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September 2019 Scrum - Round 1

Round 1:  vs Anthony Gatta (Junior)
Scenario:  Bunkers

The September 2019 Scrum is being run as a three list event.  My first round opponent is Junior, who is running Crucible Guard.  We just played a friendly game the week before, with my trying a Skarre1 Black Industries list against his Syvestro list.  That matchup didn't feel good to me.  He was bringing the same list pair to the scrum and declined the option to add a third list.  Our respective options were:

Me:
[Skarre 3] Skarre, Admiral of the Black Fleet [+27] - Scourge of the Broken Coast
 - Kraken [35]
 - Satyxis Blood Priestess [4]
Axiara Wraithblade [0(6)]
General Gerlak Slaughterborn [0(6)]
Ragman [4]
Black Ogrun Ironmongers [6]
Blighted Trollkin Marauders (max) [15]
 - Jussika Bloodtongue [5]
Bloodgorgers (max) [15]
Satyxis Blood Witches (max) [13]
 - Satyxis Blood Hag [4]
Scharde Dirge Seers [0(6)]

[Deneghra 2] Wraith Witch Deneghra [+28] - Black Industries
 - Barathrum [15]
 - Deathjack [23]
 - Deathripper [6]
 - Deathripper [6]
 - Malice [15]
 - Slayer [10]
 - Slayer [10]
Hellslinger Phantom [0(7)]
Necrotech [0(2)]
Necrotech [0(2)]
Necrotech [0(2)]
Warwitch Siren [4]
Cephalyx Overlords [8]
Mechanithralls (min) [6]
 - Brute Thrall (3) [0(6)]

[Skarre 1] Pirate Queen Skarre [+28] - Black Industries
 - Ripjaw [7]
 - Stalker [8]
 - Stalker [8]
 - Stalker [8]
 - Skarlock Thrall [0(4)]
Aiakos, Scourge of the Meredius [0(4)]
 - Stalker [8]
 - Stalker [8]
Darragh Wrathe [9]
Scrap Thrall (3) [2]
Soul Trapper [1]
Cephalyx Overlords [8]
Mechanithralls (min) [6]
 - Brute Thrall (3) [0(6)]
Wraith Engine [15]
Wraith Engine [15]


Junior:
[Syvestro 1] Aurum Adeptus Syvestro [+28] - Magnum Opus
 - Liberator [10]
 - Retaliator [9]
 - Retaliator [9]
 - Aurum Ominus Alyce Marc [0(5)]
Crucible Guard Mechanik [2]
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist [4]
Prospero [0(5)]
 - Vulcan [35]
Crucible Guard Rocketmen (min) [9]
 - Crucible Guard Rocketman Captain [4]
Dragon's Breath Rocket [0(5)]
Dragon's Breath Rocket [5]
Railless Interceptor [16]

[Locke 1] Aurum Lucanum Athanor Locke [+29] - Prima Materia
 - Suppressor [13]
 - Toro [13]
 - Toro [13]
 - Vanguard [10]
 - Vindicator [15]
 - Vindicator [15]
 - Aurum Ominus Alyce Marc [0(5)]
Crucible Guard Mechanik [2]
Prospero [5]
 - Suppressor [13]
Combat Alchemists [0(7)]
Combat Alchemists [0(7)]
Dragon's Breath Rocket [5]

I was very confident that Junior was going to drop Syvestro into me.  The previous week he had mentioned it was his generalist list and I think it's the better option into Cryx in general.  My lists are based on what I plan on bringing to the Bokur Brawl at the beginning of October.  In order to put my best foot forward for my team, I am going to bring Skarre3 as one list.  The other two lists are the two I am considering pairing with Skarre3.  In this matchup, I already knew I didn't like Skarre1.  I don't have a ton of experience with Denny2 in Black Industries.  Skarre3 is my comfort zone and a strong generalist caster with lots of tools in the list.  I decided I would drop Skarre3.  My overall goal would be to kill the vulcan and then bully the board with the kraken.  The railless alone can't deal with the kraken, and once the vulcan is gone there isn't anything in his list that really threatens my colossal.  In the end, the matchup was Skarre3 vs Syvestro.

