Scenario: Invade
2300pts
List Thoughts
Dave:
I want to try something a little fun, I really want the crystal pendant in my list and I think bang for buck sticking it on my braves legion is where I’ll get best value.
I’ve also added some saucerors to buff my core list and I’ve stuck with my tried and tested battle group of juggers, sergeant and runners.
Matt:
I am pretty much decided I am going to take Basileans to shirecon which means I have to use models i have painted. Even though it’s hard I love using a horde of knights which I basically have so I’m going to continue to mess with various iterations, not expecting to have much success until I really know the list.
Deployment:
Dave:
I’ve pushed up the middle with my legion first, then the support structure around it. I plan to run it all together and avoid any nasty flanks from Matt. I saw an opportunity to through a flanking force in on the right and a solo brave regiment on the left that hopefully gets ignored all game and scored me some points.
Matt: I decided to deploy fairly centrally with the faster set of units on one side of the infantry heavy middle.
My plan:
Dave:
If Matt pops my legion I want him to do it with 3 units to get max wounds from the pendant, and if he avoids it I’ll have 4US over the line to score, so I just need to avoid a flank from his knight horde and I should be fine, I also plan to keep the front facing a hindered charge to avoid the knights as well.
As for the rest of my list, I hope to distract Matt with aero naughts and slip some ‘weaker’ units like brave regiments over the line to score as well.
Matt: Hold up the middle while the faster stuff does heavy lifting.
Turn 1
Dave:
I just creeped forward slightly with my main force, I kept a close eye on angles and staggered my front facing progressively to stop any multi charges and flanks on my main battle line.
On the right flank I’ve positioned to get decent charges from my hammers if Matt takes on the legion. And on the far left I
I’ve pushed my braves all the way forward hoping Matt will leave them alone, If I can get them to halfway and pivot, I’ll have a nice little distraction force on the left to keep Matt second guessing.
Matt:
Dave left the braves on the left in charge range and I’m figuring I’m going to take any opportunity to decrease his unit strength. Failing double 1’s I’ll be able to reposition so the general is in the front and with sharpness I feel I can win that trade off with the elohi inspired. The gurs reposition to chorale the Ej’s on the left whilst the knight horde pushes forward. If he wants to charge with Ej’s so be it. Through the middle I push forward deliberately giving his other ej’s and the general a charge if they want to come in close early. I think that would be a mistake on Dave’s part.
I leave the Abbess where she is to wrap around the back of the forest if needed.
In combat the Elohi deleted the braves and reposition. I had hoped I could turn my flank to the building and he wouldn’t be able to charge but he could by a couple of mm so repositioned to allow the front.
Turn 2
Dave
Dammit… there goes my distraction force, I’ve had to counter the Elohi with my general and send my EJ’s into the gur panthers. Both charges failed to break, with my EJ’s missing by 1. I over stretched my braves and exposed a flank I didn’t notice, This mistake has cost be all up about 5 US as I’ll probably lose the general and EJ’s, which could be very costly.
Just more creeping on the right Matt’s not taking any bait and I don’t blame him. I’ve positioned so that only the knight horde can take the braves regiment now.
Matt:
Ok so as predicted so far. I’m confident in the top left. The gurs withdraw out of combat and pivot staying an inch away so the ones behind can get in for a charge on the EJ’s. The knight horde is a tricky beast and one I have never handled well before. You always risk a snake eyes destroying 400 points of unit. I decide to go in to the brave regiment with it and the regiment of spears. The reason for both is the spears will protect me from the iron beast whether I go through or snakes. The main threat will be copping the general in the flank. Having said that the horde should be able to take a charge from the aero’s and general combined and I still think I will be winning that centre and hopefully getting the OPG into the general. I try positioning the abbess so I can see the flanking wild runners but Dave has them perfectly so I can’t see so instead I run it around to be annoying.
Everything else positions to not give flanks and moves forward
Samacris shoots and does a wild amount of damage on the legion.
In combat, the elohi roll 5 1s so do slightly under on their hits but doing 8 wounds, the nerve roll gets the waver. The gur panthers do an amazing 4 wounds and with a lucky nerve roll of 10 pop the Ej’s and over run.
