Turragor Posted April 18, 2017 Share Posted April 18, 2017 Gothcon Match 1 Jag skriver i engelska som vanligt My army Quote Lord-Castellant (100) Lord-Relictor (80) Knight-Azyros (80) 5x Judicators (160) - Skybolt Bows - 1x Shockbolt Bow 5x Judicators (160) - Skybolt Bows - 1x Shockbolt Bows 5x Liberators (100) - Warhammers 3x Prosecutors with Stormcall Javelins (80) - 1x Stormsurge Trident 5x Paladin Protectors (200) - 2x Starsoul Mace 5x Paladin Retributors (220) - 2x Starsoul Mace 5x Paladin Decimators (200) - 2x Starsoul Mace 2x Tempestors (240) 3x Vanguard- Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (180) Hammerstrike Force (120) Celestial Vindicators Warrior Chamber (80) Total: 2000/2000 My opponents army Jonas Fredriksson with a mixed High Aelf force. Mostly shooting but with a heavily defensive phoenix guard and phoenix element. Quote Lothern Sea Helm (100) Anointed Of Asuryan On Flamespyre Phoenix (280) Anointed Of Asuryan On Frostheart Phoenix (260) Loremaster (100) 5 x Reavers (160) 5 x Reavers (160) 3 x Waywatchers (80) 20 x High Elf Archers (200) 10 x Phoenix Guard (200) 10 x Phoenix Guard (200) High Elf Repeater Bolt Thrower (120) High Elf Repeater Bolt Thrower (120) Total: 1980/2000 Traits and Artefacts In this tournament we chose before each match. Lord Castellant - Mirrorshield Knight Azyros - Lantern of the Tempest Lord Relictor - Mirrorshield My thought process with the Azyros was that he would offer extra mitigation against the shooting on other nearby heroes. I had it in mind to be a bodyguard for the castellant if my opponent chose to shoot him anyway with his many possible rerolls. I kind of regretted this idea when I heard my opponent chose to assassinate the Knight-Azyros (a secondary objective which needs to happen in combat not ranged). Scenario Three places of power - probably the worst for my army (3 heroes only) but I have won this before with only 3 heroes. In any case it was nice to get it out of the way so soon. Secondary Objectives In this tournament the organisers gave us secondary objectives. I really liked these. It added an additional tactical element to each game and in fact offered some armies a way to 'save face' against their usual counters (if you picked the right secondary). I chose Protect the King for my Castellant - I had to keep him alive on at least 50% wounds until the end of the match. Given he had mirrorshield against this shooty army, I was confident (perhaps overly so) of success. My opponent chose Assassin and targeted my Knight-Azyros - he had to kill him (or at least take the final wound)in close combat. Thoughts Before Deployment Against his army what I wanted to do was deploy everything in the celestial realm and make him go first then drop down and wipe out his reavers, bolt throwers and big unit of archers. Then hammerstrike his phoenixes which would be tough but they'd lose some wounds and go down in effectiveness at least. They also wouldn't immediately kill the attacking paladins like other big monster threats. Then I would be 50/50 for the double turn, sealing the deal or weathering a much diminished storm. There wouldn't be much he could do after that even if I might struggle to remove all his phoenix guard and phoenixes. They would just spend the rest of the game in a grind with whatever survived. "Therein lies the rub," or so I thought (dramatically). The scenario was 3 places of power so if that was my plan then I'd be leaving his phoenixes on 2 objectives to grind out points and I would lose. If I deployed in the skies and let him go first the phoenixes move something bananas like 14 inches without running and would reach 2 of the 3 objectives no problem. He wouldn't even try to get his other 2 foot heroes onto the last one. Then his phoenixes would hold the objectives for longer than I could come back from points wise - or so I estimated. So I felt forced to focus on going first and how to make that work. I think this wasn't the best thought out reasoning. It led to a less than good plan. I'll talk about that at the end. Deployment I lost the roll for choosing table edge so had little cover. I deployed central in a block to maximise the save bonus and reroll of 6s from staunch defender and lantern of the tempest. I was going to focus on the central objective and then the right or left (relictor lightning chariot to one or Azyros flying to one) depending on how things went. I placed too much on the board to start with and would learn to love scions more as the tournament went on. My opponent made good use of the terrain on his side of the board and bubbled his phoenix guard around most non-cover units with Ellyrian Reavers on each flank. Round 1 I chose to go first and decided to open the tournament with a bang - I saw an opportunity to get paladins in the wood hiding the enemy general and a phoenix. I figured if I held them up I'd have time to get and hold some objectives. In my hero phase I failed my roll for lightning chariot and put down warding lantern (on the Azyros). With scions of the storm I placed prosecutors and then deployed the decimators and protectors to face the threats they were best facing: Separately I moved on the centre objective and used scions of the storm to deploy some liberators in the ruins on the left hoping to block my opponent. In the shooting phase I moved up and peppered a few targets - archers and bolt throwers. Unfortunately I rolled poorly. The protectors charge was a little longer than I wanted but they made it with enough spare to get round the Phoenix nicely. One star soul mace couldn't reach so hit his general managing 3 wounds. The phoenix took a bit of a disappointing 5 (no 6s on the wound rolls). My decimators weren't that successful against the phoenix guard killing maybe one or two and my opponents responses took my protectors down to 4 and wounded a decimator. Not a great start for 1 point but my opponent might find it tough to get a hero on an objective now. His Frostfire phoenix and free phoenix guard unit moved to the centre. His reavers were up to racing mischief on the sides. He retreated his other phoenix over the protectors killing another one off. His general also retreated towards the bolt throwers while the waywatchers stayed in combat with the protectors to lock them down. In his shooting phase he began his work shooting two protectors off with a bolt thrower and the waywatchers