Deployment:  Junior won the roll and chose to go first.  I spent some time debating which side I wanted.  I knew the house would be key and I had to decide whether I wanted to have it on my side to hide behind, or if I wanted him to have to go around it.  His army generally moves up the board very aggressively on turn 1, so I decided I wanted to be able to hide behind the house.

Junior deployed one of his dragon's breath rockets off to his far right, with the railless just to their left and the vulcan to the left of the railless.  A retaliator and liberator were in a column to the left of the vulcan, with Prospero behind the vulcan along with the mechanik.  To the left of these jacks were Syvestro, Gorman and Alyce with the other retaliator to their left.  The second dragon's breath rocket was to the left, with the unit of rocketmen on the far left flank.

I deployed the bloodgorgers on my right flank, behind the acid pool.  To their left was Skarre, with the intent of keeping her safe behind the house.  The marauders were to Skarre's left, with the kraken on the left of the marauders.  The kraken was my leftmost flank, but was still fairly centrally deployed.  The blood priestess, Axiara, Gerlack and Ragman were all deployed behind the marauders.  The iron mongers and dirge seers were spread out along my back line between the kraken and Skarre.  The blood witches were kept off the table to ambush.  My plan was to bring them in on the left side to combat the rocketmen and contest the left flag.

Terrain consisted of a burning cloud near the left flag and a cloud bank on Junior's side.  There was a forest to the left of the central flag and shallow water on the left side of my zone.  A house was positioned overlapping the far right side of my zone.  A wall sat on the left side of Junior's zone with a long trench to the right of his zone and an acid pool was on my side on the right flank.  I will apologize here for the quality of the photos.  The overhead lighting in my basement makes shadows pretty ugly and the last few pictures are a bit blurry (likely due to how I needed to stand in order to take the picture without having my shadow covering half the table).



Top 1:  Syvestro cast transmute on the rocketmen, explosivo on the vulcan and admonition on the liberator.  He then used super fuel, catching all his constructs except the railless, and advanced forward.  The vulcan ran forward.  Junior debated whether to keep it out of range of Skarre's guns, but ended up deciding to run into range of Skarre's guns.  The railless also ran forward, but couldn't get as far as the vulcan.  Prospero ran to stand eight inches behind the vulcan and the right dragon's breath rocket ran in front of Prospero.  The liberator ran to stand in front of Syvestro, just to the left of the objective.  The right retaliator (proxied by Locke) ran to stand to the right of the objective.  The left retaliator ran to stand behind the forest.  The rocketmen spread out a little behind the cloud and the left dragon's breath rocket ran behind Syvestro.  Gorman stood behind the wall and Alyce ran to stand between Prospero and Syvestro.  The mechanik ran behind the vulcan.  Junior ended his turn with 52 minutes on the clock.  I apologize, but I forgot to take a picture here.


Bottom 1:  My normal turn one with Skarre3 is to cast dash, deceleration and put up draconic blessing.  This turn, I decided to take advantage of being in range of the vulcan.  I did not put up draconic blessing, opting to keep that last two focus to boost damage rolls instead.  Skarre case dash and decel, then moved forward and unloaded all her shots into the vulcan, boosting damage on the two cannons.  The blood gorgers rand to spread out a little in front of her and to the right.  The marauders ran forward to present vengeance trigger options and fill the space in the center of the board between the two huge bases.  The kraken moved forward and took a shot at the vulcan, boosting the damage.  After all the shots, the vulcan had lost about 1/3 of its boxes.  Axiara ran behind the kraken (I once again forgot to use a battle plan) and Gerlack ran to stand to Skarre's left.  The blood priestess stood three inches behind Skarre.  The iron mongers ran to cluster up behind the kraken and the dirge seers moved forward while maintaining their spread out formation between the two huge bases.  I ended my turn with 46 minutes on the clock.  That's longer than I would really like for a first turn, but it's a little better since I made attacks.



