Verminlord Corruptor (General, Vexler's Shroud, Verminous Valour)
Plague Furnace (Liber Bubonicous)
Plague Priest
Plague Priest
40 Plague Monks
20 Plague Monks
20 Plague Monks
5 Plague Censor Bearers
Plagueclaw Catapult
Plagueclaw Catapult
Verminlord Deceiver (Allies, unpainted)
Congregation of Filth (Warscroll Battalion)
My opponent was bringing a similar list to our last clash, with the addition of a rather large, tenacious ally.
Nomad Prince (General)
Spellweaver
Waywatcher
30 Glade Guard
30 Glade Guard
10 Eternal Guard
5 Sisters of the Thorn
30 Wildwood Rangers
Annointed of Asuryan on Frostheart Phoenix (Allies)
I knew I was going to be outmanoeuvred, but I'd learnt a lot from our last game, and I was going to put up a much harder fight than I did in the past. I knew that to come out on top, I was going to need to keep pressure up on my opponent, and play hard for the objectives.
I deployed heavily on the left hand side of the table, with the the Catapult parked close enough to the back corner so as to zone it out if any elves decided to traverse the board edges. The rest of my army was more central, while giving the Mystical Terrain in my centre right tile a wide berth.
My right flank was definitely my weaker side. With the catapult being guarded only by a Priest and twenty monks. My opponent deployed in several overlapping ranks, making sure that all units were close enough to a board edge to be able to Wander the Paths. The Phoenix deployed centrally and the Wanderer characters all set up in the woods on the hill, with enough spread that I wasn't able to sneak my Deceiver behind the main battle line.
Beating my opponent by a single drop, I took first turn. I knew that if my opponent took first turn, key elements of my army would die before I was able to do anything with them, and a double turn in this scenario was not going to win me the game. So I took first and wasted no time in pushing forward. My plan was to push a unit onto the possible landing spot of the middle line objective, meaning that my opponent would have to decide which site he wanted to contest before he knew which was the right one. It forced my opponent to be reactive, rather than controlling the board early-game and the pace of play. And it meant, that no matter where the first Objective dropped, it would probably be in my control. Both Priests cast Pestilent Breath into empty space in hopes of triggering a Greath Plague, but with no luck. The Furnce cast Rabid Fever on both nearby units of Monks thanks to the Liber, and triggered the Neverplague, removing all danger from Prayer casting for the rest of the game. Excellent! The big unit of forty was also blessed with the Corruptor's command ability, giving them an extra attack each.
On the right flank, the twenty monks and the Priest followed suit, running as fast as they could toward the possible landing sight. The Deceiver Skitterleapt onto the far right flank to threaten the huge unit of Glade Guard. I chose the right flank, as the left had a huge unit of Rangers that would have made a mess of him, and his -2 to hit in shooting made the Glade Guard all but useless against him. The Catapult trundled forward a few inches to make range…
The Catapults went to work and showed just how brutal they can be, killing twelve Wildwood Rangers and eight Glade guard. This was perfect, as not only did it put a big hit on the opponent, it drew a lot of attention to the war machines, making sure that my opponent knew they couldn't be ignored.
My only other move for the turn was to charge my Deceiver into the Glade Guard in the corner. He only managed to kill four, which was a little disappointing.
The elves wasted no time in pushing forward, Wildwood Rangers creating an imposing screen in front of the Glade Guard and Sisters of the Thorn. The play for turn one was pretty apparent from the Hero Phase. Mystic Shield and Shield of Thorns landed on the Phoenix, who barrelled straight up the centre of the field, eyes locked on my Corruptor.
His charge fell barely short, thanks to Bale-Chimes, and so he ploughed into the unit of Plague Monks instead. This triggered a bloody cycle of Monks dying, piling in thanks to Rabid Fever, and then triggering Shield of Thorns (which was ticking on a 4+) to start the cycle all over again. In the end, I lost 19 monks in a single round of combat. Rough! The Glade Guard under attack from my Deceiver Wandered with the Nomad Lord to the centre of my board edge, unleashing upon my left-hand catapult, bringing it down to a single wound. The Nomad Lord released his bird and finished it off in comical fashion.
After three drawn rolls, my opponent won the second turn, and wasted no time in going to work. The Eternal Guard moved up to screen their weaker comrades, while the Rangers Wandered after the general popped up nearby. Shield of Thorns failed to cast which proved to be vital for me, without mortal wounds bouncing back at me. Glade Guard continued to pepper the central monks on the hill with arrows, and I removed casualties to take them out of combat with the Phoenix. This proved to be a mistake, as they weren't in as much danger as when Thorns was on, and it left the Phoenix free in the charge phase to cut sick.
The all important first objective landed on the right flank, and the Wildwood Rangers responded, leaping over, and hoping for a long charge on the Monks to bring them into range to contest it. The archers unleashed another volley, their arcane Bodkins stripping wounds off the Corruptor with contemptuous ease, despite his defensive options. The Waywatcher wandered the paths into my back right corner, and unleashed on the Catapult, only causing three wounds.
The Rangers made an 11" charge, and just butchered the monks, with the last five falling to Battleshock. He claimed that objective for two points.
