Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver vs Master Tormenter Morghoul

We're back here again for another battle report with Bradigus.  Sadly, there'll be no pictures as apparently my phone decided that it needed to go through its battery exceedingly quickly on this day for some reason.  This time I'd be squaring off against Gabe, who would be having his first game in a while and first with Skorne.  While it has been a while, he has a lot of good analysis while playing so the game should prove to be interesting.

Here's my Bradigus list that I was playing for those who might have forgotten:

Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver (*6pts)
* Woldwatcher (5pts)
* Woldwatcher (5pts)
* Woldwatcher (5pts)
* Woldwatcher (5pts)
* Megalith (11pts)
* Woldguardian (9pts)
* Woldguardian (9pts)
* Druid Wilder (2pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
* Stone keeper (1pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)

Gabe decided to play good 'ole Morghoul1, something of a constant for Skorne if you ask me, he had an interesting list:

Master Tormentor Morghoul (*7pts)

* Cyclops Brute (5pts)

* Archidon (7pts)

* Bronzeback Titan (10pts)

* Molik Karn (11pts)

* Titan Gladiator (8pts)

* Aptimus Marketh (3pts)

Nihilators (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)

Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)

Mortitheurge Willbreaker (2pts)

Some pretty standard stuff in here, but Molik frequently ends up with another Warlock in list pairings and I don't really feel like I see the Archidon with Morghoul1 all that often, but it does provide for some interesting options I think.

We were playing on the same table as my game against Seth, so we just left the scenario in play, so Destruction it was!

He ended up winning the die roll and he wanted the side that I had been on the previous time, so mixed it up there, and I go first again.  I'm going to need to start going 2nd a little bit as I have managed to go first 4 games out of 4 with Bradigus.

Round 1

After evaluating his list pretty hard, I realize that he has no ranged presence, and so I just have to worry about some of the really long threats from the likes of the Archidon and Molik.  Molik being SPD 6 + 3" (charge) + 2" (Rush) + 2" (Abuse) + 2" Reach threatens 15" which means that since he deployed on the 10" line, he threats 1" past the center line and then I have to deal with Side Step.  The Archidon is 14.5".  I figure I will see what happens if I press the situation a little harder, so the whole army runs basically.  I'm careful not to put either of the Watchers on Molik's side into his threat range, but in hindsight I probably should have since all it likely would have just moved me farther and the upside would be that he sends Molik into that Watcher, and I kill Molik the next turn.  Running proves to be interesting though because now my Guardians only running 8" from the back line are at about 15" up the table while the watchers are at 21"-23" up the table.  Megalith can get a little farther of course.  Bradigus casts Synergy and charges something.  Shifting Stones place themselves so that teleporting the heavies in the back is a thing they can do.

On his turn he runs everything forward more or less, I think he's trying to be mindful of the threat ranges, but definitely moves up the Bronzeback and Archidon into my threat, more on that later.  Nihilators are basically at the edge of the zone on my right.  Admonition goes on Morghoul, which I would later forget about but he had it marked and I should just know better.

Round 2

Looking at the board, I pretty much realize that I can at minimum take out 2 of his heavies, including the all-important Bronzeback.  So the Guardian gets teleported right just short of 4" in front of the Guardian, Bradigus moves up, knocks down a Nihilator with his rock gun, feats, throws a Rift back in the vicinity of Molik, this I would judge maybe as unnecessary later since it leaves me on 1 transfer, but it also means if I hadn't that I know that I will have fury problems.  The Watcher that is basically right in front of Bradigus moves up, punches the knocked down Nihilator, he becomes a tree, Stone Form goes up and Synergy has begun.  The Watchers and the other Guardian kill some infantry, bump my Synergy some more.  Megalith gets teleported, takes out the Archidon.  The Guardian makes short work out of the Bronzeback.  I try to charge Morghoul with a Watcher, only to be reminded that he has Admonition up ... dumb!  So that doesn't work.  The other one is able to move to a spot to turn Marketh into a forest though.  Druid Wilder ends up being useless because she's too far back.  I choose 5" back everyone slides back (some a little less because of rough terrain.

