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 - 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

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