Omodamos, The Black Gate

All infernal masters are adept at battle, but more than any other, Omodamos embraces combat as the essence of his being. This master is a juggernaut of destruction, a force of unnature, and a being whose arrival presages slaughter and endings. He is called the Black Gate, for he eschews negotiations and contracts, preferring to tear souls directly from the slain and send them howling into the Outer Abyss. His arrival on Caen affords ample opportunities to inflict chain reactions of destruction and suffering, a pleasure denied him in the outer realms. Where Omodamos strides, reality weakens and buckles, flinching back as if afraid.

Basic Info

Feat - Shadows of Annihilation

1. Omodamos immediately casts Locked Horns (see his spell list) without spending essence.
2. Additionally, Omodamos and friendly Infernal models activating in his Template:Control range gain +2 SPD and Ghostly.

   Template:Ghostly-alt

Shadows of Annihilation lasts for one turn.

Abilities

• Template:Pathfinder
• Template:Hellhounds
• Template:Cull Soul

Weapons

Flail (x2)
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		2				6				15
Template:Chain Weapon Template:Magical Weapon

Spells

{{Category: Template:Breath of CorruptionTemplate:Flashing BladeTemplate:Locked HornsTemplate:Synergy }}[[Category: Template:Breath of CorruptionTemplate:Flashing BladeTemplate:Locked HornsTemplate:Synergy ]]

Theme Forces

• Template:Dark Legacy

Thoughts on Omodamos, The Black Gate

Omodamos, The Black Gate in a Nutshell

Omodamos is gonna punch your face in with his huge flails. Featuring the lowest Essence stat, Omodamos is a monster in combat, with some additional soul collecting features which can help him offset his lower Essence stat (but depending on the match-up, may not). Omodamos should be front and center (or perched behind a line of bodies), ready to go in and toughen up his Horrors once push has come to shove. And when push comes to shove, Omodamos should be able to go in there and punch something right in their big, dumb face. Synergy is... a good spell! It should really ramp up the hitting and damage potential of his Horrors. Locked Horns is a new signature spell that makes his army a lot tougher to remove in melee combat. Breath of Corruption is also a useful nuke for clearing out the chaff.

Hellhounds is Omodamos' Soul Collecting feature, which allows all his Horrors to pass Souls back to him. Obviously, this won't always work out depending on the army your opponent brings (just like all the Masters, to be honest), but should oftentimes give him an additional couple souls to work with. Ghostly can open up new attack avenues.

Omodamos should definitely be making decisions between playing a bit safer and summoning more Horrors, or playing more forward, either summoning and staying on a fairly low camp, or not summoning and feeling more secure. Omodamos should be at his most dangerous when he has collected a bunch of souls so that he can do both!

Conceptually, Omodamos is a big, beefy, punchy dude who builds a big army around him and pushes it at his enemy. He is the hardiest of the Masters and he makes his army around him a lot tougher in combat. He should be making difficult decisions around casting, summoning, playing forward, or playing safer, depending on the situation.

Spell thoughts

Your spells help you disperse enemy units and bolster your army's offense and defense.

• Breath of Corruption
  • This is a good spell, though expensive when you only have 6 Essence - Full damage (not halved blast damage), a 3" cloud effect, and can damage models hiding behind buildings.
  • If you somehow get enough Essence for multiple casts, it's not a bad spell to assassinate high DEF targets with. By casting it through an arc-node that is within 4" of the target, deviation will always hit, even when you miss.
  • Even though the spell is good, it's probably not something you cast much. Omo's army focuses on melee, and since you probably didn't start the game with a Foreboder, you'd have to sacrifice a solo to get one. Your other spells synergize better with Omo's general strategy.

• Flashing Blade
  • A melee spell that can be very potent if the enemy manages to get a bunch of models onto Omo, or you're playing him aggressively. It can be cast multiple times as well, both before and after advancing, meaning he can cast it to remove jamming infantry, advance, and then clear more off of a control point.
  • It is not an actual attack, so you can still cast it if you sacrificed your combat action to get up from Knockdown.
  • With his 2" reach, you're clearing an area of table bigger than a huge base.
  • Don't forget to use your two initial attacks along with this spell!

