#172: Championship Heat 1 Battle Report - Game 3: Legion of Azgorh Vs. Sylvaneth

After two big wins, it looked like I was going to be facing one of three players. Mick with his Flesh Eater Courts, James with his Khorne, or Hayden with his Sylvaneth. Of all three, I was hoping to avoid Sylvaneth as the line-of-sight blocking Sylvaneth Wyldwoods have such a brutal impact on my army, and how much damage it can do.

So, when I got matched up with Sylvaneth, I was spewing. But, the match up was what it was, and I had to try and make the best attempt at it that I could.

Here's what I was facing.

Allegiance: Sylvaneth
Mortal Realm: Ghyran

Leaders:
Spirit of Durthu (General, Gnarled Warrior, Ghyrstrike)
Treelord Ancient
Branchwraith (Acorn of Ages)
Branchwraith (Ranu's Lamentiri)
Branchwych

Units:
30 Dryads (Battleline)
20 Dryads (Battleline)
5 Tree-Revenants (Battleline)
3 Kurnoth Hunters (Swords)

Warscroll Battalions:
Gnarlroot Wargrove
Household

Endless Spells:
Geminids of Uhl-Gysh
Prismatic Pallisade
Soulsnare Shackles

I knew that this game was going to be an uphill battle, mostly because all of my mortal wound output (Sylvaneth's Achilles Heel) is in my shooting phase, which can't see through Sylvaneth Wyldwoods. I was going to have to play my ass off to compete. The scenario was Scorched Earth, which is one that I'm very unfamiliar with, as I haven't played it in about a year and a half.

My deployment was pretty practical, leaving my fighting elements front and centre to have as much impact on the game as possible, where my forty Fireglaives and two Magma Cannons were given the task of zoning out my territory, to avoid having any unwanted visitors show up to burn an objective.

As Sylvaneth often need to do, my opponent chose the table side with two Arcane pieces of terrain, took first turn, and broke out from his castle on his middle objective, dropping five Citadel Woods across the middle of the board. He plugged up the few open lanes of fire with the Prismatic Pallisade. Soulsnare Shackles and Geminids made their presence known, locking up my Skullcracker and Taur-ruk, and chipping away a couple of mortal wounds. A few teleports through the woods put him on all three of his objectives and safe behind the woods. 

Now.

I got the double turn from First into Second turn, and never have I played a worse two consecutive phases in my life. I got tunnel vision on the Wyldwoods, and got a bit frustrated at not being able to bring a huge chunk of my army's damage output down on my opponent. This led to some of the dumbest decisions I've ever made. And I'm not even talking foolish mistakes. I'm talking skipping over my movement phase almost completely, moving a single unit of dogs and going straight to the shooting phase. I left my two hammer bros, the Dairy Queen and Skullcracker squarely in the danger zone of endless spells instead of moving away from them. It was like an out of body experience and I felt awful for both myself and my opponent. And every time I missed something, I'd scatter myself even more!

Pretty sure, at one point, I was just staring at the table trying to work out how to even compete. I don't know if it was top-table nerves, fatigue at the end of a long day or the game itself, but I potatoed pretty hard.

The one thing I did right, was capitalise on a mistake my opponent had made. In his efforts to build a solid wall down the middle of the table to block my shooting (which he did very successfully), he'd left a gap down each flank where I'd very intentionally deployed my Warhounds.

In turn one, I lauched up each flank with the dogs, while at the start of turn two, the dogs on the right flank sprinted across what open ground there was to outnumber Durthu on his objective and burn it for two points. The dogs on the left flank were among the units that I forgot to move, leaving my opponent's left hand objective intact. 

In my opponent's Turn 2, he unsurprisingly butchered the Warhounds with Durthu, while the whole rest of his army teleported around to stack his two remaining objectives. 

At the end of turn two, I kind of caught myself and had to force myself into a bit of a hard reset. I was very aware that I wasn't playing my style of warhammer or enjoying the game, which more often than not means my opponent is not enjoying the game either. I had to kind of shake myself out of the funk, and give my opponent a game. 

After clearing my head and actually focussing on what I could do, compared to what I couldn't, I started making some decisive moves. My hounds on the left flank finally decided to contest the objecitve behind the ruins. But with ten Dryads, five Tree-Revenants and a Branchwraith lurking, they were going to need some help. By weaving their way over the the central ruins between the Wyldwoods, the K'Daai (followed by the Sorcerer Lord) were finally able to reach combat, and slaughtered their way through the Dryads and Tree-Revenants to claim the objective and burn it for more points. 

Realising that he no longer had control of the battlefield, and needing to make some bold moves of his own, my opponent came swinging out of the gates in mid-late game. With the Dryad's being able to make some pretty crazy daisy chains out of the forests, my Fireglaives were in for a fight, but after saves, and Blackshard Armour had done it's work, we were left with exactly the same number of models on the objective, meaning I still controlled it. To counter this, in the following turn, I retreated out of combat with the Fireglaives, to avoid any unwanted casualties (while staying within 6" of the objective), while the Cannon and Daemonsmith moved in to add to the numbers advantage. 

The Taur-ruk was damaged, but still standing, while the Skullcracker had taken simply too much damage from spells and endless spells, dying before having any real impact. He was another unit I completely wasted, passing up the opportunity to move and charge the thirty Dryads that now threatened my objective. This was another example of a moment that just compounded my problems, as it was such a nonsensical mistake. 

The big Dryad unit burnt my right hand objective in the following turn, while my centre was now under immense pressure. 

The Treelord Ancient and Spirit of Durthu both teleported to threaten my middle objective, with twenty Riflemen and a Taur'ruk standing in their way. I knew that if the Treeman Ancient failed his charge, that Durthu was probably going to paste the twenty riflemen unless he rolled like trash, which would leave my Taur'ruk alive and holding the objective. Fingers crossed... His shooting attacks killed a couple of Fireglaives, but it was all for nought as he failed two re-rollable 9" charges with his two towering tree-people. 

