Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - Learning Legion - Saeryn, Omen of Everblight vs Vayl, Disciple of Everblight

Hi wargamers, welcome back to the latest Mitsuharu on bat reps! There's been a little change of plans with my lists for this week. I've been easing myself in over the past few weeks using Thagrosh since he's a bit more forgiving. On Sunday, though, I agreed to go to a medium sized local tournament. In two weeks. Not much prep time. I decided this would be a great time for a crazy trial by fire using some more competitive lists, but I'm probably only going to get one more practice game using my second list after this week before I'm thrown in the deep end! I threw together a couple of lists and then spent a day tweaking and refining them until I was happy. The first list I tried out was a Saeryn list:

Saeryn +5

-Angelius -9

-Angelius -9

-Scythean -9

-Scythean -9

-Raek -4

-Shredder -2

Foresaken -2

Foresaken -2

Deathstalker -2

Deathstalker -2

Spell Martyr -1

Spell Martyr -1

Maximum Spawning Vessel -3

Objective - Bunker

The list is pretty flexible and takes advantage of Saeryn's abilities well, when played correctly (spoiler alert). The game I got this week was against Nick, who was able to offer me some really helpful hints and tips about match ups and list options. He was also trying a new list, using pVayl in tier 4. This included a Succubus, a Scythean, two Ravagores, a Seraph and a Shredder in the battlegroup along with two shepherds, two minimum units of hex hunters, one with Bayal, and a Max Spawning Vessel. We rolled out Destruction and Nick won first turn, letting me pick board edge. 

Nick deployed first with his heavies all base to base in the centre of his zone, with the Spawning Vessel to his right with the first unit of Hex Hunters. On my side I deployed with Saeryn near a handy not in kill box wall on my right flank, the beasts paired up in the middle and the Vessel off to my left flank. The second unit of hex hunters ADed in a divided front line and my Deathstalkers sat in the forest opposite most of the infantry and waited. 

Nick took his first turn and ran everything up the board, getting everything toe in on the zone. The Hex Hunters he advance deployed ran up to form a screening line for the beasts. The Vessel plodded up the board. Vayl dropped a bunch of Fury and then ran to get up the board alongside her beasts. 

On my turn I made a huge misplay. I ran my Scytheans up, also getting one in the zone and the other just behind it, followed by the Angels moving right up behind them. Saeryn put Respawn on one of the Angels and then threw a blight bringer on the lead Scythean, putting out the awkward AOE and killing a hex hunter. One of my Deathstalkers killed a hex hunter and the other was just outside the stealth range of the other unit. My Vessel advanced up around the forest in front of them. Notice the big, big mistake? Yep I moved right up and did not feat. I completely pulled a blank. I hadn't been thinking of a turn one feat and it didn't even occur to me as an option until Nick pointed it out (after my turn, he's no fool). So I was up and exposed and undefended. Awesome. 

Nick was more than happy to take advantage of my stupidity. He had Vayl go and put up Incite and nudge back to just get both the Scytheans in its effect. Then he put Chiller on Bayal's unit of Hex Hunters who advanced all up in my grill, giving -2 to the two Scytheans and even killing one spell martyr. His Scythean then activated and used the free charge from Fuel Cashe to charge the front Scythean, getting the other in reach. Despite really poor dice rolls he killed the first and left the second with only a couple of boxes. The pot then activated and the attendants chucked each other into the broth to spawn a Stinger, which advanced up and finished off the second Scythean with a poison charge. One of the Ravagores took a shot on an Angel, getting the hit and doing reasonable damage and setting it on fire. The Hex Hunters locked up the Deathstalkers on the flank, killing one of them. This was Nick's feat turn, too, so he was able to back up after the alpha; shifting his battlegroup back out, apart from the Seraph who advanced into the Angel to lock him up. 

On my turn the fire on the Angel went out and I healed a point off it and upkept Respawn, to keep it viable. My spell martyr moved up to get close to the Hex Hunters. The Vessel on my side of the table also killed each other, creating a harrier, who charged the Hex Hunter locking down the Deathstalker. Saeryn went and pinged off a Breath Stealer on the unit of Hex Hunters with Chiller, but failed the to hit roll, missing completely, so she settled for using her feat to keep me safe (like I should have last turn!) now immune to free strikes the front Angelius charged the Scythean, hitting the Armour Pierce for a decent whack of damage. I then bought another attack, targeting the nearby Shepherd, hoping to be able to Overtake to lock up both Ravagores, but missed the attack roll. The Raek stepped in, or rather jumped in, leaping over the screening line of hex hunters to tie up the Ravagores. My second aAgel charged the Seraph, missing the boosted AP attack and so was only able to do minor damage to it with a bought second. The Shredder advanced up to take out the Hex Hunter near Saeryn with rabid. The Deathstalker moved back, into the forest and killed another hex hunter, missing the snap fire shot, though. 

