Orikan and Lychguard: How to Make Your Opponents Hate You

So I did a two parter on why Zahndrekh is awesome. And he is, he's flexible and has a toolbox that lets him have the right tool at the right time. But Orikan gives him a run for his money when it comes to being the best Named Character in the book.

Surprisingly Killy

Orikan, surprisingly, is probably the best Assault character in our book. While that's supposed to go to Obyron, it just patently doesn't. Orikan in his non-empowered form is nothing special, just a Cryptek with an extra attack and a Phase Shifter. But then you look at his weapon. SUser AP2 rerolling all hits is pretty good, at his normal statline of A2/WS4 that's pretty great at murdering even Terminators. And then once he Empowers, it's even better. Empowered Orikan can pretty much murder anything that he gets to, 4 AP2 attacks rerolling to hit at WS5 and S7 claims the life of all but the most dedicated enemies. Even Obyron with his Counterblow only comes close to that amount of damage output, but he doesn't have an Invuln save.

But then you move on to the next part of his kit. Master Chronomancer gives the normal Cryptek +1 to RP, but also gives rerolls to all Saving Throws of 1. That's right, not just Cover or Armor Saves, but all Saving throws. Including his own, so naturally he has a 4++ rerolling 1s and a 4+ RP, which is only slightly worse than a 3++/4+++. So, relatively survivable and with high damage output, though you really want him to be Empowered so he doesn't instantly die to S8 Thunder Hammers (assuming he's not your Warlord).

The Toughest Bodyguards

What is a Character without a good retinue? Dead meat, that's what. And Orikan brings one of the best in the game.

Dispersion Shield Lychguard by themselves are pretty good. T5 with a 3++ plus RP is darn hard to kill. And then Orikan amplifies that. 3++ rerolling 1s followed by 4+ RP is near impossible to remove from the board. And of course, 2 attacks each at S5 AP3 is nothing to sneeze at. Like Orikan himself, the Shieldguard are surprisingly killy and tough.

Orikan plus 10 Shieldguard marching up the board is a massive blocker that people will have to deal with or die. Throw an Overlord, Lord, and/or Destroyer Lord in there with them for Warscythes and they'll cut down everything in their way. Zahndrekh can give them a 2+ rerollable and Zealot. It's an extremely variant and powerful unit, but it can get expensive fast.

The Numbers

A Shieldguard with no boost to his Reanimate ignores 7/9 (77.78%) of all wounds
With a boost to Reanimate from the Decurion (or a normal Cryptek), that jumps to 5/6 (83.33%) saved
Orikan giving Rerolls to 1s boosts that to 8/9 (88.89%) saved
If you're part of a Decurion and the Overlord is nearby to reroll RPs of 1, that's a

Shieldguard, no Decurion, no Characters: 7/9 (77.78%) saved
Shieldguard, 4+ RP, no Characters: 5/6 (83.33%) saved
Shieldguard with Orikan: 8/9 (88.89%) saved
Shieldguard with Orikan and Decurion Overlord: 49/54 (90.74%) saved

That's pretty crazy. I mean, statistics are dirty lies sure and you could roll a bunch of 2s in a row, but numerically it should take ~108 wounds to remove 10 Decurion Lychguard with the Overlord and Orikan. And they always get 4+ RP, even against ID, thanks to Decurion bonus plus Orikan bonus.

The Cost

Of course, there's downsides to this. The 10 Shieldguard + Orikan + Overlord unit costs 500 points before upgrades to the Overlord, and since it's a Decurion that's also 399 required points from Warriors/Immortals/Tomb Blades in the Reclamation Legion and 50 + 80 for the Lord/Overlord in the Royal Court needed for Orikan (and that's before upgrading them). Both of the Overlords and the Lord probably want Warscythes, so that's 60 more.

So you're looking at 1089 baseline to make this run. And even then, you'll probably want to throw on Phase Shifters for the Overlords, maybe you'll want to upgrade one to the Voidreaper. The Immortals you'll probably want to bump up past their min squad of 5, and 3 flat Tomb Blades aren't worth much either.

Auxiliary forces you'll need to add in as well, though that can vary from a min squad of Flayed Ones for 65, to a kitted out Destroyer Cult for easily over 700.

You can run plenty of other variants, of course. A squad of 5 with just Orikan is less durable, but much cheaper and can be run in a CAD so you aren't shackled to the Decurion for list building. Or it can be run in a minimum suqad size for 150 points cheaper, which leaves more wiggle room on the rest of the army.

Downsides and Strategy

The unit has the obvious downside of being an Assault unit that has no real mobility. 6" move without Fleet and only with Move Through Cover if they're part of a Decurion or Orikan is from a Royal Court (or if Zahndrekh gives it to them with Traits). They really rely on their durability to be able to march across the table without taking massive casualties in the process.

You can possibly combat this by putting them in a Night Scythe, which can put them anywhere up the table 42" (36" move, 6" disembark) the turn they come in. It has the obvious downside of being beholden to Reserve rolls, but that's always a factor to take into consideration.

You can also consider giving them a Veil of Darkness, though that has inherent problems with scatter, especially if you're taking a big 10 man unit plus Characters. A better option is to consider Obyron, as he gives them a great Warscythe and also combos with Zahndrekh if you have him moving on the other side of the table.

While a 10 man Deathstar with Orikan, Zahndrekh, a Warscythe Lord, and a Voidreaper Overlord might sound fun and enticing, it might be more reasonable to just have a moderate amount of Shieldguard with Orikan, and have them Run onto an objective and hold it until anything they can kill gets close. Even an objective in the open will be hard to take from them, as an Orikan unit of Shieldguard needs 9 Wounds per Lychguard to kill. They can stand on something all day and never die. Even just a 5 man unit with Orikan will be hard to budge and relatively cheap, and something that any non-vehicle unit will be wary to get in Charge range of.

I think that's probably the best idea, to less rely on them as a super expensive linchpin unit, and more as a blocker unit that gives insane area control and will eat more focus fire than Wraiths, point for point.

There's a bunch of different ways to utilize this squad, and I'm sure we're just seeing the tip of the Iceberg when it comes to Orikanstar. What have you found to be effective?