Dominar Morghoul & Escorts

Template:Skornebox2 This model is playable only in an Unlimited format.

After a lifetime spent bloodying his hands on behalf of others, Morghoul has emerged from the world of shadows to command a house like no other—the paingivers. In battle, Dominar Morghoul is attended by two paingiver escorts who aid him in crippling his foes so that his blade may find purchase, and he empowers his army with mortitheurgical might so that they may shift like the sands of the desert to swiftly fell their foes.

Basic Info

Morghoul3

• This unit is made up of Morghoul and 2 Escorts.

Feat : Death Wind

Dominar Morghoul & Escorts and friendly Faction warrior models beginning their activations in Morghoul's Template:CTRL range gain Acrobatics, Overtake, and Parry. Death Wind lasts for one turn.

Template:Acrobatics-alt

Template:Overtake-alt

Abilities

• Template:Officer
• Template:Parry
• Template:Pathfinder
• Template:Stealth
• Template:Acrobatics
• Template:Granted (Template:Reposition 3-alt)
• Template:Steady
• Template:Hidden Blade

Weapons

Mercy - 1" reach, P+S 13 melee weapon

• Template:Blessed
• Template:Magical Weapon
• Template:Critical Decapitation

Spells

{{Category: Template:Flashing BladeTemplate:MirageTemplate:Night's ReflectionTemplate:Occultation }}[[Category: Template:Flashing BladeTemplate:MirageTemplate:Night's ReflectionTemplate:Occultation ]]

Escorts

Template:Infobox-Model Dominar Morghoul's unit comes with two Paingiver Escorts.

Abilities

• Template:Stealth
• Template:Pathfinder
• Template:Anatomical Precision

Weapons

Fan of Shadows - 0.5" reach, P+S 8 melee weapon

• Template:Magical Weapon
• Template:Blind

Theme Forces

• Template:Disciples of Agony. Morghoul and his Escorts gains Sacrificial Pawn [Minion warrior] in this theme.
• Template:Masters of War. Morghoul and his Escorts gain "Optional Take Down" in this theme.
• Template:The Exalted
• Template:Winds of Death

Thoughts on Morghoul3

Morghoul3 in a nutshell

Dominar Morghoul is very like his previous version of Lord Assassin Morghoul - blinding a lot of enemies, some buffing, a little debuffing, and the ability to finish the enemy off. Acrobatics and Apparition between them give him a pretty impressive threat profile as he can get through most enemies without stopping.

Like most warlocks in warlock units he's had some of his power spread to a couple of unit members who are probably worth three points each.

Maximising his Feat & Spells

• Night's Reflection with its blind is basically the ability to render an enemy unit either irrelevant for a turn, easy prey this turn, or both. (It also sets up casters for the kill). It's equally good against battle engines and is generally a standout spell.
• Mirage cast on the Dominar himself is a statement of intent. How recklessly do you want to play him? And you probably want to do this after the feat.
• Occultation is just good.
• His feat should be used early - preferably with Nihilators to clean up as much infantry as you can. Or with Bloodrunners to exploit gang chains as they don't actually have these abilities.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• No damage buff
• It's hard to trigger Hidden Blade and without it he's not that great an assassin.
• Legion beasts frequently no-sell Night's Reflection and blind-related synergies.
• Archons are immune to blind across the board.
• Few direct battlegroup synergies. There's Mirage and there's Night's Reflection. The last one is dependent on list building, enemy model nature and placement. Can work but no guarantees.
• Arm 14
• Few warbeast points

Tricks & Tips

• His escorts can frequently do a really good job of jamming up heavies.
• Mirage is useful on his unit in the endgame. Remember: upkeep, then place. Also remember you can't place models out of formation with the unit commander.
• Blind - then reposition back behind something safe
• Night's Reflection can let you massacre an entire unit. Or just keep it out for a turn as it can't shake Blind.
• The aforementioned blinding spell is also a good way to control certain battle engines. Be careful for battle engines that have native Eyeless Sight or the ones that can gain it from models such as Alyce Marc or the Bog Trog Mist Speaker.

