I was playing again with my newest warlock, Lord Arbiter Hexeris.
Opponent was bringing epic Lylyth. Games were 35 points with caster kill scenario with Killbox artifice.
My list:
Lord Arbiter Hexeris
- Bronzeback Titan
- Basilisk Drake
- Cyclops Shaman (bonded to Hexeris)
Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Paingiver Beast Handlers
Venator Flayer Cannon
Ancestral Guardian
Extoller Soulward
Bloodrunner Master Tormentor
Feralgeist
Orin Midwinter
Opponent had:
Epic Lylyth
- 2x Ravagores
Blighted Nyss Striders + Unit Attachment
Minimum unit of Blighted Nyss Raptors
Annyssa Ryvaal
Shepherd
Both games were played with the same lists. And both were relatively short.
In first game opponent won starting roll and decided to go first. The picture is taken from the end of my first turn. I pretty much just ran forward, and now, looking back... I ran forward too much?!
Because next turn Lylyth used her feat.
My opponent hadn't played a game in over a year, so he underestimated the range available to Lylyth's feat run. So, the ridiculous stuff in the picture is that Legion models are actually closer to me than they needed to be. Crazy stuff.
Anyway, Lylyth's feat decimated Bronzeback and six Praetorian Swordsmen and if memory serves, did a couple of damage points to either Basilisk or Cyclops Shaman.
So at the start of my second turn, my army was already crippled against enemy heavy warbeasts.
But the thing I did made me feel like a filthy Cryxian (which I guess I am at the core of me). Extoller gave Guidance to Hexeris and Cyclops Shaman ran somewhere close to basecoated Ravagore.
Then Hexeris channeled Ashes to Ashes twice at the Ravagore, boosting damages on Lylyth. Average dices wouldn't have killed her, but dice were not average. She got killed. This was due to her not having a Fury left for a transfer.
Even if opponent brought Everblight's troops unnecessarily forward, I did see why people like playing epic Lylyth with Ravagores and a ton of shooters. We played another game, then, which was even more furious, because I got to start.
Game 2:
So, we kept same lists and same sides, but gave me the start to have a little variation in game play. And the variation was that Lylyth used her feat on first turn of the game... sheesh...
So, first picture is from the end of opponents first turn.
And wisened from the last game, opponent stayed far away and shot at soft targets more this time around. I lost Cyclops Shaman and Basilisk Drake before my second turn had even begun. Other casualties were the Flayer Cannon and again exactly half of Praetorian Swordsmen.
If I learned to respect Lylyth's feat in last game, this was where I learned to fear it. I had lost about 15 points worth of models, and enemy was about 18"-20" away. On top of all this, I juggled Feralgeist in both light warbeasts, but attack output was still more than enough to kill them... twice.
"What the hell can I do now?" was my feelings when my second turn began.
I just decided to rush everything forward and see what happens.
Did I do any damage to opponent? Nope, not even a single attack roll was targeted at enemy models.
Enemy, then, shot down Bloodrunner Master Tormentor with Striders and took some potshots at Bronzeback with Raptors and such before Ravagores charged in to make it a lunch. And they did eat Bronzeback, but stopped when the meat started to taste a bit off... Feralgeist had just jumped in and turned the hulking titan into undead. And the undead titan actually survived to see yet another tormented turn.
Well, all things considered my situation looked really nasty no matter how you look at it:
I had lost ALL of my warbeasts, since Bronzeback was undead now.
Only things within my punching range were the two ravagores, though I had nothing that could actually harm them all that much.
This time Lylyth had one fury left for transfers, and one of the Ravagores had no fury in it. So that one became my main target. It was all-out situation for me on my turn.
Titan punched all it could at the empty Ravagore, and dealt sweet damage in, but just about the most important thing failed: it missed one War Gauntlet attack, so no Grab & Smash for it. I guess you lose a bit of your frenzied rage when you die or something.
Extoller Soulward walked up and took a boosted shot at the empty Ravagore. Damage roll was rather bad, but it was all straight in. That solo is golden against Hordes.
Then Beast Handlers just ran forward. And Hexeris charged the empty Ravagore. It took two attacks to bring the beast down. Then he cast Ashes to Ashes on one of the Beast Handlers. Lylyth took a POW 10, and again, damage roll was far from average.
Now Hexeris uses his feat, and here is a good place to stop to take some breath. Writing up these things is actually rather good practice, because you notice stuff that escapes attention during actual play.
So let's continue.
Hexeris uses his feat, and takes away all fury from Ravagore and one soul from Extoller.
He blasts another Beast Handler with a second Ashes to Ashes and boosts damage on Lylyth. Lylyth bites the dust again to POW 10's.
The thing here that escaped both players attention was the fact that after Hexeris' feat the Ravagore was no longer on maximum fury, so it was again eligible target for damage transfer.
This somewhat small, pittoresque, tiny and unneeded detail in the whole picture kind of steals away my thunder from winning epic Lylyth twice in a row. I couldn't have done any more attacks to Lylyth, so Everblight shouldn't have lost this one.
I might have been able to kill the last Ravagore with 3x Praetorian Swordsmen charges and Orin Midwinter, but that would've been all.
This probably calls for a rematch some time in the future, because it's plain arse to win this way and plain arse to lose this way.
No comments:
Post a Comment