#122: Festering of February Game 1 - Skaven Pestilens Vs. Seraphon

The draw for the first round of the tournament was completely random and was announced the day before the event. I had never met my opponent, but saw Seraphon, and knew I was going to be up against it. Seraphon requires some finesse to play efficiently, but when put in the hands of an experienced player, they are truly something to be feared.

To read my list, check blog post #121.

My opponent ended up being one of the venue's Youngblood players, and he was fielding an intimidating list. 

Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur (General)

Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur

Lord Kroak

Engine of the Gods

40 Skinks

40 Skinks

20 Saurus Warriors

10 Saurus Knights

While the Saurus units weren't a major concern, considering how unheathly it is to be in combat with Monks, the rest of the list was a concern. I was delighted to see that Kroak didn't have a Balewind Vortex, but he was still a formidable wizard. The two massive units of skinks were going to be frustrating to whittle down, as they're incredibly hard to pin down. And two Carnosaurs is never a good thing!

The scenario was Duality of Death, so I knew I needed to kill his four big pieces if I had a hope of winning.

My deployment was pretty conventional for the most part. The bulk of my Congregation deployed on the left, with a unit of forty lining up the left hand objective, and supported by a Priest. The Arch-Warlock delpoyed far enough toward the centre so as to be in range of both objectives once he popped up on a Vortex. Then the Furnace and the other unit of forty deployed in the centre, ready to push straight up the middle and hit whatever got in their way first. 

 My right flank consisted of the last unit of monks, the Censer Bearers, a Priest and the Corruptor. My hope was that each flank could push onto an objective, with the middle force serving as reinforcements to whoever was in most dire need. Catapults sat on the back board edge, with more than enough range to hit anything that wandered outside the opposing deployment zone.

My opponent deployed in quite a conservative manner, making sure to wrap his most valuable units in bodies for fear of some unforeseen Skaven trickery. I was very happy to see Kroak as far back on the board as he was, as this meant he wouldn't really be a huge threat until later in the game. But I've faced (and used) Seraphon and their teleporting shenanigans before, and I wasn't about to lull myself into a false sense of security.

Thanks to his Command Trait, my opponent utilised a second teleport in turn to launch both Carnosaurs onto my left flank, leaving one on the objective to start racking up points, while the second slammed into my Monks! Not exactly how I envisioned turn one...

Elsewhere, Kroak and the Engine of the Gods pushed over toward the other objective, while the Seraphon infantry advanced toward the centre of the table. Luckily for me, the Carnosaur absolutely tanked his rolls and did very little damage to me. In return, I managed to put four wounds on the giant dino-rider.

I knew that if I wanted to win this game, I couldn't afford to get bogged down in my own delpoyment zone, so my first turn was pretty active. The Arch-Warlock popped up on his vortex successfully, and unleashed the arcane arsenal into the Carnosaur, chipping another three wounds off him, as well as killing a Saurus Knight as collateral damage from Warpstorm. Both my large units popped their Contagion Banners, and the central unit benefited from the Corruptor's command ability. With the Furnace successfully casting Rabid Fever on both large units, it was about to get bloody.

I made a mistake on my right side, by moving my Censer Bearers before my Corruptor, which meant that his superior movement was hampered, preventing him from reaching the objective turn one. With both objectives outside of my control, things were not looking good. Both Plagueclaws took aim at the Saurus Warriors with limited success. Guess it was down to my Monks to save the day...

And save the day, they did! While taking minimal casualties, they absolutely blended the Saurus Knights, leaving only one standing after Battleshock, while the Saurus Warriors were completely slaughtered. With four attacks each, the Contagion Banner and Rabid Fever, the monks were on a rampage!

The monks on the flank, not to be outdone by their brethren, ripped the wounded Carnosaur apart, leaving the Scar-Veteran on the objective horribly exposed and unsupported. A double turn would really swing the tide of battle, and allow me to capitalise on the momentum...

