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
Cool write up mate :-)
ReplyDelete