9. NOVA Open 2017 - Elara Two Debut!

I took the opportunity to do a last minute stress test on my WTC lists at NOVA this year.  Got lots of great games in against lots of great dudes.  With Templecon dead and gone, NOVA Open is quickly rising to the challenge and growing into one of the best events on the East Coast.
Lists I ran throughout the weekend:
Vyros2 - Forges of War
- Helios
- Imperatus
- Griffon x4
- Aspis
Shyeel Mechaniks
- Soulless
Arcanist Mechanik x2
Shyeel Magister
Elara2 - Defenders of Ios
- Banshee
- Phoenix
Halberdiers x3
- UA
- Soulless
AFG
Houseguard Thane x2
Rahn - Forges of War
- Helios
- Manticore
- Discordia
- Chimera x2
- Sylys
Arcanist Mechanik
Shyeel Arcanists
Shyeel Mages
Shyeel Magister x2
Vyros2 has been previously discussed and there wasn’t much new based on my matches over the weekend.  What surprised me most was how little I wanted to drop this list.  This is mostly based on the matchups I was seeing across the table, but also a result of how strong Elara2 felt.  Vyros2 exists to fight Cygnar, Khador, and a fair bit of Hordes, but felt like Grymkin would be an uphill battle.  There were LOADS of Grymkin crawling all over the con and man were they a pain to play against.
This was the first major stress test of my Elara2 build with all the Halberdiers forever.  3 units feels like just the right number, and I was thrilled with the changes I made to my battlegroup.  Having the two heavies over Hyperion made it harder for my opponent to deal with the little armor I brought, and allowed me to really divide my forces and be everywhere at once.  Typically you want to hard flank with each of the heavies on a difference side, and crash in on feat turn with ~2 units of Halberdiers with the third in reserve to get you through the late game.  When opponents got caught off guard by the speed of the list, you can charge in with all three and really wipe them off the table.
Elara2 felt especially strong into Grymkin as I have multiple answers to the Gremlin Swarms and can threaten their Battle Engine from very early on.  Their mini feat and ability to CRA match up really well vs Grymkin warbeasts’ statlines, and the extreme speed keeps you out of Pandemonium range.  Elara2 herself can get some serious work done in the late game which translates into an incredibly strong scenario list.
Defenders of Ios is a fairly flexible list that can be run by most of the warcasters in our faction, but Elara2 stands out above the rest with a balanced spell kit and strong personal presence.  The list presents a brutal alpha strike, solves for incorporeal, solves for armor, solves for high defense, and sets the line of engagement comfortably in your opponent’s deployment zone so that you can pick up a scenario win.
That being said, it’s not quite the plug and play list that Butcher2’s old Doomreaver spam was.  Some of the drawbacks:
- Very clock intensive.  All of your units are fragile and can reform afterwards, plus you’ve got a decent amount of ranged support so where you point those halberds really matters!
- Time intensive.  To compound your clock issues, this list sets up for the long grind.  I had multiple games this weekend end on turn 6 or 7.  You need to play the whole game, round after round, which can be mentally taxing if you’re not used to it.
- Expensive.  Do you REALLY need 3 units of Halberdiers….?  Yes!
- Fragile.  Your Halberdiers are going to melt off the table.  No tough rolls, no stealth, nothing to save them.  People are going to see your drop coming from a mile away and do their best to prepare for it.  Even with 3 units, you’ll run out of them eventually….  Often times you’ll need to plan 2-3 turns in advance to make sure you’re ready with the late game cleanup.

The list is fun as hell to play despite being a bit on the spammy side.  I’ve always been a bit of a speed freak in Warmachine and this list cranks it up to a whole new level.  Until we get more themes to round out our choices, I would expect to see more and more Halberdiers creeping into lists.  Elara2 definitely runs them the best, but honorable mention goes to Issyria and Ossyan if you’re looking to max out your threat ranges.  In Champions I played a really strong Thyron list that nearly won me the tournament, but we can talk about that another time ;)

Comments

  1. SeBM7 September 2017 at 05:59

    Did you end up playing the Rahn list? What would be the good match ups for it?

    Also, on Elara2, would you consider anything but triple halberdiers?

    Lastly, how do you feel about so much Shadows of the Retribution lists for the WTC?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Mike Ireland8 September 2017 at 01:44

      I played the Rahn list once vs Cygnar. It works well into most things that can't clear off Polarity Shield. Troops swarms is a little bit scary, but manageable as long as you can stay ahead on scenario. It's a super low model count list, so it's very tricky to play, but rewarding once you get the hang of it.

      For Elara2, anything other than triple Halberdiers is going to be a complete list re-write. Double Halberdiers is sorta in that sweet spot where your opponent is going to be able to deal with all of them before the game is over. Three units tips it over the edge in everything but extreme situations which is one of the main strengths of the list.

      Shadows of the Retribution being so prevalent feels like an echo of mk2 Will of the Nine Voices. It's an alright list, but far from meta-bending and certainly not one of the strongest lists in the faction at the moment. Feels more like a knee jerk or echo chamber rather than a genuinely over powering list. I would expect it to struggle in a format like the WTC since it absolutely falls over to any amount of blast damage or troop clearing lists. It's very one dimensional and you'll likely see it do poorly once the post-WTC statistics come out. Get ready for the QQ.

      Delete
    2. Dirhavel10 September 2017 at 03:34

      Regarding the prevalence of Shadows lists, I'm pretty sure it's been mostly taken just as a dedicated Cryx drop. Issyria shadows in particular has good game into ghost fleet and dark host, so I think that makes sense for a team tournament.

      Shadows lists have too many weaknesses against the rest of the field though, so I agree it's probably not gonna be too relevant in solo tournaments unless you expect a whole lot of Cryx and maybe Grymkin.

      Delete

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