I made this army a few days ago and playtested it against a friend who played Spirit armor on zeph and water potion with 5x **snow maiden centaurs and the second army had zeph with same set up but with tazia and DC pegasus w/ k-bow, a * high elven archer and a ** feral whelp.

I won and lost one to the tazia army, I beat the snow maiden army soundly twice.


with out further ado here's the army I used... just because I wanted to see if a fattie could survive the wrath of spirit armor...

my "bounding hydroplane" army... some thoughts are appreciated.


Varatrix with thunder javelin and potion of water breathing: 218
**note: the relic reduces the defense by -2... the water potion gives varatrix water movement ontop of wing... and if you stay on the ground varatrix has +2 to defense in the water... so nothing loss and +2 to speed...relic reduced the speed by -1 as well.

*crusader priest: 35

** River charger (unmounted): 34

* Xandressian diver (from uprising): 13

total: 300pts.

domains used: river valley and fen swamp

Terrain templates used: one stone tower Constructed terrain. use the biggest deep water template possible.


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okay I know that this army had a 50/50 chance right from the get go when facing spirit armor...so spare me the debate on the issue...because if it's not changed... then armies must be still be built no?

back to the army...

pretend the board is in four parts... place your two terrain pieces. and if you know or suspect that there is a Mask of mysteries on the opposing players team on top of spirit armor then play the tower near the deployment zone so the priest can scurry up if needed.

dbl time you crusader priest first thing from one end of the deployment zone to the other... in short dbl-time side ways to get into that necromancy click.

first of all... keep varatrix on the ground unless you absolutely need to soar.

Use the bonus +2 to speed to bound and shoot. I fully expect the other guy to try and kill varatrix off if possible.

if varatrix is spirit armored to death, use the crusader priest to necro him back... mind you this is a 50/50 chance, but it's better than nothing and if he comes back... varatrix could open a can of worms on what is left of the spirit army.
the xandressian and river charger are for objectives and tying up units and if you have played river valley you can dbl time the diver and river charger too!

I managed to get lucky and necro'd him 3 out of 4 matches against spirit armor... and won all 3 as well when I came back. I'm also aware the win -loss ratio could have been just as easily been any of these 0-4, 1-4, 2-4, 3-4, 4-4. but that's in consideration that I'm facing spirit armor everytime...in a tourny I might see it once or maybe twice...or possibly not at all...even then this army is good on it's own...it can knock riders from their mounts, damage the rider and the mount or units in formation or playing "park my fanny" on objective tokens. With bound and the ability to surge varatrix did rather nicely chewing up the forces on the board.

this build worked and worked well, but when I was unable to come back the game was pretty much over... but other than that the look of "OMG, he's back...." was priceless....

this isn't the answer to Spirit armor but it does work...

peace,
Gunmix

Ok, but what if someone places Open Terrain or Cold Snap or Mountain Pass. Granted this is a good army but 3 domains can put it down.

Looks good to me! Potion of water breathing has so many strange uses I tell'ya.

Forgot Blast Lands and Wave of Water also. Banking on a single specific special ability is not excatly a good way to build an army though. All it takes is one thing to nerf it. I would be interested to see how it plays out with the submerged ability crippled.

this is a factor for any situation...

cold snap... to be expected. if I'm facing a cold snap player... most likely he's not playing spirit armor (he could be, but most likely not) and varatrix is able to remove threats by bounding and by surging... the splash damage is also-automatic if I hit the target... so If there is a heavy defense unique sitting near a weaker unit I'll hit the unit and deal the 2 damage to the tougher unit that way, so I'm not rolling against some huge defense.

mountain pass doesn't hurt this army...(it can hurt if its a first turn cloak of the martyr/spirit armor since I can't dbl-time into my necromancy spot...but I can push him into it since you can dbl time either....but this isn't likely to happen and it'ss completely situational and self defeating for spirit armor armies.... the best range units have bound and :hspeed: so in short you're not bounding far and varatrix can still move full speed freely) with this domain in play you can't surge and I can't surge but I can flight-bound and varatrix has GF. it also doesn't cancel water terrain placement which will allow varatrix to gain a +3 to his speed if he started that turn in water... giving and extra +3 to his bounding distance...


open terrain... nice and expected from every player, but still doesn't stop placement of water terrain ... varatrix has a 21" reach if needed and open terrain is all the more reason to go up.

I'm not basing the whole concept on a special ability.... I added the water potion for extra speed...otherwise...who cares... If I get the water domin in play more power for me... if I don't chances are, I'm not entirely playing against spirit armor army...most open terrain cards are going to be reserved for MoM army right?... Mountain pass for centaur swarms?... ... the two water types still move and the xandressian still dbl-times in open terrain for 18"

the one thing that would cause big problems is storm gale and an army of EL footsoldiers behind spirit armor.