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I've been asked to post more of my painted models, so I think at the beginning of each report I'll post one that's relevant to the thread. I present the most savage Griffon in all the land for your viewing pleasure today.
Tom Guan won Wargames Con with an awesome Tannith list, featuring three Scarsfell Griffons, which readers of this blog will know are favorites of mine with her. As soon as I saw this list I knew I had to try it, so I booted up Vassal and got in a game with a good friend of mine, a competitive Khador player trying out a new Harkevich list he'd been tossing around with 3 Kodiaks to make a giant cloud wall every turn.
My list:
Tannith:
- Gorax
- Scarsfell
- Pureblood
- Stalker
Una
- Scarsfell
- Scarsfell
Wrong Eye & Snap Jaw
Sentry Stone
Sentry Stone
Lanyssa
Bellows Crew
Shifting Stones
I absolutely love this list. Scarsfells are monsters with Tannith, Scything touch and Primal bringing them up to excellent numbers. I like the Stalker for applying Scything touch in a lot of places, and he's also just an excellent beast. The Pureblood adds to the ranged game of the list and Wrong Eye and Snapjaw pile Star-Crossed on top of already hard to hit Griffons with Dodge to create some truly brutal dice math for your opponent.
And my opponent dropped:
Harkevich
-Kodiak x3
-Juggernaut x2
-Behemoth
Widowmakers
Widowmaker Marksmen
Ragman
Which basically puts up a 12 inch cloud wall every turn and has six heavy warjacks in the list....seems good!
We played Take and Hold, and I won the roll off. My opponent opted for the side of the table with the trench, and I deployed.
My opponent has played against Sentry Stones enough to know that he needs his Widowmakers wayyyy away from them, so they're more than 20 inches away and on the right.
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| Sorry for the limited bottom edge of the screen, I had to edit my buddies Skype info out. |
Circle turn 1:
Stuff pretty much ran. Scything Touch got put on the Warpwolf Stalker, and Admonition on the Pureblood. Una cast Guardian Beast. Both Sentry Stones did pretty well for fury (2 each) and I prepared for a forest wall on the left side of the table.
Gobbers stuck a big cloud over Tannith and the Shifting Stones made a triangle around the important things.
Khador turn 1:
I haven't played against the new Widowmaker Marksmen enough. I totally spaced that he can do 3 damage to whatever he wants, and as a result, one of my Shifting Stones and a Mannikin die from him and the unit.
He makes a cloud wall after Harkevich casts Mobility. I predict a long game somewhere in this turn.
Circle turn 2:
It's another extremely exciting turn. I move Tannith over and get her close to the flag so I can take it next turn. My Sentry Stone on the right kills the Marksmen and my Pureblood kills a couple more Widowmakers.
Wrong Eye casts Submerge and Star-Crossed and advances. Snapjaw riles for three, casts Submerge and advances as well.
I make it so that the only models my opponent can charge at are Griffons under Star-Crossed with Dodge up OR at Mannikins which I don't care about anyway. Una begins her long journey around that forest, she will stay there the entire game.
Khador turn 2:
In fact, Harkevich activates first, casts Mobility and does indeed pop his feat.
The Kodiaks advance, vent steam, and repo back behind the cloud. Side note, that's an amazing field marshal and I want it in Circle really badly.
On the second one, I admo the Pureblood in closer to his lines, and he runs a Juggernaut up to engage it.
Behemoth activates before the third Kodiak, boosts a hit into the Gobbers crew thanks to powerful shot and kills both of them. Sad days!
The third Kodiak makes a cloud and the other Jugger advances.
Circle turn 3:
Tannith upkeeps Scything Touch and the Shifting Stone pulls one fury of the Pureblood.
We realize that Harkevich's feat is an aura rather than a pulse, so I activate the Pureblood and have him throw the Jugger towards the Stalker.
Tannith feats, casts Primal on Una's Scarsfell (the central red one) and Admo back on the Pureblood, as well as healing the Stalker back up to full from the damage Behemoth's guns did to him.
The Scarsfell with Primal charges the KD'd Jugger and does a couple damage. The Stalker kills him.
The Sentry Stones use their Mannikins to jam and they build a forest wall in front of Tannith and the flag.
One of Una's Griffons and one of Tannith's Griffons run way into my opponent's backfield to threaten Harkevich next turn.
Scar-Crossed and Submerge go back up, and then Shifting Stones port up in front of my opponent.
I get one point.
Score 1-0
Advantage Circle
Khador turn 3:
My opponent is in a bit of a bind. He needs to cast Mobility to get his models where they need to go, but he also needs a lot of focus out there and he ALSO needs to worry about the two Griffons behind him. In the end, he gives one to Behemoth and camps two.
