How many Waiqar players have tried out the 3x2 Reanimate Archers with Raven Standard Bearer and Combat Ingenuity? On paper this seems to be a very good ranged unit for countering your opponents ranged? You can move late in the turn after they shoot to get into range 5. Then from every round afterward you always shoot first at initiative 4 and you're always dropping at least 1 blight on them. Seems like a good counter?

So one big risk is incoming units on your archers disrupting this whole thing. Here's another bit of theorycrafting -- the Ardus protector. He can sit in front of your archers and intercept potential charges without blocking much LOS. With Fortunas Dice / Ardus Fury and the CI-Archer blight ability, he can add blight for every surge and he can guarantee 3 blight every round he swings (Ardus fury + dialed in surge + fortunas a surge result if need be). So Ardus can now negate the force, camping them out front while the archers continue to kill the opposing side. They can then switch to the 'caught' unit after the opposing ranged threat is dead, or whatever.

Thoughts? Can Ardus even survive a single charge??

I have run this two ways.

Ravan standard

Tempered Steel

Rank Discipline

With 2 rerolls you fish for the red double with the first. If you get it that's 4 hits X 3 threat 12 damage dead hero. Very reliable as it is highly unlikely you'll do less than 9 damage.

Shield Wall

Blighted Vex Bearer

Close Quarters Targeting

Very silly but Running this as your front line unit with maro around to bring back trays and to make shield wall better is hilarious. People don't want to charge it but I'd they don't they get shot. The lower damage output hurts.

I havent tried:

Wind rune

Ravan standard

Combat ingenuity

But it seems very good on paper. Shoot at 4 give out blight and wind rune away.

As for blockers I don't like ardus. Too expensive to use just for getting in the way and dies fairly quickly to a big unit. For the same cost you could get approximately 3 lancers. They'll chuck some blight out as well reducing the efficiveness of the charge and if you slightly stagger them the opponent will only be able to get into combat with 1 a turn. They single trays should also leave plenty of gaps to shoot past.

I've been looking at the 3x2 Archers with Wind Rune and Raven. I tend to treat blight as an added bonus since getting the combos off can be tricky sometimes, particularly when your opponents tends to load up on insp for the first round or two

Slap wind rune on and you can shoot and scoot out of range before they shoot.

Started replying to this a few days ago then lost 90% of my response because phones, but here it goes:

I really like the 3x2 archers with CI. I think it's one of the few units in the game where it can equally try and do damage and something else (in this case blight) and not be a "jack of all trades, master of none" kind of thing. With a lot of units trying to do 2 different things with one unit is often anti-synergistic and is at the expense of the other action, but in the few rounds that I've used the 3x2 archers, a fairly reliable mix of 3-9 damage usually paired with 3-1 blight respectively, can be pretty awesome.

100% needs to be in support of a separate melee attack force, as your raw damage isn't enough in most cases to defeat any sizable enemy unit. I like the Ardus pairing, have wiped entire spearstars with this tandem while taking no return damage, and is pretty much what turned me off from the spearstar concept completely. However Ardus w or w/o upgrade and 3x2 CI archers is easily 40%+ of your list, so the rest of your force can be limited. I've been running the 2x1 CI archers with Ardus recently, still get the blight combo, just lose the damage output, but that is made up for in the rest of your list.

Also I think Raven Standard Bearer hands down shines the most with these guys, particularly the 3x2. Can shoot underneath enemy archers, and it also puts you at the same initiative as reanimates/DK melee, so can combo well there, particularly with upgrades requiring blight, IE Deathcaller, and since your shooting at 4, that means you could activate a carrion lancer FIRST at init 5 instead of waiting for blight to proc their mortal strike ability. All in all, pretty crazy amount of utility and synergy for 3pts.

Anecdotal evidence here, but I'm not convinced wind rune on a 3 wide unit is worth it, at least not for a unit trying to dodge. Melee unit trying to gain the flank, I can see the argument, it has just been my experience that 1-2 shift is not enough to save that unit from getting charged. What would be awesome to see, is a 3x2 w/ wind rune and RSB maintaining range 5 of enemy archers, shooting and blighting, and then shifting out of range from the return volley, but I think that's difficult strategy to rely on regularly.

