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

Mirsuharu on Bat Reps - Learning Legion- Lylyth, Shadow of Everblight vs. Madrak Ironhide, World Ender

Hey guys and welcome to the latest of my Learning Legion Bat Reps. This week, following on from my practice game with Saeryn, I was trialing my other list for the tournament, eLylyth! The list I've  gone for was:

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

My opponent this week was Mike, whose Trolls have been featured in some of my previous reports and whose Khador was my first proper Legion game. This week he was also trying out something new with eMadrak. The list was mostly battlegroup and included a Pyre Troll, two Impalers, two Axers and two Bombers, two Champion Heros and some whelps. The scenario we rolled was Outflank and I won the roll to go first. I took first turn and deployed with Lylyth central, a Ravagore and shepherd on either side of her, Typhon and his Foresaken on my far right and the Naga on my left. Mike deployed with his battlegroup in a rough line, with the bombers in the rear and the Pyre troll In the middle. 

I had everything run up this turn, also putting out Shadow Pack and Tenacity on Lylyth, and having the Foresaken take one off Typhon to keep my Fury balanced. 

Mike took his turn and had Madrak put up Killing Ground and Warpath and then advance up, followed by his beasts who were able to run for free, moving up the board. 

On my turn Madrak was sat on a one camp and was exposed to my many guns. The Succubus started the turn by putting Dragon's Fire on Lylyth from the nearby Ravagore and she moved up, feated and started pinging shots into the World Ender. He transferred away his one Fury and took some damage. The Deathstalkers and the Naga used their shots to kill the Hero in 1" of Madrak, removing grim salvation and then both Ravagores took two shots into Madrak, forcing 3 successful tough checks! With nothing left to shoot him I had Typhon move up and multiple spray an Impaler. Luckily on the next turn the fire didn't go out and Madrak finally failed a tough getting me the win!

This showcased for both of us the incredible threat that Lylyth can give you on the board if you're not careful with your caster. Since the game was over so fast we decided to reset the game and try it again. I won the roll to go first again and deployed in almost the exact same way, while Mike turtled up Madrak a lot more on his side of the board. 

My first turn went pretty much exactly the same as last time, Lylyth put up Shadow Pack and tenacity on herself. The rest of the guys all ran up, taking positions near the zones. 

Mike had his front row of Trolls run up, taking board space, but having Madrak hold further back and only putting up Killing Ground and not Warpath, flanking him with both Heros in the rear to make him much more survivable. 

I took my feat at the top of turn two, having Lylyth taking all three of her shots on the Pyre Troll whose cont. fire and immunity fire were intimidating to my Ravagores and Lylyth. The Bolt thrower then moved up and also took a chunk out of the Pyre troll, pushing it back an inch. One Ravagore took out an Impaler with its two double boosted shots. The other Ravagore took shots on the Axer to my right, also double boosting but not quite killing it. The Naga moved up and into the zone. On my right flank Typhon charged the other Impaler and tore it to pieces with its attacks before putting up his animus. The feat spray nicked one of the heroes and forced a tough check. The Foresaken then moved up and gobbled up the excess Fury. 

On Mike's turn he had the Axer take some swings on Typhon, who took a bunch of damage but healed 3 back. The Bomber then moved over to him and made a two handed throw on Typhon, aiming him at the Foresaken. It was too far to hit her but scattered to one side, knocked down. He took 3 damage but then immediately healed it back again. The Pyre troll threw at Lylyth, getting a lucky deviation, clipping her (I forgot evasive) and setting her on fire, but failing to do any damage. The bomber on my left flank advanced into the zone and threw at Lylyth but it deviated off harmlessly. Each of the Heroes advanced up, one moving into the zone on my left. Madrak then went and used his feat, allowing both bombers and the Pyre troll to take shots at Lylyth, failing to hit her with any deviations. 

On my turn the fire went out, hilariously, keeping Lylyth safe. I reaved all the fury in and forced Typhon to stand up and then charge the Bomber with him, trying to clear the zone. It took all of his initial attacks and bought attacks but did manage to kill it. The full Foresaken then charged the whelp smashing its face in to clear out the zone and net me a control point. On the other flank the Deathstalkers took shots on the hero taking up space in the zone, forcing a tough check but failing to kill him. The Ravagore moved up to the other bomber, trying to clear that zone for Lylyth to dominate. He made a double handed throw on the heavy but failed the contested strength check despite having the extra die. The Bolt Thrower and Lylyth managed to finish off the Pyre troll between them. 

On Mike's turn he didn't have a whole lot left on the board. He had his Axer charge the Bolt Thrower sat in the back of the zone, but because he'd charged out of Madrak's control area he couldn't force for boosts or extra attacks, meaning he couldn't do too much damage. The previously knocked down hero in the zone to my left stood up and moved to engage a Deathstalker and take up real estate in the zone. The remaining Bomber activated and threw the Ravagore in revenge, leaving it stranded on the far side of the zone, but missing the naga he'd aimed for. The other Axer advanced up to threaten Lylyth. Madrak ended the turn by advancing up the board to get everyone back in his control. 

