eFeora +6
-Bonded Judicator -18
-Reckoner -8
Vassal of Menoth -2
Wracks -1
Vassal Mechanic -1
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution -3
Knights Exemplar Seneschal -3
Saxon Orrik -2
Gorman Di Wulfe -2
Min Choir -2
Max TFG with UA -8
Min Zealots with UA -6
I decided at the last minute to swap out Dartan for a Seneschal on the advice of Nick from Solid Ground Studios (http://solidgroundstudios.co.uk). Other than that the list was exactly what I'd decided on in the Cogs in the Theory Machine post a couple of weeks ago. Jayke was playing Terminus with a Deathripper, Darragh Wrathe, Tartarus, a Warwitch Siren, Madelyn Corbeau, Saxon Orrik, Orin Midwinter, a Max unit of Bane Knights, a min unit of Bile Thralls two max units of Mechanithralls, each accompanied by a Necrosurgeon and thralls and the Withershadow Combine. The game we rolled was Outflank and I got the first turn.
I deployed the Judicator just to the left of my centre field, then placed Feora and the Reckoner to its right, with the various support staff around them. The zealots and Gorman took the left flank while the TFG with Orrik and the Seneschal took the right, with the Wracks scattered across the deployment zone and Eiryss central, in line with a wall that was placed just ahead of my advanced deploy line. On the other side of the table the mechanithralls, Necrosurgeons, and bile thralls surrounded Terminus in the centre of the board, with the deathripper and warwitch set opposite my Zealots and the Bane knights opposing the TFG on the other flank.
I started by moving everything forward, with the zealots and Gorman sitting on a hill for extra DEF vs ranged. The TFG got pathfinder from Orrik and moved up in shield wall, not getting very far up the field. Then the Judicator ran and took a pot shot with Ancilliary Attack, but failed to hit anything. Jayke's army all ran up, with Terminus sitting behind a forest that was near the centre of his half of the board.
In my turn the judicator spent most of my 10 minutes blasting mechanithralls from the zone near it with it's rocket pods and flamethrowers meaning that I didn't get much else done in my turn except moving the TFG up with Orrik so two of them were in the zone but the rest couldn't make it in. Then I completely forgot to use their minifeat to give me the edge on ARM against the inevitable countercharge from the bane knights, but did remember shield wall. The Zealots moved up to throw bombs, killing an extra thrall or two and they did minifeat. I then had to end my turn without activating the majority of my solos.
Jayke took full advantage of my rushed turn charging Tartarus into the TFG, but failed on his charge attack thanks to set defence. The bane knights then charged in thanks to curse and killed a few of the Flameguard, and finally the Seneschal, meaning he couldn't resurrect next turn. He didn't manage to clear to the zone though. One unit of mechanithralls charged the Reckoner who'd failed to activate, reducing it to a couple of movement boxes but generally crippling it. The other unit of mechanithralls moved into the zealots, and killed Gorman and put a couple of points on one side of the Judicator. Tartarus moved up into the forest a bit more, feating. The Warwitch moved up and used venom to kill off a couple of zealots.
On my turn the TFG started off, killing a couple of the bane knights and remembering to get off Iron Zeal along with the Shield Wall. The zealots prayed for fervour and took some swings at the mechanithralls and Eiryss took a shot at the deathripper, disrupting it. Thanks to battle from the choir the Reckoner was actually able to smush one of the mechanithralls engaging it even with only one die on the attack rolls. The Judicator then took another bunch of shots, including the ancilliary, to batter the Bonejack and kill more of the infantry swarm, and Feora moved up behind the Judicator to get the bonuses from Escort.
Jayke continued to slaughter the TFG, clearing the zone on my right, securing his first point. One of the bile thralls moved up and purged, seriously wounding my Mechanic, wiping out all but one Chorister, and putting corrosion on the Judicator and Feora. The Warwitch used power booster to give a focus to the Deathripper who tried to slam the Judicator (he had actually lost movement but didn't remember at the time) but being a collosal it couldn't be moved and the attack didn't crack the ARM. The mechanithralls took some more swings at the zealots. The other unit of Mechanithralls activated and finished off the Reckoner, but since he'd taken attacks he couldn't use the rest of the unit.
