Trinket Review: Broken Egg Games' WARsticks

Prologue:

Warmachine and Hordes is a very precision-oriented game - so much so that we often get made fun of by other gaming systems.

In that quest for perfect placement and insane accuracy, we use many tools to make our play cleaner and easier to read. In my widget box you can find everything from laser lines to proxy bases to charge lane widgets. Now you can also find a set of Circle Orboros WARsticks, and man are they cool.

You can find them here.

Price:

The most important question - can I fit them in my budget?

At a modest price point of $40 (US Dollars for my international readers), these certainly aren't going to break the bank.

They do clock in at slightly more expensive than their direct competition however. Broken Egg Games ALSO sells "Guild Sticks", which are laser engraved acrylic measuring sticks (albeit without any Warmachine and Hordes art or notation) for $35, and Muse on Minis sells a set of precision sticks for $35.

That being said, I prefer the Broken Egg widgets. The extra five dollars is more than worth it because...

Quality:

Broken Egg Games products (at least the ones I've come in contact with), have all been of excellent quality, and these are no different.

The clear acrylic is precisely cut to the lengths marked on the sticks (I checked mine). Additionally, the sticks are thin enough to fit easily into most spaces (when turned on the side), but still thick enough that it would take dedicated force to break them. They feel extremely sturdy, and there is no noticeable flex when the sticks are handled.

The backing material is extremely well adhered to the stick, and I know from experience with their tokens that nothing short of taking a knife or hard contact on a similar, sharp surface will separate the artwork from the stick itself.

The back of the sticks are black plastic, which is perfect for putting your name or other identifying marks on.

The only downside to this design comes into view if the sticks are turned upside down. When they are not face up, you cannot see which stick is which length. This is easily remedied by marking it on the back with a silver sharpie when you label them with your name, and I've also noticed that I don't ever put these face down once I've started a game - the artwork is too pretty - so it hasn't been an issue.

Overall I am very impressed with the quality of the widgets - they're sturdy, practical, and look gorgeous.

Use them to mark deployment zones! 

Use them to measure threat ranges!

Ease of Use:

The great thing about these widgets is their user friendliness. There are very few tricks to making the best use of them.

Need to precisely measure an 8 inch charge with a reach heavy? Simply hold down your model and put the ten inch stick base to base with it.

Need 11 inches? Put the ten inch stick down and then pick any of the other sticks and use the short side - each stick is 1 inch wide. I find them especially useful for measuring out distances for ranged models before they move.

5" advance and 12 inch shot? Out comes the five inch stick, the eight inch, and the four inch stick, all touching. It doesn't get any simpler than that, and this way there is no argument - either the model is in or it is out, and there is no wavering tape measure over the model.


Conclusion:

Want precise measurements? Want really pretty eye candy when your opponent goes into the tank for a few turns?

These are definitely for you. I've had them for almost two weeks, and I've used them in every single game I have played. I cannot imagine sitting down to a game without these now - they are truly a staple in my collection of gaming implements.

Seattle Open Thoughts and Reflections

Prologue:

The Seattle Open was last weekend, and I had been prepping pretty hard for it. I'd dojo'd out some sweet tech for Wurmwood with a Moonhound Argus and Woldwyrds a-plenty, and I had also decided to bring a massive ARM skew with Baldur 2 and two Woldwraths.

I had all my tokens, my templates, and other knick-knacks all ready to go. I even had a water bottle, which doesn't always happen.

I ended up going 1-1 and dropping, and the games I played were both pretty emotionally wrenching and tilting, so I won't be doing full on battle reports for them.

I would first like to make a SERIOUS disclaimer - this is all from my perspective, and I am human, flawed, and deeply biased towards myself.

That being said, I am going to do my best to give an objective accounting of what happened. I'm not looking for pity, nor for condemnation, although I might deserve a little of both. The goal is, as usual, to be informative, helpful, and honest.


Game 1:

Game 1 I was dropped into a Cygnar player who had Haley 2 and Caine 3. I dropped Baldur 2 and away we went.

The game went pretty much as expected. I slowly killed off his Shadowfire models and he killed off everything but my Woldwraths.

Caine's feat turn only did about 15 damage to one Woldwrath after completely taking out Megalith, and I healed the Wrath up to 5 boxes off full.

At this point my opponent proceeded to one round a Woldwrath with pow 12 shooting.

