Non Gator news I'm afraid, but given that I have only managed to get in two games with Jaga-Jaga since she was revealed (she is alright), this is the best I have at the moment.
Here is why I want to talk about this list - it is ridiculously overpowered. Or would be, if the current lot of Pig beasts weren't so bad. This is basically PP acknowledging that the Gun Boar, Road Hog and War Hog have the value of steaming road apples at their current points cost.
Here is what you get in this theme force at each tier:
Tier 1 - Goraxes. Perhaps one of the best light beasts in the game, with a really good animus that is crazy good in Pigs, and especially with Arkadius. This is because guaranteed frenzy is not a disadvantage in Arkadius list - it is actually a sizable advantage. You want your beasts to frenzy after they go in and end up on full fury - that is the Farrow form of fury control. Arkadius does nothing for troops, and everything to keep beasts running as aggressively as possible at full efficiency with the use of Aggravator (Hyper Aggressive on everything), Psycho Surgery and his feat. Also you can stack it with Forced Evolution for a +4 damage swing because f*ck subtlety. Or +6 with Crippling Grasp... or +8 with the War Hog STR dial.
But wait - these Goraxes also have Shield Guard! Because the good Doctor has a tendency to get shot, they casually give him a super sweet, cheap Shield Guard that also happens to do lots of other stuff. Literally no downsides to this ability other than pissing off Circle players (which many would consider yet another benefit).
Tier 2 -2" extention to your deployment zone. Sure, why not. It's not like your entire list is built entirely on the premise of running into your opponent's face as fast as your piggy legs will take you, frenzying everywhere and picking up the pieces afterwards.
Tier 3 - Free Razor Boar for each Gun Boar, Road Hog or War Hog in the list (1). In other words, a 2pt reduction on each of those. Put yet another way, your average 50pt list with 5-6 of the above beasts gives you a 10-12pt advantage over your opponent. TWELVE POINTS. That is almost a 25% points advantage over the whole list. It's like they looked at the 25% points reduction on Runeshapers in Runes of War and decided that going full retard wasn't enough - they had to go ludicrous speed.
That, dear readers, is how bad Pig beasts are at baseline, and what some would call a Carver tax. Except Razor Boars, which for 2pts are totally worth it in an Arkadius list with all the BG buffs you get and you would likely be bringing 3-4 anyway. And now you get 10pts to spend elsewhere.
4 - Running first turn without being forced. See Tier 2 above. Not as big a deal since you will probably be forcing a few beasts to make up for casting your upkeeps, but it sure as hell helps with all those Razor Boars you get for nothing. Also you can take Bone Grinders AND Slaughterhousers, aka. the only two Farrow units I respect. And if by some direct intervention of God Himself, Farrows get a decent heavy in the next book, you can take that too! All you have to do is give up one of your free Razor Boars. So what do you have to do to get the above goodies? Let me tell you: Tier 1 - Don't take non-Farrow solos or Brigands. Oh noes. Tier 2 - Take the one solo you have that interacts with warbeasts. The humanity. Tier 3 - Take 5 warbeasts. With Arkadius? You poor, poor bastard. I am so sorry. Tier 4 - Take 2 Super Goraxes. The horror.
Now, if you are willing to make the above sacrifices, you can play the Arkadius theme list, stop asking for an arc node and play this caster as intended with your 20% points advantage. I mean, even if you have a massive incurable hard-on for Crippling Grasp and must absolutely try to cast it every game, you now have access to excellent Shield Guards to significantly reduce the chances of almost certain death!
It won't make Pigs into a legit faction by itself (like Rask almost did for Gatormans), and it does have some glaring issues (lack of pathfinder, for one) but it does finally give you a skewy as f*ck, extremely characterful list that refines Arkadius into doing what he does even better via a sizable across the board points reduction on your overcosted Pig beasts, some Shield Guard beasts, the Primal animus, and moar speeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed. And the best part is that you actually have to know what you're doing with the list, because Arkadius is not that easy to play with his wussy defensive stats and highly chaotic beast-heavy playstyle.
TL;DR: Another caster you will never play out of tier ever again. Literally the best thing released for Pigs since Lord Carver.
So the holiday period is over and I am back, about as neutral about the game of Warmachine as one can be. I think I managed to get in one game over the holidays, Barnabas vs an Arkadius list that resulted in a reasonably close game in which I manage to come out the victor thanks to favourable dice and no thanks to a Slaughterhouser making 5 tough saves in a row to deny me control points and making things hard for me (I never did manage to kill him and he lived to the end).
This game, specifically effective use of Arkadius' feat, brought to mind a frequent "request" I hear on behalf of Minion players to fill a serious design gap in the Pacts: fury management. I don't really agree that this is a design gap. I argue that this would make little difference to our competitive power, because our warbeasts are pretty crappy so being able to manage fury better wouldn't really change things all that much - Gators would take the same amount
WHAT IS FURY MANAGEMENT
Fury management is a term used to refer to models, abilities or spells that can directly or indirectly add or remove fury from friendly warbeasts.
Examples of this include Paingiver Beast Handlers' Condition ability, Kaya1's Soothing Song spell, or the Comfort Food ability on Troll Whelps.
All Hordes armies have fury management built into their warlock's fury leeching ability and fury stat. Warlocks with a low fury stat of 5 can "manage" fury on warbeasts less effectively than warlocks with a higher fury stat of 7 or 8. Looking at that stat alone, one can conclude that warlocks with a higher fury stat can run more warbeasts safely (where safely means less chance of frenzy) because they can leech off more fury than those with a lower stat, thereby leaving less fury on your warbeasts.
Nasum fits everywhere.
WHAT FURY MANAGEMENT ACTUALLY DOES
What fury management does is allow you to run more warbeasts safely, where "safely" is used to mean "lower chance of frenzy".
