Venator Catapult Crew

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Venator Catapult Crew Skorne Weapon Crew Unit

While the Skorne embrace cannons, they value catapults as tools to slaughter massed infantry. Venators prefer to fire a heavy ball packed with explosives and steel shards, which creates an earth-shaking explosion and sprays deadly fragments through the surrounding area. The catapult lobs projectiles high over intervening obstacles and has proven devastating to both warjacks and warbeasts caught in the blasts.

Basic Info

Venator Catapult Crew
Missing Info
	COST {{{cacost}}} UNIT SIZE {{{casize}}} FA {{{cafa}}} Gunner / Grunts BASE Large / Small SPD 2 / 4 STR 5 MAT 5 RAT 5 M.A. N/A DEF 13 ARM 13 CMD 5 ESSENCE {{{essence}}} FOCUS N/A FURY N/A THRS N/A HP 1 F. Field N/A WJP {{{wjp}}} WBP {{{wbp}}} IHP {{{ihp}}} FA 2 UNIT SIZE 1 Gunner 2 Grunts COST 3 N/A N/A N/A Warcaster 1 COST N/A N/A Understanding the Statblock

Abilities

• Gunner
  • Man-Sized - This model is treated as a small-based model and occupies the space from the bottom of its base to a height of 1.75".
  • Mobile Artillery - When this model advances as part of its Normal Movement, it gains +1" movement for each Grunt in this unit within 2" of it at the start of its advance.
  • Take Up - If this model is destroyed, you can choose a Grunt in this unit within 1" of it to be destroyed instead. Effects on this model expire, and it gains the effects on the chosen Grunt. Remove the Grunt from the table instead of this model. This model has the same number of unmarked damage boxes as the chosen Grunt.

• Grunts
  • None

Weapons

• Gunner
  • Catapult - 18" range, 4" AOE, POW 16 ranged attack
    • Arcing Fire - When attacking with this weapon, this model can ignore intervening models except those within 1" of the target.
    • Burst Fire - Gain +1 to damage rolls with this weapon against medium-based models, and +2 to damage rolls against large- and huge-based models.
    • Inaccurate - This model suffers -4 to attack rolls with this weapon.
    • Minimum Range [ 8" ] - Attacks made with this weapon cannot target models within 8" of this model.
  • Sword - 0.5" reach, POW 3, P+S 8 melee attack

• Grunts
  • Sword - 0.5" reach, POW 3, P+S 8 melee attack

Theme Forces

• Winds of Death - this unit gains Reposition [3"] and may be taken as a requisition option in this theme.

Recent Changes

2021.10 Mega Update

• -2 points

Thoughts on the Venator Catapult Crew

The Venator Catapult Crew in a nutshell

The Venator Catapult Crew is a long-ranged model that can either hurt heavies or throw some fairly high-powered blasts at infantry. In short, it does about what you would expect from a catapult.

Its fantastic range is offset by how slow it is and its minimum range ability as it has Reposition 3 in the only theme it can be taken in its better to walk than run turn1 and pick out a nice spot where you can take pot shots for the remainder of the match. Like many weapon crews, there isn’t much to write home about defensively so screening the catapult is quite important.

Combos & Synergies

• Anything with a major RAT buff/DEF debuff so it can hit targets. It's firing at an effective RAT 1 before modifiers (but that template's gotta land somewhere).
  • Venator Slingers get Flare
  • Lord Arbiter Hexeris gets Black Spot - which is excellent because it can give them a second attack
  • Various feats, notably Dominar Rasheth and Lord Assassin Morghoul
• Anything with knockdown abilities.
• Venator Dakar - veteran leader, the ability to speed the catapult crew up, and the ability to get it to reroll its attack rolls on the rare occasions you might actually stand a chance of hitting.
• Morghoul2 - feat + mortality offers a -6 to Defense and -2 to arm allowing it to hit heavies despite being inaccurate and attack at effective pow 20

Drawbacks & Downsides

• Try not to shell your own troops
• Hard to hit non-knocked down targets.
• It is Slow, this is offset by Reposition3 and desperate pace as well as it's fantastic range.
• Lots of stuff resists blast damage
• Most weapon crews have this issue but the 2 grunts are fairly redundant on their own it's all about the gun.
• The minimum range rule makes placement key in late turns.