He used his archers with rerolling hits and wounds (from the general) extra shots (once per battle) all on my prosecutors... Leaving me quite a few wounds to try to save... Alas it was not to be. My retributors would have a 9" charge now. Still taking those shots on the prosecutors was not such a bad result. In his charge phase he wrapped my decimators (he rolled too low to reach the middle) and charged his frostfire phoenix into the middle objective. In the combat to come the phoenix was not impressive (staunch defender and warding lantern on the Azyros) but the debuff to wound roll prevented the dracoths in particular from being the threat they can be. The two units of phoenix guard managed to kill 3 decimators between them losing 2 more in the retaliatory activation. Score 1- to me. Round 2 As luck would have it, I won the initiative. I began by lightning charioting my Relictor towards the far right objective where the Ellyrian reavers could not contest it and all other heroes were far out of range or in combat. Fearful of my Azyros being assassinated I put warding lantern on him again. He then fled towards the objective on the left taking control of it. I brought down my retributors in an effort to protect him from charges (my opponent's secondary objective). I fired on his archers with the judicators and the vanguard raptors killed his buffy general. The ellyrian reavers on the right took fire from my other judicator unit. Again shooting was not impressive but in hindsight I had wasted it spreading it around with a phoenix in range ready to contest an objective. Ward save or no I think the 3 shooting units could have taken it. My threat meter was definitely off kilter but I'd never played a force like this before! Still, the general dying should have been a turn 1 shooting priority. Case in point - the flamey phoenix was on 3 wounds after a charge from my liberators and I didn't want to kill it off as my opponent talked about it resurrecting anywhere (bad for this scenario!) on full health on a 4 plus. HOWEVER he had not left points aside to do so and I only learned writing this report in fact that he would need to have had the points to do so. In my combat phase I did some damage to his frostheart phoenix but the aura and ward saves were keeping it strong enough to focus on my general (who had no warding lantern) and a supremely lucky barrage of dice killed him and taking control of the objective (whilst denying me a point for it at the end of my turn). My decimators were also taken down (eventually, I got one more phoenix guard) and my last protector finished off by the 3 waywatchers in melee yeesh! My losses were still not that bad the problem was the scenario - I had only 2 heroes left, one of which had no mirroshield, and my opponent had all. In my next turn I would have to try remedying that. However it was my opponent first. His shooting was largely untouched and he used this and his mobility to put me in a bad spot shooting 4 wounds off my Azyros whilst nearing for some charges. His red phoenix once again fled over the unit it was in combat with, killing a liberator and nearing the objective: Hanging on by the skin of his teeth the big archer unit fired on him and that last wound would never resist the large number of dice rolled (with rerolls): Though this meant my opponent did not complete his secondary objective and also did not have control (yet) of it with his phoenix. Score 2 - 1 to me. Round 3 I had one hero left that had just reached an objective (I'd get a point counting from now) and the sheer weight of fire would probably take him out before I could make up any deficit. So I needed there to be NO DEFICIT - IE kill the phoenixes. To do that I needed to win the initiative. Alas I did not! My opponent proceeded to take control of the left objective. His shooting and the frostheart phoenix in close combat took down my tempestors. His reavers were all up in my lines shooting my raptors... ... and in combat with my relictor (who had control of the right objective - and they just couldn't shift him)... At this point we were nearly out of time (I am not sure where it went, I think many dice, rerolls and models on my opponents side slowed things) and had to call it. Realistically I was not going to kill the 3 heroes my opponent had while keeping my relictor alive but I would have liked to try. On this occasion, better to move on to game 2! Score 3-3 Result The scoring system was 14 points for a major victory, 10 points for a minor victory, 4 points for a minor loss and 0 points for a major loss. Then you got 3 for denying your opponent's secondary and 3 for achieving your secondary. In this game it was 3-3 by the scenario but I was behind in victory points so by the book a minor loss for me. We both failed our secondary objectives. Final score 13-7 loss Thoughts and Lessons Learned This was an interesting game and I learned a bunch about the army I faced. I had a great time too, my opponent was swell. I think I only got better than this as the tournament went on. You will see when all reports are said and done that I peaked in game 5 (which is a great way to end the tournament). What I learned from this game (and my next hiccup against a similar but utterly different force in game 4) was that I am getting very good at meeting lower model count armies but horde armies or armies with more than average models and multiple threats can throw me. I also don't think I needed to worry so much about taking the first turn and not deploying everything in the sky. However, I have a niggling suspicion that letting 2 phoenixes cap 2 objectives in 3 places of power can be a difficult thing to come back from! SO I might have deployed the same but chosen better targets - ignore phoenix guard and phoenixes as best I could and remove all shooting threats. I definitely should have deployed my shooting units in the celestial realm. I am not sure looking at notes and pics why they were down turn one! They were not able to choose the best targets but made do with those in range. My opponent was probably happy with what I did - got stuck on phoenix temple units and then got pincushioned while his buffs were allowed to go off too often. I could have taken some big sources of rerolls out turn 1 - sea helm and loremaster - but in part it was just a lack of knowledge - I wasn't aware of what they did exactly! Anyway, game 2 will be up during the week some time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ratatatata Posted April 19, 2017 Share Posted April 19, 2017 Jag svarar på svenska Jättekul läsning, verkar ha varit ett spännande spel! Det var din motspelares första AoS-turnering så då kan ju sånt där som med fire-phoenix och att lämna poäng kvar i listan hända. Håller med om att han är en "swell" motspelare Det är ett svårt scenario för din lista och även svårt att möta en sådan lista. Jag tror det hade varit bättre att inte börja. Ser fram emot de andra rapporterna, keep em coming! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turragor Posted April 19, 2017 Author Share Posted April 19, 2017 28 minutes ago, Ratatatata said: Det var din motspelares första AoS-turnering så då kan ju sånt där som med fire-phoenix och att lämna poäng kvar i listan hända. Jag tänkt det var något sånt. Jag visste inte själv! Det blev faktiskt roligt att ignorera den under matchen med 3 wounds kvar - och det var inte någonting som förändrade resultat! Jag klagar inte Swell he was indeed! haha Och du kommer 'snart'. Älskade våra match. Älskade alla matcher faktiskt - av olika anledningar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turragor Posted April 19, 2017 Author Share Posted April 19, 2017 Gothcon Match 2 Probably the most fun game of the tournament... My army Quote Lord-Castellant (100) Lord-Relictor (80) Knight-Azyros (80) 5x Judicators (160) - Skybolt Bows - 1x Shockbolt Bow 5x Judicators (160) - Skybolt Bows - 1x Shockbolt Bows 5x Liberators (100) - Warhammers 3x Prosecutors with Stormcall Javelins (80) - 1x Stormsurge Trident 5x Paladin Protectors (200) - 2x Starsoul Mace 5x Paladin Retributors (220) - 2x Starsoul Mace 5x Paladin Decimators (200) - 2x Starsoul Mace 2x Tempestors (240) 3x Vanguard- Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (180) Hammerstrike Force (120) Celestial Vindicators Warrior Chamber (80) Total: 2000/2000 My opponents army Alfred Granberg - a good friend, and my first regular AoS sparring partner. Many's a night or afternoon we'd try killing each other's army in good spirits - without points in the long, distant "not quite 2 years ago" time. I went to Fantasia XXX with him but we didn't meet there. We usually played without much competitive spirit - the story and the experience was more important than the win - but now we we were matched together for an official matched play match. It would only take a match to light the spark of contest. He had taken another one of his interesting lists, as always the standout thing was how much character his minis had - his militia carnival caravan was quite the sight. Quote Celestial Hurricanum with Celestial Battlemage (320) Luminark of Hysh with White Battlemage (240) War Altar of Sigmar (300) Freeguild General (100) - Shield & Lance 10x Freeguild Handgunners (100) 10x Freeguild Handgunners (100) 10x Freeguild Crossbowmen (100) 20x Freeguild Greatswords (320) Steam Tank (300) State Troop Detachement (120) Total: 2000/2000 Traits and Artefacts In this tournament we chose before each match. Lord Castellant - Mirrorshield & Staunch Defender Knight Azyros - Mirrorshield Lord Relictor - Mirrorshield The mirrorshield man was making mirrorshields like there's no tomorrow. Scenario Blood and Glory. Against Alfred's list I was confident I could cause some shenanigans, he had a very static, very 'buffy' setup and I had the usual Stormcast movement. You didn't 'score' in this scenario and so I could deploy in the celestial realm and let him go first with little to do. Secondary Objectives In this tournament the organisers gave us secondary objectives. I really liked these. It added an additional tactical element to each game and in fact offered some armies a way to 'save face' against their usual counters (if you picked the right secondary). I chose Kidnap as I wanted this game to be maximum hijinx - I had to engage a non-hero unit (secret) in combat with one of mine (secret) and then retreat taking my choice of model with me. I opted for his crossbow handgunner banner bearer. It was a LOVELY banner. Alfred chose headhunt meaning he had to kill 75% of my heroes (I had 3 so he needed 2). Thoughts Before Deployment Against his army what I wanted to do and what I would be able to do thanks to the scenario was deploy everything in the celestial realm and make him go first then drop down and wipe out what I could. Bad scions rolls turn 1 would even help me as they'd be unknown factors for round 2 - potentially able to come down and outnumber Alfred's models around his objectives and from round 3 one of us could score a victory. Deployment I can't remember who started deployment because it mattered little. I deployed the formation in the celestial realm and was finished first. The celestial realm looks a lot like a display board: Alfred deployed like his army was fresh out of BATTLE SCHOOL: "Hold the line! Fix bayonets!" It was breathtaking and surely hid a dastardly purpose (which he had explained a little on the train down to Göteborg but it was too intricate for my golden armoured brain to comprehend): (Check out how cool his conversions and scratch builds are!) My deployment - well thought out. I let Alfred take the first turn. He noted I was being uncommonly sneaky. Round 1 Alfred had little to do but buff his units and HOLD THE LINE and this he did. I rolled for scions and got the tempestors, raptors, Azyros and Relictor down. I placed them to control my objectives and tried hiding the heroes from the big guns. The power he could put out in the magic and shooting phase could be frightening! My Raptors rolled pretty well taking out 6 handgunners from his front screen. I had not much else to do so we rolled for initiative for round 2. Round 2 Alfred seized the initiative and began affairs. First however we discussed how we'd forgotten - in the excitement of Alfred's deployment - that he should really have deployed on an objective as now he had to move stuff to stop me getting the least fun kind of scenario autowin. The beautiful formation needed breaking up, the general's call of 'Hold the Line!' became 'Hold the Line Except for YOU GUYS!' The formation was now weak in a few places but revenge was had in his shooting phase. I had made a slight miscalculation with my raptors deployment - they were in range of the Steamtank and got explodered. Here