Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - Saeryn and Rhyas, Talons of Everblight vs. Major Haley Prime

Hello everyone, despite the hiatus for a while there I am, in fact, not dead and I'm back for another Battle Report. I finally got the last of the models I needed to complete my eTwins list and, since I've been looking for something fresh to play, I decided to put them on the board. I was struggling with what they wanted in their list but after their coverage on Chain Attack I decided to play '"Trevor's" list' from the episode. It was a solid list and he played it well (better than I ever will anyway) and it's as good a starting point as any. So what that list included is:

eTwins +2

-Zuriel -10

-Nephilim Protector -5

-Seraph -8

-Naga -5

-Shredder -2

Max Spawning Vessel -3

Max Raptors -10

Max Croak Raiders -8

Objective - Bunker

The list isn't too complicated. Both the Croaks and the Raptors enjoy Occultation from Rhyas while being able to do plenty of damage on their own. The Protector gives no knockdown on the animus for Rhyas while tenacity is real nice in any list. The Seraph is important for the slipstream animus but can also strafe as needed. Zuriel is the heavy hitter but also works as a channeller for Saeryn and had Stealth from Rhyas. The pot helps keep beasts on the table for the greedy Twins who need lots of fury produced to keep them ticking over. Sadly, for the first time since I started Legion this list forced me to put unpainted models on the table, to my shame. My Croaks didn't arrive in time for paint this week but will be done by next time!

Pre-Game

This week I managed to get a game with veteran gamer Will who's not had a chance to play many games recently but was graduating to 50 points with his Cygnar force. Since I was practicing with eTwins he decided to play Hayley3 in his tier 3 list. It was made up of a Grenadier, Centurion and Thorn in the Hayleys' battlegroup, with a second Grenadier with a junior and then consisted of a bunch of Trenchers, with a min unit of Trenchers, a min unit of Commandos with two scattergunners, two chaingun crews, a mortar crew, two master gunners to accompany the Grenadiers and Maxwell Finn. These are some uncommon units and models but with the dig-in skew there's a lot of bodies and all of them have plenty of chance for really high DEF. We rolled out Recon for the scenario (this one seems to come up a lot for me for some reason!) and Will won the roll for initiative, taking the first turn. 

Deployment

Will set up with his battlegroup spread across the centre of the board, with the rest of his army advance deploying. I had the raptors on my left flank near the forest, my battlegroup in the middle and the pot dead centre to make the most of collection. The Trenchers then deployed with the commandos on my right flank with Hayley's Grenadier while the junior's Grenadier set up on the opposite flank with the regular Trenchers, the trio of gun teams in the middle to take advantage of the armoury objective. My croaks then set up in the space I'd left for them on the right flank. 

Cygnar Turn One

Will started the game by having everyone slog forward up the board and anyone who was able to dug in. Thanks to advance deploy they were still a decent ways up the board and starting to be in my face. The Hayleys put Tactical Supremacy on themselves and the junior put Arcane Shield on Thorn. 

Cygnar: 0 Legion: 0

 

Legion Turn One

My first turn was probably my quickest this game and still took ages. Twins takes some thinking. The Raptors ran up the board and hid behind the forest on that flank, the Naga and the Seraph riled and ran up. The twins activated and put out 6 Tenacities on the Croaks between them as well as Rhyas putting Occultation on the Croaks and Saeryn putting Banishing Ward on themselves. The Croaks then ran to spread out across the flank and Zuriel ran up followed by the Protector who put safeguard up on Rhyas. The pot shuffled up to sit comfortably in the middle of my stuff. 

Cygnar: 0 Legion: 0

Cygnar Turn Two

On the second Cygnar turn Will continued to have his Trenchers advance and dig in to maintain the DEF. Thorn ran right the way across the board, almost up to my objective, allowing Hayley to arc Repudiate onto the Croaks, knocking off occultation and putting 3 damage onto Rhyas which she did not like. The Grenadier on that flank as well as the commandos cleared off 6 of the croaks with shooting, when he realised that Zuriel had stealth and deflated his original plan. On the other flank the other grenadier took a pot shot at a Raptor and rolled exactly 5 damage to kill it. He then took a pot shot on the pot and killed 4 of the 6 attendants. Will'd forgotten to actually move the Hayleys but had upkept Tactical Supremacy so they shuffled up a little. 

