#195: CANCON Game 4 - Ironsunz Vs Undergut Mawtribes

Day Two of Cancon was going to kick of in style!

Matchups had been posted the night before, and I was squaring up to none other than Pat Nevan from Measured Gaming and Bush Radio fame. I was stoked. I love playing against people I've never played before, and the Measured boys are a blast. However...

In their most recent podcast, the prep show for CanCon, Pat himself had made it abundantly clear that one of his pet hates was when someone doesn't show up to the table with a printed off list. And guess what I'd given away the day before...

But all my worry was for naught, as he'd already checked out my list, as had I his, and he was pretty familiar with Ironjawz as well, so we were off to a cracking start.

Here's what I was up against.

Now. If I was going to do an Ogor army, this was pretty much going to be it. I rate Undergut, and I was interested to see what they could do! I was very concerned about the sheer volume of D6 damage cannonballs that were going to be flying about. D6 is always a gamble, and in a pinch you should always treat it as a 1 because that's what you're always gonna roll when you need it most, but at the same time, it takes one hot round of dice and you've punched barrel-sized holes in something important!

The scenario was Three Places of Arcane Power, so we had a diagonal deployment, and with no back field objectives and no crazy movement/teleport shenanigans coming my way, I deployed with the intent of ramming my whole army up the board at pace, into (and hopefully through) the teeth of the Ogor guns.

I deployed a little off the line with my Maw-Krusha as I knew he was public enemy #1 in this game, while my Shaman and 10 Ard Boys parked up in some very convenient Overgrown terrain. Pigs on each flank were a little less concerned about losing a body or two early, but I made sure the Chanters were safe and sound out of any potential range. 

Having outdropped Pat, I gave him first turn. This not only chewed up one of his shooting phases, offering him no real targets in range, but also set me up for a potential double turn...

My turn one was far from subtle! I rocketed across the board, buffing and Mighty Destroyer-ing both units of Pigs and the Maw-Krusha to some pretty stupid levels. All three slammed into the double layered screen of Gnoblars, and handed out some pretty generous serves of mortal wounds. The Realm of Life command ability meant that I took a handful of mortals in return, but that was a small price to pay to close the gap with the cannon battery. The right unit of pigs took one for the team and poured their attacks into the surviving Gnoblars, which cleared the way for the Krusha and the left hand unit of Pigs to pile into some more juicy targets.

The left unit of pigs managed to drag the Leadbelchers into combat, which was a big deal, as it prevented them from unleashing their guns on the Krusha, while my cabbage dragon ripped into one of the units of Ironguts. These guys had be concerned, as they have well and truly enough killing power to wipe out a Krusha, but as a trend we would see continue throughout the game, Pats dice betrayed him at every turn. While I only killed a couple of them, they swung back hard, hitting with almost everything. But the wound rolls and some truly stupid armour saves meant that my Krusha Boss took minimal damage.   

The double turn was not kind, as I was already deep into Pats army when I won the turn two priority roll. I was not cautious about spending more command points to pile in and attack with the Krusha, piling into the second unit of Ironguts and unleashing absolute fury upon them. The pigs on the left got a free MD pile in from my Ironfist Battalion and continued to batter the Leadbelchers, while the rest of my army moved up to lock down all the objectives.

I'd managed to box most of the Ogors into their deployment zone, but the fat boys weren't going down without a fight. In turn two, the Belchers fired point blank into the pigs and chipped off a couple of bodies. The Ironblasters, finally presented with a target worthy of a glorious death, lined up the Maw Krusha and pulled the trigger. Four cannon balls wounded. After my punch on with the Ironguts, I was left on seven wounds, so my boss was staring down the barrel of a killing blow. Somehow, he managed to scrape two saves, leaving 2D6 damage to be slapped on him.

On average, it should have been seven wounds.

It was two ones.

My Megaboss was left standing, battered and bruised on five wounds, having survived both units of Ironguts and a volley of cannonballs to the chest. 

The Tyrant, firm in the idea that if you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself, rumbled in and caved the Maw-Krusha's head in without a moments hesitation! 

