Reptus

[Shakandara]

I like mixing just a handful of trolls in with other units, like the snakes or turtles. I have them attack from the Reach position to start, making the opponent come around to base me. This allows me to be both offensive with them (in a limited capacity) but retain the benefit of Nauseating. If they go all-out for the trolls, then I can punish them with the snakes and their poison for a little longer, which is a fine trade-off to me. If they let the trolls hang around, I get to start making Regen checks,

 

~v

[joshuaslater]

My Reptus should take the field within a week from typing this. I just have to assemble five models. I have a question for the Generals of Payanak. How best to field my force?

 

This is my Snakes on a Plane force. All snakes except for one model. I'll break it down for you with available troops, and you can offer any advice as to which leaders get which troops.

 

1100 points is the goal. Yup, 1000 ain't enough.

 

To start:

Warlord: Po Wi-Set, with Troll Hide and the Sword of Feeding: no cleric in this force!!

Captain: Somchai

Solo: Klahan

Solo: Dragon Turtle

 

Elites:

Tasanee

Kulan, assassin

Ssudai, mage

 

Troop Choices:

5 Nagendra Rangers

6 Nagendra Venomspitters

8 Nagendra Warriors.

3 Couatls

 

The real questions. Who gets which troops? Do I give Po Wi-Set the troops with Ranger and go for the dagger to the heart on the Rush attack? I plan on giving him Klahan, and Tasanee to give him more depth, but I don't know the best compostion for the troops in his squad.

 

Somchai and Ssudai. They will take the other troop in.

 

Any help appreciated.

[Shakandara]

First, you know that this list is pretty fragile, right? The snakes can hit hard, but they lack staying power. And even with the equipment, Po just isn't a melee Warlord - he falls very easily to a small group of soldiers, or even a melee-focused elite or captain. And once Po is gone, so is the impact of his WA to make the Poison tokens resolve at the end of each activation. That being said, and with the restrictions you requested:

 

Reptus - 1100 points

 

Troop 1

Po Wi-Set w/Troll Hide, Sword of Feeding

Tasanee

Kulan, Nagendra Assassin

Ssudai, Nagendra Mystic

Nagendra Warrior x 5

Nagendra Ranger x 3

Nagendra Venomspitter x 3

 

Troop 2

Somchai

Nagendra Warrior x 3

Nagendra Ranger x 2

Couatl x 3

 

Troop 3

Klahan, Nagendra Sniper

 

Troop 4

Dragon Turtle

 

Luck Stone

 

Your goal here will be to fragment your opponent's army early - destroy his leaders to remove the chance of them regrouping troops, and keep the army in smaller, less effective pockets. Use the Warriors to protect the Rangers; they can often survive a round against a similar soldier, and sometimes come out ahead. If you opponent double-teams your warriors, split the attacks to have a chance for a Wound + Poison on each, potentially killing 2 for one, if you get lucky rolls. Save your Rangers for offense (you know they are probably gonna die anyway, right?), then try to base 2 opponents and split the 3 attacks for multiple wounds and multiple Poison tokens. Use the 'Spitters to AOE everything that gets the better of your warriors and rangers. Use the caster's Toxic Cloud spells to AOE anything that crowds your troops; assuming you are using Outkast doctrine, all of your models are immune to Poison, so don't be afraid to include yourself in the AOE to get maximum enemy coverage (baiting the enemy into this is also a nice trick, if it works). Also, against similar ground-based troops, you will have better speed (Ranger for many models, faster MOV, plus all snakes having Rush Attack); spread out wide on the field during early movement to see if you can get your opponent to do the same; you have the flanking speed be able to recover that distance and concentrate into one or two areas, while a good portion of your opponent's army will be left running to get in to the fight.

 

Bottom line: the sooner you fragment your opponent's army into multiple leaderless troops, the longer you will be able to keep Troop 1 effective (they will have to keep sending partial troop after partial troop after you on separate activations, making Po's WA more effective).

 

Good luck.

 

~v

Edited October 11, 2012 by Shakandara

[joshuaslater]

Shak, you've put the whole plan down very concisely. The Toxic Cloud spells will be fun being immune to poison, but I've also thought about Po's Earthquake to stun a group of models and then go after them in earnest. It is a delicate, surgical army, and I'll have to play it that way.

 

Thanks for the advice.

