Jaga-Jaga Theme Force - Voodoo Dolls

With the book now officially out, and 100% confirmed only two Gator releases, I thought I should put up this theme list with some completely hypothetical and untested thoughts, together with some ruthlessly sarcastic analysis:

The list

Beasts = all current beasts
Units = Bog Trog units, Gatorman units
Solos = All current solos but Pendrake, Raluk and Totem Hunter
Battle Engine = Sacral Vault

So it's like Blindwater minus Swamp Gobbers, Pendrake, Totem Hunter, Raluk Moorclaw, and -1 FA on Gatorman stuff. Nothing too exciting there. At least you don't have to pretend like the swamp templates matter.

Tier Bonuses

Tier 1 = Reduce PC of Sacral Vaults by 1 (8pts)

This is neat. They are FA:2 so at most you will save 2 pts. That's a single free Croak Hunter! WOW.
A better way of looking at this is that it gives you the free Feralgeists you need to achieve the Tier 2 bonus.

Tier 2 = 3 or more Undead models/units -> Undead models gets advance move.

Currently there are 3 Undead models available for this list - Boneswarms, Shamblers and Feralgeists. It's not entirely unreasonable to take one of each in this list, especially with Posse being FA:2, you will probably take a unit of Shamblers. And a single Boneswarm isn't terrible for the animus and the fury if you are otherwise running beast light...


This is similar to the Maelok theme Tier 3 bonus, which I used almost exclusively to move Maelok up so that he would be able to Death Pact something and then walk comfortably behind a wall. However this bonus is much better than the Maelok one because it allows all the Swamp Shamblers to get an Advance Move (not the Bokor, as he is not an Undead model). So neato, I guess, especially with the Tier 4 bonus. 

In a scenario like Incursion, it would also help your multiple Feralgeists to rush to the side flags to hopefully get you an early point.

Tier 3 = 2 or more models/units with Magic Ability -> Start with all upkeeps in play

Models with Magic Ability = Shambler Bokor, Gatorman Witch Doctor (I don't think Wrong Eye counts).
This tier is super easy to achieve since you are taking at least one unit of Shamblers for the previous bonus, and Witch Doctors are great with Shamblers because Tough on cheap garbage throwaway models is the height of tactical brilliance.
However the bonus is negligible since Jaga-Jaga only has 2 upkeeps (Escort and Grave Wind) which are very easy to put up and then charge forward if you want to be really aggressive (which with Jaga herself you don't really want to be).

Tier 4 = One or more Sacral Vaults -> 2" extra deployment.

Other than the Advance Move on the one unit of Shamblers, there's no reason to play this tier other than the cheaper Sacral Vaults, so this bonus is almost automatically achieved. Basically it means after your first turn, you should have Shambler grunts at or slightly past the midway point of the table. Cool.

So your list could look something like this:

Voodoo Dolls #1
Points: 50/50
Jaga-Jaga, the Death Charmer (*5pts)
* Bone Swarm (4pts)
* Bull Snapper (3pts)
* Blackhide Wrastler (9pts)
Gatorman Bokor and Bog Trog Shamblers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Gatormen Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)
Feralgeist (1pts)
Feralgeist (1pts)
Gatorman Witch Doctor (3pts)
Thrullg / Gatorman Witch Doctor (3pts)
Sacral Vault (8pts)
Sacral Vault (8pts)

You could probably drop the heavy for a unit of Posse but with two Vaults you will have a lot of infantry killing already, and a heavy gives Escort purpose.

My initial impressions are bleh. It doesn't seem that playing 2pts up and getting advance move Shamblers is worth giving up a 3rd Posse (or second unit of Shamblers!).

I think the Tier 2 requirements are the downer, since either you take a Boneswarm (a pretty bad model) or you spend points on Feralgeists who are neat models but it is basically just eating up your 2 free points to meet this requirement.

