Meeting Engagements

[soak314]

2 hours ago, TheNotebookGM said:

I disagree that this playstyle de-emphasizes the list building stage, I'd argue that it makes it even more important since you have to account for the split deployments and whatnot. 

This is true! I have found myself constantly tweaking my lists for ME, even moreso than usual, because there's a lot more to account for and also a lot more options to use.

 

 

2 hours ago, TheNotebookGM said:

The split deployments are what caused the most trouble for me since Fyreslayers depend so much on bubbles.

Would you mind sharing some war stories? I'm pretty obsessed with this mode's tactica at the moment, and want to see what's made it too rough or too easy for folks, especially for factions like Fyreslayers with big, chunky MSU's and a predictable playstyle.

[TheNotebookGM]

9 hours ago, soak314 said:

Would you mind sharing some war stories? I'm pretty obsessed with this mode's tactica at the moment, and want to see what's made it too rough or too easy for folks, especially for factions like Fyreslayers with big, chunky MSU's and a predictable playstyle.

I posted some stuff about it over in the Fyreslayers thread in the Order forum

[valenswift]

Played my first game of Meeting Engagement last night and we decided to use the first battleplan.

 

My IDK list was

Spearhead - Tidecaster Naquas Barionic, Mistress of Shoals, 10 Reavers, Quicksilver Swords

Main body - Soulrender, Lotann, 10 Thralls, 3 Ishlaen Guard

Rearguard - 10 Thralls, 3 Morsarr Guard

 

I was playing against Khorne. My idea for the spearhead was have the tidecaster and reavers rush the objective and use some ranged attacks to score points in the first battle round. I didn't manage to get my endless spell off but the reavers took out one bloodletter with shooting and their 8" movement meant they scored me the maximum 5 points in battle round 1 (who would have thought reaver would ever be useful :P)

Going second again in battle round 2 I countered his charge with his bloodletters, who took out half the reavers, by retreating with them and flanking either side with eels and thralls. This again won me the objective and wound points making it 10-0

Strangely high tide was the best round for Khorne as he let me go first so he could use the quicksilver swords and it meant a lot of my units were out of position for charges. Khorne managed to get 5 points here as he rushed the middle and took out my first eels whilst his Daemonic Prince general survived by 1 wound.

Khorne went first in the final battle round and although he got all the charges as well as summoning 5 bloodletters and 5 hounds thanks to blood tithe and Karanak, he hadn't accounted for the Morsarr spears special ability and I took out his general before anyone attacked in the combat phase. Unbelievably the Morsarr rolled 3 twice to fail a charge in my turn which would have undoubtedly resulted in me taking the objective but ultimately it didn't matter as I got 23 wounds to his 21 and the final score was 12-8 on VP.

I really like the way meeting engagements play, there is a lot of strategy to deciding your 3 contingents but also I feel the lists can be very thematic, helping tell the story of the battle. When composing my list I could just imagine the Tidecaster and Reavers storming onto the battlefield loosing arrows and Eldritch energies, with the Akhelian nobles coming in the rearguard after the minions had taken the brunt of the Chaos Daemons.

After seeing no AoS or 40k being played as tournaments at Warhammerfest I'm sure this will definitely become the tournament standard their next year. With only 4 rounds and the way it scores, it feels like a cross between AoS and Shadespire and for me this is a fantastic way to play. 

[soak314]

3 hours ago, valenswift said:

 (who would have thought reaver would ever be useful :P)

Yess, that one line encapsulates what I've loved most about ME theorycraft so far. Everything in my book feels like it can slot into somewhere and contribute.

Thanks much for the storytime, these are really fun to hear about!

[soak314]

Meeting Engagement Battle report!

Gitz vs Sylvaneth

My list:
S: 2x Sporesplattas, 1 Madcap Shaman w/ Moonface Mommet + Vindictive Glare
MB: Squig Herd x12, Squig Herd x12, GENERAL Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig w/Fight Another Day, Fungoid w/ Itchy Nuisance
R: Boingrots x5

His List, using the leaked tree people battletome.
S: Tree lady what summons the tree people
MB: Alarielle, 5x tree revenants(?)
R: Treelord, not sure if ancient

Battleplan: The One With A Central Point On The Longways Board
No Realm Rules, Scenery rules on.

