|
Post by zwergenkrieger on Jan 17, 2018 12:00:33 GMT
Lord Carver (Will Work For Food) -Battle Boar -Battle Boar -Battle Boar -Battle Boar -Splatter Boar -Splatter Boar -Splatter Boar -Splatter Boar -War Hog -War Hog Bellows Crew Lanyssa Maximus Gremlin Swarm Hutchuck (free) Orin Midwinter (free) Bog Trog Mist Speaker (free) Hi Azahul, I like to ask some questions regarding your list, well, it´s rather one question. A while back you posted reasons why you take splatter boars over gun boars. Would you like to write something about that topic once more? Now that MkIII is "settled"? I wonder if 2x Splatter Boars and 2x Gun Boars might be a better idea.
|
|
|
Post by Azahul on Jan 17, 2018 12:46:42 GMT
Hi Azahul, I like to ask some questions regarding your list, well, it´s rather one question. A while back you posted reasons why you take splatter boars over gun boars. Would you like to write something about that topic once more? Now that MkIII is "settled"? I wonder if 2x Splatter Boars and 2x Gun Boars might be a better idea. From a list design perspective, two Gun Boars is tricky. With my current battlegroup loadout I have 13 points leftover to spend on solos, which is pretty valuable given how many good solos we picked up through Blindwater. I wouldn't want to have that amount drop below 12 (three 4 point solos), so I can only easily fit in one Gun Boar. But that is just a personal preference, I'm so in love with all the new tech that I haven't really been evaluating the meat and potatoes of the list. Now, since both Splatter Boars and Gun Boars are focussed on anti-infantry, I'd mostly look at whether the kinds of infantry they're likely to see are going up. I don't have a huge amount of Trolls locally, and the few I do have are battlegroup heavy. If I did, that would be a reason to push towards Gun Boars, since the stone pretty effectively shuts down the Splatter Boars. I do have a lot of Skorne, and to be honest this list isn't super effective into Skorne bricks with or without Gun Boars. Sometimes I'm lucky and get an Exalted Host, where the Splatter Boars are absolutely phenomenal at avoiding Vengeance from the Immortals and just blanketing them in Corrosion. Other times, I get Cetrati walls backed by Agonizers and flanked by Ferox, and that's the kind of build that the list has a few more problems with. Xerxis1 and Makeda1/2 both present awkward problems for the list. Cryx is, of course, the other big boogeyman, but thus far I've been dodging them at events and no one is playing them at my LGS. I generally prefer Splatter Boars for models with Arm stats as high as Banes supported by a Wraith Engine. That said, the list hasn't been getting a lot of play lately. I've gotten lazy and stopped bothering to play attrition games.
|
|
|
Post by Azahul on Jan 26, 2018 12:10:02 GMT
Ok, CanCon Write-ups! I'm at Australia's big wargaming conference. I only got back into the country a few days ago, work has had me pulling overtime over those few days, and then I got sick, so combined with the fact I haven't had a chance to practice for the past six weeks means I haven't been playing quiiiiite as well as I'd like. Nevertheless, I promised myself I'd make more of an effort to keep this thread updated this year, so here we go. Today I played in a Masters event. I've not really had the time or energy to come up with, let alone practice, any ADR-based lists, so I brought my old standbys tweeked to account for the new releases that have come up since I went on holidays. So I brought along: Arkadius -War Hog -War Hog -Road Hog -Road Hog -Gun Boar -Gun Boar -Gorax -Gorax -Razor Boars -Targ Bog Trog Mist Speaker (free) Hutchuck (free) Orin Midwinter (free) Gatorman Witch Doctor (free) Gobber Chef Gobber Chef Lord Carver -Battle Boar -Battle Boar -Battle Boar -Battle Boar -Splatter Boar -Splatter Boar -Splatter Boar -Splatter Boar -War Hog -War Hog Hutchuck (free) Orin Midwinter (free) Bog Trog Mist Speaker (free) Lanyssa Maximus Kwaak & Gub Gobber Chef Round One - Recon II I went up against a Protectorate player this round, with a Testament/Amon pairing. I plumped for Arkadius, hoping Carver would scare Terminus away but figuring I had a bit of a game into my half-formed understanding of his Testament list. Luckily, didn't need to test that. He dropped Amon, with the following: Amon -Crusader -Templar -Templar -Castigator -Reckoner Max Choir Max Idrians with UA Roven & Co. Vassal Vassal Paladin Paladin Deployment My opponent won the roll-off and decided to go first. I gave him the table side with the pool of water. His 'jacks deployed in a line, with the Reckoner on the right and the Castigator on the left. I formed a pretty symmetrical line, Witch Doc and Mist Speaker hanging out behind my Warbeasts. Prey went on the left-hand Road Hog. My objective was a Fuel Cache, his was a Stockpile. Protectorate Turn 1 Idrians advanced a bit less than their full run. The white, central Templar received Fortify, and Amon