 

Edit: One last thing!!! Do the poison results from the Toxic Cloud count for Po Wi-Set's Warlord Ability? Do the poison rolls from the spell need to be resolved after his troops activation?

[Shakandara]

Yes, as the spell is an attack from a member of Po's troop, those also resolve at the end of the activation as well.

 

~v

[joshuaslater]

I'll post a battle report. Thanks for your help. The community with this game rocks.

[joshuaslater]

Tassanee, Klahan, and three Couatls are now assembled. With primer and paint, the whole force will be done except for the Dragon Turtle. Must. Paint. Faster!!!

[Stubbdog]

Using the same list, cause I don't have time right now to put in an alternate, but one note I want to add. Snakes are fragile, BUT, with their good dodge ability, the warriors become very effective on offense. Using the Rush Attack SA, are limited to one swing, but the opponent can only get one defensive swing in back as well. And getting only one defensive swing against a DV 12 is no small problem for most soldier models. So, for me, where as I agree that getting to enemy leaders is important, if the opponent is made up of a bunch of soldiers, I will also consider bum rushing all the soldiers first, going for my one hit (with poison) against them, and hope they miss their one swing back on me. Cut their numbers down in size. You just have to plan the retaliation part when you do it. Dont put yourself in a position to be swarmed right after.

 

Areas where you have to be careful using that tactic though are when the opponent walls up in tight formations. The rules for Rush attack say a model can only take one defensive swing against the Rush attacker, but it does not say that it cant use any other swings against other models. So, you do have to pay attention in how you charge in such that you dont let their other defensive models outplay your charge. Instead, that is usually the best spot for the spitters or the poison cloud to be targeted.

 

Last suggestion, is actually to break away from the list a little bit. I love the dragon turtle. But, in this list what I have found to be extremely effective is a hand full of coautl. With their speed 9, SA hover, and rush attack from the doctrine, they can effectively hit just about anywhere on the board. And if the enemy is not protecting his casters, archers, etc... I love mass hitting those juicy low DV models before they can blink and know what hit them.

[joshuaslater]

I put the Coatls in a Band just for that effect. I need to crank out enough paint to field the force, but they are primed and ready!!

[joshuaslater]

As usual, the Dwarves won. With three casters in his army, those Dwarven Fire Hammer spells ( I forget the name ) were brutal. They deliver a wound, stun the model, and it's burning too, and at 18" range. Very powerful. My Dragon Turtle, Tasanee, and Po-Wi were targeted, and only Po Wi managed to survive by spending spell points.

 

The Dwarves held one corner of the board, in a fairly tight defense, so my AoE spells did have an effect. I was able to get in a few rush attacks. The Snakes were as fragile as I thought, so now it's time to scale back on their numbers in the force, and invest in some Turtles and some Trolls. I need something that can last a little longer and complement them.

[Mortanius]

I just happen to be going through my old models of reaper and found my snakeman champion #02935, can this model be used for anything? I took a quick glance at the army builder and I don't think I saw it as anything.

[Deadeye_Jake]

I just happen to be going through my old models of reaper and found my snakeman champion #02935, can this model be used for anything? I took a quick glance at the army builder and I don't think I saw it as anything.

 

 

**sigh** Unfortunately, he is way too big for any of the snake-y Reptus models (although Po Wi-Set TOWERS over his base and is much larger than many "large" models out there... but that's another matter entirely). The Snakeman Champion's base is too wide to reasonalby fit on the 1 inch base necessary for official Warlord. Although I guess you could proxy him for a Troll, or slap some wings on him and call him a Crymorian (sorry Vince, hee hee!)

Edited May 4, 2013 by Deadeye_Jake

[Shakandara]

Ha! I didn't realized you'd changed your name on the forums, Jake. That's awesome. The adventures of Sir Garrick live on...

 

Regarding the snakeman champion... yeah, he sure is a big boy. Buuuuut.... I think you could get away with slapping him on a cavalry base (sideways, of course) and use him as a great proxy for Tasanee. It would really change how you think about the movement and facing of the model.

 

By extension, you could also use him as a venomspitter, I suppose, but he is certainly more hero-like.

 

~v

[Mortanius]

Ah that's too bad, I would have liked to use him for what he is but oh well. I will have to see if I even have enough repute guys now to make a list (I don't think I do though...)

[ObsidianCrane]

Keep in mind the Vampire pledge from the KS gives you 4+ models for Reptus as well.