On the Warpath, Spring Scenario (Craig (Legion) vs Me (Convergence))

The great work begins. The Convergence knows that this Alignment Node, far to the north of the Iron Kingdoms along the borders of Rhul will be hotly contested by the sturdy dwarfs, but there can be no doubting the location chosen. Unfortunately for the Convergence, the forces of Everblight had arrived here first. Dark, winged shapes appear on the horizon, and Aurora and her Clockwork Angels rise to meet them... 

An On the Warpath Spring Scenario pitting my new Convergence of Cyriss against Craig’s trusty Legion.

Forces: Aurora with 5 units of Clockwork Angels vs an Angelius, Seraph, 4 Harriers, a Sorceress on Hellion and 2 Shepherds.

Setup: Deploy a huge based obstruction in the centre of the table. This is a Convergence Geomantic Alignment Node, which is immobile, ARM20 with has 50 boxes. The Legion player places wilderness scenery anywhere not within 6" of the Alignment Node. The Convergence player deploys his models within 3" of the Alignment node. The Legion player deploys their models anywhere within 12" of any table edge.

To Win: The Convergence player wins if all the Legion Warbeasts are destroyed or removed from play. The Convergence player loses if the Alignment Node is destroyed.

My setup was simple, Aurora and her Angels surrounded the Node all facing out. Craig stuck all his beasties in a bit of forest near a table edge and his intimidating Club Sandwich by his side.

Turn 1

We didn’t actually roll for first turn but just assumed that I went first. So I did. I thought I would go for the pincer attack to try and hem Craig in the corner and bombed forward with one unit (they had their eye on the mountainous Club Sandwich) while the rest spread out in a line.

Craig managed to get two of his Harriers (or rather their Shredder understudies). They managed to each kill an Angel. The Seraph joined the fun and strafed a couple himself.

Turn 2

After suffering first blood (or mekanical oil?), Aurora wanted vengeance. Unfortunately, and despite having Transference upkept and some CMA type action, the Angels to my left fluffed their damage rolls against the Harriers. Weak. The Angels on my right one-shotted a Harrier aided by CRA (I cannot remember if they boosted under Transference).

Craig had his engaged Harriers frenzy which pretty much meant a guaranteed kill each. The Seraph picked off the Angel that got a little too close to a valuable Shepherd while the Angelius popped an Angel from my right hand unit. The last Harrier then got the charge on the same right hand unit and killed another Angel.

Turn 4

After watching her Angels fail in protecting the Node, Aurora felt she had to get her hands dirty. And she did. She squished the right hand Harrier and then Refuged back under her Feat. Yay. The surviving Angels to my left were still struggling with their Harrier.

The Seraph and the Angelius managed to bag an Angel each.

Turn 5

The last remaining Angels were still finding it hard to kill a lesser beast and Aurora moved to the other side of the Node trying to entice the big beast forward.

It worked. The Seraph jostled forward first and strafed the Node dealing 11 damage (four boosted damage rolls at -8). The Angelius propelled itself forward and added another 19 points of damage. Not good. To add a little insult to injury here, the final Harrier killed another Angel.

Turn 6

So with one engaged, and pretty useless, Angel and Aurora herself I wasn’t feeling too confident. Aurora wanted to charge the Angelius but found herself stuck behind the Node. Dammit. She did put down some damage, but not enough to take out an aspect.

Craig immediately set about finishing off the Node. The Seraph managed to plink off another five points and the Angelius took a few hits to cause the last fifteen points needed to win the game.

This was a well thought out and fun challenge. I did think that I had the tools to do the job and probably should have concentrated on getting forward to the Shepherd first in order to limit the damage Craig’s beasts could do. I didn’t actually count on Craig sitting in a forest nor his Harriers all ‘roided up. Nor the wondrous Club Sandwich distracting my Clockwork Angels. I also didn’t count on the Harriers doing the damage they did really getting themselves a certain kill on a charge or frenzy. The big beasts didn’t need to come forward until my numbers (and I should have used this to my advantage) were reduced.

But both of us had a good time with the game.

