He's been helping me with my Ossrum lists as I continue in my epic quest to find a list setup that works for me, and this is the result so far. I'm pretty pleased with it, and I've started taking his good advice to heart (for instance, "why are you trying to get the alpha strike in when you're list is better suited to sitting back, threatening a lot of good shooting, taking the hit on the bunnies, and counter-punching like a champ?"... I maaay be paraphrasing on most of that, but you get the idea).
But anyway, Battle Report!
My List - Mercenaries 75pts
- Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker 4
- Wroughthammer Rockram 14
- Ghordson Driller 10
- Ghordson Basher 9
- Ghordson Driller 10
- Ghordson Basher 9
- Grundback Blaster 6
- Grundback Gunner 6
- Grundback Gunner 6
- Grundback Gunner 6
- Grundback Gunner 6
Ogrun Bokur 5
- Grundback Gunner 6
- Grundback Gunner 6
- Grundback Gunner 6
- Grundback Gunner 6
Ogrun Bokur 5
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios 7
Taryn di la Rovissi, Llaelese Gun Mage 5
Lady Aiyana & Master Holt 8
Horgenhold Artillery Corps 6
Herne & Jonne 5
pGrexy's List: Skorne 75pt
Herne & Jonne 5
pGrexy's List: Skorne 75pt
Naaresh1 (Master Ascetic Naaresh)
- Mammoth 38
- Titan Gladiator 14
- Cyclops Brute 8
- Cyclops Brute 8
- Agonizer 7
Paingiver Bloodrunners 9
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3) 5
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3) 5
Extoller Soulward 3
Paingiver Bloodrunner Master Tormentor 4
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor 5
- Mammoth 38
- Titan Gladiator 14
- Cyclops Brute 8
- Cyclops Brute 8
- Agonizer 7
Paingiver Bloodrunners 9
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3) 5
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3) 5
Extoller Soulward 3
Paingiver Bloodrunner Master Tormentor 4
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor 5
Uffda - Mammoth is a nasty character, and under Naaresh it's downright brutal. This list has a lot of defense against shooting and magic - stealth on the blood runners, 2 shield guards from the Brutes, plenty of healing for the beasts, and Orin to stop me from using any magic shenanigans against the Mammoth.
Still, if I can take out the Brutes, my shooting can concentrate fire on Naaresh for a pretty good assassination run, and a Fire-for-Effect'ed Artillery Corps shot at his back line is going to seriously hurt.
Still, if I can take out the Brutes, my shooting can concentrate fire on Naaresh for a pretty good assassination run, and a Fire-for-Effect'ed Artillery Corps shot at his back line is going to seriously hurt.
Scenario and Deployment
We rolled up Incursion as the scenario, and pGrexy won the roll and decided to deploy first. Since I was more worried about getting bogged down in the woods than in giving my opponent cover, I picked the side with fewer inconveniently placed forests.
Skorne Deployment:
Pretty standard Skorne brick - from left to right, Brute, Mammoth, Naaresh, Gladiator, and the 2nd Brute in the front row, with Midwinter, the Soulward, and the Agonizer behind the Mammoth and Paingiver Beast Handlers sprinkled throughout the back row.
He advance deployed the Blood Runners and Master Tormenter behind the forest, well away from my line but with lots of opportunity for flag taking or really dangerous flanking.
Mercenary Deployment:
From left to right - Artillery Corps, Herne and Jonne, a pair of Gunners with a Bokur behind them, Ossrum and a Blaster with Sylys, the Rockram, and the driller behind them, 2 more Gunners, Taryn and the Basher finishing off the first row, and Aiyana and Holt behind them. The Bokur's client is Ossrum.
In Advance Deploy, I positioned Eiryss1 within 8" of Ossrum (and within range of Snipe, thanks to Sylys), opposite the big stompy monsters and Warlocks she most wants to shoot the fury off of at the earliest opportunity.
Skorne Turn 1
pGrexy advanced with everything, running the Blood Runners and Master Tormenter up the side to get into my squishy shooty solos (hmm...), while the brick ran forward for better board positioning. The 2 Brutes on the side stayed within range of Naaresh, the Gladiator, and the Mammoth, meaning he could effectively pick and choose where to drop Fury if he needed to. Meanwhile, Naaresh had cast Blur on himself, and Cycloned up for better board positioning, leaving himself exposed with 0 fury, but behind a forest and well out of range of anything.
