Controlled Warping: October 2014

Friday, October 31, 2014

Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver vs Saeryn, Omen of Everblight

Thursday night was yet again time for some Warmachine! That means more time for Bradigus for sure. Managed to get in a couple games in again a couple of fellas named Mike. The first of which brought Saeryn with him!

Lists

Image Courtesy of Griffon's Roost Painting

Woldwar - Tier 4
Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver (*6pts)
* Woldwatcher (0pts)
* Woldwatcher (5pts)
* Woldguardian (9pts)
* Woldguardian (9pts)
* Woldwarden (9pts)
* Woldwarden (9pts)
Sentry Stone (Leader and 3 Manikins) (3pts)
Sentry Stone (Leader and 3 Manikins) (3pts)
Sentry Stone (Leader and 3 Manikins) (3pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)

Saeryn, Omen of Everblight (*5pts)
* Raek (4pts)
* Angelius (9pts)
* Angelius (9pts)
* Scythean (9pts)
* Scythean (9pts)
Blackfrost Shard (5pts)
2 Spell Martyrs (2pts)
Strider Deathstalker (2pts)
Strider Deathstalker (2pts)
The Forsaken (2pts)
The Forsaken (2pts)

Scenario

Incursion

Special Rules

Place three flags in accordance with the diagram below. At the end of the second player's first turn, randomly remove a non-center flag from the table. Starting on the second player's second turn, at the end of each player's turn a player earns control points (CP) as follows:
Outer Flag: Control = 1 CP, Dominate = 2 CP
Center Flag: Control = 1 CP, Dominate = 1 CP

Victory Conditions

The first player to earn at least 5 control points and have more control points than the opponent immediately wins the game

If time runs out before a player has won the game via scenario or assassination victory, break the tie as outlined on the Scenario Reference Sheet. For the 3rd tiebreaker, double the army points within 4 inches of each flag

Game

We rolled the dice to see who would go first and what not. He wins the roll, chooses a table edge. That gives me a side basically with a forest on my right and hill towards my left.

Round 1

I basically figure that I'm not going to get a whole lot out of the forests in this game, so I spread them out so they'd be able to do some work on each flank. I kept one in the middle too just to get some work out of it if I wanted. Other than that, plan basically was to threaten everywhere and be ready for a flag to disappear. Bradigus puts up Flesh of Clay and Synergy.

He runs basically all of his beasts forward, he skews a little bit towards my left. The Deathstalkers manage to kill 3 Mannikins, one on each side. His beast are largely threatening the table. Saeryn moves up puts out Respawn on a beast.

Round 2

The flag on my left disappeared, which was unfortunate for my opponent, but I do need to try to work out the feat. I try to put my Warden into a forest to Battering Ram out the Angelius, thinking I can get some shots on it, but I miss. So I pivot my plan and start shooting at the Scythean in the middle of the table. Do some damage, realize that its not valuable enough to risk Bradigus on shooting, and too far away for my other Warden to do anything. Bradigus gets double teleported over to the flag on the right side, as does another Sentry Stone and camps 5. I trample my Wold Guardian over that way, I move my other beasts closer to that side to prepare for the next turn.

Presenting with this problem, he can easily get an Angelius over to Bradigus, but I'm camping 5 so I'm not too worried. He also has to get that Angel over there or else I will end up just winning on scenario. His Scythean gets to a Wold Guardian, almost kills it, but leaves the Spirit up. The other Scythean tries to get to a Woldwatcher, doesn't get there by about a 1/4". Then, Saeryn gets Respawn over on the Angelius, which then charges Bradigus. I have to transfer a monster of a hit, but then the Angelius misses twice.

Round 3

So my goal here is to score 2 points, I have the opportunity to score the middle too if I can get 2 infantry models killed in melee and then another with a spell. I am able to kill those models, but miss with the geomancy. I nearly screw up killing the Angelius because I forget Respawn, but I do manage to get it dead, as well as both Scytheans. I manage to score 2 points.

He sees things don't really look well for him, he tries to figure out an assassination, doesn't get Saeryn within 7" of Bradigus, so no stopping transfers, which basically means his only chance of killing Bradigus. He can't get anything else close enough for contesting, which means I win on the next 2 turns.

Analysis

I think this game might still not go great for me, but I'm not sure really. The feat still seems like it'll be not that great for me if timed certain ways, but again who knows. I do think using the Mannikins would be fine flanking and trying to be useful in that way. Teleporting to get myself to the flag seemed very useful, but I should have planned that scenario more wisely from the beginning. Also, remembering Respawn is important.

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Krueger the Stormlord vs Vayl, Consul of Everblight

Following my win against Doomshaper I get paired up with Brandon who had the bye round 1 because he was running late. He's sporting a couple of typical casters for Legion in Saeryn and Vayl2. I've played Krueger2 vs Vayl2 and Saeryn plenty. I actually think that Bradigus might be a stronger matchup against Vayl2 than Krueger is, BUT I don't relish the idea of going up against Saeryn due to her feat and my basically entirely melee army. So I choose Krueger2 again, he chooses Vayl2

Lists

Krueger the Stormlord (*5pts)
* Gorax (4pts)
* Feral Warpwolf (9pts)
* Warpwolf Stalker (10pts)
Celestal Fulcrum (9pts)
Druids of Orboros (Leader and 5 Grunts) (7pts)
* Druid of Orboros Overseer (2pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
* Stone keeper (1pts)
Blackclad Wayfarer (2pts)
Blackclad Wayfarer (2pts)
Gallows Grove (1pts)
Una the Falconer (3pts)
* Rotterhorn Griffon (3pts)