***

He does a one drop spearhead, puts his caster on the far corner to start with, and takes first turn. He fails to call in dryads and simply walks up behind some of his wyldwoods (the old ones are still relatively easy to get in given the terrain setup). I move my fanatics up and squat on the point, getting me the objective for turn 1.

The moon doesn't come out, which makes me want to cry every time, and I get first turn which I take. I send my squigs and fanatics into position to try and eat the incoming ball of beetle death. My boingrots come out in the rear, where I hope and bloody pray the moon goes next turn.

Before the beetle lady even charges she knocks out one stack of fanatics with a spell, and chucks a spear that almost instagibs my loonboss. Then she summons a treelord, totally for free, as you do.

She charges in, goes once, then goes twice cuz that's a thing she can do now. That deletes the second line of fanatics, who fail to wound her entirely, but manage to take out the spite revenants that also charged in to pincer them. She almost wipes out one stack of squigs, too, but they hold on and get their attacks off before wounding her a couple of times as they all run away. At this point I am filled with immense pride in my squigs. 

The summoned treelord fails his 9 inch charge, which probably makes my opponent want to cry every time.

His turn ends, and the second tree lord struts into the battle. At this point I'm staring down the barrel of three un-degraded behemoths in a 1k point game.

Turn 3 starts, the moon finally comes out, I get first turn again, and things are comin up Gloomspite. My squig boss hollers at the boingrots, burning the CP and sending the lot of em bounding across the board into the horrible beetle lady, lopping off a few more wounds in the process.

My madcap (I've actually taken a madcap! This format is *nuts*) is left unmolested this entire time, and waggles his mommet at alarielle, giving her -1 to save. My fungoid then scratches his ass, giving her an Itchy Nuisance and making her fight last.

What's left of my army is then poured into her and alarielle is taken off the board, and I honestly cannot believe it.



Pictured above: environmental storytelling.

Turn 3 rolls around, moon goes into the center, and he fails a 9" charge with his treelord after he ports it through the woods. The other one gets in, kills my loonboss, makes a dent in the remaining squigs, but fails to do the 17 wounds necessary to get 2 points in his favor.

Round ends 12-4, and he concedes.

Seriously folks, go play some Meeting Engagements.

 

[Drib]

On 6/14/2019 at 12:18 PM, EMMachine said:

For standard matched play it hasn't changed (but we don't know yet if there will be changes for standard matched play), but for meeting engagements they have another chart, that was showed on warhammer community:

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/06/11/the-generals-handbook-2019-meeting-engagementsgw-homepage-post-2/

I just got my hands on the new Gernals's Handbook and very certain that you do indeed require atleast 2 battleline units for Meeting Engagements.

"The Meeting Engagement rules that feature later in this section build on the precedent set by the Pitched Battle rules." - Gernal's Handbook 2019 p.52

And

"The Meeting Engagement rules are designed to allow players to play a matched game with 1,000 point army [..] " - Gernal's Handbook 2019 p.72

[stato]

45 minutes ago, Drib said:

I just got my hands on the new Gernals's Handbook and very certain that you do indeed require atleast 2 battleline units for Meeting Engagements.

"The Meeting Engagement rules that feature later in this section build on the precedent set by the Pitched Battle rules." - Gernal's Handbook 2019 p.52

And

"The Meeting Engagement rules are designed to allow players to play a matched game with 1,000 point army [..] " - Gernal's Handbook 2019 p.72

Still not sure about that, build on doesnt mean supplement, they can be considered their own rules.  

Warscroll builder (not a source of rules i know, i tell people this often!) has built it to be valid based on the Enagement structure only. We could ask the developer if he had a steer regarding this.  <excuse me @scrollbuilderdude do you know if this is correct?>

Edited June 28, 2019 by stato

[scrollbuilderdude]

4 hours ago, stato said:

Still not sure about that, build on doesnt mean supplement, they can be considered their own rules.  

