|
Post by apoc2148 on Feb 13, 2019 12:45:24 GMT
Wow, that Garryth2 game was really bad for the ret player. Dealing 12 damage to his own BE, ouch.
|
|
|
Post by Azahul on Feb 13, 2019 13:30:22 GMT
Yeah... unboosted attack rolls even with Black Penny make for a pretty unreliable Feat turn. I was able to play around it to the point of only provoking two attacks, and both missed. I guess he can at least take credit for the fact that I did feel controlled enough by the Feat to only commit a minimal number of models, but honestly with this list I don't really tend to commit a lot of models at one time anyway.
|
|
|
Post by apoc2148 on Feb 13, 2019 17:38:39 GMT
Yeah... unboosted attack rolls even with Black Penny make for a pretty unreliable Feat turn. I was able to play around it to the point of only provoking two attacks, and both missed. I guess he can at least take credit for the fact that I did feel controlled enough by the Feat to only commit a minimal number of models, but honestly with this list I don't really tend to commit a lot of models at one time anyway. The un-boosted shot can be a liability, makes me want to shift my current theory-crafted lists with him towards more of a combined arms approach. Pseudo-defensive strike sentinels sounds like fun.
|
|
|
Post by Azahul on Feb 13, 2019 23:02:49 GMT
Yeah, I was decidedly unimpressed by the 'jack heavy set-up. Better assassination pressure, sure, but pretty lacklustre in terms of output on the Feat (either single unboosted melee swings or pretty immaterial unboosted ranged attacks). Sentinels as better-Ellowuyr at least has something going for it.
|
|
|
Post by Azahul on Feb 19, 2019 1:53:32 GMT
I've got a big tournament lined up for this weekend, but my local meta put together a small 10 man practice event in the lead-up. I took the following pair: Arkadius -War Hog -War Hog -Road Hog -Road Hog -Gun Boar -Gun Boar -Gorax -Targ Mire -Wrastler Hutchuck Witch Doctor Kwaak and Gub Sturm and Drang -War Hog -Battle Boar -Battle Boar -Soul Slave Mire -Dracodile Brun -Lug Dahlia -Skarath Eilish Orin Mist Speaker Gobber Chef Still not 100% on the Arkadius list, but it's functional. I think the biggest question is honestly whether I want to drop something to put the Mist Speaker back in, but it would have to be either Hutchuck or Kwaak and both of those are tough prospects. Round 1 - Standoff I matched up with my friendly local regular Merc player, who was running a Gastone2 list in preparation for the Galleon getting cheaper and better from CID just... without the CID benefits. His list was: Gastone -Galleon -Reinholdt Max Vengers Max Cinerators -Officer Max Devil Dogs Ragman Gibbs Gorman Eilish Gobber Tinker Deployment I won the starting roll and took the first turn. My opponent decided he didn't want me having the table side covered in trenches and with a nice pool of acid to stash Mire in. I deployed my Dracodile and War Hog to the right, well clear of a building on the left side, and Skarath and Brun over on the left. My opponent placed the Cinerators and Galleon on the right, the Vengers and Devil Dogs on the left. He ended up rather pinned in by the acid pool. Both objectives are Stockpiles. Pigs Turn 1 Sturm cast Vision on Skarath, Polarity Shield on the Dracodile, Deceleration on himself, and charged forward. The Soul Slave moved up behind him and cast TK on Skarath. Skarath ran forward to a commanding position on the left, followed closely by Lug. Dahlia and Brun cast their respective upkeeps and followed their companions, with Brun charging forward. Everything else ran. Mercenaries Turn 1 My opponent decided to go for some long range shots at Skarath with the Galleon. Gastone loaded him up, cast Lifebound on the Devil Dogs, and cast Fire Group. The Galleon moved forward and shot at Skarath. Between Vision and Deceleration Skarath ended up taking two damage. The rest of the army ran, but because of the Galleon's position and where Gastone had ended up the Devil Dogs ended up basically bricked in behind the acid. Pigs Turn 2 I upkept my spells. Dahlia crept forward on the left and spent two Fury healing Skarath. Skarath moved up and sprayed the closest Venger, boosting to hit and damage and killing him. I then cast Counterblast. The Soul Slave moved over and TK'd Skarath back to the edge of the zone. Sturm moved over and recast Vision and Deceleration. The Dracodile moved across to block line of sight to all my support staff and cast riled up to two Fury. Mire tossed out a cloud to protect my objective. I ran a Battle Boar into the right-hand zone, way outside of control, because I'd left my Gobber Chef somewhere where it couldn't quite get there to do the contesting job. Mercenaries Turn 2 Because of the TK shenanigans the best my opponent could get was a single Venger onto Skarath, which would just cause Vision to expire. Instead he moved up and the Galleon opened fire on the Dracodile. I opted not to use my one Shield Guard and the Dracodile ended up taking ~10-12 damage. The Cinerators opted to run into the zone on the right. The Vengers and Devil Dogs pushed forward, with three Devil Dogs wading through the acid pool just to try and get some board presence. I think Gastone may have Feated this turn, but honestly it's hard to remember which round your opponent has Stealth when basically all your attacks are sprays. He joined the Galleon in shooting the Dracodile and I think he cast his armour buff onto the Vengers. We each scored our respective zones, going to 1-1. Pigs Turn 3 The Battle Boar on the right frenzied towards the Dracodile. I decided to continue playing this as an attrition game instead of committing to the scenario. The Dracodile moved across to the right and took a spray at the Cinerators, since they were bereft of Shield Wall. The spray hit two and killed them both. I really should have boosted some more though, because afterwards I decided the safest thing to do was cloud wall with Mire and back up and ended up spending his full stack while the Dracodile was only on two Fury. Over on the left I continued to chip away at the enemy infantry. The Soul Slave TK'd Eilish so that he could remove Life Bound from the Devil Dogs, and then I removed two Devil Dogs