The Contorted Epitome - a discussion

[Overread]

As great at the general Slaanesh thread is, its easy for specific chatter to get lost in the sea of changing topics there, so I figured it would be good to start a few threads (one very so often) on specific units for the army and get a feel for how the community views and uses them within their armies. Both as a core Hedonites army and also in general when allying in other units and models or using Slaanesh as allies in another force.

 

So without further distraction lets look at the first - the Contorted  Epitome- a 200 point leader model. 

Stats from the GW website https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//AoS_Contorted_Epitome_ENG.pdf

 

What we can see here is a few interesting things:

1) With a decent move, bravery and 11 close combat attacks (2 of which are 3inch range) its quite the forward unit. It has the potential to do pretty well in combat and brings a lot of rending attacks along with it;  3+ to hit is also a decent attack chance. Meanwhile Horrible Fascination has a good chance of forcing opposing close combat units near to it to fight last. Whilst it won't happen every time it should even the playingfield and give you a good chance to kill before taking damage as whilst it has 7 wounds it only has a regular 5+ save. 
All this suggests that the  Epitome wants to stick pretty close to the rest of your army in charging forward; it doesn't want to hang back in the background. Plus with 11 standard close combat attacks you want it close to help start dishing out those wounds for depravity points. 

However that's not its only role. Indeed if you were to focus on this aspect then a Herald on Seeker Chariot has a better safe of +4, is faster, deals out as many attacks, has rending (though not the -2 that a couple of the Epiphany attacks have) and is only 160 points.; meanwhile a Hellflayer has more attacks and still only comes in at 180 points. Though, of course, the chariots can't force the opponent to fight last. 

2) Magic. It can cast 2 spells per turn and attempt to turn 2 enemy spells per turn. In addition it can re-roll any of its casting or unbinding rolls. This is interesting, it can reroll any not just failed ones, so any spell that has variable results based on the casting role can be rerolled if you wish (though none of the spells in the battletome apply for this, so it would likely be any realm or additional rule spells if present in the match). This along with an acquiescence spell that has far longer reach than normal lets it project itself onto the battlefield long before it reaches combat. Indeed it can quite happily hang back and still make a meaningful contribution to the game through its magical abilities. 
 

3) Note the spell lore for Slaanesh allows any wizards to cast Acquiescence in addition to other spells if they've taken a spell from the Spell Lore table. However it makes no mention if "Overwhelming Acquiescence" counts for this or not. Considering it can already cast 2 spells in a turn its hard to say which side the coin lands on for this. It might be that the different name fully means it can't get the free casting; or it might be GW referring to all "acquiescence spells" as they don't bold the name in the book. 

4) Note that despite the name suggesting it, the model is not listed as Unique and has not been updated to be Unique. This means you can take multiple Contorted  Epitomies in your army if you so desire. 

 

5) It has a 2+ Mortal Wound save. This is pretty darn good and makes it quite hard to kill through mortal wounds. However any opponent familiar with the army is going to throw regular wounds its way. With only a 5+ armour save this makes it quite a squishy hero model in all truth. So you've got to be careful and keep it out of the line of fire.  It's mortal wound save is going to let it avoid most "extra" mortal wounds that an attacking unit might generate along with its regular attacks. So its by no means bad, just don't bank on this saving the model against a smart opponent. 

 

 

Overall this is a wizard model with good close combat abilities and a neat aura. It wants to move up with the rest of the army; sure its not going to keep up with seekers, but it will keep up with the regular troops. However it if falls behind or is used to camp out a location it can still project its influence forward through its spells. Being a reliable caster makes it one of the core wizards for the army; however its also no slouch in close combat itself. 

That said its still more wizard than warrior; a 5+ save isn't going to keep it alive in prolonged or focused combat, so it either wants to be out of the way on a flank or in a bed of regular units giving it some shielding against combat.  If possible, careful use against models that put out a lot of mortal wounds might let you use the 2+ MW save to have the opponent waste those attacks on the epiphany, but a wise opponent shouldn't fall for that trick. 

Edited July 26, 2019 by Overread

[Rentar]

First and foremost: it's the Contorted Epitome, not epiphany. 

1) I run a single Epitome, but tend to hold it in reserve rather than leave it on the front lines. At the most, it's supporting a flank, but I only run one KoS even at 2k, which factors into my positioning decisions. I've noted it's not a particularly fantastic combatant, but it is our best SoJ carrier (though Slaanesh honestly has little need for one). 

2) I primarily use it to cast Cogs, then have it hang around my Cogs where possible. 

3) It's specific to Acquiescence. It's rare enough for GW to defy the ruling on repeated spells, but I believe it's because there are no less than 5 heroes with the exact same spell. Overwhelming Acquiescence, on the other hand, only has one.

4) Yes. Some run 2. I find one is sufficient. I don't have too many uses for them, and my Enrapturess serves as the other half of my anti-magic.

5) Minor perk that makes it resistant to spells but little else. Admittedly hilarious once when my opponent fired 6 Longstrikes at it, rolled 4 6s, and found out that while it'd have died instantly to normal hits, it shrugged off the Mortal wounds. He was fairly upset (but won anyway on points).

