Mal's list thread. Now with more v99.4

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Malossar
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Mal's list thread. Now with more v99.4

#1 Post by Malossar »

Hey folks! this is over in my blog but incase people are only checking this subsection I thought I'd post it here as well.



Onto 9th age. Brawler Bash is just around the corner and I'm anxious to start getting test games in, here's what I'm looking at as a core and will have several options listed below. I think I'm leaning toward a prince on a flamespyre phoenix. He has the same combat ability as last edition, improves the ward save, has a great shot at resurrecting which saves a crap ton of points towards the end of the game has the flamewake attack AND is cheaper by oh 80-90 points? From him i'm designing a core list focused on speedy objective grabbers durable enough to take several rounds of shooting (silver helms), and a solid block for the prince to fly around and zap things. I also need enough shooting to win the chaff war and gain maximum board control.

Prince - 470
+High Warden of the Flame
+Flamespyre Phoenix
+Giant Blade
+Gem of Fortune
+Lucky Shield

6x Highborn Lancers - 157
-Barding, Champ, Banner
6x Highborn Lancers - 157
-Barding, Champ, Banner
5x Elein Reavers - 85
-Bows
5x Elein Reavers - 85
-Bows

12x Archers - 143
-Standard, Banner of Becalming

23x Phoenix Guard - 420
-Full Command
-Razor Standard

Sea Guard Reaper - 75
-Multi Shot
Sea Guard Reaper - 75
-Multi Shot


This comes to 1667 points. Leaving 833 for magic and close combat support or more shooting.


Option 1:

Prince - 350
-Master of the Canreig Tower
-Book of Meladys
-Mithril Armor
-Shard of Ceradryn
-Great Weapon


Commander - 176
-Battle Standard
-Queens Guard
-Moonlight Arrows
-Longbow
-Heavy Armor
-Lion Fur
-Obsidian Nullstone

9x Queens Guard - 144
-Skirmishers

11x Sword Masters - 163
-Champ, Musician

This rounds to 2500 even. I add in some 12 nasty moonlight shots and a loremaster whose magic with the changes in v.11 is actually quite terrifying when combined with the book. The banner on the archers (who some games will end up hiding to keep the banner alive) allows him to cast as a wizard master. He then adds some nasty punch to the phoenix guard block. Sword Masters are also here to draw fire from the flame phoenix.


Option 2:

Mage - 120 (Lore of Shadow)
+Level 2
+Dispel Scroll

Mage - 95 (Lore of Shadow)
+Level 2


Commander - 176
-Battle Standard
-Queens Guard
-Moonlight Arrows
-Longbow
-Heavy Armor
-Lion Fur
-Obsidian Nullstone

9x Queens Guard - 144
-Skirmishers

14x Swordmasters - 217
+Champion, Standard
+Icon of the Relentless Company

Sea Guard Reaper - 75
-Multi Shot


This list drops the MoCT and swaps him for a mini shadow coven. Which really synergizes well with the flame phoenix. it nets me 135 points, bulks the swordmasters and adds the third bolt thrower for a pretty terrifying shooting phase!


Option 3:

Mage - 120 (Lore of Shadow)
+Level 2
+Dispel Scroll

Mage - 95 (Lore of Shadow)
+Level 2


Commander - 229
+Bsb
+High Warden of the Flame
+Heavy Armor
+Lion Fur
+Sword of Might
+Duskstone

14x Swordmasters - 217
+Champion, Standard
+Icon of the Relentless Company

5x Knights of Ryma - 170
+Devastating Charge
+Musician


Less shooting focus but maintain the presence of shadow. I add in a 5th! cavalry unit as a flanking hammer with 10 str 6 attacks likely hitting most things on 2s. The BsB in this build is pure defensive to sit in the phoenix guard and dish out as much as he can take. I could see myself dropping the knights in this build and going heavy into the swordmasters and placing the bsb here.

