Outlast
10 days between games? Makes me a Sad Norway. Well, not really, in the sense I'm not representative of the country in any particular way, but the Angry Oz thing is taken (I think it's a youtuber? Whatever).
J-man of the triple name origin appears, rolling a small blob of flag behind a load of souls trapped in stone bodies.
It feels like I've played sod all against Rasheth. Hypothetically paired with a Naaresh brick blob, I decide that Arkadius was going to be more effort and nuanced for me to bother. Plus Skorne would need sod all models around to kill everything, Pig defensive stats being super sad.
Thus we get:
Rask1 (Blindwater Congregation) - Wrastler, 3x Boneswarms, Posse, Croak Raiders, Bokor + Shamblers, Bellows Crew, Totem Hunter, Gatorman Witch Doctor, Mist Speaker, Feralgeist, Tinker
vs
Rasheth1 (The Exalted) - Mammoth, Krea, Cyclops Savage, 2x Immortals + UA's, 2x Ancestral Guardian, Hakaar, Extoller, Paingivers
Rules Error: I've played to much Convergence of late and completely spaced on the Vault not being able to collect their souls. Woops. Be prepared for that to be mentioned a bunch.
There is something odd about Rasheth being allowed to boss around proper Hoksune dudes.
List wise the Mammoth shooting down the Vault is a concern, however as long as it is alive it is excellent at making the Immortals unhappy.
Outlast works for both sides given we both have plenty of unit models.
I win the die roll and select first, I end up with a slightly impeding forest and a hill toeing the right zone.
The centre of the board has a cloud and a trench.
Left zone has some water, right zone has a forest that favours Skorne contesting.
Skorne have a super defensive wall.
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Minions 1: Skorne deploy extremely symmetrical, so all my decision points occur around the terrain and scenario. The existence of the right zone forest makes claiming that zone potentially a massive headache if a Skorne model just hides behind it, so I choose to run the vault from it's central deployment toward the right, as it will be the best contesting model in my possession.
Croaks, Totem Hunter and two of the Bone Swarms (One with Fury) go out left, intending to claim that zone and start the scoring on top of round three.
Posse, Rask and Wrastler sit in the middle to do all the work.
The last Boneswarm has Admonition and is out on the right, intended to be the backup contesting model in the event the Vault gets blown up.
Totem Hunter selected Hakaar as his prey, given he's a killable model that is too valuable to be used to deny the Prey benefit.
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Skorne 1: They're coming!
Everything moves forward, Beasts central and Immortals on either flank.
Krea puts up it's Animus, left Immortal unit gets Carnage. One of them also implodes to arc a Sunder Spirit on the left most Boneswarm for a good whack of damage.
Rasheth goes up behind the defensive wall and does that thing. The fat wobble laughs thing. Where you mock an innocent sentient egg that fell down and eat it's thinking insides.
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Minions 2: Standard Rask top of 2. Advance, make some ranged attacks, not give away to much.
I decide to gamble six Croaks on the left to try to take out that flanks Ancestral Guardian and Hakaar. If they succeed I probably only lose two, if they fail they all die t the movement boosted Immortals. Said Immortals won't be attacked because I've dealt with Vengeance before.
Both opposing light beasts are also forward to allow room for the Mammoth, the plan is to damage the Krea a little and force it to back up and be healed and use a Bone Swarm to trade for the Savage (Took about four questions before my brain was willing to accept it wasn't a Cyclops Brute).
Out on the left we begin the Croak gamble.
Two Croaks move forward and successfully Oil the left Guardian and Hakaar, then the four behind them throw two burny sticks at both the venerable Skorne elders. Hakaar dies to some serious overkill dice spikes, however the regular Guardian only takes a little damage. Alas poor Croaks, you have only yourselves and my incompetent leadership to blame.
Totem Hunter hangs out in the Croaks backline, his Prey moved from Hakaar to the Guardian (Come on fire! You Feel great! You can do it! You can win!).
Centrally, Posse Dirge out of habit and move up to safe from attack ranges (It is mildly easier to deal with no Rush Skorne beasts).
Rask feats, advances as little as he can, puts Boundless Charge on the Fury'd Boneswarm, shoots the Krea to remove it's Animus, gets a good dice spike on the damage.
They Fury Boneswarm is deliberately toeing the forest in front of my deployment for line of sight, allowing the Wrastler to put Rage on it and the Mist Speaker to give it Guidance to let it see through the terrain cloud.
The Boundless Charged, Guidanced, Raged and Fury'ed Boneswarm creaks a little under the weight of the tokens given to it. It then charges the Cyclops Savage, I sweat through some missed attack rolls that might have been worth boosting, it manages to kill it counterpart though on some good damage rolls.
Shamblers radiate around Rask, the Feralgeist sort of flops around.
Right side, the Vault (Who has one soul from a poor start of game soul randomisation) hits the Krea, boosts damage and kills it to the box. As I planned. Ayep. Definitely makes up for the Guardian not dying (Though that's basically a coin flip in hindsight, good enough for the amount of Croaks I was offering).
The Admonition Bone Swarm toes the right zone and ponders a time shared condo deal on the coast, as there is no way it'll die. Light Beasts totally have high survival rates. For sure.
