Epic Pit
Round 2! Damnation it's the tree huggers with magic rocks, the worst kind.
Had some practice against the sentient evil tree in an eternal strip poker match with an old Russian lady, so that's something. Or least Bones of Orboros appears to be the Circle theme of choice, so at least there's a little crossover there.
This would be our fourth game in mark3, reasonably sure I've played Arkadius everytime so I gave him the choice, Jaga gets to take to the field.
All about can I derive value from the Dracodile before Synergy beasts put it down. Going to have to turn by turn this one, never played against Bradigus, I even missed that dark period of Mark 2 wherein he was rampant.
Minion Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Will Work for Food
(Jaga-Jaga 1) Jaga-Jaga, the Death Charmer [+27]
- Bull Snapper [5]
- Dracodile [36]
- Ironback Spitter [14]
- Targ [0(4)]
Alten Ashley [0(6)]
Bog Trog Mist Speaker [4]
Bone Shrine [2]
Dahlia Hallyr [17]
Gremlin Swarm [3]
Hutchuck, Ogrun Bounty Hunter [0(6)]
Rorsh [15]
Swamp Gobber River Raider [4]
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew [2]
Blunting their fanged maws upon:
Circle Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] The Bones of Orboros
(Thorle 1) Bradigus Thorle the Runecarver [+27]
- Wold Guardian [16]
- Wold Guardian [16]
- Wold Wight [5]
- Wold Wight [5]
- Wold Wight [5]
- Woldwarden [14]
- Woldwatcher [8]
- Woldwatcher [8]
- Woldwatcher [8]
Blackclad Stoneshaper [0(3)]
Blackclad Stoneshaper [0(3)]
Blackclad Stoneshaper [3]
Blackclad Wayfarer [0(4)]
Swamp Gobber Chef [1]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [5]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [5]
Shifting Stones [3]
We draw on the roll off four times, then I eventually win and select first.
I end up with some acidic water on my left and a wall on the right.
Centre of the board has a large forest, so that's awkward.
Circle has a wall on the left and a forest on their right, both of which intrude on each flanking rectangle zone. Hmph.
There's also a hill out on the left of the Circle half, I have no recollection of it being there so I'm assuming it didn't do anything (Though this was a looooong day, so...yeah....image if legumes could think, would they also have condemned Socrates?).
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Round 1: I have a dream. Specifically, that dream is that all Circle players fail to realise that Alten can move up and shoot their extended AD line and he pops a stone.
Reality didn't quite get their alas, as he moves up, wings a Shifting Stone however only does a couple damage points (Went to check the odds of success, got distracted for forty minutes. Keen sense of focus over here. It's a measly 1 in 5 chance to kill a shifting stone with Signs and Portents Alten, still amazing if it works.).
You may also note that Brine is bisected. I repaired every busted the night before, so 5 minutes after entering the shop I promptly drop the box and bust up all the Pig metal heavies (PLASTIC ROAD HOG NEEDED).
Ninja Pigs take the left flank, Elf/Snake crime fighting duo take the right.
Everything else stays central aside from ambushing Hutchuck. Ironspitter goes to the left of the Dracodile for the greater field of vision to the left of the forest.
I put Gravewind on Skarath, Synergy means that the Dracodile will not gain much from the increase in defence.
Circle wise, the Sentry Stones take up either flank.
Woldwatchers advance, all pop their animi.
Left most goes behind the wall, other two go behind the centre forest and pop Stone Form as well.
The various Wold Wights all pop their animi as well as set themselves ablaze.
Bradigus pops Synergy. A truly shocking turn of events.
Gobber Chef and the Blackclad Wayfarer go out toward the right side.
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Minion 2: Alright, time for the old I've-never-played-against-this-it-does-wut-now planning panic.
With feat, Bradigus gets a reasonably easy threat range on the Dracodile, whereas I'd have to pop both Guardians to make me happy to throw Princess Saltine to her horrible death. There fore the plan in the meantime is to just run the Garg to the right and see how Circle placement plays out after that.
