Gen Con 2010 Main Event Armies

[1red2blue4]

Mine is nice and simple. I think I've made my choice between the two. We won't have time for day 2 anyway, so I will probably give the place to another person if I get my 1% chance of making it to the top 16:

The Stinging Swords

x3 Phantom Knights 210
x5 Stingers 300
Total: 510

[MattserTruckRally]

I figure I'll add some more Reaver based builds knowing that I'm completely ignoring the possibility of playing them, maybe.


Who cares about Day 2?
Deathreavers x 3
Raelin
Major Q10
Airborne Elite
Marro Warriors
23 starting spaces
510 points

At 600 points - Concan/Kumiko, blah, maybe Zetacron sit a Reaver
At 620 points - Syvarris I think
At 640 points - Kaemon Awa

Somebodies Gotta Go or OMG I played Q9 three times and went 1-4
Deathreavers x 3
Raelin
Airborne Elite
Krav Maga Agents
Marro Warriors
460 points, 24 starting spaces

At 600 - Kaemon Awa, sit a Reaver
At 620 - Major Q10 - Sit Reavers x 2
At 640 - WOOHOO, Major Q9, Sit Reaversx2

And one more just because I'm thinking about it:

4 by 4
Reavers x 3
Airborne Elite
Major Q10 -
Fen Hydra
20 spaces, 500 points


At 600 - Add Krav or Raelin/Marcu
At 620 - Add Kaemon Awa or Raelin/Deathreavers (sit a Reaver)
At 640 - Raelin, Zetacron

And here is one completely different one:

You can stick Raelin/Q9 with anything
Major Q9
Raelin
Blade Gruts x 3
Grimnak
500 points - 17 spaces

At 600 - Nerak, Blade Gruts, Isamu
At 620 - Nerak, Blade Gruts, Eldgrim
At 640 - Nerak, Blade Gruts, Arkhmer

[dok]

You want a novel reaver build? I'll give you a novel reaver build. Well, depending on point values and release dates...

Spoiler
80 Deathreavers x2
280 Fire Elemental x8
150 Kurrok
510, 17 hexes

Deathreavers give you board control and something to clog ranged commons up with while the FEs get massed up for the kill.

@600, add Marro Warriors + FE (22) or Deathreavers + FE + Isamu (23) or Deathreavers + Marro Warriors (25, drop a rat) or FEx2 + Marcu (20) or Raelin + Isamu (19).

@620, Add Deathreavers + FEx2 (23) or Airborne (21) or KMA+Isamu (21) or FEx3 (20)

@640, Add Airborne + Marcu (22) or KMA + Air Elemental (21) or Raelin + Marro Warriors (22) or Raelin + Deathreavers + Isamu (23) or Raelin + FE + Isamu (20) or Marro Warriors + FEx2 + Isamu (24) or Deathreavers + FEx2 + Marcu (24) or FEx3 + Marcu (21) or FEx2 + Air/Water Elemental x2 (21)

Lots of different upgrade options because I don't exactly have a good sense what the best helper is. This build remains pure theoryscape for now.

[Devil's Advocate]

A build that I like a lot for Day 1 is:

5x4th Mass
Airborne Elite
--------------
460

This army should do well against any Knight/Dwarf/Orc/GladTron/Stinger army and likely would only be hoping not to face Q9 opponents.

The AE are also nice to help protect vs a Zelrig opponent since you will have 4 empty start spaces to work with.

The Day 2 Choices are not readily obvious but with a large number of points to play with (140-180) and the ability to see what the other Top 15 have, a wide variety of options will exist (plus your opponents will likely struggle to guess on what you are going to add)

[dok]

Originally Posted by Devil's Advocate

A build that I like a lot for Day 1 is:

5x4th Mass
Airborne Elite
--------------
460

This army should do well against any Knight/Dwarf/Orc/GladTron/Stinger army and likely would only be hoping not to face Q9 opponents.

In addition to Q9, this army is also going to struggle against a well-designed rat-podge.

That said, this army could be quite good provided you are willing to pass on dropping the AE for a while. If you drop the AE early on, you are no longer a favorite against most, if not all, of the common squad armies you mention above. Once a couple AE are killed, a good opponent will simply leave the last two AE alone, and be content to try to eliminate your defense 2 4th Mass.

As a result, I think this army has a lot of the same characteristics (positive and negative) as the 4thx6 army that Mattsertruckrally suggested.

Originally Posted by Devil's Advocate

The Day 2 Choices are not readily obvious but with a large number of points to play with (140-180) and the ability to see what the other Top 15 have, a wide variety of options will exist (plus your opponents will likely struggle to guess on what you are going to add)

Well, given that you've filled the startzone, you're not adding squads.

@ 600, Eldgrim + Alistair/Gilbert/Drake RotV, or Othkurik.
@ 620, Q10 or Dupuis or two of Thorgrim/Concan/Raelin.
@ 640, Q9 or Drake SotM.

