Unit Strategy Review: Theracus

[chief]

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Unit Strategy Review
Unit: Theracus
Author: Chief (with USRC help)

One of the major themes in Ullar's army are the Elves. These units provide a linchpin theme for the General. But when rescuing one of the mighty Wizards, he acquired her Disciplined Mount as well. This Gryphillin may be some elfish pony creature, but in Valhalla he provides an arsenal of underhanded and deadly tactics.

Let us begin our analysis by looking at Theracus’s stats.

Vital Statistics
Cost – 40 – Bishop Class Unit
Size – Large – Vulnerable/Somewhat Concealable
Life – 3 – Low
Move – 7 – Fast
Range – 1 – Melee
Attack – 3 – Average
Defense – 3 – Average
Tournament Readiness - Medium
Carry – Allows Theracus to place 1 small or medium figure that you control adjacent to him after moving, as long as that figure started adjacent to him before moving. Tactical value high.
Flying – Allows Theracus to ignore elevation, water, and other figures. He does take leaving engagements. Tactical value high.

In-Depth Analysis
We shall now look carefully at Theracus’s statistics, and draw strategies from our conclusions. Let us start with cost. Below is an explanation of Agatagary's cost classification:

Pawn class (expendable, units that can be useful, but are not worth enormous trouble to protect)
Bishop class (more useful than a pawn, but still somewhat expendable)
Knight class (units that are interestingly powerful and can have a significant impact on the game in of themselves. It is advisable that they be kept alive, but if absolutely necessary they may be sacrificed)
Rook class (units that almost inevitably have a significant impact on the game, and whose death should be avoided as much as possible)
Queen class (devastatingly powerful or important units that should be protected at all costs)

Class:
Let us begin with an analysis of Theracus’s size and cost. Theracus is a Bishop Class unit. He is central to transporting slower small and medium units, usually heroes, in your army. He is also speedy enough to grab essential glyphs early on.
To examine Theracus’s core stats, we will break them up into two categories—offensive ability and survivability.


Offense:
On a solo flight Theracus is not very good offensively. But if you are using carry to transport a powerful hero straight to your opponent's start zone, then his offensive capabilities in the early game go up. In the mid to late game though, with his move of 7, in addition to Flying, he is great for flying past the main brawl to land an attack or two, of 3 to 4 dice, on key support units such as Raelin the Kyrie Warrior or Laglor.


Survivability:
Normally at 3 lives you would not expect great rates of survivability. But at 40 points, 3 lives is pretty darn good. Theracus is not designed to go straight into the brawl and start attacking. He is a passive/aggressive unit that is adept at grabbing glyphs and striking essential support units. With his ability to gain height quickly and his wings being non-targetable, it is not hard to hide his hit zone behind a tree or ruin. Don’t expect him to last though if you commit to a Theracus Bomb.


Tournament Readiness:
Theracus is a great unit for 40 points. At 40 points though he is pricy enough that you really must decide how he fits into your army. You can add him as a filler unit. But the fact that you have 40 points left in your army means you may want to revisit the drawing board. If you do decide to include Theracus in your army, you will want a strategy that includes him. Those strategies are highlighted below


General Strategy:
We will look at some intuitive ways to use Theracus, and then we will look at how some of his support units can affect him.

“Grab that glyph!”
We all know any glyph on a board gives our army a great advantage. The situation is often who can control those glyphs. The other factor we face in the early game is how to gain an early lead. Theracus provides the means to achieve both of those tasks. With a Move of 7 and Flying Theracus can quickly propel himself forward and grab nearly any glyph on the map within two turns. The problem is leaving the rest of your army behind. How do you get your army out of the start zone while grabbing that glyph? The answer is all in the order markers. Place Order Marker one on him in the first round and situate him to grab the glyph on his next move. But Order Markers two and three should be put on your core army. Theracus will use Order Marker one of round two to grab the glyph. With this placement of the OM’s you are maximizing your army movement while still grabbing the glyph. An additional benefit is that by waiting until round two to grab the glyph Theracus will not take any early wounds from fast moving or ranged figures. Just make sure to take into account your opponent's army. If they can reach the glyph at the same time as Theracus, put another OM on him to grab it early. He does have 3 lives.
Dont forget that Theracus has carry, it is not a bad idea to bring a body guard along with him or a strong hero that can peel off and attack your opponent. A great example of this is Eltahale. She can survive a few attacks and create a frontal assault that your opponent must deal with. This gives your core army the opportunity to move up.

