Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - Thagrosh, the Messiah vs. Garryth, Blade of the Retribution

Hi everyone. The journeyman league is over and I'm back up to full points again! To celebrate being up to 50 points I decided to break out a new Warlock. After some consideration I decided to go with Thagrosh, the Messiah, since I love the sculpt and I wanted to play a badass! The list I built up for him was:

eThagrosh +3

-Scythean -9

-Scythean -9

-Scythean -9

-Shredder -2

-Raek -4

-Naga -5

Foresaken -2

Foresaken -2

Max Legionnaires -6

Incubus -5

Objective - Fuel Cashe

This list is heavy on beasts to benefit from the feat and Manifest Destiny. The Raek can help with infantry where needed and the Naga can scalpel out annoyances and lend its animus out where needed. Obviously Fuel Cashe helps the list to get out onto the board for free and the Foresaken also provide some fury management while being useful in their own right. The Legionnaires can jam up scenario well, especially with the incubus package to keep them in the zones for longer. 

Pre-Game

This week I managed to get a game against Retribution, a faction I've only played against a couple of times. My opponent decided to play Garryth with Sylys, Moros, a Griffon and a Chimera in his battlegroup. The rest of the army consisted of two units of Stormfall Archers, a max unit of Strike force with Eiryss3 and a whole mess of solos including Narn, Nayl, two assassins, two Magisters and an artificer. The scenario I rolled was Incoming and Rik, my opponent, won the roll for initiative. He decided to go first, since the terrain was almost completely symmetrical. 

Deployment 

Rik deployed his battlegroup centrally and then placed one unit of Stormfall Archers on each flank, supplementing this with the strike force on the flank near my zone and with his solos on the other flank. I deployed my battlegroup to the right of centre and had my legionnaires opposite the opposing zone on my left, along with the Naga to benefit from the nearby forest. 

Retribution Turn One

Rik started by having all of his models run forwards taking up positions far up the board. Eiryss moved into the forest in my zone accompanied by assassins. The Magisters and artificers advanced into jam the Ret zone. 

Ret: 0 Legion: 0

Legion Turn One 

On my turn I knew I was going to have to move into threat range of his army especially since he had so much ranged in his list. I advanced the Naga into the forest and ran everything else pretty much directly forward. Thagrosh put Unnatural Agression on a Scythean and Dragon's Blood on the Legionnaires. Then I braced for impact. 

Ret: 0 Legion: 0

Retribution Turn Two

For the most of Rik's turn he focused fire on my Warbeasts. One Scythean got hit with a Gallows to drag it out and then shot it with a bunch of Stormfall archers on that flank, putting the hurt on him. Nayl then charged in and did some more damage, joined by both of his jacks, seriously wounding my Scythean but only taking out the Spirit. On the same flank he also killed a pair of legionnaires, triggering Vengence and giving me a host token as well. On the other flank the Stormfall archers and Strike Force took pot shots at the another Scythean. The Assassins both charged into the Raek but, despite Decapitation they didn't manage to finish it. This was a pretty rough opening and a lot of damage to my army early on! 

Ret: 0 Legion: 0

Legion Turn Two

My turn was a complete disaster. I'll be honest - it went about as badly as any turn in any game I've ever played and I went a little bit on tilt, which is pretty rare for me. It felt like the whole turn was an uphill battle where I got punched in face every step. I started the turn by having the Legionnaires clear the path for my Scythean to advance into chain attack range of both lights and Narn. Unfortunately the way I did that was killing Nayl. Who was within 7.5" of Thagrosh, stripping all of his fury and totally crippling me for the rest of the turn. My two damaged beasts had both lost an aspect which I now couldn't heal. The engaged Scythean missed the chain attack and so totally failed to accomplish anything. On the other flank both of my other Scytheans charged the Strike Force and Stormfall Archers resepctively but only managed to kill Eiryss between them. The Incubus and Naga took attacks into the Magisters but missed everything even with boosts. Thagrosh then backed off, but because I was on tilt and not thinking I moved him out of control on my heavies on the flank. Overall the Nayl bomb damaged me and my morale, and I failed my mental command check and messed up my turn by not thinking. By the end of the turn the only thing I'd accomplished was killing two targets, one of whom stripped my fury. That and expose all my heavies. I resigned myself to the upcoming retaliation. 

Ret: 0 Legion: 0

Retribution Turn Three

Luckily for me the Retribution retaliation wasn't nearly as bad as it could've been. Both of my Foresaken were killed, one by a Mage Hunter Assassin and one by Narn when he was freed up by the two lights finishing off my critically wounded Scythean. Garryth moved up to give apparition to one of the jacks. The Stormfall archers set a bunch of my Legionnaires on fire with their bows. The engaged Stormfall archers and Strike force on the other flank were ineffective at handling the two remaining Scytheans, not struggling to hit but having a hard time breaking their relatively high armour. Even Moros, who joined in, had difficulty doing anything as he hadn't been allocated any focus this turn. Overall this turn wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting given how much of a disaster my last turn had been. 

Ret: 0 Legion: 0

Legion Turn Three

No longer affected by Nayl I was able to get Thagrosh back up to full fury, though I did have to cut for three after stupidly moving him out of control on the Raek. That Raek, unable to drop the fury Frenzied and killed the Assassin engaging him. Thagrosh moved up and healed the aspects on the wounded Scythean before casting Manifest Destiny and using his feat. With manifest destiny up both Scytheans used all of their Fury to annihilate a whole bunch of elves. The central one took his attacks against Moros, using the tougher jack to trigger the Chain Attack, clearing off a bunch and finishing off the stealthy light. Meanwhile the Naga moved up and took out Narn with a shot. The Shredder gave Tenacity to Thagrosh and went rabid to put himself between the nearby jacks and my caster, clogging their charge lanes. The remaining Legionnaires made a nuisance of themselves in the Ret zone. Thanks to the feat I then moved the Naga back into the forest, had one Scythean kill another Strike Force member and the Raek killed the other assassin. The other Scythean advanced with his feat move right into Garryth and took a swing with Greater Destiny. It connected and left the elf caster with just five boxes. 