Top 2:  Junior's objective healed the vulcan for 3.  Prospero allocated the vulcan to full and Syvestro upkept all his spells.  The mechanik healed the vulcan for 4 more.  The vulcan moved to the left and started taking shots.  Two of the shots went into Skarre.  They were suckered off to blood gorgers who were RFP'd.  More shots took out a couple marauders.  The railless moved to be next to the vulcan.  It sprayed down the three front-most blood gorgers and put its big gun into a marauder in front of the kraken.  The right dragon's breath rocket ran up behind the railless.  Prospero maintained his position eight inches behind the vulcan and Alyce moved to stand on his left.  The right retaliator maintained its position next to the objective and the liberator walked forward a couple inches.  The left retaliator ran forward, ending partially in the forest.  The rocketmen got their defensive action order and spread out, with only a single member of the unit left in ambush range.  The left dragon's breath rocket ran to stand in front of the wall and Gorman took position behind the forest.  Syvestro stayed behind the objective and used impenetrable haze.  Junior's turn ended with 38 minutes on the clock.



Bottom 2:  I knew I wanted to go into the vulcan as much as possible this turn.  The blood witches ambushed in on the left and the marauders used vengeance to move forward a little, after having two of their number reinforced.  This put two of them in charge range of the vulcan.  Skarre allocated max focus to the kraken.  Skarre was able to stand still to aim.  She feated and cast dash, deceleration, guided fire and put draconic blessing on the marauders.  She put all her shots into the vulcan, boosting all the damage.  The marauders got the press forward order and two of them had charge distance to the vulcan, thanks to vengeance movements.  Jussika ran to stand behind the house and the rest of the unit spread out a bit.  Gerlak remained to Skarre's left, and the blood priestess stayed three inches behind Skarre.  The blood witches got the press forward order.  Several members of the unit ran to engage the rocketmen.  Meanwhile, the blood hag and a member of the unit charged the one rocketman in range.  The hag was in his back arc and with gang and blessed weapons, she needed a five to hit.  She landed the hit, dispelled transmute and killed her target.  The kraken walked forward to be 12 inches away from the vulcan and rolled only 2 shots for the flayer cannon.  The kraken landed and boosted damage on all three of its shots and ended up finishing off the vulcan.  The iron mongers ran to stand about six inches behind the kraken and the dirge seers remained in place.  Ragman ran to the left.  My turn ended with 29 minutes on the clock and we each scored a single point from our rectangle zones.



Top 3:  Junior entered this turn very frustrated that he had lost the vulcan.  After it died, he stated that was basically the game for him.  He took a couple minutes to collect himself and then proceeded with his turn.  He upkept admonition.  I believe he allocated one focus to each of the retaliators.  The liberator walked forward and killed a marauder.  Syvestro stayed behind the objective, arced explosivo onto the railless and used superfuel.  He also popped his feat.  The railless walked forward and kille the forward most blood gorger.  It then took some shots and sprays and cleared out a few more blood gorgers and a couple marauders.  The left retaliator moved forward and sprayed a marauder down and the right dragon's breath rocket moved into the trench and took a shot, killing another marauder.  The left retaliator moved forward and sprayed down another marauder.  The rocketmen got the defensive action order, moved into position and attacked the satyxis blood witches.  The UA was killed along with a few more, clearing all the models contesting the flag.  The left dragon's breath rocket took a shot that drifted to no where.  Gorman ran onto the left flag.  The mechanik ran onto the right flag.  Junior's turn ended with 23 minutes on the clock.  He scored his zone and the left and right flags, while I scored my zone, putting the score at 2-4.



Bottom 3:  This turn I knew I needed to clear off the two side flags and either contest Junior's zone or score a flag myself.  I also wanted to see if I could possibly take out the railless.  I also knew that the kraken could start bullying the board with the vulcan and Syvestro's feat gone.  I used vengeance to move some marauders out from behind the house and forgot to reinforce.  Skarre upkept draconic blessing for free and allocated max focus to the kraken.  Skarre stood still again to get the aiming bonus and cast dash.  She put her first cannon into the railless, boosting damage.  Then used her hand cannon to shoot the mechanik off the flag.  Her second cannon went into the railless with boosted damage again.  A single blood gorger was able to safely charge the railless, while the rest stayed back.  A single marauder was able to charge the railless, while the rest ran around the house.  The blood witches moved charged, getting two onto the rocketmen UA and the rest onto other members of the unit.  The UA was killed, but the other member of the unit was missed and dodged to move in and contest the flag.  Axiara was able to run onto the flag with the bonus speed from dash.  The kraken walked forward and killed one rocketman contesting the flag.  I then realized that the rocketman who had dodged was contesting, but outside the kraken's threat.  The kraken used the remainer of its attacks to kill the left retaliator.  Ragman and the iron mongers ran up to be behind the kraken.  Gerlak stood to the left of Skarre and the blood priestess walked to a little behind Gerlak.  At this point, I realized that while I had successfully cleared both flags, I had failed to put anything in Junior's zone and I didn't have nearly enough contesting.  My turn ended with 13 minutes on my clock.  We each scored a point from our own zones, putting the score at 3-5.



