4+ Tournament 07/25 Brute Squad and Zaamblers! Games 1 & 2

I went to another tournament this month, and this time, I made sure the pictures work.  I meant to have this report up sooner, but I unfortunately got sucked into epic Zaal epic drama on Wednesday and Thursday, so here it is at the end of the week.  There's another tournament coming up August 22nd, and I'm totes planning to run epic Zaal, hopefully with epic results!

I ran Makeda 3 and Zaal with Despoiler again.  The lists are as follows:

Makeda and the Exalted Court (*2pts)
*Molik Karn (11pts)
*Bronzeback Titan (10pts)
*Titan Gladiator (8pts)
*Cyclops Brute (5pts)
*Cyclops Brute (5pts)
*Basilisk Krea (4pts)
*Basilisk Drake (4pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew (1pt)
Agonizer (2pts)
--Bunker

Supreme Aptimus Zaal and Kovass (*5pts)
*Despoiler (10pts)
*Cyclops Raider (5pts)
*Basilisk Krea (4pts)
Nihilators (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Venator Slingers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Gatorman Bokor and Swamp Shamblers (6pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Hakaar the Destroyer (4pts)
Ancestral Guardian (3pts)
Ancestral Guardian (3pts)
Extoller Soulward (2pts)
Paingiver Task Master (2pts)
--Arcane Wonder

Both lists are sort of all comers, but I'm planning to drop Zaal into Cryx, Khador, Legion, and Trolls, and Makeda into just about everything else.

Game 1 vs. Legion

I was up against Sam again (who I played in the last tournament), and he was running eVayl and Saeryn again.  Like last time, I didn't want to drop Makeda 3 into Saeryn, so I went with Zaal.  Sam figured I wouldn't drop Makeda 3, so he went with Vayl, since I'd assassinated Saeryn in our last game with Zaal.

Vayl, Consul of Everblight (*6pts) - Machinations of Shadow Tier 4
*Ravagore (9pts)
*Ravagore (9pts)
*Scythean (8pts)
*Angelius (8pts)
*Angelius (8pts)
*Harrier (2pts)
Blighted Legionaires (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
Spawning Vessel (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
Blighted Nyss Shepherd (1pt)
Blighted Nyss Shepherd (1pt)

The scenario was Two Fronts: two vertical rectangular zones, one friendly and one enemy, each with an objective in the middle.  Dominate the friendly zone for 1, control the enemy zone for 1, or dominate the enemy zone for 2.  Killbox is a thing for this one.

Sam won the roll-off, and decided to go first.  He deployed in a rough line with the Ravagores out on the flanks, the Angelii and Scythean in the center-flanks, and Vayl, the Legionaires, and the Spawning Vessel in the middle.  A Shepherd went behind each Ravagore because that's Shepherding for you.

I deployed my Slingers in front of my zone, my Nihilators in front of Sam's zone, and the AG's in the middle.  I put the Bokor behind the AG's along with Zaal and the Krea, and the Shamblers in around that formation.  The Raider and Despoiler went near the Slingers to give them some help.  The Extoller went behind the Raider, the Task Master went behind the Shamblers, and the Paingivers spread out behind the beasts.

Round 1

Sam ran forward with everything except one Ravagore, who tried to get a good scatter on its Scather weapon, but came up way short, Vayl herself, who cast Refuge on one Angelius, and Admonition on the other, and the Spawning Vessel Crew, who charged forward while trying to shove each other into the pot.  Only 2 hit, so there would be no Shredder in the list... yet.

I ran the AG's up the middle, with the Krea, Zaal, and Bokor behind them.  The Nihilators and Slingers swung toward the center to provide corpses and souls to the appropriate models.  Zaal put a soul on each AG, Awakened Spirit on the Raider, and Inviolable Resolve on Hakaar.  The Raider advanced, and tagged the Refuged Angelius with a shot for minor damage.

Round 2

Vayl upkept her spells.  Sam had the Ravagores blast my central AG formation.  One hit put some damage on an AG, while a miss scattered and set Zaal, the Krea, and the Bokor on fire.  They also killed a couple of Slingers.  The Spawning Vessel crew finally pushed another of their number into the pot, and made a brand new Shredder, who immediately put Tenacity on the Admonitioned Angelius. The Harrier charged and killed a Nihilator, and the Legionaires ran up in Defensive Line pods.

