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Subject: The Annoying Army

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Ridureyu
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09/04/2006 12:17 PM  

This isn't an army that I'm certain I'll use in a real event unless I test it extremelt well, but so far it seems to be A: better than it looks, and B: INSANELY ANNOYING TO PLAY AGAINST.

It is all madness.

Spellbound Scissors x3
Relentless Eviscerator x3
Asylum Escapee
Doctor Ape
Nevret Screamtrooper
Gun-Possessed Killer
Book of Nothing
Jack in the Box
Iron Thug
Malborn Croc
Chrysalis Spinner
Windborne Blademaster

 

Pro:

1. Nothing will ever die.  Seven of your figures come back from the dead, two of them can bring back dead figures, and several of the rest have incredibly high life.  Sure, they get disrupted or banished, but these things WILL NOT DIE.  In a battle of attrition, your opponent is guaranteed to run out first.

2. Good synergy among the minis.  An example would be pairing the Book of Nothing with the Iron Thug, Windborne Blademaster, Jack-in-the-box, or a combination thereof.

3. Lots of cheap and medium minis.  Although there are plenty of expensive figures, a huge chunk of the army is in the 2-6 range.

4.  Lots of power.  Comparatively speaking, you can do a lot of damage with this army.  Plenty of figures have power ratings of four and above.  This compensates for the 1 and 2-power figures.


Con:

1. Very few bonus spawn points, if any.  Because nobody dies, it will be harder for you to spawn characters like the Windborne Blademaster.  Get used to using and re-using that Jack-in-the-Box.

2. No movement abilities.  This is big, and probably the army's biggest drawback.  movement will be slow, and although your opponent can't get rid of you, they can slow you down.

3.  Lots of bad abilities.  There are two "bad" blade abilities and one mini with Fade.  You're going to have to get the hang of using them.

4. "Complicated" minis.  You are going to have to know how to get the best out of figures like your lone Doctor Ape or Asylum Escapee to get the most out of this army.  Beware.

 

So there you go.  What do you think?  Annoying as heck to fight?  My "regular" army has beaten it two out of three times that I've tested it, but only two tests isn't saying much.


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Lachlarlan_the_Mad
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09/04/2006 5:43 PM  

The Windborn Blademaster is expensive. When hardly anything dies, that is a huge drawback as you can't consistantly expect him to hit the field. I would drop him.

The Iron Thug is also a fairly heavy hitter, but also costs a lot and has a drawback. I'd consider dropping him as well.

-1 Windborn Blademaster
-1 Iron Thug

The Darkheart Cottage is a God-send in a pure Madness build. Take into consideration that most of your figures are nigh-impossible to kill, and that most of the time you'll have lots of figures unengaged. The Cottage can make your Scissors hit as hard, if not harder, than the Blademaster, and they're easier to play to boot.

+2 Darkheart Cottage

That removes your first and third Cons.

I played against 2 mono-Madness bands over the weekend. The first went undefeated (even over Chessmaster), and the second kicked the crud out of me as well.


Champion of the Mimic; Knight of the Caryatid Column
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Vindicated Called Shots: Blood Wars - Solar
Aberrations 60/60, Deathknell 60/60, Angelfire 60/60, Underdark 60/60, Wardrums 60/60, WotDQ 60/60

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ChristopherGroves
Warlord
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09/05/2006 5:32 AM  
Espescially if you can lock those Darkhearts in good spots.

What does skull hill do again? I forget.

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XAos
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London

09/05/2006 5:58 AM  
With SpellBound Scissors, & Jack-in-a-box (both Janus). I'd replace the warpstrikers in this list with All Seeing Mages.

Also if your going to use Jack-in-a-box, 3 is a much better number than 1. The price on ebay of this rare is quite low. (Fade is a serious liability in most warbands) If your using all that regen/fade etc. you want to build-out your warband compleatly as soon as possible. So I'd drop 2 of the expensive creatures (Windborne Blade Master & Croc.) & replace with another 2 JiaB's.

Don't worry about the current metagame. It doesn't matter if it's ugly, bad, or the best ever. In 2 years time, set rotation will ban everything.

Prince o the Raven Banner
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09/05/2006 2:33 PM  
I'd kill to run 3 Jacks. I finally played mine and found him to be great. I did use a Pearlthorne to move him up when needed. It seemed that the threat of him was enough to keep my opponents off my front row. When he combined with something with blades he was a turn winner. Fade is less of a liability than it seems, it just means that you will almost always spawn the Jack. Just be wary of attacking first against Passion.