We started turn five, where my K'Daai turned their attention to the 20 Dryads on my opponent's centre objective, but time was called, and as we were only starting the top of turn five, we agreed to revert to the end of turn four to determine kill points and final results, as it meant that we'd then had an equal number of turns. 

Having held two of my objectives and burning two of my opponent's, I claimed a major victory. 

I was a bit disappointed with how I played in this game, on a skill level. It's easy to point at the end result, and question that statement, but those first two turns of the game were just bizarre. It's like I'd completely forgotten how to play. During deployment, we'd made a gentleman's agreement to play a tight game of Warhammer; I knew how tricksy Sylvaneth can be, and how games against them are often decided by millimeters. That ended up biting me in the ass in a big way, as I had to live with every error, regardless of severity or intent. If I forgot to move models, that was that. I was pretty upset with myself, because it wasn't like I was missing an intricate piece to a complex combo. I just forgot to move stuff... pretty basic mechanics of the game.   

There's no denying that it was a  pretty rough match-up. I fired a single missile weapon in the first three turns of the game, and I think I let that get inside my head a bit. There was also a degree of inexperience on my part playing against Sylvaneth. We don't really have many Sylvaneth players in Queensland, so seeing and playing them on the table is rare in the local scene.

In the end, it came down to those two lanes on each table edge being left wide open, and giving me a window to burn objectives with the dogs. Kill Points for both of us were very low in this game, just by nature of the match up. I came away from Game Three completely exhausted, but on three major wins.  

Check in soon for a bloody Game Four against the new Khorne heat! 

Thanks for reading, 

Gabe

#171: Championship Heat 1 Battle Report - Game 2: Legion of Azgorh Vs. Dispossessed

Coming off a big win against the Greenskins, I found myself facing an ancestral rival. The arch-enemy of the Chaos Dwarfs. Dispossessed.

Probably fueled by their jealousy of all the cool magic and war machines of the Dawi Zharr, the Dispossessed were ready for a proper brawl, and had called up all their mates to help out. The scenario was Starstrike, which actually had me really concerned. As you can see by Dion's list, he had a massive numbers advantage, and off the charge, almost all of those Duardin would be re-rolling their saves. To top it off, between his Warscroll Battalion, the Order allegiance ability and the mechanics built into his warscroll, it was going to be almost impossible to battleshock them off, unless the dice favoured me in a significant way.

Here is what I was facing.

Allegiance: Dispossessed
Mortal Realm: Ghur

Leaders:
Warden King (General, Master of Defence, Gryph-Feather Charm)
Runelord (Rockjaws)
Unforged

Units:
40 Warriors
30 Warriors
10 Warriors
30 Longbeards
20 Ironbreakers
10 Hammerers
10 Irondrakes

Battalions:
Grudgebound Warthrong

Total: 1980

My opponent deploying 153 models in a single drop was pretty confronting. I was confident my shooting would be able to put in work, but my combat units would potentially get bogged down in prolonged combats, and stop me from capping objectives.

Knowing that if he took first turn, there was zero risk of anything even being able to try and charge me, I deployed everything on the line. No screens or layered deployments; no zoning out my backfield. This game was going to be a brawl in the middle of the table with no prisoners taken. I knew that given the opponent and the scenario, I was going to have to try and focus-fire off a unit at a time, prioritising whatever was most threatening to the objectives.

Dion took first turn, and marched almost everyone up onto the three possible locations of the objective ready for turn two. The Longbeards marched up and locked shields opposite my K'Daai, while a 40-strong unit of warriors parked on the middle point with an aftersave from the Runelord and the 30-strong unit marched on the right side of the board. The Irondrakes, Hammerers, Ironbreakers and 10-man Warrior unit all moved up in support, but remaining close to where the Turn 3 objectives would drop. 

Left facing a metric ton of Duardin in the middle of the board, I decided to commit, and hopefully start grinding down these blocks of infantry. My shooting phase began with one of my Magma Cannons burning the Runelord to ash in a single shot, and that set the tone for one of the most horrific displays of violence I have ever witnessed in a game of Warhammer. The Fireglaives opened up, slapping through an uncharacteristically high number of wounds and mortal wounds, weakening the dwarfs for the imminent assault on their lines.

The Warhounds pushed up the flank, hoping to get a good dash at the Turn 3 objective, should it drop nearby. Before the Runelord's fiery demise, he'd managed to stop Daemonic Power from the Sorcerer Lord, so the K'Daai had to be content with Oracular Visions as they charged headlong into the Longbeards. Many of the grizzled veterans fell, despite re-rolls on their saves.

On the other side of the table, things were getting significantly more bloody.

The Taur'ruk and Skullcracker, knowing that they would never be able to outnumber the Warrior units, decided to go in anyway and try to chip down the units for an advantage later in the game. They both made long charges, and then went absolutely postal. The Taur'ruk pushed through four of his five axe attacks and a few plinks with his hoofs for fifteen dead dwarfs.

Then the Skullcracker took a swing at the forty Warriors. Both myself and Dion knew it was going to get messy when I rolled 22 for his 4D6 attacks, and it all spiralled from there for the Dispossessed. The towering war machine went on a bloody rampage, killing almost thirty Warriors in one activation.

But, they would surely hold strong. They're dwarfs, with a re-rollable battleshock check that is ignored on a 1-3. All three units, with their re-rolls, rolled nothing but 5's and 6's. The usually stalwart core of the Dispossessed army was swept aside in a bloody display of power! The 40-man Dwarf Warrior unit in the centre completely dissolved, the K'Daai were left fighting 4-5 Longbeards, and the Taur'ruk was busy hacking down survivors on the hill.

