Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - Feora, Protector of the Flame vs. Drake MacBain

Hi everyone and welcome back to the latest Bat Rep! This week was my final game before the local tournament this Sunday. I was still practicing with my eFeora list:

eFeora +6

-Bonded Judicator -18

-Reckoner -8

Vassal of Menoth -2

Wracks -1

Vassal Mechanic -1

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution -3

Knights Exemplar Seneschal -3

Saxon Orrik -2

Gorman Di Wulfe -2

Min Choir -2 

Max TFG with UA -8

Min Zealots with UA -6

My opponent was one of the few Merc players in my meta, Will, and was playing a new Highborn list he'd cooked up using Drake MacBain accompanied by Sylys Wyshnalyrr and a Galleon. The list also included a max unit of Boomhowlers, a unit of Gun Mages with UA, Alexia Mistress of the Witchfire, Anastasia di Bray, Eiyrss Mage Hunter of Ios, Madelyn Corbeau, Ogrun Bokur, Taryn di la Rovissi, a Gobber Tinker and Victor Pendrake. This list included a lot of interesting and some less common merc solos and combos. The Scenario that we were playing was Two Fronts, and I lost the roll for initiative thanks to Anastasia's Intelligence special rule. My opponent decided to take the more advantageous board side and let me take first turn. 

We each set up our Colossals in the centre of the board, and I then placed my TFG on the side nearest my zone with Orrik, and the zealots on the opposite side across from the other zone along with Gorman and the Seneschal, with Feora near the middle of the board, and the support staff surrounding the colossal. Will then deployed his gun mages opposite my TFG along with Pendrake, while the Boomhowlers surrounded MacBain on the other side of the board. All of the solos then advanced deployed right on the edge of his own zone. 

Having the first turn I ran my force forwards, placing the Zealots on the hill Directly in front of them, followed by the Judicator, Senechal, and Gorman. Orrik gave pathfinder to the TFG who then ran up close to the zone. Feora put out Escort and then moved up toward the linear obstacle on my side of the board, and the support staff all moved up, with the choir singing Passage on the Jacks. Will then ran all of his Solos into his zone, surrounding his objective which was The Stockpile, preventing knockdown (we had the details of this objective wrong. We'd been playing that it was no knockdown within 4", however this is B2B and the stand-up effect is 4"). The Gun mages moved forwards and the Boomhowlers ran across the board, with the Galleon stomping up behind them. MacBain then moved onto the hill, surrounded by Boomhowlers and used his feat, affecting the solos in the zone and himself and Boomhowler. 

In my turn Gorman stepped up and threw Black Oil at Alexia, but missed and deviated off to the wrong direction, missing everything. The Zealots then shuffled into the zone and prayed for Fervour, before ineffectually tossing bombs into the mass of solos, scratching a couple of them but not doing any real damage, and then used their minifeat to hold out. Orrik moved up again and put Pathfinder on the TFG, who moved into the zone with Shield wall and also mini Feated to turtle the zone. The Reckoner hopped over the wall into the zone, and Feora moved up behind the wall and put Ignite on the TFG. I then activated the Judicator and took a template shot at MacBain, boosting the to hit and managing to set him on fire thanks to the bond. My clock then ran out before either of the vassals could move up. In hindsight I should definitely have taken my extension this turn, and finished off my shooting and moved up my vassals, but I didn't. 

