Howdy all! It's been a long time since I've done anything miniature-related, other than packing up my models and storing them for a while.
I went on a 1.5 year hiatus, and in that time I've moved, been promoted twice at my job, and had other life things happen to me that don't really belong on a blog like this. Suffice it to say, I had good reasons to go, but I'm back, at least for now, and want to get some MKIII battle reports going!
Please note that this may not be as consistent as my previous battle reports used to be. I have far less time on my hands, and am unsure if I can write up a report for every game I play.
Also note that my painting will not really get done at all until I can hire someone to paint for me. As I've said - I don't have time, and painting took too much time previously. Alas :-/
So, Circle in MKIII. It's been interesting. I've long tried to find an excuse to use Baldur1, and I feel like he's finally viable competitively. At least, he is for now. I also like
I won't spend much time ranting about the sad stuff Circle has lost. I genuinely don't care about the Morv2 nerfs. She was a little over the top, but was good enough that I couldn't really pass her up in tournaments. Krueger2 is a different story, however. He was like, the *perfect* caster for my play style. Pretty bummed that his feat lets people charge now.
Games 0 and 0.5:
I played two games without pictures, with Baldur1. Both were fun, but won't be getting battle reports. I won both, though the first one was a "learning" game against Zaal2, which I think I would have lost if we weren't being so relaxed. The second one was against a really pretty Cygnar army (Stryker2), which wasn't prepared for my knockdown tech. Bloodtrackers did dirty things that game...
Game 1: Circle Grayle vs. Convergence Father Lucant (75 points)
My list:
Grayle
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Feral Warpwolf
- Max Reeves of Orboros
- Max Wolves of Orboros (UA)
- Max Skinwalkers (UA)
- Shifting Stones
- Morraig
- War Wolf
- War Wolf
- War Wolf
John's list (sorry, battlecollege isn't very helpful right now, so my descriptions are pretty vague)
Lucant
- Prime Axiom
- Heavy Melee Warjack
- Heavy Support Warjack
- 10x Small-base Infantry w/ Shield Wall
- 6x Medium-base Infantry w/ Sidestep
- 3x Mechanics
- Enigma Foundry
- Enigma Foundry
- 4x Servitors
>> I won the roll to go first, and took it.
Pregame Thoughts:
I wasn't sure what to think. I had a lot of infantry, which I figured would do okay against his own infantry. Lots of internal synergy in this list - all these units of Wolfsworn would be interesting to watch interact.
Going into this match, I had two priorities: kill the Prime Axiom, and win on scenario. The scenario was such that I thought I could continue to contest my opponent's zone while (hopefully) clearing my own out each turn. I would need to protect my heavies too - keep them from being dragged in by his colossal.
I also knew his feat was going to give me problems - ARM of 24 on the Prime would be unworkable. I needed to find a way to delay it for multiple turns until I could get both of my heavies to punch it during a non-feat turn.
Deployment:
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| I'm using proxies here - Mohsar = Grayle, and the Goat = Feral Warpwolf |
I ran up. I decided to have my Reeves (left) be the ones to contest my opponent's zone. I did put Storm Rager on Morraig, and Marked for Death on the Skinwalkers.
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| The idea was to keep my Skinwalkers in front of my WoO, then eventually use Grayle's Tactician to get weird charges as needed. |
John moved up. Not much more to say. Look at the damn picture if you want more information.
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| Prime Axiom is sitting in a puddle of corrosive acid. Didn't do much, TBH. |
I thought this would be a good opportunity to try out some War Wolf shenanigans with the Reeves. I also wanted to keep the Prime from rushing into my zone on Turn 2 and popping his feat, which would get me behind on Scenario.
So, the Reeves used CRAs and Morraig's +1 to attack rolls buff to kill a bunch of the shield wall infantry in the left zone. The ones they failed to kill I had the War Wolves charge. I also killed a bunch of Servitors. Not a bad round for the Reeves, all things considered.
War Wolves on the left killed a couple more infantry.
Stalker charged in and killed a single medium-based infantry, then Lightning Struck away behind the forest.
Skinwalkers ran up to screen my zone from the Axiom crashing into it.
Grayle put up his no-shooting cloud in front of the Axiom, then toed the zone so I could potentially score next turn.
Other stuff repositioned a little bit.
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| I was probably a little too cautious with my Feral there. He didn't need to be behind the objective. |
Convergence Turn 2:
John moved up as much as he could, but couldn't make it into my zone. He managed to kill about half of my Skinwalkers.
He also managed to kill both of my War Wolves in the left zone.
