Blightbringer

Shrouded by a cloud of blighted ash, the Blightbringer burns with an inner fire like that of the dragons themselves. Hails of gunfire disappear in the billowing haze, and the dragonspawn’s overwhelming emissions smother the talents of enemy spellcasters. So hot are the fires burning within that the very blood pumping through its veins remains at a perpetual boil. The Blightbringer is the flame around which the legion gathers, while the empires of men and dragons tremble at their approach. Template:TOCbox

Basic Info

• Template:Warbeast
• Template:Gargantuan

Abilities

• Template:Eyeless Sight
• Template:Soulless
• Template:Blighted Breath
  • Template:Dragon's Breath
  • Template:Spiritual Corruption
  • Template:Withering Ash

Weapons

• Blight Fire - 14" range, 5" AOE, POW 15 ranged weapon
  • Template:Fire Damage
  • Template:Blight Ash
• Tail - 2" reach, P+S 18 melee weapon.
  • Template:Critical Poison
• Impaling Spike (x2) - 2" reach, P+S 17 melee weapon.

Animus

{{Category: Template:Boiling Blood }}[[Category: Template:Boiling Blood ]]

Theme Forces

• Template:Children of the Dragon
• Template:Oracles of Annihilation
• Template:Primal Terrors
• Template:Ravens of War

Thoughts on the Blightbringer

Blightbringer in a nutshell

The Blightbringer is a support-oriented gargantuan. While the Archangel may be the culmination of the beauty of dragons and the pinnacle of Everblight's realization of his kind, the Blightbringer is the embodiment of the twisted and horrific nature of a dragon's blight. This can be no better seen in both the appearance and the model rules themselves. While the Archangel is a swift skirmishing piece that weakens the enemy at range and then goes for the killing blow, the Blightbringer is a slower but equally powerful cannon who supports its army with the effects of its Blighted Breath. Indeed, Blighted Breath makes Blightbringer one of the most effective support Gargantuans. It's animus, though situational, can also cause a lot of surprise, especially for hard hitting, elusive models.

The Blightbringer's gun appears like that of a Ravagore's at first glance, but when you dig deeper into the breath effects, it does much more than throw out one powerful shot. This ability allows for a number of useful effects to increase the effectiveness of the rest of your army, especially that of your infantry. See Tips and Tricks for a detailed rundown.

When using the Blightbringer as the backbone of an infantry list, remember that it also affects the area around it, meaning it can serve as an anchor as you march up the field, and also can provide its buff even when committed to melee. Be careful sending it into combat though; it hits weaker than the Archangel (unless you roll a crit to its Tail Strike), and despite having 1 more FURY it is only a tad bit more survivable via its 4 more HP. The animus may provide protection against light/medium infantry ganging up and around you, but the restriction that you must target the attacking model leaves ample space for counterplay.

Combos & Synergies

The Blightbringer does not simply slot into a list and work due to its nature as mainly infantry support; instead an army is likely better built around the Blightbringer as it will be a main player in the list's strategy. Additionally, it has a lot less value in beast bricks due to his slower speed and less overall impact since its best breath option doesn't affect other beasts.

