Ok some background, I’m a 43 yr old single father of two, with a full time job who is currently training for an Ironman Triathlon. Time is not my friend.

But I’m taking next Sunday off training to play in my first Runewars Tournament.

BTW Ive never actually played a full 200pt game of Runewars (I have acted as rules arbiter for my friends games as I introduced them to the game ? )

So with all that in mind I’m planning to A) - chill out and B) - have fun and C) - prob lose to everyone. I know the current tournament rules favour MSU but I reckon I might have too many plates in the air?

I’m planning to run the following:

Heavy Crossbowmen [27] 3x1
Rallying Cornicen [4]
Rank Discipline [4]
Total Unit Cost: 35

Spearmen [40] 3x2
Lance Corporal [6]
Aggressive Cornicen [5]
Total Unit Cost: 51

Oathsworn Cavalry [46] 2x3
Wind Rune [6]
Raven Tabards [2]
Column Tactics [4]
Total Unit Cost: 58

Rune Golems [17] 1x1
Total Unit Cost: 17

Kari Wraithstalker [32] 1x1
Fortunas Dice [6]
Total Unit Cost: 38

Congrats on playing in a tournament! I like the list. Give it a whirl. You might surprise yourself. And I think you've got the right attitude. Chill representing you've got many awesome plates in the fire, and runewars or any game does not need to occupy a big place in life with all those other things going on.

*Stands and salutes*

List seems straightforward. Just remember to set up a basic plan

If I was going to alter anything, I’d try to get Metered March on your Spearmen. It allows you to dial in the initiative 8 march and a charge. If no target is available, you just don’t use Lance Corporal and move some near-zero distance forward. Your list seems protective and mostly reactive. This change gives you a really nice reactive charge you can set up any turn that Lance Corporal isn’t exhausted.

I like 5 unit lists, and I think that looks pretty good as well!

Runewars tournaments are always fun, so just have a good time and enjoy getting some time to play a game!

And read up on the Objectives and Deployments... think about the terrain you want to bring and how you might want to set it up.

I also am always in favor of letting your opponents know you are new to tournament play. When I was starting out, I would tell people that I was new, so if I made a mistake or accidentally broke a rule, to please let me know (I never wanted them to not correct me just because I was new and making mistakes). With most people, that gets them in the right mindset to be helpful. When people tell me that, I help point out things that they may not remember and I understand if mistakes happen then it's most likely due to inexperience or nerves.

I once told an opponent I was new at an X-Wing store championship. He said he also had been playing for a month. Then he asked me basic questions about the game like why you would target lock instead of focusing. He destroyed me and then I found out he was trolling me and had actually won a few store championships already. Since then, I don't comment on my experience level with the game. But that was just a bad experience. In most cases, I think your opponent won't take advantage of you like that, especially in Runewars.

1 hour ago, FranquesEnbiens said:

I also am always in favor of letting your opponents know you are new to tournament play.

This, so much this. Always this.

Just now, Budgernaut said:

I once told an opponent I was new at an X-Wing store championship. He said he also had been playing for a month. Then he asked me basic questions about the game like why you would target lock instead of focusing. He destroyed me and then I found out he was trolling me and had actually won a few store championships already. Since then, I don't comment on my experience level with the game. But that was just a bad experience. In most cases, I think your opponent won't take advantage of you like that, especially in Runewars.

I played all of one X-wing SC, and although I didn't have exactly that experience, I had a competitive jerkish player sour me on it ever since. I turned to Armada then. The Armada community is definitely friendlier than that and has the reputation of a "gentleman's game," which is to say that more accidental bumping is allowed before an opponent gets annoyed, and there's a polite courtesy usually to allowing your opponent missed triggers if not too much time has passed. My experience with Runewars so far is that there's a bit more jumpiness on the missed triggers, but on the whole, people are happy to play it like a gentleman's game. While at the Houston regional this past weekend, the TO commented that Runewars tends to be a "very laid back game." I think that bodes well both for it and the community.

1 hour ago, Church14 said:

List seems straightforward. Just remember to set up a basic plan

If I was going to alter anything, I’d try to get Metered March on your Spearmen. It allows you to dial in the initiative 8 march and a charge. If no target is available, you just don’t use Lance Corporal and move some near-zero distance forward. Your list seems protective and mostly reactive. This change gives you a really nice reactive charge you can set up any turn that Lance Corporal isn’t exhausted.

I put Aggressive Cornicen on the spears thinking it was quite aggressive. They can dial in an initiative 8 move 4 that converts to a charge and Lance Corporal can make the extra hit modifier white.

If the Heavy XBows are close enough they can reform/ special to refresh Lance Corp at I3 before the spears attack at I3 with another hit modifier (is this correct?)

That's correct ?

