Club AoS Night 31 August 2016

[Nico]

So we had our second dedicated AoS night at the club yesterday. It proved a significant success, with 10 players on five tables up from 4 players last time. We also welcomed 5 new players to the fold.

 

So many Khorne models!

Armies

Around the room, we had Khorne vs Nurgle, Tomb Kings vs Nurgle, Stormcast vs Destruction and Khorne vs the undefeated Flesh Eater flappies list. I'm pleased to report that the Bloodletter bomb finally prevailed against the Flappies. The other games were pretty close from what I hear.

I had the pleasure of welcoming Greg, who brought his Stormcast list. It wasn't a tuned list (no formations), but this had the disadvantage for me of upping the model count. I brought my supposedly fine-tuned Order list for The Warlords....

Greg had more or less the following:

• Lord Castellant (General)
• Lord Relictor
• 2 units of Prosecutors
• 3 units of Judicators
• 2 units of Liberators
• Retributors
• Protectors
• Concussors

 

Deployment

The Battleplan was number 6 - Gift from the Heavens.

I gave Greg the side with the mystical terrain on it. His Lord Castellant did not approve of this.

Wary of the Vexillor and 5 Retributors I bunkered (but not in the corner) and left one unit of Fulminators out front to go off and hunt. My problem is I don't have any chaff units, so the alpha strike armies are going to do well. I had the Fyreslayers off the board for deepstrike-lite (which I skillfully forgot about until battleround 2...).

Greg carpeted the board with his nice red models (part painted).

 

Battleround 1

I had far fewer drops, so I gave Greg the first turn and braced for the inevitable. Greg picked the weakspot in my bunker and teleported in. The aoe damage from the Vexillor took out a unit of Waywatchers by itself and dented the Fulminators. While this opened up the Celestial Hurricanum, it was still hard to access without rousing the Forest Dragon. Instead, Greg played safe by taking out a unit of Fulminators comfortably. Ouch! The rest of his army lumbered forward, but was out of range for shooting.

In my turn I slung the Executioners across to guarantee the deaths of the Retributors. I dropped a comet on the Retributors. I moved the Celestial Hurricanum forward and blazed away at the Prosecutors (killing 2) and Liberators (killing 3). The remaining Waywatchers fired away and did some damage with precise shots. The Fulminators moved up and also shot at the Retributors and the Executioners finished the job with the Dragon waiting in the wings.

Battleround 2

I won the initiative and took the first turn. This time I remembered to bring on the Fyreslayers. I moved up on the right looking to smash Greg's remaining Hammer units with shooting and charges.

The Hurricanum went for it so that I could shoot at the Concussors - it rolled badly and only took off a few wounds. Further shooting dented a unit of Judicators. Unfortunately with rerolls from the Battletrait I don't think Greg lost any models to Battleshock this turn.

I had 3 charges to make on a 9, 8 and 7 - I made none - disaster. Why didn't I take Reckless! The Fyreslayers sat around admiring the sun, while the Dragon and Fulminators had to make do with skewering a Prosecutor. The Runesmiter made it it but hits like a crippled Wizard - the Judicators did a wound back.

 

Score 2-0

Greg's turn - the comet landed near the Fyreslayers. His Prosecutors moved to take it. Hi Lord Celestant zapped some wounds off my poor Runesmiter. He moved up to charge the Hurricanum. His Liberators advanced slowly on my comet.

A hail of shooting took 7 wounds off the Celestial Hurricanum - unusually Greg takes the super Crossbow and he fired that at the Fyreslayers who failed their ward saves. 

Having done so much damage with shooting, Greg elected to split his charges - the Concussors going into the Fulminators and the Protectors into the Hurricanum. However, now it was his turn to fail a charge. The Protectors fluffed it. The riders of both the Concussors and the Fulminators sucked relentlessly. Neither side lost a model.

The Runesmiter went down.

Score 2-2.

Battleround 3

Greg now won the double turn and made better use of it than I managed. Greg shot off my unit from the objective and his Liberators grabbed it. He charged the Fyreslayers with his Relictor. The Protectors crushed the Celestial Hurricanum.

Painfully, the Concussors just managed to kill one of the Fulminators (a consequence of a failed mystic shield roll earlier). The Vexillor came in to do a few swings and hold me up.

Without the ward saves several Fyreslayers bit the dust. They took only 3 wounds off the Relictor.

Things were looking very dicey for me now - everything needed to work out perfectly to claw this back. My shooting switched to the Liberators - killing two of them (they passed the Battleshock even without a reroll). The Concussor rolled a 1 for the number of attacks of its shooting attack, which was a big blow.

My Dragon made a charge of 7 and entered the fray. The Executioners also made a good charge, but rolled poorly, failing to wipe out the Protectors. The Dragon finished the job. This left just the Vexillor alive on the right.

The Fyreslayers finished off the Relictor.

Score 8-2

Battleround 4

I'm not sure who won the initiative here. I think it was Greg. It was all over anyway. Well played Sir!

The game forced me into a crisis of confidence in my list - I started amassing Skaven for The Warlords. Order might still make it to Warhammer World - as it would be nice to have brought all four Grand Alliances to 4 successive tournaments.

[Marc Wilson]

Great write up, Nick. Looks like a great little set up.

[Bowlzee]

Nice write up. Sad I couldn't make it.

See you all next week!