Oblivion Game 45 - Durgen (Hammer Strike) vs Maddox (Storm Bringers)
Thursday, July 22, 2021
Saturday, July 17, 2021
Oblivion Game 44 - Durgen (Hammer Strike) vs Sloan1 (Hearts of Darkness)
Oblivion Game 44 - Durgen (Hammer Strike) vs Sloan1 (Hearts of Darkness)
Once more we meet with Automated Hydrangeas and their Infernal ways. Now rocking a SLoan list with some proxies, I dropped Durgen as the preferential match for me. Gorten has a load of bit pieces he doesn't like being scalpelled, and he usually has very compelling reasons to spend Focus that leads to being assassinated. Tourney pairing wise it's actually quite awkward, as Sloan pairs with Zaateroth here. I want Gorten into Zaat and Durgen into Sloan. Euch. Traditional thought is to drop the less bad version, not 1000% sure but right now I'm thinking Durgen into Zaateroth is the worst of it with teh feat trades.
Only now have I realised that one of the Crawlers should be made in the image of the Mobile Oppression Palace. Future me, look into that and see if Futurama miniatures are around the place.
List wise:
Durgen - 2x Driller, Avalancher, 2x Siege Crawler, Hammer Dwarves + Godor, 2x Mortars, 3x Steelhead Gunners, Ogrun Bokor, Thor
vs
Sloan1 - 2x Minuteman, 2x Charger, 4x Hunter, Rangers, Express Team + UA, floaty orb unit whose name I refuse to learn, Eilish2, Trencher Patrol Doge
Roll up Bunker, given the centralised/slow nature of the Durgen advance a defensive rectangle feels like it should be very playable.
I won the roll and picked first, I have water in my zone. Left flag has an obstruction beside it, then a central forest. Swans have some rough terrain and a defensive wall. There's Rubble and a trench on the board that don't have a massive effect.
Round 1: There will be runs. With legs and stuff. White infantry are rangers, Menoth/Black jacks are Hunters. Gold are Chargers, Purple are the Minuteman.
Most of my stuff moves up timidly, as if we go past the objective Hunters come down on us and giving a round of chipping on stuff we can about is a bad go. Ergo the stuff we don't care about, the Drillers and the front row of Hammer Dorfs, move up into range. Fear being the Infernal Swans just back up and we don't get enough stuff to make it worth feating next turn.
Infernal Swans put Minutemen on the flanks, run the Puppy up behind the left obstruction. Rangers fan out the front. Eyeless orbs run around to give the Soulless Accumulator. The Hunters ping the rightside Driller, leaving it with 6 boxes and just Movement.
Top 2 Merc: Feat now or forever hold your Alpha
Pretty simple, feat, camp, pew pew.
Redline is upkept as the Avalancher needs the additional movement to get into position.
The Drillers move up and repo to just engage stuff, continuing to enjoy their position as nought but a distraction. Hammer Dorfs also end up moving forward after all the gun shots are resolved, Godor hiding up the back next to the forest out of sheer, indomitable bravery.
Leftwise, the Crawler smacks the opposing Minuteman down to 4 boxes with just movement left. The Mortar pop shots the left most Hunter, sadly gets saved by one of the two Umbral Guardians who gets left on one box. Nuts.
Avalancher, Durgen, and right Crawler all pot shot into the Infernal Swan rectangle with mixed results. The second Umbral pops outs for the Avalancher shot, takes embarrassingly little damage but is at least knocked down and on fire. Durgen tried his rolling multiple AoE's, killed some Rangers, the middle lot of the Soulless Eye Orbs and mixed damage on teh jacks (One Hunter ends up with two boxes. One Cortex, One Gun Arm. Bleh.).
It was looking a little grim, thankfully the right Crawler hit both charges with Crits, so they were Staggered, so that cuts down on the incoming fire a fair bit.
There's no Infernal solos on the right side, so I don't feel much need to contest on that side. A Steelhead Gunner is out of shot on the right, ready to run and score the flag next round.
Bottom 2 Infernal Swan: We will convince them of our peaceful ways, by force if necessary!
Five camp, two Shield Guards, what could possibly go wrong?
The Crawlers/Hammer Dwarf recycle is a harder bet, has a lot of sense given there aren't any Infernal Swan heavies, so in for the kill they go.
The Chargers, lacking much to do, shuffle up and axe away a couple Hammer Dwarfs to let a Ranger get up within Mark Target range. Sloan feats and pops her other buff spell, shuffles around and the anti-Durgen shooting starts. She's joined by the Express team and the four Hunters, The Ogrun Bokor lives on 2 boxes, the Avalancher is knocked down with a single health remaining.
