Got another batrep, and this one is a griiiind. But, I feel like I'm really starting to see results of all the Krueger practice, I pulled off some absolute vintage circle BS this game, which is good, feels good to get rewarded for your practice.
My opponent played Maelok vs my Krueger, I decided against Una2 because needing flank seems woefully inefficient vs so many Posse, but maybe it is alright with Elusive vs all the Mat 6. Anyway, lists!
Krueger2
-Megalith
-Guardian
-2 Woldwardens
-2 Woldwyrds
2 Sentry Stones
6 Shifting Stones
2 Wayfarers
2 Stoneshapers
Gobber Chef
Maelok
-Soul Slave
-Wrastler
-Blind Walker
15 Posse
10 Croak Raiders
2 Witch Doctors
Kwaak
Totem Hunter
So, I won the roll and opted to take first, I figured the further back I could push these crocs the better a time I would have, I'm not 100% sure this was the right call considering it was Spread The Net, there's a reasonable chance I get to go to 3-0 on the bottom of 2 if I take 2nd. I'll need to experiment with this more!
In any case, we deployed (I forgot a photo), Krueger TK'd himself, his Guardian and cast Wind Storm before charging off at some Croak Hunters. One Warden trampled over 2 Mannikins and TK'd Megalith. Everything else ran up.
My opponent did the same. Death Pact up, Croak Raiders going for a harrying flank play, everything else gunning forwards.
Alright, so my plan here was to take the low hanging fruit in those juicy Croak Raiders, while they weren't ARM 17, and otherwise position to mitigate scenario as much as possible. I think 2 CPs were unstoppable for my opponent, but I would contest the other 3 the best I could, and try to make it a little difficult for him to contest my zone.
To wit, Megalith got ported to the right by the stones, TKd himself and then cast Undergrowth, catching a bunch of Croaks. My Blackclad walked over and sprayed 4 to death, the Wyrd walked up and gunned down the ones outside of Undergrowth with boosts, and then my Mannikins and Guardian cleaned up the rest. Otherwise I popped some forests, both Wardens moved to contest and used their Animus to stop any cheeky incorporeal slammage (that in hindsight wasn't an option) and also just to block even more LoS. Sentries made forests then ported behind them. Krueger walked past the building enough to deny cover to the green gators, boosted a Rebuke on them (which landed) and missed his gun, before TKing back behind the forest.
So, time to shove numbers down Circle's throat! My opponent moves Maelok up behind the wall by his zone, feats and uses Death Pact, then Spiny Growth on himself. Enliven goes up on both heavies, and then everything just runs full tilt at me. My opponent opted to skip a couple attacks to run for better positions, most notably an incorporeal gator getting into my zone. Totem Hunter sat on my opponent's flag and he went to 2-0.
Wooft. Alright that's a lot of numbers. Those gators are ARM 22 vs melee attacks and ARM 20 vs guns. Thankfully, we're playing Krueger2 and the guy has a billion tricks up his sleeve. So, we did some fancy things this turn and there's going to be two pictures. Krueger kept Rebuke. I rocked up into the zone with him, cast Undergrowth and feated, pushing every model in my opponent's army barring the furthest away Witch Doc. Importantly, he was somewhat between a few Gators and Maelok, and pushed quite a few out of his control, dropping their armour by 4. Undergrowth first to try and keep the models nearest Krueger in easy range. Then he cast TK on himself to move back a bit, and shot a nearby (no aura) Gator, leaving it on one box, camping 0. My Guardian walked up and punched a Gator to death. Megalith charged a Gator by my opponent's flag, used his Animus, punched it to death then TK'd another Gator near it outside of 4", crucially it was the leader model, so I was able to place it and leave 2 green gators out of CMD. The Wyrd walked up and shot Undergrowth'd Totem Hunter to death. My right hand Blackclad walked and Phase Shifted onto my opponent's flag.
On the opposite site of the board, my other Blackclad advanced and sprayed 2 Gators, dealing 7 boxes to one, and 4 to the other. Alright, operation Score 3 is looking good! However, a wrench was thrown in the works when my Warden (with +2Str) took a free strike from a Gator and the Gator rolled 18 to the 1, dealing 13 damage and taking out his Mind. Thankfully, he was in the back arc of a gator so still got to punch him to death but without some very spicy dice this plan was off the table. I needed to open a lane past gators to walk a Mannikin to my opponent's zone to contest, to achieve that my other Warden got +2 Str, and went to throw an Undergrowthed gator. Landed it, and popped him into another Gator, KDing both (which opened the lane my Mannikin needed), then he bought attacks on the other gator in his melee range and it died. My left hand Wyrd tried to help out with the gators on the left flag, but it missed and failed to break armour with all of its shots. My left hand Mannikins failed to deal any damage with their attacks, but did manage to contest both my own flag and my opponent's zone, and my other stone just got to safety. My right hand unit of stones Teleported a stone from the left hand unit next to Krueger, and that unit Teleported Krueger back to safety, leaving my left hand mindless Warden out of control. But I had more than enough fury on the table. My Chef ran to get eaten by a Warden on 3 next turn. I scored 2 that turn, taking the score to 2-2.
