Battle Report 77: Baldur 2 vs. Fyanna 2 (Ravens of War)

Time to try Baldur again! Same list as last time, no alterations.

This time, I was playing into Legion in the Ravens of War theme list, and my opponent had a Naga. I knew that was going to be hard, but I had no idea how hard! Blessed really, REALLY makes Baldur 2 sad.

Baldur 2
- Loki
- Ghetorix
- Pureblood
- Megalith
- Gorax

Gobber Chef
Ogrun Bokur (cliented to Sentry)

Sentry Stone x2
Shifting Stones
Swamp Gobbers Bellow Crew

Against;

Fyanna 2
- Angelius
- Seraph
- Neraph
- Naga

Forsaken
Deathstalker x2
Annyssa Ryssyl

Raptors x2


We were playing Recon. I won the roll off and opted for first (always the right choice against this theme list I feel) and we were off to the races!

Circle turn 1:

Everything ran or ported up max distance. I chucked a Rock Wall out and dropped Fury with Baldur, forgetting, once again, to Purifying Prayer myself.

Legion turn 1:

My opponent screens the unit of Raptors with Fury on them with his other unit of Raptors. His battlegroup skews hard left, and he blocks off easy hook paths to the Naga with guys. Dang.

Circle turn 2:

Well...I can get Ghetorix onto two guys without charging and he can warp Murderous to make it as efficient as possible.

Loki can hook a third, and Sentry Stones probably kill a fourth? A boosted Crevasse from Megalith should mess up the back lines pretty good too.

I go for it.

I end up killing all of the front line bar 1 (!!!), two of the back line, and seriously messing up two of the remaining ones with the Crevasse spray.

The Pureblood sprays Anyssa to death.

Ghetorix cast Spiny Growth on himself, and Baldur moves up, Feats, and purifies himself.

Legion turn 2:

Wanna know how to two shot Ghetorix? Apply a Wraithbaned, Furied Angelius to him.

So yeah...Seraph casts Slipstream and moves over, bringing the Angelius forward. He tags Ghetorix with a flare shot (hit the 13, what can you do).

The Naga casts Wraithbane on the Angelius. Fyanna moves up, Feats, and puts up Fury on the Angel, who charges in and kills Ghetorix in two swings.

Uh oh.

Circle turn 3:

Under Fyanna's feat, I can't get much done. Megalith casts Undergrowth and kills a couple raptors. Loki misses his aimed hook on the Angelius, and Sentry Stones kill the Strider on the right.

I really can't do anything here, so I just set up for good Comfort Food targets next turn and hope to survive.

Legion turn 3:

Megalith dies horribly to the Neraph/Angelius.

Raptors kill the Bokur, and the Strider kills some stickmen.

Circle turn 4:

I Primal up the Pureblood and walk him behind the Angelius, who dies rather easily. Loki hooks and dings up the Neraph and then puts up Evasive. Baldur finishes off the Neraph and camps 3.

I put up a cloud on the Pureblood, and put a boosted spray into the Forsaken, which refuses to die.

Legion turn 4:

Fyanna Slipstreams the Forsaken, and then comes in and kills everything in the Seraph's way and puts Fury on it.

The Forsaken blows up and puts some hurt on the beasts. The Raptor charges in and finishes off my Pureblood.

The Seraph charges Baldur, but can't kill him.

Circle turn 5:

I *should* just try and kill Fyanna here, but I want to see how well I can attrition from here.

Baldur kills the Seraph after stepping into some Shifting Stones.

The Gorax charges and kills the Raptor.

Loki walks up and kills the objective before putting up Evasive.

I port Baldur out of there and pin Fyanna in with Sentry Stones.

I get two points.

Legion turn 5:

He charges Loki with the Naga, and misses, letting me dodge backwards.

Fyanna hits him a couple times and also misses then, letting me dodge Loki back into Baldur's control area.

No points are scored.

Circle turn 6:

Sentry Stone Mannikins eat the Naga, and Baldur stays back, scoring me a third point, at which point my opponent concedes as all I have to do next turn is walk Baldur into the zone and get two more points.

Victory for the Druids!

