So, I've basically got a store championship coming up soon and I wanted to try out some new lists.

Over the christmas period I managed to acquire a Reanimate expansion (finally I own lingering dead!) and a second command unit.

I wanted to have most of my army remain the same from my previous event (which I won) with the army below:

Reanimate Archers x6 [45]
--Heraldry: Raven-Standard Bearer [3]
--Training: Combat Ingenuity [6]
----------Total Unit Cost: 54

Carrion Lancers x1 [15]
--Training: Rank Discipline [4]
----------Total Unit Cost: 19

Reanimates x6 [35]
--Champion: Ardus IxErebus [23]
--Heraldry: Terrifying Heraldry [5]
----------Total Unit Cost: 63

Death Knights x6 [55]

--Equipment: Obcasium's Gauntlet [5]
--Training: Column Tactics [4]
----------Total Unit Cost: 64

However, I feel now that Ardus was maybe to expensive and the points could be used elsewhere, I like to have big units on the battlefield as they can create a sense of dread in your opponent and make them focus on that unit, allowing you to perhaps take advantage of that. I thought about making the reanimate unit bigger and focus on staying alive, but also doing damage quicker. I usually like to tie my reanimates up with the enemy and use terrifying heraldry to stack the panic up so I'm also wondering if I should stick with that strategy also.

Basically, before I start waffling on... I would like advice on what type of reanimate unit to run really, or if you have any other tips!

Reanimate Archers x6 [45]
Raven-Standard Bearer [3]
Combat Ingenuity [6]
Total Unit Cost: 54

Carrion Lancers x1 [15]
Rank Discipline [4]
Total Unit Cost: 19

Death Knights x6[55]
Obcasiums Gauntlet [5]
Raven Tabards [2]
Column Tactics [4]
Total Unit Cost: 66

Reanimates x9[50]
Necromancer [3]
Raven-Standard Bearer [3]
Metered March [2]
Lingering Dead [3]
Total Unit Cost: 61

--- Update ---

I'm now actually wondering if combining Raven-Standard Bearer with a Necromancer/Lingering Dead unit will even work, as surely you want the Necromancer to trigger after you've taken casualties? So by trying to recuperate casualties in combat, I'm actually gimping myself if I attack before my enemy as I potentially wont have any empty trays until after I'm attacked?

I've never used a Necromancer before so I don't know how other people have used them, but I would think that you'd probably like to do it after your own round of combat with the engaged enemy after they've attacked you?

----------------

Thank you!

Well, if you've already won an event, I don't know that you should take advice from me. But I agree that Necromancer and Raven-Standard Bearer are anti-synergistic. This actually leaves you with a lot of choices.

1) The biggest problem with Necromancer is that it gets sniped out easily. You could use Blighted Vexillum Bearer instead of Raven-Standard Bearer. You now have two figure upgrades with 1 defense and 1 wound threshold each. If they take out the Necromancer, they'll get the blight from the collision. If they take out the Heraldry figure, your Necromancer can help replenish your ranks. If they take out neither, you are in good shape: the blight weakens the attack so that your Necromancer is more meaningful. Not only that, but Raven-Standard Bearer gets diminishing returns when you have Lingering Dead anyway, because you keep your trays, although every other turn you do attack before Spearmen and Oathsworn, potentially crippling them so they take out fewer of your trays than they otherwise would have.

2) Knowing that these figure upgrades are so easy to take out, drop the Champion and the Music, which gives you 5 points for Terrifying Heraldry. If you're used to that upgrade, it's a good way to go. I forgot to invite it for almost the entire game I had it equipped . (Wait, that also gets rid of Raven-Standard Bearer - see below for what to do with those 3 points).

3) Alternatively, you could try one of my favorites: Tempered Steel on the Reanimate Archers. With threat 3, that extra hit makes a big impact. If you primarily use Shift + Rally to get in position, you'll have 1 or 2 Inspiration tokens accrued to ready Tempered Steel and keep laying on the hurt.

Looks like a strong army. Let me know what you think of my suggestions.

I second tempered steel. Very good in the three wide archers. If you really want damage rank discipline instead of ci is a good option but then you give up some blight.

