Lord Assassin Morghoul is one of thoses casters who have been over the years both broken good and unplayably bad. The current version, thanks to the hard work of PP, is actually pretty balanced. More importantly, he is fun to play.

Why play a Master of War Morghoul list ?

Let’s be honest : the biggest draw to Morghoul is that he is very good into Cryx. Master of War give him the one thing that he missed : a way to remove from play annoying pieces. It’s a list who is very fast fast, play attrition well despite its model being easy to kill, and who have a good enough assassination game to cause trouble.

Morghoul himself

Lord Assassin Morghoul, like the Butcher, is a caster who do a lot of work during a game. He have three signature uses :

Spot removal

Morghoul hit hard, and while a far cry from the Butcher, he can kill mostly any group of warrior model with ease, and he can kill heavy jacks with only a small bit of support. Coupled with access to Sprint and incorporeal, he can choose his target, kill it, and sprint to safety. Want an example ? While I don’t have handy photos, here an example inspired from real facts :

Note that March from a tyrant commander work on both his normal movement (if he don’t charge) and on the sprint movement ; hence why he do 11” (2” apparition, 7” movement + 2” march) to go to his target, then 9” to go back behind the forest.

When attacking heavy jacks, remember to be prudent ; generally speaking, you want either something close to easily trigger sprint, or attack an already damaged jack. If on average dice you would need more than 4 attacks to kill anything you run a big risk of being stranded without being able to sprint, which is obviously bad. On the above example, it’s the Withershadow member who serve as an insurance to trigger sprint.

Spell support

The spell list of Morghoul is short but awesome :

• Mortality is of course a very strong debuff. In addition to make thing easier to kill, it also hose some feats and defensive measure, mainly Rapid Healing and the feat of Hoarluk 3.
• Flesh Hook is a good control spell. It’s not as debilitating as Stranglehold, but the POW is better. The most common use is after a charge and before sprinting, if you have spare fury.
• Shadow Play is a tricky spell. Because of how it’s worded, you actually can make several model incorporeal, since the models become Incorporeal until end of turn, not while they have the upkeep. Generally speaking, you want it on either Morghoul or an Archidon ; while Archidons fly, they don’t ignore free strike, so Shadow Play allow to get through the lines if needed. You also can use it as an expensive way to get pathfinder, or alternatively to get a tricky line of sight. Remember however that the incorporeal expire normally if you attack, so sprint movement usually don’t get the benefit from incorporeal.

Bullying

Unlike some other feared assassins like Krueger 2 or Vayl 2, Morghoul rarely kill enemy casters. That’s because in the end, his threat range is easy to predict : you just have to be more than 13” away. He ignore everything on the way, so you can rarely trick people into thinking they are safe. However, this also mean that you often can bully the opposing caster into a bad spot just by advancing to be too close for his comfort.

What to play with him

Essential support

Currently, you want at least an Archidon, Aptimus Marketh, at least one extoller, and at least one Tyrant commander. The Archidon allow Morghoul to sprint, meaning he can much more safely do work in melee. Marketh can cast mortality, and boost it, meaning he actually have good odds even against stuff in cover. The Extoller allow Morghoul to see through clouds, and remember his feat require a line of sight. Lastly, the Tyrant Commander allow via March to threaten farther without a charge, and also to sprint farther. Since Shadow Play allow him to go through houses but not to actually see through them, +2 movement when not charging go a long way.

Essential troop

You want an unit of Ferox Rider at least. Ferox Riders are an unit who is very easy to deliver (because of how they can threaten from ridiculous distance), but suffer from a damage output problem ; Morghoul fix that in a big way both with Mortality and with his feat. They also can prove essential in forcing your opponent to be prudent with his caster, since ferox to face is a real threat.

As far as the battlegroup is concerned, and while you could get away with a minimal battlegroup, I advice a minimum of two archidons, a gladiator, and a minimum unit of paingivers. Having two archidon mean you can afford to lose one early ; and the gladiator both make your archidon more threatening and is a strong beast by itself. (with Mortality, it can remove most of a colossal by itself after all).

