Azahul and Arkadius Experiment Together

Round One - The Pit

So this round I was paired against a brand new Retribution player. I figured I'd take the opportunity to drop Midas and get a better feel for that list, since I'd only had the two practice games with him before this event. My opponent had a Vyros1 and Rahn pair, and I reckoned Midas could attrition through Vyros without a problem and that there were enough bodies to put in the way to make Rahn's assassination run difficult. My opponent dropped Vyros, with the following:

Vyros
-Chimera
-Manticore
-Phoenix
-Griffon
-Griffon
-Sylys
Sentinels
-UA
Battle Mages
Arcanist Mechanik
Arcanist Mechanik
Arcanist Mechanik
Mage Hunter Assassin

Deployment

My opponent won the roll off and opted to go second. I positioned Midas where I could move to my flag if necessary, stuck my heavies central, and my Brigands out on the right flank. My opponent put Vyros and the Sentinels opposite Midas, his Warjacks in the centre, and the Battle Mages out on the right near his own flag. I picked the Phoenix as my prey target, and forgot to take a picture.

Pigs Turn 1

Everything ran. The Brigands received Death March.



Brine is where the white proxy base, my model is even more front-heavy than normal after I dropped it and the leg bent forward and it's almost impossible to balance on even slightly even surfaces.

Retribution Turn 1

Vyros cast Mobility. His 'jacks ran up, except for the Manticore which advanced and laid down a Covering Fire template. His Sentinels ran up and used their Mini Feat, while the Battle Mages took cover behind the wall. The Mage Hunter ran behind the house on the right.



Pigs Turn 2

At the start of the turn I figured I'd be able to take out both of his heavies. I primal'd up my Road Hog and sent it into the Phoenix and realised then that I probably needed one other damage buff, or at least some chip damage, to make that happen. I then sent Brine in to finish the job but couldn't roll a six to hit. He managed it, but ended up maxed out on Fury. Prey transferred to the Manticore. Beyond that I mostly ran stuff up and the Brigands whiffed a lot of shots at the Battle Mages. The Razor Boar on the left did charge his Griffon and managed to do an absolute ton of damage. The other Razor Boar walked up and used Still as Death.



Retribution Turn 2

The Sentinels killed the Road Hog, also dropped the Razor Boar engaging the Griffon on the left and triggering Counter Charge on the other Razor Boar (it missed, and so did the Sentinel who then charged it). The Griffon in the centre did some damage to Brine, but I opted not to make the Retaliatory Strike. His Manticore walked up, fully loaded on Focus, and smacked Brine and crippled his Body. Brine used a Gore attack Retaliatory Strike and got the Crit Knockdown. Vyros killed two Bone Grinders with an Eliminator, the Chimera charged in and killed some more, and the Battle Mages mostly picked off the ones that made their Tough rolls. My opponent left the Brigands untouched. The Mage Hunter Assassin killed a Bone Grinder.



Pigs Turn 3

Brine frenzied on the Manticore. Did maybe a point of damage. I forgot to upkeep Death March. Midas cast Calamity on the Sentinels and Feated back the Road Hog. It aimed and sprayed down the massive clump that killed it the first time, dropping seven of them with the shot (I also feated back a Razor Boar to line up the shot perfectly, which died to the flamethrower and gave Midas a corpse). The Battle Boar and a few Slaughterhousers killed the Griffon on the left so Midas would be able to score. The Razorback Crews and Brigands shot the Manticore off the board, Prey moved to the Battle Mages and two of them died to the remaining shots. The living Razor Boar failed to do more than a single point of damage to the Sentinel Officer. A Slaughterhouser and some Bone Grinders killed the Chimera. I went to 1 CP.



Retribution Turn 3

Vyros Feated and the remaining Griffon killed Brine (running an Arcanist to proc Flank. The Battle Mages missed every. Single. Attack. The Mage Hunter Assassin poked another Bone Grinder dead. My opponent didn't contest, so I went to 2 CP.



Pigs Turn 4

There was nothing contesting his flag, so I ran my Bone Grinders to engage it. The Slaughterhousers and Brigands killed the Griffon and Arcanist in the zone, and Rorsh was in there to score, so I had now won. I polished off the Sentinels and Battle Mages for some extra army points, killed the Mage Hunter Assassin with a Slaughterhouser charge, and went to 5 CP.

Only 18 Bone Grinders? I am disappoint Have you felt like the Slaughterhousers have kept up their end of the bargain, or do you think they would be better off as more Brigands (or Bone Grinders!), or more beasts?

Good to see you writing up battle reports again, thanks!

Always happy to serve mate

Hmmmmm. Losing the War Hog's Bulldoze and Targ's Ancillary Attack makes me feel the list is actually less janky than my regular one, as well as being less able to comfortably handle enemy armour.

