Matriarch Queen - W'adrhŭn Guide (english)

In the background, a Queen is an imposing warrior who has not taken the life-giving path of other women. Fortunately, she can still heal in the game.

Cost:

For 100 points, we get a solid combat and support profile.

Strengths:

• Cleave: In melee combat, we reduce the opponent’s armor by 1 with a Clash attack.
• Solid Melee: 5 attacks with Cleave 1 is more or less the standard profile I expect from a melee hero. It’s solid and useful.
• Resolve 4: Resolve 4 on heroes is always great because, from 4 Stands onwards, they receive the morale bonus for regiment size, effectively raising it to Resolve 5.
• Stoic: The Queen’s regiment gains Indomitable 1.
  • Indomitable (1): A failed morale test counts as passed. Note: This does not apply to resolve tests like Combat Reform.
• To the Last Breath: A Draw Event that heals any non-monster regiment within 10" of the Queen by 4 wounds. Fantastic, and the faction’s only healing ability.
• Chants: Generates a Chant Marker and supports the W’adrhŭn mechanics but cannot trigger a chant itself.
• Supremacy – The Matriarch Walks: If a regiment uses a chant, it immediately loses the Broken status. Additionally, once per Spoel, you can treat all Command Stands as +2 for seizing zones.
• Flexible Warband: In addition to all the big dinosaurs, the Queen also has access to Raptors but unfortunately no dinosaur Mainstay. However, she does have the impressive Warbred as Mainstay, allowing for interesting builds.

Weaknesses:

• Duels: Even though her melee profile is solid and she has 5 wounds, with D3 R3 she dies faster in duels than one would like. I would avoid sending her into duels carelessly.
• Battlefield Role - The Tribes: So far, I haven’t noticed any synergy related to characters with the Battlefield Role in W’adrhŭn.

Warband Cults:

Alle W'adrhŭn-Charaktere (außer dem Scion of Conquest) müssen sich beim Armeelistenbau einem der Kulte Famine, Death oder War anschließen. Ist der Charakter Warlord, kann er zusätzlich den Kult des Conquest wählen. Die Wahl des Kults ist eine strategische und persönliche Entscheidung. Es empfiehlt sich, Kulte nicht zu sehr zu mischen, um die gewünschten Buffs konsistent nutzen zu können.

Optionale Artefakte: Die W'adrhŭn verfügen über eine begrenzte Auswahl an Artefakten, von denen viele kult- oder charaktergebunden sind. Mit Ausnahme des Winglord Predators kann jeder Charakter nur ein Artefakt ausrüsten. Sinnvolle Optionen für den Predator:

• Cult Artefacts:
  • Death’s Gaze (25 Punkte): Kann nur gewählt werden, wenn der Charakter dem Cult of Death folgt. Das Regiment, dem er sich angeschlossen hat, bekommt die Sonderregel Impact 3. Das ist kumulativ mit Crushing Force und erlaubt eine absurde Anzahl an Treffern bei z. B. Veterans.
• Armors:
  
  • Beads of Death (20 Punkte). Verleiht dem Regiment Tenacious 1, was auch für einen Tontorr gilt, falls der Chieftain ihn reitet.
    • Tenacious 1: Behandelt 1 fehlgeschlagenen Verteidigungswurf als Erfolg.
• Weapons:
  
  • Kiss of the Dilosaur (20 Punkte): Gegner müssen alle bestandenen Defense- und Moral-Würfe gegen Treffer der Queen wiederholen.

Warband Cults:

All W’adrhŭn characters (except the Scion of Conquest) must choose one of the cults—Famine, Death, or War—when building an army list. If the character is a Warlord, they can also select the Cult of Conquest. Choosing a cult is both a strategic and personal decision. It is advisable not to mix cults too much to consistently benefit from the desired buffs.

