Battle Report 27, High Reward Steamroller Round 3, Tanith vs. Rasheth

Prologue:

I was surprised and delighted to be in the finals for this event, but the list pairing I had in front of me was making me panic a little. It didn't help that I hadn't eaten anything in nearly 8 hours and was starving.

My opponent had Rasheth with 6 Cyclops Shamans and stuff and Zaal 2 with 3 units of Immortals.

I was pretty darn sure Wurmwood was a terrible matchup here, even though typically he loves to play into Recon, so I dropped Tanith.

I wasn't really surprised when he dropped Rasheth into me.


Dominar Rasheth
-Gladiator
-Raider x2
-Shaman x6

Soulward x2
Willbreaker x2
Void Spirit

Min Beast Handlers


He won the roll and opted for first. Since the only thing Shamans don't ignore from terrain is elevation, I went for the side with the hill that poked into the zone.

I deployed pretty centrally. I had no real solid game plan here. Survive his feat turn and I might be okay? Maybe? If I could jam with enough Griffons I might be able to blunt the shooting somewhat. Keeping Una alive was going to be hard.

Skorne turn 1:

Everything ran. Rasheth got thrown.

Circle turn 1:

Poor placement and movement made it so that I couldn't get everything I wanted to on the hill.

Stealth all around was going to be interesting though since he could only get four real shots onto things.

Scything Touch went on the Grey Griffon, Admonition on the Pureblood.

Skorne turn 2:

Feat time!

He aimed with basically everything, and both units of Stones died, and the Grey Scarsfell was left with 3 boxes after a couple of shots plus an arced Breath of Corruption through the Void Spirit.

Circle turn 2:

I didn't have distance to the objective (bad play Jaden, bad!) but I could get the yellow Griffon to charge the Raider and/or Shaman on the right, which I did.

I didn't have the resources to mess with the Void Spirit, so I ignored it. things piled onto the hill, the Pureblood warped Spell Ward and sprayed the Objective and Rasheth, doing a few points to each.

I ran the blue Griffon to engage the foremost Shaman on the left.

Snapjaw advanced and riled, Wrong-Eye cast Submerge and Star-Crossed.

Clouds went up from the Gobbers and the central cloud rolled out.

Skorne turn 3:

He shoots more stuff, but with three models engaged and forgetting about Stealth on all the Griffons, he doesn't actually do much but kill the Grey Griffon and charge the Stalker with the Void Spirit, doing ten damage.

He also puts a bunch of hurt into Snapjaw.

Circle turn 3:

I'm shocked to have this much stuff left, and I feel myself rallying. The Pureblood goes in and kills the objective and dinging up the Raider to the right.

Snapjaw charges the Soulward, killing her and healing. He then kills the Shaman and heals as well.

The Blue Griffon charges into the Shaman on the right, killing him.

Wrong Eye advances, casts Submerge and Star-Crossed again.

Everything else chills on the hill, with Tanith toeing the zone for a total of 3 points this turn after casting Scything Touch on the Stalker and camping 4 to prevent getting murdered.

Score 3-1

Advantage Circle

Skorne turn 4:

He uses a lot of time thinking here, before starting things off.

A Shaman charges the Blue Griffon, doing about 2/3 of it's health. I trigger Admonition off of it and the Pureblood backs up.

Shamans and Gladiator get Enraged from the Beast Handlers.

He uses two more Shamans to kill the first Shaman so that his Gladiator can get to my Pureblood.

His remaining attacks go into Snapjaw, who dies.

Rasheth casts Rush and Carnivore onto the Gladiator, who charges in. Star-Crossed means he misses two attacks, leaving the Pureblood on 2.

He passes the turn.

Proxy base is the Gladiator.

Circle turn 4:

I just have to kill a Gladiator and two Shamans.

The Stalker gets Primaled by the Gorax, walks up, and murders both the Gladiator and far Shaman.

Tanith moves up and casts Scything Touch and Primal on the blue Griffon.

This was my first mistake this turn. He had finally not cast Castigate so I should have just feated and used the Pureblood as an arc node to do this.

Una moves up and drops fury.

I actuvate the Blue Griffon....and realize it's Spirit is crippled and Una should have healed it rather than dropping fury.

I don't even ask for the take back, I screwed up and I knew it. The Griffon is MAT 8, effective POW 16/15/15, doing an average of 25 damage if he connects with everything.

He doesn't, leaving the Shaman on 6.

The other Griffon moves over, staying in melee with his other Shaman. His MIND is out, so I boost to hit, and connect. At straight dice, I boost damage and kill the Shaman, getting 2 more control points.

Score 5-0

Victory for the Druids!

Post Game Thoughts:

I had played such a clean and tight event right up until the last 3 activations of the whole thing, and that nearly cost me the game. Now to be fair, I was still very likely to kill the Shaman even with those aspects out, but if they'd been live it wouldn't have even been close. 

ALWAYS check to see if your beasts need healing before sending them in. The irony is that I had made sure the Stalker was okay before I activated him, just forgot about the Griffons. 

This is an interesting matchup to be sure. He gets one turn of shooting before I start to engage his models and he really has to make that count. On the flipside, if he makes it count, I probably lose. It's a very coin flippy matchup, and I'm certainly intrigued by his lists. 

Overall this was a great event at an awesome venue. Anyone who has the chance to visit Mox Boarding House should really do so, you won't regret it!