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Post by Azahul on Jul 1, 2017 11:39:41 GMT
Round 1 - Entrenched I got matched up against my Round 3 opponent from the last tournament. He was running Makeda1 and Zaadesh2. I picked Midas, he ran Makeda with: Makeda -Molik Karn -Titan Gladiator -Aradus Solder Max Ferox Riders Min Beast Handlers Bloodrunners Legends of Halaak Mortitheurge Willbreaker Master Tormentor Master Tormentor Deployment I roll a 1 for the roll-off. My opponent goes first. I grabbed the table side where I hoped I would minimise the amount of anti-shooting terrain my opponent would be able to bring to bear. Had forgotten to place my objective when I took this picture. That got fixed shortly afterwards. Molik is the Prey target. Skorne Turn 1 Quicken goes on the Ferox, Rush on the... Aradus Soldier I think. Everything runs forward. The Ferox get Tough. Pigs Turn 1 After umming and ahhing a bit I decide to stick Calamity on the Ferox, figuring I can screen Midas ok if I do so. I walk up, boost a Calamity at them, and hit. The Meat Thresher goes to Speed 8 and walks up and rolls a 1 for the number of shots. One of the two shots misses, the other hits and kills but the Ferox Rider makes their tough roll. I then need to start packing models in like sardines to make it hard to get Molik into Midas. On the left things are a little better. I successfully spray the Master Tormentor there with the Road Hog. The Razorback Crews take potshots at the Bloodrunners and get some stellar scatters, blowing four of them off the table. An Efaarit is able to get a bead on one of the Legends of Halaak and shoots it off the table. Skorne Turn 2 My opponent spends about 10 minutes mapping out an assassination with Molik. The Bloodrunners and Master Tormentor kill about half the Brigands to clear a path. He ultimately decides not to go for it though. Instead the Willbreaker gives Tough to the Ferox Riders, who walk up and pounce. They do some fairly trivial damage to the Meat Thresher and kill a couple of other infantry here and there. Makeda Feats and uses Lash to get Molik close enough to charge the Meat Thresher. He goes in with Enrage and leaves it on 1 box because he opts to spend his last 2 Fury to reposition back rather than finish it off. Pigs Turn 2 In a nutshell, Calamity is upkept, the Meat Thresher drives forward and drops the Ferox Riders and Master Tormentor to 1 health (all saved by Tough rolls or Makeda's Feat), then Bone Grinders go in and kill 3 of the Ferox and the Master Tormentor with Grievous Wounds. My Efaarit go into my opponent's zone and make some amazing damage rolls on the Titan Gladiator, taking off something like two-thirds of its health. Midas backed up and put Death March on the Brigands. Skorne Turn 3 My opponent has a little bit too much Fury on the board. The Aradus Soldier fails a Threshold check but misses its attack on one of the Legends of Halaak. The surviving Ferox engaging the Meat Thresher makes its pounce attack and fails to break armour, but then does break armour with its spear attack to destroy the Meat Thresher. My opponent forgets to activate the other Ferox. My opponent looks at charging Molik down the massive hole but he wants to use Influence from the Willbreaker to avoid some free strikes and can't seem to line it up, burning about another ten or fifteen minutes of his clock as he considers the different possibilities. As part of this he opted to Reposition the Ferox who killed the Meat Thresher out of melee with the Razor Boar, who killed it and happily snacked (something, I forget what, had crippled its spirit, this restored it). The Legends do some damage to the Road Hog. The Gladiator charges one of the Efaarit, Makeda kills the other with a Lash which she uses to turn the Gladiator back around and make it relevant to the game again. Molik kills my objective and Repositions back. My opponent goes to 2 CP. Pigs Turn 3 At this point my opponent has spent so much time proxying and checking assassination angles that he only has 12 minutes left and I have 38. I upkeep Calamity long enough for a Razor Boar to kill the last Ferox Rider. My Razorback Crews shoot the Gladiator off the board (one Crew member Repositioning to contest the zone). The Battle Boar hands the Road Hog Primal. It tramples over the Legends, killing one, and maxes itself out on Fury to kill the Aradus. I get a Bone Grinder and a Slaughterhouser into Molik, crippling his Spirit and applying Grievous Wounds. Skorne Turn 4 The Paingivers go in and clear off Molik, who backs up. Makeda kills the one model contesting her zone. The last Legend smacks my Road Hog in the back. It's getting pretty low on health at this point. I forget to take a picture. My opponent goes to 3 CP. Pigs Turn 4 My Road Hog frenzies on my Razorback Crew and kills it. I kill the last Legend with a Battle Boar. The Brigands walk up, shoot Molik off the board, shift prey to the Paingivers and shoot all bar one of them from the board. I kill my opponent's objective with a Razorback Crew shot and a Slaughterhouser charge. Midas walks into my zone. A Razor Boar runs through the forest to toe my opponent's zone, now empty save for Makeda. Some random attacks somewhere drop Makeda to 1 health, but I forget exactly how that happened. I go to 3 CP. Skorne Turn 5 My opponent just decides to get some victory points killing my Road Hog with Makeda, then ends his turn sending me to 5 CP before I get a chance to kill the last Paingiver and Willbreaker and Makeda.