But alas, it was not to be. In fact, I failed to win a priority roll all game long! Kroak was in range of several spells now, and had begun putting the hurt on several elements of my army. My opponent made some mistakes with target priority here, as he chose Plagueclaw, the Corruptor and the Monks as his targets for Comet's Call, leaving the Priest (crucial to the scenario) completely unscathed. I also managed to use Verminous Valor to great effect on my Verminlord, passing off the high-quality damage onto the lowly (and entirely disposable in the eyes of the Corruptor) monks. Rapidly running out of units, my opponent pushed the Engine of the Gods onto the right hand objective, applying a great deal of pressure to my army to get points on the board. The Engine also pulled out some Seraphon sorcery, nuking my Furnace with a whopping 6 mortal wounds! The two massive regiments of Skinks materialised on my back corner, with one of them making a cheeky move after the jump. To the surprise of absolutely no one, the forty blowpipes managed to trim the last three wounds off my Plagueclaw.

In my turn, I was intent on claiming the objectives and putting some kind of numbers on the board. It was 4-0 in my opponent's favour, and I simply could not let him widen the gap any further. I cast Arcane Bolt with the Corruptor and put two wounds on Kroak, while the Warlock was left to cast Warpstorm at whoever was in range, crucially managing to kill the last Saurus Knight who was locking the Monks in combat.. The verminlord also put Mystic Shield on the Plague Priest, who had triggered his Plague Tome on the Engine of the Gods before making a dash for the safety of the ruins (and the glory of the objective). The forty man unit in the centre, swept around to launch an assault upon the cursed Engine, while the Verminlord and his accompanying Censer Bearers made a line for Kroak. The twenty monks at the back made the noble (and fanatically insane) choice to screen my army from the eighty Skinks. Retribution was brutal upon the Blowpipe Skinks, my surviving catapult unleashed a shower of corrosive spew that killed twelve and forced another seven to flee! Excellent. 

When combat rolled around, the odds were stacked against the Engine, and it simply couldn't withstand the onslaught of rats. It fell, and the objective was mine! The Verminlord cursed as Kroak managed to wound the Corruptor (and as a flow-on effect, kill two Censer Bearers... seriously, Verminous Valor is amazing!), suffer seven wounds, then refuse to crumble, heal and teleport away!

On the other side of the board, the second Carnosaur was overrun and slain by the bloodthirsty rats of the other massive regiment. The Furnace had manged to sneak close enough to the objective to claim it the moment the Scar-Veteran drew his last breath. 

Cowering behind his swarms of Skinks, Kroak tried his hardest to kill the Priest, but spells either failed or were out of range. He did manage to cast mystic shield upon himself, but that was little solace for the wasted damage potential. The Skinks had even less luck, failing to wound anything with their shooting. Things were beginning to look bleak for the Seraphon. 

In the dying moments of the game, My Arch-Warlock and remaining Plagueclaw unleashed an avalanche of damage upon Kroak, inflicting another seven wounds in hopes of claiming the huge chunk of victory points that would result in his death. Against all odds, he survived AGAIN, and healed back all of his wounds. My dastardly schemes were foiled. With the clock out of time, our last turn was very much just rolling out the crucial parts of the game, but in the end, I managed to win 12-4, securing a major victory, and losing less than four hundred victory points. 

I had complete control of the left hand side of the board, and managed to keep my Furnace alive (just) on only two wounds after all of the magic and Engine mayhem caused earlier in the game. 

I think my opponent had the tools to beat me. We talked briefly after the game about his list, and I think the verdict was that he was going to drop the Knights, and use the points to flesh out the Saurus and invest in a Balewind. It just makes Kroak so much scarier. As it was, I only ever really needed to worry about being in range of one or two spells, and it allowed me to ignore his damage output for the most part, which is not something you want said about a 450 point model. 

My opponent lost sight of the objective a few times, not in regards to his army, but in regards to mine. Other than the Verminlord, my heroes do not hold up well to damage, and several times, he targeted units of monks with spells and abilities that dish out mortal wounds. If he'd blasted my characters off and clawed a big enough lead, there would have been nothing for me to do but watch. But these things come with experience, and considering how long he's been playing, I think he's definitely going to be a player to watch in the future. 