Solid 200 points, probably could cost 220 and still be run but 240 would be pushing it.

[Overread]

Darn it - I think I spelt it wrong the first time in the title and Epiphany was what it threw up as a correction - it sounds sort of Slanneshy in name so I never double checked - changed it up now

[swarmofseals]

I think one noteworthy thing about CE is that it's a rare case of a warscroll that stands out for serious consideration as an ally or for a GA Chaos force. There are several reasons for this:

• It's easy to make it very difficult to kill as long as you have the resources to screen it. When kitted with a -1 to hit artefact it becomes exceptionally difficult to take out with ranged attacks.
• The rerollable cast and unbinds are VERY valuable. To make full use of the casts you will probably want an endless spell, but there are plenty of lists that badly want to resolve something like cogs. The value of the reroll depends a bit on the number you are trying to hit (see below for the exact math, note that the math is a bit different for unbinds). Overall, the rerolls are probably somewhere between the value provided by +1 cast/+1 unbind and +2 cast/+2 unbind. It's really difficult to find wizards that provide casting bonuses like this (although it's noteworthy that in GA Chaos there is at least competition from the Lord of Change and Grey Seer)
  • 4+:  99.3% chance of success (slightly worse than +2)
  • 5+: 972% chance of success (almost exactly +2)
  • 6+: 92.3% chance of success (slightly better than +2)
  • 7+: 82.6% chance of success (slightly worse than +2)
  • 8+: 66% chance of success (slightly better than +1.5, if that makes sense)
  • 9+ 47.7% chance of success (vaguely +1.4)
  • 10+ 30.5% chance of success (~+1.2)
  • 11+: 16% chance of success (just a bit worse than +1)
  • 12:  5.5% chance of success (around +.5)
• Horrible Fascination works outside the Slaanesh allegiance abilities
• Overwhelming Acquiescence isn't specific to any keywords, and although RR1s to hit is common there are some warscrolls that have a tough time getting it. 

Overall it's a package of strong abilities that isn't particularly dependent on it's own faction's allegiance abilities.

[sal4m4nd3r]

I have been using a contorted epitome as an ally in my blightkings heavy list. For competitive play it’s a vital ally as I can both cast and unbind realm spells like the big boys. Two rr-able casts is amazing. As well as the unbinds.  It’s nit grey deer levels of point efficiency, but it’s still VERY efficient. 

The strike last mechanic is just gravy to be honest, as my SPECIFIC army can tank a butt load of damage. 

I am currently working on a count as epitome for my nurgle army. I posted it in the painting forum as well as the nurgle forum. At the risk of spamming the picture and being annoying, I’ll post it here as well. 

[Overread]

@sal4m4nd3r that is an amazing bit of conversion work and will look fantastic when its done! Great work 

[sal4m4nd3r]

On 7/27/2019 at 1:08 AM, swarmofseals said:

I think one noteworthy thing about CE is that it's a rare case of a warscroll that stands out for serious consideration as an ally or for a GA Chaos force. There are several reasons for this:

• It's easy to make it very difficult to kill as long as you have the resources to screen it. When kitted with a -1 to hit artefact it becomes exceptionally difficult to take out with ranged attacks.
• The rerollable cast and unbinds are VERY valuable. To make full use of the casts you will probably want an endless spell, but there are plenty of lists that badly want to resolve something like cogs. The value of the reroll depends a bit on the number you are trying to hit (see below for the exact math, note that the math is a bit different for unbinds). Overall, the rerolls are probably somewhere between the value provided by +1 cast/+1 unbind and +2 cast/+2 unbind. It's really difficult to find wizards that provide casting bonuses like this (although it's noteworthy that in GA Chaos there is at least competition from the Lord of Change and Grey Seer)
  • 4+:  99.3% chance of success (slightly worse than +2)
  • 5+: 972% chance of success (almost exactly +2)
  • 6+: 92.3% chance of success (slightly better than +2)
  • 7+: 82.6% chance of success (slightly worse than +2)
  • 8+: 66% chance of success (slightly better than +1.5, if that makes sense)
  • 9+ 47.7% chance of success (vaguely +1.4)
  • 10+ 30.5% chance of success (~+1.2)
  • 11+: 16% chance of success (just a bit worse than +1)
  • 12:  5.5% chance of success (around +.5)
• Horrible Fascination works outside the Slaanesh allegiance abilities
• Overwhelming Acquiescence isn't specific to any keywords, and although RR1s to hit is common there are some warscrolls that have a tough time getting it. 

Overall it's a package of strong abilities that isn't particularly dependent on it's own faction's allegiance abilities.

If not an endless spell, its nice to have a double caster WITH a casting bonus for Realm spells. NOVA is using Aqshy and Shyish.. both RIFE with great spells. Inferno blades (+1 damage for a units weapons) stoke rage (+1 wound and +1 charge distance) are both incredibly powerful offensive spells. In Shyish nights touch, soul shroud, and soul flay (ignore modifiers to save rolls for a unit, not affected by spells until next hero phase, and -1 to hit until next hero phase) are all incredibly powerful defensive spells.