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Strategy and Tactics / Aggressive use of spawnpoints
« on: July 25, 2014, 06:34:59 AM »
Creature spawnpoints are often thought of as defensive/economical play (battleforges are cheaper and support soloing so are a bit more complex), and obviously they have slightly less immediate aggressive pay-off than a turn 2 Lord of Fire or a Forcemaster solo rush. But I was wondering how often people used spawnpoints aggressively. There are two obvious builds for this, I think
Beastmaster. The Lair is reasonably tough and doesn't depend on anything else (unlike Barracks, Graveyard etc.) to work effectively. This allows you to run fast turn and drop it far centre.
Beastmasters gets cheap Rouse the Beast, so creatures can hit as soon as they arrive. Lots of small, cheap craetures allows you to keep the pressure up, and being in your opponents face reduces their ability to spend actions/mana on mordok's obelisk and similar. For Straywood, this works great with Pet Falcon for a brutal turn 2 attack. For Johktari, she can run and drop a Lair far centre and still have an action free for an enchantment, enchanters ring or leather boots/gloves.
Adramalech Warlock. This is slightly different as the Pentagram itself doesn't have to be far forward, as you can rely on wildfire imps instead. Place and harmonise a pentagram first turn, and then use either a lash-build or a hawkeye-flameblast build to lay down fire on your opponents with the mage: explode and ignite are useful backups!
I'm not convinced about the others: barracks is vulnerable and needs other outposts, temple of asyra needs harmonisation to summon, graveyard needs a flow of deaths to become efficient and the necromancer is squishy, trees are vulnerable to fire... you might be able to do something with gate to voltari, though.
Any thoughts?
Beastmaster. The Lair is reasonably tough and doesn't depend on anything else (unlike Barracks, Graveyard etc.) to work effectively. This allows you to run fast turn and drop it far centre.
Beastmasters gets cheap Rouse the Beast, so creatures can hit as soon as they arrive. Lots of small, cheap craetures allows you to keep the pressure up, and being in your opponents face reduces their ability to spend actions/mana on mordok's obelisk and similar. For Straywood, this works great with Pet Falcon for a brutal turn 2 attack. For Johktari, she can run and drop a Lair far centre and still have an action free for an enchantment, enchanters ring or leather boots/gloves.
Adramalech Warlock. This is slightly different as the Pentagram itself doesn't have to be far forward, as you can rely on wildfire imps instead. Place and harmonise a pentagram first turn, and then use either a lash-build or a hawkeye-flameblast build to lay down fire on your opponents with the mage: explode and ignite are useful backups!
I'm not convinced about the others: barracks is vulnerable and needs other outposts, temple of asyra needs harmonisation to summon, graveyard needs a flow of deaths to become efficient and the necromancer is squishy, trees are vulnerable to fire... you might be able to do something with gate to voltari, though.
Any thoughts?