So it seems some people are questioning the Strength of the Waiqar. Well here are my thoughts on this.

What do the Waiqar Bring to the Table?

Blight. Literally. ALL THE BLIGHT!!!!

If you think you have enough Blight, you are wrong. To paraphrase an old game "You must create more Blight Tokens". Blight not only boosts the meat grinder called Ardus (when in range of a Lancer) but it also makes you more survivable. Each token is 1 less die your opponent can rely on and if you can stack 2-3 tokens on a unit they will never be able to push enough damage through.

Carrion Lancer:

Ok, partial joking aside (seriously, you need more blight). Some considerations, The Carrion Lancer is one of the best units you can take. Seriously, take several. They are resilient (needing at least 9 damage to take out in one go) since they can Blight and boost Defense at the same time. It leaves the unit stationary when it does so but the advantage is pretty big.

Reanimates:

Next we have the Reanimates. The few times I have used them, I have held them back, allowing them to be charged while they are in a defense boost. Now you can get away with charging with them, you will want them to have blight tokens on an the one you are charging. Since this is Core box you wont have access to the Standard Bearer from the Infantry Expansion (see card image below), you will have to be creative with how you apply all that blight (Hmmm Carrion Lancer Special on a 4 Init Rally seems fun or 4 Init Attack seems legit if you ask me). Minimizing the amount of damage that the Reanimates takes makes them not only more survivable but with their Regeneration you can extend their ability to fight back. It makes up for their slowness.

https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/2f/c4/2fc449b8-9581-407d-87c4-40e8c912e99c/rwm10_card_blighted-vexillum-bearer.png[/img]

Reanimate Archers:

These are decent damage dealers and work well in larger numbers. I like to cheat though and think that they are best in 2x1 groups with Ranked Discipline. A red and a Blue for damage is not a lot but placing more Blight, weakening your foes as they close in, and proving to be an utter pain in the butt to take down is amazing.

Ardus:

The Meat Grinder, The Whirlwind of Doom, Mr Destructo Axe and his Fabulous Antlers himself. This monster is decently easy to take down at times but if he hits the right targets (Cavalry, Hero's, and Rune Golems just to name a few) he can slice and dice his way with maddening ease. The reason you don't want to pit him against a unit like Spearman or Reanimates is because they can take all of his damage with and still maintain their capabilities to strike back. They also limit the ability of the Moral Strikes that Fab Antlers gets from a nearby Lancer. Those Mortal Strikes are great against Multi Wound models like Golems and other Hero's but unless you have an Accuracy you cant hit those Champion's that are embedded in those big bricks of Infantry.

In the End:

Watch your targets and let the Blight Flow, after all the Blight must Flow Free!

Agree

Reanimates shine as a tarpit. With an Init 4 Rally and a Defend modifier, they are almost completely invulnerable to the RG's stun special, and fairly resistant to their Init 5 attack. They also won't suffer many morale tests except against low init Spearman attacks. Back them up with a 2x1 of archers blighting at least once per turn, and they can hold rune golems in place almost indefinitely. Using their Rally/Defend will leave them vulnerable only to the Spearmen with their init 3 attack, but it forces them to give up a bonus damage modifier if they do. Again, keep the blight coming and the spearmen will either have to pass up their attack to rally, or just accept attacking with one fewer die a lot of the time.

With defend active constantly, their Regenerate ability also comes into play a lot more often.

When they aren't being a hilariously effective tarpit, they want to use their morale modifier and Terrifying Heraldry. They aren't going to out-damage Spearmen, but they can reliably put three severity morale tests on them, which no unit can handle for long!

The power of inflicting blight tokens on units that are engaged or about to engage is really potent and using them defensively is the key to getting the most out of the units on hand.

Agree with your assessment of archers, small, multiple blocks are best to harass and build Blight. Infantry in big blocks that take forever to kill.

Ardus acting as assassin, worms as speed bumps.

The dead are relentless, they grind you down so play to that strength and the humans are in trouble.

I found the worm to be mostly useful as a means of sticking blight tokens on things more than actually fighting. No brutal, no accurate makes him sad. When things get blighted out, then he becomes more useful. The flaw in a lot of weiqar players in the starter set is getting him stuck in against the rune golem and proceeding to do nothing the whole game.

