The Awkward Tree

Last Tuesday I played a game of Hordes vs Hordes.

Not a big suprise, I brought Skorne.

My 35 point list:

Lord Tyrant Hexeris
- Bronzeback Titan
- Basilisk Drake
- Basilisk Krea
- 2x Reptile Hounds

Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Beast Handlers
Venator Flayer Cannon
Agonizer
Extoller
Mortitheurge Willbreaker

I was playing against Legion of Everblight (in person):

Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight
- Carnivean
- Scythean
- Shredder
- Afflictor

Maximum unit of Warspears + Chieftain
2x Forsaken

Skorne started game, but the first picture is taken from the end of Skorne turn 2. Nothing has happened yet. Draconic Blessing is on Scythean and Death March is on Praetorian Swordsmen. Thagrosh has Fog of War on, too.

Scythean charges Basilisk Krea, and kills her and a whole bunch of Swordsmen. Afflictor charges to Praetorian Swordsmen and makes an Incubus. Positioning was very awkward here, so the empty medium base high up in the tree represents Afflictor.

Scythean makes an assault and spray kills Agonizer.

So many important pieces dead in one turn. But fear not! I had the perfect plan for a counter-offensive. Hexeris' feat removed models from play, so if I only could kill all the warbeasts on my side, only a Shredder could come back from Thagrosh's feat.

Well.

If only.

I'm quite proud of all the shenanigans I pulled off, shame that they just didn't pay off.

First Hexeris activates, uses feat and charges Scythean. Hexeris manages to miss two attacks, and overall performance is annoyingly bad. I decide to pull back with Beat Back and leave two Fury left for transfers instead of buying attacks against Scythean. I was quite sure I'd manage to do enough damage to kill the beast.

Bronzeback Titan charges Carnivean. Carnivean dies, no suprises there, but Bronzeback knocks over 25% of its own health boxes out thanks to Spiny Growth.

Basilisk Drake advances and sprays so that both Scythean and Afflictor are under the template. Hits Scythean, but misses Afflictor. Scythean is in quite bad shape, but not dead yet.

Running out of options, both of the Reptile Hounds run next to Scythean. Beast Handlers then enrage Rufus.

Mortitheurge Willbreaker activates and uses Ancillary Attack on Rufus. P+S 10 + 3d6 hits Scythean and brings it down to... down to one damn hit box remaining. What is this thing with Thagrosh and one hit box?

I had been saving up my Venator Flayer Cannon and Extoller. Extoller took aiming bonus and an attack boost and tried to shoot Scythean who was engaged in melee. Miss, but a hit on Praetorians.

Venator Flayer Cannon is my last resort, though it needed 10's to hit thanks to melee bonus and concealment. But I really had to deal that one last point of damage. Cannon rolls full 3 shots. All miss. Two of them hit Praetorians, down goes the unit leader and the officer.

That was pretty miserable turn, but at least I know I tried.

Next Scythean is a healed a little and it takes out both Reptile Hounds. Afflictor continues to spawn incubi, and Praetorian Swordsmen manage to fail their command check. Damn it... Skorne has one of the best if not the best Command in the whole game. I guess Praetorians didn't approve the friendly fire from last turn.

Thagrosh juggles Draconic Blessing to Warspears, and they assault Bronzeback Titan. The spears they were throwing dealt much more damage than actual charge attacks, just as in the very same game I linked earlier. That must be some sort of karma thing. Anyway... Bronzeback fell. And when Bronzeback falls, so does whole Skorne.

Next Hexeris charges Scythean again and this time he kills the beast, but that was actually a bad thing for me. Thagrosh would only bring it back next turn.

Rest of Skorne army manages to kill two Warspears, and that's it.

Oh, if you're wondering about the long gunners in the woods - they're the incubi. Somehow I find that more disturbing than the actual incubi models.

Anyway, Legion closes in to Hexeris. Warspears try to assault Hexeris, but only one gets to do actual attacks against him. And misses.

This turn it's time for Beast Handlers to fail their command check. Skorne failing Command check twice during a game. Talk about a disciplined army.

It's pretty much game over, but thanks to Vampiric Reaving of Hexeris, I wanted to do a heroic last stand.

Hexeris started buying attacks against the incubi and warspear, using beat back to advance to Afflictor. He kills Afflictor and reaves 3 Fury from it. He then buys enough attacks to kill the warspear and advance to Shredder. Well, it really would have been awesome to actually do a heroic killing spree like that, but Hexeris was too exhausted to kill a Shredder even with five fury.

Praetorian swordsman feels pity for Hexeris and tries to come and kill Shredder, but the shredder just wouldn't die.

Thagrosh himself charges and makes Hexeris into a cloud effect.


But then to the interesting stuff:

So far, as a result from three games, Rufus has performed each of the following tricks once:
- Lie down
- Bite
- Play dead