Battle Report 57: Las Vegas Open Master Qualifier Round 1 - Wurmwood vs. Jaga-Jaga

Prologue: 

I was able to attend the Las Vegas Open this last weekend, and man is that an amazing event. I have to give a shout out to the TOs and EOs, the guys were able to run scrambles, spell draft, who's the boss, Iron Gauntlet, Masters, and Iron Arena all with only three or four judges. Simply incredible.

Not only that, but each event fired on time and ran on schedule, and for those of you who haven't been to a big convention style event before, that is nothing short of a miracle, especially with so few people running the show.

I decided that since I was flying down and only able to make Saturday and Sunday, that I'd bring the big guns to play with - Una and Wurmwood.

Una 2
- Pureblood
- Gorax
- Scarsfell x7

Blackclad Wayfarer x2
Sentry Stone x2
Shifting Stone x2

Pretty standard Una list. Double Shifting Stone is there 100% to keep Fury manageable and also to occasionally let me advance Una up and trigger sprint a couple of times before porting her back to safety.

Wurmwood
- Cassius
- Megalith
- Brennos
- Woldwyrd x3

Blackclad Wayfarer
Gallows Grove

Sentry Stone x2
Shifting Stone x2
Gatorman Bokur
Min Bone Grinders

This is my favorite build with Wurmwood up until last weekend. Brennos and Megalith combine to make shooting warjacks or colossals miserable. Woldwyrds are incredible workhorses, doing far more damage than they have any right to do.

The Bokur lets me play attrition really well and also lets me put my Hellmouths wherever I want them.


Game 1 of Masters and I found myself paired into Rask and Jaga-Jaga. I opted to play Wurmwood since the Scenario was Outlast and I like that one a lot with the tree.

I won the roll off and chose side.

Jaga-Jaga
- Wrastler
- Spitter x3

Dahlia and Skareth
Mist Speaker x2
Croak Raiders

The plan was pretty simple. Gun hard for whichever zone he puts the least models into and have the Woldwyrds on the side opposite Dahlia hunt her since she's definitely putting up Haunting Melody and upkeeping it.

I also have an eye out for assassination every turn if Jaga-Jaga upkeeps either of her spells.

Minions turn 1:

Jaga-Jaga puts up Escort on herself and Grave Wind on Skareth.

Everything runs up.

Circle turn 1:

I think this turn I'm just going to forest wall, kill some croaks, and hope he doesn't roll really hot with his Spitters. If he rolls average, it will take two to kill one Sentry Stone, leaving me with plenty of options for the next turn.

Sentry Mannikins murder some Croaks, Wurmwood makes a forest wall and gets ported into it. Stones port around him. Bone Grinders murder each-other and make souls and corpses aplenty.

At the end of the turn I'm very well positioned to alpha on either zone if I need to, and most of his models can't do anything this turn.

Minions turn 1:

He drops Grave Wind. 

Both Spitters that get Eyeless sight roll very hot and both of my Sentry Stones die.

He contests each zone with one heavy, and then casts Grave Wind on Jaga-Jaga, camping two and on a hill.

Circle turn 2:

I see the opening and I decide to go for it.

All three of my Woldywrds are within range to get Jaga-Jaga if I Hellmouth her forward with a Shambler, and that should be game. She's camping two, she's DEF 16 ARM 16 with 16 boxes, and I can get 6 attacks with three dice to hit and four for damage, and then I can get three more with 3 dice to hit and damage. I can also boost the Hellmouth damage.

First things first, I establish with my opponent that a small based model can fit between the two Croak Raiders without taking a free strike. After I place my Shamblers, they all run. One gets to exactly three from Jaga-Jaga, and the other two go and make it so that the heavies won't get dragged in when I Hellmouth.

Cassius runs, and I cast Hellmouth through him at the Shambler, then Curse of Shadows at Jaga-Jaga.

Two Woldywrds shoot her down.

Victory for the Druids!

Post Game Thoughts:

Well that wasn't how I expected to win, but I sure was happy to take it. 

If he hadn't kept an upkeep on Jaga- Jaga, I would have had a very strong Scenario play here. 

Wurmwood Hellmouths both the Spitter closer (and kills the Croaks near him) and Skareth closer. The Gatorman Bokur moves up and makes Skareth Stationary, and does a bunch of CMA's to kill Croak Raiders. 

Hunters Mark on the Spitter, Megalith charges in and puts him down. Two Woldwyrds do 28 damage to Skareth on average if they don't need to boost to  hit, and Brennos does another 8, easily killing the snake, and I would control both zones, leaving him with nothing to get at Wurmwood with but two Spitter shots, and nothing on the table but three heavies. From there, it's a simple matter to Stranglehold things until I can piece trade favorably, and Jaga-Jaga has to cast Battle Host to make her beasts threat ranges good enough to compete with me.

Ah well, I took the win fairly happily and moved to round two.