It's a new year! Perfect time to get the Madlands reports back up and running.

Today we ran some request lists. Looks like we got @Zaaik 's request for a scion hammer and to see Ardus do something more then die expensively. We'll get to some others next time.

@Hepitude you'll still be waiting on your request (spoilers) 😁

Game 1.

Forward scouts and Battle of Champions.

I had initiative so I got 2 terrain, the Eolam Dias and the Thorn Choked Circle. The rest of the terrain is there so you can see what we brought between each of us.

My List:

'the Trees have Eyes'

199/200

Prince Faolan [36] 1x1
Malcornes Bequest [6]
Legendary Prowess [5]
Total Unit Cost: 47

Aymhelin Scions [62] 3x2
Pathwalkers Amulet [3]
Raven Tabards [2]
Fertile Soil [5]
Total Unit Cost: 72

Darnati Warriors [31] 2x2
Dispatch Runner [7]
Bolo Nets [2]
Total Unit Cost: 40

Darnati Warriors [31] 2x2
Dispatch Runner [7]
Bolo Nets [2]
Total Unit Cost: 40

Church's List:

'Relevant Revenant'

200/200

Ardus IxErebus [37] 1x1
Dimodian Blades [5]
Total Unit Cost: 42

Reanimate Archers [18] 2x1
Rank Discipline [4]
Tempered Steel [3]
Total Unit Cost: 25

Reanimate Archers [18] 2x1
Rank Discipline [4]
Tempered Steel [3]
Total Unit Cost: 25

Lord Vorunthul [40] 1x1
Shield of Margath [6]
Entrancing Gaze [4]
Total Unit Cost: 50

Carrion Lancers [15] 1x1
Total Unit Cost: 15

Carrion Lancers [15] 1x1
Total Unit Cost: 15

Wraiths [24] 3x1
Faces of the Fallen [2]
Bloodied Tatters [2]
Total Unit Cost: 28

Apologies for the first set of pictures, the sun shines straight into the new gamestores play area.

Setup: I placed my first unit to threaten the pocket deployment near me, but it forced me into clumping my army on that side of the board. I generally play msu, so bulky large units really felt weird deploying.

Church readies his forces for a rapid burst unpack on turn 1. The best way for him to duck under the scion ranged shot is with everything at once.

Turn 1: Church comes in from 2 sides, making me juggle the options of which side to support and leave the other on the defensive.

Faolan gets thirsty for blood and moves into terrain way too early.

Turn 2:

This is a lesson in why you always read your opponents list before playing. Church moves lord V into range of the scions...and skills?

I hadn't seen Entrancing Gaze in play yet, wow did that hurt. Lord V pushes the scions safely out of range.

The Darnati now find themselves badly out of position with no support.

Faolan takes 3 wounds from Archers before charging at i6 from the terrain. Again, should have read what was on lord V. He inflicts 2 wounds on lord V but dies to Magarth.

Turn 3:

Lord V warp jumps and starts flattening darnati. The other darnati charge old man Ardus, and score 2 wounds, Ardus swings back and takes the back rank, he's still got it.

The scions move forward again, but it's just too late.

Turn 4:

The Darnati fall on both sides, while a lancer catches a flank of the scionhammer. I call the game, as it's a matter of 1 or 2 more turns of dying scions.

Afterthoughts: Ok, so that didn't go very well. Stay tuned, I reset my list while church builds something a little different.

Ardus with dimodiom blade is great!

Blight archers are nice, but how about those tempered/rank archers. They put out consistently painful damage all game.

Entrancing gaze is nasty, and well worth running lord V just to push stuff around.

Game 2

Stand off and Break their Defenses

Terrain in the upper right was chosen, terrain in lower right is churches, lower left is mine.

My list:

Same as above, but with Etharyon on Faolan instead of legendary prowess.

