Round 1: vs Joe Ferry
Scenario: Spread The Net
For this scrum, I had fully intended to continue playing my pairing of Coven in scourge and Denny2 in black industries. Naturally, this means I didn't put either of those lists into my scrum pairing. I had played a couple games into Skorne recently and realized that pairing left me needing to dodge the Skorne matchup. After some talk with multiple locals, I decided that going back to Skarre3 was probably my best answer for Skorne. That left my second list. I could have still paired Denny2 with Skarre3, but realized that since I actually purchased all the stalkers needed to run 8 in a list I had not put them all on the table. (Previous games I got with that list had me borrowing stalkers from people to get all 8). This might not be the most sound reasoning to build a list pair, but I spent the money and decided I wanted to put the models on the table. I also figured this meant most of my rounds would probably be Skarre1, as that list is very good at bullying the board. Here are the lists.
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)]
Hermit of Henge Hold [5]
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)]
[Skarre 1] Pirate Queen Skarre [+28] - Scourge of the Broken Coast
- Stalker [8]
- Stalker [8]
- Stalker [8]
- Stalker [8]
Aiakos, Scourge of the Meredius [4]
- Stalker [8]
- Stalker [8]
- Stalker [8]
- Stalker [8]
General Gerlak Slaughterborn [0(6)]
Satyxis Raider Captain [4]
Satyxis Raider Captain [4]
Severa Blacktide [0(6)]
Warwitch Siren [4]
Warwitch Siren [4]
Satyxis Blood Witches (min) [8]
- Satyxis Blood Hag [4]
Satyxis Gunslingers [7]
Scharde Dirge Seers [0(6)]
Joe:
[Midas 1] Midas [+30] - The Thornfall Alliance
- Splatter Boar [8]
- Splatter Boar [8]
- Splatter Boar [8]
- Splatter Boar [8]
Dhunian Archon [0(6)]
Dhunian Archon [0(6)]
Farrow Bone Grinders (min) [5]
Farrow Brigands (max) [15]
- Farrow Brigand Warlord [0(4)]
Farrow Brigands (max) [15]
- Farrow Brigand Warlord [4]
Farrow Slaughterhousers [9]
Farrow Slaughterhousers [9]
Farrow Valkyries [8]
Farrow Valkyries [8]
[Arkadius 1] Dr. Arkadius [+32] - Will Work For Food
- Gorax Rager [7]
- Gun Boar [8]
- Gun Boar [8]
- Road Hog [15]
- Road Hog [15]
- War Hog [14]
- War Hog [14]
- Targ [3]
Boomhowler, Solo Artist [0(6)]
Eilish Garrity, the Occultist [0(5)]
Gatorman Witch Doctor [4]
Hermit of Henge Hold [0(5)]
Swamp Gobber Chef [1]
Void Archon [8]
Void Archon [8]
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew [2]
At first, I didn't even look at the Midas list. I hadn't seen him in so long I figured that was more of a decoy than anything and I would probably see Arkadius, which led me to think Skarre1 would be the drop (as expected). Then I took a look at the Midas list and realized it would trivially deal with Skarre1 and stalkers. I ended up needing to pivot to playing Skarre3, which meant I was likely in for a long grind. I wasn't sure which list Joe was going to drop, but figured Skarre3 actually has game into both.
Joe ended up dropping Midas and then he won the initiative roll. Joe chose to go first, thinking that if I went first, I would end up too far up the board and the line of engagement would be set on his side of the table. I ended up chosing my side based primarily on the position of the house on the board. Terrain featured a forest on the far edge of the center zone and a wall close to center in the far rectangle. A house was positioned to the left of the far flag. There was water to the left of the near flag and between the right rectangle and flag, but set off toward the right. An acid pool overlapped the near left corner of the near rectangle and a trench was on the left side of the board just outside my deployment zone.
I wasn't concerned about most of the terrain, but hoped to use the house to potentially screen a portion of his army and try to get a solo onto the far flag later in the game. The house could potentially keep the solo safe for a turn or more. I figured Skarre would probably live in the acid pool, so she could score the near rectangle while keeping the kraken in control range. The kraken would be pushing up the board trying to contest, and potentially score, the far rectangle.