Needless to say, I was fairly frustrated after that turn, especially since over the course of the game my opponent had gotten minor rules on his models incorrect and I'd helped him remember. Examples include Ace having a Shadowfire gun, the Squire only being speed 6, etc.

The following turn, in order to keep my remaining Woldwrath away from Caine, he ran.

He measured 4 inches, placed Caine. Measured 4 more inches, placed Caine. Measured an additional four inches and placed Caine again. He then measured 4 more inches directly away from the Woldwrath and placed Caine once more.

Side note for those who don't play Cygnar - Caine is speed 7, so he can run 14 inches, not the 16 my opponent had attempted to.

At this point, I made a massive mistake. I informed my opponent that Caine was only speed 7, took my 2 inch widget, and bumped Caine back 2 inches from his ending position.

My opponent finished his turn, shoving everything he could in front of the Woldwrath, and at the end of the turn we realized that Baldur was now in charge distance of Caine, and indeed charged and killed him the next turn.

Now, this was massively not okay on my side, and I realize that. First of all, I should never be touching another person's models at a tournament unless I have their permission to. Secondly, I didn't call a judge.

That is the big one right there.

In this situation, I should have raised my hand, screamed "JUDGE" at the top of my lungs, and had the TO come over and resolve the situation. I am fairly certain that the TO would have ruled similarly to what I ended up doing, but this way it would have been legitimate and not given me a fairly illegitimate win.

I would like to say that I wasn't thinking clearly, that I was on tilt after an absolutely unreal turn of dice play by my opponent and after a game of constant corrections, and I was, but the truth of the matter is that NONE OF THAT MATTERS and what I did was WRONG.

I am not proud of that game, and I will remember it for the rest of my life. If my opponent from that round reads this, please know that I am incredibly sorry and that it will never happen again.

.........................

I nearly dropped after that game, and I almost wish I had.


Game 2:

I played Wurmwood into Zerkova 1. The details of the game don't really matter except for these few points:

1) My opponent had a lot of countercharging models, and at one point he forgot to clock back over to me after he did for an unspecified length of time. I feel that length of time was between a minute and a minute and a half, and my opponent felt that it was more in the 3-5 minute range.

2) I gave my opponent 1 minute of my clock.

3) At the final turn of the game, the clock was 29 seconds on my time, 3 seconds on my opponent, and the score was 3-3 tied.


.....................


On that turn, I quickly said that I wasn't doing anything with any of my models, and clocked over with 14 seconds of time remaining.

My opponent instantly clocked back to me, and I clocked right back, informing him that he had a 15 second minimum turn length.

While that happened, his clock ran out.

My opponent then tossed 3 dice twice, representing a mark 2 great bear swinging at the objective, and said that he killed it and scored to 5.

I called the judge over, but because there were no bystanders able to corroborate, and my opponent believed that he actually should have had more time left on his clock than he did, the judges were unable to give a legitimate ruling and were going to give both of us a game loss.

My opponent asked if he could have ten seconds of time to move 3 iron fang pikemen with ghost walk to charge the objective and see if they killed it.

Rather than have both of us take a game loss, I agreed, and my opponent killed the objective with exact dice.


....................


Heart-wrenching is how I would describe that experience. Certainly I haven't gotten so low on clock in nearly four years of playing, and that experience is stressful.

Lessons learned here - when the clock starts to get low, call the TO over to make sure that everything is done on the level. There should have been absolutely no confusion about who won that game, but instead there was bedlam and ultimately my opponent and I were forced into a really crummy roll off to see who would take the game. Don't let this happen to you.

Furthermore, check with your judge before the event and find out their clock policy. Most judges will say that each player is responsible for clocking back their time to their opponent. Establish this before the game.

Conclusion:

I am, to put it bluntly, extremely disappointed with myself and my performance at the Seattle Open. I still need to grow a lot as a player, especially as a competitive one.

I am glad that I have several months before the next large even I plan to play in. In that time, I will be focusing very hard on cleaning up my play, making my opponents and myself both accountable for our time, and in general just pushing myself to be a better player, opponent, and proponent of the game.

This won't be happening again.