Durgen lives on 6 boxes, camp expended.
The Right Driller died to that flanks Minutemen, the left had his grabber arm lopped off by the Umbral solo chargingm but eh, they don't matter.
We both score our rectangles, 1-1.
Top 3 Merc: Just breathe Durgen. Breathe. Through all those new chest holes you have.
Things are looking pretty good, if I can keep Durgen alive.
In my rectangle, Ze Dwarf of le Boom Booms heals himself for three, waddles over and camps. He does try a feeble pot shot that sets some Hammer Dwarfs on fire, so well done that fella. He ends up behind the Avalancher and Bokor.
The Avalancher lost Redline as Durgen needs all his focus and d3 damage on a handful of boxes is bad. Thor tots over, does a max repair, so the Avalancher gets to stand up and shoot the enemy objective, Umbral shield guards causing it's own demise and setting the Express team on fire. hammer Dwarfs surged up the centre, a reinforcement fella toeing the enemy zone. They kill one of the Chargers,and badly cripple the other.
Leftwise, the surviving Driller was out of power up range because Durgen hates it. Misses attacks on the super damaged Minuteman. Crawler charges into the Umbral, also bulldozing him back. Kills it and the objective. This sides mortar pops a shot and misses a Hunter.
Rightside a Gunner runs to the flag, this sides Crawler bulldozes the Minuteman out of contesting Range, sadly it whiffs it's attacks. This sides Mortar though pops a shot and obliterates a back damaged hunter.
I score my rectangle and right flag, 3-1. Super regretting not running Durgen behind two layers of Hammer Dwarves, had no business taking a pointless Incendiary pot shot.
Bottom 3 Infernal Swan: 60% of the time it works on the second go
The attrition isn't looking any better, Sloan wants to try again. The Charger kills a Hammer Dwarf to free up a Ranger moving up and applying Mark Target.
Sloan puts out her attack buff, pops shots into the Avalancher to try to kill it but alas, the damage is poor and it is only scratched.
Trencher Express team kill the Bokor, freeing up the right Minuteman and Hunter for shots. Minuteman bounds in, first hit is copped by the Avalancher. Second shot strips a focus for a few damage points.
Hunter lines up the shot, fangs it in, rolls the damage, it's looking grim.
Durgen lives on 1 box. Never in doubt!
No other attacks can get in and I auto win as the right flag isn't contested, little Maddles pulls it out.
Definitely should have shielded the Durgs better. Genuinely weighing up dropping the Drillers for a second Avalancher and Herne/Jonne, though that feels like it relies on the Hammer Dwarfs a lot for any melee ability. Also the prospect of owning a second Avalancher makes me feel queasy.
Saturday, July 10, 2021
Oblivion Game 43 - Durgen (Hammer Strike) vs Maddox (Storm Division)
Oblivion Game 43 - Durgen (Hammer Strike) vs Maddox (Storm Division)
Alrighty, the hell was my justification for this nonsense? Think it was that I needed the impetus to paint my second Siege Crawler I've own for years?
Durgen - 2x Driller, Avalancher, 2x Siege Crawler, Hammer Dwarves + Godor, 2x Mortars, 3x Steelhead Gunners, Ogrun Bokor, Thor
I did try to make an Ossrum list. Couldn't land it, mostly just poked at Irregulars as Eliminators/solos and a massive Battlegroup, wasn't amazing. After that last tourney game think I just want to see some damn crit stagger, so Durgen and double toilet crawler it is.
The Drillers are basically my feeble concession to needing more melee in the list. I only have one Hammer dwarf unit, given only one can get that sweet Desperate Paces from Godor that's okay with me. Primed is some sweet Skornergy (That even a thing anymore? Skorne works OK with itself these days yeah?) which I guess can be popped against the legion of Soul/Corpse collectors out there.
The Avalancher is a painful tool that ticks to many boxes. Really picturing the non-feat shots from the Battle Engines hitting sod all, so knock down on a stick feels like a good enabler and I've never been sad about Shield Guards.
But by god does it lack fast contestors. My misery at the unavailability of Hutchuck is not zero (Damnable non-Rhulic Ogrun! Get over here!).
Anyway, Sunday Gameru, Titanic Yuletide nice enough to splat some dollies on the table. TY bringing the Swans, Stryker2 infantry blob and the Maddox Huge/Lancerness. Either list feels fine for the lumbering Durgen to have a go. Ends up as the battleboxer.
