[Wargaming] Musing on lists

After the Warmachine April Annihilation steamroller tournament that I went to down in Livingston, I've been starting to think about my lists for the upcoming Worlds Gaming Day on the 20th of May. Organised by the same pressganger, and run in conjunction with Worlds at War once more, it's going to involve a twist on the standard 2012 Steamroller tournament. Primarily a 35pt tournament, with the usual 2-list, character restriction format, the final round will be played at 50pts, with all restrictions lifted. So you can repeat character units/models from your 35pt lists, and even use a different warcaster if you want to. I'm in a few minds as to the direction that I want to go in with this, so I'm posting up some thoughts here to get them down on paper.

First, lets look at the 35pt lists.

At April Annihilation I took Skarre1 and Deneghra1 as my two warcasters, as they're the two that I'm most comfortable with. After playing the Skarre1 list in every round, I'm fairly happy with how it plays, and I'm starting to get a handle on the interactions it involves, and the activation ordering that you have to take care of. The list I took was:

     Skarre1
        - Harrower
        - Deathripper
        - Skarlock
     Full Satyxis Raiders
       - Sea Witch UA
     Satyxis Raider Captain
     Full Mechanithralls
       - Brute Thrall UA
     Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
     Withershadow Combine

I am, however, thinking about removing the Withershadow Combine. I don't feel that I got the best out of them, and I think that I could potentially make better use of the points. Part of the problem was that they're a fairly complex unit to use at maximum capacity, and I was running short on time in a lot of my rounds. Something more simple to run would be good, so I'm considering another bonejack; at 5 points a Ripjaw would fit in nicely, and give me another way to deal with heavy armour. The other option that I'm looking at is a combination of Gudrun the Wanderer, some Scrap Thralls, and an upgrade for the Deathripper to a Ripjaw. Gudrun gives me another advance deploy model to put more pressure on my opponent early on, and the Scrap Thralls give me better Ritual Sacrifice targets than taking out my Mechanithralls or Stitch Thralls.

As for the Deneghra1 list, I'm not certain about the theme force. I had fun with it when I tried it out, but having witnessed some of the style of list that I'll be up against, I'm not sure that it'll be up to scratch. An alternative direction that I'm considering for Deneghra1 is an anti-armour, heavy stealth/incorporeal list to take on Khador (and possibly Cygnar).

     Deneghra1
       - Deathripper
       - Deathripper
       - Cankerworm
    Full Bane Thralls
    Warwitch Siren
    Warwitch Siren
    Pistol Wraith
    Pistol Wraith
    Withershadow Combine
    Gorman di Wulfe
    Saxon Orrick

The combination of Parasite (Deneghra), Dark Shroud (Bane Thralls) and Rust (Gorman) puts an opposing model at -7 ARM. Add the feat on top for another -2, and everything in the army is suddenly dangerous to even a Khador heavy. With the Cankerworm's armour piercing, even the most heavily armoured opponent will be wary. The Withershadow probably fit better into this list than the Skarre1 list too, as they can potentially take advantage of the ARM debuffs to turn enemy warjacks into helljacks, and Deneghra could use the free upkeep more than Skarre1. There's no Skarlock, which makes me uneasy, but it was him or Orrick and with so much of the list having stealth or incorporeal, the Skarlock would have a big target on him. I may still reconsider the choice, as the extra spell casting might be more useful in the end than the pathfinder.

The other option that I'm considering is a Terminus list, but I've never used him before. Everything I know about how he works has been gleaned from online resources, but he seems pretty straightforward which could be a big plus point in his favour. I'm looking at something like the following:

     Terminus
       - Leviathan
       - Harrower
       - Skarlock
     Full Bane Thralls
     Withershadow Combine
     Minimum Bile Thralls

It's a fairly low model count list, but the two heavy helljacks help to screen Terminus and can pop some shots off as I advance. The Skarlock is there to cast spells for Terminus, saving his focus for armour and fuelling the helljacks. The three units all get tough from his aura, and I've got a unit to deal with armour in the Bane Thralls, and infantry/high DEF in the Bile Thralls. Obviously with the Withershadow Combine in there it would have to replace the Deneghra1 list. It would be a fun alternative, but I'm not sure how comfortable I would be with it.

Now for the 50 point lists. I'm basically looking at an upgrade to the Deneghra1 list, or a new Skarre2 list. For Deneghra1, the extra 15 points would go into adding another Deathripper for some more spell slinging angles, and getting some more bodies on the field. It keeps the basic theme by adding an incorporeal unit, but now I've got access to both pathfinder from Saxon and an extra source of ghost walk in the Skarlock.

     Deneghra1
       - Deathripper
       - Deathripper
       - Deathripper
       - Cankerworm
       - Skarlock
     Full Bane Thralls
     Warwitch Siren
     Warwitch Siren
     Pistol Wraith
     Pistol Wraith
     Withershadow Combine
     Gorman di Wulfe
     Saxon Orrick
     Full Blackbane's Ghost Raiders

The Skarre2 list runs into the same problem that my 35pt Terminus list does: lack of experience with the warcaster. I have at least run her a couple of times before, but only at a mangled metal tournament. She's the opposite of Terminus; where he's straightforward, she's definitely complex, with some finicky interactions that you need to keep an eye on and a multi-faceted, subtle spell list. My current thought process for her is tending towards advance deploy/high speed units to get right up in my opponents face right from the start.

     Skarre2
       - Deathjack
       - Cankerworm
       - Harrower
     Full Satyxis Raiders
       - Sea Witch UA
     Satyxis Raider Captain
     Gudrun the Wanderer
       - Ogrun Bokur
     Saxon Orrick
     Full Soulhunters

Anyway, those are the lists that I'm considering are the moment. Ideally I'd like to give some of them a test drive, but that looks unlikely. At best I might be able to get in a game on Vassal, but I also need to the time to finish off my home-made carrying case and get some more models painted. For that reason I have a hunch that I may end up going with the lists with which I'm more familiar.