Circle Double Header 22 Jan

Last Tuesday, I got two games in. Originally I had booked up to play Tom and his Circle in the second gaming session of the night. I arrived in time for the first session so I could watch some of the other games that were going on. The games looked interesting, so I went upstairs to the bar to get a pint and then began to watch my fellow club mates throw down. When I got back to the basement, one of our newer attendees, a guy called Darren, had bought his new Circle army with him and was looking for a game. So we grabbed a free table and got down to business. Darren had bought a pBaldur list which included the Woldwrath, Megalith, Woldguardian, a unit of Druids, Sentry Stone and Mannikins, Sentry Stones and a Blackclad Wayfarer. My Intercessor Kreoss list had been re-jigged from it's previous outing: the battlegroup consisting of Fire of Salvation, Sanctifier and (making it's debut) Guardian and these were supported by a maximum Choir, maximum Errants with UA, Knights Exemplar, maximum Vengers and an Errant Seneschal. Without anymore playtime thia week, this will be the list I will settle for Saturday's one day event.
I had won the roll off and opted to go first. This would't have had much effect on the game except maybe if I had got Darren to set up first. I basically fed the Vengers to a unit of Druids while he core of his force shuffled up through the middle of the park. I tried to get my Errants to outflank Darren's force but I had placed them too far out and movd them up too slowly. That left the central blob of everything else in red and cream to get slowly chewed up by Megalith and Woldguardian. pBaldur's feat was really annoying and Megalith kept popping Undergrowth which meant that he could laugh at the threat range of my Knights. With the Vengers gone very early and my centre being attacked at will, the game slowly ran away from me, eventually resulting in Megalith giving Kreoss a solid beating.

Next up was Tom and his Kromac flavoured circle. I wanted to give my eFeora list another run out before Saturday. Feora bought along: Judicator, Sanctifier, Reckoner, maximum Temple Flameguard with UA, Daughters, Rhoven and Co and a Mechanic.
Things did not start well at all with the Judicator missing wih it's rockets and secondary deviations resulting in one of the objectives and a TFG set on fire. Tom's Warpwolf Stalker had successfully got the drop on my Reckoner and totalled it, here Tom had managed to secure himself a shed load of CPs, making it very hard for me to now win on scenario. The Daughters were killed off early on after being Preyed on by some Bloodtrackers and I started losing stuff bit by bit. The Judicator did see some mele action, so fully loaded up with Focus it went to town on Tom's Stalker and Ghetorix. However, Judicator fluffed it's charge attack roll. Still it took the Staller down with ease and put a fiar amount, but not enough damage on Ghetorix. Needless to say that fluffing the charge attack was critical here. Tom ploughed through the rest of my army and scoring enough CPs to win the game as both Feora and Kromac were safely out of assassination range.
Misfortune played a part in this game when Feora decided to get her hands dirty. She positioned herself to fry four Bloodtrackers with her Flamethrower. At RAT 5 she needed to boost all of her attack rolls. She fluffed two of the rolls, one of which was a triple one.
No doubt it was a harsh night but one or two things lodged themselves in my mind like the positioning of Judicators's human shield and forgetting about having one of Kreoss's jack advance move before the game. It was encouraging however to see the melee damage the Judicator can cause and using Kreoss's feat a tad more efficiently.
Considering the two defeats (which takes my streak to six losses), I didn't actually feel that bad.

Cryx Double Header

After a good first game of the year, I had two fairly bad games (not the opponents, gents as always, but more for the bad match-ups). Coincidentally, they were both against Cryx. I had six games against them in 2012 winning only one (against pDenny, I lost against pGaspy, pGoreshade, Scaverous, pSkarre and someone/thing else that has been omitted from the records). However, I have to point out that the win against pDenny was due to Plod deciding to charge the caster into mine (Barnabas) and fail the assassination, leaving my head Gator an easy job.

vs Plod (Terminus)

This was such a horrible match up. I didn't have the denial tools I needed to cope with what was in front of me. If my army had been set in virtually a mirror image of what it was, then maybe I could have put up more of a fight. Indeed selection could have been a little better with me lowering the number of jacks on the table and maybe adding in another unit.
Kreoss3, and his feat especially, requires some proper thought throughout a game. In order to get the most out of the feat, placement is key. It will be about getting him to a place where he can begin to affect things with more authority. To help him out, I did pick up a Guardian so spells have that extra range.

vs Ed (eGaspy)