The fire did not go out on either MacBain or the Boomhowler next to him who'd also been set on fire, killing the boomie, and doing a couple of boxes on MacBain. Madelyn used her intrigue move to have MacBain shuffle forwards, considering the assassination run on Feora. The Galleon moved up and took a big chunk out of my objective. The Bokur charged through a gap in my Zealots using reach to catch the Seneschal and took him down to 0, knocking him down, waiting for the revive. Alexia then moved up and took a Hellfire shot on Gorman, being just barely within Stealth and killed him. At this point I realised how poor my Seneschal placement was, since the Greater Destiny Zealots could not die to bring him back and Gorman does not activate Restoration, since the wording is for Faction models. Moving on! Pendrake set his sights on his nemesis, Orrik, and advanced across the board towards him on the extreme flank. MacBain decided to be more cautious and jogged around to the back of his Galleon, using a couple of Jack Hammers to finish off the objective, scoring a point. The Gun mages aimed, killing a couple of the TFG despite their massive ARM, freeing up LOS for Eiryss to Disrupt the Reckoner. The Boomhowlers then charged, with two attacking the Reckoner, two on TFG and two on a zealot. One Boomhowler killed a zealot, freeing up the other to swing a couple of points damage onto the Judicator. The Boomhowlers facing the TFG failed to hit on any of their attacks thanks to Set Defence and the other one managed to deal a handful of boxes to the Reckoner. Anastasia then moved up, using espionage to get another activation on the board, but with the clock running down this achieved very little, with a couple of Boomhowlers putting a couple more boxes on the Judicator and the Reckoner. 

On my turn I gave a focus to the Judicator and upkept both of my spells. The zealots activated and instead of throwing bombs like a good Menoth player I decided to be stupid and moved into Melee to miss all my attacks vs Alexia and the Bokur. Feora moved across to shoot her spray at Anastasia, boosting the to hit roll, and still managed to miss, forcing Eiryss to finish the spy off with a quick crossbow bolt. The vassal then activated, moving up to the Judicator to use an Ancilliary attack on the flamethrower. The template covered a Boomhowler, Madelyn and Taryn. Taryn dodged the flames acrobatically, and Madelyn used Sucker! to have the Boomhowler double hit, with one of the damage rolls killing him. The Judicator then activated properly, spending a focus to pick up the Bokur and throw him at Madelyn. The throw missed Madelyn but only deviated by 1", meaning she was still hit, and both of them were killed in the resulting splatter. Saxon Orrik, having given the TFG as much guidance as necessary, moved up the board and levelled his hunting rifle at his nemesis, Victor Pendrake, grazing him with a bullet but failing to kill. The Reckoner managed to kill the Boomhowler engaging him despite being disrupted. The TFG then moved up the board but my clock ran out before I could make any attacks, and I again stupidly decided not to take my extension on the only other turn that it would have mattered. 

Will started his turn by rolling fire off MacBain who'd been taking a few boxes a turn all game from it and had Alexia use her souls to create 3 thrall warriors, who spawned in the zealots' back arcs. T wo of them killed their targets but the third managed to fail despite the bonuses to hit and the naturally low DEF. The Boomhowlers moved into the Judicator, taking a few more boxes off it. Pendrake sacrificed movement to aim at Orrik, hoping to end the feud with his lucky bow, forgetting that the sneaky Orrik has stealth, causing him to automiss. Being a coward Pendrake then had the Gun Mages shoot at Orrik to finish his job for him, but they failed to hit his high Defence. The Gun Mages did however manage to kill several of the TFG. Meanwhile Eiryss disrupted the Reckoner again. With his remaining time the Galleon advanced into a crack between 2 Boomhowlers, just getting the Judicator within reach, taking two punishing melee attacks on it. MacBain then activated and used repeated Jack Hammers and the rest of his clock to scrap my colossal. 

On my turn, somewhat disheartened by the loss of the Judicator I had the support staff run across the board towards the remaining Jack. The Reckoner used its natural Attack and an Ancilliary to kill a pair of Boomhowlers. The TFG moved up and swung at the Galleon, not harming it but setting it on fire. Orrik took more careful aim at his foe, Pendrake, and managed to get a killing blow, with Pendrake failing the tough roll. Moral Victory! Feora moved back towards the wall and firestepped into a safer location behind some human cover and the wall. The Zealots continued to do very little to clear their zone, with their combined efforts killing a single Thrall Warrior. Eyriss moved over the wall and within 5" of the Galleon to use Technological Interference to limit its effectiveness next turn. 

Taking advantage of an exposed Eiryss the Gun Mages and younger Eiryss shot her to death along with another handful of TFG. Alexia and her risen along with Taryn managed to polish off the last of the Zealots quite handily, freeing up the Boomhowlers to move across the board and victimise my support staff, with the Mechanic swiftly becoming a light snack for a Trollblood. Despite having no focus the Galleon moved into melee with the Reckoner and used its own attacks and some Jack Hammers to scrap it. 

