I've accomplished nothing since I finished painting my Doom Reavers on the Warmachine front. I've been sick for a week or so but not sick enough that I couldn't have done the UA. I have this thing that means I procrastinate (heavily) before starting anything. I did some thinking about a Vlad1 list I could put with Vlad2 and Vlad3 purely so I can just play "Vlad" in a three list format. All of which got me thinking of upkeeps.
Most buffs in the games are upkeeps and they are incredibly important. Often it's upkeeps that if define a casters power level. For Khador, our buffs are almost all for our own models. Iron Flesh keeps them alive, Fury helps them put enemies in the dirt etc. For Cryx (as a counter example), a lot of their "buffs" effect the enemy (hence the term debuff). Often these debuffs are more dangerous the reason being that you can concentrate your entire force on the debuffed dudes and once they are removed swap the buff to something else. Concentrated firepower, it's a thing.
Curiously, the importance of upkeeps makes having the ability to remove your opponents buffs am even more important thing (another reason debuffs are often better because you usually get value from them on your turn so even if they can be dropped you get value). It's pretty simple to see why. If you have two unbuffed forces then its an even match and if you have two buffed forces it's an even match but if one side can hold their buffs up (even if they are weaker buffs) while removing those from their opponent it gets lopsided and fast. So stuff like Eiryss2, Harlan Versh and anything with Purification are oh so important to success. Particularly because almost all the skew that floats around involves buffing some key piece (Stormwall, Galleon, Winter guard etc) or the rubbish spam lists (which are super rubbish in almost all cases).
Thinking about Vlad1 made me realise the value of having a non-upkeep dependent casters in your lineup. Obviously, if your opponent drops Morvhanna2 (the flavour of the month) and you have no upkeeps then she loses a weapon because she isn't impacting what you "thang" is. This is way important because without being able to unbalance the game with buffed army against unbuffed army it's a lot more manageable. Having a non-upkeep dependent caster also makes your opponent think in list choice. If the very same Circle player sees Irusk1, Vlad2 and Old Witch they can safely choose the billy goat but just having Vlad1 might make them think. Then you might be able to choose Irusk1 and not be guaranteed to fight Morvhanna2 (or however you spell it).
To finish I thought I would just quickly outline the Vlad1 list I've considered. Basically, it's Vlad, Spriggan, Black Ivan, Juggernaut, Dog, Kayazy and Underboss, Yuri and 2 Manhunters, Widowmakers, Marksman and a Greylord Ternion. I thought about throwing Conquest in but decided not to because I don't own him yet. Lots of work to be done on it but I do like the jack package. Having two beat sticks is nice and the plan wold be to hold one (probably Juggernaut) back for the late game unless I need to load up two jacks, feat and hit a Stormwall. I miss having no upkeep hate but Khador always has one list without it because there is only 1 Eiryss2 and 1 Harlan Versh. Yuri and Friends is in because there is precious little pathfinder in the list otherwise I probably would have continued my Doom Reaver crush.
I think it's unlikely I'll play in a three list event anytime soon but it pays to be prepared just in case.
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