Thoughts?
Last edited by Malossar on Mon Apr 18, 2016 1:09 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Flamespyre Prince -- 9th Age development

#2 Post by Prince of Spires »

It's a difficult choice. It's either adding some serious combat punch or creating a mean shooting phase.

Looking at the list before adding in the extra stuff my initial thoughts are that the Lancers are a nice support unit, but they can't do the heavy lifting in the combat phase. And I'm not sure 1 unit of PG is enough to do so. For that reason, I would drop option 1.

The difference between option 2 and 3 is that 3 turns the list in to a full on aggressive combat list. It has some strong shooting support. But everything about that list wants you to get into combat. Option 2 is a more all round combined arms list. Strong shooting, mobile, serious combat units and good magic backup.

I would guess that the choice comes down to preferred playstyle. Option two is perhaps slightly more forgiving, while option three perhaps has a bigger chance of rolling over units if things go your way.

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Re: Flamespyre Prince -- 9th Age development

#3 Post by Malossar »

Thanks for the feedback Rod.

Option 2 does seem strongest... although the phoenix guard might be lacking some punch. Maybe a Master of the Tower Battle Standard Bearer might be a good idea?


That would combine both 2 and 3 and probably maximize the combat potential without scalping magic or the shooting phase. Obviously the sisters are better with Quick to fire but they might be enough...


The list would look as such:

Prince - 470
+High Warden of the Flame
+Flamespyre Phoenix
+Giant Blade
+Gem of Fortune
+Lucky Shield

Commander - 228
+Master of the Canreig Tower (Shadow, Beasts)
+Mithril Mail
+Great Weapon
+Gemstone Amulet
+Banner of Courage

Mage - 130
+Level 2, Lore of Shadow
+Dispel Scroll

6x Highborn Lancers - 157
-Barding, Champ, Banner
6x Highborn Lancers - 157
-Barding, Champ, Banner
5x Elein Reavers - 85
-Bows
5x Elein Reavers - 85
-Bows

12x Archers - 143
-Standard, Banner of Becalming

23x Phoenix Guard - 420
-Full Command
-Razor Standard

Sea Guard Reaper - 75
-Multi Shot
Sea Guard Reaper - 75
-Multi Shot
Sea Guard Reaper - 75
-Multi Shot

14x Swordmasters - 217
+Champion, Standard
+Icon of the Relentless Company

10x Queens Guard - 160
-Skirmishers

Leaves me 23 to play with. Could swap BsB to High Warden of the Flame and ditch a bolt thrower and bring in the second shadow mage that way...


Let me know!
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Re: Flamespyre Prince -- 9th Age development

#4 Post by SpellArcher »

It's interesting Mal because I always think of you as playing fast, aggressive lists and this is not like that. The guts of it is two infantry blocks, with a fair bit of shooting. I'd imagine against quite a few enemies you'd be holding at first to make that shooting count. Of course you do have flexibility from the General and the Core cav. If you wanted to be more aggressive I'd consider switching out the Swordmasters (good though they are) for cavalry maybe.
Malossar wrote:Leaves me 23 to play with. Could swap BsB to High Warden of the Flame and ditch a bolt thrower and bring in the second shadow mage that way...
I like it because this BSB doesn't die and the PG could really use the MR1 and Divine Attacks. Moreover, you're getting the pick of a whole Lore, rather than just the sig spell and hoping for something else useful.
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Re: Flamespyre Prince -- 9th Age development

#5 Post by Malossar »

This is what I'm working on now:

Prince - 300
- Giant Sword, Daemonhunter Helm, Divine Icon
- Great Eagle armor piercing
- Dragon Amr, Shield

Prince - 298
- Ogre Blade, Dragonhelm, Talisman of Supreme Shielding
- Heavy Armor, Shield, Great Eagle armor piercing

Commander - 222
- Battle Standard Bearer
- Great Eagle armor piercing, Lance, Shield
- Armr of Destiny

