Regiments and Officers and Characters Oh My! or an attempt to break down how rules are passed along and what it means for W'adrhun

So now that a little bit of time has passed to try to digest the clarification on how regimental rules are supposed to effect attached characters I thought I would try to do a write up and provide some W'adrhun specific examples.  I anticipate having to update this but we'll give it a shot.

To start with let's talk about the rules clarification.  Essentially it boils down to rules gained during list building such as those coming from officers do not effect characters attached to that regiment even if the character starts the game with the regiment.  For example a unit of Braves with a champion starts the game with a Scion of Conquest in this case because the champion bonus is applied during list building the stands of Braves gain +1 attack but the Scion stand does not.  There are exceptions for this if the bonus is specifically called out in the Officer's rules but currently for W'adrhun none are.

A slightly more complicated example is rules that effect regiments but don't actually impact characters.  Let's use a unit I really enjoy for this - A unit of Hunters with a Tracker and a Matriarch Queen.  The Tracker provides 2 rules, flank and fiend hunter.  In this case despite the Queen not getting either rule you do still get the benefit of flank.  Characters don't deploy Regiments do so having flank on the regiment is enough to allow you to use it.

Now let's look at when regimental rules DO effect characters.  Any rule gained by a regiment during the course of the game does impact attached characters.  This is what allows chants to also effect the character stand. In a more unusual example the Chieftain's Way of the Hunt 1 option provides the regiment he is attached to the Bellowing Shout draw event.  Because Character attachment to a regiment is considered an in game benefit in this case BOTH the regiment and Character will gain the special rule.  Yes that means you can activate the draw event when you draw the regiment and when you draw the character having the possibility of two bonus conquest tokens per turn.  The Predator stand would also benefit from Sureshot with its Hunt 1 option.

There are still a couple of things we don't know of in regards to rules passing to characters.  Namely how does blessed from the Cult of War Tier 3 impact a character.  Blessed is only allowed to be used once per turn and is then lost.  If a Regiment and it's attached character gain Blessed from chanting the battle cry and it is subsequently used by the character in a duel action is that also considered to have been used by the regiment?  Currently there isn't clarification on that but hopefully there will be soon.

Hopefully this helps and as always thanks for reading

-K

Starting W'adrhun - thoughts and considerations for beginning and expanding a force

     It seems as though we have had a recent influx in newer players looking at starting W'adrhun or at least being in the faction selection stage so I thought I would put down some thoughts on if W'adrhun is a good force for a newer player and how I would maybe get started

First up is how they play.  I'm going to link the section of Para-Bellum's website with a detailed how they play article HERE as I think they are generally quite good reads.  There is one for each faction in The World section of the site and they provide a good overview and some lore.  The only thing I don't like about the article is the last little section as at least at the time of this writing there aren't really sub-factions when it comes to actual rules.

To jump into my own thoughts I'd describe W'adrhun as being very different than your typical fantasy orcs.  We really aren't going to be drowning our opponents in waves of cheap bodies.  Typically W'adrhun lack high defense and resolve values but have a lot of flexibility and attack volume.  The basic W'adrhun stands do have an additional wound on average though which can be just enough to tip the dice in our favor.  I would consider W'adrhun to be of moderate skill floor with a very high skill ceiling.  Getting the most out of a W'adrhun force is often going to require good positioning and setting up beneficial trades and our Faction special rule - the War Chant mechanic - also puts some additional planning pressure on your activation deck order.  This type of force can be a little bit challenging at first but rewards experience and can be very satisfying to play.

I'm not going to dive too deeply into the War Chant mechanic here as I already have an article about it I'll link to at the bottom.  I would read through the War Chant rules in the army list once or twice first anyway.  My article is hopefully a decent supplement to those with some tips and more examples.  Getting solid chants off can be very impactful in shifting or maintaining momentum in a game so it's worth getting a decent idea of how it works.

On to some purchase considerations I think one of the biggest pros of play W'adrhun is that the internal balance is fantastic.  The vast majority of the army list is quite good and the outliers are less bad and more, in my opinion, over-costed.  This makes the long term playability of the faction excellent as you'll eventually end up with a huge variety of viable lists.  Want to play mostly Dinos?  It probably works.  Want to play big blocks of infantry?  W'adrhun can support that.  Want to play lots of ranged and mobility?  Right in the W'adrhun wheelhouse.

Are some of those archetypes going to be more efficient purely from a competitive view?  Of course there are always going to be choices that squeeze more efficiency out of a list but I think with W'adrhun you can have a real game with a large array of different builds.  At the time of this writing the one player starter sets are going to be switching to a new box.  I think both are really good starting spots for a new force.

The current box consists of 6 stands of Braves or Blooded, 6 stands of Hunters or Slingers, and one Predator character.  I don't think there is a wrong way to assemble this box although I would probably go 3 stands each of Hunters and Slingers and then decide what you want to do with the melee choices.  I have a write up specifically for Braves vs Blooded that I will also link at the bottom.

