Pre-Game Thoughts
Cryx has a lot of powerful Warcasters, and I'm worried about most of them. The three I'm personally most worried about are eAsphyxious, pDeneghra, and eDeneghra. Asphyxious 2 is a powerhouse, and widely considered one of the best 'casters in the game. He has very efficient tools to remove both infantry and heavies, great survivability, and one of the most reliable soul collection mechanics in Cryx just for extra Focus shenanigans. Both Deneghra's are hard on Skorne. They have ways to slow an army down, or just freeze it in place. They have Arm debuffs to crack whatever armor we bring (along with Banes, which do pretty well even without help). Basically, they can both play either assassination or scenario games really well, especially against a force which tends to have limited ranged options.
I chose two lists that I thought would give me a decent chance against most Cryx casters: Makeda 3 and Makeda 1.
Makeda and the Exalted Court (*2pts)
*Molik Karn (11pts)
*Bronzeback Titan (10pts)
*Titan Gladiator (8pts)
*Cyclops Savage (5pts)
*Cyclops Brute (5pts)
*Cyclops Brute (5pts)
*Basilisk Krea (4pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Agonizer (2pts)
The Makeda 3 list I've been running has been quite good so far, so I'm sticking with it. It's mainly an attrition list that tries to use the Brutes to trade up material, but it has a strong scenario presence, and both Makeda and Molik have good assassination potential. Against Cryx specifically, this list will have at least one explosive turn against infantry. Makeda, Molik, and to a lesser extent, the Savage, can all clean house on the big units of dangerous troops Cryx likes to use.
Archdomina Makeda (*5pts)
*Mammoth (20pts)
*Cyclops Raider (5pts)
*Basilisk Krea (4pts)
Cataphract Cetrati (Leader and 5 Grunts) (11pts)
Nihilators (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew (1pt)
Mortitheurge Willbreaker (2pts)
Extoller Soulward (2pts)
This is Lord Tyrant Watt's pMakeda list that I've been trying out for the League (though he has a Feralgeist instead of the Gobbers). I've only had a couple of games with it total, and just one for the league, but it's solid. It brings a different game against Cryx. The Mammoth is a great platform for wiping out infantry, and sniping out problem models like Tartarus and Gorman with the right support.
Jamie showed up with the following lists:
Lich Lord Asphyxious (*6pts)
*Nightwretch (4pts)
*Skarlock Thrall (2pts)
Bane Thralls (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
*Officer and Standard Bearer (3pts)
Bane Knights (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
Satyxis Blood Witches (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
*Blood Hag (2pts)
Bile Thralls (Leader and 5 Grunts) (5pts)
The Withershadow Combine (5pts)
Bane Lord Tartarus (4pts)
Pistol Wraith (3pts)
Saxon Orrik (2pts)
Warwitch Siren (2pts)
Epic Asphyxious, just as I suspected. This list has a little of everything he wants: two big units of Banes will do most of the heavy lifting, especially against heavy armor. The Bile Thralls are there so Asphyxious can use Excarnate to bring new ones into play in position to purge all over infantry. the Satyxis are mostly there to deny effects like Tough and Menoth's various healing mechanics to ensure that Excarnate kills its intended target. The support is all pretty standard as well.
Pirate Queen Skarre Ravenmane (*6pts)
*Stalker (4pts)
*Stalker (4pts)
*Helldiver (3pts)
*Helldiver (3pts)
*Skarlock Thrall (2pts)
Mechanithralls (Leader and 9 Grunts) (5pts)
Mechanithralls (Leader and 9 Grunts) (5pts)
Satyxis Raiders (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
*Sea Witch (2pts)
Necrosurgeon and Stitch Thralls (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Necrosurgeon and Stitch Thralls (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
General Gerlak Slaughterborn (3pts)
Pistol Wraith (3pts)
Pistol Wraith (3pts)
Gorman di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist (2pts)
Warwitch Siren (2pts)
Warwitch Siren (2pts)
A whole lot of infantry with pSkarre. The Necrosurgeons will keep the Mechanithralls coming back unless they're dealt with, and Skarre can make the Mechanithralls hit both very accurately with Dark Guidance and very hard with her Feat. Meanwhile, the Helldivers and Stalkers are worrying assassination vectors, especially against Hordes. I don't have a lot of experience against pSkarre, but this seems like a mean list.