Cygnar: 0 Legion: 0

Legion Turn Two

With most of my Croaks dead my right flank was looking pretty sad. Plus I had Thorn right up there in my face. He had activated disengage so it was going to be tricky if I missed him, which was likely. I had the now full pot drop out a harrier. That harrier charged into Thorn's back, hoping to limit his potential movement, but animused anyway for the auto hit, doing 4 points of damage despite needing high dice. Zuriel then advanced into melee after receiving Wraithbane from the Naga and took swings on Thorn. I crippled the shield early, making my damage more impactful but by the time I was full on fury I still had 1 box left to remove. So the Protector advanced up and knocked it off. Trying not to clump up too much I then had Saeryn advance up and then back to slipstream him out a little. The twins then spammed out Tenacities and Rhyas put solid ground on herself. The Raptors shot at the Trenchers but failed to hit any of them, light cav moving back. The frogs on my right flank, with not much left, threw some flaming spears at the Commandos, killing two of them. At the end of the turn Thorn was dead but I was sat on no camp on either of my casters. 

Cygnar: 0 Legion: 0

Cygnar Turn Three

On the following Cygnar turn Will had the commandos charge the remaining Croaks, killing all four of them but giving corrosion to all of his own guys at the same time thanks to vitriol. Mwahahaha. (Oops - it's been pointed out I made a mistake here and Vitriol only triggers if they don't die. First time using them. My bad) The regular Trenchers continued up the board, digging in yet again. The Grenadiers continued to blast away at my list, killing another raptor with exactly 5 damage again, removing the last of the Attendants from the Vessel and wounding the Seraph. One of the scatters landed squarely on Saeryn but even with a boost he didn't do any damage (phew!). The gun crews took a bunch of shots into the objective but thanks to impervious flesh they couldn't do a whole lot of damage to it. The Hayleys continued to advance up the board, Hayley Future took some shots into Zuriel thanks to true sight, but couldn't break his high Arm. 

Cygnar: 0 Legion: 0

Legion Turn Three

On my next turn I had some questions to answer. I felt that, thanks to corrosion, I could ignore the Commandos this turn. Zuriel advanced up and took a spray on Maxwell Finn, completely missing him even with the boost. He then bought a second spray (yes, ROF 2) on the Grenadier on his flank, killing the master gunner behind it. Saeryn and Rhyas activated and Saeryn channeled Blood Rain onto the Grenadier, boosting it, taking out the left arm, with the cannon, and the blast took out the commando giving him an extra shot. Perfect. Saeryn then pumped out some Tenacities. Rhyas advanced up with slipstream and pulled Zuriel back, ending her movement in Thorn's wreck marker, B2B with the objective. Bit further up than I'd been doing but with four transfers I felt OK about it. The raptors moved up, one advancing into Melee with a trencher but still missing both attacks, as did the two shooting Ulk. The Naga moved back to hide behind the wall. The Seraph stood still to aim and managed to kill the two Trenchers B2B with the Grenadier using all of his fury on a full strafe to get it done. 

Cygnar: 0 Legion: 0

Cygnar Turn Four

On the Cygnar turn the combined gun crews all targeted my Objective and managed to clear it off, gaining a victory point and leaving me not contesting the Zone as Rhyas was the only model in there. The Grenadier on my left managed to polish off the Seraph, costing me the useful animus but filling the pot again. Hayley's future incarnation took a bunch of shots at Zuriel, managing to take out his body with some boosts thanks to the feat they popped this turn. Hayley Prime advanced into the zone to dominate. On my left flank the engaged trencher took a desperate swing and managed to kill the raptor with exactly 5 damage again. Sigh. The Hayleys shuffled around a bit with Tactical Supremacy then Will ended his turn going up to 3. 

