Battle Report 43, Bellingham Masters Round 3: 2Una vs. Amon Ad-Raza

The three undefeated players after round 2 were myself, my friend, and a Canadian gentleman playing Ret.

The Ret player got the pair-down, so I found myself looking at Reznik 2 and Amon Ad-Raza, which was a list that my friend had specifically brought to handle me.

Amon
Pile of Jacks
Choir
Punch Monks

..... Oh you want the real list? Okay hold on I gotta look all the Menoth jacks' names up.


Amon
- Reckoner x2
- Crusader x2
- Scourge of Heresy
- Dervish
- Vigilant

Choir (min) x2
Alegiant of the Order of the Fist x2
Nicia
Wrack

And here's the Una 2 list again:

 Una the Skyhunter - WB: +29
 -    Druid Wilder - PC: 4
 -    Scarsfell Griffon - PC: 8 (Battlegroup Points Used: 8)
 -    Scarsfell Griffon - PC: 8 (Battlegroup Points Used: 8)
 -    Scarsfell Griffon - PC: 8 (Battlegroup Points Used: 8)
 -    Scarsfell Griffon - PC: 8 (Battlegroup Points Used: 5)
 -    Scarsfell Griffon - PC: 8
 -    Scarsfell Griffon - PC: 8
 -    Scarsfell Griffon - PC: 8
 -    Gorax Rager - PC: 7
 -    Pureblood Warpwolf - PC: 17
 Swamp Gobber Chef - PC: 1
 Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress - PC: 3
 Shifting Stones - Leader & 2 Grunts: 3
 Shifting Stones - Leader & 2 Grunts: 3
 Sentry Stone & Mannikins - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5
 Sentry Stone & Mannikins - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5


I dropped Una. Reznik and Amon are both TERRIBLE matchups for Wurmwood.

We were playing Incursion and I won the roll off and went first.

My opponent counter-deployed:

Look at Nicia hiding behind that house. 

Circle turn 1:

So my game plan for this game was basically to kill off Nicia, and then send a Griffon over to hang out on the right flag and just use that to win the game while we fought in the middle. I could also send the Gobber Chef if I needed the Griffon.

With that in mind, everything basically just ran. The Pureblood got Mirage and the Sentry Stones got Hand of Fate again.

Menoth turn 1:

My opponent advanced his Punch Monks into Shifting Sands Stance.

His army ran up so that it was 13 inches away from my front line and got immunity to spells from the Choir.

Amon cast Synergy and Fortify and advanced to behind the wall.

He's on the left side next to the Vigilant.

Circle turn 2:

I did some premeasuring and realized I could get 4 Hand of Fate Sentry Stone sprays on him AND an assault from the Pureblood. (Him here is Amon).

Math time!

Amon is 16/14 with 17 boxes and is camping 2 Focus.

Sentry Stone Mannikins need 12s to hit a 16, but with Hand of Fate that's actually slightly better than a coin flip for me. At dice off 4, a boosted Hand of Fate POW 10 spray does 8.5 damage, or 3.5 after Focus negation. Call it 3 for easy sake.

If I don't get to boost the second damage roll, it's going to to do 5 on average, or 0 after Focus negation.

After the first Mannikin unit, Amon should be on 0 camp with 3 damage on him.

The second unit should then go in and do 8.5 and 5, for a total of 14.5 damage before the Pureblood goes in. If I spike a little high, he's dead there.

The Pureblood needs a boosted 11 to hit ( a coin flip ) and is straight dice.

Well, I decide to go for it. If it works, I win. If it doesn't, he gets my Pureblood and has 2 coin flips to kill my Sentry Stones with Reckoner shots, but then Amon is probably pretty banged up and has to play super scared.

The Mannikins all spray and whiff their damage rolls pretty hard, leaving him on ten health.

I'm already pretty committed, so I clear out the pathway for the Pureblood who assaults in, gets the 11 to hit exactly and then rolls 10 for damage, killing Amon.

Victory for the Druids!

Post Game Thoughts:

That was really cheeky of me, but I really didn't want to spend the mental energy playing against this list if there was going to be a round four, so I went for it. 

Turns out, the Ret player had terrible dice and lost to the minions player I'd played the previous round, so this game was the finals and I won the whole event! 

Overall I had a great time, the venue was nice, the PG was excellent, and my opponents were all good sports and nice to work with. 

Of course...then we found out after driving 2 hours back that the pass was closed, so we ended up going on a massive drive around the entire mountain range to get back to the Dry Side of the state over the next day and a half, but hey, that was fun too!

Thanks for reading ;)

Battle Report 42, Bellingham Masters Round 2: 2Una vs. Sturm and Drang

For Round 2 I was paired with a gentleman playing Minions! He had two Farrow Theme force lists, with Midas and Sturm/Drang piloting.

I felt fairly confidant that he would be picking Sturm and Drang since Midas has no game at all into Stranglehold and Hellmouth. With that in mind, I decided to give Una 2 some practice into one of the more interesting matchups.

