The Book of Skeletons of Annellintia

[infectedsloth]

The Book of Skeletons of Annellintia

C3V Wave 2 - Age of Chaos - Army of Darkness

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The figures used for this unit are Confrontation figures from the Rams set. They are available from the Ram Army Box (16 figures), Abysmal Skull Unit Box (4 figures), or Necromancer Skull Unit Box (4 figures). The name of the figure is Skeleton Thrall.

Bio

Spoiler Alert!

Finn and his Tarn companions pressed onward toward their goal: the malevolent lord of the night, Cyprien.

As Finn and his companions sliced through wave upon wave of the bony, undead denizens of the dark, he chuckled to himself about the musical nature of his foes. With each awkward step of these skeletons came the hollow "click" of bone upon bone. With each lunge came a series of "clacks" as the reanimated fighters rubbed against each other.

The sound was not unlike the sound of his mother's wooden wind-chime that hung outside his window when he was young. With each warrior he defeated, he delighted at that sound, similar to the chime in a heavy wind.

When he defeated the last foe between himself and Cyprien, the song of the chime rang through his ears as he stared into the dead eyes of his mortal enemy. He half expected to see concern, or even fear, in the face of the old vampire before him. Instead he was met with a sly grin.

Finn advanced to wipe the smile from Cyprien’s face, but he was distracted by a sound beside him that was not unlike his mother's wind-chime.

Click. Clack. Click. Clack.

Necromancy
When a Skeleton of Annellintia you control is destroyed, roll the 20-sided die. If you roll an 11 or higher, place that Skeleton of Annellintia on the army card of any Unique Lord, Lady, Duke or Duchess you control.

Reanimation
After revealing an order marker on this Army Card, before taking a turn with the Skeletons of Annellintia, you may remove one previously destroyed Skeleton of Annellintia from the Army Card of one Unique Hero you control and place it on any empty space adjacent to that Hero.

Undead Legion
After taking a turn with the Skeletons of Annellintia, you may move two unengaged Skeletons of Annellintia you control who did not move or attack this turn up to 4 spaces each.


-Rulings and Clarifications-

- TBA
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-Combinations and Synergies-

Synergy Benefits Received

• Zombie Hulk: Paralyzing Fear:
  As Undead, the Skeletons Of Annellintia may benefit from the Zombie Hulk's Paralyzing Fear defense penalty when attacking other figures.
  
• Torin: Evil Eye Protection:
  As medium figures who follow Utgar, Skeletons of Annellintia may be protected by Torin's Evil Eye.

Synergy Benefits Offered

Necromancy: Unique lord, Lady, Duke or Duchess

• Sonya Esenwein
• Iskra Esenwein
• Nicholas Esenwein
• Cyprien Esenwein

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-Heroscapers Community Contributions-

Power Ranking and Master Index

Skeletons of Annellintia Sculpt Poll

Devastating with a hot d20, but can require subtle play to take advantage of the animation mechanic. B+

Unit Strategy Review
- TBD

[Tai-Pan]

I just realized that, with the inclusion of Nicholas in the list of figures that can use Necromancy, the mindlessness of a Skeleton horde is reflected. They don't really care if they're fighting for Cyprien or for Nicholas.

[superfrog]

Two things:

Capitalize "book" in the thread title and change "form" to "from" in the Reanimate power "...you may remove one previously destroyed Skeleton of Annellintia from the Army Card..."

[vegietarian18]

Army build that came to my head when I saw these guys:

Cyprien
Sonya
Skeletons x2
Raelin
Isamu
495/12 hexes
A bit low on commons, but probably still strong overall. The skeletons are slow and can bask in Raelin's aura for a while.

The ideal build is probably Cyp/Sonya/Skeletons x3, but that's 510 points.

[caps]

Originally Posted by vegietarian18

Army build that came to my head when I saw these guys:

Cyprien
Sonya
Skeletons x2
Raelin
Isamu
495/12 hexes
A bit low on commons, but probably still strong overall. The skeletons are slow and can bask in Raelin's aura for a while.

The ideal build is probably Cyp/Sonya/Skeletons x3, but that's 510 points.

It is low on commons, but if you open with the Skeletons, Cyprien can go out and start putting them back on the board once you've lost 5-6. With that build I would probably leave 1-2 in my SZ so as not to lose the card.

[awesomeunleashed]

I'm having a bit of a tough time justifying paying 45 more points per squad for these over Zombies. Reanimation is more reliable than ZRA, but only half of your destroyed Skeletons are going to come back. Is the extra figure and attack die really worth it? They are definitely stronger, but are they really 45 points more so?

[dok]

4 attacks of 3 is literally twice as many attack dice as 3 attacks of 2. But just as importantly, the mechanic by which they come back is completely different. Zombies come back by killing opposing figures. Skeletons come back simply by taking turns. While I understand the desire to compare the two squads, the meaningful similarity is just that they are both slow-moving melee squads.

A good way to look at the Skeletons is that they are a 4-figure, 3/3 squad that costs about 53 points, but you get (on average) two squads for every squad you purchase... as long as you can keep your hero alive, that is.

One interesting option that I like, actually, is to play Iskra (without the rechets) rather than Cyprien/Sonya. Iskra is actually not a terrible cleanup hero in her own right, and going cheap on the hero frees up some points for ranged support.

[mac122]

If the Zombies were a 4-figure squad, they'd have to be at least 80 points just to pay for the extra figure. Add in a bit for the extra strength for an extra attack for each OM and you've probably got a 85-90 point squad. So, to my mind, it really comes down to whether the extra attack die and the better chance of returning destroyed figures to the battlefield is worth 15-20 points. Sounds like a good deal to me.

[awesomeunleashed]

Okay, good points. Now I just need to see it...

Originally Posted by dok

and going cheap on the hero frees up some points for ranged support.

Bah! Range? Who needs that? Now I want to play 5x, Iskra, filler for 600...

[caps]

Originally Posted by awesomeunleashed

Okay, good points. Now I just need to see it...

Bah! Range? Who needs that? Now I want to play 5x, Iskra, filler for 600...

At 650 you could do 5xSkeletons, Iskra, Sonya, Marcu+Isamu/Kira-Jax.

[Aldin]

*sigh* 'd by dok and mac.

Let me add one more thing they didn't cover. Skeleton necromancy is foe-indifferent. Zombies suck wind when faced with Q9 and Deathstalkers. Skeles just keep coming.

~Aldin, bonily

[vegietarian18]

I would think that the problem with playing Iskra is how frail she is. Iskra can go down really quickly to heavy fire, and she will be your opponents main target if she is your only hero.