Based on that, the bare skeleton for Morghoul 2 go this way :

• (Morghoul 2) Lord Assassin Morghoul [+29]
  • Archidon [10]
  • Archidon [10]
  • Titan Gladiator [15]
• Aptimus Marketh [5]
• Extoller Advocate [3]
• Praetorian Ferox Rider (max) [20]
• Tyrant Commander and Standard Bearer [0(6)]
• Paingiver Beast Handlers (min) [5]

That leave 36 points who can be used in several way.

Flexible spot

The most obvious idea is to fill it with another maximum unit of Ferox and the alway awesome Tyrant Radheim (it’s the dragoon that give dodge to other ferox). The advantage is that they are real infantry shredders ; the drawback is that, while many opponents might not be aware of that, they have all the resilience of a sheet of paper after a tropical storm, which mean the list will have scenario presence problems. There can also be firepower issues ; even if Mortality and the personal prowess of Morghoul compensate, you can have problem chewing through a full jack list with two units of feroxes.

If you want more scenario presence, there is two way : the first one is shield wall infantry, namely Karax or Cataphract Cetratis. Karax are dirt cheap, have next to no offensive output, but focus a lot of firepower before they die. Cetratis are a lot more expensive, but a lot tougher, to the point where they often prove impossible to kill, even without caster support. Both are relatively slow compared to everything else you would want in a Morghoul list, but can prove serviceable as a way to attract units to kill off with the rest of your list.

The other way is to use cheap, fast jamming infantry. The Keltariis and Bog Trog Ambusher are the two main example. both are on the expensive side for jamming ; Keltariis are blisteningly fast and can prove hard to remove ; ambushers hit harder and coming from ambush is a strong asset, especially with a caster whose feat and melee presence encourage going to the side.

There is another, third option : a ranged module. There is enough points remaining for an unit of Incendiarii, and an unit of Croak Raiders. Mortality work spectaculary well with that combination, since it also apply for the continuous fire damage roll, on which almost no bonus ever apply, because it’s not from an attack and it’s at the start of the turn. You can sidestep Carapace, Deflexion, Rapid Healing, almost all defensive feats and minifeat, not trigger Vengeance, and the list go on, with continuous fire ; while oil and Mortality ensure it hit hard enough to kill most infantry. Meanwhile, against heavies, you get several high POW, boosted damage roll, which is scary even for Khador jacks or Dark Industry slayers (they don’t take that much damage, but don’t have much HP either)

The other advantage of the ranged module is that they are pretty good at killing unsuspecting casters. With March, the effective range of the incendiarii is 17” ; and under Morghoul feat and with CRA, they can hit very well.

Play advice

You need to be well aware of what actually threaten your caster, to be able to put your caster as far up as you can. You shouldn’t be afraid to have your caster litteraly in front ; since he don’t really fear most blast damage and is stealth, he often can advance much more than the rest of the list. If you play first, a common pattern is dropping 3 and running on first turn, which put you just shy of the middle line, and put a lot of pressure on your opponent. That’s typically the best first turn you can do against Asphyxious 3, who can’t reach you and against which starting to kill slayers on turn 2 can prove pretty clutch. Another common pattern is using apparition to be in range to cast Mortality or Flesh Hook, then retreat with your movement to be just outside of your opponent threat range.

Generally speaking, to feat efficiently you want to charge or engage something, kill to get a better view, feat, and sprint away. The MAT malus make you almost immune to first strike, but be very wary of failing to kill something to sprint away ! Also remember that your feat is here either to make you able to punch through high defense, or to blind stuff that you can’t actually kill ; very commonly, you can end up killing everything that you feated on, which mostly mean you wasted the feat.

