Well, I've got a stack of reports from the weekend to get through. Had to make up for lost time during the week itself, because if any of you were wondering why I didn't have a regular game night report or two it was because I spent the night doing this:
lormahordes.freeforums.net/thread/8609/battle-bears-beerAnywho, the first game was into Circle. I believe it was a Wurmwood/Krueger2 pair, with Wurmwood running Devourer's Host. We ended up playing Wurmwood vs Sturm and Drang, with the following lists:
Sturm and Drang
-War Hog
-Battle Boar
-Battle Boar
-Soul Slave
Mire
-Dracodile
Dahlia
-Skarath
Brun
-Lug
Orin
Eilish
Mist Speaker
Gobber Chef
Wurmwood
-Ghetorix
-Pureblood Warpwolf
Max Ravagers
-Chieftain
Max Blood Pack
Shifting Stones
Boil Master and Spirit Cauldron
Bloodweavers
-Haruspex
Brighid and Caul
Lord of the Feast
Tharn Shaman
Wolf Rider Champion
Deployment
I got the first turn. Set up with my Dracodile on the left, away from the potential obstacle of the wall on the right flank and with water for Mire to lurk in. Dahlia and Brun went on the right flank, where they'd be able to play around in the rubble relatively safely. The War Hog went in the centre.
My opponent had the Blood Pack on the left, Ravagers on the right, Brighid and Caul central, with Wurmwood skewing a bit to the right. The Bloodweavers ambushed.
Pigs Turn 1
Sturm cast Polarity Shield on the Dracodile, Vision on Skarath, and Deceleration generally. He charged a Bloodpack member to get further up the field. Dahlia cast Haunting Melody and advanced, Brun cast Stonehold and did the same. Everything else ran.
Circle Turn 1
Cassius ran into the forest. Wurmwood cast a Hellmouth through him into the War Hog, pulling in Lug and Eilish and killing Eilish. Dark Path then brought Cassius back to safety, and Wurmwood Feated. The bulk of the army on the right clustered inside the forest. The Bloodpack on the left just spaced themselves up, while the Wolf Rider Champion hid behind the flames on the left. The Cauldron moved up and generated a couple of corpses for Lord of the Feast.
Pigs Turn 2
I wanted the Wolf Rider dead, so the Dracodile received Guidance from the Mist Speaker and put a boosted spray into her. Hit her and killed her. Sturm cast Deceleration and hid in the trench. Orin gave himself stealth. Everything else ran to contest the closest scenario elements, with Mire tossing out a cloud and Floodwaters. I totally spaced about the ambushing Bloodweavers...
Circle Turn 2
Turns out I had pixel perfect placed Mire out of the Bloodweavers' threat range. They still came in on the right flank, because the Gobber Chef and Battle Boar were in range. The Haruspex and one other charged the Gobber Chef, three charged the Battle Boar, and two ran to engage Mire. A loooot of sixes later (including one damage roll that was only sixes) and the Battle Boar and Gobber Chef were both dead.
On the right, Lord of the Feast advanced and shot the Battle Boar there with his Raven. His thresher attack only lightly scratched the Battle Boar and removed Vision from Skarath. He bought a swing on Skarath, missed, and did only minimal damage with the remaining two attacks.
The Cauldron generated a couple of corpses for Caul. The Ravagers moved up a bit on the right. The Bloodpack took some ineffectual shots on the War Hog and Dracodile, since Orin and Mire were both stealth. Wurmwood used Wild Growth to extend the central forest.
Circle scores their zone and flag, making the score 0-2 in their favour.
Pigs Turn 3
Brun charged Lord of the Feast in the rear and killed him. The Battle Boar on the right Primal'd Skarath. Sturm cast TK on Dahlia, the War Hog, and himself, and aimed and sprayed at the three Bloodweavers who had killed the Battle Boar. He was in the back arc of one or two of them, and killed the whole clump. The Mist Speaker and Soul Slave charged the Bloodweavers engaging Mire, killing both of them (the Soul Slave used Mental Force on his melee attack, taking one damage in return). Mire then charged the Haruspex in the rear, killed her, and bought a swing on the last Bloodweaver and killed her too. The War Hog charged the Bloodpack, boosted to hit the charge (Gore) attack, and rolled triple ones to hit. I didn't boost the following initials, and promptly missed three more times. The fifth attack hit, and the Bloodpack Tharn made his Tough roll. The War Hog's last attack finished him off.