Battle Report 81: Baldur 2 (Bones of Orboros) vs. Fyanna 2 (Ravens of War)

Prologue:

I'm testing for the Seattle Open this weekend (I have NO idea what I'm playing yet guys D: ), and this Baldur 2 list seemed really strong. I needed one more Stoneshaper to play it painted, so last night I sat down for an hour and finished the third one up before rolling up scenario.

My opponent opted for another Fyanna 2 theme force, which meant no AD for me.


Baldur 2
- Woldwrath
- Megalith
- Woldwarden
- Woldwyrd
- Woldwyrd

Stoneshaper x3 (all free)
Gallows Grove

Sentry Stone x2
Shifting Stones


Against:

Fyanna 2
- Archangel
- Seraph
- Angelius

Anyssa
Forsaken
Death Stalker
Spell Martyr

Max Raptors

The Scenario was Extraction, and my opponent won the roll off. He opted for first (dang it) so I took the side with the forest.

My plan here is to put the Wrath away from almost everything else so he can't get to Megalith and Baldur by charging the Wrath. I could also use Rock Wall to ensure that the Archangel didn't get into the fight until I wanted it to.

Also quick shout out to Broken Egg Games for sending me a preview set of the Circle War Sticks (you can see them forming my deployment line there). I'll be writing a review of them up in the next day or two time permitting, but suffice to say they are very pretty and they are VERY useful.

My opponent puts Prey from Anyssa on the right side Woldwyrd.

Legion turn 1:

Everything runs. The Seraph casts Slipstream to move the Angelius up, the Forsaken eats a ton of fury, and the Raptors are already in my face.

Fyanna dumps 3, feats, and charges the Woldwrath.

Remember that nice, empty table? Yeah it's not anymore.

Circle turn 1:

Well I'm in a bit of a pickle here. I really don't get much of a chance to advance anywhere major, and I don't think I want to Feat just yet.

The forest is going to do a great job of preventing the Archangel from getting a charge onto anything but the Woldwrath, and he's going to have to Slipstream his Angelius around to have LoS to anything other than the Wrath as well.

Furthermore (as my thought process goes), if he puts Fury on anything, ANYTHING, it's dead if I keep my Woldwyrds alive.

Alright, we have a plan, let's execute it.

I premeasure out where the Archangel can and can't go, and then I premeasure my Woldwrath's movement and the Rock Wall. The Woldwrath runs (not for free guys because apparently Baldur only lets them charge and trample and throw for free).

His entourage of Stoneshapers moves up base to base with him.

I apply Sentry Mannikins to jam up the side. Megalith advances and puts Roots of the Earth on the Woldwrath.

Baldur moves up, casts Rock Wall and Roots of the Earth on Megalith, and forgets to purify again. Doh!

The Waldwarden moves up and casts Roots of the Earth on himself.

Both Woldwyrds hide in the bunker of heavies, and the Shifting Stones port around Baldur.

Legion turn 2:

Now it's my opponents turn to be on the back foot!

He pulls fury and thinks. He's got two real choices here - back up and shoot a bit OR go all in.

This is Warmachine and Hordes guys, he goes all in.

Slipstream on the Seraph puts the Angelius in range of and in LoS of Megalith.

The Raptors clear out Mannikins with impact attacks and kill one of the Sentry Stones.

The Archangel moves up and shoots Megalith twice, but does no damage.

The Angelius charges Megalith, and does about a third to a half of his health boxes.

Circle turn 2:

I pull in my fury, place a Mannikin, and drop Rock Wall. Megalith heals 3 damage between the Feat and the Theme force, and Baldur heals his one.

The Warden tries a double handed throw on the Raptor next to him and...misses. He buys an attack and hits, killing it.

The Wyrd behind him aims and shoots down the Raptor in front of Megalith. Megalith charges the Angelius for free, boosts to hit, and does good damage. He uses two more attacks to kill off the beast.

The Woldwrath goes into the Seraph, killing it.

All three Stoneshapers move up and pull a Fury off of the Woldwrath each.

The Stones port up out of the way, and the other Woldwyrd rolls a bit hot on his damage rolls and kills two more Raptors.

An aiming Sentry Mannikin nearly kills Annyssa, and Baldur moves up.

I have two choices here - I can save Megalith with the Rock Wall or I can try and save the Woldwrath.

I run some quick math in my head and determine that even with super hot rolls, the Wrath survives an Archangel with Fury on it, so I place the Rock Wall so that the Archangel can't land anywhere near Megalith. Baldur Feats and I pass the turn.

