Croe's Cutthroats

File:Mercenary Logo.jpg File:Infernal Logo.jpg

Template:FH2

As a murderous band of mercenaries, Croe’s Cutthroats prefer stealth and guile over confrontations of brute strength. Many of their enemies have fallen to the poisoned weapons utilized by their unseen hands.

Basic Info

Mercenary - This unit will work for Template:Cryx Mercenary, Template:Khador Mercenary, Template:Infernal Mercenary, or Template:Protectorate Mercenary.

• Template:Partisan

Abilities

• Entire Unit
  • Template:Advance Deployment
  • Template:Pathfinder
  • Template:Stealth
  • Template:Backstab
  • Template:Prey
  • Template:Reposition 5

• Leader
  • The Leader has +1 MAT & +1 RAT.
  • This model is not a character and it can be Field Promoted. You murdered the wrong Croe.

Weapons

Leader	Hiss File:Gun icon.jpg  RNG   ROF   AOE   POW  10 1 Template:- 10 Template:Magical Weapon Template:Silencer Two-Handed Sword File:Sword icon.jpg  RNG   POW   P+S  1 5 10
Grunts	Crossbow File:Gun icon.jpg  RNG   ROF   AOE   POW  10 1 Template:- 10 Murder Weapons File:Sword icon.jpg  RNG   POW   P+S  0.5 3 8

Theme Forces

• Mercenary
  • Template:Operating Theatre (Only if a Cephalyx Dominator is attached)
  • Template:The Irregulars
  • Template:The Kingmakers Army. Croe's Cutthroats gain Feign Death in this theme.

• Infernals
  • Template:Dark Legacy. They don't use up your "Up to one Mercenary unit" slot in this theme.
  • Template:Hearts of Darkness. They can be included no matter which warcaster leads the theme.

• Other Factions
  • As a merc unit they can also be taken in a bunch of other Faction's themes. See #Other Theme Forces.

Thoughts on Croe's Cutthroats

Croe's Cutthroats in a nutshell

The Cutthroats are a serious harrassment unit, with advance deployment, stealth, prey, pathfinder and a fantastic reposition 5 - which allows them to move 11" a turn while still taking a moment to slow down, admire the scenery, recentre their karma, and shoot someone in the back of the head.

Their mobility makes them a significant threat and a serious problem for your opponent, however they depend on positioning to pull off either Prey, Backstab, or preferably both. Without those bonuses their hitting power is distinctly average, but you're paying a premium price for them. They excel best with a caster that can turn enemy models around (such as with Telekinesis) and thus ensure they get their Backstab bonus.

Combos & Synergies

Casters

• Fiona the Black. They can be her Cultists, as with Pathfinder, Repo and Stealth the shoudld reasonably get into places were channelling is interesting, and she bring as much needed damage buff, making them potentially POW 14 weapon masters against their Prey target.
• Accuracy buffs like Fortune from Macbain or Deadeye from Damiano make them competent shooters from the front arc, able to shoot and back up.
• Rahera's feat lets them shoot again, really leveraging the Prey bonus.
• Scaverous loves them because he can TK targets around for them to back stab and they fuel his Void Archons. Targets affected by Feast of Worms also don't like being shot at by their guns.
• Thexus similarly brings TK and loves a 10 man unit to fuel his Void Archons.
• Agathon can use Dark Seduction in the same way as TK. Ambushing Cultist can also be used to sandwich the opponent.
• Lukas - They can only play together in Hearts of Darkness because Croes don't work for Crucible Guard, but Lukas has TK so there is natural Synergy there. disintegration also cranks up their damage and Iron Flesh pretty much eliminates their weakness to blasts as it puts them at ARM 17 against them, which is enough to shrug off low-powered explosions (Gunnbjorn2 is still a problem though).
• Ashlynn2 - Hand of Fate ups their damage output trmemndously and with True Path they can throw down in melee, too. Artifice gives them a spot to hide.
• Malakov2 and Crosse1 have Discombobulate to unlock Backstabs from the front.

Non-casters

• Any Ambush model/unit. Your opponent is forced to either expose their back arc to Croe, or to the ambushing unit.
• Any ranged damage buff, such as Fiona, Hermit or Aiyana & Holt. With Backstab they start to hit hard enough to hurt heavies.
• Nemo4 can bring a few of them back every turn.
• Alexia1 or Alexia2 love them as fuel for their respective collection mechanics.
• Boomhowler3 - What's better than Repo [5]? Well, how does Repo [11] sound? Use Hoof It to make Croes speed around the table.
• As a 10 man unit of living dudes they're a great soul battery for Void Archons. Especially in Cryx, who don't have many friendly souls around in non-Scourge themes.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Unless they are getting the Prey or Backstab bonus, they are below-average combatants with an above-average points cost.
• Even with the Backstab bonus, it can be surprisingly hard to take down enemy lights that are not your prey target as they are still only "boosted" POW 10s. Not including Croe (because he throws the math off), it takes about 7 grunts to kill a 'typical' light (DEF 12, ARM 17, 26 HP) and 16 grunts (impossible) to kill a 'typical' heavy (DEF 10, ARM 19, 32 HP).
• Opposing armies can negate Croes by counter-deploying something cheap vs the Croes and running straight at them. Croes can't afford to ignore the cheap unit while they get in a position for Backstab, and are 'trading down' if they engage the cheaper unit. So the massively appreciate it when something Like a Void Archon spray or Orin1's chain lightning unjams them.
• Incoming fire has right of way - and they die heavily to blasts.
• There are many units out there that shoot things in the face quite well and don't need to circle around back.
• Most of the time they're operating on the side of the board, trying to circle around the enemy army to get into the back arc. If your opponent has anything at all with Ambush, they're screwed.

Tricks & Tips

• Remember that Croe (the Leader) does not have the Officer rule. As such, when the Leader model is destroyed, he simply field promotes with one of the Grunts.
  • If he is RFP'd, field promotion does not occur. Instead you pick a Grunt to become a unit commander.
• Prey something that doesn't have Advance Deployment or Ambush. That way you can see where your Prey target deploys before you put the Croes down, and can counterdeploy to suit.
• One trick your opponent might use against you is to "hide" the Prey target. Especially if you Prey an enemy unit, then don't quite kill the last trooper - you can expect that trooper to run for the hills to prevent you changing Prey targets. As a consequence it can be wise to take Croes as a minimum sized unit, the logic being you have less points "lost" if/when you can't reach your Prey target.

Other

Trivia

• Released in Warmachine: Superiority (2006)
• In Mk1 the field promotion rules didn't exist, but Croe had a special ability to let him replace anyone in his unit when he died. Which is, for all intents and purposes, the same thing.
• Nicknames: "Croes", without a genitive apostrophe, yeah even though there is only one guy named "Croe" in the entire unit.