Including the Runelord, 84 Duardin met their end in my first turn.

To say that Dion and I were both completely stunned is putting it lightly...

At the start of Turn 2, the first objective landed next to the building in the centre of the board, just outside of control of the Skullcracker, and after what he'd done to the Warriors, his name was at the top of the Grudge list in bold font. The Ironbreakers and Hammerers both committed to the combat, to try and bring down the infernal construct,

As if to balance the luck from last turn, the Skullcracker only rolled six attacks this turn, but still managed to clobber a good number of the Ironbreakers. It took two full rounds of combat, and the rest of the Ironbreakers, but the Skullcracker finally fell at the hands of the Hammerers. He'd done his duty! 

Many of the combats continued in bloody fashion, with the Taur'ruk dispatching the last of the Warriors on the hill, and the K'Daai incinerating the Longbeards. 

In my turn two, the K'Daai continued on their bloody rampage, killing the Unforged and the Irondrakes, who had already suffered losses at the hands of the Magma Cannons. This signalled a catastrophic collapse of the Dwarven battle line, as the twenty Fireglaives pushed into the centre of the table, firing as they went into the Skullcracker's combat, preserving the machine as long as they could and eventually murdering the Hammerers after the Duardin had finally dispatched the Skullcracker. 

The game ended at the start of turn three, when Dion issued a challenge to my Taur'ruk to fight his Warden King in single combat. The King struck first, but his labour was in vain, as the hulking Dairy Queen shrugged off the damage before beheading the Dwarven lord and holding his head aloft in victory. 

This game caught everyone by surprise, purely based off the fact that so many models died so quickly. Between long charges, lucky Magma Cannon shots, horrendous battleshock checks and the luckiest Skullcracker War Engine in history, I managed to forge a massive advantage in the first turn, and dominate the battlefield from that point onward. It was a scenario where I think I had the advantage, both in my ranged firepower, and ability to move around the table and react at speed. 

I've played Dion several times before (most recently at RCGT last year), and he's always a blast to play, throwing plenty of insults and making many entries in the Book of Grudges. We had some great back and forth regarding the battle between ancient foes, but the Legion of Azgorh rose to the challenge on this day, with a bloody and decisive victory!

This left me with two major wins and maximum kill points going into my third game, propelling me to Table 1; not somewhere I'm entirely familiar with, but absolutely stoked to be there. It also put me into the top bracket full of armies that were no joke. From here on in, it was going to be tougher and tougher if I wanted to do well! 

Check back in soon for my third game against Sylvaneth! 

If you enjoy these articles, be sure to like and follow the Rune Axe Wargaming Facebook page for regular, weekly content! 

Thanks for reading, 

Gabe

#170: Championship Heat 1 Battle Report - Game 1: Legion of Azgorh Vs. Ironjawz

The first Championship Heat was finally here, and I was debuting my Legion of Azgorh at 2000 points! I'd finished painting it the night before, and went into the day on a good night's sleep and a true tournament breakfast of iced coffee.

Once the general introduction to the tournament was done and dusted, I launched into my first game against none other than local player Connor and his gold-armoured Ironjaws.

Allegiance: Ironjawz
Mortal Realm: Chamon

Leaders:

Megaboss on Maw-Krusha (General, Ironclad, Gildenbane)
Gordrakk, The Fist of Gork
Orruk Weirdnob Shaman
Orruk Warchanter (The Golden Toof)

Battleline:

10 Orruk Ardboys
5 Orruk Brutes
3 Gore-Gruntas

Battalion:

Ironfist

Endless Spells:

Chronomantic Cogs

Total: 1940

The scenarios were all randomly generated, and the first one off the rank was Border War. This was alright by me, as I had a significant numbers advantage. I was pretty confident that I could push onto the middle objectives and hold them if I could drop the two cabbages early on. I was also pretty confident in the K'Daai putting work in, thanks to their ethereal 5+ save, that would allow me to shrug a lot of the Rend-focussed attacks of the Brutes and Krushas.

My deployment was nothing too special. Connor only had five drops, so I had the luxury of being able to line up favourable units with their targets. I screened most of my army with Warhounds, knowing that the two cabbages would be charging in hot, trying to smash off everything they could. The Cannons and Daemonsmith were pretty central on my back objective, in such a way that (with a bit of shuffling) they could shoot at anything that contested the two middle objectives. From there, the K'Daai took the left flank, while the Skullcracker and Taur'ruk teamed up to cover the right flank, having only 10 Ard Boys and a Shaman to challenge them. If I could chew through their wounds quickly, I could comfortably hold that objective with two pretty durable models. 

Connor took first turn, and launched across the board with everything, capping both middle objectives, and lining up both cabbages for big charges! Unfortunely, only Gordrakk made it in, and while he comfortably smashed up the warhounds, the Dairy Queen and Skullcracker gave him a proper beat-down, bringing him to within a couple of wounds of death. 

In my turn one, the Dawi Zharr unleashed hell! 

Both Magma Cannons unloaded into the Ard Boys across the battlefield, enjoying the extended range from the nearby Daemonsmith. The screen of Fireglaives shot their rifles into Gordrakk and slayed the mighty hero, while...

...the K'Daai combo-charged the Gore-Gruntas on the objective and the Maw-Krusha who failed his charge and found himself stranded in no-mans-land. I was sure to keep the Sorcerer Lord on Steed within 6" for those handy little command abilities, but managed to charge the unit in such a way that all 12 models could put their attacks into something. 3" reach allowed me to put four into the Gruntas and drag down a pig, while the eight Fireborn that targeted the Maw-Crusha roasted him to a crisp in a single combat phase. Two cabbages dead in the first turn had swung the flow of battle heavily in my favour! I was only able to cap the left objective in the middle of the board, but I was in a commanding position. 

