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Post by Azahul on Feb 13, 2021 8:06:06 GMT
Whelp, I hope everyone wants to see Azazello play into Krueger2 on Recon II, because those are the only games I've been getting in the past fortnight. First up, an in-person game. I took my standard Azazello list, which at this point looks like: Azazello -Road Hog -Pyre Troll -Troll Basher Max Champions -Skaldi Max Champions Valkyries (the red unit is the Henchwomen unit) Valkyries Min Krielstone -Elder Ledfoot and Tredz Dhunian Archon Dhunian Archon Boomhowler the Destroyer Champion Hero My opponent had a Bones of Orboros build with the following: Krueger2 -Woldwarden -Woldwarden -Woldwarden -Woldwyrd -Woldwyrd -Woldwyrd Sentry Stone Shifting Stones Shifting Stones Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew Stoneshaper Chuck Dogwood Malvin and Mayhem Well of Orboros Deployment I won the starting roll and took first. I deployed in the usual death ball, with Azazello and his battlegroup in the centre and a Champion and a Valkyrie unit on each flank. My opponent deployed his Well out on the right along with two Woldwyrds, balanced by two Woldwardens and the Shifting Stones on the left. My objective is a Dugout, his is a Treasure Chest. Pigs Turn 1 Azazello cast Wind Rush and Storm Rager on himself. Everything ran. Boomhowler gave Hoof It to Skaldi's Champions, which allowed a couple to get out in front of Azazello as a screen. The Stone walked and used Awaken the Stone and only rolled one Fury, which meant I didn't activate the Stone this turn. Circle Turn 1 My opponent felt he had an ok assassination run this turn, and that if it failed I wouldn't be able to retaliate. He had the Well summon in a Gallows Grove and shoot at the Champions. I blocked a direct hit with a Dhunian Archon but spread out a bit of damage from the blast. Chuck Dogwood gave Puppet Master to Krueger, who then Feated (Azazello was angled to move into the objective and didn't go anywhere), then landed both a TK and a Gallows on Azazello. He needed to roll pretty high for Azazello to get anywhere other models could get line of sight, and did not manage to do so. The Gallows rolled well for damage though and did about five boxes, which I opted not to transfer, though in retrospect with nothing else having a bead on Azazello I probably should have done so. One of the Mannikins from the Sentry Stone took a potshot at a Champion and did a couple points of damage, everything else in his list ran to make sure there was no viable run on Krueger himself. Pigs Turn 2 Without many other options, everything ran. Boomhowler used Hoof It on himself so that he'd be able to get up the table faster and into position to threaten his Counter Charge against anything coming through the forest. One of the Champions killed the Gallows Grove used to enable the preceding turn's assassination run. Ledfoot turned Azazello back around and the Pyre Troll gave him Flaming Fists. He then Feated, charged and killed the closest Woldwarden, then used both Wind Rush and Sprint to get back behind the forest (copping a few Woldwyrd shots in the process, none of which managed to do damage thankfully). Circle Turn 2 Assassination run number two! Chuck gave a Woldwarden Puppet Master, who then cast TK on a Henchwoman Valkyrie blocking a landing zone and walked over to Ledfoot and Tredz. An attempt was made to try and throw them at Azazello, as there was no way to line up a directly away throw option. The attack missed and scattered off him. This time with help from the Treasure Chest, Krueger was able to land a TK to turn Azazello around. Not being knocked down didn't really matter for the barrage of attacks that followed from the Woldwyrds and Woldwarden's, which basically all hit with the last attack forcing a Tough check. Azazello passed. The Well tried to finish the job by scattering blast damage onto him but thankfully his Armour 22 held firm and he survived. My opponent then conceded as Krueger had had to walk right into the middle of the forest and was staring down Azazello and the entire rest of his list for the counter-punch. I forgot to take a picture. This game was certainly educational, it's always good to know that as tanky as Azazello can be some of the game's premier assassins do still have decent runs on him. I certainly could have played a lot less sloppy, I was probably a bit too confident in Azazello's defensive stats and wasn't really bothering to pay too close attention to possible power attack vectors, which was a big mistake that nearly went sideways. Though my opponent's dice did go a long way to making the difference between Def 18 and knocked down rather small...
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olaf
Junior Strategist
Posts: 101
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Post by olaf on Feb 17, 2021 8:40:29 GMT
Yeah as someone who's played a bunch of Sorcha1 TK casters are pretty dangerous. High def matters a lot less when they can just turn you around and backstrike you (def 16 isn't enough) and you gotta keep pretty far back(cover is nice). I was gonna suggest a troll bouncer but looking at it it doesn't protect against being placed.
I assembled my Azello yesterday. It's a pretty convenient assembly considering it's two pieces and the base, but the model still look pretty lit.
Oh and that well of orboros looks like it's pretty gorgeous though it's a bit difficult to tell from afar.
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Post by Azahul on Feb 17, 2021 11:36:42 GMT
Yeah as someone who's played a bunch of Sorcha1 TK casters are pretty dangerous. High def matters a lot less when they can just turn you around and backstrike you (def 16 isn't enough) and you gotta keep pretty far back(cover is nice). I was gonna suggest a troll bouncer but looking at it it doesn't protect against being placed. I assembled my Azello yesterday. It's a pretty convenient assembly considering it's two pieces and the base, but the model still look pretty lit. Oh and that well of orboros looks like it's pretty gorgeous though it's a bit difficult to tell from afar. Yeah, my opponent is an amazing painter. His Well and, well, basically all his models are incredible I'm not unhappy with my own Azazello incidentally, though it's nowhere near on the same level. Very pretty miniature in his own right.
