Cross Slow Grow Round 2

‘Grabbing Defeat from the jaws of Certain Victory’ is not something that has happened to me throughout my tabletop gaming lifetime, but has certainly been prevalent on those rare occasions I have won a game. As a teenager, it used to be that my best friends Eldar army thrashed my Dark Angels on a weekly basis. Every now and then, just to prove that his fast-hitting Eldar were not instant game winners, we would swap forces and then he would thrash me with my own beloved Angels. But since becoming a member of Cross Gaming Club, I have found a game where every tricky situation is fixable and there is a way out from between a rock and a hard place. There is always one more trick up any sleeve.

Round 2 of the Cross Slow Grow League was no exception. I had agreed to take up the challenge from Nick the Ultimate Sweetheart. The limit was set at 25 points with the Overrun scenario. On to the lists:

Pirate Queen Skarre
* Harrower
* Skarlock Thrall
Bloodgorgers (Leader and 9 Grunts)
Cephalyx Overlords
General Gerlak Slaughterborn
Saxon Orrik
3 Scrap Thrall
3 Scrap Thrall

Bloody Barnabas
* Bull Snapper
* Blackhide Wrastler
* Ironback Spitter
Gatormen Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts)
Croak Hunter

 I won the roll-off and opted to go first.

 

I got pretty much everything to run and got Barny to lay down his upkeeps, Warpath and Iron Flesh on the GMP.

Nick ran his stuff forward towards the edge of the scoring zone. Skarre popped a Scrap Thrall with Sacrificial Strike and gained 6 more focus for the next turn.

This is the turn where things began to go a little wrong. I got my distances mixed up and my GMP charge order fell a little short of the Bloodgorgers behind the wall. Not being able to hurt Nick’s plans (and looking like I have a bit of trouble coming my way), I moved the Wrastler into the scoring zone in order to have something a bit more significant to contest the area. The Croak Hunter missed a Bloodgorger with his spear. The Spitter spat at the Harrower causing some damage but not enough to take out any of its systems. Barny then laid down a Swamp Pit for shits and giggles.

The Cephalyx kicked things off and started spraying the Wrastler and a Gatorman doing a bit of damage to the Wrastler. The Harrower came in and finished off the big guy. Skarre came forward a little and popped her Feat and cast Dark Guidance with the abundance of Focus she had which came in handy for the Bloodgorgers. Saxon activated to give the Bloodgorgers Pathfinder, which they used to charge the Gatormen and the Croak Hunter. Despite the GMP’s DEF being a whopping 16 (Iron Flesh and Dirge of Mists), I didn’t have much hope seeing charging Bloodgorgers with Gang and Dark Guidance on a Feat turn. The Croak Hunter died badly while the GMP suffered a total of 38 points of damage leaving a solitary Gator standing in defiance. The Skarlock popped off another Scrap Thrall but only rolled for one point of Focus for its mistress in the next turn.

After a devastating round, it seemed I was delaying the inevitable. The lone Gatorman killed one Bloodgorger but its second target made its Tough roll. Still it was enough to trigger the Spitter to move under Barny’s Warpath, lining itself up for a charge on the Harrower. Barny activated next and cast Iron Flesh on himself and then Flesh Eater on a nearby Bloodgorger. This failed. The Spitter then charged the Harrower. It might as well have just walked up and pulled faces at it for all the good it did. The Harrower only suffered two points of damage.

Skarre came forward to fight the Spitter but didn’t cause much in the way of meaningful damage, but she was successful in knocking it down. Two of the Cephalyx sprayed the Spitter again softening up for the Harrower to finish off, while the last sprayed Barny and the Bull Snapper causing a few points of damage on the Snapper only. The Bloodgorgers then came forward (a few taking (and dying to) Free Strikes from the last Gatorman) and charged into Barny’s face but to no avail. They did, however, finish of the remaining Gatorman.