It's always intimidating coming up against Bane Spam, even more so when it's against Ed. I was pleased with how my new toy (fully painted, although I do need to put some grass on the base) performed. Ably assisted by Visgoth Rhoven and a choir, Judicator laid down a fair bit of fiery death. I need to be able to position my screening troops in front of it a lot better but, then again, there isn't a lot you can do about eGaspy's feat. One of the things I actually could have done was got the choir to make Judicator immune to magic. That would have saved a fair chunk of damage boxes, meaning it would easily have been ready for another round of dishing out flaming goodness.
Overall, I have to say that I'm quite please with the list I put out and will happily use it again. There are just a couple of placement issues that require refining, but that should easily be fixed.

First game of 2013

Here is the battle report of the year and my first game of any kind since 13th October. So as soon as Cross Gaming Club announced the first club night of the year, I took up Marcus’ challenge. The last time we played was January last year in our club’s Slow Grow League when we had a bout of Gatorman infighting. Sadly for me, his Barnabas soundly beat my Calaban (although I did get points for having a fully painted force). It’s the time before that I’m interested in at the moment. It was the previous encounter to our Gator-off that springs to mind. This was when I finally got one over on the Old Witch. The handful of times before that when I came up against Marcus and the Witch always ended in tears for me, so you can imagine the grudge I hold against her.

I finally got round to beating her when I fielded Vindictus. I still came out of the game fairly scarred, but Vindy held on after the OW used Unseen Path (after Scrapjack tore through millions of my dudes) to get up close and then failed to do anything else than scratching the second highest authority of the Church. Vindy thanked Menoth and took the OW down with three boosted melee attacks. So it was with this game in mind, I opted to bring Vindy out to play when Marcus stated his intention to field my most hated enemy.

With the history of this grudge out of the way, let’s get down to business.

I took:

Vice Scrutator Vindictus – Tier 4
* Reckoner
* Reckoner
* Sanctifier
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Exemplar Errants (Leader and 9 Grunts

* Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer
Exemplar Errants (Leader and 5 Grunts)
* Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer
Holy Zealots (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Holy Zealot Monolith Bearer
Holy Zealots (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Vassal Mechanik

I’m loving the free Errant UA and giving my heavy jacks Advance Deployment from the Tier list.

Marcus bought:

Zevanna Agha, the Old Witch of Khador – Tier 4

* Scrapjack
* Destroyer
* Kodiak
* Spriggan
Battle Mechaniks (Leader and 3 Grunts)
Greylord Ternion (Leader and 2 Grunts)
Greylord Ternion (Leader and 2 Grunts)
Kossite Woodsmen (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Kossite Woodsmen (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts)
Manhunter
Manhunter
Yuri the Axe

 With me winning the roll-off (needing my tier bonus to do so) I opted to take the first turn. I set up fairly wide knowing that the Kossites can take me by surprise so I tried to counter that at the first opportunity by placing the smaller unit of Errants on my right and the larger unit on my left. The jacks and Zealots were all fairly central hoping to take advantage of pathfinder in the first turn.
Marcus setup in a large cluster behind the control zone on his table half with the Widowmakers, making use of a small forest, facing my right and the Yuri led Manhunters just ahead of the zone.

TURN 1

This saw nothing but a general advance towards the Khador line. Both Reckoners setting themselves up in a forest with everything a little bit behind them.

Marcus moved his jack comfortably into the control zone and spread the Greylords out a bit more. The Greylords laid down some more cloud effects (to add to those already in play from the Tier bonus) while the Widowmakers needle the Sanctifier for a four points of damage. Yuri made his intentions clear when he charged one of my Reckoners and took out it’s cortex.

TURN 2

My left-hand Errants pushed on up to the Murder of Crows cloud and tried to shoot around it to no avail. The cortex-less Reckoner took a swing at Yuri and failed so the other one stepped up to get rid of him. My big unit of Zealots then pushed forward to throw bombs not doing much except for killing a Mechanic and putting two points of damage on OW. The rest of my turn was a non-event.