That's about it. If you have good fury management, you can run more beasts, and beasts can run hotter than they would otherwise, either by generating more attacks, running more models first turn, casting support animi, etc. It provides a higher artificial fury cap for your list.
It's a bit like a reverse of 'focus multiplication', a term used for spells in Warmachine like Terminal Velocity, Guided Fire or Full Throttle where the effect is relatively greater the more models make use of them. For example, spending 3 focus to cast Full Throttle in Khador is efficient if you intend to charge with a jack and make at least 3 attacks with either jacks or warcaster. However, if you have 3 Juggernauts in your list with one focus each for additional attacks, then you are getting 3 charges and 9 to-hit boosts (effectively 9 focus), making that 3 focus expenditure very efficient.
Fury management is like focus multiplication in the sense that it allows you to get more out of your points investment in warnouns by making better use of the resource, in the Hordes case that means being able to do more things with more beasts (go to your fury cap) without the downside (frenzy risk).
WHY FURY MANAGEMENT WOULDN'T REALLY CHANGE ANYTHING FOR GATORMANS
The short answer is beasts in Blindwater are only taken to generate fury, provide animi, and provide high P+S numbers. If Gatorman Posse could do those things, then you probably wouldn't see beasts at all, because Gatormans are freaking sweet. So unless the meta changes to a ridiculous number of 20+ ARM targets in each list, you will only want a moderate number of Gator warbeasts in any given list.
The long answer is that our beasts aren't really that good. We don't have beasts that we actually want to take many of,
except perhaps the Bull Snapper - which, while quite capable for a 3pt
beast, doesn't really deliver the volume or quality of attacks required
to kill things and doesn't have a lot of health. Coincidentally, this is also the only Minion warbeast
with any fury management via the Torpor rule that removes a fury from it
and ends its activation immediately after destroying a living model,
a.k.a. "free boost". Bull Snapper - one of the best designed models in the game.
Spitters
are the only heavy of which you might want three in a specific type of
list, but even then you're probably only boosting hit rolls and a few
direct damage hits. Since the AoE causes Corrosion, you don't usually
end up boosting the blast damage rolls when fury is a concern. Fury
management would basically allow you to boost all the blast damage rolls
in exchange for a couple of points. Worth it? I wouldn't say so in the
majority of situations.
Wrastlers can have a good and
unpredictable threat with their animus but don't hit hard enough to be a
super serious threat in themselves, and also lack reach or movement
shtick (you can give them reach with Elasticity, but then you lose a lot
of flexibility in making a Rise Missile happen). Dual Wrastler lists can do some cool stuff, but again I think this is something that gets taken due to lack of options, not because it's really THAT sweet.
Swamp Horrors could also be taken in multiples as they hit hard-ish and have lots of reach initials so can deal with multiple targets and heavy targets. Unfortunately they are squishy as shit in melee and die to charging mechaniks.
Boneswarms are just crap at everything.
In terms of specific battlegroup-wide buffs, we have Warpath. And
Admonition and Flesh Eater at a stretch, I guess. Everything else
probably gets more out of it when used in conjunction with Gatorman
Posse. That isn't much of an incentive to bring warbeasts, let me tell
you.
Let's have a look at other factions for comparison's sake:
Legion and Skorne have the best fury
management in the game in Paingivers, Sheperds and Forsaken. This
allows them to run lots of beasts, specifically heavies. This is fine by
them because they have access to amazing heavies that they want to take a lot of by
choice, rather than by necessity.
On the Legion side of things,
you have Archangels, Ravagores, Scytheans, and Typhon. These beasts are
quite versatile in that they can not only do sizable melee damage, but
are also versatile enough to handle infantry well with abilities like
Overtake, Bloodbath, Slaughterhouse (takedown), Scather/AoEs and sprays. Sweet animi, sweet stats, sweet abilities, sweet weapons.
Skorne has the likes of Gladiators, Bronzebacks,
Tiberion and Molik Karn, along with excellent lights like Brutes, Drakes and Kreas. Similar to Legion, these beasts have great
secondary use and sweet animi (or are just really tanky as shit). The Holy Skorne Trinity of Molik, Gladiator and Bronzeback can deal with almost anything, from troop masses to high ARM to rough terrain to Crippling Grasp (ok, maybe not that last one).
Not
only are the beasts really sweet, but a good number of their casters
support the beast heavy playstyle through feats, abilities and spells, making beasts even more attractive. Have a look at Vayls, Makedas, Saeryn, Lylyth2, Hexeris2, Morghoul1, Rasheth, Naaresh, Xerxis, etc..
Lylyth2 is a great example - Fury 5, no real fury management to speak of and all about increasing attacks. With a few Shepards and Forsaken however, those 3 Ravagore/2 Angel lists are destroying everything on feat turn and then acting totally cool the next rather than flipping out and killing each other. Morghoul1 is in the same boat - with 5 fury and a tendency to die, without Paingivers he would really really suck.
Circle
and Trolls don't have as much in terms of general fury management.
Shifting Stones can remove fury from friendly warbeasts within 1" during
your control phase (an ability that was not present in Mk1 but was
thrown in last minute in the field test to appease Circle players who
felt heavily crippled by the lack of fury management - lolz). This fury
management is not that great for Circle because of its highly limited
range, and as we all know Circle likes mobility, especially on their
Warpwolf Stalkers which you see in every list. Besides, these Stalkers
are usually going to be Primaled so will frenzy next turn anyway,
resulting in effective fury management. They do however have a few warlocks that do very well running warbeast heavy (Kromac, Kaya, Baldur2 tier) due to great support buffs, built-in fury control, construct warbeasts that don't frenzy and models like the Druid Wilder that get animi out.
Trolls have
Whelps, who I don't usually see on the table very often despite what I
consider to be pretty strong rules (2pts for 5 solos, who can either be a
MAT/RAT debuff, alternate source of beast healing or fury management -
seems good). I attribute this to Troll beasts being a heavily synergistic faction, and as a result their beasts are bad to average for their
high costs (outside of Mulg), so they always try to max on troops and the
beasts are primarily taken for animi/support and to be a "cog in the fleshy blue machine", besides Bombers and maybe
Earthborns.
