Trying Out Lord Vorunthul

By escutcheon, in Runewars Miniatures Game

I proxied Lord V over the weekend in a Waiqar civil war.

Since his Cursed form does not have Precise, I seriously considered Fortuna's Dice, but went for the Gauntlet instead in order to perform hit and run style tactics.

He ended up on my flank with 2 Rank Discipline Carrion Lancers facing off against both Regenerative Maro and Shield of Margath Ardus. I did some shifting and rallying first; the opening was very cagey. On the round Maro had no Unstable Runes showing, I moved forward with a long march, in prime position to strike the following round.

I then did the ini 3 March-1 and Skill to transform and hit Maro on the flank. I rolled Hit/Hit-Surge for 6 damage. Since Maro took two wounds from raising, this was enough to one-shot him, surprising us both. Meanwhile, the friendly Lancers moved up to block Ardus from charging Lord V.

Ardus charged the Lancers, Lord V transformed back to human form behind Ardus. I armoured up with the Lancers.

Next round, Lord V engaged BEAST MODE again and attacked Ardus, inflicting 3 wounds (I think) and applying the glove but taking a wound from SoM, since it ignores Protected (ouch).

The next round I rallied instead of attacking in order to avoid taking damage. Ardus whiffed and then succumbed to Death's Grasp at the end of the round. Lord V had almost single-handedly took out half of my opponent's army.

A few thoughts after testing:

1. It's important for him to build up an inspiration or two before engaging. He needs this for three reasons:

a. To refresh Fortuna's Dice/Gauntlet.
b. To pull off the stun taken for returning to Lord V (human) form since sometimes you can do the ini 4 Rally + Skill but if your opponent attacks on 3, when you have initiative you'll need to dial in the ini 3 March + Skill to transform away.
c. To pull off stun tokens/blight. Preventing Lord V from transforming will be painful (I realised this in a test against a single Rune Golem).

2. His mobility is excellent. As a Waiqar player the March-4 + Shift/Reform is greatly appreciated. Also as has been pointed out on the forum before, appearing at range 1 or 1-2 after transforming gets you surprisingly far.

3. Speaking of mobility, his Cursed form doesn't have a Reform...

4. Protected 2 is a joy. He took two direct hits from Ardus with no damage. Even though Lord V can't armour up, you must deal 5 damage to wound him.

5. In human form, he doesn't have Brutal, which is a shame, but he does have Precise on WRB. Haven't tested yet but in this form he might be a good archer hunter.

Has anyone else tried him out? Pretty sure I'll be picking this guy up when it releases.

He sounds *really* good. Excited to see it in play.

And shove a stake in his chest.

I really hope his uniques will be in Scuttling horror territory power-wise. Judging from @Glucose98 plans, some sort of stake-repellent might be needed. I'm thinking that, due to his infantry champ upgrade's ability, it might be some enemy-teleportation. Maybe at 3p cost then? ;)

Edited by Maktorius
On 8/20/2018 at 7:51 PM, Glucose98 said:

He sounds *really* good. Excited to see it in play.

And shove a stake in his chest.

<insert a Kari the Vampire Slayer joke here>

I wonder about Reaping Blade for LordV. He has 3 dice and no brutal in one form, so hunting for blanks is viable against armored targets. In his other, it feels bad to leave threat 3 behind, but it does mean that all hits and blanks do something.

It also doesn’t double up the need for inspiration. He may want to keep those just for transforming.

Edited by Church14
1 hour ago, Church14 said:

I wonder about Reaping Blade for LordV. He has 3 dice and no brutal in one form, so hunting for blanks is viable against armored targets. In his other, it feels bad to leave threat 3 behind, but it does mean that all hits and blanks do something.

It also doesn’t double up the need for inspiration. He may want to keep those just for transforming.

The thought has crossed my mind, but your reasoning makes a lot of sense at this moment. I like it!