Vs: Michael Ambyth
Scenario: Standoff
I arrived at a local game night with my current two list pairing. I had my Denny2 dark host list and Skarre3 in slaughter fleet. I had setup the game with Michael earlier, but didn't know what he was bringing. He told me he only had one list, so I decided I would pick my list based purely on which faction he was playing. He had Cryx and lately I had been trying out my Skarre3 list into the Cryx mirror match. It turned out his list was Lich3, but not slayer spam. Here are the lists:
Me:
[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)]
Black Ogrun Ironmongers [6]
Blighted Trollkin Marauders (max) [15]
Bloodgorgers (max) [15]
- Jussika Bloodtongue [5]
Bloodgorgers (max) [15]
Scharde Dirge Seers [6]
Michael:
Asphyxious 3] Asphyxious the Hellbringer [+24] -Black Industries - Cankerworm [9]
- Deathjack [23]
- Defiler [8]
- Malice [15]
- Nightwretch [0(7)]
- Nightwretch [0(7)]
- Slayer [10]
- Slayer [10]
- Slayer [10]
Necrotech [2]
Necrotech [2]
Necrotech [2]
Machine Wraith [2]
Black Ogrun Ironmongers [6]
When I found out I was going against Lich3 in Black Industries I became very concerned about the damage output of my list. The bloodgorgers can end up hitting at effective p+s 15 if I can stack all the buffs, but I rarely get Ragman to the right place at the right time. P+S 13 doesn't seem like enough to really deal with the armor I was going to see, and my shooting would have to be reserved purely for infantry. We rolled and I won. I chose to go first and he selected the side of the board with the trench.
Deployment: I wanted to try a new deployment strategy based on my conversation with Mark after my last game. I put Skarre in the middle so her buffs could apply to as much of my army as possible. The kraken went to her left and Jussika's blood gorgers were on the left flank. The dirge seers and Ragman were behind the kraken. The iron mongers were behind Skarre, along with the blood priestess. The marauders were deployed to Skarre's right with Gerlack and Axiara behind them near Skarre's base. Finally, the second unit of blood gorgers was put out on the right flank.
Michael deployed Lich on the right side of the rectangle zones, with the house between Lich and my army. To Lich's right there was an iron monger, followed by a necrotech. Next came the defiler, with Malice to its right. Continuing down the line, next to Malice was a slayer with a nightwretch on the far right flank. A necrotech was behind Malice and the slayer with another iron monger behind Malice. To Lich's left was the third iron monger, followed by a slayer and then Vociferon. Next came the third slayer and the second nightwretch. This portion of deployment was all aligned with the center rectangle zone. A necrotech was deployed behind the slayer and nightwretch. Finally, way out on the left flank on its own was a machine wraith, aligned with the center of the left circle zone.
Michael's advanced deploy put both Deathjack and Cankerworm just outside the right circle zone. Deathjack was aligned with the left portion of the zone, with Cankerworm aligned toward the right.
Top 1: Michael deployed very heavy towards the right zone. I didn't think I could chew through all the armor and boxes on the other side of the table, but he may not have realized how easy it would be for me to remove the machine wraith and own the left zone. From there, I hoped to be able to slowly sweep toward the right and press scenario. Skarre activated first and spent her stack for dash, decel and putting draconic blessing on the marauders. She moved forward to just outside my rectangle zone. The left blood gorgers ran forward and spread out a bit behind the left forest. The kraken ran up behind the blood gorgers and the dirge seers ran to the kraken's left. The iron mongers ran to stay between Skarre and the kraken. The marauders ran forward, getting a couple in front of Skarre and spreading out between Skarre and the acid pit. The left blood gorgers ran around the right side of the acid pit. Gerlack and Axiara positioned behind the acid pit and the blood priestess ran to be to Skarre's right. The turn ended with 52 minutes on my clock.
