Thursday, April 9, 2015
Friday, March 27, 2015
What I've been enjoying about Ret
So I've actually been enjoying my Ret games far more than recent games with either Khador or the CoC. I've been somewhat surprised about this, especially as I've just been kicking around rando Ret tier lists mostly. It also likely helps that they are far far more different from Skorne than either Khador or CoC.
1. The Daemon
Hellmouth on a gun has been a lot of fun. Its great at killing infantry and the pull in is rather techy. Its helped me outright win one game by hitting pDenny and killed the stone UA in a second game during turn 2. Having accurate guns in general has been great, but the Daemon's has been the best.
2. Weapon Masters
The base Immortal Package is 11 points, which is also the cost of a full unit of Dawnguard Sentinels. Guess which one is way better then the other? Weapon masters still do disproportionate damage but its nice being on the delivery side of that for a change then watching a untouched Titan disappear to 3 circle chickas with daggers.
3. Battle Mages
Honestly, things should only be able to be pushed or pulled once per turn. Until that gets fixed the ability to pull things half way across the table will continue to be abused by this Ret player at least. Nothing says great gameplay like killing a heavy without reprisal.
Randomly these guys also have 2 attacks, beatback and anti-shooting tech. Just a really solid unit all around.
Now not everything has been great. Honestly its hard to get any work done with their melee jacks against the wrong opponents. A Stalker with plenty of woods to sprint back to and stones to teleport with is a real problem for a Ret player.
I've played the pVyros tier for 5 games or so now, the Rahn tier once and Force Wall once. I'm kinda curious if there are any other fun ret lists to play. I need to try out the newest caster sometime too.
[Randomly on the topic of Ret they are one of the infantry spammiest armies I've seen locally. I watched a Ret vs. Menoth game that had a total of 3 light jacks in a 50 point game. Its kinda obnoxious to see, but not impossible to deal with.]
1. The Daemon
Hellmouth on a gun has been a lot of fun. Its great at killing infantry and the pull in is rather techy. Its helped me outright win one game by hitting pDenny and killed the stone UA in a second game during turn 2. Having accurate guns in general has been great, but the Daemon's has been the best.
2. Weapon Masters
The base Immortal Package is 11 points, which is also the cost of a full unit of Dawnguard Sentinels. Guess which one is way better then the other? Weapon masters still do disproportionate damage but its nice being on the delivery side of that for a change then watching a untouched Titan disappear to 3 circle chickas with daggers.
3. Battle Mages
Honestly, things should only be able to be pushed or pulled once per turn. Until that gets fixed the ability to pull things half way across the table will continue to be abused by this Ret player at least. Nothing says great gameplay like killing a heavy without reprisal.
Randomly these guys also have 2 attacks, beatback and anti-shooting tech. Just a really solid unit all around.
Now not everything has been great. Honestly its hard to get any work done with their melee jacks against the wrong opponents. A Stalker with plenty of woods to sprint back to and stones to teleport with is a real problem for a Ret player.
I've played the pVyros tier for 5 games or so now, the Rahn tier once and Force Wall once. I'm kinda curious if there are any other fun ret lists to play. I need to try out the newest caster sometime too.
[Randomly on the topic of Ret they are one of the infantry spammiest armies I've seen locally. I watched a Ret vs. Menoth game that had a total of 3 light jacks in a 50 point game. Its kinda obnoxious to see, but not impossible to deal with.]
Sunday, March 22, 2015
The state of Competitive WM
Anyone else see the top 8 from the Adepticon IG?
Look at those results. 3 Cryx and 3 Circle are sign of an incredibly balanced game, right? Well tournament results are incredibly noisy and this was only from a single event at a single con. It's not really indicative of a larger trend.