Machinations of Shadow - Tiers 4
Vayl, Consul of Everblight (*6pts)
* Harrier (2pts)
* Naga Nightlurker (5pts)
* Shredder (2pts)
* Angelius (8pts)
* Angelius (8pts)
* Ravagore (9pts)
* Scythean (8pts)
Blighted Nyss Hex Hunters (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Spawning Vessel (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)
Blighted Nyss Shepherd (1pts)
Blighted Nyss Shepherd (1pts)
Spell Martyr (1pts)

Scenario

Two Fronts

Special Rules

Mark two zones (12 inch × 6 inch rectangles) and place two Supply Cache objectives in accordance with the diagram below. The objective on Player 1's side of the table is a friendly Faction model to Player 1 and vice versa. Starting on the second player's second turn, at the end of each player's turn a player earns control points (CP) as follows:
Friendly Zone: Dominate = 1 CP
Enemy Zone: Control = 1 CP, Dominate = 2 CP
Enemy Objective: Destroyed/Removed from Play = 1 CP (once per objective)

Victory Conditions

The first player to earn at least 5 control points and have more control points than the opponent immediately wins the game.

If time runs out before a player has won the game via scenario or assassination victory, break the tie as outlined on the Scenario Reference Sheet. For the 3rd tiebreaker, double the army points within the enemy zone

Game

I lost the die roll, he chose the side, so I got to go first. I'm pretty ok with that as this is a fairly winnable scenario I think. Deployed with my Fulcrum threatening my friendly zone and most of my army centrally and/or threatening my enemy zone.

Round 1

I very aggressively move up the table, Krueger TK's himself, puts up Storm Wall and charges straight forward. Druids move up, cloud, counter magic and elemental protection. Blackclads get into good positions. Beasts move pretty far forward, staying at the edge of my Shifting Stones. Una gets up there along with her Griffon.

He plays his first turn very aggressively. Hex Hunters fill the middle of the table. The Scythean runs up sort of in/behind them, pretty far up the table. The 2 Angelius go toward the friendly zone, and Vayl is sort of leaning that side, on Angel has Admonition, the other has Occultation. The Spawning Vessel moves into his friendly zone, and the Naga heads in that direction too.

Round 2

From looking at the table and my positioning of a few things, he's moved most of his beasts too closely. I'm all but positive that I can get 2 heavies without trading anything to him, so that's definitely a wise play I figure. First Blackclad clears out a few Hex Hunters between the Scythean and the Feral. Druids activate and pull his beasts a little closer to make things easier. In hindsight, I think it might have been wiser to do other things with them because they were already plenty close, but that's ok. Second Blackclad gets Hunter's Mark on the Scythean, so the Feral has a free charge. Krueger activates, backs up a little throws Lightning Strike on both the Feral and Stalker. Feral charges, kills the Scythean, runs back. Stalker does likewise to the Ravagore after being placed with the Shifting Stones. Fulcrum gets in a couple shots on one of the Angelius.

He's starting his turn down 2 heavies, surely not what he was expecting or hoping for, but that's ok. He correctly gets the Angels into the enemy zone, I think he's able to kill off the Fulcrum this turn with the Angelius. He kills a few Druids too. I believe I didn't get enough into that zone and he's able to score a point here too.

Round 3

I think its time to start scoring on scenario. So I look, the Feral killed off the Spawning Vessel, Krueger was able to feat and get everything out of the enemy zone just barely. Before that I sent the Stalker with Primal over to take out an Angelius, which works out. Druids and Blackclads do a bit of work on some Hex Hunters and such. Una has been clearing out Hex Hunters too.

He wisely sees that I don't have much else in that other zone and is able to kill off my Stalker and get Vayl into that zone. The Hex Hunters that are left try to contest the other zone, along with the Naga, and Shepard.

Round 4

I've either got to win on scenario or do something to stop him from winning, I've got 2 points, and he has 3 points. So if I can clear out the enemy zone and kill the objective, I'm in the clear. One problem that I have though is that the Feral got Shadow Bind from a crit from the Naga, so he can't really get anywhere. He kills off the Naga and the Hex Hunter that's in his melee range. But there is still a Shepard in the zone too. Una tries to kill the objective, but doesn't quite get it done. The Shepard is out of her control area for the griffon to go, but I can still the griffon over there, and shriek. I force for 2 to animus and 1 to charge, get there, roll the 8, dead, choose not to action. Krueger shoots the objective, and I run something into his zone to contest going to 5 points!

Analysis

This was one of this player's first tournament games, and I was definitely not taking the game serious enough and was forgetting to mind some things like the scenario zones. The zones on this one are definitely more spread out than I recall. I think that I might have been able to make an earlier play for the scenario possibly too. I needed to do something to address the Angels in the other zone sooner than I did I think, I'm just unsure exactly what that answer would be with the other free beasts there.

I was glad I was able to give him some advice during the game, and he did make some pretty good calls even after losing a lot of points early on.

Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver vs Doomshaper, Shaman of the Gnarls

I was able to attend another tournament this past Saturday, this time a little closer to home at Fair Game in Downer's Grove. This one is part of a series that they're doing, but I've already missed the first event, and I'd say its likely I will miss at least one of the others, so that concerned me less. It was a 50-point Divide and Conquer event though and with Warmachine Weekend right around the corner I figured that it'd be good practice and good fun!

Round one has me paired up with Tony, a fellow Press Ganger and he's brought Trollbloods. He brought a Grim Angus list and Runes of War. I had my Bradigus and Krueger lists with me that I've been putting through the ropes lately. I'm pretty much expecting Runes of War to be what he chooses here, so I figure that Bradigus is probably going to be a better matchup there since he's going to have 3 serious heavies to deal with.

