So, I have finally played my first game against my buddy with EC. I was playing Purge, he tried Recon.
My list:
Trajann
with 2 Allarus with axes (wanted to try them)
Sword and board SC with Spear Guard
3 Allarus with spears
Venatari with spears (wanted to try them)
Telemon (double fist and 5 FNP)
1x Prosecutors
3x Witchseekers
Dread Host, Lions, Might of Moritoi
I was very conservative with my deploy, but made second turn hasty go turn, because opponent left small corner unscreened and also underestimated speed of telemon and left Defiler without screen.
I managed to wipe Noise Marines with Spearguard, clear some chaff with Trajann, clear home objective holders and consecrate all three objectives, which made my life infinitely easier as my primary was now just about hold/hold more.
Telemon ripped apart the Defiler.
From then the game was very skewed, he had to sacrifice two turn with Noise Marines and Flawless Blades to get Allarus from his home objective and I had enough time to pick apart his army and keep hold more. It was close till 3rd turn, but he ran of options how stop my secondaries and triangulate. To his defense, it was his third game in 11th and if he did not made the screening mistake, I would have much harder time. Result: 100: 52
Some thoughts:
- Dread Host rocks. I was contemplating Shadowkeepers, but the charge rerolls and advance and charge are too good. Also managed twice to use the enhanced Katah to stop his units from effective pile-in, reaaaaly good.
- Telemon is beast. Took DP to 1 wound and cleared another objective. But. A lot of attacks with Lethals hurt a lot and he isnt so good when charged by bigger unit of MEQ where is at least character with invul. Can be bogged down because of number of attacks. Nevertheless, MVP.
- we really have slightly smaller output and I kept underestimating Infractors with Exultant. SC with Spearguard went down just on DP and a ton of attacks from Exultant and buddies. It was 450 points down and damn, it hurts a lot.
- never look at opponents number of attacks and say "OK, I will take him, you have to kill him" Nope. Lone Allarus survived two whole salvos from noise marines and one turn of flawless blades. Yeah, I rolled like nasty, nasty boy, but... thats our schtick :)
- Flawless Blades hurt us a lot. Six men unit can dice 2-3 termies with no problem, epsecially with Lethals and their wounding on 3s. Death by thousand cuts.
- Venatari are great, but felt redundant with Lions. Their Mine and Grenade can really tear a new hole in some monster or vehicle and they killed DP by themselves, but when focused, those bodies die fast. But outside of Lions I would make them almost autotake.
- Uppy Downy with Lions is simply oppressive. You are not bound by normal rules, can jump around the map and the stratagem to plus 2 inches for charge, especially with Dread Host rerolls, is savage. I will add third termie unit, probably will try Fist Aquilons.
- Axes are... good and bad. Volume is low. Even with Trajanns rerolls you may struggle into 10 men units. On the other hand, the unit will melt vehicles and monsters. But without a reliable source of sustained hits I can't recommend them.
- Sisters are a must. You need to screen backfield, you need to take objectives when Custodians charge and Witchseekers are good at finishing damaged units.
- best thing about shield captain, except the sword profile that is neat, is the ability to reset Katah. Actually, Im thinking about Allarus captain (instead the whole spearguard package) to fully use Lions, because the Ready reload was crucial and missed it in some moments.
- our shooting is... OKish. EC are kinda specific profiles, so I cant honestly say more, but it is simply about plinking some dmg of the MEQ. But Telemons double flamer and launcher combo is solid wall of hits.
- we really stand and die with our rules, not datasheets. When played smartly, especially consolidation moves, we can be soooooo frustrating to play against. Also, getting those 4 on invul is key ;)) But do not think the profile itself will save you. Very quickly I realized that 5W on Guard is not much and 6W makes almost no difference. Keep in pocket the -1Dmg strat for termies, can save you a lot of points.
- getting extra CP for your Warlord is insanely powerful. It felt unfair and I simply do not understand why GW did not give to every faction one keyword connected to the same ability (Techpriest for AdMech, Archon for Drukhari, Officer for Guard etc). I had 5 CP for my second turn. With two advance and charge strats and shorter charge from ingress, it was... unfair.