Getting the double turn back on me, and having only his heroes and Ironblasters still alive, Pat went to work on crushing as many kill points as he could to get the secondaries. All three of his heroes started hacking into and chewing on my left-side Piggies, who were fresh off their fight with the Leadbelchers. I somehow managed to kill one of the Slaughtermasters, and survive with a single Gore-Grunta who decided it was probably a good time to make himself scarce. 

The other unit of Pigs had managed to pile in and kill as many cannons as they could. 

The game from this point was a swirling brawl around the Tyrant. I sent my Ard Boys in, with Violent Fury, and they made a mess of the Tyrant and the other Slaughtermaster. At the end of turn four we called the game. I'd had four full turns of holding all three objectives, and the bloody battle in Pat's deployment zone eventually went the way of the Orruks. 

This ended up being a pretty brutal game after the initial double turn proved so pivotal. Being able to clear the screens and get into the juicy elements of the army was a big deal, and the double turn just didn't allow for the Ogors to counter-attack, which I think would have been bloody. A fresh unit of Ironguts, and a full round of shooting with all the cannons still operational and out of combat would have been punishing. 

There were some moments where it looked like swinging back, but Pat's dice truly left him in this game. Ever Pat was an absolute gentleman to play, and I'd happily throw dice with him again. We had a good chat about Ogors afterward, as well as some chilled beverages in the carpark with the rest of the crew. I was stoked I got to play at least one of the Bendigo boys, and stoked to be sitting on 3-1 after four games. 

Check in soon for Game 5 against the other boogeyman army at the tournament, Ossiarch Bonereapers. More specifically, Petrifex Elite with Nagash! 

Cheers for reading

Gabe

#194: CANCON Game 3 - Ironsunz Vs. Tzeentch Changehost

I'm not going to lie. The air up on the top tables was getting a little thin!

After two major wins, I'd managed to climb my way up into the upper bracket of the event, and I knew there were no easy games up there. And as luck would have it, I would hit one of the boogeyman armies of the event, a Tzeentch Changehost in all its pre-FAQ glory.

I was playing against James Page, who's one of the New Zealand lads who made the trip, and this was wildly unlucky for me.

For some backstory leading into the event, I was asked to play in the Tasman Cup the day before the event, which is a team vs. team match between New Zealand and some of the Australians from down south. This year, I ended up on the team, and as the matchup process unfolded, I found myself in a horrendous matchup, but in taking that match-up, it hopefully allowed other players on my team to land more favourable ones. That horrendous matchup was against none other than James Page.

This was my first time facing them, and I knew how mental some of the rules in that book are, but playing it on the table was another experience altogether. I did what I instinctively do when facing a ranged army, and that's to launch across the board at breakneck speed to punch on. However, I was met by a shooting and hero phase that could have set off a nuclear winter in the Realm of Fire. I took a 0-20 loss in one of the most overwhelmingly one-sided games I'd ever played!

So, when we met again in the main event, I had an idea of what to expect and where to change my course of action to avoid a repeat 0-20 crushing! 

Here's what I was staring down the barrel of. The Changehost is just too good not to take. All three endless spells were pretty devastating, and then a Fatemaster and Gaunt Summoner provided overlapping auras to hand out re-rolls and increase efficiency to the max.

The scenario was Blood and Glory, so I had to survive until Turn 3, then cap four objectives at once. It was a tough ask, but I wasn't about to go down without a fight. James outdropped me, and bunkered up in the centre of his deployment. I put one unit of five Ard Boys on my right hand objective, so as not to just hand it away to some cheeky Tzeentch teleports, while the rest of my army set up in my back left corner, making sure to zone out my backline. In hindsight, this was probably needless. Jame's army is built around moving as a single cohesive chunk. When units peel off or teleport, they're particularly vulnerable to being isolated and beat to death. Well... beat to death three times in the case of Horrors! 

James handed me first turn, and given that objectives weren't active until T3, and knowing how unrelenting the Tzeentch ranged game is, I didn't really make any big plays. I shuffled around a little bit, threw some Violent Furies out, and that was about it. The only significant movement was my Ironfist Boss unit of Piggies. My secondary objective was Plant the Flag, which required me to get a have a unit wholly within a terrain piece in my opponent's deployment zone at the end of any battle round. This was a no brainer in this scenario, as the daemons were controlling the table with magic and shooting, not bodies. So, my path to the back left corner was pretty unimpeded. If I could lock down that secondary, it meant that at worst, I'd be looking at an 18-2 loss. In this match, I knew I needed to scrape everything out of it that I could.

