Tourney Tales - 2015 JML mini tournament

Welcome back everyone. This week my local Press Ganger, Dave, decided to run a mini-tournament to cap off the Journeyman League that had been running recently (check the archive for more of my experiences in that). The format was 2 35 point lists, one with one of your journeyman casters and one with your starter battlegroup, not necessarily in the same list. We also had some pretty fancy seasonal boards to play on too. The tournament was broken down into two 'pods' of 4 players. Basically the winners of the two games from the pod would face each other and so would the losers, deciding the rankings that way. My JML score got me into the top pod of players! So the two lists I decided to run were:

List One

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

List Two

Saeryn +5

-Scythean -9

-Scythean -9

-Angelius -9

Max Spawning Vessel -3

Foresaken -2

Foresaken -2

Spell Martyr -1

Spell Martyr -1

Deathstalker -2

Deathstalker -2

Objective - Fuel Cashe

Game One

My first game was against Alan, one of the other Legion players in the JML. His two lists were a pThagrosh and an eAbby list. I decided to go ahead with the Saeryn list since there was a lot of Melee in his two lists. He'd seen my Saeryn list and realised his Melee heavy Abby list would be pretty badly hamstrung by the feat and so decided to throw down pThagrosh. The list included a Scythean, Seraph, Shredder and a Raek along with two shepherds, two Deathstalkers and a max unit of Warspears with UA. This list had plenty of shooting to overcome my feat but not enough to be too overwhelming. The first round scenario was Outflank. I got the first turn and started by running everything up the board, swapping my Scytheans around to deny prey from the ogrun. Saeryn put out Banishing ward on herself and Respawn on a Scythean.

Alan then followed suit by having his army run up, mainly heading towards the zone on my right to fill that up. Thagrosh threw out Draconic on the ogrun to boost up their hitting power. Thagrosh hid behind an obstruction for some added cover. 

On my turn I had my Scytheans advance into each zone and then had my Angelius charge the Seraph but it was half an inch out. Then I had Saeryn advance up and feat, catching all of my beasts to give them a little safety and then burned out a martyr to put Breath Stealer onto the opposing Scythean. 

With my Angelius exposed Alan had almost all of his army shoot to try and take it down. Most of the force aimed and took pot shots, doing a ton of damage but, even with the entire force, he didn't quite manage to clear it, leaving it on 3 boxes with nothing left that could shoot, much to Alan's frustration. The Raek on the other flank shuffled to actually get toe in on the zone to contest. 

On my turn I had the Scythean on my left charge the Raek and slaughter it, gaining control of the zone. Saeryn healed up the aspects on the Angel who then charged and polished off the two Ogrun in the zone with an armour pierce and an extra attack, securing that control too. The Deathstalkers took some shots on the Warspears but had trouble with their high ARM. The Foresaken each gobbled up a helping of Fury. Then I ended the turn up to two control points. 

Alan took the exposed Scythean as an invitation and charged it with his own. After some pretty decent rolls he managed to destroy it but it respawned to get out of the way. The Warspears charged to get into the zone more and managed to roll high on an assault into one of the Deathstalkers, splattering it. The Seraph rolled low again on its strafe and didn't get much in. Thagrosh feated back the Raek who advanced into the pot and then put tenacity onto the Scythean in the zone. 

On my turn I had my freshly respawned Scythean advance into Alans but apparently his was better trained than mine and rolled super low on damage and couldn't really get the job done. The other Scythean made up for it, though and killed a couple of Warspears, the Foresaken using its fury to tear apart another one. The last one (the UA) was frustratingly hard to clear and the spawned animused charging harrier didn't polish it off and neither did the blightbringer that clipped it. My damage rolls really letting me down his turn. In a last ditch Saeryn moved up stupidly and used some of her last fury to flick a knife at him, cranking the to hit in Melee and finally killed him, leaving me with 4 control points and no transfer targets. 

Alan started his turn by having his Deathstalkers advance up and take shots. They both hit her high DEF and put a few points on her. The Seraph reared up, getting ready to polish her off just as dice down was called. I was literally seconds away from a loss but I was saved by the bell and won the game with 5 control points!

