So, looking ahead to GenCon and some discussion about maybe a tournament of this fashion happening at the Dice Dojo possibly has gotten me thinking about what I would bring at an event like this. Big things of importance are that its Divide & Conquer, meaning you HAVE to play each list at least once (or twice in the case of a 6 round event). The other big thing is that SR2012 has character restrictions.
With this in mind, lately I've been playing 2 different lists that should give me some pretty good game against a decent amount of stuff. Finding the third list might be slightly tricky, but lets see how things go. First, I'll throw my 2 primary lists lately out there.
Baldur the Stonecleaver
- Megalith
- Wold Guardian
- Wold Guardian or Woldwarden
Druids of Orboros
- Druids of Orboros Overseer
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Sentry Stone & Mannikins
Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers
Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers
Blackclad Wayfarer
Reinforcements:
Wold Guardian or Woldwarden
Blackclad Wayfarer
One thing here is that I haven't been able to decide if I like the additional assassination and/or flexibility the Woldwarden brings to the table, or the additional durability and hitting power of the 2nd Wold Guardian. There are a LOT of lists that can't do shit to an ARM 22 Guardian. This is probably one of the more solid lists I've fielded lately though, so I think I'll keep with it.
Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Ghetorix
- Wold Guardian
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)
- Nuala the Huntress
Warpborn Skinwalkers (max)
Blackclad Wayfarer
Tharn Wolf Riders (max)
Gallows Grove
Reinforcements:
Tharn Bloodweavers
Lord of the Feast
Gallows Grove
This list is solid for me until I get below the line with the Skinwalkers. I do like the Wolf Riders for their speed and they definitely are a flexible unit, but I haven't ever been sure they're my best unit here. I've also tried out a big load out of Tharn Ravagers. The Blackclad and Gallows Grove are fairly solid, but it could also be 3x Groves, Totem Hunter, Tharn Ravager Whitemane and a few other options frankly. I'd say the Gatorman Witch Doctor will be getting a try in this list when its available. I also have a few options with light warbeasts I'd say in this list.
Reinforcements are DEFINITELY up in the air. The bloodweavers are fast, can hit hard, and have stealth. Lord of the Feast isn't currently featured in any of my lists either, and is a big threat. Gallows Grove is there to fill out the one point now that we know they can actually be used here. I'd say if the Wolf Riders get cut from the main list, they'll definitely be reinforcements here, even if people say the prey thing is a downer.
That brings me to the 3rd list, and at present I'm considering either Grayle or Mohsar. I think I have to give the edge to Mohsar as he is SO good against so many different players. His feat doesn't work against much of the field, but what DOES work against almost everyone is Pillars of Salt. Either way, this is the list I'm currently leaning towards.
Mohsar the Desertwalker
- Gorax
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Druid Wilder
Celestial Fulcrum
Gallows Grove x3
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Wolf Lord Morraig
Wolves of Orboros (max)
- Wolves of Orboros Chieftain and Standard
Reinforcements:
To Be Determined
My impetus for this list is that it still does a pretty fantastic job dealing with infantry and plays an amazing denial game against basically any army. With the Bloodtrackers getting Nuala in the Morvahna list, I don't think they're ideal for this list without being able to play Nuala. Same thing ends up being true for Megalith who would be fantastic in this list. The Stalker seems very ideal for this list to hit, and then run back and have some Pillars of Salt up. The Pureblood will help with both the spray and his animus, though its definitely not a beast I'm sold on in this list just yet. Gorax is there to be treated badly and to potentially get the Stalker to POW 22 when combined with Curse of Shadows.
The Gallows Groves are just an obvious inclusion here I think. Mohsar doesn't have any business coming anywhere near the enemy and this basically insures he doesn't have to. Celestial Fulcrum is even scarier with Curse of Shadows to do some debuffing. The shifting stones pretty much speak for themselves I think.
The part of this list that is in "trial" is the Wolves of Orboros + Wolf Lord Morraig part. That's 13 points there that I'm not 100% sold on just yet. That said, Pillars should help the WoO get there. Morraig still hits like a mack truck. I'd say that Druids of Orboros + Overseer and another 4 points might also be getting a try as well as if I think I need to get another heavy warbeast in there I'll put in a Woldwarden and again see what I can do for 4 points.
Reinforcements here I'd say that Tharn Ravagers or Tharn Wolf Riders are definitely going to be a consideration. Not yet sure what would be the most ideal. Wolf Riders catching someone who isn't watching are going to definitely put some hurt on stuff.
If I can't figure this list out, I may have to go with a Grayle list. I've gotten a lot of time in with him, which is why I'm tempted to play him more than anything else. I've enjoyed putting a theme force on the table a few times, even though i'm not entirely sure that's the best build. Biggest thing is losing out on the shifting stones really. I'm not going to lay out a list, but I do think there is some promise there. Grayle himself is a beating for plenty of things. Storm Rager is such a sexy spell. The rest of the spells don't get a lot of use, but I don't think that's a bad thing.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Scarsfell Griffon
I recently had the opportunity to go spend a bit of my afternoon at Adepticon due to its proximity to Chicago (yes, its billed as being in Chicago, but if you live in Chicago you know that Lombard is definitely not the same thing, but I'm splitting hairs). Anyway, yea, there were a bunch of cool things like the Mountain King, Conquest, Stormwall, 3mo, and so on ... but the one that was the biggest surprise and most exciting for me is here, the Scarsfell Griffon!