The upcoming box comes with with 3 stands each of Braves/Blooded and Hunters/Slingers and a Predator character but replaces the rest with sweet Dinosaurs.  You get 3 stands each of Hunting Pack (18 little raptors altogether!) and 3 stands of the fantastic Raptor Riders.  The update adds more variety and the dinosaur kits are excellent from a hobby perspective.  I would in this case lean towards assembling the ranged kit as Slingers as they compliment the rest very well.

Expanding from the starter box I would pick up a second character (and probably third) relatively early in my W'adrhun journey.  All of the characters are good and provide interesting warband choices but I would lean towards one of the two more support type characters as an early purchase.  Both the Matriarch Queen and the Scion of Conquest offer a lot in terms of gameplay with their support abilities.  The Queen is our source of healing and the Scion is our only spell caster.  Currently most of the Scion's warband are not released which maybe a reason to choose a Queen initially.

As far as units goes - yes you can absolutely buy and play an Apex Predator to go with a starter.  It's a fantastic kit and a great show piece model and despite being maybe a little squishy it is an elite damaging piece that compliments both starters. If you wanted more dinos you could also add to your Raptor Riders.  They work very well in a small 3 stand regiment as well as in a larger group with a character.  I would advise some caution when using them - just because they are fast and have a lot of reach doesn't mean you should just dive in.  They are wonderful on the edges as a harassment regiment early and they do fight most other lights very well.  Warbred should also be a consideration for an early purchase especially if you pick up a Queen.  They are a mainstay unit for her and like the Apex will compliment your starting force by adding some needed hitting power.

From there I think expansion can go in whichever direction you like.  I have found I always enjoy a game more when I am using models that I like and with how strong the depth is for W'adrhun I think that's a viable way to look at purchases.  I find the light regiments are all fantastic and would personally probably add more Hunters - I use them as my primary front line unit as they can do some damage from ranged and have a better than average melee punch.  If you wanted to go in a more elite direction the Chieftain and the Veterans should be available by the time this posts.  I'm not hugely fond of Veterans but they bring some extra durability and an interesting twist on the Chant mechanic with their draw event.  The Chieftain himself brings strong melee potential in a character with access to the full combat retinue and good base stats.

I should probably wrap this up before I get too deep into list building considerations which definitely deserves an article.  I've included a couple of links below with more detailed articles as well.  As always thanks for reading.

-K

For my thoughts on the chant mechanic check HERE

For Braves vs Blooded check HERE

For a release schedule and some ramblings check HERE

Adepticon 2023 release schedule updates! Hype! Rampant Speculation!

THE SUMMER CATALOGUE CAN BE FOUND HERE

Alright we have some schedule updates and some pictures out of Adepticon of upcoming Conquest releases.  Obviously I'm focused mostly on the W'adrhun but the schedule does include other factions.

The general schedule release through June has been available for some time.  The Chosen of Conquest coming in June should replace the Veteran kit that released this month with a dual kit.  They were intended to release together but it seems as though there was a small delay to work out some issues with the chosen side. 

The contents of the new starters are as listed with all the other factions being at the end

FIRST BLOOD W’adrhŭn: a squad of Hunting Pack, Blooded, Veterans and Braves, a Scion of Conquest and the Aberration. TLAOK W’adrhŭn: 12 Blooded and Slingers, 18 Hunting Pack (6 per stand), 3 Raptor Riders, and the Predator character.

July should see the release of an Artisan Series Mounted Chieftain model

Thunder Riders are slated for an August release

The Tontorr and Drum Beast will both see early preorders in September with the general release in October

Now onto the new stuff!

The chosen sculpts look awesome.  I love the beards.  Thunder riders were a surprise and the Tontorr/Drum Beast kit looks phenomenal.  We don't have release dates but we did get a little text blurb hinting at it and even more sweet dino goodness!

Yes.  Just Yes to all of that.

Lets get into the part where I make rampant speculation

The dog days of summer suggests a later in the season release so really I wouldn't be looking for these until August or September.  The text blurb about the Mounted Chieftain option is super interesting as the rules mentioned are not the rules for the Brood artefact.  This implies that we are getting a new character entry which could be really interesting.  As of right now I can't think of any characters that don't have a mainstay regiment they are allowed to join so if this is a new character entry it will almost certainly have some warband differences from the foot chieftain.

*updates* I was told this is not a new army list entry so I assume the rules listed are something of an amalgamation of the Thunder Rider rules and the Brood rules.

The other very interesting part of the blurb is the alt rider sculpts for a Scion on the Drum Beast and a Chieftain on the Tontorr.  We haven't heard anything about whether or not those are just cosmetic alternatives to the crew or if they are actual Scion/Chieftain models getting new rules.  At the moment the Scion can't even take a Drum Beast and there are no options in the faction for putting a character on either.  Personally I'm not expecting rules but good gracious would I love a character on either of the Big Boy Dinos.

