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Post by Azahul on Nov 6, 2019 4:30:50 GMT
So, game two involved my opponent writing up a Blaize list on the fly to face off against Helga. The lists were: Helga -Road Hog -Road Hog -Battle Boar -Soul Slave Valkyries Valkyries Valkyries Dahlia -Skarath Void Archon (using a Primal Archon as the proxy) Void Archon (using a Primal Archon as the proxy) Totem Hunter Lanyssa River Raider River Raider River Raider River Raider River Raider River Raider River Raider River Raider River Raider River Raider Gobber Chef Constance (using Rahera as a proxy) -Gallant (using a Nomad as a proxy) -Mariner (using a Toro as a proxy) Max Vigilants (using Steelhead Artillery Crew as proxies) Max Precursor Knights (using Steelheads as proxies) -UA (using a Thrall Warrior as the Officer and a Steelhead Artillery Crew as the flag) Max Precursor Knights (as above) -UA Morrowan Archon (using a Void Archon as a proxy) Thamarite Archon Thamarite Archon Gabriel Throne Glyn Cormier (using Taryn as a proxy) Hermit of Henge Hold Deployment This time my opponent won the starting roll and took first. I kept to the same table side. My opponent set up a unit of Precursors on each flank, with a Thamarite Archon to support them, the Morrowan Archon behind the right-hand unit, and Constance with her battlegroup in the centre. For my deployment, actually getting everything in this list onto the front line continues to be an utter trial. I ended up with Dahlia and Skarath on my left flank, Helga and the Road Hogs skewing a little to the right to try and take advantage of the objective, and all the Valkyries and River Raiders scattered wherever there was room and struggling to reach the front rank. My objective was an Observatory, part of the reason I skewed Helga off towards that flank initially was that I intended to give her Eyeless Sight so that she could try Distracting the Vigilants. My opponent's was a Stockpile again. Mercenaries Turn 1 Constance put Fortune on the Vigilants. Everything else ran up the board, though the Vigilants made sure not to put themselves immediately in range of too many attacks. Pigs Turn 1 I realised that I had mucked up with my original plans for Helga, so she has to cast Dash and then walk back towards the centre of the board to get Defender's Ward on Skarath. Dahlia put up Haunting Melody, and I ran everything else forward putting just a couple of Valkyries within charge range of his units to tempt him in. I think I did a reasonably good job of making sure there were avenues for my back rank Valkyries to Vengeance through as well in case Vengeance was triggered. Mercenaries Turn 2 My opponent had some bad luck with dice rolls. The Vigilants all missed their shots at the Valkyrie in the middle, even with Fortune giving them rerolls and the Morrowan Archon giving them Veteran Leader. The Thamarite Archons killed a couple of River Raiders on the right and managed to leave that same lucky Valkyrie on one health. Constance Feated and the Precursors advanced in Shield Wall. Pigs Turn 2 I took advantage of my various sprays having simultaneous attacks to drop my opponent's models in batches. The Void Archon and Road Hogs sprayed down the Precursors, the Road Hog on the right maxing itself out on Fury in an attempt to put the hurt into one of the Thamarite Archons too but flubbing the damage roll. The Valkyries then charged in, killing a couple of Vigilants and one or two more Precursors. With my opponent now sitting on something like a dozen souls, I ran Dahlia into position and had Skarath spray the left flank Precursors. I didn't want to trigger Vengeance on all three units, so I chose not to boost damage so that it was physically impossible for Skarath to break armour. All six models were hit and corroded. I then ran a few token models to screen Dahlia, though I expected my opponent to kill either her or Skarath one way or the other, and kept my Void Archon there lurking back to counter-punch. Mercenaries Turn 3 All six Corroded models and one burning Precursor on the right flank died to their continuous effects, so Constance went into this turn with 25 Focus. She loaded up her 'jacks and just sat right where she was. The Mariner lobbed a shot over her head to kill a River Raider, and the Precursor Knights dealt with the other models screening Dahlia. Skarath did get in a cheeky Counterblast though, killing one of the Precursors. The Morrowan Archon charged her, Blinded her, and put a ton of damage onto Skarath. Gallant charged through the Precursors and killed Dahlia. The Precursors and Vigilants and one of the Thamarite Archons on the right flank mostly managed to deal with the Valkyries engaging them. They burned through a lot of Constance's Focus to do so, leaving her on "just" 9. Gabriel Throne charged and a Valkyrie, who Toughed, and killed the Gobber Chef with his impact attack. A Thamarite Archon finished the job. Gallant is meant to be sitting in the zone on the left, and Throne is on the flag, so my opponent scored two CPs this turn to bring the score to 0-2 in his favour. Pigs Turn 3 I honestly probably could have played this attrition. Use the Void Archon to try and kill the Morrowan on the left, put a Road Hog with Gang Fighter and Dark Shroud into Gallant, kill a few Precursors with the Totem Hunter and have others be knocked down from the Feat, and try to use the Battle Boar to clean up some of the infantry on the right while knocking others down with the Feat. Probably would have been reasonable. Instead though, I decided to go for an assassination. Helga activated, cast Dash, Cycloned forward, and charged Throne. Hit him for a few points of damage. The Totem Hunter moved up, Jumped, and slammed the Mariner away from Constance so that she could be knocked down. The Void Archon on the right flank charged a Vigilant, sprayed a bunch of models, used two Souls for boosts and got both Souls back, and teleported into melee with Constance. I slammed her into the Totem Hunter, and Hermit used Mad Visions to avoid the damage roll. The second Void Archon, it transpired, was a tenth of an inch out from being able to get to the other side of the Totem Hunter to slam Constance back towards my army and into the waiting arms of the Road Hog. He charged a Precursor, killed one with his spray, teleported up to her and punched her into the Totem Hunter a few more times for good measure. The Road Hog threw his spray into the mix, and by the end of it Constance was sitting on about eight boxes. The Soul Slave hits a Thamarite Archon with Distraction, which is pretty funny, and I pass turn. I haven't contested on the left, so my opponent scores again to go 0-3. Mercenaries Turn 4 My opponent just needs to kill my objective to win. He messes around with Constance to kill the Void Archons first, and then throws a few surviving Precursors, a Mariner shot, and some shots from the Thamarite Archon who can still shoot into it to kill it and win on scenario. Boy, this was a pretty tough game. A lot of tricks in the list's toolkit (Defender's Ward for one, Hunter's Mark on Lanyssa for another) were off the table against this mostly Blessed, spell immune list. I had a fair bit of fun with it though, and Helga continues to... if not impress exactly, just be consistently entertaining to play.
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Post by Azahul on Nov 13, 2019 5:32:22 GMT
My regular Merc opponent is just starting to get into Grymkin (if you thought there were a lot of proxies in my past few games, you'll be happy to know that the trend has continued!), which is a really interesting opportunity for me. Haven't had a chance to get a lot of games into them, limited to just a handful of games between the release of Clockatrices and the Oblivion theme changes. I really want to get some games in with Arkadius against Clockatrices, because I'm honestly interested to see how it plays out, but for this particular game I dropped Sturm and Drang (who have been my primary Grymkin answer for a while). I've been meaning to test Void Archons as a substitute for Brun and Lug in the Sturm and Drang list and I finally, finally have the miniatures lightly converted and mostly painted, so I gave that a whirl. The lists were: Sturm and Drang -War Hog -Battle Boar -Battle Boar (I left my second Battle Boar at home for some reason, so this one is proxied with a Gorax) -Soul Slave Bellows Crew Mire -Dracodile Dahlia -Skarath Void Archon Void Archon Eilish Orin Wanderer (using Rahera's model as a proxy) -Clockatrice (Nomads and Toros used as proxies) -Clockatrice -Clockatrice -Clockatrice Max Neighslayers (Steelhead Halberdiers used as proxies) -Officer Max Neighslayers (Steelhead Halberdiers used as proxies) -Officer Twilight Sisters (a Thrall Warrior and the IKRPG Vyros mini used as proxies) Malady Man Malady Man Mad Caps (Steelhead Cannon and Crew used as proxies) Longfellow (Taryn used as a proxy) Grave Ghoul Grave Ghoul Tragically, this is a match-up where Lug's high Mat, auto-knockdown attacks would have been really, really useful. So not the best first choice of outing for the Archons. Deployment My opponent won the starting roll and took first. I opted to take a table side where I wouldn't have to worry about multiple obstructions, that also gave me a handy forest on my flank flank to shelter my models in. My opponent stacked his Clockatrices on his right flank, but otherwise deployed pretty evenly. I felt my Dracodile would be reasonably hard for even multiple Clockatrices to bring down in a list unable to increase their output, and decided to put both Void Archons and Skarath on the left to hopefully