Battle Report: Morghoul 2 vs. Kallus 1 (75pts)

In my last battle report, I said I was taking a little break.  Well, now I'm back, and here's the game I played before I left, the third game in the pod tournament we're playing in my local meta.

My opponent was Dave, the Legion player whose Anamag list crushed me a couple months ago, so I knew I needed to have an answer.  I thought about using Zaadesh, since I'd been able to block drags with Inviolable Resolve before, but then I looked at Anamag's cards, and she has Hex Blast, so that was a no-go.  Instead, I came up with a new list that I was pretty sure would be able to tangle with Primal Terrors and still be decent into some other matchups depending on what Dave brought.

Lord Assassin Morghoul (*29pts) - Winds of Death
*Mammoth (38pts)
*Archidon (10pts)
*Agonizer (6pts)
*Aptimus Marketh (0pts)

Siege Animantrax (17pts)

Mortitheurge Willbreaker (0pts)
Venator Dakar (4pts)
Extoller Soulward (3pts)

Venator Rievers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (9pts)
*Command Attachment (Officer and Standard Bearer) (4pts)
Venator Slingers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (8pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (5pts)

Morghoul 2 has some excellent tools against Primal Terrors: Mortality to help take care of those pesky Chosen, and a Feat which can take most infantry Morghoul can see out of the game for a turn, not to mention dropping Def to levels where the Mammoth and Turtle will have no trouble hitting.  Overall, I was pretty optimistic about this list into Anamag, and willing to play it into an Oracles list if he brought one.  This would be my first time ever playing Morghoul 2, so we'll see what he's capable of.

Battle Report: Zaadesh 2 vs. Tanith (75pts)

On to game two of the pod mini-tournament we're playing.  I brought the same Zaadesh list I played last week, as well as the same Mordikaar list I brought to the tournament a month or so ago.  This time, I was up against Jeff's Circle.  He brought Tanith and Wurmwood.  It felt like either list would have trouble cracking Zaadesh's armor, and while Mordikaar definitely had game into either matchup, I just felt more comfortable with the brick:

Lord Tyrant Zaadesh (*28pts) - Imperial Warhost
*Bronzeback Titan (18pts)
*Aradus Soldier (16pts)
*Titan Gladiator (15pts)
*Titan Sentry (15pts)
*Titan Sentry (15pts)
*Basilisk Krea (0pts)
*Agonizer (0pts)
*Agonizer (0pts)

Siege Animantrax (17pts)

Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (7pts)

There's a huge amount of armor here, and it was startlingly effective the last time I played it.  I kind of can't score circles or flags, but I have so much gristle that I'm hoping I can just attrition my way through, and contest until my opponent has nothing left.

Short Battle Report: Thagrosh 2 vs. Zaadesh 2 (75pts)

We're doing a pod tournament in the Twin Cities meta, which is nice because it means that I can schedule games with each opponent at a sedate pace of once per week.  I often can't play tournaments because I usually work on Saturdays.

This week, I was matched up against Brandon's Legion.  I played:

Lord Tyrant Zaadesh (*28pts) - Imperial Warhost
*Bronzeback Titan (18pts)
*Aradus Soldier (16pts)
*Titan Gladiator (15pts)
*Titan Sentry (15pts)
*Titan Sentry (15pts)
*Basilisk Krea (0pts)
*Agonizer (0pts)
*Agonizer (0pts)

Siege Animantrax (17pts)

Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (7pts)

Scenario schmenario?  This list will have trouble scoring round zones, and can only score flags with Zaadesh, but it has a very strong attrition game, and a lot of extremely fun warbeasts plus the Siege Turtle.  Hopefully, between all the beef and Zaadesh's defensive tech, I'll be able to contest what I need to and push through on attrition.

I played against:

Thagrosh, the Messiah (*25pts) - Primal Terrors
*Typhon (20pts)
*Carnivean (18pts)
*Scythean (16pts)
*Ravagore (16pts)

3 Spell Martyrs (3pts)
Bog Trog Mist Speaker (4pts)

Blighted Ogrun Warmongers (8pts)
*Gorag Rotteneye (6pts)
Blighted Ogrun Warspears (9pts)
Hellmouth (0pts)

This is much different than the last Primal Terrors list I played against.  Thagrosh 2 is a very cool warlock.  I thought last time that Zaadesh might have the tools to tangle with Primal Terrors.  I guess we'll find out.

Battle Report: Mordikaar 1 vs. Anamag 1, 75pts

Hello!

Sorry for the unannounced 2-week-long hiatus.  I had the GRE last Saturday (the 25th), and I was deep in the Study Zone.  I spent most of this past week regenerating my mental powers.

