The Ol' Witch / Infantry Brick vs Infantry Brick

The High Reclaimer vs. Zevanna Agha, Old Witch of Khador (Khador)

Loss: Scenario (5/0)

Well having had a little tutoring from our local PG last week I thought I'd give High Reclaimer another go.  The intention was to play two lists but the first one became a proper slugfest that we only ended up with a single game.  My list was the High Reclaimer list that I've been playing for the last few weeks (yes, I'm just as shocked as you - the fourth game and no changes!!!).  Against me was Chris who took the old witch, scrapjack, pikemen, winterguard, doom reavers and Behemoth. 

I won the roll and chose to go second (trying to learn from mistakes previous going first).  Turn 1 was scary, thanks to a mini feat and Kovnik the pikemen ended up with a 20" advance ending in shield wall just beyond half-way.  On the other side everything ran forward, Old Witch then telported forward and feated.

That kinda made my turn one mute when it came to the right hand zone.  I minifeated the zealots and ran foward with the firs three before realising the immunity to damage doesn't include feats - 3 dead zealots and a wasted feat turn, great!  So all I could do was shuffle the infantry up to the edge of her control and wait, a few Cleansers did a CRA and missed but that was the height of excitement.  On the other flank everything advanced forward and popped smoke.  I wasn't looking forward to facing the Behemoth and doom reavers but  was hoping the clouds would keep my Bastions safe for the time being.

Turn two and the pikemen advanced to form a line across the edge fo the zone, hemming me out.  They also gained Iron Flesh and shieldwall to make them pretty much immune to everything I had opposite them.  A large group also engaged the Avatar but caused minimal damage.  On the left the clouds caused issues and meant nothing could really shoot save for killing the lone Bastion who was too far to one side to get hidden.  The rest of the guys moved in the hope of getting line of sight around the clouds turn 3.

My turn 2 and I threw everything at the the pikemen in an attempt to dislodge some of them and challenge the zone.  Sadly nothing happened, the iron wall of pikemen held.  I then saw an opportunity for the Avatar to go smash the Behemoth.  What I failed to do was to activate the Covenant first for no knock downs and so the pikemen tripped him up and he hit the dust.  I now had an issue with The Behemoth and I needed to do something about it.  Luckily the Bastions were in range thanks to reach and so three of them piled in but had very little damage thanks to appaling rolls from me.  The rest charged where they could and killed a few winterguard.  I popped cloud where I could and then waited for the retaliation.

Here is where the game started to unravel for me, I was now down 1/0 on scenario with very little hope of getting in the zone on my next turn.  That would put me 2/0 in Khador turn 3, 3/0 in my turn three and 4/0 in Khador turn 4.  I completely missed the significance of having only a single turn left before potentially losing the game.

Turn 3 played out as expected, I took a beating from Behemoth and the Doom Reavers losing 5 Bastions (luckily the advice I picked up previously left me with surviving members from each squad).  The Avatar then took a hell of a kicking from the Pikemen, losing its movement (this also stopped me being able to trample into the zone next turn).  I also lost the majority of the Zealots.

My turn 3, completely unaware of how fragile my situation was I was intent on smashing through as many of the Khador troops as I could to then win on attrition.  The way I figured was that I'd go 4/0 down on Khador turn 4 but then with overwhelming numbers to smash what was left for assassination or scenario victory.  With this in mind I went to town on the pikemen killing them all with bombs, cleansing fire and the Avatar.  On the other side I caused major damage on Behemoth and killed 4 Doom Reavers along with more winter guard via Ashes to Ashes using the soulds from last turn.

I then hit the timer to swap and was feeling very confident of a victory.  Whilst I knew I was down 4/0 on scenario by the start of my next turn I'd completely forgotten about getting a point for trashing the enemy objective.  To my dismay the two surviving Doom Reavers charged and smashed it to bits putting me 5/0 down on scenario.  Worst thing is theres no reason I shouldn't have seen it coming, I was just far to focussed on killing things!

End of Game:

Lessons Learnt -

• I need to see the bigger picture (yes, this was in my lessons fromlast time).  Going down on scenario is fine but I need to remember you can score points by more than just zones/flags - killzone could also have been a tool.
• I need to find a way to make sure no matter what I don't allow zones to be uncontested on turn 2.  Especially when I'm going second, activating the Covenant first could really have made a difference and allowed me to trample through to Behemoth or the zone.

2016 Win/Loss record to date: 6/18 (Protectorate 6/17 - Circle 0/1)

You Can't Burn Me!

Feora, Protector of the Flame vs. Absylonia, Daughter of Everblight (Legion)

Loss: Assassination & Scenario (5/0)

A bit of midweek tournament practice - awesome!  So the list is Marks Protectorate drop, I've played it before with limited success.  The option was to trawl through with Kreoss2 and hope he made a mistake or try something new.  So I chose the later, with immunity fire then eFeora was an easy choice, I've also put together a jack heavy list with her after being on the wrong end of Adams 4 heavies on club night this week!

