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

Journeyman League 2 - Weeks 3 & 4

Hi everyone, it's time for another look in on my JML experience so far! I didn't post anything last week on my games so I'll cover them quickly now. The reason that I didn't post anything about them was that in both games I had last week I got thoroughly schooled in really quick games. I didn't feel like they'd make for very interesting reading. Which is no offence to my opponents who played really well and were great sports, more that I was so bad it undermined that!

So last week was the advance up to 25 points. In my first game I played with a minimum unit of hex hunters and a naga added to my 15 point list. I got a game against SGS Nick's dirty Merc Cryx. He was using pDenny with a max unit of Nyss along with the Devil's Shadows Mutineers and Rockbottom added to the slayer and bonejack he'd started off with. Under Denny's feat I managed to get my Scythean removed from the table along with most of my hex hunters. I ran out of models really quickly after that and took practically nothing off the board in return thanks to the feat, until I was completely off the board and he won the game. My second game was against Dave, our PG, who was using Cephalyx with Exulon Thexus. He had a max unit of Croe's Cutthroats and two monstrosities. I decided to change up my list going with Typhon and a Foresaken with my starting battlegroup. Again I achieved nothing, killing maybe 2 Cutthroats in return for losing all my models. As I said, I did not do well. At all. 

This week, though, was the caster swap option. After some thought I decided to go with eVayl for my swap. I was considering going another way, and maybe choosing eAbby or something instead but ultimately I decided to stick with my original thought of using eVayl. The list I was using with her was:

eVayl +6

-Seraph -8

-Scythean -9

-Reak -4

Shepherd -1

Max Spawning Vessel -3

Max Legionnaires -6

Objective - Arcane Wonder

The Legionnaires provide a good screen for the list while also feeding the pot. The Raek is always a fun option, too. I managed to get two games with the list this week:

Game One 

My first game this week was against eXerxis used by Ben, who'd also gone epic from his starting caster. He had a bonded Aradus Sentinel, a Krea, two drakes, a Savage and a max unit of Paingivers along with a Willbreaker. We were playing Recon. I got the first turn and moved up the board. eXerxis moved right up as far as he could. Seeing the opportunity I had Vayl boost two Obliterations into Xerxis but only did a handful of damage. My Scythean activated but his charge came up short on Xerxis by a fraction of an inch, leaving him exposed. After that I started losing the attrition really quickly and tossed another couple of assassination runs into Xerxis but my dice needed to be high but came up consistently low throughout. In the end Vayl was flapping in the breeze and got killed by a Cyclops. Another disappointment but at least this game I felt like I didn't get absolutely pounded into the ground! 

Game Two

In my second game I played Will, who was continuing his experimentation with Cygnar, this week he was trying to learn Hayley3 as his alternate. His list had a Grenadier and a Centurion as well as a unit of Trenchers and a unit of Commandos, each with a chain gun. He took first turn and jammed into the zone (still playing Recon). My Seraph finally did something useful and managed to gun down the Trenchers with a strafe. On Will's second turn he did a bunch of shooting and pumped out spells to buff his stuff. He did around half damage to my Scythean and Reak and all but wiped out the Legionnaires. On my turn Hayley3 was on a 0 camp with Temporal Flux up. I cleared the last of the Trenchers out of the zone with the Seraph to allow me to spawn a Harrier who flew up the board to within 8" of Hayley Prime. Vayl then shot the Harrier in the back with the oraculus, feating a boosted Icy Grip through it onto Hayley, getting the -2 defence to balance the Flux and then boosted two Obliterations into her, managing to do just enough damage to kill her, netting me an assassination win and breaking my losing streak!

Wrap-Up

I really enjoyed playing with eVayl, the utility of her feat is really fun and she has high jinks to the max. I finally felt like the Seraph did something other than just supply its awesome animus. I'm glad I went for her instead of any of the other options I was considering. Especially since next week we go up to 35 points and I can play tier 4 machinations of shadow!

So until then, 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

Journeyman League 2 - Week 1

Hi everyone and welcome to my first week of the Journeyman League at my LGS. At popular request from a few members of the community our press Ganger decided to run a new JML. I decided that I didn't want to switch factions since I'm really into Legion at the minute. Besides I don't want to play Menoth and don't have money to buy a new faction! I have only played a couple of casters in the faction, though, namely Saeryn, Thagrosh and eLylyth. So I decided this was a good opportunity to play someone new. One of the casters I've been interested in but hesitant to play is Vayl. Obviously she's a good caster but I didn't want to start with such a finesse caster when I was just getting a hold on the faction as I've discussed previously. But with the incremental system of the JML I thought I could get a good grip on her. The fact that she's one of the new alternate JML warlocks is perfect. Because I'm an evil bastard I had my battlegroup as:

pVayl +6

-Scythean -9

-Seraph -8

This is a variation on her standard JML battlegroup allowed by our local rules. This would really let me play around with some movement tricks and awesome threat extension. So with that decided we  had the first day of gaming this week. I managed to get five games done in one night, which I was pretty happy with. I played Tooth and Claw/Mangled Metal in all of the games. 

Game One

My first game was against a player who had opted to play circle for the league, taking pKaya with two Argus and a Feral warwolf. This game was fairly quick, which would set the trend for the games at this low point level. I managed to get the Scythean into the Feral and kill it before pulling back with Vayl's feat. The Argus weren't able to take out the Scythean's high ARM without the heavy. I used a boosted rampager to move the Arguses next to each other and with a back facing the Scythean who, with Incite and Chiller tore them to little pieces, meeting the Tooth and Claw win condition to net me the game. 