Lists

^{Image Courtesy of Griffon's Roost Painting*}

Woldwar - Tier 4

Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver (*6pts)

* Woldwatcher (0pts)

* Woldwatcher (5pts)

* Woldguardian (9pts)

* Woldwarden (9pts)

Sentry Stone (Leader and 3 Manikins) (3pts)

Shifting Stones (2pts)

Runes of War - Tier 4

Hoarluk Doomshaper (*7pts)

* Troll Axer (6pts)

* Dire Troll Mauler (9pts)

* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)

* Mulg the Ancient (12pts)

Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)

* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)

Trollkin Runeshapers (Leader and 2 Crew) (3pts)

Janissa Stonetide (3pts)

Scenario

Supply and Demand

Special Rules

Mark a zone (12 inch-diameter circle) and place two Supply Cache objectives in accordance with the diagram below. The objective on Player 1's side of the table is a friendly Faction model to Player 1 and vice versa. Starting on the second player's second turn, at the end of each player's turn a player earns control points (CP) as follows:

Artifice: Kill Box

Zone: Control = 1 CP, Dominate = 2 CP

Enemy Objective: Destroyed/Removed from Play = 1 CP (once per objective)

Victory Conditions

The first player to earn at least 5 control points and have more control points than the opponent immediately wins the game.

If time runs out before a player has won the game via scenario or assassination victory, break the tie as outlined on the Scenario Reference Sheet. For the 3rd tiebreaker, double the army points within the zone

Game

We have quite the hilly table, with a couple of pieces that are rather large on it. I lose the die roll, and my opponent opts to go first. I'm ok with the side that I'm standing on. He tries to deploy the walls from his theme force benefit, but due to the placement of the terrain he's only really able to sneak one wall out there.

Round 1

Fairly typical turn as far as I can recall. Doomshaper fills up the Krielstone and gets the aura out there. Rune shapers start to flank on either side of the table as well. Beasts move ahead, Jannisa runs, Krielstone runs to a good position.

There's a forest on my left and the objective on my right. I go ahead and start with my Mannikins filling the front of my army with a bunch of forests. I probably should have gone ahead and sacrificed another 2 of them to cast the net a little wider so that I'm not susceptible to Runeshaper AOEs the next turn, but I thought I'd be ok. Other than that, everything moves up, gets into Shifting Stones.

Round 2

He does see a couple of openings for himself with the Runeshapers and I believe I lose 2 Mannikins on my left and maybe 1 on my right. That's unfortunate, but I should be ok. The rest of his army mostly just moves up, Janissa does put out a wall, Mulg gets Elemental Communion. Doomshaper ends up on the hill behind the wall and out of the killbox as well.

I look at the table and see that I can take some fury off of the Krielstone with at least one of my Sentry Stones, and I have all of the Mannikins from it. This whole turn I had been looking for if I had an assassination or if I could get his beasts off the table. I actually think its going to be hard for me to get my Synergy count high enough because he's stayed just far enough back. I might have been able to position a little better so that I would have been more effective here, but that's what happened. So the next thing that I did, was use that Sentry Stone as I described. Really, then I look and realize that I can just forest across the army again and he's screwed. I had already used a Mannikin though so my wall isn't going to quite be complete. The only other thing that I realized as I was typing this blog up is that I should have measured 7.5" from my Woldwatcher and than made sure he was just a bit farther from him than that since he can't charge me through the forest.

Round 3

He goes to work trying to take out some of the Sentry Stones and Mannikins with the Runeshapers. I think he does get a large majority of the Mannikins dead, and maybe one of the Sentry Stones. Due to my foreshadowing last round, he puts Rush on his Earthborn, and then walks into the forest in front of the Woldwatcher. He makes an attack on the Watcher, does only a little damage because he has Stone Form up. Then he figures he needs to kill a Shifting Stone, which ends up taking 2 attacks to kill. He then puts another 4 attacks into the Watcher, and doesn't manage to even take out an aspect. Then Doomshaper feats, which is going to be painful.

I've still got 2 functional units of Shifting Stones, and they both have a Woldguardian occupying them. His feat is up, but I think that I have to go ahead and risk it. Bradigus upkeeps Synergy and takes a d6 of damage for doing so. First thing's first, I start Synergy. First a Woldwatcher kills off a couple of Runeshapers, Stone Form costs me a d6 but that's ok. Then the Watcher in base with the Earthborn already goes ahead and gets an attack off on the Earthborn, so Synergy goes up. Bradigus throws a rock at the Earthborn too. I then proceed to teleport one Guardian into Mulg and another one into the Mauler. Both Woldwardens are needed to take down the Earthborn (though only one needs all its fury). Lots of d6s there. Woldguardian goes to town on the Mauler, he's at dice plus 2, I kill him with 3 attacks, so that's nice. The other Guardian goes through all of his fury and loses his body but manages to drop Mulg. My beasts take a beating from the feat and have a lot of fury on them, but I think its pretty worthwhile here.

Round 4

So, now he's starting a turn with only the Axer, Runeshapers, and some Krielstone guys against a lot of ARM. Runeshapers start throwing Rock Hammers at Bradigus, this results in a couple of transfers which probably only helped me out since I had 5 Fury on Bradigus. Janissa tries to go in on the Guardian, does a little bit of damage. The Axer goes in, does some noticable damage, but it still has its Spirit. Few other attempts to do damage on my Guardian and Watcher on my left, but to no avail. Doomshaper throws a Stranglehold on the Warden that can most likely just charge and get to him, manages to damage so only Movement or Action out of him next turn.

I figure that I can get Bradigus on Doomshaper with a full Synergy bonus probably, or close to it. I strategically select which fury to bring in, and use Serenity to remove as much as I can like normal. The Watchers and the minimally damaged Guardian on my left start things off. That lets me throw a punch at the Axer with my Guardian, boost to hit with the one boost I left him, 2 dice, roll a 3 needing I think a 4. Try again with the 1 die, get the 4, he's knocked down and takes a few points I think. The other Warden goes up and makes short work of him after that. Bradigus feats for I think 3" and then charges Doomshaper and I kill him with I think the 2nd attack. In hindsight I think he forgot to take his Tough check here, but I could buy a lot more attacks.