Bottom 1: Asphyxious cast ashen veil on Cankerworm, cast mobility and then charged to get just behind the house. The machine wraith ran to be just inside the right edge of the left zone. The two slayers aligned with the rectangle zone ran forward to be on the front edge of the zone. The left nightwretch ran to be between the left most slayer and the machine wraith and a necrotech stood behind the left most slayer. Vociferon walked in front of Michael's objective and killed a marauder with hellfire. Deathjack and Cankerworm moved forward to be in the middle of the right zone. The third slayer ran to be to Cankerworm's right and Malice ran to be behind Cankerworm and the third slayer. A necrotech ran behind Malice. The defiler ran to be in front of Lich, with a necrotech standing just behind. The right nightwretch ran into the middle of the right forest. The iron mongers spread out a bit around the house. The turn ended with 51 minutes on Michael's clock.
Top 2: Skarre upkept draconic blessing. The marauders activated and moved forward, sliding towards the right side of the house. Four of them managed to get inside the right zone. They took some shots, hitting Deathjack and missing Cankerworm. Deathjack and the defiler were set on fire, though the shot itself did no damage. Skarre activated and moved forward slightly to be just inside the near rectangle zone. She then took some shots. Vociferon was killed by one cannon shot and the other shot the defiler, putting some damage on it, but not taking out any systems. The dirge seers moved forward toward the left circle and gave guidance to three blood gorgers. Two blood gorgers got charges on the machine wraith while the rest either spread out or charged the left two slayers, while leaving a landing spot for the kraken. The machine wraith died and a little damage was put on the slayers, but not a significant amount. The kraken charged the left most slayer, but I forgot to allocate focus at the start of the turn so a decent amount of damage was done, but the slayer remained standing. The right blood gorgers charged forward, trying to flood the right zone with bodies. The right slayer took a little damage and no attacks landed on the Cankerworm. One blood gorger ran to engage the left nightwretch. Axiara, Gerlack and the blood priestess all stood to Skarre's right. The iron mongers ran into the left circle zone. The turn ended with 34 minutes on my clock.
Bottom 2: Lich upkept ashen veil on the Cankerworm. The necrotechs and iron mongers repaired the jacks that took damage last turn. Deathjack walked into melee with the marauders, but only killed one between the two of them. The right slayer was loaded with focus and killed several blood gorgers, followed by Cankerworm killing another and then repositioning to engage the marauders. The left two slayers killed the four blood gorgers that were jamming them from the left unit. The left nightwretch moved back and took a shot, killing one blood gorger. The right nightwretch tried to kill a blood gorger in melee, but failed. The defiler moved forward and sprayed, but failed to kill anything. Lich moved to stand just inside the right circle zone. The turn ended with 33 minutes on Michael's clock. I scored the left circle zone and my rectangle zone while Michael scored his rectangle zone, starting the scoring at 2-1.
Top 3: Skarre reinforced a couple blood gorgers into the left unit, which used vengeance to position for charges. The kraken was loaded with focus. Skarre moved forward slightly to get the right nectrotech into cannon range and killed it. She also killed the left necrotech. The left blood gorgers received the press forward order. Two charged the left nightwretch, one charged the left iron monger and the rest spread out, while clearing a landing zone for the kraken. The nightwretch took damage, but remained alive. The iron monger died and the blood gorger used overtake to get the slayers in melee range to apply gang fighter. Ragman moved up and put up death field. The kraken moved to straddle the left circle and far rectangle zones. It then killed the slayer standing inside the far rectangle zone, but did not have enough left to kill the nightwretch. The marauders largely stood still, doing negligible damage to Deathjack, but using CRA to kill the defiler. The right blood gorgers pressed into the right circle again, killing the last necrotech and putting some chip damage on the right slayer. The turn ended with 19 minutes on my clock. I scored the near rectangle and the left circle, putting me up 4-1.