make quick work of the Neighslayers there, since the Neighslayers on the right would be no threat so long as I could avoid being Repudiated. We both took the Stockpile objective, though I really should have actually looked at the Wanderer's spell list and picked Observatory... My opponent picked Ill Omens and Ruin as his Arcana. Grymkin Turn 1 Most of the Clockatrices and the Neighslayers ran forward, the Neighslayers using Play Dead. The rest of the army tripped over itself trying to kill Cask Imps and Monkeys to fuel the Grave Ghouls. I believe the Clockatrice on the left gave up in the end and sprayed a couple of Neighslayers dead instead, then had the Twilight Sisters bring the dead models back. Wanderer put up Fog of War and Veil of Mists. Pigs Turn 1 The Soul Slave moved forward and TK'd Skarath forward so that I could have Sturm put Vision on him. Also threw Polarity Shield on the Dracodile and cast Deceleration. Dahlia moved up and cast Haunting Melody, Mire put Weald Secrets on the War Hog and moved off towards the right flank. I ran pretty much everyone else, the Void Archons moving out towards the left flank and Orin hanging out behind the Dracodile. Grymkin Turn 2 Wanderer upkept Fog of War, moved up, cast Star Crossed, and put Veil of Mists down on the right-hand side of the building. A Neighslayer from the right-hand unit ran to block the landing zone of a Clockatrice so that it wouldn't go too far forward when it cast Time Lock and charged the Dracodile. Without TK, it would be impossible to get to that Clockatrice. The rest of his army just moved up to put forward pressure on the board and killed some more Cask Imps. Pigs Turn 2 I upkept all my spells. Eilish gave Sturm Puppet Master, allowing Sturm to move over and TK the Clockatrice. My opponent played Ruin, but I cast it again and tagged the Clockatrice. I wasn't confident that I would be able to kill the Clockatrice with what I had on hand, and decided it was more important that I lock down the various scenario elements, so I chose to TK the Clockatrice back and away from the Dracodile so that the Dracodile could walk into the right-hand zone to contest. The Dracodile sprayed the Clockatrice for good measure, doing about six points of damage. Over on the left flank, I took some sprays on the Neighslayers with my Void Archons and Skarath. Got pretty unlucky and only killed two, with one Void Archon failing to kill any and ending up pretty exposed. The exposed Void Archon was sitting on the flag at least, so I scored 1 CP to make the score 1-0. Grymkin Turn 3 I think my opponent had a compelling assassination run this turn had he used Wanderer to Beacon Sturm and sent a Clockatrice in for the kill (supported by at least 1-2 other Clockatrice sprays), but he chose to play attrition instead. Neighslayers charged and killed the Void Archon, with Skarath failing to kill any with his Counterblast. The Twilight Sisters brought back the dead Neighslayers from the left flank unit. The Clockatrice on the left sprayed at Skarath and missed, and my opponent forgot about his reroll from the Grave Ghoul. The damaged Clockatrice on the right had Corrosion more or less cancel out the auto-repair, and sprayed the War Hog and put up Time Lock again. The other two Clockatrices hung back. Wanderer sat behind the building and put up Star Crossed again. Longfellow scored my opponent's flag, making the score 1-1. Pigs Turn 3 Sturm TK'd the Clockatrice on the right around and moved it forward for the War Hog. Sturm then Feated, catching all the Clockatrices in his Control. The War Hog moved up and managed to do a fair bit of damage to the Clockatrice before Time Stutter kicked in and sent it away. In retrospect, I could have probably blocked off all its landing zones with Bellows Crew Gobbers and given myself a bit more freedom with the Dracodile, but it wasn't the end of the world. The Dracodile was able to stay in the zone and finish off the Clockatrice, and also eat a Neighslayer in the process. I couldn't get it close enough to contest my opponent's flag, however. Orin threw in a Chain Lightning that killed two of the remaining Neighslayers. I made some mistakes on the left flank. I moved my Battle Boar to Power Attack throw a Neighslayer without actually checking to see if any others were within 4", and they turned out to be just out of range. That meant that Dahlia couldn't run past to get to the flag and put the rest of the unit in her control range for Skarath. When Skarath went in to charge the Neighslayer Officer, he proceeded to get charged by the Malady Man Monkey and miss his boosted attack and I didn't want to max him out for an attack that probably wouldn't hit, let alone kill. The Void Archon decided to get to the flag by spraying a Neighslayer dead and teleporting to it, but I couldn't kill the Monkey or the last Neighslayer contesting. Since I couldn't score my flag and hadn't stopped my opponent from scoring his, the score went to 1-2 in his favour. Grymkin Turn 4 The Neighslayers gave themselves Parry and charged to kill the Void Archon. My opponent wanted to try and kill Skarath, but he couldn't hit his Repudiate to strip Vision in spite of his rerolls. He cast Star Crossed and camped nothing. The Clockatrice on the left made an unboosted throw on Skarath, hit and tossed him out of the zone (and out of Dahlia's Control Range), and a Monkey ran up to be annoying while the other Malady Man secured the zone. Over on the right flank, the last regular Neighslayer ran in to jam the Dracodile, while the Officer hung back. A Clockatrice moved up and Paralysed the Dracodile and put up Time Lock. The other Clockatrice hung back behind the building. My opponent scored his flag and the left zone, making the score 1-4 in his favour. Pigs Turn 4 Skarath frenzied and ate the Monkey. Eilish put Puppet Master on the Dracodile. It moved into melee with the Clockatrice, contesting my opponent's flag at last, and hit it for a ton of damage with its Bite without triggering Time Stutter, boosted the tail and got the Critical Smite, managed to both only slam the Clockatrice 1" (keeping it in melee) and still avoiding crippling an aspect, and then killed the Clockatrice outright with a claw attack. It even had a Claw attack leftover to kill the Neighslayer. Ill Omens triggered at some point in here. Sturm moved up, put Primal on the Battle Boar, and sprayed a Neighslayer dead. The War Hog charged in and killed another two, and the Battle Boar managed to kill the last one. I ran Dahlia to contest on the left flank, since anything I could put into the zone would trigger Counter Charge and let the Monkey contest my flag again. The Soul Slave ran to score the flag. I decided to keep my second Battle Boar on the right flank, even though Orin had Stealth up and was behind clouds and basically impossible for Longfellow (the only direct shot model) to target. I scored my flag, bringing the scores to 2-4 in my opponent's favour. Grymkin Turn 5 My opponent decided that the attrition game was swinging again him, with the left flank Neighslayers completely off the board and unable to resurrected and no likelihood of restoring the right flank unit (most of which were RFP'd anyway). He went for the assassination. Wanderer moved up, hit Sturm with his Spray, Repudiated Vision off of Skarath to do a few point of damage, and laid down a Veil of Mists across my War Hog, Battle Boar, and Skarath to stop free strikes. That let Longfellow move up and take off Sturm's transfers with some nasty shots. The Twilight Sisters threw some bolts of magic at Sturm and a Clockatrice charged and killed him. Oops. My opponent had been using Veil of Mists all game, but I hadn't really been thinking about it until that point. All the same, interesting game. I think I definitely played a few elements poorly, particularly my Void Archons tragically for their first game on the table. I think Vision should have gone on Orin. He never actually got targeted, but it's reasonably possibly for a Clockatrice to sneak an attack onto him by just charging him directly, moving base to base with the Dracodile, and spraying him through the Gargantuan. Vision would largely take that threat off the table though. Still undecided on whether I want Brun and Lug or the Void Archons more. The original rationale for Brun and Lug, that they can make hitting Def 13 models that would otherwise be inefficient for my Dracodile to kill, is still true. I think Void Archons are stronger into medium base infantry lists, such as Tharn, whereas I'd rather have Brun and Lug for fighting Clockatrices. It'll require some testing. My inclination is to keep running Brun and Lug, partly because I think the Void Archons in Arkadius make him a lot stronger in that match-up, and partly because, well, I really like having Brun and Lug in that list. They're cute and I like them. But I'll test a few more variations out over the next few weeks I think, and try to use my Void Archons a bit better.
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Post by Dirhavel on Nov 13, 2019 19:38:12 GMT
I could be wrong, but I think Veil of Mists doesn't ignore free strikes, it only lets you pass through enemy models. No matter, nice to read about Sturm & Drang in action again
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Post by Azahul on Nov 13, 2019 23:12:05 GMT
I could be wrong, but I think Veil of Mists doesn't ignore free strikes, it only lets you pass through enemy models. No matter, nice to read about Sturm & Drang in action again Hehe, the perils of playing someone new to their faction No fuss, still a valuable game I think regardless of how it ended.
