... Nah!

I'm going to fill in these posts over the next few days. Some are longer than others, but here's a variety of tactics that I think are transferrable from another well-known, yet currently discontinued rank-and-file fantasy miniatures game. Oh, and by all means, feel free to share any other tactics you'd like to.

Multiple Small Units (MSU)

This tactic uses an army made up mostly of minimum, or near minimum sized units. The thinking behind this army build is that it gives the player maximum flexibility while causing the opponent to operate very inefficiently as his combat troops waste movement and turns chasing multiple small units over the battlefield and turning as much of the opponent's damage as possible into useless overkill . An MSU army also has some objective scoring advantages in some missions. A brief word about each of these advantages before going into the disadvantages.

Flexibility: Multiple small units allow you to more effectively divide, or pile on your fire. There's already some debate in other threads about whether the damage modifiers of larger units is better than getting more dice from multiple units. I can't say for sure which side is right until I get to play, but I'm guessing the multiple units/more dice side of the argument is probably right just based on the decreasing point cost for each additional tray added to the unit. Given that, you can probably dish out more damage, and spread it to where you want it better with multiple small units than you can with fewer, larger sized units.

Forced Inefficiency: Think about it: in a turn limited game, your opponent can only charge so many times. The number of charges you can make is equal to the number of units you have times the number of opportunities they have to charge. This isn't a perfect science because a canny opponent can deny you opportunities to charge, tarpit your small units, or force you to either make a charge you don't want to or forgo the opportunity to charge. Nonetheless, the more units you have the more charge opportunities you will also have. Meanwhile, your opponent may never come to grips with parts of your army because he's locked in combat, or spending his turns repositioning himself for future combats.

Overkill: Maybe more appropriately called durability . It's counter-intuitive that an army made up of weak, pawn-like units may actually be tougher than an army made up of more robust blocks, but nonetheless, this can be the case depending on the units that you take. For example, lets say that every 8 models does 5 points of damage each turn. Your MSU army has 2 units of 8 models each, and your opponent has one unit of 16 models. If you attack you opponent and do 10 damage, all of that damage is inflicted on his unit. By contrast, your opponent has to choose which of your units to target. His unit does 10 damage to one of you units of 8 models, but the excess damage is wasted because there's nothing left to kill. In other words, your MSU army with 16 models did 10 damage to your opponent, while he could only have done 8 damage to you in return.

Objective scoring: 2 Missions may lend themselves to MSU armies: Demoralize Their Forces , and Break Their Defenses . That's because these scenarios are scored based on the number of units that you can get into the opponent's deployment zone or touching his back edge. Obviously, the more units you have, the more opportunities you have to score. You'll have to manage the downside though and make sure that your multiple small units can survive long enough to score. The other objectives have your units carrying around objective tokens. This could be a liability for an MSU army because it will be easier to destroy your units and therefore dislodge those objective tokens. On the other hand, an MSU army may be able to "hot potato" those tokens, with a new unit sweeping in to pick up a dropped token. Given that there doesn't seem to be an "overrun" mechanic, and you can plan around initiative steps by selecting actions to occur after you anticipate a unit holding an objective may get wiped out, Hot Potato may be a viable strategy for holding on to those tokens with an MSU army. The Bounty objective scenario is probably the bane of the MSU army, however. Because your opponent scores the token the moment your small unit is wiped out, the only hope for an MSU army in this scenario is going to be to play a cagey game of Keep-Away

So, what kind of units should you consider for MSU?

Fast and ranged units are natural choices for an MSU army. They let you pick your battles, optimize your charges by maneuvering to flanks, and still cause a threat from range, forcing your opponent to react to your actions, rather than carrying out his own plan. Slow infantry doesn't have much of a role in MSU, unless it has some special characteristic, like it is especially tough, or dishes out elite levels of damage, or has some unique ability or synergy with other units.

Based on what we know so far, and with the units currently available, I am guessing that Waiqar is much better equipped to pull off MSU than the Daqan Lords. It's easy for me to imagine an army composed mainly of archers and lone Carrion Lancers, with perhaps two minimal units of reanimates. The reanimates slow the advance of your opponent while archers pepper them with arrows. Meanwhile, Carrion Lancers and maybe Ardus move around the flanks or secure objectives.