There's really not a lot else out there. It's either slightly underpowered valiant filler, or Kamikaze multiple attacker. Both are viable; it's just a question of what your opponent has. Against a slow-roll, go kamikaze. Against a fast hitter, stay valiant.

EDIT: it's arguably worth noting that these are the same sorts of upgrade options you have if you run Gilbert and 5 squads of 4th Mass and Knights (2x of one and 3x of the other), only you don't have to sit figures on day 2. That's 455 points and 21 hexes.

[fomox]

Originally Posted by dok

Spoiler
80 Deathreavers x2
280 Fire Elemental x8
150 Kurrok
510, 17 hexes

Ouch! That's nasty. I think the rats are actually a huge improvement on the Fire Elementalist core. And there are still plenty of hexes to spare. Q9 still has their number, I think. And you'd end up killing a lot of your own rats, but it's totally worth it. Now I have something else I have to playtest against...thanks a lot.

--

DA: 5x4th and AE is 24 hexes, so all your day 2 options would mean dropping some 4th to fit in. But sure, it's tough on day 1.

[dok]

Yeah, once I recognized that the firestorm struggled against long range, I started thinking about what to add to the build. My first thought was to just toss Marcu in - this is sort of a soft counter to AE or Krav, but it's not a consistent option and it doesn't help against common squads. The next thought was to add Krav, or even Raelin+Krav or Q9, but unless you're over 600 points I think this leaves you with too few elementals.

Once I thought of rats, I was pretty sure that was the best option. It gives you board control and it mucks things up for common squads. And you've got plenty of room in the startzone with those pricey elementals.

With the original firestorm, I was far more afraid of Krav/Airborne/4th/10th/stingers than I was of Q9. It only takes one turn of Queglix whiffs for Q9 to start feeling the heat, and 7 defense means nothing to the firestorm. Adding rats sort of levels the field; now I'm closer to equally scared of all ranged options.

Avoiding killing your own rats in the startzone is trivial. Avoiding killing your own rats on the front lines may be problematic at times, but, eh, casualties of war.

[Einar's puppy]

Originally Posted by opening post

Gruts & Agents
80 Raelin RotV
100 Krav Maga Agents
120 Grimnak
210 Heavy Gruts x3
510, 18 hexes

@600, add Gruts + Marcu (23).
@620, add Nerak + Isamu + Marro Warriors (25, sit Isamu)
@640, add Nerak + Isamu + Gruts (25, sit Isamu)

Sit Isamu? Wow, that's a new tactic. Normally people just say "Lose 10 points". ~_^


I'm not going, but if I were I'd be bringing this for sure:

225 Jotun (to smash the puny younitz)
365 DW9k (because he's impossible to kill. 9 defence? Whoa!)
445 Kelda (because she's a beatstick)
505 DED (10 range kills everything

For 600, add Ne Gok Sa to shakle the enemies and get countless units on your side
for 620, brunak to carry kelda into the fray and watch her kill everything
for 640, Tul bak ra because he moves 10 spaces!

[fomox]

Nice. When I think of Q9, I tend to think of Q9 with a screen, but yeah, if the FE get to him, he's toast.

I'd have no worries about hitting rats in the start zone. OMs 1,2 and maybe 3 are on rats anyway. It's only later that you'd fry a few, but by then they've mostly done their job.

Sick, sick, sick.

[Gulp]

Is it unlikely at this point that we'll have DnD Wave 2 sprung on us before GenCon? Having that come out in July would really throw a wrench into my army building plans.

[1red2blue4]

Most interesting... look at this!

Torin, the Evil

Torin 120
x4 Tagawa Samurai Archers 260
Syvarris 100
x1 Air Elemental 30
Total: 510

Hexes: 15

@ 600, add x3 Air elemental
@ 620, add x3 Air Elemental + Isamu
@ 640, add add x2 Tagawa Samurai Archers

[dok]

Originally Posted by Einar's puppy

Sit Isamu? Wow, that's a new tactic. Normally people just say "Lose 10 points". ~_^

Sure, sure. All I mean by that is that you can take him, but most of the time you're not going to actually put him in your army. There are probably a few matchups where you would sit a squaddie and play Isamu, though.

Originally Posted by fomox

Nice. When I think of Q9, I tend to think of Q9 with a screen, but yeah, if the FE get to him, he's toast.

This may be a blind spot for me, because I gave up on screening the FEs pretty early on, but does a screen really work against the FEs? A screen has to engage the FEs by definition, and they don't have to trigger scatter.

Originally Posted by Gulp

Is it unlikely at this point that we'll have DnD Wave 2 sprung on us before GenCon? Having that come out in July would really throw a wrench into my army building plans.

We don't know the answer to this. I'm sure there will be a lot of monkey wrenches if D2 is out, though - not just Kurrok.

1red2blue4 - Torin's Evil Eye defense only helps adjacent small/medium Utgar figures.