Maddox - Hurricane, Storm Strider, Arlen, Junion + Firefly, 2x Storm Lancer, Dreyfuss, Gwen
I have crit stagger dreams at the ready, oh yes I do.
Split Decision, I lose the roll and have second, I take the side with a trench mostly so I don't have to shoot at it. There's a central obstruction which will suck, but eh, terrains do happen.
Central line of the table also has a forest on either flank, I have some rough terrain on my left, other bits on the board don't do to much.
Round 1: Onward to a possibly glorious demise
Swans advance, Huge bases central and units on the flanks. I advance, Huge bases on the flanks and units in the centre. It's the sort of asymmetry I enjoy that no one else will.
Storm Lances get the two armour buffs, Dauntless on the left and Arcane Shield on the right. Snipe pops out on one of the Huge bases.
I throw up Force Field, not a game where I need to indulge in Primed Skornergy. I know an alpha is impending, so really it's just a question of how much I offer up. The Hammer Dwarves have a lot of potential recursion in this match, so most of the unit gets up there (Desperate Pace is lovely, they move at normal leg length rates!). They probably aren't enough to draw a real commitment and I don't want the Siege Dunnies to get dunked on to hard, so both Drillers also move up to sacrificial positions as I'm not invested in their survival.
Maddox moves up the centre and feats. I blinked at this for a fair while, until later in the turn the focus stack got moved up with her and my giddy dreams of a quick pot shot assassination gurgled away.
Both Huge bases shuffle up and do shots, while the cav units charge in and spread out doing some engaging. Sure enough both Drillers get popped, alongside seven Hammer Dorfs. The Siege Dunnies get lightly dinged by leftover attacks.
Within the bounds of expected casualties, though less would have been nicer. Junior goes on the Swan flag, hidden by the Storm Strider.
Bottom 2 Mercs: Pew pew returns
There's sod all I can do to stop the Swan flag score. Opponents scoring on my second turn is a bad theme I wish to change, alas the Hammerfall options aren't ideal for that (insert Hutchuck whinge here). Nothing much to do but feat and pop shots.
Hammer Dorfs spawn back, so that's nice. The ones that can attack go in, clearing out a pair of Storm Lances to free up the Avalancher. Client'ed Steelhead gunner goes to the flag, in range for the Bokor to slam another Storm Lancer out of contesting range (The Hammer dorfs had some very swingy damage sadly).
We get to the fun part, as voiced by Brian Blessed. Durgen shuffles a bit in the backfield, feats, lobs an incendiary shot at Dreyfuss (Would have been a multi-blast, alas Gwen is giving out Force Barrier), does some damage.
Then the bits I'm enthused for, the left Crawler moves up and smacks the Hurricane. Does ok damage, the real sadness being that it didn't crit. The right Crawler moves across, shoots the Strider down to a handful of health. It did get Staggered, however it was trivial to finish it off with a mortar so that wasn't super relevant. It probably would have been better to pop a Storm Cav with that shot. Avalancher knocks down a Lancer on the left, sadly fails to kill it. A member of that unit also gets set aflame by a Steelhead gunner.
Both sides score their flags. Quite happy with the turn, though a stagger on the colossal would have been chef's kiss. Expecting I'll lose the left Crawler to it, I think that's manageable though, it's far mroe about how the Storm Cav handle things. It'd be a nightmare if Godor was killed, he basically makes the Hammer Dorfs self sufficient in the list.
1-1
Cygnar 3: Honestly, I thought Kenny was going to be funnier
The Swans dastardly plan is to kill my stuff and score on the left. Jerkbags.
The left Cav unit charges around, one pings the left Crawler, another goes deep into my weapon unit and lands/tough fails on an Assault, Leap and melee attack, wiping one mortar out. Sadness.
The right has a pair of charges into the Crawler (One obscured by said model photo wise, Crawlers be tall), the other two lurch forward for engagements.
Moment of truth, the Hurricane with a full focus boat charges the left Siege Crawler. It has 28 health at this point.
It misses an attack and rolls low on damage, somehow the damn thing lives on 4 boxes. Sometimes defence 9 really is all you need. It's contesting the flag, so in the end Dreyfuss has to leap to a non scoring spot to finish it off.
Junior stays camping the Swan flag, while his dastardly meany Firefly stays hiding behind the central obstruction. Swans score their flag, now up a point 1-2.
Merc 3: If only we had mind bullets
No major scoring or assassination plays seem to be available, so it's plug away and attrition on.