Scenario, List Selection, and Deployment
We rolled up Outflank, a no-nonsense classic. There are two 12" diameter round zones along the 24" line spaced about 8" apart. Controlling a zone is worth 1pt, and dominating one is worth 2.
Then we chose our 'casters. Jamie picked eAsphyxious, and I picked Makeda 3.
I went with Makeda 3 because I thought Jamie would go for Asphyxious. Makeda 1 can handle that matchup, but it gets a heck of a lot trickier if Asphyxious can take out the Mammoth with his Feat, and I wasn't confident I could stop him. Makeda 3, with her multiple threat vectors and ability to apply scenario pressure, seemed like a safer bet. If Jamie did pick Skarre, Makeda 3 could still do a lot of damage. Molik or a Savage can chew right through those Mechanithrall clumps on the Feat turn.
I suspect that Jamie went with Asphyxious because he has more practice with him. It helps that Banes weather the Mammoth's shooting a lot better than Mechanithralls, who really suffer from taking four 4" templates into their packed, low-Arm formations every turn. Finally, out of the two, Asphyxious is more adaptable, with board control from clouds, and a very strong Feat to handle any surprises.
Jamie won the Roll-off, and decided to go first. I picked the side of the table with a relatively clear center so Makeda could go everywhere she needed to. This also stuck Jamie with a forest forcing him to split his forces a bit. If I could clear one zone, that forest would delay his ability to respond, hopefully forcing him to sprint troops in just to contest - which would let me pick them off in little clumps without much trouble.
Jamie deployed the Nightwretch in more or less the middle, right next to Asphyxious. The Bile Thralls and Withershadow Combine went on the center-right. The Bane Thralls and Blood Witches went on the left, with Tartarus and the Skarlock behind them on the center-left, and the Bane Knights went on the far right (in front of the middle of the right zone) along with the Pistol Wraith. The Siren deployed on the left flank, away from the Nightwretch, oddly. Despite having AD, Saxon deployed in the support row behind Asphyxious.
I deployed in my standard line of Beast. The Brutes took the wings, roughly in front of the center of each zone. The Savage deployed just to the center of the left Brute while Molik went just inside the right Brute. The Krea, Makeda, Bronzeback, and Gladiator went in the middle. Makeda's Exalted Guardians went behind Molik and the Savage, while the Paingivers lined up behind the Beasts as usual. The Agominzer went on the right, intending to keep the Nightwretch under control.
I had no AD, and Jamie's was chilling in his Deployment zone, so we started the game.
Turn 1, Cryx
Everything ran except Asphyxious, who cast Hellbound on himself, and put a few clouds of Caustic Mist up in front of the Bane Thralls. One Bane Knight got stuck between the Withershadow Combine and the Nightwretch, and would be out of Formation next turn.
No surprises here. The question with Cryx deployment isn't what's going to happen, but how to stop it from getting out of control.
Turn 1, Skorne
I ran the Cyclopes into the front of the zones. This would probably put the right Brute into range of the Bane Knights, but Tartarus wasn't in a great position to curse it, and the Knights would need 9's to hit it with Set Defense. The Titans did some Rushing and Trampling, but basically put themselves behind the Savage and Brute on the left.
Molik got behind the right Brute, and the Krea ran up next to Molik. Makeda cast Vortex of Destruction on herself, then put 4 Fury on the Agonizer, and charged a Bane in such a way as to bump into the Krea from behind. Her Guardians ran up to provide Shield Guard support to anything that might be shot at, but especially Molik, since the Pistol Wraith might otherwise neutralize him completely.
The Agonizer used Spiritual Affliction to deny Arc Nodes within 7", and ran up to just in front of Molik and Makeda. Last but not least, the Paingivers sauntered up, and managed Fury.
