Mordikaar vs eVayl, Bethayne 3 games batreps

3 games in Arrows on this day.

My oponent was running...

vayl (proxy), 
angellius, 
ravagore, 
scythian, 
shredder, 
raek, 
2 sheperds 
deathstalkers

bethayne, 
scythian, 
angelius, 
min unit warspears+ua, 
max unit hex hunters, 
succubus, 
shredder 
sheperd

Strategy: 

With 2 units of hard to kill infantry that can ignore free strikes, I hoped to run forward, and either Jam him up or use the feat so he tries to jam me then work him down with attrition.

Scenario: Outflank. vs eVayl

He won the roll and went first so I set up with the forest and hill in my favor.
Titan Gladiator = Despoiler
Houseguard Halberdiers = Keltiarii
Nayl, Scyreth Issyen, House Shyeel Magister = Legends of Hallack
Aspis = Krea

We have the Scythean and Angelius advancing up on my left zone with the 2 Deathstalkers heading into the right zone. Vayl advanced on the left under Swamp Gobber smoke and the Ravagore went center.

Assessing the situation. The left zone looks much harder to clear than the right. At this point I start to see the difficulties of my list, with only really the despoiler left to do any heavy hitting or to assist the Legends in doing any heavy hitting it meant I could not project a hard attack force across a wide enough area.

Hard attack force (armor cracking)

Soft attack force (power 12s unboosted or less)

Skorne turn 1

1. Mordikaar puts banishing ward on the Nhilators and drops Hollow on the Keltiarii. Advances behind the rock and feats.
2. The Legends go base to base skirting the forest inside the feat.
3. The Keltiarii advance forward into a position to charge the next turn.
4. The Nihilators do the same
5. Feralgiest goes central.
6. Paingivers spread out
7. Extoller soulward lurks on the edge of a hill to collect Nihilator souls.

Having lost initiative and feeling somewhat overwhelmed due to my feat my opponent essentially fumbles his turn.

Legion Turn 2. What he did do.

• Ravagore shoots at, directly hits and kills all 3 Legends of hallack 10/10
• One Death Stalker kills a Keltiarii, advances into the zone shoots another and gets pushed out 7/10
• The other Death stalker misses and gets pushed out 5/10
• Raek runs in to engage my keltiarii 1/10
• Scythean tries to get a chain attack thresher off 2/10 forgets to use his animus 2/10 gets pushed back by Poltergiest. Kills one Nihilators giving the Extoller a soul
• Angelius does the same thing, charges in misses and gets pushed back 1/10
• cast Admonition on his Scythean.

What he could have done.

• Killed the Legends　still, there was nothing wrong with that, solid play.
• Advanced the Scythean into the zone so it could retreat from a charge with Admonition
• Cast purification
• Arc a spell off the Scythean on to the Nihilators
• Used the Angelius to shoot a dude and sit back with a Spiny Growth up, seriously a def 15 beast is super hard even for mat 7 infantry to kill.
• Advanced his Reak into the zone where it wont get charged. Or just near the zone.

Skorne turn 2

So he is basically a sitting duck. However the reality of how soft my army really is dawns on me. I wanted to use the Despoiler to kill the Raek and Feralgiest it. I couldn't catch the Ravagore unless I blocked it in with Nihilators but I wanted to commit most of them to killing the Angelius.

1. Hollow and Banishing Ward are upkept.
2. Extoller advances up and puts a shot on his Angelius. Boosting to hit.
3. Nihilators activate 7 Charge the Angelius and 2 charge the Scythean. The Angelius dies and the Scythean takes some good damage.
4. The Keltiarii charge out of combat with the Raek, put some damage on his Ravagore and on his Raek.
5. Paingivers enrage the Krea and the Despoiler.
6. Despoiler uses Arcane Supression and CHarges the Ravagore who uses Admonition to go to safety.
7. The Krea uses his Animus and Charges the Raek, boosts to hit and lands enough damage to kill it
8. The Feralgiest Spirit Binds the Raek.
9. Mordikaar runs into the zone to Dominate.

Skorne Scenario 2 points.

Legion turn 3.

He contemplates an assassination attempt. 

• Vayl feats, casts an Obliteration, after Purification, at the Nihilators and fails damage to kill 3 of them. One toughs. 4/10
• The Scythean came in, failed to kill the Despoiler 1/10
• He concedes. 10/10

What he could have done

• Feat, Purification and Obliteration as before. Obliterate again to clear off the Nihilators
• Icy Grip the Keltiarii or the Despoiler
• Refuge on the Scythean to reposition after killing the Despoiler
• Admonition on herself
• Got luckier.

