Round 6: vs Jordan Bollin
Scenario: Spread the Net
This is the final round of our July 2019 scrum. This is a bit of an odd place because Oblivion dropped when we had two rounds left in the scrum. Everyone wanted to play the new stuff, so everyone's lists changed. I already had three losses on my record, so I even requested to be allowed to switch factions back to Cryx since my record was not going to have a large impact on the standings (I am just coming off a stint playing Circle because we didn't have any locals running Iona / bird and everyone wanted practice into it). Due to this, I am only going to put down the lists that we actually played instead of our pairings, as the whole pairing thing became a weird exercise to go through.
Me
[Asphyxious 3] Asphyxious the Hellbringer [+24] - Scourge of the Broken Coast
- Barathrum [15]
- Cankerworm [9]
- Kharybdis [17]
- Nightwretch [7]
Axiara Wraithblade [0(6)]
General Gerlak Slaughterborn [0(6)]
Satyxis Raider Captain [4]
Blighted Trollkin Marauders (max) [15]
- Jussika Bloodtongue [0(5)]
Satyxis Blood Witches (min) [8]
- Satyxis Blood Hag [4]
Satyxis Raiders (max) [16]
- Satyxis Raider Sea Witch [4]
Jordan
[Zaal 2] Zaal, the Ancestral Advocate [+29] - The Exalted
- Agonizer [6]
- Agonizer [6]
- Basilisk Krea [7]
- Cyclops Shaman [8]
Abidan the Keeper [0(5)]
Ancestral Guardian [5]
Extoller Novitiate [0(2)]
Extoller Novitiate [0(2)]
Extoller Novitiate [0(2)]
Extoller Soulward [3]
Hakaar the Destroyer [0(6)]
Immortal Vessel [3]
Immortals (max) [13]
- Extoller Advocate [3]
Immortals (max) [13]
- Extoller Advocate [3]
Supreme Guardian [16]
Supreme Guardian [16]
This Lich3 list is one that I put together once Oblivion dropped and I talked a bit about it in my last post. As a quick recap, I know most people want to play him in Black Industries to double down on warjack survivability, but I like the idea of jacks with gang fighter benefiting from mobility and having unyielding for that extra survivability once they engage. This is the second game I am trying the list out and so far I think there is some potential there. It might not be the best Lich3 list you can play, and is almost certainly not the best Scourge list out there, but I think it does work with the theme and can potentially evolve into something competitive. I wasn't thrilled about playing it into Zaal2, but I figured I need to see it in less than optimal conditions in order to determine what tweaks the list might need.
Deployment: Jordan won the die roll and elected to go first. I chose my side hoping that the forest and water by his deployment might force him to burn souls early for incorporeal to get the immortals through them. Either that, or they would get funneled through two alleys in order to get to the center of the table.
Jordan deployed his immortal vessel on the far left with the cyclops shaman to its right. Next came a supreme guardian flanked on either side by immortals (white bases). One of his novitates was behind the supreme guardian on the left and an agonizer was directly behind the same supreme guardian. Hakaar, Zaal2, Abidan and the ancestral guardian were also interwoven into the unit of immortals just to the right of that supreme guardian. A second novitate was behind the right side of this unit. The second supreme guardian was deployed just a little right of center, with a couple immortals from the second unit (black base) to its left and the rest on its right. The second agonizer was behind this guardian along with the extoller soulward. The third novitate was behind the right side of this unit and the krea was out on his right flank.
I deployed the marauders on the left flank, with Gerlack just to right of them. My arc node came next with Vociferon next to it. Lich3 was deployed in the center of the board, with Axiara to his left. Her positioning was to allow me to get tactitian to whichever side of the board needed it more. Kharybdis was to Lich3's right with the raider captain and unit of raiders to the right of that. Barathrum was deployed forward, in front of Gerlack and Cankerworm went a little to his right. My general plan was to line up Kharybdis with one of the supreme guardians (with gang fighter he should come close to one rounding it) and use Cankerworm plus Barathrum to threaten the other. The units of infantry would be facing off against his immortal units and I was ok with that. The blood witches ambushing in could be a critical factor in this game.
Top 1: The white based unit of immortals ran forward. Three of them went to the left of the forest and the rest went around the supreme guardian. Hakaar and the ancestral guardian ran forward, staying in the left clump of immortals. Abidan ran a bit more forward than the rest of the force. The immortal vessel and cyclops shaman ran to the far left side of Jordan's rectangle zone. Zaal2 walked forward, put up aura of power and cast vision on the left supreme guardian. The right supreme guardian ran forward, with the black unit of immortals clustering mostly between it and the house, except one that ran around the left side of the water to be near the ancestral guardian. The agonizers ran up behind their respective supreme guardians. The krea ran behind the right cluster of immortals. The novitates ran forward. Two of them were around the left supreme guardian while the third went behind the right supreme guardian. His turn ended with 51 minutes on the clock.
