200/200 points

Spearmen x9 [59]
--Champion: Lance Corporal [6]
--Equipment: Tempered Steel [3]
--Heavy: Front Line Rune Golem [7]
--Heraldry: Cursed Signets [2]
--Music: Aggressive Cornicen [5]
----------Total Unit Cost: 82

Heavy Crossbowmen x3 [27]
--Equipment: Fire Rune [7]
--Music: Rallying Cornicen [4]
--Training: Simultaneous Orders [2]
----------Total Unit Cost: 40

Kari Wraithstalker x1 [32]
--Artifact: Fortunas Dice [6]
--Unique: Latari Training [6]
----------Total Unit Cost: 44

Rune Golems x1 [17]
----------Total Unit Cost: 17

Rune Golems x1 [17]
----------Total Unit Cost: 17

The lance corporal allows the spearmen to have a shield up every turn regardless of the colour of their first dial. This is refreshed by the crossbow men who lay down covering fire. The rune golems are spread bumps to protect the spear/bows. Kari advances while shooting using fortunas and it gets refreshed by the bowmen as well.

Attack initiative 3 with shield. Or attack initiative 3 with plus hit.

The bowmen go in the middle of your army. Cursed signet a to prevent blights and immobilisation.

Looks fun.

I would be concerned about keeping Kari in range 3 for rally since you having training on her.

I am sure you thought about it, but if you really want "unbreakable" you could switch up cursed and tempered to fit shield wall.

good suggestion! I like cursed because last time I fought the latari I got baned to death

41 minutes ago, TheWiseGuy said:

good suggestion! I like cursed because last time I fought the latari I got baned to death

I would keep cursed, and dump tempered and maybe think down Kari's Latari training to fit shield wall

Cursed signets probably won't be as effective as you think, here.

A friend of mine who mains Daqan tried this, too. His Spearstar barely made it across the table and when it did it was toothless.

All the defense in the world doesn't matter when a 17 pt archer unit can knock off 3-4 models with banes alone, then follow up with a Rising Panic to kill two more.

Cursed Signets is a garbage card thus far, IMO.

Maybe it would be alright on something with low def and high wounds like Fleshrippers, but pretty definitely not on the Spearstar.

3 hours ago, Tvayumat said:

Cursed signets probably won't be as effective as you think, here.

A friend of mine who mains Daqan tried this, too. His Spearstar barely made it across the table and when it did it was toothless.

All the defense in the world doesn't matter when a 17 pt archer unit can knock off 3-4 models with banes alone, then follow up with a Rising Panic to kill two more.

Cursed Signets is a garbage card thus far, IMO.

Maybe it would be alright on something with low def and high wounds like Fleshrippers, but pretty definitely not on the Spearstar.

I haven't tried it yet so I appreciate your experience. Perhaps you are right and it should be removed. I have played several games where the spear star reaches me with 3wide 2deep but then can't attack d/t blights. So I figure being able to hit is better than reaching healthy but useless. I also think Kari can put some serious hurt on archers while advancing as she can use fortunas often.

16 hours ago, TheWiseGuy said:

I haven't tried it yet so I appreciate your experience. Perhaps you are right and it should be removed. I have played several games where the spear star reaches me with 3wide 2deep but then can't attack d/t blights. So I figure being able to hit is better than reaching healthy but useless. I also think Kari can put some serious hurt on archers while advancing as she can use fortunas often.

Why I have Dispatch Runner on my Crossbowmen. Even if my spearstar is blighted to kingdom come so a Rallying Cornicen isn't enough to remove, the spearmen can rally/defend and then the Dispatch Runner can still get them to attack that turn.

34 minutes ago, Waywardpaladin said:

Why I have Dispatch Runner on my Crossbowmen. Even if my spearstar is blighted to kingdom come so a Rallying Cornicen isn't enough to remove, the spearmen can rally/defend and then the Dispatch Runner can still get them to attack that turn.

Totally a valid strategy. I've seen that before mind you. I wanted to try the lance corporal tough. The reason it appeals to me is that the spearmen can attack and shield or move and shield every turn. The cornicen is for refreshing the cards not babe removal. Cursed signet is for preventing banes.

1 minute ago, TheWiseGuy said:

Totally a valid strategy. I've seen that before mind you. I wanted to try the lance corporal tough. The reason it appeals to me is that the spearmen can attack and shield or move and shield every turn. The cornicen is for refreshing the cards not babe removal. Cursed signet is for preventing banes.

I forgot if it was decided who got to choose where the wounds went from Cursed Signets, if they could just be used to melt your figure upgrades anyways.

I would hope they could only choose from the figures on the back ranks as per usual. Cursed signets would be sooooo bad if you for allocate them to upgrades!

53 minutes ago, Waywardpaladin said:

I forgot if it was decided who got to choose where the wounds went from Cursed Signets, if they could just be used to melt your figure upgrades anyways.

