Battle Report 44: Wurmwood vs. Feora 2

Well friends, the errata came and shook up the world pretty darn good. Circle came through much more intact than I expected it to, and I was pretty excited about that.

Before I get to my report, I'd like to quickly highlight what exactly changed:

Nerfs:

Wurmwood's feat went from RNG control to RNG command, decreasing in radius by 4" to a 10" measurement from his base. (slight nerf)

• While this is annoying, and will definitely make playing him more challenging, it isn't going to end Wurmwood's reign as the king of anti-gunline tech. He still has Hellmouth, Stranglehold, and Wild Growth to give him massive control over the game. He can still get 10 Fury a turn pretty reliably, and he's still nigh-impossible to assassinate. This change will just make playing him correctly slightly more difficult and can be overcome with practice. 

Sentry Stones must now place their Mannikins in Maintenance Phase, so you can no longer place them perfectly late in the turn, and they cap at FURY 3. (slight nerf)

• This change takes this unit from bananas insane to just extraordinarily good. I will seriously miss the extra potential boosted attack or damage rolls, and I feel that is the main nerf to these guys. Placing during Maintenance is just going to require more pre-planning and care and, like Wurmwood, can be practice until they are approximately as deadly as they were pre-errata. 

Lanyssa Ryssyl went up to 4 points. (will not see play in Circle outside of maybe Wurmwood and Baldur 1)

• When she and the Blackclad compete for the same spot, I think the Blackclad is going to end up in lists more often than she is. A RNG 8 spray attack is generally better than her single target spell, and he also gets in-faction buffs. She will still see play with Wurmwood to deny pathfinder, and maybe with Baldur 1 to deny flight, but I suspect she won't be showing up much in Circle anymore.

Buffs:

Woldwyrds went from POW 10 to POW 12. (massive buff)

• This is a ridiculously significant change. The Wyrd used to be...well kinda weird. He had a gun that didn't really hurt high ARM targets unless they had the fury to boost and their target had an upkeep on them, and he was very short on Fury. Now, however, these guys are amazing into things like Cavalry, Heavy Infantry, Jacks, Casters....basically anything. I'll break down the math for their kill potential later, but it's very high. 

Woldwardens went from PS 15 to PS 16. (slight buff)

• Well he can do 5 more damage now if he gets to charge for free, and that might make him good enough to consider for some lists that are strapped for points and want the Megalith experience. I still don't love him, but he might see some play. 

The Ogrun Bokur became a Minion that works for Circle, giving us a five point Shield Guard. (MASSIVE buff)

• Circle needed this so badly. I can't even begin to describe how much this is going to change the way I play the game (starting with him being in every list I build more or less). 

So we got two very slight in-faction nerfs, one nerf to a staple minion which will make her hardly ever see play now that she costs the same as the in-faction equivalent, and we got two really incredible buffs in the form of a really effective light gun beast and a shield guard.

Overall I'm surprised and happy to see how lightly we got hit.


Okay, onto the game! I forgot to take pictures after my opponents turns (sorry), but I decided to try out almost everything that got changed in the errata for us with this little number:

Wurmwood
-Cassius
-Megalith
-Brennos
-Woldwyrd
-Woldwyrd
-Woldwyrd

Ogrun Bokur (proxied by Totem Hunter)
Gallows Grove

Sentry Stones x2
Shifting Stones
Gatormen Bokur and Shamblers
Min Bone Grinders
Bellows Crew

The real question you should all be asking is....why does Jaden have three Woldwyrds already?

My opponent dropped:

Feora 2
- Heirophant
- Blood of Martyrs
- Hand of Judgment
- Reckoner x2

Daughters
Flamebringers
Min Choir

Punch Monk!

We played the pit, and my opponent won the roll off and went first.

And I deployed...actually pretty poorly here. I put both Cassius and the Gallows Grove on the same side, which was a massive oversight. I also forgot that when the Bokur's client is AD (I chose Cassius), he also gets AD.

I deployed him normally and way away from Cassius. Yeahhhh the rust is real with Wurmwood.

My game plan here is basically to kill off his infantry and then slowly kill his jacks with shooting. If he decided to put Escort up on Feora, I can potentially kill her pretty easily and if he doesn't, then I can use Hellmouth to extend Megalith or Brennos' threat ranges.

