An Angry Axolotl and a Ghastly Gator: BatReps from RMR

Match 2

This one was against my aforementioned local Thexus player. The lists were:

Theme: Flame in the Darkness

Fiona
-Gallant
-Vanguard
Thamarite Archon (x2)
Morrowan Archon (x2)
Grand Master Throne
Hermit
Stonecold Black Bella
Precursor Knights (max) (x2)
-Officer & Standard
Field Mechaniks (min)

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Thexus
-Doc Stygius
-Warden (x6)
Void Archon (x2)
Pistol Wraith
Cephalyx Agitator (x2)
Machine Wraith (x2)
Cephalyx Mind Bender & Drudges (max) (x2)

The scenario is King of the Hill:



I figure Maelok is still fine into Thexus, and the 4 archons in the second list make me want the Death Archons that Maelok brings to the table, so I end up dropping Maelok into Fiona. My opponent didn't want the all-living Thexus list into Maelok and thought the Precursor Knights being immune to Mortality would help out.

I lose the roll and my opponent opts to go first. The rocks in the rectangle zones are obstructions, and there is quicksand on one side of the table, so I select the non-quicksand side. I go with the Wreckage objective and my opponent gets Dugout. My shallow water templates get put in the circle zone and right behind my objective.

Top 1
My opponent puts Roth's Mercy on the unit of Precursor Knights to my right and everything runs up the board. The Thamarite Archons ensure that they are in range of everything moving off the deployment line.

Bot 1
I know I can't keep the Thamarite Archons from shooting stuff, so I don't worry too much about their threat ranges. I move my lefthand Gatorman Witch Doctor up and cast Death Ride. Maelok puts up Death Pact, puts Soul Harvester on the right-hand Death Archon, and walks forward 6". All the posse pray for concealment and run to just shy of the Precursor Knights threat range. The Thrullg hangs out behind the central forest inside one of the shallow water templates. My Death Archons move up to punish the Thamarites if they decide to get close enough to shoot anything more than the front-most posse. The Spirit Cauldron gives 2 corpses (leaving 1 for itself) to the Death Archon with Soul Harvester on it.

Top 2
My opponent eyes an assassination run on my 2 camp Maelok. He can get Curse of Veils and both Thamarite Archons in bringing me down to 14/17 with 17 boxes and 2 transfers. He decides to go for it, lands Curse of Veils through a warrior model and has the right-hand Thamarite Archon move up to the rectangle zone and shoot Maelok 3 times. One of them misses, he eats 2 from another, and transfers 7 away to the Wrastler. The second Thamarite Archon also moves up to the rectangle zone on the other side and puts all three shots in leaving Maelok on 0 fury and 9 boxes. He then runs the Precursor Knights into the zones with the Morrowan Archons behind them. I honestly thought the assassination run had better odds of success, but we looked at it in OddsMachine afterwards, and it was about a 2.5% chance of success. The archons average 4 damage per shot on 6 shots and 2 of those are transferable. My opponent held on to their feat.

Bot 2
Well, my Death Archons were perfectly placed to take advantage of just this scenario. Maelok goes, moves up to the shallow water template, casts Death Pact, and feats. The right-hand one finds a spot where it can land to hit the Morrowan and Thamarite Archons on that side of the table along with several Precursor Knights. It blows all of its corpses for all the abilities, one-shots the Thamarite Archon, kills all the Precursor Knights in its range, teleports to the circle zone and finishes off the Morrowan Archon leaving 4 Precursor Knights alive. It didn't collect any souls for Maelok, but it did get full on corpses. The Gatorman Posse on the right side pray for rerolls and try to kill the last of the Precursor Knights, but they end up failing and leave 3 alive. The left-hand Death Archon takes out the Thamarite Archon on that side and puts up Mortal Fear. The Spirit Cauldron gets another 2 corpses and fills up Barny0's Bone Swarm which then runs to the right rectangle zone. The central posse unit (Barny's Henchmen) runs into the circle zone and gums things up without making any attacks. The lefthand posse kills the objective and clears out the Precursor Knights in the zone. The Swamp Horror runs to the near corner of the left rectangle zone. The Thrullg walks to the left side of the circle zone and stands there to put pressure on Fiona if she casts spells. Turn ends 2-0