The necromancer lingering dead combo is great with maro around to bring back trays, otherwise I find it doesn't do enough. File leader lingering dead gives a full attack on the charge and on those turns in the melee that you attack second. Chuck in ravan standard to increase the goodness of file leader and to attack first some rounds once engaged.

Have you tried fortuna's dice on the death knights? great damage output when combined with column tactics.

So I basically tried out this list at the weekend with my 9 Tray reanimates having the Necromancer, Lingering Dead and Terrifying Heraldry.

My Necromancer died on the first attack as my opponent got an accuracy

However, lingering dead saved my back row and allowed me to replenish it at the end, which was nice! It turned out to be a short game as my opponent pretty much conceded by round 4 as my Deathknights took out Maegan Cyndewin in one charge and my reanimates took out his riders by their second attack.

He made a terrible deployment error though which kept his archers out of the game.

Apart from that game, I didn't get to play much Runewars this weekend, my other opponent had to cancel so I am hoping that I can try this list out again at the weekend, although I feel that my Necromancer will get snipped out again as this opponent also plays Latari... I'll have to basically keep my Reanimates away from his archers if I can.

If I do play I'll also find more time to try out some of the suggestions you guys have mentioned.

So I played more Runewars this weekend and tried out a variety of lists against my companion who ran Latari with a list very similar to what I am about to share, except that instead of having the Blighted Vexillum Bearer or the Raven-Standard bearer, I had the archers have Wind-Rune.

I ended up winning the match quite comfortably, mainly because my Deathknights managed to one-shot Aliana Summersong and then take down his Riders afterwards with a Carrion Lancer running next to them taking out a blighted scion with ease. All this was going on whilst I sat my Reanimates in between two pieces of terrain, with my archers taking cover in one of them, with Ardus fighting another Scion in the other terrain.

To elaborate on the Reanimates/Archer fight, I was basically sat in front of two 3x2 Archer units. One with Tempered Steel (ouch) and another with a Sorceress of some sort and fire rune, which would allow all sorts of other attacks seeing as they also had simultaneous orders.

My archers would blight the tempered steel unit constantly, and I suppose I was quite lucky in regards to runes and the fact my opponent couldn't seem to roll accuracy's, or at the time was just hoping to get damage done with limited dice he had at times. But my Reanimates basically sat there all game either armouring up to take reduced casualties and then lingering dead helping to keep the trays there, or having myself rally really early and replenish with the necromancer before they could shoot me down again.

Eventually I think the Reanimates fell, but by then it was far to late. Ardus was about to charge, my Carrion Lancer had managed to get round the back and was ready to charge, with the Deathknights on their way, my opponent decided to concede.

I feel that Lingering dead is a great card, if the runes come out! I also have learnt from previous battles over the weekend that Obcasium's Gauntlet is a great artifact to have and I also highly recommend having Raven Tabards on Deathknights seeing as they can have a nice short charge on Initiative 2!

I did however decide that I needed to get Ardus more involved with the Carrion Lancer and the Archers, but he was kept at bay by a Scion terrain for early parts of the match and so I decided to drop Wind Rune in favour of two of the unique heraldry upgrades to allow my Archers to attack early and also for anyone engaging my Reanimates to get a blight so I can run my Lancers in quicker without having to rely on themselves blighting and they can take full advantage of that. Also if Ardus manages to get in, even better!

So this will be my next list to try out:

Death Knights [55] 2x3
Obcasiums Gauntlet [5]
Raven Tabards [2]
Total Unit Cost: 62

Ardus IxErebus [37] 1x1
Ardus Fury [1]
Total Unit Cost: 38

Reanimates [35] 3x2
Necromancer [3]
Blighted Vexillum Bearer [3]
Lingering Dead [3]
Total Unit Cost: 44

Carrion Lancers [15] 1x1
Total Unit Cost: 15

Reanimate Archers [32] 2x2
Combat Ingenuity [6]
Raven-Standard Bearer [3]
Total Unit Cost: 41

I'll hopefully play sooner rather than later and continue to let you know how it all goes and maybe write a battle report.