Nick was now unable to hit most of my stuff and was locked up for shooting. He started by having one Ravagore move backwards, taking the Raek free strike, but only suffering minor damage to the heavy beast. It then took a shot at my spawned Harrier, hitting and killing it instantly and setting the objective on fire. Vayl then advanced up, using Rampager to move the advance Angel up, behind his own lines, and out of my control area, making it vulnerable to melee again, before proceeding to just finish it off with all his Scythean's attacks. It then Respawned in Vayl's back arc, much to Nick's annoyance since he'd forgotten the spell. To make up for it he spawned another Stinger from the pot who then finished off the Respawned beast. The other Ravagore moved to be in my way and keep the Raek locked down. The remaining hex hunters kept advancing up the board and generally making a nuisance of themselves. 

On my turn things were looking pretty dire. Vayl, though, had exposed herself to get off the Rampager last turn. It would take some lucky dice, since she had 4 transfers, but it was just barely doable. I had my long shot Hail Mary ready. I started by checking Vayl. She was too far away for a Deathspur throw. So I had the remaining Angel turn around and fly to melee with her, taking three free strikes from the Stinger and two hex hunters. They did minor damage to it, but scattered across various spirals. Then the Scythean used Dark Sentinel to move up and try to block the Angel, but couldn't stop it attacking. The Scythean took its attack but failed to cripple anything. The Armour pierce hit and did a bunch of damage. I boosted another hit and forced a transfer. The Raek moved up to get reach on Vayl while staying in the arc of the Ravagore. It attacked and forced another transfer, missing one attack. I had Saeryn move up and cast Blight Bringer on the Raek, forcing another transfer from the AOE. She had one transfer left and only a couple of boxes but I was out of models. The Vessel moved up as far as it could and killed a Bearer to spawn a Harrier, it charged at Vayl hoping to hard roll the hits, but came up short. 

I'd had to advance Saeryn up into the Seraph and two Hex Hunters, including Bayal, to get the range for the blight bringer and had maxed out almost all of my beasts except the Lessers. The Bayal Hex Hunters activated and charged. Two of them killed the Shredder, denying the transfer and then Bayal hit with his Shadow Bind weapon master. I transferred, killing the Harrier. Between Chiller and Shadow Bind, though, the Seraph had no problem finishing off Saeryn with two attacks, giving Nick the assassination victory. 

This was a hard fought game and I think I managed to do a pretty good job of recovering after disastrously failing to feat on turn one. This was just the kick I needed from the practice game to demonstrate what not to do, and hopefully it'll be a big help when I'm playing competitively. Nick was a big help and gave sage wisdom throughout the game as he normally does and was generally a good sport throughout. 

Hopefully the hints and tips he gave me will help me to play a bit more competitively come the tournament! Join me next week for my hasty practice game with my other list, where I'll try and be marginally less inept!

As always thanks for reading, and don't forget to check out the Facebook page and 'like' for regular post updates, photos and more at www.facebook.com/Mitsuharuonminis 

-M

Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - Learning Legion Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight vs Kromac, Champion of the Wurm

Hi everyone and welcome to the latest bat rep. This week I decided to change up my list slightly from the one I used last week. I just got (and painted) the BFS as my Facebook followers will have already seen and so I wanted to try them out. To fit them in I dropped one of the Shredders and the Gobbers from the list and swapped out the Foresaken for Shepherds, freeing up the necessary 5 points for them. This left my list as:

Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight +5

-Succubus -2

-Angelius -9

-Angelius -9

-Carnivean -11

-Naga Nightlurker -5

-Shredder -2

Shepherd -1

Shepherd -1

Max Warspears -8

-Warspear Chieftan -2

Black Frost Shard -5

Objective - Fuel Cashe

This week I managed to get my game in against Andy who's been using Circle and beat me in round two at the last tournament with his Bradigus list in a long grinding game. This time he promised not to drop the Runecarver and instead played a proxy of the new Circle caster, eKromac! His list was pretty beast heavy with Ghetorix, a Gorax, a Rotterhorn Griffon, a Shadowhorn Satyr and a Warpwolf Stalker in the battlegroup, along with a Druid Wilder, a Wayfarer, a unit of Druids with UA, and two units of Shifting Stones, one with UA. We rolled for Scenario and got Incursion from the 2015 packet. I lost the pregame roll but Andy wanted to pick board edge and so I still got first turn. I deployed with my Warspears on one flank along with the BFS and the Carnivean while the Angels took the other. Andy deployed centrally with his Druids out in front. 

