Post by Armchair Warrior on Oct 25, 2019 2:36:45 GMT
Share your experiences running Strakhov 1 in Wolves. What lists have you tried, what matchups are you looking to drop into vs. avoid, and what are you thoughts on pairing. Batreps welcome.
So tonight I dropped this against Infernals. Scenario was two big circle zones with a big house right in the middle. I went first.
Kommander Oleg Strakhov - WJ: +28
- Grolar - PC: 18 (Battlegroup Points Used: 18)
- Destroyer - PC: 14 (Battlegroup Points Used: 10)
- Juggernaut - PC: 13
- Marauder - PC: 11
- Marauder - PC: 11
Greylord Forge Seer - PC: 0
Koldun Lord - PC: 0
Koldun Lord - PC: 0
Doom Reaver Swordsmen - Leader & 5 Grunts: 10
- Greylord Escort - PC: 3
Doom Reaver Swordsmen - Leader & 5 Grunts: 10
- Greylord Escort - PC: 3
Doom Reaver Swordsmen - Leader & 5 Grunts: 10
My opponent played Zaateroth with a big Battlegroup (which got bigger every round with an extra heavy), the arcnode, Hauke (the tactician guy), the Gate, double cultists, Saxon, 2 Umbral Guardians, a max Griever swarm, max Croes Cuthroats, and some other support.
Turn 1 I moved up to gain board position and tried to protect my doomreavers with terrain and spacing, and he moved up and shot maybe 5 doomreavers off the board. Occulatation on Strakhov, Superiority on the Grolar, and Sentry on the Destroyer. He summoned a heavy that dropped an acid cloud (right up against that big house), and between that an repositioning he left all of his valuable pieces too far away for me to get to even with if I feated.
Turn 2, the Destroyer misses his sentry shot. I contemplate feating just to get some work out of my doomreavers before they all die to his guns. Two relatively fast units with guns with only 3 units of doomreavers is a really tough nut to crack. I decide to hold back my feat, get some doomreavers into his units (but not enough), and take out an Umbral guardian. On his turn he spawns another heavy, uses his ranged troops to clear out both circle zones, contests my flag, clears out another 9 doomreavers, and is able to remove 1 Marauder leveraging Curse of Shadows. He scores both zones.
Turn 3, the Destroyer takes out 3 cultists with his sentry shot. Everything is so close I don’t really need to feat, and his caster is hiding behind the gate which is body blocked by cultists so there’s no way I can use the feat to for an assassination. His Battlegroup is all at DEF 14 or 16. I decide to stack my jacks up with focus and go for attrition, while contesting zones. I burn focus to boost attacks after realizing that the Horror on my Juggernaut can’t be frozen and none of his crab leg dudes can be knocked down. I take out two jacks, contest both zones, and score my flag. I can’t get anything to his flag so he goes up 3-1 but I left Strakhov on a 0 camp.
He has 10 minutes left on his clock, and I have 5 jacks who are now in his grill. He decides attrition or clock might swing in my favor, so goes for assassination. The Gate has Ghost Shot and Eyeless Sight can see through the building, and he is able to get get a fully loaded Ghost Walked heavy out from behind the building and through my jacks to land on Strakhov. We calculate that even if I’d been camping 3-4 focus he can get enough attacks onto Strakhov to kill him... If I’d been quite a bit farther back I probably survive the round, but he can then focus on attrition and scenario, although his clock would have been a challenge for him to get the work done he’d need to do.
Thoughts.
This was my first time playing against Infernals. It was fun, but damn if I’m going to stand a chance I need to learn their models.
I normally play Vlad 2 with Outriders and 5 units of Doomreavers. In this same match up I would not have felt at all disadvantaged against his range, which the outriders outthreat. The feats cancel each other out so you can play Doomreavers for attrition and force scenario. I felt like two units of guns basically made it impossible for me to get the work I needed to get done with the doomreavers, and there was not enough well positioned terrain to protect 3 units. That said, having 5 heavies felt good, and I really wouldn’t want to play a similar Strakhov list with only 4 unless one was a colossal.
If I’m going to actually play Strakhov in a tournament, or bring him as the one army in my bag for a game night, I need to decide if I want him to be able to play into guns. Two units and a Gate is hardly a crap ton of guns.
If yes... and that might be a good answer, then I might consider:
- Swapping out a unit of doomreavers for a 6th jack (probably a Marauder, and drop the Destroyer to a Juggernaut)
- Swapping out a unit of doomreavers and juggling the Battlegroup to fit in a Victor (a Victor and 3 juggernauts/Kodiaks fits nicely).
- Swapping out same said unit for Min Outriders just to get in some guns, but I think I like getting in Victor more.
At the end of the day, I think Strakhov doesn’t protect his doomreavers against guns to the pint at you either need to hold his list back if you’re looking at guns, or tailor it so you’re just relying on terrain, positioning, and a hell of a Battlegroup.
Final thought: I mainly need to blame my own rusty play - I’ve only played once since GenCon, and that was Vlad 3 in WotoF, and I basically had no idea how his army worked. I walked into a countercharge, forgot about Ghost Walk (which got me dead), and probably should have just feated on Turn 2 to try and clear out his army since my doomreavers were just going to struggle into his ranged game, and my Battlegroup > his Battlegroup, even with him spawning crap each turn.
