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Subject: Underrated and/or Underused 1 – Exarch of Tyranny

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Zevanna
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08/01/2008 10:31 AM  

Underrated and/or Underused 1 – Exarch of Tyranny

I’m thinking of starting a series of threads that highlights some figures I think deserve at least *some* attention that very few people show them to hopefully discuss warband/combo ideas and generate some interest in using the figure being discussed. Without further delay, here is the first figure: Exarch of Tyranny.

 

I admittedly haven’t seen a single mention of the Exarch for a while, and as far as I recall, I think its name has only popped up in like three threads or so. It is a fairly solid figure:

-        High AC of 27 and Def of 24 makes him fairly hard to crack. 80hp isn’t half bad either.

-        Capable of healing himself. This probably won’t happen every game, but it does cause people to avoid tossing fodder into combat with the Exarch because not only will they die and heal him, they will even die without him dedicating an action to attacking you because of....

-        Bladestorm. This ability gives the Exarch a greater damage output than one would expect, and if combined with some Pull/Push/Shifting tech, you can easily pull off rediculous crap if you get several figures into base contact with the Exarch. Best of all, you don’t actually need the opponent to direct his attack at the Exarch – just activating next to the Exarch triggers his free attack. Speaking of attacks, his attacks are....

-        Incredibly accurate. +20 hit rating? Seriously?! Heck yes.

-        54 points really isn’t much.

 

The figure only has two glaring weaknesses, and one of them is a very common issue:

-        Its a melee-only beatstick. If he can’t get into melee he doesn’t really do anything else. Then again, all melee-only beatsticks suffer from this problem.

-        If you somehow can’t trigger Bladestorm, the Exarch’s damage output isn’t too great. For example, getting hit by melee characters with Reach after you’ve been pushed out of adjacent basing. It isn’t a common situation, but may happen.

 

Here are some interesting figures to potentially use with the Exarch. Note that I’m not saying these are necessarily *great* choices, but they are figures that popped up in my mind when I was thinking about the Exarch:

Civilization

-        Warhorse -> Gets you to where you need to be faster.

-        Fist of Moradin -> 28 AC anyone? >:D

-        Dwarf Battlerager/Dragonborn Myrmidon/etc. -> Don’t want to hit my Exarch? Sure. Hit these instead!

-        Dwarf Warsword -> Similar to the two guys above; don’t want to hit my Exarch? Sure, take an extra 10 damage from the Warsword, and my Exarch still gets to bash your face (the Exarch gets his free attack as long as you activate next to him – you don’t even need to direct the attack at him!). Hit my Exarch? Sure, take my Exarch’s hit *and* get hit by Defender. Either way its going to hurt...

-        Thrall of Blackrazor -> This guy can also heal when he kills someone. It might conflict a little with your Exarch in the sense that what the Thrall kills your Exarch can’t, but this is just really to irritate your opponent. Especially fun if you play like two Exarchs and one Thrall; three of your figures heal when someone dies!

-        Exarch of Tyranny -> Why not play multiples of him? More often than not your opponent *has* to have some sort of melee attacker....

Wild

-        Wild Elf Warsinger -> For 9 points, theres little reason to not field her in any Wild warband IMO.

-        Arcane Archer/Wild Mage/Howling Hag/Kobold Archer/etc. -> Wild has access to some of the best ranged attackers in the game. Punish them for not closing into melee with you or soften the crap out of them before you get into grips with them.

-        Thrall/Exarch -> See above.

 

As you can see from above, I still think that the best way to use the Exarch, IMO, is to play a “punisher” warband – punish your opponent for touching you, and make them regret ever fighting you! :D

 

Please do discuss what you guys think about the Exarch and how you guys would use him, thanks :)


FriendlyAlienist
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Finland

08/01/2008 11:32 AM  
Warhorse: only thing better than Bladestorm is Bladestorm on Large base, you could get adjacent to max. 12 Medium creatures...

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md3
Sergeant
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08/01/2008 12:50 PM  
I run a warband that looks like so:
2 Exarch of Tyranny
Thrall of Blackrazor
Wild Elf Warsinger
2 Kobold Archers
Deathjump Spider
Snaketongue Cultist

The Exarchs are useful to simply run up and base an unactivated creature. The Thrall with the Haste usually swoops in for the kill. The Snakeswiftness usually helps get another hit in from any of his friends. Charging with the Warsong allows every hitter 30 damage. I charged a Wulfgar on horse with 2 Exarchs for 30 damage each. Then when Wulfgar activated he took another 40 damage. These guys can take out high hitpoint enemies quite effectively. Against a Dire Tiger 2 charges, 2 hits when it activated, and a snakes swiftness later it was dead, in one round. While they work together the Thrall is chewing through the support group.

