#179: Battle Report - BrisVegas Open Game 2 - Legion of Azgorh Vs. Blades of Khorne

Coming off a major win in round one against Nurgle, I found myself facing another deity from the Pantheon; Khorne, commanded by fellow club-mate, Gammie.

Allegiance: Khorne

Leaders:
Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut (General, Violent Urgency, Gorecleaver)
Slaughterpriest (Talisman of Burning Blood)
Slaughterpriest

Battleline:
6 Mighty Skullcrushers
6 Mighty Skullcrushers
6 Mighty Skullcrushers
5 Flesh Hounds
5 Flesh Hounds

Units:
Chaos Warshrine

Battalions: 
Brass Stampede

Judgements:
Wrath-Axe

2000 Points
1 Command Point
142 Wounds

Looking at that, I knew I had my work cut out for me. The Juggers, Priests and Wrath-Axe can dish out a horrific amount of damage. The scenario was Shifting Objectives, which is great for Khorne, because they can stay in a compact formation and just steamroll things. I was genuinely expecting this to be a pretty quick game. But oh, how wrong I was!

With our battlelines drawn, I felt like I was staring down the barrel a little bit, but my army was not without it's tricks! Unsurprisingly, given that my guns were out of range, and the Khorne had nothing to charge, Gammie gave me first turn.

Knowing that whatever moved onto the objectives would be the first thing to die, my Warhounds were (once again) pushed forward as the sacrificial screen, making sure that there was at least one body just within 6" of each objective. I knew that it was going to be a hard fought battle, and that I would need every point I could get, so an easy 5-point turn straight up was crucial. I did make a mistake, however, in that Gammie didn't need to commit to combat to take those objectives off me. He could simply push up with units and get two bodies in range to steal it. I should have flooded each objective with at least 6 bodies, forcing him to commit on all three objectives if he wanted the points. 

And that is exactly what he did. Seeing no need to over-commit in the face of my guns, the Khorne force shuffled forward on each flank, while six Crushers pushed into the middle. the central unit of Crushers found themselves bottlenecked between the ship and Skull Altar, as Ash Storm had crippled their mobility. The Warhounds on the right hand side took some damage from Blood Boil, and thanks to their mediocre Bravery 4, saw all but two either killed or run off the board. Gammie capped all three objectives in return, and prepared for priority. 

Much to my dismay, I lost priority in a turn where I could have really dropped the hammer on multiple units. But it wasn't to be. In a catastrophic swing of events, Blood Boils and the left Crushers' charge damage wiped out all the remaining dogs, which meant that the Crushers on the centre objective were free to slam into both the Taur'uk and the K'Daai with impunity. With the unit being 6 or more models, and the Brass Stampede guaranteeing the trigger, the impact hits did 6D3 mortal wounds to the Taur'uk and killed him in a spray of blood, along with more than a couple of Fireglaives! The Crushers on the left used their pile in to punch on with ten more Fireglaives, but with pitiful results that would come back to haunt them later. 

I was now in a very precarious position. While I had the right hand objective held with numbers to spare, the other two (one of which was worth 3 points) were just being bulldozed by the Khorne. Going second each turn left me with the opportunity for a double turn, but every time there was a window for me to counterpunch and control the flow of battle, the turn went Gammie's way. Some games, that's just how it goes. While I was only on the receiving end of one double turn, I didn't get one back, which made it tricky to force my way back in. 

My K'Daai were caught out of position in a combat where only half the unit could attack, and I was very hesitant to retreat, as losing a priority roll would just mean taking another beating at the hands of the Juggernauts' brutal charge. But I wasn't about to go down without a fight.

Seeing a gap, my Skullcracker decided it was time to unleash some carnage. He charged into the full unit of Skullcrushers that had spent the battle so far suffering the effects of an Ash Storm. The plan was to get in there and drop them below six models, while also blocking them out from the objective. This turned out to be in vain, as I was just short on my charge, giving them room around the ship side of the infernal colossus to pile in around him and within 6" of the objective. The embattled unit of Crushers fighting my K'Daai were slowly being ground down. Bronzed Flesh made them almost impossible to wound, but whatever attacks did get through were doing D3 wounds, which had taken its toll in the battle of attrition. 