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Post by Azahul on Feb 17, 2021 12:07:30 GMT
Ok, the next couple of games are going to be War Table. I signed up to this month's LOS Steamroller to get some more games in, playing in the NA bracket because I just hate regular sleeping hours I suppose. I went with Arkadius/Azazello as my pairing, I wanted to take them through their paces and see how they performed as a regular competitive pairing. The lists are: [Theme] Will Work For Food [Arkadius 1] Dr. Arkadius [+32] - Gorax Rager [7] - Gun Boar [8] - Gun Boar [8] - Road Hog [15] - Road Hog [15] - War Hog [14] - War Hog [14] - Targ [3] Boomhowler, Solo Artist [0(6)] Gatorman Witch Doctor [0(4)] Hermit of Henge Hold [0(5)] Kwaak Slickspine & Gub, Croak Sorcerers [4] Swamp Gobber Chef [1] Void Archon [8] Void Archon [8] Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew [2] [Theme] Vengeance of Dhunia [Azazello 1] Lord Azazello, the Castellan [+29] - Pyre Troll [8] - Road Hog [15] - Troll Basher [7] Dhunian Archon [0(6)] Dhunian Archon [0(6)] Ledfoot & Tredz [0(7)] Boomhowler the Destroyer [8] Trollkin Champion Hero [5] Farrow Valkyries [8] Farrow Valkyries [8] Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (min) [5] - Stone Scribe Elder [3] Trollkin Champions (max) [16] - Skaldi Bonehammer [5] Trollkin Champions (max) [16] My first game was into Circle, an opponent running a Krueger2/Mohsar pair. It was pretty interesting as pairings went, but ultimately I felt that Azazello had better game into both lists though the Krueger one might get dicey. My opponent picked Krueger, with the following list: Theme: The Wild Hunt [Krueger 2] Krueger the Stormlord [- WB: +27] - Storm Raptor [- PC: 34 (Battlegroup Points Used: 27)] - Pureblood Warpwolf [- PC: 17] Well of Orboros [- PC: 10] Gallows Grove [- PC: 0] Gallows Grove [- PC: 0] Gallows Grove [- PC: 0] Una the Falconer [- PC: 0] - Storm Raptor [- PC: 34] War Wolf [- PC: 2] Kogan the Exile [- PC: 0] Boil Master & Spirit Cauldron [- Boil Master & Spirit Cauldron: 5] Deployment I won the starting roll and took first. My opponent took a table side that meant I'd have to traverse a bunch of rough terrain and negotiate some hazards to get into the zones, while his objective was somewhat sheltered in a forest. I deployed the usual Azazello blob, though I let my Henchwomen Valkyries range out on the right flank a bit more than usual with Boomhowler and a Road Hog as support. I figured it would be better to put a lot of pressure on one flank and see if I could overwhelm a Storm Raptor with sheer target saturation. My opponent deployed Una and her Raptor on the left, Krueger's Raptor and the Well on the right, with the Pureblood, Kogan, and Krueger in the centre. My objective is a Dugout, my opponent's was an Observatory Pigs Turn 1 Azazello cast Storm Rager on himself, dumped two Fury into the Stone, and charged up the board. Everything else ran, save the stone which walked and Awakened itself up to four Fury. I think I was basically out of range of all attacks so didn't activate the stone this turn. Circle Turn 1 My opponent started with the Well, which lobbed an amazing scatter into the midst of my list and knocked several points off of Ledfoot and a Champion and dropped a Dhunian Archon to one hit point. The Well summoned in a White Mane, which lurked behind the cloud. Krueger TK'd himself forward and cast Wind Storm. Both Storm Raptors advanced and used their animus. Pigs Turn 2 Setting up for Krueger's Feat took a bit of thought. I stacked my Champions on the left flank, putting two in the zone there, aiming to buttress them with the acid pit so that they wouldn't get pushed out of the zone on the Feat. Azazello, having received the Anchor benefit from the Dugout, advanced into the Rubble and used himself as a speed bump to the Champions there. He tried to tag the White Mane with a shot but missed. I put a Fury into the Stone, which then activated (going no continuous effects of course, with an eye on that acid) and Awakened to top itself up. Boomhowler ran off to the right flank to make sure he could support the Road Hog next turn. The Road Hog jumped over the wall, aiming to keep itself from getting pushed anywhere by the Feat, and tagged the White Mane with a spray by aiming at the Well. It hit the White Mane but didn't do much damage, and then rolled ballistic on the Well and got it down to about 16 points. Circle Turn 2 The Raptors each moved up to get their animus in range and took some shots at the Champ units on each flank. They killed a Champion on each flank, which healed my Dhunian Archon up to about five hit points. The Well tried to get lucky with another scatter but I don't think it did anything of significance. Krueger moved up and Feated, pushing Boomhowler out of range of the Archons but failing to clear the left zone, threw a Rebuke on Skaldi's Champions, cast Windstorm, and I think TK'd the White Mane though I could be misremembering where the last of that Fury went. The Spirit Cauldron loaded up the White Mane with corpses, and the White Mane then charged Boomhowler, hit him for six damage, and died to the Retaliatory Strike (I think that's the first time I've actually used Retaliatory Strike on Boomhowler! ). The War Wolf ran to contest my flag. My opponent ended his turn. My opponent scored his flag, making the score 0-1 in his favour. We would realise a little ways into my next turn that my opponent had forgotten to activate a not-insignificant chunk of his models, including the Pureblood, but he decided to leave things as they were since I'd already revealed my next few moves. Pigs Turn 3 My opponent had left Krueger within 14" of Azazello, so I decided to just plot out a quick win. The Champions killed the War Wolf and moved out of the way of Azazello. The Road Hog took a spray at the Gallows Grove, hitting both the Grove and Krueger, killing the former and half-killing the latter. Ledfoot moved Azazello forward. He cast Flaming