Tarew
08-01-2008, 05:16 PM
I don't usually post on the faction specific forum but in this case I'll make an exception.
It's taken me about a month and over 600 ranks since the Mobi/Blood Fiend nerfs to finally find a FW deck that works for me again but I think I've finally succeeded.
This battlegroup works by capitalizing on nora efficiency and the FW cooldown reduction. There are no big nora-cost champions with bullseyes on their backs which can make opponents who have to hack through only legions of cheap units and zombies feel hopeless and disheartened after a while.
And even better, this entire battlegroup only contains ONE rare and TWO exos making it one of the most accessible FW bgs out there to new players. It is also completely Lich King-less.
This battlegroup is completely tuned to benefit from our faction bonus to the maximum. No champ has a cooldown of more then 5 turns. So far this battlegroup has pulled me back from rank 720 to rank 178 and I'm still moving up the ranking list at the time of writing.
Anyway, here's the list:
CHAMPIONS (11):
- 2x Afflicted Corpse (the amp doesn't do an awful lot any more but it's still a cheap, expendable champ with damage over time ability. I run mine with only 3 hp upgrades for 38 nora and a 2-turn cooldown)
- 2x Festering Corpse (these zombies can do surprisingly large amounts of damage through their damage aura and Rabid if they get to attack and are excellent for shrine and font defense. I run them with hp upgrades and maximum damage aura upgrade for 35 nora).
- 2x Crossbone (extremely important as they're pretty much the only ranged support in the battlegroup and provide a new type of DoT. I run mine at 9 speed, +3 hp and poison 3 for a total of 64 and a 4-turn cooldown).
-2x Executioner (meatshields with a very solid attack. I run mine at a very unusual, super-cheap build at 9 speed and +8 hitpoints. This bg isn't meant to rush with, it's meant to last. This build puts the Executioner at 64 nora and a smooth 4-turn cooldown).
-2x Infected Zombies (fantastic shields and great damage dealers to boot. No lumbering, a reasonable attack, and especially a level 3 damage aura means these guys can dish out a LOT more damage than you might expect. I run mine with a level 3 disease aura, +3 hp and a level 2 damage shield for 74 nora and a 5 turn cooldown).
-1x Anthropomancer (this deck can generate a lot of zombies, all of which have good hitpoints and take a good amount of effort for your opponent to take down. This gives you time, which you're going to need for the damage over time to kick in. Anthropomancer is here simply to increase that time and it's very good at it. I run mine with Divine Favor 2, Curse 1, 9 speed and +2 hp for a total of 74 nora).
SPELLS (5):
Five spells may not seem like a lot but it's all you need. You will notice that I do not play Mobilization. It only has limited usefulness with all your lumbering units and 50 nora is not something you can easily afford.
- 2x Festering Wounds (even though its damage can't be amped anymore, this is still a staple. The days of this spell single-handedly slaying an army are long gone though, it will need support)
- 2x Hungry Dead (I used to only run one because it is somewhat situational but boy is this spell useful. It does very important damage, it allows zombies to approach enemy champions and can shatter an enemy formation. This spell has never let me down before.
- 1x Weaken (more situational than Hungry dead but nevertheless extremely helpful in some cases, especially against Wrath. One high damage champ attacking your zombie wall is a lot less dangerous than two high damage champs attacking it).
RELICS (4):
These are pretty obvious but here they are:
- 1x Unholy Tomb (enables Festering Wounds and more importantly, partially negates the nora advantage rushing opponents will get from their fonts).
- 1x Tome of Hate (still incredibly helpful against shrine rushes).
- 1x Elsarin Vex (I'm afraid our warbanner is still essential for this battlegroup to work. The +5 hitpoints it gives to all your zombies is absolutely invaluable, as is the nora refund from deploying champs).
- 1x Skull of Decay (disease bgs need this more than ever. If you don't play some sort of anti-heal, pretty much all Protectorate factions can outheal you one way or another. I prefer this over Tormented Priest because it also reduces regeneration which is especially useful against Kartch, Mena or off course SL as well as Divine Favor from Dwarven King or Crystal Phoenix).
PLAYING STYLE:
This deck, as might be expected, has a rather defensive playing style. However this does NOT mean that you can just sit back and turtle on your shrine and font zones as I've seen some FW players do in the past (you know who you are).
You will have to actually counterattack if you want to win with this bg.
Ideal are maps with one font close to your shrine and no other obstacles such as the Lava Plains or KF map. On these maps you will usually have ample time to setup.