On my left objective, the survivors from my 20-strong unit, now free of the central combat, moved to assist their Fireglaive comrades, making sure that it would be several turns before the solitary Warshrine could kill it's way through to a numerical advantage. The shooting from the two units was pretty lacklustre, but at least they were chipping off wounds here and there. 

Thanks to the horrific power of the Magma Cannons, Fireglaives and the Daemonsmith's grenades, against all the odds, the riflemen outlived the Juggernauts on the left objective, now only having to handle some measly Flesh Hounds. 

It should be said around now that between Blackshard Armour (one of the most underrated allegiance abilities in the game!) and some of the luckiest rolling in the world, my army just refused to die. There were multiple instances where killing a single rifleman would have lost me an objective, I'd be facing four wounds at rend 1, pop three fives on the dice, and ignore the last with Blackshard. 

Much to my dismay, Gammie won priority again, and kept a huge amount of pressure on all three objectives. Blood Boils wiped out the full-strength Fireglaive unit on the right, while the Warshrine charged in to try (but not succeed! Huzzah!) and kill the survivors of my big unit. Realising that the Warshrine was going to need some help, one of the Priests began the march over to lend his martial support. 

But elsewhere on the battlefield, things were a little more dire. The Wrath-Axe finally went off, and wasted no time in cleaving the slightly damaged Skullcracker in half! 

On the left flank, my ridiculous saves were keeping me on the objective...

...but Gammie dropped the hammer with full force. Free from being locked in combat with the recently nuked Skullcracker, the still-full-strength unit of Juggernauts slammed into the K'Daai, shattering their strength, and finally breaking the unit down. The Lord on Juggernaut was forced to commit to the combat between the Fireglaives and Flesh Hounds, but thanks to some bad rolls on Gammie's behalf, and some truly insane ones on my behalf, the riflemen held. 

Much to the disgust of Khorne, the remaining Fireglaives on the right objective absolutely refused to die, even in the face of the Warshrine and Slaughterpriest. Could they kill three riflemen to claim the objective?

No. 

Despite my most resolute efforts, and after the Fireglaives and Flesh Hounds took each other down in a cinematic moment of mutually assured destruction (with some help from a grenade from the Daemonsmith), the Skullcrushers proved why they're so mighty and crashed into my artillery. In the face of such an onslaught, the Cannons were all but doomed and, with a pathetic 3" move, found themselves unable to even retreat from combat. The Daeomsmith and Sorcerer Lord were dragged down, and with that, the game was lost. I gave away almost my entire army to try and claim a win, and while I was in the thick of it from turn one, Gammie ran away on the scoreboard in the last turn and a half to claim a major win for Khorne.

For a game that I was expecting to be over in two turns, it turned out to be fought on a knife's edge. Any one of several priority rolls could have completely shifted the flow of battle, but the dice are fickle, and there's no point getting hung up over rolls that neither player can influence. In this game, I just got outplayed. Gammie didn't make any mistakes and never let the pressure off, and it showed. I made a few movement errors, like stringing my K'Daai out too much and giving away my Taur'ruk too cheaply, but I can't be too upset. With three turns of truly godlike save rolls, I was in the game far longer than I was expecting. 

After losing to Khorne, this left me on 1-1 going into game three. I was alright with this, as it left me squarely in the middle of the pack with three games still to play. In a pool of 90+ players, I was at the mercy of the draw to a degree, so I had my fingers crossed that I wouldn't be hitting one of the many, many FEC players too early in the weekend. 

As luck would have it, my game three opponent was playing Gloomspite Gitz, an army that I hadn't faced before, but was very keen to play! But I'm getting ahead of myself. More on that in the next battle report! 

