Thagrosh the Hellborne

Before armies of blighted ogrun began to rally behind Thagrosh and his conquest of the Nyss, he was in search of power. He fused with Everblight’s athanc, becoming a combination of the two entities, but that didn’t mean he had fully mastered the mutating power of the crystal. This version of Thagrosh picks up at a time when he was still coming to grips with the powerful influence of a dragon’s soulstone.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Template:Tough
• Template:Athanc
• Template:Lesser Warlock
• Template:Rapid Mutation
  • Template:Defiant Rage
  • Template:Draconic Mastery
  • Template:Ethrunbal's Guidance

Weapons

Skinning Knife
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		1				2				11
Template:Weapon Master

Spells

{{Category: Template:Blight BurstTemplate:Fog of War }}[[Category: Template:Blight BurstTemplate:Fog of War ]]

Theme Forces

• Template:Oracles of Annihilation. In this theme, enemy models that end their activation within 2" of this model suffer continuous corrosion. Also, note that Thagrosh0 does not get the free upkeep benefit (because he is not a warlock).
• Template:Primal Terrors

Thoughts on Thagrosh0

Thagrosh0 in a nutshell

The big ability on his card is Rapid Mutation, which allows Thagrosh to change and adapt based on whatever the situation demands. Often your first turn with Thagrosh will be focused on casting Fog of War and spending 1 fury to gain Draconic Mastery to make Thags more fury-efficient and have him hand out important Animi such as Slipstream, Full Steam or Wraithbane.

The ability to cast an animus for free for the rest of the game is already a powerful ability, yet Draconic Mastery takes it a step further because it allows Thagrosh to utilize any friendly Faction warbeast’s animus, not just his own battlegroup. Picking up Draconic Mastery first means Thagrosh will be playing a supporting role for the first couple of turns.

During your second turn you will usually pick up Ethrunbal's Guidance in order to give him and his Battlegroup a powerful offensive buff. This might also be the time to drop FoW and start slinging Blight Burst, depending on the game state.

On later turns you will have to asses, whether it is really worth it to spend 3 Fury and mutate for Defiant Rage which is his most situational ability. If you want to commit him to melee, those 3 Fury could be 3 extra attacks. If not, those 3 Fury could be used to cast a Blight Burst, or be saved for transfers.

Athanc really does a ton of work for this model, even more so than it does for Thags1 and Thags2. It allows him to take a very small battlegroup — often either just a Mekanoshredder or a Raek, depending on how aggressively you’re playing him. Since he always has access to all 5 of his fury, he can always gear up with Rapid Mutation or start mixing it up once he’s needed.

Warbeast thoughts

Between Athanc and Draconic Mastery, you don't really need anything in his battlegroup. As such, there's 3 different approaches: Something cheap, something with lots of attacks (to benefit from Guidance), and/or something durable that Thags0 transfers damage to (so you can use him as a super-solo). Note that some of these combos still apply when the beast is on your warlock, or a Blight Archon. Try to asses what the beast gets out of the different battlegroup benefits.

• A Carnivean has an Assault spray and 3 melee initials that benefit from Guidance, can be a decent damage sponge for transferred damage, and provides the Spiny Growth animus to make Thags0 even more resilient. With Chain Attack: Grab and Smash you can chuck something and knock it down, then have Thags drop a Blight Burst on it to disable shaking.
• Typhon has a bond with Thags that allows both of them to heal 3 damage points when Typhon uses Regeneration. It has multiple sprays that'll appreciate Guidance. Getting a Critial Pitch of with the heads is not only more likely thanks to Guidance, but also can take a heavy out of the game if you use the opportunity to drop a Blight Burst template on it.
• Archangel - Guidance makes Thags one of the best AA warlocks in the faction, especially if you add some further warlock buffs. An expensive combo, but Thags is one of the hardier lessers, so he should not fold that easily.
• Seraph - It needs help nailing those Flare shots, so Guidance is marvellous. A free Slipstream is always excellent.
• Blightbringer's Boiling Blood stacks with Guidance, letting you hit back with re-rollable sprays every time Thags is damaged. It's probably not a good idea to put this thing on Thagrosh though, as you take it to support infantry and your warlock has Warbeast points and Thags has not.
• Raek - Thags has no business Counter Charging anything, so the animus is wasted, but it can operate far away from him thanks to extended control range and Headbutt things for Blight Burst plays. Note that the Raek will still have Concealment from FoW even when 20" away from Thags thanks to Extended Control Range.
• Naga Nightlurker - It has Prowl, so it has Stealth while in Fog of War. Everblight's Guidance increases the crit-chance on it's gun and a free Wraith Bane on e.g. an Archangel is very useful.

