M2E+Scion+of+the+Void


 * Scion of the Void, Outcast Henchman**

=__Overview__=

Tara's thematic Henchman can be hired by her in both her Outcast and Resser forms, but also useable in any outcast crew that spams Void Wretches or healing, Scion of the Void brings a couple of unique abilities - **Returning Home** allows the Scion to bury when targeted by an enemy action at the cost of a card, and **Whispers From the Nothing** allows any friendly non-peon to use the buried Scion's actions as their own at the cost of harming the Scion. However, if the Scion is buried at the end of the turn it must be sacrificed. With a damage track similar to the Nothing Beast, the ability to dodge attacks and potentially buff friendlies she can be a fairly cheap and versatile support/attack piece. Taking her often limits your hiring options (you need to build a crew that will support her) but with a right crew she can be a real force multiplier.

A lot of its 'tricks' and abilities require decent cards and/or setups so there will be times when it can be unreliable, so won't suit every person's playstyle.toc

=__Mobility__=

She has average **Wk** and good **Cg** stats the but Scion can be suprisingly mobile with her (0) Action: **In the Blink of an Eye** (often just referred to as **'****Blink'**) that allows her to move her **Wk** ignoring terrain and other models as long as she ends in base to base contact with another model. It costs 8+ card of any suit, though.

Her mobility can be also greatly increased by the Bury mechanic. Bury her with a Death Marshal, Tara, or any model with **Glimpse the Void** trigger to unbury her later either by using Tara's **Faces in the Void** tactical action (printed on **Obliteration Symbiote** Upgrade Card) or by lending someone her another (0) Action: **The Hollowing** which allows you to unbury a Henchman or Minion into base contact, although a Minion will suffer 3 wounds (that cannot be reduced) in the process

Other friendly models can boost their mobility by borrowing **In the Blink of Eye** thanks to her **Whispers from the Nothing**. Keep in mind that every time your models borrow any action from her, Scion of the Void suffers 2 damage you cannot prevent with a Soulstone.

=__Offense__=

Scion of the Void offensive capabilities consist of two attack actions she'll gladly lend to other friendly models while she's Buried thanks to her **Whispers from the Nothing** ability. Both attacks are resisted by enemy's **Wp**, so any source of **Wp** debuff, like Tara's **The Price of Haste** ability from **Dead of Winter** upgrade card are welcomed.


 * Empty Lessons** is **(1)** **Ca** Action (so **Incorporeal** can't protect a target) with above average **Ca** and Range values and potent yet unreliable damage track of 1/4/7. The action offers 3 triggers, two of them built-in. **//The True Path//** lets you draw a card after damaging, while **//Forgotten to Time//** marks a target with a condition that lasts entire game and deals 4 damage to the marked target every time it gets Buried. The only trigger that requies extra suit - //**Stolen Meaning**// - allows you to end the target's **Fast** Condition and grants your model an additional, general AP. Mind you can declare that trigger once per turn only.

You'll want to use Focus when using this attack as much as possible as her min damage is poor but moderate and up is great. Therefore getting her into position is vital for using her offensively as a single Focussed attack will use up all her AP. Luckily she has ways to get in close without using her AP such as using the (0) **Blink**, being Fast and using other models to unbury her in combat range.


 * Hungry Emptiness** is Scion's Ranged attack option, a **Ca** action without that pesky gun icon that deals damage equal to the target's damage already suffered (up to maximum of 3). Naturally this makes it a pointless attack early in the game if you have not yet damaged any of the enemies in range. On Tomes you can draw a card if you actually damaged your target, which is always nice.

It can be quite a good second attack on a charge as if the first attack can benefit from Focus and cause 4+ damage then this attack will cause 3 even if the combat is drawn.

Putting her hitting power into perspective: A Fast Scion against a Fast enemy could perform two Focussed **Empty Lessons** attacks (burning a stone or Mask for the //**stolen meanings**// trigger) for a potential 14 damage, but requires multiple severe cards to pull off. Perhaps a more reliable option is to only cheat in a moderate for the first attack (if necessary) and use the **Hungry Emptiness** attack for the next two, which still yields a potential 10 wounds but is much less card intensive.

Overall, despite a dreadful weak damage, it is perfectly possible for the Scion to wreck a few faces given the opportunity.

=__Resilience__=

The Scion had pretty standard **Df** and **Wp** but with only 8 wounds and no extra defences such as Armor or Hard to Kill/Wound it is on the surface a pretty fragile model.

