Thursday, April 7, 2011

Terminus as a Front Line Caster: Army Lists

I've already posted one 35 point list in my previous posts. I'm hanging out with a friend tonight and we are going to play some lower points games so I thought I would tackle the list building portion of my homework. I'm supposed to be building lists keeping the following in mind:
  1. List will include troop options to block avenues of attack to the warcaster.
  2. List will include models with abilities that deny enemy models their ability to move or act.
  3. List will include models with abilities that promote focus efficiency. (See my article on Cryx and focus efficiency).
We'll start with a 15 point list:
  • Terminus - Of course
  • Deathjack - This guy is the king of focus efficiency and deadliness. His only downside is that he tends to steal souls that could otherwise go to Terminus. If I owned a Seether model I would switch Deathjack out for that and add a Pistol Wraith to increase my ability to freeze models.
  • 6 Bane Thralls - I love these guys, and they do a good job serving as Terminus' escort.
  • Warwitch Siren - Not super effective at this points level since she won't be putting focus on deathjack, but her venom attack can come in handy and her shadow bind ability has a good chance to root an opposing warjack/beast for a turn.
For 25 points I would add to the above:
  • Slayer - Open hands let the slayer lock the weapon systems of opposing jacks. The Warwitch will give this guy the single point of focus he needs in a turn.
  • Pistol Wraith - Chain Attack: Death Chill roots opposing models and POW:12 shots are a big threat to opposing infantry and solos.
The 25 point list is actually one point under, so you could swap the Bane Thralls for Bane Knights. The knights are more maneuverable thanks to ghostly, but you give up the debuff aura that the thralls provide.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Terminus as a Front Line Caster. Report Card

Yesterday I talked about modifying my playstyle to put Terminus up on the front lines. I also had a chance to play a game. Learning without feedback rarely works, so I figured to give myself a grade on my first test.

The game was against an infantry heavy Trollblood list. A big unit of champions, some runeshapers and krielstone bearers, backed up by Madrak, one mauler and a host of solos and unit attachments. It was an interesting list. Lots of activations, lots of medium sized tough models with high armor values.

As a reminder, here is the list I brought:
  • Lich Lord Terminus
  • Deathjack
  • Slayer
  • Bane Lord Tartarus
  • 6 Bane Thralls
  • Gorman Di Wulfe
  • Pistol Wraith
  • Warwitch Siren
  • Withershadow Combine.
In yesterday's post I had six things I was supposed to be practicing. Here they are along with how I think I did.
  1. The student will keep their warcaster on the front lines. I did well on this one. Terminus was out front and attacked something every round he could. Once the battle lines met he gathered a soul token every round. However, I still played him a bit timidly, keeping him off the very front line and only engaging with one opposing model at a time. GRADE: B
  2. As much focus as possible should be left on the warcaster. I didn't boost or buy any extra attacks. The warjacks were left to their own devices. Terminus took a bit of damage over the course of the game, but the boosted power field frustrated my opponents attacks. GRADE: A
  3. The warcaster should be activated and moved before troops. Good job here, too. Knowing Terminus' final position informed the movement and attacks of the rest of my army. GRADE: A
  4. The warcaster should take advantage of reach. Terminus kept what he was killing at the edge of his reach. Even had he failed to kill what he attacked the trolls would have had a hard time attacking back. GRADE: A
  5. The student should use the abilities of other models to neutralize the movement and abilities of the opponent's forces. Whoops. I didn't lock any weapons (there was only one opposing beast), but more importantly my warwitch and pistol wraith, who should have been slowing down the opposing force didn't even attack the whole game. No excuses. Just fail. GRADE: F
  6. The player should strive for a feat turn that generates three or more souls. Whoops again. I didn't even use Terminus' feat. There were at least two turns where I could have turned some dead trolls into souls. Those trolls are tough to bring down so maybe not three, but not feating at all is a total failure on my part. GRADE: F
So if we average out our first test I come up with a D+. Those two Fs really hurt my overall grade. Despite winning the match by having Deathjack pounce on Madrak I still almost flunked. I need to keep doing what I'm doing but I have to pay attention to potential feat turns and not be so timid with my toolbox solos.

As a final thought, playing Terminus more aggressively feels really rewarding. Much less like he's a weight my army is hauling around and more like he's the center and the rest is there to support him. Which is how I think it should be.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Terminus as a Front Line Caster

When I decided to start collecting Cryx I knew right away that my caster of choice was going to be Terminus. The model is huge and imposing. The perfect centerpiece to lead the dragonfather's undead legions. One large order from Blue Table Painting later, and I was in business.

My troubles started when I hit the field. Terminus is great in combat. On my turn he can use his pile of focus to destroy anything that he can reach. This is only fitting for a model as large and imposing as him. The trouble starts on my opponent's turn.

Time and again Terminus would be on the front lines, destroying my opponent's jacks and warbeasts, and time and again he would be destroyed on my opponents turn to a counter charge, often from the opposing warcaster. Terminus was not living up to my expectations. His spell list is fairly weak in terms of offensive and defensive capabilities. I ended up adopting a strategy that had Terminus hanging in the back, passively making my undead warriors tough. While this still worked to a point, it was hardly the playstyle I had been dreaming of. There are a lot of other casters out there that work better when they hang out on the back lines.