Deployment: Joe deployed Midas centrally, with a unit of brigands to either side of him. Each unit of brigands had a unit of slaughterhousers standing around and behind them. Each of these clusters had two splatter boars on their flanks and a unit of valkyries behind them. The right flank also featured one of the dhunian archons. The other archon was deployed to Midas's left.
I deployed the bloodgorgers centrally, with the kraken to their left flank and Skarre to their right. The marauders were on Skarre's right flank. Gerlack, Axiara, the hermit, the blood priestess, the dirge seers and the iron mongers were all deployed behind the bloodgorger unit.
The left brigand unit declared the bloodgorgers as their prey. The right unit declared the marauders as their prey.
Top 1: Joe ran the right dhunian archon near his flag. The two left splatter boars ran forward, into his rectangle zone. The left brigands ran forward, spreading out a little. The left archon ran into the forest and the right brigands ran forward. The slaughterhousers took up position behind the brigand units. Midas put death march on the right unit of brigands (the metal ones). Joe ended his turn with 51 minutes on the clock.
Bottom 1: I noted the amount of time on Joe's clock after turn one, along with the considerable number of models on his side of the table, and decided I wanted to try and press a clock advantage early. Due to this, I did not ask any of his shooting threat ranges. I was going to need to eat a round of shots on the way in anyway, so I had to hope that tough and deceleration would save me. Skarre cast dash, decel and put draconic blessing on the marauders. She then moved forward to just behind the acid pool. The kraken ran forward its full 10 inches. The blood gorgers then ran forward, filling up space to the kraken's right. I hoped enough of them would survive to next turn that vengeance plus dash would allow them to start chewing through all of Joe's pigs. The marauders ran forward and spread out in my rectangle zone, beginning the process of screening for Skarre. Gerlack remained in the back ranks of the blood gorgers. Axiara walked to stand just to Skarre's right and put prowl on the marauders. The dirge seers and iron mongers spread out between my huge bases, staying behind the blood gorgers. The hermit ran into the trench. I wanted him in position to get on my flag next turn. My turn ended with 54 minutes on the clock.
Top 2: Midas upkept death march on the right brigands. On the left side, the brigands advanced and unloaded a volley of shots into my blood gorgers. They killed four members of the unit and then used their reposition movement to back up and spread out. The two splatter boars took shots into the kraken and did 3-4 points each. The dhunian archon on the left ran into the forest and the slaughterhoursers surrounded the archon. On the right, the dhunian archon moved away from the flag and stood behind the house. The splatter board on the right drifted shots into the marauders and corroded three between them. The right brigands moved forward, but had no good targets for their shots and dug in. The slaughterhousers moved up behind the brigands. Both units of valkyries stood behind the units on their respective sides of the board. Midas walked forward and the bone grinders hung out near him. Joe's turn ended with 39 minutes on the clock.
Bottom 2: I continued to note Joe's time and hoped that I could start pressuring him on clock. It's not as simple as just making the game last longer, I also needed to get up on scenario. Going second would really help with this. As usual, I had to decide what to do with the kraken before considering anything else. I ended up finding a place where the kraken could swing on a splatter boar and only two slaughterhousers could get charges off. I felt the kraken should survive this and decided to commit to melee. Skarre filled the kraken with focus. I also knew this would need to be feat turn, in order to get all my spells out. The blood witches ambushed on the right side of the board. One model got reinforced into the blood gorger unit and they used vengeance to move forward a little. Skarre activated first and popped feat. She cast dash, decel and guided fire. Skarre took a couple shots into the forward splatter boar. Axiara then walked to Skarre's right and put reposition on the marauders. The marauders walked forward. Three of them did a CRA into one pig, which managed to hit and set a couple on fire. The other CRA missed. They then repositioned to try and get into Joe's front lines. Three ambushing blood witches charged and killed the Dhunian archon on the right, while the rest spread out to both contest the flag and prevent Joe from getting any units around the house.