Outland Scouts have dropped in the Uk and I should have a box arriving before the tournament. Are they worth the points? Run them light and use them to harass and (hopefully) slow the enemy?

Dont think annyone can say if the scouts are worth their points yet, as there need to be some testing. Preliminary thoughts:

On the possitive side:

-They shifty and get a white modifyer reform

-The deployment Scout ability

On the negative side:

-Medium/Low* dammage output due too BB-dice? *(not shure how it pans out with the built inn mastercrafted weapons, they may be more consistent then spearmen)

-Highest cost of anny infantery

As a independent unit i would think they mannage quite good. Good maneuverbility and reform can make them ideal to pick up objective tokens. Oathsworn Cavalery with windrune is there competition, costing five points more but getting movement range and more dammage (BRR-dice). Where the 2x1 might shine is as a suport to blocking units. They are mobile and have a white reform thus they shuld be able to set up flanks on engaged enemies. The 2x2 with Seasoned path finder is an interesting build. Terrain deployment combined with agressive moves in turn one may be a good investment of points. The fact that it's a new ability may disrupt the plans of your enemies and be worth the points right there. In straight up combatpower i belive they are lacking but as a harass/independent unit they might make up for it.

Regarding the scouts, I think they'll have to be leveraged well.

First, any kind of adjustment to the basic deployment scheme matters. I'm a regular Latari player, and Aliana's redeploy ability is deceptively good. You get a free deployment of Leonx riders at some point, which snowballs into seeing most of the enemy's deployment one unit earlier than you normally would. Scout partly creates that same effect with a unit that definitely wants to flank, but it also speeds up the deployment of all other units. If you've got a particular formation that you are striving for and can deploy without thought of how the enemy deploys against you, then the Scouts end up getting optimal deployment.

Damage output: The surges should regularize their damage. Any time the two surge blue icon shows up, it will count the same as a hit. They have a surge modifier, so the basic hit/surge plus hit turns into 3 hits. Any time you flank and add a third blue, I'd think the probability is high that you'd end up with 4 hits. You also start increasing the possibility that you end up with 5 hits. At a 2x2, I'd start thinking Moment of Inspiration---again, you've got a lot of great possibility of upping your overall damage through more surge possibility. At a 3x2, your opponent really has to pay attention to where you might deploy the Scouts and has to deploy themselves to respect the potential damage you will do on a flank.

I personally think they'll be good, but they are also exactly the kind of unit that a player can mess up in a big way and find underwhelming.

Mostly, I like it! The big oathsworn aren’t exactly my style, but you should be able to get some good work out of them.

I’d definitely swap the rallying cornicen for tempered steel though. Hitting for 9, occasionally 12 damage is just sooo good. Also not a fan of the aggressive cornicen on the spears, Lance Corporal provides much of the same utility and 5 points is steep.

Just to clarify something in my head, in tournament play, the person who wins initiative chooses the first player (who goes first whenever there is a tie in action order initiative in the first, third, fifth and seventh rounds).

The second player chooses which deployment area they want. In the case of Unprepared (which is one of the deployments for this season) there is a big advantage to this but, for other deployments it’s much the same.

The first player will potentially Place more items of terrain if there is an odd number but the second player will place his last unit last (except for scouts and redeployment effects)

Additionally it’s probably beneficial to be the second player when the action starts (as combat usually kicks off in round 2?)

i know these are all basic questions but I just don’t want to make an a**e of myself.

That about sums it up. People who are really skilled with movement and plan of attack pick first player every time simply to get more terrain out there where they want it. The say the other downsides don't matter so much compared to good terrain placement.

Thanks. After much deliberation I’ve tweaked it;

I know Rank Discipline and Tempered Steel is normally the way to go on Heavy Xbows but I worried about getting rid of banes and slowing down Uthuk/ Latari.

I know the raw damage will be lower. I’m hoping the corruption rune will help and being able to refresh Lance Corp and Fortuna’s more readily seems like a really useful utility? (I now expect to blank out every shot)

I could swap out, say Raven Tabards for MoI on the oathsworn (losing a 3pt bid)

Spearmen [40] 3x2
Lance Corporal [6]
Tempered Steel [3]
Metered March [2]
Total Unit Cost: 51

Rune Golems [17] 1x1
Total Unit Cost: 17

Kari Wraithstalker [32] 1x1
Fortunas Dice [6]
Total Unit Cost: 38

Oathsworn Cavalry [46] 2x3
Wind Rune [6]
Raven Tabards [2]
Total Unit Cost: 54

Heavy Crossbowmen [27] 3x1
Corruption Rune [4]
Rallying Cornicen [4]
Simultaneous Orders [2]
Total Unit Cost: 37

Removing banes and refreshing upgrades provides great utility. I think you don't need to go so far as throwing Corruption Rune and Simultaneous Orders. Corruption Rune will depend upon the runes. YMMV. And then you're having to add Simultaneous orders to activate it. You can still take Tempered Steel/Rank Discipline at 1 point more. Daqan are one of the best at Inspiration-up on the first turn. So that gives you the utility on your modifier dial to guarantee Tempered Steel Procing with the surge, or Rallying Cornicen if you think you'll need it.

