Bastions and the Seneschal
This one stood out for me and is why I decided to keep spewing spurious bullshit. There are 23 units of Bastions and only one Seneschal. This seems weird to me.
Where are the Bastions?
There are two units in a Vindictus list which I have mentioned that I don't like because of the skornergy with the feat. That might just be me though, I'm working on super secret Vindictus tech.
12 units are in High Reclaimer lists. This is no great shock. You can bring them back on full health which is good. Plus they can charge on that turn and put a blessed weaponmaster attack into something you don't like the look of. 4 lists are double Bastions, 4 lists are single Bastions. There are 8 total high Reclaimer lists so no one is taking him without Bastions.
Next there are 3 Harbinger lists with double Bastions. There is the obvious synergy with martyrdom and the Bastion ability to share damage when you can heal with the Seneschal as well and this is where we see the one lonely Seneschal at the WTC. It's in Denmark Red, for those following Big Deno's twitter that's the Denmark team that isn't mad at him. Here is the list:
Harbinger 1
Harbinger -5
Devout +5
Hierophant +2
Vessel of Judgement +9
Exemplar Bastions (max) +8
Exemplar Bastions (max) +8
Exemplar Errants (max) +8
Exemplar Errant UA +2
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt +4
Exemplar Bastion Seneschal +3
Rhupert Carvolo +2
The Covenant of Menoth +2
The Wrack +1
Vassal Mechanik +1
No jacks on Harbinger for max camping/healing, devout for spell imunity, Rhupert and the Book, Heirophant and wracks. Bastions add ARM cracking to the list. It's a strong attrition list and I like it.
Last but not least (that honour goes to Vindictus) there are two Kreoss2 theme forces with Bastions. One with double Bastions and one with a single unit. I don't really like either of them (sorry Kreoss2 players). Both lists have Errants to help with the lack of pathfinder in the list and one list has Vengers but they are a min unit. Not a fan of min Vengers (they are alright I guess but I like to be able to trigger battle driven).
Next Raeks, also a second mention of Deno as I want to quote him on Raeks - "Fucking Def16 raeks. Bullshit"
There are 24 Raeks.
Thagrosh2 9 (two singles, two doubles and a triple)
Saeryn 7 (all single)
Lylyth2 1
Vayl2 6 (3 doubles)
Thagrosh1 1
Single 11
Doubles 5
Tripple1
The double Raek in Vayl2 lists generally takes the place of a unit of infantry. They are very difficult to get through being DEF 16 and stealth and they have massive threat range, reach and the ability to jump and knockdown is incredible for assassinations. Jump is also amazing just for killing key solos. In Thagrosh2 there are a couple of benefits in addition to what they normally do. First they are amazing with Manifest Destiny, they can get to silly positions with the feat, and parry (the Raek animus) is really good on Thagrosh himself as he has flight. They ability to fly over things without taking free strikes can really open up what he can do late game. Raeks are sweet and more people should play them.
Horgle Ironstrike - There are 3 Horgles. All with a Slag Troll. One in Grim1 and two in Grim2. I really like Horgle in Grim2 and he is in every Grim2 list. Free snipe and plus 2 to hit on the Slag Troll is pretty amazing. I want to highlight another list this one from Italy Blue:
Grim 2 -4
Troll Impaler +5
Dire Troll Bomber +10
Runebearer +2
Krielstone (max) +4
Stone Scribe Elder +1
Pyg Burrowers (max) +6
Scattergunners (max) +8
Scattergunner UA +2
Horgle Ironstrike +3
Slag Troll +6
Dahlia & Skarath +9
Honestly I don't even know what Dahlia is doing here but I'm excited about it. (She might be good against Butcher3 but she has additional synergies with Grim1 which is why she's good in that list).
There are two Zaadeshs in the WTC. One is in a Makeda2 list, he has an archidon and there is a willbreaker in the list. This looks to me to be a straight up assassination thing but it could be a way to spam sprint (seems a bit expensive/risky for that). Molik Karn is in the list too.
The other is in a Morghoul1 list.