Top 3
The Precursor Knights aren't able to do much to the posse. They clear one posse from the right zone and attempt to kill the right-hand death archon, chipping damage in. Throne follows up and also fails to kills it, leaving it on 4 boxes. Gallant murders the left-hand Death Archon and a central posse member. Vanguard, Morrowan Archon, and the remainder of the left-hand Precursor Knights flood the rectangle zone and kill 1 posse, chipping damage into others. Fiona goes, stays on the edge of the circle zone, and feats.

Bot 3
I try to just keep to what I need to clear the right-hand zone this turn as I won't be getting much done otherwise. The Death Archon manages to kill Throne and put up Mortal Fear, and the right-hand posse kill 1 Precursor Knight in the zone there. Barny0's Bone Swarm finishes the job, clearing out the last of the Precursor Knight unit. The central posse and Thrullg kill Hermit on the flag and engage Gallant. The left-hand posse just crunch up next to the contesting models there to keep them put. Turn ends 3-0

Top 4
My opponent isn't able to get anything to the right-hand rectangle zone, so he tries to clear out the left-hand zone and as much of the central posse as possible. Black Bella manages to kill the Thrullg and leave the Death Archon on 1 box. The Morrowan Archon and Vanguard take out 2 of the posse in the left zone. Gallant murders the posse engaging him and left the Thrullg on 1 box. Turn ends 4-0

Bot 4
I end up using my Swamp Horror to drag Gallant out of the circle zone, having the death archon kill the last of the mechaniks in the circle zone along with Black Bella. Turn ends 7-0

I don't like farming CPs, but I asked my opponent beforehand, and I really wanted to make up for the poor showing in match 1. Maelok felt pretty advantaged into this match-up. Even if my opponent had feated earlier, I don't think he had a good way to keep his archons safe or crack the armor of the posse consistently.

Match 4

This was the start of day 2. On strength of schedule tiebreaker, I missed getting into the top 8 bracket competing for WFW qualifier points, but I was still slotted into the second bracket. My first match was against Circle. I didn't take many pictures today as I was a bit brain-dead by this point.

Kreuger2
-Woldwarden (x2)
-Feral Warpwolf
-Warpwolf Stalker
-Woldwyrd (x2)
Blackclad Stoneshaper (x2)
Blackclad Wayfarer
Bog Trog Mist Speaker
Chuck Dogwood
Death Archon (x2)
Hermit of Henge Hold
Scythe
Swamp Gobber River Raider

-----------------------------------

Kaya2
-Laris
-Ghetorix
-Loki
-Pureblood Warpwolf (x2)
-Woldwyrd
Druid Wylder
Blackclad Wayfarer
Chuck Dogwood
Death Archon
Kreuger0
-Gorax
Wolves of Orboros (min)
-Chieftan

Scenario was Invasion. I didn't get a picture of the table, but there wasn't really any terrain in the middle. We had a forest in one side of the right-hand circle zone and a building in the left-hand circle zone.

I really have to drop Rask into Circle. He's the only one that has game into Kreuger2, and that's typically what I see in the match up. However, my opponent wanted to stress test Kaya2, so dropped her into Rask.

I won the roll and went first. My opponent chose the side with the forest in the circle zone.

Top 1
I put Fury on Malvin & Mayhem, slap a Veil of Mists on an obstruction near my deployment zone, and put Admonition on my Swamp Horror before failing a charge to move 8" up the center of the table. Malvin & Mayhem puts his boosters on and runs 14" into the left-hand circle zone on the side that has Krueger0. Barny0 puts up Battle Host and fails a charge for a 9" move. Boomy3 puts Hoof It on Barny0's Swamp Horror and runs up the table. Barny0's Swamp Horror tramples 9" then moves another 4" at the end of my turn. Everything else just runs to fill in with Orin moving near the left-hand circle zone and the bellows crew moving into a trench in front of the right hand circle zone.