Huh. They only represent 50% of the field making the cut here so its a step in the right direction. Still this is troublesome, if only there were a compiled list of top faction appearances. To keep things modern lets say from Nov. 2014 to now taken from an online store that keeps track of lists to sell you, say Discount Games Inc. This information would surely continue to correct these results:
Well fuck. At this point I would be worried that the data is pointing towards some real unfortunate trends. Thankfully the competitive WM braintrust was right there to clear it all up:
"Players win games not factions"
"It's the player."
"Do remember both minions and ret have won major cons. It's all about the player."
The mental gymnastics on display when you've biased yourself to certain outcomes are incredible.
Huh. They only represent 50% of the field making the cut here so its a step in the right direction. Still this is troublesome, if only there were a compiled list of top faction appearances. To keep things modern lets say from Nov. 2014 to now taken from an online store that keeps track of lists to sell you, say Discount Games Inc. This information would surely continue to correct these results:
Cryx - 10
Circle - 9
Skorne - 5
Cygnar - 4
Trollbloods 4
PoM - 3
Legion - 3
Ret -2
Minions - 1
CoC - 1
Well fuck. At this point I would be worried that the data is pointing towards some real unfortunate trends. Thankfully the competitive WM braintrust was right there to clear it all up:
"Players win games not factions"
"It's the player."
"Do remember both minions and ret have won major cons. It's all about the player."
The mental gymnastics on display when you've biased yourself to certain outcomes are incredible.
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Charge of the Rohirrim
In thinking about organizing a 4 player cooperative Lord of the Rings strategy for Gencon I figured the deck I enjoy playing the most could be an interesting way to focus the conversation and throw out some ideas.
Heroes- Theoden, Eomer, Hama
The idea of this mono red deck is to basically control the monsters with "feint" and "thicket of spears." Theoden allows shitty red heroes to quest effectively and sentinel the occasional attack. Eomer trucks stuff with firebrand and weapons. Hama enables event recursion. And the team can smash into the staging area with "Forth Eorlingas." The deck is pretty good at tangling up a bunch of bad guys but struggles to smash through locations. I can make a deck list later with specific cards, but I want to tweak things and focus on team comps before looking at individual cards.
Deck pairing: mono colored comp
This pairing is designed to exploit Theoden's bonus to questing by overloading on tactics heroes.
Bard the Bowman, Brand son of Bain, Legolas- this deck spams archers and some of the same event cards in the other tactics deck to crush as many baddies as possible each turn. Probably also plays feint, thicket and the recursion book to help the Rohan deck control the board.
Eowyn, Galadriel, Glorfindel- Blue deck control. Spams threat reduction and control events to mitigate what the stupid bad guy deck throws at you. Eowyn is the strongest quester in the game and Galadriel has a bunch of support tools in addition to her base abilities. I think blue has some of the most OP cards in terms of preventing problems before they even happen. Tweaking this deck could also make secrecy an option due to its relatively low starting threat and threat reducing tools.
Aragon, Celeborn, Prince Imrahil- Purple deck plays classics like sneak attack and gandalf while trying to support the board. Celeborn pushes decks to include a disproportionate number of pointy eared cards.
Pros: mono colored decks limit versatility within the decks but also mean people won't be sitting on dead cards mid game. monsters should die relatively quickly. Each deck can play the books that allow them to recast events in discard piles.
Cons: no green (seems like the weakest color). high starting threats so blue needs to mitigate threat levels quickly. No hobbits. No dwarves. Both seem overly complicated.
Heroes- Theoden, Eomer, Hama
The idea of this mono red deck is to basically control the monsters with "feint" and "thicket of spears." Theoden allows shitty red heroes to quest effectively and sentinel the occasional attack. Eomer trucks stuff with firebrand and weapons. Hama enables event recursion. And the team can smash into the staging area with "Forth Eorlingas." The deck is pretty good at tangling up a bunch of bad guys but struggles to smash through locations. I can make a deck list later with specific cards, but I want to tweak things and focus on team comps before looking at individual cards.
Deck pairing: mono colored comp
This pairing is designed to exploit Theoden's bonus to questing by overloading on tactics heroes.
