Round 4: vs Elliot Harris
Scenario: Anarchy
Coming into round 4 I was paired against Elliot Harris. I am used to seeing him play Ret, so I was a little surprised when I checked out his lists and saw Khador. Here are the lists we both had to choose from.
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]
Elliot:
[Zerkova 1] Koldun Kommander Aleksandra Zerkova [+28] - Wolves of Winter
- Destroyer [14]
- Devastator [14]
- Greylord Adjunct [0(4)]
Alexia, Mistress of the Witchfire [7]
Koldun Lord [0(4)]
Koldun Lord [4]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [10]
- Greylord Escort [3]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [10]
- Greylord Escort [3]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [10]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [10]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [10]
Greylord Ternion [0(7)]
Press Gangers (min) [7]
[Sorscha 3] Kommandant Sorscha Kratikoff [+28] - Armored Korps
- Marauder [11]
- Marauder [11]
- Rager [10]
Hutchuk, Ogrun Bounty Hunter [6]
Man-O-War Kovnik [4]
Man-O-War Kovnik [4]
Man-O-War Strike Tanker [0(5)]
Man-O-War Strike Tanker [5]
Man-O-War Suppression Tanker [0(6)]
Man-O-War Suppression Tanker [0(6)]
Kayazy Eliminators [5]
Kommandant Atanas Arconovich & Standard [7]
Man-O-War Shocktroopers (max) [16]
- Man-O-War Shocktrooper Officer [4]
Man-O-War Shocktroopers (max) [16]
- Man-O-War Shocktrooper Officer [4]
[Vladimir 1] Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Prince [+28] - Wolves of Winter
- Marauder [11]
- Marauder [11]
- Marauder [11]
- Marauder [11]
- Marauder [11]
Greylord Forge Seer [0(4)]
Hutchuk, Ogrun Bounty Hunter [6]
Koldun Lord [4]
Koldun Lord [4]
Greylord Outriders (max) [17]
Greylord Outriders (max) [17]
Greylord Ternion [0(7)]
Greylord Ternion [0(7)]
I have gotten very used to doom reavers being the drop into Cryx and looking over his lists, I didn't see any reason why Elliot would choose any differently here. My first thought was to go with Skarre3. The blood witches and bloodgorgers could potentially take a decent number of doom reavers off the board. However, I then noted that Elliot was packing Zerkova1. Her feat blanks a large portion of my army for a turn. No charges, and not being able to shoot with the marauders, kraken or Skarre doesn't feel great. I never really felt like Denny2 was a good option here, as the doom reavers match up too well against the cryx heavies. In the end, I decided that I needed to run Skarre1.
I only had one game with the Skarre1 list prior to this, so I was not confident in my ability to play the list properly. The list is one Brad Park came up with and he has explained that the objective of this list is to win on scenario on turn 3 or maybe 4. If the game goes past that, you very likely lose. However, five stalkers and two wraith engines gives lots of lists issues to play around. The bad news was that Elliot had just played against Brad the previous round and they had played the Zerkova1 vs Skarre1 game. Brad was able to win that game on scenario, but he told me he lost most of his army along the way. I was very concerned that Elliot had just had a game with this exact matchup and I was only playing this list for the second time. However, I also felt this was my best shot. The matchup ended up as expected: Zerkova1 vs Skarre1. Elliot won the die roll and chose to go first. After a minute of consideration, I decided to take the side with the trench. I felt like the house was positioned in a way that this side could make good use of it to protect Skarre1 if she needed to get dark guidance far upfield and the trench is always a nice defensive option to have.
Terrain featured a house relatively central. On my side there was rubble along the left flank and a trench behind the right circle zone, shaded a little toward the middle. An acid pool was on the near edge of that same circle zone. Overlapping the right side of the left circle zone was shallow water, with a forest on the far side of that same zone. A wall was centrally positioned, just a little behind Elliot's objective and a burning cloud was on the far side of the right zone. I chose the healing objective and Elliot chose the objective that grants rerolls.
Deployment: Elliot deployed Alexia2 centrally with Zerkova to her right and the devastator to her left. To the right of Zerkova was the greylord adjunct with the destroyer to his right. One of the koldun lords was out on the left flank. To the left of the devastator was the other koldun lord and the greylords ternion.
