Overall I feel good about my performance in this Scrum. I am still learning about better play with Skarre3, especially how to keep her alive. My overall record was 3-2, and my strength of schedule put me in 7th place overall. For those who may be interested, here is a link to our final results page: Final Results - May 2018 Scrum. We use conflict chamber to register our lists, and clicking on any player's name on the results page should take you to their lists in conflict chamber (there's a couple that don't work for some reason).
I believe I am improving overall as a player, but still have difficulty keeping everything in mind when I am playing out my turn. Usually there is at least one detail each turn that I just flat out miss. It might be keeping my caster safe, cycling a key buff, allocating focus, keeping a key model safe or general order of activation. For what it's worth, I did have a couple opponents who allowed me to allocate focus after it was past that point in my turn. In future games, I am going to be holding myself accountable for this and will resolve the remainder of my turn without the additional focus on my jacks. I think my post game analysis, which is partially based on a conversation with my opponent, is solid. The hardest part is keeping all those lessons learned in mind during future games.
Now that I have five games with Skarre3 under my belt, I feel pretty good about writing up some thoughts about her that are more than just theory crafting. When her final rules released, I think the general opinion was that she is good, but not top tier. I disagreed with that thought and felt she would absolutely be a top tier Cryx caster once she started getting some table time. After having a few games with her, I think the truth is actually somewhere in the middle. She's probably not quite top tier, but she's damn close.
Her spell list is very solid. While I never actually made use of dark waves, there were definitely games where I could have moved Axiara or Gerlack forward in order to get some positioning done. Draconic blessing is a solid damage buff, and if I can figure out how to use the marauders properly it will be even more valuable. Guided fire is nice, but I find it difficult to actually spend the focus to cast it because the way I was playing her I wanted dash and deceleration up all the time. From my experience, these final three spells are the three that everyone focuses on when reading her spell list. However, she is only a seven focus caster and it would take eight to cast all three. This is why I put the kraken in my list.
I decided that one of these three spells would not be able to be cast, except for feat turn. Dash and deceleration are the keys to delivering her army, so those are the two I want to always be able to cast. The kraken fits into this slot nicely. In general, turn two was my feat turn. Skarre would cast all three of these spells, which would allow the kraken to get boosted attacks on its shots for a turn. Turn three, I wanted to get the kraken into melee. Ideally, it would be behind a wall of bloodgorgers that would both be screening it and granting gang fighter. Prior to playing this list, keeping the kraken alive was always one of my biggest issues with the model. Tough, medium sized bases forming a protective bubble worked out as well as I had hoped. If the kraken could kill a couple key pieces that were able to threaten it before the bloodgorgers were cleared out, it could stand in the middle of the board with the iron mongers repairing it and dominate the rest of the game. It's a wonderful theory, and I thought it played out pretty well.
Skarre's reinforcement ability works well with the bloodgorgers, especially if you have Jussika attached. If your opponent doesn't have remove from play effects, I can see it being annoying to start chewing through tough models that can't be knocked down only to have them return to play. It was pointed out to me that while the returning models do have to forfeit their combat action, they can still benefit from vengeance and make attacks that way.
Skarre's damage potential cannot be ignored either. Dual attack plus her ram and three ranged attacks does make her a formidable threat. My biggest issue was that with ARM 19 and 26 boxes I felt like she was invincible. It really didn't help that in round one Madrak was unable to assassinate her, which only reinforced that opinion. Due to this, I was playing her far too aggressively because I wanted to make use of her guns. If I continue to play her in this list, which I probably will, I need to get used to feating on turn two, getting her shots off, and then starting to back away in turn three. If I can get that general thought process to stick in my head, I think I will start seeing much less of an issue with her getting killed.
