Battle Report 70: Wurmwood vs. Fyanna 2 (Ravens of War)

Prologue:

I knew I'd have to play into this theme force eventually, and there's no better time to do that for the first time than when you're not playing in a tournament with things on the line!

Quick summary - Ravens of War gives you a few benefits, but the one I care about the most is that it removes the Advanced Deployment rule from your opponents models. This is a big deal against Circle since the following models basically get neutered without that:

Sentry Stones
Shifting Stones
Wurmwood
Gallows Groves
Cassius
Bloodtrackers

That's a pretty big chunk of stuff to nerf with a theme force. Time to get to it!


My Wurmwood list, now featuring Loki:


Wurmwood
- Cassius
- Pureblood
- Loki
- Gorax
- Woldwyrd x3

Sentry Stone x2
Shifting Stone x2
Bone Grinders (min)
Gatorman Bokur

Against:

Fyanna 2
- Archangel
- Angelius
- Seraph

Forsaken x2
Spell Martyr
Deathstalker x2

Raptors (max)

I won the roll off and windmill slammed going first, since I already lose six inches of deploy and going first means that my Sentry Stones get to be on the 12 inch line turn 1.

Look how freaking clumped up my models are >< 

My opponent skewed hard to the left, obviously going for a quick dominate of his zone on turn 2.

Circle turn 1:

I quite honestly didn't know what to do. I felt like I could probably block him out of my zone and dominate on his turn. He'd have to risk losing his Archangel just to contest.

With that in mind, everything pushed up the table as far as they could go after the Bone Grinders murdered eachother. I cast Wild Growth on the Woldwyrd on the hill to make it DEF 17 against the Raptors and Deathstalkers (the only things that could get to it) and passed the turn after dumping a bunch of fury.

I'd set up my Shifting Stones so that the back unit could port Wurmwood up and the front unit could spread out around him on turn 1.

Legion turn 2:

He can't really afford to cast any of his upkeeps, because Woldwyrds will tear Legion models apart with Purgation, so he drops fury and moves everything up. The Archangel gets a decent LOS to my models and stays behind the house. The Raptors move up, shoot the Woldwyrd three times, miss their hard tens, and reposition.

Circle turn 2:

I think it's time to make that Archangel pretty useless for the rest of the game.

Cassius runs after I get ten fury and drop Wild Growth.

Wurmwood activates and puts Curse of Shadows on the Archangel. He then Strangleholds the beast for 6 damage, and pulls Cassius back.

I move up my pair of right side Wyrds to the lee of the house, meaning the Archangel can't get LOS to them to shoot unless he moves, but he's Strangleheld so if he DOES move, he can't shoot.

The first two proceed to knock the Dragon down to about 10 boxes of health. The third one moves up and blasts it off the table.

Well then...

The averages are actually pretty good here. Each Wyrd is dice off 4, so two boosted damage shots is 6.5/6.5 and then a non boosted is 3, for a total of 17 damage per Wyrd, or 51 damage between the three. Add the 5-6 likely from Stranglehold, and that's a dead Archangel.

The rest of the turn is just routine. Wurmwood gets ported to the zone, Shamblers run to contest, and a Mannikin sprays a Deathstalker down.

Legion turn 2:

The remaining Deathstalker kills the contesting Shamblers. Fyanna moves up, Feats, and tries to get the Bokur with a Gallows, but misses.

The Seraph charges the Bokur and kills him.

We both score a point.

Score 1-1

Tie!

Circle turn 3:

On his feat turn, I can't get hardly anything done, so I don't really try to. 

Curse of Shadows on the objective, charges with Shamblers. 

I put every single shot I can into the objective minus Loki's hook, and it takes everything I've got to kill it. (It was Bunker). 

I pass the turn, going to three points. 

Score 3-1

Advantage Circle

Legion turn 3:

I've clogged up the board too well, he can't make it to my zone without Apparition on his Seraph, which would have to take free strikes from both of my heavies and a Woldwyrd to get there.

He kills some things, but can't contest. I score to 4.

Score 4-2

Advantage Circle

Circle turn 4:

I activate everything and do nothing, going to five as he scores his third point. 

Score 5-3

Victory for the Druids!

Post Game Thoughts:

If I hadn't gotten to go first here, I'm fairly certain I lose this game. His army is so fast and my army is SO slow without Advanced Deployment that I think I get shoved out of his zone and he just dominates every turn for the win.

Woldwyrds continue to impress me, consistently being both useful and game altering as they force my opponents to play without upkeeps or die. Having 6 fairly accurate boosted POW 14 guns with Curse of Shadows is a weird feeling in Circle, but I have to say that I really like it.

I probably won't get any more games in until ATC, but I will be posting updates every round on my Facebook page, so stay tuned!

Thanks for reading :)