Alter of Carnage

[silverclawgrizzly]

I know the set just came out but has anyone tried the Alter of Carnage yet? I ran it today and the mana generation once you have a good number of creatures(say oh four) is phenomenal. Now unless I'm mistaken there's no limit to the number of soldiers who can add mana to your spawn point it per turn with it so long as each soldier only adds one each. In the game I played I had Grimson Deadeye, an Orc Butcher, a Anvil Throne Crossbowman, and a Dwarf Panzerguarde out fairly early on.

I dare say it allows the Warlord, with a General Signet Ring, to build up a huge army pretty quickly. I want to try it with a bunch of scrubs like Goblin Slingers and Goblin Grunts. Note if I'm missing something and there's a limit to the mana you can generate from the Alter per round then ah well but as it I'm in love.

[sdougla2]

Yeah, Altar of Carnage really lets the Warlord power hard once he gets around 4 creatures down. I played it in one game, and I was generating 4-5 mana/turn from it. I had 2 Orc Butchers, 2 Goblin Alchemists, and a Grimson Deadeye Sniper, although my opponent killed one of them. It was pretty great.

[silverclawgrizzly]

Yeah I was generating about 4-5 with it. I'd Harmonized my Barracks and had two other outposts out. Life was VERY sweet for a while lol.

[sdougla2]

I don't think I would really want to Harmonize the Barracks. I'll Harmonize Gate to Voltari or Lair sometimes, but those Spawnpoints aren't nearly as vulnerable to getting focused down. Flame +2 makes me leery of investing more in the Barracks directly.

[silverclawgrizzly]

It's a risk I admit. But then Dwarven Panzerguardes exist for a this reason. Still I admit it's not a tactic everyone will embrace.

[MrSaucy]

Altar of Carnage is pretty sweet. If you play the Warlord like me you mix in some weak creatures with your strong dwarves. That is when the altar really shines.

[MrSaucy]

I don't think I would really want to Harmonize the Barracks. I'll Harmonize Gate to Voltari or Lair sometimes, but those Spawnpoints aren't nearly as vulnerable to getting focused down. Flame +2 makes me leery of investing more in the Barracks directly.

You could put your Barracks in a corner of the arena and use a Garrison Post in the center of the arena to summon your creatures from there. And if you use Wall of Earth to block LoS to Barracks it is difficult for your opponent to do much to it.

[silverclawgrizzly]

I don't think I would really want to Harmonize the Barracks. I'll Harmonize Gate to Voltari or Lair sometimes, but those Spawnpoints aren't nearly as vulnerable to getting focused down. Flame +2 makes me leery of investing more in the Barracks directly.

You could put your Barracks in a corner of the arena and use a Garrison Post in the center of the arena to summon your creatures from there. And if you use Wall of Earth to block LoS to Barracks it is difficult for your opponent to do much to it.

Funnily enough Saucy I've been doing the same thing and you're right it works pretty good. Need to keep multiple Garrison Posts as they're easy to destroy but it works.

[Halewijn]

About the altar, I never use it during a game. It starts shining once you have multiple creatures. For creatures you probably want barracks and barracks are much better while using additional outposts. This is a big starting investment... by the time these start working properly I never see the proper time to summon the altar. It could work if the opponent gives you all the time you need but most players wont give you that.

The card itself seems really powerfull though. How/when do you guys use it?

[sdougla2]

It can pay back it's cost in 2 rounds pretty easily if you have 4 creatures, which is faster than any other economy card in the game besides Meditation Amulet. In that sense, it's actually a better mid game economy card than the other possibilities.

I don't use it anymore because it's an additional investment in the Barracks, and the Barracks already forces you to commit heavily to it before it operates efficiently. Once the Barracks is gone, you're reduced to spending that mana on the Battle Forge or Gurmash. I haven't found Gurmash to be particularly exciting, and flooding him with mana won't change that in my opinion. Battle Forge benefits somewhat from the mana, but by the time you've played a Barracks, 2 other outposts, 4 creatures, Battle Forge, and Altar of Carnage, you should have enough equipment played that most of the time the extra mana will be of somewhat limited use.

Besides, if my opponent leaves me and my conjurations alone to build when I'm generating 17 mana/round, I'll win anyway, no altar needed.

[DaveW]

I am not a big Warlord player, but I am thinking you could play it with just a couple of creatures out. This way, it would be played as a distraction for your opponent. If he goes after it, then he is not attacking you, and you continue to build elsewhere in peace. If he doesn't, then it will gain you the mana back soon enough... maybe not two rounds, but not too terribly long after that.

[echephron]

All this has been said before, but ill say it again. I had a goblin swarm book a while back. I tried to use this, but it was always meh.

went something like this:
turn1 barracks outpost
turn2 goblinGrunt soldierRing goblinGrunt
turn3 goblin lifetree
turn4 goblin carnage
by now, about 3 goblins are dead, but you can scale up to orc butchers

all the set up for multiple creatures(requiring multiple outposts) means you wont be using it till turn3 at the earliest.

I dont find it to be a distraction. by the time i get it up, they are well on their way to killing my mage or all my creatures. they arent gonna stop that to kill it. It would be way better to just kill the barracks anyway, since carnage only puts mana on it(usually).

[sdougla2]

Altar of Carnage will never be a good distraction because if they kill your Barracks, it loses most of it's utility. If they decide to attack your economy at that point, they won't try to destroy the Altar directly, they'll either kill your creatures (if you use vulnerable ones like Goblin Grunt) or your Barracks. Either is a much more efficient way to make playing the Altar relatively useless than attacking the Altar directly.