The scenario: Balance of Power
The lists:
Skorne
Points: 42/42
Supreme Archdomina Makeda (*5pts)
* Molik Karn (11pts)
* Titan Cannoneer (9pts)
* Titan Gladiator (8pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Praetorian Swordsmen (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
* Praetorian Swordsmen Officer & Standard (2pts)
Tyrant Commander & Standard Bearer (3pts)
Mortitheurge Willbreaker (2pts)
Void Spirit (2pts)
Void Spirit (2pts)
Legion
Points:
42/42
* Angelius (9pts)
* Scythean (9pts)
* Typhon (12pts)
Blighted Nyss Legionnaires (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Spawning Vessel (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)
Succubus (2pts)
The Forsaken (2pts)
The Forsaken (2pts)
Thrullg (3pts)
I won the roll off and decided to choose side and to go second.
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| Deployment |
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| End of my 1st turn |
In my turn I advanced with the Angelius to take a boosted shot at one of the Swordsmen only to miss. Ran forward and in front of the Pot with the Legionnaires only to have 3 of them attacked in the back to be stuffed into the Pot by its handlers. Thus bringing out a Shredder which went rabid and advanced to kill a swordsman. His second failed attack failed to kill the second swordsman in contact with him. pVayl leashed Typhon forward, put out Tenacity on herself and Typhon as well and then proceeded to stare down Molik Karn. Typhon advanced forward and attempted to spray the Swordsmen but was short while the Scythean moved to the side a bit for next turn. Both Forsaken siphoned off 3 fury each so that they are also ready to do some damage next turn should I need them. Now, at this point you might look at the picture and ask why did I leave a wide open lane to pVayl? Well I was actually trying to bait my opponent to commit Molik seeing as I knew that if I could deal with him early on and not have to worry about an assassination run at any moment during the whole game then I would be better off. So I left a lane and option open for my opponent to consider. I also felt fairly confident that should he take the bait then I would survive. Seeing as I was sitting on 4 transfers, had Dark Sentinel and was hoping for a free strike as well if he came straight at me. If he decided to come in with a side step then that's already 1 attack less and I still had Dark Sentinel plus Talion to fall back on unless he stops outside of my Dark Sentinel range in which case he would need 2 side steps leaving only bought attacks that I should survive.
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| End of my opponent's 2nd turn |
The swordsmen vengeance forward and attempt to kill the Shredder but fail to do so. After some small contemplation my opponent takes the bait. Activates eMakeda puts Leash on Molik to drag him closer, casts Road to War and then forgets to feat. Gladiator puts out his animus on Molik and after the Paingivers whip him into a frenzy he charges straight at pVayl. Excellent he fell for the trap... or did he? He manages to stop with Molik still in the Scythean's line of site due to bad position on my part. However he is also just a hairs width in range of pVayl meaning that I can fit in a large base in between us :). So I choose the Scythean as my Dark Sentinel model and proceed to walk in between Molik and pVayl to block LOS. Unfortunately, I cant completely clear the flag's base. DAMNIT! Oh well, time to to throw a boosted attack then. Needing a 7 I roll a 4 on 3 dice. Oh that's just great... not much point in hoping to knock out a spirit with Talion now. Looks like my baiting plan just backfired. After spending all his fury and having at least 1 attack miss, I take one hit on the chin, which, puts me at about 5 health and am forced to transfer damage another 3 times to each one of my heavy beasts. Meaning that I suffered 4 hits even though he needed 9s to hit and was lacking his feat though did have future sight to see in advance if he needed to boost or not. Had he feated this would have most likely been a short game with the way he was rolling. Failing the assassination without the feat however he was forced to do as much damage as he could. His Swordsmen got a charge run/order and proceeded to charge Typhon, the Angelius, a Legionnaire and the Shredder. Going for mainly combo strikes he put in some damage into Typhon, killed the Shredder (fury gets siphoned off) and perhaps damaged the Angelius as well though he may have missed there completely. He also killed a lone Legionnaire, which, I was very happy to see given that meant that I would get to use vengeance as well. The Cannoneer puts out his animus and takes a shot at the Scythean (I think), which I don't recall if it hits or not. The Void Spirit on the right passes through the obstruction being incorporeal and does a big hit on the Scythean.
