Lined up with the Chrismasterson witht he (apparently) abused spouse of the Aussie meta, those Churchy chumps in denial about being part of Cygnar.
Sorting out my SS Canberra Heat list, at the moment its Gorten +something. The stubby dwarf is just my favourite caster and list to play, the second list needs to be anti Cryx/CIrcle. At the moment its Durgen anti-Cryx with dodge Circle plan (Worked so well at Wintercon...)
Anyway, end pair off is Gorten/Durgen vs Harbinger/High Reclaimer. Neither of us really want to double duke in that situation (Reclaimer laughs at Durgen, Harbinger cries at the same). Conclusion is the end matchup has to be Gorten vs High Reclaimer.
Gorten - Earthbreaker, Hawk, Madelyn, Anastasia, Rhupert, Gorman, Thor, Reinholdt, ATGM + UA, 2x Press Gangers, pAlexia + Risen
Objective: Effigy of Valor
High Reclaimer - Revenger, Idrians (Min) + UA, Holy Zealots (Min) + UA, Wracks, 2x Knights Exemplars, Vengers, Wracks, Piper, Gorman, Daughters (Min), Hierophant
Objective: Bunker
Bunker is a problem, as the Earthbreaker shooting is normally the best way to pop the opposing Objective. This really comes down to a feat off, but it's not really a trade so much as a bad use of the once a game ability could cause an easy capitulation.
Menoth Deploy: I won the roll, I picked the side with a hill to I'd have the chance to score. The forest doesn't hamper the church loons as much as I'd hoped. Idrians/Zealots on the left, Vengers on the right, everything else in the centre.
Merc Deploy: I'd fully intended to get some Durgening on, so I'd failed to pack a couple models.
Thor = Rockbottom. They're both dwarves, it'll be fine.
Madelyn = Taryn. Best use out of Taryn I've ever gotten sadly.
Plan was to push the aggressive Dominate, feat to clear the zone and send Alexia Thrall Warriors to pop the objective over a couple turns.
Menoth 1: Idrians Prey the Press Ganger unit on my left (Commies). Everything pretty much moves directly ahead, between Wracks, Harmonious and Gorman eight clouds go out.....
Merc 1: Solid Ground and a Rock wall happen, everything pushes up the field. A few Press Gangers go to deliberate sacrifice positions in the right zone to try to slow the Vengers. I try to keep the left guys far enough away to not trigger the Idrians Prey.
Initially I was thinking Strength of Granite would be happening, but that was based on the last High Reclaimer Chris used with Bastions which have since been dropped.
I'd say we both defaulted to some needless defences this turn, Neither the clouds nor Rock Wall were going to do much.
Menoth 2: Idrians move up, stay in the forest and pop a couple of Commies. The Vengers and Daughters both go into the Smurfs, the Vengers easily Impact their way through the important Press Ganger screen. Alexia gains a couple corpses. The Zealots enter Cheat Mode (Usable attacks on them in my list at this moment: Gortens Eruption spell...). Gorman stays back and clouds in front of Reclaimer.
Merc 2: Two unkillable Zealots are in the zone I want to score in. I contemplate if this is the time to take an awful feat turn to score first, which would not get the most important Menoth models. I thankfully think of a less terribad plan, using Madelyns Intrigue move to get the Commie Lass in walk range of the Zealots in the zone.
The Commies/Madelyn go into the left zone and Seduce the two Zealots in their to walk away. One Commie does stay back in case he needs to run away as a Prey model.
Gorten plonks downa wall, charges into the zone and camps two.
The Gun Mages kill four or so of the Idrians, the Earthbreaker uses the turned round Zealots to plonk down some Rough Terrain in the Menoths way.
Alexia, Gorman and a new Thrall Warrior hide behind said wall. The remaining Smurfs scratch at things in the right zone, they manage to RFP a Daughter to my surprise.
Mercs go to 2 CP.
Menoth 3: Idrians/Zealots kill most of the Commies.
The Daughters kill Madelyn (The best Taryn ever falls down. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!) and Hawk.
Knights Vengers strike down the few remaining Smurfs, aside from one hero that lives on in the zone.
Cloud walls appear, one separating the Gun Mages/Earthbreaker, the other directly in front of the Reclaimer.
Merc 3: Gun Mages um and arr, then fail to finish off the Idrians. What Press Gangers remain scrabble around. Gorten feats to push everything in the middle to the right board edge. This frees up room for the Thorbreaker to go forward and try to kill the Objective, all shots go into it and leave it on a couple boxes. (Dammit Bunker!). Risen flood around.
Mercs go to 4 CP.
I had the possibility of going for an assassination, though I decided that the conservative play was better and it was iffy on if Reclaimer was in Gorten feat drag range.
In hindsight the Conservative play was correct, but I went about it an awful way. The whole game I was convinced the best use of the Gun Mages was killing Idrians, this was incorrect. The Earthbreaker should have cleared out the Daughters in the centre, then the Gun Mages should have Thundershot anything that remained
Menoth 4: Chris starts working on his magical assassination play but runs out of time.
Me on the right, many clouds to palce were finicky and slowed down Chris' clock versus my normally long feat turn wasn't quite as bad this time around.
Menoth 4 (Redux): We played out the Assassination to see how it went. The plan:
1) A Daughter runs in front of Gorten, then gets Blinded by Gorman, hitting my caster as well.
Zealots/Knights kill themselves in the centre to free charge lanes and Vengers to allow them to resurrect.
Reclaimer moves over, feats back maximum models, brings back three Vengers and Knights. Those units then charge, one Knight kills Gorman to free the lane, two go into Gorten. Two of the Vengers also get in range of the Def 9 Gorten.
Between them they put Gorten on 4 boxes.
I think my plan was good, but I nether needed to feat with Gorten nor keep him in the zone. The Thorbreaker/Gun Mages should have cleared the zone, while Gorten runs back. I'll get to 3 CP, next turn Gorten can feat to clear the zone and get the win. BUNKERS CAN'T BE SHOT BRAIN! REMEMBER THAT!
I think I critically don't get something with Menoth. Everytime we play it out, I feel that more aggressive caster positioning would lean the match to Chris, but I don't have an answer for how Reclaimer doesn't get pulled in and killed, clouds or no.
At first I was thinking that more zealots in the left zone would screw me, but if I don't numpty it the Gun Mages just Thundershot them out after the Earthbreaker knocks them down to ensure they hit.