I'm pretty much where I want to be. If Jamie moves forward, I'll be able to get a hard alpha strike in. If he can reach me first, he won't do enough damage to my most powerful pieces to stop a very hard counterattack. Gaspy 2 has some tricks though, so I'm interested to see what he'll do to stall me.
Turn 2, Cryx
Admonia upkept Hellbound for free, and Asphyxious hoarded all his Focus.
The Nightwretch walked forward, a well-judged distance from the Agonizer. The Bane Thralls ran up cautiously. Asphyxious advanced, cast Parasite through the Nightwretch at the Agonizer, and hit, dropping its Armor by 3. He also dropped a cloud in front of the Bane Thralls, cutting LOS off to them for anything to the right of the forest.
The Bane Knights charged the right Brute. Three were in range, while the rest ran. The three chargers all missed thanks to Set Defense. The Pistol Wraith advanced, and took a couple of shots at the Agonizer. The first hit, but I Shield Guarded the shot with the Exalted Guardian, and it suffered no damage.
The Blood Witches charged the left Brute, but didn't do any damage. The ones who had been out of range spread out. The Siren blitzed down the left flank, hoping to engage my heavies from behind with Shadow Bind or wipe out my Paingivers with Venom. Tartarus and Saxon advanced, but didn't do any more than menace from the second rank.
Jamie was digging in for the attrition portion of the game, but I'd be able to do a lot of damage to him on my next turn. Hopefully, it'd be enough to gain a decisive advantage. Against a list like this one. I need a turn of really explosive damage so I can weather the Feat more safely.
Turn 2, Skorne
Makeda leached Fury, and upkept Vortex of Destruction.
I knew I wanted to pop my Feat this turn, but there were a few models to get out of the way first. The Krea charged and killed one of the Blood Witches blocking the Savage's charge path to the Bane Thralls, getting out of Makeda's way in the process. The left Brute killed off two more. The Agonizer used Spiritual Affliction again, and ran to stop the Nightwretch from being allocated Focus or using its Arc Node.
Then it was Makeda's turn. She cast Fate Walker on herself to back off at the end of the turn, and Train Wreck on Molik to let him munch his way through the Bane Knights. Then she popped her Feat, which lets her add a Fury to herself or remove a Fury from a Warbeast in her battlegroup whenever a model in her battlegroup destroys one or more enemy models with an attack. Finally, her unit advanced. The Exalted Guardians accounted for 2 Bane Knights and a Blood Witch, putting Makeda back up at 6 Fury. She missed her initial attack on a Bane Knight with snake eyes, but killed it with a bought attack. She cast a boosted Eliminator at another Bane Knight, killing it and giving her a 2" advance toward the right zone. Then she dumped a little extra Fury onto the Agonizer to top it off.
The Paingivers advanced, and Enraged Molik and the Savage, giving them +2 Strength and a free charge. The Bronzeback put Train Wreck on the Savage to give it Beat Back, and inched forward.
The Savage charged into the Bane Thralls. I'd hoped to kill a bunch, but the beast missed its initial attack, despite boosting. The Bane then Toughed on its second attack. The third attack finished the Knocked Down Thrall, and it bought an attack against the next Thrall in line, but missed. Booo!
The Brute in front of Molik killed a Bane Knight blocking his path, and passed the Fury on to Makeda. Then Molik charged the very rightmost Bane Knight. I spent the next 8 minutes or so taking Molik on a merry tour of the Cryxian right flank. He finished off all of the Bane Knights, the Pistol Wraith, and the whole Withershadow Combine. He would have moved on into the Bile Thralls, and possibly even gotten a whack or two in on Asphyxious himself, but Hellbound's 5" radius or Rough Terrain slowed him down just a hair short of the nearest Bile.
I decided to hold the Gladiator back just in case I needed another heavy. By that point, I'd activated all my models, so Makeda took her Fate Walker move, ending up in the right zone, and dominating it for two points.