I've been very excited for this beast for a while, and boy does that model deliver. I took this picture with my crappy DROID and it doesn't come close to doing justice to how great this model looks. Those wings are absolutely amazing and the rest of the model looks great too. I like how they took something from mythology and gave it the Circle Orboros look. Some people have bitched that it doesn't look like a Griffon since its basically a bipedal, but that's in keeping with the Circle look I think. One of the BIG reasons for the success of Privateer Press I think is that they aren't just a clone of what has come before, but have twisted things to their own liking.
For those of you who haven't had the opportunity to read Domination (and I definitely recommend that you do), here are the stats we'll be working with...
SPD:6 STR:8 MAT:6 RAT:1 DEF:14 ARM:15 CMD:6
Head Attack - Beak - P+S 12
Left Attack - Claw - P+S 11 w/ Open Fist
Right Attack - Claw - P+S 11 w/ Open Fist
FURY:3 THR:8 FA:U
Stealth
Flight
Hunter
Long Leash
Animus - Shadow Shift
COST:2 RNG:SELF AOE:- POW:- UP:NO OFF:NO
I've heard a lot of people complaining about the rules for this beast. Generally including either that its only SPD 6 instead of SPD 7, that its animus is only SELF and that it doesn't hit very hard, or that it should be 4 points. To quash that last one, I think 4 points would likely be too cheap for what it has, so we'll move on. SPD 7 I think is the one place I might agree given that Argus and Woldwyrds are SPD 7, but I think that SPD 6 is still very solid. I don't think I'm annoyed with Shadow Shift being RNG SELF, its more of an annoyance that we have the Druid Wilder and continue to not get animi that have a RNG on them. As far as not hitting hard? Sure the attacks are low POW, but it has THREE initial attacks along with being able to buy upto 3 more ... that's kind of a big deal.
Where I'm excited actually has more to do with the extra rules of Stealth, Flight, Hunter and Long Leash. Can this thing kill a heavy? Nope. Have you played lately though? If you aren't playing against Legion its actually pretty likely that you're looking at a list with only one heavy, maybe 2. This thing is going to get to what you send it at, and they aren't going to be able to hide the target by being in a forest or being outside of the caster's control area. Boosted MAT 6 should reliably hit most targets in the game.
Lets not forget that he's got open hands either. Yea, you're going to have to advance up and to it, but throwing medium and small based models isn't something to shrug off either.
I don't think he'll make it into every list, but I can definitely see that there are some that'll benefit from having him around. Krueger2 likes the animus a lot. Kaya1 would be an interesting home for it by putting something with MAT 8 pretty much anywhere on the table. Morvahna can run it in theme (if you can risk not playing heavies) and its going to deal with a lot of the problem pieces she has). Cassius might get some use out of it as well. Getting Warpath triggers might be good for Kromac, and it just as much could benefit Grayle. Baldur1 and 2 don't seem likely to need him though with his enjoyment of the wolds.
Another place that I look for him to be hot is as reinforcements in a flank scenario. Griffon + Blackclad Wayfarer has the potential to get to a target pretty close to 16" from the side (place within 3" + base ~1.5" + hunter's mark 2" + SPD 6" + charge 3" + melee rng 0.5"). That fits neatly in 7 points which is perfect for a 35 point game, In a 50 point game there's likely to be 3 more relevant points we can get in there.
No matter what, I'll be excited to get this on the table as soon as possible basically.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Kromac vs Vlad1 HARDCORE
A buddy named Nate has been planning to go to Lock & Load this summer, so he's been trying to work through his Hardcore list. If you aren't familiar with the format, check out the SR2012 PDF. Anyway, he's been wanting to face off against a beast-heavy list. I haven't played Kromac a lot (which was painfully obvious when I started this game), but I wanted to throw something at him he'd definitely see. That means it was time to bust out Will Pagani's Kromac list, which looks like this
Kromac
- Ghetorix
- Feral Warpwolf
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Gorax
- Druid Wilder
Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers
Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Swamp Gobbers
Gallows Grove
Gallows Grove
I honestly don't think I could replicate his list off the top of my mind. It was Vlad1, had Drago, Rifle Corp, 2 units of Doom Reavers (one with UA), the great bears, some mortars, and Aiyana and Holt. Probably missing some stuff.
The big important thing here is that I decided to play Hardcore via deathclock, meaning that I had 37 minutes to do everything. Not knowing my list was NOT helping, but he wanted the game and said playing smart was more important (which makes a lot of sense for him). I deployed basically how you'd expect.
Round 1:
I move up, put Inviolable Resolve on the Feral, that warped for arm. Cast Bestial and Warpath.