In Connor's turn two, the Shaman turned the Cogs to give himself a re-rollable save, while the Ard Boys charged headlong into the riflemen, slaying three. The Brutes on the other side of the board charged in to Duff Up the Big Things with their Grunta buddies and killed three through sheer weight of attacks! 

At the end of turn two, the K'Daai managed to kill off the last two Grunta's and all of the Brutes with minimal casualties in return, while the Warhounds on my flank decided to charge on in and surround the Warchanter! They managed to chip off three wounds, but lost a dog in return. 

On my right flank, the Cannons shot the remaining Ard Boys off the table, freeing up the remaining Fireglaives to shoot the nearby Shaman to death. 

In turn three, the Warhounds lost another two of their number, but managed to drag down and feast on the Warchanter. With his death, the Legion of Azgorh claimed victory! 

I was pretty impressed with the K'Daai Fireborn unit, as they single-handedly dispatched of the Gruntas, Brutes and Maw-Krusha, showing just how much damage they're capable of inflicting on multiple targets! 

This win left me with a major win, and max kill points. The match ups between each round were, as far as I could tell, random within each bracket. This meant that going into round two, all the players who won their first game went into a random draw. This pitted me against Dion for a battle of the ages against a bitter enemy.

Dispossessed!

Thanks for reading, and check back in soon for Game 2! 

Gabe

#169: Legion of Azgorh Tournament Army List Breakdown

With the Australian Championship Heat 1 behind me, (I'm slowly learning that it may be ill-advised to explain all of my tricks and weaknesses BEFORE an event) I thought I'd go into depth on my army list, why I chose the units that I chose, and how they performed compared to how I expected them to perform. As the battle reports come out, I'll also touch on different aspects of the army, as well as what worked and what didn't

So, why Chaos Dwarfs, firstly.

There's no question that Chaos Dwarfs are among the rarest armies around (mostly due to price and ease of access), and usually if you don't see an army lots, it's a pretty good indicator that it's not great; not always, but generally. But after reading over the... *sigh*... PDF (my gaming group will remind me every fifteen minutes or so that it's not actually a Battletome), I started seeing a lot of units that I liked the look of, and a playstyle that sounded like a hell of a lot of fun! The more I looked into the army, the more interested I became, and after picking up a whole shoebox of Forgeworld goodness, I was committed. I began ordering, building and painting, spending hours and hours painstakingly putting all of those resin models together to try and form a cohesive army.

And here's what I came up with.

Allegiance: Legion of Azgorh

Leaders:
Bull Centaur Taur'ruk
 - General
 - Trait: Grotesque
 - Artefact: Armour of Bazherak the Cruel
Daemonsmith
 - Darkforged Weapon
Chaos Sorcerer Lord
 - Mount: Steed
 - Runestaff
 - Allies

Battleline:
10 Infernal Guard Fireglaives
10 Infernal Guard Fireglaives
20 Infernal Guard Fireglaives

Units:
12 K'Daai Fireborn
10 Chaos Warhounds
 - Allies
10 Chaos Warhounds
 - Allies

War Machines:
Magma Cannon
Magma Cannon
Skullcracker War Engine

Total: 1940
Extra Command Points: 1
Allies: 320/400
Wounds: 136

So, let's break this all down. We'll start with Battleline. For me, the Fireglaives are by far the best Battleline in the army, because while they're as slow as Ironsworn, they can interact with models up to 20" away, and can kick out an alarming amount of ranged damage. Even doing mortal wounds on unmodified 6's is a huge deal, as it bypasses any number of the negative To Hit modifiers out there. This allows you to put some hurt on a pesky hero that thinks they're safe. In a game where bodies hold objectives, I knew that I needed plenty of boots on the ground. I didn't want to go "horde", so a 20-man unit and two 10-man units gave me three units to use as utility models depending on the scenario. If I needed screens or objective campers, they could do that while still dishing out the damage.

With Battleline sorted, I moved on to Heroes. The Taur'ruk is an easy choice as he's currently very cheap for what he can do. Five Rend -2 Damage 3 attacks will put the hurt on most things, and between Grotesque (-1 to hit in combat), the artefact that gives him a 5++ and Blackshard armour (ignore the first would of each shooting and combat phase), he can prove infuriatingly tough to bring down. All hail the Dairy Queen! 

With only one artefact, my other two Heroes were both very deliberately chosen because they're wizards. With missions being what they are, I wanted to be able to compete in all of them, and so a Daemonsmith and an allies Chaos Sorcerer Lord on Steed made it in. The Daemonsmith is great for 100 points, buffing war machines, lobbing grenades and having one of the best warscroll spells in the game. 

The Chaos Sorcerer Lord was chosen because he's fast on a Steed, and because his spell is a great force multiplier. Both of these factors came into consideration because of my next unit.

12 K'Daai Fireborn

At 480 points for 12, these have fast become a staple in literally every list I write. They off a relatively slow army a fast, running and charging sledgehammer unit with enough bodies, wounds and damage output to clear an objective and score it for themselves. 3" reach on their 60 attacks (each doing D3 damage) means that, in most cases, the whole unit is attacking, and whatever they hit is gonna feel it. The Sorcerer Lord's Daemonic Power spell just makes them better again, giving them precious re-rolls. If the spell doesn't go off, I've always got Oracular Visions in the pocket. Otherwise, it typically gets put on another unit that I need to keep alive. The Sorc Lord also plays the vital role of fast-moving babysitter, able to keep up with the K'Daai and use CP to either get them moving faster with runs, re-roll botched charges or mitigate their mediocre Bravery 6 when things go south. It's like the two were made for each other.