Analysis

I think this matchup was solid. He really can do very little about the forest wall coming into him. Had he stayed back any farther on that scenario I think I'd just kill a few token models, take out the objective and start scoring points. That's probably something I should consider looking for a little more frequently, I was watching for it this game, but I might be able to figure out more ways to manufacture points. Might be even more important if I happen across a timed turns event.

That said, my game plan with Bradigus which basically is to hide my army and then assassinate either their caster or their biggest threats seems to be doing fine. Definitely going to keep giving the guy more reps though as I think getting more out of the feat and knowing when to feat or not feat is good.

^{*Griffon's Roost Painting is my wife Lauren's commission painting, she does fabulous work so feel free to contact her!}

Friday, October 24, 2014

Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver vs Goreshade the Cursed

Nik is basically the first one to the store who's ready to play a game when I got there, and he's brought Cryx he tells me. I didn't have my Krueger list with me because Una was being worked on for painting and I did want to get in a couple more games with Bradigus if I could. I wanted to see how I could play against Cryx since I feel "traditional" Cryx is probably not the ideal matchup for him, but until you play it you have no idea. Anyway on to lists!

Lists

Heresy of Shadows - Tiers 2
Goreshade the Cursed (*5pts)
* Kraken (19pts)
Bane Riders (Leader and 4 Grunts) (11pts)
Bane Thralls (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Bane Thrall Officer & Standard (0pts)
Bane Thralls (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Bane Thrall Officer & Standard (3pts)
Bane Lord Tartarus (4pts)
3 Scrap Thrall (1pts)
3 Scrap Thrall (1pts)
3 Scrap Thrall (1pts)

Scenario

Outflank

Special Rules

Mark two zones (12 inch-diameter circle) in accordance with the diagram below. Starting on the second player's second turn, at the end of each player's turn a player earns control points (CP) as follows:
Zone: Control = 1 CP, Dominate = 2 CP

Victory Conditions

The first player to earn at least 5 control points and have more control points than the opponent immediately wins the game.

If time runs out before a player has won the game via scenario or assassination victory, break the tie as outlined on the Scenario Reference Sheet. For the 3rd tiebreaker, double the army points within each zone.

Game

We rolled off, and I lost the roll. Nik opted to go first, and I took the side of the table that I was on primarily because my stuff was on that side.

Round 1

I wouldn't say anything too surprising happens out of Nik's first turn. Most of his army runs or at least advances. Sudden Death goes on Bane Lord Tartarus. Phantom Seeker goes onto the Kraken and Occultation goes up on the Bane Riders.

My turn 1 I basically went with my typical game plan where I used forests to block LOS to my army. In hindsight I'm less sure if that was a good idea, but I'll discuss that later. I did try to do my best not to bunch up the mannikins so that the Phantom Hunter shot wouldn't be too bad for them. I move up my Shifting Stones to threaten a lot of potential teleport shenanigans. I had the list balanced across with positioning. Bradigus puts up Flesh of Clay and Synergy and I see what Nik has for me on turn 2.

Round 2

So, now we'll start to see what Cryx might try to do here. I made a mistake on my positioning of one of my Mannikins which allowed for a charge from a Bane Rider. The Kraken was able to get a shot off, which I shield guarded to a Woldwatcher. After that the rest of the army basically ran at me, which I think based on my turn 1 play was the best move. If that hadn't happened I think I'd move up and cover my whole army with forests again.

Ok, so now on my turn. The first thing that I do is that I look across the table and try to decide if I can get the Kraken dead. I think that I have a shot at it with the Guardian, so I set up some triple teleport shenanigans to get one of the Guardian's over there. After that its time to crank up the Synergy. My Woldwatchers get a couple of guys dead. My Wardens get a couple of guys dead too, both geomancy a Rift out there, one came within 1 point of killing another Bane Rider which is quite unfortunate. Bradigus charges to kill a model, feats so he can get the hell out of there afterward, so he feated for 0" and Nik's table edge. The guardian goes to town and does about 2/3 of the Kraken, which was 5 damage less because I was about 1/8" short on a charge from the Guardian on my right. Mannikins get a little bit of work done too where they can.

Round 3

Now that my feat is gone, and I don't really have the option of the forest wall to hide behind, I'm faces with an army of Banes that love the idea of charging things that are easy to hit. Goreshade will also feat this turn which is enough to get Dark Shroud on basically every model that needs to have it. He cranks a couple of damage rolls on my Woldwarden on the left, and will eventually kill it with Tartarus. The Kraken gets 3 focus and takes out the Woldguardian that came in on it. Other banes take out some Shifting Stones and get in on my other 2 heavy wolds, doing some significant damage to them.

On my turn things aren't looking too stellar, my Wolds are pretty banged up, but all of the feats are off the table. Big thing I realize is that I can't quite teleport anyone onto Goreshade because I'm not far enough forward with my Guardian, and Bradigus needed to be back about 1/2" or less or I think he can get on Goreshade himself in melee probably. So I go to work, I forget about Sudden Death which ruins a plan where a Mannikin was going to clear stuff off of Bradigus. Instead I kill a bane or 2 with it. Bradigus kills about 4 Banes in melee himself. Guardian remaining takes out 3 Bane Riders.

Round 4

So, Nik is looking at my force being pretty tattered, and is just going to keep going with the attrition. He moves the Kraken and Goreshade into the zone, uses the wolds to kill I think everything but one of my lights and a bunch of Stones. All of the units of Shifting Stones are broken at this point too.

