Incubi

The sheer inhumanity of Everblight’s designs appears in the twisted manifestations of his will, and few of his creations are more insidious than the Incubus. This blighted organism infects its host like a sentient disease, spreading through the flesh and awaiting the energies of death to unleash it. Those who have witnessed this defilement describe a slain Nyss suddenly transforming into a hideous draconic abomination that, tearing through the dead flesh, arises and rejoins combat. No one can detect which blighted Nyss hosts a lurking incubus, and thus it can prove perilous for combatants to turn their backs on a fallen Legion warrior.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Template:Soulless
• Template:Host

Weapons

• Claw (x2) - 0.5" reach, POW 3, P+S 11 melee weapons
  • Template:Combo Strike

Theme Forces

• Template:Children of the Dragon
• Template:Oracles of Annihilation

Also an Afflictor can create them, so they can technically be in Ravens of War and Primal Terrors.

Thoughts on Incubi

Incubi in a nutshell

Incubi are interesting and unique pieces with specialized mechanics. When you bring Incubi in your list, you bring them in sets of five - just under a point per Incubus - instead of buying individual solos. Incubi don't get deployed, instead, they're put into play when your other, small-based faction warrior models perish in a pseudo-recursion style mechanic. It's not true recursion as you still purchase the Incubi - or at least, need to use one of your requisition options in the 2 themes you're allowed to bring them (except in the case of the Afflictor or Kallus1).

Incubi require a bit of experience to be used properly, as they are immediately placed on the table. This can be their biggest weakness if you carelessly spawn them, as they can end up deployed and destroyed right after that. Their defence stats aren't exactly stellar, and unlike many solos they lack multiple HP. There are ways to circumvent this such as spawning them from ranged attacks where they're not likely to be immediately backhanded.

There are, however, various situations when you just want to pop them out and force your enemy to divert more resource to kill them. For example, your infantry blocks the charge lane of the enemy's jack to get stuck in, and want to shoot it down first with another unit. If you pop an Incubus right out of it, the lane will still be blocked, basically doubling the amount of resource your enemy will need to clean the charge lane. Incubi are also useful in case of impact attacks - see Tips and Tricks.

When Incubi enter the table, they're fairly capable solos for their cost. Their MAT is not stellar, but Legion is no short on accuracy buffs, and they have the flexibility of opting for two attacks into weaker models or utilizing Combo Strike to hit a little harder. Depending on where you spawn an Incubus, they can get into annoying locations in the enemy mid or back lines.

Combos & Synergies

• Oracles of Annihilation - Incubi require you to have already purchased other small-based infantry to be able to show up. Fortunately this theme gives you plenty of cheap Minion choices who can act as hosts. Because the created Incubi is not Blighted it will not bestow the corrosion effect onto the enemy.
  • Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew - The cheapest Minion unit you can get, and if they're being killed despite the smoke cover, You'll spawn the Incubi right into concealment, making it fairly difficult to remove with yet more shooting.
  • Shamblers - They cannot host Incubi (well the Bokor can), but the destroyed models still generate corpse tokens, so you can spawn the Incubus and still get the corpse token from a single kill. Waste not, want not. Even better, if the incubus dies you can get yet another corpse token
• Swamp Gobber Chef - If your plans involve using comfort food to control your beasts an Incubi is cheap and tasty.
• Afflictors can spawn an Incubus once a turn when they kill enemy warriors. These Incubi can activate and kill something on your own turn, rather than relying on the enemy to not kill them. Afflictors are mobile and cheap, so they can often target enemy models that will be in convenient locations for the Incubus to cause more trouble.
• Kallus1 - During his feat he can spawn as many Incubi as he has infantry, and can even spawn them from medium and large base models, something that is not normally possible. With Kallus, even though the Incubi still spawn immediately, you often get so many that a handful will make it to the next turn to be annoyances. Plus, they're free with his feat anyway, and the ones that die divert attacks that could have killed other, more valuable models.
• Kryssa - they gain tough when near her and her feat let’s them hit hard. If you are using infantry to contest objectives, having to kill models with tough twice is frustrating, especially if the originals cannot be knocked down like Blighted Nyss Legionnaires.
• Fyanna2 can cause a whole lot of headache under her feat, where deployed Incubi may reach a respectable DEF16, and can Dodge into even more favourable position if the enemy misses them.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• You cannot put them in play from your Minion models in Children of the Dragon.
• Average combat potential, and likewise defensive stats - do not expect them to last long after they spawn.
• RFP and non-attack related damage can hinder their deliverance - see Tips and Tricks.

Tricks & Tips

Incubi for beginners

• If you are a new player, read this article about how models in Warmachine/Hordes die.
• Opponents may have access to RFP effects that occur before the "destroy" step, completely negating your ability to put Incubi in play. Most typical examples are the Explosivo spells, or the Take Down some armies get from theme lists. Things that don't count as an attack damage may also stop the Incubi entering the field (most common examples are the electro-leaps of Cygnar).
• A well placed Incubus can often blunt impact attacks from cavalry charges. If there's a weak intervening model between the opponent's cavalry and its charge target, they often use Impact attacks to kill it. However, if you pop out an Incubus from the slain model, enemies can't make another impact attack against it, as they cannot advance yet another 3" to make another impact attack against it. And if they're not engaging their charge target, they've failed the charge, and thus their activation ends.
  • There are a few exceptions. Ghost Walk can still allow your opponent to continue its charge if it failed to kill a model with Impact Attack.
  • Models with the Ton of Bricks special rule can still make impact attack against the newly spawned Incubus if they did not kill its host in B2B, as they can do Impact attacks without the need to move 3" beforehand.
• Spawning an Incubus in response to stray gunfire can be a way to ensure it gets to activate the next turn, but limits their chances of threatening anything important.
• Consider using solos that flank or have a chance of moving deep behind the enemy as potential vessels for Incubi rather than front line infantry.

Other

Trivia

Released in Hordes: Evolution (2007)