Warlord TaKtiX

Long Overdue Update

khilkameth — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 19:52:00 +0000

I am going to start using this again. Yes, I am.

Clearin’ out the Tumblebleeds

khilkameth — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 17:54:00 +0000

I could have sworn that I posted here yesterday, but apparantly blogger must have eaten it. Oh well.

I’ll try and post stuff more regularly to this page from now on, what with KoHIT coming up and all.

Clearin’ out the Tumblebleeds

khilkameth — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 11:05:00 +0000

My, it has been a while since I updated this blog at all. I suppose that I really should do something about that, especially with Light & Shadow out and KoHIT approaching. But will that be worth it? Is there anyone out there actually reading this? If there is, please make yourselves known.

Friday saw a tiny four player draft of L&S take place here - this time of year means that one of the student players are in town, since the summer holidays call them home. Still, it went well enough, even if Chris and I both used Kara Wadreth as our warlord and were fighting over the available Free Kingdoms characters.

It didn’t seem to be as big a problem as it could have been; L&S is nothing if it doesn’t contain well above the usual % of characters for a set, and both of us rounded out our armies well enough. It was finding enough stuff to fill up the other half of the deck that was the problem, and I must say that I’ve never used Kara’s pitching ability half as much as I did that night.

Skrim Spindlespleen and Serolia Calix were the other warlords, the first suffering from a dismal first level character, the second a lack of spells. I myself now have an abiding hatred of Loren; not once but twice did the incompetent dolt critically fail his +8 shot at Haden Rhys, in two separate games against Chris. I wouldn’t exactly say that he cost me those games with those specific actions, but it’s good to have a scapegoat at times.

Fork Over the Destiny, Handsome

khilkameth — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 13:26:00 +0000

A Stolen Destinies reveal is coming this weekend in London, and I’m nowhere near ready.

Previously, when attempting Dragon Lord challenges, I’ve used the mighty Lord Netheryn as my champion, even if I have yet to meet with success. Following AEG’s Christmas bundle deals, I’m now adequately enough stocked with Overlords and Dragon Lords to have several attempts at taking down more DL and possibly even a cohort or two. It’s just that, without my favourite triple-classer warlord available to use, I’m going to have to think up some new schtick.

Huntress Volda does have the familiar cleric/fighter mix going on, as well as the ‘whoops, try again’ aspect if she happens to die just before finishing the opponent. Tanning Knives all the way, or something.

The Lady of Mercy, of course, has the cheese factor of amplifying the number of hits that the army can pull off, and the stunning ability is none too shabby either. May feel a bit cheap using her, though.

Then there are the myriad of possible combinations that are waiting out there in those cards, one doubtless worthy enough of a victory. It’s just finding the time and dedication to simply sit down and run through the process of working out which ones are useful. Some people have the knack of just sitting down and throwing out a deck list or concept really easily, but I’m more likely to just put it off for as long as possible.

At this rate, I may have something ready during the actual journey to the capital…

Back - and Feelin’ Mystical…

khilkameth — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 00:58:00 +0000

Hmm, been a while since I updated this. Almost two months! I’ll get better in the future, I promise. Tonight, I guess the fact that I had to slog through updating these blogs for Blogger’s new Google features (whatever they are) was kharma’s way of punishing me.

Well, I took second place in an eight-person tournament in Barnstaple on the weekend. Not the weekend just gone, but the one before. Shows just how much I’d forgotten about this here blog. Still, so long as I’m updating more often than Dyer, it’s all good…

I played Biana the Mystical, lobbing flaming death onto the heads of her enemies and racking up a pleasing number of bonus levels over the course of the event. She destroyed Etra Bloodvine in short order; what does she care if her d’Ilchant Keepers are thrown back a rank or two? That doesn’t prevent her from burning your face off, so Biana’s still happy. Druids don’t seem to have great AC or skill, particularly…

Sargok was next, and as much as a NoThRoG frontliner may hate Etra, so a spellslinger isn’t good news either. Take out the Truggs in a barrage of magic missiles and those Grudurks lurking behind them are really left twiddling their thumbs. If possible, NoThRoG seem even more vulnerable than druids…

But since I only came second, I must have lost, right? Correct. Dyer’s Tavis deck floored me, but then that’s hardly a surprise. Even with his errata, he’s still a beast of a warlord, cutting down the low-level pleebs that wizards field with no undue problems, and packing enough spells of his own to total the Astral meatshields that I threw up to hold him off. Vicious.