This is the turn where I felt things slip slightly out of my grasp. Marcus brought on a unit of Kossites on either edge and they both had an immediate effect. Between them they took down eight Errants and at least one Zealot. Scrapjack did what he does best and that was cause utter carnage and carve his way towards Vindy. He did get a decent hit in but couldn’t do enough to kill. Spriggan and a Manhunter charged into a Reckoner (the one with a cortex), doing a chunk of damage, but not taking out any systems. Kodiak pushed his way through a wall of Errants and Zealots, crushing a few heads along the way. The other Manhunter attempted to charge the cortex-less Reckoner but couldn’t physically squeeze between two Zealots. Finally, OW moved to a slightly better position and feated.

TURN 3

Under OW’s feat, there was not a lot that I could do. On the right side of the board, the remaining Errants and Zealots killed four Kossites causing them to fail a command check. The Sanctifier, fully souled up and given a prayer by a choirboy, smashed Scrappy around until he stopped moving (which always brings a smile to my face). After that I went to move the Mechanik to try and heal the cortex-less Reckoner, but I forgot about the feat meaning he died before he could do anything. The Reckoners both stood still and thrashed their huge sticks around. The mindless Reckoner did nothing while the other put down a fair bit of damage on the Spriggan. Zealots tried to get some cheeky scatter but didn’t do anything of note.

Marcus started of his turn with those silly Kossites to my left and they picked off a few more Errants and Zealots. Spriggan lay the smack down on the Reckoner that hurt it in the last turn. The Widowmakers moved towards a cloud and needled the Sanctifier for a couple more points. Kodiak managed to get his chain attack off and threw one Reckoner into the other which was quite effective.

TURN 4

With things looking bleak for me, it was to go out swinging. The last couple of Errants on my left charged the Kodiak for a bit more damage. Then my Zealots went to throw some bombs at Spriggan for a few points of damage. Two Widowmakers fell to the crossbows of the Errants to my right, but they made their command check. It was up to my Sanctifier to take Spriggan down, and he duly obliged. I then moved Vindy closer to the action but not doing anything with him.

Now because I moved Vindy further into the battle, Marcus got inspired. All he needed to do was clear Kodiak’s path so he could launch him into my caster. Between Kossites and Greylords, Marcus did this and charged into Vindy. Fortunately for me Vindy was DEF 17 and ARM 22 at this point, so he survived the worst. The Destroyer moved up a little closer and, more importantly, moved in front of OW knowing that the Sanctifier knew where she was hiding.

TURN 5

There wasn’t much for me to do at this point except go mad. I managed to drop a Manhunter with a Zealot bomb while the remaining Errants crossbowed a couple of Greylords. The Sanctifier charged into the Destroyer taking out it’s axe and cortex amongst all the damage caused. Lastly it was down to Vindictus, the second most important man in the Church. He hit with both initials and boosted the damage. With the last two Focus, I decided to go for it and bought another hit with boosted damage. All of this was enough to take out both arms. Menoth was smiling on Vindy.

The Kossites coming in from the left charged the last of the Zealots in their path which enabled the last Manhunter to charge Vindy. Thankfully she failed to damage him any further. Kodiak tried to beat on Vindy, but with both arms out of action (because the Mechanics didn’t have any success in fixing him), nothing was happening. Kodiak did however attempt to head-butt Vindy and failed. The Greylords moved into action and combined to Ice Cage the Sanctifier, making him stationary.

TURN 6

So Vindy survived. I started the turn by dropping another Widowmaker. The Sanctifier shook off his stationary state and totalled the Destroyer. My last activation needed me to break Kodiak into pieces and hope for the best in the net turn. Vindy did the same as the previous turn and boosted the damage on his initial attacks and buying a third with boosted damage also. I’m not sure how many boxes were left, but Vindy fluffed enough to get worried.

OW moved away from the Sanctifier to relative safety. Then the Battle Mechanics got Kodiak fully functioning again which proved to be the end of things. There was no way Vindy could survive this onslaught. Marcus wins by caster kill. 

Such an epic game in the end, we were both fairly exhausted by the end of it. I just cannot believe it had been a year since I played Marcus, but the wait was worth it. If Vindy had managed to hang on for another turn, things might have looked better for me. Both Tier lists were incredible in terms of what they added to the game with my pathfinder and jack AD and Yuri at no cost and stealth and pathfinder and upkeeps for the first turn.