He did, in fact, choose Sturm and Drang.

Sturm/Drang
- War Hog
- War Hog
- Road Hog
- Battle Boar
- Razor Boar x2

Brigands and UA
Commandos

Efaarit Scout x2

And my Una 2 list again for reference:

 Una the Skyhunter - WB: +29
 -    Druid Wilder - PC: 4
 -    Scarsfell Griffon - PC: 8 (Battlegroup Points Used: 8)
 -    Scarsfell Griffon - PC: 8 (Battlegroup Points Used: 8)
 -    Scarsfell Griffon - PC: 8 (Battlegroup Points Used: 8)
 -    Scarsfell Griffon - PC: 8 (Battlegroup Points Used: 5)
 -    Scarsfell Griffon - PC: 8
 -    Scarsfell Griffon - PC: 8
 -    Scarsfell Griffon - PC: 8
 -    Gorax Rager - PC: 7
 -    Pureblood Warpwolf - PC: 17
 Swamp Gobber Chef - PC: 1
 Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress - PC: 3
 Shifting Stones - Leader & 2 Grunts: 3
 Shifting Stones - Leader & 2 Grunts: 3
 Sentry Stone & Mannikins - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5
 Sentry Stone & Mannikins - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5

The Scenario was Take and Hold, so when I won the roll off I decided to go first and get up the field quick.

I deployed pretty central. Una was basically going to hang out in the forest all game and slowly attrition down. I needed to force him to Feat first and very defensively OR I needed to be able to use my Feat first and kill two of his heavies in order to win this game.

My opponent chose not to ambush his Commandos so that they could start lobbing bombs turn 1 (a fair reason), and put his battlegroup off to my left so they wouldn't have to worry about the forest.

Prey goes on the unpainted Sentry Stones.

Circle turn 1:

Full steam ahead! Mirage on the Pureblood, Hand of Fate on a unit of Sentry Stones, and everything runs up, careful to stay more than 10 inches from the Commandos in the case of the Griffons, and more than 21 inches from Efaarit Scouts for the Shifting Stones.

Minions turn 1:

The Commandos move up and put some damage on Griffons with drifting AOEs, and also kill off 2 Mannikins from each unit.

Sturm casts Deceleration and Polarity Field on the right side War Hog. His beasts carefully stay more than 12 inches from my Griffons and more than 16 from Lanyssa.

Brigands run up.

Circle turn 2:

Well I can't really...do anything with my Griffons this turn. If I feat and run to engage, he'll counter feat and I'll get next to no attacks in the next turn. 

I decide to hang back, with Una upkeeping both spells. 

The unit of Sentry Stones with Hand of Fate goes first, and I'm able to catch 5 dudes with one Spray and 4 with the other. 

Once their turn is over, Una moves out of killbox and shoots a Commando to death before she casts Hand of Fate on the other unit, which also gets to make some really excellent sprays. 

He doesn't make any tough rolls but 1, which dies to another spray later, and I am able to kill approx 1/3 of his infantry models while still keeping my Sentry Stones in a forest. 

I send in one Griffon to engage some guys, and the rest hang back and cast Elusive.

Minions turn 2:

He continues to play cautiously here, ringing the Griffon he's engaging and attacking it with a few models and missing most attacks.

His Road Hogs mosey up, and he casts Deceleration again. His Road Hog moves up to spray the Sentry Stone, but at dice off 6, he isn't able to kill it.

The Efaarit Scouts kill a Shifting Stone each. Yuck.

Critically, my opponent chose not to feat this turn, which means I have a window to go in and do some work.

Circle turn 3:

First things first, I upkeep both spells. The Sentry Stones clear out landing spots around the Road Hog.

Primal goes on the far left Griffon from the Gorax. Una activates, shoots a guy, and Feats.

One Griffon runs to engage the pair of War Hogs.

The other one with Primal charges the left one and kills it.

Two Griffons kill the Road Hog, and two more hang back.

The Pureblood aims and sprays the Razor Boar to death.

Minions turn 3:

He's in trouble and he knows it.

He chooses to Telekinesis both the Griffons near Sturm/Drang so they'll frenzy at eachother and the Razor Boar if they do. He engages the two other close Griffons with the War Hog and the Battle Boar. Efaarit Scouts get in the way and kill more Shifting Stones.

Circle turn 4:

So the auto frenzy Griffon does a few to the one in the nest, which frenzies into the Razor Boar. The far right one kills a Brigand with its frenzy.

Una activates first and puts Hand of Fate on the Pureblood, then shoots the Efaarit Scout in the way down.

The Sentry Stone gets out of the way.

The Pureblood charges in and....fails to kill the War Hog. Awkward.

The farthest up Griffon takes a free strike from the Battle Boar, lives through it, and throws Sturm and Drang at my Sentry Stone. The other one engaged by the War Hog flies over the War Hog, still in its melee range, and throws Sturm again.