Post-Game Thoughts:

Yeah I can't drop this list into ANYTHING that has blessed in it. Circle, Legion, and Menoth are straight up off the table. That's valuable information. Even though I ended up winning here, I didn't feel like I was in control of the game right up until the end, and even then my game plan relied on Baldur tanking a Seraph with Fury on it. 

Not a great place to be. 

Up next, another Baldur 2 game, this time with my newly painted Woldwrath....

Hobby Time: Woldwrath is done!

Prologue:

You know that fully painted goal that seems so insanely far out of reach? That idea that seeing only really pretty models on your side of the table would really add something to the game?

Yeah I've only experienced that once or twice before the last few weeks.

As part of my push for the 2017 ATC, I forced myself to paint through both of my lists. That had some incredibly cool parts like Loki:

It also had some super sucky parts, like the entire 21 man unit of Gatorman Bokur and Shamblers:

But somehow I did it, and it was one of the things I was most proud of when I finally got there and played, every game had fully painted and based models on my half of the table.

When I got back, I decided that it was time to buy in completely, and I committed to playing fully painted in all of my games (with some small exceptions for practicing for major events). Astute readers of my blog have probably noticed that my post ATC Baldur 2 list was fully painted (if not based, those happen in batches because I hate doing them), and it was incredibly fulfilling.

Unfortunately, this means that certain really silly lists like Tanith with two units of Reeves probably won't be making an appearance for a while.

Today, I finished my Woldwrath, and I felt like sharing more than a couple of pictures.

The Story:

Four years ago, right as I became a PressGanger, I was playing Circle, and like most cool kids, I wanted a Woldwrath. (In seriousness, he was pretty mediocre back then).

So I got one, and then he sat, unassembled for a very long time since I wanted to convert him to look like his concept art.

Isn't that awesome??? Someday, when I get my second one, I'm going to legitimately putty over all of his runes and carve the big ones in, and completely resculpt his head.

But I digress.

I spent a lot of time converting other models before I eventually worked up the courage to build him.

And then, 2 weeks later, I sold him and most of my other Circle to get into another faction.

Three and a half years later, I was assembling my third go round of Circle armies, and I realized that I really wanted a Woldwrath. I ordered one off eBay, but then it fell through since the guy had double sold it.

And then my friend who had bought all of my Circle off me, who also happened to be my Press Gang mentor and an excellent modeler/painter, told me that he still had the original one as part of a Bradigus theme list, and he would happily sell it to me if I bought the whole list.

How could I say no?

Six months later now (geeze), I am finally done with this monstrosity of a paint job. He's not perfect. There's lots of little details here and there that I could (and maybe will) go back over someday. But he's painted, he looks mean, and he's ready to pound some stuff into the ground.

I decided that I was going to go crazy with his runes, which is why he looks like he's absorbed an Alienware Keyboard - I really wanted to go for a shifting LED look, and when I started him, I did that with all of the other Wolds I've finished before him....yeah he got started a long time ago.

Here's the Wyrds for an example:

The runes took an absurd amount of time - every single one had to be done minimum three times. Two coats of white for a solid backdrop followed by a coat of the color, and usually more than one coat of color.

Once those were done, the rest of the model flew by. Without further ado, here's my Woldwrath. I hope you like him as much as I do!

Front!

Part of why he stayed unfinished for so long - I did the back first and that's the part I see when I play him

And one with his buddy Megalith!

Thanks for reading :) 

Battle Report 76: Baldur 2 vs. Xekaar

Prologue:

Ahhh post tournament tech is the sweetest, especially when you're changing format as well.

ATC took a massive amount of mental and physical prep, and I was locked in to two lists for nearly two months. Time for a breath of fresh air!

One of my teammates is thinking about getting into Circle, and over one of the nights at ATC we Dojo'd the following list.


Baldur 2
- Megalith
- Ghetorix
- Loki
- Pureblood
- Gorax

Gobber Chef
Ogrun Bokur

Sentry Stone x2
Shifting Stones
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew


The idea is simple - ARM 22 Warpwolves with a moveable wall sound awesome, and between Primal and Blessed, the list can actually crack armor pretty well.

I got to try it out this week against my local Skorne player, who is prepping for an event I'm running in a couple of weekends.