So, after reading some articles at Game Over, specifically ones about learning new skills, I've decided to start over and learn how to run Terminus as a front line caster.

Taking a tip from 40K for the New Professional, we'll start by identifying the possible solutions for overcoming the problems I'm having.
  • Problem: I play Terminus from the back ranks, where his abilities are not put to good use. Putting him into melee makes him extremely vulnerable and often costs me the game through caster kill. Terminus' main capabilities (spray attack, good debuff spell, good melee weapon, his feat, the cull soul ability) are useful chiefly when he is in melee range. On top of that, my imagination has Terminus leading from the front lines, chopping his opponents to pieces and feeding on their souls. None of this is accomplished by keeping Terminus away from the action.
  • Goal: Devise a set of rules to discover and ingrain strategies for keeping Terminus alive and on the front lines.
In Warmachine there are three core vectors for damage: Melee, Ranged, Magic. To keep Terminus (or really any caster) alive you have to prevent all three vectors. Back-line casters do this by simply keeping a healthy distance between themselves and the enemy. If you are far enough away and keep your army between your caster and the opposing army, it's very difficult for your opponent to apply any damage vectors to your caster. Repeated losses led me to adopt this strategy. Distance isn't a valid option here. I want Terminus on the front lines.

Ranged damage is fairly easy for Terminus to avoid. With his Sacrifical Pawn ability he can just hand off any direct hits to a nearby undead model. Easy enough. He's still vulnerable to blasts though, and about the only thing we can do in that regard is increase our armor. Lacking any spell that does this I don't know of any way to boost his armor other than to camp focus. Getting into melee is another good way of preventing ranged damage. The target in melee penalty is a pretty good defense buff.

Magic attacks are more difficult. Luckily, magic attacks are costly for our opponent to make. They usually take at least two focus just to cast, and usually your opponent will want to boost the damage and possibly the attack. That means we're looking at one or two, maybe three, offensive spells per turn from an opponent. Terminus' only real option is to weather these like a man. Again, boosting his armor with focus is his best bet. Minor strategies would be to include Orin Midwinter to make it more difficult to cast spells, bring along Gorman Di Wulfe to create a cloud effect to block line of sight or boost defense, and use terrain and intervening models to do the same.

The final, and most important, is Melee damage. The only way to avoid this is to reduce, or eliminate entirely, the number of swings your opponent gets. Luckily Cryx has numerous tools for making this happen. First and foremost is troop models. With troops between your caster and the enemy you can avoid being charged. Small based troops are nice because you can use reach to attack over their heads. Medium based troops are nice because they can't be trampled over. By making our opponents give up their move or their action we can prevent getting attacked. Pistol Wraiths can death chill, Warwitch Sirens can shadow bind, jacks can lock systems. Darragh Wrathe also has a nice ability that debuffs enemy MAT, meaning your opponent misses more or wastes focus to ensure the hits.

Of course, keeping Terminus alive isn't the only thing to learn. Equally important is learning how to make Terminus effective in close combat. I think there are a number of things to keep in mind there, but we'll save those for lesson plan two. Here is lesson plan one.
  • Student will build lists and play games using Lich Lord Terminus. By the end of the lesson the student will have demonstrated an ability to keep his warcaster alive despite being on the front lines of battle.
The student will keep the following in mind when building lists:
  1. List will include troop options to block avenues of attack to the warcaster.
  2. List will include models with abilities that deny enemy models their ability to move or act.
  3. List will include models with abilities that promote focus efficiency. (See my article on Cryx and focus efficiency).
Sample List:
  • Lich Lord Terminus
  • Deathjack
  • Slayer
  • Bane Lord Tartarus
  • 6 Bane Thralls
  • Gorman Di Wulfe
  • Pistol Wraith
  • Warwitch Siren
  • Withershadow Combine.
The list has a good number of infantry models. It also has a good number of models with tools to stop the enemy from attacking and to improve focus efficiency.

The student will be mindful of the following skills and disciplines during his games:
  1. The student will keep their warcaster on the front lines. The warcaster will be moved into melee range and will make attacks on any turn where this is possible. If a melee attack is not possible, the warcaster should be moved to make use of a ranged attack.
  2. As much focus as possible should be left on the warcaster in order to prevent damage to the warcaster. The student should avoid boosting and buying extra attacks with his warcaster.
  3. The warcaster should be activated and moved before activating troops, and troops should be moved to block opponents avenues of attack and provide fodder for sacrificial pawn.
  4. When placed in a position to attack, the warcaster should take advantage of reach, staying between half an inch and two inches away from his targets.
  5. The player should use the abilities of other models to neutralize the movement and abilities of the opponent's forces. Using head/weaponlock power attacks is encouraged. These actions should be taken before activating the warcaster so that the danger to the warcaster target can be properly decided.
  6. The player should strive for a feat turn that generates three or more souls on the warcaster.
Tonight is my regular game night. I'm hoping to get a few games in with the above list and try for some front line carnage.