Round 1: vs Christopher Michael
Scenario: Spread the Net
The next Scrum begins with me paired up against Chris, who brings Grymkin to the party. I spent a large portion of my work day studying up on Grymkin, and specifically his pairing. Here are the lists we brought:
Me:
[Deneghra 2] Wraith Witch Deneghra [+28] -Dark Host
- Deathripper [6]
- Deathripper [6]
- Stalker [8]
- Stalker [8]
- Skarlock Thrall [0(4)]
Bane Lord Tartarus [0(6)]
Darragh Wrathe [9]
Eilish Garrity, the Occultist [5]
Soul Trapper [1]
Bane Knights (max) [15]
Bane Riders (max) [20]
Bane Warriors (min) [10]
- Bane Warrior Officer & Standard [0(5)]
Wraith Engine [15]
[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)]
Ragman [4]
Black Ogrun Ironmongers [6]
Blighted Trollkin Marauders (max) [15]
Bloodgorgers (max) [15]
- Jussika Bloodtongue [5]
Bloodgorgers (max) [15]
Scharde Dirge Seers [6]
Chris:
[Heretic 1] The Heretic [+28] - Dark Menagerie
- Cage Rager [14]
- Cage Rager [14]
- Crabbit [0(n/a)]
- Crabbit [0(n/a)]
- Frightmare [9]
- Rattler [8]
- Skin & Moans [15]
- Skin & Moans [15]
Glimmer Imp [4]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Lady Karianna Rose [4]
Dread Rots (min) [7]
Death Knell [13]
[Child 1] The Child [+29] - Dark Menagerie
- Cage Rager [14]
- Cage Rager [14]
- Crabbit [0(n/a)]
- Crabbits (2) [7]
- Skin & Moans [15]
- Skin & Moans [15]
- Skin & Moans [15]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Lady Karianna Rose [4]
Dread Rots (min) [7]
Death Knell [13]
We played a game the week before and I dropped Denny2 into Heretic. It was not a good look for me. I only had a couple games against Grymkin since their release and I had forgotten much of what they do. When I looked at the lists for this matchup, I quickly decided that Skarre3 was the way to go. I didn't want him cancelling out my spells with the ruin arcana or the cage ragers and if he chose Heretic, I could effectively ignore the wall of fire due to draconic blessing. I knew my infantry would have a rough time getting work done, so it would likely come down to the kraken and Skarre killing what they could while the infantry just kept the huge bases safe. The matchup ended up being Skarre3 vs Child. I had to hope the kraken could kill about a heavy a turn and keep safe behind the medium bases. Chris won the die roll and chose to go first. I chose the side with the trench, hoping there was less difficult terrain to slow down my infantry.
Deployment: Chris skewed his deployment heavily toward my right flank. His farthest left model was a skin and moans that was positioned almost in the center of the board. A second skin and moans was to its right, with the first cage rager to the right of that. A pair of gremlin swarms were behind this grouping of heavies. Next came the unit of dread rots, with the three crabbits, Karianna Rose and the Child behind. The death knell was deployed behind this second line. Continuing down the line, next was the second cage rager with the third skin and moans on the far right flank. Behind this second group of heavies, the other two gremlin swarms were deployed.
I tried something a little different with my deployment, due to the position of the house in the center zone. I deployed Skarre mostly in line with the house, hoping she could use it to prevent heavies from getting to her. The marauders were split, with five on either side of Skarre. The kraken was to the left of this grouping, with one unit of blood gorgers to the left of it. To the right of the marauders, I deployed the unit of blood gorgers with Jussika. Axiara was deployed behind Skarre, with Gerlack next to her (although the picture was taken while Gerlack was still in the middle of the board). The dirge seers and iron mongers spread out between the two huge bases and the blood priestess was behind Skarre.
I will note that there is a flag on my side of the board, but it blends in with the terrain on the game mat we used. It is next to Gerlack in the picture.
Top 1: As is normal, the top of turn one featured a lot of running. The dread rots ran forward. The Child activated, cast abuse on two of the skin and moans (the farthest left one did not receive the buff) and putting up tantrum. The Child then charged Skarre to get up the board. The far right skin and moans ran forward, close to the wall in the middle of the right side of the board. The right cage rager ran up behind. The crabbits all either ran or walked and jumped. The left two skin and moans ran, one getting inside the circle zone and the other standing behind the forest. The left cage rager ran up behind the left two skin and moans. The death knell ran up behind the Child and dread rots, while Rose stood behind the battle engine. One gremlin swarm moved forward toward the far flag, while the other three all ran toward the left side of the board. One was outside the far rectangle, one was behind the skin and moans behind the forest and the third was back near Chris's deployment zone. The turn ended with 50 minutes on his clock.