With only the Snapper and Barny left alive, there wasn’t much to do. Except go and put some hurt on Skarre who had come forward and left herself open. Firstly, the Snapper went around and tried to free Barny from Melee but the Bloodgorger made both of its Tough rolls. And much to my chagrin, he was still in Gerlack’s Command area. So Barny popped his Feat affecting only the Cephalyx and the opposing caster. With only 10 boxes of damage left and no Focus for Overboosting her power field, she was ripe for the taking. Flesh eater was cast and needing to roll a 12 for the kill Barny, rolled a 5. Casting it for the second time and needing a 9 to kill, Barny rolled a 4. Out of fury and with no way to Skarre, it was Game Over. Or so I thought until it was pointed out that Barny hadn’t taken his movement. So he walked up to Skarre and needing a 6 to kill with his axe, he rolled and 8 to win the game.

Nick and I both thought that the game was over when I failed (botched might be a better word) my ‘magical assassination attempt’. But when it was pointed out that the game wasn’t quite over. I felt quite dirty taking the win. It just goes to show that in this game, you should never give up.

Looking back, there are things I wished I’d done different:

• Not gone first.
• Not lost my Wrastler so cheaply.
• I had gotten the Spitter to DOUBLE HANDED THROW the Harrower instead of attacking it with its pillow fists.
• Somehow used the Croak Hunter as back-up to the GMP. It has Gang and an additional die of damage against living models. I might have got him to bide his time and get to Gerlak so I could line up Barny’s Feat.
• Just been plain bold with Barny in the last turn. He would have took a Free Strike if he walked out of Melee with the Bloodgorger which would then have been transferred to the Snapper. Then with five Fury, smacked Skarre around a bit.

There are things that I wished I’d remembered:

• The GMP can give themselves Pathfinder via one of their Prayers.
• That while in a Swamp Pit, the Wrastler and Gatorman should never have taken any damage as they couldn’t be targeted. (EDIT: not sure how this works with the Harrowers range weapon with Ghost Shot).

A win is a win, but I have to say that I was ready to admit defeat which would have been a reprieve for Nick after leaving Skarre with a target on her chest. And he would have deserved the win for a flawless victory.

Cross Slow Grow Round 1

I’ll go straight into Round 1 and try and talk about my plans for this league later. So…


My first night in 2012 down at the club and I had a game against the fresh-faced Steve. For the League, he has gone with a eMadrak led Trollblood force:

Madrak Ironhide, World Ender (*5pts)
* Troll Axer (6pts)
* Dire Troll Mauler (9pts)
Kriel Warriors (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
* 1 Kriel Warrior Caber Thrower (1pts)

To counter this I debuted my Bloody Barnabas led Minions:

Bloody Barnabas (*6pts)
* Bull Snapper (3pts)

* Blackhide Wrastler (9pts)

* Ironback Spitter (8pts)
I came in a point shy of the 15 point limit but this will be made up in the next round.

The scenario for Round 1 of the Slow Grow league was Killbox. Steve won the roll off and elected to go first and setting up in a wide line. My lot were just set up in a small clump.








General advances were made by both sides with upkeeps being cast (Warpath for eMaddy and Iron Flesh and Warpath for Barny).

I think Maddy went first and laid down Blood Fury and let the Kriel Warriors charge into my heavies. They missed out on the Wrastler but took a chunk out of the Spitter taking out it’s Mind. My second turn saw Barny exercise is magical might and cast Flesh Eater on a Kriel. This was helpful to heal a couple of points on the Spitter. He then feated helping my heavies take out the five Kriel Warriors in front of them.

Maddy cast Killing Ground aiding his beasts in charging mine. The Axer didn’t do much but the Mauler totalled the Spitter after the remaining Kriels caused some damage themselves. My turn saw the Bull Snapper foolishly take on the Axer not doing much. Barny helped clear the way for the Wrastler as it charged the Mauler. Barny took out another Kriel with Flesh Eater. The Wrastler took down the Mauler with more attacks than I would have liked.

With me leaving Barny out in the open, there was only one thing that Steve could have done and that was get Maddy (who feated as well) to charge Barny. With no fury for transfers, the Gator went down in two hits.