List Building Advice

Strategy

Morghoul wants to win by attrition with a highly effective back pocket assassination. Night's Reflection is an amazing spell, either shutting down a unit for a turn and setting it up for the kill, or shutting down a battle engine for a turn. His feat lets you kill anything in charge range - parry, acrobatics, and overtake are amazing mobility and frequently a pocket MAT-fixer as it gives you backstrike bonuses. (Woe betide the caster who doesn't realise they are in charge range). And he himself can be a finisher although he is no Morghoul2 when it comes to personal threat as applying Blind costs many more resources. So his strategy boils down to "win the attrition game with infantry while forcing the opponent to play round the assassination".

Morghoul's feat and spells support an aggressive infantry line with a relatively small battlegroup.

Theme thoughts

Template:Header He was one of the few warlocks allowed in this theme even before the remix, and it goes with him. It provides him with a damage buff from either a Battle Boar or Blackhide Wrastler - and allowing him both Bloodrunners and Nihilators, both of which get on extremely well with his feat; the Dominar uses surprisingly few minion units here. Unfortunately it's mostly beasts to crack armour mixed with infantry for infantry-slaying, so it's a bit of an army of parts.

• Nihilators really love the Overtake/Berserk combination. And both Occultation and Apparition do good things for them.
• Paingiver Bloodrunners do surprisingly well with Morghoul's feat; Parry and Acrobatics both get them to targets and overtake does wonderful things to get Gang-chains going on targets that thought they were safe. Also with a caster with occultation the more stealth the merrier.

Template:Header This is the other common way to play him. You can take a couple of units of Praetorian Swordsmen to shatter armour and keep them safe with his spells, and Swordsmen love delivery methods. So do Ferox.

• Cataphract Arcuarii love Occultation and the feat; acrobatics really lets them get at their target.
• Legends of Halaak can be protected on the way in and are very hard to hide from under Morghoul's feat.
• Praetorian Swordsmen love everything the feat does. Acrobatics to get into back arcs or to high value targets. Parry and sidestep work together awesomely. And he has two spells to protect them.
• Praetorian Ferox can threaten almost the entire table with Morghoul's feat
• The Supreme Guardian can be placed with Mirage in this theme (not in Exhalted due to Immovable Object) which increases its melee threat to 13". A respectable number, though casting Mirage on the battle engine does telegraph your plan/threat range.

Template:Header It doesn't gain so much from his kit although it's far from unplayable and a surprise Hakaar the Destroyer charging through models and overtaking can wreck a lot of things. This works even if it's not an outstanding choice; Morghoul has no damage buffs, and Immortals and Ancestral Guardians are P+S 13/14 and he does little for warbeasts. Also there's little point to giving Immortals Overtake - and Incorporeal covers most of both Acrobatics and Parry so the feat's not all that great. It can save you a soul on the Extoller Advocate though.

• Immortal Vessel gives him +2 to hit with his Blind spells and lets him channel them safely. Close to a must-have.
• Keep in mind that in this theme Construct models gain Immovable Object, which prevents them from being placed - this means Mirage won't work on your construct models in this theme! Your beasts or Morghoul can still be placed with Mirage though.

Template:Header Lacks the melee infantry he loves. Models in the theme do love to shoot Blind targets. The theme also allows the Immortal Vessel. Maybe not the first choice but not a bad one either.

• Aptimus Marketh gets two upkeeps and his blind spell. Which is basically everything he wants.
• Extoller Soulward lets you land Blind and may be wanted to take out incorporeal models as Morghoul lacks a zap.
• Immortal Vessel gives him +2 to hit with his Blind spells and lets him channel them safely. Close to a must-have.
• Hermit of Henge Hold provides either a damage buff or the Telemetry ability if you're not rocking the aforementioned Immortal Vessels. This can shore up both his lack of a damage buff/debuff and/or his to-hit with NIght's Reflection. Mad Visions can also help Morghoul or key models stay alive. Keep in mind the Hermit's SPD 5. Note that in DoA you can take the Paingiver Task Master which can give the Hermit Reposition [3"].

Battlegroup

Other than leeching Fury from it Morghoul 3 has very little direct interaction with his battlegroup. As such it is normally chosen after the army and using little more than his core warbeast points, in order to fill in any gaps that the rest of the army has left.

Other

Trivia

Released 2017.04