The knights do 17 wounds on their own so I don’t bother with the spears only to snake eyes. Sad panda. Whenever I am not running a knight horde I’m like snake eyes are a “whatever” rule for me. But with a 400 point unit it can basically just smash you for the rest of the game.
Turn 3
Dave:
And its all on now…. I took a flank with my braves legion and with 60 attacks I managed 5w, I know its statically average for the charge but it feels very underwhelming, but hey I got a lucky waiver….
I did manage to pop his paladin foot knight with my aeronaughts and juggers, and also waiver his OPG with my muster captain (however they have fury).
I took a front charge with my aeronaughts on his knight horde, I don’t know why… maybe I was too impressed by the symmetry but they failed to even get into waiver territory and I’ve pretty well sentenced them to death.
On the left well it’s a shit show, I’ve lost my EJ’s and will likely loose the general next turn.
I chose brutal and life leech for my sauceror aura’s but they really had no effect this turn.
Matt:
So the one thing I had missed was the general into the OPG horde which was definitely a mistake but thankfully they have fury.
The Elohi went in to finish off the general the gurs repositioned for future turns. The knight horde countered the aero’s and the spears went into the flank of the other aeros. The OPG countered the general and the abbess went into the runners.
In shooting bane chant went off on the spears and I got 4/5 heal off on the OPG. Delicious!
In combat the general died to the elohi. The aeros died to the knights who stayed where they were so the iron beast couldn’t flank.
The spears did 7 wounds and wavered the aero’s whilst the OPG did 7 wounds on the general who was saved on re roll. The abbess only wanted to hit the runners with her habit and only did one wound.
If I look predictively I think can still win this, his big hitters are dead or in trouble whilst by next turn I will still have 3 hammers left in one OPG, the horde and the elohi. 2 opg if they are really lucky. We are both rapidly losing US but I think I will have the run of it.
Turn 4
Dave:
Yep my general on the left died, now matt as a clear run with his Elohi, so I’ve gotta work to pick off his cheap US. I used my mounted sergeant to take one unit of gur panthers off and juggers to clean off the previously waivered OPG horde with a flank.
I had a hard decision this turn, I really didn’t want to commit my pride of the shires but I did to get the headstrong aura over my aeronaughts (which they passed) and sent them into the last unit of men at arms spears. They unfortunately fluffed the roll and now look in a bad position going into next turn.
I’m quickly working through the bulk of Matt’s US however my force is shrinking fast, so the next turn will be telling.
Matt:
Bloody headstrong aura caught me off guard. It’s getting more difficult now only 6 scoring units left but plenty of US in those units.
I repositioned the gurs round the back using nimble and flew the elohi almost as far as they could to be a threat. Although their height might be a problem in trying to find a target turns 5/6. “Poor” Dave had only done two wounds on the spears so they could counter charge back in. As could the knights. IR and heal on the knight horde makes it super resilient. The OPG charged off the hill, to the general even hindered surely they can do him with brutal given he is on 7 wounds. The abbess keeps flailing on the runners.
Shooting, Samacris healed two wounds on the knight horde. I then had a dilemma, BC the spears or the OPG. I chose the spears because I felt the OPG should at least waver the general even though a waver would be less than ideal.
Combat. The Abbess did 3 wounds and wavered the runners. The OPG did 4 wounds being hindered and even with brutal only rolled a waver on the re roll with a 3. Unfortunately this buggers me I think.
The spears did 3 wounds and 2 good nerve rolls popped the aeros. At this point I offered the spear flank to the EJ’s and lancers in an attempt to draw Dave back towards the middle. The braves died to the knights and I repositioned to give front to the legion and Iron beast
Turn 5
Dave:
Matt only has 6 scoring units on the board, so I’ve tried pick off the soft targets and get some space between Matt’s big hammers and my force.
