Helga the Conquerer

Having secured her vast territories through a combination of strength and cunning, Helga the Conqueror stands as one of the most formidable farrow warlords. With her great spear and shield cannon, she is a whirlwind of steel on the battlefield, and she can draw on her arcane reserves to bestow mystical strength on the warriors fighting beside her. Their every blow becomes a battering ram, capable of sending enemies flying back to shatter through walls, trees, or anything else in their way.

Basic Info

• Minion - In a 2+ caster game, she can work for Template:Skorne minion, Template:Legion minion, Template:Circle minion, or Template:Trollblood minion.
• This model is a Warlock.

Warlock Rules A warlock is an Independent Model. a Leader model. a Battlegroup Controller controls warbeasts. Warlocks use Fury Manipulation Uses ARC to determine how many fury points it gains each turn. Begins the game with a number of fury points equal to its ARC. Cannot exceed its ARC stat in fury points as a result of leeching. Can spend fury points only during its activation (unless a special rule states otherwise) for the following: Buy additional attacks Boost attack rolls Boost damage rolls Shake some effects Can leach fury points from warbeasts in its battlegroup in its control range. Spirit Bond allows the warlock to gain a fury for each of its dead battlegroup warbeasts. Reaving allows the warlock to pull fury points from a warbeast in its battlegroup when it dies.

• Template:Farrow Warlock

Feat: Grand Finale

When a friendly Faction model in Helga's Template:CTRL range hits an enemy model with a basic melee attack, instead of making a normal damage roll, the enemy model can be slammed d6" directly away from the attacking model. The POW of the slam damage roll is equal to the P+S of the attack. The POW of collateral damage rolls (if any) is equal to the attacker's STR. Grand Finale lasts for one turn.

Abilities

• Template:Assault
• Template:Tough
• Template:Gang Fighter
• Field Marshal [ [[:Category:{{{ability}}}|{{{ability}}}]] ]

[[Category:{{{ability}}}]]

• Template:Set Defense
• Template:Veteran Leader

Weapons

• Shield Gun - 10" range, POW 13 ranged attack
  • Template:Shield
• Hunting Spear - 2" reach, P+S 12 melee attack
  • Template:Magical Weapon
  • Template:Inflict Pain

Spells

{{Category: Template:CycloneTemplate:Defender's WardTemplate:DistractionTemplate:Muzzle }}[[Category: Template:CycloneTemplate:Defender's WardTemplate:DistractionTemplate:Muzzle ]]

Theme Forces

• Minions
  • Template:Thornfall. She gains Rise in this theme.
  • Template:Vengeance of Dhunia. In this theme she gains Attuned Spirit [Trollblood/Minion Warbeast].
  • Template:Will Work for Food

• Other Factions
  • Trollblood players can also use this warlock in the Vengeance of Dhunia and she gains Attuned Spirit as mentioned above.

Thoughts on Helga1

Helga1 in a nutshell

She's a combined arms caster who does good things for infantry and warbeasts alike, but wants each to support the other. Just a really nice and really fun toolbox who's probably the most entertaining beer-and-pretzels warlock in the Minions roster thanks to that feat.

She is quite strong at assassination: With Cyclone she has a 15" threat range, and Cyclone + Dash pushes it to 17" (although doesn't leave you with much fury to finish the job). Stack Gang Fighter with her feat slamming the target into a larger model means she hits at P+S 14 + 4d6. She can get the job done.

She is also quite durable: Between Set Defense, her Shield, and Defender's Ward, Helga can become impressively durable (19/19 vs charges). This can help her play much further upfield to bully enemy casters out of scenario zones ... or if they come into the zone, they come into your assassination range for the next turn.

Feat Thoughts

First off, some rules interactions:

• A basic attack is everything except a Power Attack, Chain Attack, or Special Attack.
  • Impact Attacks are basic attacks.
  • A charge attack is a basic attack ... unless you use a [[:Category:{{{ability}}}|{{{ability}}}]]

[[Category:{{{ability}}}]] after charging.

• Because it is not a Power Attack Slam
  • Base size doesn't come into it, so you don't halve the distance rolled vs models larger than the attacker.
  • You use the weapon's full P+S, not the attacker's base STR.
  • You can add weapon special rules (such as Weapon Master) to the damage roll.
• You can add model special rules (such as Gang) to the damage roll.
• You can boost the damage roll (and if you charged, it is auto-boosted).
• Slam movement is resolved after the hit roll and before the damage roll.
• You will gain an extra damage die if the target is slammed into an obstruction or equal/larger based model.

For instance, a charging (+1d6) Weapon Master (+1d6) which slams their target into an obstruction (+1d6) is going to have: Damage Roll = POW + STR + 5d6 Helga herself is a far scarier assassin on feat turn, as a smart attack angle will slam your target into something bigger (like an Efaarit Scout you ran behind them) and give you an extra damage die, making her effectively a P+S 14 weapon master. Just make sure you don't slam your target out of range to buy more attacks. Similarly her army becomes an army of slam bots that, with clever positioning, will utterly smash the enemy army. You can also use the feat slam to move enemy models away from scenarios, out of "buff auras", out of formation, etc.