Unfortunately, because I'd been a bit cavalier with where I put Mire, I couldn't follow up with the Dracodile to kill the Pureblood because I'd be out of Mire's Control. I initially had the Dracodile charge the Pureblood anyway, hoping its initials would be enough if the spray landed. Rolled to hit with the spray, and hit, and then we realised that the Dracodile couldn't have actually seen the Pureblood. I could have done the exact some thing by charging the Bloodpack member in front of him and have everything else go to plan, but this way the Dracodile would have Fury on it from the charge and risk a frenzy next turn. I was already being pretty risky by leaving Mire without a transfer target, so I decided not to do that. We rewound to the last legal position for the Dracodile and he just sprayed and killed a Bloodpack member instead.
Back on the right flank, Skarath moved up and started attacking the Ravagers. Tough meant it took three attacks to kill the first Ravager. The second Ravager made his Tough roll on the first attack. Skarath only had one Fury left and I wanted him as a transfer target for Dahlia, so I continued my trend of trading heavies for lone Tharn. Dahlia ran deep into the Tharn formations to get Haunting Melody on as many models as possible. Lug charged the Paralysed Tharn, killed him, and Returned to Brun. Orin moved onto the flag.
After a turn of pretty appalling luck and some bad play, I was still able to score my zone and flag... but my opponent could score his flag too, to make the score 2-3 in my opponent's favour.
Circle Turn 3
My opponent's biggest problem this turn was dislodging Dahlia. He decided to do the Ravagers first, who Vengeanced forward (staying out of Lug's Countercharge range). Two took swings on Skarath, and left him on just four boxes. The rest of the unit spread their attacks across Lug and the Battle Boar, getting the Battle Boar to about half health but not doing much to Lug. Cassius ran behind Dahlia and Wurmwood threw out some Strangleholds. The first transfer killed Skarath and did two damage to Dahlia. The second one hit and rolled a three for damage on the unboosted damage roll, leaving Dahlia alive on one health. This prevented Brighid and Caul from doing anything more than walking a little bit up the board. Their Prey target, formerly Skarath, is now Lug.
Over on the left, the Bloodpack did a good bit of damage to the War Hog and the Pureblood finished it off basically with just his initials.
My opponent scores his zone and flag, so the score is now 2-5 in his favour.
Pigs Turn 4
Sturm moves up and around the Dracodile and hits the Pureblood with TK to spin him around. He casts Vision on himself, because that's probably more valuable than transfers at this point, and Feats because otherwise Ghetorix could trample up into melee with him for an assassination of some variety. Mire charges and kills the Bloodpack contesting the flag and the Dracodile charges and kills the Pureblood and a couple of Bloodpack, leaving just one alive.
On the right, the Ravager Shaman is only close enough to give no knockdown to the Chieftain and one other Ravager. Brun and the Battle Boar are able to kill two of the three Ravagers jamming them up. Orin tried to help with a Chain Lightning but despite boosting damage on both Tharn Ravagers he hit he failed to roll above a 6 on his damage rolls, so they just regenerated what damage they did take. Lug then walks over and kills the last one, Overtakes into Cassius, kills him too (Lug thus proving himself the best heavy, trading himself for a Ravager
and a solo). The Mist Speaker ran to take the flag on the left while standing in water to proc Prowl.
Dahlia is now contesting my opponent's flag, but I have my flag and his zone now to bring the score to 4-5 in his favour.
Circle Turn 4
Wurmwood finally kills Dahlia with a Strangehold and the stones port him onto his flag. Brighid and Caul charge Lug and kill him with Caul only spending like one Corpse to do so. Their Prey is now Sturm. One Ravager charges the Battle Boar, leaving it with four health left but all aspects intact, the other charges Brun and left him on two boxes. Ghetorix just backed up and cast Spiny Growth. The Bloodpack member moves in to contest my opponent's zone.
