Wave 9 as Tier 1 mitigation

[Aldin]

For anyone who hasn’t already seen Jexik’s excellent competitive army ranking based on real world tournament results, I strongly recommend taking a moment to peruse it (especially since I plan on stealing bits and pieces of it to include below). One of my favorite things about Wave 9 is that I believe it contains units that undermine the power of each and every Tier 1 army in some fashion. Clearly the proof lies in the future as Wave nine is incorporated into tournaments, but here are the ways the Tier 1 cookie might crumble:

Vydar Ranged:

Core of the army:
Major Q9 180
Raelin (RotV) 260
Laglor 370
Krav Maga Agents 470

Primary New Threat(s):
Capuans: Vydar Ranged is extraordinarily vulnerable to a tough, fast and heavy hitting melee army. If the Caps make a few early defense rolls they will roll this army up every time.
TBR/Dividers: Anything that increases the number of cheap melee figs engaged to the expensive Vydar ranged figs hurts and TBR can get the resilient Dividers into the fray rapidly. Besides that, his easy access to KMA adjacency is troublesome.

Potential Modifications:
Switch out KMA for NA. Gives better melee protection at the cost of more vulnerability to ranged specials.
Switch out Raelin for Rats. Puts a speed bump in the Capuan’s path, but does little to stop the TBR/Divider problem.

Tron:

Core of the army:
3x Gladiatrons 240
2x Blastatrons 360
Raelin (RotV) 440

Primary New Threat(s):
Repulsors: In both soulborg-type and OM management the Trons hate to see 3xRepulsors across the board. Their only answer is to try for attacks of 4+ and hope for the best.
Mohicans: When you attach a Glad to them you boost their defense in addition to needing to bypass their concealment. Ideally, Blasts are far behind the lines. The MRT makes their placement a more difficult choice.

Potential Modifications:
Switch out Raelin for Kumiko. She’s organic and does good damage to both the Repulsors and the Mohicans.
Drop a squad of Glads in favor of organic melee like the Ninjas of the Northern Wind, Axegrinders, Knights, etc. At the cost of absorbing Glad damage you get a good force to send out early to disrupt some armies or to hold back for clean up against others.
Toss in the Tarn instead of a third squad of Blasts. Cheap organic insurance.

KRS:

Core of the army:
Kaemon Awa 120
Raelin 80
4x Stingers 240

Primary New Threat(s):
Capuans: KRS is also vulnerable to a tough, fast and heavy hitting melee army. If the Caps make a few early defense rolls they will roll this army up every time.
TBR/Dividers: Once the Dividers get in among the Stingers they can afford to play ball a lot longer than the Stingers can.

Potential Modifications:
Drop a Stinger and go with 3xRats. The days of ranged armies not needing melee screens has come to a close. Stingers make great anti-Repulsor support for the Rats and the Rats are excellent Capuan repellant.

Rat Podges:

Core of the army:
3xDeatheravers 120

Primary New Threat(s):
Repulsors: Anything that can drill through the screen without triggering scatter is bad.
Protectors: Anything that can bypass the screen is bad.
Kumiko: Every bit the Rat killer that Q9 is at a fraction of the price.

Potential Modifications:
None really. The best thing about Rat Podges has always been their versatility. Simply plan their complements with their new weaknesses in mind. Alternatively, 3xDividers at 150 points is a defensive-special screening option.

Critical Mass:

Core of the army:
4x4th Mass 280
All Valiant

Primary New Threat(s):
Mohicans: They have the range and mobility to force the 4th to choose between WTF against high concealment or two dice against lesser concealment.

Potential Modifications:
None. For better or worse the all-Valiant army is what it is. Mohicans are probably not as much of a threat to this army as Vydar range and Rats anyway. Mind you, Mohicans WITH Rats might be an interesting problem.

A+Junk:

Army components:
4th Mass
Rats
Q9
Stingers
Raelin

Primary New Threat(s)
Capuans: Steamroller has a way of hurting things with poor synergy no matter how individually puissant. Rats are the obvious exception.
Repulsors: For the Rats and Q9.
Axegrinders: These armies often incorporate Dragons and Q9 is vulnerable as well. Further, activating five units with an OM is a good way to overwhelm disjointed armies.

Potential Modifications:
Another very flexible set of armies here. It will be interesting to see if the same five units are all still A+ come Christmas.

Knights:

Core of this army:
3x Knights of Weston 210
Sir Gilbert 315

Primary New Threat(s):
Protectors: Their mobility is a major concern for the Knights. If you can’t hit it you can’t kill it. Further, the PoU are seriously nasty when it comes to downing support heroes like Sir Gilbert, Nilfheim and Raelin.

Potential Modifications:
Consider adding extreme long range like Syvarris or the AE to force the Protectors to come into engagement range. Another interesting proposition would be the Arbalest-immune and long-ranged DW9k.


