Battle Report: Makeda 3 vs. Cassius at 50pts - Experimenting with Sunhammer and the Control Game

Hello again!

Here's another battle report.  I'm following up on Monday's post by looking at playing around with Sunhammer on Makeda 3 more than I have in the past.  I'm also following up on a cool discussion on the forums about control elements in Skorne.  It seems like every time I fiddle with My Makeda 3 list, I try to add a little more control, so this time, I'll be trying to base my strategy for the game on my control elements: those that push models and deny abilities.



Here's the Makeda 3 list I'm playing around with right now.

Makeda and the Exalted Court (*2pts)
*Molik Karn (11pts)
*Bronzeback Titan (10pts)
*Titan Sentry (9pts) - Proxied by Tiberion while I put my Sentry together
*Titan Gladiator (8pts)
*Basilisk Krea (4pts)
*Basilisk Drake (4pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Agonizer (2pts)
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor (2pts)

Objective: Arcane Wonder

Since I'm trying to play with an eye toward control, here's what the list does for that.  The Sentry is my frontline heavy, and has Locker, which can stick enemy warjacks/beasts in place.  The Agonizer and Orin Midwinter both have good denial tools to shut down specific actions.  The Krea has a lot of defensive power against shooting, and her gun can stop charges occasionally.  Finally, but most importantly from a control standpoint, are Makeda and the Bronzeback.  Both have push effects that can get enemies out of zones or other good positions so that I can score and threaten scenario more effectively.

My opponent, Josh, was running Circle Orboros with the following Cassius list:

Cassius, the Oath Keeper (*6pts)
*Megalith (11pts)
*Warpwolf Stalker (10pts)
*Gorax (4pts)
*Wurmwood, the Tree of Fate (0pts)
Croak Raiders (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Croak Raiders (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Farrow Bone Grinders (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
Shifting Stones (2pts)
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew (1pt)
Efaarit Scout (3pts)
Efaarit Scout (3pts)
2 Gallows Groves (1pt)

Objective: Effigy of Valor

Double Croaks!  There are a lot of lists kicking around with double Croak Raiders, especially in Skorne and Circle, and it's good to run into them before a tournament setting so that I know what I'm really up against.  Cassius is a great place to put them, because his Feat will easily keep them safe against most of the stuff that's good at dealing with them for that crucial turn before they burn the world.  The rest of the list is pretty standard stuff for Circle - a solid core of heavies backed by a Gorax, 2 units of Stones, and some other support.  Cassius has a lot of control tools of his own, between Hellmouth, Curse of Shadows, and Stranglehold, so we'll see how this pans out.


Scenario and Deployment

We ended up playing Two Fronts: two 12" by 6" rectangular zones a little offset (one friendly and one enemy) in the middle of the table 8" apart from each other.  Each zone has an objective in the middle.  Destroying the enemy objective, controlling the enemy zone, or dominating the friendly zone is worth 1 Control Point.  Dominating the enemy zone is worth 2.

I won the roll, and decided to go first, so that the Croaks wouldn't be able to set the line of battle, and I'd be able to deal with that denial Feat better.  Josh picked the table side with a little wall to hide behind and no forest front and center mucking up deployment.

I deployed in a pretty standard wall of beefies, with the Krea, Sentry, and Makeda in the middle, Molik and the Drake out on my left, and the Gladiator out on my right (I say "out on" but everything is pretty central actually).  The Exalted Guardians, Paingivers, Orin, and Agonzier went just behind the front line of beasts.

Josh deployed Cassius and his beasts in the center of the table, with the Farrow surrounding the Gorax in front of my zone, and the Efaarit on the far left.  Then he placed one Gallows Grove and one unit of Croaks in front of each zone, and put both units of Shifting Stones pretty much in the middle, with Wurwood placed to be shiftable on turn 1.

With that, we were ready to begin.

Skorne Turn 1

I unpacked my list in a pretty standard way, the Krea used Paralytic Aura, and charged forward, the Gladiator put Rush on the Sentry, and Trampled up near the Krea.  The Sentry, Bronzeback, and Drake all ran, while Molik walked up and used Fate Walker.

Makeda cast Sunhammer, put 4 Fury on the Agonizer, and charged forward, while her Exalted Guardians ran into position to use Shield Guard where needed.  Orin and the Agonizer ran, and the Paingivers walked forward, and managed Fury.  Finally, Molik took his Fate Walker advance, and scooted up a little further.

I was reasonably well deployed here, and mostly out of range for Croaks to mess with me.  I was also decently set up to have a pretty dynamic Feat turn next turn if Josh didn't use Cassius' Feat.


Circle Turn 1

Josh walked both of the Croak units forward, and tried to shoot me.  My models on the left were out of range, but Josh did a couple damage to the Exalted Guardian on the right with the few Croaks who were in range, and set her on fire into the bargain.

The Farrow ran forward a little less than their full range, then the Gorax charged, and killed 4 of them, loading Wurmwood up on souls.

