500 Point Competitive Armies

[Velenne]

Charos 210
Braxas 210
2 x Rats 80
= 500. Again, fear factor is huge. When I played Braxas in a previous tourney, I had a problem of my enemy being able to manipulate the engagements. The rats I've found are a good solution to that. They allow you to control who gets engaged with who, allowing you to use your dragons wisely.

I played this today in the small North Texas tourney and won out with it. I was also exceedingly lucky in many of my d20 rolls with Braxas. Despite this, most of my wins were fairly convincing. The strategy was as follows:

1- Lead with the rats, grab the glyphs and control the middle of the board with them. Like chess, "Ye who controls center of the board, wins."
2 - 3rd order marker of the first round goes on Braxas. Run the bad-breathed dragon right down your opponent's throat and annihilate as many ranged figs as possible. Go to melee if you have to, but be absolutely sure you neutralize their squads.
3 - Clean up with Charos.

While we played with a 1-hour time limit, none of my matches lasted longer than 20 minutes.

[Stealth Dodge]

That army would be much less effective playing without glyphs. Did many people have krug because he seems like he' be a huge threat to that army

[Velenne]

Well, I chose it because of the glyphs. I would do the same for Krug that I did with Pitboss' Charos: tie him up with rats until I'm good and ready to fight him on my own terms. Well, it didn't quite end up that well for me but I held off the mean green long enough.

[spider_poison]

Congrats on the tourney win, Velenne! I'm sure it took more than a few lucky D20 rolls to beat some of the Texas crew. It's also nice to see that you won without using a billion common squads as the core of your army...that's a hard thing to do without Q9. Again, congrats!

[Velenne]

It's nice to finally join you in the Champion's Ring, spider_poison! Here's my wrapup thread in case you're interested in the report.

[ninthdoc]

As soon as I find some Wave 6 in stores, I've got an all Samurai army to check out:

Hatamoto Toro - 130
Kaemon Awa - 120
Tagawa Samurai Archers - 65
Tagawa Samurai - 120
Izumi Samurai - 60
BUILD TOTAL = 495

A variation would be:

Hatamoto Toro - 130
Kaemon Awa - 120
Tagawa Samurai Archers (x2) - 130
Tagawa Samurai - 120
BUILD TOTAL = 500

I see this army being very dominant. I hope it pans out.

[Kahrma]

Originally Posted by Codeman

Mimring
Krug
Arrow Gruts x 3
Swogs x 4

and I leave 10 points

I played this army several times over the weekend and came away highly impressed. Did very well against a Q9/glads/blasts army, and against a KOW/Gil/4th/Marcus army. Never having to wonder where to place your order markers is priceless! Point for point, I can see it being very competitive against nearly anything.

[TyG17]

Originally Posted by Kahrma

I played this army several times over the weekend and came away highly impressed. Did very well against a Q9/glads/blasts army, and against a KOW/Gil/4th/Marcus army. Never having to wonder where to place your order markers is priceless! Point for point, I can see it being very competitive against nearly anything.

Except Dund. Your order markers go down the drain.

[MattserTruckRally]

Originally Posted by Kahrma

I played this army several times over the weekend and came away highly impressed. Did very well against a Q9/glads/blasts army, and against a KOW/Gil/4th/Marcus army. Never having to wonder where to place your order markers is priceless! Point for point, I can see it being very competitive against nearly anything.

I'd say the Krav backed with Raelin are even bigger threat then Dund for that army. :P Can't say I'm a big fan of not using Raelin in Arrow Gruts.

[Velenne]

Originally Posted by ninthdoc

A variation would be:

Hatamoto Toro - 130
Kaemon Awa - 120
Tagawa Samurai Archers (x2) - 130
Tagawa Samurai - 120
BUILD TOTAL = 500

I see this army being very dominant. I hope it pans out.

That's a fantastic army. I like that a lot! The only weakness is that of nearly every Einar army- no bonding. You'll just have to strategize well enough to know who to play and when.

[ninthdoc]

Originally Posted by Velenne

That's a fantastic army. I like that a lot! The only weakness is that of nearly every Einar army- no bonding. You'll just have to strategize well enough to know who to play and when.

As is the case w/my current all Vydar army of:

Agent Carr - 100
Q9 - 180
Krav Maga Agents - 100
Nakita Agents - 120
BUILD TOTAL = 500

With powerful ranged units, you send out the bait and move up to engage anyone that takes the bait. Plus, w/Sams, they get their own attacks upon being attacked. The only downfall are other ranged folks and things, like Braxas.

[Rÿchean]

Originally Posted by ninthdoc

As soon as I find some Wave 6 in stores, I've got an all Samurai army to check out:

Hatamoto Toro - 130
Kaemon Awa - 120
Tagawa Samurai Archers - 65
Tagawa Samurai - 120
Izumi Samurai - 60
BUILD TOTAL = 495

A variation would be:

Hatamoto Toro - 130
Kaemon Awa - 120
Tagawa Samurai Archers (x2) - 130
Tagawa Samurai - 120
BUILD TOTAL = 500

I see this army being very dominant. I hope it pans out.

Hmmm.....i posted this in the Dawn of Darkness army thread:

Originally Posted by Rÿchean

This is the Samurai Army I want to try:

Tagawa Samurai Archers 65
Kaemon Awa 120
Hatamoto Taro 130
Tagawa Samurai 120
Izumi Samurai 60

Total 495

DISCLAIMER: The following is Theroyscape.

Seems like the consensus is that the archers really aren't going to help Hatamoto realize his value still. The argument is that counter strike is wasted on ranged units and that Hatamoto wont help them because why would you engage with your archers???

My thought: When you have your archers facing melee you darn sure stay away as much as you can and just shoot them from range; When you are facing other ranged units with your archers, engaging them (they usually have lower defense and attack than melee) with a sams archer might be useful (when necessary) to dictate their attack and allow counterstrike plus Hatamoto to come into play.

The way to play the army:

Lead with Izumi and back them with the archers. Try to tie stuff up and keep Hatamoto with in the 8 clear site spaces. As the Izumi engage you pick off with archers slash Kaemon. Now bring in the Tagawa, to pick off some easy experience markers. Kaemon should be kept near Hatamoto, for they most part, as they compliment each other well. I think if you balance when you close and when you don't with your archers, when to sacrifice them and when to pull back, you can realize their counterstrike ability and make Hatamoto help them out when they need it most.

It is definitely a meticulous play, but I think Kaemon is the key. As things begin to get tight, the samurai army gets better. (counterstrike, Hatamoto, Kaemon's double attack special.) You may have to force the issue against a heavily ranged opponent, close on them and engage.

I am not sure if that means we are both equally stupid or equally smart