Round 4 - Recon

Ok. Finals table. I get another Skorne player, this one with Makeda2/Zaadesh2. I drop Midas for the same reason as last time. My opponent drops Zaadesh, with:

Zaadesh
-Mammoth
-Basilisk Krea
-Agoniser
-Archidon
Max Cetrati
-Tyrant Vorkesh
Tyrant Commander and Standard Bearer
Min Paingiver Beast Handlers
Paingiver Master Tormentor
Extoller Soulward
Fuel Cache

Deployment

I won the roll off and took the first turn. My opponent took the table side with the shallow water because his Mammoth and Archidon could ignore it while making it harder for my non-Brigand models to get to him.

I deployed my Brigands a bit to the right, so that they'd be able to pass through the rubble. The house on the left was going to jam me up a lot. I made sure to deploy Bone Grinders out on each flank in case I needed to contest. My opponent put his much more compact army aimed very much at the central zone, with the Master Tormentor out on the right.



The Mammoth is the Brigands' Prey target.

Incidentally, I don't have many clear pictures of it, but this Mammoth is an absolutely gorgeous conversion. Ridiculously big, rearing back as it is, but so damn cool. Almost a shame to go Mammoth hunting.

Pigs Turn 1

Models run up. Midas puts Death March on the Brigands. Seeing that my opponent is gunning for the centre my flanking Bone Grinders pull back in. The Road Hog uses Full Boar and runs, since I want it in a position where it can trade itself for the Master Tormentor next turn.



Skorne Turn 1

Zaadesh sticks Inviolable Resolve on the Mammoth. He drops an Ashen Cloud next to his Fuel Cache to block LOS to most of his army. His models run up, with the Krea using her animus and advancing and the Agoniser screaming for -2 Strength and running. The Mammoth only walks and tries for some lucky scatters and kills a Bone Grinder. My opponent advances his Beast Handlers but never actually declares that they are using Condition on the Krea and Agoniser and leaves far too much Fury on the table.



Pigs Turn 2

Some models run forward so Midas can wriggle up through the ranks. Now able to keep the Road Hog in Control, it Assaults the Master Tormentor and kills him. The Brigands advance and Dig In.



Skorne Turn 2

The Krea frenzies and smacks the Agoniser for some damage. The Agoniser frenzies and fails to break armour on a Cetrati. The Cetrati Shield Wall and advance into the zone. The Mammoth aims and puts several shots, boosted damage, into the Road Hog. It then puts up Counter Blast. The Archidon is Enraged and finishes off the Road Hog in one attack before Sprinting back. Inviolable Resolve is swapped onto the Cetrati and an Ashen Cloud goes down to protect the Soulward.



Pigs Turn 3

Brine receives Primal, Rorsh uses Diversionary Tactics, and I proceed to miss something like four out of seven attacks and leave the Archidon on 1 health. The Brigands advance and Dig In again. There are some charges in the centre, where a couple of Razorback shots followed by Bone Grinders using Grievous Wounds attacks with CMA are actually able to down two Cetrati.



Skorne Turn 3

Zaadesh Feats and heals up the Archidon. The Cetrati kill some Bone Grinders. The Archidon goes for a Crit Pitch with a boosted attack roll, to make sure it doesn't die to the Retaliatory Strike. It doesn't get it, so it boosts damage in the hopes of crippling an aspect. It cripples Spirit. I miss the Retaliatory Strike and am sad. The Mammoth lobs some shots at Rorsh to try and finish off Brine that way, and it does indeed put a few good damage boxes on him. It then casts Counterblast, maxing it out on Fury. The Krea and Agoniser put up their respective animus/strength debuff. The Tyrant Commander hits a Bone Grinder in the shadow of the house, but the Bone Grinder toughs.



Pigs Turn 4

Brine Frenzies, misses the Archidon. I run a Razor Boar into the Cetrati. It gets splattered by the Retaliatory Strikes, opening the way for a second Razor Boar and a some mixed infantry to finish off the Cetrati on the end. The Bone Grinder behind the house stands up by forfeiting its movement, leaving the Tyrant Commander behind it. I charge the Archidon with Brigands and Slaughterhousers and miss every attack which was... aggravating.



Skorne Turn 4

The Krea and Agoniser frenzy again, as does the Archidon (into a Brigand, killing it). This time the Krea smacks Zaadesh for 5 damage, which is promptly transferred back to her. The Mammoth shoots Rorsh some more, doing minimal damage with the blast, but the transferred damage kills Brine. The Tyrant Commander hits the Bone Grinder behind the house, which makes its Tough roll again.



Pigs Turn 5

I'm down to about 15 minutes on clock and need to start thinking about winning this game. The Brigands make some charges and kill the Archidon. Finally. With them out of the way Midas runs onto the right flag, and the Battle Boar walks up to be a transfer target. The Razorbacks put their shots into the Fuel Cache and destroy it. I jam my opponent up with more waves of infantry, I think I may have killed one more Cetrati in the confusion, and go to 2 CP.



