Venator Slingers

The whirring susurration of Venator slingers in battle is a sound even the bravest Praetorians dread. Centuries of house wars have begun with that noise heralding a rain of shattering globes that drench defenders in lethal and viscous acid. Using these weapons, the lowest among the warrior caste can reduce the greatest with just a few well-aimed shots.

Basic Info

Abilities

• Template:Advance Deployment
• Template:Shooting Gallery

Weapons

Sling
File:Gun icon.jpg		RNG			ROF			AOE			POW
		10			1			Template:-			10
Template:Corrosion Damage Template:Arcing Fire Template:Attack Type Template:Acid Bath Template:Erosion Template:Flare
Sword
File:Sword icon.jpg		RNG				POW				P+S
		0.5				3				8

Theme Forces

• Template:Winds of Death

Thoughts on Venator Slingers

Venator Slingers in a nutshell

Model Continuous corrosion is a bane of both tough models and of single wound shield walls while Flare can let you land a ridiculous number of extra attacks by not needing to boost. Advance Deployment makes them extremely useful for picking the right targets, and works with Shooting Gallery (although you are going to lose the Venators if you Shooting Gallery

Combos & Synergies

The Venator Slingers are just short of being good at shooting and a little support from a caster can really help. Slingers with erosion are little to write home about when it comes to mauling heavy warjacks - but they are just good enough that a small ARM debuff is going to have an amazing impact. Or a small DEF debuff will let them scythe through troops, leaving the ones that made their tough-checks already corroded.

• Lord Arbiter Hexeris Black Spot can allow an amazing amount of work - kill an infantry model then flare something big being the normal combination. Or just kill, kill, kill.
• Dominar Rasheth - a 2 point ARM debuff can make all the difference in the world for erosion attacks.
• Lord Tyrant Hexeris - a 3 point one is better.
• Lord Assassin Morghoul - and here comes Mortality and Blind.
• Beast Master Xekaar - more Mortality and a feat.
• Primus Jalaam - Deadeye fix the main problem on the flare shot, AKA that you need to hit with it first ; and it make them very deadly vs infantry indeed.

Other models can buff the Slingers directly.

• Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer - extra movement = extra threat range. To utilise this combo you do need to play out of theme.
• Venator Dakar - +1 to hit from Veteran Leader can be extremely useful.
• Hermit of Hengehold - -2 armor make a lot of difference on 10 attacks.

The Flare ability from the Slingers helps everyone but some models gain more from it than others.

• Heavies. They tend to have enough MAT to not boost against other heavies but still hit on 6s against DEF 12 models. Lowering that to 4s can really help.
• Venator Flayer Cannon The flayer cannon is hard hitting but not that accurate.
• Venator Catapult Crew - if it aims, gets a Flare, and gets a Dakar supporting it it can reach the heady heights of RAT 6. And its direct hit hits hard.
• Siege Animantarax - it's a cross between a heavy and a flayer cannon.

As a very cheap unit cheap souls are cheap souls and as an advance deploying skirmish screen you expect them to die lots. They therefore combo well with the soul collectors:

• Aptimus Marketh, Extoller Soulward, Ancestral Guardian, Hakaar the Destroyer, Zaal the Ancestral Advocate - and Supreme Aptimus Zaal who doesn't directly collect their souls, but uses them for rage tokens and brings soul collectors. (In a pinch they also Last Stand).

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Low RAT means they are very poor at shooting high DEF infantry.
• Some things have immunity to corrosion.
• Erosion can be a trap. Without an ARM debuff it's not worth trying to use them against heavy warjacks. It's more to kill things like Sentry Stone or light arc nodes.
• Flare is weird. They have a low RAT combined with a RAT debuff that only works if they hit. It's helpful to put average def things into rock bottom def.
• For actually killing enemies at range Venator Reivers tend to be better - only slightly more expensive, but with a longer range and don't have to worry about immunity to corrosion

Tricks & Tips

• Tough models are best hit by acid baths - if they pass their tough roll the acid still probably gets them.
• A suicidal slinger or two can deal with stealth on a model and lower its DEF while the rest get to erode it.
• They die to a stiff breeze - but as a ranged advance deploying unit they normally get to hit first. And they are cheap.

Other

Trivia

• Venator means "hunter" in latin.
• Released in Hordes: Domination (2011)