Fists on himself, Feated, used Wind Rush, charged the Storm Raptor, and killed Krueger with the first Flashing Blade attack. Technically he scored his flag and I scored the right zone at the end of that. To be honest, I slightly panicked when he Rebuked Skaldi's Champions, forgetting that a Dhunian Archon could always just bat them on the back of the head to remove it. Really do need to remember that Dispel option exists. The game if my opponent had backed up with Krueger by even a tiny fraction of an inch would have been an interesting one. I think I could have delivered a Road Hog to the Storm Raptor with Boomhowler's Dinner Time, which would have let me drop it low on health and then send Azazello in to finish the job. Or I could have left a Raptor alive and instead just sent the Road Hog to kill the Well, letting me play a bit more conservatively. My opponent hadn't been able to drum up much of a CP lead with his Feat, so I think I was in a good position to lock down the right-hand side and burn out the rest of his limited contesting options. Not sure how many Storm Raptor broadsides the Champions could have withstood, I suspect a good Pulse or two would have made a substantial dent, but at least losses were staying fairly limited for as long as he stayed back at range and tried to pick me off from there. Anyway, on to round two
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Post by Azahul on Feb 17, 2021 12:50:56 GMT
Round 2 - Bunker Up against Infernals this round, with an opponent running a Gastone2/Zaateroth pair. I was happy enough to finally get an Arkadius game on War Table (my first, I'm pretty sure! ), so I went for that option. My opponent picked Zaateroth, with the following: [Zaateroth 1] Zaateroth, The Weaver of Shadows [- WJ: +26] - Tormentor [- PC: 12 (Battlegroup Points Used: 12)] - Tormentor [- PC: 12 (Battlegroup Points Used: 12)] - Lamenter [- PC: 7 (Battlegroup Points Used: 2)] - Foreboder [- PC: 4] Infernal Gate [- PC: 12] Eilish Garrity, the Dark Seeker [- PC: 0] Alain Runewood, Lord of Ash [- PC: 0] Great Princess Regna Gravnoy [- PC: 0] Hermit of Henge Hold [- PC: 5] Lord Roget d'Vyaros [- PC: 4] Nicia, Hound of the Abyss [- PC: 4] The Wretch [- PC: 4] Lynda the Forgotten [- PC: 4] Cultist Band (max) [- Leader & 5 Grunts: 7] - Master Preceptor Orin Midwinter [- PC: 4] Cultist Band (max) [- Leader & 5 Grunts: 7] Howlers (max) [- Leader & 4 Grunts: 15] Deployment I won the starting roll in spite of Runewood's +1, so leapt at the chance to take first. My opponent grabbed the sheltered side of the table with actual terrain to hide behind. Accounting for the building on my left, I deployed quite skewed with almost all of my list right-of-centre, basically just leaving it to the gobbers to contest the left flag. My opponent had the Gate, Howlers, and a Tormentor on the left, Orin's unit and the other Tormentor on the right. Nicia and Lynda advance deployed on the right and left respectively. My objective was a Fuel Cache, his was a Stockpile. Pigs Turn 1 I ran my Gun Boars up. Targ tried to see if he could hit Nicia with an Ancillary Attack but it scattered off to somewhere irrelevant. Arkadius cast Forced Evolution on the left War Hog and Maltreated a Gun Boar, promptly healing that damage back with a Psycho Surgery. I put Guardian Beast on himself and moved and repositioned forward. I then remembered to activate the Road Hogs and ran them up the board with Full Boar, chipping their health down because order of operations is hard when you've just woken up. Everything else ran. Infernals Turn 1 The Gate activated first and used its souls to shoot a Gobber Chef off the table because I'd forgotten Ghost Shot was a thing, giving a soul to my Void Archon. Nicia moved up and shot a Road Hog for a few points of damage, then repositioned back.A Wretch ran up so that when the Desolator was spawned in it would create cloud cover for the rest of the list building off the forest. Hermit handed out Essence, Regna moved up and cast Deceleration and summoned a Lamenter. Zaateroth's Lamenter ran up into the forest. The Howlers bricked themselves in behind the cloud. My opponent then realised that the Lamenter in the forest would be visible as a charge target (though I think my models were so close that using one another and the Gate as a Feat beacon I could have largely gotten into them anyway). Regna's Lamenter moved over to the right with the Tormentor and Eilish. Pigs Turn 2 My opponent hadn't Feated and I couldn't afford to wait until Turn 4 to do serious work, so I decided this was Feat turn. My left War Hog received Pathfinder from the objective. Both Gun Boars moved up and shot Regna's Lamenter, getting it down to 5 hit points. They both cast Counterblast.The Void Archon on the right moved up and sprayed some Cultists, but it wasn't close enough to keep them from using Self Sacrifice so they killed off some other cultists and denied it the teleport. My Void Archon on the left ran to engage Lynda and the Desolator. Kwaak gave Enliven to the War Hog on the left and the Road Hog on the right. The Witch Doctor gave the left Road Hog Shadow Walk. The Gorax put Primal on one Road Hog. Arkadius activated, walked over to get the Gate in his control range, put Primal and Forced Evolution on the other Road Hog, and Feated. The Road Hogs frenzied towards the Gate. The War Hog on the left frenzied towards the Lamenter in the forest. The War Hog on the right frenzied towards the other Lamenter. One Gun Boar frenzied into that Lamenter but missed its attack, the Lamenter dodged around to the left. The other Gun Boar and Gorax just frenzied at my own models and bumped into Arkadius, getting rid of their Fury for me. Arkadius repositioned a little further back to the right. As for the actual attrition work, the Forced Evolution'd, Primal'd Road Hog walked in and killed the Desolator. Bad rolls meant that it took an attack more than it should have, but the Road Hog was still able to kill two Howlers