Oblivion Game 6 - Rask1 (Will Work for Food) vs Krueger2 (Bones of Orboros)

Oblivion Game 6 - Rask1 (Will Work for Food) vs Krueger2 (Bones of Orboros)

Once more into the Circle breach! Ol' Kreugy boy, my nemesis from mark 2 (In the sense that I would have been one of those minor characters thrown in to protect the Star Metal piece on a side quest created by Nale).

I was happy to play either Winion list, did Maelok against circle last time so Rask it is.

Rask1 - Gator Soul Slave, Wrastler, 4x Bone Swarms, Rorsh/Brine, Dahlia/Skarath, 2x Efaarit Scouts, 2x Spirit Cauldron + Pot Pusher, Swamp Gobbers, Witch Doc, Eilish, Bone Shrine
vs
Krueger2 - Megalith, 2x Wolwardens, Fulcrum, 2x Wells, 2x Stone Shapers, 2x Shifting Stones, 2x Sentry Stones, Mistspeaker, Blackclad, Gallows Grove

Playing on once-upon-an-outlast, so central rectangle, defensible objectives, circle zones on either side.
Bodgy terrain time, as we played in the crib instead of the local watering hole. Biggest thing being an obstruction, represented by a flamboyant tree on a chunk of steel, of height enough to block Huge bases which is different from our normal choices.

I lost the roll and got first, giving me said tall obstruction. I also get a cloud and some rubble, Circle gets a forest that allows easy contesting of the centre and a rightside fog lot. There's some water on the Circle side of no import.
There's also a forest in the middle of the left zone either side can use.


Winion 1: Let's make this opening Dreamfast convo super awkward
Blank bases are the Wells.

Stuff runs up staying shy of the 14" pew pew of the wells, no point getting shot for free when it wasn't denying me that much board space.

Dahlia and Snek go out on the left, Ninja Pig heads up the centre. I had dreams of the Efaarits chilling out and pinging the wells, realistically they don't do enough to be worth. Standard problem with Structures/Battle Engines, not much value to dinging it when it is as effect on 1% health as it is on 100%.


Circle 1: Onward stickmen soldiers, marching as to war, with the lame wellwishes of Krueger going on before.
Manikins move up on the left, Krueger and Megalith stay back away from Ninja range. Fulcrum shuffles up a bit, Woldwardens go behind the forests. Both Wells pop out Tharn punchy dudes.


Winion 2: Efaarits are heroes
Step 1, as always per our Mark 2 Circle trauma training, take out the damn Shifting Stones. This is the turn our feat can have an impact, so that'll pop as well. Telekinesis can muck the feat interactions up a little, so popping the Gallows Grove is also a necessity.

The Efaarits get re-rolls, one off a pot and another off Eilish. Most models move around to accomodate the Efaarits having a path to get to the relevant areas, Big Pig moves up to behind the obstruction. I move the Wrastler to the wrong spot, blocking the spot I intended for Rask to hug, ergo the warlock ends up not hugging the obstruction. Feats up, so not the end of the world.

Skarath moves up to toe the left zone, I'd hoped to spray the Gallows and the Tharn solo, alas the spray could not be lined up properly so it just nuked the Grove.
One Efaarit moves up the centre, caps a Shifting Stone and repos back, the other pokes around the obstruction to do the same.

One Boneswarm moves up aggressively with max corpses and Admonition up on the left at the max extent of Rasks control to pull something in. One Boneswarm with Fury moves up into the rubble.


Circle 2: T-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-kaaaaaay
Green proxy is Brine.

On the left, the Admonitioned Bone Swarm starts getting surrounded by Manikins so he Admo's forward, my thinking being that he would now be out of Rasks control and could lure stuff in. Instead it just gets dinged up by teh Fulcrum and Tharn solo, losing Body.

Centrally, we have Telekinesis for days from Wolds and Krueger. Tragically Ninja Pig was not in a suitably safe place, should have been behind the obejctive. He gets TKed around. The Fury Bone Swarm, intended to take advantage of the Admonitioned bait, is instead TKed around and most of my list is pushed and affected by Kruegers feat. Rats.

Rightwise Manikins just gun up Boneswarms.

So much of my stuff moved around and first I thought I missed the Circle turn. 

No scores.


Winion 3: Kenobi Cauldron, you're my mild hope.
Alrighty, turns out the Admonition position was terrible, should have been central. Not to worry, our primary plan is to drag in a Wold with a Cauldron, kill it with a Boneswarm and be sitting pretty attritionally. We'll scenario push on the right as it doesn't have an annoying forest in the centre of it to allow simple contesting.

Leftwise, the former Admo Swarm shuffles back into Rasks control after passing its Threshold check and flails at the Tharn solo who has no issues face tanking it.
Skarath toes the zone and vomits away the remaining Manikin on this side. Dahlia runs up to be behind the forest, specifically out of line of sight of the Well.

