Sunday, September 22, 2013

Makeda and the Exalted Court vs. Lich Lord Asphyxious at 50pts

I got to play a few games this past Friday.  No pics, unfortunately, since I was mostly playing with a time limit and forgot.  Anyway, here's the first game.  I'm still honing my Makeda 3 list, and here's what I'm using:

Makeda and the Exalted Court (+2)
*Molik Karn (11)
*Bronzeback Titan (10)
*Titan Gladiator (8)
*Basilisk Krea (4)

10 Nihilators (8)
Tyrant Commander and Standard Bearer (3)
4 Paingiver Beast Handlers (2)

Agonizer (2)
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor (2)
Mortitheurge Willbreaker (2)

This is basically the same Makeda 3 list I've been working with, and it's one that I'm settling on.  The Nihilators are an utterly expendable screen for the Warbeasts.  Molik Karn and Makeda herself are the main heavy lifters due to their hit-and-run potential and bananas offense.  The Bronzeback and Gladiator present a counterattack threat, hold ground, and squish heavy armor.  They also give out animus support for Molik.

The remainder of the list is support.  The Krea boosts my game against shooting, and has good Def-debuffing ability.  The Agonizer helps me survive against Warjacks and Beasts.  The Tyrant Commander is mostly there to give Makeda Press Forward, but the other abilities are great on any of the units.  The Mortitheurge is mostly around for Puppet Master (very good in a list where a few select models need to roll a lot of dice), though I'm also considering an Extoller Soulward to counter Incorporeal and Cloud effects.  Finally, there's Orin Midwinter.  He provides some decent all-around support for the rest of the army with Arc Lightning for a bit of ranged punch and the occasional Null Magic to shut down any Butcherings I might otherwise be about to face.


My opponent, Jamie, played the following eGaspy list, which he's using so all us less-than-regular tournament goers can get used to it:

Lich Lord Asphyxious (+6)
*Canker Worm (5)
*Nightwretch (4)
*Skarlock Thrall (2)

10 Bane Thralls (8)
*Officer and Standard Bearer (3)
10 Bane Knights (10)
6 Bile Thralls (5)
6 Satyxis Blood Witches (4)
*Blood Hag (2)
The Withershadow Combine (5)

Bane Lord Tartarus (4)
Saxon Orrick (2)
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2)

More regular tournament goers will recognize the basic shape of this list as a pretty standard configuration for eGaspy.  Lots of Banes for the Feat (and for being Banes in general), and Tartarus to support them.  Blood Witches to jam with Incorporeal and deny Tough and Healing with the Blood Hag's Cmd.  Bile Thralls to Purge enemy infantry.  The Skarlock is a good source of a free Parasite or what-have-you.

I don't know how standard the other support in the list is, but it's solid.  Saxon is great to give Bane Thralls Pathfinder since terrain can be an issue for them.  Gorman is just a hateful little creature in general, and can line up cloud shenanigans with Gaspy to grant Concealment or just block LoS to a pretty good chunk of the battlefield.  The Withershadow Combine is also good.  Free upkeeps, good upkeep removal, and Puppet Master along with some very decent offensive spells which give the list a little more of a ranged option than just Purge and Bile sprays.


Scenario and Terrain

We played Process of Elimination.  There are two 12" by 6" zones 8" apart in the center of the table.  Each zone has a Monolith which counts as an enemy model to both players.  Destroying a Monolith is worth one point, controlling a Zone is worth one point, and dominating a zone is worth two.  Only one Monolith can be damaged each turn.

The terrain was fairly symmetrically spaced, with one wall near the center in front of one of the zones, another wall just outside the other zone, and two hills and two forests spread out in a rough square around the outside of the zone.  Right in the center of the table was a swamp (shallow water).


Deployment

I won the roll-off, and decided to go second so I'd have the first shot at scoring.  Epic Asphyxious is pretty good at keeping himself out of harm's way, so I want to put some pressure on him with the scenario.

Jamie had a lot of infantry, and deployed them in a massive block in front of the zones.  The Bane Thralls and Withershadow Combine went on the right (from my perspective), the Bane Knights went on the left with the Blood Witches and Skarlock right behind them, and Asphyxious went in the middle with the Bile Thralls, Gorman and Tartarus.  The Nightwretch deployed on the far left to run around the zones and arc spells at me.