Bot 1
I left M&M a little to close to the Woldwyrd and got punished for it. It took them down to 10 health, but managed not to delete any systems. Kreuger0 walked up and put up clouds. Ghetorix got Forced Evolution, and Kaya2 cast Shadow Pack. Everything stayed outside of 15" of the beasts except for the models behind Krueger0's clouds.

Top 2
M&M can see Ghetorix still, and I decide they might be able to land a couple of POW 10s on the zero camp Krueger0 (which is out of melee range, but in dream crusher AOE range). I decide that M&M are basically dead anyways, so they pop their mini feat, charge Ghetorix with Boundless Charge from the Soul Slave and boost an attack into Ghetorix hoping to knock him down. The attack hits but does not crit. It ends up doing 11 damage. I opt to put my next attack into the adjacent Pureblood which misses. I buy my Dream Crusher attack into the Pureblood, again hoping to hit Krueger0 with the AOE, but both miss, needing 7s. At least my opponent will have to deal with that on my feat turn. Rask pokes up to just behind my objective and feats. The Primal Archons move to the center of the circle zones. Boomhowler3 lurks behind the right-hand Primal Archon and gives Barny0's Swamp Horror Hoof It. Kwaak puts Enliven on Barny0's Swamp Horror. Barny0's Swamp Horror tramples up the right side of the table, along the rectangle zone. The swamp gobbers get in the right circle zone. Everything is within feat, and his beasts could only get to me if they trample in.

Bot 2
My opponent ambushes in on the left circle zone, running in, but not attacking anything. The Wayfarer runs to engage my Primal Archon, suffering Shadow Bind before Boomy3 countercharges it...and misses. Kaya2 feats and moves into the forest by the right hand zone with Elusive and camping 2. Ghetorix kills M&M and teleports in front of Kaya. One Pureblood moves up next to his objective to contest. The other Pureblood tramples to kill Boomy3 before teleporting to Kaya. Loki stays safe behind the pack, and Krueger0 puts more clouds up to block LOS from the left zone. No one scores. 0-0

Top 3
Well, my Primal Archon in the right zone is alive and only being engaged by one model, so I see the potential for an assassination run. I have Rask's Swamp Horror give Elasticity to Barny0, he then casts Murderous Intent and kills the Wayfarer engaging the Primal Archon. The Soul Slave gives Barny0's Swamp Horror Boundless Charge. Rask gives Barny0's Swamp Horror Fury and Rage. The Blackhide Wrastler charges my opponent's objective and kills it. The Primal Archon charges the Pureblood standing next to Kaya2, hits it on the first try, pushing it right into Kaya2 and knocking her down. Barny0's Swamp Horror comes in and finishes her off with 6 auto-hitting dice +4 tentacles. Scenario goes 1-0, win on assassination.

I didn't feel confident that I could trade well enough into the 4 heavies he had left to make a difference after losing M&M so early (Though, I did knock both Ghetorix and a Pureblood down with the Primal Archon), so the assassination run felt like the cleanest option. I needed to roll a 6 to hit the Pureblood just once on 3 attacks which felt fairly likely.

Match 6

Last match of the tournament. We ended up with a 10-person pod as several people dropped after the first day, so we were likely to end up with two people going 3-0 on the day. This was a rough match into Ret.

Goreshade4
-Sylys Wyshnalyrr
-Manticore (x2)
-Chimera (x2)
Ghost Sniper (x2)
Aelyth Vyr
Arcanist Mechanik (x3)
Lys Healer (x2)
Ryssovass Defenders (x2)
-Soulless Escort
House Ellowuyr Swordsmen
-Soulles Escort
-Officer & Standard

Unfortunately, I don't have the other list for this one, but I believe it was Kaelyssa.