James' first turn was similarly unremarkable. With all of his ranged abilities out of range, he contented himself sitting in the bunker, casting spells into nowhere and racking up those summoning points!

I managed to win the priority roll going into turn two, and immediately handed it to James. This was best case scenario, as it meant that I essentially wasted another of his turns. Again, finding nothing valuable in range, his hero phase was spent generating yet more summoning points, but knowing that we were getting into the meaty part of the game, he began making moves.

Using one of his Changehost teleports, he launched a unit of Pink Horrors out of the bunker, and toward my right-hand objective. The Gaunt Summoner immediately popped his pocket-Horrors and replaced the unit in the bunker. The Boys were poorly deployed. I probably should have parked their asses wholly within terrain for the boost to their save, but my main priority in deployment was keeping as much distance between myself and the Daemons as possible. This did mean, however, that the Pinks teleported directly onto the objective, and that I was never going to get them back off. This was pre-FAQ Tzeentch, so even if I'd beaten the unholy snot out of them, they could have popped a Destiny Dice, and been fine regardless of horrific casualties.

The other teleport was used to slingshot a unit of Brimstones into the middle of the field, putting a healthy gap between the core of the Tzeentch force and my very angry greenskins. The Changeling leapt over the top of his screen as well to activate all of the negative To Hit auras, and a single unit of Flamers shuffled forward... and found themselves just in range. I'd shuffled up with my Krusha and found myself in a bit of a pickle. Buffed to the nines, the Flamers unleashed an torrent of infernal flames that utterly vaporised my cabbage dragon.

From memory, I think he took some minor damage from long-range spells, but the Flamers just buried him with zero resistance. This was a pretty big blow. Losing my only hammer unit that can fly meant that now I was slogging through each screen one by one, and not launching over the top to hit where I wanted. And I beat myself up about this a little bit, pushing him too far forward, but in reality, I think it was inevitable to a degree. James could have teleported the Flamers instead of the right-side Pinks, and gotten the same result. It was still turn two, and the Ard Boys posed no real threat at that stage.

As it were, the Krusha died a toasty death, while the Ard Boys suffered two casualties, but managed to survive.

Coming into the bottom of turn two, I saw a window, and I went for it. My Shaman, well outside of unbinding range, used Hand of Gork to pick up my ten-man unit of Ard Boys and drop them in James' back left corner. I had the opportunity to park up on his back corner objective, but two of the objectives were being held by near-unkillable Horror units, and I knew they would be sitting ducks in the face of some otherworldly missile fire. So, I shot for the stars and made a charge into the back of his bunker, catching his Herald and the Lord of Change in a combat they didn't want to be in.

This proved to not be as gloriously violent as I'd hoped. While I managed to mug the Herald eventually, the Lord of Change proved far more resilient than I'd imagined. At CanCon, games were set in the Realm of Life. Not only did this empower spells like Emerald Lifeswarm for some cheeky kill-split-return-Pinks shenanigans for the Horror units (who would increase well above starting size by taking a Pendulum or Daemonrift to the back, followed by a Lifeswarm), but it meant that every wizard knew all of the Realm-spells.

Notably, in this game, I don't think there was a single moment after turn one, where the Lord of Change didn't have Flesh To Stone cast on himself. This, combined with the -1 To Hit aura from Tzeentch heroes, completely blunted the Ard Boys' assault, and while it took some time, they were eventually blown apart by shooting and magic.

My Boss pigs on my left flank managed to shuffle into the terrain piece and lock in my secondary objective, which was something! And the surviving Ard Boys on my right objective ran for cover, getting into terrain and hopefully surviving a little longer.

On the frontline, my other unit of Pigs received some buffs and slammed into the Brimstone screen, smashing it apart, before piling in to the Changeling and friends. And it was about this moment of the game that I realised what a terrible position I was in. Thanks to the Changeling's ability, on top of the passive hero aura, meant that my Pigs couldn't hit the side of a barn. Sitting in combat, within 12" of the entire Tzeentch force was only ever going to end one way.

