So, today it was Skorne against Khador. It was a 35 point game and I was sporting with:
Hexeris
- Bronzeback Titan
- Basilisk Drake
- Basilisk Krea
Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Cataphract Cetrati
Minimum unit of Beasthandlers
Aptimus Marketh
Bloodrunner Master Tormentor (who you can see blurry in starting picture. At first I thought I'd take pictures that showed only or mostly painted models but, well, it was a bit impossible.)
Opponent had:
Epic Sorscha
- Beast 09
- Devastator
Great Bears of Gallowswood
Maximum unit of Winterguard Infantry + Unit Attachment
Greylord Ternion
Kovnik Josef
Gorman diWulfe
And it happened so nicely that for starters I won the starting roll. Nothing much happened as I advanced cautiously as did my opponent and to cut short on the reporting nothing here's a picture from the end of my second turn. I decided to take the picture a bit farther away so that the level of my unpainted-ness wouldn't show that badly.
Anyway.
I had put up Psychic Vampire, Death March on Praetorians and Soul Slave on the Bronzeback.
You can also see in that picture my greatest single mistake in the whole game, which was to gravely underestimate the 6" move and 8" boosted hit sprays.
Now thinking back I should have been more courageous with Hexeris and put him in middle of praetorian because I was sitting anyway with Krea's animus that made both Hexeris and everyone within 2" of him difficult to hit with ranged attacks.
But leaving speculation behind, here's a picture that makes things a bit more clear:
I was thinking that I'd lure the winterguard to kill a few of my swordsmen, I was considering 5 or even 6 kills wouldn't be too bad because I had Aptimus Marketh close by. But the resulting bloodshed killed nine of my swordsmen and the bloodrunner master tormentor.
Epic Sorscha came there a bit too close and got two damage points in because of casting spells under my Psychic Vampire. In that picture you can see a bit more clearly my futile attempt at making a death trap to one of the heavy warjacks. Luckily opponent didn't take the bait because, uhh, well, after that situation we had a talk where I was reminded that Beast had thresher. So maybe risking two free strikes Beast could probably have taken down all my Cetrati and Bronzeback too. Eww.
My response:
You can't see epic Sorscha in that picture really well but she's behind those two huge warjacks.
First I moved my Basilisk Drake up there and sprayed a lone winterguard who was standing there. Opponent had messed order of activations a bit so Winterguard didn't have Iron Flesh on. Had they had it quite a few of my swordmen would have been saved but no. It was the critical inch there...
Anyway, basilisk managed to score a hit on Sorscha and deal 8 points in which was a success in my book.
Then I got a bit too greedy with Hexeris. I wanted to get the full use out of his feat so I moved him to a risky position with only little gain. I had upkept all my spells with Aptimus. I tried to make a potshot with Obliteration against Sorscha, I hit Devastator in front of her and got a blast damage roll against her. I boosted it of course but resulted in no damage.
Then my remaining few praetorians advanced to the winterguard and used the minifeat of theirs. I managed to kill four winterguards, all of which were turned into my zombies but not one of them managed to hit their fellows. Why is this feat always so glorious when I use it?
Then I tried to put some stuff in front of Hexeris to block the easy charges against him.
You can see how much that helped, though.
Sorscha was feeling brave and moved close-by and used her feat. Then she shot remaining two praetorians with her quad-iron. Also she took one point of damage from casting Boundless Charge on Beast 09 so she had only 6 points remaining.
Then came the Greylord Covenant and tried to spray the remaining models from Beasts path away and well, they succeeded. Partially at least.
They didn't manage to kill Aptimus Marketh (who did take 2 points in from one spray) but they did kill the most important blocking Cetrati with few lucky enough rolls. Sorscha's feat is annoying because it escalates the lucky rolls of the little performers to astonishing heights.
But they all died to Psychic Vampire though, the Greylords I mean.
Then came the remaining winterguard and shot Aptimus to pieces.
Funny thing in the last picture, however, is the fact that it's not the picture of the last turn of the game!
Beast put on Murderous which even froze Hexeris on the first strike which also dealt 28 points of damage. Twenty eight.
But I had two fury remaining for transfers and such damage was promptly dispatched to Bronzeback.
Next damage roll was double 1's and I sighed in joy. Double ones dealt, under epic Sorschas feat, only 10 points in.
Last damage roll did a bit more, I think 22 points in. Which was transferred to my undamaged Basilisk Drake and some damage even came back from there. But Hexeris survived.
My response:
I thought my only chance would've been either to destroy the undamaged Beast 09 and then charge Hexeris to Sorscha or get a line for my Cetrati to charge to Sorscha. The line that was there would have provoked too many free strikes from both Beast and few Great Bears.
Earlier in game I had been toying around with the idea of Beat Back on Hexeris' weapon.
I got all I could away from my Krea and one I got from reaving a dying Bronzeback. Then I had to cut myself all I was able to and it resulted in having 6 fury for Hexeris, who was then at only one hit point.
Hexeris shaked off the stationary (though this was done on the hindsight - both forgot he was frozen but fury was enough to backtrack that a bit) and upkept Death March that Aptimus had cast on Cetrati on the last turn he was still alive.
So I shuffled there a bit and Beat Back Beast 09 as far as I could to open a charge lane to Sorscha who was behind a fence (+2 to defense in melee). I think Hexeris even did a few points of damage in the way!
Well, I needed 9+ to hit and I managed to bring only two Cetrati in melee with her. One died to a free strike from a Great Bear.
Sorscha had 6 hit points left and had one focus left on her. So if even one of my attacks hit her she would die on a damage roll of 11 with four dice.
But as it happened, even if I could have "combined" their attacks rolls together I wouldn't have hit her. First Cetrati rolled 1 and 2 for hit. Second one rolled exactly same.
Then it was the last round of the game.
Sorscha Cycloned in and killed all the three beast handlers you can see there and then charged Hexeris herself. She managed to hit and let's have the picture speak for itself: (the faction dice you can see there is the charge damage roll)
No comments:
Post a Comment