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 - Thagrosh, the Messiah vs Grissel Bloodsong, Fell Caller

Welcome back everyone! It's my latest battle report! This week I continued my test games with Thagrosh2, using the same list. If you're wondering or you've forgotten that list looks like this:

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

I think the list is really solid and does what I want it to well. The Scytheans are powerful tools in the list and the Naga and Raek answer questions pretty well for the list. I actually really like the Legionnaires and Incubus package. They're really great for jam and the Incubi can come out of pretty much anywhere with attacks. 

Pre-Game

This week I was playing my friend Mike who's recently had a bout of illness but thankfully is back in full swing again this week. Despite a brief sojourn into Khador he was back playing his 'home' faction of Trollbloods. He was trying out a new list and one of the first I'd seen him bring fully painted and they were looking pretty great. The list featured pGrissel and Mulg as the battlegroup and then was focused on infantry with two max units of Warders, a max unit of Long Riders a min unit of Krielstone, two fell callers and two Champion Heroes. This is a meaty list and there were a lot of wounds and high armour to get through. Urgh. The scenario I rolled was Outflank and I won the roll for the start of the game, deciding to go first. 

Deployment 

I set up with my Legionnaires and Naga to the left of my deployment zone, with the rest of the battlegroup to the right of centre. The Foresaken went on each flank. Mike set up a Fell Caller and a unit of Warders on each flank, the battlegroup and Stone central with the long riders spread out across the front line. 

Legion Turn One

I took the first turn and ran my Legionnaires, spreading them out and putting Dragon Blood on them for the extra armour. The Naga ran into the forest to take advantage of prowl. The three Scytheans ran up the board to take up some real estate. Thagrosh chugged up the board and put out a couple of Tenacities, getting one for himself from the Shredder. 

Trolls Turn One

On the first Troll turn the fell callers chucked out some pathfinder and let everything run slowly up the board, hampered by the terrain. 

Legion Turn Two

My second turn came around and I was concerned about wandering into threat ranges and giving away the alpha so I played very conservatively. The Scytheans on my right flank shuffled around but didn't really move too far up. On the other flank the other heavy inched up the board. The Legionnaires, though, ran up to take up a bunch of real estate in the zone to my left. They're in the list as the cannon fodder road bump so I don't care if they die anyway. Thagrosh continued his way up the board towards the safety of the nearby wall. 

Trolls Turn Two

On the Trolls turn Mike had the Warders on my left charge a couple of the legionnaires, the rest of them running up to the zone, ending up with two of them dying, giving me one incubus and Vengence. The Long Riders continued up the board, but didn't move too far into my threat. On my right the Warders continued to slug through the forest gumming up that side of the board. The stone and Grissel continued up the centre, hiding behind a nearby wall along with Mulg. 

Legion: 0 Trolls: 0

Legion Turn Three

On this turn I had a choice. I was confident that I could clear the two Warders in the right zone to dominate early and get a decent lead but it'd leave my beasts on the left out in the cold. In the end it was too tempting to pass up. I took my Vengence moves and a few attacks but did very little work, then the incubus popped up. The Naga moved up and took a shot at one of the Warders but didn't have an impact. The Legionnaires opened up a lane for the Scythean and took a couple of CMAs into the Warders and a champ hero but only did a little bit of damage. The Scythean then charged, getting on two Warders and killing them both with the animus. The Foresaken on that flank ate up the fury from the Scythean, filling her up but leaving him on one since she already had a couple on her. Thagrosh then activated and threw up Manifest Destiny before charging into the zone camping one after putting out Tenacities. The lead Scythean on my right activated and charged the two Warders in the zone. With the animus and Manifest destiny he managed to kill them both to secure my domination. I then had the Raek, my third Scythean and Shredder move up to cover my caster a little. 

Legion: 2 Trolls: 0

Trolls Turn Three

Mike opened his turn by having pGrissel use her feat, giving out a bunch of extra moves and extra attacks. In my left zone the three Warders charged the Scythean and killed it easily. A Long Rider and the Champions  managed to kill a bunch of Legionnaires, giving me three more incubus and Vengence for next turn. Mulg ran up towards the zone followed by the rest of the long riders. The Warders ran to get out of the forest they were locked in and then, thanks to the feat the Warders jammed into the zone, the long riders piled into Thagrosh and Mulg advanced into the zone. 

