The Book of Acolarh

[clancampbell]

All figures have a niche, even the presumed "bad" or "usless" ones. Its finding that niche and exploiting it, thats the tricky part.

I'll be using the following army at a 600 point all hero tourny this week.

Ulginesh
Arkmer
Emmiroon
Kyntela
Chardris
Morsbane
Arcolarh.

At 600 points, you can drop the flag bearer in pretty easily, and in an all hero enviroment, I like this units chances. Its all about the situation. At 500 points I probably wouldn't opt for Arcolarh, (then again, I might not opt for the elves at all). The same could be said if squads were involved.

I'll let everyone know how this army, and particularly Arcolarh does.

[dok]

Originally Posted by clancampbell

All figures have a niche, even the presumed "bad" or "usless" ones. Its finding that niche and exploiting it, thats the tricky part.

I'll be using the following army at a 600 point all hero tourny this week.

Ulginesh
Arkmer
Emmiroon
Kyntela
Chardris
Morsbane
Arcolarh.

At 600 points, you can drop the flag bearer in pretty easily, and in an all hero enviroment, I like this units chances. Its all about the situation. At 500 points I probably wouldn't opt for Arcolarh, (then again, I might not opt for the elves at all). The same could be said if squads were involved.

I'll let everyone know how this army, and particularly Arcolarh does.

I would much, much rather have Raelin+Eldgrim, and I would rather have Jorhdawn+Otonashi, too. The latter army actually won an event in the Pacific Northwest once (kudos to Nadom).

Because Acolarh can only erase killing wounds, he's much more effective boosting one-life figures. If I were inclined to try my hand at Acolarh at 600 points (and if I owned Acolarh or Aubriens), I would try:

80 Raelin RotV
110 Acolarh
210 Aubrien Archers x3
200 Warriors of Ashra x4
600, 23 hexes

That's a lot of chances to drop some Ullar dice and hope for the best. Obviously this doesn't work in an all-hero format, but I really don't think Acolarh works in an all-hero format, period.

[Dredd Stev]

Originally Posted by dok

I would much, much rather have Raelin+Eldgrim, and I would rather have Jorhdawn+Otonashi, too. The latter army actually won an event in the Pacific Northwest once (kudos to Nadom).

Because Acolarh can only erase killing wounds, he's much more effective boosting one-life figures. If I were inclined to try my hand at Acolarh at 600 points (and if I owned Acolarh or Aubriens), I would try:

80 Raelin RotV
110 Acolarh
210 Aubrien Archers x3
200 Warriors of Ashra x4
600, 23 hexes

That's a lot of chances to drop some Ullar dice and hope for the best.

I agree that old Rae-Rae is a very nice addition to the elf wizard core (again because keeping them alive is just so important). I'm also inclined to say that without Jorhdawn the elf wizards lack sufficent ranged punch to avoid getting bogged down in melee situations. Her seven range four attack splash SA is very important in keeping the enemy away as much as possible.

All that said I still think Achorlar is much better when used in the elf wizard army over that of a squad heavy army. While you'll obviously get way more chances at rolling for LotHT, the rolls are much less important (great you saved one Ashra, what a game breaker - as opposed to - HOLY CRAP ULGINESH SURVIVES! WHAT A GAME BREAKER!!). Also with the squad heavy build you'll have to either put a few OM's on the wizard to keep moving his aura and provide movement bonuses OR leave him in the dust as you opt for more attacks from your squads.

As part of a mind link turn you can pick and choose (every single turn) if repositioning him is a good call or not. Even when you do eat up an activation to move him, you can still lay down some suppressive fire from one of the offensive minded wizards (of which you've plenty to choose from). Being able to take full advantage of BOTH his boosts without any OM issues and without loosing a full round of attacking really helps Acholar fill out his supportive role.

[Elginb]

I think Acolarh is too expensive for an Ulginesh army at 500 points, but I think teaming him and Emirroon up is good for an Elf Squad-based army:

Acolarh - 110
Emirroon - 80
Aubriens x3 - 210 (possibly trade out one set of Aubriens for Arkmer and Kyntela)
WoA x2 - 100
Total = 500 pts

Acolarh makes this army so mobile. Emirroon allows them to move as a unit to key spots on the battlefield, and as long as everyone starts their move next to Acolarh, they get 7 spaces of freedom. I like this army a lot.

It is lacking a special attack, though-- you could always substitute a set of Aubriens for a couple Wyrmlings, of course...

[clancampbell]

Originally Posted by Dredd Stev

I agree that old Rae-Rae is a very nice addition to the elf wizard core (again because keeping them alive is just so important). I'm also inclined to say that without Jorhdawn the elf wizards lack sufficent ranged punch to avoid getting bogged down in melee situations. Her seven range four attack splash SA is very important in keeping the enemy away as much as possible.