We both score our respective flags, so the score is now 5-6 in his favour.
Pigs Turn 5
I have to start getting a bit ballsy on a few fronts. Sturm moves up, hits Ghetorix with a TK, and spins him around. Mire kills the last of the Bloodpack, allowing the Dracodile to edge so that it's barely touching the zone and able to see through the forest, hitting Ghetorix in the rear with a spray. The idea is that after shaking and trampling to get to Sturm he'll only have two attacks left, and Sturm has Vision.
The rest of the turn goes a little less well. Orin hits Caul with a Chain Lightning, and the bounce fails to kill Brighid. The Soul Slave then hits Caul with a Bone Shaker and kills him, and he doesn't Tough. Unfortunately the Bone Shaker attack from Caul fails to connect on the Ravager that he swings on. Brun, who chose to drop Stonehold, kills one of the Ravagers engaging him and the Battle Boar and scratches the Chieftain. The Battle Boar Primals himself, walks over, misses his first swing on the Ravager. The second swing hits and kills the Chieftain, but it means that I can't boost the attack on Brighid so she survives the turn to contest that zone.
The score is now 8-7, as we both score our flags, I score his zone and the centre zone.
Circle Turn 5
The Ravager Shaman kills Brun, Ghetorix finishes off the Battle Boar while standing across the central zone and my own zone, and Brighid charges and kills the Soul Slave. The Stones all port around Wurmwood to give him mobility for next turn. Wurmwood uses Wild Growth to extend the central forest. The Cauldron and Boil Master contest the central zone.
I forget to take a picture.
My opponent scores his flag and my zone. I score my flag and his zone. Score ends up at 10-9 in my favour.
Pigs Turn 6
I figure I'll just kill Ghetorix and Brighid and my opponent will be basically out of the game. Sturm upkeeps Vision. He enters the forest and sprays Brighid in the back, killing her. He boosts a TK at Ghetorix and spins him around. The Dracodile advances, set up so that if I kill Ghetorix with attacks to spare I can still clear the central zone. Instead I miss five of the eight swings on Ghetorix and he lives with four boxes remaining (before Rapid Healing).
We call it there. It's late at night and in spite of myself the dice have really gotten to me, and there's nothing to stop Ghetorix just killing Sturm (besides similarly bad luck, I guess).
The Colossal Wreck Marker is a proxy for the Dracodile.
Ok so dice obviously had a huge impact on that game. Without them I could have finished off both male Tharn units faster than I did, scoring better trades for my heavies. My Battle Boar on the left flank would probably have survived the Bloodweavers, which could have allowed me to Primal the Dracodile on that last turn. Although, I suppose, my right flank may well have collapsed in about the same time frame if my opponent had also managed to kill Dahlia.
That said, I also made quite a few poor moves and I don't think my opponent made too many. He probably should have had Lord of the Feast try to kill the Battle Boar instead of Skarath over on the right early on, since it would have taken Primal away from me and been more likely to succeed in general, but I don't think we identified too many others. Meanwhile, forgetting about ambush cost me the Gobber Chef (who had no reason to be in the water beyond me being too used to Amphibious solos) and the Battle Boar. I think I could have also kept Lug alive another round had I charged Cassius and used Return plus Overtake to withdraw and kill the Ravager, rather than killing the Ravager first to Overtake into Cassius. And, of course, on the last turn I think I could have finangled a way to charge Ghetorix and Blind him to make the kill much more likely, but instead got greedy and wanted to clear the central zone to score it.
At least I think I played Turn 5 really well? Had I just gotten to Brighid with one Fury to spare I could have boosted and maybe killed her (keeping the Soul Slave alive incidentally, which might have allowed me to use it to TK Ghetorix and keep Sturm safe) and scored all the scenario elements that turn bar my opponent's flag.
Anyway, I think that's the first recorded loss I have with this list, unless I'm forgetting something. It was a hard fought game and I wish I hadn't been so frustrated at dice by the end, because I normally love games going down to the wire like that. Something to work on in its own right I guess.