This is matchup for the bottom of our Winter League. My opponent and myself were both beaten up and tossed around by the other league members this season. This is our first time playing against each other and my first time encountering the slippery Latari.

Lists:

Waiqar Latari

200/200 198/200

Reanimates [64] 4x3 Maegan Cyndewin [36] 1x1
Ardus IxErebus [23] Reaping Blade [4]
Front Line Carrion Lancer [5] Total Unit Cost: 40
Cursed Signets [2]
Trumpets [2] Aymhelin Scions [25] 2x1
Lingering Dead [3] Wind Rune [6]
Total Unit Cost: 99 Total Unit Cost: 31

Reanimate Archers [18] 2x1 Aymhelin Scions [25] 2x1
Combat Ingenuity [6] Wind Rune [6]
Total Unit Cost: 24 Total Unit Cost: 31

Carrion Lancers [15] 1x1 Deepwood Archers [42] 3x2
Total Unit Cost: 15 Wind Rune [6]
Total Unit Cost: 48
Death Knights [42] 2x2
Obcasiums Gauntlet [5] Deepwood Archers [42] 3x2
Total Unit Cost: 47 Wind Rune [6]
Total Unit Cost: 48
Carrion Lancers [15] 1x1
Total Unit Cost: 15

Latari had first player and chose "Up in Flames" as the objective.

Head-to-Head was chosen for the deployment.

Setup happened with Latari splitting their forces with Maegan in the middle but closer to the protected side. Waiqar bunched up their forces a bit more, but still a bit divided.

First Round: Slow start as we jockey for position. Nothing much happens here as nothing is in range.

Second Round: Ardus decides to sweep towards the left to try to split the forces and quickly eliminate them. Followed by more position jockeying.

Third Round: Engagement happens. Ardus did as late of a charge as the mass of reanimates could, but first the unit of Deepwood Archers rained arrows unto them. Followed by the Scions doing a bit of damage (danged trees). Reanimate archers were still moving to get into range, but the lone Carrion Lancer got some blight off into the Scions before Ardus' charge. The Reanimate horde rolled over and splintered the Scions, as they prepared for another attack. Meanwhile, on the other side of the battlefield, the Death Knights and Carrion Lancer quickly moved in preparing to engage Maegan if they could.

-- the forest burns around them all and flames encroach from multiple paths --

Fourth Round: The near Scions move in to engage the Death Knights. The Death Knights had prepared for the trees and counter attacked. Obcasium's Gauntlet brought Death's Grasp upon the trees. Maegan moves in to help support the Scions, a couple of Death Knights have fallen. On the other side of the field, the beleaguered Deepwood Archers attempt to whisk away into the depths of the forest. The mass of undead were too spread out and caught them, both are being engulfed in the flames of the spreading forest fire. The Carrion Lancer and Reanimate Archers do what they can, but begin to try to extricate themselves from the flames as well.

Fifth Round: The Death Knights fall to the concentrated attack of Maegan, Scions, and Deepwood Archers. The Reanimates lost track of some of the Latari in the forest, but are hot on their trail (one tray survived the attack).

Sixth Round: Two Carrion Lancers fall to the elves, the Reanimate archers back off, while the Reanimates lead by Ardus destroy the final elves in that section of the forest.

Seventh Round: Everyone sets up to get out of the forest...

Eighth Round: Exodus

The rounds may have been slightly off, but this is the gist of what happened. The burning forest caught up to the near side of the board and damaged the full block of Deepwood archers. This was a close game, and a very fun engagement.

Final score: 122 / 124 Latari for the win

2 MOV

5 Waiqar - 6 Latari League round points

Nice write-up. I am particularly interested in your 12-tray unit of Reanimates. I made one that looks very similar, though I still haven't completely settled on the best loadout. What considerations led you to that particular build? I have recently been theorizing that Trumpets may be a powerful sleeper card for Reanimates. Do you agree? The only struggle is that colliding with an enemy unit when you aren't charging gets one of your figures removed because of Cursed Signets, but it seems a small price to pay for the vastly improved speed of that unit.

Thanks. This was my first time attempting a massive unit of reanimates. My main reasoning for this load out was kind of the following:

Trumpets: allowing for really large swaths of ground to be covered

Cursed signets: how else do you use them than a large, regenerating unit? and there's no stopping it with banes

Ardus: extra die and surge actions

Front-line Carrion Lancer: extra punch on blight, and a large unit to suck up damage, 6 hits were consumed by the CL with accuracies...

Lingering dead: I knew I was going to be losing some reanimates... keep those trays longer to make it hurt

As far as movement without charging, I tend to do that regularly just to get engaged. It has bitten me in the past a few times, but I find that the unpredictable nature of just ramming into enemy formations can break their focus for at least one round. I'll gladly suffer a panic token to stop a late charge or ranged hit. Banes > damage, in my opinion. Final thoughts on this big block of skellys... I liked it... I almost feel like I should have swung it the other way, but hind sight.

Yep, 100% agree on all counts. I might drop the Lancer from time to time, but it's really solid against siege units. I guess it mostly depends on if I need 5-6 points elsewhere in the army. It's better if you have Blighted Vexillum Bearer, but I am finding that Cursed Signets is really good for large blocks of Reanimates. So far, I've never regretted taking it, and I have certainly wished I had it in games where I didn't take it.

1 hour ago, Aetheriac said:

... I almost feel like I should have swung it the other way, but hind sight.

Yeah, I thought the same thing, but it's hard to tell at the beginning of the match sometimes. They definitely would have made short work of Maegan and the Scions