Legion: 2 Trolls: 0

Legion Turn Four

I was now thoroughly jammed up and needed to get some work done to free up my caster and not die horribly next turn. The Legionnaires took their Vengence but didn't achieve much and then I spat out another 3 Incubi. The Naga frenzied and chomped a warder, who passed their tough. In the heavy zone Thagrosh activated and put up manifest destiny and the Slaughterhouse animus then feated, taking a swing on the centre Longrider, missing despite the extra die drop the lowest. The big fist did some more damage and then I bought another couple of Rapture attacks, only actually killing one guy, but dropping an eruption of ash and doing a little more damage. The nearby Scythean turned to get all of the Longriders in Melee and bought until they were all dead as well as the champion he was engaging. The Raek managed to kill one of the Warders and the other Scythean cleared off the remaining Warders. On the other flank the legionnaires and Incubus managed to force a tough check on the Chanpion and killed the one wounded Warder. For my feat movement the zone was now cleared and so my two Scytheans and Raek jammed into Mulg, hoping he wouldn't be able to get to Thags, doing a reasonable amount of damage. The Shredder advanced up to block off the charge lane to Thagrosh. 

Legion: 2 Trolls: 0

Trolls Turn Four 

Mike felt that with the loss of his infantry on the right was too bad for him to come back from, (which I wasn't sure about) and then decided to try for an assassination. He had a Fell caller from the left flank to advance up and spray Thagrosh, cranking the roll for ten damage. He then had the champion clear off the legionnaires locking down the Long Rider, giving me Vengence and my last incubus. The long rider then ran to get position on Thagrosh next turn but was killed by a big roll from the Foresaken free strike. Grissel advanced up and put out Hoof it on Mulg and then sprayed the Scythean, catching Thagrosh again. She missed the Foresaken but hit Thagrosh and the Scythean, boosting to get another few points into him and doing a bit more damage to the Scythean. Mulg activated and did a throw on the Scythean, hitting and passing the check despite me rolling a 6, chucking him at Thagrosh, knocking them both down and doing some damage to them both. The final fell caller also moved up and sprayed over to catch Thagrosh, missing but killing the Foresaken and catching a few points into Mulg. The turn ended with 5 health left on Thagrosh. 

Legion: 2 Trolls: 0

Legion Turn Five 

On this turn the end was in sight. It was clear that the game was wrapping up and I had several different ways to win this turn. To start the Raek and Scythean engaging Mulg frenzied, but both did a decent chunk of damage. Like a good player I focused on the easier zone first, having the incubus clear out the stragglers, taking the control. The Naga advanced back into Thags' control and shot the Stones' UA, killing him. That done I then went for the stupid option. If I focused on clearing out the zone I win. If I throw out manifest destiny I could probably get the Scythean with animus into the zero camp Grissel and win. Instead I did neither, opting for the most cinematic approach of having Thagrosh put up the Raek animus and charging over Mulg and into Grissel. I boosted the hit on the charge with Rapture but missed. Then I took the fist attack. And missed. My final attack got double boosted and did hit but did nowhere near enough to kill her. The last Scythean activated and advanced into Mulg and the Fell Caller, the only troll models contesting, chain attacking on Mulg and killing him and forcing a game winning tough check on the fell caller. Which he passed. I'd failed to clear the zone or get the assassination and cost myself the game. 

Legion: 3 Trolls: 0

Trolls Turn Five 

The trolls turn was pretty straight forward. Grissel activated and splatted Thagrosh in the face with her hammer, winning Mike the game. 