Bard the Bowman, Brand son of Bain, Legolas- this deck spams archers and some of the same event cards in the other tactics deck to crush as many baddies as possible each turn. Probably also plays feint, thicket and the recursion book to help the Rohan deck control the board.
Eowyn, Galadriel, Glorfindel- Blue deck control. Spams threat reduction and control events to mitigate what the stupid bad guy deck throws at you. Eowyn is the strongest quester in the game and Galadriel has a bunch of support tools in addition to her base abilities. I think blue has some of the most OP cards in terms of preventing problems before they even happen. Tweaking this deck could also make secrecy an option due to its relatively low starting threat and threat reducing tools.
Aragon, Celeborn, Prince Imrahil- Purple deck plays classics like sneak attack and gandalf while trying to support the board. Celeborn pushes decks to include a disproportionate number of pointy eared cards.
Pros: mono colored decks limit versatility within the decks but also mean people won't be sitting on dead cards mid game. monsters should die relatively quickly. Each deck can play the books that allow them to recast events in discard piles.
Cons: no green (seems like the weakest color). high starting threats so blue needs to mitigate threat levels quickly. No hobbits. No dwarves. Both seem overly complicated.
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Why you suck at Jungle
 |
| Or how to stop my attempts to murder Junglers with my mind |
This isn't always the jungles fault, but its the jungle who has to attempt to fix this. All too often the enemy jungle is doing their job while our jungle takes an extended forest stroll. As these events have demonstrated your collective immunity to experience, I have decided to bless you with a guide on how to jungle.
First the goal of the jungle: to help "win" lanes. Lanes have direct feedback. The more gold and experience you earn there, the more advantageous your position in lane becomes, the more this snowballs in the lane and then throughout the entire game. Unless you are heavily counter jungling you inherently do not have this feedback and it makes the jungle position significantly weaker when played in a non-interactive manner.
This is why its important to gank at level 4 at the latest. If you can force a lane to go back and heal 2-3 times or to play more conservatively due to your presence, even if they didn't die, this gives your lane a significant advantage. They will be in a better position, and as this advantage increases they should soon be able to kill their opponent without your help. If you sit passively in the jungle until 6 significant damage has already been done and by the time you try to right the ship it is often far far too late. There is no such thing as a good Jungle who starts ganking at 6. If you think you need to wait till level 6 to interact with the lanes you are doing something spectacularly wrong.
This feedback is also why Primum non nocere has to be the primary rule of the jungle. Don't give mid both buffs because you try to force something. Don't expect a lane incredibly low on life/mana to help you out. Don't have your only interaction with a lane be to push it back off a tower: you are forcing a lane with a disadvantage to lose one of the only advantages they have in that position. Mistakes will naturally happen but if you can try to correct them.
As a Jungle you will have to make Sophie's Choice. Not all your retard children will survive the laning phase intact, you just need some of them to. Some lanes are beyond help and it is perfectly alright to abandon them to tower hugging - if you are actively making a difference in other lanes. When it becomes apparent that you are only helping a single floundering lane it gives an incredible advantage to an enemy team who notices this. Part of this is looking for the right opportunities to gank and not forcing bad ones. Bottom lane needs help, but is pushed? Make your presence felt in a lane that is presenting a better opportunity and try to get back around.
While there are 4 items to choose from as a Jungle there is a single correct choice. This is the Stalker's Blade. While forcing an enemy out of lane is helpful you are really there to get your lanemate a kill. The Stalker's Blade gives you another tool to do so while none of the other jungling items do. This is also why jungles with multiple stuns/slows are stronger.
Also notice what was said above? Much like support, the goal of the jungle isn't to rack up a kill count. If you can, let the lane take the kill. This isn't glorious and puts you in a weaker position but it puts the lane with direct feedback in the stronger one.