I deployed both wraith engines a little to the right of center. Aikos was to the left of the wraith engines and Skarre was to his left. To the left of Skarre was Darragh Wrathe, followed by the ripjaw and the overlords. The skarlock was deployed in the back with the scrap thralls and soul trapper nearby.
Elliot's advanced deployment had one unit of doom reavers deployed on the left flank and one on the right flank. Another unit was deployed to the right of the forest while another was deployed to the left of the burning cloud. These were the two units with the greylord escorts attached. The final unit was split across the wall in the middle. He reserved the press gangers for ambushing later.
My advanced deplyment had Aikos's two stalkers to the right of the objective and Skarre's three stalkers to the left of the objective. The mechanithralls were kept off the table to ambush later.
Top 1: Elliot's first turn featured a lot of running. The two doom reaver units on the flanks ran forward and started spreading out into the two zones. The units between the forest and burning cloud also ran forward and spread out to fill the area between the zones. Both jacks ran forward. Alexia ran forward to just in front of the forest and the greylords ternion ran up behind her. The koldun lord on the right ran forward to just to the right of the burning cloud, while the one on the left ran to just in front of the wall. Zerkova herself ran up to just behind the wall, camping all her focus. Elliot's turn ended with 54 minutes on the clock.
Bottom 1: My turn started out with a bunch of measuring. All the doomreavers behind so aggressively up the board really limited my options for where I could safely go. Elliot made sure none of my stalkers could get more than a single doom reaver in their threat range. Both wraith engines moved up a little, but I measured out so that neither could get more than a single doom reaver charging into it. One of Aikos's stalkers ran to stand between the two wraith engines, while the other stood behind the objective and to the right. One of Skarre's stalkers ran to be just behind the objective and to the left. Skarre herself moved forward and stood behind the two stalkers and objective. Darragh Wrathe walked to the left of Skarre and cast mortal fear. Aikos cast Escort, but stayed mostly in place. The skarlock cast ritual sacrifice and killed the soul trapper, rolling a 6 for focus. The overlords ran to the right and stood behind the rubble. Another stalker took up position to their right, while the ripjaw ran to that stalker's right. The final stalker ran up to behind the house. I thought Elliot could use apparition to get possibly a single doom reaver to charge the stalker and was prepared to hope he couldn't roll the 8 to hit. My turn ended with 47 minutes on the clock.
Top 2: Elliot started his turn by measuring out a lot of threat ranges. He elected not to bring in the press gangers yet. Zerkova kept all her focus. The doom reavers to the right of the forest apparitioned forward. The doom reavers in the right and left zones adjusted their position within the zones, keeping out of threat ranges. The devastator ran forward again. The grey lords ternion walked forward and put clouds on two doom reavers in the left circle and one to the right of the water. The greylord escort gave Zerkova eyeless sight. Zerkova walked forward to be behind the right side of the house and used her ability to extend the range of a spell. She then cast a hex blast at the stalker between the two wraith engines. She hit and did enough damage to knock out cortex and one arm. Zerkova then popped feat, catching Darragh Wrathe. She ended her turn camping 3 focus. The doom reavers that apparitioned walked forward. Two of them were able to walk around the house and take swings into the stalker hiding behind the house. Both connected due to backstrike bonuses and the stalker was destroyed. The rest of the unit started filling in space around Zerkova. Another unit received the press forward order. One doom reaver made charge distance on the stalker to Skarre's right. The rest ran to fill in more space around Zerkova. The doom reaver that charged missed its attack. The destroyer ran forward to stand behind the flag and the final unit of doom reavers ran to fill in more space around the flag. Elliot ended his turn with 40 minutes on the clock.
Bottom 2: Effectively losing two stalkers without much of anything being in my threat range was quite bad for my chances. I took some time to measure things out and determined that if I could clear out landing spots, I could potentially get two stalkers on Zerkova. I felt this assassination was my best plan for the turn. I ambushed in the unit of mechanithralls and Aikos upkept escort. Aikos allocated max focus to the fully functional stalker and Skarre allocated max focus to the white primed stalker. I knew I could clear out a spot to the right of Zerkova with little difficulty. My bigger issue was trying to clear out doom reavers to her left so a second stalker could jump over the house and into melee range. All I needed was a single doom reaver to die on the far side of the house and it was a pretty sure assassination run. If I couldn't clear that spot, I would only get a single stalker and I wasn't as comfortable with that, but it was still my best plan.