The Refuged Angelius charged Hakaar, but 2 defensive strikes from the nearby AG's took out its mind.  It missed all 3 of its attacks, and wasn't able to Refuge at all.  The Admonitioned Angelius charged Hakaar as well, and took him out over the wall he was near.  I opted to spawn the Kovass.

In my turn, fire went out on the Krea, but Zaal and the Bokor continued to burn.  I placed Shamblers to block any Admonition escape routs for the Admonitioned Angelius, and upkept Awakened Spirit.  Zaal moved out of the Scather, and put Last Stand on the Kovass.  The Kovass took a big chunk out of the Admonitioned Angelius, while the AG's and Bokor finished off the Refuged Angelius.  The Nihilators finished off the Admonitioned Angelius, and killed the Harrier.

The Slingers shot at the Legionaires, and got Corrosion on the 7 who survived the initial slinging.  The Raider put Far Strike on the Extoller, and tried to get a shot in on the Scythean, but was out of range.  Despoiler charged a Legionaire, and spawned a Void Spirit.  The Extoller shot the Scythean for significant damage.  The Void Spirit charged the Scythean for even more damage.

Round 3

Sam was out two and a half heavies, and went right for Zaal.  First, though, 4 more Legionaires died to Corrosion.

The Legionaires killed some Slingers.  A Shepherd healed the Scythean, who killed Despoiler.  Then, the Shredder got to a good position to arc from.  Vayl shot the Shredder in the back, and Feated, arcing 2 Obliterations into Zaal, while the Ravagores pummeled him with fire, killing the Krea in the process.  He'd been camping enough to survive, but he was looking quite ragged after that beating.

Fire still did not go out on Zaal or the AG in my turn.  In fact, it killed the AG.  I opted to spawn the Kovass, because that AG was full on souls, and it was another model Sam would have to worry about next turn.  The Bokor brought back 6 Fish Zombies with charge lanes to the Ravagore near Vayl.

Zaal continued to retreat to the left, away from Vayl, and put Last Stand on the Swamp Shamblers.  The Shamblers took out most of the right Ravagore with Last Stand, and engaged the left Ravagore.  The Nihilators finished off the Shredder and 1 of the surviving Legionaires as well as the right Ravagore.  The Raider and Soulward took out the Scythean.

Round 4

Sam cleared the Ravagore off with the 2 surviving Legionaires, and it shot Zaal.  Sam cranked the damage, and it was enough to kill Zaal with overbleed no matter what he transferred to.

Victory to the Legion!

Thoughts

That was a really fun game, and Sam got a well earned and hard fought win on Zaal.  The Shamblers were a huge boost to the list's attrition game, and collecting corpse tokens from Sam's Legionaires let me keep the pressure up in a big way.  Despoiler was a bit lackluster this time, and I think if I'm going to play with Void Spirits like that, I need Marketh around to hot-swap it.


Game 2 vs. Khador

My opponent was George Clooney, who I've seen around Tower, but never played against.  He was running Butcher 3 and Vlad 3's Tier list, Charge of the Horselords.  Zaal was my B3 answer, and I figured he was likely to do very well against a relatively low hit box, low model count army like Vlad 3's Tier list, so I picked Zaal.  The famous actor went with Vlad.

Vladimir Tzepesci, the Great Prince of Umbrey (*5pts) - Charge of the Horselords Tier 4
*Drago (7pts)
Iron Fang Uhlans (Leader and 4 Grunts) (11pts)
Iron Fang Uhlans (Leader and 4 Grunts) (11pts)
Greylord Outriders (Leader and 4 Grunts) (9pts)
Fenris (5pts)
Kovnik Dorik Markov (4pts)
Man'O'War Drakhun (4pts)
Man'O'War Drakhun (4pts) 

The scenario was Incoming.  There are 2 horizontal zones, one friendly and one enemy, and 2 objectives in front of each player's deployment zone.  Kill Box is in effect again.