On the other hand **Returning Home** allows her to bury whenever an enemy model targets her with an action, causing the action to fail, and making her one of the most resilient models in the game. It can't be turned off or bypassed like some defensive triggers and effectively makes her immune to charges, flurries, strong attacks, debilitating debuffs, obeys, etc, as long as you have a card left to discard and a model left to bring her back into play. More accurately, your opponent will be unlikely to waste the AP targeting the Scion unless it's a) the first time they have faced the Scion or b) they want it to go away. The trick, and the complexity, comes from deciding when to trigger **Returning Home** and when to let an action through, a choice which depends on multiple factors. Is the Scion tying up multiple enemy models and burying it would free them up to charge/interact? Would the incoming action actually kill/significantly damage it? Will this be the best opportunity to get her buried so she can pop up somewhere more useful? And so on....

Her fairly low wound count also comes into play in limiting the amount of uses of **Whispers From the Nothing** by other models while she is buried. You always have a way to unbury her so long as you have another model that can activate but even that will cost her 2 wounds, and that can't be her last two either or she'll die in the unburying process. This effectively limits offensive use of **Whispers From the Nothing** to two unless she can be unburied via the likes of Tara which increases this to three.

As a result she absolutely relies on other models to heal her, either Void Wretches who can do it while she is buried, or Librarians who can do the duty once she has reappeared. Neither form of healing is particularly efficient but if you were bringing a crew that included them anyway the 'healing tax' the Scion requires is somewhat reduced. Without healing the Scion isn't useless but you'd probably be better of bringing the Nothing Beast if you want a thematic glass cannon.

=__Soulstones__=

The Scion is not a prolific Soulstone user. The damage she suffers from **Whispers From the Nothing** cannot be prevented with Soulstones and she can just bury rather than suffer damage on the field, the exceptions being damage from non-targeting actions like blasts or pulses, where soulstone damage prevention comes into play. //**Stolen** **Meanings**// is the only trigger that you might want to stone for but this requires the enemy to be Fast to be of any use (though it's probably worth it).

__**Upgrades**__

The Scion doesn't really require any upgrades to function and tbh, you are likely to gain more benefit from hiring another 4ss Void wretch than put 4ss of upgrades on her, but they can be useful, especially if contesting Show of Force. Oath keeper - When not hired in a Tara crew this gives her easy access to Fast for an early game alpha strike or that desperately required Focus at just the right time. Scramble - Expensive, but increases the range of her **'****Blink'** and, if she's footslogging, makes it easier for her to keep up with Incorporeal friendlies. Tally Sheet - She has a trigger on her attacks to draw cards and often brings multiple Void creatures along which get worse with a bigger hand. Still one to consider as card draw is strong The Bigger They Are - Makes her **Empty Lessons** attack 2/5/8 against non-master enemies with an upgrade, but of course only for herself. It's not expensive but you run the risk that the extra damage will be overkill or there aren't any targets. The scare factor and the ability to pop up all over the field does make it a viable choice though. Survivalist (when leading a crew) - Absolute gold on her. An extra use of **Whispers From the Nothing** and better healing so the cycle can continue. Yes please.

=__Tricks and Tips While Joining a Crew__=

If part of a Tara crew the Scion's ability to unbury minions and henchmen may influence your decision on whether to equip Tara with her Obliteration Symbiote upgrade (normally a given), which can save you 2ss. Or half a Void Wretch. Just a thought.

As a utility model there are plenty of tricks the Scion allows you to pull off and can be utilised to greater or lesser degrees as needed. I'll describe a few but there are plenty of variants.

