eThagrosh +3
-Scythean -9
-Scythean -9
-Scythean -9
-Shredder -2
-Raek -4
-Naga -5
Foresaken -2
Foresaken -2
Max Legionnaires -6
Incubus -5
Objective - Fuel Cashe
This list is heavy on beasts to benefit from the feat and Manifest Destiny. The Raek can help with infantry where needed and the Naga can scalpel out annoyances and lend its animus out where needed. Obviously Fuel Cashe helps the list to get out onto the board for free and the Foresaken also provide some fury management while being useful in their own right. The Legionnaires can jam up scenario well, especially with the incubus package to keep them in the zones for longer.
Pre-Game
This week I managed to get a game against Retribution, a faction I've only played against a couple of times. My opponent decided to play Garryth with Sylys, Moros, a Griffon and a Chimera in his battlegroup. The rest of the army consisted of two units of Stormfall Archers, a max unit of Strike force with Eiryss3 and a whole mess of solos including Narn, Nayl, two assassins, two Magisters and an artificer. The scenario I rolled was Incoming and Rik, my opponent, won the roll for initiative. He decided to go first, since the terrain was almost completely symmetrical.
Deployment
Rik deployed his battlegroup centrally and then placed one unit of Stormfall Archers on each flank, supplementing this with the strike force on the flank near my zone and with his solos on the other flank. I deployed my battlegroup to the right of centre and had my legionnaires opposite the opposing zone on my left, along with the Naga to benefit from the nearby forest.
Retribution Turn One
Rik started by having all of his models run forwards taking up positions far up the board. Eiryss moved into the forest in my zone accompanied by assassins. The Magisters and artificers advanced into jam the Ret zone.
Ret: 0 Legion: 0
Legion Turn One
On my turn I knew I was going to have to move into threat range of his army especially since he had so much ranged in his list. I advanced the Naga into the forest and ran everything else pretty much directly forward. Thagrosh put Unnatural Agression on a Scythean and Dragon's Blood on the Legionnaires. Then I braced for impact.
Ret: 0 Legion: 0
Retribution Turn Two
For the most of Rik's turn he focused fire on my Warbeasts. One Scythean got hit with a Gallows to drag it out and then shot it with a bunch of Stormfall archers on that flank, putting the hurt on him. Nayl then charged in and did some more damage, joined by both of his jacks, seriously wounding my Scythean but only taking out the Spirit. On the same flank he also killed a pair of legionnaires, triggering Vengence and giving me a host token as well. On the other flank the Stormfall archers and Strike Force took pot shots at the another Scythean. The Assassins both charged into the Raek but, despite Decapitation they didn't manage to finish it. This was a pretty rough opening and a lot of damage to my army early on!
Ret: 0 Legion: 0
Legion Turn Two
My turn was a complete disaster. I'll be honest - it went about as badly as any turn in any game I've ever played and I went a little bit on tilt, which is pretty rare for me. It felt like the whole turn was an uphill battle where I got punched in face every step. I started the turn by having the Legionnaires clear the path for my Scythean to advance into chain attack range of both lights and Narn. Unfortunately the way I did that was killing Nayl. Who was within 7.5" of Thagrosh, stripping all of his fury and totally crippling me for the rest of the turn. My two damaged beasts had both lost an aspect which I now couldn't heal. The engaged Scythean missed the chain attack and so totally failed to accomplish anything. On the other flank both of my other Scytheans charged the Strike Force and Stormfall Archers resepctively but only managed to kill Eiryss between them. The Incubus and Naga took attacks into the Magisters but missed everything even with boosts. Thagrosh then backed off, but because I was on tilt and not thinking I moved him out of control on my heavies on the flank. Overall the Nayl bomb damaged me and my morale, and I failed my mental command check and messed up my turn by not thinking. By the end of the turn the only thing I'd accomplished was killing two targets, one of whom stripped my fury. That and expose all my heavies. I resigned myself to the upcoming retaliation.
