Thursday, October 14, 2004

Warbands II

Shadow Fox's Buff Drizzt (CG; 200 points)

• Drizzt, Drow Ranger
• Clay Golem
• Vadania, Half-Elf Druid
• Eberk, Adventurer
• Aramil, Adventurer
• Devis, Half-Elf Bard

This band is about making Drizzt as deadly as possible.

Shadowfox's DNR (CG, 200 points)

• Drizzt, Drow Ranger
• Ryld Argith
• Eberk, Adventurer
• Aramil, Adventurer
• Crow Shaman
• Gnome Recruit

This band pumps up Drizzt and Ryld. Rylds +8 to Initiative will allow you to dictate the flow of battle most of the time. This is similar to Buff Drizzt in execution.

Shadow Fox's Guerilla Warfare v2 (CG, 100 points)

• Half Elf Bow Initiate
• Valenar Commander
• Greycloak Ranger
• Wolf (minion)
• Elf Warrior

HEBI can be a tremendous force in 100. Throw in the fact that it can hit any non commander unit in your opponents band and you have a formula for success.

Shadow Fox's Malice LRD (CE, 200 pts)

• Large Red Dragon x2
• Drow Wizard
• Abyssal Maw

LRD beatdown. Drow Wiard provides magic weapon and ranged support. Abyssal Maw helps to target the Snillocs and is a good flanker.

Shadow Fox's Acid Boy (LG, 200 pts)

• Large Silver Dragon
• Purple Dragon Knight
• Cleric of Moradin
• Eberk, Adventurer
• Man at Arms

Mix one half buffs, and one half beatdown. Stir until opponent is destroyed.

Shadowfox's Malice Bushido (LG, 200 pts)

• Dragon Samurai x2
• Purple Dragon Knight
• Cleric of Moradin
• Aasimar Favored Soul

Maximize your melee units and go to town.

Grendel's Some Like it hot (LG, 200 pts)
Build 1

• Gold Champion x2
• Purple Dragon Knight
• Eberk Adventurer
• Cleric of Moradin
• Aramil, Adventurer
• Standardbearer

I put this together early on. I find it very versatile.

Build 2

• Gold Champion x2
• Dwarven Defender
• Eberk, Adventurer
• Cleric of Moradin
• Aramil, Adventurer

This is great for "walking your turtle" towards the opponent. Also an early warband formula.

Build 3

• Gold Champion x3
• Cleric of Order
• Cleric of Moradin
• Man-at-Arms x3

Saw this on one of the Boards. Its a lot of fun to play.

Grendel's Hidden Gold (200 pts; LG)
Gold Champions x2

• Sword of Heironeous
• Regdar, Adventurer
• Nebin, Gnome Illusionist
• Eberk, Adventurer
• Cleric of Moradin

Basically Pump and Blur the GC's. Came up with that after much too much coffee.

Grendel's Aspect Bane (200 pts; CG)

• Moon Elf Fighter
• Champion of Eilistree
• Githyanki Renegades x2 or Githyanki Renegade and Half Giant Psychic Warrior
• Nebin, Gnome Illusionist or Halfling Wizard.

This is relentless against Aspect based armies.

Newtonian's TriHead (CE; 500 pts)

• Fomorian x 3
• Tiefling Captain x 3
• Drow Cleric of Lolth
• Ogre Ravager

Newtonian's DrowHead (CE; 500 pts)

• Fomorian x 2
• Ryld Argith
• Drow Cleric of Lolth
• Drider Sorcerer x 2
• Frost Giant

Goldmoon's Evil Slayer (LG, 200 pts)

• Paladin of Torm
• Gold Champion
• Cleric of Lathander
• Warforged Hero
• Cleric of Moradin
• Eberk, Adventurer
• Hill Dwarf

I now have a better back up hitter in Warforged Hero with good attack bonus, decent AC and HP. Personally, I prefer to use the Gold Champion to the Dragon Samurai, due to the higher AC and attack bonus in case I meet up with a non-evil warband with high AC

I use the Cleric of Lathander as the back-up Commander due to his spells. They're not really that good but still vital at times. With 3 Magic Weapon, 3 Cure Moderate Wounds and 2 Searing Light, I can cure up to 60HP in this band.

My tactics are very basic: high AC , hit hard and stay in fighting condition as long as possible.

Nixlord's Run, Hide, and Gun (CG; 200 pts)

• Half-Elf Bow Initiate x3
• Inspiring Marshal
• Greycloak Ranger
• Sharn Cutthroat x3
• Wolf (minion)

Nixlord's Run, Buff, and Gun (CG; 200 pts)

• Half-Elf Bow Initiate x3
• Inspiring Marshal
• Crow Shaman
• Elf Warrior x4

These are sniping warbands. They are designed to deal as much damage as it can in the first 2-3 rounds before getting attacked. Although both only have nine activations, three properly placed HEBIs should be able to kill enough filler units to even this out.

The three HEBIs are the main offensive weapons, each able to deal 30 damage a turn if each has LoS to a target at the start of its activation. Positioning them to maximize the chance of doing this every activation will be a little difficult, but the Inspiring Marshal's grant move action ability should give them one such round of making a full attack.

For the first warband, a little finesse and sly manuevering is needed. The Greycloak is there for secondary ranged offense and extra activation (wolf). The Sharn Cutthroats, for their cost, are a revelation (especially against low ac targets), although they won't be of much use in the early rounds. Later on they can be very effective; you always make sure they have cover against their target, they can deal 10 damage with one ranged attack. Despite being cheaper than Greycloak Rangers, they are more effective in melee than the latter due to higher attack rating, sneak attacks, and side step.

If any of your archers are attacked by noncleaving enemy units, then you can use them to flank and deal extra damage.

The second warband is a straightforward archer band. The Elf Warriors won't hit as much as the sharn cutthroats and greycloak ranger, but the addition of the Crow Shaman means you can buff the HEBIs.

The basic strategy is simple but three-fold.

First, use and lay out tiles in such away to make sure your ranged units have decent LoS to advancing enemy units.

Second, find the opportunity to make your units attack as soon as possible. A round not spent attacking is a wasted round for a ranged unit, especially for a heavily-ranged warband.

Third, using grant move action as a game breaker.

For example, if a heavy hitter (such as an Orc Champ) comes barging in but is not within LoS of the HEBI, then use grant move action to reposition your HEBIs (and all the other nearby units) in such a way that during their next turn the HEBIs can make a full attack (30 damage each).

Don't hesitate to move your HEBI if it is attacked. Accept the attack of opportunity for the HEBI can take it. With one heavy hitter possibly disposed of, your HEBIs and other support units should find it a little easier to take care of the rest.

There's two glaring weaknesses of these 2 bands.

First, they both only have ONE commander, and he's squishy. But if you keep him out of harm's way long enough for the 3 HEBIs to whittle down potential assassins (orc champs, etc.) he should be fine. Just remember to keep all HEBIs within command of the Marshal. You could add another Inspiring Marshall, but you will lose precious activations and ranged attacks. I am sticking to one for now.

Second, the secondary units are susceptible to area of effect attacks. Hopefully again, such units capable of doing such attacks are struck first by ranged attacks and are hopefully routed or killed before they reach the danger zone.

Slow moving, high AC units such as Gold Champs and Dragon Sams shouldn't pose as much of a problem unlike before, now that the HEBIs are here. Red Sams, Orc Champs, Eyes, and Ogre Ravagers are easy to hit. Driders, despite the blur, are also relatively easy enough to hit and are not that tough. The only real problem will be the LSD and the LRD. Then again, they always have been the thorn to CG ranged-themed warbands.