I faced off against my buddy Vince and his Zaal list once again, but first I got the pleasure to play against a new opponent (new to me, but he's been playing for a long time) named Casey, who has been playing Saeryn and Lylyth2 nonstop lately. I was excited to get a game in against him, as Legion is a faction I don't really know much about.
Let's jump in!
Game 1: Circle (Krueger2) vs. Legion (Saeryn)
My List:
Krueger2
-Ghettorix
-Warpwolf Stalker
-Gorax
Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)
-Nuala (UA)
Druids of Orboros
-Druid Overseer (UA)
Wold Stalkers & Stoneward (Shrimp!)
Shifting Stones
-Stone Keeper (UA)
Blackclad Wayfarer
Gallows Grove
Casey's List:
Saeryn
-Angelius
-Angelius
-Ravagore
-Scythean
-Raek
-Shredder
Totem Hunter
Strider Deathstalker
Strider Deathstalker
Spell Martyr
Spell Martyr
Shepherd
Forsaken
(I think that's accurate - if you read this Casey, you can let me know if I got something wrong)
The Mission: Fire Support (two flags on the center line, two objectives (one enemy, one friendly), contesting flags. Destroy enemy objective for 1 CP, control flag for 1 CP, dominate flag for 2 CP. First to 5 CP wins.
**I won the roll to go first, and take it.
Pre-game thoughts:
This would be my first time playing against Saeryn. Casey was to be my 2nd Legion opponent ever, and I really wasn't sure what to do against his list. He could have one really strong turn where he could attack me, be invulnerable to my two beasts (his feat makes everyone in Saeryn's control area immune to melee attacks), and then attack me again.
My thought going into this game was to wait until he feated, then counter-feat to push his beasts away and denying him a second turn of damaging me. I wasn't too worried about scenario, but felt like having the beasts over on the right side with Krueger would give me the opportunity to destroy the objective with my heavies, OR to control the flag on the left with my Bloodtrackers - I figured Saeryn couldn't focus on both sides very well, and the feat would have some limitations to it.
That's what I thought anyways :)
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| Bloodtrackers picked the leftmost Angelius (unpainted) as Prey, while the Totem Hunter picked my Druids as Prey. |
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| The stuff he has painted looks very nice, by the way :) |
Circle Turn 1:
I ran forward. I hadn't really played much lately, and it showed this turn. The Bloodtrackers ran up, but I forgot to run two of them. They just stood there, way out of position. Yikes.
Shrimp ran up onto a hill to threaten the flag/objective.
Ghetto and the Stalkers ran up to the wall on the right, and Krueger also went there. It was pretty obvious that I wanted him to threaten the flag on the right side. Druids walked up and put up Elemental Protection and Counter Magic (and every other turn), but were lazy and didn't put up their clouds, which was actually relevant.
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| Kind of out of position here - I should have been a little more conservative with the Bloodtrackers. |
Legion Turn 1:
Casey mostly just advanced up and killed a few Bloodtrackers. He was pretty obviously threatening my left side. I wasn't very concerned - I had a ton of high-DEF guys to contest it that area.
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| Scather in front of the Druids there - he scattered, and I chose for the thing to deviate forward (Krueger had Storm Wall up). Should have chosen backward, actually. Not a very big deal though. |
Circle Turn 2:
Casey had done a great job of positioning his models, and had put an upkeep on the Scythean to prevent me from casting spells on him. The Ravagore was way in the back and on a hill, and if I wanted to drag him forward, I would first need to deal with the high-DEF Totem Hunter on the hill. Great positioning by Casey, not a great setup for me to have a great turn.
I had the Shrimp stand still and target his Deathstalker in the woods. I would need 9's to hit, but with 5 shots, I felt like my odds were good to kill him. Instead, he pointed out that he had stealth, which meant that I auto-missed all my shots. Whoops :-/
Bloodtrackers went, and I got several shots off on the prey'd Angel, but as it happened, I rolled awful and only did a total of two damage. Really really poor rolls, though the number of throws I had on it meant I wasn't likely to kill it anyways. They used their reform move to jam him a little.
Druids went and, not really having any great targets, just put up their clouds and other spells.