Bottom 3: Lich continued to upkeep ashen veil. Lich cast mobilityand moved to be closer behind the house again. Deathjack killed the two marauders in melee with it. The right slayer killed two blood gorgers. Cankerworm killed another blood gorger and then repositioned to jam up the marauders. The iron mongers charged and killed two blood gorgers. Malice shot and dragged in a marauder, who made its tough checks and remained standing due to the positioning of Jussika. The left nightwretch failed to kill a blood gorger. The left slayer walked around the kraken to get just inside the left circle zone and took some swings on the kraken, but did little damage. The turn ended with 18 minutes on Michael's clock. I scored the near rectangle, going up 5-1.
Top 4: I end my turn, scoring the near rectangle and winning on scenario 6-1.
Analysis: I was very concerned about being able to break armor. This turned out to be a valid concern, as only the kraken can get work done against the heavies in the matchup. Due to Michael playing so heavily on the right flank, I was able to kill only a few models and work scenario on the left, while just throwing bodies into the right zone to prevent him from scoring. I did ok in this game, but I once again forgot to use Axiara's battle plans. I also failed to allocate focus to the kraken on turn two when it needed to go in and kill a slayer.
I may have played Skarre a little too far forward, given the limited amount of work she was getting done. I don't know if there was a way to make it happen, but she was close enough that a clear charge lane would have allowed Deathjack to get onto her and potentially end the game that way. I end up feeling very safe with a unit of medium bases between her and the enemy, but I need to keep in mind that there are almost always was to try for an assassination angle and keeping her safe in a game where I am winning on scenario is more important than killing a couple solos.
Overall, I think I did well in this game and I am getting very comfortable dropping this list into almost any matchup. This week is the first week of a new Scrum, so starting next week I will be back to reporting my scrum matchups. I am running the Skarre3 list in this post and pairing it with the Denny2 dark host list I was running early in the year. I am using this as a chance to practice the pairing, as I am thinking I will likely take it to the Bokur Brawl. Next week, my round one matchup against Grymkin. Thanks for reading!
Scenario: Standoff
I arrived at a local game night with my current two list pairing. I had my Denny2 dark host list and Skarre3 in slaughter fleet. I had setup the game with Michael earlier, but didn't know what he was bringing. He told me he only had one list, so I decided I would pick my list based purely on which faction he was playing. He had Cryx and lately I had been trying out my Skarre3 list into the Cryx mirror match. It turned out his list was Lich3, but not slayer spam. Here are the lists:
Me:
[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)]
Black Ogrun Ironmongers [6]
Blighted Trollkin Marauders (max) [15]
Bloodgorgers (max) [15]
- Jussika Bloodtongue [5]
Bloodgorgers (max) [15]
Scharde Dirge Seers [6]
Michael:
Asphyxious 3] Asphyxious the Hellbringer [+24] -Black Industries - Cankerworm [9]
- Deathjack [23]
- Defiler [8]
- Malice [15]
- Nightwretch [0(7)]
- Nightwretch [0(7)]
- Slayer [10]
- Slayer [10]
- Slayer [10]
Necrotech [2]
Necrotech [2]
Necrotech [2]
Machine Wraith [2]
Black Ogrun Ironmongers [6]
When I found out I was going against Lich3 in Black Industries I became very concerned about the damage output of my list. The bloodgorgers can end up hitting at effective p+s 15 if I can stack all the buffs, but I rarely get Ragman to the right place at the right time. P+S 13 doesn't seem like enough to really deal with the armor I was going to see, and my shooting would have to be reserved purely for infantry. We rolled and I won. I chose to go first and he selected the side of the board with the trench.
Deployment: I wanted to try a new deployment strategy based on my conversation with Mark after my last game. I put Skarre in the middle so her buffs could apply to as much of my army as possible. The kraken went to her left and Jussika's blood gorgers were on the left flank. The dirge seers and Ragman were behind the kraken. The iron mongers were behind Skarre, along with the blood priestess. The marauders were deployed to Skarre's right with Gerlack and Axiara behind them near Skarre's base. Finally, the second unit of blood gorgers was put out on the right flank.
