Wave 9/10/D1/D2 Playtesting at killercactus' House - D2 9/5

[killercactus]

I had phantazm21zero over last night for some Wave 9 testing, which was loads of fun (for me, at least - I was the one playing Wave 9, and the one with the hot dice in the first game). We played two games on Jungle Swamp Road. The first game was:

killercactus

Scout's Honor

Venoc Warlord - 120
Venoc Vipers x3 - 240
Brave Arrow - 290
Mohicans x3 - 500

vs.

phantazm21zero

Kaemon Awa - 120
Raelin - 200
Stingers x5 - 500

I started by advancing all of my Mohicans together. I figured this was the best idea, so that once I reached the enemy, I would be able to keep two of them engaged and activate Brave Arrow. At the beginning, this proved harder than I thought. If I engage a Stinger, but then kill it, I don't get to activate Brave Arrow. However, I stuck two of them onto Raelin and got them adjacent to trees for the extra defense, and used the rest of my Indians to shoot at Stingers. I completely ignored Raelin, because she doesn't do very much at all to help squads. Phantazm's dice really hurt him this game, and my Mohicans killed everything. He put two Order Markers on Kaemon Awa to start a round, but I won initiative and focused a volley of high ground fire at him, followed by a Brave Arrow tomahawk swing, and Kaemon whiffed a couple of times and died, costing him two turns. Craig did juice his final Stinger and killed Brave Arrow in one shot, but I won the game with two Mohicans left, along with Mittens and all of my Vipers. I did make a couple of Concealment rolls, but not a lot.

Game 2 was

killercactus

Divide and Conquer

Tul-Bak-Ra - 130
SotM Raelin - 250
Dividers x5 - 500

vs

Phantazm21zero

Sir Gilbert - 105
Eldgrim - 135
Zetacron - 195
Knights x4 - 475

I didn't realize that Craig was 25 points short until now.... that might have made a difference, since this game was close.

I teleported TBR into enemy territory early and took out Zetacron and a Knight or two before going down and summoning two Dividers into enemy ranks. From there, this was nothing more than a war of attrition. The Knights were faster, so I held my ground. He killed Raelin eventually, but it took him a while, as he was splitting up attacks between Dividers and Raelin. I got a lot of attacks from height, but the Knights proved to be somewhat stalwart, as usual. He finally broke through my blockade at the choke point close to my starting zone, but not without heavy losses on both sides. I hit probably 4-5 successful Divides for the game, and I ended up winning this game with 3 Dividers left on the board. I was the first one to rag on this squad, but after that game I was quite impressed with them. I'm not so sure how the game would've played out against a ranged army, however.

So far, I'm very impressed by the Wave 9 units, especially Brave Arrow. You really get a lot out of him for 50 points, IMO, and I don't think I ever even used the Scout Attack Enhancement (I forgot all about it - there may have been times I could've taken advantage). Can't wait to try out the Axegrinders and Migol, and to see some more units!

[foofoofun]

wow I am glad to hear of the new figures in action with good response this means I will buy those new Dividers!!!!

[roostertail9000]

I'm going to buy everything!

[Fencerjared]

Yeah, who did foofoofun think he was kidding?

[killercactus]

A game against myself tonight to test my doubts on Jungle Swamp Road:

Mithril Major

Migol Ironwill - 110
Axegrinders x3 - 320
Q9 - 500

vs.

Omnicron's Agents

Krav Maga Agents - 100
SotM Raelin - 220
Omnicron Snipers x2 - 420
Repulsors x2 - 500

Fearful of the Repulsors, I sent in the Dwarves and Migol first. The Krav Maga started the game for the other army, trying to draw the enemy into the Omnicron nest. Migol was killed very quickly after an unfortunate whiff when Tommy Lee threw 4 skulls from high ground. The Dwarves, now faster, picked up a move glyph and caught up to Tommy and Raelin, but only managed one wound on Raelin at first. A few more Dwarves were shot down before Q9 joined the fray. He killed Will Smith with the Krav-Buster 1's and then engaged Tommy Lee from low ground. His Queglix couldn't kill the Agent thanks to height and Raelin, and the Omnicrons seized their opportunity.

At first, the Repulsors were ineffective. I got a couple of them engaged to Q9, but they were shot down (even with Raelin's help), and missed their Overload rolls. However, one little Repulsor eventually managed to Overload Q9 for a wound and survive his barrage of fire (even though EMP didn't work). With the next turn, the first Sniper threw 4 skulls, and Q9's 1 shield spelled the end. The remaining Dwarves were mopped up by the Krav, and one Whirlwind attack from Raelin.

One Krav, Raelin (1 wound), 5 Repulsors and all 6 Omnicrons were left standing. An impressive win for Omnicron's Agents.

[ParaGoomba Slayer]

Originally Posted by killercactus

A game against myself tonight to test my doubts on Jungle Swamp Road:

Mithril Major

Migol Ironwill - 110
Axegrinders x3 - 320
Q9 - 500

vs.

