My current favourite list to play:
Darius - Stormwall, 'Ol Rowdy, Centurion, Defender, Sylyss Wishesandstuff, Black 13th, Journeyman
Objective: Fuel
pMakeda - Molik, Gladiator, Marketh (Lead singer of the Puffinators), Nihilators, Pain Givers, Cetrati, Radheim, Animantarax
Objective: Arcane Wonder
Rolled up Incoming.
Darius Deploy: Won the roll for the first time with Darius and picked first. Stormwall/Rowdy pair to go up the left, Centurion/Defender to go up the right.
Darius/Halfjacks still blank bases for now.
Makeda Deploy: Beasts go central, Animantarax is across from the Stormwall, Nihilators go the far left flank, Radheim goes extreme right.
Darius 1: Arcane Shield on Centurion, Fortify on the Stormwall, Centurion gets Craned and everything runs forward. Two Halfjacks go in front of the Centurion, one is in the trench to the left of the Stormwall.
Makeda 1: Radheim runs way up the right flank and hides behind the forest of doom. That's going to be annoying.
Gladiator and Savagery Cataphracts go up the guts either side of the Skorne Objective. Nihilators, Molik and the Animantarax behind camp out on the hill on the left.
Molik gets Defenders Ward, gives the Storm Wall the finger at the prospect of early shots.
Darius 2:plan is to hem the Nihilators in with templates, damage the Gladiator a bit with the Stormwall and put a shot from the Defender into Radheim.
Stormwall and Defender both get a pair of focus, Stormwall moves, lines the Gladiator, whacks down a Pod and Covering Fire. I hit the Gladiator and crank both damage rolls. Halfjacks all become various mines, Centurion toes the corner of the right zone with Polarity Field. Darius Cranes Ryan, who walks to the left and puts down a Magestorm, killing the Pod.
At this point I've got the Defender to go. I could put a shot into Radheim by advancing up, the other option is to try to finish off the Gladiator, which has eight health to go. Looking at the math they both pan out about 30ish percent, I do an aimed shot at the Beast which was the way to go. Alas, my dice stop trying to crack reality and do four points, leaving the Spirit Aspect still going.
Two glaring errors here. Darius ended up out of walking distance of the Stormwall for feating next turn and my eyeball on the Magestorm/Covering fire was about by a enough for a small base to fit through the gap.
Makeda 2: Both spells upkept.
Sure enough, the Nihilators run through the gap, most hold back but one engages Rowdy and another engages Ryan. The Cetrati advance and Shield wall in front of one mine. Radheim goes through the forest and does an armour Piercing attack ont eh Defender, a low roll only causes five damage.
Gladiator moves up a bit, Rushes Molik, takes three damage from the Covering Fire to go down to one health. Molik gets arranged, charges the Centurion, maxes Fury to kill 75% of it.
That went pretty well for me, realistically I think the play is have Radheim toe the right zone and hide behind the forest, stopping me from scoring in that zone without extreme difficulty, Molik sidesteps off the Stormwall to kill Rowdy and Fate Walker back, Gladiator gets healed up as the Heavies are needed to trade up. Makeda also could have feated to slow down the infantry pick offs.
Darius 3: Couple focus to Stormwall. Simple enough, kill the heavies and ride that Armour Skew to the attrition win.
Mines kill some Nihilators. Stormwall pods to kill the Nihilator blocking Rowdy, then headbutts Molik into the ground. Rowdy charges Molik and does some reasonable damage. Defender moves into the forest to hit Radheim for a few of his health. Black 13th advance and kill the Gladiator with a Brutal Damage shot.
Darius then feat heals, Jackhammer kills Molik and dismounts Radheim, then he walks to the left. Centurion stabs a Cetrati for a few points as something to do.
Conversation that then happened in my head:
Logic: "Should I move Arcane Shield onto Darius? He either Assassinates or loses at this point"
Bad Habits: "Nah Bro, you'll sweet as and look at that Centurion! ARMOUR 24 BRO!!!!"
Sloth: "Dude, you'll be fine, just pass the turn already"
Stupitidy manifested as a cross eyed Scorpion hitting his head with his own tail: "Duh, Skorne haf na guns moon moon"
Outvoted by his dumber constituents, I then move Junior to the left a bit.
Makeda 3: Animantarax charges Rowdy, shoots Darius to 5 health. Marketh moves up and uses a Muzzle to exactly kill Darius.
Makeda still could charged up and done another few Muzzles.
That is another tale of me gloriously putting defeat from the jaws of victory. I enjoy Darius, and am thankful I value that over having a win record.
At some point Moops suggested the Stormstrider, which I'm thinking might replace the Defender. He also suggested Triumph, which is the first card I've ever read that made me think my Warroom had a card text error, as that is 11 points of such utter garbage I don't understand how it exists.
Outside of Rowdy/Defender becoming a Stormwall, the other piece I'm contemplating is Ace to snipe out solos, but if I use Lynch intelligently I'm not sold on that just yet.