Lanyssa casts Hunters Mark on Sturm, and two other Griffons fly in and kill him.

He was right between the two closest Griffons.

Victory for the Druids!

Post Game Thoughts:

My opponent REALLY should have Feated turn 2. I would have been hard pressed to kill enough models with only one fury per Griffon, and it would have been a pretty gross tempo swing. 

Hand of Fate on Sentry Stones murders infantry like crazy, it's pretty amazing. 

On to round three!

Battle Report 41, Bellingham Masters Round 1: Wurmwood vs. Kallus

Prologue:

I had the good fortune to drive out to Bellingham, WA with a couple of my buddies to play in what ended up being a 13 man Masters event at Dark Tower Games. It was a great event, lots of friendly and interesting people showed up, and many good games were had.

At the time of this writing, I'm currently sitting in my motel at the base of Snoqualmie Pass waiting out a blizzard - don't say I never did anything for you guys, even blizzards can't stop my inane babblings.

 I chose to take my current non ADR pairing to this event, consisting of:

 Una the Skyhunter - WB: +29
 -    Druid Wilder - PC: 4
 -    Scarsfell Griffon - PC: 8 (Battlegroup Points Used: 8)
 -    Scarsfell Griffon - PC: 8 (Battlegroup Points Used: 8)
 -    Scarsfell Griffon - PC: 8 (Battlegroup Points Used: 8)
 -    Scarsfell Griffon - PC: 8 (Battlegroup Points Used: 5)
 -    Scarsfell Griffon - PC: 8
 -    Scarsfell Griffon - PC: 8
 -    Scarsfell Griffon - PC: 8
 -    Gorax Rager - PC: 7
 -    Pureblood Warpwolf - PC: 17
 Swamp Gobber Chef - PC: 1
 Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress - PC: 3
 Shifting Stones - Leader & 2 Grunts: 3
 Shifting Stones - Leader & 2 Grunts: 3
 Sentry Stone & Mannikins - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5
 Sentry Stone & Mannikins - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5

 And:

Wurmwood, Tree of Fate & Cassius the Oathkeeper - WB: +27
-    Cassius the Oathkeeper - PC: 0
-    Brennos the Elderhorn - PC: 17 (Battlegroup Points Used: 17)
-    Megalith - PC: 20 (Battlegroup Points Used: 10)
-    Warpwolf Stalker - PC: 19
-    Gorax Rager - PC: 7
Gallows Grove - PC: 2
Lanyssa Ryssyl, Nyss Sorceress - PC: 3
Shifting Stones - Leader & 2 Grunts: 3
Shifting Stones - Leader & 2 Grunts: 3
Sentry Stone & Mannikins - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5
Sentry Stone & Mannikins - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5
Swamp Gobber Bellows Crew - Leader & 1 Grunt: 2
Gatorman Bokor & Bog Trog Swamp Shamblers - Bokor & 9 Grunts: 11
Farrow Bone Grinders - Leader & 3 Grunts: 5

Round one I got paired with a very nice man from Vancouver, BC with a Thagrosh beast build using Angelii, and a Kallus list with a blightbringer and unit of swordsman.

We were playing Recon, and there was a massive forest in the middle of the zone, so naturally I chose to play Wurmwood.  

He played:
Kallus
- Blightbringer
- Scythean 
Swordsmen and CA
Hellmouth x2
Spawning Vessel
Spell Martyr x2
Shepherd x2
Nyss Warlord  

My opponent won the roll off and chose the side he was on, which I think was a mistake.  

I deployed very centrally, nothing special. I kept the Bokur away from the rubble, but it looked like a great place to park my beasts until they were ready to go in on the Blightbringer.

My opponent deployed in a way that was, in my opinion, somewhat incorrect.

He chose to put his swordsman behind the massive forest on my left side, which meant that not only would they have a hard time getting to the fight, but they were also immediately lined up against my tarpit/ attrition unit.

His Blightbringer and Scytheanwent central to right, and Kallus went central left. He put a Hellmouth right in the zone, which was really annoying, and he out the other by the left flag, further cementing my plan to just never go into that half of the table.  

Circle turn 1:
My turn 1 started off as usual - Bone Grinders murdered each other and a Mannikin, giving Wurmwood three souls and the Bokur 3 corpses.

Cassius ran up to the left, and Wurmwood put Curse of Shadows on the Hellmouth. I pulled Cassius back and cast Wild Growth on the right side to make the Blightbringers' gun much less useful.

Lanyssa slew another Mannikin from the other unit, and the between the two units I did a couple of points to the Hellmouth.  The Bokur ran. Beasts riled and ran.

Legion turn 1:

My opponent advanced up the table cautiously.

A shot from the Blightbringer deviated and killed some chaff.

Hellmouth tentacles killed Mannikins in a weird dance of recursion.

The Scythean walked up to the hill.  

Circle turn 2:

I upkeep Curse of Shadows and Wurmwood has 9 fury.