The one thing that the K'Daai lack is any kind of Rend. And while the Taur'ruk offers me some high-quality attacks, I really wanted a hammer piece that I could launch into people and reliably dish out carnage. The Skullcracker War Engine was too good to pass up for 200 points, churning out 4D6 attacks on it's main profile (because, let's be honest here... we're overcharging that engine each and every turn), as well as having decent move and a great save! The challenge I faced was that the model is no longer in production, so I decided the employ the skills of one very talented Blake Kerwick to create me an infernal machine worthy of the legion.

While it's not really a train as such, it's definitely a War Engine, it's definitely imposing, and it doesn't offer me any advantages through modelling. In fact, he's 100% impossible to hide, so he's getting shot up and blasted with magic no matter where he stands (which is ideally deep in enemy lines) He also gives me a nice centrepiece for the army! 

With points starting to run out, I simply couldn't resist the idea of my Daemonsmith babysitting two Magma Cannons. They are hands down one of the scariest artillery pieces in the game. People can handle being shot at with Ballistas. People reeeaaally don't like their -2 to shoot heroes catching a jet of lava from 24" away that ends up doing six flat mortal wounds! I like the magma cannons because there's only one chance of failure. There's no hit or wound roll, and most of the time, your opponent doesn't have an opportunity to stop it either. It doesn't care about modifiers and it doesn't care about shiny armour. All it cares about is turning that Lord- Castellant into a flame-grilled steak from across the board.  

One of my last purchases that I personally believe is essential, either by way of a Battalion or by paying points for it, is a spare command point. This is especially true when it comes to this army, specifically with K'Daai. They have average bravery, but a hefty price tag, and the last thing I want is to take a heap of damage from an alpha strike, and watch the unit melt. Some armies can get away without CP in the first turn, but I don't like to risk it. 

With only 170 points left, I turned once again to the Allies pool, and started flicking through warscrolls available to me, looking for a unit that did something that my army didn't already.

Speed and cheap bodies.

And that's when I settled on the humble Chaos Warhound. With a 6+ save and Bravery 4, they are the definition of sub-par, but they're cheap, expendable, insanely fast (at least by Dwarf standards) and give me 20 bodies that I can willingly put in harm's way in order to protect my far more valuable elements. Having 20 bodies with a decent footprint and a 16" run move plays a huge part in objective play, and also gets in the way of your opponent's perfectly planned offensive push that would otherwise be slamming into your Fireglaives. They were a bit of a left field choice, but turned out to play a huge part in board control and objective play. 

So, now that I've gone over the units, lets talk about the elephant in the room. This is a 12-drop army. The decision on who goes first is never going to be in my hands, realistically. And I'm OK with that. I think that unless you can get under 4-5 drops, it's not worth worrying about, and you should instead have contingencies in your army that have an effective turn one, regardless of who goes first. I got to the point where I had about 9-10 drops, and I just stopped caring, instead choosing to just take the units that I really wanted in the army. It ended up not even being an issue at the Heat 1 anyway, as the highest drop army I faced was 6. I just chose not to stress about that. I see that decision of who takes first turn as another opportunity for my opponent to make a mistake. Because my army has such a blend of bodies, speed, shooting and combat, it allows me to at least try and salvage a bad situation, and capitalise on a good one early in the game. 

The army as a whole is quite resilient, thanks to decent saves on even my foot soldiers, and Blackshard Armour, which doesn't sound that impactful on paper, but has huge ramifications. I have enough units that I felt like I could react in both deployment (as I would be able to see where my hammers, heroes or artillery were going to be most impactful) and in the movement phase itself. The Taur'ruk often played the role of either tanking a unit that I didn't want hitting my riflemen, or assassinating an important target. The Skullcracker on a 3+ save, often with Visions on him from the Sorc Lord, was tough as nails, and racked up quite the kill count over the weekend.

And I cannot speak highly enough of the big unit of K'Daai. When you move the unit with purpose and support, using charges and pile-ins to traverse the board, planning turns ahead about where you want them to be, it has such a catastrophic impact on your opponent's army that it can swing the flow of an entire battle. Their 3" reach also means that the unit can string out and hit 3-4 enemy units without sacrificing any attacks. Even units behind screens aren't safe, unless the opposing general is particularly savvy with his model placement. They are the heart and soul of the army, and have rightfully earned their place in my list with blood.

Lots and lots of blood. 

So, there you have it. That's the army that I took to Heat 1, and managed to land 2nd place! I'll be posting up all five battle reports from the event over the next little while, so keep an eye out for that!

Until next time, thanks for reading.

Gabe

#168: Cancon Game 6 Battle Report - Beasts of Chaos Vs Legion of Blood

After suffering three losses to only two wins, my goal going into the last game was to simply break even. If I could land a win in the last round, it would finish my weekend off on a high, and I was all about that. I arrived at my table to discover that my opponent was Evie, a familiar face around the Brisbane scene, though we had never actually played.

I knew she was an avid Death player, and I asked the dreaded question.

"How many Grimghast Reapers do you have?".

"None."

Well, alright then...

Eschewing the trends of most of the other death players at CanCon, Evie had built a Legion of Blood army based around Bravery bombing and debuffing, using her array of characters.

Allegiance: Legion of Blood
Mortal Realm: Aqshy

Leaders
Neferata Mortarch Of Blood (400) - General
Vampire Lord On Zombie Dragon (440) - Deathlance & Shield & Chalice - Artefact : Ignax's Scales Coven Throne (260)
Kurdoss Valentian, the Craven King (220) - Allies
Tomb Banshee (80) - Allies

Units
40 x Skeleton Warriors (280) - Ancient Blades
5 x Dire Wolves (60)
5 x Dire Wolves (60)

Endless Spells
Chronomantic Cogs (60)
Soulsnare Shackles (20)
Quicksilver Swords (20)

Total: 1900 / 2000
Extra Command Points: 2
Allies: 300 / 400

The scenario was Focal Points, which is hands down my favourite of the latest set, being a very dynamic and tactical challenge that most armies can compete in to some degree.