It's a three list event, and he is running Zaadesh 2, Mordikaar, and Xekaar. He opted to drop Xekaar into me, and after ADR, his list looked like this:

Xekaar
- Marketh
- Desert Hydra
- Marketh
- Krea
- Shaman
- Agonizer

Orin Midwinter

Tyrant Commander and Standard
Karax
Min Beast Handlers

We ended up on Take and Hold, and had one of our other local guys set up terrain. I rolled higher and slammed the choice of side, forcing my opponent to deal with a wall and a house in proximity to each-other.

I think I misdeployed here. The Bokur cliented Stone unit should have gone closer to Baldur. I needed an expendable shield guard for the Krea shot and didn't think about it until far too late. 

Skorne turn 1:

He ran everything up to just outside of Sentry Stone threat ranges. 

Xekaar actually dropped fury and did nothing else this turn. 

Circle turn 1:

I knew he was feating next turn, so I moved things up cautiously, except the Sentry Mannikins. I wanted him to spend the Hydra activation killing them. 

Megs handed out Roots of the Earth to Ghetorix after the wolf trampled up and cast Spiny Growth. 

Loki ran, warping no Combined attacks, and got Roots of the Earth from Baldur. The wall went down right where his front line of Karax would go if they charged. I forgot about Wurm tokens, but my opponent graciously let me purify myself. 

The Pureblood just ran, and I ported Shifting Stones to be able to Leach from multiple beasts if need be. 

Skorne turn 2:

Karax get the Shield Wall order. Marketh moves up on the hill. Xekaar moves behind his Titan and Feats, catching everything of importance. 

The Hydra gets Rush and moves over the wall, spraying down Mannikins. 

The Agonizer moves to my far left and uses it's -2 Strength ability. 

Circle turn 2:

I do some premeasuring, but apparently not well enough. I can get Loki onto two Karax and stay out of reach range of his Titan (turns out I was off by a millimeter, always verify with your opponents folks). 

Pureblood spray take care of several Karax, and Megalith casts Crevasse at Marketh, killing him and also a bunch of Karax in front of him with the resulting spray. 

Sentry Stones take shots at things, but miss horribly. The Stones both port way back.

Baldur moves up, checks killbox, and Feats after putting down his wall such that the Hydra can't actually get to anything of my stuff. He takes one from his Wurm token.

The Bokur backs up.

Skorne turn 3:

We recheck, and I've left Loki 0.01 inches inside the Titan's melee range for a charge. Seriously, verify with your opponents when you pre-measure. 

He starts things off by shooting Ghetorix with the Krea. I think long and hard here, but I know I have to shield guard it with Loki. If I don't, he'll just keep the Hydra away from me and Ghetorix won't be able to kill it. 

Loki gets Paralyzed. 

Xekaar gets onto the hill and Mortalities both Megalith and Loki. 

The Gladiator, with enrage, kills Loki with his initials. The dice were hot. 

They got hotter as the Hydra moved over and did 23 damage to Megalith with his sprays at dice -8. 

Yup...

The Agonizer walks over and does his Agony cry again. 

Circle turn 3:

I've got to kill that Agonizer. I can get two Sentry Sprays on it. 

The first one nearly kills it, the second needs a 7 on three dice for damage and rolls a six. 

I have to kill that Sentry Mannikin with Baldur and Crevasse so that the Pureblood can assault and maybe kill the Agonizer with the spray. 

Baldur does so, healing one from the turn before. I space the Wurm Token again and take 2.

Megalith kills the TyCom with his initials, but his Spirit is down, so no buying. 

The Gorax Primals the Pureblood, which assaults. I boost the Spray attack and hit the Agonizer, killing it. The Pureblood then proceeds to do 20 damage to the Hydra.

Ghetorix warps Strength and walks into it, killing it with one Fury to spare. 

I run the Gobber Chef over to the left, and put the Bellows between the Titan and Megalith.

The Bokur runs to be right next to Baldur.

I pass the turn. 

Skorne turn 4:

My opponent kills the Gobbers with electroleaps from Orin. 

My opponent moves the Karax engaging Ghetorix away, and he dies to a free strike. 

The Krea shoots Ghetorix, and then casts her animus. Xekaar Mortalities both Megalith and Ghetorix again, and then abuses the Krea for a fury. 

The Gladiator gets enraged and pummels Ghetorix into the dirt. 