He basically moved up too, put one unit of Doom Reavers right up on a wall, which wasn't helpful. His rifle corps ran to position, so did his mortar crews, Drago moved up, etc.
Round 2:
Put Sprint and Wild Aggression on the Stalker, he moved in, killed a bunch of doom reavers and got out of there. The shrimp unsuccessfully did some shooting. I moved everything up. Made a massive mistake of getting Ghetorix and the Stalker too close.
Speaking of that. Vlad feats, moves up casts some spells. Drago kills both the stalker and ghetorix, he runs the doom reavers up to base with Kromac just about. Rifle crews kill some of the shrimp. What he did not do was kill my shifting stones. Kromac wasn't inside of them though, so that did help.
Round 3:
Here's what needed to happen, and did. First set of stones teleported the Feral into the other set. I cast Primal and Wild Aggression on him, along with feating and dropping a boosted Rift onto a solo and blasting his caster some. Then the other stones teleported the Feral into base with Vlad. MAT9, boosted attack rolls at POW 18, POW 19 and POW 19 made short work of him.
Analysis:
Definitely glad I played this because now he'll never make the mistake of letting a double teleported beast get in there. What I learned is that if I'm going to ever play Kromac at a tournament I need to get a lot more time in with him. Probably won't do that yet. I'm thinking Baldur and another caster are going to be my main stays for a while.
Kromac
- Ghetorix
- Feral Warpwolf
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Gorax
- Druid Wilder
Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers
Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Swamp Gobbers
Gallows Grove
Gallows Grove
I honestly don't think I could replicate his list off the top of my mind. It was Vlad1, had Drago, Rifle Corp, 2 units of Doom Reavers (one with UA), the great bears, some mortars, and Aiyana and Holt. Probably missing some stuff.
The big important thing here is that I decided to play Hardcore via deathclock, meaning that I had 37 minutes to do everything. Not knowing my list was NOT helping, but he wanted the game and said playing smart was more important (which makes a lot of sense for him). I deployed basically how you'd expect.
Round 1:
I move up, put Inviolable Resolve on the Feral, that warped for arm. Cast Bestial and Warpath.
He basically moved up too, put one unit of Doom Reavers right up on a wall, which wasn't helpful. His rifle corps ran to position, so did his mortar crews, Drago moved up, etc.
Round 2:
Put Sprint and Wild Aggression on the Stalker, he moved in, killed a bunch of doom reavers and got out of there. The shrimp unsuccessfully did some shooting. I moved everything up. Made a massive mistake of getting Ghetorix and the Stalker too close.
Speaking of that. Vlad feats, moves up casts some spells. Drago kills both the stalker and ghetorix, he runs the doom reavers up to base with Kromac just about. Rifle crews kill some of the shrimp. What he did not do was kill my shifting stones. Kromac wasn't inside of them though, so that did help.
Round 3:
Here's what needed to happen, and did. First set of stones teleported the Feral into the other set. I cast Primal and Wild Aggression on him, along with feating and dropping a boosted Rift onto a solo and blasting his caster some. Then the other stones teleported the Feral into base with Vlad. MAT9, boosted attack rolls at POW 18, POW 19 and POW 19 made short work of him.
Analysis:
Definitely glad I played this because now he'll never make the mistake of letting a double teleported beast get in there. What I learned is that if I'm going to ever play Kromac at a tournament I need to get a lot more time in with him. Probably won't do that yet. I'm thinking Baldur and another caster are going to be my main stays for a while.
Baldur1 vs Morvahna
That's right kids, we decided to throw down with some hot Circle vs Circle action. I've been playing Morvahna a lot, but I didn't really think I was excited by the prospect of a mirror match so I decided Baldur1 would be my guy. This was a 35 point shindig, and I went ahead with the tier 4 theme force for my list:
Baldur1
- Megalith
- Wold Guardian
- Wold Guardian
Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers
Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers
Shifting Stones
Sentry Stone & Mannikins
He, as mentioned, was playing a Morvahna list, I'm pretty sure this was what he had:
Morvahna
- Ghetorix
- Argus
- Gorax
Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)
- Nuala the Huntress
Warpborn Skinwalkers (max)
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Gallows Grove
Contrary to my mental decision to only play scenarios, we did not do that. Also, contrary to my mental decision to take pictures while playing ... I didn't do that either. Win some, lose some. We did the old fashioned "roll for terrain". I think he won the roll, passed and didn't put anything on the table, so I went ahead and dropped 2 forests more or less on each flank in the middle-ish.
As a side note, I think that as I want to get a bit better at playing that I dislike this method of putting out terrain. I do try to not be a dick when putting out terrain, but I'm playing Circle, so it gets kind of easy to put out terrain that will definitely grant me an advantage. I'm not going to get this if I show up at a tournament so I don't know that I like it here. No big deal, just something I've seen.