was running around with Synergy up. His army mostly just ran up the board. I forgot to take a picture. Pigs Turn 1 Well, I had an opportunity to kill some Idrians, so I dropped two I think by scattering Gun Boar shots into their midst. I planned on making a heavy scenario push next turn, so I tried to line my army up with that in mind. First I cleared a path so the left-hand Road Hog could run to the right-hand side of the table, because 18" runs are a phenomenal way to give the middle finger to Prey. I stuck a War Hog threatening each zone, and my other Road Hog was prepared to go down the middle of the table to do objective duty, or clear some Idrians as needed. I had Arkadius put up Aggravator, back out of range of any Idrian CRAs, and toss Forced Evolution on the right-hand War Hog. Orin used Stealth, my Gorax and Razor Boar on the left sheltered behind a wall, Gobber Chef, Razor Boar, and the Forced Evolution'd War Hog all camped on a hill poised to take my opponent's flag. Protectorate Turn 2 Idrians came forward and took a five man CRA at a Gun Boar, doing half a dozen points of damage or so, before using their Dig In mini Feat. The Warjacks bunkered up, both Templars . My opponent's Reckoner took a potshot at my Road Hog but hadn't been allocated Focus, so it opted not to boost and missed the shot. Both Templars received Enliven. Choir used Passage. Paladin on the left walked up and used Stone and Mortar, one on the right was stuck behind shallow water and ran towards my opponent's flag. Pigs Turn 2 There are six Idrians and the Enliven'd (but not Fortified) Templar in the left zone, a Reckoner in the right zone, and a Choir member and a Paladin without Stone and Mortar contesting the right-hand flag. If I kill all of that, run my chefs onto both flags, and drop his objective, I win. I start by putting Primal on the right-hand Razor Boar and running it over the wall at the back end of the right-hand zone, angling it so that it can only see the Paladin and meaning I don't need to catch the Paladin in Arkadius's Control Range. Feels good to pull some of the old tricks again. The other Gorax puts Primal on the left War Hog and walks over the wall, alongside the Razor Boar there who tosses up his animus for good measure. I give Guidance to one of my Gun Boars and it tags the Templar in the left zone for one damage, proccing Enliven. My opponent backs up towards the back of the zone, still contesting but way better for me. Now I just need to make base contact with him with my War Hog. Makes the Primal there a bit of a waste, but oh well... The right-hand Road Hog runs so that it can see the Reckoner (but more importantly, so that I have a good bead on the Choir member contesting my opponent's flag for Primal Shocks), then Arkadius activates to put all this into action. He upkept Forced Evolution at the start of the turn, so now he goes back to full Fury with a Maltreatment from a Gorax. He puts Primal on the Forced Evo'd War Hog, Raw Adrenaline needles the central Road Hog, and Feats, beginning with the Primal'd Razor Boar on the right. The Razor Boar comfortably eats the Paladin. The Road Hog on the right frenzies into the Reckoner, and gets the Crit Knockdown with its Frenzy attacks. Forced Evolution'd War Hog and central Road Hog barrel up the middle of the table. A couple of Idrians are killed by frenzying Gun Boars, and a Gorax on the left. War Hog frenzies up to get range on the Templar. We go back to Arkadius's turn, and he kills the Choir member with a boosted Primal Shock. He opts not to reposition, since I think his position is pretty much perfect. So far, so good. Forced Evolution'd War Hog uses Aggression Dial and wades in on the knocked down Reckoner. A few attacks later and it Overtakes to smash the objective pretty comfortably to. I do not make any attacks in the direction of the Enliven'd, Fortified Templar between those two models, because that would be silly. I run the Gobber Chef on the right onto the flag. 3 CP, in the bag, made four when I run my Gobber Chef on the left onto my own flag. Now I five surviving Idrians in the zone and the Templar to take care of. Orin removes one Idrian in the zone and one who was outside it by shooting the central Road Hog in the back with a chain lightning. Hutchuck runs to engage the clump of Idrians including the UA in the top-left, then running back as far as he could. He cops a free strike, but my opponent rolls snake eyes to hit. With Dig In gone, I rain Gun Boar templates shots (one regular and one Ancillary) on them to kill them. My Witch Doctor gives my War Hog ghostly, allowing it to charge past the final Idrian to bulldoze the Templar out of the zone. It still had LOS to the Idrian at the end of that, so after making its charge attack to no effect it boosted a cleaver into the Idrian and killed it. Phew. What a turn. At this point I only had like 12 minutes on clock remaining, but I had all 5 CPs I needed to win. Recon II man...