Bottom 1: I hoped to get some shots off and start piling up a little damage on Chris's heavies, though I assumed sacrifice would be triggered at some point and wipe it all away. Skarre activated first and cast dash, guided fire and put draconic blessing on the marauders. She moved forward to get the right skin and moans in gun range. Her first cannon shots was shield guarded by a nearby crabbit, and the blast damage killed a dread rot. Chris took this chance to activate his shadow arcana, granting his entire army stealth. The crabbit took a bit of damage, but survived. I did not give Skarre guidance, so she shot her second cannon, which drifted to nowhere. The marauders ran forward. Half the unit got between Skarre and Chris's army and the other half started wrapping around the left side of the building. The left blood gorgers ran forward, moving a little toward the center. I wanted as many medium bases as possible between the kraken and the opposing heavies. The dirge seers activated and put guidance on the kraken. The kraken moved up, but only rolled two flayer cannon shots. I put the flayer cannon shots into the skin and moans in the circle zone, hoping Chris would shield guard the first shot that came through. He played it correctly and the skin and moans soaked up a little damage before the helldriver shot was shield guarded away. The crabbit survived, but another dread rot died to blast damage. Jussika's blood gorgers ran forward and around the water. Most of the unit crowded into the near rectangle zone, with Jussika standing behind the water. The iron mongers ran forward, with the leader getting a little in front of the kraken. Gerlack and Axiara moved up to the right of Skarre. Ragman ran into the trench next to the kraken and the blood priestess ran over to join him. With the lack of guns on the other side of the board, I did not need the priestess to grant sucker, so she would be in charge of sitting on my flag for the game. My turn ended with 48 minutes on the clock.
Top 2: Chris took a couple minutes deciding how to best use his tantrum movement. Since he could only get to a swarm of infantry, he ended up deciding it didn't matter much and moved the right cage rager a little. Tantrum was upkept from a cage rager, since Skarre has no offensive spells to cancel. The dread rots charged in, killing one marauder. The Child activated and cast discord on the right skin and moans. She then charged Skarre, moving aggressively up the board. The right skin and moans moved forward and filled up with fury killing blood gorgers. At the end of its activation, it had three corpse tokens and had killed five blood gorgers. The right cage rager ran to engage two of the remaining blood gorgers. The right two crabbits ran or walked and leaped to positions around the wall. The right gremlin swarm ran to stand on the far flag and the death knell ran up behind the Child. The two left skin and moans both ran to stand on the other side of the house and the left cage rager moved up to stick a toe into the circle zone. Karianna ran up behind the death knell and the left three gremlin swarms stayed back behind the forest, with one contesting the far rectangle zone. The turn ended with 33 minutes on Chris's clock.
Bottom 2: My turn started with Skarre upkeeping draconic blessing and filling the kraken with focus. The blood gorgers took their vengeance movement. The two that the cage rager engaged moved up and one killed a dread rot. One that was not engaged, but in discord range backed up to be able to charge. The marauders activated first. The three on the right side of the house aimed, while the other wrapped around the left side of the house. One got in melee range of the leftmost skin and moans. The right ones hit a dread rot, killing it and lighting a skin and moans, the Child and another dread rot on fire. The right blood gorgers received the press forward order. One charged the right skin and moans, hoping to just keep it back. Another tried to kill the last forward dread rot, but failed. The rest of the unit hung back. The iron mongers walked, with the leader moving up behind the marauders and cursing the leftmost skin and moans. The left blood gorgers ran forward, spreading out a little between the circle and far rectangle zones. Ragman moved forward and put up death field.
Skarre activated and popped feat. She cast dash, decel, guided fire, dark waves (which I promptly forgot to use) and cycled draconic blessing over to the kraken. She then moved back. At this point, I also turned her around to face the correct way (Almost every game I have been told that I was playing her facing backwards, I am trying to adjust to the correct facing for her. It will help when I paint the arcs on her base). The dirge seers repositioned a little, as did Gerlack and Axiara. The blood priestess ran over to stand on the near flag. Finally, the kraken moved up and with its four inch reach, it was able to attack the leftmost skin and moans. With all the buffs on the kraken, it easily killed the skin and moans. Chris triggered the Child's trump. Killshot triggered, but no good targets were present. I think the shot went into the left cage rager, but didn't do much in the way of damage. The turn ended with 31 minutes on my clock. We each scored our friendly flag, so the scoring opened at 1-1.