• Kallus1 and the Blightbringer are like a match made in heaven. Kallus doesn't generally want a lot of beasts to begin with, and the Blightbringer neatly spends his warbeast points (and a little extra), leaving him free to max out on his favorite trooper for the Blightbringer to buff. Additionally, the Blightbringer can choose to double down on damage buffs with the STR/ARM breath with Ignite, or double down on accuracy with the -2DEF breath and Dark Guidance - or mix and match, if it suits you. The STR/ARM breath pair nicely with Unyielding, and can make a decent case for a unit of screening Legionnaires with Farilor. With Battle driven + Minifeat they top out at ARM23 and knockdown immunity.
• Thagrosh1 - Once the enemy is in Thagrosh's Death Shroud and Dragon's Breath area, your forces will effectively get +4 ARM, while your Ogrun Warpsearps will swing at P+S19 against their Prey targets with Draconic Blessing. This spell also make your troops immune to fire, so the Blightbringer can fire away without regard for them.
• Fyanna2 might prefer a very fast list, but she does like her fair share of infantry, meaning she can run a Blightbringer variant if you want to. A unit under Iron Flesh and stacked inside Dragon's Breath can be way harder to kill than it should be. Swordsmen are incredibly deliverable with this combo, and then turn around and become P+S16 weapon masters if you stack Fury with Dragon's Breath on their target.
• Lylyth2 - Though shooting twice under feat may not seem much, Warspears on her feat can have a field day. Since the Blightbringer has two shots on the feat, you can have his Dragon's Breath buff in three places at once. With the Thrown special rule Warspears can charge in on Lylyth's feat, selecting their feated Gunfighter spear as the charge attack. This allows them to make their assault attack, then take their charge attack using the thrown spear. Finally, they can make the second ranged attack, using the thrown spear again, giving each Warspear three attacks. These are all P+S17 if they're attacking their prey and are in the Blightbringer AOE. Additionally, each attack will benefit from Pincushion if it's running, making the attacks a little more efficient than if you had simply charged with the melee version of the spear.
• Rhyas1 tends to favor troopers because of Dash as well as greater volume of attacks for her feat, so a Blightbringer can be a decent fit for her. She also struggles with a lot of FURY so a single big beast can be a benefit to her. Rapport can give the Blightbringer much needed accuracy buffs which really goes into overdrive with Withering Ash(MAT10 AGAINST MODELS WITHOUT fIRE IMMUNITY), and she can use Acrobatics to hide and charge over him to say safe when she wants to get work done herself. The Blightbringer cannot be placed as a result of her feat, but it does get the extra attack. Also, Dragon's Breath affects Rhyas as well, while Withering Ash improves your Crit chances immensely.
• Hellmouths are warrior models, so they benefit disproportionately from ARM buffs because of Impervious Flesh.
• Bethayne2 - Under her feat your Blightbringer can commit into melee and live to fight another round, while Transmutation synergizes pretty much with the entire toolkit of the Blightbringer. Dissolved guns and blades can also double-dip into the STR bonus.
• Anamag1 - you can see her running a Blightbringer more often than any other warlock. Her spells (Fury's Strength and Bond of Gristle & Bone) add up nicely with Blightbringer's Dragon's Breath and her feat takes the STR buff even further, allowing her army for an effective +6 to damage rolls swing.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Fairly poor MAT and RAT, though high FURY and long range can help mitigate this.
  • Withering Ash can also boost its accuracy against non fire immune targets within 6".
• Limited use in large battlegroups as it's other breaths are not as universally good.
• The usual downfalls of being a Gargantuan (easy to see and shoot to high heaven and back).
• Slightly pillow-fisted for a Gargantuan.

Tricks & Tips

Blight Aura guide

• Though the chosen effect will be changed at the start of the model's activation, the previous one will be active only for one round so you will never have 2 active aura effect from a single Blightbringer.
• Note for beginners: neither the Blightbringer's aura, nor the AoE is a cloud effect - so they don't block line of sight, cannot be neutralized with Wind Blast, etc. Also models don't need to be completely within the AoE to gain the effect - including concealment from Withering Ash.
• If you intend to do use Dragon's Breath's STR bonus, you may want to activate the Blightbringer early so your models charging in will get the bonus. If you want to target your own warrior model with the Blight Fire's AoE, the model will get the ARM bonus against the damage roll. Usually the +2 ARM on your warrior models makes difference only if you have additional ARM buff like Kallus1's Unyielding, Thagrosh1's Death Field, the Blight Archon's Dragon's Blood, the Legionnaires' Wall of Steel/Battle Driven, or you have naturally tough models like the Chosen of Everblight. On the bright side, most of your warlocks are affected by it as well and it cannot be cancelled by Blessed weapons or Dispel.
• Spiritual Corruption is rarely used and requires quite a lot of second-guessing of your enemy's intentions but against powerful magic-wielding lists it can be a good area control. The Hermit in particular must get within 5" to use his Word of Ruin ability, which will be impossible within 6" of the Blightbringer. Blight Fire's AoE can also limit where your enemy's arc node or Spell Driver models can go and with good positioning they often must come closer than intended. Don't forget that animi are also spells and the enemy getting locked out of Rage or Primal may severely hamper the effectiveness of their beatsticks. Finally, Spiritual Corruption plays nicely along with the Nephilim Bloodseer's Arcane Suppression aura: you can shut down a portion of the battlefield where they can cast spells, and set up a zone where they will cast it with +1 COST.
• Withering Ash may have stiff competition with Dragon's Breath as you must assess incoming threats and plan accordingly whether your infantry will be protected better by the +2 DEF bonus from concealment or the +2 ARM. If you have mainly high DEF - low ARM models (typically most of the Blighted Nyss infantry range), and the enemy cannot engage you with blast AoEs or sprays you may want to rely on Withering Ash as DEF 15-16 can force a lot if misses, even from elite gunlines. It is also the only effect that will work on your non-gargantuan battlegroup members, pumping up the ranged DEF of the Carnivean chassis to 14, and the flying warbeasts' to 16. The enemy will also be affected by concealment, something to watch out for with your non-eyeless sighted ranged units. The -2 DEF is a great accuracy fixer for all - including the Blightbringer if you want to commit it to melee in the later stage of the game. Last but not least, cancelling Tough rolls can be quite effective against no-knockdown+tough combos and Trolls in general.

Other

Trivia

Released in Hordes: Devastation (2015)