I'd like to get people's opinions on the Carrion Crawler, and how it should best be built and deployed. Assume a 150pt game with two available CC models. Would you advocate for...

1) A single CC and another embedded in a 3x3 of reanimates?

2) Two single CCs for maximum blight-spitooning control?

3) A single unit of two CCs for +1 brutal (and presumably rank discipline) to use as pseudo cavalry?

On top of this, what's your opinion on this unit overall?

3 minutes ago, banjobenito said:

I'd like to get people's opinions on the Carrion Crawler, and how it should best be built and deployed. Assume a 150pt game with two available CC models. Would you advocate for...

1) A single CC and another embedded in a 3x3 of reanimates?

2) Two single CCs for maximum blight-spitooning control?

3) A single unit of two CCs for +1 brutal (and presumably rank discipline) to use as pseudo cavalry?

On top of this, what's your opinion on this unit overall?

i am far from the one with the most experience here but i believe 2 is the best way to go. i think this units blight generating ability is the best and most reliable use. and blight is essential to the undead. i find it more survivable than the rune golem oddly enough but it deal far less damage as it doesnt have brutal. havent tried these guys in units other than single trays yet though.

Are you playing 6x3 or 3x3 battlefield.

That makes a big difference as well, Lancers are actually fairly mobile, if they have room to move around they can act almost like a sort of flanking calvary.

Generally though I don't agree with the above poster, I don't think their primary purpose is to blight, quite to the contrary, they are the unit that should be leveraging blight to kill gollums, heroes and charging calvery. Archers are their to do the blighting.

I can understand however that at 150 points, you don't really have a full compliment of synergy so, yeah I might hide them in a unit of Reanimates and use blight as a defense mechanism.

Single CC are awesome. They are versatile and have very few drawbacks. Spit out blight to your heart's content in the first turns, flank or bog down units in the mid game, take objectives in the late game.

It's a no brainer to me, as the embedded CC will hamper its unit's capacity if you want to blight and the dual unit will still not overly shine in combat while losing masses of flexibility

Sorry, should have specified that it's a full 6x3ft board.

One in a 3x3 of reanimates would 1st allow me to actually run a 3x3 at all! and 2nd give the reanimates a job to do when getting ready for the charge they'll probably be taking, I guess.

Interesting point about CCs are blight users, rather than generators...

I've been playing the Lancer quite a lot, and love him.

Solo lancers are cheap as dirt, and fairly tough for a single tray. Combined with their mobility, they are ideal blockers for reanimate archers, who can camp behind them and have no issues with LOS at two trays. Lancers can Rally + March 3 at initiative 3. People often forget this, but I've used them several times to lunge forward and unexpectedly occupy a piece of terrain the enemy was hoping to march into. Spitting blight at initiative 6 is obviously a cool ability, but mine only do this when I've already gotten them into a good blocking position.

As a Support Lancer, the blight ability really starts to shine. Reanimates have a white skill modifier, meaning now your lancer can move forward AND spit blight in the same turn. This has become my preferred modifier. Whatever else the unit is doing, they're always spitting blight.

This alone has shown the the power of Ardus at 200 pts, letting Reanimates take a worm at six trays is AWESOME.

Ardus Ix'Erebus

2x1 Reanimate Archers w/ Rank Discipline x3

3x2 Reanimates w/ Support Lancer x2

Solo lancer w/ no upgrades

Comes in at exactly 200 pts, and with seven units often gets to dictate deployment to the enemy.

Nice one Tvayumat. That's a really useful breakdown and an ace looking list. How does Ardus play in it? Cagey, waiting for reanimates to engage? Assisting your CC roadblocks?

32 minutes ago, banjobenito said:

Nice one Tvayumat. That's a really useful breakdown and an ace looking list. How does Ardus play in it? Cagey, waiting for reanimates to engage? Assisting your CC roadblocks?

Double duty for Ardus. He and the solo lancer work as roadblocks for the archers, and when the reanimates engage he tries not to be so far away that he can't charge in to assist.

I think Tvayumat has the right idea. I also find the single lancers are good objective grabbers because of their march modifier. You can rally + march 3 early on to grab objectives and then start spitting blight.

10 hours ago, Tvayumat said:

I've been playing the Lancer quite a lot, and love him.

Solo lancers are cheap as dirt, and fairly tough for a single tray. Combined with their mobility, they are ideal blockers for reanimate archers, who can camp behind them and have no issues with LOS at two trays. Lancers can Rally + March 3 at initiative 3. People often forget this, but I've used them several times to lunge forward and unexpectedly occupy a piece of terrain the enemy was hoping to march into. Spitting blight at initiative 6 is obviously a cool ability, but mine only do this when I've already gotten them into a good blocking position.

As a Support Lancer, the blight ability really starts to shine. Reanimates have a white skill modifier, meaning now your lancer can move forward AND spit blight in the same turn. This has become my preferred modifier. Whatever else the unit is doing, they're always spitting blight.

This alone has shown the the power of Ardus at 200 pts, letting Reanimates take a worm at six trays is AWESOME.

