MKII in game experience

[Sevwall]

Post your thoughts based from in game experiences here. Lets make a nice repository of informed comments. There is a place for theorymachine, but with all the emotions we should really have a place dedicated to actual gaming knowledge.

Played two games with the following 50 point list.

Borka
Keggy
EBDT
Slag
10 Fennblades
10 Bushwhackers
5 Champs
6 Kriels + UA
Fellcaller
Chronicler


Borka:
Brilliant! Iron Flesh really does push out DEF up to really good levels, especially with our nice ARM. Champs under this return to thier former glory, but this time at higher ARM. Wind Wall is wonderful, forcing opponents to deal with a DEF 14 ARM 19 melee caster face to face (and thats without any buffs). Mosh pit got a tiny bit more expensive, but Top Up got better, and frankly where it costs 2 or 3, when you need to cast it its worth casting regardless.

The main problem is the feat. Unless you get the charge, you really don't have a feat. It also doesn't synergize at all with Iron Flesh. Its just wonky. Take things with already big threat ranges (cav, Fennblades) so that you can get the first charge. You might want to take a bunch of champs, but as a front line unit they can still get outcharged by SPD 6 reach units, even under the feat.

Keggy's new Top Up is gold. 2 Fury is a big deal, no KD is a big deal, and the random movement will save your life on occassion (though it could lose you the game on occasion too, so be careful). Pary Foul is a real possible problem though, in that with all of clumping Berzerk is a problem. In some ways it encourages people to kill Keggy, so be careful, and try to keep him in Wind wall.

All in all, solid as a rock (if not top of the line) and more importantly fun too.

Fennblades:
Yes! They are sufficiently different from our other units to have a role. The 11" threat range is golden in a slow army, and with Vengeance you increase that range whenever you get shot. Which is nice. Also, that free attack is pretty cool. Try to buff up thier survivability (Iron Flesh, Chronicler) so that your opponent fails to kill as many as he would like, leaving them ready to make two attacks next turn.

They have replaced Kriel Warriors as my go to infantry unit.

EBDT:
The 2" range is a big buff. Its so much easier to get now, and with it the SPD bonus and ARM bonus. With the nerf to the axer its one of the only ways to up the warcasters movement, so it also gained in the lost abilities of others.

Chronicler:
Warcasters/Warlocks still get effected by Hero's tragedy, so its really still just fine, even though it was fun to see pygs take down jacks with thier lasst breaths. Still highly, highly worth taking. Combines well with Iron Flesh, obviously.

Thats all for now. I will be posting reports from Templecon here as well.

[grim89]

*see my thread about doomshaper

[PG_theummhmmguy]

Borka is starting to look pretty awesome.

[unclebiggins]

Grim: Perfect. Still one of our if not the best competitive caster we have if you are so inclined that way. Anti-stealth is perfect for him though I will miss seeing through forests and cloud effects for free.

Borka: Initial indications of his performance are good. With 7 Fury he feels like he can really hand out the animi and support to his army. With a great upkeep spell, a potent buff in the form of Mosh Pit to knock around the enemies armies and Wind Wall to glide you and your friends up the field, he has gotten some really good treatment. He is pretty much ready to go.

Calandra: If you look at her feat as a slightly altered version of Recalibration from mortenebra then you will be all right. Used with pygmies to great effect. Her new befuddle is actually better if your intended targets are warbeasts and the like. Trades the extra range for the inability to target casters over TB and it being a move instead of place effect instead. I was satisfied after the game with her performance.

Earthborn: Perfect. The 2" terrain buff was a great help and will give me the ability to be just that bit more generious with his placement. This also helps out his animus as well which is dandy.

Blitzer: Still good. Havent used the improved animus yet but he nearly crippled a Ironclad over two turns of shooting. The situation was a bit unusual but this beast would be great for holding objectives. Between its impressive ARM, decent POW, ROF and accuracy of its gun and ability to snack and be supported by our other stuff, the Blitzer is much much more solid than ever before.

Pyre: The new Pyre has been a total failure so far. His new animus is horid for everything except immunity to fire (only works against other Pyres, Menoth and Legion) I find my troops are destroying everything they touch, I dont need to do fire damage to finish off troops. I need extra power to finish off hard targets that need a bit more persusasion and his new animus doesnt help me with that. In both games were I fielded him I wanted the old animus to help my Earthborn do more damage to the Khador jacks with his 6 melee attacks. That would have netted an extra 12 damage and more than likely destroyed more systems on the enemy jacks. His lower ARM was appart when he died to two melee swing from *cough The Butcher *cough. Okay, just kidding on that last one. Everything dies to the Butcher anyway but

Winter: Actually didnt do too poorly in the game against circle. Was able to freeze a warp wolf with a critical hit from its spray. After the Feral shook off the effect and charged dead my Winter Troll, he was made stationary for my 3 champions to mop him up. Again new Calandra's feat did a decent amout of work letting me toast the beast with just 3 attacks.

