The journey into new units and derpy meta begins.

Game 1

First we did Gorgemaws deployment and objective. Church got the bid.

He took the center, hoping to split my forces.

My list

'Faolans Inspiring Speech'

199/200

Prince Faolan [36] 1x1
The Spirit Sword [6]
Valor of the Fallen [3]
Total Unit Cost: 45

Darnati Warriors [43] 3x2
Maegan Cyndewin [10]
Wind Rune [6]
Greenwatch Herald [3]
Hedge Shroud [2]
Total Unit Cost: 64

Ventala Skirmishers [30] 2x2
Tempered Steel [3]
Hedge Shroud [2]
Total Unit Cost: 35

Deepwood Archers [42] 3x2
Verdant Sorceress [3]
Tempered Steel [3]
Rallying Starling [4]
Close Quarters Targeting [3]
Total Unit Cost: 55

Church's list

'Panic'

195/200
Beastmaster ThuUk Tar [36] 1x1
Dragonjaw Focus [5]
Total Unit Cost: 41

Viper Legion Archers [33] 2x2
Psychosis Siren [7]
Simultaneous Orders [2]
Total Unit Cost: 42

Viper Legion Archers [33] 2x2
Psychosis Siren [7]
Simultaneous Orders [2]
Total Unit Cost: 42

Spined Threshers [18] 1x1
Total Unit Cost: 18

Spined Threshers [18] 1x1
Total Unit Cost: 18

Obscenes [17] 1x1
Total Unit Cost: 17

Obscenes [17] 1x1
Total Unit Cost: 17

Setup: Church deploys a large chunk of his army before my units start going in. I stack on the right side. Church sets aside a viper block and I choose my deepwoods as reinforcements.

Turn 1: Church activates nearly all his units while mine wait for i6. Beastmaster follows a threshershield while the vipers and obscenes set up defensive postures.

The Darnati use wind rune to slide into a good position, while the cowtaurs occupy the charge assist terrain. Faolan zig zags his way in behind the darnati.

Church's vipers deploy by his thresher, while my deepwoods bravely take on a flank.

Turn 2: The Ventala pop out of the terrain and use its ability to charge the thresher. A good roll and puts up 3 wounds on it. The Darnati move up and armor, while faolan shouts inspiring things at them. The Deepwoods finish off the thresher.

Church fires a shot at the darnati with vipers. They put a wound on Meagan but can't kill the armored monks. The unpainted obscene moves close but doesn't engage. Beastmaster engages the cowtaurs and tries to do some fancy panic tricks.

Turn 3:

The Darnati hit the obscene hard, putting 3 damage up after the obscene armored itself. Viper shifts into terrain, while the other obscene kills 1 darnati due to hedge shroud.

Meanwhile, with a little boost from beastmaster, the Thresher begins clearing the Deepwoods, but suffers heavy damage from CQT. Beastmaster finds hedge shroud difficult to whip through, but heaps a mountain of panic on the cowtaurs. They give him 3 wounds with the help of tempered steel.

Faolan shifts into terrain.

Turn 4:

The cowtaurs dispatch Beastmaster, suffering the loss of 2 cows. The Thresher and Viper tear apart the Deepwoods and reform them with a morale test.

The Darnati roll a heavy surge attack, meagan spikes 3 damage over 3 units, killing an obscene and nearly dropping a tray of vipers.

This is where things got weird. Correct me if we played it wrong.

Faolan does an i6 3 speed march, and his card text allows him to break the march into 3 1 speed marches, at the cost of his modifier. So, he marches out with 1 march, marches distance 1, and then charges the last bit to engage the vipers.

Turn 5: This turn I rolled the lower flank and we called it.

Afterthoughts:

Everything new is very fun and adds a lot to the game. Exciting!

Church spread his army too far apart in this game, which when fortressing, goes badly. The deployment and objective really hurt his build.

I cannot overstate how awesome hedge shroud is. Sure, its situational, but when it works, it works really good.

Meagan in darnati is odd, but actually pretty great. It's easier to surge fish when you can see 3 results and pick 2. This infantry build worked beyond my expectations.

Ventala love tempered steel. All those surges and nowhere to spend them...

Inspiring Faolan is more useful than I thought he would be. He is not as much of a frontline hero as he looks, and his dial is pretty bad for dueling another hero. I think he works best holding back until he sees an opening to slip into and wreck a flank.

Beastmaster was interesting, but didn't stay on the table long enough to get any kind of feel for him.

Obscenes are relatively harmless, and a serious roadblock. They sit just inside the 'hard to kill in one shot' range and do a good job of providing board control.

Vipers have a lot of potential, and will give uthuk many new options. They do about equal damage to a tempered deepwood on good rolls, but lack rerolls. Their technical side is strong and will be interesting to see more.

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Game 2

Next we played Faolans objective and deployment. Church had initiative again.