Ardus Ix'Erebus

2x1 Reanimate Archers w/ Rank Discipline x3

3x2 Reanimates w/ Support Lancer x2

Solo lancer w/ no upgrades

Comes in at exactly 200 pts, and with seven units often gets to dictate deployment to the enemy.

2x1 Two units, one row?

3x2 Three units two rows?

For some reason I'm not parsing your nomenclature...

I think I'm tired or not reading it right.

Just now, Deathseed said:

2x1 Two units, one row?

3x2 Three units two rows?

For some reason I'm not parsing your nomenclature...

I think I'm tired or not reading it right.

3x2 = Three columns by two ranks

2x1 = Two columns by one rank

1 minute ago, Tvayumat said:

3x2 = Three columns by two ranks

2x1 = Two columns by one rank

So

A A A

A A A

and

R R

From my limited experience I'd go 2 solo lancers. They can spit blight and hang in until the end when they're a pretty good mop-up unit.

8 minutes ago, Elliphino said:

From my limited experience I'd go 2 solo lancers. They can spit blight and hang in until the end when they're a pretty good mop-up unit.

Ah, but Reanimates with the Support Lancer can move then spit at Init 5.

Solo Lancer doesn't have a move+spit combo in that order. This alone makes me like the support lancer.

This much is clear: CC will be my first booster pack when it drops! That or cavalry if I turn to the humies between now and then.

I've noticed that CCs like to flank, as they can add another blue dice for extra mortal wound surges, but also that they have a bit of a stiff movement dial, with no hard turns. Has anyone had any experience running them 2x1 with rank discipline? It looks on paper like a pretty tough flanking unit at a good price, that has lots of utility once it's lost a tray...

1 hour ago, banjobenito said:

This much is clear: CC will be my first booster pack when it drops! That or cavalry if I turn to the humies between now and then.

I've noticed that CCs like to flank, as they can add another blue dice for extra mortal wound surges, but also that they have a bit of a stiff movement dial, with no hard turns. Has anyone had any experience running them 2x1 with rank discipline? It looks on paper like a pretty tough flanking unit at a good price, that has lots of utility once it's lost a tray...

I haven't really experimented with larger formations of lancers. I will once the expansion drops.

That said, the solo lancer is a damned assassin.

IF he can flank a blighted unit of golems or a hero, he can basically delete them with mortal strikes.

Played a 170pt game yesterday.

2 Lancers seperate is DEF the way to go. She's gonna up it to 3 in 200pt games. The blights they spit are just too powerful to ignore.

As for the "boss". He's WAY overpriced as a solo model, and dies quickly alone.

Stick him in a block of reanimates however, and he becomes a killing MACHINE for like half the points costs.. and still keeps his ability. Its a win win all the way.

4 minutes ago, Trafficman said:

Played a 170pt game yesterday.

2 Lancers seperate is DEF the way to go. She's gonna up it to 3 in 200pt games. The blights they spit are just too powerful to ignore.

As for the "boss". He's WAY overpriced as a solo model, and dies quickly alone.

Stick him in a block of reanimates however, and he becomes a killing MACHINE for like half the points costs.. and still keeps his ability. Its a win win all the way.

He loses Host of Crows, though, which is an overall benefit to the army when he is running solo.

1 hour ago, Tvayumat said:

That said, the solo lancer is a damned assassin.

IF he can flank a blighted unit of golems or a hero, he can basically delete them with mortal strikes.

How so?

When we looked in the rules, we saw no benefit at all for flanking or even rear charging individual golems/lancers or heroes.
When we read it, it sounded like flanking just means the flanked figure doesn't count it's ranks when it fights back, but since single models don't have ranks, there was no penalty/advantage at all to flanking them. We probably missed something... did we?

When you flank a unit you can add one die to your roll, red or blue.

2 hours ago, Wispur said:

How so?

When we looked in the rules, we saw no benefit at all for flanking or even rear charging individual golems/lancers or heroes.
When we read it, it sounded like flanking just means the flanked figure doesn't count it's ranks when it fights back, but since single models don't have ranks, there was no penalty/advantage at all to flanking them. We probably missed something... did we?

Where do you read that a flanked figure doesn't count it's ranks? I had wondered about that because it's a common mechanic in other rank and flank games, but I couldn't find it anywhere in Runewars, just the extra blue or red die. So far we've been playing it that ranks do grant rerolls, even when the unit is flanked.

Yeah, a flanked unit doesnt get its rerolls from ranks when attacking the flanker, while the flanker gets a red or blue dice to add to their attack. A nice and elegant mechanic.

3 hours ago, Elliphino said:

Where do you read that a flanked figure doesn't count it's ranks? I had wondered about that because it's a common mechanic in other rank and flank games, but I couldn't find it anywhere in Runewars, just the extra blue or red die. So far we've been playing it that ranks do grant rerolls, even when the unit is flanked.

Rule RR 41.1. Literally right under the rule that states you can add a red or blue dice.

Ah... I admire your persistence in reading an additional sentence.

That's funny!

You didn't read the third sentence, and at our store we didn't read the second sentence.

By our powers combined, we almost had the full rules!