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Hello all, i was looking at the mission three places of power which seems to be a very tough battle for some armies with weak leaders. Which armies/ lists are best suited to this scenario in taking the objectives and managing to hold them?

This seems like it would be a very interesting scenario to play if you had two very strong armies facing off that were both suited to this mission.

I will be very interested in the communities thoughts.

Well the thing you need to do is hold the 3 places for multiple turns in a row with the same character. You get exponential vps the longer you can hold onto them.

So there's obviously not a lot of mileage in shoving forward some 5 wound wizard or something, unless you can protect him somehow.

A lot depends on the makeup of your army, and the tactics that you use. Powerful characters who can survive in midfield are valuable in AoS, and all four factions do have access to them - but not all the sub-groups. Armies designed for TAC play need to consider winning the missions (typically by moving this or that unit around the board), not just killing the enemy.

Of course, even if you've got no tough guys at all, you can often kill the enemy with bows and arrows and then run on once the coast is clear. If you've got access to teleportation or fast-moving people then you can hold characters back for a turn or two until you see an opening, and then grab it.

Thankyou Mandragola. I appreciate the feedback and it is well thought out. so just to clarify, you are saying that even an army will weak wound 5 or 6 leaders have a chance in this scenario?

It's actually one of the more challenging missions I've found as your army seems to be either built very well for it or terribly so especially at point levels of 1500 or less. Fast characters with a good save are (as in all cases) ideally suited for it but unless you've similar speed throughout the list they risk being isolated.

I think a lot of armies (at least where I play) are built around a big hitter general who can do well by himself and hold objectives the other heroes (usually only a small number 1-3) really struggle on the island.

This is THE meta defining scenario in my opinion, and when going to a tournament it's the most important consideration when constructing your list.

I personally have never been able to win this scenario at a tournament with my army (mixed Order, but mainly Empire/Dwarfs) which suffers very much from 5/6 wound Hero syndrome - and the last tournament I went to I got absolutely destroyed in this scenario haha!

I played against Sylvaneth who I think are the strongest army in this scenario - the opponent had Alarielle, Spirit of Durthu and Hamadreth and lined up each to take an objective.

The only thing close to a tough multi-wound hero in my army was my Hurricanum, but the problem is I don't want to be charging that forward as its strongest when it's behind my lines shooting Mortal Wounds at stuff.

So I did try the waiting strategy but ultimately I wasn't successful because the objectives score each turn and score more the longer held - but staying back meant the opponent was able to take all 3 and then engage my lines and keep my tied up the whole game.

So my solution for the next tournament I'll be attending is to add a big tough choppy monster hero to my army so I can move forward and try to contest early. For that reason I am adding a Freeguild General on Griffon which I think will be a good choice.

I would be interested in hearing other people's tactics and strategies for armies with mostly weak heroes.

And I will also say I don't think there is an army better than Sylvaneth at this scenario currently.

 Bottle wrote:
This is THE meta defining scenario in my opinion, and when going to a tournament it's the most important consideration when constructing your list.

I personally have never been able to win this scenario at a tournament with my army (mixed Order, but mainly Empire/Dwarfs) which suffers very much from 5/6 wound Hero syndrome - and the last tournament I went to I got absolutely destroyed in this scenario haha!

I played against Sylvaneth who I think are the strongest army in this scenario - the opponent had Alarielle, Spirit of Durthu and Hamadreth and lined up each to take an objective.

The only thing close to a tough multi-wound hero in my army was my Hurricanum, but the problem is I don't want to be charging that forward as its strongest when it's behind my lines shooting Mortal Wounds at stuff.

So I did try the waiting strategy but ultimately I wasn't successful because the objectives score each turn and score more the longer held - but staying back meant the opponent was able to take all 3 and then engage my lines and keep my tied up the whole game.

So my solution for the next tournament I'll be attending is to add a big tough choppy monster hero to my army so I can move forward and try to contest early. For that reason I am adding a Freeguild General on Griffon which I think will be a good choice.

I would be interested in hearing other people's tactics and strategies for armies with mostly weak heroes.

And I will also say I don't think there is an army better than Sylvaneth at this scenario currently.

