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So after many failed attempts to get my non-mini-gaming friends addicted to Warmachine (they liked the battlebox games, but were intimidated by the multi-part minis. And couldn't be bothered to actually read the rules....) I finally broke down and joined a WM/Hordes league at my FLGS. I'd missed the first session, but the seccnd was Easter Sunday.

Most of my painted minis are Menoth, but as there was already a Menoth player, I decided to try Cryx instead (the other 500 point army I've got painted).

My list

Asphixious, the Iron Lich (Gaspy)
Skarlock
Slayer
Nightwretch
Deathripper
Deathripper
Bane Knights x6
Bile Thralls x10
Pistol Wraith

The other 6 players in the league when I signed up were: 1 Trolls, 1 Circle, 2 Legion, 1 Menoth, 1 Mercs. With 1/3 of them Legion (Eyeless Sight) I didn't bother with Denny or other stealth models.

First game: Legion of Everblight, King of the Hill
His list:
Saeryn
Carnivean
2 Shredders
10 Blighted Archers + UA
3 Elk-riding Light Cav
Soul-collecting solo (name escapes me)
Bone Grinder and 4 followers

The only terrain feature that really mattered was a large low hill, with a little forest in the center of it.

Deployment: I put my Nightwretch, Slayer, PW Skarlock and Gaspy in the middle of my line, right behind the forest on the hill. Biles went to my right, with a Ripper on the far flank. Banes to the left, with a Ripper on the flank. He deployed his solo on my left, along with the Shredders and Carnivean. The Blighted Archers went on my right, with the cav on my far right flank. Warlock and Bone Grinder unit formed a pack behind the Carnivean.

First turn I ran a few Biles and the Nightwretch onto the hill, to get the first control point. Everything else moved up cautiously, and both Rippers went wide. (I forgot about my PW in the forest in my zone, and didn't move him - oops). He moved everything up cautiously, putting a Shredder and his Carnivean on the edge of the hill to contest it. He was out of range for shooting. He put a 5" smoke cloud in front of his archers.

Second turn I moved more of the Biles onto the hill, trying to stay out of charge range and keeping some back just in case. The left Ripper moved in, and I arced a Hellfire to destroy the soul-collecting solo before it got powered up. I tried to arc a Breath of Corruption on his Warlock and BoneGrinder, but it was out of range and scattered to nowhere. The Banes got powered up with Scything Touch from the Skalock, charged his Shredder on the hill and easily killed it. Gaspy, Skarlock, PW moved up onto the hill. 2nd control point to me.

His second turn he charged the Carnivean into the Bane Knights (yay!). He forgot to use his Breath, and just whaled around with his claws and maw. Which killed 5 of the Bane Knights, but the Shadow Shift attacks left the Carni with only 4 life left and no Spirit. His other Shredder charged my left Ripper. His Archers opened up on my Bile Thralls, killing seven of them (!). Ouch.

Third turn I ran my Slayer across to the right flank, hoping to use him to block LOS to the rest of the Biles moving up. I decloaked the PW and shot at his Archers, but missed both shots (urk). On the left, the Bane Knight Lt. finished off the Carnivean easily. It got back up with 3 life from some spell, so I Hellfired it dead again. The left Ripper dodged out of combat with the Shredder, and both it and the Nightwretch moved into position for arcing onto the 'lock and Bonegrinder. Of course, I activated Gaspy to move him into position, then moved the Slayer, so I was left with Gaspy sitting on 6 FOC and no chance to cast (doh!). 3rd control point for the hill though.

His archers did a CRA and totaled my Slayer (!). The cav did a driveby to shoot the PW and one more Bile Thrall, then ran away (instead of moving up to engage my Skarlock and threaten Gaspy - I don't know why...).

Fourth turn I sent my left Ripper to chew apart his last Shredder, then arced a Breath of Corruption on his command unit. Rolled poorly though, killed a few minions and that's it. One of my two remaining Biles got to within 6" of his perfect line of Blighted Archers, one purged, and wiped out all 10 and the officer! The 1 remaining archer fled. He had nothing on the hill, so Gaspy and the Skarlock grabbed the 4th (of 5) control points.

His fourth turn...he conceded (?!). I'm used to people conceding in 40k, but it's always possible to pull a win out at the end in WM/Hordes, so I was surprised. I think he was disconcerted by the loss of his Carnivean and by the Bile Purge.

He did pull a bit of a spank move when we went to mark our league cards - I claimed the primary victory condition, but he maintained that I hadn't completed it - that by accepting his concession, I forfeited that extra league point. Whatever, it was my first game and I smoked him, so I let it ride.


Will post second and third games later...

That sounds like he just gave up without really exploring all his options...

Congrats on the win, though I would have argued for the LP.

Good luck on the rest of the league.

col.manny wrote:That sounds like he just gave up without really exploring all his options...

Congrats on the win, though I would have argued for the LP.

Good luck on the rest of the league.

Thanks!

Yeah, this guy was very excitable and quite loquacious about his own units' capabilities, but seemed to get really bummed when his master plan fell apart (ie when any of his own models died). He insisted on conceding a subsequent game against another guy too, because he "knew how the next turn was going to go" and he knew he would be dead. Weird - his precognitive abilities didn't seem very accurate with regard to his battle plans, so I'm surprised that he trusted them so much as to how his opponents' turn would go.

Game two: I played a game against a guy who wasn't in the league, but what the hey. Straight caster kill.

His List:

Warwitch Deneghra
Skarlock
Slayer
Harrower
Defiler
Deathripper x2
Necrotech and 2 Scrap Thralls
Pistol Wraith

All the hills were on the sides; there were little forests in each DZ and an LOS-blocking tower in the center. A few hedges center left.

He won the deployment roll but elected to go second. I deployed my Bane Knights right with a Ripper, Biles left with a Ripper, everything else center. He put his PW, Harrower and Scrappies on my left. Everything else pretty much center.

First turn we both moved up cautiously. I put Scything Touch on the Slayer. He decloaked his PW to shoot my left Ripper, but only winged it with one shot (no Death Chill!)

Second turn I moved up again, and arced a Breath of Corruption onto the scrappies, blowing both up (sadly, they were just out of range of the Harrower and the decloaked PW, who I was hoping to tag. Oh well.) I moved Scything Touch over onto my Bane Knights, and charged the Slayer. I was only able to get 3 onto him unfortunately, and two missed! The one who hit still took off one arm though (charging weapon masters rock!). My right Ripper went deep, out of Gaspy's ctrl, to get an angle on the squishy rear of his forces.

His second turn he moved his Defiler up, shot my PW (4 points of damage + corrosion). Denny Feated, arcing 2 venoms into my Biles, killing 4 (they were pretty spread out so it was hard to get more than a couple under the template). She then threw a Crippling Grasp onto my Slayer (making him DEF 9, ARM 13!) His PW winged my left Ripper again with a single hit despite its lowered DEF, and took out the cortex (meh, not bad - still a moving arc node, if not a running one). His Skarlock ghost-walked the Slayer out of the Bane Knight's melee range (damn!) and into my Slayer. One swing of the claw plus the goring tusks and my Slayer was a scrap heap. Yikes.

My third turn, my PW died to corrosion. I successively moved up 3 Biles to purge on his Slayer, Defiler and Ripper. I ended up tagging my own Ripper and Nightwretch too (whatever). Then I moved in the deep field Ripper, arced Breath of Corruption on the Necrotech (hoping to scatter onto Denny, but no luck). The Nightwretch moved to 4" from Denny and I arced a boosted Hellfire onto her. Feated for 7 more focus, arced another boosted Hellfire onto Denny, won the game!

