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.