with a spray from Skarath. He recast Counterblast afterwards. I ran Lug to block LOS to my support solos and then ran Brun base to base with Lug so that the bear would be immune to knockdown. Sturm meanwhile recast Deceleration and TK'd the Battle Boar back into the right-hand zone. We each scored our zones again, bringing the score to 2-2. Mercenaries Turn 3 All the corroded Devil Dogs died. The Devil Dogs and Vengers charged in on the left. One Devil Dog got eaten by the snake. The Vengers mostly focussed on Skarath, but Vision meant that the snake survived on about 8 or 9 boxes. Lug took a bit of damage from a charging Devil Dog. The Galleon moved up and dragged in the Battle Boar on the right, killing him. The Cinerators on the right huddled behind their forest in Shield Guard. My opponent scored his zone and the right-hand zone, I scored my zone. The score went to 3-4 in his favour. Pigs Turn 4 Sturm Primal'd the Dracodile. The Battle Boar on the left Primal'd Skarath. Eilish stripped the armour buff from the Vengers. Skarath removed the Vengers and one Devil Dog. Lug killed the last Devil Dogs contesting the left-hand zone, and then I remembered I couldn't score it. Haha. Oops. The Dracodile charged the Galleon and took his right claw attack from Eilish, killing them both. Honestly the swing on Eilish was unnecessary and overconfident, I nearly failed to kill the Dracodile as a result and the Cinerators were going to be able to charge the Dracodile anyway on account of being behind him. The War Hog finished things off, getting TK'd forward and charging my opponent's objective to destroy it. I scored my zone and my opponent's zone and his objective, so the score was now 6-4 in my favour. Mercenaries Turn 4 Ragman, four Cinerator charges, and Gastone removed most of the Dracodile's health but they couldn't kill it. The Venger and Gastone contested the left-hand zone. I scored my zone, so the score was now 7-4 in my favour. Pigs Turn 5 The Dracodile frenzied and killed the only Cinerator in my opponent's zone. Dahlia chose to have Skarath not frenzy. Sturm moved up and Primal'd the War Hog and TK'd himself in the left zone. Lug cleared the left zone. The War Hog killed Gastone, and I scored another 2 CP.
|
|
|
Post by Azahul on Feb 19, 2019 3:34:08 GMT
Round 2 - The Pit II This game... still kinda leaves a sour taste in my mouth for my opponent's sake. This opponent had decided to mono-list Malekus double Judicator for a laugh. Finding out that he had done so, one of the other players involved in setting up the table apparently thought it would be funny to set up a table made up 100% of buildings, all packed as close together as legally allowed by the Steamroller rules. So I dropped Arkadius, which was already going to make this one-sided in my favour, and then the table basically removed any chance of him winning. Sure, he was playing a funsies list, but the combination of the above factors did a lot to drain the fun out of the game and left me looking for a way to make things more interesting. My opponent's list: Malekus -Judicator -Judicator -Revenger -Revenger -Hierophant Min Choir Severius0 -Dervish Vassal Vassal Mechanik Mechanik Wrack Deployment To add insult to injury I won the starting roll and took first. I deployed a bit more spaced out than I strictly needed to be, since it was obvious that my opponent was going to focus his Judicators on the left where there was at least some space to move. Mire and the Wrastler ended up on the right-flank. My opponent, sure enough, went heavy on the left. I forgot to take a picture. His objective is a Stockpile. Mine is a Fuel Cache, though on a map with so little rough terrain it really should have been another Stockpile. Pigs Turn 1 I opted not to cast any spells with Arkadius. Instead I just ran everything, shifting my War Hogs across to the left. Protectorate Turn 1 My opponent barely edged out of his deployment zone, keeping the Judicators more than 17" away from the War Hogs. Pigs Turn 2 Mire moved up and threw some clouds down to cover the two buildings. Arkadius cast Guardian Beast and put Forced Evolution on a War Hog. The Gun Boar moved into the right zone and cast Counterblast. I think if I'd run it instead I'd have been able to Primal Shock the Mechanik (an Idrian leader model proxy) lurking behind the building on the right. Protectorate Turn 2 The Mechanik ran in to engage. One Judicator ran forward to block access to the second. The Choir decided to block spells this round in case of Crippling Grasp shenanigans. My opponent scored a CP, going to 0-1 in his favour. Pigs Turn 3 Ok, so, the obvious thing to do here is kill the Dervish with a Ghostly Road Hog, killing the Mechanik on the right with the Gun Boar, and contest on the left by running Targ in or ambushing Hutchuck or something. Mire repeats the cloud I score 2 CP, and in my opponent's turn he can't stop me from scoring the right-hand zone. Then I'm up by one when his turn begins and unless he's tossed basically everything into contesting the centre and left zones I can clear them to win. But my opponent looks absolutely freaking miserable and it's only a funsies event so I decide to play attrition instead. I'll probably kill both Judicators and put him in an untenable position, but he could get an assassination off or my dice could swing badly. Point is it'll at least be more of a game than the nearly diceless win I'd be looking at otherwise. So I have Hutchuck ambush in behind the give one War Hog Ghostly, Rage them both and one of the Road Hogs. The other Road Hog runs around the building, and the Gun Boar on the right shoots the Mechanik dead. Arkadius activates and swings around the building to Feat. My three Raged heavies frenzy towards the lead Judicator first. The Road Hog frenzies into the Dervish and triggers Enliven, so it puts itself in the path of the other hogs. The Gun Boar on the right frenzies across and stops when it bumps into Arkadius, ensuring that it stays toeing the right-hand zone. I have six Fury on Arkadius to play with at this point and nothing to do with it, so I just toss a boosted Primal Shock at my opponent's objective and fail to break armour. My Rage'd Road Hog kills the Dervish