So deployment was simple, the plan was for the jacks to control the friendly zone and smash stuff at range whilst the Flameguard (with newly released Pyrrhus) contest the other zone.  I lost the roll and went first, Mark opting for a few first round pot shots.  So everything moved as far up the table as it could, ready for a critical turn of shooting turn 2.

 Middle of turn 1:

In Legion turn one I lost a few Flameguward (but gained some souls!) and had some permnant effect markers limit my movement.  Otherwise though I got off surprisingly light, the only danger was a Harrier threatening to cause an issue with all the support pieces behind the jacks.

So up rolled my turn and having learnt that focus is best used frugally I placed the focus where i thought it needed to go (lead Reckoner 1, Redeemer 2), and left Feora with 2 to boost her to ARM 19 in case of any scatters or unforseen threats that came her way.  My hope was to take out the nearest Ravagore, I knew that I would probably lose a Reckoner but then the charging 3 remaining jacks should make short work of the Blightbringer and the remaining heavy.

However the dice weren't with my, after 4 Reckoner shots (only the first boosted shot hit), 3 Redeemer shots and a Vanquisher shot I'd only managed to set the Ravagore, Raek and BB on fire and cause a few points of damage on the Ravagore.  Legion turn 2 was going to hurt!

Middle of turn 2:

Not quite realising how lucky he'd been the previous turn, Mark feated and used Abby to destroy my objective, this gave him and point and gave conferred rage to everything else...he then proceeded to flatten two Reckoners and heavily damage the Vanquisher.  In my haste to make sure everyone was in range I'd placed the jacks to close to each other meaning that when one was destroyed any remaining attacks could be transferred onto another jack rather than being wasted (one to learn from next time).

I was that shocked after my loses I forgot to take a photo during turn 3, essentially my response was to take a few pot shots at Abby with the Redeemer and use the remaining Reckoner to flatten the on fire Ravagore and the Vanquisher to bash the other Ravagore.  I also charged this second Ravagore with the Flameguard and Pyrrhus who severly damaged it. Trying to learn from previous hopeless looking situations (where I'd thrown in the towel after this point) I feated Feora, this put her at ARM 27 and meant I could move the fire around a little, removing it from the BB & Ravagore and placing it on the smaller more vulnerable beasts.

Legion turn 3 and most of the smaller beasts succumbed to the flames, the Blightbringer moved up and smashed the last Reckoner.  In a fit of rage the Ravagore turned to face and then killed the heavily damaged Vanquisher, however in doing so he couldn't attacl the Flameguard as they were no longer in his front arc.  Abbya and the Raek then went for the assassination run on eFeora, however even poaching focus from Feora to reduce her armour it was unsuccesful and Abby fled to the nearby woods.  Scoring two more points for dominating my objective in the process.

Well I hadn't expected to get a turn 4 so now the aim was to get my own back and go for the assassination.  I aimed with the Redeemer and took two shots at her for a few points of damage, not amazing but a start.  Feora then used Firestep to escape the Raek and charged Abby - an assassination was optimistic but even so she took a battering and with her being on fire I was optimistic.  I then moved a choir man to the edge of the zone to stop it.  bein absent minded I'd forgottent that Casters can't contest and this was all I could do.


Middle of Turn 4:

Well the game was pretty much lost, either Abby was going to kill Feora (now on no focus and with no Escorted jacks) or something would kill the last choir and claim the zone.  As it turned out they both happened!  The Naga shot the choir and Abby went to town on Feora, good game!

Bottom of Turn 4/End Game:

Lessons Learnt -

• Don't clump models together, it just makes things easy, equally I could have probably kept the other Jacks back and sacrificed one so that the others could get revenge!
• eFeora is pretty hard, to take a beating from a light and caster and still survive is impressive, and I need to not forget the Escort ARM bonus.

2016 Win/Loss record to date: 6/17 (Protectorate 6/16 - Circle 0/1)

Playing a Press Ganger don't ya know!

The High Reclaimer vs. High Executioner Servath Reznik (Protectorate of Menoth)

Loss: Assassination

Well I've been messaging our local Press Ganger quite a bit recently (sorry Adam!).  He also plays Menoth and is much muhc better than I am.  We met at my first Tournament that he ran and he gave me a bit of a coaching session during the "bye" game.

So he suggested coming to check out the Mammoths and we sorted a game.  He played using a Reznik1 Judgement of Fire list (with 4 Reckoners!!) and I decided to go for High Reclaimer again.

I deployed in a similar way to how i did when I played Kraye.  I opted to go second (to get the extra move up the board) and so Adam ran everything up the board at me, leaving his entire force on teh edge of my zone on turn 1. 

