Game 13
Scenario: Loot
Points: 2000
The Lists
My thoughts with this list:
Dave:
I’ve dropped my Juggers to free up some points and now I’ve added two lancer regiments. I’ve added in a mounted sauceror to help get the best from the lancers. Everything else is my usual flavor of halflings as I continue to try and understand exactly what make them work…
Matt:
Dave wanted me to write a list with some lower defense to play against and he suggested Nightstalkers. I’ve been wanting to try them as even Captain Grumpy, Michael Clarke has been able to do well with them recently. I didn’t want to go down too much of a spam path. Once I started list writing I found it pretty hard to write a bad list. I think the reapers with horror combo will catch Dave by surprise as they did with me the first time I played them and the sould flayers with wind blast just give so much board control.
Deployment
Dave:
I’ve gone for two battle groups, so I’ve split my army in half to see how this goes.
Matt I decided to have two hordes with the closer two tokens and support them with about half of the rest. Then the other half went to compete or delay on the third.
The Plan
Dave:
I don’t think I Have the staying power in this list to keep all the tokens, so I need to set up to take two late in the game from Matt… exactly how I do that is yet to be determined…..
Matt:
Draw Dave left and take the right two tokens. See where the third falls.
Turn 1
Matt:
First turn I pushed forward across the board. The mind screech plinks at the runners over the hill but fails to hit. The other mindscreech plinks at the braves in cover on 6s and pulls off 3 wounds! Mind fog from the planar apparition forces a nerve check on the runners and gets a waver.
Dave:
Windblast…. Dam you Matthew!!! Ok so my plan is already going south, I didn’t expect to be pushed back so early. I’ve move to position some back stops now which will tie up units with poor positioning…. But being the resourceful genius that I am I decided to send my sauceror over, roll wild charge and send my sergeant charging in to disorder the soul flayers while I move into position….
But instead I rolled WC1 so that plan turned to shit…. And now my army looks like this… I’m expecting to lose my lancers with the helm of the drunken ram, but worse I’ve waisted a turn positioning now as Matt moves on the tokens
Turn 2
Matt:
My first game with nightstalkers and I am finding them slightly more finesse than I expected. This revolves mainly around the shooting, what options I want and where. Everything pushed forwards slightly except the soulflayers on the right flank which pushed back to stay out of range.
They used windblast to push back the TC runners by an inch. The soulflayers on the left used it to push the pride out of range. The Horror and mindscreech on the left did 2 more wounds on the braves regiment whilst the other mindscreech did 2 on the TC lancers. Unfortunately mind fog from the apparition failed to go off.
Dave:
I’ve crept up a little more to put pressure on matts left flank. I’ve got some strong def 6 units and some soft braves protecting my main hammers so I’m happy with how this will go. I’ve positioned my EJs to now to stop any wind blast bullshit on my battle pig.
I launched my lancers with TC2 off into matts soul flayers to touch them up and get a good reface, I expected about 8w (scratch that, got hindered, so 5w) here and a 7 for nerve… so im in waiver territory if I miss the kill….. and I manage 1w…. so now they are pretty well doomed.
I also threw some chip damage on the soul flayers but just missed the nerve
For some reason unbeknown to me, I decided to do nothing with the braves…
Turn 3
Matt:
This should hopefully be a turn where I can set up for the win. The lancers only doing one wound to the soulflayers on the right is big for poor old crappy Dave. I want to surprise him with how much damage the reapers can do so they come into the harvester and braves, the soulflayers go into the brave horde and the scarecrows go into the pride of the shires. This is all about delay because with enough delay I feel I should win the other two tokens.
The middle scarecrows pivot to take the middle token whilst the fleshripper moves forward but stays out of range of the braves. The right scarecrows, planar apparition and mindscreech move forward, the mindscreech staying behind to not allow a charge from the lancers. The other fleshripper repositions behind the screech to run to the flank to help out if required.
In shooting the mind screech does one wound on the right to the regiment of lancers, mind fog also goes off from the apparition. On the left bane chant fails to go off on the reapers into the harvester even with the conjurers re roll, the mindscreech shoots at the aeronaughts but fails to wound.