We were well into turn three now, I'd lost a huge chunk of my army, while in comparison, James had lost a unit of Brimstones and a Herald.

The rest of my game was spent holding on for dear life! The second unit of Pigs, having completed their secondary, charged into the end of a unit of Horrors on the left side of the table, but damaging that unit only resulted in more enemy bodies sitting on the objective. 

With the pressure off, the Tzeentchian force shifted gears, and began a search and destroy mission. 

Teleports and unrelenting shooting ended with my heroes and units dying one by one, and all four objectives falling to the hands of Tzeentch. The game ended and James took away an 18-2 win! 

Well. What a game.

I felt like there were some minor mistakes on my part, but I felt that I played a much better game than I had in Tasman Cup. But I will say this. James played an almost flawless game! He was all over his rules, he had his sequence of play down to an art, and he made clinical decisions in an instant. It was hard to pull off any cheeky plays against him, as he was coming off winning the New Zealand Masters with (you guessed it...) Orruk Warclans. He knew exactly what my army could do, and had an answer for it at every turn. 

That said, Tzeentch pre-FAQ was pretty obscene. 

Pretty...

Obscene...

Going into that game, I think we both knew how it was going to go, but I was determined to put up the biggest fight I could in a terrible match up. James went on to win the entire event! And I'm stoked I got to run at one of the NZ fellas! 

This game was the first "boogeyman" army I hit over the weekend, and it wouldn't be the last, but I was happy finishing Day 1 with two major wins, one major loss and two secondaries. 

Check in soon for my maiden run-in with Ogor Mawtribes! 

Thanks for reading,

Gabe

#193: CANCON Game 2 - Ironsunz Vs. Idoneth Deepkin

Going into my second game of CanCon, sitting pretty on a big win against Sylvaneth, I found myself playing a fellow Queenslander, Jack! He was rocking the Idoneth Deepkin, so both armies were going to be battling it out in the activation wars.

Deepkin is an army I've faced a lot, playing against Luke McFadden's army, and so I was pretty relaxed going into this game. I had a pretty good idea of what I needed to do if I was going to pull out a win, and I knew exactly what could go horribly wrong if I played a sloppy game.

The Sylvaneth allies were a nice touch, giving Jack an avenue to drop a woods and start summoning Dryads. I knew I needed to shut this down, and either zone out the woods or kill those two characters before they could have a significant impact on objectives. 

The scenario was Startstrike, which is my worst nightmare against Deepkin. Typically, the first couple of turns are cagey, as both players see where the objectives land, and then turn three onward, all hell breaks loose. Unfortunately for me, turn three also happens to be a great time in the game for Idoneth...

We both had pretty defensive deployments. I was confident that he wasn't going to just frisbee his Eels across the table, but I was mildly concerned about the Morrsarr Guard in reserve sweeping on and blowing away a juicy target. I used my 10-man Ard Boy unit and my three foot heroes to make sure there were no windows in my back lines to creep on, while the 5-man Ard Boy units held down each flank, giving my army some breathing room against any surprise assaults from unexpected quarters.

Turn one was a bit of a non-event, with the only event of significance being the placement of the Wyldwood in the middle of the table, with a unit of Dryads emerging from deep within the trees. My Ard Boys on the flanks shuffled out of the deployment zone to push enemy reserves even further up the board, but there really wasn't any big plays. Both armies were biding their time. 

Jack won priority going into turn two, and handed it to me, setting himself up for a potential double turn going into High Tide. Fortune favours the bold, and in an attempt to force Jack to extend into the middle of the table, I managed to Hand of Gork the 10-man unit of Boys onto the freshly arrived objective that was left of centre in the middle of the board. Having 10 bodies, plenty of wounds and a decent save, the Ard Boys put pressure on the Deepkin to commit enough power and bodies to take that objective back as soon as possible, all while my Gruntas and Krusha looked on from easy charge distance. 

At the bottom of turn two, Jack's reserves ripped onto the left flank and slammed into the Ard Boy screen, deleting the entire unit with no damage in return and without having to use their zaps! If I lost priority going into turn three, my nearby pigs were in for a world of pain... Now that he had played his hand, however, I could relax my screens and start making more aggressive moves. 

