Hello Rune Warriors!

We are back with the public release of our latest episode! Josh and Aaron review the new Uthuk Y'llan expansions! Get our thoughts on the units, cards and our take on theory crafting with and against the newest entry on the battlefield! Even better news Patreon has relented and will not enact their ridiculous proposed policy of charging people who make donations, so we are no longer looking for a different funding avenue. To help support the show and get a week preview on all of our audio and video check us out at patreon.com/runecasters. Also we have a new method of recording audio thanks to our friend Craig, and we would love to hear some feedback on our new sound.

Enjoy!

https://runecasters.net/2017/12/14/episode-12-the-wrath-of-ravos/

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The audio is much improved with this episode, thanks!

On the issue of surges and surges+, let's take an example:

surge: do 2 damage to a unit
- this ability does 2 damage as a separate instance with each surge you spend, meaning you can't hurt a unit with defense 3, as no instance will get through.

surge+: do 2 damage to a unit
- this can be "stacked" to do more than 2 damage in one instance, i.e. you are able to hurt a unit with defense 3 if you use at least 2 surges.

In our experience, the usefulness of both Hawthorne's Sweeping Strikes and Ravos' has more to do with board control and threat than raw damage. IF they are given the opportunity, either can be incredibly powerful.

Opponents are less likely to bunch their units or engage one unit with two when one of these heroes can get stuck in and start throwing out damage.

Regarding the Flesh Ripper Surge+, Uthoroc covered the technicalities of the surge ability, but their ability is different from Lethal. It doesn't add damage to their attack, and it can target ANY engaged unit. If you flank a unit of Flesh Rippers, or Rippers are able to engage two units through the clever use of a re-engage shift, they can potentially attack one unit and then use surges to damage a second.

It's also worth noting the real benefit to the RBB attack pool in combo with the surge ability. Flesh Rippers aren't all about threat, they're about dealing smaller hits repeatedly, and they stay dangerous at one tray where many other units do not. A unit with RBB at one tray would normally have a damage ceiling of 4, but with the FR surge, their max increases to six, or eight on a flank. With how tough they can be to kill, I've loved having them still dangerous when reduced to a single tray on a few occasions.

There is no errata needed for Bloodfire Witch, as per the RRG:

Quote

83.8 An “after” event occurs immediately after the specified event and cannot occur again for that instance of the event.

Only one of her effects can be used, and it can only be used once per rune casting.

Regarding Cacophony Reaver. When he dies, his effect leaves the game and you return to the default rules. The revealed card is no longer revealed, so it flips back over but stays on top of the morale deck.

His effect is freaking FANTASTIC, by the way. Ignore the Lethal. Just run him. Knowing your next morale card is absolutely insane for the Uthuk. Run two of them to keep him from getting sniped. Lethal by itself is worth the pts, but the revealed card effect is astonishingly dangerous. I say this from a position of experience, having devastated units simply by knowing precisely how many morale results I need to get the effect I want and knowing when I want to mill the morale deck.

Regarding Psychosis Siren, I think you may have forgotten that any morale test can have its severity increased by spending panic tokens which... if you're running almost anything else in the Uthuk army, is almost always going to be at least one if not more. That severity one test can rapidly become exactly the severity you need to say... use the Loss of Faith revealed on your morale deck from Cacophony Reaver to hit an archer unit that you can't engage, reducing Xbowmen from threat 3 to 2, for example.

Since Uthuk presently lack ranged attackers, this is currently one of their only ways to activate panic tokens at range.

Similarly, you seem to be missing the synergy between cards like Rage Spine and Psychosis Siren. Either before or after a unit is able to Rally, Rage Spine could be used to double up a Rising Panic on a unit for four panic tokens, then Psychosis Siren could set off a severity 5 morale test.

Synergistic combos like this are key to making the Uthuk panic generation decisive, rather than just annoying.

Also, Range 1-[unstable] can never be zero. It's always an absolute minimum of one. Only Range-[unstable] can be zero.

Regarding Warsprinter, you should consider the possibilities of marching on a modifier skill. It allows Berserkers with an Aggressive Shrieker to do things like attack an engaged unit, kill it, then charge a unit behind it and attack again, or reform at initiative 3 and then charge up to 4.