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Post by Azahul on Jul 1, 2017 12:37:13 GMT
Round 2 - Outlast (or Outflank? I'm too tired to remember) And now I get my Round 4 opponent from the last tournament again. On the one hand, no easy rides today. On the other hand, whoo, Skorne, Midas loves Skorne. He has Rasheth and Xerxis1. I drop Midas and he drops Rasheth with: Rasheth -Archidon -Archidon -Agoniser -Basilisk Krea Max Karax Min Beast Handlers Tyrant Commander and Standard Bearer Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew Master Tormentor Master Tormentor Void Spirit Siege Animantarax Siege Animantarax Deployment I roll a 1 for the roll-off, so my opponent grabs the first turn. I take the table side with the forest so I don't have to worry too much about Midas being assassinated on Rasheth's Feat turn. I deploy Midas behind the forest, his battlegroup on the left, the rest of the army on the right. The right flank Animantarax is the Prey target. Apologies in advance for these pictures, the lighting is going to be terrible. We'll be treating the building on the left as Rubble for this game. Skorne Turn 1 His army runs forward. One Master Tormentor runs up to take shelter in the lee of the forest on the right, the other hangs back. My opponent forgets to give the speed boost from the Tyrant Commander to Rasheth. Rasheth arcs a Breath of Corruption through the Master Tormentor on the right onto one of my Razorback Crews and kills both it and its crew member, doing 3 damage to the Tormentor in the process. Pigs Turn 1 One the Animanatarx has come close enough to hit with Calamity, so I give Midas a Talisman and send him up. It gets dropped to about 10 boxes between the efforts of the Efaarit, Road Hog, and the Meat Thresher. The rest of the army just runs forward, spacing itself out for more Breaths of Corruption. The one exception is the surviving Razorback Crew who edges into the Rubble on the right and takes a potshot at the Master Tormentor. The AOE clips him and kills him with blast damage. Skorne Turn 2 My opponent runs some Karax up as jammers and as nodes for Rasheth. He casts two Sunder Spirits, one hitting and killing an Efaarit, the other hitting but only doing three damage. He also puts a Blood Mark on the Meat Thresher. His two Battle Engines open fire on the Meat Thresher and drop it to 17 health. The Swamp Gobbers cover the space between the Battle Engines with smoke. The Paingiver Beat Handlers spend their actions healing the damaged Animanatarax for a total of about 4 health between the three who could make contact. The Krea puts up Paralytic Aura. Pigs Turn 2 I upkeep Calamity. The surviving Efaarit does some spot damage to the Calamity'd Siege Animantarax. I kill the Karax jamming the Meat Thresher with a Bone Grinder, and shoot most of the rest of the unit off the board with them. The Meat Thresher can't quite line up a charge that also catches the Master Tormentor, but it charges the Animantarax and kills it with its gun shots. It has a shot to spare, which does some damage to the Archidon. I now really need to kill the Master Tormentor, since it's basically the biggest bit of infantry clearing my opponent has. I run a Bone Grinder into position to provide a target for my Road Hog's spray. The Road Hog aims, boosts to hit and damage on the Master Tormentor, sets both the Bone Grinder and the Meat Thresher on fire (the Bone Grinder passed its Tough roll). I score 1 CP for clearing the left zone. Skorne Turn 3 Rasheth upkeeps Blood Mark, Feats, and kills the last Efaarit with a Sunder Spirit through the Void Spirit, doing 3 points of damage. The surviving Siege Animanatarax finishes off the Meat Thresher. The Agoniser and Krea lurk behind the Animantarax with Wailing and Paralytic Aura up respectively, and the Swamp Gobbers block off some LOS with their cloud. Pigs Turn 3 I put Calamity on the remaining Animantarax, Primal my Road Hog, and charge in. The Road Hog had lost its Mind to a spare shot from the Animantarax the turn before and I forgot to heal it, and I then made the mistake of boosting to hit on one attack when I was hitting on 2+ anyway. I did an ok chunk of damage, tossed some Brigand shots in for good measure, plus a Razor Boar charge. Couldn't quite crack it with the -4 Strength in play. On the left my opponent had put the Void Spirit close enough to get two Bone Grinders into it. I charged in, made a CMA, hit, rolled 1, 1, 1 for damage. Left it on 1 health. Skorne Turn 4 I can't remember if the Animantarax or the Archidon kills the Road Hog. I think the Animantarax hit it with a spear, did something tiny for damage, and the Retaliatory Strike spiked high on damage? The club attack splattered the Razor Boar. Some Breaths of Corruption killed some Slaughterhousers. The Tyrant Commander and Standard Bearer committed on the right and killed two Brigands. The Void Spirit killed a Bone Grinder and teleported back. Krea puts up Paralytic Aura, Agoniser wails some more. Pigs Turn 4 Calamity was upkept. The Tyrant Commander died to a Slaughterhouser charge. The Brigands shot the Animantarax off the board with some high damage rolls. Midas Feated the Road Hog and Razor Boar back to life. The Road Hog aimed a shot at the Void Spirit, missed it but hit the Archidon for some points of damage. Two Bone Grinders charged it with a Grievous Wounds CMA and left it on 8 boxes. I charge the Archidon on the right with a couple of Brigands and one hits for a few points of damage, one goes into Rasheth and does about 2 damage and one charges the Krea (the new Prey target) and does a bit. A Primal'd Razor Boar goes into the Swamp Gobbers and misses. Skorne Turn 5 Fire doesn't go out on the Archidon. I roll double six for damage. Dead Archidon. Cool. A Breath of Corruption kills some Slaughterhousers, but a Sunder Spirit fails to break armour on the resurrected Road Hog. Carnivore goes on the Paingivers and they miss three of their four attacks, killing one Bone Grinder. My opponent allows a free strike as he charges the Void Spirit at the Road Hog, which hits and kills the Void Spirit. The Archidon Crit Pitches one Bone Grinder into another and sprints back behind its wall. Pigs Turn 5 My opponent is munching through my infantry at a reasonably solid pace but he's down to basically a minute on time. I put Death March on a Bone Grinder unit. The Road Hog aims and sprays and kills two Paingiver Beast Handlers, the rest along with the one contesting Swamp Gobber die to the Bone Grinders. I go to 3 CP. Skorne Turn 6 My opponent clocks himself finishing off the Brigands for some extra army points, killing the last one with his Archidon right as time ran out. Also gives me 5 CPs in the process. Funny to get those two same players in a row again. The Midas list was really just playing to its strengths in each game, I made a couple of positioning errors in this one that gave my opponent the occasional free model with Breaths of Corruption and those were starting to wrack up by the end of the game. Even in spite of that though the list was still able to chew through everything at a pretty steady rate.
