Game 218 - C - Gorten vs 3Gaspy

No Clock
Scenario from 2015 SR Draft
Flags - Dominate for 1
Zone - Control for 1, Dominate for 2
Aligned Objectives

Gorten - Earthbreaker, 2x Blasters, Boomhowlers (Max), ATGM + UA, TAC, Madelyn, Tinker, Dougal, Thor, Anastasia

3Gaspy + random skarlock dude - Cankerworm, Node (Bite), Bane Knights, Bane Cav, Darragh Wrathe, Combine, Tartarus, Bane Thralls + UA

Lose the die roll, get given first turn.

Earthbreaker on one side doesn't seem great.

New thoughts: Gorten and the Earthbreaker need to both be central to get their work done. In these cases of their being a central objective, they should deploy such that they can move forward in a straight line either side of the objective.

Things to examine:
* Getting the infantry units in position but not in the way
* What function do the TAC do in this matchup
* Getting the spray bunnies where they need to be

Cryx deploy, Blackbanes subbing in as some models for the Bane Knights. Viciforon (3Gaspys special skarlock buddy) is the black banner holding model on the left of the Knights unit.

Merc 1: Everything moves up. The boomies spread out unnecessarily, as I did not take into account Solid Ground (Minimal ranged attacks in the Cryx matchup in any case). Gun mages bunch up.

Cryx 1: Thralls get Ashen Veiled, everything else runs up.

Merc 2: Upkeep Solid Ground, put two on Earthbreaker, two on Gorten. Earthbreaker gets powered up, moves up and kills the Arcnode. The first boosted knockdown shot misses, but the second hits and ensures its death, but the Collosal has no more valid targets (Cankerworm is stealth). Gun Mages move up, Snipe to attempt to hurt Tartarus and do nothing. Gorten moves up, puts a Rock wall down. Boomies move up to block. TAC and Anastasia move up, the TAC do Vortexes.

Two egregious errors this turn:
* Dougal should have mini feated to allow the Gun mages to hold back a bit and do shots on the thralls, Tartarus was a wasted target and I placed them such that if he lived they were in Cursed charge range of the Thralls
* I boxed Gorten in for no reason (More on this next turn!)

Cryx 2: Tartarus charges up, Curses the Gun Mages, kills one and creates a Knight. Knights and Cav hit the Boomies, kills a good few of them. Darragh wraith Cav charges, then Beyond Deaths and light cavs backwards. Cankerworm charges Galleon, takes out about a Quarter of its health. Gaspy camps four focus and runs up on the hill.

Merc 3: Madelyns Intrigue move doesn't get used due to Gorten being boxed in. Solid Ground drops, Earthbreaker gets two. Gun mages move away, take free strikes from the thralls that kill them. TAC move around, use AoE's to clear out the front Bane Thralls. Gun Bunnies both push Gorten. Madelyn can't get their without Tartarus free striking and creating a blocking Bane of some kind, so Anastasia has to run and be Gortens charge target. Earthbraker gets its usual buffs, Dougal minifeats. Gorten charges anastasia, hits and kills her. Feat drags everything toward him, Pendrake moves over and uses a Bola shot to knock Gaspy down. Earthbreaker turns on the spot, shoots gaspy down to one health.

Points to consider:
* I always waste time on the Intrigue move so far. New rule, if it can't be used on Gorten just move along.
* The assassination run was not the most viable play. The Gun Bunny pushes were lucky, but then it was a variety of mis plays. Considering Gaspy's end point, Dougal didn't need to mini feat, could have waited and used him as a last ditch assassination effort, likewise to Pendrake. Needing to charge Anastasia was the biggest problem that Madelyn is meant to fix but stopped by my own misplays.
* I had the option to do a difficult terrain shot on Gaspy, which would have left him unable to get to Gorten, though that would have been the mightiest of easily ripped off band aids.

Alternate play (scenario)
* Attrition doesn't look to be especially viable, the Cav in particular are an issue
* Could have moved Gun Mages, Anastasia and TAC, have Dougal mini feat
* Earthbreaker moves up, kills the Objective
* Gortencharges up, feats and pushes the centre of the Cryx stuff backwards
* Go to 3, have Boomies block the Knights/Cav, Bunnies clear out anything left in the zone

Cryx 3: Tartarus moves to Gorten, hits him for a bit. Gaspy walks over, kills Gorten.