Church's list:

199/200
Ardus IxErebus [37] 1x1
Dimodian Blades [5]
Total Unit Cost: 42

Reanimate Archers [18] 2x1
Rank Discipline [4]
Tempered Steel [3]
Total Unit Cost: 25

Reanimates [64] 4x3
Mistlands Saboteur [6]
Vorunthul the Cursed [8]
Cursed Signets [2]
Triumphant Cry [3]
Lingering Dead [3]
Total Unit Cost: 86

Death Knights [24] 2x1
Dispatch Runner [7]
Total Unit Cost: 31

Carrion Lancers [15] 1x1
Total Unit Cost: 15

Setup: I deployed similarly to the last game, protecting my scions flanks with the dispatch darnati.

Church positions Ardus to be a red herring, then stacks the side free of terrain.

This match we both have trundle builds that want to just facesmash.

Turn 1:

Church takes time to stack inspiration on his right flank, while pushing in with Ardus, hoping to duck under the deadly scions arc.

I keep my darnati back, letting church set the pace of the battle. Faolan reforms the scions with Etharyon and they slap Ardus with 2 wounds.

Turn 2:

The darnati lure Ardus closer, knowing they can win a close range charge with him. Church pushes the rest of his army in rapidly, the trundle bus is on the move!

The scions put another wound on Ardus. While Faolan sets up his nearby darnati.

Turn 3:

Faolan rallies and spins the scions, who then charge at i2 with raven taberds. They slaughter the lancer.

The reanimates push forward, charging the scions, and killing 2 figures.

The Darnati kill Ardus.

Turn 4:

This turn was nuts. I push the darnati forward at i3, and skill, both dispatch the scions, putting massive damage on the reanimates, and sniping out the mistland saboteur.

Then faolan activates, he was supposed to flank charge the reanimates, but got stuck on the darnati, but still uses his skill to disengage the scions before they take a hit from the reanimates.

The scions lose a figure to the archers, and from backing into the terrain, but then make a ranged attack on the reanimates. Triple tap complete.

Turn 5:

Each darnati has an inspiration, so they triple tap the scions again after they charge at i2 again. Not as good of damage output this time with no rerolls.

Church uses the death knights dispatch to kill the scions, which triggers triumphant cry on the reanimates, who spin, and then march into faolan, their charge is nullified by a stun.

The darnati are both in bad shape by this point.

Turn 6: Faolan takes 2 trays of reanimates, but lingering dead keeps them engaged and with a reroll. The reanimates kill faolan in 1 shot.

The death knights clear out the darnati.

The remaining darnati makes a run for it.

Turn 7:

My darnati ran, so we called the game.

Afterthoughts:

My latari list could use work. I'm used to playing technical msu builds, and not so good with facesmash style.

A Reanihammer is an awkward unit, but it can be devastating in the right hands. Triumphant cry seems to be the key to making it work great.

Not sold on the ScionHammer, it's a decent damage thrower, but way to expensive. The points would probably be better spent on 3x2 ventala for similar damage output.

I think tempered steel, rather than pathwalker, would have been a better choice with my build. More damage output would have been good.

Etharyon of Ailatar is easily one of the best cards in the entire game. It can do so much! Be prepared for table flipping rage when you use it lol.

Thanks for Reading!

Great battle report, always a compelling read

In game 2 could the reanimates charge Faolan? Wouldn't they have been prevented by a immobilize?

4 hours ago, Datskor said:

Great battle report, always a compelling read

In game 2 could the reanimates charge Faolan? Wouldn't they have been prevented by a immobilize?

The first turn with the triple tap had me rallying them and armoring up. He had activated his entire list by then so it didn’t matter, but that’s where the immobilize went.

Also, we completely forgot about cursed signets. So i should have actually charged Fallon and not just run into him.

some extended thoughts in these games in a future post here

@Zaaik

your request was the first I tried to fulfill. This was a list trying to manage Ardus both as a sensible army building buff and hero on the table. Both lists had him using Dimodian Blades as he get both precise and lethal from them.