Ret: 0 Legion: 0

Retribution Turn Four

Garryth was now in a bit of a sticky situation. The priority was obviously stopping the Scythean he was engaged with before it killed him. To accomplish this he had the Griffon apparition backwards, out of Melee with the Legionnaire engaging him, along with the Chimera who did the same. Unfortunately for Rik he forgot to allocate anything to the Jacks and so when they moved back and engaged the Scythean they weren't able to finish him off, leaving him on a couple of boxes. This meant that Garryth had to come in and finish the job himself. Luckily it didn't take much from him to cut down the last few points of the heavy beast. The Stormfall Archers in the Ret zone moved up and took some shots on the Shredder but failed to kill him thanks to poor RAT. The Magisters and Artificers finished off the remaining Legionnaires giving me the last four Incubi. The remaining couple of Strike Force took some swings at the Scythean but were still unable to hurt him meaningfully. The remaining unit of Stormfall Archers advanced up and took some shots at the objective, not quite managing to destroy it to score a point. 

Ret: 0 Legion: 0

Legion Turn Four 

On my turn I could see that the attrition battle probably wasn't going to go my way at this point but Garryth was sat on only a medium camp and a couple of boxes so the path to victory seemed pretty clear. I considered trying for a spell assassination but the dice were a bit shaky and Thagrosh was a bit far out. I decided the best plan was to free up the last Scythean to do the job. First I produced the remaining four Incubus into the Ret zone. They spread out, making a bother in the zone and killing the Magisters, Sylys and a couple of the Stormfall archers on that flank. I then had Thagrosh move up and spray onto the Stormfall Archers on the other flank, boosting to hit two of them, clearing them out of the charge lane. Thags then cast Manifest Destiny and healed the aspects on the beasts. I then had the Raek advance around and finish off the last Stormfall, clearing the path for the Scythean. The heavy then activated and charged Garryth, taking two free strikes from the last of the Strike Force. Both hit bit did no meaningful damage. The Scythean boosted the charge attack and, with Manifest Destiny was able to land the hit, which was more than enough to put the caster down. 

Legion Assassination Victory

Post-Game

Despite the agonising second turn this game was good fun and it was cool to play against Ret as they're a faction I rarely see. It did feel good to be back up to 50 points too after playing smaller games for a few weeks! I was annoyed with myself for going so far on tilt in turn two and I did apologise after the game but thankfully Rik was very sporting about it and agreed that he'd have felt the same way if the roles were reversed. Luckily I managed to pull an assassination win out of the bag because otherwise I think it was pretty sketchy. I wouldn't like to have guessed who would've come out on top if the game went on a little longer! 

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 - Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight vs Captain Phinneus Shae

Hi all, and welcome to the latest installation of my battle reports. It's been a little while since my last one since my LGS was being renovated and expanded last week and there was no gaming! As of next week my local community (including me) will be participating in a Journeyman League. Since, for the next few weeks, I'm going to be locked into low point games I decided to have a big blowout fun 50 point game! In this spirit I got my Archangel painted up and built a list for it with pThags:

Thagrosh +5

-Succubus -2

-Archangel - 20

-Carnivean -11

-Naga -5

-Shredder -2

Shepherd -1

Shepherd -1

Max Spawning Vessel -3

Max Legionnaires -6

Deathstalker -2

Deathstalker -2

Objective - Fuel Cashe

I thought this would be a fun list. With the animuses available in this list and the Succubus and Thagrosh's free casting each turn I feel it can get some cool stuff on the board. Plus with the Archangel and Carnivean getting to ARM 20 with Spiney Growth they're hard to shift!

Pregame

The game I had this week was with Will, which usually means a fun, solid game. He decided to use some of the models that he hadn't tried out before, ending up going for a Tier 4 Pirate's Life Shae Tier List. This was made up of a pair of Nomads and a Vanguard in the battlegroup then two units of Press Gangers, a unit of Sea Dogs, the Commodore Cannon, and the full raft of pirate Solos. A pretty standard Shae list. The Scenario we rolled out was Two Fronts and Will won the roll to go first, taking the first turn. 

Deployment 

I placed the Archangel just off centre, closer to my zone. The Pirates then deployed their solos and battlegroup centrally. I put most of my battlegroup either central or to my left with the pot and the Legionnaires to my right to jam his zone. The Sea Dogs then deployed centrally with a unit of Press Gangers on either flank. I put my Deathstalkers in front of the pot. 

Pirates Turn One

Will opened the game by having all the Pirates run up the board, taking full advantage of the free run and pathfinder from the tier. This set the line of battle pretty far forward for my turn. Shae put Phantasm on himself to keep safe. 

Talion: 0 Legion: 0

Legion Turn One

On my turn I had the Legionnaires run towards the zone in roughly two lines. The Deathstalkers took pot shots at the Pirates but they got tough with No Sleeping on the Job so achieved nothing. The pot shuffled up. Thagrosh put out Spiney Growth on the Archangel for free and then cast Draconic Blessing on it and put Fog of War on himself, before charging to end up behind a wall. The Carnivean and Naga ran to get into better positions. The Archangel flew up to toe in on the zone and took a couple of shots at the press gangers with its strafe but it didn't do a whole lot. The Succubus put Spiney Growth on the Archangel and the Shredder put Tenacity on Thagrosh. 

Talion: 0 Legion: 0

Pirates Turn Two

Will started the turn by having Shae upkeep Phantasm and allocated two to a Nomad. Shae went first and cast Coup de Main and then feated, allowing everyone to shuffle forwards, before nudging himself back. He then had Rockbottom give the Press Gangers in his own zone boosted attacks and the Sea Dogs got Tough. Will then had the Press Gangers charge the Legionnaires after Holt shot a couple of them to soften them up. Thanks to hang they managed to kill the whole front row, but only one was in range to Shanghai anyone. On the other flank the Press Gangers moved across my zone and around the hill, generally jamming and being in the way. The Sea Dogs activated and charged using Wall's mini feat to get fearless, spreading themselves out but getting 3 on the Carnivean and two on Thagrosh. The two on Thags got some damage on him but not enough to be worth transferring. The three on the Carnivean couldn't break his high ARM. The Nomad then activated, using the free Coup De Main charge to get into the Carnivean, seriously beating it but not managing to take out any aspects. The various Solos got their respective auras into position for next turn. We realised at the end of the turn that Shae had used his feat to move just into position to net me an extra 2 control points from Kill Box. 