My list

'Tripllle'

200/200
Darnati Warriors [43] 3x2
Maegan Cyndewin [10]
Wind Rune [6]
Greenwatch Herald [3]
Hedge Shroud [2]
Total Unit Cost: 64

Ventala Skirmishers [30] 2x2
Wind Rune [6]
Lay of the Land [4]
Total Unit Cost: 40

Leonx Riders [30] 2x2
Aliana of Summersong [12]
Raven Tabards [2]
Moment of Inspiration [5]
Total Unit Cost: 49

Prince Faolan [36] 1x1
The Spirit Sword [6]
Etharyon of the Ailatar [5]
Total Unit Cost: 47

Church's list

'Viper Command'

Viper Legion Archers [46] 3x2
Cacophony Reaver [6]
Fire Rune [7]
Bannerscamp [4]
Rallying Shrieker [4]
Simultaneous Orders [2]
Total Unit Cost: 69

Obscenes [27] 2x1
Dispatch Runner [7]
Total Unit Cost: 34

Spined Threshers [18] 1x1
Total Unit Cost: 18

Flesh Rippers [63] 3x2
File Leader [6]
Moment of Inspiration [5]
Feeding Frenzy [5]
Total Unit Cost: 79

Setup

Church goofed his deployment, resulting in fortress jamming. My list is about to test latari mobility.

The pocket deployment is a cool feature for speedy cav units.

Turn 1: Church makes the best of his deployment jam, setting up a strong defensive wall for viper command.

My Latari forces close in from 3 points, using wind rune and LotL to gain positioning.

Faolan roosts and builds insiration.

Turn 2:

The cats pile into the Thresher, and tear it to pieces with the help of MoI and Allianas leadership. The Vipers unleash a volley at the cats and kill over half the unit.

The cowtaurs step forward and throw their javelins at the vipers, only to miss.

The darnati lie in wait for the overeager rippers to come stampeding out of safety.

Turn 3: I think the pictures are missing.

The cats flank charge the vipers, and inflict heavy losses. The cowtaurs engage the obscenes, but have difficulty inflicting damage. The darnati and rippers line up to engage next turn.

Turn 4:

The Darnati hit the rippers good, but get hit back hard, and don't have enough runes to shroud.

Faolan tears into a flank of the rippers.

The obscenes and cowtaurs trade blows, and the vipers lose more trays to cats, but shift away and dispatch the rippers.

The darnati take heavy casualties.

Turn 5: No more pictures, oops.

The cats drop the vipers to 1 tray, the cows lose a few figures to obscenes while wounding them back. Faolan and the Darnati bring the rippers down to 2 trays. The vipers shift and dispatch the rippers again.

Turn 6:

The cats flank the obscenes, while the cows continue to press them from the front. The darnati fall to the last viper. Faolan puts an end to the rippers.

We called the game here.

Afterthoughts:

Viper command is a powerful unit, it puts out a lot of damage and can dispatch a fellow unit, I'll need to try a full size deepwood version.

Obscenes are great walls.

Wind rune on darnati=cool, wind rune on ventala=meh.

Faolan on a flank rolls a lot of damage, need to find an artifact that fits him well, spirit sword is fine, but...

Rippers are tough, even when every bit of damage goes on them, 3 hp a piece is a lot of meat to chew through.

Leonx were very useful this game, I'll be looking into them more in future builds.

Thanks for reading!

Great reports. Thanks for posting. Its really interesting to see the new units in action.

And a reminder that I’m rusty with ranged units

5 hours ago, Church14 said:

And a reminder that I’m rusty with ranged units

Yeh, aside from a few games with reanimate archers way before uthuk released, you have hardly even dabbled in archer playstyles.

As a fellow Latari player, I've always enjoyed reading your reports, and especially appreciated your discussion of your games with Church. These are good write-ups.

Some list thoughts:

Quote

'Faolans Inspiring Speech'

199/200

Prince Faolan [36] 1x1
The Spirit Sword [6]
Valor of the Fallen [3]
Total Unit Cost: 45

Darnati Warriors [43] 3x2
Maegan Cyndewin [10]
Wind Rune [6]
Greenwatch Herald [3]
Hedge Shroud [2]
Total Unit Cost: 64

Ventala Skirmishers [30] 2x2
Tempered Steel [3]
Hedge Shroud [2]
Total Unit Cost: 35

Deepwoo  d Archers [42] 3x2
Verdant Sorceress [3]
Tempered Steel [3]
Rallying Starling [4]
Close Quarters Targeting [3] 
Total Unit Cost: 55 

I hadn't considered Maegan in a Darnati before because her surge interfers with their native surge ability. However, this list really made me reconsider her in a 2x2. In the 3x2, I think she starts interferring with the hit-die faces that the Darnati want to trigger their threat-3, whereas that's less of an issue on the 2x2. I'm also inclined to think that one could build a 2x2 that might pass below the radar a bit and manage to pick up the extra die from flanking much more frequently.

