Welcome to my first battle report since I crawled back into the blogosphere. This is a CID battle report, so probable spoilers for the upcoming Skorne Warlock, Primus Jalaam, and for proposed changes to Ashlynn 1 after the break.
I talked a little bit about Jalaam 1 In Yesterday's Post. The short version of this report is up on the CID forum if you have a CID account and any interest. It's a shorter report, and focuses more on Jalaam and Ashlynn than this one, but here it is.
I decided to try the Primus Jalaam list I posted earlier:
Primus Jalaam (*28pts) - Winds of Death - Proxied by Hexeris 1
*Titan Cannoneer (17pts)
*Titan Cannoneer (17pts) - Proxied by Aradus Sentinel
*Cyclops Shaman (8pts)
*Basilisk Krea (7pts)
*Aptimus Marketh (0pts - Theme Benefit)
Siege Animantrax (17pts)
Venator Dakar (4pts)
Mortitheurge Willbreaker (0pts - Theme Benefit)
Extoller Soulward (3pts)
Venator Slingers (Leader and 9 Grunts) (13pts)
Venator Catapult Crew (Gunner and 2 Grunts) (5pts)
Venator Catapult Crew (Gunner and 2 Grunts) (5pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (7pts)
75/75pts
Winds of Death Benefits:
*Warbeasts in the list gain Swift Hunter.
*Before deployment, you may place one wall completely within 20" of your table edge.
*For every 20pts of Venator models/units, add one solo or weapon crew for free.
My game plan is shooting attrition/assassination. I'll try to hold the opponent off with Tough slingers and Artifice of Deviation while shooting as much as I can. My guns will be effective against most infantry, and I have enough powerful shooting to focus down heavies as long as their armor isn't too high. With Artifice of Deviation and the free wall from Winds, I'll have good defense against shooting. I have a respectable counterpunch with the Cannoneers and Animantrax too. I may have trouble cracking serious armor, since I top out at P+S 18 in melee, with no damage buff from Jalaam. Jalaam having a lot to do with his Fury might make him susceptible to assassination. We'll see.
My opponent and co-blogger, Caleb, wanted to try out Ashlynn with the following list. He was tempted to try the Llaelese Resistance, but decided against it in favor of running mainline Mercenary units.
Ashlynn D'Elise (*29pts)
*Gallant (17pts)
*Nomad (11pts)
*Freebooter (9pts)
*Sylys Wyshnalyrr, the Seeker (4pts)
Taryn di la Rovissi, Llaelese Gun Mage (5pts)
Rutger Shaw, Professional Adventurer (4pts)
*Buccaneer (6pts)
Harlan Versh, Illuminated One (4pts)
Major Harrison Gibbs (4pts)
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord (4pts)
Sergeant Nicolas Verendrye (4pts)
Horgenhold Forge Guard (Leader and 9 Grunts) (16pts)
Thorn Gun Mages (Leader and 2 Grunts) (9pts)
Steelhead Halberdiers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (7pts)
75/75pts
Caleb's plan seems to be attrition, with a possible assassination on the Feat turn or possibly the turn after. This list has a very strong jamming game, and can do good damage in melee between the Warjacks and the Forge Guard. If Caleb moves up aggressively under Ashlynn's Feat, he could potentially play a strong scenario game. This list also looks like high armor could give it a hard time, and a lot of points are spent on solos, so a list that's good at picking them off will be able to do a number on this one very quickly.
Scenario and Deployment
We rolled up the Standoff Scenario from SR 2017. Two rectangular zones right across the table center from each other, each with an objective in the middle, and 2 circular zones on the flanks midway between the two deployment edges. Score 1 point for controlling a zone or destroying your opponent's objective. I picked Stockpile for a little extra healing, and Caleb chose Fuel Cache for a little extra Pathfinding. This does seem like a winnable scenario, so I'll need to make sure to contest zones and not focus too much on shooting.
Caleb won the roll, and chose to go first. I picked the table side that looked like it would funnel Caleb towards me while giving me a wall for my Catapults. I placed my Winds of Death wall in my zone where the Slingers could hop up and hide behind it.