He did pop his feat. Everything was +4 ARM. Yuck.
We both scored.
Score: 1-1
Circle Turn 3:
I decided that I wouldn't bother trying to hurt his Prime Axiom this turn. ARM 24 is a little too crazy. Instead, I settled on keeping him out of my zone next turn, if at all possible.
Skinwalkers managed to cause some damage with Vengeance.
Stalker killed a couple medium-based infantry, then used Lightning Strike to get into the Prime's back arc. I wanted to give him a choice: he could either try to kill my Stalker, or get into the zone. If the Prime did get into the zone, I'd get a nasty free strike. If the Prime decided to focus on killing the Stalker, the WoO would be able to use their mini-feat and combine with the Feral and whatever else to down the big guy.
Reeves sent a couple of their number into the enemy zone to contest it.
Grayle once again put up his no-shoot AOE, this time directly on the Axiom Prime. Unless the Prime moved a full advance, he wouldn't be able to get out of the AOE, and therefore couldn't shoot at me.
Morraig sliced in and killed at least one medium-based infantry.
I scored.
Score: 2-1 (Advantage Circle)
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| Forgot to pop my feat. Not that Grayle has a good feat against this kind of army. |
John decided not to give his Prime Axiom full focus, which was a somewhat big deal.
I don't remember all of what happened, but the end result was that the Skinwalkers all died, and the medium-based infantry were able to side-step into my zone and contest it.
After a bunch of interactions, the Prime only had a couple focus. He swung, and didn't manage to kill the Stalker.
Pretty big deal!
His shield-wall infantry continued to regrow themselves. Sigh.
He cleared his own zone, and scored.
Score: 2-2
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| If I could kill his Prime Axiom next turn, I'd be in a good situation, I assumed. |
Circle Turn 4:
Grayle was able to get within 6" of the Stalker while toeing the zone, and put Primal on both the Stalker and the Feral.
Stalker walked up and did some good damage to the Prime.
WoO went next and killed almost all of the remaining medium-based infantry. One also charged the Axiom, which got my remaining War Wolf a charge into it as well, causing more damage.
Feral waltzed in and killed the Axiom with initials. Whoops, shouldn't have put Primal on him, lol!
Morraig went in and finished off the remaining medium-based infantry, the reformed to block the Heavy jack from getting into my Feral.
Stones also shifted to the corner of the zone to keep John's models out.
Reeves charged in and killed a couple of guys in the zone. Mostly, I wanted to force John to use as many resources as he could to kill all of the Reeves, and hopefully not focus as much on my zone.
I scored another one.
Score: 3-2 (advantage Circle)
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| I'm still so rusty at this game... |
Convergence Turn 4:
John was able to kill Morraig (both iterations) with his heavy jack, then kill a Stone, and slide his Enigma Foundry into the corner of my zone to contest.
On the other hand, he was unable to kill all of my Reeves, so neither of us scored this turn.
Score: 3-2 (advantage Circle)
Circle Turn 5:
Both my heavies frenzied. The Stalker ate a Mechanic, while the Feral killed a WoO. Alas.
WoO and Grayle combined to kill off the Enigma Foundry and put a few boxes on the Heavy Jack.
I scored.
Score: 4-2 (advantage Circle)
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| This was taken somewhat into his turn - he had already killed my remaining Reeves on the left zone at that point. |
Convergence Turn 5:
John was initially going to trample to my objective and see if he could take it out, but since the objective was a "bunker", a single Jack wouldn't have necessarily been enough to take it out. Even if he did, he wouldn't be able to win via scenario.
So, he trampled to my Stalker, but didn't have enough to kill him (he didn't have a way to cast the +2 STR/MAT spell on the jack, I think). One focus to trample, one to buy an attack, and one to boost, which was a miss.
In the absence of a ton of my infantry (who were all trampled), a Mechanic waltzed in and contested my zone.
All remaining Reeves were wiped out.
John scored.
Score: 4-3 (advantage Circle)
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| Looking at this now, I think I let him trample my Medium-based War Wolf. Oops! :) |
Circle Turn 6:
I killed the Mechanic, shifted a stone to John's zone, and ended my turn.
I scored, and the game ended.
Win for Circle Orboros!
Post-game thoughts:
This game was kind of a slog. Haha, I was glad this game didn't have a clock, because I'm pretty sure I would have clocked out. Learning the Wolf Sworn interactions while using an entirely new caster was difficult for me to say the least.
