Journeyman League - preleague

Last night the league had it's first official meeting. Technically it doesn't start until next Monday but the guys running it wanted to do a meet and greet and run over what sort of play they were expecting to see from people and the levels of sportsmanship they wanted. It was a great chance to meet the other guys taking part and see what was on the table. 

Best of all it gave some of us a chance to sneak in a match before the league kicks off. I was paired with one of the more experienced league players and since we didn't have loads of time we agreed a 25 point game. All of my lists were 35 or 50 points and I knew I was going to be locked into one or two casters for the duration of the league so I decided to throw a list together on the fly with a caster I've never used before - Amon Ad-Raza. I'd not actually expected to play and so my list was very thrown together and as it turned out not at all well. I'd gone for:-

Ad-Raza +6

Dervish -4

Crusader -6

Reckoner -8

Castigator -8

Max Choir -3

Vassal of Menoth -2

This was way too many jacks and I didn't really have a strategy in mind for how to play. Typically when I know I have a game I'll obsess over lists and how to play and what'll work where but I threw myself into the deep end with this list and just went with the flow. The scenario we decided on was Outflank from the 2014 Steamroller. This features two large zones on either side of the centre line. My opponent was starting a new faction for the league and wanted to try out his force which was a very well constructed Legion list with 2 Shredders; a Carnivean; a Shephard; a max unit of Warspears with UA and two Deathstalkers all led by pThags (his caster for the start of the league). 

He took first turn and concentrated his forces in one zone but moving the Deathstalkers (and edging the Carnivean) into the other forcing me to split my forces to keep him from scenario victory. I moved up taking an assault shot at the Carnivean but failing to do any damage. The most productive thing in my whole turn was protecting my jacks from non magical ranged with the choir. In the second turn the Deathstalkers casually strolled across the board and chewed through all but two of my choir with no effort at all (despite walls and positioning) to both of our surprise. One Deathstalkers was now behind my lines and following that display I had little interest in a repeat with my caster so I had to divert my crusader to squish one and my reckoner to get the other. The crusader just managed to hit and instantly killed but my reckoner completely wiffed the attack roll and did nothing. On my other flank the castigator and dervish charges the Warspears in the zone and took one out, leaving me spread very thinly indeed. 

In the next turn the Warspears (who had prey on the castigator) got buffed by Thags and charged, and between them trashed the jack in one turn. Following that the Carni got a charge on my reckoner and that was also destroyed (finished off by a rabid shredder after being reduced to two boxes). It was around this point that I realised I had lost but decided to go hell for leather and feated. Ad-Raza's Feat makes his jacks immune to free strikes, rear strikes and combined melee and ranged attacks and he gets to allocate one focus each time he spends one. I cast two spells and allocated four and charged him into the Deathstalker I'd sworn vengeance on. (who had skipped away from my crippled Reckoner mid last turn to open the lane for the fatal shredder charge and then promptly finished off another chorister and dropped the vassal to one box) I boosted the attack roll to set up my synergy chain. And missed. So I bought an attack. And missed. But I spent two so got my dervish and crusader up to a full 3 each. The crusader then went to charge the Carni and was probably just a smidge out but my opponent graciously allowed the charge (a small mercy) and I finally got decent rolls and beat it to death. My Dervish then activated and took 4 attacks against one of the Warspears. 4. I missed two and messed the damage roll on the other leaving my feat turn horribly disappointing. The following turn boiled down to the Carnivean being brought back by the feat and the Warspears devouring my Dervish. In the final turn I advanced Ad-Raza into melee with Thags (who had 4 Fury and 2 undamaged beasts for transfers) in a meaningless gesture of defiance I managed to get a solid hit and as a mark of respect he took the damage before starting his turn and getting the assassination comfortably. 

Overall I played very poorly and my opponent was much better than I was. I had the dice work against me all game but that only compounded my bad decision making right the way from list building; but more importantly it was one of the most fun games I've played in a long while. My opponent was sporting and helpful throughout and made losing enjoyable. I'm looking forward to playing some of the other guys whose games I caught snippets of over the evening and I'll be keeping you posted on what happens!

-M