Talion: 0 Legion: 2

Legion Turn Two

I started my turn by upkeeping Draconic Blessings for free and dropping Fog of War. My remaining Legionnaires took their Vengence, killing a couple of the Press Gangers. I started my turn by having Thagrosh thwack the two offending Sea Dogs who'd got to him last turn, putting out a couple of clouds. The pot dropped a harrier and advanced up and the Legionnaires moved deeper into the press Gangers. Between them they caused a huge number of tough checks but they passed all of them with no Knockdown thanks to Grogspar. The Harrier, Shredder and a Deathstalker took attacks on the rear Sea Dog engaging the Carnivean, since I was afraid of taking a free strike when I moved to engage the Nomad. But he survived everything I threw at him! Luckily when the Carnivean did move up he was ok and managed to scrap the Merc Heavy and have enough left over to pop animus onto the Archangel. The Archangel then went and took some shots, managing to kill Dirty Meg, a Sea Dog and put some damage onto Grogspar before using his animus to light up the engaging Press Gangers. The Naga engaged a Sea Dog but failed to hit it with its bite attack. 

Talion: 0 Legion: 2

Pirates Turn Three

On Will's turn he had the various Pirate infantry jam further into my army, targeting everything he could at the Carnivean but failing to kill it. The second Nomad charged in to avenge its brother, hoping to finish off the heavy beast but had terrible dice rolls leaving it with a couple of boxes remaining. The Commodore took a shot on Thagrosh but missed, accidentally hitting Walls instead, splatting him. Shae managed to get his toe on the friendly zone to secure a friendly domination point. Three of the press Gangers took attacks on the objective, doing minimal damage and setting themselves on fire. 

Talion: 1 Legion: 2

Legion Turn Three

On my Turn three the Archangel completely failed to hit any of the press Gangers in Melee thanks to crappy dice, using its animus to set them on fire instead. The healed up Carnivean was able to scrap the second Nomad. The pot dropped out a Harrier that flew in to kill Holt, using sprint to get up and contest the zone while the other harrier advanced into the zone too, taking a free strike from the Vanguard that left it on one box. One Deathstalker advanced away from Melee to take shots but got killed by a lucky free strike doing exactly enough damage to kill him. Thagrosh used his Spray to kill the Doctor, removing the 4+ tough bubble. 

Talion: 1 Legion: 2

Pirates Turn Four

On Will's turn, determined to finish off the Carnivean finally, he allocated a bunch of focus to the Vanguard. Between that and the remaining Sea Dogs they finally managed to clear it off the board. The remaining infantry continued to jam into me, locking me out of the zone. The last couple of attacks finally destroyed my objective too, netting Will another point. The Devil's Shadow Mutineers managed to kill both of the contesting Harriers freeing up the zone. 

Talion: 3 Legion: 2

Legion Turn Four

On my turn I had the Archangel consume one of the Press Gangers and move up further into the zone, using its animus to set all of the Pirates on fire. The Naga killed a Sea Dog to free up a space for Thagrosh to feat back the Carnivean, placing it between him and the Vanguard.  The pot spawned another harrier who flew in to contest the zone, denying the extra point for Will. Leaving him with very few models not on fire. 

Talion: 3 Legion: 2

After game 

This game was a bit of a grind and Will was unfamiliar with his rules, meaning he needed to double check the cards a lot. So by this point the store was closing and Will forfeited, since he felt I was in a much stronger position than him and would shortly be able to fully jam his zone  and pick him to pieces. I really enjoyed this game and it was fun to play some Pirates. I liked having the Archangel on the table and it was a good piece in this list. I'll definitely look at using it again in the future. 

Tune in next week for the opening of the Journeyman League to see what I've decided to go for and how the opening games went!

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 - Learning Legion Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight vs Kromac, Champion of the Wurm

Hi everyone and welcome to the latest bat rep. This week I decided to change up my list slightly from the one I used last week. I just got (and painted) the BFS as my Facebook followers will have already seen and so I wanted to try them out. To fit them in I dropped one of the Shredders and the Gobbers from the list and swapped out the Foresaken for Shepherds, freeing up the necessary 5 points for them. This left my list as:

Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight +5

-Succubus -2

-Angelius -9

-Angelius -9

-Carnivean -11

-Naga Nightlurker -5

-Shredder -2

Shepherd -1

Shepherd -1

Max Warspears -8

-Warspear Chieftan -2

Black Frost Shard -5

Objective - Fuel Cashe

This week I managed to get my game in against Andy who's been using Circle and beat me in round two at the last tournament with his Bradigus list in a long grinding game. This time he promised not to drop the Runecarver and instead played a proxy of the new Circle caster, eKromac! His list was pretty beast heavy with Ghetorix, a Gorax, a Rotterhorn Griffon, a Shadowhorn Satyr and a Warpwolf Stalker in the battlegroup, along with a Druid Wilder, a Wayfarer, a unit of Druids with UA, and two units of Shifting Stones, one with UA. We rolled for Scenario and got Incursion from the 2015 packet. I lost the pregame roll but Andy wanted to pick board edge and so I still got first turn. I deployed with my Warspears on one flank along with the BFS and the Carnivean while the Angels took the other. Andy deployed centrally with his Druids out in front. 

I started my turn by running everything up the board taking advantage of defensive terrain, using Thagrosh and the Succubus to put out defensive Animi on the beasts and had Thagrosh cast Fog of War and put Draconic Blessing on the Warspears. 

On Andy's turn the circle pretty much followed suit, advancing up the board behind Druid cloud cover. Kromac used his Howl and gave the Stalker a free animus with his spells. 

I was feeling a bit conservative on my turn and was leery of moving into his threat ranges so only advanced slightly. The Warspears advanced towards the Druids who were their prey and hit every single cloud with great accuracy, unfortunately not quite catching the Druids in their centre, though. The Carnivean advanced up and sprayed a Druid, unable to harm him because of hippy magic, but catching a stone and Ghetorix behind him. I hit the stone and boosted to kill it and then double boosted the hit on Ghetorix to put a handful of damage on him. The BFS advanced to the edge of the hill and got stelthed near the flag. The rest of the army shuffled forwards into better positions for next turn and Thagrosh advanced into the trench and he and the Succubus put out a bunch of animi again. 

On Andy's turn the Druids scattered, getting out of everyone else's way, popping out some more clouds, one heading to contest the flag to my left. Kromac then advanced up and popped his feat. The now freed up Ghetorix charged the Carnivean, warping snacking to RFP the heavy, meaning I couldn't feat it back and he healed some of the damage taken by Ghetorix last turn. Then he used Sprint to advance across and tie up the Warspears. On the other side of the board the Warpwolf Stalker charged an Angelius but thanks to Tenacity he was only able to connect once, not doing enough to finish it off. The rest of the force advanced up the board more, then the Wayfarer advanced up to control the flag to my right scoring the first point for Circle. 