Centrally, the Pot moves across to get the angle, lands the drag on the Wold Warden, if I drag it 2 inches the Bone Swarm might be in, 3+ and it definitely is. Making the die roll of a 1 particularly problematic, the Warden is to far to where Rask wants to hide so it must die. Sorry Big Pig, you must go away for the greater good.
Big Pig gets Rage/Boundless, Smoke popped to fix facing, easily smooshes the Warden.
Rask ends up hiding behind the objective and putting down his cloud.

The Efaarits split to either side, one kills another Shifting stone, the other pot shots something I forget.

Rightwise, the Bone Swarms just wiggle past Manikins to threaten the length of the zone as a Cauldron moves up with it.
Lastly, the Bog Trog Ambusher pops in from the side table and tries to murder the Stone Shaper, sadly missing.

Scoring is...like....an optional way to play I guess.


Circle 3: Just the Woldy life
Leftwise, the Fulcrum toes the zone then tries to AoE and Lightning Dahlia to death, the tranfers end up killing Skarath. Sorry my precious scaled pet. Well and the Tharn pop the Boneswarm.
Dahlia is my only contesting model, so the friendship of the cold blooded is not in vain.

Centrally, Krueger moves behind the forest and TK's Big Pig in, Meg's then comes in and punches him to death before TKing backward. The other Wold comes in and pops Animus, so can't be dragged anywhere.

Rightwise a Well shot and the Tharn solo kill a Boneswarm as the Shifting Stones jump in front of the other.
The Stone Shaper and Sentry try and fail to kill the Bog Trog Ambusher.

Circle clock out this turn, though we carry on.
I turn out to be the king of numptyness, as I never activated the Fury'ed Boneswarm so he is facing the completely wrong way. Yikes.


Winion 4: A most valid point, to the Watsonian machine!
The Bog Trog Ambusher has bought me a scoring opportunity, hazzah! My Fury Boneswarm failure might be game ending attrition wise, hoe noes!

On the left, the Efaarit moves up and rolls like a god to kill the (Albeit already damaged from friendly attacks) Sentry Stone. I clock out on that zone, Dahlia, the Efaarit and a Bone Swarm are now contesting it and only Krueger is in a position to (suicidally) score it, so now it's push up on the right.

Centrally, given the Bone Swarm can't go in we have to send in the Wrastler, which usually means we are down to the dregs. Attritionally I don't like how it is looking, nothing has the time to kill the Wells.
The Bog Trog Ambusher isn't engaged by anything, so cheeckily walks around the back and goes for a long odds harpoon shot on Krueger (To many TK's and gun shots for the anti-range spell to be up). Alas he misses, would have been hilarious.
The Cauldron kills the left Tharn.
Wrastler gets Ghostly and roided up, goes into the Warden and almost sods it up. Sometime the Defence doesn't need to be that high it turns out. Manages it with max Fury.
Rask backpedals a bit and throws up a cloud.

Rightwise Efaarit pops the Tharn, Boneswarm kills the Shifting Stones and the Swamp Gobbers toe the zone.

I go up 1-0. Now ready for tie breakers. 


Circle 4: LEAVE THE BOG TROG AMBUSHER ALONE! 
Left Boneswarm gets shot up. Megalith kills the Wrastler, Krueger stays behind the forest, the Bog Trog Ambusher is killed by the Stoneshaper, Sentry Stone contests and kills one of the Swamp Gobbers.


Winion 4: The Murdering
Boneswarm can see Krueger who has no transfer targets. Gets all the buffs, easily goes in and murders him.

Attrition was a bit sketchy at the end, Rageless Bone Swarms have a harder time killing Heavies. Plus the right Bone Swarm frenzied, which obliterated the chance of it killing the Sentry Stone on the right, not that we were in any serious scenario position at this time.


Still happy with the list, though this bizarre new knack I've got of not activating one important model on critical set up turns is going to get old fast.

Oblivion Game 5 - Rask1 (Will Work for Food) vs Reznik2 (Warriors of the Old Faith)

Game 5 - Rask1 (Will Work for Food) vs Reznik2 (Warriors of the Old Faith)

So.....the thing about mocking the 3 huge base list is that you just might then have to play into a list with 6. Battle Engines for daaaaaays.

Rask1 - Gator Soul Slave, Wrastler, 4x Bone Swarms, Rorsh/Brine, Dahlia/Skarath, 2x Efaarit Scouts, 2x Spirit Cauldron + Pot Pusher, Swamp Gobbers, Witch Doc, Eilish, Bone Shrine
vs
Reznik2 - Judicator, Assault Chariot, Siege Chariot, 2x Winterguard Gun Carriage,  min Choir, Vilmon, Hedgehold Scroll dude, Mechanik, Wrack

What's that? I left this sitting in draft at this point for five days and now need to hammer this out before another game ejects the pitiful scraps of available brain memory? Well, this Snozberry isn't a strudel.

