Round Two: vs Anthony Minerva
Scenario: The Pitt 2
When the pairings came down for round 2, I found out that I was to play Anthony. He brought Khador to the scrum. My first thought was regret that I didn't have a dark host list to crack armor. Here are the lists we both had.
Me:
[Asphyxious 3] Asphyxious the Hellbringer [+24] - Black Industries
- Nightwretch [0(7)]
- Nightwretch [0(7)]
- Ripjaw [0(7)]
- Slayer [10]
- Slayer [10]
- Slayer [10]
- Slayer [10]
- Slayer [10]
- Slayer [10]
- Slayer [10]
- Slayer [10]
- Slayer [10]
Machine Wraith [2]
Soul Trapper [1]
Black Ogrun Ironmongers [6]
[Venethrax 1] Lich Lord Venethrax [+26] - Slaughter Fleet Raiders
- Deathripper [6]
- Kharybdis [17]
- Scavenger [7]
- Scavenger [7]
- Satyxis Blood Priestess [4]
Axiara Wraithblade [0(6)]
General Gerlak Slaughterborn [0(6)]
Misery Cage [2]
Misery Cage [2]
Ragman [4]
Black Ogrun Smog Belchers (max) [15]
Blighted Trollkin Marauders (min) [9]
Bloodgorgers (max) [15]
- Jussika Bloodtongue [5]
The Devil's Shadow Mutineers [8]
Anthony:
[Vladimir 2] Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Champion [+27] - Wolves of Winter
- Decimator [15]
- Devastator [14]
Fenris [9]
Greylord Forge Seer [0(4)]
Koldun Lord [0(4)]
Koldun Lord [0(4)]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [13]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [13]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [13]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [13]
Greylord Ternion [7]
Kayazy Eliminators [5]
[Harkevich 1] Kommander Harkevich, the Iron Wolf [+28] - Jaws of the Wolf
- Devastator [14]
- Devastator [14]
- Juggernaut [13]
- Juggernaut [13]
- Marauder [11]
- Marauder [11]
- Marauder [11]
Greylord Forge Seer [0(4)]
Greylord Forge Seer [0(4)]
Kell Bailoch [5]
Widowmaker Marksman [0(4)]
Battle Mechaniks (min) [3]
Widowmaker Scouts [8]
In the days leading up to our game I agonized over which list I should drop. I was particularly concerned that he would drop Harkevich and I would have some serious armor cracking issues. I was going over the math on how to deal with the Khador heavies with slayer spam over and over. I also thought about the doom reaver list and how slaughter fleet would be a decent matchup into that. In the end, I made my decision based on worst cases. I knew slayer spam would not be super happy going up against a ton of weapon master infantry, but that with decent placement I should be able to have a game. Meanwhile, if I dropped Venethrax into Harkevich, all my infantry would be useless and I wouldn't kill much of anything. Based on this, I decided to drop Lich3 with all the slayers.
When I arrived, Anthony revealed that he was going to be playing Vlad2 with the doom reavers. I had spent most of my time number crunching how to handle 7 Khador heavies, so I was just sort of winging it for this game. I felt extra nervous because it was my first time putting slayer spam on the table. I knew the theory behind it, but was very concerned that he could trivially destroy a large portion of my army. All those weapon masters were a scary look for me to play into.
Deployment: He won the roll and chose his side. His selection was primarily based on the fact that his phone was dying and he needed to be standing near the charger. I don't think the terrain was a big factor in the game and it allowed him the opportunity to score first.
I deployed my slayers in a line with Lich in the center. The ripjaw (deathripper proxy for this game) was to Lich's right. One nightwretch was aligned with the right edge of the circle zone while the other was a little inside the right edge of the left rectangle zone. The machine wraith was on the far right flank, hoping to get onto my flag and hold it. Vociferon was a little inside the left edge of the right rectangle zone. The iron mongers were spread out behind the row of jacks and the soul trapper was behind the left nightwretch. I hoped I could have Vociferon on one side of the board and the soul trapper on the other with both feeding souls to Lich3. Side note, this was the fastest deployment I have ever had, taking just under 45 seconds.
Anthony deployed Vlad centrally with Fenris to his left. To the left of Fenris was the devastator. There was a gap left and then the greylord ternion were deployed with the kayazy to their left. To Vlad's right were the two koldun lords and the decimator was to their right. The forge seer was behind Vlad. With his advance deployment, Anthony placed all four units of doom reavers, spread out a little. One was behind the rubble and the furthest right unit was kept inside the forest on the right side of the board.