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Post by Azahul on Jul 2, 2017 12:59:49 GMT
Round 3 - Incursion I go up against a Convergence player with Lucant and Axis. I drop Arkadius, he drops Axis, with the following: Axis -Inverter -Inverter -Conservator -Conservator -Conservator -Conservator -Galvaniser -Galvaniser -Galvaniser -Corollary Optifex Directive Just a whole mess of Servitors... Deployment I roll a 1 for the roll-off. My opponent opts to go first. I probably needed the first turn this game more than any other game all tournament, so that was frustrating. I take the table side with the hills to deny him the elevation bonuses and so I wouldn't have to deal with the water on the other side of the board. For once I opted not to ambush Hutchuck, since my opponent had no real way to scalpel him out and he could really help solve some of the Counter Charge conundrums with a well-placed Quake bomb (I would rather he be available for Rust Bombs, but sadly being able to play around Counter Charges was probably more important). Convergence Turn 1 My opponent runs his models up the board, cascading focus down to do so. The central Inverter gets Iron Aggression. My camera has started playing up a bit now and I won't sort it out until like halfway through the match. Pigs Turn 1 I don't really run anything. Gun Boars and Road Hogs and the Splatter Boar drop a lot of Servitors with Lucky Shot AOEs catching even some of the ones who are out of range. Guardian Warbeast goes up, as does Forced Evolution on the middle Road Hog. Convergence Turn 2 He runs a few Servitors in to jam me, but mostly contents himself to positioning around the flags. His Galvanisers go in front, each with two heavies behind them. I forgot to take a picture this turn. Pigs Turn 2 This turn was complicated. I used my lights and Hutchucks to minimise the number of Counter Charges I would suffer. I knocked the Conservator behind the forest on the right down with a Quake Bomb. The Gorax put Primal on the central War Hog and charged a Servitor, getting counter-charged by a Galvaniser. It only suffered about 4 damage though. My Gun Boars ran up to proc counter charges from the Inverters. One took the bait and knocked the Gun Boar down, taking off about half of its health in the process. The other didn't. I wasn't fussed either way, the one that didn't counter charge would be locked down by the Gun Boar there when I Feated. Targ used Ancillary Attack to unjam my central block of Warbeasts from the Servitors. Then I activated Arkadius and Feated. The other War Hog and the right-hand Road Hog also received Primal. My heavies in the centre killed a Conservator and an Inverter and badly damaged the other Inverter (the one that had counter charged and used its Macropummeler), destroying both arms and its Induction Node. I was about half an inch out from getting to Axis with my lead War Hog, thanks to it needing to go through some forest on the way. On the right my Road Hog knocked down the Galvaniser with its Frenzy attack, allowing the Gorax to Frenzy off and attack the Conservator. The Road Hog there then used Full Boar and walked around the Galvaniser to get to the Conservator Hutchuck had knocked down. It started attacking but rolled quite low for damage, so I opted to spend its last two Fury killing the Servitor beside it and proccing Lightning Strike, then walking well out of Arkadius's Control Range and into the back arcs of my opponent's army. Convergence Turn 3 Axis has a bit of trouble finding some functioning Induction Nodes and actually getting some efficient Focus rolling across, but he eventually sorts it out and allocates most of his Focus. He walks somewhere a bit more safe and Feats. The Optifex Directive repairs the damaged Inverter for four points of damage, getting its arms and Induction Node functioning again. The Galvaniser on the right fails to kill the near-dead knocked down Gun Boar, but the Focus rolls on to the Inverter at least. It activates and swings at my left War Hog, who rolls three damage and cripples its Meteor Hammer but is 1 damage off from crippling the Induction Node and causing some real problems. This does force the Conservator to finish off both the Gun Boar and the War Hog. On the right the Conservators there kill the Gorax and the Splatter Boar. Servitors claim the left and right flags, sending my opponent to 2 CP. My camera plays up again, so no picture this turn. Pigs Turn 3 My War Hog and one Road Hog frenzy and just kill Optifex Directives. Hutchuck has to accept a free strike from the Servitor engaging it to contest the right flag, survives on 3 hit boxes. Arkadius walks up and hits the Conservator on the left with Crippling Grasp. Targ runs to contest the left flag. My Road Hog destroys the Inverter and does a good bit of damage to the Conservator, crippling its Induction Node. The Gun Boar on the right spikes crazy high on its damage rolls and, combined with the damage done by the Road Hog, cripples the Conservator's arms. The servitor near Arkadius actually blew up when making its free strike on Hutchuck. Convergence Turn 4 The Galvaniser on the left receives three Focus. The last Optifex Directive repairs the Conservator. The Galvaniser misses two attacks on Targ, and takes two hits to force a Tough roll, which he passes. The Conservator receives the three Focus, kills Targ and then misses all its attacks on the Forced Evolution'd Road Hog. I actually wanted a hit, there would have been an ok chance of just killing the Conservator with the Retaliatory Strike. On the right the Conservator with no arms flails ineffectually at the Gun Boar. The Galvaniser walks up and does a couple points of damage. The other Conservator kills Hutchuck. My opponent goes to 4 CP. Pigs Turn 4 Hoo boy. Contesting three flags at once against a Warcaster with Battering Ram, battlegroup wide Bulldoze, and the ability to maybe just kill models. I upkeep Crippling Grasp and Forced Evolution. The Forced Evolution'd Road Hog kills the Conservator, gets a Critical Knockdown on the Galvaniser and a good bit of damage, and Sprints to the left flag. My War Hog accepts two free strikes to run to join it on the left flag. Arkadius walks to the right and casts Crippling Grasp on the far right flank Conservator, repositioning it