John was a great opponent :)
I think... I think that the game would have been different if John had punched my Stalker harder with his Prime Axiom in the turn he popped his feat. If he had allocated a full stack to him, I'm not convinced the Stalker would have lived, and I'd have had to throw everything I had at it to kill it. That might have resulted in the medium-based infantry surviving.
Who really knows. I think that was the only real mistake John made though.
Otherwise, this being a learning game for both of us, I thought we both did well enough.
My own main weakness (there were lots, and I won't list them all, even assuming I'd be capable of that) was my own logistics. I need to space models better, and position them with the next turn in mind. I started doing that at some point during this game, but my initial moves were pretty awkward.
I expect I'll play more Grayle games in the future, though that probably won't be my immediate focus. Baldur1 and Wurmwood will occupy my attention until then (as you'll see in this report).
Game 2: Circle (Baldur1) vs. Mercs (Ossrum)
My list:
Baldur1
- Wold Wrath
- Megalith
- Max Bloodtrackers (w/ Nuala)
- Druids of Orboros (w/ UA)
- Shifting Stones
- Blackclad Wayfarer
- Blackclad Wayfarer
- Gallows Grove
Rory's list:
Ossrum
- Heavy Drill Jack
- Heavy melee jack
- Heavy melee jack (same as above)
- Light shooty jack
- Light shooty jack (same as above)
- Mortar Team
- Mortar Team
- Max Forgeguard
- Max Forgeguard
- Max Forgeguard
>> Rory won the roll to go first, and took it.
Pregame Thoughts:
I had only played against Mercs a few times, and I don't think against Ossram ever. I knew that his stuff would probably be able to punch me pretty hard, but wasn't really sure.
My thought was that my Bloodtrackers could do some work this game if I could use them well. I figured that Baldur would protect me from most ranged attacks (no blast damage is really nice).
I actually really like this list so far. This is a good game to showcase why I liked it.
Anyways, I decided to wing it. I'd try to attrition Rory for a while, and if that failed, I'd perhaps go for scenario. Not really the strongest of gameplans, lol.
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| So excited that we can buff the Wrath with spells now! |
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| That's a lot of hammer dwarves! I put Prey on the grey dwarves on the right. |
Mercs Turn 1:
Rory ran up.
Circle Turn 1:
Everyone ran up.
I kept a pretty cagey distance from the hammer dwarves - Ossrum's feat (+3 SPD) gave them a pretty big threat range.
I put up Solid Ground, and put Stone Skin on the Bloodtrackers.
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| I chose to go slower this turn than I needed to. |
Ossrum Turn 2:
Rory ran up. again, but stayed a pretty cagey distance from me too. He knew my threat ranges, and tried to stay outside of them for the most part.
He did run one of his jacks up near my Wrath - presumably to bait me into charging it so that he could wreck it in his own turn.
Shooting killed one of my Shifting Stones. Whoops, didn't really hide them as well as I should have.
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| Loving my no-blast-damage spell :) |
Circle Turn 2:
I took a while to figure out my order of activations here. Still pretty awkward with unit spacing.
My goal was simple: use my feat to buy me an extra turn of punching my opponent.
I did upkeep Solid Ground and Stone Skin.
Blood Trackers ran up to the limits of their range and killed the top three Forge Guard on the right.
Baldur moved up somewhat and popped his feat. He also put up the Wrath's Animus.
Wrath charged in and killed the heavy jack near him.
Megalith used Earth Spikes to knock the light jack near him over (Wrath animus + 2d6 + boost = 4d6 to hit, with Crit knockdown in the AOE).
Druids put up their smoke clouds, though you can't see it in the picture.
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| I measured pretty carefully - Rory wouldn't be able to get to me this turn. |
Mercs Turn 3:
Rory decided to kill my objective this turn, if possible.
Everything of his shot at it, and were able to kill it with his final shot.
Rory also popped his feat, because he knew I was going to be able to punch him hard next turn, and the feat gave him +3 ARM.
He then jammed with everything he had. I would have a LOT of targets next turn.
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| I didn't take much damage, but all those dwarves are ARM 23 or something crazy. |
Circle Turn 3:
I would need to do a lot of damage this turn, or face certain defeat.
I kept Stone Skin on the Bloodtrackers, and kept Solid Ground up as well.
Bloodtrackers went, and were able to kill about 5 of the ARM 23 Forgeguard.
Wold Wrath went and punched the dwarves in front of him, killing both in range. He then popped his animus to give me +d6 with magic attack rolls.
Druids then went nuts, knocking down three warjacks and 6 Forgeguard.