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Post by Azahul on Nov 18, 2019 1:18:31 GMT
I managed to get some games in over the weekend. I was mostly interested in stress-testing my new Arkadius list into lists that I'd normally lean towards Sturm for, because I'm trying to work out if I should be going to the trouble of getting Void Archons into the Sturm list or if Arkadius with Void Archons can handle the match-ups that I would want the Void Archons in Sturm for. I'm a bit leery of having double Void Archons in both lists in my pairing, because as excellent as they are they still have a particular range of enemy models against which they are most effective and not every list in the meta will have relatively low-to-medium defence living infantry without Soul Ward or Direct Spirits to protect their souls. My first game was into Devourer's Host, run by Mohsar. The lists were: Arkadius -War Hog -War Hog -Road Hog -Road Hog -Gun Boar -Gun Boar -Gorax -Targ Bellows Crew Void Archon Void Archon Boomhowler2 Hermit Kwaak and Gub Witch Doctor Gobber Chef Mohsar -Ghetorix -Wild Argus -Gorax -Tharn Blood Shaman Max Ravagers -Chieftain Max Wolf Riders Bloodweavers Boil Master and Spirit Cauldron Ravager Shaman Lord of the Feast Wolf Rider Champion Gallows Grove Gallows Grove Gallows Grove Well of Orboros Deployment I won the starting roll and took first. My opponent handed me a table side loaded down with hazards. I deployed my Void Archons behind each one, since they'd be able to run straight through without a problem. My War Hogs ended up a bit further out on the flanks than I would ordinarily want, but my opponent didn't have very many hard targets for them to work on so I figured that would be fine. Arkadius, the Road Hogs, and most of my solos clustered in the middle. My opponent, for their part, deployed the Well on the right flank contesting his flag. Ravagers and Ghetorix took the left flank, Wolf Riders took the right flank. I took the Observatory objective, because I wanted to actually put pressure on Lord of the Feast. My opponent took the Treasure Chest I think, not feeling much need for the others. The Bloodweavers chose to ambush. Pigs Turn 1 Kwaak went first, moving up and putting Enliven on both Road Hogs. They used Full Boar and ran up the table. One of the Road Hogs intentionally ran into the gun range of the Well. The intent was that if my opponent chose to actually shoot it, I should be able to Enliven forward and be close enough to get into melee with the Well without needing to use my Feat. Arkadius Maltreated that same Road Hog, ensuring that it would be on zero Fury in case of a Turn 1 Feat from Mohsar, put Forced Evolution on it, and cast Psycho Surgery to heal all the damage he'd done to his own models. The War Hog on the left flank received Reposition from Boomhowler, allowing it to walk and repo forward to get some board presence without gaining Fury. The one on the right received Ghostly from the Witch Doctor and ran into the Acid, facing out towards the table edge so that if it Frenzied it would go towards the Well rather than hitting anything of my own. The Void Archons ran in to be somewhat central, and my Gobbers ran up behind my left Road Hog so that the Chef would be able to feed a Bellows Crew Gobber to the Road Hog in case Mohsar Feated. Circle Turn 1 My opponent wanted to prevent an early Feat, so he ran the Wolf Riders down the right side of the table and had one run all the way up and into melee with my Road Hog and War Hog on the right. The Gorax also ran up a short distance, and the Ravagers advanced behind the forest. Mohsar then put Mirage on the Ravagers, Maltreated his Gorax, moved up, used Sands of Feat to kill that forward Wolf Rider, Feated, cast Doppler's Bark to Paralyse my Road Hog and War Hog on the right flank and prevent them from benefiting from my Feat, used Sands of Fate to teleport back to one of his Ravagers, and opted to hold on to his Feat himself. The rest of his army ran up, while Lord of the Feast backed up and received a bunch of corpses from the Cauldron. The Well summoned a White Mane and chose not to shoot the paralysed Road Hog in range, figuring that triggering Enliven and letting it get into melee with something would be a bad idea. I forgot to take a picture this turn. Pigs Turn 2 There didn't seem to be much reason to Feat, with half my heavies unable to benefit and not a lot of good targets. I had overloaded on Fury last turn running my Warbeasts up the board while trying to keep Fury on Arkadius in case she wasn't able to leach, so my Gun Boar on the left frenzied and smacked the War Hog, failing to break armour. My other Gun Boar moved up and took a potshot at a Gallows Grove, trying to shave off some hit points so that the Void Archon could reasonably expect to kill it with a spray, get a soul, and Void Walk back to safety. Unfortunately, I flubbed the damage roll and failed to break armour, and Targ was frustratingly wedged in and would have needed to walk through the Burning Earth to get to the Gun Boar for an Ancillary Attack before the Archon activated. I ended up deciding it wasn't worth the risk and just shuffled models around. I ran the Gorax to give Arkadius a Fury to Maltreat, and then had her Raw Adrenaline the paralysed Road Hog and back up, camping six Fury. Kwaak Enlivened the Road Hogs again. The Road Hog with Raw Adrenaline moved up and sprayed at a Wolf Rider and missed. Hermit ran onto the flag. Circle Turn 2 The Bloodweavers ambushed in on the right flank and ran, one of them running to a nice little spot amidst the clump of three heavies on my right and another running towards the back of the right flank. That let Mohsar Sands of Fate in, Paralyse three heavies this time, and Sands of Fate back to safety. No reason for him to Feat, with six Fury on Arkadius and no Fury on my Warbeasts, but he did move Mirage to Ghetorix. The Wolf Riders then moved up and made attacks on my lead Road Hog. My opponent rolled like the blaze, managing to kill it comfortably, and the Riders then Repositioned back to secure the zone. On the left the Cauldron loaded up one of the Ravagers to full corpses, so that two Ravagers could charge through the forest and kill Hermit even through Mad Visions. Unfortunately for my opponent, he missed not one but two attacks, leaving Hermit alive and Mad Visions still in reserve. Ghetorix advanced very cautiously, while the White Mane ran onto my opponent's flag. I forgot to take a picture again. My opponent scored the right-hand zone and his flag, putting the score at 0-2 in his favour. Pigs Turn 3 I decided to try and get some work out of my Void Archons this turn. I gave Boomhowler eyeless sight with my objective, allowing him to pull back and shoot a Bloodweaver dead and give the Void Archon on the right a soul. He also gave the Void Archon on the left Reposition. I was able to collect a second one by having the Witch Doctor Sacrificial Strike a Bellows Crew Gobber and kill a second Bloodweaver, bringing the Archon to a total of three (one coming from the dead Road Hog). With two Souls, I charged the Void Archon into the closest Wolf Rider and boosted to hit, and missed. I boosted the second swing, hit and killed, and had the Archon spray the Wolf Rider Champion who had run a bit too aggressively forward. I hit and killed, and used Void Walk to retreat. Kwaak wandered through the acid and managed to kill another Bloodweaver, leaving just one on the table. Arkadius then moved up through the space where the Archon had been and tried to tag a Wolf Rider with Crippling Grasp, but missed. She used Raw Adrenaline on my Road Hog and Repositioned back. The Road Hog and War Hog both shuffled to the right, the War Hog getting into the zone and the Road Hog spraying the closest Wolf Rider. The Road Hog missed the Wolf Rider as well. Over on the left flank, my War Hog charged and killed one of the two Ravagers in melee with the Hermit. That gave the Archon there a soul. The Archon charged the Ravager, hit the charge attack and killed, collecting a second soul. I used Void Walk to get into melee with the Ravager Chieftain and make my second melee attack, hitting and boosting damage to kill him. Finally, I used my spray to tag a Ravager and the Ravager Shaman. I boosted to hit both attacks, hit both, and killed both. The Ravager was outside of Entropic Force range but passed his Tough roll. I used Reposition to back up. The Gun Boar killed the second-last Ravager, leaving just one alive on the left. My other Gun Boar tried to kill the White Mane on the flag, missed, and I ran the Chef to contest. I scored my flag, making the score 1-2 in my favour. Circle Turn 3 My opponent had both an assassination option (Sands of Fate in, Doppler Bark Arkadius, make five or six P+S 10 swings and then hope a few javelins from the remaining Wolf Riders would finish the job through Arkadius's four Fury) or a scenario play (try to kill the War Hog in the right-hand zone, use Mohsar with his Erosion weapon to kill the objective, contest my flag, kill the Void Archon on the left and score both zones and a flag and my objective to win). He went for the scenario play. The last Bloodweaver ran up to my objective. Mohsar Maltreated the Wild Argus I think, used Sands of Fate to get in, rolled well and killed the objective in about four swings, tried to tag the War Hog in the zone with Curse of Shadows and rolled snake eyes. The Blood Shaman sacrificed a Gallow's Grove to give Lord of the Feast Divine Inspiration. The Lord of the Feast then moved up, managed to finangle LOS to the Void Archon, tagged him with the bird and killed him. The last Ravager moved up so that he was contesting the flag and still scoring the left zone. Ghetorix killed the Gobber Chef on my opponent's flag. A Gallows Grove moved onto the flag to score it. The Well, Wolf Riders, and White Mane Chieftain piled into the War Hog in the zone, and my opponent's damage rolls finally failed him and left the Hog alive on four boxes. My opponent scored one zone, my objective, and his flag to make the score 1-5 in his favour. With Mohsar basically out of Fury and surrounded by my models, my opponent conceded. Well, the Archons definitely made an impact this game. While the actual output ultimately amounted to three Ravagers (including the Chieftain) and the Ravager Shaman on the left flank, and one Wolf Rider and the Wolf Rider Champion on the right, the invaluable element was being able to reach through the forest and deplete the pretty dispersed Ravagers to the point where they no longer posed a threat to my Warbeasts. It's worth noting that at Def 13 Ravagers are just about the perfect prey for the Voids, low enough Defence to hit comfortably in melee and I could use that to fuel the boosts I would need to make the spray reliable too.
