Tharn Bloodweavers

Tharn women practicing the rites of the Bloodweavers are true masters of bloodletting. Their devotion to the Devourer Wurm is absolute, and they kill with the visceral immediacy of sacral blades wielded in their own hands. As their blades taste flesh, primal power causes a victim’s heart to race frantically before the blood suddenly ignites and vaporizes into an expanding mist.

The bloodweaver haruspex is able to divine the strands of future and fate from the blood and viscera of her slain foes, bringing the power of divination to the bloodweavers who accompany her in battle. Her bloody fortune-telling guides their strikes with unerring accuracy and imbues them with lethal potency. Through her sacrificial rites, she empowers her sacral blade to act as a conduit for the very energies of life and death.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Entire unit
  • Template:Pathfinder
  • Template:Stealth
  • Template:Gang

• Haruspex only
  • She has +1 MAT, +2 CMD, and 5 hitpoints
  • Template:Officer
  • Template:Granted (Template:Divine Inspiration-alt)
  • Template:Tactics
  • Template:Tactics (Template:Sacred Ward-alt)

Weapons

Sacral Blade
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		0,5				3				9
Template:Magical Weapon Template:Attack Type Template:Blood Burst Template:Grievous Wounds Template:Life Stealer

Theme Forces

• Template:The Devourer's Host. One unit of Bloodweavers can gain Ambush in this theme.

Thoughts on Tharn Bloodweavers

File:Haruspax.jpg

Command Attachment

Tharn Bloodweavers in a Nutshell

Tharn Bloodweavers are the conscript infantry amongst the Tharn. Cheap warm bodies with Stealth and Pathfinder. Their special attack types give them some utility, and the ability for one unit to Ambush in The Devourer's Host theme force shouldn't be underestimated.

They will never really crack armour but what they do they do well and are cheap.

Thoughts on adding the CA

The Haruspex provides offensive, defensive, and speed upgrades to the base unit via Divine Inspiration, Sacred Ward, and Advance Deploy. Adding her to the unit makes the Bloodweavers much more impactful, meaning the opponent will be far less likely to ignore them.

Because of her cost she isn't always worth taking because she changes the unit from 6 cheap bodies to 7 average cost bodies. So you need to have a plan for using her going in. Additionally tactics advanced deployment can't be used with ambush.

Combos & Synergies

• Baldur the Stonecleaver - Solid Ground prevents them from being shot off by random blasts (though worse after the 2021.10 changes - ARM 15 or respectively 17 with Stone Skin might not save them from all blasts), while his feat can protect them from both melee enemies and those who can see through Stealth. Although Stoneskin is usually better on a larger unit, you can throw it on the Bloodweavers to make them (potentially) hit at a respectable POW 13.
• Krueger the Stormwrath - Gang and Lightning Tendrils love each other.
• Iona the Unseen - Surefoot can make them devilishly hard to hit, while Phantasm can keep Eyeless/True Sight shooting off them. Her feat turns them into absolute infantry blenders through both the increased POW and rerolling missed attack rolls; you might not even need Gang during the feat.
• Bloodweaver Night Witch - Killing Spree is absolutely awesome as an ability and enables the Bloodweavers to both shred enemy infantry and to spread out again afterwards. It almost is a case of not bringing the Bloodweavers without the Night Witch.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• They have competition in other themes and their own theme is full of other powerful infantry options.
  • Wolves of Orboros are cheaper per model also have ambush a longer threat range
  • The Sentry Stone & Mannikins provides even cheaper, recurring bodies.
• They struggle without the gang bonus.
• Gang and short melee range means they tend to bunch up. This, combined with their low arm, makes them very vulnerable to blast damage.
• Most infantry don't have strength high enough to actually fear blood burst.

Tricks & Tips

• Jacks and Beasts only need to be hit with Grievous Wounds to be affected by it. Tagging a beast with a crippled aspect or a jack with a crippled cortex can be debilitating for the enemy.
• If a beast is stuck in with an infantry unit that didn't kill it, charging in and using Life Stealer can free the beast and bring its health back up.

Other

Trivia

• Unit released in Hordes: Metamorphosis (2009)
• CA released at Warmachine Weekend (2018.10)
• Haruspex: (in ancient Rome) a religious official who interpreted omens by inspecting the entrails of sacrificial animals.