Mage - 130
- Level 2, lore of wilderness
- Dispel Scroll

6x Helms - 157
- Barding, Champion. Standard Bearer
6x Helms - 157
- Barding, Champion, Standard Bearer
5x Elein Reavers - 85
- bows
5x Elein Reavers - 85
- bows
12x Archers - 143
- Standard Bearer, Banner of Becalming


21xSword Masters 318
- Full Command
- Icon of the Relentless Company

5x Great Eagles - 215
- Armor Piercing

Sea Guard Reaper - 75
Multi shot
Sea Guard Reaper - 75
Multi Shot

5x Shadow Warriors - 80

10x Queens Guard - 160
-Skirmishers


How's that for fast?!
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Re: Mal's working on 9th Age armies!

#6 Post by SpellArcher »

Malossar wrote:How's that for fast?!
Touché!

:)

It's mobile as all hell with decent shooting and some precision strike power. Presumably you feel going low-magic isn't a huge issue Mal? I'm a little concerned about the Prince getting cannonballed. What formation with the Swordmasters?
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Re: Mal's working on 9th Age armies!

#7 Post by Malossar »

So I took that last list to the last v.11 tournament:

http://warscore.net/event/272/view.html ... 0316131155


3rd overall, best HBE. Had the Saurian Ancient player on table 1 in the last round and had both his general and BSB (both on dinos) down to LD 2 break checks and he passed them BOTH!!!!!!!!! I then got my flank turned because I went for the leadership gamble. THe BSB by the way took 15 wounds from swordmasters and saved all but 1 #-o would have also completely turned the game on its head at that moment.


Ah well.


I'll be posting .99 lists soon enough although I might be sneaky and keep it to myself until the full version comes out [-X :lol: 8)
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Re: Mal's working on 9th Age armies!

#8 Post by Cold Phoenix »

Malossar wrote:So I took that last list to the last v.11 tournament:

http://warscore.net/event/272/view.html ... 0316131155


3rd overall, best HBE. Had the Saurian Ancient player on table 1 in the last round and had both his general and BSB (both on dinos) down to LD 2 break checks and he passed them BOTH!!!!!!!!! I then got my flank turned because I went for the leadership gamble. THe BSB by the way took 15 wounds from swordmasters and saved all but 1 #-o would have also completely turned the game on its head at that moment.


Ah well.


I'll be posting .99 lists soon enough although I might be sneaky and keep it to myself until the full version comes out [-X :lol: 8)
Congrats. Sorry to hear about the luck, but these things happen :roll: . Any chance of some battle reports? I miss Shadow in the North...
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Re: Mal's working on 9th Age armies!

#9 Post by Malossar »

Cold Phoenix wrote:Any chance of some battle reports? I miss Shadow in the North...
Hah, I had no idea people ever watched those videos. Short answer is no. Long answer is, my MacBook died and work signed a contract with a PC company, so no more keynote which made battle reporting so much quicker (sit down and talk). On PowerPoint you need to record sound clips, then place them over the slides, a lot more editing and time involved. I also am traveling 3-4days a week for work right now. I feel guilty enough traveling and sneaking away for a weekend to play a fan based game from the family as it is to take extra time recording.

Also, Gatti discovered what girls are so you won't get anything from him. ;)
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Re: Mal's working on 9th Age armies!

#10 Post by Cold Phoenix »

Malossar wrote:
Cold Phoenix wrote:Any chance of some battle reports? I miss Shadow in the North...
Hah, I had no idea people ever watched those videos. Short answer is no. Long answer is, my MacBook died and work signed a contract with a PC company, so no more keynote which made battle reporting so much quicker (sit down and talk). On PowerPoint you need to record sound clips, then place them over the slides, a lot more editing and time involved. I also am traveling 3-4days a week for work right now. I feel guilty enough traveling and sneaking away for a weekend to play a fan based game from the family as it is to take extra time recording.