and sprints out of the way. My other Gun Boar shoots the lead Judicator and does a whopping 10 damage. I decide that means I can kill it with the War Hog who is lacking Forced Evolution, and it goes in and does the job. Hutchuck Rusts and charges the second Judicator for some damage, and then the second War Hog charges in and kills that one too. He Overtakes over to engage Malekus. My Gorax smashes the objective. I score the centre and right-hand zone, taking the score to 4-1. Protectorate Turn 3 My opponent goes for the assassination run. Arkadius is close enough to the Road Hog that if he gets hit by Scourge the Road Hog will be knocked down too (but not vice versa). Malekus takes a free strike from the War Hog, which rolls snake eyes to hit, and Feats, hits Arkadius with Scourge, then unloads on him with two Flamethrower sprays and an attack spell. That leaves Arkadius on fire and on about 8 boxes. Unfortunately I decide to transfer to my Gun Boar on the right, which is silly because I knew I was going to need his Guardian Beast to survive. Sure enough, the Revenger charges Arkadius. I trigger Guardian Beast and block LOS by walking up to cover all angles to Arkadius's small base. The Gun Boar only has four boxes left, but the Revenger takes a lot of effort to clear him and only manages to remove Arkadius's last transfer afterwards. The only attacks left are from Sevvy0, but he manages to finish the job with an Immolation. I mean, honestly, if I'd just not transferred to the Gun Boar I'd have survived that run. Still, my opponent got to do something and that meant the game wasn't miserable for the two of us all the way through, so I kinda count that as a win? I made a poor play, but it's hard to beat yourself up about that when you did it intentionally Pro tip guys. Warmachine is still a game. Sometimes you need to do the sub-optimal thing to have fun.
|
|
|
Post by Azahul on Feb 19, 2019 4:24:58 GMT
Round 3 - Spread the Net Final game of the day was into Retribution. He had an Issyria/Goreshade4 pairing, so I was happy to drop Sturm and Drang into either list. He dropped Issyria, running: Issyria -Phoenix -Phoenix Max Sentinels -UA Min Destors Eiryss1 Arcanist Mechanik Arcanist Mechanik Arcanist Mechanik House Shyeel Artificer Dawnguard Trident Dawnguard Trident Deployment My opponent won the starting roll and opted to go second. As a WWFF player, yep, that made me pretty happy. I deployed my Dracodile to the left of the central obstruction, with Skarath angled towards the right to hold down my zone and Brun and Lug set up on the left to play in the forest there. I set up the Gobber Chef on the right as a contesting piece for my opponent's flag as well. My opponent deployed both Tridents opposite the Dracodile. Phoenixes and Sentinels in the centre, and Destors on the right. Say it with me, *I forgot to take a picture*. Boy this was a poor day for deployment pictures. Pigs Turn 1 Sturm put out his spells on the usual targets and charged up the board. Skarath ran into the rubble on the right. The Dracodile ran to build a wall out from the forest, and the War Hog ran base to base to continue blocking LOS. Brun cast Stonehold and charged up, Dahlia cast Haunting Melody and walked. Retribution Turn 1 My opponent was very careful to keep his battle engines more than 18" away from the Dracodile and pushed up basically with just his Sentinels. The armour buff went on the Sentinel unit, and they popped their Mini Feat as well. The Artificer added Force Barrier to the pile. The Destors hid behind the forest on the right. Admonition was on the left Phoenix. Pigs Turn 2 I decided to see if I could corrode some Sentinels with Skarath without triggering Vengeance. I moved up, boosted to hit two and sprayed over three. Missed one boosted attack but hit the unboosted one. None of the attacks broke armour. Skarath cast Counterblast and the Soul Slave TK'd him almost but not quite back into the rubble. Dahlia cast Mist Walker on herself just to get rid of some Fury. Mire put a cloud on her head. The Dracodile decided not to spray some more Sentinels and risk triggering Vengeance, and just cast Floodwaters himself. I pushed Lug forward a bit on the left and had Brun move onto the flag. Retribution Turn 2 Issyria Feated and cast Crusader's Call. The Trident on the left moved up and shot Lug off the table, rolling some pretty spectacular dice. I probably should've had a Shield Guard near him to up his odds of survival, but it was still only about a 20% chance. The Sentinels went for a run/charge order, with only one able to get to Skarath. I missed my Counterblast Bite attack and he hit for a cool 10 damage. The second Trident just pushed the other Phoenix forward. My opponent was going to charge him into Skarath, but there was some rough terrain in the way. My opponent then put the Phoenix somewhere else where he could get a charge angle, but because he hadn't proxied the initial move I'm pretty certain it ended up being a very generous 2". Regardless, the Phoenix juuuust made it into melee with Skarath and killed him, which he'd have assuredly have failed to do if the Sentinel hadn't managed to get in. The Destors tried to shoot the Gobber Chef dead but Def 18 is a bit of a tricky prospect and while my opponent had been rolling well, it wasn't quite that well. My opponent had the Artificer go onto the flag and scored his zone and flag, while I scored my flag, bringing the score to 1-2 in his favour. Pigs Turn 3 Losing both companion 'beasts in a turn hurt, so now I had some ground to make up. The Dracodile moved across on the left and sprayed the Trident there, hitting it and blinding it and doing some damage. That gave Eilish room to move up and strip the armour buff from the Sentinels. The Soul Slave TK'd my right-flank Battle Boar forward, and my other Battle Boar Primal'd him. He walked into melee with the Sentinels, triggered Adrenalize, and ate the entire unit (save the one that had helped kill Skarath, Sturm killed him with his spray later). It maxed him out on Fury to do so. Brun ran to contest my opponent's zone on the left, the Mist Speaker moved onto the flag and summoned a cloud, and Dahlia ran to contest my zone and get a Destor