1250 Point Event - Undead's First Time on the Table!
Hello there!
We just had a small point event at Armada Games in Tampa, Florida. It was 1250 points, with the only limitations being 1) no living legends and 2) no allies. Also, since games were only 70 minutes long (or 35 minutes per person), we were able to do 4 games instead of the usual 3. With me painting up undead for 2019, this seemed like the perfect time to test them out! The list I brought was basically a smaller version of the 2000/2250 point list I want to run, and seemed pretty brutal on paper. Anyways, this was the army and the list:
Anyways, enough talking! Onto the games!
Game One: Jamie Ward
Faction: The Brotherhood
Scenario: Secure the Field
Going into this game, I knew I had no chance of winning unless I routed some of my opponent's unit strength. However, the infantry are not only insanely difficult to remove with high, fearless nerve, but they were also backed up by a decent amount of heal, regeneration and iron resolve. This also excludes his excellent, hard-hitting knight regiments, and I had to be very careful not to slip up and give charges my units might not be able to take.
Fortunately, I managed to snag a 17-3 victory by (mostly) holding my zombies back until they score and letting the flying units do all the dirty work. With how much resiliency and speed I had, my flying units could literally charge the infantry/knights and purely survive off 1) stripping Thunderous Charge, and 2) Lifeleech & Heal. I think the dice also favored me a little bit with a few crucial moments. Examples being his Martyrs with Bane Chant not taking out my zombie regiment, and my Revenant King + Wraiths just barely taking out a crucial Brotherhood on foot unit (else my Revenant King was showing his rear to a non-disordered knight regiment). If I had to critique my own play this game, I would've never charged/surged with zombies unless I felt like I needed the damage. I almost risked losing them to deal one extra point of damage.. which, of course, isn't worth possibly losing scenario.
---
Game Two: Cody Smith
Faction: Twilight Kin
Scenario: Loot
With a similar situation to the first game, I felt like I was already disadvantaged from the beginning due to how much faster his units were at grabbing tokens. To win this game, I knew I had to focus on two loot counters (hopefully grabbing them with the zombies) and potentially give one up. His chariots also had the potential to take out my zombie regiments with shooting alone, so that was something I had to be cautious about.
I think I got severely lucky with this game as well, with his elite knight regiment and dark lord on pegasus doing only 12 wounds to my revenant king, and not even wavering him. This allowed my wraiths to continue applying pressure to the rest of his army. The liche king's heal was also crucial for this game, as any wounds applied to the zombies were almost instantly removed (I believe he removed 13-14 damage from a single zombie regiment over 3 turns.. so a little above average!). Again, I managed to snag a 17-3 victory. Again, if I had to critique my own play, I would've used the pharaoh a little bit better. I deployed him in the center of my deployment zone since, with a 20" fly movement, he can be anywhere he needs to be. However, I think I could've used him to apply more pressure with the wraiths, rather than be an annoyance for a loot counter I knew I wouldn't get. The revenant king also could've been used better (and not in a position to take knights and a dark lord in the front). I'm not sure how, but I'm sure there could've been a better way to use him.
---
Game Three: Rocky Archer
Faction: Elves
Scenario: Take and Hold
A little similar to Cody's list; everything is super fast and includes a pretty good shooting threat that I have to be cautious about. Fortunately for me, wraiths and the flying pharaoh are perfect counters for knights (as I've learned from this event, with all 3 of my opponents so far bringing at least two regiments of them). Not only could they strip the thunderous charge easily, but then they could take the hit back with decent nerve.
Again, a little unlucky for Rocky, as a mispositioned wraith regiment takes a knight regiment in the flank, does 11-12 wounds, and doesn't rout it. This gave me the opportunity to heal back to a decent 5-6 damage, where I didn't have to be concerned about losing them. Earlier, I also managed to do 5-6 wounds to two of his knight regiments and then waver them, which severely impacted his pressure onto me. The zombies also won this scenario for me indefinitely, as they could move (or be surged) into positions where, not only can they sit on tokens, but also hide from shooting. The undead came out with a 19-1 victory. Once again, to critique my own play, that wraith regiment misposition possibly could've been avoided with better character positioning. This is something I'll keep in mind for the future.