Also, Gatti discovered what girls are so you won't get anything from him. ;)
That's a pity, I really enjoyed those videos. Good on Gatti for discovering girls though! How did the eagle unit do? I've seen it in a couple of lists but don't have a good idea of how you'd use it.
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Re: Mal's working on 9th Age armies!

#11 Post by sparkytrypod »

battle reports or a quick rundown of your games pretty [-o< please??!!!!
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Re: Mal's working on 9th Age armies!

#12 Post by Malossar »

Not sure whats worth recapping with the update and then the update that'll be following in a week or two I'm more curious to see how the gunline of death nerf the balance board has deemed OP impacts the rest of the list.

Essentially the strength of the list lies with high mobilitly, enough points to create a hard enough shooting phase to either elimate big enough threats (blood thirsters) or remove isolate chaff units to regain board control. Although the second part really isn't as a valuable when the hammers move 18" and really could care less about redirectors.


Giant Sword, Daemonhunter Helm, Divine Icon Prince is an all star, he can go toe to toe with every baddy out there (but an alpha carno and a bloodthirster) and win. With the recent nerfs, this character is slapping bloodthirsters around! Also with the generic rulebook updates he's much easier to keep alive from cannon fire (thank you hills blocking LOS) and from small arms with no more true LOS.

The eagle unit itself is surprisingly killy on its own. 10 attacks @ ws 5 with str 4 armor piercing gets work done against the right targets. Do not send them into a big ranked up unit, but small elite units they'll actually carve up pretty well with or without character support.


The Eagle BsB is probably moving to a lion chariot. I've had one sitting in the cabinet for so long its time to use it. d6+1 str 5 impacts, 5 str 6 mw2 and then 4 str 5?! Sweet jesus.
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Re: Mal's working on 9th Age armies!

#13 Post by sparkytrypod »

i hope that when the gunline/avoidance is nerfed that some love may be returned to swordmasters again, some of the honours reworked, or magic items, receive a small boost!
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Re: Mal's working on 9th Age armies!

#14 Post by Malossar »

Swordmasters are still terrifying. I've been running a unit of 14 and letting them run right at enemy blocks. Let the bodies fly!

I assume that I will always lose the unit but watching the devastation is rather fun!
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Re: Mal's working on 9th Age armies!

#15 Post by Giladis »

Malossar wrote:Swordmasters are still terrifying. I've been running a unit of 14 and letting them run right at enemy blocks. Let the bodies fly!

I assume that I will always lose the unit but watching the devastation is rather fun!
I have been considering dropping a unit of Flame Wardens for 2x14 Sword Master with Musician for the very same thing.

I have such limited gaming opportunities and as of today I have only 2 weeks to send the list for the first big GT of the season.
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Re: Mal's working on 9th Age armies!

#16 Post by Ferny »

Any update for 0.99?
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Re: Mal's working on 9th Age armies!

#17 Post by Malossar »

Ferny wrote:Any update for 0.99?
Maybe :wink:


Maybe I'm waiting until after april 6th because I'm too afraid of the almighty balance board will mess with my list!


Which is quite good right now. Very combined arms.
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Re: Mal's working on 9th Age armies!

#18 Post by Ferny »

Do you know somethign I don't know? What's the deal with April 6th?
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Re: Mal's working on 9th Age armies!

#19 Post by Malossar »

I've heard in several threads as the last day to suggest changes on magic items/unit entries etc. Not just on ours but multiple. Pure speculation of course :wink:

I'm not really worried about. Whatever happens my Shadow host will be out in full ruinous glory depending on the lore of course.
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Re: Mal's working on 9th Age armies!

#20 Post by Ferny »

We have submission deadlines for then but the process only starts then, I'd be surprised if the revised would come out immidiately, especially given the easter break.
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Re: Mal's working on 9th Age armies!

