Yesterday I won US nationals! @Brikhause has recordings of the top table each round and full lists and breakdown, so I'll let him handle the details once he gets things organized, but a few things of note:

I ran Daqan and so did @Brikhause , making the final humans vs humans!

9 people total, with everything represented but Waiqar (I believe)

My list had one rune golem, and it did fine to great all day. Definitely a worthy member of the list!

There are some very good painters in the northwest!

Deepwood archers with Maegan and fire rune really put out some scary damage at range!

Dispatch runner is a very interesting upgrade that I have definitely not workshopped enough.

Also I'm Canadian, and this post mostly exists so I could make that pun in the title.

It was a great match and I am down for a rematch sometime And awesome tourney as well! Great games all and that final game was exhilerating and I tip my hat off to you brother on your well fought win!

I certainly feel the enthusiasm is generating and building up for RW and the representation at nationals shows there is a great core of people working on building this game!

I’ll have the videos of the event up probably by Monday. I gave the pairings, lists, and matchups to @FranquesEnbiens at initiative one. So look to hear about the event from them and also from Runecasters where the podcast hosts made a great actual physical showing at the event!

I was great meeting you guys Arron and Josh!!

No Waiqar...I'll be scratching my head over that one for weeks.... no Waiqar .... hmmm

1 hour ago, Parakitor said:

No Waiqar...I'll be scratching my head over that one for weeks.... no Waiqar .... hmmm

@xelveki didn’t have enough death knights or he would’ve gone waiqar.

Also, HELLO FFG WHY IS THE STORE HOSTING NATIONALS NOT SELLING RW STUFF?

No banner, no fanfare, no RW stuff in the store. That is the only bad thing I have to say about my nationals experience. L5R, Netrunner, X-Wing and Destiny all had product on hand in case people needed last min purchases. Real missed opportunity to grow the game.

Everything else, the people the matches, the prizes, the to, all grade A. Really fun and even though I didn’t do well I had a fantastic time.

We had 3 Latari, 2 Uthuk and 4 daqan and I think it went:

1. Daqan

2. Daqan

3. Uthuk

4. Uthuk

5.Daqan

6. Latari

7.Latari

8.Latari

9.Daqan

@Bhelliom Congratulations!

Would you mind sharing the winning list?

Well sure!

Oathsworn Cavalry [34] 2x2

Raven Tabards [2]

Total Unit Cost: 36

Rune Golems [17] 1x1

Total Unit Cost: 17

Spearmen [40] 3x2

Lance Corporal [6]

Raven-Pennon Bearer [5]

Total Unit Cost: 51

Heavy Crossbowmen [27] 3x1

Tempered Steel [3]

Marching Cornicen [2]

Rank Discipline [4]

Total Unit Cost: 36

Kari Wraithstalker [32] 1x1

Fortunas Dice [6]

Wraith Step [1]

Total Unit Cost: 39

Oathsworn Cavalry [20] 2x1

Total Unit Cost: 20

The 2x1 of Oathsworn is a pretty recent change - I'd been trying to work a rallying cornicen into the list for ages, but I never found I much liked it. Well, that little unit served me quite well (though not so much in the finals, unless "keep Kari busy while she slaughters you" counts!)

The spearmen unit is very cool, but rolling only two dice can definitely feel a bit bad. I think in general it slightly struggles to justify its points EXCEPT as anti-Ravos tech, where it really is perfect. Can charge after he moves, fight before he does, and doesn't much care about his direct wounds. It's pretty cool.

Heavy crossbowmen of course deal horrific damage, and the rune golem mostly ran interference for them. Marching cornicen I'm pretty happy with, often lets you angle for next turn's shot without having to lose a round of shooting, and makes the second tray just a little more durable.

Also I lucked into winning the bid in three out of four games, which helped massively. In retrospect I would certainly have dropped wraith step, and maybe tried to free up another point or two to go for it.

12 hours ago, Parakitor said:

No Waiqar...I'll be scratching my head over that one for weeks.... no Waiqar .... hmmm

My most regular opponent plays Waiqar, and I firmly believe that if he’d gone with me to the tournament, he’d have taken the event. The things that man can do with a carrion lancer... *shudder*

They could probably use a couple tweaks, but wraiths and Vorun’thul will sure mix things up.

@Bhelliom Nice!

I had expected some bane protection in order to handle the other factions. If I may be curious: how did you work around them (like the Scions lock down, the panic tests of Uthuk and the refreshing of the tempered steel)?

Also, I am very interested in hearing about those Lancer shenanigans your friend pulls!

3 hours ago, Maktorius said:

@Bhelliom Nice!

I had expected some bane protection in order to handle the other factions. If I may be curious: how did you work around them (like the Scions lock down, the panic tests of Uthuk and the refreshing of the tempered steel)?

Also, I am very interested in hearing about those Lancer shenanigans your friend pulls!

Mostly, I didn't. My first opponent had tons of Scions, but it was Careful Approach and I won the bid so she got quite pinned in the corner, my second opponent had two units, but only one really got into position to block (the Spearmen it immobilized later rallied defensively to hold off some Leonx while the rest of my army came about). My third was Uthuk but didn't build specifically for panic and most of the tests happened on a single tray of Oathsworn, so there weren't many effects that mattered to it. As for Tempered Steel, the Crossbows with Marching Cornicen can Rally and do a speed-1 turn without losing too much first turn, and same for re-positioning for later shots.

Ok, so the Lancer has a pretty normal/good dial with three very important things:

• Rally/Reform at initiative 3 with +1 Defense: this lets them take and often redirect a charge really well. 12 damage on the charge is no mean feat, so it blocks most units for at least a full turn.
• Rally into speed-3 Advance at initiative 3: moving 3 at 3 is immense, and means that (if they're facing the right direction) they can engage an enemy unit to lock it in combat VERY early in the turn. Big scary unit going to charge something you like? Run into it with a Lancer, their move is cancelled, you just bought at least one turn. Something have a charge lined up on your Lancer? Bump into it before it has a chance.
• Attacking at 5 IS slightly bad, but critically it's the same initiative as your Reanimate Archers shoot. Use them to apply blight, then immediately attack with the mortal strikes. Even an enemy with Inspiration tokens would have to activate at initiative 5, exactly between your Archers and Lancers. It's possible, but extremely limiting.

The 2x1 with Rank Discipline fights like an extremely tough unit of cavalry with a couple amazing tricks up its sleeve, while the 1x1 is a great blocker/nuisance that has the ability (with admittedly finicky setup) to kill hard targets in one attack. Plus, they're amazing objective runners. I won't claim that they're easy to use, but do keep in mind - if your opponent isn't letting you get the favourable engagements off (particularly blighting a hero and then unleashing the mortal strikes) that means they are playing around the ability. In effect, the threat of your Lancers is controlling the way your opponent plays, which gives you power.