We talk a lot about his assassination potential here, but the Sentry Stones can't be moved or placed so he can't throw them, We also discover that Vent Steam doesn't damage Mannikins since they're neither alive nor dead, but constructs.
He decides to go for attrition, and he runs his two Widowmakers behind my Pureblood to pin him in.
He casts Mobility and moves up to the flag with Harkevich, and the right Kodiak goes into the Pureblood, missing 2 of 3 attacks and doing a few damage.
The left-most Kodiak tramples through the Mannikins, missing both of them needing 5's and contests the flag. Because of that, he can't put another heavy in position to throw the Kodiak at Tannith either.
The middle Kodiak kills the left Shifting Stone and Repositions back to Harkevich, and the Juggernaut charges the Pureblood as well. The DEF 14 saves the beast again as he misses the charge and connects with his fist, doing a few more damage.
Behemoth moves up and spikes some crazy damage rolls, killing the Gorax with two shots, and then Repositioning back to Harkevich.
I have one Shifting Stone contesting his flag.
Score 1-0
Advantage Circle
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| Key: Left jack with a "2" is a Kodiak, top Jack with a "1" is Juggernaut, next lower Jack is a Kodiak, and the unmarked Jack is Behemoth. |
Tannith pulls fury, and the Scarsfell with Primal from last turn charges the Jugger and does I believe one damage. Scything Touch gets upkept, but not Admonition.
The Pureblood passes his frenzy check.
The Pureblood goes first, warps Strength, and bashes the Juggernaut for a few damage. The Stalker advances to get both the Kodiak and the Jugger with Scything Touch and puts the Jugger into the dirt, rolling poorly though so it uses all his fury.
The two Griffons at the bottom charge Harkevich, doing a few each. Iron Sentinel is good. (+2 DEF and ARM whilst base-to-base with a 'jack).
The yellow Sentry unit sprays Harkevich, missing or not hurting him, but rolling the hard 11 to hit my own griffon TWICE and then doing FIFTEEN damage to it between two pow 10 sprays. Sheesh....
The other Sentry unit moves up and charges the Kodiak, doing a few. Both Sentries made a forest this turn.
Snapjaw eats the poor Kodiak. Wrong-Eye casts Submerge and Star-Crossed and charges the Kodiak on the far right so he can influence more of the table.
Tannith realizes she doesn't have any transfer targets, so she heals some damage and puts Admonition on herself before moving away from the flag and behind Snapjaw.
Una drops some fury and moves up.
Khador turn 4:
Harkevich is engaged by two Griffons, there are a bunch of heavies under Star-Crossed in his face, and Tannith is not really a viable assassination target.
Harkevich hands out 2 focus to the top Kodiak and Behemoth.
The top Kodiak moves outside of Star-Crossed, hits both his initials and hucks the Pureblood towards the Stalker, falling an inch short.
The second Kodiak walks up and does the same, boosting the throw into the Stalker and connecting. He Repositions back towards Harkevich.
Behemoth tramples over to the KD'd Stalker and buys two attacks, failing to kill him by 4. (Dice plus 3, two attacks does 20 and the Stalker had 24 left so this wasn't a likely plan. He ended up rolling just shy of average and did 19 damage).
He repositions back to Harkevich and the Widowmaker shoots the Pureblood, dealing the last point.
Harkevich can't get base-to-base with either of his Jacks without taking free strikes, so just goes to the opposite side of the flag. One Griffon connects and spikes the damaage, forcing Harkevich to take five damage even after the focus (rolled a 14 for damage).
My opponent looks at the table, sees that I can get a Stalker and two Griffons into Harkevich on one focus, and concedes.
Victory for the Druids!
Post-Game Thoughts:
The Harkevich list has some serious potential, that much LOS denial is an amazing tool, and at speed six, Khador 'jacks are really, really scary. It's also absurdly hard to kill those things under his feat. Unfortunately, the list is very focus starved and against the list I was playing, that meant less boosted attacks, which are pretty much required when you need 7's under Star-Crossed.
As for the Tannith list, I think I'm in love. It takes everything I love about the six Griffon version of the list and adds in more hitting power and more versatility and more DEF skew. Star-Crossed effectively adds 2 to your DEF when the math gets worked out, so DEF 16 heavies and DEF 17 Griffons with Dodge are just a nightmare for any list that doesn't have a lot of DEF debuffs or massive accuracy buffs. It hits hard, it's really fast, and it can play into lots of match-ups. I'll be taking this exact list to a Steamroller this weekend, so look forward to that.
Thanks for reading!
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