Wave 9 Game Day Battle Report (Now with Wave 9 opinions)

[arp12]

Yesterday I hosted a game day celebrating the release of Wave 9. This wasn’t a tournament, but we stuck with a 480 point total. So here’s my battle report.


Game 1
Map: Common Ground by Gamebear
My army: Brave Arrow, 3x Mohicans, Theracus, Venoc Warlord, Zetacron.
Opponent: Jotun’s Blacksmith, using DW8000, Kaemon Awa, 2x Stingers, Airborne Elite

His AE dropped in the first round, but fortunately their grenades didn’t do much damage. Kaemon moved down to the initiative glyph, but I didn’t move the adjacent Mohican. I moved the tribe out and killed a few Elite. The Deathwalker advanced, but didn’t do much, quickly killed by a Brave Arrow-enhanced Theracus attack. By this time some MRT had failed, and the Airborne had also kicked the bucket. I gained the move glyph, then I brought out some Mohicans from my start zone to assassinate Kaemon Awa, who had released and countered BA and Theracus. I engaged a stray stinger and destroyed him. Zetacron, shooting at a different Stinger, then ran across to the other side of the map. One shot ridded Kaemon from the battle. My remaining 2 Mohicans rushed to engage his last Marro, furiously winning the battle. With VW and Zeta also never wounded, I had over 200 points left.

Win!


Game 2
Map: Invasion by Longheroscaper
My army: 2x Protecters of Ullar, Taelord, Kumiko
Opponent: I Like Pi, using 2x AotBF, Migol Ironwill, Major Q9, Marro Warriors

I put many order markers on Kumiko in the beginning, hoping to use Ninjutsu on the Dwarves. However, he had Q9 be his first attacker. Unfortunately, Kumiko fell to Queglix right after giving Q9 a normal attack wound. I then positioned the PoU around Taelord. The Major retaliated, in a perfect place to disable any Protectors to reach. Combined Arbalest in addition to Taelord who had snagged the intercept order glyph wore away Q9. The Protectors rushed to occupy the edge of the road on height, firing at some Axegrinders. Migol and the Dwarves were simply too much for the low-defense Protectors to handle. Taelord couldn’t comeback alone, so the game ended with him surrounded by angry short people.

Loss.


Game 3
Map: Just Passing Through by Dignan
My army: 2x Dividers, Su-Bak-Na, 2x Nagrubs, Major Q10, Isamu
Opponent: Sniper Viper, using 3x Repulsors, 1x Snipers, Cyprien, Sonya

My Dividers quickly engaged his oncoming Repulsors, destroying a few and sneaking onto the Lodin glyph. We were both rolling bad defense dice, and he landed some lucky kills on the Dividers. Even with SBN and the glyph, Cell Divide only succeeded twice (and the first time I couldn’t replicate). His Omnicron Snipers then hiked up the road and finished off the Dividers. By this time I had Q10 in the battle on height. Another negative instance happened with 2 order markers him. At the beginning of the round, I experienced an EMP Response to wrist rocket. In the starting zone, SBN was sniped at for 3 wounds in one of his free turns. At this time, Isamu embarked on his mission: in 2 markers he assassinated the lone Sniper, dying shortly after. Next I used the Nagrubs, and SBN had one wound healed before meeting Cyprien on the bridge. The five skulls inflicted 3 wounds. I forgot to move the grubs though. At this point Q10 had one wound at the other end of the map. In a spectacle on par with tonight’s fireworks in Boston (in the Boston Pops, be sure to look for 2 seconds of the back of my cello teacher’s head!), his three adjacent Repulsors overloaded Q10 into death. The first two wounds were from Circuitry Overload; then the second single attack die was met with a defense whiff. RIP Major Q10. Su-Bak-Na got vengeance by killing Cyprien, having rolled 5 skulls from height. One of my Nagrubs obtained the wound glyph. He maneuvered his Repulsors around some. Now, Zetacron was first activated, and he rolled two (four) skulls to kill the enbeaconated SBN. Here’s when it became exciting: a few Nagrubs faced Zetacron, Sonya, a Sniper, and 2 Repulsors. I scuttled down the road to kill the heartbroken Sonya from height. I also managed to put a wound on Zetacron, who ridded me of 2 grubs. With 3 left (only 2 attacking), I miraculously wounded Zetacron one last time. All the figures gathered for a final fight. The wound glyph made one Repulsor disappear. Then my two attacks finished off the last Repulsor. If I could survive until the end of the round, I would wound the Sniper to win. But I didn’t need to. He was knocked down by tiny Hivelord food.