Harder to imagine at this point in the evolution of Runewars Minis is the Daqan Lords pulling off MSU. While the Oathsworn seem to be a natural fit for MSU style with their high speed and effectiveness in combat, the rest of the army seems lacking. Spearmen probably count as slow infantry while Rune Golems have no ability to charge on a turn, giving them fewer opportunities to charge flanks. The lack of shooting in the army also diminishes an MSU Daqan army to put pressure on the opponent and force him to come to you when you want him to. I have no idea what the wizards can do, but if they are able to dish out good ranged damage, then it's concieveable you could have a Daqan MSU army with multiple wizards hanging back offering fire support, protected by infantry, while small units of oathsworn move up the board along with Kari Wraithstalker. For now though, I see the Daqan Army as more of a traditional Combined Arms style of army.

Deathstars and Tarpits

Deathstars

The philosophical opposite of of MSU is the Deathstar, or "all your eggs in one basket" approach. A Deathstar is a unit that is both extremely difficult to defeat, and dishes out extraordinary damage. Typically a Deathstar army contains one truly frightening unit and a variety of supporting units. The Deathstar unit rolls blithely across the battlefield disposing of its foes at leisure while capturing objectives and soaking up your opponents resources while a handful of supporting units protect its flanks and rear, provide it with buffs, neutralize threats like enemy shooting, or claim objectives in their own right.

Supporting the Deathstar

The tactics of the Deathstar are not subtle and don't need much explanation, which is why this tactics segment can be short. however, the Deathstar needs supporting units and a Deathstar player needs to think about how these will work.

Objective Grabbers: Unlike other large-scale sci-fi and fantasy wargames from another well-known publisher, the win condition for Runewars is not simply surviving while killing as much of your opponent as possible. You actually need to capture objective tokens to win. You probably want to have some small, fast units that can move across the board to capture objectives in scenarios that reward you for being in the enemy deployment zone or touching the back edge. You also need a strategy for securing objective tokens from enemy units. You can have your small units team up on enemy units, or keep a small, fast unit nearby your Deathstar to sweep in and claim the objective tokens dropped by the units it destroys.

Outside Linebackers: Sorry for the American Football reference, but if you don't know what an Outside Linebacker is, please google: "Von Miller sack highlights video". Outside Linebackers are the fast, maneuverable, yet hard hitting units that can get around an enemy line and destroy ranged and supporting units. This important to your Deathstar, because one of the biggest threats to a Deathstar is an enemy that can stand back and shoot like crazy while delaying and distracting your Deathstar with worthless chaff units. Your Outside Linebackers can avoid the chaff while neutralizing ranged threat. Oathsworn and Carrion Lancers should be pretty good at this role, as I am guessing Kari Wraithstalker is also.

Pinners: An opponent could possibly simply avoid your Deathstar too. To deal with avoidance armies, you'll need some units that can reach the enemy and pin them in place while the Deathstar catches up to destroy them completely. You probably don't want to invest too much in these units. Outside Linebackers can fulfill this role if they are tough enough to withstand a couple of turns of combat before the Deathstar turns up, or if your timing is good. Also, medium sized units of cheap infantry can work well in this role (see also, Tarpits ). But they have the dual disadvantages of being slow and possibly not being able to catch avoidance units, and even if they do catch them, their large footprint could mean that you're blocking possible charges from your Deathstar unit.

Flank Protectors: The last thing you want to have happen is for your Deathstar to end up with a decently powerful unit boring into its flank or rear. For this reason, your Deathstar probably needs a credible defense on its flanks. One way to do this is simply to use terrain or a table edge to make it difficult or impossible for an enemy unit to engage one of your flanks. While tempting, this limits your movement options and compounds the biggest problem when running Deathstars: that your eggs are in one basket and it needs to do a lot of work. Slinking along a table edge probably isn't going to help you in that regard. Alternatively, you place smaller, but still threatening blocks of infantry on the flanks to ward off would be attackers. Or hold heavy hitters in reserve that can powerfully counter charge any flankers that engage your deathstar. Carrion Lancers, Rune Golems, and Oathsworn should all work pretty well as counter-chargers.

So, what units make for a good Deathstar?