I'll also contest the flank zones, however the centre will be Circle land so no point wasting a contesting model into the circle just yet, they can't score at the bottom of my turn anyway.
What attacks can be made will also happen, though reasonably plentiful shield guards make that a disappointing prospect.
Out on the left, we get some instant Ogrun success as Hutchuck pops out and swipes down the Sentry Stone, which on this side ventured way to close to the edge.
Brine toes the zone, theoretically in range to eat the Circle objective and get Soued back.
Gremlin swarm, Mist Speaker and a River Raider chill out here.
Centre left, Alten Ashley and the Ironback Spitter, plus an Ancillary from Targ, shoot up the leftmost Wold Watcher behind the wall.
They do a bit of damage, though Alten's shot gets Shieldguarded twice to hit the left most Wold Wight, where it take out its Body.
Alten repositions to be behind the acid lake and the Spitter puts up Counterblast. Really love that animi being cost 1 and thus now worth casting.
A River Raider also hangs back here and cheers his fellows on, trying not to think about how insufficient his 6 inches is.
Right wise, Princess Saltine runs across. Alas the need to move around the wall and Targs original deployment position means it's in potential danger of being Guardianed, so the Spitter takes one for the team and moves out to be in the way, pops Spiny Growth.
Jaga hides behind the wall with Signs and Portents/Battlehost up.
Swamp Gobbers are behind Saltine, they aren't needed yet.
Yet another River Raider cheerleader out this way.
Skarath slithers into the right rectangle, sprays down two of the Sentry Manikins and the Stone itself, alas, I leave it on two boxes. Counterblast again.
Dahlia goes as far away from the enemy while keeping the snake in control as is possible. Basically edge of the pic next to her one blue blob of fury.
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Circle 2: Bradigus feats this turn, intending to get his malicous autonomous stone bro's into Princess Saltine.
Out left the damaged Wold Wight runs up to Brine, it's fires extinguished. At the end of the turn Bradigus' feat pushes it back from engaging, so that was pretty unfortunate Hippie wise.
Various Wolds get pushed forward, only to find rather awkwardly that they are just shy of charging the Dracodile. One watcher and the Guardians chill out on the left, Bradigus and the Shifting Stones toe the centre zone. Bradigus and the objective all heal up the damaged left Wold Watcher.
Rightwise, the Warden moves up to the gap between the two forests and animi's, just a lazy incidental 18 inch forest line. Yech. Throws a Rift at my objective for some damage
The Wayfarer moves up and puts Hunters Mark on the Dracodile. Mannikins then move up, one of them triggers Skarath's spray which kills the twig man and the Wayfarer, so that was pretty good.
Forward most Wold Wight charges the Bullsnapper, kills it and smacks the objective down to seven boxes.
Two remaining Wold Watchers charge in on the Dracodile, one with the Stone Strength buff. Between them they take out more than half the Dracodiles health and knock out its mind.
That's....uh....not so good.
Various Wolds if able get pushed back three inches by the latter portion of Thorle's feat, though I'm not super on bard with the reasoning.
Circle scores the centre zone as predicted, I luck out and my objective survives for another round though. 0-1.
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Minion 3: Death of the Wayfarer and Bradigus' feat being fired flicks the threat range benefit in my direction, though I'm not feeling great about the potential trades. The ancillary pieces out on the left will have to move more centrally and the lights in the vicinity of Princess Saltine have to die, based on last turns experiences it felt like only one would be needed to kill the Garg off, though mathematically it would probably take two.
The River Raiders and one Swamp Gobber all run toward the centre zone as glorious sacrifices.
Jaga goes, draws off the Bone Shrine and is duly cursed (Worth noting: The Bone Shrine is basically at the back of the board, where it can be safe in the game and threatened constantly by me knocking it over twice a turn). She pops Signs and Portents and feats, I roll quite well throughout here.
One Shifting Stone pops, the two Watchers and Wight on the right all take reasonably severe damage. or maybe unreasonable as far as they were concerned.
Jaga is left without any Fury toeing out of the killbox.
