Battle Report 17, October 8 Steamroller Round 1: Wurmwood vs. Helga

I had the opportunity to play in a 12 man Steamroller Event this weekend, which is a landmark for Eastern Washington as far as size goes. We had 3 new players (less than 20 games) show up to play, and we had a smattering of less common tournament attendees.

Had all the tournament regulars shown up, we would have had a proper 16 man event!

I was originally planning on playing Skorne at this event to test out my teammates pairing for our upcoming team tournament, but I had also brought my Circle bag since one of the newer guys had expressed interest in playing in the event if he could borrow an army.

He ended up wanting to play Skorne, so I gleefully ran back to my bag to pull out my beloved druids, only to discover that my Una model had been left at home! (Approx 3 hour drive away)

After much debating, I kept the Tanith list the exact same, minus Una, plus a Druid Wilder. While this mostly was fine, I sure missed those boosted POW 10s a number of times.



Round one, I got paired against a gentleman running double pigs - Carver and Helga.

For once, someone actually requested that I play Wurmwood into them! And since the table was pretty good for the tree anyway, I went ahead and agreed.

Wurmwood
-Cassius
-Brennos
-Megalith
-Stalker
-Gorax

Lanyssa
Gallows Grove

Bone Grinders (min)
Sentry Stones x2
Shifting Stones x2
Gatorman Bokur and Shamblers
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew

Objective: Fuel Cache

He dropped his Helga list, which is a reasonable decision. Wurmwood piece trades with Carver fairly well thanks to Stranglehold and the Stalker having access to Sprint.

Helga, the Conquerer
- Splatter Boar x2
- Gun Boar x2

Razorback Crew x2
Slaughterhousers x2
Meat Thresher x2

Objective: Fuel Cache


We were playing on Linebreaker and my opponent won the roll off, choosing to go first. I didn't get a picture of his deployment, but it's basically his turn 1 advance but back 10 inches. I was looking forward to playing Linebreaker, since after the testing I did for my Linebreaker article (you can read it here), I was pretty convinced that this was a very live Scenario and I wanted a chance to document it.

I deployed like so. I had identified that his right flank was strangely the weak one, since my Stalker outthreats both of his battle engines by 1" and I also have plentiful access to Stranglehold to tie them down until I can kill them. The way he deployed his brigands and the nature of the terrain meant he was going to have to bunch them up turn 1 unless he ran his battle engines to the extreme edge of the table, and that meant I'd likely be able to Hellmouth a bunch of them to death on turn 1.

On the left side, I'd just face a billion shots from high explosive or brutal damage guns, and that didn't look like something I wanted my important pieces going into.

Minions turn 1:

He puts Defenders Ward on one of the Slaughterhouse units. Everything runs up the table. The water feature on the left really hampers his advance, and I'm not too worried about getting shot up for a turn or two. The light green circles are acid pits just.

Circle turn 1:

I measure out threat ranges, and Megalith is half an inch out of trampling up and casting a Stranglehold to begin the chain of silliness.

My Bone Grinders murder each-other to fuel the Tree and the Bokur.

Megalith tramples over a Mannikin. Lanyssa advances and kills a Mannikin.

My Sentry Stones both go, getting a couple each and either can't hit the Slaughterhousers with boosted sprays or can't roll the six needed to force a tough check. They do manage to make one take a tough check, which he passes, and both Stones make a forest in front of Megalith.

Cassius runs, and I get a Hellmouth onto 5 of the remaining Slaughterhousers, killing all of them. Wurmwood yanks him back with Dark Path.

The Stalker warps Prowl and goes into the forest with the Gallows Grove. Brennos chills out behind said forest so as not to get shot by the incoming battle engines.

The Stones port Wurmwood into the left Forest to give him Stealth.

I apologize for the blur. I had forgotten my tablet, so my phone was pulling double duty as camera and warroom, so some of the shots were really hurried. 

Minions turn 2:

Losing an entire unit of Slaughterhousers wasn't great for my opponent, and I haven't given him hardly anything to shoot at or attack.

