Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver vs Forge Master Syntherion

Alrighty, back at it again for the 3rd game on the day!  Some shenanigans transpired in the tournament with drops so we finagled a game where I could play against someone I had not already played, since that should be more interesting and it was a small tournament.  So that meant I was squaring off in a battle of Synergy against Phil's Forge Master Syntherion!

Lists

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)

The Great Machine - Tier 4
Forge Master Syntherion (*6pts)
* Corollary (3pts)
* Diffuser (3pts)
* Diffuser (3pts)
* Galvanizer (0pts)
* Mitigator (4pts)
* Cipher (9pts)
* Cipher (9pts)
* Monitor (8pts)
* Monitor (8pts)
Optifex Directive (Leader and 2 Grunts) (2pts)
Optifex Directive (Leader and 2 Grunts) (2pts)
Algorithmic Dispersion Optifex (1pts)
Attunement Servitors (2pts)
Elimination Servitors (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.

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.

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

Game

He wins the die roll and like the other opponents goes ahead and chooses to go first.  No problem really there for me.

Round 1

He does the thing where he assigns out a focus and everything runs forward in order.  Its pretty straight forward.  His Reflex Servitors run out, 2 of them getting to the zone and one on a flank.  Syntherion gets all of his upkeeps out on his battlegroup.

Having learned from before, I go ahead and shoot both of the Reflex Servitors in the zone dead, and then I cover my entire army in the front with forests, which completely stops him from shooting anything even with True Sight.  I also carefully position my Shifting Stones and the Wold Guardians

Round 2

He really felt like he had no great options.  Its killbox, so Syntherion has to move forward at least some this turn.  He is in the position though where if he sits back, I'm definitely going to score 3 points this turn, and might have him jammed out of the zone.  His other option is basically to feed me his army and hope to weather the storm.  He opts for the latter approach.  Syntherion camps on 5 focus and moves up behind one of the heavies and beside the corollary and a wall figuring he's safe from teleporting.

Looking at the table, I realize that moving Syntherion within 2" of that zone was just too aggressive.  So I proceed to start executing the most interesting teleport shenanigans I have ever done.  First, there is a unit of stones on my left, a unit that a Guardian is in and another unit that is basically a straight line across the middle.  I use the Shifting Stones on the left to teleport one of the stones in the unit that is a line so that its at the most edge of its 4" command.  Then I use the unit of Stones with the Guardian to teleport it as far onto the line that bisects the new triangle I made, and then I am able easily to get behind Syntherion.  From there I take Synergy up to +6 and punch Syntherion in the back 3 times and that's the game!

Analysis

He really just shouldn't have going that far forward, and we discussed that after the game.  That said, I didn't even feat, so even if he had stayed back right on the edge of the kill box, I can probably get to him with that same maneuver.  I am REALLY enjoying the Sentry Stones in this list, they definitely make it a great matchup against a lot of armies.  Also, yay for triple teleport assassinations!

Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver vs Dominar Rasheth

Continuing through my events that you will recall from my previous blog entry, I was able to go up against one of our newer Skorne players Brandon.  He had a take on the Rasheth theme force that I haven't seen before, but I felt like I would be up for it.

Lists

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)

Chain Gang - Tier 1
Dominar Rasheth (*5pts)
* Bronzeback Titan (9pts)
* Bronzeback Titan (9pts)
* Titan Gladiator (7pts)
* Titan Gladiator (7pts)
* Titan Sentry (8pts)
Nihilators (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)
Agonizer (2pts)
Agonizer (2pts)

Scenario

The scenario for the round was Balance of Power.  Its an interesting scenario for sure, because a lot of people think the scenario is not winnable.  I find that it can be, but you frequently have to push hard into it and/or attrition them down pretty far.  Either way, Balance of Power it is!

Again, did not remember to take any pictures, and sadly there was no GoPro to help me out here so we'll just have to slog through based on my memory.  I do recall losing the die roll again, kept my same side and I'm going 2nd again.

Round 1

He deploys about as you'd expect.  Nihilators mostly located centrally, Bronzebacks on the outside, Gladiators just inside of that and then the other things in the middle.  He has 2 Agonizers out there as well, mostly towards the flanks.  Rasheth puts out a couple of Rush animi, the army moves forward.

Having learned from my last game, even with the Nihilators out there, I decide to cover the front of my army with forest templates.  I also believe I managed to kill 2 Nihilators with my Woldwatchers.  Rest of the army moved up behind the forest cover, Synergy was cast.

Round 2

I forgot that Rasheth can use a trooper as an arcnode, so he moves one around my forest well, while running the rest into the way in the front of his army.  Rasheth throws out a Breath of Corruption, which gets 3-4 Mannikins I think.  He advanced with the rest of his army.  Rasheth moves up only a little bit, but doesn't get close enough that I feel like I have any chance at getting to him for an assassination.

