10 May 2010

Awesome Armies ~ Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia

I have to post it for one simple reason, at the 25point level, this army is undefeated for me with seven wins.  When I reduced the point level to 15 points it lost and when I upgraded to 35 points it lost.  25 seems to be just right.  So here it is, the list I have aptly named 'The Dire Three Way'.

Dire Three Way
Hoarluk Doomshaper, Rage of Dhunia (*6pts)
* Dire Troll Mauler (9pts)
* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)
* Mulg the Ancient (12pts)

Strengths
You will get alpha strike with this list.
Good MAT and Wild Agression = you will be hitting.
Earthborn Animu + Doomshapers Feat means you're going to be fast.
Mauler Animus coupled with the fact the the Earthborn's is built into himself means the Earthborn hits as hard a Mulg.
Goad means you can easily get to a second and/or third target if necesary, especially with Mulg.
Free animus per turn from Doomy.

Weaknesses
Low Model Count
Lots of medium based infantry (at this point level you usually don't see alot of it because most of them are pricey and the model count stays low when people bring them.
Did I mention low model count (unless we're talking Tooth & Claw)
Low Def and supremely squishy caster.
Terrain, no Axer means that Mulg and the Mauler are severly hampered by terrain even with all the extra spd buffs.

Deployment
Deployment is pretty simple actually, Earthborn takes the hardest to get to target due to his superior speed and pathfinder, line him up with it.  Mulg gets to kill the hardest to kill target and/or he will take the road with the least amount of terrain in the way.  The Mauler is the animus and transfer battery, he is the Doomy Defender unless the opportunity presents itself.  My deployment usually has the EBDT on one side of the Mauler and Mulg on the other with Doomy stuck in there somewhere.

Turn 1
Get up there, seriously you are fast so don't get your guys killed. But make sure you get into range.  Use the EBDT animus on Mauler, Mulg and Doomy. Doomy hits Mulg with Wild Aggression and the Earthborn with Refuge

Turn 2
Move up Doomy and feat, hit the Earthborn with Rage and use Rage or Elemental communion depending on what you need.  Send in the animals.  Things to remember here:
~GOAD, after you kill something if the 2" will help you then goad into something else. That and it also helps you engage things or block lanes for the next turn.
~Mulg Affinity, you can hit your last target again.
~Refuge, I usually use this to move the Earthborn towards whatever is still alive even if that means moving him out of Doomy's CTRL.  Its simple really, he is probably maxed on fury and I expect him to die so I let him go.  Mulg also usually has more than enough Fury on him to reave AND is slower and so benefits less from Refuge and is typically closer.
~Don't worry about maxing out the Earthborn and Mulg.  You will get Mulg's back and the Earthborns job is to tie stuff up and die.
~Doomy's large CTRL allows him and the Mauler to hang pretty far back so you are most likely out of range from all but the worst range attacks and most slams/charges.
~Trample Trample Trample~ Snacking + Wild Agression means that its all going to die.  Remember that things your base go over DONT get free strikes just those you pass near enough.

After this turn they should be neutered, if they do retaliate they typically don't have enough to take down both Mulg and the Earthborn.  That and Mulg and the Earthborn are up in their face so they have a hard time both taking care of them AND getting to the Mauler and Doomy.

Turn 3 
If you have a turn 3, it will most likely be a mop up job.  If they didn't manage to kill Mulg and/or the Earthborn then heal them a little and finish them off.  Primal Shock helps with dangerous mop up as does the Mauler who at this point is usually unhurt and ready to kill whatever is left.

Most of my games with this list give the Earthborn the caster kill, if not Him then Mulg does.  Almost every time it is due to goad.  Most people have a hard time giving up expensive beasts so easily.  Don't be afraid to, luck favors the agressor with this list and it is holding true for me so far.

No comments:

Post a Comment