I couldn't destroy the objective this turn, so my heavies just slid up to the wall, along with Krueger. Next turn I'd be able to threaten some stuff.
Krueger put up Storm Wall.
Probably my least productive Turn 2 ever. Not exaggerating.
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| Oh, the Ravagore is on the hill there with a proxy-base so that Casey didn't have to risk the thing falling off. |
Legion Turn 2:
I wasn't prepared for this turn. At all.
I will very likely get the order of activation wrong here, but it wasn't *too* important.
Striders managed to kill three or four Bloodtrackers on their own, and even killed one of my Shrimp.
Unpainted Angelius charged the objective and killed it.
Raek killed a Druid and Bloodtracker.
Totem Hunter walked up, used a jump move I had forgotten about, and killed both my UA and Unit Leader, then sprinted behind me.
Other things went up and killed another Druid and more Bloodtrackers.
Saeryn charged up and killed a Bloodtracker and dominated the flag, then popped her feat.
A Shepherd on the right ran up and controlled the flag on the right, which I had forgotten to contest.
All of this amounted to Casey scoring 4 CP in a single turn. Turn 2, no less.
Score: 4-0, advantage Legion.
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| Yikes. |
Circle Turn 3:
I was a little shell-shocked, to say the least. I honestly only had one chance to win: kill Saeryn, who was exposed and only had two transfers. If I failed, I would simply lose. No real chance for me to come back from this disaster.
I started with the Druids, who walked up and took some shots at Saeryn. They needed 9's to hit, and only one hit. I was hoping for a crit to knock her down (which would have likely won me the game right there), and the odds of that weren't TOO awful (1 in 18, and I got four tries, so very roughly 1 in 4.5), but I didn't get it. One of them DID hit, and spiked the damage, making her take seven points of damage.
Next were the Shrimp, who stood still to aim. Against Saeryn (who is DEF 18 vs. Ranged), they needed 10's to hit. One of them did hit, and this was a huge opportunity for me - Dice minus 2 meant that I would almost certainly cause damage, but if I could force Saeryn to use one of her Transfers, I had a great chance to kill her with Krueger. As in, if I rolled something like a "6" or "7". I rolled a "3" and caused one point of damage. :-/
I still had a chance though.
Stones teleported Krueger to within range and LOS of Saeryn.
Krueger boosted his first shot, which would need to hit if I were to have a chance to kill her, but remember - he has sustained attack on his ranged weapon, and ROF 3. If he could hit with the first one, his boosted damage rolls would only need something like an "8" each time to kill her.
But, I did need a 12 to hit. So, not too likely. Only slightly above average though.
He took aim and... missed.
She had two transfers, so there was no point in continuing the game - he had me, almost regardless of what I did.
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| Krueger even stepped in a Scather here, heh :-p |
Results: Loss for Circle Orboros via assassination or scenario - however he chose!
Post-game thoughts:
Wow, not a good game on my part at all. Can't even remember the last time I didn't pop my feat with Krueger. I really needed to threaten the left side more, and make it really tough for Casey to dominate or even control the objective there. I haven't played against someone who could clear nearly my entire Bloodtracker unit, as well as a few Druids, in a single turn, and that's what Casey needed to do. But, he did it pretty easily. I don't even remember thinking he rolled particularly hot. Not poorly, certainly, but well within what "should" have happened.
Here's what I think, after a few days of thinking about this game: against Saeryn, Krueger2 should pop his feat first (assuming the other player isn't super-dumb), and force the opponent to make some rough decisions. If I had positioned Krueger to pop his feat on Turn 2 (which would have gotten most of Casey's army), Casey would have been forced into a tough decision. Should he counter-feat and run up to jam me? Should he just hang back and shoot at me a little bit?
He would have at least had to get close enough to contest the flags for a turn.
I'm not at all saying he would have then been forced into losing. But I am saying that this would have actually been a game after that. Popping my feat after Saeryn has already charged in and killed my stuff just seems like a losing proposition.
At any rate, lots of good stuff for me to think about moving forward. Her feat is pretty brutal, and there are others like it (Skarre2 comes to mind immediately, though I'm sure there's more as well). I just need to be a little more free with his feat in those situations instead of waiting for them to get on the flag then clear it like I normally do.