The turn started with the overlords walking forward and spraying. Two went to the right of the rubble to clear out the two doom reavers that killed my stalker. They targetted jacks in order to catch the doom reavers under their sprays. The third went to the left of the rubble and targetted a ternion, but only got a doom reaver under the template. All three doom reavers ended up dying. The ripjaw ran forward to get line of sight to the other side of the house. Skarre then activated. She gained the six focus from her previous turn, putting her on ten. She cast dark guidance and popped her feat. She caught the three fully functional stalkers, both wraith engines, herself, the ripjaw, Darragh Wrathe and Aikos. She arced a blood rain through the ripjaw, targetting the destroyer. I was hoping for a favorable drift, but instead of coming back and catching the doom reaver I needed, it drifted forward. I decided to camp my remaining three focus. I could have tried the same thing again, hoping to get the deviation I needed, but it wasn't likely and I wouldn't have focus to boost the damage roll. I wasn't sure how much he might be able to get on Skarre, but felt I should sit on the remaining focus. Unfortunately, this was the only plan I came up with to clear the doom reaver on the other side of the house, so I switched all my attention to clearing the landing spot for Aikos's fully functional stalker.
Aikos's broken stalker walked forward to toe the right zone. One wraith engine moved forward to toe the left zone, while the other killed the doom reaver that had engaged the stalker in question, creating a machine wraith in the process. The machine wraith charged a doom reaver, killing it. The white primed stalker moved over to clear out the doom reavers blocking my landing zone, and then Aikos's stalker went in for the kill. It needed boosted 8's to hit (the stalker was just in dark guidance range). My first and third attacks landed, but the stalker whiffed on the other two attacks. Both damage rolls were at dice +2 due to Skarre's feat, but I rolled a 5 for damage on both hits. Zerkova spent two focus and ended up taking a total of four damage. At this point I kinda knew my game was over, but I had to play out what I could. Darraghe Wrath ran up to my flag to score a control point and the ambushing mechanithralls received the press forward order. They ended up killing two more of the doom reavers in the left circle zone. The skarlock walked over to the scrap thralls and killed one with ritual sacrifice, rolling a 2 this time. My turn ended with me scoring one control point, opening scoring at 1-0. I had 23 minutes left on my clock.
Top 3: Although my assassination attempt failed, Elliot now had to figure out how deal with all the feated on targets up in his face. He ambushed in the press gangers behind my mechanithralls. The koldun lords both sprayed the stalkers near Elliot's flag. The white primed one got hit and took some damage. Two units of doom reavers repositioned in the area and made attacks, but both stalkers survived. Zerkova cast her spray, hitting both and critting on the white primed one. The stalker in her face took enough damage to lose cortex and an arm. She then cast ghost walk on herself and walked away from the stalker engaging her. The destroyer walked forward and killed the white primed stalker. The press gangers charged and killed the brute thralls. The doom reavers in the left zone walked forward and killed the rest of the mechanithralls. The doom reavers in the right zone spread out and two got charges on the stalker by the wraith engines, but both missed their attack rolls. The devastator killed the ripjaw and contested the flag. Elliot scored the left circle zone, tying the score at 1-1. His turn ended with 20 minutes on the clock.
Bottom 3: At this point, I had two crippled stalkers and one out on the left flank that wasn't getting anywhere useful. This turn I had one plan and it was a super low percentage chance. Skarre charged a doom reaver and threw a blood rain onto the koldun lords blocking a path from the destroyer to Zerkova. I had a wraith engine charge forward to kill a doom reaver, creating a machine wraith. The machine wraith walked to the destroyer and took control. The destroyer walked back to Zerkova and missed the attack roll. I would have needed to roll a 10 on damage, even if the attack connected, so the odds were very low. After that, I just took attacks where I could and killed a few more doom reavers here and there, but the game had effectively ended. My turn ended with no scoring happening and 3 minutes on my clock.