As always, thanks for reading,

Gabe  

#159: RCGT Game Three - Maggotkin of Nurgle Vs. Kharadron Overlords 2500pts

Coming off the back of two big wins in my first round, I somehow found myself in unfamiliar territory.

Table One.

And I found myself facing down against my second Duardin horde of the day in the form of Ben's Kharadron Overlords!

Barak-Urbaz
Arkanaut Admiral (General, Doughty Champion, Ignax's Scales)
Aether-Khemist (Aethershock Earburster)
Aether-Khemist
Aetheric Navigator
10 Arkanaut Company (Battleline, Light Skyhooks)
10 Arkanaut Company (Battleline, Light Skyhooks)
10 Arkanaut Company (Battleline, Aethermatic Volley Guns)
10 Arkanaut Company (Battleline, Skypikes)
10 Grundstok Thunderers
9 Endrinriggers
40 Dwarf Warriors (Allies)
Arkanaut Frigate (The Last Word)
Arkanaut Frigate (Prudency Chutes)
Iron Sky Squadron (Warscroll Battalion)

The scenario was Shifting Objectives, which was totally alright by me! Playing down the length of the table, meant that my Plaguebearers could screen and tie up anything my opponent could throw at me, and that I didn't have anything in my backfield to sit on. I could push up my whole army and apply an immense amount of pressure. The matchup was also heavily in my favour, as Nurgle is not traditionally known for being vulnerable to shooting. With my Lord of Blights stocked up with command points, I was confident in making things difficult to kill for the pesky Duardin!

With that said, I've also played a grand total of one game against KO, and that was against a Zilfin Clown Car list, so I wasn't 100% sure of what everything was capable of. I knew Endrinriggers needed to die ASAP, and that I very outnumbered. For the third game in the day, it was going to take all my focus to make sure I didn't do anything silly. Nothing... silly...

With the scenarios being all about numbers on objectives, I was determined to give myself the best possible chance at success. My opponent chose to give me first turn, which I took gladly! Thanks to the Bell and a healthy run roll, I managed to push up onto all three objectives with my two Plaguebearer units and my Blight Kings on the right. My GUO waddled up behind the main line, conscious of the damage output the Arkanauts were capable of.

The Lord of Blights (who, with his whopping 21" range, was lurking deep in my deployment zone) dropped a Cloud of Flies on both Plaguebearer units, meaning that they would be -2 to hit in combat and -4 to hit in shooting. I was hyper aggressive with the Jabberslythes, so as to draw fire away from my important stuff, an the LoA & Friends sat just behind my frontline to react to threats. The frigate on my right was packed with Thunderers, Endrinriggers and heroes, and I knew that I needed a counterpunch ready for when all the Duardin spilled out, guns blazing.

I think my opponent made a mistake giving me first turn, as it allowed me to lay claim to all three objectives and get all my buffs up, but he wasn't about to lie down without a bloody fight! 

 In his second turn turn, he pushed forward with everything! Both ships disgorged their cargo. The Endrinriggers launched out of their ship, and butchered the Blight Kings in a truly horrifying display of combat prowess, where on the left flank, the Skypike Company piled out and fired their pistols harmlessly into the Plaguebearers. While the GUO took some damage from Skypikes, my army was othewise pretty unscathed. The Jabberslythes did their job, drawing a truly terrifying amount of fire and exploding with impunity so that my buff pieces and combat threats could live! Ben claimed the right objective with the Riggers, bringing the turn one score to 5-1 in my favour; a great start to things.

On the left, my opponent charged his frigate onto the objective, and didn't charge in with his Dwarf Warriors in the middle. The Frigate, having such a large base and no real combat threat, meant that the Duardin physically didn't have the space to outnumber me on that objective. The Warriors would not have killed many of the buffed up plaguebearers, but they would have outnumbered them significantly thanks to their smaller bases. As it were, I still held both. 