Bottom 1: My goal for this turn was to position and stay out of his threat ranges. If I was lucky, he would feat on top of 2 and I could try to back off and avoid the feat. Otherwise, I needed to be ready to go hard next turn. Lich3 cast mobility, put ashen veil on the raiders and walked forward into the rubble. Vociferon ran to join him in cover. The marauders measured out his 11" immortal threat and spread out. Barathrum walked forward to be in line with the front marauders and dug in. Gerlak ran to stand in front of the rubble and Axiara ran to the left side of it with the arc node staying back behind Axiara. Cankerworm ran to just get into the center zone, as did Kharybdis. The satyxis raiders used whipping winds and ran to spread out around the forest, also staying outside of the 11" threat. The raider captain stayed back because I forgot to activate her. My turn ended with 52 minutes on the clock.
Top 2: I did a solid job staying outside of his threat ranges with one exception. I failed to consider that Zaal2 has an arc node in the list. Zaal2 upkept both vision and aura of power and leached all the fury on the board. The immortal vessel ran forward to get Jussika in his 10" arcing threat range. The cyclops shaman ran into the forest. The left immortals ran forward, leaving a space in the middle for the supreme guardian to land. The left supreme guardian ran foward and Abidan moved to stand near it. The right immortals ran forward and spread out. The rightmost novitate ran to stand on the far flag. Both agonizers forced for gnawing pain and ran to stand behind the supreme guardians. The ancestral guardian moved forward a little, standing just to the left of the far rectangle zone. A second novitate ran to stand in front of the water and the third was between Abidan and the left supreme guardian. The krea ran forward and stood in the back line of the right immortal unit. Hakaar ran to stand on the far side of the rubble in the center zone. Finally, Zaal2 activated and walked forward. He popped his feat and cast a sunder spirit as Jussika. The spell hit and he boosted damage, but only did 3 points of damage to her. The turn ended with 39 minutes on his clock.
Bottom 2: I got a bit lucky that Jussika survived that spell. My plan for this turn was to wait out his feat, not trigger vengeance and contest all scenario elements. Hopefully next turn I would be able to get a solid round of attrition in and start swinging the game back in my direction. I also noted the amount of time Jordan had taken on the clock. If I could move through this turn quickly enough, I might be able to start building a clock advantage.
Due to taking damage, vengeance was triggered. I walked the marauders forward to get into position, but did not get into range to make any attacks. The blood witches ambushed in on the left side of the board. Lich3 upkept ashen veil on the raiders and chose not to allocate anything. Lich3 cast mobility and backed up in the rubble, keeping out of the supreme guardian's charge range. The raiders used whipping winds again and ran to spread out in the near rectangle zone, while also contesting the far flag. The raider captain ran to stand behind the forest. Kharybdis moved back out of the supreme guardian's charge threat range, but keeping it within his own 14" threat. Cankerworm ran back to through the rubble and Vociferon stayed put in the rubble.
Barathrum moved back to stand next to Lich3 and dug in. Axiara granted the marauders special orders (repo 3) and stood behind Barathrum while the arc node stayed in place. Gerlak ran to be behind the unit of marauders. The marauders walked forward and threw their fire bombs onto the front line of the left immortal unit, Abidan and the immortal vessel. None of the immortals took any damage, but five of them were caught on fire, along with Abidan, the left novitate, the shaman and the immortal vessel. The marauders then repositioned back. Most of them just backed up out of threat ranges as much as possible, but one repositioned to engage the immortal vessel. The blood witches ran. One got into the far rectangle, while the rest started running around the forest to try and threaten Jordan's back line. The turn ended with 34 minutes on my clock and no one scored any points. This turn took much longer than I wanted, especially considering the limited number of attacks made. I also forgot to pop Lich3's feat on this turn. My hope was doing so would have discouraged making too much use of aura of power, as that would have given me souls to work with, but the feat would have to wait another turn.
Top 3: Two of the immortals lit on fire died, along with the immortal vessel. The novitate only took a few points of damage and fire went out on everything else. Zaal2 upkept vision and aura of power. The left unit of immortals used grave mist and received the press forward order. Most of them charged my marauders, but one charged Vociferon. Five marauders died, along with Vociferon. The cyclops shaman killed the one blood witch in the far rectangle zone. The left supreme guardian moved forward and tried to shoot a marauder, but missed. The ancestral guardian ran forward to be in the far rectangle zone, next to the left supreme guardian. Abidan moved forward and the left novitate ran to stand behind him. Hakaar ran through the rubble. Zaal2 walked forward to get into the back edge of the center zone.
The right unit of immortals used grave mist, received the press forward order and charged the satyxis raiders. Using Zaal2's fury to boost, they easily cleared the center zone and far flag. Three raiders died from the charge. The krea put up force aura and walked forward. One novitate ran onto the far flag and the other positioned behind the right supreme guardian. Both agonizers forced for gnawing pain and then ran behind the two supreme guardians. The turn ended with 19 minutes on Jordan's clock. He scored the far rectangle, the center zone and the far flag, putting the score at 0-3.