Megalith walked up and stomped one nearby Forgeguard with his initial attacks, then used Earth Spikes to knock another two Forgeguard down, along with his fourth remaining jack. He also put up his animus to make the area 5" around him rough terrain.
Blackclad went up and sprayed a few models down as well (crit knockdown on his spray, with 3d6). I think he managed to spike one hit and kill a Forgeguard as well.
Baldur went and put Stone Skin on the Wrath. He also spent his last two fury on a 4" forest directly between the two remaining heavy jacks and the Wrath. I made sure to keep Baldur out of range of the big guns.
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| I didn't kill a ton, but I did knock everything over! |
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| Should be interesting to see what Rory can do now. Not sure why Baldur's still holding 2 Fury. He should be at 0. |
Mercs Turn 4:
Rory advanced some, but couldn't really get to my models very easily. I had positioned myself so that he'd have to deal with rough terrain or charge through a forest to get to my lines. I think Megalith took most of the shooting hate this turn, but stuck around.
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| Bothering me that Baldur had those Fury on him - maybe I just forgot the forest he made cost 2? |
Circle Turn 4:
With the Forge Guard off their feat, it was time to kill some dwarves.
Bloodtrackers killed the remaining grey Forge Guard, and put prey on another Forge Guard unit.
Druids, Megalith, and Blackclad combined to kill a bunch more Forge Guard in the zone. Megalith put up his rough terrain animus. I think something of mine knocked Ossrum down as well, though it didn't cause damage.
This opened a hole for the Wrath to come in and kill the heavy Drill jack and a light jack.
I had Baldur put his forest up directly in front of himself.
There wasn't much left - one heavy warjack, one light warjack, the mortars, and about 5 or so Forgeguard (most of them knocked down).
That was basically it. I think we decided to call it here.
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| Probably not the best matchup for Ossrum. |
Win for Circle!
Postgame thoughts:
This was my 4th game in MK III, and Rory's 2nd or 3rd. So, it's not like we have super refined lists. I think Rory played a good game - he did a lot of things right. He looked much more capable a player than I felt.
For this game to be as lopsided as it looked I think can only mean that it was a bad matchup for Rory, combined with inexperience with MKIII. My ability to generate rough terrain and forests, along with my internal synergy of knocking things down with 3-4 dice to hit every time was tricky to deal with.
That said, this list has been very fun to play so far. Being able to get Wold Wrath up to ARM 22 and POW 21 with free charges and an awesome animus is awesome. Everything in this list knocks things down, or is just awesome (POW 13 Bloodtrackers is really strong). Expect many more games with Baldur1.
Games 3 & 4: My Wurmwood vs. Richard's Kromac2
My list:
Wurmwood
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Feral Warpwolf
- Wild Argus
-Tharn Ravagers (UA)
- Shifting Stones
- Shifting Stones
- Gallows Grove
- Gallows Grove
- Blackclad Wayfarer
- Blackclad Wayfarer
Richard's list:
Kromac2
- Wold Wrath
- Ghettorix
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Gorax
- Shifting Stones (UA)
- Swamp Gobbers
- Blackclad Wayfarer
- Blackclad Wayfarer
>> Richard won the roll to go first, and took first turn.
Pregame thoughts:
I didn't know what to expect. Circle mirror match is always frustrating/weird. Wurmwould wood take some getting used to. If you remember, I wasn't the best with him in MKII, and I wasn't sure if he'd be much better for me in MKIII. His feat is improved by a lot though, and that makes him a much better control caster.
Let's see how this went:
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| Druid Wilder is hanging out there for no apparent reason. She's not in the list. She's not even legal in a Wurmwood list, since Cassius takes the attachment slot. Don't worry, she didn't do much. |
Richard's Circle Turn 1:
He ran up. He put Retaliatory Strike on the Wrath, and "Free Animus" on Ghettorix.
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| Retaliatory Strike on the Wrath is pretty solid. If he connects, he knocks your model over and ends its activation. |
My Circle Turn 1:
I ran up. Richard had placed his Blackclad far up, and I figured it would be fun to take advantage of that.
I ran Cassius to within 8", and had Wurmwood cast Hellmouth. He boosted, and needed a 7 to hit. I got a 6. Sigh.
That made Cassius very out in the open, and I decided this was a good turn for my feat anyways. So, I ported Wurmwood next to Cassius, then popped my feat. I figured Richard couldn't really get to me this turn. Due to the changed rules, I'd be surprised if he could even get a spray off.
Everything else of mine advanced.
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| Richard lent me an Argus and Feral, in case you're wondering. |
Richard's Turn 2:
Richard dropped his spells.