This left me on a major win with a large amount of victory points, pushing me into the top bracket of players, ready to face down whatever horrific list awaited me in round two...

Thanks for reading,

Gabe

#117: Tinyhammer Event Overview Pt 2

The day was upon me, and usually on the day of a tournament, I like to arrive a little bit early, enjoy a coffee and settle into the gaming mindset. Today would not be quite so peaceful.After spending the previous evening madly putting final touches on the basing of the army, I raced to the venue and arrived with literally a minute to spare. Great start!

My first game was against (ironically enough) against Clan Pestilens, although it was fairly different to what I had in mind.

Plague Priest
Plague Priest
40 Plague Monks
40 Plague Monks
Plagueclaw Catapult
Plagueclaw Catapult

The scenario was Battle for the Pass, which I knew was gonna be an uphill battle, as my opponent had two huge units that would prove to be hard to whittle down. My opponent snagged first turn and his two catapults went to work, killing four skinks out of one unit, and obliterating the other off the board. Not the start I had planned.

I then teleported up with Kroak, got ready to get on a Balewind, then managed a total of two mortal wounds on a Priest with three spells... Not exactly the start I had planned. I did manage to back it up with a double turn, which proved far more successful, slaughtering both Priests, and belting around the catapults to imminent destruction.

I'll be honest, I was pretty scattered in this game, as I got the objective scoring conditions mixed up with the Knife to the Heart conditions, and so I was playing to a completely different set of rules than I needed to, none of which favoured me! I am glad that it was to my disadvantage, because if I got it wrong and just ran away with a tainted victory, I probably would have conceded.

As it was, I managed to survive the initial onslaught, then kill of key pieces and spend the rest of the of the game managing the hordes and capping objectives. The superior movement and teleport capabilities of Seraphon allowed me to be in the right place at the right time, denying my opponent the opportunity to score, and claiming objectives that were left open to capture. In the end, the scoreline displayed a convincing win to Seraphon, despite taking horrific losses. This landed me a hard-fought Major Win, and a great result leading forward, pushing me into the top bracket going into round two.

Round two was where things began to go down hill on the ol' game department. My round two match up was against a bit of an uncommon faction that turned out to be the worst possible match up leading forward. A Phoenix Court!

Annointed on Frostheart Phoenix
10 Phoenix Guard (battleline)
20 Phoenix Guard (battleline)
Loremaster (Allies)
3 Longstrike Raptors (Allies)

The scenario was Duality of Death; it was just the perfect storm. He won priority, moved the Phoenix onto one objective, and just flooded the other with Phoenix Guard. This first turn pretty much zoned me out of both objectives, and Kroak's formidable arcane arsenal was stifled by the mortal wound save on the Phoenix units. I did manage to put a few points on the board late game with my Priest, but it didn't take long for the Longstrikes to punch enough holes in him and put an end to that.

This ended up being a sound defeat, and a very deflating game. I just didn't have an answer for a lot of the elements in his list, and every one of my Insights yielded better results for my opponent. Luck, the scenario, and the opposing list took its toll, and I just couldn't claw it back.

With a win and a loss under my belt, I knew that I'd be sitting in the middle of the pack, so my next opponent could literally be anything. The names and tables were called, and I ended up getting matched up against Tzeentch. Here we go. Even within the Disciples of Tzeentch book, there are several different builds commonly seen, but what was deployed against me was entirely different.

Tzaangor Shaman
3 Enlightened
20 Acolytes
20 Acolytes
Witchfyre Coven

I looked at the list, and at first glance, it didn't appear to really do anything. Three Enlightened was manageable, I was only facing a single spell from the Shaman that should be easy enough to shut down, and Acolytes were great for holding objectives, but would likely suffer heavy losses to Kroak and the Salamanders. As it turns out, however, this army had a surprising amount of shooting. The battalion allows the acolytes to shoot in both the hero and the shooting phase with an 18' range, thanks to the unit champ. That's a lot of shooting coming my way! The scenario was Starstrike, so I had a turn or two to blitz units off the table before the rubber hit the road. My opponent, having a two-drop army, gave me first turn, as there was nothing in range and no objectives to cap.