Despite how much the first turn rush had betrayed me (or was it my own foolishness...), i chose to take first turn, in order to get bodies on objectives as early as possible. The first order of business was moving up the Spawn and Ungor Raiders, as that would dictate where my main push was. While the Ungor casually strolled onto the central objective thanks to their pre-game move, the Spawn had clearly taken one too many energy drinks, as both of the blasted across the table at breakneck speed! 

Finding myself in a position to use the Gavespawn command ability to its fullest extent, I commited my army in its entirety, with devastating results for my opponent. Facing the full might of fifty Bestigor and the Enlightened, the Skeleton shield wall crumbled and the Dogs were slaughtered. Leaving her with a dozen or so skeletons, and barely any surviving dogs, I'd guaranteed myself a huge numbers advantage. I capped all five objectives in turn one, giving me a grand head start! 

The big unit of 30 Bestigor was the target of most of Evie's incoming damage. Keen to save her Skeletons from imminent death (again?), the Bestigor suffered some pretty horrific Bravery penalties before getting screamed at, and losing a decent number. Despite their casualties and the replenishment of the Skeleton unit, the Bestigor still held a numerical advantage on the objective, and denied my opponent the objective. The Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon slammed into the other unit of Bestigor, causing some real carnage, and taking a negligible amount of damage in return. However, despite her best efforts, Evie wasn't able to claim back any objectives! 

Having dealt with the bulk of Evie's army, with the Enlightened cleaning up the last of the dogs on the right flank, I was in a commanding position on the table, but was also now suffering some pretty serious debuffs. Neferata had made sure that my embattled Bestigor on the left objective had their hit roll dropped through the floor, but even then, they managed to put out some pretty serious damage. With some tough as nails characters left on the board (including a Coven Throne that spent the rest of the game Beguiling my Enlightened), I changed gears into the avoidance game, retreating out of combat wherever I could, and spreading out my units to make sure that objectives were safe. Above, despite the Ungors meeting a predictably bloody end at the hands of the Zombie Dragon, my Spawn and Shaggoth were both in range of the objective, meaning that Evie would have to kill both in order to claim it. Not an impossible task, but it was highly unlikely to only take a single turn, which would buy me some valuable scoring time. 

I was also pretty confident that, even if she did manage to kill my heroes, there was a good chance that I'd generate a spawn from their death, buying me an entire extra turn of objective denial.

At the end of turn two, I'd managed to forge a 16-1 lead, managing to cap all five objectives for two turns in a row. 

Having crippled the Enlightened with Beguile, the Coven Throne got some help from Neferata to butcher the enraptured birds, taking back the home objective. The Tzaangor Shaman also met a terrible end, and then rolled a 1 to generate a Spawn. It wasn't to be!

The Zombie Dragon had remained pretty much unchecked on his rampage across the table, and with the scoreboard running away from Neferata, Evie turned her attention to killing as much as she could. And kill, she did. The Zombie Dragon ignored the Shaggoth, and instead launched headlong into the Bray-Shaman and Ungor sitting on my deep objective, slaying all in her path and healing on the way. The Bray Shaman did what he was meant to and generated a Spawn, denying the Vampire Lord the objective once more, while the Spawn on the left of the photo above moved around to get within range of the objective in the following turn, stacking two bodies on it.

At this point, my opponent conceded, due to some factors outside the event. While I had suffered horrific losses, and hadn't managed to dent any of the big pieces, I had rampaged away on the scoreboard, creating a lead that could not be caught. Evie was great to play, and I'd happily play her again. 

So, there it was. The event was wrapped up, and after a disaster of a Saturday, I'd redeemed myself to a degree on the Sunday, finishing the event with three Major Wins and three Major Losses. I was stoked to have played six people that I'd never faced before, and over the course of the event, I got to meet a ton of really cool people from all over the country. It was great to meet (and play) people from different states and different gaming clubs (got to meet all the lads from Measured Gaming, as well as the legend that is Doom and Darkness). It was a great event for the community, and I feel like, certainly from my experience, that it was a really unifying event for the national community. 

Overall, I finished 88th out of 196 players, which I was alright with. Going into it, I had pretty high hopes of cracking the top fifty, but it's easy to forget that almost every top-tier player in the country was there too, crushing skulls and taking names. I did walk away with one of only Coolest Army Nominations for my Beasts of Chaos, which I equal parts thrilled with and stunned by. Anyone who was following my Road to CanCon knows what a scramble it was to finish that army, but I think that a striking colour scheme partnered with conversions throughout helped it to stand out from the crowd. 

Once again, thanks to all six of my opponents. You were all a delight to play. 

This was my first CanCon, and I'll definitely be going back next year! 

Until next time,

Gabe

#167: CanCon Game 5 Battle Report - Beasts of Chaos Vs. Daughters of Khaine

Leading into game five, my mind was full of optimism. After an up and down Day 1, I'd kicked the sunday off with a win, and was hopeful of keeping the momentum going. Knife tothe Heart is not a terrible scenario for me at all, as I have the bodies and speed to get across the board, the units to zone out my back corner, and the ever-present threat of Primordial Calls bringing units on my opponent's back board edge.

Of course, the game was not without its twist, as my opponent had an army just as mobile and tricksy as mine. Dayne was playing a Khinerai-heavy Khailebron list, which posed some serious threats in a game that is so dependant on sudden death, and striking hard and fast.