We don't have the fast contesting stuff, we do however have an eternal slog of suffering dwarves! By which I mean the Crawler spawns more Hammer Dorfs into play (Well, technically back I spose) in position to limp into contesting range.
Leftwise, a pair of Hammer bros and Godor charge in to Dreyfuss and a Storm Lancer. The Lancer pops like a hamster meeting a mallet, Dreyfuss however gets missed four times. Elite troops aye? They also failed to get rid of the Lancer engaging the Avalancher. Imph.
Durgen shuffles in the middle a bit, pops a shot into a Lancer that sets him ablaze and causes him to tough (Stupid Resolve being so Dauntless, you're just causing your fellows pain!). The Bokor tries to clear up the Avalancher and also fails, so Thor repairs him and the jack takes a freestrike for a bunch of damage to stand between Durgen and Colossal. He knocks down a Storm Lancer, also fails to kill.
Rightwise clearing my flag is now a pipe dream. The Crawler bulldozes the blocking Storm Lancers away, rumbles forward to get good damage on the Hurricane. It's little gun tries to assassinate Junior on the Swan flag, sadly rolls min shots and doesn't get the needed spikes.
Not exactly the pinnacle of achievements turn wise, thankfully though I'm quite good on clock and think I'll edge out attritionally within a round.
No scores this round, remains 1-2.
Top 4 Swans: We must embody the spirit of Wham!
Under 5 minutes on the clock, Durgen is camping 2 with a bunch of blockers, swans hash out a plan to score 4 points by nabbing the left zone/flag, Swan flag and the Merc objective.
Plan is for the left Storm Lancers to clear the Hammer Dorfs in the zone, Hurricane and right Storm Lancers kill the objective, miscellaneous stuff in the middle kills the Hammer dorf contestors.
Sadly, it falls apart like Karchev's legs from the get go. Only one of the Storm Lancers on the left is not knocked down, he charges away, coping a free strike from the Steelhead Gunner. He'd taked a few points of damage already, but armour 22 vs pow 9 should be fine. Nope. Rolled a 17 and made him tough out.
Dreyfuss tried punching out Hammer Dorfs, managed to make a dwarf tough and that was that. Now lacking the tools to clear the zone, the Hurricane starts a desultory effort of moving up and attempting some shots, alas the Avalancher is a Shield Guard and blocks a shot. Clock run down and the odds of winning now negligible, Swans concede, which is fair enough in the circumstances.
There, won with Durgen once. Probably never going to face a list it can take on so well again. Definitely should have protected the left Crawler better, it's weird having to position multiple huge bases again, think that last happened with Mark2 Bart?
Hammer Strike feels like it falls into the same awkward category as Operating Theatre, very hard to make small/single model changes due to awkward selection options. It is super weird to have a caster that doesn't abide by the rule of cool (Most Merc casters fall into this, where they want to burn their stack doing stuff. Durgen just chills, at least in this matchup without blast worthy targets.)
Saturday, July 3, 2021
Oblivion Game 41/42 - Mini tourney MacBain/Gorten vs Maddox/Garryth2
Oblivion Game 41/42 - Mini tourney MacBain/Gorten vs Maddox/Garryth2
*Some poetic stuff about the sun going up, which is a grand lie*
Tourney time! Small three rounder as the planned returned event was done in by ye olde plagueness. Running Gorten/MacBain. Intent being to not disgrace myself for 50% of games. First round I got the Bye, so one of two desired wins straight on the books, ooh yeah!
Actual Dolly time, of the 8 list pairs I was happy to drop him into......one of them. Voids/Wretches for days. Bizarrely I drew the one list combo where it felt safe, so bam! MacBain is in!
Opposing list was Stryker 2 Morrow infantry spam and Maddox high armour stuff. Gorten had Spray Bunny jacks, so down Maddox went and we were off. Spread the Net scenario.
MacBain w/Galleon, Machorne w/Freebooter, Kayazy Assassins/Eliminators max, Boomhowlers1 min, bucketload of solos
Maddox w/Hurricane, Storm Lancers max, Storm Strider, Junio with Firefly, couple other solos (Well short of said bucket)
I won the die roll, opted second taking the side with less annoying obstructions for the Galleon to maneuver around and without forests that would slow me down in annoying ways.
Swans run up, Cav on the sides, Huge bases central, Maddox hides behind the defensively placed obstruction. Armour buff spells on the cav.
Galleon was on the right, intending to anchor my friendly zone in the manner I failed to in this exact practice match. Freebooter and a mix of solos went to fight for it in the left, Kayazy/Boomhowlers up the guts with Counter Measures on the former. Eliminators on either flank.
