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May 2018 Scrum - Round 3

Round 3:  vs Nate Magna
Scenario:  Recon 2

I haven't run into Legion recently and was not sure what to expect.  Even after looking at Nate's lists, I wasn't sure which one I might end up seeing.  I felt like Skarre was the better drop into his primal terrors list, but Denny would be the better play into Thagrosh.  I was kinda hoping he would play primal terrors, using the same logic I had been using for choosing slaughter fleet:  they are the new toy.  Once again, I ended up deciding that I was going to play Skarre.  My reasoning was as much a desire to get more playtime with the list as it was a hope he would play primal terrors.  Regardless of which list he dropped, the kraken is crucial for me.  The more I examined my spells, I realized that in either matchup draconic blessing would be a crucial spell.  Being able to have a model/unit ignore fire type attacks was actually going to be relevant.  I would either not need to worry about the blightbringer's aoe, or Typhon and Zuriel wouldn't be able to harm something with their sprays.  From the first time I saw Skarre's spell list, I never expected the fire immunity to be relevant, but I was pleasantly surprised that it would be a factor here.  In the end, Nate chose to drop his Thagrosh list and I played Skarre.

(Thagrosh 1) Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight [+28] - Children of the Dragon
 - Azrael [21]
 - Typhon [20]
 - Zuriel [18]
Blighted Nyss Shepherd [1]
Blighted Nyss Shepherd [1]
Craelix, Fang of Everblight [0(6)]
Spell Martyr [1]
Blighted Nyss Hex Hunters (max) [15]
 - Bayal, Hound of Everblight [0(6)]
Blighted Nyss Raptors (max) [18]
Farrow Valkyries [8]

(Skarre 3) Skarre, Admiral of the Black Fleet [+27] - Slaughter Fleet Raiders
 - Kraken [36]
 - Satyxis Blood Priestess [0(4)]
Axiara Wraithblade [0(6)]
General Gerlak Slaughterborn [0(6)]
Saxon Orrik [4]
Black Ogrun Iron Mongers [6]
Blighted Trollkin Marauders (max) [15]
Bloodgorgers (max) [15]
 - Jussika Bloodtongue [5]
Bloodgorgers (max) [15]
Scharde Dirge Seers [6]

Deployment:  Nate won the roll and chose to go first.  I ended up taking the side of the board without the houses.  Since I did not take my dark host list, I knew maneuvering around the houses would be an issue and I hoped that by putting them on my opponent's side they would be more of an issue for him than for me.

Nate deployed his raptors to the left, lined up largely with the left zone.  A valkyrie was to the right of the raptors, with a spell martyr directly behind it.  Azrael was to the right of the shepherd and Typhon was to the right of Azrael.  Continuing down the line, Thagrosh was next, and Zuriel was to his right.  The valkyrie leader was behind Thagrosh and the third valkyrie was to Zuriel's right.  Craelix was the rightmost model in his normal deployment, but he was not far enough to the right to be lined up with the right zone.

The kraken was lined up directly with the left zone and the unit of bloodgorgers with Jussika was to the kraken's left.  To the right of the kraken, the marauders were deployed, with Skarre to their right.  Behind the marauders, Gerlack and Axiara were placed.  The iron mongers and dire seers were spread out, one of each unit behind each huge base with the leader in the middle, behind the marauders.  Saxon and the blood priestess were also behind Skarre and the second unit of bloodgorgers were to Skarre's right.  I hoped Skarre could sit on the near flag and earn points for both the flag and the zone, while the kraken and Jussika's bloodgorgers could take on the left zone.

Nate them placed his advance deploy hex hunters.  They were spread out a little starting to the right of the left zone, with the line extending mid way into the right zone.