Anyway, this looks like an absolutely dreadful matchup for Maelok. Spell Piercer, RFP feat, loads of armour right after I decide to pull the Wrastler out? No thanks. The Dracodile can blind battle engines and that's about it.

Need to give the Rask list a spin anyway, been to long since I've had the joy of trading up cheapo models.

Win the roll, take first. Lack of units on both sides makes the Anarchy scenario....precarious? This is basically what the Swamp Gobbers are really for, given Rask can pop like a rotted peach if he moves forward to score anything.

Table has a current forests in the centre, I have some water of mild impediment and a safety wall. Menoth gets some terrain of little import given the number of huge bases (I'm assuming they picked that side for a less annoying wall for them to move around).


Minion 1: I hope you like your proxies to come in "garish"
Hoo boy. Left to right.
Yellow Rhino/Vessel of Judgement = Winterguard Gun Carriages
1st Blank Base with paper = Siege Chariot
Church = Reznik2
Judicator = Judicator. Well, there you go.
2nd Blank base with paper = Assault Chariot

Everything runs up. Bone Swarms lead out up the middle, I'm expecting a weird placement game of Bone Swarm threat vs Lamentation impeding Rask throwing out Buffs. Fury and Admonition both go on different swarms.

Ninja Pig goes up the left, Dahlia and sneaky snek go up the right. Efaarit and Wrastler hide behind the right most forest lest the Judicator intend to drift some rando shots.


Menoth 1: Forward wheeled contraptions of doom, you goblin machine of madness, those religously inclined in a horsey way
Everything moves up, one Gun Carriage goes further than the rest and intrudes into the left zone. Everything else makes moves to stay out of my threat ranges for the most part, sacrifice detected.

Reznik puts up Lamentation and moves to just barely tag Rask while not getting into murder range. This is the point where I realised I put Ninja Pig in a silly spot, he should have run to the centre in my unpack.

Scroll dude everyone is proxying at WTC goes toward the left, the other non-huge models are on the right.


Minion 2: Dangit, wit of the staircase moment
On the one hand, I like "Steal my Sunshine". On another, the band shares the name of a boss who was a tosser. On the third hand, I'd have to be a mutant. The Chrysalid's is surprisingly hard to get through, keep nodding off.

The plans are simple, feat with Rask to stop Reznik feating and maximising his murder, kill the forward Gun Carriage and if possible ding up the Siege Chariot. Of the two Man-O-Wars thingies, the Slam gun feels more threatening than the blasts.

Rask is in Lamentation range, so he upkeeps Admonition for free with the Slave and walks back, throws out Fury/Rage on the left Boneswarm. The left pot Sauces up to max Corpses and moves those to the same missile boyo. Soul Slave gives it Boundless Charge. Eilish gives re-rolls (Not all Bone Swarms are treated equally).

The Bone Missile goes into the Carriage, snake eyes to miss, free charge, damage dice +1. Maxes Fury, overkills it by a box. Hawt.

Only other real attacks of consequence this turn are the Efaarit, who I thought might have finish the Carriage off. Instead they plink the Assault Chariot for about 8ish points and repo back.

Everything else just moves around for next turn, the Admonition Bone Swarm moves up to be annoying, the Wrastler stays behind the forest to see where the Judicator ends up (Colossals are a stretch to far for a Bone Missile, needs the pure Gator to go in).

I screw up with Skarath, getting dreams of Counterblasting for free, so he charges into the forest with Dahlia's spell giving him Prowl, however I fail to think it through and the Snake ends up outside of Rasks control/feat. Whoops.

I also just straight up forget to activate Rorsh and Brine. Skills. 


Menoth 2: Honestly, I always found caring about them actually being "Protectorate" to be a bit weird
There's a series of umming and arring. The great thing about the Bone Swarm suicides is that by default they are in control for feat, which means that sometimes, as in this situation, the disposable missile (Who was dead in my heart the instance it was committed) actually has good survival odds.

The Gun Carriage and both chariots end up just running forward and getting up in my business. There were dreams of the Siege Chariot slamming a Swarm into Eilish, alas the relevant Beast was the Admonitioned one so that was a no go. I did proc Admonition to move said Boneswarm forward a bit.

The Scroll Bearer Hengehold whatsit dude toes the left zone to ensure contesting (It being the side I'm clearly intending to score with the Swamp Gobbers).

The Judicator charges in and easily kills Skarath, Reznik toes the right zone to score and the War Doge goes to the Menoth flag.

Menoth score the right zone and their flag, 0-2.

Losing Skarath wasn't a big deal, not contesting the zone was irksome. Should have sat Dahlia on the edge with all her transfers. She'd have been attackable as Rasks control area is only so big, feels okay with her defence and transfers up.


Minion 3: The Alien invasion is a stress test
There's a lot of meat/metal in my grill. Going to struggle to kill enough to keep Rask safe, and he needs to contribute his buffs.