My plan for the turn is to Stranglehold both of his beasts and kill the Hellmouth, setting up the Stalker to charge in next turn on the objective or Blightbringer.

Killing the Hellmouth goes as planned, a few boosted sprays and charges from Mannikins later and it goes down. Success!

Megalith tramples up and whiffs his Stranglehold on the Scythean. Cassius runs, and I fail to Stranglehold the Blightbringer twice in a row.

Cassius gets yanked back.

The Bokur unit runs and charges, killing tentacles for corpse and soul tokens.

Gobbers make a cloud and Brennos shoots the right hand Spell Martyr off the table.

Lanyssa chills out in the trench 15 inches from the objective.  

Legion turn 2:

Kallus goes first, moves up, casts Dark Guidance and pops feat.

Swordsmen go in and murder a lot of Shamblers, feeding the Pot corpse tokens.

The Blightbringer advances and shoots the Stalker, dealing reasonable damage and choosing the +2 strength and armor mode.

He rolled absurd blast damage and did four to Wurmwood at dice off 12.

His Scythean charges and really hurts Megalith.

Circle turn 3:

Well he didn't contest with a whole lot, so I think this is feat turn for me too!

Megalith heals his body back and murders the Scythean dead.

Mannikins and Shamblers kill both Swordsmen and the Incubi they spawn.

I just engage the rest, no reason to waste my time on killing things twice.

Lanyssa casts Hunters Mark on the objective, and the Stalker goes in and blows it up before Sprinting back.

Cassius runs, and Wurmwood finally lands a Stranglehold on the Blightbringer after I cast Curse of Shadows on it.

I pop feat, and Brennos moves up and deviates his spell onto the Blightbringer. I go to 3 points.

Score 3-0, Advantage Circle

Legion turn 3:

Well it's Wurmwood's feat turn, so nothing much is going to happen.

He kills some more Shamblers, and the Blightbringer and Kallus both go into the zone.

He makes a Shredder with the pot which also contests.

Score 3-0, Advantage Circle

Circle turn 4:

Okay, I gotta kill a colossal, a Shredder, and a Swordsman. Seems doable.

I upkeep Curse of Shadows and move Lanyssa up, landing the Hunters Mark on the Blightbringer.

Mannikins spray, but fail to kill the Swordsman.

Megalith and Brennos charge in and kill the Blightbringer. The Stalker walks up and kills both the Shredder and the Swordsman. I get 2 more points.

Score 5-0, Victory for the Druids!

Post Game Thoughts:

Legion has a really hard time into Wurmwood in general, especially on this Scenario, and more especially with this terrain set up.

He made the game harder on himself by deploying the Swordsmen and second Hellmouth on the opposite side of the table from my heavies.

Had he out the Blightbringer across from the Bokur and the Swordmen across from my beasts, I think this game gets much, much harder. On to round two!

Battle Report 40: 2Una vs. Hexeris 2

In the quest to find something in Skorne with which to counter Una 2, my local Skorne opponent cast the net into the forums and came up with the idea of a Hexy 2 list anchored by the Mammoth and with a bunch of good Arc Nodes thanks to his Field Marshal.

He asked for this game, just to clarify.

Hexeris 2
- Marketh
- Mammoth
- Razor Wurm (proxied by Shaman)
- Basilisk Drake
- Gladiator
- Agonizer

Tyrant Radheim
Soulward
Mortitheurge Willbreaker

Min Beast Handlers

My Una 2 list has evolved somewhat. I'm trying to use it as an answer to Karchev and Mad Dogs, and I think the trick for that is Wrong Eye and Snapjaw. Star-Crossed means that the Dogs need tens on four dice drop the highest, and that's not great odds there. I also get two free turns of murdering Mad Dogs, which I can do pretty reliably.


Una 2
- Wilder
- Scarsfell x7 (one proxied by Totem Hunter since I haven't put him together yet)
- Gorax Rager

Wrong Eye
-Snapjaw
Lanyssa Ryssyl
Swamp Gobber Chef

Sentry Stones x2
Shifting Stones x2

We rolled up Recon as the Scenario (which I love), and our friend laid out terrain for us.

I lost the roll off and my opponent went first (the correct choice). I took the side with the Trench since I wanted Una to be safe from spells, blast damage, and Mammoth shots.

This is a good Scenario for my opponents' list too - anything super spread out will make it hard for him to contest easily for very long, but a nice central zone gives the Mammoth a good foothold.

I also liked the house to give my Griffons cover.

My opponent deployed pretty central.

Remember, that Shaman is a Razor Wurm

And I deployed split, making sure Una was within walking distance of the trench. I haven't played against Hexeris 2 in forever, so I didn't realize how conservative I had to be with my Sentry Stones on Deployment.

Also, not a Totem Hunter, but Scarsfell 7

Skorne turn 1:

My opponent runs with pretty much everything. The Gladiator puts Rush on the Razor Wurm, who casts.....Spiny Growth and charges...hmmm....okay this was technically illegal in hindsight, but I was busy getting out tokens and didn't notice until now. Ah well, he could have just ran.

