The Book of Major Q9

[TheRealQ]

Originally Posted by Cavalier

You gotta be doing something wrong. Q-9 is a devestator if played well.

Even if well played he can have heinous limitations on many maps. He is slow for a two spaced figure and often you have to waste your last movement point just to flip him around so that he can shoot someone.

Three out of three encounters with the KMA have ended in failure for my Q-9. In all three cases they were able to get a height advantage on me and I wasn't able to close to stop their power. Out of all three encounters I killed a total of 1 agent. It could be unlucky rolls but if so it has been consistant.

There are a lot of counters to Q-9 and unfortunately my opponents know all of them. Unless I can get some magical dice my Q-9 is going up on a shelf for a while.

[DingoDarkly]

I got the chance to use Q9 in a game today. The shoulder-padded soulborg was rather good at first; he had height advantage and my dad's elven archers tried deperately to take 'The Machine' down! Q9 took out a fair amount of squadies and took one damage but then trouble struck, my brother brought over Syvarris, he gained height advantage over the silver bot and with one strike he inflicted three damage onto the shiny metal armour. The Machine was nomore!

[Matthias Maccabeus]

I'm not sold on Q9 "being the best". I agree with GIR and the Real Q there's enough counters to him and that whole shoulder pad thing is annoying. AE take him out almost everytime I've played with him or against him.

[ManTrainChooChoo]

Try using Q9 with Saylind.... then nobody gets elevated on him

[gamjuven]

Q9 just won me a 19 person tournament. He's so great. Most people are just so scared of him that they don't even bother to try and kill him. It also helpes to hav raelin and 2 squads of deathreavers to block for him, but still. Many people cursed Q9's name after the tournament.

[gamjuven]

What are some good anti-Q9 units/figures you know of? I'm trying to think of an army that uses cyprien and sonya, but I need a good anti-Q9 person in there as well. Perhaps krug?

[Firemaster]

Originally Posted by gamjuven

What are some good anti-Q9 units/figures you know of? I'm trying to think of an army that uses cyprien and sonya, but I need a good anti-Q9 person in there as well. Perhaps krug?

I'd say either go with a Q9 yourself, or go with Jotun. His 8 attack should be able to get past Q9's (and any other hero's) armour fairly well, plus with Wild Swing and Throw, he'll be good for taking out squads.

[Matthias Maccabeus]

Kozuke samurai with 3 attacks of 5. If used right, should be able to put a sizeable dent in Q9. When I play against him, I like to tie him up with rats until my AE drop, and then bombard him with 4 attacks of 4, however many times is necessary, because he has to waste his time attacking the rats, which are only 10 points a piece. Pluse the AE can outrange his special.

[playa1]

Originally Posted by Matthias Maccabeus

I'm not sold on Q9 "being the best". I agree with GIR and the Real Q there's enough counters to him and that whole shoulder pad thing is annoying. AE take him out almost everytime I've played with him or against him.

There really isn't anything that "counters" Q9. There's some decent units that stand a chance, but nothing works every time:

The AE are a great ranged squad, but even if you surround him, if he gets initiative, you can probably kiss at least 2 of them goodbye.

The Samauri (kozuke) in particular, seem a good Q9 counter, but I've never managed to take him down with 3 Kozuke attacks. During the next round, Q9 will kill one or two Kozuke (remember: there's no counterstrike for the Quiglix gun) and then it won't seem worthwhile to place an order marker. The Ninjas suffer from this fate as well.

Deadye Dan: Sure with luck Dan will kill anyone, but how many shots will he get on the Robot. If he could use his Ullar Rifle it might work out, but Q9 is large and he must take the d20 shot. He'll get perhaps 2 shots before the Robot kills him (if he's lucky) -- Might as well try Runa.

Any Dragon: Charos loses Counterstrike and only gets one attack per turn v. his 3. Nilfy can't attack him more than once. Braxas' breath doesn't work (but she has the best attack/life ratio to last against Q9). Mimring has the range (but can't stand up to more than a round or 2 of Q9's gun) and Su-Bak-Na has the attack, but will often die on the way over.

Jotun: Will kill Q9 as often as Q9 kills him (because he can't last and is slow to engage); however, do you really want to swap 225 points to kill his 180?

Krug: is the king. He can take out Q9 more often than not. However, you'll have to load order markers on him for more than a turn to do it. But when engaged with Krug, i simply put my order markers elsewhere (not on my Q9). Kill Krug with range later while he hacks and slashes at Q9 with a 3 attack. When a little wounded, move in on Krug with a high attack to kill off the troll. Or take your chances with Q9 -- but by that time, the rest of his army is often dead, since he loaded up order markers on a troll that wasn't mad yet.

I was hoping wave 7 had a Q9 counter, but sadly it doesn't.

[Billtog]

The Hulk works pretty well.


They seriously need to create some sort of soulborg slayer, something that will be AWESOME at getting rid of Q9, but will be a mediocre unit otherwise (to balance it out). Maybe Shiori or Sonlen will prove useful in that regard. Personally, I'm pretty sick of Q9.

[Clarissimus]

The trouble is that they can't make anything that pulverizes soulborgs or large units because then the Deathwalkers are even more worthless than they are now

I guess you could make something that does well against Soulborg Majors but then poor X17 is also thrown in the trash.

More realistically, I could see a unit that reduces enemies to one life (good against heroes, worthless against squads) but they'll probably make it require a really high d20 roll (and therefore unreliable) to work.

[GForce3062]

Two nights ago I drafted the Ninjas of Northern Wind in a 500 point army against PoF. He drafted Q9 that game. And two squads of Deathreavers. The map had a giant road bridge in the middle surrounded by water and snow. And surrounding the snow and water was land with elavation and a lot of trees. In the beginning he sent out his Deathreavers and clogged up the bridge so no one could get through, and he had Q9 behind them. I 'Ghost Walked' my way through the roborats and moved adjacent to Q9 getting the first hit. With three attacks of 4, I put 3 wounds on Q9. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is I used the Ninjas as assasins, and their target was Q9..... which ended up being successful since I put 3 wounds on him.

EDIT:

Originally Posted by Sisyphus

The problem with Hasbro coming out with a soulborg slayer is that it would probably destroy the usefulness of the 1 life deathwalkers.

Then how about a Vydar soulbourg slayer?