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Post by Azahul on Nov 18, 2019 3:14:11 GMT
So, I was talking with a guy whose name could be something like Frett Bogel, and he was.sayimg that clockatrices trump Arkadius. Like there's no game What do you say to that? So this is a long callback, but it was definitely in my mind during these next two games. I wanted to test Arkadius into some Grymkin match-ups, since they're one I normally handle with Sturm and Drang and I wanted to get some idea of how highly I needed to prioritise building for that match-up. I asked my opponent to test out the standard Dreamer build, so our lists were: Arkadius -War Hog -War Hog -Road Hog -Road Hog -Gun Boar -Gun Boar -Gorax -Targ Bellows Crew Void Archon Void Archon Hermit Boomhowler2 Kwaak and Gub Witch Doctor Gobber Chef Dreamer -Skin and Moans (proxied with a Toro) -Skin and Moans (proxied with a Toro) -Cage Rager -Cage Rager -Clockatrice (proxied with a Nomad) -Clockatrice (proxied with a Nomad) -Gorehound -Crabbit -Crabbit Gremlin Swarm Gremlin Swarm Gremlin Swarm Gremlin Swarm Death Knell Deployment I won the starting roll and took first. My opponent took a table side with a nice wall to camp behind, while my table side was relatively barren. I deployed my Void Archons and Gun Boars on the flanks, trying to keep my heavies together because against Grymkin I've generally found it important to bring power to a point. Dreamer complicates this a bit with Artifice of Deviation encouraging me to spread out a little bit so it can't inconvenient more heavies than I have Pathfinder solutions, but with a central objective I was feeling pretty confident in this game. My opponent deployed his list pretty symmetrically, with the Gorehound hanging out on the left flank and the rest of his formation skewing centre-right. Both objectives are Fuel Caches. My opponent picked Ruin and Labyrinth as his Arcana. Pigs Turn 1 The Road Hogs used Full Boar and ran, moving to the right-hand side of the objective. The Gorax ran, and Arkadius Maltreated its Fury. She then cast Aggravator on herself, Forced Evolution on the right flank War Hog, and cast Psycho Surgery to heal the damage her battlegroup had taken thus far. Boomhowler put Reposition on the right flank War Hog and then ran to the left flank, while the War Hog trampled and repositioned forward. Everything else ran. Grymkin Turn 1 Dreamer used Wraith Walker to prevent a Turn 2 nonsense assassination. She moved up, threw down an Artifice of Deviation in front of my lines, and put Mirage on the right-hand Skin and Moans. Everything else ran up a short distance and spaced out, with the Clockatrices on the flanks. Pigs Turn 2 I decided to play this slow and careful, and chip away at my opponent's list at range. I initially had Arkadius Raw Adrenaline a Road Hog, gave it Ghostly with the Witch Doctor, Enliven with Kwaak, Repo from Boomhowler, and moved up to spray the Cage Rager to try and kill the Crabbit behind it. I spiked the dice, killed the Crabbit, letting my opponent play All Fall Down and leave my Road Hog high and dry... We rewound from this game state, since I had completely forgotten that Arcana existed and wanted to actually get a feel for how the match-up played out if I wasn't an idiot. Instead I focussed my fire on the Clockatrice on the right. Between the Road Hog and the Gun Boar I was able to do about ten points of damage and avoided crippling any aspects. I put Enliven on both those pieces and had everything else hang far enough back that my opponent couldn't get to them even with an Abyssal Gate. Grymkin Turn 2 My opponent advanced, bunkering most of his heavies up around Dreamer in and around the central zone. The damaged Clockatrice assaulted my Gun Boar and War Hog on the right flank, hitting the War Hog and doing two points of damage, so I shuffled forward a little with Hyper Aggressive. The Gorehound moved up into the Burning Earth, and a Gremlin Swarm moved up to contest the left zone. I forgot to take a picture. Pigs Turn 3 The Hermit moved up and gave himself Telemetry. Kwaak moved up and used Enliven on the Gun Boar in the centre zone and one of my Road Hogs, but my opponent used Ruin to keep the spell off the Road Hog. I ran my Gorax back and out of the zone. Arkadius Maltreated that Fury, moved up to hit the damaged Clockatrice with Crippling Grasp, and Repositioned back. The Void Archon charged the Clockatrice, managed to hit it twice in melee without crippling anything, then killed it and a Gremlin Swarm with the spray before Void Walking back to safety. Killing the Clockatrice so easily was unexpected, so my Gun Boar shot the right flank Cage Rager and managed to do about six points of damage. Everything else backed up, save the Gun Boar in the centre zone which moved to the right where it couldn't be seen and charged by a Cage Rager. Grymkin Turn 3 The Gorehound took five points of damage from the fire. My opponent decided he'd been playing too conservatively. Dreamer moved up and made Hermit stationary with her gun, then tossed Artifice of Deviation on herself and tagged my left Road Hog with Enfeeble. Everything else moved up, one of the Cage Ragers killing Hermit and using Hat Trick to avoid him shutting down all Fury generation for the turn. The remaining Clockatrice moved up and Paralysed the right-flank War Hog again and did two damage. After measuring some distances (notably whether I would trigger Labyrinth by moving in and whether I'd be in the threat range of the heavies who hadn't yet activated) I chose not to Hyper Aggressive. Pigs Turn 4 I had my Gun Boar on the right back up and shoot the Cage Rager, then had Arkadius Raw Adrenaline the same Gun Boar and fired again with Targ. My opponent physically couldn't score more than 3 CPs in a turn, so I felt comfortable ceding some more board space. I rolled like the blazes, I think the two Gun Boar shots added another 13 damage, and the Void Archon on the right is able to charge in and spray two Gremlin Swarms dead and boost damage on the Cage Rager and then kill its second heavy for the game. At around this point my opponent concedes the game. His best case scenario for the next turn is throwing away one Skin and Moans to clear the right zone and possibly a Skin and Moans and a Cage Rager to clear the centre and then I still have my heavies on tap to kill all his heavies bar his last Clockatrice. We conclude that without clock pressure forcing me actually have to commit there's not a lot he can do, since I can afford to triple check the threats to everything and avoid triggering any Arcana that would seriously inconvenience me (I played reaaaaal slow this game). That said, I think under most circumstances I'd have been strongly considering committing on that last turn. I wouldn't ordinarily have rolled as hot as I did to just gun down the Cage Rager, so I'd be looking to try and get four of his remaining heavies off the board with a Feat instead. My opponent could also have put me under more pressure by playing more aggressively, things like having the Mirage'd Skin and Moans behind a wall successfully deterred me from going for a Turn 2 Feat and alpha strike but it also effectively meant that the Skin and Moans couldn't leverage its own threat range to deter me from just picking away at the Clockatrice. The Clockatrices are annoying, but Arkadius has a ton of tools now to handle this match-up. Aggravator is golden I think, it means there's a reasonable chance that a Paralysed heavy will be able to waltz into melee with the Clockatrice that paralyses it. You won't always want to do that, and it only triggers about 50% of the time, but it certainly diminishes the relevance of the spray. It also ensures that Dreamer can't control your heavies by trying to Abyssal Gate them to face the wrong way or any such nonsense. Enliven compounds this, allowing you to completely ignore the threat range boosting aspect of Abyssal Gate on a couple of pieces as well, and Hermit while he's alive can always block an Abyssal Gate on something else if he has to. It all shuts off a lot of Dreamer's kit.
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Post by Azahul on Nov 18, 2019 3:37:37 GMT
We had time for another game, so we replayed the previous match-up to see how things went if the Grymkin were a bit more aggressive. I did suggest that we swap first player, but we ended up rolling for it again and I got first. Deployment I deployed much the same as in the prior game, Void Archons and Gun Boars on the outer edges of my formation while my heavies clustered in tight towards the centre. My opponent more or less mirrored his deployment, a heavy of each type either side of the Death Knell and the Gorehound out on the left. Pigs Turn 1 As before, I ran my Warbeasts up. The Road Hogs used Full Boar, Arkadius Maltreated the Gorax and put Forced Evolution on the right-hand War Hog, Aggravator on herself, and cast Psycho Surgery. One Road Hog still had a point of damage on it after this, so she spent her last Fury healing it. Everything else ran up, one War Hog trampling and using Reposition for a touch extra distance. In retrospect I really should be remembering to take advantage of Hazards on the table to try and get a Gobber or two killed for the Archons. Grymkin Turn 1 Dreamer moved up, put Artifice of Deviation down on herself and a cluster of Warbeasts, Mirage on a Skin and Moans, and everything ran. My opponent had decided that he didn't want the Clockatrices getting focussed down early again, so he made sure to protect them behind the other heavies and put Crabbits in position as Shield Guards. Pigs Turn 2 I was semi-confident that I could remove every heavy bar the Clockatrices this turn. My Void Archons moved up and each sprayed a Gremlin Swarm. I got lucky and both hit and killed, letting the Archons Void Walk into melee with the Cage Rager and Skin and Moans on the right, applying Dark Shroud and a good bit of damage. The Gorax put Primal on the left Road Hog, which charged into the Cage Rager and rolled pits for damage, leaving it alive on eight boxes. The Gun Boar on the right moved up and shot the Cage Rager, hitting and doing another four damage. I charged my second Road Hog into the Skin and Moans, killing it and using Overtake to back up a tad so that it was more than 3" from the Cage Rager. I ran my Bellows Crew off to the left to serve as Frenzy beacons for the War Hog there, and my second Gun Boar moved up and shot the Skin and Moans on the left for some damage. Arkadius then went, put Raw Adrenaline and Primal on the War Hog on the left, and Feated, sending the Road Hogs into the Cage Rager and killing it, and Frenzing both War Hogs off towards the left. My opponent popped All Fall Down on the Road Hog that killed the Cage Rager, knocking it down. The War Hogs then moved in and killed their respective targets comfortably, getting knocked down for their trouble. And my opponent conceded again. He had indeed kept his Clockatrices safe, but at the cost of everything capable of easily soloing a heavy. My opponent is still coming to grips with Grymkin, so I by no means believe this match-up is a cakewalk for Arkadius, and it could definitely be skewed by going first and by the fact that it was a scenario where my opponent couldn't exert much pressure. That said, even if the match-up is somehow horrendous if I go second, I think it could reasonably be called a 50/50 game. That doesn't leave me in any conclusive position when it comes to how I should evolve my Sturm and Drang list. I think my instinct is to leave it as is, to avoid having double Void Archons in both lists. It will require some more playing around I think, but boy am I enjoying Arkadius with these tools at his disposal.