Legion: 4 Trolls: 0

 

Post-Game

This was a great game and it felt like it swung back and forth throughout. I was a little disappointed in myself after the game since it felt a little like I'd managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Especially since I had so many better options to take the game instead of going for the assassination. I also should really have camped after missing my first two attacks and hoped to survive the retaliation. I also realised while writing this that I completely forgot the Blood Spawn rule that would've given me another lesser in the final turn and would've given me a great opportunity to finish off that Fell Caller, too! Kicking myself now! This was only a friendly game though, and in the end I went for the more dramatic, cinematic option. I'd like to think I'd play more conservatively in a competitive game! Regardless, though I enjoyed the game. For some reason I'm not really connecting with Thagrosh. It feels like his style is a little boring, though I do like having Greater Destiny Scytheans! Maybe I'll try a different warlock next, only one way to find out, though! Tune in again!

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

-M

Journeyman League 2 - Week 1

Hi everyone and welcome to my first week of the Journeyman League at my LGS. At popular request from a few members of the community our press Ganger decided to run a new JML. I decided that I didn't want to switch factions since I'm really into Legion at the minute. Besides I don't want to play Menoth and don't have money to buy a new faction! I have only played a couple of casters in the faction, though, namely Saeryn, Thagrosh and eLylyth. So I decided this was a good opportunity to play someone new. One of the casters I've been interested in but hesitant to play is Vayl. Obviously she's a good caster but I didn't want to start with such a finesse caster when I was just getting a hold on the faction as I've discussed previously. But with the incremental system of the JML I thought I could get a good grip on her. The fact that she's one of the new alternate JML warlocks is perfect. Because I'm an evil bastard I had my battlegroup as:

pVayl +6

-Scythean -9

-Seraph -8

This is a variation on her standard JML battlegroup allowed by our local rules. This would really let me play around with some movement tricks and awesome threat extension. So with that decided we  had the first day of gaming this week. I managed to get five games done in one night, which I was pretty happy with. I played Tooth and Claw/Mangled Metal in all of the games. 

Game One

My first game was against a player who had opted to play circle for the league, taking pKaya with two Argus and a Feral warwolf. This game was fairly quick, which would set the trend for the games at this low point level. I managed to get the Scythean into the Feral and kill it before pulling back with Vayl's feat. The Argus weren't able to take out the Scythean's high ARM without the heavy. I used a boosted rampager to move the Arguses next to each other and with a back facing the Scythean who, with Incite and Chiller tore them to little pieces, meeting the Tooth and Claw win condition to net me the game. 

Game Two

My second game was against a Troll player who had moved into hordes from Menoth for the JML. He was playing the standard pMadrak battlebox of two Impalers and an Axer. He moved up pretty far on his turn two and that let me get my Scythean into an Impaler and the Axer. With the Chiller/Incite combo it got both of them killed before pulling back with the feat. The Seraph strafed into the other Impaler, cranking the dice and putting plenty of damage on it. Next turn he was able to stranglehold the Scythean and put a couple of points of damage on him. I then slip-streamed the Scythean into Melee with Madrak but the second strafe from the Seraph finished off the last Impaler to score the win before I needed to assassinate. 

Game Three

My next game was against Will, one of the more experienced players in the meta who always gives me a tough game when we play. He was taking the shift into Cygnar and using the JML to do it. He wasn't too happy with the restrictions for the starting options and was grudgingly playing pStryker with a Grenadier and a Centurion. I moved up threateningly turn one and he decided to run up and feat. Because of the lack of Scenario I just waited him out, sat back on the board. The next turn he moved up and threw up Polarity Shield to prevent charges. Luckily with Slipstream I was in range to walk up and smack him with the Scythean. I didn't boost properly though and did very little damage to him, pulling back with the feat to sit near Vayl. Will charged the Centurion into the Scythean, fully loaded, but triggered Dark Sentinel allowing it to move out of Melee. The free strike hurt but not as much as dying to the multiple attacks. Since he had focus to spare he put the Polarity back up. Next turn the Scythean was able to kill the Centurion but got killed by Stryker next turn. The Seraph charged the exposed Stryker to get the assassination but only managed to reduce him to four boxes. Next turn Stryker failed to kill the Seraph after burning all of his stack, missing three attacks, leaving him with nothing to protect him from the Seraph next turn, winning me the game on an assassination. This was probably the closest game I'd played and was great fun, coming right down to the wire at the end. 

