We did not take copious notes, so this is by memory and a lot of details will be missed.

Daqan: Glucose (I'll post the link to the list when I get it from him)

Waiqar: Aetheriac https://www.tabletopminiatures.com/runewars/rwArmyListView?ALID=41036

Hammer and Anvil

Bounty

Initial deployment:

Waiqar are first, and had the deeper, but tighter deployment. Not terrible, but certainly not optimal for the configuration of the list.

Daqan are going to be coming in hard, I can see that from the get go.

End of round 1:

Hawthorne did his normal rally spam, and the Oathsworn came in fast. The spearmen also moved in quickly, while Ankaur buffed the Reanimate block and the archers prepared to fire. Since the spearmen can move so late, the archers shifted vs attacking as they were just out of range, but hey, rally tokens right?

End of round 2:

Much collision. Regeneration. Ankaur buffs. Still not really able to blight, so the archers are nearly useless. The lone carrion worm blights the rune golem formation that is slowly approaching, but they are out of reach of anything.

End of round 3:

Cavalry smackdown the Reanimate block hard, causing a Confusion panic that makes them turn around and run away (wimps). Ardus bravely charges into the fray and is able to take out a single Oathsworn. The archers play tag with one formation shifting away and the others blighting the Spearmen. Carrion Lancer is stupid and should have blighted the spearmen, but if I recall correctly, timing prevented that.

End of round 4:

Ardus destroyed by the Oathsworn counter attack (never go head to head with a 4x1 cavalry Ardus, you can't take 16 damage). The severely reduced Reanimate block turns around to think about getting back into the fray. Archers are still tying up the Spearmen, and the Carrion Lancer blights the Rune Golems again. Ankaur still keeps re-raising the dead.

End of round 5:

The outcome was looking very bleak. The Oathsworn charge into the few remaining Reanimates and wipe them out. Hawthorne marches into the flank of the Archers and ties up their ranged attack. The Spearmen destroy the other Archers. While the Rune Golems slam the Carrion Lancer.

Waiqar conceded defeat and Ankaur walks away.

...oh. I was hoping for a happy ending. I got my hopes up when you said, "The outcome was looking pretty bleak," but it didn't get better. My Waiqar forces don't do well against Daqan, either. I need to play more to figure out what to fix in my deployment and approach.

Thanks for the report. Do you think that Carrion Lancer was useful? I usually see a single tray of Carrion Lancer as dead weight. Could you use the points to buff the Reanimates to a 9-tray unit, and do you think that would have helped you win?

While I wouldn't say a single CL is dead weight, this one was deployed out of the way and didn't see a lot of use. I think I'm going to change up my deployment strategy a bit though. Single units like this are for blocking and for placement to not give away positioning during deployment. I lead off with both of the archers, I should have lead with the CL.

Secondly, this list was created by Glucose, and not what I typically run. He wanted to see how it would fair with the Ankaur regen. While Ankaur definitely helped keep units alive, the way I played it did not do much. My dice were rolling light, his were heavy, and the Waiqar have a crappier time in head to head combat. The real defeat happened when the Oathsworn got the Confusion morale card that causes the unit to disengage and move at your opponents whims. (I forgot the card name, sorry.)

Hammer and Anvil is a tough deployment card, wish it had phased out of tournaments instead of Battlelines. I prefer to go second and choose the long deployment zone when up against Oathsworn, if that's an option. You can place one piece of terrain with the hopes of funneling your opponent into the center of the board

Your opponent refused flank, which is very smart with this board setup. I'd consider a tighter deployment further back in the zone next time, maybe, with Ardus and the Lancer up front as blockers. It's an uphill fight though. Thanks for the report!

On 10/6/2017 at 8:48 AM, Click5 said:

Hammer and Anvil is a tough deployment card, wish it had phased out of tournaments instead of Battlelines. I prefer to go second and choose the long deployment zone when up against Oathsworn, if that's an option. You can place one piece of terrain with the hopes of funneling your opponent into the center of the board

Your opponent refused flank, which is very smart with this board setup. I'd consider a tighter deployment further back in the zone next time, maybe, with Ardus and the Lancer up front as blockers. It's an uphill fight though. Thanks for the report!

Can you elaborate what you mean by refused flank? As much as I like being called very smart, I'm wondering if that was an accident.