Warscroll builder (not a source of rules i know, i tell people this often!) has built it to be valid based on the Enagement structure only. We could ask the developer if he had a steer regarding this.  <excuse me @scrollbuilderdude do you know if this is correct?>

Interesting point. I'll ask some folks and get back to you.

[SwampHeart]

Played a few games this weekend - while fun Meeting Engagement is absolutely busted if people want to abuse it. Won't be using it for anything other than week day game nights for new players. 

[InSaint]

13 minutes ago, SwampHeart said:

Played a few games this weekend - while fun Meeting Engagement is absolutely busted if people want to abuse it. Won't be using it for anything other than week day game nights for new players. 

On the contrary, I played multiple games against various factions and I think it is actually more balanced than 1000pts Pitch Battle

We also realized that it is also mentally less exhausting because units deployment are staggered and you don't need to control the full 1000pts every turn.

 

[SwampHeart]

11 minutes ago, InSaint said:

On the contrary, I played multiple games against various factions and I think it is actually more balanced than 1000pts Pitch Battle

 

I assume you didn't play anyone using Gristlegore or Morathi? 

[InSaint]

10 minutes ago, SwampHeart said:

I assume you didn't play anyone using Gristlegore or Morathi? 

I  played Morathi and did fight against Gristlegore

And yes, both my opponents and I think it is more balanced because of the staggered deployment

Fighting Morathi and Gristlegore in a standard 1000pts Pitch Battle is worst because you have to deal with them from T1. In meeting engagement, there is a chance for them to deploy end of T2 and only actively participate in battle on T3. By when, the other player might already be leading by VP.

Edited July 1, 2019 by InSaint

[SwampHeart]

1 minute ago, InSaint said:

I  played Morathi and did fight against Gristlegore

 

So you thought it was great fun to play with an actually unkillable model? Morathi can deploy in the first deployment and transform - there is no other first deployment that stands a chance against her. And she is capable of clearing deployments on her own. I'm going to be very honest here, I highly doubt you actually played Morathi - if you had there is 0 chance you'd think ME was balanced. The only way you may have played her is if your opponent was brain dead enough to not send her in the first wave (which is entirely legal and one of the best possible strategies to use in ME). 

I also played HoS in ME this weekend and overwhelmed my opponent with summoning - at 1,000 points, especially with staggered deployment I was able to generate DP so quickly and summon in new heroes to generate more DP that the game was basically over once I'd summoned twice. ME is incredibly unbalanced if your goal is to game it - it an be a lot of fun but its by no means a good vessel for competitive play. 

[tripchimeras]

I think whether or not it is more balanced then the same point cost in pitched isn't really the important discussion here.  The reason it was released was because 1k pitched was so very badly balanced.  Based on their marketing material the point of this was not for a fun new game mode for casual play to allow new players to have fun while they build up and small shops to hold events that are still fun (this is where the new game mode excels imo).  The marketing material specifically has advertised this as a competitive mode that can be used for tournaments to rival or at least present an alternative to 2k pitched.  Thus that should be the comparison point, not to the broken pt level it was meant to improve.  In theory it should be taken for granted that it is more competitive then 1k pitched.  I think the fact that there is even a discussion going on as to whether this is actually true says something about its success as a competitive alternative to 2k. 

I think it is a failure as a tournament play mode.  It is easily broken and gets incredibly swingy.  There are many combos that as strong as they may be in 2k, a significant number of the tomes, in a good player's hands, have plenty of tools to mitigate, but at 1k there are just not the resources to do so, while the combo itself is still valid. 

I think its saving grace, and what makes it a success as a game mode people are going to use and enjoy is:
A. however unbalanced it may be, it is a lot of fun and mitigates the feeling of "auto-loss" a new player so often experiences in the base 1k pitched battle

B. it presents a fun alternative way to play on beer and pretzel nights when you aren't feeling like a competitive 2k game

C. while it is incredibly easy to break I do think it is harder to accidentally do so than  1k pitched was.  I think the tiered deployment and stricter org chart gives a very clear idea of what GW intended and thinks is balanced at 1k.  Now they did far too little to actually ensure the "spirit" they were going for is followed, but at the very least in a casual setting people are going to get more enjoyable games, that feel closer even when they aren't, and accidentally tabling your friend, as you are both learning to play, on turn 2 is no longer going to happen nearly as much as it did in 1k pitched. 

