The Child

"Break my toys and scold me not, my anger burns both bright and hot."

First of the Defiers, the Child wants nothing more than to play and not be told what to do. Accompanied by her companion, Dolly, woe upon the fool who tries to take her grymkin “toys” away or tries to harm her. Only the Child decides what she gets to do—anyone else who tries will be ripped apart like a broken doll in a fit of rage.

Basic Info

This model is a Warlock.

Warlock Rules A warlock is an Independent Model. a Leader model. a Battlegroup Controller controls warbeasts. Warlocks use Fury Manipulation Uses ARC to determine how many fury points it gains each turn. Begins the game with a number of fury points equal to its ARC. Cannot exceed its ARC stat in fury points as a result of leeching. Can spend fury points only during its activation (unless a special rule states otherwise) for the following: Buy additional attacks Boost attack rolls Boost damage rolls Shake some effects Can leach fury points from warbeasts in its battlegroup in its control range. Spirit Bond allows the warlock to gain a fury for each of its dead battlegroup warbeasts. Reaving allows the warlock to pull fury points from a warbeast in its battlegroup when it dies.

Trump Arcana: Wrath

• Trigger - The warlock can play this card when an enemy model damages a model in the warlock's battlegroup with an attack.
• Effects
  • The Child gains 1 fury,
  • The FURY stat of models in the Child's battlegroup currently in her Template:Control range are increased by 1.
  • Wrath lasts for one round, when wrath expires increase the Child’s control range by 2˝ until the end of your next Maintenance Phase.

Grymkin warlocks use Arcana instead of feats.
At the start of every game, the Grymkin player chooses 3 Arcana Cards for that game. One card must be the warlock's unique Trump Card (above) but the other two are from the generic set.
During the game, the Grymkin player can use each chosen Arcana once, at any time that the trigger conditions are met.

Abilities

• Template:Bulldoze
• Template:Outrage
• Template:Retaliatory Strike
• Field Marshal [ [[:Category:{{{ability}}}|{{{ability}}}]] ]

[[Category:{{{ability}}}]] (Template:Pain Response-alt)

Weapons

Claw (x2)
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		1				4				16
Template:Magical Damage Template:Critical Pitch

Spells

{{Category: Template:AbuseTemplate:DiscordTemplate:Force HammerTemplate:Tantrum }}[[Category: Template:AbuseTemplate:DiscordTemplate:Force HammerTemplate:Tantrum ]]

Theme Forces

• Template:Bump in the Night. She gains Rise in this theme.
• Template:Dark Menagerie

Thoughts on The Child

The Child in a nutshell

The Child is a battlegroup caster above all. Her Field Marshal+spells will force the enemy to focus fire on each warbeast and bring it down for sure, lest they become much greater threat wounded, than they were unharmed. This includes her as well. While damaged, her combat output is on par with heavy warjacks and beasts. Though her average defence stats and a total threat range of 10" will rarely result in caster-kill victories by herself, she is more than adept at punching things out of her way, and punish for half-measure assassinations.

Oct '21 Changes Discussion

The Child has an enhanced Trump! This isn't a massive change, but it does mean an extra fury to spend on Trump turn. The bonus control clause exists so that you can leech off warbeasts that would be out of control on a normal, non-Trump turn. While not a massive deal, it does give you an extra 2" of play on Trump turn which can be very relevant with fast beasts such as Clocks or Gorehounds. The bigger change for the Child is overall cheaper beasts, in particular the drop in cost of the Crabbit, Cage Rager, & Death Knell. The Child isn't an especially tough warlock, so having more cost effective defensive tools is deeply appreciated. The new Witchwood is an interesting option in Dark Menagerie lists (the theme in which 99% of Child lists will find themselves), giving even more scenario pressure to back up Gremlin Swarms while also creating opportunities for your opponent to accidentally give you a heavy.

Arcana thoughts

Wrath is an easy-to-trigger card - your opponent can hardly ignore your warbeasts, can they?

