Nope, not even close. |
Since the fine details are still getting ironed out, we did a trial run last Wednesday. This is how it went
down, plus my plans and thoughts going in. I picked Khador as my faction for a couple reasons. Foremost is my blog's name has Khador in the title, which is extra incentive to support the Motherland. I feel bad about not playing Khador more, so when the chance arises I try to jump on it. My Khador is mostly painted, and to a higher standard than my Legion. One of the common knocks on Khador is they don't have a lot of synergies. This is considered a Bad Thing, but in this case it's quite helpful. If all, or most of, my pieces are effective by themselves then they have the potential to be even more effective if I can get the right spells to help them out.
Dat chassis. |
Very nice, very not my work. |
Armed with this new criteria (medium base caster) the list was more manageable. Many of the options were appealing, especially pGaspy and pThags, but in the end I narrowed the field to two, pGrissel and Bloody Barnabas. Baranabas drew my eye because of his innate abilities: three initials (with Crit: Consume and Blood Boon no less), Unyielding, Counter-Charge(!), and a lesser version of pKreoss' feat. My idea for him was pretty simple and probably predictable. I've always loved Doom Reavers, and Barnabas is a pretty bad man/gator, so the two fit together with ease
As I thought about it more I didn't think Barnabas would offer the sort of support I wanted to really make Khador infantry a nightmare, so I turned to pGrissel who had that support already baked in. With her Fell Calls she could speed up the slow Demo Corps I wanted to use or let Doom Reavers make an extra attack. Her feat is a couple other feats put together and looks to be brutal with Khadoran infantry. Her personal ass-kicking ability isn't as impressive, but her basic defensive stats are respectable and since the idea was to run her as a support caster they're not as important. Fury 6 is a little underwhelming but not a deal breaker. I also had a couple ideas for conversion themes (opera/black metal singer) that would work with her abilities and avoid the Blender of Death With Skulls and Spikes and Nastiness that I expect to see lots of.
Spriggan
Doom Reavers + UA
Max Demo Corps
Widowmakers
Doom Reavers are the ultimate self-contained package. Widowmakers also do their thing without support. I wanted some MoWs to screen my caster and echo the Kovnik starting point. Normally I'd pick Black Ivan for my jack since he's relatively versatile, but character jacks are banned so I went with the Spriggan as the all-rounder.
All this was preparation for Wednesday's spell draft. The other draftees were Ron (volt_ron), Brendon (Plarzoid), and Chris (no blog, feel shame). I would be passing my undrafted cards to Brendon, who was running pVlad with Legion, which meant I wanted to consider what I'd be giving him to pick from when making my own selection. What I was looking for in particular were broad buffs that would work on the Doomies (S&P, Eye of Menoth, Fog of War), a melee-specific buff (Fury, Battle Lust), and a debuff (Parasite, Crippling Grasp). Jack/battlegroup buffs weren't high on my list because Khador, and caster-only buffs were down on the list since I wanted to do the support thing. Keeping these parameters in mind, I got my first batch of spells:
There will be a theme... |
Abuse
Malice
Parasite
Skyborne
Snipe
Sure Foot
Warpath
Wind Rush
The number of orgasmic sounds I made while looking through the cards was probably a bit high, and in retrospect unwarranted, but it was hard to contain myself when confronted with all these signature spells. I discounted Abuse, Malice, and Snipe quickly since they didn't do what I wanted. Wind Rush is a familiar favorite that would boost Grissel's DEF to troublesome levels, and Skyborne would also do that with some different utility. Sure Foot almost got picked, but I decided the footprint would be too small to be effective for lots of infantry. In the end it came down to Parasite and War Path. You're probably thinking Parasite is the obvious choice since I listed it as a primary target, but I went with War Path because I couldn't let Brendon take it while playing pVlad in Legion. Thus my first choice wasn't even for me but instead against someone else. The round ended, cards were passed, and my second group was this:
Many choices. |
Deadeye
Flesh Eater
Ghost Walk
Psychic Vampire
Razor Wind
Ritual Sacrifice