This was the guy's 4th game ever, and he did really well. His triple-spell turn with Denny really rocked me back on my heels, and he was smart enough to ghostwalk out of combat with the biles instead of fighting them. He Feated perfectly and blew my heavy away. If he'd had better luck with his PW shots he would have stopped my arc nodes.

Can't beat the Gaspy Hellfire - Feat - Hellfire for a game-ending move though.

I should try playing Gaspy more as a flanking assaulter - charge, get some sustained Soulsplitter attacks on a warjack, Shadow-Wing away. Haven't done that much. The sustained Soulsplitter charge + Feat for 7 more attacks (perhaps at P+S 17 with Scything Touch from the Skarlock) is something I'd love to drop onto an unsuspecting tank caster like Darius, Vlad or Feora. The arcing Hellfire seems to be working very well for me so far though...

This guy was a real pleasure to play. He kept apologizing for 'taking so long' to figure out his FOC allocation, but he was really fast for someone just starting actually. And he was obviously having fun the whole time. Much nicer than concession-dude.

Third (second league game) to be posted next!

I think in our area a concession leads to full league points.

I'd offer it up if it were me (usually I only concede when
there's a time crunch). I remember playing a league game
where the guy was stopping me cold at every turn, but
he wanted to get every league point he could get, which
gave me an opening where I could assassinate Hexeris
with Severius's Immolations.

Exciting stuff, that.

malfred wrote:I think in our area a concession leads to full league points.

I'd offer it up if it were me (usually I only concede when
there's a time crunch).

Yeah, it seemed pretty petty to me, and I won't fall for that one again. Whatever though. I don't really care about league points as much as getting more games in.

malfred wrote:I remember playing a league game
where the guy was stopping me cold at every turn, but
he wanted to get every league point he could get, which
gave me an opening where I could assassinate Hexeris
with Severius's Immolations.

Exciting stuff, that.

Awesome. That's what I love about this game as opposed to 40k - it's always possible to pull off a win even when you've got almost nothing left. It keeps things exciting till the end.

Which brings me to game 3: Crossed Lines vs Menoth

His List
High Exemplar Kreoss
Revenger
Devout
Redeemer
Full(?) Choir
10 Zealots + MB
10 TFG + UA
Piper

Crossed Lines is an odd mission, where you alternate placing deployment markers (3 each) that can't be within 12" of each other. Then take turns deploying a) one unit, or b) one battlegroup, or c) all solos: each deployment has to be completely within 6" of one of your deployment markers.

I got first marker (C1 for Cryx), and put it in the middle of the board, on a low hill with a small forest on it (the point was well away from the forest). It ended up with my other two markers (C2 and C3) making a triangle off one side of the hill, with the forest pretty much in the center of the triangle. His three points were evenly spaced around my first marker, with his centermost one (M1) on a small hill.

Let's try some ASCII: M and C are deployment points for Menoth and Cryx, "f" is forest, "/" is hill, and "." is open ground level terrain:

......................................................
.......................ff............///////////...
............M3......ffff............///M1/////..
.......................ff.................//////////
.....................................................
........../////////////////......................
......../////ff///// C1/////....................
.........///ffff////////////......................
..C2...////ff/////////...................../////
.............................................../////
.................................fff......M2..////
.................C3...........ffff...............//
.................................ff..................


I placed my Biles down on C1, he put the Zealots+MB down on M2. I ended up with the Bane Knights on the C1 as well, with the battlegroup and solos on the rear point farthest from the Zealots (C2). The rest of his forces went on his centermost marker M1, with the Redeemer, Choir and Kreoss on the hill; the TFG, Revenger and Devout in front of the hill; except for the Piper (who went behind the Zealots).

I got first turn! Whew. I figured I could pop a lot of Zealots and possibly get my Banes up in his face. Well. I ran a Ripper over to his Zealots and arced a Breath of Corruption onto the center of his tight-packed mob, hoping for a lot of simultaneous deaths. Nope, scatter, only killed two - now they were DEF 16 ARM 16. I arced another Breath of Corruption, but it missed completely! Uh... hmmm.... So I ran the Biles forward at his main force, spread to max skirmish formation, and charged the Revenger with the Bane Knights, stringing them out to allow for Shadow Shifts. Failed the charge: 1/4" out of reach range, dammit! Hmm...everything else moved up onto my hill to get ready for next turn.

His first turn he advanced Kreoss, cast Lamentation, POM on the TFG, and then Feated. The Feat knocked down all the Banes and Biles, as well as my Nightwretch and Slayer (who were barely inside Kreoss' ctrl). The TFG called for Iron Zeal and charged, spreading out across his entire front and engaging both Bane Knights and Bile Thralls. The few Biles at the back who weren't killed on the charge died to Redeemer rockets. The few Banes at the back who didn't get engaged by TFG got firebombed by GodMode Zealots.

Sooo...it was turn two, and I was down to my battlegroup, PW and skarlock. His TFG were Def 14 (16 vs charges) ARM20 due to Iron Zeal; his Zealots were indestructible this turn. Kreoss was behind the TFG sgt, and I had nothing lined up for a slam sadly. Okey-dokey - I advance my nearest arcnode (the Nightwretch) over to the edge of the hill. Well over 6" from Kreoss, though I could see him behind the TFG due to being on the hill (Kreoss was >1" behind the TFG sgt). So the Nightwretch shot at the TFG sgt. It scattered onto another TFG, whose ARM20 easily shrugged off the POW 7 blast. (WHOOPS - the nightwretch had been knocked down, which we both forgot - it shouldn't have been able to both move and shoot. Didn't matter in the end though, since its shot accomplished jack diddly).

Arced a fully boosted Hellfire down at Kreoss, knocking him down to 1 life with a very nice damage roll. The Menoth player looked at my 1 Focus left on Gaspy, and gave a smile of relief. Which fell when Gaspy Feated to replenish his Focus, and arced another boosted hellfire down Kreoss' throat for the win!

This was a real up and down game! I thought I had it in the bag when I got first turn, reasoning that I could charge the Bane Knights in and decimate his army with Shadow Shift attacks. When he feated on his first turn, wiped out ALL of my infantry and set himself on super-defense mode, I figured I was done like dinner. But Asphixious really does last-ditch assassination better than anyone, even Denny IMO.

I ended up with a *lot* of league points, as I got two extra for knocking off the 2nd place Menoth player and one extra for the primary victory condition for Crossed Lines (caster kill) giving me 7 for that one. Plus 3 for my first win gave me 10, putting me just ahead of the local pressganger, who had grabbed 9 points on the day I had missed.

Ok, I guess I do like League Points after all...

Crossed Lines is a bad mission, and most players I play against refuse to play it.

I once pulled off the dreaded first turn assassination in this mission, and have never played it since.

I was playing Skarre, my opponent had Caine. Our casters were set up fairly close together and I won the roll to go first. 'Nuff said.

The guy I played was not happy...

That's why you keep your deployment points spread out, and you don't put your vulnerable stuff close to something that can kill them.

I've never had a bad game of Crossed Lines, and we used to use it regularly in our league.

Maybe I just haven't seen the right caster/army in it.

Strangelooper- great reports, thanks!

Certain armies might crumble under crossed lines, though,
especially the ones that rely on other units and have
trouble standing on their own.

That being said, I'd like to try it.

Mannahnin wrote:That's why you keep your deployment points spread out, and you don't put your vulnerable stuff close to something that can kill them.