Since your caster is much better at doing stuff by himself than most, you should usually try to trade models fast. That mean you shouldn’t be alarmed at spending the ferox riders or other troop very early ; your caster will be able to finish the rest of the army by itself if need be. You should try to save mostly an archidon and Aptimus Marketh if you can, the rest isn’t so necessary that you would want to avoid a trade with them.

Remember that you actually don’t want to try an assassination as long as you aren’t on the backfoot or if your opponent really gave you his caster. In particular, don’t lose time trying to put two or three cat on the opposing caster early on ; it take a lot of time to check if you can, and even with mortality you often have a non trivial odds of failing. Your actual plan is to use the threat of assassination to make your opponent lose time and ressource defending from it, and attrition the opposing army.

Remember that tyrant commanders and Extoller Soulwards are actually great little combat sticks. The standard bearer have an attack good enough to kill single wound models with a charge, and else can contest or cause trouble for very little cost ; the fact he have 5 HPs mean that he is more troublesome to remove than most people expect. Both the soulwards and Marketh can get soul from friendlies you kill yourself ; the standard bearers and 1-2 paingivers can be killed easily to allow a critical boost. You also basically never want to not boost Marketh spell, even if you are casting Mortality on a Mammoth.

Ferox Rider can move extremely fast, so you can easily put them on the right, then run them on the left to refuse that flank and put more pressure. Note that with March from a Tyrant Commander, they can move 18” in total, which is longer than a run, and with a jump in the middle, allowing them to go through your own line.

Tyrant Commander can use a battle plan, then issue a run/charge order. Because of that, it’s a good idea to keep one within 5” of Morghoul, which allow him to give March to Morghoul and still charge something, or run his standard bearer in position.

If you have a Willbreaker in your army, be aware that if Morghoul is gonna cast Mortality or attack anything, Puppet Master on him will be much more precious than Tough on ferox riders. Morghoul isn’t Makeda, and Ferox Rider die very fast even when tough steady. Missing a critical Mortality or a charge attack can be back breaking, and Puppet Master is a strong insurance against that.

Don’t be afraid to go against jack/beasts heavies list as long as they don’t have strong defensive buffs. Armor 20 isn’t that hard to break with Mortality, which mean something like Karchev or Asphyxious 3 is actually well within your ability to grind down. What should actually alarm you is strong gunlines or lists with defensive feat that put model above what you can kill (like Ragnor, or Fyanna if she go full beasts and consequently negate the feat).

And for Cryx specifically ?

Run over them. What ? You need more information ?

• Skarre 1 : keep the feat to blind one or both of their BE under feat, which allow you to concentrate on the rest, who usually die easily enough despite the +5 armor.
• Coven : remember that their feat don’t actually do anything to ferox riders, and only strip 1 inch of threat on your caster. You however can’t really feat under their feat, but that’s not terribly important. The caster can kill the Egregore on two camp, but as usual you’re better served trying to kill the army rather than the caster.
• Other variant of Dark Host : you outthreat them, they can’t really tank your alpha, and the feat allow to get two turn of alpha if needed
• Satyxis : your feat is particulary brutal on them, and while they are faster than bane they usually still can’t outthreat you. The Gunslingers are the most dangerous satyxis, so if you get an opening to snipe them go for it.
• Dark Industry lists : even with Asphyxious, they don’t get to enough armor to really be resilient. However, it’s particulary important for Morghoul to do work, since he is the best heavy killer of the list. Look at occasion to flashing blade several heavies ; the usual pattern is Marketh Mortalizing one, something doing some preliminary damage, and Morghoul charging and engaging that jack and 1-2 other jacks, to kill it and make the other two much less threatening.

Conclusion

While Skorne have a lot of decent option into Cryx, Morghoul 2 stand up both because he have few weak spots in Cryx and because he cause no end of problem to a lot of other armies (think Anamag, the Harbinger of Menoth, or globally any army with a lot of infantry, or with a lot of Battle Engine). The list is also pretty flexible, with a lot of variation possible to adapt to one taste.