With a flurry of Hordes mkii fieldtest updates over, it's finally time to enjoy the holidays. Unfortunately, I'm not out of the woods yet, as I'm still writing papers that will not be written. I feel like I'm in some sort of Sysiphian nightmare!

Anyway, eMakeda has struck me (and many others) as one of the strongest Warlocks in large Skorne lists. She has undergone some major changes in the recent iterations. I just wanted to quickly share my observations on the latest incarnation of eMakeda.

MAKEDA

SPD STR MAT RAT DEF ARM CMD FUR

6 7 7 4 15 17 10 6

FA: C

Warbeast Points: +5

Base Size: Small

Damage: 16

Feat: Instruments of War

While in Makedaʼs control area, friendly Faction models gain boosted melee attacks, and cannot be knocked down or be targeted by free strikes. Instruments of War lasts for one round.

MAKEDA

Elite Cadre [Praetorian Swordsmen] - Friendly Praetorian Swordsmen models gain Vengeance. (During your Maintenance Phase, if one or more models in a unit with Vengeance were destroyed or removed from play by enemy attacks during your opponentʼs last turn, each model in the unit can advance 3˝ and make one normal melee attack.)

Inspiration [Skorne models] - Friendly Skorne models models/units in this modelʼs command range never flee and immediately

rally.

Overtake - When this model destroys one or more enemy warrior models with a normal melee attack, after the attack is resolved this model can immediately advance up to 1˝.

Stay Death - Once per turn, when a friendly living Skorne trooper model is disabled in this modelʼs command range, this model can spend 1 fury point for the disabled model to heal 1 damage point.

Unyielding - While engaging an enemy model, this model gains +2 ARM.

WEAPONS [MAKEDA]

Sword of Baalash [2x] (None) POW: 5 P+S: 12

Magical Weapon

Combo Strike (􀋒Attack) - Make a melee attack. Instead of making a normal damage roll, the POW of the damage roll is equal

to this modelʼs STR plus twice the POW of this weapon.

SPELLS Cost RNG AOE POW UP OFF

Leash 2 6 – – Yes No

Immediately after this model ends its normal movement, target warbeast in its battlegroup can make a full advance toward it.

Road to War 3 Self Ctrl – No No

Friendly Faction non-warlock models activating in this modelʼs control area gain +2˝ movement this turn.

Stranglehold 2 10 – 11 No Yes

A model damaged by Stranglehold forfeits either its movement or its action during its next activation, as its controller chooses.

Sudden Death 2 6 – – Yes No

When an enemy model advances and ends its movement within 6˝ of target friendly Faction non-warcaster warrior model and the affected model is not engaged, the affected model can immediately charge the enemy model, then Sudden Death expires. A

trooper model that charges as a result of Sudden Death ignores unit formation while resolving the charge. If the trooper model is out of formation after the charge attack is resolved, it is destroyed before Sudden Death

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So I'm still trying to decide if Makeda has shifted at all from her role as being an infantry-oriented warlock. Granted, her previous feat only worked on troops, but her current one is best optimized by triggering it over and over, particularly with the use of throngs of Praetorian Sworsmen. Cetrati, Immortals, Ancestral Guardians, and even Bloodrunners benefit as well.

However, our warbeasts, many of whom have MAT6, could also benefit greatly from the feat.

If anything, it's clear that the spell screams out for a single alpha-strike with as many melee models as possible lined up to charge. With Makeda's two range-enhancing spells, you see a nice coherency in theme. She has gone from having somewhat of a counter-punching focus, to being more oriented to dealing the first blow. I tend to favor early-game feats, so I expect her new one to be much easier to use.

I'm looking forward to testing her out in my typical army build: numerous heavy beasts, 1 or 2 units, and a couple of solos. This time, I'll use the feat as an excuse to omit the Krea, but I have no idea what I would do with the 4 extra points!