Sorry this took so long to get out guys.
By request I am going to be doing todays piece on The Old Witch and Scrapjack. This is going to be a two or three part piece depending on how prolific I feel like being.
I love the Old Witch for a great many reasons. She is an extremely interesting caster due to both play style and how that play style interacts within her faction.
Now I'm going to assume that you, the reader, is aware of what the Old Witch has on her card and her spell card and I'm going to review what I consider the more important abilities and how to use them effectivly.
Old Witch's card:
Augery: Models in the Old Witch's battlegroup ignore clouds and forests when determining line of sight. This makes it very hard to hide from her since this means that you can arc through a forest or if your enemy is using clouds it won't matter. Keep in mind this doesn't mean you ignore the concelmeant bonus that your opponents get from clouds or forests.
Cull Soul: You get soul cookies for enemies that die within two inches of the Old Wttch that turn into focus the next turn. Don't count on it but if you can get it to work it's pretty awesome.
Great Power: This gives you a free upkeep on a caster with 4 upkeeps. Awesome sauce!
Prowl: She gets stealth when she is in a cloud effect, or something that gives concealment. Keep in mind this means a wall won't trigger this.
Spell Card
Avatar of Slaughter: this can be cast on either the Old Witch or Scrapjack to let them get a +2 on melee and they get to advance after killing something and make another attack. Think Overtake + Cleave. This alone lets you deal with most infantry in the game, the exception is Kayazy with Iron Flesh and Winter Guard but we can get to that later.
Gallows: It's a range 10 Pow 13 that pulls the enemy D6 closer upon being hit. This is a major spell as it allows you to affect your opponent's battle plans by pulling their beasts/jacks into charge or shooting range of your models. You can also use this to keep enemy models away/off of control points in scenerios or to pull them out of Control Range of their Warcaster/Warlock.
Iron Flesh: Do I really need to explain the pure awesome sauce of Iron Flesh?
Murder of Crows: This is a 5 inch AOE that is a cloud effect and forces models who enter or end their activation in it to take a pow 8. Stops charges and stops enemies from putting infantry on control points and gives the Old Witch stealth in a pinch.
Unseen Path: Place either the Old Witch within 2 inches of Scrapjack or vice versa. The key thing is you cannot advance after being placed so you don't want to try and use Avatar of Slaughter to wreck things. I find this to be key for when you want to place Scrapjack in a dangerous place so he can arc and not lose him.
Weald Secrets: Model/Unit gains pathfinder and Camoflauge. The first part is key since this lets the Behemoth charge over walls and through forests with no worries. Also amazing on Kayazy.
FEAT: Now here is one of the most powerful feats in game. While in the Old Witch's control area you cannot run, charge or make special attacks. This stops things like slams and tramples as well as attacks like Combo Strike on the Slayer. In additon enemy models who end their movement in her control area suffer an unboostable POW 14. This means that everytime your opponent moves his models, regardless of it's for changing facing, overtake, side step, etc.ScrapJack
Statline: Scrappy has the statline of a Cryxian arc node. High def, decent arm for a light.
Weapons: He has claws!! The key thing about these are that they have reach and are MAT 5, POW 12's. Now with Avatar of Slaughter up he can get to MAT 7 which means that he is perfectly capable of ripping through most single-wound infantry in the game.
Stuff: He is an Arc Node. This is the most massive and key thing on his card. You can throw out your buffs from the safety of the back board or arc Gallows at the enemy and pull him back to the Old Witch.
He also has Prowl via the Old Witch.
Tactia: Now there are two things to keep in mind with the Old Witch when you are coming up with your plan for the turn. You need to keep both Scrappy and the Old Witch safe and you want to try and force the enemy into a position that you want them in.
The former is very easy to achieve. Having Gorman in your list so that he can trigger Prowl whenever you need it is probably the easiest way to do it. The next is casting Unseen Path at the end of every turn to keep Scrappy back where he can't die.
Now as for controlling the enemy and putting them in a postion you want them to be you can do that in many ways. Gallows, Iron Flesh and Murder of Crows are going to be the key ones in order to do this.
With Gallows you can force the enemy out of formation and feed their pieces to your Great Bears or Behemoth. It's also key during scenerio play for pulling things off of control points.
Iron Flesh is an interesting form of denial but it's kinda amusing when you think of it. You are, ultimatly, denying your enemy a position because your Iron Fleshed Kayazy are in the way of the enemy and harrassing their lines.
Murder of Crows is an amazing spell and should almost always be out if you can afford it. It's both a cloud effect so it blocks LOS and triggers Prowl in a pinch but it also stops low arm infantry. You can place this in front of your army to stop LOS or you can place it over your jacks to kill any infantry that may attempt to charge.
Well unfortunatly that's all we have time for today. I hope that you have found this interesting here guys.
