Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Had a 750 battle using Reznik for the first time this evening. I had originally planned the following 500 point list:

Reznik
Devout
Revenger
Castigator
Blessing of Vengeance
Vassal
Choir +2
Heirophant
Paladin of the Wall
2 Wracks

He wanted to play 750, so I replaced the Paladin with Vilmon, dropped a wrack, and added a unit of Exemplar Vengers and the Avatar of Menoth.

He played a mercenary contract, using the dwarf caster, the new weaponmaster dwarves, the dwarves with shields and guns, the driller jack, a dwarf jack marshal, Gorman de Wulfe, Ayana and Holt, the ogre guy with the big gun and the little helper, two light jacks with headcannons, Carvolo the Piper, and a unit of precursor knights.

The game went too long, and the turns so complex, that I can't give an accurate turn for turn battle report, but I'll try to sum up:

My turn 1, everything ran forward. Vengers and Vilmon went left, jacks in front of Reznik. Reznik cast Zealot's Rage on the Castigator. Same for his turn 1, advanced. Precursor knights on his right [my left], ready to deal with the threat of Vilmon and kneeling in front of the dwarven shield-gunners.

Turn 2, I tried to arc node some things but was out of range. Moved the Blessing of Vengeance far to the right flank, ready to get charged by his driller. I had envisioned in my mind that when it charged and grabbed me with its claw to cause auto-hits from the drill, I'd excessive repel it away and rob him of his attack. The vengers ran to get around a building in the middle of the board, and Vilmon backtracked, running back the way he'd came to get behind all my jacks and near Reznik. On his turn, he popped Madhammer's feat early, charging the drill jack at the Blessing of Vengeance and disabling its shield and then its movement. Madhammer hit the Revenger with a special shot that robbed it of its activation on its next turn. As I had Safe Passage going, he had to make it a magic attack with Ayana. I used Witch Hound to move it away from the action so it wouldn't get hurt further, but doing so cost me the Blessing [he charged it afterwards]. I regretted that decision. He also killed one of the Vengers with some shooting.

Turn 3, I cast Brand of Heresy on the drill jack and charged it with my castigator under Zealot's Rage, throttling it and completely obliterating it, using all of my focus to pummel every damage box to nothing. He had run one of the gunbunny jacks up front to stall, so I charged it with the Avatar, using gaze of menoth. I also charged the same jack with a Venger, who reduced it to 1 single damage box remaining. The vassal used enliven on the Castigator and the devout began this turn to put spell barrier on reznik. Then it moved forward. On his 3rd turn, the action started. He had great plans to use the Piper to cast dirge of mists on the weaponmaster dwarves to make them immune to the avatar's terror, then use Gorman to throw acid on it and charge it to tear it apart. What happened instead was because Safe Passage was going, he couldn't throw the acid, and so threw his oil at the adjacent Venger instead. Unable to charge, the dwarves advanced under march to start swinging. One swung at the Castigator, who used enliven to move away and rob 2 others of their attacks. The others attacked the Avatar, doing some damage but nothing critical. Madhammer used a spell on the Castigator to make it unable to attack, and in response using Witch Hound, Reznik moved forward into Madhammer's shooting range. Madhammer used his special round that halves armour. It missed, but had it hit the devout was waiting, so I wasn't worried.

Turn 4, things get really fun!

This turn was completely awesome. The avatar opened by using the gaze of menoth. Under the effects of Gorman's oil it could only move OR attack, and none of the dwarves were in its melee range. Its MAT was also -4 from the blindness, so what did I do? I attacked the 1-point gunbunny with the avatar, Incinerating it and lighting 7 dwarves, the jack marshal, and Gorman on fire. I cast Brand of Heresy on the ogre, then firestarter on the little guy that helps him, who then turned around and lit Holt on fire. The Revenger charged the ogre and annihilated it, but failed to do much else on its turn. The Castigator moved back into melee and Vilmon charged the dwarves, killing two. On his turn 4, fire went out on 4 dwarves but Holt, the little guy that goes with the ogre, Gorman, the jack marshal, and three of the dwarves died to fire. The Precursor Knights popped their minifeat and moved into shield wall to wreck the Revenger, which they did, while the weaponmaster dwarves tried again to hurt the avatar, the castigator, and kill Vilmon - they succeeded at killing Villmon, but did little else. Ayana moved and used her anti-magic pulse, catching Reznik in the radius. Stray fire killed the choir leader, ending their song.

Turn 5, should have used my feat!

I used Combustion to clear out a few of the dwarves, then sent the Avatar trampling over the last two. They failed their terror check and turned to flee, while the avatar throttled Ayana and used the Gaze of Menoth. Reznik charged one of the fleeing dwarves, killing him and turning him into a wrack, which appeared near the gun-shield dwarves. He then ordered the final exemplar venger to charge the wrack, causing it to explode. It killed two gun-shield dwarves, damaged the Avatar, killed the Venger, and also killed some solo with the "Hit the Deck!" Rule that I forgot to mention earlier. I forgot to use my feat, and it cost me. On his turn he upkept the Bump and Grind spell and allocated a focus to the gunbunny, who then ran amok bouncing Reznik and the Devout around. Due to the positioning of Reznik and the Devout, the nearly-crippled gunbunny couldn't do what he WANTED to do, and what would have cost me the game - use it to bounce the Avatar away, allowing his knights to charge Reznik. This showed me what using my feat would have done - with no upkeep and no allocation for a run, the gunbunny would have been neutered. Luckily, positioning turned out in my favor. He couldn't get to the Avatar without taking free strikes from either Reznik or the Devout, and any sort of damage would kill its movement. He also couldn't stay still because he was in the devout's melee range, who was ready for a defensive strike. In the end he just bounced reznik and the devout around, but had to do it in the same direction due to intervening models. He even bounced the Devout right back next to Reznik! The precorsor knights, the ones who COULD charge, went after Reznik. One died to the devout's defensive strike and the other two bounced off his boosted power field. Madhammer, out of options, tried to charge the Avatar and destroy its shield so he could land his spell that prevents attacking. He failed to do any damage, and thus the holy shield of the Avatar gave it enough defense to avoid being hit by his spell.

Turn 6, the end.

The avatar moved forward and after slapping Madhammer with its shield, delivered a killing blow with the Burning Wrath. For backup, I was ready to kill the gunbunny with the devout, then arc Zealot's Rage back onto the Castigator to charge across the wreck into Madhammer if the Avatar failed.


MVP of the match goes to the Avatar, who not only thinned the army and iced several solos, but neutered the enemy army with its gaze of Menoth. Preventing the charge of the weapon-master dwarves [forgeguard?] helped it to keep itself alive, as nothing else could effectively damage armor 21. On a side note, I love Reznik! Great caster with lots of options.