Top 4: Normally, I try to detail everything that happened, even on these late turns, but this turn was mostly cleanup. This is the only scrum of the year where there is a prize (custom dice for the top 5 players) and since Elliot and I were playing in the X-1 bracket, he wanted to see how many AP and CP he could rack up for tie breakers. Elliot killed most of my army and then assassinated Skarre. Due to a doomreaver outside the right circle making a tough roll, he was unable to score there and the stalker in the left circle prevented scoring there. He ended up picking up another CP on his flag. As you can see from the picture, both wraith engines were killed, along with two of the remaining stalkers. Elliot finished his turn with 9 minutes on his clock. The final score was 1-2.
Analysis: I feel like Khador, and doom reavers specifically, are a problem for Cryx to match up against. It could just be the lists that I run, but its difficult to get a significant volume of attacks to handle all those beserking weapon masters. I still feel like the assassination on turn two was my best play. It's possible I could have found a different approach to clearing the doom reaver behind the house, as clearing that landing spot is likely the difference between success and failure. That said, my dice needed to agree with the plan (I just figured out that if the second stalker rolls exactly the same as the first, I still don't kill her), but you can only do so much to mitigate dice rolls. I don't feel bad about how I played. Once I made the decision to go for the assassination, I knew I wouldn't be able to fight back for scenario and unless he rolled a long string of ones to kill the stalkers up in his face I didn't have much that would be able to fight back.
Even though the game went to top of 4, it was pretty short and effectively ended on bottom of 2 with my assassination run. I could potentially do better if I had more reps with this list. Lists like this, with a smaller number of higher value pieces, are something I am not familiar with playing. I need to get some more practice in with this kind of thing in the future. Once this scrum is over, I am going to be looking to play a wide variety of things in Cryx, and one style of list I want to focus on is something like this (usually found in BI). I can't wait to start really exploring the new options open to the faction now that Oblivion is upon us.
Scenario: Anarchy
Coming into round 4 I was paired against Elliot Harris. I am used to seeing him play Ret, so I was a little surprised when I checked out his lists and saw Khador. Here are the lists we both had to choose from.
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]
Elliot:
[Zerkova 1] Koldun Kommander Aleksandra Zerkova [+28] - Wolves of Winter
- Destroyer [14]
- Devastator [14]
- Greylord Adjunct [0(4)]
Alexia, Mistress of the Witchfire [7]
Koldun Lord [0(4)]
Koldun Lord [4]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [10]
- Greylord Escort [3]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [10]
- Greylord Escort [3]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [10]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [10]
Doom Reaver Swordsmen [10]
Greylord Ternion [0(7)]
Press Gangers (min) [7]
[Sorscha 3] Kommandant Sorscha Kratikoff [+28] - Armored Korps
- Marauder [11]
- Marauder [11]
- Rager [10]
Hutchuk, Ogrun Bounty Hunter [6]
Man-O-War Kovnik [4]
Man-O-War Kovnik [4]
Man-O-War Strike Tanker [0(5)]
Man-O-War Strike Tanker [5]
Man-O-War Suppression Tanker [0(6)]
Man-O-War Suppression Tanker [0(6)]
Kayazy Eliminators [5]
Kommandant Atanas Arconovich & Standard [7]
Man-O-War Shocktroopers (max) [16]
- Man-O-War Shocktrooper Officer [4]
Man-O-War Shocktroopers (max) [16]
- Man-O-War Shocktrooper Officer [4]
[Vladimir 1] Vladimir Tzepesci, the Dark Prince [+28] - Wolves of Winter
- Marauder [11]
- Marauder [11]
- Marauder [11]
- Marauder [11]
- Marauder [11]
Greylord Forge Seer [0(4)]
Hutchuk, Ogrun Bounty Hunter [6]
Koldun Lord [4]
Koldun Lord [4]
Greylord Outriders (max) [17]
Greylord Outriders (max) [17]
Greylord Ternion [0(7)]
Greylord Ternion [0(7)]
I have gotten very used to doom reavers being the drop into Cryx and looking over his lists, I didn't see any reason why Elliot would choose any differently here. My first thought was to go with Skarre3. The blood witches and bloodgorgers could potentially take a decent number of doom reavers off the board. However, I then noted that Elliot was packing Zerkova1. Her feat blanks a large portion of my army for a turn. No charges, and not being able to shoot with the marauders, kraken or Skarre doesn't feel great. I never really felt like Denny2 was a good option here, as the doom reavers match up too well against the cryx heavies. In the end, I decided that I needed to run Skarre1.