*NEW UPDATES 4/2* The Chieftain and Scion mounted on the beasts will be getting rules along with a slight update to the beasts rules when they reach the table.  

*More Updates* Army lists will all be getting an update sometime around early June.  Both big dinos are getting a rework with the Tontorr losing its ranged capabilities to become a more focused offensive piece and the Drum Beast keeping its support capabilities.

As for the Dinos themselves aside from looking fire it is floating around that they will take up two Monster Bases.  You can kind of see it just from the tail length, the overhang on a single base would be brutal.  Two bases will bring with it some interesting rules clarifications and the downside that you have a big flank to protect on them.

That's all I've got today and as always thanks for reading

-K

PS if you are a fan of not Dinos (unsure why this would be but ok ;) ) I've added some images below of other stuff

Single Player Starters Dweghom: 12 Hold Warriors, Fireforged, Initiates, and Dragonslayers, and the Hold Raegh. City States: 12 Hoplites, Phalangites, and Agema, the Polemarch and 3 Minotaurs Hundred Kingdom: 12 Men at Arms and Household Guard, 3 Household Knights and Mounted Squires, and the premium Mounted Noble Lord.
Nords: 12 Trolls and Stalkers, 3 Fenr Beastpack and Ugr, and the powerful Blooded character.
Old Dominion: 12 Athanatoi, Legionairres and Praetorians, 3 Kataphractoi, and the Strategos character. Spires: 12 Bound Clones, Marksman Clones and Vanguard Clones, 3 Brute Drone Brutes, and the High Clone Executor character.

First Blood Warbands City States: 2 Hoplites Squads, a squad of Phalangites, a Minotaur, a Polemarch and the Dorylatis. Dweghom: 2 Initiates Squads, a squad of Wardens, an Inferno Automata, an Ardent Kerawagh and the Herald of Stone. Hundred Kingdoms: Gilded Legions, Hunter Cadre and Militia Bowmen, a Household Knight, a Noble Lord and the Errant Order for the Shield. Nords: Valkyries, Raiders and Huskarls, a Fenr Beast, a Skald and the Volva. Old Dominion: 2 squads of Legionairres and Moroi, a squad of Varangian Guard, a Mounted Strategos and the Optio. Spires: 2 Onslaught Drones Squads, a squad of Vanguard Clones, an Incarnate Sentinel, a Pheromancer and the Assault Preceptor.

Chanting Deep Dive Part 2: The Cult of War

For the second installment of my look at the cult chants we'll jump to War.  War seems to be a little less popular in V2 but it still provides some valuable buffs and tools.  At first glance it very much is the least glamorous of the choices.  Unlike Famine or Death it isn't really about directly enabling big plays.  The tools provided here aren't going to help you make long distances charges or sweep whole regiments off the table. War also suffers a little bit from the way defensive buffs function, the high lethality of the game in general and the typically limited defensive bulk of W'adrhun as a whole, but these are still valuable bonuses that a canny player can make great use.

Each tier of War provides two benefits.  The first tier gives +1 defense to the regiment for the remainder of the round and more importantly removes the broken status.  +1 defense isn't a bad bonus by any means but using it requires good timing.  Too late in the round and your opponent may have already attacked the target regiment and too early may just allow them to shift focus if needed.  W'adrhun also aren't often bringing high base defense to the table so most often this is more converting a mediocre score into a serviceable one.  In my opinion the real winner in tier 1 and perhaps the whole of the cult of War is the ability to remove broken before using any of the regiment's actions enabling a normal turn and potentially shifting momentum. This is especially valuable on higher cost regiments and bigger blocks where all of broken's negative effects are futher amplified by cost.

Tier 2 keeps up the defensive theme by adding +1 resolve to the regiment until the end of the round but combines it with a more offensive buff in giving Cleave 1.  Note that that is not +1 so regiments already having cleave will not receive the second benefit.  +1 resolve is another not bad defensive buff.  It has some of the same issues as the tier 1 defense bonus but the ability to shift from what is largely an army of mediocre resolve to good will certainly save some wounds and maybe keep an extra stand alive.  

Adding Cleave can be a very significant buff depending on the regiment in question. Most of our mainstay regiments forgo cleave and instead have higher volumes of poorer quality attacks.  Gaining cleave for a unit of Blooded or Raptor Riders very quickly elevates their threat to closer to the more elite hitters.  Thunder Riders also benefit from war tier 2 with their clash attacks being typically much lower quality than their impacts.  This is a unit that is already capable of dishing out a ton of wounds with the huge volumes of impacts, clash attacks, and trample hits so elevating the clash hits to merely good can create something of a terrifying hammer regiment.

