Invasion - What Did We Learn?

Game 5 on top 3 tables, L to R: Pete (Sgt Slaughter), 
Joe (skullsword), Dan (Zombiestate), Mike (Mega Mike)

The Invasion has now been and gone, and has left Croydon as nothing more than a smouldering crater (not that anyone could tell, or mind in fact). The battles raged long and hard for two days, culminating in the eventual crowning of a supreme general. Friendships were made, models were broken, and hugs were given out a little too freely.

You're sure to have noticed the lack of post on Monday, but I have an excuse; my brain was still a puddle of useless, pink, molten goo, which had overheated and melted after 12.5 hours of hard thinking. It was sloshing about inside my skull, so on Monday I siphoned it out, froze it back to shape  (in my handy brain shaped ice cube tray) and popped it back in. Seriously though I was shattered, and realistically we haven't had much news to rush to the PC to transcribe. Apart from the renders of UCM dropfleet frigates I have literally no exclusives to report. Which sucks. It would be fair to blame the KickStarter, and also the upcoming Reconquest Phase 2, but I'm in a petulant mood so I'll be blaming S and J Hawk (for no particular reason).

So, what do I have to write about? Well, although we didn't have any news I have an entire meta shift to discuss! You see Invasion is more than just the largest tournament on the calendar; it is an opportunity for Hawk to see how their latest units fare, and how the armies deal with the latest iteration of the rules. Invasion is a proverbial melting pot of club metas, and the information gleaned from this weekend is incredibly valuable.

To prove my point, surf down my link highway to visit the Hawk forums and view the results. PHR first, and not Shaltari?! I think we can all agree a month ago no one could have called it (apart from perhaps Leopold from Team Germany, who won the event). More so than that the highest ranking Shaltari player was in sixth! Someone has mentioned (on the forum somewhere) that perhaps the Spacehogs didn't field higher due to the lack of 'top' generals wielding them (which is a little disrespectful to the Shaltari players on the weekend to be honest), but I thought that part of the issue with Shaltari was that anyone could win with them? It's tricky to say with 100% conviction after one tournament, but perhaps the rule tweaks they have been subjected to over the last couple of months are making a noticeable difference. 

There is however a more significant change to show in placing, and that is the overall average placement of the races. Here, have a look at this spiffy table Mike whipped up:

This table reads like the script to a classic underdog movie:

"Once they were the whipping boys, the joke of the playground. But not anymore... The PHR are back, and now they mean business!" [Cyborg Uprising, coming to Cinemas 2016]

PHR players have achieved the unfathomable. They had both the highest number of players, and the highest average position. The mere fact that their lowest ranked player was 39th (out of 56) is incredible! It would be a far cry to assume that each and every PHR general has become a tactical genius overnight, and in my opinion we only have to look to their two new game changing units to explain this sudden rise to power; the Medusa and Valkyries.

The experimental units over the summer were good releases for everyone, and many labelled the Scourge as the 'winners' of the release (Eviscerators and Screamer/Raider), but the PHR definitely came out on top. Combined with the PHR's incredibly solid fire base, the Medusa offers a durable, dangerous and flexible attacking option to lead the army. Where once their troops were slow and predictable, the Valkyries can jump up to 12" between buildings, meaning speed is absolutely no longer an issue. On paper they may look good, but when you combine all of these aspects with the robust and dangerous existing units they really are game winning. It's not so much what these ladies can do on their own, but it is how they synergise with the rest of the force. If you back a Medusa up with a pair of Helios there is literally nothing they can't deal with.

It is worth noting that Hawk have plans to tweak the Medusa and she definitely needs it. Dave mentioned an upping by 10 points and a reduction to 8DP (but with 10 shots still), although I'm not convinced this is enough. When asked if the Valkyries need changing, I make this noise; "EErruurrghhhhh..." For those of you unfamiliar with it, this is the 'I'm not sure, on knee jerk reaction it feels like yes, but maybe not?!?' noise. It is probably worth noting that the chap who was 1st did not have a Medusa, but did use Valkyries.

So, where does this leave everyone else? For some factions in a weird place. It looks like Resistance fared far worse this year, but if you take into the number of extra players they did as well as I expected (most of OB had thought Resistance would win this year, we certainly didn't bank on this level of PHR dominance!). Shaltari dropped down the pecking order, and it will be interesting viewing for the future to see if the nerf hammer has hit the spiney cosmic swines too hard. Perhaps the biggest concern should be for the two starter armies though; Scourge, and in particular the UCM.

The Scourge have always been a tricky army to use and get the most out of, but I can't help but feel that things have become a whole load more difficult over summer. Unless you take a Raider and Screamer, as a Jelly you don't really have an answer to dangerous troop types (like the Medussa and Freeriders), and this can give you issues as far back as the list building stage. I found that I had to play very conservatively to squeeze the most points from my games over the weekend.

Problems seem even worse for the UCM. With only two gamers in the top 20, they have nose dived in average placement. It is hard to lay a finger on specifically what the issues are, but I have a couple of ideas. Firstly they are not really that good at anything. Scourge have their speed and CQB, Shaltari their manoeuvrability, PHR their guns, and the Resistance their toughness. The UCM are fine at all these aspects, not good, but OK. In most game systems this balances out, but I'm not so sure it does in Dropzone any more. Although they had some good units over the summer there was nothing to write home about, and I can't help but  feel perhaps the current meta is just out of their reach at the moment. My second thought is that they are (mostly) every players first army, due to the 2 player starter. I spoke to a fair few players over the weekend for which Invasion was their first ever tourney, and of course they were using UCM. DzC is very much a game where experience trumps dice, and with a whole load of new players entering the game average placement is bound to fall. Should we be worried that both armies in the 2 player starter did so badly? I'll let you make your own mind up about that one.

All in all Invasion was, as it always is, excellent. You can expect a picture dump over the weekend, but if you're impatient and hungry for the image just check out our Twitter feed (@OBDZC)!