From my experience I’ve noticed that Frostwings are a crazy combination of Melee, Missile, AND Magic. To that I take a combined arms approach to my armies. Since you have 3 fronts I go with one army built for each function. I suggest 10 helathworth of magic, 10 healthworth of missile, and 16 healthworth of Melee.
Lets look at my force before I dissect it to it’s roots:
Melee army:
-1 Wolf Pack: the wolf pack offers speed and melee strength. They will do really well when out in the hoard army at the enemy’s home terrain.
-2 Vendicators: These heavies will provide support with saves, Smite, and a majority of Melee results. You can supplement these for bear masters but I wouldn’t suggest it. SAIs are extremely good at this point in the game.
-2 Defenders: They have the ability to get a double face without the need for an 8th face thanks to a 4 melee face. They have a 50/50 chance for maneuver or melee. That makes defenders perfect for this army
-2 Advocates: these grunts are lesser defenders, and function similarly. If you take casualties be sure to send these guys to the DUA to get your magic negation ability up and running.
Ranged Army
While smaller in size than the melee army this army will be the primary damage dealer for you. There are also lots of small units to put in your DUA to help your magic denial. Lets look at the units.
-2 Assaliers work well for both saves and results in a missile attack. Volley is amazing when it comes to a ranged arena. Combined with fly they have the same survivablility as a Devistator.
-2 Dispatchers will allow more save results in the event that an enemy force will close to melee range and give enough time to retreat back to missile range. these heavy missile units will also have more results per face than the steadier producing assaulters.
Magic:
-3 Magus and 4 apprentices will produce the required amount of magic to get a soiled ground each turn, more on that later. This group is set to be a support magic unit, using spells like Soiled ground for DUA denial, Wind Walk for extra speed, Fields of Ice to stop maneuvers and maneuver conversion. As well as a well placed Hail Storm when the opponent wants to set up a hospital in their reserves.
Terrains:
For terrains I prefer to keep my home as range based and blue as possible. For that I take the tried and true Coastlands tower. This gives the frostwings enough play for both enemy horde and campaign armies to have a wide target priority and with soiled ground in effect to really take the attrition game to it’s next level. Once the horde army is manageable you can then go for the 8th and hammer home at your opponent’s reserves.
For the proposed frontier I suggest using a Faelands standing stones or city. Since you may be relying on them for the 3 magic faces they possess, the highest number of magic faces is a grove. If you choose to use a Grove you only need worry about giving your opponent an edge in passive activation. However you can shore up your own passive by adding a coastlands grove to the mix. If you choose a city as your potential frontier terrain then you may want to rush that to the 8th face. Soiled ground on an area, attack, loose guys, unbury a one point unit, then get it back with the city’s effect. For this though I suggest a waistlands for the melee heavy terrain.
Minor terrains: 2 Deadlands knolls, 1 Coastland village, 1 Flatlands village
Frostwings care about having blue in their terrain, to a lesser extent due to Winders Fortitude only returning one unit from the BUA per turn, and black for their Magic Negation ability. Each Deadlands minor terrain in play is a unit you don’t have to put in your DUA. So these can be really helpful early game to stop your opponent with out using extra magic results on Magic Drain spells. Both the Village and Bridge give something your melee army will need to.
The Ultimate Choice Army strategies:
The first thing to remember about this army is that it is nothing without it’s mages. They are what gives you the choice of terrain and preferred attack style in this army. Use them wisely and they will reward you. Use them poorly and you will be punished heavily. The most important spell to get off each turn is Soiled Ground. This will make sure you put your chosen army in a war of attrition with your opponent. While you will be assured something in your DUA to resurrect through Winter’s Fortitude your opponent won’t be so lucky unless they are running a grove, the sad part is that you want to run a grove for your frontier terrain, more on that later.
The use of Soiled Ground can’t be denied with Frostwings. It is without doubt the best spell you have in your inventory. The thing about this spell is that both you and your opponent will loose units. However, when you fail a saving roll, while the unit gets buried you can get your guys back. Unless your opponent has control of a grove then you have the advantage of Winters Fortitude. As long as you have a frostwing unit at a terrain with Air/Blue in it you have the effect of a grove before dragon attacks go off. So as long as you control your homeland terrain you should have a steady stream of frostwings coming back to your mage army who can then filter out back to your other armies.
This army is about consistent results. You have generally 10 missile, 5 magic, and 10 melee per army. Don’t separate these armies. If some die then Resurrect them and get them back to their corresponding army through reserves.
There are two ways you can run this army. First get to the tower on your Coastlands, then missile everything you can. Another way is to run a battle of attrition using soiled ground and melee or ranged to target those who would keep you from victory. Of course there are few bad match-ups with this force composition due to its attack and march options. But it’s up to you to navigate the tumult of war to master its uses.
This, once again is a very useful article and has gone a good way to restoring my faith in Areosakind. Previously, these guys made a lot of noise and threatened a lot, and then got themselves ‘swatted’ in the second round of battle. This was a bit boff-putting to say the least. However, just as easy as they are to kill, they are also easy to resurrect, so much that you just can’t get rid of the things.
I have started using 12 health of Mages (1 Magi, 2 Magus, 5 Apprentices) and spread these out evenly with 2 and 1 health missile units. It is a bit like being attacked by a swarm of bees, hornets, or wasps. You get rid of them and they come straight back at you before you recover.
It is a big mistake to kill half the army and then sit back thinking that you have won the battle. These come back very quickly, especially if you hang on to the mages as a priority each time you take hits.