Wednesday 28 January 2015

Mirsuharu on Bat Reps - Intercessor Kreoss vs Orsus Zoktavir the Butcher of Khardov

Hey everyone, welcome back to Mitsuharu on Bat Reps and my latest practice game with the Intercessor. This week I faced off against Khador and the prime incarnation of Butcher. My list was the one I theory-machined out last week:-

Intercessor Kreoss +5
-Vanquisher -8
-Reckoner -8
Min Choir -2
Vassal of Menoth -2
Nicia, Tear of Vengence -3
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord -2
Covenant of Menoth -2
Wracks -1
Vassal Mechanic -1
Daughters of Menoth -5
Max Exemplar Vengers -11
Max Exemplar Errants with UA -10

My opponent was using a tier 4 pButcher Claws of the Dragon tier list. This included 3 max units of Black Dragon Iron Fang Pikeman all with Black Dragon UAs. An IFP Kovnik, The Great Bears of the Gallowswood, a Manhunter and Butcher brought 2 Devastators and a War dog as tier requirements. This was a good game but we both attritioned pretty hard and the whole game was a harsh grind throughout. The clock was also tight for both of us. His list was comparatively simple to use, and his strategy was straightforward, but the numbers of models meant that each turn took a lot of activations, wearing down the clock. On my side of the table my list was smaller and didn't require as many activations or time spent, but did require a lot more thought on target priority and activation order, meaning I was spending a lot of time on my turn considering options. 

The scenario this time was Fire Support and Khador got the first turn and the advance moves put the army at around the midline from turn one. I put out my usual buffs (Ignite to the horses, Holy Ward to the Daughters, and Warpath on Kreoss) on my turn and had the daughters turtle around the Bunker objective and everything else shuffled forwards. Following this one unit of IFP moved onto my flag and the other two units advanced to engage my Errants who were sat in a forest opposite his flag. 

For the rest of the game the Vengers and Daughters held my flag, grinding out the IFP on that flank, while the Errants managed to survive the entire game against both units of the IFP, neither being able to kill the other decisively. The Errants with Rhupert and the Covenant plus the fact that I got a stupidly high number of toughs and the unfortunate to hit rolls from the IFP kept them in the game, whereas the sheer volume of bodies on the IFP took too long for the Errants to kill. The Great Bears and the third unit of IFP killed off half the Vengers and killed most of the objective, but both got wiped out after multiple grinding turns and couldn't hit the DEF 17 Daughters. 

I played far too preciously with Kreoss again, and allowed my concern about assassination to keep me back, not utalising him to the maximum since he's a hard-hitting and survivable caster. This also led me to kill box myself on the side of the board, as I'd forgotten this rule in my rush to protect him. This set me back on scenario, giving my opponent the upper hand. Following this I dominated my own flag twice, having to Force Hammer one of his jacks out of contesting on my last turn. Butcher also managed to dominate his flag before it could run my Daughters clear across the board to contest. My Force Hammer slam had unfortunately moved the Devastator next to my objective (which only had two points left on it) and he sacrificed movement to stand and then took out the objective for the final point he needed to win the game. 

This was a hard game on both our sides but I feel a lot more comfortable with this list incarnation than previously, as I feel it can handle a lot more attrition and still dish out some serious damage. I need to play much more aggressively with it though, as I allowed my opponent to dictate the board to me, and was too cautious with my caster who could have been dominating my flag much sooner if I'd moved up more aggressively. I also need to be focusing more on challenging for the scenario more as I felt that cost me in this game too. 

I'm looking forward to using this list again in the tournament in a couple of weeks, and in the meantime I'm planning to practice my Feora list a couple of times too. 

Stay tuned for more!

-M

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