Player Grading
Time Management: 6, decent speed outside of the Madelyn uncertainty.
Scenario Awareness: 4, could have made a scenario play and did no do so.
Spacing and Placement: 3, self sabotaged.
Target Priority: 7, picked some okay models to attack however....
Effectiveness: 4, outside of preparing for the missed shot on the arc node in general used poor dice math and had inefficient plans.
Cool: 8, no issues cool wise.
Grade: C (32)

Gorten List Theory #1

List:

Gorten
* Earthbreaker
* Blaster
* Blaster
Boomhowlers (Max)
ATGM + UA
TAC
Madelyn
Tinker
Dougal
Thor
Anastasia

Pairing with MacBain!, which as the main list hogs most characters.

Theoretical drops for Gorten: Skorne, Trolls, Legion Cryx. Mainly the latter, first two is splash damage and dependent on the list builds (i.e. MacBain would do better against Runes, but less against meat Mountain).

List unpacking: Earthbreaker generall to one side, Anastasia never ambushes at this point in practice play. Issue of juggling room, Boomhowlers should be out front taking hits, ATGM need gaps through them to shoot stuff, is a list activation issue I've yet to quite figure out.

Basic plan: On live scenario, Gorten charges up with Madelyn and pushes from the Gun bunnies, feats opposing models out of the relevant areas, Boomies jam in. If opposing caster is with 17" and placed appropaitely, pull them in and assassinate. Lastly is pull in the front line and kill away.

Faction specifics:

Cryx - Principal idea is to either push infantry blobs away and ping with Gun Mages, or pull heavy cav into a line of Boomies away from Darragh Wrathe and get perfect spray attacks. Specific caster points:

* eDenny - If Mercs go first, Gorten actually needs a push in order to cast, charge and be out of Kill box, then have his wall in front of him and the Earthbreaker behind to stop Hellmouth + feat + Killbox auto losses. Boomies have to jam and pray they do good tough rolls.

Legion - No general rules, not that much variety in Legion casters as far as I know, so specifics:

* eLylth - Getting to round two requries only moving up 6 from the deployment edge. Can either have a wall or deploy at the six mark. Current theory is move bulk of army only up six, that's outside of Ravagore range but not of the Teraph. Vital to keep the Gun Mages spread out and in Solid Ground aura. TAC to either contest zones or join the Bunnies in shielding Gorten, Earthbreaker likely to jsut run and contest early turn or two. Opposing positioning dependent on feat on two or three, if Lylth can't draw a bead on Gorten likely to lose all infantry. Madelyn to run up with mob of Boomies, hopefully they either take up to much effort or a misposition gives extra speed to Gorten.

* eThags - Unsure, can do a melee long range threat under feat. Probably key is holding feat and threatening Thags until placed to kill him or the majority of his heavies.

* eVayl - Cast no upkeeps, camp a minimum of four focus a turn, at most giving one to the Earthbreaker as general practice to not die to the feat turn double Oblit.

Gams 216/7 - Win/Loss - Gorten vs eButcher/eLylth

Slam!
Deathclock

Gorten - Earthbreaker, 2x Blasters, Boomhowlers (Max), ATGM + UA, TAC, Madelyn, Tinker, Dougal, Thor, Anastasia


eButcher - Beast 09, Malakov + Juggernaught, Kayazy Assassins + UA, Gorman, Doge, Widowmakers, Saxon, Drakhun, Fenris, Eliminators

I lose the die roll (Dammit Stasia!), given second, take the side with the hill (The brown circle).

Bottom of turn 1's: Redline goes out on the Jugger, everything on both sides run up, Solid Ground goes up.

Khador, top of 2: Butcher moves up, feats. Widows and Kayazy clear off the right most Boomies, four feat tokens crop up, Boundless Red Lined Jugger which had charged up gets three tokens, a Kayazy gets the last token. Jugger goes in to Gorten, misses twice, hits once at dice +2, puts Gorten on five health. Kayazy comes in to swing and miss.

Merc, bottom of two, ATGM aim and knock the Juggernaught back, at some point criting and knocking it down. Madelyn uses Seduction on the random Kayazy to get him out of the way. Gorten charges the Jugger, feats, pulls everything towards my edge eight inches, boosts the to hit and crit slams the Jugger into Butcher, then hits him with a boosted damage Eruption. Earthbreaker gets all the buffs, moves on the spot, shoots Butcher dead.