On my turn the Warspears activated and all but one of them declaring charges on Ghetorix, the other going into a Druid, hoping to cause them to break from the Terror. The Druids braved it out and the Warspear that charged them failed his assault and charge against the Druid's high DEF. All three of the charges against Ghetorix that I'd managed to get missed and the other attacks only did a couple of points of damage. The wounded Angel took an Armour Pierce into the Stalker, boosting the attack and damage dice and cranking the roll to put a chunk of damage on it. It bought a second attack hoping for the hard roll, freeing my fury to boost damage, but missed. The second Angel then charged in, getting B2B with the flag and finishing off the Warpwolf with its armour pierce attack and repulsing to push away the Wayfarer. The Naga tried to take out another of the stones this time from the other unit, but didn't quite manage to finish it. The Blackfrost Shard charged the Druid to my left, killing him with a lucky to hit roll on the first attack and controlling that flag. The Shepherd accompanying the dead Carnivean ran across the board to the other flank and the rest of the beasts. Thagrosh and the Succubus then pumped out tenacities on every model in range of them. This put us on one control point each. 

On Andy's turn the Rotterhorn charged up the board, killing one of the BFS and then used its scream to kill the other two, clearing and controlling that flag. Kromac advanced up to the flag and put up Carnage and Howl and took a swing at a Warspear, but missed it with a double 1. Ghetorix then decided to show him how it was done and proceeded to kill the other 5 Warspears singlehandedly. The Shadowhorn charged the Angelius on my far right flank and rolled exactly enough to kill it. The Gorax charged the other, injured Angel but rolled poorly and didn't do much damage at all. The Druids continued to pump smoke and the Wayfarer moved back into the flag and sprayed down a Shepherd, putting Andy on 3 control points to my one. 

At this point two things were very clear. Firstly I was about to lose on scenario and couldn't contest effectively. Secondly Kromac was way upfront and was only camping one Fury. Hail Mary time then. The engaged Warspear moved away, taking a fatal free strike from a Kromac keen to prove he did know what he was doing and he was just unused to Rathrok, ok? I wasn't especially bothered about it since he wasn't achieving anything useful anyway. Then Thagrosh charged Kromac and boosted the attack. He connected and knocked Kromac down to only a couple of damage boxes with a fantastic damage roll. He then bought a second and missed the boosted attack roll. And the third. And the fourth. Humph. Not ideal. I moved on to the Shepherd who healed a little bit off the Angelius and then had the Succubus give it Tenacity. The Angelius then charged Kromac for the Armour Pierce of doom, taking three free strikes along the way. Only the Gorax connected but did exactly enough to cripple Spirit, meaning I couldn't boost or buy extra attacks, meaning that, with one transfer, he was safe. I moved the shredder up to contest the flag in a final effort of defiance. 4-1 and I was engaged by Ghetorix and Kromac on no camp. Kromac finished off Thags, but took a few swings to get there, which is something, meaning a Circle assassination victory. 

This was a fun game and I felt fairly confident going into the final assassination that I had a reasonable, albeit not great, chance to steal the win. I'm really unfamiliar with Circle so it was nice to get some practice against them as I think they're probably one of the factions I know the least. 

In terms of my gameplay, retrospectively I made some glaring mistakes that cost me the game. Learning experiences though, right? First off I was far too cautious moving up the board. I'm used to playing trundling Menoth and so I'm not used to moving up as far as I can with Legion. I should have moved much further and taken more real estate in the early turns. The Warspears should really have run to engage the Druids turn two and locked up his front lines and generally made a nuisance of themselves gumming up the Circle. This is something I can definitely do better in the future. The other major mistake that I only realised looking back was that I'd completely forgotten Death Shroud, which would have meant that my Angel that died would have survived the turn and that the vital Gorax free strike wouldn't have removed my spirit on the charge with the other one, which would have had a huge impact on the outcome if I'd been more on the ball. Obviously I've only got myself to blame and Andy took all the opportunities I handed to him like a good Circle player. Luckily he's a fun guy to play against and so I can't feel too bitter about the loss as it was an enjoyable game!

I feel like this game was particularly useful in helping me recognise some of the flaws with my play using Legion and hopefully I'll be able to capitalise on them in my upcoming games!

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 - Learning Legion Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight vs. The Harbinger of Menoth

Hey gang, welcome back to another battle report. This week I managed to get a game in with one of the developing players in our local meta. I decided this week to give my 'competitive' Thagrosh list from CitTM a try. It was made up of:

Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight +5

-Succubus -2

-Angelius -9

-Angelius -9

-Carnivean -11

-Naga Nightlurker -5

-Shredder -2

-Shredder -2

Foresaken -2

Foresaken -2

Max Warspears -8

-Warspear Chieftan -2

Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew -1

Objective - Fuel Cashe

This is a potentially very hard hitting list that can take advantage of Thagrosh's spells and abilities well, so I was interested in trying it out. Liam, who I was playing, had constructed his list on the fly, as he had been better prepared for a 35 point game. He was also playing Menoth, which meant that in addition to my overall experience edge I was also intimately familiar with his faction too! The list that he built was Harbinger with two Repenters, a Templar, a Vanquisher, a Heirophant, an Exemplar Seneschal, a Paladin of the Wall, the Covenant of Menoth, a maximum choir of Menoth, a maximum unit of Cinerators and a maximum unit of Errants. The game we were playing was Close Quarters and I won the roll to go first. I deployed with most of my force to the right of centre, while the Menoth bunched up in the centre of the board. I had the Warspears Prey the Cinerators. 

On my turn I ran everyone up the board, with Thagrosh, the Succubus and the Shredders putting out defensive spells and animi across the board. The Orgrun got Draconic Strength and then the Gobbers let out their cloud to cover Thagrosh and the Naga and I hunkered down to take Harbinger's feat. 

On his turn Liam had most of his stuff run forwards, taking a big chunk of board space. The Harbinger then feated and charged up the board, contacting the back of her heavy jacks before she got too far, catching my army in her feat. 

On my turn I couldn't do very much without taking a POW 14. So I didn't. The Carnivean stood still to aim and took out a couple of the Errants, boosting to hit against all four hit. Similarly the Angelii took pot shots at the nearest Cinerator, but despite their poor defence one missed and the other failed to crack armour. Thagrosh kicked out a couple more defensive animi without moving forwards. The Warspears shuffled to the right of the board, getting more distance around the forest on that flank then the Gobbers made another cloud. 