As long as the Golem is Blighted first the Golem should lose every time to the Lancer. Mortal Strikes happen a lot on 2xBlue, 1xRed dice.

14 minutes ago, Lyraeus said:

As long as the Golem is Blighted first the Golem should lose every time to the Lancer. Mortal Strikes happen a lot on 2xBlue, 1xRed dice.

The golem has a fairly easy time removing blight tokens because of that white rally modifier.

1 minute ago, Panzeh said:

The golem has a fairly easy time removing blight tokens because of that white rally modifier.

If it is rallying it is not gaining Defense, charging, or Reforming, so no losses for me there.

Just now, Lyraeus said:

If it is rallying it is not gaining Defense, charging, or Reforming, so no losses for me there.

The golem's modifiers kind of suck, to be honest. I'd be more concerned- the golem is basically the least affected unit by debuffs. No reason not to rally the first couple turns. The defense modifier only matters when the golem hits first.

Your mileage my vary- blight is worth more on the units where rally isn't as easy to get.

I don't agree with you on that. In combat you can consistently be Armor 5, the only way to turn is with a Reform, and if it can't charge into combat then it just takes panic and gets no free attack. So, please remove a single blight a turn. Let's hope the archers don't add a second.

24 minutes ago, Panzeh said:

The golem's modifiers kind of suck, to be honest. I'd be more concerned- the golem is basically the least affected unit by debuffs. No reason not to rally the first couple turns. The defense modifier only matters when the golem hits first.

Your mileage my vary- blight is worth more on the units where rally isn't as easy to get.

If a golem is Rallying, a golem isn't reforming. If a golem isn't reforming, it has literally no other way to change what direction it is facing.

That's fine by me.

I think we'll have to see more play but the golem, to me, is the least valuable part of the daquan part of the starter box and effort put into blighting it is wasted.

9 minutes ago, Tvayumat said:

If a golem is Rallying, a golem isn't reforming. If a golem isn't reforming, it has literally no other way to change what direction it is facing.

That's fine by me.

It can go into terrain and exit the following turn facing any direction it wants. While it is in there it threatens a huge section of ground because you cant safely block it or go around it. Considering the fact that most terrain is the same distance, if not further, than a speed 2 march it doesn't even cost the golem anything to do it, with the added bonus of possibly having increased defense for a turn. It may not happen very often but it is something to keep in mind.

26 minutes ago, Panzeh said:

I think we'll have to see more play but the golem, to me, is the least valuable part of the daquan part of the starter box and effort put into blighting it is wasted.

I agree. The golem is best used as an inspiration battery. Since it is so slow you just use the rally modifier every turn until changing your facing matters. That way you have inspiration tokens other units can burn to get rid of blight tokens.

I get what everyone is saying, and conceptually I understand the blight storm. I just can't figure out how to put the theory into practice. How are y'all getting your opponent to sit in blight range long enough to get any mileage out of it?

1 hour ago, DaShamrockKid said:

I get what everyone is saying, and conceptually I understand the blight storm. I just can't figure out how to put the theory into practice. How are y'all getting your opponent to sit in blight range long enough to get any mileage out of it?

It helps to us shift actions instead of marching with your other units, this forces the enemy to come to you. Also range 5 is a good chunk of the board, however to be used effectively the lancer needs to be placed after the unit(s) you want to blight.

I have noticed that setup is very imortant for waiqar, at least in skirmishes. I place my reanimates first, then my archers in a place to not be charged by cav if possible. Ardus and the worm are placed based on where Kari and the rune golem are.

At 200 points we are going to want to have a 12 tray unit with a hero, command upgrades and worm in it. It will be expensive, but it will be the anvil on which to grind the enemy.

Archers in 2 tray units and a worm or 3 for flanking will round out the Waiqar in wave 1 for me.

2 hours ago, Englishpete said:

At 200 points we are going to want to have a 12 tray unit with a hero, command upgrades and worm in it. It will be expensive, but it will be the anvil on which to grind the enemy.

Archers in 2 tray units and a worm or 3 for flanking will round out the Waiqar in wave 1 for me.

