” My earliest memories are of its whispers as I slept, a sibilant lullaby of the end of all things.” – Selene of the Coven of Gharlghast

The Witch Coven is without a doubt the most unique warcaster in warmachine.  The Coven are not a single warcaster but a series of three witches, Helleana, Morgaen, and Selene, whom work with their mysterious orgothian artifact, the Egregore.  The Coven may be the most physically weak of the Cryxian casters but they boost a unique set of abilities and spells that make them a force to be reckoned with.

Stats: In general, the coven and Egregore have poor stats even by Cryxian standards.  However, these weaknesses are often offset by the strengths.  The Egregore and Coven are both SPD 6.  The witches are DEF 16 but only ARM 12.  They each have 8 health.  They have both a poor MAT and CMD of 5 and 8 respectively.  They Egregore is a DEF 13 but ARM 17.  Without a doubt, the Coven’s biggest strength is their focus of 9.  The Coven’s base focus is three times the number of witches in play.  However, all the focus goes on the Egregore itself.  Each witch has access to this pool of focus and each gain +1 ARM for each focus point on the Egregore.  Notice though that the Egregore does not gain +1 ARM for each focus point, only the witches.  The Egregore cannot be effected by focus removing or reducing effects, so Eyriss is of little threat to the Coven.  It is worthwhile to note that the Coven’s high focus stat is also one of their inherit defenses.  With a control area of 18 inches, the coven is quite capable of staying behind their army and out of danger while they arc spells.  The Egregore is the arcane nexus for the coven.  In other words, the Egregore is point of origin for all spells cast by the Coven.  The Coven’s control area is measured from the Egregore.  LoS for spells is based off the witches themselves.  Notice each witch can activate individually so it’s possible to cast a spell, activate a couple of jacks/unit, activate a second witch, cast a spell, pop feat, then activate the rest of the army, and then end with the last witch.  One should also notice that even though the witches are able to activate separately they are still just a single caster so they can only have one of each upkeep spell at a time and only one attachment. 

Abilities: The Witch Coven

1.) Perfect Conjunction: Perfect conjunction is established when the Egregore is completely within the triangular area between all three witches and each witch has LoS to the other 2 witches.  While benefiting from perfect conjunction, spells cast by the witches cost 1 less focus.  This obviously turns an already high focus set of casters into a very efficient high focus set of warcasters.  This makes curse of shadows, ghostwalk, veil of mists, and stygian abyss 2 focus spells.  Infernal machine and occulation become 1 focus spells.  Perfect conjunction in combination with the witches ability to each activate separately will allow one to toss out spells when need most for a low cost.  For instance, they can upkeep infernal machine on a target jack, have it do it’s thing, then activate a witch and place infernal machine on jack #2 for a single focus, let it do it’s thing, then activate witch #2 to place infernal machine on a third jack, and so on and so forth. 

2.) Coven: As outlined above the Witch Coven has a single focus pool equal to 3 times the number of witches in play.  The focus points are actually given to the Egregore and each Witch (but not the Egregore) gains +1 ARM for each focus on the Egregore.  The Egregore cannot be effected by focus removing or focus reducing effects like Eryiss’s disruptor bolt or Prime Severius’s feat. 

Abilities: Egregore

1.) Stealth:Attacks from greater than 5 inches away miss the Egregore.  Definitely a nice little benefit since the Egregore is on a medium base. 

2.) Pathfinder: Egregore ignores terrain penalties. 

3.) Steady:The Egregore cannot be knocked down.

4.) Circular Vision:The Egregore has 360 degree front arc. 

5.) Black Mantle: While in base to base contact with this model, friendly faction models gain stealth.  It is worth while to note 2 points here.  First, it’s any friendly faction model.  It’s possible to have the Egregore grant stealth to the Deathjack with blackmantle if you wish. Second, it is possible to have all three witches in both perfection conjunction and benefiting from black mantle at the same time.  Black mantle can be a benefit verse ranged armies and especially those with CRA but keep in mind that using black mantle on all the witches does make them very tempting AoE/spray bait.  Especially for casters like Siege.

6.) Sympathetic Link:When the Egregore suffers damage, that damage must be assigned to one or more witches.  The damage can be assigned in any way but you cannot assign more damage to a witch than she has unmarked damage boxes.  In other words, you cant send 40 points of damage to one witch to keep the other 2 alive.  The Egregore itself does not suffer the damage.

