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 - 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

Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - Saeryn, Omen of Everblight vs Kreuger, the Stormlord & Lylyth, Shadow of Everblight vs Morvahna the Dawnshadow

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

Saeryn +5

-Angelius -9

-Angelius -9

-Scythean -9

-Scythean -9

-Raek -4

-Shredder -2

Foresaken -2

Foresaken -2

Deathstalker -2

Deathstalker -2

Spell Martyr -1

Spell Martyr -1

Maximum Spawning Vessel -3

Objective - Fuel Cashe

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

Pre-Game

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

Deployment 

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

Legion Turn One 

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

Legion: 0 Circle: 0

Circle Turn One

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

Legion: 0 Circle: 0

Legion Turn Two

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

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

Pregame

This time I was playing my eLylyth list:

eLylyth +5

-Succubus -2

-Ravagore -10 

-Ravagore -10

-Ravagore -10

-Naga Nightlurker -5

-Shredder -2

Deathstalker -2

Deathstalker -2

Shepherd -1

Shepherd -1

Strider Rangers -6

Ranger UA -3

Swamp Gobbers -1

Objective - Bunker

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

Deployment 

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

Circle Turn One

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

Legion: 0 Circle: 0

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

Legion: 0 Circle: 0

Circle Turn Two

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

Legion: 0 Circle: 0

Legion Turn Two 

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

Legion: 0 Circle: 0

Circle Turn Three

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

Legion: 0 Circle: 1

Post-Game

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

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

-M

Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - Learning Legion Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight vs Kromac, Champion of the Wurm

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

Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight +5

-Succubus -2

-Angelius -9

-Angelius -9

-Carnivean -11

-Naga Nightlurker -5

-Shredder -2

Shepherd -1

Shepherd -1

Max Warspears -8

-Warspear Chieftan -2

Black Frost Shard -5

Objective - Fuel Cashe

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-M

Tourney Tales - April Assault

Hey everyone, welcome to Tourney Tales! Due to other commitments it's been a while since I last had chance to go to one of my LGS' local tournaments but I have managed to get in for this one. My hopes going into the tournament were, in order: to place in the top 3, to go 3 and 1 and not to make a fool out of myself. Obviously I'd love to win the whole thing but given the calibre of several of the other players I'm not sure that's likely. The lists that I was planning to use were the Harbinger list I've been practicing with, paired up with the pSeverius list I had a couple of games with recently:

List One:

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

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

Anastasia Di Bray -2

Objective: Fuel Cache

List Two:

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 ready to go and pretty happy with both of my lists. The tournament was a 4 round, 14 man Steamroller using Timed Turns. So without further ado I'll start with a run-down of the games:

Round One

My first round opponent was Ben, one of the more experienced players in the Meta and one who's given me plenty of tough games. I was a little down-hearted as I'd hoped to get an easier game in early in order to get the ball rolling but it couldn't be helped. To make matters worse he was playing his favourite faction, Retribution, one I've never played against. He had one infantry heavy and one Jack heavy list and so after some internal debate I plumped for Sevvy to start me off. He picked his Kaelyssa Tier 4 Force Wall list. This consisted of Kaelyssa, 6 Manticores, an Artificer, a unit of battle mages and 6 or 7 NQ 54 variant Arcanists. This was an imposing looking list with a bunch of heavies and Shenanigans. The first round was Fire Support and Ben won the roll to go first, opting to choose the board edge. I deployed with the majority of my army on my right flank, with only the Vessel on my left near my flag. Ben deployed his mass of warjacks in a line, centrally with the Arcanists scattered between them to dole out focus. I took the first turn and, thanks to the Kaelyssa Tier couldn't run so I just put out Defender's ward on the TFG and strolled forward. 

Ben's turn mainly consisted of Arcanists giving focus to the Manticores who then ran forwards, taking a big mass of board. 

On my turn I continued to shuffle up the board, trying to gain a bit more board space. Sevvy moved into the nearby trench and put up EoM as I'd forgotten to cast it in the first turn. The Vessel moved up on the hill and boosted a shot on the Manticore directly across from it, rolling 6 on the Admonisher, catching another Manticore and battle Mage, doing a point to the Jack and killing the Mage. More importantly though, the Admonisher caught Kaelyssa and so I boosted and did a bunch of damage (this was in part because Ben had had a bit of a maths fail and thought he was ARM 10 with power field for some reason)

On Ben's turn he upkept the phantom hunter he'd put on Kaelyssa turn one and used this to shoot Gorman with her rifle, needing all three shots to hit, using the rest of the focus to heal and then feated. Two of the Manticores moved up and wrecked my objective, while the other four advanced and put covering fire templates all over my half of the board. 