I really like the new game mode, it just doesn't work how it was advertised.  This is very much an introduction to the game, with some light buffers to prevent egregious shenanigans and more importantly accidental imbalance.  The tiered approach is a great way to introduce the various phases of the game I think, and the clearer org chart provides a good template for new players of what GW thinks is a balanced list, and also what GW thinks is too strong for small games.  But in competitive when you are trying to take as strong a list as possible, and are incentivised to try to abuse the tiered deployment as much as possible, it does nearly nothing in preventing any of the things that made 1k pitched battles so unplayable competitively to begin with.

Edited July 1, 2019 by tripchimeras

[InSaint]

2 minutes ago, SwampHeart said:

So you thought it was great fun to play with an actually unkillable model? Morathi can deploy in the first deployment and transform - there is no other first deployment that stands a chance against her. And she is capable of clearing deployments on her own. I'm going to be very honest here, I highly doubt you actually played Morathi - if you had there is 0 chance you'd think ME was balanced. The only way you may have played her is if your opponent was brain dead enough to not send her in the first wave (which is entirely legal and one of the best possible strategies to use in ME). 

I also played HoS in ME this weekend and overwhelmed my opponent with summoning - at 1,000 points, especially with staggered deployment I was able to generate DP so quickly and summon in new heroes to generate more DP that the game was basically over once I'd summoned twice. ME is incredibly unbalanced if your goal is to game it - it an be a lot of fun but its by no means a good vessel for competitive play. 

Even if you put Morathi in the spearhead, depending on the battleplan you cannot always the spearhead containing her first....

Not too sure about summoning though.

[pseudonyme]

Don't you think à little faq by limiting the maximum size of à unit could solve this "inbalance"?

[SwampHeart]

13 minutes ago, pseudonyme said:

Don't you think à little faq by limiting the maximum size of à unit could solve this "inbalance"?

Doesn't solve issues like Morathi or GKoTG. 

[JackStreicher]

Fix one: 

summoning is restricted to one unit a game.

 

Fix Two:

no unique characters.

 

Fix three:

no gristlegore for obvious reasons  (or simply no additional allegiance boni due to, temple, lodge, city, court, grove, clan etc. selection )

 

Edited July 1, 2019 by JackStreicher

[pseudonyme]

1 hour ago, SwampHeart said:

Doesn't solve issues like Morathi or GKoTG. 

I meant a limit in points. Can’t even blame the autocorrect

[tripchimeras]

1 hour ago, pseudonyme said:

I meant a limit in points. Can’t even blame the autocorrect

Yes a max pt limitation per unit would go a long way towards solving the problems at 1000pts in general, not just at meeting engagements.  Combined with a curtailed summoning system (not exactly sure how you curtail it well without going army by army) and you are a decent way there towards bringing balance closer to 2k (such as it is haha).  I think you are still going to run into more balance issues then at 2k, but its going to be much closer. 

But I think this change creates a new problem for GW and its player base.  GW sells its game, I think, largely on he cool factor of giant armies and huge monsters.  New players are as attracted to big monsters and crazy heroes as the next person and all of a sudden you as GW have just mandated that at the beginner pt level you cannot play with most of those monsters and heroes... Not a good marketing strategy, and it is going to hurt the experience for a lot of those new people, and make 1k games a lot less diverse then 2k.  You are also putting an extra level of complication, however slight to list building.  GW used to have a lot of these rules,  x% of your army can come from this or that type of unit etc.  And they went even farther with 0-1 and 0-2 choices on specific types of units if we go really far back. 