They also have a couple of fury and frenzy management abilities on some casters, like Calandra and Hoarluks.
The main point is that fury
management is only a really useful tool IF you have really good
warbeasts of which you want to take more than your warlock can handle by
itself. Minions do not have this issue because our warbeasts are good
at best and mediocre at other times.
WHY IT COULD CHANGE THINGS FOR PIGS, BUT PROBABLY WON'T
On the flipside of BG buffs, you have Farrow, whose casters are shitting out amazing battlegroup buffs with alarming consistency:
Carver: Mobility, Batten Down the Hatches, [Hog Heaven feat is arguably just as useful for melee heavies as it is for troops]
S&D: Watcher, Killing Ground, Goad, Pack Hunters, [Vision is also best for battlegroup]
Midas: Butchery, Pet Cemetary feat
To make up for these super sweet buffs however, they have some terrible beasts. Like, really bad beasts that only manage to do anything sweet because their casters are so baller.
War Hogs, Road Hogs and Gun Boars all share pretty crappy stats (the Gun Boar is quite tanky for a light though) and relatively high points costs, and only become respectable in any degree when they combine their "pain activated" abilities with their warlocks' super sweet BG buffs.
The only beast that is actually pretty sweet for its cost is the 2pt Razor Boar, perspectives of which will forever be cursed by its unexplainedly 100% overcosted Friendly Faction animus*. However a respectable tanky 2pt solo with boosts that you can spam and benefits from your sweet BG buffs is hard to overlook.
Pigs have access to 4 infantry units (all FA:2, 3 in Thornfall):
Brigands - good with Carver due to fearless + CRA (a big deal), not good with anyone else.
Slaughterhousers - all around excellent melee unit. Their special rules (Take Down, Finisher, Reach, Powerful Charge, Fearless, Tough) make up for their mediocre victim stats in spades. If Minions were one faction rather than two, I would definitely take a unit of these in many lists.
Bone Grinders - good support unit and very cheap. Craptacular damage output though, despite having a nice RNG 12 POW 11 nuke.
Razorback Crew - one of the better light artillery pieces in the game, but still light artillery.
The average 50pts Pig list will contain 1 unit of Bone Grinders and 1-2 units of Slaughterhousers. The rest will be filled with beasts, usually 2-3 War Hogs, 0-2 Road Hogs, 4-6 Razorboars and 0-2 Gun Boars, along with Saxon Orrik and other solos not as good as Saxon Orrik.
This is partially out of necessity (not too many options available), and partially because of the aforementioned amazing battlegroup buffs. War Hogs tend to be the most common in my experience (I almost always see 2 at 50pts) and it is pretty bad as far as melee heavies go.
With that in mind, would fury management make a big difference to Pigs? I sure as hell don't know. Probably. They are taking list made up primarily of beasts anyway, so I can't see how being able to manage fury better would be a negative. It would make spamming the Razor Boar animus easier for one, which could be neat.
I'm not convinced the lack of fury management in Pigs is a design gap though. I always thought the best approach to fury management in Pigs should be frenzy. Give Pig players every incentive to just go crazy all the time. It would be both fun and unique, require pretty good decision making skills and familiarity with the frenzy rules to maximize efficiency and not get stuck in the regimented "order of activation uber alles" playstyle of Skorne and PoM.
HOW TO MANAGE FURY WITHOUT SPENDING POINTS
One of the nice things, in my opinion, about Gators is the
lack of fury management forces you to get good at the fundamentals of
the game. You can't go balls out with fury on any given turn, and then
cover your ass by spending points on fury control models. I also feel in building lists that the balance between infantry and warnouns is exactly where I would like it to be for Warmachine and other Hordes factions - I need to take a certain number of warbeasts in order to generate fury for my warlock AND also provide a decent number of transfer for safety. That usually ends up being 2 heavies and a light at all points levels, a proposition that makes Khador soil itself with envy.
If I take less, I make my caster more vulnerable by having lower fury generation (meaning I might have to cut for fury regularly) and by reducing the number of potential transfer targets (not only will there be less on the table, but the ones that are there are more likely to be fill up on fury).
If I take more, I use my points less efficiently than I could otherwise (on infantry or solos) and will probably have more fury than I can handle if I want my beasts to function effectively.
Here are some pro-tips (or at least, "tips"):
The fundamentals of fury management are planning and estimating.
The most important factor in planning is to know what your caster will be doing that turn, specifically how much fury you want to spend and how much you want to hold onto. The difference between there two is ideally how much you want to have on the table at the end of your opponent's next turn.
If you expect a beast do die next turn, such as a beast used in a Rask Missile or Rise Missile, then max it out on fury and don't reave it if it'll bring you over cap. Better to cut for 1 or 2 damage to get the missing fury (if needed) than have a warbeast frenzy and do nothing on top of killing your own stuff. If it somehow lives, then you're likely to get a free fully boosted attack out of it when it frenzies.
Very rarely will I aim to have more fury on that table than what my caster can handle. However, if I am able to go completely overboard and put your opponent in a really really bad position by maxing out your beasts, then it's probably worth the risk. Better to risk frenzy to kill an enemy heavy than to have it kill you next turn.
Fury management also takes place during your turn, since that's when transfers are likely to take place. You can think of a transfer as costing you one point of life, since that's what it cost to make up a lost fury. If you reasonably expect your caster to take a few hits, having an extra fury or two on your beasts can save you cutting yourself next turn. In my experience however, if you do a good job at protecting your caster, most experienced players won't even try to kill it without some top-level assassination tech.