For the army buff, in the first list he shaved 26 points off of the archer battery costs. He allowed me to take tempered on the 2 tray archers and saved 14 points, but then I added rank discipline. So each archer was 10 points cheaper overall. The 3 tray wraiths normally can’t take bloodied tatters either. Though to be fair, Tatters didn’t accomplish anything that game. So Ardus’ net cost with upgrades was 16.

For the second list, he shaved 28 points. 18 off the Death Knights to get Dispatch Runner at 2 trays and 10 for that little archer battery. So his net cost with upgrades was 14.

The more I’m thinking about it, I’m sure there is a slowly increasing shortlist of particularly good combinations he enables for cheap.

— 2 tray reanimate archers with rank and tempered steel - 10 points saved

— 2 tray Death Knights with Dispatch - 18 points

— 6 tray Deathcaller Disco Reanimates - 15 points

— 2 tray lancers getting tempered - 15 if you get rank

etc.

As for combat:

First game he took down a 40 point Darnati unit with no trouble. Seems legit

Second game he ended up dying for no direct gain.. I wasn’t thinking properly about Faolon’s unique or I would not have been so overly aggressive. It ended up putting those darnati in a bad spot that forced Jukey to Dispatch late or take damage. So I sort of got 12 points off Ardus.

For upgrades:

**** Dimodian Blades on Ardus is a thing. It doesn’t fully compensate for his dial, but he hits pretty **** hard when he does hit. A damage cap of 14 with a dialed hit in melee and an average of 7 or so on a charge isn’t a joke. Though it doesn’t fully elimate running Obcasium’s Guantlet and Ancient Technique. That combo still makes him scary to any heroes or high armor units.

Thanks for this guys, very interesting read.

This is making me want to bring Ardus out for a play in the near future.

How did you find Mistlands, @Church14 ?

I have been using Dimodian Blades on Ardus for a bit now. I wish Waiqar had some way to manipulate the runes like the other factions...

I actually use Ardus’ Fury in my list (yep, that’s right, Ardus’ Fury!)

• Ardus Ix’Erebus
  • Dimodian Blades
  • Ardus’ Fury
• Carrion Lancers
  • Rank Discipline
  • Wind Rune
• Death Knights
  • Duskblade
  • Combat Ingenuity
  • Master Crafted Weapons
  • Bull Pennon
• Reanimate Archers
  • Combat Ingenuity
  • Tempered Steel
  • Raven Standard Bearer

Total = 200

Not sure about Duskblade since Ardus can leverage the Carrion Lancers ability, but it gives him tremendous flexibility in killing Defense 2 units (like Threshers) depending upon how the runes come up.

5 hours ago, Zaaik said:

Thanks for this guys, very interesting read.

This is making me want to bring Ardus out for a play in the near future.

How did you find Mistlands, @Church14 ?

I have found it solid in the past as a way to tear up gimmick lists. This particular game involved Jukey sniping it out in the first shot. His list rolled just 1 red and 1 white die. All the rest were blues and that makes accuracies pretty easy to come by.

I think the 12 tray in particular does better with Mistlands because that 4 wide formation covers a LOT of mat when you perform a bank or wheel. It makes it easier to force engagement compared to smaller formations. I didn’t include this as an attempt at Mistlands in the Requests thread as I think I can make a Reanimate block that is more effective at using it (or other skill based champions).

47 minutes ago, sarumanthewhite said:

I have been using Dimodian Blades on Ardus for a bit now. I wish Waiqar had some way to manipulate the runes like the other factions...

I actually  use Ardus  ’ Fury in my list (yep, that’s right,  Ardus’ Fury!) 

I have tried Dimodian and Ardus Fury together before, but I didn’t make an effort to keep Ardus near unit’s with surges he could steal so it didn’t really help. I’ll be revisiting it in the future