---
Game Four: Jason Beedlow
Faction: Dwarves
Scenario: Dominate
Jason brought a solid, well-rounded dwarf army that was not only insanely tough to take out, but also had a lot of unit strength to score. On top of that, he had a ton of units that could easily take away my flying shenanigans with a lot of crushing strength and bane chant support. In this matchup, I was hoping my revenant king and my pharaoh could cause enough pressure to allow my wraiths to take advantage of any mis-positions, since I knew trying to outgrind Jason's dwarves was not how I was gonna win this game.
Fortunately, even after my wraiths were held up by the berserker lord, my revenant king and pharaoh applied enough pressure to allow some surge shenanigans for the other regiment of wraiths. There were definitely some zombie casualties I couldn't avoid, but it was a risk I was willing to take! After using my flying pharaoh as chaff for some nasty dwarves on badgers, I was able to grab a 5-2 victory for a 17-3 win. My final critique: I could've utilized the pharaoh a little better in the early parts of the game. I don't feel like I got much worth out of him until turns 5-6. Jason was smart in just hiding his crucial characters and not worrying about the pharaoh, which I didn't expect. I have to realize he's (more or less) a piece of chaff that can deal 2-3 wounds to high defense units in situations like this.
---
By going 4-0, I was fortunate enough to grab 1st place, which is a pretty good first run for the undead! I really enjoyed playing them too. I hope as I go on to bigger point values, I'll be able to work with more toys! With more play, too, I hope to get better with this army. While it seems pretty user-friendly with all the fliers, there are very simple mechanics that, when not taken into account, can be game-changing.
As for the next event, which will be 1200 points, I'm thinking of playing Undead again. However, with a different list. I really enjoyed playing this list, but it just seemed really brutal for the points level. I'm going to try a different approach to get a better feel for the other units in the army.
On the painting table, I currently have 3 GW Morghasts almost ready for a Wights/Barrow Wights horde. Just need a couple more highlights and washes, and then I can at least get them on the table to play. Due to the wings not sitting as well as I'd like, I plan to take some milliput and sculpt it to make it look like the wings are enveloping around their surroundings. After that, I only have a couple more things to pain and I'll be ready to go!
That'll be a secret for the next blog update though! I hope you guys enjoyed the read!
Until then.. Let's Go To War!
-Christopher
We just had a small point event at Armada Games in Tampa, Florida. It was 1250 points, with the only limitations being 1) no living legends and 2) no allies. Also, since games were only 70 minutes long (or 35 minutes per person), we were able to do 4 games instead of the usual 3. With me painting up undead for 2019, this seemed like the perfect time to test them out! The list I brought was basically a smaller version of the 2000/2250 point list I want to run, and seemed pretty brutal on paper. Anyways, this was the army and the list:
 |
| Front to back: Two Regiments of Zombies, two Regiments of Wraiths, one Mounted Liche King, one Flying Pharaoh, and one Revenant King on Flying Wyrm |
Coming into the event, I knew my list would be quick and hard to remove, but I didn't actually realize how brutal it actually could be. Coming from mostly playing Ratkin and Goblins, I've never really had the experience of playing with flying units. The only thing I can really say: I've been missing out! The zombies were purely there for scenario scoring, and everything else just ran at people or looked for opportunities for surge shenanigans. The only weaknesses I really see from this list are 1) removing the zombies means my means of scoring are severely limited, and 2) nothing in my army will do a lot of damage in the front. If I could get passed these, I figured I'd have a much better chance to win games.
Anyways, enough talking! Onto the games!
Game One: Jamie Ward
Faction: The Brotherhood
Scenario: Secure the Field
Fortunately, I managed to snag a 17-3 victory by (mostly) holding my zombies back until they score and letting the flying units do all the dirty work. With how much resiliency and speed I had, my flying units could literally charge the infantry/knights and purely survive off 1) stripping Thunderous Charge, and 2) Lifeleech & Heal. I think the dice also favored me a little bit with a few crucial moments. Examples being his Martyrs with Bane Chant not taking out my zombie regiment, and my Revenant King + Wraiths just barely taking out a crucial Brotherhood on foot unit (else my Revenant King was showing his rear to a non-disordered knight regiment). If I had to critique my own play this game, I would've never charged/surged with zombies unless I felt like I needed the damage. I almost risked losing them to deal one extra point of damage.. which, of course, isn't worth possibly losing scenario.
---
Game Two: Cody Smith
Faction: Twilight Kin
Scenario: Loot
With a similar situation to the first game, I felt like I was already disadvantaged from the beginning due to how much faster his units were at grabbing tokens. To win this game, I knew I had to focus on two loot counters (hopefully grabbing them with the zombies) and potentially give one up. His chariots also had the potential to take out my zombie regiments with shooting alone, so that was something I had to be cautious about.