On his turn Liam had the Errants move up and take some shots at the Angelius and Carnivean with their crossbows but didn't hit the Angelius and didn't wound the Carnivean. A couple of them did manage to wound the Warspear UA but not enough to kill him. In his rush to get the Errants up the board he'd forgotten to allocate any focus this turn and so simply had the heavy jacks advance up the board, with a Repenter missing a shot on the Angelius and the Vanquisher deviating a shot that hit the Angelius but did no damage. The Cinerators and the Paladin continued plodding up their flank. Harbinger moved up to just behind her Jacks and used Purification to clear off my spells. 

On my turn I had the Carnivean advance onto the nearby hill and had him spray the Errants, killing a couple. The Foresaken moved up and used its blight bomb to hit all of the Errants but only succeeded in killing one or two. Thagrosh moved up and put Draconic Strength on an Angelius and put Fog back out. The Naga moved up and took a shot at Harbinger but missed. The Angelius then charged Harbinger through the forest, but thanks to Awe he missed the boosted armour pierce charge attack as well as the second attack he bought. Not what I wanted. The other Angelius charged a Cinerator but missed its charge attack too. The Warspears trudged up towards the Cinerators. Meanwhile the Foresaken jogged up and ate up the Cinerator Angelius' Fury. 

On his turn Liam put two focus on the Templar, and one each on the Repenters. He then started with Harbinger, using Purification to clear off my defensive abilities and then cast crusader's call. The positioning of the jacks meant that while I had reach on Harbinger her 0.5" melee couldn't get the Angelius back. The Templar then took a swing on the Angelius but missed all three of his attacks. The Vanquisher also took a swing but missed too. The dice were not friendly this game. The Repenter to my left charged the Carnivean, hitting but failing to damage his high ARM. On the other flank the other Repenter sprayed on the Angelius engaging the Cinerator but missed. The Cinerators then charged the Angelius, getting two on it in addition to the one already engaging it. Two of them hit its high DEF and did a reasonable amount of damage, crippling body and most of mind on the beast. The paladin tried to charge it too, but positioned to take a free strike that killed him. The choir moved up and put passage on the jacks since he'd forgotten to use battle at the start of the turn. 

On my turn I had the Naga advance to clear out the two Errants contesting my flag. Thagrosh moved up to dominate the flag and put Draconic Strength back on the Angelius and then threw out some Defensive animi. Then the Angelius went and this time it managed to hit the boosted armour pierce attack. With Harby not camping anything this reduced her armour to 7, putting me at dice +9 for the attack. I boosted the damage roll and killed her with the single attack, winning the game. 

This was an interesting game where both of us seemed to have pretty bad luck with our dice throughout. I like the list, but I think I deployed the Warspears poorly as they ended up having no impact on the game itself. I also learned that the Succubus doesn't have fearless, despite being a godless four-armed dragon woman herself and apparently can't get too close to a forsaken without crying like a little baby Nyss girl and then running away. Not that I'm bitter or anything. 

I'm looking forward to using this list again next week and seeing if I can get some more use out of all of the pieces in there. 

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 - Learning Legion Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight vs Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Champion

Hey guys welcome to my latest bat rep, and my first with Legion! Finally! This is likely the most I have looked forward to a game in a long time and I was pretty psyched to get models on the table. I was using my pThagrosh practice list that I wrote about in my last CitTM article:

Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight +5

-Succubus -2

-Ravagore - 10

-Angelius -9

-Scythean -9

-Seraph -8

Nyss Shepherd -1

Nyss Shepherd -1

Forsaken -2

Deathstalker -2

Deathstalker -2

Max Legionnaires -6

Spawning Vessel -3

Objective - Fuel Cashe

I managed to get a game with Mike, who usually plays Trolls but was trying out Khador for the first time. His list consisted of eVlad with a wardog, a Destroyer, Juggernaught and Drago as well as the Great Bears, a unit of Widowmakers, a max unit of winter guard with UA and three rocketeers and Kovnik Joe, two Mortars and a Manhunter. Nick found us a scenario using http://www.rollforscenario.com/ and we got Fire Support. We rolled for first turn and I got a 6, giving me the first turn. 

I deployed with my battlegroup to the right of centre with my Legionaires and Spawning Vessel to the left. Mike set up with his battlegroup in the centre and his Winterguard package to my left. I then popped my Deathstalkers on either flank while his Manhunter and Widowmakers went on his flanks. 

On my first turn I had the Legionaires charge up the board, with three of them killing their brothers to fill up the pot, who then popped out a shredder. The battlegroup then ran up, with the Seraph using Slipstream to shift Thagrosh up slightly. The Deathstalkers advanced up the flanks and Thagrosh moved up, putting out tenacities on all of the battlegroup except the Angelius, casting Fog of War and giving Draconic Strength to the Scythean. 

On Mike's turn he ran up most of his army, the Widowmakers nestled up behind a wall, but were out of range to do any damage. The Manhunter ran into the forest for protection. The Mortar on my right flank advanced up to take a shot at the Legionaires, but it was half an inch short and deviated back, missing everything. The battlegroup ran up and the Winterguard used Bob and Weave and advanced. 

On my turn I had the Legionaires run up towards the Widowmakers followed up by the Spawning Vessel. The seraph used its animus and then moved across the Ravagore around the Obstacle, pushing the Ravagore two inches closer to the Widowmakers. The Seraph then took a Strafe into the Manhunter, killing him but nothing was in range for the second shot from the strafe. The Ravagore, now a bit closer, sacrificed movement to aim a boosted shot into the Widowmakers, killing three of them. The Angelius moved up to the edge of the forest, but was just short on its gun to hit the Destroyer, annoyingly. The Deathstalkers continued to move up the flanks. Thagrosh started his work as the tenacity fairy and started putting out the animus onto most of the battlegroup including himself. 

Mike had been hoping that his Widowmakers and Manhunters would have gotten more work done before dying and so moved the remaining Widowmaker back towards the Mortar and out of the way of the winter guard. The winter guard then moved up and used sprays from the UA to kill a handful of the Legionaries. The Juggernaught and Drago ran up towards my lines while the Destroyer took a shot at the Scythean, sticking a bit of damage on it. Vlad advanced up, out of kill box, hiding between the Great Bears. The mortar on my left took a shot at the Legionaires, but missed, scattering back to kill one of the pot, which was full of dead Legionaires at this point, and hit the Ravagore but failed to damage. 