for its trouble. The second Road Hog killed a Howler to overtake into the Tormentor, killing it. The War Hog with Pathfinder charged the Lamenter in the forest, missed the first attack, it dodged away, killed a Howler to Overtake back in, and nearly killed it with the third attack. The other War Hog charged over and finished the job, since I couldn't finangle a way to get to the Tormentor there (I'd have needed Shadow Walk, which in retrospect I don't think the Road Hog actually needed in the end). Hermit ran onto the central flag, Boomhowler laid down a Covering Fire to make it hard for the Cultists to advance on the right, and the Gobbers ran to contest the flag on the right. Infernals Turn 2 The Gate respawned three Howlers and they took their Vengeance moves, taking about a third of the leftmost War Hog's health off. Runewood cursed the War Hog in my opponent's zone and then charged the Road Hog in said zone, doing a bit of damage. Hermit advanced down the centre and used Master of Ruin, tagging both War Hogs and my Gun Boar. Regna's Lamenter flubbed most of its dice rolls attacking the Gun Boar on the right, doing pretty minimal damage. Nicia moved up and shot at the Void Archon, missing three times. She repositioned to contest the flag. Zaateroth put Scything Touch on the Tormentor and then shot my War Hog, which Enlivened forward to engage the Scything Touch'd Tormentor (probably a mistake...). She turned Roget into a Tormentor. Regna and some Cultists killed the War Hog in my opponent's zone. The Tormentor charged my Road Hog in the zone, hit it twice, and threw it into the other Road Hog to kill it. The Rites of Torment move fell just baaaaaarely short of being able to take the Tormentor into the second Road Hog. The one Howler with a combat action charged my War Hog, and I used Mad Visions to block the hit because with only one box in mind and a couple in Spirit I couldn't risk losing functionality on one of my remaining damage dealers for the next round. Lynda decided to be annoying and increase the cost of spells and upkeeps. We each scored our zones, putting the score at 1-1. Pigs Turn 3 I dropped Forced Evolution on my Road Hog after it frenzied on the Gate and upkept Guardian Beast. My Void Archon on the right walked into the Lamenter's back arc. With a couple of souls in hand it boosted a hit, needing a 7, hit and killed, then Void Walked over to engage Orin in my opponent's zone. The second melee initial hit and killed Orin, and then the spray killed two of the three Cultists it tagged. Hermit moved out of the engagement range of the lead Howler so that it was no longer in combat, taking a damage in the prospect, and then used his Telemetry ability. That in turn allowed Arkadius to land a Crippling Grasp on the Howler unit. My Void Archon on the left then charged into the back arc of the furthest Howler, taking a damage from Lynda's free strike, and sprayed down the line killing two of the four Howlers (one missed, one needed a 3 to kill and rolled snake eyes for damage). The Void Walk then let the Archon engage both surviving Howlers even after the Feat move and kill them both with boosted melee attacks. The Gorax walked up and used three Fury to Primal the War Hog, which killed the Tormentor in two swings (both boosted to hit, one boosted damage). Kwaak Enlivened both the War Hog and one of the Gun Boars. My Gun Boar on the right moved over so that it couldn't physically miss Nicia with a shot and the blast damage took her off the table. Targ moved onto the flag and base to base with the Gun Boar and healed some of the damage it had taken. Boomhowler moved up, put down another Covering Fire to make contesting the flag on the right hard, and gave himself Reposition to move to the central flag. The Bellows Crew ran to contest the flag on the left, one moving to engage Lynda. I scored my zone and the central and right flags, so the score was at 4-1. Infernals Turn 3 Lynda opted to take a free strike from a Bellows Crew Gobber to get to the flag. The attack hit and rolled the 14 needed to kill, so that Gobber just earned himself man of the match. He promptly died to a Gate shot, as did the other Gobber after the Foreboder failed to get a kill. The Hermit actually moved to contest a flag, the one on the right, and used Master of Ruin again. The Cultists on the right tried to clear the Void Archon out of the zone but missed their attacks. The Cultists on the left charged into the back arc of the Void Archon there and did the job. The Tormentor had to charge in and kill the Void Archon. Runewood, with the help of the Gate, was able to run to the left flag. Zaateroth activated and shot the War Hog, looking to capitalise on the negative armour aura from the Hermit. The first hit knocked it down to 13 hit points and gave it an Enliven move, putting it into my opponent's zone. The second shot needed to hit and roll a 15 for damage to clear the zone again, but sadly missed. I forgot to take a picture. With my zone still clear and the left flag under my opponent's control, we each scored to take the total to 5-2. Pigs Turn 4 To be honest, even without the Enliven move I'd have been in a good position to win. My War Hog frenzied, my Gun Boar near Arkadius had to take a threshold check and passed. Boomhowler gave himself Reposition in case dice failed him, aimed, and shot the one contesting Cultist near his flag dead, then Repositioned to the other side of the flag. The Gun Boar took a two-handed throw on the Hermit to clear him from the right-hand flag. My Road Hog walked over to contest the flag on the left. I scored my zone and the two flags again, putting the score at 8-2 for the win. Fairly par for the course for an Arkadius into Infernals game. The scenario helped for sure, as did going first, though I think I can still get decent work done into Zaateroth through her Feat if I play it correctly and don't get too unlucky with missing early attacks. My opponent made a couple of big mistakes, like giving me the Lamenter charge target on Turn 1 and the Enliven move on Turn 3, but I don't actually think either error particularly influenced the game (could have frenzied on my own models to get to the same position and still be in walking range of targets for the War Hog that frenzied at the Lamenter, and the only difference made by the Enliven move was that I didn't need to run my Hermit into my opponent's zone). Anyway, that's me back up to date I think. Should be it for games this week