Game One: First Tiebreaker Win

Game Two

With my win in game one I was paired with the winner of the other round one game which was, of course, Nick whose beautiful terrain we were battling over, who'd managed to win his game against Ben's Skorne two tables down. As it was D&C1 we were both locked into our other lists. This left me with Machinations of Shadow. Nick had played his Goreshade list on the other table and so that left me to deal with his evil, evil pDenny list. It included a Skarlock, a Slayer and a Deathripper in the battlegroup along with a Machine Wraith, a max unit of Nyss Hunters, the Devils Shadow, Rockbottom, Dougal and Wrong Eye and Snapjaw. I played against this list several times in the league and it destroyed me very well whenever I played into it so this was the list I'd been dreading. 

The scenario for round two was Destruction and, despite my +1 I lost the roll to go first. Nick chose sides, picking the more defensive terrain, giving me first turn. I started the game by running everyone up the board to claim some real estate, putting Admonition and Refuge on the two angels respectively as well as Occultation on the Legionnaires. The Seraph and Scythean advanced up to near the zone in the nearby forest. The Legionnaires and Spawning Vessel plodded up the centre of the board. 

Nick followed suit by having his Nyss run out, spreading themselves across the front line followed up by everything else. Denny herself advanced up with the Devil's Shadow to hide behind the nearby wall. Wrong Eye and his pet advanced up to the nearby hill and Submerged themselves to avoid any shooting malarkey. 

On my turn the Seraph advanced up and killed the front two Devil's Shadow with its gun and the Scythean shuffled further into the forest. The Legionnaires ran to gum up the zone a little followed by the pot. The Angels just shuffled around on my flank pulling in a little while Vayl snuck up behind the obstruction to get cover. 

On Nick's turn he had Denny move out of her wall and into the open so he could feat, managing to catch the majority of my models (only Vayl and the Vessel avoided it) he then proceeded to have his shooting take out a couple of my legionnaires (bringing back the two dead Devils Shadow) and spot remove one of my Angels, putting some serious hurt on the other one what he was at it. The Machine wraith ran into the zone to be incorporeal and contest like a pain. 

Under Denny's feat my army was pretty bad but I saw an opportunity on Denny since she was actually exposed. I had my Legionnaires and pot shuffle around to expose a lane and then spawned a harrier to be Vayl's channeler. Vayl moved up to exactly 10" away and pinged it in the back. Then she feated and threw a free obliteration at Dougal, hoping to clip Denny in the Blast. The AOE is smaller than I thought and so missed her, simply splattering Dougal. I bought another one on a Nyss and hit, killing two Nyss and getting boosted blast damage on Denny. Unfortunately my dice weren't amazing and I only did a little damage. The Seraph advanced up Strafed into her with two shots, actually managing to hit with one despite the reduced RAT, but the damage roll wasn't great and she was left with 12 boxes. My surviving Angel pulled back and the Scythean shuffled deeper into the forest to end my turn. 

My assassination run hadn't been very successful but luckily I hadn't exposed myself too much and I'd used my other feat spells to put Occultation on the Pot, Admonition on Vayl to give her a smidge  more protection and Refuge on the Scythean. So on Nick's turn he took the safe route and moved a bunch of stuff into the zone, including both of his jacks, locking out the scenario until he could wipe out the rest of my army. He also managed to slaughter a bunch of legionnaires along the way too. Denny hopped back behind the wall. 

On my turn I had the remaining legionnaires clear out a path for the Harrier I spawned to move up and be another node for Vayl at the end of the turn. The Scythean charged up and destroyed the objective and killing a devils shadow before refuging back. That scored the first control point of the game. The Angel then flew over to the other flank settling near Vayl. The Consul herself through out her oraculus and got channeler to boost an Oblit into Denny. I boosted the hit and managed to get exactly enough to hit her even behind the wall. My clock ended but I was able to take the damage roll. I couldn't boost since I was sat on nothing now and my clock was over. The dice came out too low to polish her off. 