Thanks to my mistake with removing casualties from the Monks, the Annointed found himself in a position to launch into the Corruptor and just make a mess of him. Dice were hot and the Corruptor was cold. And dead. Mostly dead…
I knew that I had to make the most of the opportunity to try and bring the big bird down for the brief moment while he didn't have any buffs on him, so I went to work. The Priest that was about to have his face cut off by Rangers cast Wither on the bird, as well as using his once-per-game Plague Tome to add fuel to the fire that would hopefully melt the Ice-Bird-of-Death. Then all I needed to do was send in the Deceiver. He could Skitterleap over, make a short charge, and shank the Annointed in the back with a series of well placed stabs. Job done, right? Well, Snake Eyes for my casting attempt put a quick stop to that idea. This was a disaster. I needed this bird to die, as it was just moving from unit to unit, taking next to no damage. My Furnace once more cast Rabid Fever upon the monks and Plague Censor Bearers, only this time, it triggered another Great Plague! With the Phoenix being the closest enemy unit at the time, I chose the Bubonic Blightplague. I knew it wouldn't kill the Phoenix and bounce on to other units, but the change to do D6 Mortal Wounds was too good to pass up. I rolled a five, which I was extremely happy with, until the Annointed saved three with his mortal wound save. Super, duper…
My Plague Censor Bearers, with nothing else really to do until the other objectives dropped at the start of turn three, whirled violently into the spearmen. Knowing that I was going to be activating the monks fighting the phoenix first, I knew that the spearmen would most likely kill the Bearers before they could hit back, which is why they were the recipients of Rabid Fever. I think this was one of my first significant mistakes, as I pretty much threw this unit away, before I even knew if I needed them. Even if they did wipe out the whole unit of Eternal Guard, which was unlikely, I would be trading one unit for another and not actually gaining anything. Hindsight is indeed a beautiful thing. Perhaps I should have sent the Furnace into them, but I knew that the unit of Glade Guard at the back were still packing their Arcane Bodkins. So I chose instead to move him into terrain, which he can benefit from, as he doesn't have the Monster keyword. The last Catapult, living on borrowed time in the sights of the Waywatcher, unleashed a barrage of foul vomit upon the Glade Guard in my back line, hoping to cause similar damage, but was less successful. A few elves dissolved in the acidic stench, but not enough to inflict any casualties from Battleshock. The Waywatcher would waste no time in finishing off the war machine in his next phase. The monks went to work on the Phoenix, and started slipping wounds past its saves. It was only a matter of attritional time...
To nobody's surprise, the Plague Censor Bearers died a horrible, horrible death, and to everyone's surprise, the Plague Priest on the right flank survived against the Wildwood Rangers. To my joy, I snagged the double turn, after being on the receiving end of one, so I was ready to put my very contagious pedal to the metal. The second and third objectives dropped in the centre of the table, one in my deployment zone, one in my opponent's. Time to go to work. To protect my objective from those pesky spearmen, I launched into the Eternal Guard with my Priest, hitting the left end of the unit to try and draw them away with pile ins.
Finally, I was gaining back some control of the board. I had plans to Skitterleap, but the nearby Spellsinger used her auto-dispel to turn it off. The Deceiver took great personal offence to this, and made sure all of her blood ended up not being inside her with a few well-placed stabbings. The Furnace also barrelled down the hill toward the Sisters of the Thorn, obliterating four of them, but much to my dismay, one remained alive. This meant that, with the Deceiver not being able to reach due to the failed spell, I wasn't able to claim the objective.
On my home turf, I flooded the objective with my previously unharmed unit of Monks that had so far played no significant part of the battle. In a sheer stroke of luck, the last four monks from the forty man unit, with no buffs or prayers, managed to sneak through the last two wounds and kill the flappy bird of death! Huzzah!
On the right hand side of the board, I retreated my Priest out of combat, and near to the objective. Nothing was to be achieved by him staying in combat and getting his head caved in. This meant that I only scored three points this turn.
After a minor "ankle snapping" incident with the vermin lord, repercussions were swift. Glade Guard appeared from nowhere, unleashed Arcane Bodkins and did a grand total of six wounds. They pushed forward to try and contest the objective, but were unable to get close enough without entering combat with both the Furnace and the Deceiver.
The Eternal Guard finally pin cushioned the Priest, leaving them free to march upon my objective. Uh-oh!
In more movement shenanigans, the Nomad Lord and Way Watcher showed up and caused as much damage to the last sizeable unit of Monks, though it cost the Nomad Prince his life. Death by a thousand cuts!
The Rangers finally hacked apart the rabid Priest, clearing the right side of the board entirely of Skaven, and began to daisy chain toward my back objective. Things were beginning to slip through my fingers.
Which left the Rangers free to launch into the fray alongside the surviving Eternal Guard. Enough Monks died that the objective was the Wanderer's. We tallied up the scores and it was 22-21 in favour of the Wanderers! So CLOSE!
This was a nail biting game from start to finish. Objectives changed hands, units performed far better than they should have, while others choked. In hindsight, there were a few mistakes here and there. I could have risked Skitterleaping in the last turn and shanking the Waywatcher, at the very least denying him the ability to score, but there was no way to know that the Undulent Scourge would rip apart the Glade Guard, and I couldn't risk losing that objective.
At the end of the day, I think I played a much smarter game than I did in our last encounter, and was able to influence the game far more effectively. I felt I had enough pressure and enough tricks up my sleeve that I could keep my opponent in a reactive play style. He had enough movement shenanigans that he was able to react to everything I did, and keep pressure on in return. This was a very close game, and was on the line until the dying moments of the game!
I think I'm definitely going to keep the Deceiver in the list. He adds a lot to the list, and I'm sure that as I play more with him and learn his limitations, that I'll get my points worth. The Plague Censor Bearers, I'm unsure of. I'll play a few more games with them, but I think there's yet a place for them in the list, they pose a minor threat, that are capable of beating down chaff units or insignificant characters. I mean, not in this game… I threw them away and they died a horrible death. Whoops.
Until next time, thanks for reading.
Gabe
No comments:
Post a Comment