What would I have done differently? Not a lot maybe except ignoring some of the remaining Kriels and going straight for the Mauler and maybe Barny positioning himself a bit better (I probably should have had him take on the Axer). I’m kinda happy and not happy about the list. On one hand the number of beasts was reassuring. But then on the other, I would have been really happy to have swapped out the Spitter for a Gatorman Posse to have as a bit of a tarpit just like Steve’s Kriels. Still it doesn’t matter, it was a good game. And quick too, which is quite novel.

I learned a fair bit about my Gators and cannot wait for the next round. One thing that I think will be important is the use of Warpath and it’s effectiveness. But I’m sure that I can learn the way NOT to do it against Nick and pSkarre next week.

2012 begins here

Here is the first post of the year, it seems so long since my last entry. Since then I there have been a handful of games namely those at the 42 point Vanguard event last November (which I briefly mentioned the previous post, the first game of which I broke my major streak) and a fantastic Domination release event held over at Tanelorn. I want to catch up with myself but I’m finding it slightly difficult as I have been fairly sick of writing recently trying to finish off the first draft of my novel. Nevertheless, I will push on and try and crank out some crap for you lot to read.


From late November, through the holiday period, and up to now I haven’t done much in the way of gaming. Instead I have made up for that by getting quite a bit of painting. It has been said often enough on this blog that painting is not my favourite part of the hobby, but I have made a lot of my minis presentable and tabletop ready. I was mostly spurred on by the Tanelorn Domination event and trying to earn at least a point for fielding a fully painted Skorne army. I finished off a lot of stuff, my Nihilators, Mordiakaar, a few Cyclops Savages, both Basilisks (Krea and Drake) and a lot more. In the end I failed because I neglected to finish off an Agonizer and my Cyclops Shaman. But I proved to myself that I can gather the motivation and momentum to sit down and paint. It got to the point that I was more than happy to suffer some badgering from the wife to tidy up all my minis. I did so and ended up doing an audit of with models/units need work and how much. As a result, I have now compressed my five factions and other bits into a reasonably tidy section of the bedroom and have a spreadsheet (how sad) of work to be done. Looking at the results, my Retribution force is over 85% completed while my Trolls are a little under 5% done (understandable really as their composition is no ready for action).

The work carried on after that was done. Down at the crossgamingclub.com/forum, the New Year is bringing quite a bit of change as we are starting up a Privateer Press Slow Grow league. Two dozen players getting to grips with new casters, new factions or are actually taking the plunge and starting a new games system. For this campaign, I have chosen a new faction. I had been (and still am) very tempted to start a Witch Coven led Cryx force, but common sense prevailed as I already have a fairly decent Minions force with blood Barnabas and Calaban the Grave Walker at it's head which hasn’t been used yet. I have been taking the time to get this lot mostly done

My 15 (14) point force for Slow Grow Round 1



as every round in the league carries a point for fielding a fully painted force. There has been a slight hold up as some of my minis are at a friend’s place. This was a foolish attempt at getting him back into the hobby. I thought that if he could paint a Wrastler as well as he painted his Eldar Avatar and a Gatorman Posse as well as he painted his Striking Scorpions and Warp Spiders, then he might just come back. But he has hardly touched them since I gave left them in his care. I’ll be taking them back at the weekend so I can get to work on them.

The main point is that with something to aim for with tournaments (I forced myself to paint my Retribution for the UK Masters and ETC), one day events (as I said above, I’ve painted a fair bit chunk of my Skorne for Tanelorn) and Leagues, I am enjoying painting a little more than I have done before. I am currently on schedule to finish the models needed for round two and have even made a start on the stuff for round three. My paintbrushes have never known such productivity. Even my Malifaux Outcasts crew (over halfway done) and Combined Army Infinity force (7 out of 8 models done, but all need basing) have been honoured by the presence of a lick of paint.

As it stands I have kicked off the New Year with a new outlook on painting and hope that it continues throughout the year. Now onto winning some games. ***SPOLIER ALERT*** It’s not going to happen in the next post. ***END OF SPOILER***