2022 C3V Playtest Tournament (Congrats KnightofLight)

[S1R_ART0R1US]

Delayed post for @MegaSilver and my round 3 matchup.

Point Total
Map: Bad Moon Rising
Glyphs: Wannok and Valda

S1R ART0R1US - Army: Hoggin the Skeleton Key: Nidhogg, Skeletons of Annellintia x3
Megasilver - Army: Kol/Cal of the Wolves: Quickblades, Swiftfangs, Greyspears, Darkclaws, Cal the Smuggler, Kolbjorn

Which units survived? Two Greyspears, Two swiftfangs, one each Quickblade and Darkclaw, and full Kolbjorn.


General Battle Report/Flow of game (be as detailed or general as you like)
Cal got a nice roll to start placement and he went right by Valda. MS got initiative and took Valda and one Skeleton out. I developed Skeletons both to Wannok (I didn't have a good soak for it) and to Valda. They took out two Swiftfangs while one more Skeleton died (but one came back). Wannok went onto Cal.

I got the initiative switch and took out two more Varks and put 3 wounds on Cal. Darkclaws moved in up top and three Skeletons fell (two saved for reanimation). I moved Nidhogg onto the rock 7-hex and breathed off two Varks from range - looking back I should've targetted Cal on Valda and the Vark adjacent to him. Darks did work again taking out three Skeletons (one saved by reanimation). I activated Skeletons bringing one back and took out Cal, but attacks up on Darkclaws were blocked. On the final OM Megasilver took Wannok and killed off three more Skeletons (no Reanimation) who were starting to run low, so I put the wound on Nidhogg.

MS kept initiative, and the DCs kept tearing things up (two more Skellies down). I managed to kill off one more DC (one left, who I tied up with the Skellies second movement). Varks (with fairly even numbers of dead per squad) took out one more Skelly, and Nidhogg started seeing attacks. My OM 2 with Nidhogg and on two d20 rolls he took out one Vark, then got a 1/6 on his normal which was blocked. MS took out my last skelly and added wounds to Nidhogg.

MS took the next init and Kolbjorn moved in on OM1 (he'd been creeping up all game) and killed off Nidhogg.

How useful were playtesting units' powers and how often did they come into play?

Nidhogg
Necrotic breath. Rolled 3/4 successfully. I never got to target more than two Varks. Can't help but compare to Braxas where the the same rolls would have been 4/4 and I could've targetted one more Vark overall. Glad that Nidhogg still gets to use his normal even though it wasn't successful here.

Skeletal form - used against the Grey Spears and I think helped him survive into another round. Getting an init switch there could've changed things big time with the limited pool of Varks available and potential lost OMs (although Kolby offsets that threat).

Other - Playing him with the Skeleton's was interesting. The skeletons don't want you to put OMs on Nidhogg and are better as an early overwhelming force that can be reanimated. But Nidhogg wants to be an early game figure too when there are more clumped targets for his special. He doesn't have the span of Nilfheim who can hit figures with 10 spaces between them. NE was a little weaker offensively than I expected, but I think it was against the matchup. His advantage over Braxas is the ability to bypass defense of large figures like the Hydra or Q9 and that's the Varks.

Kolbjorn - I've played against him a few times and like the design a lot. His final kill was very thematic - after slowly moving towards Nidhogg all game he hopped on height and finished the giant with one powerful attack. He also was used to shuffle an OM once.

Any additional comments (theme, balance, fun factor with and against)?

Nidhogg is big, and BMR is an open map. Even then I parked him in one spot, but maybe finding a way for him to get into place better would be useful (an extra move or range change on his special?)