Refused flank in this case would be to give up one side of the board and weigh your deployment heavily on the other side, so you are effectively cutting off a portion of your opponents army from the battle

In the top picture you can see how all of the Daqan are deployed on the left map, while the Waiqar are spread evenly over the left and right (a product of this unfortunate deployment card)

Not to mention that Waiqar has been crushed by terrain placement

54 minutes ago, Click5 said:

Refused flank in this case would be to give up one side of the board and weigh your deployment heavily on the other side, so you are effectively cutting off a portion of your opponents army from the battle

In the top picture you can see how all of the Daqan are deployed on the left map, while the Waiqar are spread evenly over the left and right (a product of this unfortunate deployment card)

Not to mention that Waiqar has been crushed by terrain placement

Yikes! You're right - Waiqar in a pretty bad predicament in round 0. So, a question for all Rune Warriors:

Supposing this is how your game starts, what are Waiqar's best moves to try to salvage this game? On a similar note, what do you predict the Daqan forces are going to do?

My answer:

11 minutes ago, Parakitor said:

Yikes! You're right - Waiqar in a pretty bad predicament in round 0. So, a question for all Rune Warriors:

Supposing this is how your game starts, what are Waiqar's best moves to try to salvage this game? On a similar note, what do you predict the Daqan forces are going to do?

My answer:

I believe the Daqan are going to take the first turn to stack some Inspiration tokens. This gives me some time to shift around a bit. Of course, the Oathsworn Cavalry are probably in a position that they can march ahead pretty fast, and still be in range to receive Hawthorne's inspiration. I would turn my 3x2 of Reanimates in towards the Rune Golems and the Spearmen. This will open their flank to the Oathsworn, but Ardus can then hit them on the flank.

3 - Reform Carrion Lancer to shoot the gap between the archers; +1 Defense
5 - Reform Ankaur's Reanimates to face the battle more; skill to add tray to 3x2 Reanimates
5 - Ardus Ix'Erebus shift 1 right (probably bumping the Reanimates); Rally
6 - Left Archers Shift 1 backwards; Rally
6 - 3x2 Reanimates turn 2 towards Spearmen; Carrion Blight something
7 - Right Archers turn 2 towards Rune Golems (which should give some cover behind the rock, but still allow them to shoot)

The Carrion Lancers are in the worst position, but they can eventually make it to the fight. If you spot huge problems with my suggestions, let me know - I'm still learning, too!

Hmm this is tough without being across from an opponent, but I like the exercise.

It's a pretty dire situation. The Oathsworn are pointed at you like a canon so you know they will come flying in either this turn or next.

Ardus is going to do a 2 or 3 straight march, or turn to the left. It's hard to gauge in the picture. Something needs to get in the way of the Oathsworn and unfortunately he's the only thing in position. He's also mostly out of position to benefit from other units surge abilities.

At initiative 2 the Archers on the right reform and rally. They need to point towards the battle haha. At 3 the Carrion Lancers will probably rally and march 3 into the terrain, though I can't quite tell what it is. They're out of the battle right now, so being in the terrain will at least give them better coverage to shoot blight and march out on turn 2.

Maro's unit will Rally and Skill at 4. Probably add trays to the Archers on the left, but the Reanimates are a possibility depending on angles. I want a reroll with the Archers so I can try for more than 1 blight on the Oathsworn.

It's a bit messy from here, but I think I want my 3x2 to shift at 7, probably to the left or back, again depending on angles, and then skill. Hopefully drop some blight if the opponent was crazy enough to rush forward. You need to set them up for a counter charge.

The Archers on the left Shift 2 and Rally at 7, either to the left or backwards. You want them behind that rock with an angle on the Cav. I'd prefer a shift 1, but they need to go after the 3x2.

This is my gut reaction. Mostly just repositioning so you can get most of your stuff in the fight and to address the main threat of 4x1 Cav

Interesting thoughts. My strategy would be to put as much damage on the Spearmen as possible to break through, and take cover from the rocks. If I could set up better, I would put the poor worm out as a speed bump for the Oathsworn, and have my Archers in position to rain blight down upon them. But that's not the hand we're dealt.

