This is an introductory post into Legion of Everblight by vinsklortho - a resident of the chatbawks.
"Whatever my blight touches, I control. There are no limits to what I can do and no end to the growth of my legion's power. I hunger first to feast on god flesh, on the essence of my father, and then to swallow the world." -Everblight
Legion of Everblight is one of the more infamous factions in the Warmahordes universe. They're fast, hit hard, and ignore many of the game's rules. Their elven and draconic aesthetic is unique among the generally feral selection of Hordes factions. Legion is a very competitive faction taking first place at the GenCon Masters. I'm going to follow a few key points similar to Tzeentchling to lay out whether you will enjoy Legion of Everblight.
How do I know if Legion of Everblight is right for me?
1) Legion of Everblight tends to field warbeasts as the central part of their army with some infantry as support.
Legion has absolutely amazing warbeasts. Some warbeasts can be dropped in with pretty much any warlock and do well(Ravagore, Seraph, Scythean, and Typhon) while some have specific warlocks that they excel with(Absylonia and Raek, Saeryn and Harriers, or eThagrosh and Shredders). In addition to Legion having amazing warbeasts, the warlocks themselves quite often have various buffs that help our warbeasts perform that much better. This isn't to say that Legion infantry is bad, because it definitely isn't. Legion infantry ends up serving a very support oriented function and are usually very warlock specific(Swordsmen with Rhyas, Striders with eLylyth, Hexhunters with Bethayne) when it comes to what Legion infantry to take. It is a very real possibility to see a Legion player field nothing but warbeasts and a few fury management solos at 35 point games and up.
Legion's warbeasts and units tend to have a high speed(an average of 6 but 7 shows up also) and very good offensive stats, but they tend to have a bit of a glassjaw. Our heaviest beasts have an armor of 18 and 30 boxes of damage which causes them to be squishier than Menoth(armor 19 and 32 boxes) or Khador(armor 20 and 34 boxes) warjacks, but roughly on par with Cryx amphibious warjacks. When you combine Legion's high speed and good offense along with their mediocre defensive stats you end up with an army who often hits first and relies on the enemy being too wounded or too dead to retaliate sufficiently.
3) Legion of Everblight ignores a lot of the rules that give other factions trouble.
By this I mean that every single Legion warbeast (along with Lylyth) has Eyeless Sight(ignore stealth, cloud effects, concealment, and forests). Does your opponent talk about his uber stealthed wall of Bane Thralls backed up by Bane Lord Tartarus? Tell him that Tartarus has a Ravagore blast with his name on it. eGaspy or the High Reclaimer laying clouds all over the place? They can eat some Ravagore blast too! Is the board covered in forests? Then serve your opponent a nice tall glass of pain from the other side of the trees. To add insult to injury the majority of your beasts have a way to avoid the effects of terrain whether via flight or pathfinder. Not only can you see through those forests, but most of the time you can charge through it unhindered.
1) Legion of Everblight won't be running hordes of infantry very effectively.
Our warbeasts are great and our infantry isn't bad, but our warlocks don't support infantry very well. Vayl's big damage boosting spell only works on her battlegroup(her warbeasts and herself) while her feat favors having a small model count army. eLylyth's spell Shadow Pack only gives stealth to her battle group and her feat only achieves it's utmost potential when used with a healthy number of beasts. eThagrosh's damage boosting spell and feat also only affect his battlegroup. pThagrosh and Rhyas buck this trend a little bit with pThagrosh able to turn one unit into a killing machine with Draconic Blessing and Rhyas actually synergizing with infantry quite well (although she is generally considered our weakest warlock).
2) Legion of Everblight doesn't do attrition very well.
Due to the nature of the fury mechanic, Hordes factions in general don't tend to do as well playing the attrition game as Warmachine factions. This is even more the case in Legion(with the exception of pThagrosh). Think of an Everblight army as being kind of similar to Clubber Lang from Rocky III. You're very aggressive and will be utterly brutal in the first few rounds, but every round that your opponent stays on his feet the greater the chance you'll be outlasted. I've found that when I lose as Legion it tends to come in two varieties: the assassination that occurs out of nowhere and wrecks my armor 14 warlock or the game that drags on for way too long with your options shrinking every round until you are left with just your warlock and no way to generate additional fury other than damaging yourself for it.
3) Playing Legion of Everblight won't earn you a lot of friends.
