:cool: Had a great pull at the marquee today, anyway I will use Ezekiel Crow soon probably Sunday.

:devious: Might be Saturday The Warzone Matrix is running 12 hours of MW this Saturday. I think?

ran this army in constructed today.[list=1][*]Ezekiel Crow.[*]ROTS Kelswa Assault Tank.[*]ROTS Nacon Armoured Scout.[*]ROTS Grey Death Scout BA.
total 448 pts.[/list=1] unfortunately i put force together in a rush so did not think about strengths and weaknesses.

1st Game against Liao. he used:[list=1][*]Jacyn Bell[*]Liao Spider.[*]Liao Kite Reconnaissance Vehicle.[*]3 x Liao ATVs.[/list=1] i was 1st playa so set up blocking immediately in front of my deployment area an immediately in front of his. my tactic was to give up[ VC3 an allow him to come to me while making use of terrain an indirect fire. when i set up i reallied my first mistake, i really needed more pbi to protect the Kelswa, instead i surrounded it with my other forces. t

he plan worked when he used his ATVs to base Ezekiel an the GDSBA, he also followed up by moving Bell an the Spider within charge ran. in the meantime the Kelswa shot up the ATVs by indirect. i tried to split the fire so that i did not kill 1 outright as he would have benefited using his faction ability.

the next turn he charged Crow with Bell an the Spider, both missed an so i immediately used Crow's lasers on Bell causing him to shut down. his ATVs were split up an taking damage from the Kelswa an GDSBA so he began to despair :devious:

every time he cooled Bell an restarted, Crow used his lasers to shut him down again! i also moved the Nacon into base Bell for some extra damage however the Homing Beacon missed the 1st time i switched it on. despite this Crow was able to hit Bell 3 times in a row, i realized that Crow was gonna shut down however the risk was worth it, Crow shot an then the Nacon finished him off. i then moved the Kelswa to base the Spider. the Spider tried to full strike Crow an the Kelswa while Crow was shut down however his damage was 2, this was offset by the hardened armour an he missed the Kelswa entirely. i missed with the Kelswa however the Spider overheated an shutdown next turn. i then successfully destroyed it an cleaned up. the GDSBA was my only casualty.

the next game was against:[list=1][*]2 x DF Donar.[*]5 x DF ATVs.[*]DF Clan BA.[*]DF Shandra Scout Vehicle[*]DF Mjolnir.[*]DF Raider.[/list=1] again i tried to set up blocking in front of my deployment area however, as my oppo was 1st playa i decided to place some water to help protect Crow from the Donars. i quickly realized that i was reacting to his army rather than make him react to mine. he was scared enough of the Kelswa to keep all his army 14.5" away so i moved Crow into the water within range of the Donars however i thought his armour would protect him. this was another mistake because 1st the Mjolnir charged into Crow an hit. i then moved Crow away so the Kelswa could frag the Mjolnir. then the Raider shot Crow followed by the Donars which blew him away. i was then left with 158pts on the table vs 340pts odd. he basically was able to move an shoot with the Donars, followed by the Raider. i tried to pin him down however there was no real choice as the overwhelming numbers he had meant that i was pushing an this allowed him to whittle my army away.

in summary both games swung on charges. in the first game he missed with 2 'Mechs however if he hit the story would have been very different. in the second the Mjolnir 28" charge w/11 attack showed Crow's weakness, this combined with the Raider 11 attack, the Donars 18" move an shoot w/10 attack, the IT on the ATVs meant that as far as "uber" armies go this was pretty hot on all fronts. Crow's command is useless unless you take pbi. the Kelswa is a great tank however too expensive with Crow. i will continue to try Crow however not in competitive play because play-testing is not conducive to winning! :ermm:

Eze Crow is a solid player in Solaris combats though, his extra order (passive cool) always seems to come at the right time to keep his heat dial out of the danger zone.

I've played him semi-successfully by running up to opposing arty then pogging him with non AP artillery to wipe out base-shield infantry. The extra order occasionally makes the difference with the current Arty-nerf. Load up on H Peasants of your own.

Having playtested him in our best guess at Move/shoot rules he's not terrible here either. (Though we've often played under an 'unrestricted tourney' house rule where electronic camouflauge negates IT and Enhanced Imaging).

If you play a 600 point game though he can be an interesting choice.

I once played a 1k point battle against a friend where i had Crow fighting alongside Declan Devalis, a SC Behemoth II, 15 Clan Battle Armor (assorted factions), a Merc DI Morgan, and some other things...

the Behemoth got a crit hit against the opponent's Erin Johnston which pretty much screwed him over and Crow came in and finished the job quite easily while taking out atleast 2 SM1 Tank Destroyers and a DF JESII... amazingly Declan did next to jack-squat in that game and Crow did most of the work...

