Today we bring you something special, the long awaited return of me finally putting waiqar back on the table. This is my first game using lord V (let that speak for the longevity and depth of the game).

My list:

200/200

'From the Grave'

Lord Vorunthul [40] 1x1
Fortunas Dice [6]
Thirst of Bilehall [5]
Total Unit Cost: 51

Reanimates [50] 3x3
Executioner [6]
Profane Banner Bearer [5]
Aggressive Drummer [5]
Lingering Dead [3]
Total Unit Cost: 69

Reanimate Archers [45] 3x2
Tempered Steel [3]
Raven-Standard Bearer [3]
Close Quarters Targeting [3]
Total Unit Cost: 54

Wraiths [24] 3x1
Metered March [2]
Total Unit Cost: 26

My list was largely focused on trying lord V, and wraiths, as well as seeing if the 3x2 reanimate archer block still works.

Church's list:

'Maro has the Moves'

200/200
Ankaur Maro [40] 1x1
Fortunas Dice [6]
Violent Forces [6]
Total Unit Cost: 52

Reanimates [64] 4x3
Necromancer [3]
Vorunthul the Cursed [8]
Triumphant Cry [3]
Lingering Dead [3]
Total Unit Cost: 81

Death Knights [55] 2x3
Shield of Margath [6]
Bloodied Tatters [2]
Column Tactics [4]
Total Unit Cost: 67

Church mostly focused his list on utilizing Maro.

Objective and deployment:

We drew Overextended with encircling maneuvers, one of my favorite combos in the game. I held my archers out, church set aside maro.

Setup:

We both deploy conservatively. There is no need to rush things with waiqar, and with the cursed woods in the middle, the battlefield is treacherous.

Turn 1:

Missed a picture right from the start. More or less, our forces trundle towards eachother.

At the end of the round, my archers deploy behind the woods, and maro comes running in from behind his army.

Turn 2:

Church plays it slow, trying to let me make the first overstep. I keep lord V back, not wanting to get wrecked by deathknights.

My wraiths stay inside the protective bubble of profane banner bearer, maro can wipe them out in one good shot, and when he's got Fdice, that's a risk I wont take.

My archers reform/rally, lining up to support the reanimates.

Turn 3: Church backs the deathknights off, but not before I land 3 wounds with my archers. I expected him to push in, so my reanimates botch a charge.

The wraiths inch forward, still avoiding maro.

Church brings his army into a solid line, prepping for a three point attack.

Turn 4:

My archers find no shot, getting blocked by terrain and my reanimates. My reanimates reform/Armor up, and just in time, maro rolls 8 damage on them, resulting in a tray cleared out, but lingering dead and regen keep the tray on.

Church pushes his reanimates up.

Turn 5:

I get a trifecta of damage on church's reanimates, but not before they armor up. Between lord V warp jumping a flank, the reanimate charge, and a wraith flank, I take 3 trays.

Maro obliterates 2 trays of wraiths. Lord V is in a very exposed position to the death knights now.

Turn 6:

The death knights charge and flank lord V, dealing 3 wounds. That hurt. The archers take 2 more trays of deathknights.

The reanimate brawl gets ugly, with both sides suffering heavy losses. Maro finishes the wraiths off.

Lord V gets a wound back from thirst of bilehall.

Turn 7:

Lord V warps out of the danger zone, lining up to end the death knights. Church gets a weak swing with the reanimates, but gets a flee in terror panic test, and puts me in an odd position.

The archers drop another tray of death knights. Maro reforms to have options on the last turn.

Turn 8:

My reanimates hea wrecked by flanking death knights, and I goof up with lord V, letting him warp onto the death knights. He kills them, but gets caught in range of Maro, who ends lord V on the last activation of the game.

6/5 Waiqar wins (Church's Waiqar)

Afterthoughts:

When played right, and with good runes, Maro is a serious beast. He did more damage than any other unit in this game. He is susceptible to fast units who can charge him quickly, but when faced with slow trundling formations, he really can swing up.

Lord V is super fun (of course), I need to get better at using him.

Profane banner bearer is great, it's a shame that protector wasnt used on a few more units in the game, since it really makes for interesting gameplay. Allows fragile units to advance on archers, but watch the sight lines.

Undead archers are so good, especially when geared to attack faster than any other archer(except kari and meagan).

All around, I really enjoyed bringing waiqar back out. It's cool that theres a lot in their faction i haven't even looked into yet. Plenty of uncharted territory in runewars yet.

Thanks for Reading!

We definitely had some similar elements in our lists. Vorunthul the Cursed is just plain good. Upgrading a die and giving Brutal 1 is incredibly effective and a very viable alternative to Worms. I feel like the Reanimate Archers are falling into the same rut for me as well- Raven Banner + Tempered Steel + CI. It's very efficient and effective. I'm still making up my mind about Violent Ankhaur. The Brutal 1 with the double hit on his dial is good, but he's very fragile and slow- something I found out in my own game.

3 x 1 Wraiths is the best configuration as it maximizes damage and gives the best chance to pass through something. Maybe set them up on the right so then can run through the terrain and hit the DK's in the flank. When that 3x1 unit turns, they can cover a lot of ground...

It would have been interesting to see your Archers on the other side of the formation where they could shut Maro down with Blight tokens. Since he's rolling at most two dice, chances are good he wouldn't roll anything. I'm wondering if you roll no dice whether or not you still get your modifier- I guess you would...

A very interesting battle for sure... 😀

1 hour ago, sarumanthewhite said:

I'm   wondering if you roll no dice whether or not you still get your modifier- I guess you would...  

If you have no dice, the attack is cancelled, unless I missed an FAQ.

I put CQT on my archers, because many times in the past they just get pinned and slaughtered. CI is good, but when I'm doing 3 threat I usually consider damage over blight. They would have been better switched with the wraiths like you suggested, but it's likely church would have put maro on the other side of the map then.