I really like the xbowmen equipment. I think they can do good damage.

I have used many times oathsworn cavalry with Wind Rune and I can't play without it. It's really useful.

Maybe I would switch TS on Spearmen for Shield Wall to make a tough unit.

3 minutes ago, Vergilius said:

Removing banes and refreshing upgrades provides great utility. I think you don't need to go so far as throwing Corruption Rune and Simultaneous Orders. Corruption Rune will depend upon the runes. YMMV. And then you're having to add Simultaneous orders to activate it. You can still take Tempered Steel/Rank Discipline at 1 point more. Daqan are one of the best at Inspiration-up on the first turn. So that gives you the utility on your modifier dial to guarantee Tempered Steel Procing with the surge, or Rallying Cornicen if you think you'll need it.

Tempered Steel would give him 3 damage but he will have to exhaust it. Corruption Rune would do the damage every activation and I think it will do more damage at the end.

21 minutes ago, Athelin said:

Tempered Steel would give him 3 damage but he will have to exhaust it. Corruption Rune would do the damage every activation and I think it will do more damage at the end.

But Tempered Steel also makes use of surges you are rolling anyway.

I think that many at the tournament will not have played against Corruption Rune. In my experience with it, I predict that you will not be disappointed if you bring it along. You will be disadvantaged for being at the new tournament, and they will likely underestimate your Crossbowmen.

You will want to bring your cavalry up close to the battle to charge things before they get to your Crossbowmen. On rounds where you have no red runes, if the enemy is tied up, you can do your ranged attack + march modifier to scoot in closer so you can be in range to Corruption Rune when there are only 2 red runes.

I do like Tempered Steel on the Spearmen since you have Rallying Cornicen anyway. Shield Wall also takes advantage of that Cornicen, but I like getting more hits.

1 hour ago, Athelin said:

Tempered Steel would give him 3 damage but he will have to exhaust it. Corruption Rune would do the damage every activation and I think it will do more damage at the end.

Corruption Rune is range 1-red. That means 25% of the time, you'll have distance 4 (which means they could still be in shooting range where TS can trigger, but not in range for Corruption rune. 50% of the time, you'll have distance 2. So if your crossbowmen are right on top of the battle, great. The remaining 25% of the time, it triggers at distance-1, which probably indicates that you're already losing the fight and any discussion between Corruption Rune and Tempered Steel is moot. You messed something else up. So 25% of the time, you need the opponent to cooperate a little, 50% of the time, you need a pretty well executed plan yourself and your opponent may still have to cooperate some. That's hardly every activation. And in a game where you need upgrades to trigger EXACTLY when you need them, the fickleness of the runes means you'll get critical 4 reds on the turns you need, but then not on others. And let's not forget that we gave up Rank Discipline for Simultaneous orders. Those X-bows went from averaging 8.34 damage to 3.75 damage plus whatever fickleness Corruption Rune produced. I think Corruption rune is going to best on Darnati and Zerkers who are coming at the enemy, and are much more likely to trigger it on 2 red runes, and certainly can still trigger it at 0 red runes. There's no fickleness at that point. Yeah, Parakitor notes you can scoot up a bit. That might solve it some. But it also sounds like the modifier dial is going to get overworked.

2 hours ago, Suhawk75 said:

Spearmen [40] 3x2
Lance Corporal [6]
Tempered Steel [3]
Metered March [2]
Total Unit Cost: 51

Rune Golems [17] 1x1
Total Unit Cost: 17

Kari Wraithstalker [32] 1x1
Fortunas Dice [6]
Total Unit Cost: 38

Oathsworn Cavalry [46] 2x3
Wind Rune [6]
Raven Tabards [2]
Total Unit Cost: 54

Heavy Crossbowmen [27] 3x1
Corruption Rune [4]
Rallying Cornicen [4]
Simultaneous Orders [2]
Total Unit Cost: 37

I like the Spearmen! I may actually try that build myself, since I've found their damage output pretty lacking.

Golem and Kari look good.

I don't like the 2x3 Oathsworn without Hawthorne or Column Tactics. I don't especially like Column Tactics even, but I definitely think 54 points is too many to pay for a Threat 2 unit.

I also don't like the Crossbows. I fully encourage you to try it out, but I maintain that Rallying Cornicen is a bad use of points, especially when Marching Cornicen is so good on them. You're pretty significantly reducing the damage output of one of Daqan's heaviest hitters in order to help the Spearmen out a little. That said, let us know how it goes, maybe I'm dead wrong!