He thought about it for a while, then ran his Wrath up 10", to within 3" of Wurmwood.
Kromac then used his spell (I forget what it's called) that uses one of his own beasts as an arc node. The spell uses the beast's own STR for damage. So in this case, he was using a POW 16. He shot Wurmwood three times, SPIKED damage, and killed him. The game ended.
Loss for (my) Circle!
Postgame thoughts:
Yikes, not a very good first showing for Wurmwood. The assassination attempt wasn't a great chance to kill Wurmwood, but it worked. If it had failed, I would have likely been able to kill the Wrath next turn. I'm not convinced it was the right choice to make, but it worked, which made my opinion quite moot.
That said, a POW 16 spell that only costs 2 to cast is really good. Like, really damn good. The fact that it arcs through the beast is even better. It's like an 18" assassination vector on a non-feat turn. Pretty strong. It's even my own faction, though I doubt I'll be playing Kromactoo anytime 2 soon, as I don't own the model, and despite his strengths, he doesn't really appeal to me.
Richard and I played another game, but I can't find the pictures. He eventually won, though there was a time that I was about 75% sure I had an assassination vector on him with Cassius + Wurmwood teleporting and using Doppler Bark, then having a Feral and Stalker eat him.
I decided that, since it was Turn 2, I'd rather play an actual game, so I did other stuff, and eventually lost because retaliatory strike is really frustrating against Primal'd Stalkers who don't get to do anything after they're knocked down.
Richard was a great opponent, and gave me some really cool ideas about how Circle can work now. That POW 16 spell is so ridiculous, haha!
Game 5: Circle (Wurmwood) vs. Convergence of Cyriss (Aurora)
My list:
Wurmwood
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Feral Warpwolf
- Wild Argus
-Tharn Ravagers (UA)
- Shifting Stones
- Shifting Stones
- Gallows Grove
- Gallows Grove
- Blackclad Wayfarer
- Blackclad Wayfarer
John's list:
Aurora
- Heavy Warjack (shooty)
- Heavy Warjack (shooty)
- Heavy Warjack (support)
- Clockwork Angels (UA)
- Clockwork Angels
- Medium-based Infantry w/ Sidestep
- Medium-based Infantry w/ Big Shields
- Small-based Infantry w/ Sprays
- Servitors (at least one with Flare)
- Mechanics
- Enigma Foundry
- Enigma Foundry
>> John won the roll to go first, and took first turn.
Pre-game thoughts:
I wasn't sure what to think (again, lol). I figured I'd put Curse of Shadows on one of the medium-based units, and have my beasts try to deal with the huge shield guys.
The other important factor would be who would get the initiative. He told me about how fast his army was, and that, combined with him having first turn, made me think that my feat would need to be popped pretty early. I wanted to make sure I did the majority of hitting first.
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| Goat = Feral, Wold Watcher = Wild Argus |
He ran up. And boy did he run up. Everything of his could fly and were +2 SPD. Whew!
Circle Turn 1:
I also moved up, albeit more cautiously.
I had a Blackclad wander over and spray one of his Angels to death on the right hand side.
He also had some Angels on the left who were not spread out at all. This was a fun opportunity to introduce Hellmouth to my opponent.
So, after basically everyone had shuffled up, I had a Gallows Grove move to within 8". Then Wurmwood arced Hellmouth into the center Angel, and it ate the whole unit. So fun in the right circumstances :)
I then popped my feat.
The reasoning for popping my feat was this: most of his list was melee. Even if his models couldn't get to me next turn (I wasn't sure what kind of crazy threat ranges Aurora had), I knew that if he ran straight at me, the feat wouldn't be much use next turn against flying infantry who just wanted to grind me up.
Instead, even if my opponent decided to hang back some, I could use my two Blackclads to Hunter's Mark some infantry and have my Stalkers waltz in there and kill a bunch of them. I might even be able to get a point or two for controlling flags if my opponent was too cautious.
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| I forgot that my Ravagers had Vengeance in this game and every other game. Lol. |
Convergence Turn 2:
John didn't want the game to be played on his half of the table (probably wise), so he just ran everything up into my grill.
He managed to kill one of my Ravagers with his Angels.
That was about it.
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| This feat is pretty awesome! |
Circle Turn 2:
I wanted to kill some stuff. Obviously.
I've always hated Enigma Foundries. So, I decided to chop one up.
I had the Red Stones shift my leftmost Stalker up over the infantry, so he was within an inch of the Enigma Foundry.
He warped for STR and killed an infantry and the Foundry easily enough.
