Honours even.

After a few weeks off from gaming, I was back in action this Tuesday with a new player at the club called Marcin. He is quite new to WM/Hordes and certainly wants to make an impression (and with an all beast Circle list he certainly did). We agreed upon a 35 point game in which I modified my previous pSeverius list:


Grand Scrutator Severius (*6pts)
* Blessing of Vengeance (7pts)
* Vanquisher (8pts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)
Exemplar Errants (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer (2pts)
Holy Zealots (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Holy Zealot Monolith Bearer (2pts)
Exemplar Errant Seneschal (2pts)
The Wrack (3 wracks) (1pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)

I wanted to see the enhancements that were brought by the Exemplar Errant Seneschal and UA. With their new skills my trusty Errants would be seen in a different light. I swapped the Knight Exemplar Seneschal for the Errant Seneschal (and a set of Wracks, Sevvy loves extra Focus), while the Reclaimer stepped back to make room for the Errants UA. Looking at Marcin’s list of five beasts (four heavy and one light or three heavy and two light I cannot remember) led by Kromac, I felt a little apprehensive. So we went into the game and Marcin had the first turn in which he moved through forests rather speedily towards my line. My turn saw a steady advance the Blessing, Choir, Zealots and the Old Man. I followed up with the Vanquisher who happened to be in range (range 14 thankfully) and launched the Flame Belcher towards a forest containing a heavy beast (I always forget which are which, also it was a proxy for another anyway which confused me more). Unfortunately, this beast had Stealth so I had to go for the model next to it. Kromac. I hit and rolled quite a bit of damage which was nice. I was then wondering what to do with the Errants as they were not within charge range but could advance and then shoot their crossbows (the Seneschal gives Hunter) only to be charged afterwards. I then realised that the Vassal hadn’t yet activated yet, so I put him behind the Vanquisher and used Ancillary Attack so the Vanquisher cracked off another shot with the Flame Belcher.

GAME OVER in one turn.

This was a nice situation where the right models were in the right place at the right time. As the game was over far too quickly we swapped table edges and began again. This time Marcin gave me the first turn. After a general advance on my part, Marcin used his Warp Wolf (or Feral Wolf) to head my Errants of at the pass while the other four beasts and Kromac advance towards my line.
Once again I won’t, or can’t, go into detail because of the piece of Swiss cheese I call a brain, so I’ll give a brief review of how everything played more or less.

Sevvy: … I’m still angry so I’ll come back to him.

Vanquisher: played it’s part in causing some damage on the oncoming beasts, ably aided by Vassal, Choir and Eye of Menoth.

Blessing: did what an Arc Node should do (although I forgot the +2 to damage because of it’s bond with Sevvy) until it got pummelled by four beasts.

Choir: sung their songs with gusto, and one even put two points of damage on a beast.

Vassal: Helped the Vanquisher with Ancillary Attack a few times.

Zealots: Only had one turn of bombing causing quite a bit of damage, although not enough, before the Monolith Bearer popping his mini-feat and becoming human shields. Sadly this didn’t stop them from getting picked off with magic.

Wracks: used two out of three for their focus, both blew up sadly next to no-one.

Exemplar Errants: I put them too far out in their flanking manoeuvre. The Pathfinder ability given by the UA was extremely useful, as was the Hunter ability conferred by the Seneschal. Running and shooting through forests is so cool. Half of the unit got wiped out by the beast that came towards them, but Marcin didn’t know that they were all Weapon Masters. The beast was torn to pieces by the remaining five Errants, the UA and the Seneschal. Unfortunately, this distracted them for too long and they were not involved in the rest of the game.

Bloody Severius: Started off with upkeeps and allocation of Focus. Used the Blessing’s Arc Node once, but was then hampered by Kromac’s Bestial Spell which stopped all spell casting. Hid behind the Zealots out of the eyes of the oncoming beasts. Once the ‘jacks, Choir and Zealots were dealt with, Severius faced the remaining four beasts with Kromac behind them. With the all the beasts in bad condition (one had two points of damage left, another had five while another was half dead) Sevvy had the opportunity to finish them off. With a full compliment of Focus, plus another borrowed from a Wrack, He went to cast Ashes to Ashes (in the hope of hitting the first and then hitting the d6 closest targets). He needed a five on 2d6 and rolled a three. Ashes to Ashes was expensive to cast so, put off by that, he changed to Immolation. Rolled a four. Tried again and rolled four again. No more Focus. In Marcin’s turn, Sevvy was in base to base contact with three beasts. Kromac and the last beast were just behind them. Two meaty hits and Sevvy was done for.

As you can imagine, this was a fairly big anti-climax. One of the better Warcasters in the game and he couldn’t come up with the goods when it mattered. I can offer no excuses for the Old Man. If he could have got rid of the nearest three beasts, he would have just been out of threat range from Kromac and his last companion. This may have given the Errants time to rush in and distract Kromac, but it wasn’t meant to be.
I have to say it was a fun game against a new player, and I was learning the differences between Hordes and Warmachine. But I have never come up against an all beast (or all ‘jack) army before except for Battlebox demo games. I asked myself on the train home that if I knew I was up against a force without infantry, would I have changed the composition of my own force? I have enough in the way of Warjacks to do so, both heavy and light, and I was thinking that maybe I would have changed. But sitting down to write this, I know that Zealots used properly with their UA can be bad new for heavy ‘jacks or beasts. So can my Errants, especially with their new friends. So maybe I wouldn’t. Looking back to the game, the Zealots held up play which may have given the harder-hitting Errants time to make their mark at my opponents rear. I realise that my list can comfortably compete against this type of enemy.

Next week I have a game against Mark, who I played a few weeks ago when he realised he was 24 points light when picking his force. I’ll think I’ll give Kreoss a go this time as I hope he’ll be leading my force when I take part in the Scrap Metal II event in the second half of August.