Maelock's Feat and a Player Who Worries They May Get Bored

[PG_Snoitpo]

My girlfriend recently picked up Gators and has been loving the Maelock feat turn, using her posse to charge through lines and kill the enemy caster. She has had a lot of practice with it now and is starting to feel like it is her easy win button. Since starting up this strategy she loses seldom but we both feel that this potent tactic is putting her out of league with the growing community that is developing here.

Since not all my local players are still busy getting the basics down and I am honestly stumped about how to give her a hard fight with regularity using my models I come to the minions community to give me some advice I can pass along to those in this growing community to help make it a little easier.

The easiest answer I can think of would be heavy armor but I only appear to have about 4 Khador players in my area and it seems like the rest of them are getting the short end of the stick.

[LACK OF SUBTLETY]

For one, Warmachine has always had a steep learning curve, so new players can expect to lose for a while, that doesnt really solve the problem, but it is part of it.

Her opponents sound like they need a little guidance, perhaps from your girlfriend herself, on how to protect themselves. If the other players don't mind, she can point out obvious mistakes and bad moves so they don't walk into her trap as easily.

Also, encourage the other players to visit their faction forums on these boards and look for advice on how to battle Maelock. He is not an easy button by any means, there plenty of ways to deal with him depending on the faction. The more you get players into their communities, the better they will become.

If your girlfriend finds herself getting bored, switch casters. That will change the game entirely.

[Hoyled]

Things to do agianst Maeloks feat

1a) Block LOS to caster- Its a bit harder then blocking regular charge lanes but your opponent should be doing the same thing agianst shooty armys
1b) Keep caster 8 inches back at least- If the posse cant charge they can walk through
2) Fill up real estate around the caster- having a few models around your caster can keep down the number of posse members that can actually reach them.
3) Revive- explain to them how it changes threat lanes on the posse
4) Caster defense- Squishy support casters arent a great idea for newer players vs Maelok- high defense casters and tanky casters are more ideal to start with. Anything else they can take to raise survival chances is great. Warlocks need to camp a few extra fury when it looks like the feats coming
5) If theyve got magical melee weapons on a unit , screen the caster and important support pieces with them.

[Feral Monkey]

+ 1 to all Hoyled wrote.

and also let them play Maelok, and your girlfriend play their caster.

[ForceFields!!!]

It really depends on the army to counter Maelock but here are a few ideas:

1.) Aianna and Holt: Aianna can hand out magic weapons to any unit. making your front line hard for the gators to run threw.
2.) Tank Casters: Vyros or Butcher at armor 24 will laugh at the gators charge
3.) Reduce speed: A model with reduced speed can't charge, so Denagra using her feat or crippling grasp means no feat charge win
4.) Brick up: Having a min unit encircling your caster 1 inch out means no place for the gators to land and won't be able to use their reach attack on the caster
5.) Back Field Casters: Play a back field caster like eHaley or Harbringer. When the caster is 16 inches away it is very hard for you to reach out and touch them

These are just a few ideas that my local meta do to counter the Maelock feat turn. I use 2,3,4 alot when I play my Pigs against him

[PG_Snoitpo]

Okay, all good points. Thanks. Another reason I guess I forgot to mention was that I am running a Journeyman League at the end of this month and I had actually OKed her for the use of him in an alternate box before I had truly understood his feat. Now seeing what it does I am trying to figure out if there is another way of this working out where she could still use her favorite caster but still give the other players a chance.

The process is that I let a player suggest a box and I consider it. If I feel it isn't too unbalanced I allow it.
Her suggested list was Maelock, Blackhide Wrastler, two Bull Snappers.

I feel that everyone would have a hard time using their models to block charge lanes on her beasts/lock as she has then run through their beasts/jacks.

I plan on trying to let her play test it against multiple boxes this weekend to see how it fairs.

[Hoyled]

I dont have much experience of the feat at battle box level. Honestly I might be more worried about the armor 23 wrastler spearheading the army at the start.
Considering the list is 9 points she'll be able to add a min posse at the 15 point stage. Might be painful to those playing more standardized battleboxs.