The only trouble these guys had was against a Fire Giant Raider and it was because I rolled terrible on 2 charges.


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Wolfgang
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Milton, Ontario Canada

08/01/2008 2:18 PM  
i do like him and use him when i can

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Lord_rock
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Portland OR

08/01/2008 2:39 PM  
and do not forget the hellwasp; move your exarch around for max use of bladestorm. Exarch tended to place fairly well in qualifiers... They deserve another look now.

Exarch
Thrall
UH Delver
Wildmage
Warhorse
Hellwasp
WeW
Rat

Rock Bottom Pricing:
Arcane Archer 30, Centaur Hero 67, Human Cleric of Bane 25, Gold Champion 34, Death Knight 52, Goblin Blackblade 9, Silentwolf Goblin 7, Orc Raider 10, Dwarf axefighter 9, Healer 9, Thaskor 65, Aspect of Demogorgon 71, Ogre 9, Fire Giant 79, Human Wanderer 7, Drunken Master 18, Barghest 12, Longstider Barbarian 27, Longtooth Barbarian 22, Frost Giant 76, Ravenous Vampire 42, Large Earth Elemental: priceless

The_Entropic_Wizard
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St Paul, MN

08/03/2008 3:02 AM  
Heh.. the Exarch of Tyrrany is one of my favorite pieces. He was only so-so in 1.0, but just rocks the house in 2.0. Bladestorm is the way to go!!! One of my very first 2.0 games was putting these guys on warhorses and sending them across the map right off the bat... Hellspike is great for these guys.

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Darth Torment
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Toronto, Ontario CANADA

08/06/2008 10:52 PM  
This is a fun piece to play, and has always been good to me.

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mege
Sneak
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08/07/2008 6:51 AM  
Posted By Lord_rock on 08/01/2008 2:39 PM
and do not forget the hellwasp; move your exarch around for max use of bladestorm. Exarch tended to place fairly well in qualifiers... They deserve another look now.

Exarch
Thrall
UH Delver
Wildmage
Warhorse
Hellwasp
WeW
Rat


How do all these pieces make it into the same Warband? ;)

I like Exarch, Thrall, Warhorse, Hobgoblin Marshall (or 2), +artillery of choice+fodder/BGs

Temysry
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08/07/2008 8:54 AM  

It's a wild warband with a stray horse...  :)

Seriously though, you could remove the horse for a Snaketongue Cultist but I just don't like how slow the Exarch is by himself.

This band was fun to play for a while:

Mercenary General
 - Delver Sergeant
Hobgoblin Marshal
Exarch of Tyranny
Thrall of Blackrazor
Warhorse
Merchant Guard x2
Goblin Runner
Farmer
Map: Keep of the Fallen Kings

If you win map and first round initiative (which is about a 50/50 proposition against lower champion ratings, you can use the Hobgoblin, Merc General and Delver Sgt. champion powers to have the Exarch mounted on the horse then charge 30 squares across the board to attack something still in its start area.  What's best about this is all the free attacks you get when things activate next to the Exarch on their first turn.

Of course, 30 movement is usually enough to allow a charge to their start area on any of the "short" maps.


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Lord_rock
Underboss
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Portland OR

08/12/2008 7:48 PM  
I keep doing that with the damn warhorse!!! Were they wild in BETA? It's an unarmored horse... why isn't it wild?

So add 16pts of fun to your band...

Rock Bottom Pricing:
Arcane Archer 30, Centaur Hero 67, Human Cleric of Bane 25, Gold Champion 34, Death Knight 52, Goblin Blackblade 9, Silentwolf Goblin 7, Orc Raider 10, Dwarf axefighter 9, Healer 9, Thaskor 65, Aspect of Demogorgon 71, Ogre 9, Fire Giant 79, Human Wanderer 7, Drunken Master 18, Barghest 12, Longstider Barbarian 27, Longtooth Barbarian 22, Frost Giant 76, Ravenous Vampire 42, Large Earth Elemental: priceless
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