Hexeris arcs a Hellfire through the Razor Wurm at the unpainted Sentry Stone and spikes damage to kill it in one shot. A good start for Skorne!

Note the sad, empty spaces where my beautiful Sentry Stone unit used to be.

Circle turn 1:

Well that sucked!

I have an ARM 17 DEF 17 model against conventional shooting in my face, he's too far away to charge and all I have is one unit of Sentry Stones left to really hit it with.

Una goes and puts Hand of Fate on the Stones. She takes a boosted shot into the Razor Wurm from the Trench and flubs damage, doing 1. She takes another and doesn't do damage.

The Sentry unit roll 2 for fury, and knock the beast down to 6 ish health. I am really dumb and don't port the Stone itself backwards.

Griffons run. I position the one engaging Radheim so that his back is to the building to prevent Radheim from getting easy back arc. I do the same with another that goes to the front edge of the building, and then I just spread out to get as many angles as possible next turn. My ideal here is to be able to commit 2-3 Griffons to any part of the board if I need to.

I hide two behind the wall on the right, and one goes to engage the Razor Wurm.

Shifting Stones teleport up to provide fury management. Wrong Eye casts Submerge and doesn't move out of fear of Ashes to Ashes. Snapjaw runs. Lanyssa runs up to the edge of the Trench to be able to apply Hunters Mark wherever I want it next turn.

Skorne turn 2:

Radheim does 15 damage to the Griffon next to him and moves Repositions around him.

The Drake moves up and sprays the hurt Griffon to death, healing the Razor Wurm for 1, and doing 6 more to the Yellow Bird in the Middle.

The Razor Wurm boosts an attack into the proxy base Griffon in front of it, and misses. He casts Spiny Growth.

The Mammoth gets Eyeless Sight from the Soulward, and Puppet Master from the Mortitheurge.

He rolls 2 shots, and misses his first on the Griffon next to Snapjaw, even with re-rolls. He nails the second and boosts damage, knocking out Mind and Spirit.

Hexy arcs a Hellmouth through the Drake at the Sentry Stone, then arcs another to kill it. He feats, pulling in some Fury and does it again at....something? Probably a Griffon and missed.

Agonizer cries the -2 Strength effect, and him and the Gladiator hug Hexy tight so I can't engage him with any Griffons.

Circle turn 2:

Well I'm down a Griffon and both Sentries, but I can charge everything I want to and that means it's feat turn!

Una goes first, pops Feat, heals the central Griffon for 1, and then casts Primal and Hand of Fate on it.

The Yellow Griffon goes and murders the Agonizer before popping his animus.

I walk the Griffon engaging the Razor Wurm over the Razor Wurm and do a few damage to the Mammoth.

Lanyssa successfully casts Hunters Mark at the Mammoth. I heal the buffed up Griffon with the Shifting Stones and then send him into the Mammoth's back arc. The dust clears, and the Mammoth is on about 20 boxes.

Another Griffon charges in and murders him.

Wrong Eye casts Star-Crossed and Submerge and charges up, bumping into the objective.

Snapjaw moves up and kills the Drake, and then casts Submerge.

I still have two Griffons left, and my opponent calls it. We roll out the rest of my turn for kicks, and the remaining Griffon on the right murders the Razor Wurm and sprints to engage the objective. The last Griffon charges the objective and kills it easily, and Stones port up so that I'm not even going to take Frenzy checks next turn.

Victory for the Druids!

Post-Game Thoughts:

I've played several games with Una 2 now, and my opinion is that she is too strong. Sure, she has answers in the form of a few really nasty gunlines, but there are entire factions that don't really have a way to handle her game plan. 

I'm certainly going to be playing her competitively while I can (who knows what January will bring), because she is just so strong that I'd be stupid not to, but she just does so much with such insanely cheap models. 

I don't see her or Scarsfells getting nerfed too badly in January because 1) She's brand new and 2) the Scarsfells weren't absolutely absurd before she came out, and it's too quick a timeline for PP to balance an errata on them, but I do expect that by July she or the Griffons will be getting worse. 

The Krueger Season, Flirting with the Blight: Batrep 39 - Rhyas 1 vs. Zaadesh 2

Prologue:

This Rhyas list is affectionately known as "The Manny List" after the Pressganger that I consider to be the most important Warmachine Mentor I've had. This list was his pride and joy (well, minus the Hellmouth's, but he had quit Legion by the time they were a thing), and it's probably the most fun I've ever had playing Warmachine. 

Since these are the Legion models I've obtained from him, and because this list is a tremendous amount of fun, it only seemed appropriate to document a game using the silliness and fun known as Rhyas 1. (Look, I even rhymed there). 

Lists!

Rhyas
-Scythean
-Scythean
-Scythean
-Scythean
-Seraph

Shepherd x3
Forsaken

Hellmouth
Hellmouth

One of my Scytheans is proxied by a Carnivean cuz I couldn't find my fourth Magnetized Chassis.

