Sleboda

I have a sort of a goal to get all warbands painted before the next ones come out. With that in mind, here are my rush-job Chosen Axes in time before tomorrow.

True. That card is disturbing.

I think the aggressive players are missing out if they are not taking Earthquake. Aside from the Easy Button that it is vs Objective decks, it is also additional mass movement getting your forces closer to the enemy all at once. Pick a direction of movement where the enemy is 'up against the wall' and your whole warband gets a hex close to the fight. It's universally useful and flexible, like Shardfall. Heck combo those two to control who cannot move from Earthquake.

Read my past above. I explained the problem pretty clearly.

Goblin King is right. The problem with Earthquake and other simple to use, massive effect cards is just how simple they make it to undo a lot of careful planning. The game is 3 turns. Every single one of your 12 activations is precious. If you just spent a third of them cleverly moving onto objectives, likely using a number of your ploys along the way, and your opponent, with zero activations of his own spent, can just toss a single card out to undo your whole turn, it stinks. Really, it's half your useful activations if you are Chosen Axes, since inspiring at the end of the third turn is meaningless. Yes, you can spend several of your own ploys trying to get back into objectives, but then you are once again exhausting several resources to counter just one. Also, the Earthquake player only needs to get lucky one time to have the card in his hand. To counter it with multiple push ploys you need to get lucky multiple times in the draw. Really, it's the hard work vs. easy button aspect that stinks.

Don't forget, there is also a new ploy to heal everything as well, so shardgale for instainspire, then heal all the damage to boot. Yeah, balance has been tossed out the window. Shame, really, as the game was really good for a little while.

Great, even more ways to deny Inspire for Chosen Axes. Between that and the card that does 1 damage to all fighters, I am getting the feeling the game is in danger of jumping the shark. Is the all-damage the first ploy we have that simply just will damage fighters no matter what protection they have or what range they are at? Oh, crud, I just realized that makes Orruks even better - like they needed it. SMH

Consider yourself either lucky or a tactical genius if you are managing to inspire more than one dwarf every few games, let alone more than one per game.

I get that. Just purely jealous. If there ever were a "fix" for Chosen Axes, it would that they inspire at the end of the fighter's Activation, not the End Phase. Do that and they become tournament viable, imo.

Wow, talk about super easy Inspire conditions! Makes me jealous that Chosen Axes don't inspire when holding an objective after an Action instead of in the End Phase.

Cogfort.

I often use it just for its movement blocking ability. It's nice to create a safe area of the board.

Don't forget Tomb Kings. They came from below, too. Besties. ?

Everyone? It's such a key, useful, flexible card. I've won games with it with various warbands many times. It's on my short list of auto-includes in all decks.

Looks like one of the rumor engine images.

Because casting a specific spell requires there to be such a spell. I've not seen "Remove Air" in the game so far, but I have seen dispels. Not that I'm fussed by it. It does lead to cool models, as you say, but it seems pretty gimmicky to me as a fluff thing. Very forced.

It would be cool if it is a spell, because, you know, Nagash could wipe out their army in an instant with a simple dispel. He is, after all, a god, right?

Not that there needs to be one in a fantasy setting, but has anyone heard an explanation for how these sea creatures are flying through, and breathing in, air?

The difficulty is in the number of things that must go right for you vs. the number of things the opponent needs. You must end up with sufficient pushes to counter what the opponent has, and if he has earthquake and you don't in a given hand, or if he has the last play, you will end up uninspired. If he has multiple ways to fight you and/or had knock back, he need only tie you in a fight to bump you. Shardfall and other cards can prevent even the possibility of claiming an objective. Placing his 2 or 3 objectives out of reach means you don't inspire. The list goes on. Timing of holding the specific card you need vs the numerous ways the opponent can stop you is the problem. Fun, cool warband. Neat models. Just very hard to kick them into high gear in a game with just 3 chances (2, effectively) to make it happen.

Don't worry about the easy wins with these guys. @Spinsane is right. These guys rely on inspiring and your opponents will be able to stop it from happening with laughable ease. You'll play many games where you don't get inspired at all. I don't agree that you should avoid loading up Fjul. So far for me, that's been the only approach that produces what might pass as reasonably close to sort of a good chance to win games with enough glory to matter in games using tournament rules. You'll win a moderate number of games other ways, but usually something like 6-4 or 7-6.

I actually think both warbands having models that are not super distinctb from others of their ilk makes perfect sense. It's not like they were 90's metal super group that got trapped. They were stormcast and chaos warriors like b any others. As for poses, I am glad they are not crazy dynamic. These are not lightly armored acrobats. These are heavily armored tanks. They shouldn't by in flexi-pose mode.

New rumor engine - Cogfort or duardin mining machine. Or 40k Hellbore.

Thanks for sharing. Yourplan of getting into the enemy's territory and getting inspired is my plan as well, it's just that my opponents know this and do all the really easy little things to stop it. You played well and should be commended. Your opponents also played incredibly poorly. Give them rematches and see if they've learned anything. ☺️

I just got two more games in vs. Skaven. I was sure I was going to lose both, but my Objective Cards saved me in both games. I won the first 7-6 and the second 9-6. She killed Fjul rather easily in both games despite him having +1 Defense. I also never inspired any fighters in either game. Hungering Skaven is no joke. Consider him an additional second in command (but he comes back to life with all his stuff). My deck: Objectives Escalation, Fury of the Lodge, Ferocious Charge, Flawless Strategy, Alone in the Darkness, Bloodless, Crushing Force, Scion of Grimnir, No Remorse, Master of War, Unstoppable Advance Ploys The Earth Shakes, Distraction, Living Wall, Treasure-Lust, Sidestep, Oathsworn, Shardfall, Piercing Stare, Earthquake Upgrades Grimnir's Blessing (included by mistake - dropping), Grimnir's Fortitude, Grimnir's Speed, Activated Runes, Helpful Whispers, Sprinter, Light-Footed, Great Speed, Awakened Weapon, Shadestep Both games were played with long edges touching about half way along. First game she risked her Leader and I killed it in the first Activation on Turn 2, but Hungering with Heroslayer then killed 3 of my guys to make it close. In game two Hungering was upgraded, hitting all adjacent and killing two more (3 damage each). I won by having just the right Objective cards at just the right time.

Thanks for the input! I'vechanged the deck a ton since I posted that. Heroslayer and Not Moved, for example, are out. Shardfall is 100% of the time always in my deck. It has been very useful in all warbands for movement control and fighter protection. Stare is also still in and had saved fighters several times. Several of the cards you mentioned have also been added. I'll post my next deck version when I play again.