I only had one game with the Skarre1 list prior to this, so I was not confident in my ability to play the list properly. The list is one Brad Park came up with and he has explained that the objective of this list is to win on scenario on turn 3 or maybe 4. If the game goes past that, you very likely lose. However, five stalkers and two wraith engines gives lots of lists issues to play around. The bad news was that Elliot had just played against Brad the previous round and they had played the Zerkova1 vs Skarre1 game. Brad was able to win that game on scenario, but he told me he lost most of his army along the way. I was very concerned that Elliot had just had a game with this exact matchup and I was only playing this list for the second time. However, I also felt this was my best shot. The matchup ended up as expected: Zerkova1 vs Skarre1. Elliot won the die roll and chose to go first. After a minute of consideration, I decided to take the side with the trench. I felt like the house was positioned in a way that this side could make good use of it to protect Skarre1 if she needed to get dark guidance far upfield and the trench is always a nice defensive option to have.
Terrain featured a house relatively central. On my side there was rubble along the left flank and a trench behind the right circle zone, shaded a little toward the middle. An acid pool was on the near edge of that same circle zone. Overlapping the right side of the left circle zone was shallow water, with a forest on the far side of that same zone. A wall was centrally positioned, just a little behind Elliot's objective and a burning cloud was on the far side of the right zone. I chose the healing objective and Elliot chose the objective that grants rerolls.
Deployment: Elliot deployed Alexia2 centrally with Zerkova to her right and the devastator to her left. To the right of Zerkova was the greylord adjunct with the destroyer to his right. One of the koldun lords was out on the left flank. To the left of the devastator was the other koldun lord and the greylords ternion.
I deployed both wraith engines a little to the right of center. Aikos was to the left of the wraith engines and Skarre was to his left. To the left of Skarre was Darragh Wrathe, followed by the ripjaw and the overlords. The skarlock was deployed in the back with the scrap thralls and soul trapper nearby.
Elliot's advanced deployment had one unit of doom reavers deployed on the left flank and one on the right flank. Another unit was deployed to the right of the forest while another was deployed to the left of the burning cloud. These were the two units with the greylord escorts attached. The final unit was split across the wall in the middle. He reserved the press gangers for ambushing later.
My advanced deplyment had Aikos's two stalkers to the right of the objective and Skarre's three stalkers to the left of the objective. The mechanithralls were kept off the table to ambush later.
Top 1: Elliot's first turn featured a lot of running. The two doom reaver units on the flanks ran forward and started spreading out into the two zones. The units between the forest and burning cloud also ran forward and spread out to fill the area between the zones. Both jacks ran forward. Alexia ran forward to just in front of the forest and the greylords ternion ran up behind her. The koldun lord on the right ran forward to just to the right of the burning cloud, while the one on the left ran to just in front of the wall. Zerkova herself ran up to just behind the wall, camping all her focus. Elliot's turn ended with 54 minutes on the clock.
Bottom 1: My turn started out with a bunch of measuring. All the doomreavers behind so aggressively up the board really limited my options for where I could safely go. Elliot made sure none of my stalkers could get more than a single doom reaver in their threat range. Both wraith engines moved up a little, but I measured out so that neither could get more than a single doom reaver charging into it. One of Aikos's stalkers ran to stand between the two wraith engines, while the other stood behind the objective and to the right. One of Skarre's stalkers ran to be just behind the objective and to the left. Skarre herself moved forward and stood behind the two stalkers and objective. Darragh Wrathe walked to the left of Skarre and cast mortal fear. Aikos cast Escort, but stayed mostly in place. The skarlock cast ritual sacrifice and killed the soul trapper, rolling a 6 for focus. The overlords ran to the right and stood behind the rubble. Another stalker took up position to their right, while the ripjaw ran to that stalker's right. The final stalker ran up to behind the house. I thought Elliot could use apparition to get possibly a single doom reaver to charge the stalker and was prepared to hope he couldn't roll the 8 to hit. My turn ended with 47 minutes on the clock.