I deployed my Nihilators against the Bane Thralls on the right zone to slow them down, and Molik went behind them to try to polish them off on the Feat turn.  Makeda and the Court deployed dead center, and the Bronzeback and Gladiator deployed in the center left to help her deal with the Bane Knights.  The Krea deployed centrally behind Makeda, and Orin, the Willbreaker and the Tyrant Commander deployed close by.  The Paingivers deployed in a thin line behind the Beasts.

Canker Worm advance deployed in front of Asphyxious near the middle, and Saxon advance deployed behind the low wall to the right of the right zone.


Turn 1: Cryx

Everything in the army ran except Asphyxious, who cast Hellbound on himself and charged.  He dropped no Caustic Mist clouds because I had no shooting.



Turn 1: Skorne

I mirrored the Cryxian strategy of sprinting forward, although I did have to put a little more thought into it.  The Nihilators spread out as far as they could so that some of the would survive being purged on (there's really no avoiding it).  Makeda cast Vortex of Destruction on herself, dumped some Fury on the Agonizer, and charged while the Exalted Court ran.

Molik Ran up behind the Nihilators, and the Krea walked up behind Makeda.  The Bronzeback and Gladiator did their usual trick of the Gladiator Rushing the Bronzeback and Trampling up while the Bronzeback ran.  The Support mostly ran, but the Paingivers did wipe off a little Fury with Condition.

Finally, the Agonizer used Spiritual Affliction to shut down Arc Nodes near it, and ran up next to the Gladiator on my left flank.

I was still out of most charge ranges, and Jamie, like me, hadn't brought much shooting to the table.  My furthest forward unit was the Nihilators, and I did expect a lot of them to die.


Turn 2: Cryx

Most of the army ran forward again, gnashing their skeletal teeth and waiting to get into combat.  Asphyxoius advanced, cast Excarnate on the Nihilator closest to the Blood Witch UA, who didn't get a Tough check thanks to Entropic Force.  The Nihilator was removed from play, and a brand new Bile Thrall was born (or whatever gross process Excarnate actually uses) about 8" away from the lead Nihilators.  Asphyxious cast Teleport to retreat behind the Bane Thralls on the right.

Then the Bile Thralls activated.  The brand new baby Thrall walked up and exploded with happiness, killing 5 more Nihilators, and dealing 2 damage to the Tyrant Commander.

So that's the Excarnate-Purge trick Asphyxious does.  I saw it coming, but losing more than half my Nihilators like that put my right flank on the clock.  On the plus side, that massive wave of Cryxian infantry was more than halfway into both zones, and well within my threat ranges.


Turn 2: Skorne

The Nihilators went first.  Three of them advanced into the Bane Thralls jamming the right zone, and the leader advanced to keep everyone in Command range.  They managed to kill 3 Banes, but the Banes started passing Tough checks before Berserk could do much damage.  The Tyrant Commander mostly stayed put, and used Press Forward on Makeda to giver her an extra 2" of movement on a full advance.

Then Makeda cast Fate Walker on herself, walked up to a cluster of Bane Knights, and Feated.  The Exalted Court also walked up, and gave her 2 Fury with their attacks, bringing her to 5 (she'd upkept Vortex of Destruction).  She cast Eliminator into one of the Knights, and killed 3, then advanced 6" deeper into the Cryxian horde.  She killed a few more Bane Knights, and a Blood Witch, which let her cast another Eliminator with Blood Boon.  She advanced into Tartarus, and killed him off along with a few more Blood Witches (who passed their Cmd check for half casualties).  Makeda was sitting on one Fury, and had nothing left alive (or undead) in her melee range, so she was done.

The Paingivers Enraged the Gladiator, Bronzeback, and Molik.  The Krea simply advanced again.  Midwinter advanced, and tried to Arc some Lightning onto Gorman di Wulfe by hitting a nearby Bile Thrall.  The lightning only arced once (I needed it to arc twice to hit Gorman), but killed the Bile Thrall and damaged the Blood Hag.  The Gladiator Rushed the Bronzeback, and charged a Bane Knight next to the left objective.  It killed both the Knight and the objective, netting me a control point and Makeda 2 points of Fury.  The Bronzeback charged the Blood Hag, and killed her easily.  Then Molik charged a Knocked Down Bane Knight, and killed it.  He had no other targets to Side Step into, though, so he just cast Fate Walker to retreat.