[PG_Duckboy]

Arm23 wrastler will be a tough cookie to tame. I think the wrastler and spitter box is a better list But Hey, it would be an all melee list.

[PG_Dmark]

If someone plays Cryx, there's your counter right there. Cryx has so many defuffs and other spells that her gators won't even be able to charge. pDenny, eDenny, eGaspy and pShade all completely shuts down Maelock's feat. pShade because of his Mage Blight spell, pDenny because of Crippling Grasp and her feat, eDenny because of her feat and Wraith Walker, eGaspy because of Caustic Mist and Hellbound.

[PG_Snoitpo]

I know that the hardest counter to this is to just kill everything before Maelock gets all his stuff into position for charge but if any kill fails the caster still has an attack route.

On a related note she has decided to go with a standard Cryx box to ease the approval process. I guess this thread can revert back to the topic of Things Maelock Has Problems With.

[Fedora]

Aianna and Holt do not help against Maeloks feat for stopping the incorp. Their giving magical weapon only lasts for the turn, not round, and considering Maelok's feat is only incorp for the turn, not round, her magic weapon spell is more or less useless against Maelok anyways. However, Her harm spell and his higher pow guns are still a good idea to bring against Maelok.

And another thing to keep in mind is that thanks to Revive, pulse feats don't always work at stopping his posse (Aura's usually work just fine). I have used a Gatorman Posse, with 1 man remaining at 1 box under the effects of crippling grasp and pDenny's feat to kill her during her feat turn.

Step one, upkeep nothing, Revive two Gatormen with 1box left a piece. They were dead and not effected by her feat, so they only have crippling to worry about. One thrullg later, the original leader of the unit is dead and the two remaining gatormen are free of crippling and her feat. In this particular situation they were too close to charge her, because I revived them into her back arc for the hitting bonus, and four melee attacks with rerolls later she's dead.

One of the other great tools to use against Maelok is any RFP effects. He can't revive a model that was RFP's before it was destroyed since he can only revive 'Destoryed' models. Also, upkeep/animi hate just makes a mess of Maelok's day.

Tanky casters usually seem to be the best against him since Malediction is really his only means of boosting something's ability to damage... Which means he's within 2" of the caster and most tanky casters can probably turn around and kill him right back as long as it isn't his feat turn or he isn't stacking all his arm buffs on himself instead of a beast or unit. (I know I've done it before. Can't count the number of times people told someone they should have done 'x y and z with that stormclad and attacked Maelok directly and you would have won' when on average, assuming they hit every single time regardless of boosts, they would have struggled to even get me to use up my transfers.)

[dboeren]

First thing I'd advise is to NOT look for specific spells, feats, or special abilities to "shut it down". That's a terrible mindset to get into that will end up being a long term handicap for you if you don't shake it.

The correct way to deal with it is to apply basic principles that work with ANY models as Hoyled was talking about. Learn how to position your models to stifle an incoming threat and then you'll be able to apply what you've learned to all sorts of situations. This should be the #1 priority as it's good reusable knowledge and will improve the players confidence. If you give him advice to use some specific counter-spell he will be lost when he doesn't have that tool and ultimately it undermines his confidence as he becomes dependent on it and fearful without it. So much can be done by just adjusting where you stand - so start there. Your girlfriend should already be at least somewhat aware of what can give her problems and help demonstrate how minor adjustments to your model's positioning can make a huge difference.

[PG_Snoitpo]

It seems like the only thing slowing her down is when things get shot to death before they reach melee. However, with the ability to bring them back as undead it isn't much of a stumbling block since she has Maelock as a back up to anything until feat turn. It is understood that spells are situational tools so they should only be relied upon if the situation can be manufactured.

[MagnustheJust]

Secretly replace her Maelok with Folger's crystals and see if she notices...




Seriously though, if she's got the chops down with Maelok, have her try her moxie out with one of the other two.