Seeing that I was clearly losing the attrition game and with no way to clear out the Galleon I decided the best course  was to try for the assassination. I measured my control area and was pretty sure that I was around an inch out. Deciding it was still worth the try I started by having the TFG attack the Gobber Tinker and Boomhowler himself. The combined melee against the Tinker failed completely but Boomhowler was set on fire. Feora then firestepped over the wall, setting up a clear lane to MacBain. After that I remeasured my control area and found that I definitely was out of range for the assassination run. Instead I moved across into the wreck marker to get a slightly improved DEF and then feated, taking the fire from a Boomhowler and the Galleon, putting it back onto MacBain and Eiryss. Deciding that killing Eiryss was a priority she then boosted a flamethrower shot at her. And missed. Saxon Orrik then tried to make up for this with a risky charge on Eiryss but was about an inches short. The Vassal then moved into melee range of Boomhowler and used his Bolt to zap him. Unfortunately he made his Call of Defiance tough. This left me in a pretty precarious position, but Feora was DEF 19 vs ranged and camping a stack of 8 Focus. 

The fire on MacBain did another couple of points of damage but the fire on Eiryss rolled a double one. Leaving her more than alive enough to roll double 6 on her aim at Feora, hitting her squarely with a disruption bolt. The Boomhowlers and Alexia swanned across the board before Sylys ran to engage Feora, setting up a gang for MacBain on her. MacBain then charged in, boosting his charge attack. He hit and did a handful of damage. He bought and double boosted the attack again, reducing her to a few boxes. He bought a final attack and cranked the damage roll putting her in the ground. 

This was a fun game, starting off slow and then getting very serious very quick. We were both inexperienced with the lists that we were using and so there were some pretty basic mistakes on both sides. I should have placed my Seneschal on the other side of the board with the TFG instead of with the zealots who couldn't heal him. I also should have been throwing bombs instead of swinging sticks with the Zealots. I also should have used my extension on the earlier turns. 

I'm looking forward to the tournament on Sunday and I'll be sure to write it all up and give you all a look at how it goes!

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

-M

Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - Feora, Protector of the Flame vs Lich Lord Terminus

Hi everyone, welcome back to the latest installation of Mitsuharu on Bat Reps. This week I managed to get a game against Jayke from Hall of Legends (http://hall-of-legends.blogspot.com/) using my eFeora list against the Terminus list he's been practicing for ETC. My list included:

eFeora +6

-Bonded Judicator -18

-Reckoner -8

Vassal of Menoth -2

Wracks -1

Vassal Mechanic -1

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution -3

Knights Exemplar Seneschal -3

Saxon Orrik -2

Gorman Di Wulfe -2

Min Choir -2 

Max TFG with UA -8

Min Zealots with UA -6

I decided at the last minute to swap out Dartan for a Seneschal on the advice of Nick from Solid Ground Studios (http://solidgroundstudios.co.uk). Other than that the list was exactly what I'd decided on in the Cogs in the Theory Machine post a couple of weeks ago. Jayke was playing Terminus with a Deathripper, Darragh Wrathe, Tartarus, a Warwitch Siren, Madelyn Corbeau, Saxon Orrik, Orin Midwinter, a Max unit of Bane Knights, a min unit of Bile Thralls two max units of Mechanithralls, each accompanied by a Necrosurgeon and thralls and the Withershadow Combine. The game we rolled was Outflank and I got the first turn. 

I deployed the Judicator just to the left of my centre field, then placed Feora and the Reckoner to its right, with the various support staff around them. The zealots and Gorman took the left flank while the TFG with Orrik and the Seneschal took the right, with the Wracks scattered across the deployment zone and Eiryss central, in line with a wall that was placed just ahead of my advanced deploy line. On the other side of the table the mechanithralls, Necrosurgeons, and bile thralls surrounded Terminus in the centre of the board, with the deathripper and warwitch set opposite my Zealots and the Bane knights opposing the TFG on the other flank. 

