Tourney Tales - 2015 JML mini tournament

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

List One

eVayl +6

Machinations of Shadow - Tier 4

-Seraph -7

-Scythean -8

-Angelius -8

-Angelius -8

Shepherd -1

Max Spawning Vessel -3

Max Legionnaires -6

Objective - Arcane Wonder

List Two

Saeryn +5

-Scythean -9

-Scythean -9

-Angelius -9

Max Spawning Vessel -3

Foresaken -2

Foresaken -2

Spell Martyr -1

Spell Martyr -1

Deathstalker -2

Deathstalker -2

Objective - Fuel Cashe

Game One

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Game One: First Tiebreaker Win

Game Two

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Game Two: First Tiebreaker Win

Post-Games 

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

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

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

-M

Journeyman League 2 - Weeks 5 & 6

Hey guys. Sorry for the irregular updates recently I've been really busy the past few weeks. I am still here though, don't worry! Hopefully I'll be back to some normality soon and the posts will be back on schedule! Anyway the Journeyman League at my local store is still running and I've had a game the past two weeks. I upgraded my vanilla 25 point eVayl list to a 35 point tier 4 machinations of Shadows list:

eVayl +6

Machinations of Shadow - Tier 4

-Seraph -7

-Scythean -8

-Angelius -8

-Angelius -8

Shepherd -1

Max Spawning Vessel -3

Max Legionnaires -6

Objective - Arcane Wonder

This is a pretty solid list with a nice jam and 4 extra points thanks to the tier. Basically this drops the Raek from the last couple of weeks and instead gets two Angelii. Not a bad trade at all!

In week five I tried this list out against Nick with his 'only Cryx in the village'. He'd gone for Gorehade1 as his alternate caster with bane swarm, featuring a max unit of Knights and Thralls with UA along with Darragh, Tartarus and Gorman in support. Nick ran all his stuff up and I went for a crazy long shot assassination using his Slayer as a oraculus channeller, throwing everything I had at Goreshade. Unfortunately I forgot a crucial slipstream and so was short on the Angelius and lost my armour pierce. Thanks to this stupid mistake I essentially allowed his Cryx to take out the majority of my remaining forces that were now exposed. I conceded the game after a couple of turns of trying to finish off Goreshade when he was no more dead and I had nothing left to win the game. I realised that it's stupid to go for anything other than a solid assassination when this list is so capable of attrition and control. I decided to completely remove assassination from my mental win conditions. Now it's there if a good line opens itself up but it is not going to be my actual strategy. 

For week six, the finale, I had a game against Rik whose Circle I'd played in week one. He was still playing pKaya but was now running a beast heavy list with a Shadowhorn, a Feral, a Warpwolf, a Rotterhorn and a Wilder (who isn't a beast but is in the battlegroup so...) as well as a minimum unit of Ravagers and a unit of shifting stones capped off with the feralgeist. In this game we were playing Destructuon. The circle played a 'hit and run' style, getting in to kill my screening line of Legionnaires and then pull back out of my heavies' threat ranges to avoid retaliation. This was a sneaky plan but it did leave a minimal presence in the zone, which allowed me to kill the couple of models in the zone and repulse out the rest then clear off the objective with a Scythean to dominate, leaving me with 3 points. Rik essentially had the choice between feeding me his beasts or not holding the zone. He tried to hit me hard enough to take a couple of heavies and pulled back, but all my beasts were still alive. He had a feralgeist in the zone but Vayl killed it with a decent Oraculus shot, dominating again for the win. 

Overall I really enjoyed using this list and to be honest I've enjoyed the journeyman overall. It's cool to be able to get a few games each night at the lower points and then you really appreciate the higher points more when you can get back to playing 'proper' games! Think I'll try something new next week, though! Plus I've learned a few hard lessons about my lists too!

Hopefully as of next week I'll be back to regular updates as well as photos and more! 

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 - Weeks 3 & 4

Hi everyone, it's time for another look in on my JML experience so far! I didn't post anything last week on my games so I'll cover them quickly now. The reason that I didn't post anything about them was that in both games I had last week I got thoroughly schooled in really quick games. I didn't feel like they'd make for very interesting reading. Which is no offence to my opponents who played really well and were great sports, more that I was so bad it undermined that!