Top 3: The Child upkept tantrum. The dread rot that was on fire died, but fire went out on the Child and the skin and moans. The right skin and moans took a pair of free strikes, which did minimal damage, and walked forward to kill the two blood gorgers contesting the back edge of the near rectangle. The dread rots moved forward and killed the last blood gorger in the near rectangle. The left skin and moans walked around the dread rot to get in range of the marauders, killing all three of them in the zone. The Child moved forward, to stand next to the wall. She cast discord on the left cage rager and abuse on the left skin and moans and force hammer on the far right blood gorger in the near rectangle, killing it. Karianna moved up to stand behind the wall. The right cage rager moved to the right a little and killed the last blood gorger in the near rectangle zone.
The left cage rager walked forward and killed two marauders. The death knell moved into the circle zone, standing behind the house. One crabbit moved to stand behind the wall, while the other two positioned around the death knell. One gremlin swarm ran to the far left side of the far rectangle zone, while another ran through my blood gorgers to contest my flag. The last two gremlin swarms stayed put, controlling the far flag and standing behind the forest respectively. The turn ended with 19 minutes on Chris's clock. He scored the far flag and the near rectangle zone, putting me down 3-1.
Bottom 3: Skarre upkept draconic blessing and reinforced the one blood gorger killed by force hammer. I spent the beginning of my turn measuring out how the kraken could get to the left cage rager and ended up forgetting to allocate focus. The right blood gorgers charged and got a couple bodies into the zone. Gerlack charged the left skin and moans, doing no damage, but applying grievous wounds. I was expecting him to trigger sacrifice and was hoping to put damage on this model that he wouldn't be able to heal. Axiara put her toe into the back left corner of the near rectangle.
The iron mongers walked forward, and Axiara's tactician bubble extended just far enough to allow the leader to walk through the front line of marauders. This cleared the space the kraken needed to stand. Ragman moved forward slightly and put up death field. The dirge seers moved a little to the left and put guidance up on the kraken and Skarre. The kraken moved up an inch to get the left cage rager in melee and my dice spiked a little, killing it. Kill shot triggered and it shot the gremlin swarm on the far left side of the far rectangle zone. Skarre moved to the left and killed the gremlin swarm contesting my flag. The marauders charged, putting a little damage on the death knell. The blood gorgers ran, starting to swarm toward the right. The turn ended with 20 minutes on my clock. We each scored our friendly flag, putting me down 2-4.
Top 4: Chris noted at the start of this turn that he could not score all three points needed to close the game out on this turn. A crabbit and the left skin and moans made frenzy checks and both succeeded. Tantrum was upkept. The death knell killed the two marauders engaging it. A crabbit killed another marauder, leaving only the leader standing on my side of the house. Another crabbit tried, but failed to kill a blood gorger. The left skin and moans killed the blood gorger standing to its left and Gerlack. The remaining cage rager charged and killed Axiara. The right skin and moans killed Jussika, then used it animus to move to stand next to the other skin and moans. The last gremlin swarm on the left ran to contest my flag. The turn ended with 11 minutes on Chris's clock. Chris scored the near rectangle and his flag, putting me down 2-6.
Bottom 4: At this point, I knew I had to start aggressively pressing scenario in order to turn things around. Skarre upkept draconic blessing and filled the kraken with focus. The blood priestess charged and killed the last gremlin swarm on the left. Ragman ran over to the near flag and Skarre ran into the far rectangle zone. The marauder leader ran into the near rectangle zone. The blood gorgers received the press forward order. Two took free strikes from a crabbit engaging them, but the crabbit failed to break their armor. Those two ran to contest Chris's flag. The rest got one charge on the death knell and two crabbits each received a pair of charges. Both crabbits died, and sacrifice was triggered on one of their deaths. The kraken walked forward a little and killed the death knell. The iron mongers moved to stand on either side of the house, between the kraken and Chris's heavies. The dirge seers spread out along the back edge of the circle zone and used their vortex cloud spell. The turn ended with 9:18 on my clock. I scored my flag and the far rectangle zone, closing the scoring gap to 4-6.
Top 5: The Child stopped upkeeping spells at this point. The last crabbit failed to kill a blood gorger. The last dread rot killed a blood gorger in the circle zone. Karianna stuck a toe in the right edge of the circle zone. The cage rager charged the forward iron monger, killing it and the dirge seer standing next to it. One skin and moans trampled back toward Chris's flag and bought attacks to kill the two blood gorgers contesting it. The last skin and moans stayed in the near rectangle zone. The turn ended with 4:38 on the clock. Chris scored the near rectangle zone and the far flag, while I scored the other rectangle zone and flag. This put the score at 6-8.