so that it can't bulldoze my Road Hog and still land on the flag without proccing Guardian Warbeast. The Road Hog on the right uses Full Boar and walks to engage all of the Warjacks there on the right. It kills the non-Crippling Grasp'd Conservator and the Galvaniser and knocks down the Crippling Grasp'd Conservator. The Gun Boar, now freed, walks to contest the central flag while still being in the forest so even two unboosted Battering Rams won't get it far enough away to free up that flag. It then puts a boosted shot into the remaining knocked down Galvaniser and kills it. Convergence Turn 5 The Conservator on the right is out of Control. My opponent spends some time working out if there's any way to free up either flag. Ultimately concedes that there isn't. The Corollary goes into the Road Hog on the left and misses most of the attacks because Def 14 is just phenomenal. Axis runs to the centre flag. The Conservator on the right sacrifices Actions to stand and backs somewhere where it isn't close enough to proc Guardian Warbeast. Pigs Turn 5 My Road Hog on the left doesn't Frenzy, somehow. My Gun Boar does, into Axis, which is annoying. I don't upkeep any spells at all. Arkadius walks up, boosts a Crippling Grasp at Axis, misses, tries again, succeeds. My Road Hog on the right kills the Conservator. My War Hog runs to the centre flag. I go to 1 CP. Convergence Turn 6 My opponent is basically out of time. Axis activates and tries to kill both Warbeasts on the centre flag. With -2 Strength from Crippling Grasp, one or two missed attacks, he burns his initials and 5 Focus to kill the Gun Boar. He clocks out as he's resolving the last attack. I go to 3 CP. Good grief Turn 4 was a brain teaser, trying to deny all three flags at once. That was all my brain power for the day gone.
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Post by Azahul on Jul 3, 2017 3:37:57 GMT
Round 4 - Take and Hold At this point there were three players undefeated, a Legion player and a Cygnar player. The Cygnar player played down, so Midas gets a third game into Hordes! My opponent had Abby2 and Thagrosh1, so either playing a Warbeast heavy list with nowhere near enough infantry clearing or playing without a Feat and trading infantry back and forth. He chose Abby2 because there were so many walls and bits of rough terrain on the board his Pathfinderless Swordsmen would struggle to make contact with the enemy. His list was: Absylonia -Proteus -Carnivean -Carnivean -Seraph -Nephilim Soldier -Nephilim Protector -Nephilim Protector -Succubus Forsaken Forsaken Shepherd Shepherd Spell Martyr Spell Martyr Deployment I didn't roll a 1 for the roll-off! I actually got the first turn! My opponent took his table side because there was a wall next to the flag that would both give Abby some protection and prevent the Meat Thresher from realistically getting to her. I deployed my Brigands on the left, Meat Thresher in the middle, Efaarit on the right, and Midas opposite his flag. My opponent went for a deployment that I would allow a refused flank, basically ceding the entire right-hand side of the board to me. I even AD'd my Razorback Crews out on the forfeited flank because their range was such that I was pretty sure I'd be getting some valuable shots in. The extreme Carnivean has been converted into Proteus, but for deployment he's just going to be a proxy base. The Prey target is the central Carnivean. Pigs Turn 1 Death March went on the pigs on the left. Most of my stuff just ran forward. Legion Turn 1 Bracer is on one of the Nephilim Protectors. My opponent goes back and forth over whether or not he wants Proteus inside the threat range of my Meat Thresher, and ultimately allows it, figuring that he's ok with that trade (and also that the Meat Thresher probably can't kill Proteus too easily). Pigs Turn 2 I completely forget to leach Fury this turn. That... was a bad thing. Don't declare upkeeps either, so Death March is gone without enough Fury to recast it. Stupider and stupider. Last game really had taken a lot out of me. The Meat Thresher charges Proteus, knocks him down, puts three shots into him as well. The Razorback Crews finish him off. The Efaarit shoot at the Spell Martyrs since I've now killed their only other target, miss one, kill the other. The Brigands advance and shoot their Prey target a little. One of the three or four shots in range gets Shield Guarded, the others do like 3-4 damage total. The Road Hog advances and flamethrowers the same Carnivean, misses, does hit Nephilim and does a little bit of damage with a boosted damage roll. Everything else just runs. Legion Turn 2 My opponent Feats to kill my Road Hog and Meat Thresher. Abby jumps into the midst of some infantry and starts killing, has to Reposition to a less favourable spot due to some Tough rolls denying him one critical Overtake move, and has to move his Protectors up around him to block any assassination. One Carnivean goes into the Road Hog and catches two Bone Grinders and three Slaughterhousers in the assault spray. Without boosting to hit he hits four of the five 8s on them, missing one Bone Grinder, and I don't make any Tough rolls. He kills the Road Hog with two Fury to spare and puts up Spiny Growth. The other Carnivean goes in and takes three Fury to kill the Meat Thresher, so no Spiny there. The Nephilim Soldier and the Seraph team up with my continued inability to roll Tough and kill all bar three of the Brigands (including the Warlord). The surviving Spell Martyr charges my Efaarit and fails to hit. My opponent goes to 1 CP. Pigs Turn 3 My opponent killed a fair bit more than I expected of my infantry, so I seriously consider gunning for an assassination. If I could kill the Protector I could get two Slaughterhousers and a Bone Grinder and some gun shots on Abby, but she's camping 3. I tell myself to relax and just play attrition. I've lost a lot, yes, but it was mostly Brigands. I've still got tons of my pseudo-weapon masters. Midas goes, Feats back his Road Hog, Curses the forward Carnivean, hits it with an unboosted Calamity and an unboosted Hex Blast to strip Spiny Growth, begins to move towards his flag. Over on the right one Efaarit kills the last Spell Martyr, the other teams up with the Razorbacks to start pumping shots into the rear