Battle Report 42, Bellingham Masters Round 2: 2Una vs. Sturm and Drang

For Round 2 I was paired with a gentleman playing Minions! He had two Farrow Theme force lists, with Midas and Sturm/Drang piloting.

I felt fairly confidant that he would be picking Sturm and Drang since Midas has no game at all into Stranglehold and Hellmouth. With that in mind, I decided to give Una 2 some practice into one of the more interesting matchups.

He did, in fact, choose Sturm and Drang.

Sturm/Drang
- War Hog
- War Hog
- Road Hog
- Battle Boar
- Razor Boar x2

Brigands and UA
Commandos

Efaarit Scout x2

And my Una 2 list again for reference:

 Una the Skyhunter - WB: +29
 -    Druid Wilder - PC: 4
 -    Scarsfell Griffon - PC: 8 (Battlegroup Points Used: 8)
 -    Scarsfell Griffon - PC: 8 (Battlegroup Points Used: 8)
 -    Scarsfell Griffon - PC: 8 (Battlegroup Points Used: 8)
 -    Scarsfell Griffon - PC: 8 (Battlegroup Points Used: 5)
 -    Scarsfell Griffon - PC: 8
 -    Scarsfell Griffon - PC: 8
 -    Scarsfell Griffon - PC: 8
 -    Gorax Rager - PC: 7
 -    Pureblood Warpwolf - PC: 17
 Swamp Gobber Chef - PC: 1
 Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress - PC: 3
 Shifting Stones - Leader & 2 Grunts: 3
 Shifting Stones - Leader & 2 Grunts: 3
 Sentry Stone & Mannikins - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5
 Sentry Stone & Mannikins - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5

The Scenario was Take and Hold, so when I won the roll off I decided to go first and get up the field quick.

I deployed pretty central. Una was basically going to hang out in the forest all game and slowly attrition down. I needed to force him to Feat first and very defensively OR I needed to be able to use my Feat first and kill two of his heavies in order to win this game.

My opponent chose not to ambush his Commandos so that they could start lobbing bombs turn 1 (a fair reason), and put his battlegroup off to my left so they wouldn't have to worry about the forest.

Prey goes on the unpainted Sentry Stones.

Circle turn 1:

Full steam ahead! Mirage on the Pureblood, Hand of Fate on a unit of Sentry Stones, and everything runs up, careful to stay more than 10 inches from the Commandos in the case of the Griffons, and more than 21 inches from Efaarit Scouts for the Shifting Stones.

Minions turn 1:

The Commandos move up and put some damage on Griffons with drifting AOEs, and also kill off 2 Mannikins from each unit.

Sturm casts Deceleration and Polarity Field on the right side War Hog. His beasts carefully stay more than 12 inches from my Griffons and more than 16 from Lanyssa.

Brigands run up.

Circle turn 2:

Well I can't really...do anything with my Griffons this turn. If I feat and run to engage, he'll counter feat and I'll get next to no attacks in the next turn. 

I decide to hang back, with Una upkeeping both spells. 

The unit of Sentry Stones with Hand of Fate goes first, and I'm able to catch 5 dudes with one Spray and 4 with the other. 

Once their turn is over, Una moves out of killbox and shoots a Commando to death before she casts Hand of Fate on the other unit, which also gets to make some really excellent sprays. 

He doesn't make any tough rolls but 1, which dies to another spray later, and I am able to kill approx 1/3 of his infantry models while still keeping my Sentry Stones in a forest. 

I send in one Griffon to engage some guys, and the rest hang back and cast Elusive.

Minions turn 2:

He continues to play cautiously here, ringing the Griffon he's engaging and attacking it with a few models and missing most attacks.

His Road Hogs mosey up, and he casts Deceleration again. His Road Hog moves up to spray the Sentry Stone, but at dice off 6, he isn't able to kill it.

The Efaarit Scouts kill a Shifting Stone each. Yuck.

Critically, my opponent chose not to feat this turn, which means I have a window to go in and do some work.

Circle turn 3:

First things first, I upkeep both spells. The Sentry Stones clear out landing spots around the Road Hog.

Primal goes on the far left Griffon from the Gorax. Una activates, shoots a guy, and Feats.

One Griffon runs to engage the pair of War Hogs.

The other one with Primal charges the left one and kills it.

Two Griffons kill the Road Hog, and two more hang back.

The Pureblood aims and sprays the Razor Boar to death.

Minions turn 3:

He's in trouble and he knows it.

He chooses to Telekinesis both the Griffons near Sturm/Drang so they'll frenzy at eachother and the Razor Boar if they do. He engages the two other close Griffons with the War Hog and the Battle Boar. Efaarit Scouts get in the way and kill more Shifting Stones.

Circle turn 4:

So the auto frenzy Griffon does a few to the one in the nest, which frenzies into the Razor Boar. The far right one kills a Brigand with its frenzy.

Una activates first and puts Hand of Fate on the Pureblood, then shoots the Efaarit Scout in the way down.

The Sentry Stone gets out of the way.

The Pureblood charges in and....fails to kill the War Hog. Awkward.

The farthest up Griffon takes a free strike from the Battle Boar, lives through it, and throws Sturm and Drang at my Sentry Stone. The other one engaged by the War Hog flies over the War Hog, still in its melee range, and throws Sturm again.

Lanyssa casts Hunters Mark on Sturm, and two other Griffons fly in and kill him.

He was right between the two closest Griffons.

Victory for the Druids!

Post Game Thoughts:

My opponent REALLY should have Feated turn 2. I would have been hard pressed to kill enough models with only one fury per Griffon, and it would have been a pretty gross tempo swing. 

Hand of Fate on Sentry Stones murders infantry like crazy, it's pretty amazing. 

On to round three!