Starting out on the left. In an ideal world the zone gets cleared as well, that seems unrealistic alas.
The Bone Swarm hero from last round was dinged up by the Gun Carriage, burns a corpse to heal up and has Fury upkept on it for free. Goes into the Gun Carriage, obviously not as super buffed as last turn though still manages to decently ding it up.

Big Pig gets Boundless Charge from the Soul Slave and Rage from Rask, charges in and finishes off the Carriage without a couple Fury to spare. Ideally he goes in without the damage buff however that felt risky with the Scroll Bearer nearby.

The Bog Trog Ambusher appeared, his attempt to drag the Scroll bearer out of the zone is foiled by the ignore damage once a turn and I get can't other attacks on him, let alone the requisite 5 needed. Rats, no scoring that bit for me.

Centrally Rask shuffles across and burns his other 4 Fury casting Fury/Rage on the Wrastler. Rask then pulls off a Fury from the Bone Shrine, I fail the Curse roll so.....woot.

It takes an Efaarit shot and two Bones Swarms going high on Fury to kill the Siege Chariot.

Rightwise, the Wrastler gets pathfinder off the objective, shuffles to engage the Assault Chariot and Judicator. Claws the Chariot for a bit, puts all its bites into the Judicator. The Judicator survives on three boxes, is then finished off by the Spirit Cauldron boosting a magic pew pew into it. Said Cauldron and Dahlia move to hem the Assault Chariot in as I've now scraped the bottom of the pan so much for attacks that I've punched through.

The Bone Swarm that Admonitioned forward casts Swarm and lumbers over to contest the flag where the War Dog gets a brief nip in from a Countercharge before returning.

I score my flag, 1-2.


Menoth 3: That's a nice warlock. Would be a shame if something were to.....NUKE IT WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR A MONOLOGUE
Attritionally and on scenario Menoth are screwed. My next turn I'll have some neutering from the sheer and immense amount of Fury I have on the table, I'll still easily have enough to clear out the left zone then run Rask to safety, it's hail mary assassination time.

It's finagled that Reznik 2 has to come in, crit knockdown the Wrastler from the mount attack and nuke the Witch Doc to allow the Assault Chariot to get a line on Rask.

Alas, it fails from the get go as Rezzy comes in and doesn't get the crit. Rask is Cursed and Flesh is Weak attempts are made, they fall short and that is that.


Oh Boneswarms how I have missed you. Making pretty basic screwups vis a vis contesting properly and some execution finagles that dice basically solved for me, so working on those areas of play to be done. Currently happy with Rask list, for the most part, though the amount of support bits might be worth a look at.

Don't like the Reznik list personally, seems unlikely to ever have an even matchup. Would really want to drop a couple Huge bases for some fighty units.

Oblivion Game 4 - Maelok (Blindwater Congregation) vs Baldur2 (Bones of Orboros) plus bonus Hidden Objects!

Oblivion Game 4 - Maelok (Blindwater Congregation) vs Baldur2 (Bones of Orboros) plus bonus Hidden Objects!

Reps collated here.

Had to move most of my minis onto the dining table to swap out some shelves, I blame charity (My town does a big book fair thing where everything is super cheap).

Puzzle pic here, can you find:
*The Skorne symbol
*Menite mob 1
*The Pencil
*A dazed and confused Bloodbowl team
*Another mob of Menites ("Mob" may be a loose descriptor at best)

Answers here, this piccie courtesy of one of our local legends (Thanks Original C!).


Anyway, another game of Maelok with the nabbed WTC list, trying to nail down what I want to change in it. This time into Abe with Baldur2 in Bones of Orboros.

Pairing wise it would nominally be Maelok Posse/Rask with Lessers vs Baldur2 Bones/xxxx Tharn. Slight chicken pairing matchups, in that Maelok reads to me as being better into Tharn whereas Rask would do better into the Bones. it's only slight though as both seem playable.

Maelok (Blindwater Congregation) - Dracodile, Gator Soul Slave (Req), Wrastler, Bullsnapper (Req), Gator Witch Doc x2 (1x Req), 4x Posse (1 Max, three min), Swamp Gobber Chef

vs

Baldur2 (Bones of Orboros) - Megalith, 2x Ram Hands, Woldwarden, 2x Wells, 2x Sentry Stones, 2x Shifting Stones, Blackclad, 2x the Stone healing dudes holding an egg, traitor Gatorman Bokor with Shamblers

Scenario is King of the Hill, though given the flanking rectangle zones I suspect it's actually some form of ridge. I lost the roll, Circle picked first. There's a central obstruction (Ruled to be 4" high, so huge bases are seen through it), I get a better theoretical contesting point if I get outed of the zone. The centre circle zone also has a pair of trenches divvied up between both sides. There's some forests, water and a burning cloud on the table, to be honest I don't think they make much of a difference.