Skorne Win.

Game 2 vs Bethayne

Legion turn 1

• Angelius advances to the left zone
• Hex Hunters position up in the right
• The Nihilators become the Ogruns Prey

Skorne turn 1

1. Mordikaar activates, casts Hollow on the Keltiarii and Banishing ward on the Nihilators. He advances behind the rock in the center.
2. Ketiarii head left to take the hill and pressure the zone
3. Nihilators advance up center
4. Krea comes up behind the Nihiators
5. Knowing the Krea is a prime target for Eruption of Spines I pack a few Paingivers in around it to soak it up.
6. Despoiler and Legends hold up outside the zone on the right.

Legion turn 2

• Angelius shoots a Nihilator and farts about in the left zone 9/10
• Hex hunters run forward to control the right zone 10/10
• Belphagor comes up and animuses in the zone to stop from being charged 10/10
• An Eruption comes out and kills a Keltiarii and a Nihilator toughs 5/10

Skorne turn 2

1. Hollow and Banishing ward are upkept
2. Unable to charge into Belphagors cloud the Keltiarii just fan out and contest the zone.
3. Paingivers enrage the Despoiler
4. Despoler casts its animus and charges a Hex Hunter, kills it and creates a Void Spirit
5. Hex Hunters fail a terror check
6. The Void Spirit charges into the Ogrun and puts on some hurt, tieing them up
7. With the Hex Hunters fleeing the Nihlators charge around killing a few
8. The Legends charge into a few more Terrified Hex Hunters killing them
9. The Krea casts its animus and toes the left zone
10. Mordikaar advances into the zone and feats.

Skorne score 2 Scenario Points

Legion turn 3

• The Hex Hunters fail to rally, this really, really hurts him. 1/10
• The Angelius charges the Despoiler, connects with the first attack but then misses and is pushed away by Poltergiest 1/10
• Bethayne feats and clears out some Nihilaors by targeting the Krea 7/10
• The Ogrun kill a few more Nihilators 5/10
• the Ravagore tramples forward and attacks the Despoiler but misses and is pushed back 1/10
• The Shepard advances into the zone to contest 10/10

What he could have done

• Not failed to rally the Hex Hunters, no really isnt there a solo that helps with this?
• Used Bethane to clear out some of the Nihilators and or put some damage on the Despoiler.
• Not trampled with the Scythean but rather set up behind his Hex Hunters who were blocking my Despoiler from charging
• Used Belphagor to help clear out the Ogrun from being engaged
• Moved some Ogrun  into the zone maybe
• Use the Nagelius to kill the Krea and sit in the zone.

Skorne turn 3

1. Mordikaar shoots the Shepard. Dominate to 4 points, Resurrects 3 Nihilators behind the Hex Hunters
2. Krea charges the Arch Angel
3. Krea kills the Arch Angel and the Feralgist Spirit Binds it
4. Keltiarii lurk around in the zone.
5. Legends of Hallack Clear out some Hex Hunters
6. Nihilators clear out the rest of the Hex Hunters and put some damage on the Scythean
7. Despoiler charges the Scythean and kills it turning it into a Void Spirit.

Scorne end of 4 scenario points.

Severely down on attrition Legion concedes again.

Game 3 vs Bethayne

Skorne and Legion turns 1

Skorne

• Sends the Keltiarii on the left zone hill again.
• Sends the Nihilators right planning to use Ghostly to get through the forest
• Despoiler goes center 

Legion

• Sends the Ogrun to the left zone again while Preying the Nihilators
• Moves the Hex Hunters into the zone right
• Sends his beasts into a good position middle

Legion turn 2

• Belphagore comes up
• Bethayne arcs a Gallows through Bethayne grabbing the Despoiler and pulling it forward 2 inches
• The Angelius puts some damage on it with a ranged attack
• Scythean charges over the fence and kills the despoiler
• Some Nihilators go down to an Eruption of Spines

This was a solid play that I didn't see coming because I completely forgot about Gallows. Even when I knew he was doing Gallows I didn't think 2 inches would be all he needed to bring the Despoiler into the Scytheans threat.

If I did know bout it I probably still would not have feated, but I would have put the Paingivers in front of the Despoiler or parked the despoiler behind the rock so he couldn't pull it out.