Weapons: The Egregore does not have any weapons.  The witches each have a ritual blade with a P+S of 7.  Between this and the miserable MAT, if you’re engaged in combat then something has gone terribly wrong.

Feat: Nightfall: While in the coven’s control area, enemy models suffer -2 MAT and -2 RAT and their LoS is reduced to 5 inches.  Nightfall lasts 1 turn.  Nightfall is a completely defensive feat but it can quickly neuter an enemy’s army.  IMHO, the – 2 MAT/RAT is pretty self explanatory.  Notice though that Nightfall reduces enemy LoS to 5 inches.  This is notstealth.  By reducing LoS to 5 inches you prevent enemy models from targeting anything greater than 5 inches away.  This not only prevents shooting but can prevent charges and slams on models greater than 5 inches away.  It does not however prevent someone from moving their SPD and then targeting a model.  Also keep in mind that Nightfall only effects enemy models in the Coven’s control area while they are still in it.  Since the coven’s control area is based off the location of the Egregore it is possible to keep the witches in the back and just move the Egregore up to catch more enemy models in the feat.  In fact one can even throw or slam the Egregore forward without knocking it down to try and really lock down an enemy force.  Just be careful of the damage you’ll take from your own attack but with an armor of 17 this can often be minimal.

Spells:

1.) Curse of Shadows: Curse of shadows effects target model/unit giving it -2 arm and prevents that unit from making freestrikes.  Models may advance through the affected model(s) if it has enough movement to move completely past its base.   Curse of shadows is a wonderful toolbox spell but has some redundancy with veil of mists.  It not only lowers enemy ARM but can remove troop obstacles from assassination runs.  It can allow our troops to move through the enemy front line to engage the enemy second wave.  It can also be used to allow our forces to move through models that we normally couldn’t.  For example, the Deathjack could trample through small based infantry to get to a caster but cannot trample over a unit of MoW.  Curse of shadows would allow the Deathjack to trample the small based models and move through the MoW to engage the juicy target behind the front lines. 

2.) Ghost Walk:  Ghost walk grants ghostly to target model/unit for 1 turn.  This allows the model(s) to not only move through terrain and obstacles without penalty but also ignore freestrikes.  The benefits of this spell are pretty straight forward IMHO.  Ghost walk is not an upkeep spell.  A single coven witch can therefore spam this spell for the round at the cost of 3 focus per casting (or for 2 focus if you’re in perfect conjunction).  Also since this spell is not an upkeep you can use it in conjunction with occulation and infernal machine.

3.) Infernal Machine: This 2 focus spell allows a target warjack in the Coven’s battle group to gain terror, +2 MAT, and +2 SPD.  Infernal machine is an upkeep spell.  An overall straight forward spell with a few tricks built in.  First, infernal machine can quickly turn just about any cryxian warjack into a melee killing machine.  The deathjack becomes a SPD 8 MAT 10 warjack as do seethers.  Nightmare becomes a SPD 8 MAT 12 warjack vs. it’s prey.  Stalkers become a SPD 9 MAT 9 caster killing machine.  Even the helldiver should not be overlooked since it becomes a SPD 7 Mat 8 warjack that can burrow and only cost 3 points.  Notice it’s +2 SPD not movement so a running arcnode can actually move 18 inches into position.  The other trick to notice is that despite it being an upkeep, with the witches of the coven each activating individually, you can spam this spell from one warjack to another to get it’s maximum effectiveness.   One final point, ghost walk can stack with infernal machine since ghost walk is not an upkeep spell. 

4.) Occulation:Target friendly model/unit gains stealth.  Occulation is an upkeep.  This is a pretty self explanatory spell.  I often find it most useful on supporting those units with low defense but decent enough armor to survive average blast damage such as bile thralls, bane thralls, bloat thralls, or key jacks like the Deathjack.  Occulation can effect non faction models. 

5.) Stygian Abyss:  This 3 focus 10 inch ranged spell delivers a POW 12 hit.  It has the added benefit of causing shadow bind (-3 def and cannot move except to change facing) on a critical hit.  Stygian abyss is the Coven’s only damage causing spell.  Now, while in perfect conjunction the Coven can cast this spell for 2 focus allowing them to either cast stygian abyss 4 times, once with a boost, or 3 times each with a boost.  IMHO, people often bank on getting the critical effect with stygian abyss especially when they can cast it 3 times each with a boosted attack roll.  Even though the odds are in one’s favor to get a critical effect once out of the three times I would suggest never banking an entire strategy on it.  More often, I find myself using my focus to support warjacks and cast other spells.  Only if there’s focus left over do I cast a stygian abyss to try and lock down a target.