Game Two

My second game was against a Troll player who had moved into hordes from Menoth for the JML. He was playing the standard pMadrak battlebox of two Impalers and an Axer. He moved up pretty far on his turn two and that let me get my Scythean into an Impaler and the Axer. With the Chiller/Incite combo it got both of them killed before pulling back with the feat. The Seraph strafed into the other Impaler, cranking the dice and putting plenty of damage on it. Next turn he was able to stranglehold the Scythean and put a couple of points of damage on him. I then slip-streamed the Scythean into Melee with Madrak but the second strafe from the Seraph finished off the last Impaler to score the win before I needed to assassinate. 

Game Three

My next game was against Will, one of the more experienced players in the meta who always gives me a tough game when we play. He was taking the shift into Cygnar and using the JML to do it. He wasn't too happy with the restrictions for the starting options and was grudgingly playing pStryker with a Grenadier and a Centurion. I moved up threateningly turn one and he decided to run up and feat. Because of the lack of Scenario I just waited him out, sat back on the board. The next turn he moved up and threw up Polarity Shield to prevent charges. Luckily with Slipstream I was in range to walk up and smack him with the Scythean. I didn't boost properly though and did very little damage to him, pulling back with the feat to sit near Vayl. Will charged the Centurion into the Scythean, fully loaded, but triggered Dark Sentinel allowing it to move out of Melee. The free strike hurt but not as much as dying to the multiple attacks. Since he had focus to spare he put the Polarity back up. Next turn the Scythean was able to kill the Centurion but got killed by Stryker next turn. The Seraph charged the exposed Stryker to get the assassination but only managed to reduce him to four boxes. Next turn Stryker failed to kill the Seraph after burning all of his stack, missing three attacks, leaving him with nothing to protect him from the Seraph next turn, winning me the game on an assassination. This was probably the closest game I'd played and was great fun, coming right down to the wire at the end. 

Game Four 

My next game was against regular opponent and all round nice guy Nick of Solid Ground studios who was playing Cryx in the JML. He was playing at a huge deficit so he'd be able to squeeze more infantry in next week so he only had pDenny with a Slayer and a Nightwretch. He took first turn and we both advanced up the board. He went for a turn 2 feat and put Crippling Grasp on my Scythean. With a combination of Leash/Slipstream I was able to move up far enough to get Denny in my reach with the Scythean. With Chiller and Incite I was able to hit her three times with boosted attacks and do just enough to assassinate and win the game. 

Game Five

My final game of the night was against Andy, who I've played a few times in the past but who always manages to beat me. He was playing Circle in the league and had gone for pBalder with a Pureblood and a Woldwarden. I took first turn and, despite Andy staying pretty far back, I was able to get the alpha on the Pureblood. I didn't quite manage to destroy it in one turn and so used the feat to pull back. The Pureblood charged into the Scythean but I was able to use Dark Sentinel again to pull back, taking the free strike instead of the full battery of attacks. After that the Seraph was able to finish off the Stalker with shooting and the Scythean got into the Warden, killing it in one turn with Incite and Chiller, scoring me another win. 

Wrap-Up

I had a pretty great start to the JML, especially since I managed to use my broken battlebox to get 15 points right off the bat. All of my opponents were great and it was just as fun as I expect from a journeyman league. Anyone who's hesitant about joining one should definitely give it a go! Next week we move up to 15 points and I've got my eye on a Shredder/Shepherd to top me up! Should be fun! I'll tell you all about it when you tune in next week!

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 - Lylyth, Shadow of Everblight vs Major Victoria Hayley

Hi guys and welcome to the latest battle report! This week I managed to get a game with Will who's decided that his Merc army will work a lot better if he swaps out the casters for some Cygnar. Urgh. Will's been playing the Mercs for pretty much a year, and had basically decided that after taking them to ETC this last weekend he was going to switch to the swans. He IM'd me before the game to ask if I'd be ok playing against eHayley. I know I need more practice against her and her stupid evil cheating cheatiness and so I agreed to let him bring it. I was hoping to get more practice with Saeryn but I decided that eLylyth was the more sensible match up. Even so I wasn't feeling too hopeful about my chances. Since the last tournament I decided to switch out her build a little and so I ended up with:

eLylyth +5

-Succubus -2

-Ravagore -10 

-Ravagore -10

-Ravagore -10

-Naga Nightlurker -5

-Shredder -2

Deathstalker -2

Deathstalker -2

Shepherd -1

Shepherd -1

Strider Rangers -6

Ranger UA -3

Swamp Gobbers -1

Objective - Bunker

For those who remember the previous version of the list I've dropped out the Bolt Thrower, Typhon and the Foresaken for a third Ravagore, the Strider package and the Swamp Gobbers. I feel like this is a more rounded list that can be slightly more adaptable. 

Pregame

Will's list included a Centurion, Thorn and a Squire in eHayley's Battlegroup, and a unit of Gun Mages with UA, a Journeyman Warcaster and then Gaston Crosse with Galleon, Raluk Moorclaw and Dougal MacNaile. The scenario we rolled out was Incoming. Will won the roll to go first and chose board edge, letting me take first turn. He set the Galleon up opposite his own zone. I put my Ravagores opposite the Galleon and the zone with Lylyth just off centre along with the support models. Hayley then went in an opposite off-centre deployment. Gaston and the Mercs deployed with Galleon and the Gun mages centrally. I then stuck all the Striders near my zone and its comfy forest. 

Legion Turn One

Taking first turn I had Lylyth out up Shadow Pack and then put Tenacity out on herself. The Ravagores all ran up followed by the Naga, getting my 4 Fury on the board. The Shredder and the Succubus all moved up around Lylyth and then the Gobbers came up behind and dropped a cloud over the support staff. The Shepherds ran up the flanks and the Striders ran into the zone and forest on my right flank. 

