Ynfernael Mistress

By Parakitor, in Runewars Miniatures Game

The preview!

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2018/7/24/ynfernael-mistress/

rwm29_card_unnatural-growths2.png rwm29_card_kingsbone-armor2.png

Neither of these are "new" after the recent leak, but I thought I'd put the image for Kingsbone Armor up anyway. The image of Unnatural Growths is particularly cool; I couldn't tell what it was in the spread when the card was at an angle.

Edited by Parakitor

I really like the idea of being able to buff your own units.

I do wish the condition cards in general had a turn limit or some other factor to 'break the spell' so to speak.

1) The most honored of the Blood Coven? My foot! What about Malaana? Is Malaana not part of the Blood Coven? Because she seems way more powerful than Kethra (who, by the way, was originally described as a bone witch, not a blood witch). And did it mean to say "sister" instead of "sisters" or was that a typo?

2) So her Flesh Ripper, Hurrok, gets a name, but we still don't have a name for Maegan's moose?

Edited by Budgernaut
19 minutes ago, tgall said:

I really like the idea of being able to buff your own units.

I do wish the condition cards in general had a turn limit or some other factor to 'break the spell' so to speak.

But I don't think it's an ongoing spell. She twists their bone and they are mutilated forever.

In an 8 round game you will get at best 7 rounds of use, usually 6 or less. It doesn't seem OP at all... Kind of like Obcasium's G. There was a lot of clamoring that it was OP.

And @Budgernaut 's take...

6 minutes ago, Aetheriac said:

In an 8 round game you will get at best 7 rounds of use, usually 6 or less. It doesn't seem OP at all... Kind of like Obcasium's G. There was a lot of clamoring that it was OP.

And @Budgernaut 's take...

I don't think it's OP, but it seems pretty good. It's a free buff for two units, does a wound or two to most things, and is in a faction that (at least right now) gets engaged quickly and likes to mix it up in melee.

Increasingly I find myself looking forward to Baron Zachareth, a wall of Vitality-augmented Rune Golems, and hails of crossbow bolts.

39 minutes ago, Budgernaut said:

2) So her Flesh  Ripper, Hurrok, gets a name, but we still don't have a name for Maegan's moose? 

Bullwinkle. Done.

23 minutes ago, Church14 said:

Bullwi  nkle. Don  e. 

Heavens to Betsy!

1 hour ago, FranquesEnbiens said:

I don't think it's OP, but it seems pretty good. It's a free buff for two units, does a wound or two to most things, and is in a faction that (at least right now) gets engaged quickly and likes to mix it up in melee.

It's better than you think it is. What most people are overlooking is that you get to decide who gets it AFTER deployment. This allows you to ensure it does not get wasted. In some instances it is devastating (it counters wraiths pretty hard)...

7 minutes ago, QuickWhit said:

It's better than you think it is. What most people are overlooking is that you get to decide who gets it AFTER deployment. This allows you to ensure it does not get wasted. In some instances it is devastating (it counters wraiths pretty hard)...

Oh, no doubt it's quite good. I am going to sub her in as soon as she drops, and can't wait to growths my Rippers or Threshers. The only weakness, I think, is if you are in a high-armor meta, where it becomes potentially negligible. That's not enough of a downside though, for sure. Kethra looks to be really good on her own, and I'd play her without it...it's just a nice little bonus!

Kethra is going to murder infantry. Kings Bone, Unnatural Growths, and her surge... She is going to decimate anything with 1 armor.

3 minutes ago, Curlycross said:

Kethra is going to murder infantry. Kings Bone, Unnatural Growths, and her surge... She is going to decimate anything with 1 armor.

Throw in Margath. It gets truly silly.

But she gets flattened by anything 3 armor or more.

20 minutes ago, Church14 said:

Throw in Margath. It gets truly silly.

But she gets flattened by anything 3 armor or more.

I think if you are running Kingsbane Kethra you are avoiding getting into melee with any high armor army. You are probably happy to hang back and blow stuff up in those matchups. Sure, it's not the most efficient build, but it will still get work done. Meanwhile you smoke low armor armies in a truly nasty way.

And she does still have that Mortal on the dial, and two white with Brutal and Precise. Not a pushover by any means.

1 hour ago, Church14 said:

Bullwinkle. Done.

I was going to say Warmüs.

39 minutes ago, QuickWhit said:

I think if you are running Kingsbane Kethra you are avoiding getting into melee with any high armor army. You are probably happy to hang back and blow stuff up in those matchups. Sure, it's not the most efficient build, but it will still get work done. Meanwhile you smoke low armor armies in a truly nasty way.

That's my take as well. She's versatile enough that you can bring her to battle and not really be afraid of anything in particular.

2 hours ago, Budgernaut said:

1) The most honored of the Blood Coven? My foot! What about Malaana? Is Malaana not part of the Blood Coven? Because she seems way more powerful than Kethra (who, by the way, was originally described as a bone witch, not a blood witch). And did it mean to say "sister" instead of "sisters" or was that a typo?

I immediately latched onto that, "sister" comment, too. It sounded like a cryptic hint that Malaana and Kethra are related. But the more I look at it, I'm sure that it meant "sisters."

When was Kethra described as a bone witch? I looked at the last preview article for her, and the very title of that one is "Sorceress of the Blood Coven."

1 minute ago, Parakitor said:

When was Kethra described as a bone witch? I looked at the last preview article for her, and the very title of that one is "Sorceress of the Blood Coven."

Well shucks. I guess I must have confabulated that little bit of information.

Looking through The Realms of Terrinoth sourcebook, I can piece together a sort of hierarchy. At the top, you have the Blood Coven. They are essentially the leaders of the Uthuk Y'llan tribes. Beneath them, you have Bloodsisters and Nightseers. These are very powerful witches and warlocks, but they are expressly not members of the Blood Coven. Beneath these, you have lesser witches and warlocks. Among those witches are the blood witches and bone witches.

There is also a bloodsister named Eurth Kel'yr, The Mistress of Bones. So it sounds like whether you are a blood witch or bone witch, you still can enter either the ranks of the bloodsisters or the Blood Coven. Sadly, the sourcebook does not have any details on the Blood Coven, Kethra A'laak, or Malaana.

While I'm sharing lore, another interesting thing to note is that Uthuk magic-users seem to have different abilities divided by sex. The warlocks are particularly adept at dreamwalking, a way to communicate through dreams that was practiced by the ancient Loth K'har people before their corruption by Llovar Rutonu into the Uthuk Y'llan. This ability allowed Llovar to dreamwalk across the Aenlong and into the Ynfernael realm from which he summoned demons. The witches appear to be more adept at blood and bone magic. I'm sure that is more of a generalization than a hard-fast rule.