Top 1: I started by asking about the threat ranges of his doom reavers. Anthony reminded me that he can give one of the units apparition and that he would have his feat to also increase threat ranges. I decided that he probably didn't want to use his feat on the bottom of one just to get a couple doom reavers into my slayers. Lich3 cast mobility and walked forward. I ended up running all the slayers forward, putting a couple just inside the threat range the doom reavers could reach with feat, but otherwise staying outside their threat range. The iron mongers stayed spread out and the machine wraith had enough speed to reach my flag this turn. Vociferon positioned behind the right slayers and the soul trapper positioned behind the left slayers. One nightwretch stood in the middle of the left slayers, while the other stayed aligned with the center zone. The ripjaw stood behind Lich3. I felt that I wouldn't be casting much other than mobility this game, due to many of his models having spell ward, so the arc nodes would need to get other work done. My turn ended with 56 minutes on the clock. (You can see the glare on my side of the clock. My times are estimates based on what I roughly remember and how much I can make out by super zooming on the picture.)
Bottom 1: As I expected, Anthony agreed that popping feat here was not a solid plan. The doom reavers on the left flank gained apparition this turn and placed forward their two inches. Vlad activated first and cast arcane might on himself and hand of fate on the kayazy. He then walked forward. The doom reavers that apparitioned ran forward. Three were placed directly in front of two of my slayers while the other three stood a couple inches further back. The other doom reavers on the left ran forward, staying mostly in the rubble. The kayazy ran forward and stood on either side of his flag and the greylord ternion ran to be to the left of the rubble. One of the koldun lords ran behind the rubble and Fenris ran behind him. The forge seer ran to Vlad's right. The far right unit of doom reavers ran forward and stood in two rows of three. The front row was far enough forward to be just inside the right circle zone with the second row standing just behind them. The last unit of doom reavers stood in a group behind the unit that just ran into the right rectangle with the other koldun lord just to their left. The devastator ran to be just to the right of the back edge of the rubble and the decimator ran to be to the left of the forest on the right. Anthony's turn ended with 52 minutes on the clock.
Top 2: I took a little time debating how many slayers I should commit, as I was still very concerned about weapon master infantry getting the chance to cut right through their armor. In the end, I decided that even with weapon masters, he could only deal with so much at a time and if the doom reavers gathered around a slayer and killed it, it would leave a nice slayer sized hole for a follow up wave to walk into and kill those reavers. Lich allocated one additional focus to the purple painted slayer and another to the forward unpainted slayer on the right. Asphyxious also put a focus on the painted slayer standing forward on the left. Lich3 activated first and cast mobility. He then moved forward a little bit and popped his feat. The painted slayer on the left walked forward into the group of three doom reavers in front of him and killed all three. The unpainted slayer on the far left walked forward and killed two more. The partially painted slayer in the left center walked forward and killed the final doom reaver. When this was done, the soul trapper was sitting on his full three souls. The soul trapper walked a little to the right and gave all three souls to Lich3. The last unpainted slayer on the left stood behind the three that had killed the doom reavers, ready to come in as a second wave.
The unpainted slayer in the middle ran forward, along with the ripjaw and left nightwretch, to block potential charge lanes to Lich3. The nightwretch on the right also ran forward with the iron mongers taking up positions behind it. Vociferon ran forward a little and stood just a bit behind the wall. The purple painted slayer charged in and killed two doom reavers on the right forward unit. One unpainted slayer on the right also charged and killed two more. Three of those doom reavers were in range for Vociferon to send souls to Asphyxious, putting him on six so far. The other unpainted slayer on the right ran to stand behind the wall and the green painted slayer ran to stand in front of the iron mongers. My turn ended with 46 minutes on the clock. I was happy to have killed about 1.5 units of doom reavers, but was still concerned it wasn't enough. However, I was very prepared for Lich3 to be pumped up with focus next turn.
