The Skullcracker seems to be a questionable unit at best…It has no ranged ability and if someone with half a brain has any Cav, Monserous Infantry, ect they can nullify it before it can do anything. If and only if you have the ability to support it is the only time it can be good based on my experience. If somone is able to redirect your BCs, Kahn, or what ever then you have this giant 315pt mini locked in a combat in which it can’t even make attacks…Thunderstomp only?? What were they thinking?? I played mine over the weekend and was soundly disappointed to be stuck in combat with beasts of nurgle for the entire game. Mind you my oponent misplayed and charged 2 extra beasts into the combat thus nullifying an equal ammount of points. If he had only charged his single beast into it and put the unit of 2 some place useful the skullcracker would have been completley shut down. Now my biggest problem could have been due to my allies inexperience with his high elves that he was never able to support the SC or that due to the fact that I only had 1250points that I didn’t have what was necessary to support it. Either way only having stomps is poop! :mad
I find it useful for myself to look at “special” units as not being special, but rather “specialized”. By that I mean they are specialized for one (fighting) purpose. Core units are designed to be basically useful against a broader spectrum of foes, but not the same for “specialized” units. The Skullcracker is great against infantry sized models, that is its “specialized” purpose. Yes, it sucks(!) against monstrous infantry and monstrous cavalry. But even against monstrous opponents it still has one trick up its sleeve: being hellbound and unbreakable, charge it into your opponents monstrous anvil unit. It’ll hold the enemy unit in place for pretty much the whole game at that point, denying your opponent the use of his high VP unit.
I find it useful for myself to look at "special" units as not being special, but rather "specialized". By that I mean they are specialized for one (fighting) purpose. Core units are designed to be basically useful against a broader spectrum of foes, but not the same for "specialized" units. The Skullcracker is great against infantry sized models, that is its "specialized" purpose. Yes, it sucks(!) against monstrous infantry and monstrous cavalry. But even against monstrous opponents it still has one trick up its sleeve: being hellbound and unbreakable, charge it into your opponents monstrous anvil unit. It'll hold the enemy unit in place for pretty much the whole game at that point, denying your opponent the use of his high VP unit.
Fuggit Khan
Pretty good way to look at it, but it just seems over priced to be trapped in a combat for ever where it cant do anything. This thing should have a "grind" option maby do 2d3 aganst big things and the normal 2d6 stomps against little things. 2d3 is not going any where fast but its better than nothing at 315points. Or allow the unit to leave combat becuase its "lumbering and unstoppable". I can't really imagine 10 Andre the Giants' being able to hold a steam engine in place.
This is why I prefer the non-Cracker variant of the ID. Having a gun makes it much more versatile.
NoisyAssassin
In my games last weekend the gun variant seemed as though it could be more effective but was killed by cannons, screaming skull catapult and the ark of the covenant before it ever got to move in one game and in the next it fireed 20 cannon balls into come crypt horrors due to a lack of options who managed to save them all. While it failed to do much over all I still think the shooty Iron Daemon did as good as it could have given the circumstances.
In my game last night I took a pair of shooting Iron Daemons. One of them only shot once all game, with an impressive result of 0 wounds against a Stank (but I later charged and killed it with impact hits, so I’ll call it a win). My other one put 4 wounds on a unit of 3 Demigryph Knights on turn 2, panicing the rest of the unit off the table, then later shot and killed an Archlector who didn’t have time to get back into a unit after the Destroyer smashed his ride. If we hadn’t called the game on turn 4 both IDs would have been positioned to either shoot or charge a Hurricanum that was sitting on 3 remaining wounds.
In the past though I’ve found the most common use of the shooting is to force my opponent to commit their monstrous cav earlier than they wanted, often sending a depleted unit into the ID (by experience: a unit of 4 Skullcrushers will eventually grind down an ID, a unit of 2 reduced by shooting…not so much).
In the past though I've found the most common use of the shooting is to force my opponent to commit their monstrous cav earlier than they wanted, often sending a depleted unit into the ID (by experience: a unit of 4 Skullcrushers will eventually grind down an ID, a unit of 2 reduced by shooting...not so much).
NoisyAssassin
I am thinking this is the way to go with the ID. Mind you in the couple of games Ive played with my High Hatted friends I didnt have the best opportunity to exploit my opponenet with shooting or redirectors due to it being a doubles event and both my ally and I being new to our armies while everyone else was well versed in theirs. All and all I am not discounting the SC 100% only that my experience with it so far has been about 66.66% unfulfilling, a 50/50 would leave me far, far happier.
I look at the skull cracker like I do blunderbuss. They are awesome when they work, and mediocre otherwise. If you roll super high, get a lucky angle, or an opponent that’s not thinking straight and let’s you slam it into his infantry it becomes a sexy murder machine. Those moments are fantastic.
I also had a game where I literally rolled one inch short of what I needed to reach a block of chaos warriors and stopped right in front of them. In his turn, I was charged by that block, a second unit of chaos warriors, and throgg and his unit of trolls. It was awkward but, but my skull cracker survived three turns like that and held up the better part of my opponents army while creating a bottle neck for me to shoot into for the rest of the game.
To be fair, I have to say the skull cracker does nothing in about 2 out of 3 games, but on that third game is glorious…