Tales from the Madlands: A Day with Darnati at the Dog Park

By Jukey, in Runewars Battle Reports

Yay, more batreps!

Today we did some interesting battles. For the first game, church tries out gorgemaw and kethra at once. I put together an abnormal Starnati.

First game:

My list:

'Secret of Steel'

198/200

Darnati Warriors [60] 3x3
File Leader [6]
Tempered Steel [3]
Support Aymhelin Scion [4]
Raven Tabards [2]
Moment of Inspiration [5]
Total Unit Cost: 80

Ventala Skirmishers [40] 2x3
Maegan Cyndewin [10]
Tempered Steel [3]
Flank Fire [5]
Total Unit Cost: 58

Deepwood Archers [30] 2x2
Dispatch Runner [7]
Rallying Starling [4]
Simultaneous Orders [2]
Total Unit Cost: 43

Aymhelin Scions [14] 1x1
Vicious Roots [3]
Total Unit Cost: 17

Church's list

'Gorgemaw, a witches best friend'

194/200

Kethra Alaak [34] 1x1
Shield of Margath [6]
Kingsbone Armor [7]
Total Unit Cost: 47

ThuUk Tar and Gorgemaw [42] 1x1
Fortunas Dice [6]
Crushing Jaws [5]
Total Unit Cost: 53

Flesh Rippers [38] 2x2
Moment of Inspiration [5]
Dead Sprint [4]
Total Unit Cost: 47

Flesh Rippers [38] 2x2
Moment of Inspiration [5]
Dead Sprint [4]
Total Unit Cost: 47

Church must be missing an upgrade on gorgemaw (I think it might be a bug on tabletop admiral), or he was way off on his bid.

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Apologies for the odd lighting, the sun was really bright.

Conquest with mutual reinforcements is a doozey with uthuk on the other side of the table.

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Initiative went to me, but made getting the drop on church in deployment impossible.

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Gorgemaw with scout gets into marching distance of my ventala.

Turn 1:

My ventala get pinned and stuck due to gorgemaws entrapment unique which prevents me shifting and shooting him, I do land 1 wound first though.

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My darnati and scion press aggressively forward while church waits and rallies his rippers.

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Turn 2:

Gorgemaw takes a rank of ventala, then they hit back, rolling great and doing 3 wounds to gorgemaw. Then kethra hit them and took the next rank. 11SAR8B.jpg

The darnati and the rippers dance, while the leftmost rippers slam into the scion, splintering it to bits.

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Turn 3:

The darnati charge the rippers, take a tray and a half (9 damage), then the deepwoods rally moment back on, and dispatch the darnati, they swing again for 14, dropping the rippers to 1 with 1 hp left.

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They lose 1 tray to bone growths.

The other rippers slam into the archers with dead sprint, then melee, taking the back rank and the rallying starling.

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On the other side of the map, the ventala fall to kethras magarth and thorns damage after inflicting 1 wound on her.

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Turn 4:

The last ripper swings way to hard, dropping a tray and putting 2 wounds on the scion. The darnati finish the ripper but can't reform due to the stun from dispatch, instead they shift over with the scions built in shift.

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The remaining rippers get a lackluster roll and do not finish the deepwoods.

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Kethra and gorgemaw begin their long journey to the other side of the board.

Turn 5:

The rippers finish the deepwoods, but get shift charged by the darnati with a banking shift. The thorns damage bounces off the scion.

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Kethra and gorgemaw continue the journey.

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Turn 6:

Picture is missing here.

The darnati kill the rippers, while churches heroes move in.

Turn 7: The darnati dial a melee and reform, file leader is pretty awesome on them.

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Church hangs back.

Turn 8:

I think we thought the game ended, but did a simulated turn, in which kethra charged and finished the scion but took a wound, gorgemaw didn't risk the file leader and stayed out.

Uthuk win 7/4

Afterthoughts:

Never tried file leader on darnati before. Paired up with raven taberds it makes them a really good frontline unit. They either beat nearly everything on charges, or dial in melee and wait.

MoI on them was not super beneficial, but did up their damage a bit, it's hard to take it over hedge shroud though.

Rippers with MoI and dead sprint are a serious menace, but are costed appropriately.

Gorgemaw is a seriously awesome, but well balanced hero.

I will get the second report up as soon as possible.

Thanks for reading!

I had the grasping unique in Gorgemaw as well that prevented enemies from shifting away.

Flesh Rippers and Ventala have a similar weakness that has become more apparent over time. They both excel when given some open table in front of them, even if an enemy is on the far side of that open table. You can cramp a lot of their options and force them into suboptimal choices by just getting into their faces fast. While both units still deliver in that bad spot, you’ve removed the flexibility that makes them so hard to pin down and deal with.

Darnati on the other hand, like being up close like that as their long options aren’t always effective

Stay tuned for the the next event where I tilt at the dice.