..unleash the Siege Animantarax!

The title says it all. After far too long in the shadow of... well, everything in the entire game, the errata of yesterday has made significant steps to salvage the noble Siege Potato. And, as one of the few, proud and the brave to have (extremely foolishly) built lists prior to this with not one, but two of the lumbering beasts, I find myself in a good place to discuss the changes, and what they might mean.

 Coming back to a Tabletop near you in Fall 2015.. The Mighty Siege Potato

Firstly, lets look at the changes. They reads simply enough - When this model is damaged by an attack, it gains one rage token ... during its activation, this model can spend rage tokens to boost attack or damage rolls.

So, the change is twofold. Firstly, friendly models can now generate rage tokens. That's a pretty big deal. One of the biggest issues facing the Animantarax prior to this was that unless you took Siege Column or Footsteps of Giants, the creature would only ever generate rage tokens the turn your opponent decided to kill it - meaning that it could never truly benefit from the ability. Even then with one of the two lists mentioned, the tokens were a one use item, with you spending them once it arrived in melee and then exhausting your boosts for the game. No one ever attacked an Animantarax for a couple of points, generated a token and then left it alone. Now that Beast Handlers can add tokens to it every turn, this is a much better and more reliable mechanic, offering three boosts a turn, and not a passive ability which requires your opponent to help out.

The second change is what makes this work though. Previously, all boosting was limited to the tail - now, with the text stipulating any attack, the Animantarax becomes a much more interesting piece. The most obvious change is to the spears, which can start at POW13 / POW12 and then both be boosted, going some way to closing the disparity between the POW of the spears and tail. But better yet, the gun goes from something which you can reliably improve your chance to hit. The piece can charge a target, attack with all three melee ( benefiting from the +3STR) on the attacks, then shoot at secondary targets, using the tokens to boost the mediocre accuracy. 

This is a big deal. Previously, the guns had been a dubious afterthought, even against Trollblood or Khador Warjack DEF.

So the next question would be who does this benefit the most I guess.

The obvious contenders remain the three best lists to run it in from before. The changes are good, but simply don't go far enough to make this a strong addition without a little extra help, and the points reductions from Siege Column, Footsteps of Giants, and Armageddon are all extremely welcome. Starting with tokens is now less useful (translating into +3 Boxes) of course, but two 9pt models for 16 points or better yet, 14pts is a definite step in the right direction, and difficult to ignore.

Of course, its a dubious question how well any of those lists support it otherwise. Makeda3 and Xerxis2 can do some good for the Animantarax via Vortex of Destruction and Ignite / Hand of the Ancients respectively, but then so they can do the same with these abilities for everyone in their army, and both crucially want an extremely Warbeast heavy build, reducing the potential points to sink into a Battle Engine, even at a discount. Siege Column fares a little better; Plague Wind offers it a little survivability (especially when combined with an Agonizer and/or Dimish), and Blood Mark and Plague Wind stacked offer a solid -4ARM to most targets which can really ramp up the effectiveness. 

Outside of those three, and at 9pts, the Animantarax becomes a model that is useful only in its newfound self sufficiency for the most part. Most Warlocks will be able to leave it alone on one flank to be able to take care of itself with a little help from the whips, and offering a flexible alternative to a Warbeast for those at Fury5 and Fury6 that might not want to run too many beasts. There are even a handful of spells that can help - Fury, Defenders Ward, Vision, Road to War et al. However, special note probably has to go to Hexeris2, whom is really the only Warlock to step up to the plate, rubbing his hands together with glee. 

Why you ask? Black Spot.

Black spot effectively enables a bonus three shots with the newly useful gun, for something which is relatively easy to pull off on the table. With boosts, you can now be sure that they'll hit too, or at least half of them will. Remember that because of weapons platform you can both types of Initial attacks, so its perfectly legal to trigger a ranged attack with a more powerful and accurate melee attack. Add in the Croak Raiders and a unit or two of Cataphract Incindiarii, and you've got yourself a real infantry spam clearance list...

So, the obvious question now is.. will I run them? The answer is yes. I used to before, and this really just makes them more useful. I think I'll focus on Makeda3 and Hexeris2 for my fix initially, but we'll have to see. Maybe one day I'll find the love for Rasheth that I've sorely missed throughout my entire Skorne career.

Some would question why I use Anchorman pictures so much. They would be missing the point.

So my hat off to you PP once again, you managed the impossible, you magnificent bastards, in a way that almost seemed elegant. Back next time fellow Tyrants, with hopes and dreams for that magical dream entry we're all hoping that will catapult Zaal2 into the 'usable' category.