So last week was the advance up to 25 points. In my first game I played with a minimum unit of hex hunters and a naga added to my 15 point list. I got a game against SGS Nick's dirty Merc Cryx. He was using pDenny with a max unit of Nyss along with the Devil's Shadows Mutineers and Rockbottom added to the slayer and bonejack he'd started off with. Under Denny's feat I managed to get my Scythean removed from the table along with most of my hex hunters. I ran out of models really quickly after that and took practically nothing off the board in return thanks to the feat, until I was completely off the board and he won the game. My second game was against Dave, our PG, who was using Cephalyx with Exulon Thexus. He had a max unit of Croe's Cutthroats and two monstrosities. I decided to change up my list going with Typhon and a Foresaken with my starting battlegroup. Again I achieved nothing, killing maybe 2 Cutthroats in return for losing all my models. As I said, I did not do well. At all. 

This week, though, was the caster swap option. After some thought I decided to go with eVayl for my swap. I was considering going another way, and maybe choosing eAbby or something instead but ultimately I decided to stick with my original thought of using eVayl. The list I was using with her was:

eVayl +6

-Seraph -8

-Scythean -9

-Reak -4

Shepherd -1

Max Spawning Vessel -3

Max Legionnaires -6

Objective - Arcane Wonder

The Legionnaires provide a good screen for the list while also feeding the pot. The Raek is always a fun option, too. I managed to get two games with the list this week:

Game One 

My first game this week was against eXerxis used by Ben, who'd also gone epic from his starting caster. He had a bonded Aradus Sentinel, a Krea, two drakes, a Savage and a max unit of Paingivers along with a Willbreaker. We were playing Recon. I got the first turn and moved up the board. eXerxis moved right up as far as he could. Seeing the opportunity I had Vayl boost two Obliterations into Xerxis but only did a handful of damage. My Scythean activated but his charge came up short on Xerxis by a fraction of an inch, leaving him exposed. After that I started losing the attrition really quickly and tossed another couple of assassination runs into Xerxis but my dice needed to be high but came up consistently low throughout. In the end Vayl was flapping in the breeze and got killed by a Cyclops. Another disappointment but at least this game I felt like I didn't get absolutely pounded into the ground! 

Game Two

In my second game I played Will, who was continuing his experimentation with Cygnar, this week he was trying to learn Hayley3 as his alternate. His list had a Grenadier and a Centurion as well as a unit of Trenchers and a unit of Commandos, each with a chain gun. He took first turn and jammed into the zone (still playing Recon). My Seraph finally did something useful and managed to gun down the Trenchers with a strafe. On Will's second turn he did a bunch of shooting and pumped out spells to buff his stuff. He did around half damage to my Scythean and Reak and all but wiped out the Legionnaires. On my turn Hayley3 was on a 0 camp with Temporal Flux up. I cleared the last of the Trenchers out of the zone with the Seraph to allow me to spawn a Harrier who flew up the board to within 8" of Hayley Prime. Vayl then shot the Harrier in the back with the oraculus, feating a boosted Icy Grip through it onto Hayley, getting the -2 defence to balance the Flux and then boosted two Obliterations into her, managing to do just enough damage to kill her, netting me an assassination win and breaking my losing streak!

Wrap-Up

I really enjoyed playing with eVayl, the utility of her feat is really fun and she has high jinks to the max. I finally felt like the Seraph did something other than just supply its awesome animus. I'm glad I went for her instead of any of the other options I was considering. Especially since next week we go up to 35 points and I can play tier 4 machinations of shadow!