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| End of my 2nd turn |
Seeing the damage done to pVayl I panic and decide that I have to go for an assassination attempt of my own otherwise I'm dead next turn. Unfortunately, the completely undamaged Molik needs to be killed before I can free up my fairly heavily damaged beasts to even attempt such a thing and any beast I use on Molik will be one less I can use on eMakeda. Before I can even get to that though I have some vengeful Legionnaires to play down. Seeing their mistress's distress the Legionnaires kill all 3 Swordsmen that are engaged with Typhon, while a lone warrior kills another Swordsman engaging the Angelius in a flurry of vengeful attacks. The Pot is now filled with corpses and ready to go, unfortunately, my plan to kill Molik Karn requires the pot to be moved up so it doesn't block the left Forsaken's path to Molik. First however the Legionnaires are activated to make way for the pot and thus charge the Swordsmen to finish them off. Unfortunately, my dice rolls continue to be lackluster and only manage to kill a single Swordsman with 5 attacks. Pot gets moved up and brings out a Harrier that gives itself True Strike and charges Makeda. Taking a free strike from the nearest Swordsman the Harrier suffers some damage and then proceeds to do no damage to Makeda. Left Forsaken activates and walks towards Molik and uses Blight Shroud only to be about a millimeter or two short of Molik. Just wonderful... nothing seems to want to go my way. Thrullg takes his swings at Mollik and puts in a couple points of damage. Okay, next Forsaken... this one reaches without much of a problem and proceeds to put around 13 points of damage into Molik. Molik is now halfway dead but I'm not overly confident that pVayl will be able to finish it off but I don't want to use up one of my beasts so she activates and proceeds to cast 2 Malices into Molik and finishes him off. I have to also heal a point in Typhon since his Spirit was knocked out last turn and with her final action for the round she kills the Void Spirit engaging the Scythean with her Oraculus. Time for Typhon and my counter assassination run. Ironically enough one of my teammates asks a feat question pertaining to
his match at which point I half jokingly reply why he couldn't have
asked a minute sooner and then I feat as well. Having missed my feat opportunity Typhon advances and sprays the standard bearer along with eMakeda. I ask what eMakeda's stats are since I was too dumb to look at it beforehand so am quite shocked to hear that the skinny and frail looking warlock has better stats than Thagrosh!!! WTF??? This is quite the surprise for me and I'm unfortunately already committed now so all I can do is start spraying away. Having to boost to hit I only have 1 attack in which I can boost to damage as well. This one boosted damage went into the Gladiator seeing as the Cannonneer was all furried up. Another minor hit is absorbed by Makeda I believe. That leaves my Scythean and Angelius which ends up doing a whole lot of nothing. The Scythean on the other hand kills the Willbreaker that is blocking my way to the Cannonneer. Had I remembered to feat I could have now repositioned my forces so my beasts survive the next turn.
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| End of my 3rd turn |
Seems like I'm unfortunately missing a picture of the end of my opponent's turn :(.
My opponent finally feats in his 3rd turn and proceeds to slam Typhon for 8" through my Spawning Vessel with his Gladiator. I lose 4 handlers which fills up the pot with corpses ready to disgorge a last Shredder as the Gladiator follows up the attack and proceeds to smash the Pot. The Swordsmen then wipe out my Legionnaires along with the newly spawned Shredder... that didn't last long. The Void Spirit charges my Angelius and kills the lazy beast that pretty much did nothing the entire game while his Cannoneer kills off my Scythean.
Being left with even fewer options than before I try for another assassination run. pVayl casts Rampager on the Gladiator after shooting it with her Oraculus. The Gladiator is turned around and sent towards eMakeda. Through the spellbound Gladiator I cast a Hoarfrost but unfortunately don't critical and do some damage that gets transferred out. Typhon advances and does another three sprays, which, are ignored or transferred.
PVayl then gets finally assassinated.
In hindsight I should have done quite a few things differently. Given the opportunity again, I would have probably still went for the baiting trick, since I believe that had I not rolled so poorly for the better part of the match then it would have worked well. Especially if I had positioned the facing of the Scythean slightly better and thus provided me with a free strike on Molik Karn as well. Unfortunately, sometimes the dice turn against you and ruin your plans. At such times you need to adapt and come up with a new thought out plan. Unfortunately, seeing my caster down to around 5 health I panicked. This is one thing that I shouldn't have done seeing as I was expecting to take some damage with my baiting trick... albeit not as much as I did end up taking. That said, the whole point of the bait was to neutralize his one model that could out threaten me and get around my defense to kill my squishy warlock. With him gone he would have had a tough time to kill my caster had I camped 2-3 fury even with such low life. So I should not have panicked but rather stuck to my guns and instead of going for a hasty and ill planned assassination run I should have sent Typhon against his Cannoneer. Not forgetting to feat at that point would have also allowed me to withdraw Typhon and the Scythean to behind the wall where my opponent would have had a tough time to charge them with his lack of reach beasts. Had I done this and concentrated my attacks on his army instead of losing my nerve and going after his warlock I think I would have had a considerably better chance of winning the game than with my foolish run on is warlock.
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