I went to a tournament on the 18th, as I said I might.  However, I was sick that morning, and ended up bowing out after the first round, so I'll just give the report from that battle.

Belated June Tournament Report!

Hey everyone!

Almost 2 months ago now, I went to a local tournament.  As usual, I had a great time, and even won a couple games.  Here are the lists I took:

Renegade Open Non-Team Tournament Reports

Hello again everyone!

I also played in the non-team event the next day.  We had enough to play 5 rounds, although only the top 8 would play the last 3 rounds to make room for another event.  I decided to keep the same Makeda 1 list from the day before, but after significant fury management woes, I decided to switch the Mak3da list out for a more conventional Zaadesh 2 list:

Lord Tyrant Zaadesh (*28pts) - Imperial Warhost
*Bronzeback Titan (18pts)
*Titan Gladiator (15pts)
*Titan Sentry (15pts)
*Titan Sentry (15pts)
*Archidon (10pts)
*Basilisk Krea (0pts)
*Basilisk Krea (0pts)
*Agonizer (0pts)

Siege Animantrax (17pts)

Mortitheurge Willbreaker (4pts)

Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 5 Grunts) (7pts)
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew (2pts)

I like Zaadesh 2 a lot.  He feels like one of the most "Skorne" 'casters we have, especially with a big beast brick like this one.  The main work comes from the Titans, while the turtle and Archidon give me some flexibility a brick doesn't usually have.  The plan is: clouds up front, murder stuff with elephants.  :)  I would run a second free Agonizer instead of one of the Kreas, but I only own the one.

On to the games!

Renegade Open Team Tournament Reports

As I said sometime last year (sorry folks, I had to let the blog drop to take care of myself), I went to the Renegade Open, and played in a couple of Warmachine tournaments there.  The first one was the team tournament on Friday night, a 3-person event.  I was the captain of Team 4+ Tough, which also included my co-blogger Caleb, and friend of the blog and frequent opponent Ben.

Battle Report: Makeda 1 vs. Kaelyssa (75pts)

Hey everyone!

I've played a bunch of Cryx lately, but I haven't neglected Skorne.  I'm super excited about all our new themes, and I thought I'd give one of them a try last weekend.  Here's what I took:

Archdomina Makeda (*29pts) - Masters of War
*Molik Karn (19pts)
*Titan Gladiator (15pts)
*Scarab Pack (10pts)

Tyrant Rhadiem (9pts)

Cataphract Cetrati (Leader and 5 Grunts) (18pts)
*Command Attachment (Tyrant Vorkesh) (0pts - Theme Benefit)
Praetorian Ferox (Leader and 4 Grunts) (20pts)
Legends of Halaak (8pts)
Tyrant Commander and Standard Bearer (0pts - Theme Benefit)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (5pts)

Theme Benefits
*+1 to the starting roll
*Free Tyrant Commander and Standard Bearer or Command Attachment for every 20pts of Praetorian or Cataphract models/units.
*Melee attacks by warrior models ignore Tough, and a model boxed by those attacks is removed from play.

JML - 30pt Battle Report

Hello dear readers.  Between three weeks ago and just now, we decided to switch from the 2016 JML rules to 2017, which has you add models in 15pt intervals.  Since people were sick or busy over the intervening weeks, we decided to add just 5pts to take us from 25 to 30.  I was running:

Bane Witch Agathia (*29pts)
*Reaper (13pts)
*Slayer (10pts)
*Canker Worm (9pts)
*Deathripper (6pts)

Pistol Wraith (5pts)
Warwitch Siren (4pts)

Carrion Thralls (Leader and 9 Grunts) (10pts)

Total: 28/30pts

More JML - 25pt Battle Report

This past Friday we moved up to 25pts, meaning that if I want to stay ahead on painting, I need to get my act together this week.

I played a fun game, even though it was small, so I'll do a report.  At 25pts, I had:

CID Battle Report: Primus Jalaam vs. Ashlynn D'Elise (75pts)

Hey everyone!

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.

Pod Tournament Report Game 3: Master Ascetic Naaresh vs. Grissel Bloodsong, Marshall of the Kriels (75pts)

Hey everyone!  This is the third and final game in the weekly portion of the pod tournament.  I still had my Mordikaar combined arms, Naaresh beast brick, and Xekaar ranged brick for lists.  My opponent this week was Josh, who had brought Trollbloods.  He was bringing Ragnor with a beast brick, Horgle 2 with a Mountain King, and Grissel 2 with a Mountain King and 2 bombers.  My strongest drop into all of them was Naaresh, who had good armor cracking and an Arm buff.  Josh was on the fence between Grissel and Horgle, but went with Grissel.