With Vayl camping nothing Nick started his final plan. Snapjaw charged up and killed a legionnaire to free up the arc to allow Denny to double boost a Scourge into her. The damage roll came up big and left me on 3 boxes and knocked down. The Nyss were next to move up and put Vayl down with a big CMA. Again, though, Dave called dice down seconds before my loss and, since I'd taken out the Objective last turn I was up by one control point and won the game. 

Game Two: First Tiebreaker Win

Post-Games 

These were two really close games that I managed to get a win despite being on the very precipice of stupid losses. I felt like I played fairly solid games up until the ends of both games but luckily I managed to luck my way into wins. Regardless this made me the overall winner of the tournament, deserving or not! I was completely wiped out by this point but I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I was pretty pleased, not just with the result, especially since I didn't feel I particularly deserved the wins, but with how great a time I had. I'd had a long day and was a bit under the weather so I was expecting to not have the best time but I really enjoyed the games and it was enthusing to play. 

I'm planning to take a bit of a palette cleansing break from Warmachine for a while. In fact I just picked up Fishermen for Guildball! I'm actually really excited to play a new game so expect some posts about Guildball coming soon!

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 - Saeryn and Rhyas, Talons of Everblight vs Hoarluk Doomshaper, Shaman of the Gnarls

Welcome back to the latest Mitsuharu bat rep! This week I'm continuing my test games with the twins, Saeryn and Rhyas. I'm still using the same list with them and trying to put them though their paces. The list is the one recently used on Chain Attack with no changes as a starting point for them:

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

It's a solid list and there might be some changes worth making but I want to keep trying this version out for a bit before fiddling with it too much! However I do now have my Croak Raiders fully painted! (Check out the Mitsuharu on Minis Facebook for photos)

Pre-Game

This week I managed to get a game in with our local Press Ganger Dave. He's a damn good player and almost exclusively plays dirty dirty lists. Case in point this week he decided to play Runes of War. No big surprises in the list construction (the tier doesn't really allow it) with Doomy taking Mulg, an Earthborn, a Mauler and an Axer in his battlegroup, along with four units of Runeshapers and a max unit of Krielstone bearers with their awesome UA. We rolled out the scenario and got Recon but since this is all I ever seem to play lately we rerolled and got Incoming, which I haven't played much of, this being my third game with that scenario. I won the roll for initiative and took the first turn. 

Deployment

I set up with my battlegroup central, around the Pot and my Raptors off on my left flank. Dave then set up with his battlegroup central and his Runeshapers in pairs on either flank. The Croaks then advance deployed in the middle of my side of the table. Dave then put out a pair of walls, one central and one on my extreme left flank. 

Legion Turn One

I started the game by having the Raptors run up the flank. The twins gave Occultation to the croaks and advanced up the board before spamming tenacity onto the front rank of Croaks. The Seraph and the Naga ran to get into the nearby forest. The pot slogged its way up the board to spread its influence in the middle of the board. The Croaks all ran up into my friendly zone. Zuriel flew up and riled to get some Fury on the board. Finally the Protector stuck his Animus on Rhyas, ending my turn. 

Legion: 0 Trolls: 0

Trolls Turn One 

Dave started his turn by having the rune bearers run up the board, some of them chucking stones but getting nothing done. Janissa moved up to the tier wall and used her dirt magic to make another wall in front of it, making a Mulg sandwich when he moved up into it. The other Dire Trolls chugged up the field up near the objective. Doomshaper hiked his skirts up and jogged over to the wall with Jannisa. He then put transmute on Mulg and dumped fury into the stone. The stone then moved up and pumped out their aura, adding combat warding to the mix. 

Legion: 0 Trolls: 0

Legion Turn Two

On my turn I started to shoot some Runeshapers. On my left flank the Raptors shot and killed all three of the closest Runeshapers, all failing their tough checks. They then light cav moved into the zone. The Croaks then advanced further into my zone and lit up another three Runeshapers, all of them failing their tough checks too and oiling another two of them. The Seraph then shot another oiled Runeshaper, easily killing it and he again failed his tough check. The pot continued up the board with the twins who were hanging back a little. Zuriel hid behind the Croaks and the protector dropped its animus on Rhyas again. 

