#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  

#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

#129: Age of Sigmar Battle Report - BrisVegas Open Game One - Skaven Pestilens Vs. Stormcast Eternals

It was upon me; the dreaded grudge match. Pitted against an opponent far mightier than I, I was determined to channel my inner Mighty Duck, and claw an underdog victory!

The scenario was Starstrike.

Here's what I was staring down the barrel of for Game One...

Lord-Aquilor (General, Staunch Defender, Mirrorshield, Keen-clawed)
Knight-Azyros
Knight-Venator (Luckstone)
Lord-Relictor (Lightning Chariot)
Lord-Relictor (Lightning Chariot)
5 Judicators (Battleline)
5 Judicators (Battleline)
5 Liberators (Battleline)
3 Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows
9 Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows
3 Aetherwings
3 Aetherwings
Aetherstrike Force (Warscroll Battalion)

Now, if you're unaware of how this army works, it will scare the pants off you! Basically, if you get too close to the Aetherwings or the Knights (all super fast, and with Lightning Chariot where needed), then the big Raptor unit gets to shoot in the hero phase. To add insult to injury, if you kill a unit from the battalion, that Raptor unit is going to shoot you again. Once for each unit you kill...

For an army as combat oriented and squishy as Pestilens, this was going to be a bad time. But I'd done my research and had concocted a plan that only required a metric ton of luck to pull off!

Knowing full well that I had the odds stacked against me, but that the eyes of just about the whole event were upon me, I had a game plan that I needed to stick to! I parked each of my monk units directly in line with the three possible locations of the first meteor, with the intent of running forward onto all three points and so controlling whatever point it landed on. Catapults deployed on the back board edge, staying in range of the objectives but out of range of my opponent's army. If he wanted them dead, he was going to have to put a unit in a very dangerous position! The Arch-Warlock did a similar thing, deploying right at the back. the thought behind this was that he could kill off small units and characters from outside the range of the big unit of Raptors, meaning there would be no negative ramifications. At least, that was the plan!

My opponent deployed very centrally, using the shipwreck and the occulus to anchor each of his flanks. The Aetherwings and Relictors sat on the right hand side, while the Liberators were put in the sky for some late-game shenanigans. Having been well and truly outdropped, my opponent took first turn and I braced myself for the horrific carnage that would ensue...

Much to my surprise (and my opponent's dismay, his plan to Lightning Chariot both Aetherwing units up the board failed miserably, with both Relictors rolling terribly low for their prayers. This had pretty much saved me a round of shooting from the Longstrikes, as there were no enemy units within 12" of his army to unleash on. With his first turn in disarray, my opponent made the most of a bad situation by pushing his Azyros up onto the right hand dropzone, while the Venator landed in the central forest, and pulled out a very special arrow. Thanks to a Luckstone, the Star-Fated Arrow put a whopping nine woulds on my right Plagueclaw Catapult, reducing it to splinters. Other damage was fairly minimal, with the Verminlord suffering three wounds at the hands of the two Judicator units. I was thrilled! Things had gotten off to a good start, and I was in a position for a cheeky double turn...

I very aggressively pushed up the table with my monks and did my best to start doing some damage. The Arch Warlock managed to leap up on his Balewind Vortex, and started kicking out mortal wounds. While he didn't manage to actually kill anything, he did smoke one of the Aetherwings and chipped a few wounds off the Venator. The survivng catapult missed, but I did manage to pull off the Neverplague, adding 1 to all Prayer attempts for the rest of the game. Excellent. But my big play, and big gamble, was with the Plague Furnace. Now, I knew that if I was going to gain the upper hand, it would involve a degree of risk, and so here was my plan; I knew that if I killed something, the Furnace was as good as dead. But if I could kill as many small units as I could, I would still lose the Furnace, but could take more units down with me. The last piece of the puzzle was the Great Plague Censor. With full wounds, this could do up to 6 mortal wounds, while also being able to hit units not within 3" of the furnace, as you pick a point within 3" and it can then potentially dmage units within 2" of that point, not the furnace. So, my goal was to sling him into both Aetherwings and the Venator, drop the Censor, and then use the remaining (admittedly not amazing) attacks to finish off whatever unit was weakest or surviving. 

So we rolled for priority, I rolled a five. My opponent matched it.

Then I rolled a six. My opponent matched it. 

Another five was matched.

Another six was matched.

Then I rolled ANOTHER five, but my opponent outrolled me with a six. Absolute heartbreak. 

The objective landed in the centre of the board, and my opponent went to work...

The first notable play was the arrival of five Liberators in my backline, but thanks to Bale-Chimes, failed their charge at the Plagueclaw. The rest of my opponent's phase was spent gunning down as many Monks as he could that were holding the centre objective, as will as killing off combo pieces in my army. Unsurprisingly, and much to my dismay, the Furnace met a terrible end at the hands of the Raptors. He also moved his Venator onto the central objective, to lay the groundwork for a counterattack to claim it off me.  

After missing out on that all-important double turn, I was left with no other option than to stick with the plan. I made the central unit of Monks immune to Battleshock, knowing full well they would be drawing far too much murderous attention to themselves. I was tempted to pop my Contagion Banner, and beat down the Venator, but that would have simply resulted in yet more shooting at them. So I moved right up to the objective, making sure to stay outside of 3" of the Venator. This meant that I held the objective (with not only more models within range, but also having a unit of over twenty; for now, at least...), and that my opponent would be forced to commit no small portion of his shooting at them and not other elements, if he wanted that objective. They did pop the champion's book to trim a few mortal wounds off here and there, but otherwise, they were doing their part. 