Michael deployed Lich on the right side of the rectangle zones, with the house between Lich and my army. To Lich's right there was an iron monger, followed by a necrotech. Next came the defiler, with Malice to its right. Continuing down the line, next to Malice was a slayer with a nightwretch on the far right flank. A necrotech was behind Malice and the slayer with another iron monger behind Malice. To Lich's left was the third iron monger, followed by a slayer and then Vociferon. Next came the third slayer and the second nightwretch. This portion of deployment was all aligned with the center rectangle zone. A necrotech was deployed behind the slayer and nightwretch. Finally, way out on the left flank on its own was a machine wraith, aligned with the center of the left circle zone.
Michael's advanced deploy put both Deathjack and Cankerworm just outside the right circle zone. Deathjack was aligned with the left portion of the zone, with Cankerworm aligned toward the right.
Top 1: Michael deployed very heavy towards the right zone. I didn't think I could chew through all the armor and boxes on the other side of the table, but he may not have realized how easy it would be for me to remove the machine wraith and own the left zone. From there, I hoped to be able to slowly sweep toward the right and press scenario. Skarre activated first and spent her stack for dash, decel and putting draconic blessing on the marauders. She moved forward to just outside my rectangle zone. The left blood gorgers ran forward and spread out a bit behind the left forest. The kraken ran up behind the blood gorgers and the dirge seers ran to the kraken's left. The iron mongers ran to stay between Skarre and the kraken. The marauders ran forward, getting a couple in front of Skarre and spreading out between Skarre and the acid pit. The left blood gorgers ran around the right side of the acid pit. Gerlack and Axiara positioned behind the acid pit and the blood priestess ran to be to Skarre's right. The turn ended with 52 minutes on my clock.
Bottom 1: Asphyxious cast ashen veil on Cankerworm, cast mobility and then charged to get just behind the house. The machine wraith ran to be just inside the right edge of the left zone. The two slayers aligned with the rectangle zone ran forward to be on the front edge of the zone. The left nightwretch ran to be between the left most slayer and the machine wraith and a necrotech stood behind the left most slayer. Vociferon walked in front of Michael's objective and killed a marauder with hellfire. Deathjack and Cankerworm moved forward to be in the middle of the right zone. The third slayer ran to be to Cankerworm's right and Malice ran to be behind Cankerworm and the third slayer. A necrotech ran behind Malice. The defiler ran to be in front of Lich, with a necrotech standing just behind. The right nightwretch ran into the middle of the right forest. The iron mongers spread out a bit around the house. The turn ended with 51 minutes on Michael's clock.
Top 2: Skarre upkept draconic blessing. The marauders activated and moved forward, sliding towards the right side of the house. Four of them managed to get inside the right zone. They took some shots, hitting Deathjack and missing Cankerworm. Deathjack and the defiler were set on fire, though the shot itself did no damage. Skarre activated and moved forward slightly to be just inside the near rectangle zone. She then took some shots. Vociferon was killed by one cannon shot and the other shot the defiler, putting some damage on it, but not taking out any systems. The dirge seers moved forward toward the left circle and gave guidance to three blood gorgers. Two blood gorgers got charges on the machine wraith while the rest either spread out or charged the left two slayers, while leaving a landing spot for the kraken. The machine wraith died and a little damage was put on the slayers, but not a significant amount. The kraken charged the left most slayer, but I forgot to allocate focus at the start of the turn so a decent amount of damage was done, but the slayer remained standing. The right blood gorgers charged forward, trying to flood the right zone with bodies. The right slayer took a little damage and no attacks landed on the Cankerworm. One blood gorger ran to engage the left nightwretch. Axiara, Gerlack and the blood priestess all stood to Skarre's right. The iron mongers ran into the left circle zone. The turn ended with 34 minutes on my clock.
