Arkadius1 (WWfF) vs Axis (CL) - Outlast
Denied the weekend pushing of dollies by dint of princesses, power rangers and enmassed flowers, we come at last to the next Monday scrap.
It being the Meta it is, I dorp Arkadius into an entirely different player trying to remember how units work after being spoiled by Destruction Initiative so long.
Arkadius (WWfF) - 2x Road Hog, War Hog, 3x Gun Boar, Battle Boar, Gorax, Dahlia and Danger Noodle, Swamp Gobbers, Targ, Alten, Efaarit, Hutchuck
vs
Axis (Clockwork Legions) - 2x Inverter, Corollary, 4x Enigma Foundry, Eilish, 3x Obstructors, Reductors, 2x Clockwork Angels
Scenario is anything-but-Recon. Or you can call it Outlast if you want.
Clutch Scenario Bellows Crew it is!
I lose the roll, get given first. Relevant terrain on my side is a large forest on the left. Both sides have to contend with an obstruction between the flags, though it is not the most obnoxiously placed example of its kind. CoC take the side with a trench up the back, which isn't super relevant, though they do get a potentially inconvenient wall for me that protrudes into the left zone.
Deployment wise, I'm somewhat symmetrical with the snake on the left to pathfinder his way through the forest. Hutchuck ready to ambush.
CoC is a massive advance moving blob (If your CoC resembles a blob, consult your local surgeon), Inverters split on either side with outflanking Angels.
Guardian Beast and Forced Evo are up for me, Onslaught is up for Axis.
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Round 1 produces no super shocks, I move my stuff up the middle . CoC retaliates by Shield Walling into triangles and moving forward. The left angels have one of their number get in the grill of my left most Road Hog (Who happens to be the Force Evo'd one), the right ones go behind a random forest.
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Minion 2: First question, can I kill Axis? He's sitting on one camp in a trench, two triangles of Shield Walled Obstructors in front. I examine the possibility for about a minute, opt out. I was discouraged by the need to kill the Obstructors, after which I could get lights in. In hindsight I should have checked to see if the left Road Hog could get in with the feat move, alas I remain an attrition player at heart.
I'm waited to the left side, so it's try to wipe out the nearest Obstructor unit.
Arkadius moves up, stabs two Gun Boars with Adrenaline, Primal Shocks the annoying Angel off the Road Hog and Repo's back out of death range.
The Road Hog, Skarath, Alten and the two Adrenalled Gun Boars then wipe out the unit and put Counter Blasts up.The Roadie does this via an assault that sets the left Enigma on fire, before killing a dude and sprinting back.
A line of bodies then shield the naked Arkadius (Some form of unexpected Battering ram assassination would be super embarrassing). The Gobbers make a cloud to stop the Angels flying and trying to pot shot Dahlia.
The remaining Gun Boar hovers around my flag, the right Road Hog toes that zone. They both kill some dudes to at least blunt the counter strike a little, given that the Obstructors they kill will 100% return.
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CoC 2: Fire proves to be an inept killing device. Clearly robot bodied people need to be more flammable to keep the classic lazy mans murder weapon effective. Think of the flamethrowers!
Axis moves up to be an inch or so from his flag, feats. Doesn't get my Forced Evo Road Hog, Gobbers, Dahlia, Arkadius or the Efaarit, definitely the most vital models that will let me do loads in return. Yeesh.
The Obstructor units charge forward, Counter Blasts and Guardian Beast do their part and kill three guys coming in on the left, so happy with that. They hammer one of the Gun Boars, puts him down to one box. Three get in on the right Road Hog, belt out his Mind.
The lone Angel on the left charges the Forced Evo Road Hog, does a casual 10 points. Like you do.
The Inverters each toe a zone, Enigmas hang back.
Eilish, proxied by some kind of Convergence infantry guy, moves up and does his super wooje gymnastics jump to get to the CoC flag.
CoC score their defensive flag, go to 1 CP.
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Merc 3: That did not pan out the way I expected. I'd based my Fury Management on one of the Gun Boars dying, so I was now a point over. Truly, mine was a harsh struggle (Akin to trapped Chilean miners not realising how deeply I am burnt by my distaste with interacting with my phone company to pick a better phone contract).
The one box Gun Boar draws the short straw, eats an Obstructor.
Axis feat turn, so no wild plans at this stage. Akin to last games it's become a refused flank situation, the right is self evidently going to be in the grip of the Clockers in a couple rounds, so the goal this turn is push the left as hard as possible. Obstructors have been underwhelming at best with their hitting power, so I'm liking my odds of winning the battle for hearts, minds and flags in the centre.
Skarath starts us off by eating the left Angel and the most irritating Obstructor, pops up Counter Blast. Dahlia stays laxing behind the forest.
The Gorax joins the most dangerous of noodles, crawling through the woods to Primal the left Road Hog.
Alten shoots the left Inverter for Grievous action.
Said Road Hog gets a bit smarmy and up itself, does the whole revving the ground with it's foot as it charges forward into the left Inverter. It has to hurt itself for speed in the process. Flamethrower shot kills a dude and scratches the same Inverter it attacked last round.
