Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - Saeryn and Rhyas, Talons of Everblight vs. Major Haley Prime

Hello everyone, despite the hiatus for a while there I am, in fact, not dead and I'm back for another Battle Report. I finally got the last of the models I needed to complete my eTwins list and, since I've been looking for something fresh to play, I decided to put them on the board. I was struggling with what they wanted in their list but after their coverage on Chain Attack I decided to play '"Trevor's" list' from the episode. It was a solid list and he played it well (better than I ever will anyway) and it's as good a starting point as any. So what that list included is:

eTwins +2

-Zuriel -10

-Nephilim Protector -5

-Seraph -8

-Naga -5

-Shredder -2

Max Spawning Vessel -3

Max Raptors -10

Max Croak Raiders -8

Objective - Bunker

The list isn't too complicated. Both the Croaks and the Raptors enjoy Occultation from Rhyas while being able to do plenty of damage on their own. The Protector gives no knockdown on the animus for Rhyas while tenacity is real nice in any list. The Seraph is important for the slipstream animus but can also strafe as needed. Zuriel is the heavy hitter but also works as a channeller for Saeryn and had Stealth from Rhyas. The pot helps keep beasts on the table for the greedy Twins who need lots of fury produced to keep them ticking over. Sadly, for the first time since I started Legion this list forced me to put unpainted models on the table, to my shame. My Croaks didn't arrive in time for paint this week but will be done by next time!

Pre-Game

This week I managed to get a game with veteran gamer Will who's not had a chance to play many games recently but was graduating to 50 points with his Cygnar force. Since I was practicing with eTwins he decided to play Hayley3 in his tier 3 list. It was made up of a Grenadier, Centurion and Thorn in the Hayleys' battlegroup, with a second Grenadier with a junior and then consisted of a bunch of Trenchers, with a min unit of Trenchers, a min unit of Commandos with two scattergunners, two chaingun crews, a mortar crew, two master gunners to accompany the Grenadiers and Maxwell Finn. These are some uncommon units and models but with the dig-in skew there's a lot of bodies and all of them have plenty of chance for really high DEF. We rolled out Recon for the scenario (this one seems to come up a lot for me for some reason!) and Will won the roll for initiative, taking the first turn. 

Deployment

Will set up with his battlegroup spread across the centre of the board, with the rest of his army advance deploying. I had the raptors on my left flank near the forest, my battlegroup in the middle and the pot dead centre to make the most of collection. The Trenchers then deployed with the commandos on my right flank with Hayley's Grenadier while the junior's Grenadier set up on the opposite flank with the regular Trenchers, the trio of gun teams in the middle to take advantage of the armoury objective. My croaks then set up in the space I'd left for them on the right flank. 

Cygnar Turn One

Will started the game by having everyone slog forward up the board and anyone who was able to dug in. Thanks to advance deploy they were still a decent ways up the board and starting to be in my face. The Hayleys put Tactical Supremacy on themselves and the junior put Arcane Shield on Thorn. 

Cygnar: 0 Legion: 0

 

Legion Turn One

My first turn was probably my quickest this game and still took ages. Twins takes some thinking. The Raptors ran up the board and hid behind the forest on that flank, the Naga and the Seraph riled and ran up. The twins activated and put out 6 Tenacities on the Croaks between them as well as Rhyas putting Occultation on the Croaks and Saeryn putting Banishing Ward on themselves. The Croaks then ran to spread out across the flank and Zuriel ran up followed by the Protector who put safeguard up on Rhyas. The pot shuffled up to sit comfortably in the middle of my stuff. 

Cygnar: 0 Legion: 0

Cygnar Turn Two

On the second Cygnar turn Will continued to have his Trenchers advance and dig in to maintain the DEF. Thorn ran right the way across the board, almost up to my objective, allowing Hayley to arc Repudiate onto the Croaks, knocking off occultation and putting 3 damage onto Rhyas which she did not like. The Grenadier on that flank as well as the commandos cleared off 6 of the croaks with shooting, when he realised that Zuriel had stealth and deflated his original plan. On the other flank the other grenadier took a pot shot at a Raptor and rolled exactly 5 damage to kill it. He then took a pot shot on the pot and killed 4 of the 6 attendants. Will'd forgotten to actually move the Hayleys but had upkept Tactical Supremacy so they shuffled up a little. 

