Hello. I have been play testing some strategies and found out a new tactic. I apologize if anyone posted this before me. I don't think somone has, but I will cover my rear. Anyways, here we go.

I call it "Automatic". The basic principle is to build an army around a special ability that does damage without having to roll the dice. There are 4 main abilities:
-Pole Arm
-Magic Retaliation (explained later why it does not apply)
-Ram
-Venom

Magic Retaliation really does not count, for dice rolling is involved. The opponent rolls the dice, and damages you.

Besides that, the other three abilities fit the criteria. Pole arm is not so effective, but ram and venom will be most popular.

When you sit down to build your army, remember that you do not have to make "auto" a main criteria. You can make it a sub-strategy. Here is one army that I like to play that combines a little of GA and AUTO:
-Wyvern
-Solonavi Tormentor
-Centaur Medic (***)
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199 points

In this army you have the speed of GA and the venom of the AUTO.

Another common army is the Worm toss. That is based on the AUTO (venom)

Here is where an AUTO army will shine:
-Against a bone-toss, AUTO will surely succeed. You can cause damage to those skellies and knock out thier weapon master before they can even end thier turn. This is very effective.
-KI swarm. Why do you try swarming a creature that does venom damage to you? It is pointless to even attack me with a KI swarm.
-Death stars usually involve a lot of weak figures just there to upgrade damage. If you can base those weak figures with ram, the figures will hav a hard time dealing with your rammer.
-Toughness and Inv. These will give you troubles. But that is why you will need to combine strategies in order to succeed.


Again, AUTO is a tactic where your figures are based on a special ability that inflicts damage without having to roll the dice.

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Beware of toughness...

Hey, Reeceman

Venom and Ram are two nice abilities IMO, but both have the same problems, which you've already pointed: Toughness and Invulnerability.

I consider Ram better than Venom, because when you base your rammer, it deals the damage at that moment. Venom is a little more tricky, considering figures that can easily breakaway (flight and mounted).

I don't believe that an army built around a single ability, or even these two could be easily sucessful, the sub-strategy idea sounds a lot better to me.

BTW the Wyvern is an amazing figure, it's really worth its points.

My 2 cents

That's whya you should have not just a figure with ram or Vemon but a GOOD figure with those abiltityies, Something that can do 3-4 damage. Pyre Sprite is a good example.

whats so new about this?

this strategy has already been used multiple times. Fling & Ping with Ram is essentially an "automatic" army. And venom armies have been around for quite some time. The main problem with venom figs is that their attack and damage values usually are not outstanding(solonavi tormentor being an obvious exception). Due to that, these armies will have a great deal of trouble with toughness, and even more with invunerability.

Yup yup. If you want ram, venom, PA and the like to be the standpoint of your army then you better get decent figs that have those abilities. Pyre spirit is a good example. Ram and Venom in one. Throttle worms are kinda dumb since you have to have a shyft in their to make them a formation, but I guess if your opponent wasn't ready for the things you might do something. And the only venoms you'll normally get in a formation, Rancid Bloodsuckers, are not that great. Pole arm and magic retaliation along with Venom and Ram are all gonna get mowed if your opponent has "12 Trolls who, by default, have toughness. So just beware when making this "AUTO" army.

Hey, I liked your idea, so I just made a 300 pt version, no healer, but better suited to the GA style of play anyways, and if you really feel you need a healer, just toss in a *Corrupted Priest instead of the Galeshi, but here it is....

Solo. Tormentor - 121 pts
Pyre Spirit - 87 pts
Wyvern - 44 pts
Galeshi Ram Charger - 48 pts
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300 pts

It should work well against any type of army cause of the large arcs and venom and shakeoff damage even swarm shouldn't be that large a worry....
but yeah, against an army lacking toughness, this should just eat it, and if they do have toughness, you have two guys with 3 dmg, one with 5, and one weapon master unit.
so knocking them down and out of toughness shouldn't even be a problem :D

Well if u have venom and stuff that does 1 click it cant hurt the people with tough and invurnability so really this army needs a few changes. buy if there where no tough and invurnability that army will win.

As far as venom armies are concerned don't forget the mighty manticore. Flight, toughness, venom, decent attack for ** & ***, & decent startng damage of 3. This is usually enough to knock most figs with toughness down into a poisonable position.
Here's an army I've been toying with.

bondmaker ***
throttle worm ** x2
manticore ** x2
manticore ***

everything moves at 10.
bondmaker attacks at 11 for 2 damage.
manticores attack at 9 for 3 with 10" range.
if all else fails you can add inth throttle worms to your attack with the bondmaker to take onthose high defence figs.

Aarold's version looks interesting.

Tormentor and Pyre Spirit make a great combo for people who like Venom and Ram. Pretty annoying.

About the Manticore: The standard version's attack is a problem IMO. 9 is not a wonder, unless you have a formation to attack. Its defense, in both versions, is 16, which makes them a quite easy target for ranged attackers. The tough version's attack is 10, better than the standard, but it costs 40 points. In my opinion, it's a little too much for what it does.

Yeha youll definatly need that tormenter for that toughness stuff.

16 Defense is not the best, it could be worse. terrain placement and movement awareness would help with surviveability. I've had pretty good successs with manticore's in general. 10" range for mage spawn is pretty good. i wouldn't recommend going toe to toe with the better melee fighters without softening them up first.

Alright. Thank you all for replying. I was at school and was excited to see what comments I got. Here is some feedback.

On the issue of toughness, yes it will be a problem. But as Battlemaster has agreed, AUTO will be better as a sub-tactic. It will not be the main tactic.

Then again, why would anyone in their right mind, throw a Wyvern into a squad of trolls? I wouldn't do that. Instead, I would ram/venom the weak figures; healers, technomancers, and necromancers. Sure toughness is a problem, but you get relieved when the opponent loses thier foundation.

Mighty Cell - No, fling and ping with a little bit of ram is not a AUTO army. It is a sub stategy. You base all of your AUTO on one ram figure. That is a sub, not an entire AUTO tactic.

Shock SHifter - It is more common to find ram in nons then it will be to find it in uniques. But for venom it is the other way around.

Battlemaster - Yes Ram can be better at some times. But what happens if your ram is based by a skellie and you miss the break away? If you had venom, the skeleton would lose all abilities. But now your ram is stuck and you will take between 1-6 damage.

Do you see where I like the venom for fling and ping? Who in their right mind would fling a weak skeleton at a figure with venom, for when it comes to your turn, they will lose the possible skellie.

Anito - I will.

Cereal Killer - Look up at the toughness issue.

Ice Kha - One of the reasons why I brought this up was to put a title on this. So that if you try to describe to some one a guerilla army with ram and venom backing it up, you could just say a AUTO GA. Easy as that.

Aarold - Thank you. I think that a healer would be great for that army. That is my personal opinion. I hate it when you roll a critical hit, and a healer could solve that.

MKdemonX - Please show me an effective 200 point army that has 75% of the points with invulerability?

Nthcircleofhell - Interesting concept. Try it out and get back to me on the results.

Stormy 101- Not really. Again, refer to the top for attacking healers, necromancers, and technomancers.


Another good point about AUTO, if you go with AUTO, you can actually go with less figures in your army do to the reason that you increase your damage output with Venom, Ram, and Pole Arm. My 200 point army that I listed had 3 figures, and it was pretty effective. Because, my two figures did damage without me having to do anything. I wouldn't always have to push because I was attacking without even attacking. Do you gget where I am going?