The bent toward semi immortality in Madness is annoying. It is also hard to play since you never get a spawn boost. That is an even bigger problem with this group as regenerate multiplies that feature of play. That Windbourne may never come out, but keeping a heavy to the side is nice when that fat spawn pops up.

I would try the Darkheart cottage idea though, they are infuriating when put in the middle row. I've found the Mages to be less than spectacular though, even backed with Glorious. They die and I would rather reincarnate/raise the Jack or Crazy Uncle Gene. Perhaps the strongest arguement for running this is is it's not something people seem to be Meta gaming against. And if few are running Madness you can win on their learning curve. That of course is based purely on local observations.

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Prince o the Raven Banner
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09/05/2006 11:52 PM  
I should point out that my irritation with All Seeing Mages is that it is often difficult to keep any organizational cohesion in a Mono-Madness build. With literally half your fielded minis being disrupted most turns Janus Warpstrike is harder to pull off regularly. The Book on the other hand just needs a dice chucker to run with to get a fairly regular supply of Warpstrikes. Of course he dies when confronted by even the weakest weenies. But if he should be in a cell with say an Iron Thug, a Jack in the Box and maybe a Darkheart Cottage (assuming regular scattered madness formation) you can get enough Warpstrikes out of him to ravage an opponents back field. If you can pull that off twice he is more than worth 4 spawn. While he is really in need of a bodyguard, pulling off a massive die roll with him to take advantage of Multiwarp can completely justify his quick and inevitable death (at least to my way of thinking). The Mages need a mostly Janus List to credibly get the dice to tackle a really juicy enemy. Right now only Mirrormen can reliably hold a line ( cost effectively ) to set up that juicy Warpstrike Supervalue Meal.

Or maybe I've just not seen it done right.

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Orc Mage
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09/06/2006 12:51 AM  

Also if your going to use Jack-in-a-box, 3 is a much better number than 1.



He is a great piece but two might be a better compromise, he has to be used aggressively to be effective which means he will be coming back to your reserves regularly making three potentially unplayable. If he is used defensively he will be destroyed or disrupted too often to make him of great use in winning cells, it is too easy to step into his cell and get rid of him with the way the game is being played.


XAos
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London

09/06/2006 2:00 AM  
I find it difficult to use darkheart cottage with any warpstriker expect the Unspeakable Freak.
If your opponent moves into a cell which contains a Book of Nothing & a Darkheart cottage. They should be fairly certain they can destroy the Book.
So you only get to use this combo on the turn you spawn the Cottage.

Don't worry about the current metagame. It doesn't matter if it's ugly, bad, or the best ever. In 2 years time, set rotation will ban everything.

evilmerlin
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09/06/2006 3:44 AM  
The Book of Nothing needs a bodyguard for it to work properly. Its actually more expensive than it looks as you have to factor in a bodyguard cost and something which actually rolls a decent amount of dice in there.

Lachlarlan_the_Mad
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09/06/2006 7:04 AM  
Something to consider.

In a Janus heavy band, an All-Seeing Mage + Darkheart Cottage is devastating.

Making a 7 Power attack via Janus Warpstrike, then increasing the damage by 5 or even 6 due to the number of unengaged figures there are going to be can make or break the game.

A power 10 or 11 attack is usually enough to kill off an opponent's key figures, and God forbid you roll multiple blades.

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Lachlarlan_the_Mad
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09/06/2006 7:32 AM  
I would probably run it as:

2 Cost: Spellbound Scissors x3
3 Cost: Pick-Pick x2
4 Cost: Jack-in-the-Box x3
5 Cost: Relentless Eviscerator x2
6 Cost: Darkheart Cottage x2
7 Cost: All-Seeing Mage x2
8 Cost: Chrysalis Spinner x1
9 Cost: Iron Thug x1

*Costs do not include aspect costs, as they'll be irrelevant after turn one or two.

Champion of the Mimic; Knight of the Caryatid Column
Called Shots: Unhallowed - Tomb Mote
Vindicated Called Shots: Blood Wars - Solar
Aberrations 60/60, Deathknell 60/60, Angelfire 60/60, Underdark 60/60, Wardrums 60/60, WotDQ 60/60
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