Looking at Legion: Blighted Nyss Archers

As part of my one process of becoming accustomed to my new Legion army I thought I would share some thoughts (not always correct :-) on some of the units and solos in the army. These are less tactics articles and more me thinking out loud about how to use these units. First up are the Blighted Nyss Archers.

I am lucky in hat I have little Mk I experience with the Legion and so I don’t have any preconceptions about the use or function of most of the units. MK II is a fresh start for me in terms of Hordes and unlike most Warmachine factions I don’t have prior biases.

On their own the Blighted Archers are a fairly decent unit with their Suppressing Fire ability giving them a powerful ability to either block infantry or to Shepard them into your own infantry. The POW 10 damage roll of the Suppressing Fire will take out most standard infantry and there are three obvious roles for this:

1) Area Denial: keeping enemy infantry from terrain or a CP in Steamroller scenarios
2) Charge lane denial: Stopping enemy infantry from charging
3) Focusing infantry: making enemy infantry move towards your forces or stay still to allow you to move to engage

The CRA available to the Archers also adds the ability to snipe solos or even damaged Warcasters (as my opponent found out last game :-). Their RAT is about average for a shooting unit and individually they might have trouble with some high DEF infantry but between the CRA and Suppressing Fire they can really handle most tasks.

Where this unit really starts to shine is with the addition of the Unit Attachment. The Officer gives the unit Pathfinder and Combined Arms and the Ammo Porter provides them with Dual Shot and ROF 2 with their bows.

While Pathfinder is useful, I think that the real power combo is Combined Arms and ROF 2 with their bows. Dual Shot is usable with the CRA which means that the Archers can potentially shoot 6 two-man CRAs with an effective RAT of 7 and two shots. So 11 RAT 7, POW 12 shots from a single unit. Is has the potential to devastate enemy infantry and can be combined to take down solos quite easily. Combined into two groups of 5 and 6 shooters giving you four shots at RAT 11 and POW 16. With rerolls!

If they get into melée combat the Archers are done for though. A POW 7 sword and no effective armor means that even a poor melée unit will doom them if it charges into combat. heck, even if it advances they are probably done for. With Suppressing Fire it should be possible to keep most attackers at bay though.

My limited experience with the unit has been quite positive and I am looking forward to trying out more tricks with the Blighted Nyss Archers.

One Response to “Looking at Legion: Blighted Nyss Archers”

1. Ben says:

   2010/09/12 at 20:59

   With the unit attachment, they’re really very similar to Longgunners with their own unit attachment. The most important differences are that they’re only RNG 12 instead of 14, their slightly higher SPD and pathfinder means it’s easier to reposition them, they have less access to ranged buffs (Snipe, Deadeye, Rangers marking targets, etc), and they’re cheaper. The main advice I would give you for using them (based on my own use of Longgunners) is that they have a tendency to be a static unit, since you’ll usually want them to stand still in order to get the aiming bonus and be able to shoot twice. Build your battle plan around expecting them to largely stay in the same spot, but don’t be afraid to have them move and shoot either, if the situation warrants it! Especially if you want to lay down some covering fire… Oh, and a single massive CRA is impressive (2 if you’re standing still), but realistically it’s rarely the best option.