For those of you not on the CID forum...I play tested OW2 against the same player whom I played against last week, and he once again brought Calaban. We reworked his list – playing the spoiled Blindwater Theme List. I found it helpful to play against the same player and caster to see how the changes played out, and he could benchmark his feedback as an opponent. My list:
Zevanna Agha 2 - WJ: +29
- Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator - PC: 4
- Victor - PC: 38 (Battlegroup Points Used: 29)
- Destroyer - PC: 14
- Marauder - PC: 10
Ragman - PC: 4
Koldun Lord - PC: 4
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor - PC: 5
Battle Mechaniks - Leader & 3 Grunts: 3
Kayazy Eliminators - Leader & Grunt: 5
Kayazy Eliminators - Leader & Grunt: 5
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt - Lady Aiyana & Master Holt: 8
- Koldun Kapitan Valachev - PC: 4
My objective with the list was to play a more melee centric list that still kept a credible (but not skewed) ranged assassination threat on the table. I brought Vicky (yes, her name if Vicky - all Khador colossals are female...like ships) and Ragman to for a combination of melee and ranged threat, and hoped to live the dream of wielding POW 27 fists. The Koldun and Orin were in there for magic and range denial. With the double Eliminators, I wanted to see how well Zevanna could support troops. Lady A & Master H were there because they were the superstars in my last list. My plan was to establish melee presence with the Marauder and Eliminators, while putting down ranged pressure down with the Destroyer, Vicky and Holt, forcing my opponent to come to me so Victor could get work done.
His list:
Blindwater Theme [Spoiled!]
Calaban
- Wrastler
- Blind Walker
- Spitter
- Bull Snapper (free model)
Sacral Vault
Bog Trog Mist Speaker
Wrong Eye & Snap Jaw
Totem Hunter (free model)
Posse – 2 min units
Bellows Crew
The theme force grants him 2” initial deployment, free solos/beasts, and 8 boxes on the gatormen. He brought a bit more ranged tech, which was good to see if he could break Windstorm.
Scenario, Terrain & Deployment
See the attached photo for the terrain and army status at the end of the 1st turn.
Turn 1
We played Recon. He went first, and between his theme force and his +2” of deployment, I felt he was able to establish a lot of pressure. His side had a wall to my right behind the zone where he parked Calaban. He ran his gators up, but they were well spread out so I couldn’t catch more than 2 in a 5” blast template. He ran his Totem hunter way downfield and prayed against A&H. Other stuff advances.
I counter deployed OW opposite Calaban for max spell threat, my 2 heavies opposite the Sacral Vault, and Victor opposite his gators, Blind Walker and Wrong Eye. Kayazy are on the flanks. I decide on a game plan which includes casting Windstorm, boundless charging my 2 heavies, then using A&H plus Victor to try and take a min unit of Gators off the board. After much premeasuring to ensure A&H are outside the totem hunter’s threat, Aiyana Kisses the gators, Holt double taps one, and Victor takes out 2 more with the big gun. (His secondary guns are out of range to do anything). I advance the Koldun Lord 6” up and put down an additional layer of ranged denial.
Turn notes: I am frustrated at OW’s limited threat range alongside the crow gun changes. My opponent had an extra 2” of deployment, and he ran his stuff up to bait me. It seemed fair that I should be able to punish him a bit by trampling out and taking some shots but couldn’t. Going second, my opponent can get out 16” (!) past their deployment line and be safe from the OW’s guns. Ugh.
Turn 2
I realize my “anti-range” plan is ill advised. Windwall plus a Koldun Lord can do a great job at protecting Zevanna, but NOT her army. Calaban advances his Sacral Vault to the edge of my ranged denial, and puts Aianna (who’s on a hill) into the dirt with a boosted shot on average dice. Oofa. The Spitter then takes a boosted shot on Holt, but I get lucky and he misses both the hit and the drift. He then tramples his Blind Walker up, grants Calaban eyeless sight, and slings 2 spells into the Kayazy. They end the turn pushing up daisies. He then runs up a bunch of stuff to try and gum up my counterattack. [Note: It looks good now, but overcommitting the Blind Walker early will cost Calaban the game. Read on!]
I decide to feat. He’s left the Sacral Vault within Boundless Charge range of the Marauder, although I need to kill the Totem Hunter to get to it. He’s similarly left the Blind Walker within reach of Victor. I allocate 1 to the Devastator, 2 to the Marauder, and 2 to Vicky, cast 2 boundless charges, and stick a crow gun on the Wrastler. I remove the Vault and Blind Walker (POW 25 fists with Rags!), and charge my Eliminators into the Wrastler (taking 1 point of damage from my own crows). A counterblast from the Spitter removes one of my assassins. I put up Wind Ravager and position Orin next to the Old Witch to prevent assassination on Calaban’s feat turn. This leaves Victor exposed, which I will regret.
Turn notes: This would have been the turn to spam boundless charges. I cast 2 but only needed 1. I put a second on Victor as a focus saver, but that was overkill. The Eliminators didn’t need it. If I’d brought Great Bears or Drakhuns, they wouldn’t need it. Premeasuring has killed BC spam…my opponent knows what’s in range, and either commits or doesn’t. Divinator added no value this turn at all. The one place I might have relied on it was in the Destroyer-Totem matchup, but I *had* to clear that charge lane so there’s just *no way I’m not* boosting the hit, so Divinator is redundant (90% odds to hit DEF 14 on the boost). The feat felt very lackluster. I removed a bunch of stuff, but that’s because Khador jacks are good at doing what they do not because the OW was helpful.