I was left with very little left on the board, but this turn was when the game started to get really interesting. Saxon moved up into the zone next to Tartarus to contest that flank. The Judicator then used a two handed throw to pick up the heavily damaged light that attacked it last turn and threw it right at the Warwitch, killing them both, then used its last focus to kill another thrall in the zone. The Zealots activated, killing two thralls and throwing a bomb at some other guys in the zone. Then Feora moved slightly further around the Judicator, toeing the zone. Unfortunately the zone wasn't clear so I didn't score.
On the next turn the Bane Knights started to run across the board, trying to get in to threaten Feora next turn and Tartarus took a contemptuous swing at Saxon to clear the zone again, but missed, keeping me in contention for another round. Another bile thrall purged, killing off the last of the choir and the vassals, seriously impacting the usefulness of the Judicator (though it was hardly crippled). The larger unit of thralls and their Surgeon moved into the line, clearly terrified of the threat that Saxon Orrik represented in clearing out that zone. The remaining thralls in the other zone continued to trade blows with the zealots killing another. The Withershadow Combine moved up to offer some screening to Terminus who was cowering in the woods.
This wasn't perfect though, and I eyed up the board for the first two minutes of my turn trying to decide if I should try to clear out the zone or go for a risky assassination run on Terminus. I opted for the cooler route and gave two focus to the Judicator and charged it into Terminus, and with a proxy base and widget figured that it was only just in. After some rolls Terminus had only taken a handful of boxes, and the zone still had a bunch of Cryx in it. Feora advanced up behind the Judicator, hoping Escort would mitigate the inevitable retaliation. Saxon failed to kill Tartarus in return for his turn.
Terminus put his grumpy face on and used Corbeau and Darragh Wrathe to shift across the board and line up a charge lane on Feora. The Withershadow put Puppet Strings on Terminus and took a shot at Feora but missed. Terminus then took the charge on Feora, suffering a free strike from the Judicator. It hit, but with the full camp only did a moderate amount of damage. Terminus then proceeded to smack Feora into the dirt using his full stack. But Faith being stronger than Fury, she was left standing quite comfortably with around 8 boxes thanks to some poor dice rolls. Not wanting to lose the assassination a pair of bane knights charged into the mix too, but only one hit, with the other doing 5 damage. Desperate to finish off the game one of the bile thralls activated, but only did one box to her, leaving her safe even from corrosion, but killing a bunch of cryx models to boot. The corrosion stayed on for my turn leaving Feora on 1 box.
This gave me the best shot I'd had all game to close it out. Feora gave two to the Judicator, who turned around and took another chunk out of the Lich Lord before Feora started laying in with Apocalypse. The Lich Lord took a couple of hits before Feroa plunged her spear into his chest for the kill, looking on in righteous indignation as he passed his tough roll. Using her last focus to buy a final attack, hitting automatically, and once again took the last chunk off him, this time the die for tough hit the table and came up a 4.
When the smoke cleared the board was left with one or two zealots, Feroa on one box and her Judicator along with Saxon Orrik defiantly staring down Tartarus, a bunch of Bane Knights, a mostly full unit of mechanithralls and a necrosurgeon unit. And two of the Withershadow combine along with the support solos and basically a whole bunch of guys, but the lucky assassination had secured me a relatively undeserved win.
On reflection Jayke realised that he hadn't actually used the puppet strings bonus during the assassination run which might have made a big difference to the result of the game. Besides which after clearing out the zone on my right he could have flown Termimus into the zone and locked me out for a scenario win. Looking back I didn't really learn Saxon well enough to really utilise him and I really should have run the TFG to get a more commanding board position to properly contest the zone instead of just getting a toe in the zone. I really liked this list and had a fun time playing with it. Especially the Bonded Judicator which is awesome to play. I'll feel a lot more comfortable with the list once I've had at least one more game with it.
I'm looking forward to having another practice game I can tell you all about before I hit the tournament in a week!
-M
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