Cygnar Turn One

On the Cygnar turn Hayley put her spells out, Decelerating herself, putting Temporal Acceleration on the Centurion and Dead Eye on the Gun mages before running to the back of the board. The Journeyman put up Arcane Shield on the Centurion (upkeeping it all game) before it ran straight up the board towards my zone. The Galleon waddled up and rolled 3 shots on both sides, which with Double Powder Rations from Dougal was enough to scatter around my almost entirely stealthy list. He did manage to kill one of the Shepherds with blast along with two Striders and the Succubus, annoyingly taking out two of my key support solos. The gun mages ran up to start getting the Striders in range for their pistols next turn. Thorn hid behind the Galleon. 

Legion Turn Two

On my turn two I had to actually pay Fury to upkeep Shadow Pack on Lylyth. Ugh. I started with Lylyth who moved into B2B with the Bunker to get Girded and then feated, putting out Wraithbane on two of the Ravagores. Those Ravagores then advanced up, one getting into the zone, and took 4 boosted shots into the Galleon, taking out most of one side. The Naga moved up to the Objective too and put Wraithbane on the other Ravagore, who boosted a shot into the Galleon, not quite destroying the side. He then took a pot shot at Hayley with Dragonfire, hoping to light her up. The shot deviated away but did hit the UA for the Gun Mages so I boosted to remove their True Sight. The Deathstalkers failed to kill anyone but gummed up the zone. The Striders took a full unit CRA into the one gun mage in range and then reformed back behind the forest. The Gobber leader moved between the Naga and Lylyth B2B with the objective followed by the grunt and put out a cloud on all of them. The shepherd took the fury off the overloaded Ravagore in my zone and I passed the turn. 

Cygnar Turn Two

Gaston loaded up the Galleon who advanced up but couldn't get into the zone, rolling another double 3 for its shots. Almost all of the shots deviated off even with Artillerist up from Dougal. The one shot that did deviate well hit Lylyth and all her support. Luckily though they were all B2B with the Objective and so couldn't be damaged by blast damage, apart from the Gobber grunt who was blown off the table with boosted blast damage. The fully loaded (4 with the bond) Centurion charged the Ravagore in the zone, managing to miss two of its attacks leaving my heavy on a single point. Two of the gun mages started out of command thanks to the death of the UA meaning they couldn't attack this turn. The others advanced up and levelled their guns at the Striders before remembering that they couldn't see them any more. 

Legion: 1 Cygnar:0

Legion Turn Three

On my turn I went into the tank for a long time trying to decide what to do with my stuff to get to a point where I could win. Finally I decided not to have Lylyth heal the Ravagore on one point. Instead I had the shepherd advance up and medicate it, taking two points off it, re-establishing its lost aspects (phew). The Ravagore then moved up and got forced to double handed throw the Centurion out of the zone, putting some more distance on it. Lylyth then advanced up to the nearby wall and gave dragon fire to each of the other Ravagores. The Striders on the other flank managed to take out a couple of the Gun Mages despite poor to hit rolls and their high DEF. The two Ravagores each moved up and took shots on Gaston, trying to cripple the Galleon. The first deviated harmlessly away and the second hit Thorn and the Objective, setting them both on fire but not doing significant damage. The Naga advanced up around the objective and the Shredder ran into my zone to contest. 

Legion: 2 Cygnar: 0

Cygnar Turn Three

Fire on Thorn and the objective stayed on with Thorn taking no damage but the Objective taking a couple points. The Galleon advanced up into the two Ravagores beating one to about half health with its initials. The Centurion with its one focus advanced up and boosted a hit into the surviving Ravagore finishing it off easily. The Gun Mages continued to advance up but failed to kill any Striders. Thorn jogged up the table a bit more and finally Hayley advanced up and feated, catching my whole army apart from Lylyth and the Gobber. 

Legion: 2 Cygnar: 0

Legion Turn Four 

Being under Hayley's feat meant I got very little done this turn. The Shepherd advanced into my zone. The Striders took shots at the gun mages sacrificing move but didn't get much done. The Ravagores moved into the Galleon but couldn't attack. One Deathstalker advanced into the Centurion to hold it in place and the Shredder gave it Tenacity. Lylyth advanced up the wall and put tenacity on the two Ravagores engaging the Galleon. 

Legion: 2 Cygnar: 0

Cygnar Turn Four 

On the Cygnar turn Will realised that the Galleon had actually advanced just out of Gaston's control area so he couldn't allocate anything to it this turn. The Objective and Thorn stayed on fire but it didn't hurt Thorn and took a couple more points from the objective. The Galleon proceeded to take its initials and managed to kill one Ravagore and wound the other. The Centurion killed the Deathstalker engaging it. The Gun mages continued their duel with the Striders to little effect. Thorn continued to advance towards my zone. 

Legion: 2 Cygnar: 0

Legion Turn Five

On my turn I was looking like I was in pretty dire straights. So I hatched a plan. I had the Naga advance across the Galleon, boosting a shot into its right side, followed up by Lylyth taking her shots crippled the right side of the Galleon, crippling the free strike on the remaining Ravagore. It then advaced around the collosal, who missed the free strike, and double boosted a shot with animus into Hayley herself. I cranked both rolls, putting her down to two boxes and on fire. On the far flank the Striders all moved up to shoot Hayley, hoping to put her down, but failed to hit her high DEF even with CRAs. The game now hinged on the fire roll. 