Top 4:  Syvestro loaded up the liberator with max focus and upkept explosivo, dropping admonition.  He ended up walking forward and using super fuel, then cast transmute on the liberator.  The railless killed the one bloodgorger contesting the flag, but due to bad dice rolls and tough rolls, the two marauders contesting the middle flag lived.  The remaining retaliator moved to the right and got a spray on both marauders, killing them and clearing the flag.  The liberator charged my objective, but low dice rolls left it on three boxes.  The right dragon's breath rocket did two more damage, leaving it on one.  The left dragon's breath rocket and the single rocketman that could get in range of the objective failed to deal the final point of damage.  Prospero ran onto the right flag and Alyce ran onto the middle flag.  Junior scored three points and was contesting my zone, meaning he won the game on a score of 3-8.  He had 7 minutes left on his clock.



Analysis:  Let's start with the positive.  I shot a vulcan off the board on the bottom of two.  Unfortunately, this turned out to be a blessing and a curse.  With the biggest threat off the board, I felt I had basically already won the game and didn't engage scenario.  The play with the blood witches was ok, as they managed to dispel transmute and the following turn they eliminated the rocketman officer.  However, that was also the turn I needed to get one of them into Junior's zone.

I had the right idea in getting Axiara onto a flag in order to score, but the left flag was going to be difficult to clear.  When the one rocketman dodged into contesting range, I should have changed my plan and tried to have her go for the center zone.  The kraken can then charge the liberator.  If Junior triggered admonition, he has to move it out of range of contesting the middle flag.  The right retaliator might not have even been contesting.  This would have put the kraken in a position where Junior wouldn't have been able to get a model into my zone to prevent me from scoring my one point and might have ended with me scoring a point on that center flag with Axiara.  Before the turn started, I identified the things I needed to do in order to stay in the game as far as scenario goes, but once I started my activations, that completely left my head and I focused completely on attrition.  I am finding that lately, I end up playing for attrition and failing to properly engage scenario.

On a related note, I didn't do anything useful with my solos aside from trying to score the left flag with Axiara.  Gerlak basically stood around like a blighted troll statue.  He could have been moving up more to position for future turns.  I distinctly recall thinking that he was too far back to do anything.  After thinking this, I decided to leave him right where he was instead of moving him forward.  I think I was terrified of the dragon's breath rockets and railless taking him out.  If he moves forward he might die, but at least it costs my opponent activations and time to do so.  By leaving him so far back he was irrelevant to everything.

While I am critiquing my own play, I also need to acknowledge the play of my opponent.  Junior could have easily allowed himself to get tilted after losing the vulcan.  Instead, he kept his composure and proceeded to make the moves necessary to press scenario and win the game.  I made mistakes, but he was right there to see them and take advantage of them.  Well played by him.  One could argue that putting the vulcan in Skarre's threat range on bottom of one was unnecessary, but having the colossal that far up the board on bottom of one is part of what makes that list so oppressive.  It took some solid spikes from my dice in order to knock out the vulcan, along with Junior forgetting about vengeance on the marauders.  His plan was to allow me to put some damage onto the vulcan, then use Syvestro's feat to heal it back up on top of three.  If not for dice spikes, I think that works out just fine for him and I don't know how I deal with the vulcan.

With this round in the books, I start off the September Scrum at 0-1.  I know I was quite disappointed by the outcome of the game.  That said, I need to focus on the lessons learned and applying them to future games.  I hope my next battle report features fewer mistakes from me and better scenario awareness.  As always, thanks for reading!

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