On the left, the blood gorgers charged, but Joe had spaced most of his stuff very well. I managed to kill two brigands on the left and that's it. The kraken then charged the more forward splatter boar and killed it. A killshot was triggered, but it got shield guarded and didn't do much of anything. The other brigand in range was saved by the dhunian archon. The hermit ran onto the near flag. Two iron mongers got base to base with Skarre and repaired her to full, while the third put itself in range of fixing the kraken next turn. The dirge seers ran forward. I didn't need guidance from them in this matchup and I hoped they could actually contribute to the fight a little. Gerlack moved over to stand fairly centrally. My turn ended with 32 minutes on the clock. The scoring opened 2-1.
Top 3: Joe used vengeance from the death marched brigands to clear off the two splatter boars. The left splatter boar shot the blood gorgers and then the left brigands used hog wild and used shots and charges to kill all the blood gorgers, minus Jussika. One of the right splatterboars charged Jussika, but she survived due to tough. The other right splatterboar killed the marauder engaging it. The right brigands got the hog wild order and between their shots and charges, they managed to kill all but three of the marauders, while also getting a few brigands into my zone. The slaughter housers moved to be a bit more central. The valkyries and bone grinders started engaging the blood witches behind the house, killing two. Midas put battle lust on the left slaughterhousers. The left slaughterhousers got their two charges into the kraken, but one rolled snake eyes to hit. The kraken took some damage, but not nearly as much as it should have. Joe contested both my flag and zone, while controlling his zone. This tied the score at 2-2. Joe's turn ended with 19 minutes on the clock.
Bottom 3: The board state wasn't looking great for me here, but I still have a fully functional kraken. My goal was to kill enough of the slaughterhousers that the kraken could survive one more turn, however this was likely going to require a lucky killshot. Skarre filled the kraken with focus. Two bloodgorgers were reinforced into the unit. They then used their vengeance to take attacks into the splatterboar. The iron mongers moved forward. The leader cursed the left brigands and repaired the kraken a little. The kraken adjusted its facing and performed a sweep power attack, hitting four pigs. One brigand and a slaughter houser died. The killshot was triggered and the kraken took out several more brigands with the blast damage. The kraken then bought two attacks against the second slaughterhouser engaging it, but missed with one attack and the slaughterhouser made its tough check on the second. The blood gorgers did some more swings on the splatterboard, bringing its health very low, but not killing it yet. Gerlack charged a member of the right brigand unit and did a dance of death that destroyed six or seven members of the unit. Skarre cast dash and took some shots, killing a slaughter houser and reducing the righr brigand unit to only the leader and UA models. The blood witches pressed forward and killed the splatter board contesting the far flag. Most of the unit behind the house was out of command at this point. Axiara ran to stand on the far flag. The dirge seers moved forward. One tried to kill a brigand in front of the kraken, hoping to use battle wizard to finish off the nearby slaughterhouser, but the dhunian archon saved the brigand. I noticed my clock had gotten severely low and ended my turn without activating the three maraduers left in that unit. I scored both flags and my zone, while Joe scored his zone. This put the score at 5-3. My turn ended with 11 minutes on the clock.
Top 4: Midas cast battle lust on the left slaughterhousers again and feated, bringing back one splatter boar. The left splatterboar backed up and took a boost shot into the kraken that did a ton of damage, because I didn't cast decel and the dice came up hot (17). The left slaughterhousers charged the kraken, killing it. The brigands charged, missing a dirge seer that dodged forward into Joe's zone. The Dhunian archon ended up charging and killing that seer. The damaged splatter boar and one of the right brigands killed the two blood gorgers, but again failed to kill Jussika. The right slaughterhousers charged. Two blood witches died, but Gerlack survived (the first slaughterhouser's charge failed to break armor and the second left him on 2 boxes). The feated splatterboar walked forward and corroded Gerlack, but failed to put more damage on him. Joe ended his turn and we each scored our own zone, putting the score at 6-4. Joe's turn ended with 4 minutes on the clock.