I started by moving everything forward, with the zealots and Gorman sitting on a hill for extra DEF vs ranged. The TFG got pathfinder from Orrik and moved up in shield wall, not getting very far up the field. Then the Judicator ran and took a pot shot with Ancilliary Attack, but failed to hit anything. Jayke's army all ran up, with Terminus sitting behind a forest that was near the centre of his half of the board. 

In my turn the judicator spent most of my 10 minutes blasting mechanithralls from the zone near it with it's rocket pods and flamethrowers meaning that I didn't get much else done in my turn except moving the TFG up with Orrik so two of them were in the zone but the rest couldn't make it in. Then I completely forgot to use their minifeat to give me the edge on ARM against the inevitable countercharge from the bane knights, but did remember shield wall. The Zealots moved up to throw bombs, killing an extra thrall or two and they did minifeat. I then had to end my turn without activating the majority of my solos. 

Jayke took full advantage of my rushed turn charging Tartarus into the TFG, but failed on his charge attack thanks to set defence. The bane knights then charged in thanks to curse and killed a few of the Flameguard, and finally the Seneschal, meaning he couldn't resurrect next turn. He didn't manage to clear to the zone though. One unit of mechanithralls charged the Reckoner who'd failed to activate, reducing it to a couple of movement boxes but generally crippling it. The other unit of mechanithralls moved into the zealots, and killed Gorman and put a couple of points on one side of the Judicator. Tartarus moved up into the forest a bit more, feating. The Warwitch moved up and used venom to kill off a couple of zealots. 

On my turn the TFG started off, killing a couple of the bane knights and remembering to get off Iron Zeal along with the Shield Wall. The zealots prayed for fervour and took some swings at the mechanithralls and Eiryss took a shot at the deathripper, disrupting it. Thanks to battle from the choir the Reckoner was actually able to smush one of the mechanithralls engaging it even with only one die on the attack rolls. The Judicator then took another bunch of shots, including the ancilliary, to batter the Bonejack and kill more of the infantry swarm, and Feora moved up behind the Judicator to get the bonuses from Escort. 

Jayke continued to slaughter the TFG, clearing the zone on my right, securing his first point. One of the bile thralls moved up and purged, seriously wounding my Mechanic, wiping out all but one Chorister, and putting corrosion on the Judicator and Feora. The Warwitch used power booster to give a focus to the Deathripper who tried to slam the Judicator (he had actually lost movement but didn't remember at the time) but being a collosal it couldn't be moved and the attack didn't crack the ARM. The mechanithralls took some more swings at the zealots. The other unit of Mechanithralls activated and finished off the Reckoner, but since he'd taken attacks he couldn't use the rest of the unit. 

I was left with very little left on the board, but this turn was when the game started to get really interesting. Saxon moved up into the zone next to Tartarus to contest that flank. The Judicator then used a two handed throw to pick up the heavily damaged light that attacked it last turn and threw it right at the Warwitch, killing them both, then used its last focus to kill another thrall in the zone. The Zealots activated, killing two thralls and throwing a bomb at some other guys in the zone. Then Feora moved slightly further around the Judicator, toeing the zone. Unfortunately the zone wasn't clear so I didn't score. 

On the next turn the Bane Knights started to run across the board, trying to get in to threaten Feora next turn and Tartarus took a contemptuous swing at Saxon to clear the zone again, but missed, keeping me in contention for another round. Another bile thrall purged, killing off the last of the choir and the vassals, seriously impacting the usefulness of the Judicator (though it was hardly crippled). The larger unit of thralls and their Surgeon moved into the line, clearly terrified of the threat that Saxon Orrik represented in clearing out that zone. The remaining thralls in the other zone continued to trade blows with the zealots killing another. The Withershadow Combine moved up to offer some screening to Terminus who was cowering in the woods. 