Zaadesh 2
- Tiberion
- Sentry x2
- Gladiator

Cetrati
-Vorkesh
Tyrant Commander and Standard Bearer (TyCom for the rest of this report).


I lost the roll off and picked the opposite side because I like that wall. Same Scenario and Terrain as last time.

I was actually really unhappy about this matchup - I was highly impressed by Zaadesh 2 when he was first released, and as people play more with him I find that they tend to also be pretty happy with how he plays. Skorne heavies at MAT 8 hurt a LOT and there's not much you can do about them hitting you when they all get Defensive Strike.

My opponent deployed to threaten my flag with his entire battlegroup.

I deployed to basically make that unlikely with the Hellmouth in the way there. He'd have to commit a heavy to take it out and I might be able to trade 2 for 1 at that point.

Skorne turn 1:

Everything ran. Inviolable Resolve got stuck on the Cetrati and Battle Charged got put on Zaadesh.

Blighted Druids turn 1:

Everything on my side ran too! Rhyas cast Rapport on one of the Scytheans to actually have something to do with her Fury and that was basically it.

I made a wall of Tentacles so that if he wanted to get at the Hellmouth with Tiberion he'd have to do something silly. In hindsight, I should have added that third one in so that I could have blocked the Sentry on the left.

Skorne turn 2:

Sentry goes in and murders the Hellmouth, putting up its Animus.

Shield Wall Cetrati and Feat from Zaadesh, plus two of the Cloud spell to flank the Sentry so that Rhyas couldn't easily charge things.

Blighted Druids turn 2:

I seriously doubt this is the last time I'll say this, but man I hate Zaadesh's Feat.

I drop Rapport. 

I mis measure here and think I can get a Scythean into back arc of the Sentry without taking a free strike. I couldn't see the other side of the arc marker from my position, and didn't bother to measure it since I'm a goober.

He takes a massive free strike and loses his body. Yayyy...

He dings up the Sentry a bit.

Going into the tank, I think I can get at least Rhyas and one Scythean onto Zaadesh this turn.

Rhyas charges through the Sentry into his back arc and engaging Tiberion. His other Sentry Countercharges and misses. Tiberion takes a Defensive Strike and misses. Okay, scary time is over. She makes her charge attack, then pops her feat. She uses her Feat attack into Tiberion, damages him, and ports base to base with him in the back arc and engaging Zaadesh.

She buys an attack, and does about 8 damage. She buys another attack, GETS THE CRIT DECAP and BOOSTS, doing 28 damage to the Furyless warlock and ending the game.

Victory for the Blighted Druids!

Post-Game Thoughts:

This probably isn't a great matchup for Rhyas, although being able to damage something and then port into it's back arc to ignore the shields is pretty okay for the Scytheans. 

Had Rhyas not been able to pull that off, we checked it and I was able to get the middle left Scythean onto Zaadesh no problem with minimal damage, and MAT 6 with Murderous kills DEF 15 Warlocks no problem. 

Like I said, most fun you can have in Warmachine, Rhyas is nuts :) 

The Krueger Season, Flirting with the Blight: Batrep 38 - Fyanna 2 vs. Feora 2

There is little doubt that the Archangel is the most beautiful model in the Privateer Press line currently in production (the Storm Raptor and the Desert Hydra will certainly test this dominance though), and with the mark 3 update, it's actually a playable model (yay!)

I love my Lylyth 3 double Archangel list, and so I decided to see how Fyanna with 2 would play. With Fury, they hit at PS 22/20/20, and under her feat, they're DEF 14, which is a little absurd on a gargantuan. 

It's been a pet idea of mine since I saw Fyanna's rules, and I decided to give it a shot. 

Fyanna

-Archangel

-Archangel

-Naga Nightlurker

Blighted Sorceress and Hellion

Shepherd x3

Hellmouth x2

And my opponent had:

Feora 2

-Hierophant 

-Reckoner x2

-Hand of Judgment

-Blood of Martyrs

Flamebringers

Daughters of the Flame

Min Choir

Punch Monk (proxied by a TFG)

Right away I looked at this matchup and had a big "uh oh" moment. I can't shoot anything important with the Archangels because everything is immune to fire. He's got Escort so his jacks are just as fast as my Archangels are, and thanks to Ashen Veil, I need sixes to hit his jacks. Yuck!!

I won the roll off and decided that I really needed to go first. We were playing Take and Hold with a really ugly central obstruction and a wall on one side that my opponent promptly (and wisely) took. 

Blighted Druids turn 1:

Full steam ahead! Archangels run/fly to the left side of the table where they can actually fight the things they want to fight. I'm hoping to be able to kill a jack and then use my feat to weather the retaliation before killing 2-3 more jacks and get up on attrition. 

Fury goes on the unpainted Archangel, and Admonition goes up onto Fyanna. The Naga goes into the trench. 