So until then, 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

Tourney Tales - Jaunce in July

Hey wargamers, and welcome to the latest edition of Tourney Tales! As I mentioned in my last couple of battle reports, I've been preparing for a tournament, which I just finished! Jayke from Hall of Legends and I headed down to Sheffield together. The tournament was The Outpost's Jaunce in July. It was a 50 point D&C1 steamroller with ADR. The lists I took with me were the two I've practiced over the last couple of weeks:

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

And

Saeryn +5

-Angelius -9

-Angelius -9

-Scythean -9

-Scythean -9

-Raek -4

-Shredder -2

Foresaken -2

Foresaken -2

Deathstalker -2

Deathstalker -2

Spell Martyr -1

Spell Martyr -1

Maximum Spawning Vessel -3

Objective - Fuel Cashe

I feel like these two lists cover match ups really well and have some cool tricks and tech that I can play around with. The field at The Outpost was pretty varied but had some very competitive players in the game. My goal was to field test my Legion lists and see how they played in a tougher situation under a clock. Because it was quite a frantic day with timed turns I didn't get chance to take photos of the games. This also means I don't remember the play by play and so you'll have to manage with a summary of the games...

Round One 

My first round pairing was Matt 'Golly' Golliver, an internationally ranked player and part of the England WTC, as well as the winner of the Welsh Masters this year and Tiebreaker's 4th highest ranked player in the country. On top of that he was also a Legion player! Not only had I been dreading the mirror match I was playing it against someone way more experienced with the faction and the game than myself. He was using p and e Vayl in his two lists. Looking at the two lists I was pretty certain that he was going to drop eVayl. My plan was to drop eLylyth into the mirror but looking at the eVayl list I thought that he would be more than capable of tearing my Lylyth list to pieces. I elected to drop Saeryn and, like I thought, he dropped eVayl. The list was tier 4 (of course) and contained three Angelii, two Ravagores, two shepherds, a spell martyr, max Hex Hunters and a max Spawning Vessel. 

I lost the roll for the start of the game, even without Vayl's tier bonus. The first round was Destruction and I picked the table edge with a wall just outside kill box. Golly ran his Hex Hunters up, taking a commanding position in the zone, moving all the beasties up to threaten. I followed up by jamming into the zone and using my feat. There was still a lot of shooting and magic in his list, though, and so he was able to wear down most of my beasts despite missing multiple rolls. I had some poor die rolls taking out one of the Ravagores and managed to quickly lose the advantage on the piece trade. He quickly cleared all my beasts off the table, but not before I managed to get a control point by destroying the objective. As well as controlling the zone he also managed to repulse Saeryn from he wall with an Angel and then kill her with shots, completely clearing me off the table and getting more than 100% VPs thanks to the Vessel who'd spawned a Harrier. So my first round ended with a pretty comprehensive schooling from a real veteran. Oh well, on to Round Two!

Round Two

In Round Two I was paired up against a Cygnar player. This time around we were playing Recon. His lists were an eCaine build and an eStryker list. I decided to drop eLylyth as my Cygnar drop to out threat him and go for assassination where possible. He elected to play his eCaine list which was made of a squire and Hunter in the battlegroup along with Reinholdt, Gorman, Carvolo, Eiryss, max Boomhowlers, Gun Mages and UA with two marshalled Hunters and two units of rangers. I won the roll and chose to go first, while he gave me the edge with a forest in front of my deployment zone for Lylyth to hide behind. The Boomhowlers jammed pretty hard but took a beating on feat turn. His list struggled to take out my heavies, removing an over-extended Typhon early in the game but struggling to take out anything else once his things had been whittled down. 

Throughout the game he was very cautious with Caine, taking almost no shots and not feating at all. On one turn late game he moved up towards one of the flags to dominate and put pressure on. Lylyth shot into melee to take out some Boomhowlers and free up the Ravagores the first used animus and missed a shot (he had elevation) doing a few points from blast damage and setting off the cont. fire on his low arm caster. The second Ravagore cranked the boosted hit roll and caught him, stripping almost all of his boxes, leaving him with only a handful left. Unfortunately the fire went out on his turn, saving him, and giving him chance to run away. We attritioned a bit longer and I lost all my models except Lylyth, a shredder and a Ravagore. He then felt secure enough to move up again for the flag on the other flank, getting toe in on a forest. Not that my Ravagore cared about that. Lylyth shot out the last Boomhowler in the way and then the final Ravagore moved up, threw up the animus and then took the shot. It missed but the blast clipped him, I boosted the blast damage (he was on a 0 camp) and got him down to 3 boxes. This time fire stayed up and I rolled 4 on the damage, just enough to finish him off and secure me an assassination win!