I forgot to take a picture of this turn, apologies!

Circle turn 4:

The Pureblood frenzies into a Beast Handler. 

Megalith moves over, needing a three on one dice to hit the Titan. He gets it, and at dice -2 does 7 damage. He needs literally anything to hit now, and he hits again, doing another 5. 

Baldur activates, gets his third Wurm token, heals 2 from Megalith bond, and charges the Titan, killing it with three Fury to spare after some awful damage rolls. He takes 3. 

I run the Gobber Chef to the flag, and kill as many Beast Handlers as I can with sprays. 

The Bokur runs next to Baldur. I build a bunker with Shifting Stones for Baldur to hide behind.

I get a point. 

Score 1-0

Advantage Circle

Skorne turn 5:

His plan is to carve out a Shifting Stone and put the Shaman into Baldur. 

Xekaar charges in and kills the Stone, and then casts Mortality at Baldur. 

The Shaman dings him up, leaving him on six and a transfer. 

His Karax moves out of Megalith's front arc, but Megalith misses the free strike. The Karax doesn't hurt Baldur. 

I get another point. 

Score 2-1

Advantage Circle

Circle turn 5:

I just need to keep Baldur alive. 

Megalith finally gets to heal! He gets back both crippled systems. 

I put Primal on the Pureblood again, and he moves up, killing both the Shaman and the Beast Handler, and then sitting there with nothing left to kill. 

The Bokur misses the Karax in front of him, double ones. 

I spray the Karax and boost. Triple ones. 

Megalith casts Crevasse at the Standard Bearer in front of him, kills him, sprays the Karax in the back. 

Double ones. 

I then realize that Megalith can get to Xekaar without leaving the Karax's melee range and feel really dumb. Two hits into it, Xekaar is looking might upset, and is also speed 4. 

Baldur backs up to max melee with the Karax, heals nothing thanks to Mortality, and purifies off his Wurm tokens, camping 4. 

I score a third point. 

Score 3-0 

Advantage Circle

Skorne turn 6:

Orin charges Megalith, and deals a couple of damage. Xekaar whacks Megalith, Mortalities him, and then whacks him again. 

Megalith lives through the turn with 2 boxes left in body. 

I get another point. 

Score 4-0

Advantage Circle

Circle turn 6:

I activate everything, do nothing, and score a fifth point for the win. 

Victory for the Druids!

Post-Game Thoughts:

Well...having to use Baldur to finish off the Gladiator really neutered the amount of tanking up I got to do this game, since I was scared of him dying basically the entire game after that. Dice notwithstanding, I was really impressed with how hard this list tanked, and the damage output was actually just fine. 

The actual tech (Loki yanking things in to kill, then getting Roots of the Earth after Ghetorix murders it) never showed up because 1) Loki died really fast and 2) Megalith had a crippled Spirit after turn 2, meaning no free Roots of the Earth, which is a problem because Baldur was fury strapped the whole game trying to stay alive. 

Looking forward to trying it again, stay tuned :) 

Battle Report 75: ATC Round 5 - Wurmwood vs. Kaya 2

Prologue:

Once again I ended up in the Circle mirror. It came down to ether giving me a 50% shot at winning against a Menoth pairing and my teammate a 5% chance against Circle, or giving us both 50% shots at winning our matchups ish.

Ah well. He had Kaya 2 and Wurmwood, and I knew he was dropping Kaya 2 and I didn't feel like playing Kaya 3 since he basically outthreats my list and can do it twice.


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

Shifting Stone x2
Sentry Stone x2
Min Bonegrinders
Bokur and Shamblers


vs.

Kaya 2
- Wilder
- Laris
- Ghetorix
- Loki
- Pureblood
- Feral
- Argus

Shifting Stones
Sentry Stone x2


We were playing Take and Hold, and I lost the roll off (darn) going second (darn).

This was going to be another rough matchup - Shadowpack shuts down half my list.


Bad Circle turn 1:

Everything moves up pretty much to max distance. Shadowpack on Kaya and Forced Evolution on Loki.

Circle turn 1:

I can get two Sentry Sprays on the left side Sentry Stone, so I go for it.

They roll fairly well and leave it on 1. Cassius runs up, and I put a boosted damage Stranglehold into it, killing it. Wild Growth goes up, and

Bone Grinders murder eachother, and stuff moves up.