So, Gabe now looks and feels like he's got a shot with Molik at Bradigus by doing some Side Step shenanigans, but he needs to figure out how to keep him in the control area.  The Willbreaker isn't getting up there due to lacking Pathfinder.  So, he decides, got to go for it, we discover that Morghoul has Pathfinder! Good to know.  He charges Megalith, no damage.  Puts him in range for Torment though, a spell I've basically never read/seen, boosts to hit and damage, succeeds and I transfer those 8 damage because the spell prevents Transfers when I've been damaged by it so I won't get another opportunity.  Now he sees the mistake I made, which was tough to see until it happened for me, but what I should have done was used the animus on all of the Woldwatchers so that the feat didn't move them.  The one in front of Bradigus slid just far enough back to be perfect for Side Step.  He charges, Side Steps, Side Steps, buys 2 attacks on Bradigus ... Dead!

Analysis

This was the first time that I really used my feat to gain an alpha that hard, it went really well though I thought!  Definitely as I mentioned in the bottom of turn 2 what I should have done was make him try to work through the Woldwatchers.  Nihilators aren't going to do much to them really, neither is Morghoul, and really I don't even think the Brute does much more than scratch the stone on one.  It would have put me in a strong position to start scoring on scenario the next turn too.  The other thing really is the Rift Bradigus cast was not really all that valuable.

I'm feeling really good about Bradigus so far.  I might be swapping back to the Blackclad over the Druid Wilder, or I might just need to play her up farther, with Shield Guards and DEF 14 she should be fairly safe most of the time.  Experimenting w/out Megalith might not be a terrible idea either, but he's just so good, would allow for a 2nd Blackclad or Wilder/Blackclad though.  We'll see.  

Still eagerly anticipating the theme force, there's an alleged spoiler on Facebook, but I'm not sure yet that I trust it due to a bunch of inconsistencies and coincidences with how its written.

Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver vs Vyros, Incissar of the Dawnguard

Alrighty, now that my wonderful wife is done working her magic painting Bradigus, I'm in the dojo to get some more games in with him.  I've decided to play essentially the same list as last week, with the only alteration being to throw in the Druid Wilder.  Here's the list for reference:

Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver (*6pts)
* Woldwatcher (5pts)
* Woldwatcher (5pts)
* Woldwatcher (5pts)
* Woldwatcher (5pts)
* Megalith (11pts)
* Woldguardian (9pts)
* Woldguardian (9pts)
* Druid Wilder (2pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
* Stone keeper (1pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)

My opponent was our local elf painter extraordinaire Seth.  I let him know that I'd be playing Bradigus again and didn't really get picky about what we would be playing.  He decided to go ahead and make it a Synergy-off and picked Vyros2 with all the Griffons.  A lot of the forums had thoroughly claimed that Bradigus was not going to be great in this matchup so I was excited to put that to the test

Vyros, Incissar of the Dawnguard (*5pts)
* Aspis (4pts)
* Aspis (4pts)
* Griffon (4pts)
* Griffon (4pts)
* Griffon (4pts)
* Griffon (4pts)
* Griffon (4pts)
* Griffon (4pts)
* Griffon (4pts)
* Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker (2pts)
Dawnguard Invictors (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
* Dawnguard Invictor Officer & Standard (2pts)
Arcanist (1pts)
Arcanist (1pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)

We generated a random scenario courtesy of sr20x.com which is a handy way to get a random scenario when you've left your SR2014 packet at home.  The internet demigods provided us with Destruction! We rolled off, he won the roll and opted to go 2nd and thus choosing the side

So, no big surprises with deployment, basically went with the same plan as last week, obviously with the Druid Wilder hiding behind everything.  He had his army spread out pretty far, which is about what you'd expect with that many Griffons and a 12 man unit.

Round 1

You'll have to forgive my photos, they're from my cell phone and it was so low on battery that I'm kind of amazed I managed to have pics of any kind.  Basically, everyone moves up, I put the army into a position where all of the Shifting Stones can take a fury off of everything.  Bradigus puts up Synergy and that's about that.