Bottom 4: Now was the time for me to press a clock and scenario advantage. My goal was to try and score points, while preventing Joe from scoring. Gerlack took a point of corrosion damage and one blood gorger was reinforced. He then attempted to recreate his dance of death from earlier, but whiffed his first attack. A dirge seer attacked the slaughterhouser contesting the near flag, but the Dhunian archon negated the attack. An iron monger charged it, but it made its tough roll. Jussika and the one blood gorger finally finished off the splatter boar in the front. Skarre, the blood witches and the marauders killed the rest of the right slaughterhousers, but a valkyrie was still contesting the far flag. I ended my turn with 2:29 on my clock. We each scored our own zones, putting score at 7-5.
Top 5: Joe had to try to move fast here. He killed a bunch of the blood witches, but again failed to kill Gerlack. The left brigands took some shots and put the hermit on 3 damage. Joe ended his turn with 10 seconds on his clock. We each scored our own zones again, putting score at 8-6.
Bottom 5: At this point, I was confident in my victory. I held a scenario lead and Joe couldn't get anything into my zone. Gerlack finished off the rest of the right brigands and the hermit ran into Joe's zone. I scored one, putting the score at 9-6. I ended my turn with 1 minute on my clock. I apologize for the blurriness of this picture, but we were both in a bit of a rush with the clock situation.
Top 6: Joe ran the left brigands out of the way and ran the Dhunian archon onto my flag, then ended his turn with 1 second on the clock. We each scored one, putting score at 10-7.
Bottom 6: I didn't need to do anything and just ended my turn. This put score up to 11-8. With only one second on the clock, Joe lost on clock on top of 7 and the final score was 12-9. Nothing changed between the last picture I took and the end of the game.
Analysis: While I did end up securing the victory, there are a number of things I should have done better. First, I was considering clock far too early in the game. Second, if I was actually thinking about clock so early, I needed to move faster on my turns 2 and 3. Those are just general thoughts. Specifically, I should not have bothered with reposition on the marauders on the bottom of 2. Prowl would have kept more of the unit alive (so many died to hog wild shots) and at that point I don't believe I had killed any of the unit. Not triggering vengeance and simply running a couple models into his front lines while having prowl up helps me more on that side of the board. Also, I needed to get something into the far rectangle zone much earlier in the game. I am not sure what, but I allowed Joe to score that zone every turn until the hermit got in there. One possibility is the dirge seers. I never needed guidance and they stayed back early on because normally that's their job. If I run them forward sooner, they might be able to get into the far zone, or try to help keep the kraken alive.
Speaking of the kraken, I don't know if it was good to send it in when I did or if it should have stayed back and tried to leverage its guns for a couple turns. The guns are less reliable to hit, but it might have survived another turn had it held back more. Then again, if it doesn't go in I don't kill the one splatter boar. Putting the kraken where I did also helped to screen the hermit from random gunshots. It might take a lot of shots, but eventually he dies. Also, if I had managed to kill one more slaughterhouser on that side, the hermit can mad vision the last charge and the kraken actually lives one more turn, which would have been devastating.
The ambushing blood witches were critical in my ability to control the right side of the board. Removing that Dhunian archon was a very big deal for me. If that is alive, Gerlack probably does not take out any of the right brigands, as the archon saves the first one and the chain never even gets started. At the same time, I definitely got lucky in a couple places. Jussika stood her ground in that center zone and just refused to die. I believe there was at least one turn where Joe could have scored that zone if she doesn't stay alive. Similarly, the two slaughterhousers charging Gerlack really should have killed him. By that point, he had done most of his damage, but the fact that he stuck around all game was rough for Joe.
Much of this game hinged on the Dhunian archons. Its one thing to read what they do, but actually experiencing it is another. If I don't get to remove the one on the right immediately, this entire game plays out very differently. Had Joe kept it safe on the other side of the house, I probably ambush the witches on the left and try to screen the kraken and focus my attention more on that side of the board. That said, without the witches, I don't know that I can ever get the archon off Joe's flag. Its definitely an interesting matchup, but it really does feel like the archons dictate the flow of the game and the outcome more than any other model on the table. This was a really good game and the Midas list was a lot tougher to deal with than I thought it would be. I would definitely be interested in playing this matchup again and see how things change with a few different decisions.