Bottom 5: Skarre upkept draconic blessing and filled the kraken with focus. The kraken stood still and took its first initial into the cage rager and the second killed the last dread rot, collecting its third corpse token. It purchased attacks and killed the cage rager. It had no good targets for killshot. The blood gorgers charged, getting a couple into range to contest the far flag. They also killed the last crabbit. The iron mongers moved forward on either side of the house. One attacked, but failed to hit Karianna while the other continued to provide the buffer between a skin and moans and the kraken. The dirge seers again used their vortex clouds. The turn ended with 2:31 on my clock. I scored the far rectangle and near flag, while Chris scored the near rectangle. This closed the scoring gap to 8-9.
Top 6: Karianna failed to kill the iron monger in front of her. The skin and moans in the near rectangle moved forward and killed it. The skin and moans by Chris's flag cleared out the blood gorgers contesting the flag. The Child used force hammer to kill another blood gorger. The turn ended with 1:12 on Chris's clock. He scored the two elements on the right side of the board and I scored the two on the left. The score went up to 10-11.
Bottom 6: Skarre upkept draconic blessing and filled the kraken with focus. The blood gorgers pressed forward. One charged the skin and moans by Chris's flag, while the other charged Karianna, but got the skin and moans in melee range also. Karianna died to the charge and the skin and moans took a surprisingly large amount of damage due to dice spikes. The kraken walked around the house and killed the skin and moans. I ended my turn with 47.5 seconds on my clock. I scored the two left elements, as well as the circle zone. Chris scored the near rectangle. This put me ahead on scoring 13-12.
Top 7: Chris used the skin and moans' corpses to heal and restore lost aspects. It then attacked the kraken, but after one swing Chris realized it wouldn't be able to kill it. He then looked at the board state and realized he couldn't turn scoring around with the models he had left on the table. He let his clock run out to end the game. I scored the two left elements and he scored the near rectangle, putting the final score at 15-13.
Analysis: I cannot overstate what an incredible game this was. Both of us were super low on clock and doing everything we could to press scenario, as it became clear around round 4 or 5 that this was likely to go all the way to round 7 and scenario points would be the deciding factor. In regards to scenario, much of my play was dictated by Chris's deployment. It was clear his intention was to go heavy on the right side of the board and own those two scoring elements. I needed to make some adjustments earlier to start moving Skarre to that side. I did well with making sure I was scoring my flag, but could have been scoring the far rectangle sooner. In the late rounds (bottom of 5 and 6) I should have taken a couple seconds to run a dirge seer into the near rectangle to prevent him scoring on my turn. I was able to eek out a scenario lead by the end, but I should have been able to swing it in my direction sooner by doing that. Getting stuff to contest the far flag was difficult for the first half of the game, but I managed to keep that in mind even when time was running low.
The blood gorgers were far too clumped up on the bottom of turn one. I basically gave half the unit to a single skin and moans. I don't believe it would have changed much of anything to keep two or three further back and safe on that turn, but there will be games where that could drastically change the outcome. There was no need to flood the zone with bodies that early, two or three at the far side of the zone would have been enough. I also forgot to utilize Axiara's battle plans again. He missed a few attacks on the marauders, so giving them dodge could have kept infantry alive a little longer.
There are two things that I was very pleased with. First, I sometimes have a tough time realizing when my caster needs to simply move away. Backing Skarre up when I did, and eventually running her into the far rectangle zone were solid plays. It's not tough to know to back up when you essentially have 5 heavies facing you down, but it's still something I did right. I would also say that the kraken played exactly how I wanted it to in this game. It used the four inch reach to its advantage and stayed safe behind tons of medium bases. At the start of the game, I knew that the kraken would need to remove a heavy each turn while staying safe. I was happy to see that plan work out exactly according to plan.
Chris is a great player that I have a lot of respect for. When I heard my round one matchup was against him, I knew I was in for a tough game. This surpassed all my expectations. As with all of the scrum players, he's a great opponent and I look forward to future matchups against him. This was one of the most intense games I have played and has me hyped up to find out my round two matchup. I will be back with my round 2 battle report when I have it ready. Thanks for reading!