 A cheeky double turn from T2 to T3, not only allowed the Pusgoyles an opportunity to down a Frigate, killing some of the Thunderer's on board, but also gave them positioning to launch over the ruins and slay all the Riggers, which were my biggest combat threat! In my haste and state of exhaustion, I completely forgot to physically move the models when I piled in, leaving only two models in range of the objective. In a sheer stroke of luck, the Thunderers and Arkanauts threatening the right objective were just outside of 6", meaning that my mistake didn't cost me dearly, as the right objective had become the important one! Phew!

 Making sure that he wouldn't miss out on points, my opponent strolled forward with both the Company with Aethermatic Volley Guns and the Thunderers. With a little help from the Witherstave on the LoA lurking in the ruins, their barrage of firepower inflicted a single wound. It was no fault of my opponent; both of us were in a bit of disbelief as Lady Luck well and truly deserted him! In some consolation, he was able to move up with his Company to outnumber me and claim the objective.

At the end of Turn 3, the score was 14-4 in my favour. The schedule, which had been responsible for many players failing to get past turn three across the weekend,  reared its head most prominently in this game, as we didn't get a chance at turn four or five, but with a 10 point lead, I managed to land a third major win for the day.

I think this was a bit of a mixed bag for my opponent. On one hand, he drew against probably the most defensive, anti-shooting army at the event, which crippled his ability to touch the big blocks of infantry sitting on the objectives. This was probably the one army he didn't fancy fighting. On the other hand, I was on the edge of my seat the entire game, knowing full well that, at any point, he could charge in with his infantry, flood the objectives with his superior numbers, and be safe in the knowledge that Plaguebearers couldn't fight their way out of a soggy paper bag.

The Blightkings melted to the Endrinrigger assault, but my Pusgoyles were left relatively unscathed and unchecked to rampage their way across the board. Once again, Nurgle did what they do best, and that's getting onto objectives and refusing to die.

This left me on three major wins from three games, and cemented my spot at the high end of the scoreboard going into Day Two. But I knew my toughest games were ahead of me...

I'll be posting all about Day Two of the event soon, so keep an eye out!

Thanks for reading,
Gabe

#137: Toowoomba Remote League 1000pt Tournament - Game 1 - Maggotkin Vs Legion of Night

After making the pilgrimage up the range to Toowoomba, I was ready to play my first three games of AOS2! Going into it, I honestly had no idea what the player pool would look like, as the only Toowoomba players I had faced were members of the Failed Charge Podcast crew, who were the event organisers. I was going into the day blind a little bit, but after putting Clan Pestilens on the display shelf for a breather, this left me with a couple of options. I ended up settling on Maggotkin, as I had a few events later in the year that I was planning with them. Besides, it's a super strong book...a nice change from the less diverse armies that I had been playing; widely considered to be far from the top tier of armies.

Great Unclean One (General, Bell/Flail, Grandfather's Blessing, Endless Gift, Glorious Afflictions)
10 Plaguebearers (Battleline)
10 Plaguebearers (Battleline)
6 Plague Drones
Soulsnare Shackles (Endless Spell)

This sat me at 1000 points on the dot. I would have preferred to run 20-man Marauder units instead of the Plaguebearers, but I simply didn't have them painted and ready for the event. The GUO and Drones is a pretty staple combination in the army, allowing them to dish out a ton of hits with a huge threat range!

But the real utility in the army comes from the fusion of the Glorious Afflictions spell ( the target's move characteristic and run and charge rolls are halved, and the target unit cannot fly) with its 21" range, and Soulsnare Shackles, which cripples movement once again. The idea behind this was as an answer to such craziness as Stardrakes, Witch Aelf hordes and Bloodletter Bombs. These two spells would allow me to essentially shut a unit down, and put it in a position where it had little to no impact on the game until I was good and ready to deal with it. But you know what they say about the best laid plans.

But I digress...

After arriving in Toowoomba, consuming enough coffee to jumpstart my brain, and shaking a few hands, it was time for round one. I found myself facing off against a gentleman by the name of Gary, with his Legion of Night army.