Carnivean. In the centre two Bone Grinders kill the Nephilim Protector, one tags the lead Carnivean with Grievous Wounds and I kill it with the three surviving Slaughterhousers. Up the top of the board two Bone Grinders and a Slaughterhouser finish the job on the Carnivean there. Mission accomplished. The Nephilim Soldier is the new Prey target, so the Warlord and Unit Leader put some shots into it and I leave the knocked down Brigand knocked down. The Battle Boar and Razor Boars block off space to get to Midas (I'm about a quarter of an inch outside of Abby's threat range, but just in case he goes for a spell and gunshot assassination with the Seraph...). Most of the models on my right swing towards the centre. Would have been a great turn to get to the flag, but among my many mistakes last turn was not putting Midas within walking distance there. Legion Turn 3 My opponent spends a long time working out if it's possible for Abby to charge and kill a Razor Boar and Overtake into melee range with Midas. The curvature of the Battle Boar's base puts him a hair of an inch out of range though, unless he can kill it too. He regrets Feating when he did. Instead he has to play attrition. He uses Blight Bomb with a Forsaken up the top to try and clear out as many infantry there, hoping for some rules on par with the Carnivean assault spray, but only kills something like two Bone Grinders and a Slaughterhouser. Abby charges into the clump of infantry responsible for killing the other Protector and lead Carnivean, forgets to use the Soldier's animus, and as a result isn't able to Reposition back onto the flag. The Seraph and Soldier leave only the Warlord alive from the Brigands and the Bracer'd Nephilim Protector stands next to Abby. Pigs Turn 4 Abby is on zero camp, so that's a much more tempting assassination run. I get my Razor Boar out of the way, walk up and curse Abby, hit her with a boosted Calamity, toss an unboosted Hex Blast (I had a corpse from the dead Nephilim Protector dying to the Bone Grinders) at the Shepherd jamming up the works at the top of the board. My Brigand Warlord aims and shoots at Abby, hits both shots. My opponent opts to save his Shield Guard for the inevitably Efaarit and Razorback shots coming in, but my Warlord is clearly annoyed at losing all his Brigands and rolls high for damage and kills Abby. You know every time I kill a Warbeast with a Slaughterhouser I get really, really annoyed at the change from Midas collecting Bone Tokens to Corpse Tokens. Being able to get corpses from the dead Warbeasts is really cool (I love resurrecting a Razor Boar right in front of Midas and then having Midas cut its throat for an extra Fury) but adding that layer of skornergy into a faction with such limited options onto models he's meant to play well with as per the little bit of fluff we have on him when they already had a solution to the problem is just frustrating as anything. Anywho, new favourite trick for winning tournaments has been found. Just play into Hordes (almost) every round. I like the trade of Rorsh and Brine for the Meat Thresher too. It hits about as hard, doesn't threaten melee quite as far, but can help get an earlier attrition lead with its gun's 20" threat range. It also feels tough as nails right now, easily the most durable model we have available for pigs barring arguably Carver's heavies (and even then it would outperform them when run with Sturm and Drang and Helga). The Cygnar player who played down won his game too. I was ahead on SOS, CP, and army points (the army points destroyed tally for this tournament 434, which I'm pretty sure is the best I've ever done). Exhausting day though. The last game was the only one where I wasn't seriously considering death clock as my win condition. Made me long for just dropping Arkadius every round and gunning for top of two assassinations.
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Post by Tenzilla on Jul 4, 2017 20:20:50 GMT
Great reports. Couple of questions from someone who just got into pigs,
Where did you get the sweet minion widgets?
Why gorax over battle boars?
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Post by zwergenkrieger on Jul 4, 2017 21:23:24 GMT
The Gorax has 1 higher P+S and can charge for free if he already is injured, which Arkadius can do on 2 ways either his needle or his Maltreatment. All in all makes it a better late game piece.
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Post by Tenzilla on Jul 4, 2017 21:33:40 GMT
The Gorax has 1 higher P+S and can charge for free if he already is injured, which Arkadius can do on 2 ways either his needle or his Maltreatment. All in all makes it a better latel game piece. That's what I was thinking, but Adrenalize and higher arm are good as well. Both are probably very situational, but just thought I would ask on case I was missing anything, since Arkadius is pretty much the reason I got into pigs I suppose I may have to find a gorax.
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Post by Azahul on Jul 4, 2017 22:57:59 GMT
Great reports. Couple of questions from someone who just got into pigs, Where did you get the sweet minion widgets? Why gorax over battle boars? As zwergenkrieger says, the Gorax hits substantially harder in the late game. That doesn't make it necessarily better than the Battle Boar, since Adrenalize is certainly a neat ability, but I'm normally dropping Arkadius into heavy armour opponents so the ability to drop one last heavy with the Gorax is pretty necessary. The Minion widgets were done by a local artist last year for the Australian WTC players. My round two opponent has an orange Skorne set visible in a few pictures, my round four opponent has a green Legion set. I'll see if I can dig up his website for you.
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Post by perilsensitive on Jul 5, 2017 17:17:38 GMT
Azahul - I tried your Midas list out (I wanted to try the Thresher with its new rules) against Stryker 1 with Stormwall and 2 Centurions. Even after a failed Calamity on double ones the Road Hog and Brigands brought the Stormwall down to 1 box. The Thresher failed completely (went in on a Lancer and a Sidekicked Centurion, and tried some hail mary shots into Jakes), but soaked a TON of fire and tied up half the table.