Bottom 2: This turn I put out numbered markers to help keep track of which slayer took what damage. These are mostly visible in the picture, so I will start referring to the slayers by number going forward. It was time for the doom reavers to get some work done. Vlad upkept arcane might for free and paid one focus to upkeep hand of fate on the kayazy. The kayazy charged the slayer in the back on the left. I forgot about acrobatics and didn't keep it far enough away from them. One got a charge attack and side stepped over to kill the soul trapper, then side stepped back to keep the gang bonus going on the slayer. Between all the attacks, the slayer (number 8, marked on the base) was left with only one arm functional. The koldun lords and greylord ternion combined their ice cages to stationary the middle slayer on the left (number 2) and reduce the defense of the right one (number 1). The doom reavers on the left were close enough to Fenris to get the relentless charge bonus and charged in on the three slayers that were lined up. Two went into the slayer 1, three into slayer 2 and one onto slayer 3. Slayer 3 was still fully functional. Slayer 2 lost a couple systems and slayer 1 was mostly intact. Vlad activated and put assail on the decimator, who charged slayer 1, leaving it on about 4 boxes and most systems crippled. The forge seer moved to stand at the back of the circle zone and put up winter's wind on himself.
On the right side of the board, the two remaining doomreavers from the painted unit received the press forward order. One charged and killed the machine wraith and the other ran to stand behind the first. The other unit of doom reavers also charged in. Two attacked slayer 7 (purple painted), one charged slayer 9, one charged slayer 5, and two charged the right nightwretch. None of the slayers lost any systems, but the nightwretch lost its arcnode, surviving only because one doom reaver missed its attack. Finally, the devastator took a shot at a slayer, but did little damage due to carapace. Anthony's turn ended with 33 minutes on the clock. Anthony scored on his flag with a koldun lord, putting me down 0-1.
Top 3: I was not expecting to have all my slayers still on the board when this turn started. Further, Lich3 was sitting on a fat stack of 17 focus. The biggest key here was trying to clean up as much of the board as possible. I felt comfortable that I could own the right zone at this point, but needed to eliminate as many doom reavers as possible, as well as getting rid of the kayazy. Lich3 passed one focus to just about every slayer with a working cortex. He cast mobility and charged the kayazy on slayer 8's right side. He boosted the attack and missed. Bought and boosted a second and third attack before finally landing it. He used blood boon to cast calamity on the devastator and ended his turn camping two focus. Slayers 5,6 and 8 killed five doom reavers and Vociferon was close enough to send three of those souls to Lich3. Vociferon then ran to the right flag and slayer 9 killed the last two doom reavers, sending two additional souls to Asphyxious. The arc nodes worked together to kill the remaining doom reaver to the right of the center forest.
On the left side of the board, slayer 8 decided to spike his unboosted attack roll and kill the second kayazy. Slayers 1, 2 and 3 killed three doom reavers and damaged the devastator so it only had 6 or so boxes remaining. The iron mongers rearranged a bit in the center zone. My turn ended with 33 minutes on the clock. I scored on my flag and the right zone, putting the score at 2-1 (Slayer 3 was just in range to contest his flag).
Bottom 3: I felt very good about my position at this point and figured the game would just come down to me cleaning up what little Anthony had on the board. However, I knew he hadn't feated and asked him at the start of his turn if Lich was going to die. He had a plan, but I believe he had to revise it several times during the course of his turn to account for different variables and rules interactions. Vlad upkept arcane might and held onto the rest of his focus. The devastator walked backwards, taking a couple free strikes that took out a few more boxes, but it stayed alive. The greylords and koldun lord again combined their ice cages and make slayer 1 stationary. Vlad feated and targetted the three doom reavers on the left, Fenris and the forge seer. Fenris charged Lich3 and his impact attacks finished off slayers 1 and 2. One of his attacks missed and I spent a focus to reduce damage from the other. He repositioned away to clear space for doom reavers to charge. The doom reavers charged in, but only two were able to get charge angles on Lich. They both used arcane might to boost the attack rolls, but one of them still missed. Lich survived the assassination attempt with about eight health boxes. The forge seer empowered the decimator, who ran to contest the right zone and my flag. No one scored, leaving the score at 2-1. His turn ended with 14 minutes on the clock.
Top 4: I should have died there, due to not keeping Lich3 further away from the other models that could actually get onto him. Instead, Lich allocated focus around to the jacks with functional cortexes. Slayers 8 and 3 combined to kill Fenris. Lich3 killed one doom reaver, but burned through all his focus trying to kill both. The combination of the ripjaw and an iron monger was needed to kill the second. One of the other iron mongers repaired the damaged night wretch and the other stood in the trench. Slayers 5,6 and 9 combined to put damage on the decimator, but failed to kill it. Slayer 8 and the undamaged nightwretch killed the last doom reaver on the board. Slayer 7 killed the forge seer. Moved slayer 3 away from the left flag, allowing Anthony to score. The score was now tied at 2-2. My turn ended with 18 minutes on the clock.