In the middle of the board, Dryads and the Eidolon moved in to stack the objective with eleven models. Not content to let the gold be snatched away from them without a proper brawl, my Ard Boys made full use of the Ironsunz command ability from the Maw Krusha to make an out of sequence charge and launch themselves into the unsuspecting Dryads. The orruks started swinging and managed to deny the objective, chopping some limbs off but taking a few casualties in return. I was very careful to leave the Eidolon out of combat. I wanted no part of that! 

This is when disaster struck! My worst fear became reality when Jack won the double turn going into the third, and I braced myself for the coming onslaught! The Eidolon was gifted Mystic Shield, which added to his Ethereal Amulet in making him VERY hard to kill. Free from combat, he leapt over the top of my Ard Boys to try and block the avenue, isolating them from the rest of my army, but thankfully for me, failed a 5" charge with a re-roll. Lucky! The Thralls joined the fight on the centre objectives, adding their two-handed blades to the conflict, and adding another heap of bodies to the mix. 

The Morrsarr Guard, fresh from their kill of the Ard Boys, charged the rear of my Gore-Gruntas and wrapped up a Warchanter in the mix. The Megaboss on Maw-Krusha, not content to watch his orruk comrades be murdered, made another out of sequence charge and smashed into the flank of the Eels, wiping one out from impact hits. The zaps and the round of attacks from the Eels weren't nearly as impactful as either of us were expecting, and in return, the Gruntas and Maw-Krusha wiped the unit out completely! 

The brawl on the middle objective was not going my way. The Ard Boys were holding their own in a fight, but they'd lost control of the objective. 

Despite the success of repelling the Morrsarr assault on the left, things weren't so good on the right flank. The other unit of Morrsarr had also committed to combat and unleashed their full power upon the other unit of Gore-Gruntas, killing four outright and wounding a fifth. I chose to use a command point to keep them around, as I really couldn't afford to lose too many more bodies. 

At the end of Jack's turn three, things were a bit all over the shop. Both our home objectives had landed relatively central on the board (mine in the woods beside the Shaman, and Jack's behind his home Shipwreck by the Treelord. Even with it being High Tide, I needed to pull out something special to stay in this fight. I was losing bodies fast, and even though my Shaman was successfully shutting down the Dryad summons, there were still plenty of Aelves on the table! 

I wasted no time in formulating a couple of kunnin' plans! The first was to buff up the two surviving Gruntas from the right flank, and pluck them out of combat with a Hand of Gork. I dropped them deep in Jack's deployment, hoping to make my 8" charge (thanks to the Ironjawz +1" to charges) into the Tidecaster. If I could kill her (which two angry pig-riders shouldn't struggle too hard with on the charge), I'd have two pigs to one Treelord and snatch the objective!

But alas, my dice had other plans...  The charge failed and the kunnin' strategy wasn't as brutal as I would have liked.

Elsewhere on the table, however, pieces were in motion!

A plan was forming in my mind. A trick well known to Ironjawz players was about to be put into play. A trick that would completely bypass High Tide. In my hero phase, both my Gore-Gruntas and Megaboss on Maw-Krusha used their Mighty Destroyer (in the case of the Pigs, for free thanks to Ironfist) to charge the Eidolon. I completely forgot my impact hits, but that wasn't my priority. I had no intention of laying a finger on the Aspect of the Sea. I had other quarry. 

In my movement phase, both the pigs and the cabbage dragon retreated toward their actual targets. For the Gruntas, this was the Thralls that were currently giving my Ard Boys what for on the centre objective. For my Maw-Krusha, this was the Morrsarr Guard threatening my home objective and my Shaman. All I had to do was sit just outside of 3" of each of these units and wait for the perfect time to strike. 

Because both units had made a charge earlier in the phase, both were eligible to pile in and attack in the combat phase, so thanks to some cheeky hero phase charges and subsequent retreats, they could sit safely out of combat, bypassing the activation wars altogether (take THAT, High Tide!) and then pile in at their leisure to give some skulls a good ol' crumping. This is exactly what happened. 

