Journeyman League - Week 8

So, after the game I wrote about in my last post I managed to squeeze an extra game in against 'Hall of Legends' Jayke Hall and his Talion Charter. The game was very long and gruelling and both of us rolled so poorly that it took a long time to do much of anything after the obligatory turn 2 death of all the sea dogs. The game ended with his Alt caster, Captain Shae, going for the assassination as I was holding the flag and had more models than him. He failed to shoot Feora to death despite knocking her down and she retaliated, taking him down to a few boxes, he then weathered a combined melee charge from 5 TFG and finally died to fire in his own turn. It was a long game and I won't bore you with all the details. 

This week, however I got my regular game in as well, using a new list as the final two weeks would be 35 points. Following the effectiveness of the Bastion/Senechal combo from the tournament, I decided to include them in my list; which ended up looking like this:

eFeora +6

Vanquisher 'Pyre of Idolatry' -8

Dervish -4

Repenter -4

Min Choir -2

Vassal -2

Max Bastions -8

Bastion Senechal -3

Daughters of the Flame -5

Min Clensers -5

It was a different approach that I wanted to try out and I was looking forward to seeing how it would play. I should note that the EO decided that one of the jacks from our starting battlegroup should be named and bonded to that caster, and would have the benefit rolled, and this could be used throughout the event! My Vanquisher earned the title 'Pyre of Idolatory' and rolled the awesome 'dominator' ability netting it +2 to hit and damage rolls while in Feora's control range!

My opponent was the Legion player I'd faced in the first week, who was using a very cool alternate caster - epic Abysylonia! The list was very beast focused, and included a Ravagore, Shredder and Raek from his starter battlegroup augmented by a Carnivean and an Angelius, making for a very intimidating line up. Added to this were a Forsaken and a Shepherd to help with Fury management, and a maximum unit of the Spawning Vessel to throw out even more gribbly monsters. 

The game started, as usual with everything on both sides of the board running up, with the main casualties being three Daughters of the flame to shooting who promptly failed their command check, setting a troubling precedent for their usefulness, and the Clensers threw down a cloud in front of the Carnivean who had been out of range for the AOE which scattered backwards. 

On turn two Abby flew up and feated, turning her Beasts into powerhouses that could charge for free, which they promptly did, killing the Vanquisher and Dervish in short order before tying up my Cleansers with a Rabid Shredder. The Ravagore took a shot at the Bastions but only managed to hit one, but rolled so high I opted to kill him rather than spread out the damage. This left an annoying cloud in front of the Senechal. 

The Cleansers failed to harm the Shredder on the flank and the Daughters ran past the pot (not wanting to kill any and give away Corpse tokens). The main action was a charge from my Bastions, having to spread themselves thin in order to get all of the beasts into melee and stop them from rushing forward to kill my caster. This left me on the back foot and back peddling. The charge attacks were impressive and there was plenty of damage to go around, but with only one attack on each beast it was nowhere near enough to kill any of them, and I feated to put fire on Abby which did no damage at any point in the game. 

On his turn the fully loaded Shredder failed to Frenzy and so had to take a single unboosted attack that achieved little against the Cleansers. The beasts attacked the Bastions but only the Angelius did enough damage with it's Armour Piercing attack to outright kill one of them. The vessel attendants turned around and started to pummel the Duaghters causing them to fail their Casualties check again(!) and gained enough corpse tokens (after one of the attendants chucked her sister in the pot) to throw out a Stinger which charged the nearest Bastion, just clipping the melee of the Senechal, who hit with a Defensive Strike to take out all but a couple of Circles, massively reducing it's ability to harm anything. 

On my turn the Bastions continued to spread out, trying to corral the beasts that were all up in my face, but with little effect. The Clensers were similarly useless attacking the Shredder and I ended my turn. 

The Angelius finished off another Bastion, which freed the Carbivean up to make a charge on Feora, who I'd thought was safe behind the Repenter. The big beast had trouble hitting her high DEF and by the end of the round he was maxed out on Fury and Feora had 5 boxes left. The Forsaken activated and bombed the Cleansers, neatly polishing them off, and the Sheppard moved up to where the Beasts were locked in with my remaining Bastions. 

I started my turn by moving the Repenter out of Feora's way, accepting the free strike from the Carni, which failed to cripple anything, and took a shot at Abby, hoping to soften her up, but failed to wound. The bastions squished the Shepherd who was blocking me and took a couple of swings at the many beasts, but achieved little. Feora activated and Cast Fire Step to dodge out of combat and move up, taking the opportunity to charge Abby, who was now exposed and on 1 Fury, hoping for a desperate assassination as my only real chance to win. I took multiple attacks and boosts but ended with her on fire with only a few boxes left, but still camping that one Fury, guaranteeing her survival for next turn and sealing my fate.

He activated, hoping to use a spell to slam Feora into melee with a heavy but it was unnecessary as the damage from the spell itself was enough to polish her off, winning him the game. 

It was a fun game and showcased, if nothing else, how devastating eAbysylonia can be, especially under her feat! I could have done a few things much better, but I was happy to have at least taken the assassination run and done some nice damage as a last hurrah!

Thanks for reading!

-M