|
|
|
Post by Azahul on Jan 26, 2018 12:53:01 GMT
Round Two - Spread the Net So I've never actually played into Grymkin before. Most locals either have them as side armies they don't really see as tournament armies, or the province of a serial faction hopper who went in and out of the faction before I ever got a game in. Made the match-ups for this round a bit weird. My opponent had Child with what I was reasonably sure I recognised as a battlegroup heavy list and a second list with... stuff. So I dropped Arkadius because when scared of the unknown just kill it before it gets to do anything. My opponent dropped Child, so I started to feel a lot more comfortable. Funky Arcana rules, sure, but at least his army is all "killy beast" and "kinda killy support beast". He had: Child -Skin and Moans -Skin and Moans -Skin and Moans -Cage Rager -Cage Rager -Gorehound -Crabbit (free) -Crabbit (free) -Crabbit (free) Min Dread Rots Lady Karianna Rose Gremlin Swarm (free) Gremlin Swarm (free) Death Knell He picked Sacrifice and Labyrinth as his non-Trump Arcana. Deployment I won the roll off and leapt at the chance to go first. Deployed myself as per usual. My opponent matched my symmetrical deployment, with the Death Knell behind the Child in the centre and the Gorehound floating out on the flank. Pigs Turn 1 Everything runs. One Road Hog Full Boars and runs to get a bit of extra potential assassination pressure. Targ runs to catch it in Herding so Arkadius can heal its one point of damage before he, too, runs. Grymkin Turn 1 Similarly, Grymkin stuff runs. What with children being lazy today and all though, the Child let the team down and just walked. She also threw a Tantrum. This was taken a little ways into next turn, see below. Pigs Turn 2 So I knew Labyrinth would shut down any massive alpha strike, so I was resolved to play this turn cagey. Maybe see if I could lure out another Arcana. Hutchuck ambushed in behind the Gorehound flanking down my right. He threw a Wild Shot grenade, knocked the Gorehound down, and charged it. And of course I charged him right into Child's Control range and Labyrinth triggered. Whelp... Hutchuck did then freaking murder the Gorehound though, which was amazing. I hope you had your fun. Rest of the list backed up and picked off Dread Rots. Arkadius threw up Guardian Warbeast to deter any counter attack, stuck Forced Evolution on a War Hog. One Razor Boar ran out on the left, facing a table edge so it couldn't frenzy anywhere inconvenient, to contest a zone and force my opponent to decide whether he wanted to commit a Skin and Moans to deal with the nuisance. Stuck my Gobber Chef on the flag. Grymkin Turn 2 A Crabbit went after Hutchuck, and did two damage to him. Cage Ragers ran into position for something, which turned out to be a Force Hammer assassination my opponent aborted just before he attempted it because he saw Orin lurking next to Arkadius and remembered Arcane Vortex just in time. That Force Hammer went into my Forced Evolution'd War Hog instead, knocking him off his hill and over the Witch Doctor. Took 7 damage, the Doctor took none. Both my Razor Boars were killed, my opponent shifted Child to the left to let his Skin and Moans there chase down the annoyance Boar I'd thrown out. Death Knell stood in front of Child, and that was about all. Pigs Turn 3 So, in a nutshell, I upkeep my spells and go for a big alpha strike, figuring I can kill three heavies while one Skin and Moans is off on the left and out of the game and win the grind convincingly from there. My opponent is certainly looking to use Sacrifice if he can, so I have to focus down his stuff. And I need to get the Death Knell dead first. So I move the Witch Doctor out of the way and have Arkadius boost my Warbeasts up the board and the Forced Evolution'd, Primal'd War Hog goes in on the Death Knell and... misses. Like, in five attacks, I missed 4. Needing 4s. This has flow on ramifications for my entire turn. A Primal'd Road Hog is needed to finish off the Death Knell, now down to about half health. But that means it lacks the attacks to kill the Skin and Moans it went after, and I have nothing else left to deal with it. My uber buffed War Hog was meant to massively damage the Cage Rager beside the Death Knell with all those leftover attacks, and without that my unbuffed Road Hog can only do about half the damage to the Cage Rager. And I couldn't break armour with things like Chain Lightning to kill that last jamming Dread Rot, so I decide to trample my War Hog over the Dread Rot to get to the Cage Rager, kill the Dread Rot, proc Sacrifice, and... well, that went badly. End of the turn my alpha strike has killed a supposedly flimsy Battle Engine and left all five heavies on full health. Whoo me. I think I killed a Crabbit though and Hutchuck hurt the one he was fighting. The last Gremlin Swarm was killed by a Gun Boar with Guidance as well, though I should note it took both the gun shot in its activation and the frenzy attack from the Feat to do so (one of the reasons I lacked the attacks to kill the Dread Rots). And I think a Crabbit died when I tried to soften up the Dread Knell ahead of time with another Gun Boar shot. Dice suck sometimes. A bad angle photo because I'm suddenly too depressed to stand up. Grymkin Turn 3 My opponent has options galore. Child gets up into the thick of things to throw out Abuses and make an epic fail of an attack on a Road Hog (missed the first attack, snake eyes for damage on the second, for a net zero). So, like, I'm not the only one with problems. The heavies all go to town and tear my army to pieces. I lose both Gorax, both Road Hogs, a Gun Boar, and the Forced Evolution'd War Hog (who, like a doofus, I forgot had that spell on him until the very last attack). But my last War Hog, who was never Primal'd, is left unscathed. And in walking distance of Child on three camp. Oh, and the Crabbit did one more damage to Hutchuck. I forgot to take a picture though. Too excited that I had a chance to still win this. Pigs Turn 3 I start by walking my Gun Boar to stand right in front of where I want Arkadius to be, and have it shoot Child. It does a solid 10 damage and blows through a transfer. Arkadius walks up, uses Raw Adrenaline on the Gun Boar, sticks Forced Evolution on the War Hog, and manages to burn through the one Arcane Vortex before landing Crippling Grasp on the Child. Targ gets an Ancillary Attack out of the Gun Boar, which does about 3 damage this time, and then Orin contributes another 3. Then the War Hog goes in, does not Aggression Dial, and successfully gets a Critical Knockdown. No Crit Pitch Retaliatory Strikes for this Child! The Child then dies to a lot of auto-hitting high power attacks. My opponent handed this one to me in the end, but damn that middle spot was bleak. I was blown away at how much damage a string of bad luck could do, in terms of the flow-on effect it had. Every part of my plan to deal with Sacrifice fell apart once I couldn't get the damage where I needed it. I don't think I like Grymkin very much...
