Post by subversive on Apr 8, 2017 23:29:28 GMT
Finally getting around to porting this over from the old boards. It was a work in progress then, and I haven't gotten to finish it yet, but it's a decent starting point.
Wurmwood, Tree of WT…Fate
Surprisingly enough, no one has written up a Wurmwood tactics yet, so I figured I’d jump on our evil tree. I started playing Wurmwood as it was catching on towards the end of MkII, when Cassius the Sock Puppet still got top billing, and was surprised to see the MkIII incarnation get even better.
Wurmwood is a really unusual caster in that… well, it’s a tree. A really old, really mean… tree. One of the funny things about trees is that they don’t move around so well on their own, which presents some unique challenges for Circle’s most wooden caster. It’s got ways around that issue, but it’s something that no one really thinks about until they’ve played him a bit.
I’d say we should start the same way that most tactics articles start, by looking at the statline, but… well, remember that whole “it’s a tree” thing I was mentioning? Well, let’s just say that trees don’t tend to have the most interesting stats. SPD: - _ STR: 0 _ MAT: 0 _ RAT: 0… starting to see a pattern forming here? Things start to look up a bit when we get to DEF… a whopping 5. That’s infinitely better than 0, right? At least it does have the advantage of being made of really old, hard, magical wood when we finally get to it’s ARM: 18. CMD is a respectable 10. FURY 7 is very solid.
Wurmwood comes equipped with a suite of special abilities, including Advance Deployment, Eyeless Sight, Arcane Vision (allowing it to target models in its back arc with spells… yes, a tree has a back arc), Circular Vision (no back strike bonus for that back arc though… we wouldn’t want it to be any easier than DEF 5 hit), Immobile (that “it’s a tree” thing rears it’s ugly head again), Prowl (it’s a tree… but I can’t tell if it’s THE tree when it’s mixed in with those other trees) and Soul Taker: Altar of Sacrifice. Yes, you read that right. It’s an evil tree that converts souls to Fury, up to 3 at a time. It also has Ghost Shield, giving it +1 ARM for each soul it has on it.
So what we’re seeing here is… a tree. If you’re not familiar with Wurmwood, you’re probably starting to wonder what all the hype is about. I did mention that it’s a magic tree, right? And the fact that it eats souls should probably be a tip off that there’s more to this tree than meets the eye.
The first problem that obviously needs to be addressed with Wurmwood is the fact that it can’t move on its own. At all. That’s where its spell list and sock puppet… er… attachment solo come into play. Fluff-wise, Cassius the Oathkeeper, sometimes known as the Sock Puppet, Meat Puppet and other colorful names, is a Druid that was bound to Wurmwood to provide it a conduit through which to speak. He’s a pretty decent solo himself, with 6’s in the stats that matter, DEF 14, ARM 15. His sword has RNG: 1, P+S 12 and Fertilizer, which RFPs living and undead models and turns them into 3” forests.
Cassius is also a Channeler and has Advance Deploy (like his boss), and Pathfinder (unlike his boss). He has a special rule called Fury Bound that allows him to spend Fury on Wurmwood to buy and/or boost melee attacks. He’s also got 10 damage boxes, which surprises some folks.
Next comes the spell list. I’m doing this out of order because Dark Path is critical to understanding how Wurmwood gets around.
Cassius and Wurmwood work together in a semi-unique way. Wurmwood’s spell Dark Path is the key to getting the ol’ stump around the board, and also keeping Cassius safe. This 2 Fury, RNG CTRL spell allows you to place either Wurmwood or Cassius completely within 2” of the other. A model cannot advance after being placed by Dark Path this turn. This seems really straightforward on first glance, but there are some interesting aspects to it that I’ll get into later. The general gist of it is that you move Cassius to where you want Wurmwood, then port Wurmwood to Cassius.
Curse of Shadows is a COST 3, RNG 8 offensive upkeep that reduces the target model/unit’s ARM by 2. This, by itself, is pretty great. In addition, it also allows models to advance through affected models, and prevents affected models from making free strikes. This spell is fantastic, and I’ll get to some of the uses below in the tactics section.
