SFR, Inc.

[Skawilly]

I think you have bested me Mr. Burkley. I am out to buy a few tree folk. Dont worry Stormy I dont aim to out do you, just grabbing a few simply for the reasons stated that they are in my way.

DProman says I have OCD when building my armies, and like the amazons, I wont need to buy anything else for them except they gold/green hybrids. Aside from a few treefolk and the hybrids for them, a gold staff and the final green master my collection should be done, though I have said that one before. Its too bad about the amazons, if not for the flatlands I would have kept them around. However....

They maybe making a come back to my forces, as again, I already have a white dragon and all the white champions and medallions, so no accessories to buy except MAYBE a kings die, god help me. My search for an Orymyr begins. I have one death naga and one draco lich to complete my undead and my goblins. I just hope I come across a unicorn and chimera easily, though the orymyr wont be so quick.
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Will
"There is more philosophy in a bottle of wine than all the books in all the world" - Some random wine cap -

[Skawilly]

Well, I just found out today that Swamp Stalkers are seriously powerful in 2 player games, and very much not so in multiplayer games. Undead seem to be far more effective in multiplayer, as they have nightmoves and fade. Swamp Stalker spells are very nice, and irritating.... but only to one person. I seem to think goblins are very good at multiplayer also.
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Will
"There is more philosophy in a bottle of wine than all the books in all the world" - Some random wine cap -

[Skawilly]

Good lord, I am the worst multiplayest alive! Granted I used one of my more powerful 1v1 builds, it was a slaughter house at my home terrain though. It was a fun game. A 4 way FFA. NMcCoy was hilarious in that he had no home and kept going from one persons 8th face to another. Actually NMcCoy's friend, Jonathan, was new but he had what looked to be about 20 pts. of ranged units on a tower face, and he was blasting people to smithereens. I had my armies split and I was doing top notch using one on a magic face to assist the other in the climb to 8. I was very successful too because each army had a Slayer in it. Then Egg and his firewalkers lightning struck the slayers and the beasts had their way with me. In the end Egg had one lone unit of an 18 pt. army surviving both a dragon attack and a ranged strike from Jonathan, but it was all he needed for a mound of wind walks for the win.

In all honesty, I think its my multiplayer builds that are getting me whacked. Its too easy to think about 1v1 and the setups for those but DutchJohn is 100% correct, its just chaos and one better be ready for the chaos.
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Will
"There is more philosophy in a bottle of wine than all the books in all the world" - Some random wine cap -

[Skawilly]

I have discovered a good use for amazon mages. I am ONLY posting this online because it will never work for me, as all my armies contain the black aspect. The general strat is honor the dead.

The way I see it, add 1 of each rarity of amazon mage in with your regulars (6 pts. worth), along with a bronze medallion. Before I say anymore, there is one thing about this strat that hurts, is that your reserve magic is greatly hindered.

The idea behind this is A: You can get a deadlands from the medallion and B: the medallion will allow you to cast amazon racial spells during your magic action (Normally only during a non-magic action w/o the zons'). Anywho, honor the dead is only 4 pts. so between the zons' and the medal you should be able to cast it just about every magic action.

EDIT: Honor the Dead. Airy Aquisition, Higher Ground, Deluge and Flaming spears are all opened up to you as well, during normal magic actions. Higher ground and Deluge are more than 4 however. The bronze medal can assist with this though greatly, assuming your zons' are on apporpriate "aspects".
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Will
"There is more philosophy in a bottle of wine than all the books in all the world" - Some random wine cap -

[DialFforFunky]

I don't want to be a naysayer, as I'm genuinely interested, but I fail to see what's so nice about honor the dead. I'd rather use those 4 black magic casting fingers of death or bump it up to open graves. If you are afraid of people burying your units, you could just take a gold medallion as well.

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[Skawilly]

Your right about that Funky. The way I see Honor the Dead though, is that if you know your opponent is bury happy and you are short enough spell pts. to res all of your crew, you can just bust that out for the round and res a little bit to keep your units local.
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Will
"There is more philosophy in a bottle of wine than all the books in all the world" - Some random wine cap -

[Skawilly]

Actually Funky, I am glad you mentioned it because thats true, regardless of how you take my strat into knowledge, this also opens a world of black spells to your list as well. Open grave is a big one. 2 pt. burying and palsy if you need it.
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Will
"There is more philosophy in a bottle of wine than all the books in all the world" - Some random wine cap -

[Skawilly]

The more I think about it the more I sometimes wish I had based my armies around the highlands. Dwarves are real good and their color combination is superb. Create Mt. is just another top notch spell. I dont think folk give that enough credit. Some folk are more willing to spend 8 pts. for windwalks then to cast a create mt. with could infact be more than an additional 10 movement. The ranged for both lavas and dwarves is good and the calv is outstanding for dwarves. I do miss my ash storm/shoot into the ash storm strat a lot. Also, I miss the dancing lights and the ever popular burning hands. (Those were mainly from back in my lava elf days)

Both dwarf and lava elf light melee are great dice. The way I see light melee is defense, and heavy is offense. I am not going to discount poison on the swamp stalker lights, but they have a random ranged icon that just ticks one off with less saves... Though goblin light is very decent, yet undead light is a real bad idea. Only the uncommon and common of the highlands have a ranged face, which makes for less trash results.

Goblins are definitely the stars of swampland in my opinion, like the dwarves they have great dice, except their ranged.

