Round 4: vs Brad Park
Scenario: Stand Off
This round I was going up against Brad Park, who issued me my first loss in the last scrum. He was bringing a Lich1 list in the satyxis theme and a Goreshade1 list using infernal machines. The more I looked at his Shade1 list, the more I thought he really couldn't drop that in this matchup. Both my lists had too many models for him to deal with and I didn't think he could handle the counter attack. With the thought that Brad would play Lich1 into me, I knew how to play the Denny2 list into him since we had talked through a very similar matchup after our last game. However, the more I looked at my slaughter fleet list, the more I liked it into the matchup. I would need to be careful and make sure his raiders didn't get a good charge on the kraken. If I could keep the kraken alive and eliminate a few key models each turn, I liked my chances.
When we showed up, I found out that my guess was right and he was going to play Lich1 with the satyxis. I knew the bloodgorgers and raiders shared a 12" threat range. I felt like I could potentially take the alpha and lose a decent amount of a unit, but three or so bloodgorgers could wipe out an entire unit of satyxis if they were bunched up at all.
(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]
(Asphyxious 1) Iron Lich Asphyxious [+28] - Scourge of the Broken Coast
- Corruptor [14]
- Nightwretch [7]
- Nightwretch [7]
- Stalker [8]
Eilish Garrity, the Occultist [5]
Satyxis Raider Captain [0(4)]
Satyxis Raider Captain [0(4)]
Satyxis Blood Witches (min) [8]
- Satyxis Blood Hag [0(4)]
Satyxis Gunslingers [7]
Satyxis Gunslingers [7]
Satyxis Raiders (max) [16]
- Satyxis Raider Sea Witch [4]
Satyxis Raiders (max) [16]
- Satyxis Raider Sea Witch [4]
Deployment: I won the die roll and chose to go first. I hoped that using dash and my extra 2" of deployment would mean I could get far up the board and pressure him out of scenario early on. I used the same general deployment I have used in every game for the scrum so far. The marauders were deployed centrally with the kraken to the left and Skarre to the right. The unit of bloodgorgers without Jussika was to Skarre's right. Dirge seers and iron mongers were spread out between the two huge bases. Gerlack and Axiara were behind the marauders and to the left. The blood priestess was behind Skarre and Saxon was behind the kraken. Finally, the bloodgorgers with Jussia were deployed to the left of the kraken.
Brad deployed Asphyxious in the middle of the board with the corrupter to his left and Eilish behind. To the left of the corrupter was one unit of gunslingers. One unit of raiders was deployed on the left flank, with a raider captain nearby. To the right of Asphyxious, he placed a nightwretch with the second unit of raiders to the right of that. To the right of the raiders the second nightwretch was placed, with the second unit of gunslingers out on the right flank. The stalker was deployed forward, just a little behind and to the left of his objective. The blood witch unit was kept off the board to ambush in.
Top 1: Skarre activates first and casts dash and deceleration and puts draconic blessing on the marauders. She then sailed forward. The bloodgorgers to the right ran forward, but had to curve their run to get around an acid pool. The marauders ran forward and spread out a little. The kraken ran forward, keeping to the left side of my rectangle zone. The bloodgorgers on the right ran and tucked Jussika against the kraken's base. Gerlack and Axiara ran forward, staying behind the marauders. Saxon ran to the right side of the board, as I realized Jussika's unit would not really need his pathfinder. The iron mongers and dirge seers ran forward, keeping their formations spread out between the huge bases and the blood priestess remained behind Skarre. I ended the turn with 53 minutes on my clock.
Bottom 1: Asphyxious moved forward slightly, aligned directly with his objective and cast scything touch on the stalker. The left nightwretch ran forward to stand directly behind the objective. The stalker ran into some rubble overlapping the far edge of the right zone, with the raider captain also taking up position in that same rubble. The second nightwretch took up position to the right of that same rubble. The gunslingers spread out, but stayed far back. The right unit of raiders spread out behind and around the rubble and used whipping winds. The captain moved up with the unit and left herself in charge range of the forward most bloodgorgers on the right side of the board. The left raiders spread out wide with the sea witch and leader model hiding behind a burning cloud and also using whipping winds. The left captain stood on the back edge of the far rectangle zone. The gunslingers on the left spread out around on the left flank. Brad's turn ended with 52 minutes on his clock.
