Alright. I’m looking through the list of cards I don’t play and saw this guy. With only the Reanimates able to bring him, just what is he for?

Heartseeker; No ranged attack. No equipment for Fire Rune

Shield of Margath: 1 Armor. So this is a really inefficient way to go.

Duskblade: With two reds and no guarantee way to add dice, you can’t trigger this more than maybe once every 2-3 Games. Even with some ridiculous Combat Ingenuity in there for an 18 point, sometimes triggers combo. Though if you had a flank and added a blue, you could actually do truly bonkers effective damage.

Obcasium’s Gauntlet: This is a fun, but not great thought. They have to deal with your Reanimates, so it should virtually always go off. Though it feel like two wounds on top of the 12+ damage they should be doing every turn seems minor.

Reaping Blade: I guess?

Fortuna’s Dice: I guess?

Bonus question: For Daqan, What is your Artifact Bearer wielding? For Uthuk and Latari, pretend you have a Legendary hero or some champion. What would you bring? Assume same cost and health as the others.

I think he's there for symmetry, in part. Most (all?) the other factions have some way to get artifacts into their infantry; why should the Waiqar be left out?

And also, he's 6 toughness (3 defense/2 wounds) for only four points. If nothing else, you can stick him in one of the back trays of your reanimates and let him be a damage sponge.

30 minutes ago, Xelto said:

I think he's there for symmetry, in part. Most (all?) the other factions have some way to get artifacts into their infantry; why should the Waiqar be left out?

And also, he's 6 toughness (3 defense/2 wounds) for only four points. If nothing else, you can stick him in one of the back trays of your reanimates and let him be a damage sponge.

Huh? Uthuk only get artifacts on Ravos, Kethra, and Gorgemaw. There isn’t a way to get them in Berserkers. Maybe the ranged infantry will have an artifact slot, but I doubt it.

I may have missed it, but I don’t think Latari get artifacts outside of their heroes either.

42 minutes ago, Xelto said:

you can stick him in one of the back trays

He can soak up the damage, just not from the back rank.

38.1 Figure upgrades are denoted by a silhouette
of a figure in the upper-right corner of the
card. When a unit equips such an upgrade, the plastic figure
associated with that silhouette is slotted into that unit’s front
rank, replacing one of the figures from that unit.

12 minutes ago, Church14 said:

I may have missed it, but I don’t think Latari get artifacts outside of their heroes either

No they dont :(

I've always gone to Reaping Blade in my head. If you bring Ardus, you can make a neat little 41 point unit:

Reanimates (2x2) [26]
- Fallen Hero [4]
- Reaping Blade [4]
- Aggressive Drummer [5]
- Raven Tabards [2]

The 2x2 has a tough time with armor, especially against defense 3 units, like enemy Carrion Lancers. The Mortal Strike helps overcome this limitation. Without Ardus, you'd have to be 3 wide, which increases your threat, and makes Reaping Blade less than desirable, because a single hit deals a wound to Defense 3 units. In general, the bigger the unit, the less mileage you get from Reaping Blade.

Fortuna's Dice is interesting. Here's the best I can do:

Reanimates (4x3) [64]
- Fallen Hero [4]
- Fortuna's Dice [6]
- Raven Standard Bearer [3]
- Moment of Inspiration [5]
82 points

This is weird, but bear with me. If you are up against a unit that attacks at initiative 4, here's your attack plan

• Enemy is player 1: I dial in Melee attack with an additional white die, and I can set any one die to a face of my choosing. Raven-Standard Bearer let's me attack at initiative 3, before they get to attack.
• I am player 1: I dial in Rally, +1 defense to ready both cards, and defense up to hopefully allow Regeneration to take effect

Admittedly, it works better with another unit adding trays. At first I had Lingering Dead there, but if you're rallying anyway, why not throw in another card that exhausts to help your offense? I don't like not attacking every round, but there have been rounds where the +1 defense has definitely been the right call. If you can come back the next round with a really powerful hit, that also helps. The alternative is to just get a really strong first hit in, and then attack until they are destroyed; rally before the next enemy charges in.

I haven't tried any of these. They are really off the wall, and unlike anything I typically see for Waiqar. Perhaps they have potential?

16 hours ago, flightmaster101 said:

He can soak up the damage, just not from the back rank.

Yes, but in the back rank it takes longer before you start losing threat.

Edit for clarification: barring mortal strikes, he soaks up six damage before dying. Normally, a 3x2 configuration of infantry would take 16 points of damage (4 full trays) before losing threat. If he's in the back rank, that becomes 21 points of damage before you start losing threat.

(I'm ignoring regenerate for purposes of this example.)

Second edit: scratch that, I've been reminded that figure upgraded have to go in the front rank unless specified otherwise.

