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| Haha, what a badass. Not my model, btw. |
Let's dive in.
Game 1: Circle (Cassius) vs. Cryx (Deneghra2, aka "Denny")
My List (same as my last batch of reports):
Cassius
-Warpwolf Stalker
-Megalith
-Gorax
Nyss Hunters (max)
Tharn Ravagers (max)
-Ravager Chieftain
Shifting Stones
-Stone Keeper
Shifting Stones
Swamp Gobbers
Blackclad Wayfarer
Gallows Grove
Gallows Grove
Craig's List:
Denny2
-KRAKEN
-Nightwretch
-Nightwretch
Bane Thralls (max)
-Unit Attachment
Tartarus
Pistol Wraith
Pistol Wraith
Warwitch Siren
Warwitch Siren
Orin Midwinter
The Mission:
Two flags. Dominate enemy flag for 2, control for 1. Dominate friendly flag for 1.
**Craig won the roll to go first, and took it.
Pregame thoughts:
Well... this was going to be interesting. I'd played against all of these models before, except for the Kraken. I'd even played against Denny2 before, though that was at 35 points. I don't mean any disrespect to Craig, but this wasn't a matchup I was super worried about. There were two factors to this:
1) Craig said he hadn't played Denny2 for a really long time. Inexperience with a caster like her would play a big part in his ability to ruin my day.
2) He didn't have nearly the intimidation factor that 40-50 models have, which I faced several times recently with Cassius. One unit of Banes seemed like cake to me.
Admittedly, these aren't the best reasons to be "unconcerned", but there you have it.
As to my plans, I decided that I wanted the Nyss over by the Banes, simply because Banes would hate the Nyss messing with them in melee, while on the right hand, Craig had put most of his solos, which could in return really mess with the Nyss.
I wanted to use the Ravagers as bait. I think that IF they stay in this list, bait will be one of my primary uses for them. At any rate, I *do* know that as squishy as they are, Ravagers present a juicy target for pretty much everyone, though if I space it right, they generally still get a good counter-punch in, and allow my own force to also follow up.
I knew I would need to keep the Stalker mostly safe for when the Kraken showed up.
Deployment:
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| Nyss are a little far to the left, though they have some great range, and the forest on the left seems like a good place for them to hide out behind. |
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| I won't lie - I was excited to play against the Kraken. I've played against several Gargossals at this point, but this would be my first time against a Kraken. |
Craig ran his guys forward.
Kraken took a shot, was really far off, and the scatter went elsewhere.
I personally feel like he should have ran his Kraken to apply better pressure. Maybe I'm just crazy. Still, I'll take it.
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| I was ready to jam, since for the most part Craig hadn't moved up super quick. I guess that's often the case, I'm just used to Satyxis Raiders being on my side of the table before I even get to go. |
Circle Turn 1:
I was afraid of the Kraken's 4" AOE, so I made sure to spread out a little bit as I ran up.
Nyss went up pretty far, but I think I spread them out a little too much.
Ravagers also ran forward. I made sure to get one close to a wall to make Craig work for his kills. I knew that the Banes had a max threat range of 10.5" (Tartarus can use his curse), so I made sure to keep my Ravagers outside of that threat area - if he wanted to kill Ravagers, he would do it with Tartarus and the solos, not the Banes.
Everything else moved up, Gobbers' cloud gave stealth to Wurmwood and the Stalker.
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| Now we see how much Craig is willing to jam. |
Cryx Turn 2:
The round started off with Tartarus charging in, cursing my Tharn, and getting a thresher attack against two of them, killing both. He wasn't in range to be able to grow more Banes, however, which was helpful to me.
The Banes tried to charge, but failed.
Kraken advanced and took some shots at Ravagers, killing one. He also killed one of my Shifting Stones in the red unit, which was alright - I was intending to use them as Hellmouth bait anyways.
Other models did stuff, but it was mostly forgettable. Denny put Marked for Death on my stealthed unit of Stones, and Pursuit on Megalith.
Of note, Orin Midwinter advanced and used his anti-magic ability, which threw off my order of activations, as you will see.
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| Looks like he was willing to jam quite a bit. |
Circle Turn 2:
A Ravager died to Corrosion, giving me a soul.
His Kraken was within 4" of his own objective, which meant I wouldn't be able to get any points this turn.
So instead, I focused on killing his Bane unit and Tartarus. Not necessarily an easy proposition, since they have tough, ARM 15, and stealth.
I also needed to kill Orin ASAP, as Megalith would be unable to cast spells, Cassius would have trouble casting spells as well.
After some hemming and hawing, I decided to use Cassius first, though I did need to move a Grove and the red Stones first to facilitate Cassius' turn.