All that said I still think Achorlar is much better when used in the elf wizard army over that of a squad heavy army. While you'll obviously get way more chances at rolling for LotHT, the rolls are much less important (great you saved one Ashra, what a game breaker - as opposed to - HOLY CRAP ULGINESH SURVIVES! WHAT A GAME BREAKER!!). Also with the squad heavy build you'll have to either put a few OM's on the wizard to keep moving his aura and provide movement bonuses OR leave him in the dust as you opt for more attacks from your squads.

As part of a mind link turn you can pick and choose (every single turn) if repositioning him is a good call or not. Even when you do eat up an activation to move him, you can still lay down some suppressive fire from one of the offensive minded wizards (of which you've plenty to choose from). Being able to take full advantage of BOTH his boosts without any OM issues and without loosing a full round of attacking really helps Acholar fill out his supportive role.

Very good points from the both of you! I have to say I very much agree with DS's point of Arcolarh keeping Ulginesh alive as a game breaker. Also while Jorhdawn has superior range, I left her out, because as I said, this is an all hero event. No squads will render her splash attack useless, while Chardris' focused attack is more suited for heroes.

While I can see the merit in both sides of the Arcolarh debate (better with squads or heroes), its moot for my purposes. Hopefully Arcolarh can stave off death for the rest of my elf wizard crew long enough for me to secure victory.

[Heroscape Elffy]

Played some more Elf Wizards this past weekend, and boy did Acolarh shine! Not only was he jumping all over the place saving Kyntella, Chardris, and Arkmer, but he also killed an entire squad of Dwarves. I'm just lucky with the Wizards, I guess.

[Master of Disaster]

I've had great luck using Aclorah in some of my recent games.
Here's the army I used:
Aclorah
Aubrien Archersx4
Warriors of Ashrax2
Kyntela Gwyn
510points/20spaces
------
This army has a lot of synergy. Aclorah's LOTHTA can save the life of any of the other 19 elves in this army, also Ullar's Amulet can boost the movement of any of the other 19 elves in this army. Aubrien Archers make for a great primary attack force, with Warriors of Ashra being an excellent anti-melee force. And of course, Kyntela Gwyn is a huge bargain with this army for only 20 points, she gives +1defense to all of the other figures in this army, best tactic is to set her behind Aclorah to boost his defense while he's sitting in the starting zone. If your looking for an army that will allow you to get your point investment out of Aclorah, (and if you have 4 squads of AA) this army is it.

[SuperSamyon]

This guy should be ranked D. I brought in 9 elves and he only protected them twice. At his costs, there are far better elves out there to use if you wanted an elf theme army.

Such a shame. He's by far one of the coolest figures in the game but unfortunately he is only a minor annoyance rather than a game changer. You really don't even need to worry about him since his odds of protecting a fallen Elf are so low that it hinders the army he is on. He is too weak to be at the front lines and if you put him in the back lines he'll just be ignored and saved for dessert.

Awful design. Worst, green is my favorite color too

[caps]

Originally Posted by SuperSamyon

This guy should be ranked D. I brought in 9 elves and he only protected them twice. At his costs, there are far better elves out there to use if you wanted an elf theme army.

Such a shame. He's by far one of the coolest figures in the game but unfortunately he is only a minor annoyance rather than a game changer. You really don't even need to worry about him since his odds of protecting a fallen Elf are so low that it hinders the army he is on. He is too weak to be at the front lines and if you put him in the back lines he'll just be ignored and saved for dessert.

Awful design. Worst, green is my favorite color too

Actually, when used with massed Warriors of Ashra, he's not half-bad. Try something like
110 Acolarh
410 6xWarriors of Ashra (that's 18 elves)
490 Raelin

Although I probably wouldn't include him in a competitive build (for a tournament), he can still be fun and useable with the WoA.

[MegaSilver]

If you actually read through the comments that I have saved in this thread, you can see that he has some potential.

[SuperSamyon]

Originally Posted by MegaSilver

If you actually read through the comments that I have saved in this thread, you can see that he has some potential.

I have read through the comments which is why I made the comment I did. I found that I had to build my entire army around Acolarh to realize his potential rather than make Acolarh a piece of an overall army. I felt handicapped trying to make him viable.

Even if his gimmick was to work once in a while, basing such a high point figure on such a low probability gimmick doesn't seem like a good strategy. I see his special the same way I see Frenzy: Great if it works, but I'm not basing my strategy around it.

Unfortunately, since his only use is his defense bonus, I just can't imagine a scenario where I would want to play competitively (or even casually) and spend those valuable points on him. Its fun to play him, but I just can't get him to work.

Funny enough, the last game I played with him he ended up winning the game for me since he was the last figure standing. Of course, he was only the last one left because he was for most of the game safely at the starting zone. lol I thought of this thread when it happened

[Fourshadow]

Really, the only thing to save Acolarh is to house-rule rolling ALL 12 dice. Why they included 12 but say he can only roll 10 baffles me. The percentage chance of success doesn't get enough of a boost to warrant excluding two of those dice.