A 3x3 unit of Spearmen with a Frontline Rune Golem, Kari Wraithstalker, master-crafted weapons, Rank Discipline, and a banner come to mind right away, and total out to 97 points before adding a musician... almost half of a standard 200 point list. It may be possible to drive the price higher and drive better efficiency from the points, I just don't know enough about the game, units, and upgrades yet. Other winners in the Deathstar sweepstakes look like maxed-out Rune Golems and once mounted heroes are available, maxed out Oathsworn.

Maxed out Reanimates are another possibility, when paired with Ardus, banner, master crafted weapons, Rank Discipline, and a Support Carrion Lancer. Having their higher armor and bonuses to damage could make it viable, along with their larger maximum size that affords them threat and re-rolls, they are probably overcoming the weaker double-red starting dice compared to spearmen. Regenerate and steadfast will also give them tremendous staying power. It comes out to 106 points before adding a musician.

Tarpits

Kin to the Deathstar, a Tarpit unit is meant to soak up extraordinary damage, for as long as possible, allowing the other units in your army to claim objectives, flank or rear charge the enemy engaged with the Tarpit, or simply hide behind the tarpit keeping objectives and/or softer units safe.

Unlike the Deathstar, your Tarpit unit is disposable, and not expected to do much damage. Because of this, you want to keep them large enough and tough enough to hang on for a while, but not so expensive that you can't afford to lose it. Keep upgrades to a minimum, choosing only those that add toughness to the unit, or frustrate your opponent in some other way.

Typically, Tarpits are not fast and they will be vulnerable to charges in the flank. Because of this, you will want to compliment your Tarpit with faster units and units with more damage output. You may also want to add Flank Protectors as you would for a Deathstar.

Reanimates are the obvious ideal choice for a Tarpit unit. A 3x3 unit comes in at 50 points, possibly add Shield Wall for another 5 points, but especially do so if you're planning to Tarpit with a 12 tray unit of reanimates.

Rune Golems are also an attractive Tarpit choice. A 2x2 unit also comes out to 50 points and their "Stun" ability should give them added staying power.

It might be tempting to pour more points into a Tarpit and maybe as we get more games in, we'll know better whether this is a good idea. But conventional wisdom on Tarpits is that the rest of your army is doing the real work of causing damage and securing objectives, so you want to be sure you're leaving enough points available for the rest of your army to be effective.

Here We Go: Speed bumps, Wave Attacks, and Redirection

Fair warning, without being able to practice these moves, and without really knowing the relative power of units in practice, nor the commonality of these situations, for the time being, the efficacy of these tactics is highly speculative. I'm also trying to shoehorn in some 6th and 7th edition Warhammer tactics into a Runewars world. I own that they may not translate to Runewars so well.

Speed bumps

A speed bump is a small, less valuable unit that you sacrifice to give a more valuable unit a chance to charge and inflict damage before it receives damage and therefore has its effectiveness diminished before it gets a chance to strike.

In this extremely basic example, the Reanimates would be in jeopardy from being charged by the spearmen because the spearmen charge a faster initiative step. However, by sacrificing the archers, the spearmen will hit them, and hopefully wipe them out. If they get wiped out, then the reanimates can counter charge, striking the spearmen first, even though their charge happens later in the turn.

Wave Attacks

Full disclosure: I don't think there's currently a great selection of units for this tactic. I'm only mentioning this maneuver because it could come in handy situationally, and because I anticipate future releases might be useful for this maneuver. I'm thinking of Bloodreavers, for example when Uthuk Y'llan are released.

Basically the wave attack is the offensive cousin of the speedbump. It's most effective with "glass cannon" types of units that are cheap, deliver a powerful blow, and then get wiped out quickly, allowing for another unit to pile in and attack once the first one is out of the way.

Like I said, the units don't seem to exist yet for this classic move, so I'm going to do the best I can using the unlikely example of two waves of 2 trays of Oathsworn charging a large unit of Carrion Lancers. In this example, the Carrion Lancers, for some inexplicable reason, have braced to receive the charge, dialing up an attack with a *hit modifier. The first unit of Oathsworn charge with an initiative 4 attack. They do significant damage, but when the Carrion Lancers attack at the initiative 5 step, they somehow wipe out the two trays of Oathsworn. At initiative step 7, the next unit of Oathsworn charges in, wiping out the Carrion Lancers! Huzzah! (OK, with these given units, this particular outcome seems pretty unlikely, but again, I'm disclaiming the efficacy of this tactic with the currently available units.)