Player Grading
Time Management: 7, ahead on time, but wasn't going to be the winning factor.
Scenario Awareness: 6, had a rough idea but wasn't going to be particularly relevant.
Spacing and Placement: 4, outside of Gorten placement was allright, but left way to much of a shot on the caster.
Target Priority: 8, killed the relevant models.
Effectiveness: 8, decent dice math
Cool: 9, no issues.
Grade: B (42)


eLylth -2x Ravagores, Angelius, Teraph, 2x Deathstriders, Swamp Gobbers, support solos

Won the die roll, picked first, run up.

Boomies get shot up.

Gorten runs, nothing gets achieved, Gun mages take half the health off the Teraph.

Lylth feats, clears the right zone, destroys the objective, goes to 3 cp.

Gorten can't reach Lilith with the feat.

Gun Bunny run in to contest gets killed by the Angelius.

Needed to feat drag in for attrition kills. Walls aren't going to cut it, Def 17 is still to easily hit. Gun mages bypassing shadowpack should have been more noted. TAC + Bunnies to shield, Earthbreaker possibly deployed to one entire side?

Player Grading
Time Management: 7, doing allright but not likely to be a winning factor.
Scenario Awareness: 2, misplayed badly.
Spacing and Placement: 3, barely attempted to have matchups, have not got the initial deployment/advances down pat, especially in a split zone scenario.
Target Priority: 6, what attempts that could be made were.
Effectiveness: 5, so few rolls its hard to judge.
Cool: 6, had no idea what to do but paid attention.
Grade: D (29)

Game 215 - Win - Gorten vs Xerxis

Greek statues understand me. Play with clocks. PLAY WITH CLOCKS.

Rally Point
Untimed

Gorten - Earthbreaker, 2x spray bunnies, Anastasia, Thor, Pendrake, pEiryss, Dougal, ATGM + UA, Boomhowlers (Max), TAC

Xerxis Tier 3 Fist - Archidon, Beast Handlers, 2x Reaver Cannons, Hordes of Medium base dudes, 2x Tycoms

I won the roll, picked second. Because I'm an idiot.

Note: Hakaar the mighty destroyer and the random small based model near him are the second Tycom, NOT the horrible engine of soul sucking destruction.

Deployment made me loathe that friendly objective, it sat there sneering away even though I really didn't want to split my stuff between two zones.

Skorne 1: Move up lads!

Merc 1: pEiryss shoots a Reaver Cannon member, everything else just runs up, Gorten casts Solid Ground.

Skorne 2: Front Boomhowlers get set on Fire. It was lame. One dies. Xerxis feats.

Haides: Did....did you feat defensively?
Hoopergeddon: Yeah, I won't need it to kill anything but the Earthbreaker
Haides:.....

Haides slumps on table! 4xp to Hoopergeddon!

I see the logic in feating, and it was certainly less agonising than what I did....

Merc 2: Solid Ground upkept, two focus to the Earthbraker, one to each Bunny. Boomies run to random locations, do a few meaningless attacks. Gorten charges one, kills him but he toughs. Gorten feats, grabs virtually everything except the two far units on the right.

And the Beast Handlers.

That line of small base munchkins.

I'd like to say that I did this without thinking, reality is I stared at the table for a full five minutes trying to think of something to do.

Everything goes back not 8 inches. I bump the Archidon first so that it doesn't go away from the Earthbreakers shots. Everything else chocks up on the Beast Handlers.

Thor and Dougal boost the Earthbreakers junk. It is now possessing mighty junk.

Dougal also mini-feats.

Earthbreaker moves up, knocks down the Cetrati/Incindarii chumps in front of it. Archidon is steady, no point knocking it down. I kill the nearby non-Hakaar shaped Tycom to stop him standing people up, then fire the remaining shot into the Archidon, doing not much.

Pendrake gives Beast Lore to the Gun Mages, they move up and do literally nothing (Crit brutal? Pff, screw getting Crits).

Allright, half were also out of range of the Archidon, but that's a lot less cathartic than blaming low percentile dice scenarios.

TAC move up, put up Vortexes as something to do.