It then maxes Fury, rolls unreasonably well and on straight dice damage pops the Inverter and an Obstructor in the vicinity. Overtake moves shuffle it back toward the wall, though hardly in a super safe spot.
Gun Boars then do shots, I'm not wiping out a unit this turn but again, better for them not to attack. I can only afford one counter blast this turn, as one boar has to boost damage rolls to kill Eilish and a contesting Obstructor (POW 10 blast damage is pretty nice).
Targ moves to my flag, Ancillaries an attack to kill a dude on the right in a contesting spot.
Arkadius stays chilling up the back, throws out some Psycho Surgeryness.
The Efarrit moves up, wings a foundry for a bit, repo's back.
The Righ Road Hog kills the Obstructors that attacked it, using the Overtake moves to shuffle to the right away from the Inverter.
Hutchuck ambushed in from this side to get in on a Foundry, charges in and promptly fluffs the damage rolls. What a git.
I score my flag and the left zone, now 2-1 to me.
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CoC 3: Axis moves up behind the obstruction and touches his flag, stays camping heavy now that my feat for assassination is back on the table.
Left zone wise, the Reductors move up, a pair die to a Counterblast. They spray away, killing the most injured Gun Boar. Obstructors then go in, they punch up the Forced Evo Road Hog for a bit. Enigma's restore the dead, the damage Foundry gets repairs by one of the techs.
Right wise, the Inverter ambles up behind the obstruction. The Obstructors and ANgels mob and kill the contesting Road Hog. The destroyed models pop back.
CoC score the right zone, a plucky Gun Boar stays contesting their flag. 2 all.
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Minion 4: It's time. Battle Boar time. No overall plan revisions, in an ideal world the Battle Boar would clear a path for the War Hog to get to Axis, alas I'd sodded that up with my placement last turn.
Remaining Road Hog suffers the Primal consequences, eats a Reductor.
War Hog shuffles along and toes the left zone, an embarrassment for a Heavy. They wouldn't put up with this from a Warjack man.
Arkadius moves up, Crippling Grasps the Reductors, heals stuff, repo's back. Gorax Primals the Battle Boar.
The Gun Boar in the centre eats an Obstructor and two Reductors using Overtake.
Battle Boar hurts itself for Berserk, charges a Reductor, maxes fury to eat ten models wiping out another Obstructor unit and leaving a single Reductor left, who dies to Targ Ancillarying a Gun Boar.
Gun Boars and Skarath finally kill the left most Foundry.
Right wise, Hutchuck charges the Foundry again. Puts it on one box. Imph.
The Efaarit has a theoretical Impact attack of doom against five models, I don't bother due to being uncertain if he could charge (He can) and because I'm close to winning on time and don't want to cede the clock advantage. He just runs in a wide loop to contest.
I score my flag and left zone, now 4-2.
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CoC 4: Gear Kidneys clock out this round, we play on for a bit to see how it pans out.
Obstructors munch the Efaarit without issue and put Hutchuck on two boxes.
Axis hides behind the obstruction after using Battering ram to push back the contesting Gun Boars, a Foundry moves to the CoC flag.
The lone mechanic runs and contests the left zone, staying just out of Skarath's Counter Blast attack.
Clockwork Angels do a CRA on Targ, put him on one box.
The Inverter runs to contest my flag, going to a spot outside of the War Hogs line of sight.
CoC get their flag and the right zone, even it out at 4 apiece.
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Minion 5: Grind grind grind. Move heavies up to kill Axis next turn now that clock isn't a priority.
Arkadius Crippling Grasps the Inverter, Forced Evo's the War Hog, gets out of dodge. Gorax Primals the right most Gun Boar.
Said Gun Boar walks into the Inverter and contests the right zone, does some solid damage. Targ then activates to get out of the way, Ancillaries him for some more damage.
War Hog then tramples to the Heavy Vector, buys a couple attacks and kills it.
Other various beasts move across, contest the CoC flag and shoot down the scoring Enigma Foundry. Axis also ends up on Fire, Corroded and down half his boxes.
CoC concede, which is entirely fair. I remain unimpressed with Obstructors offensive power.
Play flaws:
* Raw Adrenaline served best as a Fury saver in my limited use. Spacing has made it unusable on the various 10" sprays in the list, which seems like super suboptimal play. Need to control my reflex to flank with the Road Hogs, Skarath to often gets dictated by terrain as one of the few pathfinder models.
* Related, Arkadius defence. Clockwork Legion is giving an inflated sense of security by dint of sod all ranged attacks, he's been sitting on basically no fury for both games. Gun Boar Bunker potential answer, seems limited and problematic (Blasts/Electroleaps)
* Feat laziness. The ostensible point of picking up Arkadius was becoming a better assassination player, that sure as sod isn't happening yet.
List change wise, I'm now conflicted. Multiple Counter Blasts was...just super cute. Brain says drop two Gun Boars for RaBo's or something, this game made that a much harder proposition.
Looks like Arkadius is going to be the Minion main. Maybe I just like casters that leave in immortal fear of Arcane Bolt? Need to test into Jack Spam, concerned about the Khador matchup. Legion of Skill should be fine, Jaws.....not so much. Beasts trade super poorly into Marauders.