Helmouth is a COST 4, RNG 8, AOE*, POW 12 offensive spell. If it hits, it pushes models within 3” of the target model directly towards the target model. Then a 3” AOE is placed on the target model and all models hit take a POW 12 magical damage roll. Models boxed are RFPed. Hellmouth is bonkers good on so many levels it’s kind of hard to describe, but I’m going to try anyway.
Rapid Growth is a new spell on Wurmwood’s card since MkIII. It’s a 4” forest template that you can upkeep. It costs 2 Fury to cast, and has to be placed completely within CTRL.
Stranglehold is a 2 Fury, RNG 10, POW 11 nuke. Unlike most crappy nukes, though, Stranglehold wins you games with its secondary effect of making a target damaged by it forfeit move or combat action.
Just about any one of those spells would be “THE” spell on another caster’s card. The fact that Wurmwood has ALL of them really goes a long way to make up for the “I’m a tree that can’t move” thing. The kicker though, is its Feat.
Black Roots causes Wurmwoods Command area to become a forest. Yep, you read that right - you drop a 22” diameter forest on the table. If you happen to get knocked down in that forest, you also take a point of damage. There’s not a ton of places where that part comes into play, but it’s worth mentioning. And that forest is an aura effect that travels with the tree. Yes, that means that if you port Wurmwood, you port an entire ecosystem with him. Remember: magic.
Tactics
So now that we’ve covered what Wurmwood does, let’s talk a little about how it does it. As mentioned, it takes a little bit of getting used to when you start playing a model that can’t move on its own. You need to plan your turn out a little more carefully than you might otherwise with another caster. The most important thing to think about with Wurmwood is that, unlike Gallows Groves and Sentry Stones, it CAN be placed by Shifting Stones. This gives you some really unique opportunities to get your immobile tree all over the board. Generally speaking, you want to start and end your turn inside a full set of Shifting Stones. This frees up Cassius to go places he might not want to drag Wurmwood into. Crappy neighborhoods like “over by that Khador jack with the big axes” and “in range of Kaelyssa’s whole battlegroup.” The Shifting Stones let you get Wurmwood around the board without having to spend tons of Fury on multiple Dark Paths.
As a result of all of these moving pieces, you’re very likely to screw up your order of activations the first few times you play Wurmwood. There’s really no getting around it unless you’re way smarter than me (which is very possible, but I’ve heard this from enough Wurmwood players that I feel comfortable that it’s not just me). Each turn may be different, but the important moving pieces are:
1. Where is Wurmwood and what do I want it to do this turn?
2. Where is Cassius, and what do I want him to do this turn?
3. Where do I want Wurmwood to end up at the end of the turn?
4. Where do I want Cassius to end up at the end of the turn?
5. Do I have Shifting Stones that can help facilitate items 1-4?
Remember that if your stones ‘port Wurmwood, they won’t be able to move themselves into position until next turn. If you have 2 sets of Stones, position accordingly. Because you can’t move Wurmwood on its own, it’s really important to NOT lose Cassius or at least 1 set of Stones. You can sometimes still come back from the loss of Cassius, but you need to be in a really safe spot where you can win on scenario soon after.
After moving around, the Feat is probably the next most important part to talk about. Dropping a massive forest onto the board is essentially a Time Walk against most opponents. Very few things can see into/through woods in MkIII, and Pathfinder-on-a-stick is not quite as prevalent as it was in MkII. There are a few things you may need to consider on feat turn - Ghost Shot and Mage Sight are the ones that come to mind, but hopefully other folks will chime in as well. Legion doesn’t see through woods anymore, but it’s important to remember that they CAN draw LOS to a huge base in the woods. I’ve had multiple legion heavies under Abby 2 manage to reach Wurmwood by charging my Woldwrath that was standing right next to the tree. Also, Skorne Ferox Riders have enough movement with their jump to get into melee range without having to charge. However, against probably 95% of WarmaHordes, Feat turn is Wurmwood’s safe, happy place.
It’s relatively simple to keep most of your army more than 3” from the edge of the woods, but it’s sometimes worthwhile to place a couple of key models near the edge as bait. The Feat is also one of the few ways we can get enough forest to be able to self-trigger Prowl on many of our models, so that’s worth mentioning. Just don’t get caught by anything that can chain its way into the woods (e.g. Madrak 2’s army under his feat, Molik Karn, etc.).