Optional Artifacts:

The W’adrhŭn have a limited selection of artifacts, many of which are tied to specific cults or characters. With the exception of the Winglord Predator, each character can equip only one artifact. Useful options for the Predator include:

Cult Artifacts:

• Death’s Gaze (25 points): Can only be selected if the character belongs to the Cult of Death. The regiment the character is attached to gains the Impact 3 special rule. This stacks with Crushing Force and enables an absurd number of hits, especially for Veterans.

Armors:

• Beads of Death (20 points): Grants the regiment Tenacious 1, which also applies to a Tontorr if the Chieftain is riding it.
  • Tenacious 1: Treats 1 failed defense roll as a success.

Weapons:

• Kiss of the Dilosaur (20 points): Opponents must reroll all successful defense and morale rolls against hits from the Queen.

Optional Masteries:

Where artifact selection is already limited, the selection of masteries is even stricter, often restricted to a specific cult, character, or even Warlord status. However, the available options are generally very strong.

• Adaptability (20 points): If the regiment this character belongs to chants any Battlecry of a cult at Tier II, an objective marker within 6" of the regiment is immediately destroyed. A fantastic ability.
• Vision (30 points): The character must be a Warlord and belong to the Cult of Conquest. All infantry and cavalry characters in your army gain Flank. Even if only the Queen gained it, it would still be worth the 30 points.
• Drive (30 points): Only for Warlords belonging to the Cult of Famine. All infantry regiments in their Warband gain the Cult of Famine Battlefield Role. Additionally, all Cult of Famine infantry regiments receive Vanguard (3).
  • Vanguard (3): When a regiment with this rule enters the battlefield, it gets +3 Movement for its first move.
• Cure (15 points): Only for characters belonging to the Cult of Death. The regiment the character joins gains Deadly Blades.
  • Deadly Blades: Each roll of 6 on an armor save counts as two damage instead of one for attacks with this special rule. If the opponent has no armor against these attacks, they still roll, and each 6 results in two damage.
• Apex Master: The character gains the Rider special rule and must choose to ride an Apex Predator in their Warband.
  • Rider: This character is not represented as a separate stand and must be attached to a monster regiment in their Warband. The character must be positioned somewhere on the monster’s base. The regiment counts as two stands: one monster stand and one character stand. If the character is slain in a duel, the monster receives the Broken status, as the regiment has lost half of its stands. Additionally, the character uses the monster stand for measuring distances and drawing line of sight. A monster stand usually counts as 3 stands for scoring purposes, with the character stand adding to this. This means a rider model generally counts as 4 stands for scoring.

General Tactics:

The Matriarch Queen significantly increases a unit’s durability thanks to Resolve 4, Indomitable, and Last Breath. It’s a bit unfortunate that she has no dinosaur Mainstay, but overall, she provides a solid Warband. A particularly nice feature is that there are three viable ways to play her.

1. In a large block of Braves or Chosen to make the most of her healing ability. Depending on the unit, she can take Beads of Death for added durability or, when playing with the Cult of Death, the powerful combination of Death’s Gaze & Cure. This works best with Braves, as they are cheap enough to field six or more stands easily. Despite the cult choice, other spells can still be chanted, making the unit even more threatening.

2. Mounted on an Apex Predator. While she cannot heal the Apex itself, Indomitable and possibly Beads of Death make it much tankier, and her presence on its back significantly boosts its damage output. Additionally, the Queen’s healing ability measures from the Apex’s base edge, greatly increasing its range.

3. Mounted on a Brood of Omgoroah, my personal favorite, though this option has become rarer since the introduction of rules removing character weight classes. Essentially, she significantly boosts both the durability and damage output of Raptors, while her unique Supremacy bonus allows for early scoring and, more importantly, denying the opponent points. I often use her Supremacy to block enemy zones rather than just keeping up in scoring, aiming to build a strong points lead. Proper target selection is crucial here, as she must engage in fights where her regiments don’t get immediately wiped out, something that’s not always easy. This is one reason why such builds are seen less often.It can also be useful to purchase the Drive Mastery, as it grants Vanguard to infantry, removing the need for a foot Chieftain and his Warband for mobility.