Skorne Turn 5

The Mammoth bulldozes as far forward as it can and drops some AOEs onto the Brigands, killing around half of them. The Cetrati continue to hack away. I think the Tyrant Commander hits the Bone Grinder behind the house again, and that the Bone Grinder makes its Tough roll again. My opponent looks for some way to run the Agoniser to contest, but can't find one. I go to 3 CP.



Pigs Turn 6

Midas nails the Mammoth with Calamity and puts Battle Lust on the black Slaughterhousers. He also Feats back his Warbeasts on minimal health. The Razorbacks take some potshots at the Mammoth, damage it, and the Slaughterhousers charge and drop it to pretty low health. The Brigands kill it with Hog Wild shots, transfer their Prey target to the Agoniser, and kill it as well. The Prey target becomes the Krea. I jam the Cetrati a little more and go to 4 CP.



Skorne Turn 6

Zaadesh goes to town with Flashing Blade, opening a path through which the Krea can run to contest. The Tyrant Commander finally kills the Bone Grinder behind the house. The Cetrati kill a few more models here and there.



Pigs Turn 7

The Razor Boar makes a single boosted attack on the Krea for a few points of damage. The Road Hog boosts a gore attack on her, knocking her down. It finishes her off in a few more attacks. I go to 5 CP.



One hell of a grind that one, neither of us had more than 5 minutes on our clocks at the end (I had about 2). I feel like my opponent may have needed to be more aggressive with the Mammoth earlier, walking and shooting for some lucky drifts left it pretty far back and I would have been well ahead on attrition with some better rolling on that Archidon. I guess on the flipside that one Bone Grinder Toughing every turn against the Tyrant Commander was funny as anything, but I was getting exasperated enough with the Archidon that I was starting to fixate there to the detriment of my actual game plan. The Archidon wasn't all that threatening to my army, it was just meant to be well dead and forcing my opponent to dedicate his Mammoth to removing Brine, rather than infantry, by that point.

And so I take first place at a local steamroller through primarily using my post-OTC goofing off list for most of the games. Rounds 2 and 4 were against WTC players as well, two of the local players I actually expect to lose against more often than not, so I was pleased as anything with my performance for the day. I was actually quite happy with how the Midas list performed too, though Ret and Skorne are among the factions I think it would be strongest into anyway so I feel like I either got lucky there, or just played the local meta to perfection.

Anywho, the next tournament is on the 1st of July, so I'll aim to report back on that one. Or maybe I'll do a write-up between now and then if a new list idea strikes my fancy and I want to take it for a proper battle report test drive.

If I wanted to run such an army, I think I´d change some parts of it:

Dr. Arkadius, Thornfall Alliance
-Road Hog 2x
-Gorax Rager x2
-Splatter Boar x2
-Gun Boar x4
Chef x2
Targ

Reasons:
- 2 Road Hogs are enough to threaten a caster kill from 19" away.
- Road Hog instead of 2 Gun Boars: one more powerful spray compared to two more 3" AoEs; the spray circumvents a lot of defensive rules and has a higher pow with continous fire
- Gorax Rager instead of battle boar because with Forced Evolution, his animus, Pain Response, Crippling Grasp and either Arkadius Needle or Psycho Surgery he is able to one round an ARM18 heavy. Yes, it is a lot of support, but you can do it! Therefore you´re still able to crack enemy ARM.
- Targ, because he allows for 3 clouds to hide your army more reliably. I run Bone Grinders with Arkadius because everyone did it, but I´ve never got anything worth out of them. Therefore I stopped running them and I don´t miss anything.

The next local Steamroller is tomorrow. I had actually intended to play my regular Carver list, but the release of the Battle Engine errata means that I'm going to be taking the opportunity to play with my newly revamped Meat Thresher instead. I only had the opportunity to play 1-2 games with it during the CID due to practicing for the OTC combined with it being such a pain in the butt to transport, so it's still pretty novel to me even though it's unchanged from the very first glimpse of its rules.

At the moment, I plan on basically reworking my Midas list a little bit and slotting it into the slot Rorsh and Brine used to occupy. The current list looks like:

Midas
-Road Hog
-Razor Boars
-Battle Boar
Max Brigands
-Warlord
Min Bone Grinders
Max Bone Grinders
Slaughterhousers
Slaughterhousers
Razorback Crew
Razorback Crew (free)
Efaarit Scouts (free)
Efaarit Scouts (free)
Meat Thresher

The non-free Razorback Crew may become another min Bone Grinders if I rock up in the day and we're swarming in Hordes players, but I think that's the version I plan on running. I took it for a whirl on Tuesday into a Retribution player who was running a Helios instead of a Hyperion and it did very, very well indeed, though I'd judge that a match-up firmly in my favour.