I arced Curse of Shadows on the leftmost (Sidestep) infantry unit, then had Wurmwood shift into the forest on the right. A bit shortsighted of me, as he was now out of Control range of my leftmost Stalker. Alas.
Through the efforts of my Feral, other Stalker, and Ravagers, I managed to wipe the shield infantry out entirely. No recursion for them! Wurmwood got some delicious souls from their efforts.
On the left, my druid and Argus killed one or two infantry.
Not a bad turn at all.
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| Stalker on the left is pretty far out of position, lol. |
Convergence Turn 3:
John decided this was the turn to POP HIS FEAT.
So he did. His spray guys flew over my lines to spray Wurmwood. His Angels flew over to shoot Wurmwood.
He even had a Servitor put Flare on Wurmwood. Lol.
In the end, he was able to kill a few random things, but didn't really do much more than scratch my ARM 21 Wurmwood (he had three souls on him).
I was suddenly very glad I'd killed all of his shield infantry - they looked like they knew their business.
I think on the left, the infantry struggled to do much against my models. One killed my Blackclad, one killed a Stone, and one did a little damage to the Argus.
They all repositioned because of the feat, and it was my turn.
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| Those Angels need to go away... |
Circle Turn 3:
Warpwolf on the left frenzied, and wiped out a newly-grown infantry model.
I used Wurmwood to good effect again. With his 10 Fury, he was able to Hellmouth the Angels (I used a Stone as my target) and killed all three.
I used another Hellmouth on another stone (arcing from a Gallows Grove) to drag a bunch of the Spray infantry in, killing like 4 of them as well as a random Mechanic who had ventured too close.
Stalker then killed the remaining Spray infantry, and used Lightning Strike to engage Aurora.
Feral charged the leftmost Heavy jack and killed it with his last punch.
At some point, the Ravagers ate some more Mechanics and Servitors.
Blackclad on the right randomly sprayed the other Heavy and knocked him down with a crit.
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| Not looking great for Convergence. |
Convergence Turn 4:
Instead of trying to kill a Warpwolf with a non-melee Jack, John instead had his Heavy jack kill a few of my Ravagers.
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| He also failed to kill my Argus with his infantry on the left. Heh. Two boxes left if I remember correctly. |
Aurora then ran away, taking a 14-damage free strike from my Stalker.
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| My opponent also has 2 seconds left on the clock, haha :) |
Circle Turn 4:
For whatever reason, my opponent wanted to keep playing.
So, I killed his final Jack, Wurmwood teleported back to Control range of where the Stalker was on the left, and the Stalker Berserked to kill all remaining models, who still had Curse of Shadows on them.
We decided to call it there.
WIN FOR CIRCLE!!
Post-game thoughts:
Not the best matchup for Aurora, I think. After I took out most of his infantry, John didn't really have anything that could threaten my beasts.
It would have been more interesting to see what would have happened had John stayed defensive on his side of the table, though I would then be able to start scoring earlier. Who really knows.
As it stood, Hellmouth killed over 10 models, and in this particular game, the feat likely won the game for me by giving me the first chance to punch (which is important for Circle).
Game 6: Circle (Baldur1) vs. Minions (Calaban)!
My list:
Baldur1
- Wold Wrath
- Megalith
- Max Bloodtrackers (w/ Nuala)
- Druids of Orboros (w/ UA)
- Shifting Stones
- Blackclad Wayfarer
- Blackclad Wayfarer
- Gallows Grove
Wes' List:
Calaban
- Blackhide Wrastler
- Blind Walker
- Blind Walker
- Meat Thresher
- Croak Raiders (max)
- Farrow Slaughterhousers (x6)
- Farrow Slaughterhousers (x6)
- Witch Doc Croc
- Bog Trog Mist Speaker
- Targ
>> Wes won the roll to go first, and took first turn.
Pre-game thoughts:
I honestly couldn't think of a time I'd played against Minions. I think maybe once or twice way back in the day, but... I just couldn't remember. So, I was excited!
I was tired of going second, frankly. But, it's good experience I suppose.
Wes told me most/all of his special rules, but it was too much information, and I forgot a lot of them. I decided to just wing it. If I could kill his Wrastler, I knew the game would be much easier for me, as nothing could easily take out my ARM 22 Wrath.
Otherwise, I'd just try to see what happened - this scenario was one I could do well in if I could take out the Wrastler, as my Wrath wouldn't be shifted. If I put the Wrath in contesting range of the objective, I could just sit there until I had all the points.
Theoretically.