Top 2: Elliot started his turn by measuring out a lot of threat ranges. He elected not to bring in the press gangers yet. Zerkova kept all her focus. The doom reavers to the right of the forest apparitioned forward. The doom reavers in the right and left zones adjusted their position within the zones, keeping out of threat ranges. The devastator ran forward again. The grey lords ternion walked forward and put clouds on two doom reavers in the left circle and one to the right of the water. The greylord escort gave Zerkova eyeless sight. Zerkova walked forward to be behind the right side of the house and used her ability to extend the range of a spell. She then cast a hex blast at the stalker between the two wraith engines. She hit and did enough damage to knock out cortex and one arm. Zerkova then popped feat, catching Darragh Wrathe. She ended her turn camping 3 focus. The doom reavers that apparitioned walked forward. Two of them were able to walk around the house and take swings into the stalker hiding behind the house. Both connected due to backstrike bonuses and the stalker was destroyed. The rest of the unit started filling in space around Zerkova. Another unit received the press forward order. One doom reaver made charge distance on the stalker to Skarre's right. The rest ran to fill in more space around Zerkova. The doom reaver that charged missed its attack. The destroyer ran forward to stand behind the flag and the final unit of doom reavers ran to fill in more space around the flag. Elliot ended his turn with 40 minutes on the clock.
Bottom 2: Effectively losing two stalkers without much of anything being in my threat range was quite bad for my chances. I took some time to measure things out and determined that if I could clear out landing spots, I could potentially get two stalkers on Zerkova. I felt this assassination was my best plan for the turn. I ambushed in the unit of mechanithralls and Aikos upkept escort. Aikos allocated max focus to the fully functional stalker and Skarre allocated max focus to the white primed stalker. I knew I could clear out a spot to the right of Zerkova with little difficulty. My bigger issue was trying to clear out doom reavers to her left so a second stalker could jump over the house and into melee range. All I needed was a single doom reaver to die on the far side of the house and it was a pretty sure assassination run. If I couldn't clear that spot, I would only get a single stalker and I wasn't as comfortable with that, but it was still my best plan.
The turn started with the overlords walking forward and spraying. Two went to the right of the rubble to clear out the two doom reavers that killed my stalker. They targetted jacks in order to catch the doom reavers under their sprays. The third went to the left of the rubble and targetted a ternion, but only got a doom reaver under the template. All three doom reavers ended up dying. The ripjaw ran forward to get line of sight to the other side of the house. Skarre then activated. She gained the six focus from her previous turn, putting her on ten. She cast dark guidance and popped her feat. She caught the three fully functional stalkers, both wraith engines, herself, the ripjaw, Darragh Wrathe and Aikos. She arced a blood rain through the ripjaw, targetting the destroyer. I was hoping for a favorable drift, but instead of coming back and catching the doom reaver I needed, it drifted forward. I decided to camp my remaining three focus. I could have tried the same thing again, hoping to get the deviation I needed, but it wasn't likely and I wouldn't have focus to boost the damage roll. I wasn't sure how much he might be able to get on Skarre, but felt I should sit on the remaining focus. Unfortunately, this was the only plan I came up with to clear the doom reaver on the other side of the house, so I switched all my attention to clearing the landing spot for Aikos's fully functional stalker.
Aikos's broken stalker walked forward to toe the right zone. One wraith engine moved forward to toe the left zone, while the other killed the doom reaver that had engaged the stalker in question, creating a machine wraith in the process. The machine wraith charged a doom reaver, killing it. The white primed stalker moved over to clear out the doom reavers blocking my landing zone, and then Aikos's stalker went in for the kill. It needed boosted 8's to hit (the stalker was just in dark guidance range). My first and third attacks landed, but the stalker whiffed on the other two attacks. Both damage rolls were at dice +2 due to Skarre's feat, but I rolled a 5 for damage on both hits. Zerkova spent two focus and ended up taking a total of four damage. At this point I kinda knew my game was over, but I had to play out what I could. Darraghe Wrath ran up to my flag to score a control point and the ambushing mechanithralls received the press forward order. They ended up killing two more of the doom reavers in the left circle zone. The skarlock walked over to the scrap thralls and killed one with ritual sacrifice, rolling a 2 this time. My turn ended with me scoring one control point, opening scoring at 1-0. I had 23 minutes left on my clock.