Circle 1: ...why is Stone Henge moving? That doesn't seem right....
Sweet delicous proxies:
* Huge Bases are Wells
* Gator Pot Pusher is the Bokor
*Convergence small base dudes (Obstructors?) are Shamblers

Both Ram Hands move up then get ported forward by the stones. Megs chills next to the left well, the factory produced characterless Wold Warden is next to the right Structure.
Both wells pop out the punchy chick solos that get around tough.
Shamblers are central, Sentry Stones are split on each flank.

Very even forward movement. Note: Awful description paragraph above, pretend to consider re-writing it.


Minion 1: I've decided I do like Fiona Apple
The Ram Hands are further forward than they have any right to be. What is this madness?
Ranged attacks are very limited in the Maelok list, so this round is mostly repositioning with a view to scoring it up next turn.

Left side gets two min units and the Bullsnapper, the little beastie is lined up to have Line of Sight o the opposing objective with the thinking that it'll get pathfinder from feat to charge it next turn, assuming clearing the zone is doable.

Centrally the Gator Slave takes a couple damage to Mortality the left Ram Hands which the Dracodile sprays, the optimistic hope was to spike out an aspect, that didn't happen. Not a biggie, Ram Hands can't get to me anyway.
Maelok hides behind the Great Beast and throws up Death Pact.

Wrastler heads off to the right side to score that zone later on.


Circle 2: You were drab little Gators once...
Leftwise, the Mannikins move up and spray at the two Gold Posse grunts, damage them both. The Well solo pops one as does the Ramhands. Baldur plonks a wall out to stop the Dracodile getting a free heavy. Megalith moves up behind the obstruction and puts Roots of Earth on said Ramhands, Shifting Stones triangulate around him.

Centrally Shamblers run up, though the Bokor is accidentally left behind. Baldur and the Blackclad go into the Circle side trench.

Out right the Wold Warden sidles up as the Ramhands, Mannikins and free Well solo murder chick hang out in the rectangle zone. The Well on this side pops one of the Bone Posse (The Max unit).


Minion 2: In which our plans are foiled
Simple enough, we kill the Batman. By which I mean the Shifting Stones. Hoenstly, this might not be the ideal top priority, I think I've just been scarred from being in the Mark 2 Mike Puryear club.

My thinking at first when the Shambles was moving forward was that the Dracodile would be popping the Swamp Shambler Bokor, his cowardice means that's not happening. The plan is to feat and ideally score both flanks.

Maelok stays central, popping feat, Death Pact and Rage on the Wrastler.

Leftwise, the last Gold Posse walks through the forest and eats the solo murder lady the Well spawned.
The Purple Posse, even further left (If you were coerced into working for Barnabas, you would probably have wistful notions of Anarchy too) eat the Mannikins in the rectangle, one of those also goes into the objective and knocks it down to about 5 boxes.
The Bullsnapper charges said objective, toeing the zone for the score. Botches the damage roll, does a solitary point to leave it on four boxes. Rats. Accursed POW 12.I opt to not bother making the second attack and going for the lucky 10 on damage, given the Snapper is in a position of death I find this mid game logic questionable at best.

Centrally our life is a bit more win focused, the Gator Soul Slave has just enough movement with Deathride from the Witch Doc to get up past Baldur's Rock Wall where it Mental Forces and uses it's magic pew pew to pop one of the Shifting Stones. Die you rotten rocky blaggard! (Blaggard has bizarrely few good gif references. I choose to blame google rather my refusal to check page 2 of search results).

The Dracodile shifts around, keeping the building in the way of Megs, outside of the Ramhands natural charge range and uses its Spray to ding Baldur (Gets transferred I believe) and kill the Blackclad, as Hunters Mark is annoying.

The Bone Posse go, using their Blood Thirst prayer for extra range vs living. One is further forward, he goes into a Shifting Stone. Bounces off it, so that wasn't great.
The unit leader lacks good options so just eats a pair of Shamblers, the remaining two Grunts however get to go in on Baldur. It's not likely to work, it is something Circle will have to deal with.
Get three attacks, Baldur is cleared of Transfers and on about half health.

Right side the Raged Wrastler goes into the Ramhands. Didn't account for it having Roots, so this is basically an exercise in dismal failure (checking with ye olde calculator shows this to beabout a 1.5%. Good choices were not made.).

The Grey Posse go into that flanks rectangle and kill two of the Manikins and the other Well Spawn murder person.

Partial success of a turn? Cracked a Stone unit, killed some annoying solos, pulled some attempted Zeta vs Sean Connery stuff. However the lack of scoring and now poor positioning of my non-Dracodile beasts is potentially ruinous.

Realistically this turn also plays out very differently if Baldur had feated.


Circle 3: I don't have the wherewithal for this new title every turn format thing.
Looks like I missed a pic. Well, based solely on the Wrastler competence can't be expected.