Pod Tournament Report Game 2: Master Ascetic Naaresh vs Fyanna, Torment of Everblight (75pts)

I played my second game of the pod tournament this past Saturday, and here's how it went down.

Phase 1 - List Chicken

My opponent, Dave, was playing Legion, and had brought Lylyth 3, Thagrosh 1, and Fyanna 2.  I was packing Naaresh 1, Mordikaar 1, and Xekaar 1, and I went into the game at a loss as to which list I should choose.  Naaresh had the best game into Lylyth, being hard to kill, having the option to keep Safeguard up all the time without sacrificing much defensively, and having a lot of Shield Guard in the list.  He also had decent game into Thagrosh - I'd have to play better than my opponent, but it would be a fair fight.  I was really worried about running his brick into Fyanna, who had all the tools necessary to stop him.

Mordikaar was my best into Fyanna.  She didn't have a lot of magic weapons in the list, and Revive and Essence Blast would give me a huge leg up on attrition against her infantry.  I was also pretty confident that if I played well, I could run Mordikaar into Thagrosh and come out on top.  Lylyth was a huge problem though.  Apart from the assassination on Mordi himself, all my infantry would be shot off the table before the game had a chance to go anywhere.

Xekaar was strong into Thags, and playable into Fyanna, but was also weak against Lylyth (standing behind Aradi can only do so much).

In the end, I dropped Naaresh and hoped for the best.  Dave dropped Fyanna.  This was gonna be rough.

Pod Tournament Report Game 1: Beast Master Xekaar vs. Tyrant Xerxis (75pts)

This past Thursday, I played the first game of the multi-week pod tournament that spans the Twin Cities meta.  Since I put myself down as being able to play at any store, I was used to make up the numbers at Fantasy Flight Game Center.  It's not my closest FLGS, but it's a great place, and the local meta includes a bunch of people I've seen around in various places.

I was running Beast Master Xekaar, Master Ascetic Naaresh, and Void Seer Mordikaar.  My opponent, Jeff, was also running Skorne, with Tyrant Xerxis, Supreme Archdomina Makeda, and one other (I forget who).  I picked Xekaar because the Xerxis list looked melee focused enough that I'd be able to grind it down with shooting, and out-attrition it, and I wanted Mortality in the game to stop Stay Death shenanigans from Mak2.  Jeff went with Xerxis because that list had the armor cracking to deal with my bricks, and plenty of its own armor to shrug off Mordikaar.

Monday Mercenary Mutterings: Battle Report! Ossrum1 vs Naaresh1

I meant to get this out yesterday, but I was lazy. pGrexy and I got one last game in on Friday before the end of 2016, with our age-old rivalry, Skorne vs Trollbloods Mercs.

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!

Wednesday Battle Report: Zaadesh 2 vs. Ossrum - 75pts

Hey everyone!  I'm back, and I'll be going back to mostly-regular weekly battle reports after a somewhat hectic November.  This week, I decided to try Skorne's new toy: the all-grown-up-now Lord Tyrant Zaadesh.

Lord Tyrant Zaadesh (*28pt) - Proxied by Zaadesh 1
*Tiberion (22pts)
*Despoiler (18pts)
*Titan Sentry (15pts) - Proxied by a Bronzeback
*Titan Sentry (15pts)
*Agonizer (7pts)

Immortals (Leader and 9 Grunts) (15pts)
*Command Attachment (Extoller Advocate) (4pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (5pts)
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew (2pts)

Wednesday Battle Report: Kaelyssa 1 vs. Ragnor 1 (75pts)

This one is a day late due to some unexpected stuff coming up yesterday, but here it is.

As I said last week, I'm going to focus my tactical posts on the Retribution of Scyrah until January.  I'll still post some Skorne battle reports, but this week, I was getting back in touch with my inner mage hunter.

I've been very intrigued by the MkIII version of Kaelyssa, who has some amazing new tools to play with as well as a much-improved lineup of 'jacks, and still-totally-good infantry.  Here's the list I played.

Wednesday Battle Report: Makeda 3 vs. Borka 2 - 75pts

Here's the game I played last Friday.  I wanted to try out the bug version of my Makeda 3 list, and Caleb had some Trollblood lists he was interested in trying.  We decided to do a Steamroller-esque pairing, and drop what we thought would work best.

My two lists were the Hexeris 2 list I played in this game, which I like a lot, and the following Makeda 3 list:

Maxtermynd Returns! A Khadoran Tournament Report, pt 1

Greetings komrades! I've finally emerged from my work induced hidey hole and have actually played some games of the new edition! I've chosen to hang up my pointy ears for a bit and go back to my first love, the Empress and her Imperial Fists.

