Laziness means I throw down the Cephalyx.
Thexus1 - Subduer, 3x Wrecker, 3x Warden, 3x Agitator, 2x Dominator + Eliminators
Objective: Stockpile
Round 1 we get High Reclaimer piloted by the Salt and Pepper patrol, who lacking my innate laziness already did a better write up over here: http://mk3menoth.com/?p=137
It's the Dingaling list from WTC:
High Reclaimer - Scourge of Hair, Reckoner, Cleansers + UA, Idrians (Min) + UA, Vengers, Choir (Min), Rhoven and jerks
It's Outlast on a table strewn with hills, one side has a splash of water and an obstruction, the other has a forest in a zone and a way back trench.
Scenario isn't super live for me, so I have to pursue attrition, which means going for unit wipes and not getting deaded by the feat. The most threatening thing is the Vengers, as two of them charging Thexus fairly reliably gut him (I think, haven't bothered crunching the numbers).
I win the roll and dive on first, if I go second then I have no chance of getting the slow burn scenario going which greatly aids the attrition struggle.
Other side report has a lot better and less lazy photos, so go their for quality. Read on for hyperbole and brain drift.
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Merc 1: I get the water/obstruction side.
Going first I decide to do the Eliminator stab for focus plan, as I expect the Menites will try to suss out a weird assassination which will keep my clock relatively safe.
A Wrecker ends up going way left, around the obstruction to take on the Cleansers.
I've got a blob of Monstrosities in the centre (Subduer, Wrecker, 2 Wardens), across from them is the Menite battlegroup. The centre Wrecker is also the Idrian Prey target, who relocated for the sake of making that ability less relevant (Prey is a hard proposition against this kind of low model good positioning tools list).
One Wrecker, warden and Thexus go right, intent is to get a sneaky Dominate on the right zone if the Vengers shuffle centreward to take on the Mosntrosity blob in the middle.
I cast Deflection, get distracted like a full and do a couple TK's without healing the Eliminator damage. That's just an elementary Thexus error at this point, though I'll pretend immediately spotting a bad error is like water in the face. Totes. Definitely stopped mistakes after that. Hope I'm convincing you of that, because it's not working as I try to convince myself.
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Menoth 1: The fanatics run screaming at me, like the mythical Gerbil charge off a cliff.
No weird redeployments, so the centre mob of Monstrosity distraction plan didn't work. More a hope than a plan really.
The Cleansers take up a classic checker board formation at the top of the left zone.
Reclaimer, Scourge and Rhoven's posse haul up around the trench. Reckoner goes out front.
On the right the Idrians hang around the forest, CRA the right side Warden who Hyper Aggressives forward after a decent wollop. The Vengers stick out on the right, spread out with the appropriate steering-clear-of-death fella up the back.
High Reclaimer puts a cloud in line with the forest, I like to think of as a sympathetic nod to my own miscasting of spells in my turn. Plus clouds plonking down against Cephalyx weirdly seems to be a thing (The to hit debuff would have been super relevant, but very hard to place without getting Reclaimer brutalised).
Choir also no-spells the jacks. This will be a reoccurring trend.
Cleansers get Hand of Fate. Boo.
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Merc 2: I'm not killing squat this turn, nothing is far forward enough. I measured out a Subduer drag and murder on the Reckoner, but needed my feat which I wasn't willing to pop for a relatively low value kill (Feat needs to pop either Reclaimer or a full unit of something important).
Net result is Monstrosities spread out and barely toe zones. Two Wardens and a Wrecker takes the left, the damaged Warden and Wrecker take the right.
Eliminators fuel up some wardens, Subduer, Wrecker and Thexus go to the middle.
The front three Vengers can go into the Monstrosities in front of them, but can't all focus on one, so by my eyeball they should survive though might be a touch mangled.
Thexus also heals up this time, casts Deflection and camps three (should have spent those on healing heavies, but oh well).
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Menoth 2: Reclaimer, Jacks, Rhoven and choir don't really move. Reckoner pops a shot into the centre Warden.
Idrians move around, do another big CRA on the right Warden, does some damage.
These are free attacks essentially, if I Hyper Aggressive forward then I get into worse Venger chargers and the Knight Exemplar get into range.
Right side, the Vengers charge in, do some damage to the Wrecker, but two focus on the CRA's victimised Warden and maul him pretty bad, though thankfully his important system is functional (Like a zombie, monstrosities have a severe reliance on not being stabbed in the brain, though a great deal of the time they can still shuffle and flail ineffectually).
Left side the Cleansers move up, I think they pop their mini feat. They spray and roll absolutely awful, the three left Monstrosities get a load of focus and some better positioning in exchange for a handful of damage points.
The Knights Exemplar just sort of hang around, a few of them go up the middle into positions of extreme annoyance.