Cygnar: 3 Legion: 0

Legion Turn Four

I was now seriously down on victory points but Hayley had moved into Rhyas' threat range, charmingly. I started by taking two threshold checks with my Nephilim who both passed. Zuriel advanced up and sprayed through the forest to catch Prime Hayley. Both sprays covered her but I couldn't hit even with boosts. Never mind. I was only hoping for a cont. fire cherry on top. The Vessel produced a shredder who advanced up to give Saeryn a charge target that would keep them in formation and still let her activate. The Naga advanced up and gave Wraithbane to Rhyas to avoid the Temporal Flux The twins then went, Rhyas cast Onslaught to give herself pathfinder on the charge and went into Hayley prime, followed by Saeryn into the Shredder. Rhyas hit her weapon master charge attack despite set defence and did 10 damage to the warcaster. My plan if Rhyas didn't pull it off was to feat and tag Saeryn in for more attacks, but first I cast flashing blade, boosting the hit and polishing off the last boxes with a huge weapon master damage roll, getting me the assassination win. 

Cygnar: 3 Legion: 0

Legion Assassination Win

Post-Game

I've got to say this is probably my favourite game I've played in a while. Both of our lists were really complicated, particularly our casters, but that complexity made it a really interesting game. I enjoyed the toolbox element of my list and having the excess fury to use most of it. Though it is a nightmare trying to keep up with it all. I also felt like this was a really great crucible for the Twins and I even managed to break my losing streak with the assassination. I'm really looking forward to getting this list on the table again (though I definitely wouldn't want to play it on a clock!). This has really invigorated my passion, which had been flagging a little lately!

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

-M

Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - Thagrosh, the Messiah vs Grissel Bloodsong, Fell Caller

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

eThagrosh +3

-Scythean -9

-Scythean -9

-Scythean -9

-Shredder -2

-Raek -4

-Naga -5

Foresaken -2

Foresaken -2

Max Legionnaires -6

Incubus -5

Objective - Fuel Cashe

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

Pre-Game

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

Deployment 

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

Legion Turn One

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

Trolls Turn One

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

Legion Turn Two

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

Trolls Turn Two

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

Legion: 0 Trolls: 0

Legion Turn Three

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

Legion: 2 Trolls: 0

Trolls Turn Three

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

Legion: 2 Trolls: 0

Legion Turn Four

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

Legion: 2 Trolls: 0

Trolls Turn Four 

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

Legion: 2 Trolls: 0

Legion Turn Five 

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

Legion: 3 Trolls: 0

Trolls Turn Five 

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

Legion: 4 Trolls: 0

 

Post-Game

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

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

-M

Mitsuharu on Bat Reps - Thagrosh, the Messiah vs. Garryth, Blade of the Retribution

Hi everyone. The journeyman league is over and I'm back up to full points again! To celebrate being up to 50 points I decided to break out a new Warlock. After some consideration I decided to go with Thagrosh, the Messiah, since I love the sculpt and I wanted to play a badass! The list I built up for him was:

eThagrosh +3

-Scythean -9

-Scythean -9

-Scythean -9

-Shredder -2

-Raek -4

-Naga -5

Foresaken -2

Foresaken -2

Max Legionnaires -6

Incubus -5

Objective - Fuel Cashe

This list is heavy on beasts to benefit from the feat and Manifest Destiny. The Raek can help with infantry where needed and the Naga can scalpel out annoyances and lend its animus out where needed. Obviously Fuel Cashe helps the list to get out onto the board for free and the Foresaken also provide some fury management while being useful in their own right. The Legionnaires can jam up scenario well, especially with the incubus package to keep them in the zones for longer. 

Pre-Game

This week I managed to get a game against Retribution, a faction I've only played against a couple of times. My opponent decided to play Garryth with Sylys, Moros, a Griffon and a Chimera in his battlegroup. The rest of the army consisted of two units of Stormfall Archers, a max unit of Strike force with Eiryss3 and a whole mess of solos including Narn, Nayl, two assassins, two Magisters and an artificer. The scenario I rolled was Incoming and Rik, my opponent, won the roll for initiative. He decided to go first, since the terrain was almost completely symmetrical. 

Deployment 

Rik deployed his battlegroup centrally and then placed one unit of Stormfall Archers on each flank, supplementing this with the strike force on the flank near my zone and with his solos on the other flank. I deployed my battlegroup to the right of centre and had my legionnaires opposite the opposing zone on my left, along with the Naga to benefit from the nearby forest. 