Cassius moved outside of the 12" bubble from Orin and arced a boosted Stranglehold into him, boosted damage, and killed him. He then used four more fury to put Hellmouth on a red Stone, which I had placed in the midst of some Banes. It hit four of them, but only killed one, as the others passed their tough rolls. HOWEVER, the one that he did kill was the Standard Bearer, who gives the unit tough. It was my goal to kill him first, and despite the mixed results, it worked well.
Megalith went next, using his Animus to reduce the DEF of most of the models near him, and charged Tartarus. He needed two hits, but he did succeed in killing him. Megalith then used his final fury to put Curse of Shadows (CoS) on a knocked-down Bane.
Ravagers charged, and one killed the UA leader, while the other just killed a random Bane. One of them was out of formation, and therefore couldn't do anything.
Green Stones put Stalker up close to 5 Banes.
Stalker went, put Lightning Strike on himself, warped for Berserk, and killed all 5 Banes, as well as my own Stone. He then used his Lightning Strike move to get inside of the green Stones again.
Nyss went and killed all of the Banes except one, which I failed two swings at.
All in all, not a bad turn. I managed to neutralize the Bane threat. Denny would be popping her feat next turn though, and I assumed she would also be able to Dominate my own objective. The game was about to get tense.
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| Quite the satisfying feeling, killing Tartarus and 11 Banes in a turn, along with Orin. Maybe that's not much, but I felt happy with it, haha! |
Cryx Turn 3:
We both knew that Denny would be popping her feat this turn.
First, Craig charged his Kraken at Megalith, failing to kill him by 3.
A Nightwretch walked up then, shot his POW 14 gun at Megalith, spiked the "8" he needed to kill Megalith, and made me sad.
A Pistol Wraith advanced and shot at my Stalker, needing 7's to hit. He hit three times consecutively, which was somewhat lucky. It also meant that my Stalker wouldn't be able to do much next turn, being forced to forfeit his movement or action next turn.
Bane swung and whiffed.
Denny moved up, hit Gorax and placed him about 6" away from her. However, she was unable to kill my remaining green Stone, or to place it elsewhere, because she wanted to camp her remaining Focus. She did then pop her feat, getting most of my force in it (a few Nyss were outside of it).
The turn could have gone far worse. I personally think that Denny should have taken her actions first, as my models would have been -3 DEF from her feat, and she would have done more to me. However, he did hit where he needed, even if it was lucky, so I suppose it was a wash.
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| Time to generate some souls for Cassius, haha! |
Circle Turn 3:
I was kind of bummed out - the Stalker could be placed by my Stones, who were still miraculously intact. However, he would then need to forfeit both is movement and action.
I decided to try to assassinate Denny.
First, I needed my green Stones to be un-stealthed. I shifted them, placing the UA in front of my stuck Stalker, and two Stones near Denny in order to be sure that even if I spiked boxcars on my first Hellmouth, Cassius would have another target to drag Denny into.
Stalker killed the UA, generating me a soul and de-stealthing my Stones.
Blackclad then went and, with back strike and Denny's feat, was able to kill three of my own Nyss, maxing me out on Souls.
Cassius cast Hellmouth on the first stone, dragging in Denny, a Nightwretch, and Siren. Hellmouth killed the Siren, put some damage on the Nightwretch, and even with boosted damage, only put a few boxes on Denny.
I shot another Hellmouth at my second Stone, and realized immediately that I had been a fool.
Denny was sucked in, and I failed to do much more damage, even with boosted damage.
I was a fool because the Stalker could have then swung at her. I could have gotten Denny to within 2" of the Stalker, put Primal on him, and had him leisurely butcher her.
Instead, Denny had about 8 health left.
Disheartened, I popped my feat and camped one, not sure if it would be enough to survive.
Nyss killed the final Bane and took a shot at the Kraken with a big CRA, doing a few points of damage. They were initially going to CRA Denny, but the Stalker was engaging her. Heh.
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| That could have been such a cool assassination!! |
Cryx Turn 4:
The forest proved to give Craig some issues. The Kraken didn't have LOS to much, and neither did his other models.
Kraken charged my two Ravagers on the left, killing one.
Incidental damage from several models killed my Gorax, somewhat randomly.
Denny put Pursuit on my Stalker, and waltzed back to my flag.
I forget how exactly, but the Stone contesting the flag was killed.
Denny dominated my flag for two points.
Score: 2-0, advantage Cryx
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| Thing I love about Cassius: I get moderately happy when my own models die due to Soul collection. |
Denny was close to death. I just needed to roll *okay*. Not even average. Below average would work, so long as it wasn't AWFUL.
I shifted a Stone to within 3" of Denny.
I charged Denny with my final Ravager and was easily killed by the Kraken free strike (soul!)
That was enough souls for what I needed.
Cassius moved up, put Hellmouth on the Stone twice, hitting Denny with two boosted POW 12's, and killing her.
