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Unit Strategy Review: How to use Warden 816
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Unit Strategy Review Unit: Warden 816 Author: Filthy the Clown, with help from the USRs' circle Warden 816 adds mobility to your army, which is a decisive factor in engagement. Only a handful of heroes grant such bonuses: Sir Gilbert, Marcus Decimus Gallus, Spartacus, Venoc Warlord and Atlaga. To this list we add the gold-headed hero...Warden 816, a tricky Soulborg who uses fearmongery and an iron fist to extract every ounce of dedication from his Guards. With a special attack of five, range of seven, and a mammoth defense, the Warden is an impressive figure indeed! This guide will show you that despite his low life, the Warden is not only worth his points in certain situations; when coupled with fellow guards and increasing their strategic mobility, he is worth his weight in gold. The strategy articles adhere to the standard classification system for various classes of units: Pawn class (expendable, units that can be useful, but are not worth enormous trouble to protect) Bishop class (more useful than a pawn, but still somewhat expendable) Knight class (units that are interestingly powerful and can have a significant impact on the game in of themselves. It is advisable that they be kept alive, but if absolutely necessary they may be sacrificed) Rook class (units that almost inevitably have a significant impact on the game, and whose death should be avoided as much as possible) Queen class (devastatingly powerful or important units that should be protected at all costs) Vital Statistics Cost- 90 Class - Bishop/Rook* Size - Medium - Vulnerable/Concealable Life - 2 - Delicate Move - 5 - Average Range - 7 - Long Range Attack** - 3 - Average Defense - 6 - Enduring Tournament Readiness – Moderate * Guard Leadership - All guards that you control move one additional space. High Tactical Advantage ** Eviseraxe Special Attack - Strength 5 special attack cannot be used on small figures. Moderate Tactical Advantage. Class The Warden can walk the line between two classes: Bishop and Rook. As a 2-life, 90 point standalone hero, the Warden is a Bishop Class unit. Although he possesses some noteworthy attacks in his repertoire (range 7 attack of 3, and Eviseraxe), his paltry life of two means that you must be very careful how you play this gold-domed soulborg. However, his strongest asset is not his axe, but his movement bonus for Guards: when drafted with a Guard-heavy build, the Warden becomes a Rook class unit. He should be protected and placed out of direct harm's way as long as you have a large contingent of guards. Once your Guard reserves have been whittled down, or it is time for an end-game romp, do not be afraid to put the Warden on the front line, or use him to help finish off a wounded hero. Offense Although the Warden has a threat range of 12 and a melee Special Attack of 5, his offensive output has conditions that restrict his ability as a frontline strong-arm. Evisceraxe, while impressive, cannot be used on small-sized figures, which rules him out as a rat-clearing option and weakens him against Dwarves, Wyrmlings, and the like. He also shares the limitation of many heroes compared to squads; namely, he gets only one attack per order marker. However, given height, he can snipe away from seven spaces, especially against unsuspecting or engaged heroes, and he can thin out approaching squads with harassing fire. Until the end-game, use the occasional snipe at a prime target and the threat of his special attack to keep your opponent guessing while your Guards do most of the work. Only when your Guards are depleted will you move the Warden up to finish off opponents with his special attack. Survivability The Warden has an impressive Defense, comparable to such heavy weights as Ne-Gok-Sa and the Fen Hydra. As a Soulborg, Warden 816 is also immune to powers such as Chilling Touch, Marro Plague, and Toxic Skin, which adds to his resilience. When the dice gods are smiling on you, the Warden can live through just about anything thrown at him. However, the favor of the dice gods can change in a heartbeat, and hot dice can quickly turn on you. To further limit the Warden's odds of surviving, his meager life of 2 will quickly fall to repeated attacks, or even one whiffed defensive roll. Sure, you can throw him into the heart of the fray, and his defense just might hold. However, there is plenty of potential for a lone soldier of the 10th Regiment to drop him with one shot. If you are looking for a 90 point frontline shock troop, there are plenty of better options. Rather, rely on the Warden's Defense to get him out of tight situations, but always be mindful of his limitations. With that in mind, he belongs in the rear of your army, perched on height and directing the movement of his Guards. The Warden should not become engaged needlessly, as he should fear leaving engagement swipes more than most other multi-life heroes. If you play him with this in mind, saving his active order marker usage for the end-game, the Warden will earn his points. Strategy We have concluded that the Warden, despite his stats, is a cheerleader at heart; his strength lies in