I've never had a bad game of Crossed Lines, and we used to use it regularly in our league.

Maybe I just haven't seen the right caster/army in it.

Strangelooper- great reports, thanks!

In some cases that is easier said than done. And you haven't play Crossed Lines until a good Skarre player has played you. The game could end before you get a turn (as happened to my opponent).

IMO the problem is there are too many points on the table. Three per player means you almost have to have two opposing points nearby. When that happens any assassin caster is going to kick @$$. It's very difficult to keep the two casters apart...

Malf- But the scenario doesn't require you to split your army up (unless your force is too big to fit within a 12" diameter circle). You can deploy everything around the same point if you want.

Manny- I suppose it depends on how many deployment drops you have. If you have more than the Skarre Player, you can always guarentee not to be near her.

Also, since you start with full focus, your armor is pretty good even for the wimpy casters. Assuming Feat + Boost, how strong is the Sac Strike going to get? No more than about 20 + 3d6, is it? More commonly around 18 + 3d6, IIRC. Which should leave even wimpy casters like Caine alive unless you roll really high.

What's a Black Ogrun ARM? 16?

So POW 21 + boost?

I think Black Ogruns are ARM 15, but Bane Knights are ARM 16.

So, yeah. POW 21+3d6.

Got another League game in yesterday, vs Trolls.

His List
Doomshaper
Fell Caller
Impaler x2
Dire Troll
Krielstone Bearer + 4 scribes
Troll Champions x 5?

His Impalers both bonded from his previous game: one got defensive (gives extra +2 DEF when screening, and gives extra DEF or ARM (?) when in Base to Base), the other got something that gave it Pathfinder.

My list: same as above.
My jacks from the last game got no bonds :(

Mission: #2 (can't recall the name of it): 9 control points evenly spaced over the table - once your model crosses one, you claim it (until your opponent has a model crossing it). Whoever has most control points at end of turn 8 (!) wins. Terrain was pretty evenly spaced, with two small forests just his side of the center line (one left, one right) and two hills on my side pretty much opposite the forests. Plus a bunch of stuff on the sides that didn't matter.

Well, I was pretty happy to outnumber him, until I saw that each of the Troll Champs was ARM17 with 8 wounds (!) That means they each had the defensive power of a Slayer Helljack, pretty much Yikes.

I put a Ripper on each flank (just inside ctrl area), the Biles left behind the wider hill, the Bane Knights right just central to the other hill. The pistol wraith went on the left and the rest of my stuff went dead center. He put his Krielstone unit on my left with the Pathfinder Impaler, and the rest of his forces dead center (Champs out front, Dire Troll, then the rest).

Cryx Turn 1: Ran everything, take my 3 control points. Slayer angled left (ie away from the Champs, towards the Kriel unit). Moved Gaspy and Skarlock left a bit to gain cover of the forest on the wider hill, and Gaspy arced a Breath of Corruption in front of his main force to block LOS. Of course it scattered off to the right and did nothing. The Biles spread out with the front guys up on the edge of the left hill, trailing back towards the right in an "L" shape (to keep at least some of the unit out of range of spells and missile fire). The Banes angled towards the center.

Trolls Turn 1: He rumbled everything forwards. Dumped a bunch of Fury onto the Krielstone, then started listing off the various DEF/ARM bonuses he was getting from all the Krielstone etc. synergy. I made a note to treat the Kriel unit like a Menoth Choir (ie exterminate them before they could help his Beasties).

Cryx Turn 2: My righthead Ripper was out of Ctrl range, so he just advanced to claim the center-right control point. He'd be wide ranger this game. The two other bonies got 2 FOC each. The left ripper was perfectly set up to go Impaler-bowling, so I ignored the center-left control point in order to try to Slam the Pathfinder Impaler into the Defender Impaler (only 4 inches from him). Boosted to hit on the slam: got him! Roll for distance...1". Oh well. My PW advanced, decloaked (with the lefthand forest blocking LOS from the main Troll group), and pipped two Scribes (failed both Tough rolls), pocketing 2 souls and more importantly reducing the Krielstone range - his Champs were no longer in buffing range of the unit (perfect).

The Banes and Biles advanced (Biles stringing themselves out even more, leaving the rear models where they were), trying to stay just out of charge range from the Champs. My nightwretch (with 2 FOC) advanced to park on the center control point, 3" away from and right in front of the Champs. Gaspy moved up, arced Parasite onto the Champs through the Nightwretch. Then I chortled as I declared a Nightwretch shot on his now ARM14 Champs...then realized that I'd already finished its activation and forgot to shoot it. WHOOOPS! Heh. Damn. That was a bunch of setup for NOTHING.

Trolls Turn 2: His Champs charged my Nightwretch and totaled it in about 3 hits. Ouch. Dire Troll positioned itself for countercharge, behind and to my right of the Champs. Fell Caller sang Reveille and Pathfinder Impaler stood up for free (!), aimed and whipped a big spear point-blank into the Ripper 1" in front of it. Took the Head and Cortex clean off, and slammed what was left 6" back with a critical. Nice. The other Impaler killed my corporeal Pistol Wraith (I've still never gotten an ensouled shot off of him, ever). More riling and dumping of Fury.

Cryx Turn 3: Well, I felt he'd played into my hands actually; the error with the Nightwretch did more than its shot might have. I upkept Parasite on the Champs, put a FOC on the Slayer and kept the rest for Gaspy. Then I waddled the Biles up, staging them in a perfect staggered purge line. Popped the front one off, nailing all the Troll Champs (at -3 ARM) and Dire Troll and even the Warlock. Then popped 3 more, which only hit the Troll Champs; but all three hit all the Champs, and only 1 Tough roll was made (on the second purge - that Champ died to the 3rd one). Only the Champ leader was left, with 1 wound remaining. So then I charged the Bane Knights in - one to the Champ leader, and 3 on the Dire Troll (the other two were too far back). Killed the Champ leader AND the Dire Troll (charging weapons masters FTW!).

For good measure, the Slayer on the left side of the board charged the Scribes, killing both handily. Was out of range of the Krielstone bearer though, so I walked my headless Ripper over the center-left control point and forward around the Slayer. The Skarlock moved up and cast a Hellfire at the Krielstone Bearer, smoking it (again, failed the Tough roll). The far-right ranging Ripper walked over the far right control point to claim it.

Excellent turn for Cryx.

Trolls Turn 3: The Pathfinder Impaler advanced through the forest and hit Gaspy with a spear for 5 damage (I still had 2 FOC left over boosting my power field). No Critical, thankfully. Quite chagrined at the loss of all of his infantry, the Fell Caller got indigestion and burped all over the Bane Knights, killing 3 (including the Lt.) with the spray. I used the Shadow Shift to move my trailing Bane Knight up to the Warlock and whack him (he transfered to an Impaler). Doomshaper then killed the BK, allowing me to Shadow Shift another one up to him and take a shot (missed!). The Defender Impaler killed that one; my final Shadow Shift didn't need to be concerned with Formation, so he went back and sideways to just barely engage the Pathfinder Impaler, making sure he'd get a freestrike if he moved next turn.

Cryx Turn 4: Moved the Skarlock up and cast Parasite onto the Defender Impaler. Charged the Slayer (with full FOC) past the Fellcaller and into the Impaler. What's that, the Fell Caller is a weapon master? OOPS. The free strike as the Slayer charged past left the Helljack's arm on the ground. Oh well, the one-armed Slayer knocked the unwounded Impaler down to 4 left, with two boosted hits of his good arm. Sadly the tusks missed, so the Impaler did not go down.