Mercs Turn 1
Ossrum went first, putting Fire for Effect on the Artillery Corps and Snipe on Eiryss1, then trundling forward like a dwarfy boss. The Gunners ran forward, screening the rest of the force but not getting any shots off this turn due to the range. Eiryss1 aimed and took a Phantom Seeker pot shot at... something (?) but failed to do any meaningful damage - I wasn't about to advance her any closer to the Brutes or Blood Runners, since she was the lynch pin of a pretty good assassination threat for later turns.
For serious shooting, the Artillery Corps waddled forward 4" and took a shot at the left-side Brute, but were just out and it scattered well clear.
Everything else ran to get into good position behind the main line of bunnies, while Herne and Jonne ran to get into a good position to do something about that gaggle of outflanking Blood Runners trying to make life difficult on my right. The Basher moved out towards them in a "Oh-I-Just-Dare-You" stance - I was fairly certain a single Flak Field would flat out kill most of the unit if he tried to gang up on it and failed.
Skorne Turn 2
My crafty opponent wasted no time - both units of Paingivers Beast Handlers activated first, giving out Enrage to the Brutes and triggering Painmonger 4 times on Naaresh. Naaresh in turn feated, damaging each warbeast and healing back up to full after 2 turns of Blood Trade and Painmonger damage, casting Safeguard on himself. The Brutes charged, one taking out the right-most Gunner and the other doing enough damage to the 2nd Gunner from the left to knock out it's cortex. The Mammoth walked forward and shot, though I don't remember what it hit or what damage was done, it did effectively contest the middle Flag.
The Blood Runners ran (presumably with blood?) forward, keeping the flanking maneuver going and getting into a really dangerously precarious position for me.
Upon reflection, I think he forgot to activate the Extoler Soulward and the Agonizer.
Mercs Turn 2
I dropped Snipe on Eiryss1, upkept Fire for Effect, and put a focus each on the Rockram and the Driller.
As they say, one good Feat turn deserves another - Ossrum started things off by advancing up behind the undamaged middle Gunner, casting Unstoppable Force (giving my warjacks Bulldoze) and using his Feat, catching my entire army in his control range.
On the left, the damaged Gunbunny did some bulldoze shenanigans, moving out of the way of the Rockram and pushing the Brute towards the middle. The Rockram then walked forward 7" (yay feat turn!) and did a substantial amount of damage to the Brute, who was then finished off by a fully boosted shot from the Artillery Corps. The other left-side Gunner advanced up to the flag, getting in enough range to kill Orin Midwinter with a long-distance shot.
On the right, the Driller finished off the other Brute with the help of the Blaster, while close ranged shots from Holt and Taryn took out a number of Blood Runners, including the one engaging the Blaster thanks to Black Penny. Aiyana put Kiss of Lyliss on the Gladiator, while Herne and Jonne killed all but 1 of the remaining Blood Runners with a set of Scattershot blasts (using Artillerist to help direct the main AoE where I wanted it).
The Basher, now free from the threat of an inconvenient Free Strike, did a Power Attack: Slam on the Gladiator, Ossrum's feat giving her the pathfinder and extra movement needed to clear the wall in her way and Bulldoze shoving the Titan back 2 inches for better aim on the back field. The resulting slam took out a Beast Handler outright and severely wounded the Agonizer, and the Basher followed up to throw another attack on the wounded Gladiator before triggering Flak Field to finish off the Agonizer.
With little else to do, Eiryss outright ran 14" to the rightmost Flag, netting me a second point (along with the left-side Gunner) and skyrocketing the pressure on pGrexy to deal with that or risk losing on scenario. However, I only had about 8 minutes left on my clock after all of this, meaning that if he could contest the flags and draw it out, I had a real danger of timing myself out.
Skorne Turn 3
Coming to the conclusion that it would be more fun to beat the ever loving dwarfish tar out of Ossrum and win on assassination, Naaresh upkept blur and passed a Frenzy check on the Gladiator. The Gladiator attempted to double-handed throw the Basher out of the way to let the Paingivers get to Naaresh, but we tied on the Strength roll and he stayed put. This created a problem - the Paingivers were blocked by the Basher from getting withing range of Naaresh to trigger Painmonger, which would severely hamper any assassination attempts. With nothing else for it, the Paingivers instead healed the Gladiator and the Mammoth, and Enraged the latter. Naaresh cast Rush on the Mammoth, moved up while staying out of range of the driller, and Cycloned up next to Ossrum, doing a few points of damage but not much more.
The Mammoth, seeing it's moment to shine, charged forward, bulldozed the Bokur (the only model without Sturdy in the entire front line) out of the way, and nonchalantly smashed Ossrum into paste with 3 boosted attacks.
Victory to the Skorne!
