2000 MPP Mock Tournament Battle

Seraphon versus Tzeentch

Battleplan: Blood and Glory

Realm: Ulgu

 

Seraphon Army

Tzeentch Army

My opponent and I came up with the idea of playing one of the upcoming tournament battles to give us some preparation and foresight on how to better perform. We decided on the first battleplan of Blood and Glory in the realm of Ulgu. To keep in the spirit of the tournament, we also agreed to limit ourselves to 2.5 hours and not share army lists beforehand.

 

Deployment:

We started the clock when we rolled for deployment priority. I’ll call my opponent Jones, for expediency. Jones won the roll, but I did make him aware that my list effectively gave me a one drop army. He opted to deploy first and I allowed all but the two units of Pinks to be deployed before finishing. I placed one unit of Knights, the Oldblood on Carno, the ScarVet on CO, and the Razordons in the Heavens, along with the Rippers in the sky. I deployed further back, zoning out the ability to use the realm CA (which allows for board edge teleportation), and gave first turn to Tzeentch. Here we go!

 

Shout out to schoonerlabs on Etsy for the Seraphon themed combat gauge. Jones also has a Tzeentch themed counter from him and he created one for Seraphon, which I have ordered.

 

Tzeentch T1: In his hero phase, he managed to get off all three Endless Spells he brought. Unfortunately, I backed my Starpriest out of unbind range. I managed two unbinds and failed another. Bolt of change knocked off one Skink on my right objective but failed to generate a Chaos Spawn. Movement was extremely cautious, with the largest movement being the Mutalith headed towards my right objective.

 

Seraphon T1: I successfully cast Cogs and manipulated them with the Kuoteq to grant me an additional spell for 13 CCP. The Blot Toad was setup on Tzeentch’s right side, being within 2” of three units. First attempt at LoSaT failed, but the second attempt allowed me to teleport the Slann to Tzeentch’s back left corner. The Oldblood on Carnosaur and unit of 4 Razordons Appeared at Kuoteq’s Command. I then used 1 CP on Kuoteq’s CA to offer additional re-rolls should Tzeentch win the T2 roll for priority.

 

The two units of Knights marched double time to the sound of their Wardrums. The Razordon’s shot into the unit of Acolyte’s on Tzeentch’s left objective, impaling four. The Oldblood completely forgot about his Sunbolt Gauntlet. Charge for the Oldblood failed and I wrongly charged a unit of Knights, as they would have been fatigued from the Wardrums. Since the Knights charged, they went into combat, killing 8, but not rolling any 6’s.

 

Seraphon T2: Double turn time! The Starpriest cast Phantsmal Guardian from Ulgu’s spell roster (the Leinenkugel cap). I didn’t see a good use for LoSat this turn. Kuoteq generated 13 more CCP. I spent 3 CP on Ancient Warlord for the Oldblood.

 

The unit of Knights not in combat moved to charge into the other screening unit of Pinks. Razordons moved within rend range and the Oldblood moved closer to reduce the risk of failure on this turn’s charge attempt. The Oldblood’s searing Sunbolt blasts inflicted three wounds into the Mutalith. Razordon’s eliminated the remaining 6 Acolyte’s guarding Tzeentch left objective.

 

Both the Knights and Oldblood made their charges. I opted to activate the Oldblood first, as I didn’t want to take the chance of him getting bracketed before his first attack. Rolling 9 attacks for the Sunspear generated three 6’s!!! With Sword of Judgement equipped, I rolled 11 mortal wounds! The Mutalith was dispatched before even needing to roll regular wounds for the Sunspear or any of the Carnosaur’s attacks. At the end of combat, one Knight was killed in each unit, 6 Pinks were routed, and The Acolyte’s guarding Tzeentch’s right objective piled into the Knights.

 

Tzeentch T2: Tzeentch’s hero phase spread out spell damage across the Knights, Razordons, Oldblood, and my right objective Skinks. The unit of Knights near Tzeentch’s left objective managed to survive with one wound, continuing to tie-up the Pinks that were charged. I managed to Unbind two spells again, and the Oldblood suffered 3 wounds, but got lucky as one of the spells cast was ineffectual but could have severely injured him. Bolt of Change was once again successful and this time a Chaos Spawn erupted from the spell charred remains of the sole affected Skink.

 

Tzeentch’s movement was very well calculated. The Blue Scribes and Herald on Disk moved towards my objectives, obviously attempting to contest them. At the end of movement, 3x Blue Screamers and 10x Blue Horrors were summoned on my left and 10x Blue Horrors on my left. This could easily allow Tzeentch control of 3 objectives in T3 with decent roles.

 

By the end of shooting, charges, and combat, my right objective only had one Skink left, with the Starpriest just out of range to assist. The Skinks on the right only lost one model. Fortunately, the Blues near my left objective failed their charge. On Tzeentch’s right, the unit of Knights was down 3x models and the Acolyte’s on lost 2 models to combat and battleshock.

 

T3 Seraphon: By this round, time was growing very short. The Starpriest cast Summon Starlight on the Blues around my right objective, inflicting 2x mortal wounds. I was successful on both LoSaT, moving Kuoteq to the left side of the board and the Oldblood to attempt to regain control of my right objective. Kuoteq gained 13 more CCP…

 

In movement, the Razordon’s moved up to control Tzeentch’s left objective. Skinks on my right objective moved in so all 10 were in the control area. Then the ScarVet on Cold One and last unit of Knights materialized on the battlefield.

 

Charges… I failed all the charges with the ScarVet, using 3 CP to attempt 4 charges. No use of the Betrayer’s Crown on the threatening Blues. Then I failed the charge on the Oldblood. Directly after charge phase, the timer ran out. Based on the wording of the battleplan, Seraphon won a minor victory.

 

Post-game analysis:

 

Positive: I think my deployment was pretty solid. I also think giving Tzeentch first turn worked out well. I kept to the objective game, even in light of my mistakes, of which there were several.

 

Mistakes: I should not have charged the Knights in my T1. As I’m sure everyone noticed, I didn’t summon or bring in the Ripperdactyl’s. I think there were two factors at play here. I’ve never played a timed game and I believe it was a consistent distraction. Additionally, this was the first time I was actually able to utilize this army’s full potential, as the last time I played it was on the Total Commitment battleplan. Even so, the Ripper’s I could attribute to those factors, but I’ve consistently forgotten to summon in several games now. I need a better visual queue system until this army and all its abilities are second nature. Being more familiar with the army will also lend to playing quicker and utilizing my time in a timed game better.

 

Looking back, I could have best capitalized on these two big mistakes in my T3. I should have put my Slann in the place the Oldblood was and deployed the last two units from the Heavens to better regain control. The Rippers could then have deployed from the skies on Tzeentch’s right objective. I then would also have 39 CCP to bring in 6x units of Skinks, which, assuming charges didn’t fail (which so many of mine did this game) I could have flooded my lost objective and won a major victory.

 

While this was a technical victory, Jones could have, and likely would have controlled 2 or more of the objectives I controlled at the end of his T3. He definitely outplayed me in this game. Time was simply on my side.