I started my turn by reaving in all of my fury and taking my Vengence move to reposition the Legionaires to get them better charge lanes on the Winter Guard. The Seraph took a strafe shot on the Juggernaught, only rolling two this turn again, chipping the paintwork but doing minimal damage. The Ravagore then moved up and took a shot at a bundle of Winter Guard, catching a clump of them with the AOE. Only one failed their tough check, though, however the animus set the survivors on fire. The remaining Legionaires charged the closest winter guard and remaining Widowmakers, missing all but one attack thanks to poor dice rolls. The Pot then spawned a Stinger who moved up and sprayed but completely failed to kill anyone. The far right Deathstalker continued its extreme flank, killing the Mortar on that side. The Ravagore and Seraph were running hot and so the Shepherds took the fury off them. The Scythean then charged Drago, moving to also get the Juggernaught in melee. He then proceeded to hit Drago twice, triggering the Chain Attack, getting a hit on both the Juggernaught and Drago. When the smoke cleared and he was out of fury Drago was left with only a couple of boxes. Not wanting to fall shy on the piece exchange I flew the Angelius in to finish it off with an armour pierce charge, then the foresaken came up to take its fury off, giving her two. Thagrosh continued to dole out Tenacity to everyone and camp on a healthy stack of transfers. 

On Mike's turn he continued to whittle down my forces. The Winter Guard on fire all died as it didn't go out. Joe started by moving up and shooting at one of the Legionaires. Since the Legionaire was engaged he missed and ended up shooting one of his own Winter Guard in the back, but they passed their tough roll. The Winter Guard then took some shots and sprays into the Legionaries and the Stinger, killing two of the troops but missing the lesser with all of the shots. The Destroyer charged the Angelius but had trouble hitting its high DEF and only got one solid hit, which did a moderate amount of damage. Vlad then went and feated, affecting himself, the wardog and the Great Bears before running out of the way of the nearby beasts. The bears then activated and charged the Scythean, killing it with ease. 

On my turn I had the Ravagore move across the board and take an optimistic animus and shot at Vlad, but this missed despite the boost thanks to the feat bonus, deviating forwards to utterly miss everything, leaving a scather behind the caster. The Angelius took a double boosted Armour pierce hit on the Destroyer, doing a high amount of damage, but was then unable to damage it much more afterwards. The Foresaken also charged the Destroyer, but only managed a few points of damage to the high ARM Jack. The Seraph continued to plink shots into the Juggernaught, rolling a full 4 shots, boosting damage on all of them, but only doing a middling amount of damage to it. The Pot then produced a second Stinger, who joined the first in spraying over the Winter Guard, killing the UA and two of the Guardsmen between them. The Legionaires' Vengence and charges killed another couple of Guard, but Joe passed his tough to survive another turn. The Deathstalker on my left flank took out the other mortar, and the other one did a few points of damage to the objective. Thagrosh then moved up to the objective to get a line on the friendly flag to dominate next turn and then feated (not shown in the below pic) to put the Scythean back in play in front of him. 

Unfortunately at this point Mike had to call the game as he needed to leave to get home. This was a shame as I'd been enjoying the game and had wanted to play it out, but since we were new to our factions the game had taken a bit longer in the tank than usual and so it had gotten quite late. We discussed the game while packing up and Mike felt that I had a significant upper hand in attrition that he wouldn't be able to come back from, especially with me in position to dominate my own flag next turn. You can never rule out a Hail Mary assassination run with Vlad though!  

I thoroughly enjoyed playing Legion. I was slightly worried going into it that I'd be disappointed with them after building them up in my head so much. I really think that their play style is much better suited to my preferred approach and they're a much better fit for me. 

In terms of the game, retroactively I probably should have moved Thagrosh across into a position to dominate a turn earlier to allow me to start scoring sooner. I also probably shouldn't have taken the shot on eVlad in my final turn and continued to wear down the Winter Guard. Mike's remaining two Jacks were beat up enough to not pose too much of a threat to my beasts but I'd have enjoyed seeing where he went from there. I feel like I got to explore all of the models I had in the list pretty well. The Spawning Vessel is an awesome psychological tool since it really takes the sting out of your guys being butchered if you get to benefit from it later! 

This game has only whetted my appetite to play more Legion and I'm excited to get them back on the board! 

Hope you've all enjoyed my first foray into Everblight because there's plenty more to come!

As always check out the Facebook page and like for regular post updates, photos and more at www.facebook.com/Mitsuharuonminis 

-M

Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - The Harbinger of Menoth vs Thagrosh, the Messiah, Redux

Hey wargamers, I'm back with my latest Bat rep and I'm still having practice games with Harbinger. I'm still using the same list, and I've had some success with it so far:

The Harbinger of Menoth +5

-Heirophant -2

-Reckoner -8

-Devout -5

Minimum Choir -2

Wracks -1

Vassal of Menoth -2

Maximum Exemplar Errants with UA -10

Exemplar Errant Seneschal -2

Rhupert Carvolo -2

Covenant of Menoth -2

Minimum Holy Zealots with UA -6

Maximum Exemplar Bastions -8

Dartan Vilmon -3

Paladin of the Order of the Wall -2

Objective: Fuel Cache

So after last week Nick wanted to have a rematch between Harby and eThagrosh. But before I get to the regularly scheduled battle report, I also managed to get another game in this week with Jayke's Cryx (http://hall-of-legends.blogspot.com/) with her too. Long story short we played Recon from SR2015. Jayke used an infantry spam pSkarre list vs my Harbinger, since he's practicing it for the ETC in a few months. I won the roll to go first, and basically feated to lock him out, and then used my second turn to completely surround the zone with my models to keep him out. This let me score 3 points on my turn 3, dominating the zone after destroying the objective. After that it was a grind, with him slowly clearing me out of the zone, and me not managing to kill a load of models. Despite this thanks to Martyrdom I was able to stick in the zone pretty tenaciously, even burning most of a stack of focus to maintain the martyring. Because his list was an infantry spam and my list was so hard to get rid of (Martyr'd, tough, no knockdown Bastions are a pain to shift) he clock'd out without scoring any points. So another win with Harby, and a game I wouldn't have won without the Deathclock, but when I noticed how much I was ahead on time I just played for it, trying to out-attrition, which is one of her specialities. 