Skorne turn 2

1. The Keltiarii Charge the Scythean and his Ogrun, putting some damage on the Scythean but not really hurting his Ogrun, then Reform back.
2. Then the Legends charge the Scythean and finishes it off.
3. The Feralgiest Spirit binds the Scythean
4. The Nihilators attempt to clear the zone from the Hex Hunters
5. Mordikaar feats and then considering his vulnerability he casts Banishing Ward on himself.
6. 
   

Legion turn 3

• Belphagore comes up and does his cloud. 10/10
• Bethayne casts an Eruption of Spines but fails to kill 2 of the Legends and the Scythean, a couple of Keltiarii die 2/10
• The Angelius charges in and kills the Krea 8/10
• Hex Hunters do a good job of re contesting the zone 7/10

Skorne turn 3

1. Nihilators clear out the left zone
2. Keltiarii fail to kill any Ogrun but hold the right zone
3. The ravagore turns around and puts some considerable damage on the Angelius with its initials and chain attack
4. Looks like the Legends forget to activate?
5. Mordikaar runs for his life

Legion turn 4

• Ravagore turns around to finish off the Scythean because Belphagore couldn't 5/10
• Ogrun do a pretty good job of clearing out the rest of the left zone, but a few Keltiarii hang on 8/10
• Bethayne gets into the zone 9/10

Skorne turn 4

1. A Nihilator and the Paingivers kill the Angelius
2. The last Legend of Hallack charges Belphagore for some good damage
3. The Keltiarii abandon the zone to try and put some assassination pressure on his caster
4. Mordikaar casts a couple essence blasts on Bethayne from a pair of Nihilators trying to assassinate her.

Legion turn 5

• Belphagore tries to kill the Paingivers but fails 1/10
• Bethayne gets deeper in the zone killing the last Nihilator 9/10
• Ogrun turn around working on the Keltiarii which are now their prey targets but don't control the zone 3/10

Skorne turn 5

1. Paingivers fail to hit Belphagore
2. Keltiarii also fail to hit Bethayne
3. Mordikaar is left on 4 health so isnt cutting for fury

Legion Turn 6

• Belphagore gets healed enough to fix his 2 aspects 10/10
• Charges past the Paingivers to try and kill Mordikaar 1/10
• Paingivers get free strikes, they Anotomical Prescision Belphagores Mind off and put 2 points of Fury on Belphagore thanks to Barbed Whips meaning he could not buy or boost attacks on Mordikaar 12/10

Reduced to rolling one d6 on his last assassination attempt Bethayne concedes.

Win to Skorne

The first 2 games were basically given up to frustration and inevitability.

The last game however time was extremely pressed and its very likely my opponent could have turned the game around right at the end. The high risk play catching the Despoiler early really set me on my back foot and gave me some good points of consideration for tweaking the list.

Mordikaar and Legends of Hallack vs Harbinger 50 points batrep.

 

Battle plan.

I was looking to make angles for Essense Blast sprays by having 3 units presenting a full line and enveloping his force.I would be able to Parry or Ghostly around his forces to help position Essense Blasts into the best spots.I was running 2 units with tough and had revive as well as the Despoiler bringing Void Spirits in to play to keep me up on attrition.

For the first time I felt like I had almost as much infantry spam as he did.

Wold Warden is the Despoiler
Argus is the Krea
Magiser, Narn, Skyreth Issyen are the Legends of Hallack

I ran forward but not completely, to position myself out of his alpha, I wanted to feat on the second turn not the first

This was a mistake however as he mostly just advanced into charge range and feated with Harbinger which meant that I didn't advance for a turn. He got some kills in with Nicea which gave Mordikaar some souls. Some Bastions charged a couple of NIhilators and this fed souls to the soulward.

Mostly out of frustration I charge the Gladiator into a pair of Bastions. The cyclops Shaman and the Extoller also shoot into them putting up some damage. The rest of my army does not advance. Mordikaar Revives a couple of Nihilators into combat with his central character vanguard and I feat defensively.

Having lost the initiative however it was easy for Harbinger to step up and start dominating her zone while I had Bastions and Knights jammed into me.

Menoth 1 Scenario point

Fortunately one group of Bastions was tied up with the Despoiler who put some serious hurt on them and made a Void Spirit. I placed the Void Spirit into the melee range of one of his Bastions. In order to free it up I kept attacking the Bastion 4 or 5 more times, he kept using martyrdom to keep it in play. 

At this stage Harbinger was left on about 8 boxes and a long turn attrition play turned into an assassination attempt. 