Allegiance: Daughters of Khaine -
Temple: Khailebron
Mortal Realm: Ghur

Leaders
Slaughter Queen on Cauldron of Blood (330) - General - Command Trait : Mistress of Illusion - Artefact : Gryph-feather Charm
Bloodwrack Medusa (140) - Artefact : Shadow Stone
Hag Queen (60)
Hag Queen (60)
Sorceress (100) - Allies

Units
30 x Witch Aelves (270) - Pairs of Sacrificial Knives
10 x Witch Aelves (100) - Sacrificial Knives and Blade Bucklers
10 x Sisters of Slaughter (120) - Barbed Whips and Blade Bucklers
10 x Khinerai Lifetakers (160)
10 x Khinerai Lifetakers (160)
10 x Khinerai Heartrenders (160)
10 x Black Guard (140) - Allies

Battalions
Cauldron Guard (120)

Endless Spells
Aethervoid Pendulum (40)
Geminids of Uhl-Gysh (40)

Total: 2000/2000
Extra Command Points: 1
Allies: 240/400

Knowing that this game would come down to who made the first mistake, we both knew going in that the pressure was on and that whoever made the first mistake would suffer greatly from it.

I knew that the major threat in this army was, of course, the 30-strong Witch Aelf unit, and that I needed a way to deal with them. I refer to hindsight a lot, but in this particular game, I chose to take first turn, as I knew I had the speed to get across the board and hit what I wanted. The reasoning was that I wanted to fight the Witches before they received all of their crazy buffs that are available through either prayers or spells. So, for better or worse, I took first turn.

Speed was never really going to be a problem, but the one phrase that seemed to ring true in this game was "Fools Rush In". I didn't need to go in turn one. I didn't need to commit so much of my army in that initial assault and show my hand. I wanted to hit the Witch Aelves before they got Witchbrew to ignore Battleshock, but Dayne had a CP in his list anyway, so the point was moot. But I'd committed, and shock and awe would be my strategy. 

On the right flank, my 30-strong Bestigor launched forward, flanked by the Enlightened and Tzaangor Shaman, close enough to lend battleshock immunity if it was needed. On the left side, my 20-strong Bestigor fired across the table to hit some of Dayne's smaller, less threatening units. The rest of my army was dedicated to zoning out my entire half of the table to keep those pesky Khinerai as far from my objective as possible. 

And in a foolish gambit lay my critical mistake. In an attempt to avoid taking too much damage, and to benefit fully from the re-rolls, I clipped the end of the Witch Aelf unit with my Enlightened, and swung with my Bestigor first, who did a truly horrific amount of damage. They butchered the Black Guard, put a couple of wounds on the Sorceress, and killed fifteen witch aelves.  Dayne took them from the end that the Enlightened had tagged, leaving only a single disc in range to hit, even after pile-ins. There was no two ways about this. I'd completely botched the placement of models for that charge, and I paid the price. Looking back, I'm still baffled as to why I charged the way that I did, but the events were set in stone, and the repercussions would be horrific. 

On the other side of the board, the twenty Bestigor cut a bloody swathe through the ranks of the Daughters, but it was not enough to mitigate the sheer carnage that was about the unfold on the right flank. 

Thanks to a Hero-Phase pile-in and attack from the Slaughter Queen's command ability, the Bestigor were dead before the movement phase even started, leaving the Witches free to launch into the Enlightened, who were helpless in the face of such unrestrained violence. Dayne was forced to drop all of his Khinerai on his left flank in order to deal with the twenty Bestigor threatening his objective. As much as I'd traded two hammer units for some witches and Black Guard, Dayne was still acutely aware of the danger his objective was in on the left flank. 

But his fears were subdued, when he landed a double turn that cost me dearly. The Witches continued their rampage, slaying the Tzaangor Shaman. The Bestigor were cut down by Khinerai, and the Beasts offensive push was completely halted. 

From that point onward, his decisions were made easy. The Daughters of Khaine advanced with clinical precision, removing high-threat targets one-by-one, dismantling the entire army. 

The major victory was well and truly in the hands of the Daughters, along with a ton of kill points. 

This was an incredibly exciting game, despite the outcome. I by no means want to cheapen Dayne's win by pinning my loss on the botched charge. I over-committed and made one small mistake that could have just as easily been overlooked or covered up. Dayne was able to capitalise on my error with crushing results before landing a double turn, and swinging the flow of battle decisively in his favour. 

In hindsight (ah, what a beautiful thing), I really should have handed first turn to Dayne, as it would not only mitigate the double turn into turn two, but also essentially waste a full turn where his army wasn't killing anything. 

With all that said, Dayne got my Best Opponent vote. He was an absolute legend, and we had some great conversations around Warhammer, hobby and general stuff. Great dude, and I'd gladly face him again on the table. 

I found myself with a 2-3 win-loss record going into game six, so my next game would decide if I broke even or bombed hard. 

Thanks for reading,
Gabe

#166: CanCon Game 4 Battle Report - Beasts of Chaos Vs. Everchosen

After bombing out in Games 2 & 3, I was going into Day 2 of CanCon in a pretty grim spot. I was doubtful of winning all three of my games on the Sunday (though, luck might swing my way), but my goal now of breaking even (3 wins to 3 losses) meant that I could only afford to drop one more game.

The draw was posted late Saturday night, and I was going to be facing a gentleman by the name of Glenn, who was showing everyone that he feared no one and nothing by bringing one of the most renegade armies of the entire event!

Allegiance: Everchosen
Mortal Realm: Chamon

Leaders
Archaon (660) - General
Gaunt Summoner and Chaos Familiars (180)
Gaunt Summoner of Tzeentch (180) - Artefact: Chaos Talisman
Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut (140) - Allies

Units
3 x Varanguard (280) - Ensorcelled Weapons
3 x Varanguard (280) - Fellspears
3 x Varanguard (280) - Fellspears

Total: 2000 / 2000
Extra Command Points: 0
Allies: 140 / 400

With a total of thirteen models in his army (17 if you count the Familiars), Glenn was facing an uphill battle with most scenarios. It's not to say this army doesn't have teeth. As it turns out, Varanguard can put out a punishing amount of damage, but they can only be 3 models in one place at one time.