Also, never forget that a Gatorman Bokur can kill a heavy on his own.

Menoth turn 1:

He ran the troops! Daughters next to the building, Flamebringers by the edge of the forest on the left.

Jacks came up the middle after getting the Hymn of No Spells on them from the Choir.

Feora cast Fire Starter on Blood and Escort on herself.

(no picture, but I didn't get much done on my turn so it'll be roughly where stuff was).

Circle turn 1:

Sentry Stones each rolled max fury and...I missed a lot of boosted 10s to hit daughters, only killing one between the two units. I made a nice little forest wall next to the building though.

The Gallows Grove ported up, and Wurmwood arced a Hellmouth through it, catching three Flamebringers and killing two with boosted damage.

Bone Grinders murdered eachother for corpses and souls, and the Bellows Crew put a cloud over Wurmwood so that he couldn't be shot at (he was too far away from Hand).

My heavies wandered up behind the cloud wall.

The left side Wyrd killed the third Flamebringer that had been left by the Hellmouth and the other two ran into the trench.

See?? Too many Daughters left. Grr.....

Menoth turn 2:

My opponent upkeeps his spells and gets aggressive.

Hand moves up and sprays down a Mannikin, and gets two Wyrds and the Sentry Stone on fire and banged up.

Daughter cav run/charge, killing the tree and a Shambler or two.

Both Reckoners miss the frontmost Woldwyrd, and Feora moves up to hide behind jacks on the hill.

Circle turn 2:

Alright, this is either Feat and kill a couple heavies turn or possibly just kill Feora turn?

Math time for Woldwyrds.

Against an ARM 19 Menoth Heavy with an Upkeep on it, they are 3 dice to hit at RAT 6, so let's just say not missing, and they are Dice - 7 with 4 dice for two attacks, and 3 dice for one attack, for a total of 7/7/4 or 18 damage per Woldwyrd.

Two of the Wyrds one round a Heavy at ranged with Purgation.

Against Feora, I ran the math:

She's DEF 17/ARM 19, but I can get Curse of Shadows onto her and move the LOS blocking jacks out of the way with a Hellmouth.

So DEF 17/ARM 17 with three focus. I get one aiming Wyrd, so needing boosted 9s and doing dice -5 on two 4 dice hits and one 3 dice hit for 9/9/6 or 4/4/1 after focus reduction.

I get two more that need boosted 11s to hit, so I'm thinking one or two hits each at 9 damage per connecting shot.

I also have Megalith and Brennos who can potentially get some boosted spells into her if all else fails.

Seems pretty good.

Shamblers and Mannikins get placed. I take a second to spray down the Daughters cuz I hate them.

Shamblers kill the Daughter cav in the way of where I want the third Woldwyrd to go, and one goes to within 3 of the pair of heavies and punch monk.

Wurmwood gets ported up (should have just ran Cassius, big mistake here) and then activates. Hellmouth on the Shambler clears the heavies and kills the punch monk, but I make a mistake and boost the hit needing not double 1s. I boost a Curse of Shadows into Feora and then realize I'm on one fury and can't Dark Path out of danger. ALL IN!!!

The aiming Wyrd gets Feora down off all of her focus, connecting with all three shots. The second Wyrd misses two attacks, so I boost the hit and damage rolls of the last one, leaving her on three.

I realize that I need to kill a Shambler to get the Wyrd in range of Feora, so Cassius moves up an does that.

The last Wyrd moves up and finishes her off.

Victory for the Druids!

Post-Game Thoughts:

So Wurmwood is still Wurmwood. Hellmouth and Curse of Shadows are very strong still, and better play would probably have let me Feat this turn and still get my Wyrd attacks in.

Mannikins feel very awkward right now, but they felt that way when I first started using them too so I'm sure it'll pass.

I absolutely LOVE the Woldwyrd. I think I'm gonna be playing 2-3 in a module in quite a few lists. It's unusual and amazing for Circle to actually have a boostable, accurate gun, and I think this is going to catch quite a few people off guard as they start to see what they can do.


Thanks for reading!