Battle Report 102: Una 2 (Devourer's Host) vs. Kreoss 2 (Exemplar Interdiction)

Prologue:

Following the recent discussion on Facebook regarding my assessment of the faction, I decided to break my longstanding "play it painted" rule for Circle and test out a list that I had formerly written off as sub-optimal.

I've been hearing talk of double Tharn Ravagers in Devourer's Host being good enough to play, and DGI even had a top 3 place with it as a third list, so I copied it model for model and decided to put it onto the table.

My opponent had chosen, unbeknownst to me, a very infantry heavy Kreoss 2 list, a list which I believe gives the Tharn a great opportunity to show off what they can do.


Una 2
- Gorax
- Scarsfell x5

The Death Wolves
Tharn Ravagers (max) x2
- CA x2 (free)
Tharn Bloodtrackers

vs.

Kreoss 2
- Vanquisher
- Fire of Salvation

Bastion Seneschal (free)
- Crusader
Wrack x2

Knights Exemplar
- CA
Errants
- CA
Bastions
Rhoven and Co.


We rolled up Extraction, and I was able to go first - again, optimal conditions for my list.

Blood Pack on the right are Ravagers #2, and the Whiteman is their CA.

I put prey on the Errants, distribute my corpse tokens to the Death Wolves, and off we went.

Circle turn 1:

Una goes first and puts Mirage on the right unit of Ravagers, Hand of Fate on the Bloodtrackers, and advances.

Side note - I just got the Circle upgrade pack from Broken Egg Games, and it is SO nice to finally have the Hand of Fate token.

The Bloodtrackers ran up to 10.1 inches away from the Errants, with Ravagers behind them. On the right, the Tharn run up and the Birds all fly into spaces where they can land.

Menoth turn 1:

Kreoss puts out some spells, Sacrosanct on the Errants (ewww), Inviolable Resolve on the Knights Exemplar, and then charges forward.

Errants assault a couple of targets, picking off a Bloodtracker and dinging up a Ravager on the right hand side, triggering Vengeance.

The Bastions run up behind the wall, and the Knights do as well.

On the right, Crusader and Seneschal move up.

Circle turn 2:

Una pulls Fury, upkeeps both spells, and Vengeance and Apparition extend the Ravagers threat range by 5 inches.

Una moves up first, shooting down two Errants.

With her up so far, I am able to move Griffons around, kill a couple Errants each, and then Sprint back.

By the time I get around to activating my Ravagers, there are only four Errants left, three behind the wall and then one on the flag.

My Ravagers activate, and the comedy of errors ensues. First of all, I screw up placement and let my opponent freestrike one as I charge the KE behind the right hand Errant (mark your arcs guys, it saves so many headaches).

Then I forget that the Bastion Seneschal has defensive strike and lose another one that way.

THEN I miss four attacks in a row needing 5s and 7s. I was laughing my head off by the end of that activation.

Tharn: 0, Exemplars: 2

The Bloodtrackers murder the remaining Errant over there, getting a knocked down guy thanks to Sacrosanct. 

I toss a random spear into a Bastion and hit, doing 6 damage thanks to Hand of Fate.

Ravagers and Death Wolves move up.

Menoth turn 2:

Ravagers die en masse on the right side, leaving two alive at the end.

Kreoss puts Sacrosanct on the Bastions and moves up.

The Bastions jam me, and Fire runs up over the wall rather than risk being trapped behind it for the rest of the game.

The Vanquisher gets Eyeless Sight from Rhoven and blasts my clump of Griffons, doing over half their health each and lighting them all on fire.

Circle turn 3:

I upkeep both spells, and somehow all but one griffon loses fire.

Apparition plus Vengeance = two dead Knights Exemplar and a Corpse Token on both my remaining Ravagers.

Bloodtrackers with Hand of Fate gun down the Bastions and get knocked down all over the place. Silly girls, don't go falling for Exemplars, they'll just die on you. I run the back Griffon to engage Fire, use Una to heal a damage off each Griffon that was hurt, and pop Feat.

Gorax puts Primal up, and that Griffon walks into Melee with Fire, killing him.

Two more Griffons go in and only do about half the health on the Crusader.

I get one point after running the Ravagers into the flag.

I forgot to photograph this turn, but Circle moves to 1-0.



Menoth turn 3:



He's got about 8 models left, but with Kreoss' feat, I still lose nearly half my army, including two Griffons and a bunch of Tharn.

He contests my flag with Choir and gets a point.

Score 1-1

Tie!

Circle turn 4:

With Knocked down Bloodtrackers, I can't do a whole lot. 

Tharn go in and kill Rhoven, but not his buddies. 

Una kills off the last two Knights Exemplar. 

The two usable Griffons kill off the Crusader, and one sprints out. Prey swaps to Rhoven and buddies. 

I take my flag again and go to 2. 

By this point, my opponent and I have combined 8 minutes left on our clock. 

Score 2-1

Advantage Circle

Menoth turn 4:

Kreoss charges in and kills off four Tharn. The Vanquisher and Seneschal leave the right hand Griffon on 1 box and on fire.

Gaius and Cassian charge in and kill a Tharn and a Griffon and contest. My opponent clocks himself in here somewhere but we keep going.

I didn't take a picture here, but look at the next turn picture and imagine Gaius and Cassian in there somewhere.


Circle turn 5:

Fire on the Griffon goes out!

The remaining Male Tharn kill off Gaius and Cassian, and Prey swaps to Kreoss.

Bloodtrackers with Prey and Hand of Fate need sixes to hit Kreoss at dice -6, and the Warcaster dies under a hail of spears.

Victory for the Druids!

Post-Game Thoughts:

So....an infantry list for my POW 13 weapons to handle, Bastions (which are insanely squishy and ineffective outside of Harbinger it turns out), and terrain that heavily favored me, and I still felt like I had serious options to lose the game despite these advantages. 

The only thing that was exceptional about this list, I felt, was Hand of Fate on Bloodtrackers, and let's be honest - Hand of Fate on weaponmasters has never been disputed as strong.

First impression of the list - I'm not particularly impressed so far. Had this been a bunch of Menoth heavies under Kreoss, I would have basically bounced off them with my Ravagers, killed a couple with Griffons (like I did) and then lost most of/all of my Griffons to the ensuing counter-feat. I'd kill another heavy with Bloodtrackers probably, and then run out of steam.

I don't think it's going to be very common to bring this many dudes without threat extensions, so next time I play this list I'm going to ask my opponent to bring a bunch of warjacks and see how it goes.

Thanks for reading!

Dojo Day - The New Tuna

Prologue:

Una 2 came into the world last November, and almost instantly was banned in casual games by my local play group.

With a Feat that meant her entire army was safe from retaliation and a swarm of Griffons that she could stay 28 inches away from and still be forcing them, she was definitely over the power curve.

Since then, she's faded out of the competitive scene as Circle's list options have, by necessity, diversified.

Still, she delivers speed 9 light warbeasts that are essentially mat 8-10 PS 12-14 weaponmasters, and that can't be a bad thing right? She also has the extremely interesting spell Hand of Fate, and I can't help but think that she still has plenty of game.


Una's Card:

Real quick overview - average everything statwise, another 15/15 with 15 boxes. She's fury 7 which is great, and speed six.

She has an excellent gun, range 10 pow 10 with reload 2 that can either Thunderbolt, Black Penny, or Snipe.

She gives Griffons in command (8 inches) Sprint and gives Griffons in control Flank.

She has for spells:

Hand of Fate - additional dice to hit and damage for a model/unit, drop the lowest.

Wind Wall - prevents her and anything completely within 3 from making ranged attacks, and prevents her and anything completely within 3 from being targeted by non-magic ranged attacks.

Mirage - an interesting but oft maligned spell that gives a model/unit apparition.

Twister - random pow 10 nuke with a 3 inch cloud AOE attached to it.

Feat - Models with flight gain +2 speed, light warbeasts with flight cannot be targeted by melee attacks for a turn.


Synergies:

Griffons - naturally, and Scarsfells are still the far superior Griffon of the bunch. Three initials, Stealth, and a great animus.

I like running these in even numbered pairs, since you usually run/charge one to engage something and then charge it with another Griffon for flank.

Woldwyrds - these guys are staples of the Circle roster right now. Good damage output from range, high maneuverability, excellent control elements in Purgation and Witch Hound. Wanna see something funny? Purgation and Hand of Fate at the same time. Delicious.

Gorax/Feral - you really need to have Primal in this list. Those Griffons have one job, and one job only, and that is to kill things worth way more points than they are. Without Primal, that gets much less likely to happen.

Units that shoot - Reeves, Sentry Stones, Bloodtrackers. Mirage lets the non-Sentry Stone ones get closer, and then Hand of Fate lets them do silly things at range.


The list:

Combining all of the elements I've just mentioned, you get something like this

Theme: The Wild Hunt

Una 2
- Pureblood
- Scarsfell x4
- Gorax
- Woldwyrd x2

Wolves of Orboros (min)
- CA
Reeves of Orboros (max)
- CA
Shifting Stones


I chose The Wild Hunt for a couple of reasons.

First of all, it lets Una play with everything she likes to play with (Except the Celestial Fulcrum, but that is an article for another day), gives her a few free points, and provides incentive for your opponent to move their army into the middle of the table.

Luckily, this is just where you want it to be, since Scarsfells are hard to hide from.

Finally, it also gives the Pureblood tracker, which on occasion can be complete money.

The list is basically a gunline that then punishes you for engaging it by killing stuff with high MAT weaponmaster Griffons.

Hand of Fate goes on the Reeves or a Wyrd most likely until it's go turn, in which case it gets swapped to the Pureblood or a Griffon depending on what you're fighting.

What would I drop this into?

I'd be looking at Legion, Trolls (I think, I don't get to play that matchup much), other Circle lists, Khador lists that don't skew crazy heavy on jacks, a lot of Menoth lists out there, even Amon with Dervishes (Crusader spam is probably bad), and potentially Cryx as well.



What do you think? How would you build Una right now? Would you even play her? How viable do you think she will be in SR 2017?

Battle Report 61: Las Vegas Open Masters Invitational Round 1 - Wurmwood vs. Una 2

Oh boy oh boy oh boy!

The mythical day two.

Naturally this is a good time to panic right?

In consultation with Bret F. (chocobsessed) and a few other people, I made a quick pair of swaps in my Wurmwood list.


Out
- Brennos
- Blackclad

In
- Pureblood
- Lanyssa


The reason for these changes was simple - there was a lot of armor buffs in the top 16, and there was a LOT of Una 2. The Pureblood is better into both of these, and Lanyssa can randomly strip flight off a few birds, making them much less scary.


Of course, this meant that I was destined to play Bret round 1.

I was very nervous going into this game. Bret is one of the most respected players in the states, and he's also been playing Circle for a lot longer than I have.

He had Tanith and Una, and we had both agreed his Tanith list had next to no chance into my Wurmwood gunline, so I knew he was playing Una and he knew I was playing Wurmwood.


Bret:

Una 2
- Scarsfell x8
- Pureblood
- Gorax

Wrong Eye
- Snapjaw
Gobber Chef

Sentry Stone x1

Arcane Wonder

and me!

Wurmwood
- Cassius
- Pureblood
- Megalith
- Woldwyrd x3

Lanyssa
Gallows Grove

Shifting Stones x2
Sentry Stones x2
Min Bone Grinders
Gatormen Bokur

Fuel Cache

I won the roll off and windmill slammed going first, and Bret took the side with the trench for Una to hide in.

We were playing on the sweet, sweet table that Tyson had made for LVO. The Terrain for Bret's side is a trench and a forest and a huge obstacle.

On my side, it's a forest, a pond, and a hill.

I deployed nice and centrally. I needed to force him to come to me with his feat to run around my models or I didn't have a chance, and I actually present quite a significant shooting threat to his list. 

The birds...so many.

I should also point out that this game was played pre-Una 2 nerf, so her original feat was still here and so was the Scarsfells having Long Leash.


Good Circle turn 1:

I basically run like mad. I need to project as many threats as possible. I keep Megalith and the Pureblood central, there are so many griffons on my right side that I suspect he's going for Scenario here and I want to keep my options open.

The Bokur is great into the birds, he stops so many landing spots, and he keeps on coming.

Bad Circle turn 1:

He skews the Griffons hard to the right and puts Una into the trench. Mirage is on a Griffon, and he doesn't cast Hand of Fate, electing to shoot down Sentry Mannikins with Una instead.

Good Circle turn 2:

I see an opening. I can Hellmouth Una out of the trench with a Mannikin. She's only camping two, and I can get two Woldwyrds, Megalith's animus, and a Pureblood spray on her.

I run Shamblers around like crazy, keeping them in command. We premeasure it out, and Una gets Hellmouthed out of the trench. I boost damage and she transfers.

Megalith tramples up, pops his animus to make her DEF 13, and Strangleholds her for a few more.

The two Woldwyrds leave her on a few boxes, and the Pureblood sprays her to death.

Victory for the (good) Druids!

Post-Game Thoughts:

We had a decent laugh after this game because I'd talked about how this tended to happen and Bret told me what I already knew - put two heavies in front of your caster and this is basically impossible. 

If that hadn't have worked, I think I was going to be able to get a really, REALLY good Winter Storm of with Lanyssa by walking her over to the obstacle and making....all? of the Griffons lose flight the next turn. I don't think that he could have walked more than one over to her, and I could have stopped that by blocking her in with a Woldwyrd. 

I'm really glad I didn't have to play this out, since I don't think I am favored in this matchup. 

That being said, after consulting with various other Circle players since then, I think that a Wurmwood gunline can be built to have a very strong matchup into pre-nerf Una 2 (not that that matters anymore), and with the loss of long leash, I think Wurmwood is actually quite favored into the matchup now, since Una has to be constantly afraid of dying. 

Battle Report 58: Las Vegas Open Masters Qualifier Round 2 - Una 2 vs. Makeda 1

Prologue:

In case you hadn't heard, Skorne is a strong faction now, and Makeda 1 is one of their Warlocks that I really don't want to play against unless the Scenario massively favors me. 

Unfortunately, that's what I ended up playing against. My opponent had a shooting heavy Morghoul 2 list with no Soulward, and that ultimately meant he would be playing Makeda 1 against my massively Stealth heavy lists. 

Makeda 1

- Marketh

- Molik Karn

- Gladiator

- Krea

Radheim

Keltarri 

Ferox

Legends of Halaak

Min Beast Handlers

I dropped Una:

Una 2

- Pureblood

- Gorax

- Scarsfell x7

Shifting Stone x2

Sentry Stone x2

Blackclad x2

I won the roll off and windmill slammed going first. The Scenario was Extraction. 

My opponent deployed pretty central, just like me. Side note - beautiful paint jobs man.

And we were off!

Circle turn 1:

Time to run at him and force out his feat turn 1. 

Mirage on the Pureblood, Hand of Fate on a Sentry unit, and everything runs. Una gets into the little pocket of clouds and forests where she will stay the entire game. 

Skorne turn 1:

He does something similar. Quicken on the Keltarri, Ferox runs. 

He spends about five minutes carefully arranging the models around Makeda so that no small bases can fit next to her, and he does an amazing job of screening off his beasts from charges. 

Unfortunately for him, his placement in the back wasn't quite so perfect, and I was about to capitalize on that. 

Circle turn 2:

This turn began the long hilarity of both players' dice. I couldn't hit fives for anything, and he got to dodge his Ferox around no less than six times. 

Una kept her spells, and she went first and popped Feat. 

Griffons ran, three engaging Karn in the backfield, and a few more getting in around Radheim. 

I killed a few Keltarri with Hand of Fate and back arcs getting me the odd hit here and there, but that was basically my turn. 

Skorne turn 2:

He was in a bit of a mess and he knew it. His Keltarri attacked Mannikins, Shifting Stones, and a Blackclad. I'd made the Stones sacrificial lambs to stop his Legends from doing much. 

He got one or two Ferox onto the Pureblood, but he also couldn't roll to hit and so the beast took a few points. 

Circle turn 3:

I leached Fury, and the first Griffon went to work on Karn, doing....five. 

I was able to kill Karn with a second Griffon, headbutt Makeda with a third, and wail on her with a fourth, but because I was a moron and didn't kill the Gladiator like I should have before going in on her (Hand of Fate on the Pureblood would have done it I think), she survived on...one box? I did kill the Gladiator, all the Ferox, a few more Keltarri, and most of the Krea though. 

Skorne turn 3:

He gets to do things, and birds start dying. 

One of the legends smites a griffon into another griffon, rolling all sixes for damage and one shotting the bird. Various other griffons get massively wounded, but Makeda is still engaged by two Griffons at the end of the turn. 

Circle turn 4:

I try for Scenario, but I can't kill the Keltarri worth anything, and settle for getting one point. 

Makeda dies to beaks and claws. 

Score 1-0

Victory for the Druids!

Post Game Thoughts:

My opponent played such a tight game here. He gave me exactly one opening and man did I go after it hard. I was super impressed with his play and with his list AND with his painting ANDDDD with his manner. He was super friendly and extremely enjoyable to play with. 

On to round three. 

Battle Report 55: Una 2 vs. Sloan

Even though we couldn't technically play against each-other for the League, I asked my friend if he'd be willing to stress test Sloan into my Una list for me, since I see Sloan and Haley 3 being a popular pair and I really want to get my head around the Cygnar matchup.


My list is pretty stock:

Una 2
- Wilder
- Scarsfell x7
- Gorax
- Pureblood

Blackclad

Shifting Stones x2
Sentry Stones x2


Against:

Captain Kara Sloan
- Reinholdt
- Hunter x5

Gun Mage Captain Adept
Arlan Strangeways

Rangers
Trenchers
Alexia and the Risen

We rolled up Outlast as our Scenario, and had another person place terrain for us to simulate a tournament table.

My opponent won the roll off and elected to go second, wanting to deny my a large forest and also wanting to be able to shoot at me turn 1.

I deployed pretty centrally.

And my opponent skewed Sloan herself to my left.

This was going to be significant due to the placement of the forest, but I wasn't going to realize it until slightly too late on my first turn.

Circle turn 1:

Well I've got decent terrain over here, I can get my griffons to DEF 17 and 19 vs. shooting pretty easily.

That being said, my game-plan here is bunkering down with Windwall and keeping as many models alive as physically possible.

I move up the left Sentry Stone, intending to charge Una into my Shifting Stones and port her up to the hill with Windwall up.

Unfortunately, I wussy out on this plan (I think, in hindsight, it might have been a better play) and Una casts Windwall and Hand of Fate and charges a Hunter, bonking into one of my Mannekins and ending in the Shifting Stones, who port her up and right.

I run a boatload of stuff to be in that Windwall bubble.

I put one griffon in the rubble to the left, and hide the other two behind the house.

Then I realize I forgot to deploy my Wilder and do a massive facepalm before putting her on top of my tape measure so I don't forget to deploy her during my maintenance phase.

Look at the blob of scaredness

Cygnar turn 1:

My opponent starts things off by running the Ranger leader up to mark my griffon, and Reinhardt reloads Sloan.

She moves up and casually blasts him off the table. Side-bar: When a DEF 19 stealth model isn't safe from guns, that's a little goofy.

A Hunter pops off the exposed Sentry Stone, and he makes a cloud wall.

Alexia runs to make landing amongst his Hunters impossible.

Circle turn 2:

I'm starting to get a feel for the way this is likely to pan out.

The Sentry Stone keeps Hand of Fate and I deploy my Wilder.

Sentry Mannikins under Hand of Fate do quite a bit of work, and what they don't clear from the zone, the Griffons do. Unfortunately, I did another dumb here and didn't port the Sentry Stone up to where Una was going to be.

Una moves up, casts Windwall again, and camps a few.

Everything runs to the protective bubble.

I contest with the leader of the grey Shifting Stone unit in the left zone.

Cygnar turn 2:

My opponent makes a wall of clouds between me and his army, and contests the zone.

Something kills the Shifting Stone.

A Hunter moves up, but whiffs damage on the Sentry Stone.

Sloan gets reloaded, casts Refuge on herself, kills the Sentry Stone, and moves back behind the wall.

Critically here, my opponent decided to walk the Risen up so he could craft a Thrall, leaving them a little more bunched up than necessary.

Other Hunters shuffle around the edge of the zone.

Cygnar scores 2 points.

Score 0-2

Advantage Cygnar

Circle turn 3:

I see an opening here, and I'm definitely going to try and take it.

If the Pureblood assaults in on the farthest trencher, he can clear a few dudes and also put some damage on Alexia to clear some more dudes. The Blackclad can spray the Risen in front of the closest Hunter, and that means that I can run one of the back Griffons to engage it and charge it with one of the Griffons in my zone through the forest (yay tracker!).

First things first - Una aims, chooses Black Penny, and blows the Trencher in the zone up. She casts Hand of Fate on the Pureblood and Windwall. She Feats.

The Pureblood warps Ghostly, assaults in, and clears quite a few guys.

The Blackclad clears some more, and I run my back Griffon up.

The closest Griffon in my zone charges Alexia (ignoring forest due to tracker and models due to flight) and kills her after a couple attacks of murdering risen. Somehow, I'm not able to kill the Hunter.

After that, it's all in, and Griffons fly all over the place engaging Hunters.

I make a wall of Gorax and Shifting Stones in front of Una and pass the turn, scoring 2 points.

Score 2-2

Tie!

Cygnar turn 3:

My opponent hands out focus and the fun starts. 

Sloan aims, casts Guided Fire, and kills an engaged Griffon. 

Hunters take free strikes, and kill two more griffons, leaving a third on basically dead. 

A Ranger contests my zone.

Score 2-2

Tie!

Circle turn 4:

I'm getting down on time (it feels) and we're both almost out of models.

I pull fury from everything except the nearly crippled Griffon, who frenzies into the Hunter.

Una moves up and kills two rangers with Black Penny and Snipe. The Pureblood assaults the closest Hunter, and Hand of Fate allows me to do significant damage to the back Hunter, kill Arlan, kill the Hunter in front of me with melee attacks, and then kill the GMCA with a bought attack.

I block in the remaining Ranger with Shifting Stones, so if he wants to contest he's running a Hunter at me.

Before I do anything else, I chuck a Blackclad spray at Sloan, which hits but doesn't KD, and does about 5 damage.

Then I realize she's on no camp, and decide to try and end the game. I've only got one landing spot for a Griffon, but at dice -3 I figure it's worth a try.

I walk a Griffon over, boost hit and damage, boost a second hit, and Sloan goes down as I score two more points.

Victory for the Druids!

Post Game Thoughts:

This is an icky, awful matchup that neither list really wants to see.

Ultimately though, I think the burden is on the Sloan player to not screw up their placement, or else the birds can come in and swarm the Hunters.

Once again, this game really came down to the forest in the center of the table. I feel like without a central LOS blocking something, gunlines are insanely dominant at the moment. Something like a forest in the middle of the table really evens things out.

Battle Report 46: 2Una vs. Durant 2

In our search for reliable Una 2 tech in Menoth, my team and I (well mostly me to be honest) hit on the idea of Durant 2 with 3 Reckoners and double Idrians.

The idea is simple - tag a couple griffons a turn with Flare thanks to Durants' Field Marshal [True Sight] and blow them up with Idrians preying them.

Both I and my Menoth buddy K are sick today, and so we took the opportunity to try it out on Vassal.


My list:

Una 2
- Wilder
- Scarsfell x7
- Gorax
- Pureblood

Blackclad Wayfarer

Sentry Stone x2
Shifting Stone x2

Into:

Durant 2
- Reckoner x3

Punch Monk x2
Wrack x2

Idrians and CA x2


We rolled up Incursion and I lost the roll. My opponent took first turn, and I chose the side with the hill for my Griffons to hover over.

He deployed pretty central, jack fort going up the middle and Idrians on either side. He ended up preying both units of Sentry Stones.

My deployment is more or less setting me up for a Scenario game here. I'm going to run Griffons over to the other side of the right hand forest to save them from guns and I'm going to pile stuff on that hill in order to make the Reckoners slightly less likely to shoot the birds with flare guns.

Menoth turn 1:

He runs up. Respecting the Sentry Stones' threat ranges, he parks his Idrians in semi circles just outside of the walk and spray death zone. Reckoners move up and get...Battle, cuz I literally have nothing to shoot them with that isn't magical and Hunters Mark isn't in play yet.

Durant moves up and casts Inviolable Resolve on the central Reckoner.

Circle turn 1:

I really can't afford to sacrifice my Sentry Stones so early, so they all back up outside of the 17 inch threat of the Reckoners' walk and shoot.

I run Griffons up, keeping them more than 12 inches from the Reckoners and on the hill so that K can't aim and shoot.

Hand of Fate goes on one Sentry unit, and Mirage goes on a Griffon because I messed up my deployment. I normally want it on the Pureblood.

Griffons run to behind the forest on the right and farther than 11 inches from the Idrians on the left (6 inch walk plus 5 inch shoot under stealth).

Such Pre-measuring. Very wow. 

Menoth turn 2:

The theory becomes practice as the first Reckoner moves up and Flares a Griffon, doing 18 damage in the process.

The other two Reckoners miss their boosted 12s, so only 1 Griffon and a bunch of Mannikins die.

Circle turn 2:

Spells are upkept, and Mannikins are placed. A bird is Apparitioned up from the right.

I can get a charge on each jack, and two on the right hand pair.

My opponent has also contested rather lightly on all flags, if you consider Shifting Sands Stanced Punch Monks light.

The Sentry Unit with Hand of Fate slaughters a few Idrians.

Una goes, Feats, casts Primal on a Griffon and Hand of Fate on another. She takes an aimed shot at the right hand Punch Monk, doing lethal but K rolls tough.

Gorax activates and Primals up a second one.

I run a pair of Griffons to engage all three heavies.

Griffons go in, murdering the left Reckoner and leaving the right on 3 boxes.

The Blackclad moves up and sprays down the line of the Punch Monk and a few more Idrians. He connects with the Punch Monk (!!!!!) and my opponent fails his tough check. He also kills the other Idrian that is contesting.

The last Sentry Unit kills the final Idrian contesting the middle, and I cap the mid flag with a Griffon.

Shifting Stones on the left contest the flag.

I make a wall of bodies in front of Una and score two points.

Score 2-0

Advantage Circle

Menoth turn 3:

K drops Inviolable Resolve and thinks pretty hard. 

Durant feats after healing the right Reckoner for a couple. 

The mid Reckoner moves back, taking minimal damage from free strikes, and Flares the second from the left Griffon. 

The Punch Monk charges and one-shots the left Sentry Stone. 

The left Idrians kill both left Griffons pretty happily. 

The right Idrians move up and shoot at the Blackclad, missing, and the Sentry Stone, for superficial damage and contesting. 

Score 2-0

Advantage Circle

Circle turn 3:

The one Griffon frenzies from Primal, and it's off to the races with both spells upkept. 

Blackclad Sprays plus Sentry Stone sprays clear off most of the right hand flags. 

The right side Griffon charges the nearly dead Reckoner and kills it. 

Two Griffons go into the still healthy Reckoner and I hit a grand total of twice or three times for nearly no damage at all. 

Una aims and shoots the last remaining Idrians contesting down, and I cap both flags with the Wilder and Gorax.

Pureblood moves up and puts a dent in the Idrian population on the left. 

I go to four points and my opponent concedes. 

Score 4-0

Victory for the Druids!

Post-Game Thoughts:

The more I play Una, the more I realize that she has the complete package - Scenario, Attrition, and Assassination all rolled up into one. The only tricky parts in playing her are basically this - which win condition is the right one? How do I keep her alive? 

If you can answer both of those questions, I feel like she is golden outside of certain extreme gunline skews (Sloan, Issyria, maybe Caine 2) or armies that can do a lot of damage indirectly through eLeaps or magic attacks and sprays. 

This particular matchup comes down to terrain. If you can boost the Griffons DEF even higher against the Reckoner shots, the math gets really bad, and quickly. 

Thanks for reading!

Battle Report 45: 2Una vs. Vlad 2

Some of my friends from the big city came over today for Warmachine and "Friendmas". We were originally going to play bunches of games at our LGS, but my LGS owner slept in until 5 PM this evening and didn't have his phone with him, so we rotated through games on my kitchen table.

I got to play in the last set against my Khador buddy A, who has been playing Butcher 3/Vlad 2 forever.

Since we are testing for ATC in March, I've been planning on an Una 2/Wurmwood pairing now that the errata is officially dropped, and into that pair I'm always going to drop Una 2.


Una 2
- Wilder
- Scarsfell x7
- Gorax
- Pureblood

Blackclad Wayfarer
Sentry Stone x2
Shifting Stone x2

And he was playing:

Vlad 2
- War Dog
- Conquest

Rifle Corps (max)
- 3x Rocketeers

Shocktroopers (max)
- CA

Kayazy Eliminators x2

MOW Kovnik
Kovnik Joe
Saxon Orrik


We played Entrenched, and I lost the roll off. My opponent promptly chose first, and I took the side with the most options for cover.

Shocktroopers on the side with the pond, with both the Kovnik and Saxon to help their terrain issues.

Conquest central as expected, and Vlad too. His Kayazy are the scariest things in his list to me, but Hand of Fate on Sentry Stones can probably take them out.

Without Reinholdt in the list, I'm not too worried about his Rifle Corps (which in hindsight I should have been).

My opponent felt that with the ridiculous amount of guns in the list, this had a fighting chance into the Murder of Griffons.

I think I'm playing for Scenario this game. I can push real hard on the right side once the Conquest inevitably dies, and he'll have a hard time doing much about me dominating my zone.

Shifting Stones are once again basically there for Fury management.


Khador turn 1:

Stuff runs. Hand of Fate goes on his Rifle Corps, Assail on the Conquest.

Desperate Pace is whipped into the Shocktroopers, and they run.

Cloud went down from his objective at the end of his turn.

Circle turn 1:

Well, the big priority is the Conquest and preferably 2-3 Shocktroopers on my Feat turn. If I can get that done, I think I win this game pretty handily. I also have to be super scared of Eliminators until after his Feat turn.

Stones port up, Griffons run to just outside of Kayazy charges unless he pops Feat on both sides.

I foolishly put my Blackclad right next to a Shifting Stone (derp derp) and that's going to cost me.

Hand of Fate goes on the unpainted Sentry Unit and Mirage goes on the Pureblood before it warps Spell Ward, and Una hides behind a forest wall.

Khador turn 2:

He gives one Focus to the Conquest and upkeeps Hand of Fate.

Rifle Corps move up and blast two Mannikins and a Shifting Stone andddd the Blackclad to death.

Kayazy charge and murder Sentry Mannikins on the right, and run on the left.

Conquest moves up and shoots the Pureblood with his big gun, missing the boosted 14 and doing decent blast damage to the second Griffon from the right. He then puts down his version of Covering Fire.

Shocktroopers get desperate pace again and Shield Wall up. Saxon runs to contest my zone.

I forgot to take a picture of his turn, so imagine a Conquest in the middle of the table and 3 more Shocktroopers there.

Spoilers: the Conquest dies.

Circle turn 2:

Well I can charge the Conquest with 3 Griffons, run one to engage for Flank, and probably kill a few Shocktroopers between the Pureblood and Griffons.

Hand of Fate and Mirage both stay up. The Hand of Fate Sentry Stones kill off the Kayazy near them.

Una activates, swaps Hand of Fate to the other unit, casts Primal on a Griffon, and pops Feat before moving into the trench.

The painted Griffon runs to engage the Conquest, and his buddy goes to tie up Winterguard.

I Primal another Griffon with the Gorax, and the three in range Griffons charge in and take down the Colossal.

I screwed this up slightly, and should have sent the two Primaled Griffons in first to max them out and then sent the one without Primal in after for Fury management sake, but I messed up.

Pureblood assaults and kills one and a half Shocktroopers, Griffon walks into the Shocktroopers and kills the half dead one, and other Griffon walks up and kills the Shocktrooper I'm flanking.

I very deliberately port Shifting Stones around Una to block LOS to her unless his modesl are nearly in my deployment zone.

Khador turn 3:

Rifle corps get to keep Hand of Fate. 

Joe gives them +2 to hit, and the four engaged by the Griffon walk away and take horrible free strikes.

The Griffon dies very quickly.

Vlad Feats, making all three Shocktroopers, the War Dog, the Kovnik, and one Rifle Corps member super buff. He then walks away thanks to parry.

The Shocktroopers murder the Pureblood super dead.

The Kovnik assaults and hits the right Griffon, doing some damage.

Circle turn 3:

Nothing but the Primaled Griffons frenzy somehow. The Hand of Fate Sentry Unit places a Mannikin, as does the other unit.

The left Sentry Unit murders 5-6 Rifle Corps members thanks to Hand of Fate. 

The Yellow Griffon walks up to Vlad and head butts him, knocking him down. He buys an attack, and does a couple damage.

The unengaged Griffon on the right walks up to Vlad, leaving him on 2 boxes and my opponent concedes with one Griffon still to activate with charge distance to Vlad.

Victory for the Druids!

Post-Game Thoughts:

I've played 12 games with Una 2 so far, and have won all 12 of them. She is the best Warlock in Circle right now, and she doesn't have too many bad matchups, all of which (I think) are conveniently covered by Wurmwood, who also escaped the errata relatively unscathed. 

While I think I still have a lot of things to get into muscle memory with Una (activation order, placement, which things to primal, etc.), I definitely think she's on the top tier of the game right now and if you don't have a strong anti Una list, you're not going to win major events all other things being equal. 

Thanks for reading!

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 ;)