Scenario: Spread The Net
For this scrum, I had fully intended to continue playing my pairing of Coven in scourge and Denny2 in black industries. Naturally, this means I didn't put either of those lists into my scrum pairing. I had played a couple games into Skorne recently and realized that pairing left me needing to dodge the Skorne matchup. After some talk with multiple locals, I decided that going back to Skarre3 was probably my best answer for Skorne. That left my second list. I could have still paired Denny2 with Skarre3, but realized that since I actually purchased all the stalkers needed to run 8 in a list I had not put them all on the table. (Previous games I got with that list had me borrowing stalkers from people to get all 8). This might not be the most sound reasoning to build a list pair, but I spent the money and decided I wanted to put the models on the table. I also figured this meant most of my rounds would probably be Skarre1, as that list is very good at bullying the board. Here are the lists.
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)]
Hermit of Henge Hold [5]
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)]
[Skarre 1] Pirate Queen Skarre [+28] - Scourge of the Broken Coast
- Stalker [8]
- Stalker [8]
- Stalker [8]
- Stalker [8]
Aiakos, Scourge of the Meredius [4]
- Stalker [8]
- Stalker [8]
- Stalker [8]
- Stalker [8]
General Gerlak Slaughterborn [0(6)]
Satyxis Raider Captain [4]
Satyxis Raider Captain [4]
Severa Blacktide [0(6)]
Warwitch Siren [4]
Warwitch Siren [4]
Satyxis Blood Witches (min) [8]
- Satyxis Blood Hag [4]
Satyxis Gunslingers [7]
Scharde Dirge Seers [0(6)]
Joe:
[Midas 1] Midas [+30] - The Thornfall Alliance
- Splatter Boar [8]
- Splatter Boar [8]
- Splatter Boar [8]
- Splatter Boar [8]
Dhunian Archon [0(6)]
Dhunian Archon [0(6)]
Farrow Bone Grinders (min) [5]
Farrow Brigands (max) [15]
- Farrow Brigand Warlord [0(4)]
Farrow Brigands (max) [15]
- Farrow Brigand Warlord [4]
Farrow Slaughterhousers [9]
Farrow Slaughterhousers [9]
Farrow Valkyries [8]
Farrow Valkyries [8]
[Arkadius 1] Dr. Arkadius [+32] - Will Work For Food
- Gorax Rager [7]
- Gun Boar [8]
- Gun Boar [8]
- Road Hog [15]
- Road Hog [15]
- War Hog [14]
- War Hog [14]
- Targ [3]
Boomhowler, Solo Artist [0(6)]
Eilish Garrity, the Occultist [0(5)]
Gatorman Witch Doctor [4]
Hermit of Henge Hold [0(5)]
Swamp Gobber Chef [1]
Void Archon [8]
Void Archon [8]
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew [2]
At first, I didn't even look at the Midas list. I hadn't seen him in so long I figured that was more of a decoy than anything and I would probably see Arkadius, which led me to think Skarre1 would be the drop (as expected). Then I took a look at the Midas list and realized it would trivially deal with Skarre1 and stalkers. I ended up needing to pivot to playing Skarre3, which meant I was likely in for a long grind. I wasn't sure which list Joe was going to drop, but figured Skarre3 actually has game into both.
Joe ended up dropping Midas and then he won the initiative roll. Joe chose to go first, thinking that if I went first, I would end up too far up the board and the line of engagement would be set on his side of the table. I ended up chosing my side based primarily on the position of the house on the board. Terrain featured a forest on the far edge of the center zone and a wall close to center in the far rectangle. A house was positioned to the left of the far flag. There was water to the left of the near flag and between the right rectangle and flag, but set off toward the right. An acid pool overlapped the near left corner of the near rectangle and a trench was on the left side of the board just outside my deployment zone.
I wasn't concerned about most of the terrain, but hoped to use the house to potentially screen a portion of his army and try to get a solo onto the far flag later in the game. The house could potentially keep the solo safe for a turn or more. I figured Skarre would probably live in the acid pool, so she could score the near rectangle while keeping the kraken in control range. The kraken would be pushing up the board trying to contest, and potentially score, the far rectangle.