into her control area. Sturm TK'd my opponent's Phoenix around and my War Hog moved in and killed him. Sturm also cast Deceleration and Feated, for all the good the latter does against Retribution. I scored my flag and the central zone, bringing the score to 3-2 in my favour. Retribution Turn 3 Issyria cast Crusader's Call, and the Arcanists loaded up the Phoenix. The Destors killed the Gobber Chef and shot the Soul Slave a few times, leaving him on two boxes. The Blind Trident moved up to contest and the other one charged the Battle Boar, placed the Phoenix, killed the Battle Boar with the first few shots and shot the Dracodile a few times ineffectually. The Phoenix charged and killed my War Hog. Eiryss shot the Fury off of Brun. We each scored our respective flags, so the score went to 4-3 in my favour. Pigs Turn 4 I ran Dahlia up to contest my opponent's flag. My opponent meant to trigger Admonition here to get the Phoenix somewhere it could be relevant in his turn, but forgot until a long time later. The Soul Slave TK'd Sturm to the left and Sturm moved across and TK'd both Tridents, spinning them around and putting them together for the Dracodile to charge. The Dracodile then went in with Puppet Master from Eilish. The Trident it charged was hit by the spray, so after the charge attack I focussed the remaining attacks on the other Trident. I killed the non-Blind Trident, and then went to work on the Blind Trident. My last damage roll (the Dracodile's third Fury, I wasn't leaving Mire naked just in case) left it on about three boxes so I used Puppet Master for a reroll and spiked high, killing it. Brun, who had cut for three, charges and kills Eiryss with his charge attack. I scored my flag and his zone, so the score was now 6-3. Retribution Turn 4 My opponent takes a few gun shots at Sturm with the Phoenix, Ancillary Attack from Issyria, and a Destor or two. The Phoenix's own shot misses, so I only end up taking a little bit of chip damage. The Arcanists run to contest, and the Artificer fails to tag Dahlia with her Def 18 with his nuke spell. My opponent hasn't actually placed Issyria or the Phoenix in my zone, so the only scoring is my flag as I bring the score to 7-3. Pigs Turn 5 I kill the Arcanist contesting my opponent's zone with Brun and end my turn. Final score was something like 9-3. That game was a bit trickier than it needed to be. Had Skarath been safe and my opponent not rolled quite so well on Lug (or if I'd just had the Battle Boar close enough to protect him) I would have been in a really comfortable position attrition-wise. As it was, I was still ahead by a good margin and with a pretty dominant scenario position, so no real harm done. Only have a few more practice games between now and the next big event of the year, Clash of the Titans down in Sydney. Definitely interested to see how it goes now that Sturm and Drang aren't bringing quite so much dark horse factor to the equation.
|
|
|
Post by apoc2148 on Feb 19, 2019 13:19:02 GMT
So you've got lots of games with Dr. A/Sturm&drang under your belt now. As far as scenario goes, do you feel you are missing a unit in your lists to properly contest/score scenario? Or in the games when there are two unit-scoring scenarios do you feel you are still able to bring enough pressure that you can work around the scenario?
I've been hesitant to build lists without at least 1 unit, even if it is just a 3-model unit.
|
|
|
Post by tontonkal on Feb 19, 2019 16:26:47 GMT
Thanks Azahul for your posts, I am really enjoying your battle reports.
It seems the only tough nut you have not yet cracked is PoM due to Harbinger/purification. How do you like Arkadius into Harbi so far ?
|
|
|
Post by Azahul on Feb 19, 2019 20:09:24 GMT
So you've got lots of games with Dr. A/Sturm&drang under your belt now. As far as scenario goes, do you feel you are missing a unit in your lists to properly contest/score scenario? Or in the games when there are two unit-scoring scenarios do you feel you are still able to bring enough pressure that you can work around the scenario? I've been hesitant to build lists without at least 1 unit, even if it is just a 3-model unit. A unit would probably make winning faster more viable, but I've been feeling so strong on attrition in most of my games lately that I haven't really been concerned. Scenarios with central scenarios like Spread the Net or the Pit II feel about as easy to score in as having a unit, so the only ones where I feel behind are Standoff (where I can still run up the score pretty quickly once I've secured one flank and put pressure on my opponent's zone) and Invasion. So that basically just leaves Invasion as the one where I can't win quickly on scenario, and my focus is usually on just not losing on scenario. Which with Sturm and Drang is easy enough, because the Dracodile can contest almost all the scenario points on its own all game. Sneaking a Bellows Crew into one list or the other would be nice. I wouldn't hate having the extra cloud for Mire to build a screen from either, and it's an option I'm keeping an eye on with Arkadius for certain. Haven't managed to find a satisfactory way to juggle the points though. Thanks Azahul for your posts, I am really enjoying your battle reports. It seems the only tough nut you have not yet cracked is PoM due to Harbinger/purification. How do you like Arkadius into Harbi so far ? Honestly, Arkadius into Harbinger is fine. The CanCon Masters game in round four was about representative of how those games usually go, and as I mentioned we played it out assuming he hadn't just randomly died to fire. I still had three heavies left, where he was down to Gravus and 8 Cinerators. Plus I was able to start running up the scenario score something awful. The big Arkadius alphas and constant assassination pressure from assault sprays give you a game into Harbinger. It's probably typically a 50/50 game, varying a bit depending on the actual list build. The problem with Harbinger existing is that I'm more or less locked into Arkadius when facing Protectorate of Menoth. Arkadius is probably fine into most of the faction, but I don't feel reasonably advantaged the way I do into most other popular meta list pairs.