(I did actually have pictures ready to write one this weekend but accidentally deleted all the images )

Just for fun, here is the final image from that battle I was describing. Ignore the Riders in the corner, they're actually very dead.

I was right in saying the Reanimates fell, they did their job though!

So, I had the store Championship on Saturday 3rd February... and I only went and won it!

I actually did go ahead and use the list I last posted:

Death Knights [55] 2x3
Obcasiums Gauntlet [5]
Raven Tabards [2]
Total Unit Cost: 62

Ardus IxErebus [37] 1x1
Ardus Fury [1]
Total Unit Cost: 38

Reanimates [35] 3x2
Necromancer [3]
Blighted Vexillum Bearer [3]
Lingering Dead [3]
Total Unit Cost: 44

Carrion Lancers [15] 1x1
Total Unit Cost: 15

Reanimate Archers [32] 2x2
Combat Ingenuity [6]
Raven-Standard Bearer [3]
Total Unit Cost: 41

I cannot recommend Raven Tabards on the Death Knights enough, its so great.

Another funny thing that happened is that my Necromancer didn't get used once because either;

a.) Had no natural runes when I needed them.

or

b.) My renanimates didn't take any casualties.

I must have been lucky on the day as my Necromancer didn't get taken out once!

I just wanted to take the time to thank anyone that gave me advice on this list and its abilities.

Go, Waiqar, go!

2 minutes ago, Uthoroc said:

Go, Waiqar, go!

I do love Waiqar, you have to endure the complaining about Blight and how Death Knights are broken and over powered though

By broken, they usually mean the Obcasiums Gauntlet that they have equipped.

Congrats on winning. My Waiqar performance only got me 3rd.

Congrats!

What was the turnout?

51 minutes ago, Budgernaut said:

Congrats!

What was the turnout?

The location only had a capacity for 8 person tournament, we were down to have 6 but someone dropped out on the day due to something clashing, think it was X-Wing or Armada.

So there were five of us, the same five that were there for a previous store event (which I also won :P).
There were also two other people that listed themselves as interested but then couldn't make it... So we are starting to build a little community there at the moment. I'm gonna start renting tables out there and try to meet up more often and play as there were people coming over and watching and seemingly curious, hopefully we can generate more interest.

1 hour ago, darkjawa103 said:

Congrats on winning. My Waiqar performance only got me 3rd.

Congrats! That should have still gotten you some cool prizes tho?

What was the turnout for your tournament?

Cool prizes, yes. Turnout was terrible. Had four sign up, but one had to drop and leave. We have two others that play, but had other commitments they couldn't get out of.

14 minutes ago, darkjawa103 said:

Cool prizes, yes. Turnout was terrible. Had four sign up, but one had to drop and leave. We have two others that play, but had other commitments they couldn't get out of.

It is disappointing when the turnout is low or people drop out at the last minute. They need to hurry up and invent teleporters so we can all meet up and play at the drop of a hat

My friends and I are trying real hard to recruit other friends to the game.

One positive thing I can take from this event though is knowing that there was considerably more interest in it than the last event we had at that store.

The 3 of us that played in the tournament do play at the store as much as possible. We get people checking it out and asking questions. Got to work more on getting them to try demo games.

Congratulations! That is some awesome swag!

My last tournament there were 2 of us. This weekend there were 3 of us. Store Championship is the first Saturday in March, so I am hoping more of us come out. There are 8 of us that regularly play in the leagues, but for some reason, we haven't all been able to make it out to a tournament together yet. Real life gets in the way, so I understand, but I'm hopeful we can all be healthy and available to have a nice Store Championship in a month.

Also, the three of us that made it to the tournament Saturday were all Waiqar players, so that was interesting.

On 05/02/2018 at 5:56 PM, Parakitor said:

Also, the three of us that made it to the tournament Saturday were all Waiqar players, so that was interesting.

We had 2 Waiqar, 2 Latari and 1 Daqan, so it was a pretty good mix.

I've never actually been placed against the Daqan player whenever there has been an event. I think he will probably end up bringing Uthuk at some point when their expansions get released, which will be interesting as I've never played against them before.