Bottom 2: Lich upkept ashen veil on the Cankerworm. The necrotechs and iron mongers repaired the jacks that took damage last turn. Deathjack walked into melee with the marauders, but only killed one between the two of them. The right slayer was loaded with focus and killed several blood gorgers, followed by Cankerworm killing another and then repositioning to engage the marauders. The left two slayers killed the four blood gorgers that were jamming them from the left unit. The left nightwretch moved back and took a shot, killing one blood gorger. The right nightwretch tried to kill a blood gorger in melee, but failed. The defiler moved forward and sprayed, but failed to kill anything. Lich moved to stand just inside the right circle zone. The turn ended with 33 minutes on Michael's clock. I scored the left circle zone and my rectangle zone while Michael scored his rectangle zone, starting the scoring at 2-1.
Top 3: Skarre reinforced a couple blood gorgers into the left unit, which used vengeance to position for charges. The kraken was loaded with focus. Skarre moved forward slightly to get the right nectrotech into cannon range and killed it. She also killed the left necrotech. The left blood gorgers received the press forward order. Two charged the left nightwretch, one charged the left iron monger and the rest spread out, while clearing a landing zone for the kraken. The nightwretch took damage, but remained alive. The iron monger died and the blood gorger used overtake to get the slayers in melee range to apply gang fighter. Ragman moved up and put up death field. The kraken moved to straddle the left circle and far rectangle zones. It then killed the slayer standing inside the far rectangle zone, but did not have enough left to kill the nightwretch. The marauders largely stood still, doing negligible damage to Deathjack, but using CRA to kill the defiler. The right blood gorgers pressed into the right circle again, killing the last necrotech and putting some chip damage on the right slayer. The turn ended with 19 minutes on my clock. I scored the near rectangle and the left circle, putting me up 4-1.
Bottom 3: Lich continued to upkeep ashen veil. Lich cast mobilityand moved to be closer behind the house again. Deathjack killed the two marauders in melee with it. The right slayer killed two blood gorgers. Cankerworm killed another blood gorger and then repositioned to jam up the marauders. The iron mongers charged and killed two blood gorgers. Malice shot and dragged in a marauder, who made its tough checks and remained standing due to the positioning of Jussika. The left nightwretch failed to kill a blood gorger. The left slayer walked around the kraken to get just inside the left circle zone and took some swings on the kraken, but did little damage. The turn ended with 18 minutes on Michael's clock. I scored the near rectangle, going up 5-1.
Top 4: I end my turn, scoring the near rectangle and winning on scenario 6-1.
Analysis: I was very concerned about being able to break armor. This turned out to be a valid concern, as only the kraken can get work done against the heavies in the matchup. Due to Michael playing so heavily on the right flank, I was able to kill only a few models and work scenario on the left, while just throwing bodies into the right zone to prevent him from scoring. I did ok in this game, but I once again forgot to use Axiara's battle plans. I also failed to allocate focus to the kraken on turn two when it needed to go in and kill a slayer.
I may have played Skarre a little too far forward, given the limited amount of work she was getting done. I don't know if there was a way to make it happen, but she was close enough that a clear charge lane would have allowed Deathjack to get onto her and potentially end the game that way. I end up feeling very safe with a unit of medium bases between her and the enemy, but I need to keep in mind that there are almost always was to try for an assassination angle and keeping her safe in a game where I am winning on scenario is more important than killing a couple solos.
Overall, I think I did well in this game and I am getting very comfortable dropping this list into almost any matchup. This week is the first week of a new Scrum, so starting next week I will be back to reporting my scrum matchups. I am running the Skarre3 list in this post and pairing it with the Denny2 dark host list I was running early in the year. I am using this as a chance to practice the pairing, as I am thinking I will likely take it to the Bokur Brawl. Next week, my round one matchup against Grymkin. Thanks for reading!
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