Of course, all of this also ties into the specific list I was playing. For reference, here is the list:
[Skarre 3] Skarre, Admiral of the Black Fleet [+27] - Slaughter Fleet Raiders
- Kraken [36]
- Satyxis Blood Priestess [0(4)]
Axiara Wraithblade [0(6)]
General Gerlak Slaughterborn [0(6)]
Saxon Orrik [4]
Black Ogrun Iron Mongers [6]
Blighted Trollkin Marauders (max) [15]
Bloodgorgers (max) [15]
- Jussika Bloodtongue [5]
Bloodgorgers (max) [15]
Scharde Dirge Seers [6]
I cannot say how much I love this list. I have been accused of trying to force a kraken into my lists and I would be lying if I said that wasn't true. I paid money for the model and I want to find places to make use of it. However, I really do feel like it has a solid home here. I do believe my theory about getting solid use out of the kraken with Skarre3 is sound and I have seen it work to good effect in all five games. Gang fighter does help the fact that the kraken doesn't really hit hard enough for a colossal (prior to collecting corpses) and brings it up to and effective MAT 8. Having the option for iron mongers to boost attack rolls by another +2 is key in matchups like Madrak1 where you need to hit def 16.
The rest of the list is also fairly solid. I like the two units of bloodgorgers to surround and protect the two huge bases. The dirge seers giving eyeless sight to Skarre and the kraken are great utility. After the need for eyeless sight is gone, I need to be better about getting the unit to either be contesting / controlling zones or getting into the fight more. Their vortex clouds can potentially be really annoying, especially if it can be positioned to stack with ashen veil from the marauders.
Speaking of the marauders, they are the only unit that I didn't feel pulled their weight in every game. Its possible this is because I was playing several bad matchups for them, and more likely I am still not great at utilizing them to their maximum potential. I don't know if it's better to keep them deployed in the center so they can swing to either flank as needed, or if it could be interesting to mix them and one of the bloodgorger units to try and get the gorgers to also benefit from ashen veil. Gerlack and Axiara are critical to making the list work. I don't know how I would be able to function in this list without the tactician bubble from Axiara. That said, I really need to remember to make use of her battle plans. I also need to remember that she can use said battle plans on Skarre. Having Skarre get to reposition three inches could have been all I needed a couple of times. Gerlack's veteran leader bonus means that Skarre's lack of a MAT fixer is less of a concern. Bloodgorgers get to MAT 8 all on their own, which is plenty unless you are going against a DEF skew.
For my next games, there is really only one model I would consider changing out and that is Saxon Orrik. While I used him to grant pathfinder in almost every game, the one issue this list has is that if I am facing any kind of real ARM, the bloodgorgers just don't hit hard enough. I am going to experiment with replacing Saxon with Ragman to see if having dark shroud can potentially help overcome this issue. In theory, bloodgorgers hitting at P+S 15 sounds solid, but I am not very experienced with Ragman and don't know how reliably I am going to be able to apply dark shroud where I need it.
Slaughter fleet really came out as a solid theme. It feels like it just all works together very well and most casters can plug into it and give their own benefits. An extra two inches of deployment is always a welcome bonus, and when you add in dash the blighted trolls can be much farther up the board than most are comfortable with at the end of turn one. Gang fighter gets limited use in my list, since the kraken is my only jack. That said, the kraken really shines with that bonus. I wanted to put a unit of smog belchers in, but I don't think they have much synergy with this list since the huge bases get no benefit from their cloud wall and as long as my enemy is living the bloodgorgers actually out threat more often than would be expected. I do want to try some other casters in the theme. Specifically, I want to run Scaverous (bloodgorgers chewing through infantry and feeding him souls seems really good) and Venethrax (because I have an unreasonable love for Venethrax even though my mind tells me this is a sub par theme for him). With both of these casters, I would swap out the kraken for a more suitable battlegroup. I do have a lovely mental image of a flock of scavengers with terminal velocity charging from behind a wall of bloodgorgers, killing their target and then sprinting back to safety. That said, those plans are likely going to wait a while since I am still trying to learn and tweak the Skarre3 list more.
I know I have seen lots of conversations around the concept of the sweeper / pivot list pairing recently. I think the slaughter fleet theme can be built as either, but what I ran in this scrum was definitely a pivot. It asks a lot of small questions, while also having lots of tools for answers. Can you deal with an infantry swarm? Can you deal with tough infantry? Can you deal with no knock down tough? Can you also kill a colossal? There's a decent number of layers here, while providing solutions for cloud walls, incorporeal, infantry swarms and high ARM. The only real hole I can see is that the list does not have a good way to deal with tough outside of Gerlack. I do like this list a whole lot and plan to continue playing it in my pairing for a while.