Top 2: Skarre upkept draconic blessing for free. The dirge seers activated and granted eyeless sight to the kraken, Skarre and Axiara. Skarre popped her feat. She took four damage to cast dash, deceleration, guided fire and dark waters. She then moved forward to get the stalker in range of her guns. I failed to make use of dark water and took my shots at the stalker. This was not a good plan, as Skarre needs 13 to hit the stalker in cover. That said, I got super lucky and landed my first shot. Boosting damage left the stalker on only a single box. With movement out, Skarre's hand cannon easily finished it off. Her second cannon shot had nothing in range, so she fired it toward the right gunslingers hoping for a good deviation, but nothing was hit. Saxon moved forward and gave pathfinder to the right bloodgorgers who then received the press forward order. One bloodgorger was able to charge the raider captain and the rest ran forward. One engaged the right nightwretch and the rest stayed toward the inside of the circle zone in an effort to not allow the ambushing bloodwitches to charge them. The charge attack missed the captain and she dodged away and out of the bloodgorger's reach.
The marauders ran forward, wrapping themselves around the forest in the center of the board. Gerlack and Axiara moved up behind them. The kraken then walked forward and got the left sea witch within range of its flayer cannon. It rolled 3 shots and killed the sea witch, leader model of the left raider unit and the raider captain in the far rectangle zone. The big gun then fired and put some damage on the nightwretch standing behind the objective, but it failed to take out the arc node or movement. The right bloodgorgers ran forward, blocking charge lanes to the kraken and keeping Jussika in the back of the unit. This unit also tried to keep more toward the center of the board and used the left forest to try and block potential bloodwitch charge lanes. The iron mongers walked forward, still keeping their spread out formation. One ended in base to base with Skarre and repaired all the feat damage she took. I ended my turn with 40 minutes on my clock.
Bottom 2: The blood witches ambushed in on the right side of the board, back where Skarre was positioned. The gunslingers on the left activated and killed a few bloodgorgers with shots. The left raiders then charged and killed several more. When both units were done, only three bloodgorgers and Jussika were left from the unit. Asphyxious activated and cast parasite on the right bloodgorgers. The nightwretch in the center walked forward and tried to hit a marauder, but failed to break armor. The corrupter shot one of the bloodgorgers in the center of the clump. Four died and one was knocked down after making its tough roll. The right gunslingers took a few shots, killing several bloodgorgers, including the one engaging the right nightwretch. The nightwretch ran forward into the trench. The right raider unit charged and killed the remaining bloodgorgers on the right. The bloodwitches were out of charge range of Skarre, so they ran forward, getting two engaged with Skarre. The rest spread out, with the blood hag staying farthest back. Brad ended his turn with 32 minutes on his clock and we each scored a point for our respective rectangle zones.
Top 3: Skarre upkept draconic blessing for free and allocated max focus to the kraken. The bloodgorgers on the left took their vengeance attacks and killed three of the raiders. The iron mongers activated and the leader cursed the left raiders. The kraken activated and killed three raiders with its initial attacks plus one bought attack. Once it filled up on three corpses, kill shot was triggered and the one raider that stayed at the back of the zone was shot with a boosted attack. The raider died and the blast damage killed two of the gunslingers standing nearby. One last attack was purchased and one more raider died. The bloodgorgers then activated and finished off the rest of the left raiders, leaving only the gunslinger hiding behind the forest on the left side of the board.