I unpacked as I have before with Zealots mini-feating and running forward with some zealots in the clouds and the rest behind - big mistake!  Everything else moved up behind, although I messed up the pocket for HR leaving my clouds a lot closer to my guys than I'd ahve liked.  I even somehow ended up with members of the second Zealot wave in the cloud.

Turn two and I knew I'd made some big mistakes.  In a demonstration of what Cleansers do they set themselves up in two lines and torched everything!  Because my zealots were visible they coudl be targetted from outside the clouds, the packed nature behind the clouds meant that the sprays also got the guys behind them.  Before the turn was up Adam was out of continous fire tokens and I was in serious trouble.

My turn and as expected all the Zealots who were on fire died, I also took a serious amount of damge on the Bastions - although none died.  In retribution I incinerated a Reckoner (POW18 CRA) which caused serious damage.  I also bombed and charged the cleansers killing 6 of them.  However I forgot to Enliven the Avatar which meant problems next turn

Well turn 3 carried on the theme of Turn 2 and I lost an Avatar, 7 Bastions and a Revenger.  I could see a little positive that there was a potential assassination run from feating behind the front lines and go for a stab on Reznik.

So I went for it and greed took over, first I used Ashes to Ashes and with Witch Hound a Jack blocked my frontal charge.  Second Ashes to Ashes and Reznik went and hid a little further away anticipating a shot from the Vassal.  The Vassal then took his shot and Reznik moved back to stop both my newly feated Bastions from charging him.  Had I avoided doing this I would have potentially got 3 charging Bastions, as it was I got one who promptly did nothing.   

With all this faffing I'd left HR a little to open for my liking.  With a little finese the  charge lane was opened up, the Bastion engaging Reznik killed and the man himself cast Engine of Destruction and performed his sacred duties as High Executioner....

Lessons Learnt -

• The game showed how far I still have to go to get anywhere near winning regularly at WMH.  However after the game we went through a deployment and turn 1 and I now feel much more confident about what I should be looking to achieve with HR.
• I need to be very aware of Sprays when I use HR I need to start remembering the finer points on the cards.  Using Blessed Weapons on the Bastions to bypass Arcane Shield would have meant another 4 points of damage for every hit.
• There are a load more lessons learnt but I think it will take me a while to absorb them all!

2016 Win/Loss record to date: 6/17 (Protectorate 6/16 - Circle 0/1)

High Reclaimer Attempt 2

The High Reclaimer vs. Captain Jeremiah Kraye (Cygnar)

Loss: Scenario (6/4)

I'd intended to play a Kreoss1 list seeing as I'd not had much luck with playing High Reclaimer (HR) on Tuesday.  However Glen pointed out (quite rightly) that playing HR for the first time into an unfavourable matchup doesn't make him a bad caster, so I resolved to try again.

This time, instead of Siege he used Kraye who essentially makes his jacks into Cavalry.  My list was the same - for the first time ever I resisted the urge to "tweak" and off we went!

I went first (my first mistake - the extra 3" forward are invaluable to HR) and ran forward (the zealots this time in two lines with the first line in the clouds).  Everyone else kept behind them and that was turn 1.  One thing I noticed but failed to do anything about was that the Avatar was completely out of postion. Glen had opted to place all his jacks on completely the other flank, only opposed by a minimum unit of Cleansers (who were woefully outclassed in this match up).

Cygnar turn and they crept forward and let rip at the Zealots in the clouds killing 3.  Other than that it was a pretty quiet turn.

Bottom of Turn 1:

Turn two I advanced again and took control of the centre ground.  The Zealots mini-feated to make sure I had someone left.  I knew that I wouldn't be able to hold the zones but made sure that I was contending as many of them as I could.  I also cast Ashes to Ashes on a Zealot with my newly found Souls.  A bit of luck on the dice and 4 gun mages dropped dead for the cost of a single Zealot - not a bad trade off!

Middle of Turn 2:

Cygnar turn 2 and with my clouds only blocking my centre I took a beating.  Kraye feated to give his Jacks free charges and boosted hit roles.  He also has Mage sight which allowed his two see through the clouds and drop Ol Rowdy and a Stormclad into the left hand Bastions.  Whilst not able to drop either unit I still lost 4 Bastions.  Other shooting also resulted in the deaths of 5 clearnsers adn the Avatar getting knocked back to the edge of the zone by Gunmages.

Bottom of Turn 3:

Turn four and I feated back the Bastions who had died and threw them into the two heavies in front of them, I completely forgot about Blessed on their weapons or chances are they both would have fallen and the ending would be very different!  Nevermind, they caused a lot of damage to both the jacks even though neither died.  The zealots also managed to kill Eiryss2 and removed the remainer of the gun mages along with a black 13th member.  Ashes to Ashes killed some support staff and things were looking ok.

Cygnar turn 4 and I lost all but three Bastions, even damaged the sheer strength of the hits was enough to smash a bastion and there wasn't much point passing the damage on.