Anyway. Back to the main battle report with Nick's Legion. Nick wanted a rematch from last week and so was using the same list too. It included Thagrosh, the Messiah, with 3 Scytheans, two Raeks, a max unit of Legionnaires with Farlior, a max Spawning Vessel, two Forsaken, two Shepherds and a Feralgiest. We rolled for scenario and got Close Quarters, and then I won first turn. (I didn't get any photos of either game, sorry, my phone's battery was dying and I'd forgotten my charger). 

I set up my Errant package across from the opposing flag, along with Dartan. Harbinger set up in the middle of the board with her jacks and support staff, with the zealots and bastions near my own flag. Nick set up his whole army fairly centrally, with the Raeks and a shepherd off to the flank opposite the Errants. I take my first turn and move everything up the board, and feated. Nick was pretty locked down in his turn and so moved only his heavies forward (apart from 3 pot carriers who went kamikaze to spawn a shredder) Thagrosh flew up behind a forest near his own flag and took 4 points of damage. 

In my turn my original plan had been to try and run the Errants far enough to control the enemy flag and try and move far enough up to prevent contesting of it. Instead I took advantage of Hunter from the Senechal to take 10 shots at Thagrosh with the Errants instead (they still moved up to the flag). I then rolled fire, reducing Thagrosh to only 4-5 boxes. Harbinger then moved up B2B with my flag to be able to score later. The Zealots then moved between her and a pair of Scytheans and used their minifeat to become a nice speed bump. The bastions followed them up, but much more slowly. My Paladins moved up to contest each flag in Imperisable Wall. At this point I realised I'd blocked off the charge lane I'd been hoping for my fully loaded Reckoner, and hadn't cast Crusader's call or Purification, so it just moved up and took a pot shot at a Scythean but achieved very little, annoyingly. 

Nick started his turn with feating and casting Manifest Destiny, moving further back, and into the forest, healing slightly. The Raeks, a Scythean and Shredder munched through most of the Errants. The other Scytheans moved around but could only get to the Zealots who were under Greater Destiny. A Shredder then moved right up to contest the flag nestled near the zealots. The Legionnaires then moved up the board using their minifeat on top of the Dragon's Blood that he'd upkept to become very high ARM. 

On my turn the zealots failed to kill the Shredder to free up the flag. They did throw a bomb at the Legionnaires and killed one. The remaining Errant took a spiteful swing at a Raek but missed. The bastions continued to move up to the flag. 

Nick moved his Legionaries and a Raek up to contest my flag and try and clear out my mass of stuff. The next couple of turns were fairly back and forth. My turn I managed to finish off the Shredder, and kill the Raek and the Legionnaire who were contesting my flag, letting me score one defensively. Meanwhile Dartan sat in Imperisable Wall 4" from his flag and within 10" of Harbinger. 

Unfortunately I didn't have photos or take notes so I'm a bit hazy on the late middle of this game so... Cliff notes. Nick kept pushing more and more models into contest my flag, and I failed to clear them out, but also managed to keep a strong presence on the board thanks to rolling multiple single points in a row with Martyrdom. This went on for a couple of turns and most of Nick's clock. I made no headway in the game but hunkered down and tried to outlast him. On the final turns Nick moved a mostly healed eThagrosh onto his flag and then took several Martyr'd swings at Dartan, and then moved a fully stacked Foresaken into my mass of guys and blight bombed, catching Harby, who was camping 5. Nick rolled 7d6+8 on Harbinger, who was sat on 10 boxes. He did 9 damage. After that Nick had 10 seconds left on his clock and so forfeited the game, as he felt he couldn't get an assassination in 10 seconds on his next turn. We played out the next couple of turns anyway, and he missed the assassination by 1 box a second time! 

It was a good, fun game, and one that I would definitely have lost if not for the Deathclock saving my bacon again. As always it was a fun back and forth game like I've come to expect from Nick and I made a few stupid mistakes that he capitalised on well, but unfortunately I was up on time for most of the game despite starting first, but by the end of the game I had very few models left on the table. 

Overall I'm really enjoying this Harbinger build and how it's playing on the table. I'll have another game up next week with her as well, so tune in for more!

Don't forget to like Mitsuharu on Minis on Facebook for more regular updates, and go to Solid Ground Studios for your Warmachine and Hordes Terrain!

-M

Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - The Harbinger of Menoth vs Thagrosh the Messiah

Hey Guys, it's my latest bat rep, this time using Harbinger of Menoth as promised. I was using the same list that I had discussed in the previous Cogs in the TheoryMachine post:

The Harbinger of Menoth +5

-Heirophant -2

-Reckoner -8

-Devout -5

Minimum Choir -2

Wracks -1

Vassal of Menoth -2

Maximum Exemplar Errants with UA -10

Exemplar Errant Seneschal -2

Rhupert Carvolo -2

Covenant of Menoth -2

Minimum Holy Zealots with UA -6

Maximum Exemplar Bastions -8

Dartan Vilmon -3

Paladin of the Order of the Wall -2

Objective: Fuel Cache

I managed to get a game in this week against Nick from Solid Ground Studios (http://solidgroundstudios.co.uk) the best place to get all your warmachine and hordes terrain. Speaking of which he's recently donated a whole bunch of fully painted (by his own talented yet disgustingly modest hand) terrain from his latest collections to our LGS. It was on this lovely board, with two fully painted armies that we faced off. The game we were playing this week was Two Fronts from the 2015 Steamroller packet. 

Nick has been practicing recently with an eThagrosh build he's been toying with. Which means: Messiah off! Who is the most Christ-y? We shall see. Accompanying the Messiah of Everblight were three Scytheans, two Raeks, a max unit of Legionnaires with Farlior, a maximum Spawning Vessel, two Foresaken, a Shepherd, and a Feralgiest. 

Nick won the roll to go first, and decided to take the first turn since the terrain would have a minimal impact on his pathfinding Legion army. He deployed with his three Scytheans placed centrally with Thagrosh, with the Reaks and a Shepherd on one flank and the Legionnaires and the pot on the other side. On my side of the board I placed my Battlegroup centrally with the support staff, placing the Errants inside a forest opposite the Legionnaires and the zealots on the opposite flank with the bastions behind them. 

As usual for warmachine the first round consisted of a lot of running. Nick moved his army forwards, placing buffs out on them, putting unnatural aggression on a Scythean and Dragon's Blood on the Legionnaires. I also moved up, getting my Errants into the opposing zone, with the Zealots moving in and mini feating early to hold my zone. Harby moved up and feated, accompanied by the Devout, and then used Purification to clear off the upkeeps and animi. 

