Warhammer Sisters Of The Thorn
- Total War Warhammer Sisters Of The Thorn
- Warhammer 2 Sisters Of The Thorn
- Warhammer Sisters Of The Thorn Book
The Sisters of the Thorn are Ariel's handmaidens. In many ways, they are equal and opposite to the Wild Riders of Kurnous, a sisterhood pledged to sorcery and subtlety where Orion's equerries know loyalty only to the glory of the Hunt.
Lords mobile monster hunt drop rate. Good morning, afternoon, or evening everyone! My name is Elivaras, creator of the DEDICATED Total War: Warhammer Discord, and avid content creator for TWW. Today I have for you all part two of my How-To Series, where we delve into how to use an uncommon build for a specific faction to good affect. In this episode we take a look at a Sisters of the Thorn Build for the Wood Elves, as it turns out to be quite effective against Bretonnia! For your viewing pleasure, I have included the video edition (with a much higher level of editing than ever before!), alongside a text version of the guide for those who would rather not watch. So, without further ado-
Let's Begin.
Video:
Text Version:
Unit Introduction:
The Sisters of the Thorn are a magical missile cavalry unit for the Wood Elves, boasting a unit count of thirty, poison-tipped spears, and two spells. The first spell, Shield of Thorns, is an instant cast hex that gives all units caught within a 22% buff to weapon damage, alongside a 22% buff to missile resistance. The second spell, Curse of Aranheir, in another instant cast hex that gives all enemy units within -24% speed and -60% accuracy.
Shield of thorns is decent- use it on whichever units are getting targeted by heavy ranged fire, or your damage dealing frontline units for some extra enemy-shredding capabilities. The real kicker is the Curse of Aranheir- it's a pretty wide hex, and if the enemy has brought a lot of ranged units, it can completely shut them down for a time (assuming they are not firing into a huge clump where accuracy doesn't matter).
Sisters of the Thorn can also have a pretty devastating charge against the enemy backline, and their missiles can do quite a bit of damage to close large targets.
So why are they almost never brought? This is because they require a lot of micro to use effectively, and in most cases, and extra unit of wild riders is more worthwhile. Their poison tipped spears are their biggest advantage- to use them effectively, you want to have them either supporting your cavalry force, acting to poison the enemy cavalry before your cav engages, or running around the field poisoning key damage dealing units.
How they should be/are used:
So how are they used in this battle against Bretonnia? Essentially, I have them in a joint anti-cav force, consisting of one unit of Sisters of the Thorn, one unit of Wild Riders (Shields), and one unit of Wardancers (Asrai Spear). Near the beginning of the battle, I had this elite anti-cav force hidden away in the trees. As one of the enemy's units of Knights of the Realm saw them, they charged forward. My Sisters of the Thorn poisoned them and then pulled back THROUGH my unit of wardancers with asrai spears, who were now able to catch the enemy knights as they tried to pull away due to the poison. Shortly thereafter, my wild riders charged in, and the spears and riders decimated the enemy cavalry force.
At another point in the battle, Alberic on his griffon charged my unit of Sisters of the Thorn. He ended up being poisoned, meaning less damage for him, and because he was so large and so close, almost all of the incoming javelins from the sisters connected, bringing him to almost half in a few vollies. As my wild riders and wardancers came to help, Alberic tried to pull away, but the poison prevented him from doing so fast enough, and he got surrounded and taken down very low before finally escaping.
And then the Sisters found an opening in the enemy formation, and charged right through a gap to hammer into the flank of some juicy units of peasant bowmen, absolutely decimating them.
And at numerous points throughout the battle, they were just chucking spears at units and poisoning them, making them less effective and decreasing their damage output.
Overall:
The above situations show how you want to be using them- slowing and reducing the effectiveness of the enemy cav so your spears and cav can engage. Reducing the damage of high profile enemy targets. Chucking spears from close range at enemy large targets. Etc. While they are very micro intensive, they can be very rewarding and do very well if played correctly. Mind you, I would almost never bring more than one.
Below is the composition I used with the Sisters of the Thorn versus Bretonnia:
-1x Glady on Forest Dragon, for her damage, poison, flight, Arrow of Kurnous, and Net
-1x Spellsinger of Life (Earth Blood only) on Foot, for keeping the frontline alive
-1x Sisters of the Thorn, as a part of the elite anti-cav force
-1x Wardancers (Asrai Spear), as a part of the elite anti-cav force
-1x Wild Riders (Shields), as a part of the elite anti-cav force
-3x Treekin, to provide a beefy frontline that bretonnia will have trouble dealing with, and to increase the effectiveness of earth blood
-3x Eternal Guard (Shields), to support the treekin and soak up enemy missile fire, along with benefiting from the increased melee defence in the front line fight
-2x Eternal Guard, to guard my archers in the backline and protect against enemy cav
-2x Glade Guard (Starfire Shafts), to shoot down the enemy armoured cavalry
So! I hope you all enjoyed, and learned a little along the way. If you have any feedback/comments, feel free to leave them here or on the video. Cheers guys,
~Elivaras