The third tier benefits move away from stat bonuses to providing two otherwise unique in the faction special rules. The first is Counter-attack which inflicts a hit on your opponent for every "1" you roll on your defense rolls.  This is an interesting benefit that can help shift an engagement to be just a little bit more in your favor especially against high volume opponents.  It also combines extremely well with Blooded and the Aberration officer.  The Aberration grants lethal demise which causes hits to opponents when the regiment is wounded in melee stacked with Counter-attack you can create some legitimate headaches when trying to engage with the regiment as your opponent will likely be taking a similar number of hits back.  Unfortunately none of those hits benefit from special rules like cleave but with enough volume you will cause some wounds.

The second benefit from tier 3 War is frankly one of the best special rules in the game - Blessed.  Blessed changed a little bit in V2.  Before rolling dice during a Clash or Volley or before rolling defense dice you may opt to trigger Blessed granting you full rerolls on that action.  Blessed can be a little bit hit or miss because you have to declare before you roll and might not really need it but full rerolls during an action are an incredible buff.  Full rerolls are generally fantastic - They help reduce dice variance, aid in fishing for special ability triggers like Relentless Blows and Counter-attack and provide a reasonable increase to success chances.  If you have blessed and need an action to be successful there is little reason not to just trigger it as insurance.

Now that we've looked at what is in the chant let's look at some units that really benefit from it.  I've mentioned Blooded a couple of times already and they are an excellent candidate for War buffs as they benefit from every tier and have enough volume per stand to still be threatening if you have to use the chant to remove broken.  They are a relatively cheap unit that can really punch above their weigh with a couple of tiers of Cult of War.  Raptor Riders and Thunder Riders have also already been mentioned.  They have enough volume to really benefit from cleave.  Thunder Riders also start to have decent-ish bulk with a tier two chant pushing them to Defense 4/Resolve 4.  Chosen of War also primarily benefit from the defensive buffs going to Defense 4 + shield and Resolve 5.  

It's important to note that even with these buffs the lack of hardened means you still aren't going to shrug off the truly elite hitters in the game.  Once you start getting into cleave 3 and line breaker you should still expect to lose stands.  Be careful in how you engage with things like Dragonslayers or Varangian Guard even while fully buffed.

One of the interesting tactics with Cult of War is to use the defensive chant early when you are coming onto the table.  While regiments entering the battlefield don't contribute a token they can still chant the battle cry.  An early round entry from say Warbred can benefit from the little bit of extra defense against a lot of ranged options.

The cult of war isn't my favorite choice but it certainly has some strengths and provides a lot of utility.  If you are a player that likes to use elite units or bigger blocks there is quite a bit of value to be had using Cult of War.  When you've put a large chunk of your army points into one regiment saving a few wounds or keeping both your actions can keep a lot of points functioning on the table.  

You can also use the tier 1 chant as a tool to avoid unwanted duels.  The tier 1 benefit is also a very good reason to try to include a few conquest tokens in your list as removing broken can be an excellent use of those without necessarily having to commit to a Cult of War warband.

As always thank you for reading

-K

For my general review of chanting check HERE

For Part 1: the Cult of Death check HERE

Other notes - Even if you cannot pass a defense roll you do still attempt them allowing you to potentially trigger Counter-attack on a successful hit.

The Alton Brown Principle or Why I love Hunters

This should be a little bit of a shorter post as I'm not going to be diving overly deep into math or special rules and instead just briefly talking about Hunters and why I believe they are one of the best front lint units W'adrhun have access to and possible one of the best in the game.  The title mentions Alton Brown the creator of one of my favorite shows Good Eats in which he goes full nerd on cooking.  As the cookery happens to be my other main hobby the crossover title makes me very happy.

In numerous episodes of Good Eats Alton mentions that he has very little space or time in his kitchen for unitaskers - gadgets that are only really good for one function.  I find this principle applies as well to much of my list building.  I prefer regiments that bring flexibility for the majority of my lists.  Not every regiment can be a multitasker, sometimes there is plenty of value in just hits really hard, but the core components of almost every list I build are units that can play multiple roles for me.  Hunters in their current form are ideal for this.

An off-hand look at Hunters reveals a light regiment with decidedly average volley and medium range but also with some solid ranged special rules in armor piercing (1) and deadly shot.  A closer look shows a unit with decent mobility in March 6, 5 attacks per stand at average for W'adrhun clash 2, and access to a few powerful and interesting officers.  Oddly the only regiment in the faction with more officer access is Blooded.

The combination of base abilities and special rules access is what turns this into a core unit for me.  I tend to use them in regiments of 4 stands with an officer.  The ranged output of 4 stands is 17 barrage shots and if you can aim you are likely to kill a stand of the vast majority of non-monsters in the game.  You also present a regiment that outputs potentially 21 melee attacks.  Yes they are clash 2 and no cleave but also they are lights and we have chanting to make them pretty reliably clash 4.  21 clash 4 melee attacks is legitimately threatening to most units that want to simply run in and tie up a normal ranged unit.  