Next, I waddled a few more Biles up to do the staggered purge on the Fell Caller and Warlock. The first one killed my Skarlock (oh well) , wounded the Warlock for 4, and killed the Fell Caller - but he made his Tough roll! The second purge put a few more points on the Warlock, and the Fell Caller made his Tough roll again! The third purge was too far back to hit the Warlock, but this time the Fell Caller finally went down.

The last Bane Knight hacked at the Pathfinder Impaler, but missed. Gaspy charged in, boosted to hit, and bought a second attack to finish it off. Then he Shadow-Winged directly to the right, putting him slightly rear and right of the board center, with Biles in front of him blocking the charge lanes. The right-hand Ripper moved back towards the center to get into CTRL for next turn. The left Ripper merrily trod over the far left control point, giving me 8 of the 9.

Trolls turn 4: Doomshaper Feated (spending FOC gives d3 damage, when in CTRL) and killed a bunch of Biles with some spell or another, but Gaspy was too far away. The Impaler totaled the Slayer in close combat with two stabs. Uhh...he only had those two models left. Mind you, I only had one fully working bonejack, one headless/cortexless bonejack, and a few Biles left.

Cryx turn 4: the healthy Ripper moved in towards his remaining models. Gaspy moved back and right, and was able to get outside of Doomshaper's CTRL by about an inch. Boosted Hellfire + normal Hellfire (arced through the Ripper) = baked trolls, even with the transfer (the Impaler had only 4 life left for transfering. I didn't even need to Feat!

No bonds for my two Rippers, again :(

Analysis: Well, my perfectly set up combo failed because I didn't realize that my plan called for activating the Nightwretch at two separate times (oops). But by tempting the Warriors to charge my cheap model, I was able to smoke them easily. Parasite + Bile Purge is awesome. Bane Knights on the charge are awesome. Bonejack bowling isn't worth it when the opponent can stand up for free(!). Taking out support units early (Kriels) was very very useful.

My opponent did have some terrible luck with his Tough rolls, its true. However, the multiple Bile Purges would likely have killed most of the Champs, even had they made a couple of more Tough rolls. Biles and Banes do very well when no one is shooting at them - I'm glad he didn't field Scattergunners or things might have been much more difficult.

Sending a boney deep (out of CTRL) to bring back in for the end-kill is very effective, especially with a Shadow-Winging Gaspy.

This put me at 3rd place in the league (down from 1st, but a few people were playing 750 pt games so were getting more points). I'm still only 3 pts behind 1st place, but I'm going to miss the next league night on April 6 (out of town).

Still, undefeated!! I think I may try Dirty Deneghra next time, just to change things up a bit (assassination by Venom instead of assassination by Hellfire...)

Are you always this productive in the league? That's a lot of
games! I'm guessing you live/work nearby to your FLGS?

Strangelooper wrote:
Sending a boney deep (out of CTRL) to bring back in for the end-kill is very effective, especially with a Shadow-Winging Gaspy.

This hasn't worked out for me the few times I tried it with Severius. I
call it my Hail Mary and it always required the warcaster to have fewer
health than I dealt. In other words, I needed to be hitting it sooner
so that I could deal enough spell damage to win.

malfred wrote:Are you always this productive in the league? That's a lot of
games! I'm guessing you live/work nearby to your FLGS?

This is my first league, so I have no idea!

But the way the schedule works, this week the league days were 4 days apart. We play one Sunday, then that Thursday (4 days later), then a week Sunday (10 days later), then that Thursday (4 days later) etc. So it's two days every 14, but they're clustered. I got in 3 games in 6 hours last Sunday, and only one game in 3 hours this Thursday (didn't get to the store till 7pm, had to wait for people to finish their first games that they had started at 6pm, and the store closed at 10pm). I'm not going to be able to play for 2 weeks now, since I'll miss the next Sunday game (Apr. 6th).

I'm lucky to have a game store just 3 subway stops away from where I live; it's about a half-hour on the subway from where I work.

malfred wrote:

Strangelooper wrote:
Sending a boney deep (out of CTRL) to bring back in for the end-kill is very effective, especially with a Shadow-Winging Gaspy.

This hasn't worked out for me the few times I tried it with Severius. I
call it my Hail Mary and it always required the warcaster to have fewer
health than I dealt. In other words, I needed to be hitting it sooner
so that I could deal enough spell damage to win.

You mean with a Menoth node while fielding Sevy? Or when playing Cryx against Sevy?

If the former, then it would be trickier. Revengers are a lot slower than Deathrippers, and they are double the points so it's harder to justify sending one off to muck about till the last turn. Maybe in 750 pts it would work. I think the lower speed and the generally shorter range of Menoth direct damage spells would make it a lot harder.

If the latter: well, Sevy can't be targeted by spells, so that throws a crimp in the plan. You'd have to move one of your own models up close and arc Venom (with Deny) or Breath of Corruption (Gaspy) into your own model to catch Sevy in the blast/spray (and boost the damage roll against Sevy). But if you can get a model close enough to Sevy to use BoC, then you could just kill him in combat with that model in the first place...

As a Protectorate player fielding Severius.

I've been able to spell assassinate with him before, but
not always through the node unless the enemy makes a
mistake. Usually I have to surprise them with a "charge my
own guy to get 3 extra inches movement" kind of thing to
get into casting range.

Mannahnin wrote:Manny- I suppose it depends on how many deployment drops you have. If you have more than the Skarre Player, you can always guarentee not to be near her.

Also, since you start with full focus, your armor is pretty good even for the wimpy casters. Assuming Feat + Boost, how strong is the Sac Strike going to get? No more than about 20 + 3d6, is it? More commonly around 18 + 3d6, IIRC. Which should leave even wimpy casters like Caine alive unless you roll really high.

When I blasted Caine I rolled really well (I believe I rolled an eighteen!). When I Sac Strike it's to end the game, so it's always 20+3d6.

I believe there were six points on the table, with each of us grabbing three. Our casters started relatively close together (my opponent set Caine and Battlegroup up after me).

It won't work on every caster, but the match up I had then pretty much meant that since our casters started close together it would be a short game...

Strangelooper wrote:He did pull a bit of a spank move when we went to mark our league cards - I claimed the primary victory condition, but he maintained that I hadn't completed it - that by accepting his concession, I forfeited that extra league point. Whatever, it was my first game and I smoked him, so I let it ride.

While many say its a bitch move, he was looking at the end of the league and overall standings than thinking about one game.

Its the same as setting a list up to prevent people from scoring a bounty in last years league.

3rd League day with Gaspy led to 2 losses! So much for my undefeated record.

Game 1 vs Menoth, King of the Hill.

His army:
Reznick
Crusader
Devout
Revenger
10 Zealots + MB
full(?) Choir
Reclaimer Solo
Piper
Vilmon
2 Wracks.


Big hill in the center, and I put a forest in the middle of it for something to hide behind (and hoping to charge the Bks through it). None of the other terrain mattered at all.

He deployed first. From my left to my right: front line: Vilmon, Crusader, Devout, Revenger, Zealots. 2nd line: Reznik, Choir, Piper, Reclaimer.

I did my standard deployment with a core of Gaspy, Slayer, Nightwretch, Skarlock in the middle and Ripper on each flank at the edge of CTRL. BKs went on the left (opposite the Jacks/Reznick), Biles on the right opposite the Zealots.

The Wracks advanced deployed: one just to my left of the hill, the other one on the hill behind the forest.