Retribution Turn One

Rik started by having all of his models run forwards taking up positions far up the board. Eiryss moved into the forest in my zone accompanied by assassins. The Magisters and artificers advanced into jam the Ret zone. 

Ret: 0 Legion: 0

Legion Turn One 

On my turn I knew I was going to have to move into threat range of his army especially since he had so much ranged in his list. I advanced the Naga into the forest and ran everything else pretty much directly forward. Thagrosh put Unnatural Agression on a Scythean and Dragon's Blood on the Legionnaires. Then I braced for impact. 

Ret: 0 Legion: 0

Retribution Turn Two

For the most of Rik's turn he focused fire on my Warbeasts. One Scythean got hit with a Gallows to drag it out and then shot it with a bunch of Stormfall archers on that flank, putting the hurt on him. Nayl then charged in and did some more damage, joined by both of his jacks, seriously wounding my Scythean but only taking out the Spirit. On the same flank he also killed a pair of legionnaires, triggering Vengence and giving me a host token as well. On the other flank the Stormfall archers and Strike Force took pot shots at the another Scythean. The Assassins both charged into the Raek but, despite Decapitation they didn't manage to finish it. This was a pretty rough opening and a lot of damage to my army early on! 

Ret: 0 Legion: 0

Legion Turn Two

My turn was a complete disaster. I'll be honest - it went about as badly as any turn in any game I've ever played and I went a little bit on tilt, which is pretty rare for me. It felt like the whole turn was an uphill battle where I got punched in face every step. I started the turn by having the Legionnaires clear the path for my Scythean to advance into chain attack range of both lights and Narn. Unfortunately the way I did that was killing Nayl. Who was within 7.5" of Thagrosh, stripping all of his fury and totally crippling me for the rest of the turn. My two damaged beasts had both lost an aspect which I now couldn't heal. The engaged Scythean missed the chain attack and so totally failed to accomplish anything. On the other flank both of my other Scytheans charged the Strike Force and Stormfall Archers resepctively but only managed to kill Eiryss between them. The Incubus and Naga took attacks into the Magisters but missed everything even with boosts. Thagrosh then backed off, but because I was on tilt and not thinking I moved him out of control on my heavies on the flank. Overall the Nayl bomb damaged me and my morale, and I failed my mental command check and messed up my turn by not thinking. By the end of the turn the only thing I'd accomplished was killing two targets, one of whom stripped my fury. That and expose all my heavies. I resigned myself to the upcoming retaliation. 

Ret: 0 Legion: 0

Retribution Turn Three

Luckily for me the Retribution retaliation wasn't nearly as bad as it could've been. Both of my Foresaken were killed, one by a Mage Hunter Assassin and one by Narn when he was freed up by the two lights finishing off my critically wounded Scythean. Garryth moved up to give apparition to one of the jacks. The Stormfall archers set a bunch of my Legionnaires on fire with their bows. The engaged Stormfall archers and Strike force on the other flank were ineffective at handling the two remaining Scytheans, not struggling to hit but having a hard time breaking their relatively high armour. Even Moros, who joined in, had difficulty doing anything as he hadn't been allocated any focus this turn. Overall this turn wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting given how much of a disaster my last turn had been. 

Ret: 0 Legion: 0

Legion Turn Three

No longer affected by Nayl I was able to get Thagrosh back up to full fury, though I did have to cut for three after stupidly moving him out of control on the Raek. That Raek, unable to drop the fury Frenzied and killed the Assassin engaging him. Thagrosh moved up and healed the aspects on the wounded Scythean before casting Manifest Destiny and using his feat. With manifest destiny up both Scytheans used all of their Fury to annihilate a whole bunch of elves. The central one took his attacks against Moros, using the tougher jack to trigger the Chain Attack, clearing off a bunch and finishing off the stealthy light. Meanwhile the Naga moved up and took out Narn with a shot. The Shredder gave Tenacity to Thagrosh and went rabid to put himself between the nearby jacks and my caster, clogging their charge lanes. The remaining Legionnaires made a nuisance of themselves in the Ret zone. Thanks to the feat I then moved the Naga back into the forest, had one Scythean kill another Strike Force member and the Raek killed the other assassin. The other Scythean advanced with his feat move right into Garryth and took a swing with Greater Destiny. It connected and left the elf caster with just five boxes. 