Results: Win for Circle Orboros via Assassination!!
Post-game thoughts:
Well, my very first thought was that Hellmouth isn't a great way to assassinate. Denny was ARM 15 when she only camps ONE, and that made me Dice -3 for damage. I can only cast a max of 2 Hellmouths per turn, making my average damage for her somewhere in the 14 range. While I did roll poorly for damage against her, I still shouldn't have killed her. If I had taken the time to do the math, I wouldn't have had such high expectations.
Other than that, I think I did alright. Nyss were a little awkwardly placed. I think that they should have just run into the Banes and tied them up the whole game on their own, actually. Maybe I could have "assassinated" the guy who hands out Tough with Cassius, but the Nyss are more than equal to the task of killing that unit on their own, unaided.
Instead. I used Megalith, the Stalker, Cassius, and the Nyss to kill them in one turn, when that wasn't necessary. I'll have to keep that in mind.
The assassination through the Stalker would have been so cool, but I can hardly blame myself for not seeing such a complex set of moves. Next time, perhaps I will.
Cassius does seem good against Cryx, even this flavor of it. Cryx may be able to move through the feat-induced forest, but they still can't see through it, which is the important part. Hellmouth is just awesome against their high-DEF solos, and Curse of Shadows is SO GOOD against an army like Cryx that tries to jam you. Being able to ignore free strikes and disengage is really powerful against an army who really depends on jamming.
Moving forward, I'm thinking of trying out the tandem of Nyss + Bloodtrackers (take out Ravagers). Figure it's worth a try at least :)
Game 2: Circle (Krueger2) vs. Skorne (Mordikaar)
My List:
Krueger2
-Ghettorix
-Warpwolf Stalker
-Gorax
Druids of Orboros
-Druid Overseer
Nyss Hunters (max)
Wold Stalkers
Shifting Stones
-Stone Keeper
Blackclad Wayfarer
Gallows Grove
His List:
Mordikaar
-Bronzeback
Tyrant Zaadesh
-Basilisk Krea
Cataphract Cetrati (max)
-UA
Praetorian Ferox (max)
Paingivers (min)
Tyrant Commander
Extoller Soulward
Void Spirit
Void Spirit
Mission: Incursion
Three flags in the center. One of the outside flags will disappear after the second player's first turn.
We actually played it wrong. We thought that the center flag was 2 to dominate, 1 to control. Turns out it was the outside flag is 2 to dominate, 1 to control, while the center flag was 1 to control OR dominate.
Whoops!
**I won the roll to go first, and took it
Pre-game thoughts:
Well... this was my first go with the Nyss with Kreuger. I took out one of the Wold Stalkers (which I will be calling "Shrimp" henceforth) units and a couple support models to get the Nyss in there. I figure that for steamrollers, I can pair eMorv with eKru and have Nyss in one of them, and when it branches out to Masters, the Nyss will go into Cassius' list, and eKru can take his old list.
Anyways! I was told at the start of the game that the Cetrati couldn't be targeted by magic, which would mess with the Druids' ability to help. Further, the Ferox would likely be getting a spell that essentially also made them immune to magic as well. I would need to find a different use for the Druids.
My goal was to kill his Bronzeback ASAP, then either win via scenario or grind out an attrition battle, as Mordikaar slowly ran out of life due to the need to cut himself to use his spells. I honestly saw the Bronzeback as key to this matchup.
Deployment:
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| Nyss are across from the Void Spirits. Yikes. |
Circle Turn 1:
I ran everything forward, including the Druids. I knew he didn't have much to shoot at me with, and I figured getting a good table position was worth not doing much other than running.
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| You can see that eKru is starting to get some paint on him. Need to keep working on stuff for upcoming events... |
Skorne Turn 1:
Vince moved up as well! He also apparently saw the Bronzeback as key to this matchup, and blocked him from being dragged with two Ferox in front of him. Ferox had Banishing Ward, so I couldn't cast on them either.
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| The left flag disappeared! |
Circle Turn 2:
I couldn't score this turn, so I opted to try to kill the Bronzeback.
First, the Nyss advanced, but a few in the front stood still and aimed.
After three CRAs, they managed to kill the two blocking Ferox.
Druids activated and advanced some, shooting the Bronzeback and dragging him near to them. Vince decided to use his Hyper-aggressive rule to make a full advance toward them, since one of them spiked a damage roll.
This was all I needed.
I put Primal on my Stalker.
Stones placed the Stalker in range to hit the Bronzeback and a Ferox, if he finished off the Bronzeback.
Needing 4's to hit and with 6 attacks of dice +1 on damage, the Stalker rolled like ass and left the Bronzeback on one box remaining.
Blackclad walked up and used his spray, but missed the Bronzeback.
*sigh*
Really, really wanted to kill that damn thing.