I know I said this wouldn't have a lot of math but that's something like 9 to 10 wounds into the average unit I use in my other articles in melee...for a ranged unit that can already have killed a stand at range.  It's a devastating combination that requires attention.  They are as good in combat as Braves and nearly as good as Blooded.  So we have a unit that is competent at shooting, competent at melee, on the table early allowing scenario pressure and board control and they have some specialization options from their officer choice. 

Let's take a brief look at those officer options.  The flint knapper will elevate their ranged output by guaranteeing you get your armor pierce and giving you re-rolls.  This is exceptional against Dweghom and solid against both Old Dominion and City States.  The Tracker gives you Fiend Hunter for rerolls both at ranged and in melee against brutes and monsters and flank assuring you can start on the table turn 1 to create pressure.  Finally the Skirmisher puts your mobility in line with most cavalry allowing you to further press the board and create difficult choices for opponents.

When it comes to chant options Hunters play well with all 4 chants.  Famine pushes a little bit more into an aggressive forward unit that can shoot one round and the next be making some impressively long charges and applying good output through shock.  Death and War both allow a more conservative game plan.  Death tier 1 giving a flat +1 clash is a substantial improvement the to danger Hunters pose to anything simply running at them while War 1 won't make them tanks by any means the bonus to defense can be important in an early shoot out although I wouldn't expect them to survive much.  Conquest is a little bit different but no less potent.  The 3" bonus movement at tier 1 extends their walk and shoot range from 20" to 23" allowing them to threaten regiments your opponent might have hoped were out of range.

Currently I'm using 3 regiments of them to form the front of my army.  I use a pair of 4 stand regiments with flint knappers to provide a threatening forward element that also protects my slinger regiments and more centrally a deploy a 3 stand regiment with a tracker with my Matriarch Queen.  The queen enables this regiment to score keeping me with 4 potential scoring regiments despite 5 or my 8 regiments being light and with flank I can use my single auto deploy choice on a non-character unit.  I've found liberally using flank makes it very challenging for most opponents as I will have 4 to 5 units on the table round 1 that all present ranged threats and the 2 most forward units are the stands of hunters that can also fight in melee.

I might tackle flank and positional advantage in another article in detail as it is hard to overstate how difficult it makes things for opponents when you have 5 regiments on on round 1 and all 8 by turn 3 with little to no rolling.  The consistency and volume of deployment has had substantial impact in my test games.  

This went a little longer than I had planned but I hope after reading you take a second look and Hunters as they aren't just a basic ranged unit but a versatile and powerful multitasker of a regiment that brings a number of impactful tools to any list.

-K

Chant Deep Dive part 1: Cult of Death

This series will contain an deeper look at each cult chant with a focus on use cases and comparative benefits.  Because each cult tends to bring a few special rules that don't directly effect stats I want to try to tie those rules into a dice math comparison.  For example in this article I'll be taking a look at how flawless strikes compares to just having cleave.  I think doing so helps with quick and dirty table math and managing resources. 

I opted to start the series with Death because I think it is the most user friendly of all the chants but at the same time has a bunch of special rules that benefit from more analysis.  I find death to be very user friendly in that all of the benefits it provides just kind of work.  They aren't as situation dependent as the other two primary cult chants.  Unlike famine you don't need to be making charges and unlike war you don't need to do much predicting of your opponents target selection.  If you are in combat all the benefits of death just kind of work.

Tier 1: +1 Clash

Exactly what it says on the tin this gives the regiment +1 clash.  For as simple as this is it is a very potent first benefit.  In addition to stacking with Inspired this also effects impact attacks which is relatively unusual.  The ability to get virtually any chanting unit to clash 4 through inspire + clash or a charge + clash turn is hard to underrate as it turns almost all of our units up to pretty elite accuracy.  The ability to fairly cheaply threaten a significant volume of hits even on our units that lack cleave makes running at ranged units or objective holders a much more risky proposition. 

Examples

1) An Inspire + clash action from a 3 stand unit of hunters nets an average of 8 hits with no chant.  Against our standardized Defense 3 Resolve 4 opponent that we've used previously that comes out to about 4 wounds + an additional missed resolve or two for 5 to 6 wounds and probably lifting a stand.  With Death one we jump up to 12 hits now expecting about 6 wounds and an additional 2 from resolve netting 8 wounds.  This puts us close to a situation where we can destroy 2 stands of some enemies and potentially breaking small units.  Death is a surprisingly good "defensive" chant on ranged units and objective holders because of the risk of losing multiple stands when just running at a W'adrhun unit.