“Support Stomper.”
Often armies will have an aura based support unit in there ranks, such as Raelin the Kyrie Warrior or Nerak the Glacian Swog Rider. The task that we face in killing them is being able to reach them. With a move of 7 and flying, Theracus has the ability to get across the battlefield and knock off a few lives of these support units, or even kill them. Flying is especially crucial as it allows Theracus to gain height and roll four attack dice instead of three. This tactic has two additional affects as well.
1) By engaging opponents support unit, they are forced to spend up to two or three order markers to kill Theracus. This draws at least a few attacks off of your main force.
2) Theracus can carry a hero with him to help provide the finals attacks to kill the support unit. That hero will also draw fire off of your main army. A good example of a hero to use is someone who bonds with your core army. EX Finn the Viking Champion and the Knights of Weston.
An additional factor is to note is that as a support stomper, Theracus will be moving up in round two or three, if he resides in your start zone until then, he can carry up a cheer leader unit before flying into the brawl. This allows you to place all of your OM's on your main force EX 10th Regiment of Foot. Then when Theracus begins to move up, he can drop off Marcus Decimus Gallus. Now your own support unit is in place and you are read to take out your opponents.

“Theracus Bomb”
The final and probably most entertaining of the strategies that Theracus can use is the “Theracus Bomb”. The essential concept is plopping the first order markers of the game on Theracus. Theracus's goal is to fly straight into your opponents forces carrying a strong hero with him. The next set of order markers are placed onto the hero or a squad that bonds with the hero. This strategy can be very deadly if executed properly. It is all about spacing your movements and avoiding unnecessary wounds before the hero gets activated. Often you need three order markers to get Thercaus placed properly with the hero. On smaller maps though you can get by with two order markers and placing the third on the hero. The thing to keep in mind is you don’t need to move all seven spaces. Moving only five spaces can pay off by keeping your pair of units out of range of shooters and/or behind cover.
Here is a link to the On-Going Collaboration of Theracus Bombs.

Sample Armies
Theracus is a very diverse unit, as we have come to realize. But to simply highlight his strengths and weakness are not enough. To understand his full potential we must look at some examples. Below there are three sample armies that Theracus can be drafted into. Each army exploits Theracus to his strongest abilities by using one or more of the strategies that we have coupled with him.

Theracus 40
Krav Maga Agents or Syvarris 140
Core of heroes and squads that fit your fancy
The goal of this army is two fold. Theracus can fly out one of your shooters to a key position in the first round. Said shooter may then get off one to two shots by the end of the round. This early shooting opportunity allows you to pick off wounds or squad figures. Then when your opponents core army gets closer, Theracus can retreat and take the shooter with him, preserving both of their life spans. In the mid game you may then switch Theracus into "Support Stomper" mode.

Theracus 40
Mezzodemons x4 300
Fen Hyrda 420
Raelin the Kyrie Warrior 500
In this army Theracus should be very busy in the first round. You can use the first OM to place Raelin three spaces out from your start zone (make sure you keep Theracus adjacent to a Mezzodemon) Then the second OM use Theracus to place the Mezzodemon onto a chokehold or next to a key glyph. By the end of the second round Theracus may have one to two wounds.
With OM 3 you should be moving up some of your Mezzo Demons. The one you have placed ahead of your forces can now hold that key spot or glyph by using up Exoskeleton Markers, giving you and edge. By the time the third round comes about your opponent will be knee deep in Mezzo Demon problems and a Fen Hydra quickly on its way.

Theracus 40
Death Knights of Valkrill x4 280
Sir Hawthorne 370
Venoc Warlord 490
Isamu 500

The Black Rider - A look at the On-Going Collaboration of Theracus Bombs will also delve into this strategy a little bit. Sometimes called the "Hawthorne Bomb" or the "Grungebomb", Sir Hawthorne riding Theracus into battle can be a very effective opening strategy for the Death Knights. The strategy involves Theracus getting some of the early, first round order markers to use his Carry special power to take Sir Hawthorne close to the enemy starting zone. At this point, Theracus can take a glyph that's close enough so Hawthorne can run into the zone himself, or you can double-engage a large hero like Major Q9 or a Dragon with both Theracus and Hawthorne. Once Hawthorne is in position, order markers shift to the Death Knights. Through Unholy Bonding, Hawthorne rampages through the enemy units with his Blind Rage Special Attack, forcing the opponent to deal with him while your Death Knights move up in tow, getting the head start onto the battlefield that they need to make up for their slow speed and melee restriction. Hawthorne's life and defense should ensure that he stays around a while. As an added bonus, if Hawthorne does stab you in the back, he'll be far away from the rest of your army. This strategy works even better when you also include the Venoc Warlord, since Theracus will get his movement boost, and the Viper Warlord's speed will ensure that he catches up to your Death Knights that were advancing while Hawthorne was doing his thing. Hawthorne, Venoc Warlord, Theracus, and 3 squads of Death Knights comes to 430 Points, with tons of options left to round out an army of any size.