On the nerve roll I pop the lancers with a double 6 but they are saved on the re roll thanks to the talisman on the sauceror.
In combat the reapers delete the brave regiment and the harvester. The left regiment reforms whilst the one that deleted to the braves bounces to the right. I probably should have just stayed but that’s ok. The Soulflayers delete the lancers and reposition to face back towards the middle but keeping the other lancers in their front arc.
Game on baba ghanoush
Dave:
Well dam reapers hit hard….. I did not expect that level of damage and it cost me two units. I went back in with the braves but failed to break the soul flayers, I tripped charged to break the scarecrows, ifi pull this off I’ll get a decent reform and can potentially threaten the middle token, but I rolled down only getting 9w and failed to break them, I know this was a 50/50 but dam its hard work from here.
I sent my other lancer unit in to finish the job on the soul flayers, but again failed to break them… what are these soul flayers made of?
Things have well turned to shit for me now, and I cant see a way I’ll win… I guess its time I get petty and try to kill Matts reapers.
Turn 4
Matt:
Dave got pretty unlucky with those wild runners again on the top right but I don’t think the triple charge on the scarecrows was the best option. It was always a lowish chance of pulling it off in one turn which is what he needed. Now is where I get to exert control and try and confirm the win.
The top butcher flesh ripper takes the rear on the lancers which I had set up the turn before and combos with the soul flayers. Even hindered this should be game over for them with the OP Soul Flayers.
The right hand scarecrows move forward and claim the loot, I toyed with waiting another turn but didn’t want to risk something weird happening and being held off it, as low likelihood as that was. The mindscreech and planar tucked in behind that horde whilst the other flesh ripper went into the right hand braves so that they couldn’t charge.
In the middle the scarecrows pivoted and went back over the obstacle, Dave could choose to chase me now perhaps although he won’t have a lot of speed left but doing this means I can use the obstacle in my favour in future turns if necessary.
On the left the scarecrows countered the EJ’s hoping to take them off when I position the horror for BC and vicious. The right hand reapers and the soulflayers double the braves horde. The left regiment repositions to take on aero’s or the winged captain if they choose to flank or rear those units.
The mindscreech positions to block LoS to some options on the winged captain.
In shooting the right hand mindscreech does a single wound on the runners troop whilst mind fog from the apparition fails to go off. The left mindscreech does no wounds on the winged captain. Bane chant from the horror goes off on the scarecrows
In combat the lancers regiment dies and the units reform. The braves horde dies to the double charge and the EJ’s die also. The scarecrows back up. Whilst the reapers and soul flayers reposition towards the right. The only safe choice now for the aeronaughts is the reapers at the back but I a not sure they can fit.
Dave:
I had some flanks open up this turn and with a little luck I’ll take all 3 of matts units of the board. with only a reaper regiment and a mind screech that token will be mine ,
Starting with the soul flayers, I piled on 6 wound to take them to 14w, and I snaked them….
Next up the muster captain storming in with 14 attacks on 3/2, here comes 8w to get into the rout zone… nope picked up 5w and missed the waiver by 1.
Last combat on the left, I easily destroy the scarecrows but its too little to late.
On the right flank I sent my sergeant in to finally kill the soul flayers… but they fail to get a wound and they dam soul flayers live another round…..
And this point I just stare blankly at the screen wondering why I cant kill any soul flayers…. I knew the where OP, but invincible? Surely not.
Other random crap happened with the braves, but its well and truly done here.
Turn 5
Matt:
See for yourself
Dave:
This is the part where I leave quietly
The Wrap-Up
Matt: After my initial getting used to the versatility in the shooting I actually felt like this army was somewhat like playing on easy mode. The board control with speed ten and multiple access to windblast is phenomenal. In some ways I had a good match up with only one unit of EJs but I don’t think I’ll be taking Nightstalkers until the power level drops a little.
Dave: When it’s a total white wash like this I think I need to look at the person who wrote the list first.