The Gallows Groves shifted up, as did one unit of stones, forming a little chevron formation about 8" ahead of Wurmwood.  The other unit shifted Wurmwood forward, protected by the stones.  Cassius Feated, created a gigantic 10" radius forest centered on Wurmwood, and denying me virtually any access to his army for a turn.  Cassius also moved forward a bit, and dropped some Fury.

The Beasts moved up, and the Efaarit ran up the left flank of the table.  The Gobbers advanced, and puffed out their swamp cloud.  The Stalker went Stealth and charged into the cloud, and Megalith just ran forward.

Josh was spread out, and claiming a lot of table space.  I'd positioned well to avoid the Croaks, but Cassius' Feat would give them another turn to try.  What I had to do now, was turtle up, get a little more ground, and tank out the Croaks and Beasts to the best of my ability.


Skorne Turn 2

Fire went out on the Exalted Guardian.  Makeda upkept Sunhammer.

There wouldn't be a whole lot of action this turn, so I'd need to make it count.  The Drake advanced around the edge of the Feat Forest, and destroyed the left Gallows Grove with a spray.  The Sentry used Locker, and Trampled a mighty 3.5" at a slight angle.  The Gladiator inched up, and put Rush on the Krea, who walked near the Sentry, toed into the permanent forest, and used Paralytic Aura for ranged defense.  The Agonizer ran up behind the Sentry, and used Gnawing Pain to debuff warbeast damage rolls.

Makeda and her unit took advantage of the Pathfinder part of Battle Driven, and advanced unimpeded.  The Exalted moved to screen charge lanes past the Sentry, while Makeda advanced, topped off the Agonizer, and put Paralytic Aura on herself.  The Bronzeback walked out of Molik's way, and Molik walked into Makeda's Aura within Shield Guard range of the Exalted Guardian.

Orin walked up a bit, but didn't do anything else.  The Paingivers walked up and managed Fury.

I'd done pretty well on a low-action turn, but I'd made a couple of positioning mistakes.  The first was the Bronzeback, who I should have handled better.  He was exposed to Croak fire outside a Paralytic Aura or Shield Guard range - hopefully I'd be able to Hyper Aggressive him into melee before he died, if Josh decided to focus on him.  My other mistake, which I wouldn't realize until Josh's turn, was that my Agonizer was just a bit too close to the front.  I knew the Croaks could shoot at it, but it was Def 17 Arm 18 in that forest with Paralytic Aura up, so I didn't consider it a likely target.


Circle Turn 2

Josh decided to try to capitalize on his good position.  He shifted the chevron unit of stones forward into my lines to jam me and use as Hellmouth targets.

The right unit of Croaks focused fire on the Krea, bringing her down to 1 box and lighting her on fire.  They also killed the Exalted Guardian who Shield Guarded one of the attacks.  The left unit of Croaks focused fire on Molik, but missed every shot (except the oil, which did scatter onto him).  The Efaarit tried to put damage on Molik.  Both hit him, although I Shield Guarded one of the shots onto the Exalted Guardian, and Molik took some damage.

The remaining Gallows Grove shifted forward, and the Gorax murdered another Bone Grinder, bringing Wurmwood's soul count to 5.  Cassius activated, and went nuts with the offensive magic.  He channeled Hellmouth at his own Shifting Stone, hit easily, and dragged everything around it (the Agonzier, Makeda, the Sentry, and the Krea, a little closer.  He killed the Agonizer with a boosted roll, but didn't damage anything else.  Then he cast Unseen Path to bring Wurmwood to safety, and camped 3.

Megalith charged the Sentry (1 damage from Sunhammer!), used Geomancy to put Curse of Shadows on it, and took it down to a bit under half health (taking out its Mind).  The Stalker would have finished it off, but Josh had accidentally left a Croak Raider in the way, so it couldn't make the charge, and Prowled forward into some Rough Terrain (3 damage from Sunhammer!).

The Gobbers did their thing, and that was that.

I'd really lucked out against the Croak shooting.  Paralytic Aura is a phenomenal Animus, and had done a great job against a really scary gun line.  Molik was fully operational, and the Krea, while likely to die to continuous fire next turn, had absorbed a huge amount of punishment that could have been directed at heavies otherwise.


Skorne Turn 3

Fire on the Krea did not go out, and indeed, she died.  That was too bad, but I was in a good position to take out a bunch of Croaks, so that's what I decided to do.

Makeda dropped Sunhammer, and leached her Fury.

The Drake aimed, and took out 4 Croak Raiders with a Spray. The Bronzeback put Train Wreck on Molik, and walked up to the Shifting Stone gumming up my center-left, smashing it with ease.  The Paingivers Enraged the 3 remaining heavies, and Conditioned the Drake to clear off its Fury.

Makeda activated, Healed the Sentry, used her Feat, and put Train Wreck on the Sentry, then she and her Exalted Guardian advanced.  The Guardian killed a Croak Raider, loading Makeda up with a point of Fury.  Then Makeda cast Vortex of Destruction for 1 (being in range of the Arcane Wonder), and killed a Croak, a Shifting Stone, and Megalith.  She used Blood Boon to cast Fate Walker, and sat on one transfer (for now).