In the end, I was able to kill Stryker on his feat turn while he was camping 4 (he had taken a few points earlier from fire). I Calamity'd and Hex Blasted him, feated back the Road Hog and sprayed, and shot him some with Preyed Brigands and one Razorback. He had four boxes left when a Primal'd Razor Boar went in and got the 13 on damage necessary to kill him.
It was a cool test against a non-optimal matchup. I agree with your assessment of the Thresher.
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Post by Azahul on Jul 7, 2017 2:26:44 GMT
Gosh, that sounds like a terrible game for everyone involved if the Stormwall uses its Covering Fire templates every turn. Nothing can be charged, but there's not a lot of anti-infantry happening either. Just sounds awful. How were you going on the attrition game? Were you actually managing to remove models, or did you go for the assassination before it became relevant?
The biggest problem I've found so far has been ranged anti-infantry removal. It doesn't super like Control Feats, but you're delivering the list in waves over 2-4 turns so that can blunt the impact a lot.
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Post by perilsensitive on Jul 7, 2017 17:55:31 GMT
I think the only model I killed was the Stormwall. The Covering Fire was going to be a big issue, as well as the Centurions no-charge ability. He didn't feat early, which allowed me to put get the Stormwall to 1 box with some electric dice. I could have jammed the Cents with chaff and backed up on his feat, but I don't think I would have been very successful in removing them with what I had. I couldn't get close enough to get any quality of shots on Jakes(he made sure to kill the razorback and efaarit on that side of the board), which would have allowed me to kill one Cent and win on scenario (we were playing with 2 circle zone and 2 flags 2017 scenario).
In any case, he didn't back Stryker up on his feat turn (he was trying to keep a Lancer in control), and he felt very confident with feat and 4 focus up. I went for it anyway because I probably would have clocked eventually trying to clear a zone.
As you said, ranged infantry removal is the worst for piglets. He had a pair of Chargers and the SW, but that wasn't too bad. I played Midas primarily because Helga was the other caster I brought that night and that would have been worse.
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Post by Azahul on Oct 28, 2017 10:38:17 GMT
So, I haven't updated this in a while. Mostly because my camera has been having issues and I just haven't sat down and fixed things up. I still haven't, so this write-up will be quick and sadly lacking in photos. Played in a three round tournament today (plenty of people, but we started late and since there were some people who needed to travel for like two hours to get home, the decision was made to keep it to three rounds). This was actually the first time I'd taken WWFF to a tournament, so I made up for lost time by taking it twice. Arkadius -War Hog -War Hog -Road Hog -Road Hog -Gun Boar -Gun Boar -Gorax -Gorax -Razor Boars Targ Hutchuck (free) Bog Trog Mist Speaker (free) Orin Midwinter (free) Ogrun Bokur (free) Gobber Chef Gobber Chef Carver -Battle Boar -Battle Boar -Battle Boar -Battle Boar -Splatter Boar -Splatter Boar -Splatter Boar -Splatter Boar -War Hog -War Hog Bellows Crew Gremlin Swarm Orin Midinwter (free) Hutchuck (free) Bog Trog Mist Speaker (free) Lanyssa Maximus Gremlin Swarm Round 1 - OutlastPlayed against a new Khador player just mono-listing Kozlov with a mix of Winter Guard infantry and Man-O-War shocktroopers. I dropped Carver so I wouldn't have the temptation to gun for a top of two assassination. Won the roll-off. Deployed everything centrally. I'm not going to go into this game in too much detail, I was trying to make sure my opponent actually got to play the game and make it a helpful learning experience for him. The 18" run on Turn 1 guaranteed I had the scenario on lockdown though, so I traded pieces back and forth for a while with Carver camping the flag. Round 2 - Recon III was originally up against a Legion player, but the results were redrawn to account for a player dropping and I ended up into Convergence instead. My opponent had Axis and Lucant. I felt perfectly comfortable with Arkadius into both. He dropped Axis, with the following: Axis -Galvanizer -Galvanizer -Galvanizer -Galvanizer -Galvanizer -Galvanizer -Galvanizer -Galvanizer -Galvanizer -Galvanizer -Corollary TEP TEP Optifex Directive Optifex Directive Just a whole wack of Servitors man Deployment I won the roll-off and went first. I had a Road Hog on my left, a War Hog set to make use of Pathfinder from my objective to navigate some rubble near the middle of the board, and two other heavies near the middle with a Gun Boar and a Gorax all I was really dedicating to the right. My opponent responded by putting both TEPs on the right and the Galvanizers staggered into about three waves on the left and centre. Pigs Turn 1 Everything ran. Arkadius, all the Warbeasts, everything. Convergence Turn 1 My opponent moved his Galvanizer blob up to present a whole mess of counter-charges. The TEPs advanced more cautiously, only going about 5" forward. Axis stayed at the back of the Galvanizers. The Servitors moved up in front of anything, a few taking potshots and doing about a point of damage to a Road Hog. One of the Rexlex Servitors charged a Razor Boar and missed and did no damage in the explosion. Good start. Pigs Turn 2 Gosh, I wish I had pictures for this game, and this turn more than anything. I would have taken like five. In a nutshell, Gun Boars and Orin cleared out a swathe of Servitors. The Road Hog on the left accepted one of the only two Counter-Charges I let my opponent get that turn, and smashed the Galvanizer that charged it and mostly smashed another. The War Hog in the middle gained Pathfinder as planned, Arkadius gave it Forced Evolution and Primal, and Feated it into a Galvanizer. That mostly killed the Galvanizer on its own. My opponent considered counter-charging, but figured at Def 14 it was a bit risky and all it would realistically do is give the War Hog more models to munch on. Better to save the Counter-charges until after Arkadius's activation ended so that Psycho Surgery was off the table. On the right a Gun Boar triggered the