Cygnar: 0 Legion: 0

Legion Turn Two

With most of my Croaks dead my right flank was looking pretty sad. Plus I had Thorn right up there in my face. He had activated disengage so it was going to be tricky if I missed him, which was likely. I had the now full pot drop out a harrier. That harrier charged into Thorn's back, hoping to limit his potential movement, but animused anyway for the auto hit, doing 4 points of damage despite needing high dice. Zuriel then advanced into melee after receiving Wraithbane from the Naga and took swings on Thorn. I crippled the shield early, making my damage more impactful but by the time I was full on fury I still had 1 box left to remove. So the Protector advanced up and knocked it off. Trying not to clump up too much I then had Saeryn advance up and then back to slipstream him out a little. The twins then spammed out Tenacities and Rhyas put solid ground on herself. The Raptors shot at the Trenchers but failed to hit any of them, light cav moving back. The frogs on my right flank, with not much left, threw some flaming spears at the Commandos, killing two of them. At the end of the turn Thorn was dead but I was sat on no camp on either of my casters. 

Cygnar: 0 Legion: 0

Cygnar Turn Three

On the following Cygnar turn Will had the commandos charge the remaining Croaks, killing all four of them but giving corrosion to all of his own guys at the same time thanks to vitriol. Mwahahaha. (Oops - it's been pointed out I made a mistake here and Vitriol only triggers if they don't die. First time using them. My bad) The regular Trenchers continued up the board, digging in yet again. The Grenadiers continued to blast away at my list, killing another raptor with exactly 5 damage again, removing the last of the Attendants from the Vessel and wounding the Seraph. One of the scatters landed squarely on Saeryn but even with a boost he didn't do any damage (phew!). The gun crews took a bunch of shots into the objective but thanks to impervious flesh they couldn't do a whole lot of damage to it. The Hayleys continued to advance up the board, Hayley Future took some shots into Zuriel thanks to true sight, but couldn't break his high Arm. 

Cygnar: 0 Legion: 0

Legion Turn Three

On my next turn I had some questions to answer. I felt that, thanks to corrosion, I could ignore the Commandos this turn. Zuriel advanced up and took a spray on Maxwell Finn, completely missing him even with the boost. He then bought a second spray (yes, ROF 2) on the Grenadier on his flank, killing the master gunner behind it. Saeryn and Rhyas activated and Saeryn channeled Blood Rain onto the Grenadier, boosting it, taking out the left arm, with the cannon, and the blast took out the commando giving him an extra shot. Perfect. Saeryn then pumped out some Tenacities. Rhyas advanced up with slipstream and pulled Zuriel back, ending her movement in Thorn's wreck marker, B2B with the objective. Bit further up than I'd been doing but with four transfers I felt OK about it. The raptors moved up, one advancing into Melee with a trencher but still missing both attacks, as did the two shooting Ulk. The Naga moved back to hide behind the wall. The Seraph stood still to aim and managed to kill the two Trenchers B2B with the Grenadier using all of his fury on a full strafe to get it done. 

Cygnar: 0 Legion: 0

Cygnar Turn Four

On the Cygnar turn the combined gun crews all targeted my Objective and managed to clear it off, gaining a victory point and leaving me not contesting the Zone as Rhyas was the only model in there. The Grenadier on my left managed to polish off the Seraph, costing me the useful animus but filling the pot again. Hayley's future incarnation took a bunch of shots at Zuriel, managing to take out his body with some boosts thanks to the feat they popped this turn. Hayley Prime advanced into the zone to dominate. On my left flank the engaged trencher took a desperate swing and managed to kill the raptor with exactly 5 damage again. Sigh. The Hayleys shuffled around a bit with Tactical Supremacy then Will ended his turn going up to 3. 

Cygnar: 3 Legion: 0

Legion Turn Four

I was now seriously down on victory points but Hayley had moved into Rhyas' threat range, charmingly. I started by taking two threshold checks with my Nephilim who both passed. Zuriel advanced up and sprayed through the forest to catch Prime Hayley. Both sprays covered her but I couldn't hit even with boosts. Never mind. I was only hoping for a cont. fire cherry on top. The Vessel produced a shredder who advanced up to give Saeryn a charge target that would keep them in formation and still let her activate. The Naga advanced up and gave Wraithbane to Rhyas to avoid the Temporal Flux The twins then went, Rhyas cast Onslaught to give herself pathfinder on the charge and went into Hayley prime, followed by Saeryn into the Shredder. Rhyas hit her weapon master charge attack despite set defence and did 10 damage to the warcaster. My plan if Rhyas didn't pull it off was to feat and tag Saeryn in for more attacks, but first I cast flashing blade, boosting the hit and polishing off the last boxes with a huge weapon master damage roll, getting me the assassination win. 