The Sentry charged the second Gallows Grove, killed it, then rampaged through 5 of the right Croak Raiders, and finally used Locker to tie down the Stalker in case I couldn't kill it later.  The Gladiator Rushed itself, and charged the Croaks in front of her, but couldn't kill a single one.  Molik charged a Croak, killed it, bounced into the Stalker, killed it, then killed another Croak.

Orin advanced, and killed a couple of Croaks with Arc Lightning.

Makeda Fate Walked back behind the Bronzeback.

Taken before Makeda's Fate Walk.

That had been the turn I needed, and pretty much everything went right.  I did make a couple of little mistakes.  I should have had the Drake activate after Makeda for better Fury management, and I should have guessed that the Gladiator had range to the Croaks without Rush (which she clearly did).  All that would have saved me a little hassle, but it's small potatoes considering that I'd eliminated any chance of retaliation.  Short of a very long-odds assassination run on Makeda, I had the game pretty well buttoned up.


Circle Turn 3

Cassius leached his Fury.

The surviving Croaks on the right ganged up on the Gladiator, but did no damage.  The Efaarit both shot the Drake, and did a fair amount of damage.  The last base coated shifting stone got between Molik and Cassius, and the unpainted shifting stones got between the Sentry and Wurmwood.

Cassius took the Souls from Wurmwood, and put a little damage on Molik with Hellmouth, and tried to damage him with Stranglehold, but came up short.  The Gorax Primalled itself, and charged Molik, taking him down to around half health, and breaking his Spirit.  The last Bone Grinder got between Cassius and Molik as well.

I'm not sure how this ended up upside down, but it's the only shot I have of this turn...

That had been about as much as Josh could have hoped for.  He might have skipped Hellmouth, and cast Stranglehold more, but ultimately he didn't have many options at this point.


Skorne Turn 4

Makeda leached from Molik, who passed his threshold check.  Everyone else failed (sad trombone sound).  The Bronzeback whacked my objective for 13 damage, while the Sentry smashed Josh's objective with a huge dice spike.

Makeda's unit advanced, and she and the Exalted Guardian killed the Gorax, then she healed Molik for a point.  She used Blood Boon to cast Fate Walker.

Molik Trampled to Cassius, and killed him.

Victory to the Skorne!


Thoughts

Before I get to the general tactics and list discussion, I want to talk about the two things I'm experimenting with right now: Sunhammer and control.

Did Sunhammer make a difference?  Yep.  If the Stalker hadn't taken 3 damage from Sunhammer on Josh's second turn, Molik would have come up short on damage against it, and it would have had a chance to cause mischief (and I would have had to spend resources killing it on a turn when I ended up taking a bunch of frenzy checks).  It didn't make a difference against Megalith, and it only got one damage roll against each Beast before being switched out.  Still, it seems worth continuing the experiment!

Did I focus on control, and use the control elements at my disposal to dictate the flow of the game?  Not really.  Paralytic Aura was a huge shutdown to Josh's turn 2 shooting, but Locker ended up not being much of an issue, and the Agonizer and Orin didn't do a lot of denial (the Agonizer did force a Hellmouth to get rid of it, which is something).  Otherwise, I focused on attrition, and given the way things played out, I think that was the right call.  I will continue to report on control as I continue to practice with this list.

I played a good game, and I only made a couple mistakes, which ended up not causing many problems in the end.  I left the Bronzeback out of a protective bubble and the Agonizer a little close to the front against a Hellmouth caster on turn 2, and I goofed a little with activation order and distance estimation on turn 3.  Otherwise, I put the tools I had where I needed them to be.

I loved the way the list played, but of course, I need more games with it before I make a final judgment.  The Drake is a really nice addition with its spray, and the Sentry tanked like a champ, and Train Wrecked through the Croaks like a champ - it does pretty well for itself with boosted attack rolls.  I'll keep at it, and see how it goes.

This was my second game against Cassius, and my first with Skorne, and I don't know how Josh could have handled my list differently.  He probably should have shot the Bronzeback turn 2 with his Croak Raiders, since they weren't landing any hits against Molik's Def 15, and he definitely should have left space for the Stalker to charge my Sentry on the same turn to finish it off.  Paralytic Aura and Shield Guard did their usual job of making my list incredibly tanky on the approach, and even one of the best fast gun lines in the game (double Croaks) didn't accomplish much.  Josh used his Feat well.  A lot of players will hold off from a turn 1 Feat, but that was definitely the time to use Cassius' - it just wasn't enough.

Josh's list seems terrifying against a lot of opponents.  Double Croaks is a nasty, and totally self-sufficient package.  Throw Curse of Shadows into the mix, and they do much more damage, and are much harder to tie up in melee.  The rest of the list is good support for the module, and gives Cassius a lot of options with his spells.  The Croaks are also a great choice to support Cassius, since they're right up with Wurmwood early on, hanging out in that big forest, and doing massive damage while they're at it.