Lots of good stuff to pick from. I discounted Flesh Eater, Psychic Vampire, and Razor Wind quickly. Deadeye is super sexy for someone but not for what I wanted to run, and since I had already picked against someone in the first round I wanted to get something I'd use in the second. Banishing Ward would be nice but limited as the Doomies are already protected from spells. Ghost Walk would also be nice, especially for the Demo Corps. In the end I couldn't pass up Ritual Sacrifice. It would help mitigate Grissel's low(ish) Fury 6 and meh melee stats while also allowing me to (potentially) run multiple jacks or sling any juicy spells I came across. Round three brought:
HURRRRR, we're gonna go fast and turn left! |
Backlash
Energizer
Mobility
Mutagenesis
Obliteration
Tornado
Quality had already started to decline, but at least that made it easier to trim the choices. Backlash, Obliteration, and Tornado were out quick. Energizer and Mobility both give some welcome speed buffs, but since I already had Warpath I didn't want to double down on battlegroup spells I was unlikely to get much use out of. Mobility would have been nice for the Demo Corps, but the DEF boost would be mostly wasted as the bump from 11 to 13 isn't that significant. It was around here that I lost track of what my concept was (support caster), either willfully because I hadn't seen what I wanted and didn't think I would or unwittingly as I kept drawing stuff that would have been great for Barnabas. I ended up with Mutagenesis because it's fun and potentially very useful when combined with Ritual Sacrifice to load up on Focus before (hopefully) teleporting in for the kill. Moving on to round four:
Your draft may vary. |
Boundless Charge
Fail Safe
Stoneskin
Snipe
More easy choices. Snipe was from the same mold as Deadeye, though it could have been dirty fun with Widowmakers. Fail Safe didn't appeal because it's just for jacks. Stoneskin was potentially neat but speed debuffs that you apply to your own troops are always a bitter pill. Boundless Charge is nice, but I get enough of it when I play Khadoran casters. Arcane Shield was the clear winner for me as I could put it on a jack, the Demo Corps, or my caster and get good use out of it.
Round five we got back our initial group of cards, albeit picked over. Abuse and Malice were still there, along with Sure Foot and Skyborne. I took Skyborne because I wanted it the first time around.
Round six brought Razor Wind, Flesh Eater, and Banishing Ward. I didn't want the first two when I saw them earlier, so Banishing Ward it was. Round seven was Backlash and Tornado, of which I took Backlash. Round eight I got Stoneskin. My final list, of which I would get to pick Focus/Fury-1 (which is five for the math challenged) was:
Arcane Shield *
I don't know either. Needed filler. |
Banishing Ward
Mutagenesis *
Ritual Sacrifice *
Skyborne *
Stoneskin
Warpath *
The ones I picked have the asterisks. I ended up with none of what I wanted going in (broad buff, melee buff, debuff), which was partially my own doing. Intentionally or not, I ended up with a list that would have suited Barnabas pretty well. The clear winners for me are Ritual Sacrifice and Arcane Shield. I could take a cheap unit like Mechanics or WGI strictly for bodies to sacrifice. Arcane Shield is a great buff that would work well on anything except maybe the Widowmakers. Skyborne gives some extra DEF even if I never use the MAT boost or Flying. Warpath could be useful at times, as could Mutagenesis.
Things didn't turn out like I hoped they would, so I haven't fleshed out the list yet. One path I wanted to pursue before doing the draft was double Doomies, which is as viable now as it was then. To that I could add some Greylords or min WGI, but I don't know that I like double Doomies as much as I thought I might. I'd also look at WGI as an offensive unit, which means Joe, and Mechanics for sacrificing. Or I could add a Kodiak and Mechanics to make better use of Warpath. There's also the option of redrafting, either this coming Wednesday when the general draft happens or the morning of the event, June 7th at Huzzah Hobbies.
Soon? |
Regardless of the outcome the draft was a good time. Holding so many possibilities in your hand is dizzying, and trying to balance taking things for yourself against denying things to your future opponents makes for some tough choices. I don't do a whole lot of conversion, especially in metal and outside of GW games, so that aspect of the event will be something different and a good chance to learn some new modelling techniques. Best of all is the opportunity to support a good cause by gaming, which is a win for everyone involved.
Disclaimer: we are not this attractive. |