On my turn I'm just looking for anything that I might be able to do to get out of it. I think that I can maybe start scoring on scenario in the zone on the right and I can contest with stones on the other side. So what I need to do is Battering Ram the Bane in front of me, so I can charge Tartarus. Problem is that I miss with the first Battering Ram. I go for it again, hit, kill. Charge Tartarus, boost to hit ... leave him at 1, which pretty much means this plan is over. I go ahead and buy an attack on him that misses I believe.

Round 5

Nik takes his turn. Run banes into the zone, kills all the stones that matters and I'm pretty screwed looking. I check to see if there is even a chance with my ranges attacks that I can get a way to kill Goreshade, I can't so we go ahead and call it. Nik wins!

Analysis

So I was glad to play this game as I wanted to get an idea of where my bad matches might be. Cryx is definitely not something I would say that was a bad matchup, but in hindsight I think that there were things I could have done that might have potentially allowed for me to win.

First, I think that the forests may not have done enough in this particular matchup for me. The Kraken was always going to be able to shoot me because of Phantom Seeker and the only other pieces in the army fast enough to tie me up were the Bane Riders, which I'd prefer not to have hit me, but I think I can survive their attacks and then I have more fury on my Sentry Stones for me to boost some attacks with some Mannikins.

Another place that I don't think was a great choice was going in on the Kraken. It would have allowed me to kill off more models I think with my wolds because I could get some better teleports. I might not have even needed the feat, or possibly could have used it in other ways. I should have known the math (even with the 1 more Synergy that I missed) made it an unlikely attempt unless I can get a 2nd heavy there.

Looking back at the pictures now too, I might have been able to play a stronger game for the zone on my left if I had pushed into it harder, sooner. Not completely sure there, but maybe.

One thing that worked for my favor though was that Goreshade really wants to see living models to make more Banes out of and to get Corpses for the Kraken, and I had only Bradigus who was living, so that did slow things down some there at least.

Anyway, was a good game and Nik played it well.

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Krueger the Stormlord vs Harbinger of Menoth

Alright, round 3! I get paired up against Dan who's a Madison local. He is playing Protectorate at this event, where he was playing Cryx the last time that I saw him. He's got Harbinger and High Reclaimer today. I don't think High Reclaimer is all that great against Circle, so I basically expect Harbinger ... which is what I get. I play Krueger2 as he tends to have a lot better time against her, especially with some models immune to Fire and less things affected by her feat. Also, Krueger was the right answer based on the scenario.

Lists

Harbinger of Menoth (*5pts)
* Devout (5pts)
* Hierophant (2pts)
Avatar of Menoth (11pts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Exemplar Errants (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer (2pts)
High Paladin Dartan Vilmon (3pts)
Initiate Tristan Durant (3pts)
* Reckoner (8pts)
Paladin of the Order of the Wall (2pts)
Paladin of the Order of the Wall (2pts)
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord (2pts)
The Covenant of Menoth (2pts)
The Wrack (3 wracks) (1pts)

Vassal of Menoth (2pts)

Scenario

Incursion

Special Rules

Place three flags in accordance with the diagram below. At the end of the second player's first turn, randomly remove a non-center flag from the table. Starting on the second player's second turn, at the end of each player's turn a player earns control points (CP) as follows:
Outer Flag: Control = 1 CP, Dominate = 2 CP
Center Flag: Control = 1 CP, Dominate = 1 CP
Victory Conditions

The first player to earn at least 5 control points and have more control points than the opponent immediately wins the game

If time runs out before a player has won the game via scenario or assassination victory, break the tie as outlined on the Scenario Reference Sheet. For the 3rd tiebreaker, double the army points within 4 inches of each flag

Only the active player scores when multiple players dominate the same zone or flag.

Game

Dan wins the die roll and opts to choose a side, he picks the side with a goofy circular wall and a building, so I get to go first.

Round 1

Since I get to go first I press the issue pretty hard. I stay in the middle of the table so that I can hopefully threaten either flag. Krueger TK's himself, throws up Storm Wall, and then charges to the middle of the table. Druids do their thing, Shifting Stones setup. Una sets up Watcher, and everyone runs.

He pretty aggressively comes in at me, with almost everything running. Rhupert puts Tough and Fearless on the Errants. I believe No Magic goes up from the Choir as well. Harbinger moves up, feats and hides mostly behind the building. The flag to my right goes away, which is unfortunate as I think he's got more of his army on my left.

Round 2

I have to manuever around the feat and try to use a lot of shenanigans to figure out how I'm going to kill the Errants with magic attacks. I put some attacks into the errants, that doesn't go nearly well between no knockdown, tough and self-sacrifice but I do get some work done. I try to manuever over towards the other flag so that I can start scoring. I also feat to try to get to that point, plus just to slow him down. I took way, way to long to play out this turn as well, which is a big problem that I need to look into.

On his turn he gets a solo back into base with that outside flag. Avatar moves up, gets Enliven'd. Errants trying to do work in melee, didn't lose anything too important I don't recall. He's mostly just trying to compensate for the -2 SPD from my feat.

Round 3

The biggest thing that I see here is that i can probably get both heavies dead. I had to have my Stalker and my Gorax pass their Threshold checks though, which they do. Stalker gets Primal, and after Druids make it so that the Avatar can't go anywhere, he goes in on it. Nearly kills it, but doesn't quite get it done. Then, Una with some boosted shots finishes it off. Rotterhorn does his best to try to kill some more infantry. Krueger charges the flag, kills the models on it hoping I can dominate. Feral w/ Primal goes in on the ARM buff'd Reckoner, but he comes up short. I try to get some damage from Gunfighter on him in melee with the Fulcrum, Reckoner still lives.

I think Dan was feeling like the game was not going well. Krueger is on 2 transfers and it seems like he's setting up for an assassination. Tries to get Tristan to where he can attempt to Immolate Krueger, but unfortunately he comes up a little short, so that doesn't yield him a whole lot. I believe the Errants managed to kill the Rotterhorn her perhaps (that might be the next turn though).