Embarrassing game to report, but I figured I'd share it all the same. Casey is a great player, and I expect him to do very well at the Feast this weekend. I'll give you a better game next time Casey :)
Game 2: Circle (Cassius) vs. Skorne (Zaal)
My List:
Cassius & Wurmwood
-Megalith
-Warpwolf Stalker
-Gorax
Tharn Bloodtrackers (max)
-Nuala (UA)
Cylena Raefell & Nyss Hunters (max)
Shifting Stones
-Stone Keeper (UA)
Shifting Stones
Swamp Gobbers
Gallows Grove
Gallows Grove
Blackclad Wayfarer
Vince's List:
Zaal
-Bronzeback
-Basilisk Krea
-Shaman
Immortals (max)
Venator Reavers (max)
-UA
Tyrant Commander
Paingivers (min)
Hakaar
Ancestral Guardian
Extoller Soulward
Marketh
Probably something else. Who knows!
The Mission: Incursion (three flags in the middle. One outside flag disappears after Turn 1. Control one of the remaining flags for 1 CP, dominate the outside flag for 2 CP, dominate center flag for only 1 CP).
**I won the roll to go first, and decided to give it to him - I keep winning this roll, and I need practice going second too!
Pre-game thoughts:
This isn't really the caster I'd choose to face off against Skorne (Morv2 or Krueger2 would be better), but I also needed practice playing in weird matchups - I won't always find a "perfect" drop for Cassius.
It would be a weird game, mostly because I wouldn't really be able to get any souls. Zaal has a rule that prevents me from ever getting souls from models within his control area, which made it unlikely at best that I would be able to get any.
I decided that I would wait until the right moment, then try and kill as many of his infantry as possible in a single turn. It would give Zaal a bunch of feat tokens, but it would also prevent him from using all of them if most of his infantry were gone before that. I would hold the Stalker in reserve to kill the Bronzeback when I could, and generally play a pretty passive ranged game until then.
Oh yeah, a note on this list: I've decided to go with Bloodtrackers instead of Ravagers, because they do some good work, and also because I can have Nuala in this list for Feast, since the only lists I'd need her in the Krueger2 list is in the Iron Gauntlet Qualifier and if I somehow qualify for Masters (I'll only have one real opportunity for that IF I also qualify for the Iron Gauntlet "Day 2". Krueger2 doesn't care as much in the IG mostly because if I can make it to the semi-finals, he'll get her back anyways :)
Deployment:
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| Bloodtrackers put Prey on the Reavers. |
Skorne Turn 1:
Vince ran up. He put Inviolable Resolve on the Reavers.
Mostly, he stayed back far enough that I would have a difficult time to do much (if any) damage to him on my own turn 1. I'm unsure if that was specific intent, or if his army was so slow that they couldn't get farther up. Maybe both :)
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| Sloooooow Skorne. I put the Nyss on the side with the forests for a reason ;) |
Circle Turn 1:
I had the Bloodtrackers run up a little bit and toe the hill to make the Reavers struggle to hit them, and to draw them out to shoot at Stealth'd models.
Nyss positioned themselves far away from the Immortals, so they would almost certainly be able to shoot or charge them next turn, or at the very least, control the flag.
Everything else moved up, mostly inconsequentially.
The right flag disappeared.
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| Blackclad is hanging out there to bait the Reavers into CRA-ing him to death and therefore exposing themselves. |
Skorne Turn 2:
My turn of denial worked well enough. Vince again had his force meander up, and Zaal gave the two Ancestral Guardians a 2nd soul each.
Reavers moved up and shot at some Bloodtrackers, killing one or two, then reformed into melee with them.
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| My turn of denial worked as I hoped. Notice the Immortals and their weird position in the forest - they're like that for a reason. Vince gets concealment against shooting them, but if I kill one, he'll get a vengeance move, which will get him out of the forest so that he can charge that same turn. Tricksy. |
Circle Turn 2:
Vince had exposed himself to the point that I decided that this would be my "turn of pain". My goal was to kill a TON of Reavers and Immortals. I thought I had a great chance to do just that.
