Howdy everyone. 

This past Saturday, May 1st, I got to play my first in person Warhammer in over a year at a small (8 person due to COVID) event at a board games bar in Grand Rapids, MI. I ended up 2-1 and finishing 4th out of 8 due to missing an objective. I beat LRL and Cities and lost to Nurgle. One note is that I played the Krulghast as only protecting against wounds, not against mortals. Another is this event was using the smaller boards that we've all heard are rumored for the new edition. The TO says he's been told to expect the smaller boards for AoS this summer by reps. I think the smaller boards made some differences in terms of having places to deep strike and just how quickly everything was in combat. There were some really long turn 1s! In fact, probably due to it being so long, none of my games finished all 5 rounds by the end of the 2 1/2 hours. Anyway, I wanted to post a mini report of each game, the lists, and my thoughts. This will be my first game. 

My list:

Emerald Host

Lady O (general / reaping scythe) / Reikenor (shademist) / Harrow (pendant of the fell wind) / Krulghast (shadow's ege)

5 Hexes / 10 Hexes / 30 Reapers / 10 Chainrasp / 5 Harridans

Black Coach

Death Riders / Cogs

Game 1 vs Lumineth in Starstrike

The list: Syar / Teclis / Cathallar (syar artefact / general / syar command trait) / Eltharion / 20 Wardens / 20 Wardens / 20 Sentinels / 5 Bladelords / Ballista

The above images were during turn 1. 

As for deployment, he deployed a unit of Wardens and his ballista on one flank. The other wardens, sentinels, and bladelords were on the other flank. Teclis was in the middle with Eltharion and the Cathallar. He definitely should have screened Teclis, but was planning to see how I deployed and then teleport a unit of wardens in front of him - he didn't realize how quickly I'd be in his face. I put my 10 Hexes, Reapers, Krulghast, Harridans, and Chainrasp in the underworlds. 

I outdropped him, and took the first turn knowing I needed to attempt to alpha Teclis (who's save I dropped with Emerald Host) to try and delete him before he gave most of the army a 5+ shrug. I activated Cogs (he decided to use Teclis to stop Lady O's spell as he liked the extra speed Cogs would give him) and dropped down my Reapers with the Krulghast and Hexwraiths in front of Lady O. The Krulghast got off his shot, taking out a warden, and the Reapers made the charge. The 10 Hexes failed their charge (only needing a 6 with Cogs and Death Riders) and then I burned a command point only to see them fail again. That was unfortunate! In frustration, I charged the Black Coach into Teclis, and got off a Wave of Terror on a 9 (thank you Death Riders). 

He was really caught off guard with how quickly I was in his face. The Reapers did some work, but I had forgotten about the Cathallar being able to make me take his battleshock test. The Black Coach and Teclis did some decent damage to each other. On his turn he teleported Eltharion to the right flank where Reikenor was hiding behind a building and moved his other unit of wardens in front of the Hexwraiths. I got a lucky roll and unbound Teclis's 5+ shrug with an 11. This made up for the failed charge of the Hexwraiths. He got off a charge with his Wardens and Bladelords (into the Reapers), but failed with Eltharion. Teclis managed to delete the Black Coach. I was very sad after spending a week getting that model ready. The Wardens did some damage to the Hexwraiths and vice versa, but thanks to the Cathallar the Hexwraiths were wiped. 

The first objective fell on the right flank, and I won priority. Lady Olynder went to work with her mortal wound abilities and took out the remaining Wardens, did some damage to Teclis, and charged into Teclis with the 5 Hexwraiths, with the Krulghast popping Teclis for a wound. I deepstriked my Chainrasp Horde onto the objective. In the combat phase, Lady O and her Hexwraiths made short work of Teclis. His turn game and he blasted the Chainrasp Horde down to 3 with his Sentinels  but couldn't get a charge in and couldn't take the objective from me. 

Turn 3 came and an objective fell on the right flank in his territory behind most of his units at that point and one fell in my territory on the left flank. I don't remember who won priority at this point (not enough time to take detailed notes), but the turn ended with me having the two new objectives and him having the first one, and a lot of dead troops - Lady O had taken out the Sentinels and Cathallar at that point. Turn 4 came and I managed to grab the two objectives on the right flank while he got Eltharion on to the other. By the end of turn 4, we each only had two models left: Lady O and Reikenor for me, and Eltharion and the Ballista for him. At that point, we only had three minutes left and he had no way to outscore me, so we called it. What a bloodbath! 

Observations:

I made a big mistake of forgetting the Harrow couldn't teleport away from combat, which led to his demise in turn 3. 

He definitely should have screened Teclis, as I'm pretty sure I would have deleted him right away had my Hexwraiths made the charge. The minus 1 save helped. 

The Krulghast did not help much against the massive amount of mortals I was facing. 

Lady Olynder and her Hexwraith guard were the MVPs here. She did a ton of output, helping to delete at least 5 units including zapping the Cathallar. 

Overall though it was a great game and a really fun matchup. We each also grabbed our secondaries and it was on to game 2!

I'll hopefully get that one posted within a day.