|
|
|
Post by Azahul on Feb 22, 2019 0:23:22 GMT
I got one final practice game this week before the tournament on the weekend. My opponent was playing Circle with a funky Kromac2/Morvahna2 pair. He decided that Morvahna didn't really have game in the match-up, so went with Kromac. The list was: Kromac -Ghetorix -Feral Warpwolf -Feral Warpwolf -Warpwolf Stalker -Pureblood Warpwolf -Gorax Rager Shifting Stones Shifting Stones Boil Master and Spirit Cauldron Lady of the Feast Blackclad Wayfarer Blackclad Wayfarer Deployment So that's a lot of pretty fast, hard-hitting, fairly resilient meat to get through, which has me a little worried. My opponent wins the roll-off, so I'm not going to have a lot of room to manoeuvre either. He sets up with a Feral on each side, Ghetorix and Kromac central, with the Pureblood a bit more on the left and the Stalker more to the right. I deployed my Dracodile on the left, Dahlia and Skarath and Brun and Lug on the right where they could handle all the difficult terrain there, and my War Hog in the middle to go where needed. Both objectives are Stockpiles. Circle Turn 1 Everything runs forward, with the Ferals Warping for Speed to claim a lot of table space. Kromac gives Awakened Spirit to the Gorax and Vengeful to Ghetorix. Lady of the Feast received two corpses from the Spirit Cauldron. Pigs Turn 1 The Feral on the left is close enough to tag with a spray, but I figure triggering a Hyper Aggressive move probably isn't worth it in terms of how much damage it will then be able to do to the Dracodile. I instead have Sturm cast the traditional spells (even Deceleration, just in case the Pureblood gets up to something) and move up. The Dracodile remains outside of trample and attack range of Ghetorix and just barely outside of walk and punch range of the Feral Warpwolf (forcing him to trample in if he wants to attack). I move Skarath and Dahlia up with Counterblast and Haunting Melody in play respectively, in range of the Feral but out of range of the Stalker. Again, the Feral would need to Warp for speed. I muck up a bit with Lug I think, I placed him so that he could counter charge the Feral if it went into Skarath, but Lug is the only model in the list the Lady of the Feast can get to that is not close enough for me to chain Shield Guard to a Battle Boar with no room base to base for the Lady to land. Speaking of, all my solos end up clustered around the Battle Boar in the middle to shut down Lady of the Feast shenanigans. The white proxy base is the Battle Boar. Circle Turn 2 My opponent decides that since his threat extenders don't really work in my list he has to tank an alpha strike. Kromac moves up behind the building. He decides to Feat defensively. Ghetorix uses Spiny Growth and charges forward. The Ferals warp for armour and move up. The Stalker joins the front line on the right. Because my opponent hasn't positioned his stones he can't actually teleport Lady of the Feast anywhere inconvenient, so she holds back for a round and runs away to the right flank, behind the Stalker. Pigs Turn 2 I think my opponent has fed me a little too much of his army. I figure I can Primal all my heavies, use the Dracodile and War Hog to kill Ghetorix, Lug and Skarath to remove the Feral and Stalker on the right, and Feat to live out the next round. I have the Soul Slave receive Puppet Master from Eilish and walk around the Dracodile to hit Ghetorix with TK, pulling him in and spinning him around. The Dracodile then charges in and hits Ghetorix with the assault spray, misses Kromac, and hits a Shifting Stone. I kill the Stone. I decide that boosting all my initials is probably better than buying attacks because of Spiny Growth, particularly because I'm expecting the War Hog to come in and finish the job. A free boost from the charge attack plus three more boosts will even leave it a valid transfer target for Mire. I then proceed to roll like the absolute blazes and kill Ghetorix with those four boosted initial attacks, and snack back about half of the Spiny Growth damage. This allows me to go for a very different play on the right. I Primal the War Hog and have Sturm TK Lug, move up, and Feat on all my opponent's Warbeasts. I mean to Primal Skarath as well with a Battle Boar but trip over myself and can't quite get the snake in range. Lug charges the Feral who is up against the wall and uses Bear Paws, boosting to hit. The Charge attack does a reasonable amount of damage and knocks the Feral down, and I have Lug Return for use next round. Brun tosses away two Fury. The War Hog charges the knocked down Feral and kills it comfortably. Dahlia runs up on the right flank and camps three, Skarath charges the Stalker. I hit it, Paralyse it, and then buy a swing on Lady of the Feast and get the Crit Consume because I figure I won't likely kill the Stalker without Primal. A second bought attack on the Stalker also spikes high and I think I leave it on barely more than 10 boxes. We each score our respective zones, so the score is 1-1. Circle Turn 3 The Stalker on the right Forces itself for Regeneration and makes two swings on Skarath. Misses the blade attack and hits with the claw, rolling pretty well for damage. I save Vision for when the Pureblood charges in, but instead the Pureblood walks to the left flank and sprays the Dracodile for a few points. The Spirit Cauldron loads Kromac up to full Corpses and he goes in with 11 attacks on the Dracodile. Some pretty poor dice (including two sets of snake eyes to hit) later and the Dracodile is still standing on 16 boxes. We each score our zones again, bringing the score to 2-2. Pigs Turn 3 The objective heals the Dracodile for a few points and I swap to Drang. The Primal'd War Hog frenzies on Skarath, and I can't Vision like I originally planned because I swapped to Drang. The War Hog rolls a casual 17 on his damage roll, killing Skarath to the box. A Battle Boar Primals the Dracodile, the Soul Slave TKs Drang forward, and Drange charges Kromac and kills him with a few Fury to spare. Battlegroup heavy match-ups are really fascinating with this list. It continues to have a fair bit more game than I anticipate, thanks to typically getting the alpha strike and usually taking only minimal losses on the counter-punch. I think my opponent probably should have held his Feat and only offered me Ghetorix and one other heavy, because even with the Feat I think I should have reasonably killed the two heavies that I did (albeit not quite in the way I did it, probably would have needed a Primal'd Lug to deal with the Feral and probably wouldn't have managed to kill Lady of the Feast) but without his Feat Kromac was always going to have a hard time killing the Dracodile.
