Blighted Nyss Hex Hunters

Nyss hex hunters are blighted sorcerers who have forsaken the greater arcane mysteries to focus purely on the destructive aspects of magic. A unit of Nyss hex hunters can unleash hellish bolts of concentrated energy, reducing enemies to blight-scarred ruin in a matter of seconds, or slash them to ribbons with wickedly sharp enchanted blades called hex razors.

Bayal, called the Hound of Everblight, is first among hex hunters. He is an incredibly potent battle wizard who can unleash withering bolts of blighted energy upon foes or freeze their bones with blasts of icy power. When leading his men in battle, Bayal becomes a whirling dervish of destruction, eviscerating his victims with twin hex blades or channeling his blighted magic through the weapons to bind a foe in shadow.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Everyone
  • Template:Pathfinder
  • Template:Stealth
  • Template:Apparition
  • Template:Battle Wizard
  • Template:Magic Ability The Leader & Grunts have only 1 spell

• Bayal only
  • He has a better statline
  • Template:Officer
  • Template:Granted (Refer to Bayal's weapons)
  • Magic Ability [ 7 ] - He has an extra spell
  • Template:Tactics

Weapons

Leader & Grunts	Hex Razor File:Sword icon.jpg  RNG   POW   P+S  0.5 4 10 Template:Magical Damage
Bayal	Hex Razor (x2) File:Sword icon.jpg  RNG   POW   P+S  0.5 4 10 Template:Magical Damage Template:Weapon Master Template:Shadow Bind

Theme Forces

• Template:Children of the Dragon
• Template:Oracles of Annihilation. In this theme, enemy models that end their activation within 2" of this model suffer continuous corrosion.

Thoughts on Blighted Nyss Hex Hunters

File:BayalHoundOfEverblight.png

Command Attachment

Blighted Nyss Hex Hunters in a nutshell

Hex Hunters are elite mage ninjas in the Legion with a toolbox to handle multiple tasks. They can be offensive spell-slingers, capable combatants for hunting down light/medium infantry, jammers or denial pieces. Unlike the Swordsmen they are by no means a plug&play unit, and you must choose their targets carefully to get the most out of them.

Between Pathfinder, Apparition and Stealth they rarely have problems reaching their targets, while a good MAT and an acceptable Magic Ability 6 ensures that they may hit them as well. All that comes with a price however; their protection is solely based around their high DEF and Stealth, so the last place you want them to be is in protracted combat.

Hex Bolt is an OK spell with enough power to hurt medium infantry, but most importantly it can shut down power & special attacks and actions. Heavies who rely on these to work effectively, like the Marauder's combo-smite, the Ironclad's Tremor or the Slayer's combo strike must be wary of the spell's effect, even though its POW won't do much harm to them. Last but not least their blades are magical, making them favoured tools against Incorporeal models.

Battle Wizard is yet another of their selling points, but to get the most out of it you must take the following into consideration:

• Hard (ARM 17+) targets will rarely be scared by P+S10 attacks. Don't expect Battle Wizard to be triggered outside of charges against them.
• Tough rolls can deny your Battle Wizard attacks to be triggered, as well as abilities that cause the damage to be re-distributed (Self-Sacrifice, Martyrdom, Bond of Brotherhood, etc).
• If you killed your target, Battle Wizard takes place immediately, so you'll need another suitable target. Those standing in melee with your squad mates are rarely ideal choices, but line of sight issues can make this your only choice sometimes. Hopefully you are in melee with multiple models, so you can cast Hex Bolt on them.

Thoughts on adding the CA

Bayal adds tremendously to their the aforementioned denial function. Shadow Bind makes them the bane of Battle Engines and can severely mess with the resource management of warjacks and warbests as well. Also, enemies will rarely risk a free strike from your Hex Hunters while he's alive. Shadow Bind also has its merit against Archons who are immune only to Knockdown and Blind, but not Shadow Bind. Bayal is a capable combatant on his own right, and his accurate spray plus the 2 weapon master attacks make his Battle Wizard all the more threatening. He's a lynchpin model in the unit, so be mindful about committing him into combat early on. Since Shadow Bind is a granted ability it is lost with his death, so keep him hidden from enemy sprays and AoEs.

