End of Riven Bonds

A week and a half ago I played to Riven Bonds league games. They were the last games of our two month long league attempt - or at least they were, for me. Games were 35 points.

I used same list in both games, and it was:

Cassius the Oathkeeper and Wurmwood, Tree of Fate
- Pureblood Warpwolf
- Gorax
- Woldwatcher

Maximum unit of Wolves of Orboros + Unit Attachment

Minimum unit of Tharn Ravagers + Chieftain
Shifting Stones
Swamp Gobbers
2x Gallows Grove
Blackclad Wayfarer Hero

Objective: Effigy of Valor

First game was against Protectorate of Menoth, and the list was:

Hierarch Severius
- Vanquiher
- Reckoner
- Blessing of Vengeance

Minimum unit of Choir of Menoth
Maximum unit of Temple Flameguard + Unit Attachment
Hierophant
Reclaimer
Vassal of Menoth
Paladin Hero

Objective: something

Scenario was Fire Support, and Circle started game. First picture is from the end of Protectorate turn 1. So far Severius has cast Fear of God on Tharn Ravagers. Oh joy. They just lost most benefits their Unit Attachment gives.

It was scary to realise how Awareness mitigated Cassius' feat. I decided to use the feat right there on turn 2 to get at least some use out of it. While Severius' battlegroup might see through the forest, they wouldn't be able to get Pathfinder from anywhere! But first some random models tried to tickle Blessing of Vengeance first - namely, Blackclad Wayfarer and Pureblood Warpwolf with their sprays. Then Cassius activates, casts a Hellmouth on Blessing of Vengeance via Gallows Grove, taking a few Flameguards with the spell. And finally a Ravager walks within reach distance, and takes a swing at Blessing of Vengeance. Now look at that... the thing nearly broke. I don't remember how much damage was actually dealt, but Arc Node malfunctioned from just the Pureblood and Wayfarer sprays. Too late to save the Ravagers, though.

Severius used feat and converted five or so models from my side to fight for his. I hadn't considered that there might have been a possibility of assassination - despite having next to no Pathfinder, Severius could make full use out of my Pathfinder. Lucky me that none of the Ravagers had Line of Sight to Wurmwood, or there could have been a rather embarrassing ending. But since Wurmwood had already collected some souls for armor, and Ravagers would not get the boosted damage from charge, they just killed each other. Hey... I forgot to collect heart tokens from Ravagers to Ravagers. How... heartless.

Anyway, other than that the turn was fairly uneventful. Vanquisher and Reckoner didn't reach their full potential. What was left of Blessing of Vengeance ended the life of Gallows Grove.

Turn 3 I started stressing out from the two heavy warjacks. Most of my army had already been set on fire, and Primaled Pureblood had a chance of taking out Vanquisher with some assistance from other models, but then Reckoner would just make some very tender dog steaks out of my only "heavy" hitter. Perhaps there might have been some possibilities with correct play and target prioritising, because I did out-threat Protectorate in just about every way. But screw that. I took the easy way out and tried to assassinate.

First Blackclad Wayfarer advanced into melee with Vanquisher and casts Hunter's Mark on Severius.

Then Cassius charges Vanquisher and casts Hellmouth on a choir member, pulling Severius closer to Pureblood Warpwolf. I nearly did panic when I actually pulled Reckoner to a position that might have blocked charge from reachless Pureblood. Cassius boosts damage, and even casts Stranglehold on the old man, too. Damage rolls were pretty good, and I thought I might have a chance of finishing Severius with spray from Pureblood... if it would hit.

But since it was all-in assassination attempt with no hold backs, I brought Woldwatcher intro fray just for fun. It'd probably miss anyway. Oh, it didn't. Well, surely POW 12 wouldn't be enough to finish Severius. Oh... 5,5,6 or something like that.

Fertilizer from Woldwatcher kicks in and... Is this how new Gallows Groves are being made?