As usual the real MacBain consideration is when to feat, normally circling on if I'm taking a hard alpha or not in round 2. In this instance it's a mixed bag, where I'll take a bunch of shots but not to a degree where I'm screwed, so I settle for staying out of the Cav charge ranges for the most part spacing models to avoid Electro leaps where I can.
Top 2 Cygnar: Where we go, we don't need no picture quality
The Cav get some charges on Eliminators, killing one on the left.
The Storm Strider gets True Sight off the objective and mulches the Underboss, the leaps killing a couple Kayazy. It misses Greygore at least, so that's something.
Hurricane pops off some of the Boomhowlers and toes the centre zone.
Some unsurprising casualties and the Swans haven't advanced to heavily, so it mostly worked out. Can't remember the last time someone sniped out the Underboss, given my dismissiveness of his once per game it's not super concerning.
Bottom 2 Merc: Let the annoyance healing begin (As in caused by, not recovering from)
Plan is feat, score and contest with semi invulnerable models.
Slight pickle of wanting to get Machorne, which requires MacBain to move across. Originally his desired landing spot was blocked by Kayazy, thankfully solved by the Storm Strider zapping them, the true Xanatos Gambit for your own casualties.
Countermeasures/Failsafe upkept, MacBain moves across and we see if the feat die roll kills our plans. It's a 3! Sweet averages! We pick MacHorne, Alexia3, Greygore, Eilish and the rest go on Kayazy.
MacHorne is needed to contest the left flag, Greygore for a potential Reveille, Eilish to knock off an armour upkeep in a future turn (He was kept way back initially to allow this, learnt from the last time we screwed up this matchup), Alexia becaause I like Thrall Warriors and Kayazy to do the rest of the contesting.
Leftwise, Machorne runs up to engage/be in the way of the left cav unit whilst contesting the flag.The surviving Eliminator runs up the board edge for future turn insurance, the Freebooter runs to a spot where hopefully it is shielded from Cav charges by the Machorne block. Lanyssa runs to the flag, the Gobber Tinker runs to be in repair range of the jack.
Centrally, the Kayazy just run up and contest the zones/Cygnar flag. Greygore/Alexia move up into the back of the zone.
Rightwise the Galleon tries to kill Deryfuss, who is camping the Cygnar flag. Leaves him on one box, so that wasn't ideal. The Eliminators on this flank charge Storm Cav and get in their way. Orin twiddles his mustache and twirls his thumbs in the background, as his only role is to try to score the swan flag in the late game (Lighting immune and no offensive spells make Orin a spectator to the sport).
I score my flag and zone, 2-0.
Top 3 Cygnar: Come on man, just die
Sweet sweet MacBain feat reply turn.
Left wise, the Lancer unit kills Lanyssa and puts Machorne down to her feat box, miss an attack on the remaining Kayazy.
Centrally the Hurricane kills the Kayazy it can kill. Maddox/Junior remain hidden.
Rightwise Dreyfus tries to clear up the blocking Eliminators and botches it, the Lances try to make up for it but also swing and miss, one does end up contesting my zone.
Swans can't line up any scores, so happy days.
Bottom 3: Mercs trying to Barny
Not going to be too involved here, just aim for the reliable scores and carry on. Don't really have a great option to kill the Hurricane sadly, so the centre zone will remain a null on the scoring.
Leftwise the Eliminator runs into the Cygnar backfield where giggles can be had. Machorne, sttod up by Greygore, contests the Swan rectangle and knocks down a pair of Storm Lances on my flag who are trivially killed by the Freebooter. Tinker moves up to get the point.
Centrally Greygore did Reveille, efforts to kill a Storm Lancer with him and Alexia go abysmally. The Kayazy Assassins, now few in number, kill the support solo set to score the Swan flag and otherwise position to annoy the Hurricane.
Rightwise Eilish knocks off the Storm Lancer armour buff, the Galleon clears the zone, the Eliminator pops Dreyfuss and Eiryss deathbolts another that had been previously winged. Orin runs to the right board edge and ponders his fate.
MacBain chills in the trench camping 3.
I score my flag/rectangle again, now 4-0.
It's not looking amazing Swan wise on the points, so they go for killing enough of my stuff to make closing out difficult. Which is clearly rude.
Left wise, there's three Storm Lancers left. One limps into their rectangle, one kills Machorne, the last charges and brutalises the Gobber Tinker. Poor chap. The Storm Strider moves up while toeing the Swan rectangle, kills Greygore and Kayzy but fails abysmally on Alexia3.
