Slow Grow Tourney - game 1

Luke used pretty much the same list as he did against me a fortnight ago.
Lord Arcanist Ossyan
* Phoenix
Dawnguard Sentinels (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Dawnguard Sentinel Officer & Standard
* Soulless Escort
Heavy Rifle Team
Heavy Rifle Team
Stormfall Archers (Leader and 3 Grunts)
Arcanist
Arcanist
Dawnguard Destor Thane
Dawnguard Scyir
* Griffon
* Griffon
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios
Narn, Mage Hunter of Ios
Ghost Sniper
Ghost Sniper
Mage Hunter Assassin

I won the roll-off and let Luke go first. The scenario was Destruction. Luke and I both set up in fairly wide lines.

TURN 1

Turn one saw a huge general advance as usual with Luke’s Griffons being driven out front and Narn and the MHA moving so quickly down my left flank. Luke started taking shots at one of my Wrastlers with the Ghost Snipers and Eiryss. They caused an automatic nine points.

I advanced my army towards the forest in the middle of the table, while W+S looked to take on the oncoming Narn and MHA.

TURN 2

This would be a big turn for Luke as the carnage started with the MHA taking out Wrongeye. Snapjaw didn’t like this and seemed to vanish. The Ghost Snipers and Eiryss took another nine points of damage off one of the Wrastlers. This Wrastler was finished off by being charged by a Sentinel. The rest of the Sentinels ran around the forest to my left to protect the objective. One of them even decided to run out in front of my line and just wave his sword around for a bit. Both Griffons were marshalled forwards and took out a Croak Hunter.

My left-hand GMP retaliated and proceeded to fail to take out one of the Griffons. Even though they had back up from a Croak, they couldn’t do it.. The other GMP ran into the forest to get away from the sniper group on my right. One of the Croaks then took out Narn, leaving the MHA by herself so that she could kill the Witch Doctor.

TURN 3

Luke‘s Griffons strike back at the Gators surrounding them but have real difficulty in causing major damage. The Destor Thane decides to start taking shots at some Gators and takes out only one Gator. A few Sentinels decide to join the fray to try and occupy my front line even more while the Stormfalls race over to the other side of the field in order to protect the objective. Luke’s trio of snipers take another automatic nine points off the Wrastler while Ossyan decides to further protect himself by firing his Chronopahage Cannon into the forest. This would hamper any attempt for my   Gators to move forward.

I start the turn off by running my Wrastler into the forest out of harm’s way. One of my Croaks sees the threat of the oncoming MHA but could not even scratch her. The combined work of my left-hand GMP finally take down a Griffon and put some serious damage on the other. I think this was the turn that I feated and decided to go through the Sentinels (foolishly decline the chance of triggering Vengeance.

TURN 4

First off, Luke sends his Thane racing to behind my line in order to help out the MHA who failed to tackle her froggy opponent. Needless to say that the Thane found that it tasted just like chicken. The Scyir bombed forward to help out his Griffon but also found it tough going against a few Gatormen. More Sentinels trickled forward to further prevent me from advancing towards Ossyan. The Phoenix took a boosted shot into the forest at the Wrastler but failed that so he just stood watch. Finally, the sniper group opened fire on the objective causing another nine automatic points of damage.

With the MHA and Thane behind me I take a Gator and get him to go and engage. He causes a bit of damage to the Thane but not enough to kill. But at least the MHA is tied up. More effort is poured into destroying the last Griffon, and yet still nothing is final. I take out a couple of Sentinels and move the Wrastler over in some weird attempt at consolidation.

TURN 5

The Thane kills his opponent, thus freeing up the MHA only for her to fluff up an assassination attempt. The Sentinels creep ever closer using their Vengeance move (killing a couple of Gators in the process) and then two of them got a bit of a charge on Maelok. Fortunately for me they failed, I don’t think that I could have taken two charging Weaponmasters to the snout. The Lone Griffon swung its arms about but was in no fit state to cause any damage. Ossyan fired his Cannon once more halting the Wrastler for a bit. The snipe group put another nine points on the objective.

During my turn, I was determined to tie up some loose ends. The second Griffon was finally put out of commission. The remaining Croak blunted the threat of the Sentinels slightly by throwing a poisoned spear at the Officer, killing him. No more Vengeance moves. A couple of Gatormen cleared the threat from the two Sentinels engaging Maelok. All that was left was the MHA. I sent in the Bull Snapper and was not surprised by its lack of melee skills despite boosting the hit.

TURN 6

There wasn’t much for Luke to do except to go after Maelok. First he got the Thane to start shooting the Gatormen protecting their bokor. He managed to kill one but nothing else. The MHA then shimmied around the Snapper and decapitated Maelok without much song and dance.