August (for want of a better title).

August. Not a particularly good month gaming wise. Not for me anyway. I have played three games down at the club this month and it’s needless to say that they were all very good. So off the top of my head:

Game 1: Steve and his Legion

Possibly eThagrosh with a beast heavy list. Steve had some forest near his deployment zone and camped in there for the game inviting me to go to him. I didn’t really want to as my army would be picked off bit by bit, and being fairly slow I couldn’t make get to him quick enough. Once I did get close enough, a couple of heavy beasts (?) chewed through some Cetratii and smacked Xerxis hard in the face a few times.

Game 2: Steve (not the same one) and someone else’s Cryx.

Not the Skorne vs Skorne game we planned, but still a good one. Satyxis Raiders proved to be my downfall and dispatched my Arcuarii on one flank and a big scary jack did it’s business to my Cetratii on the other flank. I can’t quite remember how Xerxis fell (or I choose not to remember) but he did. Again. Still, I hope Steve steers clear of Cryx (although he did field a very good list).

Game 3: Jaden and his Skorne (last night).

Mirror match – Zaal vs my Xerxis. My conservative play saw my force get bogged down again. When I did try to outflank Jaden’s swordsmen with my Swordsmen he responded by casting Last Stand and leaving me with only four left in my unit I would have hoped to give a good response but couldn’t really as my UA had been chopped down, I therefore lost Side Step and any chance of doubling my opponents loses. In the same turn, Jaden used Marketh to cast Last Stand again (which was quite a good move) on his Nihilators. These started to break through my Arcuarii. I did make some positive moves with my first my Bronzeback and then my Gladiator when, in successive turns they slammed whichever model was standing in front of Zaal. The collateral damage from the Bronzeback’s slam caused eight points of damage while the same from the Gladiator only caused one point. Sadly for me neither of these beasts had the means to cause any more damage (Bronzeback had no follow up, even with the Train Wreck animus, he didn’t have the range to hit anything else and the Gladiator was already running hot with fury). My last hope was for Xerxis to Combo Smite Zaal’s next meatshield (Jaden’s own Tyrant Commander) and hope that this would inflict the last six points of damage. For this to happen I needed two things.

Firstly, for my last two Cetratii to clear a path to the TyCo by killing a Swordsman and the TyCo’s Standard.
Secondly, I really needed Jaden to forget that Zaal had one point of fury to transfer the damage.
Sadly, due to the law of the sod, the first point was only half met and the second would never had happened.

All in all, three great games with a lot to learn. I am really happy with Marketh’s usefulness, although Jaden used his Marketh to greater effect. I should use also put Xerxis’ and TyCo’s Battle Plans to better use and get both units of Cataphracts up the table quicker. I should also keep the Swordsmen back as they can be quite vulnerable.
The month has been good for painting however (see last post). At the weekend I managed to finish off my Cetratii, although I am going to try to figure out how to effectively pin their weapon arms.