This past weekend I went to a small local tournament, the first that I’ve entered with Khador in Mk 3. In practice testing I was playing a lot of Kozlov, but I decided to “git gud” and play the following lists instead, because who needs practice?

Vlad1

• Juggernaut x 2
• Spriggan

Kovnik Joe

Max Rifle Corps + 3 Rocketeers

Min Uhlans x 2

Lady Aiyanna and Master Holt + Valachev

Irusk2

• Juggernaut
• Spriggan
• Sylys

Kovnik Joe

Max Rifle Corps + 3 Rocketeers

Max Uhlans

Max Iron Fang Pikemen + UA

Winter Guard Mortar

Game 1: Irusk2 vs Wurmwood in Outlast

First round I got a Circle opponent running Wurmwood and Kromac2. We joked around a bit and I asked her to guess my caster choice (Irusk2, obvs), and we got going.

Throughout the game my opponent played very conservatively, setting up her forest wall and keeping all of her troops behind it. On turn 2 she started setting up for the feat turn, but after the second standing stone moved into position I checked to make sure she knew what Irusk2’s feat was as she was putting them in easy charge range of my Uhlans. She did not, and adjusted the rest of her game plan accordingly but still didn’t put anything into the zones.

So, my turn 2 my Uhlans charged out and destroyed the two Standing Stones, allowing me to control both zones. The Pikemen stayed back to guard Irusk while the Winterguard advanced cautiously to put some damage on the Razorwing Griffon.

Her turn 3 saw two of my Uhlans killed but not much else- she tried to do some Hellmouth tricks to get a charge from her Stalker on the other Uhlans, but failed to contest my second zone. So I went to three control points on her turn, then ran Irusk to dominate for the win.

Game 2: Vlad1 vs Kaelyssa in Recon

Second round I got paired against our local pointy ear running Kaelyssa and… Ossyan? I think? It shames me as a former elf that I don’t remember. Anyway, I zeroed in on Kae Baeby being his probable pick and decided to go with Vladimir purely on his ability to raise his base armor with spells. Blood of Kings pushes him up to 18/19, which pushes him to a non-aiming Hydra needing 13s to hit him.

His list:

Kaelyssa

• Hydra x2
• Daemon
• Sylys

Arcanist x 3

Stormfall Archers x 2

Max Sentinels + UA

Eiryss1

He won the roll to go first and I chose a side that had a trench for Vlad to hide in. While it wouldn’t help against Phantom Seeker it would at least make Kaelyssa waste 4-6 focus if he wanted to try to assassinate Vlad. Uhlan pods went on either side with a Juggernaut, Spriggan in the center and Rifle Corps across from the Sentinels. A+H+V went on the left center.

Round 1: He ran up, his jacks in the center, Stormfalls on my left flank and Sentinels on my right. Blur went on the Sentinels and Refuge on Kaelyssa.

I advanced to outside his threat ranges, the Spriggan running right up next to the objective and Vlad ran into the trench and put up Blood of Kings.

Round 2: When reviewing my opponent’s list I questioned his inclusion of a Daemon- here he started to prove it’s worth. I had put Vlad within 2” of the Spriggan, and the Spriggan wasn’t basing the trench. Kaelyssa moved up, hit the Spriggan with a Stationary shot, cast Backlash on it and refuged back behind his objective after feating. The Daemon then moved up, hit the Spriggan with his mini-hellmouth gun and dragged Vlad out of the trench, boosting damage on him and cranking the damage roll, putting some points on him. The Hydras followed up but failed to do much more damage to Vlad, and the Stormfalls lit Vlad and the Spriggan on fire and put some damage into it, and also damaged one of my left Uhlans.

Here my opponent made a slighly suboptimal choice and didn’t disrupt the Spriggan with Eiryss, instead opting to Deadly Shot my wounded Uhlan. The Sentinels ran up in three man pods, threatening my objective.

My turn I was faced with a dilemma- unfortunately my force really needs to get the charge off in order to be effective (dammit cav!). I went in the tank for a few minutes, and while I still didn’t have a great plan I came up with something- use the Spriggan to flare six of the Sentinels and have the Rifle Corps shoot them, while a feated Juggernaut would eat the closest three. The real question was whether I could safely cast Signs and Portents, as with it a single Rifle Corps member could kill a Sentinel pretty reliably, but without it I would need to do two man CRAs.