Round Three

In round three I was paired up with a local Khador player in Incursion. He was using a pairing of a tier 4 Butcher2 Doom Reaver spam and Butcher3. Khador, along with the mirror, was the one faction I'd been uncomfortable with, since my drop could go either way depending on the lists. Looking at what he had, though, I decided that Saeryn was the best choice. He picked Butcher3. The list was merc heavy and included Ruin, Beast 09, Juggernaught and a war dog, as well as eEiryss, a Gobber Tinker, Gorman, Kell Bailoch, a Bokur, Aiyana and Holt, the TAC corps with Valachev, and a unit of Widowmakers. 

I won the first turn and ran everything up the board, taking a commanding presence, and he followed up grabbing some more real estate. On my second turn I had both Angels charge the Juggernaught, destroying it. Meanwhile the Deathstalkers started pinging shots off the Widowmakers, killing a couple. The Scytheans continued up towards the central flag. Then I feated, keeping my guys safe. Despite the feat he managed to shoot one of my Scytheans to death, using almost all of his models' activations. One of the most important activations was Gorman throwing Black Oil at my remaining Scythean, missing and deviating back onto all of the TAC corp, who were the only models contesting the middle flag. 

On my post-feat turn I moved my Raek to control the flag on my right which had nothing contesting it. The pot produced a Harrier who used animus and charged one of the contesting Widowmakers on the other flank, the Deathstalker removing the other, letting me control that flag too. The Scythean advanced to B2B with the centre flag, also getting reach on all of the TAC, clearing them off to secure that flag too, giving me 3 points in one turn. On the Khador turn Butcher moved up and used impending doom and flashing blade to kill my last Scythean and both Angelii. Beast 09 moved in to contest the Raek flag and two widow makers and Eiryss moved to contest the other flank, failing to hit the Deathstalker, though. On my turn the Harrier, totally out of control and on two fury, frenzied, charged and killed one of the contesting Widowmakers. The Deathstalker finished off the other Widowmaker but couldn't hit Eiryss. The pot stepped up, killing its own guy into the pot, producing another Harrier who animus and charged Eiryss, killing her and securing the flag, putting me on 4. On the other flank a moderately damaged (two armour pierce attacks last turn) Beast 09 was contesting my other flag preventing the win. I decided to go chips in. Saeryn moved up and chucked two Hellfires at it, boosting one damage. The Shredder then went rabid and advanced into melee, taking two double boosted attacks, followed by the loaded Foresaken who took 3 boosted damage attacks on him. Finally the Raek moved into melee, using all of its attacks to just manage to scrap the heavy, netting me the 5th, winning, control point, saving the game!

Round Four

Moving into round 4 I was on 2 and 1, putting me back into a competitive position. I was the pair up this round, being matched with Adam Bell with his Menoth. Remember back in round one when I got paired with the 4th highest rated player in the country? Adam is the 5th highest and top Menoth player, as well as another England WTC player. [sarcasm] Yay [/sarcasm]. I was also knackered by this point and was pretty tired but luckily Adam's a great guy and really fun to play against, even if he's a fantastic player who definitely plays to win. The scenario was Fire Support this round. He was playing Anson Durst and (I think?) eSevvy. eLylyth was my Menoth drop so my decision was pretty much made. Adam decided to drop Durst. I was pleased with that, not because I thought I'd be any good against it, but because I wanted to see, as a Menoth player (recovered), how the new guy played. Turns out it's pretty well. The list he was running was a Reckoner, Fire of Salvation, a Templar, a Devout, a hierophant, Nicia, eEiryss (again), Gorman (again), a Vassal, Corbeau, a reclaimer, a min choir and a max unit of Zealots with UA. 

