I ran the following list.
Makeda and the Exalted Court (+2)
*Bronzeback Titan (10)
*Titan Gladiator (8)
*Archidon (7)
*Cyclops Savage (5)
*Basilisk Krea (4)
10 Praetorian Swordsmen (6)
*Officer and Standard Bearer (2)
4 Paingiver Bloodrunners (2)
Ancestral Guardian (3)
Ancestral Guardian (3)
Agonizer (2)
This is my first 50pt list for Makeda 3. It's got a lot of what I feel she wants. The Bronzeback can give her an incredible Feat turn by letting her spam Train Wreck so beasts can run rampant through infantry. The Savage has Reach and Future Sight, which is pretty good for taking advantage of the combo. On the more defensive side, I have the Archidon to grant Sprint to Makeda, and the Krea to boost defense against ranged attacks.
One thing I'm experimenting with for this list is the two Ancestral Guardians. Their plan is to move forward as a pair, let the Swordsmen fill up on souls, and serve as a defensive tank for Makeda 3. With their Defensive Strikes boosted by Vortex of Destruction (or even just the threat of them), I'm hoping to keep her pretty safe from melee.
Caleb ran:
The Hunters Grimm (+4)
*Mulg the Ancient (12)
*Dire Troll Bomber (10)
*Troll Impaler (5)
*Rune Shaper (2)
10 Trollkin Fennblades (8)
*Officer and Drummer (2)
10 Pyg Bushwhackers (8)
Fell Caller Hero (3)
Fennblade Kithkar (2)
5 Troll Whelps (2)
Well, I haven't been obsessively theorymachining eGrimm the way I have Makeda 3 for the last few days, but this list seems to take advantage of his abilities well. The Fennblades can jam very quickly to provide a good screen for the more ranged part of the army. They can also get very far with their Mini-Feat, Mirage, and Vengeance, to let Grimm mark a lot of targets for his Feat turn. The Bushwhackers are solid ranged support, and Mulg is a terrifying second line model.
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| Trollblood Deployment: Looking to get onto that hill. |
I won the roll off, and chose to go second. Caleb and I deployed roughly opposite each other in tight formations. Our early strategies were very similar - screen the more important models with the infantry, and set up for some massive destruction later on.
Models:
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| Skorne Deployment: Directly across from the Trollbloods. |
I used pHexeris to represent Makeda 3 (I chose him over another Makeda due to his clearly visible Reach weapon), and two Bloodrunners to represent the Exalted Guardians. I also used Hakaar the Destroyer to represent an ordinary Ancestral Guardian.
Everything else on both sides is model-accurate.
Turn 1: Trollbloods
Everything ran up into position except Grimm, who put Mirage on the Fennblades. Thanks to Reform, the Hunters were still plenty close to the back of the Fennblades unit at the end of the turn.
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| The Trollbloods advance. |
Turn 1: Skorne
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| The Skorne spread out to take the charge. |
I'd get hit pretty hard next turn, and the Swordsmen would bear the brunt of the damage, but I'd be well set up to strike back hard on my second turn.
Turn 2: Trollbloods
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| The Trollbloods get down to business. |
That had been a lot of damage, but it had mostly fallen on my attrition shield (the Swordsmen). I'd have to hit back hard if I wanted to stay in the game though. The Fennblades were jamming me pretty thoroughly, but fortunately, jamming units can be a speed boost for Makeda 3, rather than a tar pit.
Turn 2: Skorne
I briefly considered trying to play conservatively and attrition the Trollbloods down, but that seemed awfully poor-spirited for Makeda 3's first trial. Besides, if were playing a Scenario, I'd have had to do something to gain ground. Time to take some risks!
The Swordsmen and Ancestral Guardian advanced, and did some damage to the Fennblades. Then the Archidon used Lightning Strike on Makeda, and advanced, leaving the remaining Fennblades for her. Then Makeda activated used her Feat, Dance of Death*, and she and the remaining Guardian charged the Fennblades they could reach. The Guardian killed one, then Makeda killed another with her charge attack, used her weapon's Blood Boon ability to cast Eliminator at no cost, and killed two more. That gave her a 4" advance, getting her within melee range of both the Troll Impaler and the Dire Troll Bomber. She killed both, and ended her activation by Sprinting (thanks to Lightning Strike) as far away from Mulg as she could get while keeping the majority of the Bushwhackers in her CTRL. She ended up within Shield Guard range of her Exalted Guardian, and within the Defensive Strike range of my remaining Ancestral Guardian, so all in all, mischief managed.
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| End of the Turn - Yikes! |
Then the rest of my Warbeasts activated. The Gladiator Rushed the Krea and advanced. The Krea ran to partially screen Makeda from Mulg and some of the remaining trolls. The Bronzeback used its Animus, Train Wreck, to give the Savage Beat Back this activation, and charged a Fennblade, killing it and giving Makeda a Fury. The Paingivers advanced, Enraged the Savage, and Conditioned the Archidon to remove the Fury on it. Then the Savage charged into the Pyg Bushwhackers, killing 4, and engaging 4 more.
