Lord of Skulls - Early army killer with no reward.

[Nurrai]

Is the Lord of Skulls supposed to respawn after you kill it and is it supposed to be so strong early on? I had this kinda situation happen.

1) Lord of Skulls appeared about chapter 2 of my Imperial Guard playthrough. About this time, I had plenty of Leman Russ's, Guardsmen, Rockets and a few Basilisk that were about to join the front line. Lord of Skulls showed up right infront of me. It one shot my rockets wiith one attack of it's main-gun, it one-shot my tanks with the melee attack and practically brought my guardsman down to 40% health in it's chest cannon attack.

This went on for a few turns and it practically nearly wiped out my whole army. I had to spam out units to replace the ones I lost, nearly costing me all my resources while I did practically no damage to it. Rockets - 2 damage. Guardsman - 0.8-1 damage. Tanks - 6-8 damage. Basilisk - 4-6 damage. With it having a health pool of 145 and increasing everytime it leveled up, and it repairing 2 units of damage while killing 3 units every turn is just stupid. I didn't kill it in time and it despawned.

2) It showed up again just before I entered chapter 3. It caught me a little off-guard but this time I was a bit more prepared with high-level tanks and other support units. It still one-shotted everything in sight though but I had managed to kill it, got a little event pop-up and +2 damage reduction. I was honestly thinking "Really? Is that it? It wipes out half-to nearly all my army and all I get is damage reduction"

3) Just as I entered chapter 4 of the IG playthough with a seriously large army.. tanks, baneblades, air support... it spawned again. This time near one of my newly created cities and practically right next to my army as they were off to deal with the whole chapter 4 business. It went straight for my city and one-shotted it.. then it started one shotting my units again.. so I was honestly like "I already killed this thing! Why is it back?!"

Needless to say.. I killed it, and I got nothing this time. No reward or anything.. it just seems to be there to screw your day up.

So is the whole point of it just to mess your day up and your army? Like I was playing on a huge map with 7 other Ai players on normal / medium difficulty. Had 3 front-lines going, Lord of Skull shows up, had to move practically all my units from both my second and third front-lines just to deal with this and let the AI roll over the areas I'm supposed to be protecting.

[Gravedigger]

Sounds like it's working as intended. You're playing the expendable blob faction, it's a giant demon engine of khorne.

[Nurrai]

Originally posted by Gravedigger:

Sounds like it's working as intended. You're playing the expendable blob faction, it's a giant demon engine of khorne.

Yeah, but the same happens in every army. You could play Space Marines, Orks or Necrons and it just comes along and wipes the floor with your units. It literally has traits designed to one-shot units.

[Desolator]

by the timeit shows up, around turn 100 orso, I had three cities and about 20-30 tanks + arty, plenty to wail away at it, though I didn't want to risk my tank and used mostly arty. It depsawned after a while. Second time it spawned I'd just gotten hunter-killer missiles, T10 tech. The thing had 0 chance and died in two turns. You *do* still get the quest reward (10% damage reduction), after that it's just a nuisance really

[Nurrai]

I just kinda feel those who had pre-ordered or gotten the deluxe edition of the game has to put up with an army killer fairly early. Like the traits it's been given are literally just designed and there to one-shot any army or unit it comes across.

Starts with 9 armor, 130 health, no morale issues, 3 movement.

"Daemon: min 33% invulnerable damage reduction

Fuelled by rage: Increases attack when hitpoints decrease

Furious charge: 10% extra melee damage

It will not die: +2 hitpoints every turn

Move through cover: It passes through all movement penalty tiles without issue

Rage: +1 melee attack

Relentless: No penalty for their weapons

Smash: min 10 melee armour penetration

Strikedown: Temporarily reduces movement and accuracy of any infantry it hits

Super-heavy: As the description says "Huge armour-clad constructions that each carry enough firepower to vaproise, smash or incinerate an entire army."

+ It gains bonuses of any relics neutrals hold on the map."

And then there's the weapons and actions.

"Greater cleaver of Khorne: 10 armor penetration, 3 attacks, 37.2 damage, 8 accuracy.

Aura of Fear: Reduces melee damage of all enemy units next to it.

Hammer of Wrath: +25% damage, 3 turn cooldown

Gorestorm: 10 armor penetration, 1 attack, 6 damage and 6 accuracy

Hades Gatling Cannon: 4 armor penetration, 12 attacks, 6 damage, 6 accuracy."

[Lasoma]

ya its no fun losing every thing u worked for in few turns

[wabbit]

Originally posted by Kapra:

I just kinda feel those who had pre-ordered or gotten the deluxe edition of the game has to put up with an army killer fairly early.

Not sure if you know or not, but you can turn the Lord of Skulls off during game setup.