pButcher v Skorne (Tyrant Xerxis)

Butcher 1

War Dog

Devastator
Spriggan

Iron Fang Pikemen, Officer & Standard
Iron Fang Kovnik

Widowmakers
Widowmaker Marksman
Kayazy Assassins, Underboss

Kayazy Eliminators

Manhunter
Yuri the Axe

Tyrant xerxis (+5)

Archidon(7)

Canoneer (9)

Cetrati max (11)

Nihilators max (8)

Rhadeim (5)

Pgbh min (2)Hakaar (4)

Ancestral guardians (12)

Blurry iPad photos ahead.

Skorne is totally new for me - I really didn't know what to expect. What I got was a really bunched-up group of big, ugly, scary models. Placing second, and with the Skorne army lined put straight against my friendly flag, I put the Demolisher and Pikemen on the right flank, with the idea that they could protect my flag, and the Spriggan and Kayazi on the left, hoping to attack the red flag.

End of turn one (sorry, terrible pic). They moved up as one big block. I spread to defend. I was really worried about the mounted solo coming through the forrest. Really should've been more worried about the other 45 points steaming through the middle!

At the end of the next turn, a lot had happened. I'd killed off the right flanker, but at very high cost - My Spriggan, Manhunter and Kayazy were all well out of position. More worryingly, I'd blown my feat. That big block of models was just too tempting, and I dropped Obliteration in the middle of it. I figured a boosted Obliteration spell would do some serious work on that big clump. Not so much They had all kinds of defensive bonuses for their formation, and I did minimal damage. The Winterguard popped off a few of the front-running Nihilators, then mini-feated back into shield-wall.

Things were looking grim for me at this point. The horde came crunching in. The IronFang eld, but barely. The Kayazy and Spriggan were out of the fight.

Trying to fight back here, but it felt like I was making minimal impact. Seemed like a matter of time before I was ground down.

Then things got weird. He wen for an interesting assassination, Throwing one of his beasts at Butcher and knocking him down. Butcher had to hold, and would wipe the floor with his Warlock if he managed to survive. He was down to 2 points, and it looked like he'd managed to hang on. Then a model from way out on his left flank sprang in - they have some ability that lets them charge through models. Butch died.

Raj contacted me after the game to let me know he'd realised he'd got the charge distances wrong, and that that assassination really shouldn't have happened. So...a win? I dunno. A strange one really.

I've got to get better at quickly understanding the impact of Def/Armour stats. I hear them, but then just hit anyway at the moment. Also must not get too distracted by single flankers.

ESorscha v Cryx (Denegrha3) - Rematch

Forward Kommander Sorscha
Sylys Wyshnalyarr, The Seeker
Spriggan
Winter Guard Infantry, Officer & Standard, 3 Rocketeers
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich
Kayazy Assassins, Underboss
Kayazy Eliminators
Widowmakers
Widowmaker Marksman
Yuri The Axe
Manhunter
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
Lady Ayana and Master Holt

Denegrha, the Soul Weaver
Malice
Ripjaw
Scavenger
Defiler
Warwitch Siren
Soul Trapper
Bloat Thrall
Bane Riders
Mechanithralls, Skarlcok Commander
Necrosurgeon & Stich Thralls
Necrosurgeon & Stich Thralls
The Withershadow Combine

Scenario: Incursion

This was a rematch of my last game, with the same lists. For the first time, I experienced feeling salty. I feel like I've entered a new phase in my playing - where I know enough about the game to know how often I am screwing up. I really feel like If I'd been on-song I could've won this one. Spoiler alert: I didn't.

I won the roll! There was much excitement. So much that I forgot to take a photo of deployment. This was the end of my first turn. No real surprises here.

End of Cryx turn 1. At this point, I was pumped. I had a plan mapped out that would see me wiping out his Mechanithralls and 3 of his riders. I all made so much sense in my head. I had the activation order all worked out - getting a hit with Eiryss to drop their +defence upkeep clearing the front lines, then picking off the back guys with the sniper. I figured I could do enough on the left flank to keep that under control. It felt good to have what felt like a good understanding of how the game could play out, rather than focusing on individual models.