|
|
|
Post by tontonkal on Feb 22, 2019 1:07:58 GMT
I had the opportunity to try the list and it was a ton of fun. Was affraid to lose Mire, but with clouds and shield guards he is generally safe. Thanks again for building this list!
|
|
|
Post by Azahul on Feb 22, 2019 1:14:15 GMT
Awesome! Yeah, I think the list has plenty of tools to keep him safe. Don't forget Stealth (because of a free cast of Floodwaters, assuming that doing so won't cause activation issues with non-amphibious models) and Arcane Vortex from Orin Midwinter. I usually don't lose Mire until the Dracodile is dead and I've thrown him into melee as a pretty competent melee solo.
|
|
|
Post by Azahul on Feb 25, 2019 0:25:14 GMT
Alrighty, tournament report time. I just got home from competing at a big event out of town, taking my Sturm/Arkadius pair for another spin. My lists, in case you need the recap, were: Sturm and Drang -War Hog -Battle Boar -Battle Boar -Soul Slave Mire -Dracodile Dahlia -Skarath Brun -Lug Mist Speaker Eilish Orin Gobber Chef Arkadius -War Hog -War Hog -Road Hog -Road Hog -Gun Boar -Gun Boar -Gorax -Targ Mire -Wrastler Hutchuck Kwaak and Gub Witch Doctor Still not 100% on that Arkadius loadout, but everything else I come up with makes me even less happy (swapping Hutchuck to get the Mist Speaker back in keeps coming up, but I waaaaant Hutchuck ). Round One - Mirage So I get to play into Circle first up. He's running double Devourer's Host, an Iona/Baldur1 pair. He wisely drops Baldur, which is probably the correct choice, though I'm feeling very confident into either list. His list is: Baldur -Ghetorix -Feral Warpwolf -Tharn Blood Shaman Max Bloodtrackers -Nuala Brighid and Caul Bloodweavers -Haruspex Bloodweavers -Haruspex Boil Master and Spirit Cauldron Lord of the Feast Wolf Rider Champion Wolf Rider Champion Night Witch Night Witch Mist Speaker I'm way more concerned about his solos than basically anything else in the list. Upkeep removal and a lot of backline harassment options. But I'm relatively hopeful that the lack of punch outside of the Warpwolves means that I should still be able to bully the table pretty effectively. He wins the starting roll and I (eventually) decide that not having to negotiate the Dracodile around the building on one side of the table is worth more than the extra protection it would give me for my own precious solos. He deploys the handful of non-AD models behind the building, and I set up with my Dracodile a little to the right of the central obstruction, Dahlia and Skarath prepared to rush up the left-hand side of the board, and Brun and Lug on the right where they can dance among the trees there. Both objectives are Stockpiles. My opponent forgets to declare any Prey targets. One unit of Bloodweavers ambushes. Circle Turn 1 The Bloodtrackers rush forward, save for a single unit member who hangs back at the rearmost limits of Nuala's Command range. This allows Baldur to put Stone Skin on them, and he also summons a forest to screen the rest of his army as they move around the building. The Cauldron moves up and loads Lord of the Feast up with corpses. Pigs Turn 1 Sturm casts his full stack on Deceleration, Vision, and Polarity Shield and charges up the table. The Dracodile runs in front of him and I build a solo bunker behind it. Every model bar Dahlia ends up close enough to a pig to Shield Guard chain back to the one Battle Boar in the midst of the solos. The Soul Slave TK's Dahlia forward so that she can get into the rubble on the left, catching two Bloodtrackers in her Control Area. She casts Haunting Melody. Skarath advances and sprays both Bloodtrackers dead and casts Counterblast. Circle Turn 2 The Wolf Rider Champion on the left gets into Skarath's back arc but Vision cancels out the attack and she repositions way back. The Bloodtrackers use Nuala's Mini Feat to actually get a Prey target, nominate Skarath, and move up to throw some spears. My opponent rolls abysmally. I think he misses three of the five shots, and Skarath takes like 3-4 damage from the shots that land. . The Bloodtrackers reposition forward and lose enough of their unit to Counterblast. The Tharn Blood Shaman sacrifices a Bloodweaver from the deployed unit to give Divine Inspiration to Lord of the Feast, and I think he gets Puppet Master from the Boil Master. He moves up and tosses his Raven at Lug. It hits, and I Shield Guard to the War Hog, who Shield Guards to the Battle Boar, who has no landing zone anywhere around him so the Lord of the Feast just stands there looking a bit derpy. Baldur hastily Feats and summons a forest in front of Lord of the Feast to cover him. Ghetorix moves up onto the hill and casts Spiny Growth. The Wolf Rider Champion on the right can't get into Lug's back, makes do by just making some largely ineffectual attacks on his front. Hyper Aggressive lets Lug get to a spot where he can actually threaten Ghetorix in spite of Baldur's Feat. The Bloodweavers ambushed in on the right flank and ran into the forest. One Night Witch runs to camp my opponent's flag on the left, the other ends up behind the forests on the right. Pigs Turn 2 I consider throwing Lug away to get some damage on Ghetorix, but ultimately decide it's more important to get my house in order on my side of the field. The Dracodile advances, takes a Blind spray down a line of three of the four Bloodtrackers in my zone, kills all three. Sturm finishes the job with his spray, casts Deceleration, and recasts Vision on Skarath. Eilish gives Skarath Puppet Master so that he can move up and kill the Wolf Rider Champion with his spray. Skarath tosses up Counterblast. Dahlia spends two Fury healing some of the damage on Skarath (between that and the objective Skarath