pSeverius +6
-Heirophant -2
-Blessings of Vengence -7
-Reckoner -8
-Templar -8
Vessel of Judgement -9
Vassal Mechanic -1
Vassal of Menoth -2
Wrack -1
eEiryss -3
Gorman Di Wulfe -2
Saxon Orrik -2
Max Choir of Menoth -3
Max Temple Flameguard with UA -8
Objective - Bunker
I was looking forward to giving it a nice test on the table. The first game I managed to play was against Mark and his Khador who I've played several times before. He was also trying out a new list, this time using pVlad. His list included Behemoth, a Spriggan, an Iron Fang Kovnik, a Koldun Lord, Kovnik Joe, a max unit of Assault Kommandos with a Flamethrower attachment, the Great Bears, a max unit of Winter Guard, and Aiyanna and Holt with Koldun Kapitan Valachev. We rolled off for scenario and got Fire Support from the 2015 scenario packet. I won the roll to go first and pre-deployed my Vessel left of centre and the battlegroup to the centre, with the TFG off to my right flank. Mark deployed his jacks and Vlad around the centre, while his units took up each flank.
On my first turn I put a focus on each of my jacks and then had Sevvy place Eye of Menoth on himself and Defender's ward on the TFG, who also got pathfinder from Orrik. After which everything ran up to varying degrees, since I was concerned about his threat ranges. Eiryss ran into the forest and Gorman advanced to throw out smoke. Sevvy and his Heirophant moved up behind the wall, annoyingly still inside the kill box.
On the other side of the board things went quite similarly. Behemoth received one from Vlad and then everything ran up, with the Koldun Power Boosting the Spriggan allowing it to run, ending behind the objective.
On my turn it was time to start killing things. The Templar moved up and away, freeing the Vessel to move up and zap the Winter Guard, killing two. The Blessings of Vengence ran over towards the winter guard too, allowing Sevvy to move up, out of the kill box and then arc an Ashes to Ashes onto the Winter Guard, killing another handful, though one passed his tough check. The TFG got pathfinder from Orrik, and then advanced up with shield wall and iron zeal to make them DEF 15 and ARM 23 with Set Defence. The Reckoner advanced up to take a shot at the Spriggan, damaging the paintwork but little else. Eiryss moved over to shoot the Spriggan but rolled a 2 after I stupidly said 'anything but double ones'. Gorman moved up and threw out smoke again.
Mark was prepared to retaliate. He advanced Vlad up to just behind the Behemoth and cast Signs and Portents to improve his rolls. The Assault Kommandos advanced through the difficult terrain and shot at the TFG but failed to hit most of them, with only one hit, taking no damage but getting tagged with a flare. Following that the Great Bears charged in with Backswing but only managed to kill one Flameguard. The Spriggan moved up and used its targeting to hit Eiryss, robbing her of Stealth and then killed her with his second shot. The Kovnik then tried to charge the Objective but was just too short. Aiyanna and Holt moved up, the elf was too far to nail Kiss on the Vessel and Holt pinged a couple of shots of it. The Winter guard got an additional attack die from Joe and then moved up with most of them taking shots at Sevvy, but the first one missed despite having 4 dice, drop the lowest, the rest of them only doing a couple of points of damage between them.
On my turn I realised that Vlad had moved up to get out of Kill Box and was camping nothing. I allocated one each to the Reckoner and BoV, and upkept EoM but let DW drop. The Vessel moved up and fired its zap at the Winter Guard and managed to kill 3 of them. The Reckoner then advanced up and boosted a shot into Vlad to get the flare on him. This shot was dice damage but I only rolled a 3. I'd been hoping for more and now I wasn't too sure on my ability to finish him this turn. But then I remembered my Vassal, who had to move around my poorly placed choir and used Ancilliary attack to get another shot, thanks to Flare I was able to hit again and rolled a much bigger load of damage. BoV then ran across the board to get Vlad into his LoS, allowing Sevvy to arc a boosted Immolation into him, finishing him off, netting me an early assassination win.
This was a short game and as we discussed after the game Vlad's positioning could have been better to block me out a bit more. I rolled quite low on my Ashes to Ashes and Admonisher bounces but it was still awesome blowing up his winter guard. The TFG with Defender's Ward demonstrated how indestructible they can be when everything lines up for them.
Since the game had ended quite early in the night our (brand new) PG Dave asked me if I wanted to have a game against his Trolls. I agreed, congratulating him on the future win. He was playing a pDoomy list which was (shockingly) a tier 4 Runes of War list made up of pDoomshaper, Mulg, an Earthborn, a Mauler and an Axer, a max unit of Krielstones with UA and 4 units of Runeshapers with Jannisa. Dave won the roll to go first on Incursion and took the first turn. He deployed two units of Runeshapers on each flank, with the stones and battlegroup central. I deployed with most of my army off to my left flank, with the Vessel and the Reckoner on the right flank, Sevvy and support left of central and the TFG on the far left with Orrik.