Combos & Synergies

Hex Hunters have the tools to operate independently but there are a couple of casters, units and solos who will definitely help them performing even better.

Warlocks

• Absylonia1 - Opponent heavies can't shake Shadow Bind in her Blight Burst aura. Same goes with Saeryn1's Blight Bringer.
• Lylyth1 - Her feat fixes accuracy issues while Parasite makes even their P+S10 attacks all the more threatening.
• Vayl1 - Same as above; Incite fixes both damage and accuracy (the latter further with Frost Field). She has the added benefit of her feat, letting you to advance with the Hex Hunters into the most inconvenient places, or back into safety.
• Rhyas1 - She helps their mobility with Dash, making them able to jam units up to 16,5" away, while her feat gives another chance to trigger Battle Wizard. The place/teleport effect from the feat will work even if you destroy your target, so you can add a little range to a Battle Wizard shot by placing the Hex Hunter in question before you remove the enemy model from the table (placing it on the back side of a small base model adds about 2" to the range of the spell).
• Kryssa - The forward-operating Hex Hunters will rarely benefit from her Total Obedience aura but her feat and Ignite will provide a hefty +5 damage boost, making them able to dent heavies and trigger Battle Wizard more often. If you want to buff their DEF even further, Cloak of Ash will bring them up to DEF16 against living models - a level where unboosted blows may start to miss them even with elite MAT.
• Fyanna2 - That's a complete package - DEF buff with feat, more hitting power with Fury, and long range AoE immunity thanks to Iron Flesh and Stealth.
• Kallus1 - He's also a melee support caster between Dark Guidance + Ignite, and some Incubi popping out of them under his feat can be a nasty surprise.
• Bethayne1 - She already has a strong de-buff game between Disintegration and Blood Thorn, and her feat is purpose-made for the Hex Hunters. Very few non-colossal target can walk away unscratched after a barrage of fully boosted Hex Bolts, especially when backed up by Disintegration and their magical protection stripped off by Hex Blast.

• Nephilim Bloodseer - A solid, warlock independent method to add a crucial accuracy bonus for Hex Bolt with Telemetry. Since both its CMD (where Telemetry works) and Hex bolts have the same range, it is hardly a problem that he has to be on the front to be effective.
• Hermit - Yet another source of Telemetry, but his main attraction is Master of Ruin. Hex Hunters already have negligible ARM, so lowering it won't be such a huge blow as in the case of heavier infantries or warbeasts.
• Swordsmen with Warlord, Zuriel, Nephilim Soldier - All have (or can have) Precision Strike, ensuring that once you tagged heavy targets with Shadow Bind, they can carve out their cortices/spirits to shake it off. For extra nastiness consider some source of Grievous Wounds, like Proteus.
• Blight Archon - Its Veteran Leader aura provides accuracy bonus, especially for their magic attacks.
• Blackfrost Shard - Their bigger and better brothers, who can help them both in terms of damage output and accuracy.
• Thagrosh0 - Opponent heavies can't shake Shadow Bind in his Blight Burst aura.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Armor is like wet paper - whatever bypasses their solid DEF and Stealth may kill them almost outright.
• Low P+S means they cannot really hurt heavies and can't reliably trigger Battle Wizard on them.
• Bayal is a priority target due to Shadow Bind.

Tips and Tricks

• Try to get into the back arc of a beatstick jack/beast and war engines. Even if you can't reliably scratch them, you can threaten them with effectively MAT 9 Shadow Bind-causing free-strikes, forcing them to deal with the Hex Hunters first.
• If you are in B2B with a model with 2" melee weapon at the start of your turn, Apparition still won't take you out its reach as you'll be still exactly 2" away.
• If engaged or anywhere near melee at the beginning of your turn use Apparition to get the crucial 3" distance for a charge attack.

Other

Trivia

The unit and CA were both released in Forces of Hordes: Legion of Everblight (2010)