But then it went to custard. Eiryss rolled double 1s needing something like a 4 to hit. This shouldn't have been a game-changer, but I let it get to me and started to get flustered.Took on the wrong targets with the wrong models, missed a few more rolls, and generally got mad at myself for being crap at the game. I could've gone a lot better if I'd kept my head in the game. I did manage to put a dent in the riders, so was in a pretty good state on the left flank.

With the Mechanithralls back to full strength, they got stuck into my right flank and started to take control. I lost Yuri and the Manhunter to Banes, but wasn't too concerned about the left.

Next turn I put a tonne of shots into the front Necrosurgeon, and learned about Sacrificial Pawn. I thought I had him, but my distance estimation let me down, and it turns out I need to work on that - had I realised one last shot was still within 3 of another model, I wouldn't have CRA'd, and would've got him, which would've been something. At that point I kind of game up on the Mechanithralls, and charged the Kayazy into the chicken-jacks, with very little success. After the horror that was the harpoon from Malice in the last game, the Spriggan hid around the back and did very little.

And just like that, it was game. He got up and took 3 control points, including completely overwhelming the right flag. That meant all he had to do in his next turn was to clear the right hand flag (no way I had enough left over there to do anything about that), and fly Denegrha over there to dominate and get to 5.

A really interesting game for me. I've realised that as I begin to understand the game, things are probably going to get worse before they get better. Its one thing to lose and not know what the hell just happened - a totally different proposition when you know exactly why you lost, and that you could have done something about it.

ESorscha v Cryx (Denegrha3)

Forward Kommander Sorscha
Sylys Wyshnalyarr, The Seeker
Spriggan
Winter Guard Infantry, Officer & Standard, 3 Rocketeers
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich
Kayazy Assassins, Underboss
Kayazy Eliminators
Widowmakers
Widowmaker Marksman
Yuri The Axe
Manhunter
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
Lady Ayana and Master Holt

Denegrha, the Soul Weaver
Malice
Ripjaw
Scavenger
Defiler
Warwitch Siren
Soul Trapper
Bloat Thrall
Bane Riders
Mechanithralls, Skarlcok Commander
Necrosurgeon & Stich Thralls
Necrosurgeon & Stich Thralls
The Withershadow Combine

Setup. I lost the roll (surprise, surprise!). The scenario is really spread out, and with little scenery in the way, I spread out across the board. I hoped that the Winterguard could take care of the mechanicithralls with sprays, and wanted to try to time a charge with the Kayazy (abandoning my "keep them in reserve" strategy from the previous game. 

In the first turn, I used Sorscha to get the Winterguard flying up the board with a run. I was worried about a charge from the Riders, so I kept he Kayazy back, but also put Iron Flesh on them. Not a great move - obviously the Winterguard were going to need some help, and I kind of hung them out to dry. I thought I'd kept the right flank pretty safe, but I made one really big mistake. Again, I've missed a couple of photos here. Spriggan is out in the open. Malice harpooned him, dragged him in, and smashed him to bits with a bit of help from the Riders. Worse, Maelovus of the Withershadow Combine used Dark Industries - this means that he can create a non-character jack of his choice. So, not only did I lose my only warjack at the top of 2, I'd also gifted Cryx an extra one. 

At this point, if I'm honest, I wasn't having much fun. Things looked pretty hopeless. Inexperience has me giving up reasonably quickly, looking at problems rather than solutions. Anyway, a few deep breaths, and back to it.

And then I see what the Winterguard can do. With a bit of help from Yuri and the snipers, I cleared out the zone, and ground the objective down to 4 points. I was not far away from gaining two objective points, which I hoped would give him something to think about and maybe change focus away from the Kayazy. In retrospect, I probably should have ignored the objective and tried to snipe out the last of the Mechanithralls. As it stood, there was one left, which meant 6 more were coming courtesy of the Necrosurgeons next turn. On the right Flank, Sorscha jumped up and Freezing Gripped the Riders, in an attempt to buy me some time there.

Here, I really felt like I had a chance. Malice had moved up into the Zone. I felt that I could move Sorscha up and wipe out Malice under feat, then freezing grip the riders for another turn. As it stood, I rolled very poorly, and it took all of Sorscha's focus to clean out Malice. The Riders were now in a position to do some serious damage to the Kayazy, and I was close to losing the left flank.

