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

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