Cursebreakers vs Thorns of the Briar Queen 16.12.18
My first
game with the Cursebreakers! I really wanted to try these guys out as I was
imagining them to be pretty much the opposite to my grots. I was going from the
largest warband in the game to the smallest and from very little killing
ability in a single activation to every model being more than capable of taking
out my opponent’s fighters. I was up against Josh and the Thorns again but he
had spent some time revising his deck rather than using the one straight from
the box so I knew I was in for a tough fight.
I had drawn
extreme flank, conquest and sorcerous scouring so I deployed deep in my
territory close to edge hexes to prevent my fighters getting bogged down early
and try to force him into a couple of push activations with Varclav. His first activation
was a push and I tried to empower Rastus for inspiration and failed. He went on
guard with the everhanged and I tried for the empower inspiration and failed
again! The everhanged charged in (scoring change of tactics) but missed and was
killed in response using stormstrike on Ammis.
I tried to
set up for extreme flank but he jumped into my territory with the Queen using a
ploy, doing some damage to Rastus and then cast a spell to push all fighters
near an objective to stop me getting extreme flank. The Queen got great
strength and her upgrade to teleport to starting hexes as a Move action so was
now very dangerous.
I spent the
second round trying to avoid getting killed and get some damage on the Queen.
He charged at Rastus but failed to kill so I struck back and also failed! Some
chainrasps tried to dig into my territory and one was killed with a fulmination
scoring me sorcerous scouring. I then managed to charge away from the Queen and
lethal hex I was next to with Rastus to kill a chainrasp deep in Josh’s
territory and score measured strike.
The final
round saw the Queen go on a rampage killing both Rastus and Ammis but the
remaining chainrasp and Varclav were still way back in Josh’s territory. I
moved into a corner with Stormsire (three hexes from any start hexes and so
unchargeable by the Queen) and started cycling objectives. I don’t think I got
any (I think I drew denial amongst others – no chance!) but managed to edge the
game out 7-6 in the end.
This was a
really close fight and shows how scary the Queen can be once she starts to get
a couple of upgrades. I really enjoyed the Cursebreakers but definitely need
some practice keeping them safe and maximising my activations! It really hurts
to lose a fighter when you only have three compared to nine!
Every time I've gone for an Empowered Rastus or Ammis and missed it felt really, really bad. If I'm using my character abilities, I want them to effect the board in some way: Damage/kill something, add figurines, gain board position etc. Buffing a character without making a significant defensive move to also protect them is real bad feels.
ReplyDeleteTo get around this, there are 2 solutions: "Inspire fighter" ploys (of which I run 1) and Ammis/Rastus-playable (i.e.: 1 Lightning cost) spells of which I run 3-4. If you focus on using those cards on inspiring the 2 guards and Stormsire's own attack for his Inspire, it tends to work out better overall.
Enjoy the Cursebreakers, lots of fun.
Thanks for the detailed reply :) this is really helpful stuff and I have been leaning towards making them work without inspiring early game and getting a ploy/upgrade for inbuilt channel then casting empower.
DeleteWhich spells do you run with them? I have found it tough to cut down on some of the awesome ploys out there in favour of less exciting spell options.