I won the roll to go first and took the first turn, giving up the board edge with the trench. The game didn't last long and was one of the first of the round to be finished. I had trouble doing enough damage with Durst's awesome spells and abilities. He took a huge chunk of board space with running Zealots under mini feat which I couldn't shift, and then I had to burn my feat to clear them out. He managed to destroy my objective and control the flag for two points. I then derped trying for a very long shot assassination and failed to contest on my turn, getting him the 3rd point and so he was able to run Durst up to the flag for the scenario win. This was a disappointing but not unexpected loss and, as I said, Adam's a really fun opponent to face across the table and he made getting my ass kicked enjoyable. 

I ended up finishing 2 and 2, and was the highest ranked in that bracket thanks to my high SoS, placing me 7th overall. Given my inexperience with the faction as a whole and my lists in particular I was pretty happy to do that well. Especially with a win for each list. 

While I was more comfortable with my Lylyth list than my Saeryn I think that the Saeryn list is pretty solid and I just need more experience with it. I think I want to adjust the Lylyth one though, to replace Typhon with a third Ravagore, since he really wants to be further up the board than the rest of my army and gets isolated and killed early. 

I had a good time, overall, even if I was exhausted by the end of the day! I'm looking forward to playing some more with these lists and letting you know all about it!

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 

Also check out Hall of Legends for Jayke's analysis of his games!

-M

Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - High Executioner Reznik vs.

Hi guys, welcome to Mitsuharu on Bat Reps and my last Menoth Bat rep for a while as I retire my Scrutator mask and take up the Blight with Legion. Since this was my farewell game with the faction (for now) I wanted to play something a bit more fun. I was debating playing a Thyra list I knocked together with Flamebringers to try but in the end I decided to use my favourite Menoth caster, Reznik. The list I decided on was:

pReznik +6

-Heirophant -2

-Templar -8

-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

The game I originally had prepared fell through and so Nick of Solid Ground Studios (http://solidgroundstudios.co.uk) being the consumate gentlemen he always is stepped in to play me again. I always enjoy my games with Nick and playing him has really forced me to up my game. I couldn't ask for a better opponent to see out my Menoth for Legion. Especially since Nick plays Legion and moved to them from Menoth himself! Nick has been really focusing his attention on his ETC lists (eThagrosh and eLylyth) and so he's been playing them almost exclusively for several months now. He decided to take a break for a little bit, to make sure he didn't feel stale with them. He decided to try a new caster and so went for eVayl in Tier 4. His list comprised of Vayl, two Angelii, two Ravagore, a Scythean, a Seraph, and a shredder as the battlegroup, along with two sheppards and a max unit of Spawning Vessel. This is a fairly standard tier 4 eVayl list and Nick was interested in trying it out. 

We set up the board and rolled for scenario, getting Two Fronts. Nick was happy as this gave him opportunity to use his new zone markers! Despite the tier benefit from Vayl I won the roll to go first and picked first turn. Nick chose the side of the board with the more defensive terrain, sacrificing the hill on my side. I deployed with Reznik central, the Avatar and Templar on the right side of him and the Reckoner on the left. The TFG set down with Orrik on my extreme left flank, the Zealots on the other flank. Nick then put his Pot opposite the Zealots and the mass of heavies central. 

My first turn was pretty straight-forward and generally involved a lot of running forwards. The TFG ran into the zone on their board edge. The zealots ran up the opposite flank too. Reznik gave Ignite to the TFG and Iron Zeal to Avatar and advanced up the board. 

Nick used his turn to start killing things. The Angels both got Tenacity and one each got Refuge and Occultation then advanced further up the board. The Seraph used Slipstream and moved up, taking a Ravagore with it. The Ravagore moved up and blasted 4 of the TFG off the board. The second Ravagore also took a shot, it missed due to the distance and deviated forwards still killing two of the Flameguard. 

On my turn I allowed Ignite to drop from the Flameguard since they'd been halved since last turn. I debated taking a run on the Angel closest to Reznik, concerned about the threat its Armour Pierce posed. In the end, though, I decided the distances would likely be out. The zealots started the turn running towards the other angel and the zone, using Greater Destiny to prevent them from being removed. The TFG shuffled around the scather templates and turtled up with Shield wall and Iron Zeal. The Templar and Reckoner both shuffled up the board but the Avatar advanced up and into the zone and used Gaze of Menoth. The Vassal advanced and put Enliven on the Avatar. Reznik and Madelyn advanced further up the board to get out of kill box. 