Baldur takes some sweet Corrosion damage, is nervous enough that he opts to not cut himself for Fury. The Objective heals itself, now on 7 boxes.

Leftwise, Megalith comes in and kills the Bullsnapper with ease. Sentry Stone ports into the zone, it's Mannikin attack and the Well pops a Purple Posse. Damnable ranged RFP.
The Ram Hands backs off as Baldur dropped its defensive wall.

Centrally the Bokor charges into the two Posse on Baldur, their armour is to high on Maeloks feat and he burns most of his Shamblers without causing either to go down. The Wold Warden comes in on the right and manages to pop them, letting Baldur fall back and pop feat. He also gets rid of his Wurm tokens.

Rightwise, the Ram Hands starts pounding the Wrastler with Earths Strength up. To my delight the Big Gator lives, albeit on half a dozen boxes of just Spirit remaining. At this point I regret spinning up my Beasts for so much Fury.

The Well and mannikin on this side don't achieve much, the Sentry Stone on this side decides to get out of dodge and ports back toward the Well.


Minion 3: Started from the Swamp, now the whole team is.....some are here, some dead, some RFPed.
Do people remember Drake song? Dude drops a bazillion singles a year.

Pull all the Fury off the Dracodile, Wrastler heals a box from the objective and Frenzies, bounces off the Ramhands. Rats. Then again, I'd planned to throw the Wold away based on a misinterpretation of Roots of the Earth (The only rules clarification I found was from the opening weeks of Mark 3, assuming at this point that it is the way to go), so really the frenzy just saves us the misplay.

Not many viable murder targets this turn, however the centre zone isn't strongly contested thanks to the left Ramhands not toeing the zone so the plan is to get the King of the Ridge points in the centre.

Leftwise the relevant models are not affected by Baldurs feat, necessitated by his need to retreat rather than moving sideways when he popped it. Doesn't help me to much though, the plan here is just to contest this side for the most part.

Maelok respawns one of the Gold Posse, who just jams the Wolds while his boss charges and damages the Sentry Stone. The Purple Posse charge around, two of them finish off the objective while the third fnishes the Sentry Stone. No viable ways to score the zone myself. 
The Gator Soul Slave backs up to behind the building, Mental Forces down to 2 boxes to Mortality the Wold Warden in the centre zone.

Maelok rages the Dracodile, I've decided at this point I'm better off respawning where possible and not bothering with Death Pact. My choices are limited somewhat as several Posse get finished off by the RFPing Wells, those things being Jerks and all.
Dracodile moves up, kills the Wold and the Shifting Stones that ported up to contest the flag.
The left side Witch Doc runs up to the flag.
Other Witch Doc puts Ghostly on one of the two remaining Bone Posse, letting him extricate himself from his current spot as they both charge the traitor Bokor and kill him off, clearing the zone. The Traitor is survived by one Swamp Shambler. His Life Insurance is not great.

Right side Wrastler had Frenzied, so it's just the Grey Posse. They spread out, eat a Mannikin and the leader charges the Sentry Stone with his 2inch attack for about 3 damage points.

I score the objective, centre zone and flag, now 3-0.


Circle 4: We fight you on the beaches, provided they are to the side and far away from Princess Saltine. 
Left side, Ramhands kills the resurrected Gold Posse member and toes the centre zone.
Megalith toes the left zone, kills a Purple Posse and embarrasses himself against a second. The Stone carrier dude and Well try to clear off more Posse, end up injuring a Purple bro and that's it.

Centrally the other unit of shifting Stones moves in the way of the Bone Posse, the Shamblers runs and contests the flag. Baldur moves over to the edge of his defensive forest.

Right side the Ramhands kills my objective, the Well and Sentry Stone kills the two Grey Posse contesting the zone. Baldur also plopped down a wall to stop the Dracodile being able to get a charge on the Ramhands.

Circle popped an objective and scored the right zone, now 3-2.


Minion 4: Please, no more hitting
Plan is to keep Resurrecting to contest on the left, keep scoring the flag and and push Circle out of the right, wall be damned.

Leftwise a Purple and Gold Posse are brought screeching back to life, the unit members that can attack chip Megalith and murder the Stone Carrier dude.

In the centre zone I don't have a way to deal with Ramhands just yet, so the zone being scored isn't an option. The Witch Doc moves over the flag to kill the Shambler, stays in a scoring spot. The Spell Slave Gator chump lands a Mortality on the Shiftng Stones, no need to boost so holds onto his last precious pair of life points.
The Bone Posse eat the Shifting Stones, The Dracodile moves over and sprays down the right side Sentry Stone and dings the Ramhands. More importantly it is Blind and out of Baldurs control.

Rightwise, the Grey Posse touches the right rectangle to contest and eats the other Stone carrying dude.

I score the centre flag, now 4-2.


Circle 5: Well, at least we got Soul Brother
Photo is mid turn.