Dave went first and ran his Runeshapers up the board followed up by the battlegroup and the stones, with Doomshaper and the Trolls throwing out some defensive animi, and Doomshaper putting Banishing Ward onto one of the Runeshapers. Jannisa threw out a wall in front of the battlegroup.
On my turn I moved up a bit (Spoiler Alert: not nearly far enough!) the Vessel moved up, trying to get in range of the Runeshapers but was too far away. The TFG turtled up into Shield Wall and shuffled up the board. Orrik ran up the board. The jacks ran up to get some more board. Just like last game Sevvy put out DW on the TFG and EoM on himself again. Gorman advanced up and popped smoke. Eiryss, not wanting to waste her a second time, ran across and back.
Dave then ran his Runeshapers up, with one unit camping on the flag and the other screening them, setting him up to score next turn since I hadn't moved up far enough to properly contest the flags. The battlegroup and Doomshaper advanced further up, behind a wall Jannisa threw out, putting out the defensive animi again. Finally Doomshaper feated.
On my turn I needed to clear the Runeshapers off the flags. I upkept both my spells and put one on each of my heavies. The Vessel stood still to aim and then shot the nearest Runeshaper, arcing to 3 others, forcing a passed tough on the initially hit model, but killing the other three that got hit. BoV moved up, across the wall to line up for an Ashes to Ashes. Sevvy arced into the Troll on the flag, killing two, and he then moved towards the Vessel to keep the Reckoner in EoM. Eiryss aimed and shot Banishing Ward off the Runeshapers. The Reckoner then advanced to the side and shot the Runeshaper on the flag, who passed a tough check, but I used an ancilliary to clear him off finally. The Templar advanced into the maximum reach range on one of the Runeshapers and killed it, before using Beat Back to back away. The TFG moved up, with three clumping into the nearest Runeshaper, with the rest moving up and using Iron Zeal. The three on the Runeshaper did a bunch of damage but didn't finish it off this turn, but did set it on fire. Gorman threw black oil onto another of the Runeshapers.
On the following turn the Runeshaper on fire died. The remaining regular Runeshaper on my left flank advanced up to throw a rock at the TFG, but with all their buffs it missed and the blast wasn't enough to hurt them. Doomshaper moved up and put Transmutation on himself and then advanced to get Sevvy into his Control area and then purified, clearing off his own buff. This left Doomy exposed, but he then moved up his battlegroup to hide him, with the Earthborn getting onto the flag, putting out his Defensive buffs again, and having Jannisa drop a wall. The Runeshapers on my right flank moved back up into the flag, then chucked rocks to kill my choir near the Reckoner. The blinded Runeshaper stumbled away from Gorman, presumably trying to get the black oil off himself only to walk into the Mauler who hefted him back at Gorman, killing them both. Dave ended the turn, scoring two points.
On my turn, and with the scenario pressure high, I allocated one to the Reckoner and a full three to the Templar. Sevvy, with a little help from the Heirophant got my upkeeps back out on himself and the TFG, and moved slightly off to the side. The Vessel stood still to aim and shot the Runeshaper in the forest, with the Admonisher allowing it to kill both models on that flag. The Reckoner then ran over to control the flag on my right. The TFG advanced up to the left flag, planning to attack in groups of three, but the first group killed the Runeshaper. The Mauler was also contesting the flag and so I charged in with the Templar, getting lucky with the dice and one-rounded it, using the Beat Back to move slightly further away. I ended the turn and gained 2 points, while Dave secured his third.
Dave went into some serious consideration at the start of his turn, measuring Doomshaper's control area multiple times to check if the Earthborn would be in charge range of Sevvy. He decided he wasn't but had another plan to get at him. Mulg activated first, charging the Templar to get out of the Earthborn's way, trashing my heavy, but not moving in to contest the flag, despite being able to goad. The Earthborn then activated and charged a choir member thanks to rush, goading from the kill into Sevvy and, thanks to fortune, smushed him into the dirt securing Dave the win.
I thought this game went better than I expected it to and I ended with 3 control points to 4 (the Reckoner was on the right flag so would be inert when Sevvy died) which was ok, but as Dave pointed out he would have moved his stone up to contest my left flag and I would have had a hard time clearing his trolls out thanks to self-sacrifice on the stone, but I did have a high volume of attacks from the TFG and so I might have managed to close it out, but we'll never know. I held back way too much in this game and should've been contesting the flags much earlier. I let Dave lock me out of Scenario and then failed to take opportunity to come back in and contest when I did have the chance.
Both of these games were great fun and I feel like they helped put the list through its paces. I'm excited to get it on the table at the tournament, but I should have another practice game battle report next week first.
Don't forget to like Mitsuharu on Minis on Facebook for updates and more!
-M
Cool Bat reps Matt :-)
ReplyDelete