2 hours ago, jcshep19 said:

What would be awesome to see, is a 3x2 w/ wind rune and RSB maintaining range 5 of enemy archers, shooting and blighting, and then shifting out of range from the return volley, but I think that's difficult strategy to rely on regularly.

Two people have mentioned this now, but I just don't see the utility. If you're landing blight, you don't care if you're still in range. If you back up with Wind Rune, they won't march up until after initiative 4, so they don't get hit. They may not even march forward at all. So at best, you're only shooting every other round with a unit that is expensive and fully capable of neutering the attacks of opposing units.

I love Tempered Steel on the 3x2 because 1) I usually only move using Shift + Rally, so plenty of Inspiration tokens to ready it, and 2) you really have versatility in how you use your surge results. 3 hits on the dice can turn from 9 damage into 12 damage if you don't need the blight (if, for example, they have an inspiration token) which is pretty awesome. Or, if you roll more surges on the dice than you need, you can spend your dial surge on Tempered Steel, slightly improving your damage output.

So yeah, when I run the 3x2, I use Tempered Steel + Combat Ingenuity, but now that I have a second Infantry Command pack, I will put a Raven Standard Bearer on then, too.

Dumb thought, but in an army that already has Ardus, how about a 2 tray Reanimate with Blighted Vilexium Bearer? That single blight token actually does a lot under these circumstances. Even the single die lost is usually enough to keep a few Reanimates alive and then the blight from your archers keep those stubborn Reanimates alive.

Example, a 2x3 Leonx with Column Tactics charges the Reanimates. Peak damage head on is 15 and average is around probably 12ish. Strip out one die for blight and peak drops to 9 and average about 6-7. In range to survive it now.

Charged by a 3x2 Berserkers with tempered steel. Peak damage is 12+2, average close to 9+2. With one blight, peak drops to 6+2. Average probably less. You now probably survive.

Most two tray units get knocked down into the range that they can’t one-shot you and a lot of 3 wides have trouble doing so.

8 hours ago, Parakitor said:

Two people have mentioned this now, but I just don't see the utility. If you're landing blight, you don't care if you're still in range. If you back up with Wind Rune, they won't march up until after initiative 4, so they don't get hit. They may not even march forward at all. So at best, you're only shooting every other round with a unit that is expensive and fully capable of neutering the attacks of opposing units.

True, but I’d argue that you can then attack the next round against another unit that should almost certainly be between the two ranged units. You get the initial shot to try and reduce the enemy ranged attack, withdrawal your archers out of range, and then the enemy archers can only shoot at your blocker (presumably Ardus or lancers, both of whom can have armored up by now) instead of your weak archers.

To be clear though I am not an advocate of Wind Rune at all on these guys. The situation I described above has too many ways it can go wrong, you’re wasting your free blight to pull it off, and a 3x2 is usually too large to be arc-dodging anyway.

Good argument to shift/rally your way into range to ready TS, could be nice for those turns where burning down your enemy is better than blighting.

I’m still a bigger fan of the 2x1 right now, and getting more attackers out there.

If I'm paying the extra 13 pts for 3x2, I'm taking Tempered Steel 100% of the time, with CI becoming a 50/50 take behind Rank Discipline. The only reason to go to threat 3 is to deal raw damage, since a 2 wide unit can Blight just as well.

I take Ardus the vast majority of the time, as I LOVE Host of Crows. He makes possible the 2x2 Reanimate Archer unit w/ Raven Standard/Combat Ingenuity/Wind Rune for 13 fewer pts. I love this unit.

Honestly, Wind Rune is a good take for either unit, since a ranged unit pointed in the wrong direction has wasted more of my dial actions than almost any other flub, including charges that miss by an infuriatingly narrow margin. The RA Reform action is nice, and all, but being able to fire THEN reform, or perform a late initiative shift followed by a reform can move you into range and acquire LoS for an Init 4 ranged attack the next turn.

On the 2x2 , you are guaranteed to be able to fit between any two pieces of terrain front-on, unlike the 3 wide unit, not to mention shaving a few extra pts to re-invest into artifacts for Ardus or some DKs.

What you have, then, is an incredibly mobile, easily positioned, reactive, fast firing blight battery with a re-roll. I feel like, for Waiqar, it's the most fun you can have with your skin still on.