Tried out Secret Masters in a local Steamroller

As stated in the title I decided to take Secret Masters out for a spin. While my eKrueger list was mostly standard in Bones (lacking some models meant I didn't run the list I actually wanted to) I felt I needed to take pBaldur for the Khador match since they are well represented here. Figured I might as well go all out and give the theme force Secret Masters a shot at the same time for a couple of reasons:

It's the only place you can run Druids of Orboros. While I know they are pretty subpar they do have a place with Baldur1. With Sacred Ward, Immunity to all typed damage, Prowl and providing a cloud wall for the rest of the list I felt Baldur shored up the few weaknesses they have. Namely blast damage, a forest to trigger Prowl when they got involved in the action and a Feat to further protect them. Sure they have low damage output and will never kill their points worth, but IME they do help provide assassination angles and keep my heavies safe by pushing away threats. I am upset about the lack of free points and Baldur not really wanting to use Stone Skin as one of his free upkeeps turn 1, but so be it.

So did it work out? Well I faced Khador twice so read on to find out...

The list I ran was

Baldur1
-Megalith
-Warpwolf Stalker
-Pureblood Warpwolf
-Feral Warpwolf

Wayfarer (free)
Wayfarer
Stoneshaper
Stoneshaper

Druids with CA
Shifting Stones
Shifting Stones


Round 1 (Breakdown)

Facing Khador infantry spam under either Sorscha1 or Irusk2 (Irusk gets picked). eKrueger is the sensible drop so of course I drop Baldur instead and then lose the roll to go first. My opponent had (to the best of my memory):

-Irusk 2
-Behemoth
-Juggernaut

Max Kayazy with CA
Max Kayazy with CA
Kayazy Eliminators.
Widowmaker Scouts
Min meckaniks

Forge Seer
-Destroyer

I lost the roll to go first so my opponent came at me. I pretty much do the same but manage to get a couple of Widowmakers with a Pureblood assault spray. 1 dies, 1 toughs. Fortunately I'm still too far back for anything to get at me but I put a forest on him just to make him DEF16. Druids with apparition, advance and clouds simple covers my army's slow trundle up the field.

My opponent moves things around not willing to commit and give me a decent alpha but he does bait my Stalker to go and charge his Juggernaut if I can land a Hunters Mark. I take it as I'm planning on feating anyway and figure retaliation would be limited. So the Stalker takes it out (but no sprinting back...sad times).  Everything else positions to counter attack the next turn...However what I had not taken into consideration was Battle Lust. 4 Kayazy remove the Stalker and others try charging what they can but that's pretty much all they succeed in doing. Irusk doesn't counter feat and sets himself in a bunker with the Destroyer and Behemoth in front.

So Battle Lust huh...Yeah, I can't trade my heavies for his when his infantry can just smack me up that hard. Since I don't have to worry about -3SPD this turn I see an opening. Megalith tramples over some Kayazy that had engaged my Wayfarer and kills them. Pops animus with Irusk inside. Druids move around and push Behemoth aside so I have a lane to Irusk with my Pureblood. Blackclad Hunters Marks the Destroyer so I now also have distance if I charge the heavy. Pureblood gets Primal (so he'll be MAT10 into Irusk at Dice +3 on damage). Then my other blackclad, Stoneshapers and Baldur remove some other models that were blocking the path. The Pureblood puts Irusk down with 2 Fury to spare.

Round 2 (Spread the Net)
I drop eKrueger into Ret (Goreshade 4). Since it's not a Secret Masters batrep I won't go into too much detail. I mess up early on and make bad decisions since I repeatedly forget about Field Marshal: Arcane Vortex. Mid game I swing attrition wildly back into my favour (I think I lost a Sentry Stone unit and my BE to almost all the Halberdiers, 2 Jacks and half a unit of Defenders) and then I get assassinated. Should have pre-measured Eiryss1 and the BE but didn't. Oops!

Round 3 it's Khador again. (Recon2)

This time my opponent only has 1 list and it's Karchev with all the Heavies. I drop Baldur (naturally). My opponent has

Karchev
-Juggernaut
-Juggernaut
-Kodiak
-Kodiak
-Destroyer
-Marauder
-Marauder

Yuri
Forge Seer
Widowmaker Marksman

Widowmakers
Min Meckaniks

I'm sure I'm missing something from his list but unsure what.

So my opponent wins the roll to go first and takes it. He spends his turn running though I opt to just stay behind my cloud wall.

Turn 2 my opponent pushes forward but not too far. He wants me to come to him to trigger counter charges I guess. Since my opponent played it so cagey I simply push some Jacks around, place a forest to protect the ones that Force Bolted and score 2 (my flag and 1 zone).

Turn 3 my opponent realizes he can't carry on like last turn so he runs at me layering his Jacks so I can only get to so many at a time and again trying to bait counter charges. Forge Seer caps his flag. In my turn I decide that's not happening and use apparition and the 2" melee on the Druids to engage what I can stopping any of his jacks moving and pushing the second layer further back. 1 Druid also Force Bolts his Forge Seer off his own flag and another KD's Karchev for fun. I then go in and kill 3 Heavies, FEAT and end up feeling pretty safe from retaliation. Score goes to 3-1

Turn 4 my opponent spends Karchevs stack (Road to War goes up) and feats. Unfortunately for him he doesn't get many triggers and doesn't get as much distance as he hoped. Megalith got tagged by a Marauder with only 1 focus so he's hurt but fully functional. This also means Karchev is now within walking distance of a Feral (and teleportation range of the Pureblood) so in a last ditch attempt he throws a Marauder in the way of the Feral. My turn rolls around and the 3 remaining Druids push away the offending Marauder and 1 KD's Karchev for good measure. A blackclad then Hunters Marks him just to really seal the deal. Baldur applies Primal to the Pureblood and Feral and Stone Skin to the Feral who then ends the game with great dice on just his initials.

Overall impressions of the theme were...ok I guess. Despite the victories and the fact that I have had a longstanding suspicion that Druids with Baldur are key to several important Khador matchups, the theme force itself felt pretty meh. The bonuses feel tacked on to simply give some underplayed Warlocks a theme rather than something well thought out. Consider me unimpressed.

Druids however did shine and managed to achieve some serious work. While they killed not much at all in either game they absolutely proved their value and enabled things that would otherwise have been impossible. Keeping the second row of heavies away and opening up assassination angles is their job. While MA 6 is a big letdown usually, Khador is one faction that they have few problems against. I do want to stress that I feel this can only be achieved with Baldur1 though as no-one else shores up their weaknesses quite like he does. Delivering them effectively and allowing your army to push forwards is one hell of a great enabler. Aside from Khador though I'm not sure how I would fit this into an effective pairing. Still, a decent first outing for them.