is Alfred reading the rule that says "exploder a 3x2 wound 4+ save unit in your shooting phase if it is in range": In my turn 2 I got enough scion rolls (eeeeveryyythinngg but I left the retributors in reserve to be deployed more efficiently by the prosecutors at a later time - if they survived) to really push for Alfred's objectives combined with the movement of the Tempestors (that dropped turn 1). My shooting dented each side, I was not focusing on the middle - which could conveivably crush my army even if I achieve victory. But a victory is a victory! It was at this point that I started rolling the best charge rolls I've ever rolled, the gods of fortune and misfortune adding to Alfred's woes. 11 for the liberators and... A totally unnecessary 10 for the Tempestors. My protectors and prosecutors made it into combat with the crossbows - remember I wanted to STEAL THE LOVELY BANNER with the prosecutors and that was why I'd chosen the protectors to wade in to get control but hopefully not kill the whole unit. Hopefully... In the combat phase I killed all but the last two in the crossbow unit (including the banner bearer! yess!) and did just enough to have control over the left objective BUT his retaliation killed a liberator and his unit's shape - conga lining to pick up buffs from the war alter and hurricanum) meant he could take casualties away that had no bearing on the objective control. This made the model counts too close! I needed my liberators to kill at least 2 more handgunners. Luckily that wasn't a big ask and they killed an extra one for good measure. At this point I was feeling good about the primary and my secondary objective but fate was about to take a fickle turn... in the battleshock phase Alfred rolled and both the crossbow gals fled! I revealed my secondary objective and implored him to check for hornblower or banner rules that meant no, no the banner had not fled and I could steal the beautiful thing next turn... no? What about the war alter, does it make them immune? No!? The general? No! The steamtank, I don't know! NO. Gone. At this point I felt like I had lost the true game being played out on the table. We humans do not have the capacity to understand the grander tactical arena and I felt that that banner had some wider significance. Alfred helpfully informed me that this showed I had much to learn from him yet, including how to die tactically. Round 3 Even though at the beginning of this round I fulfilled the criteria for a major victory we would play on. It was fun (well perhaps less so for Alfred at this point) and there was his secondary objective to play for and then victory points - the score could be 14-6 or 17-3. Besides, the mighty caravan machines in the centre had no reason to stay put any longer. Alfred won the initiative again and rolled out. Uh oh. He rolled for the deadly comet of cassandora and rolled 2. I asked him, "Do you get any casting bonuses?" He replied, "Yes! ... plus one..." His general made the most heroic, most cinematic dash I've ever seen for my feeble judicators: In his shooting phase I felt like covering my eyes, but as it turned out, luck was on my side. A complete barrage at various targets managed a grand total of 1 wound on my Knight Azyros :-l He charged his steamtank and general into each of my judicator units but couldn't roll high enough for the massive greatsword unit to reach my lines. At this point the general has the majority of her army at her back and leads the charge brave as brave can be. The combat phase sees the loss of a single judicator to the steamtank and the handgunners on the left are killed by combined liberator and tempestor actions. The general wounds her first judicator. It would not be her last! In my turn 3 it was time to tighten the golden noose. Though unnecessary, this is one of the few times I've managed this kind of thing with the stormcast and I won't lie it felt good. My shooting is stellar heavily wounding the steamtank and destroying the hurricanum. In the charge phase I make all the close proximity charges bar the liberators. I opened with the retributors on the greatswords and they were just hammered down in droves. The protectors would finish them off before they could do much - they managed to kill one of the stormglaive wielding paladins before crumpling. My tempestors slashed feebly at the luminark but their dracoths were incensed by something within that wooden war machine. I rolled 3 wound rolls of 6 and did 9 wounds removing it. Alfred's activations were not so effective at this juncture, the steamtank managed to kill a judicator. He was admittedly running out of options. His general however was lancing the bejayzus out of the judicators! Turn 4 I seized the initiative and continued my bloody work against the few caravan survivors. How Sigmar's propaganda machine would paint the slaughter of a peaceful caravan in a good light was a mystery to me! Shooting proved largely ineffective but the war alter and steamtank were not in a good place in any case. Alfred's general did not give two hoots about her army or still believed they supported her from behind. Whatever the answer, she was just lancing judicators all day every day. Somehow my prime saves against this god of war... ... but overcome with abject terror he flees! Surely Sigmar would take this general, this symbol of war incarnate, and reforge her into a Stormcast Eternal... She should probably not be put in my stormhost though, there might be some hurt feelings. In Alfred's turn he considered conceding and then realised that his general, as the last model left, owed Sigmar a duty - a duty to kill a priest of Sigmar. I found something about thischarge to be just fantastic. Amazing doesn't convey the feeling. Alfred rolled a superb charge and managed to reach the top of the alter... It was then I realised she'd been playing 'King of the Castle' all along! Look at the amazing effect on the general's shield! Result The scoring system was 14 points for a major victory, 10 points for a minor victory, 4 points for a minor loss and 0 points for a major loss. Then you got 3 for denying your opponent's secondary and 3 for achieving your secondary. In this game it was 14-0 by the scenario. We both failed our secondary objectives. Final score 17-3 win Thoughts and Lessons Learned This was probably my favourite game of the tournament. Alfred is a great sport (even when he had a headache at one point from the long day travelling and playing - perhaps he had it the whole match, I don't know what a trooper!) I know when things go wrong for me and I suffer a heavy defeat it feels bad to begin with so I don't know if this was Alfred's favourite game but I like to think we both shaped a story that took the game beyond a simple 'major loss and near tabling'. There were some things I could have done better here but mainly I had a lot of luck and Alfred's army did not show its full devastating potential here so I got off lightly. If the shoteks and the cannons and the prayers and chants and "hold the line" ability and the comet of cassandora and the luminarks big beam thingy had hit me full on the report would be totally different. Anyway, game 3 - against @Ratatatata will be up hopefully over the weekend! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turragor Posted April 24, 2017 Author Share Posted April 24, 2017 Gothcon Match 3 A game of firsts: my first escalation match ever against Sylvaneth (for the first time ever) My army Quote Lord-Castellant (100) Lord-Relictor (80) Knight-Azyros (80) 5x Judicators (160) - Skybolt Bows - 1x Shockbolt Bow 5x Judicators (160) - Skybolt Bows - 1x Shockbolt Bows 5x Liberators (100) - Warhammers 3x Prosecutors with Stormcall Javelins (80) - 1x Stormsurge Trident 5x Paladin Protectors (200) - 2x Starsoul Mace 5x Paladin Retributors (220) - 2x Starsoul Mace 5x Paladin Decimators (200) - 2x Starsoul Mace 2x Tempestors (240) 3x Vanguard- Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (180) Hammerstrike Force (120) Celestial Vindicators Warrior Chamber (80) Total: 2000/2000 My opponents army The head honcho! The big kahuna! The big cheese! The boss! The man! My next opponent, Daniel (or @Ratatatata) was an organiser, the face of the event round these forum parts and perhaps the dastardly mastermind behind the whole thing from start to finish. He had a beautiful Sylvaneth army with wildwoods that looked amazing. They were not drybrused at all. Those leaves were evidence of a power of will that could wither my own will at the table. What kind of list had he brought? Quote Treelord Ancient (300) Spirit of Durthu (400) Branchwraith (100) 20 x Dryads (240) 10 x Dryads (120) 5 x Tree-Revenants (100) 3 x Kurnoth Hunters (180) - Scythes 3 x Kurnoth Hunters (180) - Scythes 3 x Kurnoth Hunters (180) - Greatbows Gnarlroot Wargrove (80) Household (20) Free Spirits (60) Total: 1940/2000 I had heard a lot about this triple formation list and slight variants of it. I figured I was in for a tough game. Initially the lack of Greatbow hunters threw me - I thought I might be in for an easier time. I'd soon find out how tough the scythe hunters were. It definitely threw me off my artefact game anyway. Traits and Artefacts In this tournament we chose before each match. Lord Castellant - Mirrorshield & Staunch Defender (mirrorshield was to try to force the Castellant's death in melee - see secondary objective below) Knight Azyros - Armour of Silvered Sigmarite Lord Relictor - Armour of Destiny Scenario The scenario was escalation with the "new" (FAQ'd) rules. In reality new or old made no difference in principle for I'd never played this scenario - many are keen to skip it even when they roll for it randomly in practise games, but given my small battleline presence I figured the new rules were probably in my favour. Secondary Objectives In this tournament the organisers gave us secondary objectives. I really liked these. It added an additional tactical element to each game and in fact offered some armies a way to 'save face' against their usual counters (if you picked the right secondary). I chose 'Kill the King' meaning my aim was to get my general deaded in close combat. My opponent would be forced to attack him in close combat (with no other units in the same melee) with any models in range - and there were plenty of models in the opponents army who could kill him with ease! (It was the first time I'd thought something like that with any kind of glee). To the best of my knowledge (as I didn't note it down - perhaps he'll correct me!) Daniel chose 'Gamble'. Which meant he really wanted my general to survive. This would be kind of neat! Thoughts Before Deployment Daniel placed his woods and I won the roll off. I'd never played Sylvaneth and so was not sure of whether I wanted woods on my side of the board or not - given he could set down 2 more (with artefact and spell) in round 1 - potentially. Given the terrain rolls and placement and scenario I chose to deny him his woods and also forget contesting the objective to my upper right - potentially the whole game if Daniel defended it. Given I had 15 paladins to drop together with scions deployments he couldn't risk leaving it undefended anyway. It was a risk and I needed to hold the other two pretty well to compensate. I deployed with this in mind. Deployment I was wary of the woods on my side and deployed with a focus on getting some units near the left and middle objectives with quite a few units in the celestial realm for potential shenanigans. I deployed everything at once as a battalion. My opponent deployed en masse in his corner. I was done first so let my opponent take turn 1. Round 1 My opponent got both of his wildwoods down in and around his deployment area so he would be able to hop to the objective on the right without much trouble. He pushed revenants, durthu, both scythe hunter units and the smaller dryad unit (screening) towards the left objective. His bow hunters sat in cover meaning they'd be tough to shift and could potentially reach a few targets when I moved in my first turn. At the same time his larger dryad unit and treelord ancient hopped through the woods to sit on the right objective - the dryads providing a nice bubble screen: I had mixed feelings about this. It'd be nice to take them out and claim that objective - nothing much was happening there now - but at the same time he was devoting quite the force to just sitting there. My main worry would be if his ancient ran through the woods to come around behind me while I tried to handle the 'durthu problem'. His shooting was out of range and he had no charges. It was my turn. I placed the lantern and inspiring presence on my judicator unit on the board and lightning charioted them fully in cover in the deadly woods in the