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Post by Azahul on Apr 10, 2021 5:14:27 GMT
Oh boy I've got some catching up to do. Behind by basically an entire tournament at this point. Round 3 - King of the Hill For this round I ended up playing Arkadius into Kallus1. My opponent's list was the following: Kallus -Blightbringer Max Legionnaires Max Legionnaires Blackfrost Shard Virtue Host Virtue Host Virtue Champion Virtue Champion Blight Archon -Harrier Blight Archon -Harrier Deployment My opponent deployed pretty symmetrically, with the Blight Bringer in the centre alongside the Legionnaires units, and the Blight Archons on the flanks with the Virtue units. My deployment was more skewed, with Arkadius hewing left-of-centre with the Road Hogs and both War Hogs seated on the right flank. My thinking was that on Turn 2 I could try and hammer the left zone and centre and score a bunch of points, and leave contesting the right-hand zone to my objective for an early lead. My objective is a Fuel Cache, my opponents' is a Treasure Chest. Legion Turn 1 The Blight Archons each put their armour buffs on the Legionnaire units. Everything else ran up the board, with the Virtues dropping clouds. I think Kallus put Ignite on the left-flank unit of Virtues. Pigs Turn 1 Arkadius put up Guardian Beast and tossed Forced Evolution onto a right-flank War Hog. He moved up and gave Raw Adrenaline to a Gun Boar, which then ran and scattered a shot at the Virtues but did nothing of significance. Kwaak gave the Road Hogs Enliven. Everything else just ran. Legion Turn 2 Everything ran forward again. Kallus upkept Ignite, advanced, and Feated. The Blightbringer moved up and shot a Road Hog for a good chunk of damage. I enlivened forward, since most of the list had already activated and I now had a bead on Kallus. Pigs Turn 2 I gave my forward Road Hog reposition from Boomhowler and Primal from the Gorax. The Road Hog advanced and did a Power Attack Throw on the Virtue. Missed the boosted attack roll. I repositioned out of the way and tried to double-down, sending in the other Road Hog and succeeding in the throw this time, but now without a heavy that could easily get to Kallus. I Feated everything up the board and tried to get a War Hog to Overtake to Kallus but after the first few attacks it was clear that it wouldn't be able to make it, so I ended up with my list strung out and only a handful of pieces destroyed. Legion Turn 3 My opponent's clock was running pretty low, so they decided to just go for an assassination run. Kallus used Dark Guidance, and the Blightbringer fired a shot at Arkadius that gave the damage buff to the Legionnaires when they charged in, and I think a Blight Archon contributed a spray. The Legionnaires were able to charge in and finish the job. A pretty silly case of me tilting, to be honest. After the first Road Hog failed the throw I should have left it out there to die and just backed up, keeping my Feat in reserve until Kallus's Feat dropped. I could have hit the left-hand unit of Legionnaires with Crippling Grasp and Mudfoot and basically taken them out as a threat, and basically avoided putting anything else in threat range. I think I had the shots to kill my opponent's objective so I wouldn't have fallen too far behind on CP either. But alas, wasn't in the right headspace to adapt when my plan started to fail. I wasn't able to finish the rest of the tournament as I lost internet access for the following week. However, I did sign up to the next even just in time and submitted the same lists
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Post by Azahul on Apr 24, 2021 3:03:48 GMT
Ok, now onto the most recent tournament. Again, I took the following lists: [Theme] Will Work For Food [Arkadius 1] Dr. Arkadius [+32] - Gorax Rager [7] - Gun Boar [8] - Gun Boar [8] - Road Hog [15] - Road Hog [15] - War Hog [14] - War Hog [14] - Targ [3] Boomhowler, Solo Artist [0(6)] Gatorman Witch Doctor [0(4)] Hermit of Henge Hold [0(5)] Kwaak Slickspine & Gub, Croak Sorcerers [4] Swamp Gobber Chef [1] Void Archon [8] Void Archon [8] Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew [2] [Theme] Vengeance of Dhunia [Azazello 1] Lord Azazello, the Castellan [+29] - Pyre Troll [8] - Road Hog [15] - Troll Basher [7] Dhunian Archon [0(6)] Dhunian Archon [0(6)] Ledfoot & Tredz [0(7)] Boomhowler the Destroyer [8] Trollkin Champion Hero [5] Farrow Valkyries [8] Farrow Valkyries [8] Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes (min) [5] - Stone Scribe Elder [3] Trollkin Champions (max) [16] - Skaldi Bonehammer [5] Trollkin Champions (max) [16] Round 1 - Invasion I paired off against a Protectorate player with a Harbinger/Feora4 pair. I figured Arkadius would be the best pick, with Void Archons for Harbinger and just generally being good into the 'jack spam list Feora was built around. My opponent dropped Harbinger with the following: [Theme] The Faithful Masses [Harbinger 1] The Harbinger of Menoth [+27] - Crusader [10] - Crusader [10] - Devout [9] - Sanctifier [14] - Hierophant [3] Allegiant of the Order of the Fist [3] Allegiant of the Order of the Fist [3] Anastasia di Bray [3] Champion of the Order of the Wall [8] Champion of the Order of the Wall [8] High Paladin Dartan Vilmon [6] Menite Archon [8] Menite Archon [8] The Covenant of Menoth [4] Wrack [1] Choir of Menoth (min) [4] Initiates of the Wall [0(7)] Initiates of the Wall [0(7)] Initiates of the Wall [0(7)] Deployment My opponent won the starting roll