Redirectors

The basic idea is something similar to a speed bump, but with the aim or changing the angle of a charging enemy in order to expose its flank to a counter-charging unit of your own. In this example, the small unit of spearmen dials up a quick move at initiative 4, allowing it to move before the Reanimates charge.

In step 2, the reanimates charge at initiative step 5 or 6, and when they contact the small unit of spearmen, it forces them to turn their flank to the larger block of spearmen.

In step 3, the large block of spearmen counter-charges the flank of the reanimates for fun and profit!

Combined Arms Force

So, I've given a general description of little units in an MSU army and big units in a Deathstar army, so a Combined Arms Force must be an army made up of a medium number of medium sized units, right?

Well... yes and no. First, a little theory work.

A combined arms force does typically focus on multiples of medium sized units as both its offensive power and defensive ability to soak up damage. However, imagine what would happen to an army made up of all medium sized units, say 3 units of 6-tray Spearmen, and a unit of 6 tray Oathsworn with a few upgrades for each unit, if it fought against either an MSU or Deathstar army. An MSU army would probably dance out of the way of your medium blocks of infantry, shoot up your cavalry before it could do much, and then sweep in to finish off the remnants with its flanking units. They'd have a better chance against a Deathstar if the medium weight army could get 2, or even three of its units engaged with the Deathstar. But if the Deathstar player is good and able to divert or delay some of the medium blocks with its own supporting units, this becomes difficult.

So what's the solution? The combined arms force uses a variety of medium and small units, fast units and powerful units, ranged units and melee units. Against an MSU opponent, the small, fast, and ranged units threaten the opponent's ranged units and force your opponent to choose between engaging less valuable units that threaten him, or sacrificing his own units in order to damage to your medium, main line units. Against the Deathstar army, the combined arms force uses small, fast, and ranged units to drive off supporting units and delay and degrade the deathstar before multiple medium sized units can pile in and finish the Deathstar off.

So what units would make a Combined Arms Force work?

Good question. It seems like we have some serious gaps in the range with just the core box and wave 0, so a true combined arms force is a little difficult to come by. But the Waiqar could almost pull it off with 2 or 3 blocks of 6 trays of Reanimates, 2 or 3 minimum sized archer units, and maybe 2 units of 2 Carrion Lancers, or a unit of 4 Carrion Lancers. A solid battle line might look like this:

In this situation, your carrion act like cavalry. The Carrion on the left flank could advance up the board and harry the enemy flank, rear and/or supporting units. If a Deathstar or other medium sized unit approaches, it can be redirected by the archers, after the archers have dispatched the Deathstar's supporting units. because the 2x1 carrion have a smaller frontage than a typical medium to large infantry or monster block, they can tuck into a narrow space between the two reanimate blocks and play hammer on a counter charge while the reanimate block plays anvil to the enemy unit. For more on Hammer and Anvil , see @drkpnthr 's awesome and awesomely animated post below.

Now, I can see a bunch of different ways to organize this army, for example, maybe one of the 2x1 carrion would be better split into 2, single carrion units. Or maybe you replace one of the reanimate blocks with a large block of archers and then have a smaller unit of reanimates as a flank protector/redirector.

Another possible problem in Runewars that is my biggest wondering, is how the templates fit and units move on the table top. For example, if movement would cause a back corner of the central carrion to swing wide, then it may not be possible to make flanking counter-charges with them from a position where they are tucked into a narrow gap between the two larger units.

Last but not least, this army style is probably going to be the most expensive in terms of real-world $$ because it emphasizes model count over upgrade cards. For the example above, you'd need 4 core sets to build it, and probably an archer expansion and a command expansion or two for the additional cards and models. Retail, this army is $475 and you'd still have 3 unused archer units sitting on the shelf. It might be best to wait to build this kind of army until more expansions are available.

Can Daqans Pull this Off Right Now?

Maybe, but Daqans appear to be lacking in shooting at the moment. If wizards have substantial ranged attacks, that could help. And, I have a dream that there is an upgrade card for Rune Golems that gives them a ranged attack like they have in Battlelore. If these turn out to be true, then you could possibly have 2 blocks of spearmen with a wizard, a block of 4 Rune Golems, and a pair of small Oathsworn units out on the flanks. Again, this is a pricey army in real world $$.

instead of ruining your thread with my foolish nonsense, I'll say you thanks for sharing your thoughts. I'm reading you with a lot of attention

by the way : can someone tell me what's a tarpit ?