Round 4

Feral frenzies on a choir boy unfortunately. Stalker takes out a Druid on his frenzy. Shifting Stones teleport the Gorax up to start working on the Errants, which works out fairly well, but I don't think I was quite able to clear the center flag. Krueger is able to clear out his flag on that side, but it leaves him with 1 Fury, which isn't a great place to be in against Harbinger. I'm also running quite low on time at this point, like 2-3 minutes type of low.

Basically at this point, he's looking at a Cataclysm assassination, I kind of hate that spell since it auto hits for kinda no reason, but that's ok. He gets 2 of them off, boosts both damage rolls ... Krueger is on 1 after the first roll was transferred. Whew! Choir contest the flag, get Dirge of Mists, the couple errants in the center contest too.

Round 5

I have to act QUICK this turn, but I should be able to. Krueger clears out his flag with out too much problem. Una and the Gorax manage to clear out the other flag, and with a minute or so left on my clock I go to 5 control points

Analysis

The BIG lesson here is that I needed to play a ton faster. When I'm triggering feat I need to play faster, and I need to start getting my game plan going faster in general. I also need to just execute better, there were a bunch of mistakes that were small, but costly in that game. Dan and I had a great game though, and that puts me in first place for the tournament!

Krueger the Stormlord vs Lich Lord Asphyxious

Following my round 1 victory over Retribution pairings go up and I'm facing off against everyone's favorite PG/Judge/Infernal Travis! He's brought Lich2 and Terminus, I'm figuring he'll just play Lich, and I'm right. With the Druids in the Krueger list, I figure I'll just go ahead and drop that again.

Lists

Lich Lord Asphyxious (*6pts)

* Deathripper (4pts)

* Nightwretch (4pts)

Bane Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)

Bane Thralls (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)

* Bane Thrall Officer & Standard (3pts)

Bile Thralls (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)

The Withershadow Combine (5pts)

Bane Lord Tartarus (4pts)

Darragh Wrathe (4pts)

Pistol Wraith (3pts)

Saxon Orrik (2pts)

Warwitch Siren (2pts)

Scenario

Destruction

Special Rules

Mark a zone (12 inch × 6 inch rectangle) and place two Critical Asset objectives in accordance with the diagram below. The objective on Player 1's side of the table is a friendly Faction model to Player 1 and vice versa. Starting on the second player's second turn, at the end of each player's turn a player earns control points (CP) as follows.

Artifice: Kill Box

Enemy Objective: Destroyed/Removed from Play = 1 CP (once per objective)

Zone: Control = 1 CP, Dominate = 2 CP

Victory Conditions

The first player to earn at least 5 control points and have more control points than the opponent immediately wins the game.

Game

Travis wins the die roll and not surprisingly opts to go first.

Round 1

Nothing terribly exciting, everything runs forward, Gaspy hides behind most of this small building. Gaspy casts Hellbound, and not a whole lot else happens that turn for him.

Since I'm going second and there is a whole army of undead that I'm looking down and basically no guns, I realize that Lightning Storm is a better option. Krueger throws 2 of those out there from a very forward Gallows Grove. A Druid blasts the lead Bile Thrall off the table as well.

Round 2

He's worried about not putting enough stuff into the zone, because Krueger can just feat and get blown out from that. So Bane Thralls get into the zone, whole unit. Nightwretch kills a Druid with a Blaster shot. As the Bane Thralls were coming he was asking about Watcher triggering, but it was a dumb time for me to trigger it. He then Cursed the Gallows Grove with Tartarus and charged it, catching 2 Druids and the Grove, turning them all into Bane Thralls. I made a mistake here and forgot about Watcher, which probably would have been enough to do in Tartarus. Bane Knights also run to get into the zone. Biles kinda came in behind. Then, he sees his sea of dudes and decides to throw Gaspy to basically the edge of the zone.

Travis pretty much immediately realizes that he easily put Gaspy into a single telepor with the Feral onto Gaspy. I first go with the Fulcrum which is within 10" of Gaspy as well and only between them are Banes. So I aim, kill 4 out of 5 banes that I hit, boost to hit on Gaspy 6-6-6, so that's a crit, he's stationary! I shoot him with the other guns and put a couple points on him. Primal on the Feral, teleport with the Stones, and a few attacks later that's a dead Gaspy2

Analysis

Not much to say on this one. I did feel fairly confident that I could get rid of a LOT of banes with how my list works. The one big mistake was mentioned was not taking out Tartarus when I had a good opportunity, but it was a good lesson to learn.

Krueger the Stormlord vs Adeptis Rahn

Saturday morning I made me way up to Madison for a tournament ran by Crippled System's very own Carnage¹! The tournament was 2 lists, no divide and conquer and no character restrictions. Since the lists that I play are prepared for other tournaments generally, I basically ignored the character non-restriction. I checked, but he wouldn't let me play with Bradigus since he's not out legally until Wednesday. That means, Krueger the Stormlord and Cassius the Oathkeeper are my warlocks of choice, and you'll see from the battle reports that I really only played the former. Hopefully these battle reports are actually alright, as I did not remember to take a picture basically at all during this event.

Round 1 I get paired up with Max, who I actually had the pleasure to face back at the Dice Dojo² WMW Qualifier event in the last round. This time he's brought Adeptis Rahn and Lord Arcanist Ossyan. Given that my Krueger list had Druids in it, I expected him to choose Ossyan. That said, with those lists the selection was pretty easy for me and I choose Krueger. As the title of this article would suggest, he surprised my be picking Rahn.

