Hello Godtear Community! I had a lot of fun playing in Gearbox’s Godtear Grinder tourney on TTS. I really enjoyed the 5-1-3 format and wanted to share my thoughts on why I chose my list and why I believe it was effective.
The Format
Each player selects 5 warbands before the tourney. Each round, a scenario is randomly chosen, and the players ban 1 of their opponent’s warbands (so there are 4 left for each player to choose from in the scenario). Each player then chooses 3 of their remaining 4 warbands.
Thoughts on Warbands
Godtear is a well-balanced game, but I believe two Champions (Raith Marid and Kailinn) are above the power curve. Raith is at least interesting to me because of his mechanics/playstyle, I just think his numbers are too high (and his Ultimate is ridiculous). But Kailinn, to me, is just not fun to play against. I do not like this Champion.
So I wanted to choose my list of 5 not including either Raith or Kailinn, but being able to compete against lists that included those characters. There are some scenarios where Kailinn isn’t great, but there are some where (in my opinion) she has no counters. So I figured I could ban her in those scenarios, but I would then need a counter to Raith.
Raith does not like movement effects (to clarify, opponent effects that move his units). He almost always has to activate the splashlings first to get into position, then activate Raith to teleport where he wants to go. This means in the clash phase, he is susceptible to things that either move him away from his splashlings or things that move his splashlings more than 3 hexes away from him.
As it happens, I LOVE movement effects on my own characters. If you look at my list, each warband has at least 1 effect that moves enemy characters and/or reduces their movement speed.
Skullbreaker: Plot: Indirectly, he can help other characters’ movement effects by increasing their accuracy (Hunting Call) or lowering dodge (Feral Howl) for hit effects. Clash: Go for the Belly!--moves the character two hexes away on a hit (and 2 more if he KOs them, obviously).
Finvarr: Plot: Shadow Ward, move a target 1 Hex and Shadow Snare, movement blight
Jeen: Plot and Clash: Drive Back, Shrikes can push followers around with no roll.
Lily: Plot: Tangling Thorns, movement blight. Clash: Nature’s Visage, AoE move friends and foes and Haunting Melody move enemy models in a hex up to 2 hexes (at 3 range and 6 attack!)
Shayle: Plot: Earthquake, 2 hex move for everyone in the unit. Clash, also Earthquake, and Stone Spikes, movement blight
The biggest disruptors to Raith are Lily and Shayle. So I figured that, vs Raith, I will always have at least one of these two to push him away from the action.
Round 1 vs mikebro94 on Knowledge
I banned his Rangosh and he banned my Lily. I did not ban Kailinn, because I thought she would struggle on Knowledge. I left Jeen out because I thought she had bad matchups into Nia and Kailinn’s followers and I had other ways to deal with them with Earthquake and Skullbreaker running through people.
Mikebro: Nia, Helena, Kailinn (left Grimgut out)
Mbauers: Shayle, Skullbreaker, Finvarr (left Jeen out)
In this match, Mike started with Kailinn out wide on my left, so I just sent Finvarr by himself and put all of my followers and other Champions on the other side of the board. Since I would have won the banner game uncontested, Nia and her Quartzlings came over to help and it was Finvarr vs the world on the left side of the map. On the final round he teleported his banner behind Nia’s own banner so she couldn’t reach it, and Kailinn couldn’t squash either.
The right side was the rest of my team vs Helena and her peasants, and my movement effects banished her far away from the objective hexes. I was nervous to face Kailinn, but I think it was the right call here.
End of Clash 1:
End of Clash 2:
First move of Clash 3, Finvarr ults and runs away. Mikebro concedes:
Score: mbauers 5, mikebro 1
Round 2 vs DicedHam on Death
I was worried about this matchup, as Ham had 3 slayers in his list and my list was much more controlly than killy. I left Lily out because Jeen had lots of squishy targets, Finvarr could maybe survive for awhile against 2 slayers, and Landslide was my best fighter vs Champions.
We each banned Skullbreaker.
DicedHam: Rangosh, Maxen, Lily, (left Kailinn out)
Mbauers: Shayle, Jeen, Finvarr (left Lily out)
Ham Lily ulted round 1 on my right lane, so we both just abandoned that lane. I KOed Lily in round 2 plot (going second), so she was moved very far away from her thornlings. Jeen did her thing, having lots of juicy follower targets to KO and gain points. Round 3 came down to Maxen needing to hail mary Landslide for the round win and he missed. Also important was Maxen skunking a damage roll on his ult on Finvarr.
End of Clash 1:
End of Plot 2:
End of Clash 2:
End of my plot 3:
Score: mbauers 6, DicedHam 0
Round 3 vs Gearbox on Chaos
I banned Kailinn and he banned Skullbreaker. I left Finvarr out because there were very few objective hexes. Jeen had some good follower targets, and Shayle and Lily could get Raith out of the fight.
Gearbox: Rangosh, Maxen, Raith (left Jaak out)
Mbauers: Lily, Shayle, Jeen (left Finvarr out)
Lily was a bully to Raith, constantly moving him away until he ulted. Rangosh got separated from his bandits which hurt his attacks pretty badly.
I won round 1 which isn’t great anyway, especially on Chaos. Round 2 I was in position to lose, but a specific set of unlikely circumstances had to all align, and they did. Lily moved Jeen up and also sent Raith away. Jeen then polearmed two gearhawks and killed both, clearing a path for the thornlings. Rangosh was hurt and had a dodge blight down to 3 dodge, so I chose to attack with 2 thorns instead of 3 to go for the crit (4 attack vs 3 dodge) and got it! So they KOed Rangosh and won round 2 for me. Close game, much closer than the final score!
End of Clash 1:
End of Clash 2:
End of Plot 3:
Score: mbauers 6, Gearbox 0
Round 4, Championship Match vs Reamus on Life
I was hoping for Quest or Change and we got Life. I really wanted Quest so I could see if I could just turtle and get the 5 planting points per round (I have 2 shapers), force him to come to me, then Finvarr the banners over his head, but instead we got Life. Has anyone tried that strategy on Quest?
Anyway, I won the roll and chose to go first so that Reamus would have to ban first. He banned Shayle, so I banned Luella. I knew with Shayle out I was going to bring Skullbreaker, so I didn’t want him to be able to smoke all of my Orcs with Luella. I left Jeen out because I didn’t like her matchups vs any of the followers, and into two slayers she would be killed pretty quickly.
Reamus: Skullbreaker, Keera, Jeen (left Nia out)
Mbauers: Skullbreaker, Finvarr, Lily (left Jeen out)
This match was graciously recorded by Gearbox, so check it out here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1706627396
It was a great match, final score: mbauers 6, Reamus 2
Final Thoughts
I think my list was versatile across all scenarios, and the final numbers support this: Shayle and Finvarr appearing in 3 out of 4 games, and Lily, Jeen, and Skullbreaker appearing in 2/4 games. Interestingly enough, Reamus also did not have Raith or Kailinn in his list. I love that!
I really enjoyed this format–thanks again to Gearbox for running this tournament, and thanks to Grumpysarn for posting this for me!