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sloane_paints_stuff

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Posts posted by sloane_paints_stuff

    AoS 2 - Kharadron Overlords Discussion

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    Posted

    Had my first game using KO couple weeks ago to test vs Stormcast. Very shooty list consisting of 4 units of Raptors and a ballista. Also had some evocators, liberators and a prime and deep striked most of it. This is going to be stuff you most likely already know but here's a quick recap.

    I ran:

    Mhornar

    2 khemists, 1 with earbuster, trait I cant remember

    Ironclad with last word on gatling

    Frigate

    9 riggers with 2 grapnels

    15 thunders, all with rifles

    3 x 10 ark co (6 hooks, 3 gatling) 

    The game was very shooting phase orientated. I got turn 1 and cleared out 2 units of 5 liberators, 1 from buffed thunderers, 1 from buffed riggers. Then it was all down hill from there. His shooting units showed up and out-shot my shooting, 5 evocators schooled the 9 riggers in close combat (had to charge them to tie them up and attempt an objective grab) and the ships basically deployed and sunk. He had magic and it hurt a lot. 

    Key takeaways: 

    Frigate is only good when they don't know what it does. He thought it would do damage (did 2 wounds before sinking) so focused on that and said if he'd known wouldve targeted thunderers instead. 

    We have 1 chance to do damage, which is why Mhornar is so good. Get as much as possible into range and hope your guns dont miss. As soon as they get a turn and return fire/counter charge its all over. No mw protection meant his comet just erased the arkanuats, 1-6 mortal wounds then the rest ran away. 

    Grapnels very situational, we can't go near a unit at all at any point in the move so I'd ditch them for drills or more saws.

    Ironclad is clutch. Still not worth it's points but did actually put in work. With the d3 mw footnote, the ironclad survived the turn 3 celestant prime charge and hit back killing it and protecting the back line. 

    What i'd change:

    Replace thunders with more ark co. They didnt put much work in at all despite the khemist buffing them. a 30 man unit of Ark co wouldve done a lot better (I just dont have them yet) 

    Ditch the frigate. It might be good in the battalion to one drop it all but still not that worth it, especially considering it could be another 6 riggers for same cost.

    I actually think an admiral and a navigator would be better than the 2nd khemists if it could fit. 2nd khemist buffed riggers once then they flew off and he did nothing more than buff 3 hooks, which ran away anyway haha. The admiral battleshock immune ca would actually be clutch if running more ark co, and the navigator unbind would also be nice because mws really hurt

    Ditch grapnels, 12" move is quite enough and they're too situational on terrain to be reliable now we cant fly over things

    Relying on shooting isnt good enough so I think some close combat will help. Thinking Brokk and frens

    Positives

    Fun to use for sure, I had to think very tactically and apply all I knew about deployment shenanigans to get the upper edge. Almost won on objectives till I was tabled on turn 4 lol

    Guns make them scared. He kept his heroes very close to units and behind things so never got them too involved and over committed to things like the boats because of potential threat.

    They look amazing!

    Thanks for reading :) 

    • Like 3

    AoS 2 - Kharadron Overlords Discussion

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    Posted

    16 hours ago, Badlander86 said:

    I dunno how I feel about my KO anymore. I don't like being pressured not to play ships or to triple up on Arkanaut Company with Skyhooks. I don't think that was the original design concept for what KO was supposed to be. When I see things like the Skaven 160pts Plagueclaw being able to hit and wound on 3+ with a -2 rend, and Barrage of Disease, I look at my Ironclad and think why was GW so gunshy about giving KO something similar for a 420pts model.  It's bothered me a lot recently as I get more games in against newer players or returning WHFB players playing their lists and I can't seem to edge out. I roll ******, yes but the law of averages doesn't seem to ever be in my favor.