Deployment: Joe deployed Midas centrally, with a unit of brigands to either side of him. Each unit of brigands had a unit of slaughterhousers standing around and behind them. Each of these clusters had two splatter boars on their flanks and a unit of valkyries behind them. The right flank also featured one of the dhunian archons. The other archon was deployed to Midas's left.
I deployed the bloodgorgers centrally, with the kraken to their left flank and Skarre to their right. The marauders were on Skarre's right flank. Gerlack, Axiara, the hermit, the blood priestess, the dirge seers and the iron mongers were all deployed behind the bloodgorger unit.
The left brigand unit declared the bloodgorgers as their prey. The right unit declared the marauders as their prey.
Top 1: Joe ran the right dhunian archon near his flag. The two left splatter boars ran forward, into his rectangle zone. The left brigands ran forward, spreading out a little. The left archon ran into the forest and the right brigands ran forward. The slaughterhousers took up position behind the brigand units. Midas put death march on the right unit of brigands (the metal ones). Joe ended his turn with 51 minutes on the clock.
Bottom 1: I noted the amount of time on Joe's clock after turn one, along with the considerable number of models on his side of the table, and decided I wanted to try and press a clock advantage early. Due to this, I did not ask any of his shooting threat ranges. I was going to need to eat a round of shots on the way in anyway, so I had to hope that tough and deceleration would save me. Skarre cast dash, decel and put draconic blessing on the marauders. She then moved forward to just behind the acid pool. The kraken ran forward its full 10 inches. The blood gorgers then ran forward, filling up space to the kraken's right. I hoped enough of them would survive to next turn that vengeance plus dash would allow them to start chewing through all of Joe's pigs. The marauders ran forward and spread out in my rectangle zone, beginning the process of screening for Skarre. Gerlack remained in the back ranks of the blood gorgers. Axiara walked to stand just to Skarre's right and put prowl on the marauders. The dirge seers and iron mongers spread out between my huge bases, staying behind the blood gorgers. The hermit ran into the trench. I wanted him in position to get on my flag next turn. My turn ended with 54 minutes on the clock.
Top 2: Midas upkept death march on the right brigands. On the left side, the brigands advanced and unloaded a volley of shots into my blood gorgers. They killed four members of the unit and then used their reposition movement to back up and spread out. The two splatter boars took shots into the kraken and did 3-4 points each. The dhunian archon on the left ran into the forest and the slaughterhoursers surrounded the archon. On the right, the dhunian archon moved away from the flag and stood behind the house. The splatter board on the right drifted shots into the marauders and corroded three between them. The right brigands moved forward, but had no good targets for their shots and dug in. The slaughterhousers moved up behind the brigands. Both units of valkyries stood behind the units on their respective sides of the board. Midas walked forward and the bone grinders hung out near him. Joe's turn ended with 39 minutes on the clock.
Bottom 2: I continued to note Joe's time and hoped that I could start pressuring him on clock. It's not as simple as just making the game last longer, I also needed to get up on scenario. Going second would really help with this. As usual, I had to decide what to do with the kraken before considering anything else. I ended up finding a place where the kraken could swing on a splatter boar and only two slaughterhousers could get charges off. I felt the kraken should survive this and decided to commit to melee. Skarre filled the kraken with focus. I also knew this would need to be feat turn, in order to get all my spells out. The blood witches ambushed on the right side of the board. One model got reinforced into the blood gorger unit and they used vengeance to move forward a little. Skarre activated first and popped feat. She cast dash, decel and guided fire. Skarre took a couple shots into the forward splatter boar. Axiara then walked to Skarre's right and put reposition on the marauders. The marauders walked forward. Three of them did a CRA into one pig, which managed to hit and set a couple on fire. The other CRA missed. They then repositioned to try and get into Joe's front lines. Three ambushing blood witches charged and killed the Dhunian archon on the right, while the rest spread out to both contest the flag and prevent Joe from getting any units around the house.