Looking at the table, I again realize that the most important situations, which is that I should be able to take out the Bronzebacks.  Teleport both Woldguardians so they're set for destroying the Bronzebacks.  I have Bradigus help out the Synergy count, feat, and now I've got the 2 Guardians on the Bronzebacks, and as Woldwarden set to charge in on one of the Gladiators.  I manage to be able to take out all 3 of those, and some other stuff as well.

Round 3

He's able to kill my Woldwarden with his Sentry, and he gets the Gladiator into the zone by slamming the Woldwatcher in front of him.  It of course can't be knocked down due to the animus.  I'm actually not sure what all else he does on this turn.  The couple of Nihilators were into the zone and the Agonizer on that side went up behind that Gladiator.

I had trouble with my fury because I hadn't spent the proper amount, but that's ok.  I move my fury around so that I can hopefully make the most use out of things.  Get Synergy going with Bradigus and the 2 light warbeasts.  Then a Woldguardian managed to take out the Gladiator, the Woldwarden took down the Agonizer.

Round 4

We look at the table and see if there is any other option.  Basically, he has to REALLY spike some damage rolls, which he doesn't and we call the game there

Analysis

I feel pretty good about this match.  Titans are pretty durable, but I out threaten them with my feat and with Shifting Stones which is not what they usually want to see.  It might be that a gatorman version of this build would be better, but I don't know really if that is much worse.  If the Titan's don't get the first hit on anything, then my beef will definitely do the work, especially if I can keep the Guardian's alive.

Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver vs Hunter's Grim

Yay! Time for more discussion around Bradigus! So, I ran a tournament that ended up having a smaller turnout this past Saturday.  Worked out that we had only 7 players, so I played against the player who got the BYE every round.  Event was 1 list with Specialists, so that made life pretty easy.  Anyway, round 1 BYE went to fellow PG Felix who brought the Hunter's Grim.

Lists

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)

Hunters Grim (*4pts)
* Dire Troll Blitzer (9pts)
* Dozer & Smigg (9pts)
* Trollkin Runebearer (2pts)
War Wagon (9pts)
Farrow Bone Grinders (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 5 Stone Scribes (4pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Trollkin Scattergunners (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Trollkin Scattergunner Officer & Drummer (2pts)
Horgle Ironstrike (3pts)
* Slag Troll (5pts)

Scenario

We roll the dice, Felix gets the win there, decides to go first which is pretty smart because I'm going to just take the side that my stuff is on.  Also, just as a note, he used a GoPro to take some pics here with stop capture... But I forgot to take any pics all day.  Sorry kids.

Round 1

Felix basically just runs his army forward, throws Mirage onto the Scattergunners, and tries to spread out and threaten a lot of the table.

I definitely make a mistake in deployment and don't allow for myself to get forest templates from the Mannikins across my entire army, leaving a hole in the middle basically.  I do manage to kill one of the Scattergunners that got too close and turn him into a forest, then I cover as much of my army as I can with forests.

Round 2

Felix wisely takes advantage of the gap that I made.  He can pretty easily get Mortality onto one of my Woldwatchers that is up front.  Then he feats and starts shooting at it and a few other things.  Over the course of the shots he manages to take that out, the 2 Woldwardens are knocked down by the big gun on the battle engine, and I lose 1 Shifting Stone out of one of the units.

He wisely managed to put things in front of Grim so that I couldn't get to him, so that was wise for sure.  I looked at the situation though, and it was pretty clear that I could get a Guardian on the War Wagon and on the Blitzer.  So, I teleport each within ~4" of those beasts.  I also believe his 2 shots on my Woldwarden knocked out his mind, but Bradigus was right behind him, so I actually got to use Shape Stone, and that got him back to functional.  I proceeded to use my other beasts to crank up the Synergy bonus, I take out those 2 targets and the objective, and manage to get to 3 points on scenario.

Round 3

Horgol and the Slag troll try to do some work over on that side, but really don't manage to do enough damage to the Wold Guardian, though I think his mind went out too, so apparently Felix makes me lose my mind?  Horgol moved into contest range of the flag.  There were some long shots tried on Bradigus which failed.

At this point Felix called it, but basically the Guardian kills Horgol and Bradigus teleports over to that flag and then I win on scenario

Analysis

I feel like the biggest take away that I had with this game is that the Mannikins need to turn into forests so that I can protect my whole army.  I gave away those Woldwatcher points and the Shifting Stone when I didn't need to.

Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver vs Tyrant Xerxis

More Bradigus blog!  I think y'all probably should just get used to this, I'm trying to break this guy in and get as much data as I can.  With that in mind, I'm back at it for another game with everyone's favorite stone-slinger.