I was hoping to get another Admonisher this turn and so I moved up base to base with the two Manticores with my Vessel and used its push miracle, but it didn't push far enough to get the Mantacore over the flag and secure the shot cleanly. I then ran my Reckoner right towards his caster and had my Vassal ancilliary attack at her, but I wasn't able to spike the dice. My battle group continued to advance up the board slowly, while the TFG and Orrik moved around on the flank, avoiding the covering fire templates, going into Iron Zeal and Shield Wall. 

Ben started his turn focusing on the Reckoner. The Artificer charged in and missed its charge attack, but hit the second, using the beat back to nudge him towards the nearer Manticore and free up the Manticore at the flag. The two Manticores on my left both charged the Vessel and wrecked it, and meanwhile another Manticore killed off the Reckoner after being fed a ton of focus by the Arcanists. The Mages tried to pull a couple of the TFG but failed to hit their high DEF. The other three Manticores then put Covering fire templates all over me. Kaelyssa then moved up to the flag, taking a couple of pot shots at the Vassal and dominated for 2 control points. 

I knew this game was going really poorly for me. I'd thrown away a heavy and lost the Vessel and accomplished very little apart from putting some damage on Kaelyssa, but that gave me an opening I could take and so I jumped on it, hoping I could net a Hail Mary win. I allocated one to Blessings and upkept the Eye of Menoth, dropping Defender's Ward. I then had the Templar plod 4" forward to get out of Blessing's way and then had the Jack run clear across the board. I then had the Heirophant use Harmonious Exhaultation and then activated Severius. He took one of a wrack and then cast Ashes to Ashes through Blessings onto the Artificer. It hit and I rolled the bounces, getting enough to catch Kaelyssa. The Artificer survived and the Jacks took minimal damage. I boosted the damage on Kaelyssa and the dice came up 5, 5, 6 killing her and netting me an assassination win (we also worked out after the game, once he realised his earlier maths error, that this dice roll would have been high enough to kill her even factoring in the additional boxes he would have had from this.)

Because the majority of Ben's list was Battlegroup I also netted a large number of Army points as well, despite having only killed three or four models all game. Still, I was out of the first round with a win. 

Round Two

Moving into the second round I was put up against another of the top players in the meta, Andy, who was playing with his Circle. This round was Incursion. I decided to drop Sevvy again and Andy dropped Bradigus. His list was tier 4, and included two Wold Guardians, 6 Wold Watchers, two units of Sentry Stones and three units of Shifting Stones. I lost the die roll again, but again my opponent chose table edge instead of first turn. I took pictures for each round on this game too, but I'm sure Andy wouldn't mind me saying that this game was a long, drawn-out slugging match that wasn't especially exciting. So instead of giving you a lengthy blow-by-blow I'll just do a quick run-down. We both had very high ARM lists and both had a lot of trouble cracking the opponent's armour. We both advanced up and met in the middle around the flags and then had a long slapping match with no one getting much of a foothold. My Vessel couldn't shift the Wold Watcher contesting the flag on my left, but he couldn't crack the Vessel's high ARM. My TFG with Defenders ward sat quite happily on the flag on my right, and despite doing full unit CMAs, rolled really poorly against the Wold Watcher engaging them, who was also failing to kill them back. In the centre my two heavies locked up several other Watchers for the majority of the game. On one of my turns I managed to get a few points onto Bradigus when he was low on Fury, leaving him on 7 boxes. Brad used his feat turn and heavies to clear out my heavies, despite Brad himself failing to kill the damaged Reckoner. This let him claim the centre flag, forcing me into an uncomfortable assassination that required a bushwhacked shield push on a heavy and a move into some shifting stones. I just managed to make range on Brad, but he was camping 3 and I needed all of my immolations to hit, but the first missed, costing me the run. Dice down sounded with Brad left on one box and him up two control points, leaving me on one to one. If I wanted to place I now had to win my next 2 games...

Round Three

For round three I was paired up with one of the local Cygnar players who was playing Hayley2 and Lord General Stryker. I had a sinking feeling that I'd be seeing Hayley2. And I was right. I decided this was a good matchup to play Harbinger into, though, especially since the scenario was Destruction and I knew I could control the zone pretty well. His list consisted of Hayley, Squire, a Centurion and Thorn; as well as a Journeyman Warcaster, Anastasia Di Bray, eEiryss, Gorman Di Wulfe, eAlexia, Nyss Hunters, Gun mages with UA and Aiyanna and Holt. 