That said, we were playing Relocation Orb, where Archaon would be well and truly capable of holding the Orb and fighting off all challengers if the opportunity presented it.

I was pretty confident in being able to compete strongly on the objective, but that didn't stop me from completely botching my deployment. I started dropping units with the intention of alpha striking, then after considering the scenario (you get three points for holding the objective second as opposed to one for holding first), I changed course. By that point, though, I'd put my Bestigor front and centre, leaving my screens in the back pocket near the Herdstone. All I could do was give my opponent the first turn, and hope that Glenn didn't capitalise too much on my mistake.

Knowing that he needed to make the first round count, he sent his Gaunt Summoner on Disc up onto the Ziggurat to claim the objective, while Archaon soared onto the Temple of Skulls. Fortunately for me, he failed his charge on the scouting Ungor Raiders, but two units of Varanguard hit my lines and caught me by surprise with their double pile-ins! The raiders, spawn and a couple of Bestigor all met horrible ends to the cataclysmic charge.

With the Everchosen committing to combat, it was time to swing back with a counter-punch as hard as I could. The Shaggoth and Bestigor moved onto the objective in order to claim it back from the gnarled hands of the Summoner, while other parts of my army went on the offensive. 

Knowing how lethal the Summoner on foot's spell is to hordes (which played a large role in choosing to go second, so he had no target in range turn one), I knew that he and the Jugger Lord were going to cause me no end of dramas. So, I launched my scalpel unit at them, confident that six Enlightened could handle the two chaotic lords. I managed to turn the Gaunt Summoner into a blood-stained wreck, but the Lord of Khorne proved a little more tenacious, withstanding the onslaught in spectacular style.

I managed to nab the double turn going into Turn 2, and the bounce for the orb was incredibly favourable, landing at the very feet of my Txzaangor Shaman lurking in the ruins, supporting the Enlightened. Knowing that there was no point staying in combat with Varanguard, I retreated everyone well away from them, leaving them isolated for a round of combat. Any phase where my opponent isn't swinging with weapons is a good phase, especially with a squishy army such as mine. I threw all available bodies into the gap between the Varanguard and the Tzaangor Shaman, to make sure that nobody pinched the objective off him.

On the other side of the board, I saw an opportunity, and I took it. I couldn't just leave Archaon unchecked to rampage into my army, so my 30-strong Bestigor, who had retreated last turn from the charging Varanguard, now charged back into the same heavy cavalry, as well as wrapping Archaon in angry, angry bodies. Thanks to my Doombull meeting an untimely end at the hands of the Varanguard, I had a perfectly positioned Spawn to start dropping CP into the Bestigor. Three command points and the charge meant that each Bestigor was swinging with 6 attacks (7 on the unit champion). And while I didn't have any of my usual bonuses to hit that are built into the warscroll, I knew that it was a do-or-die play for that unit. They had to hit so hard that they would take no damage in return. 

And that is precisely what they did.

The Varanguard melted under a flurry of attacks, while I pitched 91 attacks into Archaon, getting only 21 wounds through. It was enough to kill him, however, and while I took 11 mortal wounds reflected back for my troubles, it was a great exchange in my eyes. 

Glenn wasn't about to let that rattle him though, as the carnage continued in his Turn 2. The Jugger Lord had finally fallen to the spears of the Enlightened, but he would be avenged. The third Varanguard unit, who'd had no impact on the game so far, charged into the discs, aaaaand...

Completely whiffed... 5 wounds inflicted. 

This was great news, as it meant that my Enlightened would be hitting back with all of their buffs and re-rolls and delete that unit with next to no effort. There was just one problem. 

I was a moron. 

I rested on my laurels, thinking that I'd gotten lucky and could relax. What I completely forgot was that the Varanguard fighting the Enlightened still hadn't used their once-per-game double pile in. I foolishly activated the Shaggoth next, who was not really in any massive danger of dying, leaving the Discs on the receiving end of ANOTHER pile in. This time, the Varanguard did not whiff (quite the opposite!), killing all five remaining discs. While I was in a commanding position on the table, this was the simplest of mistakes that cost me dearly, and all of a sudden, put a great deal of pressure on my flank. 

Lady Luck once again smiled upon me, with not only a lucky double bounce deep into my territory by the orb, but also another priority roll going my way. I wasted no time in locking down my territory, and using some recently summoned Bestigor and Centigor to lock up and kill the remaining Varanguard. The Gaunt Summoner on Disc made a desperate rush for the objective, before realising it was in vain. So, he instead turned his attention to insta-killing the Shaggoth with his dagger. 

Sadly, it wasn't to be, and the Shaggoth brought his hefty axe down upon the frail wizard. 

I finished this game with a convincing major win, and a huge chunk of kill points. 

I'll start my recap by saying that Glenn got one of my favourite game votes. He was genuinely one of the nicest guys, and was just having a great weekend playing an army that he loved. 

I think that, going into this match, my speed and numbers gave me a significant advantage, as a 13-strong army will always be up against it in the scenario. Luck really went my way with the important dice rolls as well. The orb did what it so often does, and bounces deep into one player's territory, and in this game, it went my way. It actually finished the game square on top of my Herdstone. This luck continued throughout the game, where I won every important priority roll, giving me the opportunity to control the flow of battle. 

The game was not without mistakes on my part, but I was able to cover them up without much punishment... Well, except for the Enlightened! 

Picking my best game/opponent votes was no easy task, but Glenn earned every bit of it! He was an absolute gent, and I'd happily play him again. 

Check back in soon, where I met Daughters of Khaine in round five!

Thanks for reading,

Gabe