A pair of Skorne players awaited, but we'd all played recently, so I went into one of the next couple players to come into the shop.
Now it's Paulions Skorne! (This meta is weird. DO THEY NOT KNOW THE INTERNET HAS PROCLAIMED SKORNE TO BE TRASH?).
The Gorten veto was used, out of the available lists it ended up being the fine old Montador.
Bart1 - Galleon, 3x Nomad, Reinholdt, Taryn, Commodore Cannon, Rockbottom, Devil's Shadow
Objective: Bunker
Previously I had Dougal and Eliminators, but then I played a game with the new iteration of Artillerist and lost all interest, The Old Gold now had a distinct coppering shade.
Plus Zira is just cool.
Paurf dropped some Exalted Court shenanigans.
Mak3 + Possessive servants - Tiberion, 2x Aradus Soldiers, Gladiator, Archidon, Bone Grinders, Paingivers, Willbreaker, Chef
Objective: Bunker
It's Extraction, also the most common scenario I've played. Still feels fresh though, it'll never add up to the amount of Close Quarters/Take and Hold games anyway.
Both sides threat ranges are reasonably static, with both feats relatively nullified. There's a lot of Steady in those Skorne Beasts, while I have sod all models to do a Fury burning Overtake streak.
Skorne have a definitive edge in pathfinder land with ranged attack bullet resistant bugs, but I can live with expending my Nomads if I don't make a mistake with my Colossal placement.
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Merc Deploy: I win the roll and pick first. Persian Vamps take the side with the trench.
Galleon, being the model who can walk through it, lines up behind the nearest forest. Bart is central to make use of Batten. Commodore is to the right in a vague attempt to get some lines of sight. Devil's Shadow are far right, if they go near the Galleon they'll just be Overtake stairs for Tibbers or a Bug.
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Skorne Deploy: Aradus out front and near each flag. Black models in the back are the Bone Grinders, there's a single Shambler repping the Gobber Chef.
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Merc 1: Everything lurches forward, including the Commodore's single move. Hot Shot goes on the Galleon, because rewriting Barts playbook is what I'm all about.
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Skorne1: Everything moves up, Makky puts up Vortex of Destruction.
Tibbers is central, Gladiator goes left toward the trench. Archidon gets mercilessly mocked for being a Light on a Large base. The Aradus contest a flag each.
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Merc 2: Orin Midwinter suddenly appears on the Skorne side representing the Willbreaker.
Plan is to down at least a heavy. I can't reasonably contest, so I'll have to give the initial scoring to Skorne, but if that happens I have to set up it up to trade. I can't fully fuel multiple heavies if I want to Batten, so if I get rushed on all front it's a losing prospect unless I pop a heavy or two first.
I have a position where I can drag a Bug in and be out of Tibers threat range, but I have to pop an Exalted Court member to stop the Harpoon being Shield Guarded
Reasoning this is the most important she's liable to be, given how cagey we've both been with our pre-measured threat ranges, Taryn advances and does Brutal damage shots on the Exalted Court bloke. Does a few points triggering Battle Driven but fails to finish him off.
Galleon moves to his spot to get the job done. I roll max mini-shots, takes all the right shots to get rid of the Exalted court member which wasn't to good. I'd also not thought things through and spent two of his focus to boost the hit rolls. Wasteful. The rest of the little shots go into the Gladiator, I roll reasonably and take out it's body, so that was nice.
The Harpoon fails to damage the Bug. Thinking my Gladiator was now going to be wasted by a Bug or at least mostly killed, I move up the left Nomad, thinking it would either be sacrificial or threaten a dangerous freestrike. It was then pointed out the Bugs threatened 10 inch with a pull involved, their big attack is only one inch range, though there's a distinct possibility I would have moved up the nomad anyway.
Galleon is blocking the Nomad in the photo for the most part, it's the vestigial looking part coming out of the shoulder (The mini-Galleon sibling if you will).
Bart Battens and hugs the objective.
On the right, the other two Nomads move up to be shy of Bug's threat range, which is the equal of their own.
The Cannon is on the receiving end of a Money Shot from the rich one legged Dwarf. It then goes for a slam on the Archidon, which the remaining Exalted Court chump Guards and explodes from.
The Devil's Shadow start the very long "Let's get to the support without dying" by running up the right side of the board.
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Skorne 2: To my surprise Cageyness is now the name of the game.
Nearly all the Skorne models go to the left, Makky feats not expecting any better time for it.
The Archidon comes up, eats Taryn and falls back. The right Soldier sits to just contest the right flag, the left one comes up and after a bit of a struggle eats the Nomad.