First picture is before Krueger gets placed by stones:
And then afterwards:
Big turn from me! Lots of Circley stuff happened, and I felt like I achieved a great deal of control on my opponent's units. Enliven went up on both heavies. My opponent had his Blind Walker Animus & Trample towards my flag, before Maelok sprayed my Blackclad to death with a Venom and casting Death Pact. Other gators from the rebuked unit moved to contest my flag, and one walked to be in my zone. The Bull Snapper got Ghostly from a Witch Doctor and slammed by Woldwarden out of the centre zone, dealing 0 damage to it or the Chef it landed on! Two of the red gators were left out of formation from my feat, as a result only some red gators piled into my Woldwarden on the left, and one of them missed the 8 on my Blackclad (luckily, I had big plans for him next turn!). Due to there not being many attacks in the centre zone (gators either knocked down, out of formation or rebuked) both of my Sentries and all my shifting stones lived! The Wrastler murdered the Mannikin in my opponent's zone. My opponent fully contested and scored his own zone, taking it to 3-2 in his favour.
Oookay, thankfully I had a Blackclad left so I had a sneaky plan for my opponent's flag. I placed a Mannikin back in my opponent's zone. My Warden ate the Chef to remove 3 Fury, Krueger took as much as he could and upkept Rebuke, leaving my left hand Wyrd on 1 and the Warden out of my control on 1. My Wyrd on the right hand side walked into the back Arc of a contesting gator who was in a spot I very much needed him to not be in and blew him away with Gunfighter shots. My right hand unit of Stones ported the Guardian up above my Wyrd. Then Megalith activated, animused and punched the Gator nearby to death, and TK'd my Guardian into melee range with the Blind Walker. I made a mistake here, absolutely should have had +2 STR on the Guardian before porting it, would probably have sealed the game. As it was, I left the Blind Walker on around 10 boxes, with Mind and Spirit intact after rolling snake eyes on my first to hit roll (BW was Def 8 cause of Megalith) and snake eyes on a damage roll. My other unit of Stones ported as close as they could get to my opponent's flag, notably with one member of the unit being within 4". My Blackclad on the bottom left Phase Shifted up there, and Krueger walked towards him, TK'd him onto my opponent's flag and cast Undergrowth before blowing the 1 box Gator in front of him away. My Warden in the zone got +2 Strength and threw the Gator in front of him into another Gator, killing one and KDing the other. My Sentries moved around a little bit, and the right hand Warden managed to hit the same gator twice without killing it, Smiting the poor Gator into a friend behind him, killing the Chain Attacked gator and knocking down his friend! I scored 2 at the end of this turn and denied my opponent, taking the score to 4-3 to me.
At this point it's getting harder and harder for my opponent to put models in my zones / by his flag, while I have Sentry Stones and am generally a lot faster, so I don't have the same issue. The Blind Walker shakes to stand. Enliven goes up on both heavies. The Soul Slave puts a boosted Venom onto my opponent's flag, missing the Blackclad! But putting even more damage into the Blind Walker and dealing a point to my Guardian. The Bull Snapper in the zone walked around my Warden and at the Sentry Stone without leaving my Warden's melee range. Poor positioning from me there. From there, some Gators durdled around, one red guy took a free strike from my Warden to move away from the flag to clear space for the Witch Doctor, and he toughed, knocking him down. Maelok put put Mortality on my Warden, healed the Blind Walker and the Wrastler tore my Warden to pieces. The Witch Doctor ran onto my flag. The Yellow unit of Gators killed a Stoneshaper and missed my Wyrd. The KD'd guy moved to engage my Warden. The Blind Walker was given Ghostly (yay Undergrowth!) and moved and threw Megalith on top of my Blackclad, killing the Blackclad and dealing some minor damage to my Wyrd. At the end of the turn my opponent scored his zone, my flag and I scored my zone, taking the score to 5-5.
So! Krueger upkept Rebuke (which was bad), Serenity pulled 1 off my top Wyrd, and Krueger pulled 1 off of my Guardian (in case he decided to miss again), 2 off of my Warden and 2 off my other Wyrd. My Guardian moved and smashed the Blind Walker into the dirt. Megalith TK'd my top Wyrd and walked into my own zone. My Wyrd ran the gauntlet and ended up in Maelok's zone, as there aren't any contesting models in there! My Sentry placed a Mannikin and moved to get it to contest my own flag. My Warden in the zone smashed up the Blind Walker and the yellow gator. My Wyrd shot up the gator engaging it and between him and Krueger left the other red gator in the zone on 1 box. Krueger put Rebuke on the red Gators and then my stones ported him onto my opponent's flag. My Grey unit of stones all moved to Megalith for fury management and to put him in a triangle. I scored 3 here, taking the score to 8-5, and we called it here, as my opponent didn't see a point in continuing.
Whew, what a slog! I'm glad to see what with enough sandpapering Krueger can work his way through that many high ARM gators but man it takes time. Everything is SO hard to kill, but I'm glad to see that throwing them into each other is still as effective a strategy as ever. I made a couple of execution mistakes this game, but I think my overall strategy was quite sound. Playing as cagily as possible and just pushing scenario consistently. GG to my opponent for this grindy, slog of a game and thanks for reading.