__Buffer - Any Master__ See that cheap minion you brought to run schemes or just as an activation? Got a couple of severe cards in hand and the Scion is buried? Now it could smack something for 7 damage, Yay! This is especially good if the model is a Merc in the I Pay Better bubble and/or has its own buffs to make up for its own weak attack but almost anything (including masters) can make good use of her attacks should the opportunity arise. Good examples of models that benefit from borrowing her attacks are: Desp Merc, Bloodwretch, Freikorpsmann, Void Wretch, Abomb. You of course need to have the Scion buried, so putting her in a position where she will be targeted or having a way to bury her yourself is necessary, as well as being able to heal her if you want more than a couple of uses out of her. __Runner - Any Master__ As any member of the crew can unbury her you can run a fast model/s up the board and easily drop her out for easy Entourage/Breakthrough VPs. There's also a good chance your opponent will just leave her alone for a while rather than waste AP targeting her, so she can spend as long as needed scheme running then zap back into the action later in the game. __Aggressive burying - Tara__ Despite being unable to bury anyone herself the built in trigger **//Forgotten to Time//** from her **Empty Lessons** attack give the target a Condition (lasting the whole game) that means they suffer 4 damage when they become buried. When the rest of the crew are able to bury through **//Glimpse the Void//, Void Record** or **Pine Box** this can be devastating if the condition can't be removed. If intending to spam //**Glimpse the** **Void**// it is worth remembering that you can't bury an enemy model if the Scion, or any other model, is already buried, so care must be taken to keep the Scion on the field or to bring the Nothing Beast and its 0ss upgrade which helps friendly models not to count towards this restriction. __Karina Cleaner - Tara__ __Karina's__ summons need unburying before she can summon again, but in their depleted state it is a bit of a waste using Tara's AP and a 7+ of Crows to release them. The Scion (or anyone using her actions) can unbury them using (0) **The Hollowing** which is much more efficient but causes 3 damage to the unburying minion. For most of the summons the 3 damage they suffer is enough to kill them unless they were healed via a Void Wretch during the turn (which would also remove their slow), the exception being the Punk Zombie who has Hard to Kill. If a Drowned is the subject then they would drop a scheme marker due to **Finish the Job.** __Scion Bomb - Any Master__ As long as you bring something that can bury on your terms (eg Hannah with Void Record upgrade, Void Wretches) you can bury the Scion before she activates and unbury her later in the turn in your opponents face via a Trapper or fast troop like a Winged Plague. She's no Killjoy but this alpha strike can be much more 'surgical' than Tara's usual method as it doesn't rely on the 'Bomber' to go early in the turn and telegraph where the strike will likely be - any unactivated model can still unbury her. __Hench Bomb - Any Master (but Viks/Levy/Tara probably get best use)__ Similar to the Scion Bomb but requiring you to bury both the Scion and a nasty Henchman, which is much harder in a non-Tara crew. You can then unbury said Henchman into your opponents crew instead of the Scion. It could be a great misdirection play with Blood Vik, a summoner's nightmare with Taelor or a tank like Joss or Ryle. It might even be worth considering using a Flesh Construct, if running Levy, to tie down a dangerous model and just be a general nuisance from the start.

=__Tricks and Tips While Leading a Crew__=

In a smaller game the Scion would probably be best using Survivalist and then as many Void Wretches and low cost minions as possible. Stuff will die but hopefully your small models will be able to punch well above their weight and wear down the other crew.

Strategies and Schemes
Crews with the Scion can end up having a higher model count so Recon/Interference are usually okay; her **In the Blink of an Eye** is handy in Headhunter and schemes like Exhaust/Catch and Release/Cursed object, especially as she can just bury instead of getting tagged straight back. Her durability is great for Collect the bounty and schemes like Bodyguard and Murder Protégé/Quick Murder. The Scion herself is great at facilitating movement across the board so Breakthrough and Entourage are made quite easy. Dropping or flipping markers mid-table can be started early too. She is quite killy in herself but a crew built around her will often include models whose job is to heal her which can limit the overall combat potential of the crew as a whole. On the flip side of that she can lend her killing power to those models which makes up for that somewhat. Her tendency to jump into the enemy crew can be a problem if the likes of Detonate the Charges, Public Demo perhaps even Take Prisoner are in the pool. Holding points are not her forte either but being able to unbury late in the turn to score from a safe position can be very useful. If she's the leader though, she's even worse than Levy at giving away Neutralise the Leader VPs. She's a toolbox so can assist with pretty much all the schemes and strats.

Building a Crew
Void Wretches are her best synergy as she can make them powerful and they can heal her; you shouldn't consider bringing less than two with her and six is not uncommon. She can't unbury Masters, Enforcers or peons with **The Hollowing** but any non-peon can take advantage of **Whispers From the Nothing** so while there are few other direct synergies, she fits in quite well with anything.

Starting Scion of the Void
Adding the Scion of the Void and another set of Void Wretches to Tara's crew box is a fairly easy way to get into this unique playstyle Master. It is not a easy combination of skills to get to grips with but it's rewarding when you get it right. Later on you would want to expand the crew with some summoning options for Karina, some extra bury options with Hannah or Death Marshalls, and alternative 'Beast bomb' models (see Tara's tactics) such as Killjoy.

=__Playing Against Scion of the Void__=

The Scion's **Returning Home** doesn't help her against non direct damage such as blasts or pulses so these can be used to kill her on the field. If you can out activate them then the Scion becomes much more vulnerable as it won't be able to dodge into the Void to protect itself with no one to bring it back. Killing off that last unactivated model which was just about to unbury the Scion will ruin her day and even if it's not the last, may force the Scion to unbury away from where your opponent would like her. Hard to Wound really punishes her damage track, as does anything that prevents her from Focussing. Sometimes leaving her alone (especially if she has already activated) is better than getting her buried and allowing that unthreatening model to become a monster. Kill the healers. Without healing her utility and resilience disappears. Attacking your opponents hand can mean they don't have the card to discard for **Returning Home** or at least may struggle to heal it once buried (the Void wretches heal requires an 8 of any suit and 2AP).

(How best to deal with the Henchman and it's crew, things to watch out for, etc.)

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