Morghoul 1 -7
Basilisk Krea +4
Molik Karn +11
Titan Gladiator +8
Cataphract Incindiarii (min) +6
Paingiver Beast Handlers (min) +2
Paingiver Beast Handlers (min) +2
Swamp Gobbers +1
Agonizer +2
Orin Midwinter +2
Tyrant Zaadesh +3
Cyclops Shaman +5
Tiberion +11
I like it. It's super risky to have so many points on him and there is no willbreaker but you can put abuse on Tiberion and with tag team and rush he is much faster than people will expect and hits rather ludicrously hard. Then there is an agoniser behind him and he's probably in a Krea bubble and maybe Morghoul's feat is up there is also a swamp gobber cloud (but Morghoul should probably have some of the defensive tech in the list). Also this looks like double Butcher tech. You can't pull in Tibbers and you have Orin Midwinter.
There are two Thrullgs but they are both in Barnabus lists so I'm going to skip over them.
There are 6 Blackfrost Shards. Two Thagrosh1s, two Saeryns, 1 Bethayne and one Vayl2. The two Thagrosh lists are designed to really crank the damage, in Saeryn it's not so much to crank the damage to 11 as to just deal with some of the things legion can struggle with (like agonisers behind Tiberion). Bethayne has the feat synergy and Vayl has some interesting synergies with them. I played a fair amount of the blackfrost shard with Vayl2 and the list is double Angel Scythean (though with a Seraph instead of two Ravagores like I played).
Vayl 2 -6
Angelius +9
Angelius +9
Ravagore +10
Scythean +9
Seraph +8
Blackfrost Shard +5
Blighted Nyss Legionnaires (max) +6
Spawning Vessel (max) +3
Shepherd +1
Shepherd +1
They really turn on the Seraph, if you hit with an ice cage, a kiss and use the last guy to make the unit stealth the Seraph becomes RAT 7 POW 14 with Strafe. Roll 4 shots and it might blow a heavy off the table by itself. Even two shots will hurt. Other than the Seraph the BFS does interesting things with Vayl. A lot of her damage output comes from Angels and while kiss does the less for Angels than any other beast it is model/unit which really cranks up the blast damage from her obliterates. You can also stack Ice Cage and Icy Grip, you boost Icy Grip first, then the BFS are essentially magic ability 9, if you land the ice cage then the model with kiss is essentially magic ability 11 and much more likely to hit. -4 DEF and -2 ARM is usually a death sentence for most things. Lastly if you keep them alive your Ravagore (with my list Ravagores) becomes a melee threat if your opponent closes. MAT 5 P+S 16 is kind of mopey but MAT 7 P+S 18 with two initials and 4 fury will kill an average heavy. I ended up moving away from the BFS because I struggled to keep them alive after one turn of affecting the game but Petr Cermak of the Czech Republic is probably better than me.
Next Nephilim. Not the Bolt Throwers, the shit ones. There are two other Nephilim a Blood Seer and a Protector. The Blood Seer is in a Saeryn list with two Angels most likely acting as a cut price repulsion. The other is a Protector in Omnus' Absylonia2 list. I have not played her (I'm on a Menoth kick at the moment) but I think the Protector is a smart choice, it can prevent knockdown and shield guard her which helps her get forwards safely to trigger conferred rage.
Request for Theme Force Data.
So question 1 is anyone running Vayl2 out of theme?
Answer - No. So that's 25 theme forces right there. All tier 4.
There are 94 theme forces in total out of 520 lists. It's about 18%. Lets look at the other big theme forces though.
The other casters being played by multiple people with a 100% theme force record are:
Rasheth. with 5/5 Rasheth players playing his theme force. For those of you hoping against hope that this is the Siege Animantarax theme force, I'm sorry to burst your bubble. It's Tier 4 all chain gang all the way.
Syntherion - again 5/5 and all tier 4.
Goreshade 2. 4/4 All theme force. Two at tier 2 and Two at tier 3 (the difference is the withershadow combine and the benefit is to redeploy your warjacks).
Kreoss2. Only 2 lists but both are tier 4.
2/2 Kaelyssa players are playing the new theme force which does not allow you to run or charge turn 1 and has a bajillion arcanists. Both Tier 4.
And the only one that surprises me - Both Kaya2 players are in theme. They both picked different theme forces too but both went to Tier 4.
And then close but no cigar are:
Butcher 2 - Different from previous mentions the tier varies, everyone is at least tier 2 with 5 tier 3s and a tier 4. Out of 8 lists there is 1 player who isn't running Doom Reaver spam. He is Liang Yan from Team China.