Thoughts
This game was loads of fun, and I feel like I'm finally getting the hang of Ossrum. Bulldoze and the Feat really let his 'jacks control the field, and pGrexy's advice to sit back and focus on counter-attacking is already yielding results (to me, anyway). The supporting cast brings a lot to the table as well - between Holt, Taryn, Eiryss1, the Artillery corps, and Herne and Jonne, I have a lot of fairly accurate shooting that can clear things off the 'Jacks and deal with flanking threats, even with Stealth.
pGrexy in turn played a great game, going for a solid assassination run in the end. Naaresh is pretty dangerous, and inadvertently tying up those Beast Handlers with the Basher probably kept him from outright killing Ossrum himself, though it was the Mammoth that came through in the end.
The one change I'll probably make to the list is to swap out the Rockram for a Driller and Thor - the Sustained Attack ability on the Driller made it a lot more effective than the Rockram at taking out the Brutes, while the Rockram's gun did next to nothing. Meanwhile, I found myself wishing for Thor at a few points this game - first, to repair the Gunbunnies' damaged Cortex, and secondly to put Tune Up on the Basher or Driller.
Overall, a fun game, and a great way to end 2016.
Happy New Year!
We rolled up Incursion as the scenario, and pGrexy won the roll and decided to deploy first. Since I was more worried about getting bogged down in the woods than in giving my opponent cover, I picked the side with fewer inconveniently placed forests.
Skorne Deployment:
Pretty standard Skorne brick - from left to right, Brute, Mammoth, Naaresh, Gladiator, and the 2nd Brute in the front row, with Midwinter, the Soulward, and the Agonizer behind the Mammoth and Paingiver Beast Handlers sprinkled throughout the back row.
He advance deployed the Blood Runners and Master Tormenter behind the forest, well away from my line but with lots of opportunity for flag taking or really dangerous flanking.
Mercenary Deployment:
From left to right - Artillery Corps, Herne and Jonne, a pair of Gunners with a Bokur behind them, Ossrum and a Blaster with Sylys, the Rockram, and the driller behind them, 2 more Gunners, Taryn and the Basher finishing off the first row, and Aiyana and Holt behind them. The Bokur's client is Ossrum.
In Advance Deploy, I positioned Eiryss1 within 8" of Ossrum (and within range of Snipe, thanks to Sylys), opposite the big stompy monsters and Warlocks she most wants to shoot the fury off of at the earliest opportunity.
Skorne Turn 1
pGrexy advanced with everything, running the Blood Runners and Master Tormenter up the side to get into my squishy shooty solos (hmm...), while the brick ran forward for better board positioning. The 2 Brutes on the side stayed within range of Naaresh, the Gladiator, and the Mammoth, meaning he could effectively pick and choose where to drop Fury if he needed to. Meanwhile, Naaresh had cast Blur on himself, and Cycloned up for better board positioning, leaving himself exposed with 0 fury, but behind a forest and well out of range of anything.
Mercs Turn 1
Ossrum went first, putting Fire for Effect on the Artillery Corps and Snipe on Eiryss1, then trundling forward like a dwarfy boss. The Gunners ran forward, screening the rest of the force but not getting any shots off this turn due to the range. Eiryss1 aimed and took a Phantom Seeker pot shot at... something (?) but failed to do any meaningful damage - I wasn't about to advance her any closer to the Brutes or Blood Runners, since she was the lynch pin of a pretty good assassination threat for later turns.
For serious shooting, the Artillery Corps waddled forward 4" and took a shot at the left-side Brute, but were just out and it scattered well clear.
Everything else ran to get into good position behind the main line of bunnies, while Herne and Jonne ran to get into a good position to do something about that gaggle of outflanking Blood Runners trying to make life difficult on my right. The Basher moved out towards them in a "Oh-I-Just-Dare-You" stance - I was fairly certain a single Flak Field would flat out kill most of the unit if he tried to gang up on it and failed.
Skorne Turn 2
My crafty opponent wasted no time - both units of Paingivers Beast Handlers activated first, giving out Enrage to the Brutes and triggering Painmonger 4 times on Naaresh. Naaresh in turn feated, damaging each warbeast and healing back up to full after 2 turns of Blood Trade and Painmonger damage, casting Safeguard on himself. The Brutes charged, one taking out the right-most Gunner and the other doing enough damage to the 2nd Gunner from the left to knock out it's cortex. The Mammoth walked forward and shot, though I don't remember what it hit or what damage was done, it did effectively contest the middle Flag.
The Blood Runners ran (presumably with blood?) forward, keeping the flanking maneuver going and getting into a really dangerously precarious position for me.