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Merc 3: The Vengers have a dude behind a forest and are completely safe. My only means of popping the unit is Hex Blasts on a battle Driven dude, which feels awful (Throw down number crunching here).
That's out the window, the next proposition is feat the Reckoner across, slam him over Reclaimer and get a Warden follow up move buying three attacks that autohit. He had plentiful camp alas, Shield Guards to stop the Subduer drag for an alternate take and none of the Agitators even with a TK were close enough for their puny Instigate bubble.
Finally we are on to the workable plan C. C for third in priority of what I want to do and also because it's Plan Cleanser Murder.
I have to wipe out the whole unit, for which I intend to utilise the left Wrecker and two Wardens.
Thexus goes first, he TK's the Subduer forward to get next to the Obstruction, feat pushes the left side of the board around, creating a dream Thresher (it was 8 or so models, courtesy of my opponents extreme courtesy in placement assistance), moves the Knights Exemplar around and pulls the Reckoner forward for a clean drag line so the Subduer can drag in and pop a Heavy to.
After that it was a TK on the central Wrecker so he could make it through the water and another Psycho Surgery for my variously damaged list.
The two side Agitators advance and Instigate. They really should just be called Instigators, I loathe when I need to use Influence.
Left Wrecker goes in, dream Threshers, I realise I'd botched the math, for whatever reason miscalculating in my head that I'd need 5's when I in fact needed 6's. The result is that after all the focus is spent, I've sadly left an unexpected Cleanser alive.
At this juncture, there are four Cleansers. One on the hill, the awful loser in front of the Wrecker and the officer with a back guy. The one on the hill has a date with a charging Wrecker, the other two I set up for a perfect slam from the other Warden. I struggle to find a way to kill that Wrecker engaging tool, who at least isn't in the zone though that isn't worth much.
I was out of range to throw one Cleanser into another, maybe there was a play with the Subduer if I drop the plan to kill the Reckoner, but even now I'm not seeing how I land it. Even the drag shot would have been fine, but getting the angle would be hard (Need a boosted 9 to hit the Cleanser).
In any event, this was already a waaaaay longer turn than I wanted, when I needed my clock to be an ally against the now impending feat of doom.
One Warden goes up and clears the infantry out of the zone, powering up the Exemplars a little, the other hangs backfield (Though, looking at it, there is a distinct possibility I forgot to activate it at all, doesn't seem to have moved....).
Subduer/central Wrecker drag in and kill the Reckoner.
Now is maximum panic mode, I realise that I probably don't have enough Sac Pawn for Thexus with a single unhurt Monstrosity, plus there is a good landing zone for a couple Vengers I need to take up.
I take the only feasible solution I can see, though it isn't good.
The right zone Wrecker kills a Venger, freeing up the damaged as Warden to run over and shield Thexus.
With a sense of Resignation I go to 1 CP and slap the clock of sadness.
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Menoth 3: You can tell I was listening to Active Player for that last turn, went way longer than necessary.
Sure enough, Reclaimer walks up and feats. The Cleansers re-emerge in a line ready to flame on, a couple Knights Exemplar reform from the clay of the first losers Menoth was then a shitty dad to, the Venger I had to pop gets churned out of the pony death factory again.
My Sac Pawn targets are the Wrecker and super damaged Warden.
Idrian's CRA yet again the same Warden. because they are mean.
The respawned Venger and the Knight Exemplar go into the Warden and wipe it off (The poor Venger puts it on one box). The Exemplar don't do ideal attacks, primarily because the BFC is an idealised human playing my carbon copy iteration (Didn't specify target attacks, cost a redirected charge essentially). Wrecker loses most of his armour boxes and right arm.
The Cleansers then go in the critical error in the run. They aim to do shots instead of assaulting. They get two shots into Thexus that ping to the Wrecker, but ultimately cause the Subduer to Hyper Aggressive and engage them.
There's some other round about actions, but they don't matter at this point.
I don't know if it's just my particular fear or not, but I really feel that the melee assassination is miles better. I think the plan, as an uninformed player, is Heresy kills the back Venger guy, Idrians kill the one near the wrecker. They get feated back outside my Wreckers melee. Exemplars charge the damaged Warden, which then gets finished off or Impact cleared by the Vengers who pop Thexus. It's probably way more difficult to manage than I think with positioning and so forth, but that's that.
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Merc 4: Thexus heals, TK's Reclaimer forward and around, Instigated Subduer drags him in, Wrecker eeks forward to finish him off.
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Me on the right, though I'd be lower out of the times if not for the all in assassination run.
I think if we re-racked the odds go to Reclaimer, as the onus for the difficult plays goes to me first. That said had I stuck Thexus behind that Obstruction with a Warden next to him possibly things are just good for me? Gives away the right side of the board though, where I'm forced into a contest vs Menite scoring struggle.