On my turn I decided to go chips in on the assassination. Typhon, who was out of control range, managed not to frenzy making it a safer bet. Lylyth managed to take a few shots into Madrak, forcing him to lose one transfer and take a little damage. The Foresaken went and took 3 fury off the full Typhon leaving him on one. The character heavy then turned and walked into Madrak, hitting with all 3 initial attacks at dice damage and buying a fourth to put him on no transfers, killing the lead Axer in the process. This freed up the Ravagore to advance into melee with the caster too, taking the charge in exchange for a free strike from the hero. I'd thrown up Tenacity and was hoping he'd miss or not do too much damage. I was wrong. He hit and the damage dice came up:

Ouch. Luckily the spiral (2) was literally the perfect one for me leaving the Ravagore battered but alive: 

The boosted charge attack missed but the second attack hit, forcing a tough check. He passed and I used the final fury to buy one last attack, auto hitting and auto triggering tough. This time the die came back a '4' and netted me a second assassination win. 

I really enjoyed these two games and they gave me a fun intro (less fun for Mike, I imagine) to eLylyth. She was surprisingly easier than I thought she'd be and I feel like this game has set me up to play a bit quicker on the clock. Retrospectively I should probably have gone for clearing out the zones and won on control instead of going chips in on a reasonable but not guaranteed assassination run. This'll be important to keep in mind at the tournament - not to get stuck into a single game plan. The tournament is this Sunday and I'm feeling pretty confident going in to it. I don't have any expectation of winning overall but I do think I can play competitively and hopefully win a couple of games. More importantly though, is getting practice with these lists in a competitive setting. But only time will tell how I do so stay tuned!

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 - High Executioner Reznik vs. Madrak Ironhide, Thornwood Cheiftan

Hey guys, and welcome back to Mitsuharu on Bat Reps. This week I was having real trouble finding a game (everyone was already spoken for) but luckily I managed to get a game at (almost) the last minute (my last minute is quite a bit longer than most people's) against one of the developing players in our meta who plays Trolls. I decided not to play Harbinger against him since I felt that would be unfair. Instead I decided to play my favourite Menoth caster: Reznik! I've written in the past about my love of Reznik but needless to say he's the caster I have the most fun with every game. The list I cooked up was:

pReznik +6

-Heirophant -2

-Crusader -6

-Vanquisher -8

Avatar of Menoth -11

Min choir -2

Vassal of Menoth -2

Vassal Mechanic -1

Max TFG with UA -8

Min Zealots with UA -6

Wracks -1

Gorman Di Wulfe -2

eEiryss -3

Saxon Orrik -2

Madelyn Corbeau -2

Objective - Effigy of Valour

I was umming and ahhing about whether I should swap out Gorman for Anastasia Di Bray for a while. Ultimately though I decided that Black Oil would be more beneficial than Espionage, since the body of the list is not designed to do loads of damage but instead to jam. On the other hand a Black Oiled heavy is still a real upset. I decided on Effigy of Valour to make sure that the TFG would be less likely to flee and ruin their jam. Obviously the solo package is geared towards delivering Reznik to the opponent's caster. 

My opponent was playing a pMadrak build. Most of his games so far have been at the 35 point level and so (he told me) the list he played was an expanded version of one of his 35 point lists he'd bulked up to 50 points. It consisted of pMadrak with an Impaler, Bomber and Mulg, a max unit of the Krielstone with UA, a unit of Runeshapers, and two max units of Warders. We were playing Two Fronts from the 2015 packet (for anyone keeping count I promise I am randomising the scenario each time. I have no idea why Two Fronts keeps coming up). I won the roll to go first and set up with Reznik just to the left of the centre of my deployment zone with the TFG and Orrik on my left flank, the jacks and support staff centrally and to the right of centre, and the zealots and Gorman on the right flank. On the other side of the table the Trolls all set up more centrally. 

I took my first turn, using Orrik to give pathfinder to the TFG to allow them to run into the zone despite the intervening forest, and everyone else ran up the board, meanwhile Reznik put Ignite on the TFG and Iron Agression on the Avatar. 

Things went very similarly on the other side of the board, with the Fell Caller putting pathfinder on one of the Warder units, allowing them to advance through the forest, with everything else running forwards as well. 

I continued to move up the board on my turn. The Flameguard and Zealots moved into their respective zones, using their mini feats to secure stronger defensive positions. Gorman moved into the zone and threw Black Oil at Mulg, hoping for a lucky deviation, but went off to the middle of nowhere. My Jacks moved up the board, trying to stay out of Mulg's threat range while also trying to nudge the Avatar close enough to get the alpha on him later. Reznik moved across into my zone, behind the Flameguard along with Madelyn Corbeau and Orrik. 