Scenario: Spread the Net
The next Scrum begins with me paired up against Chris, who brings Grymkin to the party. I spent a large portion of my work day studying up on Grymkin, and specifically his pairing. Here are the lists we brought:
Me:
[Deneghra 2] Wraith Witch Deneghra [+28] -Dark Host
- Deathripper [6]
- Deathripper [6]
- Stalker [8]
- Stalker [8]
- Skarlock Thrall [0(4)]
Bane Lord Tartarus [0(6)]
Darragh Wrathe [9]
Eilish Garrity, the Occultist [5]
Soul Trapper [1]
Bane Knights (max) [15]
Bane Riders (max) [20]
Bane Warriors (min) [10]
- Bane Warrior Officer & Standard [0(5)]
Wraith Engine [15]
[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)]
Ragman [4]
Black Ogrun Ironmongers [6]
Blighted Trollkin Marauders (max) [15]
Bloodgorgers (max) [15]
- Jussika Bloodtongue [5]
Bloodgorgers (max) [15]
Scharde Dirge Seers [6]
Chris:
[Heretic 1] The Heretic [+28] - Dark Menagerie
- Cage Rager [14]
- Cage Rager [14]
- Crabbit [0(n/a)]
- Crabbit [0(n/a)]
- Frightmare [9]
- Rattler [8]
- Skin & Moans [15]
- Skin & Moans [15]
Glimmer Imp [4]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Lady Karianna Rose [4]
Dread Rots (min) [7]
Death Knell [13]
[Child 1] The Child [+29] - Dark Menagerie
- Cage Rager [14]
- Cage Rager [14]
- Crabbit [0(n/a)]
- Crabbits (2) [7]
- Skin & Moans [15]
- Skin & Moans [15]
- Skin & Moans [15]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Gremlin Swarm [0(3)]
Lady Karianna Rose [4]
Dread Rots (min) [7]
Death Knell [13]
We played a game the week before and I dropped Denny2 into Heretic. It was not a good look for me. I only had a couple games against Grymkin since their release and I had forgotten much of what they do. When I looked at the lists for this matchup, I quickly decided that Skarre3 was the way to go. I didn't want him cancelling out my spells with the ruin arcana or the cage ragers and if he chose Heretic, I could effectively ignore the wall of fire due to draconic blessing. I knew my infantry would have a rough time getting work done, so it would likely come down to the kraken and Skarre killing what they could while the infantry just kept the huge bases safe. The matchup ended up being Skarre3 vs Child. I had to hope the kraken could kill about a heavy a turn and keep safe behind the medium bases. Chris won the die roll and chose to go first. I chose the side with the trench, hoping there was less difficult terrain to slow down my infantry.
Deployment: Chris skewed his deployment heavily toward my right flank. His farthest left model was a skin and moans that was positioned almost in the center of the board. A second skin and moans was to its right, with the first cage rager to the right of that. A pair of gremlin swarms were behind this grouping of heavies. Next came the unit of dread rots, with the three crabbits, Karianna Rose and the Child behind. The death knell was deployed behind this second line. Continuing down the line, next was the second cage rager with the third skin and moans on the far right flank. Behind this second group of heavies, the other two gremlin swarms were deployed.
I tried something a little different with my deployment, due to the position of the house in the center zone. I deployed Skarre mostly in line with the house, hoping she could use it to prevent heavies from getting to her. The marauders were split, with five on either side of Skarre. The kraken was to the left of this grouping, with one unit of blood gorgers to the left of it. To the right of the marauders, I deployed the unit of blood gorgers with Jussika. Axiara was deployed behind Skarre, with Gerlack next to her (although the picture was taken while Gerlack was still in the middle of the board). The dirge seers and iron mongers spread out between the two huge bases and the blood priestess was behind Skarre.
I will note that there is a flag on my side of the board, but it blends in with the terrain on the game mat we used. It is next to Gerlack in the picture.
Top 1: As is normal, the top of turn one featured a lot of running. The dread rots ran forward. The Child activated, cast abuse on two of the skin and moans (the farthest left one did not receive the buff) and putting up tantrum. The Child then charged Skarre to get up the board. The far right skin and moans ran forward, close to the wall in the middle of the right side of the board. The right cage rager ran up behind. The crabbits all either ran or walked and jumped. The left two skin and moans ran, one getting inside the circle zone and the other standing behind the forest. The left cage rager ran up behind the left two skin and moans. The death knell ran up behind the Child and dread rots, while Rose stood behind the battle engine. One gremlin swarm moved forward toward the far flag, while the other three all ran toward the left side of the board. One was outside the far rectangle, one was behind the skin and moans behind the forest and the third was back near Chris's deployment zone. The turn ended with 50 minutes on his clock.