The Hurricane pummels the Gallon for some damage. Countermeasures is good stuff. It remains toeing the centre zone. Maddox pops around the side of the defensive obstruction to fling out some spells.
Rightwise, the Storm Lancers over here charge into my zone, finishing off the Galleons left side and yet again missing an attack on the Green Eliminator. The Firefly guts an Assassin, leaving one heroic leader model beside the Swan flag, presumably pondering the perilous nature of treating pantaloons as armour.
Swans score their rectangle, now 4-1.
Bottom 4 Merc: Time to seal the deal. I believe this involves a rock of some kind.
Alright, just needs to score two points. My rectangle is a trivial prospect, then it's either pop the swan objective or nab one of the flag.
Countermeasures has been heroic, however it's time is now gone. We upkeep Failsafe so our Galleon does not care about having a Phantom of the Opera style face, but applied to the whole body. Eilish Puppet Strings the big fella, as 7's to hit Storm Lancers is lame. MacBain chills in the trench, Jackhammer kills the two Lancers. There's a single Boomhowler left in my rectangle, he charges and kills the last Storm Lancer for giggles (It's so much nicer when they don't have an armour buff).
Alright, one point in the bag. One to go.
The most straightforward point seems to be the Swan flag, contested by the Firefly. The last Assassin is giving away a melee bonus, we want none of that so he runs up and engages Junior. Galleon moves up to harpoon, unfortunately there's no way to deny the cover bonus. Still, boosted 12 with a re-roll and the damage roll is inconsequential, feels....acceptable?
Yeah, that misses hard. As does the re-roll. Kogsarnat. Glutton for punishment, what the odds on that? 60.94%. Oh well, not brilliant.
The hero Eliminator (I kid on the "the". All Eliminators are heroes.) on this flank charges the Firefly for a whack of damage, which I guess has to count as future prep as I have nothing else meaningful on this flag. Orin/Eilish maneuver for future scoring if it comes to that.
Alright, next plan. Scoring my own flag. One Storm Lancer contesting, Hutchuck was plopped in at last to run and score my flag. It's all on the Freebooter, who cops a freestrike to walk into the back arc. 5's to hit, needs a damage spike or two however with the chain attack I'm optimistic. Horrendously so it turns out, he misses the first swing so no chain attack for him. Mathing out the chances on that one were poor anyway. Alexia tries to land a magic pew pew and misses.
The leftside Eliminator charges the objective, does 6 points. Gurk, should have lined up the objective kill with a Hutchuck charge (I think I didn't as the Freebooter was shy on walk up and punch range? Yeah, let's go with that).
I'm a little stumped at this point. MacBain is in a trench, but presumably still just dies to the Hurrican pew pewing him.
Having nothing left to do, Eirss1 moves up and tries a Disruptor pop shot on Maddox in cover, needing 10's. Lands it. Well well well, maybe we aren't quite Shatner in Kingdom of Spiders yet (Don't watch, it's terrible).
Score our rectangle, now at 5-1.
Top 5 Cygnar: Courage of men speech from that movie that takes forever
It's time for MacBain to die. My protests against this response fail, as drift further and further from the age of Diplomacy (Never played it, sounds......horrible?.
The left Storm Lancers kill Hutchuck and Alexia, freeing up the Storm Strider.
Strider and the Hurricane are the instruments of intended ruin, though thankfully Snipe cycling is off the table (Cheers Eiryss!). Strider lumbers up first, lands it's first hit for 10 points. Eek. Second shot misses, he futzes around in the trench with his dodge. Hurricane gets a focus off Arlen, walks up and....is just in range, because I'm a fool. First attack misses, MacBain does the righty this time and dodges out of range. Success!
The Firefly in an act of final cruelty kills the Eliminator on the right flank, who finally falls into the dirt. It's a trivial scenario win for me at this point (Nothing to contest my rectangle), so that's game. Rockin (Junior missed his attack on the Assassin, so Maddox score centre I score rectangle, Strider had to leave the Swan rectangle for the assassination run. We end 6-2, my turn something contests centre and I win 7-2).
Never in doubt, aside from all those things that happened.
Nect up, we go into the former badgevest of legend, pulled into twisted elvish ways by chonky boys. There's a Falcir list with a Void, so Gorten drop it is.
Gorten remains Rockram, 3x spray bunnies, Nyss, Nemo4 with Freebooter, Eliminators, stack of solos, Dahlia and Skarath.