second of the two Counter-Charges my opponent would get to make, and a Gorax and second Gun Boar did a good bit of damage to that Galvanizer. My remaining two heavies moved up the table, closing in on the TEP. Targ uses Ancillary attack to have the buffed up War Hog kill the Galvanizer in front of it. It then moves up and engages three Galvanizers, using the opponent's objective to ensure the only possible counter-charge didn't have a landing zone. It then smashed all three Galvanizers and overtook into the fourth and took off about half its health. Some other activations finished off the Galvanizer on the right. My second War Hog dropped the closest TEP, and Hutchuck ambushed in and did about nine damage to the other one in a solid charge attack. So, seven Galvanizers down, an eighth out on the left on about four health, and a TEP off the table. Record for the turn: Four and a bit light Warjacks downed by one War Hog. Convergence Turn 2 Axis Feats and charges the Road Hog on the left, kills it, and the remaining Galvanizers leave the Forced Evo'd War Hog on about half a dozen boxes and smash up a Gorax pretty badly. The TEP contributes a bit of damage to the War Hog, but it also kills the Galvanizer that War Hog had half-killed in the process. He scores on his own flag and the left zone, going to 2 CP. Pigs Turn 3 Arkadius begins his retreat towards the right flank. Psycho Surgery heals up my battlegroup. I primal my remaining Road Hog and it destroys the last TEP. I clear my flag and Orin fires another Chain Lightning that destroys the Servitors near the opponent's flag, stopping him from scoring. He also spikes a damage roll on the badly injured Galvanizer and kills it, leaving my opponent with Axis and two Galvanizers and a few odd models here and there. My undamaged War Hog drops the Corollary and the objective. I control my zone and flag, so I go to 3 CP. Convergence Turn 3 Axis reclears his zone and scores on the flag, but this time he isn't able to contest either my flag or zone. One Galvanizer proves incapable of finishing off the badly damaged War Hog. We both gain 2 CP, going to 4 and 5 respectively. Pigs Turn 4 I put Forced Evolution on the full-health War Hog and run it into his zone. The other War Hog drops the Galvanizer in melee with it. I finish off the solos and Optifex Directives. I go to 7 CP. Convergence Turn 4 Axis and his Galvanizer buddy try to kill the War Hog in their zone, to no avail. I go to 9 CP and win. Round 3 - BreakdownI draw the Legion player I was originally going to play last round. He has Fyanna2 and Lylyth1. It's Legion, and I've played this guy before. He knows I'm dropping Arkadius no matter what. He drops Fyanna. Slight variant on the flying circus, with: Fyanna -Angelius -Angelius -Neraph -Neraph -Seraph -Seraph -Nightlurker -Succubus Forsaken Forsaken Sorceress on Helion Sorceress on Helion Shepherd Shepherd Deployment I lose the roll-off, he grabs first. I try to make sure my heavies all line up against his heavies through routes that don't hit any rough terrain, in case he runs the full distance Turn 1 and I can get some Turn 1 kills. He only has one Neraph out on the right, everything else is clustered near the centre. I put two Road Hogs and a War Hog opposite the centre, and the last War Hog out to the right. Legion Turn 1 He does not run that far up, keeping just out of range with Admonition on one Angelius, Fury on the other, and Iron Flesh on Fyanna. Pigs Turn 1 I advance about 5" out of my deployment zone, avoiding his threat ranges. I scatter some Gun Boar shots into him and half-kill a Neraph with the two that hit (one being a Raw Adrenaline Ancillary Attack). Counter Blast and Guardian Warbeast are in play to deter a Feat plus run to jam play. Legion Turn 2 My opponent opts not to Feat, figuring that I'd just back up until it wore off and deciding to wait until I engaged. Instead he shot a Gun Boar to death with a Seraph and the two Angelii and tried to Slipstream them all back to make it impossible for me to get more than 2-3 of his heavies on my alpha. Pigs Turn 2 So Overtake is a thing. I originally plan an assassination run. Hutchuck ambushes, throws a Quake bomb on the Forsaken next to Fyanna and knocks them both down, and I can get a good few shots onto her on two transfers. But then as Arkadius feats his models and repositions aggressively up the board (limiting the number of places the Angelius can Admonition to by projecting his Guardian Warbeast aura over it) I end up just going for attrition. Orin is an utter champion, doing like 7 and 4 damage to the Angelii with a Chain Lightning. The last Gun Boar puts a Raw Adrenaline Ancillary Attack into the Seraph. One Road Hog, with Primal, finishes the Seraph off, Overtakes into the Angelius with Fury, and kills it too. Because I was able to position it to engage both the Admonition Angelius and the Seraph, he had triggered Admonition to save that Angelius and I don't need to worry about that anymore. It's still inside the walking threat of my other Road Hog, with Forced Evolution and Primal. This Road Hog wanders in and kills both that Angelius and the half-health Neraph with a Fury to spare, letting it trigger Sprint and get in front of Fyanna. The second Neraph, out on the right flank, dies to a Primal'd War Hog. All that done, Gun Boar walks up and shoots Fyanna for 9 damage because it can, the Bokur and Mist Speaker and remaining War Hog run up around Arkadius to block landing zones. Legion Turn 3 My opponent throws his last heavy, his Naga, and his Forsaken at the Road Hog to try and kill it so that Fyanna can charge Arkadius. It isn't enough. Even if it had been, I could have reaved four Transfers and had two camp already and had Guardian Warbeast up, so odds were... not in his favour. Equalling your opponent's attacks with transfers makes assassinations tricky. Anyway, Fyanna spends her activation finishing off the Road Hog in front of her instead and then my opponent concedes. Since the tournament ended there, I was one of two undefeated players. Took second because I was down a couple of CPs (the other player scored 16 in his final game in a long back-and-forth). Pretty good day. WWFF is alright I am truly sorry about the lack of pictures. I'll try and get my camera sorted, but I did want to get back into the habit of doing tournament write-ups at least.
