Ignore this if you're on the CID forums, but here's my batrep from this week.
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This playtest included both the official Week 3 changes, as well as the additional Arcane Machinery posted in Dev Talk.
My list:
Theme: Winterguard Kommand
Old Witch
Juggernaut
Kodiak
3X Destroyers
Kovnik Joe
WG Infantry min + Officer + 3 Rockets
WG Riflecorp min + 3 rockets
WG Mortar (free)
Battle Mechs (min)
I wanted to test a larger battlegroup with a melee threat and some long range boostable guns. I thought this set up would be a good test for Power Magnifier. I took the WG theme for a few reasons. I’ve found the WG Rockets and Mortar synergize well with Scourge. I like the WG for infantry removal, while the CRA and Rockets maintain a threat to harder targets. I thought Sac Pawn would add an additional layer of insurance. And finally, I wanted the advance move for scenario pressure, and to start getting work down as early as possible with the Bombards.
My opponent Matt played Legion.
Thagrosh 1
Carnivean
Scythian
Angelius
Seraph
Forsaken
Strider Deathstalker
Nyss Swordsman & attachment
Hellmouth
Scenario & Deployment.
We played recon. A picture of our deployment is included. I’ll call Legion’s side “North”. His objective marker looks like a Legion cesspool of spindly tentacles.
NE and NW of his objective, he has a wall and a double trench. The eastern flag is in a forest, and the western flag is on a hill. There’s rubble (cover, pathfinder) in the middle of the zone. SE and SW of my objective there’s a house and a walled bunker (3 sided wall). He won the roll and chose the side with the trench and wall to mitigate my guns and blast damage. I decide to go first in order to get my troops out without having to worry about his guns, but making him worry about mine.
I deploy OW slightly off-center to the east, with a Kodiak and a Destoyer to her left, and the Jugger to her right. I put a destroyer on each flank. The rifle corp are deployed on the side with the hill (west), and the winterguard take the forest (east).
He deploys his beasts and caster behind his wall, and the swordsmen nearer the trench. He advance deploys the hellmouth behind the forest.
I advance move up the Kodiak and 2 destroyers towards the zone.
My deployment error, which I start correcting with my turn 1 move, is I put the Juggernaut too far off on the flank. His deployment error is he didn’t “tuck away” his hellmouth far enough behind the forest, so I’m going to be able to get distance on the tentacles Turn 1, and on the hellmouth itself turn 2.
Turn 1
OW allocates 1 to a destroyer. I run up my WG Infantry to provide a screen for the OW and warjacks – I want bodies in the way of my jacks to prevent a tentacle drag. Old Witch uses Arcane Calibrations to reduce the cost of her spells, puts boundless charge on herself and the Juggernaut, and casts Windstorm. I put reconstruct on the Kodiak. I charge OW up to the zone. The two Destoyers I pushed up at deployment advance 4” and shoot, taking out 3 tentacles but not damaging the hellmouth. I run the Kodiak into the zone and vent. Other stuff runs up.
Legion spawns a tentacle, and uses that and the Deathstalker to remove 2 grunts and a rocket. Thagrosh puts up Fog of War, gets Draconic Blessing (+2 Str) on to his weaponmaster swordsmen, who move into and around the trench with the Angelius. Thags and the Seraph get behind the wall. The Sythean parks behind his bunker while the Carnevan runs towards the hill.
Turn 2
He’s left his beasts fairly far back, and is relying on his swordsmen to establish pressure on the zone. He’s also clustered his swordsmen in the trench, which is an opportunity for me. My plan is to shoot the Hellmouth and the Swordsmen off the table. I want to end the turn with my jacks within boundless charge range of anything that contests the zone on Turn 3.