It's Garryth2 with a pair of Tridents, Moros, another light, two heavies (Look, it's been years. I will never be able to tell the Retribution jacks apart), double Stormfall Archers, double chunky boy solos (Wardens), support solos.
Dangit, MacBain would be fine here. Oh well.
King of the Hill, I won the roll and picked the side with a defensive trench. Also have an obstruction on the centre, a centre forest doesn't really help against Mage Sight Elves. Mostly I avoided irritating water/forests on the elvish side.
Round Uno: Everything is going to be fine....
The Tridents run up the flanks, rest of the Ret stuff moves up as a block between them.
The Rockhammer moves up the left, a pair of Eliminators in the front. Gorten and bunnies scream "MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!" and get into the trench. Nyss fan out in the centre as Boomie2 throws out some Covering Fire, there's not much RFP on the opposing side so I'm down with them popping (*Something* of mine is getting shot at after all).
Nemo leans toward the right, where it looks like there'll be less shots overall. He camps hard, I lack Shield Guards and he feels like a prime target. Alas his upkeeps. His Freebooter gets the other Eliminaotr unit blocking up in front.
Dahlia/Skarath go extreme right flank, thinking being that they'll be the scorers/contestants for that sides rectangle zone.
Solid Ground is up, I put Strength of Granite on the Rockram. Nemo pulled a (sigh) Steelhead Ironhead out of time in case he doesn't get the chance in the future due to death.
So, the thing about Warden Executioners it they do a weird Vortex Chain attack. Which bypasses Solid Ground. Makes putting Eliminators in front of your low defence Heavies a dumb move. I've played these things before, you wouldn't know it from this match.
Anyway, Elves start doing stuff and it's awful.
Leftwise, the Trident moves up aggressively. The Retribution jacks blob up in the centre. Stormfalls chill back as does Garryth. The right Trident hovers in the relevant rectangle with Scythe.
Casualty wise, the Rockram had both it's arms perfectly sheared off and the attending Kayazy vaporised. Centrally Boomhowler 2, seven Nyss and another Eliminator pop. Rightwise Scythe/Trident kill Skarath. Freebooter also gets dinged up a fair bit.
Writing it out it doesn't seem so bad, on the table it felt catastrophic. The Rockram is no where near any repair and for whatever reason I never considered the Trident might...move forward? I genuinely can't contest the left Rectangle due to the building. Awful misplay deployment wise there (Literally a building Skarath could have hid behind. Yeech.). Oh well, see what we can do.
So, normally when your decisions/RNG have dunked on you it's feat time to rubberband. However, I think feating with Gorten in this instance, which only nets me moving the Ret central Jacks and stat penalising the Tridents, doesn't actually save me. Garryth still has his feat in the wings and I'd have no reply agency. I also don't have any Nyss for disposable charges, that unit needs to be built back up by Nemo.
So it's eek it out and just have a regular turn of disaster recovery.
Leftwise, EIlish pops around the building to contest the left in the future. The Rockram tries a boosted melee attack, I'm just hoping for a low odds Crit stagger. Doesn't pan out, oh well.
Centrally one Bunny got a focus and EIlish' re-roll. He Slams one Retribution heavy into another around the flag. The Steelhead Ironhead Power Lifts Ragman and starts making his way to the Rockram, Ragman moves up and Dark Shrouds. The other two Bunnies try to kill the Warden Executioner, they leave him on a box. Doh.
Nemo's Freebooter gets Lightning Shroud, Locomotion for 1, burns a movement box and trivially kills a knockdowned heavy. Eiryss1 disrupts the other Ret heavy. The last Kayazy stabs a pair of Stormfalls.
Gorten shuffles in the Trench with a couple camp and Solid Ground, Nyss respawn in the Vicinity.
Rightwise, Nemo had to camp a few to live, Signs and Portents isn't enough to help out his shots as he misses the rightside Trident by a mile. Dahlia runs into the right rectangle to contest.
Retribution score the left rectangle on the bottom of two, so 0-1 which feels Icky in a suspicious fluid way rather than a Thump.
Ret 3: We are the Bob Mortimers to your apple
Garryth chills up the back, where he feats and giggles. Has a round of Dogmeat or two (Referring to Pai Gow obv).
Leftwise the Trident smacks the Rockram for a bit more, dings the Spray bunnies for a bit and does a solitary point to the Steelhead Ironhead.