Deployment:
Anyway, I won the game die roll, so I opted to go first. The 2 Wold Guardians got AD from the theme for the theme force benefit. So I deployed everything how you'd expect. Baldur and Megalith in the middle, the units of shrimp on each flank. He deployed his stuff more or less in the middle. For AD I deployed my stuff basically in the middle. He deployed the Bloodtrackers on my left flank and the shifting stones right-ish. My Woldstalkers advance move basically straight ahead. He chose the Sentry Stone & Mannikins
Round 1:
Not much exciting from me here. Everything moved ahead. Only thing of note that I did was one of my Mannikins was able to get within spray range of his Gallows Grove. Boosted the damage, anddddd I rolled 1 1 2, awful. Baldur puts up Solid Ground, we've got Stone Skin on one of the Wold Guardians, and here we go.
On his turn, most of the stuff moves up. He tries to rock hammer something with the Stone Keeper, this doesn't work at all. His Bloodtrackers kill off all the mannikins and some of the wold stalkers on that side, but leave the Sentry Stone. Everything else moves up and Morvahna puts Restoration on the Skinwalkers and Regrowth on the Bloodtrackers.
Round 2:
Now things get interesting. Shifting Stones send the Stone Skin'd Guardian after his shifting stone and a skinwalker, those die. Baldur feats. The shrimp shoot another Skinwalker, and some fail to do much against the bloodtrackers. Megalith and the other Guardian stay home in the shifting stones.
He goes, tries to do the most he can with the bloodtrackers. They kill all but the Stoneward and the Sentry Stone is still there. One Skinwalker tries to kill a Shifting Stone and fails, 2 others charge the Guardian and do some damage, but all the aspects are up. Morvahna kind of runs away. Ghetorix moves up and I don't think he does much might have killed a wold shrimp. He tries to Primal up the Gorax and charge the Guardian but ends up short.
Round 3:
Well, this is interesting. My Guardian with Stone Skin on it goes up and kills another Skinwalker and Gorax. I did some mis-positioning here, but basically Megalith moved so that his animus would hit Ghetorix, Wold Guardian #2 is teleported into base with Ghetorix, gets Stone Skin, and proceeds to kill the shit out of him. Baldur moves, kills a Tracker, puts up a forest to stand in and casts Flesh of Clay, and the Sentry Stone moves to block
So, the mistake here is that I probably should have cycled Stone Skin to Baldur, or left him with the transfers. I had forgetten about Argus, who advanced, and hits Baldur with his Paralyze, and since its a spray it ignored cover. Needed a 4, he got it, Baldur's DEF against shooting is now 9. Morvahna had to move into a forest to do this though, so he's got to kill Baldur or that's the game. Bloodtrackers move into range, and get their throws off. I don't remember how many it was, but he still had like 6 dice. Game Over.
Analysis:
I think Baldur is definitely a good matchup against Morvahna, and probably much of Circle. I continue to like the 50 point list where I can bring the extra support and decide between the Warden or the Druids. The ARM 20 Guardians are a bitch for Circle to do a whole lot about with most lists, Megalith is of course amazing, and we rely heavily on having Pathfinder to help us get there. I need to get a little quicker playing him, and I need to get my turn one a little more down if I'm not playing the Warden in the list (I'm too used to going Solid Ground. Rapid Growth. Undegrowth. Forestwalk. Go.) Also, transfers are good things, I should keep some around.
Baldur1
- Megalith
- Wold Guardian
- Wold Guardian
Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers
Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers
Shifting Stones
Sentry Stone & Mannikins
He, as mentioned, was playing a Morvahna list, I'm pretty sure this was what he had:
Morvahna
- Ghetorix
- Argus
- Gorax
Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)
- Nuala the Huntress
Warpborn Skinwalkers (max)
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Gallows Grove
Contrary to my mental decision to only play scenarios, we did not do that. Also, contrary to my mental decision to take pictures while playing ... I didn't do that either. Win some, lose some. We did the old fashioned "roll for terrain". I think he won the roll, passed and didn't put anything on the table, so I went ahead and dropped 2 forests more or less on each flank in the middle-ish.
As a side note, I think that as I want to get a bit better at playing that I dislike this method of putting out terrain. I do try to not be a dick when putting out terrain, but I'm playing Circle, so it gets kind of easy to put out terrain that will definitely grant me an advantage. I'm not going to get this if I show up at a tournament so I don't know that I like it here. No big deal, just something I've seen.
Deployment:
Anyway, I won the game die roll, so I opted to go first. The 2 Wold Guardians got AD from the theme for the theme force benefit. So I deployed everything how you'd expect. Baldur and Megalith in the middle, the units of shrimp on each flank. He deployed his stuff more or less in the middle. For AD I deployed my stuff basically in the middle. He deployed the Bloodtrackers on my left flank and the shifting stones right-ish. My Woldstalkers advance move basically straight ahead. He chose the Sentry Stone & Mannikins
Round 1:
Not much exciting from me here. Everything moved ahead. Only thing of note that I did was one of my Mannikins was able to get within spray range of his Gallows Grove. Boosted the damage, anddddd I rolled 1 1 2, awful. Baldur puts up Solid Ground, we've got Stone Skin on one of the Wold Guardians, and here we go.