I was feeling pretty smug about how that whole thing had gone down. Jamie was in a very tough spot, scenario-wise, as there was a forest and several Warbeasts between the bulk of his army (those who were able to contest, anyway), and the critically vulnerable right zone. He basically had to kill Makeda this turn, or he'd face a scenario loss in pretty short order. Unfortunately for me, Asphyxious still had his Feat, and due to a series of very poor decisions on my part, Makeda was only camping 1 Fury.
Turn 3, Cryx
Asphyxious dropped Hellbound, but upkept Parasite on the Agonizer.
The Bile Thralls all popped to get themselves out of the way, killing off the Agonizer and doing some damage to Molik. Then, Saxon gave Asphyxious Pathfinder. Asphyxious himself advanced, and cast Parasite at the Exalted Guardian in front of Makeda. Not wanting to leave anything to chance, he boosted. And rolled three 1's. Ok, well Banes still do plenty of damage without Parasite. Asphyxious Feated, summoning 9 destroyed Bane Knights, and 1 destroyed Bane Thrall within 3" of himself, and within charge range of Makeda. Gulp.
Then Tartarus advanced, and Cursed Makeda's unit (targeting the Exalted Guardian), which would give the Banes +2 to hit Makeda, which bumped them up to needing 7's to hit her. Double Gulp.
What followed was pretty ugly. In fact, the faint-of-heart among you may wish to stop here. Just make up whatever ending you want, skip past the text, and look at the cat pictures. They're adorable. Those who choose to read on... don't say I didn't warn you.
Ready?
Ok, but are you really ready?
 |
| ARE YOU SURE???? |
Alright...
They all missed. Well, ok, they didn't all miss. But, out of 10 charging Banes, only three of them hit Makeda, and after one transfer, she was alive at 2 hit points.
After that, Jamie couldn't contest the scenario. He conceded in utter disgust, and I don't blame him. That was by far the ugliest string of bad rolls, starting with the failed Parasite, that I've ever seen.
Victory to the Skorne?!?!?!?!?!
Post-Game Thoughts
Well, it's been a long time since I deserved to lose quite so richly, and been delivered by the dice. The Ancestors must truly have great things in store for Makeda as she marches inevitably toward the playoffs and the millions of slaves she will earn in endorsement deals.
What stings the most about this is how simple it would have been to leave Makeda on a huge stack of Fury, and make it legitimately hard for Jamie to assassinate her. I just got careless and greedy. I could easily have been camping about 6 Fury just by hanging onto it, and planning my turn out better.
The first Brute could have done its thing after Makeda's activation to pass her 2 Fury, she should have held onto her last 2 rather than getting fancy and giving them to the Agonizer, and Molik should have given her his last one rather than buy another attack at the Nightwretch. Maybe I could even have planned out my turn to get the Gladiator into the action a bit, and pass her a few more.
Sigh. Oh well, I escaped paying for my mistakes this game, but I've still learned my lesson. When there's an assassination threat on the table like eGaspy's Feat, CAMP ALL THE FURY YOU CAN. Especially with Makeda 3. That ability to camp on the Feat turn is one of the things that makes her a dangerous scenario 'caster.
Other than that, I played a strong game. I cleared a whole side of the table with my Feat turn, and moved in to sit in the zone, and start dominating the scenario. It really put pressure on Jamie, and if I'd planned it out with a better emphasis on defense, I could have sat there with the satisfaction of a plan well executed.
As for the list, I'm very pleased with how it performed. Makeda 3 can be a killer on scenario, and the Brute Squad I'm running her with is very good at counterattacking, and clearing zones. I like her ability to brick up and slug it out in center scenarios a lot, but I think her real strength is in split scenarios like Outflank, Fire Support, and Process of Elimination. Her mobility lets her get into either zone easily, and she has a lot of good tools for clearing out a side of the table, and starting to score. Once she does, the opponent is often stuck feeding her sacrificial pieces until she wins.