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Post by zwergenkrieger on Oct 31, 2017 13:30:26 GMT
Thanks for your write ups! I highly enjoyed them.
One question I like to ask: do you think that the Arkadius vs Fyanna2 matchup is in favour of Arkadius more often than not? I think so, but a lot of people seem to think that in this matchup Fyanna2 has a higher chance of winning.
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Post by Azahul on Oct 31, 2017 20:30:57 GMT
In SR 2016 I think the advantage may have been slightly in the Fyanna player's favour. In SR 2017 and post-WWFF I think it's definitely in the Arkadius player's favour, though that can vary a bit by scenario. In Breakdown it's trivially pro-Arkadius, since if my opponent had Feated Turn 2 and rushed scenario I could have just sat back and traded 2 CP for his Feat.
That said, it's a reasonably easy match-up to screw up if you're not being careful. Sometimes you do need to engage on his Feat turn, and you have to be real precise with your positioning when that happens to prevent Dodge from ruining your day. Conversely, of course, if the Fyanna player runs everything forward the maximum distance Turn 1 then they've started putting models into your melee threat range, and with Overtake and the innate squishiness of Fyanna's Warbeasts they can use a lot of models if they slip up at any point in the game, so the onus isn't just on the Arkadius player to play well.
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Post by Azahul on Nov 1, 2017 0:13:12 GMT
Now that I'm not rushing out the door, I'll expand a little bit:
Basically, Arkadius always wins the attrition game if he can either alpha before the Feat or sit back and avoid engaging during the Feat. Fyanna therefore needs a live scenario that she can ideally win on scenario by the end of turn 3 at the latest, because she's never reasonably pulling off an assassination and her list is going to collapse post-Feat real quickly.
If she does have that live scenario, I'd say that pushes the game to about 50/50. All it reasonably does, at best, is force Arkadius to engage on the Feat turn. In SR 2016 you basically had to do this, because Fyanna could score 3-4 CPs if you forfeit the scenario game and drive home to a win the following turn. In SR 2017, it's more complicated and breaks down by scenario:
Breakdown and Outlast - These are dead scenarios. Fyanna can only score 2-3 CPs, since she usually doesn't have a token unit. You can almost certainly afford to wait out the Feat. Just be aware that scoring on these scenarios is about as hard for Arkadius as it is for Fyanna, and you do want to get some points on the turn you commit to offset what Fyanna has already scored.
Standoff and the Pit II - The Fyanna player can theoretically score 4 CPs if you totally forfeit the scenario. Whether you need to engage on Feat turn is down to your capacity to plan a turn ahead, because if you can give up the scenario while also setting yourself up to clear some scenario elements, contest the others, and score a few points you can afford to wait out the Feat. Fyanna's list has heavy scenario play with the Angelius and Neraph animii, which used to make letting your opponent get this far up on CPs a problem. In SR 2017 though, you just need to score a bit yourself to take a quick scenario win away from your opponent.
Recon II and Spread the Net - In these scenarios the Fyanna player can theoretically score 5 CPs in a single turn. If they have set themselves up for that option, you may be forced to engage on the Feat turn.
These aren't ironclad rules though. Watch your opponent's models and where they end up. They don't have a solo ready to run onto your flags in Recon II and Spread the Net (usually a sorceress), or there are no heavies threatening your objective, then you have some breathing room.
Even in the worst case scenario, when you need to commit on Feat turn, I'd still say the game is about 50/50 for Arkadius. If you go first then the Fyanna player basically has to Feat and run to jam. Fyanna's smallish Control Area means that with Arkadius's mobility you can usually have heavies positioned so that they can engage two of her heavies, giving you targets if your first one dodges away. And her heavies are real squishy. A War Hog with the range to just walk into melee (so a threat of 14", as high as Fyanna's fastest models) can Aggression Dial and boost three all three initials. With Primal it is hitting on 9s, and three hits will drop any Warbeast in Fyanna's lists on remotely average rolls. If you position well and don't bork too many of those 75% chance to hit attack rolls, you should be able to remove about three of Fyanna's heavies. Gun Boar high explosive shots can contribute chip damage to Neraphs and Seraphs (you only need to do about a couple of points of damage to the point where a War Hog drops them on two hits on average instead of three), just try to avoid targetting them directly when possible if a Dodge is going to mess with your day.
It's not a sure thing from there, but if you make sure to drop the Fury heavy as one of the three you kill (and you should, you have better odds of hitting it and everything) then Fyanna can't cycle Fury and you may be able to avoid losing more than two heavies to the counter-punch. You'll have frenzies to deal with from a whole lot of primal on the board, but your lights and solos can do serious work against heavies as squishy as hers and you're in with a fighting chance from that point forward.
So... yeah, if your opponent plays well, in less than half of scenarios, then it's maybe a 50/50 game. Otherwise I'd say Arkadius can deal with it every time. The big question mark occurs when you are forced to engage on Feat turn. On average you should be ok, but the nature of it can be skewy. That one in every 3-4 attacks you miss could be the first attack for a given Warbeast, and if your opponent has positioned well/you've positioned poorly then you may not get an opportunity to make more attacks and equalise that bad luck. Only Primal a Warbeast if you can definitely get it to engage two of Fyanna's, that much is for sure.
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