Being caught in Harbinger's feat meant that the majority of Nick's stuff spent the turn shuffling sideways, with three of the pot carriers commiting suicide by feat to top up the pot for a free shredder. The Legionaries moved out of the Scythean's path to allow him to crab walk into contest his own zone. Thagrosh used the recently spawned shredder's animus to put Tenacity out on almost all of the battlegroup, and then moved up, taking 5 points of damage and spawning another Shredder. 

I started off by using Harbinger to Purify, clearing all the tenacity and buffs back off the table. She then moved to the side, toe in on my own zone. The Zealots moved further into my zone and threw three bombs at a Raek, doing a couple of points of damage, followed up by the Bastions and Dartan. The Errant Seneschal charged a bundle of Legionnaires, killing two thanks to assault. My Reckoner used its Flare shot to lower the defence of the Scythean in the zone. I was feeling greedy and wanted to score 3 points in one turn, I was dominating my own zone and wanted to kill the Scythean contesting and the objective to net another 2 points. Retrospectively what I should have done is moved backwards, out of the threat range of the Scythean and then shot the objective to death and settle on a single, second point. As it happened three of the Errants advanced into melee with the objective and the rest took shots. One on the objective and the rest at the Scythean, failing to destroy either and horribly exposing my Errants, who Rhupert put tough on. 

Following this it was time for Nick to bring the thunder. Thagrosh moved up, using his spray to kill some zealots from the zone and put a little damage on the bastions. Then he feated. The Reaks cleared most of the rest of the zealots, while he Scythean devoured a bunch of Errants, especially since I stupidly self sacrificed his initial, allowing him to get the Chain Attack. The Legionnaires then charged in to kill another few of them. I failed every single tough roll all game. A shredder charged into the Reckoner to lock it up, but took a defensive strike from the Devout, who took most of its spirals. And then all the beasts activated again, killing more Errants and putting some more hurt on the bastions, while also destroying my objective, equalising our scenario points. The Reak also moved to engage the Reckoner. 

This had left me in a bad position as I was going to struggle to control either zone to score again for the game. Despite this it was time for some damage control. I fully loaded the Reckoner and then had the Devout move up and finish off the shredder engaging the Reckoner. Harbinger then activated, giving guided hand to the Bastions and using Cataclysm on the Raek engaging the Reckoner. The bastions then charged the two Raeks, two on the Reckoner one and the rest on the other. Only one each had the charge bonus, but it was enough to kill them both. This freed up the Reckoner to charge the nearest of the pair of Scytheans in my zone, getting both of them and the Shepherd in reach range. The Flare hit, and with battle did a reasonable amount of damage, lowering the DEF so that anything but double ones  would hit. And so the charge Attack rolled a 2. Typical. I bought two attacks but didn't quite manage to finish it, leaving me in a bad position for the next turn. To mitigate this slightly the Vassal moved up to enliven. Meanwhile in the other zone the remaining Errants did nothing but had tough put back on them. The Paladin moved into the Legionnaires using Impervious Wall to tie some of them up. 

Taking advantage of the Reckoner's fumble the nearby Shepherd and Foresaken moved in B2B to pin the Reckoner to deny enliven. The shepherd also helpfully healed up the Scythean, restoring its aspects to allow it to start attacking the Reckoner fully. It bought all the available attacks but only managed to reduce it to a single box instead of destroying it. The one box left was the right arm, meaning I still had his other Scythean locked down. To remedy this the Legionnaires killed a pot member and each other to fill up the pot and spawn a Harrier, who used a true strike charge to finish off the heavy. The Shredder polished off the last Errants in the zone and the Scythean who'd been solo all game charged the vassal and a bastion, killing them both. Thagrosh then charged a bastion, buying several attacks against the bastions and Dartan, hoping to clear the zone. Thanks to Martyrdom Dartan survived, but two of the remaining Bastions died. I was left with 5 boxes on Harbinger. The final Scythean, no longer tied down by the Reckoner also charged into the bastions, killing another but missing an initial thanks to awe, so didn't set off the Chain Attack. This left me Dartan, one Bastion and two zealots in the zone. It also left Thagrosh quite far forward and camping only two. 

This was my best chance to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. I had been itching to check my ranges etc but hadn't wanted to tip my hand too early. As soon as my turn started I checked Harbinger's threat range and used a laser to check that she'd almost definitely be able to move along a line across the front arc of the Scythean and end up in melee with Thagrosh. I started my Hail Mary by having the Heirophant move up and give Harmonious Exhaultation to Harby. Dartan then moved around the Scythean, getting out of Harbinger's way. The remaining Bastion that had been Martyr'd back to life also shifted out of Harby's way before taking a swing at Thagrosh for 6 points that he elected not to transfer, leaving him with 9 boxes. Harby then charged in, auto-hitting with Providence. The charge Attack rolled exactly a 9, forcing him to transfer to a Scythean, and then I bought and boosted 3 more attacks. By the end of those he'd been forced to transfer with his last Fury and had 5 boxes remaining. I used the last 4 focus on Harbinger to cast a boosted Cataclysm, at with three dice doing dice +3 she couldn't fail to kill him, securing me a last minute win despite only having a handful of models left on the table!

This was a hard fought game and I felt that this was the best I've played against Nick, who is a more than capable player. As always when he puts models on the table it was a hugely enjoyable game and finally I managed to beat him! After being schooled by him multiple times I'm delighted to have finally managed to pull a win out of the bag against him. 

Looking back on the game I think my biggest mistakes were on my right flank, as I said above I should have moved the Errants back to shoot the objective instead of trying to be greedy on a much less likely outcome. Also, knowing how skilled a player Nick is it might have been more sensible to use an Ancilliary attack on the Reckoner on its failed charge to finish off the Scythean, since he succeeded in nullifying the enliven. Again, though, I did feel like this was the most effective game I've played so far against Nick and it was only a lucky assassination run that netted me the win, and it was very tight as to whether I'd be able to get it in! But I guess it's true - it's better to be lucky than good!

I'm finding that now I'm a slightly more experienced player the Harbinger is great to play with and can cause a lot of problems for an opponent. I'm looking forward to playing her some more in the coming weeks! Stay tuned!

And don't forget to like Mitsuharu on Minis on Facebook for more regular updates! And go buy some terrain from Solid Ground Studios while you're at it!

-M