First turn he runs jacks and Vilmon (impervious), nosing the jacks onto the hill for his 1st control point. Everything else moves up cautiously, chanting/praying no-spelly.

My first turn I ran the left Ripper onto the hill. Arced a Hellfire into Vilmon and rolled terrible, for a measly 4 pts of damage. Made my 2 game-breaking mistakes here: One, I should have boosted the damage on Vilmon (I wanted to have enough FOC to try to pop a Wrack and damage the Jacks); 2nd, I didn’t send the second hellfire at Vilmon to finish him. Instead, I Hellfired the Wrack behind the forest, but it wasn’t close enough to damage the jacks when it blew up :( . Moved everything else up carefully, nosing enough onto the hill to get my control point.

His second turn he runs Vilmon (impervious) up onto my side of the left half of the hill in front of my Banes, taunting me. Choir sings no-spelly; the Devout uses spell shield on Rez and inches forwards. The Crusader charges my Deathripper, disabling it with a boosted Inferno Mace attack and totaling it with the open fist. He runs the Revenger onto my side of the right half of the hill, arcing “catch on fire and run into the nearest guy, setting him on fire too” onto a Bile (which runs into another Bile). Casts same spell again on another Bile, which runs into my incorporeal PW. Moves the Zealots up in loose formation praying no-spelly, with Rupert piping Tough and sheltering behind the Reclaimer (both nosed onto the hill). He has everything but the Choir touching the hill now, and takes his 2nd point.

My Turn 2. 3 Flaming Biles died , but the incorporeal PW ignored the fire. Loaded up the Slayer with Focus, charged the Revenger for a fully boosted Combo Strike. But rolled poorly, and didn’t take out a single system. Charged the Crusader with the BKs, ignoring Vilmon (no free strikes, yay!) but positioning such that he is in the front arc of at least a few of them in case he drops the Wall and tries to sneak away. 4 BKs made it to the Crusader, 3 hit, and ripped off the Inferno Mace (plus assorted minor hull damage). Should have disabled it, but rolled poorly for damage. Ah well, I figured it would go down to shadow shifts on his turn. Moved the PW out to the right midfield, decloaked and shot the Zealot priest (yay for crack shot!). The Reclaimer got the soul unfortunately (he was closer). Missed my 2nd shot at the Reclaimer. Tried a boosted Nightwretch shot at his solos, but was just out of range and scattered to nowhere (grr…).

Gaspy and the Skarlock were right behind the forest on the hill, very close to Gaspy.– the Lich cast a Hellfire at Vilmon (needing a 6) and missed! Ok, whatever, still got the Skarlock. At this point I made my 3rd error – I should have Feated to get more Focus for another Hellfire (or at least for overboosting). The POW 5 might have killed some Zealots too, if I hadn’t used the PW first and given them +4 ARM. (Sigh). Oh well, the Skarlock should kill Vilmon – he needs a 6 to hit with Hellfire, and rolls SNAKE EYES . I did my best to cover Gaspy by running Biles so that two of them interposed between Vilmon and my caster. No control point – he had more units on the hill :(.

His Turn 3: Piped for +2” move and ignore terrain (heh) on the Zealots. Advanced them right into the forest, went GodMode and threw a whole bunch of bombs. One hit did 5 pts to Gaspy, the others all scattered about and killed my Skarlock and the screening Biles, as well as some BKs. Vilmon fired up and Flying Steeled - he managed to avoid leaving the BK's reach range while still getting into range of Gaspy, and carved him up handily for the game.

Damned Vilmon, I really figured that 3 Hellfires would take care of him. Argh. Still, a good game! The Zealots advancing at +2” into the forest surprised me a lot.

Well, I realize my mistakes: I should have taken Vilmon completely out on my first turn with a second Hellfire. I should have moved Gaspy up early in the turn and Feated to nuke the Zealots and possibly Choir with the POW 5 before the Zealots went GodMode – I could have ShadowWinged back if necessary.



Game 2: vs Circle, Killing Fields.

Well, I almost won this on points – despite being unable to touch his army at all, while he destroyed mine almost to the model! First time I’ve played Circle, and wow it was a learning experience. I learned that I hate the slowed synergy of the #@$%@ing Circle….

Annoying Circle Army of Denial:
Baldur
6 Druids
Totem Hunter
Woldwarden
Warpwolf
Woldwyrd? (antimagic thing)
Invisible stone of generating explosive-spray guys

The terrain was the same as before. The right-hand objective was largely hidden from him by a small LOS-blocking ruin. The center one was just to my right of the forest on the central hill. The left one was out in the open.

I deployed first, in the same set up as in game one. He deployed everything but his solos as a brick, with his Druids and Baldur in the back. Warpwolf to my left, Woldwarden and Wyrd to my right. The Totem Hunter deployed away from the brick, far to my left side, and the Invisible Stone of Irritation advance-deployed in the middle of the right half of the board (opposite my Biles).

My Turn 1:
Ran everything forward, wanting to start accumulating control points ASAP. Landed the left Ripper on the left one and the Nightwretch on the center one. The Slayer ran up behind the Nightwretch ready to countercharge. My righthand Ripper didn’t quite make it to the rightmost control point. Gaspy and Skarlock angled left to stay behind the forest on the hill, casting Scything Touch on the Slayer. This put the righthand Ripper out of CTRL, but it wouldn’t need to run next turn (and it wasn’t high POW enough to hurt the Stone of Irritation). The PW ran up behind the Slayer, Biles and Banes ran forward in loose formation. 2 control points to me.


His Turn 1:
He moved everything up fairly cautiously and started the synergy with Undergrowth, creating forests etc. I think his Druids were DEF 18 or something slowed by the end of it all? The Wyrd drifted to my right, staying a few inches behind the Stone of Irritation. The Woldwarden shot my Slayer with lightning, stripping off an arm. The Stone created a spindly thing that exploded into a spray, killing a couple of Biles. His Totem Hunter charged my lefthand Deathripper and barely got into Reach range, lopping off its head. Zero control points to Circle.


My Turn 2:
Loaded up the lefthand Ripper with 3 FOC, the Nightwretch with 2. Boosted a hit on the Totem hunter and chewed him up with sustained attack – until I realized that the Ripper had no head and couldn’t bite (DOH!!!!). So I made a fully boosted bash attack, wounding but not killing the Totem Hunter, and missed with my second unboosted bash. At least the Ripper was on the left control point now. The Skarlock boosted up the Bane Knights with Scything Touch, and they charged the Totem Hunter, extending out their formation, but just missed getting into melee range of it.

The Nightwretch sat still and popped a boosted shot off at the Wyrd, but missed slightly – the scatter still got him, but even boosted didn’t do much damage. Biles waddled up on the right, spreading out – didn’t want to get into charge range of his brick yet.

Gaspy Shadow-Winged off to the right behind the Biles to bring my second Ripper into CTRL: I had written off the left (headless) Ripper at this point and the Banes didn’t need him. The right Ripper walked up and sat on the righthand ctrl point. 3 more Control points for Cryx, for 5 of the 7 I needed to win! Just one more turn and 2 of the points, no problem right?


His Turn 2:
Lots of anima synergy stuff to put everything’s DEF up, create forests and difficult terrain with concealment etc. The Wyrd shot my Pistol Wraith (incorporeal be damned – it was either a magic attack or due to his “can shoot incorporeal stuff” spell/animus that everything except the totem hunter had). The Stone of Irritation popped out another stick guy that ‘sploded killing 3 more Biles.