Game 2:

Second game was against Convergence against a warcaster I've never played. Whee. That's always a special joy for me.

Anyway, the list was:

Axis, the Harmonious Enforcer
- Converser
- Inverter
- Corollary

Optifex Directive
Maximum unit of Reciprocators
Maximum unit of Eradicators
Accretion Servitors
Steelsoul Protector Hero (with Shrapnel Field. Ouch.)

Convergence started game, and scenario was Close Quarters.

This second game took considerably longer, which often seems to be the case with Convergence. My lists just aren't that good at cracking single, large targets with damage boxes and some armour.

First picture is from the end of Circle turn 1, and there's not much to tell. Convergence advanced slowly and steadily. I'm not entirely certain on this, but I think Iron Aggression was on Inverter.

Turn 2 the wall of steel continues to push forward. Axis casts the razor wall spell or something like that, and uses feat defensively. All but the Wolves of Orboros are caught. Important bit here is the -2SPD that prevented Circle from charging.

Well, I reply in kind and use Cassius' feat. This time opponent had easy access to Pathfinder, but had difficulties with LoS blocking element of forest terrain. But all in all everything that happened on the right side of the board was just shuffling and repositioning. If anything happened, it happened on the left, where Wolves of Orboros charged these... things. Damn it. I just checked which unit it was, Reciprocators or Eradicators.

Oh well. Wolves used Power Swell and killed two. I think it was combined effort by Woldwatcher and Pureblood that killed the third one. Yay. Three casualties. Cassius snatched a control point from friendly flag.

Turn 3 Convergence struggles to make any meaningful attacks, too. Inverter got Pathfinder from Optifex Directive and trampled to Gorax. What was one of the bigger impacts to the game was that macropummeler attack missed with double or triple ones. This caused Gorax to survive that turn with four or so damage boxes remaining.

Converser killed a swamp gobber and Gallows Grove.

The shield wall medium based unit engaged Tharn Ravagers and started something that might pass as good British slapstick humor. Because that was what happened there for the next turns. They were slapping each other. With sticks. Nobody died, unless someone else intervened.

Some outrageous damage rolls by charging Ravagers, Gorax and I don't know who else... Cassius himself, perhaps? Wrecked Inverter. Primaled Pureblood on the other hand was next to useless against Converser. Well, damage was fine but systems didn't break. Woldwatches has probably shot an Optifex into a forest, judging from that random 3" AoE behind Convergence's front lines.

To me it looked like Converser was more than contesting the flag, so Cassius abandoned his position. Wolves of Orboros kill the rest of the leftmost medium base unit. Oh, and that Ravager Shaman there was just lending his toten staff for Wurmwood last turn to keep the tree from falling over.

Turn 4 some ravagers finally die to combined melee attacks by the other medium base unit. Pureblood Warpwolf and Gorax defy death, though I don't think more than one of the infantry models tried to attack it. Pureblood not dying was an unexpected bonus, but it'd waste its activation next turn to a mandatory frenzy.

On my turn Wolves started to control enemy flag, and Converser died.

I wasn't sure if the closest enemy infantry model that's closest to the camera was within 4" of the flag, and trying to dominate a flag when there's enemy warcaster almost right next to you is usually a bad idea. So Cassius chickened out and stayed on the hill.

Turn 5 Convergence finally kills Pureblood Warpwolf. This is done personally by Axis, and seeing all those misses was quite painful, even as the opponent of my opponent.

Tharn Chieftain dies, and it looks like one medium base infantry model is still contesting my friendly flag, and the nearly unkillable Steelsoul Protector might be within 4", too. So it didn't help me much that I controlled a third scenario point during opponents turn, and scored fourth on my own turn. I was torn between trying to assassinate or trying to going for scenario victory. And as it has been over a week since this game was played, I have to admit that I don't actually remember how game ended. Did Cassius charge Axis and kileld him, or was Convergence unable to contest their flag? I don't know if we'll ever know for sure.