The scenario was Spread the Net. My opponent won the roll, and I opted to make him take the side that had quicksand in the rectangle zone. The only other notable piece of terrain was a large and centrally located forest right in the middle of the circle zone.

Rask can't really play into Goreshade4, and that match up is part of why Maelok is in the pair, so I dropped Maelok into Goreshade4 which I knew would be a grind.

Top 1
My opponent runs everything up, unconcerned about my non-existent shooting threat. He gives Dauntless Resolve to the unit of Swordsmen and Ghost Walk to the Defenders on the quicksand side. He has the Defenders poised to threaten my rectangle zone on one side and my flag on the other side. The Swordsmen are right by the circle zone.

Bot 1
Swordsmen and Defenders aren't that fast, but going second into them means that I'm probably going to be dealing with Goreshade's feat top of 2 with a bunch of dudes on my side of the table. I decide the best thing to do is box out my rectangle zone as best I can and make sure I have as much stuff in the zones as possible to keep from getting pushed out of scenario. I'm pretty sure I don't have to feat this turn as everything I'm concerned with is living, so as long as I keep the Death Archons close, I should be able to counter-feat. I activate the left-hand Gatorman Witch Doctor who walks up and puts out Death Ride. Maelok activates, gives the right-hand Death Archon (the one nearest my rectangle zone) Soul Harvester, and puts up Death Pact before walking 6" up the center of the table. Barny0's henchmen posse run up to just behind the forest, blocking in Maelok from the circle zone. The right-hand witch doctor walks up and puts out Death Ride. The right-hand posse run up to the leading edge of the zone, 3 of them are in threat of Defenders with 2 waiting behind. The right-hand Death Archon gets 1 corpse from the Croc Pot and puts up Mortal Fear, stepping in 6" behind the posse in my rectangle zone. The left-hand posse run up the board to get as close to the flag as possible. Barny0 gets Battle Host out, fails a charge to the left of the forest, then his Bone Swarm runs to the circle zone behind the forest. The left-hand Death Archon crams in behind the Bone Swarm and puts up Mortal Fear. The Thrullg hides in the forest, making it punishing to cast spells in the circle zone without dealing with it.

Top 2
My opponent feats and puts up 2 Freezing Mist clouds in the circle zone to deter me from killing the Swordsmen that flood into it, killing 1 henchmen posse. The Manticore on each side chip some damage into the Death Archons with their cannons, and the Ghost Snipers take another 6 boxes out of the left-hand Death Archon leaving it on 7. The left-hand Swordsmen charge in to the flag and fail to kill any of the posse on that side, only chipping damage in at dice off 12. However, 4 of them are contesting the flag. The right-hand Defenders run and charge into my rectangle zone with 6 making it in to contest, but again failing to kill any posse in the zone.

Bot 2
This is pretty much exactly what I expected, so it is feat turn. Turning incorporeal makes dying breath and defensive strike irrelevant, and nearly everything in the army has RFP. Additionally, Soul Harvester is great at stealing souls that the Death Archon eats. The biggest hurdle then is making sure I kill enough that being stationary isn't a huge deal. Maelok activates first, moving up to toe the circle zone, casting death pact, and feating. The right-hand unit of posse in the rectangle zone walk through the Defenders in front of them to kill a Chimera and the Soulless Escort with 1 of them contesting my opponent's flag. Gatorman Soul Slave casts Mortality on the Defenders in my rectangle zone, boosting to hit, landing, and taking 1 damage. The henchmen posse kill a Defender in the rectangle zone to give the Death Archon there a corpse with the remainder of the unit taking out 2 of the Swordsmen in the circle zone. The Death Archon on the right side (with Soul Harvester) spends all of its corpses and takes out all but 1 Defender, giving Maelok 7 souls before becoming stationary (Blood Reaper attacks are simultaneous, so you get to make all of them before stationary occurs). My Swamp Horror cleans up the last Defender which also brings it into the zone to score. The croc pot gives 2 corpses to the left-hand Death Archon which charges in to kill 4 Defenders and 2 Swordsmen, contesting my opponent's rectangle zone and giving him 6 souls. My River Raider hits his objective with the Reel-in gun then smacks it to apply the -2 ARM debuff. Three of the left-hand posse get in front of my flag while the 2 remaining invade my opponent's rectangle zone and destroy the objective. Unfortunately, they fail to kill 3 of the Defenders contesting my flag even with praying for re-rolls. Barny0 walks up to my flag, and his Bone Swarm kills the 2 Swordsmen in front of it. The Thrullg walks up and disrupts the right-hand Manticore. Both of my Death Archons and about half of my posse are stationary now, but I am exerting a lot of scenario pressure that my opponent will have to deal with. Turn ends 2-0

