Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Screamers

Hello there fellow Geeks!

It is Warhammer Time again!!

As of now, because I have a little more free time than usual, I have been trying my hardest to paint as much as I can and make sure that I accomplish all my year's project. It's been hard to really actually dedicate and focus into doing modelling the whole day or for even a couple of days.

Furthermore, it has come to my realization that overcoming procrastination is easier said than done. However, should I do dedicated my fullest time, potential and hard work into doing all my painting and model kits, I'd be sure to share with you all the experience.


Today, I feature to you all the Screamers of Tzeentch. Awesome Flying Monsters that I have decided to add to my Daemon of Chaos Army. As stated in the rulebook, these Screamers are glimmering sky-sharks that ride upon the winds of magic as a bird glides upon the breeze.


While they look like some freak of nature shrieking above the sky like some form of stingray, they bring my dynamics to my daemon army. With most units in the Daemon army being on the ground (besides the Chaos Furies) and no war machines to provide retaliatory barrage of firepower against enemy forces, the Daemons have nothing that could move fast enough to deal with war machines.


This brings me to the Screamers. They are a Flying Unit and can engage crews of War Machines faster than any ground unit. Furthermore, they work as a Flying Unit which means they are skirmishes. (-1 to hit skirmishers)


On the surface, their stats are kinda poor and average for a flying unit. My Pegasus Knights could shred them to pieces easily. With a strength and toughness stat of 3 and 1 wound, even chaos furies would provide a better punch against enemy units than these guys.


However, it isn't their basic stats that makes them attractive compared to Chaos Furies. It is their special abilities that makes them wicked sick.


As you can see from this picture of a Screamer above, its side is laden with jagged edges and spikes. This provides the screamer with the features to do its special Slashing Attack and what it does packs a great deal of a punch. If a Screamer moves over an unengaged enemy unit in the remaining move phase, that enemy unit suffers an automatic Strength 5 hit per Screamer that has passed over the unit. This Slashing Attack essentially can whittle down a unit without the Screamer actually engaging the enemy.



So imagine this, 6 Screamers passing over a character model. That would result in 6 Strength 5 hits on the unit. This would also work especially well with war machine crew and light cavalry without even needing the Screamers to engage the enemy. While these ability is limited to one time per unit and it is not very effective against high toughness or horde units, it is more than enough to cause your opponents to ensure they put down the Screamers as fast as possible. (Thanks Josh and Desolater for pointing out the obvious which i have misread, Do forgive me as I have not started playing the Daemon Army Yet)

And so I am slowly building up my Daemon of Chaos Army with these guys. Bit By Bit I will get more of other types of units to be able to play a decent game with this army (As will I do the same for my Dwarf Army). However, stay tune as there will also be new additions to my existing Mortals of Chaos and Bretonnian Army.

Hopefully it shall be done as soon as possible!

Cheers!

11 comments:

  1. Damn Screamers... I really hate facing these guys. Especially when their slashing attacks are successful.

    However, I always make sure I come in with loads of ballistic weapons to shoot these damn buggers down before they touch me.

    Either that, or magic the hell out of them.

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  2. @hawaiiwarhammerfan

    I love these guys, they are essentially working like a Warmachine to whittle down large units or take out cavalry with ease. One tactic I like to do is do slashing attack on the unit while march blocking a few other enemy units.

    It really infuriates my opponent. Expectedly, they would try much to destroy this unit. Then again, with my Bloodletters and Horrors on hand, they might forego taking down my Screamers

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  3. Its been awhile, Glad to see a Warhammer post again.

    None have said it yet but I must say, a pretty nice looking unit of Screamers you got there.

    Great Detailed Painting! Like how you use brass rods to make the Screamers look like their flying higher.

    And I must agree that Screamers are really formidable and their slashing attack is pretty darn ass good.

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  4. Great looking Screamers. And I must say, you got one heck of a collection. 4 armies is pretty darn big. Great Selection of Daemons, Mortal of Chaos and Dwarves ;)

    Keep it going dude!

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  5. Ahh the lovely Epic Flying Daemon.. Sux to know that they have change it to lesser wounds now.

    But yeah.. Still love the damage that they deal out!

    Great Monsters you got there.

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  6. Hey JQ

    I don't own the Daemons of Chaos book but 360 attacks from 6 screamers is a little too much don't you think? Could you help check on that stat?

    I've read online that each screamer gets a slashing attack per unengaged enemy unit they encounter, which should be 1 per screamer for the single unit of 60 clan rats (total 6). If the clan rats are in 6 groups of 10, and 6 screamers manage to move across all 6, that would be 6x6=36 S5 attacks in total, which means they have a good chance of causing panic tests for all the units (>25% losses more or less confirmed).

    In this case, they would be great at moving across multiple units (or "zig-zagging" across the army), and are probably best at engaging single heroes/fast cavalry/small units/warmachine crew(but still a chance of useless attacks vs. the warmachine) but suck against large regiments/high toughness/super armor save opponents. They will still cause a ton of chaos (excuse the pun) when used well, and will always be a factor in the enemy's deployment/movement/charging strategies.

    And since this slashing attack is considered as a movement phase thingy, I am guessing they might be awesome vs. High Elf units who lose their "strikes first" rule (which is applied in CC phase if I am not wrong) and have a low toughness of 3.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, Josh, You are absolutely right. I didn't notice Jiaqi writing about 360 attacks. Got a little bit confused there.

      It is 1 Strength 5 hit PER Screamer

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  7. Oh my... My Sincere apologies. You guys are totally correct. What was I thinking?!?!?!? Will revise the post

    HAHAHAHA perhaps its the craze of assuming that all chaos units deal insurmountable amounts of attacks

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  8. Not every unit is a Frenzy Chaos Chosen Warrior. HAHAH ;)

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  9. I think I just played the Screamers wrongly too lol.
    Guess I got to tell my friend what I did wrong =P haha

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  10. Those are great looking Screamers Jiaqi! And yeah, got the slashing attack wrong. It would be total carnage if they had that ability to inflict that much damage.

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