I wasted no time in rolling no Insights, and failed Summon Starlight with the Priest on Kroak to make him -1 To Hit with combat and shooting. At that point in the game, I should have stepped back and said to myself 'there's no pressure, your opponent can't touch you this turn. Play it cool'. That's what I should have said. Instead, I launched up the table, cast Mystic Shield upon myself, then failed Summon Balewind, Comet's Call and Celestial Deliverance. Zero damage was caused, and I was sitting on the ground a mere 9.5" away from a shooting list with only Mystic Shield to protect me. Oh dear...

My opponent's first turn consisted of firing eighty shots into Kroak, before charging the Enlightened in to make sure there was no possible way that he could survive his Battleshock mechanic. Just like that, before any objectives had even landed, half my army was gone! OUCH! It was a pretty unfortunate hero phase on my part, getting a single spell off, and not reaping any Insights. But them's the breaks!

It was at this point of the day that I received a pretty distressing phone call and had to leave the event to attend to an urgent matter. It wasn't how I wanted to finish the day, but it was necessary. I felt pretty bad for my round three opponent, as I didn't really give him much of a game, but he was very understanding and accepted my surrender to give him a major victory.

For that reason, I didn't play the fourth game, which counted as a forfeit.

With the huge focus on painting in final scores, I finished 18th out of 38 players, which I was over the moon about! I managed to get an 18/20 for painting, which catapulted me out of the bottom bracket, and was also a pretty satisfying milestone for an army that I'd managed to punch out in a week. Painting was based off a checklist, which helped me work out what was needed for a decent score.

All in all, and having to leave early aside, I think what really cost me a decent showing at the tournament was my selection of list. I'd only played two practice games, and I think I took it with the focus of "doing well" rather than "doing well with my army". I think if I'd taken my Pestilens, which I think I would have enjoyed more, then sure, I might lose a game or four but I'd be using my army. My goal is to do well with Pestilens this year at tournaments, and that's tricky to do if I don't take them.

The tournament as a whole was well run; there were no incorrect match-ups that I was made aware of, and it stuck to schedule, which are both easier said than done. If I were to raise one piece of constructive criticism, it would be that I think the event would have benefited from submitting lists, and those lists being checked before the event itself. It's a quick and easy process these days with tools like Warscroll Builder, but as it happened, there were two illegal lists there that could have been handled before the event. Did they have an impact on the overall standings? It's hard to tell, but it's also an issue that you hope, as a player at an event, is not going to be a question in the first place.

It was a great turnout! Thirty-eight players to a 1000pt Tournament is nothing to sneeze at. There were even a couple of players who made the drive down from Toowoomba (around two hours, depending on how slow or fast you drive), and it was a pleasure to meet them! There were probably only about fifteen armies that were fully painted, but of those fifteen, there were some exceptionally painted miniatures on display.

It was somewhat of a bittersweet event, all things considered, and not the way I wanted to kick my tournament season off, but it's one under the belt, and I learnt from my mistakes and incorrect decisions.

Now, to focus back on the Chaos Grand Alliance... Oh, look! Maggotkin!

Thanks for reading,
Gabe   

#116 Tinyhammer Event Overview Part 1

Typically, when I go to a tournament, I'll break it down into three (or four or five, depending on the tournament) Battle Reports and then do a wrap up post to finish off the series, but for Tinyhammer (a 1000 point tournament at one of the local Warhammer stores), I've opted instead to publish two posts to recap the event, one covering the pre-event lead up, as well as a post covering the event itself . This is for several reasons, but I'll let you read on.

As with any tournament, I had to decide what force I would be taking with me. For me, this decision is largely influenced by the Player Pack, as some of the armies in my collection perform much better in certain environments than others do. In this particular case, the Player Pack stated that your army would be given a painting score out of twenty and that score would be multiplied by the number of games. This is obviously a huge deal, as over a four game tournament, four major wins with all secondary event-specific objectives, would bag me 80 tournament points. Painting scores offered up to an additional 80 tournament points for the day! So, I knew if I wanted to drag any kind of success out of the bag, I had to take a fully painted and based army.