Top 3
My opponent revives 3 Defenders that the left Death Archon took out and manages to have 1 of them contest my flag. His right-hand Manticore kills the posse contesting his flag, and his left-hand Manticore kills the Death Archon on that side. He opts not to make attacks with his infantry as they can't do much anyways and this game is looking like it will go long on clock. His Ghost Snipers take out a posse member in the rectangle zone, but he's not able to clear the last gator there. He wasn't able to get anything back to my rectangle zone to contest, so the score goes 3-1.

Bot 3
Maelok ends up with 14 fury after converting souls and uses it to bring back the 2 henchmen posse that were killed into the circle zone before putting up Death Pact and camping 5. I have one of the right-hand posse contest my opponent's flag, and my left-hand posse try again to clear my flag, leaving 2 Defenders contesting. The right Death Archon takes out a few more Swordsmen and puts up Mortal Fear. Turn ends 4-1

Top 4
My opponent only has about 12 minutes on clock now, so he moves quickly to clear out the contesting posse from his flag with the Manticore on that side. He puts up a Freezing Mist cloud in the cluster of dudes contesting my flag, and he kills the remaining posse in his rectangle zone, but can't kill the gobber. He also managed to find a spot where a Swordsman can contest my rectangle zone. Score goes 4-2

Bot 4
Maelok gets 9 fury total after soul conversion and just puts up Death Pact, camping 6. My Death Archon on the right side kills the solo camping his flag, but he can't capture it. I charge my Swamp Horror up to pull his Manticore out of contesting range, but I'm running low on clock, so I don't try to kill it. The gators on the left side finally dislodge the contesting Defenders from the flag, and my Bone Swarm contests his zone. My right-hand Gatorman Witch Doctor Sac Strikes one of the henchmen posse with 1 box to kill the contesting model in my rectangle zone. My Blackhide Wrastler walks to score my zone. Score goes 6-2.

Top 5
His Manticore murders my Swamp Horror and the Death Archon. One of his Lys Healers runs to capture the flag. He resurrects 2 more Defenders which are able to contest my flag again before sending another Swordsmen to contest my rectangle zone. Score goes 6-3

Bot 5
We both have about 5 minutes left on clock, so I decide to just clear out the contesting model from my rectangle zone with the Wrastler and the 3 gators left in my right-hand posse unit kill the solo on his flag. Score goes 7-3

Top 6
My opponent can't score his flag anymore as he just doesn't have a solo in range. He also can't deal with the Bone Swarm in his zone. He runs a model to contest my rectangle zone and ends turn. Score remains 7-3.

Bot 6
The Wrastler clears the last contesting model from my rectangle zone and I end turn, winning on scenario 8-3.

I knew this was going to be a slog from the beginning, and despite being up on scenario, I felt a lot of pressure from just the sheer number of dudes he had. In the end, my feat turn won me my rectangle zone, limited the crack-back and let me go up on scenario early in the game to ride out a win that way.

Congrats on doing so well! Those photos are great, what beautiful armies!

Thanks! I had a great time. I believe I'll be at the Salt Lake Open next, and I'll try to take more pictures then.