Saxon killed two blood witches and the blood priestess killed a third. Skarre activated and used one of her independent cutlass attacks to kill the last blood witch engaged with her. She then took shots at the nightwretch in the trench. These were again poor choices, as I needed 12s to hit. I landed one cannon shot and boosted damage, but failed to take out the arc node. The marauders activated. Two got melee attacks on the left nightwretch, leaving it on two boxes and one of the marauders getting into the far rectangle zone. Three others did a combined ranged attack into a satyxis raider and landed the shot. The raider died and two nearby raiders were set on fire. Gerlack and Axiara stayed behind the marauders. My turn ended with 24 minutes on my clock and I scored a point for my rectangle zone, going up 2-1.
Bottom 3: Asphyxious held onto all his focus and the two burning raiders died to fire. The right nightwretch walked forward to get back inside Asphyxious's control range. Eilish put puppet master on Asphyxious who then cast spectral leech on Skarre, draining the two focus she was camping. He then put parasite on her and feated. Two hellfires went into Skarre, one with boosted damage, doing a total of 16 damage. The blood witches then charged, with the hag and one witch getting onto Skarre. The third charged the blood priestess, but missed her attack. The two witches put a combined nine damage onto Skarre, leaving her on a single box. The corrupter got the honor of finishing Skarre off. No points were scored and Skarre died with 24 minutes still on Brad's clock.
Analysis: Well, that was a harsh reminder that Skarre3 is not, in fact, invincible. I have been playing her far too aggressively because I want to take advantage of her guns. Normally, I don't think this is as big of an issue, as I am ARM 21 vs ranged and magic under deceleration and have a wave of bloodgorgers between Skarre and the enemy. However, I do need to keep what my opponent has on the table in mind. Asphyxious1 can still murder just about anything if you give him a chance. I am a bit frustrated at this loss, as I felt like I was in control of the game overall and completely lost sight of the assassination. Speaking with Brad after the game, he noted that from the game's start he was looking for an assassination win because I cannot hide Skarre.
There are multiple decisions that turned out ok for me in this game, despite being the completely wrong decision to make. Taking Skarre's shots against the stalker and the nightwretch when they were benefiting from cover was definitely the wrong thing to do. I think I got so fixated on making use of her guns that I didn't even consider the defense of what I was shooting until I had moved into range. Additionally, when the blood witches had engaged Skarre, I would have been better off using her independent attacks to clear the witches and move back a little. I owned the left side of the board, but was still pressing for something to happen on the right when I could have moved to safety and started pressing scenario pretty hard.
I am happy with how the left side of the board played out. I lost more bloodgorgers than I expected, but was pleased that my plan to have a few bloodgorgers and the kraken clear out a full unit of raiders worked. I was a little lucky that my opponent got a little confused on the burning clouds (he thought they were burning forest when he put the sea witch behind there). I'm not sure what I should have done differently to keep the right bloodgorgers alive longer. I needed to bunch up to stay away from the board edge and the threat of the ambush, but that meant giving half the unit up to a single corrupter shot.
Brad gave me some advice on other things that I should be doing with the list in order to maximize my abilities. First, the unit with Jussika should be near Skarre. Models that come back from her reinforcement ability cannot make a combat action, but they do get the benefit of vengeance. I also forgot to make use of Axiara's battle plans in this game. Normally she is just giving prowl to the marauders, but in this game reposition could have allowed me to get a little farther forward and jam the opposing army better. Speaking of the marauders, I know that I failed to account for ashen veil during this game. That said, there is a 95% chance that Brad was taking that rule into account without me saying anything. It was also suggested that Gerlack could have gotten some work done and chewed through 3-5 raiders on the top of turn three. I was concerned about keeping him alive for the veteran leader bonus, but killing that many raiders would have put Brad in a much more difficult situation (assuming I also kept Skarre alive).
Overall, this was a good game and Brad got the assassination vector he was looking for. I still need to work on keeping all my model's abilities in mind when playing, especially things like ashen veil that affect my opponent's turn. I also need to start considering whether Skarre is in danger on any given turn and how to keep her alive. Here's hoping I can make some improvement in that area. There is one more round in this scrum, so I should have another battle report next week. Thanks for reading!