     

     

    Yea there were some design flaws in them for sure. But I wouldn't give up! It's not unheard of for a faction to have a certain meta build at a time. Tzeentch had a time where all you played were skyfires and GW probably didnt intend for that hence the handbook changes. They want us to use a balanced list of ships so i'm hopeful we'll see some changes in times to come

    AoS 2 - Kharadron Overlords Discussion

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    Posted

    2 hours ago, Lucky Snake Eyes said:

    Hey all,

    I'm a death/chaos player looking to pick up KO down the line. The main reason I haven't yet is because of how expensive they are (no battleline in start collecting and expensive frigates/ironclad) But I do want to try building up an army over time for them. Any recommendations on where to start and what order to get things in? 

    Battleforce is definitely the way to go, i'd get one of them, 1-2 start collecting boxes, a khemist and 2 boxes of arkanauts. Then you can get an ironclad/riggers or another frigate depending on how you wanna go with the build. It's not as cheap as some other factions but certainly cheaper than some other too. Not to mention the coolest so there's that

    AoS 2 - Kharadron Overlords Discussion

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    10 hours ago, stato said:

    Ive used a unit of 10 with them in before. They are quite good but situational, which is what makes the other options better. 

    Their best performances come from screening against light units where they do not get wiped out on a charge.  As we know Arkanauts dont last, so you rely on losing some and keeping the special weapons.  So they can be used well as outlier unit, forcing the enemy to send something after them, which needs to be powerful enough to wipe in one shot or get wiped back by pokey sky spears.  Or you could use them as sacrificial advance units, rush 2 units forward to stall the enemy as they have to fight them, and hope you get to attack with the spears of one before they both get wiped out.

    I don't doubt skyhooks are the superior weapon choice, even the volleygun is probably better if buffed to hit. But i think there's a solid argument for a melee unit of arkanauts in the meta of things screaming across the table at you in lightning speed. Being able to hold your own or ward off a charge at your boat would be a handy trick up your sleeve. Being charged before you have the chance to use your skyhooks is a real possibility.

    So like you say, can screen with the melee unit and keep the ranged units behind is you need to be defensive. Or buff them with a khemist and just ruin a unit of your choice

    AoS 2 - Kharadron Overlords Discussion

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    Posted

    1 minute ago, Reuben Parker said:

    Sounds interesting especially as the unit has some ablative wounds so more chance to survive a counter attack and get to use Mhornar once per game hero phase pile in. 9 boosted pikes hitting on a swing back, then swinging in the next hero phase will be a lot of wounds.

    I also think it would surprise a lot of people to have the arkanauts come to them in combat. It could also make use of the admirals CA if you went that way and from memory there a lot of untapped melee boosts from the other skyports that might even be better than mhornar in this scenario..?

    AoS 2 - Kharadron Overlords Discussion

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    Posted

    What are we thinking of skypikes on arkanauts? I have lots left over from all the arkanauts and riggers and seems a shame to not use them. Going to be making a blob of 30 arkanauts and with 2" range, khemist, mhornar run and shoot, brok run and charge, alongside some riggers it'd be a very dangerous assault

    AoS 2 - Kharadron Overlords Discussion

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    Posted

    4 minutes ago, Reuben Parker said:

    Double post but I was at a tournament over the weekend chatting with another KO player and it got me thinking. 

    Please excuse this long post as I have been exploring a few things in my mind that I wanted to get down.

    There has been a lot of talk about how KO are bad but not really anything on the good so I wanted to deconstruct that first (the bad we know). Also as always these are just opinions from me so feel free to disagree.

    Good

    Low drop army (quite easy for one drop if wanted)

    Best ranged firepower in the game

    Best army wide rend in the game with a lot of access to -2

    Good speed and ability for board control

    Flexibility (the army isn't really tied to one unit or build)

    ----------------------

    Best units by role

    Skirmish screen - 5 man carbine thunderer unit (very underrated unit, average 4 -1 saves  per volley, do mortal wounds against chargers and can potentially flee before even swung at. Also can charge them forward in your turn then activate and retreat and run to get onto objectives deep on your opponents side.)

    Fire base - 30/40 man arkanaut unit with skyhooks, boosted by Khemist. Size is by taste 40 obviously gives more shots but is more of a eggs in one basket type unit, most people seem to feel 30 is a good balance.