Thanks for reading! Next week I will have a battle report for my first game with version two of this list with Ragman replacing Saxon.
I believe I am improving overall as a player, but still have difficulty keeping everything in mind when I am playing out my turn. Usually there is at least one detail each turn that I just flat out miss. It might be keeping my caster safe, cycling a key buff, allocating focus, keeping a key model safe or general order of activation. For what it's worth, I did have a couple opponents who allowed me to allocate focus after it was past that point in my turn. In future games, I am going to be holding myself accountable for this and will resolve the remainder of my turn without the additional focus on my jacks. I think my post game analysis, which is partially based on a conversation with my opponent, is solid. The hardest part is keeping all those lessons learned in mind during future games.
Now that I have five games with Skarre3 under my belt, I feel pretty good about writing up some thoughts about her that are more than just theory crafting. When her final rules released, I think the general opinion was that she is good, but not top tier. I disagreed with that thought and felt she would absolutely be a top tier Cryx caster once she started getting some table time. After having a few games with her, I think the truth is actually somewhere in the middle. She's probably not quite top tier, but she's damn close.
Her spell list is very solid. While I never actually made use of dark waves, there were definitely games where I could have moved Axiara or Gerlack forward in order to get some positioning done. Draconic blessing is a solid damage buff, and if I can figure out how to use the marauders properly it will be even more valuable. Guided fire is nice, but I find it difficult to actually spend the focus to cast it because the way I was playing her I wanted dash and deceleration up all the time. From my experience, these final three spells are the three that everyone focuses on when reading her spell list. However, she is only a seven focus caster and it would take eight to cast all three. This is why I put the kraken in my list.
I decided that one of these three spells would not be able to be cast, except for feat turn. Dash and deceleration are the keys to delivering her army, so those are the two I want to always be able to cast. The kraken fits into this slot nicely. In general, turn two was my feat turn. Skarre would cast all three of these spells, which would allow the kraken to get boosted attacks on its shots for a turn. Turn three, I wanted to get the kraken into melee. Ideally, it would be behind a wall of bloodgorgers that would both be screening it and granting gang fighter. Prior to playing this list, keeping the kraken alive was always one of my biggest issues with the model. Tough, medium sized bases forming a protective bubble worked out as well as I had hoped. If the kraken could kill a couple key pieces that were able to threaten it before the bloodgorgers were cleared out, it could stand in the middle of the board with the iron mongers repairing it and dominate the rest of the game. It's a wonderful theory, and I thought it played out pretty well.
Skarre's reinforcement ability works well with the bloodgorgers, especially if you have Jussika attached. If your opponent doesn't have remove from play effects, I can see it being annoying to start chewing through tough models that can't be knocked down only to have them return to play. It was pointed out to me that while the returning models do have to forfeit their combat action, they can still benefit from vengeance and make attacks that way.
Skarre's damage potential cannot be ignored either. Dual attack plus her ram and three ranged attacks does make her a formidable threat. My biggest issue was that with ARM 19 and 26 boxes I felt like she was invincible. It really didn't help that in round one Madrak was unable to assassinate her, which only reinforced that opinion. Due to this, I was playing her far too aggressively because I wanted to make use of her guns. If I continue to play her in this list, which I probably will, I need to get used to feating on turn two, getting her shots off, and then starting to back away in turn three. If I can get that general thought process to stick in my head, I think I will start seeing much less of an issue with her getting killed.
Of course, all of this also ties into the specific list I was playing. For reference, here is the list:
[Skarre 3] Skarre, Admiral of the Black Fleet [+27] - Slaughter Fleet Raiders
- Kraken [36]
- Satyxis Blood Priestess [0(4)]
Axiara Wraithblade [0(6)]
General Gerlak Slaughterborn [0(6)]
Saxon Orrik [4]
Black Ogrun Iron Mongers [6]
Blighted Trollkin Marauders (max) [15]
Bloodgorgers (max) [15]
- Jussika Bloodtongue [5]
Bloodgorgers (max) [15]
Scharde Dirge Seers [6]
I cannot say how much I love this list. I have been accused of trying to force a kraken into my lists and I would be lying if I said that wasn't true. I paid money for the model and I want to find places to make use of it. However, I really do feel like it has a solid home here. I do believe my theory about getting solid use out of the kraken with Skarre3 is sound and I have seen it work to good effect in all five games. Gang fighter does help the fact that the kraken doesn't really hit hard enough for a colossal (prior to collecting corpses) and brings it up to and effective MAT 8. Having the option for iron mongers to boost attack rolls by another +2 is key in matchups like Madrak1 where you need to hit def 16.