What a turn! Makeda was only camping 3 Fury at the end, and Mulg might just be close enough to get to her, but I had done the damage I'd set out to do, and then some. Realistically, Grimm's last chance was an assassination. I'd done too much damage for him to keep trading with me. Unfortunately, Mulg is brutal, and if he was in range, I would probably die.
*Dance of Death - Whenever a model in Makeda's battlegroup destroys one or more enemy models with an attack, I can either remove one Fury from one of her Warbeasts or place one Fury on her. This let her gain a total of 5 Fury during her activation!
Turn 3: Trollbloods
Since it all hinged on the assassination, Caleb set it up meticulously. Grimm and his unit advanced, and put Mortality on Makeda by targeting the Exalted Guardian, whose low Def makes them a good way to get a debuff on Makeda. Then he tried to take out the Guardian with Grimm's and Krump's ranged attacks, but didn't quite manage it. He'd been planning to KD Makeda next with Muggs' Snare Gun, but since I would have Shield Guarded the shot to the Guardian, he just knocked her down instead. A The Fennblades charged, and one managed to get some damage onto Makeda (which she decided to take). Then Mulg charged Makeda, but I'd moved her just a half-inch out of his charge range.
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| Makeda is just out of Reach. |
At this point, Caleb decided to concede. Mulg would die, and Grimm just didn't have the juice to take Makeda down without heavies, even if I hadn't been about to descend on him with my own mostly healthy battlegroup.
Thoughts
I played a good game, although I took a big risk with Makeda on my second turn. If I had misjudged the Sprint distance by even a fraction of an inch, Mulg would have been in range, and I'd have needed some pretty decent luck to save me. Otherwise, I deployed my Swordsmen well as a screen, and chose my targets well for Makeda's Feat turn of destruction.
I like the list a lot, and think it gives Makeda just about everything she needs to get the most out of her Feat turn and her abilities. The Ancestral Guardians never really got the chance to shine as a team, since Caleb shot one down so early. Keeping up a flow of souls will definitely be a problem for this list, since the Praetorians seem to be dying very quickly. Nihilators would provide a more constant flow, since Tough makes it harder to eliminate so many of them in one turn. Still, the remaining Ancestral Guardian did pretty well with the souls it got, and did get a Defensive Strike on Mulg which did a nasty chunk of damage to his Spirit. Two strikes like that could easily take out an aspect. I was very happy with the Archidon, whose only action was to cast Lightning Strike on Makeda. Giving her end-of-Activation movement without her spending Fury on it was really great to have, and made for an incredible Feat turn as well as letting her live to see victory.
As for Makeda 3 herself, she is incredible! Vortex of Destruction and her Feat make her an absolute monster in combat. On her Feat turn, she killed 3 Fennblades, single-handedly took down both the Bomber and the Impaler from full health, and skipped back to safety with Lightning Strike. She's definitely a risk-taker, since she's so powerful on her own. But Skorne definitely has the abilities and Animi to support her in that roll.
Caleb also played a solid game. He timed his Feat and targeted my models well. He used Mulg's animus very well in particular. Makeda 3 wants to charge right into the front lines making melee attacks and slinging Eliminator and Ground Zero. Rune Breaker stops spellcasting, which completely killed my plan to have Makeda cleave her way to Grimm on her Feat turn. He probably should have spread his Fennblades out a bit more on the turn he charged in - Makeda used them to boost her into both his ranged beasts, which ended badly for them. That would have been pretty difficult, however, since the Fennblades were almost as far apart as they could be with their Medium bases.
Caleb's list was good too. He decided that Mulg needs a speed boost, and I agree. Speed 4 is annoyingly slow without Rush or a similar way to boost it. He considered adding Lanyssa Ryssyll, who grants both +2" of movement on a charge, and a free charge, which is a nice package. The other option would be an Axer, but that would mean replacing one of the other beasts, each of which brings something good to the list. The Fennblades were great, and I got to see how Mirage and Vengeance work together firsthand. They jammed me well on my half of the table, and were perfect Target Markers for Grimm's Feat turn.
I'm impressed with eGrimm as well. He's a solid Warlock with a lot of interesting tricks for support. Caleb ran him in a combined-arms list with a lot of ranged attacks, and he had something for everyone, which is good for a support-oriented Warlock. Reform was great for him keeping up with his army, and keeping him away from mine, which is good, since Grimm wants to be fairly close to the front without having the statline for it. I didn't get to see Trapper in action, but it seems like that would have helped out too. The Kithkar was also solid, although it didn't get the chance to do a whole lot.
More thoughts on these models and the rest of the Gargantuans release when my 4+ Tough does its first ever podcast at some point in the near future.
Finally, because I downloaded pictures from my phone again...
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| Thanks for Reading! |
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