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| Glad this list is fully painted at least. Well, the Wrath still needs more work. Probably have to pay to have it done though :-/ |
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| Closer look at his deployment. I think Targ (far right model) and the Meat Thresher (HUGE base model) are proxied. I pur Prey on the Croaks. |
Minions Turn 1:
Wes ran his guys up. He was very canny with me, and was very cognizant of my threat ranges.
He put Occultation (stealth) on the Croaks, and the Croc Doc put Undead/Tough on the Croaks as well.
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| He didn't move up as far/fast as he could have. |
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| Blurry picture of his final placement. |
I was also cautious. I obviously wanted to get first hit, but the way Wes had positioned his models made me feel pretty defensive.
So, I walked everything up, toed the zone with the Wrath, put Stone Skin on the Wrath and Solid Ground, then POPPED MY FEAT.
I figured that if Wes wanted to play canny, I'd just wait until my turn, then have my Druids shoot his models with Hunter's Mark, and give me a charge with either Megalith or the Wrath. I figured I could clear the zone out, and score a quick two points.
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| This is a few minutes after I learned that cover (conferred by the Feat) does not in fact work with Prowl to confer Stealth. Hence, my Druid is pretty out of position. |
Minions Turn 2:
Wes hemmed and hawed, but eventually decided to push into the zone a little bit at least.
He used his Farrow to screen his heavies, which wasn't a bad idea.
Then, he used his two arc node heavies to arc a spell into both of my Blackclad Wayfarers (he had eyeless sight from a solo of his), and killed both Blackclads, despite my high DEF (as it turns out, being stealthed wouldn't have been much protection anyways, as he had eyeless sight. Just need to protect them better.
Croaks jammed the Bloodtrackers, which was interesting. I think Wes wanted to make sure I couldn't contest his flag next turn.
Calaban scored a point.
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| Wrastler is on the hill, attempting to block line of sight to Calaban. |
Calaban had boosted her shots to hit the Blackclad Wayfarers, and had also upkept Occultation. That meant she was on a zero stack.
And, I had an assassination vector.
I dropped both upkeeps. Baldur charged one of the Farrow, then put up the Wrath's animus. He then used Earth Spikes (boosted) to try to 4-dice a crit knockdown on Calaban. Note that she doesn't get an elevation bonus against Earth Spikes.
I hit (and critted), and did about 5 damage.
Next, I moved my Druids up and shot the Wrastler with their push spell (they weren't in range with their auto-knockdown spell) until one (the 4th I believe) got a crit Knockdown (3-dice attempts with the animus up).
Stones teleported Megalith up 8" to use another Earth Spike on Calaban, boosting both to hit (to make sure) and damage. She was only on a few boxes at that point, and the Wrath meandered up to double-boost to hit and damage with his shot, killing Calaban before the game had even really started.
WIN FOR CIRCLE VIA ASSASSINATION!!
Post-game thoughts:
I offered to take the assassination back and we could play a more attrition-based game, but Wes correctly saw that the Croaks would die soon (I had a Gallows Grove denying over half of them tough), and decided to call it there. I think the game would have gone well for me, though I have no way of knowing how true that was. If the Croaks all died early on, the Bloodtrackers would have done some serious damage to either Calaban herself or to the remaining beasts.
Instead, we decided to play a different game with different lists.
Game 7: Circle (Wurmwood) vs. Minions (Rask)
My list:
Wurmwood
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Warpwolf Stalker
- Feral Warpwolf
- Wild Argus
-Tharn Ravagers (UA)
- Shifting Stones
- Shifting Stones
- Gallows Grove
- Gallows Grove
- Blackclad Wayfarer
- Blackclad Wayfarer
Wes' List:
Rask
- Wrastler
- Wrastler
- Ironback Spitter
- Blind Walker
- Gatorman Bokor & Bog Trog Swamp Shamblers
- Croak Raiders
- Lanyssa Ryssyl
- Witch Doc Croc
- Bog Trog Mist Speaker
- Targ
>> We rolled off, and who would have guessed it: *I* got to go first!
Pregame Thoughts:
He would have some good threat ranges, and Rask could buff his Wrastlers up to like POW 23 or something. So, I decided to play cautiously and try to get the first strike (like all of my games have been in MKIII lol)
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| Goat = Feral, Watcher = Argus |
Circle Turn 1:
I ran up. I put Wurmwood on the objective this turn so that I wouldn't have to expend effort to get him onto the objective next turn. I also grew a forest there to keep him Prowling, with the intent of upkeeping it.
