Here's what Connor was rocking.
There was still no shortage of bodies on the table, but we were playing Gift from the Heavens. So, his objective could drop into nowhere, or it could drop directly on his Loonshrine in the centre, wrapped in 80 Gobbos! The dice would decide.
Connor easily outdropped me, and without knowing where the objectives would land until turn two, he deployed pretty defensively, bunkering up around the Lookshirne. He had a unit of Gobbos on each flank to rush out to a wayward objective, and the cheeky teleport spell if needed. And with a couple of units of Fanatics tucked somewhere in the army, he could afford to be a little bit cagey.
My deployment was quite the opposite. I was spread right out, making sure I had bodies and threats the whole way across my deployment zone. Gift of the Heavens is 100% about being able to react well, and I didn't have the tricksy movement shenanigans that Gitz had in their spell lore.
I made sure to put a Magma Cannon on each flank (one conveniently within towing range of the Skullcracker), as well as Fireglaive units on each possible objective location. The K'daai, fresh off their absolute rampage in the last game, deployed front and centre, ready to launch into whatever was foolish enough to get in their way. I didn't worry too much about screening in this scenario, as the only units that could unquestionably bulldoze something were either well out of threat range, or would have to be slingshotted into a position that was wildly precarious.
Connor gave me first turn, knowing that there wasn't a great deal I could do with it. My only real moves were to shuffle everything forward to try and lure him into over-extending, and to slide more dogs up each flank to push back any possible teleports.
Connor's turn one followed much the same theme. He threw out a couple of spells, which I tried to stop, with varying levels of success and failure. Most notably, he dropped the Scuttletide into the centre of my army, and began trying to chip wounds off my Taur'ruk. The Scuttletide is an absolute standout spell, getting in the way and trickling mortal wounds!
Then Turn 2 priority rolled around, and I won the roll off. Much to his dismay, I handed Connor the turn. This was for two reasons. The first is that, because he'd remained defensive, and because only his objective would be on the table, it was essentially another enemy turn where he didn't know where to launch an offensive against my deployment zone. The second was that, while I was wasting his double turn, I was also going into a possible double turn with both objectives on the table.
My biggest fear in this game was put to rest, when Connor's objective landed on a flank, rather than directly on top of the Loonshrine. A unit of Gobbos raced over to claim it, while an 'Ash Storm'ed Mangler Squig plodded over to support. The rest of the Gitz force began a very wary advance, with the central unit of Gitz having just about every buff under the sun.
In my turn two, my objective dropped in the centre of the board. Excellent! The 20-strong Fireglaives in the centre, and the Fireglaives and Warhounds on the right flank pushed in to stack that objective with bodies. The Daemonsmith, no longer needed for the extra range, joined his comrades to give them a nearby source of Battleshock immunity. The Magma Cannon on the right found itself not really able to get to the objective, and it wanted no part of the Scuttletide, so contented itself taking pot shots at the twenty archers in the area terrain on the right.
In the centre of the battlefield, I was intent on clearing as many bodies as I could. The K'daai wasted no time in brawling with the main line of Grotz, using their 3" reach and some cheeky pile ins to not only draw out and avoid the Fanatics, but also stay out of range of the pesky netters (at least for one activation. The Magma Cannon being towed by the Skullcracker also made a vital play! It turned its infernal firepower on the Loonboss on Mangler Squig, slamming it with 5 mortal wounds and dropping it to its very lowest bracket. This could not have happened more perfectly. I was terrified of the Manglers, and with Kill Points not being a tie-breaker or secondary at BrisVegas, I was quite content to leave that Loonboss hobbling around with terrible profiles until I knew for a fact that I could finish him off.
On Connor's objective, I'd raced the hounds up the flank, with Fireglaives advancing as quick as their legs would carry them. I made a cheeky charge with the Skullcracker into the Grotz, but between their nets and some truly awful rolling, they stood firm and held the objective. If only I could land that double!
But it was not to be! In a harsh counter-attack, and with Da Bad Moon squarely in the centre of the board, the full wound Mangler Squig cannonballed into the Skullcracker and unleashed absolute carnage! After the dust had settled, the Skullcracker was on a single wound... With the nearby Grots sharpening their toothpicks, I made a last stand and put as many attacks as possible into the Mangler. In a stroke of complete good fortune, two attacks snuck through, and did a total of five wounds. Now, BOTH Manglers were sitting in their lowest bracket!
Elsewhere on the table, the Taur'ruk finally decided to join the party by failing a re-rollable charge. Fortunately, the Magma Cannon made short work of the now-exposed Fanatics (drawn out by the K'Daai earlier), or else that little confrontation may have gone very, very differently!
The K'Daai had quenched their thirst for slaughter for a brief moment. Damage was starting to add up on them, but they had done their part by removing bulk bodies from the table. Now, hopefully they stayed off the table and didn't pour forth once more from the dank tunnels beneath the Loonshrine!
The back and forth of battle had begun to shift in my favour. The Fireglaives and Magma Cannon blasted away at the Gitz, allowing the Warhounds to claim the objective (until the Mangler wandered over to enjoy some raw dog meat).
The K'Daai managed to kill the Loonboss, landing my secondary objective of killing the General, but on the wrong end of a double turn, it was at great cost! Only two K'Daai were standing at the end of the game, as they took wounds and mortal wounds from every possible source in Connors army. A Command Point made sure they hung around, which inadvertantly denied Connor his secondary of killing the highest-points-value unit on the table (and the K'Daai weighed in at a whopping 480 points!).
I say whopping... but they're worth every single point!
The game ended with the Legion well and truly on top of the scoreboard, as I'd held my home objective all game and had either denied or robbed Connor of his objective.
Connor was an absolute delight to play, and his army is absolutely stunning!
I was happy with how the flow of battle went. If his objective had landed on the Loonshrine, I would have had to assault the bunker, which is no small task, but I was very lucky. He also didn't manage to bring back any units through the Loonshrine, despite having plenty of chances and re-rolls etc. Lady Luck was not his fan this day. I managed to put Connor in an awkward position early in the battlefield, and was able to keep pressure on for the remainder of the game.
Once again, the 3" reach and cheeky pile ins helped me negate so much of what makes Grotz painful to fight for a round, but that round was all the Fire Daemons needed to flail their way to murder! The Taur-ruk in this game did sweet nothing, partly because I was holding him back to counter attack any surprise attacks on my objective, and partly because he just sucked at rolling charges...
This left me on three major wins and one major loss. I was stoked, as my 3-2 goal was already complete, and if I got lucky, I could even squeak a 4-1.
Check in soon for Game 5 of BrizVegas Open, closely followed by all five games from War in the West!
Thanks for reading,
Gabe
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