However, everything came about so extempore that I really couldn't arrange a game with anyone in such a short time.
But Vassal helped me through these hard times.
I met a random, nice person there and we played a 25 point game there.
What is so wonderful about Vassal is that you get to play against army combinations you really aren't used to. Like this time. I have never played against Zaal, not in Mk1 or now in Mk2.
So, let's begin this story.
My list was:
Lord Exchumator Scaverous
- Ripjaw
- Cankerworm
- Reaper
Maximum unit of Mechanithralls
Necrosurgeon & Stitch Thralls
Skarlock
And opponent was playing:
Zaal & Kovaas
- Cyclops Raider
- Cyclops Raider
- Cyclops Shaman
Maximum unit of Nihilators
Venator Flayer Cannon
Ancestral Guardian
Extoller Soulward
Opponent won the starting roll. Mortenebra is acting as Scaverous, and Cyclops Savages are actually Raiders. Picture is taken from the end of first round.
Death Ward on Reaper was put to good use on opponents next turn, as Far Striked flayer cannon took shots at the warjack. Which was really something that impressed me. The utility of Far Strike and flayer cannon. I can't wait to try to use the same combo with Hexeris to start the feat chain...
As I was quickly taking look at Zaal now and then, I realised how good counter he is against Scaverous - Awakened Spirit helps to fight Scaverous' own feat, and obviously his mastery over friendly souls denies that one thing Scaverous thirsts the most.
Anyway, all I did mostly on my next turn was Scaverous casting Feast of Worms on the gathering of Nihilators. However... being a bit difficult to see how big that 4" template really is in playing board that's just pixels, I woefully underestimated the range.
Luckily I still got two nihilators down and a couple of damage points to the cyclops shaman.
Next opponent charges with nihilators. They decimate swathes of mechanithralls.
Cankerworm is mauled up rather heavily, too, and I think I've never seen it take damage in such an economic a way. It was left with only three damage boxes left after cyclops shaman and aiming cyclops raider had shot at it. One in cortex, movement and head.
Most of the mechanithralls just grew back.
Three came from Necrosurgeon and two from feating Scaverous with excarnates.
Cankerworm, loaded with focus, charges to Cyclops Shaman, attempting to armor-pierce it. However, it misses. Even with a boost.
Skarlock casts Icy Grip on nihilators, and then renewed mechanithralls charge them.
It's curious how difficult it is to hit def 11 models and, once knocked down, damage arm 15 with p+s 11 +3d6 and a second time at 11 +2d6.
And no, I haven't done complaining. As you remember, I had used Black Gate with Scaverous. That meant that my Cephalyx Overlords would pretty much be useless if I didn't get the boosted attack roll to bear!
So I used two Influences.
One on a nihilator that wasn't even in range for anything, and once on Ancestral Guardian that had a nihilator in front of it.
Well, the problem is, the Ancestral Guardian had Last Stand on it. So it made an attack and then it... died.
And Kovaas appeared. With 3 souls.
As it turned out, about 3-4 pixels more and Scaverous would have been out of its charge range.
But, he wasn't.
Zaal used his feat and cast Last Stand on Kovaas.
A broadside of shooting from every possible model + a charge from Kovaas with 3 souls and 5 ancestral rage tokens for use...
It looks like the problem with your Scaverous is how many holes that Krovass punched in him, argh. I had a similar loss with Magnus during my last game with Zaal, got my face beat by Haakar after he pulled his vengance-kill-charge shenanigans.
ReplyDeleteI find Zaal is annoyingly like eVlad where he can get an assassination vector from almost anywhere as long as the model has a half decent POW in the first place.