Another common mistake are attempted jungle ganks that come from the direction of your creep wave. These do not surprise anyone and rarely accomplish anything. Either flank the lane or attack them from the rear. While coming in for a gank it is better not to dally as well. Communicate your intent with pings and enter the lane with initiative. The longer you wait for the perfect gank the longer you give your opponents a chance to notice you with their wards.
Finally, the dragon. While the jungle should be attempting to secure the dragon it should be apparent by now that making this your only goal is a flawed strategy. The dragon is also why mid and bottom are more important lanes then top. Top is expected to be more independent, there is a reason they take teleport after all. The best way to take a dragon is through this feedback effect: kill/force mid back, then the Jungler and Mid can gank bottom. Once both lanes are disrupted take the dragon.
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Playing Ret
56 / 56 (50+6) Warcaster(s) : 1/1 Warjack(s) : 3 Battle Engines : 0 Solos : 2 Units : 2
Dawnlord Vyros - WJ: +6
- Hyperion - PC: 18
Dawnguard Sentinels - Leader & 9 Grunts: 9
- Sentinel Officer & Standard - PC: 0
- Daemon - PC: 9
Dawnguard Sentinels - Leader & 9 Grunts: 9
- Sentinel Officer & Standard - PC: 2
- Daemon - PC: 9
THEME: Legions of the Dawn - Tier 2
I actually knocked out a game with the above list and rather enjoyed it. 22 Vengeance Weaponmasters is not something I get to play around with in Skorne. Imperitus should be taking the place of the Hyperion but he is missing pieces.
What really surprised me was how threatening it can be. Hyperion is 14" up the table the first turn and both Daemons can run and then pronto. I thought I would be using the pronto more to yo-yo but it is an incredible threat extender on the Daemons gun, which turned out to be super effective.
Arcanists really need to fit in the the list somewhere but I'm just not sure where. I can drop one, or both units to min but that is lame with vengeance units. The only saving grace there is I could drop both units to min, add two arcanists and then add 2 Souless to each unit. The Soulless still trigger Vengeance and it gives the army a weird anti-magic trick.
Dawnlord Vyros - WJ: +6
- Hyperion - PC: 18
Dawnguard Sentinels - Leader & 9 Grunts: 9
- Sentinel Officer & Standard - PC: 0
- Daemon - PC: 9
Dawnguard Sentinels - Leader & 9 Grunts: 9
- Sentinel Officer & Standard - PC: 2
- Daemon - PC: 9
THEME: Legions of the Dawn - Tier 2
I actually knocked out a game with the above list and rather enjoyed it. 22 Vengeance Weaponmasters is not something I get to play around with in Skorne. Imperitus should be taking the place of the Hyperion but he is missing pieces.
What really surprised me was how threatening it can be. Hyperion is 14" up the table the first turn and both Daemons can run and then pronto. I thought I would be using the pronto more to yo-yo but it is an incredible threat extender on the Daemons gun, which turned out to be super effective.
Arcanists really need to fit in the the list somewhere but I'm just not sure where. I can drop one, or both units to min but that is lame with vengeance units. The only saving grace there is I could drop both units to min, add two arcanists and then add 2 Souless to each unit. The Soulless still trigger Vengeance and it gives the army a weird anti-magic trick.
Monday, February 16, 2015
ADD II: The ADDening
So progress on various fronts, first some generalities then some specifics. The more I play SR2015 the more important it is to make good use out of the objectives. So far the Artillery, the Free charge and the Upkeep objectives seem to be what people build lists around. If you aren't going to play one of those you play the objective that is difficult to destroy at range. I'm curious if anyone is seeing anything else.
I think it needs a little tweaking. It had too many support choices and not enough bodies. There is nothing in it to discourage a Jam and that seems to really be a thing. The Conquest was interesting but if there is a properly positioned forest people can still see through it to be shot, even if it too can see through the forest. I should probably field Mechanics with it too. I think this would be an improvement:
It mostly drops the Conquest down to a Behemoth to open up options. The Widowmakers are an incredible unit that should help out with the jamming problem. I found myself constantly short on focus so the Koldun Lord should help out there. Eiryss was actually in the top list until I realized I didn't bring her with me. The fleshed out Widowmakers and Winterguard should be the extra beef I need too.