The Agonizer used Spiritual Affliction again to stop Arced spells, although the radius was smaller this time, and ran up next to the Gladiator again.  The Willbreaker (who I should have used for Puppet Master earlier), cast Influence at a Blood Witch to try to make her stab Gorman, but she missed.

Last but not least, Makeda and Molik took their Fate Walker moves.  Makeda walked back behind the Krea, and Molik walked back toward the left zone, out of charge range of the surviving Bane Thralls.

That had been a pretty good turn overall.  I'd all but wiped out the Bane Knights, and I'd destroyed both Tartarus and the Blood Hag meaning the Banes would be slower and less accurate from now on, and I'd be able to heal both Makeda and my beasts.  How many of those Beasts survived remained to be seen, since Asphyxious' Feat is amazingly powerful against them.


Turn 3: Cryx

Admonia upkept Hellbound, and Asphyxious allocated 2 to the Canker Worm.  The Withershadow Combine put Puppet Master on the Skarlock, and threw a couple Darkfires at me, but they didn't do much.  The Skarlock activated first, and cast Parasite on my Bronzeback to reduce its armor.  The Bile Thralls walked up to attack my surviving Nihilators (one died to a Counter Charge from the Bronzeback), and killed off one of them plus the Tyrant Commander and Orin Midwinter with 2 Purges.

The surviving Bane Thralls advanced and killed off all the Nihilators except the leader.  Canker Worm used its Armor Piercing attack against the Bronzeback, and hit it for a decent chunk of damage.  Saxon gave Asphyxious Pathfinder.  Gorman tried to blind Makeda with a Black Oil grenade at the Krea, but missed, and only blinded the Krea.

Asphyxious charged up, and used his Feat, bringing back 7 Bane Knights and 3 Bane Thralls, then he Teleported back behind the low wall on the right next to Saxon.  The resurrected Banes charged all 3 of my heavies (3 on the Bronzeback and Gladiator and 4 on Molik), but Jamie tanked his rolls.  He missed with about half the Banes (with a little help from Molik's Intuition :3), and rolled abysmally low on about half his damage rolls.  At the end of all the Bane activations, all three heavies were still alive.

The surviving Blood Witches charged the last Exalted Guardian and Gladiator, but failed to do damage.  The surviving Bane Knights charged the Gladiator, but one missed, and the other was out of range.  The Nightwretch advanced, and attacked the Agonizer, but failed to kill it.

That went much better than expected.  I'd thought Molik had a decent chance to live due to his Def, but I was still nearly at full strength.  Asphyxious was still safe, but there weren't many Cryxians in the left zone, so I had a good chance to get a leg up on scenario.


Turn 3: Skorne

Makeda leached from Molik, the Gladiator auto-passed its Threshold check due to being within 6" of the Bronzeback, and Molik passed his Threshold check normally.  Makeda upkept Vortex of Destruction.

The Krea forfeited its action from Blind, then advanced on Gorman and used Paralytic Aura to drop his Def.  Makeda advanced, murdered Gorman, and used Blood Boon to sling an Eliminator at a cluster of 3 Blood Witches near the Gladiator.  Then she and the Guardian killed off the other Cryxians in the left zone except the Nightwretch, then cast Fate Walker.  Last, she healed the Gladiator and Molik.  She was camping 0 Fury, but most of the army would be between her and any threat.

The Paingivers advanced, Enraged Molik, and Conditioned the Krea and Gladiar back down to 0 Fury themselves.  Molik charged the Nightwretch, but only hit with one attack (admittedly for high damage).  The Gladiator advanced, and took 3 boosted swings at the Wretch, finally wrecking it.  The Bronzeback charged a Bile Thrall, but its Mind was out, and it missed.  The last of the Nihilators advanced into the line of Bane Thralls, and started swinging, but only killed one thanks to Tough.

Makeda Fate Walked to a safer spot, and dominated the left zone for 2 points, putting me at 3.