They stopped doing that stuff at least in part because no model company wants to tell its players they can't use x or y model under any circumstances, so unless its made mathematically impossible by min core requirements or whatever, I just don't see them instituting those kinds of limitations.  This sounds like I am against them, I'm not, they are one of the only paths forward to making 1k balanced short of rewriting individual unit rules and pt values for the pt level.   I also don't mind invalidating units at 1k, a lot of units don't make sense at the point level to begin with and it gives added reason to strive to get your list up to 2k and differentiate the beating heart of the game from the lesser pt values, while retaining balance across both.  I'm just saying realistically its not a winning marketing strategy, and we have seen them leave these types of rules in the dust over the years in favour of a much more open force org system.  I find it hard to believe they do such a drastic reverse course now, but would be pleasantly surprised if wrong.

[Greyshadow]

This looks like a great way to play. Thanks for all the reports people.

[Inquisitorsz]

3 hours ago, tripchimeras said:

But I think this change creates a new problem for GW and its player base.  GW sells its game, I think, largely on he cool factor of giant armies and huge monsters. 

This is a good point. 
AoS (and recent 40k editions) have clearly trended towards the "use anything and everything you own" game/sales models. 
They want you to be able to use all your toys and thus to buy more.  

That being said, large armies and expensive heroes/monsters are a huge time and money commitment which makes it very difficult for people to start (or continue) participating. 
I think it's one of the main reasons WFB died. You needed hundreds of painted models and 3-4+ hours per game. 

The market and industry has clearly shifted towards smaller skirmish level games, simply because they are far more accessible. The more accessible your product, the easier it is to get customers.  

Some people still like the big long battles. That's fine. You can still play an 8000pt game if you want to. And they've just give you Apoc (though the last time they did Apoc it was a flop).  But those people are few and are unlikely to keep paying GW's bills. They need expansion, they need young blood. 
Smaller games, faster games, cheaper to get into games are naturally the answer.  
Small 1000pt armies also give people more opportunity to branch out and try different factions. A single start collecting box probably gets you almost halfway to a meeting engagement army.  

One of my biggest issues with AoS is that low model count or more elite armies tend to be generally less competitive than hordes, mainly due to objective control, volume of attacks, and volume of spare wounds.  
I really wanna make a 22 model 2000pt Troggoth army.... but I know it just won't do well and will be extremely expensive to buy.  

I'm not a huge fan of 1000pts because I feel like a lot of the cool stuff is very expensive and you don't get much of an army. But on the other hand, I do like skirmish level games. I was initially disinterested in Meeting Engagements but having read some of the stuff in this thread I'm keen to give it a try.   
 

Edited July 2, 2019 by Inquisitorsz

[soak314]

5 hours ago, JackStreicher said:

Fix one: 

summoning is restricted to one unit a game.

I haven't felt summoning to be too overpowering in my games yet. See: the battle report up there where his alarielle summoned in a free behemoth, breaking the behemoth cap and giving him three of them at 1k points. I still beat that list handily with some simple screening. My list was nothing but grots, fanatics and squigs, zero behemoths taken. If he had used the summon to call in some bow kurnoths, or a stack of dryads, maybe the game woulda gone much better for him.

FeC *need* their summoning at 1k ME. They are a melee encirclement horde and the trick they have up their sleeve in this format is super flexible flanking. Need an objective capped? Buncha ghouls. Need a key synergy caster taken care of? Get some knights out. If you take away their summoning (which is heavily kneecapped by a CP requirement or a key hero sat all the way in the back) you'll find their latent high unit costs + reliance on expensive courtiers to be quite restrictive at 1k.

I've yet to see how seraphon and the chaos factions behave, but they aren't nearly as offensive on paper compared to FeC and Sylvaneth.

5 hours ago, JackStreicher said:

 

Fix Two:

 

no unique characters.

 

Nah I think they're fine, same reason as behemoths. Heaps of eggs in a basket that can't efficiently contest points or screen. You're rolling fewer dice and feeling the failure far more when they don't do well.
 

