Post by unded on Mar 9, 2017 9:58:43 GMT
Posted up feedback in the CiD forum, but I thought anyone not involved in CiD might like to see a bit of Grymkin love.
I was looking to put the corpse mechanic through its paces, and so I built a list to capitalise on (or fail through the lack of) corpse tokens.
Dreamer, Dark Menagerie
Skin 'n Moans
Skin 'n Moans
Cage Rager
Rattler
Gore Hound
Death Knell
Max dread rots
Min dread rots
Twilight sisters
Lady Kiriana Rose
3 x Crabbits (free from theme)
I was facing:
Sorscha1
Juggernaut
Juggernaut
Destroyer
Destroyer
Widowmakers
Widowmaker Marksman
Kell Bailoch
Eiryss1
Max Nyss Hunters
Aiyana and Holt
So lots of shooting to really put my infantry through their paces, and enough to scare my battlegroup, backed up by weaponmasters and vicious budget heavies in melee.
For my Arcana, I am forced to take All fall down, and I choose The Shadow to keep his juggernauts on their toes (especially if they want to charge my light beasts...) and choose Sacrifice to combo with my three fragile shield guards to take the edge off his shooting.
Scenario is Take and Hold, Sorscha wins the roll and elects to go first. I choose a side with less clutter, forcing my opponent to move around an obstacle and through a sizable forest in order to protect his flag. He deploys with both destroyers and one juggernaut on my left flank, and the other juggernaut central with the Nyss Hunters taking up the right flank, poised to run through the forest thanks to pathfinder. I deploy centrally with my beasts and caster flanking the battle engine, support behind the engine, and the max rots on the right-hand side facing down three jacks, shepherded by the gorehound in case the sniper boat deploys there, and the min rot unit facing down Cylena's murderous brigands.
Round #1 he runs into position, making it clear I have to come into firing range. He makes a comment about my not having any guns (very true) and Sorscha therefore has free reign to bully my caster. I run up a little cautiously to meet him. Mirage goes on to the max dread rots, allowing them some freedom once they get frozen (well, just freedom to get the hell out of my army's way). I run the death knell 10" up, and make a nice arrowhead formation with the two skin-'n-moans and the cage rager. The two lights run out in front of the wall in order to put some pressure on Sorscha's army, and the dread rots run up and space out, making themselves tasty targets within the death knell's CMD radius. The three crabbits run up behind the death knell, spreading out a little bit to offer protection to the other heavies. Lastly Kiriana Rose sucks up a whole lot of FURY, which really was a nice surprise.
Round #2 and Sorscha feats on all the beasts and half the dread rots. She casts freezing grip on the big unit to really seal them in, and backs off to safety with Wind Rush. The widowmakers and marksman move up into stealth range of the gorehound, and shoot out most of it (he only realised after the game he could choose a location, so nothing was crippled). The destroyers took aim at the death knell, and the first one cranked up the damage and knocked 10 health off an ARM 20 death knell. He shoots it with the second destroyer, and a sneaky crabbit steals the shot. He doesn't boost, but a big damage roll leaves the crabbit on 1 health. A nearby crabbit takes 3 damage from the splash, sadly both of the dread rots that were hit survive (ARM 16 is pretty solid vs splash damage). Aiyana tries to kiss the death knell, but misses its surprisingly nimble DEF of 12. The cage rager was nearby to prevent this if it had hit, though. Kell and Eiryss shove 9 damage on to the poor rattler, and cripple his Spirit which prevents him from shaking stationary. The Nyss hunters try a big 10-elf CRA into the death knell, but the second (wounded) Crabbit shield guards it. It's a POW 20 shot into my ARM 14 crabbit that has already taken 3 damage, so he needs a 4 to kill it. He rolls a 3! Curses!! (If he rolls that 4+, I trigger Sacrifice and fully heal the rattler, gorehound and death knell, plus one crabbit, effectively undoing his entire turn). My turn for retaliation. The Dreamer upkeeps Mirage, which lets the frozen dread rots get out of the way and get a tiny bit closer to the enemy lines. It also lets me put some in the way of anything that wants to charge the death knell, ready to trigger sacrifice. All beasts that have a working spirit (poor Rattler) shake stationary. The dreamer moves up a bit, still behind her wall of flesh, and casts manifest destiny. Then the gorehound engages the widowmakers, and eats two plus the marksman, handing three corpses to the death knell. Death knell acts, puts up the aura and hands two corpses to the leftmost skin-'n-moans. On the right hand side the two heavies close ranks again to keep the wall secure, and the non-frozen rots press forward, one charging aNyss hunter while the others ran to engage them. The rolls murders one Nyss, and hands the corpse directly to the right-hand Skin. The twilight sisters heal the death knell for 4 health, and the crabbits take their positions again and the turn passes, Sorscha's feat survived.