Legion: 0 Trolls: 0

Trolls Turn Two

On the Trolls turn the Runeshapers on my left flank advanced up and chucked rocks at the Raptors, managing to kill two of them, clearing out the zone. The Axer on that flank put up his Animus and ran out into that zone too. On the other flank the two remaining Runeshapers charged the Croaks and dropped two tremors. Which both hilariously missed. Mulg charged up for free from Fuel Cashe and killed two Croaks and wrecked my Objective, scoring the first control point. Doomy activated and gave fortune to the Earthborn and then moved up behind a wall Jannisa stuck up, getting his toe in his own zone to secure the second control point with the domination before feating. The Earthborn then charged in and killed a handful of Croaks, despite missing multiple times even with the rerolls. The stones continued to make their way up the board, maintaining their bubble. 

Legion: 0 Trolls: 2

Legion Turn Three 

In my turn I had the raptors polish off all put one of the remaining Runeshapers before taking their extra move into the zone to contest. The remaining Croaks oiled and chucked sticks at Mulg but failed to harm his ridiculous ARM. I was fairly hamstrung by the feat but contemplated the assassination run on Doomy. It wasn't looking very good, though. Zuriel advanced into the Earthborn but ended up doing more damage to himself from the feat than he did to the Troll. The Pot bearers moved up to get in Mulg's face. The Seraph backed away, hiding behind the forest for keep its animus in play. Rhyas and Saeryn kept out of the way of the Dire Trolls as much as possible and Saeryn put the protector's animus on her sister. The Shredder advanced into the Earthborn to prevent a charge into Saeryn. 

Legion: 0 Trolls: 2

Trolls Turn Three

On the Trolls turn Mulg destroyed a ton of the pot attendants with his smashy stick. The Axer killed a Raptor but the Runeshaper on that flank couldn't get the job done. The Runeshapers on the other flank essentially just made a nuisance of themselves while the Earthborn, with the help of the Mauler, trashed everything in his zone including Zuriel, securing the third control point for the trolls. Doomy pulled back behind the wall in his backfield while the Krielstone Bearers ran to encircle him along with Janissa. 

Legion: 0 Trolls: 3

Legion Turn Four

This turn I decided I needed to try for the assassination because I thought I might just have the range to get Rhyas in. I started by having the Raptors continue up the extreme flank and one managed to get a shot off on Doomy but couldn't quite clear the range of the wall and so ending up missing. The pot hopped up and spat out a stinger who moved up and sprayed the Krielstone unit, hitting three, but failing to kill any since they finally managed to pass a tough check, meaning I couldn't clear out my landing zone. I charged the Seraph anyway to slipstream Rhyas and couldn't even get the range to manage that. Instead Rhyas charged the Krielstone guys and Jannissa, flashing blade to kill them all out of spite more than anything. Essentially everything else did very little. Including actually contesting, meaning that the Trolls went up to 4 points at the end of my turn and 5 at the end of Dave's automatically winning him the game. 

Trolls Scenario Win

Post-Game

I don't feel that I played this game particularly well, especially towards the end (that last turn was just stupid, not that I had many good options at that point). Especially since Runes is such a shitty match up. I did learn some things from this game about the list, though. First off the list has very little staying power and quite easy to remove from the board. Conversely it doesn't handle high ARM very well. Overall that kind of makes Runes a nightmare match up. Yay. Still I'm still having a fun time learning to get to grips with the enigma of the twins. If you're practicing please regard this report as a helpful 'what not to do'. If you like please imagine me skipping merrily through a minefield setting off the terrible explosions so you don't have to. You are welcome. We'll have to see how I get on next time. It does feel like this list style is basically totally assassination geared, though it can totally handle infantry at any rate! Stay tuned to find out!

