46 minutes ago, Tvayumat said:

I didn't want to correct him, but I pictured this every single time I read it.

I even caught myself typing Carrion Crawler once before correcting it.

Exactly

I've had largely the opposite experience, although I've heard this many times. Blight is a PITA, either shutting down your offense or forcing you to use much needed actions to remove them. Kari is the only piece I feel feels downright stronger. The reanimates err.. reanimation ability becomes really strong if you can remove a dice using blight, or once you whittle down a units re rolls and threat.

Regardless, the incoming flood of upgrades (and a move towards larger games) is going to change how we play so there's not much reason to get too excited about how the core set skirmish games play. It seems to me looking at the upgrades the Waiqar are getting some really great ones that let you fully leverage their special abilities. We'll see!

I have about 45 games in at 200 points and assure you waiqar may even be too powerful. 3 archers, 3 solo worms, ardus and a block of reanimates is 10-0, in our group of 9 players. Being played by 3 Different people. 4 mortal strikes from a single worm is not uncommon. Flanking worms with 3 blue dice on a mortal struck cav unit is not joke. Ardus rolled up on a unit today that was unblighted. 5 surge icons rolled, used the first to to apply blight with the archers surge power then used the last 3 he used the worms surge power to kill 3, armor 3 cavalry.

That's the joy of being a pioneer in a new game system. With only two factions power level comes down to which side figures out their army first. It will balance out over the long haul.

1 hour ago, DaShamrockKid said:

That's the joy of being a pioneer in a new game system. With only two factions power level comes down to which side figures out their army first. It will balance out over the long haul.

Yes I love the game. 200 points fixes all of Waiqars issues was my only point. No complaints here.

2 hours ago, Drakoniss said:

I have about 45 games in at 200 points and assure you waiqar may even be too powerful. 3 archers, 3 solo worms, ardus and a block of reanimates is 10-0, in our group of 9 players. Being played by 3 Different people. 4 mortal strikes from a single worm is not uncommon. Flanking worms with 3 blue dice on a mortal struck cav unit is not joke. Ardus rolled up on a unit today that was unblighted. 5 surge icons rolled, used the first to to apply blight with the archers surge power then used the last 3 he used the worms surge power to kill 3, armor 3 cavalry.

¿45?!!! how is this even possible? lol. That's more than 2 games everyday!

1 hour ago, Hijodecain said:

¿45?!!! how is this even possible? lol. That's more than 2 games everyday!

He got an adepticon copy.

Interesting, I have been playing with just one other person. I won the first three games we played and I played undead. My archers kept killing his rune golem mercilessly. It also didn't help that the other player didn't realize that his hero had a ranged attack option. I offered to switch sides to see if that made a difference, thinking that if he won once he played undead then maybe there was an imbalance. Instead, he stuck with it and won the next two games (he stomped me, actually). My first inclination was "undead are underpowered!" but then I figured that I probably just need to develop better tactics.

For example, I know I didn't spend points very wisely on upgrades. Instead, I spent points more to just try to get to 150 points. Second, taking a few large units seems to not work as well as taking many smaller units. People here keep saying the lancers are MVP but I don't think I have quite figured out how to use them in the best way. Long story short, I need to experiment and figure out how it all works.

Just some personal thoughts for playing undead:

Take two individual lancers instead of one unit of two of them, and hit everything you can with blight. Same with the archers, blight everything by shooting it. Reducing attack dice really hurts.

The rune golems aren't too scary until the right runes show up. So, kill them with archers before the right runes come up. They die fairly quickly if you make it a priority.

But before you shoot the rune golems, shoot the cavalry. They are defense two but only two models per tray. So, they are effectively the same number of "life" per try as regular units (unless they use their shield ability). Blight tokens can also ruin a well-placed charge.

Upgrades go a long way for improving your forces. Don't forget the undead hero's general ability, which lets you use the next highest upgrade slot for your units. Give a two tray unit of archers or a carrion lancer rank discipline is pretty scary. And try giving your unit of reanimates trumpets, so that they can ignore the range penalty for turning. They become much more maneuverable.

