Cross pollinated from CID:
I held off on commenting on any of the changes to the Sacral Vault until I finally had a chance to get some table time with it. The big change from Week 1 to Week 2 was the removal of the D3 and the addition of Reload [2], while removing the RFP condition on the gun in order to promote additional soul collection. I approached this change with a somewhat mixed reaction; ranged RFP was something very unique to the Sacral Vault and a major reason why I included it in certain lists. Additionally, I was rather skeptical about the Reload [2] ability--at this point the Vault uses souls to buy attacks, boost to hit, boost damage, Soulstorm, and Arcane Vortex. That seems like a significant draw on a limited resource.
With these ideas in mind, I entered the dojo with several preconceived ideas: I wanted to take it in a list that maximized infantry in order to guarantee it a steady stream of souls, even if my opponent did not bring some for me, and I did not want to see it taken in Blindwater theme due to the anti-synergy between the improved Posse’s Snacking and the Soul Collection on the Vault. I ended up with:
Calaban
-Wrastler
-Wrastler
-Blindwalker
Sacral Vault
Brigands (max)
-Warlord
Brigands (max)
-Warlord
Feralgiest
Feralgiest
A pretty straightforward gunline list, focused on the idea of tagging a target with Parasite and blasting it away with Prey and Hog Wild. The Wrastlers are there to round out the list in melee, just in case you need some Mat 8 Pow 23 damage, and the Giests both contest and act as free ranging solos.
I played against Fort from Advanced Maneuvers using SR16 rules, with the Week 2 Vault CID. He brought his Skorne Flea Circus, using:
Lord Tyrant Zaadesh
-Agonizer
-Aradus Sentinel
-Aradus Sentinel
-Aradus Soldier
-Despoiler
Extoller Soulward
Extoller Soulward
Willbreaker
Paingiver Task Master
Legends of Halaak
Paingiver Beast Handlers (min)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (min)
Swamp Gobbo Bellows Crew
Well...I am certainly kicking myself for not taking the Mist Speaker over the 2 Feralgiests.
I win the roll, go first. Prey on Legends and on the Soldier.
Calaban Turn 1: Everything runs up, Vault gets 1 soul, Occultation on the Blindwalker, Carnivore on the right Brigands for fun.
Zaadesh Turn 1: Run up, cloud wall, he puts up the Counter-Charge Spell. The bugs take a couple scatter shots, kill off a Brigand.
Calaban Turn 2: Despoiler is what I can see, so time to sacrifice the Blindwalker. He animi’s and tramples up. Calaban doesn’t upkeep any spells, hits the Despoiler with Parasite and a boosted damage Hex Blast, backs out of bug shot range, no fury. Brigands move up, shoot Despoiler dead, Reposition. Other Brigands advance and Dig In, Vault runs.
Zaadesh Turn 2: Upkeep Countercharge spell, drops clouds, feat turn. Extollers give Eyeless sight to the Sentinels, who thankfully don’t rip up the Wrastlers too much. Soldier goes in and easily kills the Blindwalker. Gobbers make more clouds and reposition with Task Master.
Calaban Turn 3: I think I could kill the Soldier with just Brigands if I could Parasite it, but that is just not gonna happen. Left Brigands move up, try to get a bead on the Agonizer, trigger Counter Charge on the Sentinel, then trigger it again on the Agonizer. Oops, guess he ain’t a solo anymore! Needless to say, their shooting is less than impressive. They reposition to disengage the Agonizer. Vault moves up, 2 shots the Agonizer, then pops a Pain Giver, to try to get him to whip his buddy in the zone in the back, he misses of course. Right Brigands Hog Wild on the Soldier, Wrastler braves the Defensive Strike and kills it. Calaban heals up the left Wrastler because he cannot get to the Sentinel by like an ⅛”.
Zaadesh Turn 3: Zaadesh and the Legends clear out all the Brigands in the right zone. Extollers try to shoot the Wrastler in the zone, but miss or roll poorly on damage. Sentinel takes care of that business though. The other Sentinel disengages and shoots 2 Brigands and a Warlord to death. Happily the Feralgiest contests.
Calaban Turn 4: Feat turn! Calaban moves up, misses a Parasite on a Sentinel (missed that he was engaged), Carnivore and Rage on the OG Wrastler, feats. OG Wrastler kills off the Sentinel and a cloud Gobber. Vault moves up to feed the feat, triggers dogganm counter charge. So now all it can do is shoot the Sentinel, which goes about as one would expect. So Feralgiests and 3 right unit Brigands kill up a bunch of infantry to feed Calaban 5 fury so he can boost a Parasite onto the Sentinel. 3 Brigands charge in and beat it up, but it is awkward charge lanes and it lives.