The wonders of nature
ACTUAL DESIGN GAPS
Fury management is a non-issue in my opinion. I think the actual design gaps for Gators are:
Lack of anti-tough - the increasing prominence of tough (no thanks to the Witch Doctor!) is one of the bigger contemporary design issues in the game in my opinion. There has also been quite a bit of discussion about it on the forums in the last few months, with a lot of arguments thrown both ways. My stance on the matter is that Tough as a rule, namely a single 5+ unmodifiable dice roll to survive (almost) any attack, is fine in itself. It adds a lot of character and a bit of depth into the game strategy. The issue I have with it is that it is everywhere, with the Piper, Kovnik Joe, huge FU caster auras like Terminus and Irusk and Tough is no longer a special unique rule with character but is turning things into 40k Roll to Hit -> Roll to Damage -> Roll to Save.
And the worse part of it is that Gators cannot do ANYTHING about it at all, except getting that crit consume on Barnabas' bite (I will almost always roll to hit on KD tough models to get that crit). So either fix the game (lots of work), or give me easily accessible anti-tough tech. Shit, I'd take Slaughterhousers. Thanks.
Lack of magical attacks - outside caster melee and ranged weapons, and some magical nukes we have the following things: Thrullg's 3 melee weapons, Pendrake's sword, Croctor's Sacral Blade and Sacrificial Strike. Not to best to deal with those rogue incorporeal zone contest solos, or Cryx ghost infantry BS.
Low number of ranged attacks - less of an issue for me than in the past, but I've fortunately managed to avoid hard control casters like Haley, Denny, Old Witch, etc. If I played those more often I would most likely rage about not being able to play a lot of the time. Obviously Gators, like Cryx or Skorne, are supposed to be heavily melee oriented, but even Cryx has some of the offensive spell toolboxes in the game, and Skorne has a decent number of ranged options and/or magical attacks for those bad matchups too so they aren't 100% boned (just 85%).
Dealing with armor without Rask - not a huge deal, but having +1 POW on Barnabas' cleaver and Maelok's Bite would be a big help. Having to cup my balls and hold my breath when I charge into a slightly damaged heavy might be exciting if I succeed, but it'd be nice to push the odds a little bit in my favour and maybe leave me with 1 fury at the end of my attacks.
The middle two issues could be fixed by making Specialists more baseline. If I see a shitload of magic users and Blackbanes on the other side, I can sub in a Thrullg. If I come up against some hardcore control BS, I can put in 2 Croak Hunters and some Bog Trogs to have something to do on enemy feat turns. It's probably still not enough to patch up those weaknesses, but at least we have something there.
On the flipside, I can't do anything about tough, and will always have to play Rask against heavy armor unless there is an errata on Barnabas/Maelok/Calaban, or some stuff gets released that specifically does not work for Rask (like a warbeast affinity).
Well, that was ranty. Maybe I'll have another equally ranty post in the near future, probably also about how tough spam is retarded. Or whatever the flavour of the month is. Until then, relish being the underdog!
* Seriously, wtf. It can ONLY work on Pig warbeasts and it's not that strong an ability in itself. I'd understand if it could work on things that weren't warbeasts since Rorsch could cast it on almost anything in the game. The only explanations I can come up with are 'DC hates Pigs' or 'future fury management incoming'.
That is going to be my post for the week - talking about models considered bad and my experiences with them. It's bound to offend some people, but entertain me.
First, some theory for framing perspective. Here are some reasons why models are bad:
1. Badly costed
Points cost is the single most important statistic on a model's card, especially at lower points levels, as the difference between X and X-1 can be quite significant. Lowering or increasing a model's PC can have a huge impact on whether you see them in a list or not, or if you see 8 or 1. Cryx Stalkers, for example, were PC:3 in the Mk2 Field Test, and Cryx players were spamming those things like crazy. Get a single Stalker with 3 focus on the enemy caster and that was probably game over. Fortunately they were increased to PC: 4 at release and their value relative to Bane and Satyxis swarms decreased and we thankfully don't have to play against 6 Stalkers anymore.
On the flip side, you have Trenchers, where a full unit with all the UAs and support modules costs about 4.2 million points, and is still not as good as the Winterguard Deathstar, buffs or not.
2. Opportunity Cost
A different way to look at the cost issue. Sometime there are just models
available to you that do practically the same thing at better value, or
bring additional options to the table. Often this will be a merc model, but sometimes within the same faction. That is like the ultimate kick in the nuts.
3. Very situational
Some models
have abilities that are extremely dependent on matchup, and their effectiveness is thus dependent on your opponent's list. This is not really a cool place to be, unless you know exactly what you're going to be playing against every time
Take Strakhov
for example, who is pretty good against Legion shooty lists because
he has Occultation and he is immune to fire. Meaning that Legion has no
way to shoot him to death outside Bolt Throwers. And his stuff is really really fast. Sometimes abilities that are fundamental to a model's effectiveness but only work on living models, or warbeasts. As you would expect, these models are usually noticeably less sweet when their preferred targets are not around. This point of course
bleeds into....
4. The Meta
What you play against has a large impact on the value of your models. If you expect to play against a lot of heavy armor, as has been the case in a Colossals meta, then armor crackers like heavies and weapon masters are valuable. If you expect to face lots of troops, then models that can generate multiple attacks in a turn and AoEs and sprays are valuable.If you expect lots of tough, anti-healing and Take Down is good. If you expect incorporeal, then magic weapons become more valuable, etc. etc. etc.
Points size is also a factor, as are tournament formats. Character restrictions have made a big difference in model viability by removing the option to take more powerful character choices in every list. Playing scenario vs not playing for scenario makes a huge difference to the power of some models. Some casters and models are much
5. Clunky design
Some models actually do fine in games purely on a capability perspective, but are annoying to play or get to "work" for many people. Sometimes there are too many hoops to jump through, sometimes they Skornergize* with your models, sometimes they just try to do lots of things and suck at them all. Either way, they still suck. In any case, they are just not really enjoyable to use in a real game but usually look sweet in theorymachine.