Round#3 and now he's feeling some real pressure. My beast wall in the centre has ARM values of 20 and 21 to try to crack, and they're behind the lights and a couple of rots while I have all three of my Arcana in hand. Realistically I'm not going to get to use the shadow as my caster is too far back for her CMD 7 to matter, but it's a nice bit of discouragement for anything trying to slingshot into the death knell. I'm mostly planning to use Sacrifice now, since if he shoots the death knell I have a crabbit on 1 health ready to shield guard, plus a wounded gorehound and a wounded rattler. No matter which he chooses to kill, I heal up all the rest. Sorscha begins by freezing gripping the big dread rot unit again (so freaking annoying!) and then getting the juggernaut to charge down the wounded Gorehound. He murders it, and I trigger Sacrifice, fully healing the two crabbits, the Rattler and the Death Knell. To add insult to injusry, the death knell swipes the corpse of the gorehound. He pumps some destroyer shooting into the death knell, but the crabbits catch the shots with aplomb. Eiryss and Kell put 9 damage back on to the Rattler, taking out it's newly-healed spirit. Aiyana tries to kiss the rattler, but the Cage rager disallows this vile act. The Nyss hunter murder 3 rots, which takes up 5 actions, and pumps the remainder into a CRA into the rattler, but does very little damage. The death knell is now on 4 corpses. The dreamer now gets to respond, and it is glorious. The death knell begins, filling up the second skin and putting out its aura. The dreamer heals the wounded Rattler's spirit, and casts Manifest Destiny. Lady rose enrages the left Skin, who walks into the juggernaut that had murdered his doggy friend. With only two bought attacks, the Skin murders the juggernaut (POW 21 with Man. Dest... it's kinda sickening). One crabbit leaps ahead and eats Aiyana. The cage kills two Nyss hunters for two more corpses, and the Rattler surfs the rest of the unit. Lastly the second Skin charges the second juggernaut, this time POW 19 instead of 21. Once again, however, only 2 FURY down and the Juggernaut lies dead. He spends a third to kill Eiryss, because everybody wants to kill Eiryss. Turn passes happily.
At this point my opponent has two widowmakers, Sorscha, Kell, Holt and two destroyers versus almost my entire army on full health. He looks about for an assassination, but it's just not there, and he concedes.
The Good
- Corpses flowed like water this game. If you can get the corpse train rolling, then your battlegroup punches way above its weight class, which to me seems working as intended.
- Cheap shield guards do a lot for playing into a strong ranged game. Crabbits were excellent..
- The Arcana customisation (minor Arcana) is very strong. Being able to pick purely based on my opponent's list was both enjoyable and rewarding.
- The reactive nature of the Arcana is actually very strong, especially when more than one Arcana is a viable choice in a given situation.
- The death knell was fantastic. Corpse token everywhere.
- Was an absolute blast to play. The playstyle is both fun and very different from any of my other three faction.
The Uncertain
- My opponent felt the death knell was too good for its points. I disagreed, but its only fair I report it. The devil's bargain of not wanting to kill my models clearly frustrated him.
- The Cage Rager was useful, but only because it had a Corpse from the theme, With its slow SPD I don't think it would have been worthwhile if the theme force had not given it a free Corpse.
- Corpses still feel a bit clunky. In the post-game discussion, we considered the option of my opponent just backing up turn #2 out of my threat range, and if he'd done that the knell would have no corpses to buff ARM, and I quickly run out of resources.
- Sacrifice may be too strong. With its reactive nature and the tools available in Grymkin (namely Crabbits) this is basically a better version of Absylonia1's feat. I'm not convinced that's a problem, since Absylonia is widely regarded as having a useless feat, but it is definitely worth noting.