4 hours ago, Parakitor said:

I've always gone to Reaping Blade in my head. If you bring Ardus, you can make a neat little 41 point unit:

Reanimates (2x2) [26]
- Fallen Hero [4]
- Reaping Blade [4]
- Aggressive Drummer [5]
- Raven Tabards [2]

The 2x2 has a tough time with armor, especially against defense 3 units, like enemy Carrion Lancers. The Mortal Strike helps overcome this limitation. Without Ardus, you'd have to be 3 wide, which increases your threat, and makes Reaping Blade less than desirable, because a single hit deals a wound to Defense 3 units. In general, the bigger the unit, the less mileage you get from Reaping Blade.

Fortuna's Dice is interesting. Here's the best I can do:

Reanimates (4x3) [64]
- Fallen Hero [4]
- Fortuna's Dice [6]
- Raven Standard Bearer [3]
- Moment of Inspiration [5]
82 points

This is weird, but bear with me. If you are up against a unit that attacks at initiative 4, here's your attack plan

• Enemy is player 1: I dial in Melee attack with an additional white die, and I can set any one die to a face of my choosing. Raven-Standard Bearer let's me attack at initiative 3, before they get to attack.
• I am player 1: I dial in Rally, +1 defense to ready both cards, and defense up to hopefully allow Regeneration to take effect

Admittedly, it works better with another unit adding trays. At first I had Lingering Dead there, but if you're rallying anyway, why not throw in another card that exhausts to help your offense? I don't like not attacking every round, but there have been rounds where the +1 defense has definitely been the right call. If you can come back the next round with a really powerful hit, that also helps. The alternative is to just get a really strong first hit in, and then attack until they are destroyed; rally before the next enemy charges in.

I haven't tried any of these. They are really off the wall, and unlike anything I typically see for Waiqar. Perhaps they have potential?

I'm trying both of these. I especially like the small unit with reaping blades idea.

39 minutes ago, QuickWhit said:

I'm trying both of these. I especially like the small unit with reaping blades idea.

And this is what this thread is for.

Woot. I did something good

EDIT: Full disclosure, I’ll be trying some stuff like this too

@Parakitor I have to disagree with your reanimate analysis. The value of the blade doesn't scale with threat, but neither does the cost, so it need not. The total package costs more, but will also survive longer. Now, let's look at different targets:

Defense 1 - reaping blade is bad, threat 3 is obviously better than 2. Not the unit's intended purpose, but additional utility is always nice.

Defense 2 - double hit at threat 3 does 3 wounds, which is an advantage. Otherwise equivalent.

Defense 3 - threat 2: two hits is one wound, three hits is two, blank hit is one. Lots of wasted damage. Threat 3: two hits is two wounds, three hits is three, blank hit is two. Extra wound across the board.

Defense 4 - threat 3 has a small chance of of doing an extra wound, but they're very similar.

@Xelto you are required to deploy figure upgrades to the front rank. You can't put them in the back to preserve threat (aside from the support scion)

@Bhelliom That's a great in-depth analysis, and I can't say I disagree. I'm mostly pondering, "If you get a blank, do you reroll for damage, or keep the mortal strike?" I assumed that at 3-threat you would reroll against Defense 3, but your analysis changed my mind. At even higher threat, I think Reaping Blade is not great, but it is an okay insurance policy - have I seen those skeletons roll some blanks!

I’m hoping the new heroes introduce some new artifacts that will work nicely with fallen hero. Currently the only one I’d consider is the power glove. Run with that and deathmist banners and you have a lot of non combat damage going around.

1 hour ago, Parakitor said:

@Bhelliom That's a great in-depth analysis, and I can't say I disagree. I'm mostly pondering, "If you get a blank, do you reroll for damage, or keep the mortal strike?" I assumed that at 3-threat you would reroll against Defense 3, but your analysis changed my mind. At even higher threat, I think Reaping Blade is not great, but it is an okay insurance policy - have I seen those skeletons roll some blanks!

Red dice are INCREDIBLY traitorous.

12 hours ago, Xelto said:

Second edit: scratch that, I've been reminded t  hat figure upgraded have  to go in the front rank unless specified otherwise.

That's what I was trying to communicate with the rules text.

8 hours ago, Bhelliom said:

Red dice are INCREDIBLY traitorous.

I just played a game where I one shot Ardus with Spined Threshers with 3 red dice of double hit, hit surge, hit surge. Next attack on Maro with spined threshers blank blank hit. (both flanking, its on our youtube channel).

On 6/12/2018 at 9:11 PM, Church14 said:

Bonus  question: For Daqan, What is your Artifact Bearer  wielding   ? 

This question for me thinking - and I just played a game with the resulting build.

I've never played Artifact Bearer before - so I thought I'd try it with Heartseeker in a unit of crossbowmen. Combined with Close Quarters Targeting, you have a unit that can target anything in the field of fire and cannot be prevented from shooting by engagement from a fast interceptor unit - it will keep going till it's dead. Throw it forward and target high value enemies.

It's expensive, sure, but the unit was shooting, at threat three, every turn from two onwards (mostly with the march-1 on the modifier dial).

In future, I'd give it Wind Rune too for a unit that can shoot, shift, and reform - or marching cornicen for shoot and shift-turn.

Cheers for the inspiration. Now I should look for another card I haven't played yet.