Asuryani Wraith Mobility
Following on from the previous articles on Asuryani Wraith forces – one of the most common issues that you face when adding wraith units into an Asuryani army is one of mobility – they (appear) to be slow and easy to avoid and most players take the easy route and run them in squads of 5 in a wave serpent. That’s entirely justified as a quick fix but I just don’t think its as simple as that. Wave serpents while being excellent tanks in their own right aren’t cheap and running a tank at 140+ points to carry a unit worth 170+ cuts into your points budget pretty quick if you do it more than a couple of times. So just what options do you have to make Asuryani wraith units more mobile?
Stratagems
There are 4 common stratagems which aid in the Wraith units mobility and these are the easiest to access and use.
For 1 command point you can use matchless agility to ensure you get that 6” advance move. If you are using something with a little range (like a Wraith Lord, Wraith Seer or Wraith Knight), fire and fade will help you get around the table quicker again for just 1 command point.
2 command points will let you use phantasm to make sure your units are in the best possible deployment position to minimise their long walk across the board.
Webway strike, for 1 or 3 command points, is also a common tactic to deliver these larger units into position albeit at the cost of it being turn 2 or 3 for matched play.
Psychic Powers
Again the Asuryani have several things that will let them move and charge better. Quicken is a standard power of the Runes of Battle and the ability to double move (and even double Matchless Agility) can see your foot wraith unit cover an amazing 24” in a single turn though its unable to charge. Ghostwalk from the new Runes of Fortune boosts your chances of making a longer charge and its easy to cast. Enliven, a unique power to the WraithSeer, will allow you roll an extra dice when advancing or charging and discard the lowest results. Its pretty amazing just how reliably you can see wraith units charge when you start stacking these abilities.
Craftworld Traits
With the new Phoenix Rising DIY craftworlds, there are a couple that bear mentioning to help mobility. Headstrong stacks out with Ghostwalk for an extra boost to your charge while Webway Warriors will allow you to spend more command points on using the Webway strike stratagem.
Most interesting is the strike and fade trait allowing units to fall back and still charge as well as being able to consolidate in any direction if no enemy are within 3”. This can be shock for opponents when these units suddenly double back to objectives or push counter to the planned route.
Warlord Traits
There is a single trait to boost the wraith mobility – only available with a Wraith Host specialist detachment. Revered by the Dead allows reroll charges if you are within 6” of the model with this trait (and assuming you have the correct keywords from the detachment).
Practical Applications
Its easy to write these abilities off as not worth it or not good enough but with a few simple combinations you can easily have pressure on the enemy turn 2 with little room for them to run.
For example, lets take 2 units of wraith blades and a wraith lord geared for combat with a single shuriken cannon. If need be we can phantasm to make sure they have the shortest distance to the target. We can also assume a standard dawn of war deployment so 24” of no mans land and 36” to the enemy board edge.
We can have the first wraith blade unit move and advance 6 (matchless agility) to leave them just about at the halfway point (25” from the enemy board edge) on the table while the second unit can move and advance normally and then be Quickened for a second move and advance, the average being 17” total movement (doing this to leave them 19” from the enemy board edge). The Wraith Lord moves his usual move and advance but then is able to shoot his shuriken cannon and then use fire and fade for a total average 18” of movement (leaving them 18” from the enemy table edge.
So our 3 units are in the midfield or just past it and we have only had a single movement phase.
Our second turn comes around and its all but assured we will get multiple charges. The wraith lord moves 8” and then is only 10” from the enemy board edge. The first wraith blade unit gets quicken this turn for 10” of movement to leave them 15” from the enemy board edge while the second unit can just move normally and be 14” from the enemy board edge. If you have any way of rerolling charges nearby or boosting charge rolls then its going to be very hard for the enemy to not be charged at this point.
While this example does rely on no screens, the first turns shooting phase for the army should obviously be to clear chaff and open the lanes for the wraith units. If this isn’t an option then revising the process to remove advancing for the double moving wraith blades turn 1 and stacking the charge boosts should allow you to get a charge off into the chaff if they are deployed to far forward.
You will need a Spirit Seer as your warlord and to spend a command point on the specialist detachment but at that point the other stratagems, powers and traits are all available (save enliven).
You will need to build a list with all this in mind but it can work and will likely surprise an unwary opponent at just how fast they can cross the table.
The next article will cover a sample Asuryani Wraith army I’ve been working on, until then – happy gaming!