is back to full health) and she runs to contest my opponent's flag. Over on the right, the Soul Slave Mental Forces a melee attack on the Bloodweavers to kill one. Orin then throws a Chain Lightning at the Soul Slave to try and clear a few more, but rolls the snake eyes he needs to miss. The War Hog kills the Wolf Rider Champion and a few of the remaining Bloodweavers, Lug uses an Overtake and Return shenanigan to pick off another and pull right back, and I bunker up again around the back of the Dracodile. We each score our zones, so the score is now 1-1. Circle Turn 3 Lord of the Feast can get in this turn onto Skarath, so he moves up and Ravens the objective. I can Shield Guard to the Battle Boar, but it doesn't stop Lord of the Feast taking a fair few swings on Skarath and leaving him on about eight boxes. The remaining Bloodtrackers can't really get close enough to do anything so they advance and throw spears at the objective and between it and the Blood Reaper swing from Lord of the Feast get it down to about five boxes. They reposition forward to jam Skarath and lose another Bloodtracker to Counterblast. The Feral comes forward a bit on the left and the Bloodweavers in the middle run forward to jam the Dracodile. One Bloodweaver on the right charges the War Hog for a little damage. Ghetorix shifts a little bit, staying out of the War Hog's threat range, and recasts Spiny Growth. Baldur summons a cloud to protect his objective. My opponent scores his zone to bring the score to 1-2 in his favour. Pigs Turn 3 Mire charges Lord of the Feast in the back and runs him through. The Battle Boar on the left uses a two-handed throw to toss on Bloodtracker into Nuala (in front of Skarath) and kills both with a pretty great damage roll. Sturm kills the last couple of intervening models between Skarath and the Feral with his spray and TK's Skarath forward. The other Battle Boar Primals Skarath, the brick finally breaking up now that Lord of the Feast is dead. Skarath walks into the Feral and kills it, maxing out on Fury in the process. Dahlia casts Mist Walker on herself and hides in the forest, still contesting that flag. On the right the War Hog kills the one Bloodweaver engaging him and Overtakes backwards to open a charge lane for Lug, who uses Charge and Return to kill the Haruspex. The Mist Speaker then runs to my flag. Orin uses Chain Lightning on the Dracodile to kill one engaging Bloodweaver, the Dracodile uses his spray to try and finish off the unit. Sadly he misses one attack so my opponent will be able to contest. The Gobber Chef runs to contest his zone. I score my zone and flag, so the score is now 3-2 in my favour. Circle Turn 4 The Boil Master and Spirit Cauldron come forward and kill the Gobber Chef with an unboosted Spectral Lash. Brighid tries to kill Skarath with her shot but fails. The Blood Shaman tries to do the same. The Night Witch charges Skarath, misses the charge attack, and leaves him crippled in Spirit and Body but still clinging to life. Baldur moves Stone Skin to Ghetorix and has him charge the Mist Speaker, kill him, and cast Spiny Growth. My opponent scores his zone. The last Bloodweaver contested my zone. Score goes to 3-3. Pigs Turn 4 Skarath frenzies on the Night Witch and gets a Crit Consume. I swap from Sturm to Drang, figuring Brighid and Caul won't be able to kill the Dracodile regardless and that my War Hog could use the extra Mat this round. Eilish uses Unbinding to remove Stone Skin from Ghetorix. Orin moves up and Chain Lightnings the Dracodile to free it up, it then sprays at Ghetorix and misses. A Battle Boar Primals my War Hog and the Soul Slave TK's him forward and he and Lug work together to kill Ghetorix. Brun runs to my flag. Drang moves up and kills the Mist Speaker with a boosted obliteration. Dahlia casts Mist Walker on herself and moves onto my opponent's flag. I score my zone and two flags, my opponent scores his zone so the score is now 6-4 in my favour. Circle Turn 5 My opponent decides to see if Brighid and Caul can kill the Dracodile. I think they end up doing about 20 damage between full corpses and Stone Skin. I score those flags and my zone again, he scores his zone, the score is now 9-5. Pigs Turn 5 I win this turn automatically, but I want to see how many CP I can score. The Dracodile kills Brighid and Caul. The Soul Slave TK's Lug and he kills my opponent's objective. Eilish cast Puppet Master on something so that the teleport could get him onto the central flag. I score three flags, my zone, and my opponent's objective to end the game with a 14-5 score. As I suspected, my opponent didn't really have the punch to deal with my list (though forgetting Prey wasn't great). I was able to keep his heavy hitters at bay all game, eventually forcing them forward to spots where I could deal with them, while gradually eating my way through his army. Getting rid of the Wolf Rider Champions cheaply while the Night Witches largely kept themselves out of the fight took a lot of pressure off me that I think my opponent could have exerted more effectively, and I was quite proud of how effectively I managed Lord of the Feast. Good start to the tournament I think, and boy did I end up with a lot of CPs in case tie breakers became necessary
|
|
|
Post by Azahul on Feb 25, 2019 1:16:31 GMT