The rest of the list is also fairly solid. I like the two units of bloodgorgers to surround and protect the two huge bases. The dirge seers giving eyeless sight to Skarre and the kraken are great utility. After the need for eyeless sight is gone, I need to be better about getting the unit to either be contesting / controlling zones or getting into the fight more. Their vortex clouds can potentially be really annoying, especially if it can be positioned to stack with ashen veil from the marauders.
Speaking of the marauders, they are the only unit that I didn't feel pulled their weight in every game. Its possible this is because I was playing several bad matchups for them, and more likely I am still not great at utilizing them to their maximum potential. I don't know if it's better to keep them deployed in the center so they can swing to either flank as needed, or if it could be interesting to mix them and one of the bloodgorger units to try and get the gorgers to also benefit from ashen veil. Gerlack and Axiara are critical to making the list work. I don't know how I would be able to function in this list without the tactician bubble from Axiara. That said, I really need to remember to make use of her battle plans. I also need to remember that she can use said battle plans on Skarre. Having Skarre get to reposition three inches could have been all I needed a couple of times. Gerlack's veteran leader bonus means that Skarre's lack of a MAT fixer is less of a concern. Bloodgorgers get to MAT 8 all on their own, which is plenty unless you are going against a DEF skew.
For my next games, there is really only one model I would consider changing out and that is Saxon Orrik. While I used him to grant pathfinder in almost every game, the one issue this list has is that if I am facing any kind of real ARM, the bloodgorgers just don't hit hard enough. I am going to experiment with replacing Saxon with Ragman to see if having dark shroud can potentially help overcome this issue. In theory, bloodgorgers hitting at P+S 15 sounds solid, but I am not very experienced with Ragman and don't know how reliably I am going to be able to apply dark shroud where I need it.
Slaughter fleet really came out as a solid theme. It feels like it just all works together very well and most casters can plug into it and give their own benefits. An extra two inches of deployment is always a welcome bonus, and when you add in dash the blighted trolls can be much farther up the board than most are comfortable with at the end of turn one. Gang fighter gets limited use in my list, since the kraken is my only jack. That said, the kraken really shines with that bonus. I wanted to put a unit of smog belchers in, but I don't think they have much synergy with this list since the huge bases get no benefit from their cloud wall and as long as my enemy is living the bloodgorgers actually out threat more often than would be expected. I do want to try some other casters in the theme. Specifically, I want to run Scaverous (bloodgorgers chewing through infantry and feeding him souls seems really good) and Venethrax (because I have an unreasonable love for Venethrax even though my mind tells me this is a sub par theme for him). With both of these casters, I would swap out the kraken for a more suitable battlegroup. I do have a lovely mental image of a flock of scavengers with terminal velocity charging from behind a wall of bloodgorgers, killing their target and then sprinting back to safety. That said, those plans are likely going to wait a while since I am still trying to learn and tweak the Skarre3 list more.
I know I have seen lots of conversations around the concept of the sweeper / pivot list pairing recently. I think the slaughter fleet theme can be built as either, but what I ran in this scrum was definitely a pivot. It asks a lot of small questions, while also having lots of tools for answers. Can you deal with an infantry swarm? Can you deal with tough infantry? Can you deal with no knock down tough? Can you also kill a colossal? There's a decent number of layers here, while providing solutions for cloud walls, incorporeal, infantry swarms and high ARM. The only real hole I can see is that the list does not have a good way to deal with tough outside of Gerlack. I do like this list a whole lot and plan to continue playing it in my pairing for a while.
Thanks for reading! Next week I will have a battle report for my first game with version two of this list with Ragman replacing Saxon.
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