#85: Age of Sigmar Battle Report - Khorne Bloodbound Vs. Stormcast Eternals & Tournament Wrap Up

Game Four was here. It was getting toward the end of the day, but energy levels were still high! Which was lucky, because my final game of the day was against a friendly rival of mine; Stormcast Eternals, straight out of their new, shiny battle tome. This was my first exposure to the new and improved Stormcast, and while I had done a little bit of browsing of the new book, I was a little unsure of the finer points, especially the new units. But I was about to find out.

This is also my last pre-Blades of Khorne Battle Report. All bat reps from here on in will use the new Battletome.

My opponent's list was as follows; A Lord-Aquillor with (forgive me if I get this wrong) Stalwart Defender(?), six Knight-Palladors, five Judicators, five Vanguard-Hunters, a Knight-Azyros and three Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows. The Scenario was Border War.

Deployment was predictable. I deployed in much the same manner as Game Three, using my Reavers as a rearguard screen to combat the inevitable arrival of the Hunters, keen to take my objective. The Axe Turtle formed up in all it's red-plated glory.

On the other side of the board, The Aquillor and his Palladors prepared to launch an assault on my left side, while the Raptors and Judicators formed a firebase upon their objective. You'll notice that my first Bloodsecrator is deployed centrally, but quite far back. This was 31" away from the Raptors, as they would make short work of a high-priority target! My second Bloodsecrator was on my far right flank, using intervening terrain to block line of sight to the same lethal snipers. If there was any hope of Khorne's minions winning the day, these two chaps needed to stay alive! The Hunters were held in reserve, while the Knight-Azyros was up in the clouds, ready to bring holy vengeance down upon the forces of chaos.

I pushed forward with the Turtle, planted my Totem in the backfield, and sent my Bloodsecrator sprinting into the shadows of the ruins, remaining obscured from the celestial snipers on the hill. The reavers made a cheeky run move to stretch out as far as they could, leaving nowhere behind my lines for the Hunters to march on that was 7" away from enemy models while still fitting the whole unit; a five man unit on 40mm bases has a surprisingly large footprint. 

My opponent opened the turn strongly, with the Azyros arriving very promptly to the battle on one of the centreline objectives, getting the Stormcast on the scoreboard and getting ready to rip open his blinding lantern. 

His next big decision was to turn my Aspiring Deathbringer into a very well ventilated corpse, by showering him in crossbow bolts. My general was dead already, and it wasn't even the end of turn one… Well, then. All other activity involved moving the Palladors forward, but recklessly so. They were, however in range of the other central objective; something i could not afford to ignore if I wanted to make it out of this with a win.

My turn two was quite blunt in its approach to problem solving. The Blood Warriors on the right slammed into the Azyros, not only injuring him with a flurry of axe blows, but also claiming the objective, as to hold it, all you need is more models within 6" than your opponent. This played perfectly into my hands on the left flank, as I sneakily moved at least seven of my Blood Warriors into range of the objective formerly held by six Palladors. The rest of the unit of Blood Warriors was tucked neatly behind Deadly Terrain, while my Skullreapers walked up the other side of the terrain to protect their flank, and make a charge highly undesirable for my opponent. The Bloodsecrator lurking behind the ruins also planted his banner, increasing my potential threat in combat!

The Palladors were still in range of the Stalwart Defender, however, making them an incredibly tenacious unit to deal with. But I had faith in the martial superiority of Khorne. These warriors of the Man-God were no match!

In response to my rather aggressive negotiations, my opponent's Azyros unleashed the holy power of his lantern, reducing a Blood Warrior and a Wrathmonger to cinders. Fortunately for me, the D6 mortal wounds on my nearby Bloodsecrator only resulted in two wounds. A five or a six would have outright killed him! Elsewhere, my Skullgrinder met a similar fate to my Deathbringer, catching every available crossbow bolt with his face before slumping to his knees in defeat. It was in this turn that my opponent came to accept that his Hunters were not going to find their way on the back of the board, so resigned themselves to marching on the left hand side of the board to support the Palladors. They were unfortunately outside of the objective, leaving it firmly in my control. The Palladors charged in to do as much damage as they could, while avoiding the damned terrain. Despite their best efforts, they were left in the unfortunate position of fighting Skullreapers, Bloodwarriors, as well as inadvertently drawing the Wrathmongers into the fray with disastrous results. While I took a few casualties, the Stormcast lost three of their sleek cavalry. 