6 hours ago, JackStreicher said:

Fix three:

no gristlegore for obvious reasons  (or simply no additional allegiance boni due to, temple, lodge, city, court, grove, clan etc. selection )

 

Gristlegore are relatively alright. A big bat coming in first round (absolute worst case) is unlikey to be able to make a charge if you deploy correctly (Rearguard/Main Body turn 1 battleplans always have a long gap to clear). If they make you take first turn, simply feed a screen into em and sit with the bare number of units on the point, staying 3 inches out so he cant pile into you. Accept that a behemoth is likely going to delete a unit per turn, is likely NOT going to be killable unless you commit to a behemoth of your own or have access to a ton of anti-monster stuff, and build your list with that in mind.

I'd be WAY more worried about Blisterskin. They get a flat bonus to their move on everything, the ability to deepstrike their bats, knights, and even ghouls and horrors if taken with a specific spell, and a 50/50 chance at an additional CP per turn. All of this make em tremendous for Meeting Engagements.

And no, taking allegiance abilities away isn't the answer. That'll just make people NOT want to play the mode at all.

[soak314]

BATTLE REPORT!

Gitz vs Idoneth Deepkin

My  list:
Spearhead: 20x Shootas w/ 5x Loonsmashas, Madcap Shaman w/ Vindictive Glare + Moonface Mommet
Main Body: 12x Squig Herd, 12x Squig Herd, Loonboss On Giant Cave Squig w/ Fight Another Day, Fungoid w/ Squig Lure
Rearguard: 5x Boingrotz
Spells: Pendulum

Battleplan: Central Objective (these are learning games with various people, so I'm running the basic battleplan for all of em.)

His List
Spearhead: 3x Tanky Eels, Tidecaster w/ the d3 Mortal Wounds spell, 10x Thralls
Main Body: Volturnos w/ uh stuff, 3x Tanky Eels, 10x Thralls
Rearguard: Allopex

Hoo boy. Okay, so spoilers I lose this game on my first decision: I take first turn. I run up excitedly and get exactly 4 grots on the point, not releasing my fanatics because of ??reasons??. My madcap tails em, keepin close. His turn comes around. 

The eels are suddenly dead center on the point, the thralls moving up right behind em, giving him 5 bodies on the point. The tidecaster lops 3 wounds off my grots. He takes 5 points for turn 1.

Turn 2! Moon comes out, yay, and my squigs are positioned to take advantage of it. Half of them run up on the right, half on the left, trying for an encirclement on the point. The boss supports the right wing, the fungoid joins the madcap.

The shootas loose on his approaching thralls, nailing exactly one. My madcap and fungoid do 2 mortals total to the eels.

I deploy the fanatics! .... only to realize he's used the high movement on the eels to deny me deploying them on the point, in front of my shootas. , forcing me to put them out to the side where they *cannot charge* because of this tiny chokepoint he's generated with his shipwrecks. I also *don't* charge the shootas in, possibly because I was very high on the tramadol + voltaren cocktail I took in the morning for my herniated disc. (I have no idea why i didn't charge the shootas in). I deploy my boingrotz out on the right wing.

His turn, turn 2 starts and his army springs into action.

The eels on the point *s w e r v e* clean off it, shooting off to the side and into my left wing of squigs. The empty point is then filled with the 10 thralls, who both contest it and charge into my shootas. Volturnos and the second batch of eels charge my right flank of squigs. They've stopped my attempt at encirclement. 10 more thralls come in right behind the first batch. I'm thankful they're not reavers, and he's kicking himself because they're not reavers (this already utter loss would be an even more embarassing defeat if they were reavers). That's way more than 10 bodies on the point for me to chew through.

The first big melee exchange happens, I wipe out half of the thralls with a lone fanatic who cheekily piles in through a gap, but he lops off more wounds than I could keep up with on every front. The eels stand firm on both wings, putting big dents in my squigs. 5 points to him, we're at 0-10.

Turn 3 happens and boy oh boy do you idoneth fans know what that means. He gets first turn, takes it with aplomb,  and attacks first with *everything*, wiping out most of my grots, forcing a nasty battleshock test on both my squig wings that takes them down to exactly no squigs left.

Also he does a ritual which takes away my boingrotz' ability to fly and I'm just stood there like the john travolta gif.