Legion turn 3:

The Raptor on the right hand side charges the Sentry Stone, dropping it to two boxes.

Anyssa moves up, kills the Mannikin, and puts a shot into the Stone, doing nothing.

The Spell Martyr runs to control the flag, the Deathstalker moves up to control THAT flag, and Fyanna moves behind the house to cast Fury on the Archangel.

The Archangel moves up and proceeds to roll CRAZY FIRE DICE.

Quick math: Archangel gets 5 dice -1 attacks (that's 30 damage average) and 2 dice -2 attacks (another 10 damage) for 40 damage total.

Yeah not even close. The Wrath takes 51 damage and nearly dies. I was scared guys.

After that minor heart attack, my opponent scores two points and calls it a turn.

See the health boxes on the iPad??

Score 0-2

Advantage to the Blight

Circle turn 3:

Things heal one point. The Shifting Stones pull 2 from Megalith and one from the Wrath, and Baldur pulls four from the Wyrds.

The Wyrds go first, and drop the Archangel to 10 boxes. Love me some Purgation shots.

The Shifting Stones pop a Healing Field. Megalith moves up, contests the flag, and kills the Archangel before casting Crevasse at the Spell Martyr, killing it, and then boosting attack and damage on the Raptor, killing it.

The Woldwrath moves up and punches both solos to death, landing on the flag.

My Sentry Mannikin controls the flag while the Stone sits behind the forest.

The Woldwarden charges and misses Anyssa.

The Stoneshapers move up and heal 15 damage off of the Woldwrath. Nice.

Baldur moves up and puts Roots of the Earth on both Megalith and the Woldwrath.

This time I score two points.

Score 2-2

Advantage Circle

Legion turn 4:

Fyanna moves up and tries to kill Megalith. Anyssa punches the Warden.

I score another point.

Score 3-1

Advantage Circle

Circle turn 4:

I'm sure many of you are going "Fyanna is RIGHT THERE, just kill her already!"

Let's do some math here guys - you win if you get 5 points and you win if you kill their warlock. 

To get five points, I have to kill an auto hit objective at dice +1 and put a solo on one of two flags if I can kill a nearly dead Cavalry model with Megalith. 

To kill Fyanna, I have to hit every attack because she has Dodge, which will ruin my plans. 

I'm definitely going to go for the easy way out here. 

I put down another Sentry Mannikin on the right side flag. 

Megalith charges and kills Anyssa. 

The Wrath moves up and kills the objective, and his entourage heals him another 11 damage. Sweet. 

I end my turn and score 2 more points.

Score 5-2

Victory for the Druids!

Post-Game:

My opponent played a really aggressive turn 1 this game. I was backpedaling for the first two turns of the game, and the only reason I was able to survive was a combination of Rock Wall and my opponent not having a Naga in his list to hand out Wraithbane. My opponent could also have saved his Feat for one more turn I think, and I would have been in much bigger trouble.

I don't think Baldur can safely drop into a lot of Legion lists if they have the Naga.

Definitely a cool list, I'm excited to keep playtesting it - gotta love big stone monkeys punching stuff right?

Thanks for reading!

Sponsored!

I've been keeping this under wraps for about three weeks now until everything was finalized, but I am now delighted to announce that Druid's Dice will officially be sponsored by Broken Egg Games, an excellent source of Warmachine and Hordes (and other game systems!) accessories.



What does this mean?

Well for one thing, you'll probably have noticed the new image to the right of this post with the Broken Egg Games logo on it. Clicking on it will (hopefully) take you straight to their home page.

For another, it means that you will be seeing more reviews like this one popping up from time to time as I use more of the Broken Egg products.

Right off the bat, I'm going to be doing a preview review of the Circle Orboros Measuring Sticks sometime in the next couple days (excited!), and hopefully sometime in the next couple of weeks I'll be getting my hands on their new terrain mats to review as well.



I'll still be producing the same Circle-centric content on as regular a basis as I can, and I've got a couple more tactica and strategy ideas bubbling away in my brain for after Seattle Open this weekend, so stay tuned for those.


As always, feel free to message me on Facebook (you can find the page at facebook.com/druidsdice ) or leave a comment on any of my posts. I'll talk your ear off about Warmahordes anytime.