The Druids advanced towards my Bane Knights and landed a CRA 5” AOE right on top of them, killing all 5 that were under the template (!). He got extra damage due to my having an upkeep spell (Scything Touch) on the BKs. I took the Shadow Shift to move up to the Totem Hunter, swung and missed. I hoped he would attack the Bane, but he instead moved the Totem Hunter up onto the control point and totaled the wounded Ripper instead, managing to stay inside the BK’s reach to avoid the freestrike.

His Woldwarden charged my Nightwretch, killing it and taking the central control point. The Warpwolf warped for speed, charging the Slayer and totaling it (had to force full Fury at least). Stone of Irritation produced another spiny thing that ‘sploded to kill 3 more Biles. Baldur then managed to tag the last Bane Knight with some sort of spell, killing it, and then Feated for “can’t move into my control area”. Circle got its first 2 control points.

My Turn 3.
Well, I’d have to hold the righthand point and take one of the other ones to win this turn. The lefthand one was the Totem Hunters, I had nothing left over there. And the center one was inside Baldur’s CTRL area, so I couldn’t approach it.

I thought I’d be clever, and edged the Skarlock (who was already inside Baldur’s CTRL area, he just had to maintain distance from the ‘lock) around the woods to cast a Hellfire at the Wyrd – and got pre-emptively zapped by the Wyrd before the spell went off! Wow, didn’t know it could do that, that’s DIRTY!!! Ok…I moved my few remaining Biles onto the right-hand control point, and brought the Ripper in to screen Gaspy from charges/shots. Gaspy then arced a fully boosted Hellfire at the Woldwarden – and the Wyrd zapped my Ripper, damaging it (grr…at least no systems gone yet). At least the Woldwarden took some damage. I got one control point for 6 of 7 needed. So close! But all I had left was Gaspy, a few Biles and one damaged Ripper…

I really should have Feated, if only for the overboosting. I was hoping the Ripper could screen Gaspy from attacks and I could do a ridiculous feat turn of killing both heavies with Soulsplitter.


His Turn 3:
The Stone of Irritation produced another spiny thing which aimed and ‘sploded, killing my Ripper (!) and wounding Gaspy by 5 (just barely making his attack rolls each time). My screening jack now turned into a pile of Rubble, the WarpWolf warped for CasterKill and proceeded to smear Gaspy’s bones all over the ground. It was touch and go though – the Wolf was at full fury to boost the last attack, which just exactly killed Asphixious. Game to the Circle!



What I learned: Circle can really be untouchable – DEF 18 infantry! I stupidly spread my army out (trying for the scenario win quickly), which allowed him to choose his fights: his Druids took out my Banes, while his Stone took out my Biles. The Wyrd caused stupid amounts of damage on my turns from my spellcasting.

Next time I face circle, I will dangle one bonejack at a time to harry him until the brick loosens up (with the Slayer hanging farther back for countercharge – it’s got a 9.5” attack range). I ended up offering everything up to him at once, like a buffet. A not-very-tasty dead buffet, but a buffet nonetheless.

The Banes should have waited to charge his heavies, instead of wasting their time on the Totem Hunter (and getting into Druid-death-spell range). They would ignore the undergrowth for charging at any rate. The Biles should have ran around to threaten the Druids with Purging, instead of stupidly hanging out around the Stone that was killing them. And I really, really should have engaged the Wyrd with a Deathripper before slinging spells around. A fully loaded Ripper might have been able to chew up the Wyrd with sustained attacks. And a Ripper with Scything Touch could have eaten the Stone of Irritation, I now realize (POW14).

I should be willing to Feat defensively for overboosting if necessary. All I really needed was to survive that turn to win – he might have been able to get the Woldwarden into spell range of the Bile on the righthand control point, but if not I would have had him. Should have Feated, Shadow-Winged Gaspy and camped on it.

Despite losing both games, I had a great time and learned a lot. I’m getting a bit faster at playing too (though I’m still slow for the guys who are used to tourneys). I actually advanced from 5th to 4th place, due to the 4th place guy not having shown up. Both the guys who beat me were already ahead of me, so I didn’t get bumped down by them.

Three more weeks for the League! Now I need to finish painting my Harrower, Helldiver, Stalker and Soulhunters in the next 10 day (!) so I can play some 750 pt games.

Next League day with Cryx.

Well, since Gaspy bit it twice last day, I decided to change up casters. I managed to finish painting up Skarre, the Pirate Queen and figured she’d be fun to try out.

And fun she was! Won both games (vs Legion and vs Trolls). Dark Guidance plus Skarre’s Feat is just overwhelming, especially with Bane Knights and a Slayer. Though even one of my Deathrippers got to kill a Dire Troll on the feat turn.

I never even used Sac Strike. Mostly because the Warlocks kept enough fury on them for multiple transfers, and there weren’t any juicy unit leaders / solos that were near enough.

My 500pt list:
pSkarre,
Slayer
Deathripper x2
Nightwretch
Skarlock
Pistol Wraith
8 Bile Thralls
8 Bane Knights


Game 1: Crossed Lines vs Legion.
Same Legion guy as last time, but at least he finished out the game this time!

He had;
Rhyas (duelist chick)
Carnivean
Seraph
Shredder x3
Blighted Archers x10 + UA
Shepherd
Forsaken? Or some other solo, don’t remember.

My 3 deployment points were in a triangle – one smack in the center on a hill, one about 12” to the right of center due right behind a small forest, and one about 8” back (behind the hill. His were arranged in a semicircle around mine.

………………………………….
………L1…ff………L2……….
…………...ffff……………..……
…………….ff………………..hh
.L3…………………..fff……hhh
.………..hhhhhhh….fffff…...hhh
……….hhhC1hhhh.…fff……..hh
…………hhhhhhh… C2……….h
………………….……………….
……………….C3……………….
…………………………………..


Legion won first turn and put the Blighted Archers down on L1. I responded with Bile Thralls on C1, spread out (with the Lt behind the hill). He put his solos down on L2, and I put my battlegroup on C2. He responded with his battlegroup as far forwards from L2 as possible, with his Carni and Seraph almost inside the forest. So I put my Bane Knights down inside and to my right of the forest, to block charges. My solos went on C3.

We’re practically in each other’s faces before the first turn – this is going to get bloody!


Legion turn 1:
Blighted Archers do a combined volley and kill a few Biles (not many due to being spread out). All 3 Shredders charge in with Tenacity and kill more Biles (leaving only 2 left). Carnivean moves onto the far right hill and Dragonfires some Banes, killing 2, then sprouts Spiny Growth. Knights shadow-shift to keep blocking the charge lanes. Seraph moves up slightly to my right of the forest and strafes, but rolls poorly and only kills one Bane. Rhyas moves up, hiding behind the Seraph and camping Fury for transfers. She’s also got some spell on the Carni that gives her a free transfer to it.

Cryx turn 1:
1 Focus to the Slayer, 5 on Skarre. Skarlock casts Sacrificial Lamb on the Bile Lt, getting 2 focus for next turn. The last Bile waddles up and purges, nailing 2 shredders and Rhyas for a few points each (Rhyas transfers). Pistol Wraith runs up over the hill toward the Archers.

Now for the gold: Skarre casts Dark Guidance (for all 5 of her remaining FOC) and Feats, cutting herself for 5. Now everything has +1 die on melee attacks, +5 STR and +5 ARM for one round. The Slayer charges the Carni and kills it in two P+S20 bitchslaps and a P+S17 gore, despite Spiny Growth. The Bane Knights charge the Seraph and cut it up, but it needs a Deathripper to sashay up with a P+S17 bite to finish it off. I kept Skarre back…no way to get into combat with Rhyas this turn, and didn’t want to take a charge from her next turn.