This rounded down my options to Clan Pestilens and Khorne Bloodbound, being the two fully painted armies that I was completely comfortable with, and had an abundance of options to play around with. I toyed with running either a mini-Murderhost, or even a combo Letter Bomb, which consisted of a Wrath of Khorne Bloodthirster, a Stoker, and as many Letters as I could fit, but alas... All of my Bloodletters were on 25mm bases, where they're meant to be on 32mm's. Usually, people are willing to give a little lee-way, even at a tournament (if its not too bonkers), but Bloodletters on 25mm's have a significant advantage over 32mm bases, as their 1" weapons can reach through a rank, allowing for tons more potentially devastating attacks to be pushed through. As I knew that it would (at the very least) be frowned upon, and as I didn't have it in me to rebase sixty Bloodletters, I opted away from that option.

I also had some ideas for utilising the Bloodbound side of Blades of Khorne. I toyed with a Reaver horde, a Juggernaught-heavy cavalry list; the idea even crossed my mind to use a unit of six Khorgoraths! But, after sitting and pondering each list, I managed to get inside my own head and convince myself they wouldn't perform well in the meta. Would they have? Who knows...

Then my attention turned to my pet project of last year, the countless swarms of crazy religious zealot rats that make up Clan Pestilens. This fit into my New Year's Resolutions perfectly. Take Pestilens, put up a decent performance, and perhaps get into the upper end of the roster to get some of those tasty ranking points that everyone currently so desires. So I went to work to find out what I could fit into 1000 points. As it turns out, with horde armies, you can fit a metric ton of bodies on the table.

The first decision I had to make was whether I wanted a Corruptor or a Plague Furnace as my general, and I gotta say, it was an easy decision. In 1000 points, a Plague Furnace with the Liber Bubonica is something to be feared. It hands out buffs with impunity, and is no slouch in combat, with its noxious aura and foggy, furious wrecking ball of the flu! I backed up the Furnace with two Priests, knowing full well that I needed to knuckle down and get as many prayers off each turn as I could. With Heroes sorted, this left me to fill Battleline... and fill it I did!

Two units of forty and a unit of twenty Plague Monks took my model count over a hundred, and sat within the points limit allowed! I veered away from Plagueclaws, as I think one is unreliable, and two is by far too large a portion of my army. I know what Monks can do, and I know that on a 4'x4' table, a hundred bodies is gonna take some work to get through!

So, there it was. I'd settled on a list that I already had fully painted, that I was comfortable with, and that could play the scenario in most situations pretty convincingly. I then sent it out to a few people for feedback, and there in lay my unravelling. Most people were horrified by the idea of facing the list. Sure, monks die to a particularly stern glance, but most armies just didn't have the damage output to thin the horde before it hit. Most armies.

It quickly became apparent that Disciples of Tzeentch would be at the tournament in force, and I knew full well that if a Gaunt Summoner got on a Balewind (but, who puts a GS on a Balewind... right, guys? Right?), he would burn through my hordes and have my army for lunch. With that notion alone, I started scrambling. Instead of doing what a logical person would do, and tweak the list to mitigate the possibility of a bad match up, I was like a deer in the headlights of the idea of "the worst matchup". I can say this now, but I feel I should have dropped the small unit of Monks out and swapped an allied Skaven unit in. Jezzails or an Arch-Warlock might not solve all my problems, but they would have given me that ever-so-valuable long-range damage output that would have given the rest of my army some covering fire. But did I think logically? Absolutely not.

I spent several hours studying warscrolls and engineering combos, trying to find that perfect list. And I looked at every possible option. I thought about taking Chaos Dwarves, but alas, Forgeworld was not permitted at the event. I thought about taking Stormcast, but they just didn't inspire me at the time. I even considered ppurchasing and painting a Kharadron Overlord mini-Clown-Car, piling as many Balloon Bros as I could onto a Barak-Zilfin Frigate. This was the mindset I was in; just all over the place. Then a mate of mine sent me a list that caught my eye.