Ret: 0 Legion: 0
Retribution Turn Three
Luckily for me the Retribution retaliation wasn't nearly as bad as it could've been. Both of my Foresaken were killed, one by a Mage Hunter Assassin and one by Narn when he was freed up by the two lights finishing off my critically wounded Scythean. Garryth moved up to give apparition to one of the jacks. The Stormfall archers set a bunch of my Legionnaires on fire with their bows. The engaged Stormfall archers and Strike force on the other flank were ineffective at handling the two remaining Scytheans, not struggling to hit but having a hard time breaking their relatively high armour. Even Moros, who joined in, had difficulty doing anything as he hadn't been allocated any focus this turn. Overall this turn wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting given how much of a disaster my last turn had been.
Ret: 0 Legion: 0
Legion Turn Three
No longer affected by Nayl I was able to get Thagrosh back up to full fury, though I did have to cut for three after stupidly moving him out of control on the Raek. That Raek, unable to drop the fury Frenzied and killed the Assassin engaging him. Thagrosh moved up and healed the aspects on the wounded Scythean before casting Manifest Destiny and using his feat. With manifest destiny up both Scytheans used all of their Fury to annihilate a whole bunch of elves. The central one took his attacks against Moros, using the tougher jack to trigger the Chain Attack, clearing off a bunch and finishing off the stealthy light. Meanwhile the Naga moved up and took out Narn with a shot. The Shredder gave Tenacity to Thagrosh and went rabid to put himself between the nearby jacks and my caster, clogging their charge lanes. The remaining Legionnaires made a nuisance of themselves in the Ret zone. Thanks to the feat I then moved the Naga back into the forest, had one Scythean kill another Strike Force member and the Raek killed the other assassin. The other Scythean advanced with his feat move right into Garryth and took a swing with Greater Destiny. It connected and left the elf caster with just five boxes.
Ret: 0 Legion: 0
Retribution Turn Four
Garryth was now in a bit of a sticky situation. The priority was obviously stopping the Scythean he was engaged with before it killed him. To accomplish this he had the Griffon apparition backwards, out of Melee with the Legionnaire engaging him, along with the Chimera who did the same. Unfortunately for Rik he forgot to allocate anything to the Jacks and so when they moved back and engaged the Scythean they weren't able to finish him off, leaving him on a couple of boxes. This meant that Garryth had to come in and finish the job himself. Luckily it didn't take much from him to cut down the last few points of the heavy beast. The Stormfall Archers in the Ret zone moved up and took some shots on the Shredder but failed to kill him thanks to poor RAT. The Magisters and Artificers finished off the remaining Legionnaires giving me the last four Incubi. The remaining couple of Strike Force took some swings at the Scythean but were still unable to hurt him meaningfully. The remaining unit of Stormfall Archers advanced up and took some shots at the objective, not quite managing to destroy it to score a point.
Ret: 0 Legion: 0
Legion Turn Four
On my turn I could see that the attrition battle probably wasn't going to go my way at this point but Garryth was sat on only a medium camp and a couple of boxes so the path to victory seemed pretty clear. I considered trying for a spell assassination but the dice were a bit shaky and Thagrosh was a bit far out. I decided the best plan was to free up the last Scythean to do the job. First I produced the remaining four Incubus into the Ret zone. They spread out, making a bother in the zone and killing the Magisters, Sylys and a couple of the Stormfall archers on that flank. I then had Thagrosh move up and spray onto the Stormfall Archers on the other flank, boosting to hit two of them, clearing them out of the charge lane. Thags then cast Manifest Destiny and healed the aspects on the beasts. I then had the Raek advance around and finish off the last Stormfall, clearing the path for the Scythean. The heavy then activated and charged Garryth, taking two free strikes from the last of the Strike Force. Both hit bit did no meaningful damage. The Scythean boosted the charge attack and, with Manifest Destiny was able to land the hit, which was more than enough to put the caster down.
Legion Assassination Victory
Post-Game
Despite the agonising second turn this game was good fun and it was cool to play against Ret as they're a faction I rarely see. It did feel good to be back up to 50 points too after playing smaller games for a few weeks! I was annoyed with myself for going so far on tilt in turn two and I did apologise after the game but thankfully Rik was very sporting about it and agreed that he'd have felt the same way if the roles were reversed. Luckily I managed to pull an assassination win out of the bag because otherwise I think it was pretty sketchy. I wouldn't like to have guessed who would've come out on top if the game went on a little longer!
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