Bottom 4: Anthony was running out of models that could get work done. Vlad stopped upkeeping anything and held onto his focus. He charged slayer 3 and destroyed it while still sitting on a few focus. The devastator tried to damage slayer 6 but didn't do much. The decimator took some swings, but also did not do much damage. The greylords were unable to do any real damage. Anthony's turn ended with him scoring his own flag again, putting me down 2-4. His turn ended with 6:58 on the clock.
Top 5: At this point, I could have tried to assassinate Vlad, but I felt that pressing for scenario was the more sure option. Lich3 converted his one soul into an additional focus and chose not to allocate anything. He cast mobility and walked to the right to get away from Vlad, who was the only real threat to him at this point. Slayer 5 destroyed the decimator, allowing slayers 6 and 9 to run toward the left. Slayer 6 and 8 combined to destroy the devastator and one of the greylords. Slayer 7 ran onto Anthony's flag. The turn ended with me scoring my flag and both the right and left zones, putting me up 5-4. I ended the turn with 12 minutes on the clock.
Bottom 5: The koldun lord on the left flag was unable to do anything about the slayer in his face. The other koldun lord ran to contest the right zone, but was not able to get far enough to contest the flag. Vlad camped everything and ran to engage Asphyxious. I scored the right flag, going up 6-4. Anthony's turn ended with 3:45 on the clock.
Top 6: Asphyxious held onto all his focus. Slayer 5 killed the koldun lord that ran to the right zone. Slayer 7 killed the koldun lord on the left flag. Slayer 9 killed the last greylord. At this point, I was going to win whenever my turn ended. I decided to see if Asphyxious could kill Vlad for the army points. Lich3 missed his first attack, which ended up causing the assassination to fall short. I ended my turn and scored the right flag along with all three zones, putting the final score at 10-4. The game ended with 9:20 on my clock.
Analysis: I understood the theory behind the list, but it is more brutal on the table than I had thought in my head. I think there were a couple things Anthony could have done to try and change the game outcome. First, I felt like he threw all his doom reavers into me when he came in to attack. It might have gone better if he tried to send them in as waves. Also, he was spreading the damage out across multiple jacks. Focusing damage on a single jack at a time could have helped. Even though many of the slayers had systems out, they were still getting work done. The other item that comes to mind is his decision after winning the initiative roll. He chose to go second so he could pick his side and be near the plug for his dying phone. I am honestly not sure how much of a difference it would have made in the end, but if he went first it's possible he could have pressured scenario more or gotten the alpha on me instead of my slayers killing a bunch of his doom reavers before they could do any work.
As for my play, I thought I generally did decent with one major exception. I continue to not correctly evaluate whether my caster is safe in his current location. I potentially should have tried a different attack for killing the kayazy, as sending in Lich meant he was in a place where he could be killed. I felt safe behind my wall of jacks, but didn't consider that two of them were on 4 or fewer boxes. If Anthony's dice roll the hit (needed a 5 on 3 dice) I likely lose the game right there. Secondly, there was no reason for Asphyxious not to have ashen veil up on himself for the duration of the game. He is the "weak link" in this list and having his defensive tech up would have made me feel better.
I also need to remember that the iron mongers can repair my jacks. I had a couple jacks trying to do work with crippled systems and they could have easily repaired at least one or two. They eventually repaired the one arc node, but by then the arc node was irrelevant to the game.
Overall, this list is very oppressive. I feel like I played it ok, especially considering this was my first time, but I shudder to think what someone who really knows what they are doing could make happen. Going into the game I tried to remind myself that slayers have two open hands and there is some serious potential for throwing shenanigans. I was ready for slayers to be casually removed by weapon master infantry, but they can stand up to a few hits better than I expected. The true cryx part of my is looking forward to putting this on the table more, while the rest of me knows it's just rude.
This was a good game and Anthony was a great opponent. I look forward to more games against him in the future. I continue to say the scrum has been a great way for me to meet new people and he is someone I will seek out for future games. Next week, my round three battle report against Ret will be up. As always, thanks for reading!