The Kossite Woodsmen were the stars of the game with all the worry they caused me on top of all the Menites they killed. The way they hemmed me in meant there weren’t many safe hiding places. On my side, the Sanctifier stood out, (admittedly with a choirboy behind him) put the finishing touches to Scrappy, Spriggan and the Destroyer which was pleasing. I am really glad that I bought one last year.

What would I have done differently if I got to play this game again? I would probably have dropped the minimum unit of Zealots for one Errant Seneschal and a second choir (minimum unit, they are a cheaper option for Sacrificial Lamb) or simply two Errant Seneschals. Having at least one of them on the table could have afforded me a little more option with Hunter allowing me to do some more damage. I might have tried a bit harder to limit Scrappy when he is on an Avatar of Slaughter run. But most importantly, I should have been less worried about the incoming Kossites as they really did occupy my mind, until they came on. In the end I couldn’t do anything about the hurt they caused me.

This list is something that I’ve wanted to try for a while now and am happy that it kind of works. I hope to take this out again at some point in the near future. However, the next list to get given a run out will be Intercessor Kreoss. He was one of my holiday presents this time around (along with a unit of Vengers and a Judicator) so he won’t be painted just yet. The interesting thing about this is that, apart from High Exemplar Gravus and Fane Knight Skerryth – neither of whom I used to their full horsey potential) I have never used cavalry before in any of my games, so this upcoming game against Venethrax (I am 0-2 against this guy) should prove to be a lot of fun.

2012 ends and 2013 begins.

237 Dice, and my gaming, has been put on the back burner for quite a while now. At least it seems like a long time. I completely chalked off November in order to participate in NaNoWriMo. But some really bad shit decided to happen to me in real life in the middle of October which put paid to all my gaming for the foreseeable future. So all the painting I planned to do while taking breaks from writing in November and painting in December has not happened at all (it means that my Menoth army will not be fully painted by the time January rolls around).

But now that things have settled down a little, and Cross Gaming Club not opening up again for a little while yet, I have  got back into a gaming mind-set. So to begin with, let’s end 2012. Stats please:

Warmachine/Hordes

P - 66  W – 18 D – 0 L – 48

Infinity

P – 4 W – 0 D – 0 L – 4

Malifaux

P – 5 W – 1 D – 0 L – 4

Overall

P – 75 W – 19 D – 0 L – 56

So, it’s not quite the 50% win ratio I wanted but it’s an improvement (it’s still all about the playing and not the winning) on the 2011 record. The longest win streak was two (2) and the longest losing streak was fifteen (15) – thankfully not the famous twenty game streak of 2011. I would like to say that some of the losses, especially on tourney days, did go down to tie-break situations so I was marginally short of a few more wins. However, a loss is still a loss.

I have also, finally, got round to playing Malifaux and Infinity. Both have been fun, and I have put the effort of getting my Morat force (most of them anyway) and Viktoria crew painted. I am also happy, and sad that I steered clear of Bushido recently. It looks like a really fantastic game which is being tweaked to be better. The minis look awesome and the people playing the game sound like they are really having fun.

Painting wise, I haven’t gotten any better when it comes to technique and style, but I have improved on my patience in front of a painting table. As it stands at this moment in time, I have over 66% of my main armies fully painted and based.

So for 2013:

I’m hoping to be involved with Infinity and Malifaux bit more in 2013 by taking part in the clubs Infinity campaign and attending the Malifaux tourneys being advertised on the Wyrd forums.

As for WarmaHordes, I want to concentrate on my Menoth force a bit more. This was something I had planned back in October by wanting to constantly use the casters that I haven’t used that much. I started to utilise eKreoss and eFeora a lot for the UK Masters, ETC and for a handful of one day events after that. To start off the year in I wanted to field the High Reclaimer and Vindictus a bit more, but that was before I made a few purchases. In order to cheer myself up from my personal life, I bought Intercessor Kreoss and a Judicator. Naturally, with the new Kreoss, I would want a unit of Vengers. Which is totally new for me as I have never fielded a cavalry unit before. So, horses will be my main thing for the first couple of months of the year along with squeezing m new Colossal into an eFeora list.

I will continue to attempt to churn out fully painted minis at the same rate as the third quarter of this year. I want to be able to have finished my Menoth army (only another 43 models to go) before I start up on something else.

I have started to pick up my paints again just now so hopefully I’ll have the Judicator and horsey Kreoss and his horsey friends finished before the club opens up again in January.

