So this batrep is my Tournament list vs Churchs Tournament list. I meant to get this up minutes before the tournament, but didn't make it. Considering I wasnt able to get a real good report from the event, this batrep shows the finer workings of my list.

My list:

'Turbo Turvy, Dirty Durvy'

200/200
Prince Faolan [36] 1x1
Malcornes Bequest [6]
Etharyon of the Ailatar [5]
Total Unit Cost: 47

Ventala Skirmishers [30] 2x2
Maegan Cyndewin [10]
Fire Rune [7]
Lay of the Land [4]
Total Unit Cost: 51

Deepwood Archers [42] 3x2
Fire Rune [7]
Support Aymhelin Scion [4]
Marching Starling [2]
Close Quarters Targeting [3]
Total Unit Cost: 58

Aliana of Summersong [33] 1x1
Packleaders Spear [8]
Ambush Predator [3]
Total Unit Cost: 44

This list focuses on getting maximum rune efficiancy, while using two double-tap units and pushing the upper limits of EoA (this is why it got the nerf bat!)

Churchs list:

'Teleport and Terminate'

199/200
Lord Vorunthul [40] 1x1
Obcasiums Gauntlet [5]
Entrancing Gaze [4]
Total Unit Cost: 49

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

Wraiths [17] 2x1
Total Unit Cost: 17

Death Knights [55] 2x3
Raven Tabards [2]
Column Tactics [4]
Total Unit Cost: 61

Ventala Skirmishers [18] 2x1
Metered March [2]
Total Unit Cost: 20

This list was a combo of community requests, and Church just trying to have some fun with something other than his Uthuk 'Auto-Win' list.

Objective and Deployment:

We drew Overextended with Conquest, this always results in a bloodbath, and usually very few objective points scored.

Setup:

I positioned to go for a round 1 double fire rune attack, while Church tried to make sure to avoid letting me get the attack.

I put Alliana waaaay back to let her ambush start charging with no unwanted interruptions.

Lord V so close to a long springboard worried me, but the Ventala are one of the best for countering lord V, so I hoped for the best.

Round 1:

Church moves the wraiths a little too far forward while keeping his army from getting caught in the fire runes.

This lets me push the Deepwoods forward with a bank shift using EoA, then march them 2 forwards with a bank the other way thanks to marching starling. This move covers a little over a 4 march total, and ends with a skill to launch a fire rune.

I drop 1 tray of wraiths.

Round 2:

Church puts the wraiths into the terrain, then uses Entrancing gaze on the deepwoods, shifting them towards the terrain.

Faolan moves up and uses EoA to push the Ventala around the terrain, who gain an extra shift from LotL.

The death knights edge forward cautiously, while the Ventala move up and hit my deepwoods, scoring a wound on the Scion.

The Deepwoods do an i8 shift, and put 1 wound on the corrupted ventala with a fire rune, then use the scions ability to shift again.

My Ventala double tap at nothing.

Round 3:

My Ventala do an i4 banked march and get a full power fire rune on lord V, putting up 2 wounds.

Faolan pulls the deepwoods back towards safety with EoA.

Lord V still catches them, launching onto their flank and clearing out 2 trays. Adding the power glove, the scion falls at the end of the round.

The Deepwoods finish off the corrupted Ventala.

Alliana decides she would rather not face off against death knights in a toe to toe fight.

Round 4:

Faolan takes down lord V, taking a priority threat out of the fight.

The Ventala reform and put a fire rune into Maro, resulting in 2 wounds.

The death knights take 3 wounds from the deepwoods double-tapping, but get trucked by the death knight charge.

Alliana has no choice but to go in for the death knights.

Round 5:

Faolan jumps on the flank of the death knights, armoring up to avoid getting killed by Maro, or charged by the death knights.

The death knights reform to face Faolan.

Maro puts a wound on Faolan and uses Fdice to heal a wound.

The Ventala make use of LotL to get around the terrain and drop another fire rune into Maro.