6. Designed for that annoying tart that wants to make everything work all the time
You know those guys that want everything to work all the time? Yeah. They are the guys that post threads on the PP boards every few weeks about how they've figured out Assault Kommandos and Tharn Ravagers. I admit I am guilty of this type of behavior at times. But I've come around to the fact that some stuff just sucks.... and that's ok. Pleasure from pain. If you still enjoy putting your balls in a vice and spinning the handle at varying speeds in random directions in the hope that you'll find some kind of personal satisfaction or enlightenment, you go ahead and give yourself blue balls.
7. Light artillery
Pretty much all light artillery sucks, except perhaps the Mortar crew. Nobody really knows why, but my theory is that because they can't move and shoot, they lose a lot of tactical depth and become predictable. If you look at the stats of most light artillery models, they are pretty decent and usually straight up better than a ranged solo at the same cost. However they only do one thing, which is shoot AoEs or potentially high-ish POW attacks at highly predictable ranges. They also usually can't boost on top of that, which makes you hate them more and just spend your points on super expensive warjacks with the same gun instead (which are probably worse).
Much like Gargantuans, I can't complain that Gators don't have any light artillery.
8. Design decisions that err on the side of caution
I think several members of the Warmachine design team engaged in Opus Dei-type self-flagellation as the result of Mk1 brokenness. It is quite clear these days that whenever given they choice, they will choose to make a model tamer and lower on the power curve rather than risk a model winning the majority of tournaments. That would be really horrible. In my opinion, this will often lead to some changes late in the design process that don't get playtested as thoroughly as they should and have a bigger impact on a model's viability than expected.
I'm sure everyone prefers this state of affairs to Mk1 "everything is broken" balance. It is funny how often I hear that MkII is 'perfectly balanced' after hearing the same thing about MK1 for years. PP do a great job of keeping the game balanced, but anyone who has played Warmachine for a few years is aware that balance issues will almost always be present to varying degrees. You can't compare an eLich to a Venethrax, or McThralls to Drudges. There is always room for improvement, not only in terms of nerfs, but also of buffs.
Here is a small, non-exhaustive selection of models that are usually held up as bad/ crap:
Cygnar:
Trenchers - They cost too damn much. They can do lots of stuff (not particularly well), but 1pt per guy is a hefty cost, especially when you throw in all the additional stuff. They already have an amazing UA which doesn't fix their standing - I think it's just a matter of reexamining the cost decisions on Cygnar units (who are obviously costed with great shooting buffs in mind). Long Gunners are arguably in the same boat but benefit hugely from Snipe.
Stormblades - Cost too much for SPD 5, totally average defensive stats, and no reach. Sure, they can hit hard and have guns and tons of gizmos, but what's the point when you can't even do the basics? Again, already have a UA and WA, so I'm thinking either Stryker3 gets Lightning Tendrils AND Deflection/Deceleration or these guys will be coated in a thick coat of grey dust by the time Mk2 Remix hits.
Cryx:
Venethrax - First of all, he isn't one of the other Cryx casters. Second, he is very skewed towards livings models. Third, his feat ranges from random as hell, to self-defeating, to not doing much at all. It's cute. Unlife in the Cryxian Empire has not been kind to Skeletor.
Drudges - These are just straight up worse than McThralls for more points. Or worse than any unit in Cryx for any points. And 90% of their effectiveness is tied to one pretty easy to kill model. Like... what? Redesign these so they have flexible weapon modes like CoC infantry and don't hold onto the Mind Slaver for dear life and we might see them on the table.... one day.
Cryx Heavies - Two problems with Cryx heavies, who for the most part are actually pretty good: One, they are squishy as all hell and have no repair option that can really keep up with them at full speed so losing 3 systems to a boosted Reckoner shot makes you want to just play more Banes instead. Two, you could just take Banes/ Satyxis/ McThralls, who hit equally hard, put out more attacks and need less focus to do it. Opportunity cost at work here. Deathjack ADs, has armour and heals itself, so he is immune to criticism and costs a ton.
PoM:
It's hard to find bad things in Protectorate,because the whole faction is based around jerking itself off so everyone feels good and high-fives each other. I mean, Amon is considered bad in that faction, since he has some incentive to not stay 6 miles back.
Deliverers - Perfectly fine unit. However, nobody takes them because they take soooooooo long to resolve at full efficiency, and don't get all the buffs a Redeemer does. They attempted to fix them in Mk2 by giving them a huge 5" AoE CRA so they can activate faster, but even then Redeemers are better and die slower.
Paladin? - What happened here? I never see these anymore. I guess they aren't as tough as Seneschals, and only become really great with Vilmon, who people don't take anymore for some reason. Too many magic weapons in the meta I guess.
Khador:
Zerkova - universally acknowledged as the worst caster in Khador for many reasons. First she is squishy and her defensive tech is bad. Second, she has every incentive to move upfield since her main influence on the game is through offensive spells and her pDenny-style feat. The most effective way to play her would be to take some shield guards (Bokurs), upkeep her spells, feat and then camp focus all the time and hope to live. That is even more boring than eKreoss. Third, no real game plan - everything is reactionary or denial, and not that great at it.
Decimator- requires wayyyyyy too much focus to make up for his craptastic RAT. I suspect he will come back with Malakov, because that Beat Back POW 15 gun combined with a POW 20 sustained attack melee weapon seems really good on a SPD 6 jack.
Assault Kommandos - Do like 10 things, and all of them suck. There's no getting past mediocre stats, very low POW attacks, highly situational abilities and a pretty high points cost (except giving them +3 to all stats). Remember how good Trenchers were in Mk1? So do these guys.
MoW Kovnik - This guy looks like serious business on paper. Problem is SPD 4 and no reach combined with no movement tricks means this guy isn't really getting to hit anything (unless you give him +3 to all stats). Second the emphasis on his jack marshall abilities, in a faction where jacks are focus-hungry, get great battlegroup buffs and have some very impressive buffable troops. And now have Malakov.