Scenario: Stand Off
This round I was going up against Brad Park, who issued me my first loss in the last scrum. He was bringing a Lich1 list in the satyxis theme and a Goreshade1 list using infernal machines. The more I looked at his Shade1 list, the more I thought he really couldn't drop that in this matchup. Both my lists had too many models for him to deal with and I didn't think he could handle the counter attack. With the thought that Brad would play Lich1 into me, I knew how to play the Denny2 list into him since we had talked through a very similar matchup after our last game. However, the more I looked at my slaughter fleet list, the more I liked it into the matchup. I would need to be careful and make sure his raiders didn't get a good charge on the kraken. If I could keep the kraken alive and eliminate a few key models each turn, I liked my chances.
When we showed up, I found out that my guess was right and he was going to play Lich1 with the satyxis. I knew the bloodgorgers and raiders shared a 12" threat range. I felt like I could potentially take the alpha and lose a decent amount of a unit, but three or so bloodgorgers could wipe out an entire unit of satyxis if they were bunched up at all.
(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]
(Asphyxious 1) Iron Lich Asphyxious [+28] - Scourge of the Broken Coast
- Corruptor [14]
- Nightwretch [7]
- Nightwretch [7]
- Stalker [8]
Eilish Garrity, the Occultist [5]
Satyxis Raider Captain [0(4)]
Satyxis Raider Captain [0(4)]
Satyxis Blood Witches (min) [8]
- Satyxis Blood Hag [0(4)]
Satyxis Gunslingers [7]
Satyxis Gunslingers [7]
Satyxis Raiders (max) [16]
- Satyxis Raider Sea Witch [4]
Satyxis Raiders (max) [16]
- Satyxis Raider Sea Witch [4]
Deployment: I won the die roll and chose to go first. I hoped that using dash and my extra 2" of deployment would mean I could get far up the board and pressure him out of scenario early on. I used the same general deployment I have used in every game for the scrum so far. The marauders were deployed centrally with the kraken to the left and Skarre to the right. The unit of bloodgorgers without Jussika was to Skarre's right. Dirge seers and iron mongers were spread out between the two huge bases. Gerlack and Axiara were behind the marauders and to the left. The blood priestess was behind Skarre and Saxon was behind the kraken. Finally, the bloodgorgers with Jussia were deployed to the left of the kraken.
Brad deployed Asphyxious in the middle of the board with the corrupter to his left and Eilish behind. To the left of the corrupter was one unit of gunslingers. One unit of raiders was deployed on the left flank, with a raider captain nearby. To the right of Asphyxious, he placed a nightwretch with the second unit of raiders to the right of that. To the right of the raiders the second nightwretch was placed, with the second unit of gunslingers out on the right flank. The stalker was deployed forward, just a little behind and to the left of his objective. The blood witch unit was kept off the board to ambush in.
Top 1: Skarre activates first and casts dash and deceleration and puts draconic blessing on the marauders. She then sailed forward. The bloodgorgers to the right ran forward, but had to curve their run to get around an acid pool. The marauders ran forward and spread out a little. The kraken ran forward, keeping to the left side of my rectangle zone. The bloodgorgers on the right ran and tucked Jussika against the kraken's base. Gerlack and Axiara ran forward, staying behind the marauders. Saxon ran to the right side of the board, as I realized Jussika's unit would not really need his pathfinder. The iron mongers and dirge seers ran forward, keeping their formations spread out between the huge bases and the blood priestess remained behind Skarre. I ended the turn with 53 minutes on my clock.
Bottom 1: Asphyxious moved forward slightly, aligned directly with his objective and cast scything touch on the stalker. The left nightwretch ran forward to stand directly behind the objective. The stalker ran into some rubble overlapping the far edge of the right zone, with the raider captain also taking up position in that same rubble. The second nightwretch took up position to the right of that same rubble. The gunslingers spread out, but stayed far back. The right unit of raiders spread out behind and around the rubble and used whipping winds. The captain moved up with the unit and left herself in charge range of the forward most bloodgorgers on the right side of the board. The left raiders spread out wide with the sea witch and leader model hiding behind a burning cloud and also using whipping winds. The left captain stood on the back edge of the far rectangle zone. The gunslingers on the left spread out around on the left flank. Brad's turn ended with 52 minutes on his clock.