My turn 4 and sadly I was a little greedy and it cost me the game.  I was very down on time so I went for the minimum number of actions to fullfill what I thought I needed too.  The Zealots ran foward to bomb the remaining Solos.  I also threw a cheeky bomb at Kraye and caused some damage, this was my downfall (I was never going to kill Kraye but had I bombed the Holt instead he probably would have died and I'd have won the game).   I then moved everything I could into teh right zone to Dominate it and threw Rhupert and the book into the left zone to contest.

I actually felt reasonably happy at this point I was drawing 4/4 on scenario and unless Glen could kill HR (through the clouds and behind the Bastions) then I foresaw it going to 6/6 in his turn and I could run in the Hierophant for the win (8/6 on Scenario) in my Turn 5 - Game sorted!!!

Middle of Turn 4:

What I missed was that Holt wasn't engaged and simply ran through the clouds into the zone for the win.  A bit of an anticlimax but I don't mind losing when I could do things differently next time and get the win!

Lessons Learnt -

• I need to see the bigger picture, had I killed Holt with the bomb rather than targetting Kraye the result would have been very different.
• I need to start remembering the finer points on the cards.  Using Blessed Weapons on the Bastions to bypass Arcane Shield would have meant another 4 points of damage for every hit.
• I was happier with the setup although I still think there is room for improvement, I need to be getting a charge in rather than taking the hit.
• I feel much happier with HR than I did after game 1.  I need to stick with a caster or two and stop jumping around.

2016 Win/Loss record to date: 6/16 (Protectorate 6/15 - Circle 0/1)

Playing the Club Champ

The High Reclaimer vs. Major Markus "Siege" Brisbane (Cygnar)

Loss: Assassination

Well this week I ararnged a game with the club Chairman (and current club WMH champ) and his Cygnar.  I also decided that I needed to expand my list of available casters ready for the next Tournament in just over a months time. With this in mind I rolled out the High Reclaimer (HR).  I love the model and the fluff behind him but I've never felt that he was a particualrly good caster based on limited focus and a tiny control area.  However the internet raves about him so I thought it was worth a dabble.

Before the game I'd gone through my first turn in an effort to make sure everyone could fit behind the cloud wall.  It took me a few practice goes but I got a rough idea and deployed that way on the night.  Basically it was zealots to run forward to create a screen so the Bastions could march up behind and hopefully get to the enemy relatively undamaged.  Everything else would follow up ready to smash and grab assuming I coudl get the Alpha.

For once the plan worked perfectly, for the first two turns of the game the only model to die was a choirman who was killed by HR charging forward for extra distance on the clouds.  Unfortunately I hadn't anticipated the next step where the zealots got jammed up by Boomhowlers and the whole train came to a complete standstill.  I tried to get out of this and protect everyone using clouds and the book to try to force Siege back (if he wanted to cast spells) but due to poor placement and some unlucky dice rolls I failed to kill the trolls which left the book to far back to stop Seige and all my heavy hitters were still miles from combat.  I'd managed to tuck HR into a pocket behind several Cleansers and Zealots and behind the screen of clouds though so I thought I'd have another go at it turn 4.

Bottom of turn 3:

And heres where it all went wrong, Siege was able to simply feat then walk to within range of HR and drop a boosted Ground Pounder shot right on HR's head. At ARM8 due to the feat and spiking 15 on three dice HR fell lifeless to the floor.

Feora, Protector of the Flame vs. Lord Commander Stryker (Cygnar)

Loss: Scenario (5/0)

In my mind like an itch I've had this list but haven't wanted to try it whilst we were only getting a single game in a night (I thought it was unfair to play a comedy list and waste the one game someone else may get that week).  However after getting battered fairly quickly in game one there was more than enough time for a second game.

The list is basically eFeora, 8 x Repenters, Vanquisher, 2 x min Choir, full Zealots + UA, reclaimer and vassal.  Don't ask why I have 8 repenters it wasn't by design, more a case of buying things from eBay that "come with a free repenter".  Anyway the list sounded strong and with eFeora they're all speed 7 which is really nice.

I was facing off what is apparently a "themed" eStryker list containing 4 jacks and a large unit of Stormblade infantry, not neccesarily as much infantry as I'd have liked but nevermind - I got to use my list!

The game was basically a ponderous advance up the board for two turns and then turning on the fire. I managed to minifeat the zealots the same turn that the flames came in range so was able to spray through them into the infantry.  I also managed to spray Stryker twice on this turn through Ol' Rowdy  and by then end of it there was quite a lot of things on fire.  I also saw for the first time the value of the Reclaimer as with a soul on him he virtually stopped the Stormblade charging as they would instanly die if they did.  For some reason the list was doing much better than I had anticipated!

Bottom of turn 2:

As always whilst having fun I'd missed the part where eStryker had been sat on a flag for three turns and it was my opponents turn.  That turn my jacks took one hell of a beating to the extent that I was left with only two jacks at full health and the rest were at 25% health or less.  I'd also lost my reclaimer and all of the Zealots.