Leftwise, Megalith punches apart one Gold Posse and Crevasses the other, leaving the unit sadly departed. Circle clock out at this point, we play on for a bit to see what happens.

Centrally, the Ram Hands moves to contest the flag while staying cowering behind the building.

Right wise, the blind Ram Hands stumbles back to the Grey Posse who survives the Well trying to pop him. No points score.


Minion 5/Circle 6: The Curtain smells like herring
Little bit more messing around, I contest on the left again and resurrect Bone Posse in the centre who start punching the left Ram Hands for a bit. The Dracodile moves to the right and sprays the right Ramhands again as he is still out of control.

Circle do finally clear the left zone on the top of 6 and Baldur commits into the centre. Alas they can't finish off the Bone Posse and the right Ramhands kills the last Grey Posse for a point, at this point we agree it is somewhat moot.

My next round plan was to bring back Bone Posse and use Ghostly to get one to contest the left zone, have the Dracodile easily clear the right and just contest the middle with solos behind the building as needed. Corrosion and Wurm tokens have kept Baldur relatively unhealthy too, so incidental attacks on him could end up poorly for him. There's probably a full fledged assassination in play, I'd didn't bother to work it out at the time (Probably Mortality, Resurrect, Dracodile Spray, Wtich Doc explode a Grunt attack).


Love the resurrect to contest. Poor Beast use on my part. Circle should have feated a turn earlier.


Happy to change the list around a little and see what happens. Going to remove the Wrastler, which feels like it makes the list dangerously pillow fisted at points. Will throw in some contest solos, switch to Max Posse units and try the garbage Arc Node Gator Beast.

List change regret incoming soon.

Oblivion Game 3 - Maelok1 (Blindwater Congregation) vs Borka2 (Storm of the North)

Oblivion Game 3 - Maelok1 (Blindwater Congregation) vs Borka2 (Storm of the North)

Rest of my games are collated here.

BLockader construction impetus is now done with, decided I wanted to Minion it for the next tournament cycle. I'd previously played Arkadius to death and didn't really find a Barny2 list I loved. Other considerations are that Archons are likely going to be everywhere, given their......aggressive....costing....

Archons aren't trivially killed, I wanted something expendable or long ranged to do it. At the moment I've opted to fall back on a Rask list premise I played around with for July-October last year, which revolves around Bone Swarm missiles. Basically you have multiple Bone Swarms, load up one at a time with all the buffs in the world and they can kill most stuff relatively reliably and should they fail they're 7 points. Will Work for Food with Dahlia, Rorsh and other bits and bobs fills that out.

This left me with the pairing question. Maelok, Barny1 and Calaban are all relatively undelved by me, reasoned I'd start by trying out the Posse bro, given I own a stack of units I've played rarely. Plus the plastic Posse models are juicy, like cooked croc is meant to be (Supposedly, so far when I've come across it I haven't been impressed). Plus the unit leader always looks to be getting their groove on.

Unrelated, unsure if I like Fiona Apple's music or not.

I put together a traditional Maelok Blindwater of basically as much Posse as possible and a garbage Battle Group. I was looking at it with mild disgruntlement, then the WTC lists dropped and one of the sadly few Minion lists had a Dracodile. Sold. Also had small size Posse units which.....well, guess I'll try it and see, normally I find non-max sized units distasteful.

Maelok (Blindwater Congregation) - Soul Slave, Dracodile, Snapper, Wrastler, Max Posse, 3x Min Posse, 2x Witch Doc, Gobber Chef

Usually also prefer more cheap garbo solos to fling out into scoring land. That said, now we're pursuing a proper tourney style list the intention is to play a list iteration a few times before changes. 

Lined up a bash at our local shop into a returnee from early Mark 2, flinging down some Trolls.

Borka2 (Storm of the North) - Mauler, 2x Blitzer, Dozer and Smiggs, Stone Unit + Northkin Elder, Whelps, Boomhowler2, Moses, Hooch Hauler

Scenario is Bunker, so we both get a defensive rectangle/objective and have to fight over three flags on the centre line of the table.

I win the die roll, pick first. End up with a side that has a defensive forest and pond. Both flanking flags have a wall that allows one side super defensive contesting, centre has a fog cloud and trench, the Trolls get a defensive forest and fog that aren't to awful for me to deal with. I take repair for the objective, Trolls take Eyeless Sight.


Maelok 1: Onward!
Maelok is central, pops Death Pact to form the habit and has Soul Harvester on the Max Posse unit (Bone Squad). Dracodile is to the right so it can stomp through the forest. Posse and solos are bunched around.


Borka 1: Bearka' you didn't
Everything moves forward, a Blitzer on either flank, Hauler on the left. Stones gets maxxed out and Battlecharge is thrown up.
Bearka moves up aggressively. On zero camp. Hnnnnrgh.