My turn turn 3 rolls around and I flail like a greenhorn sumo wrestler in the middle of a vicious takedown, sending my boingrots into the eels, a tabletop reenactment of driving five bouncy motorbikes full speed into a brick wall. 5 more points to him, 0 -15.

Turn 4, he completes the counter-encirclement, murders every last one of my units, and reaches a final score of 0-20.

Edited July 2, 2019 by soak314
Added some stuff

[JackStreicher]

3 hours ago, soak314 said:

BATTLE REPORT!

Gitz vs Idoneth Deepkin

My  list:
Spearhead: 20x Shootas w/ 5x Loonsmashas, Madcap Shaman w/ Vindictive Glare + Moonface Mommet
Main Body: 12x Squig Herd, 12x Squig Herd, Loonboss On Giant Cave Squig w/ Fight Another Day, Fungoid w/ Squig Lure
Rearguard: 5x Boingrotz
Spells: Pendulum

Battleplan: Central Objective (these are learning games with various people, so I'm running the basic battleplan for all of em.)

His List
Spearhead: 3x Tanky Eels, Tidecaster w/ the d3 Mortal Wounds spell, 10x Thralls
Main Body: Volturnos w/ uh stuff, 3x Tanky Eels, 10x Thralls
Rearguard: Allopex

Hoo boy. Okay, so spoilers I lose this game on my first decision: I take first turn. I run up excitedly and get exactly 4 grots on the point, not releasing my fanatics because of ??reasons??. My madcap tails em, keepin close. His turn comes around. 

The eels are suddenly dead center on the point, the thralls moving up right behind em, giving him 5 bodies on the point. The tidecaster lops 3 wounds off my grots. He takes 5 points for turn 1.

Turn 2! Moon comes out, yay, and my squigs are positioned to take advantage of it. Half of them run up on the right, half on the left, trying for an encirclement on the point. The boss supports the right wing, the fungoid joins the madcap.

The shootas loose on his approaching thralls, nailing exactly one. My madcap and fungoid do 2 mortals total to the eels.

I deploy the fanatics! .... only to realize he's used the high movement on the eels to deny me deploying them on the point, in front of my shootas. , forcing me to put them out to the side where they *cannot charge* because of this tiny chokepoint he's generated with his shipwrecks. I also *don't* charge the shootas in, possibly because I was very high on the tramadol + voltaren cocktail I took in the morning for my herniated disc. (I have no idea why i didn't charge the shootas in). I deploy my boingrotz out on the right wing.

His turn, turn 2 starts and his army springs into action.

The eels on the point *s w e r v e* clean off it, shooting off to the side and into my left wing of squigs. The empty point is then filled with the 10 thralls, who both contest it and charge into my shootas. Volturnos and the second batch of eels charge my right flank of squigs. They've stopped my attempt at encirclement. 10 more thralls come in right behind the first batch. I'm thankful they're not reavers, and he's kicking himself because they're not reavers (this already utter loss would be an even more embarassing defeat if they were reavers). That's way more than 10 bodies on the point for me to chew through.

The first big melee exchange happens, I wipe out half of the thralls with a lone fanatic who cheekily piles in through a gap, but he lops off more wounds than I could keep up with on every front. The eels stand firm on both wings, putting big dents in my squigs. 5 points to him, we're at 0-10.

Turn 3 happens and boy oh boy do you idoneth fans know what that means. He gets first turn, takes it with aplomb,  and attacks first with *everything*, wiping out most of my grots, forcing a nasty battleshock test on both my squig wings that takes them down to exactly no squigs left.

Also he does a ritual which takes away my boingrotz' ability to fly and I'm just stood there like the john travolta gif.

My turn turn 3 rolls around and I flail like a greenhorn sumo wrestler in the middle of a vicious takedown, sending my boingrots into the eels, a tabletop reenactment of driving five bouncy motorbikes full speed into a brick wall. 5 more points to him, 0 -15.

Turn 4, he completes the counter-encirclement, murders every last one of my units, and reaches a final score of 0-20.

Nice batrep!

important vs Idoneth: FLEE out of combat in turn three,m (or if you have the last turn in the 2nd battleground) it counters so much of their dmg potential. =}