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How to beat Ring of Hotek with magic army?

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 9:39 pm
by Dalamar
Indeed, I asked this myself today when I was musing what armies could cause lots of trouble to my GT list... and guess what? the worst I could come up with was fast dragon Druchii list with Ring of Hotek... Apparently we are the worst enemy to ourselves as fitting our nature :twisted:

But the thing is... If the Ring is placed in a smart position, you have no way of getting rid of it in a quick and efficient fashion... and your magic phase is screwed.

Any ideas how to pluck it out from these?:

Manti or Peggy Master flying around and using the ring offensively, getting the casters 12" from himself

Ring on BG champion hidden in a forest out of sight of anything

Ring on CoK champion riding safely behind the screen of Dark Riders/Harpies (I think this one is easiest to take care of)

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 10:14 pm
by Darkwand
Just cast spells that require one dice to cast, bolts and so on. Invocation of Nehek and Tree-singing can both be cast with just one dice. I think I might risk casting something very useful with two dice, doubles aren't that common at least.

If the item is in a unit, I'd try to break the unit with missiles or something similar.

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 10:22 pm
by Drakken
The second and third options you listed are actually fairly easy to deal with, provided you have at least decent mobility elements yourself. A unit or 3 of DR/Shades should be able to reach almost any point hidden on a board, and if its a ranked unit, they're all but immobile in that forest (or even hidden behind it, especially to maintain range for the ring to be useful). Unless he's bulked the unit up a good bit, 2 rounds of shooting should be enough...and he's bulked it up, then he's got alot of points sitting in magic defense. Either way seems a win...

That first option of a high mobility version is more interesting...pinning it down without magic is hard, and the character himself riding it is usually pretty resistant to shooting. I'd suggest something along the lines of blow the mount from under him and then try and pin the character....

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 10:26 pm
by Dark Alliance
I hadn't thought about that actually. 2 ring of hotek in the same battle...it's quite funny!

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 10:32 pm
by Zakath the slaughterer
I'd say the answer is... Hunter Noble! I mean, Master. Although they are declared obsolete in the "Hunter Noble" thread, I think they are still viable and work well in these kinds of situations.

If the BG have the Standard of Hag Graef, it is more difficult for Harpies or DR to catch them but a Master with full gear should be able to weather those attacks

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 10:51 pm
by Kuren rath
I just finished a game versus a magic heavy demon list where i used the ring to cover about 80% of my units and i still got destroyed with magic. The ring activated a total of 3 times both with minimal damaged caused as once it was his horrors that lost a whole 1 model, and the other two all i got to do was cast a free spell both of which he dispelled. As long as you're only casting on one or two dice the ring really isn't a problem. The ring is only useful the first time it activates after that they avoid it like the plauge or cast on low numbers of dice to make it less effective.

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 11:06 pm
by Dalamar
Two Rings of Hotek in same battle would just cause the reality to unravel when their area of effect touched each other and we'd all be sucked into the realms of chaos.

We don't really have spells that can be reliably cast on 1 die (3+ power spells) and I'm not interested in other armies but in how the Druchii can deal with RoH

As for killing the second option.
You can't charge it unless you move into 2" of the forest, means also no flying charges, means also no shooting or casting spells at them unless you manage to lure them out somehow (did I mention no charging?). They don't have to move anywhere as they are part of defensive battle line, only reason for their existence is keeping the RoH safe.

casting on 2 dice means it effectively shuts down spells 4,5 and 6 of most lores.
Also casting on 2 dice has 1/6 chance of miscast, which is about the amount of spells I can cast each turn (so guaranteed miscast each turn on average... if I tone down to casting on 2 dice, meaning spells that can actually kill the ring bearer are out of reach).

Bottom line is - with such potent anti-magic equipment now in the equation (lets call it The One Ring) is it still worth fielding magic heavy armies on tournament arenas? it feels a bit risky with the increasing amount of Druchii generals.

Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2008 11:25 pm
by Darkwand
I'd try Law of Gold with two dice.

If you hide it in a wood, it probably doesn't protect too many of your units. Shadowblade will kick the model's ass who has it :P (eventhough he sucks and nobody uses him because of the high points cost).

If it's on a champion, I'd try bladewind.

Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 2:05 am
by Dggrj
Darkwand wrote:I'd try Law of Gold with two dice.
...
If it's on a champion, I'd try bladewind.
Did you think much about this? :P Yes, it can work, but the point of this is basically how to remove the item which causes miscasts. If your method of removing it carries that same risk, while potentially for the greater good, it's certainly not ideal. And bladewind has very little chance of killing a COK and not that much for BG. 1/9 for COK and just under 1/3 for BG. Your chance of miscasting to do that is 1/6. Are those the odds you want?

Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 3:20 am
by Bounce
You could always consider not taking any of your own magic
Or you just need to concentrate on pulling their other units away from the Ring. Once outside the 12" zone you can then zap them at will.
Considering we are now forced to pursue you could use flocks of harpies to pull your opponents DE's out of formation and then zap them before they can run back in

Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 8:10 am
by Dalamar
Darkwand wrote:I'd try Law of Gold with two dice.

If you hide it in a wood, it probably doesn't protect too many of your units. Shadowblade will kick the model's ass who has it :P (eventhough he sucks and nobody uses him because of the high points cost).

If it's on a champion, I'd try bladewind.


Shadowblade is not an option as it's not supposed to be tailored list but all-comers one and at its current points/stats shadowblade has been reduced to warmachine killer... not exactly the best use for 300 points.
Law of Gold on 2 dice is simply too risky, not about miscast but it won't be cast that often on 2 dice, and then it will only work now and then. taking it down for a turn isn't the best.
Bladewind requires line of sight, and if there is line of sight to the unit there are better options (like Rule of Burning Iron)

Bounce wrote:You could always consider not taking any of your own magic


Not really as no tournament lets you change your list depending on the opponent you face.

Bounce wrote:Or you just need to concentrate on pulling their other units away from the Ring. Once outside the 12" zone you can then zap them at will.
Considering we are now forced to pursue you could use flocks of harpies to pull your opponents DE's out of formation and then zap them before they can run back in


It's one way... but 12" is 24" diameter... that's 1/3rd of the table width and half of the table length... the RoH area is huge now, not easy to pull anything out of it unless it was at the edge to begin with. And I'd guess things on the edges will sooner kill all the harpies than get pulled away by them.

Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2008 8:55 am
by Azure
Honestly, the way I have found my opponents coping with it is... drumroll please. Ignoring it. Thats right, more than half my army is inside the bubble and for some reason, these smart ones are more then happy frying my dark riders and harpies on the flanks instead of risking a miscast that could potentially take away a wizard. Once in combat the first one to die is the champion of my BG and then all hell breaks loose. Luckily so far my Hydras have fought their way through.

-Rex