Top 1:  Thagrosh cast fog of war, put draconic blessing on Azrael and put up Zuriel's animus for free.  He then charged Skarre to get his death shroud bubble as far forward as possible.  The raptors ran forward, with two taking up positions in the broken house (played as rubble), another standing next to the house that overlapped the left zone, and the final two hanging back behind the flag.  His hex hunters ran forward and spread themselves out very wide to avoid multiples getting hit by blast damage.  Azrael ran forward and stood behind the left house.  Zuriel ran and positioned near the right zone, in the middle of a hex hunter, Bayal and Craelix.  Typhon ran to be to the left of Thagrosh and the valkyries took up positions around Thagrosh.  The shepherds ran forward, one standing in the left forest and the other a couple inches behind Zuriel.  Nate's turn ended with 53 minutes on his clock.



Bottom 1:  My turn started with the dirge seers giving out eyeless sight to both the kraken and Skarre.  Skarre then advanced forward and popped her feat.  I decided that with both Skarre and the kraken shooting this turn, I would be better off using the feat to get all my spells out and using focus specifically for boosting damage.  Using the feat, Skarre took four damage to cast deceleration, dash, guided fire and draconic blessing was put on the marauders.  Skarre then took a cannon shot at Zuriel.  It hit and the nearby valkyrie shield guarded, which was then shield guarded by the second valkyrie in the area.  The valkyrie that was directly hit was killed, but the blast damage failed to do anything of note.  A second shot was put into Zuriel, doing seven damage to the beast.  Bayal was close enough to take blast damage, but no damage was actually put on him.  Skarre's hand cannon shot went into the forwardmost hex hunter standing in the cloud and killed it.  The marauders then ran forward.  Two of them engaged a hex hunter standing to the right of the house, while the rest simply took up space between the forest and Skarre.  Gerlack and Axiara both ran forward, with Axiara granting prowl to the marauders.  Orin moved forward and gave the right bloodgorgers pathfinder.  Those bloodgorgers ran forward, into the zone and trying to block charge lanes to Skarre.

The kraken moved forward its full speed and took a shot at a raptor in the rubble.  The shot missed and blast damage did nothing.  I believe at this point, I forgot to actually take any shots with the flayer cannon.  They likely would have missed, due to needing 13's to hit the raptors, but I need to remember to use all my attacks in this situation.  The left bloodgorgers ran forward, getting into the zone.  Jussika was positioned in the back, next to the kraken's base in the hopes that a huge base would help shield her from attacks.  The iron mongers walked forward, keeping one on the kraken's base, one on skarre's base and one in the middle.  The one on Skarre's base healed her for three of the damage she took from her feat.  My turn ended with 45 minutes on my clock.  Considering only two models actually made attacks, this turn took far too long.



Top 2:  Thagrosh upkept draconic blessing on Azrael.  It was at this point that Nate said that he could get shots on Jussika.  Removing her was a priority in order to get rid of both vengeance and no sleeping on the job.  The raptors mostly stood still and started taking shots.  They hit the one bloodgorger that was blocking line of sight.  It made its tough roll and was knocked down.  As I am writing this now, I realize that it should not have been knocked down due to no sleeping on the job.  I really need to remember all my model's rules.  With the one knocked down, another got a shot on Jussika and killed her (she failed her tough roll).  Two remained in the rubble, the two that were further back stayed relatively in place and the one that had been next to the house moved back.  Azrael moved over to the side of the house where the one raptor had been standing.  He then took two shots, killing two bloodgorgers.  The shepherd on the left ran forward, staying in the forest but getting close to the edge.

On the right, Craelix moved up and shot a pair of bloodgorgers, but both made their tough rolls.  The hex hunters received the press forward order.  One hex hunter charged a bloodgorger on the far right.  The one that was already engaged with two marauders charged one of them, but did not receive the charge bonus.  The second charged the other and a third hex hunter ran from behind the house into the clump to stay in formation.  The rest of the hex hunters ran into positions.  The hex hunter that charged the bloodgorger killed it and triggered battle wizard.  The hex bolt killed another blood gorger.  One of the two marauders that was charged also died.  Zuriel then charged the right blood gorgers.  His assault spray killed several and then he bought attacks to kill the rest that were in melee range.  When Zuriel's activation was over, it had killed four bloodgorgers.  Nate ended his turn with 38 minutes left on his clock.