I think crow was made just for fun and large point battles... because that seems to be where most of the good things happen (although i dont think anyone has even tried fielding him in a competitive game...)

Crow may seem useless but play a couple friendly battles... you may find that he could pull your rear out of the fire quite easily...

:p See you don't judge a book by its cover. Zeke isn't that bad if you give him a chance. Now it may be Zeke waits a week or two for me.

:cool: You all lost interest in picking apart Zeke and tossing ideas?

u know all you have to do with ziek is sit back behind blocking and inderect athen through in a nice arty pice and you are pretty set.

Until AoD, charging is Crow's big weakness, his cost/defence value ratio being so low. Base/break with fast transport will be very useful.
@rearly
If you keep the Kelsawa, concider moving it up first and early, then anything that wants to get to Crow will most likely have to take a shot from the tank first, especially Donars, but that DF army has too much fodder, is too mobile and too many targets to make it likely you would win.

I like the Crow. We recently had an unrestricted tourney where everyone had to play a lance or star. I had RoS lance heavy on command orders. EC stayed near my DZ behind an H, and it was a great time. I went 1-1, and the game I lost was because I was absent-minded.

hi Seafog true, a ROTS DI TFA with Grey Death Scout BA / Trackbike screen an a ROTS Balac would have been nice against this lot, would have split up his ATVs however my decision to use Crow an Kelswa prevented this. :(

Zeke sucks and should not be allowed to play because you think he's all that D.C. :) J/K

Go ahead and play Zeke tom. and we'll see what will happen when I'll rape him and force you to never play him again and you will finally realize that you wasted 3 hrs. of your life at that tourney.

J/K (not really on this one)

trust me, I will smash him.

this sunday my venue is having a 900 pt battle and I'm going to try to go. plan of fielding the following units.

Marcel Thennes
Paladin Jonah Levin
Ezikel Crow
RotS Balac
RotS DI Towed Field Artillery
RotS Zahn Heavy Transport
RotS Cavalier Battle armor

yeah, three mechs, two of them being about 2/3rds my army, hopefuly my tactic will work though...just gonna rush rush rush and use the 'mechs as aggressive as I can. here's hoping!

Okay, here's a Post-AoD Zeke Crow squad you can try just for kicks. Bring Blocking and water.

290 Paladin Ezekiel Crow
30 Wolf J-37
20x3 Wolf Mortar Squads
14x5 DF ATV squads.
---
450 (I'm one mortar squad away from being able to play this one).

In the Assault order era, EZ Crow's offensive accuracy and durability is exceeded only by Bounty Hunter. And of the mechs with 12 attack, his move & shoot range similarly exceeds all but that red Marauder. His 14" assault order can reliably hit even a 22D.

He worries some about Donars, they'll get first strike on him and chip the black off his armor SE's, but the Mortars can reach them potentially. Your Wolf Drop doesn't mind taking a single hit of 2 damage (AnP or burst radius). And if mechs/etc. get into contact (to neuter your repair ability), you can perhaps formation/flamer with the J-37 and Mortars. Then hey, try for a capture, you never know...

Other than that bounce around behind blocking terrain and vent in water. Zeke doesn't mind firing into or out of base contact, still sports a 10 attack in that case. Run him into base then pog where he stands.

Chain smoke enemy mechs with ATV's by running into contact one by one to tie up and cheap-heat the ones with an order token on 'em. If they ignore the first one or two you can angle for a formation flamer attack, and shut 'em down. If they choose to fire out of base, or move & shoot, Zeke can use the +1 DV every chance he gets. If you can afford the action, retreat an ATV now & then for healing.

Your big worry here is DF Skadi's (anti-p with reactive armor). Kill them first. Ping Fling can give this build trouble. As do many others (VTOL heavy and react armor especially).

You'll have to be really crafty to pull it off but the hope is you can surprise 'em. And think of the bragging rights you get if you can even go 2-1 in a 450 constructerd with the consensus 'unplayable' champ.

Alternatively, just for kicks try this:
290 Paladin E. Crow
20x8 Wolf Mortar Squads.
---
450

The above problems are magnified, but just keep your squads out of contact with each other and pog all who approach. Anyone landing in your DZ you can maneuver to capture. You can even try this under the current artillery nerf because of the surplus of orders you may have.
Strategy is pretty simple. Pog 'em.

That's the best I got for now.

.doc.

:classic: I like the army idea but I'll need a couple of pieces before I can play the army but it seems very cool and interesting.