Combos & Synergies

• Warmonger War Chief - Veteran Leader & Blood Drinker are both useful.
• Blight Archon - Another source of Veteran Leader.
• Anamag - Anamag gets to cast spells if a Blighted Ogrun kills something while in her control range, Thags is one of the three Blighted Ogrun in Oracles of Annihilation. Carnage make him more accurate and her feat more deadly, but the most interesting interaction is with Gallows, as she can pull something into a Blight Burst AOE. She can also strip upkeeps with Hex Blast, meaning they cannot Apparate out of the template with Mirage for example.
• Ammok offers Rise.
• Lylyth4 - Guidance and her feat gives Thags's beast two rerolls on ranged attack rolls and one on its ranged damage rolls. Stacked with Mortality that makes it extremely scary. Deflection and FoW gives you +4 DEF against shooting.
• Hex Hunters with Bayal - Shadow Bind is a shakable status, but Blight Burst prevents shaking, meaning this combo can take a heavy out of the game without killing it.
• Bethayne1 - Her feat gives him a fully boosted Blight Burst and he can cast Belphagore's Animus on himself. Guidance and Blood Thorn on Thags's warbeast an also be really obscene.
• The Wastelander - Fog of War synergizes well with Take a Bullet and Deflect.
• Gudrun2 - FoW and Kinetic Distortion stack and thus grant friendly minion models +4 DEF against shooting.
• Abyslonia1 - This lets you double up on Blight Bursts and Refuge can keep Thags safe after getting some work done. Playing God can be put on his beast, so you can have a flying Typhon with Guidance, which is quite fun.
• Proteus - Crawling Chaos can make a beast or jack unable to leave a Blight Burst AOE, and without focus or forcing it will probably struggle to get rid of Proteus.
• Rhyas1 - as a FURY 6 caster she loves his ability to hand out important animi like candy. He can provide a crucial Slipstream or Full Steam to enable her assassination and Blight Burst is a very strong control element that she otherwise lacks. A Rapport'd Raek can Headbutt something inside a Blight Burst cloud at MAT 8.
• Primal Archon - The Primal Archon is able to proc both knock down and Shadow Bind on enemy models, enabling Blight Burst plays.
• Death Archon - Mortal fear makes Thags and his beasts tougher and Chain Attack: Death Chill has the usual Blight Burst applications. No Blight Archon if you take this model though.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• He cannot be fielded alongside Thagrosh1 nor Thagrosh2.
• His natural threat range is pretty low and his melee game is only ok thanks to only having one initial.
• He has no native defensive tech other than Tough and transfers. His statline isn't bad for a lesser, but he will still die if you leave him exposed and his transfer targets are whimpy or dead. Unlike Krueger0 or Madrak0 he cannot transfer for free and he doesn't have the ridiculous statline buffs available to him that Barnabas0 has.
• It is difficult to achieve a direct hit on a target unsupported, due to Blight Burst's high cost and your low-ish FURY 5; unless the target is already knocked down or stationary (which are the targets most vulnerable to it anyway), or you have a Veteran Leader around and mutated for Everblight's Guidance, which, to be fair, will be most of the time anyway.

Tricks & Tips

• You will gain the buff from Defiant Rage even if you transfer all the damage to his warbeast.

• Rapid Mutation:
  • Turn 1: Spend 1 fury (1 new + 0 existing) to gain your first mutation.
  • Turn 2: Spend 2 fury (1 new + 1 existing) to gain your second mutation.
  • Turn 3: Spend 3 fury (1 new + 2 existing) to gain your third mutation.
  • You can't gain more than one mutation per turn.
  • You don't have to gain a new mutation every turn. You could get them on turns 1, 3, and 5 for example.
  • You can gain the mutations in any order.
  • Once you have a mutation, you keep it for the rest of the game.
  • You don't need to pay to "upkeep" the mutations.

Other

Trivia

• Released 2021.10
• Released to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Warmachine, alongside Krueger0, Madrak0, Makeda0, and Barnabas0. Four of them are characters from the 2006 Primal rulebook, and the 5th is Barnabas.
• Although Thagrosh0 won't be Legion's first Battlegroup Controller solo, he will be their first lesser warlock. Everblight's athanc shards have been presented as creating "Instant warlocks" up until this point.
• "Ethrunbal" is what Everblight is know as among the elves of Ios, back when he still had a body and was living there underneath a city.