Legion: 2 Cygnar: 0

Cygnar Turn Five

Will rolled for the fire on Hayley and it came up a '2' saving her from otherwise (probably) certain doom. Realising the danger of her situation he had her run away, charging the Deathstalker that had shot at her last turn, ending up behind a wall. She boosted the hit and pasted it with Echo. The Galleon turned to get the Ravagore in melee and used its attacks to kill the offending heavy. Raluk moved up and around the zone staying toe in on a forest. The Centurion advanced into the Shepherd and killed it, controlling my zone. Thorn killed one Ranger and engaged the others to save Hayley from more reprisals. 

Legion: 2 Cygnar: 1

Legion Turn Six

On my turn I had to switch tack again. Lylyth moved up and into the zone and boosted a shot into Gaston, killing him and shutting down the Galleon, letting me dominate the zone. Lylyth then moved back with swift hunter and shot twice at Raluk, reducing him to one box but failing to kill. Now I just needed to kill the objective, which had already been damaged by the fire earlier. The Naga boosted a shot into it, but as it was a bunker it only took a few points of damage. The Shredder went Rabid and charged it, but left it with a few boxes remaining. I hadn't managed to contest my own zone though. 

Legion: 4 Cygnar: 2

Cygnar Turn Six

On the Cygnar turn Thorn got telekinesis'd towards the zone with Lylyth in it, using the Reaction Drive to advance pretty far up. Raluk ran to get through the forest ending up B2B with Galleon. Thorn charged the Naga almost killing it and contesting the zone. The Centurion advanced towards my Objective. Meanwhile the Journeyman advanced up and took a handcannon shot into the Shredder killing it to keep the objective safer. 

Legion: 4 Cygnar: 3

Legion Turn Seven

I knew there was no way I would be able to clear an almost undamaged Thorn out of my zone and so I knew that killing the objective was the only way to win the game. The Naga moved away from Thorn to try and shoot at it but was killed by the free strike. Lylyth then advanced out of the zone and took her two shots on the objective, damaging it but not destroying it. I ran the remaining Gobber into my zone to contest. 

Legion: 4 Cygnar: 3

Cygnar Turn Seven

On this turn all Will needed was to kill the Gobber with the Centurion and run Hayley into the zone to win the game on scenario, so he did, ending the game at:

Legion: 4 Cygnar: 5 - Cygnar Victory

After game

Even though I lost this game I feel like I played one of my tightest games. I came very close to winning several times and I don't feel like there were any major issues that I should have inproved on. Having said that though there were two things I noticed in reviewing the game. Firstly on my turn three I moved both Ravagores into the zone, trying to kill Gaston. Looking at the board state, though, it would probably have been a much better idea to charge both Ravagores into the half dead collosal and destroyed it with Melee instead of going for the janky shooting. Secondly I feel like I could have utilised Pin Cushion in this game several times to great effect but I didn't. On my feat turn I could have Pin Cushioned the Galleon fairly easily to skew the numbers more and should definitely have put it on the objective on the final round. It's an easy spell for me to forget because with Lylyth's low FURY it's a pain in the ass to hit even average DEF. Objectives and Collosals do not have even average DEF, though and I could have made those damage rolls much more favourable!

I guess there's always something to learn! I don't much envy whoever gets Will next, now he's got his hand in! Hopefully next week I'll be able to report about a win and break my recent close loss streak! Regardless of that this was a really close, tense game that seemed like it was just about to end pretty much every turn after the second!

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 - Jaunce in July

Hey wargamers, and welcome to the latest edition of Tourney Tales! As I mentioned in my last couple of battle reports, I've been preparing for a tournament, which I just finished! Jayke from Hall of Legends and I headed down to Sheffield together. The tournament was The Outpost's Jaunce in July. It was a 50 point D&C1 steamroller with ADR. The lists I took with me were the two I've practiced over the last couple of weeks:

eLylyth +5

-Succubus -2

-Ravagore -10 

-Ravagore -10

-Typhon -12

-Naga Nightlurker -5

-Bolt Thrower -6

-Shredder -2

Deathstalker -2

Deathstalker -2

Shepherd -1

Shepherd -1

Foresaken -2

Objective - Bunker

And

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 - Fuel Cashe

I feel like these two lists cover match ups really well and have some cool tricks and tech that I can play around with. The field at The Outpost was pretty varied but had some very competitive players in the game. My goal was to field test my Legion lists and see how they played in a tougher situation under a clock. Because it was quite a frantic day with timed turns I didn't get chance to take photos of the games. This also means I don't remember the play by play and so you'll have to manage with a summary of the games...

Round One 

My first round pairing was Matt 'Golly' Golliver, an internationally ranked player and part of the England WTC, as well as the winner of the Welsh Masters this year and Tiebreaker's 4th highest ranked player in the country. On top of that he was also a Legion player! Not only had I been dreading the mirror match I was playing it against someone way more experienced with the faction and the game than myself. He was using p and e Vayl in his two lists. Looking at the two lists I was pretty certain that he was going to drop eVayl. My plan was to drop eLylyth into the mirror but looking at the eVayl list I thought that he would be more than capable of tearing my Lylyth list to pieces. I elected to drop Saeryn and, like I thought, he dropped eVayl. The list was tier 4 (of course) and contained three Angelii, two Ravagores, two shepherds, a spell martyr, max Hex Hunters and a max Spawning Vessel. 

