Raek

A long-forgotten monster of prehistory, the Raek hunted and terrorised the enemies of the dragon and his servants. Now the Legion calls these sleek and graceful predators forth again to hunt across endless distances. The Raek's tracking skills and killing power exemplify Everblight's genius at improving upon nature.

Basic Info

• Template:Warbeast

Abilities

• Template:Eyeless Sight
• Template:Soulless
• Template:Pathfinder
• Template:Stealth
• Template:Bounding Leap
• Template:Extended Control Range

Weapons

• Bite - 0.5" reach, P+S 11 melee attack.
• Tail Strike - 1" reach, P+S 12 melee attack.

Animus

{{Category: Template:Still as Death }}[[Category: Template:Still as Death ]]

Theme Forces

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

Thoughts on Raek

Raek in a nutshell

The Raek is a very good, combat oriented light warbeast, and arguably one of the best among the Hordes factions. Like many Legion units, it trades raw hitting power, for excellent mobility. With natively high SPD and DEF, Pathfinder, Stealth, Bounding Leap and Extended Control Range it is a versatile piece in the faction's arsenal. The Raek can disrupt enemy lines by leaping into back arcs, jam them by charging in first with incredible speed, hunt down key solos, or contest a zone from the far flank with DEF 15 and Stealth.

Raeks are also strong assassination-enablers, with the ability to leap into a caster's back arc and then Head-Butt them down (or Head-Butt an intervening model to open up LOS).

Raeks won't usually win a one on one with another light jack or beast, but they can severely slow them down, if there are no infantry flak/screens or squishy support/assassin solos to be sent after. The Raek's animus is fairly corner case, but it's not awful to have around.

Combos & Synergies

The mobility of a Raek cannot be understated, and their general self-sufficiency means they can be slotted into a huge variety of lists. A pair of Raeks can tie up a lot of board space, replacing the need to bring screening infantry in some cases - good news for players who love to run exclusively beasts + support. Extended CTRL range works on any spell, ability and feat which is tied to CTRL area (but not for CMD related ones like Thagrosh1's Death Shroud). There are certainly a few combinations of note worth calling out.

• Bethayne2 - She loves having cheap and mobile arc nodes and with Extended Control Range, Pathfinder and Bounding Leap the Raek can be very far away from Beth, get into inconvenient places, and still be used as an arc-node.
• Fyanna2 can get a decent amount of work from a Raek or two. They're unlikely to be targets for Fury, but on her feat turn they are DEF18 and have Dodge, and are always stealthed, meaning they're pretty hard to remove at range or in melee. An early feat turn pretty much ensures they can be delivered against most armies, which allows them to do what they do best.
• Abby2 makes all beasts amazing, there's no doubt about that, but Raeks especially become incredibly cost efficient with her. On her feat, they can go pretty much anywhere they want, and hit hard and accurate enough to prove a threat to harder targets.
• Vayl1 may find use for a Raek as a reliable delivery method for Chiller (Frost Field), abusing Bounding Leap to allow it to spread the DEF debuff deeper into enemy lines. The Raek's mobility might be seen as a good tool for a fast arc node, but since Vayl has a very short range on her shot, it actually hampers the Raek's ability to extend her spell threat.
  • This is even more true for Vayl2, as she doesn't ignore the Raek's stealth and must force it to stay even further back.
• The Raek's animus may be useful for Rhyas1 or Rhyas2, as a way to threaten or section off areas of the board. Be careful when using this tactic (especially for Rhyas1), as it may end up being a good way of killing yourself if you underestimate your opponent. Rhyas2 may be able to get away with more, as you can use the counter charge as an excuse to abuse the Twins' feat the following turn if your opponent takes the bait.
• With any caster, a well positioned Raek can enable reliable assassination via headbutt from 12.5" inches away (assuming the headbutt lands). This threat is nonlinear, and the last 5" ignores free strikes thanks to Bounding Leap being a "place" effect. Add 2" if you can justify a a slipstream from Seraph or your caster. At best, the enemy caster is easier to hit than the broadside of a barn, and at worst, they're stuck in melee with an angry dragon panther.
• It's the perfect fit for a Blight Archon, as it grants its battlegroup sprint. The Raek and go contest scenarios, hunt support and then sprint to threaten counter charges, while the Archon hangs out and buffs its brethren.
• Thagrosh0 - Thanks to Extended Control Range, the Raek gains concealment from FoW from 20" away, which is pretty handy. With Everblights Guidance, the Raek can also set up Headbutts on key targets that Thagrosh can follow up on with Blight Burst and prevent shaking.
• Kryssa - +3 STR makes it hit way above its weight class.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Low ARM and HP - beware stationary and knock-down tricks
• Average MAT relies on either back-strikes or boosts, cutting into your potential damage output.
• To get the most of its turn, a Raek is likely to use its full FURY stack, and will be too far deep to benefit from beast support like the Forsaken or Shepherds, especially if using Extended Control Range to its full potential.

Tricks & Tips

• You can spend your full Fury stack to enable an assassination: one to Bounding Leap into the caster's back arc, one to make a Head-Butt power attack, and the final one to boost to hit. The Raek won't be able to do much damage unassisted, but it can set up harder-hitting models for a devastating turn.
• Watch out for large/huge based casters; you cannot head-butt them.
• Read clarifications about Bounding Leap - beside many things, the most important point is that it can be triggered only if you used your normal movement for a full advance, not in case of charges or power attacks.

Other

Trivia

Released in Hordes: Evolution (2007)