    Melee - 12 man Endrinriggers boosted by Khemist. Between shooting and melee with boosted saws with average over 30 wounds past a 4+ save.

    Airship - Ironclad. Best carry capacity, save, weapons and rules.

    Hero - Khemist. Weapon boost is just too good to pass up. Now an admiral can be good for objective holding as you can give him Doughty champion and a defensive artifact if wanted when your playing a hero or wizard / artifact scoring mission (which is a KO weakness).

    ---------------------------------------------

    Personally when building for a tournament in AoS2 irrespective of the army I feel the need for at least two artifacts / wizards. This is due to TO's loving to insert those missions and nearly every tournament I go to has a round playing one of them. This means the list either has to have a battalion, be Barak-Urbaz or ally in a Incantor for SCE. 

    On the subject of battalions I don't feel any of them are that good. The best being Iron Sky Squadron mainly to allow a one drop force. This means the two best styles I perceive are either Barak-Urbaz playing zero battalion. Or Barak-Mhornar Squadron for the first turn run and re roll bubble.

    ------------------------------------------

    Putting it together I came up with the following builds.

    Barak-Urbaz

    Khemist - General Doughty Champion, Earburster

    Khemist - Thermalrider Cloak

    Khemist

    30/10/10 Arkanauts

    12 Endrinriggers

    Ironclad - Breath of Morgrim

    1980

    Barak-Mhornar

    Khemsit - General Opportunistic Privateers, Ignax Scales

    Khemist - Earburster

    30/10/10 Arkanauts

    9 Endrinriggers

    5 Thunderers

    Frigate - The last word

    Frigate - Malefic skymines

    1990 

    Personally I prefer the look of the Barak-Urbaz as can boost 6 weapons with Khemist and has the Ironclad and able to squeeze in the 12 man Endrinriggers squad.  Something I also feel is overlooked is just boosting normal pistols and cutters especially on large arkanaut squads. With both boosted each model averages 1.5 wounds and can really help vs ethereal type units.

    Great review, a breath of fresh air to see some positivity! 

    I personally think Mhornar trumps Urbaz because of the alpha strike potential being able to take out some key targets first turn, but there is a solid argument for the shenanigans of urbaz, especially in a longer drawn out game and in certain missions. 

    Also seeing a lot more big units of arkanauts which makes me think I need to get some more haha! Just going to wait to see what January errata will bring for us before I go investing in any more haha would love to see thunderers as KO battleline

    Outside of KO artefacts have we seen any other great combos of realm artefacts? I've explored them for other factions like Ironjawz and Slayers, but i'm yet to dabble into the KO interactions

    • Like 1

    AoS 2 - Kharadron Overlords Discussion

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    Posted

    17 minutes ago, Arkanaut Admiral said:

    I’ve all but abandoned ships altogether, and I just spam skyhook Arkanauts and endrinriggers.  Getting much better results, but it’s a little sad because it’s depriving them of their most fluffy aspect.

    It's really sad, i agree, that the most viable way to play them is to do just this, khemist + riggers/skyhooks. Let's be real, most of us came for the ships and then to discover the ironclad is really a tinclad and the frigate and gunhaulers are fancy flying coffins. Really wish they got a slight buff in some way. It's like thats how they wanted KO to be played but didnt let the scrolls represent that goal

    • Like 1

    AoS 2 - Kharadron Overlords Discussion

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    1 minute ago, Luzgurbel said:

    And what about the weapon of the Grundstok? Drill cannon and that 24" range or the raw power of the sky cannon? I'm afraid that nowadays 18" is not a safe range with armies like Blades, Ironjawz or daughters who can easily engage at such distance.