The Gore-Gruntas made their presence felt, trampling Thralls beneath their trotters and reclaiming the objective by a hair. The Maw-Krusha wasn't playing games either...

He'd retreated over to the right flank, and with Violent Fury in full effect, and an extra attack from Strength From Victory, he butchered the entire unit of Eels in a single activation! My perfectly laid plan had paid off! And victory was in sight, but far from safe in my hands. 

By the dying light of turn five, there was not much left on the board! Turns four and five were spent trading individual bodies in two of the tightest turns of Warhammer I've ever played. Every movement was crucial, and every death costly. There were I had my home objective firmly held down with the right-hand screening unit of Boys that had spent the entire game running along to try and be relevant. But the two other objectives were changing hands at every opportunity. 

It was an absolute knife edge game of precision play from both myself and Jack in the end, but when the dust settled, the Ironjawz scraped the tightest of victories! 

This was an unbelievable game, and was unquestionably my favourite match of the weekend. Jack is an absolute champion and we were both playing an incredibly tight game from start to finish. He easily earned my primary favourite game vote. There were a couple of micro mistakes in each of our strategies, but I would have been perfectly content if I'd lost this game. It came down to single dice rolls multiple times throughout the game. The Eidolon failing his charge was a big tipping point, and my 'MD-retreat-pile in' move at the bottom of turn three saved me from complete obliteration!

Sitting on 38 out of 40 battle points after two games, I was headed for the top tables. But the air was getting pretty thin up there, and there are no easy games in the top bracket! 

Check in soon for Game Three! 

Gabe  

#181: Battle Report - BrisVegas Open Game 4 - Legion of Azgorh Vs Gloomspite Gitz

After finishing Day 1 on two major wins and one major loss, I was pleasantly surprised to be facing a second Gloomspite Gitz, this time piloted by Connor "The Condor" Armstrong. His army was absolutely stunning, and compared to the sheer numbers brought to bear by my game three opponent, Connor's list included two Manglers for some reckless damage output! I was stoked to be playing Gloomspite twice, as that was the one allegiance I really wanted to play against.

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.

The Magma Cannon was towed into range, but couldn't really find a decent target. The Fireglaives made it their business to make sure that there was no viable spot to drop in on my back board edge, and with that, my turn was pretty much over.

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 

#180: Battle Report - BrisVegas Open Game 3 - Legion of Azgorh Vs. Gloomspite Gitz

After a major win and major loss, I ended up facing an army that I'd really been hoping to face...

Gloomspite Gitz!

I hadn't played against them before, but it was an army that I was fascinated with, and I was keen to see what they could bring to the table. Here's what I was facing.

There was an absolute metric ton of bodies on the table, which was going to be a challenge, and the Rockgut Troggoths had some really high-quality damage output, but one huge factor was going to give me an edge. The scenario was Duality of Death, which is a scenario that my army can excel at and one that this Gitz army would struggle with. Having only a handful of squishy little Shamans running around the board, I was confident that Magma Cannons and such would be able to remove them pretty efficiently. But Gitz being Gitz, I was also expecting a few nasty surprises. 

My opponent deployed his many, many Goblins in the centre, around his Loonshrine, with Rockguts and Shamans on the flanks toward the objective. I dropped the K'Daai pretty central, so that they could react to whatever threat was greatest, then the Tauruk and Skullcracker were each given a unit of Hounds, a Magma Cannon and Riflemen to support. The idea was that the Warhounds would take oncoming charges (as the Rockgut Troggs were very serious threats), which would hopefully buy me an extra turn on the objectives. The guns were deployed to push up into range of both objectives in order to kill any hero that was game enough to stand out in the open to claim it. 

I didn't get any photos of turn one, sadly, but here is a shot of the top of turn two, which I gladly took.

Being once again outdropped, my opponent gave me first turn. This wasn't a horrible thing, considering the scenario. I wasted no time in rushing dogs up as a screen, and moving the Tauruk and Skullcracker into position on the objectives. The Skullcracker made use of his special rules to tow the left-hand Magma Cannon 10" forward, and the Daemonsmith made a healthy run roll to stay within 3". With the bonus movement, and extra range, the Magma Cannon drew first blood, by immolating a Madcap Shaman lurking with the Rockgut Troggs in the forest. This removed Hand of Gork (or was it Mork for Gitz?) from the game, and allowed me to relax my backline zoning. 