Bloodtrackers went first, and with "quick work", they were able to kill 8 Reavers, with a few shots to spare, then used their reform move to jam one of the Immortals, which may have been a little foolish.
I had a Grove shift up to within 8" of the Immortals.
Cassius went next and arced a boosted Curse of Shadows into the Immortals, bringing their armor down to 15.
This was a great opportunity for the Nyss, who moved up and killed 6 of the Immortals through CRAs and non-CRAs.
Blackclad ran over to control the left flag.
Gobbers used their smoke on Wurmwood.
Score: 1-0, advantage Circle
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| Good enough turn for me - will Vince pop his feat this turn, or wait for one more? |
Skorne Turn 3:
Vince decided not to pop his feat this turn.
Instead, he had his Immortals use their vengeance move to get out of the forest and kill a couple Bloodtrackers. He had "last stand" on them, which made it trivial to hit and kill the Bloodtrackers. Not my best decision to "jam" him like that, lol.
Immortals with Last Stand charged a Gorax and some Nyss. He killed a Nyss, but only one of them got into my Gorax, while the other had a failed charge because he couldn't get into him.
Still, he did 4 dice of damage on the Gorax, resulting in this:
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| That's a lot of damage from one infantry model! |
Reavers went up and tried to kill a few Bloodtrackers, but mostly failed at that.
Ancestral Guardian on the left charged my Blackclad and killed him. Doh!
Everything else just kind of shuffled upward - the two Immortals that made attacks that turn died.
Zaal or the Shaman did something to get Curse of Shadows off of the Immortals at some point.
Score: 1-1, advantage none
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| He doesn't have many infantry models left, but he does have a lot of other stuff. |
Circle Turn 3:
I had the Bloodtrackers go first. Paralytic Aura was protecting Vince, so I had them make melee attacks against the nearest Reavers. The result was that I managed to kill all of the remaining Reavers, and shifted Prey to the Ancestral Guardian on the left. I did about 5 damage to it, too, then reformed into the AG and Krea. One of them also hung out the whole turn in B2B with the Bronzeback to keep him from counter-charging me.
Cassius healed a point on the Gorax and just hung out in the back.
Gorax went and killed the nearest Immortal easily.
Red Stones shifted up a little bit to let my Stalker double-port next turn and kill the damned Bronzeback.
Green Stones shifted Megalith up to control the middle objective.
Megalith put his Animus up and boosted a Curse of Shadows onto Hakaar, which hit.
Nyss went next and killed the remaining Immortal, then did a large CRA and put 8 wounds on Hakaar.
Score: 2-1, advantage Circle
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| No more Reavers or Immortals - Vince said that it was a record for him how many feat tokens he had. |
Skorne Turn 3:
It was time for some pain in the form of Vince's feat.
Zaal went first and popped his feat, doing something else too, I'm sure. Someone put Last Stand on Hakaar.
TyCom gave pathfinder to Hakaar.
Hakaar charged Megalith and killed him dead. I was surprised, and even Vince was surprised. Not very likely to kill him, even with 4 or 5 attacks.
Ancestral Guardian managed to kill a couple more Bloodtrackers to control the objective again.
Bronzeback killed a Bloodtracker and went over to the right. Not really sure what he was angling for, other than maybe trampling the Nyss?
Shaman tried to kill a Nyss with a charge, but missed (really wanted to say "nyssed" haha)
Score: 2-2, advantage none
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| He still had over 15 unused feat tokens, even after he boosted every single attack and damage roll, haha. |
Circle Turn 4:
I was way up on attrition, but there were a few problematic things for me. I had expected Megalith to survive for another turn, which would have sealed the deal, but because he was dead, I was still extremely vulnerable. I needed to do a lot of damage this turn, and get rid of the Bronzeback. It hadn't done much thus far, but it was going to cause me some major issues if I couldn't kill it.
Bloodtrackers went first and killed the Ancestral Guardian. This was important to do FIRST, because the Kovass was already out (Hakaar had died from Last Stand, and therefore the Kovass could not be two places at once). They shifted Prey to the Krea, and reformed to be within 4" of the flag, while one of them controlled it.
