Journeyman League 2 - Weeks 5 & 6

Hey guys. Sorry for the irregular updates recently I've been really busy the past few weeks. I am still here though, don't worry! Hopefully I'll be back to some normality soon and the posts will be back on schedule! Anyway the Journeyman League at my local store is still running and I've had a game the past two weeks. I upgraded my vanilla 25 point eVayl list to a 35 point tier 4 machinations of Shadows list:

eVayl +6

Machinations of Shadow - Tier 4

-Seraph -7

-Scythean -8

-Angelius -8

-Angelius -8

Shepherd -1

Max Spawning Vessel -3

Max Legionnaires -6

Objective - Arcane Wonder

This is a pretty solid list with a nice jam and 4 extra points thanks to the tier. Basically this drops the Raek from the last couple of weeks and instead gets two Angelii. Not a bad trade at all!

In week five I tried this list out against Nick with his 'only Cryx in the village'. He'd gone for Gorehade1 as his alternate caster with bane swarm, featuring a max unit of Knights and Thralls with UA along with Darragh, Tartarus and Gorman in support. Nick ran all his stuff up and I went for a crazy long shot assassination using his Slayer as a oraculus channeller, throwing everything I had at Goreshade. Unfortunately I forgot a crucial slipstream and so was short on the Angelius and lost my armour pierce. Thanks to this stupid mistake I essentially allowed his Cryx to take out the majority of my remaining forces that were now exposed. I conceded the game after a couple of turns of trying to finish off Goreshade when he was no more dead and I had nothing left to win the game. I realised that it's stupid to go for anything other than a solid assassination when this list is so capable of attrition and control. I decided to completely remove assassination from my mental win conditions. Now it's there if a good line opens itself up but it is not going to be my actual strategy. 

For week six, the finale, I had a game against Rik whose Circle I'd played in week one. He was still playing pKaya but was now running a beast heavy list with a Shadowhorn, a Feral, a Warpwolf, a Rotterhorn and a Wilder (who isn't a beast but is in the battlegroup so...) as well as a minimum unit of Ravagers and a unit of shifting stones capped off with the feralgeist. In this game we were playing Destructuon. The circle played a 'hit and run' style, getting in to kill my screening line of Legionnaires and then pull back out of my heavies' threat ranges to avoid retaliation. This was a sneaky plan but it did leave a minimal presence in the zone, which allowed me to kill the couple of models in the zone and repulse out the rest then clear off the objective with a Scythean to dominate, leaving me with 3 points. Rik essentially had the choice between feeding me his beasts or not holding the zone. He tried to hit me hard enough to take a couple of heavies and pulled back, but all my beasts were still alive. He had a feralgeist in the zone but Vayl killed it with a decent Oraculus shot, dominating again for the win. 

Overall I really enjoyed using this list and to be honest I've enjoyed the journeyman overall. It's cool to be able to get a few games each night at the lower points and then you really appreciate the higher points more when you can get back to playing 'proper' games! Think I'll try something new next week, though! Plus I've learned a few hard lessons about my lists too!

Hopefully as of next week I'll be back to regular updates as well as photos and more! 

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 2

Hi everyone! It's week 2 of the journeyman league! Unlike last time (somewhere in the bowels of the archive) we're just playing with the standard JML schedule. That means that this week we went up to 15 points including the starting battlegroup. So I had a total of 4 points to spend. So I added some support models:

pVayl +6

-Scythean -9

-Seraph -9

-Shredder -2

Shepherd -1

Spell Martyr -1

So basically I added the Shredder to be a fury and transfer battery as well as including Tenacity in my list. The shepherd was a given since it's such a utility piece. That left me with a single point to spend and I lumped for a spell martyr. I'm really glad I did. 

