Spread the Net
Round 2: "All Greens" team. Nay, Triffids not are they. Just every matchup is green for someone.
My personal matchups are pretty good here, though that's without taking into account the Primal Terrors fear I should have had and some super optimism about going into the opposing Minions player, which is either a game into Rask or a skill off between Arkadius' in which I have a lot more experience. Probably still a Yellow at best based on player skills.
Babble aside, those meandering thoughts don't come up as I get a good matchup into Dru-bear with ye old Circle. Based mainly on getting recent Circle reps into the caster I highly expected to see.
I end up on Spread the Net on opponents choice, not an ideal table for me as some broad areas of rough terrain could cause me placement and attack vector issues. Primary pieces of terrain for the game are a large forest in front of my deployment zone, water engulfing my flag and a building blocking off the Circle flag.
Minion Army - 75 / 75 points
[Theme] Will Work for Food
[Arkadius 1] Dr. Arkadius [+32]
- Battle Boar [7]
- Gorax Rager [7]
- Gorax Rager [7]
- Razor Boar (2) [7]
- Razor Boar (2) [7]
- Razor Boar (2) [7]
- Road Hog [16]
- Road Hog [16]
- War Hog [15]
- War Hog [15]
- Targ [0(4)]
Gatorman Witch Doctor [0(4)]
Hutchuck, Ogrun Bounty Hunter [0(6)]
Orin Midwinter, Rogue Inquisitor [0(5)]
Swamp Gobber Chef [1]
Swamp Gobbers Bellows Crew [2]
Attempting some Porcine Stone Carving into:
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]
- Woldwarden [14]
- Woldwatcher [8]
- Woldwatcher [8]
- Woldwatcher [8]
Blackclad Stoneshaper [0(3)]
Blackclad Stoneshaper [3]
Blackclad Stoneshaper [3]
Blackclad Wayfarer [0(4)]
Blackclad Wayfarer [0(4)]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [5]
Sentry Stone & Mannikins [5]
Shifting Stones [3]
Shifting Stones [3]
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Round 1: I get first turn, then decide not to put song lyrics as the rest of this sentence.
The forest placement and pathfinder limits makes me split up the list in two, the left side that will defend my flag and fight over the central zone and the right half under sub-lietenant-aide-de-camp-boy-wonder Targ.
Mostly even split, important points being that Arkadius gets Orin as Bradigus will Battering Ram to clear the centre zone at some point and Targ gets the Gator Witch Doc so that the houseblocking the Circle flag doesn't impede it to much.
Right side Road Hog gets Forced Evolution, Arkadius puts up Aggravator as there's usually a couple pot shots from Brad on the way in.
Long term contesting wise Hutchuck has to stay in reserve to either contest the Circle rectangle or score their flag.
Justice League Unlimited is amazing and makes me saddened by the latest movie attempts all the more. You realise Stryker is the Captain America of the Iron Kingdoms? Sad times.
Bradigus stuff comes forward, Sentry Stones holding the flanks per the norm.
The watchers lead out front, sure enough the right most one pot shots a Razor Boar, who Hyper Aggresives forward. Another shot leaves it on a handful of boxes and missing both Body and Mind.
The Warden throws forward a Rift, which drifts to a point not especially painful for me. I realised about 2 seconds afterwards that I could have arcane vortexed that, fortunately it didn't scatter to a point that was to ruinous an issue for me.
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Minion 2: Let's feat again, like we did last summer. And nearly every other round 2 of my Arkadius games, aside from that one time I didn't. Ah, anecdotes, the most interesting form of statement.
Simple enough plan, kill off the sodding Sentry Stones and break the Shifting Stone units.
Left wise, Orin boosts a lighting to clear out the blocking Twig men. Two of the Razor Boars run up after being Primalled, they kill both the Sentry Stone and the Blackclad Wayfarer (Spacing made the Blackclad a secondary target if the first RaBo spiked his attack on the Sentry Stone).
The Swamp Gobber ran to my flag to threaten scoring on the Circle turn.
Centrally, a Road Hog toes the zone and sets a Watcher on fire. One War Hog stays behind him, Arkadius is super brave behind the forest and a small Gobber cloud.
Two of the Rabo's end up amongst the Circle models after breaking both Shifting Stone units.
Right wise, feat move let the Road Hog gets across, then go over the corner of the building with Ghostly to charge the Sentry Stone and sprint back. He also gets a cheeky assault that sets Bradigus and some incidental models on fire.
The War Hog and damaged Razor Boar shuffle back to hold my rectangle.
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Circle 2: The Fires go out or do nought.
Various Wolds beat up the front rank of Razor Boars, killing them easily and building up Synergy.
Bradigus feats his battle group forward, the Warden attempts to Battering Ram the Road Hog which gets Vortex'd. Two of the Watchers then move forward with Earth's Blessing, between them they manage to kill the Road Hog and put up their Stone Form ability/Animi.