Krueger used Telekinesis (TK) on himself and aimed at the Bronzeback. He boosted to hit, needing an "8" to hit. He hit, boosted damage, and killed the Bronzeback. Whew!
Shrimp advanced and shot at some Cetrati, which was a mistake, as the Cetrati were stupidly hard to hurt, due to Paralytic Aura. They did nothing.
Overall, not a bad turn for me.
Bummer, no picture for this turn. We were doing timed turns, so I think we were a little rushed.
Skorne Turn 2:
Krea frenzied, but did nothing.
Mordikaar popped his feat (everyone in his 14" control gets +3 DEF and poltergeist, which pushes me away if I miss a melee attack). He then regrew one of the Ferox.
A Void Spirit charged my Nyss, hitting, and killing three with Eruption of Ash, which I hadn't realized even existed. Heh. Nyss did pass their terror check.
Cetrati were forced to try and kill the Stalker, and with the TyCom and CMAs, they butchered him. Fair trade, if you ask me. Mordikaar would need to start cutting next turn, or be unable to contribute meaningfully to the battle.
Ferox ran and contested the rightmost objective, killing a Shrimp in the process.
Extoller Soulward advanced and boosted hits and damage against my Blackclad, killing him.
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| Not a bad position to be in, if you ask me (not that you did) |
Circle Turn 3:
I intended to score some points this turn, but first I needed to kill at least one Cetrati.
Krueger, up to the task, moved up B2B with the center flag. Keep in mind we thought that dominating the flag was worth 2, not 1.
He then shot the rear arc of a Cetrati and killed him with a boosted roll. He cast Storm Wall, and popped his feat.
Druids advance, popping smoke and hemming the Cetrati in place.
Shrimp used Zephyr, aimed at the Ferox, but only got two hits, and managed to kill one Ferox.
Stones shifted Ghetto into range of a Ferox.
Ghetto warped STR, boosted, and killed the Ferox. He then put his animus up.
Nyss used a 4-man CRA to kill the one visible Void Spirit.
Krueger dominated the objective for 2.
Score: 2-0, advantage Circle
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| Now to see if my boldness with Krueger was folly or not. |
Skorne Turn 3:
Void Spirit killed another Nyss, who passed their CMD check.
Cetrati used CMAs to kill all three Druids blocking them in.
Paingivers ran to contest the center objective.
Mordikaar regrew two Ferox.
The two "new" Ferox charged Ghetto, whose animus allowed him to kill one of them. They did negligible damage.
Score: 2-0, advantage Circle
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| Well... my feat really crippled Vince. Can I take advantage? |
Circle Turn 4:
Kreuger went first. He aimed, boosting to hit against all three Paingivers contesting the objective, and killed all 3.
Ghetto walked up and killed both Ferox.
Shrimp advanced to B2B with the right-hand flag, sure to keep the whole unit within 4" of it.
Krueger dominated for 2, and the Shrimp controlled for 1, ending the game.
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| I think Vince may have already taken some of his models off the board at this point. |
Results: Win for Circle via 5-0 scenario!!
Post-game thoughts:
Heh. I think Vince should have popped his feat on Turn 1. I couldn't have killed his Bronzeback that turn, and though I did roll high enough against the Ferox to have killed them as well, I would not have dared send in a Stalker to kill the Bronzeback, due to Poltergeist. I would have had to counter-feat on him and hope he wouldn't be able to get to me, which I think would have worked well, though not as well as it obviously did this game.
The fact that we played the scenario wrong (dominating the center flag for 2) is unfortunate, though I think I still would have been in a good situation. Krueger could have gotten to the right-hand flag easy enough, and honestly, I think he would have probably been in a better situation over there anyways, as Skorne are slow enough that they wouldn't have been able to get there very quickly.
Had we realized our mistake and I only had 3 points, I would have run the Nyss up to threaten the Cetrati, and had the rest of my Druids advance and pop smoke to hem the Cetrati in one more round (they would have all died, almost certainly). Next turn I could charge the Nyss in, while Ghetto kept killing regrown Ferox and holding the objective.
Also, Krueger would most likely not have stayed where he was, having the Druids or something hold the objective while he beat feet over to the rightmost objective.
/shrug
It was a fun game, and I finally feel like I'm starting to understand how Krueger2 works. I need more practice (obviously), but I'm getting there. Nyss in the list were really nice, I hope they will serve me well in my next few tournaments.
Overall, happy with my progress. I'm much less clunky, though I do take some time to figure out my activation sequence. My rules knowledge keeps increasing, and I feel like my win are more and more decisive, while even my losses have some "good" play involved on my part.
I'm excited for the 40k tournaments that are coming up (end of August, then the IMC in Utah in the middle of September), should be a good test to see how my skill is coming along and what I need to work on in order to get better.
Thanks for reading, let me know what you think!
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