Bottom 1: I hoped to get some shots off and start piling up a little damage on Chris's heavies, though I assumed sacrifice would be triggered at some point and wipe it all away. Skarre activated first and cast dash, guided fire and put draconic blessing on the marauders. She moved forward to get the right skin and moans in gun range. Her first cannon shots was shield guarded by a nearby crabbit, and the blast damage killed a dread rot. Chris took this chance to activate his shadow arcana, granting his entire army stealth. The crabbit took a bit of damage, but survived. I did not give Skarre guidance, so she shot her second cannon, which drifted to nowhere. The marauders ran forward. Half the unit got between Skarre and Chris's army and the other half started wrapping around the left side of the building. The left blood gorgers ran forward, moving a little toward the center. I wanted as many medium bases as possible between the kraken and the opposing heavies. The dirge seers activated and put guidance on the kraken. The kraken moved up, but only rolled two flayer cannon shots. I put the flayer cannon shots into the skin and moans in the circle zone, hoping Chris would shield guard the first shot that came through. He played it correctly and the skin and moans soaked up a little damage before the helldriver shot was shield guarded away. The crabbit survived, but another dread rot died to blast damage. Jussika's blood gorgers ran forward and around the water. Most of the unit crowded into the near rectangle zone, with Jussika standing behind the water. The iron mongers ran forward, with the leader getting a little in front of the kraken. Gerlack and Axiara moved up to the right of Skarre. Ragman ran into the trench next to the kraken and the blood priestess ran over to join him. With the lack of guns on the other side of the board, I did not need the priestess to grant sucker, so she would be in charge of sitting on my flag for the game. My turn ended with 48 minutes on the clock.
Top 2: Chris took a couple minutes deciding how to best use his tantrum movement. Since he could only get to a swarm of infantry, he ended up deciding it didn't matter much and moved the right cage rager a little. Tantrum was upkept from a cage rager, since Skarre has no offensive spells to cancel. The dread rots charged in, killing one marauder. The Child activated and cast discord on the right skin and moans. She then charged Skarre, moving aggressively up the board. The right skin and moans moved forward and filled up with fury killing blood gorgers. At the end of its activation, it had three corpse tokens and had killed five blood gorgers. The right cage rager ran to engage two of the remaining blood gorgers. The right two crabbits ran or walked and leaped to positions around the wall. The right gremlin swarm ran to stand on the far flag and the death knell ran up behind the Child. The two left skin and moans both ran to stand on the other side of the house and the left cage rager moved up to stick a toe into the circle zone. Karianna ran up behind the death knell and the left three gremlin swarms stayed back behind the forest, with one contesting the far rectangle zone. The turn ended with 33 minutes on Chris's clock.
Bottom 2: My turn started with Skarre upkeeping draconic blessing and filling the kraken with focus. The blood gorgers took their vengeance movement. The two that the cage rager engaged moved up and one killed a dread rot. One that was not engaged, but in discord range backed up to be able to charge. The marauders activated first. The three on the right side of the house aimed, while the other wrapped around the left side of the house. One got in melee range of the leftmost skin and moans. The right ones hit a dread rot, killing it and lighting a skin and moans, the Child and another dread rot on fire. The right blood gorgers received the press forward order. One charged the right skin and moans, hoping to just keep it back. Another tried to kill the last forward dread rot, but failed. The rest of the unit hung back. The iron mongers walked, with the leader moving up behind the marauders and cursing the leftmost skin and moans. The left blood gorgers ran forward, spreading out a little between the circle and far rectangle zones. Ragman moved forward and put up death field.
Skarre activated and popped feat. She cast dash, decel, guided fire, dark waves (which I promptly forgot to use) and cycled draconic blessing over to the kraken. She then moved back. At this point, I also turned her around to face the correct way (Almost every game I have been told that I was playing her facing backwards, I am trying to adjust to the correct facing for her. It will help when I paint the arcs on her base). The dirge seers repositioned a little, as did Gerlack and Axiara. The blood priestess ran over to stand on the near flag. Finally, the kraken moved up and with its four inch reach, it was able to attack the leftmost skin and moans. With all the buffs on the kraken, it easily killed the skin and moans. Chris triggered the Child's trump. Killshot triggered, but no good targets were present. I think the shot went into the left cage rager, but didn't do much in the way of damage. The turn ended with 31 minutes on my clock. We each scored our friendly flag, so the scoring opened at 1-1.