So in my turn it was assassinate or die!  I was fairly confident that with her Fire Step and 11" threat if I could get to Stryker he'd fall (having been on fire for a few turns).  The problem was in my attempt to secure her from assassination I'd pinned her between two jacks (see photo above).  I also had to move my jacks out the way, set enough things on fire to feat with and create a charge lane.  I used up most of my focus powering the jacks to set things aflame and sacrificed one by disengaging Ol' Rowdy (I needed to do this to open a charge lane but thats where it all went wrong).  The jacks flames were either completely ineffective or two effective, all the infantry I sprayed died (thus not leaving fires) and I missed the targets that may have survived being roasted.  When the dust settled I went for it, she feated for 5 focus, stepped beautifully into the gap created for her and the charge lane was open.  The issue was that the jack I had sacrificed was now difficult terrain and to move across it took 4" of movement leaving her well out of reach range.

The game then finished as unable to contest the flag (being a warcaster) the scenario clock went to 5/0.

Lessons Learnt -

• Now I've got the Repenter list out of my system move on!  I think the list still has legs but I need to get familair with eFeora first before its worth trying again.
• Sprays are cool, to be able to target units behind units is very worthwhile doing and getting continuous fire that won't go out on  a warcaster is very nice indeed!
• High Reclaimer is a lot more fiddly than he first appears, I actually need things to die to get him some power and getting some damage on the enemy may help a little to.
• I need more game time before this tournament!  I'm going to try to squeeze in an extra game each week as I really need the prep.

2016 Win/Loss record to date: 6/15 (Protectorate 6/14 - Circle 0/1)

No games, but more toys!

Sadly with a training course this week I haven't managed to get in any games, not ideal but sometimes life gets in the way!

However I have managed to scavenge some bits from eBay - the last Reckoner for Vindy Tier 4 (I'm going to magnatise so that I can pick and choose) and pFeora to add a bit of infantry hate and for those occasions where an assassination run is just right there...

Start of the Circle

Baldur the Stonecleaver vs. Ravyn, Eternal Light (Retribution of Scyrah)

Loss: Assassination (0/2 on scenario)

Sadly I took no photos with this game as it was all a little rushed.  I know anyone reading this will probably be saying hold on its your first game with Cricle why on earth throw yourself in at 50 points?  So the reason be twofold, the first is it was meant to be a 15/25 point game but my opponent was a no show.  Having been let down I thought a game at 50 points would allow me to get a feel of lots of different units at once rather than building up.  The army I bought also has a Baldur T4 list built in, loving the Sticks and Stones concept I just had to give it a go!

So the game; well thanks to the tier bonus the only thing I had to deploy in my zone was Bladur himself.  Everything else either advance deploys or has has advanced move, awesome!

Rather than going into a blow by blow account, its probably quicker to got through the main points fo the game.  I used the two units of woldshrimp to contest my objective whilst throwing everything else at the opposing objective.  Being made of stone I expected them to be a little tougher but they died to a hail of fire from houseguard riflemen.  I also didn't realise that you can do the float away after shooting which would have kept them in a treeline a little more safe.  Everything else I threw at my opponents zone, the wolds are a little slow but being used to menite jacks this wasn't an issue, especially when they advance deploy.  Turn two I teleported a wold guardian in behind a Mymidon expecting it to floor the thing (its got two massive lumps of stone as arms), sadly this wasn't the case and I had to rely on a charging woldwatcher to finish the job.  To one side Megalith and a Woldwarden went to town on another heavy, I feel I should say at this point that whilst I knew these are supposed to be ranged jacks I was expecting something similar to a charging Vanquisher.  It wasn't to be and now all my wolds were in charge range of a unit of weaponmasters, suffice to say at the bottom of turns two and three I lost them all...  Ah well chalk it down to experience.

The last part of the game I was most proud of, I used the druids to maneuver everything out of the way so I could get at the opposing caster.  It all went swimmingly until the last 2 dice rolls were really poor and that left Ravyn about 2 mm out of range of my Baldur assassination run (create forest 12" away, teleport in and use reach to finish the job.  I was a little gutted but then I hadn't really played very well so didn't really deserve a win.  Thoroughly loved it though and having a way to win even after losing most of my models was a really nice feeling.  Its back to the menites for the future getting ready for the tournament but I'm really looking forward to moving into Circle afterwards.


Lessons Learnt -

• Lessons learnt isn't really that worthwhile, I did a lot of things wrong but then its a new faction and to expect anything else would just be stupid.  However there are two things I should have done better that I need to concentrate on:
• The big thing was when I ran Baldur to safety in a woods.  Had I placed him 4 mm closer to the enemy the assassination run was on, however I placed him 2 1/2" into the woods which did nothing to stop him getting shot but did stop him doing what I needed.  I should have either placed him further in to keep safe or on the edge to remain a threat.
• Turn 1 I should have made a mannikin into a forest and teleported in Baldur to feat, its simple, theres nothing my opponent could do to stop it and it may have bought a round of shooting/positioning.