Lists

Adeptis Rahn Shyeel (*6pts)
* Hyperion (18pts)
* Phoenix (10pts)
* Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker (2pts)
Dawnguard Invictors (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
* Dawnguard Invictor Officer & Standard (2pts)
House Shyeel Battle Mages (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
Arcanist (1pts)
Arcanist (1pts)
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution (3pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)
Mage Hunter Assassin (2pts)

Scenario

Supply and Demand

Special Rules

Mark a zone (12 inch-diameter circle) and place two Supply Cache objectives in accordance with the diagram below. The objective on Player 1's side of the table is a friendly Faction model to Player 1 and vice versa. Starting on the second player's second turn, at the end of each player's turn a player earns control points (CP) as follows:
Artifice: Kill Box
Zone: Control = 1 CP, Dominate = 2 CP
Enemy Objective: Destroyed/Removed from Play = 1 CP (once per objective)

Victory Conditions

The first player to earn at least 5 control points and have more control points than the opponent immediately wins the game.

Game

He wins the die roll I do believe, and opts to go first. We go through all of the stages of deployment. One important note about this table is that it there is a skinny forest in the middle of the table. I deployed in such a way that the Fulcrum could get some shots on the objective. He seemed to do sort of similarly with the Hyperion, with his Phoenix on the other side.

Round 1

He moves Eiryss into the forest in the middle into a position where she's a pain. The Mage Hunter Assassins move up into positions where they're threatening off the flanks pretty aggressively. The rest of the army moves/runs up. Rahn throws up Force Field and puts Polarity Shield on the Hyperion.

I can't move up quite as aggressively as I often tend to like to with Krueger, but I mostly feel like what I need to do is just keep my druids alive and contributing with counter magic and some force bolts. I don't actually position my army terribly well on this turn, I think mostly due to having not played him for a bit and being rusty. I do get Una and the Rotterhorn into great spots though really. Blackclads in position to do some work. I actually Elemental Immunity the Druids and charge one with the Fulcrum hoping to get Eiryss with the SP10 attack, I get her targetted and in range ... but rollde a 9 boosting instead of a 10, oh well! Una puts up Watcher, Krueger casts Storm Wall.

Round 2

First thing he's eyeing is that he wants his Mage Hunter Assassin on my left flank to take out a Shifting Stone so that teleportation is off the board. He looks at it, realizes that I have Watcher up on Una, he decided it was worth the risk to get the Stone off the table, tries to see if he can position far enough back to avoid the Watcher attack, he doesn't, Rotterhorn kills that Mage Hunter. The other Mage Hunter runs around the edge to flank hard. Battle Mages actually back up a little to stay safe. Hyperion comes up, tries to shoot a few things, between shortened range and what not he doesn't do much. Eiryss tries to kill a Druid, fails to hit a 9. Invictors take some shots, I think they all came up short, or maybe they got a single Druid. Phoenix moves a lot closer, but far from where it seems my heavies are.

He had correctly put Hyperion into the zone, otherwise I'm looking to clear it out and then start winning on scenario. Instead he doesn't, so I start to setup for killing his Phoenix. Druids do some work on the Invictors, Feral moves up a bit on the edge of teleport. Shifting Stones move the Stalker over near (but not yet in melee with) the Phoenix. Krueger throws up Storm Wall again, TKs the Phoenix closer and backwards using a Gallows Grove over there. I think before that too, the Fulcrum shot at it a few times as well. Stalker turns it into a wreck marker. Una was within 5" of Eiryss, so she kills her.

Round 3

The Rotterhorn had come closer, so I think he wanted to try to shoot it some with Hyperion, didn't really hit enough times to do much due to Storm Wall and missing. Battle Mages kill the Blackclad. I had a Blackclad in the way of his Mage Hunter Assassin that flanked, it charged, missed the 7 to hit. Invictors try to get into melee, manage I think to kill a druid or 2. At some point in this turn he was thinking about making an assassination run, but I pointed out to him that you can't ever see through a forest, only into or out of. I think I'm forgetting something here, but that's all I remember from his turn

On my turn, he put the Hyperion in teleport range for the Feral, so Gorax puts Primal on him, Shifting Stones teleport him. Activate the Feral and my dice are kind of insane, he does like 2/3s damage to it. The Rotterhorn scratches it up a little bit more, doesn't kill it but its close, Fulcrum eventually takes it down. Stalker Berserks through 4 Invictors. Blackclad charges the Assassin and kills it.

Round 4

He charges Rahn up into the Hyperion wreck marker to make an attack on the Rotterhorn, camps his whole stack and feats. The Battle Mages pull the Feral around, I don't remember if they managed to kill it or not. His other minor remnants of the army move around.

I try to have my Rotterhorn headbutt Rahn, but he misses even with a boost. Krueger TKs the Stalker to be in walk distance with both weapons. Primal on the Stalker, get gets into combat with Rahn, and unfortunately toward the end I misunderstood that I needed to do 11 damage, meaning I needed to roll a 15, so I spent 2 boosts on that ... So I leave Rahn not quite dead, with an angry wolf in front of him. I believe I shot the Warpwolf with the fire AOE from the fulcrum to get Rahn on fire, which I do, and I believe he dies to the fire roll the next turn.

Analysis

The biggest thing for me during this game was that I played way too slowly! I was down under 10 minutes in this game and I didn't even use my feat. Unacceptable. I also need to work on my positioning of a few things this showed me. Another thing is that I need to remember to use Force Bolts on things in Defensive Line sooner because then they're easier to deal with.

^{1. Carnage is Brian from Crippled System, you should check them out!

2. www.chicagolandgames.com}

Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver vs Vayl, Disciple of Everblight

Our local Greg might be moving away and it had been a while since we had played, so this past Thursday at game night we both figured that it would be a good time to get in a game. I brought Bradigus as I have been doing, mostly because he hadn't seen him before (which makes sense, he's new) and he had seen Krueger2 before which was the other option I had suggested since I knew I'd be playing him in a tournament over the weekend. But, between that and me bad mouthing the Warmongers, he decided to play a Vayl list that is sort of his trademark.