The poster boys for failure in JS Land
Mercs:
pMagnus - great spell list, but no feat. Not having a feat kinda sucks. Imagine how much people would hate pStryker if he didn't have a feat - that's pMagnus. It's not really a matter of terrible as much as lame.
Devil Dogs - too many hoops to jump through, and other people just do what they do better and more reliably. Charge maybe 7 around a warjack if graced by the favor of God himself, hit maybe the 3rd or 4th net, then get three POW 10 weapon master attacks. Then die. Short ranged guns and no way to deliver.... just legitimately bad.
Blythe and Bull - WTF. It's like Ayanna & Holt that don't have Harm or Magic Weapons or Stealth and only one big meaty gun. Most obvious IKRPG conversion ever.
Avalancher - Those Rhulics and their power pieces. I think they should get their own faction. Then Minions won't be the worst faction in the game anymore. This jack just
seems like an even shittier version of the Destroyer, which is already a
pretty shitty jack. Am I missing something?
Ret:
Garryth - melee assassination casters don't tend to do too well in the current meta. Garryth would be great if he could keep his army standing long enough for him to get to the enemy caster, but Ret isn't built that way. And his feat being skewed so hard towards Warmachine sucks for him.
Gorgon - The Force Lock ability seems really strong. However it is tied to both a squishy warjack with rather crap combat capabilities and a squishy Generator node. It might cause slight activation issues for your opponent, but if that's what you're going for you might as well play this next guy....
Nayl - Have no idea why people don't play him. As a Hordes player, I find him annoying as hell. Sure, he can screw you over if you place your caster nearby and he gets thrown over there. OR he can get in the middle of the opposing army and take P+S 13 free strikes on everyone since he is way too annoying to deal with and destroys your opponent's time. Guess two points is a lot to give up to completely mess up your opponent's plans for a turn.
Apparently if I ever get a tattoo, it has to be this.
Gunnbjorn - he has a sweet gun, pretty good
spells but again, no feat. Or a feat that doesn't work for his spell
list, since it seems only good for protecting a rampaging horde of
rushing trolls on the advance, which will be way ahead of him. Trolls
usually have underwhelming spells and feats on paper, but this guy also
has them on the table!
Winter Troll - I haven't had the
pleasure to see why this guy sucks on the table. If the animus was RNG:
Self, I would totally understand but at RNG 6 it might see some use.
Maybe it's the RAT 4 on the spray. Maybe it's the pillow fists when you
could be taking some baller Troll Hero or a Pyre Troll that brings +2
damage to said Troll Hero.
Mountain King- He might be
awesome if he came out 2 years ago when people weren't designing lists
to 1-round much heavier targets. Alas, people are doing just that. He's
also MAT 5 for no reason at all. WHY MAT 5?!?!
Sluggers -
So their stats suck more than the average Troll, for some reason. And if
they move and shoot, they really suck. If they stand still and shoot,
they get 5d3 RAT 7 POW 13 shots off, which is pretty good with Snipe.
But then they are 5/8 for 3/5 guys with 5 boxes each. Why they have
boxes, nobody knows. More muscle mass from lifting I guess. But we do
know this is the best example of Snipe tax known to man.
Circle:
Ravagers - It's because they die. Like, really easily. If everyone played in heavily forested terrain all the time, they would probably be legit, but such a thing is rare.
Sentry Stones - This thing was ridiculously overpowered in Mk1 for doing almost the same thing. Then Mk2 happened and I have not seen one since. Is it the 3pts? The short 6" CMD range? The reliance on enemy warbeasts to do it's thing? I really don't know.
Legion:
Rhyas - Again, a melee assassination caster that doesn't seem to get love. How odd. I think this is the case of a caster that doesn't do much. She hides in the back, casts Dash and upkeeps two spells. If you play against Hordes you might risk her to kill a warbeast and steal its fury and run away. Her feat is good but kinda reliant on your opponents list and positioning. Also no pathfinder is stupid.
Grotesques - Not only are they uglier than my ass, they are potentially the least exciting unit I have ever seen. Mediocre to poor stats all around, BUT they can fly, are fearless and gang. That sure makes up for that single MAT 5 POW 10 attack. If they were 3/5, they might see some play. Might.
Skorne:
A fall from grace that would make Satan jealous.
eMorghoul - A melee assassination caster! Yep, and eMorghoul also sucks to play. In Mk1, he was probably amongst the most OP casters in the game since he was not only an assassin machine with good support spells (same as now), but his feat Blinded your opponent's entire army. That was pretty OP. Anyway, they dicked around with him in the Play Test for several editions until they slapped his current lame-ass boring feat on him in the last release and left it at that, together with passive stealth. Two weeks more/less of playtesting would have made a world of difference.
Savage - I don't know why I don't see more of these. I submitted so many feedback forms that the animus should cost 1. Now it costs 1 and nobody takes them. FML. More evidence nobody really likes melee lights unless they are spammable, and Savages are not spammable at 5pts. dat animus though...
Cannoneer - Warbeasts with big AoE guns are amazing since you can boost pretty much everything you need at will. The reason this guy is left on the shelf however is firstly because his animus does nothing. It did nothing in Mk1 and doesn't do much now - the range is too short, and the cost is too high for a warlock relative to two more transfers. Secondly, he is very average in melee and Skorne doesn't stand for that jazz.
Siege Animantrax - This thing not only sucks on the table, but also sucks on paper. I would have loved to see this thing in playtest, it must have been broken as balls before those last minute tweaks.
Minions:
Arkadius - People want to cast Crippling
Grasp - they miss, they die. On the flipside, pig beasts are pretty crap
so his entire shtick is consequentially equally crap. Better pig beasts
please.