I lost the roll for the start of the game, even without Vayl's tier bonus. The first round was Destruction and I picked the table edge with a wall just outside kill box. Golly ran his Hex Hunters up, taking a commanding position in the zone, moving all the beasties up to threaten. I followed up by jamming into the zone and using my feat. There was still a lot of shooting and magic in his list, though, and so he was able to wear down most of my beasts despite missing multiple rolls. I had some poor die rolls taking out one of the Ravagores and managed to quickly lose the advantage on the piece trade. He quickly cleared all my beasts off the table, but not before I managed to get a control point by destroying the objective. As well as controlling the zone he also managed to repulse Saeryn from he wall with an Angel and then kill her with shots, completely clearing me off the table and getting more than 100% VPs thanks to the Vessel who'd spawned a Harrier. So my first round ended with a pretty comprehensive schooling from a real veteran. Oh well, on to Round Two!

Round Two

In Round Two I was paired up against a Cygnar player. This time around we were playing Recon. His lists were an eCaine build and an eStryker list. I decided to drop eLylyth as my Cygnar drop to out threat him and go for assassination where possible. He elected to play his eCaine list which was made of a squire and Hunter in the battlegroup along with Reinholdt, Gorman, Carvolo, Eiryss, max Boomhowlers, Gun Mages and UA with two marshalled Hunters and two units of rangers. I won the roll and chose to go first, while he gave me the edge with a forest in front of my deployment zone for Lylyth to hide behind. The Boomhowlers jammed pretty hard but took a beating on feat turn. His list struggled to take out my heavies, removing an over-extended Typhon early in the game but struggling to take out anything else once his things had been whittled down. 

Throughout the game he was very cautious with Caine, taking almost no shots and not feating at all. On one turn late game he moved up towards one of the flags to dominate and put pressure on. Lylyth shot into melee to take out some Boomhowlers and free up the Ravagores the first used animus and missed a shot (he had elevation) doing a few points from blast damage and setting off the cont. fire on his low arm caster. The second Ravagore cranked the boosted hit roll and caught him, stripping almost all of his boxes, leaving him with only a handful left. Unfortunately the fire went out on his turn, saving him, and giving him chance to run away. We attritioned a bit longer and I lost all my models except Lylyth, a shredder and a Ravagore. He then felt secure enough to move up again for the flag on the other flank, getting toe in on a forest. Not that my Ravagore cared about that. Lylyth shot out the last Boomhowler in the way and then the final Ravagore moved up, threw up the animus and then took the shot. It missed but the blast clipped him, I boosted the blast damage (he was on a 0 camp) and got him down to 3 boxes. This time fire stayed up and I rolled 4 on the damage, just enough to finish him off and secure me an assassination win!

Round Three

In round three I was paired up with a local Khador player in Incursion. He was using a pairing of a tier 4 Butcher2 Doom Reaver spam and Butcher3. Khador, along with the mirror, was the one faction I'd been uncomfortable with, since my drop could go either way depending on the lists. Looking at what he had, though, I decided that Saeryn was the best choice. He picked Butcher3. The list was merc heavy and included Ruin, Beast 09, Juggernaught and a war dog, as well as eEiryss, a Gobber Tinker, Gorman, Kell Bailoch, a Bokur, Aiyana and Holt, the TAC corps with Valachev, and a unit of Widowmakers. 

I won the first turn and ran everything up the board, taking a commanding presence, and he followed up grabbing some more real estate. On my second turn I had both Angels charge the Juggernaught, destroying it. Meanwhile the Deathstalkers started pinging shots off the Widowmakers, killing a couple. The Scytheans continued up towards the central flag. Then I feated, keeping my guys safe. Despite the feat he managed to shoot one of my Scytheans to death, using almost all of his models' activations. One of the most important activations was Gorman throwing Black Oil at my remaining Scythean, missing and deviating back onto all of the TAC corp, who were the only models contesting the middle flag. 

On my post-feat turn I moved my Raek to control the flag on my right which had nothing contesting it. The pot produced a Harrier who used animus and charged one of the contesting Widowmakers on the other flank, the Deathstalker removing the other, letting me control that flag too. The Scythean advanced to B2B with the centre flag, also getting reach on all of the TAC, clearing them off to secure that flag too, giving me 3 points in one turn. On the Khador turn Butcher moved up and used impending doom and flashing blade to kill my last Scythean and both Angelii. Beast 09 moved in to contest the Raek flag and two widow makers and Eiryss moved to contest the other flank, failing to hit the Deathstalker, though. On my turn the Harrier, totally out of control and on two fury, frenzied, charged and killed one of the contesting Widowmakers. The Deathstalker finished off the other Widowmaker but couldn't hit Eiryss. The pot stepped up, killing its own guy into the pot, producing another Harrier who animus and charged Eiryss, killing her and securing the flag, putting me on 4. On the other flank a moderately damaged (two armour pierce attacks last turn) Beast 09 was contesting my other flag preventing the win. I decided to go chips in. Saeryn moved up and chucked two Hellfires at it, boosting one damage. The Shredder then went rabid and advanced into melee, taking two double boosted attacks, followed by the loaded Foresaken who took 3 boosted damage attacks on him. Finally the Raek moved into melee, using all of its attacks to just manage to scrap the heavy, netting me the 5th, winning, control point, saving the game!

Round Four

Moving into round 4 I was on 2 and 1, putting me back into a competitive position. I was the pair up this round, being matched with Adam Bell with his Menoth. Remember back in round one when I got paired with the 4th highest rated player in the country? Adam is the 5th highest and top Menoth player, as well as another England WTC player. [sarcasm] Yay [/sarcasm]. I was also knackered by this point and was pretty tired but luckily Adam's a great guy and really fun to play against, even if he's a fantastic player who definitely plays to win. The scenario was Fire Support this round. He was playing Anson Durst and (I think?) eSevvy. eLylyth was my Menoth drop so my decision was pretty much made. Adam decided to drop Durst. I was pleased with that, not because I thought I'd be any good against it, but because I wanted to see, as a Menoth player (recovered), how the new guy played. Turns out it's pretty well. The list he was running was a Reckoner, Fire of Salvation, a Templar, a Devout, a hierophant, Nicia, eEiryss (again), Gorman (again), a Vassal, Corbeau, a reclaimer, a min choir and a max unit of Zealots with UA. 

