Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Battle Report 54: Kromac 2 vs. Irusk 2



Alright guys, last battle report with Stormy for...at least one report. I'm getting in more games tonight, and I haven't decided if I'm taking him off the bench again. We shall see.

Another epic intro? Well...if I must.

Irusk scanned the battlefield from the top of a small hill. A small copse of trees and a deep pool of water offered some relief from the sweltering heat, but the ground was dry, an ever present reminder of the draught.

High above him, he could see two large birds fighting in the air, occasionally losing themselves in the sun.

Across from him, two more forests and a patch of extremely rocky ground hid untold dangers. Orsus had come this way recently, and no word had reached Irusk's ear of a safe arrival for the giant berserker.

Two huge wolves melted out of the shadows in the trees, both standing on their hind legs. One of the pair wielded a cruel sword, a giant slab of metal taller than any man.

Irusk glanced around, his keen eyes sweeping the area for any sign of their controlling warlock. A feral he would accept as a stray, but the Sword Wolves were never far from their masters.

He glanced up once more, noting the swirling Eagles drawing closer.

Starting, he looked again. The two massive things were growing impossibly fast, and fire and lightning split the air between them.

A flurry of violent activity brought sudden stillness to one of the pair.

"LOOK OUT!!" Irusk screamed to his men, willing Behemoth and his Kodiak to move away from the swiftly falling thing.

The monster flamed as it fell, igniting one of the forests with liquid fire. It burned quickly, the dry air and cruel sun having long since drained the trees of any moisture.

The beast slammed into the pool of water, submerging completely as a roiling mass of the stuff cascaded over the edge. As the ripples settled, the pond took on a deep, sickly green color and an acrid stench rolled off of it.

The other skyborne shape let out a defiant scream, a screech of pure wildness that clashed with Irusk's disciplined mind.

It circled low and landed, a gigantic Tharn climbing off of its back.


Kromac 2
- Stormy
- Stalker
- Feral

Blackclad x2
Ogrun Bokur x2, Cliented to...

Sentry Stone x2

Vs.

Irusk 2
- Sylys
- Behemoth
- Kodiak

Kovnik Joseph Gregorovich
Widowmaker Marksman

Widowmakers
Winter Guard Mortar Crew
Winter Guard Rifle Corps and 3 WA
Black Dragon Iron Fang Pikemen



We were playing Outlast and I won the roll, opting for first. My opponent looked at both sides and decided that they both sucked for him and he didn't want to move (Note: I did not set up this terrain).

The Green Circle is an Acid Vat, and the Red Circles are a Burning Forest.

I was okay with this, since the Storm Raptor is immune to Burning Terrain thanks to flight.



My opponent deployed pretty centrally, the Rifle Corps going to my left and the Iron Fangs to my right.


Behemoth is my main concern here - once he goes down, not much kills the Raptor without dying in return, and I'm okay with trading him for Behemoth plus half the unit of Iron Fangs.

Circle turn 1:

I do the normal turn one stuff with this list - Awakened Spirit on the Stalker and Vengeful on Stormy.

I make use of the little forest on my right to give things Stealth and move up aggressively. I keep all the Mannikins but one in places where his Widowmakers will have to seriously over extend in order to get at them.

The Blackclad on the left goes into the rubble.

Right


Left

Khador turn 1:

Pretty standard Irusk turn 1. Fire for Effect on the Mortar Crew, Solid Ground on Irusk, and things run.

The Widowmakers duck into the woods just barely and shoot half of Stormy's body off. The Kodiak tramples up and vents steam, and Behemoth hides behind the forest.


Circle turn 2:

Fire rolls off on the forest.

Well....I can get Stormy onto the Kodiak if I land the Hunters Mark, which also means that I can get him into Behemoth.

Time to pull a Stormy.

Kromac moves up, casts Primal on Stormy and pops his Feat.

I get the Hunters Mark off, and Stormy charges the Kodiak with his Talon, redirecting the rest of his attacks into Behemoth until he dies, and then a few more into the Kodiak.

All the Widowmakers die to eLeaps, the Kodiak is disrupted and 80% dead, and Behemoth is down.

I move the Stalker up to counter-punch when Stormy dies, and I spray at the Shield-Walled Iron Fangs with very limited success.

I contest the left zone with the Bokur and the Blackclad there.