Still, Biana still remains as my favourite wizard warlord currently. It’s not just her escalating efficiency that appeals (although that does resemble an old Ter-Soth deck that I put together, which involved a dirty combination of Spell Mastery, Innate Ability and Magic Missiles for exponential fun), but her OPG order. Wizards in general are reliant upon their hand for dealing out damage, whereas fighters can happily still attack even without anything useful in hand. Biana can guarantee throwing out at least some offense on a critical turn, which is usually enough in most circumstances.

Here followeth the deck list:

Biana the Mystical
Acolyte Dorra
Taika the Disjoined
d’Ilchant Keeper x3

Betray Fate x3
Boil Blood x2
Fiery Bolts x3
Final Power x2
Magic Missiles x3
Retributive Strike

Acolyte Dorra
Adina x2
Alexa Genecourt x3
Ghed Carel x3
Ghed Nuri x3
Olivark the Quiet
Prewitt the Benighted x3
Xaros the Mist x3

Damothien’s Dungeon x2

Death’s Call
Figurine of Wonder x2
Living History x3
Ring of Vorn x2
Wand of Negation

Numerous

khilkameth — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 13:57:00 +0000

How many decks can one have assembled before they become too many? Now finding that I can’t fit all my Warlord decks into one Battle Box, I’m asking myself that question.

Of course, one wants a variety of decks assembled in order to prevent the possibility of boredom that inevitably arises from playing the same deck over and over again. hence why I have some decks assembled from each faction and every class. That does mean that my humble collection of rare cards is stretched somewhat thin, however; not all my clerics can have access to Sieze Life, not all my assassins can dish out a Knife After Dark, etc. This may lead to some sub-optimal decks, but so long as they’re fun, who cares? And since I still have spare Spencers and Dominy’s, I can build plenty more FreeK decks, at least…

Sure, I could swap cards in and out of different decks (indeed, my dwarf decks are forced to share the same starting line-up as I don’t have enough Warsongs for more’n one deck), but then I’d have to continually be putting cards into and out of all the different deck protectors that I have. It’s bad enough that some of my decks have to languish in my old ‘clear’ protectors rather than luxuriate in the ones with pretty pictures on the back.

Now, there are only three more decks than can fit into the BB (twelve being the number that I consider the comfortable limit of the box’s capacity), so it’s only three extras to carry around, but is that still too much? Only two days ago did I have a cull of two decks that weren’t really pointful to playing (Xiathe sniper and Brikta smash), and as time goes on I will deconstruct those that fail to perform well even after tinkering.

The number twelve was good, though; I could select which deck I would play for a game by rolling a d12. With fifteen decks, the choice becomes harder to randomise. How important is that with regards to determining a sensible number of decks to tote around? probably not quite as valid as the weight of the bag carrying all these piles of cards, right? Well, it’s not taxing my definition of ‘heavy’, so in that regard it’s fine.

Since I have no spare deck protectors left now (having bought more last Friday, admittedly), fifteen shall now be the functional maximum, new ideas forcing out old ones when they occur. The number has developed naturally, so there’s no need to arbitrarily punish some of the strange decks that I’ve put together recently.

Except that Ablung one. I don;t know what I was thinking, putting every card with ‘Shadow’ in its title into a deck and hoping that it would work…

Deverenians at Large

khilkameth — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 11:24:00 +0000

In honour of the Stolen Destinies Dev week, you’ll find a Dev-related new fiction up at the Alderac forums. Penned as it is by Jon Sherefkin, author of the Skyyrek story, I urge you all to go and read it, as it’s told with his customary flair.

Of Medusan Lords and Deverenian Destinies

khilkameth — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 16:31:00 +0000

Up at the Warlord main page, there is a chance for people to submit their own ideas for the name of the latest Medusan Lord, a rather badass NoThRoG scout. Just be mindful that the closing date has now been extended to the 21st of this month, so don’t be thinking that you’ve missed your chance!