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 - Saeryn and Rhyas, Talons of Everblight vs. Major Haley Prime

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

eTwins +2

-Zuriel -10

-Nephilim Protector -5

-Seraph -8

-Naga -5

-Shredder -2

Max Spawning Vessel -3

Max Raptors -10

Max Croak Raiders -8

Objective - Bunker

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

Pre-Game

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

Deployment

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

Cygnar Turn One

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

Cygnar: 0 Legion: 0

 

Legion Turn One

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

Cygnar: 0 Legion: 0

Cygnar Turn Two

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

Cygnar: 0 Legion: 0

Legion Turn Two

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

Cygnar: 0 Legion: 0

Cygnar Turn Three

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

Cygnar: 0 Legion: 0

Legion Turn Three

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

Cygnar: 0 Legion: 0

Cygnar Turn Four

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

Cygnar: 3 Legion: 0

Legion Turn Four

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

Cygnar: 3 Legion: 0

Legion Assassination Win

Post-Game

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

As always thanks for reading, and don't forget to check out the Facebook page and 'like' for regular post updates, photos and more at www.facebook.com/Mitsuharuonminis 

-M

Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - Saeryn, Omen of Everblight vs Dr. Arkadius

Hi everyone and welcome to the latest battle report! This week my intended opponent wasn't able to make it in for our game. Luckily I managed to find an opponent from the people who'd turned up on the day. So I ended up playing my first game against Minions. Specifically against Thornfall Farrow. I'm still trying to get more competitive with my Saeryn list and so that's what I was set on using. The list's stayed the same:

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 I've really tightened my game with her recently and my latest games have been much better with her. Nevertheless I still want to keep my practice up. 

Pregame

My opponent considered his lists carefully but ended up deciding to play with Dr. Arkadius. He was playing in the new No Quarter tier list at tier 4. This included Targ, 2 Road Hogs, 2 War Hogs, 2 Gun Boars, 2 Gorax, a min unit of Bone Grinders and 6 (yes, 6) free Razor Boars. The scenario we were playing was Close Quarters. I lost the roll for the start of the game and so got to choose the board edge. I chose the side with a forest for Saeryn to lurk in near my flag, leaving a large forest blocking the Farrow deployment. 

Deployment

The Farrow deployed with the Gorax, Warhogs and Arkadius centrally with the Bone Grinders at the rear. Then a Road Hog and Gun Boar deployed on each flank. The Razor Boars set up throughout the army. On my flank I deployed with the Scytheans near my own flag and the Angels opposite the other flag. Saeryn went down centrally with her support. 

Farrow Turn One

The Minions started by having basically everything running for free thanks to the tier. The War Hogs advanced up towards the forest in the middle of the board while the flanking elements moved out further around the outskirts. The Boars ran up in a screening line across the army. Arkadius put out Aggravator on himself. 

Legion: 0 Farrow: 0

Legion Turn One

On my own first turn I had Saeryn put Respawn on the closest Scythean and Banishing Ward on herself, before putting out Tenacity on the Raek. Then she moved up and popped her feat. Following that all of the other models in the battlegroup ran up, staying within her feat bubble. Except the Shredder who moved up and put out Tenacity on Saeryn. The Deathstalkers took a couple of pot shots at a Boar but not enough to seriously damage it. The Spell Martyrs ran up the flanks. 

Farrow: 0 Legion: 0

Farrow Turn Two

On the Farrow turn things were stymied by Saeryn's feat. To manage my army the Razor Boars all moved up to jam into my battlegroup. The Road Hogs advanced up on the flanks, one of them spraying down a Deathstalker, the other spraying the Boar and Angelius, setting them both on fire. The War Hogs advanced up further, having to move through and around the large forest. The Gun Boar near the Farrow flag shot my Foresaken and killed her on an ancillary attack from Targ, taking out a Pot attendant too, helping to fill up my pot for next turn. 

Farrow: 0 Legion: 0

Legion Turn Two

On my turn I had the Raek disentangle itself with a leap to engage both of the Boars tying up my Angels. It took its attacks and bought extras but didn't manage to kill either of them. On the other flank the farthest Scythean advanced to get the Gun Boar in its range while staying close enough to the boar engaging him and not take a free strike. It then proceeded to wipe out the light, but missed the Chain Attack. The other Scythean took all of its attacks on the Boars engaging it but only managed to kill one. That gave the pot the last token it needed to spawn a Stinger to be able to engage the boar that had been engaging the Raek. Saeryn channeled Breath Stealer through a Martyr onto the War Hog, seriously hobbling the heavy. She then used Blight Bringer on the Raek, but still didn't finish off either Boar. One of the Angels then stayed where it was, finishing off the Boar engaging it, and the other charged the Road Hog on that flank, seriously hurting it. The remaining Deathstalker advanced to engage the other Road Hog preventing it from reaching Saeryn who was camping nothing. 