On his turn, most of the stuff moves up. He tries to rock hammer something with the Stone Keeper, this doesn't work at all. His Bloodtrackers kill off all the mannikins and some of the wold stalkers on that side, but leave the Sentry Stone. Everything else moves up and Morvahna puts Restoration on the Skinwalkers and Regrowth on the Bloodtrackers.
Round 2:
Now things get interesting. Shifting Stones send the Stone Skin'd Guardian after his shifting stone and a skinwalker, those die. Baldur feats. The shrimp shoot another Skinwalker, and some fail to do much against the bloodtrackers. Megalith and the other Guardian stay home in the shifting stones.
He goes, tries to do the most he can with the bloodtrackers. They kill all but the Stoneward and the Sentry Stone is still there. One Skinwalker tries to kill a Shifting Stone and fails, 2 others charge the Guardian and do some damage, but all the aspects are up. Morvahna kind of runs away. Ghetorix moves up and I don't think he does much might have killed a wold shrimp. He tries to Primal up the Gorax and charge the Guardian but ends up short.
Round 3:
Well, this is interesting. My Guardian with Stone Skin on it goes up and kills another Skinwalker and Gorax. I did some mis-positioning here, but basically Megalith moved so that his animus would hit Ghetorix, Wold Guardian #2 is teleported into base with Ghetorix, gets Stone Skin, and proceeds to kill the shit out of him. Baldur moves, kills a Tracker, puts up a forest to stand in and casts Flesh of Clay, and the Sentry Stone moves to block
So, the mistake here is that I probably should have cycled Stone Skin to Baldur, or left him with the transfers. I had forgetten about Argus, who advanced, and hits Baldur with his Paralyze, and since its a spray it ignored cover. Needed a 4, he got it, Baldur's DEF against shooting is now 9. Morvahna had to move into a forest to do this though, so he's got to kill Baldur or that's the game. Bloodtrackers move into range, and get their throws off. I don't remember how many it was, but he still had like 6 dice. Game Over.
Analysis:
I think Baldur is definitely a good matchup against Morvahna, and probably much of Circle. I continue to like the 50 point list where I can bring the extra support and decide between the Warden or the Druids. The ARM 20 Guardians are a bitch for Circle to do a whole lot about with most lists, Megalith is of course amazing, and we rely heavily on having Pathfinder to help us get there. I need to get a little quicker playing him, and I need to get my turn one a little more down if I'm not playing the Warden in the list (I'm too used to going Solid Ground. Rapid Growth. Undegrowth. Forestwalk. Go.) Also, transfers are good things, I should keep some around.
Friday, April 6, 2012
Baldur1 vs Butcher1
I'm only partially sure that this was Butcher1 to be honest. The idea here was to get a quick game in (different opponent than the other Khador game) so that I could bring a Kromac list at yet a 3rd Khador player who was practicing his Hardcore list. We opted for a 35 point game, and then here's what I brought to the table
Baldur1
- Megalith
- Wold Guardian
- Woldwarden
Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers
Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers
Shifting Stones
Sentry Stone & Mannikins
His list, making some guesses here...
Butcher1
- War Dog
- Spriggan
Doomreavers
- Greylord Escort
Great Bears
Kayazy Eliminators
Kayazy Eliminators
Manhunter
Manhunter
Yuri
Widowmaker Sharpshooter
Not going to break this one down turn by turn, but basically I won the roll, moved one unit of woldshrimp too close and a good portion of them got doomreavered. He also killed a shifting stone a bit too soon. I managed to kill off a few things, but not nearly enough. He feated and moved up and killed a LOT of my stuff. After that I didn't have much I could do. Game ended with a good amount of things on the side of the table, sadly just happened to be ALL of my things. Needed to slow roll this one a bit more than what I did, and probably need to get my stuff less bunched up in the middle of the table than I have been.
Baldur1
- Megalith
- Wold Guardian
- Woldwarden
Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers
Druid Stoneward & Woldstalkers
Shifting Stones
Sentry Stone & Mannikins
His list, making some guesses here...
Butcher1
- War Dog
- Spriggan
Doomreavers
- Greylord Escort
Great Bears
Kayazy Eliminators
Kayazy Eliminators
Manhunter
Manhunter
Yuri
Widowmaker Sharpshooter
Not going to break this one down turn by turn, but basically I won the roll, moved one unit of woldshrimp too close and a good portion of them got doomreavered. He also killed a shifting stone a bit too soon. I managed to kill off a few things, but not nearly enough. He feated and moved up and killed a LOT of my stuff. After that I didn't have much I could do. Game ended with a good amount of things on the side of the table, sadly just happened to be ALL of my things. Needed to slow roll this one a bit more than what I did, and probably need to get my stuff less bunched up in the middle of the table than I have been.
Morvahna vs Old Witch 35 points
Thursday being the day that I typically manage to get in some games, this one was no different. Made my way down to the Dice Dojo, first checked out the merchandise to see if there was anything I really wanted to procure. After that a guy wanted to play a 35 point game, so I accepted and decided to play Morvahna. He was playing Khador with the Old Witch. Pretty sure this was his list (I think part or all of it was planned to be his partner's 1/2 of their team army for Adepticon)...