I cannot wait to get back to the table top.

SYNERGY!!!

As promised, I brought out Amon for a night of fun. Jack and I had agreed on a 35 point game as he was fielding his list for an upcoming Highlander one-dayer and I had to leave early to collect my wife from the Eurostar.

Having used Amon just once before, I felt a little rusty with him. But then again Amon is kind of a one-trick pony. The list I took was a variation of the previous Amon list I had fielded. The main differences were swapping the Vanquisher for a Reckoner and somehow squeezing in the Blood of Martyrs. The trio of Dervishes and Devout remained the same.

High Allegiant Amon Ad-Raza
* Dervish
* Dervish
* Dervish
* Devout
* Repenter
* Blood of Martyrs
* Reckoner
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 5 Grunts)

Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper
* Banshee
* Discordia
* Phoenix
Houseguard Halberdiers (Leader and 9 Grunts)
* Houseguard Halberdiers Officer & Standard
Arcanist

SmogCon dice

We chose the Close Quarters Scenario and Jack won the roll-off and elected to go first. Jack set up with his Phoenix and Banshee to my left and clumped his Halberdiers around the Discordia. Kaelyssa and the Arcanist sat behind the infantry. I sort of set up all higgledy-piggledy with the only real planning going into putting the Repenter out on my right with the intention of spraying the Halberdiers.

Turn 1

Jack made a general advance with everything activating the Discordia’s imprint to give a little more protection to the Halberdiers. Kaelyssa helped out her infantry a bit more by putting banishing ward on them.

I allocated one point of focus to a dervish and my Devout to start off. Amon then cast Synergy and Mobility and let his army make a general advance. The Choir then move towards their jacks and used the Prayer of Shielding (no magic); I figured this was the best they could do as the Prayer of passage only stops non-magical ranged attacks (all of the Myrmidons had magic ranged weapons). 

Turn 2

Jack shuffles his Halberdiers forward some more alongside the Discordia. Discordia attempts to spray one of my Dervishes but to little or no effect. Kaelyssa feated first and then cast Phantom Hunter on the Banshee who took a shot at my left-hand Dervish. The Dervish suffered a little bit of damage and then squished a Choir boy when he was pushed back.

My turn would be a difficult one with the Elves being un-chargeable and Stealthed. Synergy was upkept and two Focus was allocated to the Reckoner and one to the Repenter. I started off by moving Amon inside my lines and cast Mobility. The Repenter then moved forward so that he could get the maximum number of elves under his spray. After catching six Halberdiers and the Discordia, only one of the elves fell and the Discordia was set on fire but suffered no damage (after being boosted). What I should have done was activate the Choir beforehand and maybe some more elves would have burned. Next up was the Choir (!?) who sung the Prayer of Battle making sure the Reckoner was affected. Dervishes just shuffled out of the way of the Reckoner who moved so he could see the Discordia. Boosting to hit and damage, the force field suffered seven points of damage.

Turn 3

Jack rolled into action with his Halberdiers who used their mini-feat to excellent effect. They charged the Reckoner and managed to scrap it. They reformed slightly so they could be more of a nuisance. The Discordia waded into the Repenter taking out his flail and movement. The Banshee took another shot at the Dervish and managed to turn it into scrap. The Phoenix shuffled forward and took a bit of a swing at the in front of it, but thankfully failed to do anything.

My immediate reaction was to feat. I dropped Synergy only to recast it and Mobility. With two focus left, I walked Amon forward so that he could start the Synergy chain off by killing two elves. Having spent all of his Focus, Amon dished it out; one to the Devout, two to the Dervish in front of the Phoenix, two for Repenter and the last one for the last Dervish. The Choir activated and sung the Prayer of Battle affecting both Dervishes, the Devout and the BoM. And away we went. The Devout charged the Banshee, causing little damage, but moving the Synergy chain up to +2. The Repenter moved out of Melee with Discordia (thanks to getting Perfect Balance from the feat) and sprayed. I think he only killed one Halberdier. The BoM tore through a few elves getting the chain up to +3. The central Dervish filled his boots as well getting rid of three pointy ears with the chain going up to +4. The last Dervish activated and killed the Halberdier in front of him and Side Stepped into the Phoenix. With one more initial attack and two Focus, I was hoping for some big damage. Needing to roll anything but snake eyes, and now at P+S 19, this was going to look good. And it was. The Phoenix was totalled by a four point jack. Such a nice way to end the turn.