middle (setting them up there in this way skipped the rolls for deadly terrain). I expected they might face at least 3 scythe hunters and was not very confident but I needed to get on the objectives. I rolled for scions and got my raptors and tempestors down. I placed the tempestors to prevent the enemy wrapping round the building in front of the left objective and put the raptors down on the board edge ready to start trying to pepper durthu with bolts. I moved my liberator unit and azyros towards the centre, wary of the woods on the right and the ancient and dryads there. My relictor was kind of stuck in no-man's land after (positioning for the next turns lightning chariot is something I'm getting better at). My Castellant positioned himself to extend staunch defender to as many units as possible but also was on the way to die nobly for the greater good. My judicators opened fire on the screening dryad unit - so that the way would be free for my hammerstrike onto a juicy target should I need it to be next turn. The unit was heavily damaged. The tempestors couldn't reach durthu or scythe hunters for the -1 to hit debuff so shot the dryads too. They were wiped out. The raptors took some wounds off Durthu. We rolled for the initiative, me holding my breath for the double, and I lost. My opponent seized his chance. Round 2 There wasn't much in the way of spells for my opponent - his branchwraith was wayyy back in his table corner in the wildwood, ready to heal up or return models to the bow hunters should I find them too dangerous once the battle began in earnest and try to take them out. He moved forwards with his shifty extra movements then regular movement - his focus on the left objective. I was maybe in trouble, especially these guys: Peekaboo. Durthu fluffed his shooting but the bow hunters managed to pop a tempestor before the scythes even charged: He rolled a substantial (see above, green dice) charge for the middle hunters but fluffed the charges for durthu (phew!!) and the hunters on the right. It still felt a bit early to lose my dracoths: It really could have been worse though. He claimed 1 scenario point for the far right objective. In my turn I put inspiring presence on my liberators and adjusted my centre to let them charge the first scythe unit (keeping them occupied and not on the judicators holding the middle). I put warding lanter on those judicators just in case. My scions roll saw my prosecutors come down and I released 2 units of paladins (protectors to durthu and retributors to the scythe hunters) to reinforce the left. I shot durthu with my raptors and prosecutors wounding him further (he was maybe down to just above half) and then my judicators fired into the scythe hunters near my retributors. I made all my charges which turned out to be a very mixed result (I should have held the rets back perhaps). Durthu was brought quite low by the protectors (kind of disappointing) but the scythe hunters trounced the retributors before they could activate: My liberators could not wound the scythe hunters in the middle (not all made it into combat range) and took 5 wounds in return. This was 'okay' as they were there to occupy attention and survive if they could - not to win. Durthu, quite far down his damage table, only managed to kill one protector and put 2 wounds on a second, but the revenants activation managed to finish off the wounded dude. At this stage I won the initiative which gave me some hope as to what I could do to survive! I also claimed 2 objective points. Round 3 I placed some buffs (warding lantern and inspiring presence on the libs in combat this time) and made some moves. My prosecutors tried to keep out of the way to drop the decimators at an opportune moment. They ran near my relictor hoping to perhaps be lightning charioted next turn if needs be. My judicators came down in cover in the 40k like building on my opponent's table edge. My other heroes moved in a triangle within 6" of each other to make use of the staunch defenders buff. My shooting was a bit mixed. I tried to snipe the branchwraith with my newly arrived judicators and failed miserably) but the raptors did bring Durthu down to 4 wounds or so. My judicators also targeted the scythe hunters in combat with the castellant, killing and wounding one. My Castellant charged the free Scythe hunters - he would occupy their attention or die (earning me 6 battle points)! I activated my paladins and finally killed Durthu. My opponent was reluctant to attack the Castellant - fearing he'd kill him. So he went with the other scythe unit first: Even with a 2 plus save rerolling 1s they somehow all died: My heroes felt a bit exposed but this was part of my PLAN at least for the castellant. The other guys I was a bit nervous for. My Castellant attacked the scythe hunters, doing no damage. The revenants killed ANOTHER protector (I thought they were meant to be rubbish!) and with nothing else left to do for either of us, my opponent reluctantly activated them and... Death! What genius! What great victory! 6 BP to me! ... wait, I've lost Staunch Defender and Warding Lantern... hmmm Still, I was up against it and knowing I had 6 BP in the bag was quite nice. I also got 2 more scenario points giving me a total of 4 to my opponents 1. In my opponents turn I was nervous he'd move his big block of dryads and or treelord ancient and crush me totally but he was wary of lightning charioteering and my prosecutors dropping paladins to contest the right objective. His unit of 3 scythe hunters circled the deadly wood like branch-covered sharks... His other scythe unit and revenants moved towards my leftmost objective. His branchwraith started trying to escape the wood she was somehow still standing in half way through the game. He charged the unit of 3 kurnoth hunters to within a half inch of my judicators in the forest (meaning he was not finishing IN or going THROUGH it- sneaky devil could then pile in without deadly terrain rolls!) I should have realised this and moved them but ho hey. There wasn't much room in that wood to keep the 5 in and get the cover save bonus. The unit of 2 hunters went for my vanguard raptors on the left. If he just killed a few models he'd be earning some serious scenario points. He continued to harass my paladins activating the revenants first (as my other units couldn't realistically harm his hunters). The revenants