Calaban - I like my warlock to do things. If I
wanted to just cast one spell, upkeep things and hope like hell I don't
die, I'd have played PoM. If Grave Door didn't require 14 hoops to jump
through as well as a full tax audit and vetting process, then maybe he
might be cool had Rask never come out.
Brigands - People take these with Carver.
They don't take them otherwise. Because giving them CRA and Fearless is a
thing when they have otherwise poor stats.
Boneswarms - I have written on Boneswarms before.
They could have three different roles, yet they don't do any of them
well. They do the tanky role in Midas' theme list pretty well. Sucks for
you, Gator players.
Feel free to share your thoughts. Remember that, at least in this context, 'good' and 'bad' are entirely relative, so it makes sense for every eLich, Molik, or Satyxis unit, we have an eMorghoul, Avalancher or Grotesques. *Skornergy, for you young ones, is a term coined by the podcast Focus and Fury to describe the Skorne list design process during the Hordes Playtest. It is essentially synergy that looks amazing but doesn't actually work, or screws itself over at some stage in the process. Lots of Skorne warlocks had this feature.
A regular subject of internet Minions-related QQ is that Arkadius desperately needs a pork node to "work properly". Sturm & Drang too, while we're at it. Let's have a look at these two and their spell-slinging capabilities:
Arkadius - 2 offensive spells (Crippling Grasp and Primal Shock)
Sturm and Drang - 1.5 offensive spells (Obliteration and TK)
Both casters have access to Bone Grinders in every list, and will probably take them as Bone Grinders are a pretty good unit regardless of their ability to buff casters since they bring a decent magic missile and very cheap bodies.
Arkadius
Arkadius' playstyle revolves around warbeasts that hit hard and frequently - he can give them all hyper aggressive on early turns (CTRL area buff) and he can heal them all to 100% efficiency for 2 fury (Psycho Surgery, CTRL area). He can buff a heavy beast to hit harder (upkeep), and he can throw decent POW magic nukes at long distances with Primal Shock. His feat makes all friendly beasts in his control area immediately frenzy - no need to have enemy models in your control when you cast it at all, although you'll probably have to move up a bit after feating to keep your beasts in your CTRL. His thing is to have beasts going bonkers in your face and ripping stuff apart - chaos. Maybe not the most competitive approach, but then again this is Pigs we're talking about - Carver takes all the good stuff.
He is a Fury 7 warlock with Maltreatment so he can stay pretty far back and have a transfer or two if needed. His defensive stats are pretty balls at 15/14, but so are Zaal's and several other Hordes spellslingers and nobody flips out about those dying all the time (granted he doesn't have access to the same level of defensive animi or protective models as "real" Hordes factions - more a problem with the faction than with the model).
There is only one catch about Arkadius - Crippling Grasp. This is the only reason he has to move up at all - this deliciously OP spell that can bring anything in the game to its knees, weeping for its mother. In my opinion, this spell is a trap on this warlock. He has no other reason at all to move up and risk death - none at all. If he can keep his beasts in his 14" control, he's happy and can do pretty much everything else.
Arkadius doesn't need an arc node - he just needs to stay the hell back and cast 2 spells all game along with healing his beasts and feating. That's about it. You only need the needle stick and Crippling Grasp if for whatever reason crap got into your face and you're about to die.
If anything, his problem is that he is kinda boring, not that he doesn't work or that he has to move way up to miss boosted Crippling Grasps and consequentially die a quick death. Making his Syringe into a RNG 10/12 gun would do a lot to make him more interesting, although that Syringe would potentially be as good or better than Rask's gun (and we cannot have that).
Sturm & Drang
I love this caster. The design looks like so much fun to play with, and is definitely a lot of fun to play against. He almost makes me want to play Pigs. I can never decide whether to refer to them as a single individual.
So what does he do? He has two radically different personas, both at FURY 7. His defensive stats are 14/16 which is pretty decent, but he is slightly prone to getting shot as he is on a medium base in a half-faction with not many medium bases.
Sturm is the psychic/defensive half of the duo. He has no cool special rules and sucks in melee, but does have a nice magical spray gun and some sweet spells. Deflection gives a +2 ARM buff to all warriors against ranged + magic (CTRL area). Vision allows the recipient to negate all damage from the next directly hitting attack (upkeep), and Watcher allows a friendly beast to make a full advance whenever an enemy models moves to within 6" of Sturm (forever) and you can also choose to make a fully boosted attack against said enemy model with a warbeast (then the spell expires). Not exactly something you want to rely on to live, but it's a nice defensive layer.
His best spell however is the ever-useful Telekinesis - RNG 8 spell that allows you to place your target 2". If it targets an enemy model, it is an offensive spell. Again, while it is useful to use on enemy models at times, it is not necessary to the functioning of the model.
Drang, on the flipside, is the psycho/offensive half of the duo. He has Pack Hunters and Goad so his warbeasts are pretty badass, and he himself is pretty legit in melee. He has only two spells - Killing Ground makes all your models charge for free and get pathfinder if they charge (CTRL), and Obliteration is an expensive, RNG 10 POW 15 AoE 4 mega nuke. This does need to target enemy models and you do need to get kinda close for it to do its thing - but at RNG 10 + Bonegrinders, I think you'll be alright to target almost anything you want to target. This is Drang we're talking about - he's definitely not an eVayl-style spell assassin.
The one thing they have that really has to affect enemy models is their feat Psychic Apocalypse, which reduces all enemy warbeasts currently in their CTRL to Fury: 1 and all enemy warjacks in CTRL cannot be allocated more than 1 focus for a round. This is a clearly defensive feat with some obvious assassination potential vs Hordes in that it reduces transfer options for opposing warlocks, and it is really the only part of their toolkit that requires you to move up to catch all their beasts/jacks. However, an arc node does NOTHING for this, so you'll just have to deal with it.
The second part of the feat is a 'no channeling spells' aura, which these days is neat but doesn't come into play all that much.