Cygnar: 3 Legion: 0

Legion Assassination Win

Post-Game

I've got to say this is probably my favourite game I've played in a while. Both of our lists were really complicated, particularly our casters, but that complexity made it a really interesting game. I enjoyed the toolbox element of my list and having the excess fury to use most of it. Though it is a nightmare trying to keep up with it all. I also felt like this was a really great crucible for the Twins and I even managed to break my losing streak with the assassination. I'm really looking forward to getting this list on the table again (though I definitely wouldn't want to play it on a clock!). This has really invigorated my passion, which had been flagging a little lately!

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 - Thagrosh, the Messiah vs Grissel Bloodsong, Fell Caller

Welcome back everyone! It's my latest battle report! This week I continued my test games with Thagrosh2, using the same list. If you're wondering or you've forgotten that list looks like this:

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

I think the list is really solid and does what I want it to well. The Scytheans are powerful tools in the list and the Naga and Raek answer questions pretty well for the list. I actually really like the Legionnaires and Incubus package. They're really great for jam and the Incubi can come out of pretty much anywhere with attacks. 

Pre-Game

This week I was playing my friend Mike who's recently had a bout of illness but thankfully is back in full swing again this week. Despite a brief sojourn into Khador he was back playing his 'home' faction of Trollbloods. He was trying out a new list and one of the first I'd seen him bring fully painted and they were looking pretty great. The list featured pGrissel and Mulg as the battlegroup and then was focused on infantry with two max units of Warders, a max unit of Long Riders a min unit of Krielstone, two fell callers and two Champion Heroes. This is a meaty list and there were a lot of wounds and high armour to get through. Urgh. The scenario I rolled was Outflank and I won the roll for the start of the game, deciding to go first. 

Deployment 

I set up with my Legionnaires and Naga to the left of my deployment zone, with the rest of the battlegroup to the right of centre. The Foresaken went on each flank. Mike set up a Fell Caller and a unit of Warders on each flank, the battlegroup and Stone central with the long riders spread out across the front line. 

Legion Turn One

I took the first turn and ran my Legionnaires, spreading them out and putting Dragon Blood on them for the extra armour. The Naga ran into the forest to take advantage of prowl. The three Scytheans ran up the board to take up some real estate. Thagrosh chugged up the board and put out a couple of Tenacities, getting one for himself from the Shredder. 

Trolls Turn One

On the first Troll turn the fell callers chucked out some pathfinder and let everything run slowly up the board, hampered by the terrain. 

Legion Turn Two

My second turn came around and I was concerned about wandering into threat ranges and giving away the alpha so I played very conservatively. The Scytheans on my right flank shuffled around but didn't really move too far up. On the other flank the other heavy inched up the board. The Legionnaires, though, ran up to take up a bunch of real estate in the zone to my left. They're in the list as the cannon fodder road bump so I don't care if they die anyway. Thagrosh continued his way up the board towards the safety of the nearby wall. 

Trolls Turn Two

On the Trolls turn Mike had the Warders on my left charge a couple of the legionnaires, the rest of them running up to the zone, ending up with two of them dying, giving me one incubus and Vengence. The Long Riders continued up the board, but didn't move too far into my threat. On my right the Warders continued to slug through the forest gumming up that side of the board. The stone and Grissel continued up the centre, hiding behind a nearby wall along with Mulg. 

Legion: 0 Trolls: 0

Legion Turn Three

On this turn I had a choice. I was confident that I could clear the two Warders in the right zone to dominate early and get a decent lead but it'd leave my beasts on the left out in the cold. In the end it was too tempting to pass up. I took my Vengence moves and a few attacks but did very little work, then the incubus popped up. The Naga moved up and took a shot at one of the Warders but didn't have an impact. The Legionnaires opened up a lane for the Scythean and took a couple of CMAs into the Warders and a champ hero but only did a little bit of damage. The Scythean then charged, getting on two Warders and killing them both with the animus. The Foresaken on that flank ate up the fury from the Scythean, filling her up but leaving him on one since she already had a couple on her. Thagrosh then activated and threw up Manifest Destiny before charging into the zone camping one after putting out Tenacities. The lead Scythean on my right activated and charged the two Warders in the zone. With the animus and Manifest destiny he managed to kill them both to secure my domination. I then had the Raek, my third Scythean and Shredder move up to cover my caster a little. 

Legion: 2 Trolls: 0

Trolls Turn Three

Mike opened his turn by having pGrissel use her feat, giving out a bunch of extra moves and extra attacks. In my left zone the three Warders charged the Scythean and killed it easily. A Long Rider and the Champions  managed to kill a bunch of Legionnaires, giving me three more incubus and Vengence for next turn. Mulg ran up towards the zone followed by the rest of the long riders. The Warders ran to get out of the forest they were locked in and then, thanks to the feat the Warders jammed into the zone, the long riders piled into Thagrosh and Mulg advanced into the zone. 

