A Journey into Dark Age: First Game and List Revamp

Last night I played my first real game.  It was an eye opening experience to say the least.  My opponent was TokenGamerChic with a tag in of Mordin56, when she had to leave for work.  For all of us this was a bit of learning as, besides me, we had never even played a demo game.  My experience until now had been a demo game at GenCon last year.  So aside from reading the rulebook, we needed to get a grasp of how the game works.



There were tactical mistakes made on both sides, but this game was about trying to learn the nuances of my list.  First off, I made some changes from the list I posted here.  I posted my list on the Dark Age Forums, and the feedback there lead me to a little tweaking.  Here is the list as I played it last night.

Father Mayhem
1 Bone Doc
2 Buzz Blades
1 Golab
1 Keepsake
2 Blood Mistress
2 Puppets

I made these changes for a few reasons.  First I decided Puppets were a good addition as they are 20 point wounds for Father Mayhem.  I swapped the Fetish Bearer for a Bone Doc and Keepsake.  This change keeps the Special Abilities, Instigate and Bad Mojo, in play but gives me 2 more casters.

Here are the lessons I learned.  Father Mayhem backed up by the Bone Doc, is a BEAST in CA.  First off he gives -2 to enemy TN in BtB for this CA.  If the Bone Doc is within 8 inches, Bad Mojo gives those enemies a further -1 to TN.  That's a 15% decrease in CA effectiveness.  Now add in the Parry SA for Father Mayhem and you have a 50% chance to negate 1 attack that hits, per attack group.   Finally he has a AR of 16.  If you give him Puppets to command, and he becomes VERY hard to kill.

In the game when I added the Keepsakes 8" Instigate bubble to the Father Mayhem destruction, he pretty much single-handedly won me the game.  This is nothing to say what the Psycogenics all three were able to cast to enhance his effectiveness.

With me fairly convinced on those three models, the rest of my force is more in flux.  Golab's AR 19 is beastly, but a single Critical fail offed him to a Dragyri Spear Slave.  The Blood Mistresses and Buzz Blades did not work out well.  They died horribly, but then the motto of the game is "Everything Dies".

So here are the two options I'm considering.

Option #1:
Father Mayhem
w/ 3 Puppets
Bone Doc
Keepsake
2 Golab
2 Buzz Blades

Option #2:
Father Mayhem
w/ 2 Puppets
Bone Doc
Keepsake
1 Golab
3 Blood Mistress

Not sure which one I'll choose.   If any one has any input I'd love to here it.  Until then...