On the left, the blood gorgers charged, but Joe had spaced most of his stuff very well. I managed to kill two brigands on the left and that's it. The kraken then charged the more forward splatter boar and killed it. A killshot was triggered, but it got shield guarded and didn't do much of anything. The other brigand in range was saved by the dhunian archon. The hermit ran onto the near flag. Two iron mongers got base to base with Skarre and repaired her to full, while the third put itself in range of fixing the kraken next turn. The dirge seers ran forward. I didn't need guidance from them in this matchup and I hoped they could actually contribute to the fight a little. Gerlack moved over to stand fairly centrally. My turn ended with 32 minutes on the clock. The scoring opened 2-1.
Top 3: Joe used vengeance from the death marched brigands to clear off the two splatter boars. The left splatter boar shot the blood gorgers and then the left brigands used hog wild and used shots and charges to kill all the blood gorgers, minus Jussika. One of the right splatterboars charged Jussika, but she survived due to tough. The other right splatterboar killed the marauder engaging it. The right brigands got the hog wild order and between their shots and charges, they managed to kill all but three of the marauders, while also getting a few brigands into my zone. The slaughter housers moved to be a bit more central. The valkyries and bone grinders started engaging the blood witches behind the house, killing two. Midas put battle lust on the left slaughterhousers. The left slaughterhousers got their two charges into the kraken, but one rolled snake eyes to hit. The kraken took some damage, but not nearly as much as it should have. Joe contested both my flag and zone, while controlling his zone. This tied the score at 2-2. Joe's turn ended with 19 minutes on the clock.
Bottom 3: The board state wasn't looking great for me here, but I still have a fully functional kraken. My goal was to kill enough of the slaughterhousers that the kraken could survive one more turn, however this was likely going to require a lucky killshot. Skarre filled the kraken with focus. Two bloodgorgers were reinforced into the unit. They then used their vengeance to take attacks into the splatterboar. The iron mongers moved forward. The leader cursed the left brigands and repaired the kraken a little. The kraken adjusted its facing and performed a sweep power attack, hitting four pigs. One brigand and a slaughter houser died. The killshot was triggered and the kraken took out several more brigands with the blast damage. The kraken then bought two attacks against the second slaughterhouser engaging it, but missed with one attack and the slaughterhouser made its tough check on the second. The blood gorgers did some more swings on the splatterboard, bringing its health very low, but not killing it yet. Gerlack charged a member of the right brigand unit and did a dance of death that destroyed six or seven members of the unit. Skarre cast dash and took some shots, killing a slaughter houser and reducing the righr brigand unit to only the leader and UA models. The blood witches pressed forward and killed the splatter board contesting the far flag. Most of the unit behind the house was out of command at this point. Axiara ran to stand on the far flag. The dirge seers moved forward. One tried to kill a brigand in front of the kraken, hoping to use battle wizard to finish off the nearby slaughterhouser, but the dhunian archon saved the brigand. I noticed my clock had gotten severely low and ended my turn without activating the three maraduers left in that unit. I scored both flags and my zone, while Joe scored his zone. This put the score at 5-3. My turn ended with 11 minutes on the clock.
Top 4: Midas cast battle lust on the left slaughterhousers again and feated, bringing back one splatter boar. The left splatterboar backed up and took a boost shot into the kraken that did a ton of damage, because I didn't cast decel and the dice came up hot (17). The left slaughterhousers charged the kraken, killing it. The brigands charged, missing a dirge seer that dodged forward into Joe's zone. The Dhunian archon ended up charging and killing that seer. The damaged splatter boar and one of the right brigands killed the two blood gorgers, but again failed to kill Jussika. The right slaughterhousers charged. Two blood witches died, but Gerlack survived (the first slaughterhouser's charge failed to break armor and the second left him on 2 boxes). The feated splatterboar walked forward and corroded Gerlack, but failed to put more damage on him. Joe ended his turn and we each scored our own zone, putting the score at 6-4. Joe's turn ended with 4 minutes on the clock.