I won the roll to go first and took the first turn, giving up the board edge with the trench. The game didn't last long and was one of the first of the round to be finished. I had trouble doing enough damage with Durst's awesome spells and abilities. He took a huge chunk of board space with running Zealots under mini feat which I couldn't shift, and then I had to burn my feat to clear them out. He managed to destroy my objective and control the flag for two points. I then derped trying for a very long shot assassination and failed to contest on my turn, getting him the 3rd point and so he was able to run Durst up to the flag for the scenario win. This was a disappointing but not unexpected loss and, as I said, Adam's a really fun opponent to face across the table and he made getting my ass kicked enjoyable. 

I ended up finishing 2 and 2, and was the highest ranked in that bracket thanks to my high SoS, placing me 7th overall. Given my inexperience with the faction as a whole and my lists in particular I was pretty happy to do that well. Especially with a win for each list. 

While I was more comfortable with my Lylyth list than my Saeryn I think that the Saeryn list is pretty solid and I just need more experience with it. I think I want to adjust the Lylyth one though, to replace Typhon with a third Ravagore, since he really wants to be further up the board than the rest of my army and gets isolated and killed early. 

I had a good time, overall, even if I was exhausted by the end of the day! I'm looking forward to playing some more with these lists and letting you know all about it!

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 

Also check out Hall of Legends for Jayke's analysis of his games!

-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

Tourney Tales - April Assault

Hey everyone, welcome to Tourney Tales! Due to other commitments it's been a while since I last had chance to go to one of my LGS' local tournaments but I have managed to get in for this one. My hopes going into the tournament were, in order: to place in the top 3, to go 3 and 1 and not to make a fool out of myself. Obviously I'd love to win the whole thing but given the calibre of several of the other players I'm not sure that's likely. The lists that I was planning to use were the Harbinger list I've been practicing with, paired up with the pSeverius list I had a couple of games with recently:

List One:

The Harbinger of Menoth +5

-Heirophant -2

-Reckoner -8

-Devout -5

Minimum Choir -2

Wracks -1

Vassal of Menoth -2

Maximum Exemplar Errants with UA -10

Rhupert Carvolo -2

Covenant of Menoth -2

Minimum Holy Zealots with UA -6

Maximum Exemplar Bastions -8

Dartan Vilmon -3

Paladin of the Order of the Wall -2

Anastasia Di Bray -2

Objective: Fuel Cache

List Two:

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 ready to go and pretty happy with both of my lists. The tournament was a 4 round, 14 man Steamroller using Timed Turns. So without further ado I'll start with a run-down of the games:

Round One

My first round opponent was Ben, one of the more experienced players in the Meta and one who's given me plenty of tough games. I was a little down-hearted as I'd hoped to get an easier game in early in order to get the ball rolling but it couldn't be helped. To make matters worse he was playing his favourite faction, Retribution, one I've never played against. He had one infantry heavy and one Jack heavy list and so after some internal debate I plumped for Sevvy to start me off. He picked his Kaelyssa Tier 4 Force Wall list. This consisted of Kaelyssa, 6 Manticores, an Artificer, a unit of battle mages and 6 or 7 NQ 54 variant Arcanists. This was an imposing looking list with a bunch of heavies and Shenanigans. The first round was Fire Support and Ben won the roll to go first, opting to choose the board edge. I deployed with the majority of my army on my right flank, with only the Vessel on my left near my flag. Ben deployed his mass of warjacks in a line, centrally with the Arcanists scattered between them to dole out focus. I took the first turn and, thanks to the Kaelyssa Tier couldn't run so I just put out Defender's ward on the TFG and strolled forward. 

Ben's turn mainly consisted of Arcanists giving focus to the Manticores who then ran forwards, taking a big mass of board. 

On my turn I continued to shuffle up the board, trying to gain a bit more board space. Sevvy moved into the nearby trench and put up EoM as I'd forgotten to cast it in the first turn. The Vessel moved up on the hill and boosted a shot on the Manticore directly across from it, rolling 6 on the Admonisher, catching another Manticore and battle Mage, doing a point to the Jack and killing the Mage. More importantly though, the Admonisher caught Kaelyssa and so I boosted and did a bunch of damage (this was in part because Ben had had a bit of a maths fail and thought he was ARM 10 with power field for some reason)

On Ben's turn he upkept the phantom hunter he'd put on Kaelyssa turn one and used this to shoot Gorman with her rifle, needing all three shots to hit, using the rest of the focus to heal and then feated. Two of the Manticores moved up and wrecked my objective, while the other four advanced and put covering fire templates all over my half of the board. 

I was hoping to get another Admonisher this turn and so I moved up base to base with the two Manticores with my Vessel and used its push miracle, but it didn't push far enough to get the Mantacore over the flag and secure the shot cleanly. I then ran my Reckoner right towards his caster and had my Vassal ancilliary attack at her, but I wasn't able to spike the dice. My battle group continued to advance up the board slowly, while the TFG and Orrik moved around on the flank, avoiding the covering fire templates, going into Iron Zeal and Shield Wall. 

Ben started his turn focusing on the Reckoner. The Artificer charged in and missed its charge attack, but hit the second, using the beat back to nudge him towards the nearer Manticore and free up the Manticore at the flag. The two Manticores on my left both charged the Vessel and wrecked it, and meanwhile another Manticore killed off the Reckoner after being fed a ton of focus by the Arcanists. The Mages tried to pull a couple of the TFG but failed to hit their high DEF. The other three Manticores then put Covering fire templates all over me. Kaelyssa then moved up to the flag, taking a couple of pot shots at the Vassal and dominated for 2 control points. 