Now, I didn't manage to catch images of every step of the final turn, but once the Hunters had arrived on the board (far from where my opponent would have liked), my Reavers were free to string out between my rear objective and the right-hand objective, supporting the Blood Warriors and further protecting both of my Bloodsecrators in the process. There was some debate as to whether a single unit can hold multiple objectives, but the scenario makes no mention of units, only models, so the Reavers were well within their abilities to contribute to holding both. The Aquillor and the remaining Palladors got out of dodge thanks to the Knight's ability to master the Azyrite Hurricane, which once more gave me numerical superiority, even with the Hunters adding their five models to the tally. The Knight-Azyros, despite his most valiant efforts, was finally butchered by the frenzied Blood Warriors. I considered pushing for the objective on the hill, and attempting to slaughter the ranged support there, but decided against it, as i was under the impression that Raptors make a full round of shooting when receiving a charge. It turns out, they can inflict mortal wounds on a 6, but it was far less intimidating than i originally thought. Regardless, my biggest weakness as a player is over-extending, so I chose to consolidate, and maintain my leadership board ascendancy. 

My opponent made his last big play, by bringing the Palladors and Aquillor onto the board from my left flanking an attempt to contest the objective. To this end, all available firepower was directed at the Blood Warriors occupying the objective, thinning their numbers to three. With the possibility of holding the objective now very achievable, my opponent charged his newly arrived cavalry headlong into the Reavers; if he could just kill enough of them, he would claim the objective!

Much to his surprise and dismay, i took the fifteen wounds inflicted by the charge from the far end of the daisy chain, which still left me with plenty of models on the right hand objective to keep it firmly in control of the Bloodbound. The Bloodsecrator at the rear was still close enough to score points off my back field objective, while the wounded Bloodsecrator near the ruins made the decision to pile in and give the Knight-Aquillor a bit of a touch up with his mace. And with that final flurry of blows, the game ended; the scoreboard firmly in my favour! 

What a way to end the day! This was probably my most satisfying win of the day, as it was a true contest of tactics and strategy. I think what won this game for me was using the Reavers to daisy chain across my backfield, forcing my opponent to bring the Hunters on in a less-than-optimal position, and too late in the game to have a lasting impact on the outcome. Credit where credit is due, however; Stormcast shooting is horrific! Two characters in two turns just deleted off the table! The Palladors also proved incredibly tough to budge. 

All in all, I think my opponent was faced with an uphill battle from the start. In an objective game where numbers dominate objectives, I just had too many bodies in comparison to the ultra-elite Stormcast army! I was very happy with how I played in this game. Unlike many other games I've played, I was able to focus solely on the mission at hand and even showed a shred of restraint (Khorne would be disgusted!). I gave this opponent my nod for Best Sport, as this game had the perfect balance of hilarious banter and a serious strategic battle of wits (and luck). 

This turned out to be a fantastic day. I was pretty skeptical that we could fit four games into six hours, but I managed to finish all four of my games within the time limit. All of my opponents were great, and the armies in attendance were varied and diverse. 

I was really satisfied with how my list played out, and it proved to be very strong, and a challenge for a lot of people to handle! I was able to compete really effectively in most of the scenarios, while I think there were lists throughout the tournament that would have been very difficult match ups! 

In the end, I claimed Second Place. This was a huge honour, as a large part of the tournament was made up of your Sportsmanship score and getting nods for Best Sport. So, to those who voted my way, thank you very much. It's always humbling to win prizes like that, especially in a pool of such great players!

As always, thanks for reading!

Gabe

#84: Age of Sigmar Battle Report - "To Trap a Rat" Khorne Bloodbound Vs. Skaven

After a slim win, and a narrow loss, I was ready to throw down and try and get my second win. My goal for the day was to win two out of my four games, and I had two more chances to pull out a victory! Fingers crossed…

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