I visited my twin brother, @Parakitor , this weekend and with our two core sets and some of his expansions, I was able to play my first 200-point match. Since he's a Waiqar player through-and-through, I took control of the Daqan Lords. I was very excited about this because for some reason, Parakitor bought the Daqan Infantry Command Unit Upgrade Expansion, so I was able to try out Uncontrolled Geomancer! This is probably the Daqan card I've been most excited about. I mustered the following army:

Spearmen (2x2)
-Uncontrolled Geomancer
-Metered March

Spearmen (2x2)
-Artifact Bearer
-Reaping Blade
-Aggressive Cornicen

Oathsworn Cavalry (2x2)
-Rank Discipline
-Master-Crafted Weapons

Rune Golems (1x1)

Rune Golems (1x1)

Kari Wraithstalker
-Wraithstep
-Heartseeker

Parakitor had a 3x3 Reanimate unit, 3x2 Reanimate Archers, 2x1 Carrion Lancers, and Ardus Ix'Erebus. The objective was Confluence of Magic. I thought I stood a really good chance. If I could lock in some unstable runes, my Rune Golems and Uncontrolled Geomancer would be unstoppable! And with more units than him, I had the advantage when it came to deploying my units and taking control of objective tokens.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. Despite taking a few objective tokens, I couldn't get the Unstable Runes to show, which completely nerfed the main trick of my list. Also, I faced both Rune Golems at the elevated terrain in the center of the map, where the Archers were headed. That setup inadvertently scared the Archers away, so they used Wind Rune to sidestep the terrain instead of enter it and pick off my Rune Golems with very powerful attacks. I tell you, 3x2 archers are nothing to scoff it. I think they're worth every penny.

My one great move was when I advanced my Geomancer unit forward and used Metered March to stop just shy of the Reanimates, gaining an objective token without running into them, which caused them to swing at nothing with their melee attack. Kari was backing them up, but I decided to try to get into melee so my surges could take out some archers. Big mistake. The Reanimates took her out with one die-roll.

On the other side of the map, I was too greedy to get the objective token with my Oathsworn Cavalry and they got flanked by the Carrion Lancers. Those horses did not last long at all, even with their +1 defense.

My final unit of Spearmen got engaged with Ardus. We did about 1 wound per turn, but that wasn't fast enough to take out the undead general. He wiped out the Spearmen with 1 wound remaining. The saddest part -- we didn't roll a single blank until the Artifact Bearer was taken out and all that was left was the Aggresive Cornicen figure, meaning Reaping Blade did nothing.

It was a complete shut-out. I destroyed zero units and my entire force was eliminated. I have more to learn about being a commander, that's for sure. I'm sad we only got to play one game before our time together was up. I can't wait to play again!

It was my second time playing Confluence of Magic, but I'm not sure that helped. Of the 6-8 times we recast the runes, only twice did they actually change, which made for a discouraging, and somewhat bland objective. But the interactions were fun, and I'd like to share a couple of highlights.

I was a bit taken by surprise by Budgernaut's Metered March, and I was itching to take out that Uncontrolled Geomancer before he could change the runes. But the next round I managed to charge the Spearmen with my Reanimates, and when my Reanimates squared up, tey swing out and managed to snag an objective token. Which was helpful because I couldn't use my skill modifier to use Necromancer anymore after Kari sniped him.

The other highlight was the archers. Man! 3x2 archers can really put out the hurt. We destroyed the first Rune Golem in one volley, and destroyed the next one in two rounds. It was impressive. Wind Rune was helpful. When I saw them lined up to attack the elevated terrain, I knew we couldn't safely occupy it. Wind Rune let us move away safely at a reasonable initiative. As an aside, we only dealt one blight, so these guys were all about the damage.

Thanks for an interesting battle report!

@Parakitor I'm impressed by your success with the archers. The red dice has hits on 5/8 sides with one being double hit and the blue on 1/2 sides, and one would have to get 2+ hits per attack in order to get wounds onto golems, which with those dice is certainly not guaranteed (is it somewhere around 37.5%?). If I understand correctly you got 3 hits (ca 6.25%?) on the first golem and then two consecutive rolls of 2 hits on the next. Now that is Robin Hood leveled archers!

53 minutes ago, Maktorius said:

If I understand correctly you got 3 hits (ca 6.25%?) on the first golem and then two consecutive rolls of 2 hits on the next. Now that is Robin Hood leveled archers!

Yep, that's exactly what happened. I guess it hadn't occurred to me how lucky I got. Same with defeating Kari in one attack with my Reanimates: I needed to roll double hit on both red dice to do it, and that's what I rolled.

So I guess the take home message is that my tactics were sound, but the dice helped a lot. Considering that in my last 200 point Ankaur rolled 3 blanks on 4 white dice, I must temper my expectations of the archers. But I can't wait to try a 3x2 again!

@Parakitor Didn't you have Tempered Steel on the Reanimate Archers? Almost every round you said you forgot to rally to ready it. I thought that was part of why you took out the first Rune Golem.

11 minutes ago, Budgernaut said:

@Parakitor Didn't you have Tempered Steel on the Reanimate Archers? Almost every round you said you forgot to rally to ready it. I thought that was part of why you took out the first Rune Golem.

I interpreted the report that the archers held Wind rune upgrade, and since that as well as Tempered steel are the same type of upgrade, you can only use one or the other and not both i think.

I had strongly considered Tempered Steel, and I think I mentioned it on the first round, but I had Wind Rune instead. Did I forget which upgrade I decided on and use that ability once? It would explain the ease with which they defeated the Rune Golems, but I'm pretty sure I stopped myself. Let me know if you remember it differently, @Budgernaut . If I did make a mistake, well, at least it wasn't a league/tournament game.

Oh, and it was Ardus with Fortuna's Dice that I kept forgetting to ready. Archers have a green rally, so I wouldn't have been able to ready it after an attack anyway.

EDIT: yeah, I totally remember using Tempered Steel to change a double surge on the blue die to a hit on the first round. Cheater caught!

I have a brother also, so sorry for intervening in your game since I know that cheating against siblings is OK as long as you don't get caught

6 hours ago, Parakitor said:

I had strongly considered Tempered Steel, and I think I mentioned it on the first round, but I had Wind Rune instead. Did I forget which upgrade I decided on and use that ability once? It would explain the ease with which they defeated the Rune Golems, but I'm pretty sure I stopped myself. Let me know if you remember it differently, @Budgernaut . If I did make a mistake, well, at least it wasn't a league/tournament game.

Oh, and it was Ardus with Fortuna's Dice that I kept forgetting to ready. Archers have a green rally, so I wouldn't have been able to ready it after an attack anyway.

EDIT: yeah, I totally remember using Tempered Steel to change a double surge on the blue die to a hit on the first round. Cheater caught!

It's okay. I think there's a chance I may have cheated in Pokemon against your son, so we're even.

Nope, I think I did it right. I remember spending surge-surge to add a hit some time during the match, and that was Master-Crafted Weapons on the Carrion Lancers. I think I was going to spend a surge for the Reanimates, remembered I had Wind Rune instead, and decided to reroll the blue die into a hit. I think.

Ah, whatever. It doesn't really matter. I just want to play again!!!