There are many warlocks and warcasters in Warmachine who lead from the back, shouting orders and casting supportive spells. Make no mistake, Hysene isn’t one of them.
Her ‘Executioner’ title is not metaphorical. She’s taking heads personally.
Putting Hysene on the table feels a lot like wielding a chainsaw. You’ll need to rev it up a few times to get it going, but once that chain starts spinning, carnage ensues.
This is the unique way Hysene wields Fane of Nyrro’s hunger mechanic: send minions out to generate a fat stack of hunger, then let her loose.
To demonstrate, let’s walk through a turn from one of our test games. Before that, though, a quick reminder of her rules.
Okay, so we’re at the bottom of round 4 of one of our playtest games, and it’s Hysene vs Lylyth of Khymaera Shadowflame Shard.
Up to this point, the game has slightly favoured Lylyth. She has a minor scenario advantage, there are more dead Fane than Khymaera, and Lylyth has a stronger position.
However, Hysene has 17 hunger points.
Sybaris activates. Not the most heavy hitting warbeast, but uniquely capable of setting up the board for Hysene.
Sybaris latches onto an Incarnate Knight cavalry model, then a Wyvern super heavy warbeast, dragging them both into roughly the same area of the board as Aklyss, a Khymaera heavy warbeast.
Now, it's go time.
Fury: 6 | Hunger: 17
Hysene activates. She casually walks out of melee with another Incarnate Knight, utilising her Unstoppable rule. She feats to cast Storm Rager on herself for free, then pays one fury to cast Massacre.
Hysene then makes her initial attack against Aklyss, doing respectable damage. For her next attack, she uses her Brutal Strikes hunger ability and cleaves Akylss in two, refunding a few hunger points in the process.
Fury: 4 | Hunger: 14
This lets her both move an inch, thanks to Overtake, and use her second hunger ability, Murderous Impulse, to make another attack without having to spend fury. An attack she once again fuels with Brutal Strike, immediately decapitating the Incarnate Knight.
Fury: 4 | Hunger: 9
Hysene once again overtakes an inch and Murderous Impulses herself to make another attack, this time against the Wyvern. The Wyvern is tougher than her other targets, so it takes a couple of extra attacks to bring it within execution range.
Fury: 2 | Hunger: 7
Hysene buys one more attack and brutally cleaves the Wyvern’s head from its neck, getting her third hunger refund of the turn in the process.
Fury: 1 | Hunger: 4
Activation done. 37 points of Khymaera models, personally decapitated by Hysene.
Now, typically, warlocks in such an aggressive position are vulnerable to assassination. But not Hysene.
With her feat and Storm Rager, she’s sitting at ARM 22. She has one fury to transfer the first damage she takes, and can then immediately Shadow Shift to safety with her refunded hunger points (thanks, Wyvern!).
Sound like a good time? Hysene may be the warlock for you, and you can pre-order her Command set now ahead of the June 23 release.
Executioner’s toll, indeed.