|
|
|
Post by Azahul on Jan 26, 2018 13:39:23 GMT
Round Three - The Pit II Get a Legion player this round with Lylyth3/Fyanna2. I drop Arkadius, because it's Legion. He drops Fyanna2, but it's a pretty unique build. Fyanna -Neraph -Neraph -Seraph -Naga Max Raptors Max Raptors Hellmouth Annyssa Ryvaal Sorceress on Hellion Grotesque Assassin (free) Grotesque Assassin (free) Spell Martyr I had forgotten that Ravens turned off Ambush now, so Hutchuck was suddenly sad. Deployment My opponent won the roll off, which was a bit unfortunate. I do hate losing my best theme benefit on the starting roll. Terrain was more awkward in this game than in my previous ones, though compared to back home it feels like there's an allergy to putting things bang in the middle. I took the table side with the wall, figuring I could use it to keep Arkadius safe and deny Fyanna the opportunity to use it as an assassination deterrent. Arkadius is Anyssa's Prey. Legion Turn 1 Iron Flesh is on the Hellmouth. Admonition is on the left-hand Neraph. Fyanna opts not to put out Fury. Stuff runs. Pigs Turn 1 I put Hutchuck and a Chef in the way of the Raptors on the left to keep them from looking at anything I consider important. I put Forced Evo up on a War Hog and Aggravator up on Arkadius. I do some running, but I keep out of his threat ranges. Legion Turn 2 Hutchuck takes five Raptor shots to go down, but he does go down. The Grotesque Assassin on the left charges the Gobber Chef there. Misses both attacks. On the right the other Raptor unit drops a Gun Boar to about half health. Hellmouth jams. Fyanna Feats. Sorceress does the no spell aura. Pigs Turn 2 I decide not to go in under Fyanna's Feat. Unfortunately I decide to do this only after I drop Aggravator as part of a half-planned alpha, which is bad in the long run because that spell was my best answer to the Raptors. On the right I forget about the no spell aura and waste a Gun Boar activation. The other Gun Boar scatters a shot onto a Raptor and kills it. I Primal a Razor Boar on the left, get into the zone and kill a tentacle. On the right I put my Razor Boar in the zone with its animus up. My Gobber Chef on the left edges around the Grotesque Assassin to toe the zone, then, because I figure I might as well, I make its attack. Roll double sixes followed by a six and a five to just straight up kill the Assassin. Not the expected winner of the assassin vs chef duel. I was suitably impressed. My opponent was not. I shuffled some models around, made sure Orin covered my Road Hog toeing the zone so that my opponent couldn't Gallows it into range of the Hellmouth, and ended my turn. Legion Turn 3 Naga and Raptors on the left do a bit over a third of the health of the Road Hog there with their arrows. They also kill my Chef. On the right they largely fail to do any serious damage to the Gun Boars. The Sorceress moves the no shooting bubble up. Neraphs go into both rectangle zones to score, one on the right destroys my objective. Annyssa kills my Primal'd Razor Boar. My opponent gets 3 CP. Pigs Turn 3 I figure I should be able to return the favour. Go for a big Arkadius alpha strike, but again my dice fail me. A Primal'd Forced Evolution'd War Hog fluffs its rolls and leaves the Neraph on the right alive. A Primal'd Road Hog goes in on the Hellmouth and leaves it on one. On the left the Primal'd War Hog kills the Seraph and Naga with a Fury to spare, but it's at the limits of my control so I can't get Annyssa to round out the set. My Road Hog without Primal maxes itself out killing the opponent's objective and sprinting away. I do finish off the Neraph with a lucky Gun Boar shot in the end, but I prevents me from whittling down the Raptors any further. Legion Turn 4 The Raptors on the right receive Fury. Raptors on the left, the Hellmouth, and the Neraph team up to kill my only non-Primal'd heavy (I'd tried real hard the turn before to find a way to need less Primal, maybe should have had Forced Evo on the Hellmouth-hunting Road Hog instead). Drop my left-hand War Hog as well. One of the Fury'd Raptors is needed to finish off the Road Hog, but the remaining three kill my Gun Boars without a problem, even bereft of a charge bonus. Pigs Turn 4 I should probably have gone for a Primal Shock assassination at this point, since Fyanna's only transfer target was maxed. Instead I tried to tough it out. Managed to kill a Raptor on the right with an Ancillary Attack. Put Crippling Grasp on my opponent's Neraph, backed up to safety, sent in a Primal'd Gorax, and realised then I'd forgotten Admonition as it slipped an inch out of range. The Gorax was able to kill Anyssa instead and had an attack left when it Overtook into melee with the Neraph anyway, but not enough to put it in the dirt or anything. Legion Turn 5 We're both down to just a couple of minutes, so no more pictures from this point forward. My opponent downs my remaining War Hog. My Road Hog is left on one health after basically everything on the left goes into it. Pigs Turn 5 The Road Hog gets its aspects healed, receives Primal, kills some Raptors. Arkadius tosses up Guardian Warbeast. Legion Turn 6 The Road Hog gets killed, along with my Gorax. No Warbeasts left. My solos have started to drop as well. By the end of this turn I just have Arkadius and loyal, loyal Targ. Pigs Turn 6 Arkadius needles a Raptor to death. Targ runs to contest some zones. Legion Turn 7 The Neraph runs to score the right-hand zone and win. Basically, I feel like a lot of little errors and a few bad dice rolls in the wrong place (not killing the Hellmouth on Feat turn was real unfortunate, and similar for the right-hand Neraph costing me Gun Boar shots to finish it off when I needed to get Weapon Masters off the table) compounded. It was a very fun and even game though, and I had a blast. Interestingly, losing Ambush on Hutchuck felt huge. I'm so used to having him as a threat to push flanking cavalry inwards, or to kill them and tie them up if they fail to respect his threat. That's pretty important for a battlegroup heavy list, and part of why I never run Arkadius without him.