Farrow: 0 Legion: 0

Farrow Turn Three

On the Farrow turn all of the Boars frenzied, attaking the models they were engaging. Meanwhile one of the Gorax activated to put out his animus on the Road Hog engaging the Angel. Both of the War Hogs continued towards my army, one slogging through the forest and the other tagged with Blight Bringer meaning they could barely move. The primal'd Road Hog used all of its attacks and an ancillary from Targ to take out the Angel thanks to the animus on it. The other Gorax moved up but was just short on the Primal for the other Road Hog. Arkadius then moved up and across towards the bulk of his army and put out Forced Evolution on the Road Hog thanks to the extended range from the Bone Grinders and used Psycho Surgery to heal up the beasts. Then he used his feat. Each of the Boars frenzied into the same targets as the start of the turn. The Road Hog that had taken out the Angel frenzied up and into the Raek, the total weight of attacks managing to finish it off. On the other, heavier flank the Road Hog frenzied into the Deathstalker to clear her from its path. The Gorax on that flank then frenzied into the Scythean to soften it up. Now clear, that Road Hog charged into the nearby Scythean using all of its attacks but managed to leave it with a single box, just coming up short on killing it. 

Farrow: 0 Legion: 0

Legion Turn Three

On my turn Saeryn upkept Banishing Ward and then paid two to heal the wounded Scythean back to functionality. The Foresaken, who'd been fully loaded last turn, hopped up to the Melee and let loose with her Blight, getting 6 dice on the Road Hog, softening it up nicely, as well as doing a couple of points to the Gorax and the Boar. The mostly dead Scythean then activated and took his revenge, destroying the Road Hog and hurting the Gorax some more. The Shredder went rabid to take out the boar engaging the other Scythean, killing it to free its charge into the exposed War Hog, managing to take it out and chain attack to finish off the Gorax. The pot spawned a Stinger to move up and engage the Boar that was a little too close to Saeryn. The remaining Angel then charged up and spiked the damage on the Road Hog, killing it with the Armour Pierce. Saeryn then channeled Breath Stealer, boosting the hit, into the remaining War Hog in the forest, meaning it could barely move next turn with the cumulative penalties. Satisfied but not stupid she moved back and toe in on the forest to stay as safe as possible. 

Farrow: 0 Legion: 0

Farrow Turn Four

It was reaching a point where we'd both attritioned down with not much left on the table. Looking at the board it was clear that my Scytheans had to die or they'd get to Arkadius. Because of the speed debuffs, though, it was hard to achieve that. Luckily the Boar in the rear of the wounded Scythean frenzied and finally killed the heavy. Arkadius himself then walked into Melee with the remaining Scythean and tapped it with a mind control needle, forcing it to shamble over with its back to the War Hog. The remaining Gorax used its animus to buff up the War Hog who then managed to beat down the Scythean from almost full to very dead. The gun boar took some pot shots on the pot managing to dink it for a few points. The Bone Grinders then ran up to try and screen Arkadius. 

Farrow: 0 Legion: 0

Legion Turn Four 

On my turn Arkadius was definitely exposed. I reeved in my Fury and then allowed the two lessers to frenzy, managing to finish off the boar they were engaging. This filled up the pot who put out a Harrier to fly into the boar engaging the Angel, managing to clear it off thanks to animus and charge. Saeryn then moved up and flicked a knife into Arkadius to deny the transfers. I had the shot from the Angel to finish him off but first I blasted him with a double boosted Hellfire. The dice exploded, though, and finished off Arkadius herself. 

Post-Game

This was a fun game and a hard attrition match up with loads of dead heavies on both sides. It felt like the game swung pretty heavily each turn as each of us got a lot of work done. The tier list benefits for Arkadius are really pretty great. The primal from the Gorax helps to power up the Farrow beasts to a much more threatening level. The free run and the extra 2" mean you have pigs jammed down your face really early. Plus the free Razor Boars proved a real pain in the ass to clear off. By the end of the game I still hadn't killed them all! I feel like I made good use of Saeryn's tool box this game, using pretty much every trick at her disposal to wrangle out the win. Good thing too otherwise it wasn't looking too good for me with only an Angel and some lights left for me! Luckily I managed to pull it out though!