In regards to msu style play, there are some significant advantages to it, but I do think it does run into a significant drawback,(and if this drawback is even relevant in a core or 2x core scenario.), and that's scaling aspect to damage in this game. The way the threat multiplier works is that it causes your damage to scale very high if you can generate guaranteed hit symbols on your command dial, die, or upgrade equipment. Even though you get to roll more die with more units, die in of themselves, are not really the best thing at generating the most damage. An example is a unit with 3 threat does 6 damage off of 2 hits, and a unit with 2 threat does 4 damage. A unit with 3 threat does 9 damage off 3 hits, while a unit with 2 threat does 6. A unit with 3 threat does 12 damage off 4 hits, while a unit with 2 threat does 8 damage. Against rank and file targets this may take several turns to add up, but against elite targets like Kari, Oathsworn( who always put their armor up to 3.) , and a rune golem who on the approach has 4 armor and in melee can get up to 5 or 6, this can cause average attacks and below average attacks to effectively do nothing at low threat values. So things that can increase their armor up are fairly strong against low threat value units. Also protecting the threat value of these units is much hard at smaller ranks, like the second formation of reanimate archers takes 12 wounds to reduce their threat value compared to the first formation which only requires 4 wounds. This is important because a unit at a threat value of 1 effectively does nothing except against rank and file,(and some instances it still might not be anything.)

So the biggest question will be is how effective is at Kari in shooting units, or using her surge ability to harm them. I've ran the numbers, she's disgustingly effective in melee and at ranged she is still strong enough to be wiping out a tray of skeletons half of the time, before rerolls.

None of this is not to say MSU play won't be valid, especially with how strong the flank bonus is, I just don't think the answer is entirely clear cut. I think the best unit for MSU is Carrion Lancer, Rune Golem, and the 4 tray formation of Oath Sworn Calvary. Reanimate Archers would be first place if the opponent could not inflict any damage on them, but I think Kari is a strong answer to them and is the reason why you can't put Kari inside a unit of spearmen with a front line rune golem, regardless of how absurdly strong it would be.

1 hour ago, Elrad said:

instead of ruining your thread with my foolish nonsense, I'll say you thanks for sharing your thoughts. I'm reading you with a lot of attention

by the way : can someone tell me what's a tarpit ?

I just posted the Tarpit bit.

55 minutes ago, Obscene said:

In regards to msu style play, there are some significant advantages to it, but I do think it does run into a significant drawback,(and if this drawback is even relevant in a core or 2x core scenario.), and that's scaling aspect to damage in this game.

This is a really interesting point. Do you have any tables that can show the trade-offs?

My hunch that MSU will work is based only on the inference that additional trays get progressively cheaper as they're added to the unit probably means that the game designers are balancing some kind of weakness in larger units.

In addition to shear damage output though, I'm also considering action economy, flexibility, and the opportunity to secure objectives that MSU provides when considering the value of the tactic. It may be that larger units have more damage output, but if Kari can't pick up the objective token from the Archer unit she just leveled, it may not be a valuable exercise.

I also just don't know this game yet. There could be some big trade-off to large units (or to be fair, to small units too) that we just don't know about yet. For example, perhaps there is an effect in the game that multiples damage by the number of trays or ranks in the unit you are attacking? This is utter speculation of course, but I just want to name one of the reasons I'm trying to be conservative in describing these tactics.

1 hour ago, Elrad said:

instead of ruining your thread with my foolish nonsense, I'll say you thanks for sharing your thoughts. I'm reading you with a lot of attention

by the way : can someone tell me what's a tarpit ?

I just realized that you might be asking a language question, rather than a tactics question. Sorry if my descriptive definition is pedantic, but "tar" is the black sticky petro-muck that we make roads and roofs out of. A pit, of course is just a big hole in the ground. A pit, filled with tar, can trap a lot of unsuspecting animals and is a great place to look for mammoth fossils and frustrated elite infantry units :-)

39 minutes ago, Elliphino said:

In addition to shear damage output though, I'm also considering action economy, flexibility, and the opportunity to secure objectives that MSU provides when considering the value of the tactic.