• Locked Horns
  • Half of your essence to make melee even more unappealing for your opponent. Given the low HP of your horrors, this is very helpful, but you'll probably wait to use it until you get it free with your feat or you have extra essence from souls.
  • Note that you can "do it all" if you plan for it. Lord Roget will decrease Locked horns to 2 Essence. +1 Essence to upkeep Synergy. Finally, summon your horror for the turn while standing within 8" of an Infernal Gate and its cost will go down to 3. You camp nothing, but that can be worked around with placement and ignored if you grab some souls.

• Synergy
  • This spell rewards you for doing what you're already doing by letting you do it even better. It could not possibly have a better name.
  • Soul Stalkers are great for helping ramp up the spell, given how quick they are. Desolators will certainly get you a stack, since you'll be spraying your main kill target for the debuff before sending in the big hitters.
  • The big hitters are Tormentors and Omo himself. With just Synergy and Delolator spray, your Tormentors are hitting for 22, and Omo's Flashing blade is a 6" wide, POW 20 blender of destruction. (Aim for living models for even more souls!)

Feat thoughts

Omo's feat is designed to do two things: 1. Help you get the Alpha and 2. Help you survive the enemy's retaliation.

+2 SPD and Ghostly helps you get positioned and cover the final push to your dinner...uh...opponent. Getting Locked Horns is perfect for dealing with their backlash...assuming anything is left to lash back...

Drawbacks & Downsides

• • SPD 5. Pathfinder offsets this nicely, but he's big and strong and it's occasionally fun to run him up to smash face...and frustrating when that takes a lot longer than you want.
  • Essence 6. It's okay, but he's so close to having his cake and eating it, too. At 6, he has to pay very close attention to the balance between spells and summoning.
  • He's enormous, so there's no hiding him behind your heavies and hoping the enemy forgets where he is...

Tricks & Tips

• When deploying your troops with summoning in mind, keep 1 or 2 solos that you expect to sacrifice early at the very front of the line. Surround them with at least 3 cultists. On turn 1, you activate the solo first and move it as far forward as you can into a good position (based on whether or not you're using abilities turn 1), then use Omo to summon a horror from that solo after getting him as far up the table as you can. Next, you activate the cultists, who move up to the new horror and load it with Essence. You activate the horror last, walking it into a strategically useful spot to await the next turn.
  • Do not block movement lanes with your cultists! It's very easy to do when trying to fit the proper number on a horror to max its Essence, but remember that they do their best work from up to 3" away.

• Speed 9 ghostly soul stalkers...WITH SYNERGY

List Building Advice

Strategy

Move up, calculate distances you need to land at to get the best shot at the alpha, load up Synergy, use your feat, and rush in. You don't have to focus on assassination, just drastically reduce the number of strong-hitting models on the other side of the table. With them gone, the retaliation won't really matter.

In a game of attrition, some opponents assume they can easily beat you because of your need to sacrifice solos for summoning and models for Essence, but you have advantages, there, too. Every turn, you're able to customize your forces to best suit the current situation. Success demands that you utilize that. It also demands that you move your rear and get to work because cultists don't last forever.

Army

Omodamos is your horror-centric Master. He appreciates utility and power and rewards it with more power.