The Nihilators went and cleared up some space.

The Shaman aimed and shot, but his Devout shield guarded it, so then the Extoller followed up and shot but Harbinger is a pathetic girly str4 so the 3d6 damage roll didn't break her armor.

I was still looking at 2 Essence Blasts from the forward Nihilators but Mordikaar went first and fired his Death Blast. It got her square and killed her outright.

Win on assassination.

If the assassination avenue was not open I was looking at trying to spray down both of his units of Errants and work my way up on attrition with the Despoiler.

If I could have played the Despoiler further forward the Harbinger may no have been able to nullify my feat with Hand of God or Guided Hand, whatever it is.

The Legends had their first half decent game, putting a lot of damage down on a  unit of Bastions that were being effected by the Despoilers Dark Shroud and were able to Side Step into the zone to re contest.

The irony is taking the list to 50 points means I got to include the shooting units which ended up sealing the game for me.

Makeda 2 crowed sourced list vs Vindictus 50 point batrep.

 VS

From left to right the proxies are…
Dawnguard Scyir and Cyclops savage = Tyrant commander and standard bearer.
Retribution jacks = Incindearii
Magister, Sceryth Issyen, Narn = legends of Hallack.
PMakeda = Makeda 2
Feral Warp Wolf = Molik Karn
Wold Warden = Aradus Soldier

Auto pilot pretty much engaged immediately. Rush went down on the Aradus and everything advanced.

The legends went on the left flank in case they needed to charge over the wooden fence and the Nihilators took the right because it was clear.

He ran everything forward and feated with Defenders Ward on his Temple Flameguard. to mitigate my Alpha.
Nicea charged in on the Incindearii but failed to kill any.

Burninator

Wasn't really sure what to do here. Makeda couldn't offer much to the battle personally so Nihilators went into the zone, nothing connected. Legends went into the other zone to hold back the Bastions but I thought Synchronisity bought them up to def17. Only def15 they were basically sitting ducks.
Makeda had feated, this is because I wanted the Aradus to kill Nicea and eat a few of his Flameguard, which it did. However Molik was slightly less stellar killing 2 Chior and then fate walking back.
For most of this game my Gladiator sat on his thumbs and got in the way of things. Not productive.
The Incendiarii however with the help of a Pathfinder from the Tycom advance over the rough terrain and set about half his army on fire.

So a third of the fires didn't kill and I thin out his numbers a little. However now the Bastions and Knights Exemplar come charging in.
The Temple Flameguard mini feat.
HisPpaladins and Seneshals kill the legends.
His Errants half kill the Gladiator
The Aradus is left on 3 boxes.

Surrounded by Exemplar the Aradus gets his animus but only nets 2 kills with 6 attacks.
Because I am a chump and camped way too much fury Molik frenzies and kills an Examplar.
The paingivers get their whips out and kill 3 more Exemplars on the left.
The Incindearii fail to remove anything from the board.
The Nihilators clean up the Flameguard but don't do much about the Bastins.
Being in an extremely bad position I try to put the Gladiator in a place to block charges to Molik.

He kills the Gladiator by slamming it into Molik with his Seneshal and follows up with a couple Bastions and a Paladin, kills the Aradus and kills 2 Incindiarii he is in combat with.
I used stay death on one Incindiarii last turn and once again this turn to stop his jack which came in from downtown.
His book has come in to stop me from casting spells, although it didn't really have any spells worth casting. So I set the book on fire.

Not sure what to do with myself, like most of this game. Makeda takes a cautious advance, Molik turns around kills the paladins side steps into zone and ties up some Bastions.
The Nihilators flail away at the Bastions and the Bastion Solo finally dies in a fire.

However.
He kills Molik by chain smiting him into the fence with his Exemplar Seneshal and the Bastions charge into Makeda, getting all the dice he needs to connect and kill with both rolls.

Loss on assassination.

Like I said I was mostly on Auto Pilot but it really doesn't help when you don't have a solid game plan. I probably didn't need to feat when I did but then I don't know if it would have been any better later. My issue was breaking all those boxes, not landing hits.

I didn't need to move Makeda out to where she could get assassinated but she had spent the whole game so far doing nothing and I felt like she needed to either assassinate the next turn or lose on scenario anyway.

If he went for an assassination and failed it might give me enough time to get ahead on attrition, alas it was not the case.

Nihilators!

I haven't finished painting a full unit of anything since… possibly ever.