In another couple of weeks I'll be starting into the Journeyman League at my LGS so expect a whole bunch of reports from that soon! And more in the meantime, of course!

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 - Saeryn, Omen of Everblight vs Kreuger, the Stormlord & Lylyth, Shadow of Everblight vs Morvahna the Dawnshadow

Hey guys! Sorry about not posting a battle report from my game last week, but this week I have a double bill for you! I managed to get a game this week against one of our more irregular players who'd brought his circle to the LGS. I'm still playing with eLylyth and Saeryn as a pairing at the minute and he was playing with eMorvahna and eKreuger. We discussed the lists and I decided to play with Saeryn, since it's the list I'm most focused on playing. The build hasn't changed:

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'm still looking to get more experienced with the list and I feel like I'm making some good progress. I think my last few games with her have really tightened up and I've made some solid plays and taken advantage of her cool tricks. 

Pre-Game

Andrew, my opponent, decided he would play eKreuger against me. His list consisted of the Stormlord himself accompanied by a Wilder, a Gorax and a Stalker, Una the Falconer with a Rotterhorn, two Gallows Groves, Dahlia and Skarath two Wayfarers, two units of shifting stones, a unit of Druids and Overseer and a unit of Bloodweavers. We rolled out scenario from the 2015 packet and got Fire Support. I won the roll to go first and, since there was cover outside of kill box on both sides of the table, I took first turn. 

Deployment 

Taking first deployment I placed Saeryn near the handy wall to hide behind, with the Angels on the flank opposite the Circle flag and my Scytheans opposite my own flag. The pot went more central. The Circle deployed heavily on the flank with my flag on it, with only the Bloodweavers near his flag. The Deathstalkers went near the forest. 

Legion Turn One 

I had a very simple first turn, running all of my beasts up the board, getting the Angels into the forest on the flank with the Deathstalkers and got the Scytheans up near my own flag and within range of the Fuel Cashe for next turn. The Raek made it up onto the hill. Saeryn moved behind the wall and put Respawn on an Angel and tenacitied it too. She also had Banishing ward up on herself and got Tenacity from a Shredder. 

Legion: 0 Circle: 0

Circle Turn One

On Andrew's turn one he decided to enact a daring plan to kill one of my heavies. Una and her Griffon along with the Wilder, gave the front rank of Druids acceleration, allowing them to advance and pull my Scythean up as well as create a cloud wall. The next part of the plan involved having Krueger move up and Gallows the Sycthean. Unfortunately when he moved up he couldn't get LOS to it through the Druids' clouds and so he had to TK himself up to barely get the line on it. He dragged it up and then the Stalker activated and charged, only just managing to kill it after some lacklustre damage rolls. This did leave Krueger sitting on no transfers and so one of the stones and the Tharn moved up to screen. 

Legion: 0 Circle: 0

Legion Turn Two

On my turn two I saw a decent chance to assassinate and decided to take it. I had the Deathstalkers move up to clear some of the more 'in the way' Tharn and then had both Angels move up and shoot the warlock. Boosted hit and damage left him on fire and pretty unhealthy. The Raek then advanced and jumped into melee with him, hitting with one tail and doing enough damage to leave him on a single wound. Saeryn moved further up to the wall and feated, trying to catch Krueger in a Blight Bringer but he was just out. The remaining Scythean charged the Stalker but only got a couple of points of damage on it. I ended my turn and fire didn't go out and the damage roll was enough to finish him off. 

Since the game had been over so quick we agreed to play again using our second casters against each other!

Pregame

This time I was playing my eLylyth list:

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

I'm still not sold on the list but I gave it another try anyway. Meanwhile Andrew was playing eMorvahna which had a Gorax, Stalker and Wilder, two Gallows Groves and full Druids too, but also had a max unit of Skinwalkers and UA and max Bloodtrackers and Nualla, a single unit of stones with keeper, and then a couple of minions with the Swamp Gobbers and a Witch Doctor. We decided to keep our table set up the same and keep the scenario. This time I lost the roll for first turn and so Andrew chose to go first and took the side with the trench to deny the ranged defence. 

