The Necrotechs Workshop LX – OTC List Considerations
While I was thinking of doing a write up of my last tournament, they have been 5 games or longer, and its a lot of talking just to say, to absolutely no
The OTC
Going to the OTC with the Battle Driven Crew was a pretty spur of the moment decision. We’d been bandying about trying to get everyone to a single con, and it seemed that it wasn’t going to happen for a number of reasons. The OTC seemed like the perfect way, and while not really thinking it through, I agreed.
Going as Team Battle Driven is exciting, as I get to actually meet Jason for the first time, and I get to hang out with Dan and Dan. Sadly, our Champion and Hero Dan Riker won’t be able to make it with us, but we substituted Zane – a longtime listener and frequent commenter – which seems fitting. I have never played in a 5 man team tournament, the best I ever did was some 3 mans, and though they aren’t my favorite format for judging my skill as a player, they are very fun when you get to let your whole team down because you’re a potato!
The Plan
when I agreed, I’d decided I was playing Scaverous for the foreseeable future. This was prior to even the Armored Korps CID dropping, so I had lots of time to make it work. Sadly, however, over the course of the last few CID’s Scaverous’ good matchups have been fading even further than he had originally seen, and they weren’t a common occurrence, to begin with. I’d paired him with both Skarre 3 and Gaspy 3 to cover his weaknesses, but nothing really panned out. I figured that I would still take Scaverous up north, but I had no pair for it.
So, I started poking around at the problems that Scaverous has. While he does have an ARM debuff, it is not terribly efficient or applicable in most instances. The 4″ AOE is solid, but not being able to apply it to an entire unit is very painful. Additionally, while I had adapted the list to be able to punch through armor, it was making it successively weaker at other matchups that had once been a slam dunk for it.
Lastly, It looked like Scaverous time had passed, at least with this Slaughter Fleet List. Its just not able to perform on the level that I wanted to be able to against the caster and themes that have become prevalent. That is fine. Meta’s come and go, and perhaps its just not time to be using Scaverous. However, I’ve been using him for the last 10 months. What am I supposed to do!
Turns out, When your problem is high armor and painful defenses, the answer is, unsurprisingly if you read the intro, Deneghra 1. She solves so many of the problems that I’ve been encountering, and realistically she solves just problems in general. She’s a strong and fun caster that can run almost anything at almost any time and into pretty much anything without being completely on the backfoot. Additionally, it turns out that her new spell – the one they traded out scourge for – has some very applicable uses. Its a standard nuke with AOE 3 at POW 12, which is fine, and the Crit Shadowbind has a lot of potential into clumps of troops and/or unit leaders. UA’s are particularly juicy, as the crit being determined on hit allows you to not boost damage or not depending on if they are pinned in place. This is doubly true on UA’s for shield wall troops, as ensuring that they can only advance within the UA’s command range is solid control. If they kill him, also a win, especially if he has a mini-feat or granted abilities.
With Denny taking the Helm of (generally) the SFR List that I had built for Scaverous, I wanted to see what else I could build to compliment her. This part is still one I am trying to figure out. List Lock is soon, so I need to make up my mind, but I’m batting around a couple concepts.
The Pair
First and foremost, I should probably be bringing Scaverous. If I can get good matchups through the team process, then Scaverous might be a great play for me. I’ve mastered many of his tricks, and I love playing him, so it’d be good for me to go in with something I like and have mastery over. I wouldn’t want to double up on SFR, mostly because I’d be telegraphing my hand, but its probably not a terrible idea.
A Scaverous list in Dark Host has been tickling my fancy here for a while, and I’ve got a pair of ideas for the theme. The First is a fairly standard swarm of everything. A bit of Bane Riders, some Bane Knights – Especially with the new UA which I personally enjoy – and some Bane Warriors. Its a fairly typical list that drops the wraith engine for a unit of Croe’s to keep the Assassination threat alive. It has little worry about Infantry or Armor, but guns are a relative problem. Death Ward on the Knights helps, though.
The Second list with Dark Host is a Double Knights list which looks fun but is likely doubling down on things I don’t necessarily need, with two full units of Knights, a Wraith Engine and a full unit of Warriors. This would be a list I’ve not yet got a chance to test, so I’d be going in Raw. It’s not something I’m a stranger to, but probably something I’d like to avoid for a big tournament with who I have friends counting on me.
Lastly, I could simply run 9 Slayers or Skarre 3 with Denny 1 as the off list. I think 9 Slayers is in a pretty rough spot right now, with all of the medium bases backed up by colossals, and with Immortals coming to the fore. I’ve been part of the Zaadesh 2 Immortals slaughterfest, and I was not pleased.
Both of these, however, are lists that are likely to encounter common counters. They are solid, known quantities that, while very good, will force the opponents into specific lists built to encounter them, and I could have an advantage in the list selection. I’ve still not decided what the second list will be, and I’m just days away from list lock. Hopefully, I’ll settle on an off list, but Deneghra is surely making it. Currently. Indecision is such a pain…
What do you think? What type of lists should I be building to take on this meta? What is out there in the great white north? Let me know!
Until next time,