Top 3: The Child upkept tantrum. The dread rot that was on fire died, but fire went out on the Child and the skin and moans. The right skin and moans took a pair of free strikes, which did minimal damage, and walked forward to kill the two blood gorgers contesting the back edge of the near rectangle. The dread rots moved forward and killed the last blood gorger in the near rectangle. The left skin and moans walked around the dread rot to get in range of the marauders, killing all three of them in the zone. The Child moved forward, to stand next to the wall. She cast discord on the left cage rager and abuse on the left skin and moans and force hammer on the far right blood gorger in the near rectangle, killing it. Karianna moved up to stand behind the wall. The right cage rager moved to the right a little and killed the last blood gorger in the near rectangle zone.
The left cage rager walked forward and killed two marauders. The death knell moved into the circle zone, standing behind the house. One crabbit moved to stand behind the wall, while the other two positioned around the death knell. One gremlin swarm ran to the far left side of the far rectangle zone, while another ran through my blood gorgers to contest my flag. The last two gremlin swarms stayed put, controlling the far flag and standing behind the forest respectively. The turn ended with 19 minutes on Chris's clock. He scored the far flag and the near rectangle zone, putting me down 3-1.
Bottom 3: Skarre upkept draconic blessing and reinforced the one blood gorger killed by force hammer. I spent the beginning of my turn measuring out how the kraken could get to the left cage rager and ended up forgetting to allocate focus. The right blood gorgers charged and got a couple bodies into the zone. Gerlack charged the left skin and moans, doing no damage, but applying grievous wounds. I was expecting him to trigger sacrifice and was hoping to put damage on this model that he wouldn't be able to heal. Axiara put her toe into the back left corner of the near rectangle.
The iron mongers walked forward, and Axiara's tactician bubble extended just far enough to allow the leader to walk through the front line of marauders. This cleared the space the kraken needed to stand. Ragman moved forward slightly and put up death field. The dirge seers moved a little to the left and put guidance up on the kraken and Skarre. The kraken moved up an inch to get the left cage rager in melee and my dice spiked a little, killing it. Kill shot triggered and it shot the gremlin swarm on the far left side of the far rectangle zone. Skarre moved to the left and killed the gremlin swarm contesting my flag. The marauders charged, putting a little damage on the death knell. The blood gorgers ran, starting to swarm toward the right. The turn ended with 20 minutes on my clock. We each scored our friendly flag, putting me down 2-4.
Top 4: Chris noted at the start of this turn that he could not score all three points needed to close the game out on this turn. A crabbit and the left skin and moans made frenzy checks and both succeeded. Tantrum was upkept. The death knell killed the two marauders engaging it. A crabbit killed another marauder, leaving only the leader standing on my side of the house. Another crabbit tried, but failed to kill a blood gorger. The left skin and moans killed the blood gorger standing to its left and Gerlack. The remaining cage rager charged and killed Axiara. The right skin and moans killed Jussika, then used it animus to move to stand next to the other skin and moans. The last gremlin swarm on the left ran to contest my flag. The turn ended with 11 minutes on Chris's clock. Chris scored the near rectangle and his flag, putting me down 2-6.
Bottom 4: At this point, I knew I had to start aggressively pressing scenario in order to turn things around. Skarre upkept draconic blessing and filled the kraken with focus. The blood priestess charged and killed the last gremlin swarm on the left. Ragman ran over to the near flag and Skarre ran into the far rectangle zone. The marauder leader ran into the near rectangle zone. The blood gorgers received the press forward order. Two took free strikes from a crabbit engaging them, but the crabbit failed to break their armor. Those two ran to contest Chris's flag. The rest got one charge on the death knell and two crabbits each received a pair of charges. Both crabbits died, and sacrifice was triggered on one of their deaths. The kraken walked forward a little and killed the death knell. The iron mongers moved to stand on either side of the house, between the kraken and Chris's heavies. The dirge seers spread out along the back edge of the circle zone and used their vortex cloud spell. The turn ended with 9:18 on my clock. I scored my flag and the far rectangle zone, closing the scoring gap to 4-6.
Top 5: The Child stopped upkeeping spells at this point. The last crabbit failed to kill a blood gorger. The last dread rot killed a blood gorger in the circle zone. Karianna stuck a toe in the right edge of the circle zone. The cage rager charged the forward iron monger, killing it and the dirge seer standing next to it. One skin and moans trampled back toward Chris's flag and bought attacks to kill the two blood gorgers contesting it. The last skin and moans stayed in the near rectangle zone. The turn ended with 4:38 on the clock. Chris scored the near rectangle zone and the far flag, while I scored the other rectangle zone and flag. This put the score at 6-8.