I won the roll to go first and deployed centrally with my Zealots on one flank and the Bastions on the other. There was a forest directly in front of my deployment where the Errants nestled in. The Cygnar deployed with the Gun Mages and eAlexia on one flank and the Nyss Hunters and Aiyanna and Holt on the other side with the rest of the army central. As I had the first turn I did the typical Crusaders Call, feat, charge to get the majority of his army into my control area, and then ran everything else up towards the zone. 

Slightly hamstrung by my feat he moved Gornan up along with the Centurion and then ended his turn. I then took the 'free' turn to lock out the zone, moving my Zealots (who mini feated) and the Errants to form a wall of bodies around my opponent's side of the zone, with the slower second wave of the Imperishable Wall Paladins and Bastions continued plodding up the field, giving me a strong position on scenario. 

On the first proper Cygnar turn Hayley had Thorn advance up and then arced a time bomb into the zealots, killing a bunch of them and opening up a window for a gun mage to shoot Anastasia. He then feated, catching the majority of my force, but missing my support and the Bastions. The gun mages took shots at the Errants but I suffered a bunch of Martyrdom damage to keep them in the game. Aiyanna enchanted the Nyss bows  so they could do a CRA into Dartan, but I Martyr'd that too. 

I then had my 'turn' with Hayley dictating my order of activation. The net result was that the Reckoner sacrificed movement to shoot at the objective (twice with Ancillary) Harby neglected action to move up into the zone, and the zealots and Errants reorganised themselves to lock the zone back out again. I stupidly positioned my Heirophant and Rhupert in a way I couldn't advance and spell ward Harbinger, so I ran it up, aiming to get in B2B with Harby for next round. I then had the Bastions, from outside the feat charge the Objective, destroying it with one model. This secured me 3 control points. 

Cygnar started their turn by having Thorn run up and arc a telekinesis into Harby to shift her up and into the zone. He then moved eEiryss up and took the shot at Harbinger. I said I wanted to Shield Guard the shot however there had been some confusion in my turn. Because of the long spear on the Devout I hadn't been able to get the models B2B and obviously hadn't made it clear enough when positioning that he had acted on the assumption that the gap was there. We called over a judge since it was an important call. The judge ruled in favour of my opponent because his actions had been made based on the assumption that my spacing was accurate and I should have been more clear. When we restarted the clock he looked back down at the table and realised that he had forgotten to allocate to the Centurion, which had been his primary assassination vector and so decided that he wouldn't be able to win and forfeited the game, shaking my hand. The judge was still stood by the table and pointed out that he still had a number of very reasonable vectors to kill Harby. We played out a single large CRA into her and he killed her instantly thanks to the damage on her because of the Martyrdom in previous turns. However despite him having the game in the bag I had the win with maximum points for winning by forfeiture. This set me on 2 to 1 and in the running to place depending on my last game and the final round...

Round Four

My final round I was paired against Luke, one of my semi-regular opponents who's been playing mainly with Cryx recently. This round was Close Quarters. One of his lists was had a Kraken and I didn't want to put my Harby list against that and so decided to round out the tournament with Severius again. Luke dropped the non-Kraken list, with eGaspy that consisted of a Nightwretch, Deathjack, Tartarus, a warwitch, Gorman DiWulfe, the Withershadow Combine, a max unit of Bane Knights, a max unit of Bane Thralls with UA, and a minimum unit of Bile Thralls with a Skarlock. I lost the die roll again and Luke opted for the first turn, leaving me to choose the clearer table edge. I deployed my Vessel on my extreme right flank, nearer my own flag. Luke deployed with one of the big bane units on each flank and everything else central. I deployed my TFG and Orrik on the left flank and my Battlegroup in the centre of the board. 

Luke took his first turn, marching his force forwards and then had Gaspy pop out some clouds around the nearby forest to block out LOS to the majority of his army. 

I then moved up my forces, running the TFG with Iron Zeal, and having the Vessel advance around the Obstruction in front of it to come around to my flag. 

Luke continued to run up the board, taking a huge amount of real estate, putting the pressure on. Following this he had Gaspy move up and excarnate one of the TFG to get a bile thrall up in the front of the flameguard. It then moved up and purged all over them, killing the majority of the unit, netting a bunch of souls for Gaspy. 