Menoth Turn 1:

He starts his turn off by running the Daughter Cav really wide. Daughters run and jam stuff, and then Feora goes and casts Escort and Fire Starter on Blood. 

Things start to go off the rails pretty hard when his pair of Reckoners move up and shoot 28 health off the left Archangel with 2 shots at dice --4. Uh oh. One of the Reckoners is behind the wall, the other by Feora. 

I start measuring out my turn prematurely, tipping off my opponent that I can get an Archangel onto Feora, so he goes ahead and puts Hand of Judgment in the exact place where I can't actually attack him with melee attacks thanks to the building and also blocking a landing spot for an Archangel. 

Blood comes over to play on the right, and the Punch Monk moves up and becomes DEF 18. 

Blighted Druids turn 2:

Well it's go time! I upkeep both spells, and then I run a druid up so that the Archangel can get forced when he charges the Reckoner behind the wall. 

I use back arc Hellmouth tentacles to clear Daughters, and the other Archangel also shoots some off the table.

The Grey Archangel goes in anddddd.....I miss 3 boosted 8s and leave the Reckoner on about half health with nothing crippled. 

Fyanna moves up, Feats, and puts Fury on the Hellmouth, which pounds on Blood a little bit. 

The Naga moves over and murders a Daughter Cav with a shot. 

I'm going to get counter punched so hard. 

Menoth turn 2:

Well...Things die. The Reckoner kills the Archangel. 

Daughter Cav come murder...well nothing actually. The one that can charge the Naga misses thanks to the Feat (yay!) They do engage the universe though. 

The Punch Monk moves up and goes invincible again. 

Blood murders three Hellmouth tentacles. 

My opponent puts some damage onto the Archangel (like 20 damage) between Feora and the other Reckoner, and then Feats to get another Focus onto Hand of Judgment, who charges in anddddd.....doesn't quite kill the Archangel. 

Blighted Druids turn 3:

Well...he moved Hand and he DIDN'T move Feora, so I have exactly one real shot at winning this game. 

Fyanna drops everything and charges Hand, boosting to hit anddddd CRIT SMITE. Yes! She then puts Fury on the Archangel and heals his two crippled aspects. 

The Painted Hellmouth spawns a tentacle, and between the Tentacle and the Maw, kill the Daughter Cav engaging my Archangel. 

The Nightlurker moves over and casts Wraithbane on the Archangel. 

The other Hellmouth drags the Reckoner away so that the Archangel doesn't take a Free Strike. 

The Archangel goes in and connects with 2 attacks, clawing the Menite to death. 

Victory for the Blighted Druids!

Post-Game Thoughts:

Okay, against Menoth at least, this list is not very good and I really, really missed my Angelii to Slipstream and cycle Fury around on. 

Also, had my opponent just left Hand of Judgment in front of Feora, I would have had to try and crit smite it 3 inches away with Fyanna, which just seems really, really unlikely to happen. 

To be fair, I really shouldn't have lost basically an entire Archangel worth of damage to 3 boosted Reckoner shots, but hey, it happens. 

Anyway, yeah double Dragon is great with Lylyth 3, but I'm not convinced with Fyanna yet. Maybe if there's not a massive huge central obstruction in the way this list gets better, but even then, I don't love it into speed 7 reach jacks. 

The Krueger Season, Flirting with the Blight: Batrep 37 - Fyanna 2 vs. Feora 2

Introduction:

When I got my Limited Edition Una 2, I also ordered a Fyanna 2 (and a Horgle 2 and a Zaadesh 2, but those are stories for another time) because 1) the sculpt is sweet and 2) the rules are sweet. 

What more can you ask for? Also the cards are foily, and I come from a Magic: the Gathering background, so foil cards are a weakness of mine. 

I had some serious list building challenges with this lady - I literally want like half the things in Legion in her list. Fury is SO good. Admonition is SO good. Iron Flesh is SO good. +3 DEF and Dodge is SO good. 

In the end, I decided to just play something that I thought really abused both her feat and Fury. 

Fyanna 2

- Angelius x2

- Seraph

- Zuriel

Shepherd x2

Feralgeist

Max Swordsmen

Max Raptors

Bunches of Weaponmasters? Check. Armor Piercing silliness? Check. (Side bar, a charging Angelius with Fury does 17.5 damage to an ARM 20 Warjack/Warbeast on average dice. Isn't that absurd??)

Super fast dudes? Check. Yeah this is all stuff I can get behind. 

My local Menoth opponent dropped:

Feora 2

- Heirophant

- Hand of Judgement

- Reckoner x2

- Blood of Martyrs

Cinerators

Daughters of the Flame

Min Choir

Wrack

Allegient of the Order of the Fist (proxied by TFG man)

We're playing outlast and this is shaping up to be an interesting game already. He's got Escort, and I'm naturally faster and have Slipstream to boot. He hits a lot harder generally, but I have Fury. I get a turn of relative safety due to my feat, but I'm not sure if that's enough against a bunch of fire. 

