This game I bring all three Latari heroes to the table, and Church brings out Kethra.

Objective and Deployment:

I haven't played Oblique formation in awhile, so we did that. Conquest is an easy objective so it is enjoyable when focusing more on the army interactions.

My list:

'Hero Blocks'

199/200
Ventala Skirmishers [30] 2x2
Maegan Cyndewin [10]
Tempered Steel [3]
Lay of the Land [4]
Total Unit Cost: 47

Ventala Skirmishers [30] 2x2
Prince Faolan (C) [17]
Tempered Steel [3]
Close Quarters Targeting [3]
Total Unit Cost: 53

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

Aymhelin Scions [42] 2x2
Pathwalkers Amulet [3]
Raven Tabards [2]
Vicious Roots [3]
Total Unit Cost: 50

Church's list:

'Kethra Kommand'

200/200

Viper Legion Archers [46] 3x2
Cacophony Reaver [6]
Fire Rune [7]
Warsprinter [3]
Aggressive Shrieker [5]
Simultaneous Orders [2]
Total Unit Cost: 69

Berserkers [50] 3x3
Bloodfire Witch [5]
Ritual Venom [3]
Front Line Obscene [7]
Raven Tabards [2]
Aggressive Shrieker [5]
Total Unit Cost: 72

Kethra Alaak [34] 1x1
Kingsbone Armor [7]
Total Unit Cost: 41

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

Setup:

I place my Scions to absorb the Zerkstar while it gets flanked by Ventala. The Leonx are in for a rough fight though.

Church puts the Zerkstar in a threatening position, allowing it to be the primary focus.

Kethra has a shield thresher to block charging cats.

The Vipers will find a target safely from the flank.

Round 1:

The Scions march at i5 and armor up. The Zerkstar charges them and inflicts 1 wound, thanks to pathwalkers amulet.

The Ventala come in fast and take two trays off the Zerkstar (protected 1 makes chipping a star difficult).

The Leonx play hard to get with the Thresher, but lose a tray to the Vipers fire rune.

Round 2:

I lose 1 Scion to the Zerkstar.

Between the Scions, Maegans Ventala, and Faolans double-tap charge/shoot, the Zerkstar goes down to the front rank.

The Leonx charge and kill the Thresher, but are destroyed by the Vipers and Kethra.

Round 3:

The Zerkstar goes down.

Three units on one makes for short work.

Meagans Ventala face off against Kethra.

The scions lose the back rank to the dying Zerkstar.

Now for the MVP move of the game.

The Vipers shoot one of the Scions down. They have a skill dialed in.

The Vipers warsprinter into the last Scion, charging with Aggressive shrieker, and kill the last Scion.

But wait, theres more!

Simultaneous orders gives them a full power fire rune attack on Faolans Ventala. It drops the Ventala down to just Faolan.

There was also a 3 panic moral card on churches moral deck adding 3 lethal to each attack.

I think they did 30+ damage in one activation!

Round 4:

Faolan in Ventala form doesn't deliver much punch at this point. Matched against a 3 threat red die unit with lethal 3 wont go well.

Kethra barrels into Meagans Ventala, killing the back rank.

They swing back but roll poorly, taking more damage from the thorns than they deliver.

Round 5:

Kethra kills the Ventala.

Faolan is still hanging in there.

Round 6:

Kethra skills, rolling a hit, which puts the last wound on Faolan.

Uthuk win!

Afterthoughts:

The auto-charge Faolan Ventala with CQT are fun, but I feel I would have gotten more mileage out of solo Faolan.

Double Ventala blocks are definately a thing. They pair very well with a scion block.

The Viper triple tap is something Church has mentioned before, but I've never seen it in action until now. Very impressive, though rather niche.

Embedded obscenes are well worth the price just for protected 1. When trying to kill a star, the last thing you want is damage nullification.

Thanks for reading!

Viper legion rolled 31 damage. Each attack had a lethal 3 from cacophony reaver. I had 4 unstable tunes.

Ranged attack rolled 2 hit, 2 surge for 11 damage.

Charge rolled 2 hits for 9 damage.

Fire rune rolled a double hit for 11 damage.

That is also the theoretical max without a flank charge. With the flank charge I could get an additional 6. We discussed this on discord, but the averages are more like 7.2/4.5/3.7 for 15.5. Not 31. I should not expect to ever see this again.

Also, this is a 69 point unit I should expect some good performance.

So, we looked at that layout. Without 4 red runes (1:8 without bloodfire, 1:4 with), I wouldn’t have even killed the Scion, much less crippled the ventala. First shot still kills the cats almost no matter the runes. Without 4 unstable I’m then forced to shoot fire rune at the scions and my peak damage would be 7. Leaving the scion alive. Warsprinter would also then be out of range and I had no charge.

Given initiative, range and the late March+ranged of the ventala, Jukey would have also been able to get a few unanswered shots before viper legion activated again. So this was a case of literally everything possible going my way.

On discord we we discussed a few possible counters to what I’m gong to call the ViperStar.

1) Engage it on the flank. ViperStar has some impressive tricks, but like a lot of Uthuk, they only work in a straight line.

2) Threaten it on the flank. All this fire rune and charge nonsense needs that skill modifier. Force ViperStar to use its red reform to face you. That removes both fire rune and the charge threat.

3) Bring rune manipulation. ViperStar becomes a boondoggle with 0 unstable runes. Latari especially have an ever decreasing list of excuses to not bring Malcorne’s.

4) Bring accuracies. Killing Reaver removes a good source of lethal. Killing Warsprinter removes the mobile threat.

5) Bring stuns. Uthuk aren’t big on inspiration. So chuck a stun or two on ViperStar to really cut the damage down.

This actually is very scary. Way better but much more luck dependant than zachbowstar

33 minutes ago, Skaflok said:

This actually is very scary. Way better but much more luck dependant than zachbowstar

BaronZStar actually caps at 34 damage and isn’t reliant on 3 attacks and 2 semi-random external forces (morale deck and unstable runes), just 2 attacks and unstable runes.

What an awesome attack! Thanks for the write up!

On 2/15/2019 at 8:29 PM, Church14 said:

BaronZStar actually caps at 34 damage and isn’t reliant on 3 attacks and 2 semi-random external forces (morale deck and unstable runes), just 2 attacks and unstable runes.

But ech of them +1 dice. Also, 2 dice from fire rune afer 3 init reform can devastate many msu flankers