Hunting Wolves 35 points, thoughts?

[SpiralingCadaver]

So, I'm looking at trying something pretty different, which, in this case means Zerkova in a T4 list. General thoughts would be great, along with responses to teh Q's I've got at the bottom.

Zerkova
-Vanguard (meat shield, pleasantly tough/mobile for cheap)
-Spriggan (best jack she has access to, in my opinion)
-Marauder (felt like a support heavy would be good)

Gorman (tier req, besides being good)
Ternion (tier req, suport)
Kayazy (full, tier req, main infantry)
-UA ('cause)

Widowmakers (seem like they'd compliment Zerkova's spells and a mostly melee force)
Koldun Lord (only 2-point option, note: cannot marshal b/c of tier requirements)



So, my two areas of indecision:
-Max kayazy, or min + eliminators?
-Marauder + KL, or one of the 9-point ranged heavies?

Thanks!

[Leprousy]

Personally I don't think zero a can run 2 heavies well. She's largely an attrition caster. Sprigging is there for assassination run, and great toolbox. One of the great things about hunting wolves is being ale to take multiple vanguards. Why not drop the marauder and take another vanguard? That leaves something like 4 points left ale eliminators, and be a point short?

[SpiralingCadaver]

Okay, the only game i've done in this theme (or with zerkova at all) was a 25 point, so I hadn't run up against that.

Yeah, dropping the KL and marauder would for the eliminators and vanguard would get me 34.

So, the next question, I guess, is, is there any use for the Marauder in this list? I was kind of holding on to it to give myself the option of a cheap heavy in this theme list (the only one under 9(8) points), but, if it isn't worth it, I'll probably be trading it off...

[Leprousy]

Sorry for my iPads autocorrect in the last post. I can't say I'm an expert on Zerkova, because I'm one of those people who picked her as my first caster, and it was before hunting wolves. I did win with her, but I also lost a lot when learning to play. I can say in terms of heavies she needs one to be target of watcher. Spriggan is perfect. It gets charged, back up taking a free strike, and hit back with a boosted hit due to reach. Beast works well also. Force blast is the other good jack spell. Something like a devastator, which is out of tier, to push things off objectives, or push them away from the caster. The only other heavy I could see is a destroyer to get some ranged support, which can shoot as its watcher attack.

The biggest problem with Zerkova is her fragility. She has to get close to use her spells, and her feat, but she's squishy. The hunting wolves goes a long way towards alleviating this with the Vanguards. I personally feel that two Vanguards and a Sprigan are really the max jacks she should run. Hel, I'd be tempted to run three Vanguards, and 2 units of if I had the models just to see what happens.

[SpiralingCadaver]

Didn't actually notice any error in the last one, but it looks like your post is missing what unit to try

Thanks for the tips! I'm confused, why

It gets charged, back up taking a free strike,

?

Not sure what that does...

[OldOneEye]

I second the idea of getting a second Vanguard in there. Double the Shield Guard means you can play Zerkova closer to the front where she needs to be. Why not trade the Marauder for a Vanguard and a Marksman?

In general, I'm okay with a Marauder in her list, but probably not until 50. It doesn't take a lot of focus support to get the best out of it, and it can hang back while the Spriggan does the heavy lifting.

Eliminators can probably wait for a bit-- with two Vanguards and a Marksman (assuming that's how you go) you've got respectable solo-sniping potential already. The additional Assassins seem more important to me.

[Leprousy]

Sorry. Two units of Kayazy.

Watcher: in order to get to Zerkova enemy jacks have to go thru the Spriggan, or beast. They charge Spriggan. Watcher is triggered. Spriggan gets free move, and moves 2" back out of enemy jacks melee and take a free strike instead of three of four boosted hits, slams, etc... Spriggan, due to reach, then gets it's free boosted attack from watcher, and can attack next turn from 2". That leaves the enemy with wasted focus on their jack. When the enemy jack reactivates it can advance triggering watcher again, or retreat, and take a free strike.

It's a good trick but is not as useful on infantry.

[SpiralingCadaver]

Thanks for the advice!

Turned out that the combination of stealth, high defense, Banishing Ward, and dispatching his two non-caster sources of AOE damage was enough to get my opponent to concede before the end of turn 2 (fastest personal record for a "victory").

I didn't get to do much with the Vanguards other than take some damage and threaten stuff a little, so I don't have a real sense of how a pair will help me, but the Eliminators, did a fantastic job, dancing around knocking down tough models.

So, while I would have preferred learning the strengths and weaknesses of my army more, I'm still happy with a success, and am starting to see how Z runs.

Also, I was thinking, would it make sense to try Vanguards paired with Koldun Lords? It seems like they'll rarely need more than one focus a turn...

(Oh, also, marksmen aren't legal in the list, only the basic Widowmakers, otherwise, I agree, that would have been good.)

[Marth]

Welcome to the Hunting Wolves!

I've run nearly the exact same list as you do, that is a tad to the heavy side, and I found it to work out quite nicely. I've been meaning to do a build with more Assassins (3x Eliminators in particular) and see how that pans out, though.

That being said, double Vanguards & Spriggy is very viable, and you actually want Tier 4.