Elara, Death's Shadow

Template:Retbox This model is playable only in an Unlimited format.

Elara is one of the Retribution’s most skilled killers. She has refined her arcane abilities to suit the ancient traditions of the goddess, Lyliss, patron of assassins, and treats each death she inflicts as a tribute. Elara has mastered the essence of shadow, stepping through one to emerge from another, blades flashing in anticipation of the kill. Though she once considered herself a weapon best deployed on her own, she has learned to fight in perfect concert with her forces, bestowing her powers to quicken their actions and guide them toward the kill.

Basic Info

Warcaster abilities:

• Focus Manipulation

• Battlegroup Controller

• Power Field

• Spellcaster

• Independent Model

• Leader

Feat : Closing Darkness

Friendly models/units currently in Elara's Template:CTRL range gain Ghostly and are affected by Boundless Charge (refer to her spell list).

Template:Ghostly-alt

Abilities

• Template:Apparition
• Field Marshal [ [[:Category:{{{ability}}}|{{{ability}}}]] ]

[[Category:{{{ability}}}]]

• Template:Retaliatory Strike
• Template:Reposition 5

Weapons

Sickle Staff
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		2				7				13
Template:Magical Weapon Template:Blood Boon

Spells

{{Category: Template:Boundless Charge

}}[[Category:

]]

[[:Category:{{{name}}}|{{{name}}}]]	Cost	RNG	AOE	POW	DUR	OFF
	2	10	12	-	-	Yes
When Convection destroys a living enemy model, you can give 1 focus point to a warjack in the spellcaster's battlegroup that is in its control range.
No errata for {{{name}}} ([[:Category:Errata-{{{name}}}|Create]])
[[:Category:{{{name}}}|{{{name}}}]]	Cost	RNG	AOE	POW	DUR	OFF
	2	10	12	-	-	Yes
When Convection destroys a living enemy model, you can give 1 focus point to a warjack in the spellcaster's battlegroup that is in its control range.
No errata for {{{name}}} ([[:Category:Errata-{{{name}}}|Create]])

Theme Forces

• Template:Defenders of Ios
• Template:Forges of War
• Template:Legions of Dawn
• Template:Shadows of the Retribution. She gains "optional take down" in this theme.

Thoughts on Elara2

Elara2 in a nutshell

Elara is a straight-forward "in your face" type of caster. She has no means to protect her army, but she has the ability to get to the opponent fast with Boundless Charge. Scything Touch offers a damage-fixer while Marked for Death is a to-hit buff. Other than her feat most of what she does is single target so she likes self sufficient super solos and generally a smaller model count than some of her competition.

Her field marshal sees her leaning towards warjacks with reach that can take a hit, with the exception of the Daemon this is basically any Vyre heavy and the Griffon.

Gaining Reposition [5] has not changed how she plays, but it does allow her to feel more comfortable taking risks in melee.

Feat thoughts

Her feat is a point and click sort of feat wherein you say "there be enemy, kick their ass!" or words to that effect and the melee core of her army does precisely that. On an already speedy army, Boundless Charge applied to everyone friendly within 14" of her, they move up the board in a hurry and clobber whatever's there.

Spell Thoughts

Whether she does it herself (unlikely) or via an Arc Node (more likely), she'll likely tag a key enemy piece/unit with Marked For Death to ease its removal (not least because -2 DEF and taking away Stealth is huge). She puts Scything Touch on a super fast model with 2" reach early on to gain as much coverage for that sweet -2 ARM.

Later on, she can use Blood Boon/Teleport to deal with lone models here and there and remain safe or chuck out an opportunistic Convection if needs be, and similarly with Boundless Charge.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• She does very little outside her battle group, outside of her feat and her debuffs.
• Retaliatory Strike is weaker for Retribution than most factions because Ret jacks rely on buffs from Arcanists, which don't apply to the Retaliatory attack.
• For all Boundless Charge is a great spell, other Ret jack casters (notably both Vyroses) brawl better.
• Remember that Sycthing Touch only affect models within the melee range of a single model. Two if you cycle it. Which causes some order of activation issues. You won't have the debuff everywhere at once.

Tricks & Tips

• Her melee is useful if a little risky - she has apparition and charge for a 13" threat range (15" if she casts Boundless Charge on herself, but that does leave her Focus stack a kinda empty looking) - and can use Blood Boon to Teleport and get clear (when she doesn't use Blood Boon to cast a spell deep into enemy lines).
• That said, she has all the tools for the occasion at her disposal (Scything Touch for ARM, Marked For Death for DEF and Apparition/Boundless Charge for distance)... just don't go off on one if you need all three at once!
• Because her feat specifies model/unit, you only need one model from a unit to actually be in her control range for the entire unit to benefit.
• Remember she, or more likely her arc-node, needs to be within 5" to mark Stealthed models for death. Otherwise the spell will miss automatically.

List Building Advice

Strategy

Her main method of winning is to get the alpha strike charge and then grind the enemy into a pulp in melee. She gets extra distance thanks to her feat so she hits most foes first and then she turns the fight into a ground and pound slugfest having got the first attack in complete with free charges.