I started my turn by running everything up the board taking advantage of defensive terrain, using Thagrosh and the Succubus to put out defensive Animi on the beasts and had Thagrosh cast Fog of War and put Draconic Blessing on the Warspears. 

On Andy's turn the circle pretty much followed suit, advancing up the board behind Druid cloud cover. Kromac used his Howl and gave the Stalker a free animus with his spells. 

I was feeling a bit conservative on my turn and was leery of moving into his threat ranges so only advanced slightly. The Warspears advanced towards the Druids who were their prey and hit every single cloud with great accuracy, unfortunately not quite catching the Druids in their centre, though. The Carnivean advanced up and sprayed a Druid, unable to harm him because of hippy magic, but catching a stone and Ghetorix behind him. I hit the stone and boosted to kill it and then double boosted the hit on Ghetorix to put a handful of damage on him. The BFS advanced to the edge of the hill and got stelthed near the flag. The rest of the army shuffled forwards into better positions for next turn and Thagrosh advanced into the trench and he and the Succubus put out a bunch of animi again. 

On Andy's turn the Druids scattered, getting out of everyone else's way, popping out some more clouds, one heading to contest the flag to my left. Kromac then advanced up and popped his feat. The now freed up Ghetorix charged the Carnivean, warping snacking to RFP the heavy, meaning I couldn't feat it back and he healed some of the damage taken by Ghetorix last turn. Then he used Sprint to advance across and tie up the Warspears. On the other side of the board the Warpwolf Stalker charged an Angelius but thanks to Tenacity he was only able to connect once, not doing enough to finish it off. The rest of the force advanced up the board more, then the Wayfarer advanced up to control the flag to my right scoring the first point for Circle. 

On my turn the Warspears activated and all but one of them declaring charges on Ghetorix, the other going into a Druid, hoping to cause them to break from the Terror. The Druids braved it out and the Warspear that charged them failed his assault and charge against the Druid's high DEF. All three of the charges against Ghetorix that I'd managed to get missed and the other attacks only did a couple of points of damage. The wounded Angel took an Armour Pierce into the Stalker, boosting the attack and damage dice and cranking the roll to put a chunk of damage on it. It bought a second attack hoping for the hard roll, freeing my fury to boost damage, but missed. The second Angel then charged in, getting B2B with the flag and finishing off the Warpwolf with its armour pierce attack and repulsing to push away the Wayfarer. The Naga tried to take out another of the stones this time from the other unit, but didn't quite manage to finish it. The Blackfrost Shard charged the Druid to my left, killing him with a lucky to hit roll on the first attack and controlling that flag. The Shepherd accompanying the dead Carnivean ran across the board to the other flank and the rest of the beasts. Thagrosh and the Succubus then pumped out tenacities on every model in range of them. This put us on one control point each. 

On Andy's turn the Rotterhorn charged up the board, killing one of the BFS and then used its scream to kill the other two, clearing and controlling that flag. Kromac advanced up to the flag and put up Carnage and Howl and took a swing at a Warspear, but missed it with a double 1. Ghetorix then decided to show him how it was done and proceeded to kill the other 5 Warspears singlehandedly. The Shadowhorn charged the Angelius on my far right flank and rolled exactly enough to kill it. The Gorax charged the other, injured Angel but rolled poorly and didn't do much damage at all. The Druids continued to pump smoke and the Wayfarer moved back into the flag and sprayed down a Shepherd, putting Andy on 3 control points to my one. 

At this point two things were very clear. Firstly I was about to lose on scenario and couldn't contest effectively. Secondly Kromac was way upfront and was only camping one Fury. Hail Mary time then. The engaged Warspear moved away, taking a fatal free strike from a Kromac keen to prove he did know what he was doing and he was just unused to Rathrok, ok? I wasn't especially bothered about it since he wasn't achieving anything useful anyway. Then Thagrosh charged Kromac and boosted the attack. He connected and knocked Kromac down to only a couple of damage boxes with a fantastic damage roll. He then bought a second and missed the boosted attack roll. And the third. And the fourth. Humph. Not ideal. I moved on to the Shepherd who healed a little bit off the Angelius and then had the Succubus give it Tenacity. The Angelius then charged Kromac for the Armour Pierce of doom, taking three free strikes along the way. Only the Gorax connected but did exactly enough to cripple Spirit, meaning I couldn't boost or buy extra attacks, meaning that, with one transfer, he was safe. I moved the shredder up to contest the flag in a final effort of defiance. 4-1 and I was engaged by Ghetorix and Kromac on no camp. Kromac finished off Thags, but took a few swings to get there, which is something, meaning a Circle assassination victory. 

