Battle Report 105: Wurmwod vs. Vindictus (Exemplar Interdiction)

Prologue:

In practice for the team event coming up, my teammates and a friend drove out from Spokane to play some games (my car is on the fritz, so I couldn't get out there myself).

We got three games each in, which is a lot more than I'm used to getting in a day, and it was definitely good to play my lists a few times into scary matchups. I learned a lot about how to play them and made both really cool, game winning plays and really stupid, nearly lost me the game kinds of plays.

Round 1 we all rolled off and I got dropped into Menoth. He was playing Reznik 2 and Vindictus, which instantly meant I wasn't playing Baldur 2. That is way, way too many blessed, hard hitting weapons for him to handle well.

I played Wurmwood, he dropped Vindictus, playing the same list I used at the last Mox Masters Event.


Wurmwood
- Cassius
- Pureblood
- Feral
- Argus
- Wyrd
- Wyrdly
- Wyrdness

Gobber Chef

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

Fuel Cache

Against:

Vindictus (Interdiction theme)
- Reckoner
- Reckoner

Gravus
Knight Exemplar Seneschal (free)

Vengers
Vengers
Knights Exemplar x2
- CA x2 (free)

We were playing Extraction. I lost the roll off, and so I went second, taking the side that I could easily hold down a forest wall between an existing forest and the central house.

So this is what it feels like to stare down that many horses. Eek. I deployed the Wyrds opposite one unit of Vengers, since I knew I'd need all three of them to make an appreciable dent in the unit. 

Menoth turn 1:

Vindictus went first, allocating nothing. He put up True Path and Defenders Ward and then proxied out a six inch advance. 

I then got to witness the joy on his face as I informed him that True Path is a model/unit spell, and Vindictus advanced his full 8 before popping his feat. 

Models got shoved into my half of the board with reckless abandon. Soooo many horses. 

Circle turn 1:

I'm definitely counter-feating here, but I need to kill as much as I can. Because of Battle Driven, I want to restrict it to one unit, so all three Wyrds go into the Vengers on the right, leaving them down to one model. Gravus gets fully fueled by the carnage.

Bone Grinders kill each other for souls and corpse tokens, and Wurmwood gets ported back behind the forest.

Shamblers and Sentry Stone Mannikins derp around, getting nothing really done. Wurmwood activates, casting a Wild Growth off to the side and then feating to prevent most of my army from getting charged.

Menoth turn 2:

My feat is about as good a time walk as it gets, and he's only able to get a charge into one Sentry Stone, doing most of its boxes. 

His Knights move up into cover and to threaten the right zone should I move into it. Vindictus moves to his zone to dominate if I don't contest. 

Time walk feats are so incredibly fascinating to me. When you set up to use one of your own, how do you force your opponent do what you want them to do? How do you prevent them from getting any counter-play? 

Positioning is extremely important, and so is understanding the dice math. I absolutely love trying to unravel time-walk feats as a mental exercise, they're extremely interesting.

Circle turn 2:

Alright, I've got two man goals for this turn - kill Gravus, and safely dominate my zone while contesting my opponents. I need to kill quite a few Knights on the left in order to get into that zone, and on the right I need to kill off all of the Knights that can threaten Wurmwood. 

I start things off by killing both of his Vengers with charging Mannikins. I also run a Mannikin into the middle of his Knights on the left. 

Wurmwood activates, Hellmouths the Mannikin, killing 2/3 of the Knights, and then Strangleholds another Knight on the right hand side. 

Shamblers run up, and the one on the left actually does 5 damage to the Reckoner on a charge - dang!

Wyrds and Pureblood clear off Knights on the right, and then Wurmwood gets ported in by the Shifting Stones. The Feral stays back to be a second wave beater of sorts, and I score a point. 

Score 1-0

Advantage Circle

Menoth turn 3:

True Path goes up, and Choir members sing Battle and kill off the Shambler.

The right hand Reckoner boosts a shot into the Objective.

Knights on the right hand side charge in, doing damage to some Wyrds and bringing the objective down.

Vengers kill some dudes, and the Seneschal charges the Feral, missing his charge attack and not getting his Combo Smite.

My opponent scores 2.

The Large base in the right zone isn't actually a model

Score 1-2

Advantage Menoth

Circle turn 3:

Knight Exemplar Seneschals....suck.

I spend a long time planning out my activations. I'm able to kill off all the Knights on the right side, and Hellmouth the Reckoner out (Bone Grinders are SUPER good here, giving out Craft Talisman is money), and the Shamblers contest again with a placed guy, also making the left hand Reckoner Stationary.

The Pureblood assaults the Reckoner and whiffs its hit rolls. I had to warp Ghostly to get there, so the hits I do connect with are super whimpy, doing about 10 damage to it.

The Argus kills a Venger, and then I finally get around to disabling the Seneschal. Cassius gets ported over and puts the Seneschal in the ground. The Feral walks away from the now KD Knight and I score again.

Score 2-2

Tie!

Menoth turn 4:

Right hand Reckoner gets loaded up, left hand one shakes Stationary, and the Seneschal dies.

Vindictus puts up True Path and stays safe in the zone. The Choir, once again, sing Battle and kill the Shambler.

My opponent has a very clever play where he charges his Knights in, one going into the Shifting Stone in the zone (since he can't make it into the zone quite with his charge), killing it and overtaking in.

Cassius and the Chef die horribly, and the Argus loses about half of its boxes. My opponent scores once again.

Score 2-3

Advantage Menoth

Circle turn 4:

That Shifting Stone was super important, and without it I have to take a Frenzy check on the Pureblood. He passes, as does the Argus. 

A Woldwyrd moves over, kills the Knight in the zone, kills the other Knight, and kills a Venger. Mmmmm....Wyrds.

The Pureblood moves around the Reckoner, engaging the Choir member and bashing on the Reckoner. 

The Feral also moves up and bashes down the jack. 

I run a Wyrd all the way to the enemy zone to contest. 

Wurmwood gets a Talisman, and then Strangleholds the remaining Reckoner. 

Stones port around the remaining Venger and Knight. 

I score again, and my opponent thinks for a couple of seconds before conceding. He can't control my zone with literally anything since the Reckoner is Strangleheld, and I'm starting to contest his zone with models that he can't kill in one activation easily. Next turn, I can easily clear my zone and gun down his objective. 

Victory for the Druids!

Post-Game Thoughts:

This is a brutally hard matchup, and terrain and my unusual Wurmwood build with all three Wyrds is really the only reason I was able to pull this out. Any less than that, and I can't kill enough on Vindictus' feat turn. 

Definitely something to be on the look out fellow Druids, this Vindictus list is a monster.