Game Four 

My next game was against regular opponent and all round nice guy Nick of Solid Ground studios who was playing Cryx in the JML. He was playing at a huge deficit so he'd be able to squeeze more infantry in next week so he only had pDenny with a Slayer and a Nightwretch. He took first turn and we both advanced up the board. He went for a turn 2 feat and put Crippling Grasp on my Scythean. With a combination of Leash/Slipstream I was able to move up far enough to get Denny in my reach with the Scythean. With Chiller and Incite I was able to hit her three times with boosted attacks and do just enough to assassinate and win the game. 

Game Five

My final game of the night was against Andy, who I've played a few times in the past but who always manages to beat me. He was playing Circle in the league and had gone for pBalder with a Pureblood and a Woldwarden. I took first turn and, despite Andy staying pretty far back, I was able to get the alpha on the Pureblood. I didn't quite manage to destroy it in one turn and so used the feat to pull back. The Pureblood charged into the Scythean but I was able to use Dark Sentinel again to pull back, taking the free strike instead of the full battery of attacks. After that the Seraph was able to finish off the Stalker with shooting and the Scythean got into the Warden, killing it in one turn with Incite and Chiller, scoring me another win. 

Wrap-Up

I had a pretty great start to the JML, especially since I managed to use my broken battlebox to get 15 points right off the bat. All of my opponents were great and it was just as fun as I expect from a journeyman league. Anyone who's hesitant about joining one should definitely give it a go! Next week we move up to 15 points and I've got my eye on a Shredder/Shepherd to top me up! Should be fun! I'll tell you all about it when you tune in next week!

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

-M

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

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

eLylyth +5

-Succubus -2

-Ravagore -10 

-Ravagore -10

-Typhon -12

-Naga Nightlurker -5

-Bolt Thrower -6

-Shredder -2

Deathstalker -2

Deathstalker -2

Shepherd -1

Shepherd -1

Foresaken -2

Objective - Bunker

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-M

Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - Grand Scrutator Severius vs. Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Prince & Hoarluk Doomshaper, Shaman of the Gnarls

Hi guys, welcome back to the latest battle report. This week I actually managed to get two games in with my new pSeverius list that I wrote about in my CitTM article last week. For those who didn't read it or need a reminder the list comprised of:

pSeverius +6

-Heirophant -2

-Blessings of Vengence -7

-Reckoner -8

-Templar -8

Vessel of Judgement -9

Vassal Mechanic -1

Vassal of Menoth -2

Wrack -1

eEiryss -3

Gorman Di Wulfe -2

Saxon Orrik -2

Max Choir of Menoth -3

Max Temple Flameguard with UA -8

Objective - Bunker 

I was looking forward to giving it a nice test on the table. The first game I managed to play was against Mark and his Khador who I've played several times before. He was also trying out a new list, this time using pVlad. His list included Behemoth, a Spriggan, an Iron Fang Kovnik, a Koldun Lord, Kovnik Joe, a max unit of Assault Kommandos with a Flamethrower attachment, the Great Bears, a max unit of Winter Guard, and Aiyanna and Holt with Koldun Kapitan Valachev. We rolled off for scenario and got Fire Support from the 2015 scenario packet. I won the roll to go first and pre-deployed my Vessel left of centre and the battlegroup to the centre, with the TFG off to my right flank. Mark deployed his jacks and Vlad around the centre, while his units took up each flank. 

On my first turn I put a focus on each of my jacks and then had Sevvy place Eye of Menoth on himself and Defender's ward on the TFG, who also got pathfinder from Orrik. After which everything ran up to varying degrees, since I was concerned about his threat ranges. Eiryss ran into the forest and Gorman advanced to throw out smoke. Sevvy and his Heirophant moved up behind the wall, annoyingly still inside the kill box. 

On the other side of the board things went quite similarly. Behemoth received one from Vlad and then everything ran up, with the Koldun Power Boosting the Spriggan allowing it to run, ending behind the objective. 