With that in mind I've thought of a few things I would like to try in Skorne. Fist with artillery seems like something to experiment with. I think Fist will also like the beast pacts for a bunch of reasons: an AD screen, they are still infantry for all his synergies(moving through, press forward, etc) and Def Ward.
It would also be nice to find homes for Zaardesh and the Shamblers. They both belong somewhere and it has to be somewhere stronger then pHexy for the Shamblers. I'm curious if you can squeeze them into a Fatty list. I'm also not sure about Zaardesh. I've been curious if two brutes with him in Mord may work out as the first wave. They should be really difficult to deal with under the feat.
I've also played a little Khador, both games with the OW. One I essentially won at the top of 2, the other I was outshot. This is the list I played in both games:
Khador - Old Witch modern
53 / 53 (50+3) Warcaster(s) : 1/1 Warjack(s) : 2 Battle Engines : 0 Solos : 4 Units : 3
The Old Witch of Khador - WJ: +3
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr, The Seeker
- Conquest - PC: 19
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist - PC: 2
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor - PC: 2
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich - PC: 2
53 / 53 (50+3) Warcaster(s) : 1/1 Warjack(s) : 2 Battle Engines : 0 Solos : 4 Units : 3
The Old Witch of Khador - WJ: +3
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr, The Seeker
- Conquest - PC: 19
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist - PC: 2
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor - PC: 2
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich - PC: 2
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator - PC: 1
Ragman - PC: 2
Great Bears of Gallowswood - Volkov, Kolsk, Yarovich: 5
Great Bears of Gallowswood - Volkov, Kolsk, Yarovich: 5
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters - Cylena & 9 Grunts: 10
- Koldun Kapitan Valachev - Valachev 2
Winter Guard Infantry - Leader & 5 Grunts: 4
- Winter Guard Officer & Standard - Winter Guard Officer & Standard 2
- Koldun Kapitan Valachev - Valachev 2
Winter Guard Infantry - Leader & 5 Grunts: 4
- Winter Guard Officer & Standard - Winter Guard Officer & Standard 2
Khador - Old Witch Modern 2
53 / 53 (50+3) Warcaster(s) : 1/1 Warjack(s) : 2 Battle Engines : 0 Solos : 4 Units : 4
The Old Witch of Khador - WJ: +3
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr, The Seeker
- Behemoth - PC: 13
Koldun Lord - PC: 2
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich - PC: 2
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution - PC: 3
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist - PC: 2
Great Bears of Gallowswood - Volkov, Kolsk, Yarovich: 5
Widowmakers - Leader & 3 Grunts: 4
Winter Guard Infantry - Leader & 9 Grunts: 6
- Winter Guard Officer & Standard - Winter Guard Officer & Standard 2
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters - Cylena & 9 Grunts: 10
- Koldun Kapitan Valachev - Valachev 2
53 / 53 (50+3) Warcaster(s) : 1/1 Warjack(s) : 2 Battle Engines : 0 Solos : 4 Units : 4
The Old Witch of Khador - WJ: +3
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr, The Seeker
- Behemoth - PC: 13
Koldun Lord - PC: 2
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich - PC: 2
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution - PC: 3
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist - PC: 2
Great Bears of Gallowswood - Volkov, Kolsk, Yarovich: 5
Widowmakers - Leader & 3 Grunts: 4
Winter Guard Infantry - Leader & 9 Grunts: 6
- Winter Guard Officer & Standard - Winter Guard Officer & Standard 2
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters - Cylena & 9 Grunts: 10
- Koldun Kapitan Valachev - Valachev 2
At least it brings two jacks but its really just a single jack list.
On the Ret front, I've picked up the models I need to play the various tier lists. I've just need to get around to assembly, which will certainly happen any day now.
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