Lord Kroak
Skink Starpriest
10 Skinks
10 Skinks
2 Razordons
3 Salamanders
150 points in reinforcements.

Basically, the whole list was built around Lord Kroak teleporting into the centre of the board, jumping up on a Balewind and then going apocalyptic with his magical arsenal. And while he and his Balewind weigh in at a horrifying 550 points, it was hard to deny his sheer destructive capabilities and tenacity with his bizarre wound mechanic. With Mystic Shield and Starlight (from the priest), he sits pretty at a 2+ save atop the balewind, with -1 to Hit. Many armies simply don't have the tools to deal with him at 1000 points. The other advantage is that he can Unbind spells board-wide. This means that he can sit outside of 18" of enemy wizards, completely dampen their magic phase and then cast at his leisure, uncontested.

The skinks were in there, because not only are they fantastically cheap and infuriating to pin down in combat, but they are FAST!

Razordons offered some consistent shooting to trim down larger units, or blitz a character who might find himself unguarded. They also have a natural 4+, so with some buffs, they can pose a real roadblock!

This leaves the Salamanders. Typically, I would use my turn one Seraphon Teleport on Kroak, but turn two, I'd slingshot these guys at the biggest, scariest unit I can see, and try and Fireball them to death. And this is where the cheeky 50 points of summoning comes into it. When a Seraphon unit teleports, they must be 9" away, and can't move unless the dice comes up as a 6. With their shooting attack only being 8" range, this obviously poses a slight... reliability problem. That's where Skink Handlers shine. They are 40 points for 3, can be summoned on a 4+ (also 9" away from enemies, but Salamanders within 3" extend the range of their shooting attack to 12". This means that, if I roll a 6 for their teleport, they can safely move into range in the movement phase, but if they don't, I can use one of Kroak's four casting attempts to summon some cheeky handlers and burninate the countryside!

While all that sounds scary on paper, the real sting of the list comes from Kroak's command ablilty, which allows him to generate an "Insight" for every 4+ rolled on 3 dice. These Insights can then be used to re-roll any dice until my next hero phase (with the exception of the Priority Roll, as per Rule of One). Any dice. A casting attempt, a botched teleport roll, a damage roll for a spell or shooting attack... Powerful, right? But then I thought... Any Dice? My opponent's dice? Enemy charges, successful casting attempts, reserve rolls for Stormcast. Destiny Dice? DESTINY DICE!

After much studying, debate and deliberation, we came to the understanding (and if you can disprove this, please do so, because it seems pretty amazing), that when a Destiny Dice is used in one of its many ways, I can force my opponent to re-roll that dice. Substitute in a 6 to push through a spell? Sub in a 1 on a Battleshock test for your Pink Horrors? Nah, how about a re-roll!

It completely changes the dynamic of your opponent's turn because they know that the 'moment' they need to happen can be affected by something other than pure probability. Success is a further reach. If I possibly could, I would keep an Insight in the bag for my opponent's turn, sometimes even forgoing an opportunity in my own turn, just to keep that psychological edge, and to have a very large spanner to throw in the works if needed.

Now, it's not all rainbows and lolliipops. This list has two blinding weaknesses. Model count and hordes. With my whole army being solely dependant on a single model, this fell very heavily into the "All Eggs in One Basket" area; something I usually avoid like the Plague (unless I'm playing... wait for it... Pestilens! That was a bad one, I'm sorry). This means that if I either lose him, or he is ignored, the rest of my army is going to eat dirt in a heartbeat. The other issue that I had was the apparent inability to handle massive regiments. Kroak excels at nuking elite, MSU-style armies (Stormcast and Tzeentch spring to mind), but throw 40 Skeletons at him, and there's not a lot he's going to do. Scenarios and match ups would make or break this tournament for me.