This was a fun game and I felt fairly confident going into the final assassination that I had a reasonable, albeit not great, chance to steal the win. I'm really unfamiliar with Circle so it was nice to get some practice against them as I think they're probably one of the factions I know the least. 

In terms of my gameplay, retrospectively I made some glaring mistakes that cost me the game. Learning experiences though, right? First off I was far too cautious moving up the board. I'm used to playing trundling Menoth and so I'm not used to moving up as far as I can with Legion. I should have moved much further and taken more real estate in the early turns. The Warspears should really have run to engage the Druids turn two and locked up his front lines and generally made a nuisance of themselves gumming up the Circle. This is something I can definitely do better in the future. The other major mistake that I only realised looking back was that I'd completely forgotten Death Shroud, which would have meant that my Angel that died would have survived the turn and that the vital Gorax free strike wouldn't have removed my spirit on the charge with the other one, which would have had a huge impact on the outcome if I'd been more on the ball. Obviously I've only got myself to blame and Andy took all the opportunities I handed to him like a good Circle player. Luckily he's a fun guy to play against and so I can't feel too bitter about the loss as it was an enjoyable game!

I feel like this game was particularly useful in helping me recognise some of the flaws with my play using Legion and hopefully I'll be able to capitalise on them in my upcoming games!

As always thanks for reading, and don't forget to check out the Facebook page and 'like' for regular post updates, photos and more at www.facebook.com/Mitsuharuonminis 

-M

Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - Learning Legion Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight vs. The Harbinger of Menoth

Hey gang, welcome back to another battle report. This week I managed to get a game in with one of the developing players in our local meta. I decided this week to give my 'competitive' Thagrosh list from CitTM a try. It was made up of:

Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight +5

-Succubus -2

-Angelius -9

-Angelius -9

-Carnivean -11

-Naga Nightlurker -5

-Shredder -2

-Shredder -2

Foresaken -2

Foresaken -2

Max Warspears -8

-Warspear Chieftan -2

Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew -1

Objective - Fuel Cashe

This is a potentially very hard hitting list that can take advantage of Thagrosh's spells and abilities well, so I was interested in trying it out. Liam, who I was playing, had constructed his list on the fly, as he had been better prepared for a 35 point game. He was also playing Menoth, which meant that in addition to my overall experience edge I was also intimately familiar with his faction too! The list that he built was Harbinger with two Repenters, a Templar, a Vanquisher, a Heirophant, an Exemplar Seneschal, a Paladin of the Wall, the Covenant of Menoth, a maximum choir of Menoth, a maximum unit of Cinerators and a maximum unit of Errants. The game we were playing was Close Quarters and I won the roll to go first. I deployed with most of my force to the right of centre, while the Menoth bunched up in the centre of the board. I had the Warspears Prey the Cinerators. 

On my turn I ran everyone up the board, with Thagrosh, the Succubus and the Shredders putting out defensive spells and animi across the board. The Orgrun got Draconic Strength and then the Gobbers let out their cloud to cover Thagrosh and the Naga and I hunkered down to take Harbinger's feat. 

On his turn Liam had most of his stuff run forwards, taking a big chunk of board space. The Harbinger then feated and charged up the board, contacting the back of her heavy jacks before she got too far, catching my army in her feat. 

On my turn I couldn't do very much without taking a POW 14. So I didn't. The Carnivean stood still to aim and took out a couple of the Errants, boosting to hit against all four hit. Similarly the Angelii took pot shots at the nearest Cinerator, but despite their poor defence one missed and the other failed to crack armour. Thagrosh kicked out a couple more defensive animi without moving forwards. The Warspears shuffled to the right of the board, getting more distance around the forest on that flank then the Gobbers made another cloud. 