Zaadesh Turn 4: Sentinel does not frenzy, so it keeps all the fury. Paingivers charge and kills a couple left side Brigands, Sentinel scratches at the Vault. Legends kill the Wrastler, other stuff clears the zone. CP: 2-0
Calaban Turn 5: Calaban charges the Parasite’d Sentinel, kills it with Life Trader, puts Carnivore on the Brigands, who turn around and kill more Paingivers. Vault backs out, shoots up the Legends, but apparently Legends suck at killing Legends, leaving only 1 dead and 1 injured. Stupid dice. Giest goes in and also doesn’t kill a Legend (despite hitting!).
Zaadesh Turn 5: Reclears the zone, CP 4-0.
Calaban Turn 6: Vault fails to kill the Legends some more, Calaban Hex Blasts them to death. Brigands contest.
Zaadesh Turn 6: Reclears the zone, CP 6-0.
Lessons Learned: Ay carumba what a long game! I made a SHEEEEET ton of mistakes. Counter charges everywhere, not using the Giests to properly contest, etc. etc. But at the end of the day, the list felt strong, and I think a few more reps with it to iron out my brain and it’ll be good to go. This was also a relatively tough match up (?) for it, and the list definitely held its own, despite some questionable piloting.
CID Impressions:
--Yellow--
Given the stated design ideas behind removing the RFP and adding the Reload, everything worked very well. The Rat 6 was additionally impactful and very appreciated. My list was built with feeding the Vault souls, and in that environment it never went through too dry a spell. It would be very nice to have an RFP “may” conditional on the gun, as that would feed back into its original unique purpose and in this game would have actually been nice to deny my opponent’s Extollers some souls. Additionally, Gun Platform over Gun Fighter might be a nice change. The Cricket and the Vessel are in a similar boat, but both have methods of getting out of melee (Carapace and the Push Miracle) which the Vault lacks. Could be an intended weakness, but worth a flag raise.
Ultimately, good job!!! Theoretically you could probably call it a wrap with that…
...butttttt...
People have been very outspoken about the Vault needing something, but have issues nailing down precisely what. I would like to put forth the theory that what the Vault lacks is meaningful interaction within the army. Going back to Pagani’s 4/26 Insider and his response on the “Where do you see it” thread in the CID Week 1, the Vault is listed down in the support category. “Some battle engines do very little offensively, but are focused on providing great support options to their army. [...], these Battle Engines usually have solid attacks, but are primarily focused on their special rules.” Also, “Personally, I see it as a support/gun platform. It’s got a solid boostable ranged attack, brings board control with Soulstorm and support with Arcane Vortex.” Ironing out the randomness of the ranged attacks helps the Vault come closer to its competition (Gun Boars and Spitters) with equitable damage output, but the support elements are not quite there.
Listed within that same category are the Celestial Fulcrum, the Vessel of Judgement, and the Siege Crawler. Each of these give back to the list in significant ways: the Fulcrum has Veteran Leader Blackclad and Leaches Fury, the Vessel heals and purifies, and the Siege Crawler crawls up on top of Siege Animantarax to hop over walls (just kidding!). It provides cover and reinforcements.
Compared to these, the Sacral Vault takes more from the lists than it provides. It takes souls, takes infantry to fuel the gun, which restricts list construction from the beginning. In return it provides Soul Storm --if-- you left a soul on it, and Arcane Vortex --if-- your opponent casts a spell, and --if-- the target is within 3” and --if-- you left a soul on it. In certain match ups, this is life saving (stupid Scourge spell), but compared to the support BEs that generate value each and every game in addition to their offensive output, the Vault’s abilities are very situationally dependent, which is why people say that it is missing something, but they do not know what. What abilities the Vault has are useful, it has enough output, and survivability, and rules to justify the points, but the ability to leverage the value from game to game is too limited. It takes, but does not give.
I would offer that now that the randomness of the gun has been addressed, the support abilities of the Vault should be reconsidered in order to create more interactions between it and the army rather than just using dead frog gas to fire up the reactor. Interactions make for imaginative list design and strengthen the fun level of the game.
To smooth the soul generation curve, instead of gaining D3 souls if it has none, it can either just gain a soul at the start of every maintenance phase up to 5, or RFP a friendly model within X” to gain D3 at any time during its activation (in keeping with the sacrifice theme). The soul to fury rule from Mk2 could be returned, or the Soul Tap rule from Marketh; as Minion casters have literally no magical support outside Craft Talisman. When I think of Aztec style sacrifices, I don’t think of them as being used to cancel magic, but being used to direct it. You pull the power out of your enemies and use it to strengthen your own warriors. Perhaps some rules to the effect of buffing Friendly Faction magic abilities instead of suppressing them, such as Telemetry or Druid’s Wrath (not those exact rules, just general examples). This could be used open up design space for future releases, encourage future exploration of the magical thematic elements within the Minions faction as a whole, while assisting current casters and such solos as Lanyssa, Midwinter, Mist Speaker, Wrong Eye, and Witch Doc Croc.
I enjoyed my game with it, and am looking forward to some more this upcoming week. Thanks for the help for the Vault and Thresher, for reading this essay, and keep up the good work!