At this point, time was running tight, so we called the game. I felt like I'd come closer than it had felt after the top of 2. Had Sorscha done more work, I might have had an outside chance of crawling back into this one.

Half way through, I really wasn't enjoying this one, but I got my head back into it, and was reasonably happy with some of my decisions. I'm still constantly doing silly things that put me on the back foot, but hopefully every game is drumming something useful into me for the future.

eSorscha v Convergence (Syntherion) - 50 Points

Forge Master Syntherion
Corollary
Galvanizer
Assimilator
Modulator
Modulator
Inverter
Optifex Directive
Reflex Servitor (9?)
?
Cipher
Cipher
*I'm not 100% on the composition of this list - I couldn't get War Room working.

Forward Kommander Sorscha
Sylys Wyshnalyarr, The Seeker
Spriggan
Winter Guard Infantry, Officer & Standard, 3 Rocketeers
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich
Kayazy Assassins, Underboss
Kayazy Eliminators
Widowmakers
Widowmaker Marksman
Yuri The Axe
Manhunter
Eiryss, Angel of Retribution
Lady Ayana and Master Holt

Another day, another lesson. I just flat-out misjudged this one.

Setup. I lost the roll, and went second. I had a plan to keep the Kayazy behind the Winterguard, ready for a feat charge through the middle. I was also committed to spreading out my Winterguard more than I have done. It turned out that these two ideas weren't very compatible. I hoped the marksmen and hunters could do work on the right flank.

In turn 1 we plodded towards each other. Here I realised that my plan with the Kayazy was a pretty silly one. I managed to pop off one servitor with a marksman, otherwise there was no action of significance.

Now the AOE starts. Honestly, I'd looked at his models and assumed they'd be looking to get into melee. Turns out of was wrong. I've got to figure out a way to scan cards quickly before I start to set up.

My Winterguard we slowly getting chewed through by the AOEs. I managed to get through servitors, which had been freaking me out a bit. I lost Yuri and the Manhunter pretty trivially on the right flank - they really weren't up to the charge I put them into.

Now things had gone really wrong. It was clear I was getting chewed through, and there wasn't a whole lot I could do to stop it. Many, many models taken off the board with little reward in return.

With things pretty much out of my hands, Josh pointed out a potential assassination option for Sorscha. It actually may have been viable, but a few poor rolls put and end to that idea. I appreciate being given the option to try the long-shot assassination, as I've gotten out of the habit of looking for those in 50 point games. 

All in all, I was never really in this one. Rack 'em again......

Butcher1 v Cryx (Pirate Queen Skarre) - 23 points

Pirate Queen Skarre
Reaper
Satyxis Blood Witches (10)
Satyxis Blood Hag
Satyxis Raiders (10)
Satyxis Raider Sea Witch
Satyxis Raider Captain
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls

Butcher
War Dog
Spriggan
Iron Fang Kovnik
Iron Fang Pikeman (6), Officer and standard
Kayazy Assassins (6), Underboss
Manhunter

Why 23 points? I have no good answer for that.

I lost the dice roll (again), so went second. More Proxies here - Banes (I think) filling in for Blood Witches. I threw this list together without a lot of thought. Min units were already feeling like a bad idea.

At this point I'd learned something. These guys are fast. I was a little stunned at how quickly they'd closed in. This was the top of 1. Ouch.

I wasn't sure what to do in response, so I shuffled forward. I'd noticed a couple of things on cards that were scaring me. The Raider's main weapons negate shield wall (ouch), and the Witches have a mini-feat where they go incorporeal for 1 round - and Butcher has my only magic weapon (ouch). My basic idea at this point (with no scenario in play) was to try to ride out the alpha strike and incorporeal turn, then hit back with the Kayazy and Butch.

In they came. Butcher was nicely hidden behind the wall against non-reach models. Hits started coming in, picking things off slowly, but nothing too dramatic. I was just trying to remain patient and not panic.