Turn 4

My turn three didn’t actually end with me doing the happy dance. It ended with me crapping my pants because I realised where I left Amon.

Jack started off by getting the Banshee to smack up the Devout a little, taking out its cortex. Then he activated Kaelyssa, who noticed that Amon was in the open and aimed her ROF 3 gun at him. With no Focus to steal from Amon, Kaelyssa double boosted the first shot for eleven damage, bought her second shot, boosting the hit only for five damage, and then buying her third  and only needing a five or more on two dice. Which she got, therefore winning the game.

A super game against someone I’ve never played against before. I like the way that Amon works and getting the Synergy chain up can be a beautiful thing if the last jack(s) is a Side Stepping Dervish.

The bad bits:

Remembering that I always have a problem with activating the Choir before the jacks. In turn two, the Repenter might have toasted a few more Halberdiers. This might have saved the Reckoner.

My positioning of Amon in my last turn. If I had got  him to stand by the nearby wall while he splattered an elf, then Jack might have had to get Kaelyssa to cast Phantom Hunter so she can get a shot on Amon. Of course this would have been at the expense of the third shot and a boost to damage which might have left Amon standing.

The good points:

The P+S 19 Dervish. I can see the potential here as an assassination tool. 10.5” on the charge with Mobility and then two Side Steps giving another four inches gives a heck of a threat.

The list will need a little bit of tweaking, with the BoM likely to be the first candidate to be dropped. It was the first time I used it and I can see it being quite handy. I like the idea of its ability Hand of Vengeance giving yet another boost to attack and damage rolls. This in addition to a Choir and Synergy would make this a nightmare against big targets. The thing I have to remember is that it only has Side Step when it is in Thyra’s battlegroup (I used it last night).

The reason why I tweaked the list from the first time was that I was worried about having a couple of SPD 4 jacks but I’m not sure that it really mattered in the end. So for the next time that I rock Amon, It should look a little bit like: 

High Allegiant Amon Ad-Raza
* Dervish
* Dervish
* Dervish
* Devout
* Crusader
* Crusader
* Reckoner
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts)

Slow Grow round 3

Week 3 of our Slow Grow League was Fluff Week. Games were arranged so that we could replay as many of the stories from all of the PP books. I haven’t seen any of the other games, but the one I played against Marcus was the Minion fluff from the Domination release; Calaban (me) vs Maelok (Marcus).
Although the option to change warlock/warcaster doesn’t happen until Round 4, it decided that I should swap Bloody Barnabas for Calaban for the sake of Fluff week. This was good for me as I had wanted to try Calaban for some time, plus I already had him fully painted and ready to go. I was also happy as it meant I could see him in action before Round 4. So far I’ve played two games with him and think that there is a lot of potential there.
One other thing that I was looking forward to in this game was seeing Maelok in the flesh (or lack thereof), and I can say that I was impressed. He did the simple things which made Marcus’ force work really well. So without further ado, I took:

Calaban, the Gravewalker
* Bull Snapper
* Blackhide Wrastler
* Ironback Spitter
Gatormen Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts)
Gatormen Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts)
Croak Hunter
Feralgeist

to go against:

Maelok, the Dreadbound
* Bull Snapper
* Blackhide Wrastler
* Blackhide Wrastler
Bog Trog Ambushers (Leader and 5 Grunts)
Gatormen Posse (Leader and 4 Grunts)
Croak Hunter
Croak Hunter
Croak Hunter

For the game we used the Command and Control radial scenario from SR2012 and both set up at the front of our respective zones. I lost the roll-off and Marcus opted to go second.

Turn 1:

I chose to run the Spitter and Calaban towards the nearest flag leaving the rest of the force to attempt to hold the control zone in the centre of the board. Calaban had cast Carnivore on the first GMP and threw down a couple of Spiny Growths on the Wrastler and one gator.

Marcus ran his force forwards as well and reached the edge of the control zone in a very neat wall of gatory and frog-like meanness. Maelok had cast Death Pact on his GMP and Malediction.