Ret: 0 Legion: 0

Retribution Turn Four

Garryth was now in a bit of a sticky situation. The priority was obviously stopping the Scythean he was engaged with before it killed him. To accomplish this he had the Griffon apparition backwards, out of Melee with the Legionnaire engaging him, along with the Chimera who did the same. Unfortunately for Rik he forgot to allocate anything to the Jacks and so when they moved back and engaged the Scythean they weren't able to finish him off, leaving him on a couple of boxes. This meant that Garryth had to come in and finish the job himself. Luckily it didn't take much from him to cut down the last few points of the heavy beast. The Stormfall Archers in the Ret zone moved up and took some shots on the Shredder but failed to kill him thanks to poor RAT. The Magisters and Artificers finished off the remaining Legionnaires giving me the last four Incubi. The remaining couple of Strike Force took some swings at the Scythean but were still unable to hurt him meaningfully. The remaining unit of Stormfall Archers advanced up and took some shots at the objective, not quite managing to destroy it to score a point. 

Ret: 0 Legion: 0

Legion Turn Four 

On my turn I could see that the attrition battle probably wasn't going to go my way at this point but Garryth was sat on only a medium camp and a couple of boxes so the path to victory seemed pretty clear. I considered trying for a spell assassination but the dice were a bit shaky and Thagrosh was a bit far out. I decided the best plan was to free up the last Scythean to do the job. First I produced the remaining four Incubus into the Ret zone. They spread out, making a bother in the zone and killing the Magisters, Sylys and a couple of the Stormfall archers on that flank. I then had Thagrosh move up and spray onto the Stormfall Archers on the other flank, boosting to hit two of them, clearing them out of the charge lane. Thags then cast Manifest Destiny and healed the aspects on the beasts. I then had the Raek advance around and finish off the last Stormfall, clearing the path for the Scythean. The heavy then activated and charged Garryth, taking two free strikes from the last of the Strike Force. Both hit bit did no meaningful damage. The Scythean boosted the charge attack and, with Manifest Destiny was able to land the hit, which was more than enough to put the caster down. 

Legion Assassination Victory

Post-Game

Despite the agonising second turn this game was good fun and it was cool to play against Ret as they're a faction I rarely see. It did feel good to be back up to 50 points too after playing smaller games for a few weeks! I was annoyed with myself for going so far on tilt in turn two and I did apologise after the game but thankfully Rik was very sporting about it and agreed that he'd have felt the same way if the roles were reversed. Luckily I managed to pull an assassination win out of the bag because otherwise I think it was pretty sketchy. I wouldn't like to have guessed who would've come out on top if the game went on a little longer! 

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

Journeyman League 2 - Week 2

Hi everyone! It's week 2 of the journeyman league! Unlike last time (somewhere in the bowels of the archive) we're just playing with the standard JML schedule. That means that this week we went up to 15 points including the starting battlegroup. So I had a total of 4 points to spend. So I added some support models:

pVayl +6

-Scythean -9

-Seraph -9

-Shredder -2

Shepherd -1

Spell Martyr -1

So basically I added the Shredder to be a fury and transfer battery as well as including Tenacity in my list. The shepherd was a given since it's such a utility piece. That left me with a single point to spend and I lumped for a spell martyr. I'm really glad I did. 

Anyway once I had my list prepared I got down to the game store and managed to get myself another three games. Here they are:

Game One

My first game of the night was against Jayke, my long time gaming buddy and Hall of Legends writer. He's been interested in Skorne for a while and so he was using the JML to shift into them, for a while at least. His list was Morghoul with a Gladiator, a Brute, a Savage and had added a minimum unit of Paingivers and an Agoniser. A pretty solid list. We decided to play Outflank, since Jayke had some fancy zones. I took the first turn and we both moved up the board. On my turn two I managed to run the spell Martyr up the board to near the Gladiator and then boosted a Rampager into it, pulling it out and turning it backwards, away from the Scythean. With Incite up I managed to one round the heavy and then used the feat to pull back. Without the Rush animus the wall that Jayke was using to cover his models became a real impediment to his beasts. Despite this, one of the Cyclops managed to get in on the Scythean, doing loads of damage but failing to get the kill. Morghoul moved up and managed to get both of my beasts in his feat. Luckily I was able to pull them both back and clear off the Cyclops and the Agoniser. I'd also managed to secure one zone for two turns to take the scenario lead. Jayke decided that this was a bad situation and went for an assassination. He measured Morghoul's control and it was going to be close. He ran one Cyclops up to block off the Seraph and the paingivers ran to surround the Sythean so I couldn't use dark sentinel. Unfortunately when it came to the charge Morghoul was just short and so decided to call the game since he felt that there was no way to bring the game back in his favour. So I managed to get myself another win with Vayl! 

