Gamers:

The following are my pulls for 2-28-04:

R-028 Dragonstar
* Dark Crusader 20pts
*** Infantry Golem 31pts
* Gulthak Orc 21pts
* Dwarven Mechanic 24pts

CT-018B Wooden Watchtower
** Khamsin Trooper 18pts
** War Priestess 37pts
* Steam Knight 46pts
*** Dwarven Mechanic 36pts

CT-019B Canvas Pavilion
* Vampiric Skeleton 24pts
*** Empire Veteran 21pts
* Orc Warbeast 41pts
*** Magestone Golem 61pts

Please reply to the following:

1) What figures would you include if this was your pull, and why?

2) What are your army's weaknesses and strengths?

3) How could you compensate for said weaknesses?

4) Rate your army from 1 to 10. (1= WTF, while 10=Omnipotent).

Thanks for playing................

Mago-Azul

Geez Mago, you suck almost as much as me at pulling decent stuff in sealed boost. :p

OK, this one is pretty tough, but I have used worse.

1)
Upon looking at this pull three figures catch my eye; Magestone Golem***, Orc Warbeast*, and Steam Knight*. Those basically will be the cornerstones of the army. I also noticed that there are a lot of healers. Too many to precise. I'll go ahead and cut the Dwarven Mechanic***. It isn't much better than the weak, as its charge and tinker is useless and it doesn't have a higher attack at all. This leaves me a magic healer and a tinker, which is what I need. Now I have just 44 more points to cut. Looking at the remaining figures I see two possible formations; Empire Vet, Magestone Golem, and Infantry Golem; Steam Knight, Khasmin Trooper, Dwarven Mechanic. Formations are key to success in sealed booster, so all those figures stay. Vampiric Skeleton, Dark Crusader, and Gulthak Orc remain. While the Vamp is a nice addition, mathmatically I have to cut him. That leaves the orc and the crusader. While the orc will get me at exactly 300pts., the crusader is the better figure. So the final army is:

Formation:
Magestone Golem***
Empire Veteran***
Infantry Golem***

Formation:
Steam Knight*
Khasmin Trooper**
Dwarven Mechanic*

Loners:
Orc Warbeast*

Dark Crusader*

War Priestess**


2)
This army has a lot going for it. First off, it is very action conservative, which is a neccessity in a sealed enviroment. Secondly, it has a nice mix of ranged and close combat threats in the Magestone Golem, Orc Warbeast, and Steam Knight. Thirdly, it has a lot of healing support, which is rare for a set like 2.0.

Its main weakness is its lack of a long range threat, and its overall low attack.

3)
To make up for the low attack range I'll need to utilize my terrain placement, as well as use a lot of harassment. The Dark Crusader is a great harasser, as its Parry is sure to give it longivity. The Warbeast serves a nice heavy harasser, as well as a form of autodamage. In addition, my healing should lessen the dent. As for the attack issue, I have plenty of nice canidates for gang-up

4)
I'd give it about an 8.5

Here's my pick for an army :

Formation 1:
*** Infantry Golem (formation filler, can heal passed Repair markers)
*** Empire Veteran (nice little bodyguard unit)
*** Magestone Golem (big gun, you're gonna need him)

Formation 2:
** Khamsin Trooper (formation filler, and cheap harasser)
* Steam Knight (secondary big gun, has the benefit of having a sword)
*** Dwarven Mechanic (solid healer for the Golems who can stand on his own in combat, nice synergy with the *** Infantry Golem)

Loners:
* Vampiric Skeleton (durable little bugger, decent melee fighter)
* Orc Warbeast (your melee monster of choice, adds auto-damage, and great speed, along wiht a heavy punch)
* Gulthak Orc (your harasser of choice, his Lurk ability will make him much harder to kill)

I let go the * Dark Crusader simply because he was obviously the weakest fig of the pool, right aftter the * Dwarven Mechanic... After that came the hard decision of cutting the War Priestess... She really didn't feel in place in this army. with lots of golems, and a MI fig, it's MH just didn't look that appealing to me. Besides, the lack of other Free armies figs (or even Elven Lords for that matter!) just did not warrant spending the 47 points on her...

2) The main strenght of this army lies in it's durability. There are lots of healers, or self-healing units, which is always nice, some solid melee fighter and decent ranged support. The 2 formations also insure action efficiency when it comes to movement. Overall, it's pretty balanced... Also, having lots of cheap fodder units allow you to setup attacks more efficiently, by tiying up a main attacker and giving you some time to prepare to strike. The 12 inches range on the Magestone Golem is a nice addition...

However, the army has no Revenant figs, which, in some situations, might make the difference between life and death... Besides that, the figs don't have such a high attack overall, so it might be hard to deal with bigger defenses... the army doesn't really have a big weakness, but it's got no obvious strenght either, everything is pretty much average...

3) Really, for this army to work, you really have to give nothing to your opponent. The 2 formations have to work together in order to wrok out as your main punch are your golems, and you have to keep them healthy with botht the Infantry Golem and the Mechanic... As always, terrain placement will play a critical role as this army really can't afford to let the opposing team gain any sort of advantages...

4) Overall, not a bad army... i'd give it a 8.

My army:

Formation 1

Steam Knight * (a tough fig. Good dam and range too)
Khamsin Trooper* (filler, double time to grab obj)
Dwarven Mechanic *(Support w/ tinker decent attack)
Dwarven Mechanic ***(back up support can charge if needed)

Formation 2

Empire Veteran *** (decent body guard/gang up)
Infantry Golem ***(same + range)
Magestone Golem *** (Beast, Mage Blast, PIerce, 2 attacks)

Loner figs

Orc Warbeast * (Great solo fig. Good damage and mobile)
Vampiric Skel * (Tough fig, Vapirism makes him last and nice damage)


Total 300


1. Why nots. Dark Crusader: More of a formation figure. Just not enough DC figs to make use of him IMO. Gulthak, I feel the same way. The other harrassers were just better, if I had more Orcs I'd use him.

2. Strengths: Strong range potential. Fairly mobile. Nice synergy with the formations and liberal use of Golems with Tinker and Golemkore SA's. Decent harrassers with some speed/ free Double Time.

Weakness: Relies alot on Range. Stormgale will kill me. Not alot of deep figures. Gonna be tough versus a big unique.

3.Not much to do about the Domain. The rest is just careful placement. Grab my close objective and sit my Magestone on it. Hopefully I'll be in range of the center objective and I can make use of my range to soften it up while using the harrassers to keep them at a distance. Make use of the SA's

4. Not too bad.. I'd say a 7 or 8 in a sealed format.



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Tried not to look at the other posts until after I had made my army. I think most people are going to make the same decisions here.