Seth assigns out 2 focus, keeps 4 back so that he can cast Synergy himself as well as putting Deflection up.  Not a bad call, but he does trade off some ability to run his force up the table to ensure more of the Invictors aren't going to die the next turn.  Another important note here is that he decides to go even more defensively and Vyros goes ahead and feats!

Round 2

So, he's feated, I definitely look at the table and do some analyzing to figure out if it makes sense to feat and really get into his rants, or if I should just hold back and be conservative.  I decide the latter will work because I don't think he's going to be able to kill enough of the Woldwatchers to do much, and then I just counter attack and hopefully cripple him enough that he can't get his Synergy chain high enough to matter.  So, I move up only gingerly, take 4 shots at the Invictors with the little guys, killing 2 of them (needed 7s to hit and 8s to kill).  So that puts 2 forests out there, Megalith throws out a Rift to make more rough terrain.  Fun note, the Woldwatcher's gun RFPs, which means that Vyros' feat doesn't trigger, so that's handy.  Bradigus throws Flesh of Clay on just to be safe.

Having not gotten a lot of movement out of his feat like he had hoped to, he feels like he has to try to engage me and/or put some hurt on things where he can.  As you can see from the picture below, he gets 3 griffons and I think 3 Invictors into the Woldwatchers.  The one on the right nearly dies, I think it had 3 boxes left in the Spirit is all.  The other gets a little less than 1/2 of his hit points taken down, but all systems go.

Round 3

First I look long and hard at the table situation.  I actually do think that I have an assassination on Vyros, I just don't know that I need to.  I'd have to teleport Megalith over to the right of the objective, use Battering Ram to move the Griffon out of the way, and then kill the objective.  Then I teleport the Guardian in front of it, feat to push him in front of Vyros, and that's game over because he isn't camping.  I actually think it was pretty feasible, just not worthwhile with my board position.  So my plan becomes trying to cripple his ability to use Synergy effectively against me.  So what I do is start by having the right-central Woldwatcher kill an Invictor, and then the one that only has Spirit left has 2 tries to get s 7 on 2-dice with boosts, we get there.  Then the rest start to work, some teleports, some Synergy chain later and I've killed 4 Griffons.

He feels like the game has basically come to a close at this point because he's not going to be able to accomplish much, so his goal he claimed was to try to kill *something*.  He throws most of his army that he can at me, managing to kill I believe 1 Woldwatcher and Megalith.  After that he extends his hand since I just build up Synergy and then the Guardian makes short work out of Vyros.

Wrap-up

Not entirely sure on this one if needed to play any differently.  I do think that I might have been able to feat and put about at much hurt on his army, but I also think that he was going to have trouble, so just making sure I'm in the zone seemed wise.  What both of us agreed on though was that Bradigus' Synergy actually does do more than Vyros' because of ARM 21 and FURY being better than FOCUS.  I feel like this is a match that I'm pretty happy to play again and that its favorable for this list.

Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver vs Exulon Thexus

In my previous entry, you'll recall that my initial outing with Bradigus against Tom's Severius1 list proved to be successful for me.  Next I would find out how it faired against another local, Nate, playing Exulon Thexus!  Just for the sake of making things easier, here's the list that I played again:

Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver (*6pts)

* Woldwatcher (5pts)

* Woldwatcher (5pts)

* Woldwatcher (5pts)

* Woldwatcher (5pts)

* Megalith (11pts)

* Woldguardian (9pts)

* Woldguardian (9pts)

Shifting Stones (2pts)

* Stone keeper (1pts)

Shifting Stones (2pts)

Blackclad Wayfarer (2pts)

For Nate this was his first outing with Cephalyx, but he has been playing Mercs for a while, interspersed with playing Khador.  Here's the list he brought:

Exulon Thexus (*6pts)

* Wrecker (7pts)

* Subduer (6pts)

Cephalyx Agitator (2pts)

Cephalyx Agitator (2pts)

Cephalyx Agitator (2pts)

Cephalyx Mind Bender & Drudges (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)

Cephalyx Mind Bender & Drudges (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)

Cephalyx Mind Slaver & Drudges (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)

Cephalyx Mind Slaver & Drudges (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)

Croe's Cutthoats (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)

* Cephalyx Dominator (2pts)

Pistol Wraith (3pts)

Pistol Wraith (3pts)

Looking at this, I knew things would get interesting because there is a surprising ability to break ARM in that list.  We ended up using the same table and the same scenario because they were sitting out there.  I again won the die roll, and opted to go first again.  I'll definitely want some practice where I go 2nd soon I think, as I suspect how those games unfold could be a very different situation.