Bottom 2:  Skarre upkept draconic blessing on the marauders.  Only four bloodgorgers remained on the right, but I was hoping they could do a little work to help clear up the right zone.  They received the press forward order.  The leader charged Zuriel, one charged the hex hunter directly in front of it, a third charged Craelix and a fourth had to forfeit its combat action to stand up so it just walked forward into the zone.  The one that attacked Zuriel missed and Zuriel dodged back.  The one that attacked the hex hunter failed to hit.  The bloodgorger that attacked Craelix connected and killed him.  It used overtake and beserk to kill a hex hunter and used overtake to get an attack on Bayal.  Bayal did not take enough damage to die and the second weapon attack missed.  Skarre cast deceleration and guided fire and then moved forward to be in the right zone and touching the flag.  She took one cannon shot that killed the group of three hex hunters near my marauders.  The other was shield guarded onto a valkyrie, but didn't do any damage.  The marauders received the press forward order.  One charged a valkyrie, two charged a hex hunter in the cloud and one charged Zuriel.  The one that charged Zuriel connected, but failed to do any damage.  The hex hunter died, but the valkyrie remained alive.

The left bloodgorgers received the press forward order.  Two charged the raptors in the rubble, killing them both.  The rest of the unit ran forward.  The kraken walked forward and shot the raptor near the flag.  Gerlack moved up, staying behind the kraken and a little to the right.  Axiara walked over to be near Skarre and gave the marauders prowl again.  The iron mongers moved forward and Orin walked into the trench.  We each scored a point on our own flags.  The scoring opened at a 1-1 tie.  I had 30 minutes remaining on my clock at the end of the turn.



Top 3:  On the left, the raptors charged blood gorgers and killed three of them between impact and charge attacks.  Azrael moved forward and killed two more bloodgorgers, while a third made its tough roll.  The shepherd moved forward onto the far flag.  On the right, Typhon walked forward and between two sprays and a bite killed three bloodgorgers.  Thagrosh charged and killed one of the marauders, turning it into a fire cloud effect.  The valkyries killed another marauder.  The hex hunters attacked, knocking down the bloodgorger farthest back and killing another marauder.  Zuriel charged Skarre.  Its assault spray killed the blood priestess and it used a combo attack to do decent damage on the charge.  When all its attacks were done, Skarre was sitting on 15 - 20 damage.  Nate scored his own flag, and Zuriel contested mine putting me down 1-2.  Nat had 21 minutes left on his clock at the end of his turn.



Bottom 3: Skarre again upkept draconic blessing on the marauders and loaded the kraken up to full focus.  Skarre did not cast any spells this turn, instead saving her remaining focus for killing Zuriel.  It died and she remained on one focus.  The dirge seers activated and gave Gerlack and Axiara eyeless sight.  Gerlack charged a valkyrie, but failed to hit.  Axiara charged the other and killed it.  The marauders repositioned a little and took some shots that did nothing.  The iron mongers moved over toward Skarre.  Two of them ended base to base and repaired ten damage.  The last bloodgorger on the right stood up and killed the hex hunter in front of it.  The bloodgorgers on the left activated and the one in front of Azrael forfeited movement.  One other also charged Azrael and the last two charged two raptors.  The two raptors died, but Azrael took no damage.  The kraken activated and walked forward.  Even with the bonus from gang fighter, one attack missed and a couple bad damage rolls meant Azrael was left alive on a few boxes.  I scored on my flag and one of the bloodgorgers was contesting his flag, tying the score at 2-2.  My turn ended with 12 minutes on my clock.