Not sure if I agree with that. I think a 3x3 is a good tarpit while a 4x3 is a HUGE amount of points and threat

I played two 200 point games Saturday with a 4x3 block of Reanimates with a worm and it was awesome. Threat 4 with a couple of rerolls hits like a truck. In both games I took a charge from a 2x2 unit of cavalry and decimated it in the return swing. I'm planning on playing my next few games with two 3x2 blocks with worms and see how it goes.

Blight spam is almost imposible. Carrion lancers cannot do when engaged nor against engaged enemies, so you need to have many single ones.

Archers are very interesting, but most enemy units are quick and cavalry may move 5-6 inches colliding to prevent any shoot (after that they can esasily defeat them in combat).

So it is possible to spam blight in turn 1, maybe in turn 2, but they are consumed quickly and may be difficult to regenerate.

Deathcaller card release is utterly necessary, as it will allow to greatly damage key enemies before they begin to engage all our blighting units. In number inferiority blight is not too favoured

12 hours ago, DaShamrockKid said:

I agree. The golem is best used as an inspiration battery. Since it is so slow you just use the rally modifier every turn until changing your facing matters. That way you have inspiration tokens other units can burn to get rid of blight tokens.

The golem can't give it's inspiration to other units can it?

21 minutes ago, Klaxas said:

The golem can't give it's inspiration to other units can it?

The Boons and Banes reference card states, "Inspiration: Spend from an ally before revealing command tool to remove 1 bane or to ready 1 upgrade card." My understanding is that units hand out their inspiration tokens to units around them.

2 hours ago, druchii7 said:

Blight spam is almost imposible. Carrion lancers cannot do when engaged nor against engaged enemies, so you need to have many single ones.

Archers are very interesting, but most enemy units are quick and cavalry may move 5-6 inches colliding to prevent any shoot (after that they can esasily defeat them in combat).

So it is possible to spam blight in turn 1, maybe in turn 2, but they are consumed quickly and may be difficult to regenerate.

Deathcaller card release is utterly necessary, as it will allow to greatly damage key enemies before they begin to engage all our blighting units. In number inferiority blight is not too favoured

I disagree. Several Init 6 Lancer's Double and triple Blighting targets is a HUGE threat. You can only remove so much Blight a turn.

7 minutes ago, DaShamrockKid said:

The Boons and Banes reference card states, "Inspiration: Spend from an ally before revealing command tool to remove 1 bane or to ready 1 upgrade card." My understanding is that units hand out their inspiration tokens to units around them.

RR 13. 1:

Inspiration: Before a unit with an inspiration token reveals its command tool, that token can be spent to remove one bane from that unit or to ready an upgrade card on that unit.

1 hour ago, Lyraeus said:

RR 13. 1:

Inspiration: Before a unit with an inspiration token reveals its command tool, that token can be spent to remove one bane from that unit or to ready an upgrade card on that unit.

Well, guess I should have actually read the book entry. Figured the reference card would be good enough.

1 hour ago, Lyraeus said:

I disagree. Several Init 6 Lancer's Double and triple Blighting targets is a HUGE threat. You can only remove so much Blight a turn.

The issue here is that the Daqan player can sit out of range 5 and march 4/2 their cavalry or march 4 their spearmen at initiative 7/8. They then can charge you before initiative 6. That means that those worms have blighted no one. Speed bumping with reanimate blocks can work with the archers but it doesn't help the carrion lancers because they can't blight into combat.

I guess my main frustration is that the carrion lancer requires an almost obscene amount of skill/luck to use correctly. You have to be aggressive enough to force your opponent into blight range on your terms. You also have to be defensive enough that it stays out of charge range long enough to put the hurt on with blight.

Depending on distances and positioning that is possible @DaShamrockKid but at the same time, I want them to do that. Sure they can delay bit that turn I can wait them out and depending on initiative and distances (which you can easily measure out the ranges like a smart combo player will and know how far a 4+2 and X charge is. You make it sound like it is a forgone conclusion that they can just so easily stay out of range and just so easily have a direct path, and just so easily prevent the blight.

It is not so easy as you think.

They don't require skill/luck. Well not more than most other things. They do require forethought and planning though. They are not a point and click unit like the Cavalry but they are reselient and durable.

As for your initial assumptions, shifting and Reforming are great counter tactics for messing up with the ranges and charges.