Dracodile shuffles back, I take a free strike from the Watcher that is engaging, it rolls poorly. The need to take the free strike made me reticent to heal it's Mind, plus I have Signs and Portents to win it with anyway.
Dracodile sprays the Watchers and Warden, boosts the damage rolls and does significant damage across them all.
Between Skarath, the Spitter (Who also moves to toe the centre zone), Targ Ancillarying Princess Saltine and Alten Ashley all three Lights are imploded. This also clears up the right zone for me, so that was nice (There's a toeing Manikin, however it is well and truly out of command after the Sentry Stone got out of there).
Back centre the Gremlin Swarm, Mist Speaker and Alten hang out.
Left wise, Hutchuck charges the Wight that Alten messed up the previous round. He blats it into dust, so that was super nice.
Brine charges the Circle objective, eats it, then Rorsh Souie's him back.
I score the objective kill and the right zone, 2-1 and feeling very happy with how that turned panned out. Did Alten's shot in poor order, as the Spitter overkilled the target Watcher he damaged when he should have Grievoused and meddled with a Guardian's Spirit, oh well.
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Circle 3: Leftwise, the Wold Guardians and surviving Watcher move into the left zone in front of the wall, Bradigus goes behind them. Guardians ensure they stay out of the Spitter's charge range, which does slightly amuse me (Then again Jaga is the only Minion caster that makes that thing punch at any reasonable level).
Remaining Shifting Stones pop into the circle zone behind the forest.
Warden advances into said forest and Geomancies a Battering Ram to knock the Spitter out of the cone.
One of the Stone Repairy dudes that's holding an egg toes the right zone.
Sentry Stone shifts back to the right a little, spikes a boosted spray damage roll to pop my objective.
A Wight runs up to the Dracodile to be a pest.
Circle scores the centre zone and pops my objective, now 2-3.
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Minion 4: Things are looking very good now, the Guardians slinging themselves over to one flank means I can dominate the right side of the board and start out scoring in the late stages.
Right wise, I activate Skarath to mulch the Wight blocking up Princess Saltine. I stupidly do this before I pop Signs and Portents, fortunately that proves to not be an issue and the Wight dies.
Jaga stays well back, as assassination is something to be concerned about now that I'm confident the game state is swinging my way. She pops Signs and Portents and heals the Dracodile up some, as does Targ.
Dracodile charges the Warden in the first instance of me ever using Territorial. Easily eats both teh Warden and the nearby Stone Support/Buffing bro, snacking for a shade more healing.
Gremlin Swarm runs into the centre zone, now hides behind the centre forest. THAT's HOW IT FEELS CIRCLE.
Ironback moves back to the bottom of the Circle, lobs a shot at the Guardians as does Rorsh and Alten.
Leftwise, Hutchuck and Brine charge into the Guardians. The Pig struggles a bit as is the norm when his Animus can't assist, manages to finish one off then with a last bought attack lucks out incredibly to take out the Spirit of the Guardian.
I score the right, now 3 all.
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Circle 4: The Guardian knocks down Brine, then Bradigus goes in and finishes him off.
The last Watcher runs up to the Ironback Spitter, Counterblast promptly bounces off.
Stone Buffing dudes move up to contest again, one sprays down the Gremlin Swarms, so that was undercutting the previous sentiment somewhat. Sentry Stone shifts back across to the right.
Circle Score the left zone, now 3-4.
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Rounds 5/6/7: The Spitter easily kills the Watcher, Hutchuck is the sacrifice for contesting.
Dracodile and Skarath spend a pair of turns killing off the last Circle bit pieces, including a spray on the Gobber Chef that'd been cheekily hanging out up the back waiting a chance to run up and contest.
The remaining Swamp Gobber goes into the centre zone and I double up on the scoring.
Bradigus makes a herculean effort to clear out the left zone and score more points, alas the remaining Guardian ends up shot down and Thorle is left on his lonesome as I get ahead on points at the bottom of round 7, winning 10-6.
That game alone would've made the trip worthwhile. All down to that Bradigus feat turn, if something serious gets to the Dracodile it's an even harder match to win out. Doubt Jaga will play this one again with Arkadius in the wings.
