[Warning: This thread is both a discussion and an army reveiw.]



Ever since I started playing with the new rules of 2.0, one fact has burned itself into my skull. Out of the many truths that emerge from the new game, none is more evident than the fact that an overfocused army is too easily defeated. Armies with overly heavy investments in any category are too simply defeated by a single domain, relic, popular build, combo, ect.
Even armies where there is only a scaled imbalance [As in, one figure being 110 points + Relic and the rest of the points as support] are crippled by their own weight. The bigger they are built, the harder it is to recuperate when they fall.
Another aspect that makes singular builds less attractive is the new distances available to cheap and effective harassers such as the Zombie Centaur. With the ability to base and effectively tangle any figure from 16" away, even simple figures like the * Shocktrooper have the ability to render such beasts as Vextha impotent, if only for a turn. But that one turn of protection is usually enough to outmanuever an enemy threat.
I have seen the rebirth of many trends during this period: Swarm has taken the throne of the game, armies abusing certain aspects of relics are potent and must be feared, and the newest incarnations of Big Bound keep medium-range powerhouses from dominating the game [at least in my metagame].
I love the way tactics and the way you play the game is now universally more important than what army you feild. Wizkids, whether you like it or not, has created a stable way of making the game fun. There will always be imbalances. But i am having more fun with the fair games now than I ever was.

But, in the spirit of intellectual competition, I have decided to devise an army which I consider to be the pinnacle of my experience as a player. I have yet to feild it in an actual tournament, but I have had outrageous success against many builds.

Here is the core concept:


Versatility. Where many armies pour their points into one massive figure decked with flashy and powerful artifacts [Vextha with Blade of Dominance], or spread them thinly across many efficient figures [Centaur Swarm], I have envisioned a build with two focal points: two large threats costed efficiently enough to allow adequate support and utility figures. But my main goal is thus: To avoid having any one domain or relic completely cripple my army
Now, Knowing that I am going to build an army like this, i know exactly what i want.

I have always used Khan Rava to excellent effect in past tournaments, but I am often faced with the inevitable Storm Gale. Though it is obvious to bring Clear Skies, it often needs to be played to reach the Championship round, in which my opponent will no doubt be waiting with Gale in hand.

This in mind, for my other centerpeice I want to use a contrasting figure who is a close combat monster and can hold its own and conquer objecitves with its threat potential, but that will also, in a reverse situation, benefit from having a ranged powerhouse like Rava to protect its threat zone. Now, if only that figure could fly, as well...
Rava, Meet Chroma.

My play style makes healing a less satisfying investment than a leadership figure; I'd rather outpace an opponent than outlast him. Zeph Wyndfenner is the obvious choice for cheap Leadership, and can also covor the near objective.
In addition, Zeph pairs with Rava as a figure immune to Auto-Damage, and lets Rava move and shoot every turn without remorse.

Zombie Centaurs are effective and efficient, and I try to include them in most of my serious armies. Being able to do Auto-damage and having a very deep an reliable combat dial in addition to such speed and high stats is an amazing value for 24 points. Because I'm not using a Cavalry peice, this is part of my Trump play. The threat of being based by this will nullify most of the Mounted-Charge/Charge tricks out there, and can tie up any cavalry i want to single out for Chroma's fury or the hail of Rava's arrows.

Even though I often forgo Revenant in most of my casual armies for want of more interesting peices, I must concede that it is powerful and is quite a necessary strategic element. Because I want to maximize the points I can spend on my heavy threats, and also want a fast figure capaple of vast double-time threats toward the end of the game [Against a smart player, the value of most things rests more in being able to do something than in actually doing it] I will go with the * Pain Wraith.

This leaves me with 8 points. Great. Cloak of Shadows goes on whoever i feel like... Probably Chroma. Where 23" range wouldn't be too much of a change from 22", 11" is a lot different that 12". Now i can threaten a whole new class of speed figures.

This army plays well together. Leadership makes it seem like having a third powerhouse as well, allowing me to manuever and attack faster and more efficiently than my opponent. Having Zeph finish off as an objective holder is gravy. The Zombie Centaur works wonders, tieing up and mid-gaming the feild with its great speed, helping greatly in preparing the initial attack, doing reliable damage with Shakeoff, and serving as an alternate combatant. The Wriath is of course a Gem, as Revenant always draws fire. With two focal threats, I can make it impossible for my opponent to safely eliminate the Wraith without sacrificing tempo or figures. While alive, the Wraith works to ressurect what my figures kill together, and to make my opponent think twive before killing my figures.

As for responses, I do want to obviate one certain thing: Please don't just tell me what army, domain, or relic can beat this. I much prefer intelligent dialogue than immature "But that card sucks because i can just Counterspell it.". I know that this has counters. If you want to list them while you tell me what could be changed or improved about the army, feel free. But don't for a second think that I don't already know my own weaknesses.
[If you had no intention of committing said henious acts, please ignore previous statement. :D]

Finally, here's the army as it stands:

"Gemini"

Khan Rava = 91 Pts
Chroma = 112 Pts
with Cloak of Shadows = 8 Pts
Zeph Wyndfenner = 38 Pts
*Zombie Centaur = 24 Pts
*Pain Wraith = 27 Pts

Domains: Clear Skies, Grasslands, Mountain Pass




Tell me what you think... And share what your vision of a Gemini Build might be.


:D Kallacato :D

i use an army very similar to that, but with a few big differences, like i always use a healer...just incase....and i use the cloak of shadows on rava, cuz you might think that 1" more on rava might not help too much, but against another rava that 1" means my rava can usually hit first....and i use throne monk instead of chroma...cuz i have one, and i think its better...