On my turn I realised that his board position was dangerous for me and I was going to have a hard time dealing with all of the mass of models. I decided that my best shot was an assassination. So I started the wheels in motion. The Vessel moved up and used its eruption of faith miracle to push some bane Knights out of its way and then took a shot at one of the Knights near the forest, admonishing to clear it out. I then moved eEiryss up and tried to take the shot on Gaspy but I was just a bit short. The Reckoner moved across to take a shot but couldn't get far enough to get a line on him. Orrik however did move up and tag Gaspy with a shot for a couple of points (he wasn't camping anything but did have a bunch of souls for next turn) I then ran Blessings of Vengence up into the forest to get LOS on him and started to cast Immolations. My first spell missed despite boosting, meaning I lost the bonus from Blessings' bond. I threw out a few more zaps but it wasn't enough and left him on a handful of boxes. I ended the turn by having Gorman black oil Deathjack to reduce his potential threat. Then I ran my choir and remaining TFG to block lanes to Severius. I realised that I'd forgotten to feat too...

Vengence triggered to allow Luke to move his bane Knights up into Blessings and towards the Vessel doing a couple of points of damage to the Jack. The Bane Knights charged into the Reckoner, wrecking the heavy. Gaspy moved up and excarnated another bile thrall before teleporting back to the flag. The bile purged and killed the models in front of Sevvy. Deathjack moved into melee with Blessings but couldn't attack thanks to black oil. Luke's Gorman threw black oil onto the arc node but it failed to hit. The deviation was small enough to catch it but also caught Deathjack, re-oiling him. The clock ran out before he could do more than a single attack on the Vessel with the Knights, however. 

I knew I should have lost a lot more this turn and that this was a lucky second chance to get the assassination, but it wouldn't be easy. I started by having the Vessel push away the Knights engaging him. I then took a shot at the knight engaging the Blessings in the forest but even with the boost it missed and hit Blessings instead. I then advanced my Templar up to reach one of the Knights in the forest, killing it and then using beat back to move up to get the other knight with its shield. Thanks to his sinister soul collection Gaspy was on a pretty decent stack this turn, but Luke hadn't moved any of his models to engage Eiryss and so she was free to move up and across to get range and LOS so hit him with a bolt to rip off the focus. I then activated Blessings of Vengence and had it move around, taking two free strikes, one from Deathjack and one from the remaining Knight in the forest. The Deathjack missed its attack thanks to Black Oil. The knight connected but only did a few points of damage. This gave me the chance I needed and so I kept arcing double boosted Immolations into Gaspy until he was dead. 

This was another game like my first. An opponent forcing me into a very bad position and me snatching victory from the jaws of defeat through assassination. Regardless, it put me on 3 to 1, and therefore in the running to place in the tournament overall. I knew I was likely vying for 3rd place and was keen to see what the final standings were. To be honest, though, I'd accomplished two of my goals, I'd gone 3 to 1, even if I might not have deserved the second win and I hadn't embarrassed myself. My play hadn't been great overall, but I'd taken the opportunities that had presented themselves to me and definitely got a bit lucky too. I was hopeful. We gathered for the final results. Nick from Solid Ground Studios (http://solidgroundstudios.co.uk) was in 3rd Place, I had managed to get second place and the tournament was won by Andy who'd beaten me in round two. I was over the moon with the result! I had a really good day, though I was really starting to feel the pressure towards the end. My opponents were all great players who made every game a real challenge and it was really fun to play each of them!

Thanks for reading! Don't forget for regular updates and more: like Mitsuharu on Minis on Facebook!

-M

Mini Thoughts - Gargantuans Wave 2

So, just like they hint-dropped at Adepticon, PP's SmogCon announcement was the next evolution of Gargantuans! More good news! And unlike the recently announced Colossals, these are pretty much all brand new beasties, not just variants on the old models. For anyone who hasn't seen it yet the video on the Gargantuans is here: http://privateerpress.com/privateer-press-prime-video-channel/gargantuans-evolved. 

