540 Point NHSD Armies

[killercactus]

I've been kicking these builds around at 540:

Q9 - 180
Raelin - 260
Aubrien Archers x4 - 540

Protectors x2 - 220
AE - 330
Atlaga - 420
Deathreavers x3 - 540

Runa - 120
Minions x3 - 450
Atlaga - 540

Q10 - 150
Raelin - 230
10th x4 / Stingers x5 - 530
Isamu - 540

[dok]

Edited to respond seriously to all four builds.

Originally Posted by killercactus

Q9 - 180
Raelin - 260
Aubrien Archers x4 - 540

There's a pretty strong argument for using the 4th in stead there. You get an average of 4 attacks of 2 either way, backed up by 2 defense either way, but you get more figures if you use the 4th. Plus, you can occasionally WTF up to attacks of 3, and you can boost to a defense of 3 once Q9 and Raelin go down. If you lead with Raelin-backed Q9, you can end up with 3 defense dice the whole time.

Originally Posted by killercactus

Protectors x2 - 220
AE - 330
Atlaga - 420
Deathreavers x3 - 540

Nice army. I'd probably dump Atlaga for Raelin - I'm not convinced the extra move is that important for the protectors. An extra point of range would be sweet, but a move+range of 9 is fine.

Originally Posted by killercactus

Runa - 120
Minions x3 - 450
Atlaga - 540

I know you love Runa, but Kaemon Awa is pretty money in this army. The version you list is stopped cold by a standard rats&range build, with no way to punch through except Runa's unreliable Mitonsoul aura.

Originally Posted by killercactus

Q10 - 150
Raelin - 230
10th x4 / Stingers x5 - 530
Isamu - 540

In stead of 10thx4 or Stingersx5, you could go ratsx3 + stingersx3. Isamu puts you at 25 hexes, but still, it's pretty solid.

[Messenger]

Originally Posted by killercactus

Q9 - 180
Raelin - 260
Aubrien Archers x4 - 540

Dude, take out the Q9 crutch and put in another AA squad + Acolarh!!! You KNOW you want to do it!

Or, better yet:

280 Aubrien Archers x4
150 Warriors of Ashra x3
110 Acolarh
540 / 22

Now you got a (potentially) awesome melee screen, plenty of ranged attacks and the LEAF OF THE HOME TREE AURA!!!!

[killercactus]

Originally Posted by Messenger

Dude, take out the Q9 crutch and put in another AA squad + Acolarh!!! You KNOW you want to do it!

Or, better yet:

280 Aubrien Archers x4
150 Warriors of Ashra x3
110 Acolarh
540 / 22

Now you got a (potentially) awesome melee screen, plenty of ranged attacks and the LEAF OF THE HOME TREE AURA!!!!

But I need the Special Attack for Deathreavers and..... well, Leaf of the Home Tree kinda sucks...

Really it's all about Raelin. I like her with the Aubriens because of their long range, and Q9 is awesome with Raelin because of his range and life, so they just fit well together. And dok, I considered the 4th (and also the Mohicans), but I really like the extra range point of the Aubriens and, I think if I'm gonna play 4th, I'd rather just go all Valiant or go with one kamikaze unit that they can't ignore (i.e. Clarrissimus). The Aubriens synergy with Raelin is stronger - she helps their defense twice as much as the 4th.

If my opponent kills Q9 without killing Raelin (tough, but very possible, especially with Krug or Nilfheim), they can ignore Raelin and just go after the 4th, knowing that she's only adding 1 defense die. Plus, since I've mobilized Q9 early, the 4th are probably out of position, and positioning is key for them. With the Aubriens, Raelin is always adding 2 dice and I can feel free to move them with no penalty. Frenzy and their bigger threat range also gives them a better chance of catching up out of the starting zone.

Plus, they're just more fun.

[Messenger]

Originally Posted by killercactus

But I need the Special Attack for Deathreavers and..... well, Leaf of the Home Tree kinda sucks...

Alright, fine. You want a special attack, here you go:

420 Aubrien Archers x6
120 Kaemon Awa

If your opponent has rats, send in KA. If not send in AA. (Just pray they don't have Q9...)

[killercactus]

Originally Posted by Messenger

Alright, fine. You want a special attack, here you go:

420 Aubrien Archers x6
120 Kaemon Awa

If your opponent has rats, send in KA. If not send in AA. (Just pray they don't have Q9...)

I also like Q9 for some anti-Grimnak tech, since he'll probably be running rampant after Matthias and ManTrain had to go an exploit the Rats' weakness....

Here - does this make you happy?

Nilfheim - 185
Aubrien Archers x5 - 535

Problem with this is now is I wanna use the Mass instead, because I can just suicide Nilfheim....

EDIT: By the way, for WoA maybe something like...

Kaemon AWa - 120
Raelin SotM - 240
Warriors of Ashra x6 - 540 (or switch out Ashra x2 for the Krav)

[patzymur]

[quote=dok;905718]

Originally Posted by Brownsfan82

For a 540 point Braxas build, I think it's tough to beat:

10 Isamu
110 Migol Ironwill
210 Axegrinders x3
210 Braxas
540, 16 hexes

Axegrinders and Braxas do emphatically cover one another's weaknesses.

I'm chiming in late here, obviously as NHSD is now past. Our Raleigh NHSD Cage Match used 540 point armies. I only looked at the first few pages of this thread before deciding to go my own path. Working backwards in the thread today I see that doc had the same reasoning that I had wrt Braxas. The army he suggests is the one that I played, and it worked very well.

Braxas is strong against small & medium while the Axegrinders are strong against large/huge. Braxas has survivability issues. You may not use her immediately, but as soon as you do start using her you generally use her continuously and hope she kills her points worth. Whether she does or not, the dwarves have relatively good survivability & they have a high movement when you don't bond, so they can close distance well against ranged opponents.

My hesitation was the lack of range in this army. Braxas obviously provides range with her acid breath, but with a defense of 3 and her attention grabbing stature, she gets focused on and goes down quickly. After that, no range. I thought about substituting Kaemon Awa for Migol and Isamu to add that range, but I decided the simplicity of order marker management by having Migol optionally take a turn every time an order marker was on the Axegrinders was more beneficial.

The army served me well. I went 5 & 0. There were some close games though. I played both the #2 and #3 competitors along the way. Both of them caused 495 points worth of damage (leaving me with 2 Axegrinders and Isamu both times). And even crazier/closer than that, my match against Oliver_Upshaw (#2) was stopped due to time. When time was called I had scored 497 compared to his 495. That's a game and a tourney I'll be remembering for a long time!

[Xn F M]

So we're doing 540 again this year as the SoCal NHSD, and I need some armies to playtest against.

Right now all I have is:

210 4th x3
220 Sentinals x2
110 Old Drake
540 (19 hexes)

280 Heavy Gruts x4
120 Grimnak
80 Raelin
50 Nerak
10 Isamu
540 (22 spaces)
-I'm also thinking about going HGx3, Grimnak, Ornak, Raelin, Guilty.

I know I should add a stingers build, something Rats+Krav based, and probably something with Lizardmen, but I'm not sure exactly what to go with in those builds. Does anyone have any builds they'd recommend?

[S1R_ART0R1US]

Braxas 210
GSW x4 450
Raelin 530
Isamu 540

[Kaiser Cat]

ZELRIG-185
GREENSCALE WARRIORSx2-305
MARRO STINGERSx2-425
ISAMU-435

MARRO DRONESx5-250
SU-BAK-NA-410
MARDEN NAGRUBSx1-440
RAELIN THE KYRIE WARRIOR (RotV)-520
MARCU ESENWEIN-540