I let Reconstruct drop in order to cast spells. The OW activates first, boosting a crow gun shot on a lead swordsman outside the trench. Using Range Amplifier, I land Scourge on a blind dude inside the trench, knocking down the Angelius and killing a bunch of grunts. I cast Windstorm. Both units of Winterguard are able to get distance on his units, and between them and boosted bombards I clear off all his units and support except for the Abbot, 2 swordsmen (one being blind), the Deathstalker, and a Forsaken. Mechanics run up behind my wall of warjacks in preparation of Turn 3 repairs.
On Legion's turn, Thags maintains Fog and Blessing, and stays parked behind the wall. He advances the Carnivean within spray range of my riflecorp, and removes a chunk of the 2 grunts and 2 rockets. His spray and the Seraph ignore Windstorm, and they both get some damage on the Kodiak, but no systems are threatened. He uses the Angelius and Deathstalker to take out a few more Winterguard, backing both models up to do so because of Windstorm. He gets his 2 swordsmen into the zone, charging one to take out a winterguard grunt, and then Overtake into my Juggernaut for 6 damage.
Turn 3
It’s clear once I start my 3rd turn that he’s under-committed resources to the zone. I activate OW first, and use Power Magnifier to allocate extra focus to 4 jacks. She drops a crow gun shot into the Carnivean, and casts Windstorm, again riding her turn out on 0 focus. I save my feat for Turn 4.
I now have 13 focus spread across 5 jacks, supported by Joe, 8 winterguard, and 2 rockets. My mechanics do some quick repairs on the Juggernaut and Kodiak. I’m able to then completely clear the zone. I use my Juggernaut to wreck his objective, and my Kodiak and Destroyer to remove the Carnivean. I end my turn with 5 jacks threatening or inside the zone, which I’m also dominating.
Khador goes up up 3-0.
Thagrosh feats and returns the Carnevian, who forfeits his combat action. He lets Fog drop, and puts Draconic blessing out on the Angelius, who easily murders the Juggernaut. The Seraph is the only other beast in range of my any of my jacks (the Kodiak), but a POW 13 stinger is not up to the task. He ends his turn contesting the zone.
Turn 4
We talk through Turn 4 rather than play it out since (a) it’s late, (b) I’m up on attrition, and (c) I saved my feat and positioned my army for this turn. His beasts are now in position for a counterattack. I’ll be able to feat, fully load up all of my warjacks (4 focus), boost all of my rolls with Divinator, land Curse of Shadows once (2 focus), cast Boundless Charge on the only jack out of range of his stuff (1 focus), and drop the Crow Gun on the Seraph. Between my winterguard, rockets, Joe, and 4 fully loaded jacks I’m just going to be able to get too much work done with my feat. We figure with average rolls, I’m going to be able to kill two beasts and have a good chance to clear the zone and go up 5-0.
Red
Nothing.
Yellow/Green
Crow Gun: Yellow vs. Warmachine / Green vs. Hordes
The Crow Gun is now good against Hordes and infantry. The extended range and RAT let me use the gun to some good effect the entire game. Tonight’s opponent also plays Menoth, and I felt that if I’d been facing a Menoth army I would have not been able to use the gun effectively. It would have done zip against Amon. The gun does not feel overpowered against beasts (who can shake it).
Recommendation: Change the 4th sentence of Black Wings to read, “Enemy models hit by the AOE when it placed suffer Blind for one round.” This would allow the gun to work against constructs, but preserve the current (important) synergy that the gun does not harm OW’s own force. The next sentence already reads, “An enemy living or undead model entering or ending…” so the restriction of the Blind effect to enemy models would not be a new effect.
Yellow: Point Cost
Her point cost now feels a little high relative to other Khador casters. My suggestion is 28 WJP, which is line with The Boss (Vlad 1), our quintessential “support caster.” Zerkova, Malakov, Harkevich, Strakhov, Butcher 1 and 2, and Kozlov are similarly costed. Old Witch 2 seems on par with this cohort. I suppose 27 WJP would be at the low end of the range. 26 or lower would be out of line with other casters.
