I've noticd that when we are talking about runewars tactichs it mostlycomes down to what upgrades equip to a unit or what unit to take. I didnt however find any topics regarding deployment and GAMEPLAY decsions and i would like to start talking about it to help us all become better runewars players

Today Ive played my Waiqar Forces vs Latari Elves and i barely squeezed a win. Just barely. I would like to know what different decisions would you do in order to A) maake Waiqar win more decisive and B) turning it around and winning with the Elven Forces. Here are the lists:

Waiqar:

Ardus with acient technique

6 tray reanimates with deathcaller, support carrion lancer and simultaneous orders

6 tray reanimate with fallen hero and fortunas dice

2 tray death knights with obcasium gauntlet

2 tray reanimate archers

1 tray carrion lancer

Latari:

4 tray lennox riders with moment of inspiration, raven tabards and trumpets

6 tray deepwood archers with support scion, moment of inspiration!, mettered march, war crier and wind rune

2 tray deepwood archers with wind rune and rank discipline

Aliana with ambush predator and Packleaders Spear

1 tray amhylin scion Aymhelin Scions with Terrifying Heraldry

Mission supply raid with standoff (3 fortified terrain and that 4 deep depolyment with 5 deep corners cut)

Here is deployment (accurate enough xD):

Quick legend:

black - rocks

grey - blighted groud

blue dots - objectives

Scion was killed by deathcaller unit (2 first turns with 2 stable runes in each), later that unit reached cc with big archer unit supported by ardus, but aliana managed to flank skeletons and kill archers while avoiding death knights (they blocked themselves on the rock and managed to get to her on turn 8 and they killed her) Fallen hero block almost whole game was locked in cc with lennox, unit was destoryed but killed half of the lennox (2 trays left) in last 2 turns lennox reformed and smashed into death knights that killed aliana and 2 of waiqar cav died (1 tray left). Carrion picked 2 objective tokens and ran away form archers.

At the end of turn 8 there were ardus, carrion and one death knight tray left for the undead, and 2 trays of lennox and 2 tray archers (that on the side with carrion lancer).

So the question for you: How would YOU depoly your forces as eigher waiqar or latari and what would be your battle plan (remember, were not discussing lists but deployment and gameplay mechanics in this particular game example).

If you would like this type of gameplay analisys discussion i will post more situatons from my games to discuss in the same way and i would encourage you to post your games as well in this topic

The problem with asking how you would set up is that I respond to how the other guy is setting up. As Latari, I would probably start with Aliana pointing sideways, where she can get out and maneuver, then choose who I'm going to place next based on which of his units were placed, and where, trying for favorable matchups or blunting his best plan.

First, Obstacles are a big part of the game as is their placement. Second, the objective tokens make a huge difference in how one approaches the game. For the obstacle and token placement above, I like the Latari matching up. Third, who had the bid and therefore takes first/second makes a huge difference. I couldn't tell from your writing what was happening.

Other than that, the Waiqar are up one unit, so they have to place first, and might have to place second depending upon who got first. As a Latari player, I'm partial to putting my Leonx down completely consequentially first, because I know Aliana can deploy them later anyway. One of the keys to deployment is that the more you can see of what the opponent is doing, the better you get at it. So delaying anything useful or consequential is extremely useful.

Aliana is one of my favorites often for going down next, because you can again deploy her inconsequentially, use her mobility to get position, and then hopefully trigger those two upgrade cards. Still, depending upon the situation, I might not put her down immediately yet. It is really going to depend upon what the Waiqar has put down and what is left. I'd probably do something like CL, Reanimates, Reanimates, Ardus, Archers, DK, myself, but then I'm not up to speed on the list and don't play Waiqar. But what I fear most is the DK getting into a good position on me. They are a good unit, so it makes sense that they go last. Archers are fragile, so it makes sense that they go down later. Also true for the Latari.

Another key is that because the Latari archers are doubly mobile with Wind Rune, you generally want to position them where they can keep moving around and firing for multiple turns in a row, always staying out of a charge range. The obstacles are your biggest friends here, and the Scion is just there to block. Generally speaking, you want those archers first and foremost chewing up the Reanimates. If you get an attack of opportunity on Ardus, you go with that. Aliana is going to wreck something when she connects, so you want to make sure that counts.

The distance between the two middle obstacles looks really bad for the reanimates. I think for that many wide trays, the Latari wants obstacles a bit closer together, and the Waiqar wants them further apart, and you want to leave yourself enough room to maneuver.

I hope that helps some.