I went with the same theme force list as last week, which you can see here:

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)

As the title eludes to, I squared off against local Gabe playing Xerxis1 not in theme this time, which is a good change of pace I would say.

Here's what I believe his list looked like:

Tyrant Xerxis (*5pts)
* Basilisk Krea (4pts)
* Tiberion (11pts)
* Aptimus Marketh (3pts)
Cataphract Cetrati (Leader and 5 Grunts) (11pts)
Cataphract Incindiarii (Leader and 5 Grunts) (9pts)
Nihilators (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer (3pts)
Agonizer (2pts)
Mortitheurge Willbreaker (2pts)

We just sort of randomly threw a scenario out there and it ended up being Supply & Demand:

He wins the die roll, chose table edge and then we proceed to setup and what not.  This scenario does have a killbox which is going to be important I think with Bradigus going first.

Round 1

Since I'm going first and he doesn't have a ton of guns, basically everything runs. My Sentry Stone's use a fury to place themselves where they need to go, the little whicker men get to relevant places  and everything else gets as far forward as it can

Stuff has moved up far enough, he's basically looking to get into the mix.  He runs up his Nihilators, putting about 5 of them in harm's way.  Cetrati run forward with about 2 of them in my way.  Incindiarii move up, manage to drift and kill a couple of Mannikins.  Xerxis comes up, puts Defender's Ward on the Nihilators.  Everything else basically just moves up to try to become a pain.

Round 2

A lot of flailing begins here it would seem.  I try to clear out some Nihilators with my Mannikins, and they are having a hard time hitting boosted 9s and unboosted 6s, so that doesn't go super well for me.  I do manage to kill off 2 of the Cetrati though, and a few Nihilators.  I throw out some forests and basically setup to be able to hit him hard the next turn or get way ahead on scenario.

He responds back, the Nihilators get a few into my army, one of them is able to kill off like 3 Mannikins due to my positioning.  He Shieldwalls with the Cetrati in the middle, and throws the Krea and Agonizer behind them and Tiberion behind that as well.  Incindiarii don't feel like they have a lot of options and start running for the flanks.  I believe I got a few damage on the Woldwarden on my right as well, but nothing meaningful.

Round 3

The above picture is actually the table after I began this turn.  I'm looking at where my Woldguardian is on the right, and where Xerxis is positioned.  There's a pretty big gap there for a large base to make it through.  Figuring I can get my Guardian to pound him through 2 transfers just fine.  Woldwatcher on the left decides he can't hit a Nihilator though, so that doesn't help.  I move up the other watcher, get Synergy going, move up both Wardens, more synergy from each.  Teleport both Woldguardians up so the one is ready to go in on Xerxis and the other one can do some work on Cetrati.  Bradigus gets teleported hits a knocked down Nihilator, feats, pushes as planned.  The right Guardian kills 2 Cetrati.  I try to see if I can get my Sentry Stone within 6" of Xerxis to make life easier, but I can't.  Guardian there goes, 5 punches and that's the game!

Analysis

This was a strange list for me to play against, there is a LOT of armor cracking in his list, and Pathfinder options.  Forests can be a big pain, and I'm fairly sure that with teleporting, guns, spells and Bradigus' feat that he's normally hitting first.  The more I play with the Sentry Stones I think the better that I will get with them.  I'm not sure that if I get to the point that I am doing it correctly that I can fail to either be strong on scenario or get a strong alpha-strike.  One thing with this build that I'm really debating is if the battlegroup is correct, or if a Woldwarden should become a Woldguardian, I'd probably like to get in a few more games before I assess that.

Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver vs Dr. Arkadius

This blog is definitely turning into a Bradigus blog, but he's the new hotness and I want to be able to bring him to events which means that I need to put him on the table!  Since the spoilers for Exigence are rolling out. I've decided to go with his theme force!

Theme Force

Tier 1 -
Requirement: Only these models
Benefit: +1 FA for Shifting Stone and Sentry Stone & Mannikins units
Tier 2 -
Requirement: 1+ unit of Shifting Stones
Benefit: redeploy one model/unit
Tier 3 -
Requirement: 1+ Sentry Stone & Mannikin unit
Benefit: Sentry Stones start the game with 3 fury
Tier 4 -
Requirement: Bradigus is the only living model
Benefit: Add a Woldwatcher to Bradigus' battlegroup for free

I was not able to get a full listing of what was allowed in the theme force other than the above models and that I can't take character warbeasts, so no Megalith which is unfortunate.  It did not however stop me from being able to build a list.  So I went into the tank to see what kind of math I could do, and here's what I ended up with:

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)

This list does a lot of things for Bradigus.  A free light warbeast is never bad.  Adding more options for Sentry Stones and Shifting Stones definitely feels good to throw out there.  I can still get Synergy to go to 7 with this list, which is only 1 less than my previous incarnations.  Sentry Stones are bringing a lot the additional Woldwatchers did in my previous builds.