Nevermind, on to the tournament prep!


2016 Win/Loss record to date: 6/13 (Protectorate 6/12 - Circle 0/1)

Mammoth Roller - 1st Tournament of 2016!

Well Tournament time was here!  The day started with the night before's pizza for breakfast (the Breakfast of Champions) and then a walk down to the Wargames (via Asda to pick up a rather fetching tray - another post to follow!). 

I was a little nervous as an awful lot comes down to the actual draw, with quite a wide variety of skill levels in the room I hoped not to be drawn versus one of the favorites in the first round.  As it was I got drawn against the same Circle player who had smashed me with both Kromac2 and Morvahna2 recently.

 

Grand Exemplar Kreoss vs. Krueger the Stormlord (Circle Orboros)

Win: Assassination (0/2 on scenario) 

 

So having been beaten in the last 2 out of 3 games I was a little nervous.  The only benefit being that it was against Krueger2 who he wasn't very familiar with.  So as is standard with Hordes I dropped my Kreoss2 list hoping to weather the storm before smashing the exemplar hammer down and hopefully killing enough to win.

 

Turn one was pretty standard, the Circle moved up and dropped a screen of clouds in front of their lines.  I ran forward and feated the Zealots in charge range hoping that they'd get in the way.

In turn 2 things got interesting, I hadn't realised how bad Kruegers feat was versus this list.  He jumped forward and pushed back my entire army 3 inches, this doesn't sound much but the second part is what caused the issue.  A 2" movement penalty on my moves next turn whilst also stopping running and charging left most of my guys at the end of turn 2 either in the same position as the end of turn 1 or further away!  In several javelins found their mark and wiped out half the Errants.  The only good thing being that as the rest of the circle advanced it brought them into melee range of my Zealots (who couldn't firebomb without causing more risk to my guys then the oppostion).  The Zealots wandered into base to base, more to cause an irritation rather than kill anything.

Now that the after effects of Kruegers feat were done with turn three was back to game time.  I lost a few Zealots and a few more Errants to combat actions but really this was light as the Zealots had trapped the Circle beasts behind the Circle infantry at the back where they couldn't really cause much destruction.  My turn three was feat turn and resulted in the destruction of all the circle infantry in my way.  There was also an Argus pinning the Reckoner that was killed by the Errant Senschal to release the Reckoner to smash a Feral Warpwolf.

 

And then into the final turn, with  only three stones, two heavies and Krueger left the scenario win was pretty much off the table.  The only thing left was an asssassination run on Kreoss.  This all went swimmingly by moving various pieces out of the way with Telekinesis.  The next bit seemed simple and involved killing a single Bastion, however due to Sanguine bond this effectively gave the Bastion 40 hit boxes.  Whilst he had a good go, having thrown everything at him the unit was still all alive with 8 boxes remaining.  Having realised that he'd lost the last thing was to kill a few Zealots to drop them below half strength.  

In my turn all that remained was the Reckoner turning around into combat with Krueger and smashing him in the face with his bat.

Grand Exemplar Kreoss vs. Absylonia, Daughter of Everblight (Legion of Everblight)

Loss: Assassination (2/0 on scenario)

This game turned out to be a mirror match of the first time I'd beaten Legion a few weeks ago.  With regards to lists I knew that my Severius list would never stand a chance against the beast heavy list so the only option was to play Kreoss again and be list locked in the final round.

A standard deployment later and turn 1 went as expected, I ran forward behind the Zealots screen and mini-feated.  The next turn I received some long range pot shots that set a few Zealots on fire who would no doubt die the following turn.

Turn two and I continued my advance, jamming the remaining Zealots into a few beasts as always more to cause irritation than damage.  My hope was that these would pin things back ready for a turn 3/4 smash to remove as many heavies as possible.  I then remembered the scenario was killbox and moved Kreoss as far forward to keep him safe.  This was my critical mistake, I decided that behind the Bastions was safe from tramples and so chose to put him in a pocket a little further forward to avoid Killbox, had I put him in the other pocket he would have been tucked up nice and safe.

Well Mark rarely misses an opportunity to assassinate and I'd left a screamer on for him.  Whilst he was immune to trample he wasn't immune to shooting and the only thing that was blocking LOS was a Zealot and Raek.  However the solution was simple, the Raek leapt out of the way and into the Zealot.  I short attack later and the line of sight could be drawn.

Up stepped a pair of everyones favourite assassination beasts (Ravagores) and some spits headed inbound to Kreoss.  I thought I'd got away with it as at 14/19 Kreoss survived the two blasts but like a pro Mark had left a few millmitres between the bases so up stepped the Blightbringer.  Not taking chances everything was boosted and the Blightbreath flattened Kreoss (and with only 50 minutes of the 2 hour game time gone).