Bad Circle turn 2:

My opponent retaliates by having his Pureblood spray my Stone to death. Everything moves up very cagily with Shadowpack up.

Circle turn 2:

I see a way to get Loki this turn, and I am just greedy enough to go for it. What I SHOULD have done is simply Strangleheld Ghetorix and Loki and moved up a little more.

Instead, I go for broke.

Hellmouth pulls Loki forward and does massive damage to him.

I walk my Pureblood up, warp Spell Ward, Wraithbane my Wyrd and spray Loki and....miss.

The Wyrd moves up and shoots, connecting and doing damaging, missing, and then hitting and...leaving Loki on 1.

My Loki moves up, chucks his hook at the bad Loki and kills him before casting Evasive.

I flood the area around Loki with dudes in an effort to keep him safe, kill his other Sentry Stone unit with my Woldwyrd, and call it good.

Bad Circle turn 3:

Stones port Laris up, Kaya activates, Feats, and Dogpiles my Wyrd.

Laris activates, does nothing, and goes back.

Ghetorix charges in, kills the Wyrd, mostly kills my Pureblood, and gets ported back.

The Pureblood warps Strength and misses my Woldwyrd a bunch, leaving it on ten.

My opponent can just barely get his Argus into Doppler Bark range of Loki, but he has to roll a hard 8 to hit my Wyrd and then a 10 on his damage roll to kill the Wyrd to clear the Ferals way.

He hits both, Barks, and gets back.

The Feral doesn't roll any double 1s, and Loki dies.

Circle turn 3:

The game is effectively over now, but it's time to try stupid things.

I flood him with models, try to kill a Shifting Stone, and put Wurmwood on the Flag, scoring 1.

Score 1-0

Advantage Circle

Bad Circle turn 4:

I've been really stupid and not checked my landing spots. He can get Ghetorix onto my Pureblood with a Stone port. 

His Pureblood tramples up, clearing a path. 

Ghetorix goes up and murders my Pureblood and the Bokur. 

I score another point. 

Score 2-0

Advantage Circle

Circle turn 4:

I finish off Laris, Stranglehold the Pureblood and fail to damage Ghetorix with a Stranglehold there. 

I flood the landing spaces in the forest with Shifting Stones and score again. Unfortunately, I play too cautiously with Cassius here, and that will cost me the game. 

Score 3-0

Advantage Circle

Bad Circle turn 5:

The Pureblood frenzies into Ghetorix, doing 10 damage somehow. 

Ghetorix kills Shifting Stones and contests. 

His Shifting Stone contests. 

Score 3-0 

Advantage Circle

Circle turn 5:

Here I discover my mistake. If Cassius had been 4 inches farther left, he would have been able to run base to base with the flag on the other side. This would have let me run my Shamblers away from his Argus, port a Shifting Stone 3 inches from the Argus, Dark Path Wurmwood to the enemy flag and Hellmouth his Argus out, getting my last two points. 

Sadly none of this happens and I prepare for death. I do send Cassius way the heck off to the side in case I live through this turn.

Bad Circle turn 6:

The Pureblood with Primal ends Wurmwood. 

Sadly, Defeat for the Druids

Post-Game Thoughts:

The dice gods giveth and taketh away. I won't belabor this point, but if my opponent had missed his Argus charge, I probably win. If my Woldwyrd had rolled a 9 on his last attack, I probably win again since Loki wouldn't be that close. 

Lots of missed opportunities here on my part, but a well played game by my opponent. 

Sadly, my team was relying on me to win, so we went 2-3 and lost this round. 

Overall ATC experience post and such coming in the next day or two. 

Thanks for reading!

Battle Report 74: ATC Round 4 - Wurmwood vs. Kaya 3

Prologue:

Rematch time! Bret had brought a Circle tooled Kaya 3 list that I was aware of ahead of time. I had honestly been hoping to dodge this matchup, but his team swooped in and made me take it anyway.

What can you do?