He chose to go second ... wonder if that made a difference
Need to be more aware of threat ranges to Lich3
Lich3 should have had ashen veil up all game
iron mongers can repair
Scenario: The Pitt 2
When the pairings came down for round 2, I found out that I was to play Anthony. He brought Khador to the scrum. My first thought was regret that I didn't have a dark host list to crack armor. Here are the lists we both had.
Me:
[Asphyxious 3] Asphyxious the Hellbringer [+24] - Black Industries
- Nightwretch [0(7)]
- Nightwretch [0(7)]
- Ripjaw [0(7)]
- Slayer [10]
- Slayer [10]
- Slayer [10]
- Slayer [10]
- Slayer [10]
- Slayer [10]
- Slayer [10]
- Slayer [10]
- Slayer [10]
Machine Wraith [2]
Soul Trapper [1]
Black Ogrun Ironmongers [6]
[Venethrax 1] Lich Lord Venethrax [+26] - Slaughter Fleet Raiders
- Deathripper [6]
- Kharybdis [17]
- Scavenger [7]
- Scavenger [7]
- Satyxis Blood Priestess [4]
Axiara Wraithblade [0(6)]
General Gerlak Slaughterborn [0(6)]
Misery Cage [2]
Misery Cage [2]
Ragman [4]
Black Ogrun Smog Belchers (max) [15]
Blighted Trollkin Marauders (min) [9]
Bloodgorgers (max) [15]
- Jussika Bloodtongue [5]
The Devil's Shadow Mutineers [8]
Anthony:
[Vladimir 2] Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Champion [+27] - Wolves of Winter
- Decimator [15]
- Devastator [14]
Fenris [9]
Greylord Forge Seer [0(4)]
Koldun Lord [0(4)]
Koldun Lord [0(4)]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [13]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [13]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [13]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [13]
Greylord Ternion [7]
Kayazy Eliminators [5]
[Harkevich 1] Kommander Harkevich, the Iron Wolf [+28] - Jaws of the Wolf
- Devastator [14]
- Devastator [14]
- Juggernaut [13]
- Juggernaut [13]
- Marauder [11]
- Marauder [11]
- Marauder [11]
Greylord Forge Seer [0(4)]
Greylord Forge Seer [0(4)]
Kell Bailoch [5]
Widowmaker Marksman [0(4)]
Battle Mechaniks (min) [3]
Widowmaker Scouts [8]
In the days leading up to our game I agonized over which list I should drop. I was particularly concerned that he would drop Harkevich and I would have some serious armor cracking issues. I was going over the math on how to deal with the Khador heavies with slayer spam over and over. I also thought about the doom reaver list and how slaughter fleet would be a decent matchup into that. In the end, I made my decision based on worst cases. I knew slayer spam would not be super happy going up against a ton of weapon master infantry, but that with decent placement I should be able to have a game. Meanwhile, if I dropped Venethrax into Harkevich, all my infantry would be useless and I wouldn't kill much of anything. Based on this, I decided to drop Lich3 with all the slayers.
When I arrived, Anthony revealed that he was going to be playing Vlad2 with the doom reavers. I had spent most of my time number crunching how to handle 7 Khador heavies, so I was just sort of winging it for this game. I felt extra nervous because it was my first time putting slayer spam on the table. I knew the theory behind it, but was very concerned that he could trivially destroy a large portion of my army. All those weapon masters were a scary look for me to play into.
Deployment: He won the roll and chose his side. His selection was primarily based on the fact that his phone was dying and he needed to be standing near the charger. I don't think the terrain was a big factor in the game and it allowed him the opportunity to score first.
I deployed my slayers in a line with Lich in the center. The ripjaw (deathripper proxy for this game) was to Lich's right. One nightwretch was aligned with the right edge of the circle zone while the other was a little inside the right edge of the left rectangle zone. The machine wraith was on the far right flank, hoping to get onto my flag and hold it. Vociferon was a little inside the left edge of the right rectangle zone. The iron mongers were spread out behind the row of jacks and the soul trapper was behind the left nightwretch. I hoped I could have Vociferon on one side of the board and the soul trapper on the other with both feeding souls to Lich3. Side note, this was the fastest deployment I have ever had, taking just under 45 seconds.
Anthony deployed Vlad centrally with Fenris to his left. To the left of Fenris was the devastator. There was a gap left and then the greylord ternion were deployed with the kayazy to their left. To Vlad's right were the two koldun lords and the decimator was to their right. The forge seer was behind Vlad. With his advance deployment, Anthony placed all four units of doom reavers, spread out a little. One was behind the rubble and the furthest right unit was kept inside the forest on the right side of the board.