There are also a few rules that are extremely important to keep in mind when playing this or any other zombie-wall bg (these may take some getting used to as I do tend to be a bit more aggressive than your avergage FW player):
1: If they are not in combat or entering combat, ALWAYS SAVE ACTION POINTS ON YOUR CHAMPS!
2: Crossbone is your sole means of deterring enemy range units (and they do it well, the poison stings and the low cost makes me actually prefer these over Lich Kings) and it needs to have ap saved in order to get attacks in.
3: Do not be afraid to charge your units into a group of enemies as long as they have some Crossbone or spell support!
Especially your Infected Zombies with their damage auras damage shield can do large amounts of damage and the spawned festering zombies will lock enemy champs down for your support to finish them off. They only have a 5-turn cooldown so using them aggressively with zombie spawns is infinitely more effective than just turtling with them.
Executioners too are good units to attack with. With a banner and my preferred build, these are 61 hitpoint, 21 defense tanks that take a fair amount of hits to get rid of and can dish out punishment to boot.
4: When you attack, make sure your lumbering zombies follow up.
Your Festering and Afflicted Corpses are obviously slower than the rest of the army but that is no reason to keep them back. By the time your opponent has dealt with your shock troops, they should have reached the enemy and can continue to bog them down and finish them with damage auras and Rabid abilities. If they die, no problem. With their 2-turn cooldown and cheap cost, they'll be ready to defend again in no time.
5: Certain maps are tougher to defend on, especially against a rushing opponent. The fonts tend to be far away from your shrine and if you get a bad start, you might think you're in trouble. This especially applies to both the Ironfist maps as well as the Sundered Lands map and the Brood Pits map.
On these maps, if you have a bad start (with only lumbering champs for example), do NOT even attempt to get a font. You will not get it and will have committed valuable resources that could have been used on defense.
Just get your Tomb and banner up as fast as possible and build a zombie wall a few spaces from or around your shrine. Crossbone support and Infected Zombie use are essential here and since you will be tight on nora, you can not afford to be reckless with your champs.
FW however is one of the few, if not the only faction that can still come back from situations like these though and I have won many games afer being fontrushed where other factions would just have given up already.
That's pretty much all I can think of for now. This bg actually is surprisingly fun to play as well as very effective once you get used to it. Hopefully some new players and maybe even some older ones will find this useful and I will off course be happy to answer any questions :)
It's taken me about a month and over 600 ranks since the Mobi/Blood Fiend nerfs to finally find a FW deck that works for me again but I think I've finally succeeded.
This battlegroup works by capitalizing on nora efficiency and the FW cooldown reduction. There are no big nora-cost champions with bullseyes on their backs which can make opponents who have to hack through only legions of cheap units and zombies feel hopeless and disheartened after a while.
And even better, this entire battlegroup only contains ONE rare and TWO exos making it one of the most accessible FW bgs out there to new players. It is also completely Lich King-less.
This battlegroup is completely tuned to benefit from our faction bonus to the maximum. No champ has a cooldown of more then 5 turns. So far this battlegroup has pulled me back from rank 720 to rank 178 and I'm still moving up the ranking list at the time of writing.
Anyway, here's the list:
CHAMPIONS (11):
- 2x Afflicted Corpse (the amp doesn't do an awful lot any more but it's still a cheap, expendable champ with damage over time ability. I run mine with only 3 hp upgrades for 38 nora and a 2-turn cooldown)
- 2x Festering Corpse (these zombies can do surprisingly large amounts of damage through their damage aura and Rabid if they get to attack and are excellent for shrine and font defense. I run them with hp upgrades and maximum damage aura upgrade for 35 nora).
- 2x Crossbone (extremely important as they're pretty much the only ranged support in the battlegroup and provide a new type of DoT. I run mine at 9 speed, +3 hp and poison 3 for a total of 64 and a 4-turn cooldown).
-2x Executioner (meatshields with a very solid attack. I run mine at a very unusual, super-cheap build at 9 speed and +8 hitpoints. This bg isn't meant to rush with, it's meant to last. This build puts the Executioner at 64 nora and a smooth 4-turn cooldown).
-2x Infected Zombies (fantastic shields and great damage dealers to boot. No lumbering, a reasonable attack, and especially a level 3 damage aura means these guys can dish out a LOT more damage than you might expect. I run mine with a level 3 disease aura, +3 hp and a level 2 damage shield for 74 nora and a 5 turn cooldown).