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Post by danfromchicago on Nov 19, 2019 3:14:18 GMT
I appreciate the follow up! The lists I've seen have 4 of them, but I think they are likely to be toned down in the next dynamic update, so 2 may be a reasonable expectation
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Post by Azahul on Nov 19, 2019 4:25:19 GMT
I appreciate the follow up! The lists I've seen have 4 of them, but I think they are likely to be toned down in the next dynamic update, so 2 may be a reasonable expectation Well, after the game my opponent did say that he'd like to try the match-up again with three Clocks. And he has that Wanderer list I played into with Sturm and Drang before that has four. So it's possible that I'll get the chance to test that too. Funnily enough, looking back my original response to the issue of Clocks was "two seem fine, more could be problematic", which is basically still where we are now...
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Post by Azahul on Nov 20, 2019 2:36:24 GMT
With a big tournament on the weekend, I managed to sneak in one last practice game with my new Arkadius list. My opponent was running Wolves of Winter under Zerkova, which would ordinarily be a Sturm and Drang drop, but at my opponent's request I decided to try Arkadius in the match-up. The lists were: Arkadius -War Hog -War Hog -Road Hog -Road Hog -Gun Boar -Gun Boar -Gorax -Targ Bellows Crew Void Archon Void Archon Kwaak and Gub Boomhowler2 Hermit Gatorman Witch Doctor Gobber Chef Zerkova1 -Destroyer -Destroyer Doom Reavers -Escort Doom Reavers -Escort Doom Reavers Doom Reavers Doom Reavers Ternion Ternion Butcher4 Alexia2 Koldun Lord Void Archon Deployment My opponent won the starting roll and took first. I took a table side which I felt would allow me to better control the waves of Doom Reavers as they approached, thanks to a nicely aligned cloud, burning earth, and forest. My opponent threw down his handful of not-AD models, while I deployed my army pretty much symmetrically. In retrospect, probably should have stacked both War Hogs on the left flank where the Destroyers were, but I don't think it was a huge mistake per se. The Doom Reavers then deployed spaced out across the entire board. Both objectives are Fuel Caches. Probably should have gone with Observatory for mine, thinking back. Khador Turn 1 Everything ran up, though for the most part the Doom Reavers were relatively restrained and avoided coming into range of too many Turn 1 attacks. Zerkova clouded up the board. Pigs Turn 1 The only Doom Reaver in range was on the right flank, where a Gun Boar would be able to sneak a shot in. I moved the rest of my army up and tried to avoid being on the receiving end of too many charges next turn, generally making sure to invite charges from just one Doom Reaver at most to try and bait some in (hopefully netting me some free kills with the overlapping fields of fire from Counterblast and Guardian Beast). Arkadius put Forced Evolution on the War Hog on the left flank too. Boomhowler moved up and laid down a Covering Fire template, and gave the right flank Gun Boar Reposition. The Gun Boar walked up, shot a Doom Reaver dead, cast Counterblast and Repositioned to get a second Doom Reaver in range. Targ made an Ancillary Attack, which lucked out and killed the second Doom Reaver too. Khador Turn 2 The Doom Reavers on the right used Apparition to move forward and ran up to jam my right flank. The unit on the left did much the same, while the blob in the centre advanced more cautiously around the flames and Covering Fire. Zerkova threw out a single cloud, Feated, and charged to catch a decent chunk of my battlegroup in her Control area. Alexia created a Thrall with the soul of the one Doom Reaver from the right flank who had been in range, and moved up to camp the flag herself. The Thrall Warrior and Void Archon both sat on the left flank. Butcher ran to capture the right flag. Pigs Turn 2 I was deeply conscious of the fact that I needed to seriously contest all three flags to prevent giving my opponent an easy win in his next turn. I was basically operating without a Feat, since most of my 'beasts had been tagged by Zerkova's. I tried to clear some of the path with the Road Hog on the left flank, who moved up to attack a pair of Doom Reavers there. I missed every boosted attack roll on the Doom Reavers, leaving that Road Hog stranded and kind of blocking my way. The Void Archon on that flank charged in and cleared a couple of the Doom Reavers before Void Walking back out of the way. The War Hog used Overtake and a few boosted attacks to clear out three Doom Reavers and get into range to contest the flag. The Gun Boar then moved up and took a potshot at a Doom Reaver lurking behind the Burning Earth, managing to catch four in the AOE and kill all of them. On the right flank, my Void Archon was able to clear out all bar one of the jamming Doom Reavers who passed his tough check while outside of Entropic Force range, aided by being actually able to collect souls on this flank. My War Hog finished the job and used Overtake to get close enough to contest Butcher's flag. My Gun Boar tried to wipe out the right flank Ternion, but missed the shot and scattered to only kill one. Targ made up for it with an Ancillary Attack, scattering into the Doom Reavers in the forest and tagging three. One died, two passed their Tough checks. The Road Hog moved up and sprayed a Doom Reaver, who Toughed but was at least set on fire for his trouble. The Hermit ran to contest the central flag. The Bellow's Crew moved up to lay down a cloud in front of my objective, trying to minimise line of sight to the last CP my opponent would need in case he cleared the flags. Boomhowler gave himself Reposition, put his Covering Fire template in play again, and backed up. Kwaak managed to sneak in a couple of dead Doom Reavers himself by spraying through the Bellow's Crew, killing one Gobber in the process. Arkadius tried to take out one of the surviving Ternion Greylords on the right to minimise the junk attacks my opponent could get onto the Hermit, but missed. She remained where she was behind the objective, hoping to get some work out of Guardian Beast to reduce the odds of the objective dying. My opponent and I each scored our zones, bringing the score to 1-1. Khador Turn 3 With many of his Doom Reavers dead, my opponent decided to gun for the scenario win. The burning Doom Reaver died to the fire, while the remaining members of the unit in the forest used Apparition to get one close enough to melee the Hermit and the ones still standing close enough to charge the War Hog on the right. My opponent jumped the gun I think by then activating that unit first. One of the Doom Reavers died to a Counterblast from the Gun Boar, the other who reached the War Hog missed his attack. The Hermit now being engaged meant that the Ternions had a hard time hitting him, he had only taken two damage by the time both Ternions were done slinging spells his way. The Koldun Lord on the left flank moved up into the flames and debuffed my objective's armour. Alexia advanced, summoned three Thrall Warriors, and Repositioned back to the central flag. One Thrall charged my objective, and I triggered Guardian Beast. The Road Hog on the left accepted a free strike from the Doom Reaver and Koldun Lord, which came very close to knocking out his body, and walked to line up a spray on the Thrall that tagged both that Thrall and the two that had yet to activate. I missed one of them, but killed the other two. The one Thrall remaining did 8 damage to the objective. Zerkova moved it up, hit the Hermit once in melee, killed the objective with a spell, and spent her last Focus (the rest having been allocated to the Destroyers) to knock the Hermit down to 1 health. After a bit of evaluating the board, my opponent then conceded. It was getting late at the store, and more importantly I had a full health War Hog on the right flag that only Butcher could really get to. There was decent odds too that he'd only get one more attack on the Hermit, not enough with Mad Visions still in play. And with Zerkova exposed and on zero camp, there was little chance he'd be able to survive my turn. Dicey game that one. Not being able to Feat put me in a very unusual position with Arkadius, where I basically had to move up into range of much of my opponent's army and hope that I could whittle them down enough to keep him from clearing the flags. That last Ancillary Attack shot from Targ on the right flank saved my bacon, putting three Doom Reavers out of commission that otherwise could have likely helped Butcher kill the War Hog there. My opponent could have comfortably taken out Hermit in the centre with some cleaner play I think, but killing that War Hog seemed pretty unlikely. Anyway, I'm taking this list plus my Sturm and Drang list to an invitational event on the weekend. I qualified about a year ago at this point (my very first tournament with Sturm and Drang, I think), so I get to relax and watch the LCQ beforehand. Should be a fun time
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Post by Azahul on Nov 29, 2019 1:57:09 GMT
Alrighty, tournament recap time. I played in the Australian Super Series over the weekend, which is a big invitational event drawing in players from across the country. I qualified for the event a while back, so got to skip the LCQ. The tournament had list submission ahead of time, which makes it nice and easy to pull lists for these reports. For anyone interested, the lists for the finals can be found here: conflictchamber.com/?event=1097Plus a couple of players who qualified through the Last Chance Qualifier. I took the Sturm and Drang/Arkadius pair that I've been working with for a while now. The lists were: Arkadius -War Hog -War Hog -Road Hog -Road Hog -Gun Boar -Gun Boar -Gorax -Targ Bellows Crew Void Archon Void Archon Kwaak and Gub Boomhowler2 Hermit Witch Doctor Gobber Chef Sturm and Drang -War Hog -Battle Boar -Battle Boar -Soul Slave Bellows Crew Mire -Dracodile Dahlia -Skarath Brun -Lug Orin Eilish I'd kind of decided ahead of time to just drop Arkadius into everything, with the possible exception of any Khador Doom Reaver lists. I wouldn't exactly call that a rational decision, but I was pretty sleep deprived for the event and felt that in the case of lists that were a bit more edge-cases in terms of match-up I'd rather be playing the Warlock I was most familiar with. Round 1 - Invasion I drew an opponent who had qualified through the LCQ first up, a Skorne player with a Makeda3/Zaal2 pair. I felt that Sturm's Dracodile really didn't want to have to deal with trampling Animantarax in Makeda's list, and my opponent funnily enough had decided that Makeda's battlegroup heavy list didn't want to play into Sturm's Feat, so the match-up ended up being Zaal2 