I needed attacks to put into that last contesting Incidarii, realistically the ATGM were the only option but the Boomhowlers were blocking line of site. The Boomhowlers had to move first for something for Gorten to charge, need to put in Madelyn for some Movement shenanigans.

Skorne 3: Everything shuffles up, Xerxis heals the Archidon and casts Inhospitable. A few fire shots go out, killing not much but setting a few Boomies, Gorten and the Earthbreaker on fire. The true story of this turn though was the charge and kill on the Gunbunny in the right zone.

Attempt #1: Stalled by mocking for Hooper cancelling his order for Warders
Attempt #2: Ceased by Andrew being interested in buying hoopers trolls
Attempt #3: Not sure, I entered a dreamland of the previous week, recalling my curses upon Hooper only having to pay NSW Rego costs
Attempt #4: Countered by Callum saying something exasperating
Attempt #5: Self inflicted, bewildered by Hoops being disgruntled at playing Fists and yet ever contemplating a move to Trolls
Attempt #6: Actually worked, but I was experiencing a flashback of Adam going on about how no one sticks with Ret

Eventually the Gun Bunny died.

Merc 3: No Defenders Ward or Shield Wall, the Earthbreaker gets powered up and shoots a bunch of the heavy infantry in the centre and hurts the Archidon. The ATGM get Beast Lore, finish off the Archidon and fails four rolls at dice minus six to even Injure the Cetrati.

Eiryss plinks a model down with Deathbolt.

Skorne 4: Xerxis has to cut for Fury, the Earthbreaker gets scratched at, Boomhowlers slowly whittled away.

Merc 4: Gun Bunny sprays half a dozen models to death, Earthbreaker plinks at the models in the right zone. Gorten cowers.

Skorne 5: Xerxis charges in, kills a Boomhowler, few other models make what attacks they can.

Merc 5: Earthbreaker ends our torment, killing Xerxis.

Player Grading
Time Management: 4, had their been a clock I would not have done well.
Scenario Awareness: 5, had a decent plan, did not execute it to well.
Spacing and Placement: 4, deployment problematic and cramped.
Target Priority: 7, the Tycom, knock down shots and Archidon were the right selections.
Effectiveness: 5, alright dice math outside of the Gun Mages, hoping for crits is not a great plan.
Cool: 5, multiple mental errors.
Grade: 30

List changes: pEiryss out, Tinker and Madelyn in. Gorten needs the Intrigue move, Tinker is a possible charge target for feat turn.

Notes for the future: Need to have the Boomhowlers placed to act after the Feat activates to jam the zone. whether or not to go first though? Scenario dependent. In this one probably should have gone first and played for the friendly zone?

Games 213/4 - Loss/Win - Bart vs pGrissel/Lucant

Sunday Slam!
Deathclock

4* Bart - 2x Galleon, Wrongeye/Snapjaw + Bullsnapper, Aiyanna + Holt, Dougal MacNaile, Gobber Tinker

Game 1 - Loss

Destruction

Miserable Meat Mountain. Urk.
pGrissel - Mulg, Axer, 2x Warders, Champs + UA, Stones + UA, Fell Caller Hero

 Pic from near the bottom of 2.

Lost die roll, given second. Flat on the left is a forest, on the right is a hill. Both ran turn one, Trolls jammed to middle of the zone top of two with Grissels feat up, bottom of two one Galleon edged in and killed the fell caller hero (Has a stand up power that would have mitigated Barts feat), other Galleon on hill kills most of the stones. Bart feats, but Grissels feat and kill box stops him from both casting and being out of the kill box.

Didn't consider opening turn was going to be running and the right Galleon was going to be on the hill, should have put Hotshot on the right one first to allow proper Hotshot juggling. Would have opened the possibility of a Mulg kill as well.

Trolls 3, they calamity the Galleon but Bart feat stops much from happening.

Merc 3, Axer gets killed, stones brought down to a single member.

Trolls/Merc 4: Galleon in zone dies, Troll objective gets killed, Mulg bounces off the other Galleon, jamming stuff goes in, Trolls go to 3 CP.

Merc response is unable to clear stuff out the front of the Galleon to get it into the zone and to kill Mulg, Bart is forced to go out the side to attempt a spray, kill boxes and loses.