Butcher 2
Butcher 2 -6
Juggernaut +7
Sylys Wyshnalyrr +2
Doom Reavers +6
Greylord Escort +2
Iron Fang Pikemen (max) +8
Black Dragon UA +2
Widowmakers +4
Eiryss 2 +3
Iron Fang Kovnik +2
Kovnik Andrei Malakov +3
Beast-09 +11
Man-O-War Drakhun (no mount) +4
Saxon Orrik +2
I'm not sure I like it. Don't get me wrong I love Butcher2. Beast 09 with Malakov means he gets the extra speed whether or not Butcher kills something in melee but it also means he doesn't get the hit buff (which carries over into the feat attacks) and unlike conferred rage you can't stack Redline and Rage. You do however always get enough focus to give Beast a full allocation though. I like the rest of the list.
Xerxis1 - Once again only 1 player has bucked the trend and played this caster out of theme (out of 12 total lists)
Mike O'Brien (Captain) Skorne
Xerxis 1
Xerxis 1 -5
Aptimus Marketh +3
Tiberion +11
Basilisk Krea +4
Paingiver Task Master +2
Agonizer +2
Cataphract Cetrati (max) +11
Cataphract Incindiarii (max) +9
Gatorman Posse (max) +9
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer +3
Swamp Gobbers +1
I don't think it's worth breaking theme for the changes. Unlike Butcher2 every list is tier 2. You guys are all missing out on sweet advance deploy Reiver Catapults.
Doomshaper1 - Again one brave soul (out of 6) is running him out of theme. The rest are tier 4.
Hoarluk 1 -7
Troll Axer +6
Earthborn Dire Troll +10
Mulg The Ancient +12
Runebearer +2
Krielstone (min) +3
Stone Scribe Elder +1
Sons of Bragg +6
Trollkin Warders (max) +8
Fell Caller Hero +3
Janissa Stonetide +3
Whelps +2
Sorcerer +1
Warders are nice. Sons of Bragg are nice. Is it worth it? Evidently some French guy thinks so.
There is one Stryker2 theme force (out of 2 lists), Tier 2. 100% of the one Constance Blaize lists are in theme, Tier 4.
There are 3 Deneghra2 theme forces. All the ones with the Cephalyx. (This accounts for all appearances of Cephalyx at the WTC). That's 3 out of 15 lists. All Tier 4.
1/4 Grissel1 lists are the Blood of Brag theme force with all the Kriel Warriors and only light beasts. It's Tier 4.
1/9 Issyria lists are the Dawnbringers theme force at Tier 4.
4/6 Baldur2 lists are the very exciting theme force with the cheaper Woldwatchers where nothing ever dies. All Tier 4.
2/5 Calandra lists are the theme force with the elemental lights. Both Tier 3.
1/2 Aurora lists is tier 4.
1/17 Morvahna2 lists is in theme. Tier 2
1/1 Iron Mother players is playing Carrier Group although it is assimilator spam, not double prime axiom and tier 3.
The 1 Caine1 player is playing Sons of the Tempest with two gun mage units and 5 hunters. Tier 4.
4/11 Vyros2 players are in theme. 1 in Tier2 and the rest at tier 4.
1/8 Kreoss3 players is in theme but is still forgoing the benefit of having double Vengers. Tier 4 does give cheaper melee heavies and he has taken 3 of those. (It's Germany Red if you are looking for the player).
2/4 Barnabas players are at Tier 4.
1/17 Krugar2 players is playing his theme force at Tier 4. It's not wake of destruction with the wolds and Eiryss1 either, it's Devourer's Host which has Ravagers with +2 speed turn1 and warpwolves with advance move. No stones and no druids but jamming with Krugar2 seems strong and your Ravager units all start with corpse tokens. Might catch some people off guard. This list is the brainchild of one Andrew Galea if you were curious.
1/5 Butcher1 players is playing Claws of the Dragon (black dragons). Tier 3.
1/6 Vayl1 players is playing her theme force (double hex hunters). Tier 4.
1/5 Zaal players is in theme. Tier 4.
And that is it for theme forces.
Total Numbers
Tier 1 - 0
Tier 2 - 17
Tier 3 - 10
Tier 4 - 67
It's clear that some theme forces are having a significant impact on the meta. Theme forces are interesting in that a 100% play record isn't a bad thing. If it makes a caster playable at a tournament level then it is excellent. On the one hand I'm not sure there would be more than one chinese player taking Butcher2 if it wasn't for his theme force but on the other hand having 25 tier 4 Vayl2 lists is probably a sign that that theme force is too good.I don't think you can say the same thing about Kaelyssa's theme force though or Goreshade2s.
I'm really tired and not well and I'm not sure how coherent that was so I may come back and tidy it up tomorrow.
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