My K'Daai rolled forward to pose a threat in turn two, but not be on the receiving end of anything too nasty.

My opponent was left with few options but to move up. The Magic Mushroom was thrown into my K'Daai and riflemen, but thankfully didn't decimate too much. 

I won the turn roll going into two, and unleashed the Fire Daemons horde of Grots! 

With Daemonic Power cast convincingly, I knew that this initial charge would have to be a doozy if I was going to chew through the horde of Goblins. The massive unit of ten Fanatics was dumped out of the big unit, as I was kind of expecting. I'd moved my K'Daai to just outside of 3" of both Grot units, which meant that when the Fanatics were deployed, they had to do so between the Grot units, rather than in front of them in order to stay 3" away.  And so I pulled off an ever-so-cheeky charge that showcased just how useful a 3" range is on melee weapons.

My first K'Daai charged into the far right corner Spear-armed unit of Gobbos on the right, coming into range of the Netters and suffering the associated -1 to hit. The rest of the unit was strung out across the front of the unit just outside of 3". The unit had made a successful charge, but because I was not in combat with the Fanatics, they missed out on their start-of-the-combat-phase pile in and attack, preventing a huge amount of damage from hitting the squishy fire daemons. Then it was my turn to attack. I moved all of the K'Daai to just outside of 2" of the whole front line, meaning that only the K'Daai that made the initial charge suffered the effects of Netters. The Fireborn then unleashed all 60 attacks into both units of Grots and the now-exposed Fanatics, decimating all three units with impunity. The surviving Gloomspite models piled in (bringing the nets into range) and struck back, killing one daemon, and wounding another, but the damage had been done.

Having suffered a mighty blow to his centre line, my opponent turned his attention to the objectives. The big unit of Rockguts lobbed a boulder at my Taur'ruk, putting three mortals on him after he had all but shrugged off the arrow fire of their Grot comrades. Then, showing that they weren't here to mess around, they strolled into the Warhounds, and melted them without even blinking. It had bought me a turn as intended, but if I got double turned going into three, even the defensive mechanics of the Taur'ruk could not withstand that kind of high-quality impact! 

On the other flank, the same thing occurred. The Rockguts slammed into my screen of Warhounds and pummelled them into the dirt. I was a little more confident in the survival of an unscathed Skullcracker against only three Rockguts, but they were still going to hurt if I lost the roll going into turn 3...

Lady Luck smiled upon me, and I won priority. And honestly, my movement phase was pretty uneventful. My shooting elements were all in range of their desired targets, and my combat elements were either already in combat, or close enough to ensure a 3" charge. In turn two, I'd already scrambled most units away from the Mushroom, so I wasn't about to to waste a casting attempt getting rid of it to have it burst onto the table in a better spot. 

My biggest concern was the 6-man unit of Troggs, but with some decent rolling and some good Dawi Zharr engineering, the Magma Cannon and thirty riflemen nearby unloaded a volley that killed three outright! Planning my combats carefully, I charged the Taur'ruk into the twenty archers, while staying within 3" of the objective. I was confident that the Grots would be lacking in combat damage output to pose any threat, but I didn't account for completely bombing out my hit rolls with that juicy Damage 3 axe. Instead of murdering his way through the unit, he managed to kill maybe five.

The left flank was not fairing too well for the Gloomspite host either. Knowing that the best defence is a good offense, the Skullcracker fired up its reactor, and dismembered the Troggoths threatening his objective. The K'Daai had now lost three of their number, and the negative modifier to hit had slowed their assault, but round after round of attrition had taken a truly bloody toll upon the Grots. Battleshock had begun to take its toll, and the swirling melee was beginning to lean heavily in my favour. The Fireborn had managed to tag enough units that almost every model, every turn, was unleashing attacks. With the mediocre saves on Grots, the lack of Rend was more than compensated by the D3 damage on each swing. 

Death waits for no-one, however, and when my opponent took his turn, he had one thing in mind. Killing that Taur-ruk. 