I knew this game was going really poorly for me. I'd thrown away a heavy and lost the Vessel and accomplished very little apart from putting some damage on Kaelyssa, but that gave me an opening I could take and so I jumped on it, hoping I could net a Hail Mary win. I allocated one to Blessings and upkept the Eye of Menoth, dropping Defender's Ward. I then had the Templar plod 4" forward to get out of Blessing's way and then had the Jack run clear across the board. I then had the Heirophant use Harmonious Exhaultation and then activated Severius. He took one of a wrack and then cast Ashes to Ashes through Blessings onto the Artificer. It hit and I rolled the bounces, getting enough to catch Kaelyssa. The Artificer survived and the Jacks took minimal damage. I boosted the damage on Kaelyssa and the dice came up 5, 5, 6 killing her and netting me an assassination win (we also worked out after the game, once he realised his earlier maths error, that this dice roll would have been high enough to kill her even factoring in the additional boxes he would have had from this.)

Because the majority of Ben's list was Battlegroup I also netted a large number of Army points as well, despite having only killed three or four models all game. Still, I was out of the first round with a win. 

Round Two

Moving into the second round I was put up against another of the top players in the meta, Andy, who was playing with his Circle. This round was Incursion. I decided to drop Sevvy again and Andy dropped Bradigus. His list was tier 4, and included two Wold Guardians, 6 Wold Watchers, two units of Sentry Stones and three units of Shifting Stones. I lost the die roll again, but again my opponent chose table edge instead of first turn. I took pictures for each round on this game too, but I'm sure Andy wouldn't mind me saying that this game was a long, drawn-out slugging match that wasn't especially exciting. So instead of giving you a lengthy blow-by-blow I'll just do a quick run-down. We both had very high ARM lists and both had a lot of trouble cracking the opponent's armour. We both advanced up and met in the middle around the flags and then had a long slapping match with no one getting much of a foothold. My Vessel couldn't shift the Wold Watcher contesting the flag on my left, but he couldn't crack the Vessel's high ARM. My TFG with Defenders ward sat quite happily on the flag on my right, and despite doing full unit CMAs, rolled really poorly against the Wold Watcher engaging them, who was also failing to kill them back. In the centre my two heavies locked up several other Watchers for the majority of the game. On one of my turns I managed to get a few points onto Bradigus when he was low on Fury, leaving him on 7 boxes. Brad used his feat turn and heavies to clear out my heavies, despite Brad himself failing to kill the damaged Reckoner. This let him claim the centre flag, forcing me into an uncomfortable assassination that required a bushwhacked shield push on a heavy and a move into some shifting stones. I just managed to make range on Brad, but he was camping 3 and I needed all of my immolations to hit, but the first missed, costing me the run. Dice down sounded with Brad left on one box and him up two control points, leaving me on one to one. If I wanted to place I now had to win my next 2 games...

Round Three

For round three I was paired up with one of the local Cygnar players who was playing Hayley2 and Lord General Stryker. I had a sinking feeling that I'd be seeing Hayley2. And I was right. I decided this was a good matchup to play Harbinger into, though, especially since the scenario was Destruction and I knew I could control the zone pretty well. His list consisted of Hayley, Squire, a Centurion and Thorn; as well as a Journeyman Warcaster, Anastasia Di Bray, eEiryss, Gorman Di Wulfe, eAlexia, Nyss Hunters, Gun mages with UA and Aiyanna and Holt. 

I won the roll to go first and deployed centrally with my Zealots on one flank and the Bastions on the other. There was a forest directly in front of my deployment where the Errants nestled in. The Cygnar deployed with the Gun Mages and eAlexia on one flank and the Nyss Hunters and Aiyanna and Holt on the other side with the rest of the army central. As I had the first turn I did the typical Crusaders Call, feat, charge to get the majority of his army into my control area, and then ran everything else up towards the zone. 

Slightly hamstrung by my feat he moved Gornan up along with the Centurion and then ended his turn. I then took the 'free' turn to lock out the zone, moving my Zealots (who mini feated) and the Errants to form a wall of bodies around my opponent's side of the zone, with the slower second wave of the Imperishable Wall Paladins and Bastions continued plodding up the field, giving me a strong position on scenario. 

On the first proper Cygnar turn Hayley had Thorn advance up and then arced a time bomb into the zealots, killing a bunch of them and opening up a window for a gun mage to shoot Anastasia. He then feated, catching the majority of my force, but missing my support and the Bastions. The gun mages took shots at the Errants but I suffered a bunch of Martyrdom damage to keep them in the game. Aiyanna enchanted the Nyss bows  so they could do a CRA into Dartan, but I Martyr'd that too. 

I then had my 'turn' with Hayley dictating my order of activation. The net result was that the Reckoner sacrificed movement to shoot at the objective (twice with Ancillary) Harby neglected action to move up into the zone, and the zealots and Errants reorganised themselves to lock the zone back out again. I stupidly positioned my Heirophant and Rhupert in a way I couldn't advance and spell ward Harbinger, so I ran it up, aiming to get in B2B with Harby for next round. I then had the Bastions, from outside the feat charge the Objective, destroying it with one model. This secured me 3 control points. 