Me:

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

Sentry Stone x2
Shifting Stone x2
Min Bonegrinders
Bokur and Shamblers

Bret:

Kaya 3 in the Wild Hunt Theme
- Pureblood x3
- Argus x2
- Woldwyrd x2
- Gorax

Shifting Stones
- CA
Min Wolves of Orboros (ambushed)

So let's recap - he ignores forests for charges, his Wolves will be able to either A) seriously mess up my placement or B) come in and contest on a crucial turn, and he has accurate, powerful shooting at ranges that I can't retaliate from easily. Good times.

I DID win the roll off and decided to windmill slam first. Bret took the side with the wall, and we were off.

Apparently I didn't take a picture of my deployment, but it basically looked the same as usual.

Circle turn 1:

I do what I always do, kill some Bone Grinders and run up. Loki gets in some Shifting Stones and I get ready to threaten both flags.

Bad Circle turn 1:

Things move into the trench. The Stones spread really wide (the CA is interesting for sure), and Kaya doesn't cast anything at all (go Woldwyrds).

All the Purebloods are spell warded sadly.

Circle turn 2:

I can easily hook the Argus in the trench with Loki warping hunter, and kill it dead with Wyrds.

I should be able to kill the Stone Keeper with one of my Sentry Stone units and that will render the unit basically useless for a couple of turns, which I like.

Loki moves up and hooks the Argus and kills it by himself.

Sentry Stones miss the Stone Keeper, so I have a Wyrd blast the Stone in the trench.

I have to really move things in to prevent the Wolves from ambushing on my face, so everything goes central. I contest the left flag best I can, and put something on my flag to prevent Bret from ignoring that half of the table.

I pop my Feat to prevent sprays from seriously messing up my densely packed models.

Bad Circle turn 2:

Lots of Shamblers die. The Bokur dies. My flag gets contested by the Stone Keeper.

Bret gets a point.

Score 1-0

Advantage Bad Circle

Circle turn 3:

Goal for this turn is contest, control, and kill the objective, which is going to be hard because it is Bunker. 

Wurmwood gets a Curse of Shadows on it which helps, but it takes a lot of shooting and some charging Mannikins to kill it. 

Loki hooks the Pureblood, leaving it on half health. 

The Woldwyrd moves up and nearly kills it. My Pureblood sprays it, boosts and...misses. Uh oh, that's bad. 

I get two points. 

Score 2-1

Advantage Good Circle!

Bad Circle turn 3:

Bret decides it's go time. 

Kaya casts Synergy and kills some Shamblers before healing the battered Pureblood and repositioning back. 

The Argus kills another Shambler. The bottom Pureblood goes Ghostly after the Wyrd kills the Shambler in the way and charges the objective, killing it. 

He contests with his top Pureblood, which was Primaled and also kills Loki easily. 

Bad Circle Score 2. 

Score 2-3

Advantage Bad Circle

Circle turn 4:

I have a legit assassination run here because I can get all three Wyrds on Kaya if I Hellmouth her back, and that should kill her. 

Unfortunately, I make two crucially bad decisions here. I Primal the Pureblood, mistake number one, and then use it to kill his Pureblood. MASSIVE MISTAKE. 

I should have thrown it out of the way. Because I killed it, Kaya is camping six instead of two. 

I go for it anyway, and the damage rolls are so bad. At dice -4 on four dice, I did 2, 3, or 4 at least half the damage rolls. Even so, Kaya is on two transfers and 3 health after the barrage. If I'd just thrown the Pureblood, she would have been dead. 

I contest again and score once more.

Score 3-3

Tie!

Bad Circle turn 4:

Bret breathes a sigh of relief and packs Kaya with all the stuff he can. 

He contests my flag with Ambushed Wolves, and scores another point. 

I forgot to take a picture of this turn. 

Score 3-4

Advantage Bad Circle

Circle turn 5:

Because my Pureblood frenzied, I have no way to kill enough models to ride this out, so I go for another assassination attempt. This time, Kaya doesn't have an upkeep on her, so it really needs fire dice. I miss every shot, and Bret scores his fifth point. 

Sadly, Defeat for the Druids. 

Post-Game Thoughts:

I got tunnel vision wayyyy too hard this game. I should have realized that I was saving Kaya's life by killing that Pureblood. One simple change to my turn there and I win this game. 

Unfortunately, I realized this one turn too late, and by then it didn't matter. 

A well played game by Bret, looking forward to our next match!

My team lost 1-4 this round.