Legion turn 2:
Well, he was pretty disheartened having lost both of his Warbeasts. One of his Shredders frenzied on my Skarlock, eating it. Rhyas moved up to start attacking Bane Knights – killed one, and decided not to go invisible. A shadow-shifting Bane Knight (still under Dark Guidance for the extra melee attack die, and at P+S16 and weaponmaster) killed her in one shot: it dealt enough damage that even with transferring to a wounded Shreddie, Rhyas was toast.

Game to Cryx!

Conclusion: Skarre’s feat + Dark Guidance is MONEY, especially on Bane Knights and the Slayer. I never even used the “skarre-bomb” with sac strike (which is admittedly less worthwhile when fighting Hordes and damage-transferring warlocks).


Game 2: Pendulum vs Trolls
Doomshaper
Fell Caller
2x Dire Trolls
Troll Champs
Krielstone Bearer and scribes
Some troll solo who can actually read (the Covenant of Trollblood or equivalent)

Terrain: a bunch of hills and trenches on his side of the board, a bunch of forests on my side. A big stone pillar in the center of the board. Only the big stone pillar and the annoying charge-preventing trenches really mattered.

Deployment:
I won the roll and took first turn. My Skarlock went down with the Biles on the far left, and a Ripper. The Slayer, PW, Skarre and Nightwretch went in the middle. The second Ripper and Bane Knights on the right. He put down his army all on my left side, in a refused flank. Dires out front with the Champs, then solos and Krielstone, then warlock bravely leading from the rear.

Cryx turn 1:
Refuse flank, eh? Bah, redeploying shouldn’t be difficult for the speed faction. I ran everything. Biles and Skarlock angled right towards the center of the board (the rearmost Bile falling under the Skarlock’s knife for a good 5 FOC), Bane Knights ran forward and left a bit. Nightwretch went left, the lefthand Ripper came towards the center.

Trolls turn 1:
Everything moved up. Both Dires ran straight forward, flanking the Champs (one Dire ended up just behind the central pillar, though he had a network of trenches protecting him from charges. The Trolvenant read his first passage (Feign Death) for the Champs. Lots of Fury manipulation.

Cryx turn 2:
1 FOC to the Nightwretch, 3 to the Slayer, 7 for Skarre. The Nightwretch ran up onto a hillock to the left of the pillar, right in front of the Champs. Skarre moved up, keeping the pillar between her and most of his forces, and arced 2 Blood Rains into the Champs. Ended up killing one, and laying Corrosion on the rest (yay!). The Slayer walked up to the central Dire Troll and slashed at it with boosted damage, taking out its Mind and a few other boxes despite the Krielstone’s ARM bonus. Both Rippers and the PW moved up on my right, crossing over the center line to score the first (and as it turns out, only) Control Point; they took position on low hills overlooking the trenches. The Bane Knights to position themselves between Skarre and the Dire/Slayer combat. The Biles continued to drift right to stay out of battle and fulfill their duty as Focus Factory Farm. They ended up to the right of Skarre and the Banes. The Skarlock stabbed a Bile for the big 6 FOC!

Trolls Turn 2:
Doomie healed the wounded Dire’s Mind, cast his Animus on him then Feated (damages anything that spends FOC in his ctrl area). The Dire proceeded to two-handed throw my Slayer all the way into Skarre, knocking both it and her down! The Slayer took a lot of damage but didn’t lose any systems; Skarre took 9 points! Ouch. Everything else moved up, the solos and Warlock staying far to my left behind the Krielstone unit and the Champs. Corrosion went out on 2 of the Champs. The FelChamps charged and easily dispatched the Nightwretch. Both the Champs and the flanking Dire were over the center line (preventing any more Control Point gains) and had a pretty clear charge lane to the center on my side of the pillar.

Cryx Turn 3: With 12 FOC, but facing damage for using it too close to Doomshaper, Skarre assigned 3 FOC to one of the Deathrippers that was within 7” of the wounded Dire Troll, and kept the other 9 (for ARM if she couldn’t get out of range, or for healing/spells if she could).

First, the Biles moved forward, stringing themselves out. The front one purged, nailing 3 scribes (killing them – guess they forgot their tough pills) and the wounded Dire (no damage). The PW materialized and picked off the last scribe and the Krielstone Bearer (whew) – failed all the tough rolls again! The PW did use the soul from the first kill to boost the hit roll of the second.

Skarre sacrificed her action to get up. She moved 7” back and right, getting out of Doomie’s ctrl area. Dark Guidance, Feat for 5 (cutting herself down to 2 life left!), then healed herself for 4. The 3-FOC Ripper walked up to the wounded Dire and ate him in two chomps at P+S17 sustained attack, taking a few points himself from Doomie’s Feat.

The Banes went left to block the charge lanes of the Champs and the flanking Dire, packing themselves tight to be able to Shift well.


Trolls Turn 3:
The flanking Dire Troll ran around the Banes, staying outside of their Reach and came in to engage the two closest from behind. The Trolvenant read some passage which gave extra damage vs anything engaged by a Warbeast, and put that on the Champs – who then charged the Banes. Much carnage ensued; I used Shadow Shift to shift out of combat with Champs who hadn’t attacked yet and take shots at the Dire Troll. With ARM 21, P+S 16 weaponmaster ShadowShift attacks, the Dire Troll died quickly. Two Champs bought it as well, and I only lost one or two Banes in the deal. Doomshaper or the Fellcaller cast something that let the Champs attack back if they got attacked…

Cryx Turn 4: The remaining Bane Knights engaged in attack/counterattack/ShadowShift mayhem with the Champs. Banes won, despite the last Champ making two Tough rolls in a row (third was the charm). With the store closing around us, and only Doomie and the Trolvenant left (the Fellcaller had died to a Shadow Shift attack sometime in the previous turn), the Troll player ceded caster kill.


What I learned: Skarre is awesome, especially her Feat. And especially her Feat + Dark Guidance. With the Skarlock making FOC out of Biles, she’s never unable to Dark Guidance despite the 5 FOC cost, and usually can fully charge one Jack as well. I’ll have to try this “Sac-Strike” thing next time, I never needed / had the opportunity to use it. More useful against non-transferring warcasters as opposed to ‘locks, anyways. I also want to charge Skarre herself into something and dust it personally with Takkaryx. I’ve barely started to explore her potential!

League Points: 25 now. Only a few points behind the 3rd place guy, but the 1st place (Circle player from last week) is sitting on 70-odd points (!). He pretty much plays 750 pt games only and tends to win...

Sacrificial Strike becomes more of a threat than actual use
unless you're dealing with Vilmon or some other hard to kill
solo standing on the table.

malfred wrote:Sacrificial Strike becomes more of a threat than actual use
unless you're dealing with Vilmon or some other hard to kill
solo standing on the table.

Yeah, I could never justify overexposing Skarre to actually use it, especially against 'locks with transfers. Mostly I was hoping to use it against Unit Leaders in high DEF units (like those Circle Druids!) and/or solos. But it never really came up. In the first game, I needed all my BKs to block charge lanes, he kept a lot of Fury on his 'lock for transfers, and his solos were nigh useless (and the Archer leaders were way on the other side of the board, wasting their time shooting Biles). In the second game, in the one turn I would have used it, Skarre was knocked down after taking her own Slayer to the face, and needed to move to get out of Doomie's Feat (so had to sacrifice her action).