Far further forward than the rest of my units, and entirely unsupported by boots on the ground, I knew that this was likely the end. Surrounded, and badly wounded, the Taur-ruk was looking at that -2 Rend Damage 3 profile of the Rockguts, and sweating a little bit. The Loonboss had also charged in, with his eyes on claiming the objective for himself. I gritted my teeth and waited for the inevitable.

Against all odds, maths and reason, the Taur'ruk survived! Not only did he survive, but he managed to take some heads while he was there. In a truly ridiculous series of dice rolls, the Troggs went first, missed with a fair few attacks, and then I rolled the hottest dice of my life to save all but four. With only four wounds left, Blackshard Armour kept me alive, and I responded by sinking his Darkforged Axe waaaay inside the Loonboss's skull. 

Once again, I won priority and took the turn, knowing that I'd already burnt through all of my luck for this game (and probably a few games as well!). There was no way I could survive that same round of attacks again, and so once again, my Cannon and Fireglaives unleashed a volley of Pyrelock ammunition (and a lava beam) into the Troggoths, incinerating the last of them in a thunder of missile fire. The Taur-ruk was then only left to deal with half a dozen archers, who he dispatched with ease. 

With both objectives secured, and the Gloomspite line completely shattered, my lead on the scoreboard had secured me a major victory. This event used scenario point differential rather than kill points to determine minor and major losses, but because I'd gotten on both objectives turn one, and held my opponent off all game, it was a convincing result. There was just one order of business remaining. My secondary objective.

And like an absolute moron, I'd picked 'Kill All Battleline Units'.

"But, Gabe," I hear you say. "You killed all the battleline."

And my dear reader, you would be correct. The Taur-ruk had (eventually) hacked his way through twenty archers, while the K'Daai had rampaged through 100 Grots, 10 Loonsmasha Fanatics, and Madcap Shaman and 6 Sneaky Snufflers. 

But... 

I realised at the end of fourth, after all Gloomspite units had been slain, that my opponent could bring back units of Grots through the tunnel under the Loonshrine. The TO ruled that there had to be no Battleline at the end of the game in order for me to claim it, so I made the very difficult decision to give my opponent the turn going into five. I didn't have enough units closeby to zone out the Loonshrine, but I did have a unit of K'Daai that would hopefully be able to kill any unit that appeared from the hole. If he went bottom of five, I wouldn't have had an opportunity, had a unit returned, to kill it at all. 

As luck would have it, the unit of sixty returned at half strength, plonking thirty models down on the table in a last ditch act of defiance. I had one turn to achieve a single task. 

With all of my guns out of range, and other combat units too far away to assist, it fell to my K'Daai to get the job done, and they put in quite a performance. After their attacks, twenty eight black-robed corpses lay at their feet. Another was immolated by the Kiss of Fire, leaving a single Grot to take a battleshock test. Excellent; no heroes nearby, he's -20-something to his roll. The secondary was mine! 

Well, as it turns out, the Loonshrine has a Battleshock immunity aura, and that one scared, solitary little Grot was my undoing. A single point of damage was the difference, and the Grot stood strong in defiance to the last. 

What a game. The K'Daai single-handedly slaughtered and butchered their way through over 140 models on their own (well, with some moral and arcane support from the Sorcerer Lord)! They'd absorbed an immense amount of pressure that would have otherwise been focused on objectives, and they definitely earned their points in this game. The screens and shooting was enough to protect my objectives against the enemy, and the fact that my Taur-ruk survived that combat at all was... let's be honest... downright lucky. 

When it came down to it, I think this was going to be a tough scenario for my opponent no matter what. With three of his four heroes only having four wounds, getting onto and holding those objectives was always going to be a challenge. I was kicking myself over my choice of secondaries, but that was my own fault for not properly thinking it through. 

This game really showcased why I think that the 12-man unit of K'Daai should be in every single Chaos Dwarf army out there. It's an absolute powerhouse!

This major win put me on 2-1 on Day 1 of the BrisVegas Open. My goal was 3-2, so I had two more opportunities to make that happen. I was sitting behind the main pack, and hadn't maxed out secondaries, so who I faced on Sunday morning, out of a pool of almost a hundred players was anybody's guess.

Thanks for reading, 

Gabe