Green
Everything else in my mind is generally green, except for perhaps point cost. Here are my thoughs.
Green: Stats
Her stats feel “good to go”. The addition of +1 to SPD and RAT fixed what was annoying here. Her MAT could be increased to MAT 6, but it’s unnecessary due to the existence of Divinator and the Crow Gun improvements (against Hordes), which she can use in melee.
Green: Arcane Machinery
The addition of the two new Arcane Machinery really did a lot to open up Zevanna’s potential. The ability to extend Windstorm out 18” is great, but since OW wants to play far back, it will protect her and important support that hangs back, but not really any forward deployed troops. Power Magnifier and Vexing Alignment together open up the option for her to be a support caster for a battle group heavy, troop heavy, or combined arms army. I love this.
Green: Feat
Her feat felt bland in Weeks 1 and 2. The combination of the 5 Arcane Machinery are great. I think Robert Shephard said it well in his Week 4 batrep:
Yellow/Green
Divinator. Divinator still feels weak. It's still not quite good enough that I'd use that over, say, Power Magnifier and saving a focus to boost an OW attack. Recommendation: test add one, pick one to drop for attack rolls. From a dice math perspective, I think this is nearly a sideways buff, and limiting to attacks and not damage Iwill keep it from being OP.
I'm suggesting this change here because I think (similar to Robert's commentary quoted above), I think this will feel more fun in game. Why?
(1) It 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. Critical fishing is cool, and seems thematic with an Arcane Machinery called "Divinator" helping her buff up her jacks.
(2) Time management. Rerolls take time.
(3) 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 think 2 rolls at a 27% is almost as good from an odds perspective, but the pseudo-boost feels a lot more powerful.
(4) Finally, I like rolling more dice at once...that’s fun, so there's that. I know, this is dumb. But heck, it's a game and I want to have fun.
Green: Overall Feel & Playstyle
Overall Zevanna Agha is now living up to her design to function as a strong support caster,enabling her army to hit and damage more reliably. Whereas in Week 1 and 2, I felt that the Old Witch’s primary win condition was “assassination”, her recent improvements allow her to attrition better as well as have a stronger scenario presence. She feels really well rounded, while (due to her huge base and low DEF), still being personally vulnerable. She does not feel overpowered. Overall, I would call her an “A-“ caster, and not an “A” or “A+” caster. I could consider her in a 2 list pairing and not feel disadvantaged. My opponent did not think she was OP.
Moreover, I think she’s now way more “fun” to play. The additional range and RAT on her gun, combined with her improved speed, enable her to “get some work done” every turn. The addition of the new Arcane Machinery complicate your decision-making … she now has more threat vectors and options, none of which are overpowered, but they do make it less obvious for your opponent to guess what you’re going to do. I love this. Her new configuration make her much more survivable, but not impenetrable.
I love the fact that you can now bring any kind of army you want. She can really play any of our Theme Forces well. You want an infantry heavy melee army? Bring the Legion of Steel. Windstorm, Boundless Charge (maybe even 7 of them), and Curse of Shadows are going to allow her to deliver more of her (countercharging!) army, and allow them to hit hard when they get there. You want to play a warjack heavy army? Bring Jaws of the Wolf. Her Power Magnifier, Divinator, and Vexing Alignment are going to allow you to support a strong battlegroup (and OW loves the Behemoth). You want to bring a gunline? Bring the Winterguard Kommand. Windstorm helps deliver more of her army, who will appreciate her Crow Gun, Scourge and Curse. Finally, she’s really good to play out of theme…she loves either Rienholdt or Sylys (a conundrum), as well as the Aiyana & Holt package for doube-stacking armor debuffs. Besides, sometimes you don't want to choose between Eliminators and Drakhuns.
Overall, I think she’s really well done. The only changes I would suggest at this point are a very small WJP drop, and to improve the gun so that she delivers the same effectiveness against Warmachine as she does now versus Hordes.