Grand Scrutator Severius vs. Kommander Zoktavir, The Butcher Unleashed (Khador)

Win: Assassination (0/2 on scenario)

The third and final game which was essentially for 3rd place overall.  I was list locked with Severius (although against Khador this wasn't neccesarily a problem) and Mark dropped Butcher3. 

Having both been assassinated fairly quickly in the previous round we were both in good humour and no rush to finish the game in under an hour so we took it at a nice sedate pace.  Chris even posed for a photo (note I'd forgotten about the photo after deployment so this was taken after I'd run the Vessel forward):

Having not really played each other before the first turn was a little cagey.  I did my standard raising of all of my upkeeps and ran everyone forward.  Most of the inbound fire came at my Flameguard but thanks to defenders ward & dirge of mists at DEF16 they survived surprisingly well!

Turn two and the Flameguard split in to and ran at the Winterguard and Widowmakers (more to stop them shooting than anything) as well as creating a screen across the front of the Vessel of Judgement.  I then opened up on the Behemoth with everything I could (including using it as a target for Ashes to Ashes and the Vessels gun).  Whilst the Behemoth like a champ took the punishment everything around it wasn't so lucky.  Butcher lost both Argus' and his wardog and the pikemen took a beating.  Too late however I realised that due to poor positioning (and having been forced into taking the first turn) Severius was in the killbox so I was going to gift to CP's to Chris.

In the bottom of turn 2 Chris had clearly decided to claim his friendly zone to put him on 3/0 and force me to chase the scenario.  For killing his dogs Butcher got a free move up, he then charged the screening Flameguard and dragged them and Blessing of Vengeance into combat.  Destroying all the Flameguard with two flashing blades (whilst the Blessings shield knocked him 2" closer to the zone) he then feat'd and did the same again, finishing of 8/12 Flameguard and Blessing over the course of the turn.  He then camped on ARM22 in the zone.  Luckily the Widowmakers couldn't hit the last 2 Flameguard in combat and so they were left to contest the zone. 

The final move was the pikemen on my left charging the Avatar - and here's where it got a little dodgy and I felt a little like a cheat.  Chris forgot to do the attacks on the Avatar after moving them all up. My turn started and I managed to roll high on focus for the Avatar. At this point Chris remembered he hadn't attacked (but didn't request that he do them now).  Treating this as an honest mistake I offered for him to do the attack now if he wished, he took me up on the offer and took some points from the Avatar.  However being enlivened the Avatar then skipped away towards a relatively unprotected Butcher.  In my defence I was going to charge the Avatar out of combat anyway across into Butcher, taking a free strike in the process.  And to a point the combat action was not to dissimilar from what the freestrike would have been, however it all felt a little dirty that I'd tricked him into enabling the enliven move (although though hand on heart this wasn't the case).

So back to my turn three, I was now sat with a really opportune assassination in front of me.  Butcher was there camping focus up to ARM22 but I now had the Vessel and Avatar in range of causing damage.  Taking my own advise from previous I stopped and properly had a thought about what I would do and just checking I'd not missed something obvious.  The threats to butcher were, the Vessels Gun, 2 x Ashes to Ashes fired at the (fire immune) Vessel (again a trick I'd learnt from experience) to then bounce onto Butcher and finally the Avatar causing straight damage with its MAT11 and POW22 sword.  I ran through the idiot sheet (focus, choir, hierophant) and then began the run. The Vessel blasted Butcher for a few points of damage, Ashes to Ashes blasted him twice again for a few points but nothing too significant - ARM22 is pretty dam tough!  Last but not least was the Avatar, having rolled full focus for him and hitting on anything but double 1 I was hoping that he would be enough.  By this point Butcher was on around 15 boxes and assuming everything hit i was looking at 8d6 - 6 worth of damage from the Avatar.  Whilst the odds were still in my favour for this, rolling a total of 21 on 8 dice was still not a given kill (according to http://rumkin.com/reference/dnd/diestats.php a 14% chance of failure).

Anyway in the end the negative spike didn't happen and I managed to get my second (although slightly dirty) win of the day.


Results
 
After all the games had finished I ended up 3rd which I was very happy with, I genuinely hoped I might get a win but never did I think I'd end up 3rd - a very happy chappy!

Lessons Learnt -

• Its very easy to give away assassinations against shooting forces, take the time to think about each caster move.  Don't just shift it where it looks vaguely ok!
• When someone forgets something, highlight the whole situation so they are making an informed decision.
• The two lists are fairly solid but if the tournament is only three rounds getting list locked is very easy.
• I did quite a bit of prep for this tournament, clearly it helped so keep doing it!

2016 Win/Loss record to date: 6/12

First Time Meeting Gators and Speed Playing 50 points in 80 minutes!