-1x Anthropomancer (this deck can generate a lot of zombies, all of which have good hitpoints and take a good amount of effort for your opponent to take down. This gives you time, which you're going to need for the damage over time to kick in. Anthropomancer is here simply to increase that time and it's very good at it. I run mine with Divine Favor 2, Curse 1, 9 speed and +2 hp for a total of 74 nora).
SPELLS (5):
Five spells may not seem like a lot but it's all you need. You will notice that I do not play Mobilization. It only has limited usefulness with all your lumbering units and 50 nora is not something you can easily afford.
- 2x Festering Wounds (even though its damage can't be amped anymore, this is still a staple. The days of this spell single-handedly slaying an army are long gone though, it will need support)
- 2x Hungry Dead (I used to only run one because it is somewhat situational but boy is this spell useful. It does very important damage, it allows zombies to approach enemy champions and can shatter an enemy formation. This spell has never let me down before.
- 1x Weaken (more situational than Hungry dead but nevertheless extremely helpful in some cases, especially against Wrath. One high damage champ attacking your zombie wall is a lot less dangerous than two high damage champs attacking it).
RELICS (4):
These are pretty obvious but here they are:
- 1x Unholy Tomb (enables Festering Wounds and more importantly, partially negates the nora advantage rushing opponents will get from their fonts).
- 1x Tome of Hate (still incredibly helpful against shrine rushes).
- 1x Elsarin Vex (I'm afraid our warbanner is still essential for this battlegroup to work. The +5 hitpoints it gives to all your zombies is absolutely invaluable, as is the nora refund from deploying champs).
- 1x Skull of Decay (disease bgs need this more than ever. If you don't play some sort of anti-heal, pretty much all Protectorate factions can outheal you one way or another. I prefer this over Tormented Priest because it also reduces regeneration which is especially useful against Kartch, Mena or off course SL as well as Divine Favor from Dwarven King or Crystal Phoenix).
PLAYING STYLE:
This deck, as might be expected, has a rather defensive playing style. However this does NOT mean that you can just sit back and turtle on your shrine and font zones as I've seen some FW players do in the past (you know who you are).
You will have to actually counterattack if you want to win with this bg.
Ideal are maps with one font close to your shrine and no other obstacles such as the Lava Plains or KF map. On these maps you will usually have ample time to setup.
There are also a few rules that are extremely important to keep in mind when playing this or any other zombie-wall bg (these may take some getting used to as I do tend to be a bit more aggressive than your avergage FW player):
1: If they are not in combat or entering combat, ALWAYS SAVE ACTION POINTS ON YOUR CHAMPS!
2: Crossbone is your sole means of deterring enemy range units (and they do it well, the poison stings and the low cost makes me actually prefer these over Lich Kings) and it needs to have ap saved in order to get attacks in.
3: Do not be afraid to charge your units into a group of enemies as long as they have some Crossbone or spell support!
Especially your Infected Zombies with their damage auras damage shield can do large amounts of damage and the spawned festering zombies will lock enemy champs down for your support to finish them off. They only have a 5-turn cooldown so using them aggressively with zombie spawns is infinitely more effective than just turtling with them.
Executioners too are good units to attack with. With a banner and my preferred build, these are 61 hitpoint, 21 defense tanks that take a fair amount of hits to get rid of and can dish out punishment to boot.
4: When you attack, make sure your lumbering zombies follow up.
Your Festering and Afflicted Corpses are obviously slower than the rest of the army but that is no reason to keep them back. By the time your opponent has dealt with your shock troops, they should have reached the enemy and can continue to bog them down and finish them with damage auras and Rabid abilities. If they die, no problem. With their 2-turn cooldown and cheap cost, they'll be ready to defend again in no time.
5: Certain maps are tougher to defend on, especially against a rushing opponent. The fonts tend to be far away from your shrine and if you get a bad start, you might think you're in trouble. This especially applies to both the Ironfist maps as well as the Sundered Lands map and the Brood Pits map.
On these maps, if you have a bad start (with only lumbering champs for example), do NOT even attempt to get a font. You will not get it and will have committed valuable resources that could have been used on defense.
Just get your Tomb and banner up as fast as possible and build a zombie wall a few spaces from or around your shrine. Crossbone support and Infected Zombie use are essential here and since you will be tight on nora, you can not afford to be reckless with your champs.
FW however is one of the few, if not the only faction that can still come back from situations like these though and I have won many games afer being fontrushed where other factions would just have given up already.
That's pretty much all I can think of for now. This bg actually is surprisingly fun to play as well as very effective once you get used to it. Hopefully some new players and maybe even some older ones will find this useful and I will off course be happy to answer any questions :)