So this is annoying - things got interesting. So interesting, in fact, that I obviously forgot to keep taking photos. He eventually burned down the Spriggan and started to cut through the Pikemen. I walked the Manhunter around the outside to try to draw some attention away from the main melee. This worked far better than I could have hoped. He charged out to the flank with the Reaper, but missed the charge by millimetres.  I felt like this gave me a chance, feated, and charged butcher into the Reaper (and a couple of witches who'd moved in to clean up the Manhunter. Butcher charging on feat turn hits really, really hard, and that was the end of Reaper. Still under feat, I charged the Kayazy through with their mini-feat, but they did much less damage than I'd hoped. I was severely outnumbered...but I had Butcher.

He ground down most of my army...but I had Butcher.

Butcher now had Iron Flesh and a bunch of camped focus. I moved him up with a plan to end it casting Obliteration, but on measuring control, realised I was probably a couple of mm out of range. So I sat.

At that time Skarre tried a hail-Mary charge at a Def 17, Armor 26 Butcher. It didn't work out for Skarre.

A win! 

This was another weird game. I'd honestly thought that at low points, we'd burn through the game quickly, but that wasn't the case. I think I'd have been in trouble if we'd been running a scenario. Seeing all of those models getting across the table so quickly was quite a sight. Really, I'm leaning pretty heavily on Butcher - I need to get the most out of his support.

Butcher 1 v Legion of Everblight (eLylyth)

Butcher 1

Sylys Wyshnakyrr, the Seeker

Devastator

Winterguard Infantry (10), Rocketeers (2), Commander and Standard

Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich

Iron Fang Pikemen, Officer & Standard

Widowmakers
Widowmaker Marksman
Kayazy Assassins, Underboss

Kayazy Eliminators

Iron Fang Kovnik

Gorman Dewulfe

*on reflection, I think I'm 2 points shy

Lylyth, Shadow of Everblight

Ravagore

Ravagore

Ravagore

Blighted Nyss Shepherd

Blighted Nyss Shepherd

Strider Deathstalker

Blighted Ogrun Warspears, Chieftan

Blighted Ogrun Warspears, Cheiftan

Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew

Lots of proxy models in this one - the first time I've come across this. I get it, but admit I find it distracting - the cinematic nature of tabletop gaming is one of the things that really draws me to it. It was hard to look at a Protectorate model and think of a Troll.

Legion set up first, and spread out in a symmetrical pattern, with Ogruns flanking the Ravaores on each side. I opted for the same side as the last game, and went for a similar starting setup, figuring it might be good to see what happened with a similar strategy against a different army. 

End of turn one. He'd marched up the board. I ran forward, spreading left and right. Im skimming the cards, I hadn't noticed much in the way of AOES, so was feeling OK about clumping up. I guess I need to get better at skimming cards.

 And then Lylyth feated. Ouch. At this point, I wasn't really having much fun. AOE after AOE - it was pretty ugly. I think this feat would be devastating regardless, but being bunched up and well advanced without protection definitely didn't help. I was ready to call the game at this point - things looked pretty hopeless.

At the bottom of two, I moved Butcher up and feated. Things were looking far from ideal, but I figured I needed to do some damge with the Winterguard before the were meltedby AOE. Lots of spray shouts, many through my own models, picked away at the Ravgores, but didn't mortally wound any of them. I think it was at this stage that I messed up the clock - that would come back to haunt us.

Here, 2 Ravagores have charged the Devastor, looking to end things quickly. Unlike last time, his 25 armor did the trick.

In this pic, the Devastator has dispatched one of the Ravagores, and left another with 1 health. In the end, that one health might have been the difference.

At this point, Butcher got into the think of things, and all Ravagores are dead. It then turned into a grind-fest, with Butcher smacking away at everything that came near him.

It ended with 3 models left on the table, and a legion win by scenario.

This was a weird game. In retrospect, it was the worst game for a clock malfunction. I learned what I'd already heard from many - there's always a chance. It was also nice to see Butcher carving through things, like I'd imagined he should. Lylyth's feat is one to think about long and hard next time I come across her. Two great games in one day. Much fun.

