Mortis Engines- Viable in games of 2k and less?

[Vengeance2410]

The title says it all really, but to explain my question further:

Recently I decided to dust off my vampire Counts book and to write myself up a 2k list to ease myself back into playing with my beloved Vampires (after not touching them for about 6 months), and looking through my minis I decided to set myself a goal: To include BOTH my Terrorghiest AND my Mortis Engine in the same list... And as I think about it more and more- it seems to be proving a trickier task than I first thought...

Here seems to be my issue- while the engine has some really REALLY cool abilities (and I LOVE the model), as a unit of the field, it does not actually seem to 'do' much as far as contributing to the battle is concerned...

Yes, it may help my big blocks stick around longer (due to the 6+ regen aura, and boosting my casting with the Tome), so it seems to purely be a (quite costly) support unit...

Now If I was playing a 3k+ game, I would not have a second thought about taking the Engine, as its abilities seem to scale best in larger games. But next to say taking a Varghulf, Blood Knights, Cairn Wraiths or a Second Terrorghiest, it seems hideously outclassed...

So is it worth taking in 1k, 1.5k and 2k lists? Or am I right in my thoughts that in smaller games it is just a while elephant?

Would appreciate your thoughts,

\m/ V---V \m/

[sulla]

If you play a mortis in smaller games you need to get better use out of it than just the regen buff IMO.

You need to be using the spellcasting buff and getting it up close and personal to the enemy (i.e. stuck into combat). It is a resilient combat unit too and as long as you can make use of it's combat and short ranged shooting abilities, it is worthwhile at low points.

[Doommasters]

Use in conjunction with a Master Necromancer for the casting buff and crypt horrors making them that much harder to deal with.

[Soundwave]

Mortis engines are good,blasphemous the tome keep them protected behind your lines,let the clock tick then charge them into martyrdom round turn 5 and kappow! Everything gets hurt...good fun!

[Wbarobinson]

I used the engine in a 1500 point game do great effect. My ghoul king got to be 4up, as did my crypt horrors. Not to mention the impact hits and 11 str 3 attacks actually matter at this points level. I did not use the spell casting upgrade.

[Morax]

Yes, it may help my big blocks stick around longer (due to the 6+ regen aura, and boosting my casting with the Tome), so it seems to purely be a (quite costly) support unit...

So is it worth taking in 1k, 1.5k and 2k lists? Or am I right in my thoughts that in smaller games it is just a while elephant?

Hit the nail right on the head. It is a costly support unit, it however is also a capable combat unit when thrown against low strength, low save units. To get the most out of it, you need to capitalize on both features reliably. At 1k this becomes increasingly difficult as the units that gain the most from the bonus regen save (ghoul king and crypt horrors) are scarcely seen and if they are at much smaller numbers. At 1k I would likely leave the engine at home. At 1.5-2k however the ghoul king is the go to guy as he packs the hitting power at a discount and crypt horrors can be fielded at reasonably large unit sizes. Also the chances of seeing more necromancers to buff their casting values improves. These units will all make great use of the Mortis Engine's abilities, sometimes to game winning effects. At 1.5-2k I would suggest a Mortis Engine to any list that looks to be able to take advantage of it.

[Hashut-Up!]

My room mate plays with a mortis engine every game and absolutely loves what it does for the army. As mentioned above it works great as a late-game time bomb, and I have yet to see him miscast while under the effects of the blasphemous tome. He typically throws 2 dice (3 tops) when under the effect of the tome and it has been a great boon to his casting efforts (I don't think I've ever seen him use the blasphemous tome offensively against enemy casters because the mortis engine is fairly fragile, but would work well as long as you could keep it alive). The trick is to throw just a couple dice at your spells (his favourite is invocation of nehek in combination with the tome, shocking right?) and let the tome help out in small but constantly beneficial ways.

[Doommasters]

From what I have seen it works well when combined with SGK, Master Necromancer and Crypt Horrors......probably can't fit them all in at 2k but with those three units you start get see the full benefits.

[Pantsmansoy]

Engine is an auto-include for me at almost any point level. I played a 1500 point doubles game a few days ago and on turn 5, I rolled a 10 for my regen/damage bubble. The bubble hit 5 of his units killing two mangler squigs, a unit of chaos hounds, 2 chaos knights and 4 warriors.

Not to mention the fact that my spells were +6 to cast, which is absolutely huge.

I rarely if ever get it into combat - I prefer to sit it beside my necro bunker and let the bubble provide regen to my big units (generally skeletons and graveguard) and doing the damage bubble. Works great!