Like the title says, I built this list to counter Uthick and ultimately ran it at the store championship at Pandemonium in Cambridge, MA. I ended up in second (out of four) and it was really close final game.

The weakest point of this list is how immobile it's forces are. There is also the dependency on unstable but Malcorne helps that.

I wish I could balance the points out to increase the Leonx but I cannot wrap my head around the 1x3 and not enough points for the 2x2.

Let me know what you'd change!

With the release of Flank Fire, I think 2x2 archers with fire rune and flank fire is the way to go.

Ulthuk have trouble turning, and being able to fire in a 270 degree arc is amazing.

Maybe something like this:

Went with Aliana to further dodge charge arcs. She'd wait for a good flank and help finish units. She's packing the Malcornes, to keep the red-runes going.

Archers would deploy at angles, so that if they roll up the double surge, they can shift out of the on coming advance.

Scion is added to fill out points and run forward an immobilize token.

I think you might be overkill on the Fire Rune, and having just a tiny bit of something else might be enough/sufficient. I wouldn't worry about the Leonx, the main thing they do is buy you a turn so that the Archers can Fire Rune something to death. I'd definitely consider grabbing a 2x2, because the extra upgrades can definitely help make or break your list, and the extra reroll makes the fire rune much more reliable. I think the bigger problem is those Uthuk lists can still cross the map with a lot of stuff, most of which can easily take out a 2x1 unit.

A 2x2, Close Quarter Targeting, Fire Rune, and perhaps Blackthorn Assassin ought to do well with trading damage favorably with a strong unit assigned to take it out. You're stripping a die every time and maybe twice in the same round if you'd like, then making two shots that will have two rerolls for a while, then always the one reroll. Basically, I like one bigger unit (either the 2x2 or 3x2) that acts as an Anchor to the list. From there, 2x1 Archers make sense.

If you want to truly make these glass cannons, I might swap out the Leonx for some Skirmishers. A 3x1 with flank fire and metered march runs 31, or 9 points more than the kitties. You can easily lose the arcane mastery, as refreshing Malcorne's Bequest will require your modifier dial for rally. The scions probably don't need their tabards, and... um... maybe lose one of the roots.

It's a high-risk, high-reward type of thing, but the skirmishers are just too **** fun.

15 hours ago, Vergilius said:

I   think you might be overkill on the Fire Ru  ne

Well, I say there's no kill like OVERKILL! ?

@Darth Matthew . I like the changes to add in flanked fire as it does open the range since turning was a lost of some attacks.

With the left over points I can see adding blackthorn as mentioned which would be nice. Warsong would be pretty stellar as well.

That said, even when I had 8+ attacks going (since Meagan and the scions were also shooting) the enemy usually burned through the two scions so an archer group did end up engaged. Since I had kept them cheapish I was fine letting one or two die as the last couple usually cleaned up the last of them.

Yeah the leonx did almost nothing but distract so fitting in Alaina is definitely better here.

12 hours ago, Xelto said:

refreshing  Malcorne'  s Beq  uest  

FYI flipping unstable runes does not require an exhaust. That only happens when you flip a non-unstable rune.

1 hour ago, Xquer said:

FYI flipping unstable runes does not require an exhaust. That only happens when you flip a non-unstable rune.

Yes, but with this build, you need to try for four unstable runes every time. Fire Rune is your primary offensive weapon, and the only one you can use while marching or shifting. You're only going to get that, without tapping the Bequest, half the time.

38 minutes ago, Xelto said:

Yes, but with this build, you need to try for four unstable runes every time. Fire Rune is your primary offensive weapon, and the only one you can use while marching or shifting. You're only going to get that, without tapping the Bequest, half the time.

Sorry if I am misunderstanding something, but I was saying Malcorne allows you to recast a red rune every turn WITHOUT having to exhaust it ever.

You only have to exhaust it if you recast a blue or green rune.

5 minutes ago, Xquer said:

Sorry if I am misunderstanding something, but I was saying Malcorne allows you to recast a red rune every turn WITHOUT having to exhaust it ever.

You only have to exhaust it if you recast a blue or green rune.

You can also exhaust it to recast a red rune, after your free red rune recast, giving you another shot at four red, moving your odds up to 11 in 16 of having max power fire runes, and dropping your odds of not being able to use fire runes down to 1 in 16.

4 minutes ago, Xelto said:

You can also exhaust it to recast a red rune, after your free red rune recast, giving you another shot at four red, moving your odds up to 11 in 16 of having max power fire runes, and dropping your odds of not being able to use fire runes down to 1 in 16.

Ah! Gotcha now, thanks.

I have been lucky where I never actually got stuck in the situation with no runes. Spent plenty of them with just 2 reds, but when this was built, Uthick only had armor 2 max. Sure it'd nice to have more damage but that's compensated with overwhelming number of attacks.

19 minutes ago, Xquer said:

Ah! Gotcha now, thanks.

I have been lucky where I never actually got stuck in the situation with no runes. Spent plenty of them with just 2 reds, but when this was built, Uthick only had armor 2 max. Sure it'd nice to have more damage but that's compensated with overwhelming number of attacks.

I ran a list like this recently, thought it had fewer sets of archers. I had to exhaust the Bequest six times that game, though a few of them were to max out the damage.

Being able to clear a tray per hit is just to much for me to pass up. And/or being able to damage high-toughness opponents, like rune golems

Malcornes is dope if you need runes of a particular color. It is best if you need to roll toward OR away from red. I’d like try out more of a green/blue anti-red strategy sometime.

Wheres your blockers? Any good uthuk player will move to just outside range and then sprint to a i3 charge range after i5 the next turn, setting up for swamping you on the 3rd turn.

1 hour ago, Jukey said:

Wheres your blockers? Any good uthuk player will move to just outside range and then sprint to a i3 charge range after i5 the next turn, setting up for swamping you on the 3rd turn.

Deepwood Archers have a march-2 at initiative 7, and a shift-1 at initiative 8. Both can be combined with fire runes, so during the Uthuk scoot-up phase, they can still be targeted. If the Uthuk player has a few big units, they have to find a way around the scions. If they have a bunch of smaller units, there's a decent possibility that some of them will be taken out in the initial volley. And once engaged, if they survive, they can still shift-fire rune.

I'm not saying it's impossible to rush these units, just that they're not totally helpless. This is definitely a glass cannon setup.