The Trolls then took their turn, and started to tentatively attack my army. The Warders on my left flank charged my TFG, but only two of them were able to get in, and both missed their attacks thanks to Set Defence. The bomber threw at the TFG also, but only hit one of them, with the blast damage not being able to crack their Iron Zeal/shield guard armour. On the other flank the Runeshapers intentionally missed a choir member in my backfield, managing to get a lucky scatter into my zealots, with the first blast killing two zealots and rolling exactly enough to kill Gorman as well. Mulg, the stones, Madrak and the Fell Caller all shuffled up the board, with the Warders on my right just toeing into the zone. On my turn I retaliated by having the TFG CMA into the two warders, killing both of the trolls who'd connected. Eiryss took a shot down a crack between the Impaler and bomber and hit Madrak to strip him of Sure Foot. The Vanquisher (who'd been allocated 1) moved up to start my run on Mulg. My plan was, with battle, to hit him with a boosted POW 16 from the gun. I needed 4s to hit... The deviation when I rolled 3 didn't hit anything. I was not sure of my threat range on Mulg with the Avatar, but with the Vanquisher missing I decided it wasn't worth risking being out. Instead the Avatar just nudged up slightly to be definitely in next turn. The Zealots moved up, throwing bombs at the Warders and Mulg. One of the blasts hit the Warder but failed to do enough damage. The other two zealots hit Mulg, not doing much damage. Importantly, however, the Stone had moved up right behind Mulg, meaning it was caught in the blast and died. The positioning of the rest of the unit wasn't ideal, however, and he was forced to self-sacrifice a regular grunt, then the second blast forced him to kill the UA to keep the stone alive. Reznik moved back up in the zone. 

Because this was a Menoth vs Trolls game we'd both been really hesitant to commit, which is why so little stuff had died so far. This turn was when the trolls came into it. Madrak started the turn by feating and throwing his axe at a zealot. He rolled snake eyes and failed to hit. The warders on my left started eating through the TFG thanks to the feat, however he made a real error and overtook past the melee range of one of my flameguard, dying to the free strike. The other two warders' killing spree didn't last as long thanks to poor dice, but did manage to get another couple dead. The Impaler took a boosted shot at the Vanquisher, hoping for the crit, he hit but not crit, and did a couple of points of damage. Mulg then charged the Vanquisher and scrapped it, filling up on Fury. The Warders on the other flank then killed all the zealots under feat apart from the Monolith, who was knocked down to 1 box, ending that spree. The Bomber moved into stealth range and threw at Eiryss, but failed to hit her high DEF, the deviations failing to kill anything. 

The first big commitment had happened and now the game was heating up. The Vassal gave Enliven to the Avatar, who rolled 3 focus and charged Mulg. The Avatar managed to kill Mulg handily and still be able to take an additional Attack on one of his other beasts. The TFG moved into the remaining Warders in my zone and did a reasonable amount of damage, but didn't kill them. The Crusader moved into the objective but despite Battle only managed to bring it down to 2 boxes. Eiryss was in melee with a warder and so wasn't able to shoot and needed ridiculous dice to even do a single point of damage in melee. Orrik gave pathfinder to Reznik to allow him to move right across the zone, choosing to run, followed up by Madelyn and the Hierophant. 

The bomber was locked up by the Avatar and so couldn't shoot at Reznik on the Troll turn. Hoping to remedy this three of the warders charged Avatar, the first one failing to damage, and the second one only  doing a couple of points of damage, activating enliven, allowing me to move out of their threat, but keep the Bomber in melee with him. The rest of the warders took a few boxes off the Crusader. On the other flank the other warders took attacks on the TFG again. The runeshapers continued to move up, finishing off the monolith bearer. The Bomber activated and took a two handed throw on the Avatar, to my surprise, chucking it into Eiryss, killing her. The stone moved up to keep the coverage, and then Madrak advanced directly towards Reznik, throwing Rathrok at him. This critical hit, but failed to damage. This set up Reznik to apply sword to face. On my turn I had the TFG kill one of the Warders (who was potentially in the way) Avatar paid one to stand up and then used the rest of his stack to kill the bomber. The crusader beat on a Warder and finished off the Objective to score a point. Reznik then activated and charged Madrak. Madrak had been upkeeping sure foot, meaning I got the extra dice for purgation. I used my feat to wipe off his 5 fury, hit Engine of Destruction with Harmonious Exaultation and bought attacks until there was nothing left of his caster. 

I had a really great game, and I always enjoy playing with Reznik since he's always fun. The Avatar with Iron Agression is offensive and Reznik is awesome to play with. Next week I will likely be playing Harbinger again (with a very slightly different list) and I'll be sure to write it up for you next week!

As always don't forget to like Mitsuharu on Minis on Facebook for regular updates!

-M