This wasn't perfect though, and I eyed up the board for the first two minutes of my turn trying to decide if I should try to clear out the zone or go for a risky assassination run on Terminus. I opted for the cooler route and gave two focus to the Judicator and charged it into Terminus, and with a proxy base and widget figured that it was only just in. After some rolls Terminus had only taken a handful of boxes, and the zone still had a bunch of Cryx in it. Feora advanced up behind the Judicator, hoping Escort would mitigate the inevitable retaliation. Saxon failed to kill Tartarus in return for his turn. 

Terminus put his grumpy face on and used Corbeau and Darragh Wrathe to shift across the board and line up a charge lane on Feora. The Withershadow put Puppet Strings on Terminus and took a shot at Feora but missed. Terminus then took the charge on Feora, suffering a free strike from the Judicator. It hit, but with the full camp only did a moderate amount of damage. Terminus then proceeded to smack Feora into the dirt using his full stack. But Faith being stronger than Fury, she was left standing quite comfortably with around 8 boxes thanks to some poor dice rolls. Not wanting to lose the assassination a pair of bane knights charged into the mix too, but only one hit, with the other doing 5 damage. Desperate to finish off the game one of the bile thralls activated, but only did one box to her, leaving her safe even from corrosion, but killing a bunch of cryx models to boot. The corrosion stayed on for my turn leaving Feora on 1 box. 

This gave me the best shot I'd had all game to close it out. Feora gave two to the Judicator, who turned around and took another chunk out of the Lich Lord before Feora started laying in with Apocalypse. The Lich Lord took a couple of hits before Feroa plunged her spear into his chest for the kill, looking on in righteous indignation as he passed his tough roll. Using her last focus to buy a final attack, hitting automatically, and once again took the last chunk off him, this time the die for tough hit the table and came up a 4. 

When the smoke cleared the board was left with one or two zealots, Feroa on one box and her Judicator along with Saxon Orrik defiantly staring down Tartarus, a bunch of Bane Knights, a mostly full unit of mechanithralls and a necrosurgeon unit. And two of the Withershadow combine along with the support solos and basically a whole bunch of guys, but the lucky assassination had secured me a relatively undeserved win. 

On reflection Jayke realised that he hadn't actually used the puppet strings bonus during the assassination run which might have made a big difference to the result of the game. Besides which after clearing out the zone on my right he could have flown Termimus into the zone and locked me out for a scenario win. Looking back I didn't really learn Saxon well enough to really utilise him and I really should have run the TFG to get a more commanding board position to properly contest the zone instead of just getting a toe in the zone. I really liked this list and had a fun time playing with it. Especially the Bonded Judicator which is awesome to play. I'll feel a lot more comfortable with the list once I've had at least one more game with it. 

I'm looking forward to having another practice game I can tell you all about before I hit the tournament in a week!

-M

Cogs in the TheoryMachine - List Developments

Hi everyone, this week is a new segment called 'Cogs in the TheoryMachine' where I'll be discussing list building, tactical ideas and other miscellaneous meta gaming I'm doing. This first week will be focusing on my latest list ideas and tactical concepts I'm developing for the Menoth lists I'm planning to bring to the local Hull Warmachine monthly tournament in February. 

The first list I'll be using is the Intercessor Kreoss list I've been developing over the last few weeks, which has undergone a much bigger shift following my last game against Nick. This started out as quite a heavy list that mashed armour but struggled against infantry swarms. I like a good skew list as much as the next guy but in a more competitive setting versatility is always the heart of the game. Luckily I felt that the two games I've had (both of which were very infantry heavy) the list didn't perform too badly and so isn't exactly auto-lose as is. Having said that I'm hoping that with a few changes it'll be much more well rounded. What I've got so far is:

Intercessor Kreoss +5

-Vanquisher -8

-Reckoner -8

Min Choir -2

Vassal of Menoth -2

Nicia, Tear of Vengence -3

Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord -2

Covenant of Menoth -2

Wracks -1

Vassal Mechanic -1

Daughters of Menoth -5

Max Exemplar Vengers -11

Max Exemplar Errants with UA -10

This list has sacrificed the quality of the Avatar for the quantity of Errants. The Errants are in the list for two reasons, firstly to tag with Rhupert to create a Tough unit that's hard to shift from contesting, and also to pump out attacks between weaponmaster melee and quick work, hopefully balancing the list more vs infantry. To further throw a spanner in the works the Covenant of Menoth can also stop the Errants that do tough from being knocked down, making them a real pain for my opponent. Maintaining the Menoth Jam the Daughters with Holy Ward are very hard for anyone who can't boost, and even then they've got a decent chance of dodging a hit. With the Errants in the list the Vengers are freed up to be able to move around to be wherever they're most needed, keeping them in reserve. Hopefully this means they can hit where they can do most damage. Nicia is in the list to help deal with troublesome solos. The two jacks along with the vassals and choir are an obvious choice, both having good ranged attacks as well as decent melee options, and both can make good use of Warpath. 

The really interesting question in 2015 is which of the objectives goes best with the list? Arcane Wonder seems like a good option, but I find that Kreoss is either up keeping or allocating and even though he has lots of upkeeps he doesn't need the focus assist much anyway. Effigy of Valour and Armoury aren't much use to this list. Stockpile is nice but Covenant covers most of that functionality. Fuel Cashe is a nice ability that the list can use well but I'd prefer it in my second list and don't want to repeat myself where possible. So that leaves Bunker. This one has Impervious Flesh, making it more difficult to destroy at range, forcing the enemy to move towards my force, potentially giving me a greater chance for a strong first strike. Also this objective has the Girded ability, making this a nice out for my Daughters:- by jamming this objective it removes one of their biggest weaknesses in blast damage making their DEF 17 daunting to overcome. So I think Bunker's the way to go. 

Now the second list I'm planning to use has changed a couple of times too, without being played, mainly because of character restrictions having an effect when I made changes to my Kreoss list. List two is an eFeora list:

eFeora +6

-Bonded Judicator -18

-Reckoner -8

Vassal of Menoth -2

Wracks -1

Vassal Mechanic -1

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution -3

Dartan Vilmon -3

Saxon Orrik -2

Gorman Di Wulfe -2

Min Choir -2 

Max TFG with UA -8

Min Zealots with UA -6

This list is a very different build to the Kreoss list, but is based on more solid principles, and a playstyle that I've had more practice with. The TFG and Zealots are in the list with a dual purpose, firstly they jam the board and generally make a nuisance of themselves, being hard to shift out of zones or away from flags (Dartan is in the list to compound this further). Secondly on their mini-feat turns the TFG can poke each other with flame pikes with little chance of killing and the zealots can bathe in Judicator flamethrower to get a whole bunch of cont. fire on the board for Feora to play with using her own feat. Saxon Orrik is in the list to dole out pathfinder to the TFG who are slow enough without getting trapped in difficult terrain. Gorman and Eiryss are in the list to generally cause my opponent issues. The choir, wrack and vassal options are all fairly standard to support the jack load out. In this list I opted for the Judicator as a collosal is always fun to put on the table, and Feora's warjack bond only cranks that all the way up to 11. I've heard stories of casters being set on fire in turn one of a game with running and an ancilliary attack from a vassal. The Reckoner is in the list as a secondary jack, and is more than capable of using the flare on its gun to offer an assist to the Judicator before a charge against a higher DEF enemy. On top of that the Reckoner is a powerful and versatile option in its own right. 

Unlike the Kreoss list I had a good idea which objective I was planning to use with this list as soon as SR2015 hit. Fuel Cashe. This gives jacks starting their activation within 4" a free run or charge, helping with focus efficiency for Feora, who sometimes feels starved on key turns. But the real reason, if I'm honest is that I couldn't resist the thematic benefits of making a list where even the objective can set my enemy on fire! 

These are the lists as they stand at the moment, though they are, of course, subject to change when they hit the board. My biggest concern at the moment is that the Feora list will be too large to get through on timed turns (that and the fact that I don't actually have a Saxon Orrik model yet). At the moment though these are two lists that I feel relatively confident with and am looking forward to using on the table. Hopefully I'll be able to report some success come February!

-M