against Arkadius. His list was: Zaal -Agoniser -Krea -Cyclops Brute -Cyclops Shaman Max Immortals -Advocate Max Immortals -Advocate Max Immortals -Advocate Void Archon Ancestral Guardian Ancestral Guardian Hakaar the Destroyer Immortal Vessel Supreme Guardian Deployment I won the starting roll and took first. My opponent took a table side that gave him a lot of forests to hide behind, though at the penalty that he'd have to negotiate a lot of rough terrain early on. There was nothing particularly special about my deployment, I ended up with a Void Archon on each flank and my heavies closer to the centre. My opponent had the Supreme Guardian right-of-centre, a unit of Immortals on each flank, and the Void Archon out on the right. My objective was a Fuel Cache, his was a Stockpile. Pigs Turn 1 I ran everything forward. Arkadius put Forced Evolution on the right flank War Hog, gave herself Guardian Beast, and used Psycho Surgery to repair the damage caused by Full Boar and Maltreatment. Boomhowler gave one of the War Hogs Reposition so that it could trample and reposition forward for a little extra board presence. Skorne Turn 1 Zaal advanced, casting Aura of Power and the Krea's Animus. Most of the Immortals ran up, going Incorporeal to pass through rough terrain. The rest of the army moved up behind them. Pigs Turn 2 I had some really, really nice spray options to clear through a lot of these Immortals extremely quickly, plus the Supreme Guardian, but decided that I didn't know if I could keep Arkadius safe if I went for it. Meanwhile, Zaal was only protected by a couple of Immortals, so I went for an assassination run. The Fuel Cache gave the left Road Hog Pathfinder. The Void Archon on the right moved up and sprayed a few of the intervening Immortals dead. Arkadius moved up and Feated everything up the board. She gave Primal to the left Road Hog and the Forced Evo'd War Hog, and I think tried to kill an Immortal with a Primal Shock. The Gun Boar on the right tried to clear out the remaining Immortals in the way, but between Shield Guard and the Krea aura couldn't do it even with Targ's help. The Gun Boar on the left killed one of the remaining problematic immortals. The right-hand Road Hog ended up wading into melee to finish the job, punching its way through a few Immortals. The War Hog couldn't quite see Zaal, but I gave it Reposition from Boomhowler and had it charge the Brute, landing in melee with Zaal. This triggered Defensive Strikes from an Ancestral Guardian and the Supreme Guardian, the former doing two damage and the latter I cancelled with Mad Visions from the Hermit. I had a cute trick planned here to use Enliven on a Defensive Strike to spin the War Hog around and allow it to redirect its charge attack into Zaal, but while I remembered to cast Enliven I forgot to trigger it. In any case, it didn't end up mattering too much. The War Hog threw its five remaining swings into Zaal and killed him through his transfers. If that had failed, the War Hog could have Repositioned out of the way and the remaining Road Hog could have finished the job by Overtaking off an Immortal (or just trampling in). My opponent definitely needed to Feat that turn, I think. He'd been hoping to save the Feat another turn, figuring it would give him a much bigger tempo swing if he held it, but I think he either ends up without an army or without a Warlock if he positions as aggressively as he did here. The Void Spirit on the left flank was probably going to account for most of a unit of Immortals on his own, and I wiped out all bar one Immortal from the right flank unit just incidentally on my way to the assassination run. It wouldn't have been hard to drop the Supreme Guardian and a good chunk of the final unit either, so long as I could ensure that Zaal couldn't get to anything important.
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Post by Azahul on Nov 29, 2019 3:32:07 GMT
Round Two - Recon II For this round I was playing into Circle, a Mohsar/Krueger2 pair. Based on the list I was reasonably sure he would drop Krueger. Technically speaking, the correct drop into him would be Sturm, but I went with Arkadius because I figured, well, when would you not drop Mohsar if not into two 'beast bricks (and also the aforementioned sleep deprivation)? Of course he dropped Krueger2, which was I think definitely the correct choice. His list was an interesting one, running the following: Krueger2 -Woldwarden -Woldwarden -Woldwyrd -Woldwyrd Slaughterhousers Rorsh -Brine Primal Archon Primal Archon Hutchuck Hermit Stoneshaper Stoneshaper Gallows Grove Gallows Grove Gallows Grove Swamp Gobber Chef Well of Orboros Deployment I won the starting roll, which is frankly huge in this match-up. I decided to skew both Gun Boars onto one flank, figuring that there was a good chance my opponent would have a Woldwyrd on each flank and wanting to increase my odds of being able to shoot one off the board in a turn or two. Other than that my deployment was fairly symmetrical. My opponent had his pigs on the right flank, a Primal Archon on each flank, the Well on the left, and a Woldwarden supporting each with with a central Woldwyrd and a right flank Woldwyrd. My objective was a Dugout. His was a Stockpile. Pigs Turn 1 I ran through my usual turn one process, putting up Aggravator on Arkadius and Forced Evolution on the right flank War Hog in case my opponent opted not to Feat Turn 1. I ran everything up, hanging outside of the shooting range of the Well on the left. Circle Turn 1 My opponent made the correct choice, having a Woldwarden cast TK on Krueger and trampling up, so that Krueger could move forward and Feat on most of my army. He also put up Windstorm and used a Gallow's Grove to TK a Road Hog on the right. A Woldwyrd then killed the Gallow's Grove to deny the Void Archon on that flank a soul. Everything else ran up, the Well spawned in a White Mane. The Well's shot scattered into my left flank Void Archon too and spiked damage, doing six points of damage. Pigs Turn 2 I didn't really have the threat range to get to anything, so I did very little this turn. The Bellow's Crew went forward to drop some smoke, and everything else hid behind as much as they could. Hermit moved into the zone and Arkadius dropped her upkeeps to minimise what the Woldwyrds could do. Circle Turn 2 A Woldwarden TK'd the Primal Archon on the right forward, and it used beat back to push the Hermit out of the zone knocking down a Road Hog and War Hog. The Well took another pot shot which scattered backwards. My opponent otherwise mostly advanced his models, putting a Woldwyrd into the right-hand zone along with Brine, and a Woldwarden into the left. My opponent scored his flag and both zones, bringing the score to 0-3 in his favour. Pigs Turn 3 I had a pretty good Feat lined up if I could dislodge this Primal Archon reasonably efficiently. I had to run the Swamp Gobbers in to lock down the Archon and stop it from getting off a Counter Charge. That done, Boomhowler gave Reposition to the Hermit, and the Hermit stood and cast Master of Ruin, before circling around the Archon. A Void Archon then charged in, spiked some damage rolls and killed the Primal Archon. Time for the Feat. The Gorax Primal'd one of the Road Hogs, and the Witch Doctor gave Ghostly to the War Hog. The Gun Boars on the left flank tried to chip the Primal Archon but rolled abysmally, failing to do damage on any of their shots. Arkadius then put Forced Evolution back on the right flank War Hog. She Feated her battlegroup up the board. Kwaak moved up to capture the flag and gave Enliven out to the War Hog and the Road Hog without Primal. The War Hog with Forced Evolution killed the Woldwarden on the right comfortably, and used Overtake to get into melee with Brine and do a whole lot of damage. That let the Road Hog with Primal kill Brine (and also kill a Stoneshaper with the assault spray) and overtake into the Woldwyrd, nearly killing it. I finished the job with a Road Hog, killing one Slaughterhouser and knocked a second down for good measure, and used Sprint to get into melee with a few other Slaughterhousers to minimise what they could do. Over on the left, an unbuffed War Hog moved into melee with the Woldwarden and failed to kill it thanks to Mad Visions from his Hermit. In retrospect I definitely should have applied Primal there to guarantee the kill. I ran a Gobber Chef in to help tie up the zone. I scored the right-hand zone and flag, bringing the score to 2-3 in my opponent's favour. Circle Turn 3 Hutchuck ambushed in on the left flank. He moved up and tried to tag something with a knockdown grenade, but failed to hit. The Slaughterhousers did a fair bit of damage to the Road Hog in their face, and the knocked down one walked into the zone. The remaining Woldwyrd opened fire on the Forced Evolution'd War Hog and rolled like the absolute blazes, killing the Hog with the help of a gunshot from Krueger. That gunshot though was a mistake by my opponent, he forgot to move Krueger first, leaving him exposed and out in the open. The Hermit put up Master of Ruin and the Primal Archon and Woldwarden were able to kill the Warbeasts in the left zone, while the White Mane Chieftain killed the Gobber Chef contesting. My opponent scored the left zone, I scored the right flag, putting the score at 3-4. Pigs Turn 4 I was pretty sure I would win on clock at this rate, it was 10 minutes on my clock to about 5 minutes on my opponent, and I was going to have a much easier time keeping my flag free. That said, my opponent had handed me a good assassination. My Road Hogs on the right frenzied but the Slaughterhousers they hit passed their Tough rolls. The Gun Boar, knocked down due to being close to the War Hog when the Primal Archon hit it, forced itself to stand. Arkadius then moved up and Primal'd and Forced Evo'd the Gun Boar, Maltreated the Fury from it, and threw a Primal Shock out through the Gun Boar into the Gallow's Grove between it and Krueger. I didn't want to boost damage, just chip its health down a bit to let the Void Archon teleport off the tree more easily, but sadly I rolled well for damage and killed it entirely. That forced the Void Archon to move up and spray at the Chef and the Stoneward, hitting both and teleporting into melee with Krueger. The two melee swings almost killed Krueger on their own, especially since his only transfer target was the near-dead Woldwarden. The Gun Boar then charged in, missed its charge attack, but connected the second and final attack and rolled well enough to kill Krueger through his transfer. Dice were not super friendly to me that game, while my opponent managed to keep things very close with some great dice of his own. That said, I really should have just dropped Sturm into this match-up, he's a lot more comfortable when it comes to dealing with the kinds of threats Krueger throws around.