With the list settled upon, I made short work of painting it, managing to crank out the entire army in under a week. This was an incredibly important element, as Paint Scores played such a large part of the player pack. I knew if I wanted to do well, I'd need to crank out a cohesive.  And I even managed to fit in two practice games in, both against Disciples of Tzeentch. The first was right down to the wire, and I managed to win Duality of Death 1-0. The second, was quite the opposite, as I rolled the hottest dice of my life, and managed to nuke my opponent off the table in two turns.

These two games gave me the confidence that this list had legs, and might actually get me over the line. Two games against great match ups? What could go wrong!

Check back in on Sunday for my overview of the tournament itself!

What's your go-to 1000 point list?

Thanks for reading,
Gabe

#95: BCGT Game 2 - Age of Sigmar Battle Report - Blades of Khorne Vs. Seraphon 2000 points.

After the utter defeat suffered at the hands of Tzeentch and his fickle minions, I found myself second from the bottom of the leader board; not somewhere I really wanted to be. But the day was young and there were chances for redemption yet.

My Round Two opponent was playing Seraphon, almost exclusively comprised of Skinks, with a handful of Kroxigors and Salamanders thrown in for good measure. The scenario was Three Places of Power (one of my personal favourites), and while two of his Heroes rode atop Engines of the Gods, his other two (a Priest and a Starseer) were horribly vulnerable with only four wounds apiece. I was confident that I could win the scenario, and with the abundance of units in my opponent's army, the Blood Tithes would surely be flowing!

Unfortunately, some of the images from pre-game and my opponents first turn have been lost, but I will summarise it very quickly for you. He deployed a refused flank as seen below, with a unit of Skinks holding the woods in the centre (see right side of photo) and a single unit of Skinks in the other far corner, posing no threat to anyone. I think my opponent made some significant errors in deployment, based on the single fact that he deployed all four of his Heroes (the crucial scoring elements of the scenario) all within a 6" radius of each other. At this point, I became satisfied that I would not be losing this game, purely based on objectives, and that two of them were likely to be wholly uncontested by my foes.

While I won the choice of first or second player turn, I chose to give first turn to my opponent. His shooting was incredibly short ranged, and he was a little too far away for my Letter Bomb to get a convincing multi-charge. As I was not too worried about any severe Battleshock checks or getting into combat, I was also not too worried about planting the Bloodsecrator's banner yet.

My opponent's first turn was pretty uneventful. The Engines of the Gods achieved nothing of note, both rolling abilities that were outside range of my units, and every buff available went onto the unit of Kroxigors on the far left flank. Other than that, he pushed forward toward the left objective, falling just short of being able to claim it with his green Stegadon. His only other move was to pop two units of five Chameleons up into combat with my two Slaughterpriests, Bloodstoker and Bloodsecrator in an attempt to disrupt my key combos. They did very little, but thanks to their bonuses in cover, suffered fewer casualties in return than I would have liked.

Then came my first turn. The usual plethora of buffs and bonuses were placed upon my Letter Bomb, which launched up the battlefield at an alarming rate. My Bloodthirster was also keen for a piece of the action, lining up the Engines of the Gods for a cheeky double charge, to not only lock them in combat and deny them any charge bonuses, but also to pin them in place off the objective and put the Thirster to work tallying up some points.

Elsewhere on the battlefield, the Murderhost was putting miles in. The Hounds loped up the centre of the board to clear the unit of Skinks lurking in the trees, while my Skullmaster claimed my right hand objective with no intention of moving anytime soon. The Bloodletters beside him had ill-willed intentions for the Skinks in the back corner of the board and began their long march to do battle with them. One of my Slaughterpriests left the combat in the forest to eventually lay claim to the central objective, protected from harm largely by the wall of Khornate Daemons before him. 

I decided (perhaps foolishly) to charge in with my Blood Warriors into the Kroxigors (while sneaking the Gorglaive into the blue Steg). With all of their buffs and re-rolls, I had little hope for the Blood Warriors survival, but knew that not only would they be able to punch out some Mortal wounds thanks to Gorefists, but that they would all be able to pile in and attack, regardless of whether they lived or died. The Krox unit has the potential to be terrifying and I didn't want it rampaging around a few turns later unchecked and undamaged. 