Maelok 2: Kill the beast!
Dammit Bearka. You put yourself right there. I know going for him is a fools play, he's zero camp yet in range of the stone and Stumbling Drunk from the Hauler. And yet....

Attrition wise, I think it plays alright to my slight edge? Posse can spread out and jam, no one will be scoring the flags realistically this round, it then becomes a game of managing how many Posse get killed. Mini game between the Huge bases as well, if I pop the opposing objective or the Hauler moves further than 4" away from it then I can blind it and not have to worry about it for a turn. I did miss the Targ spray at that moment, though that's from a Jaga list that never really worked. Dammit memories, get out of here.

I discard those seemingly reasonable thoughts. If the Dracodile spray lands and Borka moves toward me, then we can go in, if he doesn't then we re-position for attrition without losing too much.

Dracodile shuffles up, lands the Spray, Borka moves an inch towards me. Sod it, good enough. I can get Mortality and two Posse on him, with the right Stumbling moves I'll get another Posse and maybe the Witch Doc Strikes.
Maelok shuffles forward, lands the unboosted Mortality, pops Death Pact and feat. The Feat was necessary to ensure the available Posse could get in.

Pair of Posse go in, the opening charge gets in. Borka stumbles......compeltely out of range of the other Posse member. Well, we hemiphened that up.

After that it's a matter of running Posse around to jam and contest spots. The Snapper runs up hoping to be a Fury delivery bait. Wrastler runs up next to Maelok.


Bearka 2: Ding dong the witch.....is me.......sod
The Hauler comes forward, kills one Posse in melee and oils'sprays the pair of would be assassin Posse down to a box each. They are then polished off by the Axer.

This clears the way for Dozer and Smigg to slam the Bullsnapper into Maelok. My poor decision count was climbing. Borka then charges in, doesn't have tomuch trouble poking Maelok to death.


Well, that's what happens when you take the risky play and position poorly versus the longer reliable plan.
The biggest opening mistake is going for the assassination. After that there are a mainly position errors, especially the Wrastler which should have been in front of Maelok.


Not enough of a play through to consider any list changes, balancing Posse numbers vs Dracodile vs Armour cracking looks to be the tricky balancing act.

Oblivion Game 2 - MacBain (Llael) vs Fiona1 (Flames of Darkness)

Oblivion Game 2 - MacBain (Llael) vs Fiona1 (Flames of Darkness)
Invasion

Game Twoneru, saving me the agony of following through on the faint impetus to try to sort out where the fluff is at.

Having gotten the multiple Colossal thing out of my system, time to knuckle down for a more normal game.

Blockader sticks around, as do the pair of Vanguards and Choir. Gibbs and Anastasia also make the cut.
Pair of Menite Archons go in because they are severely underpriced and buff the Blockader spray damage.
Second Menoth unit was the source of umming and arring (Not in a pirate way). Ended up with Vengers, wanted to try some Cav. Less models makes feat slightly fulcrumed technically, stops the trampling to bypass the invulnerable models, seems worth a shot.
Awkward points left over means the Thorn Gunmages make the cut. They get Fire Shots, so that might do something? Another unit that can score seems good anyway, CHoir won't ever really be positioned to do that well.

Ultimately I ended up going into a Fiona Flames that I feel is best described as optimistic. Flames with three Colossals. Blockader, Hurricane, Jakes + Victor, Ragman, Hengehold Scroll holdy dude.

Yeah, not to invested in making this rep go super detailed, it's a three colossal list that I doubt can kill enough to not get jammed out or leave Fiona vulnerable. Or something. That something being multiple rule screw ups, such as Archons not being living, letting one get befuddled, us both playing without considering Chasten mucks up Counter Measures. Eugh.

Ultimately the triple colossal list moves up, I pop feat on the bottom of one to jam in.

Round 2 sees Fiona counter feat and toe in the left and centre zones with a Colossal in each. I retaliate by backing my Blockader up and rolling like berserk to take out three quarters of its health, then finish it off with bit attacks (Archons/Vanguards).

Round 3 the colossals make attempts at attacks that don't go great. I then kill the Victor and have an unassailable scenario position, leading to....

Top of 4: The Hurricane makes a bid to assassinate MacBain, hiding in Llael ruins behind the Blockader. Befuddle opens up a position to get to for line of sight, the opening shot crit knockdowns to stop the dodge, he then gets shot down to 5-ish health and Fiona makes an obscene gesture on where she wants to ram her staff. Game ends on scenario.


Yikes, I'm so out of practice. Do feel more enthused for games now though. Archons not being Hot mealable is sound, sane and not what I want. Further tinkering would be trying Flame Bringers in place of Vengers which also fits a Tinker in, ultimately I'm feeling more inclined to try out some Winion stuff until the Mercs call to me again (i.e. I get push/pull pangs and make a Gorten list I like once more or the Void Archons are released and do cool things in Operating Theatre).