Old Witch
- Scrapjack
- Destroyer
Nyss Hunters (max)
Gun Carriage
Iron Fang Pikemen (max)
Gorman di Wulfe
I decided to bring what has been my fairly standard Morvahna list at 35 points, which looks like this...
Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Ghetorix
- Wold Guardian
Bloodtrackers (max)
- Nuala the Huntress
Warpborn Skinwalkers
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
We decided to play a scenario, we rolled and randomly got Sacrifice. The scenario information is located on page 28 of the SR2012 rules. The biggest thing of importance is probably that its a radial scenario. I won the die roll and opted to go first.
Deployment:
Nothing too interesting here, just moved my Bloodtrackers to clog up the middle, everything else ran towards the 12" zone, denoted by the center being that tiny little purple-ish rock. I just realized that I apparently failed to take a picture of his movements before I took my next turn, but you can see where he ended up. Biggest thing of relevance is that he killed a few bloodtrackers with blast damage from the gun carriage, and tried to create a choke point with some crow spell of the Old Witch. After that, he feated, which meant anything ending their movement in the Old Witch's control area takes an unboostable POW 14.
Round 2
This is where it starts to get interesting. He moves up, the 4" AOE templates are from the Gun Carriage, and took out 3 or 4 of my Bloodtrackers. Morvahna upkept both Harvest and Regrowth from turn one, and I placed all of the dead Bloodtrackers back into play. The 5" AOE was trying to create a choke point, but I had just enough room for a small base to go through, so I moved all of the Bloodtrackers through it so that I could get into a good position to go after the Scrapjack and then the rest of his army. Morvahna put Restoration on the Skinwalkers bringing them up to ARM 18 or ARM 20 in melee. Everything else basically moved farther to the left as well.
My opponent again decided to move up to get closer. He shot out several AOEs at me again as you can see, the Pikemen advanced and Shield Wall'd (they also happened to have Iron Flesh on them). Nyss got closer to my Skinwalkers, with one of them I believe engaging after a run. I'm also noticing that it seems like about 1/2 of my pictures that I had thought I had taken are missing, which is sort of annoying when trying to recreate this story, but doing my best here.
Round 3
I go ahead and replace some more Bloodtrackers with Regrowth, upkeep all of my spells. I shift the stones into a position where I can threaten a teleport from either of my heavies, as well as Morvahna, while still putting them in a good place to utilize healing field if needs be. Bloodtrackers swing around the forest, put a small bit of a hurting on the scrap jack. My heavies move to basically block lanes to Morvahna and the Guardian helps her to be immune from blast damage.
On his turn he charges the Skinwalkers with the Nyss, which kills 2 of them is all, puts some damage on the others. From there we have the interesting situation of ARM 20 + 8 boxes against POW12 + 3d6 vs DEF 15 against MAT 6. Needless to say, these 2 units are quite tied up for the time being, and I'm ok with it that way. He charges Ghetorix and a couple other things with the pikemen, knocks out the Mind on Ghetorix, doesn't do a whole lot else. Lobs some more AOEs around, and Scrap Jack kills like 4-5 of my Bloodtrackers.
Round 4
This definitely got fun. Shifting Stones did some healing in order to re-heal one of the Skinwalkers, the lost aspect on Ghetorix, some small damage that Morvahna had taken, and some damage on the Stone Keeper. Then for the first time Ghetorix got to Warp Snacking! He killed I think 5 of the pikemen and managed to erase all of the damage off of himself. I managed to kill the other pike men and Scrap Jack with the blood trackers, cycling Prey from SJ to Pikemen to the Old Witch. Might have managed to kill a single Nyss with my Skinwalkers, but mostly they just tie up the Nyss.
On his turn, he manages to finally kill off a couple more Skinwalkers, blasts some AOEs out there, one of which finishing off my shifting stone that was up front, thereby ruining my chance to end the game quickly (I was really hungry at this point). He also, tried to move Gorman up to Black Oil some stuff, that didn't work, oil deviated completely away. Just enough rough terrain around Ghetorix to stop him from getting very far.
Round 5
Bloodtrackers aren't going to be able to hit Old Witch because now she has Iron Flesh and she's in an AOE, so instead the move up, kill off a couple of things, notably Gorman and get closer to the witch. The Nyss and Skinwalkers continue to be tied up. Then my Wold Guardian gets a charge on the Gun Carriage and that's deadski. The rest of my army does its best to close the distance so that I can take out the 'jack and the old witch.
He tries to get some more damage out with the Nyss and doesn't get very far. He does manage to kill my Guardian with the Destroyer.
Round 6
Basically, Ghetorix tries to kill the Destroyer, rolled awful damage, but there they are all tied up. Bloodtrackers took some shots at the old witch, I might have hit with one or 2 of them, but they were long odds. Morvahna gets into a good position to not get attacked, but be able to do something useful later.