|
|
|
Post by Azahul on Jan 26, 2018 13:56:21 GMT
Round Four - Standoff I'm going to rush through this real quick because it's well past midnight here and I have more games tomorrow (and the day after...). Got a Ret player, Issyria in Shadows and Vyros2 in Legion of Dawn. Figured based on past experience I had good game into both with Carver. Dropped Carver. Definitely was feeling the lack of practice in this game. His list was: Vyros -7 Sirens Max Sentinels with UA Max Sentinels with UA 3 Arcanists Deployment I won the roll-off. Deployed symmetrically but listing hard to the right because... I dunno. I was tired. Opponent had Sentinels on each flank and Sirens in the middle. Pigs Turn 1 Batten, Mobility, lots of running. Riling on the left Splatter Boar and War Hog. Retribution Turn 1 Mini-Feat on the Sentinels on the left. No Mini-Feat on the right. His stuff ran up. Pigs Turn 2 Splatter Boars scattered some corrosion shots around coated five Sentinels. I held off at a distance. Retribution Turn 2 Only two Sentinels died, giving my opponent plenty of charges on some of my poorly positioned Warbeasts. Got jammed in the middle by two Sirens. Pigs Turn 3 Went for a Feat turn. Tried not to proc Vengeance on the left by just corroding the Sentinels there. Destroyed the Sirens in the middle and sent my other War Hog in to destroy the Objective and another Siren. On the right Maximus removed most of the Sentinels on his own. Sent a Primal'd Battle Boar in to deal with the rest of them. Missed every attack. Retribution Turn 3 Sentinels clear my left. Sirens kill the War Hog in their zone. One with a full Synergy Chain and Concentrated Power and max Focus goes to try and kill my other War Hog but it uses Enliven to just slip past it. Maximus proves impossible to hit by one Siren attempting a throw. I forget to take a picture. Pigs Turn 4 Kwaak uses Venom to kill some Sentinels. Maximus kills one and hits the Siren for some damage. I kill a Siren with a War Hog but it takes basically its full activation. Orin kills two of three Arcanists. Retribution Turn 4 Everything bar the Gobber Chef on the left (my opponent forgot to attack it), Kwaak, and Carver gets killed. Pigs Turn 5 Carver man modes a Siren with so much Fury to spare he throws a Rift at another one and boosts blast damage to kill Lanyssa. Kwaak drops the Sentinel UA to 1 health and corrodes both him and his standard bearer. Chef tries to backstab the Sentinel behind him for funzies but fails to break armour. Retribution Turn 5 Both Sentinels on the right die to Corrosion. My opponent kills the Chef, then a Siren and Vyros team kill Carver. This... was not a great game. It certainly wasn't clean, both my opponent and I were constantly measuring things wrong, and I made a truly egregious error when marking damage. I did have fun, but I was not playing well. For example, you may note I had Hutchuck in my list for this tournament. Where was Hutchuck? Well, I finally remembered to ambush him in on Turn 4, and then forgot to activate him both then and in Turn 5. Pretty indicative of my performance this game I thought. On the plus side, meant he was the only model I had my opponent never killed. Ah well. Iron Arena funny times tomorrow!
|
|
|
Post by Azahul on Jan 26, 2018 14:19:57 GMT
I should note quickly in respect to that last game that my opponent also played exceptionally well. Particularly his left-flank Sentinels, the only turn where he presented me with a good Berserk/Overtake opportunity was the turn the mini feat was on and I couldn't reliably damage them. He was certainly playing better than I was.
In the end I placed 24th out of a field of about 66. The four undefeated players are due to play in a finals event tomorrow. I like to think I've got much more interesting plans...
|
|
|
Post by Azahul on Jan 27, 2018 12:13:14 GMT
So, for Day Two of the convention I had resolved to play Iron Arena. Partly because I wanted to get some Broken Egg Minion Tokens just by playing games, and partly because the No Quarter Primes have been releasing with all kinds of cool narrative scenarios that I really wanted to try out. While a huge part of my love of Warmachine comes from treating it as a purely clinical, pieces on a chess board-style competitive experience, I got into wargaming to begin with out of an RPG-like desire to create stories and moments like those from books or movies. Lucky for me, it was pretty easy to get people in Iron Arena to agree to this weirdness. First up, I played a game against a Legion player with a scenario called Coastal Assault. We couldn't do Steamroller at all because there were no zones available on or near our table, but all Coastal Assault required was two flag markers so my opponent agreed as much because it was better than no scenario at all. He won the roll off and chose to go first, so I was the defender. In a nutshell, I automatically lost if my opponent ever finished a turn in control of one of the flags 18" from my side of the board. He got a 10" deployment zone, I got a 16" one, so the lines started off real close. In return, my entire half of the table counted as a hill with 1" elevation. The scenario also had rules for the kinds of terrain to use (it's from NQP #1, so all trench warfare stuff), but we stuck with regular terrain. List-wise, I hadn't had a chance to play Valkyries yet and desperately wanted to try them with Midas. I couldn't bring my Meat Thresher with me to this convention, couldn't get it to fit, so I ended up replacing it with a unit of Slaughterhousers and my third Gun Boar with a Splatter Boar and Chef. This made the list: Midas -Gun Boar -Gun Boar -Splatter Boar -Splatter Boar Max Brigands -Warlord Min Bone Grinders Slaughterhousers Valkyries Valkyries Razorback Crew Razorback Crew Agata Efaarit Scouts (free) Efaarit Scouts (free) Alten Ashley (free) Viktor Pendrake My opponent was running: Abby2 -Carnivean -Angelius -Angelius -Seraph Max Raptors Ice Witches Deathstalker Forsaken Shepherd Spell Martyr Spell Martyr Deployment My opponent had his Raptors on the right and Warbeasts in the centre. I set my Brigands opposite the Raptors, figuring Prey and Dig In would give them a decent chance in a shooting war. I scattered some Valkyries among them. On the left went my Razorback Crews, deployed close enough to be covered by the Valkyries. Slaughterhousers squeezed in between the Menoth Shrine (which we were treating as four separate linear obstacles) and the rubble, while my battlegroup set up so that the Gun Boars could lend help Raptor hunting or whittling down Warbeasts, as appropriate. Legion Turn 1 Bracer went on the Carnivean, everything ran. The