Player Grading
Time Management: 6, keeping on par but not pulling ahead.
Scenario Awareness: 5, knew what to do but jammed out to much.
Spacing and Placement: 7, misplace at the end, for overall had decent placement for the rest of the game, with other considerations they should have paid off more.
Target Priority: 8, put good attacks into the stones and got the anti-Bart model early, then got stuck into beasts, reasonable selections.
Effectiveness: 8, plans had good dice math.
Cool: 7, Hot Shot screw up and all the junk on Grissel feat were off balancing, but came back together.
Grade: B (41)

Game 2
Into the Breach

Lucant - Cipher, Monitor, Corrolary, Galvanizer, Reciprocators (Med shields), Reductors + UA (Small sprayers), Eradicators (Med Sidesteppers), 3x Repair guys, 2x Enigma Foundries

I won the roll, picked first, given the side with more funneling.

Opening turns, we both run up, hot shot goes on the left Galleon, Watcher/Decel goes up.

Merc 2: Dougal moves up, mini-feats. Both Galleons advance, one to get in contest range of the flag, the other to toe the zone. The left one shoots down the Corrolary, I forget to juggle hotshot so the right one fails to kill the Medium blocker and drag the Monitor in. Everything else moves up. Bart feats.

CoC 2: Everything advances slowly due to feat, Lucant feats and Purifies off the Spinies and Hotshot.

Merc 3: Aiyanna walks up and harms the Monitor. Spines go up on the Galleons. Right one charges the Monitor, dinging it up somewhat. Left one runs and engages the Cipher. Bart moves over a bit, casts Batten. Tinker prepares to sacrifice his life valiantly.

CoC 3: Everything runs/charges in if able, Lucant drops back. Lucant casts Positive Charge, but doesn't have any focus to Purify. Monitor hits Galleon, Spiny puts it on four boxes, everything else fails to do much damage. Galvaniser misses Tinker.

Merc 4: Snapjaw kills the Galvanizer, Tinker heals the right Galleon, Galleons kill the heavies and an Enigma. Dougal fails to kill a single Medium infantry model. Other stuff goes to the right as far as they can, Bart Battens.

CoC 4: Lucant charges the left Galleon, Purifies Spiny off, hits it relatively badly. Other stuff does little damage.

Merc 5: Lucant gets pulped by the Galleons.

Probably should have continued conservative play, both players with about 35 minutes on clock, would have lost the left Galleon but could have killed the Enigmas, the Reductors and the Reciprocators, next turn Lucant finishes off a Galleon but I either start scoring or kill Lucant trivially.

Proper order of activations (Allocate 3 to the right Galleon, three to Bart):

1. Snapjaw charges the near Reciprocator, kills two of them
2. Aiyana and Holt Kiss the Reductors, Holt kills the top two
3. MacNaile aims, kills nearest four Reductors
4. Bart moves up, stays out of Lucants charge range toeing the zone and casts Batten, sprays if he can get the mechanic guys in range
5. Right Galleon turns a bit to the left to engage the back Eradicators, buys Melee attacks to kill the Enigma Foundry and Reciprocatrs
6. Left Galleon turns, shoots down the other Enigma foundry
7. Snapper does whatever

Player Grading
Time Management: 6, not pulling ahead but keeping par.
Scenario Awareness: 8, match up not conducive to a scenario win but ensured contesting.
Spacing and Placement: 8, recognised matchups and moved appropriately.
Target Priority: 9, Corrolary! killed heavies as the conservative play, felt was better move than a not great assassination.
Effectiveness: 6, forgot to juggle hotshot was a wasted opportunity, but otherwise decent attack odds used.
Cool: 9, no issues.
Grade:

Game 212 - Win - MacBain! vs Old Witch

No Clock
Outflank

MacBain! - Galleon, Silly Wishnailer, Gorman wondercloak, Kayazy Assassins + UA, Steelhead Halberdiers (Max), Alexia, TAC, Orin, Ragman, eEiryss

Old Witch + Scrapjack - Conquest, WGRC, Joe, Black Dragon IFP + UA, IFP Kovnik, Aiyanna + Holt, Bad Santa, Ternion, Mechaniks

I won the die roll, picked first (This is three games in a row, something weird is going on)

Invisi-Conquest! Ternions are spread out in a line.