I'm starting to get sort of fuzzy, but I think the Destroyer might have killed Ghetorix, or they were still just tied up in melee, doesn't make much difference.
Round 7
Bloodtrackers all charged the old witch in her AOE, it killed all of them. Morvahna charges the old witch, and either took the damage or transfered it, again, fuzzy. Boost to hit, boost damage and we're done here after a VERY long game.
Conclusions
This game went pretty slowly to be honest. My beasts sort of got a little too clustered up, and I need to remember to abuse the fact that my Guardian stops blast damage if you stay close to it. Probably against a list with only a few shots I can let my Skinwalkers go and try to do some more damage elsewhere. Considering looking into ways of getting Ghetorix some Pathfinder as that hindered him a ton.
Morvahna continues to be strong at attrition against lists that don't have upkeep removal.
Old Witch
- Scrapjack
- Destroyer
Nyss Hunters (max)
Gun Carriage
Iron Fang Pikemen (max)
Gorman di Wulfe
I decided to bring what has been my fairly standard Morvahna list at 35 points, which looks like this...
Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Ghetorix
- Wold Guardian
Bloodtrackers (max)
- Nuala the Huntress
Warpborn Skinwalkers
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
We decided to play a scenario, we rolled and randomly got Sacrifice. The scenario information is located on page 28 of the SR2012 rules. The biggest thing of importance is probably that its a radial scenario. I won the die roll and opted to go first.
Deployment:
Pretty standard deployment I suppose. I haven't played a lot of radial scenarios. Seemed that the best bet was to try to jam up the control zone rather than going for a scenario win. Bloodtrackers are up on the hill and selected the Scrapjack (proxied by a bone chicken) as Prey. Skinwalkers in a wall in front of Morvahna, Ghetorix and Guardian on each side, and the Shifting Stones spread out in the middle. In hindsight I think I should have maybe swapped the position of the Guardian and Ghetorix As well as putting the Bloodtrackers more towards the left side of my deployment. His deployment is pretty apparent, the darker models are the Nyss, the other unit being the Pikemen.
Round 1
Nothing too interesting here, just moved my Bloodtrackers to clog up the middle, everything else ran towards the 12" zone, denoted by the center being that tiny little purple-ish rock. I just realized that I apparently failed to take a picture of his movements before I took my next turn, but you can see where he ended up. Biggest thing of relevance is that he killed a few bloodtrackers with blast damage from the gun carriage, and tried to create a choke point with some crow spell of the Old Witch. After that, he feated, which meant anything ending their movement in the Old Witch's control area takes an unboostable POW 14.
Round 2
This is where it starts to get interesting. He moves up, the 4" AOE templates are from the Gun Carriage, and took out 3 or 4 of my Bloodtrackers. Morvahna upkept both Harvest and Regrowth from turn one, and I placed all of the dead Bloodtrackers back into play. The 5" AOE was trying to create a choke point, but I had just enough room for a small base to go through, so I moved all of the Bloodtrackers through it so that I could get into a good position to go after the Scrapjack and then the rest of his army. Morvahna put Restoration on the Skinwalkers bringing them up to ARM 18 or ARM 20 in melee. Everything else basically moved farther to the left as well.
My opponent again decided to move up to get closer. He shot out several AOEs at me again as you can see, the Pikemen advanced and Shield Wall'd (they also happened to have Iron Flesh on them). Nyss got closer to my Skinwalkers, with one of them I believe engaging after a run. I'm also noticing that it seems like about 1/2 of my pictures that I had thought I had taken are missing, which is sort of annoying when trying to recreate this story, but doing my best here.
Round 3
I go ahead and replace some more Bloodtrackers with Regrowth, upkeep all of my spells. I shift the stones into a position where I can threaten a teleport from either of my heavies, as well as Morvahna, while still putting them in a good place to utilize healing field if needs be. Bloodtrackers swing around the forest, put a small bit of a hurting on the scrap jack. My heavies move to basically block lanes to Morvahna and the Guardian helps her to be immune from blast damage.
On his turn he charges the Skinwalkers with the Nyss, which kills 2 of them is all, puts some damage on the others. From there we have the interesting situation of ARM 20 + 8 boxes against POW12 + 3d6 vs DEF 15 against MAT 6. Needless to say, these 2 units are quite tied up for the time being, and I'm ok with it that way. He charges Ghetorix and a couple other things with the pikemen, knocks out the Mind on Ghetorix, doesn't do a whole lot else. Lobs some more AOEs around, and Scrap Jack kills like 4-5 of my Bloodtrackers.
Round 4
This definitely got fun. Shifting Stones did some healing in order to re-heal one of the Skinwalkers, the lost aspect on Ghetorix, some small damage that Morvahna had taken, and some damage on the Stone Keeper. Then for the first time Ghetorix got to Warp Snacking! He killed I think 5 of the pikemen and managed to erase all of the damage off of himself. I managed to kill the other pike men and Scrap Jack with the blood trackers, cycling Prey from SJ to Pikemen to the Old Witch. Might have managed to kill a single Nyss with my Skinwalkers, but mostly they just tie up the Nyss.