Omnicron's Agents

Krav Maga Agents - 100
SotM Raelin - 220
Omnicron Snipers x2 - 420
Repulsors x2 - 500

Fearful of the Repulsors, I sent in the Dwarves and Migol first. The Krav Maga started the game for the other army, trying to draw the enemy into the Omnicron nest. Migol was killed very quickly after an unfortunate whiff when Tommy Lee threw 4 skulls from high ground. The Dwarves, now faster, picked up a move glyph and caught up to Tommy and Raelin, but only managed one wound on Raelin at first. A few more Dwarves were shot down before Q9 joined the fray. He killed Will Smith with the Krav-Buster 1's and then engaged Tommy Lee from low ground. His Queglix couldn't kill the Agent thanks to height and Raelin, and the Omnicrons seized their opportunity.

At first, the Repulsors were ineffective. I got a couple of them engaged to Q9, but they were shot down (even with Raelin's help), and missed their Overload rolls. However, one little Repulsor eventually managed to Overload Q9 for a wound and survive his barrage of fire (even though EMP didn't work). With the next turn, the first Sniper threw 4 skulls, and Q9's 1 shield spelled the end. The remaining Dwarves were mopped up by the Krav, and one Whirlwind attack from Raelin.

One Krav, Raelin (1 wound), 5 Repulsors and all 6 Omnicrons were left standing. An impressive win for Omnicron's Agents.

I know. Those Repulsors are freakin' BEASTS. No one likes to be bogged down in a melee screen while being shot at with Omnicrons that have 2-3 attack.

People also seem to forget just how much the Repulsors hurt Q9 & Q10 in a draft game.

[RepMoocher]

Repulsors will pretty much beat Q-9 every time!

[killercactus]

Originally Posted by RepMoocher

Repulsors will pretty much beat Q-9 every time!

Only if they have Snipers in tow, I think, and even then Q9 is still tough to bring down. I got pretty lucky against him in my battle report (and the Krav were really lucky against Migol - there may have been fewer Repulsors to come after Q9 had he survived longer).

[ElvenEnvy]

Originally Posted by killercactus

Only if they have Snipers in tow, I think, and even then Q9 is still tough to bring down. I got pretty lucky against him in my battle report (and the Krav were really lucky against Migol - there may have been fewer Repulsors to come after Q9 had he survived longer).

If there's a tiny grassy knoll in the map Q9 will win on the acount of the repulsors having 3 height and no climbing power. They have to get adjacent to Q9 or 2/3 of their powers are gone. Plus the remaining power only slows Q9's attack it doesn't actually kill Q9.

[Bonecrusher]

Originally Posted by killercactus

Mithril Major

Migol Ironwill - 110
Axegrinders x3 - 320
Q9 - 500

vs.

Omnicron's Agents

Krav Maga Agents - 100
SotM Raelin - 220
Omnicron Snipers x2 - 420
Repulsors x2 - 500

I also played a game against myself on Sidewinder with these exact armies except I used ROTV Raelin + 1x Repulsors instead of SOTM Raelin. The dice for the jandar team were pretty hot. In the beginning, Q9 crossed the water and got engaged by repulsors. They overloaded him twice and did another wound with an attack from height. The dwarves crossed the opponent's river and started killing repulsors in the starting zone. They also killed Raelin.

Then the dwarves had major trouble getting through the central path to engage the omnicrons and the krav. The times they did, they failed to kill the omnicrons and the omnicrons would retaliate and kill the dwarves. Migol, with the Unique attack glyph and height failed to kill a krav three times, but finally killed him. The next turn an omnicron rolled three skulls with the repulsor bonus and height. Migol blanked.

Q9 then fell to an omnicron attack. The rest was cleanup. The five or six dwarves then almost mounted a comeback, killing the rest of the krav and some omnicrons, but their defense was just too hot.

[goaliescaper]

Cool findings!

[killercactus]

Originally Posted by Bonecrusher

I also played a game against myself on Sidewinder with these exact armies except I used ROTV Raelin + 1x Repulsors instead of SOTM Raelin. The dice for the jandar team were pretty hot. In the beginning, Q9 crossed the water and got engaged by repulsors. They overloaded him twice and did another wound with an attack from height. The dwarves crossed the opponent's river and started killing repulsors in the starting zone. They also killed Raelin.

Then the dwarves had major trouble getting through the central path to engage the omnicrons and the krav. The times they did, they failed to kill the omnicrons and the omnicrons would retaliate and kill the dwarves. Migol, with the Unique attack glyph and height failed to kill a krav three times, but finally killed him. The next turn an omnicron rolled three skulls with the repulsor bonus and height. Migol blanked.

Q9 then fell to an omnicron attack. The rest was cleanup. The five or six dwarves then almost mounted a comeback, killing the rest of the krav and some omnicrons, but their defense was just too hot.

Did you have trouble keeping both the Repulsors and Krav under Raelin's aura? That's the main reason I used SotM over the RotV version - with all those Repulsors trying to get into engagement, I thought the 4 hexes would be too small. Plus, the jump from 3 to 4 defense seems more significant than the jump from 4-5 to me.