Spread the Net
We arrive once more at the opening day of the week as determined by ISO 8601. I didn't know we needed a standard for that, yet somehow I feel worse knowing that I'm older than it. Monstrous.
You saw the title, ergo you will be shocked at my lies and misinformation as I play...Maelok!
Minion Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] The Blindwater Congregation
(Maelok 1) Maelok the Dreadbound [+28]
- Blackhide Wrastler [16]
- Boneswarm [7]
- Bull Snapper [0(5)]
- Gatorman Soul Slave [0(5)]
Bone Shrine [2]
Gatorman Witch Doctor [4]
Thrullg [0(5)]
Thrullg [5]
Boil Master & Spirit Cauldron [5]
Gatorman Posse (max) [16]
Gatorman Posse (max) [16]
Gatorman Posse (max) [16]
Gatorman Posse (max) [16]
Now the truly hard part:
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Retribution Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Legions of Dawn
(Elara 2) Elara, Death's Shadow [+28]
- Harpy [9]
- Manticore [14]
- Siren [8]
Arcanist Mechanik [2]
Arcanist Mechanik [2]
Arcanist Mechanik [2]
Dawnguard Sentinel Scyir [0(4)]
- Siren [8]
Dawnguard Sentinel Scyir [4]
- Siren [8]
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios [0(7)]
Dawnguard Sentinels (max) [18]
- Dawnguard Sentinel Officer & Standard [4]
- Soulless Escort (1) [1]
Dawnguard Sentinels (max) [18]
- Dawnguard Sentinel Officer & Standard [4]
- Soulless Escort (1) [1]
Consider the jacks super unverified, as subtly indicated above.
That's a lot of heavy hitting, guess it's a good acid test provided I don't pilot this pile of snappers incompetently.
Spread the Net isn't ideal matchup wise given how hard the opposing list can rumble, normally this is why I like to add Totem Hunter esque solos and ambushing models. Alas poor Bog Trog Ambusher.
I lose the roll, get second. Both rectangle zones have a defensive wall, so that consideration isn't strong. Biggest swing vote ends up being ye old central forest, which looks like a potential hidey hole for Maelok and utterly painful if I'm on the opposite side given pathfinder in the list is low after the feat, an aspect of it I'm not a massive fan of it. This means Ret get a hill around their flag and I alkso gain a large pond plus on suite forest near my own flag, though it's not placed in a meaningfull manner for me.
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Round 1: Le' elves le'march le'forward.
Sentinels flank either side, jacks up the centre. Eiryss is out on the Ret flag on the right.
My trevails can now truly begin. I have to get up the board and give enough away to make Elara pop her feat, however I can't lose so much as to be unable to strike back.
I say fuck it and just everything forward, relying on the Croc toughness to take the blows. Death Pact goes up obviously, I put Soul Harvester on the left Gold Posse (Tamatoa squad). One Thrullg goes out on the right, planning to eventually kill Eiryss and score the Ret flag.
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Ret 2: Left wise this flanks unit of Sentinels pop their mini feat and charge in, clustering a line of bro's around my flag. They kill the Bone Shrine and the two Grey Posse that got sent out front as the first wave of the doomed. The....Ret Heavy Jack comes in with a full focus load, the Arcanist strength buff and Scything Touch, rekts me good as it kills aother pair of Grey Posse and two of the Tamotoa's. Ouch.
Right side, the other lot of Sentinels come in after the back ligh jacks and Eiryss kill a Purple Posse.
This unit struggles somewhat, particularly to hit, and only get a small portion of their unit so I think they kill no Posse.
One of the jack marshalled Sirens gets focus of Arcanists and Scything Touch flipped to it. It then goes full Purple People Eater, coming in and munching up three Purple Posse. Yeesh.
Said Siren is sadly a similar colour to the Bone Posse and melds in somewhat. See, it's not always the photography, sometimes it's the objects fault.
Elara and other stuff chills up back.
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Minion 2: In total I lost ten Posse, leaving two units with just their hopping mad unit leader left. Actually feels alright, the charge has been eaten and now I can nom back, line up some souls and get the first control points.
Witch Doc moves up in the back field and Death Rides, getting the right side of Posse.
Maelok Death Pacts, then backs up and Mortalities the Ret Heavy jack. Pops feat.
The Soul Slave moves up to toe the centre zone, puts Mortality on the left unit of Sentinels, the advance required by the Mage Static limits.
Left wise, the Tamatoa Posse tear into the Sentinels, killing with all six attacks.
The Bone Swarm goes in, kills another three and sits in the centre zone.
Thrullg runs over to my flag.
Last of the Grey Posse charges up into the Sentinel Officer and toes the Ret Rectangle zone, gains great affinity with Snake Viewing Apparatus as he rolls like garbage and does nought.
The Wrastler walks into the central forest and eats the Ret heavy jack.
Right wise, the Thrullg isn't super keen to get munched by the Sentinels, so runs up to the extreme right edge of the board.
Bone Posse stab at their own Sentinel sandwhich, kill five.
Bullsnapper slams the Siren, knocks it way back. Important point being it can't Shake due to being Jack Marshalled.
