Thoughts and musings: Makeda and the Exalted Court

Well hey there.

I've been unable to play any games lately due to working from stupid O'clock til FML thirty. So i thought i would post some musings on my current flavour of the month, Mak3da, at the moment i am having a crush on this queen of the harpies. I think what i will do is structure it as being both tactica, theory and good synergies. I'm not going to bother putting much math to the whole thing, i find that on average i roll a little above average, which is always nice.

Here goes!

Since i have started to play our factions boss, i have been seeing a definite increase in the amount of times i win, but taht might be just because i am getting used to Ret. Now this is probably a coincidence but i feel like this is a sign that she is probably a good 'Lock, mind you not the best, but pretty darn good. Lets have a look at her stats, now I'm not sure if I'm allowed to state the stats exactly, but I'm goign to until i've been told off.

SPD- 6 - Pretty damned standard

STR- 7 - What you'd expect
MAT- 8 - Fabulous, what you want
RAT- 4 - Could be 0
DEF- 15 - Very nice considering...
ARM- 17 - holy shit balls good considering her rules.
CMD- 10 - Hey it's Makeda

Her Stats are very freking good, they allow her to play all the way up the field and live, and then bring down 6 tonnes of fury (pun intended) onto the heads of who ever gets in her way.

Warlock Unit- 2 shield guarding awesomesauce cronies!

Inspiration- It's Makeda

Battle Driven- this is the cherry +2 STR/ARM and pathfinder when a dude in her unit is hurt, with shield guard this can ensure that you are forcing your opponent to increase Makeda's armour before they even get to her! This is why you take her, it adds crazy survivability for her and her unit, it means that people who want to shoot her have to think twice. Any Retaliation after you've hurt her will result in the complete annhilation of everything your opponent puts infront of her, P+S 17, pathfinder? this brings her to beat stick par-excellence, not to mention higher armour than our cataphract boss.

Talon of Murzoul
Power + S - 15, holy shit balls good considering her rules
Blood boon, OMG considering all her spells are cost 3? WOW

Spell list-

Eliminator- a good spell, situationally brilliant, allowing her to move after she murders guys with it. Consider Charging something, killing it, then blood booning an eliminator onto some low ARM guys and retreating to safety. OR consider using Marketh to cast eliminator to push Makeda up the field (THIS MODEL may move 2") to open up a charge. I can't see a reason why Makeda would cast this spell using fury, it is simply too dear.

Ground Zero- Not quite as applicable as Eliminator, but could be funny to clear a zone then retreat back using sprint or fate walker. This spell is more likely (but only slightly) to be cast without using blood boon, but only to clear a zone, Or kill off huge clumps of dudes, POW 13's all round EAT IT Infantry.

Sunhammer- Not sure why this is even on her card, she has another Self upkeep that makes this seem pointless. Maybe if you're playing against a butt tonne of lights or they have alot of sidestep, as this triggers on those moves too. The annoying this is that it doesnt affect models with beatback/overtake as they do not advance MORE THAN 1". If you don't know which spell to cast, don't cast this one.

Vortex of Destruction- Cast first turn, and upkeep for the rest  of the game, there is almost NO reason not to. she doesnt even have to spend fury not to have a hand in the destruction of a gargossal. stand next to something, have a single swing for good measure, maybe fatewalker. Then even a rhinodon can one round a Huge base. But remember it's a BOOSTED damage roll, not additional die, so no rolling 4 dice on boost or charge (unless you're Molik Karn, or cataphract).

Feat: Dance of Death- when a model in Makeda's battlegroup kills something, give Makeda a fury or remove on from a warbeast in her battlegroup. I can see its' uses, bronzeback literally killing an entire shieldwall, Makeda killing stuff then haveing full transfers. This makes Molik look silly when he sidesteps into the enemy caster, he is not able to boost these attacks as he closes, and yet still have full fury available to him when he connects. A finesse feat, but not terribly effective, good not great.

The Exalted Court are high ARM/MAT dudettes with shieldguard and battledriven, these guys are here to provide battledriven for their boss, by all means sacrifice one, just try not to sacrifice both in the one turn... no call for that.

Obvious Synergies- She wants the 3 heavies, Bronzeback, Gladiator, Molik Karn, she also probably wants a krea (but who doesn't?). With the three heavies she is able to deliver Molik with rush/train wreck and her feat to ruin any unit's day with infinite attacks, or deliver the Bronzeback for the same sort of thing without wuite as much movement (and Molik gets to yo-yo back). Glads and Krea are there essentially as animus caddies. Molik can preform better with other 'locks i have to admit, but if you're running Mak3da, then you're likely to want to run her with an eHex list or Rasheth tier as your other list, and neither really want/need Molik.

Marketh- He is nice to cast eliminator and alow her to have a more insane threat, and upkeeping a spell using a soul is a boon for her. With the casters that i play (pMorghoul, eHexeris) i don't really need Marketh with them, a free abuse is nice, but not necessary, blackspot botting is nice but again not necessary. Marketh just seems to shine a little brighter with Makeda.

Swamp gobbers- added Def against shooting really makes her an unnatractive target, but don't rely on this.

Note- she doesn't have an affinity for any troop choice (except beast handlers, but you know...) and she cannot give any support to them (except fearless, but all our shit is fearless anyway). Incindiarii are spectacular on their own, so are Nihilators both are solid choices, i can imagine Ferox would work well, as would Cetratii with Vorkesh, i might try that next time. But there are no obvious requirements for a troops choice.

In closing,



To THIS

From THIS





A fantastic tranformation! I never really was taken by either of the Previous incarnations of Makeda, but this two handed sword wielding badass evil vampire samurai come Persian desert elf-offshoot, is one 'lock that i can't wait to play and play again! As of yet she is not the most powerful of our 'locks, i reserve that for eHexeris (my opinion, go away), and i don't play Zaal but apparently he's good. But with soem playtesting and some figuring out i hope that she will see some tournament play for me, because she is so much fun to play! Finally a 'lock that can sit on the front lines, and live on the front lines!