Heck, another idea is to wheel Ardus out away from everybody else to see if you can draw one of the Cavalry units away and tie them up for a few rounds.

6 minutes ago, Click5 said:

The Archers on the left Shift 2 and Rally at 7, either to the left or backwards. You want them behind that rock with an angle on the Cav. I'd prefer a shift 1, but they need to go after the 3x2.

By this I mean the Archers have to move after your own 3x2 of Reanimates. I want them shooting at the Cav.

I think the only advantage that Waiqar has, is that the Daqan player put his Spearmen and Golems at weird angles. Not sure what the runes are, but the best the Golems can do to get out of the way of the Spearmen is a 4 straight at initiative 4, or it looks like he shifted 1 over at 7. Either way his attack from that side will have to be staggered. If he marches with the Golems they block charges from the Spearmen, if he shifts over the Golems are out of the fight for a few turns.

1 hour ago, Click5 said:

By this I mean the Archers have to move after your own 3x2 of Reanimates. I want them shooting at the Cav.

I think the only advantage that Waiqar has, is that the Daqan player put his Spearmen and Golems at weird angles. Not sure what the runes are, but the best the Golems can do to get out of the way of the Spearmen is a 4 straight at initiative 4, or it looks like he shifted 1 over at 7. Either way his attack from that side will have to be staggered. If he marches with the Golems they block charges from the Spearmen, if he shifts over the Golems are out of the fight for a few turns.

Yeah I regretted that Golem placement. They were placed down first, pointing at the archers, and my spearman went last I think (or near last). I didn't get the 4-runes, so my golems just had to shift. Made me wish I had wind-rune for some other movement choices

Also I think this is really useful. We should put up more pictures of initial deployments (despite all their mistakes) and give a breakdown on how you would play each side.

Yeah, thanks for the critiques guys. When doing more BatReps I'll try to track the runes, it is important. One thing I thought about after this skirmish, was fading to the right to try to take advantage of the graveyard.

It is pretty fun to theorize tactics like this, thanks for posting these pictures. Don't think I was picking on you at all either. I've got some lights coming in the mail so I should have videos up in the near future. You can see all the terrible mistakes from my games then

All of your assumptions forget that the Daqan are attacking. Round 2 those cavs are engaged.

Round 1. My 3x2 moves up 1 to take the cavs hit. this is the only thing that won't die in one hit potentially. My ankaur maro reforms towards my 3x2 and uses skill. Add to 2x2 archers for rerolls. Ardus can rally. The worm moves forward as much as possible.

Round 2. my 3x2 should be engaged with the cavs. my ardus on this turn will charge knowing the cavs will be there. Hopefully I can angle it for a flank. His second cavs are non-existent because the way he stacked them. My archers try to blight anything and everything. My worms try to move in more for cover. Maro adds to 3x2

Round 3. Now it starts to depend what has happened but hopefully in this round my 3x2 and ardus can take out the first 4x1 and will need to brace for the second. Archers are still shooting everything Hopefully I've been able to get my lancer in the way and maro keeps adding to the 3x2.

Round 4. 3x2 got turned around so reform and let the maro add trays before you do so you can fit the trays without them going over edge of gameplay. Hopefully the first 4x1 is now dead and ardus will have to take hit of second 4x1 this time around as the 3x2 recomposes itself, this should give you time to have maro rebuild this unit back up. On the other side most likely you have archers engaged, hopefully the 2x1 is engaged and not the 2x2 as that you want the rerolls. Carrion lancer should be in there as well, blight and attack, honestly spend blight to lower their attacks unless the blight is on hawthorne then spend it with the lancer to wound him

Round 5. Follow this path, Maro adds to 3x2, 3x2 attacks cavs or hawthorne, you've most likely had to have your 2x1 of archers tank the spears so let them do that as long as possible and have 2x2 light them up with carrion support as much as possible, lancer most likely engages with rune golems try to flatten them with the blight you've put on them by rolling surges. The blight does not get spent so you can keep using the same blight to mortal wound.

Round 6, 7, and 8 obviously depend heavily on what has happened at this point but pretty much the idea is set and continue forward. Keep Ankaur maro's unit safe in the back as long as possible, maybe move it closer to the 3x2 so when the archers die it's safe, if there is a time you can't add to the 3x2 always add to the archers.