2) A charge + clash action with a 3 stand group of Warbred.  Warbred let us double down on this benefit through also picking up the benefit on their impacts.  With no chant you'd expect to hit twice from impacts netting you 1 wound and then another 8 from their basic attacks and we will give them 1 bonus hit from Relentless for 9.  Our opponent is looking at 7 to 8 wounds here with cleave 2 and probably another 2 or 3 from Resolve.  We should be looking at 10 to 12ish wounds expected.  With Death because of that bonus to impacts we are looking more at 3 initial hits with 1 to 2 wounds through and possibly another from resolve.  We'll just call this 2 wounds expected.  Jumping up to 12 expected hits from making to to clash 4 on our melee attacks should net something like 14 after relentless and 12 expected wounds plus another 4 from resolve.  We go from 10 to 12ish wounds to something more like 16 to 18 wounds and breaking if not destroying many opposing regiments outright.  This also threatens to outright destroy a variety of monsters including our own Apex Predator 

The second example shows where the early chant from Death can amplify quality attacks to a large degree.  In this example we actually net more expected wounds from Death 1 than we would from Famine 1 although at the cost of charge distance.  Burnout would also stack with Death 1 getting us to clash 4 on those impacts and clash 4 + reroll 6s on the clash attacks. 

Tier 2: Flawless Strikes

Flawless strikes cause hit rolls of "1" to count your opponents defense as 0 for that attack basically forcing them to rely on their evasion.  Combined with the extra accuracy and potential rerolls we start to be a bit more threatening to a high defense unit especially with many of our unit not really bringing a lot of cleave.  This benefit is substantially greater for units that output a high volume of attacks at low cleave than it is for our cleave 2 choices but even they will benefit against anything with 4 or more Defense letting you threaten very bulky units a little bit more.

Examples

For these examples we will give our standard opponent Evasion 1.  Let's start with maybe the poster child for high output relatively low quality attacks...the humble Blooded.  A minimum regiment of Blooded pours in 19 attacks for a mere 135 pts but do so at clash 2 and no cleave Death lets us fix the quality of issues of these attacks in a hurry.  Against our standard opponent with an Inspire + Clash action we have 19 attacks resulting in 9 to 10 hits and generously 5 wounds plus 1 or 2 more from resolve.  Certainly able to threaten a stand but unlikely to pick up more than 1 of most targets.  Chanting Death 2 pulls us up to an expected 12 to 13 hits from the first tier and likely having a pair or "1"s on the dice.  Those will be saved at our opponent s evasion 1 and likely both wound.  The other 10 to 11 hits will add another 5 or so wounds resulting in 7 wounds + another 2 expected from resolve.  

We go from expecting 6 to 8 wounds to 9 to 10 making us much more threatening to a second stand.  That 2 or so extra wounds isn't just a 25%+ increase in output its important to consider the impact on opponents output.  The changes in v2 to infantry resulting in no degradation until you remove an actual stand makes the ability to threaten multiple stands much more important.

Tier 3: Deadly Blades AND Untouchable

Tier 3 gets us our final offensive output boost and our first and only defensive buff from the Cult of Death.  Deadly Blades just adds even more output on top of what we were already doing.  Let's go ahead and jump back to our tier 2 example and look at those 13 hits we were doing with deadly blades on top.  Because our opponent has evasion they actually have to roll those flawless strike attacks which actually makes this slightly more dangerous for them than if they were evasion 0 and they just automatically wounded.  13 save attempts is likely to see 2 "6"s rolled resulting in 2 extra wounds so our 7 expected wounds jumps to 9 and our opponent is likely to fail an additional resolve test at this point pushing us up to 12 wounds expected.  Definitely in the realm of removing 2 stands even of elite targets and probably earning their points back from one activation.

I'm going to jump to a different example for Untouchable because I think the best highlight for the potential of this rule is how well in synergizes with Chosen of Death.  Chosen of Death have a very unusual evasion 3 base.  They on average just save half of the incoming attacks regardless of cleave making them oddly one of the most durable choices we have but also at a huge 230 points they probably should have some survivability.

In this example we are going to look at what another elite unit actually should expect to do to them in combat.  I'm going to use the Dweghom Dragonslayers regiment because they are a fairly elite hitting unit.  Dragonslayers are clash 4 base so will inspire to get some rerolls and a minimum regiment outputs 19 attacks at cleave 3 for a surprisingly reasonable 200 pts flat.  19 attacks should be about 13 hits  and 2 "6"s to reroll lets give them both hits to make it 15.  We don't have any defense for them to cleave but we get our evasion 3 giving us 7 to 8 saves.  We will go with 7 saves and assume that of our 8 "4"s, "5"s, and "6"s we will get 3 rerolls making 2 for a total of 6 wounds through.  We are only resolve 3 so we will take another 3 wounds netting "only" 9 damage. 