Alliana moves in to flank the death knights.

Round 6:

Faolan drops to figures on the death knights, then gets takes two wounds back.

Maro finishes him off and regens another wound.

The Ventala double tap Maro and finish him.

Alliana lines up for the perfect flank.

Round 7:

Alliana slams into the death knight flank with lethal 10+dice and kills 5 figures, even with their immunity to her mortal strike.

Round 8:

The death knights fall.

Game ends 7/4 Latari.

Afterthoughts:

Initiative favored me a lot this game, along with the runes. There was only 1 round that I didn't have 4 unstable.

The long board setup favored me greatly, as it let me choose the engagement point with EoA doing heavy lifting on unit placement.

Church got a bit jumbled trying to stay out of range but gain a good footing for a strike. His units came into the range band separately, which let me pick them apart one by one.

It took me a long time to realize, but LotL is so good for Ventala. The ability to shift and shoot is great, and it gets better when they can shift, shift again, and then shoot. They got into a perfect position this game, sliding back and forth behind the terrain, and slinging fire runes at every opportunity.

EoA is still a beastly card even with nerfs, I have concerns about it in general, even though I love what it does. Similar to scuttle and insatiable, they might be fun to use, but if they make the game completely unenjoyable for a skilled opponent then there is probably a balance issue.

I'll try to be more consistent with reports in the future.

Thanks for Reading!

did Church say so about EoA? I guess LoTL and EoA are just a perfect match on many aoccasions, but it could also go poorly. It is just that Maegan is soo good with Ventala.

Church's army has its flaws (like no synergy between elements), and your's was flawless. Keeping Aliana in reserve was also a very good idea

This was a bad match for Church, and one where everything went right for me (positioning, dice, and runes). His list is actually pretty cool, it let's him support 2 freight train units (lord V and the DKs) with some substantial ranged fire. The wraiths are a nuisance unit that has to be dealt with, but wastes time.

We're pretty sure the terrain and disengage nerf put EoA in a proper power level, this game displays it post nerf nicely. In practice games prior to the nerf I was able to push the CQT archers into a unit before it could charge, pull it back before they could melee, and push them back in again to kill another charge, or wait until after melee to go back in. It was broken bad. Worse yet, I was pushing the Ventala into terrain, then having them exit on activation with a shift, shift again with LotL and alpha strike hard on round 1.

The best part of the nerf is it also resolved the shenanigans that uthuk can pull with scuttle and insatiable, which were also problem cards. It affects Waiqar and Daqan in no way, so it closed the gap on some power cards.

After Church's explanation elsewhere I can See and appreciate a lot synergy between Maro and ventala. But the rest are Just good units.

7 hours ago, Skaflok said:

After Church's explanation elsewhere I can See and appreciate a lot synergy between Maro and ventala. But the rest are Just good units.

It probably because the bulk of my instincts and strategy for this game developed while Uthuk had just the core set and command upgrades for a year-ish. I didn’t have options for effective support.

I dont always, but do typically build towards each unit capable of operating independently. It allows for deployment flexibility and means that unit A doesn’t get worse because unit B was defeated. It probably puts a cap on the upper limits of performance, but it provides too many other benefits for me to not like.

This particular match was a pile of worst case issues for me. My list can move a collective speed 4 but doesn’t want to. With the deep deployment instead of a normal shallow one, Jukey got to run a pretty effective elastic defense.

The deployment also sets up Aliana to be a major end of game hammer without much pressure. With more shallow deployments I can force her to blow Ambush Predator turn 2-3.

I faced Church’s list at the event and found it was pretty well balanced. It can place itself together very tightly which was a problem for my list in the deployment we played.

Akhaur is a blast cannon but a bit slow and fragile compared to a 3x2 Reanimate Archers. That’s the trade-off between those units (amongst others).

I’ve also found a difference between 4 and 5 units as you need that 5th unit to cover the flank of your big hammer unit.