Raptors ran laterally instead of forwards, trying to get away from the Brigands. The Deathstalker came forward and shot a Razorback Crew, but a Valkyrie intercepted the shot and took a point of damage for her troubles. I forgot to take a picture. Pigs Turn 1 Thanks to my half of the table being all hill, I was able to ignore the elevation bonus received by the Angelius on the hill. My Razorback Crews aimed and shot at it, scoring one hit, and doing a bit of damage that Alten was able to then turn into a crippled spirit. The Brigands received Death March, walked up, and Dug In. One Gun Boar did some early damage to the Carnivean, the other sniped a Spell Martyr. Legion Turn 2 It takes two attempts and all her Fury, but Abby spells a Valkyrie to death. The Carnivean and healthy Angelius then go in to kill all of my lights bar one Splatter Boar. The Seraph rolls up one shot on the left and shoots an Efaarit to death. The Raptors come forward and the four of them with range all shoot at one of my Valkyries. It survives the onslaught with 3 health remaining. Def 15 (because of my half of the table being a hill) and Arm 17 worked very nicely. I forgot to take a picture again. Pigs Turn 2 Midas Curses the Carnivean, then hits it with Calamity, then removes Spiny Growth and Bracer with a Hex Blast (boosting damage). He camps two Fury and edges away from the two enemy heavies. He needn't have worried though. The Brigands Hog Wild and the Carnivean is dead with a shot or two to spare. Three charge the Angelius, drop its health down a bit. The rest move up the board. The Valkyries on the right then charge the Angelius, getting two hammer attacks over the heads of the Brigands. Both miss. Agata then goes in to show them how it's done and combo strikes the Angelius, killing it and allowing her to Side Step and Sprint a good way up the board. On the left the Valkyries, in revenge for the death of their sister, charge up. One goes for a Raptor, the other charges the Seraph and is able to proc flank on the Raptor. The Raptors dies to the hammer attack, so the Seraph takes a beating from a hammer and two buckler guns. Three Bone Grinders join in the fun with a three pig CMA, applying Grievous Wounds and crippling the Seraph's Spirit. A single Slaughterhouser adds insult to injury and removes the Mind as well. Meanwhile, the injured Angelius is reduced to one box in Body by Alten, the Razorback Crews, and the Efaarit. At no point do I remember to use Pendrake's Beast Lore. Legion Turn 3 The Raptors charge in, killing a couple of Slaughterhousers. They try to kill the two Valkyries engaging the Seraph, but miraculously, stupidly, both Valkyries survive. Def 13 is so, so good man. Abby kills Agata, so the damaged Warbeasts go to Mat 8 and get to try and hit pigs by rolling 4s on 1d6. It doesn't work. At around this point my opponent concedes. Well, I'm officially in love with Valkyries. I had one game before this one which I didn't photograph into a pretty new Skorne player, and a Battle Lusted unit tore an Aradus to pieces with a whole Valkyrie to spare. Carver is probably dropping out of my pairing for a while until I've figured out a Midas list I really like. I... I might actually play a lot of the Thornfall theme.
|
|
|
Post by Azahul on Jan 27, 2018 12:39:25 GMT
Iron Arena rewards you for playing 3+ person games, and NQP #2 gave us the perfect scenario for this. The moment I read the Trophy Kill scenario I knew I desperately wanted to play it. Up to four players, each with 25 point armies including no Warcasters, Warlocks, Warjacks, Warbeasts, Cavalry, Weapon Crews, Structures, or Battle Engines, go up against a single wild Gargantuan controlled by a deviation template that rampages around the board as the hunting parties try desperately to bring it down. Oh, and as you cripple aspects, it gets stronger rather than weaker. And the first time you kill it you basically unlock the second stage of the boss battle, as it heals back to full health and now makes Sweep Power Attacks in both arcs every turn. Playing it with the maximum four players isn't even 100% advantageous, as the Gargantuan activates after each player's turn. And to top it all off, if any single attack ever does 10+ damage, the Gargantuan immediately tramples in their direction and stops only when it reaches a legal landing zone. Yep, infinite range tramples. Looked phenomenally intimidating on paper. I ran with a max Brigands with Warlord and Alten Ashley, as that seemed like a safe way to whittle our Glacier King opponent down. Joining my pigs were a unit of Forge Guard with Ogrun Bokur and TAC, a group of Trollblood Highwaymen with a Skinner, Fell Caller, and Braylen, and... oddly, Eilish Garrity showed up bringing with him some apparently allied Ice Witches and Hellmouths (the rules say no AD, but Distant Deployment seems fine). The hunting party assembled. Round One The Glacier King still slumbered, there in the middle of the board, so we all took this opportunity to rush forward. The Hellmouths couldn't quite retrain themselves however, and rudely woke the beast by tearing its hide with their tentacles. It went raging off in the opposite direction, eating two of the quietly approaching Highwaymen. Round Two My Brigands moved in. At dice minus 5 against their Prey target, they managed to roll a whole lot of fives and failed to even cripple the Glacier King's Mind. Alten Ashley chipped in a few points himself, then the pigs repositioned to try and feel a bit more safe. After this attack, the Glacier King turned on its heel and rushed the Hellmouths instead, gobbling up a couple of tentacles. This exposed its back to the Highwaymen, who under Braylen's leadership proceeded to shred it and remove near half its health with their pistols. The Glacier King ate the remaining tentacles, as the dwarfen forces ran ever closer. The next wave of tentacles positioned to box the Glacier King in, keeping it distracted and giving it plenty to snack on while the guns wore it down. Eilish managed to Bleed the creature for a couple of points of damage. Round Three The Brigands were a lot more effective this come around. They succeeded in "killing" the Glacier King, causing its health to refresh, and didn't let up. They did another fifteen or so damage after that. The Glacier King's frenzied thrashing saw the last of the tentacles vanish into its maw, but doing so had left it exposed to the Highwaymen once more. They finished the beast off, Braylen putting the final bullet in its skull. The mighty beast crashed to the ground, and three hunting parties all turned to glare at the dwarfs who hadn't even managed to reach the fight.