Tricks & Tips

• The Catapult Crew has a threat range of 22". And you might as well take a pot-shot on turn 1 as that template has got to land somewhere and it's unlikely to come back and get you. Also running only gains you 2" whereas reposition gains you 3" if in Winds of Death.

Other

Trivia

• Venator means "hunter" in latin.
• Released in Hordes: Evolution (2007)

Other Skorne models

Skorne Index       (Edit)
Battlegroup & Similar
Warlocks	Hexeris1 - Hexeris2 - Jalaam1 - Makeda1 - Makeda2 - Makeda3 - Mordikaar1 - Morghoul1 - Morghoul2 - Morghoul3 - Naaresh1 - Rasheth1 - Xekaar1 - Xerxis1 - Xerxis2 - Zaal1 - Zaal2 - Zaadesh2
Lessers & Attachments	Aptimus Marketh (Warlock attachment) - Zaadesh1 (Lesser Warlock) - Makeda0 (Lesser Warlock)
Lesser	Agonizer - Aradus Scarab - Reptile Hounds - The Terrorizer
Light	Basilisk Drake - Basilisk Krea - Cyclops Brute - Cyclops Raider - Cyclops Savage - Cyclops Shaman - Razor Worm
Heavy	Aradus Sentinel - Aradus Soldier - Archidon - Chiron - Bronzeback Titan - Despoiler - Molik Karn - Rhinodon - Tiberion - Titan Cannoneer - Titan Gladiator - Titan Sentry
Gargantuans	Desert Hydra - Mammoth
Units, Solos, & Battle Engines
Units	Cataphract Arcuarii - Cataphract Cetrati - Cataphract Incindiarii - Immortals - Legends of Halaak - Nihilators - Paingiver Beast Handlers - Paingiver Bloodrunners - Praetorian Ferox - Praetorian Karax - Praetorian Keltarii - Praetorian Swordsmen - Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer - Venator Catapult Crew - Venator Flayer Cannon Crew - Venator Reivers - Venator Slingers
Solos	Abidan the Keeper - Ancestral Guardian - Aptimus Marketh - Extoller Novitiate - Extoller Soulward - Hakaar the Destroyer - Immortal Vessel - Makeda0 - Mortitheurge Willbreaker - Paingiver Bloodrunner Master Tormentor - Paingiver Task Master - Tyrant Rhadeim - Venator Dakar - Void Spirit - Zaadesh1
Battle Engines	Siege Animantarax - Supreme Guardian
Theme Forces
Disciples of Agony - Masters of War - The Exalted - Winds of Death
Minions
Refer to Who Works for Whom and/or Category: Skorne Minion
This index was last updated: 2021.11

Rules Clarifications

Rules Clarification : Arcing Fire      (Edit) Arcing Fire lets you ignore models but not terrain. You don't ignore clouds, forests or buildings.

Rules Clarification : Burst Fire and/or Volume Fire - None yet. (Edit)
Rules Clarification : Inaccurate - None yet. (Edit)
Rules Clarification : Minimum Range - None yet. (Edit)

Rules Clarification : Man-Sized      (Edit) Despite being mounted on a large base, the model counts as a small-base for any and every rule. (Infernal Ruling) This includes Ranking Officers being able to join them. (Infernal Ruling) This includes being able to take them as a Requistion Option (if you have a Man-Sized solo in a theme that allows free solos). (Locked Thread) This includes abilities that only work vs small-based models (such as Consume, Trampling over them, etc). Those work just fine vs Man-Sized models. When drawing LOS it blocks LOS across the full width of its base (some players think you should swap it for a small proxy base when trying to draw LOS past the edge of its base ... don't do that). Since it only counts as a small-based model, it only blocks LOS to other small-based models. You can see medium and larger bases through it just fine.

Rules Clarification : Mobile Artillery - None yet. (Edit)

Rules Clarification : Take Up      (Edit) If you use Take Up the attacking model cannot trigger anything that needs the attacker to "Destroy" a model (such as Alpha Hunter, Killing Spree, Berserk, etc). Although the model that was attacked reached the Destroyed step of the timing sequence, Take Up negates that entirely. (Infernal Ruling)