That is an excerpt from the Unit Strategy Review of the Death Knights of Valkrill. It sums up this armies strategy pretty well. Simply use this army to rapidly deploy Hawthorne and then mass OM your Death Knights. It is a deadly one – two punch to your opponent. An alternate option would be to sit the Venoc Warlord and Isamu, then replace with a ranged unit(s).

-There are several more Theracus Bomb armies. They include Siege, Finn the Viking Champion, Eldgrim, ETC. Please reference the On going collaboration of Theracus Bombs to look up a specific unit(s) that are not covered here. But the idea is the same across the board.-


Units that Enhance Theracus
Venoc Warlord
The Venoc Warlord is great team member for Theracus. He provides him two additional move. Whether this pair is combined with the Venoc Vipers or Romans Legionaries the army will be able to quickly grab glyphs or take out your opponents support units. Other good squads for this pair are the Armoc Vipers and Mohican River Tribe

Acolarh
Because of Aclorah's Ullars Amulet, Thearcus can gain 2 extra move on the first turn of the game, or on later turns if they are both alive. This boost can be used to transport the flag bearer himself or another elf hero to a key spot quickly. This will result in the complete deployment of your elf army faster than usual. If you have the points, you can even throw in a non-elf hero to get in a quick bomb as your elfs then move into place.

Brave Arrow
Brave Arrow gives Theracus an extra attack when adjacent to him. This is most useful for using the support stomper strategy. With the potential of 5 dice being rolled for an attack, they make a great combo to take out those support units. Especially since Brave Arrow is likely to be in a Mohican Army. The support kill package here is key to that army.

Sacred Band:
While they do not enhance Theracus, he enhances them by being disciplined, he allows them to have their Disciplined Army Defense Bonus. By combining a Sacred Band Army with Theracus, you provide your core forces a chance to kill support units and gain extra defense. Here is a sample army
Sacred Band x4 200
Parmenio 290
10th x2 440
Theracus 480
You would have to sit three units or drop a Sacred Band squad. But this is a core concept to work around.


Units to Avoid:
Ranged Squads and Multiple Strike Special Attackers:
The KMA, Q9, Q10, and 10th are all bad news for Theracus. They can all land multiple attacks and kill him quickly.

Heroes with high attack:
In some cases support units can be near a large unit that is good at clean up, or just slow moving. Be careful of engaging those support units in a situation like that. Because if the said hero has an order marker on him he could one shot Theracus and leave anyone he is carrying in a very bad situation.

-In summary Theracus is a diverse unit with multiple tactical choices. He is a unit that should be built into an army, rather than an army being built around him. But when all is said and done he is a great pony boy for giving an army that extra WOW factor.-


For additional information see the Book of Theracus

[MegaSilver]

I have always thought Theracus was better than people give him credit for.

Thanks for this review, chief.

[ZBeeblebrox]

nice review.

Yes Theracus is a very valuable piece for only 40 points.

[Son of Arathorn]

Good one. Theracus is one of my favorite figures for below 50 points.

The way I enjoy using Theracus is essentially the bomb strategy, but instead of double-engaging a hero, engage the initial enemy target with the Carried hero, and then engage the enemy ranged squads (usually 10th/Krav/Aubriens/etc.) with Theracus. Combined with Theracus' double-spacedness, and you engage a lot more figures, and force the opponent to waste more OM's killing 40 points than he/she normally would.

[ZBeeblebrox]

On larger scale maps, Theracus is really nice with the Elves. Fly Emirroon out across the battlefield, then have him Summon Elves on OM#2. Move the Leves to the High Ground faster. On smaller maps this strategy is not as efficient, because Emirroon probably only needs two turns to reach a good spot to Summon.

[Taeblewalker]

Theracus is a must-have for units like Guilty and Syvarris on any map with height.

[Dragyn3ye]

My favourite rider is Captain America

[infectedsloth]

Originally Posted by Dragyn3ye

My favourite rider is Captain America

It might be because I never play Marvel, but I'm ashamed to say I've never thought of that.

[HEROSCAPERMTL]

I've always liked the idea of Syvarris riding Theracus atop a hill then raining arrows upon his foe a la Legolas.

[Taeblewalker]

Originally Posted by HEROSCAPERMTL

I've always liked the idea of Syvarris riding Theracus atop a hill then raining arrows upon his foe a la Legolas.

I tried that once against Stingers but the Marro just shot him down off his percg.