|
|
|
Post by Azahul on Jan 27, 2018 12:57:42 GMT
Not content with one round of this insanity, we returned to the table for a second crack. This time we decided to amp up the difficulty with a Sea King. A Mountain King, with its kill shots, would probably have been even more lethal, but in lieu of that we decided 4" sweeps on one side would do instead. I decided to raise the difficulty even more by taking a melee force with a decent chance of actually provoking the trample attacks we entirely avoided last game. I ran a unit of Slaughterhousers, Lanyssa, Maximus, and Alten Ashley. Everyone else kept their hunting parties the same. As you can see, the Hellmouths decided to edge a bit closer to the prey this time. Round One Our dwarf compatriot demanded to be first player this time, to make sure there was actually a chance he could contribute. The Hellmouths were more sedate this time around, and we left the beast untouched for the first round of the game as we all ran into position. Round Two The first blood was drawn by the Ogrun Bokur, charging the beast and driving his spear into its thigh. The beast responded by wolfing down a single tentacle. The Sea King had drawn close enough for Maximus to reach it. Lanyssa tagged it with Hunter's Mark, and Maximus went charging in. He managed to do exactly 10 damage, provoking the trample attack. The beast thundered towards him, its feet crashing into him as it passed, but he staggered upright again entirely unscathed. Shame the Sea King promptly turned around and ate him after my turn was done, but that trample move had put the Sea King close enough for me to get two Slaughterhouser charges in as well. And, of course, the Sea King had positioned himself for the Highwaymen to go to town again. After this the Skinner managed to finally get a crack, having been just out of range all last game. He went charging in, howling, and did a solid 15 damage to the Sea King. It squished him for his troubles. Round Three The dwarfs charged in, meeting the Sea King as it finished disposing of the Skinner. They dealt many heavy blows with their hammers, until finally one was severe enough to provoke a frenzied response. Again, a Forge Guard managed to do exactly 10 damage. The resulting trample killed five Forge Guard and healed all 10 damage. By this time, however, our quarry was looking very shaky. The Hellmouths lured it back towards my forces, lashing it with tentacles while Eilish drew blood from its wounds. It smashed its assailants, but was juuuust close enough for a single Slaughterhouser to charge. Alten shot first, doing a few points of damage, then Lanyssa tossed in a Hunter's Mark and the Slaughterhousers charged and ran into position. I needed a 19 to drop the Sea King. I rolled a 19. Oh hey, you can see the only surviving dwarf there. If you can round up the players, I reaaaaaally recommend this scenario. It doesn't take long to play and it's hilarious. It is pretty easy to break, just running a couple of Incorporeal models to engage the Gargantuan and then plinking it to death is the obvious one, andthe Hellmouths feel like they come pretty close too, but it's a right if you approach it in the right frame of mind. And it's not often you get to play a cooperative game of Warmachine where everybody wins (or loses, I suppose). Plus with ten Gargantuans in the game at this point there's a lot of variation possible.
|
|
|
Post by Azahul on Jan 27, 2018 13:05:26 GMT
Finally, for my fifth and final Iron Arena game, I played against a newish Legion player who was just looking for a quick game. So of course I dropped Arkadius. He dropped Abby2. The table was unique in that there was a massive obstruction taking up the middle of the central zone. To make things harder for myself I decided we should just treat it as a single obstruction (I warned my opponent that I could give a model ghostly, he responded by pointing out that his Feat gave everything flight...). Deployment I won the roll off, took first, and skewed hard to the left to try get around the obstruction. My opponent deployed more evenly. I forgot to take a picture. Pigs Turn 1 Everything ran. One Road Hog used Full Boar and ran. Arkadius healed that Road Hog one health (through Targ's Herding) and ran. Legion Turn 1 Bracer on Protheus. Everything in my opponent's army ran up behind the central obstruction. Pigs Turn 2 Forced Evolution and Ghostly went on one War Hog. I used my Feat and put a Primal'd Road Hog with Raw Adrenaline into the Seraph. The spray hurt every model behind the obstruction save Abby herself, tagging the Seraph, a Raek, and Proteus. The Seraph died pretty comfortably, letting the Road Hog overtake through a Blight Wasp and deliver a final blow to Abby herself. Then the War Hog walked in. No Primal, and Abby was base to base with Proteus so knockdown was impossible, so I boosted three attack rolls and paid for Aggression Dial and killed the Naga and removed most of the Neraph with transfers. A spray through my own War Hog from my second Road Hog missed Abby but did kill the Raek. I didn't position very well to take advantage of my Feat, did a lot less work than I'd have liked, but it was enough that my opponent conceded once he'd worked out that he couldn't get an assassination run through all the Free Strikes and the Guardian Warbeast attack he'd need to take.