For any list, you really want to get into a deployment rhythm. You want to know exactly what the danger units out there are, when they typically get deployed, and what units in your own list counter them, and finally how you're gong to deploy to outmatch them. So giving advice on deployment is not always as easy as it sounds, because it is partly about deploying specific units in a list to match the opponent's specific units.

14 minutes ago, Vergilius said:

The distance between the two middle obstacles looks really bad for the reanimates. I think for that many wide trays, the Latari wants obstacles a bit closer together, and the Waiqar wants them further apart, and you want to leave yourself enough room to maneuver.

That's one of the things I think Waiqar probably messed up on. I would have taken my obstacles and buried it as close to the corner (ideally my opponent's corner) as possible.

those 2 middle obstacles were wide enough to fit 3 tray wide reanimate unit. waiqar was going first csyse latari player wanted it. so waiqar placed blighted ground and then elf player placed thst rock to make that tight passage between. I know that runeears is a lot about deployment so maby try a duffrent approach. gow would ypu play out with that deployment from that game?

Couple of notes from the Waiqar perspective:

I would not deploy Reanimate Archers without either a blocker in front of them or directly behind them so that they can get in front of them right away. Solo Lancers are great at this...

On that note, I would make it a priority to deploy the RAs and CL together. The two units have so much synergy that it is worth being predictable. They will regularly punch above their points if you keep them together.

On the same note, I would also make it a priority to deploy Ardus with them. Even without Ardus Fury the possibility alone of him taking the carrion lancer's mortal strike ability is something your opponent has to respect. Even if he plays around it you are getting value. He's also great at flanking whatever comes into your blocking lancer.

It's worth noting that by deploying those three units together you somewhat free yourself to see more of your opponents deployment and thought process before having to make another tough decision. You also have two units that want to hunt Aliana (death caller and death knights). I would deploy those last and split them if necessary to cover the whole board.

It seems you chose to put your CL off to the side to contest the objectives. That's a good thought if you have more than 1 of them. I would have put one of the Reanimate units out there instead. This would probably have forced your opponent to commit more resources to that side of the board or give up too many objective points. You then spend as much time as possible delaying them on that side (rally-defending Reanimates are TOUGH to chew through and often get value from regenerate) while you dominate the other side of the board.

I like to try and generate situations like this with my deployments. Often you can force a bad deployment for your opponent by making him choose which side of the board he wants to "win". Many players will try very hard to win the whole board and shoot themselves on the foot.

in a second i will post naother situation form one game, and i will mark the order the units were placed

Here is the second battle from today Elven player used same list as before, here's waiqar list:

199/200
Ankaur Maro [40] 1x1
Heartseeker [10]
Violent Forces [6]
Total Unit Cost: 56

Quick legend of the map:

Grey green pile - cemetery

black dots - rocks

blue dots - units with artefacts (we played seize the artefact)

Latari was deploying terrain and units first (we might mess up some rules but this is how it went)

Numbers above terrain show the order of placement same for units for each side. keep in mind latari had to place 2 units cause he had more units overall.

On 6/27/2018 at 4:05 PM, Warlordus said:

Here is the second battle from today Elven player used same list as before, here's waiqar list:

199/200
Ankaur Maro [40] 1x1
Heartseeker [10]
Violent Forces [6]
Total Unit Cost: 56

Reanimates [50] 3x3
Deathcaller [5]
Support Carrion Lancer [6]
Blighted Vexillum Bearer [3]
Simultaneous Orders [2]
Total Unit Cost: 66

Reanimate Archers [45] 3x2
Close Quarters Targeting [3]
Total Unit Cost: 48

Death Knights [24] 2x1
Obcasiums Gauntlet [5]
Total Unit Cost: 29

Quick legend of the map:

Grey green pile - cemetery

black dots - rocks

blue dots - units with artefacts (we played seize the artefact)

Latari was deploying terrain and units first (we might mess up some rules but this is how it went)

Numbers above terrain show the order of placement same for units for each side. keep in mind latari had to place 2 units cause he had more units overall.

Who won that battle? I always enjoy guessing the winner based on deployment. Of course anything can happen, but guessing is still fun!

In this case, I would guess that the elves won this by simply immobilizing and avoiding the reanimate ball and then flanking the crap out of the archers and Maro.

This is how it went. Death knights samshed objective archers, reanimate block turned and deathcaller killed scion, lennox were killed by archers with close quaters targetingaliana was also killed by deathcaller reanimates were fighting with archers block and almost finished it. Big waiqar win Latari player did a mistake by waiting too long with lennox and they started their flant in turn 3 or 4 and by then my archer block already turned to face that threated flank with mortar maro behind to also kill some lenox.