Some Thoughts on eMorghoul, Lord Assassin

Saturday's tournament was a blast. I went 1-2, mostly due to my own game play errors and epic dice failure (notably in Game 2, where my opponent's dice seized up as well and the game ended two seconds before time was called - I think we had 7-8 rounds by that point). The tournament was 35 pt SR 2011 with league unit rules in effect. I, taking my Skorne, do not own Karax nor plan on it. I see them as a very limited use and for the same points, Praetorian Swordsmen are better.

But this post is not about how Swordsmen are better than Karax. It is about eMorghoul, who I used in the last two games, my two losses.


Zaal T3 was list one. It succeeded brilliantly - I doubt anyone would suspect otherwise. My opponent was also playing an eMakeda list too. I won by both scenario but played it out for the assassination.

List two was an eMorghoul list that had the following:
eMorghoul
-Molik Karn
-Brute
-Drake
-Krea
Min PGBH
Bloodrunners
Thrullg
Bloodrunner MT
Void Spirit
Marketh

The list was solid, only a few weak links in regards to solo support but I pretty much have the list ironed out. My overall position was to run a Rhinodon instead of the Bloodrunners + BMT, but the AD and Stealth and being able to tie up multiple models is too good. Marketh is there to bounce Ghost Walk or Silence of Death.

Game 2: eMorghoul vs eSorscha
In the face of the Windless Waste Kyazy UA & Winterguard Deathstar, eMorghoul was the preferred choice. I knew I had to go for the assassination, as scenario win against two tough units was not going to happen. The Krea & Drake tied up all the Kayazy, while the Bloodrunners tied up most of the Winterguard. BMT died from a blunderbuss shot, but I was able to continually harry his Winterguard. I feated second turn and the Great Bears could not dent a DEF 17 Brute against the charges. I killed the Great Bears, then crippled Beast 09's cortex. I needed to remove the Kayazy UA and the Void Spirit got in and raked the dude. Ignoring the Winterguard, I moved in with eMorghoul, blinding and popped the Krea's Animus (another lifesaver). Molik followed up for the killed against eSorscha...and failed. His dice performed no better and on my turn, so certain that I had the kill, I got my Void Spirit in to make a backstrike charge attack...and rolled 9 total on four dice. I failed and the following turn, Joe attack Morghoul, hit, and raped him on the charge attack.

I made some mistakes that late game - not using Marketh to charge Joe (and thereby denying my opponent a chance to actually hit me with Winterguard) or moving around a bit to kill the dog.

Game 2: eMorghoul vs Terminus
The two lists my opponent pulled out were Coven & Terminus. I figured I was safe no matter what list I picked, so I nabbed eMorghoul. I got a 2nd turn charge onto Terminus, using Bloodrunners to clear the horde of Mechanithralls (ignoring tough). Molik Karn followed up (ghost walk), and I failed. Terminus though blinded, hit a critical pitch roll and threw eMorghoul into the Seether.

It was then that I realized that a) I forgot to pop Morghoul's feat, b) I forgot to activate the Brute first to cast Safeguard and c) I forgot that Molik Karn was enraged and there should have been doing 2 more points each hit (for a total of four extra damage) - and Terminus, sitting there with 3 life, should have died. I gave however, the victory to my opponent, because I deserved the loss to have forgotten Enrage.


Over Thoughts:
eMorghoul was fun, a lot more fun that I had first used him. If you continually kill things and not drive him down your opponent's throat, then it works perfectly. Even though Molik Karn is a Weaponmaster, I found his power to be lacking to that of a Gladiator or Bronzeback. I think I would prefer a Bronzeback instead of Molik. The extra point would go to increase my Paingivers to MAX. The Bloodrunners did what they were supposed to and therefore worked. BMT did not and I think I would want an Extoller instead, to give Ghost Sight for a sneaky assassination run. Thrullg was iffy - I used him greatly before but in these games I would prefer almost to use a Totem Hunter. Krea and Brute are great for eMorghoul due to their animi respectively, and the Drake's spray and flank bonus is too good to give up. A little more tweaking and it'll be good times with eMorghoul.