On my turn it was time to start killing things. The Templar moved up and away, freeing the Vessel to move up and zap the Winter Guard, killing two. The Blessings of Vengence ran over towards the winter guard too, allowing Sevvy to move up, out of the kill box and then arc an Ashes to Ashes onto the Winter Guard, killing another handful, though one passed his tough check. The TFG got pathfinder from Orrik, and then advanced up with shield wall and iron zeal to make them DEF 15 and ARM 23 with Set Defence. The Reckoner advanced up to take a shot at the Spriggan, damaging the paintwork but little else. Eiryss moved over to shoot the Spriggan but rolled a 2 after I stupidly said 'anything but double ones'. Gorman moved up and threw out smoke again. 

Mark was prepared to retaliate. He advanced Vlad up to just behind the Behemoth and cast Signs and Portents to improve his rolls. The Assault Kommandos advanced through the difficult terrain and shot at the TFG but failed to hit most of them, with only one hit, taking no damage but getting tagged with a flare. Following that the Great Bears charged in with Backswing but only managed to kill one Flameguard. The Spriggan moved up and used its targeting to hit Eiryss, robbing her of Stealth and then killed her with his second shot. The Kovnik then tried to charge the Objective but was just too short. Aiyanna and Holt moved up, the elf was too far to nail Kiss on the Vessel and Holt pinged a couple of shots of it. The Winter guard got an additional attack die from Joe and then moved up with most of them taking shots at Sevvy, but the first one missed despite having 4 dice, drop the lowest, the rest of them only doing a couple of points of damage between them. 

On my turn I realised that Vlad had moved up to get out of Kill Box and was camping nothing. I allocated one each to the Reckoner and BoV, and upkept EoM but let DW drop. The Vessel moved up and fired its zap at the Winter Guard and managed to kill 3 of them. The Reckoner then advanced up and boosted a shot into Vlad to get the flare on him. This shot was dice damage but I only rolled a 3. I'd been hoping for more and now I wasn't too sure on my ability to finish him this turn. But then I remembered my Vassal, who had to move around my poorly placed choir and used Ancilliary attack to get another shot, thanks to Flare I was able to hit again and rolled a much bigger load of damage. BoV then ran across the board to get Vlad into his LoS, allowing Sevvy to arc a boosted Immolation into him, finishing him off, netting me an early assassination win. 

This was a short game and as we discussed after the game Vlad's positioning could have been better to block me out a bit more. I rolled quite low on my Ashes to Ashes and Admonisher bounces but it was still awesome blowing up his winter guard. The TFG with Defender's Ward demonstrated how indestructible they can be when everything lines up for them. 

Since the game had ended quite early in the night our (brand new) PG Dave asked me if I wanted to have a game against his Trolls. I agreed, congratulating him on the future win. He was playing a pDoomy list which was (shockingly) a tier 4 Runes of War list made up of pDoomshaper, Mulg, an Earthborn, a Mauler and an Axer, a max unit of Krielstones with UA and 4 units of Runeshapers with Jannisa. Dave won the roll to go first on Incursion and took the first turn. He deployed two units of Runeshapers on each flank, with the stones and battlegroup central. I deployed with most of my army off to my left flank, with the Vessel and the Reckoner on the right flank, Sevvy and support left of central and the TFG on the far left with Orrik. 

Dave went first and ran his Runeshapers up the board followed up by the battlegroup and the stones, with Doomshaper and the Trolls throwing out some defensive animi, and Doomshaper putting Banishing Ward onto one of the Runeshapers. Jannisa threw out a wall in front of the battlegroup. 

On my turn I moved up a bit (Spoiler Alert: not nearly far enough!) the Vessel moved up, trying to get in range of the Runeshapers but was too far away. The TFG turtled up into Shield Wall and shuffled up the board. Orrik ran up the board. The jacks ran up to get some more board. Just like last game Sevvy put out DW on the TFG and EoM on himself again. Gorman advanced up and popped smoke. Eiryss, not wanting to waste her a second time, ran across and back. 

Dave then ran his Runeshapers up, with one unit camping on the flag and the other screening them, setting him up to score next turn since I hadn't moved up far enough to properly contest the flags. The battlegroup and Doomshaper advanced further up, behind a wall Jannisa threw out, putting out the defensive animi again. Finally Doomshaper feated. 