|
|
|
Post by Azahul on Jan 27, 2018 13:13:46 GMT
Finally, I also played in a Speedmachine event this evening. No pictures because of the nature of the format made finding the time a game losing proposition. I took:
Arkadius -Road Hog -Road Hog -Gun Boar -Gun Boar -Gorax
Round One - I played into an Abby2 list. Since there was nothing for Abby to Hex Bolt to death, his maximum threat range was 14". That let me alpha, remove Proteus and his Neraph. He had to use his Seraph and Abby to kill the Road Hogs. With Crippling Grasp on Abby and Forced Evolution, Primal, and Raw Adrenaline on a Gun Boar I was able to kill him easily in return.
Round Two - I played into a Lylyth3 list with two Angelius, a Naga, and a Bolt Thrower. A forest in the middle of the table kept me safe from any assassination runs. I never even needed to use my Feat, my opponent came too far forward with an Angelius and I killed it with a charging Road Hog, then I shot his Bolt Thrower off the table, then he conceded. Legion players did that to me a lot today.
Round Three - I played into Ossrum with four gun bunnies (three Gunners and a Blaster), two Drillers, and a Basher. I ate up way too much time trying to find a Turn 2 assassination but a big patch of rubble ruined it and I settled for an alpha strike that killed both Drillers and let me engage Ossrum with a Road Hog. He spent the next two turns attempting to assassinate Arkadius but Guardian Warbeast foiled one attempt (a slam from the Basher where I was able to use the walk to slightly reposition the slam target so it wouldn't go over Arkadius) and on the second attempt he forgot to Energizer the Basher which prevented it from getting to Arkadius. Even if it had, he'd probably have clocked out during the assassination run, since he clocked out very shortly after that realisation.
I won the event, pipping the other undefeated player by 1 CP.
|
|
|
Post by zwergenkrieger on Jan 27, 2018 14:15:03 GMT
Some great reports here, thank you for sharing!
Regarding your Midas list(s): Will he be your Hordes drop or do you plan on using it more as an all comers list? I pretty much like to run my Bone Grinders this year and Midas seems to be a suitable warlock, but I fear that a Bone Grinders heavy list (I own 4 full units) can´t be an all comers list. The thing is: We normally play with one list whenever we meet and therefore I like to run kind of all comers lists.
Nevertheless, the other idea I had in mind is a battlegroup heavy Midas list in WWFF with some Nyss Hunters and a bunch of solos for support.
The biggest issue though is that Arkadius offers the best all comers lists we can field with Farrow followed by Carver whom I played the most in 2017. I´m regularly out of this game for half a year in the winter term. Then in spring / summer I use to start some new Warmachine/Hordes experiences until I get bored by the so called competetive nature of the game (see notes below*). This year I like to get some new experience, meaning I like to run some Midas, like to find a Helga list I can win with, and maybe like to run something based on Gatormen (played triple-Posse-Rask last year but it was a rather boring experience).
(*Sidenote: Why I regularly get bored after playing that game for 4-6 months: First of all, I pretty much like this game. It offers the best rules set you can get in our world of tabletops, though the models are rather ugly except for Farrow and some Legion. The rules set alone is what keeps me in the game. I also highly appreciate that old "page 5 dogma" of play like you´ve got a pair.
But I don´t like a lot of the behavior people show playing that game. "I have to test for a tournament" is one of the most heard statements. Well, that normally doesn´t matter but more often than not it is stated by people who can´t count on winning a tournament - not to say placing in the upper half of the field. Instead, they think that "pay to win" is the way to play that game and often bring the newest shiny winning lists. Here I start to quit the game for some months. Simply because on one hand I do not like that arms race and on the other hand I don´t like playing the same lists every now and then just to be competetive in a Meta consinsting of people with highly maxed out lists.)
|
|
|
Post by Azahul on Jan 28, 2018 2:12:54 GMT
My Midas list realistically is just an anti Hordes list. It can probably play through a number of Warmachine match-ups, but I loaded it to the absolute gills with anti-Hordes stuff specifically. I've been struggling to find a good place for a lot of Bone Grinders, and I'm not yet sure there is one. I'm real keen to find out how much more life Valkyries give our other infantry though.
If your regular opponents want to practice for tournaments and you feel locked in to an all comers list you ccould suggest they bring a two list pair to game nights and do list selection for added verisimilitude, unless you feel that's pushing the attitudes you distaste.
|
|
bacon
Junior Strategist
Posts: 134
|
Post by bacon on Jan 28, 2018 3:58:30 GMT
I played a really similar list with Midas a couple of days ago, though I had the Thresher. It performed far better than I ever expected it to and with a little work and a better player at the helm it might be a genuinely good list. Even Agata did a respectable amount of work contesting a zone and nearly one shotting an objective on her own. I just wish it had more options for magic attacks since I couldn't deal with gremlins at all in that game. zwergenkrieger don't be afraid to play lists you want to play. Those maxed out lists in your meta aren't unbeatable and even bad matchups usually aren't as bad as they first seem. If you understand your opponents list and what makes it tick you can use positioning and scalping to deny and disassemble their game plan.
|
|