Top 1: I started by asking about the threat ranges of his doom reavers. Anthony reminded me that he can give one of the units apparition and that he would have his feat to also increase threat ranges. I decided that he probably didn't want to use his feat on the bottom of one just to get a couple doom reavers into my slayers. Lich3 cast mobility and walked forward. I ended up running all the slayers forward, putting a couple just inside the threat range the doom reavers could reach with feat, but otherwise staying outside their threat range. The iron mongers stayed spread out and the machine wraith had enough speed to reach my flag this turn. Vociferon positioned behind the right slayers and the soul trapper positioned behind the left slayers. One nightwretch stood in the middle of the left slayers, while the other stayed aligned with the center zone. The ripjaw stood behind Lich3. I felt that I wouldn't be casting much other than mobility this game, due to many of his models having spell ward, so the arc nodes would need to get other work done. My turn ended with 56 minutes on the clock. (You can see the glare on my side of the clock. My times are estimates based on what I roughly remember and how much I can make out by super zooming on the picture.)
Bottom 1: As I expected, Anthony agreed that popping feat here was not a solid plan. The doom reavers on the left flank gained apparition this turn and placed forward their two inches. Vlad activated first and cast arcane might on himself and hand of fate on the kayazy. He then walked forward. The doom reavers that apparitioned ran forward. Three were placed directly in front of two of my slayers while the other three stood a couple inches further back. The other doom reavers on the left ran forward, staying mostly in the rubble. The kayazy ran forward and stood on either side of his flag and the greylord ternion ran to be to the left of the rubble. One of the koldun lords ran behind the rubble and Fenris ran behind him. The forge seer ran to Vlad's right. The far right unit of doom reavers ran forward and stood in two rows of three. The front row was far enough forward to be just inside the right circle zone with the second row standing just behind them. The last unit of doom reavers stood in a group behind the unit that just ran into the right rectangle with the other koldun lord just to their left. The devastator ran to be just to the right of the back edge of the rubble and the decimator ran to be to the left of the forest on the right. Anthony's turn ended with 52 minutes on the clock.
Top 2: I took a little time debating how many slayers I should commit, as I was still very concerned about weapon master infantry getting the chance to cut right through their armor. In the end, I decided that even with weapon masters, he could only deal with so much at a time and if the doom reavers gathered around a slayer and killed it, it would leave a nice slayer sized hole for a follow up wave to walk into and kill those reavers. Lich allocated one additional focus to the purple painted slayer and another to the forward unpainted slayer on the right. Asphyxious also put a focus on the painted slayer standing forward on the left. Lich3 activated first and cast mobility. He then moved forward a little bit and popped his feat. The painted slayer on the left walked forward into the group of three doom reavers in front of him and killed all three. The unpainted slayer on the far left walked forward and killed two more. The partially painted slayer in the left center walked forward and killed the final doom reaver. When this was done, the soul trapper was sitting on his full three souls. The soul trapper walked a little to the right and gave all three souls to Lich3. The last unpainted slayer on the left stood behind the three that had killed the doom reavers, ready to come in as a second wave.
The unpainted slayer in the middle ran forward, along with the ripjaw and left nightwretch, to block potential charge lanes to Lich3. The nightwretch on the right also ran forward with the iron mongers taking up positions behind it. Vociferon ran forward a little and stood just a bit behind the wall. The purple painted slayer charged in and killed two doom reavers on the right forward unit. One unpainted slayer on the right also charged and killed two more. Three of those doom reavers were in range for Vociferon to send souls to Asphyxious, putting him on six so far. The other unpainted slayer on the right ran to stand behind the wall and the green painted slayer ran to stand in front of the iron mongers. My turn ended with 46 minutes on the clock. I was happy to have killed about 1.5 units of doom reavers, but was still concerned it wasn't enough. However, I was very prepared for Lich3 to be pumped up with focus next turn.
