Welcome to the Slaughterhouse(s)

Played two 35 point games of Hordes last Monday with following list:

Dominar Rasheth

- Archidon
- Rhinodon
- Basilisk Drake
- Basilisk Krea
- 2x Reptile Hounds

Maximum unit of Praetorian Swordsmen
Minimum unit of Paingiver Beast Handlers
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew
Mortitheurge Willbreaker
Bloodrunner Master Tormentor
Feralgeist

And opponent had:

Thagrosh the Prophet
- Carnivean
- Ravagore
- Scythean

Maximum unit of Blighted Ogrun Warspears
Forsaken

Scenario was Close Quarters in both games, and Skorne started both games.

There's not much to say about the first game. Thagrosh was too close and had spent all his Fury because of a slight mismanagement of Fury. Rasheth had Carnivore on Rhinodon, Blood Mark on Thagrosh and then used his feat.

Warspears were lined up so that I really needed to kill a few of them or Rhinodon would take far too many free strikes on his was to Thagrosh. Basilisk Drake rolled pretty good rolls with the spray and killed maybe two warspears, and then reptile hounds took care of the last one who was threatening with a free strike.

But still... Thagrosh was Arm 16 with that -2 strenght bubble going on for him. Rhinodon was Enraged (P+S 16) and Thagrosh had Blood Mark and Plague Wind (-4 arm) so the final chances were MAT 7 (Carnivore) with all damage straight in to Thagrosh with four Fury. This time it was more than enough.

Well, next game went a bit differently. Or, quite a lot differently, in fact.


Game 2:

So, we got the same scenario and same starting order.

First picture from this game is actually from the end of Skorne turn 2. Carnivore had been cast on Rhinodon, and Rasheth has cast Blood Mark on Carnivean.

I thought I'd try to get some sort of alpha strike with Archidon, but the enraged charge was about quarter of an inch too short.

One full round has passed in between the pictures.

Warspears were punishing Praetorian Swordsmen, and Ravagore took a shot at Rhinodon, setting the turtle on fire. Scythean beat the crap out of Archidon, but didn't kill the beast. Carnivean backs up a little and sprays Archidon, killing it. This time I remember to use Feralgeist, who Spirit Binds the flying reptile.

Next Blood Mark is cast on Ravagore, and Rasheth cast Amuck to Rhinodon. Beast Handlers enrage Rhinodon and Rufus, the reptile hound. Basilisk Drake sprays Ravagore, and finally Rhinodon charges it, but fails to kill. Well, what can you expect from a 7 point base p+s 14 warbeast?

Next another Reptile Hound runs to engage Ravagore, after which Rufus charges with Slaughterhouse on. Damn the little dogs bite hard with that flank bonus - Ravagore was removed from play.

Again one full round is in between the pictures.

Attacking was tricky for Legion now. If Archidon would die, then Feralgeist would be free to give an additional hit to any of the many beasts Skorne got lined up in the front line.

I don't remember the exact activation order, but I think that Carnivean activated first and tried to kill Rhinodon, but failed.

Then Forsaken got Line of Sight to Archidon and charged it, killing it. Feralgeist popped out. Scythean used Slaughterhouse animus and advanced to remove Rhinodon and one of the Reptile Hounds from game. Since both heavy warbeasts were on full Fury now, Thagrosh started flinging spells all over the place. First he cast Mutagenesis on a Praetorian Swordsman, then advanced and cast another Mutagenesis on Feralgeist.

Meh.

Well, then it's Skorne turn. Swamp Gobbers run fast forward, and Rasheth uses one of them to cast Blood Mark on Scythean. He also uses Plague Wind, since it was quite imperative to get those heavy beasts removed from play. I think Rasheth also cast one Sunder Spirit at Carnivean.

Basilisk Krea paralysed Scythean, or at least tried to, I don't remember if it was a success.

Beast Handlers enrage Reptile Hound and Basilisk Drake. Drake charges Carnivean first and does impressive damage alltogether. But still the beast had a little too many hit boxes remaining that I could realistically hope for Reptile Hound to kill it... but that didn't stop Rufus from trying.

Reptile Hound uses Slaughterhouse and charges Carnivean. Damage roll was either 5, 5, 6 or 6, 6, 5. Oh my, Rufus had already taken down two heavy warbeasts. Was there any chance it would take down the whole trio?

No, no there wasn't.

Scythean Slaughterhouse'd both Basilisk Drake and Reptile Hound down, and the duel between Warspears and Praetorian Swordsmen was finally over.

So... I got two different options. I could try to kill Scythean with a couple of spells from Rasheth and Basilisk Krea. I think Scythean was on full Fury, so I also might try to kill Thagrosh with spells from Rasheth. Since Thagrosh had much less hit boxes than Scythean, I decided to try to go for the assassination, come what may.

Willbreaker gives Puppet Master to Basilisk Krea, who then advances and shoots Thagrosh with its blinded eyes. It's a hit! So, at least I wouldn't miss any of Rasheth's spells.

Slowly and unsteadily Rasheth lumbers forward and start measuring Control Area to see if Thagrosh was within 10". Turned out he wasn't. Damn it, why didn't I measure 14" before advancing? Well, then Rasheth tried to cast two Breath of Corruptions, hoping for good deviations. One of them actually was lucky, and I got to make a boosted POW 12 damage roll against Thagrosh. Well, I'm sure it's no suprise - it didn't one-shot Thagrosh.

Now. Situation was bad. It had been bad before, but now it was unbearable.

Ogrun Warspears assault Rasheth, but don't really do damage. There is, however, a Scythean within walking distance to Rasheth.

I took a close-up picture from the epic last stand of Rasheth. I mean, that Scythean sure has a meal on a plate right there. It's chin was in fact inside the chalice with that undefined yellowish drink.

The lack of a Bronzeback Titan was surely felt again in this game. It also didn't help much that I failed to estimate the 10.5" charge of Archidon on turn 2. Regardless, I was really happy with the Reptile Hounds. Their animi were quite essential in lessening Thagrosh's feat's impact. Now, come to think of it... I think every warbeast that got destroyed was removed from play in this game, except Archidon?

So, in this game Rufus played following tricks:

Kill: twice
Play dead: once.