Upon reflection, I think he forgot to activate the Extoler Soulward and the Agonizer.
Mercs Turn 2
I dropped Snipe on Eiryss1, upkept Fire for Effect, and put a focus each on the Rockram and the Driller.
As they say, one good Feat turn deserves another - Ossrum started things off by advancing up behind the undamaged middle Gunner, casting Unstoppable Force (giving my warjacks Bulldoze) and using his Feat, catching my entire army in his control range.
On the left, the damaged Gunbunny did some bulldoze shenanigans, moving out of the way of the Rockram and pushing the Brute towards the middle. The Rockram then walked forward 7" (yay feat turn!) and did a substantial amount of damage to the Brute, who was then finished off by a fully boosted shot from the Artillery Corps. The other left-side Gunner advanced up to the flag, getting in enough range to kill Orin Midwinter with a long-distance shot.
On the right, the Driller finished off the other Brute with the help of the Blaster, while close ranged shots from Holt and Taryn took out a number of Blood Runners, including the one engaging the Blaster thanks to Black Penny. Aiyana put Kiss of Lyliss on the Gladiator, while Herne and Jonne killed all but 1 of the remaining Blood Runners with a set of Scattershot blasts (using Artillerist to help direct the main AoE where I wanted it).
The Basher, now free from the threat of an inconvenient Free Strike, did a Power Attack: Slam on the Gladiator, Ossrum's feat giving her the pathfinder and extra movement needed to clear the wall in her way and Bulldoze shoving the Titan back 2 inches for better aim on the back field. The resulting slam took out a Beast Handler outright and severely wounded the Agonizer, and the Basher followed up to throw another attack on the wounded Gladiator before triggering Flak Field to finish off the Agonizer.
With little else to do, Eiryss outright ran 14" to the rightmost Flag, netting me a second point (along with the left-side Gunner) and skyrocketing the pressure on pGrexy to deal with that or risk losing on scenario. However, I only had about 8 minutes left on my clock after all of this, meaning that if he could contest the flags and draw it out, I had a real danger of timing myself out.
Skorne Turn 3
Coming to the conclusion that it would be more fun to beat the ever loving dwarfish tar out of Ossrum and win on assassination, Naaresh upkept blur and passed a Frenzy check on the Gladiator. The Gladiator attempted to double-handed throw the Basher out of the way to let the Paingivers get to Naaresh, but we tied on the Strength roll and he stayed put. This created a problem - the Paingivers were blocked by the Basher from getting withing range of Naaresh to trigger Painmonger, which would severely hamper any assassination attempts. With nothing else for it, the Paingivers instead healed the Gladiator and the Mammoth, and Enraged the latter. Naaresh cast Rush on the Mammoth, moved up while staying out of range of the driller, and Cycloned up next to Ossrum, doing a few points of damage but not much more.
The Mammoth, seeing it's moment to shine, charged forward, bulldozed the Bokur (the only model without Sturdy in the entire front line) out of the way, and nonchalantly smashed Ossrum into paste with 3 boosted attacks.
Thoughts
This game was loads of fun, and I feel like I'm finally getting the hang of Ossrum. Bulldoze and the Feat really let his 'jacks control the field, and pGrexy's advice to sit back and focus on counter-attacking is already yielding results (to me, anyway). The supporting cast brings a lot to the table as well - between Holt, Taryn, Eiryss1, the Artillery corps, and Herne and Jonne, I have a lot of fairly accurate shooting that can clear things off the 'Jacks and deal with flanking threats, even with Stealth.
pGrexy in turn played a great game, going for a solid assassination run in the end. Naaresh is pretty dangerous, and inadvertently tying up those Beast Handlers with the Basher probably kept him from outright killing Ossrum himself, though it was the Mammoth that came through in the end.
The one change I'll probably make to the list is to swap out the Rockram for a Driller and Thor - the Sustained Attack ability on the Driller made it a lot more effective than the Rockram at taking out the Brutes, while the Rockram's gun did next to nothing. Meanwhile, I found myself wishing for Thor at a few points this game - first, to repair the Gunbunnies' damaged Cortex, and secondly to put Tune Up on the Basher or Driller.
Overall, a fun game, and a great way to end 2016.
Happy New Year!
Woo! Nice! The Ossrum list is really shaping up. You had me on the back foot for sure, and if you hadn't exposed Ossum like that, I would have had to spread myself thin and try to clock you.
ReplyDeleteI didn't forget the Extoller and Aggie turn 2, they just didn't have anything to do. In hindsight, I should have run the Aggie behind the Brutes, but I didn't want it shot off the table when I'd need it for the late game.