Ethereal, Should I be scared?

Ethereal
Should I be scared of ethereal units? Should I be thinking of an ethereal hunting team? I have not yet faced a VC army but some people are getting me scared of them. If I need to be thinking of a hunting team does anyone have any that they are willing to share?



Thanks in advance

You should be apprehensive about them, because they can do annoying things like draw out Fanatics, sit on Manglers, occupy a flank, and stuff Chariots at little to no risk, but they're no threat to any block that can actually generate static combat resolution. Still, if you want to get rid of them quickly, casting the Big Waaagh! signature spell (or better yet, the Little Waaagh!'s Vindictive Glare) at them should do the trick, as will bringing something like an Orc Big Boss on a Boar with a Sword of Might, for example.

This post has been edited by rothgar13 on Feb 16 2012, 06:12 AM

Those tips are the way to go. I will insist to include more big bosses on wolfs, spider etc with a magic weapon. Kit them with objects such as shrieking blade and potion of foolhardiness to avoid failing fear tests.

We do not have the magic to reliably deal with them. In an all-comers list you need at least 1 hero with a magical weapon, preferably mounted. I've got a cheap goblin big boss with ES, Dragonbane gem and Shrieking sword. He can hunt etherals, act as a diverter or go into units I suspect of having the flaming banner.

What to keep on mind is that when you design the hero, make sure he can fulfill multiple roles beyond etheral hunting- then you'll get more out of him.

I always kit out my fighting characters with magic weapons as the chance of ethereal to ruin your day is too great. Forget Armed to da Teef! Then again, just go with regular Orcs....

Using a gobbo boss on a critter instead of a wolf rider unit is a good choice. They are about the same points.

You should be more worried about crypt horrors and small vargeist units than of ethereals. In the long run that is what will likely take up most of the points and make up the teeth of a vc army.

Depends on your army. If you make heavy use of fanatics, pump wagons, manglers, and chariots then small cheap etherial units can pose an issue. The etherials outright remove fanatics and manglers from the board just by purposefully moving into them. They can often kill pump wagons simply though pump-wagons being unstable, and they can lock-down chariots (hex-wraiths will generally kill them).

If you use a lot of stuff like that then having a character or two who can reliably hunt down the etherial stuff is pretty handy. If you only make light use of the above stuff then you can generally ignore a lot of etherial stuff as you will generally kill it through static combat rez.

If you are facing the same vc opponent all the time, then sure. But if you are showing up with a list and don't know who you are facing, then spending points giving all your characters magic weapons, is overkill.

In time it will be cyrpt horrors that are likely to be your main concern. VC armies may start showing up with 1 host as standard, but 1 host is unlikely going to be able to take out all your small units by itself.

And even if you do give magic weapons to your characters, that is really not going to help keep your manglers, chariots and fast cav alive, it'll just kill it if for some reason the vc player decides he wants his hosts or hex wraiths to go up against a full horde of static CR. Your general or shaman waving around a magic sword isn't going to keep a mangler alive when a host decides to sit on it.

Giving all your characters magic weapons is overkill - I agree. But taking a cheap etherial hunter character on a wolf/boar/spider is not a bad idea. And as pointed out earlier in the thread by Squigkikka that character can fill different roles for when you don't face etherials.

i reckon we do have the magic to take them out.

i regularly face the VC and have grown to love vindictive glare.

And what happens if he dispels it, or it rolls low, or you don't roll it at all? Foot of Gork the Etherals to death?

We are not talking spirit hosts only, but also wraiths and banshees hiding within units.

Crypt Horrors are very dangerous and as Shimmergloom says, likely to become one of the most used options of any VC player since they are absolutely crazy good. However, planting 70p on a hero that is also a chaffhunter and a diverter isn't a bad deal, and he works against more things than just etherals- you could divert the Crypt Horrors for a turn for example.

I mean, the rest of your army must be able to deal with them, 70p alone wont sway that- especially if those 70p means you're left without any feasible etheral counters.

highly competitive VC players will take a few wraith characters. You wont be able to target them while they are in units, and with move 6 they will charge out into units without static combat res or magic weapons (giant, trolls, arachnarok, chariots, squig herd).

If you are packing any of these hard hitters, take care to keep out of ethereal's charge range, or angle them so you can counter charge and bring static combat rez into the ethereal's flank, or a magic weapon.

Nasty VC players will also fill the front rank of a unit with wraith characters to deny you any attacks without magic weapons. Not too nice in the front of your savages.

That's why I always bring a Goblin Warboss with the sword of anti heroes

Do people usually take characters without magic items? OK...I know Shimmergloom does with his units of 95 Goblins and 3 bare bones characters. Besides him, though.....do many people go without magic on characters? I usually only have about 4 characters and they almost all have magic weapons or cast spells. I am adding another one to take the place of a Wolf Rider unit who also has magic weapons.

I take lots of characters without magic items, but they are generally stupid cheap goblins meant more as unit-upgrades than as characters. That said, I still make sure to put magic weapons into my army to deal with issues such as etherial enemies.