Win!


Conclusions:
I really enjoy these new Wave 9 figures.
I wrote a lot about the last battle.
You should watch the Boston Pops tonight. (Edit: cello teacher's face was shown multiple times)

Figures:
Mohicans- Especially with the scout movement enhancement, they're more powerful than they seem. I'd classify them as a competitive unit, at least in the right army and player.
Brave Arrow- Same as the Mohicans, but the potential for him to be in a different army is strong.
Migol & Dwarves- I only got to play against them, but they're a solid bonding squad. The strategic bonding is helpful. Thier full potential only appears against large and huge units, though. Migol is a real tough hero to go along with them.
PoU- Really, I don't see these guys working in a pre-made army environment. They slaughter certain units (i.e. low defense and high life heroes), but are just too weak to survive common swarms.
Kumiko- 5 defense is nice, but with 3 life I still don't see her living very long. Not long enough to get in lots of Ninjutsu, anyway. It seems she should be powerful (and is a handy option for retaking glyphs), but there are many much better ways to spend 80 points.
Dividers- Love their sculpts, solid stats. The downside is for Cell Divide to take place often, you want to fill your army with them. At least in lower point totals, the lack of range can hurt.
Repulsors- Observing some of SniperViper's matches(he used them every game), I think these guys are a useful compliment to Zetacron and the Snipers. For their cost, the abilities and 7 reange is great. Their real value is when you can engage to give the Targeting Beacon bonus to your other troops. They also look really cool in a swarm!

[TemplarMaster]

All the more reason to get Wave 9. Thanks for posting the report.

[roostertail9000]

Sounds like fun. Right now I'm having a lot of trouble seeing the PoU in tourney play. They seem a tad too fragile.

[Robotech Master]

Small Error with the Repulsors. You roll ONCE for each soulborg figure adjacent to ANY Repulsors you control. Even surrounded by three, you would roll once for Q10. Still, that mistake only amounted to one extra wound.

[arp12]

Originally Posted by Robotech Master

Small Error with the Repulsors. You roll ONCE for each soulborg figure adjacent to ANY Repulsors you control. Even surrounded by three, you would roll once for Q10. Still, that mistake only amounted to one extra wound.

Oh, thanks. Q10 could have survivied.

Edit: added opinions on new figures.

[SymphonyScaper]

Very cool stuff!

I just played my first battle with Wave 9 figures last night, and was not disappointed [at the Dividers].

[Creationist]

i dont think you give the dwarves enough credit. Ive played around 10ish games with them, and they rock even without facing large or huge figures. That ability to shock the opponent with the sudden 6 move dwarves is awesome. They work extremely well when used in x3 and with Migol.

[Captain Canuck]

Originally Posted by roostertail9000

Sounds like fun. Right now I'm having a lot of trouble seeing the PoU in tourney play. They seem a tad too fragile.

The Protectors are not as fragile as you would think. I used 3 squads in my last battle and they were tough. In tourney play, their Combined Arbelast attack is powerful and is great at taking down heros. For example, in my battle against Tul-Bak-Ra, my first Protector (on height rolling 4 attack dice) inflicted 2 wounds, my next Protector then was able to roll 6 attack dice in which he inflicted 2 more wounds, and my final Protector then was able to roll 8 attack dice. TBR with 6 lives was dead in one turn. Good stuff.

As far as their fragility- if you get them on height, they roll 4 defense- that's at least average.

[A_Train]

Thanks for the report. Your comments on the Dividers convinced me to throw in for one more pack of them (Even though I don't really want 4 squads of defenders).
I can't wait to get my own.

[arp12]

Yeah, it's as if those extra points you spend on more of them go farther because you're going to get more replicated back.

[mccombju]

I enjoyed the Battle Report!

On the Protectors of Ullar, I agree that they are fragile. Since they command unprecedented attack power against heroes, I consider the inclusion of Taelord in your PoU army to be wasteful. That army would have been much better off with some Deathreavers. They help to cover for the PoU's poor defense and poor point lost per figure lost rating.

[arp12]

Originally Posted by mccombju

I enjoyed the Battle Report!

On the Protectors of Ullar, I agree that they are fragile. Since they command unprecedented attack power against heroes, I consider the inclusion of Taelord in your PoU army to be wasteful. That army would have been much better off with some Deathreavers. They help to cover for the PoU's poor defense and poor point lost per figure lost rating.

True. I wanted to see if Taelord would be a good help to Combined Arbalest, but Deathreavers would have been more useful.