War Crier + Dispatch Runner

By WWHSD, in Runewars Rules Questions

I was getting all excited about this combo and trying to find a place to put it but then I realized that in practice, this combo is only ever going to happen if your opponent allows it.

Rwm03_upgrade_dispatch-runner.png Rw-ugc-war-crier.jpg

Unit with Dispatch Runner sets a skill action and grants a melee attack to the unit with War Crier. The unit with War Crier gets a stun token. The unit with War Crier reveals a skill action and then moves that Stun token to an enemy unit. That's all pretty awesome.

I figured that I needed to find a unit with the skill action on the left dial so that the stun token couldn't be used to just cancel the skill action that was set. That's when I figured I should verify the timing of the stun token.

RRG, pg. 8:
"Stun: When a unit that has a stun token reveals its
command tool, that token can be spent to cancel
that unit’s modifier. The unit still resolves its action."

That's what kind of crushed my dreams. It looks like the stun token is spent as soon as the dial is revealed so your opponent has the option to spend the token before you are able to give it to one of their units. I guess the only way that this works is if you've got a pair of units with Dispatch Runners and a unit with War Crier. Your War Crier unit will get two melee attacks, and then receive two stun tokens. When you reveal your dial, your opponent may or may not spend one token to take away your modifier dial, and then your skill action passes a stun token to an enemy unit.

Am I missing anything with all that?

Edited by WWHSD

some units may have the skill action on the action side rather than the modifier side so it wouldn't be effected by the stun. but they would still be able to spend it before you moved it.

You may perform an attack, but not using the command dial. Therefore, you may not uso modifiers.

1 hour ago, druchii7 said:

You may perform an attack, but not using the command dial. Therefore, you may not uso modifiers.

Right. You can't use modifiers for the attack granted by Dispatch Runner but the unit that gets that attack can use modifiers on their normal action that round. They'll probably need to clear the stun token first or their opponent can use it to deny them their modifier dial.

2 hours ago, WWHSD said:

Right. You can't use modifiers for the attack granted by Dispatch Runner but the unit that gets that attack can use modifiers on their normal action that round. They'll probably need to clear the stun token first or their opponent can use it to deny them their modifier dial.

So just use it on inspired allies. Drop the stun before the dial reveal.

14 minutes ago, Tvayumat said:

So just use it on inspired allies. Drop the stun before the dial reveal.

Yeah, that's the way that it makes sense to use Dispatch Runner. However, using an Inspiration to get rid of the stun token will keep you from using War Crier to inflict stun on your opponent. That's the combo I was looking to get working.

Dispatch Runner should definitely be good for making use of all those Inspiration abilities that Daqan get.

5 hours ago, WWHSD said:

Yeah, that's the way that it makes sense to use Dispatch Runner. However, using an Inspiration to get rid of the stun token will keep you from using War Crier to inflict stun on your opponent. That's the combo I was looking to get working.

Dispatch Runner should definitely be good for making use of all those Inspiration abilities that Daqan get.

Aaaahhhh... I see, I wasn't thinking that all the way through.

Yeah... as already noted the timings on that just don't work. That would be cool, though.

On 5/5/2017 at 5:51 PM, WWHSD said:

That's what kind of crushed my dreams. It looks like the stun token is spent as soon as the dial is revealed so your opponent has the option to spend the token before you are able to give it to one of their units. I guess the only way that this works is if you've got a pair of units with Dispatch Runners and a unit with War Crier. Your War Crier unit will get two melee attacks, and then receive two stun tokens. When you reveal your dial, your opponent may or may not spend one token to take away your modifier dial, and then your skill action passes a stun token to an enemy unit.

Am I missing anything with all that?

Why couldn't your opponent spend both stun tokens at once? You can do that with blight/panic I don't see why you couldn't with stun/immobilize.

Yeah, the timing on War Crier, at least with Spearmen, really sucks. My first thought was using it to counter blight, but the timing means that your opponent will spend it before you can toss it. And since you're not going to have blight unless you're closing in on your enemies, there's not a chance to use it.

Skill is an Action, not a Modifier. The Stun token can't cancel an action, only a Modifier. If the Skill action is on the Modifier Wheel (the right side of the command tool) it counts as a Bonus Action modifier (49.3, at the bottom of the list). The order here would go that your first unit can attack and skill, then the second unit gets a free attack. Then the second unit goes, reveals an attack, the opponent uses his stun to cancel the skill bonus action, and then you can't use the skill action because you have no banes (plus its cancelled).

I think your best plan would be to get an early Rally action in to add an inspiration to the unit the round before and use it to cancel the stun when it occurs. The other option is to use this as intended, have the attacking unit go first in initiative, and then give it another attack afterwards and a stun after attacking. Also, keep in mind that the second option gives you the option to add another stun and get in another attack before the enemy can go next round, giving you up to three attacks before an enemy can reply (without mods on two of those).

EDIT: Oathsworn Cavalry, Spearmen, Reanimates, and Leonxx Riders are the only units that can currently take champions.