I win the roll off and go first (everything in my list is bonkers fast), and my opponent takes the side without the annoying forests for him to have to run around. I laugh as my blighted wings carry me ever higher....wow the blight is strong, must resist.....

Hey look! I have like...actual Raptors now...though unassembled.

My opponent deploys opposite me, skewing hard for the left zone. 

Blighted Druids turn 1:

No finesse here, Fury goes on one Angelius, Admonition on Fyanna (holy crap I'm playing Tanith in Legion) and everything runs up the table full distance...except the Swordsmen because they still have nightmares about the Daughters over there (this is the first Legion game I'd played since the previous batrep on October 9). 

Menoth turn 1:

Menoth runs at me! Escort goes up, and jacks advance. One of the Reckoners takes a potshot a the Angelius behind cover and misses. 

Daughters get in my face, and Cinerators labor up the board...slowly. 

The Punch Monk gets his Shifting Sands Stance (say that three times fast) and advances. 

Blighted Druids turn 2:

Alright so...goal for this turn is to murder Daughters. Everywhere. We hates them. 

I also don't really have much else to shoot at since..well..Cinerators are immune to fire, all of his jacks are immune to fire since Blood of Martyrs got the fire upkeep spell on him....yeah. 

Seraph casts Slipstream and moves over to the Angelius and back, placing him out of melee with the Daughter. 

He gets a couple shots and boosts, killing two Daughters. Yessss. 

The Angelius, now free to do what he likes, charges into the right hand Reckoner, whiffing a couple hits and leaving it on one. 

Swordsmen charge in and kill another pair of Daughters. Sweet revenge. 

Fyanna moves up after casting Slipstream, and kills another Daughter after placing the Angelius next to her so that he can see Blood of Martyrs. 

She casts Fury on him and pops her feat. 

The Angelius goes in and...really whiffs, but knocks out Blood's cortex. 

Raptors shoot down two Cinerators and damage a third. Zuriel contests. 

Shepherds leach fury from the Seraph. 

Menoth turn 2:

Well he's in a bad spot here and he knows it. Vengeance triggers on the Cinerators, and they move over. The first one misses the Angelius, which dodges back. 

His two unhurt heavies go into the other Angelius, one missing, the other connecting for a bunch of damage and lighting him on fire. 

Feora aims and Sprays both of them, lighting up one and leaving the other on three boxes, on fire, right next to Hand of Judgment. He manages to hurt Blood enough to cripple his good arm between blowing up the Wrack and actually hitting him.

His remaining Daughter....murders two Swordsmen. CURSE THOSE THINGS!

His Punch Monk Advances and engages one Raptor with Shifting Sand Stance. 

The Cinerators run to the right zone. 

Blighted Druids turn 3:

Not only does my SUPER close to dead Angelius not die to fire damage, it doesn't even Frenzy! Woahhh. 

I upkeep my spells. 

Apparently, Zuriel is MAT 8, so he walks behind the Punch Monk and kills him dead. 

The Raptors finish off all but the far left Cinerator. 

The Angelius with Fury on it takes a free strike to fly over the completely crippled Reckoner, but it misses, and he puts some good damage on Hand of Judgment (missed his Armor Piercing attack, even with boosting to hit). 

The Seraph Slipstreams a Swordsmen so that I can get two charges onto Hand with them and then blows up the last Daughter. Hooray! I don't care if I win at this point!

The Swordsmen charge in and finish off Hand of Judgment. 

Fyanna activates, heals the Angelius for 2, and then moves over to kill the last Cinerator. She overtakes into the zone, and camps one. 

The nearly dead Angelius misses his Armor Pierce attack on the healthy Reckoner, and buys an attack into the Reckoner with one box, killing him too. 

I get 3 points. 

Score 3-0

Advantage Blighted Druids

Menoth turn 3:

He goes for the assassination run with Feora's sprays and spells, but his dice roll just average and Fyanna is alive, on fire, with three boxes and a transfer left. 

My hurt Angelius dies. 

I technically score 2 more points here, but we both forgot in the heat of the moment so the game went on!

Blighted Druids turn 4:

Fyanna drops everything, casts Fury on herself and charges Feora. She hits, getting the Crit Smite and knocking her back 2 inches. 

Raptors move up and shoot the wretched Flame Bringer to death. 

Victory for the Blighted Druids!

Post Game Thoughts:

This feels like a really bad matchup for Feora. I get a time walk feat, I massively outthreat him with everything that matters. In addition, an Angelius with Fury on the charge does 17 damage, then another 5, 5, 5 for a total of 32 - really close to dead most of the time. 

Follow that up with masses of charging weaponmasters and, well, that's no fun for Menoth jacks either. 

Overall, she feels very strong, very interesting, and probably has a fairly high skill ceiling (which is something I always like in a caster). I also don't feel like I've even come close to the right list with her yet, so stay tuned for that. I'm probably going to pair her with Rhyas 1 or the Twins should I ever take Legion to events, so look forward to more batreps with those warlocks!