Hi people!
It’s me, Lukas aka “Frazni” and today I got a game with the brand new Weaver Courts for you! While I don’t want to go in depth about the Re-Work, I want to say that the Designers did a really great job and the first game felt amazing. The whole flair of the circle of seasons and seeds really adds up and gives weavers a really challenging playstyle, which I like a lot!
So first – lists:
=== The Last Argument of Kings ===
FirstGame [1995/2000]
Weaver Courts
== (Warlord) Seanchas Sidhe [150]: Glacial Presence, Winter’s Bite, Court of Winter
* Gemred Knights (3) [220]:
* Scaile Dancers (3) [170]:
* Sciathan Riders (3) [150]:
* Will-O-Wisps (3) [100]:
== Mhor Sidhe [150]: Abundant Harvest, Draic Rider
* Scathach Hunters (3) [185]: Kiannun Stalker
* Scoth Draic (1) [220]:
== Rhun Sidhe [130]: Bond of Falcons, The Voice’s Calling
* Kern Skirmishers (3) [120]:
* Will-O-Wisps (3) [100]:
* Crann Guardians (3) [180]:
* Kern Skirmishers (3) [120]:
Designers Note: I wanted to play a bit of everything and also of everything I built so far. It’s not an optimal list I think, but it’s not bad either. Just testing a lot of stuff
Opponents List:
=== The Last Argument of Kings ===
Gameday [2000/2000]
The Old Dominion
== (Warlord) Mounted Strategos [160]: Caelestine Banner, Aura of Malice
* Kataphraktoi (4) [265]: Hetairos
* Centaur Prodromoi (3) [150]:
* Praetorian Guard (5) [265]: Profane Reliquary
* Praetorian Guard (4) [205]:
== Archimandrite [155]: Consecrated Mitre, Schemophore
* Legionnaires (4) [150]:
* Legionnaires (4) [150]:
* Kheres (3) [160]:
* Bone Golems (5) [340]:
Szenario was Maelstrom.
Lets dive right into the game!
Round 1
I got ALL my lights onto the table, my opponent got his Kheres. I started in Spring Season. We moved up a bit and I used the Whisps as screens.
Round 2
We both got two Mediums in and its Summer Season now!
I deploy my Crann and the Moths on the right flank, more or less as a bait. He deploys his Praetorians on that flank. Also his Legionnaires with Archimandrite walk up the middle against my Kern with Rhun and some Whisps.
Round 3
Its Autumn now.
I get everything on the table, since I auto-pick the Gemred and the Draic has Flank and my two mediums did roll well.
He got Bone Golems, the Riders and Prodromoi in this turn. The Golems reinforce the right flank, which means that I will abandon that flank and play the rest of the table.
Since I outactivate him by quite a bit, he has to play really passive. I went onto the two 9 inch zones and started scoring. My moths ran in front of the Golems to block them off the objective for some turns.
Also my Kern with Rhun started firing at the Legionnairs and did unleash hell onto them. I did 10 wounds to them, leaving them broken. Between Longshot bloom from Whisps, the inbuilt Reroll of 6 in volley and Sureshot from Bond of Falcons, they really are killy. Damn boy.
With my last activation I marched and charged my Whisps into his Prodromoi. I just wanted to hold them in place for some time!
I score 2 points for both zones
Deadly Volley shots from the Kerns! Ouch
Round 4
Winter is coming!
The rest of his units are arriving now. I win the supremacy and go first (to my surprise). My Whisps on the middle of the board do charge the last Legionnair (who got 2 Wounds left) with Archimandrite in the middle. They Bloom for the Warlord-Bloom (Reroll 6s`) and manage to kill the unit barely. So Archimandrite down!
Sadly they get killed by the Kathaphraktoi in return…
Bone Golems on the right flank charge my moths. But due to awkward movement and wheel through the woods he does neither gain impacts, nor inspired. (Yes, due to winter my unit had Dread anyway). So after everything and Aura of Death during my activation, the moths survive on 2 wounds – which is cool!
Crann manage to block the Praetorians off the zone and they start slapping each other in the face without any effect.
In the middle my Draic starts scoring the zone, while on the left flank more Praetorians walk up and the Wisps try to hold against the Prodromoi. I also managed to kill one of them with the spells of my mage. 2 spells per turn at range 16 is really funny and the potential to go to wizard 8 is crazy!
I scored 5 points to zero.
Round 5
It’s spring again!
So this turn I use my supremacy to be in winter again.
The Bone Golems do kill the last moth and walk onto the zone with one stand. I start shooting the Kataphraktoi with both units of skirmisher and do like 6 wounds in total – it’s a start!
In the middle he walks up his Legionnairs onto the objective to start scoring (or at least contest) but looking the Scoth Draic directly into his beautiful and manyfold eyes. Since I outactivated him by quite a bit, I charged with the Draic as my last activation. With bloom I do manage to shatter the 4 stands of Legionnairs and wipe them, which triggers my Abundant Harvest, granting every unit within 12 a Seed! That was cool.
On the left flank the last Wisps died to the Prodromoi clash, which then charged into my Gemred, doing nothing.
The Gemred of course failed to kill two Prodromoi, so I had to throw my spells into them as well to kill them off.
My Dancers charged into the Praetorians and so kill like one stand – this will take a while!
I scored 3 points to zero.
Round 6+
And it’s summer again!
From here, it’s a wrapup. My opponent is so far behind in points, that it’s really hard to win. While he is crushing the right flank now, killing the Crann and charging the Kern, it’s simply not enough.
My Draic killed the Kheres and his last two Kataphraktoi did then charge my Draic, but did not manage to kill it. The Draic then proceeded to eat the Knights alive.
On the left flank the Dancers got their Blazing Souls off, but did not kill the Praetorians. The Scatcha Hunters also ran in, but did not manage to kill them off as well. But they would have died the next turn I guess.
So that’s it, in the end I won by quite some points with a score of 26 to 5 points.
It was a great and funny game and I learned a lot about weavers!
First Weavers impression
So after one game it is way too early to come to some conclusions of course. So dont take any of these as hard facts, I will just write down my feelings.
Overall Weavers felt really cool and awesome to play. Circle of Seasons and the bonus you get is really good. You want to max out your gain from the seasons and playing a balanced list with all the seasons feels good.
The bloom mechanic… After my first read, I was a bit sad, because it changed so much and did read a bit like the chant mechanic from wadrhun. But oh boy was I wrong. This mechanic felt really rewarding when it worked out and you have so many combos you can pull off – it really felt amazing on the table top! It’s not always super strong, but it always feels useful.
The units themselves all feel cool and thematic, I really did like all of them. I wish for a clarification in Draic Rider and which Court your model will belong to or if it is indeed to courts. (I played it as one court for this game, since I cannot imagine you would get two courts).
The wizard as a warlord was also really cool. Redistributing your seeds felt less good than I thought it would. I mean, it’s cool and all, but I also felt like that I do not need it, if I get a bit better at the army. The double spell was amazing though!
The bloom effect was okay-ish. It does give you some utility and does a bit of everything, which is nice and works for every unit in your army. But at least against the Old Dominion I would have wished for the Cleave-Bloom from the Mhor Sidhe or the Deadly Blades from the Tao Sidhe.
Overall I think the rework is amazing and Weavers are a lot of fun to play!
See you in Eä
Lukas “Frazni”