To support MSU being effective in RuneWars, the numbers that I have ran so far shows Reanimate Archers at a minimum 2 trays + Rank Discipline (22pts) being one of the most cost effective units in the game. Baseline, without any rerolls, they have over a 37% chance each to damage a 4 armor (the highest in the game so far) target at 5 range. They will take out 2-3 cavalry a turn each.

I see Rank Discipline as being one of those annoying "need 6 copies" type of cards, at least early on. Why? Reanimates get access to Rank Discipline at 2 tray and Carrion Lancers get access to it at 1 tray. For archers, getting a full reroll +8 additional wounds (but no extra damage) costs 14 additional points. You can get the full reroll for 4 points from Rank Discipline. Guaranteeing a full reroll on a MSU min unit is really good and offsets the consistency weakness.

I'm interested in the rest of your thoughts, but after running a bunch of different list scenarios, I see Waiqar as MSU based largely around Reanimate Archers and Carrion Lancers. I see Daqan being a Death Star army around a pimped out Kari Wraithstalker with heartseeker and LOS blockers.

@Oloh I actually came to the same conclusion, but I still want to add it only takes 4 wounds on the unit to halve it's damage. With rerolls, Kari is fairly likely to do this every turn. I would consider running the reanimates in a block of 2 by 2 not really something to increase your damage output, but to *protect* your damage output. Going from requiring 4 wounds to 12 wounds to lose half of your damage is a pretty big value.

Don't know if I see anything that would quantify as a deathstar yet. We need something that has great survivability with either tons of movement or a ranged attack. I'm leaning towards the knights as a possible deathstar pending on some of those upgrades like the shieldwall (the picture with it seems to indicate that you can exhaust it when you have more trays for +2 defense).

The other concept to keep in mind is how upgrades are correlated to the size of a unit's formation. Daqar get a little faster upgrade progression, but this is balanced out in Waiqar by the hero's power, which allows them to use the next size formation's upgrade slots. In game terms, this means that if you have units too small, they will not be able to upgrade. So consider that not only do we have a multiplier from the size of the unit on damage output and consistency, but also that the rarest upgrades will come in larger formations. I think we are more likely to see some forces field Kari in support of smaller units just to make up for critical officer upgrades.

One advantage that was overlooked was positioning and the nature of flanking, which I think will be the niche where combined arms comes in. If I run two mid-sized Reanimate Tarpits, they could act as anchor formations that hold back bigger formations of cavalry or giant runegolems, while a smaller formation of archers or carrion lancers hides between them. A big enemy deathstar wouldn't be able to close because they would collide with the larger formations to each side, and a smaller unit risks being caught between the two larger formations if they are left unengaged, giving the archers or whatever time to reposition or strike from range. In this situation, a MSU army is more effective perhaps than a deathstar that would be locked and shot apart, because it can lock with some units, close and kill with a third, then flank one to destroy it. I kind of see combined armies as more effective homes to tarpits using this strategy.

I think in its early seasons, we will see some sort of paper-rock-scissors of Combined-MSU-Deathstar. MSU may slice a deathstar up by flanking it to deny it multipliers, Deathstar might be able to crush the mid-sized formations of a combined army, and a combined army might be able to out-position MSU. Plus, who knows what kind of wild combos we will have once we see the Command expansions.

Spearmen with Kari + Front Line Rune Golem is the definition of a deathstar. The amount of damage it puts out, and how long it can keep that threat with it's high number of wounds make it extremely effective. NOW, depending on the meta and reanimate archer spam, I don't think this is wise as she is one of your only units capable of interacting with them at range. FLRG is still insane value in a Spearmen squad with out her.

1 hour ago, Obscene said:

Spearmen with Kari + Front Line Rune Golem is the definition of a deathstar. The amount of damage it puts out, and how long it can keep that threat with it's high number of wounds make it extremely effective. NOW, depending on the meta and reanimate archer spam, I don't think this is wise as she is one of your only units capable of interacting with them at range. FLRG is still insane value in a Spearmen squad with out her.

I agree that I think spearmen+FLRG is going to be a beast to see on the other side of the table, and that Kari will probably be more effective running wild. I speculate we'll see her being able to team up with a squad of Latari bodyguards in a later expansion that match her skill sets better and field her as a hero upgrade with that.