  

On Nick's turn the Seraph used its Strafe attack on the objective, boosting until it was dead. The Ravagores took shots at the TFG but these only managed to kill a couple of the Flameguard, setting another two and Saxon Orrik on fire. The Refuged Angelius charged the Avatar but only managed to do a couple of boxes despite being dice +2 on the charge before he enliven'd away. The copy-cat Angelius then also moved back behind the forest thanks to Refuge. Vayl then used her feat before putting out a couple of tenacities. He then Purified, not realising this would remove his own Animi and put out the fire on the two Flameguard. She then fired an Oraculus into the Angelius in front of her and then arced her free Obliteration into a zealot, but was just short. It deviated but still hit and killed one of them. Vayl then put Occultation on herself and Admonition on the Scythean, ending her activation by putting out Refuge on the arc noded Angelius. This Angelius then charged the TFG in the zone, boosting the hit roll, but thanks to set defence he failed to hit. Nick then used the Animus, hoping to push them through the scather templates. This worked on one of them, but the others were bulked together, with the farthest ones out of animus range, meaning they were just pushed into each other and couldn't move. Nick prepared to refuge away until I pointed out that he hadn't actually hit anything this turn, meaning it was stuck there. The spawning vessel moved further into the zone. 

Since the Angelius hadn't been able to move it was still in Corbeau's command range and so she let Reznik move 3" right towards Vayl. I checked my Control area but was still just short of her. I decided I still wanted to try and so had the intervening models shift out of the way and allowed the Avatar to push Reznik another inch diagonally, but he was still out. I knew this was my best chance to take an assassination run and decided to just go for the spell assassination run. I was debating this for a while until Nick pointed out that he had Occultation on Vayl. Instead (thanks to some help from Nick) I decided to run a zealot in front of Vayl and charge it in the back with Reznik. So that's what I did. I charged up and instantly killed the zealot. Before I could cast, though, the Scythean used its Admonition move to shift directly in front of Vayl. I sighed and recalculated again. Now it was tight and I was dead if I failed. So I used hex blast on the Scythean, directly hitting to strip it and Vayl of their tenacities and upkeeps. I boosted the damage on Vayl but only did a few points. I then shot a Perdition into the Scythean, using the granted action to move the Reckoner up and take a shot down a tiny line between the Scythean and an obstruction. I rolled a double 5, setting her on fire and rolled at dice plus one. But I'd forgotten to feat and so he just transferred it off. Just what this turn needed. I then declared my feat. The Reckoner then activated and took another shot at Vayl, managing to hit thanks to the flare. I rolled an 11 on the damage leaving Vayl on two boxes. It was likely that fire would finish her off next turn but if not I would lose. Then I remembered I had one last chance. The Templar moved up and out of Eiryss' way allowing her to advance up and take a shot on Vayl rolling exactly enough to finish her off and win me the game. 

Nick said that he deserved to be assassinated because he felt that he had completely misplayed his previous turn and not taken full advantage of the feat. In a more serious game I probably would have played this out a little longer to try and get a more likely chance to deliver Reznik to Vayl. Since this was a fun farewell game, though, I went for something more fun and luckily it paid off. 

This was a really fun if slightly crazy game and demonstrated exactly why I like Reznik, almost all of my games with him come down to a 'ah, fuck it' moment where I decide to go for a weird assassination run. This was exactly the sort of game I was hoping for and as always Nick delivered a fun and exciting game. 

So for now I'm shelving the Menoth, though they'll definitely be back, and moving my attention finally to Legion. 

I'm going on Holiday now for a week and a half so it'll be a little bit of radio silence for a while but don't worry I'll be back with a vengence. Keep an eye out for a bumper edition of Cogs in the Theory Machine about my planned Legion lists when I get back!

As always like Mitsuharu on Minis on Facebook for more updates and photos. While you're at it check out the range of Warmachine specific terrain and bases at Solid Ground Studios!

-M