Cygnar started their turn by having Thorn run up and arc a telekinesis into Harby to shift her up and into the zone. He then moved eEiryss up and took the shot at Harbinger. I said I wanted to Shield Guard the shot however there had been some confusion in my turn. Because of the long spear on the Devout I hadn't been able to get the models B2B and obviously hadn't made it clear enough when positioning that he had acted on the assumption that the gap was there. We called over a judge since it was an important call. The judge ruled in favour of my opponent because his actions had been made based on the assumption that my spacing was accurate and I should have been more clear. When we restarted the clock he looked back down at the table and realised that he had forgotten to allocate to the Centurion, which had been his primary assassination vector and so decided that he wouldn't be able to win and forfeited the game, shaking my hand. The judge was still stood by the table and pointed out that he still had a number of very reasonable vectors to kill Harby. We played out a single large CRA into her and he killed her instantly thanks to the damage on her because of the Martyrdom in previous turns. However despite him having the game in the bag I had the win with maximum points for winning by forfeiture. This set me on 2 to 1 and in the running to place depending on my last game and the final round...

Round Four

My final round I was paired against Luke, one of my semi-regular opponents who's been playing mainly with Cryx recently. This round was Close Quarters. One of his lists was had a Kraken and I didn't want to put my Harby list against that and so decided to round out the tournament with Severius again. Luke dropped the non-Kraken list, with eGaspy that consisted of a Nightwretch, Deathjack, Tartarus, a warwitch, Gorman DiWulfe, the Withershadow Combine, a max unit of Bane Knights, a max unit of Bane Thralls with UA, and a minimum unit of Bile Thralls with a Skarlock. I lost the die roll again and Luke opted for the first turn, leaving me to choose the clearer table edge. I deployed my Vessel on my extreme right flank, nearer my own flag. Luke deployed with one of the big bane units on each flank and everything else central. I deployed my TFG and Orrik on the left flank and my Battlegroup in the centre of the board. 

Luke took his first turn, marching his force forwards and then had Gaspy pop out some clouds around the nearby forest to block out LOS to the majority of his army. 

I then moved up my forces, running the TFG with Iron Zeal, and having the Vessel advance around the Obstruction in front of it to come around to my flag. 

Luke continued to run up the board, taking a huge amount of real estate, putting the pressure on. Following this he had Gaspy move up and excarnate one of the TFG to get a bile thrall up in the front of the flameguard. It then moved up and purged all over them, killing the majority of the unit, netting a bunch of souls for Gaspy. 

On my turn I realised that his board position was dangerous for me and I was going to have a hard time dealing with all of the mass of models. I decided that my best shot was an assassination. So I started the wheels in motion. The Vessel moved up and used its eruption of faith miracle to push some bane Knights out of its way and then took a shot at one of the Knights near the forest, admonishing to clear it out. I then moved eEiryss up and tried to take the shot on Gaspy but I was just a bit short. The Reckoner moved across to take a shot but couldn't get far enough to get a line on him. Orrik however did move up and tag Gaspy with a shot for a couple of points (he wasn't camping anything but did have a bunch of souls for next turn) I then ran Blessings of Vengence up into the forest to get LOS on him and started to cast Immolations. My first spell missed despite boosting, meaning I lost the bonus from Blessings' bond. I threw out a few more zaps but it wasn't enough and left him on a handful of boxes. I ended the turn by having Gorman black oil Deathjack to reduce his potential threat. Then I ran my choir and remaining TFG to block lanes to Severius. I realised that I'd forgotten to feat too...

Vengence triggered to allow Luke to move his bane Knights up into Blessings and towards the Vessel doing a couple of points of damage to the Jack. The Bane Knights charged into the Reckoner, wrecking the heavy. Gaspy moved up and excarnated another bile thrall before teleporting back to the flag. The bile purged and killed the models in front of Sevvy. Deathjack moved into melee with Blessings but couldn't attack thanks to black oil. Luke's Gorman threw black oil onto the arc node but it failed to hit. The deviation was small enough to catch it but also caught Deathjack, re-oiling him. The clock ran out before he could do more than a single attack on the Vessel with the Knights, however. 

I knew I should have lost a lot more this turn and that this was a lucky second chance to get the assassination, but it wouldn't be easy. I started by having the Vessel push away the Knights engaging him. I then took a shot at the knight engaging the Blessings in the forest but even with the boost it missed and hit Blessings instead. I then advanced my Templar up to reach one of the Knights in the forest, killing it and then using beat back to move up to get the other knight with its shield. Thanks to his sinister soul collection Gaspy was on a pretty decent stack this turn, but Luke hadn't moved any of his models to engage Eiryss and so she was free to move up and across to get range and LOS so hit him with a bolt to rip off the focus. I then activated Blessings of Vengence and had it move around, taking two free strikes, one from Deathjack and one from the remaining Knight in the forest. The Deathjack missed its attack thanks to Black Oil. The knight connected but only did a few points of damage. This gave me the chance I needed and so I kept arcing double boosted Immolations into Gaspy until he was dead. 

This was another game like my first. An opponent forcing me into a very bad position and me snatching victory from the jaws of defeat through assassination. Regardless, it put me on 3 to 1, and therefore in the running to place in the tournament overall. I knew I was likely vying for 3rd place and was keen to see what the final standings were. To be honest, though, I'd accomplished two of my goals, I'd gone 3 to 1, even if I might not have deserved the second win and I hadn't embarrassed myself. My play hadn't been great overall, but I'd taken the opportunities that had presented themselves to me and definitely got a bit lucky too. I was hopeful. We gathered for the final results. Nick from Solid Ground Studios (http://solidgroundstudios.co.uk) was in 3rd Place, I had managed to get second place and the tournament was won by Andy who'd beaten me in round two. I was over the moon with the result! I had a really good day, though I was really starting to feel the pressure towards the end. My opponents were all great players who made every game a real challenge and it was really fun to play each of them!

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-M