Caleb deployed mostly in the middle, with the Forge Guard on my center-left and Ashlynn and her battlegroup on my center-right. The Freebooter, Rutger, Taryn, and the Buccaneer made a little module on the left, and the Halberdiers and Sergeant Verendrye went on the right. The Thorn Gun Mages went behind the Forge Guard.
I deployed my Catapults on the right to counter the Halberdiers and Nomad, and maybe scatter some AoE's into the support staff, and put the Cannoneers nearby, where they could advance and shoot past the ice crystals blocking LoS through the table center. The Krea went with them to help them out. I put Jalaam and the Shaman in the middle, and the Animantrax out on my left flank. I put most of my support behind the beasts in the middle, with the Venator Dakar near the Catapults for turn 1 Desperate Pace. I Advance Deployed my Slingers in the middle where they could move to tackle either infantry or Warjacks.
I designated Gallant as Jalaam's Prey. My hope was either to shoot it down on the approach or get into Caleb's head and make him position Gallant badly.
Mercenaries Turn 1
Caleb put Quicken on the Forge Guard and Hightened Reflexes on the Halberdiers. He then mostly ran forward with everything (Ashlynn had to charge because she'd cast spells). The Halberdiers ended up clustered around Verendrye just ahead of the 'jacks on my right side, and the Forge Guard ran up to the edge of Caleb's zone across the center. The Gun Mage contingent, Shaw, and the 2 pirate 'jacks stayed behind the left side of the Forge Guard unit, while Versh, Ashlynn and her support solos wound up behind the Nomad and Gallant.
Caleb had clumped a bit on his advance, which I'd be able to take advantage of. If I could eliminate enough of the lead Halberdiers and Forge Guard, I'd get a solid second turn of shooting. It's worth noting here that we decided not to do any take-backs this game. Take-backs are more useful to the CID process, but it was late, and this was the first big game in months for both of us.
Skorne Turn 1
I started advancing and shooting. The Venator Dakar used Desperate Pace on one of the Catapults, then both Catapults and both Cannoneers advanced and blasted the Halberdiers, killing all but one (and Verendrye). Marketh advanced, and put Deadeye on the Slingers, who advanced, and put Corrosion on 5 of the Forge Guard with Acid Bath shots.
Jalaam advanced, cast Warpath, then cast an Artifice of Deviation on/in front of my lead Slingers to slow down Caleb's advance toward them. The Animantrax ran around the left flank to just out of range of the Forge Guard. The Paingivers advanced, and managed Fury, and the Willbreaker put Flesh-Hardening on the Slingers
I'd prevented a jam from the Halberdiers, and the 'jacks would need to face my shooting threat without them. The Forge Guard might be a problem, depending on how many survived Corrosion. The 'jacks were untouched, so they'd have to be my top priority next turn.
Mercenaries Turn 2
Corrosion killed 4 of the Forge Guard, and went out on the fifth.
Ashlynn let Hightened Reflexes expire, but upkept Quicken on the Forge Guard for free thanks to Sylys. She allocated no Focus.
Verendrye and the lone Halberdier ran into the woods to contest the right zone as long as they could. Gallant got an extra Focus from activating next to Versh, and killed one of the lead Slingers. The Nomad charged the other one, but fell just short (I'm not clear on why Caleb charged instead of running what with pre-measuring, but the Nomad ended up more or less where he wanted it I think).
The Forge Guard ran toward the left zone in 2-dwarf pods, and the Gun Mage stuff ran up behind them.
Sylys advanced, and used Arcane Secrets on Ashlynn. Ashlynn advanced, Feated, cast Distraction on the Slingers, and kille one with her Hand Cannon. She also put Admonition on Gallant. She then used her 3" Reposition (from Gibbs) to go *forward* to catch most of my guns in her Feat.
Caleb used the rest of his guns to kill a couple more Slingers (putting 2 Souls on Marketh), and contested my zone with his Freebooter, engaging a couple more Slingers.
