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.
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