6.) Veil of Mists: Veil of mists is a 4 inch cloud effect AoE that can be placed anywhere completely in the Coven’s control area for the cost of 3 focus.  This AoE does not block LoS for friendly factionmodels.  While in the AoE, friendly faction models gain pathfinder and can move through obstructions and other models if they have enough movement to move completely past them.  So, there are is some redundancy between veils of mist, ghost walk, and curse of shadows.  All 3 spells cost 3 focus.  Ghost walk allows one to ignore terrain penalties but not other models.  Curse of shadows allows one to ignore other target unit/model but does not ignore terrain penalties.  Curse of shadows also requires one to hit with the spell vs. veil of mist which is simply a placement.  I often find myself using curse of shadow to lower armor or make it possible to walk several models through a front line.  I use ghostwalk when I need to get a spread out unit over rough terrain.  I use veil of mists to help deliver a small number of models to a focused area over rough terrain and through other models (enemy and friendly).  I often find myself also using veil of mist to block LoS to the Coven as needed.

Army composition and play: When building armies I often try and maximize the assets and limit any disadvantages.  The Coven has a fantastic focus score and the ability to support an army well.  They however lack the punch to kill an opposing force on their own. 

The Coven relies on keeping their distance from combat and supporting their arm.  Therefore they rely on arcnodes, perhaps more than any other cryx caster.  Defilers/Nightwretches are often a nice choice since they provide a way to remove large number of troops in a single shot.  Deathrippers are also nice under the effects of infernal machine.  They can become SPD 9 MAT 8 under infernal machine with a P+S 13 sustained attack.  Also note the increased SPD/MAT can be used to help with slam attacks too.  stalkers should be considered too.  they can have focus allocated to them 36 inches away from the egregore and with infernal machine become MAT 9 SPD 9 caster killers. 

Most Coven armies will have 1-3 helljacks available to deliver high damage attacks.  Obviously this can be further augmented by infernal machine.  To help maximize the coven’s focus ability it’s useful to take helljacks that generate their own like the Deathjack and Seethers.  The 12 point deathjack becomes a wrecking machine under infernal machine and can easily avoid enemy threats with a either ghost walk, curse of shadows, or veil of mists.  Seether have not only the ability to be focus efficient but under infernal machine they can also make their chain attack grab and smash at a MAT of 10.  Slayers are also worth consideration.  For a mere 6 points with infernal machine one can get a SPD 8 helljack with MAT 9 and a combo strike of P+S 22.

When selecting troops,  I try to focus on those who over come the coven’s weakness and augments their focus abilities.  Sirens are always a great choice for troop removal and focus efficiency.  Combinations of bane thralls and Tartarus and Gerlack and bloodgorgers, provide a strong hitting force for the Coven.  For troop removal bile thralls and bloats should be considered.  These troop selections can be further protected by occulation to give that unit stealth.  The wither shadow combine is a solid unit to begin with, but provide the Coven with a way to maintain an upkeep for free, unbinding troubling enemy spells, and get a free re-roll when needed.  Warwitch sirens should also be considered for their shadow bind ability, additional focus, and troop removal with venom.  For a trapit unit one may wish to consider mechanithralls backed by a necorsurgeon.  Mercenary troop selection usually focus on Gorman di Wulfe and occasionally Orin Midwinter or a bokur.  Gorman provides good troop removal with his corrosion bomb, a effective armor reducer with rust, and is able to further block LoS to the Coven.  Bokurs can serve as a blocker for ranged attacks against the Coven and Orin serves to stop incoming enemy magical attacks. 

     Typical play with a Coven army varies IMHO.  The Coven often works to tip the battle in their favor by a combination of protecting their troops and increasing mobility with ghostwalk, veil of mist, and curse of shadows.  They wait for an opportunity to either send in a wave of troops to eliminate the enemy caster, or more often a jack or two under the effects of infernal machine.  Against high defense low armor casters, the coven is quite capable of killing the caster themselves with a spam of stygian abysses in perfect conjunction.  Against high armor caster though, the Coven often needs heavy hitting troops and jacks to seal the deal.  Nightfall is used often during the second round to reduce enemy LoS allowing the Cryxian forces to gain the alpha strike or to help increase their survivability while engaged.