Musings on Army Building:
Part 3 — Dirz
by Carl Hotchkiss
While my previous articles addressed current and future army builds, I concentrated on the two current factions, as they have been the focus of the current game. That is about to change with the upcoming release of the Creatures of Dirz book. I am very excited by this, as the addition of one more faction really opens the game to more options, and having a variety of opponents keeps a game fresh. Also, for those of you who like playing darker factions, this is the first faction to come to us from The Meanders of Darkness. No longer will The Ways of Light and The Paths of Destiny be alone.
The laboratory of Shamir has perhaps one of the better advantages of the four labs included in the book. While the Gift of the Scorpion allows each unit in the banner to roll an extra die for each Rank, the advantage of SO 150: Shamir is to gain an extra die when the gift is used. Since a lot of the creatures are large and powerful, but low in numbers, this gives them an opportunity to get extra dice rolls for some heavy hitters. I begin my first banner here.
For my first, compulsory slot, I choose a Nefarius Prime unit of one. This creature is Rank 3 which works well with the gift and advantage combo. The creature already comes with three attack dice of its own, which have incredibly high stats as it is. If the gift and advantage are used on the one attack die of its two handed weapon attack, that is five attack dice with 9 attack value and 9 strength value, plus the two attack dice from its two single handed weapons makes for seven dice in total. This attack becomes more brutal assuming it can survive a turn in hand to hand and its Master Strike ability comes into play. This allows it to add its attack to its strength value for hand-to-hand if it does not move. To help it survive, I team it with Claudia Nessalith. Claudia has Treatment M65, which gives her unit the regeneration ability, which means each time they sustain a wound, they roll a dice for each wound. On a "5" or "6" the wound is ignored. Given that the Nefarius Prime has a 10 resilience, it will be hard to wound. The Nefarius' insensitive trait also protects Claudia and itself from mystics and faithful.
For my second unit, I duplicate the first unit almost exactly, except that I now use the other incarnate from SO 150, Sykho Volesterus. He also has an ability to help protect the Nefarius he is teamed with. His supernatural companion, Zilash, allows Sykho to call the Exquisite Pain communion when he eliminates a fighter. This cannot be censured, and allows his unit to suffer one less wound on the next strength test it suffers. While these two units pack an incredible punch, I need to find a way to cover them until they get closer. I choose two identical units to move forward in front of them to provide protection. These units are both made up of 12 Clones. While the clones have decent stats, in this case they are just meat shields to protect my real hard hitters.
My final unit is a very nasty group of creatures called Phemera Alpha. Their prime ability is that they are explosive. At any time during their activation, if they are in contact with an enemy, all enemies this creature is in contact with suffer a 8 value strength test. Of course the creature dies, but since I take a unit of 16 of them, I feel it will be a fair trade as they are not expensive. Since they are fast, I use them as a reactive unit. Normally, they follow the clones until they are close enough to jet out and kill enemies. However, if I notice my opponent has any units with scout, then I will send them after the scout unit so my Nefarius units cannot be targeted early in the game.
Moving on to my second banner, I look at SO 38: Theben. This laboratory also has a very cool ability. The maximum number of fighters in creature units is increased by one, and that fighter is free. Only units with a maximum number value can benefit from this. The disadvantage actually works well as far as I can see: the standard number of fighters in all creature units of the lab of Theban is increased by one, and must be purchased as an extra fighter.
Now, Athan Zakhil is the Omnimancer of the Theban lab, and he can be taken in two different forms, his human form or his Dasyatis Prime form at which time he is called Zakhil Prime. In his human form he can join any scorpion unit, but in his Zakhil Prime form, he joins a Dasyatis Prime unit. The interesting part is that it is optional to have him satisfy the disadvantage of an extra creature, but not required. I therefore choose as my first, compulsory unit a Dasyatis Prime unit. While it normally has only one fighter, the disadvantage gives the unit a second fighter, and I add Zakhil prime as third. This gives me a very powerful core unit, whose savage and sequence abilities allow it to get bonus dice on rolls of "5" and "6" on both attack and strength tests, and whose resilience of 12 should keep them alive to use them. Since this lab has so many creature slots, I am very aggressive here with creatures. I take two full strength units of 17 Phemera Alphas. I realize this is a gamble, as they die when they blow up, but 17 in each unit provides a lot of potential firepower. Unlike the Shamir banner, this is not just a screening force for my Dasyatis unit, but a solid force to try and cripple the enemy. My final unit for this banner is 10 Crossbowmen. This is a nice solid group of ranged fighters that can provide covering fire for the Dasyatis unit, and is strong enough to defend itself in hand-to-hand.
The next banner I experiment with is from SO 78: Eclipse. This lab has a major disadvantage in that the standard and maximum number of fighters in infantry units is reduced by one, but the cost remains the same. Since three of the units may be creatures, it isn't a big deal, however, in large games, it can hurt more. The eclipse advantage is pretty handy though, as I can give any one unit in each banner the scout ability. I decide to try and make this a potent anti-archery banner, with the idea of using the scout ability to put the bulk of my forces into immediate contact.
The first unit I take for my compulsory slot is a Nefarius Prime unit of one fighter, led by Sasia Samaris. Sasia may be chosen in her regular form or as the Desert Rose. I choose the Desert Rose, as it allows her to roll more attack dice. Sasia's Feint ability prevents enemy bonus dice on attack tests, thus lowering the number of hits against her unit, and her Symbiotic attack gives her an extra die on strength tests. I also give this unit the scout ability according to the Eclipse advantage.
My second and third units are groups of four Nemesis Evolution each. These units automatically come with the scout ability, and their multiple attacks and high attack and strength values allow them to do solid damage right from the first turn. Given that my entire force may now be deployed anywhere on the board, I can engage the enemy force on the first turn. Since Sasia has a 5 authority value, she has a decent chance of going first, which allows this army to immediately attack after any archers or other important targets.
The final banner I look at here is from SO 58: Cadwallon. They have an advantage that allows you to use an ability an enemy incarnate or unit has used previously in the round. The premise I follow here is having a lot of health, and making it hard to lose health. I pick three units of Dasyatis Evolution with four creatures in each, as they have two wounds each, very strong stats, and most importantly, they can regenerate health. When they take damage, roll a six-sided die for each damage inflicted and a roll of "5" or "6" negates the damage. I also include Salias Yesod in one of these groups as my incarnate commander. Salias has Survival Instinct, which forces successes on strength tests against Salias to be rerolled. He also has a Fleshfeasting sword which inflicts an additional damage for each "6" rolled on hand-to-hand strength tests.
My fourth unit is a Scorpio war machine. This unit has only two shots, but with the Scorpion Gift, it becomes four shots. With a 7 attack value, it has a decent chance of hitting its target, and with its Isateph bolts, it gets extra strength tests for each success. Perforating shot allows it to cause more than one casualty, so its potential destructive power is great. My final unit is a full contingent of 16 Clones. They are decent fighters, but more importantly, there are a lot of them. Since they come with two biopsists, they also roll more dice. My only worry with this build is that my troops here are slow with a speed of 10, but I am hoping that is outweighed by the number of hits I can take. I am also counting on the Scorpio to take out archers.
While these banners are not ready yet, the various units here give me a heightened anticipation for upcoming releases. The book arrives very soon, and many of these releases will appear over the summer, adding much variety and energy to the current game.
Read the previous Article, Musings on Army Building: Part 2 — The Future