A Wight goes in on one of the Road Hogs in the Circle Rectangle, kills it without to much issue.
Stones port forward and contest on the left.
Circle score the circle zone, I score my rectangle, 1 all.
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Minion 3: I didn't really realise how cagey we were both playing this at the time. We've both scorched our feats but not committed our heavy hitters, with the loss of the teleporting stones now making our threat ranges quite honest.
In the Circle Rectangle, I have one Razor Boar that frenzies into the nearby Wold Wight, manages to crank the damage and take out most of it's boxes.
Around my flag, the Gobber chef twiddles his thumbs. A Gorax charges into the water to kill the contesting Shifting Stone.
Central zone wise, on my edge I Arkadius shuffles back to the protection of the forest, putting up Guardian Beast as the Watchers won't be making ranged attacks from here and throwing Forced Evolution on the nearby War Hog.
The War Hog struggles, maxing Fury to kill one of the Watchers and ding the other, overtaking backwards. The Battle Boar with Primal from the Gorax tries to finish off the other, leaves it on a handfull of boxes. Wasn't planning on that. (From that statement we can infer that a single warbeast circle thing indicating one health is approximately the size of a billiard ball).
The Swamp Gobbers move in front of the War Hog, raising their eyebrows at Arkadius, the deep furrow of the brow clearly indicating their doubt about moving in front of the enemy and next to a Woldwatcher. They pop a large cloud that blocks line of sight to the War Hog/Battle Boar.
Sending them in like this ensure that I can only score the central zone with Arkadius in the late game, however the attrition game right now is who is trading heavies first so that has to be done. Orin waffles in behind this blob.
In the corner point of my rectangle and the centre zone, I send in the right War Hog to kill a Woldwight and Watcher, overtaking back as far as possible. Alas, he was still in range of the Wold Guardians, so the Gorax and Razor Boar left in the vicinity run to be in the way.
Targ and the Witch Doc take alternate annoying contesting points, Ghostly goes on the extreme flank Road Hog.
Said Road Hog hurts for speed, moves up to kill one of the Stone SHapers then sprint back. A nearby Guardian means I can't score the Circle flag anyway. I send his companions Razor Boar out into the open, more as a distraction/Road Hog trap than anything else.
I score my flag and rectangle, 3-1.
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Circle 3: Circle rectangle wise, Bradigus/a Stoneshaper tries to shoot down the Razor Boar, poor rolls mean it only loses its Mind. Poorer rolls mean they also kill the Woldwight in the zone, so that was unexpected.
A Sentry Stone ports to contest my flag, out in the open however it is placed far enough away that the Gorax can't possible get to it from where it is in the water.
Centre zone, my edge: The Watcher flails poorly. The Warden charges the Swamp Gobbers, this triggers Guardian Beast to let the War Hog move up and toe the zone. Warden melees the Gobbers down, attempts to Battering Ram the War Hog which I arcane vortex with Orins last token.
Right wise the Guardians go in, one kills the Razor Boar and Gorax, the other deletes the War Hog.
Balls.
No scores, we remain at 3-1.
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Minion 4: I spend an enormous chunk of time trying to work out how to deal with this contesting Sentry Stone. It takes a good five minutes for me to realise I should re-purpose Hutchuck for this.
Circle are way down on pieces, so the play is keep Arkadius safe and scoring points. The Guardians are actually hard for me to kill at the moment with what is in the area, so now it's a contest and space game.
Sure enough, Hutchuck comes in and kills the Shifting Stone. Good work that oversized man.
Arkadius shuffles along, heals some pig bros, camps and keeps Guardian Beast up.
The War Hog easily kills the Warden and remaining Water.
Orin moves up, lightnings two Stone Shapers and Bradigus, skinning their knuckles.
The Razor Boar in the Circle rectangle moves around and eats the contesting Stoneshaper. Always a weird day when the Razor Boar survives to round 4.
On the right the Road Hog, Razor Boar, Witch Doc and Targ run to points to contest my Rectangle and the Circle flag.
I score the left flag and zone, get up 5-1.
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Circle 4: Ultimately there just isn't much chance for Circle at this point, Spread the Net is to broad for the remaining pieces to contest effectively.
Brad charges up toward my War Hog to attempt attacks on Arkadius, Guardian Beast moves the War Hog to block any line of sight. The attack puts Brad on one box.
Some attack rolls happen, ultimately poor attack rolls let the War Hog live, though Orin does get splattered.
I win out on scenario.
That game looks a lot weirder to me in hindsight. Witch Doc Croc for MVP. Far luckier than I deserve with that Circle Rectangle, a pair of Razor Boars aren't meant to hold that for a game. Think I read this correctly as advantaged, other Circle pairings might be more problematic.