Only when you are down to single rank, normal rules for applying damage, well, apply.

21 hours ago, TheWiseGuy said:

I haven't tried it yet so I appreciate your experience. Perhaps you are right and it should be removed. I have played several games where the spear star reaches me with 3wide 2deep but then can't attack d/t blights. So I figure being able to hit is better than reaching healthy but useless. I also think Kari can put some serious hurt on archers while advancing as she can use fortunas often.

Your thinking is spot on, it's just the card itself that seems to fall short in this application. This game has a lot of banes, and a lot of ways to earn banes, and CS isn't optional, so basically every panic token you take is going to be a casualty.

Charged by Death Knights? Two guys die automatically. Draw Rising Panic? Two guys dead. (In fact a LOT of morale cards are just going to straight up kill models) Fail a charge? Lose a guy. CI Reanimate Archers rolled three surges and dialled one in? That's a tray gone.

It adds up much quicker than you might expect, particularly when the enemy is helping you along with plain old damage.

The attrition game is better played by Reanimates, and even then... not very well.

As others have suggested, Dispatch Runner (Dispatch Stunner) is, I think, a better path to what you're looking for. A healthy bank of Inspiration tokens and two attacks per turn should get that spearstar churning out hits in no time.

Yah that's true... I just want cursed signets to work!! Is it too much to ask ffg?

2 hours ago, Tvayumat said:

Your thinking is spot on, it's just the card itself that seems to fall short in this application. This game has a lot of banes, and a lot of ways to earn banes, and CS isn't optional, so basically every panic token you take is going to be a casualty.

Charged by Death Knights? Two guys die automatically. Draw Rising Panic? Two guys dead. (In fact a LOT of morale cards are just going to straight up kill models) Fail a charge? Lose a guy. CI Reanimate Archers rolled three surges and dialled one in? That's a tray gone.

It adds up much quicker than you might expect, particularly when the enemy is helping you along with plain old damage.

The attrition game is better played by Reanimates, and even then... not very well.

As others have suggested, Dispatch Runner (Dispatch Stunner) is, I think, a better path to what you're looking for. A healthy bank of Inspiration tokens and two attacks per turn should get that spearstar churning out hits in no time.

57 minutes ago, TheWiseGuy said:

Yah that's true... I just want cursed signets to work!! Is it too much to ask ffg?

On a unit with lots of wounds it would be pretty cool. If Flesh Rippers, for instance, could take them, they'd work fairly well I think. Maybe a future Daqan unit will have a similar wound profile, or other mitigating ability.

if Cursed had a "May" clause, even if it went up to a whopping 8pt card, it would become an insanely powerful and widely used card.

Basically turns any blight/immobilize into a wound, since panic/stun generally isnt as bad (especially panic, sometimes stun can be a pain)

Its just the sheer mass of panic tokens that get put out that make me not like cursed signets.

I just don't know if a full Spearmen unit is scary enough without an extra attack die. At full combat potential, you have a very good chance of rolling exactly two hits, which becomes either 8 or 10 damage. Tempered Steel CAN result in another hit, but each die has only a single face with Hit+Surge so it doesn't increase your hits all that often (but only needs to be used once to be generally worth its points). It's good damage, don't get me wrong, but is it good enough to invest 82 points? A Carrion Lancer on the flank has a reasonably good chance of surviving two attacks, it's big and easily blocked by terrain, and... banes.

Banes. Even a single blight reduces its damage output significantly, Stun and Immobilize can cost it whole turns, and Panic... well, Panic and Morale can be devastating. Literally a single Reanimate can cause devastating damage, and the unit is no more resistant to it than default.

Big blocks like the 3x3 Spearmen have serious weaknesses, and I think they need a couple things to be worth the investment:

• Lion-Standard Bearer, because Fear has many of the more horrible Morale results and Rising Panic, which often starts the ball rolling
• A Champion that adds a die: Citadel Weapons Master is cheaper, Kari and Hawthorne are much harder to snipe out (and their abilities ARE strong)
• A support unit with Dispatch Runner. In a game with only 8 turns, every attack is hugely important

45 minutes ago, Bhelliom said:

I just don't know if a full Spearmen unit is scary enough without an extra attack die.

But with Shield Wall and Lance Corporal, it can be more tactically flexible and tough enough to stick around long enough to roll those dice a scary number of times, particularly if backed up with Dispatch Stunner.

1 hour ago, Tvayumat said:

But with Shield Wall and Lance Corporal, it can be more tactically flexible and tough enough to stick around long enough to roll those dice a scary number of times, particularly if backed up with Dispatch Stunner.

My only opponent being a tacitly better wargamer than me may be coloring my perspective here. I've had bad experiences with them just not contributing enough to the fight, but the unit with embedded Golem looks so **** cool that I will surely forge on.