Spell Thoughts

• Dash is Parry for all infantry and an extra inch of movement. Always useful, especially for murdering infantry
• Cyclone is Helga's assassination spell. An extra 5"(6" with Dash) of threat range you can use either before or after you charge.
• Defender's Ward is just an excellent defensive buff.
• Distraction is a very useful spell for keeping enemy infantry down - you generally need to boost it to hit (and can cast it via the Gatorman Soul Slave)
• Muzzle is a zap. You don't often use it to shut enemy beasts down but it can really mess up the day of a Gargantuan.

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Gang Fighter looks great for beasts - but she's only Fury 6 and has little in-faction fury management so can't run big battle groups.
• Her key weakness is actually sub par Farrow infantry, but this has been mitigated by Vengeance of Dhunia

Tricks & Tips

• Plan your charges on feat turn so that your weapon slams maximise collateral damage and knock-downs.

List Building Advice

Strategy

Unless your opponent gives you the opportunity to use your feat for an overwhelming alpha strike or scenario dominance, her main method of winning is assassination.

Theme Thoughts

She works quite well in this theme. But the infantry options pail in comparison to Vengeance of Dhunia

• Farrow Brigands - Your primary infantry option in Thornfall Alliance.
• Farrow Slaughterhousers - Your cheapest troops with long melee range. On feat turn they can get up to five damage dice on the charge.

• Meat Thresher - It's debatable how good this is with Helga, but on her feat turn it's certainly hilarious.
• Farrow Bone Grinders - Your cheapest non-zombie troops to trigger Gang Fighter, and they can increase the range of her Distraction.
• Farrow Valkyries - She's their Veteran Leader, and each Valkyrie can each slam twice on feat turn. Helga doesn't do much to defend her army against shooting, so the shield guards are very helpful. And they are surprisingly fast thanks to the Shield Guard/Vengeance combination. so good at triggering Gang Fighter.
• Lynus Wesselbaum & Edrea Lloryrr - just a nice utility unit.
• Efaarit Scouts - In addition to their normal functions, they are great on her feat turn because:
  • all their impact attacks turn into slams
  • they can use their SPD and Reposition to get behind enemy models, then act as a large-based "backstop" for other models that want to slam enemies into the backstop for +1 damage die.

  Just try not to kill your Efaarit with collateral damage; they'll survive infantry slamming stuff into them, but not beasts.

• Rorsh & Brine - Nonlinear threat is helpful when engineering slam angles for the extra damage die on Helga's feat turn. Feat turn can provide knocked down targets for Rorsh to shoot at, and it's always helpful to have more boostable guns in an assassination list.
• The Primal Archon becomes interesting on her feat turn, because the slam movement is resolved before you trigger the Archon's Earth Shaker ability. The Earth Shaker centres a 4" AOE on the target which knocks down anyone in the template. So it is tossing bowling balls and knocking down pins.
• Targ - Thornfall's caster attachment allows Helga to upkeep Defender's Ward for free while within 7" of her, extends the range a beast can be forced and thanks to his Butcher Knife can supply a beast with the Gang Fighter bonus when he uses Ancillary Attack on it.

This theme gives her access to Nyss and all the solos she could want. Gang Fighter is excellent for buffing beasts, but forces her into a combined arms play.

Several things already mentioned above can also be taken in this theme:

Meat Thresher, Farrow Bone Grinders, Farrow Valkyries, Lynus Wesselbaum & Edrea Lloryrr, Efaarit Scouts, Rorsh & Brine, Primal Archon

• Swamp Gobber River Raiders - On feat turn they shoot, use their harpoon pistols to put themselves anywhere B2B with the enemy, and then they can make a melee attack and slam them. So you get to exactly choose the slam angle - a popular option is directly back towards your own lines. Bringing multiple sets of River Raiders makes this strategy difficult to prevent and lets you chain one River Raider slam after another to move models extreme distances or line them up perfectly for extra damage dice. Vastly entertaining and quite effective. Also cheap solos are good for setting up Gang Fighter.
• Void Archon - possibly more movement shenanigans than the river raiders.
• Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew - useful for more than the smoke clouds, run them to set up Gang Fighter.
• Flugwug the Filcher - Chain Strike, jump, reposition 5, boosts available. Shenanigans especially on feat turn.
• Nyss Hunters - A bit overpriced but probably the best of the full units available. Can reach Def16 with Defender's Ward.
• Saxon Orrik for pathfinder
• Gatorman Soul Slave - Provides a free upkeep of Defender's Ward, and can effectively leverage the two spells Helga is least likely to cast herself: Distraction and Muzzle.
• Gatorman Witch Doctor Helga doesn't bring any pathfinder, so Shadow Walk is very helpful. Letting Helga fly through buildings is an entertaining bonus.
• Totem Hunter - As with the River Raiders, Jump lets you line up precise slams or get into enemy back arcs to slam things into your heavies' threat range. The ability to jump is great for both weird angles for the slams and for triggering Gang Fighter.
• Feralgeist - In addition to serving as 2pt incorporeal solos to contest with, Feralgeists are notable for having a melee range while incorporeal. This lets them run through other models to apply gang fighter, and makes them fairly survivable while doing so.
• Eilish1 - Puppet Master is helpful for preventing failed assassination runs, and Unbinding helps strip arm buffs off colossals, which she otherwise can struggle with.
• Orin1 - Arcane Vortex can provide another layer of defenses for Helga, and his always-reliable lightning bolt fries infantry. With a reach weapon and the ability to buy/boost melee attacks, he can be surprisingly effective on Helga's feat turn despite p+s 9.
• Dahlia Hallyr & Skarath - Skarath is likely the best target for Defenders' Ward besides Helga herself. A 16/19 heavy is never pleasant to deal with and it's possible to layer star-crossed on top of that. Having a heavy with pathfinder is valuable, and Dahlia's anti-infantry orders are nice to have.
• Brun & Lug - Helga under Defender's Ward is incredibly resilient, but vulnerable to knockdown. Staying base to base with Brun is her best way to get Steady.
• Wrong Eye & Snapjaw - Since Helga doesn't help deliver her army, their independence is quite valuable. Star-crossed synergizes well with Defender's Ward, whether on Skarath, Helga, Snapjaw, or elsewhere.