On his turn Liam had the Errants move up and take some shots at the Angelius and Carnivean with their crossbows but didn't hit the Angelius and didn't wound the Carnivean. A couple of them did manage to wound the Warspear UA but not enough to kill him. In his rush to get the Errants up the board he'd forgotten to allocate any focus this turn and so simply had the heavy jacks advance up the board, with a Repenter missing a shot on the Angelius and the Vanquisher deviating a shot that hit the Angelius but did no damage. The Cinerators and the Paladin continued plodding up their flank. Harbinger moved up to just behind her Jacks and used Purification to clear off my spells. 

On my turn I had the Carnivean advance onto the nearby hill and had him spray the Errants, killing a couple. The Foresaken moved up and used its blight bomb to hit all of the Errants but only succeeded in killing one or two. Thagrosh moved up and put Draconic Strength on an Angelius and put Fog back out. The Naga moved up and took a shot at Harbinger but missed. The Angelius then charged Harbinger through the forest, but thanks to Awe he missed the boosted armour pierce charge attack as well as the second attack he bought. Not what I wanted. The other Angelius charged a Cinerator but missed its charge attack too. The Warspears trudged up towards the Cinerators. Meanwhile the Foresaken jogged up and ate up the Cinerator Angelius' Fury. 

On his turn Liam put two focus on the Templar, and one each on the Repenters. He then started with Harbinger, using Purification to clear off my defensive abilities and then cast crusader's call. The positioning of the jacks meant that while I had reach on Harbinger her 0.5" melee couldn't get the Angelius back. The Templar then took a swing on the Angelius but missed all three of his attacks. The Vanquisher also took a swing but missed too. The dice were not friendly this game. The Repenter to my left charged the Carnivean, hitting but failing to damage his high ARM. On the other flank the other Repenter sprayed on the Angelius engaging the Cinerator but missed. The Cinerators then charged the Angelius, getting two on it in addition to the one already engaging it. Two of them hit its high DEF and did a reasonable amount of damage, crippling body and most of mind on the beast. The paladin tried to charge it too, but positioned to take a free strike that killed him. The choir moved up and put passage on the jacks since he'd forgotten to use battle at the start of the turn. 

On my turn I had the Naga advance to clear out the two Errants contesting my flag. Thagrosh moved up to dominate the flag and put Draconic Strength back on the Angelius and then threw out some Defensive animi. Then the Angelius went and this time it managed to hit the boosted armour pierce attack. With Harby not camping anything this reduced her armour to 7, putting me at dice +9 for the attack. I boosted the damage roll and killed her with the single attack, winning the game. 

This was an interesting game where both of us seemed to have pretty bad luck with our dice throughout. I like the list, but I think I deployed the Warspears poorly as they ended up having no impact on the game itself. I also learned that the Succubus doesn't have fearless, despite being a godless four-armed dragon woman herself and apparently can't get too close to a forsaken without crying like a little baby Nyss girl and then running away. Not that I'm bitter or anything. 

I'm looking forward to using this list again next week and seeing if I can get some more use out of all of the pieces in there. 

As always thanks for reading, and don't forget to check out the Facebook page and 'like' for regular post updates, photos and more at www.facebook.com/Mitsuharuonminis 

-M

Tourney Tales - Learning Legion Fun, Quick and Dirty

So welcome back, everyone, to my latest report. This week our PG decided to run a mini hardcore tournament for us at our LGS. The rules were simple. One 20 point list. 5 minute timed turns. No extensions. Hardcore scenario. It was called Fun, Quick and Dirty and that's exactly what it was. The six people who attended had all taken the dirtiest lists they could think of. I decided to stick with pThagrosh especially since his feat can give a substantial swing at such a low point value. The list I went for was:

pThagrosh +5

-Succubus -2

-Carnivean -11

-Scythean -9

Shepherd -1

Deathstalker -2

The plan for the list was to spam Spiney Growth try and to get a powerful alpha with some Draconic Strength juggling and then feat a beast back if I lose one to maintain the attrition advantage. Because of the strict time limits and the overall rush of the night I wasn't able to get any pictures, unfortunately. That also means I'll only be able to recall a quick summary of the games I played. 

