Rules Focus: Flareborn Skirmishers
Our look at the upcoming Kazyr army continues with one of the units included in the Kazyr Skirmish Pack: the Flareborn Skirmishers.
These elite warriors are exactly what their name suggests. They are skirmishers built around speed, positioning and choosing their fights. With several ways to move both during and outside their activation, they can quickly contest important parts of the battlefield, harass enemy models and be surprisingly difficult to pin down.
And if you are playing them alongside Zyrena, the Cinderforged Champion, they become even more dangerous. After all, these are her Honourguard.
Start ahead. Stay ahead.
Before the first activation even begins, Scout (4") lets the Flareborn Skirmishers establish an advanced position. From there, their basic MOV of M might not immediately look exceptional. But, much like Zyrena herself, looking at their movement characteristic only tells part of the story.
Burning Velocity lets the unit consume a friendly Cinder within 2" to change its MOV to L for the remainder of its activation. That is a significant burst of speed, but once again presents the central Kazyr dilemma: is that Cinder more valuable on the battlefield, or is now the moment to burn it?
With Zyrena nearby, that question becomes particularly interesting. Keeping the Cinder means the Flareborn can benefit from Duelist through her leadership Searing Accuracy. Consume it for Burning Velocity, however, and they gain the speed to reach a distant objective, threaten an exposed model or escape from a position that has suddenly become a little too hot. Sometimes the fire is more useful burning. Sometimes it is more useful remaining.
Hit and Run
Getting somewhere quickly is one thing. Being able to attack without giving up that mobility is another. Unsurprisingly, Hit and Run does exactly what it says on the card.
For two yellow Essence, the Flareborn may immediately take an attack action and, once those attacks are resolved, follow it with a move action. That opens up plenty of possibilities. Move into position, use Hit and Run to attack and reposition again. Strike an enemy before retreating towards an objective. Or use the additional movement to get back behind terrain after doing some damage.
Combine it with Burning Velocity and suddenly the Flareborn can cover a considerable amount of ground during a single activation. But their movement tricks don't stop once their activation ends.
Catch us if you can
Lightning Reflexes makes engaging the Flareborn an interesting proposition.
Whenever an enemy model ends a move within melee range of one of them, the Flareborn can immediately make an S MOV away from that model, gaining Parry for the move.
So simply walking up to them might not be enough to actually keep them there.
This is particularly useful for a unit that wants to choose when and where it fights. Your opponent may spend precious movement getting into position, only for the Flareborn to slip away again.
And if the Flareborn are the ones doing the attacking, Savage Momentum gives them another positioning tool. Whenever one of their models hits an enemy with a melee attack, that model may push itself up to 1".
A single inch might not sound dramatic, but Shroudfall is often a game of inches. That small push can help a Skirmisher get deeper into a fight, adjust its position around terrain or squeeze a little more movement out of an attack. Taken together, these abilities make the Flareborn a unit that rarely stays exactly where your opponent expects it to.
Hard to hit...
All that movement would already make them annoying to deal with. Then there is Deflection. Deflection grants the unit +1 DEF against ranged attacks and treats the models themselves as LINEAR TERRAIN, granting +1 DEF to other models. With a base DEF of 6, the Flareborn already start from a strong defensive position. Clever positioning can make removing them considerably more difficult.
And that is where their synergy with Zyrena really starts to shine. While near one of her Cinders, Searing Accuracy grants the Flareborn Duelist, improving their DEF against melee attacks as well. Activate Duelist's Riposte, and every failed attempt to hit one of these high-DEF warriors can potentially result in an immediate attack back.
Suddenly their defence isn't just keeping them alive. It's threatening you back.
...and dangerous when they hit back
There is a reason the Flareborn Skirmishers work particularly well with Zyrena beyond their high DEF. They are her Honourguard.
While Zyrena is on the battlefield, friendly Flareborn Skirmishers gain Critical: Devastating Blow. That means their critical hits deal additional damage.
This neatly completes the interaction between the two units. Zyrena makes the Flareborn even harder to hit in melee. Duelist's Riposte can give them additional attacks when the opponent misses. And Honourguard makes those attacks more dangerous.
Your opponent is therefore left with an awkward problem: you need to deal with the Flareborn, but attacking them can be exactly what gives them another opportunity to hurt you.
Fight on your terms
The Flareborn Skirmishers capture an important part of the Kazyr playstyle. They are elite warriors, but they don't survive by simply standing still and relying on armour. They survive through movement, positioning and making it difficult for the opponent to get the fight they want.
Scout gets them into position early. Burning Velocity gives them explosive speed when they need it. Hit and Run keeps them moving while attacking. Lightning Reflexes lets them react to approaching enemies, while Savage Momentum squeezes even more positioning out of their own attacks.
And alongside Zyrena, their already impressive defence becomes part of their offence.
So don't think of the Flareborn as a unit that simply runs forward faster than everyone else.
They get where they need to be, fight on their terms and are already moving again when the enemy tries to answer.