  • Oathsworn Cavalry are only able to use their special as a blue modifier, which makes them a bad candidate for War Crier. However, it would allow them to use March to close and then Skill to activate Dispatch Runner to target another unit, and have a lot of timings to add the attack on.
  • Spearmen and Reanimates are a great units for this, and can use Skill as a white modifier. This gives them a lot of flexibility on when and where they activate. With the ability to add Aggressive Cornicen/Drums, you could have them charge in, special to move off any banes already on them, then add another attack. On a flank, this could be devastating.
  • Leonxx Riders are a very interesting choice that could be devastating here. They have the Skill as their main action! This would get around the stun problem, but create a new one where they can't attack. You could charge them in and engage the round before, then give them an extra attack and stun. Next round, transfer the token as your action on Initiative 3, then give them another attack and stun with another unit. Basically, it allows you to keep stunning the enemy, but takes away your extra attack, so not as great an opportunity (but think of the blight you could dump!)
Edited by drkpnthr
20 minutes ago, drkpnthr said:

Skill is an Action, not a Modifier. The Stun token can't cancel an action, only a Modifier. If the Skill action is on the Modifier Wheel (the right side of the command tool) it counts as a Bonus Action modifier (49.3, at the bottom of the list). The order here would go that your first unit can attack and skill, then the second unit gets a free attack. Then the second unit goes, reveals an attack, the opponent uses his stun to cancel the skill bonus action, and then you can't use the skill action because you have no banes (plus its cancelled).

I think your best plan would be to get an early Rally action in to add an inspiration to the unit the round before and use it to cancel the stun when it occurs

Bonus actions are still modifiers, they're clearly listed under RR-49

21 minutes ago, drkpnthr said:

I think your best plan would be to get an early Rally action in to add an inspiration to the unit the round before and use it to cancel the stun when it occurs

Canceling the stun with an inspiration negates the combo.

Edited by WWHSD
1 minute ago, Tvayumat said:

Bonus actions are still modifiers, they're clearly listed under RR-49

I think that's what he's saying. I was typing up a long winded response and then I reread what I was replying to. drkpnthr seems to explaining that the skill can only be canceled by a stun if it is on the right hand dial.

Just now, WWHSD said:

I think that's what he's saying. I was typing up a long winded response and then I reread what I was replying to. drkpnthr seems to explaining that the skill can only be canceled by a stun if it is on the right hand dial.

Ahhh, okay.

Yeah, basically, if it's on the modifier dial, it's a modifier.

15 hours ago, GoblinGuide said:

Why couldn't your opponent spend both stun tokens at once? You can do that with blight/panic I don't see why you couldn't with stun/immobilize.

I was making an assumption that you can't spend a token to cancel something that isn't there.

Sorry, was editing my post. My point was made for the Leonxx Riders, which have the ability to use skill as their primary dial, unlike the other units with the skill mod.

5 minutes ago, drkpnthr said:

Sorry, was editing my post. My point was made for the Leonxx Riders, which have the ability to use skill as their primary dial, unlike the other units with the skill mod.

In the core set it seems to be about a 50/50 split for which dial the skill action ends up on.

EDIT: I just read your edit. Now it makes sense why you are calling out the Leonx riders as being different.

Edited by WWHSD

To recap my post edit:

Oathsworn Cavalry, Spearmen, Reanimates, and Leonxx Riders are the only units that can currently take champions.

  • Oathsworn Cavalry are only able to use their special as a blue modifier, which makes them a bad candidate for War Crier. However, it would allow them to use March to close and then Skill to activate Dispatch Runner to target another unit, and have a lot of timings to add the attack on.
  • Spearmen and Reanimates are a great units for this, and can use Skill as a white modifier. This gives them a lot of flexibility on when and where they activate. With the ability to add Aggressive Cornicen/Drums, you could have them charge in, special to move off any banes already on them, then add another attack. On a flank, this could be devastating.
  • Leonxx Riders are a very interesting choice that could be devastating here. They have the Skill as their main action! This would get around the stun problem, but create a new one where they can't attack. You could charge them in and engage the round before, then give them an extra attack and stun. Next round, transfer the token as your action on Initiative 3, then give them another attack and stun with another unit. Basically, it allows you to keep stunning the enemy, but takes away your extra attack, so not as great an opportunity (but think of the blight you could dump!)
3 minutes ago, drkpnthr said:

.

  • Leonxx Riders are a very interesting choice that could be devastating here. They have the Skill as their main action! This would get around the stun problem, but create a new one where they can't attack. You could charge them in and engage the round before, then give them an extra attack and stun. Next round, transfer the token as your action on Initiative 3, then give them another attack and stun with another unit. Basically, it allows you to keep stunning the enemy, but takes away your extra attack, so not as great an opportunity (but think of the blight you could dump!)

The root of the problem with trying to use War Crier to pass stuns to your opponent is that they get to spend the stun before you can resolve your action dial. You have the same problem with immobilize tokens.

Edited by WWHSD

Okay, so now add Heavy Crossbowmen as the perfect unit to put Dispatch Runner on! They can fire a ranged attack at another enemy unit, then use Dispatch Runner to give another unit an interrupt attack. The downside is you have to take them at their largest size to do so, limiting the number of units that could do this. But you could have a large unit of spearmen charge in, with two maxed out crossbowmen guarding his flanks and giving him extra attacks, then using his action to rally and defend to burn off stun.