Also, it turns out that Windsotrm and a Koldun Lord won’t protect your army. I could have premeasured and not lost Aiyana (and nearly Holt), but they were only 3-4” out in front of Zevanna (!) so didn’t think to do that. My alternative would have been to save them until Turn 2, which might have been better (although I probably can’t take out the blind walker on my turn if he has 3 more gators). However, I’m criticizing the utility of Windstorm + Wind Ravager here, not the piece trade per se.
Turn 3
Calaban feats and goes to work. He parasites Vicky and reduces it to a scrap heap with a raged Snapjaw and 1 gator with average rolls. (Man, I hope PP puts Victor into the CID process. Feh!) He misses Boneshaker on the Koldun Lord, which hurts his plan. He misplayed this by not boosting. He then doesn’t have the focus to boost on Valachev, who is on the hill, so misses. He camps 1 fury. The Wastler and Turtle attack my Marauder but leave him on a few boxes.
I forgot to put reconstruct on the Marauder, but it turns out to not have made a difference. I either dropped it on my feat turn to get work done, or it didn’t matter anyway during crunchtime.
I said that getting the Blind Walker killed cost my opponent the game. Here’s why. If he had been able to use his arc node to kill my squishy support, he could have soaked fury for days and killed my support. Instead, on my counterattack, with Lucky Charm in my pocket, I’m able to advance the Old Witch, land Scourage and Curse of Shadows on Calaban, and kill him with a barrage of ranged attacks.
Turn notes: The assassination is a bit lucky, since I need to rely on good roles and one reroll from Reinholt to land both Scourge and the Curse. The short range of my crow gun, and inability to drift, was frustrating, since I can’t use it this turn (Calaban is too far away). If the assassination fails (say, worse rolls, or more fury on Calaban), I’m probably down too many models to recover on attrition.
**Red**
Nothing.
**Orange**
The Crow Gun. I feel like the crow gun absolutely needs to be reworked. The OW is so easy to hit, she needs to be played far back until late game. On the critical turns you need to land Curse & Scourge, your spells have a 13” threat but the gun only threats 10”. I brought Reinholt, but only landed 1 shot all game and that was against a heavy beast that could just shake later. I think there are two options.
(1) Keep the Crow Gun as a direct hit effect. In this case, we need to dial up the range and impact of the gun to make it meaningful. I suggest 12” if Zevanna gets Trample/Reposition, otherwise 14”. The mechanic of having a damaging hazard in play on a gun which doesn’t do damage is odd. I recommend giving the direct hit a POW 10 - 12 to everything inside the AOE. OR…
(2) Let the Crow Gun Drift. I didn’t think the last iteration was too powerful, but I never tried using laser guided guns. Perhaps add language saying you can only target an enemy model?
Either way, I would make her *battlegroup* immune to the guns (as per Murder of Crows).
**Yellow**
Divinator. Divinator still feels weak. Recommendation: test add one, pick one to drop for attack rolls. Putting it on attacks and not damage I think would keep it from feeling OP. I'm suggesting that we get to pick one to drop to help with critical effects on our jacks -- Beast, Black Ivan, Drago, Destroyer and Juggernaut... The first 3 of those jacks are over-costed and this would give them a niche. Destroyer could use the help in melee at POW 17. I like this.
I like add one/drop vs. rerolls way better. Why? First, critical fishing is cool. Second, time management. Rerolls take time. Third, the odds. Say you need 9s to hit. Unboosted, you have a 27% chance, boosted you have a 74% chance. Roll 3, drop 1 you have a 64% chance. I like my chances with 3d6 drop way better than 2 rolls at 27%. Finally, I like rolling more dice at once...that’s fun, so there's that.
The Feat. The feat is still meh. Recommendation – boost the feat:
- Transmorgify Divinator into HOF on feat turn. That would make the feat real like a feat.
- Allow her Arcane Machinery to work for all faction models in her army in her control range.
> Divinator works on warrior models.
> Malakov gains the benefit of lower cost spells.
> Range Amplifier works for Malakov and Graylords.
Spell Range. Her offensive spells are not useful outside of either feat turn or cranking Range Amplifier up. She needs to play too far back. Grymkin has an arc node. Recommendation: consider amending Reconstruct to add an ability that makes the affected warjack an arc node.
Mobility. The caster being on a huge base with SPD 5 is rough. Her mobility is greatly constrained. Recommendation: consider adding Reposition 3" and Trample. She is riding a colossal...
Windstorm. At Cost 3, this is expensive for something that really only protects her and nearby support. Anything more than a few inches in front of her is going into the dirt. Recommendation: lower the cost to 2 or make it an upkeep spell.
**Green**
The spell list is still good to go. It was good last week, and it’s good now. Some folks have been rumbling about swapping out Scourge and to this I say, “No!”
Last week, her stats seemed good to go. The Crow Gun nerf makes the gun difficult to use against high DEF targets without boosting, and she can’t rely on a drift as a MAT fixer. OW1 had Avatar as a MAT fixer. Rather than boost her MAT/RAT I’d suggest fixing the gun. Her other stats seem fine.
Her WJPs are fine.
Arcane Calibrations and Range Amplifier on her Machinery are good to go.