My first game was against Jayke of Hall of Legends using his Cryx. He'd decided to use Mortenebra at tier 4, which got him 4 Slayers and two warwitch sirens. This meant that he was 4 points up because of his tier, a healthy difference at 20 points. I won the roll to go first and started with my first turn strategy, which consisted of casting Spiney Growth on each of the beasts, as well as putting Draconic Strength on the Scythean then charging up the board with Thagrosh. The beasts then ran up B2B in front of him, screening him, then the Succubus moved to put Spiney Growth on Thagrosh while the Deathstalker began a wide flank. Jayke had all of his Slayers up into the zone, getting as far up as possible. This gave me the opening to get a nice Alpha. The Scythean charged one of the Slayers reducing it to only a few boxes. The Canivean charged another Slayer and wrecked it. On Jayke's turn, rushed and unused to running jacks, he forgot to allocate any focus, seriously blunting his ability to retaliate. Despite this he managed to combine Mortenebra's spells and feat to pretty seriously ding my beasts up. On my turn the Shepherd healed up the Scythean, allowing it to kill the Slayer it failed to kill the turn before as well as a second one that Jayke had moved in to engage it the turn before. The Carnivean, similarly, was able to wreck the Slayer engaging it too, leaving him with no jacks. On his turn Jayke went for the long shot assassination, trying to spell assassinate Thagrosh, but only managed to get one point on him. Dice down was called and since neither of us had any Pressure Points the second tiebreaker was Army points destroyed and so I won the first round of the tournament. 

In the second round I was paired up with a Cygnar player, Mark, who was using eCaine. Urgh. His list included a Squire, a Hunter, eEiryss, Gorman di Wulfe, Taryn di la Rovissi, Reinhold, the Black 13th and a unit of rangers. It was pretty clear what the plan was for this list. Assassination all the way. And it was looking like it was going to be very good at it. I won the roll to go first again and used the same opening gambit of charging Thagrosh up the board and using the beasts to screen him while putting out all my buffs. Mark's first turn and my second basically involved moving further up the board, though I did manage to kill Eiryss with the Deathstalker on my turn two. On his turn Mark had Taryn disappear my Carnivean but missed the Scythean. The Black 13th hit Thagrosh to rob him of concealment from Fog of War and then Caine moved up and feated, shooting the hell out of Thagrosh, forcing me to transfer to the beasts repeatedly and reducing me to only a handful of boxes before Gatecrashing back out of my threat range. Gorman also managed to black oil my Carnivean, also managing to hit the Succubus and the Scythean with the AOE.  

On my turn I was pretty hurt by the black oil. I had the Scythean advance into engage a ranger and the black 13th, locking them in and forcing two terror checks from Draconic Strength, but he managed to pass them both. The Carnivean moved up and then Thagrosh advanced and sprayed Gorman and Taryn, killing him but missing her, meaning no more Black Oil shenanigans. Mark then took some shots with his Hunter and Rangers, forcing some more transfers. Caine then moved up and reduced Thags to one box, meaning I had to transfer every following hit. He then took a whole bunch of shots, but managed to roll low on a few damage rolls, meaning that at the end of the turn Caine was sat on nothing. Thagrosh was sat on one box and no transfers. The Black 13th then moved to get a line on Thagrosh, taking free strikes from the Scythean. Two of them died, leaving Ryan with the two guns needing to do a single point of damage to win the game. But he failed the massive casualties check and fled before he could take a shot. I had managed to survive by sheer luck. The Scythean advanced into Caine and killed him with a single double boosted hit, giving me a second win. 

The third round paired me against Nick from Solid Ground Studios who was taking a break from his regular Legion to play some Khador. Specifically Butcher3. The tournament was called dirty for a reason I guess. His list included the wardog, a Devastator, an Iron Fang Kovnik, max Iron Fang Pikemen with Black Dragon UA and Madelyn Corbeau. This was the championship game for the mini tournament. I knew that luck had been a big factor in my wins while Nick is a skilled player playing a very good caster. Which spells trouble for me. I won the roll for first turn again and took turn one. I used the same opening moves turtling up near the zone. Khador advanced up, with the IFP running up the board out of Shield Wall since they were facing a sniper who wouldn't care about their high ARM. Nick, as usual, was careful to place his models just out of my threat ranges. On my turn I moved the Scythean, which was closer to the IFP, out of most of their threat ranges. The Carnivean moved across and into the nearby forest and the zone. Thagrosh then advanced up behind him and the forest hoping that the forest blocking LOS to Butcher would help keep me in the game for a little longer. The Deathstalker took out the IFP standard bearer and one of the regular troopers using sniper and snap fire. Nick had two of the IFP charge the Deathstalker (killing her easily) and two charge the Scythean (forgetting to take attacks), the rest advancing up and into the zone. Butcher sauntered into the zone, sending one of his Arguses (Argii?) to run up and engage the Carnivean. The Devastor moved up minimally to just toe in the zone. On my turn I had the Scythean move up into the zone and kill the two IFP who'd engaged him and the Carnivean destroyed the Argus engaging it, while Thagrosh moved further behind the forest, trying to keep away from the Butcher as much as possible. Nick then started his turn with a Vengence and Intrigue move with Zoktavir, moving him much closer to the forest my caster was hiding behind. He then charged my Carnivean in the forest and then paid one for an energiser move into melee with Thagrosh behind the forest. This moved him out of the Carnivean's front arc but it managed to miss its attack roll for the free strike! Butcher put up Silence of Death and then Slaughtered the Prophet of Everblight in a couple of hits. 