Warsprinter and Cacophony Reaver are my stand out winners, each achieving a near auto-include status with Bloodfire Witch taking third for the sheer broad application of her abilities. I've used her in an Uthuk mirror match that needed unstable runes more than I did to actively flip runes AWAY from unstable, too.

Good episode overall, appreciate the review.

8 hours ago, Uthoroc said:

The audio is much improved with this episode, thanks!

On the issue of surges and surges+, let's take an example:

surge: do 2 damage to a unit
- this ability does 2 damage as a separate instance with each surge you spend, meaning you can't hurt a unit with defense 3, as no instance will get through.

surge+: do 2 damage to a unit
- this can be "stacked" to do more than 2 damage in one instance, i.e. you are able to hurt a unit with defense 3 if you use at least 2 surges.

Thanks! Glad we found a solution that makes it better for you guys!

That is good info on surges, unfortunately I guess I'm just not smart enough to read into that in what the rule book says. Appreciate the clarification!

5 hours ago, Tvayumat said:

the real benefit to the RBB attack pool in combo with the surge ability. Flesh Rippers aren't all about threat, they're about dealing smaller hits repeatedly, and they stay dangerous at one tray where many other units do not

I'm on your side, if that wasn't clear in the episode. The more I think about it the more I really like these guys not only for their survivability, but as you said using that RBB to generate a S ton of surges!

5 hours ago, Tvayumat said:

His effect is freaking FANTASTIC, by the way. Ignore the Lethal. Just run him. Knowing your next morale card is absolutely insane for the Uthuk. Run two of them to keep him from getting sniped.

Agreed, that ability is amazing! The only issue I have is if running 2 is cost prohibitive. I think I made the point, but dont know that running two blocks of Melee infantry is worth it, but once you get your viper legion WATCH OUT!

5 hours ago, Tvayumat said:

Similarly, you seem to be missing the synergy between cards like Rage Spine and Psychosis Siren. Either before or after a unit is able to Rally, Rage Spine could be used to double up a Rising Panic on a unit for four panic tokens, then Psychosis Siren could set off a severity 5 morale test.

I'm scarred enough already, you don't need to rub it in!

5 hours ago, Tvayumat said:

Also, Range 1-[unstable] can never be zero. It's always an absolute minimum of one. Only Range-[unstable] can be zero.

True. Late night + Math = well you heard it.

5 hours ago, Tvayumat said:

Warsprinter and Cacophony Reaver are my stand out winners, each achieving a near auto-include status with Bloodfire Witch taking third for the sheer broad application of her abilities. I've used her in an Uthuk mirror match that needed unstable runes more than I did to actively flip runes AWAY from unstable, too.

Great to know! I'll have to look out for this combo in the future! (And maybe i'll even have to proxy a game with this combo!)

5 hours ago, Tvayumat said:

Good episode overall, appreciate the review.

Thank you! I'm glad you guys are enjoying it!

Looking forward to listening while doing some painting this weekend

5 minutes ago, darkjawa103 said:

Looking forward to listening while doing some painting this weekend

Post some of those paint jobs on www.facebook.com/runecasters

I'd love to show them off to the community when you get done, and I cant wait to see them myself!

1 hour ago, flightmaster101 said:

Post some of those paint jobs on www.facebook.com/runecasters

I'd love to show them off to the community when you get done, and I cant wait to see them myself!

Posted up my Spearstar in progress the other day. Should have enough Reanimates done to have a fully painted Wurm-star by the weekend.

I think I ended up disagreeing with most of your evaluations for the Command upgrades. Maybe it is just the mileage with Uthuk I’m getting. Also, some of it I think it a misreading of some rules.

Psychosis Siren triggers a severity one test - which can then be increased if the target unit has a panic token(s). So paired Sirens and two Threshers allow you to generate severity three panic tests on large numbers of units. The Threshers move up and put down panic. The sirens move up and the first drops an additional panic token. The second then triggers panic tests that are all increased to severity three

Good episode. A lot of middle-of-the-road votes on those upgrades. I guess that's understandable - you are Latari and Daqan players, after all. I'm going to have to look over all the cards, make my own opinions, and then give it another listen and see if I really do share the same thoughts and ideas as you two.

another great episode. "Go full Leroy Jenkins" is the best quote ever