Top 2: Skarre upkept draconic blessing for free. The dirge seers activated and granted eyeless sight to the kraken, Skarre and Axiara. Skarre popped her feat. She took four damage to cast dash, deceleration, guided fire and dark waters. She then moved forward to get the stalker in range of her guns. I failed to make use of dark water and took my shots at the stalker. This was not a good plan, as Skarre needs 13 to hit the stalker in cover. That said, I got super lucky and landed my first shot. Boosting damage left the stalker on only a single box. With movement out, Skarre's hand cannon easily finished it off. Her second cannon shot had nothing in range, so she fired it toward the right gunslingers hoping for a good deviation, but nothing was hit. Saxon moved forward and gave pathfinder to the right bloodgorgers who then received the press forward order. One bloodgorger was able to charge the raider captain and the rest ran forward. One engaged the right nightwretch and the rest stayed toward the inside of the circle zone in an effort to not allow the ambushing bloodwitches to charge them. The charge attack missed the captain and she dodged away and out of the bloodgorger's reach.
The marauders ran forward, wrapping themselves around the forest in the center of the board. Gerlack and Axiara moved up behind them. The kraken then walked forward and got the left sea witch within range of its flayer cannon. It rolled 3 shots and killed the sea witch, leader model of the left raider unit and the raider captain in the far rectangle zone. The big gun then fired and put some damage on the nightwretch standing behind the objective, but it failed to take out the arc node or movement. The right bloodgorgers ran forward, blocking charge lanes to the kraken and keeping Jussika in the back of the unit. This unit also tried to keep more toward the center of the board and used the left forest to try and block potential bloodwitch charge lanes. The iron mongers walked forward, still keeping their spread out formation. One ended in base to base with Skarre and repaired all the feat damage she took. I ended my turn with 40 minutes on my clock.
Bottom 2: The blood witches ambushed in on the right side of the board, back where Skarre was positioned. The gunslingers on the left activated and killed a few bloodgorgers with shots. The left raiders then charged and killed several more. When both units were done, only three bloodgorgers and Jussika were left from the unit. Asphyxious activated and cast parasite on the right bloodgorgers. The nightwretch in the center walked forward and tried to hit a marauder, but failed to break armor. The corrupter shot one of the bloodgorgers in the center of the clump. Four died and one was knocked down after making its tough roll. The right gunslingers took a few shots, killing several bloodgorgers, including the one engaging the right nightwretch. The nightwretch ran forward into the trench. The right raider unit charged and killed the remaining bloodgorgers on the right. The bloodwitches were out of charge range of Skarre, so they ran forward, getting two engaged with Skarre. The rest spread out, with the blood hag staying farthest back. Brad ended his turn with 32 minutes on his clock and we each scored a point for our respective rectangle zones.
Top 3: Skarre upkept draconic blessing for free and allocated max focus to the kraken. The bloodgorgers on the left took their vengeance attacks and killed three of the raiders. The iron mongers activated and the leader cursed the left raiders. The kraken activated and killed three raiders with its initial attacks plus one bought attack. Once it filled up on three corpses, kill shot was triggered and the one raider that stayed at the back of the zone was shot with a boosted attack. The raider died and the blast damage killed two of the gunslingers standing nearby. One last attack was purchased and one more raider died. The bloodgorgers then activated and finished off the rest of the left raiders, leaving only the gunslinger hiding behind the forest on the left side of the board.