The Bad
None. Concerns listed above, but nothing struck us as genuinely problematic.
Happy hunting.
-und_ed
I was looking to put the corpse mechanic through its paces, and so I built a list to capitalise on (or fail through the lack of) corpse tokens.
Dreamer, Dark Menagerie
Skin 'n Moans
Skin 'n Moans
Cage Rager
Rattler
Gore Hound
Death Knell
Max dread rots
Min dread rots
Twilight sisters
Lady Kiriana Rose
3 x Crabbits (free from theme)
I was facing:
Sorscha1
Juggernaut
Juggernaut
Destroyer
Destroyer
Widowmakers
Widowmaker Marksman
Kell Bailoch
Eiryss1
Max Nyss Hunters
Aiyana and Holt
So lots of shooting to really put my infantry through their paces, and enough to scare my battlegroup, backed up by weaponmasters and vicious budget heavies in melee.
For my Arcana, I am forced to take All fall down, and I choose The Shadow to keep his juggernauts on their toes (especially if they want to charge my light beasts...) and choose Sacrifice to combo with my three fragile shield guards to take the edge off his shooting.
Scenario is Take and Hold, Sorscha wins the roll and elects to go first. I choose a side with less clutter, forcing my opponent to move around an obstacle and through a sizable forest in order to protect his flag. He deploys with both destroyers and one juggernaut on my left flank, and the other juggernaut central with the Nyss Hunters taking up the right flank, poised to run through the forest thanks to pathfinder. I deploy centrally with my beasts and caster flanking the battle engine, support behind the engine, and the max rots on the right-hand side facing down three jacks, shepherded by the gorehound in case the sniper boat deploys there, and the min rot unit facing down Cylena's murderous brigands.
Round #1 he runs into position, making it clear I have to come into firing range. He makes a comment about my not having any guns (very true) and Sorscha therefore has free reign to bully my caster. I run up a little cautiously to meet him. Mirage goes on to the max dread rots, allowing them some freedom once they get frozen (well, just freedom to get the hell out of my army's way). I run the death knell 10" up, and make a nice arrowhead formation with the two skin-'n-moans and the cage rager. The two lights run out in front of the wall in order to put some pressure on Sorscha's army, and the dread rots run up and space out, making themselves tasty targets within the death knell's CMD radius. The three crabbits run up behind the death knell, spreading out a little bit to offer protection to the other heavies. Lastly Kiriana Rose sucks up a whole lot of FURY, which really was a nice surprise.
Round #2 and Sorscha feats on all the beasts and half the dread rots. She casts freezing grip on the big unit to really seal them in, and backs off to safety with Wind Rush. The widowmakers and marksman move up into stealth range of the gorehound, and shoot out most of it (he only realised after the game he could choose a location, so nothing was crippled). The destroyers took aim at the death knell, and the first one cranked up the damage and knocked 10 health off an ARM 20 death knell. He shoots it with the second destroyer, and a sneaky crabbit steals the shot. He doesn't boost, but a big damage roll leaves the crabbit on 1 health. A nearby crabbit takes 3 damage from the splash, sadly both of the dread rots that were hit survive (ARM 16 is pretty solid vs splash damage). Aiyana tries to kiss the death knell, but misses its surprisingly nimble DEF of 12. The cage rager was nearby to prevent this if it had hit, though. Kell and Eiryss shove 9 damage on to the poor rattler, and cripple his Spirit which prevents him from shaking stationary. The Nyss hunters try a big 10-elf CRA into the death knell, but the second (wounded) Crabbit shield guards it. It's a POW 20 shot into my ARM 14 crabbit that has already taken 3 damage, so he needs a 4 to kill it. He rolls a 3! Curses!! (If he rolls that 4+, I trigger Sacrifice and fully heal the rattler, gorehound and death knell, plus one crabbit, effectively undoing his entire turn). My turn for retaliation. The Dreamer upkeeps Mirage, which lets the frozen dread rots get out of the way and get a tiny bit closer to the enemy lines. It also lets me put some in the way of anything that wants to charge the death knell, ready to trigger sacrifice. All beasts that have a working spirit (poor Rattler) shake stationary. The dreamer moves up a bit, still behind her wall of flesh, and casts manifest destiny. Then the gorehound engages the widowmakers, and eats two plus the marksman, handing three corpses to the death knell. Death knell acts, puts up the aura and hands two corpses to the leftmost skin-'n-moans. On the right hand side the two heavies close ranks again to keep the wall secure, and the non-frozen rots press forward, one charging aNyss hunter while the others ran to engage them. The rolls murders one Nyss, and hands the corpse directly to the right-hand Skin. The twilight sisters heal the death knell for 4 health, and the crabbits take their positions again and the turn passes, Sorscha's feat survived.