The Bloodletters made a cataclysmic charge, managing to draw nine units into combat with it! This was perfect, as several of these units were Skink Handlers which consist of only three one-wound models. Blood Tithes for the taking, skulls for the reaping! I even managed to drag the green Steg into combat, which was perfect, as he would later bottleneck that part of the battlefield and block other charges against my Bloodthirster, who backed up his abysmally awful game one performance by failing a 6" charge. 

The Flesh Hounds easily made it into combat...

…while my two units of Reavers charged into the woods to clean up the Chameleon threat that had presented itself to my Heroes. 

In a fairly predictable outcome, my Warriors got butchered by the Kroxigors after I chose the Bloodletters to strike first, who single handedly claimed five Blood Tithes from one round of combat! The Hounds absolutely murdered the Skinks in the centre, and while my Bloodletters took several wounds in return from pile ins, they were still very much a threat! On my own turf, the Reavers and heroes made short work of the Chameleons.

My opponent spent his turn moving onto the objective with both of the Engines, and managed to strip eight wounds off my Bloodthirster with an Engine and a cheeky Arcane Bolt. His Kroxigors then charged into my remaining Bloodletters and obliterated them with a flood of attacks. 

And this, right here is where I made a significant mistake. While the Kroxigors were definitely a threat, I really should have pitched my Bloodthirster into the Stegadon. The green one was holding the objective, and was already damaged by my Hellfire Breath from last turn, and was worth an extra two Tournament Points for being a hero over 10 wounds killed. Instead, I charged the Kroxigors. 

Left to their own devilish devices, my Hounds pounced on the isolated Handlers, survivors of the Letter Bomb's fury. They did not survive the raging dogs of slaughter! 

On the other side of the Battlefield, my Bloodletters (who I forgot to move for a turn, go me!) finally made it into the Skinks in the back corner with predictable results. 

On the hot side of the battlefield, things were getting scrappy. The green, wounded Steg, remained on its objective, while the blue Steg had made a dash for my Slaughterpriest. He was intercepted by my remaining unit of Blood Warriors, who were blessed with Bronzed Flesh. My Hounds also continued their killing spree, bounding into the last remaining Kroxigor after my Thirster finally went down to the giant lizards. 

The Blood Warriors did what Blood Warriors so love to do! After being challenged by the Stegadon, my Priest in the centre decided it was a good time to blow the Engine's face off with a full strength Blood Boil, and the Warriors just mopped up, claiming me two oh-so-tasty Hero Kill points. 

The game ended with my Blood Warriors attempting to slay the second Steg, and I got him to within three wounds of death when the game ended. A very convincing and bloody (the way it should be) major win to the Blades of Khorne. 

My opponent was a gentleman throughout the game. He had attended the tournament to play three games and have fun, and had mentioned that he wasn't expecting to win the event. He'd pulled an old Fantasy army out of retirement for a run, and by all accounts, he had a great day. There's no doubt that with some tuning, Seraphon can be absolutely brutal, but I don't think his list included enough durability or damage output to counter the threats in my army. His shooting didn't really get a chance to shine, and the Kroxigors were the only real combat threat that had me worried (and rightly so, they killed the 10 Blood Warriors, five Flesh Hounds, Letterbomb and Bloodthirster, claiming responsibility for 960 victory points!). I think that his army would benefit hugely from picking up one or two more serious heavy-hitters. A carnosaur, perhaps? I don't know the Serpahon particularly well, but I can tell you that I would have been sweating bullets if he'd included a Bastiladon in his list!  

I think that when he deployed all of his heroes on the one flank, he put himself in a position that made it very hard to compete for the scenario. I had two objectives to myself for the majority of the game, and the scoreboard reflected that.

All in all, I was happy with the result, and I returned to the middle of the scoreboard after round two. This matched me against a truly, truly terrifying Stormcast list. Check in for the next battle report and event wrap up!

Thanks for reading. 

Gabe