Top 4:  The last raptor killed one of the bloodgorgers on the left.  The shepherd moved up and healed Azrael, restoring all its aspects.  Azrael took a freestrike from the bloodgorger engaging it, but received no damage.  It then killed two more bloodgorgers.  The last valkyrie failed to kill a marauder.  Typhon moved forward and killed two marauders, but missed Axiara who dodged back out of range.  Thagrosh killed Gerlack and feated Zuriel back into play.  We each scored on our own flags, putting the score at 3-3.  Nate had 10 minutes left on his clock at the end of his turn.



Bottom 4:  Skarre continued to upkeep draconic blessing and allocated full focus to the kraken.  The last bloodgorger on the right charged Typhon, but failed to do any damage.  The iron mongers all moved to be base to base with Skarre and repaired her to full health.  Skarre cast decleration and moved to the far side of the flag.  Axiara charged Typhon, but failed to do any damage.  Two marauders charged Typhon, but failed to do any damage and another took a swing at the valkyrie it was already engaged with, but failed to do any damage.  The kraken charged Typhon and killed it.  We each scored two points for controlling a zone and flag, putting the score at 5-5.  My turn ended with 2 minutes left on my clock.



Top 5:  Azrael took his two shots and put significant damage onto the kraken.  Zuriel charged the kraken, doing more damage.  Thagrosh also charged the kraken and burned fury to kill it.  He also cast Zuriel's animus to get dodge.  Thagrosh ended with one fury.  The last raptor ran to contest the right zone.  I scored one point for my flag and he scored for his flag and the left zone.  I was behind in scoring 6-7.  Nate ended his turn with four minutes on his clock.



Bottom 5:  Skarre kept all her focus for herself.  The marauders ran to clear some space around Thagrosh.  This is where I took a risk and had Axiara charge Thagrosh.  She connected and did a significant chunk of damage.  Skarre charged Thagrosh and used her ram to knock him down, dealing a large chunk of damage, which was transferred to Zuriel.  Her first cannon shot was shield guarded to the valkyrie.  The second shot spiked the damage roll and killed Thagrosh.  He picked up one more point on his flag, putting the final score at 6-8.  My clock had 8 seconds left when Thagrosh died.



Analysis:  I will apologize for not taking the time to really get Nate's thoughts on the game at the end.  We got done a little after midnight and I had to be up at 5:00 the next morning in order to get to work, so we had a brief chat while packing up our models, but I did not take tons of notes and everything I have written is based on my memory and the pictures.  Nevertheless, here are my thoughts on how it all went down.

All game long I was conscious of the fact that I am still learning this list and end up burning more time than I should for any given turn.  Each turn I was trying to make myself move a little faster than I was comfortable with and it turns out I needed every saved second.  I really need to continue to get faster with this list.  I think it's strong and has a lot of answers, but I usually feel that I am most likely to lose by clock.

I also need to study my own cards more in between games.  There were several abilities that I know I forgot to trigger throughout the game.  I believe Skarre actually utilized her reinforcements on one turn to put one bloodgorger back into play.  I also forgot about Jussika's no sleeping on the job, which could have potentially saved her own life.  Part of the reason Nate wanted to kill Jussika was because she grants her unit vengeance while in play, but I don't believe I had ever remembered to resolve that rule.   Speaking of Jussika, I really need to figure out how to position her correctly.  It's possible she was correctly positioned in this game, but I feel like killing a single bloodgorger in order to get a shot on her is not good enough.

While I was able to sorta handle his list, I really underestimated how hard it would be to crack his beasts' armor.  Skarre and the kraken were the only things that could really deal with the beasts Thagrosh was bringing.  Deneghra would have been a much better drop into this list, but I am glad I got the experience of playing into the matchup.

Nate was another great opponent and this was a fantastic game.  I look forward to playing him again in future scrum events.  Next week I will have a report on my week four matchup.  So far I believe this is the farthest I have gotten in the scrum without a loss and I am hoping I can continue to build on my success.

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