That was it. Putting Ashlynn so far forward was... risky to say the least. But, she was Def 17 under her Feat, and camping one Focus, so she might well be able to ride out my shooting. I was left with the choice of trying to kill Ashlynn and probably missing a lot, or focusing on other things, and missing more than I should.
Skorne Turn 2
I did have a pretty low-investment way of going for an assassination, so I decided to see how that panned out.
Jalaam upkept Warpath with Resourceful, and Marketh spent a Soul Token to upkeep Artifice of Deviation, letting me get through the Control Phase with no Fury spent.
Marketh used Spell Slave to cast Deadeye on the Basilisk Krea, then the Willbreaker put Puppet Master on the Krea. The Slingers shifted about to open lines of sight to Ashlynn. Then the Krea advanced, and shot Ashlynn with her paralysis beam.
She hit.
At Def 5, Ashlynn was finished. I rolled out the rest of the assassination, but there was very little chance she'd survive. In the end, the first Cannoneer finished her (after both the Catapults and Venator Dakar had whittled her down a bit).
Victory to the Skorne!
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| Next Time Maybe with Ferox? |
CID Feedback for Primus Jalaam and Ashlynn D'Elise
**Red** - (Definite Rules Problem/Abuse)
Nothing.
**Orange** - (Serious Concerns About Rules/Balance)
Nothing.
**Yellow** - (Possible Problems, Needs More Testing)
Ashlynn - It felt like she needed to put herself in too much danger to get a defensive benefit from her Feat, and her non-upkeep spells also encouraged her to play far forward. No recommendation yet, because my opponent could have done more to protect her.
Jalaam, Ranged Abilities and Feat - My instinct says they're solid, but I did not get the chance to try them. It's hard to say whether Jalaam brings enough to make him a good alternative to other Warlocks like Rasheth and Morghoul 2 in Winds of Death without testing these.
**Green** - (Good to Go)
Jalaam, Spells and Resourceful - With Marketh in the list, I felt I could do everything I wanted to. Without him, I'd still be able to do everything I needed to. Deadeye and Artifice of Deviation were very solid this game. Scavenger's Blessing, Vanish, and Warpath did not come up, but were options, and it didn't take too much effort to use everything. None of the spells felt too strong, but they all felt useful.
Thoughts
It was good to play a big game again, even if it was just 2 turns. I stuck to my plan, and did a good job eliminating Caleb's infantry early on. I would have tried to take out Gallant at range if he hadn't left Ashlynn open, or if I'd missed with the Krea.
Jalaam seems fun, and the list I picked for him worked well. I didn't get to see Warpath and Swift Hunter play off each other, and I didn't get to see his Feat in action. I did get great mileage out of Deadeye and Artifice of Deviation, however. I like this list a lot for Winds of Death, but there are a lot of ways to play Jalaam. I'm interested in trying a more beast heavy list, possibly in Imperial Warhost, to take better advantage of Warpath. I'm also interested in running him out of theme to see how he does with a mobile combined arms type force that includes Ferox. I'll see if I can get some more play with him in on Monday before the CID updates again.
Caleb didn't have the clearest idea what the strengths and weaknesses of my list were, and he made a bunch of mistakes as a result. Clumping his infantry on his first turn did give them their defensive bonuses, but it also let me use my Slingers and Catapults to devastating effect. If he'd measure more, he could have had a more intact army on his second turn. Leaving Ashlynn hanging in front of his troops was also extremely risky, but if the Krea had missed (or if I hadn't had one), I would have abandoned the assassination attempt in favor of attrition. This is partly a result of not seeing the possibility that my Krea would paralyze Ashlynn, and partly not bringing enough along to defend her. Better screening or a Shield Guard or two would have gone a long way toward keeping her safe.
Caleb's list also didn't feel like it fit together very well. I don't know exactly what his goal was with the list, but it felt a bit unfocused. There were a lot of pieces that seemed good, but they didn't work together toward a particular goal. Perhaps playing Ashlynn in theme is the answer.
Until next time!
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