Jamie played a solid game himself, but he didn't expect the interaction between Makeda's Feat and Train Wreck. He committed to the battle expecting a normal game of trading and maneuvering, not having his entire right flank blenderized by Molik. If the Savage had had any better luck with its run, he might have lost 4 or 5 Bane Thralls too. He recovered as well as he could have. He did everything he could to ensure the assassination, and left as little as possible to chance. Sadly, chance was feeling extra fickle today, though you won't hear me complaining.
MVP for the game is clearly Jamie's dice, though if I had to pick one of my own models, it'd be Molik. He really is a champ at taking out huge swathes of troops under Makeda's Feat, and it was Fate Walker that gave her the chance to move into the zone to dominate it after my second turn.
Stay tuned for my next League report, as I take on my esteemed co-blogger and frequent adversary Caleb, who has spent the League so far relearning the ropes with his Circle Orboros.
And now for the cat pictures. There are a few extra this time to thank the merciless Ancestors for all things dice-related.
Not gonna lie, as soon as you mentioned that Makeda only had 1 Fury on her after your feat turn I said out loud and with complete conviction "He Dead." to the complete bewilderment of my family. Whelp, you know what they say, better to be lucky than good, but you must've sacrificed something good to the dice gods recently.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, besides that it sounds like you played pretty well, and the Molik+Mak3 feat+Train Wreck combo is pretty darn brutal. Like me, it's the whole "making sure my caster doesn't die when I'm ahead" part that's the problem :P
:P
ReplyDeleteThat is exactly my problem, and it's probably my biggest weakness with Makeda 3 right now. Her Feat has a very cool defensive side where you can load her up to a massive camp. This game, I remembered to leave enough open slots on my beasts, but didn't leave enough Fury on Makeda, even when it would have been easy enough to do. This time though, it was definitely better to be lucky than good.
The Molik + Feat + Train Wreck combo sometimes happens and sometimes doesn't, depending on list composition and how much I want to expose Molik, but it is very brutal when it happens. With Reach, and the ability to boost after rolling, Molik can tear up a unit or two, even if they're well spread out. The Savage can do it too, but not nearly as well (and can't assassinate a Warcaster afterward, which I've had Molik almost do a couple of times).
After reading this recent string of batreps, I'm feeling pretty inspired and can't wait to get my hands on 3Mak later this week. It seems like games with her are consistently very fun and on the edge.
ReplyDeleteMy meta is pretty different, though. Cygnar, Khador, Legion, and Circle are my main opponents, with Cygnar being the dominant faction at our FLGS.
Keep up the good work, pGrexy!
Thanks!
ReplyDeleteSorry I missed this post when you made it. Makeda 3 is a lot of fun to play. She plays very far forward, so every game is in the balance. She's super well rounded once you get the hang of her though, and she can keep herself safe pretty well, at least as long as you remember to give her enough transfers!
I'm starting to see that as well. So far I've only used her against Khador (eVlad, two games) and Cygnar (once vs. eStryker and once vs. Sloan). In one of the Vlad games she was too far out with only one transfer and he hadn't feated yet, so that was that. In the other, we obliterated each other's armies, at which point Makeda charged a doom reaver and Blood Booned an Eliminator onto Silly Willy to close with Vlad. She camped that time, let him whiff on his own assassination, then cut him down (though this was after I had already lost on death clock... still getting the hang of quick Fury math).
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of naysayers on the forums, but even in the most complain-y of threads there are people echoing that she's fun to play, which is in the end what most us are going for, right?
Now, that eXerxis guy...
Nice! Makeda 3 is definitely the most fun Warlock in Skorne in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the more I play Makeda 3, the more impressed I am with how good she is as well. She has few truly bad matchups, and plenty of good ones. She has a very solid scenario game, and an assassination threat that scares people. Even the naysayers are slowly coming to the opinion that she's not *that* bad.
eXerxis does look fun. I expect that he'll handle pretty differently from Makeda 3, due to the huge base and the differences in their hitting power and access to Fury, spells, and Animi. He's definitely going to want to get his hands dirty a lot like she does, and that always makes for a fun game.