I think I got severely lucky with this game as well, with his elite knight regiment and dark lord on pegasus doing only 12 wounds to my revenant king, and not even wavering him. This allowed my wraiths to continue applying pressure to the rest of his army. The liche king's heal was also crucial for this game, as any wounds applied to the zombies were almost instantly removed (I believe he removed 13-14 damage from a single zombie regiment over 3 turns.. so a little above average!). Again, I managed to snag a 17-3 victory. Again, if I had to critique my own play, I would've used the pharaoh a little bit better. I deployed him in the center of my deployment zone since, with a 20" fly movement, he can be anywhere he needs to be. However, I think I could've used him to apply more pressure with the wraiths, rather than be an annoyance for a loot counter I knew I wouldn't get. The revenant king also could've been used better (and not in a position to take knights and a dark lord in the front). I'm not sure how, but I'm sure there could've been a better way to use him.
---
Game Three: Rocky Archer
Faction: Elves
Scenario: Take and Hold
A little similar to Cody's list; everything is super fast and includes a pretty good shooting threat that I have to be cautious about. Fortunately for me, wraiths and the flying pharaoh are perfect counters for knights (as I've learned from this event, with all 3 of my opponents so far bringing at least two regiments of them). Not only could they strip the thunderous charge easily, but then they could take the hit back with decent nerve.
Again, a little unlucky for Rocky, as a mispositioned wraith regiment takes a knight regiment in the flank, does 11-12 wounds, and doesn't rout it. This gave me the opportunity to heal back to a decent 5-6 damage, where I didn't have to be concerned about losing them. Earlier, I also managed to do 5-6 wounds to two of his knight regiments and then waver them, which severely impacted his pressure onto me. The zombies also won this scenario for me indefinitely, as they could move (or be surged) into positions where, not only can they sit on tokens, but also hide from shooting. The undead came out with a 19-1 victory. Once again, to critique my own play, that wraith regiment misposition possibly could've been avoided with better character positioning. This is something I'll keep in mind for the future.
---
Game Four: Jason Beedlow
Faction: Dwarves
Scenario: Dominate
Jason brought a solid, well-rounded dwarf army that was not only insanely tough to take out, but also had a lot of unit strength to score. On top of that, he had a ton of units that could easily take away my flying shenanigans with a lot of crushing strength and bane chant support. In this matchup, I was hoping my revenant king and my pharaoh could cause enough pressure to allow my wraiths to take advantage of any mis-positions, since I knew trying to outgrind Jason's dwarves was not how I was gonna win this game.
Fortunately, even after my wraiths were held up by the berserker lord, my revenant king and pharaoh applied enough pressure to allow some surge shenanigans for the other regiment of wraiths. There were definitely some zombie casualties I couldn't avoid, but it was a risk I was willing to take! After using my flying pharaoh as chaff for some nasty dwarves on badgers, I was able to grab a 5-2 victory for a 17-3 win. My final critique: I could've utilized the pharaoh a little better in the early parts of the game. I don't feel like I got much worth out of him until turns 5-6. Jason was smart in just hiding his crucial characters and not worrying about the pharaoh, which I didn't expect. I have to realize he's (more or less) a piece of chaff that can deal 2-3 wounds to high defense units in situations like this.
---
By going 4-0, I was fortunate enough to grab 1st place, which is a pretty good first run for the undead! I really enjoyed playing them too. I hope as I go on to bigger point values, I'll be able to work with more toys! With more play, too, I hope to get better with this army. While it seems pretty user-friendly with all the fliers, there are very simple mechanics that, when not taken into account, can be game-changing.
As for the next event, which will be 1200 points, I'm thinking of playing Undead again. However, with a different list. I really enjoyed playing this list, but it just seemed really brutal for the points level. I'm going to try a different approach to get a better feel for the other units in the army.
On the painting table, I currently have 3 GW Morghasts almost ready for a Wights/Barrow Wights horde. Just need a couple more highlights and washes, and then I can at least get them on the table to play. Due to the wings not sitting as well as I'd like, I plan to take some milliput and sculpt it to make it look like the wings are enveloping around their surroundings. After that, I only have a couple more things to pain and I'll be ready to go!
That'll be a secret for the next blog update though! I hope you guys enjoyed the read!
Until then.. Let's Go To War!
-Christopher
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