Blighted Nyss Archers

Corrupted and reshaped by Everblight’s will, the blighted Nyss have become eager accomplices in the dragon’s murderous schemes. At the onset of battle, blighted Nyss archers rain down an unending deluge of arrows on enemy fortifications. Blighted swordsmen, at one with their prized blades, then close in to finish off what’s left of the demoralized foe.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Everyone
  • Template:Combined Ranged Attack
  • Template:Reposition 3

• Officer only
  • He has +1 MAT & RAT, and 5 hitpoints
  • Template:Officer
  • Template:Granted (Template:Combined Arms-alt)
  • Template:Tactics (Template:Practiced Maneuvers)

• Ammo Porter only
  • Template:Ready Ammo
  • Template:Take Up

Weapons

• Leader, Grunts, & Officer

Nyss Longbow
File:Gun icon.jpg		RNG			ROF			AOE			POW
		12			1			Template:-			10
Template:Arcing Fire
Sword
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		0.5				3				7

• Porter
  • Template:Unarmed

Theme Forces

• Template:Children of the Dragon.

Thoughts on Blighted Nyss Archers

File:Blighted Nyss Archers CA.jpg

Command Attachment

Blighted Nyss Archers in a nutshell

The Blighted Nyss Archers are the fragile, ranged infantry element of the Legion's lists. Like Cygnar's Long Gunner Infantry, Khador's Winter Guard Rifle Corps, or the Houseguard Riflemen of the Retribution, they shoot relatively far, and with CRA they can be both deadly and accurate. They also die in droves once enemy fire starts falling into their direction but have a built-in Reposition to dash out of the enemy's threat range once released their volleies. Unlike the above mentioned competitors though, screening models are often negated thanks to their Arcing Fire rule.

They don't look like much on paper, but for their low cost even with the CA they can get a surprising amount of work done in the right list.

Thoughts on adding the CA

Their attachment is basically an automatic inclusion - if you want archers there's no credible argument to skim on that 5 points (if they're not your free card). The Porter doubles ranged damage potential just by being there in formation, and the officer buffs accuracy with CRA re-rolls, offer more freedom in positioning and selecting targets. For other model interactions, consider the following:

Combos & Synergies

Casters

• Blood Thorn from Bethayne1 makes Archers the bane of shield walled, single wound infantry and gives them +2 POW on their arrows to boot.
• Bethayne2 - Her feat is pretty much the ultimate way of keeping the oh so important ammo porter alive. -2 ARM on their targets via Dissolve or her own gun is very neat, too.

• All 4 Lylyths can make good use of the Archers:
  • Lylyth1's Parasite is one of the few casters who can indirectly buff Archers' damage.
  • Lylyth2's Pincushion and feat give Archers enormous flexibility and potential damage output. You can take anything between 33 POW10 shots or 3 POW21 shots depending on how you mix up your CRAs. Gunfighter might be useful if they got jammed in the early game.
  • Lylyth3's feat won't do much in terms of direct damage, but allows you to reliably invoke stationary upon the majority of the enemy's forces. Wind Wall can help keep them safe if you can manage to keep them close to her, but it tends to be harder to archeive than it's worth. Find a wall or a forest to hide in instead.
  • Lylyth4 - Mortality is excellent with a unit that has 22 shots and her feat was practically made for them.
• Rhyas1 and Vayl2 - Occulation makes you nigh immune for long-range, non-AOE fire.
• Thargrosh1 can use Fog of War to grant Concealement and help keep the Archers safe from stray shots on the way up, but mind your order of activation as unlike Legion beasts, Archers do still care about Concealement.
• Vayl1's Incite will make a full-unit CRA reach POW 23 if you want it to. Since they're a ranged piece, they can hang back a little more safely as well.
• Kryssa1 - Cloak of Ash and a tough bubble is more likely to keep them alive than any armour buff - shame they get nothing from her feat.

Non-casters

• Like every other Legion unit, the Archers love Kiss of Lyliss from Blackfrost Shard, which doesn't discriminate between melee or ranged damage - most Legion damage buffs specify melee only, or are straight STR buffs, so Archers can really appreciate this when trying to damage models outside their weight class.
• they are Blighted models so gain Vet leader from the Blight Archon - though the Archon is more likely to be too far forward for the nyss to benefit.
• Cast Blight Storm with a Blighted Nyss Sorceress & Hellion on a heavy, and let the arrows fly. Guaranteed 22 damage with the Ammo Porter.
• Yssylla - Shatter Storm on Archers means they utterly mince infantry and RFP them to boot, which is very strong in recursion heavy metas.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• They have no Pathfinder, making the navigation through difficult terrain troublesome (especially for their Reposition move).
• Slightly shorter range than their competitors in the other factions; once you're in range, so are they. Use Reposition wisely so they may have to give up on their aiming bonus at least.
• The Porter is a lynchpin model, basically doubling the unit's damage output - he has a bullseye on his head. Also, watch out for RFP effects on him if you want to use take-up.
• 22 shots / activation sounds pretty neat, but it also burns your clock in timed games (especially with re-rolls and Shatter Storm). Practice accordingly.

Tricks & Tips

• If in doubt and in a hurry, use 2-man CRA. The +2 to hit/damage buff vs the "cost" of losing one attack is often the most cost-effective choice.
• If you're doing CRA and some of your unit can aim but the rest need to move to get into range, always use the aiming models to lead the CRA and the moving models to contribute to the CRA. That way the CRA will get the aiming bonus.

Other

Trivia

• Unit released way back in Primal Mk1 (2006)
• CA released in Hordes: Evolution (2007)