But probably not...
To throw a complete curveball at me round one, the random draw pitched my Beasts of Chaos against none other than Vorgaroth the Scarred and his mighty dragon, Skalok, the Skull Host of Khorne.
The big...
Khorne...
Dragon.
I'd had some experience facing those big hammer pieces like Skarbrand and such, but Vorgaroth is truly in a league of his own! 1200 points of unbridled aggression and unresolved issues regarding self-control and moderation. The scenario was Three Places of Power, and after quickly assessing my options, I came up with only two.
#1: Throw my entire army at the Dragon and try to kill it.
#2: Ignore the Dragon as much as I could, steamroll as many of his little units as I could, and try and live long enough to get ahead on objectives.
And since I enjoy pretending my problems don't exist as much as the next person, I went with option two. I had a huge number of cheap disposable units, and given how immense the base of this model was, I was confident in zoning him into a position where he couldn't really spread his wings (pun fully intended) and go for what he wanted.
My opponent, Michael, was running this list.
Allegiance: Khorne
Mortal Realm: Ulgu
Leaders
Vorgaroth the Scarred & Skalok the Skull Host of Khorne (1200)
Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut (140) - General - Trait: Violent Urgency - Artefact: Talisman of the Watcher
Slaughterpriest (100)
Slaughterpriest with Hackblade and Wrathhammer (100)
Bloodstoker (80)
Units
10 x Bloodreavers (70) - Reaver Blades
10 x Bloodreavers (70) - Reaver Blades
10 x Bloodreavers (70) - Reaver Blades
1 x Chaos Warshrine (160)
1990
As you can see, he'd built the army with one goal, and one goal only. Buff up the Dragon and send it into a planet's worth of people to rack up that kill count.
Knowing that my whole army was on borrowed time, and having the decision of first turn, I chose to go first, and get points on the board as quickly as I could. I knew if the dragon got onto an objective, there would be no getting him off. The Tzaangor Shaman took up residence on the right objective, the Doombull on the left, and the Shaggoth took up residence on the central objective. Unfortunateley for me, I didn't quite get the run rolls I was hoping for with the Bestigor, and couldn't get a screen around him, but it was going to have to do!
Having capped all three objectives, all I could do was hope for the best. But the sheer power of the dragon quickly became apparent. Between Blood Boils from the Priests and the White-Hot Balefire from the Dragon, my Shaggoth (along with the Aetherquartz Broach) dissolved into oblivion, but I did manage to pop a Spawn out of him, and tag the Dragon in combat, preventing him from charging where he wanted. Despite this cheeky move, he still managed to pile in around the newly created Spawn and kill all 30 Bestigor in one round of combat!
While the damage to my army in the initial clash had been catastrophic, I was not out of the fight yet!
In a stroke of pure luck, I won priority going into turn two, and I knew I had to make the most of it!
I was coming into a play style that I absolutely love playing. I was facing an impossible task, with the tiniest glimpse of hope, and I had to shift into a gear I like to call "All Losses Are Acceptable Losses".
With the central objective vacant, my Bray Shaman left the relative safety of the Herdstone to make a massive run onto the objective. His accompanying Ungor, originally destined for the charcoal barbeque lit under the Herdstone, gladly embraced the new career trajectory of being a meat shield between their frail overlord and an angry dragon the size of a small building!
My 20-Strong Bestigors decided that the best defence was a good offence, and careened into the two units of Reavers on my left side. Bestigor did what they were designed to do and butchered everyone in sight. It fed my opponent Blood Tithes, but possible victory comes at a price. On the other side of the table, my Enlightened flew into Michael's back lines, pulverising the other 10 Reavers, leaving him with nothing but a Warshrine and Heroes.
From this point on, my sole focus was to screen and block. With the Dragon's base being as large as it was, all I was trying to do was give it nowhere to jump, and to force it into charging and fighting things like Spawn and Ungor, rather than my hammer units, or (more importantly) my Heroes on the objectives.
For the next two turns, this is exactly what I did. Over time, the Bestigor fell, as did the Tzaangor Shaman and Great Bray-Shaman, but not before they had established a lead on the scoreboard. The Enlightened had been largely uncontested, but when they turned their attention to the Warshrine, they in turn attracted the ire of some raging lunatics. Once again, Blood Boils and Balefire took their toll and wiped out the Tzeentchian birdpersons.At this point in the game, I had one chance at a win. Because of the mayhem that had unfolded on the right side of the board, my Doombull had largely avoided any conflict and stood on full wounds, racking up a hefty score. With Khorne now holding two objectives, my only hope was to keep the Bull alive for the entire game, which would give me a final score that could not be surpassed by my opponent. With that in mind, I placed Spawn and Ungor in such a way that the Khorne Dragon would not have the movement to get over the top of my line, and wouldn't have the range on his Balefire to hit the Doombull.
Seeing an opportunity to put the Beasts down for good, he enacted a tactically savvy play...
Popping his Blood Tithe to move his Lord on Juggernaut in the Hero Phase, he managed to weave between my screens, before using his normal move to get to within a reasonable charge distance of my Doombull. He was buffed up to the nines by the Stoker and the Priests, and while they took the fight to the three remaining Ungor, the Lord of Khorne was after a mightier skull for his trophy rack!
I was optimistic about the impending combat, as there was a good chance the Lord wouldn't cut through 8 wounds in a phase, (and the Mutating Gnarlblade would have a fair crack at killing him back) but stranger things have happened, and it was quite possible. Alas, we would never find out, as he failed the charge, finding himself out of combat and off the objective.
In my final turn, I retreated with the two Ungor that had somehow survived combat with the Khorne Heroes, (in no small part thanks to the now-immense aura emitted by the Herdstone that allowed me to ignore Battleshock) and launched an assault on the Jugger-Lord with some newly summoned Bestigor. In retaliation, the dying moments of the game led to the deaths of all of my models bar the Doombull, who stood battered but triumphant on three measly wounds.
A Major Victory, but paid for with blood.
I was stoked to be starting my CanCon campaign out with a big win. I didn't get much in the way of kill points, claiming only three units of Reavers and a Jugger Lord, but I knew going in that I wasn't going to have a huge tally, as such a huge portion of Michael's army was tied up in one model.
In the end, I think my movement phase and the favour of Lady Luck won the game for me. I was able to restrict the Dragon's movement down to one half of the board, and strongly encourage it to fight insignificant units while I racked up a healthy lead on the scoreboard. It was a very close game, however, and at any time, it could have turned on its head and become a catastrophic loss.
But regardless of the outcome, it was great to finally play against the Khorne Dragon, and we had countless people stop past the table just to bask in the sheer magnitude of the model!
My opponent, Michael, was an absolute gentleman, and we both laughed off the Game One nerves to have a really tactical game!
In Game Two, I face another Michael and his Grand Host of Nagash, so keep an eye out for that on the Facebook Page!
Until then, thanks for reading.
Gabe
No comments:
Post a Comment