A 400 army analysis

[Mystyc]

So, a friend of mine is going to Origins, and I'm trying to find a good 400-point army to send him with. At Gencon last year he ran with [Raelin + 2xSentinels + Krav Maga] while I brought . Those were both good on paper, but they played OK, but not great.

Anyway, I was looking at just the best units, seeing if something fit together smoothly from the cream of the crop, and I came up with:

Krav Maga Agents
Kaemon Awa
Major Q9

Some quick analysis:

Strengths:
[b]Power: With three of the game's strongest units, you're certainly getting the most power for your points.
Range: All units in this army have a ranged attack of at least 3 dice and a range of at least 7.
Multiple attacks: Every unit can provide multiple attack rolls when activated.
Special attacks: Q9 and Kaemon have strong special attacks that can bypass various defensive abilities.
Weaknesses:
Speed: The units' speeds are only 5, 5, and 6, making it difficult to reach glyphs or high ground.
Few units: With only 5 figures, it's easy to get clogged up by cannon fodder, and it's difficult to hold onto glyphs.
No synergy: None of the units get bonding activations or bonuses from the other units.
Mostly medium: Special attacks that only affect medium and small figures will affect everyone except Q9.
You can see my previous army shares a lot of these same strengths and weaknesses, so I guess that tells you something about my play style. Anyway, in terms of specific units, I would be most concerned about really big fatties like Braxas or Nilfheim, as none of this army's units are specialized for smashing through tons of life points. (An alternative would be Krug in place of Kaemon -- that adds another large figure, which brings in even more mobility issues, but provides more resistance to specials.)

I also don't know how this army would react to Deathreavers. It seems like the multiple attacks should be helpful, but those little rats are hard to get rid of. An opposing Q9 is not thrilling, although it can't put you in too big a hole since you have your own, and the multiple attacks gives more chances to invoke the Soulborg Curse.

Basically, am I overlooking anything here? In particular, would Krug be a better choice than Kaemon? Or is there a faster (but still practical) choice for one of these guys?

[Rÿchean]

The army would laugh at Rats as you have two of the best counters to the rats: Q9 and Kaemon because of special attacks.

These units rock and I think you will be happy with their perfromance..

you got 3 A list units there from spider's power rankings:

Krav Maga Agents- Though the Krav can completely dominate an entire game, their effectiveness significantly drops with the loss of one squad member. Raelin greatly improves their value. A

Kaemon Awa- A great late-game mop-up hero, Kaemon can single-handedly take out much of an opponent's army. A

Major Q9- Perhaps the only question to ask when building an army is “Can this take out Q9?” If yes, you might win. A+

[UranusPChicago]

Actually, I think the army suffers from "too much of a good thing". I think that with 5 units you are a couple bad defense rolls away from being decimated.

I would drop either Q9 or Kaemon Awa rather than bringing both of them in a 400 point army and fill in the remaining points with a squad or two.

[GIR]

I tried that army.

Q9 and Kaemon Awa died from Nilfiem in one turn from his Special Attack! Amazing! The KMA ended up with 1 against Ke-mo-shi. They lost. :cry:

[Tiberius]

I have to go with UPC on this one, they are all great units but you want something that will go really well together. Try Q9, nakitas, raelin (380 points). You have Q9/raelin combo and some flying, with the additional protection from range with the nakitas and thier other funky ability to smack anything that gets close. You rely on Q9 to be the offense of this group and the nakitas as back up. Alternatively, drop raelin for ratsx2. Rats are a great screen against any melee group you will encounter and while they waste time trying to get through the rats, Q9 cleans house.

[spider_poison]

I tried that army.

Q9 and Kaemon Awa died from Nilfiem in one turn from his Special Attack! Amazing! The KMA ended up with 1 against Ke-mo-shi. They lost. :cry:

Wow, the chances of that happening are at best 1 in over 22,000. You must be very unlucky :(.

As for the army analysis, I could see this army completely decimating others. You might not even lose a figure in some of your games. But like UPC said, just one or two bad rolls could spell disaster for you. Maybe trying to work some Deathreavers into the build would help. Raelin would also significantly help some all of your guys. I think the army would be a little better if you put in one squad of Deathreavers and Raelin instead of Kaemon. If you don't like that, though, I'd probably stick with Kaemon instead of Krug...you already have quite a few high-powered attackers.

[Rÿchean]

dang there goes my Big 'ole Monster army!

Spider, UPC, and Tiberius shot it down. ;-)

[Aldin]

Well functionally speaking, Kaemon Awa is really just a more mobile, cut rate version of Q9 so I can see cutting one or the other in pursuit of more synergy. Having said that though, I'm not sure there are a lot of great synergies you're missing. In a way, because KA & Q9 are functional clones, losing either one to a bad defensive roll isn't so bad because the unit that remains is still deadly in that role. The most intriguing change of which I can think would be Kaemon Awa for Raelin and a squad of Deathreavers. Makes everyone harder to kill, provides a screen, adds to the number of units and gives you some glyph grabbers at the cost of losing the redundancy KA offers to Q9's Special Attack power.

~Aldin, who notes that Raelin and the Rats also got Poisonous thumbs up

[darkclown789]

I would go with the same army but with this change:

Out; Kaemon Awa.

In; 3x Deathreavers.

You can grab glyphs very well, while also just using your screen of rats to snipe your opponents into submission.

That's my 2cents anyway...

Darkclown

[TheRealQ]

I'm with Darkclown. If you have 3 sets of reavers you don't need Raelin as there is going to be little chance that the opponent ever even gets a chance to engage you...unless he's stacked with disengage. The low attack value of most figures with disengage (orcs) makes them little of a threat to Q-9 and his big defense. The pile of reavers also increases your chance to claim and keep glyphs which in their own right can pump up your army's defense.

[GIR]

dang there goes my Big 'ole Monster army!

Spider, UPC, and Tiberius shot it down. ;-)

I didn't shoot it down!? :?

[Matthias Maccabeus]

I hate to hi-jack a thread, but I thought it would be better than starting a new one.
I'm having a small tournament type style game day in a couple of weeks with my teens (I'm a youth pastor). I need a few suggestions, for myself some 400 point armies. I would like to stay away from Q9 and KA if possible and let others that aren't as experienced use them. I have everything except wave 3 and the terrain expansions. I have 2 of every common. I play tested the one I thought I would roll with, but it got beat up pretty badly. It was
Laglor, KMA, Raelin, Rats x2, Eldgrim.
I nearly lost to Grimnak, DW8K...(only reason I won was because of the curse of the DWs), Raelin, Heavy gruts x1. Laglor survived w/4 wounds. I was playing catch up the whole game, and kind of lucked out towards the end. Any suggestions. I like to play valiant armies, but am trying to stay away from that, also. I want the teens to have a chance...(not a real good chance, but at least a little). One I was toying with is Brunak, Carr, Nakitas, and DED. Any suggestiions would be welcome. Thanks in advance.

[Tiberius]

Have you considered a blast/glad combo with either KMA or Laglor? That always worked well for me. Or a frenzy army with mittens, vipers, EOV and aubriens if you have room.