All these Tier 1 armies are the best of the best and until someone knocks them out they deserve to remain in their places of glory. Still, I like the thought of seriously mixing up the existing power structure and I hope Wave 9 has enough gas in the tank to do it.

~Aldin, still picking his army for the next tourney

[Melwing17]

Wow, that was a really interesting read. Thank you, Aldin.

edit: Most of what I ended up posting really has little to do with the original topic. Removed, and moved to a different thread.

[ZBeeblebrox]

Wow! Good post Aldin. I can't wait until some tourney feedback comes in with news of how Wave 9 fares... I agree with others that this is a highly competitive wave.

[Aldin]

Melwing,

Glad to see you mixing the waves up. There is no better way to get a feel for units than by playing with them. Just to clarify, I was referring to Jexik's army rankings - specifically the Tier 1 army compositions that regularly win tournaments, not to units from Wave 1. If you click on "peruse it" in the first sentence of my post it will take you to Jexik's thread. I have to admit I was surprised at how the Capuans may change up the tourney structure because people were fearlessly playing ranged armies without melee screens and getting away with it.

~Aldin, who also likes how well most of Wave 9 works as component pieces with other armies

[Rich10]

While I agree that many of the Wave 9 figures are good counter-drafts, I'm not sure that many of them are good enough against a variety of figures to warrant tournament play. I could be wrong, but I don't see any of the figures in Wave 9 changing things significantly.

For example, while Repulsors will be deadly to a Glad/Blast army, they don't seem that good against non-soulborg ranged armies.

TBR and the dividers are good at teleporting past a rat shield and taking out a key figure (i.e., Raelin), but they won't be that good against 4th Mass, 10th Reg, KOW, Glads/Blasts... Also, TBR at 130 points is an expensive way to take out Raelin at 80 points.

The Capuans seem good against ranged squads without a screen, so more ranged armies will have a screen.

Of the Wave 9 squads, I think that the Dwarves may make the biggest impact. They are quick (without bonding) and can hit hard with bonding. They are deadly to large/huge figures. Like with the Capuans, a screen will be key to protecting your large/huge figures.

Atlaga may bring out more Minions and Sentinals.

I don't see anything in Wave 9 that threatens the 4th Mass. Try as I may, I can't get the math to work in favor of the MRT.

The KOW (with Gilbert) are still the best melee squad. While the PoU are interesting, I think that they will get swarmed by KOW before they can get to Gilbert. The Dwarves (less defense) and Dividers (3 man squad without bonding) don't seem to be as good.

[Aldin]

Originally Posted by Rich10

While I agree that many of the Wave 9 figures are good counter-drafts, I'm not sure that many of them are good enough against a variety of figures to warrant tournament play. I could be wrong, but I don't see any of the figures in Wave 9 changing things significantly.

So do you expect winning army compositions to remain unchanged with few, if any, Wave 9 figures in the top three or four armies at any given tournament? That seems... unlikely to me. Should be interesting to see how things play out

~Aldin, with far more army ideas in his head than he's had a chance to play yet

[Rich10]

Originally Posted by Aldin

So do you expect winning army compositions to remain unchanged with few, if any, Wave 9 figures in the top three or four armies at any given tournament? That seems... unlikely to me. Should be interesting to see how things play out

~Aldin, with far more army ideas in his head than he's had a chance to play yet

I hope that I am wrong, but that's what I think. I think that screens will be more important than ever. I think that the Wave 9 unit/squad with the biggest chance of winning are probably the dwarves and MI because they are good against most things and are great against dragons/Majors. They should make a good army paired with a dragon or Q9.

[jameswards16]

Very good post/article!

[Einar Gen.]

Nicely done, Aldin! Very interesting, well thought out and informative.

[SymphonyScaper]

I will be attending my first tournament soon, so this article helps me a lot! Thanks Aldin!

[Majai of Dreams]

Insightful concepts. I can see how many of the situations will pan out in favor of the new figures.

As an aside, I can't help but think, poor Kumiko...
She doesnt seem to fit into any of these scenarios. She seems to be the filler character of the wave. While all the other figures accomplish great things, she is just off on her own.
I suppose she could be good against the 4th Massachusetts line if she got in range while they were still clustered, but that is about it.

[IAmBatman]

I could see ninjas in general getting a bit more love as ways to fill out armies in the future though (Kumiko being a better fit than Moriko for this kind of thing, and maybe better than Shiori as well. With all these ninjas, I their her best bet is to actually bypass the Rats completely, with phantom walk, though their special attacks aren't bad against them either.). Ninjas could really develop value not just as 10 point fillers, but as a way to get around (and through) all the needed melee screens and right into the heart of the enemy's key figures. (Carr as well, but I'd take a ninja with a special attack over him).
Of course, I suppose Heavy Gruts can already disengage their way to the ranged troopers. Maybe The Einar Imperium will get more love as well, due to their increased speed with Atlaga and their Stealth Flying/Double attack to put the hurt on those ranged figures without having to bother with the rats?