Deployment:

I deployed the exact same way that I did the first time actually.  Nate had a Cephalyx Mind Drudge unit behind a Slaver unit on each side, Monstrosities in the middle, Croe's left of center, Pistol Wraith on each flank and the Agitator's spread out for coverage.

Round 1:

Nothing fascinating here really, move up, animus, stone form, etc.

He move's up what I'll call "semi-aggressively",  biggest things of note is that he's seemed to have put the Pistol Wraith's close to aiming range with my Watchers on each end, but certainly IN range.  He's also moved the Dominator up pretty far with the Croe's, and he does NOT have Stealth, so that's going to be a big deal.

Round 2:

Here's where I make something if a big mistake I would say.  I saw that the Dominator was up, and I thought that I could get the Rift from Megalith on him if I advanced, but it looked close.  So instead I trampled probably ~6.5" so that I could kill the Dominator with a Rift, which I did, more on that later though.  Next mistake was that I thought the Watcher was going to be in aiming range with the Pistol Wraith, but I ended up being off by maybe 3/8", so that guy ended up doing nothing.  Instead the other Watcher moves around, caps him, and he becomes a lovely autumn forest.  On the other side, I look and feel like 2 forest templates will be better, but I miss one of the drudges which would have actually changed the entire complexion of the game.  Everything else moved up and got into positions

On his turn, he looks and feels like he can kill Megalith, he's right.  Focus goes on the Wrecker, TK on Megalith I believe, move an Agitator into position ...  he dies.  Definitely not worth that trade just to put the Croe's out for a turn.  I think I could have floated the AOE and gotten him or possibly should have done a turn 2 feat where I can do a lot of aimed shots and that AOE.  Not sure, but losing Megalith was definitely subpar.  He also uses some of his Mind Benders to get a few charges on some of the watchers, and one of them ends up Death Chill'd from the Pistol Wraith that I ignored.  The other big play here is that he does manage to get a Drudge on 1 Shifting Stone from each unit, which is just a positioning mistake on my part.  So no teleporting

Round 3:

I'm looking at the board, and I see that with the Stones gone that I can feat to take out his heavies as well as a bunch of infantry and be back to a good spot.  So, that's the plan.  Blackclad manages to get me a free charge, both heavies go down, some drudges, I think 1-2 Agitators too.  Clear out a lot of stuff at this point, but with the pieces he can put together, its not too far out of the question for him to still put some hurt on stuff.

He does his best to put things in the zone, I think he managed to clear the near zone this turn so he would get a point from Dominating there.  Uses TK to get some backstrikes with the now rally'd Croes on one of the Guardians, which some how manages to knock out its Spirit.  Lots of damage spread around to other Wolds as well.

Round 4:

Now I'm just thinking about scenario.  Its going to be about nothing to get damage on the objective to kill it, and there are only a few models in each zone.  I start going to work clearing them out, finally clearing the zone on my left out with Bradigus so that I can score.  Guardian takes down the objective.  Other things start killing models off.  Its not a great position for him.

He thinks things are pretty grim, he suggests that the game might be able to be called right there as I'm just going to slowly whittle him down and win on scenario.  He looks though and thinks he can maybe do some work, but he's got I think 4 transfers to go through or something ridiculous.  Something with a combination of Croes and some other things.  It doesn't work basically, and then we call it.

Another win for Bradigus!

I'm thinking that I would have just keep trying to slowly kill stuff off and then win on scenario.  I think I could have put down Exulon maybe too, but would depend on plenty of factors.  BIG, Big mistake was losing Megalith like that, no reason for it and it changes a lot of the tempo.  I again felt that the Blackclad was "nice" but not sure how needed he is/was.