Game Two

My second game was against Luke, who had shifted back into Circle for the JML and was using pKaya with a Feral Warpwolf and a Pureblood in the battlegroup and had added a unit of Shifting Stones with UA for 15 points. Again I took the first turn and after we both moved up I was able to repeat my sneaky performance from the previous game, running the Spell Martyr up to get Rampager on the Feral, dragging it up to the threat range of the Scythean who, with the help of a few shots from the Seraph, managed to one round it and then pull back with the feat. Luke then went to dominate one of the zones (we were still playing Outflank). The Feral failed to spray the Shepherd that was contesting the zone, forcing Kaya to zap her. Between that and two Spirit Doors (to bring Kaya up and then pull the Pureblood back) even with the feat Kaya was only camping one. On my turn I had Vayl slipstream the Scythean up and then incited, catching a stone, Kaya and the Pureblood. With Chiller as well the Scythean charged into Kaya and managed to kill her after hitting both initials at dice plus 6 and then clearing her off with the chain attack, using my last fury to get the final hit. This was another fun game, and got me another win with this pretty broken list!

Game Three

My final game of the night was against Ben, who's always given me a good run for my money when we've played. He was also playing Skorne, but with a completely different battlegroup to Jayke, featuring Xerxis, an Aradus Sentinel, a Savage and a Krea, and had added a min unit of Paingivers and a feralgeist to bring his list up to 15 points. I took first turn again, and we both shuffled forwards (and the Sentinel cranked a damage roll on a blast on my Scythean). I then ran my spell martyr up again and pulled out the Aradus, turning it backwards again to give my Scythean the +2 and then I put up Incite. Unfortunately, though, despite the charge my damage rolls were so poor that I left it with a few boxes. I was still able to pull back with the feat, though. Next turn the Aradus turned around and got a nice shot off on the Scythean, directly hitting and getting more damage on it. The Cyclops managed to trash my Objective, clearing a line for the Krea to advance up and also shoot the Scythean, paralysing it. On my turn Vayl moved right up and slipstreamed the Scythean, giving it enough movement to get all three of Ben's warbeasts in its Melee range. With incite and chiller I managed to kill the Aradus, then the Savage and then reduce the Krea to a single box. The Skorne retaliation featured Xerxis taking out the Scythean with two attacks under the feat, freeing up a lane for the Krea to charge Vayl. The paingivers moved B2B with Xerxis for the armour buff and then healed the Krea. It charged Vayl but my Shredder advanced up with Dark Sentinel and managed to do just enough damage to finish him off before he could attack. On my turn I had Vayl boost a Hoarfrost into Xerxis, hitting and getting the critical stationary. This allowed me to clear off the two paingivers giving the armour buff. I then used my last two fury to throw a Malice at Xerxis, doing a touch more damage. The Seraph moved up and rolled for four Strafes, easily hitting the stationary target and boosting all 4 damage rolls, taking down his health gradually. The Shredder then went rabid and advanced into Xerxis, taking both attacks but managing to spike the damage rolls just enough to finish him off. Another win!

Wrap-Up

Another successful week, getting me another 9 journeyman points for my wins. I'm consistently impressed with what Vayl brings to the table with her impressive array of buffs and boosts. Considering the Spell Martyr was in the list as a throw-away point filler he more than made his inclusion up, getting me three seperate, critical rampagers off that let me capitalise and take a heavy off the table! I'm less certain about what I want to include in my list next week, when we go up to 25 points. More beasts? A unit? Only time will tell! Stay tuned for 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