Merc 1: Run lads! Fortune on Galleon, Countermeasures on Kayazy.

Khador 1: Covering Fire/Murder of Crows get thrown out. Black Dragons mini-feat to survive blast shots and run forward, they receive Iron Flesh as well.

Merc 2: Eiryss drops back, shoots off Iron Flesh, a second Thrall pops up and moves to be annoying. Galleon shoots at the stealthed scrapjack, manages to kill a pair of mechaniks and Aiyanna. Also Harpoons a Black Dragon and keeps out of Conquest charge range.MacBain! puts Failsafe on the Galleon. TAC stagger forward and cloud city. Other stuff spreads out.

Khador 2: Old Witch Iron Fleshes herself and feats, catching most of my stuff. Conquest toddles forward, has Augury to ignore the TAC clouds and is just in range of Alexia to kill her with the big gun (Rolls just enough that it would have killed the entire Risen unit). The irritating Thrall gets killed, the other gets missed by the lone IFP sent on him. Covering Fire gets thrown out.

Should have read Old Witches card more carefully, completely forgot about Augury with Dire consequences. Alexia should have had a wall of Risen in front of her, good note for next time, applicable should the legion match ever occur.

Merc 3: A steelhead moves to die and be out of the way of the Galleon, which walks up to the Conquest that ended 7" away. MacBain feats on stuff, casts Jackhammer five times to leave the Conquest on three boxes. Ragman walks away so MacBain! doesn't get suckered. Orin Null Magics. The dorfs walk forward, two get smashed down by the feat, one doesn't and manages to kill the Conquest. Kayazy in covering fire move out and get knocked down. Eiryss moves back, Thrall misses an IFP, Risen run up in a mob.

Conquest kill attempt wasn't the original plan, and shouldn't have been done, as by the math it lives. Plan was for feated steelies to move in the way of the Conquest and Galleon does another round of shots. Without Ragman, Conquest doesn't get one round, killing IFP or WGRC would have been much more worthwhile.

Khador 3: WGRC jam into the Kayazy, IFP charge Galleon and remove over half its health, Scrappy charges a steelhead, misses with most of its Avatar of Slaughtered attacks and last hit gets toughed. Old Witch moves over to the right zone.

Merc 4: Galleon tramples, kills a single IFP. Ragman Dark Fields, Steelies charge in and kill an IFP, Scrappy takes a little damage. Risen charge up and jam around, fail to kill the Kovnik. Kayazy charge up, killing most of the WGRC. Gorman blinds three of the IFP. Orin moves over, misses the IFP with Lightning. Dorfs ineffectually throw fire around. MacBain runs over the far left zone. Eiryss charges Scrappy, hits for massive damage to leave it on two Movement boxes.

Orin should have lightninged the Galleon to kill some IFP, then MacBain! should have tried Jackhammering, getting IFP killed and toeing the zone this turn would have been a much better course of action.
Why did Gorman throw a Blind?! Acid bomb would have been a much better plan, killing the damn targets instead.

Khador 4: IFP engage Gorman, hit the Galleon for still more damage. Ternion sprays clear off the Steelies.

Khador go to 2 CP.

Merc 5: Ragman kills Scrappy, Kayazy get Pathfinder from Rhupert and mini-feat, charge over. MacBain! fails to clear out the zone with a missed Rift. Orin Null Magics. Risen surround Old Witch impotently. Galleon toes zone, kills a Ternion.

Khador 5: Old Witch kills Galleon and co clear out zone, engage what they can.

Khador go to 4 CP.

Merc 6: Stuff jams over, Holt dies, Sylyss finishes clearing the left zone. Orin Null Magics.

Mercs go to 2 CP.

Khador 6: Gorman kills with a free strike, Orin refuses to die and Ed concedes as Mercs go to 6 CP overall.






Player Grading
Time Management: 6, long game with some not great plans but they were executed with relatiely minimal hesitation.
Scenario Awareness: 5, won out but definitely could have scenario'd better.
Spacing and Placement: 2, Alexia's death was not well done..
Target Priority: 6, getting Aiyanna was excellent, but definitely should have launched more attacks on the IFP and not been suckered into an attempt on the Conquest.
Effectiveness: 4, Dice math, especially on the Conquest, was poor.
Cool: 8, was calm but dumb.
Grade: 31