Bottom 2: This turn I put out numbered markers to help keep track of which slayer took what damage. These are mostly visible in the picture, so I will start referring to the slayers by number going forward. It was time for the doom reavers to get some work done. Vlad upkept arcane might for free and paid one focus to upkeep hand of fate on the kayazy. The kayazy charged the slayer in the back on the left. I forgot about acrobatics and didn't keep it far enough away from them. One got a charge attack and side stepped over to kill the soul trapper, then side stepped back to keep the gang bonus going on the slayer. Between all the attacks, the slayer (number 8, marked on the base) was left with only one arm functional. The koldun lords and greylord ternion combined their ice cages to stationary the middle slayer on the left (number 2) and reduce the defense of the right one (number 1). The doom reavers on the left were close enough to Fenris to get the relentless charge bonus and charged in on the three slayers that were lined up. Two went into the slayer 1, three into slayer 2 and one onto slayer 3. Slayer 3 was still fully functional. Slayer 2 lost a couple systems and slayer 1 was mostly intact. Vlad activated and put assail on the decimator, who charged slayer 1, leaving it on about 4 boxes and most systems crippled. The forge seer moved to stand at the back of the circle zone and put up winter's wind on himself.
On the right side of the board, the two remaining doomreavers from the painted unit received the press forward order. One charged and killed the machine wraith and the other ran to stand behind the first. The other unit of doom reavers also charged in. Two attacked slayer 7 (purple painted), one charged slayer 9, one charged slayer 5, and two charged the right nightwretch. None of the slayers lost any systems, but the nightwretch lost its arcnode, surviving only because one doom reaver missed its attack. Finally, the devastator took a shot at a slayer, but did little damage due to carapace. Anthony's turn ended with 33 minutes on the clock. Anthony scored on his flag with a koldun lord, putting me down 0-1.
Top 3: I was not expecting to have all my slayers still on the board when this turn started. Further, Lich3 was sitting on a fat stack of 17 focus. The biggest key here was trying to clean up as much of the board as possible. I felt comfortable that I could own the right zone at this point, but needed to eliminate as many doom reavers as possible, as well as getting rid of the kayazy. Lich3 passed one focus to just about every slayer with a working cortex. He cast mobility and charged the kayazy on slayer 8's right side. He boosted the attack and missed. Bought and boosted a second and third attack before finally landing it. He used blood boon to cast calamity on the devastator and ended his turn camping two focus. Slayers 5,6 and 8 killed five doom reavers and Vociferon was close enough to send three of those souls to Lich3. Vociferon then ran to the right flag and slayer 9 killed the last two doom reavers, sending two additional souls to Asphyxious. The arc nodes worked together to kill the remaining doom reaver to the right of the center forest.
On the left side of the board, slayer 8 decided to spike his unboosted attack roll and kill the second kayazy. Slayers 1, 2 and 3 killed three doom reavers and damaged the devastator so it only had 6 or so boxes remaining. The iron mongers rearranged a bit in the center zone. My turn ended with 33 minutes on the clock. I scored on my flag and the right zone, putting the score at 2-1 (Slayer 3 was just in range to contest his flag).
Bottom 3: I felt very good about my position at this point and figured the game would just come down to me cleaning up what little Anthony had on the board. However, I knew he hadn't feated and asked him at the start of his turn if Lich was going to die. He had a plan, but I believe he had to revise it several times during the course of his turn to account for different variables and rules interactions. Vlad upkept arcane might and held onto the rest of his focus. The devastator walked backwards, taking a couple free strikes that took out a few more boxes, but it stayed alive. The greylords and koldun lord again combined their ice cages and make slayer 1 stationary. Vlad feated and targetted the three doom reavers on the left, Fenris and the forge seer. Fenris charged Lich3 and his impact attacks finished off slayers 1 and 2. One of his attacks missed and I spent a focus to reduce damage from the other. He repositioned away to clear space for doom reavers to charge. The doom reavers charged in, but only two were able to get charge angles on Lich. They both used arcane might to boost the attack rolls, but one of them still missed. Lich survived the assassination attempt with about eight health boxes. The forge seer empowered the decimator, who ran to contest the right zone and my flag. No one scored, leaving the score at 2-1. His turn ended with 14 minutes on the clock.
Top 4: I should have died there, due to not keeping Lich3 further away from the other models that could actually get onto him. Instead, Lich allocated focus around to the jacks with functional cortexes. Slayers 8 and 3 combined to kill Fenris. Lich3 killed one doom reaver, but burned through all his focus trying to kill both. The combination of the ripjaw and an iron monger was needed to kill the second. One of the other iron mongers repaired the damaged night wretch and the other stood in the trench. Slayers 5,6 and 9 combined to put damage on the decimator, but failed to kill it. Slayer 8 and the undamaged nightwretch killed the last doom reaver on the board. Slayer 7 killed the forge seer. Moved slayer 3 away from the left flag, allowing Anthony to score. The score was now tied at 2-2. My turn ended with 18 minutes on the clock.