I'm hoping to start taking some quick pictures of the game state as I'm playing.  Basically one at the end of each step, but we'll see.  Certainly would help me analyze things I think.

Things that I'm currently analyzing include whether another geomancer needs to make it in, and also whether any other support models need to make it in (Druid Wilder, Una/Rotterhorn, other road bumps).  I'm also sort of biding my time until I see his theme force, based on some rumors running around there's a chance that it could be pretty interesting/compelling.

Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver vs Grand Scrutator Severius

Bradigus was pre-released at GenCon, and let me tell you that model is pretty bad ass looking.  I'm pretty excited for his rules too!  Chance to play Synergy in Hordes?? That is one of the spells that if you had asked people a few months ago to list their top 5 spells that will never be on a Warlock, you'd definitely see that one near the top.

Hopefully after I play a few more games I'll post up more of a tactica, but for now I'm just going to go over my game.

To start with though, here's the list that I played:

Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver (*6pts)

* Woldwatcher (5pts)

* Woldwatcher (5pts)

* Woldwatcher (5pts)

* Woldwatcher (5pts)

* Megalith (11pts)

* Woldguardian (9pts)

* Woldguardian (9pts)

Shifting Stones (2pts)

* Stone keeper (1pts)

Shifting Stones (2pts)

Blackclad Wayfarer (2pts)

As I look at Bradigus, basically I feel like all of his game revolves around his battlegroup.  To that end then, if its not something for his battlegroup or supporting it, I'm uninterested.  I'm sure there'll be some debates over what the list I prefer is, but for the time being, this one definitely seemed to work with a lot of his strengths and did its best to support him.

In this game I got to play against local Tom who was playing Protectorate as the title eludes to, and he decided to play the Sevy list that he's been playing.  Neither of us discussed the pairing ahead of time, we just kind of threw down, so I don't think if he know he had to face Bradigus that he would have played what he did, but there it is.  Here's the list he brought:

Grand Scrutator Severius (*6pts)

* Blessing of Vengeance (7pts)

* Fire of Salvation (9pts)

* Hierophant (2pts)

Avatar of Menoth (11pts)

Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)

Daughters of the Flame (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)

Daughters of the Flame (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)

Idrian Skirmishers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)

* Idrian Skirmishers Chieftain & Guide (3pts)

Vassal of Menoth (2pts)

The scenario was Rally Point, no kill box on this one, otherwise a fairly balanced scenario that is definitely win-able.  I won the die roll and opted to go first.

Deployment:

I decided basically to deploy centrally with the non-AD models, which was the 2 Guardians, Megalith, Bradigus and the Blackclad.  My AD then became all 4 Woldwatchers spread out across the AD line, with the non-stealth Stones behind 3 of them, and the stealth ones fairly spread out there too.  I may need to try some more interesting deployment styles with this army, but that's what I went with for the time being.

I don't remember 100% of how he deployed, the Idrians and the Daughters both have AD though, so it was going to take no time at all for our lines to clash.

Round 1:

Pretty simple turn for me, all 4 Woldwatchers move up, and cast their animus for free due to Earth Magic.  Megalith and the Guardians run up, Shifting Stones move into positions to be able to utilize the Shifting Stones.  Bradigus casts Synergy and the Blackclad goes somewhere.  I make sure that I have Shifting Stones in place to be able to remove some fury and the Watcher's are setup to make sure they're able to Shield Guard the Stones and Blackclad.

His turn, he looked and realized that the only work the Daughters were likely to get done is jamming, so they run and 3 of them from each unit are basically engaging my Woldwatchers, with the others hanging back to help jam the next time around.  Idrians advance and Go To Ground.  The rest of the stuff moves up to get into the fray later, with Vision going on the Blessing, Eye of Menoth going up, and Defender's Ward going on the Idrians

Round 2:

So, now its time to do some work.  First thing I do is activate Megalith, and he advances to a position where he can start the chain and kill a Daughter that's jamming one of the Watchers on the left.  I advance, use Undergrowth, hit on the 6 to kill the Daughter, Synergy goes to +1, he then tries to Geomancy a Rift over at another Daughter that is near the Avatar, which works out fairly well.  With the animus up, I'm able to use the Woldwatchers over on that side to start turning Daughters into Forests and increase Synergy.  The watchers on the other side do the same, and everything else moves up.  Bradigus I believe made sure to have Flesh of Clay up this time just in case the Idrians decide to get cute.