Battle Report 80: Baldur 1 (Bones of Orboros) vs. Thagrosh 1

Prologue:

I've been really thinking about Bones of Orboros as an effective gunline for the last couple weeks, and there are a few casters that really piqued my interest.

Baldur 1 sticks out for a couple of reasons. First of all, he's got a great feat to let you get 2-3 rounds of shooting in. He also has a great ARM buff for the Woldwrath, and he can heal Woldwyrds (a big plus). Add to that a great spell for Geomancy (Earth Spikes is amazing), and you've got a gunline that can reasonably kill a heavy a turn and also has a PS 21 ARM 22 Colossal running around at the back.

I tossed together a Bones of Orboros tier list to play since I was already playing mostly Wolds, and I discovered that I was DRASTICALLY under points in terms of painted models available. My ideal list would drop the second Shifting Stone unit and both Gallows Groves for another Wyrd (since I'm playing two points down) OR for two Stoneshapers and keep the second Stone unit.

Either way, I need to paint a Wyrd or two Stoneshapers before I can try it. Sometimes playing painted is hard.


My pair for this list was a Kromac 1 list with a billion beasts and a couple Wyrds. I can't not put Wyrds in lists guys, they're fantastic.

My opponent had for me Thagrosh 1 beast brick and Lylyth 3 with double Archangel.

No way on Earth am I dropping Kromac into a gunline that strong, so Baldur it was. My opponent decided on Thagrosh.

Baldur 1
- Druid Wilder (Free!)
- Woldwrath
- Megalith
- Woldwyrd x3

Blackclad x2 (Free!)
Gallows Grove x2

Sentry Stone x2
Shifting Stone x2


vs.

Thagrosh 1
- Proteus
- Carnivean
- Scythean
- Seraph
- Protector
- Naga

Shepherd x2
Forsaken x2


We were playing Outlast, and my opponent won the die roll, taking the side he liked better.

Gotta say, I love two extra inches of deployment.

Circle turn 1:

Full speed ahead! Wanna know what's great? Running without forcing.

Both Sentry Stones rolled max fury and ported up, making forests.

Megalith riled and ran into Stones, which ported him up as well.

Everything else ran full speed, except Baldur. He advanced, cast Stone Skin on the Woldwrath and put up Solid Ground. 

Legion turn 1:

I'm pretty far up the table already, and he can't really put up defensive animi or the Woldwyrds melt his heavies.

He Slipstreams Typhon forward, and puts the sprays into Megalith, doing 26 damage at dice -6 over three attacks. That means 41 pips on 9 dice, which for those counting at home is 10 over average. Oucchhhh.

Fortunately, he's just out of range of every other ranged attack in his list.

Both Forsaken get loaded up after beasts rile and run.

Circle turn 2:

Well Megalith wasn't supposed to be nearly so close to dead, but he lived and heals 4 (d3 from himself, 1 from the theme).

I measure it out, and the Woldwrath can get onto the Scythean if I Hunters Mark him, even with Stone Skin, so I upkeep both spells.

I do some quick math, and I think there's a reasonable chance of killing Typhon with shooting. I can get two Wyrds into him, a Blackclad spray, two fully boosted Earth Spikes, and some boosted Mannikin sprays. It's better to spray him here since Thagrosh's Strength Sapping aura makes the Mannikins PS 9.

I get that ball rolling first, and am able to kill Typhon without committing Baldur's Earth Spikes.

The Blackclad on the righ lands his Hunters Mark on the Scythean, and at dice +3, Tiny puts him down quite easily. (Max reach kept me just outside of Thagrosh's aura).

With that, I move Baldur up and Feat, healing Megalith for two and standing on the hill. Cover plus elevation means I'm DEF 19 against non-sprays, and DEF 15 against sprays.

Finally, my far right Wyrd moves up and shoots his Forsaken down.

Legion turn 2:

Since I've moved Megalith back, his only real target is the Woldwrath.

He puts Draconic Blessing on the Carnivean, and Wraithbane on both the Carnivean and the Seraph, and the beasts go in, doing about half the Wrath's health between them.

He Feats Typhon back, and keeps him in front of Thagrosh. His Protector charges the tree since he was going to contest anyway, and one Gallows Grove dies. The right zone gets both of the Shepherds in it, and the left has a Forsaken in the corner.

Circle turn 3:

Models heal (man I love that) and Baldur drops Solid Ground. Shifting Stones leach four Fury, letting me pull most of it back.

I start things off by shooting Typhon down again with roughly the same amount of models.

The Woldwrath punches the Carnivean to death, and then kills the Naga in two attacks. He buys a last one at the Seraph, actually hits it, and leaves it on six. (Dice +5 baby!)

The middle Woldwyrd moves around the Seraph to it's back arc and shoots it, hitting, boosting damage, and killing it.

I can't move Baldur into either zone without being in range of a Mutagenesis assassination, so he stays on the hill and I get one point.

Score 1-0

Advantage Circle

Legion turn 3:

The writing is on the wall as he literally cannot contest, but my opponent wants blood. He puts every attack he has into Megalith, and the mighty Wold goes down.

I get another point.

Score 2-0

Advantage Circle

Circle turn 4:

The Blackclad starts things off by moving to the Forsaken's back arc and spraying her to death, dinging up the Protector a bit, critically knocking him down. 

After that, Wyrds aim and shoot, and the Wrath fires his big gun in to finish off the poor Nephilim. 

I walk Baldur into the right zone and go to 5. 

Score 5-0

Victory for the Druids!

Post-Game Thoughts:

I tossed this together as sort of a trolly, fluffy gunline and...it works really well? I really want to play with a fourth Wyrd in this list, I think that pushes the potential damage output up to silly levels. 

Excited to keep messing around with this build (and others like it). I think Circle is probably best as a gunline right now, which is a really strange feeling. 

Thanks for reading :) 

Battle Report 79: Reznik 2 vs Xerxis 2

I'm running a three list, 8 person cap event this weekend, and my local Skorne player wanted to practice into the three list pairing being brought by one of the Menoth players, so instead of playing Circle like a good Druid I strapped on some Menofixes and brought out the Popes of Nopes.

My opponent's three list pairing is Zaadesh 2 with triple shield titans, Xerxis 2 with Hydra and Tiberion, and Rasheth in the shooting theme.

I was pretty sure Rasheth was never seeing the table against Menoth (thanks Passage!), and I felt like my three list pairing of Amon, Kreoss 1, and Reznik 2 was really bad for Zaadesh.

That being the thought process, I was torn between Reznik and Amon. I ended up dropping Reznik because I've seen him played more and am more comfortable with his list. It also only has two warjacks, so I don't have to remember focus allocation as much!

I dropped Reznik, he dropped Xerxis.


Reznik 2
- Madelyn Corbeau
- Scourge of Heresy
- Eye of Truth
- Devout

Wrack x2
Allegiant of the Order of the Fist
Vassal of Menoth
Alten Ashley

Idrians and CA
Flamebringers
Choir (min)

Against:

Xerxis 2
- Desert Hydra
- Tiberion
- Gladiator
- Shaman

Orin Midwinter
Mortitheurge Willbreaker

Beast Handlers (min) x2

My opponent won the roll off and opted to go first. Baddddddd. The Scenario was incursion.

Idrians chose the Hydra as prey.

Skorne turn 1:

Full speed ahead with basically everything. Ignite goes on Tiberion, and the Shaman casts Desert Storm to keep his models safe from the Idrians.

Druidic Menites turn 1:

Idrians spread out wide. Lamentation goes up, but I was a derp and forgot to allocate a bunch of focus to Scourge, so I have to sing no spells with the choir.

I put Eye of Truth in the Hydra's charge range since I can't really not - that thing threatens 14 inches with Xerxis. I keep Reznik and Scourge away from the Hydra.

The Flamebringers go way left, since I think I can get a solid Scenario push there.

Alten does 5 damage to Tiberion's Spirit and backs the crap up.

Skorne turn 2:

He needs to kill two Idrians to really make room for the Hydra, and this is done by the Shaman zapping one, and then rewinding so my opponent casts Rush first (Lamentation folks, it's a spell) and then moves up and shoots.

Tiberion charges in at two others and murders them dead.

Xerxis puts Ignite on the Hydra and pops his Feat.

Beast Handlers Enrage and Prod the Hydra, which charges in and kills Eye of Truth and three more Idrians.

Druidic Menites turn 2:

Well....the bait worked, so time to see if I can do anything with it. Two to Scourge.

Alten aims and blasts Tiberion, leaving his Spirit on one box.

The Punch Monk charges in his back, but misses the important columns.

Scourge gets Battled, Boundless Charged, and goes to town, killing the Hydra dead. Prey switches to Tiberion, and I get two charges on him. Once again, I forget to use the mini feat.

The two charging Idrians leave Tiberion on six boxes, and a crippled Spirit.

Flamebringers charge and kill a couple of Beast Handlers before repositioning back to control the left flag.

I get one point.

Score 1-0

Advantage Druids! 

Skorne turn 3:

My opponent kills some Idrians with Xerxis, and he Sprints over to the right hand flag after putting Ignite on Tiberion. 

Tiberion lays into Scourge HARD, leaving him on nine boxes after his three initials and crit smiting him away. 

The Shaman moves over and zaps the Daughter Cav on the flag. 

The Gladiator has to Rush himself and charge to kill the last contesting Idrian, and my opponent scores two points. 

Score 1-2

Advantage Skorne

Druidice Menites turn 3:

Well I have a couple of options here. The (probably correct) play is to shake KD, Battle Scourge, Boundless charge him, move Reznik up to curse Xerxis, and then try and kill him. Mat 9, 3 attacks at dice +1 and one at dice -1 should kill him since he's only camping one.

Oddsmachine puts this at 57%.

Instead, I decide to get cheeky and test the limits of the Madelyn/Devout combo.

Scourge gets full focus and shakes KD.

Alten aims and kills Tiberion. Prey Switches to Gladiator.

The Daughters kill the Shaman and reposition back to the flag.

Reznik moves up, pulls from a Wrack, casts Boundless Charge on Scourge, and curses the Gladiator.

Madelyn parlays, and a HUGE mistake here I run my Devout to Reznik's left side.

Scourge murders the Gladiator, and Prey switches to Xerxis.

The Guide charges him and does ten damage O.o

I get another point.

Score 2-2

Tie!

Skorne turn 4:

My opponent has one chance here, and it's my own fault. He can get Orin into range to zap the Devout, and then potentially get two leaps into Madelyn.

He gets his Beast Handlers out of the way and contesting both flags, and Orin moves up after getting Puppet Master.

He misses his shot, re-rolls, and then only gets one leap.

Xerxis kills Scourge and sprints back, getting one point.

Score 2-3

Advantage Skorne

Druidic Menites turn 4:

Alten aims and kills Orin. The Daughter Cav kill all three middle models and control the left flag.

Reznik charges, curses, and kills the three Beast Handlers on the right side before Repositioning into the flag.

The Devout runs to control the middle, and I score three more.

Score 5-3

Victory for the Druids!

Post-Game:

This is a terrifically hard matchup. I made two major errors this game. The first is not going for the assassination run when I had it since I could have gotten Scourge plus a The Flesh is Weak into Xerxis, which probably kills him. 

Secondly, the Devout should have been on the other side of Reznik, and then Orin never has a chance to kill Madelyn. We rolled it out after and Xerxis would have left Reznik on 3 boxes, but still. 

Alten was a BEAST this game, doing 15 damage to Tiberion over three turns and preventing him from killing Scourge. MVP for sure. 

Battle Report 78: Baldur 2 vs. Severius 2 (Creator's Wrath)

Another day, another Baldur 2 list to mess around with. Since I finished Tiny up, I decided I wanted to take him for a spin. I don't have Baldur 1 painted yet (I will be fixing that this week), I figured Baldur 2 was as good of a place as any to put him.


Baldur 2
- Woldwrath
- Megalith
- Pureblood
- Gorax

Blackclad
Bokur (Client Sentry Stone)

Sentry Stone x2
Shifting Stones
Gobbers Bellow Crew

And my opponent was playing:

Severius 2 in THEME (The Creators Wrath)
- Heirophant
- Reckoner x2
- Guardian
- Vigilant
- Redeemer
- Blessing of Vengeance

Vassal
Mechanic
Wrack x3
The Covenant of Menoth

Rhoven and Co.
Choir

We rolled up Recon, and my opponent won, opting for first. I was lazy and took the side with the massive forest since I was sitting over there anyway, and then realized that my opponent had Awareness and that the forest was basically useless to me.

Ah well.

I put the Woldwrath on the right side since he was going to get shot at no matter what, and the forest was basically useless.

Baldur and friends would basically hang out in the trench all game providing Armor buffs and maybe the occasional Crevasse. My opponent had no less than 3 shield guards, so the Wrath wasn't going to get to use his gun to much effect.

Menoth turn 1:

Arcane Ward had started on Blessing of Vengeance, and Sevy allocated a bunch of focus to his jacks, all of which ran after receiving the Shielding Song from the Choir (No Spells).

Circle turn 1:

Without Eye of Truth in the list, my list isn't too concerned about Reckoner and Redeemer shots, even with Battle up.

One Sentry Unit went for the right forest to get Stealth, the other went left and used it's single fury to make a forest.

The Wrath ran as far forward as he could while being within six of Baldur.

Megalith trampled up and cast Roots of the Earth on himself.

Baldur cast Roots of the Earth on the Woldwrath and charged, ending in the trench.

The Bokur hung out near Baldur and the Sentry Stone, since I figured that was where my opponent would be shooting.

The Gobbers moved up to give things concealment, since Awareness doesn't let models ignore that - just line of sight blocked by clouds and forests.

Menoth turn 2:

Not a whole lot happens this turn. I Shield Guard the Eyeless Sight Flare shot from the right hand Reckoner going into the Sentry Stone, and my opponent drifts some AOEs onto the Gobbers, killing them.

The Covenant sang No Knockdown, which was going to suck massively, and stayed within five of the important things.

For those interested, Battle was the chosen song this turn.

Circle turn 2:

The Woldwrath can charge the right hand Reckoner, and I can use Rock Wall to prevent almost anything else from getting to the Woldwrath.

Unfortunately, I can only get ....zero..... sprays into the Book this turn, so the No KD bubble will survive despite my best efforts.

The Reckoner survives as Tiny misses 3 of 6 attacks on him, but Baldur puts his feat up with everything in central positions and a wall separating my beasts from his other heavies.

Menoth turn 3:

Commence beating on the poor Woldwrath!

Arcane Ward stays up, and focus gets allocated to both Blessing and the Reckoner on the Wrath.

Poor placement on my Bokur means that my left side Sentry Stone goes down. Sevy pops his Feat, killing my Blackclad and leaving the Bokur on 1.

The Reckoner and Blessing combined do 8 damage to the Woldwrath.

Circle turn 3:

Time to start making bad choices. Instead of keeping Megalith safe and shooting the objective to death, Megalith casts Roots of the Earth on the Wrath and charges the Vigilant, doing minimal damage and then killing the objective.

The Wrath finishes off the Reckoner easily and then dings up Blessing.

Baldur casts a Rock Wall in a bid to keep Megalith alive, and then puts Roots of the Earth on himself.

Three sprays into the Book take it down to two boxes.

Menoth turn 4:

Battle goes up, and the Vigilant goes into Megalith, dice -6 on his first attack, casually does 11 damage.

Gaius and Cassian charge in and bring the Beast down to 15 boxes, which a charging Reckoner easily finishes off.

The Guardian runs around the edge of the pond, threatening Baldur. Severius casts Ashes to Ashes on the Mannikins, killing all three, and then casts a Hex Blast at the Bokur, which kills it.

Sevy advances backwards to 16 inches from the Guardian. The Vassal puts Enliven on the Guardian.

Circle turn 4:

I have a couple options here. I can probably kill the Reckoner and the Guardian this turn by charging the Guardian with Baldur to make it speed 1 (making Enliven useless) and then having a Primaled Pureblood go into it.

The Wrath would be able to move in and kill the Redeemer at minimum and the Reckoner as well most likely, leaving not much that can handle an ARM 20 spell immune self healing Garg.

Alternatively, I could go for two boosted 9s to hit at dice damage on Sevy, who isn't camping any focus.

I decide to go for the latter.

Pureblood warps Ghostly and assaults in, killing a Choir member and hitting Sevy, doing 10 damage.

The Wrath moves over, draws LOS to the Menite, blasts him with his gun, and ends him with a boosted POW 15.

Post Game Thoughts:

Dang I like my Woldwrath. I haven't put him on the table a whole lot in mark 3, but he's a monster with Roots of the Earth on him.

I feel more comfortable with this version of the list than I do with the triple warpwolf version, but I'd like to try them both more into the factions I want them to play into rather than say Legion with Wraithbane everywhere.

Food for thought, looking forward to Tiny smashing things everywhere some more :)

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....