Leshavult Overview & First Boxes - Starting Moonstone

Leshavult

Unlike dominion and commonwealth, there is less of a focus on specific races in Leshavult. Most troupes within the faction tend to have more of a focus on synergies and combos. That being said there are still some loose "Sub factions" which Leshavult can be collected and played as. Firstly, the fauns and animals who zip around at impressive speeds, full of energy. In contrast to this, the spirits and cultists generally play a slower methodical game, relying on arcane deck manipulation and other esoteric abilities and combos. Irrespective of the sub-faction in question, Leshavult models are generally very flimsy and have excellent energy manipulation.

Animals & Fauns

Difficulty: Medium

Evasion and speed are the main tricks of the fauns and the animals. With more movement tricks than most, the fauns and animals can ensure they can be where they want as quickly as possible. This is also helped by their access to some energy manipulation. This comes in the form of Chubs and Toodles active and arcane abilities as well as Boris's self-generating passive energy production. When they want to be fighting instead of fleeing though, their damage generally comes from melee attacks but some fauns like Jayda and Chubs can put out damage at range with their bows. However they are applying damage though, they should be wary, as average evade and low to average wound count makes them generally very flimsy.

The most unique trait of the animals and fauns though is Boris the Bunny Summoner who is, currently, the game's only summoner! The ability to spawn more models throughout the game is a great boon for any player and can help many different strategies! For example, using hordes of bunnies to pin enemies in place can assist your fauns in avoiding certain troublesome enemies or help them retreat after gathering a horde of moonstones. This combined with some very effective movement tricks, like Glooms 'Whisper to the wild things', can also make the fauns a fantastic harvesting or hit-and-run based troupe. 

As for starting boxes, Hunting Horns is a brilliant set. Hoff is often a fantastic inclusion for any faun-based list with his faun-centred support abilities and great combat potential. Jayda meanwhile does not offer any support abilities but is a well-rounded model who can do just about anything else. Want to harvest moonstone? Use her ample supply of energy to harvest them and then 'Swift' to get away. Need some combat punch? Have her shoot her bow a couple of times then finish off the opponent with her signature. Finally, Toodles can heal injured models and can bestow numerous other support abilities to friends and foes alike. After this, the Wild Things can be a great expansion with the fantastic support of Chubs, the brutal combat ability of Wendigo and Glooms movement madness! 

Cultists & Spirits

Difficulty: Medium

In contrast to the fauns and animals, the cultists and spirits play a slower and more methodical game. Spirits are also a cohesive mish-mash of multiple types of weird and wonderful spirits such as covens of witches and forests of treefolk. These all boast their own playstyles but can mix together nicely too to form weird and bizarre strategies and tactics. They also bring some very new tricks and mechanics to the game. Such as arcane deck manipulation which can turn the deck against your opponent but in your favour. Whilst one or two models in commonwealth and dominion can take advantage of triggering catastrophes in very situational circumstances, the cultists and spirits can base entire strategies around getting catastrophes. In addition to this, vast amounts of energy manipulation mean that you will often be able to perform all the actions you need! The only downside of this is that turns can be complex to plan out and execute leading to a hard-to-play troupe which is sometimes easy to disrupt.

As with the fauns and animals, the cultist and spirits also have their own first in the game with a dual-state model. Anya Bartol can use an active ability or her signature move to transform into a different model, completely changing her stats and playstyle! This, however, isn't super easy to do. With low wounds and no armour, Anya is likely to get very injured if trying to transform with her signature move. Similarly, using the active ability isn't perfectly straightforward as she lacks the 4 energy she needs to use it. This is a theme amongst a lot of Leshavult models where they have an extraordinarily powerful ability which is locked at more energy than they generate. Lots of planning and finesse are therefore often needed to use a cultist and spirit troupe, but when everything goes to plan, there's very little that can stop them.

For a first box, the cursed can be a good place to start. Compared to most of the other cultist and spirits models, the cursed is comparatively straightforward and varied. With the Beast you have a fantastic melee monster, the Revenant is a great harvester and Anya can use 'Healing' to keep everyone healthy. As well as this, if the Beast is slain, Anya and the Revenant can put out some damage/take some damage in melee as needed. After this, the end is nigh can be an excellent addition to this troupe. Whilst the same can be said of the witches, they are considerably harder to use but if their models or playstyle appeals to you they can also be a brilliant second box. Otherwise, the end is nigh offers Daniel and Kavanagh who can reliably provide Anya with the energy she needs to transform. Finally, it also offers Kalista which can provide protection for any model and also increases the arcane of all cultists and spirits.