Bottom 4: Now was the time for me to press a clock and scenario advantage. My goal was to try and score points, while preventing Joe from scoring. Gerlack took a point of corrosion damage and one blood gorger was reinforced. He then attempted to recreate his dance of death from earlier, but whiffed his first attack. A dirge seer attacked the slaughterhouser contesting the near flag, but the Dhunian archon negated the attack. An iron monger charged it, but it made its tough roll. Jussika and the one blood gorger finally finished off the splatter boar in the front. Skarre, the blood witches and the marauders killed the rest of the right slaughterhousers, but a valkyrie was still contesting the far flag. I ended my turn with 2:29 on my clock. We each scored our own zones, putting score at 7-5.
Top 5: Joe had to try to move fast here. He killed a bunch of the blood witches, but again failed to kill Gerlack. The left brigands took some shots and put the hermit on 3 damage. Joe ended his turn with 10 seconds on his clock. We each scored our own zones again, putting score at 8-6.
Bottom 5: At this point, I was confident in my victory. I held a scenario lead and Joe couldn't get anything into my zone. Gerlack finished off the rest of the right brigands and the hermit ran into Joe's zone. I scored one, putting the score at 9-6. I ended my turn with 1 minute on my clock. I apologize for the blurriness of this picture, but we were both in a bit of a rush with the clock situation.
Top 6: Joe ran the left brigands out of the way and ran the Dhunian archon onto my flag, then ended his turn with 1 second on the clock. We each scored one, putting score at 10-7.
Bottom 6: I didn't need to do anything and just ended my turn. This put score up to 11-8. With only one second on the clock, Joe lost on clock on top of 7 and the final score was 12-9. Nothing changed between the last picture I took and the end of the game.
Analysis: While I did end up securing the victory, there are a number of things I should have done better. First, I was considering clock far too early in the game. Second, if I was actually thinking about clock so early, I needed to move faster on my turns 2 and 3. Those are just general thoughts. Specifically, I should not have bothered with reposition on the marauders on the bottom of 2. Prowl would have kept more of the unit alive (so many died to hog wild shots) and at that point I don't believe I had killed any of the unit. Not triggering vengeance and simply running a couple models into his front lines while having prowl up helps me more on that side of the board. Also, I needed to get something into the far rectangle zone much earlier in the game. I am not sure what, but I allowed Joe to score that zone every turn until the hermit got in there. One possibility is the dirge seers. I never needed guidance and they stayed back early on because normally that's their job. If I run them forward sooner, they might be able to get into the far zone, or try to help keep the kraken alive.
Speaking of the kraken, I don't know if it was good to send it in when I did or if it should have stayed back and tried to leverage its guns for a couple turns. The guns are less reliable to hit, but it might have survived another turn had it held back more. Then again, if it doesn't go in I don't kill the one splatter boar. Putting the kraken where I did also helped to screen the hermit from random gunshots. It might take a lot of shots, but eventually he dies. Also, if I had managed to kill one more slaughterhouser on that side, the hermit can mad vision the last charge and the kraken actually lives one more turn, which would have been devastating.
The ambushing blood witches were critical in my ability to control the right side of the board. Removing that Dhunian archon was a very big deal for me. If that is alive, Gerlack probably does not take out any of the right brigands, as the archon saves the first one and the chain never even gets started. At the same time, I definitely got lucky in a couple places. Jussika stood her ground in that center zone and just refused to die. I believe there was at least one turn where Joe could have scored that zone if she doesn't stay alive. Similarly, the two slaughterhousers charging Gerlack really should have killed him. By that point, he had done most of his damage, but the fact that he stuck around all game was rough for Joe.
Much of this game hinged on the Dhunian archons. Its one thing to read what they do, but actually experiencing it is another. If I don't get to remove the one on the right immediately, this entire game plays out very differently. Had Joe kept it safe on the other side of the house, I probably ambush the witches on the left and try to screen the kraken and focus my attention more on that side of the board. That said, without the witches, I don't know that I can ever get the archon off Joe's flag. Its definitely an interesting matchup, but it really does feel like the archons dictate the flow of the game and the outcome more than any other model on the table. This was a really good game and the Midas list was a lot tougher to deal with than I thought it would be. I would definitely be interested in playing this matchup again and see how things change with a few different decisions.
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