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| More beasts and more infantry than last game. Lol. |
Wes ran his guys up, and put Admonition on one Wrastler, Fury on another. He put a Cloud effect in front of some Croaks so I wouldn't have a charge vector.
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| Once again our beasts are staring at one another. |
I didn't have a lot I could do.
I shifted one Stone up, and had Wurmwood use Hellmouth on it. Two of the Croaks died (the 3rd passed Tough).
Otherwise, everything shuffled up, and I POPPED MY FEAT.
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| Heh, this feat must be so annoying. |
Wes mostly just moved his guys up some. I think he set at least one Ravager on fire.
Then, Rask POPPED HIS FEAT. Essentially super-stealth - I couldn't charge him or attack his models unless I was within 5". Bleck.
We both scored a point.
Score: 1-1
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| Still, there is some stuff I can do this turn. |
Circle Turn 3:
I forgot to use vengeance with the Ravagers this turn. Bummer.
I had a plan - I needed to kill at least one of his beasts this turn. So, I ran my Druid up to within 3" of a Wrastler, and used Hellmouth to kill the Druid. It also dragged his Wrastler up 3" closer to me.
I then had a Primal'd Stalker wander up 6", and punch the Wrastler to death. We debated whether it was 5 attacks or 6 attacks that killed him, and I eventually gave up the fight - I could have taken a swing on his ARM 20 arc node croc, but decided against arguing further.
Ravagers and Gallows Grove combined to kill 8 of the Croaks. One Ravager even managed to use overtake to contest the flag.
Not a bad turn, I thought.
Score: 2-1 (advantage Circle)
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| Lookit all those corpse tokens. As if they'll ever get to use them... |
Minions Turn 3:
Wes ran Lanyssa up to contest my flag. Bleck.
His beasts killed my Stalker easily enough, and the Bokor + Shamblers killed all but 2 of my Ravagers.
Shamblers got Tough from the witch doc.
He Scored.
Score: 2-2
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| We're both losing models pretty quick. |
Circle Turn 4:
I was at an impasse - Wes had Admonition on his final Wrastler, and had put up a cloud so that I couldn't see much to charge.
I had the beginnings of a plan. I decided I thought it could work.It would be risking both of my remaining Heavies to accomplish it though.
After debating for a good long while, I sent the Stalker at the Wrastler, who admonitioned out of harm's way. The Stalker instead killed the Bokor, who butchered almost all of his models in an attempt to stay alive (can someone tell me if he's allowed to use tough on the shamblers when he sacrifices them?)
Feral charged in and killed the arc node Croc.
Ravagers killed a few remaining Shamblers, but the last one made his tough roll. Bummer, I'd have controlled the zone if he had gone down.
Cassius walked up and used a boosted punch to kill Lanyssa.
I scored a point. Now we would see if my plan worked (the plan was essentially to force Wes to kill both of my beasts and not be able to get anything into contesting range of my Flag).
Score: 3-2 (advantage Circle)
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| Can he kill both of my DEF 14 beasts this turn? mor importantly - could he also contest my flag? |
Using a combination of making my Stalker stationary with Rask, using Rage and Animi to boost his two remaining Heavies, Wes MURDERED my heavies. To add insult to injury, he then used an ancillary attack from the Spitter to kill my remaining Ravager.
But, he failed to finish off my shifting stone contesting his flag, and also failed to contest my own flag.
I scored again.
Score: 4-2 (advantage Circle)
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| I don't have much left, do I? |
Circle Turn 5:
Out of spite, I punched the last remaining Croak (did you know that Blackclad Wayfarers have MAT 7?), then ended my turn.
I scored, and the game ended.
VICTORY TO CIRCLE ORBOROS!
Post-game thoughts:
Well, that game was going to go poorly if I had to play much longer. I had at least one turn before he could put his heavies into Wurmwood, but ARM 19 wasn't something I could realistically crack. I suppose Stranglehold would have worked temporarily at least.
At any rate, I'm fine with how things went. Admonition on a beast like the Wrastler is super strong, especially when Wes is using his cloud effect so well to deny me charge lanes.
Wurmwood feels much better to me now than it did in my first few games with him. Feat early and use the feat to gain good table position. I'll hopefully get better as I continue to play.
Anyways, those are my first 7 games. I expect I'll be trying out Wurmwood and Baldur1 almost exclusively until sometime in July - I have the Rocky Mountain Rumble event to prepare for (6 total games), and I assume that without more concrete evidence that it's not a good pairing, I'll be using that combo.
Let me know how I did in my first outing! What did I miss? Would could I have done better?
1 comment:
Much appreciate you writing this
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