My main army being devoted of Sigmar I have/had a similar problem, with squishy order heroes you have to bubbkewrap them which is hard to do and even then you can still get shot to death. Due to this mission alone I now run three war altars

The main problem I'm seeing with former empire/dwarf lists is the fact that sitting back is what it specialises at so short of adding in some big hitters (as you've answered) or character sniping with your shooting you'll always be at a disadvantage to fast monster heavy armies.

Due to the price that the hero monsters cost it makes sense that missions in which they are strong were put into the rules

thank you Bottle and Spyro, your insights have been very helpful to me. That tree army sounds brutal, what troops did the army have?

I like that the different scenarios demand quite contradictory things from your army selection. 3pop requires beefy characters but they are far less useful in missions where you need 5 models to control an objective.

Tactically, you don't need to control all 3 of the places of power. If you can hold one for 3 turns is twice as good as controlling 3 for 1 turn.

So this means that you don't necessarily need to confront the enemy across the board. You might be able to swarm a single objective and shoot the enemy off the other two, for instance. Or send teleporting retributors to the far one, or whatever.

Order does have access to some very durable characters. An anointed on either phoenix and any lord celestant (though the bigger the monster he's riding on, the better) are very solid. So are many sylvaneth heroes. Then you need to use buffs, magic, heals and bubblewrap to keep them alive.

I agree with Bottle that Sylvaneth is well placed for this scenario due to a combination of mobility and hugely tanky characters.

Another possible strong contender would be an Order/High Aelves army with multiple Phoenixes ridden by Anointed (one by Caradryan if your opponent will allow it). They are not quite as tough as the Sylvaneth behemoths but they are VERY fast and still very tanky, especially if you support them with spellcasters and/or Lothern Sea Helm.

EDIT: Also gotta credit Mandragola for mentioning the Phoenix thing.

beastclaw are the best at this for sure. a hero on a stonehorn is cast enough to take it turn one and probably resilient enough to hold it 2-3 turns before it dies. racking up a huge score.

and if you take it first it can charge you off if from its deployment zone.

when there are three stonehorn heroes and the mission is places of power you're pretty boned unless you can get a huge meat shield in between them and the objective while you score it for a while

raoiley wrote:
beastclaw are the best at this for sure. a hero on a stonehorn is cast enough to take it turn one and probably resilient enough to hold it 2-3 turns before it dies. racking up a huge score.

and if you take it first it can charge you off if from its deployment zone.

when there are three stonehorn heroes and the mission is places of power you're pretty boned unless you can get a huge meat shield in between them and the objective while you score it for a while

That or just be ironjawz/bonesplitterz. Then that list is heaven

I went into this one with two heroes: two Greenskinz warbosses, one on a Wyvern and one with the banner. Believe or not, it was the banner carrier that brought me to a near tie (I was up against Bloodbound and Khorne Daemons - he had like six heros, one being a Thirster). Anyway, I surrounded my footboss with 40 orruks. My opponent had trouble knocking him out for the longest time (my Wyvern succumbed to a unit of 30 strong Khorne daemons with their 5+ mortal wound hit rolls).
So, it's all how you play it. I did still lose, but I could have easily won if I made some smarter decisions early on (like not leaving myself open to a bloodletter horde charge).

I think there is a tendency to over-focus on how to score points oneself, when keeping the enemy from doing so can be just as if not more important depending on the context. Something to think about too is that many durable monster characters (Stonehorn, Maw Crusha, Durthu, Annointed on Phoenix) are also melee characters that will have little to do if you simply ignore them and go for other objectives. If I see an enemy park a Stonehorn on an objective my first thought is 'great, now I don't have to bother with him when I go after the other two!' Those squishy 5-wound characters are great to have in cover just one run move away from said objective; now not only is that big stompy character wasting all of his attack power camping the objective but if he moves away you'll jump in and grab it. It can also be worth gunning small characters to the flank objectives on your first turn even knowing they will die, because they will still snag 1 or 3 points and your enemy has to divert resources to dealing with them.

But the best advice I can give for this scenario is to pick two. Pick two objectives that you are going to try and hold and don't worry much about the third. I've seen players lose games because they tried for all three and got one while the opponent tried for two and got both.