Right

Left
Khador turn 2:

Irusk upkeeps his spells and stuff starts shooting at Stormy...and things go off the rails.

The boosted damage rolls from the Rockets and Mortar roll two sixes and a three or higher for their damage, the Kodiak rolls a ten for damage twice, and all it takes is one big CRA from the IFP to kill Stormy.

It does corrode all six of them though, and they have to charge to get distance.

No points are scored.


Circle turn 3:

I clear the right zone fairly trivially between sprays and Kromac, who goes in and casts Carnage. The Stalker warps berserk, charging into the Iron Fangs after one of them gets Hunters Marked and killing every single one of them, the Marksman, and knocking the Kodiak down to just his Cortex.

He Sprints to engage a bunch of Riflemen.

The left hand Blackclad sprays Rifle Corps down, and the Bokur runs to engage.

I score 2 points.


Score 2-0
Advantage Circle

Khador turn 3:

Everything on the table tries to take down the Stalker, but he survives handily.

Sylys runs to contest the right zone.


Score 2-0
Advantage Circle

Circle turn 4:

Kromac casts Carnage, and Sentry Stones kill off Sylys. 

The Stalker and Blackclad kill everything remaining in the left zone, and I score 3 more points after the Stalker Sprints cheekily up to engage Joe.


Score 5-0
Victory for the Druids!


Post-Game Thoughts:

This illustrates once again how incredibly fast this list is, and the true need to keep your heavies separated when you play against the Storm Raptor. If those weren't Khador heavies, both of them would have been dead. As it was, on crippled and disrupted jack shouldn't have a chance of killing it in return.

I'm curious now to run the math on the ranged damage the Raptor took. He'd taken 4 from Widowmakers the previous turn.

Each rocket should have done 2.5 damage at dice - 8, and there were two left. The Mortar should have done 7 damage. The CRA from the 9 winterguard should have done six at dice -1, for a total of 18 damage.

The Kodiak, needing fives to hit on one dice, should have hit 1/3 of his attacks and done 2 damage at max per attack.

The IFP with Battle Lust are coming in at dice -7, doing approx. 7 damage apiece, which means that the Raptor definitely would have died, but he should have taken a few pikemen with him.

Ah well.

The next report will be a break from our marathon of Stormy and Kromac, bringing you Una 2 into Sloan!

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for all of these reports, I've been really enjoying your take on the Storm Raptor! On paper, he looks terrible, but with Kromac2 it looks like he is actually fairly solid. I think one greatly overlooked aspect to him is his electro-leap attacks + the passive damage he does when he's hit. It all equates to a lot of damage in general.

    I've also always thought Kromac2 was boring - he and Kaya2 are the ONLY Circle casters I don't own, and didn't really care to own, if I'm honest. All-beast armies just don't really appeal to me. Not usually.

    Your list seems like a lot of fun though. I'll probably try this list out sometime, but using my own spin on it (I'm not sure if I'm physically capable of copying someone else's list verbatim, which is probably a failing). As it stands, I need to buy Kromac2 AND the Raptor first, lol. Gonna take a while to happen.

    Dare I hope that one day I can attend a tournament with a Grayle/Kromac2 pairing? HAHA probably too much to ask for. Anyways, thanks for the reports, keep them coming!

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    Replies
    1. Hey man, back at you! I've really liked reading your blog as well.

      I totally agree on the raptor, his paper stats are pretty crappy, but in reality he works pretty darn well with a few of our casters. I think he has potential with Kromac 2, Kaya 2, Tanith, and *maybe* Wurmwood, mostly there because Stranglehold can keep him safe from so many things. I could also see him being pretty incredible with Baldur 2 as a viable replacement for the Woldwrath against things like Sloan.

      As for Kromac, yeah he didn't click for me at all until I started running him with the Storm Raptor in the list. I hated him, hated his style, and couldn't make myself play him.

      Turns out, Carnage is a fantastic spell, and being able to reliably hit stuff with Stalkers is a nice feeling.

      Go ahead and noodle around with the list - I'm not sure how much room there really is for messing around with it, but please give it your once over. It is a ton of fun, and I'm almost tempted to play Kromac with 2 of the birds (yeah...I have two).

      Someday I'd love to see that pairing be viable, that would be so amazing.

      Glad you're enjoying the reports, it's feedback like this that keeps me writing.

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