Wurmwood, Tree of WT…Fate
Surprisingly enough, no one has written up a Wurmwood tactics yet, so I figured I’d jump on our evil tree. I started playing Wurmwood as it was catching on towards the end of MkII, when Cassius the Sock Puppet still got top billing, and was surprised to see the MkIII incarnation get even better.
Wurmwood is a really unusual caster in that… well, it’s a tree. A really old, really mean… tree. One of the funny things about trees is that they don’t move around so well on their own, which presents some unique challenges for Circle’s most wooden caster. It’s got ways around that issue, but it’s something that no one really thinks about until they’ve played him a bit.
I’d say we should start the same way that most tactics articles start, by looking at the statline, but… well, remember that whole “it’s a tree” thing I was mentioning? Well, let’s just say that trees don’t tend to have the most interesting stats. SPD: - _ STR: 0 _ MAT: 0 _ RAT: 0… starting to see a pattern forming here? Things start to look up a bit when we get to DEF… a whopping 5. That’s infinitely better than 0, right? At least it does have the advantage of being made of really old, hard, magical wood when we finally get to it’s ARM: 18. CMD is a respectable 10. FURY 7 is very solid.
Wurmwood comes equipped with a suite of special abilities, including Advance Deployment, Eyeless Sight, Arcane Vision (allowing it to target models in its back arc with spells… yes, a tree has a back arc), Circular Vision (no back strike bonus for that back arc though… we wouldn’t want it to be any easier than DEF 5 hit), Immobile (that “it’s a tree” thing rears it’s ugly head again), Prowl (it’s a tree… but I can’t tell if it’s THE tree when it’s mixed in with those other trees) and Soul Taker: Altar of Sacrifice. Yes, you read that right. It’s an evil tree that converts souls to Fury, up to 3 at a time. It also has Ghost Shield, giving it +1 ARM for each soul it has on it.
So what we’re seeing here is… a tree. If you’re not familiar with Wurmwood, you’re probably starting to wonder what all the hype is about. I did mention that it’s a magic tree, right? And the fact that it eats souls should probably be a tip off that there’s more to this tree than meets the eye.
The first problem that obviously needs to be addressed with Wurmwood is the fact that it can’t move on its own. At all. That’s where its spell list and sock puppet… er… attachment solo come into play. Fluff-wise, Cassius the Oathkeeper, sometimes known as the Sock Puppet, Meat Puppet and other colorful names, is a Druid that was bound to Wurmwood to provide it a conduit through which to speak. He’s a pretty decent solo himself, with 6’s in the stats that matter, DEF 14, ARM 15. His sword has RNG: 1, P+S 12 and Fertilizer, which RFPs living and undead models and turns them into 3” forests.
Cassius is also a Channeler and has Advance Deploy (like his boss), and Pathfinder (unlike his boss). He has a special rule called Fury Bound that allows him to spend Fury on Wurmwood to buy and/or boost melee attacks. He’s also got 10 damage boxes, which surprises some folks.
Next comes the spell list. I’m doing this out of order because Dark Path is critical to understanding how Wurmwood gets around.
Cassius and Wurmwood work together in a semi-unique way. Wurmwood’s spell Dark Path is the key to getting the ol’ stump around the board, and also keeping Cassius safe. This 2 Fury, RNG CTRL spell allows you to place either Wurmwood or Cassius completely within 2” of the other. A model cannot advance after being placed by Dark Path this turn. This seems really straightforward on first glance, but there are some interesting aspects to it that I’ll get into later. The general gist of it is that you move Cassius to where you want Wurmwood, then port Wurmwood to Cassius.
Curse of Shadows is a COST 3, RNG 8 offensive upkeep that reduces the target model/unit’s ARM by 2. This, by itself, is pretty great. In addition, it also allows models to advance through affected models, and prevents affected models from making free strikes. This spell is fantastic, and I’ll get to some of the uses below in the tactics section.