The expected output here is more like 8 to 10 but the realities of not being consistently likely to kill that second stand of Chosen of Death with other elite units can be a real issue.  Chosen of Death hit very hard given the opportunity to swing back and as mentioned in the tier 2 discussion the change to infantry degradation makes it much worse in v2 to leave a stand on a wound or 2.  W'adrhun having 5 wounds per stand as the norm leads to some potentially challenging decisions when trying to decide where to put attacks and how much to devote to removing a single regiment especially when we can potentially amplify the bulk of high value targets.

Comparison of Cleave 1 vs Flawless Strikes

I wanted to look at this just as an idea of how much difference there is between the two and how to look at something like Flawless Strikes or Relentless Blows in general.  While Flawless Strikes gives comparable outcomes to Cleave 1 (we'll get there bear with me) and Relentless blows works out similarly to just having +1 clash it's worth pointing out that the reliability, or lack there of, of the special rules is likely to create much more swingy outcomes.  Over the course of thousands of rolls there wont be a lot of difference but in a single activation you could easily roll several "1"s or zero.

To do some math lets just grab that example fight from tier 2.  We had 12 hits likely netting us 2 "easy" wounds from flawless and another 5 or so from our cleaveless attacks for an expected 7ish before resolve.  Cleave 1 pushes our opponent down to saving on 1s and 2s for all 12 attacks netting us about 8 wounds.  The more attacks you make the more cleave becomes beneficial vs the special rule and as stated cleave 1 should be more consistent over the course of a game although it is also effected by other special rules such as Hardened that Flawless Strike ignores.  

If you wanted a very quick and dirty look at output estimates you could probably subtract 1 defense and then drop your expectations a wound or 2 as a placeholder for trying to math out the effect of Flawless Strikes.  In general when working with expected outputs I tend to always lean towards my models doing less work and my opponents doing more.  Preparing my rounds that way has a tendency for me to add redundancy to my plans and over the long term has been beneficial to not having a single bad activation change the course of games.  

Planning like this in W'adrhun is also a little easier as our units tend to be pretty mobile.  It's much easier to still get value out of later activations if things have gone well early in a round if your regiments have the pace to reach out to multiple targets or threaten to take an relatively distant objective.  Target flexibility when your plans change is also a side efficiency of ranged units and as mentioned about a thousand times already in this blog I currently regard all of our ranged options quite highly. 

Conclusion

To wrap this up I find Death to be the most user friendly chant as the majority of the benefits are straight-forward and apply to most combat situations in the game.  The sneaky tier 3 defensive bonus synergizes very well with the Chosen of Death unit and can be useful on a handful of other units such as Raptor Riders with their Evasion 2 and maybe Braves or Veterans with their slightly better Defense 3.  It would be my choice for learning the chant system when starting W'adrhun but also offers enough upside to use as a primary cult choice for a wide variety of lists especially when adding in a couple of sources of Conquest tokens to provide coverage.

Blooded and Braves - Examining Mainstay Infantry

 Two of the most ubiquitous regiment entries in the W'adrhun army are Blooded and Braves.  Every character except the mounted predator has the option of taking these two regiments mainstay.  On the surface both would appear to occupy a similar role as basic infantry choices with Braves being slightly cheaper at 115pts for a 3 stand regiment and Blooded running a slightly higher 135.  This article seeks to do a little bit of a more detailed look and show where both regiments have interesting and different roles in the W'adrhun force.

OVERVIEW

Looking at the entries for the two regiments both are medium infantry allowing for scoring with 5 wounds per stand and a 5" march.  Braves benefit from a shield and support (2) while Blooded have a very solid 6 attacks per stand a standout if you will amongst basic infantry choices.  Blooded also have a very generous selection of officer options including the unique choice - the Aberration and also bring Evasion 1 and an additional point in Resolve.  Braves on the other hand "benefit" from the blood lust special rule.  That special rule is one of the things that changes the way the two units can reliably be used.

BRAVES AND BLOODLUST

The Bloodlust special rule is an unusual one in that it forces a resolve test every time the regiment would take an action.  Failing this resolve test forces the regiment to charge the closest enemy it can see and if it has no valid charge targets it must march towards the closest enemy in line of sight.  The upside of this special rule is it does allow for a charge on the turn the regiment enters the battlefield an odd benefit worth keeping in mind on the rare occasion where you can get a sneaky entry charge. Because the base unit of Braves has a poor resolve of 2, it is very risky to play them as a minimum unit alone.  A canny opponent will seek to force you to charge regiments they would prefer.  With that being said let's look at things Braves do well.

Firstly Braves are an excellent cheap character escort. At 115 points and with an effective defense of 3 with their shields they do provide at least some bulk to protect a support character.  For example a Scion plus a minimum regiment of Braves only comes in at 215 points and is the cheapest way to get access to the variety of spells available to the W'adrhun.  The same is true about the Matriarch and access to her powerful healing draw event.  Both characters do a tremendous job of offsetting bloodlust as well.  Because bloodlust tests at the current highest resolve in the regiment a minimum regiment with either character will be testing on a 5 rather than a 2.