While you’re over at the site, you can also see the images for the warlords from the forthcoming Plane of Secrets expansion. Pretty cool, eh? Combine their sweet art with the fact that they’re the first ‘off-class’ warlords for the factions for a while (by which I mean that the Deverenians get a rogue, the Dwarfs a wizard, the Elves a fighter, the Free Kingdoms a wizard and the NoThRoG a cleric - the Mercenaries’ seemingly classless beastie is another matter entirely) and you’ll begin to understand just how strange a place the Plane of Secrets is. Full of beauty and wonder, yes, but there are terrors there as well…

Third on the list of updates to the site (though not the least, by any means!) is the latest of the Stolen Destinies selections, this time for Deverenians. Who to choose? Taking into account the fact that all of you can read this time, I’m not going to reel off a list of candidates this time around. I’ll just settle for telling you who snagged my own vote.

Sir Corwin Lorath. Not terribly useful from a gameplay point of view, but his minor storyline teaming up with Maxt Stormcrow to kill the emperor needs to be concluded, no? Little lvel 1 like him will need to hijack someone’s destiny to get that achieved now, though…

Also, Sir Corwin was the piece of art that made me realise just how awesome an artist Jason Engle is. Random fact of the month.

You’ll all be noticing the name ‘Laela’ on the SD list, and wondering who she is, and why you should bother to waste your vote on her. Well, while I’m not about to spoil the surprise that the Plane of Secrets has here (I’ll leave that to someone else), you can extrapolate from her name what business she’s about; not a knight or squire, and with no noble family lineage. Hmmm…

The Temple is Down, but…

khilkameth — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 01:29:00 +0000

The Alderac Forums now feature Warlord areas alongside L5R, CoH, etc. While the Temple of Lore site may be on the fritz at the moment, there’s now somewhere new to put all your posting!

Destiny of the Seven Dwarves

khilkameth — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 14:37:00 +0000

Stolen Destinies is here. Malrog Ironface, founder of the Medusan Lord conspiracy, is going to finally have his revenge on the Lands of the Accord. His is a devious scheme, involving a perfect alignment of the moons, the Plane of Secrets and the stealing of fates.
However, all is not lost. With the voting of players of the Warlord CCG (that’s you people reading this, unless you happened upon this article randomly) characters that we’ve all come to know and love can have their destinies assured, elevated to something greater than they were before.
Faction by faction the voting has progressed, with campaigns raging for certain sides in the conflict for popularity; of 42 candidates for each group, only the 7 most popular will seize control of their destinies, with one making it to the exalted position of warlord. Oh, and fiction to go with, natch.
It’s week four now, and the Dwarfs are up for the vote. Unfortunately, 2007 has welcomed in a little downtime for the Temple of Lore forums, so I’m going to use my column here to lobby for my favoured candidate instead. Firstly, a list of those up for a chance at the big time (makes this article longer, and thus more impressive):

Aialla Truthlight
Anneal
Avalanche
Awl Beetle
Barhon Ironblade
Barrier
Bleed
Blue Jasper Gargoyle
Brawl
Brin, Pillar of Kor
Chain
Claw
Defiance
Denali Sagebound
Dirge
Dodger
Durick Havard
Edge
Envy
Fetter
Furore
Guardian
Hearth
Hymn
Ice
Limestone Gargoyle
Martyr
Memory
Roar
Rubble
Ruthless
Saul Tombcarver
Scorch
Staunch
Stonefist
Time
Trail
Traveler
Tripwire
Truth
Uthas Battleheim
Will

A shortlist of my own shall now follow. Avalanche is a Blackstone Raider: what’s not to like about that? Claw: dwarf with a bear, and a staple character of old in Mat B’s Xod deck (so long ago, now…). Dirge: He’s almost a synonym for ‘bad card’ (jockeying with Sedwin Elfhunter on that score, actually; hence why it ain’t in the dictionary just yet), but this could really be his chance to shine. Dodger: Hey, he has beet art, that should be reason enough. Edge: Badass from back in the day. Furore: One of Soren Nihil’s buddy boys. His master may be gone, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a future (I hear that Ter-Soth’s still recruiting…). Guardian: It’s pretty clear that this dude’s guaranteed a place in the seven dwarves (ha), but he is an icon of the faction, and deserves it. Saul Tombcarver: The guy carves tombs. C’mon… Stonefist: A fist made of stone, and that’s his name. Who would win if he arm-wrestled Lord Anguisant, I wonder..?
Of course, all the others have valid arguments for inclusion as well (okay, maybe not the Awl Beetle or any of the Gargoyles; who likes rocks, anyway?), but hopefully this little wonderment of mine has got y’all thinking a bit more. Voting’s open through Friday, when the next faction - fifth and penultimate - goes up to the block. Go now!
In the end, I plumped for Furore.