boosting the mobility of members of the Guard class. To quote Jexik in What's In an Order Marker : These units [cheerleaders] are better seen and not heard. You might put an order marker or two on them in the early rounds to get them into position, but after that, they really don’t give you all that much out of a turn. They also usually have some sort of powerful aura that makes them actually useful without a single order marker on them! You should do your best to defend them, as your opponent will often try to ambush them. These units won’t kill their points-worth most of the time, but they will enable others to do much more.Draft him with Guard-heavy armies, where his movement bonus can enhance your army's mobility. Tuck him in the back, nestled on height and out of direct harm: a true Rook class unit. There are quite a few Guard units with slow movement, and they will need the Warden to assist them; the following list shows how the Warden boosts specific Guard units (ranked by order of benefit received):
When your guards units fall, and the end-game draws near, it is time to change his role to that of a Bishop class; give him order markers, and let him snipe away. With his threat range of 12, your opponent will be hard-pressed to reach him. If they do, you can fall back with his axe (which works great against Counter Strike and figures that rely on Tough) to cut closing threats down to size, while relying on his potent Defense. With this approach, you can whittle down your opponent's remaining forces, one hero/squad member at a time. One of the Warden's limitations is the fact that he cannot use his special attack on small-sized units. Unfortunately, the list of small units is ever-growing, including Migol Ironwill and the Axegrinders of Burningforge, Fyorlag Spiders, Marrden Nagrubs, Omnicron Repulsors, Wolves of Badru, Goblin Cutters, the various Wyrmlings...and the Deathreavers. However, the majority of these units have an average Defense of 3, so the Warden's normal attack should be sufficient to thin out their ranks (per Sisyphus' Probability tables, an attack of 3 should wound a Defense 3 figure slightly more than 50% of the time; since the Warden should be on height, that increases his odds to 66%). Since the Warden can out-range all small units, he should utilize his range to snipe away at them, with the one exception being Deathreavers. Targeting them with a normal attack triggers Scatter, so he should ignore them at least until Scatter is no longer a strategic problem. Let your opponent swarm the Warden with rats. His defense will hold against their puny attacks, and tying up the Warden with rats means that your other units will be free to march and attack as needed. Optional Strategies
Units to Avoid The Warden should avoid the following units:
Additional Information My Custom Miscellany | Tourney Results Online HS - Master Figure Template | HS Online app | Online Play Instructions Last edited by Malechi; December 8th, 2010 at 06:16 PM. |
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Re: Unit Strategy Review - Warden 816
I've always thought the Warden deserves a little more respect than he seems to get from the vast majority of players.
He may not be the mostly godly 90 pt hero out there, but he fits a niche that no other unit can with his gaurd movement bonus. To illustrate it best, try playing the granites first with and then without him. Although most people would need to proxy a 4 or 5 squad granite army, it's really fun on a very small and hilly board. Basically you just toss in Raelin, the Krav and the Warden and then slowly rumble across the highlands. The krav provide you with range support and make your enemy come to you and Raelin makes the Granites and Warden's already solid defences very hard to penatrate. It's by no means a great build, but I highly recomend it in a match with a less skilled player. It gives them a chance at winning, and let's you play a really neat and unusual army. Strange as it may sound, on a hilly map, a large Granite army can actually get around faster than a lot of the classic melee builds such as the KoW, Romans etc. |
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Re: Unit Strategy Review - Warden 816
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The CEE has a nice battle report of the Warden in action as a Bishop Class hero (under the Fourth Battle spoiler), saved for cleanup duty (where he performed admirably). |
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Re: Unit Strategy Review - Warden 816
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It's actually not that surprising when you think about it. Not counting Gilbert's move, dispatching knights average 24 moves per OM. Granite Guardians get 9 from their base move, plus 3 more for the Warden, for 12. In order for the GGs to match the knights in overall movement per OM, they just need the average GHG move to be one and a third moves. On a hilly map, the average GHG move is actually better than that. |
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Re: Unit Strategy Review - Warden 816
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Last edited by Looking East; December 6th, 2010 at 12:48 AM. |
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