The end result put me in second place overall, which was pretty impressive considering these were my 2nd, 3rd and 4th games since fully starting the faction! The format was really great fun and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone wanting to get a few games in a single night. It was high pressure with the time but with the small lists it wasn't oppressive. We managed to get the whole 3 round mini tournament done in just over 2 hours, 3 including the 'awards' at the end. 

I'm still really loving Legion and I'm absolutely looking forward to playing some more games with them soon!

As always check out the Facebook page and 'like' for regular post updates, photos and more at www.facebook.com/Mitsuharuonminis 

-M

Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - Learning Legion Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight vs Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Champion

Hey guys welcome to my latest bat rep, and my first with Legion! Finally! This is likely the most I have looked forward to a game in a long time and I was pretty psyched to get models on the table. I was using my pThagrosh practice list that I wrote about in my last CitTM article:

Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight +5

-Succubus -2

-Ravagore - 10

-Angelius -9

-Scythean -9

-Seraph -8

Nyss Shepherd -1

Nyss Shepherd -1

Forsaken -2

Deathstalker -2

Deathstalker -2

Max Legionnaires -6

Spawning Vessel -3

Objective - Fuel Cashe

I managed to get a game with Mike, who usually plays Trolls but was trying out Khador for the first time. His list consisted of eVlad with a wardog, a Destroyer, Juggernaught and Drago as well as the Great Bears, a unit of Widowmakers, a max unit of winter guard with UA and three rocketeers and Kovnik Joe, two Mortars and a Manhunter. Nick found us a scenario using http://www.rollforscenario.com/ and we got Fire Support. We rolled for first turn and I got a 6, giving me the first turn. 

I deployed with my battlegroup to the right of centre with my Legionaires and Spawning Vessel to the left. Mike set up with his battlegroup in the centre and his Winterguard package to my left. I then popped my Deathstalkers on either flank while his Manhunter and Widowmakers went on his flanks. 

On my first turn I had the Legionaires charge up the board, with three of them killing their brothers to fill up the pot, who then popped out a shredder. The battlegroup then ran up, with the Seraph using Slipstream to shift Thagrosh up slightly. The Deathstalkers advanced up the flanks and Thagrosh moved up, putting out tenacities on all of the battlegroup except the Angelius, casting Fog of War and giving Draconic Strength to the Scythean. 

On Mike's turn he ran up most of his army, the Widowmakers nestled up behind a wall, but were out of range to do any damage. The Manhunter ran into the forest for protection. The Mortar on my right flank advanced up to take a shot at the Legionaires, but it was half an inch short and deviated back, missing everything. The battlegroup ran up and the Winterguard used Bob and Weave and advanced. 

On my turn I had the Legionaires run up towards the Widowmakers followed up by the Spawning Vessel. The seraph used its animus and then moved across the Ravagore around the Obstacle, pushing the Ravagore two inches closer to the Widowmakers. The Seraph then took a Strafe into the Manhunter, killing him but nothing was in range for the second shot from the strafe. The Ravagore, now a bit closer, sacrificed movement to aim a boosted shot into the Widowmakers, killing three of them. The Angelius moved up to the edge of the forest, but was just short on its gun to hit the Destroyer, annoyingly. The Deathstalkers continued to move up the flanks. Thagrosh started his work as the tenacity fairy and started putting out the animus onto most of the battlegroup including himself. 

Mike had been hoping that his Widowmakers and Manhunters would have gotten more work done before dying and so moved the remaining Widowmaker back towards the Mortar and out of the way of the winter guard. The winter guard then moved up and used sprays from the UA to kill a handful of the Legionaries. The Juggernaught and Drago ran up towards my lines while the Destroyer took a shot at the Scythean, sticking a bit of damage on it. Vlad advanced up, out of kill box, hiding between the Great Bears. The mortar on my left took a shot at the Legionaires, but missed, scattering back to kill one of the pot, which was full of dead Legionaires at this point, and hit the Ravagore but failed to damage. 

