Wave 9 performance at GenCon?

[nyphot]

Apologies if I should have posted this elsewhere and/or not started a new thread (my first)... I originally posted this in the GenCon winners thread (slightly modified) but got no responses. I think, though, that a lot of people would be interested in Wave 9's experience in the "big leagues."

Did anyone run Wave 9 armies at GenCon? I wonder how they did and was somewhat surprised to see very little information on them (besides, of course, General Wars). Perhaps they're just too new for any of the top players to be familiar enough with them?

I saw Worldturtle go to Day 2 with Dividers x4 which makes a lot of sense as a screen.

Or Cornpuff with Atlaga and Minions, boosting an already good army.

I'm wondering, though, if there were more Wave 9 armies that all got wiped out in Day 1? I was perhaps particularly surprised not to see some Dwarves (outside of GW)... but I guess they would have been weak against any of the listed Day 2 armies, so it's probably just as well that they didn't make it.

[Troubleman23]

Well I wasn't lucky enough to go to Gen-Con. Hopefully next year. But after hearing this I'm just as surprised as you are. I don't/haven't played in a tournament setting before, but we take our games seriously when my friends and I play. I've had great luck with 2x Mohicans and brave arrow. They are the grunt work behind most of my armies nowadays. I also love using Dividers and Tul-bak-ra. I also love the dwarves. In my oppinion Wave 9 was one of the best waves for my type of play.

[GaryLASQ]

Great thread topic, nyphot. I'd like to hear from players who used wave 9. I only played the General Wars tourney. I didn't play wave 9, but I did play against a couple of armies that used wave 9.

One game I faced the "Steamroller" (Spartacus, Crixus and Capuans x3). I won but it was a close game. Another game I played against a mess of Dwarves and Ironwill. It was another game I won, but was also a close one. My opponent was rolling horribly for defense.

I faced both of these armies with 10th Reg x4 / Marcus / Kozuke.

[gamjuven]

The main place I saw at gencon where wave 9 was showcased was the general wars. There were a lot of steamroller armies that were performing pretty well, but there just aren't enough figures. The mohicans weren't very consistent but they faired pretty well against ranged armies. The dwarves did extremely well. Matthias' army went undefeated in the general wars event, while mine (same exact army) humbly finished 3-2, although my two losses I must say were very close. The dwarves did very well against most opponents. There was fear against armies that didn't have a large or huge figure but they can hold their own. There are still 4 3/3 figures attacking, and sometimes you have a hero that also attacks and sometimes they have 6 movement. And if an opponent has a huge figure then you are at a huge advantage.

The dividers did make it to day 2 for the championship. I'm not sure how they did after that but making it to day two is something. I played a divider army with the dwarves and the dwarves crushed, but those dividers and their regeneration can be ridiculous. The repulsors crushed my glad/blast army in day 2. My opponent knew what army I had and put 2 squads of repulsors in it and it caused a lot of problems for me, and he even failed a lot of his d20 rolls. Now I made some very major mistakes in that game that could have been the cause of my loss, but darn it those repulsors were a huge thorn in my side.

My thought on that is that the repulsors are a great addition to your army if you know what your playing, but as evident from the day 1 results and day 2 results of my opponent that lost the very next wave, if you have the repulsors in your army and you don't face soulborgs you are very likely to lose.

ps: I was the one that had the horrible luck against garyLASQ. So frustrating...lol. but it's all good. I am still confident in the dwarves.

[dok]

Originally Posted by gamjuven

The repulsors crushed my glad/blast army in day 2. My opponent knew what army I had and put 2 squads of repulsors in it and it caused a lot of problems for me, and he even failed a lot of his d20 rolls. Now I made some very major mistakes in that game that could have been the cause of my loss, but darn it those repulsors were a huge thorn in my side.

My thought on that is that the repulsors are a great addition to your army if you know what your playing, but as evident from the day 1 results and day 2 results of my opponent that lost the very next wave, if you have the repulsors in your army and you don't face soulborgs you are very likely to lose.

It's interesting that your opponent took repulsors. So was that Minionsx2, Atlaga, Raelin, KMA, repulsorsx2 against Gladsx3, Blastsx2, Raelin, Laglor, Marcu?

The real test of whether repulsors are a niche unit or a major player is how effective they are against rats. If they can be effective punching a hole in a rat screen, they will have a lot of utility.

Minions are actually one of those handful of armies (setting aside the obvious sniper/repulsor combo armies) where I think repulsors could be useful. It's really the common melee squad armies. Basically, if you don't have enough points for a big ranged special attacker to clear rats (Q9/Nilf/Kaemon/etc) you can go with a couple squads of repulsors. One obvious army is Atlaga, Minionsx2, Repulsorsx2 at 500. Another one is Gilbert, Knightsx4, Eldgrim, Repulsorsx2.

Obviously, you're going to love having them against the trons, but the real test is beating the rats. I had a post a while ago comparing them to Kumiko, but the real question is not "are they better than Kumiko at killing rats", but "are they good enough to be relied on to kill rats".

[Jexik]

Eirikr played 3x Mohicans, Mittens, Brave Arrow, and 3x Venocs for 500 in the main event. He went 3-2, and one of his wins was a close one against me playing 3x Deathreavers, Major Q10, Marro Warriors, Raelin, and Krav. He went 4-1 the year before, playing 4x Deathreavers, Q9, Raelin, and Krav.

Use that information as you see fit.

I'll tell Worldturtle to post a battlereport thread soon. He felt like the Dividers were the least essential part of his army, and he lost to Hendal's 7x Stingers/Raelin/Zettian guards, but pretty much everyone did except for mattser.

[Harlax]

I played Lightweight with Migol, 3XAxegrinders, and Isamu. I went 4-1 with this set up. They did very well on smaller maps, including a win over a squad that featured dividers. The dividers had horrible luck, so I'm not concluding too much from this. The one loss came against a rat/stinger army on a large map.

I played Niflfheim, Migol, 2XAxegrinders, and Isamu in Dragon Wars and went 3-2. Two wins were against players who failed to tie down Migol sufficiently to prevent him from reaching their dragons. Road was a factor in both of those games. One loss was the result of a Withering Bolt. I set my order markers knowing I would be vulnerable to that, but could drive a squad of dwarves into contact with his Mimring. Lost that gamble. The other loss ended with a dragon on dragon fight, Niflheim vs Charos with me on height. I had the advantage, but the dice were not with me.