and took first. I grabbed a table side with a lot of defensive terrain that I figured I'd be able to sprint behind or use to make it hard to engage properly. My opponent a Champion and an Archon on each flank, with his Initiates mostly in the centre and Harbinger skewing a bit to the right. I deployed more or less perfectly symmetrical, sticking a Void Archon on each flank with my beasts sandwiched in between. Both objectives are Fuel Caches. Protectorate Turn 1 Everything in the Protectorate list ran forward, maintaining a bunker around Harbinger and sending one Allegiant out on the left flank as a contesting piece for later. I forgot to take a picture. Pigs Turn 1 I wanted to try and bait in the super solos on the right flank and see if I could pick them off without having to commit, so I had Arkadius put up Forced Evolution (on the left War Hog) and Guardian Beast and then Raw Adrenaline the right flank Gun Boar. It then ran to within 12" of the Menite Archon and Targ used Ancillary Attack to shoot off about half the Archon's health. Kwaak gave the Gun Boar Enliven, so there was a chance it would even survive being exposed to the threat ranges there, but I'd have accepted the loss of the Gun Boar if it could get the Champion and Menite Archon to come forward. The rest of my list played it safe, using the wall on my left to deny landing zones that would engage them. Protectorate Turn 2 My opponent opted not to take the bait. He pulled everyone into a central clump where Initiates would prevent a repeat of my sniping efforts and advanced in a blob up the centre of the table. Harbinger Feated and used Purification to knock off my upkeeps and a few Continuous Fires that had come about from running through the central Burning Earth. Pigs Turn 2 I decided to try and play it safe as well. I moved my Void Archon up to get the closest Initiate clump within the Entropic Force aura and focussed on removing them. Arkadius hit them with a Crippling Grasp and used Raw Adrenaline on the Road Hogs, and one of the hogs cleared the unit and chipping a few other backline models for damage with the spray, then sprinted back to safety. I ran the Hermit to contest the left zone and my chef to contest the right. The Bellows Crew moved up and dropped a cloud to make it hard to get a bead on my objective. Kwaak put Enliven on the two Road Hogs and Boomhowler put down a covering fire template to protect the other side of my objective. Nobody scored. Protectorate Turn 3 The Allegiant walked around the Covering Fire and punched the objective twice, but it still took the Menite Archon and Champion of the Order of the Wall to finish it off. My Void Archon on the left survived the Champion there, which meant the Crusader came in to finish the job. The Covenant moved into the left-hand zone and put up its no spells aura. I think Harbinger killed the Chef with a spell, I can't recall exactly what happened there, and an Initiate unit secured the right-hand zone. My opponent took the score to 0-2 in their favour with one zone and my objective destroyed. Pigs Turn 3 This was Feat turn. My Gorax gave my left flank War Hog Primal, Arkadius added Forced Evolution and also threw Primal on one Road Hog and the other War Hog, and Feated. A Feat attack from my War Hog dismounted the Champion on the right (the Witch Doctor gave it ghostly to traverse the water there) and an attack from my Road Hog killed the Menite Archon. My Void Archon charged and killed the Allegiant and teleported to get its Entropic Force aura onto as many models as possible. My Gun Boar walked into melee with the Covenant of Menoth and killed it, allowing the Hermit to advance and put his Master of Ruin aura onto most of the models on the left flank. My Forced Evo'd War Hog (hitting at something in the P+S 24-26 range depending on the target) went through the Crusader, the Champion of the Order of the Wall, and about half the Sanctifier's hit points allowing the unbuffed Road Hog to finish the job (Dark Shroud from the Void Archon helped). My Primal'd War Hog on the right flank killed the Crusader, but flubbed his rolls on the Initiates and wasn't able to get enough Martyrdom pressure on Harbinger to Overtake into the right-hand zone as planned. I hadn't managed to clear anything to score so the points remained 0-2 in my opponent's favour. Protectorate Turn 4 My opponent's remaining Initiates charged my Gun Boar on the right flank and rolled terribly, meaning he wasn't able to score that zone. I think five attacks, three of them charge attacks, resulted in all of five damage or something ridiculous. His Menite Archon killed my Gun Boar but critically Vilmon rolled snake eyes to hit the Hermit with a Righteous Vengeance attack which meant he didn't have the attacks to clear the Hermit from the zone either and still allow Harbinger to run and score it. Anastasia ambushed in and chipped the Gun Boar down to about half health. Score remained 0-2 in my opponent's favour. Pigs Turn 4 My heavies mostly frenzied at one another. My Void Archon charged and killed his remaining Menite Archon. The Gun Boar and only Road Hog that hadn't Frenzied were able to clear the Initiates from the right-hand zone and Arkadius ran to score it. Boomhowler shot Anastasia off the board. I ran Targ to add to my contesting models on the left. I scored the right-hand zone, putting the score at 1-2 in my favour. Protectorate Turn 5 My opponent called it there. I was going to be scoring the right-hand zone pretty much uncontested and was probably going to have secured the centre in my next turn. I was getting low on clock, but it wasn't likely to be a serious issue unless I got carried away. Interesting game that one. I made a few mistakes and got lucky on more than one occasion, but overall I think I played it fairly well by avoiding the impulse to dive deep into his list and instead pick it off piecemeal without presenting more than a few targets until I was able to remove a critical mass of his list.