Bottom 3: Now that the feat was gone, I was hoping to have a solid turn of attrition which would help me climb back into the scenario game. Kharybdis would charge the right supreme guardian while the satyxis raiders would have to start clearing out the infantry on the right side of the board. Cankerworm was to be my backup plan if Kharybdis failed in its job. The marauders took their vengeance movement and made a couple attacks, but failed to do anything. Lich3 dropped ashen veil and allocated max focus to Kharybdis. The turn started with Lich3 charging the immortal that killed Vociferon. He boosted the attack and killed it, using blood boon to cast mobility. I then contemplated casting calamity on the left unit of immortals, but it would have cost all my remaining focus. I thought I was safe from the supreme guardians, but decided against using all my focus. Lich3 ended his activation by popping his feat. The satyxis raiders received the press forward order. One charged the novitate on the far flag, one charged the supreme guardian (Jordan declined to take the free strike) and the rest charged into the right unit of immortals. The novitate died along with three of the immortals and the supreme guardian took two points of damage. With the one satyxis raider granting the gang fighter bonus, Kharybdis walked forward. Due to its 4" reach, Kharybdis was able to stay outside of the agonizer's gnawing pain bubble. However, the supreme guardian was left on one box. It was at this time that I realized that the position I had charged Lich3 into blocked Cankerworm's charge onto that same supreme guardian. The sayxis raider captain ran to the inside corner of the near rectangle zone.
The marauders walked forward and threw their fire bombs at the left unit of immortals, but due to grave mist they missed almost all their attacks. Only one immortal died from this. The arc node moved forward and tried to shoot an immortal, but missed. Axiara took a hand cannon shot and killed the immortal standing by Hakaar. This cleared a lane for Barathrum to charge and kill Hakaar and Abidan. Gerlak stayed back, trying to stay out of the range of the supreme guardian's gun. The blood witches charged, killing the cyclops shaman (who had previously taken damage from fire) and the agonizer standing behind the left supreme guardian. The turn ended with 11 minutes on my clock. No one scored any points, leaving the score at 0-3.
Top 4: Jordan noted that he only needed to score 2 points in order to win the game. A couple immortals died to fire along with one of the novitates. The left supreme guardian turned around and killed all the blood witches in the far rectangle zone. The left unit of immortals charged and cleared out the area around the flag. The ancestral guardian ran onto the near flag. This was all he needed to do in order to score two points and win the game. He ended up also seeing if the right supreme guardian could kill both Barathrum and Kharybdis, but only Barathrum died. The turn ended with 9 minutes on Jordan's clock and he won on scenario 0-5.
Analysis: I get pretty tilted trying to play against this list, as I have yet to figure out how to really play into it. I feel like I played his feat pretty well by contesting everything and not triggering vengeance. However, I got so focused on trying to catch up on attrition that I failed to even consider scenario plays. Cankerworm was supposed to be my backup to kill the right supreme guardian, but all I needed to do with it was run into the near rectangle to score a point. That stops me from losing the game (at least on turn 4). However, I was so frustrated that I had blocked my own charge lane that I failed to even activate Cankerworm that turn. I also could have put the calamity onto the left unit of immortals. The marauders are only rat 5 (6 with Gerlak nearby), but trying to hit defense 13 immortals is not a good proposition. Just about all of them missed and the -2 defense from calamity would have made a huge difference. It would have been enough of a difference that Jordan might not be able to score the near flag.
My play with Gerlak was pretty poor. I kept trying to keep him safe, but ended up making him irrelevant for the game. I need to find the sweet spot between him being far enough back that he isn't likely to get sniped out, but keeping him forward enough that he can potentially contribute to the fight. Similarly, I didn't feel great about Axiara in this game. I am used to playing her with Skarre3 where her tactician bubble is part of my basic plan. In this list, there isn't enough infantry that tactician is too important and I didn't make great use of her battle plans. Repositioning the marauders was good, but between these two solos it felt like I had 12 points that didn't really contribute much.
I know I noted it at the end of my report for turn 2, but I think I took way too long on that turn. The only things that actually made attacks were the marauders. There wasn't a need to take as much time as I did to only make about 5 actual attacks that turn. Positioning is important, but I took an 18 minute turn. Moving faster there could have put me in a better position from a clock standpoint. Had the game continued, my clock was low enough that Jordan probably didn't have to do much. He could just put stuff in zones and leave it up to me to burn my clock trying to figure out how to score and start catching up.
Overall, I do like this list, though I do think this is a poor matchup for it. As I mentioned in my last post, my scenario awareness has really gone away since I stopped posting my battle reports, as evidenced by the complete shutout here. Hopefully I can start learning from my mistakes again and report back on better games. My excitement for the game is at an all time high, due to the Oblivion changes. There are lots of lists and casters I want to explore with the new theme changes, so expect to see my lists changing frequently for a while until I settle down into a pairing I really like. Thanks for reading!
Comments
Post a Comment