Centrally, Moros comes in from reserve, with the other Ret jacks pops the Freebooter and one Bunny. The Warden Executioners decide they've done enough and start rolling their faces into the dirt, doing abysmally and leaving a Bunny and Ragman alive, contesting away. Sweet.
Rightwise, the Trident also had to contribute to Bunny murder, as Dwarf light Jacks are basically great, plus popping my objective. Scythe trivially kills Dahlia (Haunting Melody wasn't worth putting up this game).
Ret score the rectangle and my objective, now 0-4. We get another turn! Gambit success!
Merc 3: Breathe. Eat some eggs. Chockeslam Mankind on top of a steel cage.
No matter what we must score points this turn to keep the game ticking over. Lacking the tools to kill the Tridents, it has to be push up the centre and score there.
The Eliminator is a bad spot feat wise, runs to the right rectangle and engages Scythe.
Gorten has to get up in the guts and camp, this is the stage where the warcaster *has* to contribute for us to have a chance. The bunny moves across for a pointless melee attack, freeing up a spot for Gorten to charge an Executioner, who he kills, then feats all the Ret jacks back. Also pings the left Trident and sends Garryth/support pieces into Whoop Whoop.
Ragman magic pops the other Executioner, puppeting him into punching a jack before he dies. Eiryss disrupts a jack again. Unfortunately the remaining Ret heavy stays contesting the zone, his push blocked by support solos and the theme wall. Oh well.
Left wise, Orin lightnings Stormfall archers. The Ironhead was out of repair range, so charges the Trident for some points. The Crit Stagger wonder bus continues to not work out, dammit Rockram man. Eilish does a Bleed attack and contests the zone, hugging the house obstruction.
Rightwise, Nemo ports forward, dings the Trident and gets into the zone. Nyss charge and do some damage to the battle engine as well.
We score the flag, now 1-4. Ret models are feated on, so might still be able to limp along.
Leftwise, the Trident backs. Eilish hugs the obstruction and prays hard, which works out as he lives! Trident does tire of the Rockram and finally finishes it off. Ironhead gets left on a couple boxes. -3 RAT is good for ya.
Rightwise, the non-feated on Trident spins a bit and kills the last Bunny, Cylena and one of Nemo's repair boys. Scythe tries and fails to kill the Kayazy engaging her.
Centrally, the jacks limp forward and try to shoot down Ragman. The RAT penalty helps out again, the final shot lands but alas, gets Sucker! onto Gorten who it bounces off of. The heavy did limp into contesting range.
Garryth repos back to his spot behind the wall.
No one scores, remains 1-4.
Merc 4: Yeah baby, swing that....1....inch.......stick......
This is it, a good turn here and we've turned around for a probably win! just need to contest the left, clear the right and jam the middle!
Left wise, the Ironhead dings the enemy objective while Eilish Bleeds. This Trident is sadly super healthy, not much to be done about that. Orin hangs in the trench to contest next turn.
Centrally, Ragman Dar Shrouds, Gorten crits the Ret Heavy back. Eiryss disrupts Moros.
Rightwise, Scythe in the forest is a difficult prospect. We need multiple boosted attack attempts, so we do the oddest of things and charge Nemo4. He lands his initial and splats her. Everything about it felt weird.
The Kayazy charges the back of the Trident, it's a 50/50 to finish it off. Leaves it on two boxes. Dangit. We desperately need the Nyss to go into the Ret jacks.
In desperation we cast out Sauron-esque gaze on the last, unexpected heroes available. Nemo's repair goons. There's two left, we hurridely read their stats, they should both be able to get their 2 inch poles in and it's good odds of......oh......they have 1 inch melee range.......
What in the Phantom Zone is this?! Look at the size of the sticks! Well, we can get one in, just not two. Our potential hero lines, dashes forward, lands the attack and.....leaves the Trident on one box.
Yeah, this is the point I cursed activating Eiryss early.
The Nyss are all engaged by the Trident, they have no choice but to attack it. They get it done, but Gorten is flapping in the breeze, the Retribution jacks no longer penalised by his feat.
I score the right, now 2-4.
Ret 5: Pizza goin out, COME OOOONN
Garryth starts the pot noodle throwing, afterwhich the jacks go in. Gorten needs 3-4 tough rolls to survive, alas he's only good for 2.
Super happy with the crawl back, if not the initial choices. MacBain drops out of the pairing, the optimism of his return now expended. Gorten list not currently up for changes, but who to partner him with?
You know those notions you get, where you it's a bad idea but you have to try it out anyway? Maybe not if your better adjusted than me and don't try dropping MacBain into Archon meta. Sod it, let madness reign.
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