Ah well. I plan to use it against those irritating "can't shoot me/can't magic me" Menoth. If I can sac strike the Monolith Bearer and it fails its Tough roll, then I can PW the priest and cast multiple Blood Rains and/or charge the BKs/Slayer into the rest of them and hope they run away / corrode. Might be a fun Trample for the Slayer actually, considering the terrible P+S of zealot clubs. If the MB makes its tough roll...I might have to try to shoot it with the PW till it dies.

Stuff to try tomorrow at the next league night!

Last Day of this League, I managed to get in 3 games with my Skarre list (as above).

Brief synopses:

Game 1: King of the Hill vs Circle: Baldur, Druids, Tharn Ravagers, Gnarlhorn Satyr, Woldwarden, Woldwyrd.

I moved everyone up cautiously, putting a couple of Biles and Bane Knights on the Hill. His Tharns had declared one of my Rippers to be prey, so it just redeployed 14" the other way with the Banes in between (haha). The Pistol Wraith managed to kill a single Tharn (the others were too far away and had Stealth, which I didn't realize - first time facing them) and put a few points of damage on the Satyr. Unfortunately, when i moved a Bile up onto the hill, the Satyr countercharged it (WTF? Cool ability...yikes).

So during my second turn, I was hoping to Sac Strike on the Druid Leader, or at least the Tharn leader - but he cannily kept his leaders too far back for that. So with 12 Focus on Skarre (good Sac Lamb from the Skarlock 1st turn) I decided to whale on the Satyr. Skarre charged in, cast Dark Guidance, and started whacking with Takkaryx. It took 5 blows (and 5 damage from Life Trader) to down the thing due to abysmal rolling. Still had 4 FOC left for armor. And moved a Ripper in to block charges.

However, next turn he killed the Ripper with spells/Druid blast, and a charge from the Woldwarden finished Skarre with a nice 16 on 3-dice damage roll.

Ok, I got way too greedy. I felt like I had to do *something* with 12 Foc, and I couldn't hurt him any other way than by attacking a Beast (everything else was Stealthed or magic-warded). What I should have done was Feated before charging Skarre, not bothered with the Dark Guidance, and I would likely have still been sitting on 8+ FOC (for 28 ARM). Ah well, I was saving the feat for an attack turn. Greedy.


Game 2: Pendulum vs Menoth: Reznick, Devout, Revenger, Reckoner, full Zealots + MB, Choir, Vilmon.

Turn 1: I ran a Ripper up and threw 3 Blood Rains at an out-of-range choirboy, hoping to scatter onto the spell-warded Zealots. Sadly, only tagged a few jacks and Reznick (got Rezzy corroding, heh). My nightwretch threw a boosted shot at his Reckoner, doing a fair bit of damage to the cannon arm. This got him upset and he went godmode. moved the Zealots into a side-by-side arc, and spent 6 of 9 bombs killing my Ripper, heh. The other 3 killed a couple of Bane Knights. He also arced Witchhammer on a Bane, catching Skarre in the blast (so no spells!), then arced another spell to set fire to a Bane and ran it into Skarre to light her up (I can't believe that spell is so cheap...1 FOC!?!). The Reckoner shot an arm off of the Slayer.

Turn 2: The fire on Skarre went out, thankfully. Skarre feated and Sac'd a bane knight on Rezzy, knocking him down to 2 life. Three Banes and the Slayer charged the Revenger, toasting it. One other Bane locked up a bunch of Zealots. The Pistol Wraith had floated through the Zealots, and tried to pop Reznick - but the Devout jumped in the way (oops). Skarre camped FOC. Vilmon killed the Nightwretch with a free strike (dammit).and the Reckoner shot the Arc Node off of the last Ripper.

Rezzy cast Witchhammer again, knocking off Skarre's camped FOC and blocking her spells again. The few Zealots who weren't engaged threw bombs, and managed to kill all but one Bane (and one of their own Zealots too). Vilmon walked up to the Slayer, staying in his front arc to avoid a free strike but getting LOS and within 2" to Skarre, who was cowering behind him. Luckily he only rolled a one for Flying Steel, so his single attack left Skarre with 3 life remaining (yikes!).

Turn 3: My few remaining Banes moved right to get out of the way (one dying to a lucky damage roll from a Zealot club on the free strike...). A single Bile walked up and purged, killed all the Zealots except for one (they had +4 arm from having bombed their own guy their own turn, apparently) and the MB. Also tagged Reznick for 1 damage, heh. Then Skarre Sac-Striked the last Bane and Rezzy folded, game over. No wrackage for Skarre, yay!


Game 3: Pendulum vs Legion: Saeryn, Shepherd, 6 Blighted Swordsmen, 5 Incubi, 3 Elk-riders, Angelus, Seraph, Shredder.

Did quite well at the start - the Banes took out the swordsmen, and there were hilarious Incubi-bursting-out-attack then Shadow-Shift hijinks for a few turns. Lost 2 bonejacks and the Pistol Wraith to the Elks (they're nasty!) but managed to take out 2 of them with a double-Bile purge. Unfortunately, one of those purges tagged Skarre for a bit too (whoops) while leaving the Elk commander alive. Skarre did manage to wound the Angelus with a Sac Strike, and take out the Seraph with a single Sac-Strike on her feat turn. Unfortunately, Saeryn feated to protect her entire (what she had left) army, and she moved the Elk commander and the Angelus into combat with Skarre. She couldn't risk the free strike, and I stupidly moved the Banes to engage the Angelus instead of moving one up for Skarre to Sac. The Angelus ended up spearing Skarre mightily with the old armor-piercing tail.

Still, it was a good game and we took out most of one another's armies. Saeryn has a really annoying spell that caused POW 12 in a 5" AOE (!) and caused 1 damage to anything ending its activation in there. Effectively protected the Angelus from a Bane charge...


Ended up in 4th place (of 10) with 31 league points, just behind the Legion guy I fought last (with the Menoth guy in second, and the Circle guy in 1st). I do have to be a little less aggressive with Skarre, or at least more willing to use her Feat defensively...

I'm finishing the paint on 3 more jacks (Harrower, Stalker, Helldiver) and 3 Soulhunters to get me up to 750 for the next league (and for the CanGames tourney in Ottawa on May 17)!

Makes me excited to paint up Reznick!

malfred wrote:Makes me excited to paint up Reznick!

Yeah, he's pretty sick. It's nice that his feat messes up Warlocks too (no transfers, suckas!). Just make sure you use his Feat *before* you move your Vilmon up to whack the opposing caster - in my second game Sunday, he did it in the wrong order and it cost him the win. But that 1 FOC spell to burninate 2 troops at a time is pretty nasty, especially with Wracks for extra FOC when he needs it (forgot to mention he had 3 Wracks that game). Reznick definitely can use the Devout for ranged/magic protection though.

I'm thinking of running Sevvy with multiple Revengers, multiple Choirs and multiple Repenters (Eye of Menoth + Infuse = RAT 7, or 9 when standing still, on an effective POW15 spray with autofire) in 750 when I get my Menoth up and running. Hordes seems to have issues with Arc Nodes, so even if Sevvy's Feat does squat he can still arc from 16" away. FOC 8 and Ashes to Ashes should help with high DEF/low ARM Hordes stuff that tends to run in bricks. Death Sentence + Redeemer rockets would be very fun vs Warlocks, to use up their transfers before engaging them and/or spraying them down with Repenters...

Ah well, one more league with Cryx while I paint up the religious nutbars for the following one!