Deployment 

Andrew deployed with eMorvahna and her beasts opposite her own flag with her battlegroup and the Druids alongside her. Then the Skinwalkers placed themselves centrally. I had Lylyth and her Ravagores deployed with the support staff in the middle of the board. The Tharn then AD'd in a line across the deployment zone and I put my Striders off on the flank opposite the Circle flag. 

Circle Turn One

The Circle started the game running everything up the board, having the Tharn spread out across the board, with the Skinwalkers behind them. The Druids and Gobbers provided a bunch of smoke for his advance and then had the support staff walk into the clouds. eMorvahna put Carnivore on the Skinwalkers and Fog of War on herself. 

Legion: 0 Circle: 0

On my turn I had Lylyth put Shadow Pack up on herself and then advanced up into the trench. She took a shot on a Bloodtracker and missed. So I bought a second, killing the Tharn but missing the snap fire. The Succubus put tenacity on her, moving up to behind the trench. The three Ravagores moved up and shot up the Bloodtrackers, killing three and leaving some scathers. The Naga also moved up and finished off a Bloodtracker too. The Shredder advanced and put Tenacity on the Succubus. The Deathstalkers failed to hit anything under Fog of War so the Rangers paired off to shoot Druids with CMAs and hunter. But they managed to miss all but one shot. Luckily they were able to reform back to relative safety. My Gobbers managed to pop smoke over Lylyth and the support. 

Legion: 0 Circle: 0

Circle Turn Two

On the Circle turn the Bloodtrackers ran around the Scathers and up to jam into my flanking battlegroup. The Skinwalkers also ran, plodding up the board more. The Druids continued up the board, dropping another load of clouds. The Gallows hopped up and allowed eMorvahna to channel a nuke, killing four of the Rangers. The support staff continued to advance, using the cloud from the Gobbers to hunker down and using the objective and the Stalker to cover eMorvahna. 

Legion: 0 Circle: 0

Legion Turn Two 

On my turn two I had Lylyth aim and shoot a Bloodtracker, killing one but missing the second from snap fire. I then feated and shot again, killing another tracker and Nualla with the Snap Fire. Killing Nualla meant the new leader was right at the back of the board and so the others were out of formation and couldn't attack. The Naga was able to move up without issues after that and kill another couple of Tharn. Between them the three Ravagores wiped out all but the leader of the Skinwalkers, leaving a bunch of Scathers in the middle of the board. The combined Striders continued to take shots but got very little done, killing a couple of Druids between them. 

Legion: 0 Circle: 0

Circle Turn Three

On the third Circle turn there were very few Circle models left on the table. Not that eMorvahna two cares. The turn was littered with order of activation problems. He started by having the stones port the Stalker up, with the animus up from the Wilder. Unfortunately this left the stone in eMorvahna's way. Because of this the Gorax moved up and used three Fury to kill it off after some bad boosted damage rolls. The Skinwalker leader and Bloodtracker leader both charged the Naga. The Tracker got the other two girls back in her command but only did negligible damage to the Naga. The Skinwalker was out of range on its charge. Now freed up eMorvahna advanced up to dominate the flag and burned all but one box of health to bring back the Skinwalkers and the Druids to jam up my side of the board, camping 5. The Stalker killed one of the Rangers and then advanced back with Lightning Strike. 

Legion: 0 Circle: 1

Post-Game

Unfortunately at this point we had to call the game before I could get into my turn since the store was closing around us. I feel like I was far enough up on attrition that I could have grinded the game out with more time, or perhaps a better option: I think if I took the free strikes on the two engaged Ravagores and the Naga I could get them and the other Ravagore along with Lylyth to get six shots into her for the game, or at least burn off the transfers and set her on fire. Potentially could've got Pin Cushion on too to really increase my odds. Unfortunately we can't know so we shook and agreed on a draw. I really enjoyed these games and felt a lot less overwhelmed than the other times I've played Circle previously. I'm looking forward to playing again 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