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Merc 3: The non-aggresive play surprised me, as well as the no scoring. Given I've got the Galleon guns versus no ranged at all, plan is to use the Commodore to push back the bug on the right side and use the less than necessary Reinholdt to score while doing chip damage on the left.
Looking at it, I could have perhaps charged the Galleon off to the left to kill that sides Soldier, though I'd have to find a spot where I don't get counter killed by Tibbers, which leaves Galleon far to the left and certainly strains Bart's Control area with the Nomads on the right.
In any event, on the right the plan goes off without a hitch. The Commodore gets a (In hindsight) pointless Money Shot coin and slams the Bug back a few inches. The Nomads creep forward to threaten him if he comes back to contesting range. Reinholdt runs to the right flag. The Devil's Shadow receives Tough from their diminutive head of Human Resources and and leg it around to the back of the board.
On the left, the Galleon falls back and lines up the Archidon. Rolls the lowest possible amount of shots, so that isn't going to work. I shoot it anyway and take out it's mind, so that's something.
Lastly Reinholdt pumps his little legs that somehow his support his enormous noggin to the right flag.
Mercs go to 1 CP.
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Skorne 3: The left Aradus frenzies and fails its charge on the Galleon.
Tibbers shuffles up to get in melee range of my Objective, Makeda gives him the Overtake spell.
Gladiator shuffles into the Trench and gets a couple heals from the Paingivers.
Archidon attacks Reinholdt, misses, he dodges away. Gobber heroics at work.
The Willbreaker moves across and tries to Influence Mar to shoot Morland, but misses. Pretty sure they'd RFP each other had it worked, still no where near as embarrassing as Magnus getting hit by his own Renegades Obliterator Rocket.
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Merc 4: It's trade time. I'm feeling the Tiberion squeeze, I reason I can use my feat and a sacrificial Nomad to get a leg up in the game initiative.
There's two plans here, On the right it's kill the Archidon and score again. I decide it's the turn of the game where I don't Batten, so the right Nomad and Galleon are fully fueled.
The Focus on the right Nomad ends up being wasted, as Zira and the Money Shot buffed Commodore Cannon flat out kill the Archidon. Reinholdt then goes to the right flag to score again. On the way Morland kills the Willbreaker and Mar causes a Bone Grinder to tough.
The left is where the more vital junk happens. The non-loaded Nomad runs up into Tiberions face, I measure it out so that he can't get past the nomad to the Galleon, who moves up behind and just manages to kill the Aradus that has been bugging around it all game.
Bart then goes behind the Galleon and feats, his control area covers around the blocking Nomad so Makeda or the Gladiator can't kill it as they'll slip and fall on their tusks (Makedashas fearsome tusks, as we all know).
Mercs go to 2 CP.
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Skorne 4: So the joy of mocking Tiberions Animus before game starts is it then naturally becomes a key component of the assassination run, as I'd completely forgotten about it.
Makeda casts Unstoppabe Force to gain Bulldoze, walks around, pushes the Nomad away, then walks back a bit and falls over.
Paingivers Enrage Tibbers.
Tibbers then charges my objective, kills it with the Tetsubo and Tusk initials (I forgot the reduced damage die from Impervious, but it probably gets it done anyway).
Tibbers then sidesteps to Bart, who's camping one focus. The shield lands, I reduce to a couple points with my focus point. I'm Def 17 effectively, which saves me as the bought Tetsubo's fail to land. Makeda is knocked down in range of Galleon and two Nomads, so the King gets knocked over at this point.
Talking it through, directly after the game the thinking was that Tibbers should have Animused to charge the Galleon and put damage on it, Gladiator runs up to finish it off next turn. Overall I think Skorne should have been more aggresive, but it's actually weighted to me when I don't willy nilly throw away Heavies in the opening stages of the game.
The Mak list is liable to drop the Willbreaker/Bone Grinders for a Cyclops Brute. Certainly makes this particular match Skorne weighted I think, I don't get the half a feat I managed.
I can't see changing my list based on how this played out, Taryn and Reinholdt only really had a scoring stuff role in the matchup, though I'm likely discarding shadowfire in the matchup far to much.
There's Kingmakers, but I don't see it for Bart. Feign Death and Batten interact badly, while his Trenchers have nothing on Damiano's. PLus Commodore Cannon is somewhat addictive, having never got the chance to wield it last edition and now getting it with casters I have the models to play (One day Shae).
I think this is the closest to what I initially expected pre-measuring games to be, a weird perfectly measured stand off. Had we a clock going it would not have occurred in such a way in any case, but it was fun anyway, traditionally I've done poorly in the long stand off games so this was a nice change. Plus outflanking brings me far more joy than it should.