Ill say this. I cannot remember where I read or heard this, but the original 4 races are so very well put together.
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Will
"There is more philosophy in a bottle of wine than all the books in all the world" - Some random wine cap -

[Skawilly]

This thread may seem pointless to some. I recognize that most people grab dice of all factions to give themselves 100% adaptability. I respect that a lot, however, The game loses focus for myself. I like that the folk I come across to expect the swamplands on most occasions. But I actually do feel there is a strategical advantage to doing this. I have learned very well how my spells gain synergy and how things work and what to expect when my faction(s) encounter specific others.

Actually, just to summarize how my collections work. I have Eldarim/Magic Items/Kin/Hybrids/Elemental Dragons matching all and only my factions. There is no specific set of die that I do collect within the above mentioned, just that I have a "random" handful and one staff color (the reason I purposely carry a staff of each color is that items do different racials in that army). Its because of this that I have to yet again pick up amazons. Whats funny is that in the past I would collect a faction and then buy the "accessories" for that faction later on.

Amazons in fact are necessary to complete my set because I already have said accessories such as one of each of the white champions, a white dragon, a handful of ivory dragons all the colorless items (medallions) and within a week or 2 I am hoping to have a Kings' Die (Takes place of the kin champion of a specific color as far as my "sets" are concerned).

Collecting amazons has been too easy though, because of my Ormyrr search. Amazons just come free in my opinion, as I am going to need ~40 starters. I tried building the treefolk, but they are just not for me. Plus I would need to get a hold of the hybrids and goodness that would not be easy right now as SFR is outta stock.

I tried amazons and did not like them. I have recently discovered though that I need red magic more than I thought and they are my access, and after losing a bunch of games I am starting to make them work but I have a bit of losses to go before I would say I mastered them. I also tried treefolk, researched them and tweaked them with other races and they simply wont work for me. They take a dedicated player for sure.
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Will
"There is more philosophy in a bottle of wine than all the books in all the world" - Some random wine cap -

[Skawilly]

I will say this about amazons, if you plan on using magic items to augment your mages this is the race for you. They already dont cast in reserves so your not hurting these women at all by carrying them. Lucky for me I FINALLY got a black dragon staff so that is GREAT for casting a deadlands for them. The only issue with that is the mages for amazons can produce a HIGH amount of magic so its nice.

Also, about their racial strength. Like most folk I am sure, I brought a lot of calv at first. The issue with this is that in reserves they do no damage. Yes they double at an 8th or with the right minor terrain icons. If you look at amazon ranged units though they only produce 50% faces of range. That is terri-bad. Goblins are identical. BUT if you put them on a flatland they all turn into 67% real quick. If you take Undead Mages with the zons' ranged you can start stackin' on evil eyes its pretty interesting actually.

I am think that burning hands and wilding are really the only decent ways to augment your melee. They take little to no preparation by the time you move your army in, where as things like stone skin, evil eye, decay and any others take a round or 2 to setup. Its actually a real advantage shooting from reserves too. It sticks the enemy on their home land. I was thinking, if I brought SS mages and used black rain for my home and possibly my frontier and mired/(wall of fag/flashflooded) the enemies home that would draw them into firing range unless they like sitting on a 1 face. I just dislike the amazon range being only 50% though its very low. One other strat I have adapted for them is to take only SAI ranged units (Medusa and Spearers) and just leaving them in reserves. I was toying with the idea of only medusa's because they produce only 10% attrition results. The reason this is good is because they have a 20% chance per to get "Stone" and they enemy wont get a chance to roll for saves if nothing or only "Stone" comes up.
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Will
"There is more philosophy in a bottle of wine than all the books in all the world" - Some random wine cap -

[DialFforFunky]

Another interesting thing about the Amazons that I recently discovered is that they create the effect of an extra march when used in reserves, as they are actions are resolved separately. This can be combined with firewalkers or eldarim champions, casting either flashfire or burning spears. Coming from reserves, that is certainly a respectable amount of offensive power.


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[Skawilly]

Amazons are turning out to be actually fun. They take some setup and this is one race you want to abuse minor terrains with. I was also noticing that flaming spears does NOT work with movement into ranged, this is actually not a terrible thing. If you go heavy calv your going to want a flatland and wont have access to flaming spears anyway. Its impossible to cast flaming spears from reserves no matter how you slice it. But if you go heavy ranged for the reserve missle, just bring a highland standing stones and your good to go because you will not entirely need the move to ranged as flaming spears will do so much more.

I did make a "trick" build that did win a game. I suspect its not the greatest thing every but it was fun messing with. Its a 12/12/12 build that I cannot see working with any other race to this extent. Home and horde need to be each calv and the frontier need to be mages of any race in fact, though I chose undead for the evil eye. The 12 pts. of calv are quick enough to hold a terrain steady and give you a good chance at the horde roll. First round, if possible, I cast a ton of palsey's on the enemies horde, use my calv to get the terrain to ranged (Or bring in a minor if its already ranged) and just pummel them. This is just a trick though, your either going to get hammered or going to force them into reserves.

EDIT: If your playing single race and are trying to get flaming spears on a flatland, bring a gold dragon staff for Create Mt. Its a small chance ( 1/8 ) but it may work out for you.
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Will
"There is more philosophy in a bottle of wine than all the books in all the world" - Some random wine cap -

[DialFforFunky]

you are right about the flaming spears. At the time of posting I was still under the assumption that eldarim champions could cast racial spells as well. I don't know where I got that idea from, but I couldn't find any reference to it anymore, so I figured the don't. Still, getting some flashfires in reserves and having your missile amazons in reserves before they chuck their pointy stuff at something is nice.


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