Battle ReShort: Bearka vs. eHexeris (50pts)

I also played this game a couple months ago.  I was still messing around with eHexy, who I decided against because of all the painting and assembly I'd need to do for Adepticon.  I did take pictures, but I don't remember the activation order all that well, so this is just a ReShort.

I played a very shooty eHexeris list:

Lord Arbiter Hexeris (*6pts)
*Aradus Sentinel (8pts)
*Aradus Sentinel (8pts)
*Cyclops Raider (5pts)
*Basilisk Krea (4pts)
Croak Raiders (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
Praetorian Keltarii (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts) - Proxied by Nihilators
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Extoller Soulward (2pts)
Paingiver Task Master (2pts)
Siege Animantrax (9pts) - Proxied by the torso of a Siege Animantrax

Caleb was experimenting with Borka 2 with the following list:

Borka, Vengeance of the Rimeshaws (*6pts)
*Rok (11pts)
*Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)
*Troll Axer (6pts)
Kriel Warriors (Leader and 9 Grunts) (6pts)
*Piper and Standard Bearer (2pts)
*2 Caber Throwers (2pts)
Long Riders (Leader and 2 Grunts) (7pts)
Kriel Stone Bearer and Stone Scribes (Leader and 3 Grunts) (3pts)
*Stone Scribe Elder (1pt)
Dhunian Knot (3pts)
Horthol, Long Rider Champion (5pts)




Scenario and Deployment

We rolled up Destruction: one rectangular zone in the middle, with objectives on opposite corners.  Destroy the opponent's objective or control the zone for 1CP, or dominate the zone for 2 CP's.

I won the roll-off, and decided to go first.  I put the Animantrax more or less in the middle, with the Krea and Raider nearby, put the Keltarii on the center-right, the Croaks and Task Master on the center-left, and the Aradi up in front of the Animantrax.

Caleb put the Kriel Warriors more or less in the middle, with the Warbeasts all on the center-left with Borka.  The Long Riders went out on the right flank.

Round 1

I ran most of my stuff up, and put Ashen Veil on the Keltarii.

Caleb ran most of his stuff up to counter me, and put all Borka's Fury into the Kriel Stone, which used its Aura with Combat Warding for no continuous Fire from the Croaks.

Round 2

I got some serious shooting in.  I put a little damage on Rok, and shot the Earthborn off the table.  The Keltarii killed a couple of Kriel Warriors, but not many.

Caleb popped Bearka's Feat, and put Winter Shroud on the the Kriel Warriors to give them Concealment and Immunity: Cold.  Rok killed a couple Croak Raiders, and other things killed a lot of Keltarii.

Round 3

Hexeris Feated to steal the Kriel Stone's Fury.  The Croaks and Animantrax (which got eyeless sight from the Extoller) killed Rok.  An Aradus also killed one of the Long Riders.

Caleb put Puppet Master on Bearka, who froze Hexeris with a critical Frost Hammer, then damaged him some more with a bomb.  A Long Rider then slammed its way in, and finished the job.

Victory to the Trollbloods!


Thoughts

Trollbloods are pretty tough for my list to handle.  I have a great list for shooting, but Trolls are a pretty good at jamming me out and getting me to melee.  They're annoyingly resistant to my shooting too.  This eHexy list might have to be Legion and Circle only on the Hordes side of things.  I'm not as sure about Warmachine.  I'd probably drop it into Menoth, Khador, a lot of Mercs, and maybe Cryx (definitely with Specialists).  Cygnar and Ret have too much of an anti-infantry ranged game for me to feel 100% comfy dropping eHexy into them.

I played an ok game, although I have a tendency to leave Hexeris too far forward.  He's got some melee chops, and he wants to be close to his bonded node beast, but I find that I often leave him on too little Fury too close to the front, and get him killed.  If I'd been more conservative with him, I would probably have been able to grind out the Troll infantry with my beasts.  Vampiric Harverst and copious healing from The Hex would probably have kept me in the game against infantry.  Plus once that battlegroup was taken out, Borka would be killable.

Caleb also played ok.  He did not really know what my shooting was capable of, or he'd have kept his heavies a bit further from the Croaks, and possibly tried to get the Kriel Warriors into their collective grill.  He definitely played his assassination well.  Puppet Master makes fishing for crits a lot more reliable than it usually is.  Even if he hadn't, he ended up slamming a Paingiver into Hexeris for the knockdown with the Tuffalo that finished me off.

Caleb's list looks good, although it might not be what he wants with Bearka.  I'm not familiar enough to know what Borka 2 wants to play into and how the list wants to change to help out in those matchups.

Mike says Thanks for Reading!