Anyway, my opponent was local "I own all of the things so I only play spam lists, Nik.  He decided to bring the DrA theme force from NQ!

His list!

Dr. Arkadius (*6pts)

* Gun Boar (5pts)

* Gun Boar (5pts)

* Road Hog (9pts)

* War Hog (8pts)

* War Hog (8pts)

* War Hog (8pts)

* Gorax (4pts)

* Gorax (4pts)

* Razor Boar (0pts)

* Razor Boar (0pts)

* Razor Boar (0pts)

* Razor Boar (0pts)

* Razor Boar (0pts)

* Razor Boar (0pts)

* Targ (2pts)

Farrow Bone Grinders (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)

So, as you can see, that's a lot of pork! I'm fairly sure that I can keep the Razor Boars from doing a whole lot, and that if I can take his heavy hitting beasts out, I'm going to be sitting fairly pretty.  So lets see how things go.  He won the die roll and opted to go first, the Scenario is Close Quarters.

Round 1

Unfortunately I wasn't too consistent with the photos again this time, but I did get a few early on.  His turn one went about as you would expect it might.  Everything ran, with the Goraxes in position to Shield Guard and the Razorboars up front to tarpit the army.

Next I realized that he's bringing basically 0 pathfinder to this game, so forests and rough terrain are going to be my friend.  One of my Woldwardens was able to throw a Rift out there, tried to get some damage on a Razorboar with my Watcher guns.  Then from there, I used most of the Mannikins to create forests.  This was probably one of my first mistakes because if that was going to be my plan, I needed to make sure that I blocked LOS to all of my Shifting Stones, especially since they don't have Stealth in this list.

Round 2

Nik sees my mistake and wisely tries to take advantage.  He gets the Roadhog on my Shifting Stone in the middle that is exposed, I Shield Guard that AND the Ancillary attack, probably should have let the Ancillary go.  Then he gets a Gun Boar over there, dead stone.  He's able to get another Gun Boar on another of the stones as well, dead stone.  The rest of his army moves up to be ready for the next turn.  He had actually moved DocA up kind of far because he wanted to put Crippling Grasp onto the unit of Shifting Stones he was shooting at, so he tried to block a lane to him.

I see this, and I DO theoretically have an assassination, but it involves hitting with 2 Battering Rams.  I start with my Warden on the left, it misses 2 attempts at a 6, and then the Battering Ram needs a 5 and I roll a 4.  So I'm down a Synergy, bad, no Battering Ram either.  After that I try to position things so that I can get plenty of use out the feat.  He feats and I'm able to take down the Roadhog and Warhog, and put a bunch of other damage out there, I should have killed another one, but I miss positioned my 2nd Wold Guardian due to the position of the flag.

Round 3

Now that my stuff is up in front of him in a lot of cases, some due to me putting my Woldwatcher in a bad spot, he's able to get back at me.  He uses his feat to get some movement and some free attacks.  Warhogs both get Primal, and then one gets Forced Evo.  They're able to remove the Woldwarden's far too easily for my preference.  Some other damage gets thrown around as well.

I'm looking, and this whole time I'm having some issues with FURY management, but I am actually able to mitigate it fairly well.  I get the chain going with a Woldwatcher.  Then look at some things, and see that to kill the final 2 Warhogs I'll have to do some work.  Woldguardian charges the Warhog, drops it, so that's one down.  Woldwatcher puts a little damage on a little pig by Bradigus that is in the way of the Guardian there.  I'm going to have to cast Mystic Wards though to get Crippling Grasp off of the Guardian, which I do.  Then I start attacking one pig, get a lucky crit which slams him away, and then beatback, so that's out of the way.  Bradigus kills the other little pig.  I'm able then to take down the final Warhog, and then get the final unbroken unit of Shifting Stones to get Bradigus inside of them.

Round 4

He puts some Primal up, and starts trying to see if he can take some things out  I believe he was able to take out 1 of the Woldguardians and a Woldwatcher on his turn through use of Primal and Forced Evo on Goraxes.  However, he does leave DocA in teleport range of Bradigus and on 1 transfer.

Given that last point, this one is pretty elementary.  Teleport Bradigus after getting +2 from Synergy.  Get a Sentry Stone near enough to DocA to pull his one transfer off.  Activate Bradigus and he's toast!

Wrap-up

I wasn't too pleased with how the Woldwardens survived, but one game isn't a good way to determine their value.  The one big mistake that I feel changes things pretty significantly is if I make double sure that I blocked LOS to my Shifting Stones, then I get a pretty hard alpha and the game is pretty different from there.  I believe that I actually did kill a model earlier on the last turn when I knew I was going to kill docA which would have been more transfers and have been a problem.  I think the list has a lot of potential though!

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.