Round#3 and now he's feeling some real pressure. My beast wall in the centre has ARM values of 20 and 21 to try to crack, and they're behind the lights and a couple of rots while I have all three of my Arcana in hand. Realistically I'm not going to get to use the shadow as my caster is too far back for her CMD 7 to matter, but it's a nice bit of discouragement for anything trying to slingshot into the death knell. I'm mostly planning to use Sacrifice now, since if he shoots the death knell I have a crabbit on 1 health ready to shield guard, plus a wounded gorehound and a wounded rattler. No matter which he chooses to kill, I heal up all the rest. Sorscha begins by freezing gripping the big dread rot unit again (so freaking annoying!) and then getting the juggernaut to charge down the wounded Gorehound. He murders it, and I trigger Sacrifice, fully healing the two crabbits, the Rattler and the Death Knell. To add insult to injusry, the death knell swipes the corpse of the gorehound. He pumps some destroyer shooting into the death knell, but the crabbits catch the shots with aplomb. Eiryss and Kell put 9 damage back on to the Rattler, taking out it's newly-healed spirit. Aiyana tries to kiss the rattler, but the Cage rager disallows this vile act. The Nyss hunter murder 3 rots, which takes up 5 actions, and pumps the remainder into a CRA into the rattler, but does very little damage. The death knell is now on 4 corpses. The dreamer now gets to respond, and it is glorious. The death knell begins, filling up the second skin and putting out its aura. The dreamer heals the wounded Rattler's spirit, and casts Manifest Destiny. Lady rose enrages the left Skin, who walks into the juggernaut that had murdered his doggy friend. With only two bought attacks, the Skin murders the juggernaut (POW 21 with Man. Dest... it's kinda sickening). One crabbit leaps ahead and eats Aiyana. The cage kills two Nyss hunters for two more corpses, and the Rattler surfs the rest of the unit. Lastly the second Skin charges the second juggernaut, this time POW 19 instead of 21. Once again, however, only 2 FURY down and the Juggernaut lies dead. He spends a third to kill Eiryss, because everybody wants to kill Eiryss. Turn passes happily.
At this point my opponent has two widowmakers, Sorscha, Kell, Holt and two destroyers versus almost my entire army on full health. He looks about for an assassination, but it's just not there, and he concedes.
The Good
- Corpses flowed like water this game. If you can get the corpse train rolling, then your battlegroup punches way above its weight class, which to me seems working as intended.
- Cheap shield guards do a lot for playing into a strong ranged game. Crabbits were excellent..
- The Arcana customisation (minor Arcana) is very strong. Being able to pick purely based on my opponent's list was both enjoyable and rewarding.
- The reactive nature of the Arcana is actually very strong, especially when more than one Arcana is a viable choice in a given situation.
- The death knell was fantastic. Corpse token everywhere.
- Was an absolute blast to play. The playstyle is both fun and very different from any of my other three faction.
The Uncertain
- My opponent felt the death knell was too good for its points. I disagreed, but its only fair I report it. The devil's bargain of not wanting to kill my models clearly frustrated him.
- The Cage Rager was useful, but only because it had a Corpse from the theme, With its slow SPD I don't think it would have been worthwhile if the theme force had not given it a free Corpse.
- Corpses still feel a bit clunky. In the post-game discussion, we considered the option of my opponent just backing up turn #2 out of my threat range, and if he'd done that the knell would have no corpses to buff ARM, and I quickly run out of resources.
- Sacrifice may be too strong. With its reactive nature and the tools available in Grymkin (namely Crabbits) this is basically a better version of Absylonia1's feat. I'm not convinced that's a problem, since Absylonia is widely regarded as having a useless feat, but it is definitely worth noting.
The Bad
None. Concerns listed above, but nothing struck us as genuinely problematic.
Happy hunting.
-und_ed