Top 3: Although my assassination attempt failed, Elliot now had to figure out how deal with all the feated on targets up in his face. He ambushed in the press gangers behind my mechanithralls. The koldun lords both sprayed the stalkers near Elliot's flag. The white primed one got hit and took some damage. Two units of doom reavers repositioned in the area and made attacks, but both stalkers survived. Zerkova cast her spray, hitting both and critting on the white primed one. The stalker in her face took enough damage to lose cortex and an arm. She then cast ghost walk on herself and walked away from the stalker engaging her. The destroyer walked forward and killed the white primed stalker. The press gangers charged and killed the brute thralls. The doom reavers in the left zone walked forward and killed the rest of the mechanithralls. The doom reavers in the right zone spread out and two got charges on the stalker by the wraith engines, but both missed their attack rolls. The devastator killed the ripjaw and contested the flag. Elliot scored the left circle zone, tying the score at 1-1. His turn ended with 20 minutes on the clock.
Bottom 3: At this point, I had two crippled stalkers and one out on the left flank that wasn't getting anywhere useful. This turn I had one plan and it was a super low percentage chance. Skarre charged a doom reaver and threw a blood rain onto the koldun lords blocking a path from the destroyer to Zerkova. I had a wraith engine charge forward to kill a doom reaver, creating a machine wraith. The machine wraith walked to the destroyer and took control. The destroyer walked back to Zerkova and missed the attack roll. I would have needed to roll a 10 on damage, even if the attack connected, so the odds were very low. After that, I just took attacks where I could and killed a few more doom reavers here and there, but the game had effectively ended. My turn ended with no scoring happening and 3 minutes on my clock.
Top 4: Normally, I try to detail everything that happened, even on these late turns, but this turn was mostly cleanup. This is the only scrum of the year where there is a prize (custom dice for the top 5 players) and since Elliot and I were playing in the X-1 bracket, he wanted to see how many AP and CP he could rack up for tie breakers. Elliot killed most of my army and then assassinated Skarre. Due to a doomreaver outside the right circle making a tough roll, he was unable to score there and the stalker in the left circle prevented scoring there. He ended up picking up another CP on his flag. As you can see from the picture, both wraith engines were killed, along with two of the remaining stalkers. Elliot finished his turn with 9 minutes on his clock. The final score was 1-2.
Analysis: I feel like Khador, and doom reavers specifically, are a problem for Cryx to match up against. It could just be the lists that I run, but its difficult to get a significant volume of attacks to handle all those beserking weapon masters. I still feel like the assassination on turn two was my best play. It's possible I could have found a different approach to clearing the doom reaver behind the house, as clearing that landing spot is likely the difference between success and failure. That said, my dice needed to agree with the plan (I just figured out that if the second stalker rolls exactly the same as the first, I still don't kill her), but you can only do so much to mitigate dice rolls. I don't feel bad about how I played. Once I made the decision to go for the assassination, I knew I wouldn't be able to fight back for scenario and unless he rolled a long string of ones to kill the stalkers up in his face I didn't have much that would be able to fight back.
Even though the game went to top of 4, it was pretty short and effectively ended on bottom of 2 with my assassination run. I could potentially do better if I had more reps with this list. Lists like this, with a smaller number of higher value pieces, are something I am not familiar with playing. I need to get some more practice in with this kind of thing in the future. Once this scrum is over, I am going to be looking to play a wide variety of things in Cryx, and one style of list I want to focus on is something like this (usually found in BI). I can't wait to start really exploring the new options open to the faction now that Oblivion is upon us.
As usual great battle report. I'm running, first gamegame tomorrow withwith thethe list tho.., Skarre 1 with Aikos , Kharydbis and 6 stalkers total in Scurge.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to your next report. Keep it up