Helmouth is a COST 4, RNG 8, AOE*, POW 12 offensive spell. If it hits, it pushes models within 3” of the target model directly towards the target model. Then a 3” AOE is placed on the target model and all models hit take a POW 12 magical damage roll. Models boxed are RFPed. Hellmouth is bonkers good on so many levels it’s kind of hard to describe, but I’m going to try anyway.
Rapid Growth is a new spell on Wurmwood’s card since MkIII. It’s a 4” forest template that you can upkeep. It costs 2 Fury to cast, and has to be placed completely within CTRL.
Stranglehold is a 2 Fury, RNG 10, POW 11 nuke. Unlike most crappy nukes, though, Stranglehold wins you games with its secondary effect of making a target damaged by it forfeit move or combat action.
Just about any one of those spells would be “THE” spell on another caster’s card. The fact that Wurmwood has ALL of them really goes a long way to make up for the “I’m a tree that can’t move” thing. The kicker though, is its Feat.
Black Roots causes Wurmwoods Command area to become a forest. Yep, you read that right - you drop a 22” diameter forest on the table. If you happen to get knocked down in that forest, you also take a point of damage. There’s not a ton of places where that part comes into play, but it’s worth mentioning. And that forest is an aura effect that travels with the tree. Yes, that means that if you port Wurmwood, you port an entire ecosystem with him. Remember: magic.
Tactics
So now that we’ve covered what Wurmwood does, let’s talk a little about how it does it. As mentioned, it takes a little bit of getting used to when you start playing a model that can’t move on its own. You need to plan your turn out a little more carefully than you might otherwise with another caster. The most important thing to think about with Wurmwood is that, unlike Gallows Groves and Sentry Stones, it CAN be placed by Shifting Stones. This gives you some really unique opportunities to get your immobile tree all over the board. Generally speaking, you want to start and end your turn inside a full set of Shifting Stones. This frees up Cassius to go places he might not want to drag Wurmwood into. Crappy neighborhoods like “over by that Khador jack with the big axes” and “in range of Kaelyssa’s whole battlegroup.” The Shifting Stones let you get Wurmwood around the board without having to spend tons of Fury on multiple Dark Paths.
As a result of all of these moving pieces, you’re very likely to screw up your order of activations the first few times you play Wurmwood. There’s really no getting around it unless you’re way smarter than me (which is very possible, but I’ve heard this from enough Wurmwood players that I feel comfortable that it’s not just me). Each turn may be different, but the important moving pieces are:
1. Where is Wurmwood and what do I want it to do this turn?
2. Where is Cassius, and what do I want him to do this turn?
3. Where do I want Wurmwood to end up at the end of the turn?
4. Where do I want Cassius to end up at the end of the turn?
5. Do I have Shifting Stones that can help facilitate items 1-4?
Remember that if your stones ‘port Wurmwood, they won’t be able to move themselves into position until next turn. If you have 2 sets of Stones, position accordingly. Because you can’t move Wurmwood on its own, it’s really important to NOT lose Cassius or at least 1 set of Stones. You can sometimes still come back from the loss of Cassius, but you need to be in a really safe spot where you can win on scenario soon after.
After moving around, the Feat is probably the next most important part to talk about. Dropping a massive forest onto the board is essentially a Time Walk against most opponents. Very few things can see into/through woods in MkIII, and Pathfinder-on-a-stick is not quite as prevalent as it was in MkII. There are a few things you may need to consider on feat turn - Ghost Shot and Mage Sight are the ones that come to mind, but hopefully other folks will chime in as well. Legion doesn’t see through woods anymore, but it’s important to remember that they CAN draw LOS to a huge base in the woods. I’ve had multiple legion heavies under Abby 2 manage to reach Wurmwood by charging my Woldwrath that was standing right next to the tree. Also, Skorne Ferox Riders have enough movement with their jump to get into melee range without having to charge. However, against probably 95% of WarmaHordes, Feat turn is Wurmwood’s safe, happy place.
It’s relatively simple to keep most of your army more than 3” from the edge of the woods, but it’s sometimes worthwhile to place a couple of key models near the edge as bait. The Feat is also one of the few ways we can get enough forest to be able to self-trigger Prowl on many of our models, so that’s worth mentioning. Just don’t get caught by anything that can chain its way into the woods (e.g. Madrak 2’s army under his feat, Molik Karn, etc.).