GreenWatch Herald: might be on the best ways to ensure you can trigger overgrowth, regardless of terrain. Now that we have the Ventala and all of the upgrades out, it looks more and more like the 2x2 Archers' Heraldry slot was intentionally built for triggering Hedge Shroud via Green watch Herald, and after thinking about it a bit further, that feels like a safer spot for it. I also liked your comment that the Ventala are just begging for TS. That definitely extends their damage, and I think Hedge Shroud is a great upgrade on them in that they really want to fire as long as they can, but then suddenly turn into your potentially very beefy blocker that can swing back satisfactorily.

I also recognize that Hedge Shroud is going to be worth something often enough (average of 1.5 Green natively means it ought to do something in 50% of most games), but it also seems made to be thrown together with Malcorne's, which raises the chances of getting a benefit out of Hedge Shroud to about 80%. So that's something I'd like to try.

Quote

200/200
Darnati Warriors [43] 3x2
Maegan Cyndewin [10]
Wind Rune [6]
Greenwatch Herald [3]
Hedge Shroud [2]
Total Unit Cost: 64

Ventala Skirmishers [30] 2x2
Wind Rune [6]
Lay of the Land [4]
Total Unit Cost: 40

Leonx Riders [30] 2x2
Aliana of Summersong [12]
Raven Tabards [2]
Moment of Inspiration [5]
Total Unit Cost: 49

Prince Faolan [36] 1x1
The Spirit Sword [6]
Etharyon of the Ailatar [5]
Total Unit Cost: 47

How did your two groupings of Ventala compare from list to list? My sense is that your first build performed a bit better. And Leonx can be absolutely filthy. A friend of mine put me on the trail of Metered March a few months back, and that's almost an auto-include anymore, since you get the vision of your I7 march, but then go exactly the distance you want and no further.

All in all, good stuff! Thanks for sharing.

@Vergilius meagan in darnati is something I've been wanting to toy around with, and you are correct, she is best suited to the 2x2, it's where I've had her in previous theorycrafts. It's a nice combo, on turns with lots of unstable, spike surges, on turns with lots of natural, just add even more lethal.

I put her in a 3x2 because I needed greenwatch for the hedges, and my deepwood points were sunk into a 3x2 as well. Heraldry in latari is a high demand upgrade slot with very few available units.

Speaking of greenwatch, I didn't use its ability at all, but can see it helping meagan, ventala, and scions very often.

The ventala with wind rune and LotL was fun, but largely unnecessary, they work best as a mobile turret, but already have enough mobility without the extra 10 point bloat.

It's funny that the card I was most excited to see (flank fire) has not even made it to the table yet aside from an old proxy game.

I like that a Maegan 2x2 Darnati is not Rune Dependent.

Yep, Heraldry is rough. I played one game with Greenwatch in Darnati because I had them paired with 1x3 Flank Fire Ventala and my idea was to make their reroll more versatile than with Warsong Herald, but I think on the whole, the 1x3 really wants to be a flank escort to a 3x2 Darnati with Warsong and then assist them in destroying whatever is in front of them faster. My concern was the 1/1 being sniped out before they really got to use the reroll, but maybe the perfect placement of overgrown terrain is the biggest benefit, and if you get the reroll, that's just gravy.

For Ventala, I've run the 1x3 and 2x3 so far. The 1x3s did really well in their two games. They pecked away at a 2x1 Death Knights, basically just killing one every roll. In the other game, they dropped spearman pretty quickly. I put two 1x3s out to use all of my Ventala, but in fact, I'd wager that a single 1x3 is the most you really want in a list. The 2x3 ended up with a dud game. Bad deployment trapped them, then Vorunthull ate them. Honor Markings saved them a couple of morale tests, so that was cool, and probably a worthy upgrade. They basically end up at a point value where the opponent wants to come after them, so finding enough other big targets in your list to distract the opponent is key. And as odd as it may sound, I wonder if column tactics might have a place on them. Shoot from your front until you can't, then charge. The Ventala are a weird unit to me. If you want pure ranged, then the archers can be built to do more damage for the points. But then Leonx will damage better in melee, so the key to me seems to be to use them effectively as both ranged AND melee, but working out that build is the tricky point. I can see 2x1s being cheap enough to do a lot of chip damage, followed by a charge, before dying. I bet for the points, they could trade up very effectively. And I think in that consideration, the 1x3 ends up in a very odd spot since it pretty much only wants to flank fire. I have a suspicion that a 2x1 Rank Discipline or even a 2x1 accompanying a Darnati/Warsong Herald could end up being more effective.

Concerning Ventala..

I've tried the 1x3 in proxy, and found it to be very swingy. Haven't fielded the 3x2 yet, but find the 2x2 to be where the unit shines.

What ventala don't do in damage, they make up for in threat positioning. The unit is flexible enough that your opponent is never sure which way the ventala will attack. They can leave melee and still throw a ranged shot, as well as reform and shoot. They also charge over a wide initiative range. The only thing they don't do well is stand and fight.

Greenwatch

I really didn't even consider the reroll until writing the report, my exact thought on putting it in the list was 'where is that overgrow token figure'.

I think the 3 points is worth the overgrow placement, any future benefits from the card are just happy coincidences. I like pairing it up with verdant for extra coverage, but it starts to bloat the list towards a 50% useful strategy.