• Cultist Band: Probably your only units. They are far more important than many realize. You want at least two units, though whether they're min or max is dependent on how many points you're building at and your playstyle. Play with 1-3 units of varying sizes, both with and without Dark Sentinels and Orin until you find what fits your preferences. One strategy that works well is to have 1 unit available for healing heavies that have been mixing it up and replenishing their essence, a second unit charged with filling up any heavies Omo summons, and possibly a little unit for Regna if she's along for the ride.
  • Orin2: A solid choice that gives you access to Knowledge of the Damned (rerolls) and Arcane Vortex to protect against spells. The former is nowhere near as useful as it is with other Infernals lists, since the primary killing part of your list will have Synergy. Arcane Vortex however is useful in almost every matchup.
  • Dark Sentinels: There are two ways to purchase DSs for a unit of Cultists; 1x DS with a Min unit for 7 points, effectively trading a regular Cultist body for the harder hitting power & range of the DS, or 3x DSs for a req point. You’re almost always better off with any Marked Soul than 2-3 DSs for which you have to pay a full 4 or 6 points.
• Infernal Gate: Very good for all Infernal lists. Omo likes it because it helps him preserve his limited Essence pool, helps deliver models, and correct poor placements. It provides a bit of ranged support, and critically tends to perform better when going second and getting a further 3” forward.
• Alain Runewood: Ranged support, +1 to starting roll, horror delivery, and a to-hit buff for your horrors. 5 points is a steal. If you don't need the hit buff, he's an easy solo to use for summoning.
• Eilish2: Puppet Master is great. He's also extremely easy to get far up the field thanks to our theme's repo 3" and his Gate Walker ability.
• Princess Regna: She makes it into virtually all of my lists over 30 points. Anti-ranged and an easy source of sacrificial light horrors to occupy the enemy while the real threat approaches.
• Lord Roget d’Vyaros: Every list wants this guy. His simple, but worthy, task is to help conserve Essence on your Master and explode into a big meaty monster when the time is right. With Omo, often one of your first sacrifices.
• Nicia2: You basically see her in every Dark legacy list, not because she's a good model (she is) but because she runs 14" turn 1 and then turns into a Tormentor.
• Umbral Guardian: Guardians are good models, to be sure, but are not auto-include. Regna also helps against ranged attacks, and Guardians can't be used for summoning. Don't be caught with them on the side of the table waiting for shots that never come.
• Valin Hauke: Also a great model, and also not auto-include. Omo's main force (your heavies) are all already immune to knockdown. He's also expensive. Tactician is useful, but can be a crutch. It's better to learn how to play without it via proper positioning.
• The Wretch: A bit of a rockstar. Up to 3 per list, really cheap, and Ancillary Attack, giving a horror an extra attack. Can even be used to slightly get around the "no combat step" penalty to new horrors. At least two is great to help punch through tough enemies, but three is great for the cheap summon fodder.

• Foreboder: Nope.
• Lamenter: Virtually never in your starting list, works great as a distraction from Regna. It's fast, it flies, and Soul Parasites coupled with Dodge makes it harder to get rid of than people give it credit for.
• Shrieker: Mostly for ranged cover fire and to nuke whole bands of low-DEF units with Admonisher. Occasionally sent to back up Nicia to remove troubling solos.
• Soul Stalker: Often ignored in favor of our other heavies, it is actually pretty great in the right situations. It's our fastest heavy and the only one with pathfinder. Stealth helps it get to its target a bit safer, Coil is very useful. If you can get a Desolator's debuff spray on the target first, you can safely boost the Constrict initial attack and then auto-hit with the next 4 Bites at POW 17. You're not taking out a colossal with it (or even a Khador heavy), but it's a great tool against low ARM, high DEF targets. Also, don't forget that they'll go virtually anywhere they please under Omo's feat (and it's easy to get caught up in that and forget Omo's 12" CTRL range).
• Desolator: Dezi is wonderful. Single box units? Gotcha. Armor cracking? Done. Stealth or Incorporeal models got you down? Get back up. Your core buffing model, and able to slap some damage around in the process. You'll always have 1, probably 2, but rarely 3.
• Tormentor: The beef. POW 19 after Dezi, POW 22 after Synergy. Unlike Soul Stalker, Tori absolutely can take out a colossal with a little luck from the dice. Two of them will do it with enough left over to share the pain with anything else nearby.

There are no bad choices for this Master's army (with the exception of the Foreboder...it's a trap!). More than any other faction, Infernals has an abundance of utility models that perform multiple roles, and your job is to cram as many of them as possible into your list. Then, as the battle evolves, so will your army.

Other

Trivia

• Released with the Faction launch (2019.06)
• Affectionately known as Omnomnom during the CID for all of the souls he ate.