Khan Rava----------- 91
w/ cloak of shadows- 8
Throne Monk--------- 87
Zeph Wyndfenner---- 38
*Pain Wraith---------- 27
***Crystal Protector-- 17
***Zombie Centaur-- 32

the domains depend on how big the tourney is, but obviously clear skies, and smoke and fog...

i think your army is very strong, but i cant think of using it in a big tourney like nationals cuz you very likely could face storm gale every round and have a third of the army useless most of the time

Yeah... If I had Throne Monk I would use it.

Since I dont own many of these figures I will try to create a "Gemini" army with what I have.

Lady Ciara 123
EF Sky Dragon (doubles as both a ranged combat and close combat and a healer.)

Freeholder Sorceress** 32 (Charge the enemy or allies. Hurt Enemies heal allies)

2 Whelp Monks* 46 ( Stealth, Weapon Master, and toughness? That can be used to GREAT effect.)

Kierin Starsdawn 77 (Bound and a 10" range isn't bad.)

Orc Marauder (I think I have enough for him. Anyway he is a Mini-Harrowblade.)

Domains-Clear Terrain, Downpour, Coldsnap

With 3 actions it should be pretty easy to operate per turn. I think this would be a fun army to play. I modded my Whelp so I don't think I can use him lol. Anyway in place of those you could use the * Deathsingers. Not as good IMO.

Then your army faces one of my traditional ones, and gets stomped by the equal threats of three seperate Ub-Khan with Orc Warbeasts running interference. A danged scary interference.

There is no perfect army. A Sky Dragon could obliterate yours (I took out Chroma today using a AE Stag and * Honorguard with minimal investment) with just the help of a few Centaur or domains. You still have to worry about Inferno (the Domain) ruinning your range, and other Domains like Pestillence just screwing you. And we can't forget about the movement dibilitating domains mixed with Storm Mauls or Books of Lightning. If no Domains where allowed, your army would be pretty hard to beat, but if they where...

Also, there is always the Submerge first turn nuke, or Mounted Charge/Charge or Mounted Bound/Bound to worry about. Oh, and we can't forget the K-Bows wielded by Blackguard on Skydancer. That is just plain evil.

Anyway, I'm just throwing some stuff out there that you might need to worry about.

I gotta say, I really like the concept of your army Kallacato as I think it might just be the way to build the ideal army.

However, I don't believe beefy uniques are teh way to go. Sure, running 2 major threats of different types might just be the way to go, but if you only use uniques, if your opponent hoses one of these types of attacks with either domains, relics or otehr figs, you still end up with half of your major threats being useless.

So how could one keep the army diverse yet efficient while reducing the risks of being hosed by a specific tactic? That's where cavalry units comes in.

See, riders do have a single attack type, but when they're mounted, they benefit from the fact that their attack bonus is applied to any types of attacks they make. This means that even if range gets screwed, a reanged combat rider can still do really well in close combat, and vice-versa.

However, not all riders are fine for the job. While *** River Chargers, *** Khamsin Surgeons, and *** Scalesworn Honorguards have amazing close combat capabilities, their range potential is inexistent. So, how do you pick perfect riders for a "Gemini-style" army?

IMO there are several criterias to take into account when picking your rider. First, the rider need to have good range and close combat capabilities. Here, my personnal interpretation is that it must have :

- at least 3 ranged damage (or have the Mage BLast SPeical ability),
-at least 3, but ideally 4 close combat damage when mounted.
- Be able to ride an independant mount (in case it gets dismounted)
- The resulting cavalry unit should not be too expensive (ie: ideally, less then 100 pts; this will allow you to field sufficient support )

Surprisingly, riders that fit this description are not that many :

- Scorch (only exceptin to the 100 pts rule)
- Shale
- *** Eagle Shamans
- *** Flame Priestess
- * Flame Priestess
- ** Surok Rider
- *** Dragon Priest

So what mounts could we pick for those Riders? Once again, here are my personnal criterias for mounts:

- Must be Independant
- Ideally less then 50 points
- Ideally has easy breakaways
- Must be able to fight on it's own (ie: have good stats, lieka t least 9 attack, 3 damage, ok defense...)

There are still plenty of factors to consider like being able to double-time, auto-damage capabilities, and so on, but those I previously outlined are pretty much the most important ones. So cnosidering those points, here are your lucky winners:

- EF Horned Stag
- EL Battle Horse
- Mountain Warbird (no easy breaks, but it's cheap independant MC/C)
- DC Pegasus

These are probably the ideal type of mounts for your riders as they are quite cheap, have decent speed, nice mix of abilities, and ok combat values. However, there are others which might be have a positive effect on your army, should you have the points to spare:

- CC Technocat
- EF Sky Dragon
- Cloud Griffons

Those 4 type of mounts are a tad more expensive but offer slightly superior performances. iN soem cases, they don't even break the 100 pts limit, so feel comfortable to field those if you can.

So now your pool of riders and mounts to pick from, the tricky part is picking them. At this point, there are no magical solutions, just use those you feel the most confortable with. However, one thing you should look out for would be to pick you rider/mounts combos is to make sure they are compatible (ie: you could swap riders if you need to).

At first, it might not look that important, but being able to mount one of your riders on the other mount might mean the difference between winning and losing.

It is certain that focusing on cavalry ahs it's own set of disadvantages, and weaknesses (being dismounted, lack of free spin, larger blind spot...), but it also got plenty of strong points. Basically, they're great at both close combat and ranged combat. And the need for Leadership is a lot less important when considering you take no damage when pushing. So IMO, 2 cavalry units could probably do as well as 2 beefy uniques...