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So, I just played a small game yesterday; 15 points, "Battle Box plus stuff", to help me get a feel for pMorghoul. I picked a Mortitheurge and an Agonizer for my plus-stuff, he picked two Mage Hunter Assassins.

The game ended when Kaelyssa shot Morghoul to pieces using Phantom Hunter. I felt like I'd done everything I really could to keep him safe barring having him just run away from her (and thus lose by scenario/inability to control warbeasts). I could have stood to have one or two more beasts to transfer to (the Gladiator died to transfers, one Savage was full, and the other was out of control area), but I feel like that would have just delayed the inevitable.

At this point, I'm puzzled. How the heck am I supposed to engage a warcaster like this, who can basically just ping any warlock or warcaster within 18 inches of her no matter where they are? A hardier warlock wouldn't have been as bad off, admittedly, and he got somewhat lucky with his dice rolls--not insanely so, but somewhat. Charging in wasn't an option due to terrain--and her threat range is longer than Morgy's, making it hard to set up that charge.

So, does anyone have any advice?

If you're worried about getting shot off the table, replacing the Agonizer and Mortitheurge for a Krea might not be a bad way to go: Kaelyssa is going to have a hard time killing Morghoul if you're 19/15 vs ranged instead of 17/13. Also, pMorghoul isn't really a warcaster/warlock assassin (his 2 attacks per fury looks cool, but in practice he struggles to kill even the lightest casters due to the low base P+S of his weapons), so hang back far enough that Kaelyssa has to commit to going after you and possibly wind up in the charge range of one of your Cyclops or Titan.

Morghoul is a hyper aggressive beast caster, Trade the one of your solo for some Beast Handlers, and Abuse the hell out of your Savages and send them on "suicide missions" trying to put out as much damage on his stuff as possible

The Savages with 4 Attacks at Pow 17 can easily scrap Scyrah Heavies

You need to go HARD on him, Send that Gladiator straight down the center, he will be shocked as it forces itself thru his line straight into the caster herself, Active Morghoul have it cast Rush and Abuse on the Gladiator, Send the Willbreaker puppet string the Gladiator then send him down the field for control area, Enrage the Gladiator for another +2 Strength and have him Slam his front line. Easy 11" Charge on a Speed 4 beast that ignores terrain. Gland Slam with Follow up can push him another 3"~8" up the field, Easily reaching Kaelyssa and the collateral damage probably knocking her down for easy pounding. Pound her until she goes down, You have 7 Attacks and Pow 20 fists. Easy kill

Ranged armies can be difficult at only 15 points but when the points total gets higher, the strength of ranged goes down considerably as there are more things on the table to screen and throw at problems. I agree with Talamare that you need PGBH and should probably drop the agonizer in favor of them (imo). Scyrah can look scary, but without help many of their jacks quickly fold under pressure. They tend to not hit as hard as other factions and tend to be a touch squishier even with the force field. Their battle box can get squished fast if they aren't careful.

Also make sure you are using the Rate of Fire rules correctly. Sounds like it may have been misinterpreted given how easy you claim your caster died. The first shot is free, but you have to pay for the rest up to your rate of fire.

While you do have to pay for the extra shots, Kael does do the thing where she steals your Focus/Fury with every hit. Would be especially mean against a squishier caster like Morgoul as she's stealing your own transfers to fuel additional shots/boosts. I really need to get that battle box...

This is true. I was thinking that with a range enhancing spell she wouldn't have the focus for it, but after reviewing her stats I have a better question: How the hell is she shooting you from 18" away? She is range 12 with NO range boosters in her spell list.

 Surtur wrote:
This is true. I was thinking that with a range enhancing spell she wouldn't have the focus for it, but after reviewing her stats I have a better question: How the hell is she shooting you from 18" away? She is range 12 with NO range boosters in her spell list.

Just a guess, but maybe he meant 18" threat range. 6" move 12" range on gun. 6+12=18.

And with both Phantom Hunter and True Sight you can't hide from her at all. One Focus to Upkeep the Phantom Hunter leaves her with six Focus. That's three Boosted to hit shots with one Focus left to Boost a damage roll. If Morgoul had even just two Fury on him, that's three fully Boosted shots.

ChaoticMind wrote:

 Surtur wrote:
This is true. I was thinking that with a range enhancing spell she wouldn't have the focus for it, but after reviewing her stats I have a better question: How the hell is she shooting you from 18" away? She is range 12 with NO range boosters in her spell list.

Just a guess, but maybe he meant 18" threat range. 6" move 12" range on gun. 6+12=18.

AduroT wrote:And with both Phantom Hunter and True Sight you can't hide from her at all. One Focus to Upkeep the Phantom Hunter leaves her with six Focus. That's three Boosted to hit shots with one Focus left to Boost a damage roll. If Morgoul had even just two Fury on him, that's three fully Boosted shots.

Dingdingding. The 'no way to hide' was my issue, simply because Morghoul is going to have trouble avoiding eating a round or two of shooting before he hits her, and a trio of fully boosted POW 12s that knock out his transfers can kill Morghoul very dead. Especially when there was a big lump of impassable terrain preventing me from just charging her (and melee isn't a great place to be against Kaelyssa, either), and I needed to spread out a bit to cover the two control areas. A cyclops might have the threat range to hit her fast, but there were three Myrmidons in the way of that plan. (Though should I go up against her again, I might look at trying that; I hadn't realized just how fast a Rushed+Abused Cyclops can charge and hit.)

Just to clarify, I'm not saying that Kaelyssa is THE BROKED. I'm just puzzled about how to survive against her, and wondering if she's just a bad matchup for Morghoul.

(Oh, thinking about the match, I think I did have Beast Handlers instead of the Mortitheurge. Fat lot of good they did.)

I think you will just need to go on the offensive against her. Other options involve buying a basilisk krea and/or cyclops brute to protect Morghul for ranged pain. The krea will force her to need 12s to hit and she'll be at dice -5. The brute will be able to take a hit and be at dice -9 or -11 with krea meaning virtually no damage would be taken even with boosting. In small point games this may not be a bad choice. As I said before, ranged armies hurt more in smaller points.