After thinking about it I decided discretion was the better part of valor and cast Blood of Kings. The Spriggan walked up, flared some sentinels, and the Rifle Corps got to work. Unfortunately my CRAs had some terrible dice and I only managed to pick up 4 Sentinels with them, but blast damage from the Rocketeers was surprisingly effective and netted a further two including the officer. The Juggernaut killed the two Sentinels that were in range, leaving three functional weaponmasters in play.

I made a questionable decision here and ran the left Uhlans and Juggernaut into his Stormfalls, tying up Eiryss in the process. The main reason was I couldn’t get Holt in range to shoot Eiryss, so A+H+V hung back and stealthed

Round 3: My opponent went in the tank for a while, trying to determine where to Vengeance to, but eventually decided to go for a scenario play. The Sentinels charged into the Spriggan and leveled it, the Daemon sucked up five Winter Guard to their untimely deaths, and one of his Hydras fired on the objective. At this point I reminded him that it was a bunker, and his face fell. Still he continued forward, plinking some damage on with the Hydra. Kaelyssa stationaried all of my jacks and refuged to the edge of the zone. His second Hydra took out the Uhlans and put some damage on the left Juggernaut, freeing up the Stormfalls to shoot the objective. This left it on 1 box. This left Eiryss, who walked up, shot at the objective… and rolled double 1s.

To be honest, I was planning on him killing my objective, in which case I was going to try to pull off an assassination on him with my remaining Winter Guard, razor winds from Vlad and A+H+V getting the final damage. With the objective in the way this became much more difficult… though honestly I probably should have still gone for it as he was only camping two.

But, I decided to go for attrition. Due to my incredible strategic planning my left Juggernaut was out of my control range, so he stayed stationary, but I shook the other. I was hoping to have him murder the right Hydra but a Soulless escort in the way ruined my charge path, and I didn’t like the prospect of trampling and chopping. Still, I could at least take out the remaining Sentinels, the Daemon, and a number of Stormfalls.

Vlad put up Signs and Portents and continued to cower in the trench, moving slightly up to get the left juggernaut in his control range. Valachev Zephyr’ed, Holt aimed and shot Eiryss and Kaelyssa, and Aiyanna Harmed the Daemon. The Uhlans crashed into the Daemon and destroyed it, reforming slightly back and into base to base. The Juggernaut advanced up slightly and chopped the soulless in half. My Rifle Corps shot a few Stormfalls to pieces.

Round 4: His left Hydra beat my Juggernaut the rest of the way to scrap, Kaelyssa shot an Uhlan and did some damage and refuged backwards. The right Hydra walked into the back arc of my Uhlans, head butted the Juggernaut and punched an Uhlan to death. The Stormfalls finished off the objective and killed the remaining Uhlan. Sylys ran into the zone to take him to two.

My turn the Juggernaut eliminated the right Hydra and my Winterguard + Holt mopped up the remaining Stormfalls, Sylys, and an Arcanist. Vlad continued to cower. The Winterguard mobbed the zone under Tough.

Round 5: Kaelyssa and the Hydra removed A+H+V and moved towards the left flag.

My Juggernaut eliminated the objective… and I made a terrible mistake. Vlad was sitting on 8 boxes left and I feared for his life. For some reason I forgot about the flags being scorable and figured that if I could keep him out of the zone I would win so long as I wasn’t assassinated. So I left Vlad in the trench and only scored two this round.

Round 6: Kaelyssa gets to the flag and goes to three, killing a few more Winterguard. The last Arcanist runs to contest the zone.

I make another terrible mistake, using the Juggernaut instead of Joe to kill the Arcanist (he has a hand cannon! Remember!). My Winter Guard get Tough’ed and they run to contest the flag. Vlad dominates the zone, taking me to four.

Round 7: The Hydra walks up and throws my Juggernaut out of the zone, leaving just Joe and Vlad in it. Kaelyssa walks up, shoots Joe dead, and refuges into the zone, dominating for the win.

There were a couple of things I could have done to win this: going for the assassination on turn 3, dominating with Vlad the first round I had cleared the zone, or simply leaving the Juggernaut at the edge of the zone. Any of these would have secured me a victory, but my general rustiness with Warmachine due to lack of practice and the little amount of time I had left on the clock (I think I finished with 4 minutes left) didn’t get me there. I am actually pleased with this game for the most part, though, as I thought it was pretty much over after my turn two, but sticking with it (and, to be fair, a little luck) really paid off.

Next two games up later this week- thanks for reading!

Wednesday Battle Report: Makeda 3 vs. Rhyas 1 - 75pts

Hey everyone.  My internet is fixed!  Meaning I can post again from a platform other than my phone.  I didn't get the chance to play yesterday, so here's my second game from last week.  I'd been brainstorming about Makeda 3, and I wanted to try out one of my lists: