My third opponent for the day was a Skaven player, and the scenario was Three Places of Power. Now, the event wasn't super competitive, and there was the option to change your list between games. While most people just wrote the one list and played it the whole day, my Game Three opponent had two. The list she used consisted of Thanquol on Boneripper, a Hell Pit Abomination, three Stormfiends (grinderfists, electroshock gauntlets and poisoned wind mortars) and two units of ten clan rats. The list she left in her case was a lot more character heavy from what I could tell, and also contained two Warp Lightning Cannons. I think, considering the scenario, she made an error in list choice, purely for the fact that in a scenario so dependant on Heroes, her list only contained one.
The table we were playing on was dominated by two big terrain pieces in the middle of the board, naturally funnelling armies into a choke point, where things were sure to get bloody.
Perfect!
My Skullgrinder deployed on the far left flank to push for the objective tucked in behind the tower, while my Aspiring Deathbringer was front and centre, lining up the middle one. The objective on the right was in a tricky spot, and my only other Heroes were the slightly stationary Bloodsecrators. Knowing that my opponent only had one Hero, I knew that if I could swamp two of the objectives, victory would be mine.
My opponent deployed centrally, and a little bit back off the deployment line. Stormfiends were held in reserve to tunnel up behind my lines. This wasn't as big of a threat as i think it could have been. There were no Warpfire Throwers in the unit, and even with their combat potential, they were going to have to chew through a lot of bodies!
I was given turn one, and I wasted no time in dropping banners, bubble wrapping them with Reavers, and sprinting up the board with every other model in my army. Run rolls were pretty underwhelming, but the Skullgrinder was wasting no time and raced straight onto the left objective, starting that points tally nice and early!
My opponent pushed forward, not too aggressively, but forward. I won the next priority, and continued my rush! The Aspiring Deathbringer reached the central objective, surrounded by his enraged bodyguard. One of the Bloodsecrators lifted his banner, and moved up to support the main line, while the other remained with his banner firmly planted, keeping morale high and anger levels dangerously unstable.
My opponent shuffled forward, but didn't charge. Boneripper's Warpfire Throwers unleashed with the fury of a lavender-scented candle, and killed a single Blood Warrior. I was surprised that they weren't aimed at one of my heroes, which could have easily been roasted, putting a stop to one of my avenues of scenario points. But we were getting toward the midway point of the game, and I had lost a single model. The opponent's army was mere inches away, and all of my buffed were in place.
In the ensuing tsunami of bloodshed and slaughter, the Clanrats were the real victims. Completely outclassed by the furious champions of chaos' martial prowess, they were butchered without remorse or discretion. Blood Warriors were swinging with five attacks each, and made a mess of the rats shielding Boneripper. This did, however, open an avenue for the towering monstrosity to pile in and splat a few unfortunates.
On the other side of the swirling meat grinder that had formed in the chokepoint, Wrathmongers were right where they needed to be; charging into the biggest, scariest combat monster they could swing their blood-caked flails at. After bludgeoning it into more of a mangled mess than an Abomination already is, it launched a counter attack (despite my advice to my opponent about the mechanic and what it could mean) which did some damage, but also triggered the Abomination into a moment of self-loathing and rage.
And it killed itself.
And it stayed down.
All of a sudden, my opponent had a single model left on the board, and despite it being Boneripper (the biggest rat ogre ever bred!), it was about to face the full force of my army in all of its melee glory! Meanwhile, my points tally was climbing higher and higher, while my opponent was struggling to get on the scoreboard.
The Stormfiends finally showed up, but thanks to the Bloodreaver's daisy-chaining across the back of my battle line, they were forced to pop up far from the action. The only thing they could do was fire a Poisoned Wind Mortar at the Reavers, but the shots missed.
With the Stormfiends having finally revealed their hand, my Reavers moved to screen the core of my army from the mutated cyborg-rats, but it was to no end. Boneripper was hacked to pieces in a spray of arterial blood and Warpfire fuel, leaving my opponent with no possible way to score scenario points. My opponent conceded at this point, and I got my second victory of the day.
Now, it should be said that my opponent was not only a great sport throughout the game, but also had some of the worst luck I have ever seen. two consecutive turns of rolling three or less on 2D6 for Thanquol's Warpfire Projectors, the Abomination staying dead, waiting until the tail of turn four for the Stormfiends to show up… Things were not going her way!
That said, I do think she made a fatal mistake in list selection. If she had taken her other list with the cannons, all of a sudden, my heroes, my scenario winners, are in serious peril! In this scenario, my list was far better suited to playing the objectives, which is one thing I'm finding Bloodbound are brilliant at. Sure, they're aggressive and like to hit things with axes; and sure, they die in droves to shooting armies (as you'll inevitably see in Game Four (spoilers?), but they have enough bodies, cheap heroes and tenacity in the form of wounds and saves, that they can effectively play any of the scenarios and still have a chance of winning.
Going into Game Four, I was content with the day. I had gotten my two wins, and was interested to see if I could make it three. For skulls and for glory!
Thanks for reading,
Gabe
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