On my turn I needed to clear the Runeshapers off the flags. I upkept both my spells and put one on each of my heavies. The Vessel stood still to aim and then shot the nearest Runeshaper, arcing to 3 others, forcing a passed tough on the initially hit model, but killing the other three that got hit. BoV moved up, across the wall to line up for an Ashes to Ashes. Sevvy arced into the Troll on the flag, killing two, and he then moved towards the Vessel to keep the Reckoner in EoM. Eiryss aimed and shot Banishing Ward off the Runeshapers. The Reckoner then advanced to the side and shot the Runeshaper on the flag, who passed a tough check, but I used an ancilliary to clear him off finally. The Templar advanced into the maximum reach range on one of the Runeshapers and killed it, before using Beat Back to back away. The TFG moved up, with three clumping into the nearest Runeshaper, with the rest moving up and using Iron Zeal. The three on the Runeshaper did a bunch of damage but didn't finish it off this turn, but did set it on fire. Gorman threw black oil onto another of the Runeshapers. 

On the following turn the Runeshaper on fire died. The remaining regular Runeshaper on my left flank advanced up to throw a rock at the TFG, but with all their buffs it missed and the blast wasn't enough to hurt them. Doomshaper moved up and put Transmutation on himself and then advanced to get Sevvy into his Control area and then purified, clearing off his own buff. This left Doomy exposed, but he then moved up his battlegroup to hide him, with the Earthborn getting onto the flag, putting out his Defensive buffs again, and having Jannisa drop a wall. The Runeshapers on my right flank moved back up into the flag, then chucked rocks to kill my choir near the Reckoner. The blinded Runeshaper stumbled away from Gorman, presumably trying to get the black oil off himself only to walk into the Mauler who hefted him back at Gorman, killing them both. Dave ended the turn, scoring two points. 

On my turn, and with the scenario pressure high, I allocated one to the Reckoner and a full three to the Templar. Sevvy, with a little help from the Heirophant got my upkeeps back out on himself and the TFG, and moved slightly off to the side. The Vessel stood still to aim and shot the Runeshaper in the forest, with the Admonisher allowing it to kill both models on that flag. The Reckoner then ran over to control the flag on my right. The TFG advanced up to the left flag, planning to attack in groups of three, but the first group killed the Runeshaper. The Mauler was also contesting the flag and so I charged in with the Templar, getting lucky with the dice and one-rounded it, using the Beat Back to move slightly further away. I ended the turn and gained 2 points, while Dave secured his third. 

 

Dave went into some serious consideration at the start of his turn, measuring Doomshaper's control area multiple times to check if the Earthborn would be in charge range of Sevvy. He decided he wasn't but had another plan to get at him. Mulg activated first, charging the Templar to get out of the Earthborn's way, trashing my heavy, but not moving in to contest the flag, despite being able to goad. The Earthborn then activated and charged a choir member thanks to rush, goading from the kill into Sevvy and, thanks to fortune, smushed him into the dirt securing Dave the win. 

I thought this game went better than I expected it to and I ended with 3 control points to 4 (the Reckoner was on the right flag so would be inert when Sevvy died) which was ok, but as Dave pointed out he would have moved his stone up to contest my left flag and I would have had a hard time clearing his trolls out thanks to self-sacrifice on the stone, but I did have a high volume of attacks from the TFG and so I might have managed to close it out, but we'll never know. I held back way too much in this game and should've been contesting the flags much earlier. I let Dave lock me out of Scenario and then failed to take opportunity to come back in and contest when I did have the chance. 

Both of these games were great fun and I feel like they helped put the list through its paces. I'm excited to get it on the table at the tournament, but I should have another practice game battle report next week first. 

Don't forget to like Mitsuharu on Minis on Facebook for updates and more!

-M

Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - High Executioner Reznik vs. Madrak Ironhide, Thornwood Cheiftan

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

pReznik +6

-Heirophant -2

-Crusader -6

-Vanquisher -8

Avatar of Menoth -11

Min choir -2

Vassal of Menoth -2

Vassal Mechanic -1

Max TFG with UA -8

Min Zealots with UA -6

Wracks -1

Gorman Di Wulfe -2

eEiryss -3

Saxon Orrik -2

Madelyn Corbeau -2

Objective - Effigy of Valour

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-M