killed them (don't listen to opponents saying the revenants do nothing, they just mean they're not as OP as hunters!) The forest judicators were no match for the hunters but their cover save kept them holding on as 3 - keeping control away from my opponent. My raptors barely survived (in itself odd) but my opponent had more models near that objective so his scenario point total jumped to 3 drawing closer to me. Further, I had nothing under my control going into round 4 and if I lost the initiative I'd have a really tough round 4 and 5 ahead of me... So I went and lost the initiative of course! Round 4 My opponent focused on the objectives. His branchwraith moved further south and his ancient and dryads continued with their tree party on the far right objective, still wary of the prosecutor + relictor + decimator combo I assume. The revenants moved around the objective to the left screening his Kurnoth hunters against a potential paladin charge... The bow hunters tried to shoot the Azyros but failed. They were largely ineffective this game thankfully. We hopped to the combat phase and my judicators and raptors were lost for no real response. My opponent now had all 3 under his control and his total was now 6 points to my 4. In my turn 4 I lightning charioted the relictor over the forest within 6 inches of the objective and lightning stormed the hunters wounding one with the max 3 mortal wounds (yusss). I moved the Azyros to within 6 inches at the bottom of the forest. It was two models to 3. I needed to shoot these hunters down as charging into the forest was a desparate move for the final round (and my characters would die anyway). My prosecutors decided to focus bottom left. Top right was no longer on the cards - the relictor had moved - and would have been tougher in any case. I moved and deployed the decimators. My judicators shot into my opponents 3 hunters in the centre killing 1 and wounding another. I had no control there but neither did my opponent. My prosecutors had one of their great shooting turns and wiped the revenants out freeing the decimators up for a charge. Which they made, in the most exciting fashion possible... My Starsoul maces killed one and wounded the other. The 3 single axe attacks did not have a noticeable effect. My opponent could not injure them back. I had relatively comfortable control of the objective here. In total I had one under control so earned another scenario point. The score was 5 - 6 and initiative would be pretty important. If I won the odds were good I could take 2 and deny my opponent scoring bar the top right giving us a draw (and him a minor victory, probably, with kill points). So I went ahead and lost the initiative Round 5 I was not so confident at first but as my opponent took his time considering his moves I realised he hadn't that many options left either. The biggest was whether to move from the top right or now. He couldn't leave with both units or he'd lose control and not get a point. There were also no hammerstrike or scions deployments left so there was no point in keeping both units there. He moved the ancient (the right call) and closed in on my relictor. The Bow hunters were once again ineffective and the branchwraith was probably off having a coffee at this point in time. In the shooting and charge phase the ancient was either not able to hit and reach my relictor OR had rolled so that he could not do so (or charge) when travelling through the woods. I forget which but in any case, the relictor was laughing his skeleton-face off. Interestingly the kurnoths in the centre had piled in to deadly terrain and now couldn't charge my heroes without risking losing a model (or 2!) giving me control if the relictor lived against the ancient (lol). My opponent had little choice but to just bunch them up in the terrain - forcing me to take that charge risk in extremis in my final turn. The only combat was the kurnoth at the bottom who killed 2 decimators and was in turn starsoul maced in the woody face. My opponent took another scenario point taking him to 7. I now needed 2 to draw even... Could I manage it? I had the left side - 1 point. Casting my eyes around the table, I summed up the tools I had left to take at least 1 hunter down in the middle: Lightning storm, Azyros EXPLOSION, judicator shooting, prosecutors (quick measure) move and 2 models can shoot - that should be a dead kurnoth surely! So I opened with the storm and explosion into that small, deadly, wood. The copse shook and trees fell but the kurnoth took only 3 mortal wounds... Now I had to get some shooting on... but they had such a strong save in cover. My judicators opened fire taking off another wound (1 left!!) and yet the 2 still stood: My prosecutors let fly: And yet the 2 still stood: I was desperate now and I had to take 1 wound off. My Azyros had explodered everywhere so couldn't charge. It was up to my relictor... He charged and rolled enough... Would he die in a centimetre into a deadly wood? No! Would he hit? Yes! Would he wound? Yes! Some! Would they save?! ... YES... Would they kill him in return? ... emmm yes. And still they stood there, mocking me. Great game! 7 to 6 loss on scenario points. Result The scoring system was 14 points for a major victory, 10 points for a minor victory, 4 points for a minor loss and 0 points for a major loss. Then you got 3 for denying your opponent's secondary and 3 for achieving your secondary. So I had suffered a major loss but achieved my secondary and denied my opponents secondary: Final score 14-6 loss Thoughts and Lessons Learned A whole bunch. I'd never met Sylvaneth before and this list was quite suited against a high armoured stormcast list. So I felt I did well. There were some mistakes and a lack of focus but I also got off easy in some places. In other words, nothing stood out as a big mistake in my or my opponents play. Just some minor mistakes and dice luck. Of course, readers are welcome to offer their opinion as that'd be awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ratatatata Posted April 24, 2017 Share Posted April 24, 2017 Kul läsning! Det var en väldigt rolig match. Jag gjorde några rejäla missar men känns som vi spelade jävligt jämnt. Sjukt kul att matchen stod och vägde på de allra sista tärningsslagen. Du var en "swell guy" att spela mot också Jag tycker du spelade rätt. Du kunde ha fejkat att utmana treeman ancient + dryader för att se till att trämannen höll sig kvar på objektivet möjligen. Men du gjorde rätt som inte splittrade upp dig för mkt. Bra spelat! Synd på bilderna bara, de fungerar inte för mig? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turragor Posted April 24, 2017 Author Share Posted April 24, 2017 1 hour ago, Ratatatata said: Synd på bilderna bara, de fungerar inte för mig? hmmm jag ser de... kanske behöver gör de igen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turragor Posted April 24, 2017 Author Share Posted April 24, 2017 Jag vet inte vad händer nu alls. Kan du (ni) se alla bilder nu? Finns massa doubles under nu också. Jäkla forum system. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turragor Posted April 24, 2017 Author Share Posted April 24, 2017 I think I fixed it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ratatatata Posted April 24, 2017 Share Posted April 24, 2017 Yep! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turragor Posted January 10, 2018 Author Share Posted January 10, 2018 As the new Gothcon approaches (and I hope to go) I thought I'd FINALLY complete this report. My old way of writing took lots of time hence the delay ha! I just this week wrote up reports for my most recent tournament and these were so much faster to do! Summary then pics. Best format imo because I want to share battle reports but I also don't want to spend breaks in work and evenings using too much precious painting time on long winded things! Anyway, where was I... match 4 I think. Match 4 was Take and Hold against a very, very big Khorne army, lovely paint job and a swell opponent! I chose to assassinate the Gaunt Summoner as a secondary. The gist of it was - I deployed some ranged, heroes and prosecutors on the board and left the liberators and tempestors in the sky. I let him go first and he rushed me, in my turn I carefully dropped part of my hammerstrike. I tried to stem part of the horde with a thin gold liberator line. I tried sniping some buff characters off but had mixed success. The dropped decimators did indeed decimate the blood reavers leaving not much left to retaliate. He then won initiative and came at me bro. The red horde cleaned up my effort in the middle and closed in a massive wave. My heroes would NOT fall at all which was cool but my troops were being ground down. I then made some scions rolls that had failed me for the first 2 turns and dropped my retributors and protectors mid board but had no successful charges. My opponent continued trying to kill heroes on my side (having control of the objective there) and defended his own. This game actually took a long time (my opponent's army was big and he had yet to discover the joy of those elementgames movement trays!) and that was the end of it. Realistically I wasn't going to win. However I wish I got to see what the paladins and tempestors (hardest punch in the army) would do to his characters and khorgoraths before turning to face that massive wave again! It finished as a minor loss for me - no objectives claimed by anyone but I lost on kill points 240 versus 700. My main lesson here was target selection. My decimators should have came out and nailed the bloodletters (biggest threat there, a horde but with low saves - perfect) and died to the retaliation. Instead I thought I'd target the safer - in terms of attacking and not drawing others into combat - but far less threatening unit. Some really nice atmospheric pics below! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turragor Posted January 10, 2018 Author Share Posted January 10, 2018 Match 5 was against a lovely Ironjawz opponent, a thoughtful guy and we had a great conversation about Ironjawz versus Stormcast and the theory of his cabbage (mawcrusha) versus a big extra unit of brutes. I loved playing this guy and not just because I (with lots of bad luck on his part) had a very convincing win. My opponent took breakout and I took Gamble (I had little left I felt I could achieve secondary objective wise). The scenario was Gift from the Heavens. This combo made for a great mind game! I had to setup with the idea that the meteors would land anywhere but he was going to deploy (probably his ardboyz) in a little corner to escape and I had very few models to stop him and get the objectives. Luckily Lightning Chariot and scions would help out here. After deployment his breakout plan was clear (but deployed last I had little to stop them - at the end of deployment anyway). I let him take the first turn to see what the rest of his army would do (and to bring his ardboyz into shooting range of my redeployments/scions deployments - I had to shoot them as my other units would be lost for ages if they moved to stop the ardboyz in melee (and he could just retreat past them). I redeployed some ranged and got some down with scions. I needed some luck here... it was with me, I shot a whole bunch off and in the battleshock phase he rolled a 6 so they all fled. That secured me a secondary right away and he had lost his. A good start - but the meat of the game was before us and a mawcrusha and brutes are no picnic. I won't go into much detail other than I got lucky with the objectives landing where I needed them to (another gamble - but stormcast often need to do this in these types of scenarios) so I didn't need to rely on lightning chariot rolls. My opponent got a lead in vp in R3 but I quickly turned the tables in R4 and R5 was pretty much called off it was over so quickly. His attacks were not lucky and my attacks were. Further my target selection was - for once - almost perfect. The end result was a 11 - 5 in scenario points to me so a Major together with my secondary. This is the game in my memory where playing stormcast felt most like a deadly surgical strike versus larger tough armies. I killed 1700 points and lost 100 or something like that. It all worked out and I've had few games go so well since. Though, having said that, luck played a massive role. Can't toot my horn too much based on that! Looooots of pics below: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turragor Posted January 10, 2018 Author Share Posted January 10, 2018 Nu! Med allt det där klart, hoppas jag att jag kan åka till Gothcon i året och skriva mer efter. Ses där kanske! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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