#21 Post by Giladis »

1.0 will be later than 6.4.
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Re: Mal's working on 9th Age armies!

#22 Post by Malossar »

Ferny wrote:We have submission deadlines for then but the process only starts then, I'd be surprised if the revised would come out immidiately, especially given the easter break.

Exactly! But by then it'll be too late to tone down my lists! ;)
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Re: Mal's 99.4 Combined arms.

#23 Post by Malossar »

Hey guys! The update didn't change my list too terribly, just had to drop some bodies in order to adjust to the new point costs handed down from the Mount. This build focuses on strong fast elements and grinding infantry to support and break ranks. I have a decent shooting phase to clear chaff in the early turns and pick on some bigger threats as well. I have very little magic but I've found that a lvl 2 fire caddy has been all I need for most games. The BsB build has been an allstar since .99 I'm glad that he only got better in this iteration. Let me know what you think!


Prince - 283
-Knight of Ryma(30), Elven Steed(0) + Barding (10)
-Heavy Armor (8), Shield (5)
-Giant Sword (60), Dragon Helm (10), Talisman of Greater Shielding (25)

1+, 5++. Str 7 with devastating charge.


Commander - 263
-Battle Standard (25)
-Heavy Armor (5), Great Weapon (8)
-Royal Huntsmen (45), Lion Chariot (60)
-Talisman of Supreme Shielding (50)

2+, 4++. I really thought about the cav mounted BsB instead but the lion chariot is just too good I think.

Mage - 130
-Level 2 (Lore of Fire) (25)
-Dispel Scroll (35)

30x Spears - 285
-Full Command (30), War Standard (15)
16x Archers - 164
-Musician (10), Standard (10)
Elein Reavers - 90
-Bows (5)
Elein Reavers - 90
-Bows (5)

11x Knights of Ryma - 412
-Devastating Charge (60)
-Full Command (30), War Banner of Ryma (30)

20x Phoenix Guard - 360
-Full Command (30), Rending Banner (45)


Sea Guard Reaper - 80
-Multi-shot (20)
Sea Guard Reaper - 80
-Multi-shot (20)

Sky Sloop - 130
Sky Sloop - 130


I have another version where I drop the phoenix guard for the 2+, rerollable, 4 spell fiery heart mage and take a small unit of swordmasters instead. I'll be testing both and seeing which version I like better.

Thoughts?
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Re: Mal's list thread. Now with more v99.4

#24 Post by Ferny »

I like both. I wanna see the dragonmage one because...well...dragonmage!
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Re: Mal's 99.4 Combined arms.

#25 Post by Maedil »

Malossar wrote: Commander - 263
-Battle Standard (25)
-Heavy Armor (5), Great Weapon (8)
-Royal Huntsmen (45), Lion Chariot (60)
-Talisman of Supreme Shielding (50)

2+, 4++. I really thought about the cav mounted BsB instead but the lion chariot is just too good I think.

[...]

Thoughts?
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Re: Mal's list thread. Now with more v99.4

#26 Post by AndrosV »

Hi Mal,

I'm very eager to hear your experience so far with the list.
Personally I'm not sure the flame wardens can do without acces to buff spells. I see so many hard infantry units out there, that a group of 20 flame wardens simply can't handle.

I've had a couple of games with a silver helm bus + flame wardens and some chariots. My main findings were related to the knight bus. Oh boy it got more problematic matchups now that spears and lethal strike are around. I recon the KoR has the same problems. My kit for the prince were giant blade, lucky charm and deamon hunter's helm. I just found my self in so many games, where I couldn't throw him in, as he is simply too fragile IMO. I charged him out of his unit to slow down and hopefully kill a aragnorok, but he got killed outright in the first round of combat.
So I'm not really convinced about the KoR bus, but time will tell I guess :).

I really like the sky sloops though. The extra mobility really makes all the difference and the board control they bring is amazing.
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