Mannfred (General)
20 Skeleton Warriors
5 Dire Wolves
5 Dire Wolves
Terrorgheist

The scenario was Shifting Objectives, which meant we were both going to have to be on our toes to come out on top. My deployment was pretty standard, with my tree on the centre lane, and a unit directly opposite each objective. In hindsight, I think the tree was positioned poorly, and clogged up the Drone's lane, but what's done was done. We rolled to see which objective was the "big" one, and the right objective was the priority. I took first turn, and basically pushed my whole army onto the centreline. The Bell and good run rolls meant that I got where I needed to be, and scored maximum points as a result. I made the mistake of holding back with my Drones, instead of pitching into the Skeleton horde, and pinning my opponents numbers far from the objectives.

And my opponent made me pay for that mistake...

The skeletons poured into the Drones, managing to flood the objective with bodies, and claw away ownership. On the left, I was confident that the five Dire Wolves wouldn't be able to grind down the Plaguebearers, but on the right, where the objective was worth three points, Mannfred committed his considerable weight to the conflict and smashed the Plaguebearers into oblivion, firmly claiming the area for Death. His Terrorgheist also showed up on my backline, and screamed at the GUO, who had taken a wound from Manny's magical barrage. Fortunately, his high Bravery stopped the scream from having any impact, and the Terrorgheist failed the 9" charge. What my opponent HAD managed to do was catch me on the back foot, and completely shut down my Contagion Point generation. Uh-Oh...

The main objective shifted to the middle one (not the left as I had hoped), and my opponent got the double on me. The Terrorgheist attempted to make life difficult for the GUO, starting to put some serious hurt on him (which he was able to almost completely heal back at every possible chance). But the real problems were just beginning in the middle of the table. Mannfred, having dispatched the Plaguebearers, turned his attention to the Drones, cutting down three and crippling a fourth with the help of some furious Skeletons. All I could do was hope that the Drones would stay alive long enough to grind down the Skeletons. I threw the Shackles over near Mannfred, and while they failed to have any effect on Manny or the Skeletons, they did do two mortal wounds to the drones. Just perfect...

At this point, the game was getting tight! We were both just on the edge of our seats, knowing full well, that things were on a knifes edge. I had spent the first two turns on the ropes, getting pummelled, but momentum began to shift back toward Nurgle. The GUO managed to not only dispatch the Terrorgheist, but also send a Plague Wind through the Drones and into the Skeletons, healing and killing as it blew. The Plaguebearers on the left lost a single model to the dogs, rolled a 1 for Battleshock, and replenished their numbers to solidify their position on that objective. And the Drones, with added attacks from the GUO's Command Ability, finally ground down the last of the Skeletons. 

What really put the nail in my opponent's coffin (pun fully intended) was the main objective swinging back to it's original position on the right flank. With the Skeletons depleted, and Mannfred having taken a few wounds over the course of the battle, despite his armour and healing, I decided it was time to make my big play for victory. The last remaining Drone (they really took a beating) was unaffected by the shackles this turn, and retreated over the top of Manny and onto the objective, claiming it away from Death. The Plaguebearers on the left objective finally put their plagueswords to the last undead dog, and the GUO, who had healed back every single point of damage suffered earlier in the battle, took the fight to Mannfred, punching the Mortarch of Night until his army and vampiric healing could save him no longer! 

The game ended with a firm victory for the minions of Nurgle, but it was far from a sure thing until the dying moments of the game! The battle swung back and forth many times, with every dice roll being vital to winning or losing. Gary was a fantastic opponent, and he won my Best Sport vote! 

Having only lost 120 points in the Plaguebearers, and killing 940 points worth of my opponent's army (one pesky unit of dogs escaped my clutches!), I found myself sitting on the top tables, unsure of what new terrors I would face next... The kill points from this game in no way reflected just how ridiculously close this game was! 

Thanks for reading, and check back in soon for game two!

Gabe