I score my flag and rectangle, get up 0-2.
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Ret 3: I just ranked Jumanji higher than Shawshank Redemption. I think people will forgive that. I don't think they will take the same approach for Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle being higher than both of them.
Leftwise, the Sentinels kill off one Gold and the last Grey Posse whilst one of the lights kills off the Bone Swarm.
Central zone wise Light jack shots kill the Soul Slave to the box and push the Wrastler out of the zone, ending up behind the forest.
Rightwise Sentinels move forward, they end up killing two of the Bone Posse and the last Purple fella. Also tough out a third of the Bone ones.
Ret score their flag and rectangle, now 2 all.
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Minion 3: I'm relatively happy with my position at this point. I'll pop back some fellas, contest away and counter score again.
Maelok stays backfield, pops Death Pact and returns two Gold and one Bone Posse to the fold.
Left wise the Gold Posse wiggle around, a revived Gator gets up to contest the Ret rectangle while another engages things in the centre zone. I then have three Sentinels to kill with four attacks, it goes abyssmally and I kill one. I manage the clear out the flag, however it means the THrullg has to charge over the flag to do it and is now in a position to be mauled. Yeech.
I then swing to the right zone, where three Posse and a Bullsnapper have to kill four Sentinels to clear the zone. They kill two.
Well, that's gone...poorly.....
The Wrastler moves across, models in the way means he just eats another Sentinel.
I toe the central zone behind the forest with the Witch Doc to contest, at least have the mild success of Thrullg charging in and killing Eiryss, though he couldn't do so and get to the Ret flag.
I score my flag, 2-3 and now looking grim.
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Ret 4: Around my flag, Ret use clever solo placement to give flank to have one of their marshalled jacks come in and kill the Thrullg and two healthy Posse. The two revived Tamatoa Posse are easily killed by bit attacks.
Right wise, the Sentinels flail a bit and only kill one Bone Posse.
A Fully Loaded Marshalled jack comes in and kills the Wrastler.
Ret score their Rectangle, now 3 all.
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Minion 4: Balls. The left flank has been evaporated. Can only hope I can somehow push up he right and set up scoring on the Ret flag.
Pot moves up, kills the last Sentinel in the left side unit.
Maelok has to charge up the right, where he Mortalities and buys attacks to kill the Jack that killed the Wrastler.
Bone Posse kill off the Sentinels in my Rectangle.
We both score our Rectangles, now 4 all.
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Ret 5: Bullsnapper dies, Solos run to flags, light jacks use gun shots to push the Pot out of the central zone and kill his Gator helper. A dude runs up to contest my Rectangle.
Ret score the central zone, their rectangle and both flags, now 4-8.
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Minion 5: It's the end of the world as we know it, I feel fiiiiinnnnnne-ish.
Maelok Mortalities and hurts the forward Ret jack, Bone Posse charge and spread out to kill a couple Arcanists and fiish said Jack off.
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Ret 6: Elara charges in to finish off some Posse, Ret up winning 6-14.
Hmmmm. Immediately after the game my thinking was Ret got to much work done on my feat turn, I don't think that's necessarily true. If the only consideration was dice rolls, I'd apporpitation blame for the loss on my turn after that in which I did dismal damage to the half surviving Sentinel units.
Really though, to get into the true problems:
Deployment: Sillyness with the Bone Shrine. It should have been placed to the right behind the wall where it could arc Mortalities on anything in my rectangle. Putting it on my flag made it very easy to get to for the Sentinels, depriving me of hte even greeatere benefit of nabbing a Fury off it for a Fury stricken caster, which had a direct effect on later decision making.
Otherwise I was a lot happier than the last game, Posse were mobbed up, Maelok wasn't in easy danger, so that was something.
Oh, also I actually forgot to deploy the Witch Doc. I'd shuffled it alongside other models, so it was on the board in a workable position but not where I really wanted it (The frontline initially).
Early Game: I think I had to push everything forward to draw out Elara's feat. It's unfortunate, however I don't think it's wrong, trying a more pronounced piece trade deal doesn't scream success versus the longer threat range and disposable had hitting anture of the light jacks.
The Wrastler going in on teh Ret Heavy was also where I keenly felt the loss of the Bone Shrine, as I Mortalitied the jack whereas in a better world I debuff the right Sentinels and pops Rage on the Wrastler, alas twas not to be.
Mid Game: After the feat exchange, wherein I encounter my failure to break the Sentinels on the right side, the big problem was the Wrastler who was fundamentally exchanged for a warrior grunt. That said, he doesn't have a great spot to go, I'd hedge my own bets on either keeping him behind the forest or using hte Witch Doc to give him Ghostly and killing one of the Ret lights.
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Late Game: Hmm. There's definitely some sillyness here, like whatever I was doing with the pot grunt. All the same my options don't feel great, one of those where-is-my-Totem-Hunter things. Oh well, the list works on principles I don't normally include in my lists as well, so that's that.
Getting better. Probably not in time for the team tourney coming up, though I think that's more a player issue than a list one.