Theme thoughts

Elara has the tools to run a Legion list that hits both hard and at breakneck speed that can abuse Boundless Charge and Flank on marshaled jacks.

• Dawnguard Sentinels are your screening units and excellent at setting up Scything Touch and Flank thanks to their 2" reach and Vengeance in combination with Ghostly (immunity to freestrikes) and Boundless Charge.
• Dawnguard Sentinel Scyir - He's a great solos in his own right, but giving him a jack to marshal turns it into a great assassination piece.
  • A Griffon is a durable light with excellent offences and can be filled with Focus by Arcanists and activate Fleet for and extra +2" of movement, for a total of 15" with the spear, Swift Vengeance not withstanding. Crush, Concentrated Power, Flank and possibly Scything Touch really crank up its damage.
  • A Harpy benefits from all Jack Marshal orders and on feat turn you can stack Flight and Ghostly for immunity to free strikes, terrain and intervening models when charging.
• Dawnguard Destors - Ghostly Cavalry are excellent pieces, able to make impact attacks with impunity, and with Boundless Charge affecting an entire units on feat turn they become blisteringly fast!
• Dawnguard Trident - Also a flying model, and an excellent one at that. A threat range of 22" with Flight and Ghostly is no slouch, especially with a slam melee weapon and up to 9 POW 13 shots and Reposition.
• House Shyeel Artificer - Elara does nothing to protect her troops on the way in, so Force Barrier becomes an essentiality. They are also jack marshals with a drive that repairs shields, this synergises very well with a Siren's Oracular Vision.

All she does for mymirdons is Boundless Charge and her Field Marshal, both of which are fantasic. But not having any decent troops hurts her.

• House Shyeel Arcanists They are a Req option and they make up for how focus starved Elara can be.
• House Shyeel Artificer if you can stand losing Retalitory Strike having the Artificer Marshal a jack that can use crush and charge for free with boundless charge is nice. Handing out force barrier is also handy when you don't have many options in terms of protecting your army.

• Houseguard Halberdiers are your best platform for all your offensive buffs. Under feat, Desperate Pace and Hunter's Mark they theaten 15" (effective Parry and Pathfinder), and can hit hard with effective P+S 16 (Scything Touch, minifeat and Brutal Charge.)
  • Obviously you need the Houseguard Thane and Lanyssa Ryssyl for this to work.
• Fane Knight Skeryth Issyen is a fast, durable solos with 2" reach. The perfect candidate to deliver Scything Touch where it's needed.
• Arcantrik Force Generator - Slam something over with it's momentum cannon, then tear it to shreds with ghostly Halberdiers.
• Sylys free upkeeps on Scything Touch is good, since you'll want to cycle it often. The extra die on attack rolls is also really useful to land Marked for Death on high DEF models (aka where it counts). The extra range is only situationally useful since she wants to channel a lot.
• Anything shooty; Ghost Snipers, Heavy Rifle Teams, AFGs, ect. will appreciate her removal of stealth from enemies.
• House Ellowuyr Wardens have reach and no natural terrain mitigation so they love her feat.

She can do a fair bit here, too, partly fixing the one thing they struggle with, on top of their Remove From Play capabilities. Like the Defenders' lists it has even more raw basic speed, if less hitting power, but scarier solo support (Mage Hunter Assassins and the character Mage Hunters) and good models to put Scything Touch on (The Spears of Scyrah).

• Narn - grants her sprint making it slightky easier to safely use Blood Boon.
• Moros - Retalitory Strike & Paralysis really mess with enemy plans, fleet and boundless charge is great.

• Eilish can be used for his Puppet Master if you really, REALLY, want to hit that Marked for Death.
• For all that it's worth J.A.I.M.s charges 12" under her feat and is an effective P+S 13 weapon master under Scything Touch.
• Void Archon, Death Archon - Archons have native Flight and these two love Boundless Charge, so they benefit also from her feat being able to affect merc models. They also bring a lot of oomph that Elara otherwise lacks.

Battlegroup

Elara prefers melee myrmidons with reach, to better use Retaliatory Strike and Scything Touch, as well as benefit from her feat and Bounding Charge. She also like Arc Nodes for channeling Convection and Marked for Death... so basically, she is a big fan of the Phoenix.

• The Sphinx is a good, cheap heavy brawler with reach. Lower Def and higher arm than the Phoenix is better for Retaliatory Strike but it doesn’t have the utility of an arc node.
• The Banshee has the same chassis and reach as the Sphinx but grievous wounds and retaliatory strike can muck up enemies order of activation plans. Add in Wailing and you have a lot of battlefield control.
• The Griffon Elara is fast but fleet and boundless charge create some pretty big threat ranges.
• The Aspis speed and aggression is mainly what Elara offers her army running a few cheap shield guards can be taxing on her focus pool but worth it in the long run.

First Purchases

Template:Ret buy list by adding in a Phoenix and focusing on a smaller battlegroup you don’t need to change the above too much as everyone appreciates extra speed and scything touch.

Other

Trivia

• Rules released 2016.10 ... ish
• Model released 2017.06

Video Battle Reports

• 2018.12 Arcane Assist 75 points vs Wurmwood1
• 2018.01 Brutal Damage 35 points vs Lylyth2
• Template:VBR