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Post by Azahul on Nov 29, 2019 4:28:27 GMT
Round 3 - Anarchy On to the semi-finals. I was up against Grymkin this round. My opponent had a Dreamer/Old Witch pair. Again, a match-up where I would ordinarily drop Sturm, but I ended up plumping for Arkadius. He went with Dreamer, running: Dreamer -Cage Rager -Skin and Moans -Skin and Moans -Clockatrice -Clockatrice -Gorehound -Gorehound -Rattler -Crabbit -Crabbit Gremlin Swarm Gremlin Swarm Gremlin Swarm Gremlin Swarm Death Knell Deployment My good fortune on starting rolls ran out here, so I ended up playing second. Not really ideal. I didn't really appreciate how painful those buildings were going to be either. My opponent deployed pretty much symmetrically, with the Rattler on the left flank. I did much the same, with the notable exception being both my Gun Boars going on the left flank. In retrospect, I think that was a mistake, they'd have had cleaner angles for their shots out on the right. My objective was a Fuel Cache, his was a Stockpile. His Arcana were Sacrifice and Ill Omens. Grymkin Turn 1 Everything ran up into a great big brick. Dreamer laid out an Artifice of Deviation in front of her army and put Mirage on a Skin and Moans. Pigs Turn 1 I moved up pretty carefully, save for a Void Archon which moved up right behind the building on the left. I ran my Bellow's Crew to the left flank, but again that was probably the wrong choice given how lightly contested the right flank was. Arkadius put up Aggravator and tossed a Forced Evolution onto a War Hog. Grymkin Turn 2 My opponent moved up and bricked up again, laying down a new Artifice of Deviation. He had the Clock taking shelter behind the building on the left use Time Lock, catching the Void Archon in its aura. Pigs Turn 2 I decided to go for a Feat this turn, hoping to bull through the Clockatrices and get into the meat of the list. The Gremlin Swarm in front of the Clock on the left was problematic, especially when it refused to die to the Void Archon. I was forced to have Arkadius Feat and kill it with a Primal Shock. My opponent triggered Ill Omens from that, and I couldn't afford any extra Primals to buff my Warbeasts' Mat, so I only had one Primal'd Road Hog going in. To cut a long story short, after tripping over my own models and triggering Time Stutter a few too many times, I ended up failing to kill anything. One Clockatrice survived on only four HP, the other was only lightly damaged. I scored 1 CP from my flag, making the score 1-0. Grymkin Turn 3 I had Enliven on my War Hogs, and it nearly saved them both from the ensuing carnage. Dreamer put up Manifest Destiny, and the two Skin and Moans killed my two Road Hogs. Enliven yoinked my War Hogs out of there, but the Cage Rager was able to chase one down and kill it even through the Hermit's Mad Visions. The Gorehound on the right killed the Gobber Chef contesting my opponent's flag, letting him spawn a little Phantasm to capture the flag. A Clockatrice killed my Void Archon on the right, the Gorehound on the left and the Rattler killed the one on the left. I forgot to take a picture. My opponent scored his flag, making the score 1-1. Pigs Turn 3 I was able to get the Hermit to move up and throw out a Master of Ruin, catching a lot of my opponent's army. Arkadius threw out a Crippling Grasp on the Clockatrice in my face, and my Forced Evo'd War Hog killed the Cage Rager while my Gorax killed the Clockatrice (perfectly avoiding triggering Time Stutter). That did let my opponent heal his other Clockatrice back to full with Sacrifice. I scored my flag and failed to contest my opponent's, making the score 2-2. Grymkin Turn 4 Dreamer cast Manifest Destiny again, and his heavies killed my War Hog and Gorax. The Gorehounds moved in to contest. I forgot to take a picture again. My opponent scored his flag, taking the score to 2-3 in his favour. Pigs Turn 4 My Gun Boar on the right managed to kill a Gorehound. Arkadius put Crippling Grasp on the Rattler and used his needle to make the Gorehound in melee with my other Gun Boar stationary. I managed to shoot the Rattler off the table with Boomhowler and the Gun Boar, while the Witch Doctor killed the stationary Gorehound in melee with some help from Kwaak. My opponent scored his flag, going to 2-4. Grymkin Turn 5 My opponent cleared out my flag and scored the left zone, his flag, my objective, and my flag to make the score 2-8 in his favour to win, killing almost all my remaining models in the process. So, that was a little disappointing. If there's one lesson I've learned playing Arkadius into Clockatrice, it's that you shouldn't Feat to try and kill the birds. They're annoying, but the least threatening model in the army. If they come forward to spray me then I should be able to take the list apart piecemeal, and if they don't I should be jockeying for position to get past the Clocks and into the other heavies. I totally disregarded that knowledge and managed to seriously jam myself up on my Feat turn. What I should have been doing is swing my army off to the right, trying to set the line of engagement where my opponent couldn't protect his flanks with the buildings, and gunning for the more lightly protected zone to start running up the scenario advantage. It was going to be a tough game though, those buildings shut out any option I had of getting around the sides of his list pretty effectively.
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Post by Azahul on Nov 29, 2019 5:18:02 GMT
Round 4 - Spread the Net For the final round, I was up against the Protectorate. My opponent was running double Faithful Masses, with a Kreoss3/Harbinger pair. Arkadius was definitely the right choice here, Sturm couldn't possibly play into so much upkeep hate. My opponent's list was: Kreoss -Crusader -Crusader -Fire of Salvation Avatar Initiates Initiates Initiates Min Choir Min Idrians -Chieftain and Guide Menite Archon Menite Archon Champion of the Order of the Wall Champion of the Order of the Wall Deployment I lost the starting roll again. My opponent deployed his 'jacks in the middle, Kreoss on the left flank, with an Archon and Champion each on the flanks. I deployed basically one of each type of model on each flank, skewing a bit more towards the left flank. Idrians picked the right-hand Void Archon as their Prey target. Protectorate Turn 1 Kreoss put Assail on one of the Crusaders and Arcane Ward on himself. Everything ran up. Pigs Turn 1 Arkadius put up Guardian Beast and Forced Evolution, and I ran all of my models up. The Void Archon on the right ran towards the left flank to avoid being hunted by Idrians. Protectorate Turn 2 I hadn't bothered to check the Champion's threat range, so the one on the left charged and killed Targ making it harder for me to score that flag, then Repositioned off to the left. Idrians advanced into the zone, using their Mini-Feat to Dig In. The Crusaders moved up into the central zone, while the character 'jacks hung back to counter-punch if I committed to killing the Crusaders. The Avatar used Gaze of Menoth so that I wouldn't be able to sprint back if I committed a Road Hog to killing that heavy. There's a Champion of the Order of the Wall lurking off-camera to the left. Pigs Turn 2 I had the Bellow's Crew run to the right, so that Arkadius could give Raw Adrenaline to the Road Hog on the right. I threw Forced Evolution onto that Road Hog for good measure. The Witch Doctor gave that Hog Ghostly, allowing it to charge and spray all the contesting Idrians dead. The Road Hog then punched and killed an Initiate before sprinting back to my zone. Without any way to contest, I had to throw away a Void Archon to score my left flag and stop my opponent from running away with the game. My Gun Boars tried do some damage at range, but their gun shots were pretty ineffectual. We each score our zone and flag, making the score 2-2. Protectorate Turn 3 The Champion on the left charged and killed the Void Archon. The Idrians moved Prey to the Road Hog on the right and moved in to take a CRA, but only managed a couple of points of damage. The Initiates on the left broke formation a little to contest the flag. Everything else basically sat where it was. My opponent scored his zone and flag, making the score 2-4 in his favour. Pigs Turn 3 I figured I had to commit the War Hog to kill the Champion on the left, but I should be able to Overtake afterwards to get out of the Menite Archon's threat range there. Arkadius applied Raw Adrenaline to the War Hog and swapped over Forced Evolution. The War Hog charged the Champion and missed every boosted attack bar one, which left the mounted form on a few boxes of health and left the War Hog hung out to dry. Boomhowler and the Road Hog on the right cleared out the zone and the Gobbers ran to contest my opponent's flag. We each scored our respective zones, making the score 3-5 in his favour. Protectorate Turn 4 The Menite Archon on the left came in, and together with the Champion and Initiates they killed the War Hog. The Idrians on the right killed the contesting Gobber and the Initiates there contested my zone. My opponent scored his flag and zone, making the score 3-7 in his favour. Pigs Turn 4 I was very much on the backfoot at this point. I tried to clear the left flag with the Void Archon and a buffed up Road Hog, but neither the Menite Archon nor the Champion actually died even with Hermit applying Master of Ruin. The Road Hog on the right cleared the Initiates in that zone and my last Gobber contested that flag. I scored my zone and my opponent scored his, making the score 4-8 in his favour. Protectorate Turn 5 My opponent tried to clear the left flag, but while the Champion killed a second Void Archon and the Menite Archon and Initiates dropped the Road Hog, he couldn't quite finish off Hermit. The Champion killed the contesting Gobber on the right and used Reposition to get back onto the flag. The Idrian Guide contested my zone. My opponent scored his zone and flag, making the score 4-10 in his favour. I played that game far too timid, but my opponent did a fantastic job of never giving me a Feat turn. Killing two of his heavies really wasn't enough, since his heavies and solos together could easily tip the balance back, and he had a Warcaster very capable of just killing any heavy I might have left at the end of the piece trading. I needed to find a way to sneak a free kill in, or at least remove some of those powerful solos early on. I got unlucky on the dice a bit on the left flank, but ultimately I think I needed a much clearer game plan in order to approach that kind of set-up. If I could have advanced and put pressure on those central Crusaders a little bit better without losing a heavy, there may have been a way to project threat back as the Avatar or at least force it to back up and reduce the influence of Gaze in the zone. Anyway, 2-2 was a little bit disappointing as a showing, especially as I don't feel I played terribly well on the weekend. Full props to my opponents, they were far more on their game and the results definitely showed.