Bottom 5: Skarre upkept draconic blessing and filled the kraken with focus. The kraken stood still and took its first initial into the cage rager and the second killed the last dread rot, collecting its third corpse token. It purchased attacks and killed the cage rager. It had no good targets for killshot. The blood gorgers charged, getting a couple into range to contest the far flag. They also killed the last crabbit. The iron mongers moved forward on either side of the house. One attacked, but failed to hit Karianna while the other continued to provide the buffer between a skin and moans and the kraken. The dirge seers again used their vortex clouds. The turn ended with 2:31 on my clock. I scored the far rectangle and near flag, while Chris scored the near rectangle. This closed the scoring gap to 8-9.
Top 6: Karianna failed to kill the iron monger in front of her. The skin and moans in the near rectangle moved forward and killed it. The skin and moans by Chris's flag cleared out the blood gorgers contesting the flag. The Child used force hammer to kill another blood gorger. The turn ended with 1:12 on Chris's clock. He scored the two elements on the right side of the board and I scored the two on the left. The score went up to 10-11.
Bottom 6: Skarre upkept draconic blessing and filled the kraken with focus. The blood gorgers pressed forward. One charged the skin and moans by Chris's flag, while the other charged Karianna, but got the skin and moans in melee range also. Karianna died to the charge and the skin and moans took a surprisingly large amount of damage due to dice spikes. The kraken walked around the house and killed the skin and moans. I ended my turn with 47.5 seconds on my clock. I scored the two left elements, as well as the circle zone. Chris scored the near rectangle. This put me ahead on scoring 13-12.
Top 7: Chris used the skin and moans' corpses to heal and restore lost aspects. It then attacked the kraken, but after one swing Chris realized it wouldn't be able to kill it. He then looked at the board state and realized he couldn't turn scoring around with the models he had left on the table. He let his clock run out to end the game. I scored the two left elements and he scored the near rectangle, putting the final score at 15-13.
Analysis: I cannot overstate what an incredible game this was. Both of us were super low on clock and doing everything we could to press scenario, as it became clear around round 4 or 5 that this was likely to go all the way to round 7 and scenario points would be the deciding factor. In regards to scenario, much of my play was dictated by Chris's deployment. It was clear his intention was to go heavy on the right side of the board and own those two scoring elements. I needed to make some adjustments earlier to start moving Skarre to that side. I did well with making sure I was scoring my flag, but could have been scoring the far rectangle sooner. In the late rounds (bottom of 5 and 6) I should have taken a couple seconds to run a dirge seer into the near rectangle to prevent him scoring on my turn. I was able to eek out a scenario lead by the end, but I should have been able to swing it in my direction sooner by doing that. Getting stuff to contest the far flag was difficult for the first half of the game, but I managed to keep that in mind even when time was running low.
The blood gorgers were far too clumped up on the bottom of turn one. I basically gave half the unit to a single skin and moans. I don't believe it would have changed much of anything to keep two or three further back and safe on that turn, but there will be games where that could drastically change the outcome. There was no need to flood the zone with bodies that early, two or three at the far side of the zone would have been enough. I also forgot to utilize Axiara's battle plans again. He missed a few attacks on the marauders, so giving them dodge could have kept infantry alive a little longer.
There are two things that I was very pleased with. First, I sometimes have a tough time realizing when my caster needs to simply move away. Backing Skarre up when I did, and eventually running her into the far rectangle zone were solid plays. It's not tough to know to back up when you essentially have 5 heavies facing you down, but it's still something I did right. I would also say that the kraken played exactly how I wanted it to in this game. It used the four inch reach to its advantage and stayed safe behind tons of medium bases. At the start of the game, I knew that the kraken would need to remove a heavy each turn while staying safe. I was happy to see that plan work out exactly according to plan.
Chris is a great player that I have a lot of respect for. When I heard my round one matchup was against him, I knew I was in for a tough game. This surpassed all my expectations. As with all of the scrum players, he's a great opponent and I look forward to future matchups against him. This was one of the most intense games I have played and has me hyped up to find out my round two matchup. I will be back with my round 2 battle report when I have it ready. Thanks for reading!
Don't knowknow if you areare going to read this but anyways I really like readingreading your BRs. Hope you keep it up. Good work lad.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Going to try and keep it up without burning myself out this time. I have some ideas for things I am going to write aside from battle reports (hoping that helps keep me going), but the bat reps are the primary reason I write this. Glad you like it.
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