Round Two - The Pit II I played into Skorne for round two, a Makeda3 Exalted/Morghoul2 Winds of Death pair both heavy on the Battle Engines. I plumped for Sturm and Drang because the Makeda3 list didn't have a single Extoller Advocate in it, and I figured that the Blind Spray would give me a pretty huge advantage in the match-up by effectively forcing my opponent to play down a battle engine. It seemed like he had the same thought, because he dropped Morghoul2 running the following: Morghoul -Mammoth -Basilisk Krea -Marketh Max Venator Reivers -UA Min Paingivers Extoller Advocate Extoller Novitiate Willbreaker Siege Animantarax Supreme Guardian Deployment I won the starting roll this time and took first. My opponent graciously gave me a table side with a lot of forests to hide stuff in, though I suspect he just didn't want to have to get his Venators through them. I set up with Dahlia and Skarath aiming to use the forest on the right to their advantage, Brun and Lug towards the left, and the Dracodile and War Hog in the centre. My opponent had his Animantarax go for the left zone, Supreme Guardian and Venators on the right, and Mammoth barrelling up the centre. Both objectives are Stockpiles. My opponent forgot to deploy his wall from the theme. Pigs Turn 1 Sturm cast Deceleration, put Polarity Shield on the Dracodile and Vision on Skarath, and moved up. Skarath ran into the forest on the right, my other Warbeasts all rushed up the board, and the Soul Slave had to TK Orin to let him get enough distance to run through the forest and get behind the Dracodile. Brun and Dahlia cast their upkeeps and charged and advanced up the board respectively. Skorne Turn 1 The Animantarax trampled up and started shooting the Dracodile. My opponent appeared surprised that I decided not to use Shield Guards, but at dice-7 the Animantarax couldn't do much of anything to the Dracodile. He Repositioned back. The Venators, meanwhile, used their Mini-Feat and moved up to put a few shots into Skarath. Vision ignored one big CRA and the other shots didn't do much. The Supreme Guardian ran to get into the zone and the Mammoth put itself behind the wall. Pigs Turn 2 The Dracodile put a spray into the Supreme Guardian and spiked high, doing seven damage. That put it in the realm where Skarath could reasonably be expected to kill it, so I had a Battle Boar Primal Skarath, TK'd him with the Soul Slave, had Sturm recast Vision in case the Blind Supreme Guardian landed its Defensive Strike, and Eilish added Puppet Master. Dahlia ran up behind the central forest and Skarath walked in. The Guardian hit the 10 it needed to land the Defensive Strike, so Vision expired. Skarath then destroyed the Supreme Guardian, using Puppet Master on the last damage roll to turn it from barely alive to dead. Everything else mostly hung back and clouded up, making sure Sturm was protected. With Deceleration, three Shield Guards, and a transfer I was pretty hopeful, but without those clouds I'd be worried about a Morghoul Feat plus shooting assassination. Also my Gobber Chef tucked itself in behind the house on the left to contest the left-hand zone. Skorne Turn 2 Marketh hit Skarath with Mortality, the Venators shot him a bunch until he was almost dead, Morghoul finished the job with Flesh Hooks of all things. The Animantarax shot the Dracodile and spiked a few damage rolls to do about 8-10 damage to it. Finally, the Mammoth opened fire on the Battle Boar on the right and did a good bit of damage, leaving it on under half health but no aspects crippled. Pigs Turn 3 I couldn't quite get to the Venators in the zone on the right unfortunately with the near-dead Battle Boar, but I could get the ones outside of the zone. I Primal'd it up with a Battle Boar, TK'd it forward with the Soul Slave, and ate all of the Venators on the far side of the wall. The Animantarax on the left was juuuuust inside the walk and Guidance range of the Advocate, so I decided to just spray my opponent's objective with the Dracodile. Rolled low for damage and only did four points. Sturm recast Deceleration and I had Dahlia cast Mist Walker on herself and had Mire summon a cloud on her. My opponent had left the central zone unconstested, so Sturm was able to score to make the score 1-0 in my favour. Skorne Turn 3 The Novitiate ran into the central zone. The Venators largely flubbed their attacks on the near-dead Battle Boar, forcing the Mammoth to finish the job and put some damage into the objective. Morghoul moved into the right-hand zone and tried to kill the objective with a Flesh Hook, but Arm 20 kept him from even breaking through the armour. The Animantarax just continued to ping away at the Dracodile. The score remained 1-0 in my favour. Pigs Turn 4 I figured I could probably Feat on the Mammoth and clear the central zone and continue to play attrition, but I was close enough to Morghoul to TK him around and Feat on his Warbeasts to stop transfers and I figured I had pretty good odds. The Soul Slave TK'd Sturm closer, the Mist Speaker gave Sturm Guidance, Eilish added Puppet Master, and I hit Morghoul with a TK. Sturm Feated, then missed the spray attack, which Puppet Master rerolled into a hit, and did five points to him that way. I also TK'd the War Hog closer. Then the Dracodile moved up and added its own spray, hit, spiked the damage roll and killed Morghoul before I could send the War Hog in. That felt like a pretty comfortable game. The Animantarax and Mammoth were the only threats on the table and while the wall was keeping the Mammoth safe, it massively limited where it could go in terms of projecting melee threat into the central zone. I could probably have just kept bullying the table until the end of Turn 7 quite safely, honestly. I could have swung a bit more towards the right-hand zone and cleared out the Krea and most of the Venators I think using the War Hog and a Dracodile/Orin combination respectively, and after that I'd be able to score 1-2 points each turn pretty reliably and I don't think my opponent would have ever caught up. Honestly, that was probably the safer play, but it all panned out in the end.
|
|