On his turn, he manages to finally kill off a couple more Skinwalkers, blasts some AOEs out there, one of which finishing off my shifting stone that was up front, thereby ruining my chance to end the game quickly (I was really hungry at this point). He also, tried to move Gorman up to Black Oil some stuff, that didn't work, oil deviated completely away. Just enough rough terrain around Ghetorix to stop him from getting very far.
Round 5
Bloodtrackers aren't going to be able to hit Old Witch because now she has Iron Flesh and she's in an AOE, so instead the move up, kill off a couple of things, notably Gorman and get closer to the witch. The Nyss and Skinwalkers continue to be tied up. Then my Wold Guardian gets a charge on the Gun Carriage and that's deadski. The rest of my army does its best to close the distance so that I can take out the 'jack and the old witch.
He tries to get some more damage out with the Nyss and doesn't get very far. He does manage to kill my Guardian with the Destroyer.
Round 6
Basically, Ghetorix tries to kill the Destroyer, rolled awful damage, but there they are all tied up. Bloodtrackers took some shots at the old witch, I might have hit with one or 2 of them, but they were long odds. Morvahna gets into a good position to not get attacked, but be able to do something useful later.
I'm starting to get sort of fuzzy, but I think the Destroyer might have killed Ghetorix, or they were still just tied up in melee, doesn't make much difference.
Round 7
Bloodtrackers all charged the old witch in her AOE, it killed all of them. Morvahna charges the old witch, and either took the damage or transfered it, again, fuzzy. Boost to hit, boost damage and we're done here after a VERY long game.
Conclusions
This game went pretty slowly to be honest. My beasts sort of got a little too clustered up, and I need to remember to abuse the fact that my Guardian stops blast damage if you stay close to it. Probably against a list with only a few shots I can let my Skinwalkers go and try to do some more damage elsewhere. Considering looking into ways of getting Ghetorix some Pathfinder as that hindered him a ton.
Morvahna continues to be strong at attrition against lists that don't have upkeep removal.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Morvahna the Autumnblade
Recently, I would have to say that the caster I've been having the most luck with has been Morvahna. I've been trying to perfect how I want to play her, and I haven't quite gotten the formula 100% ironed out. Here's the list I've played the most so far...
Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Ghetorix
- Wold Guardian
Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)
- Nuala the Huntress
Warpborn Skinwalkers (max)
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Gallows Grove x3
Tharn Wolf Riders (max)
Right off the bat, Bloodtrackers with Morvahna are to me a no brainer. I need a big target for Regrowth, and really they need to be something that is going to both be a pain in the ass to my opponent while also being able to put out some offense, while still having at least 10 models and being small based. Really, after that I'm willing to shift around almost anything in the list. Ghetorix has been nothing short of amazing really, so I don't know that I really see him going anywhere. Skinwalkers have done a good job too, makes Morvahna basically immune to ranged assassinations.
I've tried a couple of other ideas as well...
Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Ghetorix
- Pureblood Warpwolf
Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)
- Nuala the Huntress
Warpborn Skinwalkers (max)
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Gallows Grove x2
Tharn Ravagers (max)
- Tharn Ravager Chieftain
This list I only played once against my girlfriend's Cryx, don't remember which caster either. Ravagers got the ARM buff and ran out and raised some hell. ARM 16 with 8 boxes is a bit more respectable than ARM 14, and if I can manage to get them into a forest to bump their DEF to 15 its even better. The Pureblood did alright, but nothing to write home about really either.
Morvahna the Autumnblade
- Ghetorix
- Wold Wyrd
- Wold Wyrd
Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)
- Nuala the Huntress
Warpborn Skinwalkers (max)
Shifting Stones
- Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Gallows Grove x2
Blackclad Wayfarer
Tharn Bloodweavers
Totem Hunter
This one has only gotten a game in, but I don't know that I felt that impressed. The Totem Hunter did ok I guess, his purpose really is to deal with the troublesome solos, biggest one being Eiryss since she's the most likely to knock an upkeep off of anyone who isn't Morvahna. Game I played was against Deneghra and he managed to take out the Sea Witch so I'd have a chance to actually kill some Satyxis Raiders, so that was nice. Really, I should have sent him on a suicide mission to deal with Admonia though. My original thoughts were that Bloodweavers might be something good to have against heavy infantry as I've found that to be a bit of a trouble spot with some other casters. Also, being able to remove an upkeep is good.
Not entirely sure where to go from here just yet. Again, I think the only things that have "earned" their spots are Ghetorix and Bloodtrackers + Nuala. The unit(s) of Shifting Stones, Skinwalkers and Gallows Groves coming very close to not going anywhere. Basically means I need to find 1-2 beasts I'm happy with as well as between 10-12 points of infantry.
Based on how many of my games have went with this list, I am extremely excited to get ahold of the Gatorman Witch Doctor to make my Bloodtrackers both Undead and Tough, 2 amazing buffs. The Scarsfell Griffon might have a place in this list too, not entirely sure just yet.
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