Giving the reanimates terrifying heraldry is also pretty sick. The unit already gets an automatic panic result with its skill, which gets compounded with terrifying heraldry. Very quickly you are drawing three and four cards for panic tests. While I have not seen panic tests be as big of a deal (yet) as others have said it is, I did have a small unit of beaten down reanimates defeat a rune golem after a panic test made it turn its back on me and then I got a bonus dice for attacking in the rear, which gave enough damage to kill it off.

Oh, and their poor initiative in the attack phase is offset by their regineration.

The undead hero lacks precision, but there is a magic upgrade that treats blank faces as mortal strikes. No need to reroll if your blanks count as mortal strikes.

The undead hero looks underwhelming compared to the Daqan hero, but look closer. While he does not have a ranged attack, precise, or the surge ability that the Daqan hero gets, he gets two white dice in melee instead of a white and blue, has a better special ability (Host of crows is better than being able to take a unit of elves, assuming those elves are not free), and most importantly, he gets to use the surge ability of allies within range 1-3. This means that he could potentially be getting extra death strikes, or dishing out more blight tokens (and that is just based off what is in the starter set). This gives the undead hero flexibility, but at the same time, if he is not positioned well, it means he will be weaker than his points value because he won't be able to use his main special ability. In our first game, I killed the Daqan hero pretty quick after my hero attacked her, dealing mortal strikes with surge abilities and keeping blight on her to reduce her effectiveness.

I think others commenting that the undead army is a synergy army are spot on. I have not perfected how to do this, but at the end of each game I can see how making different choices with my lancers or hero would have made a big difference. Same goes for army composition. I think next game I am going to try taking the undead hero as a unit upgrade to a 9 or 12 tray of reanimates with terrifying heraldry, adding a white die and all surge abilities of allies within 1-3 range (I actually think taking units larger than 6 generally does not work well, but it looks so cool!). I will let archers and lancers put blight on things, and let my mass of troops attack, stacking panic and blight/mortal strikes simultaneously. If I get lucky with the runes and regeneration, it should be a pretty nasty combo. But then, I am sure my opponent is going to try something different too so we will see lol.

50 minutes ago, Orcdruid said:

He got an adepticon copy.

34 days from Adepticon day 1. My mistake, that's 1,3 games everyday since then.

9 hours ago, Orcdruid said:

He got an adepticon copy.

For some reason I read, "He got an adepticectomy." Now that's a nerf if I've ever heard one. Sounds painful, too!

4 hours ago, Parakitor said:

For some reason I read, "He got an adepticectomy." Now that's a nerf if I've ever heard one. Sounds painful, too!

Had to. He got adepticitise.

19 hours ago, Hijodecain said:

¿45?!!! how is this even possible? lol. That's more than 2 games everyday!

I have had a 2 sets for over a month and play 5 games on Thursday nights and 3 games usually Friday at a friends house. Saturday and Sunday I play with my Teenage sons. I have a full set of Proxy Elves dials Printed from the website and stuck onto old x wing dials. I am an all or nothing sort of guy lol.

Deleted

Having played another 150+pt game last night, I'm starting to see your point Drackoniss!

Ardus killed 8 spearmen in one attack. Rune Golems were plinked full of arrows, then rendered ineffective by blight as they were finished off. Archers were generally devastating, setting up Ardus's killing sprees. Carrions Crawlers Lancers spat then flanked, handing out mortal wounds and generally were a nuisance. Ardus's Fury seems to be an upgrade that should be stapled to the guy: he was hitting with at least three mortal wounds every attack.

Blimey.

Ardis's Fury, is that the one that gives him precise? Sorry at work, or I would just check mine.

1 hour ago, Ywingscum said:

Ardis's Fury, is that the one that gives him precise? Sorry at work, or I would just check mine.

Ardus' Fury adds a surge on all melee attacks.

Ancient Technique adds Precise 1.

Ardus can dial in a surge, get a surge from Fury, and quite easily roll a surge or two on his white dice. If his victim has a blight he can easily hand out three mortal wounds in one hit, before considering his actual damage. Monster.

I feel like the Waiqar are stronger than the Dagan atm. Things will be shaken up with the Infantry upgrade and Fire rune gives some more ranged options.