    I'm of the mind that no distance is a safe distance anymore so getting 1-2 shots with your cannon before it's locked in combat is good enough. The gunhauler should be your screen for other units anyway in my opinion. Use it to block people charging your frigate or squishier arkanauts etc because it has the mines

    AoS 2 - Kharadron Overlords Discussion

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    Posted

    Just now, Kramer said:

    Haha I already did all of that ?Did the first layer of the hull first, then finished crew, then the balloons, now stuck on the second layer on the hull to get it smooth and all them details, haha.
    Except what do you mean by abusing weathering?

    Ah awesome! that's most of the hard yards all done! Well on mine i used a lot of rust and verdigris on my hull and in and around all the metal bits and bobs as well as scratches and dents. It helped me to get through and finish it while still enjoying it :) 

    • Thanks 1

    AoS 2 - Kharadron Overlords Discussion

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    1 minute ago, Kramer said:

    Amazing work. 

    Glad to hear it was fun to paint. The frigat has me all worn out so I’m kind of dreading painting the ironclad. Might just heavily convert it to make it fun ;) 

    Oh its definitely a big project! My tip (if it's up your alley) is abuse some weathering. I found it kept it fun and took the pressure off such a big thing. I also did the crew seperate, the balloons too, and just tried to do as much in smaller instalments as possible. All the best mate! Its worth the effort!

    AoS 2 - Fyreslayers Discussion

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    Posted

    1 minute ago, CaptainSoup said:

    I guess that's one way of putting it, yeah lol.

    Some magic denial would be nice for dwarfs, but at the end of the day it won't make or break anything, especially with the bread and butter VBs having an awesome defense. If you had to tho you can throw in one of those new zappy Stormcasts as an ally. An expensive magic denial but one none the less.

    Like I said 40k has a very similar issue with some of their factions. Dark Angels for example are very figured out right now. There are one or two ways to build them and that's it, and its decent at best in the right hands just like Fyreslayers.

    We can hope for upcoming changes to help but realistically GW is probably happy with the way Fyreslayers are right now and unless there is a mass exodus coming for older battlestomes, then I guess poor old Fyreslayers have to take the "L" this time.

    Yea there are options if you really want to push it into magic but honestly there's not a lot that we'd want from a spell caster outside of clutch dispells. We get a lot of buffs on our own as is

    It's hopeful and probably clutching at straws but rumours abound of new tomes keep my fyre stoked haha

    It's not going to stop me finishing my 2k fyreslayers list though of course!

    AoS 2 - Fyreslayers Discussion

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    1 minute ago, CaptainSoup said:

    I can take a broad guess with an even broader brush. Fyreslayers are in a state that many factions across AoS and 40k are in right now. They've been figured out. Everything you could ever possibly do effectively with the Fyreslayers has been tried and tested and in certain tournament scenarios, found wanting. You throw as many V. Beserkers on the table as you can, back them up with some buffing heroes, and pray to Grimnir that you'll survive the coming turns with your awesome saving throws and FNPs.

    Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Fyreslayers. They are naked dwarfs with mohawks that throw axes at people one minute, then grabs another axe from their loin cloth to swing with in combat. They are awesome.

    But they are an older AoS army with a poorly written tome that has been around for a long time. Thanks to GHB they've become fairly good in the right hands, but it isn't enough. I believe in the competitive scene Fyreslayers aren't that interesting or strong enough a choice, they're bored of them.

    ...

    That or it just so happened no one who attended B&D wanted to play Fyreslayers this time. Who knows, I'm just a skeleton! Ho ho ho!

    So you think it's more a case of "its a faction you can see a mile away with no new tactics, very predictable and any competitive person would know how to counter in a tournament setting" rather than the usual "we have no magic so we're useless this meta"? Because I definitely am inclined to agree with you! I don't think on paper slayers are all that different to how we were last edition, its more just a case if you want to win a tournament (and B&G is a big deal tourny for competitive types) you'd take the more competitive factions.

    As someone who has played a fair bit of competitive games run by a smart company i'm no stranger to revolving meta to up sales and what not but oh man do I hate it! haha i'm a romantic at heart and just want to run my beloved dwarfs and not feel like i've handicapped myself by running them despite taking the most tactical list I can formulate.

    Maybe narrative is for me haha

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