I think that the counterpart to SM+FLRG with Waiqar is going to be Reanimates+Ardus, he is going to make their tarpit extra sticky, and can be added to a spearmen unit as small as 6 trays.

How much of adding heroes/FLRG to formations mechanics do we know at this point? Can FLRG/Kari/Ardus add their special attack abilities to a formation they join? If we pay for a 9-tray formation of Spearmen/Reanimates and add FLRG/Kari/Ardus, do they replace an entire tray? A single model? Do they bump one tray to be four wounds in a loose flap hanging off the back? I hope they release the 1.0 rules pdf soon so that we can start reading through them, but I think Armada they tossed out on shipping day, so we probably won't see and official pdf until March.

Ardus is so dangerous, I don't think he is worth putting into a squad. Kari would be totally worth putting in a squad IF Daqan get otherways to interact with ranged units.

As far as heroes in formations, I'm pretty sure you don't get to use their unit card. Instead, there is an upgrade card that adds them to another unit and they - as upgrades - add a die and a special ability to the unit. I'm fairly certain that the ability granted by the upgrade is the same as their unit ability.

4 hours ago, Elliphino said:

I just realized that you might be asking a language question, rather than a tactics question. Sorry if my descriptive definition is pedantic, but "tar" is the black sticky petro-muck that we make roads and roofs out of. A pit, of course is just a big hole in the ground. A pit, filled with tar, can trap a lot of unsuspecting animals and is a great place to look for mammoth fossils and frustrated elite infantry units :-)

Thanks for the answer ! I had read a definition on the net earlier in the week but completely forgot about it. I was wondering wich word we could use in French to translate tarpit and I found out : bourbier (you pronounce it "Boorbee-ay" / basically it is a difference in level of ground (lower than normal ground if you want) full of mud : hard to cross and slows the movement).

One thing I've been thinking about is if it would be better to split your undead archers in order to be able to spread around blight tokens easier. Would be useful for both the lancers mortal strikes, and just to help save your melee tarpit units from some damage.

My question regarding Undeads (and yes I'll coy past the interestings stuffs in the Necropolis that I should re-batise "Library of the dead" or something...^^

so, I was saying : my question regarding undeads is : "what do we do with Ardus" ? I mean in a MSU srategy, he could be travelling through all the allied lines to use his capacities and lend his forces to any small unit. As per the deathstar strategy, if we don't attach him to a unit, what does he do ? do we keep him moving (butin the strict perimeter of the deathstar) or do we give him a strict move order, giving him less flexibility to adapt to what happens whith the Linebackers all over the field ? Or Is he a Lanebacker too ?

In the same Deathstar tactic, The archers can be split like @TallTonyB just mentioned so they can give a good shower of arrows to any ennemy unit daring moving in their line of sight or do they have to take position at specific location along the Deathstar' pathway and stay there in defense ? In the tarpit tactic however they could be a real pain in the ass if correctly placed. And considering the terrain tiles...they could be a real real pain in the... ok everyone has got it Elrad...

I don't master he rules so far so my post might be irrelevant in what its says. Sorry for that.

1 hour ago, Elrad said:

My question regarding Undeads (and yes I'll coy past the interestings stuffs in the Necropolis that I should re-batise "Library of the dead" or something...^^

so, I was saying : my question regarding undeads is : "what do we do with Ardus" ? I mean in a MSU srategy, he could be travelling through all the allied lines to use his capacities and lend his forces to any small unit. As per the deathstar strategy, if we don't attach him to a unit, what does he do ? do we keep him moving (butin the strict perimeter of the deathstar) or do we give him a strict move order, giving him less flexibility to adapt to what happens whith the Linebackers all over the field ? Or Is he a Lanebacker too ?

In the same Deathstar tactic, The archers can be split like @TallTonyB just mentioned so they can give a good shower of arrows to any ennemy unit daring moving in their line of sight or do they have to take position at specific location along the Deathstar' pathway and stay there in defense ? In the tarpit tactic however they could be a real pain in the ass if correctly placed. And considering the terrain tiles...they could be a real real pain in the... ok everyone has got it Elrad...

I don't master he rules so far so my post might be irrelevant in what its says. Sorry for that.

