That said, with Dash, Raiders move inappropriately fast, and wings combined with parry allow them to get into really obnoxious locations. Combining Zuriel, Raeks, and Raiders with an Assassin plus another quality warbeast can give an army with a surprisingly great number of stealthy models.
- Fyanna2 can use Fury (the spell) to drastically improve a unit of Raiders' hitting power far beyond their point class after factoring gang. They'll be reasonably nimble during her feat as well, so their stock as a cheap, fast jamming unit may be worth considering with her. Alternatively, Iron Flesh keeps them safe from wandering blast damage to make it to melee in once piece.
Drawbacks & Downsides
- Their position as a jamming, harassing unit is contested:
- Strider Blightblades cost the same as a minimum unit, but have better command, almost the same mobility, higher DEF, Advance Deployment, Stealth, CMA and Ambush.
- Strider Scouts can spread out even more with their UA, and can occasionally hunt down enemy counter-jammers at range.
- Die to trivial shooting, and to trivial melee counter punch. Don't expect them to last long.
- Gang and 0,5" melee range tend to work against each other, causing them to cram up in a fight.
- Its really difficult to justify them vs Grotesque Banshees for the same cost, and even more so vs Blighted Rotwings.
- The latter can get Veteran Leader fairly easily either from Golab or the Blight Archon, may hit harder against damaged opponents and have access to reposition to clear off once they killed something, while Raiders will remain clustered if you want to use Gang.
Transport Downside
This isn't gameplay related, but the models (especially the newer sculpts) are bag space hogs due to the large wings and their posing. They will also want extra weight in their bases as they are prone to tipping on softer play surfaces. Also, good luck placing them all into 0,5" melee range without proxy bases. Advice to get around this second issue is to use cork on the bases to raise and lower the Grotesque’s to different heights so the wings don’t collide as much (at the cost of making them even worse bag hogs)
Tricks & Tips
None, really. They're a fairly simple point-and-click melee unit.
Other
Trivia
Released in Forces of Hordes: Legion of Everblight (2010)