Legion: 2 Trolls: 0

Legion Turn Four

I was now thoroughly jammed up and needed to get some work done to free up my caster and not die horribly next turn. The Legionnaires took their Vengence but didn't achieve much and then I spat out another 3 Incubi. The Naga frenzied and chomped a warder, who passed their tough. In the heavy zone Thagrosh activated and put up manifest destiny and the Slaughterhouse animus then feated, taking a swing on the centre Longrider, missing despite the extra die drop the lowest. The big fist did some more damage and then I bought another couple of Rapture attacks, only actually killing one guy, but dropping an eruption of ash and doing a little more damage. The nearby Scythean turned to get all of the Longriders in Melee and bought until they were all dead as well as the champion he was engaging. The Raek managed to kill one of the Warders and the other Scythean cleared off the remaining Warders. On the other flank the legionnaires and Incubus managed to force a tough check on the Chanpion and killed the one wounded Warder. For my feat movement the zone was now cleared and so my two Scytheans and Raek jammed into Mulg, hoping he wouldn't be able to get to Thags, doing a reasonable amount of damage. The Shredder advanced up to block off the charge lane to Thagrosh. 

Legion: 2 Trolls: 0

Trolls Turn Four 

Mike felt that with the loss of his infantry on the right was too bad for him to come back from, (which I wasn't sure about) and then decided to try for an assassination. He had a Fell caller from the left flank to advance up and spray Thagrosh, cranking the roll for ten damage. He then had the champion clear off the legionnaires locking down the Long Rider, giving me Vengence and my last incubus. The long rider then ran to get position on Thagrosh next turn but was killed by a big roll from the Foresaken free strike. Grissel advanced up and put out Hoof it on Mulg and then sprayed the Scythean, catching Thagrosh again. She missed the Foresaken but hit Thagrosh and the Scythean, boosting to get another few points into him and doing a bit more damage to the Scythean. Mulg activated and did a throw on the Scythean, hitting and passing the check despite me rolling a 6, chucking him at Thagrosh, knocking them both down and doing some damage to them both. The final fell caller also moved up and sprayed over to catch Thagrosh, missing but killing the Foresaken and catching a few points into Mulg. The turn ended with 5 health left on Thagrosh. 

Legion: 2 Trolls: 0

Legion Turn Five 

On this turn the end was in sight. It was clear that the game was wrapping up and I had several different ways to win this turn. To start the Raek and Scythean engaging Mulg frenzied, but both did a decent chunk of damage. Like a good player I focused on the easier zone first, having the incubus clear out the stragglers, taking the control. The Naga advanced back into Thags' control and shot the Stones' UA, killing him. That done I then went for the stupid option. If I focused on clearing out the zone I win. If I throw out manifest destiny I could probably get the Scythean with animus into the zero camp Grissel and win. Instead I did neither, opting for the most cinematic approach of having Thagrosh put up the Raek animus and charging over Mulg and into Grissel. I boosted the hit on the charge with Rapture but missed. Then I took the fist attack. And missed. My final attack got double boosted and did hit but did nowhere near enough to kill her. The last Scythean activated and advanced into Mulg and the Fell Caller, the only troll models contesting, chain attacking on Mulg and killing him and forcing a game winning tough check on the fell caller. Which he passed. I'd failed to clear the zone or get the assassination and cost myself the game. 

Legion: 3 Trolls: 0

Trolls Turn Five 

The trolls turn was pretty straight forward. Grissel activated and splatted Thagrosh in the face with her hammer, winning Mike the game. 

Legion: 4 Trolls: 0

 

Post-Game

This was a great game and it felt like it swung back and forth throughout. I was a little disappointed in myself after the game since it felt a little like I'd managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Especially since I had so many better options to take the game instead of going for the assassination. I also should really have camped after missing my first two attacks and hoped to survive the retaliation. I also realised while writing this that I completely forgot the Blood Spawn rule that would've given me another lesser in the final turn and would've given me a great opportunity to finish off that Fell Caller, too! Kicking myself now! This was only a friendly game though, and in the end I went for the more dramatic, cinematic option. I'd like to think I'd play more conservatively in a competitive game! Regardless, though I enjoyed the game. For some reason I'm not really connecting with Thagrosh. It feels like his style is a little boring, though I do like having Greater Destiny Scytheans! Maybe I'll try a different warlock next, only one way to find out, though! Tune in again!

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