Lists

Woldwar - Tier 4

Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver (*6pts)

* Woldwatcher (0pts)

* Woldwatcher (5pts)

* Woldguardian (9pts)

* Woldwarden (9pts)

Sentry Stone (Leader and 3 Manikins) (3pts)

Shifting Stones (2pts)

Vayl, Disciple of Everblight (*6pts)

* Nephilim Bolt Thrower (6pts)

* Raek (4pts)

* Shredder (2pts)

* Angelius (9pts)

* Carnivean (11pts)

Blighted Ogrun Warmongers (Leader and 4 Grunts) (8pts)

Blighted Nyss Shepherd (1pts)

The Forsaken (2pts)

Totem Hunter (3pts)

Warmonger War Chief (3pts)

Scenario

Outflank

Special Rules

Mark two zones (12 inch-diameter circle) in accordance with the diagram below. Starting on the second player's second turn, at the end of each player's turn a player earns control points (CP) as follows:

Zone: Control = 1 CP, Dominate = 2 CP

Victory Conditions

The first player to earn at least 5 control points and have more control points than the opponent immediately wins the game.

Game

One of the other very traditional things that Greg does is that he always informs his opponent that they have won their die roll. I go ahead and opt to go first.

Round 1

I do some assessments on what he can and can't get to with his shots, he reminds me that Vayl has Leash so the Carnivean can actually get farther. I go ahead and advance kind of gingerly, not really bothering with the forest wall this time since it won't do me as much good, and putting the Sentry Stones into position seems better.

Vayl puts Chiller on the Warmongers, puts Leash up on the Carnivean and proceeds into the forest and up the table. Carnivean follows of course with its Leash move. Warmongers move up, with a few in the zone, the Angelius moves into the forest, gets a Tenacity I believe and the Forsaken follows up to grab some focus. Totem Hunter's assigned Prey to the Sentry Stone & Mannikin unit on my right at the beginning, and he advanced up that flank. A Warmonger Chieftain went up each side, and the 2 light beasts moved ahead as well

Round 2

I don't have really any good assassination option or heavy attrition options, so I don't try for them. Instead I figure I will start mucking things up with some rough terrain and get a few shots off where I can. I think I might be able to do some good work on my left on a Warmonger Chief, I boost an attack and damage roll with a Mannikin and I crank out a 17 on the damage roll, so that does him in. On the other side, I had a Mannikin do similar amounts of damage to Warmonger "Chuck"¹. I also had my Wardens on each side throwing out some Rifts, the one on the right dropped Rough Terrain right in the way. Some other Forests are created, things move up.

Greg goes ahead with his turn, setting up for a feat. Angelius moved up, took a shot. Carnivean got in a spray that should have killed both Shifting Stones that I dumbly lined up, but fortunately for me one of them stayed alive. I managed to lose a Stone out of the other 2 units over the course of this turn. The Warmongers got a guy on my Warden, killed a couple Mannikins. A couple of other things happened too, and then he mostly used his feat to jam into me harder. He also in that turn used a Rampager on my Woldwarden to kill off the Sentry Stone on my left, so there goes my Mannikins.

Round 3

Now, I have most of his army in my face asking me to come get some. We discuss, but I do make the mistake of not just ramping up my Synergy chain and then dropping a Guardian in front of Vayl, taking the Dark Sentinel hit, and then smooshing her. But, I instead go for some attrition and see that I might be able to get in on Vayl if he Dark Sentinel's poorly. I think I wiff with one of my Woldwatchers, the other Watcher, Warden start the chain. The Guardian on the right gets teleported and takes down 2 more Warmongers. The other Guardian is close enough to walk to melee with the Carnivean, so he does, Dark Sentinel moves the Angelius into position where I don't see any option to get to Vayl. Guardian pounds through Spiny Growth, taking the Carnivean off the table. I activate Bradigus, he feats so that I can walk the Warden into melee with the Angelius and also provides a +1 to Synergy. The Warden walks up to the Angelius, kills that too. Sentry Stones had grabbed fury off of the beasts too and moved around and/or had their mannikins try to do a few things as well.

Things don't look fantastic for Greg, Bradigus has 2 transfers I believe, and both Guardians are potential targets for it. Forsaken does a Blight Bomb which does a lot of damage, but doesn't quite kill anything. The Woldwarden by Vayl gets Rampagered and punches the Guardian. He tries to free up the Raek from the mannikins on the right, can't quite do it. Totem hunter walks and jumps into melee with Bradigus, does a minor amount of damage I believe. Raek walks and jumps over eventually, I think he made 4 attacks, hit on one of them. The Shepard even gets a charge, does a small amount of damage to my Woldwatcher. Bolt Thrower gets positioned so that Vayl doesn't just get charged and smooshed.

Round 4

Dark Sentinel could be a problem potentially since the one Wold Guardian is pretty beat. I start winding up Synergy, I use a Shifting Stone to put some aspects back up on the teleportable Guardian as well. The undamaged one goes in on the Bolt Thrower, which does use Dark Sentinel to attack back. Guardian smooshes it I believe. Then I teleport the other Guardian onto Vayl at some sort of ridiculous dice + to damage, smoosh².

Analysis

I still like Bradigus against Legion quite a bit. I definitely need to be watching out for easy assassinations like that and not let Dark Sentinel overly scare me. Sentry Stones are pretty great against a Hordes force too it seems. Was great to get in a game against Greg again though, it had been a while

^{1. Greg does this thing where most of his models have names painted/written on the back of their bases so that he can distinguish them apart easily. It can make for some fun table chatter.

2. Smoosh is just how I feel like something with ram hands must be dealing with things.}