Bottom 4: Anthony was running out of models that could get work done. Vlad stopped upkeeping anything and held onto his focus. He charged slayer 3 and destroyed it while still sitting on a few focus. The devastator tried to damage slayer 6 but didn't do much. The decimator took some swings, but also did not do much damage. The greylords were unable to do any real damage. Anthony's turn ended with him scoring his own flag again, putting me down 2-4. His turn ended with 6:58 on the clock.
Top 5: At this point, I could have tried to assassinate Vlad, but I felt that pressing for scenario was the more sure option. Lich3 converted his one soul into an additional focus and chose not to allocate anything. He cast mobility and walked to the right to get away from Vlad, who was the only real threat to him at this point. Slayer 5 destroyed the decimator, allowing slayers 6 and 9 to run toward the left. Slayer 6 and 8 combined to destroy the devastator and one of the greylords. Slayer 7 ran onto Anthony's flag. The turn ended with me scoring my flag and both the right and left zones, putting me up 5-4. I ended the turn with 12 minutes on the clock.
Bottom 5: The koldun lord on the left flag was unable to do anything about the slayer in his face. The other koldun lord ran to contest the right zone, but was not able to get far enough to contest the flag. Vlad camped everything and ran to engage Asphyxious. I scored the right flag, going up 6-4. Anthony's turn ended with 3:45 on the clock.
Top 6: Asphyxious held onto all his focus. Slayer 5 killed the koldun lord that ran to the right zone. Slayer 7 killed the koldun lord on the left flag. Slayer 9 killed the last greylord. At this point, I was going to win whenever my turn ended. I decided to see if Asphyxious could kill Vlad for the army points. Lich3 missed his first attack, which ended up causing the assassination to fall short. I ended my turn and scored the right flag along with all three zones, putting the final score at 10-4. The game ended with 9:20 on my clock.
Analysis: I understood the theory behind the list, but it is more brutal on the table than I had thought in my head. I think there were a couple things Anthony could have done to try and change the game outcome. First, I felt like he threw all his doom reavers into me when he came in to attack. It might have gone better if he tried to send them in as waves. Also, he was spreading the damage out across multiple jacks. Focusing damage on a single jack at a time could have helped. Even though many of the slayers had systems out, they were still getting work done. The other item that comes to mind is his decision after winning the initiative roll. He chose to go second so he could pick his side and be near the plug for his dying phone. I am honestly not sure how much of a difference it would have made in the end, but if he went first it's possible he could have pressured scenario more or gotten the alpha on me instead of my slayers killing a bunch of his doom reavers before they could do any work.
As for my play, I thought I generally did decent with one major exception. I continue to not correctly evaluate whether my caster is safe in his current location. I potentially should have tried a different attack for killing the kayazy, as sending in Lich meant he was in a place where he could be killed. I felt safe behind my wall of jacks, but didn't consider that two of them were on 4 or fewer boxes. If Anthony's dice roll the hit (needed a 5 on 3 dice) I likely lose the game right there. Secondly, there was no reason for Asphyxious not to have ashen veil up on himself for the duration of the game. He is the "weak link" in this list and having his defensive tech up would have made me feel better.
I also need to remember that the iron mongers can repair my jacks. I had a couple jacks trying to do work with crippled systems and they could have easily repaired at least one or two. They eventually repaired the one arc node, but by then the arc node was irrelevant to the game.
Overall, this list is very oppressive. I feel like I played it ok, especially considering this was my first time, but I shudder to think what someone who really knows what they are doing could make happen. Going into the game I tried to remind myself that slayers have two open hands and there is some serious potential for throwing shenanigans. I was ready for slayers to be casually removed by weapon master infantry, but they can stand up to a few hits better than I expected. The true cryx part of my is looking forward to putting this on the table more, while the rest of me knows it's just rude.
This was a good game and Anthony was a great opponent. I look forward to more games against him in the future. I continue to say the scrum has been a great way for me to meet new people and he is someone I will seek out for future games. Next week, my round three battle report against Ret will be up. As always, thanks for reading!
He chose to go second ... wonder if that made a difference
Need to be more aware of threat ranges to Lich3
Lich3 should have had ashen veil up all game
iron mongers can repair
Comments
Post a Comment