Dygmies: Were always solid in my eyes. New interaction with Calandras feat was impressive. They managed to kill a Gorax without calandra's feat and just using the back arcs from befuddle to hit the thing on a roll of a 4. After being decimated by the Druids devouring attack and a wayward rift spell. They advanced up and blew away the shifting stones that were in Mulgs way so he could charge a wayfarer and kill him.

Fennblades: Are solid performers so far. SPD 6 gives them new life. Vengence is an artifical threat range extender and combo'ed with DEF buffs that reduce casualties from the Chronicler and Iron flesh, then there will be plenty of the unit alive when it comes time for the charge. Combo'ed very very well with Borka + ironflesh + concealment. If the enemy kills two fenns, you get to move up 3" into the enemies face. Borka drops ironflesh, fenns get warcry and you pop your feat. That same front line fire screen of DEF 17 models now charge a model that can be up to a whopping 16" awy from where you began your turn. So far unit is solid.

Kriel Warriors + UA: I am paying 2PC for Steady. Take up is hardly worthwhile ability for me on my Piper as I find that the extra distance from In-step isnt giving me. Honestly after the latest update, I wonder if PP should just reboot the whole concept of this UA. They dont seem to want to have a 4+ tough and I would rather spend 2PC on whelps than the UA for my kriel warriors now. I know from over games that depending on your opponents caster (or luck) that steady is a freaking awesome ability. I dont think its fully a 2PC ability though as the models in the UA dont really fight (Standards in the back, Pipers handing in the middle of the tarpit with the leader, may sometimes get a swing off)

Kriel Cabre: I forsee problems with it pushing models out of range. Also I am not entirely feeling the power of this model. 1PC feels very costly for what seems to be a very weak WA. I think that it should lose thunderstrike all together, gain two points of POW and critical KD but time will tell, he only got to kill (or try to kill) some bloodtrackers last game but his performance was underwhelming.

Fellcaller: This thing was always pretty good. -1 DEF doesnt matter a whole lot to him. I wish the hero had gotten +1 ARM though. I still really dislike thresher on him.

Thumper: In one game they managed to kill a scrap thrall, deal 7 damage and slam back a black ogrun and deal 3 damage to a bonejack. While appearing to do very little for 3PC, in that game it also knocked down those targets and a single champion of my choosing total the knocked down warjack with his two melee attacks. The second game he was killed by a wayfarer who snuck around the flank and stonepelted him to death.

The only thing that I want PP to do is make this thing so it slams a small based model D6, a medium based model D3 and a large base is simply KD or pushed back D3" instead. The Thumper is a control piece and its a vital part of my strategy when fighting against warmachine factions. Even if it doesnt KD, or slam, I just need it to take a few inches away from the Menoth jacks or to reduce there threat ranges with my pushes.


Saxon Orrik: Hes MKi good again (I liked him in MKi) I will be returning him to my lists.


Anyway, these are my opinions on things so far. I like that my work gives me the time to play a 50PC game in the middle of the day.



Lists used so far:

Grim (loss versus eCaine, would have probaly won with better placement of cloud effect and grim. Opponents army was down to a pair of half dead warjacks while my entire battlegroup, a few infantry and most of my support was all still alive. Overkill and 7 focus does kill casters quite dead however.)

Blitzer
Impaler
Slag
Bushwackers (max)
KSB (min)
Runeshapers
Bonegrinders
Swamp Gobbers


Borka (win versus Butcher)
Earthborn
Pyre
Bouncer
Champs (min)
Fenns (max)
KSB (max no UA)
Chronicler
Fellcaller


Madrak (win versus Gaspy)
Impaler
Mauler
Champs (max)
Fenns (max)
Thumper
Chronicler


Calandra (loss versus Kromac)
Mulg
Pyre
Winter
Impaler
Dygmies
Thumper
Champs
Kriel Warriors + UA
Fellcaller
Saxon Orrik
KSB (max)

[Negative9]

Pyre: The new Pyre has been a total failure so far. His new animus is horid for everything except immunity to fire (only works against other Pyres, Menoth and Legion) I find my troops are destroying everything they touch, I dont need to do fire damage to finish off troops. I need extra power to finish off hard targets that need a bit more persusasion and his new animus doesnt help me with that. In both games were I fielded him I wanted the old animus to help my Earthborn do more damage to the Khador jacks with his 6 melee attacks. That would have netted an extra 12 damage and more than likely destroyed more systems on the enemy jacks.

I would like to see the Pyre Re-purposed to anti-infantry role by maybe by having Flaming Fist grant Flame Burst and Immunity to fire. It would be balanced by the fact that it can never be on more than 4 models at a time, requires a model to be boxed, and doesn't help against hard targets. Possible problems come from interactions with Crusher, Mulg(overtake), and Doomshaper(goad).

Flame Burst - When this model boxes an enemy model with this weapon, enemy models within 1˝ of the boxed model suffer the Fire continuous effect ICON.

Grim (loss versus eCaine, would have probaly won with better placement of cloud effect and grim. Opponents army was down to a pair of half dead warjacks while my entire battlegroup, a few infantry and most of my support was all still alive. Overkill and 7 focus does kill casters quite dead however.)

Looks like you fell for the old disposable eCaine army trick.