You could change the above list slightly by removing the Boneswarm to get:

Voodoo Dolls #2
Jaga-Jaga, the Death Charmer (*5pts)
* Bull Snapper (3pts)
* Bull Snapper (3pts)
* Blackhide Wrastler (9pts)
Gatorman Bokor and Bog Trog Shamblers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Gatormen Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)
Feralgeist (1pts)
Feralgeist (1pts)
Croak Hunter (2pts)
Croak Hunter (2pts)Gatorman Witch Doctor (3pts)
Sacral Vault (8pts)
Sacral Vault (8pts)

Which is probably better than the above. It could be further modified by trading Vault + Wrastler for 5 Posse + Spitter if you only wanted to run a Single Vault (also decent):

Voodoo Dolls #3
Jaga-Jaga, the Death Charmer (*5pts)
* Bull Snapper (3pts)
* Bull Snapper (3pts)
* Ironback Spitter/Swamp Horror (8pts)
Gatorman Bokor and Bog Trog Shamblers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Gatormen Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)
Gatormen Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)
Feralgeist (1pts)
Feralgeist (1pts)
Feralgeist (1pts)
Thrullg / Gatorman Witch Doctor (3pts) (you could keep the 2 Croak Hunters from above if you wished by dropping a Geist)
Gatorman Witch Doctor (3pts)
Sacral Vault (8pts)

 
Alternatively, if you just want to play 2 Posse, 1 Vault and no Totem Hunter/Gobbers, you just take this list at tier 1 and essentially get a free Feralgeist rather than the Blindwater templates (very good deal IMO). I think that's where the list is best to be honest, because at present only having 3 models to fill the Tier 2 requirement to get what the list does best (jamming with tough Shamblers) is a bit of a downer.

If it is ruled that one unit of Shamblers fulfills the Tier 2 requirement by itself (which would mean the rule is horribly written), then the list would have a little more flexibility and be quite a bit better.

TL;DR version:

• Give up +1 FA on Gatorman Units, Solos and BEs + Totem Hunter
• Get 2" extra deployment and Advance Move on Shambler grunts

Safe, uninspired theme force that mostly exists just because there is an unwritten rule that every warlock must have a theme force. Not really bad but not really good either.

The main benefit is basically better jamming with one unit of (tough) Shamblers, which also comes with the requirement of 3 undead model/units. 2" extra deployment in general is also neat for melee lists, but you have to meet Tier 2 to get there.

The jam can be pretty sweet if your opponent has no guns or competent infantry clearing or if you're a skilled player and make lots of tough rolls. If you keep the Bokur safe, you can hopefully wrack up some corpse tokens to make more Shamblers. Then you follow up with dual Vaults and get souls and shoot things and laugh and then play another list. I think she just works so well with 3 Posse and the tanky Totem Hunter that light Shambler jam doesn't really make up for it, but we shall see how big an impact the Vault will have.

Goddamn, does War Room eat up your phone battery or what....

All the Gatormans

Here's all my stuff painted as of today (actually 6 something months ago, since no Shamblers):

Click to enlarge

I think I took this picture as an example of the base markings I use to differentiate my 3 Posse units. Just thought I should put it up on here for future reference.

A short article on Piece Trading

 I made this pretty good post on the PP forums a few months back about piece trading and thought I should archive it here. The question posed was "explain piece trading to me". Here is my response:


I think piece-trading is one of the fundamental concepts of Warmachine. It is one of the pillars of an attrition-based strategy.

One of the first things I try to impress upon new players is that some or most their stuff is going to die almost every game (a lot of people have a hard time with this concept because they get emotionally attached to their models and how cool and badass they are supposed to be, and forget their opponent's stuff is also cool and badass). What matters is what you get in exchange for it on the following turn(s). You should always expect stuff to die, but you should likewise always have a plan for what you can get in return for something dying.


For example, as a Blindwater player, good piece trading is how I can beat Runes of War. That's fundamentally what that matchup comes down to for me.
If you as the Troll player lead with the Runeshapers, then I can just kill them with unbuffed Gators (assuming you don't pull out high-skill, uncounterable plays like making lots of tough rolls), and in return I lose a couple of those Gators in exchange for your heavy, and generally don't have to worry about the heavies as much if they are in the back and just exposing themselves to kill a few Gators.
This pushes you to lead with beasts instead and make good use of the walls to mitigate my charges. Because I have longer effective threat ranges on my heavies with Boundless Charge + Reach (not to mention Rask's feat), and they hit really hard with Fury + Rask's amazing gun of wonder, I can probably use one of my heavies a turn to kill one of your heavies and initiate the trading. That heavy will in turn be killed by another of your heavies. Something like this:

Wrastler (+a few extra damage points) kills Mulg -> Earthborn kills Wrastler -> Swamp Horror kills Earthborn -> Mauler kills Swamp Horror -> Furied Gators/Snapjaw kills Mauler -> I have Snapjaw + a lot of Gators and you have Runeshapers that although really good will have trouble dealing with that much ARM and attacks, and Horluk without transfers easily dies to a Gator or two.

