Insidious+Madness

toc //Work in Progress - Rathnard//
 * Insidious Madness, Neverborn Minion [[image:p-16606.jpg width="311" height="529" align="right"]]**

=__Overview__= The Insidious Madness is essentially a support piece - a fast, fragile minion with few offensive abilities but some incredible Wp-based debuffs. In the Neverborn with Wp-centric Masters like Zoraida and Pandora, this is a great boon. Kirai's crew of spirits with their Wp-based melee attacks get alot of value out of the Insidious Madness as well.

=__Mobility__= Wk 7 gives the Insidious Madness some amazing speed and combined with having float and spirit, this minion is basically able to reposition itself to almost anywhere on the board in a given turn. Since it is also significant, it can be a very effective objective grabber.

=__Offense__= As a support model the Insidious Madness has some great Talents for disrupting your opponent's crew. His damage output is well below average for a 4SS model, but he's still capable of finishing off the odd model should you need it. It has no melee attack besides bash, and is not a gunfighter.

**Neverborn Whispers**
This weapon has a decent 10" range and uses this model's Wp against either the Wp or Df of the target. The damage is low, but has a possibility of making a model slow. Once damage is inflicted however, any immunities or bonuses to Wp (e.g. immune to influence and stubborn) are lost until the closing phase. This can allow other models in your crew to get around these talents.

A Danger To Yourself
As a straight Wp --> Wp duel to deal 2 wounds to an enemy model within 4", this is the Insidious Madness's version of a melee attack. While it's not spectacular, that fact that it deals Wds means your opponent can't reduce or mitigate it with Talents like Armor or the Spirit trait.

Psychopathic Episode
This is the insidious madness taking one for the team - it goes and stands within 4" of the enemy crew and inflicts negative flips for Wp duels on all models in range. For such a weak model this is not a survivable place to be, but the aura can allow a game changing turn of Wp nastiness to occur.

=__Resilience__=

Psychosis
If you need to keep this model alive, this is your best shot. The insidious madness has a solid Df and reasonable Wp, and putting enemy models on double negative flips to strike at it will often keep it alive.

Induce Phobia
Terrifying can be useful, but can't be counted upon. Its certainly nice to have access to for the right situation, but since the ability isn't always active, it has even more limitations than normal.

=__Tips and Tricks__=

Delirium
Losing a 4SS model for a second chance to gain the initative might seem like a bad idea, but in practice it can actually be very useful, even game-winning. In alot of games there will be those turns where the player who gets initative gains a significant advantage over the other, whether it's to claim an objective or kill a key model before tour opponent kills yours, games can sometimes be won or lost on the result of an initative flip. Delirium is for those times.

Obviously you're going to want to only resort to using Delirium in dire circumstances, but even then it's not always a great idea. If your opponent's initative flip is high (10-13) then there's a very good chance you're going to lose the initative anyway, even with that +fate on the flip. At moderate values like 7-9 it's more risky but probably still worth it if you really need the initative. Enemy initative flips of less than 7 still won't guarantee you initative by re-flipping, but you should be pretty confident of making it anyway.

Hysteria
If you can force a model to fail a moral duel, through terrifying or through the abilities of coppelius, then sending an insidious madness haring after it can keep it out of the game for a long time. Its worth keeping this ability in the back of your mind if the situation presents itself.

=__Master-Specific Tips__=

Pandora
In case you've been living under a rock, Pandora is the undisputed queen of Wp-based spells and talents. Thanks to The Box Opens she has no need for the Insidious Madness's ability to strip Immune to Influence, but taking away troublesome talents that boost a models Wp (like Stubborn) is definitely appreciated.

Dreamer
The Dreamer himself has only two things that would be helped by the Insidious Madness's support tricks - Night Terrors (Nightmare within a pulse gain Terrifying 13) and Inflict Dreams (a Wp-resist spell that gives -fate to multiple stats). That said, your average Dreamer crew tends to run a little short on non-insignificant models that can move fast under their own power. Night Terrors are the usual ojective grabbers for the Dreamer, but the Insidious Madness can also fulfil that role quite well if his services are not needed by the rest of Dreamer's crew.

Zoraida
The Wp-based spells Bewitch and Obey are the staples of Zoraida's playstyle, and the insidious madness should make casting those spells on key models much easier.

Kirai
Quite a few of Kirai's minions have melee weapons that target a model's Wp, rather than Df, so sticking an Insidious Madness with Psychopathic Episode up next to a target model will make it much easier to take down by the Spirits you follow up with.

Jakob Lynch
Both Delirium and Hysteria can play into the abilities of Lynch's crew, and certainly those of his totem, the Hungering Darkness. Giving permanent Brilliance to an insidious madness is easy to do. Once Brilliant, the madness can act as a highly mobile re-spawn point if HD dies during a game. The insidious can cover large distances to place HD in the best position, and can be sacrificed at the start of a turn to bring back the Hungering Darkness and gain its bonus to initiative too. The Hysteria ability can be used if HD respawns from the death of another model. Since his rebirth forces moral duels that bypass immunities, the opportunity for a madness to prevent a model from rallying might well crop up more often.

=__Minion-Specific Tips__= Basically any minion who uses Wp-based attacks are going to benefit from having an Insidious Madness around.

=__Playing Against the Insidious Madness__= The Insidious Madness is a basically a support minion, so it's threat to your crew will really depend on what that it will be able to combo with but generally, it's good enough for you to usually want it dead, even if it's only to ensure it won't sweep in and take/disrupt an objective late in the game.

If you can get past it's high Df and Psychosis, it should only take two decent hits at most to bring an Insidious Madness down. However the difficulty in targetting an Insidious Madness starts compounding should it get the chance to use Induce Phobia or more critically, Psychopathic Episode.

Don't pick Insidious Madness as a target for a scheme like Grudge, or another scheme that requires you to kill it. It can just kill itself at the start of any round to deny you the victory points, and possibly win the Initiative at a key moment as well.

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