AoS 3.0 Game #10

August 15th, 2021 @ Old Dice Wargaming Club

Soulblight Gravelords (Vyrkos) vs. Seraphon (Thunderlizards)

Battleplan: Tooth and Nail (2000pts)

Soulblight Gravelords Army List

Deployment

It looks like we made a mistake in deployment, we should be 9" away from each other's territory, so we're both a bit closer than we should be to each other, though I don't think it made much of an impact on the game since we both deployed with this misunderstanding.

Top of Turn 1: Soulblight

I out dropped my opponent this game and decided to take the first turn. My opponent didn't have much in the form of spellcasting so I was able to get a full range of buffs out on my units this hero phase. This battleplan doesn't allow reserve units, so I didn't have anything in the gravesites. It's hard to see in the picture but I did cast spectral grasp on the the Wyldwood near the center of the board (half movement for anything that starts within 3"). I summoned Radukar's wolves as an extra wall of chaff and otherwise cautiously moved up the left side of the board. I decided not to push far into the right side and instead used those units to complete my ferocious advance battle tactic. I didn't try for any charges and ended my turn with 4 points.

SBG 4 - 0 SER

Bottom of Turn 1: Seraphon

In my turn I had moved Mannfred up front to screen out his Carnosaur and other big units, but I greatly underestimated the amount of damage his shooting could get off on a single turn. Mannfred was shot down with wounds to spare in the first shooting phase of the game.

My direwolves were taken out in the combat phase, but left his own units open for a counter charge next turn.

With 4 points scored, we were both tied at this point.

SBG 4 - 5 SER

Top of Turn 2: Soulblight

Avoiding the double turn here was pretty big, especially with Mannfred no longer screening the Carnosaur and my dire wolf screen eliminated. Once again I went unchallenged in the hero phase and Belladamma was able to summon a wolf via Lycancurse, allowing me to thin out his Kroxigors.

I charged in Radukar, tying up his Bastiladon. I also moved forward on the right side, realizing that I would also need to tie up his other ranged dinosaurs to prevent myself from losing other heroes. My fell bats went deep, hoping to tie up his unit of Salamander Hunting Pack.

I managed to take out another Kroxigor with my zombies and eliminate his small unit of skinks with my skeletons, allowing them to pile in a second time with Vanhel's Dance and tie up his other Bastiladons. With three objectives and a completed Savage Spearhead tactic, I scored 5 points this turn.

SBG 9 - 5 SER

Bottom of Turn 2: Seraphon

My opponent's shooting was much less effective this turn as his units were all tied up in combat and he couldn't focus fire down any single unit. He got his Oldblood on Carnosaur into my Grave Guard by charging through the forest.

All but three of my Grave Guard survived, but they fled in the battleshock phase, removing the unit from play. On the other side of the board his dinos finally wiped out my skeletons. At this point I had lost Mannfred, 20x Grave Guard, 10 Dire Wolves, and 30x Skeletons.. but I did make a very fortunate Endless Legions roll at the end of the turn, bringing back 10 Grave Guard. Perhaps even more importantly I won the turn roll off again. My opponent scored 4 points this turn, keeping us close on the scorecard. As a side note, my opponent was mixing the battle pack battle tactics, I think because he didn't own the GHB. I decided not to argue the point since we were playing for fun here. The battle tactic he chose was "repel".

SBG 9 - 9 SER

Top of Turn 3: Soulblight

I took my new unit of Grave Guard and made the guaranteed charge (deployed 9" away, 4" movement, and 6" musician charge). In the hero phase I had given them Under the Killing Moon (exploding 6's on hits) and in the combat phase I used the Vampire Lord to give them +1 attacks. All 10 GG made it into attacking range, and the 30 attacks rolled well, with a number of exploding hits.

3 mortals and 25 wound rolls at -1 rend / 2 damage went through, a potential of over 50 damage.

The Oldblood did not survive.

On the otherside of the board I retreated my zombies back towards my own primary objective. In the battleshock phase I won another endless legions roll and brought back 15 skeletons to reinforce my corner objective. What had once looked like an unwinnable position now looked quite good, though there were still a lot of scary dinosaurs on the board. I managed to scrape 4 points this turn despite only having a single objective under my control.

SBG 13 - 9 SER

Bottom of Turn 3: Seraphon

My opponent took Broken Ranks this turn and targeted my fresh group of skeletons who took the brunt of the shooting damage and leaving only  4-5 models left by the start of combat. He also charged in his dino on the left side of the board and engaged Radukar who had finally dispatched the bastiladon he was fighting for several turns.

He succeeded in removing my remaining skeletons in the combat phase, but I was able to bring back some Dire Wolves and steal his own primary objective and stopping him from scoring more than 3 points this turn.

SBG 13 - 12 SER

Top of Turn 4: Seraphon

My opponent crushed my remaining unit of zombies on my back objective and did a decent amount of damage to my grave guard as well.

At the end of the battleshock phase I was able to revive the zombies that had just been killed and this time brought them in at the back of the board where he was holding an objective with just a bastiladon. He did score a strong 5 points this turn however, and I was running out of units to bring back. 

SBG 13 - 17 SER

Bottom of Turn 4: Soulblight

Radukar put in a lot of work this game, just grinding through everything put in his way. When fed by low wound count models that trigger his vampiric healing and healed with the heroic actions he is very hard to put down. I moved my zombies forward but didn't charge, looking to take advantage of the pile in shenanigans to basically give me a double activation. Unfortunately, I lost too many zombies and therefore control of the objective, but I did take down his dino on the left, giving me broken ranks and a monster kill point for a total of 4 this turn.

SBG 17 - 17 SER

Top of Turn 5: Seraphon

My opponent chose "seize the middle" as his tactic, which shouldn't normally be allowed because that is part of the core rules pack and not GHB but I decided not to challenge it since it was near the end of the game anyway. There wasn't a lot of combat this turn other than him taking out my my Necromancer at the back corner and he moved some of his units into the middle to score his tactic and a total of 3 points.

SBG 17 - 20 SER

Bottom of Turn 5: Soulblight

I decided to take the same battle tactic he had and moved most of units into the middle of the board but didn't charge, giving me a total of 5 points this turn from controlling two objectives and scoring a battle tactic.

SBG 22 - 20 SER

Final Score

SBG 25 - 23 SER

Post Game

Overall a very tight game! From a unit point of view I was losing the entire game, but being able to reliably complete battle tactics and control objectives at important moments allowed me to just barely get a victory here. The endless legions ability to bring back half units definitely saved me this game and I was lucky to win so many rolls. Games like this really feel like "Soulblight" to me, constantly bringing back units, swarming the board, and trying to be sneaky by popping up everywhere.

I lost Mannfred in the first turn again.. it seems to be happening more often than not these days, but there's not a whole lot I can do against focused fire ranged lists like these, though I now have a better idea of what their turn one damage can look like and I should be able to prepare better in the future.

Mixing the battle tactics was a little unfortunate, and afterwards it was explained how you need to choose a single battle pack. In his next game they were able to play with the proper rules.