• You would like to wait until your heavy brawlers are in charge distance, so they get one extra attack or boost.
• It's good for an assassination run, or to ensure a piece-trade.
• Given that the Arcana will expire before your next Maintenance Phase, any excess fury tokens will be discarded before you need to make Frenzy checks. So there's no extra risk there (other than the usual risk of running all your beasts hot).

With her miserable CMD stat, you probably want to avoid choosing Labyrinth (the -2 SPD one) or The Shadow (the "ghost" warbeast one) as your other Arcana.

Spell thoughts

• Abuse - your #1 spell, that will likely to be cast in every turn. Don't forget it triggers Field Marshall too.
• Discord - have a suitable, fast warbeast to deliver it to blunt charges and assaults, or cancel Shield Walls.
• Force Hammer - a favourite, though expensive tool for assassination, knocking down the target. You can also use one of your low-DEF models (like Piggybacks or Dread Rots) to stand into position for you, if there's no enemy around. Or go nuts, and slam a Cask Imp for extra fireworks.
• Tantrum - Another upkeep you want to cast early on and don't let it drop, 'till you reached the enemy lines.
  • Note that even though it has RNG = CTRL, it triggers only on CMD range.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Large base makes screening a challenging task.
• Don't be fooled by her look, she's fragile. Expect assassinations a lot.
• No support for her army outside the battlegroup, and not much in the way of defensive boost either

Tricks & Tips

• A warlock is part of their own battlegroup. For the Child, this means,
  • Her trump affects her as well as her warbeasts, meaning yes she does get +1 FURY.
  • She can also trigger her trump off damage to herself, but that rarely comes up in practice.
  • She can move herself with Tantrum.
• There's a lot of movement shenanigans you can do with Bulldoze, Force Hammer and the Skin & Moans's Lurker animus.

List Building Advice

Strategy

A speedy battlegroup, that becomes all the more dangerous upon taking damage, The Child rewards aggressive play-style. A timely Sacrifice Arcana can also ensure that most of your key models will reach the battle lines. Force Hammer, along with the respectable melee punches of her will ensure, that the Child herself will remain a strong board controlling presence too.

Theme Thoughts

She's a battlegroup caster through-and-through, so wants to be in Dark Menagerie.

Army

Being a battlegroup caster, each of the warbeasts can find place in her army list (at worst you can always put Abuse on them). Some has other functions beyond that:

• Crabbit - cheap shield guard for your large based warlock, plus ideal target for delivering Wailing, and sacrificial piece to trigger Tantrum, or your Wrath Arcana.
• Rattler, Gorehound and Skin & Moans - Beside their OK combat capabilities they offer excellent animi for the Child, if you want to use her offensively.

Units

• Twilight Sisters - Let Pain Response or Tantrum be triggered, then heal back your wounded warbeast's key aspects. Also useful in case of excessive Abuse use.

Solos

• Lady Rose - with Abuse and Enrage your beasts can hit way out of their weight classes.
• Glimmer Imp - pretty self sufficient piece, which offers a nice MAT fix for your warbeasts.
• Baron Tonguelick, Lord of Warts - Can cast Abuse for you, which always helps her game play and helps with order of activation challenges.

First Seven Purchases

A few veteran players have put their heads together and tried to figure out the seven best things to buy for this specific caster. This is not designed to add up to a nice round points limit, nor be balanced vs other "First Seven" lists you find on this website. It is simply going to give you some of the essentials this caster needs most of the time.

1. Warbeast: Cage Rager
2. Warbeast: Clockatrice
3. Warbeast: Clockatrice
4. Warbeast: Skin & Moans
5. Warbeasts: Crabbit (x2)
6. Solo: Baron Tonguelick
7. Solos: Gremlin Swarm (1 to 4)

The Child loves to run beast-heavy in the Dark Menagerie theme, so there is no need to get her a unit, at least not to start with.

Other

Trivia

Released 2017.06

Video Battle Reports

• 2019.06 Lock & Load Champions Semi-Final, vs Zaal2
• 2019.05 Deathclock Dave, vs Anamag1
• 2018.12 Arcane Assist, vs Goreshade4
• 2018.07 Feat Fetish, vs Haley1
• 2018.05 Deathclock Dave, vs Krueger2
• Template:VBR