So tonight I dropped this against Infernals. Scenario was two big circle zones with a big house right in the middle. I went first.
Kommander Oleg Strakhov - WJ: +28
- Grolar - PC: 18 (Battlegroup Points Used: 18)
- Destroyer - PC: 14 (Battlegroup Points Used: 10)
- Juggernaut - PC: 13
- Marauder - PC: 11
- Marauder - PC: 11
Greylord Forge Seer - PC: 0
Koldun Lord - PC: 0
Koldun Lord - PC: 0
Doom Reaver Swordsmen - Leader & 5 Grunts: 10
- Greylord Escort - PC: 3
Doom Reaver Swordsmen - Leader & 5 Grunts: 10
- Greylord Escort - PC: 3
Doom Reaver Swordsmen - Leader & 5 Grunts: 10
My opponent played Zaateroth with a big Battlegroup (which got bigger every round with an extra heavy), the arcnode, Hauke (the tactician guy), the Gate, double cultists, Saxon, 2 Umbral Guardians, a max Griever swarm, max Croes Cuthroats, and some other support.
Turn 1 I moved up to gain board position and tried to protect my doomreavers with terrain and spacing, and he moved up and shot maybe 5 doomreavers off the board. Occulatation on Strakhov, Superiority on the Grolar, and Sentry on the Destroyer. He summoned a heavy that dropped an acid cloud (right up against that big house), and between that an repositioning he left all of his valuable pieces too far away for me to get to even with if I feated.
Turn 2, the Destroyer misses his sentry shot. I contemplate feating just to get some work out of my doomreavers before they all die to his guns. Two relatively fast units with guns with only 3 units of doomreavers is a really tough nut to crack. I decide to hold back my feat, get some doomreavers into his units (but not enough), and take out an Umbral guardian. On his turn he spawns another heavy, uses his ranged troops to clear out both circle zones, contests my flag, clears out another 9 doomreavers, and is able to remove 1 Marauder leveraging Curse of Shadows. He scores both zones.
Turn 3, the Destroyer takes out 3 cultists with his sentry shot. Everything is so close I don’t really need to feat, and his caster is hiding behind the gate which is body blocked by cultists so there’s no way I can use the feat to for an assassination. His Battlegroup is all at DEF 14 or 16. I decide to stack my jacks up with focus and go for attrition, while contesting zones. I burn focus to boost attacks after realizing that the Horror on my Juggernaut can’t be frozen and none of his crab leg dudes can be knocked down. I take out two jacks, contest both zones, and score my flag. I can’t get anything to his flag so he goes up 3-1 but I left Strakhov on a 0 camp.
He has 10 minutes left on his clock, and I have 5 jacks who are now in his grill. He decides attrition or clock might swing in my favor, so goes for assassination. The Gate has Ghost Shot and Eyeless Sight can see through the building, and he is able to get get a fully loaded Ghost Walked heavy out from behind the building and through my jacks to land on Strakhov. We calculate that even if I’d been camping 3-4 focus he can get enough attacks onto Strakhov to kill him... If I’d been quite a bit farther back I probably survive the round, but he can then focus on attrition and scenario, although his clock would have been a challenge for him to get the work done he’d need to do.
Thoughts.
This was my first time playing against Infernals. It was fun, but damn if I’m going to stand a chance I need to learn their models.
I normally play Vlad 2 with Outriders and 5 units of Doomreavers. In this same match up I would not have felt at all disadvantaged against his range, which the outriders outthreat. The feats cancel each other out so you can play Doomreavers for attrition and force scenario. I felt like two units of guns basically made it impossible for me to get the work I needed to get done with the doomreavers, and there was not enough well positioned terrain to protect 3 units. That said, having 5 heavies felt good, and I really wouldn’t want to play a similar Strakhov list with only 4 unless one was a colossal.
If I’m going to actually play Strakhov in a tournament, or bring him as the one army in my bag for a game night, I need to decide if I want him to be able to play into guns. Two units and a Gate is hardly a crap ton of guns.
If yes... and that might be a good answer, then I might consider:
- Swapping out a unit of doomreavers for a 6th jack (probably a Marauder, and drop the Destroyer to a Juggernaut)
- Swapping out a unit of doomreavers and juggling the Battlegroup to fit in a Victor (a Victor and 3 juggernauts/Kodiaks fits nicely).
- Swapping out same said unit for Min Outriders just to get in some guns, but I think I like getting in Victor more.
At the end of the day, I think Strakhov doesn’t protect his doomreavers against guns to the pint at you either need to hold his list back if you’re looking at guns, or tailor it so you’re just relying on terrain, positioning, and a hell of a Battlegroup.
Final thought: I mainly need to blame my own rusty play - I’ve only played once since GenCon, and that was Vlad 3 in WotoF, and I basically had no idea how his army worked. I walked into a countercharge, forgot about Ghost Walk (which got me dead), and probably should have just feated on Turn 2 to try and clear out his army since my doomreavers were just going to struggle into his ranged game, and my Battlegroup > his Battlegroup, even with him spawning crap each turn.