Anyway here's my run down of the new Gribblies:

Glacier King

First up on the docket was the latest Troll model, the Glacier King. Horluk's newest buddy is a mountain king that's been in the fridge too long, and come out all badass. As well as a typical 'big fist' (yeah literally) he has something called 'Wind Thrower'. Possibly a crit freeze spray? Maybe not, have to wait and see on that one, but the fists definitely do have some kind of freeze ability. Its animus 'frozen ground' is a knockdown effect, and it sounds like it affects models within so many inches of it. Assuming that this Gargantuan has the same medicore MAT as its predecessor I'm sure auto hitting in melee will be a nice touch. Also it'll give any troll caster access to a small range knockdown effect too, which can be all kinds of useful. Just ask anyone who's seen pKreoss. On top of that it has an ability called 'snowfall' that grants concealment around it. While this might have a cost or a trigger, anything that can help a troll brick across the board with fewer casualties will always be appreciated. 

Storm Raptor

Next up was the Storm Raptor. And bird is the word. Described as 'Krueger's best friend' this little lightning pigeon is the latest addition to Circle. This is the fastest Gargantuan so far, at SPD 7, and with Flight this beastie can whip across the board pretty fast, ignoring terrain along the way. On top of that it has some combination of animi and special abilities that allow it to give boosted electrical attack and damage rolls. Meaning that this thing synergises like crazy with a bunch of other circle guns. Also giving Krueger access to an animus that can boost electrical attacks is just... I mean... Wow. 

Blightbringer

Now here's the one I'm most interested in. Legions new beastie, the Blightbringer. To be honest it's not... Exactly what I was expecting. It looks a lot more bug-like than the majority of Everblight's roster to date. It seems that this gargantuan is more of a utility piece like the new colossals. All they said was that it was constantly spewing ash that could take on a number of abilities. These include causing magic in the area to fail (limited range no spells? Or maybe even a nice little upkeep removal. Kinda AOE Banishing Ward?). Concealment to nearby models. I'm assuming some kind of Ashen Veil? I suppose there's enough prowl in Legion that it could have an extra layer there. And finally one that reduces 'defence and health of enemies' so maybe it'll be like Belphagor's animus or Saeryn's spell of the same name? Interesting. The way they're speaking about the Blighted Breath also imply it's an inherent ability, meanning that its animus is still unknown (more on that later). Those claws look pretty handy too!

Desert Hydra 

Typhon has effectively shown the world three heads are better than one. And what's better than three heads? Five. That's right. They've been talking about it in the fluff forever but it's finally on the tabletop. Skorne's new Gargantuan is the Hydra. Desert Hydra to be precise, although I'm not up enough on my extraordinary zoology to know how many sub-species of Hydra there are. Much like its younger cousin Typhon, the Hydra has the 'multiple heads' special rule. Meaning five heads get 5 initial attacks. That's five Sprays. Or Five Bite attacks. Or any combination of the two. And Five sprays off a huge base? That covers some ground. 

Oh, that's the other thing. There's a model for it. A very nice model. I mean, sure, it looks like a real pain in the ass to assemble and paint, but look at it. Worth. It. Other than the five heads thing (as if that's not enough for you) they didn't really go into much else about it. Its animus wasn't discussed either (I'm getting to it). This looks like a nice little addition to the Skorne forces (pending actual rules obviousl)y. 

Animi

I said I'd get to it! So you might have to bear with me a little on this one. First off the animi of the Blightbringer and Desert Hydra were conspicuous in their absence. Strange not to mention them when they did for the other two. However they also spoiled this art of the Blightbringer:

Now, when Exigence hit everyone was a bit confused by the Warbeast packs. I mean they sucked. I read dozens of articles and forum chains trying to figure out how they were supposed to work. It seemed like they were set up to fail. They didn't do anything that their factions couldn't do better, elsewhere already. Surely PP in their wisdom and foresight must've had a plan? But we couldn't see it. Maybe this is why. We didn't have all the pieces. Put these things together and maybe, just maybe the Blightbringer has something to offer Blight Wasps? Maybe it can spawn them? Or convert enemies into them? The art certainly indicates a link anyway. And from there I don't think it's too much of a leap to think that maybe the Hydra can do something similar for the Scarabs? Obviously this is all just speculation but it seems to make sense to me at least. 

Other Stuff

In addition to the Gargantuans the video had another little sneak at the end. A few flashes of something just as exciting but much less clear. A Gator with candles on his face? Epic Calandra? Some kind of imp gremlins? A Grotesque? Kromac? With Rathrok?!? If that's PP's way of apologising for the recent errata to Circle affecting Kromac then... 

Looks like there's some pretty exciting stuff coming our way in the next year or so. And I for one, can not wait. 

I'll leave you with one final image:

*slow respectful applause*

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-M