I think my plans were reasonable, though I definitely got more than my share of Fortuna's favour on killing the Krea and Cyclops. It was an unreasonably long turn, enough that I'm disgruntled at my efforts. Turns will have to be quicker after this to compensate, though I doubt I could carry this to a 7 round completion.
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Skorne 2: Fire has a go at doing the job, leaves the left Ancestral Guardian on a box. Dangit.
Rask feat turn, so attacks are necessarily limited.
Left wise, the Immortals pop Incoporeal to deal with the water terrain and advance and kill the six sacrificial Croak Raiders, the Guardian stays behind them. A couple of these Immortals are zapped by Rasheth channeling Sunder Spirits at the damaged Bone Swarm, leaving it on about a third of it's health, though I luck out and keep all aspects.
Rasheth lacks the mobility to get over the wall, so he moves to the right behind the Mammoth.
The Mammoth lacks other targets, so it moves up and politely boops the nose of the sacrificial Bone Swarm, who promptly explodes into a billion pieces.
The right side Guardian moves to the Skorne Flag.
Right wise, the Immortals run around and pop their defence/concealment buff, three of them run up and engage the Gator Posse in position of super annoyance.
The point is academic as the Immortals contest, however I failed to place a solo to threaten scoring on my flag. This is an error I will replicate throughout the game.
Skorne score a point on their flag, 0-1.
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Minion 3: Still monitoring the game through the lens of scenario being the win condition,the best plan appears to be to try to clear out the left zone, again the right zone being trivially easy to contest in a difficult way and lacking comparative tools to deal with it.
Left wise, the Croaks make a go of it but don't kill enough Immortals to make zone clearing practical. I am forced to accept it will be a longer game in which this turn will lead to me equalising points and setting up for the attrition advantage.
The damaged Boneswarm is the recipient of the Fury/Boundless Charge/Rage buffing this round, it charges the Mammoth to get some damage on it. The hyper hurt Guardian does a Defensive strike, an ability I completely spaced on, leaving the swarm on three boxes with no Body Aspect. So much for that plan. The Swarm does kill the offending Guardian at least.
Totem Hunter has it's Prey shifted to the Immortals unit, charges in to kill two and sprint back to the forest on my side.
All up I leave two Immortals and the UA in the zone, with one grunt on fire.
Centrally, the Posse kill the three Immortals that are jamming them as a necessary action with likely bad consequences. I misakenly give the sols to the Vault, which then empties itself trying to kill the Guardian on the Skorne flag. It fails utterly.
The right side Swarm with Admonition charges the right Immortals, I reason it will be worth it to stop another pair of Vengeance attacks. It misses every attack, so that was a poor move.
The Feralgeist claims my flag, so we go to 1-1. This was also a long turn, so clock advantage is definitely on the opposing side.
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Skorne 3: Fire kills the Immortal grunt on the left.
The Immortals all Vengeance, the left fella and the UA pop the next suicide charged Bone Swarm.
Right side one maneuver around, they pop Admointiion on the last Bone Swarm to make him move to the right. He stays engaging one to be an annoyance.
Regular activations begin, Rasheth shuffles behind the Mammoth and feats, primarily getting the Vault and the Posse.
Left side Immortal and buddy kill a Croak (Model removed after picture, as we retroactively realised he dies due to Rasheth's feat).
Guardian and right side Immortals kill two of the Posse and leave the last Bone Swarm quite damaged.
Mammoth shoots the Vault, rolls poorly and only does half it's health.
Extoller runs to the Skorne flag, 1-2.
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Minion 4: The clock is low enough that's it's a race against scoring. Some Shamblers spawn up front.
Left zone wise, the Croaks fail to do their duty. Instead Shamblers kill the last Immortal, while the Totem Hunter Jumps to the UA, guts him, moves prey to Raseth and Sprints toward the backfield for the juicy caster threat.
Centrally, other Shamblers gum up the mammoth whilst the Bokor runs into the open to get his command score up their.
Rask puts Admonition on the Wrastler so it can move up and kill the Mammoth in the near future, he shoots a Fury off it because he's an annoying toad man who can.
Posse get Fury to counteract Rasheth' Strength penalty from the feat, they kill the Guardian and some of the remaining Immortals.
Vault kills the Extoller, shoots the Immortal UA on the right to Sac Pawn and kill Immortal Grunts.
Right wise, Bone Swarm that I forgot to heal with Rask due to time constraints boosts it's rolls and manages to finish the unit off. Alas I didn't have an opportunity to move a unit into that zone to score.
Rask gets clouded up by the Swamp Gobbers and the Mist Speaker, plus has Shamblers in a circle of sacrifice around his booty.
I score the left zone, having flubbed putting the Mist Speaker on my flag. Derp. 2 all.
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Skorne 4: Paingivers all die arcing Rasheth nukes around, one of which kills the Totem Hunter.
It's not until the Mammoth tramples forward to kill the Bokor that I realise I've won on attrition.
I play my next turn, it consists of the Wrastler killing the Mammoth and everyone staring down at Rasheth. Skorne concede.
The ending felt super abrupt to me. Going over it in hindsight, the Vault surviving Rasheth's feat turn is probably the end point for Skorne. If it dies then the Immortals can push in and keep the match going to time for a Skorne win.
Feralgeist had a disappointing game, dying so ignobly at the end of an Immortal stab I don't think I wrote it in the above. Starting to move toward double Gobber Chef being a better, more flexible option.