I'm not too sure what I want to do with him just yet, but I'm leaning towards several options:

A: Unit Upgrade: This adds both a White die to your close combat and the surge abilities of allies within 1~3. He's an expensive upgrade, but he does allow you to spread out other surge upgrades or abilities to other friendly units rather than piling them all on a single unit. That fits the MSU strategy perfectly on one end but you lose that sweet passive. He also really wants you to keep his parent unit close to usable allies which can limit your placement and movement. It also feels like he wants you to really focus on that ability.*

B: Single Unit focused on ally surge abilities: Much like Option A, Ardus will feel like a unit that you build aroundUnlike option A, he will give his passive to his army and really open up those upgrade options. By allies we should really just mean Carrion Lancers right now. To be honest the worms actually seem like a good option given their points, the ability to place blight tokens, and to serve as flanking options. Heck, these worms might end up being the workhorse of Waiqar MSU lists.

C: Ax Battler: Just your plain olde character stuffed with upgrades to pound enemies. He has a solid white defense bonus and a relatively quick Initiative 3 attack and for just points he gets the reroll. I would still want to keep at least one Carrion Lancer unit by him to possibly get either the benefit of blight (to increase his survivability), or for that potential surge, or even to use the worm as bait.

* - There is a four option: Just Ardus as an upgrade for a white die in cc without really focusing on that surge ability. For 23 points, I'm not sure if I'd use him just for that or I'd rather spend those points on other trays or upgrades. Edit - It also feels a bit counter productive for a MSU strategy.

2 hours ago, TallTonyB said:

One thing I've been thinking about is if it would be better to split your undead archers in order to be able to spread around blight tokens easier. Would be useful for both the lancers mortal strikes, and just to help save your melee tarpit units from some damage.

If you can fond a list that works let me know the lists I tried to put together were too expensive.

2 hours ago, Budgernaut said:

As far as heroes in formations, I'm pretty sure you don't get to use their unit card. Instead, there is an upgrade card that adds them to another unit and they - as upgrades - add a die and a special ability to the unit. I'm fairly certain that the ability granted by the upgrade is the same as their unit ability.

That's the way I understand it.

I haven't quite figured out Ardus' role. He could be a linebacker, but I think Carrion Lancers are probably better for that role because they have a faster dial. Kari would be better than Ardus in this role too because even though she has the same movement, she does it at a faster initiative step, so, for example, she could pounce on a unit of Reanimate Archers before they had a chance to shoot. She's a shade cheaper, so if she's run without upgrades, she might even feel a bit disposable.

I don't think Ardus would be so great in an MSU army either. Imagine you look across the battlefield from left to right and see: one Carrion Lancer, archers, archers, Ardus, archers, archers, one Carrion Lancer. Where are you going to put your focus? Ardus is going to be the first casualty in this battle.

I think his main role is either going to be in a unit, or as part of a combined arms army that has a decent number of moderately powerful units if he is run out on his own. If I look across the board and see two decent blocks of reanimates with some upgrades, a big block of archers, and a unit four Carrion Lancers, I'll probably have a harder choice between attacking Ardus, or those Carrion Lancers who can get to me faster, or those archers who can shoot me right now. Having those multiple threats allows me to get Ardus into a position where he can do some damage.

Lastly, I have no idea how line of sight works in this game. Perhaps Ardus could creep up hidden behind a blocking unit?

Now if you really care about spreading blight tokens, MSU Archers is probably better then running higher formations considering you can guarantee a surge off the dial and the blue gives you a pretty decent chance of generating a surge as well. The cavaet to this, is that no the unit isn't dealing a whole lot of damage, roughly 2 to 3 less a turn for giving up the hit modifier.

I'm thinking Rune Golems might be one of the best MSU units because they can get such a high threat value on their own(2 or 3). Running them as MSU also helps negate the biggest draw back which is the mortal strike/blight token synergy becomes progressively hard to apply to multiple different units.

Ardus is your, second wave, kill everything unit. His damage output against a blighted unit especially with the ardus fury upgrade is probably second to none. Literally with Ardus Fury and his native surge icon there isn't anything in the game you can't dispose of with him. He's pretty durable as well. I don't think putting him in a unit of Reanimates is the best call. While still effective, him running around on his own is a huge threat the enemy player will have to consider when applying his hammer to your front line units, if they be carrion lancers or reanimates.