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Post by Azahul on Jan 2, 2020 5:51:04 GMT
Hoo boy, it's been a fair while since the last update. Not because I haven't been playing games, but mostly because I've been having camera trouble that I've only just managed to resolve. And of course the holiday season has been a little disruptive. So, since the last update, I've mostly been playing janky Helga WWFF lists and continuing the local Oblivion campaign (sometimes at the same time). I'll hopefully have some proper write-ups for the latter going forward, it'll just be missing a Tier 1 game I think. In the meantime though, I do have some (blurry, because of the camera) write-ups for a little tournament we called the Masters of Mediocrity. The basic premise of the tournament was that it would be a small event of eight players, where we were each expected to bring a depressingly average list pair. Rather than play our own lists, however, the armies would go into a hat and we would draw at random to see what we would end up playing. We'd stick with those lists for the entire tournament, to give us an opportunity to learn how to play them. I brought the following lists: Helga -Road Hog -Road Hog -Soul Slave Valkyries Valkyries Void Archon Void Archon River Raider River Raider River Raider River Raider River Raider River Raider River Raider River Raider River Raider Totem Hunter Lanyssa Dahlia -Skarath Meat Thresher Lord Carver -Road Hog -Road Hog -Targ Min Bone Grinders Min Bone Grinders Min Bone Grinders Max Bone Grinders Max Bone Grinders Max Commandos Razorback Crew Razorback Crew Slaughterhousers Slaughterhousers Valkyries Hutchuck The cute idea there was that the Helga list was actually pretty good, in my opinion, but would take a bit of finesse and understanding to get all the bits and pieces to work correctly. The Carver list was more simple, but frankly I felt it would be a bit weaker and kind of a trap to play. Meanwhile, the lists I ended up with were a Morghoul3/Xerxis2 pair, as follows: Morghoul3 -Desert Hydra Max Karax Max Keltarii Max Arcuarii Max Incendiarii Tyrant Commander and Standard Tyrant Commander and Standard Legends of Halaak Willbreaker Gobber Chef Xerxis -Swamp Horror -Bronzeback Titan Max Croak Raiders Max Nihilators Max Nihilators Bloodrunners Min Bog Trog Ambushers Bloodrunner Master Tormentor Paingiver Task Master Paingiver Task Master Thrullg Husk To give a quick overview of the games, I played into Circle (Kromac1) round one. I used Morghoul3, who spent most of the game keeping the Skinwalkers Blind. Eventually, just as my army was starting to collapse against all those Warpwolves, I managed to land Blind onto Morghoul and shoot him to death with Incendiarii and Archuarii. For round two I chose to play Xerxis (this tournament had resurrected Divide and Conquer, to ensure all the lists were played). I found the list to be surprisingly enjoyable to play, seeing as half the army was made of Minions and thus unable to receive Xerxis's Feat. That said, I was playing against Troll infantry while fielding an army full of Anatomical precision, so I cleaned up that game pretty comfortably. For the final round, however, I both managed to fix the biggest problem with my camera (the photos from this game will still be pretty blurry unfortunately, but I think I have that issue sorted too now) and ended up playing into pigs! My opponent chose to drop Helga, while I kept up with the Xerxis list. Deployment My opponent won the starting roll and took first. I let him deal with the table side flooded with rough terrain rather than try and negotiate it with all my Nihilators. He deployed the Meat Thresher on his left flank, both Void Archons on his right, with Helga's battlegroup in between. I deployed almost all my infantry squaring off against the Meat Thresher, trying to keep them away from the Void Archons. Xerxis and my Warbeasts, and the high defence Bloodrunners who I hoped would be a tad dicey for the Void Archons to kill, deployed more to the centre-right. The pigs chose Stockpile as their objective, Skorne took Fuel Cache. Pigs Turn 1 Helga put Defender's Ward on the Meat Thresher, advanced, and cast Dash. Everything else ran up the board. Skorne Turn 1 The Croaks received Scutter from the Task Master on the left. They advanced and threw Bombs at the Meat Thresher until one connected, and was Shield Guarded off to the Valkyries on the left. With the Valkyries Oiled, the remaining Croaks directed their shots into those Valkyries killing one. The Croaks then Repositioned back, the Husk ran up to cover their retreat. The Thrullg ran into the trench on the left, trying to be in position to strip Defender's Ward off of the Meat Thresher if it came forward. Everything else just spread out, waiting for the pigs to come forward. Pigs Turn 2 Helga cast Dash. One of the Void Archons advanced and sprayed down a line, tagging a few Croaks, the Husk, and the Thrullg. It killed a Croak or two and tagged the Thrullg, casually one-shotting my one way to remove Defender's Ward. Rather than teleport back, however, the Archon remained in melee with the Husk and managed to hit and wound it twice, leaving it on one health and losing a bit of health itself to the Eruption of Flies. The Meat Thresher and left flank Valkyries gunned down a few more Croaks, while the River Raiders moved up to take the left flag. Over on the right the Void Archon, Skarath, a Road Hog, and the Totem Hunter mostly contented themselves with killing most of the Bloodrunners. Skorne Turn 2 The joint forces of the Bloodrunners and couple of Nihilators killed the Void Archon on the left. The Bog Trog Ambushers appeared on the board and removed most of the River Raiders on that flank. The couple of remaining Croaks killed one of the two remaining Valkyries. Over on the right the Swamp Horror killed the Totem Hunter and the Paingiver solos moved up to contest the flag. After this picture was taken I remembered to activate the Husk, who moved over to try and kill the last Valkyrie. We each scored our respective zones, making the score 1-1. Pigs Turn 3 The last Valkyrie attacked and killed the Husk with her Vengeance attack, and they both died in the ensuing explosion. The Meat Thresher and Road Hog on the left killed most of the nearby infantry. Lanyssa moved onto the central flag and tagged the Swamp Horror with Hunter's Mark, allowing the second Road Hog to charge in. Without a nearby infantry model providing Gang Fighter, however, the Road Hog left the Horror alive on about 11 boxes. Skarath killed the Paingivers on the right, while the Void Archon and River Raider locked down that flag. A River Raider ran to contest my zone. My opponent scored his zone and the central and right-hand flags, making the score 1-4 in his favour. Skorne Turn 3 Xerxis upkept Ignite. A few Nihilators took some charges, killing the Soul Slave, Lanyssa, and putting some damage on the Road Hog near my zone. Xerxis then charged the Road Hog and Feated, killing the River Raider in my zone and the Road Hog and doing a bit more damage to the Swamp Horror. He then sprinted back behind my objective. The Swamp Horror was then able to charge and nearly kill the second Road Hog, a Nihilator finished the job as the rest of the unit on the left flank piled into the Meat Thresher and killed it to the box. A Bog Trog ran in to contest my opponent's zone. A Paingiver ran onto the left flag, the Willbreaker ran to the central flag. Unfortunately, I'd neglected to contest my opponent's flag, so I scored three and he scored one to make the score 4-5. Pigs Turn 4 The Void Archon moved up, killed some Nihilators, and teleported into the zone. Dahlia ran onto the right-hand flag. Skarath charged and killed the Swamp Horror. The remaining Valkyries killed a couple of Nihilators. The last River Raider contested the left flag. Helga shot and killed the Ambusher in her zone. My opponent scored his flag and zone, running the score to 4-7. Skorne Turn 4 Xerxis charged and left Skarath on a handful of boxes. The Bronzeback finished the job, and then tried to finish off the Void Archon but left it on a few boxes. Nihilators had to walk in and finish the job. Ambushers contested my opponent's zone. The Willbreaker ran to contest the right-hand flag. I scored the left flag and my zone, bringing the score to 6-7 in my opponent's favour. Pigs Turn 5 My opponent lacked the resources to stop me from scoring in his turn, so he tried to map out an assassination run on Xerxis. Without Pathfinder, Helga was too far away to get there and help (she could have maxed out the Bronzeback to stop me from transferring, for instance), so my opponent conceded. Quite an intense game. I got lucky killing the armour buffed Meat Thresher on Xerxis's Feat turn, and without being able to collapse that flank the way I did I think it would have been a very different game. I still had the Ambushers in reserve, but it was always going to be close I think. That Helga list has some surprising legs in general, and I am interested in trying it out a bit more especially once I get my hands on Flugwug. We have CanCon, Australia's big wargaming convention, at the end of this month. After that, with Helga2 on the horizon, I may consider putting some effort into seeing if I can get a double Helga pair to work. Should be an interesting experiment at the very least
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