Horluk's feat can potentially be a problem of course, that's like the ace in the hole for the Troll player and makes for a real good game.


Doom Reavers are a good example of a piece-trade oriented unit because when used effectively they force a choice - if your opponent ignores them, they get charged by MAT 7 POW 13 reach berserk weapon masters. That is not a sweet for them, and super sweet for you. However, if you opponent uses attacks on killing the Doom Reavers, then they aren't damaging your other stuff. The key to using Doom Reavers effectively is to make sure that choice exists. If you throw them out front and they get shot without consequences, then they accomplish nothing. If they get shot at, and in doing so means your other, potentially more important pieces get where they need to be (all it takes is one Reaver to force command checks and tie up stuff), then that could be worth 6 pts in itself.

Likewise, I've won a lot of games because I was able to just throw a crapload of troops in my opponent's face to stop him getting into a zone. Jamming, as this is called, is basically trading models for control points/board control. It doesn't matter if you give up 25pts of your army in one turn if you can win the game next turn.

In terms of factions, Cryx is really good at the piece-trade game because they can trade cheap garbage for your expensive stuff in almost every list using all their crack-fueled buffs/debuffs and mildly OP troops. That's why it's really important to take out the lynchpin models like Necrosurgeons, the very last Bile Thrall, Tartarus or whatever to reduce the impact of their retaliation OR, more effectively, just shoot them from a distance where they can't really hit back. That's why Cryx doesn't do so well vs ranged factions like Ret, Cygnar or PoM and curbstomps melee-centric factions like Trolls, Skorne, Gators, etc. It basically comes down to piece-trading.

------------------------------------------------------------

Building up from there, I would expand on the Runes of War matchup by looking at the Nilsson vs Flanzer matchup that took place at the 2013 WTC. This was Maelok with 3 Posse, 3 Croctors, 3 Bull Snappers and WE + Snapjaw vs the standard Runes of War list (with Axer).

Flanzer realized that if he lead with the Runeshapers, as one often does with Runes of War, they will simply get killed by unbuffed Gators and not kill too many of them in return. The heavies might then kill a couple, but by then, Revived Gators would have infiltrated the rear ranks, started killing the Krielstone and probably would have gotten to Doomshaper. This would be quite bad for the Troll board position.

Instead, Flanzer decided to put his heavies up front. He realized that Gators without Rask suck at cracking ARM 19+ really bad and he was rocking ARM 21+ due to walls, Krielstone and animi. No problem. As a result, he was able to cockblock Maelok's feat using Mulg's magic stick as well as the anti-incorporeal aura at a safe distance and just slowly grind the Gators down by throwing them away and plinking them off with Runeshaper AoEs, giving almost nothing up in return.

Despite officially being the (Kanye-approved) Greatest Minion Player of All Time, Rickard was not able to trade the Gators for anything given the board position. Beating on the heavies was a highly unlikely proposition for him, and his only real chance in the matchup was to push aggressively for the assassination, which is really tough given Runes' defensive layers.

Exigence Gatorman releases

One.

Two.

Bam. 2 releases. Again. Disappointed. Again, despite my low expectations. Funny how history repeats itself. I am unsure whether to wait a week and hope for more 'legit' spoilers, or to (more realistically) keep crying in my corn flakes.

Both pretty much fully spoiled months ahead, the BEs probably as a result of Tinkerhouse/War Room mistake.
I do like that Battle Engine a lot though. It's probably 1 of the 3 or 4 models I feel Gators needed to feel "complete", or complete enough to be on par with core factions as they currently stand. I think, for me at least, it will see more play than Shamblers once it comes out mid-2015. Enjoy the wait, fellow reptiles!