Butcher 1 v Trollbloods (pGrissel)

Butcher 1

Sylys Wyshnakyrr, the Seeker

Devastator

Winterguard Infantry (10), Rocketeers (2), Commander and Standard

Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich

Iron Fang Pikemen, Officer & Standard

Widowmakers
Widowmaker Marksman
Kayazy Assassins, Underboss

Kayazy Eliminators

Iron Fang Kovnik
Gorman Dewulfe
*on reflection, I think I'm 2 points shy

Grissel Bloodsong, Fell Caller
Mulg the Ancient
Pyre Troll
Fell Caller Hero
Janissa Stonetide
Trollkin Warders
Trollkin Warders
Longriders
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes, Stone Scribe elder

The first thing I've learned is that the iPad camera is nothing like the iPhone's one. 2 games worth of burry photos incoming.

Setup - Basic plan was for Pikemen and Devastator to defend my zone, Windowmakers and Winterguard to push for left hand zone. Kayazy spread across the back in the hope of finding a target with the mini-feat. Trolls to move first.

End of 1 - push push, not a of combat (yet).

End of 2 - now there's been combat. I lost some Kayazy to AOE. On my turn I feated, possibly too early, and tried to wipe out the left flank. I really wanted to get off the feat before I was too far on the back foot. Went OK, a couple more tough rolls than I'd like, but still did a fair bit of damage - the left was looking good. I didn't really get anything done on the right flank, but mini-feated back to shield wall. At this stage I was feeling OK, as what I'd intended to happen had actually (near-enough) happened.

Now things have gone south. The 2 remaining Long Riders made mince-meat of the Winterguard by pushing Trollkins through them. On the other side, my armor 25 Devastor was toast, crushed in one round my Mulg. Yep, I'd better watch out for that guy. Kayazy have plonked around and not found anything to charge.

I tried moving Butcher out to the left flank, hoping he could clean that up wile the Pikemen held on in the right. Turned out the Trollkin are pretty heavy hitters, and made short work of Butch.

I enjoyed the game - tried to get on the front foot, and felt like I nearly pulled it off. Was still crushed, obviously, but felt like a good crushing.

I still haven't found out how to make the most of the Kayazy. Need to keep plugging away with them. The Devastor's armor 25 clear doesn't make him as invincible as I thought. 1 turn!

eSorscha v Cryx (Goreshade 3) 50 points

Goreshade 3

Malice Helljack

Withershadow Combine

Necrotech

Scrap Thrall

Bane Thralls, Officer and Standard

Bane Lord Tartarus

Warwitch Siren

Journeyman Warcaster Aiakos

Bane Riders (5)

Wrong Eye Gatorman character solo

Snapjaw

Cryx Deployment

eSorscha

Sylys Wyshnakyrr, the Seeker

Spriggan

Winterguard Infantry (10), Rocketeers (3), Commander and Standard

Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich

Iron Fang Pikemen (10), Officer & Standard

Widowmakers

Kayazi Assassins (10), Underboss

Kayazy Eliminators

Lady Aiyana & Master Holt

Khador Deployment

Start of game setup

My plan was to use Pikemen as "anvil" to hold my zone against the cavalry, and use Winterguard , Widowmakers and Eliminators  to sweep through the right flank using the Spriggan's targeting flairs.

A good plan. I've got to try to to remember my plans once I actually start playing the game.

End of round 1 (khador moved 2nd).

Pikemen moved ran forward, then mini-feated into shield wall. I wanted to get inside charge range of the cavalry/Malice (I'm really scared of Malice). This meant the pikemen were way up the field for the 2nd game running. In retrospect, there was no huge advantage in getting them that far advanced.

Goreshade moved a bunch of models up, essentially creating frozen walls in front of my models, locking the pikemen and the Winterguard down.

I feated, charging with the Spriggan and mini-feating with the Assassins to charge through the Pikemen. The Kayazy knocked off a lot of strong models - I'm very keen to keep experimenting with how to make best use of Kayazi charging.

The calvary counter-charge knocked out the core of the Pikemen (need to remember to up-keep shield wall). The Bane Thralls regenerated behind my lines, leaving me seriously out-attritioned. At that point I had a go at an assasintation run with Sorscha. My usual Freezing Grip attempt. Wasn't impossible, but failed. Conceded at that point.

I'm still struggling with getting all 50 points in the game - A&H were spectators, as were the eliminators (apart from one generously-offered target).