we are playing a tournament this sunday and im thinking what type of army to bring. i expect mostly waiqar and daqan with possibility of 1 latari and 1 uthuk. Im considering skeleton spam, with 2 six tray units of reanimates, 1 six tray archers and maro to keep them alive. Or i could bring 9-12 tray reanimates and 4 tray lancers with flanking death knights. What do you think?

Hm. Well, following Runecasters(?), the winning Waiqar Lists seem to be 12 tray Reanimates. The support varied, but I think 1-2 solo lancers were a common element too. They just do too much good for objectives.

Personally, if Uthuk are NOT likely to have a strong presence, I would consider Deathcaller Disco. Either two 9 tray formations with Deathcaller, Support Lancer, and Simultaneous Orders, and two 6 trays with Ardus to grant access to the needed slots.

I’m digging my way through Death Knight strategies right now, and a 6 tray Knights with Shield of Margath and Column Tactics makes a pretty painful nut to crack

6 trays of Knights in general is a tough k-nigget to crack, even without upgrades. I've run Column Tactics to great effect, but I'm still playing with artifacts.

I've yet to see Deathcallers do much, but I have not been hardcore in trying to put them on the table, so my experience is limited at best. I also do not have a great track record with Waiqar (my main faction). I get crap die rolls with good tactics and surprises, so I'm very meh at best. Take my comments with a few thousand grains of salt.

Deathcallers seem to be a “the more the merrier” combo. One doesn’t seem to do much. Two puts it in range to kill every hero but Ankaur Naro and Ravos in a turn. Not to mention every siege and cavalry unit except for the Uthuk ones gets pounded badly by this combo.

It prevents a funny way to combat ranged units too. If you have a free front tray, you can still snipe ranged heroes behind the lines or put some damage on archers even while still fighting in melee

I've had good success with this one.

Im thinking about this one. I had pretty decent sucess with list that consisted of 6 tray reanimates an 4 tray carrions. Idea here is to let skeletons and carrions do the talking and archers with death knights provide support (archers by blighting, death knights by flanking). Unit sizes are smaller because maro can rise them up effectively and then also use his ranged attacks to heal so i could even get 3x4 reanimates or 2x3 archers that makes those units pretty survivable and i can ressurect from turn 1.

all right. after another game in i dont think solo maro is that good. maby i will split carrions into solo squads and put him into 6 tray reanimate unit so then i will have 2 units of 6 trays of infantry, maby will have points to reinforce archers and will see how it will perform. so far ranged units are my nightmare (4 trays of elven archers reconfigured into 4x1)

2 hours ago, Warlordus said:

all right. after another game in i dont think solo maro is that good.

Please, tell me more. You used Violent Forces Maro, right? I find him to be pretty good (though I haven't used him in quite some time). What happened with Maro that match that made you reconsider?

3 hours ago, Warlordus said:

all right. after another game in i dont think solo maro is that good.

(I love playing Waiqar and only express frustration as a ventilation for my passion)

I think that he and his abilities as a concept fits like a hand in a glove thematically for Waiqar, which I sincerely like, and I wish I had a different opinion than you.

I argue (but have been opposed in this forum) that the potential value of a tray drops each turn it is not on the field, so the value of the necromancy is in my opinion not 1:1 to the cost of putting those trays on the table from the start. And since he also takes wounds from the necromancy, which he has to heal with surges, thus providing very limited damage over the course of a match, I just can't see him as a more powerful choice than 4 Death knights at 42p or 4 Lancers at 46p. In my non-extensive experience I would not count on him raising more than 6 trays, which I mentioned does not equal 35/45p in my world. But since I really like him thematically I still use him when playing with my kids or when showing someone new.

It might be worth mentioning that he was voted the worst hero so far on the Initiative one podcast (Ardus was second to worst*).

*How can his infantry upgrade cost 23p when Aliana pretty much does the same thing for 12p and Citadel Weapons master for 8p!!!???

In my wet dream FFG would put Regenerative magic as a default ability on him, slash Ardus' infantry upgrade to 12, and let his Host of crows ability give access to 2 levels up instead of 1.

Edit: or if HoC allowed you to take 2 upgrades of the same type (hello Combat ingenuity and Rank Discipline for 2x1 RA Archers!)

15 hours ago, Parakitor said:

Please, tell me more. You used Violent Forces Maro, right? I find him to be pretty good (though I haven't used him in quite some time). What happened with Maro that match that made you reconsider?

basicly he raised 4 trayd and then there was not enough runes for him, and dice went terribly wrong (rly one dice and it had to be blank twice?) Plus he is squishy. any ranged units can kill him if he ressurects on his own and if you hide him he cannot heal cause he doesnt see anything. Keep in mind i faced karithorne with 3 trays of crossbows and 4 trays of archers that where out of my range plus my opponent whipped 2 trays witch each attack plus golems went crazy on reanimates.

Ardus IxErebus [37] 1x1

Obcasiums Gauntlet [5]
Ardus Fury [1]

Reanimates [26] 2x2
Executioner [6]

Reanimates [26] 2x2
Executioner [6]

Death Knights [24] 2x1
Reaping Blade [4]

Reanimate Archers [18] 2x1
Combat Ingenuity [6]

Reanimate Archers [18] 2x1
Combat Ingenuity [6]

Wraiths [17] 2x1

Ardus runs up to the biggest block he can find, and punches it in the face with the Gauntlet.

Death Knights flank with the Wraiths. Deathknights provide the punch, Wraiths the mobility to grab objectives.

Archers spit out blights, and the Reanimates wreck Ulthuk with the executioners.

14 hours ago, Darth Matthew said:

Ardus IxErebus [37] 1x1

Obcasiums Gauntlet [5]
Ardus Fury [1]

Reanimates [26] 2x2
Executioner [6]

Reanimates [26] 2x2
Executioner [6]

Death Knights [24] 2x1
Reaping Blade [4]

Reanimate Archers [18] 2x1
Combat Ingenuity [6]

Reanimate Archers [18] 2x1
Combat Ingenuity [6]

Wraiths [17] 2x1

Ardus runs up to the biggest block he can find, and punches it in the face with the Gauntlet.

Death Knights flank with the Wraiths. Deathknights provide the punch, Wraiths the mobility to grab objectives.

Archers spit out blights, and the Reanimates wreck Ulthuk with the executioners.

I want to face this list with my Uthuk. Not that I think the list is bad or that I can beat it - I just think the list is intriguing enough that I want to see how it does on the table.