The second more reliable way to use Braves is in a larger sized regiment.  The support (2) rule and their cheap cost does make them a viable choice for a "Big Block of Braves" or BBB.  115 points and 35 pts per stand means you can put 6 stands on the table for 220 points.  This also makes them effective with character load outs meant to buff a large unit.  Typically that would be something like the Death's Gaze banner that gives you impact (2) and in a larger unit such as this the Glorious Charge netting you some decent improvements to those impact attacks.  

This load out is relatively common for good reason.  A block of 6 stands of Braves and a Character, let's use a Matriarch, will be making 14 impact attacks and if they can charge - clash this activation following up with 21 additional attacks from clash using a standard 3 wide formation.  A very decent number and not dissimilar to what Blooded will do in a similar set-up but saving 35 pts over the 6 stands. Only the attacks from the character will have an cleave value but the 35 or so attacks should be enough volume to offset that limitation against many targets.

BLOODED

Moving on to Blooded in addition to being perfectly functional in a large block, if a bit expensive, they are highly useful in smaller regiments left to their own devices.  In addition to a high number of attacks base plus access to an array of officer choices, Blooded also bring a slightly better resolve 3 and evasion 1 making them a very flexible unit.  A champion pushes them up to 7 attacks per stand- an amount well in the norms for elite infantry choices most of which would cost far more than the 150 points the Blooded will.  They can also gain access to flank and fiend hunter from a tracker letting netting you potential rerolls for a large number of attacks and more deployment control.  The Skirmisher upgrade gives them an interesting bonus to their March.  Going to base 6" march with access to the aforementioned Death's Gaze and cult of famine makes them function almost like cavalry threatening large areas with potential impact attacks.  The last officer choice is the unique Aberration.

The Aberration can only be taken in units of 5 or less (although does let you exclude characters from this count) and provides the lethal demise special rule.  This special rule essentially does one hit to the opponent's regiment for every wound they inflict to the blooded while in contact. With W'adrhun regiments having a higher than average wound total, in this case 5, this often will contribute a few additional wounds and force some interesting questions.  While their defensive stats aren't particularly good that 1 evasion does offset high cleave a little bit and that extra point of resolve makes them less reliant on a character for tests.

I mentioned using Braves as character escorts and offering a points savings in bigger regiments Blooded would be my choice for either a couple of minimum units floating around and being threatening and would also be a choice for a list that wants to flood the board with cheaper options.  135 points for a minimum regiment and being mainstay means you can get a lot of stands on the table if you so desire and have a fair bit of flexibility in how you set those stands up.  Combined with their high attacks you reach volumes of output that offset the lack of cleave and when supported by well timed chants they can inflict damage well beyond what the point cost would imply.

CONCLUSIONS

Despite sharing a basic mainstay infantry role I'd argue both Braves and Blooded have differing places within the W'adrhun force.  Both can be effective in large blocks while Braves make excellent cheap character escorts and Blooded have a high amount of attacks and solid flexibility in officers making them a regiment that can fill a variety of needs.  I would lean towards Blooded as being somewhat more user friendly on the back of not having to factor in bloodlust, but I think both have their place in various army builds.

NOTES AND CONSIDERATIONS

1. The bloodlust special rule allows you to choose to charge when you enter the battlefield you do not have to fail the resolve or anything like that. 
2. You can opt to refuse to act which would also let Braves do something like hold an objective without having to test. However, you do still contribute a token and would have to chant if there were 3 in your pool as special rules triggering before actions are still resolved.
3. If you really wanted to dive into the jank tank you could combine an Aberration with the third Tier of War.  This chant ends up netting you counter attack in addition to lethal demise potentially netting a lot of hits back into an attacking regiment.  Probably expensive and difficult to set up but interesting none the less. (Shout out to Halkbat on the conquest discord for this idea)
4. Slightly deeper on the costs of larger blocks and output - A champion on a block of Braves is still cheaper (5pts + 5pts per extra stand) than an equal number of Blooded and will typically net out to an even number of attacks. Not something I would consider for minimum units but at 6 stands it's saving enough to be worth looking at.
5. Cleave factors heavily into the value of the shield on Braves vs the evasion of the Blooded at cleave(2) they are equivalent.  Blooded also get slightly more benefit from the ways we have to improve evasion although the Scars of Endekar relic is quite costly and Conquest tier 2 isn't likely to be a super common chant both have potential value.

Hopefully you found this to be informative and helpful to your army design and as always thanks for reading

-K

P.S.

If you are new to W'adrhun and wonder how you should assemble a starter box I do think you'll end up fielding Blooded more frequently than Braves although I don't think either choice is bad - both have good value on table.