Helga upkeeps Defenders Ward. The battle engines stay away from my Stalker and shoot down Mannikins. The last Slaughterhouser from the dessicated unit moves up and engages 2 Mannikins, and the others run/charge to my left.

His artillery pieces run to get out of the water, and his lights throw some corrosion on various things.

Helga stays safe behind the wall.

Circle turn 2:

Well I can't score this turn, so that means it isn't Feat turn yet. What I can do is Stranglehold both of his battle engines, get Curse of Shadows on one in preparation for next turn, and hopefully get a lucky drift from Brennos to prevent them both from shooting.

Wurmwood gets 10 fury, and the Bokur makes some Shamblers.

The Grove shifts up on the right, and the Sentry Stones kill....one Slaughterhouser?

Cassius runs, Wurmwood casts Dark Path to get over to him, chucks Curse of Shadows on the left Battle Engine and Stranglehold on the right one. Then he drops a forest on the Gallows Grove to complete my line of trees. The second Sentry unit charges the now Cursed Thresher and deals a few damage.

Megalith casts Stranglehold on the left one, and Brennos gets a drift onto the left Thresher.

My Shamblers charge his Slaughterhousers, but I can't roll 6 to hit or to kill, Defenders Ward really pulling some weight. My Gobbers make a cloud.

Minions turn 3:

Between Slaughterhousers and shots, he manages to kill most of the Shamblers and both of the Swamp Gobbers (darn). His Cursed battle engine backs up, taking a free strike at dice off 6 andddddd my dice continue to hate me, doing no damage.

The other Thresher shoots some stuff.

Circle turn 3:

It's go time! Lanyssa is within 16 inches of the far right Thresher, I can port a Stone around Megalith to port him to the objective, and Wurmwood is going to feat to keep me safe.

I upkeep Curse of Shadows. Lanyssa moves up through the morass and lands Hunters Mark on the Thresher. My Gallows Grove gets out of the way.

Both Sentry Stones activate. The unpainted one on the right gets a pretty good pair of charges into the Thresher, knocking it down to 11 boxes.

The one on the left charges the Splatter Boar and misses.

I port one of the green stones around Megalith with the grey stones, and the green stones port Megalith to the objective, which he puts down handily.

The Shamblers throw themselves at the Slaughterhousers, actually killing one this time! The Bokur murders the Gun Boar that was there by chewing through half his unit of Shamblers to buy and boost attacks.

Cassius advances to within 10" of the Thresher.

Brennos activates and tries to drift his AOE onto the Thresher again, but this time it deviates back and murders a Mannikin!

Wurmwood activates, throws a boosted Stranglehold at the Meat Thresher, spiking and doing 8 damage. He throws another one out, killing it, and pops Feat.

I get 2 points.

Outside edge of the red beads is the forest.

Score 2-0

Advantage Circle

Minions turn 4:

My opponent has exactly zero models to contest with, so he jut makes a beeline for my left flag. He also kills all the remaining Shamblers. 

We both get a point. 

Score 3-1

Advantage Circle

Circle turn 4:

Cassius is within 14 inches of the flag. He runs, Wurmwood casts Dark Path to get himself base to base with the flag, and I get 2 more points for the win. 

Victory for the Druids!

Post Game Thoughts:

Brennos and Megalith are in this list specifically to prey on Huge Based models with guns, and I am incredibly happy with how they performed this game. 

It's kind of counter-intuitive to see two battle engines as the weak side of the table, but I'm much more afraid of the Slaughterhousers than I am of the Meat Threshers. The Slaughterhousers with Dash threaten as far as the Stalker does without Hunters Mark and 3-4 of them will reliably kill said Stalker. 

The central obstruction played a huge role in allowing me to pivot my army around the table like I wanted to. My original plan was actually to play for attrition. Once the Slaughterhousers are dead and the Threshers are Strangleholded every turn, Helga is really the only thing that I worry about for making her feat work, and she can't actually do that much against Wurmwood and Megalith. 

I felt pretty advantaged going into this matchup, but I feel Wurmwood is really strong into almost everything that Minions has except Rask. 

A very fun game, and to all of you naysayers who don't think Linebreaker is very live, take that!