Clooney won the roll-off, and decided to pick the table edge with some forests to hide behind.
I deployed in roughly the same formation as before, with the Nihilators opposite the enemy zone, the Slingers opposite my zone, and the AG's in the middle with Zaal, the Krea and the Bokor behind them.  Despoiler and the Raider ended up behind the Nihilators.

He deployed Vlad and Drago in the center along with Markov and the Drakhuns.  One unit of Uhlans went in front of my zone, and the other in the middle.  The Outriders deployed on the far left to flank me, and Fenris deployed on the far right so he wouldn't scare people.

Round 1

I ran most of the list, pulling the Nihilators and Slingers into the middle to donate their bodies and souls more efficiently.  Zaal put Last Stand on the rightmost AG, Awakened Spirit on the Raider, and Inviolable Resolve on Hakaar.

George's list ran as well.  The Uhlans on the right mostly hid behind the forest, while the Uhlans on the left ran to just benind his zone along with the Drakhuns.  The Outriders passed by the Drakhuns a little bit on the flank.  Drago ran up behind the cavalry.  Vlad put Infernal Machine on Drago, and Hand of Fate on the Outriders.

Round 2

Zaal upkept Awakened Spirit and Inviolable Resolve, but dropped Last Stand.  The Slingers advanced, and took out one of the right unit of Uhlans, took another down to its last hit box, and spread Corrosion to a third.  The lead Nihilators charged an Uhlan and an Outrider, and killed both.

The Swamp Shamblers and AG's moved up some more, and Zaal got on the hill behind my Arcane Wonder in the Krea bubble for defense, and passed out Souls.  The Raider missed another Uhlan with its shot.  Marketh recast Last Stand on the same AG.

On George's turn, the wounded Uhlan died to Corrosion.  The remaining Uhlans on the right charged in, killed an Ancestral Guardian (spawning the Kovass), and a couple of Slingers.  The left Uhlans, and Drakhuns were jammed by Nihilators, and started unjamming themselves.  Drago charged in to help.  Markov and Vlad stayed back, and Fenris moved in to the center to fill the gap left by the Uhlans I'd killed.  The Outriders ignored the Nihilators, and ran around them to get at my backfield.

Round 3

Hakaar moved and attacked, Zaal upkept his spells except Last Stand, and the Bokor created more zombie fish.

The Nihilators hacked at the cavalry in front of them, and took out another Uhlan, and 2 more Outriders.  The Slingers attacked the Uhlans in front of them, to little effect.  The Kovass charged Fenris, and unseated him.  Hakaar charged in, and finished him off, then put some extra damage on Drago with bought attacks.

The Shamblers charged in to do a little more damage to Drago and tie him down.  The Raider missed an Outrider.

Clooney had Vlad drop Infernal Machine.  The right Uhlans continued to fuss at the Slingers.  Drago killed some fish Zombies.  The Drakhuns continued to fuss at the Nihlators.  

Vlad charged in, Feated, killed an AG, then the Kovass, taking Side Steps from each kill.  This put him in range to Sprint right up to Zaal's face!  It was not the safest place to be, but Vlad was camping to Arm 23.  Markov charged Despoiler, and used his exploding lance to kill some more Shamblers.

Round 4

After resolving my start-of-turn stuff, I resolved to kill Vlad.  Zaal Feated, put Last Stand on himself, and laid into Vlad with his staff.  Five attacks later, he'd only done 6 or so damage, so he swapped Last Stand onto Despoiler.

The Paingivers Enraged Despoiler, who charged in, and finished Vlad off with a couple Crit Brutal damages (4 dice really helps with that).

Victory to the Skorne!

Thoughts

My opponent was still pretty new to his list, and both his drops were pretty bad matchups against Zaal.  The attrition advantage of the Zaamblers list, combined with the Slingers taking out half an Uhlans unit top of turn 2, forced him to gamble Vlad's life against one of Skorne's better assassination warlocks.  I worked the list pretty well, although I didn't end up making any Void Spirits.  I also got to live my dream of putting Last Stand on Zaal himself, although he didn't land the killing blow himself.


More to come, and Final Thoughts, in a couple of days, plus some initial thoughts on eZaal in a seperate post.