The main drawcard of this theme is access to the Troll options. Having the terrain that come in the Thornfall theme and the much better Attuned Spirit buff does wonders for her.

Several things already mentioned above can also be taken in this theme:

Farrow Brigands, Meat Thresher, Farrow Valkyries, Swamp Gobber River Raiders, Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew

Troll beasts she likes:

• Dire Troll Brawler - A MAT 8 P+S 19 heavy under Gang Fighter is quite a hoot. Troll beasts in general love the Gang Fighter because MAT 6 is quite a problem.
• Dire Troll Mauler - The much coveted Rage animus. It's quite pricey though. And you cannot put Rage and Rush on it at the same time.
• Dire Troll Bomber - a generally great beast. With Gang Fighter it starts to hit like a real heavy in melee.
• Troll Axer - Rush on a stick.
• Troll Impaler - Far Strike can be used on Helga's gun, and Follow Up can be used on feat slams, meaning it gets to advance everytime it makes an attack
• Troll Basher - With Gang Fighter it's P+S 16 in melee. That's quite high for a cost 7 light. With Flaming Fists or Acidic Touch it hits as heard as a work horse heavy.
• Pyre Troll - A cheap damage buff on a stick.
• Night Troll - It has three initials and with Gang Fighter and Flaming Fists/Acidic Touch it can hit way above its weight class.
• Swamp Troll - by no means a game winning combo but on feat turn you can punch a model to slam them for the knockdown and collateral, then pull them back in with the tongue then continue to punch the target to death. Casting Swarm turn 1 for free isn’t the worse use of Attuned Spirit either.

Non-beast Troll options:

• Trollkin Champions - Probably the best target for Defender's Ward and Dash.
• Krielstone - almost mandatory in any troll list the tough get tougher with the Krielstone and dash speeds it up that little bit extra.
• Scattergunners - specifically with the UA, she does a lot to polish all of their weaknesses.
• War Wagon - Can make use of Helga's feat for impact attacks allowing it to reliably slam enemy models in its path with Crushing Weight and Line Breaker. It also likes Defender's Ward.
• Pyg Burrowers - Pop out from underground on feat turn and whack fools in the back.

Battlegroup

• Battle Boar - Primal is essential; stacking gang fighter and primal gives your beasts +4 mat and pow.
• Road Hog - Really likes Gang Fighter to give it a better melee game. P+S 19 on a Road Hog still wrecks heavies, and the Road Hog burns things. Also Helga likes Lighting Strike.
• War Hog - Who needs Primal? War Hogs with Gang Fighter make things very very dead. Bulldoze sometimes helps Helga with the assassination run.
• Razor Boar - hits harder than any light, and Helga likes Countercharge. Countercharging MAT 7 P+S 14 (boosted) is pretty nice for throwing enemies off your front line - especially from such a cheap model. Proportionately it benefits the most from Gang Fighter.

Starting a 25 point Brawl list

In 2021.04 Phillip Melvin, one of the LOS authors, put together this list for the Brawlmachine format. He even wrote about it's playstyle and expanding it beyond 25 points, which you can read here.

Theme - The Thornfall Alliance

Helga the Conquerer: [+29 WBP]

• Road Hog: [15 pts]
• War Hog: [14 pts]

Scythe: [Free] Template:Grey

Gudrun the Wasted: [5 pts]

Farrow Sapper: [3 pts]

Farrow Slaughterhousers: [9 pts]

Farrow Valkyries: [8 pts]

Total RRP: USD $233 (based on PP's online store prices 2021.06)

Other

Trivia

• Released in Hordes: Exigence (2014)
• Styled like Richard Wagner's fictional character "Brünnhilde (Das Rheingold / Die Walküre)". She lost the iconic viking horns, but kept the absurd boobed armor, the spear and the braided pig tails. She's a pig, after all.

Video Battle Reports

• Advanced Maneuvers, 2018.03, vs Aurora1
• Template:VBR