**I have since learned that a unit less than 50% can not hold a flag. They can contest it, just not hold it. Whoops :-/
Nyss went, and three of them charged the Bronzeback, while the other five charged the Shaman. They did a little damage to the Bronzeback, but REALLY REALLY FAILED at hurting the Shaman. They needed a "7" to hit, and only one hit. Heh.
Gorax put Primal on the Stalker.
Stones double-ported the Stalker B2B with the Bronzeback.
Stalker overkilled the Bronzeback (3 hits), and stood there stupidly.
Cassius charged the Kovass and killed it, then teleported himself back next to Wurmwood and behind the wall. For fun, he popped his feat. It was actually more than for fun - he didn't have any more transfers, so he needed to limit the amount of damage done to him.
Gobbers used their cloud on Cassius and Wurmwood.
That was pretty much it. The Krea was contesting the center flag, so I didn't bother to get any models on it.
Score: 3-2, advantage Circle
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| I thought the Shaman would die that turn, but I at least killed the Gladiator, Kovass, and Ancestral Guardian. |
Skorne Turn 4:
Vince hemmed and hawed for a while, trying to figure out exactly how he could kill my tree. He eventually decided that he couldn't, and moved on.
Marketh put Last Stand on the Paingivers, who walked up and killed two Bloodtrackers, but missed Nuala.
Zaal cast a Hex Blast on the Shaman and hit. He managed to kill 4 of the 5 Nyss surrounding him, including Cylena. Good move I didn't see coming!
Shaman killed the last remaining Nyss near him.
Krea walked up to contest the left flag.
That was pretty much it.
Score: 3-2, advantage Circle
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| Turns are getting shorter now! |
Circle Turn 5:
Stalker MURDERED a Nyss because he frenzied.
I needed to win the game this turn - Vince still had a lot of pieces left, and if he managed to kill my Stalker, it was going to be a really rough game for me.
Gorax charged the Extoller Soulward (who happened to be the only model contesting the center flag) and killed him easily.
I shifted a Gallows Grove over to just within 3" of the Krea.
I had Cassius charge my Gorax, then cast Hellmouth on the Gallows Grove, which dragged both the Gorax and the Krea directly toward the tree. I thought that this was terribly clever, since it then meant that Cassius did not have to take his melee attack but was still free to do other things, while also pulling the Krea away from contesting either flag. The joke was on me, however, as I rolled boxcars and the Gorax was removed from play. Krea took a single point of damage.
Gobbers decided to prove their worth and ran over to the center flag to control it, while Nuala incorrectly (as I pointed out earlier) controlled the left flag. I scored two points, and the game ended.
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| I feel dirty about controlling the flag like that. I'll do it better next time! |
Results: Win for Circle via Scenario!!
Post-game thoughts:
Well, that turned ugly quickly. I thought I was doing well by killing twenty-two models in a couple turns - not only did it make Vince waste souls because I killed so many models (Ancestral Guardian could only hold 5, and once I killed more than that, the souls were wasted), but it reduced his ability to to damage to me back.
But the disastrous charge on the Shaman (and the subsequent Hex Blast) made my Nyss pretty sad, and it was looking like a game again. If we had actually used the rules (i.e. not had my below-50% unit control a flag twice), it would have probably been pretty different, though it would have mostly hinged on whether or not the Stalker died or not.
As it is, I am content with my play here. Bloodtrackers did some good work, and the Nyss also did some good work, though they spoiled it by missing all of their attacks on the Shaman. Against a caster that denies me souls, I felt that I did alright. Cassius really does depend on souls to work, and without them, I got to cast a single spell each turn. Still, each spell was pretty potent, and let me do some fun stuff.
I really enjoy Cassius as a caster, and this list is a lot of fun. I also really like the Ravagers with him, though I think in the end Bloodtrackers probably do better. In the future, I need to make sure I'm casting Curse of Shadows more often with Megalith. Pretty slick combination with the Bloodtrackers :)
That's it for today! Tomorrow or the next day I'll be giving a couple more reports against Sorscha2 and Butcher3!
If you're interested in my results at Feast, I'll be posting the final tally for each game via Twitter! Follow @xaereth for updates :)
See you soon!
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