Saxon killed two blood witches and the blood priestess killed a third. Skarre activated and used one of her independent cutlass attacks to kill the last blood witch engaged with her. She then took shots at the nightwretch in the trench. These were again poor choices, as I needed 12s to hit. I landed one cannon shot and boosted damage, but failed to take out the arc node. The marauders activated. Two got melee attacks on the left nightwretch, leaving it on two boxes and one of the marauders getting into the far rectangle zone. Three others did a combined ranged attack into a satyxis raider and landed the shot. The raider died and two nearby raiders were set on fire. Gerlack and Axiara stayed behind the marauders. My turn ended with 24 minutes on my clock and I scored a point for my rectangle zone, going up 2-1.
Bottom 3: Asphyxious held onto all his focus and the two burning raiders died to fire. The right nightwretch walked forward to get back inside Asphyxious's control range. Eilish put puppet master on Asphyxious who then cast spectral leech on Skarre, draining the two focus she was camping. He then put parasite on her and feated. Two hellfires went into Skarre, one with boosted damage, doing a total of 16 damage. The blood witches then charged, with the hag and one witch getting onto Skarre. The third charged the blood priestess, but missed her attack. The two witches put a combined nine damage onto Skarre, leaving her on a single box. The corrupter got the honor of finishing Skarre off. No points were scored and Skarre died with 24 minutes still on Brad's clock.
Analysis: Well, that was a harsh reminder that Skarre3 is not, in fact, invincible. I have been playing her far too aggressively because I want to take advantage of her guns. Normally, I don't think this is as big of an issue, as I am ARM 21 vs ranged and magic under deceleration and have a wave of bloodgorgers between Skarre and the enemy. However, I do need to keep what my opponent has on the table in mind. Asphyxious1 can still murder just about anything if you give him a chance. I am a bit frustrated at this loss, as I felt like I was in control of the game overall and completely lost sight of the assassination. Speaking with Brad after the game, he noted that from the game's start he was looking for an assassination win because I cannot hide Skarre.
There are multiple decisions that turned out ok for me in this game, despite being the completely wrong decision to make. Taking Skarre's shots against the stalker and the nightwretch when they were benefiting from cover was definitely the wrong thing to do. I think I got so fixated on making use of her guns that I didn't even consider the defense of what I was shooting until I had moved into range. Additionally, when the blood witches had engaged Skarre, I would have been better off using her independent attacks to clear the witches and move back a little. I owned the left side of the board, but was still pressing for something to happen on the right when I could have moved to safety and started pressing scenario pretty hard.
I am happy with how the left side of the board played out. I lost more bloodgorgers than I expected, but was pleased that my plan to have a few bloodgorgers and the kraken clear out a full unit of raiders worked. I was a little lucky that my opponent got a little confused on the burning clouds (he thought they were burning forest when he put the sea witch behind there). I'm not sure what I should have done differently to keep the right bloodgorgers alive longer. I needed to bunch up to stay away from the board edge and the threat of the ambush, but that meant giving half the unit up to a single corrupter shot.
Brad gave me some advice on other things that I should be doing with the list in order to maximize my abilities. First, the unit with Jussika should be near Skarre. Models that come back from her reinforcement ability cannot make a combat action, but they do get the benefit of vengeance. I also forgot to make use of Axiara's battle plans in this game. Normally she is just giving prowl to the marauders, but in this game reposition could have allowed me to get a little farther forward and jam the opposing army better. Speaking of the marauders, I know that I failed to account for ashen veil during this game. That said, there is a 95% chance that Brad was taking that rule into account without me saying anything. It was also suggested that Gerlack could have gotten some work done and chewed through 3-5 raiders on the top of turn three. I was concerned about keeping him alive for the veteran leader bonus, but killing that many raiders would have put Brad in a much more difficult situation (assuming I also kept Skarre alive).
Overall, this was a good game and Brad got the assassination vector he was looking for. I still need to work on keeping all my model's abilities in mind when playing, especially things like ashen veil that affect my opponent's turn. I also need to start considering whether Skarre is in danger on any given turn and how to keep her alive. Here's hoping I can make some improvement in that area. There is one more round in this scrum, so I should have another battle report next week. Thanks for reading!
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