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Post by Azahul on Apr 30, 2021 6:46:14 GMT
Round 2 - King of the Hill For this round I was paired up against a Retribution player. I dropped Arkadius, he dropped Goreshade4 running: Goreshade -Manticore -Chimera -Chimera -Sylys Max Ryssovass -Soulless Escort Max Ryssovass Elara1 -Manticore Scythe Aelyth Vyr Hermit of Henge Hold Arcanist Mechanik Deployment My opponent won the starting roll and took first. I opted for a table side that would let me toe the centre zone beneath a forest, since there otherwise wasn't much difference in the zones. My opponent deployed his Trident on the left, his solos in the centre, and a Ryssovass unit on each flank. I skewed left in my deployment, relying on my objective to keep the right-hand zone contested while I made sure I had the pieces to take down the Trident. I deployed my Bellows Crew on that flank to provide cloud cover as well, with my Gun Boars and Targ in the centre of the line and a single War Hog and Void Archon on my centre-right as my main contributors to the right flank. Retribution Turn 1 Goreshade put Ghost Walk on the left flank Ryssovass to help them negotiate the forest there. Everything else ran. Pigs Turn 1 I decided I might as well take some pot shots at Scythe. My first Gun Boar advanced and scattered a shot onto her. My opponent used the Hermit's Mad Visions to avoid the damage roll. My second Gun Boar advanced and scattered onto Scythe as well, killing her with the blast damage. A lucky start. Arkadius cast Guardian Beast (really should have been Aggravator in retrospect to help force the Trident to piece trade) and put Forced Evolution on the left War Hog. Everything else either walked or ran, save the Bellows Crew who dropped smoke and took some reposition moves thanks to Boomhowler. Retribution Turn 2 Goreshade Feated and dropped some clouds. The Trident took some ineffectual potshots at the War Hog on the left. The Ryssovass spread out. Pigs Turn 2 I had a plan to get through the clouds with my Feat, but it fell apart pretty quickly. I ran a Gobber into the cloud to let a Road Hog spray a clump of four Ryssovass. Killed two Ryssovass and the Gobber, losing my beacon for the Feat. After that I switched to delaying tactics, putting as any shots as I could into my opponent's objective but leaving it standing with some poor dice and contesting the centre zone with a War Hog hiding behind the forest. Everything else basically hung back, save my Hermit who ran to contest the left zone. Nobody scored. Retribution Turn 3 My luck swung around when my opponent's objective burned to the ground. The Trident shot my Hermit to death and Repositioned back. The Chimera toed the zone to secure it. Ryssovass destroyed my objective and the other Chimera secured the right-hand zone. My opponent's Hermit moved onto the centre flag. Goreshade threw out some clouds and stepped further back. My opponent scored the two rectangular zones, the centre flag, and my objective, while I scored his objective, putting the score at 1-4 in his favour. Pigs Turn 3 This turn was Feat turn. My Witch Doctor and Gorax gave their respective buffs to the War Hog on the left so that it could go and destroy the Trident. My Gun Boars shot a few Ryssovass off the board and chipped down the Hermit's health in the process. My Void Archons cleaned house on the left and right respectively, killing the Ryssovass in those zones. My War Hog on the right ran so that it would be able to frenzy towards the Chimera in the right zone. Arkadius Feated, and my Road Hog on the left was able to get in an kill the Chimera in the left zone. My other Road Hog sprayed down a few Ryssovass and set the Hermit on fire. I scored the left zone and contested the others, putting the score at 2-4 in my opponent's favour. Retribution Turn 4 Elara's Manticore killed the Void Archon and sprinted back to just contest the zone on the right. The Hermit moved up to use Master of Ruin and the remaining Ryssovass piled in and nearly killed my Road Hog contesting the flag. The other Manticore killed my Void Archon on the left and took a swing or two at my Road Hog there. Score stayed level at 2-4. Pigs Turn 4 My War Hog on the left frenzied closer to the centre of the table. Arkadius gave my Road Hog on the left Forced Evolution and Primal and healed some aspects. The Road Hog on the left smashed the Manticore. I used Gun Boars to carefully pick apart the Ryssovass on the right to avoid taking too many attacks back, and had the Road Hog throw Aelyth Vyr away with a Power Attack instead of hit him directly but unfortunately rolled terribly on damage and left him on one box. Had my War Hog on the right move to get out of the Manticore's threat range. Had my Bellows Crew Gobber move into the central zone as an extra layer of contesting. I scored the left-hand zone, putting the score at 3-4. Retribution Turn 5 My opponent was getting low on clock and models. He moved the Manticore on the right to threaten my War Hog there. Goreshade killed my War Hog on the left. The Ryssovass killed my Road Hog in the centre. I scored the left-hand zone again, bringing the score level at 4-4. Pigs Turn 5 My Road Hog Frenzied through the forest towards the central zone. I ran my Gorax to score the left zone in its place. My War Hog did nothing of consequence on the right, just put its back against the board edge to make the 'jacks there attack it from the front. My Gun Boars killed the remaining Ryssovas and shot Aelyth off the table. I scored the left-hand zone, putting the score at 5-4 in my favour. Retribution Turn 6 The Manticore on the right killed my War Hog and my opponent clocked. Worth noting that across that entire game my opponent passed just one Tough check. Granted, I switched off a lot by using my Void Archons and their Entropic Force Auras, but it was still probably close to a 9 or 10:1 ratio. And getting Scythe so early was simply absurd, especially since all the Ryssovass were Girded. Nevertheless, my opponent managed to keep it a pretty tight game. Using Aggravator in the early game instead of Guardian Beast would have helped prevent the Trident from being able to do work without being in threat range, potentially without even needing my Feat, which would have created options later in the game.
