Hello Rune Warriors!

It’s been 20 episodes! 20! In this episode we finally get a new article, and something about it has changed from when we saw it last.

Josh also wants to know what holes in the armies of Waiqar and Daqan the wraiths and scouts fill respectively.

Gabe also gives us an update on the #LatariGiveAway

Enjoy!

https://runecasters.net/2018/04/28/episode-20-a-scouts-guide-to-wraiths/

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Thanks for another great episode!

Though in the discussion regarding the upcoming wraiths, I was hoping that the late initiative of the double attack would be put under scrutiny. I'm thinking that if the enemy hits first, there might not be that much threat left for that double attack (and only 2 dice) to work with?

Remember, wraiths have the ability to cause a reroll when they are defending up to X stable runes.

If we presume that wraiths are going to try and live on the flanks, that situational defense 'reroll' in quest of blanks might help to tempt waiqar players to dial up the initiative 6 double attack. Makes me wonder if we'll see some future upgrade card ... I'll call it "mystic whiff" that allows you to turn a dice into the attack pool to any side the defender wants, but they have to do so before the attacker re-rolls.

Ravos wonders if the Wraiths go better with Ketchup or Steak Sauce ...

1 hour ago, tgall said:

Ravos wonders if the Wraiths go better with Ketchup or Steak Sauce ...

Sriracha. It’s the only sauce that comes in bottles large enough to last a while.

2 hours ago, Maktorius said:

Thanks for another great episode!

Though in the discussion regarding the upcoming wraiths, I was hoping that the late initiative of the double attack would be put under scrutiny. I'm thinking that if the enemy hits first, there might not be that much threat left for that double attack (and only 2 dice) to work with?

That's an excellent point. My immediate response is to consider the many times you are engaged with a unit whose melee attack is the same initiative as yours. On turns where they are first player, your initiative 4 attack might as well be initiative 6 because they hit you first anyway. In that situation, you're not losing anything by waiting, and you gain a bunch by attacking again with the melee attack modifier instead of using the morale modifier.

Of course, there are times when it's still better to attack at initiative 4, such as the case where they attack you first and some ranged unit will then attack the wraiths at initiative 5. But most of the time I think the late attack is something you save for when you're hitting last anyway.

1 hour ago, Parakitor said:

That's an excellent point. My immediate response is to consider the many times you are engaged with a unit whose melee attack is the same initiative as yours. On turns where they are first player, your initiative 4 attack might as well be initiative 6 because they hit you first anyway. In that situation, you're not losing anything by waiting, and you gain a bunch by attacking again with the melee attack modifier instead of using the morale modifier.

Of course, there are times when it's still better to attack at initiative 4, such as the case where they attack you first and some ranged unit will then attack the wraiths at initiative 5. But most of the time I think the late attack is something you save for when you're hitting last anyway.

You are of course right about all the things you say, but does it express whether and why you think it is competetive or not relative to what is out there?

Edit:

What I mean is that when the double attack was mentioned everyone went "Wow!" (same as me when I first saw it), but my question is if its likely to deliver 10+10 damage or 1+1 damage :)

4 hours ago, Maktorius said:

You are of course right about all the things you say, but does it express whether and why you think it is competetive or not relative to what is out there?

Edit:

What I mean is that when the double attack was mentioned everyone went "Wow!" (same as me when I first saw it), but my question is if its likely to deliver 10+10 damage or 1+1 damage :)

Ah, I see what you're getting at. I think Josh said it best when he pointed out the double attack is going to be good against Spined Threshers. It's that chip damage that really helps. If we assume a 3x1 of Wraiths, then just a single hit yields 3 damage. With no rerolls, you're likely getting only 1 hit on each attack, so that's 6 damage total. It's not really enough to wow anybody. However, if you have Undying Hate, you could conceivably roll 4 hits for 12 damage, which is quite heavy for a 28-point unit. Not a very common occurrence, however.

Honestly, I'm starting to get what you're saying. Without rerolls, you are going to roll some pretty low-damage attacks from time to time. But again, they don't break the bank, and we've been dealing with single tray Carrion Lancers this whole time, so I'm willing to see what these guys have to offer on the field of battle.

47 minutes ago, Parakitor said:

Ah, I see what you're getting at. I think Josh said it best when he pointed out the double attack is going to be good against Spined Threshers. It's that chip damage that really helps. If we assume a 3x1 of Wraiths, then just a single hit yields 3 damage. With no rerolls, you're likely getting only 1 hit on each attack, so that's 6 damage total. It's not really enough to wow anybody. However, if you have Undying Hate, you could conceivably roll 4 hits for 12 damage, which is quite heavy for a 28-point unit. Not a very common occurrence, however.

Honestly, I'm starting to get what you're saying. Without rerolls, you are going to roll some pretty low-damage attacks from time to time. But again, they don't break the bank, and we've been dealing with single tray Carrion Lancers this whole time, so I'm willing to see what these guys have to offer on the field of battle.

Thank you for taking your time answering! though I could go on discussing details forever I won't push you more

I really appreciate your positive attitude so I feel a bit bad, but I'm compelled to shoe horn in that I'm not as confident regarding the Spined thresher matchup: With undying hate (which is geographically situational) a 3x1 of wraiths are costed as a 2x1 ST. If the Wraiths aim for their double attack, the STs would have already done 3-15 damage, though likely 9 (one hit on each dice with the reroll abilities cancelling each other out + the dial in), which leaves 1 tray of Wraiths that can't do much. If one of the red dice is double hit they one-shot the whole unit. Sorry for being such a drag, but I want more power for Waiqar!

5 hours ago, Maktorius said:

What I mean is that when the double attack was mentioned everyone went "Wow!" (same as me when I first saw it), but my question is if its likely to deliver 10+10 damage or 1+1 damage

Wraiths have a red and a blue die, and you can expect them to regularly get a bonus die for flanking.

Each regular attack (not flanking, no bonuses from abilities) will do the following number of hits:
0: 19%
1: 44%
2: 31%
3: 6%
Average: 1.25 hits, or 4 damage if your threat is 3

If you add a red die for flanking, that becomes:
0: 7%
1: 26%
2: 36%
3: 23%
4: 7%
5: 1%
Average: 2 hits, or 6 damage if your threat is 3

So in the end, the odds are that you'll deal about 5+5 damage for a double attack, with a reasonably typical bell curve distribution of good and bad luck.