Jamie was on the clock now, and didn't have much to contest the left zone with, and I was only 2 points away from winning on scenario.  Makeda was fairly safe too, but I never like leaving a warlock at nothing.


Turn 4: Cryx

Admonia upkept Parasite, but Asphyxious dropped Hellbound.  The Canker Worm finished off the Bronzeback with Armor Piercing, then took its extra advance to get into the zone.  The Skarlock threw Parasite at Makeda, but missed.  Tremulus advanced into the zone, and cast Puppet Master on Maelvous.  Maelvous and Admonia cast Darkfire at Makeda, and did a few points of damage.

The Bane Thralls destroyed the objective in the right zone, but couldn't finish off the last Nihilator.  Saxon gave Asphyxious pathfinder, and he charged the last Nihilator, finally bringing it down.  Then he cast Excarnate on the Willbreaker, finishing it off, and adding a Bane Thrall, and Teleported back to the far side of the zone.  Then Jamie ended his turn dominating the zone for 2 points.

Jamie had scored 3 points, but I only had 2 models to clear out from the left zone, and I was fairly certain I could do it.


Turn 4: Skorne

Makeda leached from the Gladiator, and Molik passed his Threshold check.  The Krea used Paralytic Aura again, and advanced to within 2" of the Canker Worm.  Makeda walked up, and I did some quick guesswork.  I figured that I could Ground Zero the Worm out of the zone on a 3 or better with the push, and Tremulus out on any roll.  I was base to base with the Canker Worm, so on a 2 or 1, I'd still be able to make attacks.

I cast Ground Zero, killed Tremulus, and pushed Canker Worm 4 inches.  Then I ended my turn, and scored 2 points for dominating the left zone.


Victory to the Skorne!


Thoughts

I played a pretty good game.  I played to my army's strengths, and used Makeda's Feat to destroy one of the Bane units and some critical support.  I used the Nihilators and one of the Exalted Guardians to hold Asphyxious up on the right flank, and started exploiting my advantage on the left well.  I definitely made some mistakes in activation order, and totally blanked out on Puppet Master two turns in a row.  I also left Makeda hanging with 0 Fury due to poor planning.  I can't say I outplayed Jamie - I don't know how the game would have gone if his dice had been better.

Makeda 3 is unbelievably fun.  This game she did most of the heavy lifting herself, and dominated the left zone in relative safety.  The list is fitting together very well.  Midwinter was great (though he died early), and the Willbreaker also has good potential (next time I'll use Puppet Master - it could have saved Makeda a Fury).  I might try an Extoller Soulward instead of the Willbreaker to deal with clouds and collect those tasty Nihilator Souls.  I'm not completely sold on these two over the Drake, but I should also play them correctly first.

Jamie played a mostly solid game, and I'm pretty sure this was his first time playing against Makeda 3 (at least it's the first time I've player her against him, and I'm the only Skorne player in our meta who's currently on a Makeda 3 bender).  He also seems fairly new to this eGaspy list, though it's really good for the rest of us to get practice against it.  He didn't exploit Caustic Mist, and he elected to charge on turns 2-4 rather than use Daemortus to collect Soul Tokens.  He definitely needed extra range on at least 2 of those turns, but he might not have it he'd planned his Turn 1 and 2 differently.  He used Gaspy's Feat well, but the dice just betrayed him - he definitely should have killed at least one beast with it.  The weak Feat turn sealed the game for him, and let me press my advantage on the left flank hard.

As for his list, it is very strong.  It's well optimized to play to Asphyxious' strengths, and includes a swathe of very solid Cryx infantry.  I expected Excarnate, but I wasn't prepared for how well it and the Bile Thrall purge synergize with the Blood Hag's Entropic Force.  I'm not 100% sure about Gorman vs. say, a Warwitch Syren, and I don't actually think the list needs the Withershadow Combine in a two-list game.  As I said though, I'm not an expert on Cryx, so those are all my thoughts.


I probably won't post reports of the next two games, as they aren't very exciting to write up.  I won the second game with Zaal mainly because my opponent was trying a new list and it was taking too long to activate, so he timed out 2 turns in a row.  I won the third game with Makeda 3 because my opponent had a brain fart on turn 2, and left his caster in Molik's threat range.

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