Turn 2:

I knew I wouldn’t be able to engage the enemy so I ran most of my Gators into the control zone. Not a very good move as I found out later. The Croak hung back a little and moved behind the Gators looking for an opportunity in the next turn to take advantage of his Gang ability. The Wrastler moved up in support while Calaban claimed his flag with the Spitter a short distance away from him.

Maelok upkept his spells and shifted forward. Marcus got his GMP to charge mine and took out my front three and his supporting knot of frogs (I looked up the collective noun (or  ‘term of venery’ (from medieval times) if you want to be fancy) and while not a good noun it’s far better than having a knob of toads) pitched in and killed another. Marcus’ Wrastlers stood by and watched. It was no surprise that the Bog Trogs made an appearance to my left just inches away from my table edge. They ran towards Calaban and his flag and looked to be a thorn in my side which I quite expected.

Turn 3:

Surrounded, it was time for a big action turn. First of all, The Spitter walked back slightly to cover Calaban and spat at a clump of Bog Trogs killing two and sticking corrosion on another. That was fine. But then I activated Calaban and popped my feat. He moved and unsuccessfully cast Bone Shaker a couple of times. Then the remaining Gators from both Posses charged their opposite numbers. Due to Marcus’ GMP having a stupidly high armour value, only a handful of wounds were dished out. In turned out that my Croak Hunter was the only thing to actually kill something, and boy did he do it well. Using Gang to get the hit, I rolled for damage and from 4d6 (charge and poison weapon) I got three 6’s and a 4. The Wrastler couldn’t do anything to his opposing Wrastler as one of Marcus’ Gators was blocking its charge lane. This was really bad as my Wrastler didn’t have enough movement to engage.

It was Marcus’ turn to feat which is quite horrible (I now want to have a Maelok of my own, him and the Testament of Menoth). Needless to say that his army went through mine with some ease leaving me with only one Gatorman and totalling my Wrastler. There wasn’t much else for Marcus to do so he ran his Bog Trogs (who were down to three as one had succumbed to Corrosion) even closer to Calaban.

I must have deleted the pic for Marcus’s Turn 3 so I’ll include a fun conga-type-thing pic.

Turn 4:

With not a lot to do with not a lot of my army left, I took out what I could. The lone Gatorman finished off the remaining Croaks as he was never going to scratch Marcus’s Gators. The Feralgeist controlled Wrastler picked himself up and round on his killer causing a massive… 1 wound from his attacks. Calaban’s mastery of magic failed him repeatedly. The Snapper went to occupy the other Wrastler but causing no damage of two attacks. This only served to block charge lanes to Calaban. All that was left to do was finish the turn with some fun and threw one Bog Trog into another killing them both.

Marcus ended the game in style by Reviving three Gators, which then charged Calaban. One of them got had to go past the Snapper and take a free strike and subsequently got eaten. Marcus was thankful that he had chosen the Cold Blood prayer for them as he had missed with all four of his initial attacks. But unfortunately, he got all of the re-rolls and cut my warlock down in four hits.

A disappointing game for me made better by the Fluff aspect of it. Not having the first turn is one thing, but to play into Marcus’s hands in the second turn was quite silly. I think I should have noticed that when Marcus hadn’t made out to capture a flag, I should have just concentrated on the bloodbath in the middle. As it was I placed a bit too much confidence in two GMP’s, a very effective Croak Hunter and a Wrastler. The idea had been to let them handle things while Calaban, protected a little by his Spitter, made sure that I had the flag so I could start scoring points. Marcus played very well making sure I stayed stretched with the Bog Trogs creeping up behind me and the Knot of Croak Hunters causing a distraction. Three of them together can really make you think about what you need to prioritise. Having said this, Marcus could have easily gone for the scenario if he wanted. I think Marcus really controlled the game to the extent that his second Wrastler really didn’t need to do anything at all as I focused a little too much on the super-hard GMP and Croaks.

The game showed me that I am finding it hard to find the place in-between conservative play and ‘no fear, no doubt, all-in, balls out’ play. In this game I really wanted to take the game to Marcus but found I was in no position to from turn two onwards. It was at that point that I should have been a bit more conservative. But hey, I learnt what my warlock cannot do and I now know a little more about what Maelok can do so it’s all good. Hopefully in the next round of our Slow Grow league will go my way.

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.