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Post by Azahul on Apr 30, 2021 7:12:24 GMT
Round 3 - Anarchy I was playing into Legion this round. My opponent had a Bethayne2/Bethayne1 pair, so I plumped for Arkadius again. Arkadius vs Legion is such a nostalgia trip for me, new releases aside. My opponent picked Bethayne2 with the following: [Bethayne 2] Bethayne, Pride of Everblight [+28] - Neraph [12] - Neraph [12] - Seraph [14] Blight Archon [8] - Zuriel [17] Spell Martyr [1] Spell Martyr [1] Virtue Champion [0(6)] Virtue Champion [0(6)] Yssylla [0(5)] Blighted Nyss Archers (max) [13] - Blighted Nyss Archer Officer & Ammo Porter [5] Blighted Nyss Legionnaires (max) [13] Spawning Vessel (max) [7] Deployment I finally won a starting roll and took first. I skewed my deployment a bit to the right so that I wouldn't get caught on the structure in the middle of the table as badly if I went for an aggressive Feat. My opponent deployed his Archon and Zuriel on the right with the Legionnaires, the Archers on the left, and Bethayne and her battlegroup centrally. My objective is a Fuel Cache, my opponent's a Treasure Chest. Pigs Turn 1 I put Forced Evolution on the right-hand War Hog and cast Guardian Beast. Everyone else ran. Legion Turn 1 The Blight Archon gave Zuriel the armour buff. He moved up and used his Dodge Animus. The Legionnaires moved up base to base. The Archers scattered to the winds. And Bethayne's battlegroup and cauldron largely took shelter behind the structure. Pigs Turn 2 If you hear the sound of knuckles cracking, that's because I was finally getting to do a classic big Arkadius Turn 2 Alpha Strike. It's been a while It didn't all go smoothly though. I needed to clear out some Legionnaires first and their high armour meant my Gun Boars could just not get through. I ended up having to Feat my heavies up the table (having given Forced Evolution and Primal to my War Hog on the right, Primal and Raw Adrenaline to both Road Hogs, and Reposition Shadow Walk to the Road Hog on the right) and then have my unbuffed War Hog Overtake its way through the intervening Legionnaires and just barely squeeze out of the charge lane for the buffed War Hog. My Road Hog then walked directly through the central structure, boosted a Headbutt into Zuriel, and put in a few swings before Repositioning out of the way. The War Hog came in, finished the job on the charge attack, and overtook into a Neraph which it killed as well. Things went less smoothly on the left, where my Road Hog rolled poorly and ended up leaving the Neraph there alive on a handful of boxes. My Void Archons killed a couple from each infantry unit on each flank and that was about the extent of their respective contributions. Hermit ran up the centre, my Gobbers contested the zones, and that was a wrap. Legion Turn 2 The classic Top of Two Arkadius alpha into Legion was followed by the classic Bottom of Two Legion looks for an Assassination run on Arkadius. The Seraph moved up and took some shots, missing one and landing the other. Bethayne tried to finish the job with some spells but I think I transferred the first and with Hermit still in reserve and no other attacks on hand that was it for assassination aspirations. The Neraph killed my Road Hog and the Archers killed the Void Archon on the left, Virtues and Legionnaires killed my Void Archon on the right and did some damage to my Road Hog, and the Blight Archon did a number on my fully buffed War Hog. I believe Bethayne on herself, the two Legionnaires and a Virtue on the right, both remaining beasts, and an archer or two. I scored my flag, putting the score at 1-0 in my favour. Pigs Turn 3 My War Hog and Road Hog frenzied. My Gun Boar and Gorax cleared the left-hand zone. Arkadius cast Psycho Surgery and backed up. I tried to clear my opponent's flag with my War Hog but Bethayne chose to take the hits for the Virtue and I fell short. The Hermit and Boomhowler built a bunker for Arkadius. My Chef ran to contest the left zone and my Witch Doctor ran to score my flag. I scored my flag and the right-hand zone, bringing things up to a 3-0 score in my favour. Legion Turn 3 The Archers killed my Chef and Repositioned into the zone. Bethayne applied her armour debuff to my remaining heavies and tried to kill them with the Blight Archon and Virtue and some Seraph shots I think but fell short, just killing one War Hog. My opponent scored the zone on the left, I scored the zone on the right, score went to 5-1 in my favour. At that point I only needed to end my turn again to take the score 7-2 and win, so we called that game.
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Post by charlzheimer on Jul 18, 2021 15:17:44 GMT
i still read these. i don't always reply but i do read these.
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Post by she3pdog on Jul 18, 2021 20:23:35 GMT
I literally learned how to play Arkadius from reading these! I'd love to see more reports with the new Steamroller packet.
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Post by Azahul on Jul 20, 2021 4:01:42 GMT
Oh, bollocks. I just realised I didn't finish writing up that last tournament Apologies for the lack of updates, some family stuff and the usual pandemic nonsense made getting games in really tricky for a few months. Will see what I can do when we hopefully leave lockdown next week.
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