So in summary - I don't think the problem with these two casters is that they need arc nodes to not insta-die or to go through with their game plan. They just need their faction to have access to more awesome stuff - primarily better beasts, animi and beast support. A Spell Martyr or equivalent would be useful, but I don't think it'll "fix" them as much as just make them straight-up better - throwing out Crippling Grasps from a mile away at no risk pDenny-style is obviously good but not fun in the least for your opponent (f*ck that spell) and pretty contradictory to everything else Arkadius does.
Calaban
Now onto a real charity case:
Calaban has 3 offensive spells: Hex Blast, Parasite and Bone Shaker.
He has access to Bone Grinders in his tier list which I am told is 2 legit 2 quit. He also has a meat node gun that is confusing as it is crap. Calaban is 14/16 and on a medium base - just like Sturm and Drang. We already know he has an amazing spell list, but let's have a look again in biased detail:
He has two upkeep spells - Occultation and Carnivore. Both very nice spells, and Occultation does help to protect Calaban after helping your Posse on the advance. Carnivore is a nice MAT buff vs living for Gators or Swamp Horrors, although Calaban's only use of life as a resource is Life Trader on Carcass, so the heal rarely comes into play like it does on eMorvahna.
Then he has three other spells which are all 100% traditionally offensive spells - they can only target enemy models and are all cast directly from Calaban:
Hex Blast is a POW 13 nuke that removes upkeeps and animi on a direct hit, and has a neat 3" AoE attached to make you feel better about casting it (RNG 10, Cost 3).
Parasite is an amazing debuff that reduces target ARM by 3 and increase Calaban's by 1 (RNG 8, Cost 3).
Bone Shaker is a pretty good POW 12 nuke that allows you to take control of enemy warriors you kill, make an advance and make an attack with it before RFP. Lich3 has this spell so you know it's good (RNG 8, Cost 2).
Thankfully, his feat does not require the enemy models you kill to be in Calaban's control area - only the model doing the killing. Since Blindwater doesn't have many guns, this more or less means that you have to have the front line of your engagement in your control area if you want to suck in the sweet death and convert it to fury. This is a reasonably safe distance. I am fine with that - the problem comes from the second part of the feat that allows you to cast spells as you generate the fury, which you really want to be doing since not doing it means you have a really good chance of overloading on fury and your beasts frenzying next turn. Therefore, since you usually don't want to move up too far up and consequently die, you will be using this fury primarily on throwing out lots of defensive animi on friendly targets or just camping it. Which isn't too bad, but severely limits the depth, character and potential of the feat. It would be more accurate if the flavour text read:
"Calaban revels in the fervor of slaughter and the feasting of his beasts and allies and can tap into the tremendous energies released by death. Amid the carnage, he can freely call upon his magic and unleash an endless tide of fury camping and spiny growths on his gatordudes so that less stuff dies and he can revel in the miracle of life."
Yeah, that sounds like some serious badassery.
The gist is that he has to spend his fury in order to manage warbeasts, and to have an impact on the game/help his stuff out by removing upkeeps, reducing ARM and killing things with Bone Shaker. Unlike Arkadius and Sturm&Drang, he can't have much of an impact on the game by buffing his own stuff (outside just upkeeping Carnivore).
This all comes back to the need for a decent arc node mechanic, which I would assume is the mechanism to get around the above problem and allow you to use his feat at least partially offensively. The Grave Door meat node is balls:
It only works on living enemy models. This means against a handful of matchups (Cryx, CoC, jack/construct-heavy lists), it is not usable, which is a problem given that he needs to cast those three offensive spells to have an impact on the game.
It has to hit and damage to trigger, unlike most other arc node mechanics (Vayl's Orraculus, Fiona's Telgesh Mark, Hexeris' Soul Slave and beast bond, etc.). Not so much a problem in itself as it is just throwing a heap of additional dice rolls onto a fundamental mechanic....
The gun is decent - RNG 10, POW 10, ROF 2, magical and RAT 6. So you will probably have to boost to hit and damage, and be a bit further up than you want to be because....
The Grave Door model remains an enemy model, and cannot be arc through while being engaged by YOUR stuff (which is likely to be the case if it is a front-line model as Posse all have reach), and...
The Grave Door model maintains its LoS. This means if you tag something in the enemy front line, you can't really target many enemy things. If you tag something a bit further back, it means you likely could have just targeted things you wanted to target directly with RNG 8 spells. Granted, this is thinking in only 1 dimension and you can also use the arc node to increase your lateral threat range across the table, but in my experience this is a rare case.
Basically, my point is you have to jump through a lot of hoops relative to other arc node abilities on other casters that rely far less on offensive spells than the Grave Walker and in the end, you end up with a rather lackluster arc node. But you could potentially have two of them! Huzzah!
Conclusion
In conclusion, I don't believe Arkadius nor Sturm& Drang really need an arc-node or substitute to function as intended, while Calaban does. An arc node for those Pigmans casters would be a straight-up buff, but so would having access to good things outside Slaughterhousers. I think a Shield Guard/Krea animus type beast or solo would have a bigger impact on them than an arc node would. Calaban on the other hand, has access to some pretty sweet things but trips over himself on the table since he needs a way to project his offensive spells across the board without getting ganked in order to function properly - and in my opinion, the Grave Door mechanic on his ranged weapon does not appropriately fulfill this function.
He has a sweet hat and I would like to see him more on the table and not be completely replaced by a bastard bog trog. I can handle the fact that Calaban is going to suck against things that shut down magic attacks as he is heavily based on offensive spellcasting. Unfavourable matchups are just part of the game. But it'd be pretty sweet if he had good matchups too, or at least matchups were someone else just doesn't do straight-up better, easier.
TL;DR version is basically that the bee in my bonnet is the result of Grave Door not working how I would like it too. It has too many conditions and too many hoops to jump through that I get far more enjoyment complaining about it than I do actually playing with it (reminds me of 40k!).
And that's my incoherent Calaban rage for this month. :)