No photos again sadly, this week was pushing my pSevy tournament list into some matchups where I'd probably be more tempted to use Kreoss2:

 

Grand Scrutator Severius vs. Kaya the Moonhunter & Laris (Circle Orboros)

Loss: Assassination (0/2 on scenario)

Well the game featured a very tough Circle list, 2 full units of multi-wound infantry backed up by 3 Argo's, 2 Warpwolves and Wrong Eye and Snapjaw.  So with all of that power this game was going to be tough, I deployed second and farily central.  Opposing me all the Gators were aimed at my left zone and the circle at the right.  I was relying on the Temple Flameguard holding up the gators (with a few Ashes to Ashes to cause some damage), the right I sent the Avatar in backed up by the Reckoner.  I finished up with the Vessel central to add fire support into whichever zone required it.

So the game went pretty soundly, the Avatar went in and smashed half the skinwalkers, Enlivened away and then Smashed a Warpwolf down to a single box.  It was promptly ripped apart by the wolf, I then followed this up with the Reckoner who used the objective to block charge angles and keep the beasts on their toes.  On the other side the Flameguard stood firm all game gradually whittled down to 5 members, although with the aid of Ashes to Ashes, the Vessel and Blessing of Vengeance they took down half the Gators and Snapjaw.

The game seemed to be going to plan until the Vessel got charged by the other warpwolf, unsurprisingly it was ripped apart and left a big hole in the middle of my line.  Cowering in this hole (which had looked fairly strong till this point) was Sevy, Laris promptly ran up and Kaya teleported in for the kill.

Grand Scrutator Severius  vs. Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper (Retribution of Scyrah)

Loss: Assassination (0/1 on scenario)

The second game of the night was  little more intriguing, we had only 80 minutes left so decided to give it a go and play a full 50 point game with 40 minute deathclock.

Its surprising what can be done when you put your mind to it.  With 10 minutes gone from my clock I was halfway through turn 2.  Essentially lots of rushing forward and getting ready, the Flameguard had been battered by combined ranged attacks so I ran them into combat to make them a little safer.  Then came two of several assassination attempts that failed.  With Kaelyssa close to the front line unit of mage hunters I cast Ashes to Ashes on the closest Elf to her, hit him and then required a 4+ to include the caster in the damage roll.  I promptly rolled a 2 and fried three elves.  This was followed up by a second attempt whereby I'd need a 3+ on the bounces...the dice came up a 1.  Luckily this now left her exposed and a shot from the vessel blasted 10 boxes from her.

When the potency of Blessing was realised the opposition shooting was then directed at my character Jacks and I managed to lose Avatar and Blessing in a single turn.  My turn three and Kaelyssa was now hidden behind a Myrmidon.  After casting a miracle to push away its attackers (leaving it on 3 points of damage left) the vessel pushed forward to a take a pot shot.  Having smashed 10 boxes the round before I was fairly confident of an assassination.  Boosting to hit I required an average roll but it wasn't to be.  The backup plan was a fully vamped up Reckoner taking a pot shot however  there was a Vessel in the way.  Nevermind, Vassal to the rescue - ancillary attack from the Reckoner destroys the Vessel and then in its turn it takes the shot.  However the Vessel is immune to fire attacks, at this moment to my horror I realised that all of the attacks that were powerful enough to damage the Vessel were all fire type attacks (immolation and ashes to ashes being the big ones) - I had nothing with which to kill it.  So instead the Reckoner flattened a solo and I hoped to get a turn 4.

This was never going to happen, Kaelyssa is a master shot and she walked into range of Severius and shot him to death. I wasn't to upset though considering she had lived through 4 assassination attempts she deserved the win!

Lessons Learnt -

• Severius doesn't go into tough opponents very well.
• With the single screening unit I'm going to get pretty stretched in two zone scenarios.  I need a plan to work around this.
• With the Elf caster I should have shot the Vessel into the easier to hit Jack and then boosted the power 11 Admonisher shot, this should have been enough to kill her and would have been an easier shot to take.  
• Had I thought about it rather than lamenting the fact that I couldn't damage the Vessel with Ashes I should have seen it as the awesome opportunity it was.  Had I blasted the Vessel with A2A it would have been fine, a high roll on the jumps and it could have taken her out with that instead, especially with the option to boost two damage rolls with all the focus Sevy had! - Doh
• I still think Blessing, Sevy and the Eye are awesome!

2016 Win/Loss record to date: 4/11

List Lock In

So, 10am Sunday morning I sent my list in to the Tournament Organiser.  Having played the games on Saturday I am really confident about both lists (my ability is a different matter!).  They are pretty much the same as the lists I used but I exchanged the Errants and a Redeemer for Temple Flameguard and a Reckoner.  I lose the blast damage but gain another heavy which I feel will give me more options.  Hopefully if that list faces a colossal I should be able to at least try and double team it with the Avatar and a Reckoner.

The other factions in the tournament are Cygnar (x2), Circle (x2), Retribution, Khador and Legion (+ my PoM).