I do believe I nearly made a mistake here that almost cost me my Stone Keeper, which I put in Stone Form, but he shouldn't have been able to get to him anyway.  So that Daughter doesn't kill, but is right in Bradigus' way.   Idrians try to do some CRAs on Megalith, definitely do a little bit of damage, but nothing of consequence really.  I think this turn he forgot somewhere along the way that the Watchers have Shield Guard.  He also ran the Avatar from my left side all the way to the right side (much as a 10" run allows for anyway) because it was just going to get a teleport'd in Guardian that was going to smash it, and it got Defender's Ward cycled over to it.

Round 3:

Kind of go with the same plan here as before, but I definitely see that I can get the Guardian in on the Fire of Salvation, so I build for that.  Megalith moves up, animus, start the chain, the watchers start making Idrians and Daughters into forests.  I think Bradigus got a kill on a Daughter that was right in front of him as well.  Teleport the Guardian over, and it made short work out of the Guardian.

On his turn the Avatar is able to take out the Guardian, which I had basically expected, Blessing made himself a problem and moved into an awkward position because I think either did or wanted to channel something.  The remaining Daughters go into an extreme flanking position and I think this is when they kill my Blackclad maybe.

Round 4:

As I look at the table I realize that if I can kill his 2 jacks its pretty much just a matter of time after that.  I can still teleport both Bradigus and the Wold Guardian.  Its tricky here, so I start killing stuff with the other things to get Synergy up there.  Then I send in Bradigus against the Blessing to get it dead.  I need to use the Woldwatcher's animus, which I should have done on the one I sent in to remove Vision to begin with, but I didn't.  It takes the full stack to get him dead, so I feat, choose 0" and then later I'll choose 4" to move backwards out of the range of an Immolation barrage from Sevy and so I'm engaging the Daughters to not get charge damages.  After I put him down, I send in the Guardian on the Avatar, and his dice are on fire and I think I kill him with an attack to spare.

His turn looks pretty bleak.  I believe he charged Sevy into the zone at one of his own Choir models, he measures to see if he can Immolate, which isn't there.  Then he looks at trying to setup for Ashes, and that doesn't really go well either.

Round 5:

Tom insists that I table him, so Megalith kills a model, geomancy to kill another, some other things die I think and then Bradigus goes ahead and takes down Sevy.

A few things were learned in this game.  First, I probably needed to play my feat turn differently, because now that I think back on it, I don't think that I can have the Watcher's animus up AND move myself later with the feat.  I could also have just attacked until I was beyond 3" away, and then feated myself back into base, and still been able to back up.  

Megalith was a rock-star in this particular game because his animus allowed for some fairly trivial starting of Synergy.  That said, even boosted MAT 6 would likely amount in a synergy starting, so its maybe icing, but it was delicious icing in this game.  The watchers did their job nicely, lots of forests created, things dying and Synergy moving up.  It definitely did fix the major concern which was the hitting power of the Wolds.

I did feel like the Blackclad was sort of out of place here, his purpose is mostly to get a free charge for a battlegroup member and that didn't happen this whole game.  Might be better off being the Druid Wilder, but time will tell on that.  Only other thing is that a lack of a 2nd geomancer and/or Gallows Groves did prevent Bradigus from doing something on at least one turn because he was so far back.

The Watchers did an alright job not dying in this game even without Roots of the Earth to help make them invulnerable.  All in all a good game to kick of a new caster with!

Regrowth!

Going to just start off with a short post.  Basically, I'm bringing this back because I realized that I'm posting most of this stuff in a Google Spreadsheet anyway, I might as well actually start documenting my thought processes and writing some battle reports.  Enjoy!