Their doomed, sacreficial part...

 Approaching the end of turn two, I implemented part two of my plan. With the other two objectives incoming, I pulled back with my army, making sure that I had at least one unit in each of my possible three objective sites. The Corruptor, having taken a wound or two, had no hesitation in performing a "tactical retreat" behind some arcane terrain and Mystic Shielding himself. 

The nearly unscathed unit of forty Monks on my left flank had two simple tasks. Move to the potential objective zone, and hack and slash their way through the Liberators. The Contagion Banner was popped, and they charged on in, making appropriately short work of blending the five Libs.

The Catapult trundled up the board with it's abysmal 3" move, putting itself in range of the Raptors but out of range of their return fire. It hit, and completely failed to wound. Rat-tears were shed. 

On the right flank, things were getting a bit heated. What started out as an Azyros attemping a cheap shot (typical Stormcast...) on my poor, defenceless Priest, had turned into a full-blown brawl in the forest. His intention to cheekily grab my objective when it landed ended up turning into a war of attrition, with bad rolls on both sides. My monks couldn't get past his impressive armour save and fortunate dice rolls, and he failed to do any significant damage; a few wounds were inflicted upon my Priest, but nothing fatal. I had my opportunity to put him down, mind you...

I cast Pestilent Breath with my Priest, and chipped a mortal wound off the Azyros. With that Prayer, I also triggered a "super-prayer", rolled to inflict D6 mortal wounds on him. He had three wounds remaining. I rolled a 1... Probably some vile scheme by a rival Warlord. 

Losing priority again, I was at the mercy of my opponent's shooting phase. His Judicators moved up to support the wounded Venator, and just about every available model shot at the Monks on the central objective, and the Verminlord Corruptor behind them, with predictably grim results. The centre was lost.

 With a rapidly diminishing number of units left on the board, I was left with little option but to hang tight, and scrap as hard as I could. The unit of forty on the left were compelled to stay where they were, lest the Aquilor & Friends teleport over and lay claim to the objective. The Arch Warlock, who had been putting in work all game, finally finished off a unit of Aetherwings, the Azyros and a unit of Judicators; all thanks to a near-perfect Warpstorm and Arcane Bolt. And thanks to his backline position, the Raptors were in no position to retaliate.

This left the Monks on my right flank free to go about their day, having lost the Priest to the Azyros' sword, before he was fried inside his armour by the Warlock. They began marching toward the centre objective, but it was too little too late. 

In the dying turns of the game, the Aquilor finally made his move, teleporting the Raptors onto my back board edge, punching holes through the Warlock and trimming four wounds off the catapult. The central Judicators and the Venator finished it off in a hail of arrows. My dwindling Monk unit was then pinned in place at each end by the Venator and Relictor. 

This signalled the end of Game One, and a punishing major loss for Clan Pestilens. I also missed out on my secondary objective, which was "Kill a Monster; if there are no Monsters in your opponent's army, kill the unit with the largest points cost". That unit would have been the 9-man Raptor unit, and my reasoning behind choosing that one, was that if I had any hope of winning the game, I needed to kill that unit. I tried to make the Scenario and the Secondary work towards a common goal, but it was not to be...

This was a highly anticipated Grudge Match, that was very heavily skewed in favour of the Stormcast, as I didn't really have an answer for a lot of his tricks. On the live stream before the event, I'd called this list as one that would hit the podium, and he was off to a screaming start. I feel there were a few moments that could have possibly changed the tide of battle, but the dice weren't on my side, and the odds were slim. As always, my opponent was an absolute gentleman, and he earned my vote for Best Painted, which he ended up winning. This army is exquisitely painted, and the prize was well deserved. 

Having scored zero tournament points in my first game, I was in the express lane to the bottom tables, where I would meet my next opponent...

A Gnarlroot Wargrove! 

But more on that next time... Check in soon for Game Two! 

As every time, thanks so much for reading.

Gabe 

#113: Age of Sigmar Battle Report - 2000 points Clan Pestilens Vs. Wanderers (Starstrike)

Having not taken my rats out for weeks, I figured it was about time to throw down, and who else to face but my old rivals, the Wanderers. I took my 1600 point tournament list from the recent event at the city store and used it as my foundation for the 2000k list. The real dilemma was how to spend those extra 400 points. I toyed with an Arch Warlock and 40 Monks, or even a Warpseer and 20 Monks, but in the end I decided to try out two units that I've never fielded before; a Verminlord Deceiver and 5 Plague Censor Bearers. I think Skitterleap adds some much need mobility to the army, and gives me a lethal character assassin!

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.

Being very aware that I only had two models holding the far objective, I knew I had to do something about the big unit of Glade Guard. Conveniently enough, my Furnace continued its affinity with the Great Plagues, unleashing the Undulant Scourge upon them, killing 10, before charging in and disintegrating the rest of the unit. The Deceiver didn't need to lift a finger.

 The Waywatcher had Wandered the Paths and held down the right hand objective...

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