Anyway once I had my list prepared I got down to the game store and managed to get myself another three games. Here they are:

Game One

My first game of the night was against Jayke, my long time gaming buddy and Hall of Legends writer. He's been interested in Skorne for a while and so he was using the JML to shift into them, for a while at least. His list was Morghoul with a Gladiator, a Brute, a Savage and had added a minimum unit of Paingivers and an Agoniser. A pretty solid list. We decided to play Outflank, since Jayke had some fancy zones. I took the first turn and we both moved up the board. On my turn two I managed to run the spell Martyr up the board to near the Gladiator and then boosted a Rampager into it, pulling it out and turning it backwards, away from the Scythean. With Incite up I managed to one round the heavy and then used the feat to pull back. Without the Rush animus the wall that Jayke was using to cover his models became a real impediment to his beasts. Despite this, one of the Cyclops managed to get in on the Scythean, doing loads of damage but failing to get the kill. Morghoul moved up and managed to get both of my beasts in his feat. Luckily I was able to pull them both back and clear off the Cyclops and the Agoniser. I'd also managed to secure one zone for two turns to take the scenario lead. Jayke decided that this was a bad situation and went for an assassination. He measured Morghoul's control and it was going to be close. He ran one Cyclops up to block off the Seraph and the paingivers ran to surround the Sythean so I couldn't use dark sentinel. Unfortunately when it came to the charge Morghoul was just short and so decided to call the game since he felt that there was no way to bring the game back in his favour. So I managed to get myself another win with Vayl! 

Game Two

My second game was against Luke, who had shifted back into Circle for the JML and was using pKaya with a Feral Warpwolf and a Pureblood in the battlegroup and had added a unit of Shifting Stones with UA for 15 points. Again I took the first turn and after we both moved up I was able to repeat my sneaky performance from the previous game, running the Spell Martyr up to get Rampager on the Feral, dragging it up to the threat range of the Scythean who, with the help of a few shots from the Seraph, managed to one round it and then pull back with the feat. Luke then went to dominate one of the zones (we were still playing Outflank). The Feral failed to spray the Shepherd that was contesting the zone, forcing Kaya to zap her. Between that and two Spirit Doors (to bring Kaya up and then pull the Pureblood back) even with the feat Kaya was only camping one. On my turn I had Vayl slipstream the Scythean up and then incited, catching a stone, Kaya and the Pureblood. With Chiller as well the Scythean charged into Kaya and managed to kill her after hitting both initials at dice plus 6 and then clearing her off with the chain attack, using my last fury to get the final hit. This was another fun game, and got me another win with this pretty broken list!

Game Three

My final game of the night was against Ben, who's always given me a good run for my money when we've played. He was also playing Skorne, but with a completely different battlegroup to Jayke, featuring Xerxis, an Aradus Sentinel, a Savage and a Krea, and had added a min unit of Paingivers and a feralgeist to bring his list up to 15 points. I took first turn again, and we both shuffled forwards (and the Sentinel cranked a damage roll on a blast on my Scythean). I then ran my spell martyr up again and pulled out the Aradus, turning it backwards again to give my Scythean the +2 and then I put up Incite. Unfortunately, though, despite the charge my damage rolls were so poor that I left it with a few boxes. I was still able to pull back with the feat, though. Next turn the Aradus turned around and got a nice shot off on the Scythean, directly hitting and getting more damage on it. The Cyclops managed to trash my Objective, clearing a line for the Krea to advance up and also shoot the Scythean, paralysing it. On my turn Vayl moved right up and slipstreamed the Scythean, giving it enough movement to get all three of Ben's warbeasts in its Melee range. With incite and chiller I managed to kill the Aradus, then the Savage and then reduce the Krea to a single box. The Skorne retaliation featured Xerxis taking out the Scythean with two attacks under the feat, freeing up a lane for the Krea to charge Vayl. The paingivers moved B2B with Xerxis for the armour buff and then healed the Krea. It charged Vayl but my Shredder advanced up with Dark Sentinel and managed to do just enough damage to finish him off before he could attack. On my turn I had Vayl boost a Hoarfrost into Xerxis, hitting and getting the critical stationary. This allowed me to clear off the two paingivers giving the armour buff. I then used my last two fury to throw a Malice at Xerxis, doing a touch more damage. The Seraph moved up and rolled for four Strafes, easily hitting the stationary target and boosting all 4 damage rolls, taking down his health gradually. The Shredder then went rabid and advanced into Xerxis, taking both attacks but managing to spike the damage rolls just enough to finish him off. Another win!

Wrap-Up

Another successful week, getting me another 9 journeyman points for my wins. I'm consistently impressed with what Vayl brings to the table with her impressive array of buffs and boosts. Considering the Spell Martyr was in the list as a throw-away point filler he more than made his inclusion up, getting me three seperate, critical rampagers off that let me capitalise and take a heavy off the table! I'm less certain about what I want to include in my list next week, when we go up to 25 points. More beasts? A unit? Only time will tell! Stay tuned for more!

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