1 list, 2 scenarios, 3 Makeda, 4 games. vs Stryker vs, eKreoss, vs High Reclaimer batreps.

My list for the day.

Makeda 3 played by pMakeda

Exalted court played by Praetorian swordsmen

Molike Karn played by a Feral WarpWolf

Bronzeback Titan played by a Titan Gladiator

Legends of Halaak playd by a Praetorian swordsman unit leader, a Dawnguard Scyr and a House Shyeel Battle Mage.

Game 1 vs…

Typical advance, nothing to see here.

I run to engage and position my second wave.

A fairly effective shooting turn clears out all but 2 of my Nihilators. 

So it was here that I sprung the infinite attack Molik theory. I ran over the steps with my opponent and made it clear on the details. Then I said, do you want me to do this?

To which his answer unsurprisingly was. "No."

So I took this picture. Makeda is on the 12 incheck mark. Malik could trample over those Storm guard. With Train wreck up I could have spent a few minutes chipping away at Thunder head. 

However I didn't go that way and in stead scored 3 scenario points.

To which he responded by jamming Storm guard into contest.

Makeda in her natural environment, surrounded by storm nouns she took care of them.

Win on Scenario.  

Game 2.

Same lists. 

Same lists different scenario.

Nihilators go for the hills. The meat fans out in the middle. 

The Storm tower zaps out one of Makedas ancestral guardians and the electro leap kills the character who gives relentless charge.

With Makeda feat in play she charges up, kills a gun mage casts fate walker, casts an Eliminator. Wanders back into the scenario zone after clearing it out.  Molik takes a Train Wreck and clears off the other Storm nouns and half the Gun Mages and pushes Thunderhead  out of the zone. The Nihilators fail to clear the zone so I take 1 point domination.

Ok I am not sure what happened with this picture. What happened was Stryker threw out an Earthquake just clipping Makeda. He put a little damage on her but then the Arm was too much to deal with.
Thunderhead advanced to pulse but was counter charged by the Bronze back.  Oh that's right. So Thunderhead double handed the Bronze back at Makeda but it fell just short and deviated off behind her.

So I was looking for the scenario win then I realized Stryker was standing there with his pants down . So I forced Makeda up and charged in.

Makeda could not resist Strykers Elephant impersonation.

Win on assassination.

Game 3. e Kreoss and all the dude's tier.

At this stage I assessed the state of the board. Sacrosanct was on the Temple Flame guard.  

I considered an assassination run. I thought better of it. I consider it again. I rolled a dice and chanting the mantra of everyone who is about to put the game on some chancy dice rolls "a quick games a good game" I went for it.

That is of course, unless you are the Skorne Empire.

Makeda gets spaced cleared for her. She charges a flame guard. Feats. Free Eliminator 3 more then casts Train Wreck on herself. (which I now know is Illegal, however wouldnt have effected the outcome of this turn much) She advances over the wall, Ground zero kills 3 more, attack Beat Back, attack Beat Back,  attack Beat Back. I could have kept going but left a lane for Molik.

Molik takes Enrage and charges, Sidesteps Train Wrecks his way into position and then with Prescience rolls exactly what he needs when he needs it to kill Kreoss to the box. 

Game 4 same scenario vs High Reclaimer.

So he jams up outside the scenario. Chior leading the charge, clouds covering the advance.

I respond by counter jamming with my infantry and positioning Makeda, Molik and the Bronzeback.

He spends a turn contesting the zone and killing Nihilators.

Molik and the Legends of Hallak clear the zone and put some damage on the scenario. Makeda goes deep. Too deep.
I used the fatewalker animus on her to cleqr out a chunk of his infantry with feat. However I should have used Train Wreck and cleared out all of the infantry with her and the Bronzeback.
Although if I did high reclaimers 45 something focus would ruin me, probably.
The safest play was probably commiting the Bronze back. Yoyoing in and out of the front line with Fate Walker on Makeda and Molik and then pulling back on scenario.

But I went too deep with Makeda, pulled back to score a scenario point and got jammed with feated Bastions.
Molik went down, the Bronzeback went down. All I had were the Legends of Hallak. Makeda was engaged with 3 Bastions and an Errant.
She couldnt clear them all out.
So she took a free strike in order to get to a position where she might survive the next turn. Howerver the free strike killed her. 

Loss by assassination.

Reflecting on that game. I could have sent Makeda straight for the high reclaimer, however I wasnt sure if his souls converted to armor. If they don't I definitely should have tried, but I kind of disnt want to do the same thing I did last game.