I started my turn by reaving in all of my fury and taking my Vengence move to reposition the Legionaires to get them better charge lanes on the Winter Guard. The Seraph took a strafe shot on the Juggernaught, only rolling two this turn again, chipping the paintwork but doing minimal damage. The Ravagore then moved up and took a shot at a bundle of Winter Guard, catching a clump of them with the AOE. Only one failed their tough check, though, however the animus set the survivors on fire. The remaining Legionaires charged the closest winter guard and remaining Widowmakers, missing all but one attack thanks to poor dice rolls. The Pot then spawned a Stinger who moved up and sprayed but completely failed to kill anyone. The far right Deathstalker continued its extreme flank, killing the Mortar on that side. The Ravagore and Seraph were running hot and so the Shepherds took the fury off them. The Scythean then charged Drago, moving to also get the Juggernaught in melee. He then proceeded to hit Drago twice, triggering the Chain Attack, getting a hit on both the Juggernaught and Drago. When the smoke cleared and he was out of fury Drago was left with only a couple of boxes. Not wanting to fall shy on the piece exchange I flew the Angelius in to finish it off with an armour pierce charge, then the foresaken came up to take its fury off, giving her two. Thagrosh continued to dole out Tenacity to everyone and camp on a healthy stack of transfers. 

On Mike's turn he continued to whittle down my forces. The Winter Guard on fire all died as it didn't go out. Joe started by moving up and shooting at one of the Legionaires. Since the Legionaire was engaged he missed and ended up shooting one of his own Winter Guard in the back, but they passed their tough roll. The Winter Guard then took some shots and sprays into the Legionaries and the Stinger, killing two of the troops but missing the lesser with all of the shots. The Destroyer charged the Angelius but had trouble hitting its high DEF and only got one solid hit, which did a moderate amount of damage. Vlad then went and feated, affecting himself, the wardog and the Great Bears before running out of the way of the nearby beasts. The bears then activated and charged the Scythean, killing it with ease. 

On my turn I had the Ravagore move across the board and take an optimistic animus and shot at Vlad, but this missed despite the boost thanks to the feat bonus, deviating forwards to utterly miss everything, leaving a scather behind the caster. The Angelius took a double boosted Armour pierce hit on the Destroyer, doing a high amount of damage, but was then unable to damage it much more afterwards. The Foresaken also charged the Destroyer, but only managed a few points of damage to the high ARM Jack. The Seraph continued to plink shots into the Juggernaught, rolling a full 4 shots, boosting damage on all of them, but only doing a middling amount of damage to it. The Pot then produced a second Stinger, who joined the first in spraying over the Winter Guard, killing the UA and two of the Guardsmen between them. The Legionaires' Vengence and charges killed another couple of Guard, but Joe passed his tough to survive another turn. The Deathstalker on my left flank took out the other mortar, and the other one did a few points of damage to the objective. Thagrosh then moved up to the objective to get a line on the friendly flag to dominate next turn and then feated (not shown in the below pic) to put the Scythean back in play in front of him. 

Unfortunately at this point Mike had to call the game as he needed to leave to get home. This was a shame as I'd been enjoying the game and had wanted to play it out, but since we were new to our factions the game had taken a bit longer in the tank than usual and so it had gotten quite late. We discussed the game while packing up and Mike felt that I had a significant upper hand in attrition that he wouldn't be able to come back from, especially with me in position to dominate my own flag next turn. You can never rule out a Hail Mary assassination run with Vlad though!  

I thoroughly enjoyed playing Legion. I was slightly worried going into it that I'd be disappointed with them after building them up in my head so much. I really think that their play style is much better suited to my preferred approach and they're a much better fit for me. 

In terms of the game, retroactively I probably should have moved Thagrosh across into a position to dominate a turn earlier to allow me to start scoring sooner. I also probably shouldn't have taken the shot on eVlad in my final turn and continued to wear down the Winter Guard. Mike's remaining two Jacks were beat up enough to not pose too much of a threat to my beasts but I'd have enjoyed seeing where he went from there. I feel like I got to explore all of the models I had in the list pretty well. The Spawning Vessel is an awesome psychological tool since it really takes the sting out of your guys being butchered if you get to benefit from it later! 

This game has only whetted my appetite to play more Legion and I'm excited to get them back on the board! 

Hope you've all enjoyed my first foray into Everblight because there's plenty more to come!

As always check out the Facebook page and like for regular post updates, photos and more at www.facebook.com/Mitsuharuonminis 

-M