I know the purpose of playing a game competitively is to win and not necessarily make friends, but Legion has a negative reputation among a lot of people. Its one thing to lose a game because you got assassinated in a way that you didn't see coming. Its another thing to lose a game because you spent a long time chasing an elusive opponent around a forest while getting blasted in the face. Some people who don't play Legion just see a faction that hits too hard and ignores a lot of their rules. While this is present in some degree in almost every game played competitively, some people consider Legion of Everblight to be the Imperial Guard of Warmahordes.
A quick review of Legion of Everblight warlocks
Absylonia: A very melee-centric beast warlock with an amazing tier list. She has three different upkeep spells that she can upkeep for free on her warbeasts and a feat that forces her opponent to focus fire her warbeasts one at a time in order to kill them so that they don't heal back up to full. She is the only warlock in Legion with a spell(Blight Field) that can specifically mess with Warmachine armies.
Bethayne & Belphagor: When unmelded Bethayne is an offensive warlock with access to her own personal arc node. When melded with Belphagor, Bethayne becomes an incredibly hard to kill target while maintaining much of her offensive ability. She can either run a well rounded list using her feat selfishly or she can take many units with magic ability to make the most use of her feat at the cost of having more bad matchups than a well balanced list.
pLylyth: Our battlebox warlock who helps her army out offensively by debuffing enemy armor values, clearing out infantry, and granting free charges. She is a very dynamic support caster who will be constantly doing something. She is one of our best warlocks for running Shredder spam* lists. Her feat is amazing against factions that tend to rely on a high defense to keep them safe.
eLylyth: The epic version of Lylyth is not only our most ranged favoring warlock, but she is also one of the few warlocks/warcasters in the entire game who can run a pure stealth army. Games with eLylyth tend to be very quick. On her feat turn the enemy army tends to disappear. However incredibly tough armies like Skorne bricks and jack walls give her a lot of trouble.
Rhyas: Even though Rhyas is generally considered our bottom tier warlock, some people still find success with our faction's resident ninja. Attacking with Rhyas is like playing the slot machine. She does pretty decent damage on normal attacks, but when you roll doubles on her attack roll her damage goes through the roof. If she kills a target she gets to retreat back to safety behind the rest of her army. Her feat is hard to use, but causes your melee units and warbeasts to go into super kill mode for a turn.Saeryn: A toolbox warlock with a spell or ability for every occasion. She is one of our most competitive options without any particularly good or bad matchups. Her feat makes her and her warbeasts untargetable by melee attacks for one round which against some armies might as well be a free turn. One of her drawbacks is her lack of damage boosting spells against hard targets.
pThagrosh: For those of you who really like mutant elves and dragons but want to be able to go the distance with Apollo instead of relying on a third round KO, this is your warlock. pThagrosh debuffs the strength of enemies in your control area effectively making all your heavy warbeasts armor 19/20 in melee. Add in pThagrosh's spell that gives concealment to friendly Legion models, his synergies with Typhon, and some Excessive Healing/damage transference shenanigans and you have a warlock who can take obscene amounts of punishment. His feat really adds to the attrition playstyle by allowing you to bring one of your dead warbeasts back to life.
eThagrosh: The epic version is a more offensive variant of pThagrosh. He still favors melee lists and likes to beat faces in, but his spell Manifest Destiny and his feat turns great melee beasts into amazing melee beasts. Unlike his primal variant, eThagrosh is a lot closer to the classic Legion playstyle of hitting hard but not taking return hits very well. eThagrosh is our other warlock who can run shredder spam* lists.
Vayl: Playing Vayl is a balancing game. She is incredibly squishy even for a Legion warlock, but she needs to be on the front lines to perform at her peak. She has the most movement shenanigans out of any Legion warlock with her Leash spell and her feat while still buffing her army's output with her spell Incite. She also has access to Dark Sentinel which allows for out-of-turn shenanigans. Vayl is one of the most difficult Legion warlocks to learn, but when she is well played will nearly guarantee that your opponent will be waiting for you in the parking lot after the game.
Conclusion
This was just a brief introduction to Legion's capabilities as a faction. I haven't even brushed the surface yet as there are numerous warbeasts, infantry units, solos, and whatnot to cover in a later article. If you have any Legion related questions that you want to ask me then feel free to do so. I don't have experience with every single option in the faction, but I have experience with most of it.