My Pride of the shires and sauceror with boom stick plinked on some more wound but again just pulled a waiver on the last gur panther regiment. I’ve condemned the pride to death but I needed to remove as much US as I can,
My juggers deleted the last unit of OPG with the help of a nice brutal 3 roll from the sauceror. I tried to be cheeky with my sergeant and get an overrun into the last men at arms spear regiment but I failed to budge the priest. I probably should of disordered Sami instead… bugger
From here I think it will be close but I might be able to nudge out a win, for Matt to charge any of my unit he will effectively take his unit of the game as getting back over into his half next turn could be tricky, It looks like Matts taking the avoidance tactic with my legion so that should be an easy 4US to walk across the line next turn.
Matt:
The gurs bounce back and around the forest. The Elohi and horde of knights double charge the pesky iron beast. The spear horde hodls up the legion and Samacris moves to provide distraction/fireball the general. The abbess keeps combat going.
Samacris positioning is to see if Dave will go for her instead to try and force a false move. She fireballs the general and does a massive few wounds, general is a dead dog.
In combat the iron beast gets smashed and both reposition and the runners finally die to the abbess.
I can still get this done.
Turn 6
Dave:
I saw a nimble charge on the Elohi horde and I couldn’t help myself, I fully intended to disorder them and hold them in Matt’s table half, but I’ll take popping them instead!
I also cleaned up the last spear regiment and now its 6 US on the board to 11. How could I loose it from here…. Here is how, so I had 2 options into what combat I do first and here is my plan. I charge the juggers and slight them left d3 then delete the spears, move the EJ’s left D3 and then slide the braves legion fwd d6 into my table half…. Easy…
Well I decided to do the legion combat first, and even though I rolled a 6 on the over run, stop .8 inches into it when I bumped into the juggers…. And now the legion is not majority in Matts half and wont score….. Dickhead….
Now Matt just needs to 1 shot my juggers and will win. Please give me a turn 7.
Matt:
Whan idiot they are juggers with the helm of the ram not lancers haha a bit harder hitting than I thought. Didn’t expect the Elohi to go down that easily. FML.
The knights charge into the juggers, the abbess tries some cheeky wounds on the halfling regiment but otherwise its play the scenario. I win this turn and probably lose on 7.
The knights take off the juggers as expected
Turn 7
Dave:
Yay turn 7, so I slide my units well into Matts half, so if he does take a flank on the legion, he won’t be able to get his horde back into a scoring position.
In other under whelming events, I moved my sauceror with the boomstick into the forest, fired off some LB on the last gur panther troop, getting the wound I need for the nerve check… and waiver.. dam.
I launched my sergeant into Sami to disorder her and protect my braves… not a single wound… dam.
I counter charged with my braves on the Abyss and failed to even get a hit… dam.
Well provided Matt cant crack my brave regiment I’ll get the win here…
Matt:
I lose 🙁
Wrap up:
Dave:
Well I nearly blew my whole game apart on the order of two combats, and threw away 5 US on another silly mistake early so I’m very lucky to get away with the win.
That was good fun to play and its nice to mix it up and take some different units and unit sizes to see how they play and mesh with the army.
Anyways as all ways, suck it Matt.
As for my final thoughts on the list:
Running the legion was a bit of fun, but practically its very big, leads to avoidance and isn’t really an efficient use of points. If I’d stuck with the pendant, I’d look at trying the crystal on a spear horde, still US 4, same attacks and this way I get phalanx. Maybe with the lower nerve I would entice the charge.
As for the rest of the list, I really like the juggers with the helm of the drunken ram and the mounted sergeant with rampage D3. The option to sneak behind the line and pick off easy targets or get in first put that wound on and trigger relentless for the juggers just work so well.
As for the items on the Aeronaughts, well I forgot them all game, and honestly I think blade of slashing is worth it but elite is a waste of point. I just didn’t have anywhere else to use them in the list.
I’m still not sold on the Saucerors, as much as I want to like them they often just give me the +1 aura, and I think when it comes to brutal or rally, I’d rather an extra inspiring source or make a unit more killy.
Matt:
Even following that early snake eyes, it didn’t cost me as much as it could have as I had somewhat planned for it. My two big mistakes were forgetting the headstrong aura on the iron beast and assuming the juggers were lancers like in Dave’s previous lists. I’m pretty happy that despite those I had won at 6. When you sink 400 points into a unit it takes away a few unit strength options. I will take this or a variation to shirecon. I really like the abbess. Dave played a good game and fairly beat me